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Doug Jones, a former federal prosecutor running for the Democratic nomination in Tuesdays special election primary for U.S. Senate in Alabama, sounds confident he can win in a state that hasnt sent a Democrat to the Senate in over two decades.

The Trump administration has not only galvanized a lot of people out there who are truly opposed to a lot of [his] policies, but its also caused a lot of hesitation and second guessing on the part of a number of people who say, we just really need that backstop, we need the checks and balances, Jones said in an interview. Thats what were seeing.

What Happens When Trump Endorses the Candidate of the Hated Establishment?

Tuesdays primaries will decide which Republican and Democratic candidates face off in Decembers general election to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. If no candidate earns a majority of the vote, the top two vote getters advance to a run-off in September.

Although a majority of Americans disapprove of the president nationwide, in Alabama, the opposite is true. A majority approve of the job Trump is doing. Thats why Republican candidate former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, who was temporarily appointed to fill the open Senate seat, U.S. Representative Mo Brooks, and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore are trying to one-up each other in proving who is more loyal to the president.

Trumps enduring popularity in the state makes it unlikely that a critical mass of Republicans will peel away from their party to vote for a Democrat in Decembers general election. Thats part of the reason the Alabama Democratic primary has received far less national attention than other races for seats vacated by lawmakers who went on to serve in the Trump administration. Still, special election outcomes are hard to predict, and its not out of the question that the Trump administration could energize Alabama Democrats.

I think its going to be a very interesting test of how deep the Trump opposition runs, said Richard Fording, a political science professor at the University of Alabama. I have to think that the general election will be a low turnout election, and although Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 2-1 in this state, I would guess that Democratic voters are about twice as motivated to vote in this election as the Republicans to protest the Trump presidency. We could see something like we saw in Georgiaa closer than expected result but Republicans winning in the end.

Tuesdays special election primary offers a window into the messages Democrats are testing out in the hopes of gaining ground in a deep red state, even if winning outright isnt an expected outcome.

Jones, who is known for prosecuting members of the Ku Klux Klan for the 1963 bombing of a black baptist church in Birmingham, is viewed as the Democratic front-runner. Thats in part due to institutional advantages like a string of high-profile endorsements from former Vice President Joe Biden, Democratic Representative and civil rights icon John Lewis, and Alabamas only Democratic Representative Terri Sewell. An Emerson College poll earlier this month showed Jones leading in the Democratic primary field with 40 percent of the vote.

In an interview, Jones resisted questions as to whether he considers himself to be liberal, moderate, or conservative. I dont engage in that. I think those labels are completely meaningless these days, he said, telling me he wants to focus on kitchen table issues like healthcare, jobs, and the economy.

His campaign website calls for a living wage, without specifying what the minimum wage should be, and supporting the growth of small and mid-sized business in part by streamlining regulations,a pitch that might appeal to a conservative crowd. He added during the interview, however, that we have got to have more dialogues in this country about race, saying that what happened in Charlottesville [Virginia] has to be a wakeup call for people of conscience, for people to understand we cannot let white supremacy continue to divide us.

The few public polls conducted in the special election show a Democratic candidate named Robert Kennedy Jr. running either in second place to Jones or beating him. AL.com reported that Alabama Democrats were unfamiliar with Kennedy when he entered the race. And despite having no relation to the famous political family, the candidate may be benefitting in polling from the name ID all the same. The Kennedy campaign did not respond to requests for an interview. His website tagline describes him as a former Naval officer and a fiscally responsible Democrat who leads with FAITH.

A handful of other Democratic candidates will compete in Tuesdays primary, despite not having gained much traction in public polls, including Will Boyd, who unsuccessfully challenged Mo Brooks for his House seat in 2016, and Michael Hansen, a candidate who describes himself as a progressive Democrat.

Hansen, who is running as an openly gay candidate, argued in an interview that if Democrats want to regain a foothold in Alabama, the party should stop running to the political center, and not be afraid to support liberal agenda items like universal healthcare and a $15 dollar minimum wage, both of which he backs in his campaign.

I think if we had the guts as progressives to take a stand and talk about Medicare-for-All and how it would improve the system, then we would move the needle quickly, Hansen said. He was unsparing in his assessment of how weak the Democratic Party is in the state. Ill put it this way: Democrats in Alabama are losing badly across the board.

But Hansen worries that Alabama Democrats won't embrace a progressive agenda out of fear they'll face criticism in the red state. He added that he's been surprised at the resistance to his candidacy from the state's established Democratic political network.

"Politics is a lot dirtier than I thought," Hansen said, claiming that he faced pressure from political allies of Doug Jones to drop out of the race. "I like Doug quite a bit, and I think this was without his knowledge," Hansen said, but he added "there was this narrative that it wasn't my turn, and I need to wait my turn." When I asked if he believes the state Democratic Party has remained neutral, Hansen said: "I'll bite my tongue."

For his part, Jones told me weve certainly not been pushing back, against other Democratic candidates in the race. Nancy Worley, the chair of the state Democratic Party, told me that the state party has gone out of its way to be neutral in this primary, adding that shes taken a world of flack, quite frankly, as the chair for not endorsing a candidate.

Still, the accusations hint at the kind of tensions that Democrats across the country are confronting as different factions within the party compete to push their agenda to the front-and-center of national politics.

The Democratic candidate that prevails in the primary could help set the tone for future candidates running on the party ticket in the state. If the general election ends up as a competitive race, that alone would be a remarkable achievement for a party that has long been sidelined in Alabama.

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Alabama Special Election: Democrats Face Off in Primary - The ... - The Atlantic

Ms. Stewart-Cousins stopped short of calling for Mr. Loeb to step down from his position as board chairman of Success Academy, saying only that one has to be concerned this person is in a position of leadership in an academy or a set of schools that purport to enhance the educations experience of black and brown children.

But a chorus of Democrats, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, has called on Mr. Loeb to step down from Success Academy, a major network of charter schools that serves more than 90 percent minority children. One activist at the rally, Kirsten John Foye of the National Action Network, pledged to organize protests at Success Academy campuses when the school year begins.

And the chairman of a board of trustees committee at the State University of New York, which reviews charter school applications for approval, said he had asked their counsel to review any options they have to deal with Mr. Loeb.

The students in our charter schools are overwhelmingly kids of color, and I think they deserve to have teachers and administrators and boards that inspire them, Joseph Belluck, the chairman of the Charter Schools Committee, said in an interview, calling Mr. Loebs remark reprehensible.

On Monday, another apparent Facebook posting emerged, obtained by The New York Times and first published by dealbreaker.com, in which Mr. Loeb again likened teachers unions to the Ku Klux Klan. Mr. Loeb urged that people take up the fight against the teachers union, the single biggest force standing in the way of quality education and an organization that has done more to perpetuate poverty and discrimination against people of color than the K.K.K.

Mr. Loebs spokeswoman did not return multiple emails and calls for comment.

There has not just been pressure on Mr. Loeb, but also on the politicians whom he has showered with campaign cash in recent years. He has spent millions to back Republicans who control the state Senate, despite a slight numerical Democratic majority. Mr. Loeb has also donated $50,000 to a group of breakaway Democrats, known as the Independent Democratic Conference, who have formed a coalition with the Republicans.

Mr. Loeb has also given generously to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo: more than $170,000, including money from Mr. Loebs wife. Mr. Cuomo did not attend Mondays rally; one of his senior advisers, Alphonso David, came on his behalf.

Representatives Hakeem Jeffries, Yvette Clarke and Adriano Espaillat, former Representative Charlie Rangel, Senator Mike Gianaris, a top deputy to Ms. Stewart-Cousins, and Letitia James, the citys public advocate, were among those who spoke at the event on Monday.

The issues of Mr. Loeb and the I.D.C., which has existed since 2011, were blurred at the rally, as alternating speakers denounced both.

Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, announced at the rally to loud cheers that he was returning donation he received years ago from Mr. Loeb and giving the funds to a Democratic challenger to an I.D.C. member.

You have to have zero tolerance for hate speak, said Mr. Stringer, who had received $9,000 in 2011, state records show. At some point, you have to put your money where your mouth is.

Asked about what Mr. Cuomo whom state activists and at least one national Democratic group have called upon to return Mr. Loebs money should do, Mr. Stringer demurred. Everyone has to make their own decision, he said. As for Mr. Loebs post with Success Academy, Mr. Stringer said, My sense is he will step down.

Also hanging over the Harlem event was a closed-door meeting last month in which Ms. Stewart-Cousins interrupted Mr. Cuomo when he suggested that she has a worse understanding of the suburbs that the white leader of the breakaway Democrats. You look at me, Mr. Governor, but you dont see me. You see my black skin and a woman, Ms. Stewart-Cousins had said.

Ms. Dukes, the N.A.A.C.P. president, offered a not-so-veiled warning to Mr. Cuomo, whom many Democrats blame for the Republican-controlled Senate.

She runs in Westchester County, Ms. Dukes said of Ms. Stewart-Cousins. She deals with people other than people that look like us. But I want to tell you something for those who get in a back room and see nothing but her skin: You better see more than that today. You better look at all of us who stand here today and know that you are coming back to our community to ask for votes. We can vote or we can sit down.

A version of this article appears in print on August 15, 2017, on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Black Democrats Rally Behind New York Senator Amid Racial Politicking.

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Black Democrats Rally Behind New York Senator Amid Racial Politicking - New York Times

NEW YORKAbortion is exactly the kind of debate Democrats dont want right now: visceral, internally divisive, and more about hypotheticals than any actual candidate or race.

And, as with just about every other issue for a party in frantic panic over ever being in power again, its about whether the way to win is to proudly and unequivocally take a stand, or to decide theyve already veered too far toward ideological purity and correct course.

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The latest round of infighting was inadvertently kicked off by Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Ben Ray Lujn of New Mexico, who said in an interview at the beginning of the month that abortion wouldnt be a litmus test in backing candidates for next years existential battle for the House majority.

Abortion rights activists erupted, and Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, couldnt be clearer on how wrong she thinks Lujn is. Its a shocking sort of misunderstanding of actually where the country is which is overwhelmingly supportive of abortion rights and also, who are the ground troops that kind of fuel the election of candidates, Richards told me in an interview at her office in Lower Manhattan.

Democrats like Lujn argue that to win back the conservative areas it has lost, the party will need to be flexible and let candidates break with liberal orthodoxyincluding on hot-button national issues like abortionin order to win. To Richards, that isnt just wrong on principle, its dense on politics.

Fundamentally, perhaps [what] hes missing is, people can distinguish between their own personal feelings and what they believe government or politicians should do. And people even in some of the most conservative areas of the country who may themselves personally say, I would never choose to have an abortion, or, Thats not something thats right for me, also, absolutely do not believe politicians should be making decisions about pregnancy for women, Richards argues. I think hes totally wrong, and Ill use every opportunity to convince him of that.

Abortion keeps flaring up for Democrats. It overtook the unity tour that Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) did in April, after they backed a candidate for mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, whod co-sponsored several abortion restriction bills in the state legislature. Now the DNC says theres no question about the partys positionour party is pro-choice, its written into our platform, we believe that reproductive rights are economic rights, says new DNC CEO Jess OConnellbut in May, Perez hosted anti-choice Democrats at the party headquarters.

There are going to be instances where not every one of our candidates will lead on every plank of our platform, but were not the ones trying to roll back reproductive rights, OConnell explains.

Perez also hosted frustrated representatives from several dozen womens groups in May, though a Democratic official says what they were mostly complaining about was including Sanders in a unity tour at all.

Richards was much more conciliatory toward Sanders. Shes had many conversations with the Vermont senator since his comments in the spring, she says, adding, its rare to see a candidate these days be successful because they oppose access to safe and legal abortion," and, in fact, candidates are usually elected despite that fact, not because of it.

Democratic strategists and old party hands disagree. Winning, they say, requires reaching out to voters whove turned against them, many of whom view the abortion issue very differently. They see several of their wins in the 2006 wave, for example, as the result of being willing to have a tent big enough for abortion opponents, like former Rep. Jason Altmire from Trump-friendly Western Pennsylvania, or Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, hoping to win reelection next year in a state that swung hard for the president.

Lujnwho has a perfect voting record by Planned Parenthood scoring, and was touted for it during the House deliberations on Obamacare repealdeclined an interview, but he provided a statement he asked me to print in full in the hopes of calming his critics. Hes called Richards several times since his initial comment but so far hasnt connected.

My record of protecting a womans health care, her right to choose and her economic security is consistent with the fundamental tenets of the Democratic Party, and those values are at risk each day that Republicans control Washington. We must take back the House so that Democrats can legislate on the principles that our party holds dear, he wrote. Primary voters will ask candidates where they stand on the issues and elect their Democratic nominees, and everyone must decide whether to support that Democrat over the Republican in the general election. The DCCC will fight every day to defeat as many Republicans as possible and take back the House.

Thats old thinking, say some of the partys new leaderswho agree with Richards that Democrats would demoralize more voters than theyd pick up if they fudged the abortion issues, and do better even with voters who dont agree with them by clearly articulating themselves.

But Democrats are also in no mood to compromise on what they see as their core values.

Were not going back to the days of being lukewarm on choice, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said to cheers Saturday at the Netroots Nation gathering of progressives in Atlanta.

OConnell says she hopes the white supremacists and neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville over the weekend have clarified the stakes for the party, to push them away from these internal fights. Those torches were lit, but they were lit months and weeks ago with the rhetoric coming out of Republicansand I would much rather be talking about the economy, jobs, but also standing up for the values we support as Democrats.

Richards larger point is that the Washington debate on abortion is out of date and out of touch with the rest of the country, with polls showing a trend toward higher support for abortion rights and against restrictions among most groups of voters. Once you have a right for more than 40 years, people begin to assume that thats actually established law, she says, referring to the Supreme Courts landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

But its Washington and officials in state capitals that have her worried: She absolutely thinks the high court could overturn Roe if President Donald Trump gets more conservative justices confirmed, and, in the meantime, she fears the march of state laws like a Texas bill to require women to pay an extra insurance premium for abortion coverage.

Thats happening in an environment where every already politically charged issue is supercharged, and where Planned Parenthoods federal funds have become a consistently central fight in Congress and on the campaign trail.

Richards response has been to turn Planned Parenthood, and herself as its leader, into an ever bigger political player. She said security has been stepped up at Planned Parenthood clinics. She sees a direct connection between some of the Republican rhetoric in Congress and the shooting at a clinic over Thanksgiving weekend in 2015.

Richards campaigned hard against Trump, but she says the first six months have been much worse than she expected. His comments in support of Planned Parenthood during the campaign gave her hope that hed have an open mind, she says. So did outreach from Ivanka Trump. She seemed to be very sympathetic. I dont know if shes ever been a Planned Parenthood patient, but clearly, she knew women who had been and she knew the great care that we provided, Richards says.

They had one meeting, before the presidents daughter became a senior adviser in the White House. Richards hasnt been pleased with whats happened since, and Trump hasnt called her again, nor did she call Trump after the president kicked off his term by reinstituting the global gag order on funding for nonprofits that deal with abortion, or when the president backed Obamacare repeal bills that included stripping funding.

I guess I could. I feel like talk is cheap, right? Its actually what are the actions were seeing and what weve seen out of this administration from Day One have had both barrels aimed at women, Richards says.

The solution in her mind is to have more women in Congressand to absolutely have a woman on the Democratic ticket in 2020.

I dont know who, but I think theres a number of qualified women, and it would help, Richards says. I know the difference it makes.

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Cecile Richards to Democrats: Stand Firm on Abortion - POLITICO Magazine

The Cache Democrats and Republicans are hosting a fundraiser in the hopes of showing community members everyone can work together.

With divisiveness rolling across the country in politics, the parties top local officials are hoping to foster an environment of community togetherness as they take to the softball field for a Blue & Red Game while fundraising for the Cache Community Food Pantry.

There is enough ugliness and nastiness in politics in the world, and everyone talks about wanting to lower the blood pressure and diminish the rhetoric, so we figured wed start in our valley, GOP Chairman Casey Snider said.

Shortly after Snider was elected as the chairman of the Cache GOP, he reached out to Danny Beus who also had just been elected as the chairman of the Cache Democrats and suggested they get together for lunch.

Beus said that during the course of the meeting the two decided it would be pretty cool to host an event that helped the community.

Hopefully this shows the community that we have more in common than we do that separates us, Beus said. This will be a good way to show people that we are your neighbors and are normal people at least pretty normal. We can work together and come up with ideas that help everyone.

Admitting there are many, many differences between the two groups, Snider said neither he or Beus are happy with the current state of politics in the country, and both hope the game can stir people up to support one another.

Although a head-to-head game between the two parties would be interesting, Beus and Snider have decided to each bring 10 representatives that will then be split into two teams with five members from each party.

The game will be played at the Ridgeline High School softball field in Millville and will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. While there is no cost to watch the game, the parties will collect donations of food items or money for the pantry.

Along with the pantry donations, the Riverhawks softball team will sell concessions throughout the event as a fundraiser.

People can pay whatever admission fee they want or provide a food donation. At the same time, people can buy a hot dog to help the softball team raise money, Snider said.

Matt Whitaker, pantry director, said it is not uncommon for community groups to select the pantry for fundraisers because the organization is more than one group versus another.

This is a recurring theme Ive seen over the years. The food pantry represents something the community can come together on. To see the Democrats and Republicans come together on this is heartwarming, Whitaker said.

Whitaker said the pantry is currently serving nearly 170 families every week from its South Main location, but it also provides food to senior centers and CAPSA.

Currently, the pantry is in need of cereal and baking items, but they will accept any help or donations that come from the softball game, Whitaker said.

It wont be political; there will just be two teams, Snider said. To win, the Republicans and Democrats will have to play together. That is sort of the whole thing we are trying to derive from this event. For America to be good and have our communities strong, we have to get along.

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Cache Democrats, Republicans to play in softball fundraiser - The Herald Journal

Things could go well for the Democrats in next year's midterm elections if they don't Bern out.

President Trump is woefully unpopular, feuding with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, and other Republicans. The GOP can't manage to repeal Obamacare or do much of anything. Voters say they'd like Democrats to run Congress.

But here come the Bernie Bros and sisters to the Republicans' rescue: They're sowing division in the Democratic Party and attempting to enact a purge of the ideologically impure just the sort of thing that made the Republican Party the ungovernable mess it is today.

Bernie Sanders's advisers are promoting a "litmus test" under which Democrats who don't swear to implement single-payer health care would be booted from the party in primaries. Sanders pollster Ben Tulchin penned an op-ed with a colleague under the headline "Universal health care is the new litmus test for Democrats." Nina Turner, head of the Sanders group Our Revolution, told Politico this last week that "there's something wrong with" Democrats who won't "unequivocally" embrace "Medicare-for-all."

That notion not just taking a stand but excommunicating all who disagree is what Republicans have done to themselves with guns and taxes, and it would seriously diminish Democrats' hopes of retaking the House next year.

At the same time, Our Revolution has stepped up its attack on the Democratic Party. Turner this week sent an email to supporters complaining that she and others attempted to deliver a petition to Democratic National Committee headquarters but "were shut out." In a follow-up interview with BuzzFeed, Turner expressed particular outrage that the DNC offered her ... donuts. "They tried to seduce us with donuts," she said, calling the gesture "pompous" and "arrogant" and "insulting."

It's not just about breakfast confections. The Bernie crowd has begun accusing California freshman Sen. Kamala D. Harris, a rising Democratic star, of being beholden to corporate money. Also in California, Kimberly Ellis, who ran for state Democratic chairman with the support of Sanders and lost in a close race to a former Hillary Clinton delegate, is refusing to concede and threatening to sue. Ellis told the New York Times that the "Democratic Party is in many ways right now where the Republican Party was when the tea party took over."

And that's a good thing? Republican fratricide, instigated by tea-party purity police, made Trump possible and left the GOP unable to govern. This is what Sanders's people would emulate.

Fortunately, Sanders seems to have lost clout. Candidates backed by Our Revolution have lost 31 races in 2017 and won 16, and the wins include "Portland Community College Director, Zone 5" and "South Fulton (Ga.) City Council 6."

Candidates endorsed by Sanders have struggled in high-profile races. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., lost the DNC chairman race (he was appointed deputy chairman). Sanders-backed Tom Perriello lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Virginia, and a Sanders campaign official was blown out in a California congressional primary. Neither did the Sanders magic get the job done for Democrats in special congressional elections in Kansas, Georgia or Montana, and his candidate lost the Omaha mayoral race.

Yet the attempt by the Sanders movement to impose a health-care litmus test on Democratic candidates shows their destructive potential within the party. Support for single-payer health coverage has been growing, and it would become a real possibility if Republicans sabotage Obamacare but don't help the tens of millions who would lose insurance.

But to force Democrats to take some kind of single-payer purity oath would set back the cause. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to take control of the House, yet there are only 23 Republicans in districts won by Clinton and only eight of those were won by President Barack Obama in 2012. There are a dozen Democrats in districts Trump won. In such swing districts, it would be suicidal to pledge support for something Republicans will brand as socialism.

A Pew Research Center poll in June found that while a majority of Democrats (52 percent) favor single-payer health care, only 33 percent of the public does overall. A Kaiser Health Tracking poll in June had better results: 53 percent of the public favored single-payer coverage. But Kaiser found that opinions were "malleable."

If recent trends continue, and particularly if Republicans undermine Obamacare without an adequate replacement, the time for single-payer will come, and soon. But the litmus test distracts Democrats from protecting Obamacare, diminishes their chances of retaking the House and chops up the party over something that has zero chance of becoming law under Trump.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.

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DANA MILBANK: Democrats must beware of 'Berning' out - The Bakersfield Californian