Category: Elections

Commentary: Making Climate Change a Republican Issue in 2024

Minnesota Sun Staff

Out of sheer perversity, I follow stories in the Washington Post related to weather. It matters not what the weather brings, the cause is global warming (or climate change depending on the temperature of the disaster). Having a flood? Global warming. Got a heavy snow or ice storm? Climate change. They haven’t yet figured out how to blame earthquakes on global warming, but the mainstream media will probably find a cause and effect relationship somehow.

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Presidential Candidate Dean Phillips Says He Won’t Seek Fourth Term in Congress

Minnesota Sun Staff

While Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips continues his longshot campaign to wrest away the Democrat nomination for president from incumbent Joe Biden, the Wayzata millionaire officially announced on Friday that he’ll no longer pursue a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Representing our nation’s most civically engaged community in Congress has been the most joyful experience of my life,” Phillips said in a social media post shortly after noon on Friday. “Now it’s time to pass the torch — with gratitude and optimism.”

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Commentary: Argentina’s First-Ever Libertarian President

Minnesota Sun Staff

Voters in Argentina have elected a libertarian as president for the first time in their history. On Sunday, Argentina had its second round of voting, and Javier Milei received 55.69% of the vote against the Peronist Sergio Massa’s 44.31%. In a country that suffers 143% annual inflation and a poverty rate hovering around 43%, Milei has a long and difficult road ahead.

Milei’s win marks the first time in 40 years that someone outside Argentina’s two largest parties was elected. La Libertad Avanza, Milei’s 3-year-old political party, finally broke through the entrenched and archaic political apparatus. In a tweet back in June, Milei stated that Argentina was choosing between the old politics and the new ideas. During his presidential campaign, Milei pledged to tackle Argentina’s inflationary unhealthy economy by dollarizing the peso and minimizing government spending.

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Professor Raises Concerns over the Effect AI Could Have on 2024 Elections

The Center Square

A University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy professor is waving a red flag on the impact that artificial intelligence could have on next year’s elections.  

Ethan Bueno de Mesquita has written a white paper which he said provides an overview of the potential impact of generative AI on the electoral process. The paper offers specific recommendations for voters, journalists, civil society, tech leaders and other stakeholders to help manage the risks and capitalize on the promise of AI for electoral democracy in the hope of fostering a more productive public discussion of these issues.  

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Trump Widens Lead over Biden in New 2024 Poll

Minnesota Sun Staff

Former President Donald Trump has widened his lead over President Joe Biden by 5 points for a 2024 head-to-head matchup, according to a Tuesday poll.

Trump is beating Biden 47% to 40% among registered voters, with 13% remaining undecided, according to a Messenger/HarrisX poll. The former president’s margin of victory grew from his 2-point lead reflected in a previous Messenger/HarrisX survey released on Nov. 1, when 12% of registered voters were not sure of their choice.

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Cornel West Targets Minority Voters in Michigan

Minnesota Sun Staff

Independent presidential candidate Cornel West is targeting minority voters in Michigan for 2024, a crucial voting bloc for Democrats that President Joe Biden has lost support with, Politico reported Tuesday.

West’s campaign is setting up a ground game operation to be deployed in the diverse battleground state early next year where the candidate will seek support from “environmental justice advocates,” the indigenous population, black voters, college students and Arab Americans, according to Politico. The move comes as Biden is losing support from minority voters, as well as Muslims in the swing state following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, providing a potential opening for West to shore up support among the key groups.

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Commentary: As Biden Turns 82, Reality Sets in as 2024 Approaches Rapidly with Trump Still Leading Polls

Minnesota Sun Staff

Another week, and amid more calls for President Joe Biden, who just turned 82, to step aside, former President Donald Trump is extending his lead in national polls over Biden for the 2024 election, with 46.6 percent for Trump to 45 percent for Biden in the latest average of polls taken by RealClearPolitics.com.

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Argentina Makes History, Voters Deliver Clear Mandate with Election of Free Market Libertarian Javier Milei by Double-Digits

ADN America

Libertarian candidate Javier Milei of the “La Libertad Avanza” (Liberty Moves Forward) party, will become the president of Argentina on December 10. The free market capitalist obtained 55.86 percent of the votes, with 91.81 percent of the polling stations counted, a stunning victory for the right that resulted in the defeat of ruling party candidate Sergio Massa, who only garnered 44.13 percent of the votes.

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Minnesota Left-Wing School Board Member Wins DFL Primary for South Metro House Seat

Minnesota Sun Staff
Bianca Virnig

A progressive member of Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School Board who cast the lone dissenting vote among her colleagues in March 2022 to end masking requirements for students won a competitive DFL primary contest on Thursday for a vacant south metro seat in the state legislature.

Bianca Virnig beat out three other candidates all competing to affix the Democratic-Farmer-Labor label next to their name on the Dec. 5 ballot for the House District 52B special election.

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Squad Members Criticize AIPAC for Reportedly Committing to Spend $100 Million to Defeat Them

Just the News

Progressive House lawmakers in the so-called Squad criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for reportedly committing to spend $100 million to defeat them.

According to a report from Slate, Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are all targets of the $100 million AIPAC spending campaign.

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Commentary: Two Judicial Strikes Against Efforts to Keep Trump Off Ballot

Minnesota Sun Staff

Two state courts, the Minnesota Supreme Court and the Michigan Court of Claims, have thrown out the attempts by anti-democratic groups to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment, at least with respect to the presidential primary election.

The attempt to take away the ability of voters to make their own decisions on Trump’s candidacy has been temporarily halted in those states.

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Weed Advocates Are Ramping Up Lobbying Efforts and Notching Wins

Minnesota Sun Staff

Marijuana legalization advocates are hiring more lobbyists and otherwise ramping up their efforts to influence drug policy on Capitol Hill.

The weed industry’s lobbying efforts increased significantly between the first and second quarters of 2023, rising from $1.04 million to $1.39 million. Cannabis Freedom Alliance, a coalition of groups seeking to end federal prohibitions on weed, recently hired the Bose Public Affairs Group to lobby Congress on marijuana reform issues, according to lobbying disclosures.

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Analysis: Trump Leads Biden 47 – 41 Percent in Swing States; Wins Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nevada

Minnesota Sun Staff

Former President Donald Trump continues to lead incumbent President Joe Biden in the most important battleground states in the latest Morning Consult-Bloomberg poll taken Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 with an overall 47 percent to 41 percent margin.

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Commentary: Mail Ballot Security Is Under Nationwide Assault

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Left loves to tout universal mail-in voting. Liberal enclaves like California, Hawaii, and Oregon have implemented it, while activists push aggressively to impose mail-in voting on Americans. But even as they push it, despite repeated instances of fraud, the Left simultaneously attacks any efforts to make vulnerable mail voting more secure. Indeed, the Left holds outright disdain for even minimal safeguards for mail ballots.

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Twin Cities Socialists Win Six of Seven Elections

Minnesota Sun Staff

Socialist-backed candidates had a successful election night Tuesday, with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) winning six of the seven elections where they made endorsements.

Minneapolis elected a fourth Democratic Socialist member to the City Council, bringing the total number of socialist council members to four.

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DeSantis, Haley Bring in Big Money After Third GOP Primary Debate

Minnesota Sun Staff

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley both brought in over $1 million in the first 24 hours following the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) third GOP primary debate on Wednesday, the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed Friday.

Haley’s fundraising haul marks the campaign’s best single day of small-dollar donations after she and DeSantis sparred over foreign policy, energy and other issues on stage in Miami, Florida, according to the former ambassador’s team. DeSantis and Haley maintain either the second- or third-place lane in most national and key early state surveys as they vie to take on former President Donald Trump, who’s leading the crowded field of GOP hopefuls by roughly 44 points.

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Another Poll Shows Biden Trailing Trump in Battleground States

Minnesota Sun Staff

President Joe Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump in four key swing states for a potential 2024 head-to-head rematch, according to a Thursday poll.

Biden would lose to Trump in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona by anywhere from 2 to 8 points among likely voters, and is tied in Wisconsin and narrowly leading in Michigan, according to an Emerson College survey. The poll comes after a series of other surveys suggest similar margins where the former president is beating Biden in crucial battleground states, most of which Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020.

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Election Problems Persist This time in Kentucky, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Texas

Just the News

Voters in counties nationwide ran into a handful of different issues at polling locations during Election Day on Tuesday, from voting machines flipping votes in a Pennsylvania county to electronic poll books malfunctioning in Louisville, Kentucky.

Several states had statewide, local, and/or municipal elections on Tuesday, including Kentucky, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The first two states had gubernatorial elections, while the last two had local and statewide ballot questions or judicial races.

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Commentary: Trump’s Popularity Is Not Inexplicable

Minnesota Sun Staff

In a routine that has become familiar of late, CNN’s Jim Acosta reports the ongoing ascendancy of Donald Trump in the polls with a mixture of dismay and disbelief. With these emotions front and center on his November 5 cable show, Acosta grimly reported the latest polling on the 2024 presidential candidates, noting that Trump is now ahead of Biden in five out of six crucial swing states. In Nevada, where Trump lost by 2 percentage points in 2020, Trump is now up by 11 points over Biden.

As Acosta proceeded to interview experts in an attempt to make sense out of this, the prevailing message was Biden is too old, and that has voters worried. David Frum, a reliable uniparty stalwart, reassured Acosta that “Trump is only three years younger than Biden,” and that Trump is so weak and elderly that he “can’t even open a jar of pickles.” The men then proceeded to applaud Biden as physically hale and hearty, dismissing concerns about his age as unwarranted.

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Two Newcomers in Anoka-Hennepin Defeat DFL-Allied, Education Minnesota-Backed Candidates

Minnesota Sun Staff

In one of the most closely watched school board races in the Twin Cities, two of three candidates endorsed by a conservative grassroots organization, the Minnesota Parents Alliance, have captured seats on the Anoka-Hennepin School Board.

Linda Hoekman and Zach Arco defeated their Education Minnesota-endorsed opponents in their respective head-to-head races on Tuesday night, as election results from several school board and municipal elections across the state came pouring in shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m.

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RFK Jr. Pulls Massive Support in Battleground States: Poll

Minnesota Sun Staff

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. secured a large portion of the vote in six key swing states against former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden for 2024, according to a Sunday poll.

Kennedy, who recently left the Democratic Party, won over 20% support in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as 24% across all six states compared to Trump’s 35% and Biden’s 33%, accordingto a New York Times/Sienna College poll released Nov. 5. Though Kennedy didn’t secure enough support to win any of the battlegrounds, his candidacy led to the president narrowly winning only one state, the former president winning three and Biden and Trump tying in two.

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Minnesota Woman Leads Grassroots Effort to Repeal Ranked-Choice Voting

Minnesota Sun Staff

A city in the west metro Twin Cities has become ground zero in a larger battle waged by well-funded progressive activists to turn Minnesota into a ranked-choice voting state. And Ellen Cousins might be the woman to stop FairVote MN in its tracks.

The Minnetonka resident has held several volunteer positions on city commissions and within her local school district over the last three decades. She’s now channeling her zeal for civics and community service into a grassroots movement to repeal ranked-choice voting as a method of electing city officials in Minnetonka. And the more voters Cousins and her volunteers reach as the Nov. 7 election draws near, the more they believe momentum is on their side.

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Analysis: New Polling Finds Trump’s Lead Jumps to 5 Points in a Four-Way Race as Calls for Biden to Step Aside Rise

Admin

Former President Donald Trump continues to press his advantage against incumbent President Joe Biden in the latest HarrisX-Messenger poll, 51 percent to 49 percent, a lead that jumps to five points when Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Cornell West are included in the mix, with Trump garnering 41 percent, Biden 36 percent, Kennedy 11 percent and West 2 percent.

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CBS News’ ’60 Minutes’ Omits Key Facts, Makes Incorrect Statements Covering the Lawfare Against Trump’s Former Attorney John Eastman

Rachel Alexander

The television news magazine show 60 Minutes aired a story on CBS Sunday about the lawfare against Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman, which repeated much of the mainstream media’s talking points about his legal advice to Trump regarding the illegal activity in the 2020 election.

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Massachusetts Mayor Candidate’s Campaign Accused of Voter Fraud, Allegedly Paid Residents for Votes

Just the News

The election campaign for a Massachusetts mayoral candidate is facing allegations of bribing residents to vote.

Election officials for the city of Springfield say they witnessed voters being brought to the city hall for early voting and that at least some expected cash after they voted for Democrat candidate Justin Hurst, according to local news outlet The Republican.

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Judge Orders New Democrat Mayoral Primary in Connecticut After Seeing ‘Shocking’ Ballot-Stuffing Videos

Minnesota Sun Staff

A Superior Court judge in Connecticut has ordered a new Democrat mayoral primary in Bridgeport after surveillance videos showed a Democrat official apparently stuffing absentee ballots into an outdoor ballot box ahead of the original primary.

Incumbent Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim won the election by 251 votes out of 8,173 cast, and absentee ballots reportedly played a deciding role in his margin of victory.

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Teachers Union Drops over $80K on Minnesota School Board Races in Final Days of Campaign

Minnesota Sun Staff

Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union and one of the most powerful political players in Minnesota, has spent over $80,000 on supporting its endorsed candidates in local school board races in the final days of the election season.

The union announced the digital advertising campaign in a press release Wednesday, saying its get-out-the-vote push was a response to “unprecedented outside spending on fall school board races.”

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RFK Jr. at 22 Percent in Three-Way Race with Biden, Trump: Poll

Just the News

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has emerged as a formidable, and potentially race-defining, contender in the 2024 presidential contest.

In a hypothetical three-way contest between himself, former President Donald Trump, and President Joe Biden, Kennedy earned 22% support in the latest Quinnipiac survey. Biden and Trump earned 39% and 36%, respectively. Kennedy led with independent voters with 36%, while Trump placed second with 31%, and 30% backed Biden.

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New Poll Shows Kentucky Governor’s Race in Dead Heat Before Election

Minnesota Sun Staff

The gubernatorial race between Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron appears to be in a dead heat just days before Tuesday’s election, according to a Friday poll.

Beshear and Cameron are tied at 47% among likely Kentucky voters ahead of the Nov. 7 election, with 4% remaining undecided and 2% naming someone else, according to an Emerson College survey. Among the 4% of voters who remain undecided on the race, 62% are leaning toward voting for Cameron while 39% are leaning toward Beshear.

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Longtime Minnesota Union Member to Run as a Republican Against DFLer Dave Lislegard

Minnesota Sun Staff

A third-generation miner and union member from Virginia has said he will run as a Republican to unseat three-term DFLer Dave Lislegard in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Cal Warwas says he wants to represent District 7B at the State Capitol because he believes the “the DFL Trifecta, led by Twin Cities legislators, has advanced an agenda that is way out-of-step with Range values and priorities.”

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Commentary: Women in Swing States Could Cause Problems for Biden in 2024

Minnesota Sun Staff

President Biden continues to trail across the country singing the virtues of “Bidenomics”, but voters aren’t buying it – especially female voters in highly contested battleground states that will play an outsized role in 2024.

Biden won women by a wide fifteen-percentage-point margin in 2020, but new polling shows he is suffering double-digit losses with women across key battleground states, and the economy, rising crime, inaction on the border, and foreign policy all play a role.

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Trump Files Lawsuit to Keep His Name on Michigan 2024 Ballot

Minnesota Sun Staff

Former President Donald Trump sued Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Monday to prevent her from keeping him off the state’s 2024 election ballot.

The lawsuit, filed in the Michigan Court of Claims, asks the court to issue an injunction barring Benson from removing him from the ballot and to find that she lacks the authority to decide whether or not he is qualified. Michigan is one of many states where a lawsuit has been filed to remove Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars officials who took an oath to the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.

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The Leading Presidential Candidates Face Ballot Issues: Trump in Two State Lawsuits, Biden in New Hampshire

Just the News

The two leading presidential candidates are facing ballot issues for the primaries next year, with former President Donald Trump going to court to be placed on the GOP ballot in two states and President Joe Biden opting out of being on the ballot of the first Democratic primary in New Hampshire. 

Trump is facing hearings in two lawsuits this week that each argue that the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection” clause in Section 3 bars him from running for the Oval Office again. Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign announced that the president will not be on the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire next year. 

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North Carolina May Upend Dems’ Dreams of Redistricting Their Way Back into Power

Minnesota Sun Staff

North Carolina’s recently redrawn congressional map could upend Democrats’ use of redistricting to gain back the House majority ahead of 2024.

The Supreme Court declined to allow Alabama to use its Republican-drawn congressional map in late September, a federal judge is requiring Georgia to redraw its maps to better represent black voters and another case in Louisiana could result in an additional majority-black district. Democrats could lose up to four congressional seats in North Carolina after the GOP-controlled state legislature’s new map was approved last week, which is expected to end up in court, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

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‘MAGA Republicans’: Minneapolis Candidates Decline to Seek Star Tribune Endorsement

Minnesota Sun Staff

Multiple Minneapolis City Council candidates declined to seek the endorsement of the Star Tribune Editorial Board this election, accusing the board of siding with “MAGA Republicans.”

“The Star Tribune should consider whether it’s worth keeping the editorial board, whose work undermines the credibility of the paper,” incumbent Ward 9 Council Member Jason Chavez wrote in a statement about why he did not seek the endorsement.

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Trump Continues to Dominate GOP Presidential Field in Latest Des Moines Register Iowa Poll

M.D. Kittle

With just two and a half months to go before the Iowa caucuses, former President Donald Trump has expanded his lead in the latest Des Moines Register/NBC/Mediacom poll.

But Trump’s lead could actually be bigger than indicated in the kickoff caucus state.

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Analysis: Even Without Kennedy Running for Democratic Nomination, Biden Still Faces Challenge in New Hampshire Primary

Minnesota Sun Staff

When Robert Kennedy, Jr. pulled out of the national Democratic presidential primary, opting to run as an independent, it appeared that it might be clearing the way for President Joe Biden to run relatively unopposed in the primary.

Primary challenges, even ones where the incumbent wins, have served as omens for presidents who end up either withdrawing from the presidential race, or end up losing it, including Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

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Commentary: Working Class Is Fully Aligning Behind the GOP

Minnesota Sun Staff

There was a time when the Democratic Party maintained a moderately believable facade as the voice of the middle class, claiming to represent the interests of blue-collar families and rural America while condemning Wall Street elitists, but that political dichotomy belongs back in the 2010s.

The modern Democratic Party is now inarguably the party of coastal elitism, censorship, and distain for the working class, with Democrats concentrating themselves into a few extremely wealthy regions with economic and political climates that do not represent the rest of country.

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Voter Drop Boxes Face Challenge in Arizona, as States Weigh Legalizing, Banning or Protecting Them

Just the News

As Arizona faces a lawsuit over its ballot drop boxes, states across the country have taken different approaches to using unmanned receptacles for elections.

The Arizona Secretary of State has been sued for allegedly overstepping state law by permitting unstaffed ballot drop boxes, while Wisconsin is facing a lawsuit to allow ballot drop boxes.

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Minnesota Democrat Calls on Phillips to Resign for Challenging Biden

Minnesota Sun Staff

A Minnesota state senator is calling on fellow Democrat Dean Phillips to resign his congressional seat over reports that he will challenge President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary.

“[Rep. Dean Phillips] it’s time for you to resign your seat. I could not be more disappointed in you. You will never have my support again for any elected office, including your Congressional seat. Make America Affordable Again? Pretty rich coming from a multi-millionaire,” said Minnesota Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth, who represents portions of Phillips’ Third Congressional District in the state Senate and has campaigned with the congressman in the past.

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Commentary: Bidenomics Takes Its Toll on Biden 2024

Minnesota Sun Staff

Drops in inflation-adjusted compensation and wages preceded the losses of Harry Truman in 1952, who opted not to run, Gerald Ford in 1976, Jimmy Carter in 1980, George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Donald Trump in 2020, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

They also preceded the historic wipeouts of Republicans in 2008 by Barack Obama and Senate Democrats in the 1958 midterms, and the Republican House wins of the 2010 and 2022 midterms.

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Outsider Libertarian Javier Milei Advances to Run-Off Presidential Election in Argentina

Minnesota Sun Staff

Argentina’s right-wing populist presidential candidate Javier Milei will head to a run-off after failing to win the first round of the presidential election on Sunday.

Milei and former security minister Sergio Massa will face off again in November in a runoff vote, according to the New York Times. The election has become a high point of contention as Milei has said he seeks to rid the country of leftist policies while his opponent, Massa, hopes to keep the left-wing administration that has held power since 2019, according to The Associated Press.

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Trump Endorses Jim Justice in West Virginia Senate Race

Just the News

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice in the state’s 2024 Senate race.

Justice, the state’s two-term governor, is currently seeking the Republican nomination and faces Rep. Alex Mooney in that contest. The winner of the primary will go on to seek the seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who has yet to announce his reelection plans.

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