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North Carolina teen goes viral after registering people to vote while they waited in line at Popeyes

A North Carolina teenager is going viral online for his unique approach to help boost voter engagement in his community.

In photos being shared across the internet, 17-year-old David Ledbetter of Charlotte can be seen with a group of other people distributing voter registration documents and sample ballots to people as they waited in long lines at a local Popeyes over the weekend.

Stephanie Sneed, an attorney who reportedly helped Ledbetter in the voter registration effort on Saturday, told CNN that she and the teen both thought of the idea.

"We had been talking about the great chicken sandwich debate. We came up with the idea to go to Popeyes because of the large number of people waiting in lines," Sneed, who is also running for a seat on the local school board, said.

"We were seeing how long the lines were [at Popeyes] and figured we would try to go get individuals to vote," Ledbetter told the news agency on Tuesday. "I was just hoping that the individuals would register to vote."



https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/459019-north-carolina-teen-goes-viral-after-registering-people-to-vote

Tulsi Gabbard tells Fox News host Tucker Carlson that DNC debate criteria isn't transparent

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is among the many Democratic presidential candidates who did not qualify for September’s debate round by yesterday’s deadline.

Now, she says that the criteria for making the debate stage “lacks transparency.”

Gabbard told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that “the whole thing gets a little bit confusing and you’ve got to jump way down into the weeds of the numbers and the statistics, but I think the bigger problem is that the whole process really lacks transparency.”

The Democratic National Committee sets rules for candidates in order to qualify for each debate. While the first two rounds saw 20 candidates each, split into two nights of 10, the Sept. 12 debate criteria resulted in a much narrower pool. The guidelines for the third debate were announced in May, and 10 candidates qualified.

Candidates needed to receive donations from at least 130,000 unique donors, coming from at least 20 different states with at least 400 donors per state. And, candidates needed to poll at 2% or higher in at least four qualifying national or early primary state surveys.




https://news.yahoo.com/tulsi-gabbard-tells-fox-news-180039448.html

Beto O'Rourke Coming to Campaign for Virginia Democratic Candidates

Beto O’Rourke to make Campaign Stop in Roanoke County

Presidential candidate, Beto O’Rourke, will be making a campaign stop in Roanoke this Friday at Wine Gourmet, a local small business owned by Brian Powell, candidate to represent Cave Spring on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors. Beto and Brian will be joined by other local Democratic candidates and elected officials.

“This stop by a presidential campaign goes to show that local issues matter and small business issues matter,” said Brian Powell. “Our conversations need to extend beyond Roanoke County, as we are part of the bigger picture. We can’t let our regional boundaries, our economic boundaries, or our political boundaries stop us from engaging at all levels. Beto O’Rourke’s decision to stop in Southwest Virginia goes to show, politics isn’t all about DC, it is about our smaller communities, our residents, and the issues that impact their daily lives.”
Event Details

Location: Wine Gourmet, 3524 Electric Road, Roanoke, VA 24018
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm




https://bluevirginia.us/2019/08/beto-orourke-coming-to-campaign-for-virginia-democratic-candidates-in-fairfax-station-roanoke-county-bland-county

Election 2019: DLCC Completes $1 Million Commitment to Virginia Democrats

WASHINGTON — With a little more than two months until Virginia’s elections, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has completed its early investment pledge of $1 million to flip the General Assembly blue.

“The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is committed to flipping the Virginia General Assembly blue,” said DLCC President Jessica Post. “We made huge gains in 2017 and this November, we’re going to do whatever it takes to win both chambers in Richmond.”

Democrats are just two seats away in each the state House and Senate from gaining a trifecta government in Virginia — where Republicans haven’t won a statewide campaign in more than a decade. Flipping the state would decimate the Virginia GOP and prevent Republicans from gerrymandering the state’s congressional districts.

The early investment pledge from the DLCC gave Virginia Democrats a head start in hiring staff, recruiting a record number of candidates and building campaign infrastructure across the state. It also sent a clear signal to partner organizations that Democrats could flip both chambers of the General Assembly, leading to record donations and support.

“Early support this year from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has put us on a clear path to flip both chambers of the General Assembly this November,” said House Democratic Leader Eileen Filler-Corn. “With their help, Virginia Democrats are going to invest in our schools, protect health care and finally pass commonsense gun safety legislation.”

On the other side of the aisle, national Republicans are retreating from the commonwealth and the Republican State Leadership Committee has donated just half a million dollars to Virginia Republicans.




https://bluevirginia.us/2019/08/dlcc-completes-1-million-commitment-to-virginia-democrats

WV-GOV: Manchin leads GOP incumbent Justice by 10 points

The MetroNews Dominion Post West Virginia survey found that 49 percent of respondents said they would vote for Manchin compared to 39 percent who said they would vote for Justice, according to the local newspaper, with 12 percent unsure.

The paper reported that Manchin would announce after Labor Day whether he would run for governor, a position he previously held from 2005 to 2010. If he departs the Senate, it could determine which party controls the chamber after the 2020 election.

The poll of 501 registered voters was conducted by Research America Inc. Aug. 14-22. It has an overall confidence interval of 4.4 percentage points with 95 percent confidence level.

"If Senator Manchin were to enter the governor’s race and be the Democratic nominee, there’s no question he has historically strong support in the state. And generally his positions on issues resonate with West Virginia voters,” Research America President Rex Repass told MetroNews.

Manchin has expressed frustration with the lack of bipartisanship in Congress and noted that supporters have indicated he should run for governor.

“I have people back home that want me to come back and run for governor. We’re looking at all the different plays. I want to make sure whatever time I have left in public service is productive,” he told The Hill earlier this year.



https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/459438-west-virginia-governor-poll-joe-manchin-leads-gop-incumbent-jim-justice

IA-SEN: Iowa Democrats stress rural roots as they vie to take on Sen. Joni Ernst

GREENFIELD, Iowa — Facing a group of Democrats gathered in a brick park shelter here, Theresa Greenfield pitched herself as the best candidate to take on Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.

“I am a businesswoman, and I am a mother of four, and I am a farm girl,” the real estate executive told attendees at the Adair County Democratic Party potluck earlier this month.

Greenfield is a top candidate in the race to take on Ernst, who is running for a second term in a state President Donald Trump carried by 9 points in 2016. Despite the backing of national and local Democrats, however, she doesn’t have the primary to herself. Challenging her are a familiar foe, a Navy vice admiral and a liberal lawyer.

The crowded presidential race may be capturing most Iowans’ attention, but after the February caucuses conclude, the focus will shift to the June primary battle to take on Ernst, who burst on to the national scene five years ago as a farm girl with military credentials.



https://www.rollcall.com/news/campaigns/democrats-stress-rural-roots-vie-take-iowa-sen-joni-ernst

Republicans Facing a Rough Road in the House

With Democrats marching to the left in the presidential primary, and new, progressive faces in Congress rising to prominence, some Republicans are confident in their relative standing. But they’ve got a difficult path to the House majority in 2020.

Republicans may dismiss a loss in the redo election in North Carolina next month or even celebrate Michigan Rep. Justin Amash’s decision to leave the GOP, but both scenarios raise their threshold for a majority. Republicans need a net gain of 19 or 20 seats next November.

The good news for Republicans is that, going back more than 60 years, the president’s party gained House seats in the last seven elections when a president ran for re-election. The bad news is that those gains usually followed a midterm in which the president’s party suffered heavy losses. In fact, the subsequent presidential cycle gains never amounted to more than 14 seats.

While Republicans are excited about the prospect of President Donald Trump energizing Republican voters, the political environment hasn’t changed much from the midterm elections, when Democrats gained 40 seats. According to the Real Clear Politics average as of Thursday, Democrats held a 9-point advantage on the generic ballot. Before the 2018 election, they held an 8-point advantage.



https://memberful-files-production.s3.amazonaws.com/site-7021/attachment/file/9310/Political_08-30-2019.pdf?X-Amz-Expires=600&X-Amz-Date=20190830T214236Z&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAJGVDG3F4HKIFPC7A/20190830/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=198b986d71e703a038a448c4384d71fac1003f7f5f4272e73e8426df139fe2ac

NC-09: McCready Has Edge In North Carolina Do-Over Election

A new poll in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district finds Dan McCready (D) leading Dan Bishop (R) in the do-over congressional race from last year, 46% to 42%, with two third party candidates receiving a combined 3 percent.

When leaners are included, McCready’s advantage extends to 49% to 44%.



https://politicalwire.com/2019/08/30/mccready-has-edge-in-north-carolina-do-over-election/

New Dem. Michigan Attorney General announces 13 payroll fraud felonies

As Michigan Democrats continue taking aim at the issue of payroll fraud, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Wednesday that her office charged 13 felonies as part of its clampdown on the issue.

The attorney general’s office said it charged Lansing small business owner Camron Gnass with multiple counts of larceny, conducting a criminal enterprise and other charges.

Gnass allegedly did not deposit money into his employee’s retirement accounts. He told the Lansing State Journal it was an “accounting error.“Employees putting money aside for their retirement shouldn’t have to think twice about whether that money made it into their savings accounts,” Nessel said in a statement. “When businesses exploit their workers by cheating them out of their hard-earned money, families have less in their pockets and an uncertain future. This has gone on for far too long and Michigan isn’t waiting any longer to crack down on payroll fraud crimes.”

In April, Nessel formed a “Payroll Fraud Enforcement Unit” to investigate claims of such fraud, which usually takes the form of employee misclassification, failure to pay overtime and outright wage theft.

Prior to Labor Day weekend, members in both the state House and Senate announced on Thursday several bills aimed at increasing protections for worker classification that they say can allow businesses to misclassify employees and pay them less.

As the Advance has previously reported, such practices cost Michigan workers about $429 million in lost wages between just 2013 and 2015, according to a 2017 report by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning policy think tank in Washington, D.C.


https://www.michiganadvance.com/blog/ag-announces-13-payroll-fraud-felonies/?utm_source=Michigan+Advance&utm_campaign=05e0e97858-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_08_02_11_46_COPY_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ca709f2c15-05e0e97858-93965079