Subterms
Eric Adams arrives for lunch alone, no entourage or media handler. He shows me his new earring — “the first thing,” he says, that Joe Biden “asked to see” when the two met recently to discuss gun violence. He orders a tomato salad with oil on the side, the abstemious diet of the all-but-crowned king of New York. More
President Biden’s administration has revived a tradition of championship invitations that had grown sporadic under former President Donald J. Trump.WASHINGTON — Until a few hours before kickoff, Tom Brady was questionable for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ celebration of their Super Bowl title at the White House. He was the most prolific winner of titles and decliner of presidential invitations in league history.But when the band struck up and President Biden strode onto the South Lawn to meet the championship team, Mr. Brady, the quarterback and seven-time N.F.L. champion, was there, smiling in a dark suit and sunglasses, leading a small procession including his coach, his team’s owner and the commander in chief himself.A few minutes later he was back in the spotlight, tossing off political jokes like slant routes, mostly targeting Mr. Biden’s predecessor, Donald J. Trump, a longtime friend of Mr. Brady’s.Mr. Brady first needled Mr. Trump’s baseless claims that he actually won the 2020 presidential election, which many Trump supporters still believe. The quarterback said many people did not believe the Buccaneers could win the championship last year.“I think about 40 percent of the people still don’t think we won,” Mr. Brady said.“I understand that,” Mr. Biden said.Mr. Brady turned to Mr. Biden. “You understand that, Mr. President?” he said.Mr. Biden smiled. “I understand that,” he said again.“Yeah,” Mr. Brady continued. “And personally, you know, it’s nice for me to be back here. We had a game in Chicago where I forgot what down it was. I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing, and they started calling me ‘Sleepy Tom.’ Why would they do that to me?”Mr. Biden — whom Mr. Trump frequently called “Sleepy Joe” during the campaign — played along. “I don’t know,” he said.Mr. Brady, 43, is the most accomplished signal caller in N.F.L. history. After leading the New England Patriots to six championships in his first two decades in the league, he quarterbacked Tampa Bay to a 31-9 Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in February, shortly after Mr. Biden was inaugurated. It earned him and his teammates a request to visit the president at the White House.But as of Monday, White House officials could not say for sure if he planned to attend.Mr. Brady missed several presidential team visits under Mr. Trump and President Barack Obama after winning previous Super Bowls. He last trekked to a White House title ceremony in 2005, when George W. Bush was in office. His attendance this time around was rumored on Monday, then confirmed by photos posted to social media on Tuesday morning.Mr. Biden has in recent weeks also hosted the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, as his administration revives a tradition of championship invites that had grown sporadic under Mr. Trump after many players boycotted the festivities. An N.F.L. champion last visited the White House in 2017.On Tuesday, while Mr. Brady’s teammates stood on risers and baked in the heat of the White House lawn, the president praised the Bucs for their persistence in reeling off an unbeaten run to the championship after starting the season with seven wins and five losses.“This is a team that didn’t fold, got up, dug deep,” the president said. “It’s an incredible run.”He singled out Tampa Bay receiver Chris Godwin, who was born and raised in the same states as Mr. Biden. “Born in Pennsylvania, raised in Delaware,” the president said. “Where I come from, that’s a heck of a combination, man.”The president could not resist sprinkling in a few stories of his own, less accomplished football career. And he could not resist ribbing Mr. Brady — and himself — about their ages.“A lot has been made about the fact that we have the oldest coach ever to win a Super Bowl and the oldest quarterback to win the Super Bowl,” said Mr. Biden, who at 78 was the oldest person ever sworn in as president. “Well, I’ll tell you right now: You won’t hear any jokes about that from me. As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing wrong with being the oldest guy to make it to the mountaintop.”Eventually, Mr. Biden gave way to the team owner, Bryan Glazer, and coach, Bruce Arians, and then to Mr. Brady and his comedy routine.When the laughter from the relatively small crowd on the lawn died down, Mr. Brady and the Buccaneers prepared to give the president a customary personalized jersey, with “Biden” across the back and the number 46, for Mr. Biden’s presidency. The band prepared to play Queen’s “We Are the Champions” while players, including the quarterback, posed for photos with onlookers including several Florida politicians.But first Mr. Brady had one more joke, about how he planned to make the most of the remainder of his time at the White House.“We’re going to challenge — 11 of us — 11 White House interns to game of football here on the lawn,” Mr. Brady said.“And we intend to run it up on you guys, so get ready to go.” More
El líder de izquierda, quien ha prometido renovar el sistema político y económico para abordar la pobreza y la desigualdad, derrotó por muy pocos votos a la hija de un expresidente encarcelado.LIMA, Perú — Sus padres eran campesinos que no aprendieron a leer. Cuando era niño, y antes de convertirse en maestro, caminaba durante horas para asistir a la escuela. Después, hace dos meses, irrumpió en la escena política de Perú como un candidato antisistema con un cautivador llamado a las urnas: “No más pobres en un país rico”.Y el lunes en la noche, casi un mes después de la segunda vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales, los funcionarios declararon a Pedro Castillo, de 51 años, como el próximo presidente de Perú. Con una votación muy cerrada, Castillo venció a Keiko Fujimori, la hija de un expresidente de derecha que se ha convertido en un símbolo prominente de la élite peruana.La victoria de Castillo, pese a haberse producido por un margen muy estrecho, es el repudio más claro a las clases dirigentes del país en 30 años. También fue la tercera derrota consecutiva para Fujimori.Castillo, un socialista, se convertirá en el primer presidente de izquierda de Perú en más de una generación, y el primero en haber vivido la mayor parte de su vida como campesino en una región andina pobre.En su discurso de victoria, desde un balcón en el centro de Lima mientras sus simpatizantes gritaban “sí se pudo”, Castillo prometió trabajar para todos los peruanos.“Llamo a la más amplia unidad del pueblo peruano, llamo a la unidad”, dijo Castillo. “Compartiremos juntos esta lucha, este emprendimiento y este esfuerzo para hacer un Perú más justo, más soberano, más digno, más humano y más unido”.Dirigiéndose a Keiko Fujimori, agregó: “No pongamos más barreras en esta travesía y no pongamos más obstáculos para sacar adelante este país”.El anuncio de su victoria se produjo después de un mes de esfuerzos por parte de Fujimori para anular unos 200.000 votos en áreas donde Castillo ganó de manera abrumadora, una medida que habría privado de sus derechos a muchos peruanos pobres e indígenas.Poco antes de que las autoridades declararan a Castillo como el presidente electo, Fujimori dijo en un discurso televisado el lunes por la noche que reconocería los resultados por respeto a la ley, pero calificó la proclamación de su contrincante como “ilegítima” e insistió de nuevo en que el partido de Castillo le había robado miles de votos.Hizo un llamado a sus simpatizantes para entrar en “una nueva etapa” en la que se mantendrán políticamente activos porque “el comunismo no llega al poder para soltarlo. Es por eso que quieren imponernos ahora una nueva Constitución”. Y añadió: “Me siento en la obligación de dejar claro que no podemos caer en ningún tipo de violencia. Tenemos derecho a movilizarnos, pero de manera pacífica”.Keiko Fujimori mientras subía al escenario poco antes de pronunciar su discurso televisado, el lunes por la noche.Sebastian Castaneda/ReutersFujimori acusó a los partidarios de Castillo de alterar las actas en todo el país. Pero en las semanas que siguieron a la votación, nadie se presentó para corroborar su afirmación central: que las identidades de cientos de trabajadores electorales habían sido robadas y sus firmas fueron falsificadas.La disputa llevó a miles de simpatizantes de los dos candidatos a las calles de Lima en un duelo de protestas cerca de la sede de la junta electoral. Muchos de los partidarios de Castillo de las regiones rurales pasaron semanas acampando para esperar su proclamación oficial como ganador.Al final, las autoridades electorales rechazaron todas las solicitudes del partido de Fujimori que exigía descontar las boletas de un recuento oficial que ubicaba a Castillo con una ventaja de 40.000 votos.“El voto del ciudadano que está en La Molina, en Miraflores, en San Isidro, tiene el mismo peso ciudadano y cívico que el pobre que está en el último rincón del país”, dijo Castillo a una multitud de simpatizantes el mes pasado, refiriéndose a distritos exclusivos de Lima.“Nunca se burlen de un hombre cuando viene con sombrero. No se burlen más de un campechano, no se burlen más de un obrero, de un rondero, de un maestro. Porque así se hace patria”, dijo Castillo. “Hoy tenemos que enseñar a la juventud, a la niñez, que todos somos iguales ante la ley”.Muchos simpatizantes de Castillo dijeron que votaron por él con la esperanza de que renueve el sistema económico neoliberal impuesto por el padre de Keiko Fujimori, Alberto Fujimori, un sistema que, según dijeron, condujo a avances iniciales en el pasado pero que al final fracasó en ayudar a millones de las personas más empobrecidas del país.Esa dolorosa disparidad se hizo más evidente cuando llegó el coronavirus. El virus ha devastado a Perú, que tiene la cifra per cápita de fallecimientos por COVID-19 más alta del mundo. Casi el 10 por ciento de su población ha caído en la pobreza en el último año.“Treinta años en los que los grandes capitalistas se han enriquecido más y en Perú hay más pobreza”, dijo Manuel Santiago, el dueño de 64 años de una tienda que votó por Castillo. “Estamos cansados de lo mismo”.Pero Castillo enfrentará enormes desafíos.Castillo mientras hablaba con sus simpatizantes desde su sede de campaña en Lima, el mes pasado.Harold Mejía/EPA vía ShutterstockEn los últimos años, la corrupción y las venganzas políticas han convulsionado al país que en un periodo de cinco años tuvo cuatro presidentes y dos congresos.Quizás de manera más significativa, Castillo, quien nunca ha ocupado un cargo público, carece de la experiencia política y del respaldo generalizado y organizado que tuvieron otros líderes de izquierda que llegaron al poder en Sudamérica.“Él como figura política representa problemas que abonarían a la inestabilidad”, dijo el politólogo peruano Mauricio Zavaleta.En la Bolivia de 2005, Evo Morales, quien se convirtió en el primer presidente indígena del país, “ganó en la primera vuelta con más del 50 por ciento del voto”, dijo Zavaleta. En Venezuela en 1998, Hugo Chávez “fue un vendaval electoral”. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, en Brasil en 2002, y Rafael Correa, en Ecuador en 2006, fueron figuras de la política tradicional que la primera vez que contendieron a la presidencia fueron elegidos con márgenes grandes.Castillo “no es de esos fenómenos”, dijo Zavaleta.Y agregó que es poco probable que Castillo cuente con el apoyo del Congreso, el ejército, los medios de comunicación, la élite o un movimiento político amplio. “Simplemente no tiene el músculo para llevar a cabo las reformas ambiciosas que ha propuesto”.Castillo había prometido reevaluar el sistema político y económico para reducir la pobreza y la desigualdad, y remplazar la Constitución vigente por una que incrementara el papel del Estado en la economía. Hizo campaña con un sombrero de campesino y, a veces, apareció a caballo o bailando con los votantes.“Es alguien que no tiene que ir a visitar un pueblo para estar en contacto con la gente y conocer sus problemas, porque viene de un pueblo”, dijo Cynthia Cienfuegos, especialista en asuntos políticos de Transparencia, una organización de la sociedad civil.“Su triunfo refleja una demanda de cambio que se ha pospuesto durante mucho tiempo”, dijo.Castillo creció en la zona montañosa del norte de Perú y, durante su juventud, limpiaba habitaciones de hotel en Lima. Después de asistir a la universidad en una ciudad en el norte del país decidió regresar a la misma provincia de las tierras altas donde creció para trabajar en una escuela sin agua corriente ni alcantarillado.Una simpatizante de Pedro Castillo en Lima, el mes pasado.Paolo Aguilar/EPA vía ShutterstockDespués de convertirse en representante sindical de los maestros, Castillo ayudó a liderar una huelga de 2017 en la que los educadores pidieron mejores salarios.Posteriormente, desapareció en buena medida del ojo público hasta este año cuando se unió a un partido marxista-leninista para postularse a la presidencia y emergió de manera sorpresiva como el líder —aunque por un estrecho margen— de la primera ronda de la contienda electoral.Durante la campaña viajó por todo el país para escuchar a los votantes, y a menudo cargaba un lápiz enorme bajo el brazo para recordarles su promesa de garantizar la igualdad de acceso a una educación de calidad.Difícilmente podría ser más distinto de Keiko Fujimori, quien tuvo una crianza privilegiada y se convirtió en la primera dama del país a los 19 años, luego de que sus padres se separaron.El padre de Keiko Fujimori, de manera similar a Castillo, llegó a la presidencia como una figura al margen de la política tradicional en uno de los momentos más complejos de la historia del país. Si bien al principio se le atribuyó a Fujimori el apaciguamiento de las violentas insurgencias de izquierda en la década de 1990, ahora muchos lo consideran como un autócrata corrupto.En una serie de juicios, Fujimori fue condenado por dirigir las actividades de un escuadrón de la muerte, por delitos de corrupción y otros crímenes. Está encarcelado desde 2007, con una breve interrupción.Su hija también se enfrenta a un proceso judicial, acusada de dirigir una organización criminal que traficaba con donaciones ilegales durante una campaña presidencial anterior. Ella niega los cargos. Si la encuentran culpable, podría ser condenada a 30 años de prisión.Castillo, quien asumirá el cargo el 28 de julio en el bicentenario de la Independencia de Perú de España, se ha presentado como un nuevo comienzo para un país con una larga historia de amiguismo y corrupción.Julie Turkewitz es jefa del buró de los Andes, que abarca Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú, Surinam y Guyana. Antes de mudarse a América del Sur, fue corresponsal de temas nacionales y cubrió el oeste de Estados Unidos. @julieturkewitz More
Tuesday: More than 40 candidates are vying to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom if voters remove him from office.Caitlyn Jenner arriving to give a speech to the Republican Party of Orange County last month.Leonard Ortiz/Orange County Register, via Getty ImagesGood morning.We’re just about two months away from a closely watched election that will indelibly shape the state’s future. And as of this weekend, we know — for the most part — who will be on the ballot.I am, of course, referring to the special election to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom from office, which is set to take place on Sept. 14. Voters will be asked two questions: First, should Newsom be kicked out of his job early? And second, who should replace him if the majority of voters say that he should, indeed, get the boot?On Saturday, Shirley Weber, the state’s elections chief, posted a list of candidates vying to take over for the governor, which will be certified this week. On it were 41 Californians — the ones who turned in their paperwork by the Friday deadline.Here’s what you need to know about who is on the list, who is not and what’s ahead:Forty-one is a lot fewer than the 74 who officially announced their intent to run, and it’s also a lot fewer than the more than 100 candidates on the ballot in the 2003 recall of Gray Davis. What’s up with that?Although a judge gave recall proponents more time to gather signatures for their cause because of the pandemic, the rest of the recall timeline has been compressed as Democrats, who have almost entirely fallen in line with Newsom, pushed to get the question in front of voters while they’re feeling optimistic about their post-pandemic lives.And candidates had to file their paperwork 59 days before the election.It’s not clear what other factors may have led to the narrower field, but one thing is certain: There are no serious Democratic challengers. (There had been speculation about whether any might take the opportunity, but both the governor and national party leaders have made it clear they would not be happy about someone potentially splitting the vote.)What were the requirements for would-be candidates to qualify?Candidates must be United States citizens who are currently qualified to vote for California governor..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}In order to file for candidacy, they had to pay a fee of about $4,200, which is, according to the secretary of state’s office, 2 percent of the first year’s salary for being governor.Or, instead of that filing fee, they could submit 7,000 valid signatures from voters supporting their run. Under a new law, the candidates also had to file the last five years of their tax returns.That’s where the conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder is in dispute with the state.The radio talk show host Larry Elder speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in Norwalk. Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated PressElder was told that he didn’t file the required tax information, The Associated Press reported.In response, Elder said on Twitter that he planned to sue in order to get on the ballot, which will be sent to millions of Californians — a fight that he immediately asked supporters to help pay for.Other candidates have sparred with officials over how they’ll be portrayed on the ballot, including Newsom himself, over whether he would be identified as a Democrat, with a “D” next to his name (he won’t). Kevin Faulconer, seen as the top Republican in the race, would like to be identified as the “retired” mayor of San Diego, which he is, but the ballot lists current roles.So who else is on the candidate list?The broad consensus so far is that there is no Arnold Schwarzenegger, a unifying force for Republicans in 2003.Of the 41 candidates, 21 are listed as Republicans. Many are listed as entertainers or businesspeople.There’s Caitlyn Jenner, the Olympian and reality television star. There’s Kevin Paffrath, a YouTube personality who is suing the state to include his online nickname on the official ballot. Kevin Kiley — the state legislator who emerged as a chief antagonist of the governor — recently announced he would join the race and is now on the list.Also on the list is John Cox, the businessman who lost to Newsom in 2018 by a wide margin. You might better remember him as the guy who brought a live bear to a campaign event.Angelyne, the pink Corvette-driving Hollywood denizen, is running without a party preference. Jeff Hewitt, a Riverside County supervisor who has railed against pandemic restrictions, is running as a Libertarian.Faulconer has tried to distinguish himself from the rest of the pack with more substantive policy plans. His run, political experts say, is more likely an effort to get Californians more familiar with his name ahead of a run for governor in the regular election next year.For more:Read more about who is in the race from The Associated Press.Here are the answers to 12 questions you probably have about the Newsom recall effort.Read about why the election will be on Sept. 14, rather than later in the year.See how all the candidates make their money by looking at their tax returns in this article by The Sacramento Bee.Here’s what else to know todayThe Bootleg fire near Oregon’s border with California has grown to 240,000 acres.Payton Bruni/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe Tamarack fire, a wildfire near Lake Tahoe that has been burning since July 4, expanded over the weekend, prompting a wave of evacuations.Pacific Gas and Electric said a blown fuse on one of its utility poles may have sparked the Dixie fire in Northern California. So far, the wildfire has burned through 30,000 acres.For the Napa Valley wine industry, climate change is leading to desperation. Some growers are spraying sunscreen on grapes, to try to prevent roasting, while others are irrigating with treated wastewater from toilets and sinks because reservoirs are dry.Removing leaves from zinfandel vines at the Green & Red Vineyard near St. Helena.Mike Kai Chen for The New York TimesThe question of what to do about violence against older Asian residents in San Francisco has become a source of division. Many residents of Chinese descent are calling for an increase in police patrols, while the city’s Asian American leaders say they would rather not involve law enforcement.A preliminary investigation into an explosion in residential South Los Angeles found that the amount of explosive material placed into a containment truck by bomb squad technicians exceeded the vehicle’s capacity, Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department told ABC 7. Officers were trying to dispose of illegal fireworks when the explosion occurred.CalMatters details a proposed tuition hike from the University of California, which would allow campuses to raise tuition for each incoming class every year, indefinitely. The university has already received $1.3 billion in aid this year.Eloy Ortiz Oakley, the California Community Colleges chancellor, will temporarily join the Biden administration as an adviser to the United States education secretary, according to The Los Angeles Times.A vote from the Oakland City Council on Tuesday will decide the future of the Athletics in Oakland, as a no vote would kill the financial prospect of a new ballpark at Howard Terminal.Collin Morikawa, a 24-year-old Californian, won the British Open golf tournament on Sunday. It was his first appearance at the tournament.Like spectators, athletes are becoming ever more aware of the defects in the Olympic system. Allyson Felix, the American track star who will be making her fifth Olympic appearance at the Tokyo Games, was part of a push to get the Summer Games for Los Angeles. She believes that athletes do not have a seat at the table when the decisions are being made.California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter. More
Nina Turner’s move from Bernie Sanders’s campaign co-chairwoman to House candidate has highlighted a Democratic divide between impatient young activists and cautious older voters.WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio — Nina Turner had just belted out a short address to God’s Tabernacle of Faith Church in the cadences and tremulous volumes of a preacher when the Rev. Timothy Eppinger called on the whole congregation to lay hands on the woman seeking the House seat of greater Cleveland.“She’s gone through hell and high water,” the pastor said to nods and assents. “This is her season to live, and not to die.”On Aug. 3, the voters of Ohio’s 11th District will render that judgment and with it, some indication of the direction the Democratic Party is heading: toward the defiant and progressive approach Ms. Turner embodies or the reserved mold of its leaders in Washington, shaped more by the establishment than the ferment stirring its grass roots.Democrats say there is little broader significance to this individual House primary contest, one that pits two Black women against each other in a safe Democratic district that had been represented by Marcia Fudge before she was confirmed as President Biden’s secretary of housing and urban development.Yet in the final weeks of the campaign, the party establishment is throwing copious amounts of time and money into an effort to stop Ms. Turner, a fiery former Cleveland councilwoman and Ohio state senator known beyond this district as the face and spirit of Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns, a co-chairwoman in 2020 and a ubiquitous surrogate for the socialist senator.That suggests leaders understand that the outcome of the race will be read as a signal about the party’s future. It has already rekindled old rivalries. The Congressional Black Caucus’s political action committee has endorsed Ms. Turner’s main rival, Shontel Brown, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party chairwoman. So have Hillary Clinton and the highest-ranking Black member of the House, James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, who will be campaigning here this weekend for Ms. Brown. They argue that Ms. Brown is the better candidate, with a unifying message after four divisive years of Donald J. Trump.Ms. Brown sees herself as liberal, but she would move step by step, for instance embracing Mr. Biden’s call for adding a “public option” to the Affordable Care Act before jumping straight to the single-payer Medicare-for-all health care system Ms. Turner wants.“I’m not one to shy away from a challenge or conflict; I just don’t seek it out,” said Ms. Brown, who sees the differences as more style than substance. “And that’s the major difference: I’m not looking for headlines. I’m looking to make headway.”In turn, liberal activists around the country have rushed to Ms. Turner’s defense, with money, volunteers and reinforcements. Her campaign has raised $4.5 million for a primary, $1.3 million in the last month. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York will be knocking on doors for her the same weekend Mr. Clyburn will be in town. Mr. Sanders will join the fray in person the last weekend before Election Day.“She would be a real asset for the House,” Mr. Sanders said. “She is a very, very strong progressive, and I hope very much she is going to win.”Supporters of Shontel Brown say she presents a more unifying message after four years of the Trump administration.Mike Cardew/Akron Beakon Journal, via USA Today NetworkThe race has captured less an ideological divide than a generational split, pitting older voters turned off by the liberal insurgency’s disparagement of Democratic leaders and brash demands for rapid change against younger voters’ sense of urgency and anger about the trajectory of the country and world being left to them.At every turn here, Ms. Turner hits on the struggles of her city, the poorest large municipality in the country, but also America’s mountain of student debt, its inequity in health care and a climate crisis that has left the West parched and burning, the ice caps melting and Europe digging out from a deluge.Cleveland’s mayor, Frank Jackson, has endorsed Ms. Turner, as has The Plain Dealer. But Ms. Brown has the most reliable voters, many of them older, more affluent and white.For Ms. Turner to win, she needs people like Dewayne Williams, 31 and formerly incarcerated, who came out in the rain on Saturday to the Gas on God Community Giveaway, for $10 worth of free gas in one of Cleveland’s most dangerous neighborhoods.“I’m just young, don’t know much about politics, but I know she’s a good woman,” Mr. Williams said, growing emotional after Ms. Turner leaned into his car to give him a hug. Given his experience in the prison system, he said, “the changes she’s trying to do — to even care a little bit about that situation — I definitely appreciate.”“Oh man,” Mr. Williams added, “you’ve got to have a loud voice. You’ve got to be loud so people can hear.”The outcome of the special election could reverberate through the party. Progressive primary challengers have already declared — and are raising impressive sums, far more than previous challengers — to take on Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney in New York, Danny K. Davis in Chicago, John Yarmuth in Louisville and Jim Cooper in Nashville. They are hoping to build on the successes of Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman in New York, Ayanna S. Pressley in Boston, Marie Newman in Chicago and Cori Bush in St. Louis — all of whom have knocked off Democratic incumbents since 2018.All of them face opposition from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Congressional Black Caucus and a new political action committee, Team Blue, started by Representatives Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic Caucus chairman; Josh Gottheimer, a moderate from New Jersey; and Terri A. Sewell, a Black Caucus member from Alabama.“It speaks volumes to where they want us to be going as a party,” said Kina Collins, who is challenging Mr. Davis. “The message is, ‘You’re not welcome, and if you try to come in, we’re going to pony up the resources to silence you.’”Ms. Turner spoke with voters at a Gas on God Community Giveaway in Cleveland on Saturday.Maddie McGarvey for The New York TimesMs. Turner said she wanted the race to be about her issues: single-payer Medicare for all, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, canceling student loan debt and other centerpieces of the Sanders movement she helped create. She said she had been warned from the beginning of her candidacy that Washington Democrats would unite around an “anyone but Nina” candidate.But on Sunday, even she seemed surprised by the bitter turn the contest had taken. The Congressional Black Caucus PAC’s intervention particularly rankled. With the rise of liberal groups like Justice Democrats dedicated to unseating entrenched Democrats in safe seats, the caucus has emerged as something of an incumbent protection service.It backed Representative William Lacy Clay Jr. of Missouri, a caucus member, in his unsuccessful bid to stave off a Black challenger, Ms. Bush, last year, and Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, now the chairwoman of the caucus, in her successful bid to beat a Justice Democrat.But the PAC also backed Representative Eliot Engel of New York, who is white, last year against his progressive challenger, Mr. Bowman, who is Black.And now, inexplicably to Ms. Turner and her allies, the powerful Black establishment is intervening in an open-seat race between two Black candidates.“I don’t begrudge anybody wanting to get involved in the race,” Ms. Turner said, “but the entire Congressional Black Caucus PAC? That’s sending another message: Progressives need not apply.”Mr. Clyburn’s high-profile intervention is especially striking. In endorsing Ms. Brown, Mr. Clyburn said he was choosing the candidate he liked best, not opposing Ms. Turner. But he did speak out against the “sloganeering” of the party’s left wing.Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking Black Democrat in the House, has endorsed Ms. Brown.Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesIn Cleveland, not everyone appreciated the distinction.“They want somebody they can control, and they want somebody to fall in line,” said State Representative Juanita Brent, who backs Ms. Turner. She said she had a message for Mr. Clyburn: “Congressman, with all due respect, stay out of our district.”Ms. Brown, younger than Ms. Turner, with an easygoing demeanor that does not match the Turner campaign’s description of her negative campaigning, pushed back hard against the characterization of her as a Washington puppet.Her campaign is staffed by help from SKDK, a powerhouse Democratic political firm stocked with old hands from the Clinton and Obama days. Her endorsements include moderate House Democrats like Mr. Gottheimer, many of whom are motivated by Ms. Turner’s favorable statements on Palestinian rights.But Ms. Brown insists she is no pawn for establishment Democrats.“You should ask the people who have tried to control me,” she said. “You will find that I am an independent thinker. I am one that likes to gather all of the facts and make an informed decision.”At Alfred Grant’s motorcycle shop in Bedford, Ohio, where Ms. Brown was dropping by a show of motorcycle muscle on Saturday night, older Black voters backed her campaign’s assessment of Ms. Turner: You either love her or you really don’t.“It seems to me that Nina tends to work for herself more than working together,” Roberta Reed said. “I mean, I need people who are going to work together to make it all whole.”“She’s going to help the Biden-Harris agenda; that means a lot,” Denise Grant, Mr. Grant’s wife, said of Ms. Brown, hitting on her biggest talking point. “We don’t need anybody fighting with Biden there.”Her husband jumped in, expressing weariness of the kind of confrontational politics that Ms. Turner embraced. “We did four years of foolishness,” he said. “Now it’s calmed down. That’s how politics should be. I don’t have to look at you every day.”Ms. Turner does not back down from that critique. Voters can take it or leave it.“My ancestors would have never been set free but for somebody bumping up against the status quo and saying, ‘You will not enslave us anymore,’” she said.Parishioners prayed over Ms. Turner at God’s Tabernacle of Faith Church on Sunday.Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times“Martin Luther King, Minister Malcolm X, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hamer — I’m just giving examples of people who I’m sure folks who believe in the status quo wish had been nicer,” she said.At God’s Tabernacle of Faith, Pastor Eppinger teed up Ms. Turner with a rousing sermon inspired by the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel.“How long will you walk through dead schools, dead communities, dead governments?” he thundered. “Can these dry bones live?”Ms. Turner, in a bright yellow dress, removed her matching, bright yellow mask, and answered, “All Sister Turner is saying is, we need somebody to speak life into the dry bones of City Hall, the dry bones in Congress, and if God blesses me to go to that next place, I am going to continue to stand for the poor, the working poor and the barely middle class. Can these dry bones live?”To that, the 50 or so parishioners gave an amen. More
Mr. Castillo, who has vowed to overhaul the political and economic system to address poverty and inequality, narrowly defeated the daughter of a jailed former president.LIMA, Peru — His parents were peasant farmers who never learned to read. As a child, he walked hours to school, before becoming a teacher himself. Then, two months ago, he burst onto Peru’s national political scene as an anti-establishment candidate with a captivating call to the ballot box: “No more poor people in a rich country.”And on Monday night, nearly a month since the second round of the presidential election, officials declared Pedro Castillo, 51, the next president of Peru. In a very close vote, he defeated Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a right-wing former president and herself a towering symbol of the Peruvian elite.Mr. Castillo’s victory, however narrow the margin, is the clearest repudiation of the country’s establishment in 30 years. It was also the third straight loss for Ms. Fujimori.Mr. Castillo, a socialist, will become Peru’s first left-wing president in more than a generation, and its first to have lived most of his life as a “campesino” — or peasant — in a poor Andean region.In a victory speech from a balcony in downtown Lima, with his supporters chanting “yes, we could” in the streets below, Mr. Castillo promised to work for all Peruvians.“I call for the broadest unity of the Peruvian people,” Mr. Castillo said. “Together we’ll share this struggle and this effort to make a more just, dignified and united Peru.”Addressing Ms. Fujimori, he added “Let’s not add more obstacles to moving this country forward.” The announcement of his victory came after a more than monthlong effort by Ms. Fujimori to have about 200,000 votes tossed out in areas where Mr. Castillo won by a landslide, an action that would have disenfranchised many poor and Indigenous Peruvians.Shortly before authorities declared Mr. Castillo president-elect, Ms. Fujimori said in a televised speech Monday evening that she would acknowledge the results out of respect for the law, but called his pending proclamation as president-elect “illegitimate” and insisted again that his party had stolen thousands of votes from her.She called on her supporters to enter into “a new phase” in which they remained politically active to “defend the Constitution and not let communism destroy it to take power definitively.” She added: “We have the right to mobilize as we have been doing and we should continue to do — but peacefully, and within the law.”Keiko Fujimori climbing onstage shortly before making her televised address on Monday evening.Sebastian Castaneda/ReutersMs. Fujimori accused Mr. Castillo’s supporters of tampering with tally sheets across the country. But in the weeks that followed the vote, no one came forward to corroborate her central claim: that the identities of hundreds of poll workers had been stolen and their signatures falsified. The dispute brought thousands of the two candidates’ supporters to the streets of Lima in dueling protests since the election. Many of Mr. Castillo’s supporters from rural regions spent weeks camping out to await the official proclamation that he had won.In the end, the election authorities dismissed all requests by Ms. Fujimori’s party to discount ballots from an official tally that put Mr. Castillo 44,163 votes ahead, with a total of 8,836,280 votes to Ms. Fujimori’s 8,792,117.“Votes from the highest mountain and farthest corner of the country are worth the same as votes from San Isidro and Miraflores,” Mr. Castillo told throngs of supporters last month, referring to two upscale districts in Lima.“No more making fun of workers, peasant leaders or teachers,” Mr. Castillo said. “Today we must teach the youth, the children, that we are all equal before the law.”Many of Mr. Castillo’s supporters said they had voted for him in the hope that he would reform the neoliberal economic system put in place by Ms. Fujimori’s father, Alberto Fujimori. That system, they said, delivered steady economic growth and tamed inflation, but ultimately failed to help millions of poor people.The painful disparity became more glaring still when the coronavirus struck. The virus has ravaged Peru, which has the highest documented per capita Covid-19 death toll in the world. Nearly 10 percent of its population has been pushed into poverty in the last year.“Thirty years of the big businessmen getting richer — and in Peru we have more poverty,” said Manuel Santiago, 64, a shop owner who voted for Mr. Castillo. “We’re tired of the same thing.”But Mr. Castillo now faces enormous challenges.Mr. Castillo speaking to supporters from his campaign headquarters in Lima last month.Harold Mejia/EPA, via ShutterstockCorruption and political vendettas have convulsed the nation in recent years, and the country has cycled through four presidents and two congresses in the past five years.Perhaps most critically, Mr. Castillo, who has never held office, lacks the political experience and popularity that buoyed other left-wing leaders who took power in South America.“As a political figure, he has a lot of problems that lead to instability,” said Mauricio Zavaleta, a Peruvian political scientist.In Bolivia in 2005, Evo Morales, who became the country’s first Indigenous president, won in the first round with more than 50 percent of the vote, he pointed out. In Venezuela in 1998, Hugo Chávez “was an electoral storm.” Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in Brazil in 2002, and Rafael Correa, in Ecuador in 2006, were established figures first elected president by wide margins.“Castillo is not part of those phenomena,” Mr. Zavaleta said.Moreover, he said, Mr. Castillo is unlikely to have the support of Congress, the military, the media, the elite or a large political movement. “He simply doesn’t have the muscle to carry out the ambitious reforms he’s proposed,” Mr. Zavaleta said.Mr. Castillo has promised to overhaul the political and economic system to address poverty and inequality, and to replace the current Constitution with one that would increase the state’s role in the economy. He campaigned wearing a traditional farmer’s hat, and sometimes appeared on horseback, or dancing with voters.“He’s someone who doesn’t have to go visit a village to be in touch with people and get to know their problems, because he comes from a village,” said Cynthia Cienfuegos, a political affairs specialist with the Peruvian civil society group Transparencia.“His triumph reflects a demand for change that’s been postponed for a long time,” she said.Mr. Castillo grew up in Peru’s northern highlands, and as a young man, he cleaned hotel rooms in Lima. After attending university at a city in northern Peru, he chose to move back to the same highland province where he grew up to run a school without running water or a sewage system. A supporter of Pedro Castillo in Lima last month.Paolo Aguilar/EPA, via ShutterstockAfter becoming a union activist for schoolteachers, Mr. Castillo helped organize a 2017 strike to push for better salaries.Then he largely disappeared from public view — until this year, when he joined with a Marxist-Leninist party to launch a bid for the presidency and emerged as the surprise leader, if by a narrow margin, in the first round of the race.As a candidate, Mr. Castillo traveled the country widely to hear from voters, often carrying a giant pencil under his arm to remind them of his promise to ensure equal access to a quality education.He could hardly be more different from Ms. Fujimori, who grew up in privilege, becoming Peru’s first lady at age 19, after her parents had separated.Like Mr. Castillo, her father swept into office as an outsider at one of the most difficult points in the country’s history. While Mr. Fujimori was initially credited with beating back violent leftist insurgencies in the 1990s, he is now scorned by many as having been a corrupt autocrat.Mr. Fujimori was convicted in a series of trials on corruption and other charges, including directing the activities of a death squad. He has been in prison, with a brief interruption, since 2007.His daughter, too, now faces prosecution, accused of running a criminal organization that trafficked in illegal campaign donations during a past presidential bid. She denies the charges. If found guilty, she could be sentenced to as long as 30 years in prison.Mr. Castillo, who will take office on July 28, the 200th anniversary of Peru’s independence from Spain, has portrayed himself as a clean start for a country with a long history of cronyism and corruption.“Let’s end this bicentennial, which has had a lot of problems along the way, and open the door so the next bicentennial is full of hope, with a future and a vision for a country in which we all enjoy and eat from the bread of the country,” Mr. Castillo told a plaza full of supporters last month. “Let’s take back Peru for Peruvians.” More
I wasn’t planning on reading any of the new batch of Donald Trump books. His vampiric hold on the nation’s attention for five years was nightmarish enough; one of the small joys of the post-Trump era is that it’s become possible to ignore him for days at a time. More
