Crooked Media - What A Day: Swing state of play

Monday, October 14, 2024 BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA

Democrats are reaching out to Native American voters, an often-overlooked voting bloc that could prove decisive in this year’s deadlocked election.

Native American voters played a key role in ensuring President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, in the vital swing states of Arizona and Wisconsin in particular. In Arizona, for example, Indigenous people comprise over 6 percent of the population, or more than 424,000 people as of 2018 — in a state Biden won by just over 10,000 votes. Now, with polls showing Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump tied nationally and in the states that will actually decide the race, each campaign is focusing on narrow demographics to secure an edge in the battlegrounds.

All that helps explain why Democrats are paying special attention to Native American voters this year. Today, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the Democratic National Committee rolled out a six-figure ad campaign to convince communities in Arizona, North Carolina, Montana, and Alaska to vote — its largest ever campaign targeting the demographic. Earlier this month, the Democratic campaign launched its Native Americans for Harris-Walz campaign. “Native American people will absolutely help decide the results of this election, " Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan — who would be the first Native American woman in American history to serve as governor if Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) becomes VP — said in a statement today.

Arizona is key to this campaign, but other swing states matter too, and are even more unpredictable. In North Carolina for example, Native American voters favored former President Barack Obama by almost 21 points in 2012. Eight years later, they favored Trump by 28 points. Swing states often come down to only a few thousand votes, and there are more than 200,000 Native Americans in the Tar Heel State alone. Much of the Democrats’ strategy this year focuses on making sure those voters know how to register to vote, cast a ballot, and work around any obstacles. Some states are currently restricting Native Americans’ voting access, experts warn.

Surprise surprise, Trump’s track record on Indigenous issues is mostly bad. Activists scored a few wins, including the Trump administration recognition of seven tribes and creation of a task force on missing or murdered Indigenous people. But he also dramatically reduced the Bears Ear National Monument to open the park to drilling, ignored Indigenous activists’ opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, and his border wall in Arizona harmed a 10,000-year-old burial ground. Like most topics, Donald Trump hasn’t laid out his plan for addressing Indigenous issues if elected. But his obsession with drilling and fossil fuels makes it likely that he’d keep disrespecting and encroaching on Native land. While the Biden administration has reversed some of Trump’s actions, it has also produced record amounts of oil and gas, and supported policies opposed by Native activists.

“In such a tight race, I think any marginal or incremental influence that a candidate or issue might have really, really depends on convincing American-Indian voters,” Walter Murillo, CEO of Native Health, told NPR.

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The U.S. will deploy about 100 troops to Israel to operate an advanced missile defense system, the Pentagon announced on Sunday. It’s the first time American soldiers have been sent to Israel in over a year, and the move draws the U.S. closer to a widening war in the Middle East. Meanwhile in Gaza, an Israeli airstrike at the al-Aqsa Hospital killed four people and triggered a massive fire in a tent camp today, Palestinian officials say. Another Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in Lebanon killed 21 people today, the Lebanese Red Cross said.

Trump called “The Apprentice” movie (which we wrote about on Friday) a “cheap, defamatory and politically disgusting hatchet job.” I don’t know, even your friends seemed to like it!

There’s no evidence yet that the 49-year-old man who was arrested with a loaded gun near a security checkpoint at Donald Trump’s rally in California over the weekend, Vem Miller, was trying to kill the former president, the Los Angeles Times reports. Miller said he was armed for self-protection and plans to sue the local sheriff who accused him of an assassination plot. The House task force investigating the Trump assassination attempt in July isn’t planning on looking into the matter, a spokesperson told What A Day. Trump will presumably insist the guy was part of a secretive intergalactic plot to take him down, anyway.

Trump said he would be open to deploying the National Guard or military against “radical left lunatics” if he wins election. “I don’t think [immigrants] are the problem in terms of election day,” Trump told right-wing commentator Maria Bartiromo. “I think the bigger problem [is] the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people.”

Kamala Harris vowed to legalize marijuana and protect cryptocurrency assets and give a million loans to Black businesspeople in her latest effort to court the demographic ahead of November. Polls show that Black voters, particularly men, have been increasingly supportive of Trump, causing prominent Democrats to hit the campaign trail to reverse the trend.

Trump said a national abortion ban is off the table then said “we’ll see what happens,” while speaking on Fox News on Sunday. Project 2025, the far-right agenda Trump would likely implement, seeks to severely limit abortion access nationwide by invoking a 19th century law. In the interview, Trump also claimed that Democrats and Republicans both wanted Roe v. Wade overturned, which is entirely false. Translator’s note: “We’ll see what happens” is Trump-ese for “I will break any and all promises I have ever made if it suits me later.”

Longtime Trump aide Corey Lewandowski has been “put in a box” by Trump and told to focus solely on New Hampshire, according to CBS. I did a double-take on that headline at first, but in fact it doesn't mean that Trump physically stuffed his controversial advisor into an old refrigerator cardboard box. It just means Lewandowski, who'd been causing consternation among Trump's other advisors, got demoted.

Caffeine peddler Starbucks is rolling back some of its promotions and discounts, one of the new CEO’s early moves to save the coffee chain some dough. Looking for a cheaper grande triple peppermint cardamom spice soy milk latte with cold foam this holiday season? Too bad! You’ll need to take out a mortgage.

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Three-year-old pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao left China today en route to Washington’s National Zoo, less than a year after DC’s only pandas were taken back to China. The bears will have “corn buns, bamboo shoots, carrots, water, and medicine” on their flight to the United States, Chinese officials said. Any time I feel anxious about the election, I’m just gonna go stare at those fluffy buffoons. Free therapy.

NASA’s Europa Clipper, its largest spacecraft ever built and the first dedicated to exploring the habitability of places away from Earth, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today. Its destination? Jupiter’s moon named Europa, where there’s water beneath a thick sheet of ice. Astronomers say it's the most likely place in the solar system to have life. Aliens there would probably be soooo jealous of Earth’s “just right” conditions.

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