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In the wake of last years Black Lives Matter protests, Republican lawmakers are advancing a a number of new anti-protest measures at the state level including multiple bills that specifically make it easier for drivers to run down protesters.

The most recent example of such a law came Wednesday, when Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a new law that effectively allows drivers to hit people with a car in a specific set of circumstances.

Under the new law, an Oklahoma driver will no longer be liable for striking or even killing a person if the driver is fleeing from a riot ... under a reasonable belief that fleeing was necessary to protect the motor vehicle operator from serious injury or death.

The measure also creates new penalties for protesters who obstruct streets or vehicle traffic, including hefty fines of up to $5,000 and as much as a year in jail.

Critics argue that the law will allow people to specifically target public protesters, with little ramification, but Republicans have promoted similar measures alongside the rise of the Movement for Black Lives in recent years, and such laws have received renewed conservative support after last summers protest movement.

At its peak in June 2020, Black Lives Matter protests may have composed the single largest protest movement in US history, according to the New York Times, with as many as 26 million people nationwide demonstrating in support of racial justice and police reform following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Those protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, according to the Washington Post, and almost 98 percent resulted in no injuries to participants, bystanders or police. However, many Republican lawmakers have pushed a draconian legislative response anyway even as incidents of drivers running down protesters have increased nationwide.

In addition to the Oklahoma measure, Republicans in Iowas House passed a bill earlier this month that would carve out similar protections from civil liability for drivers who hit protesters with a car, and on Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a broad anti-protest measure into law that does the same.

These recent measures build upon laws proposed in 2017 the same year that Heather Heyer, an anti-racist protester, was killed by a white supremacist driver during protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. That driver purposefully sped into a crowd of people; the anti-protest laws passed recently offer different levels of protection depending on a drivers motivations.

As Vices Tess Owen explains, the new Florida law creates civil immunity for people who drive into crowds of protesters, meaning they wont be sued for damages if people get hurt or killed if they claim self-defense.

The Iowa bill would also grant civil immunity to drivers who hit protesters blocking traffic, so long as the driver was not engaging in reckless or willful misconduct.

But only the Oklahoma law creates both criminal and civil immunity for drivers who hit protesters with their cars while fleeing.

If the recent spate of anti-protest measures in Florida, Iowa, and Oklahoma is disturbing on its face, however, context does little to make it better. There is a specific history in the US of the far right using cars as weapons, and its not hard to see how bills like the one that is now law in Oklahoma might only make things worse.

The most notable example is from August 2017: Heyer, 32, was struck and killed and at least 19 others were injured when neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr. rammed a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville. Fields has since been sentenced to life in prison.

But its more than that single incident. According to Ari Weil, the deputy research director for the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, there were at least 72 incidents of cars driving into protesters over a relatively short span in 2020, from May 27 through July 7.

Examples arent hard to find. Theres even a Wikipedia page specifically dedicated to vehicle-ramming incidents during George Floyd protests. And as Weil explained in an interview with Voxs Alex Ward last year, theres an online environment that for years has been celebrating and encouraging these types of horrendous attacks.

Whats particularly worrisome is where those memes spread, Weil told Vox. I know of at least four cases where law enforcement officers were sharing these in Facebook groups. [Fields] shared these memes twice in two months before his attack, and other planners of the Unite the Right rally shared these, too.

According to Weil, the sort of law now on the books in Oklahoma isnt new, either. When he spoke to Vox in June, Weil said that at least six states had legislators who tried to pass bills that would protect drivers from civil suits if they hit protesters. Luckily, none of those passed.

Now, several of them have and Republicans in Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, and elsewhere are also pushing bills that would limit protests in other ways.

Even more concerning, its not always just random people driving through protests. In several cases, police have also used their cars as weapons against protesters. In Detroit last June, an officer drove his police SUV through a crowd, sending protesters flying; two New York police officers did likewise at a Black Lives Matter protest in May 2020.

Indeed, some of these bills package protection for drivers alongside enhanced authority for law enforcement. The Iowa law, for example, eliminates liability for drivers who hit protesters, while expanding qualified immunity and increasing benefits for police officers, according to the Des Moines Register.

Though bills that would protect drivers who run over protesters are especially alarming, theyre by no means the only changes that Republicans are pushing in response to Black Lives Matter protests protests which continued this month following the police killings of Adam Toledo in Chicago, Daunte Wright in Minnesota, and MaKhia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio.

In particular, the Florida bill signed this month by DeSantis is a sprawling measure that creates new criminal penalties for protesting, among other provisions. And while it purports to address rioting DeSantis has called it the strongest anti-rioting, pro-law enforcement piece of legislation in the country the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida warned last week that the bill effectively criminalizes peaceful protest in Florida.

Ask yourself this, ACLU of Florida executive director Micah Kubic said in a statement. What problem are Gov. DeSantis and certain members of the Florida legislature trying to solve? To be clear the goal of this law is to silence dissent and create fear among Floridians who want to take to the streets to march for justice.

During his time in office, former President Donald Trump expressed support for such aggressive measures. As protests erupted after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor last summer, Trump called on governors to quash demonstrations, and praised the National Guard for cut[ting] through demonstrations like butter in Minneapolis.

Anti-protest bills proliferated around the country during Trumps tenure in office and have continued to gain support in the early months of President Joe Bidens administration as Republican lawmakers at the state level lean even harder into a Trump-style law and order message. According to a tracker from the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, at least 30 measures restricting the right to peaceful assembly have been enacted since November 2016, while 68 more are currently pending. All told, at least 220 bills that would curb the right to protest have been introduced in 45 states since November 2016.

And in 2021 alone, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law senior legal adviser Elly Page told the New York Times last week, 81 anti-protest measures have been introduced in 34 states.

One such bill, in Kentucky, would make it a misdemeanor punishable by jail time to insult or taunt a police officer and make resisting arrest during a riot a felony offense. Both the Kentucky and Florida bills would also make it harder for protesters to post bail if arrested in certain circumstances.

Another measure, in Minnesota, would make anyone convicted of a crime at a protest ineligible for student loans and many other forms of state financial aid, including food stamps and unemployment, according to the Minnesota Daily.

Not all of those bills have a realistic chance of passing Minnesota and Kentucky, for example, both have Democratic governors, who would likely veto any such measures that reached their desks but theyre a clear indication of the broader mood of the Republican Party. Never mind that most Black Lives Matter protests have been peaceful, and never mind that George Floyd was murdered in plain sight, on video, by a police officer to Republicans, its the protests that have to be stopped.

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In Oklahoma, Florida, and other states, Republicans are passing laws that make it easier to run over proteste - Vox.com

But Manchin doesnt want to see his friend Murkowski defeated by a Trump-endorsed Republican or a Democrat. He told POLITICO's Playbook Deep Dive podcast that he will support Murkowskis challenging reelection campaign in 2022 in a heartbeat.

Illustration by Alex Fine

I've met a lot of good people in Alaska, they know when they've got the real deal. And they see the person that basically is bringing both sides together, trying to look for the best interest, Manchin said of Murkowski in a rare joint interview. People understand that they have a person that understands Alaska and has Alaska in her blood and in every part of her veins and every morsel of her body.

Murkowski hasnt officially launched her reelection campaign but was elated to get Democratic backing: I would welcome his endorsement.

The two have a relationship dating back to essentially when Manchin entered the Senate in 2010 and Murkowski, then the top Republican on the Energy Committee, visited Manchin in West Virginia. Then as chair, Murkowski hosted Manchin in Alaska in 2019 cementing their rare bipartisan relationship.

Manchin, who also endorsed Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in her 2020 reelection race, said that I don't think we should be campaigning against any colleagues, Democrat or Republican.

He conceded most of his colleagues dont agree with him. But Murkowski hopes that with the establishment of a 20-senator strong bipartisan group, called the G20, their alliance is the start of something bigger rather than an outlier in an increasingly partisan chamber.

I would like to think that were the resurgence, that it's kind of lonely right now. But why wouldn't we want to encourage greater collaboration and cooperation among our colleagues, Murkowski. I get weary of of of that energy that is focused on the dirty, unproductive process.

Murkowski's biggest problem is from within her own party, and Trump has backed Kelly Tshibaka against her. It's unclear whether Democrats will even bother to put up a credible candidate against Murkowski, who won a write-in campaign after losing her primary in 2010. The state has also changed its elections system into a nonpartisan top-four primary that could help Murkowski blunt Tshibaka's challenge.

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Democrat Joe Manchin says theres one GOP senator hed endorse in a heartbeat - POLITICO

Both the top Democrat and top Republican on the panel have expressed concern about Landers nomination due to his interactions with Epstein, POLITICO has reported, while other lawmakers have questioned his past treatment of fellow female scientists and his embrace of a notable biologist accused of espousing racist and sexist views.

"The Epstein connection is of tremendous concern to us," Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said at Thursday's hearing.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), the first Thai American woman elected to Congress, said she is troubled about those incidents, as well as allegations Lander has downplayed the role female scientists played in developing breakthrough genetics technology.

The bottom line is that if confirmed you will have the authority to promote the representation of women and minorities in STEM fields, so I strongly encourage you to use this hearing as an opportunity to explain how youve learned from your past mistakes, Duckworth said.

Lander on Thursday acknowledged he understated the work of two female scientists, 2020 Nobel Prize winners Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, in a 2016 paper about the pioneers behind the landmark CRISPR gene-editing technology.

"I made a mistake, and when I make a mistake I own it and try to do better," he said in response to questions from Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).

The controversies threaten Lander's confirmation to be OSTP director, a role that Biden is raising to the Cabinet level for the first time. Lander is the only Cabinet nominee who has yet to be confirmed.

A striking contrast: The controversy over Landers handling of issues of race and gender arrives as the Biden administration has pushed to make advancing equity in the U.S. and boosting diversity in the ranks of the federal government one of its top priorities.

Lawmakers had called on Biden to appoint a woman or person of color to the OSTP director spot and other top science roles in the executive branch, given that those demographics have traditionally been underrepresented in those positions and in STEM fields more broadly.

Hundreds of female scientists in January wrote an open letter opposing Landers nomination, which they said showed that the glass ceiling in American science remains intact.

The group applauded efforts the Biden administration has taken to boost diversity in federal office, but said the Lander pick fails to meet the moment and exemplifies the status quo.

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Democrats, Republicans press Bidens top scientist on gender, race and Epstein connection - POLITICO

The point is not to go out and incur new and additional debt, Mr. Toomey said. He rejected the Democratic push to undo key elements of the tax overhaul that Republicans muscled through in 2017, arguing that Congress would not improve the national economy by ruining the tax reform.

Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader in the House, said that he had not seen the Senate proposal, but that his conference would be preparing its own infrastructure plan. Ms. Capito said the group sent the proposal to the White House shortly before making it public.

Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia and a crucial swing vote who has said he wants any infrastructure package to be bipartisan, told reporters on Thursday that the Republican plan was basically a negotiating starting point.

But even before Republicans formally unveiled it, most other Democrats were panning the proposal.

It goes nowhere near what has to be done to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and the funding is totally regressive and anti-working class, said Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent and chairman of the Budget Committee. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, weve got to ask the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share, not demand more taxes on the middle class and working families.

Mr. Biden and his team have said repeatedly that they hope to find bipartisan consensus on infrastructure this year. That includes both Mr. Bidens existing plan and his forthcoming American Families Plan, which will center on human infrastructure spending like education and child care.

White House officials say they are open to breaking those proposals into smaller pieces that could pass with 10 or more Republicans joining Democrats in the Senate. Such a compromise could start with a bipartisan bill aimed at improving American competitiveness with China, which includes $100 billion in research and development spending akin to some provisions in Mr. Bidens jobs plan. Such a slimmed-down bill could move through the Senate in the coming weeks. Some officials are also hopeful that lawmakers could pass a bipartisan highway bill, which would accomplish some of Mr. Bidens transportation goals.

But many officials view significant compromise as unlikely, and they say Mr. Biden is unlikely to be satisfied with incremental spending agreements. That is why Democrats are also preparing to move some or most of Mr. Bidens agenda through the budget reconciliation process if necessary, including his plans to combat climate change and his tax increases on corporations and high earners.

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Republicans Look to Slash the Size of Bidens Infrastructure Plan - The New York Times

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., here in 2017, is pushing his party to focus on working-class voters as a way to win back the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms and the White House in 2024. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images hide caption

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., here in 2017, is pushing his party to focus on working-class voters as a way to win back the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms and the White House in 2024.

A growing number of working-class voters were drawn to Donald Trump's Republican Party, and now top Republicans are searching for ways to keep those voters in the fold without Trump on the ballot.

"All of the statistics and polling coming out of the 2020 election show that Donald Trump did better with those voters across the board than any Republican has in my lifetime since Ronald Reagan," Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told NPR. "And if Republicans want to be successful as a party, win the majority in 2022, win back the White House in 2024, I think we have to learn lessons that Donald Trump taught us and how to appeal to these voters."

Since 2010, the most significant growth in the Republican coalition has been white voters without a college degree an imperfect but widely used metric to quantify the working-class voting bloc along with some marginal growth among similarly educated Black and Hispanic voters. Banks believes the only winning path forward for the GOP is to reimagine itself permanently as the party of working-class America.

Banks is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative faction in the House long rooted in small government, low taxes and social conservatism, and he recently sent a six-page memo to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., making his case. For Banks, it means tougher immigration laws and cracking down on China, Big Tech and, perhaps most provocatively for the GOP, corporate America.

"For too long, the Republican Party fed into the narrative and the perception that the Republican Party was the party of big business or the party of Wall Street," Banks said.

Read the full memo below:

Republicans are increasingly comfortable attacking corporations these days, a political stance made easier after Wall Street donors gave more to President Biden in 2020, major companies halted donations to Republicans who objected to Electoral College results on Jan. 6, and as companies take more liberal positions on controversial issues such as Georgia's new voting law.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., last week issued a rare public lashing toward companies that oppose the law. "My warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics. It's not what you're designed for," he said. McConnell a top recipient of corporate political donations walked back his comments, but not a statement his office released warning corporations of "serious consequences" for "behaving like a woke parallel government."

Top Senate Republicans some considering 2024 presidential runs have been echoing the call to remake the party even before the 2020 election. "We've got a big battle in front of us, Republicans do, to try and make this party truly the party of working-class America," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said in November.

He's among a number of Senate Republicans who have taken recent positions that run counter to longstanding party orthodoxy, such as linking up with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in support of stimulus checks last year and supporting a mandatory $15 minimum wage for companies with annual revenues over $1 billion.

Others include Florida's Marco Rubio, who recently sided with pro-union forces in an organizing dispute at Amazon and speaks frequently of "common good capitalism," and Utah's Mitt Romney, who has introduced legislation to expand the welfare state to provide more generous benefits to combat child poverty.

"I think the claim that says the Republican Party is the party of the working class is at best, insincere, and more likely, political misdirection and rebranding exercises," said John Russo, a visiting scholar at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University and a co-editor of the publication Working-Class Perspectives.

The working-class vote is complicated and too often confused with whiteness when about 40% of the working-class vote is people of color, Russo said. Their support also didn't cut overwhelmingly toward Republicans in 2020. Biden still won a majority of voters who earn less than $50,000 year, while Trump won a majority of voters who earn over $100,000 a year.

Russo said about one-third of working-class voters are considered persuadable in elections, and it's never reliable whether cultural or economic forces will drive their vote. "The working class, like all of us, carry multiple identities, race, class, gender, religious, geographic, and people may vote different parts of their identity as situations and moments change in their lives."

Democrats are not ceding this vote without a fight, led by a new president with a blue-collar upbringing who wants to enact the most radical economic investment in working people since the New Deal, with a message to sell it targeted almost squarely at the working-class vote. "I'm not trying to punish anybody, but damn it, maybe it's because I come from a middle-class neighborhood, I'm sick and tired of ordinary people being fleeced," Biden said in a recent speech promoting his $2 trillion infrastructure and economic stimulus plan.

Republicans think Democrats are overreaching with their economic largesse. Banks compared Biden's plans to a feel-good sugar high that will lead to a crash. "And I predict it will crash long before the 2022 midterm election, as we see a lot of government spending inflate the economy, but then when it bottoms out and American workers, blue-collar working-class Americans feel the effect of it, they're gonna blame Joe Biden and Democrats for it," he said.

The battle for the working class is even more urgent for the two parties because it's a growing bloc of voters. Since the 2008 financial crisis, Russo said, more middle-class people have slid economically backward and are experiencing what he calls "the fragility of working-class life."

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Top Republicans Work To Rebrand GOP As Party Of Working Class - NPR