Category: 2020 election

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Bloomberg Officially Enters Dem Race, Bernie Officially Not Happy About It

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg announces official entry into 2020 presidential race
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg officially declared his entry into the Democratic presidential race on Sunday with an announcement video that highlights his self-made success contrasting his personal story with that of Donald Trump.

Bloomberg has said he will spend what it takes to win, and considering he’s worth $54 billion, he’s definitely got the resources. According to CNN, Bloomberg has already bought TV ad space to the tune of $37 million over the next two weeks. As a late entry, Bloomberg’s team says they won’t even try to compete in early states like Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. Instead, he’ll focus on Super Tuesday locations hoping to pick up the necessary delegates. But Bloomberg has a complicated past as a politician. He’s switched political parties from Democrat to Republican to Independent depending on which best suited his chances for winning elections; he recently apologized for a “stop-and-frisk” police policy during his tenure as NYC mayor; and his connections to Wall Street are unavoidable. Top tier contender Sen. Bernie Sanders made it clear he’s not happy about the news. “We do not believe that billionaires have the right to buy elections, and that is why we are going to overturn Citizens United, that is why multi-billionaires like Mr. Bloomberg are not going to get very far in this election, that is why we are going to end voter suppression in America,” Sanders told supporters at a town hall event on Sunday.

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New Poll Indicates LGBTQ Voters Have A Double-Digit Favorite

Photo of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg

Photo of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg
L-R Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
A new poll conducted by YouGov/Out Magazine shows LGBTQ voters are definitely leaning towards a particular Democratic presidential candidate and it’s Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. I’ll say upfront any polling should be taken with a grain of salt, but this does provide a glimpse into what some folks may be thinking at this time. Announced as a ‘first of its kind’ survey of likely Democratic primary voters who identify as LGBTQ, the results show Warren easily outpaces her fellow Democrats garnering 31 percent of those polled. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came in second with 18 percent, former Vice President Joe Biden pulled in 16 percent, and out South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg received 14 percent support. Everyone else in the field scored in the single-digit range. 31% – Elizabeth Warren 18% – Bernie Sanders 16% – Joe Biden 14% – Pete Buttigieg 6% – Kamala Harris 3% – Cory Booker 2% – Julián Castro 2% – Amy Klobuchar 2% – Andrew Yang 1% – Tulsi Gabbard 1% – Marianne Williamson All other candidates scored zero support. The data-crunchers at YouGov surmise Warren resonates so strongly with LGBTQ voters because LGBTQ voters tend to be more liberal than the average Democratic primary voter. According to Alissa Stollwerk, Vice President of YouGov Blue, “Seventy-seven percent of LGBTQ+ Democratic primary voters identified in our survey as very or somewhat liberal, approximately 20 percentage points higher than the percentage of Democratic primary voters overall who identify as very or somewhat liberal in our surveys.” For instance, respondents said they overwhelmingly prefer bold structural reforms (68%) versus incremental changes in policy (28%). Asked who could beat Donald Trump in the general election, 53 percent said Warren could win, 52 percent said Biden would trump Trump, 46 percent indicated Sanders could come out on top, 29 percent gave the nod to Buttigieg, and 26 percent said Harris could beat Trump. More from the survey: • 93% disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president; 89% strongly disapprove • 89% say Trump should be impeached and removed from office • 73% say the epidemic of violence against transgender women of color is the most critical issue facing the LGBTQ Community today; 60% said complete nondiscrimination protections; 59% indicated LGBTQ youth homelessness In a statement to Out, Stollwerk notes that such polling “is a snapshot of a group of people at a given time” and should be viewed as such. But the results do offer insight into “the viewpoints of these Democratic voters, what issues are important to them, and what they want to see in the next Democratic nominee for president. (source)

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Podcast: Pete Buttigieg, RuPaul, Tom Goss & The Epic Fail Of ‘Straight Pride’

The Randy Report podcast

The Randy Report podcast delivers the week's top stories in a quick, convenient podcast - 'the 60 Minutes of gay news - only shorter' In this week’s podcast: • Sen. Kamala Harris calls Mayor Pete Buttigieg “naive” for relating his experience as a gay man to other marginalized communities. • A homophobic photographer in Kentucky has filed a lawsuit to block Louisville’s Fairness Ordinance just in case a gay couple were to ask her to shoot their wedding. • Three federal judges have blocked a new rule announced by the Health and Human Services Department that would allow healthcare professionals to deny service to LGBTQs. • The Straight Pride event in Dallas was the biggest fail yet. • Netflix releases teaser video for RuPaul’s upcoming scripted comedy series AJ and The Queen. • Out singer/songwriter Tom Goss’s new album explores new emotional Territories. All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.

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Kamala Harris Calls Mayor Pete Buttigieg ‘A Bit Naïve’

L-R Sen. Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Mmm, I find this disconcerting. And not very constructive. Speaking at a breakfast event today, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) said South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg came off “a bit naïve” when he brought up the discrimination experienced by LGBTQ Americans as part of his response to a question about his difficulty attracting support from black voters at Wednesday’s Democratic debate. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Mayor Pete currently draws 0% of African Americans in South Carolina. From CBS News:

During a Black Women Power Breakfast hosted by Higher Heights, a national political organization for black women that endorsed Harris earlier this month, Harris said it was wrongheaded for Buttigieg to “compare our struggles.”

“Those of us who’ve been involved in Civil Rights for a long time we know that it is important that we not compare our struggles. It is not productive, it is not smart and strategically it works against what we need to do which is build a coalition,” Harris said Thursday. “We know that in our ongoing fight for civil rights if any one of us starts to differentiate ourselves in a certain way and in particular what he did on the stage, it’s just not productive. And I think it’s a bit naïve.”

Backstage after the debate, Harris told CNN, “I’m never going to engage or allow anyone to engage in comparing struggles. I think that is just misdirected.” “So we’re going to now say that my pain is worse than your pain?,” she continued. “We had 400 years of slavery in this country. We had years of lynching, which involved black men, in particular, being dragged from their homes and hung on a tree, often castrated.” During the fifth Democratic debate on Wednesday night, Mayor Pete agreed with Harris that the Democratic Party has sometimes ignored black women voters until elections roll around. He added that he looked forward to “connecting with black voters.” “While I do not have the experience of ever having been discriminated against because of the color of my skin, I do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country, turning on the news and seeing my own rights come up for debate,” Buttigieg shared in his response. He added, “Wearing this wedding ring in a way that couldn’t have happened two elections ago lets me know just how deep my obligation is to help those whose rights are on the line every day, even if they are nothing like me in their experience.” Watching the debate live, I didn’t see the exchange as “comparing” struggles as much as he seemed to be relating to them via his own experience to what marginalized communities feel. CBS News asked Buttigieg about Harris’ accusation Thursday, and the South Bend mayor pushed back saying, “there’s no equating those two experiences.” “What I do think is important is for each of us to reveal who we are and what motivates us and it’s important for voters to understand what makes me tick, what moves me and my sources of motivation and ensuring that I stand up for others,” Buttigieg told CBS News. “Last night I shared that some of my sources of motivation included my personal experience, my governing experience, and my personal faith.”

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Leading In Early Voting States, Buttigieg Can Expect Attacks At Dem Debate Tonight

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (image via Instagram)
As the Democratic presidential candidates take to the debate stage tonight, expect Mayor Pete Buttigieg to take some incoming fire after recent polls show him surging in two early voting states. Buttigieg is the first openly gay presidential candidate to take the lead in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The latest polling from Monmouth University for the upcoming Iowa caucus’ was first to show out Mayor Pete in the top spot. That poll showed the South Bend mayor ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden by 3 points and Sen. Elizabeth Warren for 4 points. Here are the results – the numbers in parenthesis represent standing when combining first and second place results: • Mayor Pete Buttigieg 22% (37) • Former Vice President Joe Biden 19% (29) • Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 18% (35) • Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 13% (25) • Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) 5% (14) • Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) 3% (9) • Billionaire Tom Steyer 3% (6) • Entrepreneur Andrew Yang 3% (4) The latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll shows Mayor Pete Buttigieg has jumped 16 points since the Register’s last poll to land at the top of the Democratic presidential field. • Mayor Pete Buttigieg 25% • Sen. Elizabeth Warren 16% • Former Vice President Joe Biden 15% • Sen. Bernie Sanders 15% • Sen. Amy Klobuchar 6% And in New Hampshire, the Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll released last night shows Buttigieg opening up a ten point lead over his competitors with 25 percent support. Biden and Warren tied in second place with 15 percent, and Sanders drops to 9 percent support. Despite all that good news for Buttigieg and his campaign team, there have been some not-so-great bumps in the road. For one, video from a 2010 ‘Meet the Candidates Night’ during his attempt to become Indiana state treasurer has re-emerged on Twitter. The event was hosted by two Republican groups with connections to the Tea Party. In the video, Buttigieg says in his opening remarks: “There are some, especially in my party, who think that the Tea Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party. But there are many others who believe that the Tea Party is motivated by real concerns about the direction of our government and the responsiveness of our government to citizens. and above all, a frustration with business as usual. That is what motivated me to run.” He also notes, “We may come from often very different perspectives.” Some progressive Twitter warriors have called the remarks “disqualifying.” But there’s some backstory to this appearance. It seems Buttigieg’s opponent wouldn’t debate him, so Pete went to the ‘Meet the Candidates’ event as his only chance to share a stage with his opponent. And if you watch the video clip, he doesn’t say he embraces the Tea Party. He makes a point to say he “comes from a very different perspective” while admitting people from both parties share frustrations about government being run as “business as usual.” In fact, President Obama said something very similar just a short time later when he addressed an MTV/BET Town Hall. “I think there are a lot of people who are involved in the Tea Party who have very real and sincere concerns about spending that’s out of control or generally philosophically believe that the government should be less involved in certain aspects of American life rather than more involved,” said Obama. “And they have every right and obligation as citizens to be involved and engaged in this process.” The mayor’s campaign was also criticized for using a stock photo of Kenyan woman in materials released with his plan to address U.S. racism, “The Douglass Plan.” In any case, you can certainly expect one of the mayor’s opponents to bring up some of these nuggets tonight during the Democratic debate tonight hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post. The two-hour debate is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET.

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Buttigieg Takes The Lead In New Hampshire Poll

Via WMUR:

Mayor Pete Buttigieg has surged to the head of the Democratic presidential field in first-in-nation primary state New Hampshire, according to a new poll of likely primary voters released Tuesday.

The Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll of 255 likely Democratic primary voters shows that Buttigieg, supported by 25 percent, now holds a 10 percentage point lead over former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who are tied for second at 15 percent. Buttigieg is substantially ahead of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is in fourth place at 9 percent.

Rounding out the top 10 were Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 6 percent; billionaire activist Tom Steyer of California at 5 percent; U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey at 3 percent each; entrepreneur Andrew Yang of New York at 2 percent and California Sen. Kamala Harris at 1 percent. Thirteen percent of those polled said they were undecided.

Respondents were also asked who was the strongest candidate to go head to head against Donald Trump in the general election, and Biden leads in that lane by a mile.

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Iowa: Pete Buttigieg Jumps To Top Of Des Moines Register Poll

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (image via campaign Instagram)
Ok, the other poll wasn’t an anomaly. The latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll shows Mayor Pete Buttigieg has jumped 16 points since the Register’s last poll to land at the top of the Democratic presidential field. • Mayor Pete Buttigieg 25% • Sen. Elizabeth Warren 16% • Former Vice President Joe Biden 15% • Sen. Bernie Sanders 15% • Sen. Amy Klobuchar 6% From the Des Moines Register:

Since September, Buttigieg has risen 16 percentage points among Iowa’s likely Democratic caucusgoers, with 25% now saying he is their first choice for president.

For the first time in the Register’s Iowa Poll, he bests rivals Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are now clustered in competition for second place and about 10 percentage points behind the South Bend, Indiana, mayor.

Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, led the September Iowa Poll, when 22% said she was their first choice. In this poll, her support slips to 16%.

Former Vice President Biden, who led the Register’s first three Iowa Polls of the 2020 caucus cycle, has continued to slide, falling 5 percentage points to 15%.

Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, also garners 15% — a 4 percentage point rise.

Those four candidates began to pull away from the crowded field of Democrats and separate into a top tier of contenders in June’s Iowa Poll.

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Mayor Pete Buttigieg Is Number One In Latest Iowa Polling

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (via Instagram)
The latest polling from Monmouth University for the upcoming Iowa caucus’ show out Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the top spot for the first time. He edges former Vice President Joe Biden by 3 points and Sen. Elizabeth Warren for 4 points. Here are the results of the latest poll – the numbers in parenthesis represent standing when combining first and second place results:

• Mayor Pete Buttigieg 22% (37) • Former Vice President Joe Biden 19% (29) • Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 18% (35) • Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 13% (25) • Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) 5% (14) • Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) 3% (9) • Billionaire Tom Steyer 3% (6) • Entrepreneur Andrew Yang 3% (4)

Those numbers show an increase of 14 points for Buttigieg since Monmouth’s last poll in August when he garnered just 8 percent. The South Bend mayor’s gains since the summer have been across the board, with increasing support coming from nearly every demographic group reports Monmouth University. “Buttigieg is emerging as a top pick for a wide variety of Iowa Democrats,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “While he has made nominally bigger gains among older caucusgoers, you really can’t pigeonhole his support to one particular group. He is doing well with voters regardless of education or ideology.” It goes without saying that a first or second-place finish in Iowa would seriously underscore Buttigieg’s standing among the current crop of Democratic White House hopefuls. Mayor Pete is the first openly gay candidate to have a serious shot at the Democratic presidential nomination.

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One nation.

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That said, only 28 percent of likely caucusgoers say that they are firmly set on their choice of candidate. The majority of respondents indicated they would not be overly disappointed if they had to switch their support. There are easily identifiable reasons for the upswing in Buttigieg’s standing. One, the 37-year-old mayor has begun to cast himself as an option for moderate Democrats who are also looking at Biden. Two, when the Buttigieg campaign announced its top funding raising numbers ($24.8 million) after the second quarter of 2019, his team said they would put that money to use, which they have. Buttigieg has more than 100 staffers and over 20 organizing offices across Iowa.

However, it’s worth noting that despite laying out a detailed policy platform to help African Americans he calls “The Douglas Plan,” he faces an uphill battle in attracting the support of black voters, both nationally and in South Carolina where the third primary voting will be held. African-Americans make up about two-thirds of Democratic voters in the Palmetto state. It’s been 31 years since a Democrat won the nomination without majority-black support.

(source: Monmouth University polling)  

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Reporter ‘Deeply Regrets’ Misquoting Buttigieg After Mistake Goes Viral

Mayor Pete Buttigieg on the campaign trail (via Buttigieg campaign/FB)
A reporter for the Los Angeles Times has issued an apology for misquoting Democratic presidential hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg in an article published on Sunday. Evan Halper seemed to have gotten a newsworthy quote from Buttigieg where the midwestern mayor appeared to blame President Barack Obama for the election of Donald Trump. At the end of Halper’s article, he quoted Buttigieg as saying, “The failures of the Obama era help explain how we got Trump.” What the openly gay mayor actually said was, “The failures of the old normal help explain how we got Trump.” Halper took to Twitter early Monday morning to apologize saying he misheard what Buttigieg as a “result of transcribing a noisy recording.”

Buttigieg was responding to being compared to former Vice President Joe Biden and billionaire Michael Bloomberg. “My message is not about going back to where we were,” said Buttigieg. “I think because I come from a part of the country where ‘normal’ has been a real problem for a very long time, and I think the failures of the old normal help explain how we got Trump period.” “So, I’m much more interested in running on building a future that is going to have a lot of differences,” he added. Apparently, the communications team for Buttigieg’s campaign records and archives his interviews. They’ve got the receipts and posted the audio recording to YouTube. Buttigieg’s statement comes at the 45-second mark:

Buttigieg accepted Halper’s ‘swift and honest’ apology via Twitter:

Apologies are nice, but in the time that the article was published and the apology was issued, the hashtag #ByePete had begun trending on Twitter. Some folks in the Twitterverse were not happy. Here’s just a sample:

Once seen as a ‘long-shot’ candidate, Buttigieg has continued to rise in the polls. And with higher polling positions, he has attracted closer scrutiny to his policies and public statements. The Real Clear Politics average of national polls currently shows Buttigieg in 4th place behind Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). RCP average of polls for first-in-the-nation Iowa, however, indicates he trails only Warren. A first or second-place finish in the Iowa caucus’ for Buttigieg would give even more credibility to his candidacy.

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Buttigieg Unveils Plan To Make Public College Free For Middle Class Families

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (via Instagram)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg has released his plan to make college education more affordable.  It would tie the price of attending college to a family’s income. Under Mayor Pete’s proposal, public colleges would be free for students whose families earn less than $100,000 per year. Former Vice President Joe Biden has suggested something similar versus the plans of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who promise free college for everyone across the board. A sliding scale would come into play for those families whose income lands between $100,000 to $150,000. Families making more than $150,000 would pay full tuition. In his new economic agenda, Buttigieg writes, “Our government can, and should, play a role in setting a level playing field that gives all Americans a chance to succeed.” He adds that “government does need to be a vigorous presence in ensuring that our economy actually works for all.” Buttigieg has previously stated he favors a sliding scale approach because, “I think if you’re a child of a billionaire you can take care of yourself, and you ought to be able to pay some tuition.” Buttigieg’s plan would be financed by raising taxes on the top 1 percent of Americans.