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Post by Webster on Jun 21, 2023 15:12:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Democratic representative Lisa Blunt Rochester has announced her bid to run for senator. In a campaign video released on Wednesday, Rochester said: “It’s been the greatest honor of my life to represent Delaware, to protect our seniors, our environment, our small businesses and women’s reproductive rights. But we’ve got so much more to do.”Rochester went on to talk about the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riots, saying: “People ask me if January 6 was my worst day. It was but it was also one of my proudest moments. Because we walked back in that House chamber and we completed our work. The forces of fear did not win and democracy prevailed.”Currently, the Delaware Senate seat is occupied by Democratic senator Thomas Carper, who announced last month that he will not seek re-election after 2025. Carper has indicated his support for Rochester, who used to intern for him when he served in the US House of Representatives. In May, Carper announced his endorsement for Rochester, saying: “We love Lisa, and I spoke with her this morning and I said you’ve been patiently waiting for me to get out the way, and I’m gonna get out of the way, and I hope you run, and I hope you will let me support you and support you in that mission,” CNN reports.
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Post by Webster on Jun 21, 2023 15:25:04 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Democratic lawmakers across California are voicing their discontent with senator Dianne Feinstein’s absence in recent years as a result of her old age and health issues. In May, Feinstein returned to senate following an extended medical absence due to shingles. Despite aides reassuring that Feinstein’s health is improving and that she is playing a more active role on Capitol Hill, Democrats remain frustrated over the 89-year old senator, with several of them speaking to CNN. Representative Raul Ruiz said, “The last time I spoke with her on anything face-to-face was right before the pandemic,” referring to a a conversation he had over three years ago with Feinstein about designating a natural monument in his district. Representative Mike Levin told CNN that the last conversation he remembers having with Feinstein is in 2018, after he won his San Diego area seat. “It’s been quite a while,” Levin said. “I don’t speak with her on a regular basis, and that’s been before any of the recent health challenges she’s had.” “Oh boy, I can’t remember. Probably when I was a freshman member,” representative Nanette Barragán, who was elected in 2016 from a district near Los Angeles, told CNN. In response to when the last time they spoke was and whether he could recall any collaborations with Feinstein, six-term representative Mark Takano said, “Gosh,” adding, “Hard to say anything we’ve done.” “Over my 11 years in Congress, I haven’t worked that closely with her,” representative Ami Bera told the outlet.
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Post by Webster on Jun 26, 2023 13:22:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Supreme court orders Louisiana to draw another majority-black congressional districtThe supreme court has just ordered Louisiana to draw another majority Black congressional district, after earlier this month striking down congressional maps in Alabama that the justices found discriminated against African-American voters. CNN reports that the justices, with no dissents noted, lifted a hold placed on an order from a lower court that told the state to redraw its maps. Despite a third of its population being African American, the Republican-dominated legislature in the state last year approved a map that includes only one majority Black district. While the court has now struck down both Alabama and Louisiana’s maps for not properly representing their Black populations, the justices had allowed those states’ maps to remain in effect for the 2022 midterm elections. Majority Black districts tend to lean Democratic, and CNN supreme court analyst Steve Vladeck said the court’s decision, along with its lack of an explanation for the move, raises questions about the court’s intentions. “Like the Alabama ruling, it doesn’t explain why the court nevertheless had issued emergency relief to allow Louisiana to use its unlawful maps during the 2022 midterm cycle,” he said. “It puts the court’s interventions last year into ever-sharper perspective.”
Louisiana and Alabama are not the only states where Republican-led legislatures will be forced to withdraw their congressional maps because of the supreme court’s recent Voting Rights Act ruling. Georgia may the next state to redraw its maps, according to Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University: But as Kreis told the Georgia Recorder earlier this month, Democrats may not benefit from the redrawn maps. He expects a new district to appear north of Atlanta that will still have a “pinkish hue”.
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Post by Webster on Jun 27, 2023 13:23:41 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Youth voter organization NextGen America has reacted to the supreme court’s rejection of an attempt by Republican lawmakers to promote a fringe legal theory that would have transformed redistricting in the Moore v Harper case. Here’s what the group’s president Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez had to say: We are glad the high court took a critical stance by rejecting North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers’ attempts to erode our nation’s checks and balances through the anti-democratic independent state legislature theory. Today, the Court ruled in favor of voters and protected state courts’ power to hold lawmakers accountable to state laws when it comes to our elections. This is a major win for voters and protects our democracy from attacks on voting rights and threats to our systems of free and fair elections.
Now, young voters nationwide call on Congress to work on behalf of the people who elected them and enshrine critical voter protections into federal law. The stakes are too big and without Congressional legislative action we are facing the degradation of democracy. Young people will not stand idly by as we see the blatant and unchecked attack on our rights and our freedoms and we won’t stop organizing, mobilizing, and using our collective power until we create a democracy that works for all of us.
And here are a few thoughts on the Moore v Harper ruling from Ari Savitzky, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s voting rights project: The Supreme Court was right to reject the misbegotten independent state legislature theory. In our system, there is no room for a rogue legislature that can violate its own founding charter without any checks from other branches of government. This radical theory is totally contrary to the bedrock principle of checks and balances, and the court has correctly relegated it to the dustbin of history. The court’s decision confirms the important role of state courts and state constitutions in ensuring fair elections and protecting the right to vote for all.
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Post by Webster on Jun 27, 2023 13:24:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Moore v Harper: the impacts of the supreme court's rulingThe impacts of the supreme court’s ruling in Moore v Harper extend to redistricting, and beyond. Its most immediate effect is to preserve longstanding norms over state courts’ ability to weigh in on legislatures’ actions when it comes to federal elections, as the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports: The 6-3 decision in Moore v Harper is a blow to North Carolina Republicans who had asked the court to embrace the so-called independent state legislature theory – the idea that the US constitution does not allow state courts to limit the power of state legislatures when it comes to federal elections. Such a decision in the case would have been a major win for Republicans, who control more state legislatures than Democrats do. Some of the conservative justices on the court had urged the bench to embrace the idea.
“We will have to resolve this question sooner or later, and the sooner we do so, the better,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent at an earlier stage in the case that was joined by Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. “If the language of the elections clause is taken seriously, there must be some limit on the authority of state courts to countermand actions taken by state legislatures when they are prescribing rules for the conduct of federal elections.”
The court’s decision means that state courts can continue to weigh in on disputes over federal election rules. State courts have become increasingly popular forums for hearing those disputes, especially after the US supreme court said in 2019 that federal courts could not address partisan gerrymandering.But Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political science professor focusing on American elections, sees broader implications in the justices’ rejection of the fringe independent state legislature (ISL) theory, which Republican lawmakers from North Carolina has asked them to endorse in the case:
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Post by Webster on Jun 27, 2023 13:25:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) In other redistricting news, Alabama’s Republican governor has Kay Ivey has called the state legislature back into session to draw new congressional maps: The catalyst is a supreme court ruling released earlier this month that found the state’s maps discriminated against Black voters. Alabama’s legislature is dominated by Republicans, but as a result of the decision, they are expected to draw a map that will create a second majority-Black congressional district – a seat Democrats may have a good shot at winning, given African-American voters’ tendency to support the party.
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Post by Webster on Jun 27, 2023 13:26:30 GMT -5
(The Guardian) After the supreme court’s ruling in Moore v Harper, the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said democracy advocates “can stand a bit taller.” Here’s his full statement: Today those who support democracy, fair elections and the rule of law can stand a bit taller. Today’s ruling reaffirms the longstanding precedent that respects our constitutional system of checks and balances. There is still much work to do to protect American democracy. As John Lewis said, ‘Democracy is not a state. It is an act,’ which is why Senate Democrats will continue to fight for free and fair elections.
Chuck Schumer may say that “Senate Democrats will continue to fight for free and fair elections”, but actually doing so is easier said than done. Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate and the availability of the filibuster to the GOP means passing legislation to address the issues that worry democracy advocates most – think partisan gerrymandering, or restrictions on ballot box access that can disenfranchise certain groups – appears beyond their abilities in this Congress. And if those weren’t obstacles enough, the House’s Republican leaders have shown little willingness to consider such legislation. Indeed, voting rights legislation wasn’t mentioned by Schumer in an interview published by Politico today, in which the Senate majority leader outlined his legislative priorities: After spending six months focused on confirming President Joe Biden’s nominees and fighting off GOP regulatory rollbacks, the Senate majority leader is planning to pivot into bipartisan policymaking mode. During an interview with POLITICO, Schumer outlined an enterprising agenda that includes must-pass bills on defense, aviation and farm policy, as well as long-held priorities like marijuana banking and China competitiveness.
That’s on top of a rail safety plan that could run into a wall of GOP resistance and a challenging push to lower prescription drug prices — plus more. And any of those bills risk falling to a filibuster by Republicans who are deciding whether they’re in a mood to compromise before the 2024 election, which could give them control of the Senate.
“There are a bunch of Republicans in the Senate who want to work with us,” Schumer said in an interview. “We’ll try to get as many [bills] done as we can. Legislating in the Senate with the rules we have is not easy, right? But if you push ahead, we’re going to get some good things done.”
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Post by Webster on Jun 27, 2023 13:26:59 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jul 10, 2023 15:08:52 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Hill Harper, an actor known for his roles on “The Good Doctor” and “CSI: NY”, has announced he is running for Michigan’s Senate seat. Harper is the sixth Democratic candidate to enter the race to replace retiring Democratic senator Debbie Stabenow, who announced in January that she would not be seeking a fifth term in 2024 in the battleground state. Harper faces a tough test challenging Elissa Slotkin, a three-term Democratic House member who has raised $5.8m in just over four months, according to her campaign. In an interview with The Associated Press before his announcement, Harper said that not being a “career politician” would serve as an advantage in Congress and that he plans to run a campaign “powered by the people, for the people”.
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Post by Webster on Jul 17, 2023 13:52:37 GMT -5
(The Guardian) West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s decision to headline an event for No Labels is causing a stir among Democrats who are worried that he might declare a third-party presidential run. “Joe is America’s biggest political tease,” Democrat Senator Dick Durbin told The Hill. - "I trust that he’ll make a judgment to run for reelection in West Virginia. I hope he will.Polls show a third-party bid by a No Labels candidate could create a real headache for Joe Biden. The Hill cited Senator Chris Van Hollen as saying: It’s pretty clear that a No Labels candidate would help reelect Donald Trump, and I hope anybody who considers it recognizes that that’s a very possible outcome. That path is not a path to winning. It’s a path to spoiling the election for Joe Biden and electing Donald Trump.
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Post by Webster on Aug 1, 2023 14:32:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The 2024 election will also decide control of the Senate, where Republicans are currently viewed as having a good shot at retaking the majority. Joe Biden’s allies can afford to lose only one seat in the chamber, but three Democrats representing red states will be up for re-election: Joe Manchin of West Virginia (who has not said if he will run again), Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio (both of whom say they will run again). All face tough roads to keeping their seats. Then there’s the possibility that the GOP could oust a Democrat representing a swing state, such as Wisconsin. Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin is up for re-election there, but in something of a setback for Republicans, Tom Tiffany announced today that he has decided to run for re-election in the House of Representatives rather than challenge Baldwin, as some in the GOP hoped he would do:
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Post by Webster on Aug 10, 2023 14:22:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Senator Joe Manchin 'seriously' considering leaving Democratic partyWest Virginia senator Joe Manchin, who has yet to decide whether to run for reelection next year or wage a long-shot third party bid for president, said he’s “thinking seriously” about becoming an independent. “I’m thinking seriously,” Manchin told West Virginia radio host Hoppy Kercheval on Thursday. He added: I have to have peace of mind, basically. The brand has become so bad. The D brand and R brand ... You’ve heard me say a million times, I am not a Washington Democrat.Asked how seriously he was about becoming an independent, Manchin said he has “been thinking about that for quite some time” and that he wanted to “make sure that my voice is truly an independent voice”. Manchin, who earlier this year described himself as an independent Democrat, has been dropping hints for months that he might switch to become an independent. On Thursday, he said he was not yet ready to make an announcement about his future with the Democratic party immediately. “When I get ready to make a decision, I’ll come see you,” he told Kercheval.
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Post by Webster on Aug 11, 2023 13:32:23 GMT -5
(The Guardian) West Virginia’s Democratic senator Joe Manchin is expected to skip the White House’s celebration next week of the Inflation Reduction Act’s first anniversary as he considers switching his party affiliation. Manchin’s decision to skip the event on the IRA (which he helped draft), which NBC first reported on Friday, comes as the conservative Democratic said in a radio interview with MetroNews that he has been “absolutely” thinking about changing his party affiliation to Independent “for quite some time.” Manchin said that he has been “thinking seriously what’s best for” him, adding, “I want to be able to speak honestly about, basically, the extremes of the Democrat and Republican Party that is harming our nation.” Last month, Manchin said that he has not yet made a decision on whether he will run for president. Nevertheless, he said during a town hall, “I’ve been in races to win. If I get in a race, I’m gonna win,” adding that both the Republican and Democratic parties will be “in trouble” if a third party enters the picture of the 2024 race. Should Manchin decide to leave the Democratic party, he will follow in the footsteps of Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, who last December announced her affiliation switch to Independent.
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Post by Webster on Aug 17, 2023 14:48:43 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The rightwing extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has not made up her mind about running for Senate in Georgia – in part because she hopes to be Donald Trump’s vice-president. “I haven’t made up my mind whether I will do that or not,” Greene told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, about a rumoured challenge to the current governor, Brian Kemp, in a Georgia Senate primary in 2026. -- I have a lot of things to think about. Am I going to be a part of President Trump’s cabinet if he wins? Is it possible that I’ll be VP?Despite a string of controversies over voicing conspiracy theories, aggressive behaviour towards Democrats and progressives and recent squabbling with her fellow House extremist Lauren Boebert, and despite being “kicked out” of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, Greene remains influential in Republican ranks, close to the speaker, Kevin McCarthy. She told the AJC she would consider it an “honour” to be picked as Trump’s running mate to take on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris next year. She would consider such an offer “very, very heavily”, she said. Trump has encouraged Greene to harbour higher ambitions, saying in March he would “fight like hell” for her if she ran for Senate.
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Post by Webster on Aug 22, 2023 15:57:59 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Democratic former congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell will challenge incumbent Republican Rick Scott for his senate seat in Florida, she announced on Tuesday. Mucarsel-Powell, who was born in Ecuador, was the first South American immigrant elected to Congress in 2018, but lost her re-election bid in 2020 to Republican Carlos Giménez, the former mayor of Miami-Dade county. Scott, a former Florida governor, is seen by Democrats as vulnerable. His ousting of three-term senator Bill Nelson in 2018 was by only 10,033 votes from 8.2m cast, and Scott has since fallen out with Republican senate leadership. “It will take all of us working together to defeat him, but that’s when we’re at our best; and everywhere I go I can feel this desire for change,” Mucarsel-Powell said in her campaign launch statement.
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