Impact2020: April 29, 2020
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Wednesday, April 29. Florida’s governor consults with the president on reopening the state, an unexpected voter group is worrying Democrats, and another candidate is testing the presidential waters.
On the Ground
Mr. DeSantis goes to Washington
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been in close contact with President Donald Trump as he’s made major decisions about responding to the coronavirus pandemic. This week, he took things a step further, traveling to Washington to meet with Trump in person as the state’s stay-at-home order is set to expire Thursday.
Credit: Evan Vucci, AP
David Smiley and Francesca Chambers write for the Miami Herald that “Trump, whose popularity in Florida has been slipping according to recent polls, invited DeSantis to the White House ... for what he described as ‘a little bit of an unplanned meeting,’ volunteering to the handful of people gathered that ‘Ron has been great.’”
“DeSantis has moved more slowly than some other Republican governors in reopening businesses, but is soon expected to begin allowing hospitals to accept patients for elective procedures and has allowed some local governments to reopen beaches and parks.”
DeSantis’ visit came as his state reported its highest total of COVID-19 deaths in a single day.
Cause for concern
An often overlooked voting bloc is showing a “surprising openness” to Trump, McClatchy’s Alex Roarty reports.
A review of polling data and interviews with leading Democratic and Republican strategists indicates that younger male African American and Latino voters have a significant enough interest in the president that it’s alarming Democrats who can usually count on the group’s overwhelming support.
But will their current relative willingness to back Trump, driven by a once-strong economy and a greater acceptance of his behavior, mean they will vote for him in November? It’s unclear now that the pandemic has changed nearly everything about the 2020 election.
Still, Roarty points out: “even small gains can have big consequences in battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, each of which has a sizable black electorate.”
And Mike Shields, a former chief of staff to the Republican National Committee, adds, “among men, that there are some demographic splits for President Trump that are more along gender lines than racial lines. There is an opportunity for him to grow his vote.”
Get the latest 2020 presidential campaign news from David Catanese via text. Impact2020 subscribers, sign up here.
Learning lessons
Ohio’s mostly mail-in primary concluded yesterday, but the Columbus Dispatch’s Darrel Rowland reminds us that thousands of votes still need to be counted. “Any ballot that arrives in the mail by May 8 that was postmarked by Monday will be added to Tuesday’s totals.”
Rowland writes that “while there was praise all around for election workers who pulled off a revamped voting process in about a month, the new method set up by the legislation drew far from universal acclaim. Voter confusion abounded about such fundamental matters as the date of the election and the multi-step process of obtaining an application for an absentee ballot.”
Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said: “Ohio provides an example of all things that can go wrong when states move to an election built largely around vote-by-mail but fail to automatically provide ballots to every voter like other vote-by-mail states do.”
In Maryland, voters also voted primarily by mail in the 7th congressional district special election. Former NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume won the House seat last held by the late Rep. Elijah Cummings.
Mufume said in his victory speech that Maryland showed “how during a worldwide pandemic, to conduct a fair and efficient election using mail-in ballots. … It’s not yet a perfect process. But in a national emergency it is a necessary one.” Baltimore Sun’s Emily Opino has more.
Trail Mix
Election disruption
Republican-turned-indpendent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan is launching an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination for president, John Tunison of MLive.com reports.
“An emergency plan for Louisiana’s delayed spring elections was approved by the state legislature after Republican lawmakers rolled back an expansion of mail-in ballots for people concerned about the coronavirus,” Sam Karlin writes for the Baton Rouge Advocate.
Battle for Congress
Florida Rep. Donna Shalala “will pay a $1,200 fine for six violations because she failed to report hundreds of transactions made last year by a broker setting up a blind trust,” Alex Daugherty reports for the Miami Herald.
A former Lindsey Graham donor is now backing his Democratic challenger in South Carolina’s Senate race, Jaime Harrison, Emma Dumain notes for The State.
Georgia Public Service Commissioner Bubba McDonald became the first statewide elected official to back Rep. Doug Collins over Sen. Kelly Loeffler in the state’s Senate race, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein reports.
Meanwhile, in Georgia’s other Senate race, the Democrats running against Sen. David Perdue “faced some of the sharpest criticism yet” during a virtual debate, Bluestein writes.
Convention watch
Dr. Anthony Fauci didn’t rule out that Milwaukee would be able to host the Democratic National Convention in August but cautioned “we do not know for sure what the situation will be,” Bill Glauber reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Number of the Day
8%
Democrats hold a 46% to 38% lead over Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll.
For planning purposes
April 29
Biden holds virtual fundraising events
April 30
A new episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
May 2
Kansas primary (conducted by mail)
May 12
Nebraska primary
Trade that model up
It may take time for some members of Congress to adapt to using newer technology, but one thing Rep. Katie Porter won’t stand for is her colleagues using flip phones.
Did someone forward this email to you? Please sign up here for the daily rundown of 2020 election news from McClatchy’s 30 newsrooms and other local journalists.
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 12:13 PM.