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WASHINGTON Triumphant over the signing of their far-reaching $1.9 trillion stimulus package, Democrats are now starting to angle for a major political payoff that would defy history: Picking up House and Senate seats in the 2022 midterm elections, even though the party in power usually loses in the midterms.

Democratic leaders are making one of the biggest electoral bets in years that the stimulus will be so transformational for Americans across party lines and demographic groups that Democrats will be able to wield it as a political weapon next year in elections against Republicans, who voted en masse against the package.

Republicans need to gain only one seat in the Senate and just five in the House in 2022 to take back control, a likely result in a normal midterm election, but perhaps a trickier one if voters credit their rivals for a strong American rebound.

Yet as Democrats prepare to start selling voters on the package, they remain haunted by what happened in 2010, the last time they were in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress and pursued an ambitious agenda: They lost 63 House seats, and the majority, and were unable to fulfill President Barack Obamas goals on issues ranging from gun control to immigration.

It has become an article of faith in the party that Mr. Obamas presidency was diminished because his two signature accomplishments, the stimulus bill and the Affordable Care Act, were not expansive enough and their pitch to the public on the benefits of both measures was lacking. By this logic, Democrats began losing elections and the full control of the government, until now, because of their initial compromises with Republicans and insufficient salesmanship.

We didnt adequately explain what we had done, President Biden told House Democrats this month about the 2009 Recovery Act. Barack was so modest, he didnt want to take, as he said, a victory lap.

Now they are determined to exorcise those old ghosts by aggressively promoting a measure they believe meets the moment and has broader appeal than the $787 billion bill they trimmed and laced with tax cuts to win a handful of Republican votes in Mr. Obamas first months in office.

Republicans say the Democratic bet is a foolhardy one, both because of how little of the spending is directly related to the coronavirus pandemic and because of fleeting voter attention spans. But Democrats say they intend to run on the bill and press Republicans over their opposition to it.

This is absolutely something I will campaign on next year, said Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who may be the most vulnerable incumbent Senate Democrat in the country on the ballot in 2022. Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, who heads the Democratic Senate campaign arm, said he would go on offense against Republicans who opposed the bill and sketched out their attack: Every Republican said no in a time of need.

Party lawmakers point out that the measure Mr. Biden signed on Thursday is more popular than the 2009 bill, according to polling; contains more tangible benefits, like the $1,400 direct payments and unemployment benefits; and comes at a time when the pandemic and former President Donald Trumps continued appetite for big spending have blunted Republican attacks.

People are going to feel it right away, to me thats the biggest thing, said Representative Conor Lamb, a Pennsylvania Democrat whose 2018 special election victory presaged the partys revival. Politics is confusing, its image-based, everyone calls everyone else a liar but people are going to get the money in their bank accounts.

And, Representative Sara Jacobs of California said, Democrats have learned the lessons from 2009, we made sure we went back to our districts this weekend to tell people how much help they were going to get from this bill.

Mr. Obamas aides are quick to note that they did promote their stimulus and the health care law but ran into much more fervent, and unified, opposition on the right as the Tea Party blossomed and portrayed the measures as wasteful and ill-conceived.

At the end of last week, with the Houses first extended recess looming at months end, Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed House Democrats to seize the moment.

Ms. Pelosis office sent an email to colleagues, forwarded to The Times, brimming with talking points the speaker hopes theyll use in town halls and news conferences. During the upcoming district work period, members are encouraged to give visibility to how the American Rescue Plan meets the needs of their communities: putting vaccines in arms, money in pockets, workers back on the job and children back in the classroom safely, it said.

For their part, White House officials said they would deploy the whole of government, as one aide put it, to market the plan, send cabinet officers on the road and focus on different components of the bill each day to highlight its expanse.

Democrats hopes for avoiding the losses typical in a presidents first midterm election will depend largely on whether Americans feel life is back to normal next year and whether they credit the party in power for thwarting the disease, despair and dysfunction that characterized the end of Mr. Trumps term.

If voters are to believe the Democrats are delivering on an American rebound, of course, its essential the country is roaring back to prepandemic strength in a way it was not at the end of 2009, when unemployment reached 10 percent.

You could be looking at an extraordinary growth spurt in the third and fourth quarters, and that takes you into the year when candidates make their way, said Representative Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, where much of the bill was crafted.

The politics of the legislation, in other words, will be clear enough by this time next year. If all the sudden you got high inflation and things are hitting the fan, Republicans are going to run on it, said Representative Filemon Vela, a Texas Democrat. If things are going well theyre going to run on something else.

For now, Republicans are expressing little appetite to contest a measure that has the support of 70 percent of voters, according to a Pew survey released last week.

Part of their challenge stems from Mr. Trumps aggressive advocacy for $2,000 direct payments in the previous stimulus package late last year, a drumbeat hes kept up in his political afterlife as he argues Republicans lost the two Georgia Senate runoffs because they did not embrace the proposal.

Its difficult for congressional Republicans to portray one of the main elements of the Democrats bill as socialism when the de facto leader of their party is an enthusiastic supporter of wealth redistribution. Moreover, right-wing media outlets have been more focused on culture war issues that are more animating to many conservatives than size-of-government questions.

Asked if they would run against the bill next year, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, said, Theres going to be a lot of things we run against.

At the weekly news conference of House Republican leaders, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming spoke about the stimulus for 45 seconds before changing the subject to the rising number of migrants at the Southern border.

Thestimuluspayments would be $1,400 for most recipients. Those who are eligible would also receive an identical payment for each of their children. To qualify for the full $1,400, a single person would need an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or below. For heads of household, adjusted gross income would need to be $112,500 or below, and for married couples filing jointly that number would need to be $150,000 or below. To be eligible for a payment, a person must have a Social Security number. Read more.

Buying insurance through the government program known as COBRA would temporarily become a lot cheaper. COBRA, for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, generally lets someone who loses a job buy coverage via the former employer. But its expensive: Under normal circumstances, a person may have to pay at least 102 percent of the cost of the premium. Under the relief bill, the government would pay the entire COBRA premium from April 1 through Sept. 30. A person who qualified for new, employer-based health insurance someplace else before Sept. 30 would lose eligibility for the no-cost coverage. And someone who left a job voluntarily would not be eligible, either. Read more

This credit, which helps working families offset the cost of care for children under 13 and other dependents, would be significantly expanded for a single year. More people would be eligible, and many recipients would get a bigger break. The bill would also make the credit fully refundable, which means you could collect the money as a refund even if your tax bill was zero. That will be helpful to people at the lower end of the income scale, said Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. Read more.

There would be a big one for people who already have debt. You wouldnt have to pay income taxes on forgiven debt if you qualify for loan forgiveness or cancellation for example, if youve been in an income-driven repayment plan for the requisite number of years, if your school defrauded you or if Congress or the president wipes away $10,000 of debt for large numbers of people. This would be the case for debt forgiven between Jan. 1, 2021, and the end of 2025. Read more.

The bill would provide billions of dollars in rental and utility assistance to people who are struggling and in danger of being evicted from their homes. About $27 billion would go toward emergency rental assistance. The vast majority of it would replenish the so-called Coronavirus Relief Fund, created by the CARES Act and distributed through state, local and tribal governments,accordingto the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Thats on top of the $25 billion in assistance provided by the relief package passed in December. To receive financial assistance which could be used for rent, utilities and other housing expenses households would have to meet severalconditions. Household income could not exceed 80 percent of the area median income, at least one household member must be at risk of homelessness or housing instability, and individuals would have to qualify for unemployment benefits or have experienced financial hardship (directly or indirectly) because of the pandemic. Assistance could be provided for up to 18 months,accordingto the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Lower-income families that have been unemployed for three months or more would be given priority for assistance. Read more.

And by the end of the week, Mr. McCarthy announced he and a group of House Republicans would travel to the border on Monday in a bid to highlight the problem there and change the subject.

After spending the campaign vowing to find common ground with Republicans and make Washington work again, Mr. Biden, in his first major act as president, prioritized speed and scale over bipartisanship.

He and his top aides believe in legislative momentum, that success begets success and that theyll be able to push through another pricey bill this one to build roads, bridges and broadband because of their early win on Covid-19 relief.

The fact that we could do it without Republicans forces them to the table, said a senior White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the nitty-gritty of lawmaking.

Yet to the G.O.P. lawmakers who have signaled a willingness to work with the new administration, Mr. Bidens determination to push through the stimulus without G.O.P. votes will imperil the rest of his agenda.

What I would be worried about if I were them is what does this do to jeopardize bipartisan cooperation on other things you want to do you cant do everything by reconciliation, said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, alluding to the parliamentary procedure by which the Senate can approve legislation by a simple majority. Ive heard some of our members say that, If youre going to waste all this money on unrelated matters, Im really not interested in spending a bunch more money on infrastructure.

To Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who was one of the Senate Republicans who went to the White House last month pitching a slimmed-down stimulus, its downright bizarre to hear Democrats claiming their 2010 difficulties stemmed from not going big.

I would argue it was too big, it was unfocused, it was wasted money, Ms. Capito said.

To Democrats, though, they are avoiding, not repeating, their past mistakes.

The public didnt know about the Affordable Care Act and the administration was not exactly advertising, Ms. Pelosi told reporters last week.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, was just as blunt, singling out the Maine moderate who was wooed by Mr. Obama to ensure bipartisan support for the 2009 Recovery Act but whose appeals for a far-smaller compromise bill were ignored last month.

We made a big mistake in 2009 and 10, Susan Collins was part of that mistake, Mr. Schumer said on CNN. We cut back on the stimulus dramatically and we stayed in recession for five years.

And, he could have noted, his party would not have full control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue for another decade.

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Stimulus Bill as a Political Weapon? Democrats Are Counting on It. - The New York Times

The Congressional process known as reconciliation a way for Congress to enact legislation on taxes, spending, and the debt limit with only a majority in the Senate was successfully used to pass the American Rescue Plan. And now leading Democrats say an infrastructure bill could play out the same way.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.), who is involved in infrastructure negotiations, was overheard during an event Monday saying Democrats will most likely have to use reconciliation to get the deal done. The Republicans will be with you to a point, and then..," Cardin said before trailing off.

Jared Bernstein, one of President Biden's economic advisers, told Yahoo Finance the president wants a bipartisan deal, but if Republicans wont work with him to fulfill his campaign promises, he will push ahead.

He is absolutely devoted to making sure the American people get the kind of investments that he believes they put him there for, Bernstein said.

Republican lawmakers have already painted the just-enacted economic relief plan as a "liberal wish list" and would surely do the same about an infrastructure bill passed solely by Democrats.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speak during an event on Monday as as Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) listen on. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

But an infrastructure deal via reconciliation wont just impact the politics surrounding it, it would likely change the makeup of any legislation.

During an event on Monday former Republican Congressman Bill Shuster who once chaired the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee predicted a bipartisan deal could end up in the $1 trillion range. But he noted that if Democrats go for reconciliation, I think youll see a package bigger than that, in the range of $1.5 trillion to $1.7 trillion.

Reconciliation is a process that has been used more than 20 times in recent decades as a way to speed up consideration of certain types of legislation. Lawmakers could attempt to use the process for a second time this year to get an infrastructure bill done, but they'd be barred from including certain provisions that would otherwise be included in a bipartisan bill.

Story continues

A Democratic effort to raise the minimum wage was stripped out of the economic relief package because of reconciliation rules, and Shuster says similar policy changes could fall by the wayside in an infrastructure bill. He said he hopes Republicans and Democrats would be able to work together, which might lead to a deal that includes far-reaching changes in areas like rural broadband, pandemic preparation, or the electrical grid.

In a Yahoo Finance interview last month, Cardin also said he was hopeful for bipartisan support in order to deal not only with transportation, but to deal with water infrastructure, to deal with broadband, to deal with our schools, deal with our energy issues.

Gen Nashimoto, of Luminalt, installs solar panels in Hayward, Calif., on Wednesday, April 29, 2020. From New York to California, the U.S renewable energy industry is reeling from the new coronavirus pandemic, which has delayed construction and sowed doubts about major projects on the drawing board. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Bernstein, who currently serves on the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors and previously was the Chief Economist to then Vice President Biden, is also focused on making any infrastructure bill long-lasting.

I can tell you, not just from an economic standpoint but from a political economy standpoint, that if you want to sustain a lasting program in this country, paying for it is often an important way to help that occur, he said.

What Bernstein didnt give additional details on were tax increases the White House might pursue to pay for the bill. Bernstein pointed to Bidens promises on the campaign trail tax increases on the highest earners, as well as on corporations but beyond that promised when the time is right, we'll come back and give you details.

Additional tax provisions could be on the table in a Democrats-only bill, including a financial transaction tax. During the campaign, Biden didnt promise such a tax but when asked about it, he said, I think we should have a financial transactions tax without offering further details like an appropriate rate level.

Brian Gardner, chief Washington policy strategist for brokerage and investment banking firm Stifel, told Yahoo Finance interview on Monday a financial transaction tax could be on the table.

It's one of those things that I don't think has gotten enough attention, said Gardner. It's going to get a very close look from Congress. Democrats have been pushing for such a tax for years and have renewed their calls around the GameStop saga.

White House Council of Economic Advisors member Jared Bernstein spoke to reporters at the White House in February. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also refused to rule out administration support for a wealth tax, which progressive Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) have been pushing.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.V.), a moderate Democrat, might be an obstacle to the Democrats' reconciliation push. His vote would be crucial and, in a recent Axios interview, said he believed it was possible to get the 10 Republicans on board who would be needed. "I am not going to get on a bill that cuts them out completely before we start trying," he said.

Bernstein also said Biden is hoping for a bipartisan bill: That is where he will start. But like the administrations approach to the economic relief package, he underscored that the White House is keeping other options on the table to get it done.

There's no reason to get ahead of ourselves, he said.

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

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The infrastructure deal may be bigger if Democrats decide to go it alone - Yahoo Finance

It has become a clich to declare that Republicans and Democrats live in two different worlds these days, but it turns out there is some truth to the observation.

New research on political behavior finds that most Democratic and Republican voters live in partisan bubbles, with little daily exposure to those who belong to the other party. For instance the typical Democrat has almost zero interactions with Republicans in their neighborhood, according to an article by Harvard doctoral student Jacob R. Brown and government Professor Ryan D. Enos published March 8 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Theres a lot of evidence that any separation between groups has a lot of negative consequences. We see this in race; we see this in religion; we see this in all kinds of things, said Enos. And increasingly, we see this in partisanship in the United States.

Using geolocation data and the exact addresses of all 180 million registered voters in the U.S. as of June 2018, the two were able to precisely map, for the first time, where Democrats and Republicans live in relation to each other in every town, city, and state in the U.S. Then, rather than rely on the usual precinct or data aggregations, they used weighted measures and recorded the distance between voters to show how people are divided by geography and partisanship across the country.

No area of the country is immune to the segregation, but its intensity varies. Democrats in large, densely populated cities like New York are the most politically isolated, with 10 percent of them encountering a Republican only one out of 10 times in their neighborhood. Republicans in rural areas are similarly segregated.

Overall, most Democrats and Republicans live in levels of partisan segregation that exceed what scholars of racial segregation consider highly segregated, the study found.

Their analysis of U.S. Census tract data showed that 98 to 99 percent of Americans live in areas segregated by partisanship. Loving County, Texas, a county of about 200 people along the New Mexico border, is the only tract in the entire U.S. where Democrats and Republicans mix freely, the researchers found.

This social splitting is not the result of an urban/rural divide, where cities attract more Democrats, and Republicans typically favor the country life, Brown and Enos say. Whether in small to mid-size cities, the suburbs or ex-urbs in between, the data showed that Republicans stick close to other Republicans, and Democrats stick close to other Democrats.

Even within a neighborhood, Democrats and Republicans are separating from each other a little bit, said Enos. That seems like an almost unnatural level of segregation given the similarities people from the same neighborhood usually share and might indicate theres something pretty pernicious going on, he added.

Race and ethnicity are closely associated with partisanship and do affect where people live. The study shows, however, that partisan segregation is distinct from racial and ethnic segregation. White Democrats who do not identify as Hispanic had similar levels of exposure to members of the other political party as white Republicans, levels that were greater than Democrats from other racial and ethnic groups, who are the most isolated. Since non-Hispanic whites are more likely to be Republicans than Democrats, their lower rate of partisan segregation among whites, when race and ethnicity are taken into account, is suggestive evidence that white voters cluster with other whites regardless of party, according to the study.

If white people were more willing to live near non-white people, partisan segregation would be even higher, said Enos.

High levels of partisan segregation pose a number of negative consequences for democracy, the researchers say. Exposure to different sociopolitical ideas and viewpoints has long been shown to reduce prejudice and to improve social cooperation. Not only does partisan segregation help fuel a never-ending cycle of legislative stalemates, it affects whether voters, and the policy choices made on their behalf, are accurately and fairly represented in government, as heavily gerrymandered congressional districts already demonstrate.

Even within a neighborhood, Democrats and Republicans are separating from each other a little bit.

Ryan D. Enos

I would hope that we can all agree that its important that we get exposed to different ideas. We can reject them. We can do whatever we want, but its good that we hear both sides, said Enos.

Brown and others have found evidence that people engage in most of their political communication with people in own neighborhoods. The self-reinforcing nature of partisan isolation can easily open the door to extreme views and radicalized behavior, so the views of our neighbors really matter.

When you have things like ideology and party and geography all lining up on top of each other, on top of race and income and a lot of other things, these parties really, really start to matter for people, and can result in events like the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Enos.

What causes this segregation, what are the consequences and how it can be undone are among the many questions that scholars hope to be able to answer eventually. Unlike racial segregation, the field is still in its infancy, so much more work needs to be done before any definitive conclusions can be drawn fairly, said Brown and Enos.

The pair are now studying several related issues, including an examination of U.S. voter data from 2012 to 2020, to understand the trend and its effects over time, and digging into the effects such segregation has on peoples views, especially those in the out party for their area, as part of a broad project on partisan segregation.

For those Democrats in major metropolises like Manhattan or Chicago, or even smaller cities like Boston, who are stunned that they and not folks living in less-cosmopolitan confines like the suburban Midwest could be the most politically segregated voters in the country, it can be easy to lose sight of how blue most urban ZIP codes are when immersed in a racially diverse or multicultural environment.

I live in Harvard Square, and I think, as urban high-density Democrats, we tend to think we are surrounded by all this diversity, and in a way we are, said Enos. But we live in real, real homogenous political environments, and it is important to think about what the implications of that are for our views on the world.

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Democrats and Republicans live in partisan bubbles, study finds - Harvard Gazette

MANKATO, Minnesota (AP) Mary McGaw grew up in a Republican home on the rural prairie of south central Minnesota. But as she moved from her tiny town of Amboy to the nearest city of Mankato to study nursing, her politics migrated, too.

McGaw was moved by the plight of underinsured and became concerned about the viability of safety programs. She cast her vote for Democrat Joe Biden in November, and three months later she is pleased with how hard the new president is fighting for his priorities.

Hes trying to get something done, even though theres pushback from all sides, said the 37-year-old registered nurse, who now works at a Mankato branch of the Mayo Clinic.

Counties that went Bidens way in 2020 after favoring Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016 tend to be home to universities or large medical centers that draw educated and racially diverse newcomers. Their economies are better than average.

McGaws transformation is driving Democrats hopes as they charge into what the party considers its new frontier: small-city America.

As Democrats continue to lose votes in small towns, theyve seen clear gains in regional hubs that dot stretches of rural America. Biden carried roughly 60 counties President Donald Trump won in 2016, many were places anchored by a midsize or small city that is trending Democratic. They include places like Grand Rapids, Mich.; Wilmington, N.C.; Dayton, Ohio; and Mankatos Blue Earth County.

Their similarities are striking: Most include universities or, like Mankato, large medical centers that draw educated and racially diverse newcomers. Their economies are better than average. And in 2020, their voters showed a bipartisan streak voting for Biden for president and Republicans downballot in large numbers.

These voters are in line with Bidens personal brand, said Robert Griffin, research director for the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, a bipartisan demographic and public opinion team. Hes pegged as a moderate Democrat, rightly. But hes also making sure theres room for moderation in the party.

Biden won Blue Earth County by 4.5 percentage points, about the same percentage Democrat Hillary Clinton lost it by in 2016. In November, voters in the area dumped 30-year Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, arguably the most conservative Democrat in Congress, but reelected two Democratic state lawmakers.

Interviews with voters around Mankato help make sense of this partisan zigzagging.

While there remains support for Trump, voters stress that action carries more weight than ideological purity. Even devout Democratic activists who wish the new $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package Bidens chief legislative accomplishment so far contained more arent frustrated.

See: Biden played Sheriff Joe role in rollout of 2009s recovery package this time around he is being cast as salesman-in-chief

Sure, I wish it had contained the $15 minimum wage, said Jim Hepworth, the areas Democratic chairman. But we can have that fight another day.

Blue Earth County has long swung back and forth in presidential elections. But the demographic trends are now steady in Democrats favor.

The expansion of the Mayo Clinic to Mankato from nearby Rochester in 1996 increased the supply of medical professionals from around the country and the world. Since 2010, healthcare jobs have increased in the county by roughly 70%.

About 40% of Mankato residents have college degrees a key indicator of Democratic voting compared with 33% nationwide.

Racial diversity has accelerated another boost for Democrats. Minnesota State University, Mankato, has drawn more international students to its expanded health care programs. And manufacturing and food-processing plants on the citys outskirts have attracted immigrants from North Africa and Latin America.

The transition has not been without tension, but the area has come a long way since Abdi Sabrie, a Somali-American member of the Mankato School Board, arrived in 2009.

Then, his two daughters were the only students of North African descent in their elementary school. Today, 28% of Mankatos enrollment are students of color.The changes are welcome, but Sabrie gets frustrated.

Sometimes I want Democrats to use their control to the max, regardless of the other side, he said. But this diversity shows me we can bring back the politics of collaboration.

Annual household income in Blue Earth rose by roughly $20,000 over the past decade to nearly $60,000 in February, still below the state average of $71,300. Blue Earth housing, too, has jumped from an average home price of roughly $140,000 to $226,000. Buoyed by health care, unemployment was 3.2% in January, up slightly from 2.6% a year ago. The states was 4.5% in January.

Signs of changes are easy to find.

A decade ago, hijabs were forbidden for Mayo employees. Today, the colored head coverings worn by some Muslim women are common on campus. The nations racial reckoning has played out in a debate over whether to rename Sibley Park, whose namesake is a general who ordered the hangings of 38 Dakota warriors in 1862, the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

From near that solemn spot along the Minnesota River, Mankato grew east to its wooded bluffs. Along the river, brick hulls of grain exchanges still stand but now so does Karshe, an East African tea shop, and the arty Fillin Station coffee house, among used bookstores, spas and brewpubs.

Midway up the slope, Mayos campus sits among the tidy, middle-class homes that made the difference for Biden. In that precinct, Biden netted 500 more votes than Clinton did in 2016, a third of his winning margin in the county.

Fetching her children from school, McGaw says she and her husband, a Spanish-language medical interpreter, felt Biden was more task-oriented and less about himself than Trump. She voted straight-ticket, but groused Peterson had become too conservative for the district.

McGaw said her family has lived modestly during the COVID-19 pandemic. They qualify for $2,800 in household aid, and another $2,800 in child tax credits. McGaw sees others are more needy.

Weve been doing OK, she said. I was never nervous about my job security. In fact, I was always asked to work more. Do we need the money? Honestly, we can do without it.

McGaw isnt necessarily typical. Nationally, 53% of Democrats say they have experienced at least one form of income loss during the pandemic, slightly more than the 43% of Republicans, according to a March poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

A few blocks away, retired office administrator Jaci Lageson said she was pleased with Bidens compromise with Senate moderates who wanted to lower the income threshold for those receiving the checks.

It gets money in the pockets of people who need it to survive, said Lageson, a 67-year-old former Republican who has voted Democratic over the past 20 years. Lagesons 73-year-old husband, Larry, a devoted Trump supporter, called Biden a pawn of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The number of counties Biden flipped in November is well short of the 206 Trump flipped from Barack Obama in 2016 proof partisanship has hardened across the U.S. But the Democratic trend in these smaller, well-educated pockets looks sustainable, researcher Griffin said.

Its not surprising to have higher-education areas shifting back to the Democrats, given that educational polarization has increased, he said.

Though Mankato remains among the smaller cities in this class, it has grown by 35% since 2000 to about 44,000.

The growth has turned this sleepy rural college island into a microcosm of Democratic America, mixed with pragmatic sensibility reflected in Elizabeth Van Slyke, a progressive willing to compromise.

Im not so dead set in my ways, the 57-year-old marketing executive said. Some progress in the right direction is better than no progress.

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What counties that flipped to Biden from Trump tell us about Democrats' pockets of renewed small-city vigor - MarketWatch

Former Attorney General during the Trump Administration, Ken Cuccinelli, returns to the Dom Giordano Program for a discussion about whats been done to further secure voter integrity moving forward after the controversial 2020 election, and to give his thoughts on issues of the border. This week, Joe Manchin was the first Democrat to step up and say that the situation at the border is a crisis. Cuccinelli explains that he vehemently agrees, and further explains what makes the situation so dire. Then, Cuccinelli explains what the Trump administration put in place in effort to prevent a surge at the border like were currently seeing, and explains why its become such an issue under the Biden administration. Then, Cuccinelli gives an update on the continued push by Republicans throughout the country to further ensure election security in the future.

Paris Dennard, Spokesperson for the GOP, returns to the Dom Giordano Program to discuss President Joe Bidens trip to the Philadelphia region, as he comes to Delaware County to tout his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Dennard and Giordano first discuss why the President has to go on a tour to pump up the bill if its indeed as beneficial as hes making it out to be. Dennard mentions that if this bill was solely about COVID relief, they wouldnt have only 9% addressing COVID itself. Also, Dennard explains how the stimulus bill is a vessel to implement socialistic policies in the United States.

Harry Hurley, host on Atlantic Citys WPG Talk Radio, rejoins the Dom Giordano Program after breaking a huge story regarding Congressman Jeff Van Drew. For a while now, the Ocean City Sentinel has been publishing Op-Eds written by an Ocean City resident by the name of John McCall. In multiple columns, McCall has written violent threats and sexually harassed Van Drews wife. Then, McCall called Van Drew at his home and threatened the Congressman, saying, I will do everything in my power to ensure that you are deposed if not dead. Hurley spoke with the Congressman earlier in the day and got an update, which he reveals to our listeners, and gives some context surrounding the newspaper in question.

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Giordano: If These Threats Were Made Toward A Democrat Instead Of Van Drew, The World Would End - Talk Radio 1210 WPHT