Presidential Primary Brief: 421 days until Election Day

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2016 Presidential Primary Brief_14 Sept Update

167 days until AL Presidential Primary
421 days until Election Day

Convention Dates: Republican July 18-21 2016, Democratic July 25-28 2016

Weekly Headlines:

Primary Brief_Polls_GOP_14 Sept 2015
Press Clips:

What candidates can bring to the debate (Washington Post 9/13/15)

With the excepting of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-­‐Tex.), the campaign’s Eddie Haskell who fawns over Donald Trump, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has tried to steer clear of him, most every contender in the GOP presidential field has landed a blow or two against Trump. They, collectively, have rebuked him for misogyny, racism, xenophobia, ignorance, arrogance, inconsistency and more. Pundits obsessed with meaningless national polls are convinced this is not working, but in fact each candidate in his or her way is building the case against Trump. They are working to limit his appeal and to throw him off his game.

Can Democrats sway young evangelicals? (CNN 9/13/15)

It’s just another odd first in a presidential contest already replete with them. On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a liberal, Jewish socialist from Vermont, will become the first Democratic presidential contender to speak at Liberty University, the evangelical school founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. No Democratic presidential candidate has carried the evangelical vote since Jimmy Carter, a Southern Baptist, won the White House in 1976. Four years later, Falwell and his powerful new Moral Majority helped Ronald Reagan oust Carter and put evangelicals solidly in the Republican camp for decades to come.

Rand Paul plans to attack Trump in the next debate (NewsMax 9/12/15)

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul said on Saturday that he would sharpen his attacks on front-­‐runner Donald Trump in the second debate on Wednesday — and the real estate mogul quickly fired back on Twitter. “I think I was a little too easy on Donald Trump last time,” the Kentucky senator told Politico, referring to the Aug. 6 debate in Cleveland. “That’s given in jest. “And I think that it’s hard to say in advance exactly what will happen because you are somewhat bound to the questions that you’re going to answer them,” Paul added. “And I plan on answering them.”

Joe Biden opens up to Steve Colbert about his 2016 doubts (NBC News 9/11/15)

In a moving interview with comedian Stephen Colbert on Thursday night, Vice President Joe Biden suggested he is not yet emotionally prepared to run for president in 2016, as he is still reeling from the death of his son earlier this summer. “I don’t think any man or woman should run for president unless, number one, they know exactly why they would want to be president and, number two, they can look at folks out there and say, ‘I promise you, you have my whole heart, my whole soul, my energy, and my passion to do this,'” Biden told the Colbert, who recently took the helm of on CBS’ “The Late Show” from longtime host David Letterman.

Paul rallies to defund Planned Parenthood (Politico 9/10/15)

GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul headlined a rally Thursday to cut off Planned Parenthood funding — but didn’t reveal whether he had signed on to a letter demanding defunding being circulated by Sen. Ted Cruz, a rival in the Republican primary.

Paul joined leading anti-­‐abortion activists including Sarah Palin at the rally on Capitol Hill calling on Congress to exclude any taxpayer dollars for Planned Parenthood in the spending bill that has to be passed to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month.

Former Clinton IT staffer takes the Fifth (Politico 9/10/15)

Hillary Clinton’s former IT staffer who handled her private email system asserted his Fifth Amendment right Thursday, refusing to answer lawmakers’ questions about her unusual tech set-­‐up. In a closed-­‐door session in the basement of the Capitol Building, Bryan Pagliano rebuffed each inquiry by the House Select Committee on Benghazi after 24 hours of partisan bickering over whether he needed to appear at all.

Two DNC vice chairs call for more Democratic presidential candidates (Politico 9/9/15)

A pair of Democratic National Committee vice chairs echoed presidential candidate Martin O’Malley’s call to increase the number of primary debates on Wednesday, asking the party committee to add new events and to drop the existing threat of punishment for candidates who participate in unsanctioned debates. “We are the party that represents democratic principles, openness and transparency, and ensuring that all people, regardless of who they are or where they are from, have a level playing field and equal opportunity,” wrote Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak in a Facebook post.