Subterms
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Experts predict an increase in deaths across the region, made significantly worse by lawmakers who question the value of face coverings More
Cori Bush, one of the leaders of protests against the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, defeated longtime representative William Lacy Clay in the state’s Democratic primary election on Tuesday.The progressive candidate ended a half-century political dynasty in one of several notable results to emerge from primary elections in five states on Tuesday. Results were still coming in on Wednesday morning, but Donald Trump’s ally, Kris Kobach, had already suffered a defeat in Kansas.Roger Marshall won Kansas’s Republican primary for the Senate. Kobach, Kansas’s former secretary of state, lost the state’s governor race to a Democrat in 2018 and Republicans were fearful his win in the Senate primary would ensure another defeat to Democrats in November.Kobach is best known for his hardline anti-immigration policies and effort to weaken voting rights. Republicans have held the Senate seat for more than 100 years, but the party was still fearful Kobach would polarize voters in the November race. The Democratic candidate, Barbara Bollier, left the Republican party in 2018.In Missouri, Bush’s win in the district representing St Louis marked another progressive ousting of a Democratic incumbent. Clay was elected in 2000, taking over the post from his father who had served for 32 years before.Bush, a 44-year-old nurse and pastor, is almost guaranteed to win the seat in the November election because the district is heavily Democratic.Bush addressed supporters after her win and said her campaign had been written off, “they counted us out,” she said.“They called me – I’m just the protester, I’m just the activist with no name, no title and no real money,” Bush said. “That’s all they said that I was. But St Louis showed up today.”Bush entered politics after the Ferguson protests in 2014 and first ran for the representative seat in 2018, ultimately losing to Clay.Her foray into the 2018 election earned her comparisons to another progressive who took on a Democratic incumbent, New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She campaigned on issues such as a $15 minimum wage, free college tuition and Medicare for all.She was also one of four candidates, including Ocasio-Cortez, to be the focus of the documentary Knock Down the House – which trailed their 2018 campaigns.Bush was a surrogate for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and helped organize Black Lives Matter protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In a tweet, Sanders hailed Bush as a “true progressive”.Congratulations to @CoriBush on her primary victory tonight! She is a true progressive who stands with working people and will take on the corporate elite of this country when she gets to Congress. pic.twitter.com/Q3hJGasjXe— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
Voters in Missouri also approved expanding the government health insurance program for low-income Americans, Medicaid. This could give 250,000 Missourians access to the program, starting next year, according to the state’s auditor.The state’s Republican governor, Mike Parson, opposes Medicaid expansion but because the expansion won through the initiative process, it can only be changed if lawmakers go back to voters.In another victory for progressives, the Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib won her Democratic primary.Tlaib, a member of the group of progressive house members known as “the Squad”, held off her opponent Brenda Jones, president of the Detroit city council.“Headlines said I was the most vulnerable member of the Squad,” Tlaib said on Twitter. “My community responded last night and said our Squad is big. It includes all who believe we must show up for each other and prioritize people over profits. It’s here to stay, and it’s only getting bigger.” More
In usually deep-red Kansas, Democrats have the luxury of a sleepy primary contest for US Senate. Republicans do not.That’s because in the Democratic primary the Kansas state senator Barbara Bollier is the heavy favorite to win her party’s nomination and then run a competitive general election campaign fueled by a large war chest of cash.That prospect is sharpened because Republicans are having to go through a bloody primary between the Kansas congressman Roger Marshall and former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, the immigration hardliner and former Republican nominee for governor whose unpopularity – should he win the nod – could hand the Democrats a vital Senate seat they would never normally hope to win.Kobach’s candidacy is notable for its support from the billionaire Peter Thiel, the libertarian venture capitalist who has at times expressed the same type of hardline immigration stances as Kobach. More
Steve Watkins, a Republican congressman in Kansas, was charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor on Tuesday related to illegally voting in a 2019 local race. The charges came in a state where Republicans have for years made claims of widespread non-citizen voting, with little evidence.Prosecutors did not provide details of the charges, but said they were related to a 2019 local election. The Topeka Capital-Journal previously reported that Watkins changed his voter registration address to a local UPS store in Topeka in August 2019. He made the change to hide that he was living with his parents at the time, according to the Kansas City Star. Watkins also allegedly lied to a detective about the matter in February, according to court documents obtained by the Star.Watkins’ change of address was significant because it placed him in a city council district different than the one he was actually living in. The city council district race Watkins voted in was decided by just 13 votes in November 2019, according to the Capital-Journal.Watkins, a first-term congressman who represents the eastern part of Kansas, was charged with voting without being qualified, marking/transmitting more than one advance ballot, and obstructing law enforcement. He was also charged with a misdemeanor for failing to notify the state of a change of address.Watkins’ chief of staff told the Capital-Journal the congressman made a mistake in registering at the UPS address. But Bryan Piligra, a spokesman for Watkins’ re-election campaign also noted the charges were announced just before Watkins was set to participate in a primary debate.“They couldn’t have been more political if they tried,” he said in a statement. “Just like President Trump, Steve is being politically prosecuted by his opponents who can’t accept the results of the last election.”Voting without being qualified is punishable with between 15 and 17 months in prison for a first-time offender, according to the Kansas City Star. The other two felonies are punishable by seven to nine months in prison.The charges come as Donald Trump and other Republicans have stirred fears that the 2020 election will be tainted by significant voter fraud, though several studies have shown that voter fraud is extremely rare and isolated. The most high-profile election fraud case in recent years involved another Republican running for Congress in 2018 who hired an operative who illegally collected mail-in ballots.Prosecutors across the US have used cases in which people vote while ineligible, even by mistake, to set an example. In Texas, Crystal Mason, an African American woman, didn’t know she was ineligible to vote but was sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to vote in 2016 while on supervised release for a felony conviction (an appeal is ongoing). In North Carolina, prosecutors have also filed criminal charges in recent years against people with felony convictions and non-citizens who voted.In Kansas, the former secretary of state Kris Kobach, a Republican, built his national profile by suggesting there were a significant number of non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls. His signature achievement was getting the legislature to pass a law requiring voters to provide documents proving their citizenship when they register to vote. But a federal court struck down the law, saying it placed an unlawful burden on voters and noting just 67 non-citizens had either attempted to register or had registered over nearly two decades.Bob Salera, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, said the group was aware of the charges and seeking more information.Daniel Strauss contributed reporting More
Anderson County Review posts image on Facebook page Democratic governor Laura Kelly issued protective order How Trump fuels culture war over masks More
