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Texas is mounting its offenses earlier and more aggressively than it did against the previous Democratic president including a new challenge on Tuesday. Its the same role California and New York played when Donald Trump was president, suing over abortion restrictions, changes to Obamacare and immigration measures. California didnt let up, filing nine lawsuits against the federal government on Trumps last day in office.

Yet, Bidens long years in the public eye, the more moderate tone he hit on the campaign trail opposite liberal stalwarts like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and the fact that hes white, have made him less polarizing than Obama.

And while Biden may still prove to be a useful villain for GOP leaders frustrated with policies more liberal than Obamas, they are also trying to fend off a far-right insurgency as Republicans court more moderate suburban voters.

There was more grassroots opposition to Obama, the stimulus and Obamacare, said Republican consultant Brendan Steinhauser, who has worked on campaigns for Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, both Texas Republicans. Trump activated a different type of Republican voter, he said one who worries less about pushing conservative economics and more about culture war flash points.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, left, comes on stage to hand President Donald Trump what he says is the "No" vote card from Wednesday's House impeachment vote as Trump speaks at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Where Texas Republicans used the legal system a decade ago to deliver a steady stream of red meat to their base, Biden is a far less popular target after losing Texas by less than 6 percentage points in 2020, an unusually close result in the reliably red state.

The coronavirus also has many Texans, long a go-it-alone breed, rethinking the role of the federal government to step in during a crisis. About 48 percent of Texans approved of Bidens handling of the pandemic, compared with 44 percent for GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to March polls from The Texas Politics Project.

Its a different time and a different place, Steinhauser said.

Still, Texans view of the administration could quickly change if Biden moves to limit guns or loosen abortion restrictions. One thing the fractured GOP base can agree on for now is trying to counter the presidents agenda.

When Biden marked his first 100 days in office, celebrating the reopening of K-8 schools, economic stimulus and vaccination efforts, he had also racked up lawsuits from Texas over the Keystone XL oil pipeline, restrictions on drilling on federal land and a range of immigration issues.

Late last month, Texas filed another suit against the White House over Covid protocols in immigration facilities and joined a multistate suit challenging the administrations plans to start calculating the social cost of carbon emissions again. A newest lawsuit was launched on Tuesday, challenging restrictions in the latest Covid relief law that bars states from using the money to offset tax cuts. And Abbott and Paxton have blamed the White House for the increase in migrants traveling up to the Southern border.

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush said state agencies are being very vigilant about the Biden administrations actions.

From right, Penelope Bonnen, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, and Texas Agriculture commissioner Sid Miller, stand for a prayer during the opening of the 86th Texas Legislative session, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Regretfully, were off to a precarious beginning, Bush, who is considering a run for Texas attorney general that would pit him against Paxton in the Republican primary next year, said in an interview. Were standing up a legal defense task force thats looking a lot at the same issues that we took on during the Obama days.

Its a familiar role for Texas officials who have long bragged about leading lawsuits against the Obama administration. Its a way to portray themselves as a bulwark against federal overreach even though the suits themselves have a mixed record.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, has hired more attorneys to prepare lawsuits against the Biden administration and plans to be active, said Chuck DeVore, TPPFs vice president of national initiatives.

He and other Texas Republicans argue that the lawsuits arent about politics, but are being used to counter the Biden administration left-leaning policies.

Were not seeing anything out of the current administration that leaves us to believe that they give a flying crud about the state of Texas, said Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, a former aide to Paxton.

Yet, the pandemic has also created a faultline in the Texas Republican Party, chipping away at Abbotts grip on the state GOP and making space for far-right party leaders who criticized his mask mandates and stay-at-home order. Last summer, former Florida Rep. Allen West was elected chair of the Texas GOP and has since used his perch to chastise traditional business-friendly moderates in the state. Like Republicans elsewhere, his allegiance to Trump has roiled the shrinking share of traditional GOP loyalists eager to move past the former president.

Abbott is well-funded heading into the 2022 governors race. But to survive the primary and general election, he will have to thread a path between disparate factions that include Republicans who crossed party lines to vote for Biden a president whose overall approval in an April poll rivals Abbotts and who hasnt had to contend with the litany of racially motivated animus Obama faced.

The antagonistic relationship between Texas and the federal government goes back to the New Deal, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor who is writing a book about former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The state, which has no income tax, pulls about a third of its budget from the federal government, a higher share than many other states, he said. Thats partly due to agricultural assistance and federal aid disbursed after natural disasters, but also because Texas has a large share of enrollees in entitlement programs like Medicaid.

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Texas Republicans want Biden to play the villain. They just need to make it stick. - POLITICO

Biden, the aides and lawmakers say, believes action is more important than bipartisanship, and is convinced Americans will support him in his efforts. He recognizes that his window for this approach may close by the midterm elections. Thats why, the aides and lawmakers say, he may be willing to give up the reputation, cultivated over decades, as a dealmaking lawmaker if he can be a transformative president who pushes through a once-in-a-generation investment in infrastructure and social programs.

The president will talk with Republicans about his new pair of proposed spending plans a combined $4 trillion in spending designed to ignite economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic but he is prepared to back a congressional maneuver that would allow Senate Democrats to pass legislation without GOP support, perhaps within weeks, aides and lawmakers familiar with his thinking say.

There are certainly some in the president's inner circle who were part of the Obama team who say, Look, we can't just have this go on forever, said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a longtime Biden friend who has occasionally encouraged Biden to take a bipartisan approach. There has to be an outcome.

Biden is expected to host lawmakers from both parties at the White House this week. He's also invited House and Senate leaders over the following week, which comes after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy complained that hadnt met with Biden since the election. Biden is also calling individual lawmakers, including West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, to discuss the parameters of an infrastructure bill.

Since Inauguration Day, the White House has held more than 500 calls or meetings with members, chiefs of staff and staff directors and more than two dozen Senate and House committee staff briefings of both parties. In total, more than 130 members of Congress of both parties have been hosted at the White House during the first 100 days of the administration, according to data provided by the White House.

White House aides say they expect to take more time on the new spending plans, which they consider different than the emergency Covid legislation.

Reaching across the aisle and seeking to bring the American people together have always been at the core of who the president is, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. Hes deeply proud of the genuine engagement with Republicans in Congress that President Obama and he carried out for eight years, just as he is of the similar, good faith work hes doing with Republicans now.

But Biden aides also are hinting that there are time limits to how long that engagement will last. They say the president hopes to make progress on both spending bills either as a pair or individually by Memorial Day and sign them into law this summer. And the calendar creates some urgency: By the end of his first year, members of Congress will be consumed by the midterms and then the next presidential race. The White House also knows how a drag-on legislative process can consume a presidency and party.

Biden and the people around him understand you have to get as much done this year as possible, said Republican Chuck Hagel, who served with Biden in the Senate and later served as Defense secretary in the Obama administration. At what point then if youre not making any progress on any front and you've been willing to compromise on some things do you have to go it alone. Thats a decision theyre going to have to make. You dont have a lot of time.

There are common threads that tie the Biden team to the Obama years and remind them of the attempts at bipartisanship that went unrealized. Chief among them are the staff. Biden has filled the White House with former Obama aides, including chief of staff Ron Klain; Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council; Susan Rice, director of the Domestic Policy Council; and Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

In November 2014, then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden, right, meet with then-Ebola Response Coordinator Ron Klain now Biden's chief of staff and then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who is now director of the Domestic Policy Council. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

But there are differences, as well. Whereas Obama spent much of his first term fighting bad economic news and pushing a health care reform effort that grew more and more unpopular, the current White House feels emboldened by Americans' support for Bidens proposals, including the popularity of the $1.8 trillion American Rescue Plan, the coronavirus recovery bill passed six weeks ago with no Republican votes. And that includes the backing of Republican governors, mayors and local officials across the country.

Whats more important now during a crisis is they want things done, Biden's lead pollster, John Anzalone, said. If that means Joe Biden has to go it alone, they seem to be fine with that.

Democratic activists also have what they considered to be scar tissue from the Obama years. They are pushing Biden to act without Republicans on a host of other issues including police reform, immigration, and firearms restrictions because they say the GOP cant be trusted to negotiate. Many are arguing Democrats should revamp the Senate rules to allow legislation to pass by a simple majority vote. They say Republicans only grew more obstinate during the Trump era, making the party even more difficult to negotiate with.

Everybody talks about, can I do anything bipartisan? Biden said at a meeting last week with TV anchors at the White House. Well, I got to figure out if there's a party to deal with. We need a Republican Party. ... We need another party, whatever you call it, thats unified not completely splintered and fearful of one another."

Recent polls give Biden a net job approval rating with relatively high marks from both Democrats and independents, but hes yet to garner much support from Republicans. Only 14 percent of Republicans gave Biden an "A" or "B" grade for his first 100 days in office, according to a recent poll conducted by POLITICO and Morning Consult. Eighty-five percent of Democrats and 44 percent of independents gave Biden the same marks.

Some Republicans say Biden, just like Obama, may be willing to talk but is not necessarily committed to making major concessions. It has surprised me how unabashedly partisan he has been from Day One, said Joe Grogan, who worked in the Trump and George W. Bush administrations. Its not the way he campaigned. Its not the way he served in the Senate. They said he would reach across the aisle. It was a key talking point.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), perhaps the most moderate Republican in the Senate, said on Sunday that she is disappointed with Bidens efforts at crafting a bipartisan deal around Covid relief and viewed the infrastructure package as a major test on whether President Biden is truly interested in bipartisanship.

The Joe Biden that I knew in the Senate was always interested in negotiation. I thought very highly of him, Collins said. I like him. I worked with him.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). | Susan Walsh, Pool/AP Photo

Across more than three decades in the Senate, Biden was known as a dealmaker who wasnt afraid to negotiate and maintain friendships with both parties. When he was vice president, Biden served as Obamas chief liaison with the Congress and was one of the people who urged Obama to talk to Republicans.

Joe Biden himself was one of the people encouraging Obama to be that kind of bipartisan negotiator because he was such a believer in the Senate as an institution, said a former Biden aide who is in touch with the White House. Biden was a very loud voice in an Obama Oval Office saying, No, we can get the Republicans, I believe in it.

Biden was dispatched to the Senate to try to cut deals with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on tax cuts and spending levels, only to anger then-Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats. At the time, Democrats complained that Biden undermined their leverage, and signed off on deals that over-extended the Bush tax cuts and ignored the need for economic stimulus. They point to the delayed passage of the Affordable Care Act as proof that the party was foolish in expecting GOP support for major measures.

We need only go back to the summer of 2009 to see how Republicans played Democrats for months with no intention of ever supporting a bill to deliver health care reform to millions, said Zac Petkanas, senior adviser to Invest in America Action, a group supporting public investment.

But Phil Schiliro, who served as director of legislative affairs at the start of Obamas term, argued Obama aided by Biden was successful in winning Republican support for a host of issues, including equal pay legislation, childrens health insurance and $350 billion more in bailout funds, in 2009 and 2010, when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, as they do now. The Obama administration still had to work with both the GOP and a host of conservative Democrats who pushed them to negotiate further in some cases.

It seems to me theyre taking the same approach, Schilliro said. Theyd like to get bipartisanship if they can, but if they cant, they dont want to keep from doing whats in the best interest of the country.

In his first speech to Congress last week, Biden outlined a laundry list of Democratic priorities from $4 trillion in new federal spending over the next decade to roads and bridges, child care and prekindergarten, calls for police reform, racial justice, gun restrictions and, as he put it, ending our exhausting war over immigration.

Id like to meet with those who have ideas that are different they think are better. I welcome those ideas, he said. But he added, I just want to be clear: From my perspective, doing nothing is not an option.

Bidens speech included only a few nods to bipartisanship, though he did praise Republicans for releasing their own counteroffer to his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. Republicans, who have expressed concerns about the hefty price tag, proposed tax hikes and new programs and introduced a slimmer $568 billion proposal that focused most funding on more traditional elements of infrastructure, including bridges, highways and roads.

After Bidens speech last week, Capito said Republicans had been left out. But after he called her, she tweeted that they had a constructive & substantive call.

Biden, however, made clear to reporters the day after his address to Congress that a small Republican package would not be enough. If like last time they come in with one-fourth or one-fifth of what Im asking and say thats our final offer ... then no, no go, he said.

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Biden is talking to Republicans, but for only so long - POLITICO

Editors note: The Advance Leader is only spotlighting contested races in the primary election.

Plum Republicans have some choices to make when it comes to who they want to see on the November ballot.

According to the Allegheny County Office of Elections unofficial candidate list, two former councilmen, two incumbents and another challenger are competing for their partys nomination in the May 18 primary.

Those hoping to run for four seats include incumbents Mike Doyle and Paul Dern, former councilmen Mike Dell and David Seitz, and candidate Steven Taylor.

The four Democrats seeking their partys nomination Michael Creighton, incumbent Dave Odom, Jennifer Pusateri and Justin Tuskan are expected to move on to the November election.

Here are the Republican candidates and their responses to election questions posed by the Tribune-Review:

Mike Dell

Q: Why did you decide to run for election?

A: I am worried about three things regarding Plum. Residents have to realize what it takes to be a volunteer firefighter. They are sacrificing time away for their family with zero pay. The borough and fire departments are in disagreement on how to spend the fire fund and quite honestly council members should go on a few calls to understand their demands.

Second, the flood victims of previous years I am proposing a boroughwide flood insurance policy the borough manages and pays claims. We cannot let our residences and small business go without assistance beside dumpsters. The last flood cost our residences and business owners thousands in damages and lost revenue the entire purpose of the stormwater fee was to prevent or reduce disasters.

Finally, we need to review the spending in the borough. Professional attorney services have risen 30% since 2017 and now council and the mayor have a $2,640 clothing allowance?

Q: What do you feel is the biggest issue that needs to be addressed?

A: The borough has two functions, infrastructure and public safety. With a plan, we can assist flood victims with some type of insurance policy and work closely with our fire departments on equipment needs. Plum is a fast-growing community, and local government needs to adapt and plan for the future.

Q: What should voters know about you?

A: I am an accountant with 20-plus years of experience. I was on council for eight years previously and really enjoyed working with the finance department and making Plum financially secure.

Paul Dern

Q: Why did you decide to run for election?

A: I am very proud to be a Plum resident. I have lived here my whole life, and I want to continue to see it thrive, flourish and grow. I am confident in my ability to continue to serve this community with the best interest of our residents. I will not shy away from making tough decisions and will always uphold the highest of integrity.

Q: What do you feel is the biggest issue that needs to be addressed?

A: This is my fourth year on council and if reelected, I will continue to make progress on initiatives already underway, including developing the stormwater task force, expanding communal services (such as) recycling, infrastructure and encouraging community engagement through various borough HAPs and activities.

In the coming years, I would like to focus on expanding the commercial business presence in the community, evaluating the current public safety structure to address identified gaps, and continue to work with the Plum Chamber of Commerce on the resurgence of the community due to covid impacts.

Q: What should voters know about you?

A: I have lived in Plum for 60 years and I have raised my three children here with my wife, Dawn Marie. I have been employed by UPMC for almost 40 years. Outside of work, I love to umpire baseball and softball games, ride my motorcycle and bicycle, and enjoy family time.

Mike Doyle

Q: Why did you decide to run for election?

A: I have been honored to serve my community as a councilman and am very proud of the accomplishments weve achieved. For example, weve held the line on taxes, realizing six-figure surpluses year after year. Our bond rating has been upgraded seven times over the last several years, which demonstrates our financial strength and borrowing ability at lower interest rates.

Weve more than doubled the investment into our infrastructure improving our roads and storm sewers. Not to mention the more than $260,000 investment we made into our school systems safety. Our children, teachers and schools are now safer than ever.

Q: What do you feel is the biggest issue that needs to be addressed?

A: Without a doubt, it is the U.S. (Environmental Protection Agencys federal mandate known as MS-4 (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System). This is a massive unfunded federal mandate addressing water quality. Over the next few years we will need to create a whole new division in our (public works department) to implement and maintain this system.

Q: What should voters know about you?

A: I hope the voters of Plum know me as a common-sense, fair, dedicated and experienced councilman that has nothing but their best interest in mind. I will always put our taxpayers first. I ask the voters of Plum for their continued support and for their vote. I wont let you down.

David Seitz

Q: Why did you decide to run for election?

A: During the six years I served on council, we were very successful in providing and improving essential services, expanding the activities and opportunities available to the community, and we did so in a professional, efficient and financially responsible manner. My goal is to make sure the borough continues on this path and does not return to the days when individual and political agendas ruled the day and council meetings were circus-like events.

Q: What do you feel is the biggest issue that needs to be addressed?

A: Funding the boroughs infrastructure needs, including stormwater management, is a very important issue, along with bringing more commercial, retail and dining development into the borough. Additionally, supporting and ensuring the continued success of the police, EMS and the local fire departments is a critical issue.

Q: What should voters know about you?

A: I have lived in Plum for almost 30 years with my wife and our two children, and Ive been active in the community through leadership roles in various organizations, such as the Plum Baseball & Softball Association, Plum council and the Plum planning commission. Professionally, I have an engineering degree and a law degree, and Ive worked at the same company as in-house counsel for the last 21 years. Politically, I believe that practical, common sense values and ideas, and limited, efficient government, are the keys to success and prosperity.

Steven Taylor

Q: Why did you decide to run for election?

A: I was born and raised in Plum and I want to insure that all existing and future families moving into Plum will continue to be able to raise their families as I did, enjoying the benefits of Plums rural surroundings and fantastic schools and plums junior organizations (such as) baseball, football, soccer, etc.

Q: What do you feel is the biggest issue that needs to be addressed?

A: Maintaining affordable taxes by being user friendly to businesses and economic growth.

Q: What should voters know about you?

A: (Im a) lifelong resident of Plum, married to my beautiful wife, Tammy, for 37 years. (We have) two fantastic children, Brooke and Zach, and two wonderful grand children, Taylor and little Jack. Im truly a blessed man. If elected, I believe in an open door policy and that my position is always to serve the taxpayers and residents of our hometown (of) Plum.

Michael DiVittorio is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at 412-871-2367, mdivittorio@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Link:
Plum Republicans challenging to be on the November ballot - TribLIVE

Ive spent decades in construction and public planning, but it doesnt take my experience to understand that the United States infrastructure needs updating. Today, our antiquated infrastructure approach is a national blight and will cost average Americans their hard-earned dollars and missed opportunities. According to the American Society for Civil Engineers research, the cost of not updating the U.S. infrastructure over the next 20 years will set the average household back $3,300 annually. However, our next infrastructure package must recognize the ongoing shift by private market toward clean energy.

While President Biden unveiled the first part of his infrastructure plan, launching negotiations in Washington, D.C., the importance of clean energy in Americas infrastructure such as cost-effective construction solutions and changing the way we generate and distribute energy is a priority for both Republicans and Democrats. In fact, Republicans are time and again leading on pro-growth, clean energy solutions, including our own Sen. Susan Collins. Especially here in Maine, the clean energy sector has helped support industry innovations in construction, forestry, shipping and beyond while bringing in state and federal funding.

However, we need a pathway forward that invests in next-generation innovations and technologies so that our nation can grow as a global energy leader. I look forward to seeing what all Sen. Collins and our other leaders from Maine will do to advocate for and support a bipartisan infrastructure package.

Rep. Thomas H.Martin, Jr.R-GreeneMaine House

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Letter to the Editor: Republicans lead on pro-growth green energy - pressherald.com

A demonstrator raises a fist in front of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial during a protest to mark Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in Texas, two years after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves elsewhere in the United States, amid nationwide protests against racial inequality, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 19, 2020. REUTERS/Erin Scott/File Photo

Dozens of Senate Republicans called on the Biden administration on Friday to withdraw what they say is a divisive education proposal that would place greater emphasis on slavery and the contributions of Black Americans in history and civics lessons taught in U.S. schools.

In the latest salvo of a burgeoning culture war over race in America, 39 Republican lawmakers led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the proposed Education Department policy would divert established school curricula toward a "politicized and divisive agenda" fixated on the country's flaws.

"Young Americans deserve a rigorous understanding of civics and American history. They need to understand both our successes and our failures," the Republican senators wrote in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona dated April 29. The letter was released on Friday.

"Americans do not need or want their tax dollars diverted from promoting the principles that unite our nation toward promoting radical ideologies meant to divide us."

A spokesman for the U.S. Education Department said that institutions are acknowledging America's "legacy of systemic inequities" and noted that the department welcomes comments on the proposal until May 19.

The lawmakers zeroed in on the proposal's mention of the New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project. The initiative, which traces U.S. history from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in colonial Virginia, was a frequent target for former President Donald Trump, who sought instead to promote "patriotic" education.

Tom Cotton, the Republican senator from Arkansas, introduced legislation last June to prohibit the use of federal funds to teach a curriculum linked to the 1619 Project in schools. Since then, Republican state lawmakers in Iowa, Mississippi and several other states have introduced similar bills proposing schools lose state funding for teaching the curriculum.

"No one is pushing laws mandating the teaching of the #1619Project, but Republicans across the U.S. are pushing laws to mandate 'patriotic' education & to prohibit the teaching of the #1619Project" and about the United State's "racist past," Niklole Hannah-Jones, the journalist who created the project, said on Twitter on Friday.

The letter released on Friday came two days after Senator Tim Scott, the Senates sole Black Republican, declared that America is not a racist country in the Republican response to President Joe Bidens address to Congress. Scott also defended a new Republican voting law in Georgia that Democrats have denounced as a return to Jim Crow segregation.

The proposed policy would support teaching that "reflects the breadth and depth of our nation's diverse history and the vital role of diversity in our nation's democracy," according to a notice posted on a government regulation website.

It would encourage schools to adopt projects that incorporate "the systemic marginalization, biases, inequities and discriminatory policy and practice in American history."

The Republican Party, which remains fractured after Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, has sought to brand Biden as a divisive leader controlled by leftists.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read more here:
Republicans ask Biden to withdraw 'divisive' proposal to teach more Black history - Reuters