US midterm elections 2022

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      Democrats could still salvage Build Back Better – and perhaps their midterm prospects

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      Democrats could still salvage Build Back Better – and perhaps their midterm prospects Best-case scenario: a scaled down plan that saves popular programs and a billionaire tax to pay for it Democrats were already facing a bleak landscape for this year’s midterm elections, with Joe Biden’s approval rating languishing in the low 40s and his party holding narrow majorities in both the House and the Senate.Now, with Senator Joe Manchin’s refusal to support the Build Back Better Act, the chances of Republicans regaining control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate as well, appear higher than ever.If Democrats cannot pass Biden’s signature legislation, which includes massive investments in childcare, healthcare and climate initiatives, their failure may convince enough voters to support Republicans in November. However, if Democrats try to move forward with a version of the bill that Manchin supports, as some strategists have suggested, the final product may not be as attractive to voters.Democrats’ unappealing options will probably aid Republicans, who were already favored to take back the House after the midterms. Historically, the president’s party loses House seats in midterm elections, and Republicans need to flip only five districts to regain the majority.The decennial redistricting process has aided House Republicans’ cause, as the party controls the governorship and the state legislature in 23 states, compared with 14 states for Democrats. That advantage has allowed Republicans to draw more favorable congressional maps in a number of crucial swing states. Democrats have also accused Republicans of using voting restrictions, which were approved by at least 19 states last year, to limit their supporters’ access to the ballot box.In the evenly divided Senate, Republicans need to gain just one seat to take control of the chamber. Rick Scott, who leads Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, has already said he expects the party to have “a hell of a year”.Democrats’ possible failure to pass the Build Back Better Act may further assist Republican candidates, as it could strengthen their argument to voters that the $1.75tn spending package is the wrong solution for families struggling to recover financially from the coronavirus pandemic.Emma Vaughn, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, attacked the Democratic bill as a “reckless spending spree”, telling the Guardian, “Americans reject their failed agenda and Republicans will continue to fight for American workers and businesses.”But despite Manchin’s surprise announcement last month that he would not support the Build Back Better Act, the White House and Democratic congressional leaders are still voicing optimism about getting the bill passed.“We have a very slim majority in the Senate. That means you need every single senator from across the spectrum of the Democratic party agreeing to what a package looks like moving forward,” the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said last week.“We’re not naive about how challenging that is and how challenging it can be, but we feel good about the possibility of getting something done. What the final package looks like, I can’t outline that for you at this point in time.”However, just hours earlier, Manchin had insisted that there were no conversations happening between him and the White House. “I’m really not going to talk about Build Back Better any more because I think I’ve been very clear on that. There [are] no negotiations going on at this time,” Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill.Manchin’s opposition to the bill has intensified concerns among Democratic leaders that many vulnerable members may lose re-election this year, as voters blame the party for failing to follow through on their campaign promises despite having full control of the White House and Congress.“Voters have shown time and again that they want a robust economic environment creating good opportunities to build a better life for themselves and their family,” said Congressman Brad Schneider, chair of the political arm of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, the NewDem Action Fund. “At the end of the day, we have to show working families we’re responsive to their kitchen table concerns.”Some Democratic strategists have argued the party’s best option now is to work with Manchin to craft a version of the Build Back Better Act that he can support and then move forward with that proposal.“Mr Manchin said at various points that he could support a scaled-back bill that made long-term commitments to fewer priorities,” David Axelrod, a former adviser to Barack Obama, said in a recent New York Times column. “If, through a retooled Build Back Better Act, Mr Biden can achieve significant and durable progress on some major priorities that will benefit children and families for generations, Democrats would be wise to celebrate and tout those gains instead of complaining about what wasn’t possible.”Schneider echoed that argument, telling the Guardian, “Since the start of negotiations, New Dems have been advocating to do a select number of things better for longer, and we still believe that approach is the best path forward.”But a Manchin-approved version of the Build Back Better Act does not come without potential pitfalls. Manchin has raised concerns about the cost of the legislation and the impact on the national debt if all of its programs are made permanent. (Under the current version of the bill, many of its programs expire after a year or a few years.)The child tax credit, which was expanded under the coronavirus relief package signed by Biden last year, is particularly worrisome for deficit hawks. The current version of the Build Back Better bill calls for the expanded program to continue through 2022, at a cost of $185bn. However, if the expanded program is made permanent, as many Democrats would prefer, the 10-year cost of that policy would be $1.6tn, according to the Congressional Budget Office.Despite the cost of the policy, many Americans have come to rely on the monthly checks from the expanded child tax credit, and failing to extend the program could be disastrous for families’ budgets and Democrats’ electoral prospects.“If [Manchin] brings down the price tag below $1.75tn, if he cuts really popular things like the child tax credit especially or any of the pharma provisions, then that could be disastrous for Democrats,” said Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.But Green argued there may be an upside to Manchin’s deficit concerns. If Manchin is determined to lower the national debt, it could provide an opening for progressives to advocate for revenue-raising proposals that they support, such as a tax on billionaires.“There’s actually a scenario where we raise $1.75tn and invest that money, and then on top of that implement a very popular billionaires tax, the majority of which goes toward debt reduction,” Green said. “What that would do is give Democrats this extremely popular talking point that we’re the ones who finally taxed billionaires.”Of course, that scenario will only be possible if Democrats are successful at bringing Manchin back to the negotiating table and actually getting a bill across the finish line. “Depending on how the negotiations go, Manchin’s current involvement could make things disastrous or very good for Democrats,” Green said. “It really depends on where things land.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022DemocratsUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Ex-NFL star Herschel Walker posts baffling video promoting US Senate run

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      Ex-NFL star Herschel Walker posts baffling video promoting US Senate runCritics seize on Build Back Better criticisms from controversial candidate nonetheless endorsed by Donald Trump Herschel Walker has Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race for US Senate in Georgia but the former NFL star may be struggling to counter fears from some Republicans that he could damage the party’s chances of taking back a seat lost in 2020, and with it the Senate itself.Twitter permanently suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account Read moreIn December, the former University of Georgia and Dallas Cowboys running back admitted he does not have a college degree – having repeatedly said that he did.Then, as January began, Walker posted to social media a short but to some bafflingly phrased video.Under the message “a few things to think about as we start the New Year”, Walker attacked policy priorities championed by Democrats including Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black senator who will defend his seat in November.“Build Back Better,” he said, referring to Joe Biden’s domestic spending plan, which targets health and social care and the climate crisis.“You know I’m always thinking: if you want to build back better, first you probably want to control the border, because you want to know who you’re building it for and why. Then you probably want to protect your military, because they’re protecting you against people in other countries that don’t like you.”He then shifted to a broader goal, popular among progressives.“Defunding the police? Bad idea. You want to fund the police so that they have better training, better equipment to protect the law of the land, because you don’t want people doing whatever they want to do.”Then he shifted back again.“Build Back Better. You probably want to become energy independent. Otherwise you’re going to depend on other countries for your livelihood. Build Back Better. You probably want something written, like law of the land, stating that all men are to be treated equal. Oh! We have the constitution. So you probably want to put people in charge who’s going to fight for the constitution.“Just thinking. God bless you.”Burgess Owens, a Republican congressman from Utah who once played safety for the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders, said Walker “represents what the American dream is all about: hard work, strong character, and love for our great country. I am honored to endorse Herschel for Senate and look forward to working with him!”But critics said the video – and a similarly rambling Fox News appearance – was evidence of Walker’s unsuitability for office.To some, such evidence has piled up ever since Walker signaled a shift into politics. Last summer, the Associated Press said “hundreds of pages of public records tied to Walker’s business ventures and his divorce, including many not previously reported, shed new light on a turbulent personal history that could dog his Senate bid”.The documents, the AP said, “detail accusations that Walker repeatedly threatened his ex-wife’s life, exaggerated claims of financial success and alarmed business associates with unpredictable behavior”.The day Donald Trump’s narcissism killed the USFLRead moreThe AP also reported that Walker “has at times been open about his long struggle with mental illness, writing at length in a 2008 book about being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, once known as multiple personality disorder”.The report also quoted the Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, who said that while Walker “certainly could bring a lot of things to the table … as others have mentioned, there’s also a lot of questions out there”.In the matter of Walker touting a college degree he does not hold, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the false claim was made on a campaign website, “in an online biography advertising Walker’s book, at a campaign rally … and even during his introduction this year at a congressional hearing”.In a statement, Walker said: “I was majoring in criminal justice at UGA when I left to play in the USFL my junior year. After playing with the New Jersey Generals” – a team Trump owned – “I returned to Athens to complete my degree, but life and football got in the way.”TopicsRepublicansUS midterm elections 2022GeorgiaUS politicsUS SenateUS CongressUS domestic policynewsReuse this content More

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      ‘The testing ground’: how Republican state parties grow Trumpism 2.0

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      ‘The testing ground’: how Republican state parties grow Trumpism 2.0 In Oklahoma, Idaho, Wyoming and California, the next generation of GOP extremists are passing laws, picking their own voters … and preparing for powerThe website of the Oklahoma Republican party has a running countdown to the 2024 presidential election measured in “Maga days”, “Maga hours”, “Maga minutes” and “Maga seconds” – Maga being shorthand for Donald Trump’s timeworn slogan, “Make America great again”.Betrayal review: Trump’s final days and a threat not yet extinguishedRead moreThe state party chairman, John Bennett, a veteran of three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has described Islam as a “cancer in our nation that needs to be cut out” and posted a yellow Star of David on Facebook to liken coronavirus vaccine mandates to the persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany.This is just one illustration of how Republican parties at the state level are going to new extremes in their embrace of Trump, an ominous sign ahead of midterm elections next year and a potential glimpse of the national party’s future. Yet the radicalisation often takes place under the radar of the national media.“We are not a swing state and we’re nowhere near a swing state so no one’s looking,” said Alicia Andrews, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic party. “And because no one is looking at Oklahoma, we are allowed to be way more extreme than a lot of states.”Andrews pointed to the example of a state law passed by the Republican majority in April that grants immunity to drivers who unintentionally injure or kill protesters and stiffens penalties for demonstrators who block public roadways.“Only three states passed it, with Oklahoma being the first,” she said. “And you know why? Because there wasn’t national attention. We were talking about Florida passing it and Texas passing it. No one was even considering what was going on in Oklahoma and it quietly passed in Oklahoma.”Similarly, Andrew argues, while other states were debating “critical race theory” in schools, in Oklahoma a ban was rammed through with little coverage. Another concern is gerrymandering, the process whereby a party redraws district boundaries for electoral advantage.Andrews, the first African American to lead the Oklahoma Democratic party, said: “Our legislators are in a special session right now to review our maps and they are really eroding an urban core, taking at least 6,000 Hispanic Americans out of an urban district and moving them to a rural district, thus denuding their votes. I didn’t think that they could make it worse but they are.”Oklahoma is a deep red state. As of August, its house and senate had 121 Republicans and 28 Democrats. It continues to hold “Stop the Steal” rallies pushing Trump’s “big lie” that Joe Biden robbed him of victory in the presidential election.Andrews warns that Republicans in her state are indicative of a national trend.“Their stated strategy is start at the municipal level, take over the state, take over the nation. So while everybody’s talking about the infrastructure plan and the Build Back Better plan, they’re rubbing their hands together and making differences in states.”She added: “We’re like the testing ground for their most radical right exercises, and once they perfect it here, they can take it to other states.”‘Owning the libs’Republican state parties’ rightward spiral has included promotion of Trump’s “big lie” about electoral fraud, white nationalism and QAnon, an antisemitic conspiracy theory involving Satan-worshipping cannibals and a child sex-trafficking ring. It can find bizarre and disturbing expression.Arizona staged a sham “audit” of the 2020 presidential election that only confirmed Biden’s victory in the state. Last month in Idaho, when Governor Brad Little was out of the state, his lieutenant, Janice McGeachin, issued an executive order to prevent employers requiring employees be vaccinated against Covid-19. Little rescinded it on his return.The Wyoming state party central committee this week voted to no longer recognise the congresswoman Liz Cheney – daughter of the former vice-president Dick Cheney and a hardline conservative – as a Republican, its second formal rebuke for her criticism of Trump and vote to impeach him for his role in the US Capitol attack.Nina Hebert, communications director of the state Democratic party, said: “Wyoming is not exempt from the extremism that Trump has intentionally cultivated and fuelled and continues to court today.“He was a popular figure in Wyoming in the 2016 election and he retains that popularity amongst voters in the state, which I think is the most red in the nation.”Gerrymandering is a longstanding problem, Hebert said, but Trump’s gleeful celebration of the 6 January riot has opened floodgates.“They have created situations where Republican-controlled state legislatures have no reason to pretend even that they’re not just trying to hold on to power. This has become something that is acceptable within the Republican party.”The shift has also been evident in policy in Florida, Texas and other states where Republicans have taken aim at abortion access, gun safety, trans and voting rights. Often, zealous officials seem to be trying to outdo one another in outraging liberals, known as “owning the libs”.The drift is not confined to red states. When Republicans in California, a Democratic bastion, sought to recall Governor Gavin Newsom, they rallied around a Trumpian populist in the conservative talk radio host Larry Elder rather than a more mainstream figure such as Kevin Faulconer, a former mayor of San Diego.Kurt Bardella, an adviser to the Democratic National Committee who was once an aide to a leading California Republican, said: “To me that was a bellwether. If even a state like California can’t get a more moderate, pragmatic Republican party at the state level, there’s really no hope for any of the parties in any state at this point.“They’re leaning so hard into this anti-democratic, authoritarian, non-policy-based iteration and identity. The old adage, ‘As goes California, so goes the country,’ well, look at what the California Republican party did and we’re seeing that play out across the board.”‘Wackadoodle Republicans’Like junior sports teams, state parties are incubators and pipelines for generations of politicians heading to Washington. The primary election system tends to favour the loudest and most extreme voices, who can whip up enthusiasm in the base.Trump has been promiscuous in his endorsements of Maga-loyal candidates for the November 2022 midterms, among them Herschel Walker, a former football star running for the Senate in Georgia despite a troubled past including allegations that he threatened his ex-wife’s life.Other examples include Sarah Sanders, a former White House press secretary running for governor in Arkansas, and Karoline Leavitt, a 23-year-old former assistant press secretary targeting a congressional seat in New Hampshire.‘Professor or comrade?’ Republicans go full red scare on Soviet-born Biden pickRead moreThis week, Amanda Chase, a state senator in Virginia and self-described “Trump in heels”, announced a bid for Congress against the Democrat Abigail Spanberger. Chase gave a speech in Washington on 6 January, hours before the insurrection, and was censured by her state senate for praising the rioters as “patriots”.The former congressman Joe Walsh, who was part of the Tea Party, a previous conservative movement against the Republican establishment, and now hosts a podcast, said: “I talked to these folks every day, and for people who think [members of Congress] Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are nuts, they ain’t seen nothing yet.“The Republicans at the state and local level are way, way more gone than the Republicans in Washington. We’re talking about grassroots voters and activists on the ground and eventually, to win a Republican primary at whatever level, every candidate has to listen to them.“So you’re going to get a far larger number of wackadoodle Republicans elected to Congress in 2022 because they will reflect the craziness that’s going on state and locally right now.”TopicsRepublicansUS politicsOklahomaWyomingCaliforniaIdahoUS midterm elections 2022featuresReuse this content More

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      Virginia victory gives some Republicans glimpse of future without Trump

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      RepublicansVirginia victory gives some Republicans glimpse of future without Trump
      Liz Cheney and Chris Christie lead calls to move on from 2020
      In Trumpland, election was stolen and racism was long ago
      Ed Pilkington in New York@edpilkingtonSun 7 Nov 2021 12.56 ESTLast modified on Sun 7 Nov 2021 16.45 ESTProminent Republicans are seizing on the victory of Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia gubernatorial race last week to call for a realignment of the party that would move beyond Donald Trump and his “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen.House 6 January panel to issue new round of subpoenas for Trump alliesRead moreWhile most Republicans remain either in lockstep with, or silent about, the former president’s campaign of misinformation surrounding his defeat by Joe Biden, a number of voices have begun tentatively to argue for a reboot.Liz Cheney, the Wyoming representative ousted from the No 3 leadership position in May over her resistance to Trump’s lies, told Fox News Sunday her party needed to change tack. She said that it was imperative for the wellbeing of the US that it had two strong parties.“The only way the Republican party can go forward in strength is if we reject what happened on 6 January,” she said. “If we reject the efforts that President Trump made frankly to steal the election, and if we tell voters the truth.“In order to win elections we have to remember that the most conservative of ideals is embracing the constitution and the rule of law.”Cheney was also asked about attempts, notably by Tucker Carlson of Fox News, to divert blame for the deadly attack on the US Capitol away from the Trump supporters who sought to overturn his election defeat.“It’s the same thing that you hear people saying 9/11 is an inside job,” she said. “It’s un-American to be spreading those kinds of lies, and they are lies.”Cheney’s comments came a day after Chris Christie, a former governor of New Jersey and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, made an impassioned plea to the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas.Christie, a longtime confidant of Trump, nonetheless called for the party to move beyond the former president’s obsession with the last election.“We can no longer talk about the past and the past elections – no matter where you stand on that issue, no matter where you stand, it is over,” he said.He added: “Every minute that we spend talking about 2020 – while we’re wasting time doing that, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are laying ruin to this country. We better focus on that and take our eyes off the rearview mirror and start looking through the windshield again.”Youngkin defeated a former Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, in a bitter contest in which the issue of race in education was pivotal. The Republican assiduously avoided anything to do with Trump in his pitch to Virginian voters.But he did run a campaign that borrowed heavily from Trump’s tactics, not least his use of dog-whistles to drive a wedge between white suburbanites and Democrats and his willingness to exploit falsehoods and misinformation. Youngkin ran heavily on his opposition to critical race theory, an academic discipline that examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society, saying he would ban its use in Virginia schools. It is not taught in a single Virginia school.Trumpism without Trump appears to be gaining ground among Republicans in the wake of Youngkin’s success in a state that has been trending Democratic. But with Trump hinting at another bid for the White House, and with his threat still hanging over the party that he will endorse primary challengers to anyone who defies him, many Republicans continue to act with extreme timidity, for fear that they too will be ousted.Rick Scott, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, chose his words carefully on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.He began by saying that Trump’s endorsement was welcome.“We would love Donald Trump’s endorsement. If you’re a Republican, you want his endorsement.”But he then emphasised that candidates should campaign on issues.“I think you’d be foolish not to want and accept Donald Trump’s endorsement. But you’re going to win not because somebody endorses you, you’re going to win because you focus on making sure inflation gets stopped, making sure people get a job, making sure your kids aren’t indoctrinated on critical race theory. That’s going to be the issues that people care about.”Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland and a frequent critic of Trump, was unsurprisingly more outspoken.Glenn Youngkin condemns report his son twice tried to vote in VirginiaRead moreSpeaking to CNN’s State of the Union, he said the lesson of Youngkin’s win was that “voters want to hear more about what you are going to do for them, rather than what you want to say for or against the former president”.Hogan said he was concerned about the damage Trump could do in the presidential race in 2024, should he continue to use his power of endorsement to promote extremist Republican candidates.“If the former president interferes with primaries and tries to nominate people who are unelectable in the swing and purple states,” he said, “that’s going to hurt”.Hogan added: “Trump is likely not going away. But if the Republican party wants to be successful at winning elections I agree with Governor Christie, we can’t look back and constantly re-litigate what happened in 2020, we have to look to ’22 and ’24.“We have to have a message that appeals to more people that’s not about the former president.”TopicsRepublicansDonald TrumpUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022VirginianewsReuse this content More

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      Al Franken rules out Senate run against Gillibrand, who led push to remove him

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      Al FrankenAl Franken rules out Senate run against Gillibrand, who led push to remove himNew York senator led moves to push Franken out as Minnesota senator over allegations of sexual misconduct Martin Pengelly in New York@MartinPengellySun 31 Oct 2021 12.44 EDTLast modified on Sun 31 Oct 2021 12.45 EDTAl Franken on Sunday ruled out mounting a primary challenge to Kirsten Gillibrand, the New York senator who four years ago led calls for his resignation as a senator from Minnesota over allegations of sexual misconduct.Huma Abedin says kiss from unnamed senator was not sexual assaultRead moreIn a statement to Politico, Franken said: “Yes, I miss the Senate but I’m not going to run against Kirsten Gillibrand.”A writer, comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member, Franken was narrowly elected as a Democrat in Minnesota in 2008 and returned to Washington much more comfortably six years later.He achieved national prominence, particularly as an acerbic critic of Republicans and Donald Trump. His last book before his resignation was titled Al Franken: Giant of the Senate.He was forced to quit in December 2017, amid the first stirrings of the #MeToo movement and over allegations that he touched women inappropriately or forcibly kissed them.Gillibrand led moves to push Franken out, writing: “Enough is enough. As elected officials, we should be held to the highest standards – not the lowest.”Franken did not face investigation by the Senate ethics committee.In his resignation speech, he said “all women deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously” but added: “Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember differently.”01:14He was replaced in the Senate by Tina Smith, a former lieutenant governor of Minnesota. In 2019, seven serving or retired senators told the New Yorker they regretted forcing Franken out.Franken told the magazine he regretted resigning and added: “I’m angry at my colleagues who did this. I think they were just trying to get past one bad news cycle.”Writing for the Guardian, the academic and feminist author Laura Kipnis said: “I myself thought at the time that if Franken had actually groped women during photo ops, as was alleged, he was right to resign.“… In late 2017, we were all pretty on edge, I think, combing our pasts for dormant memories of assaults and affronts, and there were so many stories – too many to make sense of. It was an off-with-their-heads moment, and for a while that felt great.“But there were also opportunists ‘telling their truths’. There was failed distinction-making and political expediency, and the impossibility of sorting motives from facts. That’s what’s starting to get unraveled now.”Republican Adam Kinzinger: I’ll fight Trumpism ‘cancer’ outside CongressRead moreAfter moving to New York City, Franken, now 70, has returned to national politics as a commentator, with a podcast and a venture into stand-up comedy, The Only Former US Senator Currently on Tour Tour. Prior to Sunday, he had done little to scotch rumours of a political comeback.Politico quoted an anonymous source as saying Gillibrand, New York’s junior senator since 2009 and a failed candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, had been “not exactly cool as a cucumber about” a possible challenge from Franken.Gillibrand’s chief of staff, Jess Fassler, told the website: “The only thing she’s worried about right now is getting family leave into the Build Back Better package.”In his statement to Politico, Franken only ruled out a run against Gillibrand.TopicsAl FrankenKirsten GillibrandUS SenateDemocratsUS politicsUS CongressUS midterm elections 2022newsReuse this content More

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      ‘We need him to deliver’: Biden faces wrath of disappointed supporters

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      Joe Biden‘We need him to deliver’: Biden faces wrath of disappointed supporters The US president hopes to be a transformational figure like FDR but inaction on voting rights, the climate crisis and social policy has fuelled frustrationDavid Smith in Washington@smithinamericaSat 23 Oct 2021 02.00 EDTLast modified on Sat 23 Oct 2021 02.07 EDTWhen Joe Biden huddled with a group of historians in March, the conversation revolved around thinking big like one of his predecessors, Franklin Roosevelt, architect of the New Deal. Biden, it seemed, wanted to join him in the first rank of transformational US presidents.Six months later, a very different gathering took place this week outside the White House gates. Five young climate activists, holding signs and sitting on folding chairs, began an indefinite hunger strike. It was a visceral expression of disgust at what they see as Biden’s willingness to think small and break his promises.Biden gives strongest signal he’s ready to move to end Senate filibusterRead more“Young people turned out in record numbers to elect him on his climate commitments,” said Nikayla Jefferson, 24, an activist helping the quietly determined hunger strikers on the edge of Lafayette Park. “But over this past month he’s almost given up. He’s not being a leader in this moment in the way that we need him to deliver.”A growing sense of betrayal is shared by campaigners for everything from gun rights to immigration reform, from racial justice to voting rights, who saw Democrats’ governing majority as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Instead party infighting has put Biden’s agenda in jeopardy and could result in voter disillusionment in next year’s midterm elections.The 46th president came into office promising to attack four crises – coronavirus, climate, economy and racial justice – but has seen his approval rating sink to 42% after colliding with some harsh political and economic realities.These include tepid jobs growth, labour strikes, rising inflation and petrol prices, logjams in the global supply chain, a record number of arrests at the US-Mexico border and a botched withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan that raised unexpected questions about his competence.Even routine business, such as appointing an ambassador to Japan, appears to have become jinxed: Biden’s choice for Tokyo, Rahm Emanuel, provoked a backlash from liberals because of his record on racial justice as mayor of Chicago.Worries that Biden has lost his way have been intensified by his failure to hold an open-to-all press conference since taking office in January. In that time he has done only 10 one-on-one interviews – far fewer than Barack Obama or Donald Trump at the same stage.But the biggest sense of a stalled presidency derives from seemingly interminable wrangling among congressional Democrats over Biden’s $1tn physical infrastructure bill and a $3.5 trillion social and environmental package.Two senators in particular, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have demanded cuts to the reconciliation package, prompting public acrimony with Senator Bernie Sanders and other progressives that has come to dominate Washington and crowd out other urgent causes.Biden’s proud march into the history books appears to have descended into internal party mudslinging.Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator for Oregon, told the Meet the Press Daily programme on the MSNBC network: “It’s completely taking the air out of the balloon for the Biden presidency. It’s hurting Biden. It’s hurting the Democrats. It’s undermining the vision of all the accomplishments we will have as being highly significant.”With his legislative agenda in limbo if not peril, Biden was this week forced to step in, host both factions at the White House and take a more aggressive role. This gave some Democrats fresh hope of a breakthrough but indicated that he will pare down the $3.5tn package in favor of a more modest proposal, threatening a clean electricity programme that was the centerpiece of his climate strategy.It also underlined concerns that Biden is yielding to corporate interests on fossil fuels, prescription drug prices and tax increases. Critics say he has become so consumed with the grind of policy sausage-making that he has lost sight of big picture issues dear to his supporters.Among them is the fate of democracy itself.Last week Senate Republicans deployed a procedural rule known as the filibuster to block, for the second time, debate on sweeping reforms that would protect the right to vote. Activists who knocked on doors and raised funds for Biden warn that his failure to prioritize the issue above all others could prove his biggest regret.LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said: “Do I believe that he’s against voter suppression? Absolutely. Do I think that he supports voting rights? Absolutely. Do I believe that he is willing to use the full power of his office and his administration to ensure that voters that voted for him are not punished for voting for him? That’s yet to be seen.”In a CNN town hall on Thursday night, Biden signaled support for filibuster reform. But he should have pushed the cause earlier and more forcefully, Brown argues.“When you fight for those that fight for you, you go in the midterms with an advantage. I think they squandered that with choosing the wrong strategy. They miscalculated. Black folks may not have another real, viable party option but we always have options,” she said.Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, a leading civil organization, described the White House’s passivity about safeguarding democracy as “appalling”. He told the Washington Post: “I have heard from many of my colleagues and members that the lack of priority around voting rights will be the undoing of the legacy for this presidency.”Disenchantment was evident again last weekend when dozens of advocates for immigration reform staged a virtual walkout on administration officials during a video meeting. They are critical of Biden’s continuation of Trump-era border policies such as forcing migrants to wait in Mexico pending asylum hearings and deploying a public health order known as Title 42 to expel migrants at the border over concerns about Covid-19.Ariana Saludares, an advocate from the New Mexico-based community organization Colores United, who took part in the walkout, said: “Title 42 is a sham. Politicians, including the current administration, use it to explain that those coming across the borders have higher rates of infection. We have the numbers from our shelters along the borders to show that that is absolutely false.”Speaking by phone from Puerto Palomas, a small border town in Mexico suffering water shortages, Saludares asked: “Where is Joe Biden? Where is Kamala Harris? Where are all of these things they said that they would be able to provide us with after such a ‘horrible period’. And now what? It leaves a lot of people wondering what actually are they doing?”The disappointment of grassroots activists spells trouble for Democrats ahead of midterm elections for the House of Representatives and Senate that historically tend to favour the party that does not hold the White House. Ominously seven House Democrats have announced they will retire rather than run for re-election, with another five seeking other elected office.Democrats fear a replay of 2010, when the tortuous but ultimately successful passage of Obama’s Affordable Care Act did not prevent a crushing defeat in the midterms. And looming in the distance is Trump, who seems likely to run for president again in 2024, a prospect that fills many observers with dread for the future of American democracy.Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington and former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, said: “This is obviously a delicate moment in the Biden presidency. Right now the Biden agenda is the equivalent of airplanes in a kind of a crush, circling above an airport that doesn’t have enough runways to accommodate all of them simultaneously.“Things will look different once some of the planes begin to land and I do expect that the infrastructure bill and a pared-down reconciliation bill will in fact be enacted into law well before the end of the year. That will change the mood to some extent. The situation is not quite as bad as it looks – but it’s bad enough.”But not everyone is doom and gloom. Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist based in Columbia, South Carolina, was more upbeat. “I feel cautiously optimistic,” he said. “Joe Biden has demonstrated over time his ability to take a licking and keep on ticking. He’s also demonstrated that when people count him out, he always teaches them that they do not know how to count.“When the ink dries about the story of this piece of history, you’re going to see that as the continued theme when it comes to Joe Biden. I believe we’re right where we need to be. Mike Tyson has a quote, ‘The key to being successful is peaking at the right time,’ and I think Joe Biden will in the end do just that.”TopicsJoe BidenUS politicsDemocratsUS domestic policyUS voting rightsUS midterm elections 2022featuresReuse this content More

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      Black candidates for US Senate smash fundraising records for 2022 midterms

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      US midterm elections 2022Black candidates for US Senate smash fundraising records for 2022 midtermsThird-quarter hauls raise hopes of transforming a body in which only 11 African American senators have ever sat David Smith in Washington@smithinamericaFri 22 Oct 2021 05.00 EDTLast modified on Fri 22 Oct 2021 05.01 EDTAfrican American candidates running for the US Senate smashed campaign fundraising records over the past three months, raising hopes of transforming a body that remains overwhelmingly white.There have only been 11 Black senators since the chamber first convened in 1789 and only two were women. Senator Kamala Harris’s ascent to the vice-presidency means there are currently no female members who are Black.Biden vowed to make racial justice the heart of his agenda – is it still beating?Read moreBut in the most recent Federal Election Commission reporting period, African Americans posted huge sums from donors, especially in the south, suggesting the potential to build a pipeline of Black politicians who can excite the grassroots and reshape the government.Democrat Raphael Warnock, a pastor who won a crucial runoff in January to become Georgia’s first Black senator, took in a staggering $9.5m over three months for his re-election bid. Val Demings, a congresswoman and former police chief challenging the Republican senator Marco Rubio in Florida, was close behind with $8.5m.Notably, both Warnock and Demings raised more money than any other Senate candidate of any racial demographic.Another Democrat, Charles Booker, running for Senate in Kentucky against the Republican Rand Paul, raised $1.7m in the third quarter, which ran from July to the end of September. Cheri Beasley, a judge running for Senate in North Carolina as a Democrat, netted $1.5m.Republicans have also capitalised on the trend. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina took a haul of $8.4m, fuelling speculation that he could mount a bid for the White House. Herschel Walker, a former football player taking on Warnock in Georgia, raised $3.8m in the first five weeks of his Donald Trump-endorsed campaign.The historic tallies – more than a year before the midterm elections – signal a potential turning point after decades in which Black candidates, especially women, struggled to raise funds to rival their white counterparts, feeding a vicious circle in which they were seen as unelectable by party establishments.“When we allow the narrative that Black women and Black candidates are not electable and viable to seep into an election cycle early, that is why money slows down,” said Glynda Carr, co-founder and president of Higher Heights, an organisation that supports Black women running for elected office.“So why the third-quarter report is so powerful is that it’s a proof of concept that Black women are electable and viable. Frankly, many of the Black women that are currently boldly serving across this country in Congress and in statehouses ran races with no early institutional support, party support or money and still ran winning campaigns.“You now add in early money, it is just going to position more Black women to run in competitive seats and be seeing what we already know are viable candidates that were given the additional resources early will succeed on election day.”The internet has enabled Black candidates to bypass the old networks by reaping small donations online. Elections such as Warnock’s in Georgia also proved the centrality of Black voters in the Democratic coalition. And last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests following the police murder of George Floyd could have a lasting political legacy.Antjuan Seawright, a senior adviser to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said: “The net worth of African American voters has proven over time its value. Therefore, the Black candidates are reaping the benefits not just at the ballot box, but also when it comes to fundraising and other key ingredients it takes to be successful in this business. That is part of the reason you can see this explosion happening.”Seawright, based in Columbia, South Carolina, added: “The African American network has demonstrated over time that without us you cannot win up and down the ballot and so I think all that matters in terms of the conversation and the benefits.“And then you add that to the fact that the country’s changing. There’s not a race in this country that you can be successful at the ballot box without having a strong, deep and wide support amongst what I believe to be the most loyal and consistent voting bloc in the country.”Not all Black candidates swept the board. In Pennsylvania Malcolm Kenyatta, a state representative, was outraised by both the lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, and congressman Conor Lamb.And deep pockets alone cannot buy success. Jaime Harrison, an African American man who is the current chair of the Democratic National Committee, raised more than $100m last year but could not unseat the Republican Trump ally Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.Drexel Heard, a Democratic strategist based in Los Angeles, California, said: “Raising money does not always translate well to a candidate’s viability when it comes to voters. What it does show is that donors and voters can be enthusiastic about a candidate that is Black. I think that’s the difference.”But Heard noted: “The party has always known that Black voters are the most loyal voters to the Democratic party, and that’s been indisputable. The party also recognises that we have to build a bench that is reflective of the voting base and I think you’re seeing that in in those candidates that are popping up.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022US SenateRaceDemocratsRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More