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Obama mocks Herschel Walker over werewolf, vampire talk

Former President Obama rallied for incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) on Thursday, where he responded to Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s recent discussion of vampires and werewolves during a campaign appearance.

“Since the last time I was here, Mr. Walker has been talking about issues that are of great importance to the people of Georgia,” said Obama at the rally. “Like whether it’s better to be a vampire or a werewolf.”

Obama added: “This is a debate that I must confess I once had myself … when I was seven. Then I grew up.”

The former president was referencing a speech by Walker where he attempted to tie a fantasy movie he watched to the Georgia Senate runoff.

In the speech, Walker described a movie where a person tried unsuccessfully to defeat a vampire, whom he compared to his opponent Warnock, using holy water and a cross.

The former NFL running back said that the vampire fighter failed because he didn’t have “faith,” calling on his supporters to have faith in their “fellow brother” and in elected officials.

Walker also mentioned that werewolves can defeat vampires, saying that he wants to be a werewolf after that discovery.

Obama responded to the comment during his speech on Thursday, saying: “As far as I’m concerned, he can be anything he wants to be, except for a United States senator.”

“This would be funny if he weren’t running for Senate,” added the former senator for Illinois.

The high-stakes runoff election between Walker and Warnock will end with balloting on Tuesday.

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Economy adds 263K jobs in November, unemployment holds steady at 3.7 percent

The U.S. economy gained 263,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate held even at 3.7 percent, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

Job growth in November beat the expectations of economists, who projected the U.S. to gain roughly 200,000 jobs last month, according to consensus projections. The unemployment rate remained just 0.2 percentage points above its pre-pandemic level as the job market continued to push through high inflation and rising interest rates to grow at a sturdy clip.

The U.S. had added an average 392,000 jobs per month since the start of the year despite high inflation, lagging labor force participation, and Federal Reserve rate hikes meant to cool off historically strong job gains. 

“This is a labor market that still doesn’t look like one about to tip into recession. The theme for much of 2022 has been that the labor market has been substantially more resilient than expected,” said Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor, in a Friday analysis.

“But along with that, inflation has also been more stubbornly high than expected, so moving forward, the path to a soft landing runs through falling inflation while the job market is still robust enough to withstand a recession.”

While job growth has slowed from the torrid gains seen in 2021, the U.S. is still adding far more jobs per month in 2022 than it did in the economic boom years leading up to the COVID-19 recession in March 2020. The U.S. also had roughly two open jobs for each unemployed American as recently as September, according to Labor Department data.

The November jobs report is another sign of resilience for the U.S. economy, which has defied expectations and keeps growing at a solid pace. But another strong month for the labor market could force the Fed to take even harsher action to slow the economy—and hiring—into a more sustainable pace.

Wage growth accelerated in November despite the Fed’s attempts to make it easier for businesses to hire workers at lower costs. Average hourly earnings shot up 0.6 percent in November and were up 5.1 percent over the past 12 months, accelerating after appearing to slow earlier this year.

Labor force participation and the employment-population ratio also flatlined, which forced employers to compete from a smaller pool of potential workers.

“It’s one report – not a trend, yet – but the Fed needs to see pay gains come in more before it can get inflation to a manageable level,” said Callie Cox, U.S. investment analyst at eToro, in a Friday analysis.

“Wages are often the biggest costs for employers, and companies pass those costs along to higher prices.”

The Fed’s interest rate-setting monetary policy panel is set to meet Dec. 13-14 and is expected to issue another rate hike. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that while the bank is likely to reduce the size of rate hikes as soon as this month, the bank has “a long way to go” before inflation will fall back to pre-pandemic levels.

Updated at 9:09 a.m.

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Recount ordered in tight Boebert, Frisch House race in Colorado

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) ordered a mandatory recount in the state’s third district on Wednesday after a razor-thin midterm election race between incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) and her challenger Adam Frisch (D).

The secretary’s office officially announced the recount, required because the vote differential between Boebert and Frisch is within 0.5 percent of the leading incumbent’s total portion of votes, this week amid large-scale expectations that it would occur.

Colorado law calls for a recount whenever the differential is within that small margin of the winner’s total vote.

Boebert won last month’s midterm election with 50.08 percent of the vote to Frisch’s 49.92 percent, with the Democrat conceding the race.

The Republican garnered 550 more votes than her challenger, a total of 163,842 to 163,292.

“The results of the District 3 race reinforce the fact that every vote matters,” Griswold said in a statement.

“Colorado voters have made their voices heard, and I am ordering this recount in accordance with Colorado law to confirm the will of the voters.” 

All 27 counties in Colorado’s 3rd District will recount ballots pursuant to state law in a process that is required to finish by Dec. 13.

Boebert declared her victory in the nationally-watched race on Nov. 17, maintaining that the mandatory recount would not change her slight winning margin.

“Come January, you can be certain of two things: I will be sworn in for my second term as your congresswoman and Republicans can finally turn Pelosi’s House back into the people’s House,” the close ally to former President Trump said at the time, adding that her campaign team lawyers would “definitely” ensure that the recount is conducted properly.

Frisch, a former city councilman, conceded to the incumbent the next day, agreeing that the recount is unlikely to change the outcome of the race.

“While I am fully supportive of the recount process, based on the history of Colorado recounts, I could not, in good faith, perpetuate false hope that there is a good chance of the recount changing the outcome of this election,” wrote Frisch on Thursday following the secretary of state’s recount announcement.

“When I launched this campaign, I promised to run this race with integrity because that is who I am.”

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The Hill's Morning Report — Biden poised to sign bill to avert rail strike

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

The Senate voted on Thursday to avert a nationwide rail strike, sending the legislation to President Biden’s desk.

The Senate passage of the bill — which follows its passage in the House on Wednesday — forces a deal between national freight railroads and their unions and stops a potential Dec. 9 strike that could have crippled nationwide travel and commerce ahead of the busy holiday season. Support for the legislation was overwhelmingly bipartisan, passing the Senate 80-15 (The Hill and The Washington Post).

“Congress’ decisive action ensures that we will avoid the impending, devastating economic consequences for workers, families, and communities across the country,” Biden said in a statement following the bill’s passage. “Communities will maintain access to clean drinking water. Farmers and ranchers will continue to be able to bring food to market and feed their livestock. And hundreds of thousands of Americans in a number of industries will keep their jobs.”

While the bill avoids a strike, it does not provide rail workers with the paid sick leave benefits union leaders had demanded in recent months. Under the agreement, rail workers are set to receive a roughly 24 percent pay increase by 2024 and will gain more flexibility to take time off for doctor’s appointments. They will also receive one paid personal day — but not any new, dedicated time off for illnesses.

The proposal to give workers seven days of sick leave, which was championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other liberal lawmakers, failed to pick up enough Republican support to overcome a 60-vote threshold set for adopting the measure and fell in a 52-43 vote (The Hill).

Tony Cardwell, president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division — one of the four unions that rejected the tentative agreement — told Politico that “what’s frustrating is that the railroads know that their backstop is federal government intervening in a strike.”

“The railroads would have come running to the bargaining table if they knew that we would have been able to go on strike,” Cardwell said. “But they were reliant on the Congress stopping our strike, and therefore they bargained in bad faith.”

▪ New York Magazine: Why America’s railroads refuse to give their workers paid leave.

▪ Bloomberg Law: Railway labor dispute tests Democrats’ longtime ties with unions.

▪ The New York Times: Congress moved to avert a rail strike. Here’s how and why. 

Senate Democrats voted by secret ballot Thursday to reject a proposal sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to bar senior party leadership from also chairing A-list committees, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. 

The reform was aimed squarely at top members of Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer’s (N.Y.) leadership team and would have required three Democratic chairs — Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (Ill.), Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) and Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) — to pick between their gavels or their senior leadership positions. 

Whitehouse declined to comment in detail about his proposed reform, telling The Hill this week: “Caucus stuff stays in caucus.”

House Minority Leader-elect Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is off to a smooth start with congressional progressives and advocacy groups, pacifying reservations about whether he’s left-leaning enough to lead the new Democratic caucus, according to reporting by The Hill’s Hanna Trudo, Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell.

“Hakeem’s instincts are more progressive than some folks recognize,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Thursday. “I expect that to become apparent as the fight is on with Republicans on everything from protecting Social Security benefits to reinstating the expanded Child Tax Credit to fighting right-wing efforts to claw back bold climate policy.” 

Roll Call: Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) backed by acclamation as Democrats fill out their leadership team, as Rep. David Cicilline (R.I.) drops challenge launched on Wednesday for assistant leader.

Biden has asked leaders of the Democratic National Committee to make South Carolina the nation’s first primary state, followed by New Hampshire — where the first in the nation primary is typically held — and Nevada a week later, and hold subsequent weekly primaries in Georgia and Michigan, sources tell The Washington Post.

The decision to radically change the Democratic party’s presidential nominating calendar for 2024 came as a shock to party officials and state leaders who had been lobbying hard in recent weeks to gain a place in the early calendar. Biden’s move is meant to signal his party’s commitment to elevating more variety — demographic, geographic and economic — in the early nominating process.

Politico: Michigan poised to replace Iowa as early Democratic presidential state.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill’s Niall Stanage: Five reasons the race between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, to be decided in a Dec. 6 runoff, matters.

▪ Politico: Biden world once ignored Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Now it’s making her the face of the GOP.

▪ The Hill and Axios: In a loss for former President Trump and a victory for the Justice Department, an appeals court on Thursday halted the special master review of documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.

▪ NBC News and Vanity Fair: Elon Musk suspended Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, from Twitter for posting a swastika. The rapper, who dined with Trump, told Alex Jones “I’m a Nazi,” and listed things he loves about Hitler.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ ADMINISTRATION

Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron erected a mostly united front on Thursday at the White House after a three-hour meeting punctuated by an abundance of photos showing the 80-year-old American leader and his 44-year-old counterpart in various displays of bonhomie.  

During the first state visit he’s hosted as president, Biden said during a joint press conference with Macron that he would be willing to talk to President Vladimir Putin if the Russian leader expressed a desire to end the war with Ukraine. Biden made clear any such talks would require NATO consultation (The New York Times).

Biden has previously said Ukraine, which through President Volodymyr Zelensky has outlined tough demands for any potential accord with Russia, would not be undercut by the West.

Biden, who on Thursday called Putin “sick” and has previously called him a killer, has argued the goal is for Ukraine to win against Russia. After nine months of war and painful energy and economic sacrifices descending on Europe this winter, Macron has been a persistent advocate for a negotiated, diplomatic agreement with Russia, although the contours of such a deal, given Putin’s stated aims and wartime tactics, are murky.

“I’m prepared if he’s willing to talk to find out what he’s willing to do,” Biden said. “But I’ll only do it in consultation with my NATO allies. I’m not going to do it on my own.”

Reuters: Biden condemned Putin’s “grasping ambition.”

During an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Macron said the war has one viable exit ramp. “The only way to find a solution would be through negotiations,” he said, according to a CBS preview. “I don’t see a military option on the ground.”

During an interview with ABC broadcast on Thursday, Macron said he plans to speak with Putin in “the coming days,” and played down the idea of disagreements with Biden about Ukraine, offering assurances that Ukrainians will not be pressured to accept a compromise they oppose (The Washington Post).

“We have to respect Ukrainians to design the moments and the conditions in which they will negotiate about their territory and their future,” Macron said.

Although France is disgruntled about Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and its subsidies for green energy companies, which it sees as unfair economic competition, Macron and Biden publicly made light of the friction. “There’s a lot we can work out,” Biden said, referring to “glitches” in a law he and fellow Democrats have described as historic.

Macron leaned in, touched Biden’s hand while they spoke in the Oval Office, threw his arm around the elder president and offered a grinning thumbs-up while cameras whirred. The French president, fluent in English and known for his energy and turns of phrase, talked about “succeeding together.”

▪ The Hill’s In the Know: Biden’s first state dinner draws famous faces.

▪ The New York Times: Biden and Macron toast their alliance with lobster and American-made cheese.

▪ Market Watch: The gifts that Macron and Biden exchanged ahead of the holidays evidenced thoughtful diplomacy.

🔎 An IRS watchdog said Thursday that it “did not identify misconduct” in the rare, invasive audits of former FBI Director James Comey and his former top deputy, Andrew McCabe, both of whom former President Trump saw as political enemies when he was in office. The recent review blamed a possible IRS “programming error” behind the audits of the then-FBI officials. Key federal employees interviewed by the watchdog denied that any manager asked them to intercede in the audits to target a specific taxpayer. The House Ways and Means Committee wants to know more (Politico and The Hill).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL   

In Ukraine, Russian troops that last month withdrew from Kherson and fled across the Dnieper River are trying to shell the southern city into dark, frigid misery and submission. Electrical services that had recently been restored were knocked out again on Thursday under Russia’s punishing bombardment (The New York Times).

There are 6 million people in Ukraine without power, a dangerous condition during a cold winter that cannot be controlled by Ukrainians and is endlessly aggravated by Russian forces, who use basic infrastructure — power, water, transportation, shipping, food supplies — as a slow-motion weapon of war. Authorities have urged vulnerable residents of Kherson to leave the city.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday defended Russia’s tactics and denied the Kremlin’s targeting of civilians and urban services rather than military targets is a war crime — an assertion made by Ukraine, some members of the United Nations and NATO.

Lavrov told a news conference that the Russian military goes after targets that are used to replenish Ukrainian forces with weapons provided by Western nations and that the Ukrainian forces rely on to operate. He did not elaborate (The New York Times).

In Kyiv, a city of more than 3 million people, Ukrainians rely on ingenuity to try to keep lights on and food on tables, relying on flashlights and lanterns, generators, emergency power kits and outdoor grills. City officials estimate that 1.5 million people in Kyiv are without power for more than 12 hours a day while trying to live, work and go to school (The New York Times).

In China, public unrest in major cities over COVID-19 restrictions and the government’s heavy-handed pandemic policies will soon be met with an announcement that some curbs will ease, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, China’s economy has slowed and the nation’s roar of dissent may outlast the citizen clashes with authorities on the streets, writes New York Times chief China correspondent Chris Buckley. 

“It’s like some national subconsciousness that resurfaces,” said Geremie Barmé, a scholar in New Zealand who studies dissent in China. “Now it’s resurfaced again, this projection of self and of rights and ideas.”

South China Morning Post: China’s road to economic recovery is “slow, costly and bumpy.”

European Council President Charles Michel, while visiting Beijing on Thursday, repeated Europe’s request to Chinese President Xi Jinping to use his influence with Russia to help end the war with Ukraine (Reuters).

The Wall Street Journal: The European Union has asked its members to set a Russia oil price cap at $60 a barrel.

North Korea’s assertiveintercontinental ballistic missile testing has triggered U.S. sanctions imposed on three senior North Korean officials who are tied to the country’s weapons program (Reuters and The Hill).  

A week ahead of a major international biodiversity gathering in Canada, the United Nations reports that international spending to protect nature must double by 2025 in order to meet the challenges of climate change, land degradation and the loss of biodiversity. Governments now spend about $154 billion per year on “nature-based solutions,” which use natural systems and processes to tackle social and emotional goals (The Hill).

OPINION

■ Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and the markets talk past one another, byMohamed A. El-Erian, Bloomberg Opinion columnist. https://bloom.bg/3un3Szy

■ The Supreme Court has another chance to uphold religious liberty for small business owners, by David Boaz, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3B2pDsa

■ A state dinner throws everyone off, just a little. And that’s glorious, by Robin Givhan, senior critic-at-large, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3VIIUXJ

WHERE AND WHEN

👉 The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at 9 a.m. 

The Senate will convene on Monday at 3 p.m. and resume consideration of the nomination of Frances Behm to be a U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Michigan. 

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. He will travel to Boston and at 2:50 p.m. greet British royals Prince William and Princess Kate, who are in the city on other business and will be at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum (Boston.com). The president will participate in an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers phone bank at 4:10 p.m. and a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser at 5:45 p.m. The president will depart Boston and travel to Camp David to spend the weekend.

The vice president is in Washington and has no public events.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken at 9:30 a.m. will speak in Washington at a World AIDS Day event hosted by the Business Council for International Understanding. He will meet at 3:30 p.m. with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry at the State Department.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. in Washington to announce expansion of naloxone access for drug overdose cases and to discuss the government’s ongoing overdose prevention strategy.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will participate in a fireside chat at noon at the NewDEAL Leaders Conference in Washington and discuss administration support for state and local governments and communities.

Economic indicator: The Labor Department will report at 8:30 a.m. on employment in November.

ELSEWHERE

➤ EDUCATION

The Supreme Court on Thursday announced it will expedite the review of the legality of Biden’s federal student loan debt cancellation program and hold oral arguments in February (The Hill). The White House applauded the news, repeating in a statement the administration’s view that Biden’s forgiveness program is legal and economically important to 40 million eligible borrowers and their families. 

Lower courts have put the program on hold, and the Biden administration has asked the justices to either allow it to go forward while legal challenges continue, or to take up the issue themselves. The White House recently extended the pause on federal loan repayment, scheduled to expire at the end of the year, to give the high court time to act.

The Biden plan would cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for more than 40 million borrowers (The Washington Post).

In other education news, fewer than half of students who applied early to college this year submitted test scores, writes The Hill’s Daniel de Visé. This could be a watershed moment in admission testing, when a COVID-19-era “test-optional” hiccup evolved into something more permanent. Just three years ago, 4 applicants in 5 included test scores in their Common App submissions. The big question, moving forward, is whether applicants without test scores get a fair shake in college admissions.  

The Chronicle of Higher Education: A new push to make financial-aid offers more transparent.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering a new approach to blood donation by gay and bisexual men amid an ongoing national blood shortage. Currently, the agency prohibits blood donations from men who have had sex with men in the previous three months — a scaled-down version of the full prohibition enacted in the 1980s during the AIDS epidemic for fear of HIV transmission. 

The new plan would require men who have sex with men to fill out a questionnaire about recent sexual activity, among other risk factors. The idea, still under debate, would be to allow those with no new partners in the last three months to donate (The Wall Street Journal).

🦠 Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced on Thursday that he tested positive for COVID-19, was without symptoms and following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (The Hill). “Argh. … I tested positive. I’m asymptomatic and feel totally fine. Downside: I will follow CDC rules and isolate. Upside: maybe now I can finally finish shingling the backyard shed,” Murphy tweeted.  

▪ The Hill: Pandemic-induced stress physically changed adolescents’ brains: study.

▪ The Washington Post: Virginia reported the state’s first death from monkeypox, also known as “mpox.”

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,081,147. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 1,780 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Magnifique! We have Morning Report Quiz winners! Puzzlers this week Googled or guessed some trivia in honor of the French president’s state visit to Washington.

Here’s who went 4/4: Dan Woolley, Lou Tisler, Kathleen Kovalik, Pam Manges, Bill Grieshober, Stan Wasser, Candi Cee, Ki Harvey, Patrick Kavanagh, Paul Harris, Richard Baznik, J. Jerry LaCamera Jr., William Chittam, Robert Bradley, Terry Pflaumer, Luther Berg, Steve James and Harry Strulovici.

They knew that Jacques Chirac was former President Reagan’s guest of honor at a 1987 White House state dinner for France.  

Macron in 2017 impressed and flattered former President Trump as his guest of honor at a lavish Bastille Day parade. A few months later in 2018, Trump honored Macron and France with a state visit and state dinner at the White House.

France is known for its excellent wine, but the White House, by tradition, served American wines at Thursday’s state dinner. Thus, the correct answer is “false” in response to the quiz fiction that only French wine is served when the White House hosts a head of state from France.

Macron’s response last year after Biden apologized about the U.S. handling of a submarine deal that infuriated France was barbed. “Trust is like love: Declarations are good, but proof is better,” he said.

Stay Engaged

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Progressives warm to Jeffries as new Democratic leader

Minority Leader-elect Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has gotten off to a good start with the left, pacifying reservations about whether he is progressive enough to lead the new Democratic caucus. 

Jeffries, who next year will become the first Black lawmaker to lead either party in either chamber, has enjoyed an especially warm reception among top liberals, a significant step towards party unity as Democrats navigate the post-midterm growing pains of governing in the minority.

“Hakeem’s instincts are more progressive than some folks recognize,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Wednesday after Jeffries was elected. “I expect that to become apparent as the fight is on with Republicans on everything from protecting Social Security benefits to reinstating the expanded Child Tax Credit to fighting right-wing efforts to claw back bold climate policy.”

Jeffries hasn’t always been embraced so fully. Some outspoken lawmakers, campaign operatives, and activists have viewed parts of his resume, including his prior work as a corporate lawyer, as reasons to be cautious about his potential allyship. And his defeat of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), a liberal icon, in a leadership race in 2018 angered a number of Lee’s progressive allies. 

But as he prepares for his elevated position, Democrats on the left are willing to give Jeffries a chance, hoping that his courtship of their flank will lay the groundwork for a productive relationship as they fight a GOP emboldened by the right wing set on deflating their momentum.

The New York congressman, who openly identifies as a progressive, has already started an informal communication channel to the liberal side of his caucus. This week, he talked privately with multiple Squad members, according to a report in Axios, one of the earliest indications of his olive branch potential gearing up to the transition of power. And the outreach was continuing into Thursday, when Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), another Squad member, said she was preparing to meet with Jeffries. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that she considers it “a step forward” to talk with the new leader directly. “He decided to reach out and sat down with me. It was an introductory conversation,” she said. 

While Ocasio-Cortez said it “remains to be seen” if he will be a strong champion of the left in the next Congress, others say he’s been talking informally to progressives regularly and that he’s shown a commitment to make contact. 

“This is not new outreach. He’s worked with them for some time,” said one Democratic strategist close to top congressional lawmakers in leadership. “It’s important to be a leader of diversity and inclusion. Diversity means not just race, gender, geographics and all those things, but diversity of thought. And inclusion of thought.”

While Jeffries has occasionally been on the receiving end of progressives’ ire, he has also situated himself within their orbit, adopting a pragmatism that many lawmakers have found success with during President Biden’s term. He’s a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has often sided with the left wing over moderates during policy debates, dating back to when he was first elected in 2012. 

“It’s important for him to reach out to all four corners of the Democratic caucus square,” said the strategist in touch with prominent lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “It’s not like he’s new to this, he’s actually true to this.”

On Wednesday, when Jeffries was formally elected, any potential criticism from progressives in Congress was muted. He won his position without rivals from either wing of the party, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) blessing of her 52-year-old successor provided a helpful boost of confidence. 

Jeffries returned the favor, praising Pelosi’s accomplishments with fellow caucus leaders. “We stand on their collective broad shoulders,” he said. 

The reception comes at an important time for Democrats. Biden is experiencing the benefits of a relatively favorable midterm cycle, and Senate Democrats could add another seat to their narrow majority in next week’s runoff elections in Georgia. The president’s approval rating has also ticked upward, giving House Democrats room to make the argument that their progressive agenda is linked to his success.

With Jeffries at the helm, there’s optimism among some progressives that he’ll press their priorities. 

“He cares about affordable housing; he cares about universal childcare; he cares about the issue of racial justice in all its forms,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), another squad member. “So I’m going to be one of the many people who’s going to push as hard as possible so we’ll be as aggressive as possible in those areas, and other areas. And let’s see where that goes.”

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a former head of the Progressive Caucus, said he remembers well the clash with Lee for the caucus chair spot in 2018. But those tensions, he said, are water under the bridge. 

“I don’t think there’s any lingering resentments. … And I think Barbara Lee had a lot to do with calming the waters of that potential division, which was becoming one,” Grijalva said. “I think people are underestimating him. I think the way he kept the caucus together [and] made his transition seamless — I was very impressed.”

As evidence of how successful Jeffries has been in winning over the liberals, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), another former Progressive Caucus chair and top negotiator among Democrats, had given one of the nominating speeches ahead of this week’s leadership vote. The liberal opposition to Jeffries, Pocan said, has always come from outside of Congress, not from within.  

“It’s never been an internal issue among members,” Pocan said. “I think there are just some folks on the outside who, it doesn’t matter who you put in that position, they’re going to say, ‘Oh, he’s from New York therefore he must be Wall Street.’ I don’t think any of those things hold any real weight, especially among members who know him and know his record.” 

Despite the obvious grace period, not all progressives close to the House expect Jeffries’s ascent to be so smooth. One prominent organizer close to Progressive Caucus leadership suggested Jeffries has been in the background during the left’s top policy debates.

That sentiment has raised concerns among those who want to see the House ramp up its tilt leftward, including through more liberal membership and legislation if they reclaim control of the chamber in two years. 

“Even though CPC members will make up about half of the Democratic Caucus in the new Congress, the core CPC values like end new fossil fuel investment, stop Medicare and VA privatization, freeze the military budget, raise wealth taxes, restore the 50 percent staffing cuts at the NLRB and more are not championed by Jeffries,” said Larry Cohen, who chairs the group Our Revolution, which started with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) first presidential bid.

“The CPC reorganizes next week and I expect these points to be emphasized once Chair Jayapal, and other CPC leaders are elected,” Cohen said.

For now, the House’s liberal leadership is striking a more optimistic tone. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who is seeking reelection, said she is “thrilled” to work with Jeffries as well as Reps. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), who were elected to the Whip and Democratic Caucus Chair positions this week. 

Jeffries, too, is downplaying any past frictions with other members, liberal or otherwise. Indeed, he says a primary goal is to be both a voice for everyone in the Democrats’ diverse caucus and a bridge-builder between the young and restive progressives, the more centrist New Democrats and the moderate Blue Dogs. 

And he’s quick to note his blanket policy of supporting incumbent Democrats of all stripes when they face primary challenges. 

“I have no issues with any member of the House Democratic Caucus, and have been supportive of everyone electorally, whether they are in the center, center left, or the more left part of our caucus — and will continue to be supportive of every single House Democratic incumbent,” Jeffries told a small group of reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday night, just hours before he was elected to be the party leader.

Jeffries also pointed to an underlying maxim of congressional governance: The party in charge almost always has a more difficult time coming together — a dynamic that will help him considerably in his own efforts to unite the minority Democrats next year in the shared goal of winning back control of the House in 2024. 

“There’s nothing more unifying than being in the minority,” he said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Five reasons why the Georgia Senate runoff matters

Tuesday’s Senate run-off in Georgia is vital, even though Democrats have already secured control of the upper chamber.

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) bested former football star Herschel Walker by roughly 36,000 votes in the initial round of voting on Nov. 8. But Warnock fell just short of getting the necessary 50 percent of votes cast in that contest, which also featured a Libertarian candidate.

This time around, it’s a one-on-one race between Warnock and Walker. 

Early voting began on Thanksgiving weekend, and the following Monday saw the largest number of ballots cast on any single day of early voting in the state’s history.

Here’s why the runoff matters.

A Dem victory would reduce Manchin and Sinema’s leverage

The Senate was split 50-50 throughout President Biden’s first two years in office, with Democrats holding the majority only because Vice President Harris has the authority to break a tie.

The tight math gave huge leverage to the two Democrats most likely to dissent from their colleagues: Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.).

Neither senator was shy about using that influence. 

Manchin was the key figure in forcing the Biden administration to scale back its ambitions from a proposed $3.5 trillion social spending bill to the far more modest Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). 

Sinema, for her part, won concessions on taxation in the IRA, including some exemptions to a corporate minimum tax.

A 51-49 Senate would not destroy the influence of Manchin and Sinema. 

But it would significantly dilute it, since Democratic Senate leaders could afford to lose the support of one of the duo and still retain a majority.

Former President Trump has a lot at stake

The 45th president had a miserable midterm election, with many of his most high-profile endorsees losing and, in the aftermath, GOP critics openly accusing him of having deprived the party of an expected “red wave.”

Walker’s fate could ease or worsen that problem.

Trump encouraged Walker to get into the race and endorsed him more than a year ago, in September 2021. 

But that level of involvement means that Trump will suffer a real political wound if Walker loses.

Such an outcome would also strengthen the hand of Trump foes like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who warned back in August about “candidate quality” — an implicit jab at Trump and his chosen candidates.

One key metric: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who won reelection on Nov. 8, received about 200,000 more votes than did Walker.

Trump had tried in vain to engineer Kemp’s defeat in a primary.

Senate committees are more important than they sound

Partisans on both sides have stressed the topic of Senate committees as they try to maximize turnout for the runoff.

They have a point.

Even though Democrats have had a de facto majority in the 50-50 Senate for the past two years, those numbers require committees to have an equal number of members from each party.

In practical terms, that makes it easier for Republicans to pump the brakes on Democratic priorities.

One more seat for Biden’s party would change all that, giving Democrats the majority in every committee.

This is especially important given the Senate’s role in confirming judicial nominees. A Democratic majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee would ease the way for anyone Biden selects.

Republicans, having already lost the chance to retake the majority, don’t want to lose their committee powers as well.

Walker himself told Newsmax in recent days, “Right now, we’ve got a chance to make all the committees even.”

Democrats face a grim Senate map in 2024

Democrats performed at the top end of expectations to keep the Senate this year. But they face an ever more difficult climb in 2024.

It’s not just that Democrats have 23 Senate seats to defend in the 2024 cycle compared to the GOP’s 10.

It’s that a whole host of those Democratic seats are in serious peril, while it is hard to see Republicans losing anywhere.

For Democrats, Manchin and Sen. Jon Tester would have to win reelection — assuming they choose to run — in two very red states: West Virginia and Montana, respectively.

There will also be a Senate race in Ohio, where Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) has defied a historic shift toward the GOP before, but who could face hurdles in doing so again.

There are another five competitive states where Democrats will be defending a seat: Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Michigan.

Contrast that with the GOP’s position. 

The most competitive 2024 race for a seat currently in Republican hands will likely be in Florida. 

The Sunshine State has, for years, been considered a battleground. 

But last month Sen. Marco Rubio (R) cruised to reelection by 16 points while Gov. Ron DeSantis did even better, winning by 19 points.

Facing such forbidding odds two years from now, Democrats would love to see Warnock notch a victory on Tuesday.

The result will reveal more about Georgia’s political transition

When President Biden won Georgia in 2022, he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.

After 1960, the only three Democrats to carry Georgia in a presidential election have been Biden, Clinton and native son Jimmy Carter.

Democrats have made big gains in the state in recent years, however. 

They have been assisted by population movements, as Atlanta in particular has become a magnet for workers from other, more liberal states. There has also been a concerted effort to boost voter registration — a quest in which two-time gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has been heavily involved.

In January 2021, Warnock and fellow Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff won Senate runoffs, albeit by very narrow margins.

Many Republicans blamed their early 2021 losses on Trump, who almost certainly depressed GOP turnout with his false claims of election fraud.

Georgia isn’t about to become a Democratic state anytime soon — Kemp beat Abrams comfortably, for example.

But Tuesday’s result will go some way to showing just how competitive the state has become.

Source: TEST FEED1

In college admissions, 'test-optional' is the new normal

Story at a glance

• The share of college applicants who submit test scores has plunged since pre-pandemic times.

• Fewer than half of early applicants this fall submitted scores from the SAT or ACT, despite loosening COVID-19 restrictions.

• Only 4 percent of colleges now require test scores, down from 55 percent in 2019.

Fewer than half of the students who applied early to college this fall submitted standardized test scores, according to an analysis by the nonprofit that publishes the Common Application. 

The data point could mark a watershed moment in admissions, college advisers say, when a pandemic pause in SAT and ACT testing requirements evolved into something more permanent. 

Just three years ago, 78 percent of applicants included test scores in their early Common App submissions, a round of admissions that ends Nov. 1.  

The share of applicants reporting SAT or ACT scores plunged in 2020, as COVID-19 shuttered testing sites and drove hundreds of colleges to adopt “test-optional” admissions.  

Many observers expected the testing requirement to return as restrictions lifted. It hasn’t. 

“We’ve actually seen an increase in the share of colleges on the Common App that don’t require a test score,” said Preston Magouirk, senior manager of research and analytics at Common App. 

More than 1,800 colleges are “test-optional” this year, including most elite public and private campuses, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, or FairTest.  

Common App data shows that only 4 percent of colleges require test scores for applications this fall, down from 55 percent in pre-pandemic 2019. The group includes a handful of technical universities and Florida’s state university system.  

Any number of schools could revert to requiring test scores. But admissions experts don’t believe they will.  

“I think it’s harder to go back,” said Jed Applerouth, founder of Applerouth Tutoring Services in Atlanta. “When you go test-optional, you have the freedom to build the class you want to build.” 

The test-optional movement began at Bowdoin College in Maine in 1970 and spread through academia, gaining traction in the 2000s amid concerns about equity. 

Not until the coronavirus pandemic, though, did a majority of applicants exercise the option to omit test scores from their Common Application requirements.  

College admission panels used to count on SAT and ACT scores as a way to compare students across schools. Sorting applicants by GPA or academic rigor can be tricky: An A in honors geometry may not mean the same thing from one school to another. 

The test-optional push follows relentless criticism that college-entrance exams favor the affluent, who can afford pricey test-prep classes, effectively paying for a higher score.  

A few colleges have rejected standardized tests altogether. California’s public university system, the nation’s largest, no longer accepts them. Elsewhere, most institutions have embraced the test-optional option.  

Experts see little downside. By accepting test scores but not requiring them, a selective college often finds that its SAT and ACT averages go up, because students with lower scores don’t submit them. 

Admission consultants say test-optional policies free an institution to enroll more economically disadvantaged students, or more affluent “full-pay” students, whose parents cover the full cost of attendance, all without regard to test scores.  

“If they want, they can increase diversity,” Applerouth said. “If they want, they can increase full-pay. Why would you give that up?” 

The leaders of FairTest and other equity advocates cheer the test-optional trend.  

“Any time spent preparing for the SAT or ACT is time spent not reading a novel, time not spent playing the guitar,” said Harry Feder, executive director of FairTest. “I think it’s a waste of kids’ energy and time.” 

For applicants, however, the test-optional era brings a host of new complexities.  

Applicants now face more decisions on the pros and cons of submitting scores to individual colleges. The choice can trigger a deep dive into a school’s test-score profile, admission statistics and philosophies on testing. 

“It’s a combination of multivariable calculus and reading tea leaves,” said Wendie Lubic, a partner in The College Lady, a Washington, D.C., consultancy.  

As a general rule, admission consultants encourage applicants to submit scores that fall near the SAT or ACT average for the target school: the higher, the better.  

College leaders promise to give every student a fair shake, test scores or no.  

“When we say we’re test-optional, we really mean we’re test-optional and don’t think twice when a student doesn’t submit test scores as part of their application,” said Jeff Allen, vice president for admission and financial aid at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  

Macalester officials decided to go test-optional shortly before the pandemic descended. A slim majority of Macalester applicants did not submit scores last fall, a quotient that suggests they accept the school’s pledge not to penalize the score-less.  

Yet, admission statistics suggest some other schools prefer applicants who post scores. 

Lubic, the consultant, cites Boston College. The school’s overall admission rate is 17 percent. Boston College is test-optional. Its website promises that students who do not submit scores will “receive full consideration” in admissions. But school policy also notes, somewhat ominously, that those who do not send scores “will have one less credential to be considered by the Admission Committee.” 

To Lubic, the numbers speak for themselves. For the current academic year, Boston College admitted 25 percent of applicants with test scores and 10 percent of those without. 

The University of Virginia provides another case study. In the last round of admissions, students without test scores made up 42 percent of applicants but only 26 percent of admissions. 

“Amherst, Barnard, Boston College, Boston University, you can see that they actively prefer scores,” Lubic said. “They have actually told people what the admit rate is for students who submit scores, and what the admit rate is for students who don’t submit scores.” The second number, she said, is invariably lower. 

“Right now, we’re in the middle of a swamp,” she said. “Nothing is confirmed.” 

Jessica, a mother in Richmond, Va., helped her daughter through the college admissions process last year. The daughter had a 4.8 weighted GPA and a 1390 SAT score. The family chose to submit scores to some schools but not to others, depending on each institution’s SAT average and apparent preference. 

The daughter gained admission to several colleges whose admission committees never saw her scores, including the honors program at the University of South Carolina, where she ultimately enrolled. The University of Virginia did see her scores — and put her on its waitlist. 

“That was a shocker,” said Jessica, who withheld her last name to discuss what remains a sensitive topic in her family.  

During the pandemic, when some students lacked access to testing, hundreds of colleges pledged to treat applicants the same with or without test scores.  

“That pledge has now expired,” Applerouth said.  

In a post-COVID world, he said, test-optional means a college considers an application complete without test scores. It does not necessarily mean the application is on equal footing with the others. 

“Academic rigor is optional,” Applerouth said. “Submitting robust AP scores is optional. Being student body president is optional. But optional does not mean without impact.” 

The retreat from required testing, especially in California, has lowered the stakes for students who take the tests. More than 1.7 million high school students in the class of 2022 took the SAT, up from 1.5 million in 2021, but down from 2.2 million in 2020, according to test publisher the College Board.  

On the future of standardized testing, “I think California will continue to drive a lot of the discussion,” said Jon Boeckenstedt, vice provost for enrollment management at Oregon State University.  

California’s university system dropped standardized tests from admissions in 2021, a dramatic step affecting several of the nation’s most prestigious public campuses. 

“I know College Board continues to campaign quietly in the state to get the public universities to reinstate the tests,” Boeckenstedt said. “And if they do, that would be a game changer.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden endorses major shakeup of Democratic nominating process that puts South Carolina first

President Biden on Thursday endorsed a major shakeup of the Democratic presidential nominating process that would make South Carolina the first state to vote.

Multiple outlets reported that Biden suggested South Carolina be followed by Nevada and New Hampshire on the same day, then Georgia and finally Michigan. Iowa, the traditional first state on the nominating calendar would be knocked out of first five altogether.

In a separate letter to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) made public, Biden emphasized the first contests should represent the diversity of the party and country. 

Biden said in the letter that voters of color must have a voice in choosing the party’s nominee much earlier than they currently do. He said someone should not be the Democratic nominee and win a general election unless they show they have “overwhelming support” from voters of color, including Black, Brown and Asian and Pacific Islander individuals. 

“Too often over the past fifty years, candidates have dropped out or had their candidacies marginalized by the press and pundits because of poor performances in small states early in the process before voters of color cast a vote,” he wrote. 

The DNC is set to meet Friday to discuss the order in which the states should vote to choose the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024. 

Iowa and New Hampshire have for decades been the first two states to vote, but some within the party have long called a shift toward prioritizing more diverse states earlier.

Biden said the early voting states should reflect the party and country’s economic, geographic and demographic diversity, adding that union households should be represented in greater numbers than before. He said urban, suburban and rural voters should continue to have strong representation in early voting states. 

Biden also called for the DNC to no longer allow caucuses, which he said are “inherently anti-participatory.” He said caucuses require voters to go vote in public and spend significant amounts of time to cast a vote, disadvantaging hourly workers and anyone who does not have the flexibility to go to a voting location at a set time. 

“It should be our party’s goal to rid the nominating process of restrictive, anti-worker caucuses,” he said. 

He said the DNC’s rules and bylaws committee should review the voting calendar every four years to ensure it represents the values and diversity of the party and country.

Developing.

Source: TEST FEED1

Arizona's Cochise County certifies election following court order

The Cochise County, Ariz., board of supervisors certified the county’s election results on Thursday, after a state judge ruled that it was unlawful for two GOP supervisors not to certify the results by the state’s legal deadline.

The board voted 2-0 to certify the results from the Nov. 8 midterm elections, with one supervisor not attending Thursday’s emergency meeting. The vote allows state officials in Arizona to move forward with next Monday’s statewide certification.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), now the state’s governor-elect, sued Cochise County earlier this week after two GOP members on the board voted to delay certification over an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory about the certification of voting machines and missed the state’s Monday deadline. 

Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley on Thursday ordered the board of supervisors to certify the election results by 5 p.m. that day.

The Luzerne County, Pa., elections board similarly voted to certify that county’s election results on Wednesday after it was sued for missing a state deadline.

Source: TEST FEED1