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☆ Kennedy Family, Sans R.F.K. Jr., Poses With Biden at the White House
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Rebecca Davis O Brien | More About Rebecca Davis O Brien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Under normal circumstances, a visit by the Kennedy family to the White House on St. Patrick's Day — a storied political family with Irish roots, hosted by a president of Irish heritage — might not be particularly newsworthy. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running an independent bid to supplant President Biden, breaking with the Democratic Party and with many members of his family, who have condemned his campaign as “dangerous.”They have also pointedly backed Mr. Biden. On Sunday, Kerry Kennedy — one of Mr. Kennedy’s sisters — posted a picture of the family on X at the White House with Mr. Biden. “President Biden, you make the world better,” she wrote. Mr. Biden responded to the post: “From one proud Irish family to another — it was good to have you all back at the White House.”

Persons: Kennedy, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Biden, Kerry Kennedy —, Kennedy’s, —, “, ” Organizations: White, Democratic Party Locations: St

☆ Taylor Swift Wants You to Vote Today, Though She’s Not Saying for Whom
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Rebecca Davis O Brien | More About Rebecca Davis O Brien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Call it Super Tuesday (Taylor’s Version). After months of anticipation, Taylor Swift made her first foray into the 2024 election on Tuesday morning, encouraging her 282 million followers on Instagram to make a plan to vote in the presidential primaries. The message was brief and nonpartisan, and did not include any endorsements. “I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power,” she wrote. Swift is part of an elaborate plot to spread Democratic propaganda — or rig the Super Bowl, or force people to be vaccinated against Covid-19, or do something else that is not entirely clear.

Persons: Taylor Swift, Instagram, “, ”, Swift Organizations: Fox News, Covid Locations: Tennessee

A combative Nikki Haley brought her presidential campaign back to South Carolina on Wednesday after a disappointing defeat the night before in New Hampshire, and told a boisterous crowd in a cavernous ballroom in North Charleston that she would fight Donald J. Trump for the Republican nomination. “The political elites in this state and around the country say we just need to let Donald Trump have this,” she told her supporters, who were jeering at the idea. We’ve got 48 more.”Nowhere is more immediately important than South Carolina, where she served two terms as governor before being tapped to serve as Mr. Trump’s first ambassador to the United Nations. But just because it’s her home state does not mean it is friendly territory. As she made her case for pressing on, the former president significantly consolidated his support.

Persons: Nikki Haley, Donald J, Trump, Donald Trump, ”, We’ve, Trump’s, it’s, Haley Organizations: Republican, United Nations, Republican National Committee Locations: South Carolina, New Hampshire, North Charleston

☆ George Santos Reveals One Truth: It’s Easy to Abuse Campaign Finance Laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Rebecca Davis O Brien | More About Rebecca Davis O Brien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Perhaps no federal officeholder in modern American history has been accused of ignoring, testing or breaking as many aspects of campaign finance law so flagrantly, in such a short span of time, as George Santos has. But his case, while sensational, illustrates the profound weaknesses of the system, and its potential for abuse. For years, campaign finance laws have eroded, while the watchdogs responsible for their oversight have been weakened by limited powers, underfunding and political stalemate. “He is an extreme example of something that is happening all the time in campaign finance,” said Saurav Ghosh, a former Federal Election Commission enforcement lawyer who is now the director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group. Mr. Santos, he suggested, was able to take advantage of “the overall under-regulation of money that is raised and spent on election influence.”

Persons: George Santos, Santos, ”, Saurav Ghosh Organizations: Commission

Mr. Bush, a Republican who voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 and for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, in 2016, said he had been struck by her knowledge and poise. Several donors and advisers described two groups taking shape among the major, top-dollar donors:First, those who have yielded to the likelihood that Mr. Trump, however they may feel about him, will probably be the nominee, and have decided to stop funding potential alternatives. Second, those who believe that with enough financial resources and a savvy field operation, Ms. Haley could unseat him. Despite the long odds, her financial supporters say they see a path to victory. “They now believe he can be stopped,” he said, pointing to Ms. Haley’s steady climb in the polls.

Persons: Bush, Biden, Gary Johnson, Donald Trump, Mr, Trump’s, Trump, Haley, ”, Eric Levine, Eiseman Levine, “ Organizations: Republican, Mr, Libertarian

Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, said Republicans were mischaracterizing a complex, emotionally fraught issue to score political points. students, the university no doubt would crack down and make sure that this was a safe space for them on the college campuses,” Mr. Brooks said. “They’re not doing that for the Jewish students. Now they offer pathetic equivocation or, worse, deafening silence.”“They seem more offended by ‘microaggressions’ than by mass murder,” Mr. Scott said. “If this were any other minority group, hear me, the far left would be screaming from the rooftops.”

Persons: Biden, ” Jonathan Greenblatt, “, Israel ”, Erwin Chemerinsky, ”, Chemerinsky, Matt Brooks, Mr, Brooks, “ They’re, Tim Scott of, ‘ microaggressions, ” Mr, Scott Organizations: Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, Defamation League, Democrats, Republicans provocatively, University of California, Fox News, Democratic Party, Republican Jewish Coalition, American Locations: Berkeley, Israel, Tim Scott of South Carolina

The departure from the race came less than 90 days before the Iowa caucuses, on which Mr. Pence had staked his candidacy. But while Iowa is a more difficult early state in the Republican primary contests for Mr. Trump than some of the others, the former president remains dominant there. Mr. Pence is the highest-profile candidate to leave the race, and the first of those who had met the Republican National Committee’s criteria for the primary debates. Mr. Pence’s campaign recently reported more than $600,000 in debt. But Mr. Pence, a former governor of Indiana, struggled mightily to raise money, never gaining traction in the polls that his former running mate has dominated.

Persons: Pence, Trump, Mr, Pence’s, Ronald Reagan, mightily, Biden’s Organizations: Republican, Trump —, Republican National, Trump -, Republican Party, D.C Locations: Iowa, Miami, Indiana, Washington, Fulton County ,

In remarks before a gathering of Jewish Republicans in Las Vegas, Ms. Haley highlighted remarks by Mr. Trump criticizing Israeli intelligence and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as weak just days after the attack. We have no time for personal vendettas,” she told the crowd of nearly 1,500 donors, activists and officials. The annual gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition has become perhaps the highest-profile gathering of the Republican primary season, taking on greater urgency after Hamas’s attack on Israel three weeks ago. Support for Israel unifies a broad coalition of Republican voters and officials, including foreign policy hawks, business leaders and evangelical Christians. Over a Shabbat dinner on Friday night, several Republican officials pledged their support for Israel and the Jewish people before an audience of 1,500 donors, activists and officials.

Persons: Nikki Haley, Donald J, Trump, Haley, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s, ”, Biden, Mike Pence —, “ It’s, Abraham, Mike Johnson, Israel unifies, Joe Lombardo, America’s, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, David Kustoff, Israel, Rick Scott of Florida Organizations: United Nations, Jewish Republicans, “, Abraham Accords, United Arab, Israel, Republican Jewish Coalition, Republican, ”, Saturday, Democratic, Mr Locations: Las Vegas, America, Israel, Jerusalem, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Nevada, Tennessee

Security has been tightened and seats added to accommodate a wave of new attendees who decided to come after the Oct. 7 attacks. Speakers at the Las Vegas gathering will also include Senator John Thune, the second-ranking Senate Republican; Gov. Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Scott strongly denounced those remarks, and Mr. Trump spent several days walking them back. He also cut aid for Palestinians, and his administration took steps to designate a campaign to boycott Israel as antisemitic. Marc Goldman, a Boca Raton, Fla., investor on the group’s board, said he backed Mr. Trump in 2020 and was likely to support him again.

Persons: ”, Ari Fleischer, George W, Bush, Donald J, Trump, Mike Johnson, John Thune, Sarah Sanders of, Joe Lombardo, Matt Brooks, ” Eric Levine, Levine, Tim Scott of, “, Biden’s, Biden, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis, ” Nikki Haley, DeSantis, Haley, Scott, Pell, Benjamin Netanyahu, Marc Goldman, Mr, Goldman Organizations: Republican Jewish Coalition, Republican, Jewry, American, Republican Jewish, Israel Defense Forces, Gov, Republican Party, Israel, America, Mr, Abraham Accords, United Locations: Israel, United States, Las Vegas, Gaza, America, Louisiana, Vegas, Sarah Sanders of Arkansas, Joe Lombardo of Nevada, New York, Iran, China, Russia, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Tehran, Doha, Qatar, Florida, U.S, Jerusalem, Boca Raton, Fla

Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign has found an unusual way to pay for his habit of flying in private planes: passing the cost to the better-funded super PAC that is increasingly intertwined with his operation. The super PAC, Never Back Down, pays for Mr. DeSantis’s travel only on days when the events he is attending are hosted solely by the group, the people familiar with the arrangement said. The super PAC now hosts many of his events in early primary states. Federal candidates can appear as “featured guests” of super PACs, but whether a super PAC can also pay for transportation is less clear cut. Super PACs are not allowed to coordinate with campaigns, and campaign finance experts say that Mr. DeSantis’s arrangement — in which he is campaigning for president as a guest of a super PAC — could test that rule.

Persons: Ron DeSantis’s Organizations: Gov, PAC

The main super PAC supporting Senator Tim Scott’s presidential campaign abruptly announced to donors in a memo that it was canceling millions of dollars in television ads it had reserved this fall, writing that Donald J. Trump’s strength was so ingrained among Republican voters that additional advertising would currently make little difference. “We aren’t going to waste our money when the electorate isn’t focused or ready for a Trump alternative,” Rob Collins, a Republican strategist who is a co-chairman of the super PAC, wrote in the blunt memo to donors that was circulated on Monday. The super PAC, called the Trust in Mission PAC, or TIMPAC, has been one of the largest advertisers in the race, spending roughly $5 million in Iowa alone this year. Mr. Scott’s poll numbers have hardly budged, however, and Mr. Trump remains far ahead. In addition to the super PAC, Mr. Scott’s campaign had also spent aggressively on television advertising, spending more than $12.5 million on ads to run through the end of November, the campaign said.

Persons: Tim Scott’s, Donald J, ” Rob Collins, “, Tim, Trump, Scott’s Organizations: Republican, The New York Times, Mission PAC, Mr Locations: Iowa

☆ Trump’s Resilience Leaves Anxious G.O.P. Donors in Despair and Denial
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-09 | by ( Rebecca Davis O Brien | More About Rebecca Davis O Brien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Interviews with more than a dozen Republican donors and their allies revealed hand-wringing, magical thinking, calls to arms and, for some, fatalism. “If things don’t change quickly, people are going to despair,” Mr. Levine said in an interview. He is among the optimists who believe Mr. Trump’s support is not as robust as the polls suggest and who see a quickly closing window to rally behind another candidate. Some donors have backed Mr. Trump’s rivals despite believing that he is unbeatable in the primaries. “You’re at 2 percent, and he’s at 53 percent,” he recalled telling her, in only a slight exaggeration of Mr. Trump’s polling advantage.

Persons: Trump, ” Mr, Levine, Levine’s, missive, Tim Scott of, Fred Zeidman, Nikki Haley, “ You’re, ” Organizations: Republican, South Locations: Tim Scott of South Carolina, Texas, South Carolina

☆ For Politicians, Vacations Can Be a Lot of Work
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-02 | by ( Rebecca Davis O Brien | More About Rebecca Davis O Brien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The occasion lays out a basic fact of modern presidential campaigns: Politicians need vacations, too. A tone-deaf vacation — too elite, too disconnected, too much beach bod — is tabloid catnip and can alienate voters. And the wrong vacation can upend a campaign faster than a wave topples a windsurfer. So it’s no surprise that the presidential candidates this year, by and large, are lying low. Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, will be at home on Kiawah Island, S.C. (“Vacation?

Persons: it’s, Nikki Haley, ”, Haley Organizations: Labor, South Locations: South Carolina, New Hampshire

☆ Candidates Look to Cash In on First G.O.P. Debate — Especially Haley and Pence
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Rebecca Davis O Brien | More About Rebecca Davis O Brien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Former Vice President Mike Pence, whom the donors also identified as having a good night onstage, also saw an uptick, according to his campaign. Marc Short, a top adviser to Mr. Pence, said it had taken in at least 1,000 new contributions overnight. “I think there’s been a large number of supporters who have been on the sidelines but have been looking for some of that spark,” Mr. Short said. They favored candidates who they felt came off as authoritative but not obnoxious, with established résumés and hawkish foreign policy views. They also, naturally, tended to see their preferred candidates’ performances through hopeful eyes.

Persons: Haley, ”, Nachama, Mike Pence, Marc Short, Pence, “, Mr, Short

But the move has other effects, including obscuring exactly how many — or how few — online donations Mr. DeSantis has received. News emerged on Tuesday that Mr. DeSantis had replaced his campaign manager as part of a broad shake-up. “To me, the single most important aspect of the transparent philosophical debate is: Is somebody buying influence?” Mr. Mackowiak said. “You’re not going to buy anyone with a $200 or less donation.”Until recent years, he noted, small donations were never broken out in federal campaign finance disclosures. In a sense — and to the all but certain dismay of those who push for transparency — the move by the DeSantis campaign suggests a return to a previous era when those contributions remained anonymous.

Persons: DeSantis, Matt Mackowiak, ”, Mackowiak, “ You’re Locations: Texas

Financial filings this week from two super PACs supporting him, which together have raised nearly $10.5 million, seemed to underscore this theme. The pro-Kennedy super PAC American Values 2024 received the bulk of its money from two megadonors: one who has contributed tens of millions to Republican causes, and another who has backed both Democrats and Republicans. Timothy Mellon, a Wyoming Republican who contributed $53 million in stock to a Texas fund paying for construction of a new border wall, gave that super PAC $5 million. “The fact that Kennedy gets so much bipartisan support tells me two things,” Mr. Mellon, previously a top donor to former President Donald J. Trump, said in a statement issued by American Values 2024. Dozens of venture capitalists, tech executives, real-estate builders and investors with varying political alliances also contributed to the Kennedy-aligned PACs.

Persons: Timothy Mellon, Gavin de Becker, Jeff Bezos, Kennedy, Mr, Mellon, Donald J, Trump, ”, Kennedy’s, Biden Organizations: Kennedy, Republicans, Wyoming Republican, Amazon, Mr, Republican, Senate Locations: Wyoming, Texas

has allowed committees to not itemize subvendor payments when those payments are an extension of the original vendor’s work. Experts say it is illegal for campaigns to pay campaign staff members through limited liability companies, or for vendors to serve merely as conduits to hide the ultimate recipient of campaign money. Indeed, while the use of limited liability companies by Mr. Scott’s campaign is striking in its scale, it is not unique among Republican presidential candidates. Former President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 campaign was the subject of litigation over its use of limited liability companies run by campaign staff and family members that were allegedly conduits for hundreds of millions of dollars of spending. His campaign defended the practice, saying the intermediary companies were acting as the primary vendors.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Paul Kilgore —, Kilgore, Donald J Organizations: Republican, Gov Locations: Florida, Athens, Ga

Ron DeSantis of Florida has started cutting campaign staff just months into his presidential bid, as he has struggled to gain traction in the Republican primary and lost ground in some public polls to former President Donald J. Trump. The exact number of people let go by the DeSantis team was unclear, but one campaign aide said it was fewer than 10. An aide, Andrew Romeo, described the campaign’s circumstances in an upbeat tone. “Americans are rallying behind Ron DeSantis and his plan to reverse Joe Biden’s failures and restore sanity to our nation, and his momentum will only continue as voters see more of him in person, especially in Iowa,” he said in a statement. “Defeating Joe Biden and the $72 million behind him will require a nimble and candidate-driven campaign, and we are building a movement to go the distance.”

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Donald J, Trump, DeSantis, Andrew Romeo, Joe, ”, “, Joe Biden Organizations: Republican, Politico Locations: Florida, Iowa

Senate Democrats staring down tough re-election fights can look to one bright spot: sizable fund-raising hauls and cash stockpiles more than a year before Election Day. Saturday was the deadline for campaigns to file spending and fund-raising reports for the three months between April 1 and June 30. Most of the vulnerable incumbent Democratic senators also topped their prospective Republican challengers in fund-raising and will head into the fall with several million dollars in cash on hand. The race for Senate control is in its earliest months, and Republicans are still building campaigns. Yet the Democrats’ relative financial strength in the second quarter of an off year suggests significant energy as the party aims to protect its slim majority next year.

Organizations: Democratic, Republican Locations: — Montana , Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin

☆ DeSantis Burns Cash, and Pence Struggles: 4 Takeaways From 2024 Filings
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Rebecca Davis O Brien | More About Rebecca Davis O Brien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina reported raising nearly $5.9 million in the second quarter, and spent $6.7 million. Mr. DeSantis reported $12.2 million in cash on hand at the end of June; Mr. Scott had $21 million. Mr. Trump is the runaway leader in polls of Republican candidates, and he has ample financial resources and fund-raising ability. The joint fund-raising committee is not required to file its report until the end of the month. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who raised about $500,000 in the second quarter, and Will Hurd, a former Texas congressman, who raised just $270,000.

Persons: Tim Scott of, DeSantis, Scott, Trump, Pence, Asa Hutchinson of, Will Hurd, Mike Pence Organizations: Republican, New York Times, PAC Locations: Tim Scott of South Carolina, Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, Texas

☆ What to Watch in the 2024 Money Wars as a Big Deadline Arrives
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Rebecca Davis O Brien | More About Rebecca Davis O Brien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“It’s the next-best thing to breaking into the headquarters and checking the files.”But the picture will not be complete. Saturday will also be the first detailed look at President Biden’s war chest as he slowly ramps up his re-election campaign. His campaign said on Friday that along with the Democratic National Committee and a joint fund-raising committee, it had raised more than $72 million combined for the second quarter. In the same period in 2019, former President Donald J. Trump and his allies raised a total of $105 million — $54 million for Mr. Trump and his committees, and $51 million for the Republican National Committee. In 2011, former President Barack Obama raised $47 million for his campaign and $38 million for the Democratic National Committee.

Persons: ”, Mike Murphy, “, Donald J, Trump, Barack Obama Organizations: Democratic National Committee, Republican National Committee

In the months before the 2020 presidential election, Roy W. Bailey, a Dallas businessman, received a stream of text messages from Donald J. Trump’s re-election campaign, asking for money in persistent, almost desperate terms. “Have you forgotten me?” the messages read, Mr. Bailey recalled. “Have you deserted us?”Mr. Bailey was familiar with the Trump campaign: He was the co-chair of its finance committee, helped raise millions for the effort and personally contributed several thousand dollars. “Think about that,” Mr. Bailey said recently about the frequency of the messages and the beseeching tone. “That is how out of control and crazy some of this fund-raising has gotten.”He did, ultimately, desert Mr. Trump: He is now raising money for Gov.

Persons: Roy W, Bailey, Donald J, Trump’s, “, Mr, Trump, ”, Ron DeSantis Organizations: Gov, Republican Party Locations: Dallas, Florida

☆ Nikki Haley Raises $7.3 Million, With More in an Allied Super PAC
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Rebecca Davis O Brien | More About Rebecca Davis O Brien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, raised $7.3 million through her presidential campaign and affiliated committees from April through June, a modest sum that still showcased her robust appeal to small donors. Separately, a super PAC supporting her candidacy said on Monday that it had raised $18.7 million since its inception this year, and that it had $17 million in cash on hand at the end of June. Reports for super PACs are not due with the F.E.C. Her campaign’s fund-raising numbers fell below those of the two men leading the polls for the Republican nomination, Gov. Last week, the DeSantis campaign said it had raised $20 million, while a super PAC supporting him had raised $130 million since March.

Persons: Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Donald J Organizations: South, United Nations, The New York Times, Federal, Republican, Trump Locations: South Carolina, Florida

Ron DeSantis of Florida raised $20 million in the first six weeks of his presidential run, his campaign said Thursday, a substantial sum that solidifies his place as the leading rival to former President Donald J. Trump. While the number falls short of the $35 million that Mr. Trump’s campaign said the former president raised in the three months ending June 30, Mr. DeSantis had only half the time to bring in campaign funds after officially entering the race in mid-May. In addition to the $20 million the DeSantis campaign said it had raised, a super PAC backing Mr. DeSantis, Never Back Down, said Thursday that it had collected $130 million since March. But nearly two-thirds of that sum was transferred to the group from a state committee that had supported Mr. DeSantis’s re-election bid last year. The totals supplied by the campaigns — more detailed numbers don’t have to be filed with the Federal Election Commission until July 15 — provide the first glimpse into the fund-raising battle between the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, a race that could set records for spending.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Donald J, Trump’s, DeSantis, DeSantis’s Organizations: Trump, PAC, Federal, Commission, Republican Locations: Florida

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