... Much of the worst gerrymandering was concentrated in parts of the Southern and Northeastern United States. The 11 worst offenders were North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, Utah, Texas, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
According to the report, Wisconsin is considered the most gerrymandered state in America, although the practice is present in all states....
... North Carolina is among those key swing states. While it has voted for the Republican candidate in 10 of the last 11 elections, with former President Barack Obama winning the state in 2008, Trump only won there by 1.3 percent of the vote in 2020—his narrowest state win—and North Carolina often elects Democratic governors. Seven of its last eight gubernatorial contests have gone blue.
Perhaps with these tight margins in mind, Biden's campaign is taking a number of measures to gain the state....
The analysis found that North Carolina is the sixth most targeted state by the Biden campaign. The top five are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia— other key swing states that could determine the election....
The GOP's candidate for governor in the state, Mark Robinson, has also proved controversial. He has supported an outright ban on abortion and referred to homosexuality as "filth," giving Democrats an opportunity to swoop in and grab more liberal-minded voters.
Reverse negative coattails?
... "Looks like the Biden camp's internal polling is saying the Tar Heel State is in play which makes sense given its growing Democrat-friendly tech sector and large minority population," he told Newsweek. "Even if he doesn't win the state, it makes Trump commit limited financial resources he might otherwise use in close battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, which Biden must absolutely run. Think of it as a strategy of political attrition."...
Reports that Donald Trump is successfully wooing back the nation's CEO's as he makes his third run for the presidency were thoroughly dismantled by the head of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute in a column in the New York Times on Sunday.
Bluntly stating Trump ally's claims of CEO support as "far from the truth," Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld pointed out that not "a single Fortune 100 chief executive has donated to the candidate so far this year, which indicates a major break from overwhelming business and executive support for Republican presidential candidates dating back over a century."
For those who cite several billionaires like Steve Schwarzman and David Sacks as having thrown their wholehearted support behind Trump, he claimed they are the exception rather than the rule.
... Mr. Trump continues to suffer from the lowest level of corporate support in the history of the Republican Party."
"The reality is that the top corporate leaders working today, like many Americans, aren’t entirely comfortable with either Mr. Trump or President Biden. But they largely like — or at least can tolerate — one of them. They truly fear the other," he wrote....
Donald Trump’s campaign is hard at work manufacturing a reason for him to skip Thursday’s presidential debate, and his latest tactic is the most ridiculous one yet.
Trump and his former White House doctor Representative Ronny Jackson, who reportedly kept the former president’s administration “awash in speed,” have repeatedly suggested that President Joe Biden will take performance-enhancing drugs before the debate, as part of their crusade to undermine the event and give Trump a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Now they’ve elevated their own bonkers conspiracy theory even further: Trump posted a letter to Truth Social on Monday that Jackson supposedly sent to the White House demanding Biden submit to a drug test before the debate.
“I demand that you submit to a clinically validated drug test in order to reassure the American people that you are mentally fit to serve as President and not relying on performance enhancing drugs to help you with your debate performance,” Jackson wrote. The pill-pushing Texas Republican demanded that the results of the president’s drug test be made public.
... All of this concocted drama around drug use, as well as claims that CNN will host a biased debate, positively reek of desperation to get the former president out of Thursday night’s presidential showdown. It’s not surprising, as Trump is not suited to actual debate: His speech is often erratic and incoherent, and he’s prone to going off on tangents. Plus, Trump has historically taken a hit in the polls after debating with Democrats, in 2016, and again in 2020. While Trump loves to hype up a crowd, he’s just not that convincing when he’s sharing the stage.
Donny, are you ok? I'd guess 70-30 that he does show up. You?
It also appears that Jackson may soon want to focus on problems of his own. The (bipartisan) House Ethics Committee announced Monday that it will review a report from a congressional watchdog that discovered “substantial reason” to believe that Jackson had converted thousands of dollars of campaign money for his own personal use.
Jackson was demoted by the U.S. Navy in 2022 after the Pentagon inspector general found that he regularly drank on the job, berated his subordinates, and acted inappropriately. Last year, Jackson was filmed unleashing a profanity-laced tirade on a Department of Public Safety officer.
... The Associated Press called the race just before 7:30 p.m. Colorado time, announcing Boebert had collected slightly more than 43 percent of the vote....
... On Tuesday night, none of Boebert’s opponents collected more than 17 percent of the vote....
Having clinched the nomination in the 3rd District, Boebert is expected to sweep to a second term in the district’s general election come November.
Former President Donald Trump and his control over the Republican Party face a new potential threat, writes Amanda Marcotte for Salon: a MAGA movement at war with itself, and, in some cases, even at war with Trump for not being extreme enough.
... While it's not entirely clear what the anti-Trump MAGA flank wants, part of what they seem to be suggesting is that Trump needs a QAnon-level maniac like former general Mike Flynn to be his running mate — or to replace him as the presidential nominee entirely. The situation is threatening enough to Trump's campaign that they are trying to replace these faithless delegates and are sending out irate memos alleging 'a multi-state conspiracy.'"
Similar revolts are happening around the country; from GOP Sen. Mike Braun being saddled with a Christian nationalist running mate in the gubernatorial race against his will, to Minnesota Republicans tossing out the initial MAGA favorite for their Senate race in favor of Royce White, a former basketball star who repeatedly engages in public meltdowns.
All of this threatens to damage and destabilize the Republican Party come November, wrote Marcotte.
"It's a saving grace that authoritarians hate each other almost as much as they hate liberals," she concluded. "Their views are unpopular, so they need to stick together if they want to win. But MAGA attracts people who are constitutionally incapable of playing nice with others, even those in their own tribe. With democracy on the line, everything helps, and this intra-GOP acrimony is a welcome self-own."
Best take on who the winner of the debate is (via reddit comments): The real winner of to tonight's debate is the Voyager space probe speeding away from earth at 17 km/s.
Fingers crossed.
:
, but it's good to have her as a GQP postergirl.
Has anyone counted the number of Dolt .45 lies?