Impact2020: June 18, 2020
In your Impact2020 briefing for Thursday, June 18, we take a look at the police reform legislation introduced in the Senate, the transgender rights battle in the Kansas Senate race in and the Biden campaign’s next plan of attack in battleground states.
On the Ground
Dueling police reform bills
South Carolina’s Tim Scott, the sole Black Republican U.S. senator, has introduced legislation that seeks to curtail, but does not ban, chokeholds and no-knock warrants. Critics say it “may not go far enough in implementing reforms to law enforcement agencies,” McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers and Jack Kelly report.
In response, Scott said he is listening to the concerns of protesters and communities of color across the country.
“To the families that I spoke with yesterday who lost loved ones, we hear you,” Scott said. “I think this package speaks very clearly to the young person who’s concerned when he’s stopped by law enforcement officers.”
Credit: Andrew Harnik, AP
Scott’s bill has President Donald Trump’s backing. But the Democratic-led House also has a criminal justice reform plan that bans the use of chokeholds which is expected to pass soon. “If the Senate and House pass separate bills, the two chambers will then try to reconcile differences and approve a single measure that would be sent to Trump to sign into law,” write Chambers and Kelly.
Transgender rights become a flashpoint
Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling workers are protected from discrimination by employers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, three Republican candidates for U.S. Senate in Kansas have launched ads attacking transgender rights. The Kansas City Star’s Bryan Lowry reports that it’s “a strategy intended to galvanize social conservatives in the competitive August primary.”
Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach released a campaign video saying that “trans athletes destroyed the dreams of female athletes who trained their whole lives for the honor of winning that championship only to have it snatched away by a biological male.” He promised if elected, he would offer legislation to withhold Title IX federal funds from institutions that allow transgender students to participate in women’s sports.
Rep. Roger Marshall also released an ad attacking opponent Bob Hamilton, saying he “bankrolled a transgender rights group.” Lowry explains tha “the claim is based on Bob Hamilton Plumbing’s past membership in the Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce, a group that represents LGBT-friendly businesses in the Kansas City region.”
Hamilton called Marshall’s claim false in his own ad, in which a graphic appears on the screen with the words “NO TRANSGENDER BATHROOMS.” He didn’t address a question about his company’s membership in the chamber and whether he stands by the decision to join in an interview with The Star but told the Wichita Eagle on Wednesday, “You know, you don’t control everything in your company.”
Stephanie Byers, a trans woman who is running for the Kansas House as a Democrat, said the Republican candidates are trying to use transgender rights as a wedge issue in the way that same-sex marriage was used in past elections.
“There’s nobody else for them to pick on to unite their base together, so now they’re looking at trans people,” she said.
Election flexibility granted
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an emergency order granting some flexibility to the state’s supervisors of elections, who have warned since April that the coronavirus will complicate elections in August and November.
The Miami Herald’s David Smiley reports that the order falls “short of granting supervisors the leeway they’d requested.” But officials do get the ability to begin processing mail ballots earlier than otherwise allowed under state law. The order also “established administrative policies encouraging state employees to work as poll workers in their home counties” and “encouraged officials to create protocols for keeping polling places sanitized and voters socially distanced.”
DeSantis’ order caught supervisors by surprise, Smiley reports. Earlier on Wednesday, Florida Supervisors of Elections association president Craig Latimer had expressed frustration with the governor’s lack of response to requests for action. And Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Christina White had said “it’s too late at this point” for an order to make a difference in the Aug. 18 primary.
The order also comes “days before supervisors will send their ballot designs to the printers,” Smiley notes.
Trail Mix
Election disruption
The Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously agreed to send 2.7 million registered voters absentee ballot request forms for the November election, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley reports.
The Washington, D.C. Board of Elections plans to mail a ballot to all 500,000 registered voters ahead of the November election, WAMU’s Martin Austermuhle reports.
Georgia’s secretary of state says his office doesn’t have the funding to send absentee ballot request forms to 6.9 million active voters but he’ll create a website where voters can request them, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Niesse and Ben Brasch reports.
Battle for Congress
California Republican congressional candidate Ted Howze removed more problematic Facebook posts three weeks after he lost endorsements of key GOP leaders, Kate Irby reports for the Modesto Bee.
Democrat Cal Cunningham launched his first general election TV ad in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, focusing on corruption in Washington and access to health care, Brian Murphy reports for the Raleigh News & Observer.
Governor watch
Sources say California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is considering a statewide order to require the use of masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the Sacramento Bee’s Sophia Bollag reports.
Protest fallout
The mother of Antwon Rose II, who was killed by a Pittsburgh police officer in 2018, says she did not meet with Trump like he had claimed during his police reform executive order signing, Alexis Johnson reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
TODAY
We have a new episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast coming up. Download it on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts.
Number of the Day
$15 million
That’s how much the Biden campaign is spending in its first advertising blitz over 5 weeks in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina and Arizona. (Hat tip: McClatchy’s Dave Catanese. Follow him on Twitter.)
For Planning Purposes
June 18
Trump participates in a roundtable with governors on the reopening of America’s small businesses in Washington, D.C.
Vice President Mike Pence tours Chardam Gear Company and delivers remarks at Casadei Structural Steel, Inc. in Michigan.
Jill Biden holds virtual listening sessions on the campaign’s plan for re-opening in Virginia and North Carolina
Joe Biden holds a virtual fundraiser
June 20
Trump holds a rally in Tulsa, Okla.
May fundraising reports are due to the Federal Election Commission
June 23
Kentucky and New York hold primaries
June 28
Pence travels to Dallas to visit First Baptist Church and participates in the Celebrate Freedom Rally
July 7
Delaware and New Jersey hold primaries
POTUS v. SCOTUS
The president’s tweet after the highest court in the United States rejected his plan to repeal the DACA program that protected immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children.
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This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 12:48 PM.