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In California, Governor Gavin Newsom is already facing attacks from Republicans and a fellow Democrat as he heads into a recall election later this year. Meanwhile, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is trying to balance complicated state and local politics in the lead-up to his own reelection bid this fall. Murphy has already seen the effects of the Biden administrations national strategy for vaccine production and other pandemic-mitigation measures, he told me. Murphy isnt focused yet on his campaign or how this or other issues might play into it, he added, but he was proud to tick through the progress his state has made since the lockdown began. More than 900,000 of New Jerseys 1.3 million children are now participating in at least some form of in-person education, and Murphy hopes to get all students back to school in person, Monday through Friday, by September 1. For the interim, Murphys administration has provided students with hundreds of thousands of computers for remote learning. (A year ago, 231,000 New Jersey students didnt have access to a computer. As of this month, that number is down to just 39 students statewide, according to the Murphy administration.)

But New Jersey also hosts some of the nations most intractable fights over reopeningmost notably in Montclair, in the northern part of the state, where teachers have gone to court to fight against returning to their classrooms.

Murphy is a father of four, with two children still in high school, so he said he feels the impact of the school-reopening battle at home. Is your kids education at or near the top of any mom or dads list of things that are important to them in life? Absolutely. Theres no two ways about thatand its more so in the pandemic, he told me. He said hes confident hell have good news by the fall. Some states compete by having the lowest taxes. Some states compete by having no capacity limits in their restaurants or no requirements to wear face masks, he said. We compete with the No. 1 public-education system in America, and we intend to keep it that way.

In the meantime, the standoffs around the country among politicians, parents, and teachers have the potential to fuel voter backlash. Parents who want their kids back in the classroom and on the playground are unlikely to be satisfied by the addition of critical race theory to curricula or the removal of Lincolns and Washingtons names from schools. Trump spoke to many Americans anger about school closures, Cooper told me. Its not hard to see how Republicans other than Trump could capitalize on that anger.

The Biden administrations goal is to have the majority of K8 students in at least some form of in-person school by the end of next month, Cardona told NBC News last week. Cooper isnt impressed. Everyone involved could do more if they wanted to, he said. The CDCs decision to reduce the six-foot social-distancing restriction in schools to three feet, which will facilitate having children in classrooms, is a change he was hoping for. (Weingarten says shes not yet ready to say that schools should accept that change.) But theres more to do. He has his own children on a waitlist for a Catholic school that has been open for months, and he said he would eagerly move his children there if given the chance. Weingartens response on the CDC change, he told me, shows that nothings ever going to be good enough. Theyre only willing to listen to the science that allows them to give an excuse to the large districts, which remain closed.

If Jill Biden, Randi Weingarten, and [CDC Director] Rochelle Walensky said tomorrow, Schools should open five days a week as soon as possible, they would be open in a few weeks, Cooper said. They have incredible power, yet they act powerless when theyre asked for support.

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Democrats Are Failing the Schools Test - The Atlantic

The Republican Party (elephant) and the Democratic Party (donkey) are the two main political parties in the US.

Republicans and Democrats are the two main and historically the largest political parties in the US and, after every election, hold the majority seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the highest number of Governors. Though both the parties mean well for the US citizens, they have distinct differences that manifest in their comments, decisions, and history. These differences are mainly ideological, political, social, and economic paths to making the US successful and the world a better place for all. Differences between the two parties that are covered in this article rely on the majority position though individual politicians may have varied preferences.

Democratic Party:Of the two, the Democratic Party is older and originated from anti-federalism sentiments during the US independence from Great Britain. TheDonkey symbolof the party came into play during Andrew Jacksons 1828 campaign. Party organ, the Democratic National Committees started in 1848 and, during the civil war, this party split into two parties, those who supported slavery left and those who did not, stayed back. The Democratic Party of today is a result of the split. To date, there have been 15 Democrat Presidents.

Republican Party:In 1854, anti-slavery activists and agents of modernity founded the Republican Party (Grand Old Party -GOP) and, Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican President. The party started using theelephant symbol in1874. Lincolns presidency, policies, and ideologies solidified the party and gave it a strong foundation. The US has had 19 Republican Presidents to date.

Democrats:Democrats are usually to the left of Republicans on many issues. For starters, Democrats support domestic social services but majorly are not very aggressive on foreign policy. Being liberal, they root for a strong government to improve social structures and support equality and communal responsibility.

Republican: Republicans advocate for limited government intervention on domestic issues but dominate on international relations. While on the right, Republicans are pro-military, pro-business, pro-religion, and campaigns for people have freedoms and to take personal responsibility for their actions. On approach, this party is socially and fiscally conservative advocating for a lean government and strong free market (Darwinian Capitalism).

Democrats: In general Democrats are more reluctant to use military force against other countries and advocate slow increases of military budgets. Recently, they favor gun control legislation arguing based on the increase in the number of shootings and irresponsibility by civilian gun holders. On social issues, Democrats openly support abortion as well as LGBTQ rights as people have freedom of choice, but when it comes to the death penalty, a majority seem to oppose. Democrats favor higher taxes for high-income earners and the increase of the minimum wage.

Republicans: Republicans mostly favor rapidly increasing the military budget and take hard lines against other countries like Iran. They are pro-second amendment (right to bear arms) and support carrying concealed weapons in public. Party supporters have tough stands on abortion, contraceptive and LGBTQ rights with the belief that legalizing them ruins the social fabric of the society. On tax, Republicans seem to favor tax cut for all, be it rich or poor, and for the market to control the minimum wage. Republican policies favor strong border controls and limited immigration as opposed to more open Democrats.

The Democratic party usually dominates politics in the Northeast and Great Lakes region as well as the Pacific Coast. Recent patterns show Democratic candidates faring well in some Southern states like Arkansas, Virginia, and Florida as well as around the Rocky Mountain states like Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana. Republicans control the South and West especially Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

In 2016, there were more red states (Republican-controlled) than blue states (Democrat-controlled). Most young voters affiliate with the Democratic Party as older people tend to support the Republican Party. On gender, Republicans receive more support from men than women.

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What is the Difference Between Republicans and Democrats ...

Carter Peterson would be the first Black woman to represent Louisiana in Congress if elected

Though Richmond did not endorse her, she noted that she has a long relationship with him. She said her opponent may have golfed with Richmond, but she fished with him.

Carter Peterson chaired the Louisiana Democratic Party for eight years, ending her term in 2020. She also served as vice chair of civic engagement and voter protection at the Democratic National Committee, where she developed relationships with national party leaders.

Her backers included Georgia voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, Higher Heights for America PAC, which supports progressive Black women, and EMILYs List, which backs Democratic women committed to protecting abortion rights.

Women Vote, the independent expenditure arm of EMILYs List, spent $599,000 on media and mailings supporting Peterson and opposing Carter, according to disclosures with the FEC. American Jobs and Growth PAC, a conservative Republican super PAC, spent $84,000 on digital ads opposing Peterson.

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Runoff will pick the Democrat to replace Cedric Richmond in Louisiana's 2nd District - Roll Call

With backers of the recall against Gavin Newsom formally submitting the last of their petitions Wednesday, Democrats from California to Washington were readying what they hope will be a united front to keep the embattled governor in office.

Newsoms campaign is trying to keep the party focused on fighting the recall and preventing prominent Democrats from getting into the race to replace him if it qualifies for the ballot as expected. He has racked up high-profile endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), among others, and hopes to tie the recall campaign to former President Trump and extremist groups.

The governor went on a national media tour this week, speaking out against the recall and generating both cheers from supporters and some controversy.

Nathan Click, Newsoms campaign spokesman, said he expected heavy support to fight the recall at the Democratic Party State Convention, scheduled for the end of April. Volunteers will spread out across the state to do text banking and other digital stumping in the upcoming weeks, he said.

Its been a steady drumbeat over the last few weeks of Democrats saying that [they support Newsom], Click said.

But its still unclear whether any Democrats will enter the race to replace Newsom as an insurance policy against the growing field of Republican candidates, something that happened during the 2003 recall that ended with voters ousting Democrat Gray Davis and replacing him with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

To secure the full strength of the Democrats support, Newsom may need to put in some work to court members of his own party.

While Democrats are united in keeping a Trump Republican out of the governors mansion, progressive caucus chair Amar Singh Shergill said some more left-leaning party members are waiting to see Newsom deliver on progressive policy promises such as a universal healthcare bill making its way through the state Legislature, a fracking ban and support for eliminating the filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

If Gov. Newsom doesnt get on board with these progressive issues and fight for them, then hes going to put his own candidacy at risk. Right now, were not looking at any other candidates, but we know theres a simple formula for him to win, Shergill said. He has got to start fighting for those issues and show us that he is making progress.

Though the state wont finish certifying the signatures for several weeks elections officials must determine how many are valid by April 29 Newsom acknowledged Tuesday that he expects the recall effort to qualify.

Recall supporters said Wednesday night that they gathered more than 2.1 million signatures, more than the roughly 1.5 million they need for an election to take place. Volunteers handed in last-minute petitions to the registrar Wednesday as the campaigns leaders celebrated the years-long effort.

Later this fall, the voters of California will be able to participate in this historic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in a recall of their chief executive officer, said Randy Economy, senior advisor for the recall effort. Its a very, very powerful moment.

On Tuesday, former GOP Rep. Doug Ose added his name to the list of other Republicans in the race to replace Newsom should the recall qualify for the ballot, including former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and businessman John Cox, who unsuccessfully ran against Newsom for governor in 2018.

As the recall campaign neared Wednesdays deadline, Newsoms supporters united behind him in defense of his record as governor.

Im completely devastated with the fact that people have even gone out to try to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, said Taisha Brown, chairperson of the California Democratic Partys Black Caucus. He has done some amazing work in the short time hes been in office. We wholeheartedly support Gavin, and will be working to fight back against the recall.

Brown applauded Newsoms handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, though she said he didnt always have the right tools from the federal government under Trump. She and Norma Alcala, vice chair of the Chicano Latino Caucus, praised Newsoms efforts to provide rent, food security and vaccines to essential workers, many of whom are people of color. They also pointed to Newsoms several appointments of Black and Latino people to statewide positions as another success.

Both caucuses have pledged to use their various campaign methods including radio ads, counterprotests and caravans to campaign for the governor.

Its basically just an attempt by the Republicans they cant win any elections, so theyre going to try and do a special election, Alcala said of the recall effort.

The California Democratic Party has pledged $250,000 to the campaign against the recall and launched a website, stoptherepublicanrecall.com, that Newsom promoted in a tweet on Monday when making his most direct comments yet about his fight against the effort. Other Democrats echoed Newsoms comments in condemning recall organizers as anti-vaxxers, QAnon conspiracy theorists and nationally funded Republicans.

This was something that was done under the Republican Administration under the thumb of the Trump followers, said Mark Gonzalez, chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. Republicans knew they were losing their power nationally, and theyre trying to trickle it down here to California, and now here under this administration.

Recall advocates have maintained that one-third of petition signers are not Republicans, though polling shows the effort is far more popular among those in the GOP than Democrats or unaffiliated voters. Gonzalez said he believes Republicans were duping Democratic voters who signed the petitions into blaming Newsom for their situation during the pandemic.

The governors handling of the pandemic remains a banner issue for recall advocates. Democratic leaders across the state are hopeful that by the time a recall election rolls around, likely in the fall, coronavirus cases will be down and the economy will be in better shape. California has already delivered more than 13 million vaccine doses, and the federal relief package just passed by Congress will help peoples wallets and bolster state and local budgets.

Some in the California Democratic Party, including rural caucus chair Joy Sterling, said the recall is distracting state leadership from what should be its singular focus: tackling the pandemic.

Did he do everything perfectly? Did anybody do everything perfectly? No. Including my hero, Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, Sterling said. I think you just have to be, Oh, OK, that didnt work, now we try this.

Though Newsoms supporters believe his record will stand up to attacks from the recall campaign, they are also keeping close watch on any errors that could alienate voters in a race where he needs all the support he can get.

In the eyes of some Democrats, Newsom stumbled Monday when he told MSNBCs Joy Reid that, should California Sen. Dianne Feinstein retire, he would appoint a Black woman to replace her, noting that he already had a list of several Black women whom he would consider. Newsom came under pressure late last year to fill Vice President Kamala Harris seat with a Black woman, but instead appointed then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Californias first Latino senator.

Feinstein reiterated that she had no plans to retire and Newsom downplayed his statement the next day but not before riling up some members of the state Democratic Party Womens Caucus, who voiced their frustrations to chair Christine Pelosi that Newsoms theorizing about the senators replacement before she left office was not a good way to start the anti-recall campaign.

I would hope that they remember there are a lot of women who vote in the recall, and its not a very good look to pit women together to save the job of a man, Pelosi said of those organizing Newsoms campaign.

Pelosi agreed that stopping a Republican from getting into office isnt enough to galvanize voters, adding that grassroots organizers want to hear from the governor directly about what his message will be.

Dont just assume that because were Democrats and were Democratic delegates that you dont have to ask us, she said. If you dont respect us, dont expect us.

Staff writer John Myers contributed to this report.

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Democrats show united front to keep Gov. Gavin Newsom in office - Los Angeles Times

While were young, Chuck. Photo: Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images

Joe Biden isnt going to have an FDR-size presidency.

Or, at least, the odds that Biden will fundamentally transform the role of the state in the U.S. economy, more than double Americas union membership rate, lead the U.S. to victory in a world war, reinforce residential segregation, put tens of thousands of U.S. citizens into internment camps on the basis of their ethnicity, or enact similarly epochal changes to American life over the course of 12 years in office are very low. And his prospects for equaling LBJs feats of welfare-state expansion, civil-rights promotion, and crimes against humanity are similarly dim.

But size isnt everything. And Scranton Joe has a real shot at assembling the most progressive domestic legacy of any president who didnt put Americans in concentration camps or incinerate foreign civilians by the hundreds of thousands.

Which is kind of remarkable. As I noted last week, once it became clear that Democrats would have only a bare majority in the U.S. Senate and thus that a moderate from a deep-red state would have veto power over the partys agenda most observers assumed Biden would need to shelve his campaign platform in favor of bipartisan half-measures.

But the difference between a 49-member Senate Democratic Caucus and a 50-member one has proven far larger than anticipated. The Democrats triumph in the Georgia runoffs didnt merely secure Biden the power to appoint a Cabinet without Mitch McConnells permission; it cleared the way for a $1.9 trillion stimulus package that will cut child poverty in half, deliver thousands of dollars to every non-rich family in the country, rescue union pension plans, transform state-level fiscal politics, turbocharge economic growth, and potentially remake the conventional wisdom about macroeconomic policy in the U.S. for a generation.

The American Rescue Plans vast scope and high price tag did make some moderate Democrats nervous, but the American publics response to its passage has likely mitigated their concerns. A core tenet of contemporary political science and one lesson of Congress members own recent experience is that the American people do not take kindly to sweeping policy change. Public opinion tends to be thermostatic, growing more liberal when a Republican president enacts right-wing reforms and more conservative when a Democratic president enacts left-wing policies. A large majority of Americans believed the government had a responsibility to make sure everyone had health-care coverage until Barack Obama tried to honor that responsibility in 2009. And when Donald Trump attempted to undo his Democratic predecessors handiwork, Americans decided that socialized medicine was great again.

But Bidens COVID-relief bill has triggered no such backlash. Recent polls from CBS News and Morning Consult found that more than 70 percent of Americans approve of the legislation. In the latter survey, 44 percent of Republican voters endorsed the law, despite the congressional GOP voting unanimously against it. Some centrist Democrats wanted Biden to settle for a smaller stimulus for the sake of securing bipartisan buy-in. But the American Rescue Plans extraordinary popularity has enabled Democrats to have their Bernie Sanderssize fiscal policy and Republican validation, too, as multiple GOP lawmakers who voted against the package have taken to pretending they voted for it, thereby tacitly vouching for Bidens bona fides as a bipartisan dealmaker.

For once, an exercise of liberal ambition has provoked hand-wringing from Republicans instead of Democrats. As Politico reports:

The overwhelming sentiment within the Republican Party is that voters will turn on the $1.9 trillion bill over time. But that wait-and-see approach has baffled some GOP luminaries and Trump World figures who expected Republicans to seize their first opportunity to cast newly-in-charge Democrats as out of control. Instead, they fear the party did little to dent Bidens major victory a victory that could embolden the administration in forthcoming legislative fights and even the lead-up to the midterm elections.

The article features some quotes from conservative ideologues and/or grifters who are certain a different messaging strategy could have persuaded the median voter to dislike a bill that gave their family thousands of dollars. But other GOP consultants offer a more clear-eyed perspective on the partys problem. The basic issue is that fearmongering about Democratic fiscal profligacy just doesnt capture the bases imagination as it used to. There are several plausible explanations for this. By passing multi-trillion-dollar, deficit-financed tax cuts and relief packages under Trump, Republicans may have persuaded their own voters that Keynesian stimulus and Stalinism are actually different things. But it also seems as though conservative media has a harder time casting liberal economic initiatives as covert attacks on American values now that the Democrat in the White House is a (very) old white guy. Ultimately, conservative media will always put its own financial interests above the GOPs strategic ones. And libertarian critiques of the child tax credit just dont rate as well as the martyrdom of Dr. Seuss. As one Republican strategist told Politico, Whenever there is something that goes into pop culture, and now all this cancel-culture stuff, it is catnip for the base and the media, and Republicans are going to talk about that.

Centrist deficit hawks have been caught similarly flat-footed. For decades, the Beltways advocates for austerity could count on the Federal Reserve to tell the public that their profoundly political, empirically tendentious views were objective facts: The national debt was an unsustainable burden on Americas grandchildren, Social Security was going bankrupt, runaway inflation was near at hand, etc. But this is no longer the case. Instead of coercing the Democratic president into budget balancing with the threat of interest-rate hikes as Alan Greenspan did to Bill Clinton in the 1990s Fed chair Jerome Powell has served as a cheerleader for Bidens expansionary fiscal policy. And unable to sanctify their agenda by appealing to the Feds papal authority, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has struggled to explain why an entirely hypothetical future debt crisis should take precedence over minimizing current poverty and unemployment.

All of which is to say: Biden is strong, and the enemies of progressive economic policy are weak. Meanwhile, Americas vaccine rollout is proceeding apace, and Wall Street analysts expect the U.S. will enjoy a higher rate of economic growth this year than it has experienced since 1984 a development that should fortify the presidents political standing and business elites complacency about the deficit.

Put all these factors together and you get an exceptionally favorable environment for securing durable progressive change. Amid a post-pandemic boom, Democrats will face few political headwinds to making the temporary (de facto) child allowance in Bidens relief permanent. And much the same can be said for the laws increases to Affordable Care Act subsidies. Progressives will push for a strong public option, as well they should. But as Dean Baker notes, merely making the higher ACA subsidies permanent could be enough to unravel the employer-provided health-insurance system, which would itself erode a major obstacle to more thoroughgoing health reforms. Making the ARPs emergency rental-assistance benefits and its funding increase for K12 education into permanent budget items would be similarly transformative.

There is much else that Democrats can and should do with their tenuous grip on power. Most pressingly, the party must redress the gross underrepresentation of its constituents in Congress by banning partisan redistricting and granting statehood to D.C. and any other U.S. territory that wants it. And it must breathe new life into the countrys beleaguered labor movement, whose decline has been a disaster for both the Democratic Partys electoral fortunes and working peoples financial well-being.

But those reforms cant be advanced through budget reconciliation, which means they cant be enacted until the legislative filibuster is eroded. Whether Chuck Schumers moderates can be persuaded to meaningfully weaken the filibuster remains to be seen. What does seem clear, however, is that they arent prepared to cross that Rubicon until they have given McConnell the opportunity to waste their time.

Which is maddening, but whatever. Joe Manchins gonna Manchin. In the meantime, Democrats can move rapidly to consolidate the relief bills gains. Establishing a permanent monthly child allowance would constitute a historic expansion of the welfare state, one that would spare millions of kids the trauma of poverty every year in perpetuity. And this can be accomplished through a budget-reconciliation bill. Whats more, thanks to the Trump tax cuts, Democrats have a wide array of politically painless pay fors they can use to offset the cost of the child allowance (to make a program permanent through budget reconciliation, it must not add to the deficit after ten years). Merely restoring Obama-era tax rates for corporations and the wealthy would be more than sufficient to meet the child payments roughly $100 billion-a-year cost. Add in a capital-gains-tax hike, a financial-transaction tax, a wealth tax, and various other highly popular affronts to the one percent, and Democrats should be able to make the bulk of the ARPs programs into pillars of a new and improved American welfare state.

This fruit is ripe and low hanging. An irrevocably less cruel American society is right there for the taking. But if Democrats dont act quickly, Bidens chance to secure a not-quite-FDR-size-but-still-pretty-big presidency could disappear in a heartbeat.

Manchin, Jon Tester, and Sherrod Brown are not young men, and all represent red states in which Republican governors have the power to fill Senate vacancies with appointees of their choosing. If either of New Hampshires Democratic senators were forced out of public life by illness, tragedy, or scandal, Republican governor Chris Sununu would pick their successors. Vermonts Republican governor, Phil Scott, would have the power to replace a departed Bernie Sanders or Pat Leahy with a GOP lawmaker for at least six months (Scott has promised to replace them with ideologically similar substitutes, but his sincerity cannot be ensured).

The point is straightforward: Democrats currently have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to entrench a more generous welfare state. But that opportunity could quite literally expire at any moment. Thus, the party needs to stop pretending that ten Senate Republicans may be willing to support a $4 trillion infrastructure package that raises taxes on the rich and instead develop a reconciliation bill that combines green infrastructure spending with permanent versions of the ARPs best features as quickly as possible and get Bidens legacy into the law books before its too late.

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Democrats Need to Move Fast and Fix Things - New York Magazine