Politics

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has scheduled an all-senators classified briefing on the global innovation and technology race and a proposed bill to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, his office said on Thursday.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell threatened last week to try to block the bill that would provide $52 billion to subsidize U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and boost U.S. competitiveness with China if Democrats move forward with a social spending and climate bill.

The briefing planned for Wednesday from the Biden administration will focus “on the global innovation and technology race and the bipartisan innovation bill which is vital for America’s long-term national security.”

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday the Biden administration wants Congress to move quickly, noting Intel Corp announced it will invest $20 billion to open semiconductor factories in Ohio “and that could expand to as much as $100 billion” if Congress passes chips subsidies.

The Senate legislation, passed in June 2021, included $52 billion for chips subsidies and authorized another $200 billion to boost U.S. scientific and technological innovation to compete with China.

The House version, passed in February, is similar but nearly 3,000 pages long and includes a number of trade proposals not in the Senate bill. Many House provisions are expected to be dropped.

Some fear Congress will not be able to reach a deal before the November congressional elections if it does not come to an agreement in the coming weeks.

A persistent shortage of chips has disrupted the automotive and electronics industries, forcing some companies to scale back production. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who has been making calls in recent days to try to advance the bill, and many companies think the shortage will last at least until late 2023 if not longer.

Lawmakers warn some major investments in new U.S. chip production could be jeopardized without action from Congress.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sandra Maler and Kim Coghill)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A political shift is beginning to take hold across the U.S. as tens of thousands of suburban voters who helped fuel the Democratic Party’s gains in recent years are becoming Republicans.

Across 31 states, about two-thirds of voters who have switched their official party registrations in the past year have switched to the Republican Party, according to voter registration data analyzed by The Associated Press. The phenomenon is playing out in virtually every region of the country — Democratic and Republican states along with cities and small towns — in the period since President Joe Biden replaced former President Donald Trump.

Nowhere is the shift more pronounced — and dangerous for Democrats — than in the suburbs. Over the last year, far more people are switching to the GOP across suburban counties from Denver to Pittsburgh. Republicans also gained ground in counties around medium-size cities such as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Des Moines, Iowa.

Ben Smith, who lives in suburban Larimer County, Colorado, north of Denver, said he reluctantly registered as a Republican earlier in the year after becoming increasingly concerned about the Democrats’ support in some localities for mandatory COVID-19 vaccines, the party’s inability to quell violent crime and its frequent focus on racial justice.

“It’s more so a rejection of the left than embracing the right,” said Smith, a 37-year-old professional counselor whose transition away from the Democratic Party began five or six years ago when he registered as a libertarian.

The AP examined data from the 31 states in which voters explicitly register by political party and which make that information available to the public. Across those states, nearly 680,000 voters changed their registrations in the past year, according to L2, a political data firm.

While party switching is not uncommon, the data shows a definite reversal from the period while Trump was in office, when Democrats enjoyed a slight edge in the number of party switchers nationwide.

But over the last year, about 430,000 voters in those states shifted to the Republican Party, compared with about 240,000 who became Democrats. In another 12 states — including the electoral battlegrounds of Texas, Ohio and Virginia — L2 estimates each voter’s party affiliation using records of voting in primary elections or statistical modeling. Those estimates, based on information such as demographics, local voting patterns and registered voter surveys, suggest that the same pattern is playing out in these states, too, with roughly two-thirds of voters whose affiliations changed in the past year moving toward the Republican Party.

The migration of hundreds of thousands of voters, a small portion of the overall U.S. electorate, does not ensure widespread Republican success in the November midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress and dozens of governorships. Democrats are hoping the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this summer to overrule Roe v. Wade will energize supporters, particularly in the suburbs, ahead of the midterms.

Still, the details about party switchers present a warning for Democrats who were already concerned about the macro effects shaping the political landscape this fall.

Roughly four months before Election Day, Democrats have no clear strategy to address Biden’s weak popularity and voters’ overwhelming fear that the country is headed in the wrong direction with their party in charge. And while Republicans have offered few policy solutions of their own, the GOP has been working effectively to capitalize on the Democrats’ shortcomings.

Republicans benefited last year as suburban parents grew increasingly frustrated by prolonged pandemic-related school closures. And as inflation intensified more recently, the Republican National Committee has been hosting voter registration events at gas stations in suburban areas across swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania to link the Biden administration to record-high gas prices. The GOP has also linked the Democratic president to an ongoing baby formula shortage.

“Biden and Democrats are woefully out of touch with the American people, and that’s why voters are flocking to the Republican Party in droves,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel told the AP. She predicted that “American suburbs will trend red for cycles to come” because of “Biden’s gas hike, the open border crisis, baby formula shortage and rising crime.”

The Democratic National Committee declined to comment when asked about the recent surge in voters switching to the GOP.

And while Republican officials are quick to take credit for the shift, the phenomenon gained momentum shortly after Trump left the White House. Still, the specific reason or reasons for the shift remain unclear.

At least some of the newly registered Republicans are actually Democrats who crossed over to vote against Trump-backed candidates in GOP primaries. Such voters are likely to vote Democratic again this November.

But the scope and breadth of the party switching suggests something bigger at play.

Over the last year, nearly every state where voter registration records are available — even those without high-profile Republican primaries — moved in the same direction as voters by the thousands became Republicans.

In Iowa, Democrats used to hold the advantage in party changers by a 2-to-1 margin. That’s flipped over the last year, with Republicans ahead by a similar amount.

In Florida, Republicans captured 58 percent of party switchers during those last years of the Trump era. Now, over the last year, they command 71 percent. And in Pennsylvania, the Republicans went from 58% to 63% of party changers.

The current advantage for Republicans among party changers is playing out with particular ferocity in the nation’s suburbs.

The AP found that the Republican advantage was larger in suburban “fringe” counties, based on classifications from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared to smaller towns and counties. Republicans boosted their share of party changers in 91 of 133 suburban counties AP examined — 68% — over the last year, compared with the last years of the Trump era.

Republicans also gained ground in further-out suburban counties, which the CDC lumps in with medium-size cities and calls “medium metro” — more than 60% of such counties, 115 in all, saw Republican growth. They range from the suburban counties north of Denver, like Larimer, to Los Angeles-area ones like Ventura and Santa Barbara in California.

Some conservative leaders worry that the GOP’s suburban gains will be limited if Republicans don’t do a better job explaining to suburban voters what they stand for — instead of what they stand against.

Emily Seidel, who leads the Koch-backed grassroots organization Americans for Prosperity, said her network is seeing first-hand that suburban voters are distancing themselves from Democrats who represent “extreme policy positions.”

“But that doesn’t mean that they’re ready to vote against those lawmakers either. Frankly, they’re skeptical of both options that they have,” Seidel said. “The lesson here: Candidates have to make their case, they have to give voters something to be for, not just something to be against.”

Back in Larimer County, Colorado, 39-year-old homemaker Jessica Kroells says she can no longer vote for Democrats, despite being a reliable Democratic voter up until 2016.

There was not a single “aha moment” that convinced her to switch, but by 2020, she said the Democratic Party had “left me behind.”

“The party itself is no longer Democrat, it’s progressive socialism,” she said, specifically condemning Biden’s plan to eliminate billions of dollars in student debt.

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Peoples reported from New York.

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This story was first published on June 27, 2022. It was updated on July 7, 2022, to correct the number of voters who have switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP based on voter registration data. The initial story erroneously said voter registration data analyzed by the AP showed that more than 1 million voters across 43 states had switched to the Republican Party in the past 12 months. That figure was based on information about voters from the political data firm L2, and combined voter registration records with modeled information about the partisanship of voters in states without registration by party. The story should have been more clear about the distinction between the two types of information about voters.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Election officials preparing for the upcoming midterms face a myriad of threats, both foreign and domestic, as they look to protect voting systems and run a smooth election while fighting a wave of misinformation that has been undermining public confidence in U.S. elections.

The nation’s top state election officials gathered Thursday for the start of their annual summer conference, with a long list of challenges that begins with securing their voting systems.

While a top concern heading into the 2020 presidential election was Russia or another hostile nation waging a disruptive cyberattack, the landscape has expanded to include ransomware, politically motivated hackers and insider threats. Over the last year, a small number of security breaches have been reported at local election offices in which authorities are investigating whether office staff improperly accessed or provided improper access to sensitive voting technology.

Jen Easterly, who leads the nation’s cybersecurity agency, said Russia, China and North Korea remain “very dynamic and complex cyber threats” and that criminal gangs pushing ransomware were also a concern. But she noted election security officials could not afford to prioritize one over the other.

“We can’t just worry about one thing because if we focus too intently on one set of threats, we’re very likely to miss them coming from another direction,” Easterly told reporters, after a series of private meetings with state election officials.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has been conducting physical assessments for state and local election officials, which includes site visits and reviews of security procedures such as video surveillance and access controls. The agency has also issued guidance on how to mitigate insider threats, which emphasizes the importance of chain of custody rules. The guidance also suggests the use of bipartisan teams when accessing sensitive equipment.

State election officials have also been focused on boosting cybersecurity defenses at the local level, where staffing and resources are often limited.

In Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently announced a third wave of security requirements for the state’s county election boards, which includes increased video surveillance for voting equipment and more comprehensive security reviews of county systems.

“It’s constant vigilance,” LaRose said Thursday. “The threat is constantly emerging. The threat is constantly changing. And so we’re evolving with it and making sure that our guard is up.”

Election security became a national focus after the 2016 presidential election, when Russia probed state voter registration systems across the country looking for vulnerabilities.

In response, the Obama administration designated election systems as “critical infrastructure” — on par with the nation’s banks, dams and nuclear power plants. This freed up resources and funds for election officials, and a concerted effort was made to improve communications and intelligence sharing between the federal government and the states.

But the 2020 presidential election brought an unprecedented wave of false claims and conspiracy theories surrounding voting equipment and election procedures as former President Donald Trump sought to explain his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Supporters and allies of Trump have been traveling across the country for more than a year claiming the election was stolen and spreading misinformation that has further increased distrust in U.S. elections.

Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the election was tainted. The former president’s allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.

But the false claims have persisted and have led to suspected security breaches at local election offices a handful of states.

Earlier this year, the clerk in Mesa County, Colorado, was indicted for a security breach at her election office. Authorities say Clerk Tina Peters allowed unauthorized people access to voting equipment and an unauthorized copy was made of the county’s voting system that was later posted online. Peters has denied any wrongdoing.

In Colorado, Secretary of State Jena Griswold pushed for legislative changes this year to tighten security measures surrounding voting systems and increase penalties for those attempting to access them.

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By Rose Horowitch and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Democrats are finalizing a plan to close a tax loophole used by many companies, and they want to use those revenues to shore up the government-run Medicare healthcare program for the elderly and disabled, sources familiar with the discussions said on Thursday.

Democrats expect to submit legislative text to the Senate parliamentarian in coming days, said one source, who asked not to be identified in order to discuss the private negotiations.

The tax change is aimed at the majority of businesses in the United States that are known as “pass-through” firms that are not subject to the corporate income tax and instead have their income reported to the government on individual tax returns, subjecting them to the lower tax rates.

Under the proposed changes, individuals who make more than $400,000 annually and couples who make more than $500,000 would have to pay a 3.8% tax on earnings from their pass-through business income.

The measure is intended to move through the Senate under special budgetary rules that require approval by the parliamentarian and would allow for passage without any Republican support in the deeply divided chamber.

The Medicare funding initiative is the latest effort by Democrats to pass some aspects of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda after conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin quashed the sprawling “Build Back Better” bill last year.

Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have been negotiating the details of a scaled-back package amid solid Republican opposition.

Another source familiar with those negotiations said substantial work still had to be done before an agreement can be reached on the two most difficult portions of the legislative package: a provision on tackling climate change and a tax initiative that is broader than the pass-through tax idea.

The fund that finances Medicare is currently set to be depleted by 2028. Democrats expect their pass-through tax proposal will amass $200 billion and would help make the trust fund solvent until 2031.

This would be one piece of a multi-pronged bill Democrats are hoping to pass this year that also would deal with rising prescription drug prices for seniors, tackling climate change and making other changes to the tax code aimed at high earners.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday advanced a deal that would allow the Medicare health plan to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.

According to the source, high-earning businesses, such as law firms, have found a way to claim only a small portion of their earnings and thus avoided most of the taxes they otherwise would pay.

(Reporting by Rose Horowitch and Richard Cowan; editing by Andy Sullivan and Aurora Ellis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pat Cipollone, White House counsel to former President Donald Trump, has agreed to testify on Friday in a transcribed interview before the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, news media said.

Cipollone’s actions during the deadly attack were described by witnesses at previous hearings before the House select committee. The committee subpoenaed him last week with a deadline to give sworn testimony before the panel.

Cipollone is appearing under subpoena and will not be in public, according to a New York Times report, confirmed by CNN. The committee did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The subpoena seeking a deposition from Cipollone followed dramatic public testimony from a former White House aide who said Cipollone had warned her at the time that they could face “every crime imaginable” if Trump went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 after delivering a fiery rally speech to his supporters.

Trump supporters, armed with weapons including AR-15-style rifles, marched from the Ellipse outside the White House to Capitol Hill in a failed effort to prevent lawmakers from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the November 2020 presidential election.

“The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed evidence that Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on January 6th and in the days that preceded,” the panel said in a statement last week.

“Any concerns Mr. Cipollone has about the institutional prerogatives of the office he previously held are clearly outweighed by the need for his testimony,” the committee said.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Howard Goller)

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YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — Two women are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in southern Arizona for their conviction for illegally collecting four early ballots during the 2020 primary election.

Authorities say Guillermina Fuentes and Alma Juarez participated in “ballot harvesting.” That’s a practice once used by both political parties to boost turnout but was made illegal by a 2016 state law that barred anyone but a family member or caregiver from returning early ballots for another person. It’s the only case filed so far by the state attorney general under the law.

Authorities say Fuentes ran a sophisticated operation using her status as a well-known Democratic operative in the Arizona border city of San Luis to persuade voters to let her gather and, in some cases, fill out their ballots. But the crime she admitted in court last month does not involve filling out ballots or any broader efforts.

Fuentes and Juarez each pleaded guilty to a charge of ballot abuse, acknowledging they collected early ballots for people who weren’t family members, didn’t live with them or weren’t receiving care from them.

Fuentes’ conviction was a felony, and she could be sentenced to probation or up to two years in prison, while Juarez’s was a misdemeanor. Under Juarez’s plea agreement, if she has cooperated as promised she will be sentenced to probation and prosecutors will not seek jail time.

Three other felony charges against Fuentes were dismissed. Those charges had alleged that Fuentes filled out one voter’s ballot and forged signatures on some of the four ballots she illegally returned for people who weren’t family members.

Republicans who have rallied around the possibility of widespread voting fraud in the 2020 election where former President Donald Trump was defeated have pointed to the charges against Fuentes as part of a broader pattern in battleground states. But there’s no sign her illegal ballot collection went beyond the small-town politics Fuentes was involved in.

Records from an investigation by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office show that fewer than a dozen ballots could be linked to Fuentes, not enough to make a difference in all but the tightest local races.

Investigators have said it appeared Fuentes used her position as a powerful figure in the heavily Mexican American community to get people to give her or others their ballots to return to the polls.

Fuentes and Juarez were seen with several mail-in envelopes outside a cultural center in San Luis on the day of the 2020 primary election, according to reports from investigators. The ballots were taken inside and dropped in a ballot box.

Fuentes was recorded on video by a write-in candidate who called the Yuma County sheriff.

An investigation was launched that day, and about 50 ballots checked for fingerprints, which were inconclusive. The investigation was taken over by the attorney general’s office within days, with investigators collaborating with sheriff’s deputies to interview voters, Fuentes and others.

Although Fuentes was charged only with actions that appear on the videotape and involve just a handful of ballots, investigators believe the effort went much farther.

An investigator for the Attorney General’s Office said there was some evidence suggesting Fuentes actively canvassed San Luis neighborhoods and collected ballots, in some cases paying for them.

Collecting ballots in that manner was a common get-out-the-vote tactic used by both political parties before Arizona passed the 2016 law, though Democrats used the practice more aggressively. Paying for ballots has never been legal.

The state’s ban on ballot harvesting was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

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By Jason Lange and Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a rising Republican star, has been careful not to nurture growing speculation that he will make a presidential bid in 2024. He has brushed off questions about his political ambitions, while the party’s presumptive front-runner, Donald Trump, repeatedly hints he will run again.

But there are signs that DeSantis could be preparing for a White House run even as he campaigns for another term as governor in November’s midterm elections.

A Reuters analysis of DeSantis’ social media ads shows he has dramatically expanded his out-of-state ads in recent months, an indicator, say some political analysts, that he may be laying the groundwork for a national campaign.

In the first three months of this year, political ads sent through DeSantis’ Facebook and Instagram pages were overwhelmingly concentrated in Florida, as one would expect from a man running for office in the state.

But by the April-June period, they were spread roughly evenly between Florida and the rest of the country, according to a Reuters analysis of regional spending data for social media ads compiled by New York University’s Cybersecurity for Democracy project.

DeSantis’ increase in out-of-state ads suggests a move toward building a nationwide network of supporters, said three Republican strategists, including Ron Bonjean, who was an adviser to former president Trump’s 2016 presidential transition team.

“It’s an important part of the campaign playbook and can help him build support quickly should he eventually throw his hat in the ring,” Bonjean said, adding that the timing matters as Trump could declare his candidacy “at any moment” and potentially dent DeSantis’ momentum.

DeSantis may, however, simply be using his national profile to seek a broader donor base for his re-election campaign, said Travis Ridout, an expert on campaign ads at Washington State University, although the Republican is a fund-raising giant who has already built a $100 million plus warchest.

Dave Abrams, a senior adviser on DeSantis’ re-election campaign, did not comment on the ads, but said the governor was fully focused on “winning big” in Florida this November.

“We’ll let the self-described ‘experts’ do what they do best: pontificate endlessly,” he told Reuters.

Two sources close to DeSantis confirmed to Reuters he is building a national database of voter contact information.

Political campaigns in the United States use such data, collected from many sources, to create detailed profiles https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ELECTION/DATA-VISUAL/yxmvjjgojvr of voters to inform their strategies and tactics. Gathering data via social media was a key tool for Trump’s own 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. Any challenger would have to compete against his formidable database of small donors.

Social media ads often prompt supporters for their names, email addresses and other information that campaigns can use for future fundraising appeals and invitations to rallies.

SWING STATES

Should DeSantis launch a White House bid, he would be retracing the steps of past presidential candidates including U.S. Senator Corey Booker, a Democrat who boosted out-of-state social media ads ahead of the 2018 midterm elections before running for president in 2020, Ridout said.

Many of DeSantis’ recent ads were concentrated in swing states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina, with ad viewers asked to fill out surveys with questions like: “Are YOU feeling pain at the pump thanks to Joe Biden?”

Other ads ask for support to fight “the dishonest corporate media,” “woke corporations” and the left’s “socialist agenda.”

After clicking on an ad, users are directed to a DeSantis web page that asks for their opinion on the issue and contact information.

Compared to television, ads on social media are cheap for political campaigns. DeSantis spent only around $300,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads in the first half of 2022, according to the NYU data.

“Small-dollar donors are worth more than the money involved,” said Ohio-based Republican strategist Mark Weaver. “They can be volunteers and force multipliers of your message far outside of the borders of Florida.”

In contrast, the governors of the other biggest states – Republican Greg Abbott and Democrats Gavin Newsom of California and Kathy Hochul of New York – have overwhelmingly focused on their home states in social media ads this year.

To be sure, there are many bigger steps that American presidential hopefuls need to take before launching any White House campaign. Making a pilgrimage to early voting states in the nomination process, such as Iowa, is one of them. Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, has already made the trip. DeSantis has not.

(Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington and Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco. Additional reporting by Katie Paul in San Francisco. Editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell)

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By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday on relations between the two countries as they seek to repair ties that were strained under former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

They also spoke about the situation in Pakistan’s neighbor Afghanistan and about the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on food security in Pakistan and the rest of the world, the U.S. State Department said after their call.

The Pakistan foreign ministry said Bhutto Zardari requested an easing in issuance of U.S. visas for Pakistani nationals.

It was the second interaction between the two leaders. They last spoke in May.

Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April, had antagonized the United States throughout his tenure, welcoming the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year and more recently accusing Washington of being behind the attempt to oust him. Washington and Pakistan’s National Security Council, a body of top civil and military leaders, dismissed the accusations.

“The Secretary welcomed the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Pakistan and reaffirmed our joint goals for enhancing U.S.-Pakistan bilateral partnerships on economic stability, climate, and health,” the State Department said in its statement on Wednesday.

Analysts have said they do not expect the United States to seek a significant broadening of ties with Pakistan’s new government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, but to remain mostly focused on security cooperation, especially on counter-terrorism and Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Chizu Nomiyama)

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By Jeff Mason

Cleveland (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the U.S. Justice Department would take appropriate action if the investigation of a police shooting of a Black man in Akron, Ohio, reveals potential violations of federal criminal statutes.

Video released on Sunday showed eight police officers in Akron, Ohio, were involved in a shooting that killed 25-year-old Jayland Walker, whose body was found with some 60 gunshot wounds after he fled a traffic stop last week.

Police played multiple videos at a news conference, one of which they said showed a gunshot being fired from the car driven by Jayland Walker, 25. He fled in his car after officers attempted to pull him over for a minor traffic violation.

After a chase of several minutes, Walker jumped out of the car and ran from police, the video showed. Police said it appears he was turning toward officers, who at the time believed he was armed. A gun was later recovered from his car.

The Walker shooting marks the latest in a series of police killings of unarmed Black men, raising questions about police use of force and equal justice for African Americans, and contributing to U.S. polarization.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Leslie Adler and Will Dunham)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a call on Wednesday with Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and discussed bilateral relations and the situation in Pakistan’s neighbor Afghanistan, the State Department said.

They also spoke about the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on food security in Pakistan and the rest of the world, the State Department said in a statement.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington)

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