Support Our Journalism

Smart. Sharp. Funny. Fearless

Politics National News World Economy Lifestyle Store

Tag: kansas

Do Kansas And Nebraska Polls Mean More Bad News For Trump?

Saturday’s Iowa Selzer poll showing Vice President Kamala Harris ahead in Iowa 47-44 isn’t the only poll suggesting that something big is happening in our country.

Donald Trump won Iowa in 2020 by an eight-point margin. If Selzer’s numbers hold up, it would make an 11-point swing toward Harris in the state.

In Kansas, the Kansas Speak poll by the Docking Institute at Fort Hays State University found Trump winning the state by a meager 5-point margin, 48-43. Trump won the state in 2020 by 15. If the poll is right, it would mark a 10-point shift, similar to Iowa.

For reference, in 2020 the poll predicted a 14.4 percent Trump victory. He won the state by 14.6 percent.

And Siena recently polled Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District for The New York Times, finding Harris beating Trump 54-42, or 12 points. Nebraska allocates a single electoral vote to the winner of each of the state’s three congressional districts (including its "blue dot" Omaha district), and Joe Biden won it 52-46 in 2020. If the Times is right, that’s a six-point shift to the left in yet another midwestern rural-ish district.

There is something happening in rural America, in exactly the kind of districts that Trump and Republicans are depending as the foundation of their electoral chances.

And it all comes down to women.

“Independent voters, who had consistently supported Trump in the leadup to this election, now break for Harris. That’s driven by the strength of independent women, who back Harris by a 28-point margin, while independent men support Trump, but by a smaller margin,” the Des Moines Register reported, digging into the Selzer poll’s crosstabs. “Similarly, senior voters who are 65 and older favor Harris. But senior women support her by a more than 2-to-1 margin, 63 percent to 28 percent, while senior men favor her by just two percentage points, 47 percent to 45 percent.”

Those Kansas and Nebraska results only make sense if that same dynamic is playing out in the broader midwest.

And if it is? Look out, because this election will look a lot different than everyone has been assuming thus far.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Voters Told Them No, But Kansas Republicans Still Push New Abortion Restrictions

Imagine that your party puts forward a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion before the public, and it gets demolished by voters. I mean, the kind of blowout we didn’t even see in a presidential election in Kansas, a deep-red state. In 27 out of 40 state state Senate districts, the amendment was defeated. Statewide, the amendment was a disaster for Republicans, helped set the stage for the retention of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, and made way for an equally solid win by Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids in a newly drawn district geared toward making her a candidate they could beat.

So how do Republicans respond to this news in the land of Oz? I would say they are doubling down but at this point, but II can’t even keep track of how many times they are going back to this old chestnut.

Legislation proposed by GOP state Sen. Chase Blasi, who recently replaced state Sen. Gene Sullentrop, indicates that Republicans have decided that, if Kansas residents won’t approve abortion bans, city councils and city governments will. Republicans hope they will find themselves stacked up with conservatives willing to ban abortion procedures everywhere in Kansas that they still exist.

Blasi represents District 27, where 54 percent of voters rejected the anti-abortion constitutional amendment. Despite that, the newly minted state senator wants to make a splash—by working at crafting legislation that would result in exactly the opposite of what his district chose at the ballot box.

Nothing says “I respect voters” like trying to fool them into thinking the issue is over—while putting the issue in front of friends and allies in lower offices before voters have even had a chance to consider who represents them. That’s right: Imagine passing legislation that allows a local city council member or mayor to move on an anti-abortion agenda three years into their term—when such a policy was expressly impossible for those three years, and before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The bill offers a straightforward change to Kansas statute:

(b) ~~No political subdivision of the state shall regulate or restrict abortion~~ Except as provided in subsection (a), nothing shall prevent any city or county from regulating abortion within its boundaries as long as the regulation is at least as stringent as or more stringent than imposed by state law. In such cases, the more stringent local regulation shall control

The endgame here is not that hard to calculate. Republicans believe that their attempt to ban abortion during a special election failed because it got the attention of voters. If they can continuously place the issue on every single ballot from now on, voters will be forced to take abortion access into consideration in city council votes and mayoral votes in every locale in Kansas.

While there are few actual clinics in the state, fear, uncertainty, and doubt could certainly propel elections in every community—including places like my own sub-1,000-population hometown—into wild debates. Does our town want to allow a clinic? Would a council member vote to permanently ban one from ever coming into town?

With more Democrat-friendly city governments and county commissions in larger communities, Republicans are hoping to take on abortion again this November. This is a strategy built on moving the goalposts, to keep trying to make it easier and easier for the side that lost—badly—to come back and declare victory.

For Kansans who believed the August 2 “No” vote on the constitutional amendment banning reproductive care would be the end of Republican attacks on the issue, it’s now crystal clear: Kansas Republicans have no intent of giving up on forcing birth, and banning abortion remains one of their top goals—whether the public is with them or not

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

GOP Cancelling Presidential Primaries In At Least Four States

Trump allies in Nevada, South Carolina, Arizona, and Kansas are plotting to deny Republican voters the opportunity to reject Trump in a primary contest, Politico reported Friday. Republican officials in all four states are planning on scrapping their primary elections next year, granting Trump their support rather than allowing voters to choose.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), who is challenging Trump for the Republican nomination, told Politico that the moves “show that Trump is afraid of a serious primary challenge because he knows his support is very soft.”

Walsh also vowed to “loudly call out this undemocratic bull on a regular basis.”

Another Republican, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, is also challenging Trump for the nomination and was upset about states canceling their nominating contests. “We don’t elect presidents by acclamation in America,” Weld told Politico. “Donald Trump is doing his best to make the Republican Party his own personal club. Republicans deserve better.”

Rumbles about protecting Trump from any and all challengers first began in December 2018, when South Carolina officials broached the idea of canceling their Republican primary to protect Trump.

Fears that a Republican challenger could embarrass Trump continued into January when an RNC delegate from the Virgin Islands sent a frantic email to colleagues worried about “calculated political treachery” of some Republicans intent on “destroying our party and denying President Trump re-election.”

In February, Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan blasted fellow Republicans for “unprecedented” efforts to block any and all challengers to Trump.

“It’s very undemocratic,” Hogan said at the time. “I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve been involved in the Republican Party for most of my life. It’s unprecedented.”

Hogan briefly toyed with the idea of challenging Trump, but later abandoned the notion.

Republican officials claim their decisions are based on cost savings, rather than helping Trump save face.

“It would be malpractice on my part to waste money on a caucus to come to the inevitable conclusion that President Trump will be getting all our delegates in Charlotte,” Michael McDonald, Nevada GOP Chairman, told Politico. While Trump won the Nevada caucus in 2016, more than half of Republicans in the state wanted a different candidate.

If McDonald and other Republican officials have their way, Republican voters in Nevada, South Carolina, Arizona, and Kansas will not have an opportunity next year to show their support — or disdain — for Trump.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

Photo Credit: Mayberry Health and Home

Kansas Republicans Turn On Kris Kobach, Top GOP Vote Suppressor

Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.com.

Few people have done more to shape the Republican Party’s recent crusade against voting rights, or have been given more power and influence to regulate the polls, than Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

But now, Kobach’s career looks like it’s in freefall — exactly at the moment Kobach is trying to unseat fellow Republican Jeff Colyer for governor.

Kobach’s latest humiliation came on Friday. After Kobach was found in contempt of court, Republicans in the Kansas House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to ban state funds from being used to pay any penalties he might face.

According to the Topeka Capitol-Journal, the ban is likely illegal and unenforceable. But the vote is a stunning disavowal from the party that not only supported Kobach’s war on democracy but handed him the firepower to wage it.

Kobach has been a formidable force within the GOP as one of the loudest voices alleging massive illegal voting and pushing for severe restrictions at the polls.

Kobach was celebrated by Trump, who has repeatedly claimed he only lost the popular vote due to voter fraud (which has been disproven). He was even appointed to co-chair Mike Pence’s commission on “election integrity.”

The truth is that his claim of an epidemic of noncitizen voting does not exist. His “reforms” just block legal voters, most of which are low-income and non-white.

Koback attempted to implement many laws known to hold up voters, including requiring voters to submit proof of citizenship before registering — which was repeatedly shot down in court. His personal investigators found barely any cases of voter fraud. And his plan for excessive voter cross-checking is quietly being abandoned, with eight states pulling out over concerns the system is inaccurate and insecure.

And Trump’s voter fraud commission collapsed, after state leaders in both parties refused to submit data and the commission was sued by one of its own members.

As a final humiliation, Kobach was found in contempt of court and ordered to pay the ACLU’s legal fees after the organization sued him for his voter suppression tactics.

Judge Julie Robinson, a George W. Bush appointee, had to reprimand him for not following court procedure, and his own witnesses failed to provide one example of an election being swayed by noncitizen voters.

It seems like Republicans have caught on that their once rising star is a failure. And they want no part of the fallout from his disgrace.

IMAGE: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach looks on as he talks about the Kansas voter ID law in his Topeka, Kansas office May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Dave Kaup

Shop our Store

Headlines

Editor's Blog

Corona Virus

World

        About The National Memo
    
The National Memo is a political newsletter and website that combines the spirit of investigative journalism with new technology and ideas. We cover campaigns, elections, the White House, Congress, and the world with a fresh outlook. Our own journalism — as well as our selections of the smartest stories available every day — reflects a clear and strong perspective, without the kind of propaganda, ultra-partisanship and overwrought ideology that burden so much of our political discourse.
TAGS

Created By

RebelMouse

About Masthead Terms of Service Privacy Statement Advertise Contact

Smart. Sharp. Funny. Fearless

Do Kansas And Nebraska Polls Mean More Bad News For Trump?

Voters Told Them No, But Kansas Republicans Still Push New Abortion Restrictions

GOP Cancelling Presidential Primaries In At Least Four States

Kansas Republicans Turn On Kris Kobach, Top GOP Vote Suppressor

Shop our Store

Constitution Cork Coaster

Democracy Mug

Make America Think Again Hat

Constitution Rocks Glass

Headlines

Despite Strong May Jobs Report, Wages Aren't Keeping Pace With Inflation

Violating Law She Sponsored, Susan Collins Failed To Report $395K In Stock Trades

Fox Anchor Said Network Must Report Trump Family Grift (And Did For Five Minutes)

Why Trump Appoints Temporary Flunkies Like Pulte To Top Federal Posts

Editor's Blog

Trump's Failure To Protect The World From A Nuclear Iran Began Eight Years Ago

Insider Trading? Thousands Of Stock Transactions Detail Trump's Market Grift

Trump And Kennedy Render America Defenseless Against A Deadly Virus, Again

Discerning The Grim Reality Behind Trump's Fog Of Wartime Lies

Corona Virus