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Cash-hemorrhaging U.S. states hoping for help from Washington face a daunting hurdle: Republican party opposition to bailing out states they say were profligate before the coronavirus crisis. And many of those states have voted Democratic in election years.

But a look at data on state budget balances and rainy day funds shows those at the top and at the bottom of the rankings were a mix of both red and blue electoral states.

And while the states with the most under-funded pensions were indeed more likely to be Democratic-led ones, the nations most shaky pension system belongs to Kentucky, home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

I actually dont think it is red state-blue state thing, as much as it might be politically convenient to frame it that way. Its really a question of moral hazard, said Rohit Kumar, U.S. tax policy services leader with audit and consulting firm PWC. Kumar worked for McConnell for 11 years and served as his domestic policy director.

But President Trump, in an April 27 Tweet, was less diplomatic. Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help? I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?

See: Coronavirus update: New outbreaks reported in states that plan to reopen soon as Trump says testing overrated

The call from states for money, though, has actually been bipartisan.

A May 13 letter from Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, asked for $500 billion in aid. And data from the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trust shows many states were headed into the recession in decent budget shape.

According to a Pew analysis of National State Budget Officers data, 34 states had higher rainy day reserve funds at the end of 2019 than they had before the last recession. The median amount of those funds was enough to pay for 27.9 days worth of state operations, Pew said.

States had total reserves, not just rainy day funds, totaling about 13% of annual spending, up from 11% before the last recession, said Michael Leachman, vice president for state fiscal policy with the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Its hard to argue states werent prepared or overspending, if you look at that data, he said.

The biggest rainy day funds were those states with oil or mineral production, like Wyoming, with almost 400 days of reserves, Alaska and North Dakota. The other two in the top five were New Mexico and Texas.

At the other end of the spectrum, Kansas and Illinois had zero days of reserves, the lowest of the 50 states. They were followed by Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Kentucky.

Kumar said Republicans worry any money sent to states will be used, either directly or indirectly, to prop up under-funded state employee pension plans. That view was echoed by Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican and former governor.

We sit here and live within our means, and then New York, Illinois and California and other states dont, and were supposed to go bail them out? Thats not right, he told reporters last week.

Pew data released in 2019 for pensions in 2017 actually had New York with the fourth-best funded pension, at a funded ratio of 94.5%. The funded ratio is the amount of assets on hand in proportion total projected liabilities. Floridas funded ratio in 2017 was 15th among the states.

Wisconsin had the highest ratio, at 102.6%, followed by South Dakota, Tennessee, New York and Idaho. In descending order, the least funded state pensions belonged to Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey and Kentucky. Kentuckys funded ratio was just 33.9%, while Illinois was 38.4%.

Kumar said the focus on pensions shows their concern is less about how individual states vote.

The Kentucky data, to me, is a proving point for that premise, he said.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Leachman said pensions should not be part of the debate over state aid. States have short-term needs that will require cash, like responding to the coronavirus epidemic and avoiding layoffs of critical employees, while the pension issue is a long-term one.

We can talk about some of the pension long-term liability issues that some states have, but its a distraction from what has caused the fiscal crisis that states face in funding their basic public services right now, which is why the states need the fiscal relief, he said.

Only 4.7% of state general funds are used to make states required contributions to their pension plans, he said.

See: States reopen after coronavirus lockdowns: New Jersey, Delaware beaches to reopen for holiday weekend

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Republicans say they dont want to target wasteful states, but what are they going to do with red states on that list? - MarketWatch

Wisconsins April 7 election could have been a disaster for voting rights. Election officials received four or five times more absentee ballot requests than they normally do in a spring election. Milwaukee closed all but five of its 180 polling locations, in large part because it struggled to find poll workers during a pandemic.

And, on top of all that, Republicans in the state legislature, on the state Supreme Court, and on the Supreme Court of the United States all thwarted efforts to make sure voters would not be disenfranchised by the unique challenges presented by an election held when most voters were stuck at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Yet a report by the Wisconsin Elections Commission suggests the election went much better than it could have. The overwhelming majority of voters who wanted to vote absentee were able to do so. And it is likely that only a small percentage of voters were disenfranchised by a US Supreme Court decision backing the Republican Partys effort to make it harder to cast a ballot.

The report, in other words, suggests that a sophisticated and multi-front effort by Republicans to prevent many Wisconsinites from casting a ballot achieved very limited results.

Thats not a reason for voting rights advocates to relax. Turnout is likely to be much higher in the November general election than it was in Wisconsins spring election, so election officials could still be overwhelmed by ballot requests in November. Republicans also have a $20 million legal war chest that they can use to obtain court orders limiting the franchise.

But it does appear that the specific playbook Republicans ran in Wisconsins April election did not deliver much in the way of results. Notably, the most consequential race on the ballot in April was a contest between conservative state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, and liberal challenger Jill Karofsky and Karofsky won that election by nearly 11 points.

It is unclear whether Karofsky won such a commanding victory because this election took place the same day as a Democratic presidential primary, because Wisconsin Democrats rose up in anger against the GOPs voter suppression tactics, or for some combination of reasons. But, at the very least, the Wisconsin Election Commission report suggests that the GOPs tactics did not give Kelly a significant advantage in the April race.

The weeks leading up to Wisconsins April 7 election were marred by partisan fights over when the election would be held, what rules would apply, and which ballots would be counted.

As the election drew nigh, election officials feared theyd be overwhelmed by the approximately 1.3 million requests for absentee ballots they received. Meanwhile, the state was so starved for people willing to work the polls during a pandemic that, at one point, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers decided to use members of the National Guard to staff the polls.

To relieve the pressure on voters and election workers, Evers proposed legislation that would automatically mail a ballot to every registered voter in the state, but this proposal was dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled legislature. On the eve of the election, Evers also attempted to reschedule it to a later date, but the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court struck down this effort as well.

Several federal lawsuits also sought to relieve the pressure on the state election system. Less than a week before the April 7 election, Judge William Conley, an Obama appointee, handed down an order protecting absentee voters who may not receive a ballot soon enough to return it before Election Day. Though a state law required all absentee ballots to be received by the state by 8 pm on April 7, Conley extended this deadline to 4 pm on April 13.

But that order did not last long. The Republican National Committee went to the US Supreme Court and asked that Conleys order be modified so that ballots must be postmarked by April 7 in order to be counted, even if they arrived before the new April 13 deadline. On a party-line vote, the Republican Supreme Court gave the GOP what it asked for in Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee.

The upshot of the Wisconsin Election Commissions report, however, is that the Supreme Courts decision in Republican National Committee probably mattered fairly little. Of the more than 1.3 million absentee ballots sent by the state, nearly 89 percent were returned by voters and counted by the state. Of these, just over 79,000 were received between April 8 and April 13 but were counted because they had the required postmark.

Moreover, while a small percentage of ballots were rejected by the state, and a larger percentage of ballots were mailed to voters but never returned, the percentage of rejected and unreturned ballots in Aprils election was consistent with past spring elections.

Despite the unusual challenges facing voters during the April election, state election officials weathered these challenges fairly well. A normal percentage of absentee ballots were rejected, and a normal percentage of mailed ballots were not returned. The Supreme Court decision requiring some absentee ballots to be tossed out does not appear to have had a significant impact on the race.

Indeed, there is some evidence that the particular tactic the Republican Party used in Wisconsins April election targeting absentee voters who submit their ballots late in the election cycle may have benefited Democrats. According to Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida, data from Ohios recent primary election suggest that conservative, rural voters are especially likely to return absentee ballots late.

There is still good reason to fear that many voters will be disenfranchised in November.

For one thing, turnout is likely to be much higher in November than it was in a spring election. Just over 1.5 million ballots were cast in the April race between outgoing Justice Kelly and Justice-elect Karofsky. By contrast, as the Wisconsin Election Commission notes, the last three presidential general elections all saw more than 3 million ballots cast.

So Wisconsin election officials may have to deal with twice as many ballot requests in November as they received in April. And every other state could receive a similar crush of absentee ballot requests. That could easily overwhelm state elections officials, who may struggle to mail out all of these ballots soon enough for voters to return them by Election Day.

Moreover, just because the specific tactics the Republican Party deployed in Wisconsin appear to have achieved very little, that does not mean that the GOP nationally wont find other ways to suppress the vote. The GOP has a massive legal war chest and is no longer subject to a 1982 court order that discouraged voter intimidation in the past but was lifted in early 2018. That means that 2020 will be the first presidential election (but not the first midterm election) in nearly four decades without a court order restricting voter intimidation by the national Republican Party.

On a similar note, Texass Republican attorney general has threatened criminal prosecutions against voting rights activists who encourage younger voters to cast absentee ballots. And Georgias Republican secretary of state formed a task force, which includes law enforcement officers and prosecutors, that purports to investigate any allegations or instances of potential voter fraud.

Actual voter fraud is so rare that, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, it is still more likely for an American to be struck by lightning than to commit mail voting fraud.

Some states also have absentee voting laws, moreover, which could disenfranchise millions during a pandemic. Texass law, for example, permits voters over the age of 65 to obtain absentee ballots fairly easily, but it makes it much harder for younger voters to obtain such ballots. And Texass Republican attorney general is fighting hard in court to prevent younger voters from gaining greater access to absentee ballots most likely because older voters have tended to favor Republicans.

And, of course, the question of whether voters are able to cast ballots in November is separate from the question of whether voters can safely do so. A quarter of Wisconsin voters cast an in-person ballot on April 7. Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders has partnered with a liberal advocacy group to study whether these in-person voters spread the coronavirus while they were at the polls.

One study suggests that a 10% increase in the number of voters per polling place corresponded to a roughly 17% higher rate of positive coronavirus tests in that county two and three weeks later, after the coronavirus incubation period had passed, although other researchers disagree with this conclusion.

All of which is a long way of saying that the Wisconsin Election Commissions report is less a reason for voting rights advocates to relax than a reason for them to heave a sigh of relief and then continue working.

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Republican voter suppression failed in Wisconsin, according to new data - Vox.com

Two senators have come under fire for suspiciously timed stock market trades that came right as the market tumbled in February amid the deepening coronavirus crisis: Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia.

Both Burr and Loeffler have been accused of insider trading, and scandals such as this can have electoral repercussions, particularly if either is forced to resign. But what are the odds this might actually harm Republican chances of holding on to the Senate in November?

The GOP holds a 53-47 edge over the Democrats in the Senate, and while Democrats have a path to a majority, it is a narrow one. Assuming Democratic Sen. Doug Jones is unable to retain his seat in deeply Republican Alabama, Democrats will need to win four seats and also win the vice presidency to take back control. GOP incumbents facing reelection in at least four states Arizona, Colorado, Maine and North Carolina (the other seat, not Burrs) look to be in some danger, so Democrats might be able to thread the needle, especially if they can also win a seat in a state like Iowa or Montana. But it would certainly help Democratic chances if more Republican-held seats came into serious contention, which is where Burr and Loeffler might come in.

Lets start with Burr. As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he was privy to daily briefings on the coronavirus before it seriously hit the U.S. On Feb. 13, the senator sold off a huge share of his portfolio just before the stock market crashed. The Justice Department is now investigating Burr, and last Wednesday, the FBI seized a cellphone owned by the senator. On Thursday, Burr announced he was temporarily stepping aside as chairman of the Intelligence Committee during the ongoing investigation.

The question now is, will Burr resign? Burrs seat isnt up until 2022, but he could be forced out of office because of the scandal, and if he were, the timing of his departure could definitely affect the 2020 election.

Namely, if Burr resigned before Sept. 4, there would be a special election for the seat this November, which would add another battleground contest to the Senate map. North Carolinas other seat held by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is already shaping up to be an expensive, hard-fought contest, so another special election in the Tar Heel State could mean double trouble for Republicans. Its no wonder Tillis has tried to separate himself from the embattled Burr, saying in April that Burr owes everybody an explanation for the stock sales. And public opinion is against Burr, too, at least based on polling from a couple of left-leaning firms. In two March surveys of North Carolina from Data for Progress and Public Policy Polling, half of the respondents said Burr should resign while only about a quarter said he shouldnt.

However, even if some Republicans might want him gone, it seems unlikely Burr would leave office soon enough to necessitate a special election this November, as Republicans really dont want another swing seat in play this year. But if Burrs position were to become untenable and he was forced to resign before Sept. 4, a Republican would still be appointed in his place even though North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is a Democrat. North Carolina law requires the governor to appoint a replacement from a list of three candidates named by the incumbent party. (Regardless of when a resignation occurred, Cooper would have to appoint a Republican. But if the resignation happened after Sept. 4, the seat wouldnt be up for election until 2022.)

As for Loeffler, she was already up for election in Georgia this November, so a stock trading scandal could hit her hard. Loeffler has said that third-party account managers handle her portfolio, so she had no input in the trades, but the same day she attended a classified briefing about the coronavirus, she and her husband started selling millions of dollars worth of stock and invested in companies positioned to do well during the pandemic. Loeffler hasnt said whether the FBI has contacted her, but she provided records of the stock trades to the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee.

Loeffler already appears to be quite vulnerable in her special election, too, which will be the first time she faces voters since Republican Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her to the Senate in January. A late April GOP internal poll conducted by Cygnal found that only 20 percent of voters had a favorable view of Loeffler compared to 47 percent who had an unfavorable impression. The survey also found her with just 11 percent support, well behind Republican Rep. Doug Collinss 29 percent. (If that seems especially low, remember the special election is a jungle primary in which all candidates run regardless of party.)

Granted, the Cygnal polls sponsor is allied to Collins, but even a survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of a group backing Loeffler ally Kemp found her polling at only 18 percent in the special election, about tied with Collins, who had 19 percent. For his part, Collins has been only too happy to try to connect Burrs case to Loeffler and attack Loeffler over her own stock dealings.

Its unclear, though, just how much Loefflers problems would harm the GOPs chances of retaining the seat. That is, just because Loeffler may be in trouble, it doesnt mean itll be easy for Democrats to take over the seat. After all, Georgia still leans toward the GOP and although former state Rep. Stacey Abrams came close to defeating Kemp in 2018, the last time a Democrat won a statewide election was in 2006. At this point, major election handicappers still think Republicans will hold the seat.

That said, with six Republicans and eight Democrats on the ballot in the jungle primary (plus six third-party or independent candidates), its also pretty unlikely that one candidate will win an outright majority in November, which means its likely headed to a runoff in January 2021 anyway. Based on early polling, Collins may be the most likely Republican to advance to a runoff, and he might be as good a bet or a better one given Loefflers troubles for Republicans to hold on to the seat, especially as Georgia Democrats have historically struggled in general election runoffs. In fact, with eight Democrats running, theres even a chance that it will be Collins and Loeffler who advance to the runoff, ensuring continued Republican control of the seat.

Its worth noting Burr and Loeffler arent the only senators who have come under scrutiny for their stock trades. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California recently spoke with FBI investigators regarding deals made by her husband, and suspiciously timed stock moves made by Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma have also received attention. However, both the California and Oklahoma seats would be very unlikely to switch parties California being very Democratic, Oklahoma being very Republican so even if Feinstein or Inhofe got into trouble, their problems would be very unlikely to affect the makeup of the Senate. Thats not necessarily the case for Burr and Loeffler especially Burr if he were to resign before Sept. 4. Nonetheless, its still a longshot that likely wont alter the Senate election math in 2020, either.

See the article here:
Are These Scandals Going To Hurt Republican Chances Of Holding On To The Senate? - FiveThirtyEight

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will be permitted to hand-pick the state's next Supreme Court Justice after that same high court ruled last week that a special election set for Tuesday could be canceled.

Kemp and his Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, moved to cancel votingin the stateearlier this year after state Supreme Court Justice Keith Blackwell announced he would step down after his six-year term expires at the end of 2020.

Taking the matter of who should succeed Blackwell into his own hands will allow Kemp, a Republican, to appoint another right-wing judge to serve on the highest court in the state for at least two years. Like the U.S. Supreme Court, the nine-member Georgia Supreme Courtthough most of its member recused themselves from ruling on this caseenjoys a Republican majority.

Both the Democratic and Republican former lawmakers who were running for the seatJohn Barrow and Beth Beskinfiled lawsuits to have the election reinstated, but the state SupremeCourt sided with Kemp last week in a 6-2 vote.

Kemp narrowly won his 2018 gubernatorial race while serving asSecretary of State,a role in which he purged 53,000 mostly African-American voters from the state rolls.

On Tuesday, radio host Joe Madison called the governor's move an attempt at "rigging" another state election.

Six of the state's Supreme Court justices recused themselves from the case, forcing fivelower court judges to participate in handing down the ruling.

As Ian Millhiser explained at Vox, the Georgia state Constitution makes Kemp and Raffensberger's actionstechnically legal:

The court's decision inBarrowturns on the tension betweentwo provisions of the Georgia Constitution. The first provides that "all Justices of the Supreme Court and the Judges of the Court of Appeals shall be elected on a nonpartisan basis for a term of six years," and that the terms of these judges "shall begin the next January 1 after their election." Because this language refers to "all Justices," it suggests that an election must be held to fill Blackwell's seat, and that whoever prevails in that election shall join the state Supreme Court on the first of January.

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But a separate provision of the state constitution permits the governor to temporarily fill vacancies on the state Supreme Court, and it provides that "an appointee to an elective office shall serve until a successor is duly selected and qualified and until January 1 of the year following the next general election which is more than six months after such person's appointment."

"The second provision seems to suggest that an appointed justice may serve until January 1, 2023and longer, if that justice eventually wins the 2022 election," wrote Millhiser.

Justice Brenda Holbert Trammell cast one of the dissenting votes, writing in her opinion that while she does not object to gubernatorial appointments overall, the people of Georgia should have retained their right to vote for their next state Supreme Court justice.

"In this instance, when the resignation will not result in a vacancy in the office until (originally) almost six months after the election, I cannot in good conscience agree that the election should be cancelled and the will of the people thrust aside as 'fruitless and nugatory,'" wrote Holbert Trammell.

As Daniel Nichanian, editor of The Appeal, tweeted, Kemp also recently acted to suspend a county race in order to retain a District Attorney position for the Republican Party.

When Athens-Clarke and Oconee County DA Brian Mauldin, a Democrat, announced in February that he would not seek another term, Mauldin asked the governor to appoint an interim DA "promptly" so former state lawmakerDeborah Gonzalez, who was planning to run as a progressive reformer, could run against the interim DA in November.

"Kemp, however, did no such thing," wrote Jay Willis at The Appeal last week. "By failing to act by May 3, six months before Election Day 2020, he ensured that whoever he eventually picks won't face a challenger until Election Day 2022 at the earliest. Gonzalez, the would-be reformer, will have to wait until then for a shot."

"As governor, Kemp has pivoted from hollowing out democratic elections to simply cancelling them," added Willis.

Link:
Think Trump and Republicans Wouldn't Try to Cancel an Election? Look at What GOP in Georgia Just Pulled Off - Common Dreams

Evan McMullin, who gave Trump a scare in Utah in 2016. Photo: George Frey/Getty Images

Recently I wrote about the evolution of the Never Trump Republicans those elite-heavy conservatives who could not bring themselves to accept the hostile takeover of their party by the bizarre and mendacious right-wing populist into what is effectively a faction in the Democratic Party. They do have some rank-and-file counterparts in the electorate voters who moved from R to D even as some culturally conservative economic nationalists moved from D to R and they are loosely affiliated with Democratic moderates. Thus they are reasonably happy with Joe Biden as a presidential candidate.

One of the Never Trump leaders I mentioned, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin (remembered by many as among the most passionate supporters of Mitt Romney in 2012), clarified my conclusion with this very specific statement of self-identification:

We can happily embrace [Biden]. I would have been prepared to crawl over broken glass to vote foranyonebut Trump yes, even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) because of my conviction that Trump is a menace to democracy and now a danger to our very lives. It would not have been a pleasant choice, and many NeverTrumpers would not have joined me. Thankfully, we were spared the Sanders-vs.-Trump match-up

[M]any people ask: Are you all big-D Democrats now? My answer is it depends. I am a Pat Moynihan Democrat, a Scoop Jackson Democrat, an Andrew Cuomo Democrat. Im not a Bernie Sanders Democrat. So where does that leave me? Where I have been for just about four years: a center-right member of the Resistance, an advocate for good governance and internationalism (including free trade and robust legal immigration) and a passionate believer in the American creed. The best answer perhaps to the partisan affiliation question is that it is a time for creative policy and civility, so we will focus on that.

I assume readers are fairly familiar with Andrew Cuomo. But as a boomer translation for younger generations, Senator Henry Scoop Jackson was a strongly pro-defense and anti-communist, labor-aligned Democrat in the Harry Truman tradition who ran for president in 1972 and 1976. The more recently active Daniel Patrick Moynihan was an intellectual associated with the early neoconservative movement who served in the Nixon and Ford administration before reverting to his Democratic heritage and becoming a generally conventional liberal senator, representing New York for 24 years. So its a rather refined sort of brew that Rubin is now imbibing. Other Never Trumpers would probably define themselves differently. But for the most part they no longer imagine some post-Trump future in which they will rejoin and dominate the GOP.

Thats for the most part. For there are apparently some bitter-enders so committed to this alternative future for their old party or unreconciled to Democrats as an alternative that they plan to haunt Trumps convention in Charlotte, according to the Post:

Conservative critics of President Trump will hold a convention of their own during the Republican National Convention, with plans to craft their own statement of principles and offer it to a post-Trump electorate

The Convention on Founding Principles is scheduled to run from Aug. 24 to Aug. 27 in Charlotte, the city hosting this years RNC. The Republicans for a New President campaign, the chief organizer of the event, is planning an online component and a backup plan for a virtual convention if the RNC is canceled.

Apparently this group grew out of a rump gathering of conservatives during the Trump-crazy CPAC confab earlier this year. And there is one quite familiar figure leading their efforts:

The Trump administration has failed, and thats provided us with an opportunity to offer an alternative vision, said Evan McMullin,who ran against Trump as an independent in 2016and has been part of multiple anti-Trump efforts since then. Well be ready in the wake of what we see as a coming Trump defeat.

McMullin, you may remember, offered himself as an independent conservative alternative to Trump in 2016, winning around 700,000 votes nationally, and doing notably well in his home state of Utah, where many fellow Mormons rallied to his banner, and in next-door Idaho. In other words: He did well in his home region and in a state where there was no serious risk that Hillary Clinton would win. So hes had no particular temptation to leave his party, and the event in Charlotte seems to be open to any conservative who doesnt like Trump, regardless of what they plan to do about it:

The August event, said McMullin, would more closely resemble an actual political convention. There will be debates and voting on a statement of the attendees principles, and a vote on whether they supported a particular candidate for president presumptive Democratic nomineeJoe Biden, or a well-known third-party candidate. (Michigan Rep. Justin Amash,who is seeking the Libertarian Partys nomination for president, has been praised by many anti-Trump conservatives.)

As Im sure McMullin & Co. know, the regular Republican Party has few if any remaining doubts about Trump or Trumpism. If some privately hope for a different party when the great demagogue has moved on, they are very definitely keeping it to themselves. Some will show their fidelity to MAGA by mocking the Never Trumpers and their event:

These Trump haters are sad, pathetic, and irrelevant, said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtagh. President Trump has united Republicans and has unprecedented support within the party. Hes also attracting non-Republicans and making huge inroads with blacks and Latinos. He will be reelected in November.

Whether or not Trump wins (or has anything like huge inroads with blacks and Latinos), the elephants soul belongs to him for the time being. And those Never Trumpers who have looked at their options and switched parties seem to have a brighter future.

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Never Trump Republicans to Hold Their Own Convention in Charlotte - New York Magazine