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

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South Carolina GOP sets Feb. 24 date for first-in-the-South presidential primary
Source: AP

By MEG KINNARD today

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Republicans have set Feb. 24 as the date of their 2024 presidential primary, a move that, if approved, the party says will give GOP White House hopefuls more time to campaign in the first-in-the-South state.

The state GOP executive committee voted unanimously to approve the measure on Saturday, party executive director Hope Walker told The Associated Press. The selection still needs approval from the Republican National Committee to be official, and Walker said that a formal submission will be sent ahead of an October deadline.

The move comes as both major parties make moves to solidify their voting calendars ahead of the 2024 nominating process.

The RNC voted last year to maintain its voting order, with Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada going ahead of other states. By setting South Carolina’s vote on Feb. 24, Walker told AP that candidates would have more time after Nevada votes on Feb. 6 to focus their attention on the state, where support is pivotal for Republicans competing for their party’s nomination.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/south-caroli ... dc5566c713

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Voters think Trump is a criminal, Biden is too old and DeSantis is a fascist, new poll finds

15 hours ago

A new poll out from JL Partners underscores major weaknesses for the three men most likely to be sworn in as president on 20 January 2025, with little good news to soften the blow.

With the GOP primary now in full swing, Americans are getting a good look at the alternatives the Republican Party will present to the re-election of President Joe Biden, who was already the oldest president ever to take office when he did so in 2021.

But the top contenders in the GOP, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, each have debilitating labels to overcome if they have any shot of picking up ground with a general election audience, according to the survey. For Mr Trump, voters were most likely to describe him in one word as a “criminal”; others were even less flattering, such as “disgusting”, “liar”, “evil” and “dangerous” (though “patriot” also made a top-10 appearance).

The Florida governor got off arguably worse. The top two responses from voters describing Mr DeSantis were “fascist” and “unsure”, the latter indicating possible unfamiliarity with his political record or a lack of name recognition.

And while Mr Biden fares better than either of his would-be opponents, the incumbent president nevertheless remains chained to concerns about his age, which dominated the minds of the most voters asked for their one-word summation of him.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 59794.html

[caltrek]

Heeding Cornel West’s ‘Cri de Coeur’
by Richard Falk
June 19, 2023

Introduction:

(Transcend Media Service) In a surprising, welcome, sacrificial move Cornel West has expressed his intention to seek the U.S. presidency in 2024. At first glance, this seems like an irresponsible distraction from a deadly serious national election by a person who has never been a politician and has no hope of becoming president. Putting his hat in the ring has little prospect of attracting votes except from an alienated fragment of the citizenry. Yet in a close election as seems probable, West as a third party candidate might win enough votes to help a neo-fascist right-wing candidate like Trump or Ron DeSantis march lockstep to a victory disastrous for the U.S. and dangerous for the world.

Such an argument contends that for West to use the pulpit of a presidential candidacy to sound an alarm about the coming of neo-fascism may help bring about what he most fears and detests. Granted that this is a serious concern to be pondered, but to give in to such an argument requires maintaining silence in the face of deeply flawed choices given to the electorate. Foregoing a symbolic presidential challenge has the effect of excluding from national debate on acceptable political leadership in the US such concerns as systemic racism, predatory capitalism, hyper-militarism, and ecological criminality. These, and some other key issues, have long enjoyed the backing of both major political parties causing social unrest at home, destruction abroad, and squandered opportunities to achieve disarmament, ecologically sustainable development, and equity with respect to economic rewards and punishments.

More concretely, these underlying realities limit voters to choosing between a war-mongering Biden presidency for another four years or giving the overtly neo-fascist Trump a second chance to steer the country toward becoming an autocratic enclave for the billionaire class and ultra nationalist minorities. Perhaps, if the U.S. was not the first global militarist state in world history, but only one among many middle powers, the choice of Biden would probably make enough of a positive difference in terms of humanistic values as to make West’s diversionary candidacy dismissible as an example of an irresponsible exhibition of narcissism. But this is not the case here.

Read more here: https://www.transcend.org/tms/2023/06/ ... e-coeur/

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CNN: Trump +21%
Trump 47% (down 6% from May)
DeSantis 26% (no change)
Pence 9% (+3%)
Haley 5%
Scott 4%
Christie 3%
Other 1%

Trump’s favorability rating among Republican-aligned voters has dipped, from 77% in May to 67% now, while the share who say they would not support him for the nomination under any circumstances has climbed, from 16% in May to 23% now

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/06/20/poli ... index.html

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Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) wins re-election

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As expected, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas was re-elected to a second term on Tuesday.

Lucas defeated Clay Chastain by just over 60 points in Tuesday’s general election, almost matching the same margin he defeated Chastain with in the primary.

“We are not done yet,” Lucas said in his victory speech. “We know that we have more work to do. We are going to make sure the progress and optimism we see in Kansas City exists in every neighborhood and indeed, all throughout the region.”

https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-cit ... n/44275788#

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Former GOP Rep. Will Hurd launches 2024 presidential bid
Source: The Hill

Former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) on Thursday became the latest Republican to throw their hat in the ring for the 2024 GOP race for president.

Hurd made the announcement during an appearance on "CBS Mornings," joining what has become a crowded field of GOP candidates including former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Hurd said during the appearance that he has formally filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for the Republican nomination.

"This is a decision that my wife and I decided to do because we live in complicated times and we need common sense," he added. "There are a number of generational-defining challenges that we're faced with in the United States of America."

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... ential-bid

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SC: Trump +23% (National Research)

Trump 41%
DeSantis 18%
Scott 10%
Haley 8%
Christie 3%
Pence 3%
Ramaswamy 1%
Hutchinson 1%
Undecided 15%

https://amgreatness.com/app/uploads/202 ... 1-2023.pdf

[caltrek]

'Part of a Movement': Jill Stein to Help Cornel West Build 'People-powered' Presidential Campaign
by Maya Bodie
June 24, 2023

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has signed on to support Dr. Cornel West's 2024 campaign, CNN reports.

The former Harvard professor and long time civil rights activist announced his Third-Party White House bid earlier this month, in which he noted he will run for the People's Party.

However, according to the report, West "quickly broke off from that group, which has limited campaign infrastructure amid concerns about ballot access, to join the Greens and seek their nomination."

The 2024 hopeful noted, "Any candidacy to run the empire, in order to dismantle the empire, has to be part of a movement."

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/jill-stein-co ... ampaign/

[caltrek]

Trump Has Been 'Quietly Diverting' Money Away from His 2024 Re-election Campaign
by Tom Boggioni
June 25, 2023

Introduction:

(Alternet) A slight change in the small print in Donald Trump's online disclosures reveals an increase in the money contributors have been donating to help him win the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nomination is being shifted to help to pay his legal bills.

According to a report from the New York Times, the diversion of funds raises questions about the cash crunch the former president is facing with multiple indictments at the state and federal level with more expected to come.

As the Times' Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher wrote, the "diversion" of campaign cash to his Save America PAC -- which is helping to pay his legal bills among other expenses -- was done with little fanfare.

The report states, "When Mr. Trump kicked off his 2024 campaign in November, for every dollar raised online, 99 cents went to his campaign, and a penny went to Save America," before adding, "But internet archival records show that sometime in February or March, he adjusted that split. Now his campaign’s share has been reduced to 90 percent of donations, and 10 percent goes to Save America."

According to the report, that has meant that approximately $1.5 million was skimmed off to help with his legal woes that could have been used to boost his election prospects.

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/trump-has-bee ... 61838512/

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So... DeSantis is now promising to invade Mexico

DeSantis Promises Mass Deportations, Threatens Military Action While Knocking Trump As Soft on Immigration: ‘We Would Be Much More Assertive’

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) knocked former president Donald Trump for his handling of the southern border during his first term in office in an interview with Fox News’s Bill Melugin, promising that he would deliver on the policies Trump purported to support in 2016.

DeSantis was dismissive of Trump’s recent pledge to “carry out the largest wave of mass deportations in U.S. history,” telling Melugin that “he [Trump] said that in 2016 as well and then didn’t do it.”

--snip--

On Monday, DeSantis’s campaign took that line of thinking even further, threatening military action on Mexican soil if the Mexican government failed to take steps to mitigate the flow of migrants.

“If the Mexican government won’t stop cartel drug manufacturing, DeSantis will surge resources to the Navy and the Coast Guard and block precursor chemicals from entering Mexican ports,” it said in a statement, adding that he would “reserve the right to operate across the border to secure our territory from Mexican cartel activities.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... b24&ei=446

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NH (St Anselm): Trump +28
Trump 47%
DeSantis 19%
Christie 6%
Haley 5%
Scott 4%
Ramaswamy 2%
Burgum 2%
Pence 2%
Hutchinson 2%