Impact2020: August 14, 2020
Welcome to Friday and the Impact2020 briefing! Democratic super PACs are coordinating like never before in an effort to oust Donald Trump in November, while the president’s allies are focusing on mobilizing Jewish voters in critical battleground states. Plus, we look at how Kamala Harris could help drive turnout with key voting blocs in Florida and North Carolina. Let’s get to it...
On the Ground
Aiming for a ‘blowout’
As both major parties kick into high gear for the homestretch of the presidential race, McClatchy’s Alex Roarty takes us inside a half-billion-dollar super PAC-led effort to defeat President Donald Trump.
“A collection of outside groups — ranging from shoestring outfits with a handful of employees to deep-pocketed operations run by leading Democratic strategists — have joined forces to a degree that operatives involved say is unprecedented to play an often-overlooked but major role in boosting Joe Biden in key battleground states,” Roarty writes.
Super PACs can’t legally coordinate with the Biden campaign, but they’re taking steps to ensure “their efforts compliment — and don’t contradict — one another,” Roarty reports. And it’s already making a difference at the margins of the 2020 race, according to top officials with the groups, who have spent years researching how to persuade and mobilize voters.
Credit: Andrew Harnik, AP
Despite Biden’s current lead in the polls, the super PAC officials acknowledge that the race will tighten before Nov. 3.
“It seems many people have learned lessons from 2016: We need to have a blowout,” said Bradley Beychok, the president of Democratic super PAC American Bridge. “If you want to win this thing and not have to litigate and fight it out and tie up the country for weeks, you have to beat him like a drum.”
Convention eve in North Carolina…
Heading into the Democratic and Republican conventions the next two weeks, Trump and Biden are virtually tied in the critical battleground state of North Carolina, Jim Morrill reports for the Charlotte Observer.
Recent polls show the two candidates separated by just a point or two. As Cook Political Report national editor Amy Walter said, North Carolina is “one of the few true tossups” on the map this year.
Morrill writes that North Carolina, a state Trump carried by nearly 4 points in 2016, is “close to a must-win” for the president as his polling numbers have sagged across the country. Outside of Florida, North Carolina has attracted the most TV and digital ad spending from Trump and his allies this cycle, according to Advertising Analytics.
Meanwhile, North Carolina Democrats are hopeful that the addition of Kamala Harris to the ticket will help increase turnout among Black voters both for the presidential and down-ballot races, Brian Murphy reports for the Raleigh News & Observer.
… and Florida
Meanwhile, the Miami Herald’s David Smiley notes that one more “first” can be added to Biden’s selection of Harris as his running mate: If elected, “she would also be the first vice president of Caribbean descent — a fact not lost on hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the nation’s largest swing state.”
Smiley writes: “In deep-blue Broward County, where Black voters comprise nearly 40% of the Democratic Party, the Caribbean community is especially large and influential at the ballot box — something Democratic operatives noted when Harris was announced. Jamaican Americans are generally the most politically active Black Caribbean group in Broward, while in Miami-Dade County, Haitians take the lead.”
On the other side of the aisle, Smiley reports that the Republican Jewish Coalition plans to spend up to $10 million in Florida and other swing states on behalf of Trump this fall. RJC executive director Matt Brooks called it “the largest effort ever undertaken to mobilize the Jewish vote.”
Jewish voters tend to lean heavily Democratic, but Republicans believe Trump can make inroads in 2020, citing the move of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the president’s support of Israel in its negotiations with Palestinian leaders, and Thursday’s Israel-UAE agreement.
Tune In
A new episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast is here! McClatchy’s Kristin Roberts, Alex Roarty and David Catanese break down what Harris brings to the 2020 Democratic ticket. Roarty also looks back at the senator’s nearly two-decade career in public office with Sacramento Bee California opinion editor Gil Duran, a former Harris staffer.
Download: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
Trail Mix
Battleground state watch
“The U.S. Postal Service has warned Pennsylvania that some mail ballots might not be delivered on time because the state’s deadlines are too tight for its ‘delivery standards,’ prompting election officials to ask the state Supreme Court to extend the deadlines to avoid disenfranchising voters,” the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Lai and Ellie Rushing report.
Similarly, the USPS has also warned Michigan officials “that mail delivery timelines pose ‘significant risk’ to ballots sent too close to Election Day and that could lead to their disqualification,” Melissa Nann Burke and Beth LeBlanc report for the Detroit News.
The USPS is also telling Missouri voters to mail in their ballots at least one week before the election, Bryan Lowry reports for the Kansas City Star.
Michigan’s secretary of state will send postcards to all voters encouraging them to apply online to vote absentee in the November election, MLive’s Zahra Ahmad reports.
A robocall for a Florida state Senate election falsely claims that Barack Obama endorsed a candidate in the race. The Miami Herald’s Samantha J. Gross has the story.
Battle for Congress
A new document reveals how much North Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Cal Cunningham earned while working as a legal consultant for his former company, Waste Zero, which has been at the center of attacks from GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, Brian Murphy reports for the Raleigh News & Observer.
Kansas Republican Rep. Steve Watkins, who lost his primary last week, will face a House Ethics investigation during his final months in Congress, Bryan Lowry reports for the Kansas City Star.
Number of the Day
57%
A new national Fox News poll asked voters to choose between two messages to send to the federal government: “lend me a hand” or “leave me alone.” A majority, 57%, chose “lend me a hand,” up from 34% in February 2019.
The closest thing to a music festival in 2020
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bill Glauber has the details on the musical line-up for the DNC, which includes Billie Eilish, John Legend and The Chicks (originally known as The Dixie Chicks.)
For Planning Purposes
Aug. 14
Biden attends a virtual fundraiser
Andrew Yang and Kumail Nanjiani participate in a virtual Biden campaign roundtable
August 15
Pence visits White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.
Aug. 17-20
The Democratic National Convention takes place
Aug. 17
Trump visits Mankato, Minn., and Oshkosh, Wis.
Aug. 18
Trump visits Yuma, Ariz.
Primary elections in Alaska, Florida and Wyoming
Aug. 24-27
The Republican National Convention is scheduled
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This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 12:04 PM.