“A new analysis of demographic data from Georgia’s November and January elections confirms a larger decline in white rural turnout led to Democrats flipping both U.S. Senate seats, one of the biggest challenges the GOP must tackle ahead of 2022,” Georgia Public Broadcasting reports.
“The data illustrate Republicans will have to work to motivate their rural base to trust the election system and return to the fold — and there are signs Georgia’s new 98-page election law could do the trick.”
A new Pew Research poll finds there has been a sharp decline in the share of Republicans who support automatically registering all eligible citizens to vote — 38% today vs. 49% in 2018. In addition, the share of Republicans who say any voter should be allowed to vote early or absentee without a documented reason has fallen 19 percentage points — from 57% to 38%.
Rick Hasen: “A new, more dangerous front has opened in the voting wars, and it’s going to be much harder to counteract than the now-familiar fight over voting rules. At stake is something I never expected to worry about in the United States: the integrity of the vote count. The danger of manipulated election results looms.”
“Some of these efforts involve removing from power those who stood up to President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election… Republican state legislatures have also passed or are considering laws aimed at stripping Democratic counties of the power to run fair elections.”
“Sen. Joe Manchin bucked his own party’s political operation in 2020 by endorsing a Republican. Now, he’s doing it again,” Politico reports. “The West Virginia senator is backing Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s reelection bid in the face of a pointed challenge from former President Donald Trump, whom Murkowski voted to convict of inciting an insurrection.”
A high profile effort to legalize marijuana was all but killed by the Florida Supreme Court Thursday, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“A bill that would stop some voters from getting a ballot automatically mailed to them each election failed unexpectedly in Arizona’s state Senate Thursday after a single Republican joined Democrats in voting against the legislation,” NBC News reports.
The city of Albuquerque has referred a $211,175.94 unpaid bill for former President Trump’s reelection campaign rally in 2019 to a debt collection agency, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
Washington Post: “A Washington Post review of True Texas Project’s activities and social media shows that Cruz has continued to embrace the group, even as its nativist rhetoric and divisive tactics have alienated some other conservative elected officials.”
“Cruz’s father, a frequent campaign surrogate for his son, spoke at a meeting of the group shortly after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, at a time when the group’s leadership was defending the pro-Trump mob on social media.”
“Mike Pompeo is leveraging relationships with House Republicans to stay front and center with GOP voters as the former secretary of state mulls a 2024 presidential bid,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“On Wednesday, Pompeo joined the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of House conservatives, to promote legislation cracking down on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The news conference, in the shadow of the United States Capitol, attracted liberal Code Pink protesters who used a bullhorn to interrupt the former secretary’s comments and advocate for President Joe Biden’s bid for Washington to rejoin the Iran deal vacated by former President Donald Trump.”
NC-Sen: While Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson said Monday evening that he would not run for this open Senate seat, a different far-right Republican may enter the race before long. An advisor to Rep. Ted Budd recently told Politico that the congressman will make his decision in the “coming weeks.”
David McIntosh, the head of the radical anti-tax Club for Growth, also said that his group has been trying to convince Budd to get in and would probably spend seven figures to aid him. The Club notably deployed $500,000 for Budd in his first race in 2016, an investment that played a big role in the first-time candidate’s 20-10 victory in a 14-way primary full of several elected officials.
Adam Serwer: “The 2020 election showed that the Republican Party could embrace conservative positions, even on immigration, and still appeal to Latino voters.”
“But the ideological predilections of Anglo-Saxonism definitionally exclude that part of the Republican base, sending a clear message that they and other voters of color are unwelcome in the party, and threatening those electoral gains. They replace a message of restriction, or even law and order, with one rooted in racial purity.”
“McCarthy’s forceful condemnation of that message is one small example of how a more diverse base of voters can work as a check against bigotry within a political party, even if it’s only a single step in the right direction, against weak actors it takes little courage to condemn.”
New York Times: “Two omnibus bills, including one that the House is likely to take up in the coming week would make Texas one of the hardest states in the country to cast a ballot in.”
“In Texas, Republicans have taken the rare tack of outlining restrictions that would apply only to counties with populations of more than one million, targeting the booming and increasingly diverse metropolitan areas of Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas.”
“Among the restrictions… a ban on 24-hour voting, a ban on drive-through voting and harsh criminal penalties for local election officials who provide assistance to voters… a ban on encouraging absentee voting… a measure that would make it much more difficult to remove a poll watcher for improper conduct.”
Harry Enten: “The New York City Democratic mayoral primary is now less than two months away, on June 22. The polls indicate that businessman and former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang continues to hold a clear lead in the first New York City mayoral election being held under ranked choice voting.”
“While Yang’s lead is surmountable, a look back over history suggests that front-runners at this point usually go on to win the primary.”
“The U.S. Census Bureau will release the first data from the 2020 census next week, setting in motion the process of redistricting: the scramble to draw new congressional maps in the 43 states with more than one district. And with the House more closely divided than it’s been in two decades, each individual state’s new map could have huge implications on the majority fight,” Politico reports.
“Strategists in both parties agree Republicans have the advantage. The Midwest and Rust Belt aren’t growing as fast as the Sun Belt, and the congressional districts will be reallocated accordingly. States like Florida, Texas, Arizona and North Carolina will see their delegations grow, while Michigan, Pennsylvania and Illinois shrink. That’s a net benefit to the GOP because Democrats have struggled to increase their statewide footprint in many of the places that are gaining representation.”
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