Walz Offers Hope to Minnesota in Concession Speech
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Passed Up for the Ticket, Josh Shapiro Tries to Deliver Pennsylvania for Harris
Pennsylvania’s governor may not be on the verge of the vice presidency, but he says he has everything — including his “heart and soul” — riding on a Kamala Harris victory.Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania bounded off a big blue bus on Saturday afternoon with the other two governors of the critical “blue wall” states — Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Tony Evers of Wisconsin — and headed down a steep hill to greet a gathering of Democratic canvassers in a park outside Pittsburgh.It was the third of four stops that unseasonably warm, clear day for their Blue Wall bus tour. Though all three governors lead political battlegrounds critical to Vice President Kamala Harris’s chance at winning the presidency, only Mr. Shapiro came within a whisper of being on the ticket that they are now trying to elect.But if there were any lingering resentments, or even disappointment, it was not obvious that day, nor is it evident in his punishing schedule of campaign appearances, interviews, advertising shoots, fund-raisers and behind-the-scenes outreach efforts for Ms. Harris and fellow Democrats.Mr. Shapiro, his voice straining for emphasis, stressed what he sees as at stake in the election, for the nation, for his state and for him personally.“I want to be really clear about something: This is not just about the politics of winning a race,” Mr. Shapiro said in an interview in Baldwin Township, a suburb nestled in the wooded hills just south of Pittsburgh.Speaking of his own experience repeatedly suing the Trump administration as the commonwealth’s attorney general and then battling the Trump campaign as it tried to overturn the 2020 election, Mr. Shapiro called former President Donald J. Trump “a dangerous guy.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Judge Orders DeSantis Administration to Stop Threats Over Abortion-Rights Ad
The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida must stop threatening television stations with criminal prosecution for airing a political ad in favor of enshrining abortion rights in the state’s Constitution, a federal judge ordered on Thursday.Judge Mark E. Walker of the Federal District Court in Tallahassee ruled in a temporary restraining order that the threats by the Florida Department of Health to stations across the state likely amounted to “unconstitutional coercion” and “viewpoint discrimination.”“The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,’” Judge Walker, who has frequently ruled against the administration, wrote in his 17-page order. “To keep it simple for the state of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”The order followed an emergency hearing on Thursday after Floridians Protecting Freedom, the organization behind a campaign for an abortion-rights ballot measure known as Amendment 4, sued on Wednesday.This month, the state’s health department sent several television stations a cease-and-desist letter urging them to stop airing an ad, titled “Caroline,” that is part of the “Yes on 4” campaign. It features a woman named Caroline Williams discussing how she had been diagnosed with stage four brain cancer when she was 20 weeks pregnant.“Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine,” Ms. Williams says in the ad.The state called the ad “false.” At least one station stopped airing the ad after receiving the department’s letter, the suit said.“This critical initial victory is a triumph for every Floridian who believes in democracy and the sanctity of the First Amendment,” Lauren Brenzel, the director of the “Yes on 4” campaign, said in a statement on Thursday. “The court has affirmed what we’ve known all along: The government cannot silence the truth about Florida’s extreme abortion ban.”Mr. DeSantis has vowed to defeat Amendment 4 and has leveraged the power of the state to oppose the measure, leading to several legal challenges. The courts had declined to intervene in prior cases.Julia Friedland, Mr. DeSantis’s deputy press secretary, said in a statement that Judge Walker had “issued another order that excites the press.”“The ads are unequivocally false and put the lives and health of pregnant women at risk,” she said. “Florida’s heartbeat protection law always protects the life of a mother and includes exceptions for victims of rape, incest, and human trafficking.”The campaign is seeking a preliminary injunction against the state. Judge Walker scheduled a hearing for Oct. 29.A separate lawsuit, filed by opponents of Amendment 4 and seeking to toss the measure from the ballot, is pending in state court. More
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Tim Walz Calls for Abolishing the Electoral College, Going Beyond Harris
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota on Tuesday called for abolishing the Electoral College as a means of electing American presidents, reiterating a position he has articulated in the past while he and Vice President Kamala Harris are in the heat of a campaign for the White House.Twice during campaign fund-raisers on the West Coast, Mr. Walz said he would prefer that presidential candidates did not have to focus on a few political battlegrounds and could instead focus on winning votes from across the country.“I think all of us know, the Electoral College needs to go. We need a, we need a national popular vote,” Mr. Walz told donors at the Sacramento home of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. “So we need to win Beaver County, Pa. We need to be able to go into York, Pa., and win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win. We need to be in Reno, Nev., and win.”Abolishing the Electoral College is generally a popular position with voters but is something that would either require a constitutional amendment or more states agreeing to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.Mr. Walz’s support of the position — in deep-blue West Coast states no less — with less than a month before Election Day risks rocking the boat for the Harris campaign as it tries to deliver a message focused on economic concerns, abortion rights and the threat of former President Donald J. Trump.Teddy Tschann, a spokesman for Mr. Walz, said that Ms. Harris’s campaign did not support abolishing the Electoral College.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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David Paterson, Former New York Governor, Is Attacked in Manhattan
Mr. Paterson and his stepson suffered minor injuries in a street attack on Friday. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault, the police said.The former governor of New York, David A. Paterson, and his stepson were injured in an assault on a Manhattan street on Friday evening, the Police Department said.Mr. Paterson, 70, and his stepson, Anthony Sliwa, 20, were walking in the Upper East Side at about 8:30 p.m. when they were attacked after a verbal altercation with five people, according to the police.Mr. Paterson suffered minor injuries to his face and body, while Mr. Sliwa received minor injuries to his face, the police said. Both were taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in stable condition.A spokesman for the Police Department said the former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault.The former governor and Mr. Sliwa had been on a walk near their home when they encountered the five people, Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson, said in a statement on Friday night. Mr. Sliwa had had “a previous interaction” with the five people, Mr. Darcy added, though details of that interaction were not immediately clear.Mr. Sliwa is the son of Curtis Sliwa, a former Republican mayoral candidate and the founder of the Guardian Angels, an anti-crime group.Mr. Paterson and his stepson were sent home from the hospital early on Saturday, Mr. Darcy said. They had been taken to the hospital as a precaution, he said, after “both suffered some injuries but were able to fight off their attackers.”They filed a police report, he said.“The governor’s only request is that people refrain from attempting to use an unfortunate act of violence for their own personal or political gain,” Mr. Darcy said on Saturday, adding that Mr. Paterson and his wife, Mary Alexander Paterson, were thankful for “the outpouring of support they have received from people across all spectrums.”The police said they were still looking for the five people suspected in the assault.Dakota Santiago for The New York TimesThe five people, who were not identified, fled on foot along Second Avenue after the assault, and the police said they were still being sought. Several of them appeared to be teenagers, according to footage circulated online by the Police Department.Mr. Paterson, the 55th governor of New York and the first Black person to hold the office, served from 2008 to 2010.He rose to the position during a tumultuous time: His predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, resigned in 2008 after being linked to a high-end prostitution ring. Mr. Paterson, then the lieutenant governor, took over after Mr. Spitzer resigned.Mr. Paterson, a Democrat who served for two decades in the State Senate, weathered his own scandals and a state budget ravaged by recession. He did not seek re-election after completing his term as governor. More
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Walz Spoke of Gun Violence Affecting His Son. Here’s an Account of the Shooting.
At Tuesday’s debate, Gov. Tim Walz said that his son, Gus Walz, witnessed a shooting at a community center. A volleyball coach said Gus helped other young players to safety.Gov. Tim Walz has spoken before of a shooting last year at a recreation center in St. Paul, Minn., that he said had an impact on his teenage son, Gus. But in the vice-presidential debate with Senator JD Vance of Ohio on Tuesday night, Mr. Walz went further in saying that his son witnessed the shooting, which left one teenager seriously wounded.On Wednesday, a volleyball coach who played a central role in the response that day described what he, Gus and others experienced in the frightening moments after they had heard gunfire outside.The coach, David Albornoz, said he ran to investigate, while Gus, a team captain and an assistant coach on a boys’ volleyball team, helped guide young people in the gym to a safe location when many thought a mass shooting was occurring.“We heard the gunshots,” Mr. Albornoz said. “You hear the screaming. I had no more information than what I gathered.”The shooting, which was propelled into the national spotlight when Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance discussed how they would address gun violence in the country, was widely reported in St. Paul at the time. It took place in January 2023 outside the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center, part of the Oxford Community Center, one of the largest and busiest facilities in the city’s parks and recreation system. It is also across the street from Central High School, where Gus is a student.According to several court documents, the 16-year-old victim, JuVaughn Turner, and some of his friends were outside when a young woman got into a dispute with an employee at the recreation center, Exavir Binford.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Top Aides Resign From Embattled North Carolina Candidate’s Campaign
Most of the senior staff members on Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s campaign for North Carolina governor resigned on Sunday, dealing a seismic blow to the embattled Republican who has faced widespread criticism after an explosive CNN report that he had made a series of disturbing comments on a pornographic website.Among the resignations was his top campaign consultant, Conrad Pogorzelski III, who for years had been one of Mr. Robinson’s most loyal confidants and who had been the only consultant to take a chance on him during his run for lieutenant governor four years ago.Mr. Pogorzelski confirmed his resignation in a text message on Sunday evening, saying he and seven other campaign staffers had resigned on “our own accord.”The other resignations included Chris Rodriguez, the campaign manager; Heather Whillier, the finance director; and Jason Rizk, the deputy campaign manager. Two political directors, John Kontoulas and Jackson Lohrer, and the director of operations, Patrick Riley, also resigned.The 11th-hour shake-up in the campaign less than 50 days before the election will only exacerbate the troubles already plaguing Mr. Robinson, the fiery Trump acolyte who has been widely criticized for comments perceived as racist, antisemitic, transphobic and hateful.CNN reported on Thursday that Mr. Robinson had written on a porn site years ago that he was a “black NAZI,” that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography and that slavery was not bad. He also recounted on the site how he went “peeping” on women in public gym showers as a teenager. Mr. Robinson has denied that he wrote the posts and ignored calls from some fellow Republicans to withdraw from the race.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Trump Heads to North Carolina as Mark Robinson’s Campaign Reels
With somewhat awkward timing, former President Donald J. Trump plans to campaign in North Carolina on Saturday as his pick for governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, faces accusations of making disturbing posts on a pornographic website.Mr. Trump’s visit to Wilmington, N.C., for a rally will take place two days after CNN reported that Mr. Robinson had once called himself a “black NAZI!” and defended slavery years ago on a pornographic forum.Mr. Robinson, whom Mr. Trump endorsed in March, has denied the report and vowed to stay in the race. But both parties are looking closely at the fallout, which could have a spillover effect in the presidential contest, given that North Carolina is a key battleground state that Mr. Trump won twice but that Democrats see as competitive.The lieutenant governor, who has a long history of making inflammatory and offensive remarks, is not expected to attend Mr. Trump’s rally on Saturday, according to a person familiar with the program’s details. Mr. Robinson was also absent when Mr. Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, visited the state on Wednesday, the day before CNN released its report.A spokesman for Mr. Robinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. The Trump campaign avoided weighing in on the controversy when asked for comment on Friday.Democrats, who last carried North Carolina in the 2008 presidential race, are seeking to remind voters in the increasingly competitive state about Mr. Trump’s past praise for Mr. Robinson. Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign released a television ad on Friday, “Both Wrong,” highlighting Mr. Trump’s past warm words for Mr. Robinson and some of Mr. Robinson’s past polarizing statements. At least nine electronic billboards around the state will display ads on Friday and Saturday paid for by the Democratic National Committee linking the two Republicans.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Pork Chops and Politics: Tim Walz Gets Minnesota Homecoming at State Fair
For Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, August was a dizzying climb to the highest echelons of politics. Since being selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, he has been the featured guest at glitzy private fund-raisers, flown to more than a dozen states and headlined a night at the Democratic convention in Chicago, with thousands in the arena hanging on his every word.On Sunday, Mr. Walz was back in more familiar territory: the Minnesota State Fair.He chomped on a pork chop on a stick. He admired the dairy princess butter carvings. He handed out ice cream at the Dairy Goodness Bar counter and waved at the crowd, which was eager for a glimpse — or a selfie — with the governor, who, for once, got to eschew the formal suit and tie for his more comfortable T-shirt and Carhartt pants.It could have been just another one of Mr. Walz’s many state fair appearances over the years, where he has burnished his profile as an approachable Midwestern dad by wearing socks with a corn-dog pattern and riding the Slingshot, a nausea-inducing ride, with his daughter, Hope Walz.Except for the presence of the Secret Service. And the motorcade that whisked him to and from the fair. And the officers stationed on the roof of the dairy building for an aerial view of the crowd, which was clamoring to see the man who has a chance this November to complete a meteoric rise from little-known Midwestern governor to vice president.Mr. Walz, clutching a vanilla milkshake, acknowledged the obvious: Things were different this year.“A little bit more of a disruption,” he told reporters, noting that he had to cut down from his usual 12 days of appearances. “But it’s exciting — I think people are seeing that we’re getting to talk about Minnesota across the country.”Charlotte Beller, in the pink sweatshirt, happened to be in line when Mr. Walz began serving ice cream to fairgoers. She likes both strawberry and vanilla ice cream, she said, and gave the ice cream her stamp of approval.Stephen Maturen/Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
