Share:
Mayra Flores win drives GOP optimism about Hispanic voters
Republicans are holding up Mayra Flores’s win in the special election for Texas’ 34th Congressional District Tuesday as the latest sign Hispanic voters are shifting toward the GOP and hoping her win is the first of many this year for Republicans running in heavily-Latino districts.
But the race also showed Republicans may need to make large investments to capture such seats, and the unusual nature of a low-turnout special election using district lines that will change in just a few months makes it difficult to say if the contest was a bellwether.
“Flores’ victory in the TX-34 Special Election is proof that Republicans have a winning message with Hispanic voters and that no Democrat is safe in the current political environment,” National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Executive Director John Billings said in a post-election memo.
Her win marks a major shift for the district, which was solidly blue for years and is 84 percent Hispanic. President Biden won the district by 4.2 points in 2020, and Hillary Clinton won it by 21.5 percent in 2016. Rep. Filemon Vela (D), who resigned from his seat in March to join a lobbying firm, has represented the district since it was created in 2010.
Election results as of Wednesday morning showed Flores more than seven points over her closest Democratic competitor, Dan Sanchez, and avoiding a runoff with 51 percent of the vote.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who represents another South Texas district, helped launch a PAC last month called the Hispanic Leadership Trust aimed at growing the number of Hispanic Republicans in the House GOP. He said economic issues like inflation, which Flores focused on in her campaign, resonate with the Mexican-American demographic.
“Nothing happens by chance. You don’t get here alone,” Gonzales said. “Having good candidates is more than half of it, but you’ve got to have a good team around it.”
“Getting in the mailbox, getting on digital – all those things cost resources and manpower,” Gonzales said. “We were able to help with that in a big way.”
But being the right candidate at the right time in the right district may also have been key to her win. Flores, who came to the U.S. with her parents at six years old, is the first Mexican-born woman to be elected to Congress. She is also married to a Border Patrol agent.
And the special election had extremely low turnout, making it hard to point to it as an indication of a larger trend.
Just shy of 29,000 people voted in the Tuesday election, compared to around 201,000 and 143,000 in the 2020 and 2018 general elections, respectively.
“The Hispanic vote is not monolithic,” said Rodolfo Rosales, Texas State Director at LULAC, the oldest Hispanic and Latino civil rights group in the U.S. “One election is not going to dictate whether or not we’re moving towards the Republican Party or moving against it.”
But Rosales acknowledged that Republicans and former President Trump also made significant gains in South Texas in the 2020 election.
Those gains and Flores’s win, he argued, are the result of Republicans pouring resources into South Texas that Democrats don’t match.
“As long as one party continues to dominate in terms of financing and continues finance campaigns down here, that’s the party that Latinos are going to start moving towards, because they see them, even though the policies may contradict their daily lives,” Rosales said.
Flores had spent almost a million dollars on her campaign as of May 25, while Sanchez had spent just $42,000. Flores got $1 million in television and digital advertising, and the NRCC and Texas Republican Party spent $1.1 million on paid voter contact efforts. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), by contrast, spent $100,000 on a digital ad buy.
Democrats opted not to match Republicans’ spending in the race for the seat while expecting to easily win it back in November, when Texas’s 34th District will have new lines reflecting a more Democratic-leaning voter base. Flores will face Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D), who is moving from the neighboring 15th District to run in the 34th but opted not to leave his current seat to compete in the special election. If she loses, Flores will be in Congress for just about six months.
“The only thing the NRCC proved last night is that they can barely get their MAGA Republican candidates across the finish line when they outspend the Democrat 20 to 1 and if only 7% of the electorate turns out to vote,” said Monica Robinson, a spokesperson for the DCCC. “This seat is a rental for Republicans and we look forward to welcoming Vicente Gonzalez back to Congress this fall.”
Republicans brush off that criticism and maintain that the race reflects a milestone.
“The way the Democrats have analyzed losing the special election in Texas 34 is a loser’s approach,” Tony Gonzales said, adding Republicans making long-term investments.
“We’re looking at not just winning for this cycle. We’re looking at the next 50 years,” he said.
Source: TEST FEED1
Share:
Democrats face congressional rout amid historically terrible headwinds
Midterm election years are almost never good for a president’s party. Even before the calamitous events of the past ten months, Democrats knew the first midterm election of President Biden’s tenure in office would be a challenge.
But the cascade of catastrophe that has so dented what little American optimism remained in the waning days of the pandemic and the associated economic recovery has even the most optimistic Democratic Party strategists and pollsters staring into an unprecedented abyss. Their standing, about five months before voters head to the polls, is worse than it has been for any president in modern times, by almost any indicator.
A new study compiled by Gallup comparing widely used barometers of midterm attitudes since 1974, which has made the rounds widely in Democratic circles this week, underscores just how bad the atmosphere has become.
Biden’s approval rating stands at an average of just 41 percent in Gallup surveys, tied with former President Trump before the 2018 midterms and lower than any president except George W. Bush in 2006.
Just 18 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, the lowest figure for a midterm year and three points lower than its rating in both 2018, when Republicans lost control of Congress, and 2010, when Democrats surrendered control.
Only 16 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, another nadir. And the gap between those who see an economy headed in a negative direction and those who see economic conditions heading the right way is 32 percentage points, on par with the depths of the great recession ahead of the 2010 midterms.
“Today’s polls indicate a tsunami,” said David Paleologos, who heads polling at Suffolk University.
Interviews with half a dozen Democratic strategists and pollsters — most of whom declined to put their anxiety on the record — show a party clinging to hopes that voter anger can be spread across the aisle. They point to numbers that show that while Democrats aren’t popular, neither are Republicans, and that several major events still to play out before the midterm elections will underscore the GOP’s chief weaknesses.
“Abortion, guns and January 6th are causing them real problems taking advantage of the political environment,” said John Anzalone, who conducted polling for Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. “Voters may not be happy with the party in power, but they sure aren’t excited about the alternative.”
A spate of recent polls underscore the point that, while national indicators hint at a GOP rout, that hasn’t translated into huge leads for Republican candidates.
A survey out this week and last shows Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) leading television celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz (R) by a nine-point margin in the race for an open Senate seat, and Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) leading state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) by four in the race for governor. In Georgia, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and former NFL running back Herschel Walker (R) are tied.
One survey this week of voters in North Carolina showed former Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley (D) leading Rep. Ted Budd (R) in the race for Senate, while three polls last month showed Budd with leads. And in Ohio, a state Trump carried by a wide margin, an initial survey showed Trump-backed author J.D. Vance (R) outpacing Rep. Tim Ryan (D) by only three percentage points, with nearly 20 percent undecided.
“It is a challenging environment, one that we could have predicted years ago because it follows historic trends. It’s very difficult to break those historic trends at the national level. But there certainly is an opportunity, race by race, for Democrats to chart a different course,” said Matt Canter, a Democratic pollster. “A lot can change. Things can get worse, but there’s no question that things can get better as well.”
Under the hood of those promising — or at least not disastrous — results are more warning signs for the Democratic incumbents. Biden’s approval ratings are even worse in those swing states than they are nationally. They stand at 38 percent in Georgia, a state he won by just 11,000 votes, and 39 percent in Pennsylvania, a state Biden carried by 80,000 votes.
History is not a source of hope for Democrats, especially those relying on pro-Biden sentiment for their own chances. Only twice since 1974 has a president’s party gained seats in midterm elections: In 1998, when Bill Clinton’s approval rating stood at 66 percent and Americans had a positive impression of economic conditions by a 60 point margin, and in 2004, when 63 percent approved of George W. Bush’s handling of the presidency and Congress’s approval rating stood at 50 percent, a margin unmatched since.
Some Democratic pollsters point to partisanship as another cause for concern. Today, 45 percent of Americans say they are Democrats or lean toward the party, and the same number say they are Republicans or lean that way. In the last three midterm elections in which the two parties were at parity or within one point of even, Democrats have lost seats — including in 2010 and 1994, the two years when Republicans reclaimed 63 and 53 U.S. House seats, respectively.
Paleologos, the Suffolk University pollster, said the Democrats who are doing relatively well in his surveys — Ryan in Ohio and Fetterman in Pennsylvania — are running as outsiders.
“These Democrats are threading the needle into the current political fabric by being populists, winning among independents and talking about solving bread-and-butter issues county by county while distancing themselves from Biden and D.C.,” he said.
Canter, the Democratic pollster, said his party had routinely failed to create a national brand. And while the GOP’s national brand may not be popular in a vacuum, it still creates an affinity among millions of voters who backed Trump in 2020.
“Their brand today is the party of Trump. That’s what we have to work with, and it’s not perfect. Trump got 72 million votes, so just being the party of Trump in this environment is not enough to lose. What we have to do is build a brand for them that uplifts the most offense and egregious and concerning aspects of Trumpism,” he said in an interview. “That’s what the MAGA messaging is about, developing a message and narrative that both mobilizes our base and communicates something that at a minimum is not unhelpful to swing voters.”
The most optimistic Democrats cautioned that there are still variables to consider before voters go to the polls: A Supreme Court ruling expected to overturn a national right to an abortion, the January 6th committee hearings that will shed light on the GOP’s complicity in Trump’s efforts to overturn a national election, gas prices that could come down and inflation that could ease as the Federal Reserve acts to raise interest rates.
But the reverse is also possible, and potentially more likely. The summer driving season has not yet fully begun. Russia’s war on Ukraine shows no sign of slowing. The Fed’s move to raise interest rates by as much as three-quarters of a percent, if it does stem inflation, may also tip the economy into recession. Biden’s numbers, low as they are, may not yet have hit bottom.
“If there is a market crash or if we go from recession to deep recession (or depression) come November, it’s over for Democrats,” Paleologos said.
Source: TEST FEED1
Share:
White House to tackle online harassment, abuse with new task force
A new White House task force aimed at combating online harassment and abuse will convene for its first meeting Thursday, bringing together officials across the administration to address growing concerns around online hate and the connection to gender-based violence.
The task force is being launched by Vice President Harris and will be co-chaired by the Gender Policy Council and the National Security Council, the White House announced.
Recent mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas, highlighted the link between online harassment and extremist acts, an administration official said. In both cases, the gunmen were reported to have posted hateful content and laid out plans for their attacks online ahead of the shootings.
Within 180 days, the task force will provide service recommendations for how the federal government, private sector and civil society can better combat online harassment and abuse.
The task force will not be focused on particular platforms, but rather the role of platforms and social media more generally, administration officials said.
The effort aims to tackle health and violence concerns stemming from online harassment and abuse. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will both be at Thursday’s inaugural meeting.
Tennis champion Sloane Stephens, who has spoken publicly about the harassing messages she received after exiting the US Open, will also be in attendance.
The launch of the task force comes after the administration last month separately suspended plans for a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) disinformation board weeks after it was announced, following fierce pushback from Republicans and civil rights groups alike.
Administration officials said they are mindful of First Amendment issues in launching the new task force, but said the group is particularly focused on online activities that are illegal conduct, including cyber stalking or the distribution of non-consensual intimate images or targeted harassment.
Source: TEST FEED1
Share:
Senior Islamic State leader captured in U.S. military raid in Syria
U.S.-led forces detained a senior Islamic State leader in Syria on Thursday, according to the coalition.
“Coalition forces detained a senior Daesh leader during an operation in Syria June 16,” Operation Inherent Resolve said in a statement. “The detained individual was assessed to be an experienced bomb maker and facilitator who became one of the group’s top leaders in Syria.”
Major Youssef Hamoud, a spokesperson for the Syrian National Army (SNA), a separate coalition of rebel groups backed by Turkey, told Reuters that a helicopter raid occurred in Al-Humaira, a village located just south of the Turkey-Syria border.
He told the outlet it was the first U.S. helicopter operation in areas under the rebel coalition’s control.
The U.S.-led forces vowed to continue hunting the “remnants” of ISIS in the statement.
“The mission was meticulously planned to minimize the risk of collateral damage, particularly any potential harm to civilians,” the statement read. “There were no civilians harmed during the operation nor any damage to coalition aircraft or assets.”
President Biden announced in February that the U.S. had conducted a helicopter raid in northwest Syria, killing the leader of the Islamic State terrorist group, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.
That raid drew comparisons to al-Qurashi’s predecessor’s death in 2019 during the Trump administration. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest in a tunnel in northwest Syria during a U.S. attack.
The U.S.-backed forces declared victory over the Islamic State in March 2019 after retaking the last village held by the terrorist group in Syria.
More than 100 ISIS militants attacked a Syrian prison in January, but U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters soon regained control of the facility.
Source: TEST FEED1
Share:
Suspect admits to murder of missing journalist, indigenous advocate in Brazil
A suspect held over the disappearance of a British journalist and an Indigenous affairs expert who had been missing in Brazil has confessed to their murder, CNN reported on Wednesday.
During a Wednesday night press conference, Brazilian authorities announced that local fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira admitted he had killed international correspondent Dom Phillips and Brazilian researcher Bruno Araújo Pereira. The two had been missing since June 5 after being last spotted near Sao Rafael, a community in the northeast region of Brazil.
The suspect reportedly confessed to the slaying Tuesday night and took police to the location of the bodies in a remote part of the Amazon on Wednesday.
A second suspect has also been arrested over the disappearance of the men, according to CNN.
Phillips, who was writing a book about Amazon rainforest conservation, and, Pereira, who had been threatened by illegal fish and wildlife poachers before, reportedly both received death threats in the days leading up to going missing.
The men’s disappearance has made international headlines with journalists and human rights organizations putting pressure on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to locate the duo.
“We are now very concerned by reports from Brazil that search and rescue efforts so far have been minimally resourced, with national authorities slow to offer more than very limited assistance,” a coalition of media professionals wrote in a letter to Bolsonaro last week.
They added, “We ask that you urgently step up and fully resource the effort to locate Dom and Bruno, and that you provide all possible support to their families and friends.”
Results of forensics exams are still pending to confirm the bodies are those of Phillips and Pereira, ABC News noted.
Source: TEST FEED1
Share:
Fourteen markets ban screenings of Pixar's 'Lightyear' over same-sex relationship
Fourteen markets in majority-Muslim countries or territories have reportedly banned theatrical showings of Pixar’s “Lightyear” for its depiction of a same-sex relationship.
Disney, which owns Pixar, told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday it had declined to edit the film to remove scenes including a kiss between two married female characters.
The United Arab Emirates banned the film on Monday. The country is joined by Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Syria, according to the Journal.
Disney is launching its streaming service, dubbed Disney+, in a number of the countries this summer, but it was unclear if “Lightyear” would be available on the platform in those markets.
The film also appears unlikely to open in China, Reuters reported.
The United Arab Emirates’ Media Regulatory Office said on Monday it was banning the film’s showing to ensure “safety” according to the “appropriate age classification,” adding that it violated “the country’s media content standards.”
The announcement came after a social media campaign calling for the film’s ban in the country caught the attention of conservative Emiratis.
The Hill has reached out to Disney for comment.
“Lightyear” is being released in the United States on Friday.
The film, a spin-off of the “Toy Story” series, stars Chris Evans as the voice for main character Buzz Lightyear.
In one scene, Buzz’s best friend Alisha Hawthorne, who is voiced by Uzo Aduba, kisses her same-sex partner.
Source: TEST FEED1
Share:
DeSantis on Musk tweet: 'I welcome support from African-Americans'
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) responded on Wednesday to Elon Musk’s tweet earlier in the day saying he was leaning toward supporting DeSantis for president in 2024.
“I’m focused on 2022,” DeSantis, who is rumored to be considering a bid for the White House, told reporters.
“But with Elon Musk, what I would say is, I welcome support from African Americans, what can I say?” he continued.
Musk is white and from Pretoria, South Africa.
Earlier on Wednesday, Musk tweeted that he voted for a Republican for the first time and was considering creating a super PAC to support centrist candidates.
He said he voted for Maya Flores, a Republican who on Tuesday flipped a traditionally Democratic House seat in a special election.
“Massive red wave in 2022,” he wrote.
When a Twitter user asked him if he would be voting Republican in the next presidential election, Musk responded “tbd,” or to be determined.
The user followed up by asking who he was “leaning towards.”
“DeSantis,” Musk responded.
The tech billionaire, who serves as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, announced last month he had struck a deal to purchase Twitter, however he has since threatened to pull out.
Musk and Twitter have been in a standoff over the company’s claims about the share of bot accounts on the platform, although Twitter reportedly is complying with Musk’s demands for additional internal data.
The Wall Street journal reported that Musk is likely to reiterate his desire to buy Twitter when he speaks to the company’s employees on Thursday.
Musk on Wednesday also responded to another user sayinf he supported Andrew Yang for president in 2020, but now thinks DeSantis “has a better chance of winning.”
The Florida governor is a leading GOP contender for the 2024 presidential race. He won a straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit earlier this month, with his approval rating clocking in slightly higher than former President Trump.
Source: TEST FEED1
Share:
Brooklyn venue cancels sold-out concert featuring attempted Reagan assassin
A music venue in Brooklyn on Wednesday canceled a sold-out show featuring John Hinckley Jr., who was released from court oversight earlier in the day, more than 40 years after attempting to assassinate former President Ronald Reagan.
“After a lot of serious consideration, we are cancelling the scheduled event at Market Hotel with John Hinckley,” the venue announced in a social media post on Wednesday.
“There was a time when a place could host a thing like this, maybe a little offensive, and the reaction would be ‘it’s just a guy playing a show, who does it hurt — it’s a free country,'” the venue added. “We aren’t living in that kind of free country anymore, for better or for worse.”
It added that Hinckley’s “tour also sends a message that mental health issues and a criminal past can be recovered from and atoned for, after serving one’s debt to society and getting real treatment.”
“Make no mistake: canceling this concert will not deter future assassins and will have no effect on mass shootings, and it certainly won’t reverse the awfulness of what Hinckley did 40 years,” it went on to say.
It added that the decision came “after being presented with and reflecting on some very real and worsening threats and hate facing our vulnerable communities.”
The now 67-year-old Hinckley posted on Twitter Wednesday after his release, saying “after 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!”
Following the assassination attempt, Hinckley had been supervised in a mental health hospital for decades.
He was previously acquitted of charges in 1982 by reason of insanity after he shot and injured Reagan outside a Washington hotel. He was 25 and had acute psychosis at the time.
Source: TEST FEED1
Share:
Sarah Palin moves on in Alaska congressional election
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is projected to progress to the next round in the state’s special election for its at-large congressional seat following the March death of Rep. Don Young (R).
Palin was in the top four candidates in the primary race Saturday, which featured candidates of all parties. The top four vote-getters in the primary advance to a ranked-choice election, according to novel voting laws in Alaska.
With 132,730 votes counted, Palin had 28.3 percent of the vote, putting her atop the field, according to The Associated Press.
The former governor was one of more than 50 candidates to run.
Palin served as governor of Alaska from 2006 until she resigned in 2009. During that time, she also was the GOP vice presidential nominee in the 2018 race, running alongside then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Their ticket ended up losing to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
During her time as governor, Palin faced scrutiny over state funds and dismissal of then-Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, which he said was sparked by his refusal to fire Palin’s ex-brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, who at the time was embroiled in a custody battle with Palin’s sister. The state legislature later a report saying that while Palin had the power to fire Monegan, she abused her power by pressuring him to fire Wooten.
Palin ultimately ended up resigning in 2009 prior to the 2010 gubernatorial election, a decision that recent reports suggest left a sour taste in the mouths of Alaska voters.
Palin ended up being a strong supporter of former President Trump during his 2016 run, and she earned his endorsement in her own House race earlier this year.
“Sarah Palin is tough and smart and will never back down, and I am proud to give her my Complete and Total Endorsement, and encourage all Republicans to unite behind this wonderful person and her campaign to put America First,” Trump said in a statement in April.
“Sarah shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016, and we won big,” the former president added. “Now, it’s my turn!”
Source: TEST FEED1