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☆ The Republican Not Heading to a July 4 Parade? Trump.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Both Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Scott will be at the July 4 parade in Merrimack, N.H., as will several other Republican presidential hopefuls: Mr. Burgum, former Representative Will Hurd of Texas, the entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy, and Perry Johnson, a Michigan businessman. Mr. Trump’s campaign evinces no concern that his absence from the stage will give his rivals any room to make up ground in the Republican primaries. Republican veterans don’t see much of an opening for Mr. Trump’s rivals either. “He definitely plays by a different set of rules,” said David Kochel, a longtime Republican adviser and strategist in Iowa. field at the Republican Party of Iowa’s biggest fund-raiser, the Lincoln Dinner, on July 28.

Persons: DeSantis, Scott, Burgum, Will Hurd, Vivek Ramaswamy, Perry Johnson, Marianne Williamson, Biden, don’t, ”, David Kochel, Trump, Miami’s, ” Mr, Kochel, “ Organizations: Democratic, White, National Education Association, Mr, Republican, New Hampshire —, Cuban, Republican Party of Iowa’s Locations: Merrimack, N.H, Will Hurd of Texas, Michigan, —, Iowa, New Hampshire, Versailles

☆ Supreme Court Decisions on Education Could Offer Democrats an Opening
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Now, in striking down race-conscious college admissions, the Supreme Court has handed the Democrats a way to shift from a race-based discussion of preference to one tied more to class. The court’s decision could fuel broader outreach to the working-class voters who have drifted away from the party because of what they see as its elitism. “This is a tremendous opportunity for Democrats to course-correct from identity-based issues,” said Ruy Teixeira, whose upcoming book “Where Have All the Democrats Gone?” looks at the bleeding of working-class voters over the last decade. “As I like to say, class is back in session.”Conservative voters have long been more animated by the Supreme Court’s composition than liberals have. Since the court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, energized Democratic voters have handed Republicans loss after loss in critical elections.

Persons: Bill Clinton, ”, Ruy Teixeira, Donald J, Trump, Roe, Wade Organizations: Democratic, ” Conservative

☆ The G.O.P. presidential field is hailing the dismantling of affirmative action.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Neil Vigdor | Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Republicans running for president applauded the Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday to strike down race-based affirmative action in college admissions, a policy that for decades has stoked the conservative agenda. Former President Donald J. Trump called the decision a “great day for America” in a statement. “People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our country, are finally being rewarded,” he said, adding, “We’re going back to all merit-based — and that’s the way it should be!”Mr. Trump’s political organization, the MAGA War Room, cast him as a main catalyst for the court’s ruling to end affirmative action, saying on Twitter that “he delivered on his promise to appoint constitutional justices.”It also made an outlandish comparison between Mr. Trump, the Republican front-runner who has been indicted twice since leaving the White House, and Abraham Lincoln, one of the party’s iconic forebears.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, ”, We’re, Abraham Lincoln Organizations: America, Twitter, Republican, White Locations: MAGA

☆ Moms for Liberty’s School Board Antagonism Draws G.O.P. Heavyweights
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Before the Hamilton County, Ind., chapter of Moms for Liberty achieved national notoriety this month for quoting Adolf Hitler in its newsletter, it was already at war over education in the schools of Indianapolis’s suburbs. School board meetings blew up over “critical race theory” and “social emotional learning.” A slate of conservative school board candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty faced off last year against a slate opposed to the group’s efforts to commandeer the school system. The diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator of Carmel Clay Schools was under attack. Transgender students, or the theoretical threat such students could pose, were suddenly front and center. “It was bad,” said Carmella Sparrow, the principal at a charter school in Indianapolis who had moved to suburban Carmel for the public schools but found herself doing battle with Moms for Liberty and its supporters at local school board meetings.

Persons: Adolf Hitler, ”, Carmella Sparrow, “, Hamilton County’s Organizations: Liberty, Carmel Clay Schools Locations: Hamilton County, Ind, Indianapolis’s, Indianapolis, Carmel, Philadelphia

PinnedThe Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful, curtailing affirmative action at colleges and universities around the nation, a policy that has long been a pillar of higher education. The university responded that its admissions policies fostered educational diversity and were lawful under longstanding Supreme Court precedents. Seven years later, only one member of the majority in the Texas case, Justice Sotomayor, remains on the court. Justice Jackson recused herself from the Harvard case, having served on one of its governing boards. The Texas decision essentially reaffirmed Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 decision in which the Supreme Court endorsed holistic admissions programs, saying it was permissible to consider race to achieve educational diversity.

Persons: Edward Blum, Antonin Scalia, Elena Kagan, Justice Anthony M, Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G, Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kennedy, Brett M, Kavanaugh, Ginsburg, Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Breyer, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Jackson, Grutter, Bollinger, Sandra Day O’Connor Organizations: Harvard, University of North, Civil, Asian, Fair, University of Texas Locations: University of North Carolina, North Carolina, Austin, Texas

☆ Republicans’ Problem in Attacking Biden: They Helped Pass His Economic Bills
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | Reid J. Epstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden isn’t the only one doing a full summer embrace of federal spending on infrastructure and semiconductor manufacturing — so are some of the Republicans aiming to remove him from office next year. The White House has labeled the president’s new economic campaign Bidenomics, a portmanteau that until now has been a pejorative used by Republicans and conservative news outlets primarily to underscore inflation. But in a speech on Wednesday in Chicago about the economy, Mr. Biden latched on, with a renewed focus on the two most significant bipartisan legislative accomplishments of his term, the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS and Science Act. One significant benefit for Mr. Biden: Republicans helped pass those bills. presidential candidates and the Republican National Committee continue to paint Mr. Biden’s economic stewardship as a rolling disaster, Republican senators who helped shape the legislation say they anticipated that those accomplishments would accrue to Mr. Biden’s political advantage — as well as to their own.

Persons: Biden isn’t, Biden Organizations: Mr, Republican National Committee Locations: Chicago

But Mr. Ramaswamy, now 37, made a fortune anyway. The core company Mr. Ramaswamy built has since had a hand in bringing five drugs to market, including treatments for uterine fibroids, prostate cancer and the rare genetic condition he mentioned on the stump in Iowa. Mr. Ramaswamy’s resilience was in part a result of the savvy way he structured his web of biotechnology companies. He’s a sort of a Music Man,” said Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat and former health secretary during the Obama administration who advised two of Mr. Ramaswamy’s companies. For his part, Mr. Ramaswamy said that criticism that he overpromised was missing the point.

Persons: Ramaswamy, ”, Kathleen Sebelius, Obama, overpromised Organizations: Democrat Locations: Iowa

“I think presidents have bought into this canard that they’re independent, and that’s one of the reasons why they’ve accumulated so much power over the years,” Mr. DeSantis said. Mr. Trump has portrayed his legal troubles as stemming from politicization, although there is no evidence Mr. Biden directed Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Mr. Trump. Under Mr. Garland, Trump-appointed prosecutors are already investigating Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents and on Tuesday secured a guilty plea from Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, on tax charges. Especially since Watergate, there has been an institutional tradition of Justice Department independence from White House control. This is particularly seen as true for cases involving a president’s personal or political interests, such as an investigation into himself or his political opponents.

Persons: ” Mr, DeSantis, “, DeSantis’s, Griffin, Trump, Biden, General Merrick Garland, Garland, Biden’s, Hunter Organizations: Justice Department Locations: White

☆ A Long-Shot Candidate’s Defense of Trump Could Undermine the Rule of Law
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the overheated basement of the Thunder Bay Grille in Davenport, Iowa, on Thursday night, Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur turned Republican presidential candidate, tried out a new opening for his well-practiced stump speech. “That’s not how we do things in America,” he continued. “We are not a country where the party in power should be able to use police force to indict its political opponents. And I stand not on the politics but on principle.”It was a portentous broadside for a man running to be president, one that questioned the integrity of a justice system that had just brought the first federal charges against a former president. And it is something that Mr. Ramaswamy admits he has wrestled with, given that his assertions could undermine the rule of law that he says he stands by firmly.

Persons: Vivek Ramaswamy, Donald Trump, that’s, “ That’s, ”, Ramaswamy Organizations: Scott, Scott County Republican Locations: Davenport , Iowa, Scott County, Mississippi, America

☆ G.O.P. Rivals See Trump’s Indictment as a Big Problem (for Them)
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Jonathan Swan | Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Advisers working for Mr. Trump’s opponents are facing what some consider an infuriating task: trying to persuade Republican primary voters, who are inured to Mr. Trump’s years of controversies and deeply distrustful of the government, that being criminally charged for holding onto classified documents is a bad thing. In previous eras, the indictment of a presidential candidate would have been, at a minimum, a political gift for the other candidates, if not an event that spelled the end of the indicted rival’s run. Competitors would have thrilled at the prospect of the front-runner’s spending months tied up in court, with damaging new details steadily dripping out. And they still could be Mr. Trump’s undoing: If he does not end up convicted before November 2024, his latest arrest is not likely win him converts in the general election. But Mr. Trump’s competitors — counterintuitively, according to the old conventional political wisdom — are actually dreading what threatens to be an endless indictment news cycle that could swallow up the summer.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, rival’s, —, grumbled, Trump Organizations: Trump, Republican, Mr

During his arraignment, Mr. Trump is expected to be advised of his rights, and a judge will assess whether he has legal representation. The case against Mr. Trump is the second criminal prosecution against the former president this year. Mr. Trump was already arraigned in April in a New York courthouse on state charges that he falsified business records. In the case that has brought him to Miami, Mr. Trump has been charged with 37 counts of unauthorized retention of national security information. After the court appearance, Mr. Trump is expected to fly to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., to give remarks defending himself in the evening.

Persons: Wilkie, Ferguson Jr, Donald J, Trump, Francis X, Suarez, Mr, We’re, James, John Rowley —, Todd Blanche, Christopher M, Jay I, Bratt, Julie Edelstein, Manny Morales, Morales, “, ”, that’s, ” Adam Goldman, Alan Feuer, Charlie Savage Organizations: Mr, Trump, Suarez of Miami, Republican, United States Supreme, Justice Department’s, Trump National Golf Club, Capitol, Miami police Locations: Miami, United States, New York, Florida, Bedminster, N.J, MIAMI

☆ The 2024 G.O.P. Field Faces a Choice: Law and Order or Loyalty
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | Ken Bensinger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The federal indictment of former President Donald J. Trump has left the Republican Party — and his rivals for the party’s nomination — with a stark choice between deferring to a system of law and order that has been central to the party’s identity for half a century or a more radical path of resistance, to the Democratic Party in power and to the nation’s highest institutions that Mr. Trump now derides. How the men and women who seek to lead the party into the 2024 election respond to the indictments of the former president in the coming months will have enormous implications for the future of the G.O.P. So far, the declared candidates for the presidency who are not Mr. Trump have divided into three camps regarding his federal indictment last Thursday: those who have strongly backed him and his insistence that the indictment is a politically driven means to deny him a second White House term, such as Vivek Ramaswamy; those who have urged Americans to take the charges seriously, such as Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson; and those who have straddled both camps, condemning the indictment but nudging voters to move past Mr. Trump’s leadership, such as Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. The trick, for all of Mr. Trump’s competitors, will be finding the balance between harnessing the anger of the party’s core voters who remain devoted to him while winning their support as an alternative nominee.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Republican Party —, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, Trump’s, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley Organizations: Republican Party, Democratic Party

☆ Carefully, Backhandedly, DeSantis Comes to Trump’s Defense
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Nicholas Nehamas | Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ron DeSantis of Florida had been delivered a tremendous gift this week when his main presidential rival was charged with mishandling the country’s national security secrets. But as Mr. DeSantis’s latest speech showed, this is a turn of events he will need to beware. In an address to Republicans in North Carolina on Friday night, his first public remarks since the unsealing of federal charges against former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. DeSantis trod carefully and danced quickly past the subject. Seeming to muse aloud, Mr. DeSantis asked what the Navy would have done to him had he taken classified documents while in military service. “I would have been court-martialed in a New York minute,” he said, in a riff on Mr. Trump’s hometown.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, DeSantis’s, Donald J, Trump, DeSantis trod, —, DeSantis, “, ”, Trump’s Organizations: Navy Locations: Florida, North Carolina, New York

The indictment gives the clearest picture yet of the files that Mr. Trump took with him when he left the White House. Mr. Trump is expected to appear in Federal District Court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Trump continued to rail against the indictment on Friday, calling it the “greatest witch hunt of all time,” in a Truth Social post. Two lawyers, James Trusty and John Rowley, have left Mr. Trump’s legal team, and will no longer represent him in the documents case. “I will be represented by Todd Blanche, Esq., and a firm to be named later,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Jack Smith, “, ”, Waltine, —, Nauta, Trump’s, FVEY, Aileen M, Cannon, Judge Cannon, Biden, James, John Rowley, Todd Blanche, ” Mr, Charlie Savage, Nicholas Nehamas Organizations: White, “ United, Prosecutors, Mr, Court, General Services Administration Locations: “ United States, United States, Florida, Iran, Bedminster, N.J, U.S, Britain , New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Miami, White, Mar, Esq

☆ ‘A Long Shot, for Sure’: Sizing Up Burgum, and Most of the G.O.P. Field
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Doug Burgum’s money and his family’s vision, Fargo, N.D., has undoubtedly changed in recent decades. Broadway, its main drag, is packed with restaurants, cafes, retailers and offices lovingly converted from old factories. A warehouse saved from the wrecking ball now houses North Dakota State University’s architecture and arts program. “He’s a long shot, for sure,” said Brad Moen, 69, of Jamestown, N.D., who has known Mr. Burgum for 60 years and traveled 100 miles for his presidential introduction on Wednesday. “California, New York, Ohio, Florida — they’re the big dogs, not North Dakota.”

Persons: Doug Burgum’s, Burgum, “, ”, Brad Moen Organizations: N.D, Broadway, North Dakota State, Fargo Locations: North Dakota, North, Winnipeg, Canada, Minneapolis, Arthur, Jamestown, N.D, “ California, New York , Ohio, Florida

☆ Tim Scott Defends Remarks on Race on ‘The View’
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The chatty daytime talk show “The View” might seem like an unlikely platform for Tim Scott, a senator from South Carolina and a presidential candidate, to get his footing with Republican primary voters, but he saw an opening on Monday and tried to make the most of it. Mr. Scott, the first Black Republican from the South elected to the Senate since Reconstruction, had asked for an audience on the show after a co-host, Joy Behar, said Mr. Scott “doesn’t get it” when he denies the existence of systemic racism, which is why, she said, he is a Republican. Before a largely white, partisan crowd in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, Mr. Scott had promised his appearance would make sparks fly, but in the end, the senator and the co-hosts largely spoke past one another. He said that suggesting that Black professionals and leaders are exceptions to the Black experience, not the rule, is “a dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send to our young people today.”

Persons: Tim Scott, Scott, Joy Behar, Scott “ doesn’t, ” Organizations: Republican, Black Republican, Reconstruction Locations: South Carolina, Des Moines , Iowa

☆ Republicans Gather in Iowa to Ride, Eat and Disagree
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As the politicians and Republican Party officials tossed out the red meat on Saturday at an event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Wayne Johnson, a 70-year-old farmer and financial consultant from Forest City, Iowa, had some quieter thoughts about the next president he would like to see. The violence in American schools and public places, the tribalism in politics, the negativity of the nation’s elected officials — “If a leader can take us in a positive direction, people will follow,” Mr. Johnson said. His wife, Gloria, jumped in. “I really don’t care about people’s sexual habits and I don’t want to hear about it all the time,” she said with exasperation about her party’s focus on social issues like transgender care and L.G.B.T.Q. “Politicians are taking positions on ‘woke’ that have more to do with sex than promoting our country in a positive way.”The event, called “Roast and Ride” — an annual motorcycle and barbecue-infused political rally sponsored by Iowa’s junior Republican senator, Joni Ernst — laid bare divisions in the party, with some attendees focusing on pocketbook issues and tone and others looking for a candidate who will take on Democrats on a social and cultural front.

Persons: Wayne Johnson, —, Mr, Johnson, Gloria, “, ”, ‘, ’, Joni Ernst — Organizations: Republican Party, Iowa State Fairgrounds, Iowa’s, Republican Locations: Forest City , Iowa

☆ Talk of Racism Proves Thorny for G.O.P. Candidates of Color
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | Trip Gabriel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina opened his presidential candidacy with a story of the nation’s bitter, racist past. It is one that he tells often, of a grandfather forced from school in the third grade to pick cotton in the Jim Crow South. A rival for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, speaks of the loneliness and isolation of growing up in small-town South Carolina as the child of immigrants and part of the only Indian family around. But in bolstering their own bootstrap biographies with stories of discrimination, they have put forth views about race that at times appear at odds with their view of the country — often denying the existence of a system of racism in America while describing situations that sound just like it. “I’m living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression,” Mr. Scott says in a new campaign advertisement running in Iowa, though he has spoken of his grandfather’s forced illiteracy and his own experiences being pulled over by the police seven times in one year “for driving a new car.”

Persons: Tim Scott of, Jim Crow, Nikki Haley, Larry Elder, he’d, ’, Mr, Scott Organizations: Tim Scott of South Carolina, Republican Locations: Tim Scott of South, South Carolina, Pullman, America, Iowa

☆ DeSantis, Wading Into Debt-Ceiling Fight, Puts Pressure on Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ron DeSantis of Florida to oppose the debt-ceiling agreement struck by Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden injected presidential politics into the fraught effort to raise the government’s borrowing limit, further dividing the Republican Party and pressuring other White House hopefuls to join the fight. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen has predicted that the “extraordinary measures” she has used to pay the government’s obligations will be depleted by June 5. Mr. DeSantis’s broadside comes as Mr. McCarthy is trying to round up Republican votes to approve the deal this week. The first test will be Tuesday, when the House committee that sets the parameters and instructions for floor debate is set to report out the rule for the debt deal. The deal sets aside the statutory borrowing limit for two years, ensuring the issue will not re-emerge before the next presidential election, while imposing some caps on spending and some additional work requirements for food stamp recipients.

☆ Tim Scott Begins Presidential Campaign, Adding to List of Trump Challengers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | Maya King | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Tim Scott, the first Black Republican elected to the Senate from the South since Reconstruction, announced his campaign for president on Monday, adding to a growing number of Republicans running as alternatives to former President Donald J. Trump. 2 leader, John Thune of South Dakota, and will immediately begin a $5.5 million advertising blitz in the early nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire. “Our party and our nation are standing at a time for choosing: Victimhood or victory? Grievance or greatness?” he planned to say at a packed and boisterous morning rally in the gym of his alma mater, Charleston Southern University, according to prepared remarks. “I choose freedom and hope and opportunity.”Long considered a rising star in the G.O.P., Mr. Scott, 57, enters the primary field having amassed $22 million in fund-raising and having attracted veteran political operatives to work on his behalf.

☆ ‘No Labels’ Eyes a Third-Party Run in 2024. Democrats Are Alarmed
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The bipartisan political group No Labels is stepping up a well-funded effort to field a “unity ticket” for the 2024 presidential race, prompting fierce resistance from even some of its closest allies who fear handing the White House back to Donald J. Trump. The centrist group’s leadership was in New York this week raising part of the money — around $70 million — that it says it needs to help with nationwide ballot access efforts. “The determination to nominate a ticket” will be made shortly after the primaries next year on what is known as Super Tuesday, March 5, said Nancy Jacobson, the co-founder and leader of No Labels. A national convention has been set for April 14-15 in Dallas, where a Democrat-Republican ticket would be set to take on the two major-party nominees. (Mr. Biden is facing two long-shot challengers, and Mr. Trump is the Republican front-runner.)

☆ The Durham Report Offered Few Conclusions. The Right Drew Its Own.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With Mr. Durham’s investigation now officially finished, no court cases or indictments will advance such claims. But the Republican interpretation of the final Durham report will feed a narrative of “Deep State” corruption that is fueling not only Mr. Trump’s quest for the White House in 2024 but that of many of his rivals for the Republican nomination. Regardless of Mr. Durham’s actual conclusions, his report appears to serve that theme. On his Truth Social website, Mr. Trump said the special prosecutor had concluded that “the FBI should never have launched the Trump-Russia Probe!” In fact, Mr. Durham said he agreed that the F.B.I. “I, and much more importantly, the American public have been victims of this long-running and treasonous charade started by the Democrats — started by Comey,” Mr. Trump told Fox News Digital.

☆ It’s Been a Week. What Does It Tell Us About 2024?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In an interview on Saturday, he said it was not meant to be a criticism. But it was “an appeal for a bolder platform that captures the imagination of working-class Americans and inspires them.”There’s no question that political predictions this far from an election are unreliable. Even Iowa voters tend not to tune in to the race until later in the year, noted David Kochel, a longtime Iowa Republican consultant. One Biden campaign adviser suggested that Mr. Trump had supplied a trove of material for attack ads. Mr. DeSantis’s super PAC, Never Back Down, called the 70-minute performance “over an hour of nonsense.”The crucial question for both parties in 2024 is how to retain the voters they have and regain those they have lost.

☆ Flush With Federal Money, Strings Attached, a Deep South Factory Votes to Unionize
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Workers at a rural Georgia factory that builds electric school buses under generous federal subsidies voted to unionize on Friday, handing organized labor and Democrats a surprise victory in their hopes to turn huge new infusions of money from Washington into a union beachhead in the Deep South. The company, Blue Bird in Fort Valley, Ga., may lack the cachet of Amazon or the ubiquity of Starbucks, two other corporations that have attracted union attention. But the 697-to-435 vote by Blue Bird’s workers to join the United Steelworkers was the first significant organizing election at a factory receiving major federal funding under legislation signed by President Biden. “This is just a bellwether for the future, particularly in the South, where working people have been ignored,” Liz Shuler, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said Friday evening after the vote. “We are now in a place where we have the investments coming in and a strategy for lifting up wages and protections for a good high-road future.”The three bills making up that investment include a $1 trillion infrastructure package, a $280 billion measure to rekindle a domestic semiconductor industry and the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $370 billion for clean energy to combat climate change.

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