AZ-SEN, NC-SEN: Democrats hold lead in Arizona, North Carolina Senate races:

Democratic Senate candidates hold leads over GOP incumbents in Arizona and North Carolina, according to Fox News polls released Wednesday.

Arizona Senate candidate and former astronaut Mark Kelly, a Democrat, has a wide 17-point lead over Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), according to the poll.

More than half of likely voters, 56 percent, said they would vote for Kelly, while just 39 percent said they would back McSally, based on the poll. McSally lost her 2018 bid for Senate to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), but was later appointed to fill a seat vacated after the death of Sen. John McCain (R).

In North Carolina, Democratic candidate Cal Cunningham leads Sen. Thom Tillis (R) by a slimmer 6 points, with 48 percent of likely voters saying they would vote for Cunningham and just 42 percent saying they would vote for Tillis. An additional 5 percent said they would vote for a third party and another 5 percent said they are undecided.



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/514899-democrats-hold-lead-in-arizona-north-carolina-senate-races-poll

Biden's Support Is Firmer

Philip Bump: “Trump regularly touts the record enthusiasm in his base. In CNN’s poll, that is clear, including that 87 percent of his supporters say there is no way they will change their minds about whom they will vote for.”


https://politicalwire.com/2020/09/02/bidens-support-is-firmer/

Trump's 'Law and Order' Message Not Resonating

The new Fox News poll in Wisconsin –conducted entirely after the unrest in Kenosha — suggests President Trump’s law and order stance isn’t working: Trump trails Biden by 5 percentage points in the state on the issue of “policing and criminal justice.”




https://politicalwire.com/2020/09/02/trumps-law-and-order-message-not-resonating/

Pollster: Voter enthusiasm is high among young voters

CDC Tells States to Prepare for Vaccine by Early November

The CDC has notified public health officials in all 50 states and five large cities to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups “as soon as late October or early November,” the New York Times reports.

“The new CDC guidance is the latest sign of an accelerating race for a vaccine to greatly ease a pandemic that has killed more than 184,000 Americans.”


https://politicalwire.com/2020/09/02/cdc-tells-states-to-prepare-for-vaccine-by-early-november/

Melania Trump used private email accounts while in the White House, says former colleague and friend

Melania Trump regularly used a private Trump Organization email account, an email from a MelaniaTrump.com domain, iMessage and the encrypted messaging app, Signal, while in the White House, according to her former senior adviser and close friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who says she corresponded multiple times a day with the first lady. “Melania and I both didn’t use White House emails,” says Winston Wolkoff, in an interview with The Washington Post, upon the publication of her tell-all memoir, “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady.”

The Post has viewed messages dated after the inauguration that appear to be from private email and messaging accounts used by Melania Trump. The messages contained discussions of government hires and contracts (including Winston Wolkoff’s), detailed schedules for the president and first lady during the Israeli and Japanese state visits, strategic partnerships for the first lady’s Be Best initiative, the logistics of the Easter egg roll, and finances for the presidential inauguration, key parts of which Winston Wolkoff, an experienced New York City events producer, planned.

Members of the Trump administration have already faced scrutiny for using private email. The House Oversight Committee last year began looking into the use of private accounts for government business by Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also has used private email to conduct government business. Donald Trump spent much of the 2016 election cycle drawing attention to the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state, calling it “worse than Watergate.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the first lady’s emails.
A first lady is not a government employee, said Richard Painter, who was the chief White House ethics lawyer for George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007, but “if she is doing United States government business, she should be using the White House email.” Use of personal accounts is allowed under the Presidential Records Act, but it’s risky: If those records are not carefully maintained, the White House might not be able to produce them in response to a subpoena. (Also illegal: discussing anything classified on unofficial accounts.) Bush’s White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove got in trouble for losing records with personal emails in 2006.

“It’s total hypocrisy,” said Painter. “They got elected acting as if Hillary Clinton ought to be in jail for using the wrong email.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/melania-trump-used-private-email-accounts-while-in-the-white-house-says-former-colleague-and-friend/2020/09/01/3f678ae2-eb3c-11ea-99a1-71343d03bc29_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_melaniasww-1015pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

Tweet of the Day

Alabama town that inspired 'To Kill a Mockingbird' elects first Black mayor

The small town in Alabama that inspired the American literary classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” and was home to the book’s author Harper Lee has made history by electing its first Black mayor.

The City of Monroeville, a town of about 5,700 residents, elected Charles Andrews to be its next mayor, making him the first African American to ever hold that post.

Andrews, 65, defeated incumbent Sandy Smith on Aug. 25 and is set to be sworn into office on Nov. 2.

“Today as I stand on the threshold of history, the shoulders of our parents and our foreparents, we are one people, one town and one team, all inclusive,” Andrews said in a victory speech, according to CNN.

“I am looking forward to working with the city council, the police department, business leaders, my staff and everyone for the betterment of the town and its citizens...There is no time to waste,” Andrews said.

Andrews became the first Black state trooper in Alabama’s Department of Public Safety to reach the rank of Major in 1994 and became the first African American to serve as interim director of the department eight years later, according to AL.com. In 2011, he was appointed by President Barack Obama as U.S. Marshal in Mobile.



https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/514697-alabama-town-that-inspired-to-kill-a-mockingbird-elects

TX-02: Sima Ladjevardian raises big money after Crenshaw's RNC speech

GOP Congressman Dan Crenshaw spoke at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, speaking to the courage of the American people. As a freshman, Crenshaw was the only Texas elected official given a prime-time speaking slot in the RNC lineup.

“We need to remind ourselves what heroism really is,” Crenshaw said. “Heroism is self-sacrifice, not moralizing and lecturing over others when they disagree. Heroism is grace, not perpetual outrage. Heroism is rebuilding our communities, not destroying them. Heroism is renewing the symbols that unite us, not tearing them down.”

Within 24 hours of Crenshaw’s speech, Ladjevardian’s campaign received a fresh wave of donations from nearly 2,000 new grassroots supporters.

In a statement released Thursday, Ladjevardian’s campaign spokesman Dan Gottlieb addressed the surge of support.



https://texassignal.com/sima-ladjevardian-raises-big-money-after-crenshaws-rnc-speech/

MO-02: Wagner Chooses Special Interest Campaign Donors Over Missourians

Today, the DCCC released two new TV ads – “Two Phones” and “Waiting” – reminding voters that Congresswoman Ann Wagner will always side with the big corporations and special interests that fund her campaign over them. Congresswoman Ann Wagner – who is so successful at being a high-dollar fundraiser that she was “reward[ed]… with [a] plum overseas appointment” as U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg – has taken more than $1.3 million in campaign donations from the drug and insurance industries over her career. It’s no wonder, then, that Wagner voted against the bipartisan bill to lower the cost of prescription drugs and voted five times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which protects 320,500 Missourians in the 2nd District with a pre-existing condition.

“Two Phones” and “Waiting” will begin airing today, September 1, throughout the district on broadcast in the St. Louis media market.

“Congresswoman Ann Wagner is the epitome of the Washington swamp. She rakes in millions of dollars from corporate special interests, then votes their way in Washington – her constituents be damned. It’s clear where Wagner’s priorities are, and they aren’t with voters in suburban St. Louis,” said DCCC Spokesperson Courtney Rice.




https://dccc.org/first-dccc-tv-ads-mo-02-wagner-chooses-special-interest-campaign-donors-missourians/