Ronna McDaniel reveals who she thinks trump successor will be, talks keeping Michigan red
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Trump-inspired showmen are running this California county. Will it work on the state stage?
Bianco is a vocal supporter of Trump who regularly mirrors the president's rhetoric as he lays into Democrats on crime, immigration, high taxes and affordability. In the past, he said he would not enforce state vaccine mandates, promised to end sanctuary laws, and was once a dues paying member of the Oath Keepers, an extremist militia. When he endorsed Trump in 2024, he released a tongue-in-cheek video proclaiming 'It's time we put a felon in the White House. Trump 2024, baby.' Shaw, meanwhile, led a successful effort in 2023 to bar teachers from displaying the Pride flag at Chino Valley Unified schools. That same year, she promoted a local policy requiring schools to inform parents if their child might be transgender, prompting the state to quickly sue the school district (last year, a court permanently blocked the policy). A Los Angeles Times profile of Shaw observed that depending on who you ask, she is a 'righteous mother' or 'a small-town bigot, basking in the celebrity she's attained as a mouthpiece for Christian evangelicals.' 'I think they're coming out fighting and swinging because people want to see results,' Ingram said. 'I don't know there is a center anymore when it comes to politics.' For Democrats, that's a major problem. The party had expanded its ranks in the county by promoting a more moderate brand of center-left politics. But cost of living and other economic concerns are especially pronounced here. Longer commutes and lower wages mean economic issues resonate. Many residents who drive to Los Angeles for work spend hours each day on the highway to avoid paying for the toll road. Traffic grows worse by the year. And while the county's ever-more diverse suburbs had propelled Democrats to past victories, Bianco, Essayli, and Shaw's wins in the half-decade leading up to 2024 were precursors to an election in which Republicans were able to capitalize on lower turnout and peel off voters who trusted the GOP more on core issues like public safety and the economy, said Democratic political consultant Derek Humphrey. That migration, in swing states, was vital in delivering Trump the presidency and could reshape politics around the country — if it persists. 'There's certainly concern,' Humphrey said. 'The big question is: Was this a temporary shift? Or was it part of a long-term trend?' In Norco, the traditional values of the Old West are (literally) embedded into the structure of the 25,000-person town. Gravel horse trails, groomed near-daily by city maintenance workers, lead to the piled haystacks at Tony's Hay and Grain beside Norco's Christian Community Church. On Corona Street, a series of corrals line the block, the mares inside watched over by an ironwork silhouette of two riders heading for a desert cross. New construction, by law, is required to look 'Western' — a regulation taken so literally that the City Council once rejected the domed architecture of a planned Hindu temple for not fitting a 'western aesthetic.'
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
In Trump's redistricting push, Democrats find an aggressive identity and progressives are on board
ATLANTA — Fight! Fight! Fight! It's not just Donald Trump's mantra anymore. As the Republican president pushes states to redraw their congressional districts to the GOP's advantage, Democrats have shown they are willing to go beyond words of outrage and use whatever power they do have to win. Democrats in the Texas Legislature started it off by delaying, for now, Republican efforts to expand the GOP majority in the state's delegation and help preserve party control of the U.S. House through new districts in time for the 2026 midterm elections. Then multiple Democratic governors promised new districts in their own states to neutralize potential Republican gains in Washington. Their counter has been buoyed by national fundraising, media blitzes and public demonstrations, including rallies scheduled around the country Saturday. 'For everyone that's been asking, 'Where are the Democrats?' Well, here they are,' said U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, one of several Democrats who could be ousted under her state's new maps. 'For everyone who's been asking, 'Where is the fight?' Well, here it is.' There is no guarantee Democrats can prevent the Republican-powered redistricting, just as Democrats on Capitol Hill have not been able to stop Trump's moves. But it's a notable turn for a party that, as its leaders have long asserted, has honored conventional rules and bypassed bare-knuckled political tactics. So far, progressive and establishment Democrats are aligned, uniting what has often been a fragmented opposition since Republicans led by Trump took control of the federal government with their election sweep in November. Leaders on the left say the approach gives them a more effective way to confront him. They can challenge his redistricting ploy with tangible moves as they also counter the Republicans' tax and spending law and press the case that he is shredding American democracy. 'We've been imploring Democrats where they have power on the state and local level to flex that power,' said Maurice Mitchell, who leads the left-leaning Working Families Party. 'There's been this overwrought talk about fighters and largely performative actions to suggest that they're in the fight.' This time, he said, Democrats are 'taking real risks in protecting all of our rights' against 'an authoritarian president who only understands the fight.' Texas made sense for Republicans as the place to start a redistricting scuffle. They dominate the Statehouse, and Gov. Greg Abbott is a Trump loyalist. But when the president's allies announced a new political map intended to send five more Republicans to the U.S. House, state Democratic representatives fled Texas, denying the GOP the numbers to conduct business in the Legislature and approve the reworked districts. Those legislators surfaced in Illinois, New York, California and elsewhere, joined by governors, senators, state party chairs, other states' legislators and activists. All promised action. The response was almost Trumpian. Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York welcomed Texas Democrats and pledged retaliatory redistricting. Pritzker mocked Abbott as a lackey who says 'yes, sir' to Trump orders. Hochul dismissed Texas Republicans as 'lawbreaking cowboys.' Newsom's press office directed all-caps social media posts at Trump, mimicking the president's frequent sign-off: 'THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.' U.S. Rep. Al Green, another Texas Democrat who could lose his seat, called Trump 'egomaniacal.' Yet many Democrats also claimed moral high ground, comparing their cause to the civil rights movement. Texas state Rep. Ramon Romero Jr. invoked another Texas Democrat, President Lyndon Johnson, who was 'willing to stand up and fight' for civil rights laws in the 1960s. Then, with Texas bravado, Romero reached further into history: 'We're asking for help, maybe just as they did back in the days of the Alamo.' A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that about 15% of Democrats' own voters described the party using words like 'weak' or 'apathetic.' An additional 10% called it 'ineffective' or 'disorganized.' Beto O'Rourke, a former Texas congressman and onetime Democratic presidential candidate who is raising money to support Texas Democrats, has encouraged Democratic-run statehouses to redraw districts now rather than wait for GOP states to act. On Friday, California Democrats released a plan that could give the party an additional five U.S. House seats. It would require voter approval in a November election. 'Maximize Democratic Party advantage,' O'Rourke said at a recent rally. 'You may say to yourself, 'Well, those aren't the rules.' There are no refs in this game. F— the rules. ... Whatever it takes.' Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin acknowledged the shift. 'This is not the Democratic Party of your grandfather, which would bring a pencil to a knife fight,' he said. Andrew O'Neill, an executive at the progressive group Indivisible, contrasted that response with the record-long speeches by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and the Democratic leader of the House, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, in eviscerating Trump and his package of tax breaks and spending cuts. The left 'had its hair on fire' cheering those moments, O'Neill recalled, but were 'left even more frustrated in the aftermath.' Trump still secured tax cuts for the wealthy, accelerated deportations and cut safety net programs, just as some of his controversial nominees were confirmed over vocal Democratic opposition. 'Now,' O'Neill said, 'there is some marriage of the rhetoric we've been seeing since Trump's inauguration with some actual action.' O'Neill looked back wistfully to the decision by Senate Democrats not to eliminate the filibuster 'when our side had the trifecta,' so a simple majority could pass major legislation. Democratic President Biden's attorney general, Merrick Garland, O'Neill said, was too timid in prosecuting Trump and top associates over the Capitol riot and insurrection. In 2016, Democratic President Obama opted against hardball as the Senate's Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, refused to consider Obama's nomination of Garland to the Supreme Court. McConnell's maneuver gave one additional Supreme Court appointee to the next president — Trump. 'These unspoken rules of propriety, especially on the Democratic side, have created the conditions' that enabled Trump, said Mitchell of the Working Families Party. Even on redistricting, Democrats would have to ignore their previous good-government efforts and bypass independent commissions that draw boundaries in several states, including California. Party leaders and activists rationalize that the broader fights tie together piecemeal skirmishes that may not, by themselves, sway voters. Arguing that Trump diminishes democracy stirs people who already support Democrats, O'Neill said. By contrast, he said, the GOP 'power grab' can be connected to unpopular policies that affect voters' lives. Rep. Green noted that Trump's big package bill cleared the Senate 'by one vote' and the House by a few, demonstrating why redistricting matters. U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said Democrats must make unseemly, short-term power plays so they can later pass legislation that 'bans gerrymandering nationwide ... bans super PACs [political action committees] and gets rid of that kind of big money and special interest that helped get us to this place.' Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) added that a Democratic majority would wield subpoena power over Trump's administration. In the meantime, said Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas), voters are grasping a stark reality. 'They say, 'Well, I don't know. Politics doesn't affect me,'' she said of constituents she meets. 'I say, 'Honey, it does. If you don't do politics, politics will do you.'' Barrow writes for the Associated Press.
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Insane energy policies are set to burn Democrats in New Jersey, New York
New York's state Public Service Commission just OK'd big National Grid rate increases that'll hike many upstate utility bills by $600 a year — fueling outrage Democrats will soon feel. Downstate, Con Edison is seeking an 11.4% hike to electric bills and 13.3% gas hike — largely thanks to green-energy mandates that Gov. Kathy Hochul embraced along with the rest of the party. The 'climate agenda' is delivering pain we've long warned of, in New York and New Jersey. Advertisement Con Edison is seeking an 11.4% hike to electric bills and 13.3% gas hike — largely thanks to green-energy mandates that Gov. Kathy Hochul embraced along with the rest of the party. Jack Forbes / NY Post Design Across the Hudson, electric bills as much as tripled this summer — and could cost Democrats the Jersey governor's race. 'Once they realize that Democrats' bungled energy policies are to blame for their exploding utility bills as well, it could blow November's race wide open,' warned Bethany Mandel last week. Yes, GOP Gov. Chris Christie shares in the blame for the Garden State's madness, but it started with the Democrats before him and accelerated under Dem Gov. Phil Murphy, who let the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant close in 2018 and aggressively shut down fossil fuel-powered electricity sources. Advertisement New York's worst-in-the-nation Climate Action Plan began under Gov. Andrew Cuomo but then Hochul doubled down on closing reliable natural-gas power plants and pretending expensive — and less reliable — solar and offshore wind installations could not only replace them, but make up for growing electric demand. Both states are using more electricity than ever — even as 'decarbonization' prevented supply from growing to match. Even without soaring power demands for data centers and AI, green policies that push ever-more consumers to need electricity for cooking, home heating and vehicles put added strain on the grid. Advertisement Hochul's belated push for new nuclear reactors upstate comes too late to stop the crunch; even 'clean power' advocates admit the high risk will cause chaos for New York's power grid. Democrats who locked both states into this idiocy certainly should pay the political price. Murphy barely won re-election in 2021; Hochul came shocking close to losing in 2022 — and all the issues that boosted Republicans then remain. Now Democratic policies are delivering soaring utility bills in both states — and voters will know who to blame.
