At the Washington Post Abby Phillip and Sean Sullivan report on Democatic preparations for November in three key swing states: “In Virginia, Ohio and Florida — the three biggest swing states in the last election — the Clinton campaign is teaming up with state and national Democratic organizations to build voter files, organize thousands of volunteers, register tens of thousands of voters and raise the funds necessary to compete against a Republican opponent.” Philip and Sullivan provide encouraging breakdowns of Democratic preparations in the three states, but note that Republicans are also registering voters in impressive numbers, due to interest in their primaries.
Alice Ollstein warns at ThinkProgress that “North Carolina’s ‘Monster’ Voter Suppression Law Could Swing The Election.”
William Barber II, president of the North Carolina N.A.A.C.P., is a founder of the “Moral Monday” movement has a New York Times op-ed on voter suppression in the south, and why it is critical that congress pass The Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore the protections ripped away by the Supreme Court.
Ed Kilgore’s “Cruz Names Fiorina As Veep Pick — Smooth Move or Last Gasp?” provides an insightful take on the latest GOP gambit to prevent Trump from winning the GOP presidential nomination. At this stage, says Kilgore, it’s a long shot to stop Trump in the pivotal states of IN and CA, made even less likely by Fiorina’s unimpressive track record in both politics and business. Cruz supporters nonetheless hope that the Fiorina ploy will persuade enough voters that she brings added value to the potential GOP alternative ticket, as an attack dog targeting Clinton.
At The Fix Amber Phillips erxplains why “Why Tuesday was a very good night for Senate Democrats,” spotlighting the victories of Katie McGinty and Chris Van Hollen in their respective PA and MD senate primaries, as Democratic establishment-favored candidates.
Not a shocker, but the new Pew Research Center study indicates that, since 1994, “something changed. College-educated Americans became increasingly persuaded to agree with the typically left-leaning position on a whole range of questions, and the percentage of “consistently liberal” college grads skyrocketed from 5 percent to 24 percent in two decades, according to Pew’s study…Over that same period of time, those with lower education levels also moved to the left — but by only by a little bit. Of Americans who only finished high school, the percentage who hold “consistently liberal” beliefs only rose from 1 percent to 5 percent…Highly educated adults — particularly those who have attended graduate school — are far more likely than those with less education to take predominantly liberal positions across a range of political values,” Pew’s report says. “And these differences have increased over the past two decades.,” reports Jeff Stein at Vox.
Alan I. Abramowitz, Senior Columnist, Sabato’s Crystal Ball unveils the latest findings from his Democratic Forecasting Model, which has thus far proved more accurate overall than the polls.
At the San Francisco Chronicle John Wildermuth and Joe Garofoli explore a question that will interest politically-engaged Dems, “Will young Sanders backers stay and steer Democrats leftward?” The authors quote Ben Wikler, Washington, D.C., director of the progressive hub MoveOn, which endorsed Sanders: “If Secretary (Hillary) Clinton is the nominee, then she has to make it crystal clear that the message of the resurgent progressive grassroots has been taken to heart…And if the Democratic convention reflects the values and boldness of the ideas that we’ve seen in the primary — and not a tack back to the center — then I think (Sanders’) people will be on board.” Further, write Wildemuth and Garofoli, “That surge of young, enthusiastic and progressive support for a longtime independent congressman and senator who wasn’t even registered as a Democrat until last year should be a loud wake-up call for the party, said Simon Rosenberg, founder of NDN, a center-left think tank…”This presents Democrats with an enormous opportunity to make their case” to many young people who are more identified with Sanders and his progressive ideals than with any particular party, said Rosenberg, a veteran of former President Bill Clinton’s campaigns. “The question of whether these folks become Democrats is up to the Democratic Party itself.”
Paul Krugman explains why Trump is the last guy voters should want to answer “The 8 A.M. Call” telling the President that “financial markets will melt down as soon as they open.”