US midterm elections 2022

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      How Republicans’ racist attack ads are chipping away at Democrat’s lead in Wisconsin

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      How Republicans’ racist attack ads are chipping away at Democrat’s lead in Wisconsin Ron Johnson’s campaign of ‘race and fear’ is affecting Senate race that Mandela Barnes once looked to have in the bagAfter months of flinging mud, Senator Ron Johnson was finally obliged to admit that his Democratic opponent in the upper midwestern state of Wisconsin had never actually made a call to “defund the police”.But that did not stop the Trumpist senator’s re-election drive from continuing to broadcast racially charged advertisements falsely claiming that Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, “rationalized violence” against the police and tying him to the most controversial positions of Black Lives Matter.Barnes and his supporters dismiss the ads as evidence of Johnson’s desperation. But the campaign of “race and fear” has had an impact as an election that Barnes once looked to have in the bag is now too close to call.Across the country, Republican strategists have ratcheted up attacks on Democrats over fears of crime as the midterm elections approach with predictable results in many races. But Barnes, who is running to become Wisconsin’s first Black senator and is named after South Africa’s iconic former president, is on the end of a particularly pointed campaign that has eaten into a once substantial lead in the final weeks of a race that could decide control of the US Senate.“There’s definitely a racial overtone,” said Charles Franklin, director of the respected Marquette law school polling of Wisconsin voters.“The massive amount of negative advertising attacking Barnes on crime more than anything else is surely the explanation for why he has seen the gap close since August, or a big part of it.”Johnson won the seat, once held by the notorious communist baiter Jospeh McCarthy, in the 2010 backlash against Barack Obama’s presidency, unseating a three-term Democrat. He was re-elected in 2016 by a margin of just 3.4 points.Earlier this year, the Cook Political Report rated Johnson one of the most vulnerable incumbent senators in part because of association with attempts to submit a slate of fake electors to overturn Biden’s election victory, his promotion of conspiracy theories around the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and for his support of a total ban on abortions. It now says the seat is a toss-up.Barnes has seen a seven-point lead evaporate in recent weeks amid a barrage of negative advertising largely funded by two billionaires who the Democrat’s campaign say are rewarding Johnson for his support of tax cuts that benefited them by hundreds of millions of dollars.Diane Hendricks, a rightwing billionaire businesswoman and Wisconsin native closely tied to Donald Trump, and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, founders of the Wisconsin-based Uline packaging company who have a long history of funding far-right candidates, are the main donors to a political action committee, Wisconsin Truth, which until recently was heavily outspending the Barnes campaign.Franklin said his most recent poll showed the two candidates both at 47% support among registered voters because significant numbers of independents, who were neutral on Barnes in August, turned against him amid the barrage of attacks ads over crime.“When we look across our surveys, it looks like that wave of advertising from August to September raised the salience of the issue, especially with independents,” he said.Wisconsin Truth has portrayed Barnes as supporting radical reform of the police and the scrapping of the US immigration agency because he is supported by groups that back those positions even though he has repeatedly said he does not. But key to the ads are their racial overtones.One of them shows a picture of Barnes with three members of “the Squad” of congressional progressives, all women of color – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. The text says: “Mandela Barnes, different”. The word different then changes to “dangerous”.Criticism has also been made of another ad, paid for by Wisconsin Truth, that includes footage of “actual crime scenes”. In one scene, a person apparently committing a crime is circled in red at the same time as Barnes’s name appears on the screen, seeming to link the two.Some of the advertising has darkened Barnes’s skin in what would appear to be an attempt to make him appear menacing to some white voters.A Wisconsin state representative, Evan Goyke, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the ads were “despicable” and accused Johnson and his allies of using “race and fear as their main election tactics”.Johnson has pressed similar claims in televised debates including asserting that Barnes “has a record of wanting to defund the police” because he proposed spending some of the police budget on social workers to assist frontline officers in dealing with some crisis situations, such as those involving the mentally ill and homeless. The Republican senator was later forced to acknowledged that Barnes hadn’t said he wanted to “defund” the police but still accused him of using “code words”.Barnes said it was a bit rich for Johnson to claim to defend the police when he backed Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol last year.“I won’t be lectured about crime from somebody who supported a violent insurrection that left 140 officers injured,” he said.On the campaign trail, Barnes told the Guardian he was not surprised by Johnson’s claims.“We knew they will run bad-faith attacks because that’s all they have. Senator Johnson doesn’t have a record to defend so all he can do is just try to lie and distract and make up things about me. And that’s the worst part about this,” he said.Barnes’s campaign included a stop at the King Solomon Missionary Baptist church in Milwaukee where the pastor, the Rev Charles Watkins, gave a pointed sermon about how voters’ perceptions of his city’s Black neighborhoods were shaped by intense coverage of crime while ignoring more positive aspects of the community – a balance he said was not replicated in coverage of white neighborhoods.Asked by the Guardian if Johnson’s supporters were running a racist campaign, Watkins paused.“I don’t want to say that. I don’t want to, but some of the things that the other candidate has said have been racist. Just like when he said during the insurrection on January 6 that he would have been more fearful if it had been Black Lives Matter. For him to say that, yes, that’s racist,” he said.Watkins said he thought the negative campaign was having an impact.“If you say it long enough and loud enough, people will believe it,” he said. “It’s fear tactics. Not one time did Mandela Barnes ever come out and say ‘defund the police’. Not one time. That’s one of the reasons why he’s behind in the polls. People look at that because they’re not really looking at the person.”Matt Mareno, the chair of Waukesha county Democrats just west of Milwaukee, said he sees that on the doorstep. He said that campaigners for Barnes were forced to spend time explaining that the claims made about him are false, making it harder to promote his policies to protect social programs and union rights, revive manufacturing in the state, and help family farms.“We found when we’re talking to voters on the doorstep the only things they know about Mandela are the things they hear on TV. So they assume he is pro-crime, whatever that means, and that he wants to let all criminals out and cause mayhem in the streets. So for us it’s been a lot of having to introduce Mandela Barnes to a lot of these people, and explain complex policies when a lot of the world operates on bumper stickers,” said Mareno.“They are blowing all the dog whistles they can because in a state like Wisconsin if you blow those dog whistles and get maybe the half percent of people who will be motivated to vote by race, that could be the difference between winning and losing. Half of our statewide elections are decided by less than one per cent.”Johnson has responded to the charges of a bigoted campaign by accusing Democrats of “playing the race card”.“That’s what leftists do,” he told Milwaukee talk radio.Still, Franklin said that while Barnes had lost ground, and Johnson was slightly ahead among likely voters, the Democrat remains competitive in a state where elections frequently come down to the wire. Biden took Wisconsin from Trump in 2020 by just 20,000 votes – less than 1% of the ballot.The Barnes campaign says that its funding has recently overtaken his rival and increased spending on campaign ads attacking Johnson for opposing abortion rights, including support for a federal ban that makes no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother. Johnson told women that if they do not like Wisconsin’s restrictions on abortion then they should move to another state.Franklin said polling shows that 81% of Democrats placed abortion rights among their most important voting issues after the supreme court struck down Roe v Wade, and that it has “clearly driven up enthusiasm for voting among Democrats” which will help Barnes.Among them is Cara Adams, a store owner in Stevens Point in central Wisconsin. After Barnes stopped by her shop of locally made goods during a campaign tour, she said she wasn’t impressed by politicians but she was inclined to vote for him in large part because of abortion rights.“I don’t affiliate with a specific party because politics is just gross. There’s just horrible political campaigns on both sides. Horrible, nasty things on TV,” she said.“But Barnes is a lot more progressive in his thinking. I would be very uncomfortable if Ron Johnson came into my store today. His views upon women make me extremely uncomfortable, just knowing that any person feels like a woman has any rights less than a man is ridiculous.”Adams said that she sees anecdotal evidence in her area that the supreme court ruling on abortion is stirring many women to vote who might not have taken an interest in the midterms.That turnout is likely to prove key to Barnes if he is to overcome the barrage of negative advertising.But Watkins, who works with Souls to the Polls to mobilise Black voters, said that even within Milwaukee’s African American community, in the face of a racist election campaign and amid fears that voting rights are likely to be further eroded in one of the most rigged electoral systems in the country, it can be a struggle to persuade people to vote.“’We’re trying to get our community to understand that if your vote didn’t count, why are they trying so hard to take away your vote? They’re making it harder for absentee votes. They’re making it hard to register to vote. So something’s going on. What we are trying to do is wake up the community, to wake up the city. Let them know, hey, it do matter. Your vote do matter,” he said.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022WisconsinUS politicsDemocratsRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

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      ‘They haven’t tried’: Bernie Sanders criticizes Democrats’ economic messaging

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      ‘They haven’t tried’: Bernie Sanders criticizes Democrats’ economic messagingIn a Guardian interview, the Vermont senator urges people to turn out for next week’s ‘consequential’ midterm elections Bernie Sanders has criticized Democrats for not doing enough to motivate voters around the economic issues that have an impact on everyday life, as he warned next week’s midterm elections are the most “consequential” in modern American history.In an interview with the Guardian in Texas, the leftwing Vermont senator said: “Obviously, everybody should be turning out for what is the most consequential midterm election in the modern history of this country. Democracy is on the ballot. Women’s right to control their own bodies is on the ballot. Climate change is on the ballot, so everybody should come out.”Democrats shouldn’t focus only on abortion in the midterms. That’s a mistake | Bernie SandersRead moreBut Sanders said he worried “very much that Democrats have not done a good enough job of reaching out to young people and working-class people and motivating them to come out and vote in this election”.Sanders, a Democratic socialist who ran for president in 2016 and 2020, maintains a strong core of support in the Democratic party. He has been a fierce critic of Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, but has also been unafraid to point out what he sees as flaws in Democratic strategy.Sanders was in Texas last weekend as part of a barnstorming trip across the US ahead of next week’s midterm elections that he wants to use to highlight economic issues, which are emerging as the primary concern for many voters.“People are hurting. You got 60% of our people living paycheck to paycheck, and for many workers, they are falling further behind as a result of inflation. Oil company profits are soaring, food company profits are soaring, drug company profits are soaring. Corporate profits are at an all time high. The rich are getting much richer, and Democrats have got to make that message,” he said.In assessing his party’s success at communicating the threat of corporate profiteering to the cost of living, Sanders said, “It’s not a question of [Democrats being] successful. They haven’t tried.”On Wednesday, Biden urged oil companies to pass their massive profits on to consumers, seeking to address what he sees as the real reason behind the high gas prices Americans have seen in the past year: corporate profiteering. It’s the kind of message Sanders hoped to see earlier in an election in which many Democratic candidates have focused more on the loss of abortion rights and the growing threat to US democracy.“The truth is that about half of inflationary cost increases are a result of corporate greed. So if people can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks, if they can’t afford food, if they can’t afford their prescription drugs – what Democrats should be explaining to them is why that is so,” Sanders said.Bernie Sanders: Democrats should not court far-right ‘racist, sexist’ votersRead moreSanders said he is showing up for progressive candidates he feels were abandoned by many other Democrats. In San Marcos, Sanders appeared with the congressional candidate Greg Casar who is, according to Sanders, successfully underscoring the idea that Democrats are the party of economic leadership.In the Rio Grande Valley, the southern region of the state where Latino voters play a critical role, Democrats still maintain their hold but are slowly losing control. Across south Texas counties in 2020, Biden either won against Trump by lower margins compared with Hilary Clinton in 2016, or he lost outright.In a June special election for district 36 – which covers parts of the Gulf coast, including Brownsville – the rightwing conspiracy theorist Mayra Flores won and flipped a historically Democratic district.On Sunday night, Sanders showed up in person to throw his weight behind Michelle Vallejo, a progressive in a tight congressional race with Monica De La Cruz, a fellow Latina endorsed by Trump in newly drawn congressional district 15.It’s reminiscent of another race in the region back in 2020, when the progressive congressional candidate Jessica Cisneros lost by just a few hundred votes to the conservative Democrat Henry Cuellar, the incumbent representative and the only House Democrat to vote against legislation to codify Roe v Wade.In that primary election, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the organization responsible for helping Democrats get elected to Congress, endorsed Cuellar over Cisneros, to the disappointment of Sanders, progressives and many other Democrats within the party.‘People are tired of being ignored while the rich get richer’: Bernie Sanders on anger and hope in the US and UKRead moreNow, Sanders is hoping for a change of tune within the party.“We worked hard for Jessica and she lost by a few hundred votes. And unbelievably, the Democratic leadership ended up supporting the most conservative Democrat in the caucus there [Henry Cuellar]. Look – what I would simply tell you … is that along with Greg, you’re gonna have some great new members of Congress from Illinois, from Pennsylvania, from around the country. And you’re going to have more strong progressives in Congress than in history this month in this country.”While Sanders is still in disagreement with aspects of the strategy of the Democratic political apparatus, it remains unclear if this dissatisfaction extends to Joe Biden. Referring to the supreme court’s undoing of Roe v Wade, the case that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion into law, Sanders said it was an issue that is “enormously important”.But it’s not the only issue.“We’ve got a fight every step of the way with the supreme court. You’ve seen a pretty much united Democratic party on [the abortion] issue, have you not? Zillions of dollars on ads and so forth. But we have not had the same unity and the same energy around the economic crisis facing working families and what Republicans would do. So it’s not a question of what the president alone is doing. It’s a question of what the party is doing, where it’s putting its money, its resources, its energy.”When asked if he supported a 2024 Biden presidential run, Sanders said: “Right now, we’re worried about 2022.”TopicsBernie SandersUS midterm elections 2022DemocratsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Chuck Schumer insists Democrats can hold or expand Senate majority – as it happened

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      The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer believes the party can keep or even expand its majority in Congress’s upper chamber in Tuesday’s midterm elections, despite polls showing its candidates losing their leads in crucial races.“I believe Democrats will hold the Senate and maybe even pick up seats,” Schumer said in an interview with the Associated Press published today, while acknowledging that the race is “tight.”Over the summer, Democrats appeared to have a clear path to preserving their majority in the Senate as legislative victories and the shock over the supreme court’s decision to overturn abortion rights rallied their supporters. But polls have indicated that enthusiasm ebbed as the 8 November election grows closer, and earlier this week, a survey from the New York Times and Siena College found Democrats have only slight advantages in several crucial races.Schumer told the AP he “doesn’t want to give the illusion that these are all slam dunks,” but said voters “are seeing how extreme these Republican candidates are and they don’t like it. And second, they’re seeing the Democrats are talking to them on issues they care about, and that we’ve accomplished a great deal on things.”We are five days away from the 8 November midterm elections, and last night Joe Biden gave a primetime speech in which he sought to remind Americans that many Republican candidates hold views that could threaten the country’s democracy. Meanwhile, the top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer struck an optimistic note about his party’s chances of keeping hold of the chamber. We may soon find out if he’s right.Here’s a look at what else happened today:
      Republicans rolled their eyes at Biden’s speech, with the Senate’s GOP leader calling it a distraction from crime and inflation. He was echoed by the party’s candidate for governor in Michigan.
      A noted domestic violence researcher agreed with Biden’s warnings about democracy, saying that research indicates only a minority of Americans support violence in politics – though that still may be as many as 13 mn people.
      A top aide to Donald Trump said she has advised the former president to announce his 2024 run for office after the midterms. Some Democrats hoped Trump’s return to the presidential campaign trail before the election would rally their voters.
      The Inflation Reduction Act was a major legislative accomplishment for Biden, but many people aren’t even aware it passed, a progressive polling firm found.
      Across the country, vest-wearing canvassers are knocking on doors in neighborhoods and asking people about their voting history and who they live with, Reuters reports.The canvassers aren’t affiliated with any government, but rather with groups aligned with Donald Trump that are trying to use information gathered from their visits to prove voter fraud, according to Reuters’ investigation. Officials worry the groups are impersonating government employees and intimidating voters. In Michigan, Reuters reports that one organization already has plans to use alleged irregularities they found to challenge voters in the swing state’s elections on Tuesday.Here’s more from the report:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The activists often seem more interested in undermining confidence in U.S. democracy than trying to improve it, said Arizona’s Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican. “They’re hoping that we fail. They’re hoping that mistakes occur and they’re even trying to do things to disrupt the system,” he said.
      In Shasta County, a rugged, mountainous region of more than 180,000 people where pro-Trump Republicans dominate the local government, clerk Cathy Darling Allen said she noticed problems in the middle of September when three residents complained about canvassers on Facebook.
      When Allen contacted the voters, they all asked whether the county had sent the canvassers. Allen replied that the visitors had nothing to do with her office.
      A week later, a fourth resident called police when canvassers showed up at his door and demanded voting information that made him suspicious, according to a report by the Redding Police Department.
      In a public statement issued Sept. 26, Allen warned that canvassers’ actions amounted to intimidation and violations of election laws. “I was very concerned that it would have a chilling effect on people’s willingness to be registered to vote, and that’s not OK,” she said in an interview.
      Reuters identified at least 23 state-wide or local efforts where canvassers may have crossed the line into intimidation, according to election officials and voting rights lawyers. Some carried weapons, wore badges, asked people who they’d voted for or demanded personal information, election officials said.
      The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 civil rights groups, said it has received more such reports than in previous elections. “These tactics are very concerning,” said YT Bell, an election adviser for the coalition.What’s deciding your vote in next week’s midterm election? The Guardian would like to hear from voters across the United States about the issues that are swaying their choices for House representative, Senator or governor when they head to the polls Tuesday. Details of how to reach us are at the link below:US voters: what issues are deciding your vote next week?Read moreThe Inflation Reduction Act is one of Joe Biden’s biggest legislative achievements, and was passed only after months of stop-and-start negotiations that at times looked like they would lead to nothing.But for all the drama that preceded its August signing, progressive think tank Data for Progress finds comparatively few Americans are aware of its passage:Despite the historic achievement in passing the Inflation Reduction Act, a new poll from @DataProgress finds likely voters are relatively unaware of its provisions — or its status.Just 39% of voters know the Inflation Reduction Act is signed law.https://t.co/BYDHXVZt9x— Sean McElwee (@SeanMcElwee) November 3, 2022
      Look closely at the numbers and many voters express ignorance about what it would do. The most known aspect of the law is that it allows Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, which 44% of those surveyed are aware of. But only about a third of those surveyed know it pays for the hiring of more agents at the Internal Revenue Service, raised the minimum tax on large corporations, or offers credits for clean energy production.“With the economy top of mind for voters as they prepare to cast their ballots in the midterm elections, it is clear that Democratic messaging on the key economic provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act is failing to reach voters,” Data for Progress concludes. “As Democrats work to keep their majority in Congress, it’s crucial that voters are aware of what Democrats have accomplished in the past two years.”As Andrew Lawrence writes, if a Republican wins the race for Oregon governor, it will be largely thanks to one man: a co-founder of the sportswear giant Nike.Phil Knight is the 84-year-old co-founder and chair emeritus of Nike, the house that Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods built.In the race to govern Oregon, a bastion of west coast liberalism, Knight has thrown full support behind the Republican Christine Drazan, an anti-abortion, tough-on-crime former lobbyist pushing “election integrity”. In a rare interview with the New York Times, Knight made his motive clear: Oregon’s next governor can be anyone but the Democratic nominee, Tina Kotek.Knight’s lavish support of the right would seem to betray Nike’s pursuit of social equality and environmental protection. After all, this is the “Just Do It” brand that champions Serena Williams, that kneels with Colin Kaepernick, that featured Argentina’s first trans female soccer player in a recent ad.Over the years, the company has pledged millions to organizations dedicated to leveling the playing field in all spheres of life. But it has also come under fire for crafting a progressive PR image as cover while manufacturing products in Asian sweatshops with forced labor practices …Full report:Why is Nike founder Phil Knight so desperate to prevent a Democratic win in Oregon?Read moreThe Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer believes the party can keep or even expand its majority in Congress’s upper chamber in Tuesday’s midterm elections, despite polls showing its candidates losing their leads in crucial races.“I believe Democrats will hold the Senate and maybe even pick up seats,” Schumer said in an interview with the Associated Press published today, while acknowledging that the race is “tight.”Over the summer, Democrats appeared to have a clear path to preserving their majority in the Senate as legislative victories and the shock over the supreme court’s decision to overturn abortion rights rallied their supporters. But polls have indicated that enthusiasm ebbed as the 8 November election grows closer, and earlier this week, a survey from the New York Times and Siena College found Democrats have only slight advantages in several crucial races.Schumer told the AP he “doesn’t want to give the illusion that these are all slam dunks,” but said voters “are seeing how extreme these Republican candidates are and they don’t like it. And second, they’re seeing the Democrats are talking to them on issues they care about, and that we’ve accomplished a great deal on things.”As the midterm elections loom in the US and Republican hopes of retaking Congress rise, it appears it is now a matter of when, not if, Donald Trump will announce his third White House run. Martin Pengelly reports…Donald Trump has trailed another White House campaign ever since his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, a contest Trump refused to concede, pursuing the lie about electoral fraud which fueled the deadly attack on Congress and his second impeachment.In Texas last month, Trump said: “In order to make our country successful, safe and glorious again, I will probably have to do it again.”Now, a flurry of reports say Trump will move swiftly after the midterms, seeking to capitalise on likely Republican wins fueled by focusing on economic anxieties and law and order.“I’m like 95% he’s going to run,” Reince Priebus, the former Republican chairman who became Trump’s first White House chief of staff, told the Associated Press this week.“The real question is are other big challengers going to run? If President Trump runs, he will be very difficult for any Republican to defeat.”Full story:Trump’s third run for the White House appears a matter of when not ifRead moreMore from Hillary Clinton’s interview with CNN earlier, in which she discussed Republican midterms messaging that seems set for success next Tuesday.The former first lady, senator, secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee focused on “this emphasis on crime that we’ve seen in every ad that I run across from the Republicans.“I find it ironic and frankly disturbing that when Paul Pelosi is attacked by an intruder in his own home with a hammer, the Republicans go silent about that crime.“They’re not concerned about voter safety, they just want to keep voters scared because they feel that if voters are scared, if they’re responding to negative messages, they’ll have a better chance and that’s really regrettable. Unfortunately, sometimes it works, and we can’t let people just hear that and believe it.”Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was attacked in San Francisco last week. Clinton referred to comments about the attack by Republicans including Kari Lake, the Trump-aligned candidate for governor in Arizona.“It was a horrifying incident,” Clinton said, “but sadly a real indicator of where we are in our country right now that you would have people on the Republican ticket, like the woman running in Arizona, laughing about an attack on anyone, let alone an 82-year-old man whose wife happens to be the second-in-line to the presidency.“I am rarely shocked anymore, but the reaction I’ve seen from a number of Republicans, both in person and online making fun of that attack, somehow trying to turn it into a joke, the same party that wants us to be worried about crime. The hypocrisy is incredibly obvious.”Clinton also discussed threats to democracy around the world – and linked them to what she said was the Republican threat at home.She said: “This is a time of great ferment, and it is a time when the United States should be standing strongly on behalf of our values of democracy and freedom, of opportunity and equality, instead of being engaged in this culture war driven by the political opportunism of people on the Republican side of the ledger.“… The best thing we can do to lead the world in this struggle between democracy and autocracy is to get our own house in order and I hope that we’ll do that starting Tuesday.”Hillary Clinton has been talking about the economy – which is top of many people’s minds as the midterm elections roar towards us and voting is underway.She acknowledged in talking to CNN earlier today that the economy was of course something that needed to be talked about this election cycle. Democrats’ prospects are blighted by record inflation and a cost of living crunch and Clinton wants them to talk up their record and put current economic challenges into the wider context.“What I wish we could convey more effectively, if you look at what has been accomplished in the first two years of the Biden presidency, with Congress working hand in hand, there has been an enormous amount of commitment of new building, new infrastructure, new investments in manufacturing, new ways to lower healthcare costs,” she said.The former first lady and secretary of state added: “In fact the work that’s been done by the Democrats in helping the economy and helping people deal with what is global inflation, not just American inflation, is truly impressive, and we’ve got to get that message across more effectively.”.@HillaryClinton: “The work that is being done by the Democrats in helping the economy and helping people deal with what is global inflation, not just American inflation, is truly impressive, and we’ve got to get that message across more effectively.” pic.twitter.com/rZQx1ItZ6I— The Hill (@thehill) November 3, 2022
      Tonight, Clinton is one of the headliners at a Get Out The Vote event in New York City to bolster New York state’s Democratic governor Kathy Hochul, who is not home and dry against her Republican challenger Lee Zeldin.State attorney general Letitia James will be there as well as other grandees and the top headliner will be US vice president Kamala Harris.The White House has announced that US representatives today visited US basketball player Brittney Griner in Russia, where she has been imprisoned since the early days of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Reuters reports.The two-time Olympic gold medallist was arrested on 17 February at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia.She was sentenced on 4 August to nine years in a penal colony. Last month her appeal against that harsh sentence failed and there are fears Griner could be moved to one of Russia’s far-flung prison colonies within weeks.Although at that time, Griner’s legal team said she was not “expecting any miracles” from the appeals process, the decision nonetheless would be a blow to the sports star, who pleaded guilty to the drug charges in July and has thrown herself several times on the mercy of the Russian court only to be given an unusually harsh sentence, even for Russia.“We are told she is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters today aboard Air Force One as she accompanied US president Joe Biden on an election campaign trip to New Mexico, followed by California.Earlier in October, Brittney Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner told CBS Mornings that Brittney, who was on her way to play in Russia during the WNBA offseason when she was arrested, is afraid of being abandoned by the United States.“She’s very afraid about being left and forgotten in Russia,” Cherelle Griner said.She said Brittney told her in a phone call that she felt “like my life just doesn’t matter.”Brittney Griner’s story always transcended sport. She’s a real American trailblazerRead moreIt’s clear that the spike in voter support Democrats experienced over the summer has worn off in the final weeks before the midterms, raising the possibility of a disastrous Tuesday for the party as it tries to defend its slim hold on both chambers of Congress.Longtime Democratic strategist Stanley B. Greenberg has published an explanation of one reason why Democrats failed to keep their momentum: their own voters lost faith in their ability to tackle crime.Writing in The American Prospect, Greenberg argues that Republicans effectively used increasing fears of violence nationwide to tar Democrats as soft on the issue, and the strategy was so potent even some racial groups that traditionally vote for Joe Biden’s allies saw the GOP as better able to tackle the problem. Greenberg based his conclusions on a polling effort he oversaw:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}New York City has seen citywide shooting incidents increase by 13 percent compared to July 2021, and the number of murders increased for the month by 34 percent compared to this time last year. Philadelphia and Chicago experienced prominent shoot-outs on the subway, and in Philadelphia overall shootings have increased by 3 percent and violent crimes are up 7 percent.
      As a result, crime was a top-tier issue in the midterm election, and that included Blacks, who ranked it almost as high as the cost of living in poll after poll. For Hispanics and Asian Americans, crime came just below the cost of living as a priority. And Republicans continued to remind voters that Democrats continued to support “defunding the police,” even by linking candidates to organizations they took money from, like Planned Parenthood, which back in 2020 called for defunding.
      The Democrats had so little credibility on crime that any message I tested this year against the Republicans ended up losing us votes, even messages that voters previously liked.The only message that worked with voters was one in which Democrats promised to greatly expand police forces and publicly called out members seen as not doing enough to fight crime, Greenberg writes. He adds that it’s a far cry from much of the party’s messaging since the racial justice protests that began in the summer of 2020, after which many Democrats focused more on police abuses than on communities’ fears of violence:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}In a mid-October poll, I was able to test a crime message that got heard. It got heard because it dramatized more police, said Democrats heard our communities on violent crime, and also called out the small minority of Democrats who failed to address violent crime, and said, “Democrats in Congress are mainstream” and support our “first responders.”
      To be honest, I didn’t want to open up this debate during the campaign when Democrats could do little to address it. That is why I am writing this article now, being published right before the election.
      Our effective crime message began with respect for police, but this time, the Democrat proposes to add 100,000 more police. That is a pretty dramatic offer that says, my crime plan begins with many more police. The message includes the same urgent reforms, but also adds, “those very communities want us to get behind law enforcement” and “fight violent crime as a top priority.”
      This crime message defeats by 11 points a Republican crime message that hits Democrats for defunding the police, being with Biden who is soft on crime, and presiding over Democratic cities with record homicide rates. Democrats are in so much trouble on crime, yet this message wins dramatically in the base and competes with working-class targets. We are five days away from the 8 November midterm elections, and Joe Biden last night gave a primetime speech in which he sought to remind Americans that many Republicans on ballots this year hold views that could threaten the country’s democracy. We’ll soon find out if voters believed him.Here’s a look at what has happened today so far:
      Republicans rolled their eyes at Biden’s speech, with the Senate’s GOP leader calling it a distraction from crime and inflation, which was echoed by the party’s candidate for governor in Michigan.
      A noted domestic violence researcher agreed with Biden’s warnings about democracy, saying that research indicates only a minority of Americans support violence in politics – though that still may be as many as 13 mn people.
      A top aide to Donald Trump said she has advised the former president to announce his 2024 run for office after the midterms. Some Democrats hoped Trump’s return to the presidential campaign trail before the vote would be positive for democratic turnout.
      One of Donald Trump’s top advisors Kellyanne Conway held forth with reporters today about what she advised the former president when it comes to announcing his next run for office, Semafor reports.Trump is widely expected to run for president again in 2024, but the bigger question is when he will announce. Some Democrats hoped he would so before the midterms, so they can steer voters’ attention back to the divisive former leader.Here’s what Conway, one of his best known aides, told reporters:Kellyanne Conway, at a roundtable with reporters, says she advised Trump not to announce before the midterms “if he does at all.” She then said it’ll happen soon and mentioned Tiffany Trump’s wedding as his estate.— Kadia Goba (@kadiagoba) November 3, 2022
      “I personally think he should do what he wants to do and I understand that he wants to make right all the issues that he made right while he was president.” — Conway when asked if she personally thinks Trump should run in 2024.— Kadia Goba (@kadiagoba) November 3, 2022
      Conway’s projection on Trump’s biggest threat. to the presidency: a spoiler. She did not name a specific potential Republican candidate.— Kadia Goba (@kadiagoba) November 3, 2022
      While Joe Biden argued democracy is on the ballot on Tuesday, Amy Westervelt reports that outcome could also have a major impact on climate change:Climate is on the ballot in a big way this November, despite the fact that it is not front and center in any of the campaigns. Even when it comes to voter turnout, the mood of climate voters has been a topic of conversation among political consultants for months.“Several months ago I was very concerned about the apathy we were seeing in young climate voters because of Democrats’ failure to even talk about the successes they have had,” Rania Batrice, political strategist and founder of Batrice & Associates, says. “But I do feel like there’s been a little bit of a renewed sense of urgency. In Georgia, for example, early voting just started and it’s already breaking all kinds of records.”Batrice says the fallout from the supreme court decision in Dobbs, which overturned the Roe v Wade precedent on abortion, is a big part of that urgency, but that the Biden administration’s increased action on climate this year plays a role too.For the campaigns she’s working on this midterm cycle – Beto O’Rourke for governor of Texas, John Fetterman for Senate in Pennsylvania, Charles Booker for Senate in Kentucky and Mandela Barnes for Senate in Wisconsin – Batrice says her advice on climate is simple: “Meet people where they’re at, and talk about climate in ways that relate to people’s daily lives.”‘A renewed sense of urgency’: climate on the ballot in US midterm electionsRead more More

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      Mehmet Oz campaigns at venue that bans same-sex weddings

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      Mehmet Oz campaigns at venue that bans same-sex weddingsPennsylvania Republican Senate candidate has said he supports legislation that would enshrine same-sex marriage in federal law Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for the Pennsylvania Senate seat who says he is in favour of same-sex marriage, hosted a campaign event on Wednesday at a venue that bans same-sex marriages.Oz, who has campaigned on supporting legislation that would enshrine same-sex marriage in federal law, held a campaign event at the Stone Gables Estate, a venue that only holds weddings between a man and a woman, reported the Washington Post.“We provide marriage-related services as ordained by God’s Word, the Holy Bible, that are consistent with the written truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” the venue says on its website.In July, Oz announced that he would support legislation that would codify same-sex marriage into federal law should he be elected, reported the Hill.Oz also tweeted in September about his support of gay marriage: “I’m proud to join this effort with fellow Republicans. I believe that same-sex couples should have the same freedom to get married as straight couples.”But Oz has been accused of making other anti-LGBTQ comments during his campaign specifically targeted at the transgender community. He also removed an episode of his former television show, The Dr Oz Show, about conversion therapy from the show’s website, as well as a blogpost where he said he supported the medical consensus that conversion therapy was ineffective and harmful, reported the Independent.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022US politicsPennsylvanianewsReuse this content More

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      US voters: what issues are deciding your vote next week?

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      US voters – what issues are deciding your midterm vote next week?Republican, Democrat or neither – we’d like to speak to people in the US ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections Americans will go to the polls next week to cast their votes in the US midterm elections.The midterms on 8 November will be voters’ first opportunity to deliver a national verdict on Joe Biden’s presidency, though his name will not be on the ballot. The constitution specifies every member of the House of Representatives and about a third of the Senate run for office halfway between presidential elections.Ahead of the midterm elections, we’d like to hear from US voters about the issues that are deciding their vote. Why are you planning on voting the way you are?Share your viewsIf you are 18 years or over, you can get in touch by filling in the form below or contacting us via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding +44(0)7766780300. Your responses are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. One of our journalists will be in contact before we publish, so please do leave contact details.We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature. We will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For more information please see our terms of service and privacy policy.If you’re having trouble using the form, click here.TopicsUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022DemocratsJoe BidencalloutReuse this content More

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      Pittsburgh Jews decry pro-Israel group’s support for Republican extremists

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      Pittsburgh Jews decry pro-Israel group’s support for Republican extremistsAipac is spending millions to oppose Democrat who would be Pennsylvania’s first Black female member of Congress More than 240 Jewish American voters in Pittsburgh have signed a letter denouncing the US’s largest pro-Israel group for backing extremist Republican election candidates while spending millions of dollars to oppose a Democrat who would be Pennsylvania’s first Black female member of Congress.US progressives show strength in primaries and predict more wins aheadRead moreThe letter condemned the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) for its attempts to defeat Summer Lee, a candidate for the district that includes Pittsburgh, after failing to block her during the Democratic primaries earlier this year because of her criticisms of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.The signatories said they were “outraged that at this critical moment in American history, Aipac has chosen to cast Democrats like Lee as extremists” while endorsing more than 100 Republican candidates who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election.The letter suggested that Aipac does not represent the views of the majority of American Jews and is working against their interests by also endorsing Republicans who promote white supremacy, a particularly sensitive issue in a city where 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogues were murdered in an antisemitic attack four years ago.“We also condemn Aipac endorsement of lawmakers who have promoted the antisemitic ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory that helped inspire the murder of eleven members of the three synagogues housed at Tree of Life,” the letter said.“Clearly, their definition of ‘extreme’ is completely opposite to that held by the majority of American Jews – who worry about the stark rise in antisemitism and white nationalism in our state and in our country.”It is the first time Aipac has funded support for a Republican contender for Congress over a Democrat in a general election, marking a further shift away from its once more bipartisan approach.Aipac’s campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for television advertising and mailings against Lee. The group is backing Mike Doyle, who supports a federal ban on abortion and has described himself as very conservative.The UDP has posted a leaflet to voters calling Lee “too extreme” because of her positions on police, prison and immigration reform. The leaflet makes no mention of her criticisms of Israeli government policies which do not appear to be an election issue for most voters, although Aipac has previously said that its “sole factor for supporting Democratic and Republican candidates is their support for strengthening the US-Israel relationship”.Lee has drawn Aipac’s fire for her support of setting conditions for the US’s considerable aid to Israel, for accusing Israel of “atrocities” in Gaza, and for drawing parallels between Israeli actions against Palestinians and the shooting of young black men in the US.In a tweet earlier this week, Lee accused Aipac of funding extremists: “8 days from making history in PA–where Black women have never had federal representation–Aipac is funding my extreme GOP opponent. Since endorsing 100+ insurrectionists, Aipac has repeatedly shown us that democracy has never been as important as keeping progressives out.”Lee’s campaign has an additional cause for concern because her Republican opponent has the same first and last name as the outgoing Democratic member of Congress she is seeking to replace. In an apparent attempt to exploit potential confusion, Doyle’s website does not mention that he is a Republican.Aipac’s campaign against Lee is a rematch after it tried and failed to block her during the Democratic primaries earlier this year.The UDP spent more than $25m in the primaries to defeat candidates it deemed too critical, or insufficiently supportive, of Israel, including about $2.6m against Lee. Most of the candidates opposed by Aipac lost but Lee won her race by a slim margin.Much of the advertising in support of Aipac-backed candidates in the primaries played up Democratic party values such as equality. One of those opposed by the lobby group, Congressman Andy Levin who lost his primary and seat, on Wednesday tweeted that Aipac’s opposition to Lee revealed its professed support for liberal values to have been a sham.“If it wasn’t clear before, it certainly is now: AIPAC doesn’t care about our party’s values and priorities and it’s willing to empower extremists and undermine American democracy in order to defeat principled, progressive candidates,” he wrote.One of those who initiated the letter from members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community was Ritchie Tabachnick who sits on the steering committee of a more moderate pro-Israel organisation, J Street. Tabachnick said the letter speaks for the majority of the city’s Jews because they are disturbed at Aipac “supporting some of the most extreme Republicans, people who make openly antisemitic remarks promote antisemitic conspiracy theories”.“It’s quite possible to be pro-Israel and antisemitic. They often go hand in hand. Aipac have chosen to prioritise the-pro Israel and ignore the antisemitic elements that go with it,” he said.Tabachnick said he believed Aipac was attempting to shut down widening criticism of Israel in the US, a task made more urgent by the expected return of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister in coalition with far-right Jewish nationalists.“They are trying to control the narrative,” he said.But Tabachnik said he does not believe Aipac represents the views of most of the US’s Jewish community.“They are a loud, politically smart minority,” he said of the group.Aipac denies taking sides against the Democrats, saying that Lee’s views put her “outside of the Democratic mainstream”.Aipac has been approached for comment.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022US politicsPennsylvaniaAntisemitismIsraelDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      'Democracy at risk': Biden warns against political violence as US midterms approach – video

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      Joe Biden has warned Americans against condoning ‘political violence’ as the midterm elections approach, raising the alarm about the threats to US democracy. ‘We don’t settle our differences in America with a riot, a mob or a bullet, or a hammer. We settle them peaceably at the ballot box,’ the president said during a prime time address on Wednesday. ‘It’s within our power, each and every one of us to preserve our democracy. And I believe we will,’ he added.
      Biden’s speech came after an attack on House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, 82-year-old Paul Pelosi, at their home. 

      Biden urges Americans to take a stand against political violence: ‘We’re facing a defining moment’ More

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      ‘A really dangerous candidate’: Kari Lake, the new face of Maga Republicanism

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      ‘A really dangerous candidate’: Kari Lake, the new face of Maga RepublicanismThe former local news anchor – and former Democrat – is in a neck-and-neck race for governor in key swing state of Arizona Local news anchor Kari Lake resisted announcing that Joe Biden had won Arizona on election night two years ago. Now, she’s the telegenic new face of Maga Republicanism, poised to possibly become the state’s next governor.With early voting under way, polls show Lake in a dead heat with her opponent Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state. The contest will test the strength of Donald Trump’s enduring influence on the Republican party and its supporters. And the entire enterprise of free elections in Arizona hangs in the balance.If Lake wins, her administration will oversee the 2024 elections in a key state that could help determine who wins the presidency. She could work with the likes of Mark Finchem, the far-right Oath Keeper who is running to become the state’s top election official. Already, she has said she will only accept the 2022 election results if “fair, honest and transparent” by her standards, declining to say whether she would accept defeat.‘The Trump playbook’: Republicans hint they will deny election resultsRead moreOn the night Lake won the Republican primary, she walked on stage carrying a sledgehammer and vowed to use it on electronic voting machines if elected governor. Instead of machines, Lake wants to use hand counts to tabulate elections – a method that is both more time-consuming and less accurate – while also insisting that results should be declared on election day. She has threatened to punish journalists for publishing content she disagrees with and imprison her opponent over fictional accusations of election rigging.“We’re dealing with a really dangerous candidate,” said Alejandra Gomez, co-director of the progressive advocacy group Lucha. “This election is incredibly consequential for the future of our democracy.”For 22 years, Lake was a familiar face on local TV – delivering the evening news at Fox 10 Phoenix in her smooth, deep voice. But on election night in 2020, she resisted calling the election for Biden, as her co-anchor awkwardly insisted that they follow protocol.In recent years Lake had joined the far-right social media platform Parler, and left an online trail of implicit endorsements of rightwing positions and conspiracy theories, much to the consternation of her station’s management. But it was her seemingly sudden and dramatic resignation that laid the foundations for her future political career.“I found myself reading news copy that I didn’t believe was fully truthful,” she said in March 2021, announcing that she was quitting. “I’ve decided the time is right to do something else.”A few months later, Lake said she was running for governor – almost immediately launching herself into rightwing stardom.In August, she defeated her GOP establishment-backed opponent to win the primary, and has since managed to gain the support of the outgoing Republican governor, Doug Ducey, and the state’s big Republican donors.Instead of network crews, it is now her husband, Jeff Halperin, who serves as her videographer. An independent producer, Halperin trails Lake and captures practically her every move, including combative exchanges with reporters to promote on social media.Lake’s platform in the race now contradicts her own from just a few years ago. In 2008, Lake was a registered Democrat and donated to the Democratic presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Barack Obama. In 2016, Lake proposed a plan to provide amnesty for undocumented immigrants. Today, she says she would declare an “invasion” at the southern border and evoked the white supremacist “great replacement” theory in describing immigrants.She once considered a local drag queen a friend and often attended performances, but now runs ads featuring an extremist homophobic pastor and attacks drag performers as a threat to children.On abortion, too, she has been inconsistent. The vast majority of Arizonans believe that abortion should be legal in at least some cases. Lake has called abortion “the ultimate sin” and has endorsed Arizona’s pre-statehood ban, though, in recent weeks has provided muddled messages about her stance. Lake also told a conference of young, conservative women that “God did not create us to be equal to men.”Lake’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for an interview, and declined to respond to specific questions about her past politics. She told Time magazine that she previously supported Democrats in protest of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.Lake’s broad appeal has surprised both Democrats and moderate Republicans, especially given that many of her espoused views are more fundamentalist and rightwing than those held by most Arizona voters.Star powerFormer co-workers and friends have said they have been alarmed by her sudden conversion to Maga Republicanism while political pundits have speculated over whether this transformation is genuine or a shrewd career calculation.Regardless, it seems to be working. Her almost daily campaign events have become a sensation. In recent weeks, her intimate receptions with donors, and her rallies alongside fellow rightwing politicians from across the country have drawn supporters across demographic groups.US midterms 2022: the key candidates who threaten democracyRead moreOf all the far-right, Trump-endorsed Republicans on the ballot this election cycle, Lake might just have the most star power. Trump himself has told other candidates to be more like her. Republican insiders are already speculating that she could be Trump’s vice-presidential nominee in 2024, or run for president herself.“You can call me Trump in a dress any day,” she told cheering crowds at a recent rally, embracing comparisons between herself to the former president.Over the past few months, Hobbs’s quiet, at times stiff demeanor has been no match to Lake’s larger than life persona. At a town hall event hosted by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Lake reportedly positioned herself in the front row in an apparent stunt designed to rattle her opponent. She was eventually booted out of the room – but it seemed to work. Hobbs delivered an uneven performance, fumbling on softball questions.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022The fight for democracyArizonaRepublicansUS politicsDonald TrumpfeaturesReuse this content More