Category Archives: Democrat

By Natalie Andersonnatalie.anderson@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY Local Democrats on Wednesday night emphasized the need to turn the state blue and shared their reasons for being in the party during a virtual county office reopening event.

Rowan County Democrats hosted their office reopening event virtually this year. Rowan County Republicans hosted an in-person open house for their new office headquarters in June.

Alyssa Gilbert, who coordinated the reopening, is the campaign organizer for local Democratic candidates, who go from Biden all the way down to Alisha Byrd-Clark, she said. Byrd-Clark has served in the Salisbury area seat on the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education since 2016.

Gilbert, the daughter of a single mother, grew up in a logging town in Oregon. There, she watched her mother work three part-time jobs to make ends meet. Gilbert credited the food stamps program with saving her family and the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, for allowing her mother to have health insurance for the first time in years.

She added that her mother was able to reach a point where food stamps were no longer needed, which Gilbert said is the goal.

She added that America can expect to see similar success stories with former Vice President Joe Biden in the White House and other Democratic candidates elected to office.

These programs are things we really can stand up for in the election, she said.

Jim Beard, a retired professor from Catawba College, said he was driven to the Democratic party due to his Christian beliefs, adding that he dislikes the idea pushed by Republicans that one must be a Republican if theyre a Christian.

I do think the Christian faith is most in line with Democrats principles, Beard said.

He emphasized the importance of the election and added, Trump likes autocrats, and given the chance, hell become one.

Salisbury resident Kimberly Kaufmann, who also works at UNC-Greensboro, said its important, especially in this election, to educate communities on the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion.

This election has become about saving our democracy, she said. I want to move forward and not back.

Others who attended the virtual event included Keith Townsend, a Democrat from Mount Ulla whos challenging Rep. Julia Howard for the 77th District seat in the House, along with Shawn Rush, the third vice chairman of the Rowan County Democratic Party. Rush also leads the campaign for local Democrat Tarsha Ellis, whos challenging incumbent Sen. Carl Ford in the Senate District 33 race.

Rush echoed Beards remarks about his Christian faith drawing him to the Democratic party.

Rowan County Democratic Chair Geoffrey Hoy credited the local Board of Elections for its competence and success in navigating voting during the pandemic. He noted a new state initiative called BallotTrax, a free service where voters can track the status of their absentee ballots. The service can be found on the states Board of Elections website at ncsbe.gov.

From Biden-Harris to Alisha Byrd-Clark, Hoy said. Turn the state blue.

Gilbert encouraged local Democrats to sign up and spend at least one hour per week making calls ahead of the election, particularly as every day is Election Day from here on out. Additionally, locals can help put out door hangers to remind fellow Democrats and progressive Independents of the candidates on the ballot and encourage voters to formulate their plans for voting if they havent done so already.

She also said its important to check on voters as the nation grapples with multiple major crises.

Yard signs for both the Biden-Harris campaign and U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunninghams campaign will be available at the Rowan County Democratic Party office on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to noon. The office is located at 1504 W Innes St. Party officials ask that everyone wear a mask and socially distance, as well as donate or sign up to volunteer with campaigning.

Contact reporter Natalie Anderson at 704-797-4246.

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Local Democrats call to 'turn the state blue' during virtual office reopening - Salisbury Post - Salisbury Post

Liberals had enough trouble accepting the results of the 2016 election. In some sense, they never really came to terms with it. The past four years have witnessed the continuous urge to explain away the inexplicable, to find solace in the fact that the voters betrayed them. How could so many of their fellow Americans side with a racist and a fabulist, someone so callous and seemingly without empathy? It was easier to think that those Americans had been lackeys, manipulated and deceived, or that they simply hadnt understood what was best for them. Moreover, the Russians had interfered, and tipped the balance in an extremely close election through propaganda, fake news, and collusion with the Trump campaign. Perhaps, as former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid suggested, the Russians had even tampered with the vote itself.

That was then. This time, it would be worse. In 2016, Trump hadnt ever held political office, so no one could truly grasp just how bad, and exhausting, a president he might become. Perhaps in 2016, too many voters were unwilling to believe that America was already great (and, for too many, it wasnt). They had no reason to be content with the status quo, so their willingness to try something quite risky was understandable. Now, though, everyone should know the risks. Moreover, Hillary Clinton was an unusually polarizing candidate, whereas Joe Biden tends to attract attention for not attracting attention.

Because Bidens poll numbers this year have mostly been higher than Clintons were in 2016, a Trump victory will be even harder for the left to absorb. Until Democrats (and commentators like myself) started panicking recently, overconfidence had set in. The polls offered good reason to think that a Trump victory was drifting out of reachand they still show the former vice president with a significant, if diminished, advantage. No matter how the polls shift, a Trump win means a squandered lead and shattered expectations.

David A. Graham: The blue shift will decide the election

If Trump manages to win, recent polling data indicate, he will likely do so despite losing the popular vote. That will fuel disillusion not just with the election outcome but with the electoral system. The popular-vote numbers will be used to argue that Trump won without winningagain. In theory, this could be a good thing, if it birthed a mass movement to change the way Americans choose their presidents. In practice, though, Republicans, after prevailing only in the Electoral College for the third time in six elections, will vehemently oppose any attempt to abolish it, further driving despair among Democrats that change can come about through normal politics.

Liberals have convinced themselves that Republicans are, in one way or another, cheating. In addition to all of Trumps norm-breaking, the GOP is gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, and shutting down polling places in Black neighborhoods. Yet Republicans wouldnt have been able to do these things if they hadnt won enough statewide and local offices in the first place. They have put themselves in a position to enact their favored redistricting and election procedures by finding candidates and pursuing policies that made them competitive in formerly Democratic states, demanding a level of party discipline that Democrats can seldom muster, and getting their supporters to turn out for down-ballot races. Republican manipulation is what the democratic process itself has produced, however unfair, and it can be undone only through that same process, however flawed. To some degree, this is just how the game is played, and Democrats need to play it better if they want to win the Electoral College. Having won the presidency twice in the recent past, Democrats are surely capable of prevailing via normal means, but promising voters a slightly improved version of the present may not necessarily be the best way to do it.

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The Democrats May Not Be Able to Concede - The Atlantic

WASHINGTON When allies of former President Barack Obama set up a super PAC to support his 2012 re-election, the White House disowned the group, The New York Times published a scathing editorial and former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin gave a speech warning Democrats would "lose our soul" if they allowed big money into the party.

But fears of being outgunned trumped those principled objections and, less than a decade later, Democratic super PACs are spending more than Republican ones. Liberal "dark money" groups, which obscure the source of their funds, outspent conservative ones for the first time in 2018. Even reform hawks like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders had their own personal big-money groups supporting their presidential campaigns.

"Their mantra of not 'unilaterally disarming' was really their justification for learning how to master super PACs and dark money and all that, and they're doing a better job of it right now than the Republicans," said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the good-government group Public Citizen.

Advocates are concerned with super PACs, which can accept donations of unlimited size but have to reveal the names of their donors and regularly disclose their activity. But they're more worried about dark money groups: nonprofit organizations that can't be as explicitly political as super PACs, but can keep their donors secret forever and don't have to reveal much about activities before elections.

While concerns about campaign finance reform that once animated Democratic voters have been eclipsed by the desire to oust President Donald Trump, advocates are left to wonder if the party can really be trusted to follow through on its promises to dismantle a system that may help them get elected.

"If Democrats were to win the Senate and the White House, there is reason to be concerned that they may not carry through with their commitments," Holman added. "I have no doubt that we are going to have to hold their word over their head."

The Democratic National Committee adopted a platform last month calling for a ban on dark money, and Joe Biden says one of his first priorities as president would be signing the sweeping reform bill House Democrats passed last year that would, among other things, match small donations 6-to-1 to encourage grassroots giving.

But his campaign also says they'll take all the help they can get for now and that bill, known as H.R.1, would have to compete for limited legislative bandwidth with efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and much more.

Republicans, who generally oppose major campaign finance reform efforts, cry hypocrisy.

"It's just like everything else Biden stands for. He believes it until it's of political benefit to reverse himself," said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh.

Democrats, however, argue that the only way they can rein in big money in politics is to first use big money in politics to win.

"We aren't going to unilaterally disarm against Donald Trump and right-wing conservatives, but look forward to the day when unlimited money and super PACs are a thing of the past, even if it means putting our own PAC out of business," said Guy Cecil, the chairman of Priorities USA, the super PAC first founded to support Obama's re-election.

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On principle, Democrats opposed Citizens United, the Supreme Court's landmark 2010 decision that opened the floodgates to virtually unlimited money in politics. But they also were against it because they were sure Republicans and their big-business allies would outspend them.

At first, Obama set the example for his party by trying to keep his hands clean of the super PAC game. "It was just this slog to try to get Democrats to think there was any benefit at all to giving to outside groups," said a Democrat involved in early efforts to raise money for a super PAC.

Quickly, though, party leaders concluded their position against unlimited donations and dark money wasn't tenable, and it turned out there was plenty of it flowing on the Democratic side, too. Obama eventually blessed Priorities USA, which helped kick off a proliferation of liberal big-money groups.

"If Democrats don't compete, it would be like preparing for a nuclear war by grabbing your fly swatter," said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic operative who has worked for both campaigns and outside groups.

Democrats at first said they felt sick about doing it and vowed to hold themselves to a higher standard. They would support super PACs, which publicly disclose their donors, but railed against dark money groups, which don't. But that standard eventually eroded, the apologies grew more perfunctory and they ended up diving in head-first, looking for new loopholes to exploit. And Trump's election has supercharged the spending.

In 2016, conservative dark money dwarfed liberal dark money nearly 4-to-1: $143.7 million to $37.8 million. But two years later, in the 2018 midterms, the backlash against Trump helped liberal dark money groups outspend their counterparts for the first time, according to an analysis by Issue One, a bipartisan political reform organization. And they're on track to potentially do it again this year.

It's impossible to comprehensively track dark money spending in real-time, which is one of the most controversial parts about it. But the limited picture that has emerged so far in 2020 shows $14.2 million in dark money has been spent supporting Democrats or against Republicans versus $9.8 million to support Republicans or attack Democrats, according to Open Secrets.

"Campaign spending is frequently like an arms race. Once one side develops a new weapon, both sides want to have it in their arsenal," said Michael Beckel, research director for Issue One.

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which runs the campaign finance data warehouse OpenSecrets.org, said her group has tracked liberal groups "taking dark money in politics to a new level of opacity" and caught them trying new tricks, such as creating faux news sites to make their attack ads seem more credible.

While overall dark money spending is roughly even between the parties right now, Democrats have a clear edge in congressional races, Krumholz said. Around 65 percent of dark money TV ads in 2020 Senate races and 85 percent of dark money TV ads in House races are sponsored by liberal groups, according to Krumholz.

"Unfortunately, there has been comfort with this that has grown over time on both sides of the aisle," Krumholz said. "Nobody wants to be the sucker that is playing by the rules when someone is getting away with murder."

One large dark money group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, has funneled millions of dollars to more than 100 liberal groups, accepting individual donations as large as $51.7 million and $26.7 million, all without having to reveal any information about who is behind those donations.

Amy Kurtz, the Sixteen Thirty Fund's executive director, said they're just playing by the rules.

"We support and have lobbied in favor of reform to the current campaign finance system (through H.R. 1), but we are equally committed to following the current laws to level the playing field for progressives in this election," Kurtz said in a statement.

Now, many super PACs, which disclose their donors, are routing money through allied nonprofits, which do not have to make their contributors' names public, further obscuring the ultimate source of the cash.

"For a voter who simply wants to know where the money is coming from and going to, you almost have to be a full-time researcher or investigative reporter to connect all the dots," Krumholz said.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., remains one of the fiercest opponents of campaign finance reform, not only blocking bills like H.R.1 and disclosure measures, but even intervening in legal battles to overturn state campaign finance rules.

He sees it as a free speech issue, hailing the Citizens United decision as "an important step in the direction of restoring First Amendment rights."

All this leaves campaign finance reform advocates dependent on Democrats winning in November even if it takes some dark money to get them there.

"We are on the cusp of having the best opportunity to repair the campaign finance system since the Watergate scandal of the 1970s," said Fred Wertheimer, a veteran good-government advocate and president of Democracy 21. "But that depends on how the elections come out."

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Democrats used to rail against 'dark money.' Now they're better at it than the GOP. - NBC News

They live in communities left behind by the offshoring of manufacturing jobs in the 1980s and the automation of the 1990s. Their families and communities never recovered from the financial crisis of 2008. They are the hollowed-out middle class who see no future for their families: 90 percent of Americans born in the 1940s out-earned their parents, but only 50 percent of those born in the 1980s will. These folks are the other 50 percent. They are not the poorest Americans; theyre the fragile or formerly middle class living in economically depressed counties. Their deep demoralization is epitomized by the opioid crisisnever mentioned in the Democratic convention (perhaps we missed it?).

Overlooking these voters could jeopardize Democrats ability to win the swing statesPennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michiganthat delivered the election to Donald Trump in 2016 by fewer than 80,000 votes because of the peculiarities of the Electoral College. Rust Belt Revolt voters in these states included not just the non-college educated whites who swung hard for Trump, but also Black voters whose turnout declined by the double digits, according to sociologist Michael McQuarrie.

We both believe that Democrats have these voters interests at heart, and that Trump does not. But Democrats need to say it, early, loud and incessantly. How should they do that?

Some Democrats have gotten distracted about whether the party should be talking about race or class. And it might seem as though they face an either/or decision between their diverse, identity-motivated constituency and the class-based message required to reach blue-collar voters whom Trump has hurt. But the reality is they dont have to choose. Instead they must address the economic concerns of working-Americansof all raceswhile also calling out Republicans attempts to divide Americans based on race.

We know this because in 2018, the progressive group Rural Organizing surveyed 820 rural Americans to test the power of the following message: Instead of delivering for working people, politicians hand kickbacks to their donors who send jobs overseas. Then they turn around and blame new immigrants or people of color, to divide and distract us from the real source of our problems. Note the three elements: 1) Americans of all races need good-paying jobs; 2) politicians have let the donor class gut Americans standard of living; 3) then they try to deflect the blame onto immigrants or people of color. In the survey, three-quarters of rural respondents agreed with this message, which appealed not just to liberal voters (who made up only 23 percent of the respondents), but also to the 42 percent who were conservatives and the 26 percent who were moderates.

Critical race scholar Ian Haney Lpez calls this kind of messaging the race-class narrative, and he argues that it is critical to reaching the 59 percent of American voters he calls the persuadables. Lpez, along with messaging consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio and pollster Celinda Lake, document that race-class messaging is more convincing among persuadables than colorblind economic populismthat is, messaging that invokes class alone. Crucially for Democrats, these scholars have found that white, Black and Latino persuadable voters all find race-class narratives more convincing than color-blind populism, by similar margins.

We can expect a significant subset of Trump voters to be receptive to a race-class message. A 2017 study by the Democracy Funds Voter Study Group found that about one-fifth of Trump voters have bipartisan voting habits and warm feelings toward racial minorities. The study calls these voters anti-elites, and they present a major opportunity for Democrats: 83 percent of them think the economic system is biased in favor of the wealthiest Americans, and 68 percent of them favor raising taxes on the rich.

Democrats often get tarred as the party of elites because their positions in the culture wars clash with those of blue-collar Americans, especially whites and Latinos, who tend to place a high value on self-discipline and the traditional institutions that anchor it, notably religion, the military and family values. Republican politicians naturally want to keep attention focused there. But Democrats should focus on making the affirmative case that their party understands voters economic aspirations and economic pain much better than the GOP.

None of this means Democrats will need to retreat from their reputation as the party of diversity and inclusivity. As vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris has persistently pointed out, the economic pain so prevalent today falls on many Americans, from young Black men without jobs in cities, to middle-aged white men on disability or opioids, to women of all races stuck in underpaid dead-end essential jobs, to gig workers trying to make ends meet, to young adults still living in their parents basements. Theres enough economic pain to go around that it should be a central unifying issue for Joe Bidens campaign going forward. Democrats need to commit to bringing economic opportunity to Americans of all education levels and every region of the country. Thats why one of us, who represents Silicon Valley in Congress, has teamed up with Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) to bring Silicon Valley companies and investors to cities in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. Thats the right message for Democrats.

Why is this so urgent? Bidens margin in crucial swing states is razor thin. Pollster Stanley Greenberg has found that in the last two weeks before the 2016 election, when Hillary Clinton talked about the contrast between her and Trumps economic policies and the changes she would bring, she consolidated her lead. Clintons largest lead was during the debates, when she hit Trump on the economy; afterward, she talked much less about the economy. Famously, Bill Clinton reportedly begged to be allowed to go to the Rust Belt but wasnt. Lets not make that kind of mistake again.

Biden appears not to be making the same mistake. Even during the pandemic, he has traveled to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, where he pushed a promises made, promises broken theme, saying: Under Donald Trump, Michigan lost jobs even before Covid hit. What about offshoring? Has Trump delivered on stopping companies from shipping American jobs overseas? You already know the answer. Of course not.

We hope to see a lot more of this in the coming weeks. It should be dead easy for Biden to connect with Americas anti-elite voters. He was born to an economically precarious family in blue-collar Scranton. He already knows what he needs to do: Signal I see you, I value you, and I will deliver for your family and your community. Hard work should pay off for hardworking AmericansBlack, white and brown. Then, he must explain concretely how Democrats will make sure hard work pays offand Republicans wont.

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Opinion | The One Vital Message Democrats Need to Win - POLITICO

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden holds a slight lead over President Trump in Arizona (45% to 40%), while the two candidates are within the margin of sampling error in Florida (Biden 43%, Trump 42%) and North Carolina (Biden 45%, Trump 43%), findsnew KFF/Cook Political Reportpolls of voters in three critical Sun Belt states carried by President Trump in his 2016 victory.

With the presidential election less than two months away, the new polls highlight one common factor about the race in each state: Its largely about President Trump.

The vast majority (86%) of Trump voters across the three states say their vote is mainly for President Trump, while most Biden voters (53%) say their vote is mainly against President Trump.

Trump voters are also more likely than Biden voters to say they are very enthusiastic about voting in November across the three states (74% vs. 58%). The gap is narrowest in Florida, where 74% of Trump voters and 60% of Biden voters say they are very enthusiastic.

The closeness of the race is reflected in President Trumps job approval ratings in each state: Arizona (46% favorable, 50% unfavorable), Florida (48% favorable, 51% unfavorable) and North Carolina (48% favorable, 50% unfavorable).

When asked about Joe Biden generally, voters in all three states are also roughly split between those who approve (50% in AZ and NC, 51% in FL) and disapprove (AZ 49%, NC 50%, FL 48%).

The new partnership survey of more than 3,400 voters across the three states, including at least 1,000 in each state, provides a glimpse into the concerns motivating voters in these key battlegrounds. Additional findings probing voters views about the economy, coronavirus, health care and other topics in the three Sun Belt states will be released soon.

The project explores the views of the critical group of nearly 1 in 4 voters in each state who are not certain who they will vote for. These swing voters include those who say they probably will vote for one of the candidates but are not completely certain as well as those who are truly undecided. This group is large enough in each state, especially since the races are so close, to determine the outcome, and the poll explores the factors that may influence both whether they vote and who they decide to vote for.

Across the three states, swing voters are more likely to identify as moderate (61%) and independents (43%) than voters who have already made up their mind. They are also somewhat younger on average than decided voters, and more likely to be Hispanic (22%, compared to 13% of decided voters).

Swing voters are more likely to say they prefer Joe Bidens leadership style (50%) to President Trumps style (39%) across the three states. At the same time, half (46%) describe President Trump as a strong leader, while four in 10 (39%) say the same about Joe Biden.

Large majorities of swing voters in each state also view President Trump as unpredictable with most of them viewing that quality as a bad thing. On the flip side, large majorities of swing voters in each state view Joe Biden as part of the Washington establishment, with most of them viewing that quality as a bad thing.

Swing voters are also somewhat more likely to say they approve of Joe Biden (56%) than of President Trump (45%), with the largest gap in Florida (Biden 60% approve, Trump 45% approve).

Democrats Lead in Arizona Senate and N.C. Gubernatorial Race; N.C. Senate Race in Virtual Tie

In Arizona, Democratic challenger Mark Kelly leads Republican Sen. Martha McSally in the Arizona Senate race (44%-36%).

In North Carolina, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper leads Republican challenger Dan Forest (48%-38%), while Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham is within the margin of error in his race against Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (41%-37%).

The Economy and Coronavirus Top Voters Issues Across the States, But Partisans Differ

To the extent specific issues will matter in the presidential race, voters rank the economy as the top issue across the three states (32% say it is their most important issue), followed by criminal justice and policing (17%) and the coronavirus outbreak (16%).

Partisans prioritize the issues differently, with half (52%) of Republicans naming the economy as their most important issue, with criminal justice and policing a distant second (22%). Democrats rank coronavirus, a public health issue, as their most important issue (28%), followed by race relations (23%) and health care generally (18%). Independent ranks the economy first (31%), followed by coronavirus (17%) and criminal justice and policing (15%).

Among swing voters, the economy is the top issue in each of the three states, followed by criminal justice and policing, and health care. The coronavirus outbreak is further down their list of concerns.

On most issues, including the coronavirus, race relations, and health care, voters in the three states trust Joe Biden more than President Trump. On the economy, which is voters top issue, more trust President Trump (54%) than Joe Biden (44%). Voters trust the two candidates equally on criminal justice and policing, and immigration.

Methodology

Designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF in collaboration with Cook Political Report, the poll was conducted between Aug. 29 and Sept. 13, among a representative random sample of 3,479 registered voters in three Sun Belt states (1,298 in Arizona, 1,009 in Florida, and 1,172 in North Carolina). The poll relies on an innovative probability-based methodology designed to address shortcomings with telephone-only surveys based on either voter-registration rolls or random-digit dialing. Voters were contacted via mailing address using registration-based sampling and encouraged to participate in the survey either online or by telephone and follow-up contacts were made using outbound telephone calls. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points in Florida and 3 percentage points in Arizona and North Carolina. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.

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Democratic Nominee Biden Holds Slight Lead Over President Trump in Arizona, while the Candidates are Virtually Tied in Florida and North Carolina,...

Democrats are backing away from vows to reverse President TrumpDonald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MOREs tax cuts if they take control of the Senate and White House.

Senate Democrats had suggested they could move quickly on the issue, but now say they are likely to delay stand-alone tax legislation if Democratic nominee Joe BidenJoe BidenThe Memo: Warning signs flash for Trump on debates Senate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden National postal mail handlers union endorses Biden MORE is elected president and their party controls the House and Senate.

Instead, the priority will be on spending to create jobs and raise wages, investments in green technology and infrastructure and a national plan to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Some of those stimulus and relief bills could include tax incentives for clean energy infrastructure and strengthening the nations supply chain and domestic manufacturing base. Tax relief in the form of child tax credits and earned income tax credits for lower- and middle-income families are also on the table.

But potential tax increases on wealthy individuals and corporations are expected to come into play later, depending on how significant the deficit concerns are next year.

The coronavirus and the way it is hitting the economy is a huge factor. Raising taxes while the country is recovering from a recession would be a risky political move.

Democrats realize they need to tread carefully on taxes and the economy. While Biden is leading Trump in the national polls, voters still give Trump higher marks on handling the economy.

There are also divisions among Democrats over how far to go with taxes on corporations and the wealthy, which makes it difficult to move quickly on the issue.

I think we ought to make the decision when we have a better sense of where the economy is going, said Sen. Dianne FeinsteinDianne Emiel FeinsteinSenators offer disaster tax relief bill Democrats back away from quick reversal of Trump tax cuts Congress must save the Postal Service from collapse our economy depends on it MORE (D-Calif.), who added theres an element of truth to the argument that policymakers shouldnt raise taxes during a recession.

Sen. Debbie StabenowDeborah (Debbie) Ann StabenowGAO report finds brokers offered false info on coverage for pre-existing conditions Democrats back away from quick reversal of Trump tax cuts Battle looms over Biden health care plan if Democrats win big MORE (D-Mich.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee and one of Senate Minority Leader Charles SchumerChuck SchumerDemocrats scramble on COVID-19 relief amid division, Trump surprise Pelosi, Schumer 'encouraged' by Trump call for bigger coronavirus relief package Schumer, Sanders call for Senate panel to address election security MOREs (D-N.Y.) closest allies, said she has no idea when Democrats would move a tax package next year if they win control of the White House and the Senate.

We have so much on our plate. Weve got to deal with COVID and testing, she said. We need to put in place a whole thing to get our arms around the virus and a recovery act.

Im sure a tax piece will be in there somewhere, but No. 1 priority will be COVID, she added.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Democrats will need to balance the need to raise revenues with the overall health of the economy, which has slowed dramatically as a result of the pandemic.

I think a tax bill can be made effective at a time when we think the economy will be sufficiently robust that some increase in taxes will have no detrimental effect, he said.

Sen. Chris CoonsChristopher (Chris) Andrew CoonsShakespeare Theatre Company goes virtual for 'Will on the Hill...or Won't They?' The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Pence lauds Harris as 'experienced debater'; Trump, Biden diverge over debate prep Conservative activist Lauren Witzke wins GOP Senate primary in Delaware MORE (D-Del.), a prominent Biden ally, laughed out loud when asked what the Democratic plan for tax reform is next year.

Look, if Joe Biden is successful in being elected the next president it will be because were in the middle of three crises at the same time: a pandemic, a recession and a renewed focus on racial inequality.

He will have the challenge and the mandate to address some of those, he said.

Some Democrats are pushing for ratcheting up taxes on millionaires and billionaires immediately if their party wins big in November.

Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, a liberal political action committee, said waiting to raise taxes on the rich is a terrible idea.

Over the course of the pandemic, weve seen billionaires make $600 billion since March while the minimum wage hasnt been raised in over 10 years, he said. I think the billionaires and millionaires, they have benefited from the [Trump] tax cuts and many of them have benefited from the pandemic itself.

Progressive leaders such as Sens. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenNo new taxes for the ultra rich fix bad tax policy instead Democrats back away from quick reversal of Trump tax cuts It's time for newspapers to stop endorsing presidential candidates MORE (D-Mass.) and Bernie SandersBernie SandersSenate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll Schumer, Sanders call for Senate panel to address election security MORE (I-Vt.) are pushing for a wealth tax, but Schumer is more focused on lifting the cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT), a top priority in New York and other states with high costs of living.

Schumer has said including a provision to lift the cap on SALT deductions is a top goal of Democrats in the next coronavirus relief bill.

We need to cushion the blow of this virus, Schumer said in July. The SALT cap hurts people affected by the virus. It hurts so many of the metropolitan areas like New York.

Speaking more broadly, Schumer has vowed of the limitation on SALT deductions:If I become majority leader, one of the first things I will do is we will eliminate itforever.

Bidens tax plan does not include a wealth tax. Instead, he would raise revenue by raising the top income tax rate on individuals from 37 percent to 39.6 percent, subject earnings over $400,000 to Social Security payroll taxes, and tax capital gains at the same rate as other income for people who earn more than $1 million.

Bidens plan also calls for raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and increasing taxes on foreign profits.

When asked during an interview with CNN last week whether he would wait to raise taxes until unemployment goes down, Biden said he would make corporate tax changes on day one.

Biden has also promised comprehensive immigration reform on day one.

Democrats in the Senate appear to have other ideas.

I do agree that the pandemic, jobs and climate are the top orders of business. Climate and jobs go together; a lot of that is infrastructure and investments, said Jim Kessler, a former Schumer aide who now serves as executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank.

I expect at some point theres going to be an increases in taxes to pay for it, I just dont know when in the order its going to be, he said. Theyll look at where the economy is at that moment and what needs to be done and it will be to pay for certain things.

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Democrats back away from quick reversal of Trump tax cuts | TheHill - The Hill

A man walks out of the Washington County Democratic Party office last week, in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, after taking a Joe Biden yard sign. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden's campaign isn't doing any in-person door-knocking. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A man walks out of the Washington County Democratic Party office last week, in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, after taking a Joe Biden yard sign. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden's campaign isn't doing any in-person door-knocking.

President Trump's campaign says it knocks on a million doors a week. Joe Biden's campaign hasn't knocked on any doors to talk to voters for months. In lieu of in-person meetings, Democrats are focused on conversations they can have virtually.

"While you might hear our opponent spend a lot of time talking about the millions of door knocks or attempts that they're making week to week, those metrics actually don't have any impact on reaching voters," Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, told reporters in a call last week, downplay the clear door-knocking disparity. "Our metric of success, the numbers we look at and use, are conversations."

In August, she said the Biden campaign had 2.6 million conversations with voters in battleground states. Those conversations were virtual, over the phone or via text message, or in person "when that is safe and is warranted," she said. (The campaign also intends to begin door-to-door visits soon, not for any face-to-face meetings, but to drop off campaign literature and voter education materials.)

The Democrats' strategy of mainly organizing from home via laptop or cellphone and forgoing traditional door-to-door canvassing is somewhat untested, but they're banking on the assumption that it's more effective in a pandemic.

Democrats say they're not door knocking because safety is their main priority, and they don't want to put people at risk of contracting COVID-19.

"We think what voters are looking for right now is responsible leadership and that comes from the VP and what he's saying, but it also comes from the campaign," said Molly Ritner, the Biden campaign's deputy states director.

And because of the pandemic, Ritner, like other Democrats, says it feels like more Americans are at home, sometimes isolated, on their devices and eager to talk.

"What we're finding is that we are able to actually connect and reach more people than we had been in previous cycles through the phone," Ritner said.

"Door knocking is in our DNA"

But it's not just the Biden campaign. Organizing has changed for state Democratic parties in key swing states and for a number of left-leaning groups that would have been helping Biden on the ground.

Both BlackPAC and Working America have between 10% and 20% of the paid organizing staff they had in 2016.

At this point in 2016, Working America, a group affiliated with the AFL-CIO, was having about 100,000 conversations a week with people on their front steps. The group has had zero since it paused its door-knocking operation in March.

"Door knocking is in our DNA. We believe that there is nothing and the evidence supports this that is as effective as a well-deployed face-to-face interaction," said Matt Morrison, the group's executive director. "That said, what we've lost in texture and interaction face to face, we've tried to make up for in scale."

Working America has built an army of volunteers writing letters, making calls and sending texts. And Morrison thinks it's working. He says when the pandemic first began, his group focused on convincing people to wear masks. They followed up with people, and noticed a sizable increase in mask usage after their correspondence because, he believes, of the relationships they built.

"There's no opposition on the other side"

But for Republicans, this is not an either-or operation. The Republican National Committee says it's also contacting millions of people over the phone every week. But their volunteers and organizers are also knocking on doors in person.

"Everything is one sided on the ground," said Joe Gruters, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. "We're doing our many rallies, we're doing the bus tours, we're doing meet and greets. We're doing it in person. The difference is ... there's no opposition on the other side."

Gruters says it feels like the physical Biden campaign is "nonexistent" on the ground in Florida. The "virtual stuff" helps, he says, but in his view "there's nothing that replaces the basic blocking and tackling of campaigns, and that's the pounding of the pavement, walking door to door."

Team Trump uses the Obama book

It was generally accepted in 2016 that Hillary Clinton's ground game was superior to the makeshift Trump operation. And yet this cycle, it's the Trump team that brags about building a "muscular field operation" compared to Democrats, whom it describes as waging an almost-exclusive "air war."

In an unusual role-reversal, the Trump team is modeling itself off of Democrats. It requires staffers to read a book about Barack Obama's field operation, called Groundbreakers: How Obama's 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America.

One of the co-authors, Hahrie Han, was surprised to hear that her book has become a staple in the Trump campaign, and she says she's not sure if the campaign understands her main message.

"So the Trump campaign, they read the book and then they say, 'OK, like I need to go out and have conversations with people at the door.' Yes, that is a part of it, but it's part of a bigger interlocking system," said Han, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. "On the field side, in some ways, the work that is the most important can often be the most invisible."

What Han means is that it wasn't just the tactical door-knocking operation that made Obama's team so successful; his campaign, she says, was adept at building relationships before it even got to the door.

Political scientists and campaign operatives agree that having personal conversations at the door is a proven way to marginally boost turnout. But, they add, often those conversations are done poorly.

David Broockman, from the University of California Berkeley, has done extensive research on door knocking and campaign persuasion efforts. He says campaigns often overstate the degree to which they are actually engaged in on-the-ground organizing.

"The vast majority of people even in normal years are not getting contacted on doors," he said. "Just knocking on the door doesn't turn out a voter. It's having a conversation with a voter that turns out a voter."

And Broockman says you can have that conversation over the phone. In fact, you can probably have more conversations because, he points out, you save time when you don't have to walk from house to house.

But as for the big question of whether Democrats are at a disadvantage by doing this work almost exclusively via phone instead of in person, Broockman says he's not sure.

"My guess is it's like one of the many other things in a campaign that matters a little bit, but is just really unlikely to prove decisive to the whole thing," he said.

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There's A Trump-Biden Divide On Door-Knocking This Election - NPR

Cook County Democrats led by Party Chair Toni Preckwinkle may have picked a fight for which they hadnt really bargained this week in seeking Judge Michael Toomins ouster from the bench in a bald political power play.

Late Wednesday night, the other Cook County judges seeking retention on the November ballot refused to fork over their usual $40,000 payment to the partys get-out-the-vote effort partly in protest of the Democrats decision to target Toomin for defeat.

In essence, they refused to kiss the ring.

It was a rare election-year display of political independence for the judges, who saw in the attack on Toomin, a respected veteran jurist, a clear threat to their own autonomy.

Whether this turns out to be a revolt from the Democratic Party itself or just a revolt from Preckwinkles leadership of the party remains to be seen.

But the decision by the judges to reject the traditional payment, on a 42-13 vote after a spirited debate, sent a clear message they dont want the party using the retention process to push them around anymore.

Im told Toomin did not participate in the two and a half hour Zoom meeting that preceded the vote.

But he was a main topic of discussion because of the Democratic Central Committees decision to oppose his retention just months after he agreed to name a special prosecutor to reopen the Jussie Smollett investigation, then named former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb to do the job.

States Attorney Kim Foxx is facing re-election in November, and top Democrats would have just as soon allowed the bungled Smollett case to recede from voters memories by now.

To cover their tracks, party officials tried to make a case that Toomin does a poor job as presiding judge of Juvenile Court, an attack that doesnt hold up to scrutiny even if he does have some detractors.

In practical terms, the decision by the judges to refuse payment to the party may not mean much. The money was expected to be used, as it usually is, for a pair of mailings asking Democratic voters to support the judges for retention.

The retention judges, who have their own joint campaign committee, can just as easily use that money to pay for their own mailings.

But the risk to the retention judges is that they need the support of Democratic voters to keep their seats on the bench, and therefore it helps to receive backing from Democratic leaders.

Elected Circuit Court judges in Illinois face a retention vote every six years. To stay on the bench, they need a YES vote from at least 60 percent of those voting.

Historically, the Democratic Party has supported all Cook County judges for retention, regardless of their bar ratings or political affiliation. Retention judges have come to rely on that support.

Thats not a good system either. Not every judge deserves job protection for life.

With Preckwinkles support, the party deviated from that practice in 2018 to back a successful campaign by advocacy groups to dump Judge Matthew Coghlan over his prior role as a prosecutor in a wrongful conviction case.

But the trick is how you pick and choose who is targeted, and Democrats got it all wrong by picking Toomin as this years fall guy.

Toomin, 82, was first elected to the bench in 1984 and has served as presiding judge in Juvenile Court since 2010. In his previous retention bids, he has always received favorable ratings from the bar associations and been supported by the Democratic Party, although he was originally elected as a Republican.

After the judges voted Wednesday, their Committee for the Retention of Judges in Cook County released a statement:

Our legal system is based on the principle that an independent, fair and competent judiciary will interpret and apply the laws that govern us. That is the framework by which we conduct ourselves every day. Participating and supporting a plan that includes opposing one of our colleagues, Judge Michael Toomin, who embodies those principles, is a concern and something we as the 2020 retention class cannot support.

A Democratic Party spokesperson declined comment.

In the not so distant past, it would have been unthinkable for Cook Countys judges to shrug off the Democratic Partys control, even symbolically.

Heres hoping that in the not so distant future, they find a way to take it a step further.

Read more:

Judges refuse to pony up campaign cash to Cook County Democrats over Jussie Smollet judge flap but will the - Chicago Sun-Times

Even as the political world has transferred much of its resources and energy, often with great fanfare, toward digital spaces, the analog tradition of meeting people in their homes still sits atop the pyramid of voter contact tactics. Door-knock canvassing has seen a revival over the past few years, as campaigns and political groups developed more precise, technologically advanced means of targeting not only undecided voters, but those who do not typically turn out -- a bloc that could decide tight races up and down the ballot.

Progressives' angst over canvassing has been tempered in part over the last couple months as their efforts to fill the void have, according to leading organizers from a number of groups, shown signs of success. Voters have been more willing to pick up the phone and engage, they say, and the deep polarization of the Trump era has made political evangelists of Democrats who might have otherwise focused only on their own ballot.

Still, there is a sense among many on the left, for whom knocking doors is both a proven tactic and emblematic of their grassroots-first ethos, that there is no replacing face-to-face contacts.

"It's a real loss and I don't know that you can (make up for the loss)," Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been trying to reach "nontraditional voters" through widely viewed online town halls, told CNN this summer. "I think that is something that virtual relationships cannot replace. But we are where we are -- we cannot endanger people's health."

Rise of the 'voter-influencer'

But the coronavirus pandemic has circumscribed its field operations, keeping volunteers off the streets and forcing the organization to mine for new energy in familiar places.

"You'd be hard-pressed to find a person who isn't deeply concerned about the inability to door-knock," said Tenicka Boyd, the ACLU's national organizing director and deputy political director. "That's who we are. We know that that face-to-face contact is one of the best ways to support people who were already voting, to reassure people, to encourage people to go vote."

Boyd told CNN that the ACLU has seen an upswing in engagement with phone calls and texting, a sign potential voters, too, are adjusting course in uncharted waters. She has also observed a proliferation of "voter-influencers," or politically engaged individuals pushing friends, family and neighbors to the polls through informal social exchanges.

"That word of mouth, that proximity is actually much more promising" than some other tactics, Boyd said. But it's also more difficult to track and can create a new set of challenges, mostly because "so much of your engagement and mobilization is relying on a really select few people."

Kevin Cate, a leading Democratic strategist in Florida, described a similar phenomenon -- one he believes should hearten his party's jittery pundit class.

"The lack of field worker, door-to-door conversations is more than made up by the friends and family conversations about the disaster of Donald Trump's response to Covid," Cate said.

The pandemic, he added, has grounded the election and made voters less susceptible to the sway of "sensationalized" faux controversies ginned up through paid media -- the kind that might require more direct and in-person talks to contextualize or push back against.

"What has happened with Covid is every conversation about the Trump administration, or the future of the country, is a conversation that friends and family are having with themselves," Cate said. "This is a unique situation where the conversations are actually happening organically on their own every single day, because it's a life-and-death situation for many people. And if it's not life-and-death, it's life-altering."

Door-knocking as a tactic, traditionally, serves two purposes: to persuade voters who are either undecided or open to reconsidering their initial preferences and, as is more often the case in big-ticket presidential contests, driving turnout.

Donald Green, a professor of political science at Columbia University who co-authored the book, "Get Out the Vote," is unsure whether virtual canvassing will ever be as broadly effective as in-person, direct contacts and discussions.

"The thing that is slowly catching fire is mobilization within social networks" Green told CNN. "Friends aren't likely to block you. You're a trusted source. Your voice is, at least, heard."

What remains to be seen, he added, is the relative effectiveness of Sanders-style online forums. Reach is one issue; their ability to forge more intimate connections is another.

"The big unknown here," Green said, "is whether the one-to-one personal connection that drives the effect in a lot of these canvassing campaigns can work in this mass-produced event-driven mode."

Two campaigns, two different approaches

Biden, though he has begun to travel more, follows public health guidelines -- exhibiting a level of caution that comes across in his campaign's field tactics.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has not tapped the brakes on its field program. According to spokesman Rick Gorka, it has 2,000 paid field staffers and 2 million volunteers operating across 17 states. For now at least, they have the doors to themselves, knocking on more than 3.3 million in competitive early-voting states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Carolina and Georgia. Biden's team is larger, with 2,500 paid staff, and covers a similar breadth of terrain -- 15 states plus swing swaths of Maine and Nebraska, which apportion their delegates by congressional district. But its organizers are not meeting voters face-to-face. Speaking to reporters recently, Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon, who has roots in field organizing, questioned how successful Trump's efforts have actually been.

"While you might hear our opponents spend a lot of time talking about the millions of door knocks or attempts that they're making week to week," she said, "those metrics actually don't have any impact on reaching voters."

What matters, O'Malley Dillon argued, isn't the number of knocks, but whether the potential voters on the other side of the door are activated.

"What we are focused on is a metric around quality conversations and actually engaging with people. That's virtual, that's over the phone, that's over the text, that is in-person when that is safe and is warranted," she said. "In just August alone, we had 2.6 million conversations with voters in our battleground states."

The absence of Biden field army has been apparent to Dallas Republicans, who told CNN they are, with safety precautions in place, reaching more voters in-person with a greater rate of success.

Dallas GOP communications director Will Busby said their rising connection rates were easy to explain: people are home and "desperate" for the kind of "human interaction" curtailed by the pandemic.

"If a stranger came to your door pre-Covid, well, you're busy, you've got soccer games, you've got church, you've got life, you've got community events. You don't want to answer that person at the door, so you tell them to leave the literature at the door," Busby said. "Now they're like, 'Hey, let's have a conversation, let's just visit. I want to talk to another human.'"

Republicans' willingness to continue those practices has rankled some Democrats, who describe it as another piece of evidence that Trump and the GOP are not taking the coronavirus seriously, or actively ignoring its dangers for potential political gain.

"Knocking on doors is a tactic, it is not a strategy. It is one way to establish human connection. It's one way to get your message out," said Nse Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project. "And so, for anyone that is super committed to this one particular tactic, I question."

A voter registration and turnout group founded by former Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, the New Georgia Project said it is making approximately 100,000 voter contacts every week, while staying clear of the doors.

Ufot argued that campaigns and organizations, no matter their political stripes, that haven't changed their practices at a time when the coronavirus death toll continues to rise -- it is now approaching 200,000 in the US, with a disproportionately deadly effect on African Americans -- need to take a look in the mirror.

"You are committing, I would say, campaign malpractice or social justice movement malpractice, if you aren't taking this moment to figure out what other tactics to add to your repertoire, to make sure that the work continues, to make sure that the movement continues," Ufot said.

Turnout, turnout, turnout

Even some of the most dedicated grassroots Democratic campaigners, including at Justice Democrats, the trailblazing progressive organization that helped New York's Jamaal Bowman and Missouri's Cori Bush defeat powerful incumbents in primaries this summer, are asking whether the risks of door-knocking, an effective but not always efficient practice, outweigh the potential rewards under the current circumstances.

Justice Democrats campaigns director Ava Benezra acknowledged that the returns on even well-executed canvassing strategies diminishes in the context of a presidential campaign, especially one like this, which has consumed national media and will see hundreds of millions of dollars in paid advertising.

"We're just never going to be able to reach as many people and have as deep of conversations as we need to for that tactic to rise above, in importance, the massive amount of information that voters are receiving on TV and online," Benezra said.

And because such an overwhelming proportion of the country has hardened opinions of the candidates, making persuasion difficult and a drain on precious resources, the focus for the presidential campaigns and their allies -- especially among Democrats, for whom the narrow but decisive margins of 2016 weigh heavily on the mind -- boosting turnout is, increasingly, the primary goal.

"Everybody in America knows who Donald Trump is and who Joe Biden is, and they probably have an opinion and they probably know who they're going to vote for," said Progressive Turnout Project executive director Alex Morgan. "And it really does come down to the mobilization and turning out our voters again, regardless of the tactic, because we can feel really confident and come up short by 10,000 votes in Michigan and 30,000 votes in Wisconsin and 50,000 votes in Pennsylvania."

Morgan, whose group had been among those most deeply committed to door-to-door campaigning, has pivoted entirely to remote tactics ahead of November. PTP has pledged that its staff and volunteers will make 55 million phone calls into 18 states -- during which they'll offer to walk voters, step by step, through their local pandemic voting options -- and mail 500,000 handwritten letters by Election Day.

The group is also paying particular attention to down-ballot Democratic campaigns, from the Senate in contested states to local legislative contests. Those candidates, especially the lesser known challengers, are likely to suffer more from the absence of in-person canvassers.

"That's where education, regardless of whether you're running a persuasion or a turnout program, is really important," Morgan said. The PTP and other liberal organizations are partnering to compile and disseminate bespoke voter guides, which might get hung on a door knob, no face-to-face contact required, emailed or delivered by snail mail.

"We're still leaving it all on the field," Morgan said, "although via different tactics."

Follow this link:

Knocked off the doorsteps by the coronavirus, Democrats craft new plans to reach voters - CNN

Democrats are growing worried about Democratic nominee Joe BidenJoe BidenThe Memo: Warning signs flash for Trump on debates Senate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden National postal mail handlers union endorses Biden MOREs play-it-safe strategy with 50 days to go before the election.

They are specifically worried that as President TrumpDonald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MOREs campaign reaches millions of votersthrough in-persondoor-knocking events and big rallies held in defiance of coronavirus restrictions, the Biden campaign is relying on digital organizing and phone outreach.

On a field training call over the weekend, several veterans of the Obama and Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Virginia Democrat blasts Trump's 'appalling' remark about COVID-19 deaths in 'blue states' The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden asks if public can trust vaccine from Trump ahead of Election Day | Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before Trump rally MORE presidential campaignsexpressed concerns to Caroline Grey, a Biden campaign aide who co-founded the Democratic digital firm Civis Analytics.

Ex-Obama aides also grumbledprivately following the Saturday Zoom call,which had been aimed specifically at getting Obama alumni more active in the final stretch of Bidens campaign.

After the call, one formerObama aidesaid that if Biden loses a close election, analysts will look back on the field operations in the same way they look back on Hillary Clintons decision to not visit Wisconsin in 2016.

If Biden loses, this will be his not-going-to-Wisconsin, the ex-official said.

Biden has wrapped his campaign around a follow-the-science approach to the coronavirus, ripping Trump for his handling of the pandemic. His campaign pivoted away from in-person contacts once the pandemic struck, while encouraging voters to mail in ballots.

Those wanting Biden to do more traditional campaign events understand the argument, they just worry it will backfire.

From a health perspective, refraining from in-person GOTV efforts is the right thing to do," said one of the Democratson the field organizing call, referring to get out the vote efforts.But the campaign is making a big bet that phone calls and texts can supplant hitting the pavement. The president is not making that bet.

"It goes against the grain of everything about a campaign in the final days," another attendee said.

Some Democrats brush off the criticism, arguing that Trumps flouting of masks and social distancing will end up hurting his campaign.

They also say Biden has effectively abandoned an outdated model of door-knocking for more meaningful and efficient forms of outreach.

The Biden campaign has invested $100 million into its ground game, which includes 2,500 staff in battleground states, a 500 percent increase since May 1. They say theyve had 2.6 million conversations with voters since August alone, and that in the past month theyve had 183,000 volunteers attend virtual events.

They say the campaign is leveraging next-generation organizing through phone banks and new tools, such as Slack, a VoteJoe app and the IWillVote.com website.

In this day and age, when a persons bullshitmeter is already very high, having a stranger knock on your door in the middle of a f------ pandemic to try and hold a meaningful conversation is total lunacy, said Michael Halle, a battlegrounds state organizer for the Obama and Clinton presidential campaigns.

Democrats have had high anxiety over the 2020 election throughout the cycle given Clintons upset loss to Trump in 2016.

Clinton, like Biden, was ahead of Trump in polls, and ended up winning the popular vote by more than 3 million. But she lost the Electoral College, along with Florida, North Carolina, and more surprisingly, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Since when has a Democratic strategy of playing it safe every worked out for us? asked one Democratic fundraiser. We like to make fun of their boat parades or door knocking in a pandemic, but when voters see all this energy out there for Trump, they feel it gives them permission to join the party.

Trump is seeking to use Bidens approach against him, and the president has been hitting the road again and again.

By the end of this week, the president will have visited three states Clinton won in 2016 New Hampshire, Minnesota and Nevada as he seeks to expand the map. Biden will have visited the core battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida, as well as Minnesota, which hes expected to win, even as polls show him running close in states Trump is expected to win, such as Iowa, Ohio, Texas and Georgia.

The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee say they have contacted 100 million voters this cycle, triple their 2016 number, with the 100 millionth coming on a door knock in North Carolina.

In rural parts of battleground states, supporters have been organizing MAGA meetups and boat parades, while Democrats continue to shun large political gatherings because of the pandemic.

During the week of the GOP convention, the Republicans knocked on more than 2 million doors, bringing their total to more than 12 million door knocks since restarting field operations in mid-June.

Other Democrats dismiss the criticism.

This is not a campaign cycle that will be defined by big events or generating extreme energy and enthusiasm on the campaign trail, said Andrew Feldman, a Democratic strategist. Its about who the country trusts to put the pieces of a broken country back together. Weve seen in poll after poll that Joe Biden is that person, and that means the campaign has used him in effective ways to show how different he is from the current occupant in the White House.

A recent Axios-Ipsos survey found that 59 percent of voters said that door-to-door campaigning is a moderate or large risk, including 58 percent of independents and nearly 70 percentof Democrats.

Several recent media analyses have found Democrats building early vote-by-mail and party registration advantages in the battleground states.

The Democrat field programs are beating Republicans in key metrics like registration and vote by mail across the battleground states and were reaching out to voters in a way that is safe and effective, said David Bergstein, the Democratic National Committees director of battleground state communications. I think voters right now appreciate the seriousness in which our party is taking the coronavirus and weve shifted our tactics to allow us to continue to reach out to every voter we need to win.

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Democrats worry Biden playing it too safe | TheHill - The Hill