Impact2020: July 13, 2020
We’re 113 days out from the general election. In today’s Impact2020 briefing, we keep our eyes on the partisan divide over another stimulus package and whether parents could get some relief, a voting lawsuit in North Carolina and how things are shaking out ahead of Texas’ primary runoffs.
On the Ground
Who could get the next stimulus checks?
Work is underway on another stimulus package to help with the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but there’s an indication that fewer Americans will receive stimulus checks this time around, McClatchy’s Kate Irby reports.
And, of course, there’s a partisan divide. While President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans support additional aid, they have been less publicly supportive of increasing unemployment payments. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “made clear that he had no interest in considering” the $3 trillion aid package approved by the House that would extend increased unemployment payments until Jan. 2021, Irby reports.
Irby also notes that “senior Republicans and Trump’s administration have argued the increased payments have motivated people to not work — and therefore they need to be scaled back if not eliminated — while Democrats have argued curbing those payments would sharply reduce the income of 30 million people.”
McConnell suggested that stimulus payments are most helpful to people earning less than the original cap of $75,000, saying “I think the people who’ve been hit the hardest are people who make about $40,000 a year or less.”
And could there be a family leave amendment?
One Republican senator from Louisiana is hoping to have a paid family leave pilot program included in the coronavirus stimulus legislation, reports McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers.
Sen. Bill Cassidy said he will repackage his paid family leave proposal as a five-year pilot program intended to help with the cost of daycare and other expenses. It would also replace wages for new parents who take a leave of absence from their jobs.
“The proposal would provide $5,000 in advance on new parents’ child tax credits and reduce families’ tax credits by $500 a year for 10 years, if they choose to participate in the voluntary federal program,” Chambers writes.
Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Cassidy explained why the program would be part of the stimulus legislation: “One thing that I’ve been hearing from moms is that they’re having to stay at home, and some of them have had a problem with employment, and so I actually think this would be an appropriate part of a COVID [bill], just recognizing that young families in particular can be particularly stressed right now.”
Ivanka Trump said the White House continues to support passage of the legislation. But Democrats say it would not do enough to help families.
Cassidy said he plans to put his new proposal forward as an amendment on COVID-19 relief legislation, “depending on how the package is structured when it gets to the Senate floor” but would try another approach if that were unsuccessful.
Suing over voting by mail
The ACLU is leading a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s absentee ballot rules for voting by mail in 2020, Will Doran reports for the Raleigh News & Observer.
They are specifically challenging the state’s requirement that anyone who votes by mail must have someone else witness them voting and then sign their ballot for it to count. The lawsuit states that elderly voters and those with increased coronavirus risks shouldn’t have to potentially endanger their health to vote this November.
In North Carolina, anyone can vote by mail without an excuse, but it typically requires people voting by mail to have two witnesses, although the legislature voted last month to reduce that to one witness for 2020. The same law also makes it easier to request mail-in ballots and includes “measures aimed at making in-person voting safer like increased funding for public health supplies at polling places,” Doran writes.
Officials in the state expect that mail voting might grow tenfold “from the normal 4% or 5% of voters to as high as 40%.”
Trail Mix
Election disruption
In a voting overhaul sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, San Luis Obispo County, Calif. will have almost 70% fewer in-person polling places in the general election and voters will be encouraged to cast their ballots by mail, reports Lindsey Holden for The San Luis Obispo Tribune.
Disabled and older voters have encountered the most problems navigating mail-in balloting for Texas’ runoff elections on Tuesday, Alexa Ura reports for the Texas Tribune.
The Texas Supreme Court rejected the state GOP’s appeal to reinstate it’s in-person convention this week in Houston, Allie Morris reports for the Dallas Morning News.
A 17-page report by the U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general “offers a cautionary tale for Wisconsin and other states as election officials brace for record-shattering absentee ballot requests this fall,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley writes.
Battle for Congress
The five Republicans vying to take on Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids in Kansas’ 3rd district answered a questionnaire about key issues ahead of the Aug. 4 primary. The Kansas City Star’s Matthew Kelly has their responses.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley shared a screenshot of an email that showed ESPN’s NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski dropping a different kind of “Woj Bomb,” Pete Grathoff and Bryan Lowry report for the Kansas City Star.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching a new ad campaign backing Rep. Roger Marshall in the Kansas Senate GOP primary, Lowry scoops for the Star.
Number of the Day
5
Joe Biden leads Trump by 5 points, 48% to 43%, in Texas, according to a new Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler poll. A CBS News/YouGov survey, however, found Trump at 46% and Biden at 45% in the state.
ICYMI
On the latest episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast, McClatchy’s Alex Roarty, Francesca Chambers and David Catanese break down the strategy of the anti-Trump Republicans who are now trying to flip the GOP-controlled Senate, the president’s puzzling reelection message, and whether we should take Kanye West’s White House trial balloon seriously (spoiler alert: no.)
Download here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
For Planning Purposes
July 13
Joe Biden holds virtual fundraisers
Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego host a virtual roundtable with VoteVets and Veterans and Military Families for Biden
July 14
Alabama and Texas primary runoffs and Maine primary
Vice President Mike Pence visits Baton Rouge, La.
Joe Biden delivers remarks in Wilmington, Delaware
July 15
Trump heads to Atlanta
July 16
Jill Biden holds a virtual event in Reno, Nev.
July 17
Jill Biden holds virtual events in Michigan and Colorado
*COUGH* OK *COUGH*
Rep. Glenn Gorthman of Wisconsin got choked up after saying it was “time to talk about Donald John Trump” during the state GOP convention.
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This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 11:16 AM with the headline "Impact2020: July 13, 2020."