Tag: 2020 election

Foiled in 2016, ‘Never Trump’ Republicans launch new super PAC in effort to oust Trump in 2020

Washington Post logoSeveral prominent Republicans who have loudly opposed President Trump launched a major fundraising campaign Tuesday to try to help beat him in 2020, vowing that cold, hard cash will be more effective in blunting him than the public warnings from the failed “Never Trump” movement three years ago.

In a New York Times op-ed, the group — which includes lawyer George T. Conway and former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt — announced the formation of the Lincoln Project, a super PAC aimed at persuading enough disaffected conservatives and independents in swing states to tip the vote against Trump and defeat pro-Trump congressional candidates, even at risk of losing Republican control of the Senate.

Organizers said they plan to begin purchasing television and digital ads in January.

“Our efforts will be dedicated to defeating President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box and to elect those patriots who will hold the line,” Conway and Schmidt wrote in the editorial, also signed by Republican operatives John Weaver and Rick Wilson. “Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain, but our shared fidelity to the Constitution dictates a common effort.” Continue reading

Trump slams debate commission, raising questions about his participation

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Monday hammered the Commission on Presidential Debates, raising questions about his participation in debates next year with the eventual Democratic presidential nominee.

The president, in a trio of tweets, said he looked forward to debating “whoever the lucky person is who stumbles across the finish line” in the Democratic primary.

But he chastised the nonprofit commission responsible for organizing the presidential debates and suggested he might avoid them. That group has scheduled three general election debates next year.

Continue reading

America Decides

Center for American Progress logoHow Voters Think About the Economy, Government, and Poverty Ahead of the 2020 Election

Introduction and summary

The 2020 presidential election cycle will be one of the most consequential in U.S. history. Although electoral outcomes often turn on candidate evaluations or social and cultural choices unrelated to public policy, voters in the upcoming year will likely confront a choice between two competing visions of domestic policy that could shape America’s economy and society for a generation. Will voters opt to continue President Donald Trump’s and congressional Republicans’ approach of large tax cuts, deregulation, tariffs, and increased restrictions on health care and other assistance programs? Or will voters choose to go in a different direction, backing the eventual Democratic nominee’s and congressional Democrats’ plans for increased taxation on the wealthy, greater scrutiny and regulation of corporations, and expanded health care access and income assistance efforts? Alternatively, will a potential split decision by voters lead to ongoing divided government and continued haphazard approaches to domestic and economic policy by leaders built less on clear ideological choices and more on institutional and partisan bargaining?

Answers to these big political questions first require a deeper sense of what voters actually believe about the current state of the nation’s economy; their own personal economic situations; and their views on a range of complex issues related to the government and governing, social policy, and anti-poverty efforts. In order to better understand the landscape for policymaking, the Center for American Progress and Health Care for America Now, in partnership with the public opinion firm GBAO, designed a comprehensive national survey to provide analysts, activists, journalists, and practitioners with concrete empirical data about the views of the American electorate ahead of the 2020 election.

Overall, despite low unemployment and other positive macroeconomic indicators, the study finds voters are conflicted in their evaluations of the national economic situation; President Trump’s economic stewardship; and in terms of their own personal economic situations and exposure to hardship, with large partisan and demographic divides emerging on many key questions. When it comes to basic attitudes about the economy and public policy—disconnected from the president himself—the study finds wider consensus around the need for active governmental policies to reduce poverty and expand economic opportunity, address health care access and costs, improve education and infrastructure, curb corporate power, and tax the super wealthy. Voters split more over theoretical debates about fighting inequality, the relative role of the private and public sectors in job creation, regulation, and the effectiveness of government action in addressing social problems. Likewise, Democratic and Republican voters express divergent opinions about the proper level of federal taxation and in terms of their personal willingness to pay more in taxes to expand health care. In addition, the study finds strong support across party lines for economic narratives focused on “taking back our government from wealthy special interests”; making sure government “works for all people”; and finding political leadership committed to “uniting people” around “simple goals we all share.”

Join the Organizing Corp 2020

Organizing Corps 2020 just launched their applications for their Bootcamps & Immersion paid training programs! Organizing Corps 2020 is recruiting and training the next generation of organizers for the general election and they’re headed to Minnesota this March.  You can learn more and access the application using this link! Would appreciate you helping us spread the word so we can build the local and diverse organizing force we need to take back the White House and win up and down the ticket in 2020.

Why do so many people believe Trump will win?

Presidential challengers never look strong, until they do

ANALYSIS — I often hear people predicting President Donald Trump’s reelection. Some are conservatives and Trump supporters who echo the president’s unfailing optimism. But others are Democrats who can’t resist embracing a gloom-and-doom scenario.

I usually ask those people why they think Trump will win a second term.

They sometimes mention Russia or the makeup of the Democratic field or the economy. Often, they point out that Trump’s base remains solid and that angry white men will carry him to a second term.

Continue reading here.

The Memo: Trump faces uphill 2020 climb

The Hill logoPresident Trump is a slight underdog to win a second term with less than a year to go before the 2020 election.

The president is saddled with low approval ratings nationally and weaknesses with key voting groups. Trump’s approval ratings are mired in the low 40s, and he may remain the first president since modern polling began whose favorability number has never been above 50 percent in a Gallup poll.

Trump’s fiery and impulsive style appeals to members of his core Make America Great Again base, who continue to pack large arenas for his campaign rallies. But it costs him badly among other segments of the electorate.

Continue reading here.

 

2 big things that could save or sink Trump in 2020

It’s one of several nightmare scenarios for markets: A Trump administration failure to complete the China and USMCA trade deals could wreck the 2020 economic outlook. But Trump’s team remains optimistic.

President Donald Trump needs two big achievements to keep markets and the economy as glittering assets in his challenging 2020 reelection bid: passage of a new NAFTA and a trade deal with China.

But Democrats are stringing him along on the first — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — and he’s engaged in a seemingly endless rope-a-dope with China on the second with no guarantee of success. That’s left the economy as a major wild card for next year.

Businesses are sitting on cash instead of making investments. Growth is stalled at around 2 percent and expected to slow. Jobs numbers are decent but far from “yuge.” And big campaign promises remain unfulfilled. Even Trump’s most ardent supporters acknowledge the president’s reelection bid would face enormous risks if the economy turns down next year.

View the complete November 29 article by Ben White on the Politico website here.

You can join the effort to expose Twitter bots

In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, more than 10,000 automated Twitter accounts got caught conducting a coordinated campaign of tweets to discourage people from voting. These automated accounts may seem authentic to some, but a tool called Botometer was able to identify them while they pretentiously argued and agreed, for example, that “democratic men who vote drown out the voice of women.” We are part of the team that developed this tool that detects the bot accounts on social media.

Our next effort, called BotSlayer, is aimed at helping journalists and the general public spot these automated social media campaigns while they are happening.

It’s the latest step in our research laboratory’s work over the past few years. At Indiana University’s Observatory on Social Media, we are uncovering and analyzing how false and misleading information spreads online.

View the complete November 27 article by Pik-Mai Hui, Ph.D. Student in Information and Network Science at Indiana University, and Christopher Torres-Lugo, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science at Indiana University, on the Conversation website here.

GOP braces for Democratic spending onslaught in battle for Senate

The Hill logoNational Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Todd Young (R-Ind.) is warning his colleagues to brace for a spending deluge from fired-up Democrats in what’s becoming an increasingly competitive battle for the Senate.

GOP senators have outraised their Democratic challengers and the NRSC has brought in more than the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), but third-quarter fundraising shows the momentum is beginning to shift.

One senator who attended a meeting last week where Young addressed the Senate Republican Conference about the 2020 fundraising landscape said there is “concern” Democrats could pull ahead.

View the complete November 26 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Independents souring on impeachment underscores risk for Democrats

The Hill logoNew public opinion polls are moving against Democrats on impeachment as independents sour on the House inquiry and increasingly express opposition to the hearings that have consumed Washington in recent weeks.

The new data comes as a surprise to Democrats, many of whom believe witnesses have offered damning testimony about President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

Witnesses have testified that Trump pressed Ukraine’s leaders to conduct investigations of the energy company Burisma Holdings — which was seen as code for probes of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, given the younger Biden’s work for the company as a board member.

There has also been testimony that security aid for Ukraine was delayed to put more pressure on that country’s government. Other witnesses have castigated Trump for pursuing conspiracy theories that Ukraine and not Russia was a major player in electoral interference in 2016.

View the complete November 24 article by Jonathan Easley on The Hill website here.