Mediaboss Marketing

The national movement for school vouchers has burgeoned in recent years, riding the momentum of Republican championing of parental rights during the covid-19 pandemic. More than 30 states now have programs that let parents use taxpayer dollars to take their children out of public schools. Yet there remains a stubborn holdout, one particularly notable because its a red state: Texas.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and his allies are mounting a campaign to change that in the states Republican primaries Tuesday. They are pouring tens of millions of dollars into an effort to unseat a group of state House Republicans who blocked a voucher proposal last year, echoing long-held concerns that it would devastate public schools.

Its been a pretty big fight and an uphill battle, but this is definitely an inflection point, said Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas Republican strategist who has worked in the national voucher movement for more than a decade. This is the time right now when supporters have the resources and buy-in from the powers that be to really make a change in the Texas House of Representatives.

The school voucher fight headlines a Texas primary that otherwise features little drama at the top of the ticket. Former president Donald Trump is expected to romp in the states presidential primary, while Rep. Colin Allred is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Trump has doled out dozens of down-ballot endorsements in the primary, including to some Abbott-backed challengers who share his zeal for establishing a voucher program in Texas.

Abbotts effort is unfolding alongside that of another statewide official, Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is seeking to dislodge dozens of state House Republicans who voted to impeach him last year. But it is the voucher issue that has drawn the most money to the primaries and prompted stark attacks by a governor previously known for his political caution.

Abbott has been campaigning enthusiastically for the challengers, headlining multiple events for each of them in recent weeks. He arrived Wednesday in San Antonio for his third stop for Marc LaHood, an attorney running against state Rep. Steve Allison, and made a case against a fellow Republican that went far beyond his resistance to school vouchers.

I cannot trust your current representative, Steve Allison, to have my back, Abbott told a crowd of nearly 100 people inside a tavern on the citys northern outskirts. I do trust Marc LaHood to fight for me and to fight for you.

The lawmakers in Abbotts crosshairs have not shied away from their opposition to school vouchers. Allison, a former public school board member, said in an interview that his position is far from new, and while he has done a lot of work researching programs in other states, I just cant get there.

Im absolutely dumbfounded by the intensity of Abbotts campaigning, Allison said. Besides this policy, he added, Ive been with the governor on every single issue and every single request hes made since Ive been in the legislature.

Other incumbents have been less diplomatic in their pushback. State Rep. Glenn Rogers said Wednesday on X that the major donors of his Abbott-backed opponent want the COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

School vouchers have long faced a steep climb in the Texas House, where Democrats and a sizable number of Republicans representing largely rural districts have stood in the way. The rural Republicans represent areas where public schools are seen as the lifeblood of the community and their government support is closely guarded.

In recent years, other big states with Republican majorities, such as Arizona and Florida, have far outpaced Texas by creating new voucher programs or expanding existing ones. Iowa recently gave Abbott a political blueprint when its governor, Kim Reynolds, successfully campaigned against fellow Republicans who stood in her way on the issue.

Texas is the biggest state left, said Nathan Cunneen, a spokesman for the American Federation for Children. When we talk about Republican-trifecta states states where the GOP holds the governorship and both legislative chambers all around the country, when Im traveling, people say, I cant believe Texas doesnt have school choice yet.

In the Texas legislature, the anti-voucher coalitions numbers dwindled last year, but it held firm enough to keep a voucher proposal from reaching Abbotts desk. The final version of the initiative would have created education savings accounts where parents could use $10,500 in taxpayer funds annually to put toward private school expenses.

Ultimately, 21 Republicans in the House voted to strip the program out of an omnibus education bill in November. Sixteen of them are seeking reelection, and Abbott has endorsed primary challengers to 10 of them. He has also endorsed candidates for the open seats.

Abbott kicked off the primary season by landing a $6 million campaign donation from Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania billionaire who champions alternatives to public education. The Abbott campaign called it the largest known campaign contribution in Texas history.

Abbotts campaign and two other pro-voucher groups are set to spend nearly $10 million on TV advertising alone through Tuesday, according to the media-tracking firm AdImpact. The firm has tracked more than $30 million total flowing into the state House primaries.

Anti-voucher Republicans are being defended by traditional pro-incumbent groups like the campaign of House Speaker Dade Phelan but also getting help from Texas grocery mogul Charles Butt. Since September, he has pumped at least $4.1 million into a political action committee for the cause.

The biggest wild card may be the other political forces animating the primary. While Paxton supports school vouchers, he is more broadly trying to remake a House GOP majority that he sees as too deferential to the minority party.

Trump has most notably intervened by endorsing challengers who have the support of both Abbott, Paxton and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a longtime critic of state House leadership who is especially close with the former president. Trump has also aided Paxton and Patrick by backing a challenger to Phelan, who presided over Paxtons impeachment.

Despite the school-voucher push, polling continues to show Texas primary voters are far more concerned about the border, something Abbott acknowledges. Campaigning for LaHood, Abbott said the challengers No. 1 focus is my No. 1 focus the border and that he did not trust Allison on that issue either.

In the interview, Allison challenged Abbott to say where Allison has been weak on the border and suggested Abbott was making the attack because the voucher issue isnt playing as well as he anticipated.

Other Abbott-targeted lawmakers have sought to leverage border politics by bragging that they killed a program that would have given tax dollars to illegal immigrants. The voucher program would have been open to any current student, including those in public schools, which according to Supreme Court precedent must educate undocumented children.

Abbotts push resonated Wednesday in San Antonio with Rey Gonzalez, a 37-year-old father who said private school options were really important to him. He said he has a 12-year-old daughter in public school and sends his 3-year-old son to a private Christian school, in part, because he worries public schools are exposing students to certain social issues too early.

It causes confusion and makes the dinner talks a lot different, Gonzalez said.

For Abbott, the campaign is a possible legacy-making moment as he looks to a political future that could include running for reelection in 2026, which would set him up to be the longest-serving Texas governor, or serving in a second Trump administration.

Trump toured the Texas-Mexico border Thursday with Abbott and later said the governor was on his shortlist for possible running mates.

Excerpt from:
In Texas races, Gov. Abbott targets fellow Republicans who oppose vouchers - The Washington Post

On Super Tuesday, March 5, Alaska Republicans will join their counterparts in 14 other states and one territory by casting votes for their preferred nominee for president in this Novembers general election.

In Alaska, primary elections for president are run by political parties, not the state, and this is the first Republican preference poll since 2016 Alaska Republicans canceled the 2020 vote in order to throw unanimous support behind then-incumbent President Donald Trump.

Three candidates are on the ballot this year: Trump, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, who has ended his campaign and endorsed Trump.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Lt. Gov. (and U.S. House candidate) Nancy Dahlstrom have endorsed Trump, as has U.S. House candidate Nick Begich. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has said she hopes Haley wins.

Art Hackney, a longtime Alaska campaigner, is chairing the pro-Haley effort in Alaska. He said supporters are calling friends and urging them to call others in support of Haley.

Right now, were just 75 of us making phone calls like crazy and trying to get people to turn out, he said.

Its not likely that were going to be victorious, but its certainly important that people feel that they can go to the polls and express their support for Nikki, Hackney said.

Kelly Tshibaka, the Republican who lost to Murkowski in the 2022 general election, is Trumps campaign chair in Alaska and said the campaign is sending out texts, emails, endorsements, social media promotions ahead of Tuesdays vote.

A Republican candidate needs the support of 1,215 delegates at the national convention in Milwaukee in July to become the partys nominee.

Through Wednesday, Trump has 122 delegates, Haley 24, and two other candidates (who have since dropped out) have a combined 12 delegates. On Tuesday, 874 delegates are in play, and Alaska accounts for 29 of those, said Republican Party Chair Ann Brown.

Those delegates will be divided according to Tuesdays vote, she said. If candidate A gets 60% of the votes, theyll get 60% of the delegates.

The Alaska poll is not a winner-take-all poll, Brown said.

A candidate needs to get at least 13% of the vote in order to become eligible for any of Alaskas delegates.

If no candidate at the national convention gets enough support in the first round of voting for a candidate, Alaskas delegates will become free agents on the second and subsequent rounds of voting.

There is no absentee voting. On Tuesday, 18 polling places will be open across the state from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Each polling place is designated for voters of the local state House districts, but out-of-district voting is allowed, Brown said.

Only registered Republicans can participate, but voters may change their registration at the polling site, Brown said, then vote.

Voters should be prepared to present a photo ID, such as an Alaska drivers license, state-issued ID or military ID.

Preliminary results should be available Tuesday night, Brown said. Polling locations are supposed to report their initial results to party headquarters by 9:30 p.m.

The party will post results on its social media pages, she said.

The Alaska Democratic Partys presidential primary is April 13, and two candidates are currently on the ballot: Dean Phillips and incumbent President Joe Biden.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

SUBSCRIBE

More here:
Alaska Republicans head to the polls Tuesday with Trump, Haley and Ramaswamy on the ballot Alaska Beacon - Alaska Beacon

Congress is expected later this week to take up and approve a package of six spending bills to fund half the government through the fall, after months of bitter negotiations as Republicans pressed for cuts and conservative policies.

The $460 billion legislation would fund a slew of government agencies and programs, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department and veterans affairs. It must pass in order to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.

Top lawmakers are still negotiating spending for the other half of the government for the rest of the year, including for the Pentagon, that Congress must pass by March 22 to avert a lapse in funding for those programs.

Here is what to know about the 1,050-page bill on track for passage this week.

The funding levels adhere to the debt limit and spending deal negotiated last year by President Biden and the speaker at the time, Kevin McCarthy, keeping spending on domestic programs essentially flat even as funding for veterans programs continues to grow while allowing military spending to increase slightly.

Ultimately, lawmakers jettisoned most of House Republicans most sweeping and divisive demands, including blocking an increase in funding for nutrition assistance programs for low-income women and children, and halting the implementation of new rules to allow greater access to abortion medication.

But Speaker Mike Johnson and his negotiators were able to secure a number of smaller demands, including cuts to the E.P.A. and the F.B.I.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Read the original post:
Here's What's in the Bipartisan Spending Bill to Prevent a Partial Shutdown - The New York Times

The U.S. Supreme Court brought certainty on Monday to a primary season muddled by confusing and divergent state-level rulings by deciding unanimously that the 14th Amendment did not allow states to disqualify former President Donald J. Trump.

But reaction to the ruling showed that the challenges to Mr. Trumps candidacy had hardened political dividing lines and angered Republicans who saw the lawsuits as an antidemocratic attempt to meddle in the election. And the ruling was handed down as voters in more than a dozen states prepared for Super Tuesday primaries.

It motivated people to get involved, said Brad Wann, a Republican Party caucus coordinator in Colorado, the first of three states to disqualify Mr. Trump, and the state at the center of the Supreme Court case. They feel like the Democrats in this state are trying to take basic rights away. People are talking at coffee shops, at churches, saying we cannot let this happen.

The ballot challenges, which were filed in more than 30 states, focused on whether Mr. Trumps efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat disqualified him from holding the presidency again. The cases were based on a clause of the 14th Amendment, enacted after the Civil War, that prohibits government officials who engaged in insurrection or rebellion from holding office.

On Monday, all nine Supreme Court justices agreed that individual states could not bar candidates for the presidency under the insurrection provision. Four justices would have left it at that. A five-justice majority, in an unsigned opinion, went on to say that Congress must act to give that section force.

In Illinois, where the Supreme Courts decision overtook a finding by a state judge last week that Mr. Trump was ineligible, many voters said Mr. Trump belonged on the ballot.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Visit link:
Trump Ballot Eligibility Ruling Elicits Mixed Reactions Ahead of Super Tuesday - The New York Times

Despite their public posture of advocating for lower government spending, House Republicans have billions more at stake in the bills to fund federal agencies than any other voting bloc on Capitol Hill.

Of the four congressional caucuses, House Republicans have stuffed the bills that fund the federal government with more than $4.5 billion worth of narrow projects in their districts, commonly known as earmarks. Thats more than half a billion more dollars than their next closest competitor, the Democratic caucus in the Senate.

Yet, when the first chunk of spending bills hit the House floor in a few days, Republicans expect to struggle to round up votes for a legislative package even though they will include almost all of their earmarks. On Thursday, just 113 Republicans, about 54 percent of their caucus, voted for a stopgap bill averting a partial government shutdown, while all but two Democrats supported the bill.

Remarkably, it will have to be Democrats who unlock the gusher of federal earmarks into House GOP districts. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is only expected to deliver little more than a third of the vote needed in favor of the overarching legislation that will provide full-year budgets for agencies.

Its the latest example of what Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in her last two years as speaker, dubbed the vote no and take the dough phenomenon among Republicans.

With earmarks once considered the gateway drug to congressional corruption, the tea party-driven House GOP majority banished them in 2011 from funding bills after Justice Department investigations landed several lawmakers in prison and dozens more former staff received felony sentences.

But as the work of the House and Senate Appropriations committees languished year after year, leading to a pair of weeks-long shutdowns last decade, Democrats decided to bring earmarks back when they held the majority, starting with the 2022 fiscal year.

The idea was to instill rank-and-file lawmakers with personal skin in the appropriations game, setting up a detailed process to weed out ethical conflicts and require local support for what are now formally called community funding projects.

Requests were initially limited to 10 or fewer, and the overall funds were limited to 1 percent of the total budgets for federal agencies.

Democrats nearly universally embraced these projects, but House Republicans were reluctant. Barely half of them requested earmarks in 2022, while former congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), then the minority leader and part of the leadership team that banned them a decade earlier, declined these funds.

But after they won the majority in late 2022, House Republicans voted by a more than 3-to-1 margin to continue the earmark process exactly as Democrats had reestablished it.

According to analyses by CQ Roll Call and Bloomberg Government, about two-thirds of House Republicans stand ready to collect earmarks from the latest work by the Appropriations Committee.

Unlike McCarthy, Johnson fully embraces earmarks, having requested more than $100 million for military bases in the past three years in his district.

Has this transformation helped Republicans learn the ropes and support the overall legislation?

To some degree, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a veteran member of the spending committee, told reporters Thursday.

As they wrote their own sharply partisan funding outlines last summer, House Republicans had several very close votes, which, without earmarks, might have failed to win a majority.

Its hard to vote against a bill when the committee and staff have done everything they can to try to address the issues that you want to address, Simpson said.

Thats a very old-school view of congressional politics, when it was understood that if lawmakers had millions of dollars designated for their individual districts, they were expected to support the overall legislation.

Yet dozens of Republicans will probably thumb their nose at that traditional view in the next few days.

Take Rep. Tim Burchett (Tenn.), who was one of eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy as speaker in early October after McCarthy allowed a stopgap funding bill to pass mostly with Democratic votes to avoid a shutdown. He voted no, again, on Thursday on the very brief stopgap bill.

Burchett has warned Americans will lose our country over the national debt, but he still submitted roughly two dozen earmark requests worth more than $50 million, ranging from $2.5 million for the East Tennessee Childrens Hospital to $5.4 million to refurbish a Knoxville concert amphitheater to $100,000 to boost genetic testing for state law enforcement.

Members just need to be able to stand up and defend each and every one of them, Burchett said. You know, if we need a hospital, we need a hospital. We need a road? We need a road. And that is a duty of government.

Does he feel more invested now in voting for either of the two upcoming funding packages, totaling almost $1.7 trillion, since his projects will be included?

I dont have any obligation at all, Burchett said.

Democrats grew irritated last summer as House Republicans steered such a huge amount of earmarked funds in their direction.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, oversaw the relaunch more than two years ago. Back when only half of Republicans requested them, the distribution represented a close to 2-to-1 value for the majority.

The dollar amount was predicated on the number of requests, DeLauro told reporters Thursday.

But Republicans took that split and adopted it as precedent for the majority party. They awarded themselves more than 62 percent of all earmarks, according to The Washington Posts Jacob Bogages analysis in January, easily the largest haul.

Senate Democrats have claimed close to $4 billion in earmarks while Senate Republicans stand to get $3 billion. House Democrats will get more than $2.7 billion.

After about a third of their members declined these projects, House Republicans are dividing up the biggest earmark pie with far fewer lawmakers than their Democratic counterparts.

That results in, according to the CQ Roll Call analysis, a gusher of funds for those House Republicans wanting earmarks.

Of the 100 largest recipients of earmarked dollars in the House, 97 are Republicans.

And House Republicans have looked out for their politically vulnerable members 10 of the 16 GOP lawmakers representing districts that favored President Biden in 2020 have collected earmark hauls that place them in the top third of the entire House, according to CQ Roll Call.

House Republicans also limited earmark requests to just seven of the 12 annual bills, eliminating projects from some more liberal-leaning measures like the one that funds the Departments of Labor, and Health and Human Services. They also nixed earmarks for the Defense Department, caving to far-right lawmakers who accuse Pentagon leaders of becoming woke.

They even blocked three community projects Democrats had won initial approval for, because they funded LGBTQ+ projects.

Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) had his $1.8 million request for an LGBTQ+ community center in Philadelphia approved and then blocked, so he instead worked with DeLauro and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the Senate Appropriations chair, along with his states Democratic senators, to get $1 million for the project in the Senate bill.

Democrats believe their vetting process has stood up over the past few years and that only political reasons prompted these actions.

The nature of the projects and reviewing them has been very positive, DeLauro said.

Some staunch conservatives even regard earmarks as the constitutionally mandated role of Congress, with lawmakers better suited to know their districts needs than agency bureaucrats.

One such Republican is Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), another of the eight who voted to oust McCarthy in early October. He initially requested a whopping $141.5 million for a naval air base in his Florida Panhandle district, which would have been one of the largest earmarks in the House this year.

The old-school ethos on Capitol Hill might have led to punishing Gaetz, who led the effort to first block McCarthys ascension to speaker in January 2023. Instead, his request was honored, at a reduced rate, for $50 million, which places him among the top 15 recipients in earmark funds.

He, however, regularly votes against the Appropriations Committees bills, just as he did on Thursday by voting no on the stopgap bill.

Simpson wishes more Republicans would embrace his panels work given that so many have a lot at stake for their districts.

He wonders if many Republicans will vote no in the next few weeks, even as they take the dough in earmarks.

I dont know. Well see, he said.

See the article here:
Republicans want earmarks for their districts but vote against spending bills - The Washington Post