Impact2020: September 28, 2020
In today’s Impact2020 briefing, we take a look at whether being “nice” pays off in a presidential race, and the latest assist from Michael Bloomberg in Florida, and Kamala Harris’ first visit to North Carolina as Joe Biden’s running mate.
On the Ground
Capitalizing on ‘nice’
Five weeks out from Election Day, McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers and Alex Roarty examine yet another strategic difference between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s campaigns: how they play up their candidates’ character.
Biden’s campaign has sought to establish the Democratic nominee as a “caring and altogether decent man” in their messaging calling it “an essential part of an overall strategy to make voters feel more comfortable with a former vice president whose life story was still relatively unknown before the race began,” Chambers and Roarty write. Then, Democrats reason, voters will be convinced he can take on the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery.
Credit: Carolyn Kaster, AP
But Trump’s team doesn’t devote much time to doing the same for the president. “We’re electing a president. We’re not electing a guy who you want to go hang out and drink beers with,” said Rick Gorka, a Republican National Committee spokesman.
Rather, the Trump campaign has incorporated his abrasive conduct “into its messaging on the president’s efforts to renegotiate international trade deals and repeated clashes he’s had with foreign leaders.”
For the time being, Biden’s approach appears to be paying off, Chambers and Roarty note. “He holds a broad and consistent lead over Trump in national and battleground state polls, and among voters, many surveys show he’s much more well-liked.”
Another Bloomberg commitment
Michael Bloomberg is giving Biden’s ground game in Florida a boost. The former New York City Mayor and billionaire told the Miami Herald that he plans to spent $4 million on get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of the Democratic nominee in the critical swing state, David Smiley reports.
With mail-in ballots already going out and early voting set to being in three weeks, “Bloomberg is giving $1 million to BlackPAC to turn out Black voters in North and Central Florida, $1.5 million to Somos PAC to turn out Hispanic voters in Central Florida and another $1.5 million to For Our Future PAC to reach voters in ‘areas historically underrepresented at the polls,’” Smiley writes.
Florida Democrats have worried that “the extended absence of a Biden ground game has left a weak spot in his campaign and could burn him in a state where elections can be won by a few hundred votes. Trump’s campaign returned to in-person campaigning months ago, as the president continued to dismiss the severity of the pandemic.”
Bloomberg’s canvassing spending is just part of the $100 million he has committed to beating Trump in Florida. About half of that money has gone towards TV ads intending to reach Black and Hispanic voters.
Carolina bound
As Trump and Biden spend the day preparing for tomorrow’s first presidential debate, Kamala Harris is making her first trip to North Carolina since joining the Democratic ticket, Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan reports for the Raleigh News & Observer.
Harris is slated to give a speech in Raleigh touching on the Supreme Court and health care before participating in a roundtable event focused on Black voters. The VP candidate last visited the state during the Democratic primary in August of last year.
Democrats have been nervous about the absence of an on-the-ground presence in the state. That’s something that the Beyond the Bubble podcast team discusses (as well as what African American voters make of the Biden campaign) in their latest episode. Listen to the discussion on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
Trail Mix
Battleground state watch
Laura Olson of the Allentown Morning Call lays out how each part of Pennsylvania might have an impact on the presidential election.
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Andrew Seidman explores how women in Pittsburgh’s wealthy suburbs could help Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania.
The Daily Record’s Samantha Ickes reports how efforts by Trump supporters to win Amish voters in Ohio could backfire, and how it remains to be seen if outreach efforts help increase the number of Amish voters overall.
A federal judge rejected changes to absentee ballot signature rules in Ohio before the November election, the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Jackie Borchardt reports.
The Raleigh News & Observer’s Will Doran and Danielle Battaglia have the latest on all the board of elections drama in North Carolina.
SCOTUS watch
Democrats are quietly debating how forcefully to question Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s religious views during her confirmation hearing only a few weeks ahead of the election, Francesca Chambers and Michael Wilner report for McClatchy.
The Kansas City Star’s Bryan Lowry details how the Supreme Court battle has intensified the abortion debate in the U.S. Senate race in Kansas between GOP Rep. Roger Marshall and Democrat Barbara Bollier.
Number of the Day
1
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham leads Democrat Jaime Harrison by just one point, 45% to 44%, in the South Carolina Senate race, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll. The State’s Joseph Bustos breaks it all down.
His first endorsement
You smelled what The Rock was cookin’. Now you get to see who he’s voting for in this video.
For Planning Purposes
Sept. 28
Kamala Harris visits Raleigh, N.C.
Sept. 29
The first presidential debate takes place
Sept. 30
Joe Biden travels to Ohio and Pennsylvania
Oct. 1
Vice President Mike Pence travels to Iowa
Oct. 2
President Donald Trump visits Sanford, Fla.
Oct. 7
The vice-presidential debate takes place
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This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 12:03 PM.