Impact2020: August 26, 2020
Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the Impact2020 briefing, where we’re still talking about the Republican National Convention’s big speeches and themes. We’ll also take some time to look at how Trump and his allies plan to hold on to religious voters and how Florida, with a reputation for close elections, is planning ahead for a possible recount in November.
On the Ground
The battle for religious voters
Democratic and Republican operatives increasingly view President Donald Trump’s “ability to hold on to his evangelical base — and to dissuade other voters of faith from supporting … Joe Biden — as key to the outcome of the November election,” McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers and Michael Wilner report.
To that end, conservative groups plan to spend almost $135 million to shore up support among critical faith-based voting blocs before Election Day. There have already been signs that Trump is losing ground among white Catholic voters in the Rust Belt, Jewish voters in Florida and evangelical voters across key battleground states, write Chambers and Wilner.
They note that Biden, a practicing Catholic, “has been chipping away at Republicans’ advantage with religious voters that propelled Trump into the White House” by “actively appealing to faith-motivated voters with pledges to advance racial equality and prevent mass coronavirus deaths.” He has also “made morality a centerpiece of his bid to defeat Trump.”
Chambers and Wilner note that Trump, who rarely attends church between major religious holidays, has accused Biden of being “against God,” and said at the Republican National Convention there would be “no religion” in a Biden administration.
Religious and anti-abortion groups that were vital to Trump’s election in 2016 are telling voters that Biden and Kamala Harris would prevent Christians from becoming judges. Wilner and Chambers note that “Harris in 2018 asked a federal judicial nominee who belonged to the Knights of Columbus whether he was aware the fraternal Catholic group was against abortion when he joined. The inquiry prompted accusations from conservatives that Harris had engaged in religious discrimination.”
Florida focus
Florida’s first female Cuban American lieutenant governor, who was once anti-Trump, echoed the Republican Party’s anti-socialism agenda in her speech at the GOP convention Tuesday, Mary Ellen Klas reports for the Miami Herald.
Jeanette Núñez, who co-chairs the national Latinos for Trump coalition, warned that “the fabric of our nation is in peril, daily.” Núñez said: “The radical left systematically chisels away at the freedoms we cherish. They peddle dangerous ideologies, tower to global progressives and normalize socialism to dismantle our Constitution.”
Credit: Susan Walsh, AP
She also made the case for Trump, saying he “has a bold agenda that safeguards the rights and freedoms protected under our Constitution today more than ever.” Núñez’s comments are a stark contrast to a now-deleted 2016 tweet in which she called Trump “the biggest con-man there is.”
Earlier in the evening, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi sharply criticized Biden, “arguing his near half-century in politics had a unifying theme: enriching his family,” Kirby Wilson reports for the Miami Herald.
Wilson writes: “The line of attack was noteworthy not only because her allegations that self-dealing fueled Biden’s family’s activities in Ukraine and China, but because of the man she was making the case for. … Trump counts two family members, daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner as top White House advisers. His campaign has paid his family business at least $2.3 million.”
Coming Friday: The Beyond the Bubble podcast team wraps up all the action at the Republican National Convention. Download and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
Just in case
Speaking of Florida, in case the state finds itself in recount territory for the presidential election again, “supervisors of elections in the state’s most populous counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward, have agreed to preserve the digital ballot images of all votes cast,” Mary Ellen Klas reports for the Miami Herald.
The agreement filed will defer a lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party and a national nonprofit group that advocates for election security until after the November election. Meanwhile, election officials will save all ballot images obtained automatically from optical scanning machines if a machine recount is ordered for the presidential race.
“Somebody might say, ‘What are the odds that lightning will strike twice?’ but Florida just seems to defy the odds,’’ said Chris Sautter, a legal counsel to AUDIT Elections USA, one of the plaintiffs.
Klas notes that state and federal laws require that paper ballots be kept for 22 months, but not the images used to verify the ballots. “The lawsuit asks that ballot images be treated as public records available for inspection and require the state to order other local election officials to retain the ballot images.”
Trail Mix
Convention watch
Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s first Black Attorney General, addressed the RNC Tuesday night, “painting an image of violence in American cities, highlighting his beliefs as a Black conservative and denouncing … Biden as a ‘backward thinker,’” the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Daniel Desrochers writes.
Preparations for Vice President Mike Pence’s RNC speech from Fort McHenry this evening “hit a snag” due to a forklift, the Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Barker reports.
Battleground state watch
Trump announced that Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers “has agreed to accept federal policing assistance in Kenosha as the city braces for a fourth day of racial unrest,” the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
“Over 2.2 million absentee ballot application forms were recently mailed to Georgia voters, an unofficial solicitation from organizations encouraging absentee voting,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Neisse reports.
Battle for Congress
The Fresno Bee’s Kate Irby takes a look at who is paying for the flood of ads in California’s 21st congressional district.
The State’s Joseph Bustos reports that South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham is calling on Democratic opponent Jaime Harrison to return contributions from a group that wants to defund the police.
North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said Congress should return from its summer recess early to negotiate a new round of coronavirus relief spending, the Raleigh News & Observer’s Will Doran reports.
Election disruption
Aaron Coleman, a 19-year-old who won a Kansas state House Democratic primary, reversed his decision to drop out, leaving senior Democratic lawmakers weighing whether to expel him if he wins in November, Jonathan Shorman and Steve Vockrodt report for the Wichita Eagle.
Shorman also writes that Kanye West fell short of the requirements to appear on Missouri’s presidential ballot.
Number of the Day
7
Biden leads Trump by 7 points, 47% to 40%, among registered voters nationally, according to a new post-Democratic National Convention poll from Reuters/Ipsos. Before the convention, Biden led by a similar 8-point margin.
Live tweeting gone wrong
Bette Midler received backlash after calling Melania Trump an ‘illegal alien’ on Twitter.
For Planning Purposes
Aug. 26
Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, Lara Trump and Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa are among the speakers at the RNC
Kamala Harris holds a virtual event focused on mobilizing Black voters in Detroit before attending virtual fundraisers
Aug. 27
President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas are among the speakers at the RNC
Aug. 28
President Donald Trump delivers a speech in Manchester N.H.
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This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 12:09 PM.