“Republican legislative leaders in Ohio say they are negotiating with Democrats to assure President Joe Biden appears on the state’s November ballot, but the exact shape of the solution remains murky,” the AP reports.
FBI Can’t Confirm Trump’s Claims
The FBI has said it can find no records related to former President Donald Trump’s assertions in November that he “sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys” to stop “ballot theft” in Florida during the 2018 election, NBC News reports.
Quote of the Day
“I have a better, real clear understanding of just how powerful the election of Donald Trump was. In many respects, it lit the fire onto the base of our party, and I think that’s a good thing in many respects, you know. Maybe personally, it didn’t work out for me, but I think he created the energy we needed to oust him as president in four years.”
— Former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), reflecting on his 2018 primary loss to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY).
Stacey Abrams Blamed for Trump Not Conceding
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) seemed to blame Stacey Abrams (D) for President Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Raffensperger drew parallels between Abrams’ refusal to concede her loss in the 2018 gubernatorial race to Brian Kemp: “After four years of relentless attacks on the integrity of elections by the most significant mainstream media outlets and pundits, it should come as no surprise that Americans have trouble believing the results of even the most secure elections.”
Georgia’s Legacy of Voter Suppression Drives Turnout
“Almost every Black Georgia voter queuing up at the polls has a story about 2018,” Politico reports.
“Most waited for hours in lines that wrapped around their voting locations. Some were removed from the voter rolls arbitrarily, forcing them to fill out confusing provisional ballots on Election Day. Others stayed home altogether and — after watching Democrat Stacey Abrams lose the gubernatorial race by fewer than 60,000 votes — regretted that decision.”
“Now, voter enthusiasm among all races is at an all-time high in one of the most consequential battleground states in the country. So is voter anxiety.”
Trump Using Same Playbook That Didn’t Work In 2018
New York Times: “President Trump is using a fear-based playbook that is as familiar to him as it is questionable in actually helping Republicans get elected in recent years. Some of the players have changed — instead of MS-13 gang members and migrant caravans, now there are rioters and looters — but the target audience and themes are the same: Suburban communities that he claims Democrats won’t keep safe. The president is even reusing phrases and imagery from 2018, with slogans like ‘jobs not mobs’ and ads showing Democratic politicians and liberal figures kneeling during the national anthem.”
“Democrats can point to the 41 House seats they picked up in 2018 to show that the Republican strategy did not work then, and that voters were more concerned about health care than havoc. Even Republicans say there is no solid evidence in their polling that proves the president’s tactics are helping him today.”
Washington Post: Trump employs images of violence as political fuel for reelection fight.
Andrew Gillum Enters Rehab
“Former Florida candidate for governor Andrew Gillum (D) disclosed Sunday that he is entering a rehabilitation facility, saying he had fallen into a depression and alcohol abuse after losing his bid for the state’s highest post,” the AP reports.
“The Democrat’s statement came days after Gillum was named in a south Florida police report Friday that said he was ‘inebriated’ and initially unresponsive in a hotel room along with a male companion where authorities found baggies of suspected crystal methamphetamine.”
Andrew Gillum Involved In Crystal Meth Incident
Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum (D) was allegedly involved in an incident involving crystal meth at a Miami Beach hotel early this morning, according to an incident report obtained by the Miami New Times.
Gillum to the Washington Post: “While I had too much to drink, I want to be clear that I have never used methamphetamines.”
He says he was in Miami last night for a wedding celebration when EMTs were called to assist one of his friends.
FBI Arrests Hacker Tied to Katie Hill’s Campaign
The FBI arrested a man connected to former Rep. Katie Hill’s (D-CA) congressional campaign, BuzzFeed News reports.
“Hill, who flipped a Republican-held seat in California two years ago, resigned from Congress last year after nude photos of her were released without her consent. While she was a candidate in 2018, the website of one of her Democratic rivals — Bryan Caforio — was hacked.”
The Intercept: “During the campaign, the websites of Hill’s opponents, Democrats Jess Phoenix and Bryan Caforio, who was supported by Justice Democrats, were both attacked, though Hill’s never was, raising suspicions at the time that Hill’s campaign was behind them.”
Quote of the Day
“He got 44.8% in 2018. He suffered the worst electoral defeat in the House ever… but yet, the media is going, ‘Oh, he’s so strong, he’s so powerful, he’s so this.’ No he’s not!”
— James Carville, in an interview on MSNBC, on President Trump.
Massive Dark Money Group Boosted Democrats
The “green wave” of campaign cash that boosted Democrats and liberal causes in 2018 included an unprecedented gusher of secret money, new documents obtained by Politico show.
“The Sixteen Thirty Fund, a little-known nonprofit headquartered in Washington, spent $141 million on more than 100 left-leaning causes during the midterm election year, according to a new tax filing from the group.”
‘Medicare for All’ Was a Loser In 2018 Midterms
Alan Abramowitz: “An analysis of the impact of Medicare for All on the 2018 House elections indicates that Democratic challengers and open seat candidates in competitive districts who endorsed a version of Medicare for All similar to that proposed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren did significantly worse than those who did not. This negative effect, close to five points of margin after controlling for a variety of other factors, was clearly large enough to affect the outcomes of some House contests.”
“It is possible that the estimated effect of Medicare for All was a byproduct of other differences between supporters and non-supporters. For example, supporters might have taken more liberal positions on a variety of other issues as well as Medicare for All. Even if that is the case, however, these findings are not encouraging to supporters of Medicare for All. They indicate that candidates in competitive races who take positions to the left of the median voter could get punished at the polls. Democratic presidential candidates would do well to take heed of these results, particularly as the eventual nominee determines what he or she wishes to emphasize in the general election.”
Mystery of Missing Votes Deepens In Georgia
“To find a clue about what might have gone wrong with Georgia’s election last fall, look no further than voting machine No. 3 at the Winterville Train Depot outside Athens,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“On machine No. 3, Republicans won every race. On each of the other six machines in that precinct, Democrats won every race. The odds of an anomaly that large are less than 1 in 1 million.”
“It just so happens that this occurred in Republican Brian Kemp’s home precinct, where he initially had a problem voting when his yellow voter access card didn’t work because a poll worker forgot to activate it. At the time, Kemp was secretary of state — Georgia’s top election official — and running for governor in a tight contest with Democrat Stacey Abrams.”
“The suspicious results in Winterville are evidence in the ongoing mystery of whether errors with voting machines contributed to a stark drop-off in votes recorded in the race for Georgia lieutenant governor between Republican Geoff Duncan, who ended up winning, and Democrat Sarah Riggs Amico.”
House Republicans Adopt Trump’s Playbook
“The NRCC, with the blessing of House Republican leaders, has adopted a no-holds-barred strategy to win back the House majority next year, borrowing heavily from President Trump’s playbook in deploying such taunts and name-calling,” the New York Times reports.
“The offensive hinges largely on the relatively facile notion that by tagging all House Democrats as socialists, anti-Semites or far-left extremists, they will be able to alienate swing-state voters. On Tuesday night, after the House voted to condemn as racist President Trump’s attacks on four congresswoman, the campaign arm’s communications team deluged reporters’ inboxes with message after message calling vulnerable Democratic lawmakers ‘deranged.'”
“Their tactics have discomforted some Republicans and highlighted the struggle in the party over how much to lean into the tenor of politics forged by their leader.”
Florida Democrats Still Fighting Over 2018
“A nine-page report titled Path to Power recommends changes to party communications, candidate recruitment, digital operations, and voter registration. The analysis, published online without fanfare, has been quietly circulated to grassroots and local leaders.”
“State Democrats are still smarting after a run of bad election cycles, including last year’s race for governor and the loss of a U.S. Senate seat. Party leaders praised the report, calling it a comprehensive look at changes needed to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020. But for some, the work fell short.”
Democrats Maintain Lead for Congress
The newly-updated FiveThirtyEight generic congressional ballot tracker shows Democrats leading Republicans, 45.9% to 40.1%.
New Research Suggests There Are Still Swing Voters
Ron Brownstein: “Detailed new research by the Democratic voter-targeting firm Catalist found that the party’s big gains in the 2018 congressional election were fueled not only by unusually high turnout among voters sympathetic to the party, but also by larger-than-expected defections from the GOP among voters who had backed Trump two years earlier.”
“Those findings offer potentially critical evidence as Democrats are debating the best approach to beating Trump in 2020. On one side are progressive activists who say the party should prioritize mobilizing nonvoters, particularly young people and minorities, with an unabashedly liberal agenda. On the other are centrists who say Democrats can’t tilt so far left on issues such as single-payer health care and the Green New Deal that they alienate swing voters who backed Trump in 2016 but may be open to reconsidering now.”
“Rather than picking one path, the new Catalist data on 2018 signals that Democrats need to do some of both in 2020. But, on balance, its analysis found that a clear majority of Democrats’ gains from 2016 to 2018 came from voters switching their preference, rather than from changes in the electorate’s composition.”
Federal Subpoena Demands Records on Andrew Gillum
“Andrew Gillum (D) is a focal point of a recently issued federal grand jury subpoena that demands information on the former Democratic candidate for governor, his campaign, his political committee, a wealthy donor, a charity he worked for and a former employer,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“Throughout his campaign last year, Gillum insisted that he was not a target of a sprawling FBI investigation of Tallahassee city hall, which has taken at least three years and resulted in three arrests… But the recent one does.”
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