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According to a forthcoming book by two New York Times reporters, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in February 2021 told a group of three Republican senators that he would become an independent and caucus with the GOP if Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) were their leader in the Senate.

Asked about the excerpt from This Will Not Pass by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, Manchin on Thursday claimed his remark was being made out to be something it wasnt. Many Republicans like to get on his case about why he continues to stay a Democrat, he said, claiming that he didnt seriously consider switching parties. I get that question every day. These are all my friends, Manchin said, per The Hill, when asked if hed go to the other side of the aisle if Thune took Sen. Mitch McConnells place. John Thune is a most decent human being and a good friend of mine. But no.

Thune, one of the three Republicans at that dinner, told reporters on Thursday that Manchin made the comment in good humor, according to CNN.

They are always kidding back and forth. They would love for me I said, Guys listen, I am who I am, Im a West Virginia Democrat,' Manchin added: If people want to read into whatever conversations we have, they can read into it. But they all know who I am.

Talk of Manchin switching parties may have been all in good fun, but its not surprising considering the degree to which Manchin has stymied Democrats push for voting rights protections, taxing the rich, and a landmark social spending bill; his allegiance to the fossil fuel industry; and the fact that billionaire Republican benefactors love him. He hobnobbed with a bunch of them last month at a Palm Beach fundraiser hosted by Trump donor Nelson Peltz.

Joe is the most important guy in D.C. Maybe the most important guy in America today, Peltz told CNBC last year. I call him every week and say, Joe, youre doing great. Stay tough. Stay tough, buddy. Hes phenomenal.

Manchin hasnt formally announced whether he is running for reelection, but one attendee at that $5,000-per-plate fundraiser said the senator is planning on it. Hell probably have a good chance of winning, too. The 12-year senator saw the largest approval rating increase 16 percent of any of his 99 colleagues over the past year, according to a Morning Consult survey.

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Joe Manchin Has Worked So Hard to Kill the Democratic Agenda That He Jokes With Republicans About Switching Parties - Rolling Stone

Trump affadavit: I don't have documents NY attorney general is seeking

Donald Trump has told a New York court he doesnt have any of the documents the states attorney general Letitia James wants as she continues her criminal probe into his business dealings.

The former president is facing fines of $10,000 a day and was held in civil contempt by state court judge Arthur Engoron on Monday, and appealed the ruling two days later.

In a single-page, two-paragraph affadavit filed by his lawyers this afternoon seeking to overturn the fines, Trump argues:

To the best of my knowledge, (i) I do not have any of the documents requested in the subpoena dated December 1, 2021 in my personal possession; and (ii) if there are any documents responsive to the subpoena I believe they would be in the possession or custody of the Trump Organization.

Engoron denied the request to end the fines and overturn the contempt ruling on Friday, saying he was not satisfied with the affidavit and that there was no evidence he had conducted a thorough search for the records sought by James.

I am surprised he doesnt seem to have any documents, theyre all with the organization, the judge said.

I will consider your request to terminate the fine, he told Trumps lawyer Alina Habba. But if you dont hear from me, the clock is still ticking.

James says her investigation has turned up evidence the Trump Organization, which manages hotels, golf courses and other real estate around the world, has given banks and tax authorities misleading financing information in order to obtain financial benefits such as favorable loans and tax breaks.

Read more:

Updated at 15.17EDT

Thats all from the US politics blog for today, and indeed the week. Please join us again on Monday.

Donald Trump learned that he would continue to be fined $10,000 a day by a court in New York for failing to hand over documents pertaining to the states criminal probe of his business dealings.

State court judge Arthur Engoron was scathing of a two-paragraph affadavit submitted by the former presidents lawyers claiming he didnt have any of the documents wanted by New Yorks attorney general Letitia James.

Heres where else our day went:

A quick reminder that you can follow developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict on our 24-hour live news blog here.

The Biden administration has expressed its dismay to Indonesia over the Asian countrys invitation to Russian president Vladimir Putin to attend the G20 summit in Bali later this year.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said at her afternoon briefing:

The president has expressed publicly his opposition to President Putin attending the G20... weve conveyed our view that we dont think they should be a part of it publicly, and privately as well.

The UK, US and Canada staged a coordinated walkout of a G20 session in Washington DC earlier this month in protest against Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Biden has also publicly called for Russia to be expelled from the G20 group of the worlds leading industrial nations.

Indonesias president Joko Widodo said Friday he had spoken to Putin and the Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy by phone this week, and that both said they would attend the G20 gathering, according to the Associated Press:

I reiterated the importance of ending the war immediately. I also emphasized that peaceful efforts should continue and Indonesia is ready to contribute to these peaceful efforts.

Psaki said it was too early to predict what the summit would look like, or if both leaders would attend:

Theres a lot that can happen between now and then but we certainly havent seen an indication to date of Russias plan to participate in diplomatic talks constructively.

Joe Biden had a very constructive call with Mexicos president Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador on Friday, the White House secretary Jen Psaki said at her afternoon briefing.

She said the two leaders spoke mostly about immigration, and the Biden administrations planned termination of Title 42 Covid-19 restrictions next month:

The majority of the conversation was about migration and continued work on coordination, economic coordination, on taking steps to reduce migration to the border.

They have been a partner in that over the last several months.

Lpez Obrador, meanwhile, said in a Spanish language tweet that he had a cordial conversation with Biden, and that his foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard would visit Washington DC next week to discuss the Summit of the Americas, scheduled to take place in Los Angeles in June.

The White House said their call lasted 52 minutes, ending just before 2 pm, the Associated Press reports.

Senior Biden administration officials said ahead of the conversation that it would also address Russias invasion of Ukraine, global economic challenges, the pandemic, climate change and the trade in illicit drugs.

Psaki said during her briefing that she didnt have full details of the conversation, but that the virtual conference had been very constructive.

Biden had been expected to press Mexico on tightening sanctions against Russia.

Donald Trump has told a New York court he doesnt have any of the documents the states attorney general Letitia James wants as she continues her criminal probe into his business dealings.

The former president is facing fines of $10,000 a day and was held in civil contempt by state court judge Arthur Engoron on Monday, and appealed the ruling two days later.

In a single-page, two-paragraph affadavit filed by his lawyers this afternoon seeking to overturn the fines, Trump argues:

To the best of my knowledge, (i) I do not have any of the documents requested in the subpoena dated December 1, 2021 in my personal possession; and (ii) if there are any documents responsive to the subpoena I believe they would be in the possession or custody of the Trump Organization.

Engoron denied the request to end the fines and overturn the contempt ruling on Friday, saying he was not satisfied with the affidavit and that there was no evidence he had conducted a thorough search for the records sought by James.

I am surprised he doesnt seem to have any documents, theyre all with the organization, the judge said.

I will consider your request to terminate the fine, he told Trumps lawyer Alina Habba. But if you dont hear from me, the clock is still ticking.

James says her investigation has turned up evidence the Trump Organization, which manages hotels, golf courses and other real estate around the world, has given banks and tax authorities misleading financing information in order to obtain financial benefits such as favorable loans and tax breaks.

Read more:

Updated at 15.17EDT

Armed citizens will soon be allowed to roam Florida with no requirement for any firearms training, the states Republican governor Ron DeSantis has said.

In what critics will see as another pitch for support from the partys rightwing base as he mulls a 2024 presidential run, DeSantis made the promise at a press conference Friday, the Miami Herald is reporting.

I cant tell you exactly when, but Im pretty confident that I will be able to sign constitutional carry into law in the state of Florida, DeSantis said, according to the newspaper.

The Legislature will get it done. I cant tell you if its going to be next week, six months, but I can tell you that before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that bill.

Constitutional carry allows weapons to be carried without the need for a permit or training. It differs from open carry, which allows those with firearms to display them openly.

DeSantis is favored to win reelection in November, a springboard to a possible White House run in two years time. He has signed numerous culture war bills into law in recent weeks that will play well with his Republican base, including a dont say gay law that outlaws classroom discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Florida has an unenviable record in mass shootings, notably the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando that left 49 dead, and the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in Parkland in which 17 students and staff were murdered by a former student.

Nikki Fried, Floridas agriculture commissioner responsible for issuing gun licenses, a and the only statewide elected Democrat, slammed DeSantiss promise in a statement:

This is absurd political pandering from the governor of a state that has experienced some of the worst mass shootings in our countrys history and in a nation where we have the highest rates of gun violence in the world.

Its an insult to the memories and families of every victim of gun violence. We should be passing laws to prevent gun violence.

Fried is among the frontrunners for the Democratic partys nomination to challenge DeSantis for governor later this year.

Heres where things stand midway through the day:

The environmental protection agency (EPA) on Friday followed through on Joe Bidens demand to allow E15 fuel to be sold in the summer, which the president hopes will help reverse, or at least arrest soaring prices at the pump.

Biden announced the move in Iowa earlier this month, claiming that the fuel with a higher ethanol content than regular gasoline would save families about 10 cents per gallon. Sales of plant-based E15 are usually banned at gas stations beyond 1 June because it creates denser levels of smog in higher temperatures.

The White House, which has blamed what it calls Putins price hike on gasoline supply shortages created by Russias war in Ukraine, welcomed the EPAs issuance of an emergency fuel waiver. In a statement, press secretary Jen Psaki said:

The waiver is a critical step to address the fuel supply crisis and follows President Bidens announcement earlier this month laying out actions to increase use of biofuels in order to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, accelerate the clean energy transition, build real US energy independence, support American agriculture and manufacturing, and save Americans money at the pump.

At current prices, E15 can save a family 10 cents per gallon of gas on average and many stores sell E15 at an even greater discount and todays waiver will allow families to pay that lower price for months to come.

Industry groups, however, doubt the impact of the plan. E15, they say, will be available only at about 2,300 of the nations more than 100,000 gas stations, concentrated in the Midwest and the South, including Texas.

Read the EPA statement here.

William Barr, Donald Trumps former attorney general, said in an interview on Thursday that it would be a big mistake for the Republican party to nominate Trump for president in 2024.

Appearing on the Newsmax television channel, Barr said Trump, who has hinted that he will run again, would not be a sound choice.

I dont think he should be our nominee the Republican party nominee, Barr said.

And I think Republicans have a big opportunity it would be a big mistake to put him forward.

In a poll in January 57% of Republican voters said they would choose Trump in 2024. Trump also won the less scientific Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, in February, by a large margin.

Trump, who was impeached twice during his four years in the White House, has repeatedly teased his supporters with suggestions he will run again.

We did it twice, and well do it again, Trump told a crowd at the CPAC convention claiming again that he won the 2020 election.

Were going to be doing it again a third time.

Still, Barrs remarks will be sure to anger Trump, who has repeatedly clashed with his former attorney general since losing the 2020 election.

In Barrs book, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, he wrote that Trump had shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed.

Trump, Barr said, has surrounded himself with sycophants and whack jobs from outside the government, who fed him a steady diet of comforting but unsupported conspiracy theories.

Read more:

Nancy Pelosi says the House will vote to pass Joe Bidens $33bn request for aid for Ukraine as soon as possible.

Speaking at her weekly press briefing on Friday morning, the House speaker framed the administrations request as one of a number of emergencies Congress needed to address urgently.

We have emergencies here. We need to have the Covid money, and time is of the essence because we need the Ukraine money... so I would hope that we can do that [soon], Pelosi said, according to Reuters.

The speaker, however, was unable to give any indication as to when any vote might be, saying only: We hope to as soon as possible pass that legislation.

Biden announced on Thursday plans to more than double US spending on military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine as the country fights the two-month old Russian invasion.

Funding for coronavirus relief, meanwhile, remains stalled in Congress. The White House wants more than $20bn; and a bipartisan $10bn agreement in principle was scuttled by Republican anger over the Biden administration planning to end the Title 42 immigration policy that blocked migrants because of the pandemic.

Read more:

Joe Biden and Mexicos president Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador will discuss US plans to lift Covid-19 immigration restrictions at the southern border during a virtual conference at lunchtime, Reuters reports.

The two leaders will also talk about differences between the countries over how to respond to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The meeting comes just days after a federal judge ordered the homeland security department to halt preparations to lift on 23 May the Trump-era Title 42 public health order that allows the expulsion of migrants to prevent the spread of the virus.

Mexican officials share concerns of the homeland security department that its repeal will create a spike in migration, are claims by Republicans in the US that a spike in gang activity and drug crimes will follow.

Mexico has also appeared reluctant to join the US and European allies in issuing sanctions against Russia.

We respect Mexico as a leader in the United Nations and we obviously hope that they will join us in imposing a cost on the Kremlin for what it is doing... by working with us to enforce sanctions implemented by the US and our partners, an anonymous senior Biden administration official told Reuters, acknowledging the inevitably different approaches by the countries.

Talking of Covid-19, the governments leading infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci is attempting clean-up over his comments in an PBS interview this week that the pandemic stage of the virus was over in the US.

Speaking at a virtual meeting hosted Friday by the National Press Club, Fauci said the pandemic was not over, and it was unlikely that the US would ever eliminate Covid-19 completely, Reuters reports:

When I said we are no longer in that fulminant acute phase, that does not mean that the pandemic is over. By no means is it over. We still are experiencing a global pandemic.

Fauci said health officials were instead hoping to get out of what he called the acute pandemic phase.

In his interview with PBS NewsHour posted on Tuesday, he pointed to decreases in deaths and hospitalizations and stated: Right now, we are not in the pandemic phase in this country, although he acknowledged that globally it was still ongoing.

On Wednesday, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted: Theres no question that were in a different moment in our fight against Covid. But we also know Covid isnt over, and the pandemic isnt over.

At least 38 states this week reported an increase in new infections of Covid-19, fueled by the Omicron subvariant BA.2. Cases have spiked 50% in two weeks nationwide, the New York Times says.

Children younger than five will probably have to wait at least another two months before being able to receive Covid-19 vaccines, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set a series of hearings for June.

The reviews are typically the final step before authorizing the shots, the Associated Press reports. The FDA said it plans to convene its outside panel of vaccine experts on June 8, 21 and 22 to review applications from Moderna and Pfizer for child vaccines.

On Thursday, Moderna submitted data to the FDA that it hopes will prove its two low-dose shots can protect children younger than 6.

Pfizer is soon expected to announce if three of its even smaller-dose shots work for very young children, months after the disappointing discovery that two doses werent quite strong enough.

The announcement follows months of frustration from families impatient for a chance to vaccinate their young children, along with complaints from politicians bemoaning the slow pace of the process, the AP says.

Original post:
Trump claims he doesnt have documents New York attorney general is seeking as it happened - The Guardian US

Days before the May 3 primary, Dolan appears to be experiencing a late burst of momentum. While J.D. Vance who received Trumps endorsement last week has surged into first place according to the most recent Fox News poll, Dolan was the only other top contender to gain ground in the poll since last month. A separate poll released Tuesday by Blueprint Polling actually placed Dolan in first place with 18 percent of the vote, followed by Vance at 17 percent.

Whatever momentum Dolan is riding, it was enough to prompt Trump to release a statement Tuesday suggesting that the state senator is not fit to serve in the Senate.

I think theres mounting evidence that hes in a scenario where hes running up the middle, unmolested, with a unique message and some things in his favor, said Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who lives out of state but donated $250 to Dolans campaign in October. Does it mean he has a lock on the race? No way. But its a competitive race, and hes in it. Hes got the momentum, as of last week.

Dolan likely has a low ceiling of support, given his dependence on Republican voters who are willing to move on from Trump a minority of the party. But in a splintered field of candidates, that could be enough.

When I made my decision to get into the race, I knew that it was going to be a tough slog, at least publicly, for a while, Dolan said in an interview. I knew that I would not be doing well in the polls until much, much later in the campaign. I think its playing out as I thought it was going to play out.

Internal Dolan polling shows him tracking to second place, according to a person familiar with the data who said the campaign has a glide path to getting a plurality of the vote.

Widely viewed as a longshot, Dolan has avoided any real attacks from his opponents, who took turns going after one another for months in a cutthroat primary that has generated nearly $70 million in ad spending. The Club for Growth a super PAC supporting former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, who has led in polls throughout most of the primary took out ads targeting Vance, Jane Timken and Mike Gibbons as each saw gains in support in recent months.

But they and other campaigns and outside interest groups never targeted Dolan, who has spent heavily on television ads with his own positive message since January.

Dolan is the lone candidate who refuses to toe the Trump line. He has accused the former president of perpetuat[ing] lies about the outcome of the 2020 election. He called the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol a failure of leadership by Trump and an attack on democracy. At a March 21 debate, Dolan was the only candidate to raise his hand when the moderator asked who believed it was time for Trump to stop talking about the 2020 election.

Yet Dolan has been careful to highlight that he considers himself a Trump supporter. Throughout the campaign, Dolans staff has been dogged about seeking corrections to any news reports that referred to Dolan as anti-Trump or a Never Trumper, according to a person working on the campaign. They would explain to reporters that Dolan had twice voted for Trump unlike Vance and that Dolan has said he would do so again if Trump were the nominee. Dolan has also said that he would not have voted to convict Trump in an impeachment trial.

Though Dolans campaign was once dismissed as a vanity project, Trump has long paid attention to a possible rise by the candidate. On Tuesday, he attacked Dolan not as an opponent of his America First agenda, but because the Major League Baseball team Dolan and his family own, the Cleveland Guardians, changed its name from the Indians after the 2021 season.

Anybody who changes the name of the storied Cleveland Indians (from 1916), an original baseball franchise, to the Cleveland Guardians, is not fit to serve in the United States Senate, Trump wrote. Such is the case for Matt Dolan, who I dont know, have never met, and may be a very nice guy, but the team will always remain the Cleveland Indians to me!

A person close to Trump insisted there was no particular reason the former president released the Dolan statement Tuesday, and that it was unrelated to polling data circulating on Twitter that day placing Dolan in the lead or in second place. The person noted that the message was something Trump has been saying for months at least since Dolan entered the race in September and that Trump just wanted to remind people about the Dolans role in the team name change.

Throughout the campaign, Dolan has said he was not part of the decision to change the name, but supports his family.

While his campaign events this week havent drawn high-profile supporters such as Trump, who held a rally Saturday to support Vance, or Donald Trump Jr., who has visited the state twice in recent days to stump with Vance Dolan has earned endorsements from three newspaper editorial boards and dozens of municipal office holders around the state. Local surrogates have also engaged in an aggressive letters-to-the-editor campaign on his behalf.

Mandel, meanwhile, has kept a low profile after traveling to campaign stops last week with Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security adviser and a leading advocate for efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. This weekend, Mandel will appear at events with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Dolans campaign is well aware that Trumps approval rating among Republican voters in the state is as high as 85 percent. Its approach has been to thread the needle between support for Trumps agenda Dolan joined other candidates in the primary in running an ad about closing the southern border and his unapologetic denunciations of Trumps baseless election fraud crusade.

What we sought to do from the outset was illustrate to folks that this race has to be about Ohio, said Chris Maloney, Dolans campaign consultant. You can be for pro-Trump policies and not share his personality, and thats what is taking hold among Ohio Republicans.

In contrast with Dolan, whose large investment in the race for months appeared futile as he failed to gain significant traction, Gibbons, a wealthy business owner, has taken a dive after peaking earlier this year and loaning his campaign more than $16 million.

Murphy, the Republican strategist, noted several factors are helping Dolan now. In addition to emerging unscathed after the other candidates spent months hurling insults at each other, Dolan fits the mold of pragmatic conservatives whom Ohio Republicans have traditionally chosen for Senate, including retiring Sen. Rob Portman, former Sen. and Gov. George Voinovich and current Gov. Mike DeWine.

Hes not an alien species at all to the normal comfort zone of the Ohio Republican Party, Murphy said.

Dolan and Timken have had campaign staff out on foot for more than two months, allowing them to have an established ground campaign. But Timken has been dark on broadcast television and cable for weeks in several markets, and has been completely off broadcast statewide the past week, running only $15,000 worth of cable ads. A super PAC supporting her, Winning for Women, now has only a small number of cable spots running.

Dolans campaign and the Club for Growth are leading in television ads right now, followed by the pro-Vance super PAC Protect Ohio Values, an outside expenditure group that has received $13.5 million in donations from billionaire tech executive Peter Thiel.

At a recent debate, Dolan was asked whether he could win the Republican nomination without Trumps support.

Of course I can win, Dolan said, pivoting to his record in the Ohio Legislature. The irony of this whole thing is Im the only one who has implemented Republican Trump ideas.

See more here:
Republican who refuses to bend the knee to Trump surges in Ohio Senate race - POLITICO

Connie Brown Collins felt ecstatic when a Wyandotte County judge recently struck down a congressional redistricting map drawn by the Republican-led Kansas Legislature.

The Kansas City, Kansas, resident said she and others repeatedly told lawmakers that the map unfairly split racially diverse Wyandotte County into two separate congressional districts. They argued the districts were drawn to drown out their votes to help Republican candidates win elections in all four of the states congressional districts.

Additionally, residents in Lawrence made a similar argument about shifting the Democratic stronghold into the deep-red 1st District that represents western Kansas.

It took a first-of-its-kind ruling from District Court Judge Bill Klapper to, for now, strike down the map.

Now that the ruling has been handed down, said Brown Collins, a plaintiff in the case, Im just very, very happy.

Now the state has appealed Klappers ruling to the Kansas Supreme Court.

The states highest court is scheduled to take up the case in May. That sets the stage for the justices to issue a landmark ruling on how far one political party in Kansas can gerrymander congressional districts.

But the justices will need to act quickly to meet a looming June 1 deadline, which is the registration deadline for candidates to file for election. That will stretch to June 10 if a map is not finalized by May 10.

On Friday, the court announced it scheduled the case to be heard on May 16, all but ensuring the registration deadline will be extended. Heres what could happen next:

Kansas Supreme Court hears appeal

The court will first hear oral arguments from attorneys in the case. The defendants in the case, who are representing the state and appealing the ruling, will need to argue Klapper misapplied state law.

Meanwhile, attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case will argue that Klappers ruling is correct.

Unlike the trial in Wyandotte County, the court will not hear any new testimony or evidence. The justices will simply decide whether Klappers properly followed the Kansas Constitution.

Justices look at two separate issues in ruling

The court will face two specific issues: whether the state law protects Kansans from both political and racial gerrymandering.

Washburn University law professor Christopher Gunn, an elections expert, said the court only needs to uphold Klappers decision on one of those issues. He believes Klappers ruling on the racial gerrymander issue is much easier to sort out because state law is more strict in protecting Kansans from race discrimination.

But Gunn wants the court to consider both and issue a ruling that will set the standard for what constitutes racial and political gerrymandering for years to come.

Im hoping the justices on our supreme court take the time to look through these issues and identify for us what this is so that, at least for Kansans, this issue is largely put to rest, Gunn said.

Supreme Court orders vary based on ruling

If the court chooses to uphold Klappers ruling, it will have a few options on how to handle the issue going forward.

First, it would likely order the Kansas Legislature to redraw the map with stipulations that it doesnt again create racially and politically gerrymandered districts.

But because the deadline for candidates is close at hand, the court may order the 2020 maps to stay in effect for the 2022 midterm elections, Gunn said.

Alternatively, the justices could order the district court, specifically Klapper, to draw new districts to be put into place before the deadline. Gunn said that is less likely, but not unheard of. He noted the 2020 congressional district map was drawn by a federal court judge in 2012.

There is also the chance the map that was struck down is resurrected. The justices could disagree with Klapper and rule that he misapplied the state law. If that occurs, the congressional map drawn by the Republican-dominated Legislature would be reinstated to exist for the next 10 years.

Brown Collins said she hopes the court upholds Klappers ruling and lawmakers take her concerns into account when redrawing the districts.

If they send the map back to be redrawn by the Legislature, I just hope that they heed what the community has told them over and over and over, she said.

Dylan Lysen reports on politics for the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanLysen or email him at dlysen (at) kcur (dot) org.

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.

Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.

See original here:
The Kansas Supreme Court to say if Republicans gerrymandered the state's congressional map - KCUR

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This year's midterms are shaping up to be one of the biggest tests Democrats face with a once reliable sector of the electorate: Latino voters.

According to polling by Quinnipiac University, done in early April, Biden's approval among Hispanic voters sits at just 26%. That same poll found approval with White voters at 31% and Black voters at 63-percent. When it comes to the most urgent issues facing the country today, Latino voters said inflation was the biggest concern at 31%. Coming in at a tie for second place is immigration and the war in Ukraine at 12-percent.

A sign reading, "Se habla Espanol", identifies a bilingual election official as voters go to the polls for Super Tuesday primaries in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights on February 5, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (David McNew/ Getty Images)

Fox News sent crews around the country to talk to Hispanic voters about immigration and what matters most in deciding their vote.

BIDEN'S PLAN TO CANCEL STUDENT DEBT ISN'T DEBT FORGIVENESS, IT'S DEBT FOR ALL

In Orlando, Florida, Fox News found Leticia Andaverde, who says her biggest worries right now are the price of gas and maintaining good employment. When asked if she feels the influx of migrants at southern border will impact how she votes in November, she told Fox News, yes.

"I feel the more people you add in a home, the more problems it can create," Andaverde said. "There's a lot of American people right now in need. And they're giving people that come from other countries the help where there's already enough people here that need that help."

In this Sept. 29, 2020 file photo, Eddie Collantes stands with an American flag draped around his shoulders as he attends a debate watch party hosted by the Miami Young Republicans, Latinos for Trump, and other groups in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

North of where Andaverde lives, in Charlotte, North Carolina, Edgar Ulises says he worries most about the economy and says he thinks the American dream is gone. However, Ulises doesn't think the immigration issue is to blame.

"I don't think so, because the economy problems are already here," Ulises says,"everything is going up, everything is getting more expensive. And then I think that the immigration problem's never going to change, like the United States is a country built by immigrants and everybody is going to try to come to the United States all the time." Ulises says he didn't vote for former President Trump in 2020, but would in 2024. He also says he feels the Biden Administration is dealing with the southern border crisis well, "but the main problem is not how they handle it. It is the way they're telling people they're going to fix it and they don't."

BIDEN THINKS STUDENT LOAN BORROWERS DESERVE A BLANK CHECK FROM TAXPAYERS

Heading West, Fox News found Hector Zaragoza in Las Vegas, Nevada, who calls the current administration's handling of illegal immigration, 'very poor, very sad." Zaragoza worries for the victims of sex trafficking and expressed frustration over the decision to end Title 42. "I believe it is, it's just like opening the borders and saying, welcome. That's all he's doing."

Voters cast ballots at the Fairfax County Government Center on November 02, 2021 in Fairfax, Virginia. (Getty Images)

Further west, in Los Angeles Toki Muriel says her biggest issues are immigration and crime. But her concerns revolve around the sluggishness of immigration processing.

"As far as like being able to become a legal permanent resident, you know, just, it just takes forever. And I get, you know, I wish that something there was something that could be done to speed up that process a little bit."

Also in L.A., Rudolph Zalez. He doesn't like the state of California's biggest city. He worries about the homeless problem, that can be seen just feet from where he is standing.

On immigration and the Biden Administration's handling of it, Zalez says, "I feel like the government is just sweeping under the rug, everything. And because it doesn't get reported, they pretend it's not happening. And then again, us as residents, we deal with the consequences."

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According to research by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), at least 11.6 million Latinos will cast ballots in 2022, a 71.4 percent increase in the number of Latino voters from 2014.

Read more from the original source:
Republicans have an edge in midterms with Latino voters, new poll shows - Fox News