America could be shaped by state politics more than the legal troubles of Trump

The Wisconsin GOP Playground in the Running Against Trump and the US Supreme Court: The Pre-Civil War Trials of Janet Protasiewicz

A pre-Civil War law banning abortion in nearly all circumstances is expected to be overturn by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which has a liberal majority. The Democrats were demoralized by the loss of federal abortion rights last year but they will have hope after Protasiewicz’s win.

Democrats once again capitalized on a backlash against the US Supreme Court and the idea of another Donald Trump presidency, in places around the country for the upcoming mid-term elections.

In the latest political shift in the state, liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz easily beat conservative Daniel Kelly in a nonpartisan election where the parties nevertheless had clear favorites. The contest attracted significant outside spending, making it the most expensive state judicial race in history, and Protasiewicz’s winning margin was about 10 times the size of Trump and Biden’s respective cushions of around 20,000 votes.

“Anger about Roe hasn’t dissipated. Fear of our democracy is still there. Voters aren’t happy with the candidates like Dan Kelly. The chief campaigns officer for the progressive advocacy group Indivisible said that if the race was an early bellwether, Republicans didn’t learn their lesson in the next election.

Wisconsin, one of the country’s most competitive political areas, is expected to be more competitive in the presidential and Senate races next year. Outside the governor’s office, the state government has been run by Republicans. Since defeating GOP Gov. Scott Walker more than four years ago, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed roughly 150 bills and been hamstrung in pursuing large parts of his own agenda. The state policy gains of the GOP are now in doubt, chiefly due to the crushing of public sector labor unions.

In the years before Trump’s emergence, the Wisconsin GOP ran roughshod over state politics and sought to export its national playbook around the country. Walker was a favorite in the early stages of the 2016 GOP presidential primary because he promoted his state as a model. Like so many others in that year, he wasn’t given time to get off the ground as Trump went on to win.

That fall, Trump shattered the Democratic illusion of a “blue wall” in the Upper Midwest, defeating Hillary Clinton by fewer than 25,000 votes in the Wisconsin general election.

Evers was first elected governor during the 2018 Democratic wave. He won a second term last year. Ron Johnson, a Republican, was the senator from the state for two years, while Trump was away. His false allegations of 2020 election fraud infuriated Democrats, along with many swing voters, and ultimately in this year’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race hobbled Kelly, who faced blowback for his role in advising GOP officials in their efforts to hatch a fake electors scheme

A lawsuit challenging an 1849 abortion law that had been off the books for decades, is expected to be decided by the state high court. Protasiewicz, Wisconsin Democrats and allied groups worked to make the race a referendum on abortion rights.

In Michigan, abortion rights activists have won a vote to get abortion and other reproductive rights into the state constitution, which also re-elected the Democratic women to their three most powerful executive offices. Those results continued a streak of successes for Democrats who dug in hard on the issue – a political winner in many swing states and legislative districts.

With another president on the horizon, her willingness to roll back or reverse voting laws or regulations could have a national impact.

Rep. Patrick C. Cotham: A Demonstration of the State of Mecklenburg County and a “Deceit” for the Democrat Party

The Republicans in the North Carolina House gained a veto-proof majority after a Charlotte-area Democrat decided to switch parties.

North Carolina GOP Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement Wednesday that Cotham’s announcement “continues to reflect that the Democratic Party is too radical for North Carolina.”

A woman with strong faith, a national championship basketball coach, and a public servant are some of the things that I am. Today I add Republican to that list,” she said, noting that she had “been welcomed with open arms” by her new colleagues.

“Rep. Cotham’s decision to switch parties is a deceit of the highest order. It is a betrayal to the people of Mecklenburg County, with repercussions not only for the people of her district, but for the entire state of North Carolina,” Clayton said at a Wednesday news conference in Raleigh outside party headquarters with other Democrats and residents of Cotham’s district. “Reproductive freedoms are on the line. There is a line in our public schools. LGBTQ rights are on the line. Voting rights are at stake. Our future as a state is on the line.”

Cotham served in the state House as a Democrat for nearly a decade before stepping away in 2016. She ran again in 2022, winning a crowded Democratic primary and then the general election for the newly drawn House District 112 in southeastern Mecklenburg County.

The turning point for Cotham was when he was criticized for using the American flag and praying hands on all of his social media platforms.

I was deeply offended by the idea that people could say something is wrong and not be allowed to show off a flag because others are hijacking it for something else.

The people of Mecklenburg County should be proud to have her representation in Raleigh since the values of the Republican Party align with voters.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also welcomed Cotham to the GOP, saying in a statement Wednesday, “Even in a Biden district in a purple state, Democrats are reading the writing on the wall: liberal policies are too extreme and they’re failing Americans.”

Cameron Pruette, the chair of the LGBTQ+ Democrats of Mecklenburg County, said at the news conference, “I knew there was a problem, when we invited Tricia Cotham to the Human Rights Campaign dinner a few weeks ago, she didn’t show up. Is it a move that was planned? How long has she known? The voters need to know.

It is unclear how she will vote on any given bill but many of the bills that were dead may have come back to life. The budget controls education funding, and can be passed with Republican votes.

There are no recall provisions in North Carolina. She will be able to serve her entire two-year term. According to Jackson, Republicans will now be in total control.

As of Wednesday afternoon Cotham was still listed as a Democrat by her website, which promotes priorities like protecting voting rights, affordable housing,health care and equitable public schools. Under a section entitled “Equality for All,” Cotham calls herself a “champion of LGBTQ+ rights” and states, “Right now, LGBTQ+ youth are under attack by Republican state legislatures across the country. I will stand strong against discriminatory legislation and work to pass more protections at the state level.”

The Democrats had a veto on the bill, which softened permit requirements for pistol purchases. The absence of three Democrats in the state House, including Cotham, allowed Republicans to push through the override.

State-Political-Battles Analysis of a Tennessee Shooting and Robbery Attempt by the First Ex President to be Charged with a Crime

Donald Trump is getting the headlines but partisan battles in state capitals may do more to change America than the drama surrounding the first ex president to be charged with a crime.

The great debates on issues like abortion and guns will come in the next presidential campaign as the Democrats and Republicans fight over those issues. The conflicts show how sometimes small shifts in the balance of power can have huge ramifications, even for a nation with a single political identity.

In Tennessee, the legislature is seeking to expel three Democrats who led a rowdy protest on the state House floor after a mass killing at a Christian school in Nashville. Lawmakers have been stripped of committee posts after the Speaker of the House characterized the protest as an unacceptable breach of decorum. The Republican speaker said that the protest was akin to the mob attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol.

Brandon Johnson, the winner of Tuesday’s mayoral race in Chicago, is being looked at by the national Democrats. He beat a moderate with a tough-on-crime message by making a more nuanced pitch than his previous support for calls to “defund the police.” Johnson said during the campaign that he did not want to cut police funding.

And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who says his state is a laboratory for a more conservative America ahead of his possible White House bid, signed a bill into law earlier this week allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit. The Senate voted Monday for a ban on abortions of 6 weeks or more.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/politics/state-political-battles-analysis/index.html

The State of the Game: The Battles over Trump’s Left-Right Axiom and the Law in the House of Representatives

Washington does not always notice the series of local battles, where lawmakers are arguing about the debt ceiling and aid toUkraine.

There’s a chance that there is another possibility, since the intensity of exchanges on issues like abortion, gender and guns raises another possibility. For all of Trump’s appeal to grassroots Republican voters, he is running a campaign that is almost exclusively rooted in his fury at his worsening legal problems and his claim that he is being politically persecuted to keep him out of the White House. The fights brewing in the states suggest many voters have other things on their minds.

Sean Eldridge is the founder and president of Stand Up America, a progressive advocacy group, and he has said that Protasiewicz will act as a check on conservatives trying to take away reproductive freedom, voters of color through racial gerrymandering and overturn election results they do not like. Her victory helps build a firewall for our democracy and the freedom to vote ahead of 2024.”

The lawmaker on CNN explained that he supported the public gallery protest because he was not hearing people’s calls for action on gun safety measures. Most Americans support tighter gun restrictions, but support varies depending on the question, according to polls.

Pearson told Jake Tapper that the trio knew what they were doing. “But we did not know and did not think we were doing anything that could get us expelled by exercising our First Amendment rights and encouraging those protesters and children and adults and grieving parents to do the same in the House.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/politics/state-political-battles-analysis/index.html

The Role of the Hardline Abortion Policy in Replacing Donald Trump in the Non-Compromise Planckian Campaign

The hardline abortion policy might make some people think that he will be a better conservative leader than Trump. But it’s also the kind of positioning that would offer Democrats an opening should be become the Republican nominee.