2023-2024 Presidential, senate, house, state and city election thread

[weatheriscool]

Manchin will decide in early 2024 if he runs for President on a centrist ticket.
Chuck Todd NBC

[lechwall]

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announces 2024 presidential run
Source: ABC News

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson made his 2024 White House bid official on Sunday in an exclusive sit-down interview with ABC "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

Ahead of his presidential announcement, Hutchinson, a Republican, spent several days in the first-in-the nation caucus state of Iowa, stirring speculation that he intended to enter into what he acknowledged is a tense national political landscape.

"I have made a decision, and my decision is I'm going to run for president of the United States," Hutchinson told Karl. "While the formal announcement will be later in April, in Bentonville [Arkansas], I want to make it clear to you, Jonathan, I am going to be running. And the reason is, I've traveled the country for six months, I hear people talk about the leadership of our country. I'm convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts."

The former governor told Karl he is inspired by his travels around the country over the last six months and acknowledged it would take "a lot of hard work and good messaging" to raise his national profile and break through a crowded primary field.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/abc-new ... d=98238115

Has he suffered a knock to the head? He has a 0% chance of winning, if anyone other than Trump or De Santis wins the GOP nomination I will permanently stop talking about politics. If Trump wins which seems most likely, Trump is not going to give a Cabinet position to anyone who runs against him the man only values slavish loyalty. Is Hutchinson hoping to boost his profile for a '28 run? Well dropping out before Iowa will almost certainly doom him as a future candidate forever. I have about as much chance of winning the presidency as this joker and I'm constitutionally ineligible to be president on multiple counts!

[weatheriscool]

Democrats target 31 GOP-held seats in aggressive campaign for House majority
NBC News exclusive
April 3, 2023, 8:00 AM EDT
By Sahil Kapur

WASHINGTON — Democrats have targeted 31 Republican-held districts in their fight to retake control of the House in 2024, laying out an aggressive map and signaling early plans to go on offense.

The list, first reported by NBC News, is a blend of ultra-competitive districts in places like New York’s Hudson Valley and Long Island, including the seat held by Rep. George Santos; areas President Joe Biden won, like the Omaha-core seat held by Rep. Don Bacon; and conservative-leaning districts where the party sees an extreme and vulnerable GOP incumbent, such as Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee executive director Julie Merz said in an interview that the party’s strategy is to present Biden and the Democrats as “team normal” against a chaotic band of “MAGA extremists” they say have taken over the House Republican conference.

They will contrast Biden’s legislative wins — mainly the $35 monthly insulin cost cap and lower drug prices for Medicare, manufacturing and new infrastructure projects — with a Republican majority Merz says is “all hat and no cattle” when it comes to delivering results.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-e ... -rcna77401

[caltrek]

^^^ I think that it is important that a candidate or candidates come forward that at least attempt to recapture the Republican party form the wing nuts that support DeSantis and/or Trump. That such a quest is highly Quixotic is almost beside the point. Somebody needs to try and talk some common sense into the party.

[weatheriscool]

NY-SEN: Ocasio-Cortez Could Challenge Kirsten Gillibrand
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) teased a potential challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Politico reports.



https://politicalwire.com/2023/04/03/al ... illibrand/

[weatheriscool]

Donald Trump Favorable Rating:

Favorable 29%
Unfavorable 55%

.@Ipsos
/@ABC
, 593 Adults, 3/31-4/1
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/poll-

[weatheriscool]

Dave Wasserman
@Redistrict
·
2m
New: w/ 476,538 votes counted in Chicago, Paul Vallas's lead over Johnson shrinks to 370 (!) votes (50.04%-49.96%). Vallas needs a miracle now.

[weatheriscool]

BRANDON JOHNSON
242,970

50.11%

PAUL VALLAS
241,859

49.89%

Total Votes
484,829

[weatheriscool]

Progressive Brandon Johnson wins Chicago mayor's race
Source: NBC News

Brandon Johnson will be the next mayor of Chicago, NBC News projected Tuesday, marking a stunning turn for a staunch progressive and former teacher whose campaign leaned into messages of racial and economic disparities and who overcame blowback over past comments about decreasing police funding.

Johnson defeated the well-financed, tough-on-crime moderate Paul Vallas, a former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools who promised to immediately bulk up the Chicago police ranks to curb a crisis of gun violence in the city.

The victory caps a meteoric rise for Johnson, 46, the Cook County commissioner, an activist and a member of the Chicago Teachers Union, who in the first round of the mayoral race, held Feb. 28, had been polling in fifth place before finishing second, behind Vallas.

Johnson ran on a platform of taxing the wealthy to boost citywide services and investing in neighborhoods and schools across the city. He walked back past comments about slashing funding to police departments, saying he wanted to bolster the ranks of detectives but also wanted to invest in mental health response services.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/electi ... -rcna77196

[caltrek]

Progressives Win a Majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court
by Ari Berman
April 4, 2023

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) Liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz won a critical seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, giving progressives their first majority on the court since 2008 and a pathway to challenging the GOP’s decade-plus stranglehold on power in the Badger State.

Occurring on the same day as Donald Trump’s arrest in Manhattan, Protasiewicz’s victory over former conservative justice Daniel Kelly has huge state and national significance. A new progressive majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court could strike down the heavily gerrymandered maps that have locked in enormous Republican majorities in the legislature and a series of laws that have made it harder to vote. The court could also reverse unpopular laws – like an 1849 abortion ban – that the legislature refuses to repeal. A shift in the court removes the threat that conservatives could use their majority to overturn the 2024 election; Donald Trump’s attempt to nullify Joe Biden’s victory in the state failed by just one vote.

The race was the most expensive supreme court contest ever, topping $45 million, which triples the previous amount. Protasiewicz outraised Kelly, but conservative groups outspent liberal ones. Kelly was backed by prominent election deniers and funders of the insurrection who wanted to see a MAGA takeover of one of the nation’s most important state courts. In an angry election night speech, Kelly, while acknowledging his loss, called Protasiewicz a “serial liar” and said, “I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede.”

Since Republicans took over the legislature and governor’s mansion in 2011, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has been a key driver of GOP efforts to make their majorities voter-proof and turn the state into what Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, calls “a democracy-free zone.” But Wikler predicted that Protasiewicz’s election, which was driven by voter disgust with the state’s abortion ban and gerrymandered maps, would lead to “a new era of democracy,” restoring checks and balances and majority rule. Protasiewicz told the Associated Press that her victory was “really about saving our democracy, getting away from extremism.”

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... el-kelly/