Impact2020: May 21, 2020
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Thursday, May 21. President Donald Trump travels to Michigan, and the Kansas governor’s visit to the White House went well even as Republicans in her state seek to limit her authority.
On the Ground
Trump tours Michigan
President Trump heads to Michigan during a 500-year-flood and a pandemic to tour a Ford Motor Co. plant building ventilators for the national stockpile. It comes a day after criticizing Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s plan to send absentee ballot applications to all registered voters, and after high-profile disagreements with the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, over her government’s handling of COVID-19.
But Michigan is a must-win state for the presidential election. And Jordyn Grzelewski and Keith Laing of The Detroit News point out that Trump’s visit “comes amid a campaign season upended by candidates’ inability to host such traditional events as rallies...”
It also comes “despite an executive order signed by Whitmer on Monday banning nonessential visits to manufacturing facilities in Michigan in order to stop the spread of COVID-19,” but a spokesperson for Whitmer said she will not block his visit.
Trump won the state in 2016 by just 10,704 votes and last visited in January, note Grzelewski and Laing.
Kind words for KS governor
Trump had kind words for Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, when they met in the White House yesterday, even as the Republican-controlled state Legislature prepared to limit her emergency authority and give more power to counties to set their own coronavirus-related rules, Jonathan Shorman and Francesca Chambers report for the Wichita Eagle.
Trump acknowledged Kelly for being on regular calls between the White House and governors and praised her for a “fantastic job” handling the state’s COVID-19 response.
Credit: Evan Vucci, AP
Kelly also thanked Trump during the meeting for sending a “CDC swat team” when outbreaks threatened Kansas’s massive meatpacking plants.
It “marked a new phase of Kelly’s relationship with the president and his administration” after some earlier frustration during the crisis, Shorman and Chambers wrote. And the warmer relationship might be mutually beneficial for Kansas and the White House.
Latinos swing against Trump, except in Florida
Miami Herald’s Bianca Padró Ocasio reports that a majority of Latinos say they are skeptical of federal authorities’ response to the coronavirus, and distrust President Donald Trump, according to a new poll.
“When asked if President Donald Trump was giving accurate or helpful advice on COVID-19, Latinos across the country gave him an average score of 3.27 on a scale of zero to 10,” according to the research firm Latino Decisions, after surveying 1,829 Latinos.“And 39% of those asked gave Trump the worst score possible, a zero.”
But he fared better with Latinos in Florida: “The amount of trust placed in the information provided by the president was slightly higher than in other states, with Trump awarded an average score of 4.11. And on the president’s overall response to the pandemic, about 48% of Florida Latinos approved, while 52% said they disapproved,” compared to 56% nationally.
That could be good news for Trump in the swing state, where Joe Biden is trying to gain ground with Hispanic and Latino voters. Because of the state’s large Cuban-American population, Florida Lations traditionally lean more conservative than Latinos in other parts of the country.
Meanwhile, another new poll, in the state of Kentucky, shows 52% of Kentuckians support how Trump is handling the coronavirus pandemic. Lexington Herald-Leader’s Daniel Desrochers has more on the results of the Public Policy Poll, including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s chances of winning November’s election.
Trail Mix
Election disruption
A Missouri state judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to allow absentee voting for all eligible Missourians in light of COVID-19, reports Joe Harris for Courthouse News Service.
Republican candidates are outraising Democrats 5-to-1 in races for the Florida House, Tampa Bay Times’ Kirby Wilson reports.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Anthony Man has the story of how election officials in Broward and Palm Beach counties are preparing for an increase in mail-in ballots for the presidential election.
Battle for Congress
“Disturbing” social media posts got California Republican Ted Howze removed from a GOP website that promotes 2020 congressional candidates and rebuked by House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, reports McClatchy’s Kate Irby.
Texas State Sen. Royce West’s campaign accused U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s re-election campaign of playing into “longtime racial stereotypes” when it called him “Restful Royce,” and has released a video about it. See the report by Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Anna M. Tinsley.
The United Steelworkers’s leadership has endorsed Joe Biden for president, four years after many of its members supported Donald Trump, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Julian Routh reports.
Road the White House
Joe Biden took aim at Trump’s handling of the pandemic and the economy in his first official campaign event targeted at a Wisconsin audience, reports Mitchell Schmidt for the Wisconsin State Journal.
Number of the Day
11
That’s the percentage point lead Barack Obama would have over Donald Trump in a hypothetical election in a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling and the lead Biden has over Trump nationally in a new Quinnipiac University poll.
For planning purposes
May 21
Trump visits Michigan
Jill Biden holds virtual events in Georgia
May 22
Hawaii primary
Pence visits Georgia
Making the comedians laugh
Samantha Bee was unprepared for Rep. Katie Porter’s assessment of her own coronavirus briefings.
Don’t miss out
The latest episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast comes out today. Download it later on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts.
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This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 1:45 PM.