Impact2020: May 18, 2020
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Monday, May 18. Republicans are growing concerned about their Senate prospects in Georgia and warily eyeing the return of Sheriff Joe in Arizona. And an alternative GOP convention takes shape in North Carolina.
On the Ground
Spreading like ‘poison ivy’
Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia may have been hoping to reset the narrative on her stock sales, but the FBI investigation into Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina has Republicans increasingly worried about the upcoming special election and its impact on other races in the state, McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers reports.
Former Georgia Rep. Lynn Westmoreland is in the camp of those who say Loeffler should consider dropping out of the race, saying he was concerned that the senator would be a drag on the rest of the GOP ticket in Georgia.
“This doesn’t need to spread like something in poison ivy and start getting on other people,” Westmoreland said. Is this going to interfere with our congressional races, where we’re trying to win a couple of seats back, or is this going to interfere with the presidential election of President Trump? Is it going to interfere with Sen. David Perdue’s election?”
Credit: Jacquelyn Martin, AP
A person close to President Donald Trump who had previously expressed anxiety about Loeffler “endangering our Senate majority,” said that the new attention to her stock sales were even more worrisome.
Loeffler’s main Republican opponent, Doug Collins, has tried to link her to Burr as national groups are running ads lying Loeffler to Perdue, ahead of a “unique election in which both of the state’s Senate seats are on the ballot.”
Chambers also reports that “Loeffler’s next phase of ads will likely include pointed attacks on Collins, … landing in the coming weeks and months in mailers, on digital platforms and in television advertisements.”
Old sheriff in town
Republicans are also worried Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s potential appearance on the Arizona ballot could further alienate suburban women and Latino voters in one of the most competitive 2020 battlegrounds, McClatchy’s David Catanese reports.
Arpaio is seeking his old job in Maricopa County, the nation’s fourth-most populous county. While Trump carried Arizona in 2016, Arpaio suffered a 13-point loss. Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democratic congressman from Phoenix who is Hispanic, predicts: “The voters that pushed out Joe Arpaio, those are going to be the ones who do the same thing to Donald Trump in Maricopa County.”
Several Arizona Republicans are skeptical Arpaio could hurt Trump from a down-ballot position, even though he has national name recognition and continues to laud Trump.
Trump has not endorsed in the sheriff’s race. And Arpaio still must win the GOP primary in August to earn a rematch with Democrat Paul Penzone.
Tale of three conventions
The Republican National Convention is still scheduled to take place in less than 100 days in Charlotte, N.C., despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
For local businesses, “an event once seen as an economic boost could now become a lifeline,” the Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill writes. “The convention has been expected to bring 50,000 people to Charlotte for four days starting Aug. 24. For businesses, especially those in the hospitality industry, that could be a shot in the arm.”
Meanwhile, a group of “Never Trump” Republicans are planning their own convention in Charlotte at the end of August, Morrill reports.
As for the Democratic convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said he thinks a virtual event may be the smartest way to go.
“[I]f there’s ways that they could guarantee that every delegate that’s coming in is COVID-19 free -- and there’s ways to do that -- they’d certainly have to limit the numbers, I think it could happen. But it’s just my observation that it could end up being a virtual event,” Evers told WKOW’s Emilee Fannon.
Trail Mix
Battleground state watch
Republican-turned-indepenent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan decided not to run for president as a Libertarian, Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press reports.
The Houston Chronicle’s Jeremy Wallace explains why Joe Biden v. Trump is shaping up to be the closest presidential election in Texas in decades.
A “Trump Store” in Bucks County, Pa., reopened as a “life-sustaining” business over the weekend by selling face masks and bandannas featuring the president’s name, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Chris Brennan reports.
Election disruption
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order to make the state’s July 7 primaries mostly be vote-by-mail, Brent Johnson reports for NJ.com.
The Texas Supreme Court put an expansion of voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic on hold for now, Alexa Ura writes for the Texas Tribune.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit that sought to extend the state’s absentee ballot deadlines, so mail ballots must be received by election officials by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Jonathan Lai reports for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
A disability rights group and others sued Wisconsin election officials to try to ensure absentee ballots are sent to all of the state’s voters, Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Veepstakes
The Boston Globe’s Jess Bidgood lays out the complex relationship between Biden and Elizabeth Warren.
Number of the Day
3
An East Carolina University poll finds Trump ahead of Biden 46% to 43% in North Carolina, which is proving to be an important state for candidates to win this election cycle.
For planning purposes
May 19
Idaho and Oregon primaries
Jill Biden holds virtual events in Colorado
May 20
Joe Biden holds virtual events in Wisconsin
Vice President Mike Pence visits a nursing home in Orlando, Fla.
May 21
Govs. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Laura Kelly of Kansas visit the White House
Trump visits the Ford Motor Co. plant in Ypsilanti, Mich.
May 22
Hawaii primary
Poor Richard Marx
I will never hear “Right Here Waiting” quite the same way again thanks to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
ICYMI
McClatchy’s Alex Roarty, Adam Wollner and David Catanese discussed why many Democrats are giving unsolicited advice to Joe Biden’s campaign, and the state of play for control of the U.S. Senate in the latest episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast.
Download: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
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