Latest news with #AmericansForProsperity
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sen. Marsha Blackburn announces she is running for Tennessee governor
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn announced she is running for Tennessee governor, ending months of speculation. The senior senator, who lives in Brentwood, said Aug. 6 she's in the race. "I'm running for governor to ensure Tennessee is America's conservative leader for this generation and the next," she said. The primary election to replace term-limited Gov. Bill Lee is Aug. 6, 2026, and U.S. Rep. John Rose is the only declared candidate. Blackburn is already the recipient of endorsements from across the state even without having announced she's running, including from once-gubernatorial hopeful Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann. Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee, an influential conservative policy group that helped the state's school choice voucher program across the finish line, are mobilizing to knock 200,000 doors to "share how Marsha Blackburn led the way in the U.S. Senate to secure major WINS for President Donald Trump & TN taxpayers." Blackburn became the first woman elected to represent Tennessee in the U.S. Senate when she won in 2018. If she were elected governor, she would be the first woman to serve in that role, too. Blackburn was elected to the Tennessee Senate in 1998. She served there until 2003, then was elected to represent part of Middle Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives until her 2018 election to the U.S. Senate. She was reelected to the U.S. Senate in 2024 with 89.5% of the Republican primary vote. In the general election, she received 63.8%. Allie Feinberg is the politics reporter for Knox News. Email: Reddit: u/KnoxNewsAllie This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Marsha Blackburn enters race for Tennessee governor in 20226
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
With income cap gone, New Hampshire families rush to apply for school vouchers
Roughly 9,000 families have either completed or started an application for an Education Freedom Account since Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed the law removing the income cap. (File photo by Annmarie Timmins/New Hampshire Bulletin) Well before Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a bill last month to make New Hampshire education freedom accounts available to all income levels, school choice supporters were preparing to get the word out. On June 10, Ayotte signed Senate bill 295, and a multi-prong awareness campaign kicked into gear. The conservative advocacy group Americans For Prosperity NH dispatched social media ads informing New Hampshire residents that the previous income cap on the voucher-like program had been eliminated. Supportive state senators like Victoria Sullivan, the Manchester Republican who authored the bill, began directing interested constituents to the sign-up portal for the program, which allows New Hampshire residents to receive state funds toward public and private school expenses. And the Children's Scholarship Fund, the nonprofit organization that administers the education freedom accounts, blasted emails to every parent, school and provider currently participating in the program to tell them about the change. The awareness campaigns worked. Within a week of Ayotte signing the bill, the Children's Scholarship Fund had seen 2,000 additional people apply, according to the Concord Monitor. 'I got inundated with emails,' Sullivan said in an interview with the Bulletin. 'It just became impossible to actually respond to everybody individually. So I used X and my Facebook page to give people the information as to where they could go to fill out the application.' Ayotte signs universal EFA bill, parental bill of rights And as of July 2, about 9,000 families have either completed or started an application for an education freedom account, Kate Baker Demers, the executive director of the fund, said last week. Not all of those families will finish and turn in those applications, Baker Demers said. But the numbers suggest the program could exceed lawmakers' estimates of 7,500 students in the program next school year. For newly eligible families, there was incentive to move quickly. While the law removes the income limits for the program, which previously sat at 350% of the federal poverty level, lawmakers included an annual cap on enrollees to mitigate some of the anticipated costs. That cap applied to families making more than 350%; the sooner those families submitted an application, the sooner they could guarantee themselves a spot. Supporters of the program say the large surge in interest validates the Legislature's push to make the program open to all income levels. But Democrats, who have opposed the education freedom account program from the beginning, say the preliminary numbers show that the program is already likely to exceed its budget. Democrats vociferously opposed Sullivan's bill during the session, arguing that people in higher income brackets should not receive state support for private schools. 'The voucher scam proponents really underestimated the impact on purpose, I think, deliberately to deceive legislators to vote for the bill and to deceive Granite Staters,' said Rep. David Luneau, a Hopkinton Democrat. Report: New Hampshire's public school state spending levels lowest in U.S. As part of making the program universal, lawmakers imposed a 10,000 student cap in the program's first year, though a number of categories of students are not subject to that cap. It is unclear whether the state will hit that cap this year, though Baker Demers is dubious. She has predicted 8,500 voucher recipients in the coming school year once all applications are submitted and approved. Supporters of the program say the large number of applications this summer are a reflection of the high number of families who wanted to use education freedom accounts but were just barely outside of the income limits. Sullivan said many parents of children with disabilities, who have been dissatisfied with the individualized education plans at their public school, have expressed excitement at the opportunity to explore alternative options with some state funding. 'I knew there were a lot of families that were just outside of the income cap last time, but there have been a lot of families with kids in special education that are not having their needs met in the public school that have reached out to me about it,' she said. 'So that part was surprising to me.' And Sarah Scott, field director of Americans For Prosperity NH, said the removal of the income limit could also be a boon for single parents. 'Single parents often have rough lives and the kids have struggled,' she said. '…A lot of those families weren't eligible because when you look at 350% of the federal poverty line for a family of two ($74,025), it's very low.' While the outreach in the last month has been relatively successful, proponents say many eligible families still likely do not know about the program. Scott said the online ads, for which the organization has paid about $10,000 so far, are designed to reach families who may not follow state politics closely enough to know about the change. 'I think that prior to June 10, most of the families that were aware of the program were the people that are following what's going on in their town in local politics,' she said. 'Now I think we're definitely seeing more and more of those families that are so wrapped up in, you know, driving their kids to afternoon sports, taking them to tutoring or you know Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.' Sullivan added that though she is a believer in the education freedom accounts, which her children have received, private school or homeschooling may not be the right choice for many families. 'I don't think it's a program for every family,' she said. 'A lot of families are happy with their public schools, and I wouldn't want to be pushing people into an education that wasn't right for them.' The total tally of education freedom account students in the 2025 to 2026 school year will not be known for months. Families are allowed to apply throughout the year, but the bulk of applications happen before mid July. The Department of Education releases a report based on those numbers in November. Luneau says he and other Democrats will continue to campaign against the education freedom accounts to turn voters against the idea of giving state funds to wealthy families. How wealthy those families are will not be clear. The families who say they are above the 350% poverty level do not need to submit income verification, or state their income at all. And Luneau says he would also like more accountability over where the money is going and how the program vendors are approved. 'This is a program that very quickly is going to be over $100 million a year, over a billion bucks — billion with a capital B — over a 10-year period,' Luneau said. 'And that's a billion dollars that isn't going to be helping cities and towns or reducing property taxes. Essentially it's a billion dollars that is going to be sitting on top of everyone's property taxes.' Baker Demers and Scott counter that demand for the program will likely level out, and they say the state will be able to sustain the funding levels. 'I think that in the first couple of weeks, there's always a lot of talk about it,' she said. '…But over the course of the next year, I think a lot of the families that really want to take advantage of it will be aware of it and will already have taken the steps to do that.'SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Republicans face a ferocious ad campaign surrounding Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
A ferocious advertising campaign is underway with passage of President Donald Trump's landmark policy bill hanging in the balance, as political groups and business interests spent at least $35 million just this month to try to sway key members of Congress and their constituents. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina was facing the pressure from both sides before he announced Sunday that he wouldn't seek reelection in 2026. Americans for Prosperity, an arm of the conservative megadonor Charles Koch's political network, spent nearly $2 million this month in key media markets such as Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. 'Trump's tax cuts put money back in my pocket, and they're helping young families save for their first homes,' says a woman featured in one of the ads from AFP. 'Congress needs to save our tax cuts and protect prosperity.' At the same time, the Democratic-aligned group Unrig Our Economy spent nearly $1 million hammering Tillis over Medicaid cuts in the bill. 'Sen. Thom Tillis could vote to take away our health care and give tax breaks to billionaires,' an ad from the group warns. Other Republicans in swing districts face the same dynamic heading into a midterm campaign in which they will need to reach at least some voters who don't back Trump without angering the president or his core supporters. In Tillis' case, he announced he wouldn't seek reelection hours after Trump called for him to face a primary challenge because he didn't support a procedural vote on the 'big, beautiful bill.' 'We so often hear of members concerned about their general reelection efforts, but that is all for naught if you can't get through a primary,' said John Thomas, a Republican strategist and ad maker. 'To add even more pressure, the GOP base is extremely supportive of President Trump, much more than their individual federal representative. Break rank with Trump and there is a price to pay.' Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from a battleground district who last week announced plans to retire, commented Friday on the advertising blitz surrounding the legislation. 'I think the other guys, look, they put $500,000 on me this week saying 'Don Bacon's cutting Medicaid,'' he told CNN's Manu Raju. 'There's a lot of goodness here, but we gotta talk about it and show the voters.' In June alone, according to data from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, a sprawling collection of large PACs and interest groups spent more than $35 million on dozens of ads about the bill, which contains a range of Trump administration policy priorities on taxes, spending and immigration. Republicans account for about half of that spending, while Democrats account for about a quarter and independent and business PACs for another quarter. Hundreds of thousands of dollars more have been spent on ads not explicitly mentioning the sweeping legislation but referencing looming policy changes and parochial interests, backed by other business and lobbying groups. Late Saturday night, after intense negotiations, the sweeping bill narrowly cleared a major procedural hurdle in the Senate by a 51-49 vote, backed by several key swing votes — among those buffeted by ad campaigns — in the spotlight, such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. Major challenges for the giant tax and spending bill remain, however, as it still faces amendments and a final vote in the Senate. The House will have to vote to accept a significantly changed piece of legislation from the Senate after only narrowly approving its own version of the bill weeks ago. A group aligned with Trump's political network, 'Securing American Greatness,' has spent more than $7.7 million on ads in June, leading all advertisers with a broad campaign, much of it aimed at shoring up support among House members. 'Mariannette Miller-Meeks just voted for President Trump's working family tax cuts that mean higher wages and lower taxes for working families,' says an ad from the group targeting the key battleground representative from Iowa who won her last reelection by 798 votes. At the same time, the pro-Trump group is hammering congressional Democrats in competitive districts for their opposition to the bill, raising the prospect of higher taxes if an extension of 2017 tax cuts, included in the legislation, fails to pass. 'It's Washington's game, taxing us to bankroll their liberal waste,' says an ad from the group targeting California Democratic Rep. Josh Harder, reelected in 2024 by a margin of about 9,000 votes. 'Tell Josh Harder we can't afford his tax hikes.' With the key procedural hurdle cleared on Saturday, Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer underscored the political challenges would get easier once the bill was passed. 'Well, it doesn't get easier,' the North Dakota senator said. 'I just think, at some point, you just have to take what you know — all the data, all the analysis, all the discussion, all the hearings — and apply them to a vote. Pass the bill. And the sooner we do that, the sooner all the good things will kick in, and that will alleviate, I think, people's concerns.'
CNN
29-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Republicans face a ferocious ad campaign surrounding Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
A ferocious advertising campaign is underway with passage of President Donald Trump's landmark policy bill hanging in the balance, as political groups and business interests spent at least $35 million just this month to try to sway key members of Congress and their constituents. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina was facing the pressure from both sides before he announced Sunday that he wouldn't seek reelection in 2026. Americans for Prosperity, an arm of the conservative megadonor Charles Koch's political network, spent nearly $2 million this month in key media markets such as Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. 'Trump's tax cuts put money back in my pocket, and they're helping young families save for their first homes,' says a woman featured in one of the ads from AFP. 'Congress needs to save our tax cuts and protect prosperity.' At the same time, the Democratic-aligned group Unrig Our Economy spent nearly $1 million hammering Tillis over Medicaid cuts in the bill. 'Sen. Thom Tillis could vote to take away our health care and give tax breaks to billionaires,' an ad from the group warns. Other Republicans in swing districts face the same dynamic heading into a midterm campaign in which they will need to reach at least some voters who don't back Trump without angering the president or his core supporters. In Tillis' case, he announced he wouldn't seek reelection hours after Trump called for him to face a primary challenge because he didn't support a procedural vote on the 'big, beautiful bill.' 'We so often hear of members concerned about their general reelection efforts, but that is all for naught if you can't get through a primary,' said John Thomas, a Republican strategist and ad maker. 'To add even more pressure, the GOP base is extremely supportive of President Trump, much more than their individual federal representative. Break rank with Trump and there is a price to pay.' Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from a battleground district who last week announced plans to retire, commented Friday on the advertising blitz surrounding the legislation. 'I think the other guys, look, they put $500,000 on me this week saying 'Don Bacon's cutting Medicaid,'' he told CNN's Manu Raju. 'There's a lot of goodness here, but we gotta talk about it and show the voters.' In June alone, according to data from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, a sprawling collection of large PACs and interest groups spent more than $35 million on dozens of ads about the bill, which contains a range of Trump administration policy priorities on taxes, spending and immigration. Republicans account for about half of that spending, while Democrats account for about a quarter and independent and business PACs for another quarter. Hundreds of thousands of dollars more have been spent on ads not explicitly mentioning the sweeping legislation but referencing looming policy changes and parochial interests, backed by other business and lobbying groups. Late Saturday night, after intense negotiations, the sweeping bill narrowly cleared a major procedural hurdle in the Senate by a 51-49 vote, backed by several key swing votes — among those buffeted by ad campaigns — in the spotlight, such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. Major challenges for the giant tax and spending bill remain, however, as it still faces amendments and a final vote in the Senate. The House will have to vote to accept a significantly changed piece of legislation from the Senate after only narrowly approving its own version of the bill weeks ago. A group aligned with Trump's political network, 'Securing American Greatness,' has spent more than $7.7 million on ads in June, leading all advertisers with a broad campaign, much of it aimed at shoring up support among House members. 'Mariannette Miller-Meeks just voted for President Trump's working family tax cuts that mean higher wages and lower taxes for working families,' says an ad from the group targeting the key battleground representative from Iowa who won her last reelection by 798 votes. At the same time, the pro-Trump group is hammering congressional Democrats in competitive districts for their opposition to the bill, raising the prospect of higher taxes if an extension of 2017 tax cuts, included in the legislation, fails to pass. 'It's Washington's game, taxing us to bankroll their liberal waste,' says an ad from the group targeting California Democratic Rep. Josh Harder, reelected in 2024 by a margin of about 9,000 votes. 'Tell Josh Harder we can't afford his tax hikes.' With the key procedural hurdle cleared on Saturday, Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer underscored the political challenges would get easier once the bill was passed. 'Well, it doesn't get easier,' the North Dakota senator said. 'I just think, at some point, you just have to take what you know — all the data, all the analysis, all the discussion, all the hearings — and apply them to a vote. Pass the bill. And the sooner we do that, the sooner all the good things will kick in, and that will alleviate, I think, people's concerns.'
CNN
29-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Republicans face a ferocious ad campaign surrounding Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
A ferocious advertising campaign is underway with passage of President Donald Trump's landmark policy bill hanging in the balance, as political groups and business interests spent at least $35 million just this month to try to sway key members of Congress and their constituents. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina was facing the pressure from both sides before he announced Sunday that he wouldn't seek reelection in 2026. Americans for Prosperity, an arm of the conservative megadonor Charles Koch's political network, spent nearly $2 million this month in key media markets such as Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. 'Trump's tax cuts put money back in my pocket, and they're helping young families save for their first homes,' says a woman featured in one of the ads from AFP. 'Congress needs to save our tax cuts and protect prosperity.' At the same time, the Democratic-aligned group Unrig Our Economy spent nearly $1 million hammering Tillis over Medicaid cuts in the bill. 'Sen. Thom Tillis could vote to take away our health care and give tax breaks to billionaires,' an ad from the group warns. Other Republicans in swing districts face the same dynamic heading into a midterm campaign in which they will need to reach at least some voters who don't back Trump without angering the president or his core supporters. In Tillis' case, he announced he wouldn't seek reelection hours after Trump called for him to face a primary challenge because he didn't support a procedural vote on the 'big, beautiful bill.' 'We so often hear of members concerned about their general reelection efforts, but that is all for naught if you can't get through a primary,' said John Thomas, a Republican strategist and ad maker. 'To add even more pressure, the GOP base is extremely supportive of President Trump, much more than their individual federal representative. Break rank with Trump and there is a price to pay.' Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from a battleground district who last week announced plans to retire, commented Friday on the advertising blitz surrounding the legislation. 'I think the other guys, look, they put $500,000 on me this week saying 'Don Bacon's cutting Medicaid,'' he told CNN's Manu Raju. 'There's a lot of goodness here, but we gotta talk about it and show the voters.' In June alone, according to data from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, a sprawling collection of large PACs and interest groups spent more than $35 million on dozens of ads about the bill, which contains a range of Trump administration policy priorities on taxes, spending and immigration. Republicans account for about half of that spending, while Democrats account for about a quarter and independent and business PACs for another quarter. Hundreds of thousands of dollars more have been spent on ads not explicitly mentioning the sweeping legislation but referencing looming policy changes and parochial interests, backed by other business and lobbying groups. Late Saturday night, after intense negotiations, the sweeping bill narrowly cleared a major procedural hurdle in the Senate by a 51-49 vote, backed by several key swing votes — among those buffeted by ad campaigns — in the spotlight, such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. Major challenges for the giant tax and spending bill remain, however, as it still faces amendments and a final vote in the Senate. The House will have to vote to accept a significantly changed piece of legislation from the Senate after only narrowly approving its own version of the bill weeks ago. A group aligned with Trump's political network, 'Securing American Greatness,' has spent more than $7.7 million on ads in June, leading all advertisers with a broad campaign, much of it aimed at shoring up support among House members. 'Mariannette Miller-Meeks just voted for President Trump's working family tax cuts that mean higher wages and lower taxes for working families,' says an ad from the group targeting the key battleground representative from Iowa who won her last reelection by 798 votes. At the same time, the pro-Trump group is hammering congressional Democrats in competitive districts for their opposition to the bill, raising the prospect of higher taxes if an extension of 2017 tax cuts, included in the legislation, fails to pass. 'It's Washington's game, taxing us to bankroll their liberal waste,' says an ad from the group targeting California Democratic Rep. Josh Harder, reelected in 2024 by a margin of about 9,000 votes. 'Tell Josh Harder we can't afford his tax hikes.' With the key procedural hurdle cleared on Saturday, Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer underscored the political challenges would get easier once the bill was passed. 'Well, it doesn't get easier,' the North Dakota senator said. 'I just think, at some point, you just have to take what you know — all the data, all the analysis, all the discussion, all the hearings — and apply them to a vote. Pass the bill. And the sooner we do that, the sooner all the good things will kick in, and that will alleviate, I think, people's concerns.'
