Impact2020: August 20, 2020
Welcome to today’s Impact2020 briefing! This is McClatchyDC Politics Editor Adam Wollner filling in for Meta Viers.
As we await the final night of the virtual Democratic National Convention (personally I’m still mourning the fact that everyone is not in Milwaukee right now), let’s take a look at why the party’s state legislative candidates are seeing a surge in online fundraising, the Trump campaign’s latest play to reach Black voters in battleground states, and how the president’s call for a Goodyear boycott was received in Ohio.
On the Ground
Down-ballot bucks
Tapping into fierce opposition to President Donald Trump, Democratic presidential and congressional candidates have been raking in loads of campaign cash online from small-dollar donors for several years. Now that money is increasingly flowing further down the ballot as well.
McClatchy’s Alex Roarty reports Democratic state legislative candidates across the country have already raised more than $76 million this election cycle through the digital fundraising platform ActBlue. That’s 20% more than the party’s state House and Senate candidates collected via ActBlue during the entire 2018 cycle, and three times as much as what they raised in all of 2016.
Roarty writes that this financial windfall is “boosting the Democrats’ chances in races in key states where the party is hoping to win control of GOP-held legislatures — and potentially control the redistricting process at the federal and state level set to occur next year.”
Still, most ActBlue dollars are going to candidates in higher-profile races in 2020. “ActBlue has helped Democratic candidates and liberal organizations raise more than $2.5 billion, only about 3% of which went to state House and Senate hopefuls,” Roarty notes.
Prioritizing Pennsylvania
Republicans are continuing their efforts to make inroads in key battleground states with Black voters, a constituency that has voted overwhelmingly Democratic in recent elections.
McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers reports that the president’s re-election campaign has now opened 17 “Black Voices for Trump” centers across the country, with the latest coming in Philadelphia this past weekend.
“Paris Dennard, senior communications advisor for Black Media Affairs at the RNC, said that the party intends for these offices to be a base of operations for volunteer training sessions and door-to-door efforts, which the GOP has resumed with social distancing and masks,” Chambers writes, noting that “Trump’s gap in support with African Americans in Pennsylvania could make the difference in a close election.”
Speaking of Pennsylvania, Trump is set to deliver a speech outside of Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton today, just hours before the Democratic nominee speaks at the convention. The Trump campaign said he would “deliver remarks on a half century of Joe Biden failing America,” the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Andrew Seidman reports.
“Trump’s swing through northeast Pennsylvania comes a day after former President Barack Obama portrayed him as a threat to democracy and wholly incapable of managing the country through the coronavirus pandemic and a host of other pressing issues,” Seidman writes.
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said Wednesday night during a convention speech from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
Officially official
Following Obama at the DNC Wednesday night was Kamala Harris, who accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president and officially became the first woman of color to appear on a major-party ticket.
Tal Kopan and Joe Garofoli write for the senator’s hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, that her speech was “part autobiography, part campaign pitch and firmly rooted in her California background. … Harris previewed the ferocity she would unleash on Trump and the effort she would make to be a supportive partner to” Biden.
“We can do better and deserve so much more,” Harris said. “We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring all of us together — Black, white, Latino, Asian, indigenous — to achieve the future we collectively want. We must elect Joe Biden.”
Meanwhile, the Sacramento Bee’s David Lightman fact-checked Harris’ claim that the nation’s worst recession in decades is due to Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic.
Coming tomorrow: The Beyond the Bubble podcast team will have a new episode wrapping up the Democratic convention. Download: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
Trail Mix
Battleground state watch
The Akron Beacon Journal’s Jack Mackinnon reports on the fallout over Trump’s tweet calling for a boycott of the Akron, Ohio-based tire company Goodyear.
During his visit to Darien, Wis., Vice President Mike Pence promoted the Trump administration’s efforts to rebuild manufacturing jobs, but did not mention the highly touted Foxconn project, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Molly Beck notes.
Former Rep. Charlie Dent, a Pennsylvania Republican, endorsed Biden for president, Laura Olson reports for the Allentown Morning Call.
The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger writes that Michigan Democrats’ mantra this year is “ignore the polls.”
Matt Goad interviewed nine former Bernie Sanders supporters in North Carolina for the Raleigh News & Observer about how they are coming to terms with voting for Biden.
Election disruption
Two Montana courts issued orders that will keep the Green Party’s candidates off the November ballot after they were aided by Republicans, Holly Michels writes for the Helena Independent Record.
Texas Democrats are also seeing success in their lawsuits to kick Green Party candidates off the general election ballot, Patrick Svitek reports for the Texas Tribune.
Wyoming elections officials called the police following reports of “staffers for Kanye West and another independent candidate acting aggressively and apparently violating state law at nearly every polling location in the capital county,” the Casper Star-Tribune’s Seth Klamman reports.
Battle for Congress
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed Rep. Joe Kennedy over incumbent Sen. Ed Markey in the Massachusetts Senate Democratic primary, Victoria McGrane scoops for the Boston Globe.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell challenged Democrat Amy McGrath to a Lincoln-Douglas style debate. But as Daniel Desrochers writes for the Lexington Herald-Leader, that’s unlikely to happen.
Number of the Day
410,000
That’s how many donors have given to Democratic state legislative candidates through ActBlue so far during the 2020 cycle, up from 360,000 throughout the entire 2018 campaign.
“Holy mackerel, folks!”
Gov. Tony Evers kicked off day three of the DNC in just about the most Wisconsin way possible.
For Planning Purposes
Aug. 20
Joe Biden delivers his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination
Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang and Michael Bloomberg address the DNC
President Donald Trump visits Scranton, Pa.
Aug. 24-27
The Republican National Convention takes place
If someone forwarded this email to you, please consider signing up here for our daily roundup of 2020 election news from McClatchy and other local journalists.
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Impact2020: August 20, 2020."