Impact2020: September 15, 2020
In today’s Impact2020 briefing, Joe Biden’s campaign hopes to gain ground in Florida through targeted visits and a new voter database. Meanwhile, Donald Trump clashes with California’s governor over climate change and embraces Latino voters in Arizona. And a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate receives blowback for his remark about taking a coronavirus vaccine.
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On the Ground
Biden swoops into Florida
With polls showing the race tightening in Florida, Joe Biden is making his first visit as the Democratic nominee to the swing state today. He is holding a roundtable with veterans in Tampa and a Hispanic Heritage Month event in Kissimmee, which has a sizable Puerto Rican population.
Credit: Patrick Semansky, AP
Ahead of the trip, “Democrats detailed what they said is a state-of-the-art voter database helping them reach and potentially win over Hispanic voters,” a group Biden has been underperforming with, the Miami Herald’s Bianca Padró Ocasio and David Smiley report. “They said the data helps them track voters who left hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico for Florida and message on a more meaningful level to Latinos descending from other nations.”
“We now have not only a Latino strategy, we have a Cuban strategy. We have a Mexican-American strategy. We have a Borinquen strategy. We have a Dominican strategy. We have a Venezuelan strategy, a Colombian strategy, an Ecuadorian strategy,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said.
The Herald notes that President Donald Trump’s campaign has gathered similar information from attendees at rallies for years, and that the Republican National Committee has its own data set “detailing voters’ political leanings and personal habits, down to the magazines they read.”
Still, the data-driven focus is critical for Democrats as they “need to turn out Hispanic voters at a high level” to beat Trump in Florida, “a state often won by narrow margins.”
Agreeing to disagree
During his visit to California, Trump blamed “uncleared dead trees and leaves for flames” for the deadly wildfires in the state, putting him in stark contrast to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has attributed the cause of the fires to climate change.
The Sacramento Bee’s Sophia Bollag and Hannah Wiley report that Newsom asked Trump at one point of visit to “respect the difference of opinion out here.” But later, Trump brushed off concerns about climate change from California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, saying that the weather “will start getting cooler.”
“I wish science agreed with you,” Crowfoot replied.
“I don’t think science knows,” Trump responded.
Meanwhile, Biden delivered remarks from Wilmington, Del., attacking Trump’s “climate denial.” Biden said that if the president “gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating and more deadly.”
Later in the day, Trump visited Arizona, a battleground state where he is trailing Biden in the polls. The president attended a “Latinos for Trump” roundtable discussion that “was watched by hundreds of mostly maskless but enthusiastic Trump supporters who waited hours in line,” Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Alison Steinbach report for the Arizona Republic.
“Trump pledged he would not let down Latinos, would continue to cut red tape to make it easier to do business and vowed to stand with law enforcement,” they write. “Biden, he warned, would ‘terminate’ the nation’s economic recovery, stand with ‘anarchists’ who are protesting in American cities over the treatment of minorities at the hands of police, and would ‘totally eliminate’ the Second Amendment.”
The trip marked Trump’s fifth of the year to Arizona. Meanwhile, Biden has yet to visit the state in 2020.
Vaccine debate
At the first North Carolina Senate debate of the general election, Democrat Cal Cunningham “said he would be ‘hesitant’ to take a coronavirus vaccine if it were developed by the end of the year, saying he would have a lot of questions about the ‘political and financial corruption’ in Washington,” Brian Murphy reports for the Raleigh News & Observer.
Cunningham said: “I’m going to ask a lot of questions. I think that’s incumbent on all of us right now with the way we’ve seen politics intervening in Washington.”
His opponent, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, called the remarks “irresponsible.”
“That statement puts lives at risk and it makes it more difficult to manage a crisis that he presents to say he’s up to the task to manage,” Tillis said. “We just heard a candidate for the U.S. Senate look into the camera and tell 10 million North Carolinians he would be hesitant to take a vaccine. I think that that’s irresponsible.”
After the debate, Cunningham said: “If public health professionals sign off, then I will not hesitate and I would encourage others to do so.”
The pandemic-dominated debate was the first of three scheduled debates between Tillis and Cunningham. Murphy notes that while Cunningham continues to hold a small lead, the race — which could determine which party controls the chamber in January — is considered a toss-up.
Trail Mix
Battleground state watch
The Green Party presidential ticket won’t be on the Wisconsin ballot, ensuring absentee ballots will be sent to voters in the time required by state law, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley reports.
Vice President Mike Pence brought a “law and order” message to Wisconsin in his second appearance in two weeks, Laura Schulte writes for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A federal judge ruled that key components of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus response strategy were unconstitutional, including temporarily shutting down businesses and limiting how many people can gather in one place, the Philadelphia Inquirer team reports.
Election disruption
The USPS recently sent mailers that make two incorrect recommendations to Nevada voters, the Nevada Independent’s Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez reports.
Delaware’s election commissioner expects most results from tonight’s statewide primary to be completed as usual, even though tens of thousands of ballots were submitted by mail, Delaware State News’ Matt Bittle writes.
More than a century ago, women battled for the right to vote. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Marylynne Pitz has an interactive delving into the story of how local women contributed to the cause.
Battle for Congress
Bryan Lowry reports for the Kansas City Star that a former Kansas Democratic official has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Republican Amanda Adkins, alleging the congressional candidate skirted campaign finance rules in 2019.
Number of the Day
47
Biden and Trump are tied at 47% in North Carolina, according to a new WRAL-TV/SurveyUSA poll.
“Our” troops?
A digital ad by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee called on people to “support our troops.” The problem? It used a stock photo of Russian fighter jets.
For Planning Purposes
Sept. 15
Delaware primary
President Donald Trump participates in an ABC News town hall in Philadelphia, Pa.
Joe Biden travels to Florida
Kamala Harris meets with emergency service personnel in California, then travels to Las Vegas, Nev.
Sept. 16
Biden delivers remarks on developing and distributing a COVID-19 vaccine
Vice President Mike Pence travels to Zanesville, Ohio
Sept. 17
Biden travels to Scranton, Pa. for CNN town hall
Harris travels to Philadelphia, Pa.
A new episode of McClatchy’s Beyond the Bubble is available. Catch up on the latest episode on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
Sept. 18.
Trump visits Bemidji, Minn., and Mosinee, Wis.
Biden travels to Minnesota
Pence travels to Phoenix, Arizona
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 11:59 AM.