Prime Senate Democrat insists get together nonetheless has shot at holding majority
The Senate’s Democratic chief Chuck Schumer believes the get together can preserve and even develop its majority in Congress’s higher chamber in Tuesday’s midterm elections, regardless of polls exhibiting its candidates shedding their leads in essential races.
“I consider Democrats will maintain the Senate and perhaps even choose up seats,” Schumer mentioned in an interview with the Related Press revealed at the moment, whereas acknowledging that the race is “tight.”
Over the summer time, Democrats appeared to have a transparent path to preserving their majority within the Senate as legislative victories and the shock over the supreme court docket’s choice to overturn abortion rights rallied their supporters. However polls have indicated that enthusiasm ebbed because the 8 November election grows nearer, and earlier this week, a survey from the New York Instances and Siena Faculty discovered Democrats have solely slight benefits in a number of essential races.
Schumer informed the AP he “doesn’t need to give the phantasm that these are all slam dunks,” however mentioned voters “are seeing how excessive these Republican candidates are and so they don’t prefer it. And second, they’re seeing the Democrats are speaking to them on points they care about, and that we’ve achieved an important deal on issues.”
Key occasions
As Andrew Lawrence writes, if a Republican wins the race for Oregon governor, it will likely be largely thanks to 1 man: a co-founder of the sportswear large Nike.
Phil Knight is the 84-year-old co-founder and chair emeritus of Nike, the home that Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods constructed.
Within the race to control Oregon, a bastion of west coast liberalism, Knight has thrown full help behind the Republican Christine Drazan, an anti-abortion, tough-on-crime former lobbyist pushing “election integrity”. In a uncommon interview with the New York Instances, Knight made his motive clear: Oregon’s subsequent governor will be anybody however the Democratic nominee, Tina Kotek.
Knight’s lavish help of the proper would appear to betray Nike’s pursuit of social equality and environmental safety. In spite of everything, that is the “Simply Do It” model that champions Serena Williams, that kneels with Colin Kaepernick, that featured Argentina’s first trans feminine soccer participant in a latest advert.
Over time, the corporate has pledged hundreds of thousands to organizations devoted to leveling the taking part in area in all spheres of life. However it has additionally come below fireplace for crafting a progressive PR picture as cowl whereas manufacturing merchandise in Asian sweatshops with pressured labor practices …
Full report:
Prime Senate Democrat insists get together nonetheless has shot at holding majority
The Senate’s Democratic chief Chuck Schumer believes the get together can preserve and even develop its majority in Congress’s higher chamber in Tuesday’s midterm elections, regardless of polls exhibiting its candidates shedding their leads in essential races.
“I consider Democrats will maintain the Senate and perhaps even choose up seats,” Schumer mentioned in an interview with the Related Press revealed at the moment, whereas acknowledging that the race is “tight.”
Over the summer time, Democrats appeared to have a transparent path to preserving their majority within the Senate as legislative victories and the shock over the supreme court docket’s choice to overturn abortion rights rallied their supporters. However polls have indicated that enthusiasm ebbed because the 8 November election grows nearer, and earlier this week, a survey from the New York Instances and Siena Faculty discovered Democrats have solely slight benefits in a number of essential races.
Schumer informed the AP he “doesn’t need to give the phantasm that these are all slam dunks,” however mentioned voters “are seeing how excessive these Republican candidates are and so they don’t prefer it. And second, they’re seeing the Democrats are speaking to them on points they care about, and that we’ve achieved an important deal on issues.”
Because the midterm elections loom within the US and Republican hopes of retaking Congress rise, it seems it’s now a matter of when, not if, Donald Trump will announce his third White Home run. Martin Pengelly stories…
Donald Trump has trailed one other White Home marketing campaign ever since his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, a contest Trump refused to concede, pursuing the lie about electoral fraud which fueled the lethal assault on Congress and his second impeachment.
In Texas final month, Trump mentioned: “To be able to make our nation profitable, protected and superb once more, I’ll most likely need to do it once more.”
Now, a flurry of stories say Trump will transfer swiftly after the midterms, searching for to capitalise on seemingly Republican wins fueled by specializing in financial anxieties and regulation and order.
“I’m like 95% he’s going to run,” Reince Priebus, the previous Republican chairman who grew to become Trump’s first White Home chief of employees, informed the Related Press this week.
“The true query is are different huge challengers going to run? If President Trump runs, he shall be very tough for any Republican to defeat.”
Full story:
Martin Pengelly
Extra from Hillary Clinton’s interview with CNN earlier, during which she mentioned Republican midterms messaging that appears set for fulfillment subsequent Tuesday.
The previous first girl, senator, secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee targeted on “this emphasis on crime that we’ve seen in each advert that I run throughout from the Republicans.
“I discover it ironic and admittedly disturbing that when Paul Pelosi is attacked by an intruder in his own residence with a hammer, the Republicans go silent about that crime.
“They’re not involved about voter security, they only need to preserve voters scared as a result of they really feel that if voters are scared, in the event that they’re responding to adverse messages, they’ll have a greater likelihood and that’s actually regrettable. Sadly, generally it really works, and we are able to’t let individuals simply hear that and consider it.”
Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of the Democratic Home speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was attacked in San Francisco final week. Clinton referred to feedback concerning the assault by Republicans together with Kari Lake, the Trump-aligned candidate for governor in Arizona.
“It was a horrifying incident,” Clinton mentioned, “however sadly an actual indicator of the place we’re in our nation proper now that you’d have individuals on the Republican ticket, like the girl operating in Arizona, laughing about an assault on anybody, not to mention an 82-year-old man whose spouse occurs to be the second-in-line to the presidency.
“I’m not often shocked anymore, however the response I’ve seen from plenty of Republicans, each in individual and on-line making enjoyable of that assault, by some means attempting to show it right into a joke, the identical get together that desires us to be apprehensive about crime. The hypocrisy is extremely apparent.”
Clinton additionally mentioned threats to democracy all over the world – and linked them to what she mentioned was the Republican risk at residence.
She mentioned: “It is a time of nice ferment, and it’s a time when the US ought to be standing strongly on behalf of our values of democracy and freedom, of alternative and equality, as an alternative of being engaged on this tradition struggle pushed by the political opportunism of individuals on the Republican aspect of the ledger.
“… The very best factor we are able to do to guide the world on this wrestle between democracy and autocracy is to get our personal home so as and I hope that we’ll do this beginning Tuesday.”
Joanna Walters
Hillary Clinton has been speaking concerning the financial system – which is prime of many individuals’s minds because the midterm elections roar in direction of us and voting is underway.
She acknowledged in speaking to CNN earlier at the moment that the financial system was in fact one thing that wanted to be talked about this election cycle. Democrats’ prospects are blighted by document inflation and a price of dwelling crunch and Clinton desires them to speak up their document and put present financial challenges into the broader context.
“What I want we might convey extra successfully, in the event you take a look at what has been achieved within the first two years of the Biden presidency, with Congress working hand in hand, there was an infinite quantity of dedication of recent constructing, new infrastructure, new investments in manufacturing, new methods to decrease healthcare prices,” she mentioned.
The previous first girl and secretary of state added: “In truth the work that’s been carried out by the Democrats in serving to the financial system and serving to individuals cope with what’s international inflation, not simply American inflation, is actually spectacular, and we’ve acquired to get that message throughout extra successfully.”
Tonight, Clinton is without doubt one of the headliners at a Get Out The Vote occasion in New York Metropolis to bolster New York state’s Democratic governor Kathy Hochul, who is just not residence and dry towards her Republican challenger Lee Zeldin.
State lawyer normal Letitia James shall be there in addition to different grandees and the highest headliner shall be US vice chairman Kamala Harris.
US authorities representatives go to jailed basketball star Brittney Griner in Russia
Joanna Walters
The White Home has introduced that US representatives at the moment visited US basketball participant Brittney Griner in Russia, the place she has been imprisoned because the early days of Russia’s struggle on Ukraine, Reuters stories.
The 2-time Olympic gold medallist was arrested on 17 February at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is banned in Russia.
She was sentenced on 4 August to 9 years in a penal colony. Final month her enchantment towards that harsh sentence failed and there are fears Griner may very well be moved to one in every of Russia’s far-flung jail colonies inside weeks.
Though at the moment, Griner’s authorized group mentioned she was not “anticipating any miracles” from the appeals course of, the choice nonetheless could be a blow to the sports activities star, who pleaded responsible to the drug costs in July and has thrown herself a number of occasions on the mercy of the Russian court docket solely to be given an unusually harsh sentence, even for Russia.
“We’re informed she is doing in addition to will be anticipated below the circumstances,” White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre informed reporters at the moment aboard Air Pressure One as she accompanied US president Joe Biden on an election marketing campaign journey to New Mexico, adopted by California.
Earlier in October, Brittney Griner’s spouse, Cherelle Griner informed CBS Mornings that Brittney, who was on her strategy to play in Russia through the WNBA offseason when she was arrested, is afraid of being deserted by the US.
“She’s very afraid about being left and forgotten in Russia,” Cherelle Griner mentioned.
She mentioned Brittney informed her in a telephone name that she felt “like my life simply doesn’t matter.”
Democrats in serious trouble on crime messaging, veteran pollster argues
It’s clear that the spike in voter help Democrats skilled over the summer time has worn off within the ultimate weeks earlier than the midterms, elevating the opportunity of a disastrous Tuesday for the get together because it tries to defend its slim maintain on each chambers of Congress.
Longtime Democratic strategist Stanley B. Greenberg has revealed an evidence of 1 purpose why Democrats didn’t preserve their momentum: their very own voters misplaced religion of their potential to sort out crime.
Writing in The American Prospect, Greenberg argues that Republicans successfully used rising fears of violence nationwide to tar Democrats as smooth on the problem, and the technique was so potent even some racial teams that historically vote for Joe Biden’s allies noticed the GOP as higher capable of sort out the issue.
Greenberg based mostly his conclusions on a polling effort he oversaw:
New York Metropolis has seen citywide taking pictures incidents enhance by 13 p.c in comparison with July 2021, and the variety of murders elevated for the month by 34 p.c in comparison with this time final yr. Philadelphia and Chicago skilled distinguished shoot-outs on the subway, and in Philadelphia total shootings have elevated by 3 p.c and violent crimes are up 7 p.c.
In consequence, crime was a top-tier problem within the midterm election, and that included Blacks, who ranked it virtually as excessive as the price of dwelling in ballot after ballot. For Hispanics and Asian People, crime got here just under the price of dwelling as a precedence. And Republicans continued to remind voters that Democrats continued to help “defunding the police,” even by linking candidates to organizations they took cash from, like Deliberate Parenthood, which again in 2020 known as for defunding.
The Democrats had so little credibility on crime that any message I examined this yr towards the Republicans ended up shedding us votes, even messages that voters beforehand favored.
The one message that labored with voters was one during which Democrats promised to significantly develop police forces and publicly known as out members seen as not doing sufficient to battle crime, Greenberg writes. He provides that it’s a far cry from a lot of the get together’s messaging because the racial justice protests that started in the summertime of 2020, after which many Democrats targeted extra on police abuses than on communities’ fears of violence:
In a mid-October ballot, I used to be capable of check a criminal offense message that acquired heard. It acquired heard as a result of it dramatized extra police, mentioned Democrats heard our communities on violent crime, and likewise known as out the small minority of Democrats who failed to handle violent crime, and mentioned, “Democrats in Congress are mainstream” and help our “first responders.”
To be trustworthy, I didn’t need to open up this debate through the marketing campaign when Democrats might do little to handle it. That’s the reason I’m writing this text now, being revealed proper earlier than the election.
Our efficient crime message started with respect for police, however this time, the Democrat proposes so as to add 100,000 extra police. That could be a fairly dramatic provide that claims, my crime plan begins with many extra police. The message consists of the identical pressing reforms, but in addition provides, “these very communities need us to get behind regulation enforcement” and “battle violent crime as a prime precedence.”
This crime message defeats by 11 factors a Republican crime message that hits Democrats for defunding the police, being with Biden who’s smooth on crime, and presiding over Democratic cities with document murder charges. Democrats are in a lot bother on crime, but this message wins dramatically within the base and competes with working-class targets.
The day up to now
We’re 5 days away from the 8 November midterm elections, and Joe Biden final night time gave a primetime speech during which he sought to remind People that many Republicans on ballots this yr maintain views that would threaten the nation’s democracy. We’ll quickly discover out if voters believed him.
Right here’s a take a look at what has occurred at the moment up to now:
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Republicans rolled their eyes at Biden’s speech, with the Senate’s GOP chief calling it a distraction from crime and inflation, which was echoed by the get together’s candidate for governor in Michigan.
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A famous home violence researcher agreed with Biden’s warnings about democracy, saying that analysis signifies solely a minority of People help violence in politics – although that also could also be as many as 13 mn individuals.
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A prime aide to Donald Trump mentioned she has suggested the previous president to announce his 2024 run for workplace after the midterms. Some Democrats hoped Trump’s return to the presidential marketing campaign path earlier than the vote could be optimistic for democratic turnout.
Certainly one of Donald Trump’s prime advisors Kellyanne Conway held forth with reporters at the moment about what she suggested the previous president relating to saying his subsequent run for workplace, Semafor stories.
Trump is broadly anticipated to run for president once more in 2024, however the larger query is when he’ll announce. Some Democrats hoped he would so earlier than the midterms, to allow them to steer voters’ consideration again to the divisive former chief.
Right here’s what Conway, one in every of his greatest identified aides, informed reporters:
Whereas Joe Biden argued democracy is on the poll on Tuesday, Amy Westervelt stories that final result might even have a significant affect on local weather change:
Local weather is on the poll in an enormous method this November, even supposing it’s not entrance and middle in any of the campaigns. Even relating to voter turnout, the temper of local weather voters has been a subject of dialog amongst political consultants for months.
“A number of months in the past I used to be very involved concerning the apathy we have been seeing in younger local weather voters due to Democrats’ failure to even speak concerning the successes they’ve had,” Rania Batrice, political strategist and founding father of Batrice & Associates, says. “However I do really feel like there’s been slightly little bit of a renewed sense of urgency. In Georgia, for instance, early voting simply began and it’s already breaking every kind of information.”
Batrice says the fallout from the supreme court docket choice in Dobbs, which overturned the Roe v Wade precedent on abortion, is an enormous a part of that urgency, however that the Biden administration’s elevated motion on local weather this yr performs a job too.
For the campaigns she’s engaged on this midterm cycle – Beto O’Rourke for governor of Texas, John Fetterman for Senate in Pennsylvania, Charles Booker for Senate in Kentucky and Mandela Barnes for Senate in Wisconsin – Batrice says her recommendation on local weather is straightforward: “Meet individuals the place they’re at, and discuss local weather in ways in which relate to individuals’s every day lives.”