CA-25: Battle for Key Congressional Seat Held by GOP is A Virtual Tie, Democratic Poll Says

A key congressional seat in California lost by Democrats during a special election earlier this year that they hope to regain this Fall is at a virtual tie, according to an internal Democratic poll obtained by Newsweek.

Democratic State Assemblywoman Christy Smith is trailing her GOP incumbent opponent, Rep. Mike Garcia, by just one point—45 percent to 46 percent—in California's 25th Congressional District.

The poll was conducted by the Democratic firm Global Strategy Group from August 26-30 among 400 likely voters. It has a margin of error or plus or minus 4.9 percent.

The seat is high on Democrats' radar, having lost it in a special election in May after Rep. Katie Hill (D) resigned over a sex scandal. And the district that encompasses Los Angeles and Ventura Counties is one that Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump in by nearly seven points back in 2016, a seat that Democrats feel is theirs for the picking.




https://www.newsweek.com/battle-key-california-congressional-seat-held-gop-virtual-tie-democratic-poll-says-1529569

Texas Assistant AG who sent bigoted, QAnon-promoting tweets loses job

The same day a Media Matters report came out detailing violent, bigoted tweets posted by Texas Assistant Attorney General Nick Moutos, a spokeswoman for the office said he no longer works there.

The spokeswoman did not provide a reason for Moutos' departure, nor respond to questions about whether the tweets played any role.

Moutos, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment, had been working in the office since 2017 and was paid $100,652, according to the Texas Tribune salary guide, which pulls from state records.

The attorney, who lost a race for the 35th Congressional District in the Republican primary, has supported QAnon, a right-wing, pro-Trump conspiracy theory, Media Matters reported.

The theory alleges without evidence that there is a cabal of pedophiles tied to Satanism who are plotting against President Donald Trump and also running a child sex trafficking ring.




https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/AG-spokeswoman-Assistant-AG-who-wrote-bigoted-15541817.php

Washington Post confirms Trump war dead comments

VA-07: District Republicans lauch into Clusterfuck Mode

Iowa House Democrats need four seats to BLOCK Kim Reynolds' agenda. These candidates can stop her.

1. Phil Miller - HD82: https://www.millerforiowahouse.com/

2. Kayla Koether - HD55: https://www.kaylaforiowa.com

3. Eric Gjerde - HD67: https://www.ericforiowa.com/

4. Andrea Phillips - HD37: https://www.andreaforiowa.com

5. Jodi Grover - HD61: https://www.jodigroverforiowa.com/

6. Jen Pellant - HD16: https://www.pellantforiowa.com/

7. Kelcey Brackett - HD91: https://www.kelceybrackett.org/

8. Shelly Stotts - HD47: https://www.stotts4house47.com

9. Christian Andrews - HD95: https://www.andrewsforiowa.com

10. Jennifer Kakert - HD92: https://www.jenniferkakert.com

NC-GOV: NC governor's race sets pace for Democrats in the South

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Joe Biden may have one of his best chances for a Southern victory in North Carolina, where he stands to benefit from a mild-mannered Democratic governor praised for his balanced approach to controlling the coronavirus.

Four years after he narrowly won the politically divided state carried by then-candidate Donald Trump, Gov. Roy Cooper has a double-digit lead over his Republican challenger, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, in a July poll. Cooper's reelection path offers clues to what will work for Southern Democrats in an election cycle that also will determine control of the White House and Congress.

On the surface, the strategies used in the Cooper-Forest contest — one of the few closely watched 2020 gubernatorial races — appear to mirror those of Biden and President Trump.

While other Southern governors followed Trump's lead, shunning mask mandates, Cooper ordered that face coverings be worn in public — but he put the onus on businesses to enforce it and refrained from ticketing individual offenders.

He also took a balanced approach to shutdowns, closing bars and gyms while allowing all businesses in which customers could social distance to open at a reduced capacity. Unlike other Democratic governors, he placed few restrictions on construction and supported in-person school instruction.


https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nc-governors-race-sets-pace-democrats-south-72771623

Behind the scenes: 'Surge' follows 2018 wave of women candidates

In the final days of her 2018 campaign, Lauren Underwood was sitting in a car, looking on her phone at a 1957 picture of a white woman angrily screaming at a young Black woman as she went to class at Little Rock Central High School.

“It just hit me, that that is what yesterday was. And it’s painful and difficult and unpleasant,” Underwood said, referring to how her opponent in Illinois’ 14th District, GOP Rep. Randy Hultgren, questioned her roots in the district and her credentials as a nurse.

“What they were saying is that I am not who I claim to be,” Underwood said at the time. “And it had nothing to do with the qualifications to be a member of Congress. Nothing.”

The scene unfolds in the new film “Surge,” a documentary that followed Underwood and two other Democratic women as they tried to unseat Republican House members in 2018, and who were part of a wave of women candidates running for office. “Surge” premieres on Showtime next week.



https://rollcall.com/2020/09/03/behind-the-scenes-surge-follows-2018-wave-of-women-candidates/

Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are 'Losers' and 'Suckers'

When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.

Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.


Trump’s understanding of concepts such as patriotism, service, and sacrifice have interested me since he expressed contempt for the war record of the late Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 while running for the Republican nomination for president. “I like people who weren’t captured.”



https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

Lincoln Project to unleash Facebook army to get out the vote for Biden

A super PAC led by a group of “Never Trump” Republicans is planning to unleash a Facebook grassroots army in its latest effort to erode support for President Donald Trump.

The Lincoln Project on Friday will launch the new initiative, The Lincoln Project Digital Coalition, or TLPDC, according to the group’s spokesman, Keith Edwards.

The plan, according to Edwards, is to have thousands of Lincoln Project Facebook members reach out to Republican voters who have previously backed Trump to try to persuade them to vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. They have over 50,000 members on Facebook, he added.

Similar to the PAC’s political advertisements, it plans to target GOP voters in the states of Arizona, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The digital push comes as in-person get-out-the-vote efforts in both parties have been largely sidelined due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We maintain an email list, but Facebook groups operate as our central hubs or ‘virtual campaign offices,’ because they allow us to moderate participants, creating a more constructive gathering place,” Edwards told CNBC. “Within those Facebook groups, we share our ads first, paired with data-backed talking points. Trump’s support is strongest on Facebook, so given our target audience are Republicans, Facebook needs to lead our TLPDC efforts.”

Trump has had a strong presence on Facebook since he ran for president in 2016. Trump has spent over $140 million on Facebook and Google advertising since the 2018 congressional midterms, according to data collected by the nonprofit Acronym.



https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/03/anti-trump-lincoln-project-to-unleash-facebook-army-to-get-out-the-vote.html

Pod Save America recruits 21,000 poll workers.

Announced on today's podcast. They blew past their 10000 vounteer goal.