Impact2020: September 25, 2020

In today’s Impact2020 briefing, Donald Trump is expressing support for a new federal holiday as part of his pitch to Black voters, Joe Biden is making inroads with white Catholics in the Rust Belt, and North Carolina Republicans are raising concerns over the state’s mail voting changes.

On the Ground

Trump focuses on race

President Donald Trump will pursue establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday, a top adviser told McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers.

Trump had previously declined to endorse a legislative push to make Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery, but is now making it a part of his outreach to Black voters ahead of the election.

Trump adviser Ja’Ron Smith said the president made the decision after listening “to a lot of different stakeholders who have championed it being very important in the community.” Trump is traveling to Atlanta today to deliver a speech that will provide new details on the president’s agenda for Black America, Smith said.

A two-page document the Trump campaign provided in advance of the speech not only mentioned the holiday but, “listed efforts on criminal justice reforms and changes to health care aimed at addressing historic inequalities,” Chambers writes.

The move comes after Trump signed an executive order banning what he called “divisive” diversity training for every federal agency and contractors that does business with the federal government. McClatchy’s Tara Copp reports that the order may affect Pentagon’s recent efforts to diversify its ranks.

Biden focuses on faith

As Joe Biden tries to cut into Trump’s base in battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, he’s focusing on white Catholic voters, including those who oppose abortion, McClatchy’s Adam Wollner reports.

“Biden’s aides and allies are betting that most Catholics will be more motivated by the former vice president’s character — and a distaste for the current president — than any one issue, which they think will give them an edge in key Rust Belt battlegrounds where these voters play an outsized role,” explains Wollner.

“Persuadable Catholics tend to be multi-issue voters. That’s who we’re really targeting,” John McCarthy, the Biden campaign’s deputy political director. McCarthy said that he believes Biden can win the Catholic vote overall.

While an analysis from the Pew Research Center shows that Trump won the overall Catholic vote by 7 points and the white Catholic vote by 23 points in 2016, recent polling has suggested Trump’s support is slipping with the voting bloc. And Biden held narrow leads with all Catholic voters in recent polling from NBC/Marist in Pennsylvania and the Marquette University Law School in Wisconsin, notes Wollner. “That matters because, in those two swing states, Catholics make up roughly one-quarter of the electorate,” writes Wollner.

“If the election was held today, Joe Biden would be elected due in large part to strength with Catholics,” said Michael Wear, who directed faith outreach for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. “If Trump loses the white Catholic vote, he will lose the election.”

Mail voting controversy in NC

Two days after saying he had so much faith in the process that he challenged his Democratic opponent to vote by mail, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said Thursday he has “grave concerns” about North Carolina’s absentee balloting system, Brian Murphy reports for the Raleigh News & Observer.

The timing of this apparent reversal “comes after the North Carolina State Board of Elections unanimously agreed Tuesday to a tentative settlement outlining a series of changes to the absentee by-mail system” and the board’s Republican members resigned, Murphy notes.

Credit: Travis Long, The News & Observer

Tillis said: “I’m telling you, we are setting ourselves up for a horrible outcome, and the people in North Carolina now have to wonder whether or not the absentee ballot system, which had integrity up until yesterday, is now swept into a nationwide attempt to really create civil unrest and questions about whether or not the election was fair.”

In North Carolina, more than 1 million mail ballot requests have been made, and nearly 200,000 have already been returned. Tillis said that he received an absentee ballot and filled it out.

Meanwhile, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest is asking the Trump administration to launch an investigation into the mail voting changes, the News & Observer’s Will Doran reports.

For more on North Carolina: The Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill joins McClatchy’s Kristin Roberts and Alex Roarty to break down the presidential and Senate races in the battleground state on the latest episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast. Download it on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts

Trail Mix

Battleground state watch

• Trump promoted an “America First Healthcare” plan during his fifth visit to North Carolina in a month. The Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill, Lauren Lindstrom and Tim Funk have the details.

• The Miami Herald’s Kirby Wilson has a dispatch from Trump’s Jacksonville, Fla., rally, where he “repeated dozens of familiar claims, many of them exaggerated or outright false.”

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tamar Hallerman and Greg Bluestein examine how both campaigns are zeroing in on suburban women in Atlanta.

Election disruption

• McClatchy’s Michael Wilner and Francesca Chambers write that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is facing a “nightmare scenario” with a vacancy on the court occurring with potential legal election challenges looming.

• Following a federal appeals court ruling, South Carolina voters voting absentee will be required to have a witness signature on their ballot, The State’s John Monk reports.

• Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will perform his duties virtually for the next 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19 this week, Bryan Lowry reports for the Kansas City Star.

Battle for Congress

• The election in Minnesota’s 2nd congressional district election has been postponed until February after the death of the Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate, Jessie Van Berkel reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Number of the Day

61%

That’s how many Americans support abolishing the Electoral College, according to a new Gallup poll.

History made

The late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first woman to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol. And her personal trainer was there to pay his respects — and do push-ups.

Credit: C-SPAN

For Planning Purposes

Sept. 25

President Donald Trump visits to Florida, Georgia and Virginia

Sept. 28

Kamala Harris travels to Raleigh, North Carolina

Sept. 29

The first presidential debate takes place

Sept. 30

Vice President Mike Pence travels to Atlanta, Ga.

Oct. 1

Pence travels to Iowa

Oct. 7

The vice presidential debate takes place

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This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 12:25 PM.