According to CNN, the following 5 seats are in danger during the 2022 senate elections:
Tag: Election
Sigh of relief for Marco Rubio
Just a few months ago, conservatives were looking for a primary challenger to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and speculation swirled around a potential Ivanka Trump challenge to him in the 2022 primary.
The threat to Marco Rubio from within the Republican Party eased on Friday with a “Complete and Total Endorsement” from Florida’s most famous resident: former President Donald Trump.
“Marco has been a tireless advocate for the people of Florida,” Donald Trump said in a statement issued by his Save America political organization.
“Marco will never let the great people of Florida, or our Country, down!”
Even though Mr Donald Trump has been banned from Twitter, the statement read the way his tweets used to sound, complete with unconventional capitalization.
The former president, Donal Trump was especially delighted about Marco Rubio’s performance during his service as acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee from May 2020 until Democrats took control of the Senate this year.
Donald Trump, who has long denied any involvement in Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, said about Marco Rubio:
“He also ruled that ‘President Trump was in no way involved with Russia,’ as he presided over the Senate Intelligence Committee on the FAKE Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.”
Marco Rubio thanked former president Donald Trump in a statement and praised the former president’s “leadership on the major issues facing our nation.”
Mr. Marco Rubio, in his second term and the state’s senior senator, has had a mixed relationship with the former president. Both men sought the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and criticized each other harshly during the campaign.
Former President Donald Trump crushed Marco Rubio in the 2016 presidential primaries. The night that Trump, then a New Yorker, soundly defeated Marco Rubio in his home state of Florida, the senator dropped out of the presidential race. (It was a rout. Rubio won only his home territory, Miami-Dade County. But winning 63% to 23% there, even though it’s the state’s largest county, couldn’t make up for Trump winning 48% to Rubio’s 24% in the state’s other 66 counties.)
After Donald Trump emerged as the victor, the two reached a détente, which involved Marco Rubio supporting just about everything Donald Trump said and did as president.
However, some Florida Donald Trump supporters have remained suspicious of Rubio, thinking he hasn’t been as pro-Trump as they would have liked.
“Our people who are your more hard-core Trump supporters have a disdain for Marco Rubio,” Joe Budd, the elected state committeeman from Palm Beach County, said in January.
Budd tried to get U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz to challenge Rubio. Gaetz, who is since the subject of a major scandal, declined.
As Trump’s presidency came to an end, there was speculation that his eldest daughter would challenge Rubio in the 2022 primary. But in February, a campaign spokesman said she had told the senator she wouldn’t run.
2024 vision – DeSantis plan for battle for the sake of Trump’s legacy
2024 plans for Governor Ron Desantis – The Governor is seen as the best person to carry on Trump’s legacy as the party’s national standard-bearer in 2024.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Governor Ron’s reputation was at stake. He was ridiculed and second-guessed for rejecting mask mandates and reopening businesses. Moreover, he also had controversies where he was accused of involving himself in a vaccine scam. His approach was compared, unfavorably, to other governors from both parties, including now-embattled Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York. DeSantis’ popularity in Florida cratered.
“I think he’s the odds-on favorite to be the next president,” if Trump doesn’t run again, said Joe Gruters, a Florida state senator and chairman of the state Republican Party.
Such declarations can’t be discounted as parochialism in a state where two other Republicans — Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott — nurture White House ambitions. Nationally, the picture is similarly encouraging for DeSantis.
At last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference for hardcore GOP activists, he finished second to Trump in one presidential straw poll and first in another from which the former president was excluded. A recent survey by Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s chief pollster in 2016 and 2020, showed DeSantis and several others competing for second place in a field led by the former president and showed the governor tied with former Vice President Mike Pence as the second choice among Trump’s supporters. Rubio and Scott both ranked near the bottom.
“When you look under the hood of those numbers, DeSantis garners a lot of support from Trump voters in the absence of Trump,” Fabrizio said. “As the media beat him up as the anti-Cuomo and DeSantis stood up for himself, voters liked that. They associate that type of scrappiness and speaking your mind with President Trump. He is inheriting a lot of that.”
Allies say DeSantis, who did not respond to requests for comment, relishes an adversarial relationship with a press that they believe has rendered him a Republican martyr, precisely the type who can position himself as heir to the Trump mantle. Those who work in or around his political orbit insist he is focused first on 2022 but acknowledge the temptations of 2024.
“Ron DeSantis has quickly become the most recognizable Republican governor in the country, and I think that only bodes well for both his re-election and what he wants to do after that,” said Brad Herold, DeSantis’ 2018 campaign manager.
Donors outside Florida are eager to get in on the ground floor, said Nick Iarossi, a Tallahassee lobbyist, and DeSantis fundraiser.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” Iarossi said, “and you normally don’t have prominent donors from other states reaching out and saying, ‘Hey, how do I meet this guy? How do I support him? I think he’s going to be president one day, and I want to get to know him now. I want to support him for his 2022 election to make sure he wins if we need him running in 2024.'”
Governor DeSantis’s appeal isn’t isolated to Trump’s diehards. His job-approval rating in the Mason-Dixon poll was 59 percent among independents.
Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor whose mild brand of conservatism collapsed under Trumpism in the 2016 presidential primaries, rarely comments on politics these days. But in response to emailed questions about DeSantis’ future, Bush offered praise.
“I am out of the punditry business,” Bush replied, “but I am a fan of Ron DeSantis.”
Not everyone is, of course. Only 15 percent of Democrats in the Mason-Dixon poll approved of DeSantis’ performance. One Democratic group, Ron Be Gone, recently launched to push against his re-election bid and prevent him from becoming a strong 2024 contender.
“To run for statewide office, he invested in that cable news profile,” said Matt Caldwell, a Republican who lost a close race for state agriculture commissioner in 2018. “His relationships are different. If we go to a state party meeting, I’m going to see folks that I have personally volunteered and knocked doors with for the last few decades.”
DeSantis’ big primary victory and handling of the pandemic have earned the party faithful’s embrace, Caldwell added. This week, the governor convened a panel of science and medical professionals — including Dr. Scott Atlas, a former pandemic adviser to Trump — who share his opposition to mandates and lockdowns. Democrats plan to make Covid-19 central in next year’s race for governor. They point to his vaccine distribution program, which critics say has favored wealthy donors. They also note more than 32,000 coronavirus deaths and characterize DeSantis as someone who coldly obsesses over comparative data that makes Florida look better than other states.
“His arrogance and complete detachment from the pain and suffering of our communities is very telling of someone that is in this position to advance his political ambitions, and it’s obvious because they’re already discussing 2024,” said Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former congresswoman from South Florida and one of the leaders of the Ron Be Gone effort.
DeSantis backers say they are sensitive to the death toll but believe DeSantis made the right, tough choices to keep the economy running.
“With all due respect to those who have gotten sick or who have passed or who know someone who passed, I think we were able to ride the storm without destroying people’s businesses and people’s economic lives,” said Nelson Diaz, a Republican lobbyist and former chairman of the Miami-Dade County GOP.
The Mason-Dixon poll found DeSantis with substantial leads over two Democrats who could run to challenge him: Rep. Charlie Crist, the former governor who used to be a Republican, and Nikki Fried, the state’s agriculture and consumer services commissioner. And DeSantis is pushing for stricter vote-by-mail rules ahead of his bid for a second term, a fight that could further endear him to supporters of a former president who falsely claims the last election was stolen from him. Some Republicans who are friendly with DeSantis have abandoned the caution they usually preach in a state known for close elections and are projecting confidence for 2022.
“I think this may be one of the easiest gubernatorial re-elects that we’ve seen in Florida in a long time,” said Blaise Ingoglia, a state representative and former state party chairman.
“What people like in general is standing up for what you believe in,” Ingoglia added. “Be a fighter, right? And this is why Ron DeSantis has endeared himself to the Donald Trump base — a base I predict is not going to go away.”
Donald Trump prepares for battle with his own gathering
An unsaid order has governed Donald Trump’s calendar since he left Washington on January since he no longer has a chief of staff to screen his calls as he keeps no predictable working hours. The rule; to sit down with the former president, you must belong to his posh Palm Beach club or know how to contact him directly. Yet, even that will not generally do it.
For weeks now, Donald Trump has called off all meetings with everyone from former South Carolina governor and 2024 hopeful Nikki Haley to House and Senate GOP candidates competing to have a word with him. Donald Trump apparently prefers to spend his days leisurely by calling friends, binging cable news, golfing with a rotating cast of partners and basking in standing ovations whenever he arrives for dinner on Mar-a-Lago’s outdoor patio.
Trump has appeared to enjoy transitioning into his post-presidency life.“He’s really doing what all the other guys his age with that kind of net worth do,” said one Florida Republican operative close to the Trump family. However, this is about to change.
Three people familiar with the planning have said that former president Donald Trump will soon start examining candidates at Mar-a-Lago who are yearning to fulfill his promise to demand retaliating upon incumbent Republicans who’ve looked down upon him, and to ensure every open GOP seat in the 2022 midterms has a MAGA-approved contender competing for it.
Donald Trump already has received dozens of requests from prospective candidates seeking to introduce themselves and apprehend his endorsement, and formal meetings with them could begin as early as March.
Trump has now shifted his focus towards the post-presidential activism venture as he survived his second Senate impeachment trial. The venture mostly bankrolled by his new leadership PAC, Save America, which had $31 million in its coffers at the start of this month.
Donald trump met with his former campaign manager Brad Parscale earlier this week to discuss an online fundraising component to support his efforts. They also discussed on how Trump can utilize social media despite his ban from popular websites like Twitter. Moreover, Trump also met with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), and his eldest son Don Jr. earlier this week.
“We are in the process of putting together a more formal schedule for candidates who want to come get his endorsement,” said senior Trump adviser Jason Miller, noting that Trump’s meetings so far have been limited to golf friends, Mar-a-Lago members and “folks with the ability to contact him themselves.”
Trump’s so called revenge tour comes as other top Rebulicans try to talk him into working with the party’s framework ahead of 2022’s midterm elections, rather than recruiting competitor candidates whose tender could complicate primaries and cost the GOP seats.
Senator Lindsey Graham is expected to meet with Donald Trump over the weekend to talk about his upcoming plans and his desire to push voter reforms at a time when the topic of election integrity has created a major split among elected Republicans.
“I’m more worried about 2022 than I’ve ever been. I don’t want to eat our own,” Graham told Fox News on the heels of a blistering statement Trump released this week accusing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of jeopardizing GOP candidates with his “lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality.” Whether Graham can make a team player of the bitter ex-president largely depends on who else Trump is in contact with, and how often.
Stolen ballots found by farm worker; Glendale Police says
The Glendale Police Department said on their Facebook page on Nov. 3 that 18 early election ballots were found underneath some concrete and rocks at a farm near 99th Avenue and Glendale by a man named Brayan Ruiz.
“He did the right thing by returning the ballots trying to ensure everyone who wanted to vote early still could vote,” via the post. “Each resident said they were aware their early election ballots had not arrived. Some went in person to vote early, and others had not voted yet. We were able to distribute them in time, to provide voters the opportunity to at least fill them out at home and then drop them off to a polling location”
“According to investigators, the ballots were stolen from individual mailboxes in a neighborhood just south of 107th and Northern avenues (in between Vista Avenue and Kaler Drive). The envelopes were still sealed”.
Anyone with information should report them to the Attorney General’s Office’s Election Integrity Unit.
Donald Trump supporters gather in Phoenix, Las Vegas; Election 2020 Protests
The recently released reports say, as the 2020 presidential election is coming to an end, many protestors took to the streets in cities across the U.S. Wednesday for the second night in a row. At the Arizona Capitol and Maricopa County elections center in Phoenix, supporters of Trump to demand election workers keep counting ballots.
The peaceful protests turned into “widespread violence” and National Guard was deployed in Portland, Oregon. The report says some arrests have also been made in Minneapolis and New York City, with the NYPD confiscating weapons.
More than 100 events are planned nationwide between Wednesday and Saturday, organized by local partners of Protect the Results, a coalition of more than 165 grassroots organizations, advocacy groups, and labor unions.
“We knew this would happen,” the advocacy group said in a tweet calling for a rally Wednesday with the hashtags #DeliverDemocracy and #CountEveryVote.
Stay Updated for other election news.