Impact2020: March 31, 2020
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Tuesday, March 31. Democrats urge Joe Biden to get more creative, Wisconsin keeps running into problems ahead of its April 7 elections, and a new candidate joins the Kansas Senate race.
On the Ground
No longer Biden his time
As the presidential campaign has faded into the background for most Americans during the coronavirus crisis, Joe Biden has struggled to stay in the spotlight. His likely general election opponent, President Donald Trump, is commanding the news cycle just about every day, and his Democratic primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, is still hanging around despite falling well behind in the delegate count.
As Biden “enters his third week as a candidate confined by quarantine, an array of voices inside the Democratic Party believe his campaign needs to quickly become more innovative in deploying its message — or risk being roundly drowned out,” writes McClatchy’s David Catanese.
Credit: Paul Sancya/AP file photo
The former vice president faces a unique set of challenges. “Assuming a presidential-like presence online would be arduous for any candidate, but for an old-school 77-year-old politician like Biden, whose most compelling moments are found in unscripted human interactions, the task is even more challenging.”
And then there are money concerns: “Closing the financial gap may be Biden’s most urgent charge, but one that is hamstrung by donors who are accustomed to in-person access to the candidate and an economic collapse that has ravaged retirement accounts.”
You can get the latest 2020 presidential campaign news from Catanese via text. Impact2020 subscribers can sign up here.
Holding steady
Wisconsin is still forging ahead with its April 7 elections. But “some election clerks are so short of workers because of the coronavirus pandemic that they are planning to shutter polling places around” the state, Patrick Marley and Craig Gilbert report for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“Milwaukee needs about 1,400 poll workers to run its election but so far has fewer than 400. … Another 300 workers are needed for the central location where absentee ballots are processed, but fewer than 50 had been hired as of last week.”
The more the merrier?
COVID-19 isn’t preventing the Kansas Republican Senate primary from getting more crowded.
The Kansas City Star’s Bryan Lowry reports that Bob Hamilton, who owns a plumbing company in the state, has entered the race to replace retiring Sen. Pat Roberts, citing the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (For the “Better Call Saul” fans out there: Hamilton used the tagline “Better Call Bob” in his commercials.)
Hamilton joins former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Rep. Roger Marshall, Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle and former Johnson County Commissioner Dave Lindstrom in the primary, which takes place Aug. 4.
Lowry notes that “Marshall’s campaign slammed Hamilton’s candidacy and claimed the primary contest is a two-person race between Kobach and the western Kansas congressman.”
Trail Mix
Election disruption
The Kansas Democratic Party is moving to a mail-only presidential primary, Jonathan Shorman writes for the Wichita Eagle. The party has begun sending out ballots to every registered Democrat to be returned by May 2.
Idaho Democrats will also only be able to vote in the state’s May 19 primary by mail, the Idaho Statesman’s Cynthia Sewell writes.
“A coalition of voting-rights groups has sued over Ohio’s new law that extends voting for its primary election through April 28, arguing the vote-by-mail process … will disenfranchise thousands of voters,” Cleveland.com’s Andrew J. Tobias reports.
And in Maryland, voting rights groups are warning the state election board’s plan for an all-mail June 2 primary is ripe for legal challenges, the Baltimore Sun’s Emily Opilo writes.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is not delaying the state’s presidential primary beyond May 19, and election officials have begun mailing absentee ballot request forms to 6.9 million active voters, Mark Niesse reports for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
March Madness
North Carolina’s Mark Meadows officially resigned from the House to take over as Trump’s chief of staff, the Raleigh News & Observer’s Brian Murphy reports. “North Carolina’s position as a pivotal state for Trump’s re-election bid has prompted the president to pay close attention to North Carolina.”
Today’s end-of-quarter fundraising deadline will be even more challenging than usual for candidates up and down the ballot because of the coronavirus, Greg Bluestein reports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order asking those living in Southeast Florida to stay home after facing criticism for a lack of action from Democratic lawmakers and Biden, Samantha J. Gross writes for the Miami Herald.
Russian trolls politicized vaccines in 2016. Could coronavirus be next? Julia Terruso explores for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
You can get the latest 2020 presidential campaign news from David Catanese via text. Impact2020 subscribers can sign up here.
Number of the Day
87 percent
That’s how many New York voters approve of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new Siena College poll.
For Planning Purposes
April 7
Wisconsin primary
April 10
Alaska primary (done by mail)
April 17
Wyoming primary (done by mail)
April 26
Puerto Rico primary
April 28
Ohio primary (done by mail)
“It is a very, very strange time for me”
And all of us. Sanders doesn’t mince words about the strangeness of campaigning during the coronavirus pandemic in his interview with Seth Meyers. The Vermont senator also said he still thinks he has a “narrow path” to the Democratic nomination.
Eyes tired? Use your ears instead
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This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 12:10 PM with the headline "Impact2020: March 31, 2020."