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

[Time_Traveller]

Donald Trump agrees to head-to-head debate with Kamala Harris

Saturday 3 August 2024 13:09, UK



Donald Trump has agreed to hold a debate with Kamala Harris, after she said she was "ready" to take him on.

Mr Trump had previously said he would not debate Ms Harris - the current vice president and likely Democrat nominee for November's election - because she was not the official candidate.

But Ms Harris has now secured enough votes from Democratic delegates to become her party's presidential nominee - though the online voting process does not end until Monday.

"I am totally prepared to accept the results of this "coup," and replace Joe on the debate stage with Crazy Kamala Harris," Mr Trump wrote on his own social media site, Truth Social.

"I spent hundreds of millions of dollars, time, and effort fighting Joe, and when I won the debate, they threw a new candidate into the ring. Not fair, but it is what it is!"

https://news.sky.com/story/donald-trump ... s-13189821

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

More on all this by CBS:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-tru ... -abc-news/

[caltrek]

Nah

Nancy Pelosi Reportedly Has a Favorite V.P. Pick for Kamala
The former House speaker has some thoughts on who Kamala Harris’s running mate should be.

NewRepublic

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and many House Democrats have a favorite to be Kamala Harris’s running mate: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

The Hill reports that several Democrats have been advocating for Walz, who was a member of Congress himself from 2006 until 2019 and was well liked among his fellow Democrats. That includes the former House speaker, who was instrumental in convincing Joe Biden to withdraw from the race and gave a lot of early support to Harris.

--------------------------------

“I want somebody who’s really strongly pro-labor and understands labor, because this is a big part of the working-class agenda and making sure that we win working-class votes,” Representative Pramila Jayapal said.

Now, when considering this along with who the UAF recently preferred as her VP pick as well. This is a real opportunity to basically have an American Labour style party, and with how the Harris campaign has been basically utilizing Walz's language to campaign with anyways, they really appear to be moving in such direction.

Walz also fits the "governing partner" experience which she's looking for, having a great deal more than Shapiro and proving quite successful with passing progressive reforms.

More on that:

Progressives and Working-Class Advocates Push Tim Walz for VP
by Edward Carver
August 2, 2024

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) A number of progressives and left-leaning political figures this week suggested that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris should choose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

Walz was the subject of a flurry of media attention over the last week, including glowing coverage in The Washington Post and The New York Times on Friday, as the Democrats ran an accelerated search for their vice presidential candidate.

While there hasn't been an organized progressive effort to push for Walz, he's regarded as the most friendly to left and working-class causes of the politicians known to be in the running, all of whom are white men. Progressives have expressed concerns over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who's seen by many as the most likely choice.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/tim- ... president

[firestar464]

Most importantly he's not Shapiro.

[caltrek]

An Influencer is Running for Senate. Is She Just the First of Many?
by Rebecca Jennings
August 2, 2024

Introduction:

(Vox) It has been a meme-heavy election so far this year, with a fire hose of content about Kamala Harris’s “Brat” summer and J.D. Vance’s undeniable weirdness. But another meeting of politics and the internet has flown a little more under the radar, in the form of a Senate race that includes, for the first time, a professional influencer.

The seat opened up after Mitt Romney announced last year that he wouldn’t be seeking reelection in 2024. Though Republican John Curtis, currently a US Representative for Utah’s third district, is virtually guaranteed to win in November (The Hill predicts a more than 99 percent chance of a Curtis victory, and Utah hasn’t had a Democratic Senator since 1977), his Democratic opponent Caroline Gleich has made headlines for her career outside of politics: namely, that of a professional ski mountaineer and content creator.

Gleich, 38, is known to her more than 220,000 Instagram followers for both her climate activism and her mountain-climbing adventures, which have taken her through ski slopes in Argentina to the summit of Mount Everest. Her campaign for Senate began after taking a training course by a state-level organization devoted to helping more Utah women run for office. From there, she met someone at a campaign management firm who reached out earlier this year to ask if she’d be willing to run for Romney’s seat. “Initially, when I got the email, I was a bit hesitant,” she told me in an interview. “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the time is now, that we can’t wait for other people to step up and be the leaders that we want to see.”

“Sometimes even if they’re going to lose, having a candidate to demonstrate to the opposition party that they also have to listen to their preferences [is important],” explains Juliet Carlisle, a political science scholar at the University of Utah. “The influence of a young Democratic candidate can make [Curtis] aware of what the vibe in Utah politics is among the younger generation.”

Read more here: https://www.vox.com/culture/364445/car ... fluencer

[caltrek]

Harris Remodels Campaign with Obama Alums
by Hans Nichols
August 3, 2024

Introduction:

(Axios) Vice President Kamala Harris is putting her stamp on her presidential campaign, bringing a slew of high-profile Obama veterans into senior advisory roles.

Why it matters: Harris wants to win the White House with a different campaign than the one Biden was running.

• Some of her rhetorical changes have been subtle. These personnel moves are not.

• But the new hires — including Obama veterans David Plouffe, Stephanie Cutter and Mitch Stewart — are not supplanting any existing employees.

Driving the news: Jen O'Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chair, will remain in charge, with a direct report to Harris.

• Harris's brother-in-law, Tony West, is already asserting himself as an influential adviser in the campaign.

• Sheila Nix will stay in her role as Harris' chief of staff.

• Quentin Fulks, Harris' deputy campaign manager, will take on an expanded role leading the campaign's paid media.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2024/08/02/kamal ... gn-obama

[caltrek]

Gloria Johnson, "Tennessee Three" Member, Wins Democratic Senate primary
by Adam Tamburin
August 1, 2024

Introduction:

(Axios) Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson will face off against U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) in November.

Why it matters: Johnson, who gained a national profile last year as part of the so-called "Tennessee Three," easily won the Democratic Senate primary on Thursday. The Associated Press called the race at 7:13pm Central, minutes after polls closed in Nashville.

• Johnson's most prominent opponent was Marquita Bradshaw, who ran against Sen. Bill Hagerty in 2020.

State of play: Johnson, a retired teacher, focused her campaign around abortion access, lowering prescription costs and fighting for gun reforms.
Between the lines: Blackburn, who is running for her second term in office, faced only nominal opposition in the Republican primary. She is the odds-on favorite to win in the general election.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/local/nashville/ ... ennessee

[Vakanai]

Good - more Democrats need to refuse treating Fox News like a news channel. It isn't.

[weatheriscool]

This right here is why Trump is fucked.

[weatheriscool]

I am shocked this is even close. Fucking floored.



CBS battleground estimates per battleground state:

PA: Tied (50-50)
MI: Tied (48-48)
WI: Trump +1 (50-49)
AZ: Tied (49-49)
NV: Harris +2 (50-48)
GA: Trump +3 (50-47)
NC: Trump +3 (50-47)

===
Similar time but just after dnc in 2016.


CBS/YouGov Battleground Tracker: Clinton +2 (Post-DNC)


YouGov interviewed likely voters from Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/07/3 ... nd-states/
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/c ... 160731.pdf

[Cyber_Rebel]

Remember that it's barely been a few weeks since Biden dropped out, even if it feels like it's been longer. Much has happened since the first debate to almost feel as if a year has passed. Once Harris hits the campaign trail in earnest with her soon to be VP, we'll have a clear picture of how the election may go.

Fact that it's close now though in such a short time, proves that swapping out Biden for a stronger candidate was the correct choice to make.

[weatheriscool]

If we can get georgia and pa then it is fucking over. And I am pretty sure if we get ga and pa we'll also get Mi and Wis.

[wjfox]

RFK Jr admits to dumping bear carcass in New York's Central Park

6 hours ago

Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has posted a video on social media in which he admits that he dumped a dead bear cub in New York City's Central Park in 2014.

The clip, posted to his X account on Sunday, shows him with controversial US comedian Roseanne Barr as he describes bizarre circumstances that led to an incident that mystified New Yorkers 10 years ago.

Mr Kennedy said a woman had hit and killed the bear with her car when he was driving behind her outside of the city, and he put it in his van with the intention of skinning the animal and harvesting its meat.

It appears he shared the anecdote to get ahead of an upcoming story in The New Yorker magazine.

The Kennedy campaign and the New Yorker did not respond to requests for comment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2j3353vvdvo

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

UMass: Harris+3 (National)

Harris 46% Trump 43%

Was Trump +4 vs. Biden in January.

https://www.masslive.com/politics/2024/ ... ce=twitter

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

GQR Poll: PA Harris + 4

Poll conducted July 26-30.

][/url]

[caltrek]

The Harris Campaign Is Now Actively Courting Republicans
by Julianne McShane
August 4, 2024

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) The Harris campaign, in its short existence, has already activated several key groups of voters—foremost women, who were among those who gathered by the tens of thousands on Zoom calls to help raise $200 million during the first official week of the campaign.

On Sunday, the campaign officially launched a play for another constituency: Republicans. (And, yes, there are plans for a Zoom.) The effort, dubbed “Republicans for Harris,” will be a “campaign within a campaign,” with the goal of attracting anti-Trump Republicans to the Democratic ticket, according to information provided by Harris’s team.

The initiative—first detailed by the Associated Press on Sunday—will combine both online and on-the-ground organizing efforts in battleground states with endorsements for Harris from high-level Republican officials. The campaign will kick off with a trio of events Monday in Arizona, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, and campaign officials will build out what they are calling state advisory committees in battleground states “to engage Trump-skeptical Republican voters,” including those who voted for former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. (Haley, though, has made it clear she’s sticking with Trump and wants her voters to do the same.) Republican surrogates will also appear with Harris and her yet-to-be-named running mate at various events in battleground states this week, the campaign said.

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