A new Quinnipiac poll finds Joe Biden and Donald Trump are locked in a neck-and-neck race with Biden receiving 48% support and Trump receiving 47% support.
When independent and Green Party candidates are added to the presidential matchup, Biden receives 41% support, Trump receives 38% support, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. receives 14% support, Jill Stein receives 2% support, and Cornel West receives 2% support.
Nikki Haley said she’ll vote for Donald Trump over President Biden this fall, The Hill reports. Said Haley: “As a voter, I put my priorities on a president who’s going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account, who would secure the border, no more excuses. A president who would support capitalism and freedom, a president who understands we need less debt not more debt.” She added: “Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I’ve made that clear, many, many times. But Biden has been a catastrophe. So, I will be voting for Trump.”
New York Times: “As Mr. Kennedy has emerged as a skeptic of Covid-19 vaccines and a purveyor of conspiratorial theories on the assassination of his father, it has fallen to Ms. [Kerry] Kennedy to distance her family from the brother she has long held close and to guard the legacy of a proud and private family as it fades from the political stage.”
“To a large extent, Ms. Kennedy’s siblings say, her outsize role is an outgrowth of the affection she has displayed toward her brother since they were children playing on the grounds of the family estate in Hickory Hill, Va. — and the disappointment she feels now.”
“It is political as well: She argues that her brother’s insurgent campaign threatens the re-election of Mr. Biden and is aware that her family could shoulder some of the blame should Donald J. Trump return to the White House next year.”
A key adviser to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is stepping away from his presidential campaign, citing an “increasingly hateful and divisive atmosphere” that “no longer aligns with my values,” the New York Times reports.
“Angela Stanton King, the campaign’s adviser for Black engagement, announced her departure in a statement on social media on Tuesday evening, five months after she was added to the campaign’s payroll.”
“The Democratic National Committee is launching a ‘Trump’s MAGA Veepstakes’ project to paint all of former President Trump’s VP contenders as extreme on denying the results of the 2020 election and on abortion among other policy issues,” Axios reports.
“As dozens of Trump’s potential vice presidential picks do their best to distinguish themselves in the lead up to Trump’s selection, Democrats plan to lump them together as ‘all the same’ in terms of backing an ‘ultra-MAGA’ policy agenda.”
Donald Trump “is holding a rally on Thursday in South Bronx, a New York neighborhood that’s 64% Hispanic and 31% Black,” Axios reports.
“It’ll be a test of how much support (or curiosity) he will be able to gin up in a nonwhite, working-class community.”
“It will be his first large-scale campaign rally in New York since 2016.”
“Ohio House leaders said Tuesday there will probably not be a legislative solution to getting President Joe Biden on the November ballot in Ohio,” the Columbus Dispatch reports.
“Current law says Ohio officials must certify the ballot on Aug. 7, 90 days before the election, but Biden won’t be nominated until the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19.”
Again, Ohio put George W. Bush on their ballot in 2004 when Bush held his convention in fucking September. If Biden sues, he is on the ballot.
“Having spent months assuaging Democratic fears about the election by pointing to their fundraising lead over Donald Trump, the Biden team reported this week that it had brought in less money in April than Trump’s campaign claimed to have raised alongside the RNC,” Politico reports.
“Privately, aides have two main explanations. The first is that there was a dearth of big donor events last month, which they are already planning to change in the weeks ahead. Some also point to a larger structural dynamic that could prove harder to fix: The grassroots fundraising machine that boosted them in 2020 isn’t yet humming.”
New York Times: “Ms. Shanahan has a fortune of more than $1 billion that stems largely from her divorce settlement last year with Sergey Brin, a founder of Google, whose net worth exceeds $145 billion… During their five-year marriage, Ms. Shanahan partied with Silicon Valley’s elite and used recreational drugs including cocaine, ketamine and psychedelic mushrooms… Ms. Shanahan and Mr. Brin separated after she had a sexual encounter with Elon Musk in 2021.”
“The incidents were part of a rarefied — and sometimes turbulent — life that Ms. Shanahan led in the nation’s tech capital before her turn to politics.”
Some great detail in the New York Times profile of Nicole Shanahan, who Robert F. Kennedy Jr. picked as his running mate: “At that party, Elon Musk and Ms. Shanahan took ketamine, a popular party drug that is legal with a prescription, and disappeared together for several hours, according to four people briefed on the event and documents related to it.”
“Almost exactly a month after introducing Nicole Shanahan as his vice-presidential pick in a carefully choreographed Bay Area extravaganza, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. still seemed a bit unclear on exactly how his running mate was spending her time,” the Washington Post reports.
“He offered some vague reassurances that the woman he had recently chosen to potentially sit just a heartbeat from the presidency was ‘working on every issue’ and ‘doing a lot of podcasts’ — and that while he couldn’t say ‘exactly what her schedule is,’ he was ‘very happy with what she’s doing.’”
Said Kennedy: “I ran into her yesterday.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hit the threshold for inclusion in next month’s presidential debate in two of the four polls needed for an invitation, ABC News reports.
“The super PAC backing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got another cash infusion from GOP megadonor Tim Mellon in April,” Politico reports.
“Mellon is the largest GOP donor this campaign cycle to date, and has now given the American Values 2024 super PAC backing Kennedy’s long-shot independent presidential bid $25 million.”
“Centrist district attorney candidate Nathan Vasquez has ousted the incumbent progressive prosecutor in Oregon’s Multnomah County, home to Portland, after running a campaign in which he vowed to be tough on crime,” the AP reports.
Longtime Idaho Senate leader Chuck Winder (R) was ousted in the Republican primary election, the Idaho Press reports.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who helped Joe Biden prepare for the vice presidential debates in 2012, told ABC News what he views as the president’s big challenge when debating Donald Trump next month. Said Van Hollen: “The challenge is always to boil down a huge amount of issues into a short amount of time. And you know, Joe Biden likes to explain things, he likes to talk about his record, but in a debate, you got to really crystallize that.”
“Angling to tap into strong support for the sweeping health law he helped pass 14 years ago, one of President Joe Biden’s latest reelection strategies is to remind voters that former President Donald Trump tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act,” NPR reports.
Said Biden in a new digital ad: “Folks, he’s coming for your health care, and we’re not going to let it happen.”
“Donald Trump’s campaign has brought in Corey Lewandowski, the former president’s 2016 campaign manager who was later ousted from a pro-Trump super PAC in 2021, to serve as an adviser for the Republican National Convention in July,” CNN reports.
“The Congressional Leadership Fund, an independent group affiliated with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), plans to reserve $141 million in fall advertising this week, with spending planned for about 30 races that it has identified as likely to decide the balance of Congress,” the Washington Post reports.
“The initial spending plans are nearly $20 million larger than similar reservations that the group made in 2022, while focusing on a much narrower battleground map — including money for just 37 media markets, down from about 50 markets two years ago. Nearly one-third of the money will be spent in the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, where much of the battle for House control will be fought.”
“As the rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump draws nearer, political professionals are detecting an unusual concern among some undecided voters: that if Trump returns to the White House, he’ll refuse to step down when his term is up,” Bloomberg reports.
“As far-fetched as it may sound, the prospect of Trump overriding or simply ignoring the constitutional provision that limits a president to serving two terms seems to be pushing some undecided voters toward Biden, despite significant reservations about the incumbent’s age, turmoil in the Middle East and high inflation. Now strategists in both parties are probing to see how widely this sentiment has spread, particularly among the undecided voters likely to sway the election.”
The Wall Street Journal‘s Swing States Dial lets you see how subtle shifts in turnout and candidate choice could sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
“In presidential contests, the top-of-the-ticket is generally expected to lift same-party candidates further down the ballot to possible victory on his or her coattails. But in 2024, Biden’s coattails appear, at this point in time, to be short, if they exist at all. In fact, some Democrats in key Senate and local legislative races are hoping to use their own popularity to generate excitement and draw out voters otherwise not energized by Biden, trying to create an updraft for the president,” the Washington Post reports.
“Call it the reverse coattails effect.”
“This somewhat novel concept essentially acknowledges the lack of activist energy swirling around the 81-year-old incumbent president. For Democrats, the goal isn’t just to win their own races, but to run up as big a margin as possible.”
0 comments on “The Political Report – May 24, 2024”