Impact2020: August 5, 2020
Welcome to today’s Impact2020 briefing! This is McClatchyDC reporter Jack Kelly filling in for Meta Viers. Today, we dive into the final stretch of the Joe Biden veepstakes, some surprising results from last night’s primaries, and yet another change to the Democratic convention.
On the Ground
A sprint to the finish
With former Joe Biden expected to announce his running mate next week, the presumptive Democratic nominee has reached the twilight of a long, and at times contentious, veepstakes.
Among the front-runners for the role are Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Rep. Karen Bass of California and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, who has never run for political office, McClatchy’s Dave Catanese writes. But each contender’s stock remains in flux. “Last week, allies of … Bass saw her vice-presidential prospects on the ascent, believing she had supplanted … Harris,” Catanese reports, with one Democratic congressman going so far as to say “Kamala is done.”
Since then, though, Bass has faced a flurry of attacks based on past comments. “First came the video of Bass’ remarks praising Scientology a decade ago,” and then her “appearances at Nation of Islam events” came into public view. Combine those with a Tuesday report that “she had eulogized a member of the Communist Party in 2017” and renewed criticism “for past comments praising Cuban dictator Fidel Castro,” and suddenly “the Los Angeles congresswoman’s prospects were under siege, just as Biden was set to conduct final interviews with the leading contenders in preparation for a public announcement next week.”
But Bass still maintains “support from influential House members,” including Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who backed Biden during the primary in South Carolina, and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, the co-chair of Biden’s campaign.
Two more incumbents go down
“A major figure in Missouri Democratic politics fell Tuesday night,” Kelsey Landis writes for the Kansas City Star. Ten-term incumbent Rep. William Lacy was defeated by Cori Bush, a Black Lives Matter activist, shifting control of the seat from the Lacy family for the first since 1969. Lacy’s father held the seat for more than three decades before his son was elected.
Lacy is one of a handful of incumbents to have been defeated by primary challengers this cycle. He was joined in the losers’ column Tuesday by Republican Rep. Steve Watkins, who was charged with voter fraud three weeks ago, the Kansas City Star’s Bryan Lowry reports. Watkins, who faces charges after listing a UPS store as his voter registration address for elections in 2019, was handily defeated by Kansas Treasurer Jake LaTurner in the state’s 2nd district. “Republicans are hopeful that LaTurner will be able to keep the seat in GOP hands,” Lowry writes.
Elsewhere in Kansas, Rep. Roger Marshall defeated former Secretary of State Kris Kobach in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. The Wichita Eagle’s Jonathan Shorman writes that the victory was “driven by a party establishment that considered” Marshall “the best chance of continuing 81 years of uninterrupted GOP control of the state’s Senate seats.”
“Marshall and Kobach ... fought bitterly in the primary, engaging in intense mudslinging over who was the true conservative and staunchest ally of President Donald Trump,” writes Shorman.
Trump’s Florida flip
“After claiming inaccurately for weeks that mail voting is rife with fraud, … Trump is now backing off his attacks on mail ballots in his home state,” the Miami Herald’s David Smiley reports.
The president tweeted that Florida’s vote by mail system is “Safe and Secure, Tried and True.” Trump’s statement “comes as Republican mail ballot registration lags behind Democrats in Florida ahead of the November election,” Smiley writes. “Republicans in Florida have requested 1.3 million ballots ahead of the state’s Aug. 18 primary election, while Democrats have requested 1.9 million.”
Smiley notes that the gap in ballot requests “has widened noticeably since Trump began to assail mail voting in reaction to efforts by different states to automatically send mail ballots to all registered voters as a means to avoid Election Day voting crowds and the spread of COVID-19.”
In other Florida-related campaign news, Smiley and Bianca Padró Ocasio report for the Herald that Biden “would grant permanent legal status to Venezuelan exiles in the U.S. if he becomes president, end the federal government’s deputizing of local law enforcement on immigration matters, and, on his first day in office, file an immigration bill creating a ‘legal road map’ for roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants to obtain legal status.”
Trail Mix
Convention craze
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bill Glauber writes that Biden will not be attending the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee and will instead “ accept the party’s presidential nomination from his home in Delaware.”
The Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill reports that Trump said that “he’s considering accepting the GOP nomination at the White House because it would be the ‘easiest ... and by far the least expensive.’”
Battleground state watch
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Daniel Bice asks: “Who knew Wisconsin Republicans were such big fans of Kanye West?” A former state GOP attorney currently representing the Trump campaign in a lawsuit delivered West’s nomination papers to the Wisconsin Elections Commission shortly before the Tuesday filing deadline.
The Nevada Independent’s Riley Synder and Michelle Rindels report that the Trump campaign has sued Nevada over a new law that will send all registered voters a mail-in ballot for the general election.
More election results
The Kansas City Star’s Jason Hancock reports that Missouri “became the 38th state to expand Medicaid eligibility, ... with voters shrugging off Republican opposition to narrowly approve a constitutional amendment providing health coverage to more than 200,000 uninsured Missourians.”
“Amanda Adkins emerged from a five-way Republican primary battle … to take on first-term Rep. Sharice Davids in Kansas’ 3rd congressional district,” the Kansas City Star’s Matthew Kelly and Bryan Lowry reports.
Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was virtually tied with his former deputy in a four-way race in the Republican primary for the position, the Arizona Republic’s Uriel J. Garcia reports.
The Detroit News’ Melissa Nann Burke reports that freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib survived a Democratic primary challenge from Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones in Michigan’s 3rd district.
Number of the Day
$280 million
That’s how much the Biden campaign plans to spend his fall on TV and digital ads in 15 states. The list includes the six core battleground states (Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin), four more states Trump carried in 2016 (Georgia, Iowa, Texas, and Ohio) and five states Hillary Clinton won (Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire and Virginia).
Lincoln Project keeps jabbing
The Lincoln Project, a group of “never Trump” Republicans that are part Twitter trolls, part big spenders on the 2020 elections, is out with another ad today. But rather than focus on the president himself, the super PAC has set its sights on his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
For Planning Purposes
August 5
Vice President Mike Pence travels to Tampa, Fla.
Biden attends a virtual fundraiser
August 7
Sen. Sherrod Brown participates in a virtual Biden campaign roundtable in Cleveland
August 9
Jill Biden delivers the keynote address for an Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund event
August 11
Pence visits Arizona
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This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Impact2020: August 5, 2020."