Randall Woodfin ready to play political king-maker, launches PAC for progressive Democrats
Not even a full year into his first term at City Hall and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin is ready to play political king-maker. In an op-ed published Monday on AL.com, Woodfin announced the launch of his new Political Action Committee (PAC), which aims to “elect the next generation of progressive Democratic leadership in Alabama.” “NextGen Alabama seeks to modify this antiquated approach to Democratic campaigning by focusing on movement building and longevity. We must meet voters in their communities, on their doorsteps and in their churches. That is the only way Democrats will be able to flip conservative states in the South,” Woodfin wrote. Registered with the Secretary of State back in May, the PAC, Next Generation Alabama, or NextGen Alabama for short, hopes to essentially turn Alabama’s red tide (or crimson as it may be for some households), blue. “If you find yourself – like me – representing a blue island in a sea of red, you have an obligation to change the tide for the communities you serve,” explained Woodfin. Woodfin hopes to change the ground game for Alabama progressives seeking office, by prioritizing grassroots organizing and voter contact. To that end, the PAC will “only support progressive candidates that are unapologetic about engaging directly with our base and infrequent voters.” NextGen Alabama shares its name in part with a national Super PAC, NextGen America. Created by liberal, billionaire Tom Steyer, NextGen America is a large donor behind Woodfin’s good friend Andrew Gillum, the underdog candidate who surprisingly bested his Democratic opponents and won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination just last month. Whether or not Woodfin’s venture has any ties to Steyer remains to be seen.
Democrats gather to confront lingering 2016 frustration
Democrats are bullish about their prospects in the November midterms, and are peeking around the corner at a 2020 rematch with President Donald Trump. But first, they’re confronting the lingering frustration from 2016. That bitter nominating fight between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is front and center in Chicago this week as members of the Democratic National Committee gather for their summer meeting. They’ll decide the fate of so-called superdelegates — DNC members, elected officials and other party dignitaries. Two years after such delegates overwhelmingly backed Clinton, Sanders supporters argue that this group is the epitome of establishment favoritism. As he seeks to build a unified front among Democrats heading into the next presidential primary, DNC Chairman Tom Perez is pushing a proposal to limit the influence of superdelegates at the 2020 convention. The primary could feature as many as two dozen Democrats vying to take on Trump. “These moves are about rebuilding trust,” Perez told reporters recently, defending a plan that would strip party insiders of their votes on the first ballot of a contested nominating convention, leaving the outcome to pledged delegates whose votes are dictated by the results of state primaries and caucuses. Perez predicted he’ll secure the DNC majority required to change party rules when the full committee considers the matter Saturday. Yet in trying to mollify Sanders’ supporters and grassroots activists, Perez has inflamed tensions among the DNC membership and on Capitol Hill, where rank-and-file party leaders and Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond have blasted the proposal. “Three months before the midterms, and this is what Bernie Sanders and Tom Perez have us discussing? Such fools,” said Bob Mulholland, a DNC member from California who backed Clinton in 2016 and has protested since then that Sanders’ backers have wielded undue influence over the party because the Vermont senator is elected as an independent. Don Fowler, who served as DNC chairman during President Bill Clinton‘s administration, said the party is punishing loyal party leaders “on some vague presumption that it will be fairer.” He promised an organized opposition at Saturday’s meeting. The situation comes as Democrats are trying to weather domestic abuse allegations facing their deputy chairman, Keith Ellison. The Minnesota congressman, who last week secured his party’s nomination to compete for state attorney general, denies the accusations from an ex-girlfriend and is not expected to attend the party gathering as he campaigns back home. Perez has said the DNC is investigating the matter. Beyond changing the rules for superdelegates at the 2020 convention, the rules overhaul includes provisions intended to make vote counting at presidential preference caucuses more transparent, while making it easier for voters other than longtime registered Democrats to participate in caucuses and primaries. That could affect states such as Iowa, which might have to develop paper ballots for caucus sites instead of its usual method of sorting into groups and counting heads. New York, meanwhile, would be pressured to relax its party registration deadline, which in 2016 fell six months before the primary, leaving many independents who wanted to back Sanders no option to vote. Those changes may have the most tangible effects on average voters, but superdelegates have drawn the most attention, drawing comparisons to the bygone era of brokered conventions where party bosses picked nominees. In 2016, superdelegates, officially called “unpledged delegates” in party rules, accounted for about 15 percent of the 4,763 delegates. The rest were apportioned based on state-by-state primary and caucus results. Whatever the leanings of DNC officials during the campaign, Clinton got 3.7 million more votes than Sanders in cumulative primary and caucus popular vote. Still, she was just short of the 2,382 delegate votes needed to win the nomination. Her advantage among superdelegates made her nomination a fait accompli, but their influence ultimately reflected the will of the Democratic voters who’d been voting over the preceding months. As the latest proposal stands, superdelegates in such an instance would be apportioned along with the pledged delegates to reflect that primary and caucus voting. If that still left no candidate with a majority, superdelegates then would be free to vote however they pleased on subsequent ballots. Superdelegates would still be on the convention floor as delegates regardless, but Mulholland, the California DNC member, scoffs at that concession. “Janitors and reporters have floor access but not votes,” he said. “It’s spin. I don’t like spin from Trump, and I don’t like spin from Perez.” Perez’s allies say party stalwarts aren’t facing the realities of a populist era driven by activists who may never affiliate formally with a party but want to have a say beyond the general election ballot. “We need to lift people up from the grassroots level and make them a part of the process,” said David Bowen, vice chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party and a state representative. That includes, he said, voters who were influenced by Russian propaganda and hackers who exposed internal DNC communications that suggested favoritism toward Clinton. “Doing this,” Bowen said, “will fly in the face of that criticism.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Dems pick ‘firsts,’ GOP goes for Donald Trump fave in primaries
In a night of firsts, Democrats in Vermont’s primary chose the nation’s first transgender gubernatorial nominee. In Minnesota, they picked a woman who would be the first Somali-American member of Congress. Connecticut Democrats nominated a candidate who could become the first black woman from the state to serve in Congress. Democrats embraced diversity in Tuesday primaries, while Republicans in Minnesota rejected a familiar face of the GOP old guard in favor of a rising newcomer aligned with President Donald Trump. But Minnesota Democrats also backed a national party leader who is facing accusations of domestic violence. He has denied the allegations, yet they threaten to undercut enthusiasm in his state and beyond. On the other side, Trump tightened his grip on the modern-day Republican Party as the turbulent 2018 primary season lurched toward its finale. A one-time Trump critic, former two-term Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty lost a comeback attempt he was expected to win. Trump fired off a celebratory tweet Wednesday, hailing “Great Republican election results” and adding “Red Wave!” He also endorsed a series of candidates in Wisconsin, including Bryan Steil who won the GOP primary for the House seat held by Speaker Paul Ryan and Leah Vukmir, who will face Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November. All but 10 states picked their candidates for November’s general election by the time the day’s final votes were counted. While the full political battlefield isn’t quite set, the stakes are clear: Democrats are working to topple Republican control of Congress and governors’ offices across the nation. Four states held primaries Tuesday: Vermont, Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Kansas’ gubernatorial primary, which was held last week, was finalized when Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer conceded defeat. In Minnesota, Republican County Commissioner Jeff Johnson defeated Pawlenty, who once called Trump “unhinged and unfit” and was hoping to regain his old post. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker, endorsed just this week by Trump, won the right to seek a third term. The president’s pick for Kansas governor, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, scored a delayed victory against Colyer, who became the first incumbent governor to fall this season. In Vermont, Democrat Christine Hallquist won the Democratic nomination in her quest to become the nation’s first transgender governor. The former chief executive of Vermont Electric Cooperative bested a field of four Democrats that included a 14-year-old. While she made history on Tuesday, Hallquist faces a difficult path to winning the governor’s race. Republican incumbent Phil Scott remains more popular with Democrats than members of his own party in the solidly liberal state. Vermont Democrats also nominated Sen. Bernie Sanders, who hasn’t ruled out a second presidential run in 2020, for a third term in the Senate. The 76-year-old democratic socialist won the Democratic nomination, but he is expected to turn it down and run as an independent. Democrats appeared particularly motivated in Wisconsin, where eight candidates lined up for the chance to take on Walker. Walker’s strong anti-union policies made him a villain to Democrats long before Trump’s rise. State schools chief Tony Evers, who has clashed with Walker at times, won the Democratic nomination and will take on Walker this fall. Once a target of Trump criticism, Walker gained the president’s endorsement in a tweet Monday night calling him “a tremendous Governor who has done incredible things for that Great State.” Trump also starred, informally at least, in Wisconsin’s Senate primaries as Republicans try to deny Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin a second term. Longtime state lawmaker Leah Vukmir, who was backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, won the Republican primary, even after struggling to explain footage recently unearthed from 2016 in which she called Trump “offensive to everyone.” Tuesday’s primaries served as a test of Democratic enthusiasm in the upper Midwest, a region that has long been associated with liberal politics but has been trending red. Trump won Wisconsin by less than 1 percentage point in 2016, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since 1984. It was much the same in Minnesota, where Trump lost by less than 3 percentage points in a state that hasn’t backed a Republican presidential contender since 1972. Nearly twice as many Minnesota Democrats as Republicans cast ballots in their parties’ respective gubernatorial primaries. Pawlenty had been considered the heavy favorite in a two-person Republican contest for his old job. But he struggled to adapt to a GOP that had changed drastically since he left office in 2011 and flamed out early in a 2012 presidential bid. The former two-term governor strained to live down his October 2016 comment that Trump was “unhinged and unfit for the presidency,” remarks that incensed many Republican voters in Minnesota and beyond. Johnson, his underfunded opponent, circulated Pawlenty’s critique far and wide, telling voters that he was a steadfast supporter of the president. Johnson will face Democratic Rep. Tim Walz, who won a three-way race for his party’s nomination. Three Minnesota women won Senate nominations, including incumbent Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith. Smith, who had been appointed to replace Democrat Al Franken, will face Republican state Sen. Karin Housley, ensuring a woman will hold the seat once held by Franken, who left Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct toward women. Nationwide, a record number of women are running this year for governor and Congress. Meanwhile, a new scandal threatened to dampen Democratic enthusiasm. Rep. Keith Ellison, the Democratic National Committee’s deputy chairman, captured his party’s nomination in the race to become the state’s attorney general. That’s after Ellison’s candidacy was rocked by allegations over the weekend of domestic violence amid a broader national outcry against sexual misconduct by powerful men in business, entertainment and politics. Ellison has denied a former girlfriend’s allegations that he dragged her off a bed while screaming obscenities during a 2016 relationship she said was plagued by “narcissistic abuse.” Also in Minnesota, Democrat Ilhan Omar, the nation’s first Somali-American legislator, won her party’s congressional primary in the race to replace Ellison. In Connecticut, Republican businessman
Against all odds: Democrats pour money into longshot races
Thara Narasimhan, who hosts an Hindu radio program in Houston, has already given $1,200 to a Democrat running against Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, who once drove around his solidly conservative Texas district with a “NEVER HILLARY” bumper sticker on his pickup. Her plans to donate even more bewilder friends. “It’s not the question of why I have to support a failing candidate,” said Narasimhan, mingling at a fundraiser for Democrat Sri Kulkarni on a sweltering Texas summer night. “Unless you put some faith in it, you’re not going to make it work.” The November midterms are on pace to shatter records for political spending. While more than $1 billion raised so far nationally is helping finance battlegrounds that are poised to decide control of Congress, restless donors aren’t stopping there — they’re also putting cash into races and places they never have before to help underdog Democrats. Examples include: a district home to the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium and held by the GOP since 1983; the South Carolina district of outgoing U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford; and a reliably Republican Southern California district that President Donald Trump won by 15 points. All are places where Democrats are outraising their Republicans opponents — a feat that while perhaps not changing the conventional wisdom about their chances, is succeeding in giving their campaigns unusual viability. In Texas, 15 Democratic challengers running in Republican-held districts have so far raised at least $100,000. In 2014, only one cracked six figures. The average cost of winning a House seat is more than $1 million. And in Texas, some candidates still lag substantially behind despite their early hauls in places where Republicans have been invincible. But driving donors’ eagerness to open their wallets to longshot candidates, supporters say, is a mix of anti-Trump enthusiasm and optimism following upsets like Democrat Doug Jones’ last year in a Senate race in Alabama. Campaigns, meanwhile, say donors are simply responding to finally having better candidates in historically lopsided districts that previously attracted only fringe contenders who made little effort to professionally fundraise or run hard. At a crowded house party in suburban Austin for Democrat MJ Hegar, Jana Reeves found a seat on a kitchen bench that was a long way from her own Hill Country home that isn’t even in Hegar’s congressional district. Hegar has raised more $1.7 million in large part due to a polished six-minute campaign ad called “Doors” that got attention online and enticed donors like Reeves to give her a hand. “Even though it’s hopeless? You know why?” Reeves said of the giving to Hegar and other Democratic challengers. “Even though maybe my paltry money can’t do much, I still want to support these people in the deep red districts, because the Democrats (at party headquarters) aren’t going to do it.” In few places is the surge of money more evident than in Texas. At the top of the ticket, Rep. Beto O’Rourke is outraising Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in a state where Democrats have not won a statewide race since 1994. Seven Democrats also outraised their GOP opponents between April and June in districts held by Republicans, bolstered by primary runoffs that forced campaigns to double down on fundraising. Hegar is among the most successful. The military veteran is running against Republican Rep. John Carter, who was re-elected to an eighth term in 2016 by 20 points over a Democrat who only raised $16,000 total. Now she has the attention of Trump’s campaign team, which last month announced it would financially help Carter along with roughly 100 other Republican House and Senate candidates. For her part, Hegar doesn’t inveigh against Trump while passing the hat: She didn’t even mention his name while speaking to a living room of about 50 supporters at the Austin fundraiser. She said afterward that she understands Trump was motivating some of the donors but she preferred to talk to them about other issues. “They want to fight against racism. They want to fight against bullying and intimidation and things like that. And they’re labeling those things with a person’s name,” Hegar said. “I think it’s more effective to fight against those themes.” Near Fort Worth, Democrat Jana Lynne Sanchez has raked in more than $358,000 and has campaigned through summer with more money than her heavily favored Republican opponent, Ronald Wright. They’re both running to replace GOP Rep. Joe Barton, who represented the district for more than 30 years but abandoned plans for re-election after a nude photo of him circulated online. Sanchez bemoaned the “fish fries and pancake breakfasts” that candidates used in the past to raise money and spends six hours a day on the phone, competing with a half-dozen campaigns that she said are “sucking up most of the money” from big donors. On her list of ways to spend that money: hiring a campaign manager who has previous flipped a Republican district. “People who say, ‘Money doesn’t vote,’ have never run a campaign,” Sanchez said. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
12 Russians accused of hacking Democrats in 2016 U.S. election
Twelve Russian intelligence officers were indicted on charges they hacked into Democratic email accounts during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and released stolen information in the months before Americans headed to the polls, the Justice Department said Friday. The indictment — which comes days before President Donald Trump holds a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin — was the clearest allegation yet of Russian efforts to meddle in American politics. U.S. intelligence agencies have said the interference was aimed at helping the presidential campaign of Republican Donald Trump and harming the election bid of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. The indictment lays out a sweeping and coordinated effort to break into key Democratic email accounts, including those belonging to the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The charges come as special counsel Robert Mueller investigates potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign to influence the presidential election. The indictment does not allege that Trump campaign associates were involved in the hacking efforts or that any American was knowingly in contact with Russian intelligence officers. The indictment also does not allege that any vote tallies were altered by hacking. Still, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the internet “allows foreign adversaries to attack Americans in new and unexpected ways. Free and fair elections are hard-fought and contentious and there will always be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide and conquer us.” Before Friday, 20 people and three companies had been charged in the Mueller investigation. That includes four former Trump campaign and White House aides, three of whom have pleaded guilty to different crimes and agreed to cooperate, as well as 13 Russians accused of participating in a hidden but powerful social media campaign to sway American public opinion in the 2016 election. Hours before the Justice Department announcement, Trump complained anew that the special counsel’s investigation is complicating his efforts to forge a better working relationship with Russia. Trump and Putin are to hold talks Monday in Finland, a meeting largely sought by Trump. Trump said at a news conference Friday near London with British Prime Minister Theresa May that he wasn’t going into the meeting with Putin with “high expectations.” “We do have a — a political problem where — you know in the United States we have this stupidity going on. Pure stupidity,” he said, referring to Mueller’s probe. “But it makes it very hard to do something with Russia. Anything you do, it’s always going to be, ‘Oh, Russia, he loves Russia.’” “I love the United States,” Trump continued. “But I love getting along with Russia and China and other countries.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Democrats test liberal messages in midterm House elections
A single-payer health care advocate in South Texas. A gun restriction supporter in Dallas. Cheerleaders in Arkansas and Iowa for public option health care. Weeks into the primary season, Democrats’ midterm class is shaping up to test what liberal messages the party can sell to the moderate and GOP-leaning voters who will help determine control of the House after the November election. It’s not one size fits all, with every candidate checking every box wanted by the activists driving the opposition to President Donald Trump and the GOP Congress, and Democratic voters typically aren’t tapping the most liberal choices in targeted districts. But, taken together, the crop of nominees is trending more liberal than many of the “Blue Dog” Democrats swept away in Republicans’ 2010 midterm romp. That means voters now represented by a Republican will be asked to consider some or all of the mainstream Democratic priorities that may have been considered “too liberal” in the past: more government involvement in health insurance, tighter gun laws, a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally, reversing parts of the GOP tax law, support for LGBTQ rights. “You have ballpark 60 districts as diverse as Kansas and Staten Island. One bumper-sticker message will be self-defeating,” said former congressman Steve Israel of New York, who led Democrats’ national House campaign in 2012. The question is whether that path results in Democrats gaining the 23 new seats they need for a majority. Israel disputes that the current slate represents an overall leftward shift, and national party leaders have still angered liberals with some of their recruitment choices. Still, resistance leaders are confident of their influence. “We are seeing grassroots action and organizing in a meaningful way,” said Maria Urbina, national political director of Indivisible, founded after Trump’s 2016 election. “We see the party apparatus coming in behind some of this action on the ground.” To be clear, not every surviving candidate is a carbon copy of Bernie Sanders, the 2016 presidential candidate whose insurgent campaign emboldened the left with his calls for universal health insurance, a $15-hour minimum wage and tuition-free college. But the influence of Sanders’ inspired base is palpable, as winning nominees have adopted pieces, if not the whole, of an agenda that has become more typical within the party since it lost the House majority eight years ago. At least to date, it’s staved off a Democratic version of the 2010 tea party rise, when GOP leaders, even as they marched in lockstep opposition to then-President Barack Obama, watched archconservative outsiders defeat incumbent Republicans and fundamentally reshape the party’s identity on Capitol Hill. The Democratic path seems to be more incremental evolution. A key indicator is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program, the party’s top candidates for flipping Republican seats. Twenty candidates with that designation have faced primaries already; only one of them — among the party’s most conservative choices — has lost. (About two dozen more Red to Blue candidates have upcoming primaries, and the DCCC could add to its list.) On health care, at least two of the Red to Blue hopefuls past their primaries call explicitly for a single-payer, government health insurance system, four more want a government-run public option, and several others generically call for expanded coverage under the Democrats’ 2010 health insurance overhaul. Eighteen were endorsed by End Citizens United, signifying their pledges to block corporations and wealthy individuals from spending unlimited amounts on campaigns. A leftward shift on health care is clear in Arkansas, where state Rep. Clarke Tucker dominated a primary as the more centrist choice — he’s among the Democrats saying he wouldn’t back California’s Nancy Pelosi for speaker — in a congressional district Trump won by almost 21 points. A cancer survivor, Tucker does not support single-payer, but he does say all Americans, regardless of age, should be able to buy Medicare coverage. That’s quite a leap from 2010, when then-Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a self-declared Arkansas centrist, joined other moderate Democrats to back the Affordable Care Act only after a public option was scrapped. She lost her 2010 re-election bid in a 21-point landslide anyway. Beyond national Democrats’ favored candidates, environmental lawyer Mike Levin won a November ballot spot in a Southern California district championing single-payer. He beat three other candidates who support Medicare-for-all health insurance. Together, the four Democrats received more votes than the eight-member Republican primary field in a district that retiring Rep. Darrell Issa has represented since 2001. “I know that with a bold progressive agenda and with the continued mobilization of the progressive base in California 49, we’re going to win come November,” Levin said. In some instances, the liberal arguments come from candidates who can sell themselves as trustworthy messengers, even if the message is stereotyped as out of place. So Abby Finkenauer in an expansive northeast Iowa district and Colin Allred in metro Dallas can forcefully advocate for ideas like paid family leave, long a goal of the American labor movement. Finkenauer plays up her working-class roots as she also stakes out liberal positions on abortion rights. Allred still looks every bit the NFL defender he was before becoming a civil rights attorney. He’s outspoken about LGBTQ rights while endorsing a $15 minimum wage and a partial semi-automatic gun ban — all notable contrasts with the Republican congressman, Pete Sessions, he’s trying to defeat in November. Republicans, meanwhile, say bring it on. “Wacky, far-left positions,” said Courtney Alexander of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC aligned with Speaker Paul Ryan, “aren’t going to fly in suburban swing districts this fall.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Democrats hope for big push from 8-state primary night
Holding hopes of a “blue wave” in November, Democrats fought to shape the political battlefield in primaries across eight states Tuesday, none more important than California and New Jersey where control of Congress may well be decided this fall. It was a big night for women. And neither party immediately appeared to suffer major setbacks. Yet the winners and losers in California’s most competitive races could take days to sort out given the state’s unique election laws. Republicans were concerned but breathing a bit easier as results came in in the race to succeed California’s term-limited Democratic governor, Jerry Brown. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom won the top spot and the right to run in the general election this fall, while the competition for the second spot featured Democratic former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Republican business executive John Cox. Cox seemed headed for that second spot, avoiding a situation in which the Republicans would have no one at the top of the ticket to drive turnout for congressional and other races. That could have had a profound impact on several suburban House races, where Democrats see a prime opportunity to steal some of the 23 seats needed to retake the House. Roughly half of that total could come from districts in California and New Jersey. Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein seized her party’s nomination for another term, as widely expected. It was still unclear whether a Republican would earn enough votes to oppose her on California’s November ballot. Three thousand miles away from California, former federal prosecutor and Navy pilot Mikie Sherrill bested a field of party rivals in the race to replace retiring Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen. The favorite of Washington Democrats will take on GOP Assemblyman Jay Webber in one of several New Jersey races Democrats view as possible pickups. Much of the day’s drama focused on women, who fought to make history in some cases and to avoid disaster in others. In Alabama, four-term Republican Rep. Martha Roby was forced into a runoff election next month after failing to win 50 percent of her party’s vote. She will face former Democratic Rep. Bobby Bright in Alabama’s conservative 2nd district — where Trump loyalty has been a central issue. Roby was the first member of Congress to withdraw her endorsement of the Republican president in 2016 after he was caught on video bragging about grabbing women’s genitals. In New Mexico, Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham won her party’s nomination in the race to succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. If Grisham wins, she’d be the state’s second Latino state executive. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey fended off three GOP challengers, while South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem became the first female nominee for governor in her state. In Iowa, 28-year-old Democratic state Rep. Abby Finkenauer was trying to become the youngest woman to serve in Congress. And in New Mexico, former state Democratic Party Chairwoman Debra Haaland, a tribal member of Laguna Pueblo, won her primary and could become the first Native American woman in Congress if she wins this fall. Haaland said in her primary victory statement: “Donald Trump and the billionaire class should consider this victory a warning shot: the blue wave is coming.” In Mississippi, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker won his primary contest as did New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat who faced federal bribery charges last year. The jury deadlocked, but Republicans hope to use Menendez’s legal troubles to tar other Democrats like Sherrill across the state. Republican businessman Bob Hugin claimed the Republican nomination Tuesday and will face Menendez this fall. Much of Tuesday’s focus was on California. Recognizing the high stakes, Trump sought to energize his supporters in a series of tweets praising his preferred California Republican candidates earlier in the day. “In High Tax, High Crime California, be sure to get out and vote for Republican John Cox for Governor. He will make a BIG difference!” Trump tweeted. Yet frightening scenarios existed for both parties. Because of California’s unusual primary system, all candidates appear on a single primary ballot, with the top two vote-getters regardless of party advancing to the November election. That allows the possibility of two candidates qualifying from the same party — and neither from the other. National Democrats spent more than $7 million trying to curb and repair the damage inflicted by Democrats attacking each other in districts opened by retiring Republican Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa, and the district where Republican Dana Rohrabacher is facing challenges from the left and the right. Trump will not be on the ballot this year. But he was on the minds of many voters. Francine Karuntzos, a 57-year-old retiree from Huntington Beach, California, said she has deep concerns about the Republican president — particularly his recent declaration that he could pardon himself. She said she isn’t a member of a political party, but she voted Democratic on Tuesday. “I’m really, really worried about our Constitution being ruined by this presidency,” Karuntzos said after casting her ballot at a local community center. Across the country in Montclair, New Jersey, Lynnette Joy Baskinger, a psychotherapist, said she’s fed up with the GOP. “I still consider myself an independent, but I just won’t vote Republican because of what’s going on,” she said. It was a different story in Mississippi, where 66-year-old Gladys Cruz wasn’t sure which Republican she would support in the state’s Senate primary, but she wants whoever wins to firmly support Trump. The president “touches my heart,” she said. A key Senate race took shape in the heart of Trump country as well. Montana Republicans were picking a candidate to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, one of the most vulnerable senators in the nation. The GOP struggled to recruit top-tier candidates, leaving the most likely nominees as state Auditor Matt Rosendale or retired Judge Russ Fagg. Democrats have aimed their most aggressive attacks at Rosendale, seizing on his background in Maryland and questions about his experience as a
2018 midterms show start of Democratic scramble for 2020
Look closely enough at the 2018 midterm campaign and you’ll see the stirrings of a Democratic scramble to reclaim the White House from President Donald Trump. The leading players — from established national figures such as former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to up-and-comers including Sen. Kamala Harris — don’t necessarily put it that way. But the potential 2020 candidates are making the rounds, raising and distributing campaign cash among fellow Democrats, endorsing candidates and meeting political activists. Their movements reflect competing strategies for establishing their reputations and shaping a party that lacks a clear leader and consistent message in the Trump era. For senators trying to get better known, a primary goal is proving fundraising strength and party loyalty, without necessarily taking sides in the larger fight between the left and moderates who split on the minimum wage, health insurance and other issues. “I just want to do whatever I can” to help Democrats win, Harris said at a recent stop in Georgia, where she was campaigning and raising money for Stacey Abrams’ race for governor. It is part of an aggressive effort for the freshman senator from California. She’s raised $3.5 million for her Senate colleagues and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, plus what she helps candidates such as Abrams raise directly when she appears with them, and at the end of April Harris had nearly a $1 million balance in the political action committee that she uses to back other Democrats. Warren boasts that she’s raised $15 million for other Democrats since her 2013 election. The Massachusetts senator faces a re-election campaign this fall, but not as tough a race as confronts 10 colleagues running in states where Trump won. Like Harris, Warren and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker have aided those senators. Warren is also helping other branches of the party: a transfer of money to House Democrats’ campaign committee, $5,000 for every state party and $175,000 spread across state legislative campaigns in contested states. Democratic and Republican campaign veterans say such contributions and fundraising trips aren’t explicitly about future campaigns. “We’re not playing 3D chess,” says Harris spokeswoman Lily Adams, who describes the senator’s priority as “building our numbers in the Senate” for the final two years of Trump’s term, while looking for strong women and minority candidates. (Abrams would be the first female African-American governor in U.S. history.) Operatives also insist there are no quid pro quos, though Republican presidential campaign veteran Rick Tyler says, “These guys are out there accumulating chits.” Tyler worked for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 White House campaign. Cruz was among the conservatives who traveled the country before his campaign, endorsing like-minded conservatives and raising money. Trump’s improbable rise obliterated that groundwork, but Tyler said it’s nonetheless a necessary part of a national campaign, because prospective presidents build their networks and test messages as they meet activists and voters beyond their personal bases. Harris, for example, is noticeably avoiding most early presidential nominating states — no trips to Iowa or New Hampshire so far. Because 10 Senate Democrats must seek re-election in states Trump won, her travels do put her in some of the pivotal states in the battle to control the Senate. She’s been to Ohio five times for Sen. Sherrod Brown, twice to Michigan for Sen. Debbie Stabenow and once to Florida for Sen. Bill Nelson. She has a June trip planned for Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Warren has been to Ohio at least four times this campaign season and traveled to Michigan and Wisconsin, among others states. Those states helped give Trump the presidency. They also could prove important as primary states in an extended nominating fight that could materialize with a large field and Democrats’ proportional distribution of nominating convention delegates. Sanders, the Vermont independent whose insurgent presidential campaign in 2016 emboldened the Democrats’ left flank, is perhaps the most unabashed of the potential 2020 group about using this year’s midterms to put his preferred policy stamp on the Democratic Party. A prolific small-dollar fundraiser, he no longer has to prove he can raise money or draw a crowd. “I have been very critical about the business model of the Democratic Party,” Sanders told The Associated Press. He said his travel to 28 states since Trump took office and his endorsements in federal and state races are part of his promised “political revolution” intended to advance ideas like a $15 minimum wage, tuition-free college and universal health insurance. Sanders bet on liberal challenger Marie Newman in her unsuccessful House Democratic primary battle against conservative Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois. But Sanders scored a notable win Tuesday in Pennsylvania when his pick for lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, finished with a surprise primary victory. Biden is at the opposite end of Democrats’ identity battle. His endorsement list and fundraising itinerary are replete with state party dinners, events for sitting Democratic senators and rallies for candidates running as moderates, at least in tone, if not in policy preference. “I love Bernie, but … I don’t think 500 billionaires are the reason we are in trouble,” Biden said at a recent Brookings Institution speech about his priorities for the middle class. Biden’s aides say he’s willing to help any Democrat get elected, but the native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who loves to wax eloquent about his working-class upbringing is in demand to campaign for Democrats running in GOP-leaning places. He headlined fundraisers and campaign rallies for first-year Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and new Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb, who won among voters who had sided overwhelmingly with Trump in 2016. Biden’s next planned campaign venture is to North Carolina on behalf of Democrat Dan McCready, a veteran trying to win a suburban Charlotte House district that wasn’t competitive two years ago. Certainly, many Democratic hopefuls around the country are accepting help from multiple would-be presidents, and the alignments don’t always follow cleanly along the party’s philosophical battle lines. Abrams has campaigned as a liberal,
Nancy Pelosi says Democrats have cash and environment to win House
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that House Democrats have the fundraising, the issues and the political atmosphere on their side to win back the majority in November. These factors, and an activated party base that’s helped Democrats win in special elections across the country this year are the “small droplets of water” that create a wave, Pelosi said headlining a county Democratic Party banquet in Des Moines. “This is not going to be big margins,” she said. “It is going to be small margins in many places.” Democrats need to pick up 23 seats to flip the majority. A stream of Republican House retirements, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, and the GOP-passed tax cut’s shaky popularity, underscored by President Trump’s low approval, are fueling increased Democratic hopes of retaking the House for the first time since 2010. Democrats increasingly see the potential change coming from districts where Trump narrowly won in 2016, such as Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Districts and the Omaha area’s 2nd District in Nebraska. “Here in the heartland a new generation of Democrats is rising up,” she said. The cheers Pelosi received in Des Moines belie the Republican effort to paint her as the singular face of opposition, which Pelosi attributes to her effectiveness. In an Associated Press interview, Pelosi, who has been painted as the boogeyman by Republican strategists seeking to hold the House majority in November, has raised millions on her own this year in pursuit of a return to the majority. And she points to what she describes as effective legislative leadership during eight years in the minority. “I take it as I’m effective,” she said after headlining a fundraising dinner for Polk County Democrats. “I also happen to be, apart from anyone who’s running for president or been the presidential nominee, the biggest fundraiser in the country. So they want to diminish that.” Pelosi is featured as the star — and villain — in many of the ads being run by the Congressional Leadership Fund, the political action committee run by Speaker Paul Ryan which is aimed at Republicans holding the House majority. Democrats feel emboldened given the large number of Republican House retirements, special elections around the country since 2016 where Democrats have won or did better than expected in Republican-leaning districts, and Pelosi’s robust fundraising. The California Democrat raised $16 million in the first quarter, including $14 million in March alone. The tally was ahead of the $15 million raised by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC which can raise unlimited sums, unlike Pelosi’s federally regulated candidate contributions. National polls show Pelosi to have low favorability, which Congressional Leadership Fund executive director Corry Bliss calls “a blessing.” “We’re going to spend millions this summer and this fall reminding people what Nancy Pelosi would do to this country if she were speaker again,” Bliss said. There was no sign of any negative feeling about Pelosi in the banquet hall in Des Moines Sunday. Democratic activists cheered her introduction and stood applauding repeatedly during her 30-minute speech. Asked why Polk County Democrats would invite her to a pivotal swing-voting congressional district, county party Chairman Sean Bagniewski said, “She is the most powerful Democrat in the United States of America. I think the better question is why wouldn’t we have her here?” Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Paul Ryan: Democratic takeover would mean subpoenas and chaos
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that a Democratic takeover of the House or Senate in November would lead to a stalemate in Congress while opening the way for partisan investigations of the Trump White House. If either the House or the Senate flips party control, “what you’ll have is absolute gridlock,” said Ryan, R-Wis. “You’ll have subpoenas, you’ll have just the system shutting down.” Ryan’s prediction of a potentially deeper partisan divide on Capitol Hill came during remarks at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, where he also said the federal tax overhaul, regulatory rollbacks and job gains would be a selling point with voters. In the House, Democrats would need to gain at least 23 seats to retake control. Republicans hold a 51-49 edge in the Senate. Democrats have harshly criticized the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, which concluded it found no evidence that Donald Trump’s Republican campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential race. Ryan said that a president’s party typically loses seats in midterm elections but that party data shows the GOP would hold the House if the election were now. But he acknowledged that “there’s a great amount of enthusiasm on the other side of the aisle.” He is retiring and not seeking re-election in in November. He spoke favorably of Trump, calling him relentless and crediting him with shaking up the status quo in Washington. However, he added: “I definitely could do with a few less tweets.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Texas primary turnout buoys Democrats’ hopes again
Texas is the latest place where Democrats are finding optimism for 2018 after kicking off the nation’s primary election season with their biggest midterm turnout in more than a quarter-century. But beneath the eye-opening numbers — more than 1 million votes cast for Democrats on Tuesday night, their strongest showing in a Texas midterm primary since 1994 — lurk buzzkills for a party eager to believe that the GOP will pay in November for the erratic presidency of Donald Trump. Republicans still won the turnout battle in Texas by a half-million votes. The brightest star on the ballot for Democrats, Senate challenger Beto O’Rourke, revealed weak spots after letting two primary rivals take 38 percent of the vote. And he’s the biggest draw on a Democratic ballot that is otherwise littered with little-known candidates for statewide office who’ve struggled to raise attention and money. “When you net the results, there are hundreds of thousands more voting in the Republican primary than the Democratic primary, so we absolutely have our work cut out for us,” O’Rourke said by phone Wednesday. “This is an uphill, very tough fight for the next eight months.” About failing to win such a high percentage of the vote against overmatched rivals, O’Rourke noted that he has focused on campaigning all over Texas, including strongholds for those who cast ballots in the Republican primary. “We could concentrate in blue parts of Texas and really run up the score in the primary,” he said. “Or we could walk the walk. Talk to every Texan in every part of the state.” Since Trump took office last year, Democrats have seized on surprises on Republican turf as signs that a midterm reckoning is afoot — winning a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, wiping out a GOP majority in the Virginia statehouse, flipping a Wisconsin state senate district that overwhelmingly backed Trump a year earlier. In Texas, where Republicans haven’t lost a statewide race since 1994, Democrats are especially starved for an upset. Tuesday’s primary made clear Democratic enthusiasm is real, but in Texas, the party still faces long odds. “The votes have been counted and we know that so-called ‘blue wave’ never made landfall,” Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Wednesday, referring to the GOP voters still turning out in greater numbers. Patrick himself sailed past a little-known GOP primary challenger and is expected to have an even easier time against only token Democratic opposition in November. More than 1.5 million people voted Tuesday in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, won by incumbent Ted Cruz. The turnout for Republicans was mostly in line with primary midterms in 2014 and 2010. Democrats, meanwhile, nearly doubled their numbers from four years ago behind big increases around Dallas and Houston, but the GOP still had the upper hand in rural and suburban counties. Texas has a record eight open congressional races this year, including two currently held by entrenched Republicans who opted against re-election amid scandal. Republican pollster Chris Wilson, who has worked for Cruz, said the turnout surge to him reflected the number of open races while Democrats pinned the increase on Trump backlash and enthusiasm. In Republican U.S. Rep. John Culberson’s district in Houston, which Hillary Clinton carried in 2016, Democratic primary turnout was roughly five times higher than the last midterms. A big Democratic surge also took place in the district of Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, which Clinton also carried and is among the races where Democrats think they can compete. In a third GOP-controlled district targeted by Democrats in San Antonio, Republican had the lower turnout. Nationwide, Democrats need to flip 24 GOP-seats to reclaim a majority this fall. “It’s clear Texas Democrats are fired up, exceeding expectations, and charging forward to November,” Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said. A big problem for Texas Democrats is that their biggest-name politicians opted not to run in statewide races. So Republican Gov. Greg Abbott will face either Lupe Valdez, who was Texas’ first Hispanic, lesbian sheriff, or Andrew White, who opposes abortion and whose father, Mark, was governor in the 1980s. Valdez and White will need a May 22 runoff to decide who wins their party’s nomination — but either will be prohibitive underdogs against well-funded and popular Abbott. The Texas primary did put on display the surge in women running for office to resist Trump. Of the nearly 50 women running for Congress in Texas, more than half won their primaries outright or advanced to runoffs. What’s more, at least three of those runoffs in May will feature women going head-to-head, including a key race for Democrats in their bid to take control of the U.S. House this fall. Trump won Texas by 9 points in 2016, the smallest margin of victory by a Republican presidential candidate in Texas in 20 years. “It’s Trump. It’s Trump,” said Veronica Escobar, who won her Democratic primary and is now poised to become one of the first Hispanic women to represent Texas in Congress. “I’ve spoken to innumerable senior citizens, retirees, parents of disabled children, people who understand what this administration means to their families. And they’re afraid.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Democrats nationwide react to Alabama’s Doug Jones’ swearing-in
Alabama Democrat Sen. Doug Jones was sworn in to the United States Senate Wednesday, narrowing the Republican majority 51-49 in the upper chamber. Democrats across the country celebrated the momentous occasion. Here’s what they had to say: Rep. Terri Sewell | Alabama 7th District U.S. Rep: Sen. Doug Jones’ swearing in today was a historic landmark for Alabama voters. I am thrilled to have a new partner in the Senate who is ready to tackle the challenges facing our state. As a former U.S. attorney, Sen. Jones brings to Congress his experience fighting for the most vulnerable among us. On issues ranging from healthcare to job creation to tax reform, I am confident that Sen. Jones will put the people of Alabama first. Eric Holder | Former Attorney General: “It will be challenging, but the issues really aren’t partisan in nature,” Holder said of what Jones will face in the Senate. “These are things America has got to deal with.’’ Adam Green | Co-founder, Progressive Change Campaign Committee: Today is a big day for Doug Jones and Democrats. Doug Jones won in Alabama by campaigning on kitchen table issues and taking outwardly progressive positions on everything from opposing Republican tax cuts for the rich to being pro-choice to fighting the KKK. Democrats are one seat closer to taking back the Senate — and if we can win in Alabama, an inspiring candidate like Beto O’Rourke can defeat Ted Cruz in Texas. Sen. Chuck Schumer | Senate Minority Leader: Very excited to welcome two new members of the Senate who will be joining the Democratic caucus: U.S. Senator Tina Smith from Minnesota and Senator Doug Jones from Alabama. With them, we Democrats hope that 2018 is different – focused on the middle class rather than the rich and powerful. And in these first few weeks, we have a chance to start off on the right foot. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: Congratulations to Doug Jones, Alabama’s official new U.S. Senator! One more giant for justice in Congress — here’s to electing many, many more in November. This article will continue to be updated as statements are issued.
