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☆ DeSantis Goes 0-for-2 on Election Night
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Nicholas Nehamas | Shane Goldmacher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ron DeSantis of Florida went out on a limb. To make matters worse for Mr. DeSantis, a Republican he had endorsed conceded to a Democratic opponent in the mayor’s race in Jacksonville, the largest city in his state. Mr. DeSantis’s preparations to enter the 2024 primary are intensifying. He has held a series of private dinners in Tallahassee with top donors, and on Tuesday he took a direct shot at Mr. Trump over his dodging whether he would sign a six-week abortion ban. But on Monday, Mr. DeSantis made a last-minute endorsement and robocall for Kelly Craft, a former United Nations ambassador under Mr. Trump and a member of a Republican megadonor family.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to soon declare a long-shot campaign for the White House against the president under whom he served, pitching himself as a “classical conservative” who would return the Republican Party to its pre-Trump roots, according to people close to Mr. Pence. Mr. Pence is working to carve out space in the Republican primary field by appealing to evangelicals, adopting a hard-line position in support of a federal abortion ban, promoting free trade and pushing back against Republican efforts to police big business on ideological grounds. He faces significant challenges, trails far behind in the polls and has made no effort to channel the populist energies overtaking the Republican Party. In a sign his campaign will be announced in the coming weeks, a pro-Pence super PAC called Committed to America is being set up. A veteran Republican operative, Scott Reed, who ran Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign and was the longtime top political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will lead the group alongside Jeb Hensarling, a close friend of Mr. Pence’s who served with him in Congress.

☆ Five Takeaways From Trump’s Unruly CNN Town Hall
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Shane Goldmacher | Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Donald Trump is still Donald Trump. His 70 minutes onstage in New Hampshire served as a vivid reminder that the former president has only one speed, and that his second act mirrors his first. He is, as ever, a celebrity performance artist and, even out of office, remains the center of gravity in American politics. Mr. Trump was so focused on discussing and defending himself that he barely touched on President Biden’s record — which people close to Mr. Trump want him to focus on. But he was disciplined when it came to his chief expected primary rival.

☆ Biden Campaign, Barely in Gear, Inches Toward 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Reid J. Epstein | Shane Goldmacher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two weeks after President Biden unveiled his re-election bid, his campaign manager has yet to start the job, his seven co-chairs have not had a group discussion and his team has made little outreach to allies in Congress. For all the attention on Mr. Biden’s gauzy announcement video and the symbolism his campaign attributed to the day he entered the race — precisely four years after he began his 2020 bid and with the same message of saving the nation’s very soul — there is little evidence of the typical preparation for a national political campaign. Mr. Biden’s top advisers insist the limited-release nature of his 2024 campaign is boring by design. They say they are holding down costs by outsourcing as much as possible to the Democratic National Committee while the president’s senior staff members remain ensconced in top White House roles that allow them to engage in campaign strategy. “All of the pieces that should and need to fall into place will,” Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul and Democratic megadonor and one of the Biden campaign co-chairs, said in an interview.

☆ United Auto Workers Hold Off on Backing Biden, for Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Shane Goldmacher | Coral Davenport | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The United Auto Workers, a politically potent labor union, is planning to withhold its endorsement of President Biden in the early stages of the 2024 race, according to an internal memo from its president to members on Tuesday. The memo, written by Shawn Fain, the Detroit-based union’s president, said the leadership of the United Auto Workers had traveled to Washington last week to meet with Biden administration officials and had expressed “our concerns with the electric vehicle transition” that the president has pursued. In April, the Biden administration proposed the nation’s most ambitious climate regulations yet, which would ensure that two-thirds of new passenger cars are all-electric by 2032 — up from just 5.8 percent today. The rules, if enacted, could sharply lower planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes, the nation’s largest source of greenhouse emissions. But they come with costs for autoworkers, because it takes fewer than half the laborers to assemble an all-electric vehicle as it does to build a gasoline-powered car.

☆ Top Republicans Balk at WinRed’s Plan to Charge More for Online Donations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Shane Goldmacher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A battle over a threatened price increase has exposed growing tensions between top Republican Party officials and the company with a virtual monopoly on processing Republican campaign contributions online. Party leaders have risen up in opposition to the plan to raise prices, which would siphon millions of dollars from G.O.P. campaigns less than 20 months after the company, WinRed, had said its finances were robust enough to forego an extra fee on every transaction. Mr. Lansing’s company, a private for-profit firm responsible for processing almost all online Republican political donations, charges 3.94 percent of almost every donation made online. But he said it wasn’t enough, citing an unforeseen slowdown in online G.O.P.

☆ Biden’s 2024 Campaign Begins. You Might Miss It at First.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Reid J. Epstein | Shane Goldmacher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At moments, the campaign rollout had the feel of a nostalgia tour, like an old band trying to recapture the magic of the past. The announcement was timed to the exact day of Mr. Biden’s kickoff four years earlier. The 2024 presidential race is expected to revolve around about half a dozen highly competitive states. Nevada and North Carolina, which has been just out of Democrats’ grasp in recent years, are expected to have heavy spending, as well. The call included, among others, the governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

☆ How Democrats Learned to Cast Aside Reservations and Embrace Biden 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Shane Goldmacher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As President Biden nears the formal announcement of his 2024 re-election bid, one of the most important developments of the campaign is something that hasn’t happened at all: No serious primary challenger ever emerged. Democrats yearn for a fresh face in 2024, according to repeated polls, they just don’t know who that would be. After Democrats won more races than expected in the 2022 midterm elections, any energy to challenge Mr. Biden quickly dissipated. The left has stayed in line even as Mr. Biden has lately made more explicit appeals toward the center. Add to that the advantages of holding the White House and any challenge seemed more destined to bruise Mr. Biden than to best him.

President Biden is nearing a final decision to formally enter the 2024 presidential race as early as Tuesday, with a video to announce his run already in production, according to four people with knowledge of the plans. Mr. Biden, who said last week while in Ireland that he would enter the race “relatively soon,” will spend the weekend at Camp David, and he is expected to be joined by family members and some advisers. He has not yet given final approval to the announcement plan, according to one person with knowledge of the discussions. The New York Times reported on Monday that the Biden operation was discussing the possibility of a low-key video announcement next week on Tuesday, which marks the fourth anniversary of his entry into the 2020 race. One of Mr. Biden’s favorite poems, which he has often quoted, is about making “history and hope rhyme.”On Thursday, The Washington Post first reported that plans for an announcement next week were being finalized with Tuesday as a target.

☆ DeSantis’s Electability Pitch Wobbles, Despite G.O.P. Losses Under Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Shane Goldmacher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ron DeSantis knows the statistics by heart. “There is no substitute for victory,” Mr. DeSantis said last week during his first trip to New Hampshire in his still-undeclared presidential bid. He denounced the “culture of losing” that he said had engulfed Republicans in recent years, swiping at Donald J. Trump in all but name. “If the election of 2024 is a referendum on Joe Biden and his failed policies — and we provide a fresh vision for American renewal — Republicans will win the White House, the House and the U.S. Senate,” he told the crowd. “So we cannot get distracted, and we cannot afford to lose, because freedom is hanging in the balance.”Electability has emerged as one of the early pressure points in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

☆ Pro-DeSantis PAC Makes Hires in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Shane Goldmacher | Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ron DeSantis of Florida and his allies are expanding his political footprint in key states that will begin the 2024 presidential nominating contest, with the main super PAC backing his bid making hires in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and an operative with recent Iowa experience joining the payroll of the Republican Party of Florida. The party is serving as a way station where Mr. DeSantis has been adding strategists and policy advisers who are expected to eventually work on his likely 2024 run. Mr. DeSantis has not yet declared his bid, but a pro-DeSantis super PAC, Never Back Down, has acted as something of a campaign-in-waiting, hiring staff members and responding to regular attacks from former President Donald J. Trump. Almost as significantly, it has engaged with mainstream news organizations that Mr. DeSantis instinctively shuns. The super PAC previously announced that it had raised $30 million in its first three weeks, as major donors poured money into the group in a bid to slow the momentum of Mr. Trump, the Republican polling front-runner.

☆ 5 Reasons Democrats Picked Chicago for Their 2024 Convention
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Reid J. Epstein | Shane Goldmacher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The arena also has twice as many suites as Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, which would have hosted the convention there. Crime and local politicsIt’s pretty clear how Republicans will portray Mr. Biden’s convention city. Democrats answered that pandemic-era spikes in crime were easing, in Chicago and across the country. “The truth is that things have gotten better and better,” Mr. Pritzker said. “It’s a recovery across the nation in major cities that includes a recovery on the issue of crime.

“Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms,” Mr. Biden said, using Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan to describe the former president’s allies. While he had repeatedly and consistently said he intended to run, Mr. Biden stoked renewed speculation by delaying his kickoff for months. Mr. Biden tapped Julie Chávez Rodríguez, a senior White House adviser and granddaughter of the iconic labor leader Cesar Chávez, as his campaign manager. But the operation is expected to be overseen from the White House by top presidential aides. While polls show that most Democrats have favorable opinions about Mr. Biden, a majority of them would still rather he not run again.

☆ Trump told a blatant lie in his latest fundraising text — and his scare tactics could make vulnerable seniors the biggest losers
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-04 | by ( Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A text message sent to prospective donors on October 4, 2020, by Donald Trump's political fundraising operation. There's also no "membership bill" for donors to view, because Trump's committee doesn't send donors bills. Trump's political operation has also recently blasted MAGA Republicans with other bogus fundraising missives. Misleading political fundraising messages are hardly a new phenomenon. Fat from contributions raised through emails and text messages, Save America reported having nearly $92.8 million cash on hand as of August 31, according to Federal Election Commission records.

☆ Trump and national GOP leaders are backing Herschel Walker after abortion allegations, even as his son says he's a 'liar'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-04 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Herschel Walker paid for a woman's abortion despite his pro-life stance, the Daily Beast reported. Walker denied it, but his TikTok influencer son Christian is calling him a liar in a series of tweets and videos. The Daily Beast reported Monday night that Walker reimbursed a woman for an abortion in 2009, despite the candidate's strong public stance against abortion rights. Walker is staunchly anti-abortion rightsLike most Republican candidates and elected officials, Walker is broadly opposed to abortion. "Herschel Walker is being slandered and maligned by the Fake News Media and obviously, the Democrats," Trump said in a statement.

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