Impact2020: June 26, 2020
In your Friday, June 26 Impact2020 briefing, we take a look at how Donald Trump and Joe Biden are taking different approaches to campaigning amid the coronavirus, a new mail balloting issue that popped up in Kentucky, and more bad swing state polling news for the president.
On the Ground
Making promises
President Donald Trump visited the battleground state of Wisconsin to tout a $5.5 billion Navy contract for shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine. He promised the estimated 700 people gathered that, “as long as I’m your president, America will never lose that ship-building talent or capability,” Haley BeMiller and Jeff Bollier report for the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
But Joe Biden and other Democrats “criticized Trump for using his Marinette trip to take credit for a contract that was years in the making.” And in a statement to the Press-Gazette, Biden accused the president of taking credit for investment in Marinette’s shipbuilding that was initiated by President Barack Obama’s administration.
Local officials said Trump’s trip to Marinette and Fincantieri was the first by a sitting president. He also visited Green Bay for a town hall hosted by Fox News’ Sean Hannity. As the Press Gazette’s Kent Tempus, Sammy Gibbons and BeMiller write, Trump directed much of his attention to Biden, who has expanded his lead in the polls in Wisconsin.
“I don’t want to be nice or un-nice, but the man can’t speak, and he’s going to be a president because some people don’t love me maybe,” Trump said of Biden.
Credit: Morry Gash, AP
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence focused on jobs during his trip Thursday to Ohio, which recent polls show is growing more competitive Cleveland.com’s Seth A. Richardson reports Pence made a “somewhat stunning boast” at Lordstown Motors that Trump had kept all of his promises to Ohioans.
During a 2017 rally in nearby Youngstown, Trump promised that jobs were returning to the Mahoning Valley, Richardson notes. But last year thousands of people were out of work when General Motors closed its Lordstown facility.
Richardson writes: “The Lordstown plant has been a political flashpoint for the 2020 election in Ohio, which is increasingly looking competitive. To Democrats, it represents tangible proof of broken promises from Trump. Republicans bill it as the start of an economic rebound for an area that’s experienced significant economic turmoil over the years.”
Keeping it small
Biden’s campaign style continues to sharply contrast with Trump’s, as the former vice president opts for more modest gatherings. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Julia Terruso reports that the Trump campaign has tried to “weaponize” the visuals of these smaller events. Trump tweeted a photo of a small gathering in Delaware County, Pennsylvania with the words, “Joe Biden’s rally. ZERO enthusiasm!”
But Terruso notes that it “wasn’t a rally, and only 25 people were allowed inside the gymnasium due to coronavirus precautions.” And Kirsten Hess, who attended the event, said, she was happy about that. “I felt safe,” she stated.
It’s a reflection of how Biden and his campaign are handling the pandemic as they attempt to paint a picture of “the kind of president he says he’d be: cautious and responsible.” The controlled gatherings have “also shielded Biden from interactions with angry protesters or news conferences in which reporters could pepper him with unexpected questions,” Terruso notes.
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LISTEN: On the latest episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast, McClatchy’s Alex Roarty, Francesca Chambers and Michael Wilner debate what Trump can do to rebound from his polling slump and whether Democrats should make a play for Iowa and Ohio.
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Kentucky ballot issues
As results continue to trickle in from Tuesday’s Kentucky elections, a new problem has surfaced. The Lexington Herald-Leader’s Daniel Desrochers reports that “several thousand ballots mailed on Election Day were processed with the wrong postmark date,” presumably due to the influx of absentee ballots.
Here’s how that happened: “Postal workers were still processing ballots at a Louisville facility on Election Day when the clock switched over to midnight, automatically changing the timestamp from the 23rd to the 24th. It affected 19,000 ballots, officials said, but postal workers immediately caught the issue.”
Post office and election officials say they managed to isolate these ballots from other mail. Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins said the “handful” of those ballots they received were identifiable because they were hand-stamped with the correct June 23 date.
As for the status of those mail-in votes, Desrochers reports that of the 868,090 ballots sent in the mail, election officials “had received around 600,000 of them back. The 19,000 ballots that were received after midnight would make up 1.72 percent of the estimated 1.1 million votes expected in Tuesday’s primary.”
Trail Mix
Veepstakes
In an interview with WGAL’s Janelle Stelson in Pennsylvania, Biden said he doesn’t have a VP shortlist yet, only saying that “there are a number of African American women that are being considered, as well as Hispanic, as well as Caucasian.”
Battleground state watch
Pence heads to Arizona next week for part of his “Faith in America” tour, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez reports for the Arizona Republic.
Biden named three top-level staffers in Nevada, the Nevada Independent’s Jacob Solis reports.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law new restrictions that will prevent Secretary of State Paul Pate from mailing ballot request forms to voters in November’s election without seeking approval from state lawmakers, the Des Moines Register’s Ian Richardson reports.
Members of both parties officially agree that Iowa is a battleground state after the latest polls show a tight race between Biden and Trump, Brianne Pfannenstiel writes for the Des Moines Register.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Craig Gilbert takes a deeper look into Trump’s recent polling dive in Wisconsin.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is ordering bars to close and reducing restaurant capacity to combat a surge of coronavirus cases in the state, Tessa Weinberg reports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Battle for Congress
GOP Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said “we’ve got to have more testing, ” disagreeing with Trump’s statements on COVID-19 testing, Bryan Lowry reports for the Kansas City Star.
Number of the Day
4
Biden leads Trump in four battleground states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas — according to the latest round of Fox News polls.
For Planning Purposes
June 26
Biden holds a virtual fundraiser
Jill Biden holds a virtual event on the Affordable Care Act with Sen. Kamala Harris and Wisconsin state Rep. Robyn Vining in Milwaukee
June 28
Pence travels to Dallas
June 30
Pence travels to Arizona
July 2
Pence travels to Florida
July 7
Delaware and New Jersey hold primaries
“Worse than Afghanistan”
Trump shared his thoughts on the conditions in some major cities, including Chicago, Detroit and Baltimore, during his Fox News town hall.
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