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Now, national Democrats are searching for an off-ramp. With a June deadline looming for New Hampshire to make progress on changing its law or get kicked out of the official early voting lineup, Democratic National Committee members are privately considering giving the state more time.

If theres any opportunity for this to get resolved by New Hampshire having more time, all of us will say, Give New Hampshire more time, said labor leader Randi Weingarten, who sits on the DNC committee that approved the changes to the nominating calendar.

Some have also floated the possibility of putting together a party-run primary to get around its state law.

In states where state legislatures have refused to comply with the party rules, the state parties have run primaries that are conducted by the party, said James Roosevelt, Jr., co-chair of the DNCs Rules and Bylaws Committee, adding that New Hampshire Democrats are aware that that is an alternative.

But New Hampshire Democrats, furious that national party leaders upended their prized primary, dont seem to care what the DNC has to offer. They insist theyre going first whether Bidens on the ballot or not.

We cant change our laws and thats that. Were hosting the first primary, said Ray Buckley, chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. The president can decide if he wants to put his name on the ballot.

The relationship between New Hampshire Democrats and national party officials began to deteriorate after Biden moved last year to slide South Carolina to the front of the line and bump New Hampshire back to second on a shared date with Nevada.

But it has hit rock bottom as the DNCs June 3 deadline approaches and as Bidens reelection launch renews questions about whether hell campaign in a rogue state or risk losing the first unofficial contest to the other declared Democratic candidates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson. Neither pose an actual threat to Bidens renomination, but they could present an embarrassing distraction at the start of the nominating process.

That intraparty iciness was on stark display at New Hampshire Democrats iconic McIntyre-Shaheen dinner this past Friday. In the past, the major fundraiser has drawn dignitaries including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. This year, state party officials pointedly picked Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one of the only Democrats outside of New Hampshire who has staunchly defended the states primary, as the headliner.

Khanna, who serves on Bidens national advisory board for 2024, called on the president to campaign in New Hampshire, where Williamson and Kennedy have signaled they will compete regardless of potential party sanctions. If he doesnt, Khanna warned, it could harm his general election chances in a small but key swing state.

Let me be very clear: It would be political malpractice to strip New Hampshire of delegates, disenfranchising Granite State Democrats for a decision out of their control, Khanna said to rousing applause. We all know these four electoral votes are going to matter for the presidency.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), another Biden ally, also took sharp aim at the DNC at the event.

We are not going to leave New Hampshire and the primary to the Republicans, she said. I dont care what the Democratic National Committee says.

National Democrats argue theyre not abandoning New Hampshire. For instance, the DNC has launched an embed program in the state to track Republican candidates and deployed its national distributed voter contact program for key New Hampshire elections.

Beyond creating a distraction at the beginning of the 2024 primaries, the potential of a fiasco in New Hampshire risks inflaming party tensions just as the general election kicks off. Its still not clear the severity of the sanctions the DNC might impose against New Hampshire if it goes out of order. But under penalties the DNCs Rules and Bylaws Committee passed last year, the state could lose half its delegates if it breaks with the partys calendar.

In order to stave off such a situation, national Democrats are looking for a fix.

A real possibility that Democrats are considering is extending the deadline so that New Hampshire has more time to meet the partys requirements, according to a person familiar with the process of the DNCs Rules and Bylaws Committee, which revamped the primary calendar.

New Hampshire hasnt requested additional time to come into compliance because, Democrats there said, trying to change their state law is a losing battle. But that didnt stop the DNC from approving the initial extension until June.

Meanwhile, Democrats in the state are shutting down the idea of a party-run primary before theyve even formally been approached about it. Buckley said a party-run primary would be a logistical nightmare and extremely expensive, costing upwards of $7 million.

Absolutely impossible, he said. Where would I rent 2,000 voting machines? Hire 1,500 people to run the polls? Rent 300 accessible voting locations? Hire security? Print 500,000 ballots. Process 30,000 absentee ballots.

The power to set New Hampshires primary date rests with Secretary of State David Scanlan, who said that hes open to holding the primary as early as this year, if necessary, to circumvent both the DNCs preferred calendar and Iowas proposal to let caucus participants select their preferred presidential candidate by mail before other states contests (a move that would make it functionally more like a primary).

New Hampshire will hold the first-in-the-nation primary, Scanlan said. We believe all candidates that want to run for president should put their names on the ballot in New Hampshire, and we expect that there will be plenty of candidates that do in both parties.

Whether Biden would file his name in a rogue New Hampshire primary is unclear. A campaign aide previously said the Biden team hopes the state doesnt jump the line, but is prepared to abide by any sanctions imposed by the DNC if it does.

Still, Biden is facing pressure to compete in a state that hasnt voted for a Republican for president since 2000 but that Democrats cant afford to lose in a close election.

Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) has publicly and privately urged Biden to be on the primary ballot. And other top New Hampshire Democrats, including Shaheen and Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), said theyve warned the president his absence could jeopardize not only his general election prospects, but also those of down-ballot Democrats such as Kuster and Pappas. And there could be a competitive gubernatorial race if Republican Gov. Chris Sununu runs for president or doesnt seek reelection.

The recommendation that the delegation has made all along is for the president to come here and campaign, Pappas said. Were hopeful that he will still entertain that as things move forward.

The defiance of New Hampshires Democrats is fueled in part by a belief that the DNC wont have teeth when it comes to sanctioning states that jump the line. They point to how the party eased penalties on Florida and Michigan after they broke party rules and held their primaries too early in 2008.

It would be pretty strange to see the first and second female governors and United States senators [elected in New Hampshire] not seated, said Donna Soucy, New Hampshires DNC committeeperson and state Senate Democratic leader, referring to Shaheen and Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.).

New Hampshire Democrats also argue theyve made a good-faith effort to meet the second part of the partys requirements to stay in the official early-state window expanding voting access by pushing Soucys legislation to create no-excuse absentee voting in the state, albeit to no avail.

But outside of New Hampshire, Democrats have literally laughed off the prospect of Biden flouting his own calendar and campaigning in a rogue state.

That would be awfully weird, rules committee member Elaine Kamarck said, chuckling. While we followed Bidens lead on this, the committee itself was torn about whether [we should let] New Hampshire go first. It was really his decision that tipped the hat on this.

Sure, that means Kennedy or Williamson could carry the state. But national Democrats say that wont matter.

When you then move on to other states, the embarrassment will be to Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy, said DNC member Carol Fowler. Biden will just beat them so badly.

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Democrats race to avoid a Biden embarrassment in New Hampshire - POLITICO

Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) repeatedly denied Democrats requests to receive the testimony of one of the GOPs self-described whistleblowers during Thursdays House hearing on the weaponization of the FBI, prompting Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) to confront him with the actual rules.

Needless to say, Jordan was less than pleased.

During this latest hearing pushing the GOP narrative that the FBI is weaponized against conservatives, Jordan told Democrats that youre not getting the testimony of FBI staff operations specialist Marcus Allen, claiming the minority party isnt entitled to all evidence collected from whistleblowers.

These are not whistleblowers, Ranking Member Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) exclaimed. The law has not determined they are whistleblowers. His attorney is just asserting that.

Later in the hearing, after initially being shut down by Jordan, Goldman requested a point of order to state the rules, which he noted required transcripts to be made available to all members of committees.

Where is the whistleblower exception to the rules? Goldman wondered.

An animated Jordan said it was the prerogative of the committee to decide before adding: We have the whistleblower testimony. The whistleblower does not wish it to be made available to the Democrats at this time!

Goldman quickly shot back that the whistleblower doesnt make committee rules before Jordan attempted to move on to another committee member, eventually arguing with Goldman a bit more.

This isnt the first time that Goldman and Jordan have sparred during the subcommittees weaponization hearings. Back in February, the New York congressman questioned the chairmans claims that he had dozens of whistleblowers lined up, pointing out that Democrats had not been provided with any statements from any of these individuals.

Democrats, meanwhile, have questioned the credibility of Allen as a whistleblower, noting that his FBI security clearance was revoked after expressing support for the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Besides peddling Jan. 6 conspiracies, the other so-called whistleblowers at Thursdays hearing have also been paid thousands of dollars by Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official.

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Jim Jordan Freaks Out When Dem Confronts Him With House Rules - The Daily Beast

Photo: SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett

The 2022 election was strange. Historically, the presidents party tends to suffer large losses in midterms, as its base grows complacent and swing voters indulge their fetish for divided government. And there was little reason to believe that last year would be an exception.

After all, last November, Joe Biden was a historically unpopular president presiding over exceptionally high inflation. Polls showed widespread disapproval of the Democratic administration in general and its economic management in particular. A red wave appeared to be cresting.

And yet that wave ebbed before it touched the nations most highly contested races: Even as Republicans won the two-party national vote for House control by a 51 to 49 percent margin in 2022, Democrats won 40 of the 64 races that were deemed very competitive by the Cook Political Report.

And in the closest Senate and gubernatorial races, the outcomes were even more odd. In the contests that Cook deemed either toss-ups or merely leaning toward one party, Democrats won 51 percent of the two-party vote a higher share than they had secured in such races in 2020 while claiming victories in 13 of 18 elections.

Altogether, this increased the Democratic Partys power in the Senate and at the state level while leaving Republicans with a relatively meager nine-vote majority in the House. Had a few thousand more votes (in very specific places) shifted from Republicans to Democrats, Bidens party would have retained full control of the federal government. As is, it still mounted one of the strongest midterm performances for an in-power party in modern American history.

By now, election analysts have produced plenty of compelling explanations for how this came to be. One is that the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade scrambled conventional midterm dynamics. Major policy changes often spur short-term electoral backlashes. This is one reason why the presidents party has often struggled in midterm elections, which frequently follow ambitious legislative sessions. But in 2022, even though a Democrat was in the White House, Republicans delivered the years most disruptive policy change. Thus, in purple states where abortion policy was a live issue, swing voters in general (and women in particular) gave Democrats unusually strong support.

Another explanation for the red ripple was Donald Trumps singularly bad taste in general-election candidates. In various competitive Senate and gubernatorial races, Republican primary voters nominated MAGA extremists at Trumps request. This predictably rendered the party less competitive.

But a new analysis from the Democratic-data firm Catalist points to another critical factor: the political ascendance of millennials and zoomers.

Americas youngest adult generations had been integral to the 2018 blue wave. Millennials saw their turnout rate surge from 22 percent in the 2014 midterm to 42 percent four years later. In 2018, the oldest zoomers became eligible to vote in a midterm for the first time. And they cast ballots at a higher rate than millennials or Gen-Xers had in their respective first midterms. Critically, zoomers and millennials collectively cast more than 60 percent of their votes for Democrats, helping the party win the national House vote by a landslide margin.

This was an ominous development for the GOP. Still, Republican operatives could comfort themselves with a pair of thoughts. First, while Americas rising generations might turn out in historically high numbers to rebuke President Trump, their participation was bound to fall sharply once politics grew more banal. And second, though millennials and zoomers were currently the least Republican generations that America had produced since Lincolns time, they would surely age into a more ordinary partisan distribution.

The 2022 results were not kind to such wishful thinking. As Catalists analysis of voter-file data reveals, millennial and Gen-Z voters collectively comprised 26 percent of the 2022 electorate, up from 23 percent in 2018. This was partly a function of aging. More zoomers were eligible to vote last year than in 2018. But turnout among eligible voters was also a factor. Nationally, millennials and zoomers turned out at a rate comparable to their historically high 2018 mark, and in highly contested races, the two generations actually voted at a higher rate than they had in such races in 2018.

This is a big long-term problem for the Republican Party. With each passing election cycle, zoomers and millennials will become more likely to vote. As this chart from Catalist illustrates, generations tend to grow more and more electorally influential until they reach their mid-70s and then start aging out of the electorate owing to illness or death. Boomers have already passed their political peak. Millennials will be building toward theirs for a long time to come.

It is not surprising that millennials have retained their exceptionally strong Democratic lean even as theyve exited their youth. Although cohorts do tend to grow a bit more conservative when (or if) they have children and buy a home, most voters political affiliations are cemented in adolescence and early adulthood, when myriad other aspects of their identities are forged. Millennials spent their formative years watching George W. Bush preside over catastrophic wars and an economic disaster while his party embraced soon-to-be-discredited social crusades (such as opposition to gay marriage). And millennials were also raised by parents who were markedly more socially liberal than the boomers forebears. It is therefore unsurprising that the generation has proven durably hostile to a Republican Party that refuses to abandon the cultural commitments of Americas white Evangelical minority.

The durability of birth cohorts political leanings means that generational churn by itself can remake our politics. There are many reasons why Barack Obamas first midterm was a political disaster for the Democratic Party while Bidens was a relative success. But one is that boomers constituted 69 percent of the electorate in 2010 but only 48 percent of it in 2022.

To this point, Republicans have managed to weather the rise of millennials and zoomers just fine. This is largely because Americas older generations have all shaded to the right since 2012. As a result, the political divide between millennials and zoomers on the one hand, and their elders on the other, has never been more stark:

Graphic: @williamjordann/Twitter

Further, the GOPs historically high support from non-college-educated white voters combined with the overrepresentation of those voters in the Senate and Electoral College battlegrounds has enabled the party to win power in excess of its popular support.

Both of these factors are likely to attenuate the GOPs millennial problem in the near term. For one thing, Generation X is a right-leaning cohort that came of age during the Reagan recovery and is about to enter its prime voting years.

But Gen X is also a small generation. And the boomers are growing smaller with each passing year. If Republicans do not reconcile themselves to a more modern set of cultural values (and/or less plutocratic set of economic policies), generational churn will eventually make it very difficult for them to compete in national elections.

Here, three other quick takeaways from the Catalist report:

Women were critical to Democratic success. Female voters backed Democrats nationally at levels comparable to 2020, and in highly competitive Senate and gubernatorial elections, Democrats actually won a slightly higher share of womens ballots than they had in similar races two years earlier (winning 57 percent, up from 55 percent in 2020). Resiliently strong support among white college-educated women helped to compensate for a sharp drop in Democratic voting among white college-educated men, who gave Democrats 51 percent of their votes in 2020 but only 44 percent two years later.

In competitive races, education polarization eased. Beyond Americas generational cleavage, a growing diploma divide between college-educated and working-class voters has been one of the defining dynamics of U.S. politics in recent years. This gap remains vast, but in 2022 it declined a bit from its Trump-era peak, particularly in competitive races. In such contests, Democrats gained four points of support among non-college-educated white voters, relative to 2020, while losing two points of support among college-educated ones.

Democrats performance with non-white voters was suboptimal in 2022. In last years midterm, Democrats lost seven points of support among both college-educated and non-college-educated Asian American and Pacific Islander voters relative to 2020. Their performance with Hispanic voters was largely unchanged from the Biden-Trump race with the party winning 62 percent of that demographic. In 2016 and 2012, however, the party had won upwards of 70 percent of Hispanic voters.

Black voters, meanwhile, remained overwhelmingly Democratic. But both their turnout rate and support for Democrats declined slightly from previous midterms. In 2018, Black voters represented 12 percent of the electorate; in 2022, they comprised 10 percent. In 2020, Black voters delivered 91 percent of their votes to Democrats two years later, they gave just 88 percent of them to Bidens party.

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The Return of the Emerging Democratic Majority? - New York Magazine

WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. Congress expressed frustration with President Joe Biden's willingness to engage with Republicans demanding tougher work requirements for food aid recipients as part of any deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

They have stopped short of threatening to block such moves, as talks on lifting the federal government's $31.4 trillion borrowing limit shifted into a bilateral format between Democrat Biden, Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy and their staffs.

If Biden and McCarthy reach a deal, possibly as soon as Sunday, Congress could struggle to get enough votes for passage ahead of a June , when the Treasury Department has warned the government may be unable to pay all its bills.

Some hardline Republicans may push back against any increase in the debt ceiling, while some progressive Democrats voiced opposition to the work limits after spending months calling for a "clean" hike without conditions.

Liberal Democrats, including Senator Raphael Warnock and Representative Ro Khanna, put Biden on notice that they do not support more stringent requirements to existing law.

Khanna, asked whether revisions would prompt him to vote to torpedo a deal, said: "It would be a strong consideration."

Republicans have called for saving $120 billion by expanding work requirements to qualify for food aid, monetary help for poor families and other assistance. Biden on Wednesday reiterated his opposition to imposing new requirements the Medicaid program for low-income Americans.

He added that there could be a "few" changes in current law but none "of any consequence."

Those assurances did not soothe Democrats, as negotiations kicked into high gear over spending and the urgent need to raise the borrowing limit.

Warnock accused Republicans of "using poor people as pawns" in negotiations, saying their proposal "presupposes that poor people are in some way morally deficient. People want to work. And some people can't."

Warnock is a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee which, writes the farm bill that funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.

A Republican bill that passed the House in late April would place more work demands for SNAP on adults without disabilities or dependents up to age 56, instead of the current cutoff of 49.

Massachusetts's Jim McGovern, a House Democrat known for his anti-hunger work, said: "I will not support anything that screws poor people -- period."

The Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee describes the steps as "common-sense work requirements to help lift families out of poverty and revitalize the American workforce."

"Why wouldn't he want to help people get out of poverty?" McCarthy told reporters.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson said expanded work requirements for SNAP would be especially harmful to those "experiencing homelessness or people affected by local economic conditions like the closure of a major local employer."

The USDA estimates an additional 1 million low-income older adults would be subject to SNAP time limits and, as a result, could lose vital food benefits.

Eric Mitchell, executive director of the nonprofit Alliance to End Hunger, called such requirements "punitive and ineffective" against people who face obstacles to employment or community service.

Reporting by Richard Cowan and Leah Douglas; Editing by Scott Malone and Aurora Ellis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Thomson Reuters

Washington-based award-winning journalist covering agriculture and energy including competition, regulation, federal agencies, corporate consolidation, environment and climate, racial discrimination and labour, previously at the Food and Environment Reporting Network.

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Democrats warn Biden against toughening aid for the poor - Reuters

"Clearly, many Black voters understand in 2018 and 2020 they delivered Congress and the White House to Democrats," he added. "They're looking for a return on their investment, but they just don't see one."

Biden tried to convince some members of that community on Saturday that he has done things that benefit them and that he hears their concerns. Your generation will not be ignored, will not be shunned, will not be silenced, he said during a commencement address at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

The president used one phrase several times during one part of his remarks "because of you" to drive home to students at the historically Black research university that he again needs their support in 2024.

"With your voices and votes, I was able to fill my commitment to put the first Black woman on the Supreme Court of the United States of America," he said. "Because of you, more Black women have been appointed to the federal appellate courts than under every other president in American history combined.

And, by the way, I mean it. I mean it. Because of you. Because of you. You turned out. You spoke up. You knew. You showed up, and the votes counted," Biden added. "You feel the promise and the peril of climate change. Because of you, we're making the biggest investment ever in the history of the world in climate change. Don't ever think your voice doesn't matter."

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Gun violence, white supremacy and the economy: What Black voters ... - Roll Call