Impact2020: June 24, 2020
In your Impact2020 briefing for Wednesday, June 24, we take a look at a new ad blitz against GOP candidates in a key presidential battleground state, the next stop on Mike Pence’s swing state tour, and how Election Day panned out in Kentucky.
On the Ground
‘Going to go all in’
A gun-control group co-founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will spend at least $5 million on an ad blitz against Republican candidates running in the battleground state of North Carolina, McClatchy’s Alex Roarty reports.
Credit: Carolyn Kaster, AP
Everytown for Gun Safety will argue GOP candidates, including President Donald Trump, are unfit for office because they oppose increasing restrictions on access to firearms. The group is betting that despite all the crises that have plagued 2020 so far, that “voters in the state are still motivated by issues of gun violence.”
Charlie Kelly, a senior adviser to Everytown, stressed the importance of focusing on the state, saying, “North Carolina could decide the presidency and the balance of the Senate, and it’s why we’re going to go all in with our most significant investment and effort ever.”
Many operatives believe that the race between GOP Sen. Thom Tillis and Democrat Cal Cunningham could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.
The group plans to spend $60 million across the country this year
What Election Day revealed in KY
We showed you a picture yesterday of a long line of voters in Fayette County, Kentucky, waiting to vote in the primary. Now, the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Daniel Desrochers and Jack Brammer have an update on how things went on Tuesday.
The county only had one polling place open, Kroger Field, and “by “10:30 a.m., the wait time to vote was about an hour and 15 minutes and voters reported waiting about 90 minutes to vote through much of the day.” By 6 p.m., “both lines stretched for hundreds of yards outside the stadium.”
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said that he expected a total of 1.1 million votes to be cast. “That would be about 32 percent of Kentucky’s registered voters, he said, hoping the turnout would beat the most recent high of 32.2 percent in 2008.” He also stressed the need for polling places in the November election.
As of late Wednesday morning, Amy McGrath led Charles Booker in the high-profile Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Kentucky 44% to 38%, with 62% of precincts reporting. With most of the votes for this race submitted by mail and not yet counted, the final results won’t be released until next week. The winner will face Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the fall.
Pence to Ohio
The Akron Beacon Journal previews Vice President Mike Pence’s fourth visit to the increasingly competitive state of Ohio tomorrow, which includes the unveiling of a new all-electric pickup truck from Lordstown Motors in Trumbull County. There’s a coronavirus connection to the appearance: “Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns is currently working to reopen the 6.2-million-square-foot facility that he bought from General Motors near Youngstown last year.”
After Pence delivers remarks there, he is slated to meet with local law enforcement leaders. Pence’s trip to Wisconsin yesterday may provide a hint of the message he’ll bring to Ohio: He dismissed calls to “defund the police” during two visits in the GOP stronghold of Waukesha County, David Wise, Adam Kelnhofer and Caroline Kubzansky reported for WisPolitics.
The event was part of the launch of the Trump campaign’s “Faith in America” tour.
Trail Mix
Election results
Rep. Eliot Engel was trailing Democratic challenger Jamaal Bowman 61% to 36% in the New York 16th congressional district primary, Chris Sommerfeldt reports for the New York Daily News.
Sommerfeldt also notes that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sailed through her Democratic primary in New York’s 14th district.
In the biggest upset of the night, upset, 24-year-old motivational speaker Madison Cawthorn defeated Lynda Bennett, who was endorsed by Trump and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, in North Carolina’s 11th district GOP primary, Brian Murphy reports for the Charlotte Observer. If Cawthorn wins the general election as expected, he will be the youngest member of Congress next year.
Battleground state watch
“Intent on refocusing his reelection campaign after months of a pandemic, rising unemployment and civil unrest, … Trump returned to Arizona on Tuesday to rally supporters like it was 2016.” More from the Arizona Republic’s Andrew Oxford on the president’s trip to the state.
Joe Biden’s campaign is planning to run digital and Spanish-language radio ads in Miami on Trump’s willingness to meet with Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro, David Smiley reports for the Miami Herald.
Two top political aides to Sen. Tammy Baldwin will lead Biden’s campaign in Wisconsin, Bill Glauber reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“After a night in which protesters tore down statues of Forward and a Union Civil War colonel on the state Capitol grounds, assaulted a state senator and set a small fire in a city building,” Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers “warned that he was prepared to call in the National Guard,” Chris Rickert and Emily Hamer report for the Wisconsin State Journal.
Michigan launched a pilot program that gives new IDs and automatically registers inmates to vote as they are released from prison, MLive’s Gus Burns reports.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is recommending the state’s residents stay home as much as possible as coronavirus cases surge, the Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek writes.
Number of the Day
$11 million
That’s how much Biden raised during a pair of virtual fundraisers with Barack Obama Tuesday night, according to the campaign.
“How thick is your skin?”
Stephen Colbert asks John Bolton before grilling him in this interview.
Coming Tomorrow
Download the latest episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts.
For Planning Purposes
June 24
Biden holds a virtual fundraiser
June 25
Trump visits Marinette, Wis.
Pence travels to Ohio
Biden visits Lancaster, Pa.
June 28
Pence travels to Dallas
July 7
Delaware and New Jersey hold primaries
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