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The organizers of a young Republican group who oppose President Trump say they want to build the GOP of the future by staying away from unproductive discourse and providing a better alternative to the left.

Called Gen Z GOP, the nationally focused group with Massachusetts roots officially launched over the weekend with a social media video that lays out a vision for a new Republican Party that attracts the newest generation of voters.

The group vehemently opposes a lot of what the left stands for today, said Samuel Garber, a freshman at Bates College.

But the GOP ratcheting up the rhetoric on the right will not attract the Gen Z generation, and drives people further away from the Republican Party, he said.

We are somewhere in the middle, where a majority of the country and state (Massachusetts) is, Garber said.

In the video launched over the weekend, the group says The Republican Party has been hijacked in recent years.

As Republicans, we believe that the party of Lincoln is worth saving from its current flirtation with authoritarian populism, the video narrator says. But we do not seek to return to the politics of the past. We seek to present a new vision a vision that does not cave to the polarized choices of left and right, but one that embraces nuance, freedom and opportunity.

The Gen Z GOP promotes: free trade and fiscal responsibility, bipartisan reform for border security, and private-public partnerships to provide accessible health care.

We strive to be a GOP that pursues climate change solutions that harness American innovation and create green energy jobs, the narrator says. A GOP that can embrace Americans of all backgrounds, proudly proclaim that Black Lives Matter and work to combat injustice and inequality.

One of the reasons for forming this group was sparked by the unproductive discourse from the Massachusetts Republican Party, said Mike Brodo, a junior at Georgetown University.

The current leadership is caving to the national GOP playbook, Brodo said of the MassGOP. Its that unproductive discourse that turns Gen Z away from the political party.

MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons on Sunday said he looks forward to having an opportunity to speak with the Gen Z GOP organizers.

In response to their criticism, Lyons said, Our basic platform is freedom, individual liberty, personal responsibility and a free-market system rooted in capitalism. He also said that the radical left on Beacon Hill attacking our police is something we should all be concerned about.

In addition to the video over the weekend, Gen Z GOP is launching a podcast on Monday.

Excerpt from:

Gen Z GOP wants to build the Republican Party of the future - Boston Herald

(The Center Square) Illinois Republican congressional delegation is calling for transparency on how Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration is allocating federal funds that have already been released.

As part of an earlier COVID-19 relief package Congress passed and President Donald Trump enacted, states were to get billions to deal with COVID-19 pandemic costs.

Illinois was set to get nearly $5 billion from one package. Most of that was in direct payments to the city of Chicago and Cook County. The rest of the money was to be split among local governments.

Earlier this month, Illinois Municipal League Executive Director Brad Cole criticized the governors plan to divvy out the remaining $800 million of that package. Cole said then the Pritzker administration stripped the economic stimulus decisions from the local governments.

Lets keep the money locally, lets not reallocate it, Cole said. Lets give it to local officials so they can spend it on local businesses for local purposes so that we can keep local businesses thriving.

The Pritzker administration said then the state legislature approved $250 million in federal funds for local government COVID-19-related costs and an additional $636 million for business interruption grant dollars the state will administer.

Round 1 of the BIG program is closed three weeks ago.

According to a U.S. Treasury Departmentreport, the state's total allocation was $4.9 billion, of which about $753 million has been spent, or 15.3 percent.

Chicago got $470 million of that and has spent about 45 percent of the money. Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties got a combined $924.5 million and each county has spent between zero and 11.1 percent of their share.

The state government received $3.5 billion in federal tax money meant from COVID-19 aid packages and has spent $505 million, or 14.4 percent of the federal COVID-19 aidas of June 30.

Illinois Republican delegation of U.S. Reps Darin LaHood, R-Peoria; John Shimkus, R-Collinsville; Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon; Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville; and Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, said they want more transparency.

We continue to hear from local leaders in our districts who are struggling because of COVID-19 and Governor Pritzkers stay-at-home orders, the GOP delegation said. The lack of transparency regarding the federal funding sent to Illinois to support our communities through this pandemic is unacceptable.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which administers the BIG program, didnt immediately return a message seeking comment.

Pritzker said the money would be spent transparently.

"The Legislature allocated that money in the budget so it's all transparently in the budget," Pritzker said Friday when asked about the GOP demand for transparency. "The Legislature met in mid-late May to do that and then the reason that the money hasn't been entirely spent is that we entered a new fiscal year. That's what the budget that was passed in May was about. Much of that money will be spent in the last half of this calendar year and is intended to be used as the Legislature has outlined."

While Governor Pritzker continues to criticize the federal government and call for additional federal support, he must immediately provide information to the public about how the federal taxpayer money he is withholding will be disbursed and a process for how smaller units of government can get access to the funding, the Republicans said.

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Illinois' Republicans demand transparency on how governor is allocating federal aid - The Center Square

Trump told WRAL he would announce the exact location of his acceptance speech in the coming week.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the Republican National Convention was set to take place in Charlotte. But as cases and deaths mounted in North Carolina over the spring, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper insisted a scaled-down convention was necessary.

Trump bristled at the possible denial of a blockbuster event and wrote on Twitter on June 2 that he would be moving the main action of the convention away from North Carolina.

Nine days later, the Republican National Committee picked Jacksonville as its new destination, with Trump scheduled to deliver the keynote acceptance address as part of a multinight event. But the shift to Jacksonville proved to be too fraught with complications as Floridas Covid-19 caseload spiked, straining the state's resources.

As recently as July 21, Trump campaign officials were assuring the public the event could go on safely, even as local law enforcement sounded warning signs. Trump called off the Jacksonville event on July 23.

It's just not the right time, Trump said.

The North Carolina Democratic Party blasted Trumps acceptance speech flip-flop as evidence of his bungled response to the coronavirus.

Link:

Trump says he will accept Republican nomination in North Carolina after all - POLITICO

WASHINGTON Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said Tuesday that a House Republican aggressively confronted her outside of the U.S. Capitol on Monday in which he reportedly called her a f---ing bitch.

I never spoke to Rep. Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nations Capitol yesterday. Believe it or not, I usually get along fine w/ my GOP colleagues. We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door, she tweeted.

But hey, 'b*tches' get stuff done, added Ocasio-Cortez, who retweeted a report by The Hill newspaper about their exchange a day earlier.

According to The Hill, Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., approached Ocasio-Cortez as she was walking up the Capitol steps to cast a vote on the House floor and told her she was disgusting for recently suggesting that unemployment and poverty were leading to a rise in crime in New York City.

"You are out of your freaking mind," Yoho said to the congresswoman, who then told him that he was rude, said the report, which said their conversation was overheard by a reporter.

Joined by fellow Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, Yoho then walked down the steps and said, "f---ing bitch," The Hill reported.

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In a statement to NBC News, a spokesman for Yoho denied using the slur.

"He did not call Rep. Ocasio-Cortez what has been reported in the Hill or any name for that matter," said the spokesman, Brian Kaveney, who added, "Instead, he made a brief comment to himself as he walked away summarizing what he believes her polices to be: bulls---."

Asked by The Hill about the exchange, Williams acted like he didnt hear what was said even though he was reportedly right there when it happened.

I was thinking about some issues I've got in my district that need to get done," Williams said, according to The Hill.

Reacting to Williams comment, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Tuesday, "Gotta love Republican courage from Rep @RogerWilliamsTX: when he undeniably sees another man engaged in virulent harassment of a young woman, just pretend you never saw it in the most cartoonish manner possible and keep pushing."

"(Hes lying, by the way. He joined in w/ Yoho)," she said in the tweet.

Ocasio-Cortez then said in a follow-up tweet that Williams yelled at her, too, about throwing urine.

The remarks Yoho appeared to be referring to, as noted by The Hill, were from July 9 when Ocasio-Cortez said at an event, "Crime is a problem of a diseased society, which neglects its marginalized people."

Requests for further comment from Ocasio-Cortez were not immediately returned.

Several of Ocasio-Cortezs Democratic colleagues defended her Tuesday while taking aim at Yoho.

"Like @aoc, I believe poverty to be a root cause of crime. Wonder why Rep. Yoho hasnt accosted me on the Capitol steps with the same sentiment? #shameful," tweeted Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., also tweeted: "I have suggested the same thing that @aoc has poverty & unemployment lead to crime. Weird neither Yoho or any other member has ever talked to me that way."

Rebecca Shabad is a congressional reporter for NBC News, based in Washington.

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AOC says a House Republican accosted her on the steps outside the Capitol - NBC News

Jason Sattler, Opinion columnist Published 5:30 a.m. ET July 21, 2020 | Updated 9:39 a.m. ET July 21, 2020

Civil rights experts point to long wait times to vote as a sign of growing voter suppression in the U.S. Here's what to expect in the 2020 election. USA TODAY

Trump and Republicans have hacked our democracy beyond accountability and now they're one cancerous liver away from getting everything they want.

How did we end up with the rights of millions of Americans and the fate of American democracy dangling on one cancer prone, 87-year-old Supreme Court justice?

The same way we ended up with a president too busywith corruption, Confederate flags and cans of beansto fight a pandemic. A thoroughly compromised attorney general echoing the presidents lies about mail-in voting in order to preemptively attack the legitimacy of an election.And a cowardly Senate majority that refused its responsibility to remove this president days before the pandemic took a turn for the worse the first time.

The reason were drowning in multiple messes is embarrassingly simple: Minority rule.

Republicans have hacked our democracy beyond accountability. And now that theyre one cancerous liver away from getting everything they want, they have a leader who refuses to be checked and a party that refuses to check him.

Think about the extent of our government's disconnection from America.

The president lost the popular vote by the biggest percentage in 140 years. We have a Supreme Court majority of five justices appointed by Republican presidents elected from 1988 to 2016, though Republicans have only won the presidential popular vote twiceover that period as Democrats won it six times. And the Senate Republican majority represents 15 million fewer Americans than our "minority" Democrats.

A withering minority propped up by polluters, profiteers, and theocratscan maintain power despite repellent policies and a record of undeniable failures that swells daily, like new cases of COVID-19. This minority has figured out that as long as they hold the presidency, the Senateand Supreme Court, they can create a septic system of corruption that allows them to minimize the power of voters, especially the voters they dont want to even try to win over.

Minority rule has become such a given that we rarely even talk about how it warps our politics.

Almost no one doubts that Joe Biden will win the popular vote this November, possibly by millions of votes, yet everyone knows there is an undeniable possibility that Donald Trump could slip through the Electoral College to another term. And if he does, it could easily be due to restrictions on voting passed by legislative majorities in states like Wisconsin and North Carolina where Republicans hold more seats despite winning fewer votes.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Feb. 10, 2020, at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.(Photo: Patrick Semansky/ AP)

Any president with a party that has rigged reality for its pleasure would be dangerous at this point. But a failingTrump, who spent months contesting an election he won, presents an existential risk to democracy, especially when hes surrounded by a force field of minority rule.

You have to ask yourself why Trump, from "law and order" to defending Confederate monuments, is working so hard to pleasepeople who already support him and alienatethe rest and why heis actively opposing effortsto contain this pandemic. Some of it is strategy, sure. Hes always aimed to just be the president of the United White People,and COVID-19 disproportionately kills Latino and black Americans.

Voting Rights: Honor John Lewis with a Senate vote on the voting rights he fought for his whole life

But maybe theres something far more perilous at play.

Are the federal stormtroopers,who appear to be rounding up protesters in Oregon, a preview of voter intimidation tactics in November?And why does Trump keep rewarding Vladimir Putin, despite the possibility that Russia put bounties on the heads of our soldiers?Does it involve some promise for the upcoming election? Maybe this president isnt planning on leaving office, regardless of how this election turns out.

Who's going to stop him?

The Republican senators who acquitted him of an obvious crime and have surrendered their constitutional confirmation power to Trump and his troops of acting officials? The Republican legislatures that pioneered the recent hijacking of our democracy? Attorney General William Barr, whose belief in the limitlessness of Republican executive power may even exceed Trumps?

How about the Supreme Court? Will you bet your democracy on the court that let Trump get away with hiding his taxes until after the election?

Chief Justice John Roberts was the key vote in gutting the Voting Rights Act in 2013,and has been the fifth vote in a series of recent rulings, all wins for Republicans, that restrict voting and force people to risk COVID-19 infection to vote.

Trump reelection: The odds stood against Lincoln for reelection as the Civil War raged on. Will history repeat itself in 2020?

The emergency is here. And minority rule is the culprit.

All we can do now is get every American alive to turn in a ballot as soon as humanly possible. And then, should we be courageous and focused enough to get through this emergency, the real work begins.

The real work looks like restoring the Voting Rights Act in honor of John Lewis. It looks like statehood for Washington and the option of statehood for Puerto Rico. It could even look like a remaking of the Supreme Court so it resembles the will of the people.

And, should we be so lucky, it looks like Ruth Bader Ginsburg having the option to retire in peace.

Jason Sattler, a writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a member of USA TODAYs Board of Contributors and host of "The GOTMFV Show" podcast. Follow him on Twitter:@LOLGOP

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Trump, Ginsburg and the democracy emergency: It's here and minority rule is the culprit - USA TODAY

July 21, 2020

Posted: July 21, 2020

Updated: 9:47 AM

KUSI Newsroom

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) There are nearly 1,000 elected offices in San Diego County with half of them up each two year cycle so just over 400 are up in November.

To fill those positions, the San Diego GOP is recruiting 400 people to run for local office to shape their community.

The goal of the Republican Party of San Diego County is to contest every office up in November. About half of them are already represented by a Republican and they want to re-elect those, but the other half need Republican candidates or the Democrat stands to win by default.

Chairman of the Republican Party of San Diego County, Tony Krvaric, discussed the recruitment effort with KUSIs Paul Rudy on Good Morning San Diego. Krvaric explained that only a small portion of elected offices get the attention of the public, but there are hundreds of smaller offices that make just as big a difference in peoples lives, if not more.

Krvaric said many smaller offices like city council, school board, hospital board, water boards, fire districts, and planning groups are in need of Republican candidates to fill them. They are unpaid offices, but can work as stepping stones and career building jobs for future political aspirations.

Krvaric has listed all the local offices in need of Republican candidates on his the San Diego Republicans website. To check it out, click here.

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San Diego Republican Party is recruiting 400 people to run for local office to shape the community - - KUSI

Bovay, a friend and associate of Greeley, had moved to Ripon a few years before he called the 1854 meeting. A veteran organizer who had led militant movements for land reform with the slogan, Vote Yourself a Farm Bovay had long advocated for the formation of an independent political movement with the purpose of gaining control of legislatures and the Congress in order to enact radical reforms.

At Bovays urging, Greeley popularized the new party, which drew in partisans from many political camps who were united in their opposition to the spread of slavery. Among the first Republicans were many allies and associates of socialist causes, including Joseph Weydemeyer, a former Prussian Army officer who would continue to correspond with Marx as he rose through the ranks as a military officer during the Civil War.

Decades after the founding of the new party, the great trade unionist and Socialist Party leader Eugene Victor Debs would reflect on the history in his speeches. Though he dismissed both major parties of the early 20th century as wings of the same bird of prey, Debs allowed as how, the Republican Party was once red.

There may have been a measure of hyperbole in that remark. But the fact is that the Republican Party that was founded in Ripon included plenty of people whose familiarity with radical ideas would alarm Mike Pence.

John Nichols is the associate editor of The Capital Times and the author of "The S Word: A Short History of an American Tradition Socialism" (Verso); as well as the new book, "The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace's Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics" (Verso).

Originally posted here:

John Nichols: Someone forgot to tell Mike Pence that the first Republicans were radicals - Madison.com

Donald Trump said discussions about the coronavirus relief package were going well at the White House on Monday, as Congress began negotiations on how best to address the public health and economic crises in the US.

Republican leaders joined Trump for the Oval Office meeting, where the president said he also planned to bring back daily coronavirus briefings.

I was doing them and we had a lot of people watching, Trump said. Record numbers watching in the history of cable television, and theres never been anything like it.

Democrats were meeting separately as the two sides lined up demands for what could be the last major relief package before the November elections. Congress had previously allocated about $3tn for coronavirus relief in four legislative packages.

Points of early disagreement included Republican demands for liability protections for businesses and Democratic demands for more money for states. Democrats also want an extension of enhanced unemployment benefits currently set at $600 a week. Republicans have reportedly eyed reductions, to between $200 and $400.

Argument between the parties could be overshadowed by disagreement between Trump and Republicans. The president is seeking to block billions of dollars in funding for coronavirus testing and contact-tracing efforts, sparking objections from Republicans representing states badly hit by Covid-19, according to multiple reports.

Trump also told Fox News Sunday he would consider not signing any bill if we dont have a payroll tax cut. As that would mean cuts to social security and Medicare, it is widely seen as a political non-starter.

The payroll tax to me is very important, Trump said on Monday.

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, accused his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, of attempting to negotiate the relief package in secret.

Leader McConnell has said that he wants to write the next coronavirus legislation behind the closed doors of his office, Schumer said in a letter to colleagues.

From what we understand from press reports, leader McConnells bill will prioritize corporate special interests over workers and main street businesses, and will fail to adequately address the worsening spread of the coronavirus.

The negotiations began after the US charted more than 75,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday breaking its own daily record and total deaths among nearly 3.8m cases surpassed 140,000. Some elected officials have called for a resumption of localized lockdowns in an effort to stem the outbreak.

Initial unemployment claims have settled at between 1m and 2m in recent weeks after topping 6m in April. Small businesses, which have benefited from more than $810bn in relief spending so far, continue to suffer with fewer drop-in customers and retail activity down.

The Democratic-controlled House passed a $3tn funding measure, the Heroes Act, in May but the Republican-held Senate has not taken it up. The new relief package is expected to provide funding for schools to reopen safely and an extension of expanded unemployment relief. The current package of $600 payouts is scheduled to expire at the end of July though this is the last week most people will receive the payment.

Republicans have resisted extending enhanced unemployment benefits over concerns, they say, that people make more from unemployment than they did at work. Labor advocates have replied that people relying on unemployment during the pandemic need the money for healthcare, childcare, education and other costs. Economists have warned abruptly pulling the money could strain the economy.

In the Oval Office on Monday, the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said the starting point for negotiations was $1tn.

Were going to make sure that we dont pay people more money to stay at home than go to work, he said. We want to make sure that people who can go to work safely can do, so well have tax credits that incentivize businesses to bring people back to work, well have tax credits for [personal protective equipment] for safe work environment.

Republican senators had scheduled a working lunch while House Democrats had a caucus meeting on Monday morning. Mnuchin said he and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, would brief Republicans on the administrations proposals tomorrow.

The clock is ticking, with Congress scheduled to go on recess for the entirety of August.

More:

Republican leaders to meet Trump as talks begin on new Covid-19 relief bill - The Guardian

Ten years ago, Arizona enacted one of the strictest and most contentious immigration measures in the nation the so-called show me your papers law and a generation of young Latinos revolted.

Hundreds of Latino activists and high school students marched through the streets of downtown Phoenix, to protest against a piece of legislation they believed authorized police to discriminate against anybody who looked like them. That was SB 1070.

We were optimistic that we could stop [then governor] Jan Brewer from signing that bill, said Raquel Tern, who joined protesters at the state capitol that day. Obviously we didnt, but it showed that we had the capacity to mobilize our communities.

Today Tern works in the copper-domed capitol building where she used to protest. She was elected as a Democrat in 2018 to represent a majority-Hispanic district in the Arizona house of representatives.

The decade-long backlash to the immigration law, accelerated by the election of Donald Trump, demographic change and population growth, is reshaping the states political landscape, turning one of the last conservative bastions of the south-west into a key place that could determine control of the White House and the Senate.

With less than four months until the election, polls show Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the president in Arizona, a state Trump won in 2016 by fewer than four percentage points, a far narrower margin than past Republican nominees. Then, in 2018, in Novembers midterm elections, young Latino voters cast votes in record numbers, joining white moderates in the suburbs, to elect Kyrsten Sinema the first Democrat to win a US senate seat in Arizona in decades.

In this years Arizona Senate race, several surveys have found Democrat Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and husband of former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, polling ahead of the Republican incumbent Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat after the death of John McCain in 2018.

Operatives in both parties believe Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric has hurt him in Arizona

While Trumps embrace of hardline, anti-immigrant rhetoric seemed to rally his base in the midwest, operatives in both parties believe it has hurt him in Arizona, a border state where many Republicans were trying to move beyond the divisive politics that had tarnished their brand with Latino voters.

When lawmakers in 2010 introduced SB 1070, which included a provision requiring law enforcement to determine the immigration status of anyone officers had reasonable suspicion to believe was in the country illegally, the political, economic and cultural backlash was swift. Businesses, sports teams, musicians, even the city of Los Angeles, boycotted the state, and Jon Stewart mocked it as the meth lab of democracy. The law remains in effect, though lawsuits and court rulings curtailed its most controversial elements.

There was political overreach from the right, and SB 1070 was the straw that broke the camels back, said Marisa Franco, the co-founder of the social justice advocacy group Mijente. It awakened an electorate thats, I think, more justice-minded.

After the death of George Floyd in May, Black Lives Matter protests spread from diverse cities like Phoenix and Tucson to largely white, conservative corners of the state such as Fountain Hills and Kingman.

I think its very possible for Arizona to turn not just blue, but even a shade further, Franco said. Theres potential for Arizona to support not just the most moderate Democratic agenda, but go beyond that.

Arizona, home to Barry Goldwater, the senator and 1964 Republican presidential nominee considered the godfather of modern conservatism in America, has long eluded Democrats.

No Democratic presidential candidate has won the state since 1996, and between 2008 and 2018, no Democrat was elected statewide at any level. Now, the Grand Canyon state is a top target for the Biden campaign.

In recent years, an influx of new residents from more liberal states like California, and a growing electoral clout of Latinos, have slowly shifted Arizonas political landscape, as its population becomes more diverse and less rural. Yet a key factor driving its competitiveness this cycle are the residents living in the Valleys famous suburban sprawl, who are abandoning the Republican party.

SB 1070 turned on this radical element in the Republican party that started pushing out moderates and replacing them with very rabid, Anglo anti-immigrant Republicans, said Arizona congressman Ruben Gallego, who was among the Latino activists swept to elected office in the years after the law went into effect.

Now you have a generation of young Latinos who are starting to vote aligning with a new coalition of moderate suburban women.

The trick for Democrats, Gallego added, is how to mobilize the young Latinos demanding systemic change without alienating white moderates craving stability and leadership.

Another reason for Democratic optimism in the state is the boiling frustration over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic by Trump and Arizonas Republican governor Doug Ducey.

Arizona is facing one of the worst outbreaks in the nation, after the state raced to reopen bars, restaurants and businesses. More than 143,600 people have contracted Covid-19 in Arizona, overwhelming hospitals. Maricopa county, which encompasses Phoenix, has ordered multiple refrigerated trucks as morgues reach capacity.

Ducey initially prevented local governments from setting their own coronavirus-related policies but reversed course in mid-June, as cases and hospitalizations rose sharply. In July, he asked the Trump administration to send hundreds of healthcare workers to the state to help.

As elsewhere, the pandemic has exacted a disproportionate toll on Arizonas Black, Latino, and Native American residents. In a widely-shared obituary published by the Arizona Republic, a daughter blamed her fathers death from Covid-19 on the carelessness of the politicians who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through a clear lack of leadership.

What remains unclear is the extent to which anger will propel Latino voters to cast ballots. In 2016 and 2018, Latinos voted at higher rates than in previous elections but organizers have warned that Democrats must invest more deeply in turning out this critical constituency.

Strategists believe the playbook for Democrats to be successful in the state is moderation and an appeal to bipartisanship. In a post-mortem memo drafted after McSallys 2018 loss, her campaign noted that Sinema had hugged McCain tightly, and never once had the word Democrat in a TV advertisement.

Stan Barnes, a conservative consultant and former Arizona state senator, said: The only way to win statewide as a Democrat in Arizona is to act like youre not a Democrat.

Barnes is skeptical that Republicans are headed for a political reckoning in November. He said Democrats have moved too far left for a state that remains largely in Republican control. Particularly on issues like policing, Barnes said Democrats are at risk of alienating white moderate voters who have historically sided with the law-and-order side of the equation.

Trump has staked his candidacy on a message of law and order, despite dramatic shifts away from his views on issues of race and policing in America. In a naked appeal to white suburban voters this week, the president said that a Biden presidency would obliterate their way of life, declaring: Suburbia will be no longer as we know it.

I think its very possible for Arizona to turn not just blue, but even a shade further

But in a sign Trump sees a fight in the desert, he has visited the state twice in two months, once in May to tour a plant producing respiratory masks and again for a rally in June, as coronavirus cases rose sharply in the state.

Because Latino voters in Arizona tend to overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates, whether or not the state will turn blue, really hinges on turnout, said Lisa Sanchez, a political scientist at the University of Arizona.

Youd think during the election of Donald Trump, we would have seen even more mobilization, Sanchez said. Youd think all the anti-immigrant anti-Latino rhetoric would have fired people up.

Activists have been laying the groundwork for years, led by groups like One Arizona, a coalition of organizations focused on Latino civic engagement that was formed in the wake of SB 1070. Tried and tested methods like voter registration and canvassing helped power Democratic gains in 2018 - and, they hope, will dramatically reshape the electorate in 2020.

Our folks were those people that would potentially not vote not because they didnt want to, but because they just simply didnt know how to or there was a language barrier, Liz Zamudio, One Arizonas deputy field director said.

Immigration is a priority for many Latino voters in the state but so too are healthcare and education, Zamudio said, especially as the coronavirus devastates their communities and a debate rages over when to return children to schools.

Yet organizers and strategists have expressed concern that Democrats are not doing enough to mobilize young Latino voters, particularly in swing states like Arizona, where they could determine the outcome.

Josh Ulibarri, a Phoenix-based Democratic pollster, said he has spent the past six weeks surveying voters in Arizona, conducting thousands of interviews from across the state. Ive yet to pull a survey out of a field where I felt comfortable with where we are with Latino voters, he said, adding: I am really worried about enthusiasm. And Im really worried about motivation.

In recent weeks, Biden has scaled up his Latino outreach efforts while building out his operation in the state. Priorities USA, the main pro-Biden Super Pac, announced it is investing $24m in a mobilization and vote-by-mail effort targeting Black and Latino voters in key states, including Arizona.

For liberal activists in Arizona, a surge in Latino turnout would be the ultimate repudiation of the nativist politics that defined their youths. The success of candidates like Tern in 2018, they say, is a testament to the years they spent building a grassroots movement.

Born in Douglas, Arizona, Tern was raised on the Mexican side of the border and crossed into the US every day for school. Alarmed by what she saw as rising hostility to immigrants in her state, Terns first political act was to register Latino voters. Years later, she asked for their vote.

Days after winning her seat, Tern was served a lawsuit challenging her citizenship in court.

She saw it as a strain of the birther movement, promoted by Trump, that questioned the citizenship of Barack Obama, the nations first black president. The case was dismissed but for Tern and her supporters, it was a reminder of the formidable opposition that still exists in Arizona.

Ten years ago I was standing outside the capitol with a megaphone, she said. Now I have a microphone and a seat at the table.

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Once a Republican bastion, Arizona is now a key state that could decide the election - The Guardian

An ABC/Washington Post poll released Sunday shows Americans overall find President Trump to be more divisive, less representative of their personal values, less understanding of American ideals and everyday problems, less trustworthy, and simply less likable than presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. And his handling of the pandemic or failure to handle it, more precisely is being blamed for the countrys current surge in COVID-19 cases, with Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and other states that followed President Trumps lead in dismissing precautionary measures, such as mask wearing and social distancing, among the hardest hit. In the six months since coronavirus was detected in the United States, more than 3.7 million cases have been diagnosed and nearly 140,000 people have died from it. And its getting worse, with weekly averages of new cases increasing every day for the past six weeks.

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Under political cover from polls and a pandemic, Republicans finally break ranks with Trump | COMMENTARY - Baltimore Sun