Politics
Black women voters’ top issue shouldn’t surprise anyone
Over the past few weeks, BLN legal analyst Melissa Murray and I traveled across the country to explore what Black women from the cities to the suburbs are thinking about in the upcoming election. In every conversation, the economy came up as their top concern. They want to know the person they support has a plan to address their needs.
In this election, Vice President Kamala Harris is the only candidate who fits that bill.
On Wednesday, the vice president detailed her economic agenda with a speech and an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle in Pittsburgh. From a campaign perspective, she hit all the marks one would want from a candidate in appearances like these. She was personable. Though she rarely speaks publicly about caring for her mother after her cancer diagnosis, she went into details that anyone who has had to care for a loved one could identify with.
This level of accessibility is crucial and could make a difference among undecided voters.
Importantly, Harris also spoke in great detail about her plans, but one didn’t need to be an economist to follow the conversation. Her explanation of how her plan to provide $25,000 in down-payment assistance to first-time homeowners would serve as a path forward to build intergenerational wealth was reasonable. When she spoke of her plan to boost a tax deduction for small businesses to $50,000, she made the connection to how that helps startups get off the ground. This level of accessibility is crucial and could make a difference among undecided voters.
In Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, Melissa and I spoke with a young voter named Clarke who just finished her master’s degree. She told us that out of 20 classmates, just four were able to land jobs after graduation and that many young people are at a moment when they are being crushed by inflation. Voters like Clarke understand the stakes in this election and are searching for real solutions to ease their economic pain.
Blue Bell is an affluent suburb of Philadelphia that both presidential candidates have targeted. Democrats have made gains there, netting 40,000 more votes in 2020 than they did in 2016 — a big reason Joe Biden carried the state in the last election. This is a suburb where the margins will matter, and how Black voters and younger voters overall show up to the polls could determine not only the winner of the state, but possibly the entire election.
On the campaign trail, Harris has been building the framework to help voters like Clarke. Harris calls it her “opportunity economy.” Notably, she doesn’t just say the phrase; she explains what it means for people in their lives. Her plan is to increase financial security for all Americans, no matter their backgrounds. In her speech this week to the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, Harris focused on growing America’s workforce. She connected her vision to her own middle-class upbringingeffortlessly delivering her plans for practical goals that would push America into a brighter tomorrow.
While Harris laid out her economic policies, she also didn’t miss an opportunity to needle her opponent. During her BLN interview, Harris said former President Donald Trump is “just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues. And one must be serious and have a plan, and a real plan, that’s not just about some talking point ending in an exclamation at a political rally.”
The small-government conservatives where I grew up in Nebraska will tell you that isn’t likely to work.
Harris and Trump have very different visions of how to run the most powerful economy in the world. Frankly, when it comes to Trump’s economic vision, it isn’t hard to flush out. He is, as The New York Times’ Jim Tankersley puts it, using a “hammer and bullhorn” approach. He wants to force companies to lower prices, without a clear understanding of how the markets work, and then somehow tariff his way to economic prosperity. The small-government conservatives where I grew up in Nebraska will tell you that isn’t likely to work.
Trump’s economic pitch is so disconnected from reality that even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blasted Trump’s tariff proposals as a price hike for American consumers.
Earlier this month, Trump was asked what he would do to tackle the high cost of child care. His response was an incoherent rant about tariffs on China — a nonsensical answer that didn’t list a single solution. He has shown to voters he doesn’t understand the realities of child care in America, one of the biggest costs for families. In contrast, Harris’ plan is clear and simple to understand: Expand the child tax credit.
And we all know Trump doesn’t have a plan to lower costs of health care. Instead, he claims to have a concept of a plan. Dii, a North Carolina voter Melissa and I spoke with in Washington, D.C., said a plan for affordable health care will be on her mind when she casts her ballot. Voters are paying attention.
I think voters tend to give Republicans the benefit of the doubt on the economy because for years they have just claimed to be better, although they were never good at backing it up with actual policy. This November, unspecified “concepts” just won’t cut it with Black women.
Harris and Trump aren’t the only candidates on the ballot this November. Eleven states will select new governors, control of the U.S. Senate is on the line, and every member of the U.S. House of Representatives is up for re-election. For candidates up and down the ballot, strong turnout from Black women could make the difference in victory or defeat.
Black women are often spoken of as the backbone of the Democratic Party. They are definitely consistent when it comes to showing up to vote, but their vote isn’t owned by one political party. It needs to be earned. And for Black women concerned about the economy, Harris has done a lot to earn it.
“Black Women in America: The Road to 2024” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on BLN. It will be available to stream on Peacock the following day.
Symone D. Sanders-Townsend is an author and a co-host of “The Weekend,” which airs Saturdays and Sundays at 8 a.m. ET on BLN. She is a former deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and a former senior adviser to and chief spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris.
WASILLA, Alaska — Three weeks out from Election Day, President Donald Trump took a helicopter to a plane to another helicopter to a motorcade to an ice hockey rink in Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna Valley, traversing nearly 4,000 miles over more than eight hours to turn out his base here to help Republicans defend the Senate.
But Trump’s trek might not be enough to save Sen. Dan Sullivan, who’s running in a tougher-than-expected race against Democrat Mary Peltola in a state where the president’s approval rating is underwater and independents outnumber both Republicans and Democrats.
Alaska strategists and voters who spoke to Blue Light News acknowledged that Sullivan faces a difficult path to reelection, despite Trump’s time investment and the outside money pouring in.
“Very conservative MAGA voters can’t vote for you harder,” said Scott Kendall, a veteran political strategist who worked on two of Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaigns and was chief of staff to former Alaska Gov. Bill Walker. “Donald Trump’s support in this current climate is both a blessing and a curse.”
Even some Trump supporters at the Tuesday night rally admitted the outlook appeared bleak.
“I think Alaska’s turning blue,” said Matt Niessink, a 45-year-old general contractor from Wasilla. He said he had voted for Trump three times and planned to support Republicans this year.
What did he wish the president would do differently? “I wish he’d shut his mouth sometimes and not be such a pompous ass,” Niessink said.
The president was in Wasilla — population 10,556 — because the outlook is darkening for his party in a state he carried by 13 points just two years ago. In a midterm year defined by the cost of gas and groceries, the Last Frontier has been hit particularly hard, with the average price of diesel nearing $7 per gallon. In the Senate race, Peltola is flush with cash and leads Sullivan in most polls. MAGA Inc., the cash-rich Trump-aligned super PAC, is increasingly focusing on Alaska as one in a slate of states that can help Republicans hold the Senate.
Enter Trump, who has been spending the cycle’s crucial final weeks holding rallies in red states to juice support among his base, which tends to see depressed turnout in years when he’s not on the ballot.
“That was a lot of flying,” the president said at the top of his remarks. “In fact, they were thinking about canceling. They said, ‘Sir, you’re very busy, this is very tough.’” But, Trump continued, he refused to cancel for a state he won three times.
Echoing his comments at other red-state rallies, Trump asked the roaring crowd for “one big favor” — to “pretend that I’m on the ballot, because every time I’ve been on the ballot, we win.” He repeated his promise that Americans will receive $5,000 dividends if Republicans hold both chambers.
“What this is about is getting out the vote,” Sullivan told reporters before Trump’s speech. “A rising tide of enthusiasm lifts all the candidates.”
Unlike some other Republican candidates in tight races, Sullivan has shied away from distancing himself from the least popular aspects of Trump’s presidency.
Sullivan proclaimed on stage at the rally that “the conflict in the Middle East is temporary. The true forever war is the national Democrats’ war against Alaska oil and gas and our jobs.” And although a campaign aide released a statement condemning Trump’s move to import Russian diesel, Sullivan did not join four of his Republican Senate colleagues, including Murkowski, who called on Trump to reverse the decision.
Art Hackney, a veteran Republican strategist in Alaska, said that “most of the people who support” Sullivan “think that he should” break more with the president.
Hackney, who runs a pro-Sullivan super PAC called “We Stand with Dan,” attributed that choice to loyalty — but suggested the president’s demand of fealty, and treatment of frequent dissenter Murkowski, could also be part of Sullivan’s calculus.
“A lot of his longtime supporters and the people who are in the industries that would benefit from that wish he would be more blunt,” Hackney said. “But with what Murkowski has done, if Dan did something considered a disrespectful trigger or something, what do you think would happen? It could well have implications for things that affect Alaska’s economy.”
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Some top congressional Republicans have privately concluded that it is likely impossible for them to keep control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, and they are now focused on limiting the scale of the defeat and salvaging the party’s Senate majority.
Five senior Republican lawmakers, all granted anonymity to speak candidly about their party’s dire position, told Blue Light News the House had all but slipped away.
One senior House Republican said the GOP’s goal at this point was to “save as many Republican seats as we can.” The president, this person said, was not helping.
“President Trump has made this election all about himself,” the lawmaker said. “Now we have to survive that political storm.”
A second Republican member of Congress said the movement of campaign advertising made plain which side was in control of the midterms. This lawmaker predicted Democrats would pick up about 10 seats, more than enough to take control of the chamber.
Even in newly redistricted red states like Florida and Texas, this person said, Republican candidates were “hanging on with their fingernails.”
Republicans have already fallen back from several contested House districts that they feel are no longer winnable, including those held by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey. Trump carried their districts just two years ago. The party last week gave up on an Omaha-based district held by retiring Rep. Don Bacon.
Trump officials and other top GOP operatives say more candidates may be cut off in the coming days, in order to shift advertising money to races where it can make more of a difference. Republican groups have already given up on multiple races where they once hoped to unseat Democratic lawmakers.
The Republican Party is under extreme pressure across the Midwest, where it is now spending heavily to defend Senate seats in once-reliably MAGA states like Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.
Bacon, a maverick often at odds with the White House, said there was no mystery in his party’s political tribulations.
“I’ve talked to some who are making these decisions: The biggest problem is the president’s polling numbers and unfavorables,” Bacon said.
White House officials insist they’re not giving up on either chamber of Congress. In a statement, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said Trump remained “committed to maintaining Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.”
As he departed on Tuesday to campaign in Alaska for embattled GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, Trump professed optimism about the midterms but acknowledged that sitting presidents typically see their party lose seats in the off year.
“But I’m doing a tour right now and I’m doing rallies,” Trump added. “The level of enthusiasm for the Republican Party is way up.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson went even further, flatly declaring during a campaign stop in deep-red Texas that “the polling is wrong” in showing his party on the brink of a broad defeat.
Yet at a tactical level, the Republican Party’s moves to shift money away from defending the House and toward saving the Senate are clear enough. In recent days, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the top super PAC for House Republicans, canceled advertising for key House candidates in Nebraska and Iowa and allowed the Senate Leadership Fund – a Republican group focused on the upper chamber – to swoop in and claim the airtime to support Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for Senate in Iowa.
“These are not the moves of a party that’s going to keep the House,” a third Republican lawmaker said.
In statements to Blue Light News, both CLF and the National Republican Congressional Committee said they had no intention of giving up on the fight for control of the House.
NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella said districts are won “one by one,” and that the GOP has “the financial firepower and ground game needed to win.”
Chris Winkelman, president of CLF, said his group would keep moving money around to maximize the impact nationally.
The goal, he said, was to “keep the pressure on the most vulnerable Democrats and preserve a path to 218 seats.”
Former Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Florida Republican who lost his swing seat in Trump’s first midterm election eight years ago, said his former colleagues were clear-eyed about where the election seemed to be headed.
“The environment is about as tough as one could expect,” Curbelo said. “There is no one who has privately stated that they believe Republicans can hold the House — not in recent weeks, anyway.”
Megan Messerly, Lauren Fedor, Lisa Kashinsky and Myah Ward contributed to this report.
Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff said Tuesday he will not run for president in 2028 and committed to serving a full six-year Senate term if reelected.
“I have zero interest in running for president. I’m not running for president. I’m running for reelection to the Senate,” Ossoff said during a Georgia Senate debate against Republican Rep. Mike Collins.
Asked by Greg Bluestein of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution whether he would serve his full term if he wins in November, Ossoff replied: “Yes, I will.”
The remarks are Ossoff’s most forceful rejection yet of a potential 2028 presidential bid even as his name has repeatedly surfaced in national Democrats’ conversations about possible contenders for the party’s nomination. His public commitment to a full Senate term on Tuesday is the latest of his campaign’s many efforts to tamp down that speculation.
Ossoff gained national attention this year given his strong fundraising numbers, his consistent lead in public polling against Collins and his ability to generate viral moments on the campaign trail, particularly through his attacks on President Donald Trump. Democrats are bullish about Ossoff’s ability to hold onto his Senate seat — so much so that the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC said Tuesday it was removing its ad spending in Georgia for the week.
He’s also taken steps to boost the state Democratic party in Georgia, a perennial battleground that has been and will be key to winning the presidency. If November brings historic wins up and down the ballot, Ossoff will get some of the credit — and he’ll have confirmed his status as a leader in the swing state.
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