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After raising roughly $300,000 during an exploratory campaign phase, DutchessCounty Democrat Antonio Delgado is settoannounce on Monday that he is making his run for Congress in the 19th district official.

The move follows anatural progression for exploratory campaigns, but its a splash that comes as the Democratic field has swollen to six candidates who range in political and professional experience from a former press aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to a former U.S. diplomat turned school teacher.

Lining up on the left to challenge Rep. John Faso, a Kinderhook Republican who does not have a primary challenger at this time, are: Delgado, Brian Flynn of Greene County, Steven Brisee of Ulster County, Gareth Rhodes of Ulster County and Sue Sullivan of Ulster County.

Delgado, 40, said in an interview that while hes thought about running for office, the direction in which Washington has moved on myriad issues (Delgado specifically highlightedwage stagnation and decreasing business and job opportunities) has spurred him to become a candidate.

There are a lot of things about politics that I think people are tired of, he told CapCon. I would count myself as one of those individuals who has been tired of this process.

Tired of what about the process?

Ive been tired of the fact that we cant seem to figure out how to cooperate, Delgado said. Ive been tired of the fact that a lot of our leaders are going to Washington right now and theyre not listening to their constituents. Theyre going there just to maintain power. They are there just to preserve their seat.

Delgado has childhood roots in Schenectady and Guilderland in the 20th Congressional District, and his wife, Lacey, grew up in what is nowthe large 19th district, which stretches from Rensselaer, Columbia, Greene, Schoharie and Montgomery counties down into Ulster and Dutchess counties and west into Broome County. Delgado studiedphilosophy and political theoryat Colgate and Oxford before attending Harvard for law school.

Delgado spent time in Los Angeles as amusic company executive and hip-hop performer under the nameAD The Voice, an avenue through which he said he aimed to educate and inspire young people.

Thefather of twin 3-year-old boysis now an attorney with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Felds New York office, though he said most of his time is spent on campaign work now.

With his campaign has come a focus on job creation and education for both young people and the workforce so that they have skills for jobs that are available. Like most Democrats this year, he also has an acute focus on health care specifically womens health care and, related to that, womens rights in the wake of the Houses passage of the Republican replacement of the Affordable Care Act.

Delgados campaign kickoff video is below:

Read more:
Democrat Antonio Delgado makes NY-19 bid official - Albany Times Union (blog)

ALBANY, Ga. Stacey Abrams, a Georgia politician who embodies what many progressives argue is the future of the Democratic Party, launched what she hopes will be a history-making campaign Saturday when she officially announced her candidacy for governor of the Peach State.

The 43-year-old Democratic leader of the Georgia State House, who enters as the front-runner for her partys nomination, is aiming to become the first African American woman to be elected governor in U.S. history. Abrams is widely considered to be one of the most skilled and savvy political leaders in the state legislature and hopes to replace term-limited Gov. Nathan Deal (R), who has served since 2011. But it wont be easy: No Democrat has won statewide office in Georgia since 2006, and just 11 black women have ever been elected to statewide positions nationwide.

Pray for me and work with me, Abrams told about 100 supporters who braved persistent swarms of gnats to help her kick off her campaign at a barbecue at Chehaw Park in Albany, a small city about three hours south of Atlanta. I want government to work everyday, for everyone.

Abrams, a Yale-trained lawyer and business executive who writes romance novels on the side, has an army of supporters across the country eager to prove Democrats can win if the party puts its energy into expanding its base among the increasingly diverse state population rather than fretting over white swing voters. That is what Abrams has tried to do as founder of an organization that says it has registered 200,000 new voters in Georgia along with her work in the states House, often while cooperating with Republicans on key legislation and policies has made her popular with progressives who say the party should rebuild and strengthen the coalition that elected and reelected President Barack Obama.

The rapidly changing complexion of the South, which has seen the percentages of African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans increase, creates the potential for a political makeover. Abrams and other progressive political activists of color believe new voters will want candidates who look more like them.

Democrats in the South have to reject the notion that our geography requires that politicians soften our commitment to equality and opportunity and that you have to look a certain way, Abrams said in an interview Friday. We have to be architects of progressive solutions, and that means leadership that believes we can defy the odds. I believe Democrats have the ability to win, because we have the votes.

Steve Phillips, a progressive strategist who makes the case for a new American majority coalition of people of color and liberal whites, said there are more than 1million eligible but unregistered voters of color in Georgia more than enough to close the gap for Democrats, who have narrowed the margins of their losses in the past several elections.

Georgia is getting more diverse every year. Those numbers are trending in favor of somebody like Stacey, said Phillips, who is also founder of Democracy in Color, a multimedia effort to push the idea that the Democratic Partys future is in the growing diversity of the country.

The daughter of United Methodist ministers, Abrams said she is running for governor because she thinks every Georgian deserves the freedom and the opportunity to thrive, and too many of us are being left behind and left out.

Abrams arrived in Georgia as a child, when her parents moved with their five children from Gulfport, Miss., looking for better educational opportunities. Abrams earned degrees from Spelman College, the University of Texas and Yale Law School. She is the first female leader of either party in the Georgia General Assembly and the first African American leader in the Georgia House.

My life is proof that where you begin doesnt dictate who you become, she said.

At her kickoff, she told the crowd that she launched her campaign outside the metro Atlanta area because Albany is just like where I grew up. Im from a town that is about 150 miles from the capital. Sometimes that 150 miles is a lifetime away. Im from a place that can also be forgotten because its not where we think politics and business should happen.

Five women three white and two black from Thomasville, a small town near the Georgia-Florida line, drove up together to cheer on Abrams. They call themselves Indivisible Women of Southern Georgia and say they are united in their opposition to President Trump. They say that as governor, Abrams could perhaps stem some of the Trump administrations efforts to cut services for vulnerable children and roll back environmental protections. They also applaud Abramss efforts to register more voters and plan to launch a drive in their home county.

In 2014, Abrams founded the New Georgia Project, which focuses on voter registration and engagement with a goal of signing up 800,000 voters of color by 2024. Supporters hail the New Georgia Project for its efforts to urge civic engagement among voters of color, while detractors say it has not lived up to its ambitious promise to register hundreds of thousands of voters.

The group, along with other organizations, sued Georgias secretary of state for practices that have resulted in applications being rejected or not being processed in a timely fashion. It also joined a lawsuit to reopen the voter rolls to new registrants for the June 20 runoff in the special election for the states 6th Congressional District.

Brian Kemp, the secretary of state who has criticized the groups lawsuits and in 2014 launched an investigation of the New Georgia Project for allegedly submitting fraudulent voter applications, is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

Abrams, who was first elected to the state House in 2007, representing part of Atlanta and suburban DeKalb County, says her most important legislative achievement was getting more money and support for grandparents or other family members who take in children whose parents cant care for them. She is intimately familiar with the challenge because her parents are caring for her niece. Abrams said her brother was addicted to drugs and incarcerated.

She drew some criticism for brokering a deal with Republicans that resulted in cuts to a popular state-funded college scholarship program. Abrams said she was trying to save the program from total elimination.

The rise of Abramss political career seems to have curtailed her other passion writing romance novels. Between 2001 and 2009, she published eight books under the nom de plume Selena Montgomery. Abrams said she got her love of writing fiction from her father, who would spin intricate serial bedtime stories for her and her siblings. She started out in the 1990s wanting to write spy novels, she said, but publishers werent interested in a black female heroine. So I made my spy fall in love, Abrams said, thus launching her literary career. Although she hasnt published a novel since 2009, Abrams, who also has published nonfiction books about policy, said she plans to continue to write, even if she becomes governor. I dont think anything will stop me from writing, she said, although she acknowledged that it might be hard to keep deadlines.

Despite her growing national profile, which will probably attract cash and volunteers from across the country, Abrams is not the only female Democrat eyeing the states top executive job. State Rep. Stacey Evans, who is white, announced her candidacy last month. The 39-year-old lawyer is taking a similar approach in touting her success overcoming a tumultuous childhood and becoming the first in her family to go to college.

Emilys List, which promotes female candidates who support abortion rights, is backing Abrams, who in 2014 received the organizations first Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award, named in honor of the former Arizona congresswoman who was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire, killing six people, as she met with constituents at a Tucson shopping center.

Stephanie Schriock, president of Emilys List, described Abrams as a strong, powerful woman who has a vision for the future of Georgia. She said Abrams is a doer as well as a dreamer: Her ability, particularly as leader in the legislature, and what will make her a great governor, is the ability to pull folks together to really come to solutions even if they all dont agree with each other.

Charles Bullock, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia, said that many believe Abrams is the smartest member of the General Assembly, noting that most Republicans would not want to be quoted on that, but in private many will acknowledge her intellect and hard work.

But Bullock said Abrams might be slightly ahead of her time. Despite her abilities, she may be running four to eight years too early, he said, pointing out that in 2014, Michelle Nunn, daughter of a popular former U.S. senator, had a well-funded campaign but got just 45 percent of the vote in the race with David Perdue (R-Ga.) for the U.S. Senate.

Abrams analyzes the race differently. In 2006, she said, the Democratic nominee for governor lost to his Republican opponent by 400,000 votes; in 2010, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate lost by less than 260,000 votes; in 2014, Nunn lost by 197,000 votes.

Weve been able to cut their margin of victory in half in two cycles, but what we have never done is reach out to those voters whove been left out and been forgotten, Abrams said. What we havent done is register hundreds of thousands of new voters who come to the election wanting to see progress, wanting to see opportunity. And what we have not done is build a coalition of voters who have a shared ambition for success. Ive done that.

Excerpt from:
Georgia Democrat aims to be nation's first female African American governor - Washington Post

Kim Weaver, an Iowa Democrat competing with Republican incumbent Steve King for the states 4th Congressional District seat, is withdrawing due to threats against her safety.

Weaver announced her decision to step down yesterday on her public Facebook page:

Over the last several weeks, I have been evaluating personal circumstances along with the political climate regarding this campaign. After much deliberation, I have determined that the best decision for me is to withdraw my candidacy for the U.S. House race in Iowas 4th Congressional District.

One consideration has been raised again by recent events at my home. Beginning during my 2016 campaign, I have received very alarming acts of intimidation, including death threats. While some may say enduring threats are just a part of running for office, my personal safety has increasingly become a concern.

And as The Cut notes, Weaver also cited recent health insurance legislation as a factor: to commit to campaigning, she would be forced to quit her job, which coulddepending on Congresss rulingdeprive her of insurance. Moreover, her mother is in poor health and requires her assistance. Via Facebook:

Above this, my personal health is an issue. In order to sufficiently devote myself to the campaign, I would have to quit my job and shift to campaigning full-time. With recent legislation on health insurance, I must admit that the possibility of seeking a new job after the election exposes too much of a risk for me in not being able to secure health insurance.

Most importantly, my mother lives in Des Moines and has been experiencing ongoing health issues. I feel that its necessary to be more available to support her. Considering this, along with the time and energy it takes to succeed as a candidate, I realize that I cant fully commit to both.

Weavers conundrum will sound achingly familiar to any woman who has struggled to balance her personal and professional obligations. Its an overwhelmingly gender-specific problemas are violent threats meant to intimidate and oppress.

Meanwhile, Steve King, who dreams of an America thats just so homogeneous that we look a lot the same has publicly discredited Weavers remarks regarding death threats.

King, as it happens, is an avid Twitter user, and regularly distinguishes himself with golden nuggets of humanity. Heres a taste:

Note that in the photo below, Michelle Obamas sign should read Bring Back Our Girls in support of the Nigerian schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram. But a little photoshopping provided the racist, xenophobic touch Steve King admires.

See more here:
Iowa Democrat Kim Weaver Withdraws From Congressional Race Due to Threats - Jezebel

Republican lawmakers face a big decision: Should they continue to ride with President Trump in hope that his poll numbers improve or abandon him to save themselves in the 2018 elections?

Trump's presidency is off to a rocky start. His job approval rating is flailing below 40 percent in the latest RealClearPolitics national polling average. The White House looks chaotic. The Republican legislative agenda is mired in Congress. The Russia investigation has started heating up with the appointment of a special counsel and ominous headlines every day.

Congressional Republicans publicly criticized Trump's handling of the firing of FBI Director James Comey and are growing impatient with the outrage du jour, though most GOP politicos still request anonymity to discuss the president candidly. "[Y]ou have this White House that is lurching from crisis to crisis, image of disarray," said a Republican pollster. "They can't get their hands around the basic day-to-day agenda."

Next year, all 435 House members and a third of senators are up for re-election. The Senate map favors the Republicans, but the GOP controls just 52 of 100 seats. Its position in the House could be more precarious. Republicans have a 24-seat majority, which includes 23 members representing districts Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Some of them are already starting to panic.

"Members' actions will depend on their states or districts," said Tim Miller, former spokesman for Jeb Bush's presidential campaign and an anti-Trump super PAC. "While Trump's approval rating is declining nationally, it is still very strong in most of the states where the Senate will be contested (West Virginia, Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, etc.). In certain urban/suburban House districts Miami, Denver, Northern Virginia-type places candidates didn't pay a price for opposing him in 2016, and I expect they will [successfully oppose him] again."

"I think we are a long way away from a more expansive distancing given Trump's strength with Republicans, seniors, rural/exurban voters," Miller added.

Another Republican with Capitol Hill ties said, "If you're talking about the scandal of the week, it's a fend-for-yourself situation. But as long as you're focused on the agenda, people want to stick together at this point."

Republican political organizations, such as the National Republican Congressional Committee, are nowhere close to ditching Trump to save the congressional majorities. "First off, the Trump administration has been very helpful to the NRCC," a committee insider told the Washington Examiner. "President Trump keynoted the annual March Dinner and helped raise $30 million for the committee. Vice President Pence has been all over the country for Republican candidates."

"We tell our candidates to make sure they listen to their constituents and fit their districts, but we're stressing that they need to cut out whatever cable news is obsessing over that hour and focus on what the American people truly care about, which is jobs and the economy," the insider said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has also been active in raising money and spending it in special elections. The NRCC has raised at least $10 million for four straight months as of May, and Ryan's super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, has worked in recent competitive races.

"[I]t's far too early to make predictions about 2018," said a second national Republican operative. "The stage is just not set yet. Of course, we all acknowledge there are clear challenges staring straight at us right now."

Two things bolster the Republican optimists' case. First, Trump was pronounced dead many times during the campaign, not infrequently by the Republican Party's governing class and political consultants, yet his predicted demise never materialized. Second, Democrats have yet to win any of the special congressional elections that have taken place under Trump, with Republicans winning one in Montana with a candidate who had lost the gubernatorial race last year and was cited for misdemeanor assault against a reporter the night before voters went to the polls.

"You can watch how closely you hug him, but I wouldn't run away from him," said Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist. "Trump may not be everyone's cup of tea, but he is the cup of tea."

Both House races that have already been decided came in places Trump won handily last year, and the Republicans' margins of victory were narrower than normal. The biggest test lies ahead in the June 20 runoff in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, where Democrat Jon Ossoff is squaring off against Republican Karen Handel.

Ossoff ran nearly 30 points ahead of Handel in the first round of voting in April, coming within 2 points of avoiding a runoff entirely. More importantly, Trump carried the district by only 1.5 points last year, while former Republican Rep. Tom Price, now secretary of Health and Human Services, was winning by 23 the same margin as Mitt Romney over former President Barack Obama there in 2012.

A Democratic pickup in Georgia could illustrate the fraying of the coalition of rural voters and affluent, suburban voters that delivers victory to Republicans, with Trump perhaps alienating the latter. "The Mitt Romney Republicans are getting weak-kneed," O'Connell said. It would certainly help the Democrats' fundraising and 2018 candidate recruitment.

Another national Republican operative, however, said, "These Montana and Georgia races are meaningless because it's a unique set of circumstances. In Virginia, we have a good candidate who is well funded." The operative noted that this candidate, Ed Gillespie, is trailing both Democratic candidates by double digits.

A divide is emerging between Republicans from safe seats and those from competitive districts. Red state conservatives generally support Trump because their constituents do. "GOP primary voters are very much in Trump's corner even to the point of wondering why Hill GOPers are not backing him up already," said a Republican consultant.

Republicans from swing states or blue districts are readiest to bolt. "Several already broke on healthcare, and I imagine many would over his budget, which isn't really real anyhow," said a consultant advising centrist Republican campaigns. "The big issue will be as the Russia stuff unfolds and what that looks like and how they react.

"Members that could determine the majority have no use for Trump. He's sitting in the 30s in their districts. They've been trying to manage him, but they're fed up. He didn't win their districts, lost them badly. ... Coming off this, doing a crisis a minute with Trump, they have no reason to stick with Trump, and they won't."

The Republican pollster noted, "When it's about Trump, whatever that day-to-day is, and not about issues Americans are concerned about, that's not a good day for the White House, and it's not a good day for the party and it's not a good day for the country."

Republican donors are split. "There are two types," said a GOP bundler, "a group that thinks rightly or wrongly that there is still something to be had from this administration a job, ambassadorship, something in it for them and those that fear the end of the modern Republican Party. Not a middle ground."

Yet there are those who doubt whether Republicans can meaningfully distance themselves from Trump even if they want to. "There's no way in this instance to gain your distance and say you've been against him every step of way on policy," said the consultant, who noted Trump's continued popularity in many heavily Republican districts.

Trump upstages nearly every other Republican in the country, and it is difficult for any politician to differentiate themselves from a president of their own party. Many of the centrist and even slightly conservative Democrats who voted against former President Bill Clinton on taxes or gun control lost their 1994 re-election bids anyway. The same is true of similar Democratic lawmakers who voted against Obamacare, only to lose their seats in 2010 and 2014 after the law passed.

If there is a wave election in favor of Democrats, centrist Republicans who need significant Democratic crossover votes will probably be washed out of their seats. Connecticut Rep. Chris Shays was the only New England Republican to survive the 2006 midterm elections; the longtime centrist finally fell just two years later with Obama on top of the Democrats' ticket.

The only way to survive, some Republicans say, is to band together and, in the words of one GOP strategist, "start getting shit done." Regardless of how they feel about the president, many in this camp maintain that the party must show it can govern. And most Republicans on Capitol Hill are willing to stick with the president as long as the focus is their common agenda.

"These aren't lifetime appointments," O'Connell said. "If you can't get it done now, with a Republican House, Senate and White House, when are you ever going to be able to get it done?" He says Republicans suffer from "paralysis by analysis" but will pay a bigger price if they do nothing.

"The single greatest thing any member can do to get re-elected is produce results to run on," said a Republican operative. "All of the separation in world is not going to make a difference if you accomplish nothing."

"We clearly need some wins to put points on the board," said a GOP insider, a sports metaphor that came up in many conversations with Republicans. "The key to fixing Trump's image with independents is points have to be on scoreboard," said a Republican consultant. "A tax cut and Obamacare repeal, a perceived strong economy, a better relationship with the world, more muscular with China and ISIS that's how you fix independents."

"Think through what happened in 2010. Barack Obama decided the economy was fine because he did the stimulus and went off and did healthcare," said the pollster. "And voters said, you're on the wrong topic. That's the real challenge here for Republicans. How do we make this on a daily consistent basis about wages, jobs, the economy?"

Where this consensus breaks down is on whether the leadership needs to come primarily from Congress or the White House. Many Republicans envisioned GOP majorities putting conservative bills on Trump's desk to be signed. Yet from healthcare to tax reform to the debt ceiling, congressional Republicans haven't been able to come together to send legislation Trump's way.

Not everyone thinks it is so simple. "[Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell can through force of will get [Supreme Court Justice Neil] Gorsuch done," said a Republican source. "It is going to require the administration to do healthcare or taxes."

"No way Dems would have gotten Obamacare had Obama not been on a stadium tour," the source continued. Trump had a rally planned in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at the beginning of June, but the event was postponed.

Bad as the headlines often look, many Republicans still have high hopes for what they can accomplish with unified control of the federal government. They are aware this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and they still want to seize it by partially repealing and replacing Obamacare, overhauling a tax code that hasn't been reformed in over 30 years and rebuilding the military.

Republicans also know that while the midterm elections are still far away, the time available to implement this ambitious legislative agenda is dwindling. Much will have to be done inside the reconciliation window, a budgetary procedure that will allow them to avoid Democratic filibusters in the Senate. The closer it gets to 2018, the harder it will be to make even their own members take hard votes.

The happy scene of Republicans smiling with Trump on the White House lawn after the partial Obamacare repeal passed the House is a reminder that all it takes is one victory to restore party unity. But there are days when that Republican celebration feels as if it happened a very long time ago.

Read more:
Republican lawmakers wonder when it's time to ditch Trump - Washington Examiner

Missouri GOP Sen. Roy Blunt said Sunday that he wants fired FBI Director James Comey to testify later this week before Congress on the Russia investigations to bring this to a conclusion."

Blunt is a member of Senate Intelligence committee that on Thursdayis holding the hearing on the matter that is expected to include questions about whether President Trump pressured Comey in the FBIs ongoing Russia investigation.

Two administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said Trump is leaning against invoking executive privilege to try to block Comey from testifying about their private conversations.

Comey reportedly is expected to testify that Trump, in one of the conversations, asked the director to back off investigating ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, fired for not disclosing talks with a Russian ambassador.

"Sooner than later, let's find out what happened and bring this to a conclusion, Blunt told Fox News Sunday. At some point, we'll hear the president's side. But I frankly think we need to hear Mr. Comey's side and find out what other questions we need to ask."

Blunt supported Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, amid his own difficult re-election bid in swing-state Missouri. And he helped lead Trumps inaugural events on Capitol Hill.

Republicans, at the start of the investigations into whether Russia meddled in the White House race, then into whether Trumps campaign was involved, largely seemed reluctant to expand efforts, opposing Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself and the appointment of a special prosecutor.

However, roughly four months later the FBI and two congressional probes have slowed Trump and congressional Republicans legislative agenda and sparked calls for a conclusion.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee, said Sunday that investigators have yet to see a smoking gun.

But theres a lot of smoke, he told CNNs State of the Union.

He also said Trump would likely be on shaky legal ground if he tried to keep Comey from testifying, particularly because Trump fired him and allegedly called him a nutjob in front of Russian guests.

Warner also said the idea that a president would ask the FBI to back off an investigationin which he could be a target is unthinkable.

Trump could invoke executive privilege by arguing that discussions with Comey pertained to national security and that he had an expectation of privacy in getting candid advice from top aides.

But legal experts say the president likely undermined those arguments because he publicly discussed the conversations in tweets and interviews.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, another Republican on the committee, told CBS Face the Nation that she had several questions for Comey, including whether he indeed told Trump that he was not the subject of an investigation, as the president has said.

"Does Mr. Comey agree that that is what was said? Why would he tell the president that?" Collins asked.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Originally posted here:
Comey testimony will bring probe to conclusion, Republican senator says - Fox News