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☆ Strong midterm turnout in Georgia sparks new debate about a controversial election law
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Fredreka Schouten | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —The strong turnout in Georgia’s runoff election that cemented Democrats’ control of the US Senate is sparking fresh debate about the impact of the state’s controversial 2021 election law and could trigger a new round of election rule changes next year in the Republican-led state legislature. “There’s no truth to voter suppression,” Raffensperger said in an interview this week with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, a day after Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock secured reelection in the first federal election cycle since Georgia voting law took effect. State election officials had opposed casting ballots on that date, saying Georgia law prohibited voting on a Saturday if there is a state holiday on the Thursday or Friday before. In the CNN interview earlier this week, Raffensperger suggested that the Republican-controlled General Assembly might revisit some of the state’s election rules, including potentially lowering to 45% the threshold needed to win a general election outright. “There will be a push for this in the upcoming legislative session,” said Daniel Baggerman, president of Better Ballot Georgia, a group advocating for the instant runoff.

☆ Kyrsten Sinema was doing the GOP a favor by blocking Democrats' taxes on the wealthy. Now a Republican-controlled House will have to fight that battle.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema repeatedly threw cold water on Democrats' plans to raise taxes on the wealthy. Now that Sinema is officially becoming an independent, Democrats still likely won't be able to pass anything. However, the House — which has to pass any legislation that would include hikes — will soon be controlled by Republicans. Raphael Warnock's reelection in the Georgia runoff also gave Democrats an opening to work around Sinema. Republicans are very tax averse, already mounting opposition to a 15% minimum tax on big multinational corporations like Amazon and Facebook.

☆ Defeated Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker was 'absolutely shocked' he didn't win 100% of the vote in Johnson County, where he grew up: report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Walker was "shocked" he didn't 100% of the vote in his home county last month, per The Daily Beast. The Republican carried Johnson County 74%-26% over Warnock, but was still taken aback by the result. While Walker received 2,484 votes to Warnock's 869 votes in Johnson County in November, Kemp earned 2,504 votes compared to Abrams' 867 votes. On Tuesday, Warnock defeated Walker in the runoff 51.4%-48.6%, earning a full six-year term in the Senate and denying Republicans a much-desired win. And Warnock gained ground in Johnson County in the runoff compared to the November election, winning 967 votes (29%) to Walker's 2,419 votes (71%).

☆ Herschel Walker's wife had an 'obsessive focus' on her husband winning over more Black voters and felt he should have been receiving up to 50% of the Black vote: report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Herschel Walker and his wife wanted to court Black voters in the Georgia Senate race, per Politico. Julie Blanchard Walker said Walker should've been getting robust Black support, per the report. An individual close to the campaign told Politico that her idea morphed into an "obsessive focus." The biggest complication in the efforts by the Walkers to engage with Black voters? And he campaigned extensively in those areas throughout the entire campaign, while Walker's overall campaign strategy targeted conservatives and the state's rural evangelical community.

Sinema herself, however, said she would not caucus with the Republican Party, according to an interview Politico published on Friday. It will be up to Senate Democrats to foil Republican initiatives. Sinema and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin have kept Washington in suspense over the last two years as they repeatedly withheld needed votes for legislation sought by Biden. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) walks from her hideaway office to the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. August 2, 2022. Just this week, Sinema and Republican Senator Thom Tillis unveiled an immigration reform plan that is getting bipartisan attention in the Senate.

☆ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves Democratic Party and registers as an independent
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Chantal Da Silva | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Mike-Memoli-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has announced she is leaving the Democratic Party and officially registering as an independent. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves the Capitol building on Oct. 27, 2021. After joining the Democratic Party, she served in the Arizona state Legislature and went on to win a seat in the U.S. House in 2012 representing the Phoenix area. The Biden administration was informed of Sinema’s decision to leave the Democratic Party “mid-afternoon” on Thursday, a senior administration official said. Biden did acknowledge Sinema in his remarks, however, saying: “I want to thank Senator Sinema, who can’t be with us today.

☆ Ronna McDaniel locked down votes for RNC chair despite the midterm debacle. Here's how she did it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Jonathan-Allen-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Jonathan Allen | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

An ally, Richard Porter, an RNC member from Illinois, met with her in Washington to make sure she wanted to run for another two-year term. And the most ardent Trump critics among RNC members say McDaniel, Trump's pick for the post six years ago, is too close to him. Bill Palatucci, an RNC member from New Jersey, said he opposes McDaniel's re-election for that reason. For McDaniel to lose, an opponent would have to win the remaining undecided RNC members and swipe nearly two dozen avowed McDaniel backers. Lori Klein Corbin, an RNC member from Arizona who hasn’t committed to any candidate, said McDaniel hasn’t asked for her vote yet.

☆ After failure in Georgia Senate runoff, Republicans could bring in more voting changes next year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Republicans lost the state's Senate runoff election, which was held under the new rules. Some Republicans are now pointing fingers at those laws as they reflect on the runoff loss, The New York Times reported. But there is disagreement in the party over the approach it should take with voting laws, according to the Times. The current laws typically expand in-person early voting in many areas in normal elections, but NBC News reported that they reduce the number of early voting days in runoff elections because they cut the amount of time between general elections and runoff elections. A composite image showing Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who won the state’s runoff election, and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

☆ Kyrsten Sinema ditches Democrats to become an independent, undermining party's narrow Senate majority
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has announced that she is leaving the Democratic Party. Her move comes days after the Democrats won a narrow majority in the Senate. "Becoming an Independent won't change my work in the Senate; my service to Arizona remains the same," she wrote. Her switch comes just days after the Democratic Party won a narrow majority in the Senate, after Georgia incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock's won a run-off election in the state, beating out retired football player Herschel Walker. Warnock's victory gave Democrats a razor-thin majority of 51-49 in the Senate, which has now been thrown into doubt.

☆ White House says it has 'every reason to expect' Kyrsten Sinema will keep working with Biden as she leaves the Democratic party
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Kayla Gallagher | Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema announced Friday that she's leaving the Democratic Party to be an independent. The White House said that even with Sinema's party change, it expects to keep working closely with her. A White House spokesperson did not respond when asked whether the White House received advance warning about her decision and whether Biden has spoken with her. As Vice President, Biden was credited with playing an outsized role in persuading then-Sen. Arlen Specter to switch parties from Republican to Democrat in 2009. Sinema told Politico that her departure from the Democratic Party stems from her feeling like she "never really fit into a box of any political party.

☆ Sinema's exit from the Democratic Party could hand Manchin back some power over Biden's agenda
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent. It changes the balance of power in the Senate, though Sinema sought to downplay the extent. But Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's announcement early Friday that she is leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent soured that victory, and again altered the balance of power. Though that group already included two independents — Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Angus King — it was signed-up Democrats, Sinema and Manchin, who caused the most trouble. "Becoming an independent won't change my work in the Senate; my service to Arizona remains the same," she said in an op-ed announcing her departure from the Democratic Party.

☆ U.S. Senator Sinema leaves Democratic Party, registers as independent
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) walks from her hideaway office to the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. August 2, 2022. Senator Kyrsten Sinema said on Friday she had switched her political party affiliation to independent, leaving the Democratic Party just days after it won a U.S. Senate race in Georgia to secure 51 seats in the chamber. I registered as an Arizona independent," she said in a op-ed for local media outlet Arizona Central. Sinema, in a separate Politico interview published on Friday, said she would not caucus with the Republican Party. Sinema on Friday said her shift came as a growing number of people in her Western U.S. state were also declaring themselves politically independent, rejecting both the Republican and Democratic political labels.

☆ Kyrsten Sinema once ripped then-Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman for trying to win over Republican voters: 'What kind of strategy is that?'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Kyrsten Sinema once slammed a Democratic senator for trying to court Republican voters. Sinema — then a social worker — said in 2003 of presidential-hopeful Joe Lieberman. In 2003, the now-Arizona senator was outside of a meeting for presidential-hopeful Sen. Joe Lieberman from Connecticut, the Hartford Courant reported at the time. Then a social worker, Sinema disagreed with Lieberman's stances on the war — and even more so, his campaign strategy. Sen. Sinema announced Friday morning she is leaving the Democratic party to become an independent herself.

☆ Kyrsten Sinema leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Jeremy Herb | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is leaving the Democratic Party and registering as a political independent, she told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an exclusive TV interview. While Sanders and King formally caucus with Democrats, Sinema declined to explicitly say that she would do the same. She also brushed aside criticism she may face for the decision to leave the Democratic Party. “Nothing about the last two years indicates a major effort would’ve made helped – the exact opposite actually,” a White House official said. After a vote against filibuster changes in January, the Arizona Democratic Party’s executive board censured Sinema.

☆ Asian Americans heavily favored Warnock in Georgia runoff, exit poll shows
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Asian American voters in Georgia showed strong Democratic lean in the recent Senate runoff election, according to one exit poll. “I think there is a risk of losing folks if they take voters for granted.”For the exit poll, the organization surveyed 337 Asian American voters across DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties at five key, high-Asian American precincts. Nguyen emphasized that political opinions across the electorate are far from monolithic, pointing to the poll’s breakdown of Asian American voters by age. Polling occurred in areas with a higher-density Asian American voters, which tend to skew Democrat. Nguyen similarly noted that in the Atlanta area, voters heavily favored Warnock.

Biden had been hopeful that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be more apt to free Griner once America’s midterm elections were done, a calculation that proved correct. Still detained in Russia is Paul Whelan, a businessman whom the White House has also been working to free without success. In a 2012 interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” when he was vice president, Biden came out in favor of same-sex marriage, and he is expected to sign the measure into law. White House officials acknowledged the headwinds and worried that the midterm elections would be a repudiation of Biden’s record. “When I look at what the Biden White House has done, I think experience and patience really paid off,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who served as White House communications director during the Obama administration.

☆ Georgia runoff loss for Herschel Walker shows Trump is nothing by an eyeroll
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( John Hart | John Hart Is The Co-Founder Of Solutions | The Former Communications Director For U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn. He Tweets At | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

If Republicans decide they are tired of losing elections they should be winning, Herschel Walker’s loss to Raphael Warnock in Georgia’s Senate runoff election should mark the definitive and unequivocal end of the Trump era. Republicans have grown complacent and comfortable on a bed of final straws with Trump, but Walker’s loss should wake them up from their slumber. Walker’s loss showed once again that Trump is the GOP’s Bridge to Nowhere, continuing the poor performance of Trump-anointed candidates in the midterms. If Trump wants to start a new party with his dinner companion, white supremacist Nick Fuentes, he’d be doing the Republican Party (and the republic) a favor. Republicans have grown complacent and comfortable on a bed of final straws with Trump, but Walker’s loss should wake them up from their slumber.

☆ Inside the turbulent, doomed campaign of Herschel Walker
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Marc Caputo | Marc Caputo Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +14 min

Republican candidate Herschel Walker's campaign was starved for cash as it faced Sen. Raphael Warnock and his deep-pocketed Democratic allies. Beyond highlighting an intense clash in a nationally watched political campaign’s crucible, the blowup underscored the core problem of Walker’s campaign: Walker. The so-called “oppo” book, however, didn’t have information about the abortion story, which rocked Walker’s campaign. And despite the damaging information that could come out in a campaign, Walker decided to run anyway. By Election Day, Walker campaign staffers knew they were likely to lose.

☆ Georgia Runoff Warnings for Both Parties
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Karl Rove | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The 2022 midterms ended Tuesday when Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Herschel Walker in Georgia. They gained governorships and a Senate seat and kept their House losses to single digits, despite expectations of a red wave. But there’s a danger that Mr. Warnock’s runoff victory will strengthen President Biden’s misinterpretation of Democrats’ better-than-expected showing. The president seems to believe that the GOP’s awful midterm performance was the result of improved Democratic messaging about his administration’s record. “The more they know about what we’re doing, the more support there is.”

☆ Dollar tries to find footing as recession worries simmer
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Kevin Buckland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

With Japan's own long-term yields pegged near zero by the central bank, the yen slid as long-term U.S. Treasury yields clambored off three-month lows. Meanwhile, the yuan hovered close to an almost three-month high after China revealed a loosening of stifling COVID restrictions. Fed policy makers will have the benefit of seeing the latest consumer inflation data a day before the decision. "The FOMC may step down the pace of its rate hikes to 50bp next week, but unless inflation decelerates consistently, upside risks to FOMC policy remain." Long-term Treasury yields plunged to an almost three-month low of 3.402% overnight, but bounced back to around 3.46% in Tokyo.

☆ Dollar struggles as recession worries simmer
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Kevin Buckland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

TOKYO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar remained weak on Thursday after sliding against major peers overnight for the first time this week as investors fretted about the potential for recession in the United States. The yuan hovered near an almost three-month high after China revealed a loosening of stifling COVID restrictions. Fed policy makers will have the benefit of seeing the latest consumer inflation data a day before the decision. "The FOMC may step down the pace of its rate hikes to 50bp next week, but unless inflation decelerates consistently, upside risks to FOMC policy remain." Long-term Treasury yields plunged to an almost three-month low overnight, and remained depressed in Tokyo trading at around 3.45%.

☆ Young voters propelled Raphael Warnock to victory in the Georgia Senate runoff, but the work to boost their political engagement continues: 'We're not stopping here'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Sen. Raphael Warnock's runoff victory was driven in large part by his support among young voters. But young voters — with Gen Z and younger millennials flexing their political power — emerged as a critical demographic in the Georgia Senate race. Looking at the Georgia Senate runoff results, what actually happened to get more young voters to the polls? Heightened voter engagementVoters of Tomorrow, a Gen Z-led voter-engagement nonprofit organization, sent 2.5 million calls and texts to young Georgia voters urging them to participate. But it will take continued engagement with young voters to ensure robust participation in the future, especially in non-presidential election cycles.

☆ Herschel Walker's son says his dad wasn't a 'quality candidate' and often sounded like he was doing a book report on a book he hadn't read
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Herschel Walker's influencer son castigated his father's Senate campaign following his Tuesday loss. Christian Walker told Buzzfeed on Wednesday that his father ran a "dumb" campaign. "There is no quality as a candidate," Christian Walker said of his father. A spokesperson for his Senate campaign did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. We all already knew all of the scandals," Christian Walker said.

☆ Trump isn’t the only thing that could rock American democracy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

In a rare bright spot for democracy in the wake of the US Capitol insurrection, Walker – unlike Trump after 2020 – conceded his loss. But looking to the next election, there’s a brewing fight over which states should have the first say in the presidential primary process. The most core question raised this week is being put to Supreme Court justices. Removing a check from the systemThe leap from Trump’s call to end the Constitution to the independent state legislature theory isn’t that far. Under the map approved by the state Supreme Court and after last month’s midterm elections, the delegation will be an even 7-7 when the new Congress is seated in January.

☆ Georgia Win Ends Headaches of 50-50 Senate for Democrats
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Natalie Andrews | Lindsay Wise | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Senate Democrats celebrated their win in Georgia giving them 51 seats next year, a result that enhances their power by allowing them to more easily advance President Biden’s nominees while also providing slightly more flexibility on legislation. Sen. Raphael Warnock ’s win in a runoff election over GOP challenger Herschel Walker comes after two years in which Vice President Kamala Harris provided a tiebreaking vote in the 50-50 Senate.

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