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North Carolinas pistol permit law which required people to get approval from a county sheriff before buying a handgun was repealed Wednesday.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly overturned Democratic Gov. Roy Coopers veto of the repeal the first time thats happened to a Cooper veto since 2018.

The GOP was able to override the veto when Mecklenburgs Tricia Cotham and two other Democratic House members didnt vote. That gave the Republicans the three-fifths supermajority of members present.

Cooper had successfully vetoed a similar bill in 2021.

Republicans said the permit law, passed in 1919, is no longer needed because of federal background checks. Pistol buyers will still be subject to those.

Some conservatives also said the century-old law was racist, passed during Jim Crow in order to keep African Americans from arming to protect themselves from violent white supremacists. At least one scholar who has studied the issue, Andrew Willinger of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, said there is no direct evidence that lawmakers were targeting Black North Carolinians with the law.

They also complained that residents of urban counties were being denied their Second Amendment rights because it often took months to receive a permit.

But Democrats said it makes no sense to further weaken gun control regulations.

House members were not allowed to debate the override.

After the vote, the progressive group Carolina Forward said it would hold the three Democrats accountable for missing the vote and that they choose political expediency over their constituents.

Cotham said she had a doctors appointment to treat her long COVID during the vote, and that both sides knew she wouldnt be there. She said the override was unfortunate and that the repeal is dangerous.

In reply, Carolina Forward said on Twitter that they sympathize with Cotham but added that she should resign if shes not able to fulfill her positions duties.

Twelve of the 13 members of Mecklenburgs legislative delegation are Democrats.

House Speaker Tim Moore named Cotham a co-chair of the K-12 education committee, and she has voted with the GOP on some issues. She had previously voted against repealing the pistol permit law.

House Democratic leader Robert Reives said in a statement that elections have consequences and that the only way to change direction on gun safety is to elect different legislators in next years election.

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Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) became the latest Democrat on Capitol Hill to articulate concerns about the use of the Customs and Border Protections CBP One mobile application at the border in a March 27 letter to the agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

Lawmakers have pushed back about the use of the app, which launched in 2020, for migrants seeking exceptions to the so-called Title 42 pandemic restrictions on immigration put in place in 2020. Those restrictions allow the U.S. to turn away immigrants to prevent a possible contagious spread of disease.

In January, DHS announced that the app would be used for people seeking exceptions to Title 42 by allowing certain individuals to schedule appointments before arriving at land ports of entry.

Non-U.S. citizens can use the app to schedule an appointment if theyre located in Central or Northern Mexico, but according to advocacy group the American Immigration Council which sued the CBP to get records about the app via the Freedom of Information Act CBP One is currently used for travel authorization for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans as well.

CBP states in a fact sheet about the app that its use streamlines the experience at the port of entry, may reduce wait times and permits a safe and orderly process at POEs for all travelers.

Since its creation in 2020, the app has been the subject of privacy-related critiques over government data collection, but more recently, media reports have detailed problems with access disparities in terms of the technology, glitchy functionality and limited appointment slots relative to demand.

Booker raised these concerns in his March 27 letter, noting that Successfully receiving an appointment is akin to winning the lottery for the thousands of migrants living in camps waiting to secure an interview slot. Beyond the odds of getting an appointment, technical issues make it virtually impossible for many migrants to access the app antiquated devices, poor cell phone service or language access have all become barriers.

There have also been reports of individuals with darker skin struggling to submit face photographs required for the app, although DHS officials told The Washington Post that they reject the notion that the app doesnt work as well with people with darker skin.

But beyond technical issues, Booker said in his letter that the app still places access limitations on users seeking appointments through it.

Even if the CBP One app was as efficient, user friendly, fair and inclusive as possible which I hope one day it will be it would still be inherently discriminatory, he writes. To use the app, a person must have a working cell phone, a reliable internet connection, and must have adequate resources and be in good enough health to safely stay in a single location either near the southern border or in their country of origin. This situation is not the reality for asylum seekers whose lives are threatened in their home country or in northern Mexico.

Booker also laid out concerns about who gets appointments, noting that the system, which only offers limited appointment slots, apparently does not consider when someone first registered on the app to try to get an appointment.

The New Jersey senator isnt the only concerned lawmaker.

Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) sent a letter asking DHS to stop using the app in February, citing privacy concerns around biometrics and location data as well as technical problems and access problems.

And Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Chuy Garca (D-Ill.) and Ral Grijalva (D-Ariz.) also have written to DHS about the app, along with 32 other House Democrats.

For its part, the administration touted the appointment scheduling process in January and signaled that the app will also be used after Title 42 is no longer in place.

When Title 42 eventually lifts, noncitizens located in Central and Northern Mexico seeking to enter the United States lawfully through a U.S. port of entry have access to the CBP One mobile application for scheduling an appointment to present themselves for inspection and to initiate a protection claim instead of coming directly to a port of entry to wait, a January fact sheet reads.

This new feature will significantly reduce wait times and crowds at U.S. ports of entry and allow for safe, orderly and humane processing, the sheet continues.

The Biden administration plans to end the public health emergency for the coronavirus in May, and has since signaled in Supreme Court briefings that that ending will also end Title 42.

CBP did not respond to request for comment by publication time.

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He wasnt a Southerner. But my paternal grandfather was a yellow dog Democrat. Born and raised on a farm in Hardin County a small, tidy corner of northwest Ohio Grandpa Nelson spent his life in overalls, out in the fields. He served in the army during World War II (nothing too exciting he was a cook), came home, got married, had four kids and went to the Methodist church in town every Sunday. And, as long as he was physically able to vote, he threw his lot in with the Democratic candidates.

In that respect, my grandfather was an oddity. Ohio has been called the ultimate swing state; it also has a gift for being a national bellwether other than Joe Biden, no presidential candidate has taken the country without taking Ohio since 1960. As has gone Ohio in 11 out of the past 12 elections, so has gone the country. The state went blue when Clinton won in 1992 and 1996, but then went red for Bush in the two elections that followed. And then it went blue again for both of Obamas terms.

But Ohio broke ranks in 2020 when the nation handed Biden the win, the state went the other way. Hardin County exemplified the change. It went red in 2016 and then even redder in 2020; Donald Trump got 75 percent of the vote there in the last presidential election, trouncing Biden by a 52-point margin.

Theres an easy explanation Hardin is about as working class as you get. While 90 percent of the county has graduated from high school, only 16 percent have a bachelors degree. Manufacturing is the areas single largest employer.

Hardin County is also very white: 95.8 percent of Hardins population, according to census data.

And this is exactly the group that the Democrats are increasingly out of step with the white working-class voters who were once a reliable part of the partys base. Why did they migrate to the GOP? And what does the white working class political realignment mean for the future of both parties?

Though this shift might be most apparent in the last couple of election cycles manifesting, in the rise of Trump and populists like J.D. Vance the white working class transition away from the Democratic Party began decades ago, says Michael Pierce, a historian at the University of Arkansas and the author of the book Striking with the Ballot: Ohio Labor and the Populist Party.

It started with economic policies: The 1970s and 80s saw a group of centrists break from mainstream Democratic thought by embracing supply side economics, aka Reaganomics, says Pierce.

This group of Democrats found success in the 70s and 80s embracing what had traditionally been Republican ideals, says Pierce, such as the way you get the country prosperous is by helping businesses, you cut taxes, you deregulate, you promote free trade. Bill Clinton, who Ohioans voted for, is the perfect example, says Pierce. Him and his closest allies would say, Were social liberals but were economic conservatives.

Though there were differences between how much centrist Democrats embraced Reaganomics and neoliberalism, by and large, they moved the needle of the partys economic policies to the right. Once they did that, economically, there is no difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, Pierce says. Clinton was closer to Reagan than he was to the Democratic Party of Roosevelt.

There is still much working-class resentment around the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Clinton signed despite wide opposition from labor unions. Protectionist views not racial resentment accelerated the white working class migration to the GOP in the wake of NAFTA, according to a working paper by Jiwon Choi, a doctoral student at Princeton.

But Trumps role in this migration is unclear.

While the GOP has positioned itself under Trump as the party of the working class a narrative parroted by the mainstream media, Pierce says, particularly since 2016 an analysis of survey data from 1980 to the present, conducted by Duke Universitys Nicholas Carnes and Noam Lupu of Vanderbilt University, shows that white working class voters have been leaving the Democratic Party for decades.

The share of Republicans who are white and working class has increased slightly in the past few election cycles, but not under Trump. The biggest single-year increase in the white working class share of GOP voters came in 2012, when Mitt Romney was the partys nominee, Carnes and Lupu wrote in The Washington Post in April 2021. The proportion of white working-class Americans voting Republican hasnt changed substantially since then. Lower-income White voters without college degrees arent a majority of Republican voters, and they arent increasing as a share of GOP voters.

Pierce echoes this, saying that the wealthiest Americans still tend to vote Republican while the poorest continue to go Democrat.

But Hardin County, in particular, and Ohio more generally, tell a different story, suggesting that Trumps inroads with the white working class are real.

With similar economic stances, something else had to distinguish the two parties from one another. From the 1990s on, party politics have become overwhelmingly defined by cultural issues, says Pierce, who adds this alienates people, especially people who feel powerless like working-class voters.

The Democratic Party has taken up the mantle of speaking out about racism, but analysts say that this has come at the expense of addressing the issues that many Americans are most concerned about.

When you see progressives say things like, Its all about race, they effectively deny that something economically significant has also happened. And thats sort of like saying (to the white working class) The economic pain that youre feeling isnt real, says Lisa Pruitt, a law professor at the University of California, Davis.

By focusing on race and dismissing the concerns of the white working class, Pruitt adds, progressives are calling people racist by definition.

The Democrats intense focus on race also runs the risk of completely obliterating the role of human agency, Pruitt adds. Pruitt, who grew up working class herself, says that while she benefited from being white, she also faced professional challenges due to her gender and her socioeconomic background.

If I had not worked, and worked and worked and worked, I would not be here, Pruitt says. I think theres a fundamental desire I think its just an aspect of the American dream that most people are raised with to believe that we have some control over our destiny.

Indeed, minorities sometimes balk about the victimhood that is part and parcel of the progressives structural racism narrative. Ive experienced this at rallies like the Faith and Freedom Coalitions Road to Majority where Black attendees told me that they had left the Democrats and gone Republican because the GOP offered a more hopeful message. Social programs entrap and breed dependency, one such Black Republican told me. We need to return to a Black Wall Street mindset.

The GOP offers that.

Though Black and Latino voters remain overwhelmingly Democratic, that could change. Ive long argued in my writing that white working class voters should be viewed as the gateway drug for minority voters, says Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Washington Post columnist, who adds that the Democrats messaging problem stems from their policy problem.

Many immigrants, Olsen says, see themselves as agents not victims. Theyre here in the country because they see this country as a place where they can exercise their agency. They may have issues with the country but they dont think that its systematically biased against them and they prioritize a number of things that Republicans talk about.

In other words, the Republicans continue to offer the hope of the American dream whether or not its attainable.

The shift of the working class toward populism is becoming a global phenomenon and will mean different things in different places. In some European countries, theyre moving toward politicians that are Trump-like in their messaging but who also want to expand spending. This reflects white working class voters love of both opportunity and protection, says Olsen.

But, in a two party system, weve yet to see a political party that has successfully straddled that fence. For the Democratic Party to do so that is, for the Democratic Party to shift toward the center theyd have to take on the more far left elements in their own party. And thats a battle the Democrats arent willing to fight. In the meantime, the Republican Party is locked into a war for its soul, as well. Will the Mitt Romney-Liz Cheney Republicans win out? Or will it be MAGA?

People choose extremes when they feel they have no choice. What we saw in the Great Depression is people chose extremes. Thats when you saw fascism come to power, says Olsen. Because the governing institutions and people have refused to respond reasonably to the pressures of the last 20 years. I think the only question now is: Will the populists be reasonable when they come to power?

This story appears in the April issue of Deseret Magazine. Learn more about how to subscribe.

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How the Democrats lost the white working class - Deseret News

House Democrats are expressing frustration with the White House after President Biden indicated he would not veto legislation to end the COVID-19 pandemic national emergency.

"The White Houses lack of communication with House Democrats has been frustrating," Michigan Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement on Thursday.

"Going forward, were going to need greater clarity out of the administration. Theyve got to do better," he said.

BIDEN 'STRONGLY OPPOSES' RESOLUTION ENDING COVID-19 NATIONAL EMERGENCY, BUT WON'T VETO IT AFTER SENATE VOTE

Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., speaks during a news conference outside the Capitol on the on the Affordable Insulin Now Act vote in the House of Representatives on March 31, 2022. ((Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images))

Texas Democrat Rep. Lloyd Doggett told The Hill on Wednesday that he found the move to be "surprising" and that he'd "like to see a little more consistency."

The Senate passed a resolution on Wednesday ending the emergency that was declared more than three years ago, sending the legislation to the president's desk. HJ Res 7 passed on a 68-23 vote, with bipartisan support.

The short resolution passed the House on a 229-197 vote in February.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, leaves the House democrats caucus meeting in the Capitol on Nov. 17, 2021. ((Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images))

Biden had voiced opposition to the bill as it made its way through Congress, but a White House spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital on Thursday that he would not veto it.

COVID VACCINES ARE NOT NEEDED FOR HEALTH KIDS AND TEENS, SAYS WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

"The president strongly opposes HJ Res 7, and the administration is planning to wind down the COVID national emergency and public health emergency on May 11," a White House official told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

"If this bill comes to his desk, however, he will sign it, and the administration will continue working with agencies to wind down the national emergency with as much notice as possible to Americans who could potentially be impacted."

Biden previously argued that "an orderly transition is critical to the health and safety of the nation," urging lawmakers to allow the emergency to expire in May.

President Biden speaks with reporters before departing from the South Lawn of the White House on Marine One on March 17, 2023, in Washington, D.C. ((Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images))

This marks the second time in the new Congress that the administration has signaled opposition to a Republican measure rallying Democrats only to soften its stance.

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The public health emergency, which is separate from the COVID-19 national emergency, is set to expire on May 11. It was declared in March 2020 under the Trump administration.

Fox News' Paul Best and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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House Democrats frustrated after Bidens reversal on COVID-19 emergency measure - Fox News

Former President Donald Trump at Waco Regional Airport on March 25 in Waco, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

CHICAGO There may be a Trump Tower right in the middle of Chicago, but voters here are no more amenable to Donald Trumps brand of politics than the residents of his native New York. In 2020, Trump won only a single ward in the city, the 41st, on Chicagos northern edge.

One of the more surprising of the 558,269 votes for Trump in Cook County which includes Chicago and some of its suburbs came from the South Side, a majority-Black area that is among the most reliably Democratic sections of the city, as well as the onetime home of former President Barack Obama.

It came courtesy of Devin R. Jones, who heads the Southside Republicans, an organization he founded in 2000. Fix Where We Live goes the organizations motto, alluding to decades of official disinvestment and neglect.

A native South Sider who served in the Navy, Jones is unapologetic about his conservative beliefs. If anything, he thinks that many Black Americans would benefit from Republican policies, if only the national GOP stopped waging culture wars and focused instead on economic empowerment and policies.

Republican politics is especially moribund in Chicago, whose most famous GOP candidate for many years was simply known as Spanky. At the same time, Black voters are showing signs of disenchantment with Democrats. If that trend holds, Chicago could present an opportunity for Republicans to court Black voters.

Yahoo News spoke to Jones with the Chicago mayoral runoff looming. Moderate Paul Vallas is facing off against progressive Brandon Johnson, in a race widely seen as having national implications. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Devin R. Jones. (Southside Republicans)

What made you start this organization?

Being a native South Sider, I had never had an option. Oftentimes, there werent even Republicans on the ballot. And so I felt that, as Americans, we deserve, at the very least, a two-party system. We deserve options.

Some people would say that the Republican Party, despite becoming more diverse in recent years, is mostly attuned to white concerns.

People would say that, but its a party that was founded for Black liberation. Frederick Douglass was a huge Republican. Booker T. Washington. Ida B. Wells, who was a native Chicagoan and Second Amendment rights proponent.

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Even [former President Richard] Nixon won with a sizable Black vote.

Do the Democrats take the Black vote in Chicago for granted?

Absolutely. And the Republicans allow it to happen. There are no policies from the Republican Party in the state that address Black people.

Do the Democrats deserve the Black vote?

A man casts his ballot at the United Center in Chicago on Nov. 3, 2020. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)

No, no, no. Not in this city, not in this state. When you go through the South Side, you go to Bronzeville, Englewood, Roseland, the depth of poverty and destruction, the disinvestment, the institutional racism they have allowed it. We havent had Republicans running this area for 100 years.

How would you describe the mood of this city ahead of next weeks election?

People are nervous. A lot of people dont know what to make of this election. People are tired. They are not feeling hope from either camp. Theres no sense of hope. Its just like, Whichever one we get, well just figure out how to deal with, and thats a terrible place to be.

[Mayor] Lori Lightfoot said that she lost because she is a Black woman.

I think some of the attacks on how she looks were because she is a Black woman. But who cares? I dont think she lost because people hate Black women. I think she lost because she was not able to win the battlefield of ideas. She was not able to prove why her policies were best.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot at an election night rally on Feb. 28 in Chicago. (Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images)

Some have said the crime issue has been exaggerated.

Its not exaggerated. The numbers dont lie.

Are you afraid for your safety and your property?

Im not afraid. I carry.

[Jones clarifies he is a legal gun owner.]

Do you know a lot of Black people who carry?

I know more who carry than who dont. We have seen crime for so long in the Black community, we just know we need to carry.

To you, the Second Amendment is empowering.

That was instilled in me by my grandparents. They grew up in the Jim Crow South, outside of Vicksburg, Miss. They had shotguns to keep the Klan from coming back. I know a lot of people who have similar stories.

Jordan Landis, a gun collector, examines a pistol in EJBs Gun Shop in Capitol Heights, Md., on March 14. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Democrats claim theyre fighting for equity and social justice.

The only thing that will allow for the movement of Black people and we have seen this throughout history is for the government to move out of our way.

Did you vote for Trump?

I voted for him the second time. I did not vote for him the first time.

Thats odd, because there are people who voted for him the first time but not the second.

I saw his policies. I saw what he wanted to do. I saw his Platinum Plan, which I dont think went far enough. But it was more than what the other side offered. Democrats offered lip service and no tangible policy.

Will you support Trump next year?

[Laughing] No. Absolutely not.

Why not?

He produced a lot of good policies. I just dont see where hes going this time. Hes reverted back to his reality TV personality. We have serious political work that needs to be done.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a GOP town hall in 2021. (Pedro Portal/El Nuevo Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

What do you think of [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis?

I like many of Ron DeSantiss policies. I am still iffy on his approach to attacking critical race theory. I think, oftentimes, what Republicans do is, they throw the baby out with the bathwater. We have never had Black history taught with American history. So many Americans dont know that Crispus Attucks, a Black man, was the first person that died in the Revolutionary War. Many people dont know how impactful Frederick Douglass was on the Republican Party and on Abraham Lincoln.

DeSantis says Florida is where woke goes to die. What do you hear?

Anti-Blackness.

Woke [is] originally a term for Black people waking up. Republicans could be woke. Theres a lot of Republicans that are woke.

I think I just found your presidential slogan. Whom are you going to support in 2024?

Just based on whos out there now, it would probably be DeSantis. Im leaning towards DeSantis. But I am so undecided. Definitely not a Democrat.

I want to ask you about a couple other national figures. Ill say the name and you give me your impression.

Lets start with [South Carolina Sen.] Tim Scott.

If I had to choose between DeSantis and Tim Scott, itd be Tim Scott. I like his policies. He has offered criminal justice reform. Hes staying true to what it means to be a conservative. You dont really hear him getting into the culture wars. Hes very policy-focused. If he ran, hed be my top choice.

Sen. Tim Scott at a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

[Former Vice President] Mike Pence.

I like Mike Pence. We have a similar vision of faith. Ive been a fan of Mike Pence since I was a kid.

[Virginia Gov.] Glenn Youngkin.

Hes doing a good job in the state of Virginia. I like his lieutenant governor, Winsome Sears, a lot more. Id like to see them switch.

Should we be supporting the war in Ukraine?

We need to completely cut that off. That is not for the defense of the United States.

That is not our fight. We have too much going on at home.

That money should stay at home. We can pass bills to send billions of dollars to another country. And then we have a debate about whether Englewood deserves a water system without lead in it.

We need to reallocate resources.

Concertina wire covering the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Nogales, Ariz., in 2019. (Ariana Drehsler/AFP via Getty Images)

Do we need a border wall?

I think there should be whatever is going to close that border to illegal substances and people crossing. Take the entire United States Army and put it across that southern border.

People would say youre not being an ally to immigrants.

We dont allow people from Africa to come the way we allow them to from Central and South America. We dont allow Haitians. I mean, how Haitian migrants are treated when they come illegally is abysmal.

Mexico is not going to allow me to come down there and roam around, homeless. Theyre gonna send me back after I spend time in prison.

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'Republicans could be woke': A Black conservative from Chicago's South Side makes the case for ditching Democrats - Yahoo News