Category Archives: Democrat

What Republicansare saying

Jim Brown,57, of Gainesville,cites religious liberty as one of his top issues. Jim Brown

Im a Christian,and I think its obviously important to worship as I choose, he said.

Replacinglate Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgties into his ideals.Im conservative, and I like to make sure my views are adhered to on the Supreme Court, Brown said.

The economy is important for me, being a small business owner, he said.The Democrats are going to tax me to death. Ive lived through both (parties in control), and I know what happens there. Itend toside with the Republican because they tax less.

He said he favors Trump because he is a conservative and hes the one on the Republican ticket. Is he perfect? No, hes not perfect, but as far as the options we have available, hes a much better option than Joe Biden.

Brown said he cant see from the Democratic perspective how conservative thinking is flawed, because I dont know what their thought process is.

Warren Daubenspeck,69, of Gainesville, said he sees balancing the budget and the countrys national debt are key issues for him. Warren Daubenspeck

I dont think our country should be in debt and,at somepointin time, its going to have to be paid, he said.

Daubenspeck said one of the main reasons he voted for Trump in 2016 was the potential to replace several Supreme Court justiceswith ones holding aliteralreading of the U.S. Constitution.

And he was able to do that in fact, threeofthem, or 2 so far, he saidbefore the U.S. Senates confirmation ofAmy Coney BarrettonMonday, Oct. 26.

As far as his support for Trump, I look at the alternative, and I think the alternative vote would be for a more socialistic type ofgovernment and more federal government involved in our lives, Daubenspeck said.

He believes the Democrats live in a bubble who dont know what the common person is thinking about.

What were thinking about is making sure we have worked hard our whole lives and its OK to beprosperousand we shouldnt have to pay the government abnormal taxes, Daubenspeck said. Its OK to be that way.

ForJennifer Marlow, 61, ofGillsville, public safety is a main concern for her and at the heart of keyissues,including immigration. Jennifer Marlow

Alot of the things that go on(locally)involvesdrugs andmaybe some(people) over here illegally-- somewhohave been deported and come back,she said. Im really glad police around here are up on this and stopping a lot of the drugs, which is a big concern to me.

Marlowsaid President Trump sometimes says things he shouldnt say, but he willsay what he means, and you know where he stands. I feel like he is fighting for us. I think he is trying to make it safe here for us and doing what he can.

She said she believes Biden, by contrast, wont be a strong leader, if elected.

I feel like he wont be the one making decisions. I think they got him in there justto getpeopletovote on that side, and somebody else is going to be taking over for him, probably.

Jennifer Schade, 43,of Gainesville,who identified as moderate on the survey, said the Second Amendment may be a major political issue these days, but dont overlook the First Amendment.

If we lose (both), we lose our fabric, she said.

The First Amendment isactually alarger issue for Schade, particularly blocks on freedom of speech or press. Even ifit's a bad idea, Im better off hearing the bad idea, rather than being told you cant hear it because its a bad idea, Schade said.

Immigration is important to me because, while I have wonderful friends who are immigrants, they have come here legally, Schade said. Theyve done the process. It is a safety concern for me because I want to be able to know who my neighbors are--people who are vetted.

As for Trumps appeal, I appreciate the fact that he is real, regardless of how hes portrayed, she said. If you look at what heactually doesversus what the media says about him, hes been fair, hes been overgenerous to underprivileged communities.

Schade conceded he has a terrible mouth, but that does not make him a terrible human. Maybe hes like me you cant always articulate what we want to say, but we know what were going to say and do.

She believes Democrats and more liberal thinkers thinkincorrectly thatthose who are more conservative dont care about poverty, dont care about race. We all have the exact same problems. We just disagree on what the proper solution is.

Gary Vogel, 66, of Gainesville,said hes never seen an election where theres so much distinction between the two parties. Youve got one party thats for a lot ofthings Im in favorofand one party thats really against things Im in favor of.

I almost tell people Im not voting for Donald Trump. Im voting for the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court candidates, all conservative issues.

Vogel added: I thought (Trump) was an egotistical, arrogant crazy man for years. I dont think that so much anymore, but hes still certainly a lightning rod for controversy based on some of his tweets and the way he belittles people. I think he could be more presidential.

If he had to pick out a top issue, its the Supreme Court makeup.

Thats going to decide so many issues for the next 30 years, he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not as biganissue to Vogel and many Republicans in the survey.

Youve got to respect that its out there, but I think weve gone totally overboard, Vogel said. To shut down the entire economy of the United Statesforsixmonths is, in my mind, is insane.

As a hardware store owner in South Hall, if I had to be shut down for three months, I wouldnotbe coming back, he said.

I dont understand people who would even vote for a party that is pro-abortion, that wants to defund the police,that has supported riots in the streets of United Statescities that have refused outside help to quell those riots.

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Survey results are in. Here's what local Republicans, Democrats are saying ahead of 2020 presidential election - Gainesville Times

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) North Carolina Democrats are responding to Vice President Mike Pences visit Tuesday. Local and state Democratic candidates came out Tuesday to make another last push of their own before election day.

Democrats called Pences rally Tuesday evening a likely super spreader event, saying their event was a stark contrast.

With nearly five million votes already cast in North Carolina, Democrats told voters their work isnt over yet.

State Rep. Deb Butler, Sen. Harper Peterson, Wilmington City Councilman Kevin Spears and a number of other local and state Democratic candidates came out to the 1898 Memorial in downtown Wilmington Tuesday. Candidates emphasized the need for every voter to show out this year, saying the 2020 election runs straight through North Carolina.

Over the last few months, the Trump administration and Trump family have made numerous visits to North Carolina, and namely the Cape Fear region. However, we havent seen quite as big of a presence from the Biden campaign in Wilmington.

Sen. Peterson says he thinks that speaks to how seriously former Vice President Joe Biden is taking the coronavirus pandemic.

He believes its real, and we see through data and statistics that its coming back, Peterson said. Its going up. He understands that, so large crowds, unbridled audiences without masks is not his style, He is out in public, but in a different way.

Rep. Butler acknowledges visits from Sen. Kamala Harriss husband to Wilmington, and several Democrats to other parts of North Carolina in recent weeks.

They feel that North Carolina is in the plus column for them, Butler said. I dont say theyve ignored North Carolina. Theyve sent emissaries. Doug Emhoff has been here several times. Kamala Harris has been to North Carolina several times, so has Cory Booker. So a lot of top surrogates have come to North Carolina.

At Tuesdays event, Democrats put a focus on the need for clean drinking water, funding for public education and Medicaid expansion. These have been some contentious issues both statewide and nationwide, especially in the middle of the pandemic.

Peterson says he believes theyre in a position of unification, and are determined to bring the country together. He calls COVID-19 the number one challenge our country is facing right now.

Getting our country healthy, so our economy and our schools can be healthy, he said. We are opposing the Republican Party of division, trying to separate, divide us, weaken us. Having us fight against one another on these principles and these priorities.

Candidates also highlighted the importance of North Carolina being a bellwether state. Peterson put an emphasis on just how many key races there are this year, from the seat for President, all the way down to races for local offices.

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'One week to heal nation': Democrats respond to VP Pence's visit in campaign push - WWAY NewsChannel 3

Over the last 100 years, Americans have engaged in a long debate about the role of markets and the welfare state. Republicans favored a limited government, fearing that a large nanny state would sap American dynamism and erode personal freedom. Democrats favored a larger state, arguing that giving people basic economic security would enable them to take more risks and lead dignified lives.

That debate ebbed and flowed over the years, but 2020 has turned out to be a pivotal year in the struggle, and it looks now as if we can declare a winner. The Democrats won the big argument of the 20th century. Its not that everybody has become a Democrat, but even many Republicans are now embracing basic Democratic assumptions. Americans across the board fear economic and physical insecurity more than an overweening state. The era of big government is here.

In this weeks New York Times/Siena poll, two-thirds of Americans support allowing people to buy health insurance through the federal government, the public option. Two-thirds support Joe Bidens $2 trillion plan to increase the use of renewable energy and build energy-efficient infrastructure. Seventy-two percent of likely voters, including 56 percent of Republicans, support another $2 trillion in Covid-19 relief to individuals as well as state and local governments.

Covid-19 has pushed voters to the left. Its made Americans feel vulnerable and more likely to support government efforts to reduce that vulnerability. A study led by the economists Alex Rees-Jones, John DAttoma, Amedeo Piolatto, and Luca Salvadori, found that people in counties with high numbers of Covid-19 infections and deaths were significantly more likely to support expanding government-provided unemployment insurance and expanding government-provided health care. This greater support for social safety net programs transcends political ideology.

The 2020 shift to the left follows years of steady leftward drift. In 2015, a majority of Americans believed that government is doing too many things better left to business and individuals. Now only 39 percent of Americans believe that, while 59 percent think, Government should do more to solve problems, according to Pew Research Center.

Two-thirds of Americans think government should do more to fight the effects of climate change. At least 60 percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage and providing tax credits to low-income workers. Eighty-two percent of voters and 70 percent of Republicans would like to consider legislation to expand paid family and medical leave.

Its commonly said that in the age of polarization the Democrats are moving left and the Republicans are moving right, but thats not true. As Charles Blahous and Robert Graboyes of the Mercatus Center show, both parties are moving left, its just that Democrats are moving left at 350 miles an hour while Republicans are moving left at 50 miles an hour.

To show how the whole frame of debate has shifted, Blahous and Graboyes list the policies that are commonly discussed among Democrats now but that would have been too far left to get a hearing at the Democratic National Convention of 1996. Theyve come up with many examples, including canceling college debt, more than doubling the minimum wage, shutting down coal-fired plants and guaranteeing every American a job. Then they look for current Republican policies that would have been considered too conservative for the 1996 Republican National Convention. They couldnt find any.

We can see the familiar historic pattern. A crisis hits, like Covid-19, the financial crisis, World War II or the Great Depression. Government expands to meet the crisis. Republicans eventually come around and ratify the expansion.

It should be said there are limits to how far left the country is drifting. This is still a nation where 72 percent of people call themselves moderates or conservatives and only 24 percent call themselves liberal. Americans still have a strong basic faith in democratic capitalism and dislike socialism, by a two-to-one margin.

In the background of this debate is the fact that the last 30 years of neoliberal economics have seen the greatest reduction in global poverty in all human history. Many have a vestigial memory of the 1970s stagflation and the 1980s Eurosclerosis, when bloated government regulations clogged economies and slowed prosperity.

Even while support for government programs rises, trust in government is near record lows. Americans like it when government sends out checks to pay for things like child care, college and Covid-19 relief. They do not like proposals that concentrate power in Washington.

Still, you can see why Donald Trump was careful, both in 2016 and 2020, to focus his campaign on cultural and American identity issues and studiously avoid having a debate on role-of- government issues. Even by 2016, Republicans could no longer win that debate.

If you want to get a sense of where the center of gravity might be on these issues, Id point you to a report by Brink Lindsey and Samuel Hammond of the Niskanen Center. They call for a much stronger social safety net to protect people from the hazards of life poverty, sickness, joblessness but they also call for reform in three sectors where government has been captured by insider manipulation: housing, finance and health care.

It was a vigorous debate that lasted many decades, but the liberal welfare state won a robust capitalist economy combined with generous social support.

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How Democrats Won the War of Ideas - The New York Times

But now on top of that, three times a week, 29-year-old Caldwell-Liddell is racing to get Detroit voters, especially the black community, to, in her words, "wake up."

Trump's Michigan victory was one of the biggest surprises of 2016. He won the state by just 10,704 votes. Wayne County, which includes Detroit, the largest Black-majority city in the country, was critical to that result. Hillary Clinton still won the county by a large margin -- but she received about 76,000 fewer votes than President Barack Obama did in 2012.

While Caldwell-Liddell is motivated and focused on preventing Trump's re-election, she also says, "the Democratic Party has not done a good job at all in taking care of communities like ours." And it's she clear she struggles with that burden.

"(Democrats) take us for granted because they know that Black women are going to help them get the big wins they need, where it matters. But they also know that they can give us the bare minimum, knowing that we aren't going to choose the other side," she said. "

"It says we still got a long way to go when the backbone of the country is the most neglected piece of the country," she said.

She isn't coordinating with any campaign, but she is pounding the pavement at bus stops and outside convenience stores to try to make sure Detroiters are registered to vote and are going to vote. Many of them are disillusioned by the systemic racism they see within their city, the President's response to the coronavirus pandemic that has hit minority communities hardest and the economic inequality that has persisted for decades in Detroit and is only made worse by the pandemic.

"I know for a fact that if just a portion of the folks who sat home in 2016 made it to the polls, had someone to empower them to do it, that could have changed the outcome for Michigan," Caldwell-Liddell said.

"On countless days when I go out and canvass, I will go up and talk to someone and they'll say, 'Listen, lady, I know that what you're saying is probably right. I know that you just want me to get out and vote. But I'm sorry. I've got gotta feed my kids. I don't even have time to listen to what you're saying,'" she said. "That's a part of why I started doing this work with Mobilize Detroit...because at this point, this is our survival now. What happens politically is a part of our survival. And there's no escaping that."

Fighting against apathy

Amber Davis, 29, is one of those people who sat out the 2016 election after supporting Obama in 2012.

"I didn't like Trump and I didn't like Hillary," Davis said. "I didn't really care who won that election."

Davis, a part-time massage therapist and full-time student pursuing a career in IT, says she cares now. She's voting for Biden, even though she says she doesn't really like him either.

"If I get Trump out of office by voting for Biden, then so be it," she said. Davis adds it is the President's handling of the pandemic that clinched her vote this time. "This coronavirus and everything that's going on, it is horrible. So he got to go."

She says she is disillusioned by politics in general because she says no matter which party wins the White House, her life doesn't get any easier.

"We feel like our votes don't matter. We feel like it's just a waste of time," Davis said.

Caldwell-Liddell knows what it is like to not have time for politics, especially presidential politics. In just the past year, she says her family was forced out of a home they had rented for the past four years. Then the next home had plumbing issues and instead of fixing it, the landlord simply just had the water shutoff, requiring Caldwell-Liddell to take them to court to get anything fixed. In the midst of all of this, she lost her pregnancy.

"I ended up having a stillbirth at seven months pregnant, living in a house with no water in a city that did not care to take care of me," she said. "And things like that are allowed to happen because when folks like me are too worried about surviving to pay attention to what's happening down at City Hall."

She is now turning that apathy into action.

"I know that as a voter and as a Black woman, that there is a job that I have to do in order to get a representative who will come close to protecting my people in office. But I'm not necessarily excited about having another representative there who really does not inherently understand the needs of our community."

Caldwell-Liddell is voting for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, spending free time that she doesn't have trying to get others in Detroit to vote for him, but she's not excited about it. This election for her is more a vote against Trump.

"I don't really have many feelings towards Joe Biden one way or the other," she says. "Kamala (Harris) makes me feel a lot better than Joe, to be honest with you."

She says getting Trump out of office means life or death for her community. "Donald Trump is a president that does not care about people that look like me, about people like me, in any shape or form."

Sitting out any election is something 63-year-old Markita Blanchard simply does not understand.

"I've always voted straight down the street," she says while sitting in her backyard filled with the plants and flowers she shows off with pride. "There is no justifiable excuse not to."

"People died for that right for us to have the opportunity to vote," she added.

Like Caldwell-Liddell, Blanchard has also lived in Detroit her whole life. She and her three brothers still live in the house they grew up in, now all taking care of their 93-year-old mother.

Blanchard works as a janitor at a local public school. While she describes her childhood in the westside of Detroit as a "fairytale," she describes life today as a struggle.

"We're not exactly living paycheck to paycheck. I consider myself living paycheck and a half to paycheck," she said.

The main street in her neighborhood looks nothing like how Blanchard describes it from her childhood. A "ghost town" now sits where grocery stores, dry cleaners, Black-owned gas stations and a movie theatre once stood. This economic collapse is one reason Blanchard is voting for Biden. She says she's with him "100%," reserving more colorful language to describe Trump.

"He's full of s***. I'm saying he has done nothing," Blanchard says with an apology. "It's like we're living in a sitcom and it's not funny. It's not funny at all."

"I've had people say, well, he's not my President. I didn't vote," Blanchard recalls with visible anger. "I say, if you did not vote, you did vote for him."

Impact of coronavirus and police shootings

One critical pursuit of the Biden campaign in Michigan is to turn out those voters who didn't vote in 2016. But the Trump campaign is also taking steps to court those same people, including setting up an office just down the road from the Democratic Party's on Detroit's West side, covered with signs declaring "Black Voices for Trump."

"I've never seen it. I've never seen it ever, ever before," said President Pro Tempore of the Detroit City Council Mary Sheffield. "What that tells me is the importance of not only Michigan but Detroit in the black vote, the importance of the black vote...because both parties need us."

Sheffield says she is worried about what she senses is still a lack of enthusiasm this late in the game among Democrats in Detroit. She thinks the coronavirus pandemic is partly to blame.

"Joe Biden is not really the most exciting person. And I think, unfortunately, in light of COVID, we lost that personal touch with him that a lot of communities need to get them excited and to get them engaged," Sheffield said.

The coronavirus has disproportionally hit Black communities across the country, and Detroit is no exception. African Americans have made up 62.2% of the more than 14,000 confirmed cases in Detroit and 82.9% of the deaths.

While coronavirus may have hurt grassroot engagement for the campaigns, Sheffield says a different issue is sure to motivate Black voters.

"What we saw with George Floyd did spark a reaction in so many people and I think that's going to help also increase some of the voter turnout that we see in Detroit," she said.

Federal action in the police killing of Breonna Taylor is the one thing Davis says could actually swing her vote and convince her to vote for Trump.

"He could get Breonna Taylor's killers arrested, that's what he could do," she said. "I would definitely vote for Trump."

Taylor's death also weighs heavily on Wendy Caldwell-Liddell.

"When you're black in America, you know racism is alive and well," she says when asked about it.

She pauses, looks off, and shifts in her chair.

"Now I have to battle with that on top of the thoughts of when I send my son into the world," she said. "And now it's when me and my daughter are at home asleep, minding our business. Now, I've got to think about that, too."

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Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party. And they feel the heavy burden of this election. - CNN

The Republicans punted on writing a party platform this year, swearing to support whatever pops into Donald Trumps head. Shame on them. At least the Democrats had the courage to take a stand.

After the expected buzzwords such as sensible and compassionate, what does the Democratic platform on immigration actually say?

Regarding numbers, the answer is: More. More legal immigration. More refugees. The platform calls for rewriting decades-old statutes, expanding asylum eligibility to additional millions who claim domestic violence or gender discrimination. Wed like to help everyone caught in miserable situations, but among just these two populations, how many people in the world are we talking about? More backlogs for already-overwhelmed immigration courts (already a 4-year wait). More tech worker visas to compete with U.S. STEM graduates, only half of whom can land a tech job as is.

With tens of millions of Americans on or awaiting unemployment, and multiple studies projecting huge job losses from automation and downsizing after coronavirus, this platform isnt friendly to American workers.

And for workplace enforcement, the answer is: Less. No more workplace raids. No mention of fines or jail time for employers who knowingly hire illegal workers and collude in document fraud or tax evasion, and no mention of requiring employers to use the free E-Verify system to ensure a legal workforce.

Border security? Less. No mention of border enforcement other than rescinding funds for Trumps wall and opposing cages for children (a no-brainer), which the Obama administration built. Ending all community enforcement actions. And stopping targeting men and women who served in uniform for deportation. Really? Do we target veterans? We have a decades-long policy of deporting non-citizens, veteran or nonveteran, who have committed aggravated felonies. Is this what the Democrats propose stopping?

In the midst of an economic crisis for the working class, the Democratic platform says that it is long past time to provide a roadmap to citizenship for millions of undocumented workers. This scheme first appeared in the 1986 immigration reform bill, which promised to solve illegal immigration permanently by combining an purportedly one-time-only legalization with robust enforcement. Congress delivered on the legalization, but workplace enforcement was watered down to obtain business buy-in for the toothless I-9 system, which enabled unscrupulous employers, such as multiple Trump-owned properties, to hire unauthorized workers.

Not surprisingly, document fraud exploded, new waves of unauthorized workers came for easily obtainable jobs and economists wondered: Why arent wages going up?

Since 1986, we now have an additional 7.3 million illegal residents expecting legalization. The 1986 bill failed because multiple administrations and Congress refused to fulfill the promise of workplace verification and enforcement. The 2020 Democratic platform doesnt even try to discourage future illegal hiring.

Looking at the whole platform package more legal immigration, more foreign worker visas and another mass legalization without mention of employer sanctions, workplace enforcement or border security, along with Joe Biden proposing a 100-day moratorium ondeportations of people already illegally in the United States, this selective application of law enforcement is starting to look like openish borders.

Its not a right-wing fever dream. Jeh Johnson, President Barack Obamas homeland security secretary, wrote last year, We cannot publicly embrace a policy to not deport those who enter or remain in this country illegally unless they commit a crime. This is tantamount to a public declaration (repeated and amplified by smugglers in Central America) that our borders are effectively open to all.

Is this platform what the American people really want? More job competition, wage stagnation, young people working multiple part-time gig jobs, more competition for housing driving up prices? The Census Bureau projects that we will add 79 million more Americans by 2060, 95 percent driven by immigration. According to polls, only 34 percent of Americans think immigration should be increased, and 79 percent oppose open borders. The Democratic platform might serve their donors, but not the majority of working Americans.

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Maine Voices: Democratic Party heading in the wrong direction on immigration - Press Herald

Between July 1 and September 30, Democrat Theresa Greenfield raised almost $29 million for her race this fall against Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa. That's not only more than Ernst's 2014 Democratic challenger, Bruce Braley, spent ($12 million) in the entire 2014 race, it's more than Braley and Ernst spent (just more than $24 million) in that race.

And it's not just Iowa.

"Some think Harrison's quarterly report could approach, or even eclipse, the $38.1 million raised by Beto O'Rourke in the summer of his 2018 race in Texas, believed to be the largest quarterly fundraising haul ever in a Senate race."

In almost every race cited above, the Republican incumbents have refused to publicly release their own fundraising numbers, which must be filed publicly by October 15. The expectation, among Republicans and Democrats, is that very few (if any) of the GOP incumbents will come anywhere close to matching their Democratic rivals in third-quarter fundraising?

What does it all mean?

Well, in the most practical sense, the fundraising disparity for Democrats means that they will be able to run lots more TV ads than their GOP opponents in the closing weeks of these races.

"As of Tuesday night, Harrison has spent or reserved time through Election Day on TV and digital ads of upwards of $60.3 million an amount that's sure to grow in the final weeks of the race. ... Graham, meanwhile, has spent or reserved just $20.6 million so far."

But the overflowing amounts of money available for Democratic Senate candidates also speak to something even more important when it comes to analyzing the coming election: The party's base is beyond fired up about the prospects not just of beating President Donald Trump, but also of retaking the Senate majority.

Remember that donations -- particularly of the small-dollar variety -- are direct indications of support and passion. If you are willing to donate money you earned to a candidate for office, it speaks to a level of involvement and commitment and caring that is the lifeblood of winning campaigns. No candidate ever wins a contested office -- or any office -- without a party base behind him or her that is activated to make it happen.

Yes, Democratic candidates also benefit from the fact that ActBlue, a massively effective small-dollar online donor platform, exists. While Republicans have worked to match the success of ActBlue in recent years -- their online fundraising platform is known as WinRed -- the supremacy of ActBlue remains. And even Republican leaders know it.

But the platform can do only so much without the energy and willingness to donate to it.

And the Democratic base is, judging from donations to Senate candidates around the country, absolutely off-the-charts engaged and excited about this election. Which could spell the end of the Republican majority on November 3.

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How Democrats are absolutely crushing the fundraising game - CNN

DES MOINES For the past four years, Iowas lawmaking process has been under total Republican control.

Democrats failed to regain a seat at the table in 2018 when Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds won the election, continuing GOP control of the Iowa House, Iowa Senate and the governors office.

Iowa Democrats next-best opportunity is upon them: this elections race for majority control of the Iowa House.

Republicans hold 53 seats and Democrats 47 in the House. And Democrats believe they can win enough House races across the state to regain a majority they have not held since 2010.

I would say Im cautiously optimistic, said Rep. Todd Prichard, from Charles City, leader of the House Democrats. We know that the House is definitely in play, and we know that were competitive. Our candidates are running great campaigns in districts across the state where we have to win if we want to be in the majority. Were cautiously optimistic, but its a competitive environment.

The House majority likely hinges on roughly 20 races across the state.

House Democrats gained a net six seats in 2018 narrowing Republicans edge in the chamber from 59-41 to 53-47 and they feel they can finish that job in 2020 and retake the majority.

They have targeted a number of open-seat races in districts where registered voters are politically balanced, plus some Republican incumbents who may be vulnerable for various reasons.

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House Republicans, however, contend they are not only defending their incumbents, they also are campaigning aggressively in Democratic-held districts. If Republicans flip any Democratic seats, that would make it that much more difficult for Democrats to take the majority.

This is why its so hard to regain a majority when youre the minority. Because you can have good targets, you can have good opportunities, but if you lose one of your own, all of a sudden, man, it is a much bigger lift, Craig Robinson, a Republican consultant, said during recording of the latest episode of Iowa Press on Iowa PBS. And again, Republicans are on the offensive in some of these areas with really good candidates. And so you flip one of them, you make that chore of regaining the House even more difficult.

Some of Democrats top pickup opportunities are in the same kind of places they made many of those gains in 2018. Their biggest gains two years ago came in the Des Moines suburbs: Democrats flipped five seats there, leaving only two Republicans among the 14 lawmakers representing Polk County.

The district perhaps most poised to flip to Democrats in this election is in the Cedar Rapids and Marion suburbs.

The District 67 has been represented by Republican Ashley Hinson, who this year is running for Congress. Now it is an open-seat race, and Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in the district.

Republican Sally Ann Abbott is running against Democrat Eric Gjerde in District 67.

Another suburban seat in play is in the northern Des Moines suburb of Ankeny. Democrats flipped the southern portion of Ankeny in 2018, but Republican John Landon held on in the north side. This year, Democrats believe they will be able to defeat Landon; he is being challenged by Democrat Andrea Phillips.

Democrats also have targeted Republican incumbents in Scott County: a suburban-style district in Bettendorf, represented by Gary Mohr, and a suburban-rural district represented by Ross Paustian.

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The recipe is sort of what we saw last cycle in these suburban seats, Prichard said. It is a similar recipe this year.

Democrats also are targeting open-seat races where Republicans retired from the House: in Council Bluffs, Muscatine and rural Linn County.

And they hope to claim a Republican-held district that includes Decorah, a race that in 2018 was decided by just nine votes and included a legal challenge over uncounted absentee ballots. The same candidates will rematch in this years race: Republican Michael Bergan and Democrat Kayla Koether.

They also have targeted Republican incumbent Jeff Shipley in a southeast Iowa district that includes Fairfield. That will be another rematch: Shipley is being challenged by Democrat Phil Miller.

Im really proud of the hard work our incumbents and the people that weve recruited to be challengers, Prichard said. These are the caliber of people that we want to represent us and set the policy for the future of the state. These are the people that can lead us into the next decade. Im excited to work with this group of people, and Im excited about what we can accomplish. Im really hopeful. These people give me hope. They really do.

Pat Grassley, the House speaker and leader of the House Republicans, said they will not only defend their seats, but are campaigning aggressively in Democrat-held districts as well, especially where other Republican candidates have performed well, like President Donald Trump in 2016 or Reynolds in 2018.

Republicans are not yet ready to concede all of those suburban Des Moines seats they lost in 2018, they like their chances in an open-seat race in swingy northeast Iowa, and they believe they can flip a seat after a state representative flipped on them.

Rep. Andy McKean, who had established a record as the longest-tenured Republican to serve in the Iowa Legislature, switched parties in 2019, becoming a Democrat.

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Republicans feel they can defeat McKean and win back the largely rural district in Eastern Iowas Jackson and Jones counties. McKean, now a Democrat, faces Republican Steven Bradley, a dentist from Cascade.

Democrats have a slight voter advantage in the district, which has an unusual recent history with party-switchers. Before McKean, the district was represented by Republican Brian Moore, who had previously run as a Democrat for the Iowa Senate.

Republicans also have targeted Central Iowa Democratic incumbents in Newton and Indianola and like their chances for an open seat in northeast Iowas Fayette County.

Were playing offense in so many races that we have not in the past several elections. This is a much bigger picture than just flipping four races, Grassley said. This is not just about Republicans being on defense. Were playing more offense in this election than it goes back years.

Some of Grassleys optimism stems from the different ways the political parties have managed campaigning during the COVID-19 pandemic. While there are exceptions, generally, Republican candidates resumed door-to-door, in-person campaigning while Democrats have opted to avoid those in-person conversations and focused on making phone calls and distributing literature.

Political science experts say studies show in-person conversations are the best way to persuade people to vote.

But some candidates have been apprehensive about holding those in-person conversations during the pandemic. Public health experts recommend people maintain at least 6 feet between each other in order to avoid potentially spreading the virus.

Prichard, who also has been targeted by House Republicans offensive, said it is up to the individual Democratic candidate whether they campaign door-to-door and interact with voters.

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I havent been door-knocking, but I have been walking the neighborhoods, dropping literature and talking to people when I felt safe doing that. But Im in a different situation in my rural district than some people are in more urban areas, he said. If it wasnt for the pandemic, yeah, we would absolutely be campaigning the way we normally do, and thats with the shoe leather and knocking on doors. But weve just had to make those adjustments for public safety and for the safety of our candidates and staff, too. We dont want to put anybody in danger.

Republicans said they are door-knocking responsibly during the pandemic, by knocking and then standing back at least 6 feet while talking to prospective voters.

Theres a safe way that you can do things you just have to be smart about it, Grassley said.

Pat Rynard, publisher of the liberal Iowa Starting Line website and a former Democratic campaign worker, expressed concern that Democrats hesitation could cost them votes in critical statehouse elections.

Im a little concerned about it because I think Democrats are not getting some of those drop-off voters (who are) less likely to vote if you dont actually go to their doors, Rynard said during the Iowa Press recording. I think there is probably a way that you could have come up with that would have been safe, and they havent done that.

Early voting has already begun in Iowa for the general election. Election Day is Nov. 3.

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Democrats believe Iowa House in reach - The Gazette

Most troubling, said Meagan Hatcher-Mays, the director of democracy policy for Indivisible, a liberal grass-roots group, was that Ms. Feinstein didnt seem to have control over the situation at all. But progressives were also angry about her genteel demeanor, an attribute of another era when the Senate was a more respectful, bipartisan place.

She handled him with kid gloves, Ms. Hatcher-Mays said. She was, like, thanking him for being there. You dont have to do that!

Progressives worry that conciliatory approach could guide her hand as chairwoman if Democrats win back the Senate and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is in the White House. With a record number of judicial appointments, Mr. Trump has succeeded in significantly pushing the balance of the nations courts to the right, and progressives believe realigning them must be a top priority.

Dianne Feinstein is not somebody who inspires any confidence whatsoever that there will be sufficient attention on an issue that should be a priority of a President Biden, Mr. Fallon said. In fact, she will probably be an enabler and an accomplice to the obstruction efforts that created all of these vacancies for Trump to fill in the first place.

Then there was Judge Barretts appeals court confirmation hearing in 2017. Democrats on the judiciary panel were noticeably skeptical of Judge Barretts Catholic faith, peppering her with questions about legal writings and personal statements they said raised doubts about her ability to rule objectively.

But it was Ms. Feinstein, who made the most pointed reference to Judge Barretts religion, saying, In your case, Professor, when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and thats of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for years in this country.

At the time, Republicans, charging religious bias, quickly put the quote on T-shirts and coffee mugs in defiant pride. Democrats groaned.

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Democrats, Facing Critical Supreme Court Battle, Worry Feinstein Is Not Up to the Task - The New York Times

A sexting scandal involving Cal Cunningham has cast some doubt on his long-time lead over Republican Thom Tillis in North Carolina. Photo: Gerry Broome/AP/Shutterstock

If Mitch McConnell didnt have enough to worry about with his Republican senators fighting a COVID-19 outbreak in the middle of trying to confirm Trumps Supreme Court nominee, he also has to contend with the reality that Democrats could to take away his leadership gavel if Joe Biden is elected in November.

As a reminder, heres the big picture: Assuming Senator Kamala Harris becomes vice-president and provides a tie-breaking vote, Democrats need a net gain of three Senate seats to reach 50. Few observers give Doug Jones the Democratic senator from Alabama much of a chance of reelection against Republican Tommy Tuberville in the deep-red state. If Jones loses, then Democrats need a net gain of four seats for control (or five if Trump wins).

Fortunately for the Donkey Party, there are quite a few paths to victory still available. They have an opportunity to win seats in several states, including states where Democrats are currently running as solid favorites (Arizona and Colorado) and those where they have a narrow but real advantage (Iowa, Maine, and North Carolina). And there are a surprising number of races where, polls indicate, a boost from Joe Biden at the top of the ticket could produce victory (Georgia, Montana, South Carolina, Kansas, Alaska, and even Texas). In waging a battle over this broad landscape, its significant that Democratic candidates and party fundraising committees have a rare and sometimes sizable financial advantage in all but a few competitive races.

Given partisan polarization and the growing prevalence of straight-ticket voting, you cannot really separate Senate trends from presidential trends. So before looking at the Senate races in detail, its important to note that Bidens lead over Trump has grown in the past turbulent week: Its at 9.7 percent in the polling averages at RealClearPolitics, the biggest lead since June 24, and 10.2 percent at FiveThirtyEight, the biggest lead of the year. And there are reports that internal Republican polling is showing sharp declines in the presidents standing since the first debate and his COVID-19 diagnosis, particularly in Sun Belt states with a host of competitive Senate races.

Looking at the public polls, Democrats remain bullish about Mark Kellys odds of knocking off appointed Senator Martha McSally in Arizona. Hes not regularly leading by double-digits as he was earlier this year, but his 7.2 percent lead in the RCP polling average is solid, and the latest survey, from Reuters/Ipsos, has Kelly up by ten points among likely voters. (The same poll has Biden holding a two-point lead in Arizona.) Polling has been relatively sparse in Colorado, but all of it has Democrat John Hickenlooper comfortably ahead of incumbent senator Cory Gardner in a state Biden is expecting to win handily. (In an October SurveyUSA poll Hickenlooper led Gardner 48-39 among likely voters.) This would give Democrats two of the expected four seats they need for control.

Closer races where Democrats have been leading most polls include Iowa, where Theresa Greenfield has led Joni Ernst in every poll taken since early August, and has a 5-point lead in the RCP average. Iowa is very close in presidential polls after Trump won the state by nine points last time, and the current unpopularity of Republican governor Kim Reynolds could impact the Senate race on the margins. Similarly, in Maine, Democrat Sara Gideon has held a modest but steady lead over Susan Collins for most of the cycle; her lead in the RCP averages is currently at 3.7 percent. A wild card in Maine is the states use of ranked-choice voting, which means second-choice preferences could decide the Senate race if neither candidate wins a majority. Based on the savage (if unsuccessful) fight Maine Republicans put up to stop ranked-choice voting, an instant runoff would likely favor Gideon.

The Senate race that has raised the most eyebrows this week, casting some fresh doubt on the likelihood of an easy Democratic sweep to Senate control, is in North Carolina, where Cal Cunninghams steady lead over incumbent Thom Tillis is potentially endangered by a sexting scandal involving the married Cunningham and a married paramour. Polls taken since the story broke last week have pointed in different directions; most show a continuing modest Cunningham lead, but one Republican-friendly poll has Tillis ahead. Tilliss ability to take advantage of the scandal has been limited by his own embroilment in the Trump COVID-19 brouhaha (he tested positive as well), and his upcoming responsibilities in the Barrett confirmation (hes a member of the Judiciary Committee). If Democrats cant pick up two of these three seats, their challenge gets harder.

Among the smorgasbord of Senate races where Democrats are doing vastly better than expected, none has generated more excitement than Jaime Harrisons massively funded challenge to Republican veteran Lindsey Graham. The race was recently moved to the toss-up column by Cook Political Report; the two candidates have been statistically tied in every public poll since July. As Judiciary Committee Chairman, Graham will be in the national spotlight during the Barrett hearings, which could help him shore up some support among conservatives whove had issues with him going back to his days as John McCains sidekick, but which may draw even more last-minute money to Harrison. As Perry Bacon Jr. observed in a comment that is also relevant to the Senate races in Georgia and North Carolina, Deep South Democrats often do well by adding upscale white transplants and knowledge workers to a sizable Black vote, but they struggle against a wall of inelastic white conservatives who represent a narrow majority of the electorate and who just wont swing Democratic no matter what.

As Bacon suggests, Jon Ossoff may be bumping up against the same ceiling on Deep South Democrats in his challenge to David Perdue. While the occasional poll shows Ossoff leading (e.g., a recent survey from Quinnipiac, a pollster showing very strong Democratic performance almost everywhere), Perdue has a steady advantage in the RCP polling averages, currently at four points. Theres good news for Democrats in the other Georgia Senate race, the November 3 special election whose top two finishers will proceed to a January runoff (so long as no one wins a majority, which, in the vast field for this nonpartisan race, wont happen). Democratic favorite Raphael Warnock is finally consolidating the Democratic vote and is leading the field in recent polls. He is poised to face the survivor of the vicious Kelly LoefflerDoug Collins intra-Republican cage match in the runoff election in January. Youd normally give any Republican a big advantage in a stand-alone runoff, but if control of the Senate is at stake, anything could happen.

Aside from South Carolina, the most surprising competitive Senate races are in three states sure to be carried by Trump, but which have a combination of strong Democratic candidates and and shaky Republican opposition: Alaska, Kansas, and Montana. In Alaska, where Democrats have found success backing self-identified independents, indie Al Gross has been within the margin-of-error in the sparse public polling matching him against incumbent Dan Sullivan. Gross has been attracting a lot of money, but may have lost a step when Republican election officials listed him on the ballot as the Democratic nominee, not an independent. In Kansas, many national observers wrote off Democrat Barbara Bollier when wildly controversial, nativist (and failed 2018 gubernatorial candidate) Kris Kobach lost the GOP primary to congressman Roger Marshall. But a new poll this week showed Bollier ahead of Marshall by three points, making this seat a new potential Democratic pickup (recognizing that preelection polarization could well save Marshalls bacon). In Montana, Democratic Governor Steve Bullock has been a formidable challenger to incumbent Steve Daines all along, though the most recent poll from Emerson (a heavily Republican-leaning outlet this cycle) showed Daines well ahead (he leads by 2.7 percent in the RCP averages).

Democratic optimists continue to think that a blue wave is about to hit Texas, where Democrats made huge gains in the suburbs in 2018, and Biden has been more competitive than any Democratic presidential candidate in years. Republican incumbent Jon Cornyn has never trailed against Democrat M.J. Hegar in any public polling but hasnt completely put the race away.

Ideally, Democrats would like to do to Senate Republicans what the GOP did to them in 1980, when a late wave lifted Ronald Reagan to a landslide presidential win that also carried a host of Republican Senate candidates to victory in close races, many of them upsets. With a net gain of 12 seats, Republicans won control of the Senate for the first time since 1954. Democrats likely wont do that well if there is a Biden landslide, but they wont need to in order to flip the Senate with some room to spare.

If Republicans manage to hold onto the Senate they will have dodged a bullet, much as they did with some close wins in 2018. But at the moment, their president isnt doing them any favors.

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Why Its Harder Than it Looks for Democrats to Win the Senate - New York Magazine

Joe BidenJoe BidenTrump asks campaign to schedule daily events for him until election: report White House pushes to hold next week's canceled debate Trump hoping to strike last-minute nuclear arms deal with Putin before election: report MORE was asked again this week whether he would pack the Supreme Court if elected president. Rather than answer, Biden flashed a signature smile of the character from The Truman Show and offered his version of the classic line from the 1998 movie, Good morning, and in case Idon't see ya, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.

From court packing to the Russia investigation to the Michael Flynn case, Washington is back to Seahaven Island, where you can'tget any further away before you start coming back. In the movie, Truman Burbank was the only person in the dark. In this remake, the viewers are the voters in the dark, and only the main characters know the truth.

Though he once denounced court packing, as did the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Biden has refused to answer whether he would support the plan raised by Democrats, including his running mate,Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). This week, Biden testily responded to reporters, You will know my opinion on court packing when the election is over.

That is a truly alarming position for a candidate to take. Court packing is widely viewed as threatening to destroy a foundational institution in our constitutional system. Yet Biden refuses to say whether he would take a hatchet to the Supreme Court of the last two centuries. But the future of the judicial branch is just one issue left on layaway.

As news emerged that United States Attorney John Durham uncovered some serious and possibly criminal conduct in the Russia investigation, Democrats demanded that he not release his report before the election. Indeed, the federal rules tell prosecutors to avoid timing investigative steps or criminal charges for the purpose of affecting an election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party. However, major cases often do affect elections, and they are not sealed in amber until the votes are counted.

The investigation by Durham is focused on conduct in the election four years ago. His subjects of scrutiny are not candidates on this ballot but rather federal officials involved in the investigation of potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016. This proved to be unfounded. Ultimately, there was no evidence of collusion, let alone anyone who committed crimes related to collusion. Indeed, disclosed evidence shows the FBI was told early on that the allegations were not only dubious but possibly disinformation from Russia.

In recent weeks, we learned that the primary source used by Christopher Steele in his now infamous dossier was believed to be an agent of Russia. Recent declassified material also showed that in 2016, then-CIA director John Brennan had briefed former President Obama on an alleged plan by Hillary Clinton to tie then-candidate Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpDes Moines mayor says he's worried about coronavirus spread at Trump rally Judiciary Committee Democrats pen second letter to DOJ over Barrett disclosures: 'raises more questions that it answers' Trump asks campaign to schedule daily events for him until election: report MORE to Russia as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server. The handwritten notes from Brennen would seem extremely serious on their face. Indeed, the allegation was sufficiently serious to brief the president.

It reflected intelligence reports given to the FBI and then-Director James Comey. When asked last week about the report, Comey simply said it did not ring a bell. What rings his bell is precisely what the investigation by Durham could reveal. All of this recent evidence happens to tie in to other earlier facts, from the Clinton campaign lying about funding the dossier to Steele misrepresenting his sources and his conclusions.

There are arguments for delaying the release of the report by Durham this close to the election. But there is a lack of assurances that we would ever know the findings after the election. If Democrats control both chambers of Congress, it is unlikely they will have hearings on the report. Democrats on the Intelligence committees have said they want the investigations into 2016 to end so we can all look ahead rather than back. If Biden becomes the next president, the Justice Department could shut down or curtail the investigation, or even classify its final report as privileged.

Democrats are not the only Washington officials leaving the future open. In the case of Flynn, Judge Emmet Sullivan appears to be waiting out on the election before issuing a final ruling. Sullivan was supposed to sentence the former national security adviser two years ago. Instead, he held a hearing where he made disturbing statements about the case and then threatened to jail Flynn, ignoring the Justice Department probation recommendation. An appellate panel decided this summer that enough was enough, and it ordered Sullivan to dismiss the charge.

But the full appeals court decided Sullivan should be given a chance to do the right thing and issue a final ruling before any review. He has refused to sentence Flynn, despite the Justice Department finding that Flynn should not have been charged. When Sullivan got the case back from the appeals court, he knew he would very likely be reversed if he did not dismiss the charge. Yet he again refused to rule, lambasted the administration and said that he still has questions about the case.

If Sullivan waits a few more months, the Justice Department might reverse its position on Flynn if Biden wins the election. That creates a disturbing image in a case already marred by allegations of bias. When prosecutors try to manipulate a case by selecting the judge, it is denounced as judge shopping. If Sullivan delays until after the election, it will appear to be a type of president shopping, delaying a sentencing almost three years to wait for a president more amenable to jailing Flynn.

Voters will have answers to these questions, as Biden stated, when the election is over and no sooner. Then it will be a new day. In The Truman Show, the master architect of the artificial world of the flim rejected the concept of truth and declared, We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented. It is as simple as that. With a few weeks to the election, it is indeed as simple as that for the voters.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can find his updates online @JonathanTurley.

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Democrats want voters in the dark with this version of 'Truman Show' | TheHill - The Hill