Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward this to you? Click here to subscribe.
We’re Julia Manchester, Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley. Here’s what we’re watching today on the campaign trail.
LEADING THE DAY:
Former Vice President Joe Biden reached out to communities of color on Monday, rolling out a plan to empower the African-American community and taking part in a virtual town hosted by an influential Latino civil rights organization.
Biden’s plan to empower the African-American community included six pillars — advancing the “economic mobility” of the black community, increasing access to high-quality education, eliminating disparities in health due to race, criminal justice reform, environmental justice and combatting systemic racism.
“I believe that the moral obligation of our time is to rebuild our economy in a way that finally brings everyone along,” Biden said in a statement. “That goal has always been the core of my candidacy — it’s the very reason that I am running for President. And achieving it starts by rooting out systemic racism from our laws, our policies, our institutions, and our hearts.”
Biden added that the coronavirus pandemic has “exposed — and cruelly exacerbated” disparities faced by the black community.
The former vice president has acknowledged the toll the pandemic has taken on the Latino community, speaking with essential workers at a virtual town hall organized by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
Biden told the workers in the town hall, “we owe you,” while calling for greater pay and access to coronavirus treatments.
“There’s nothing worse than worrying about a family member whether they’re going to make it or not. It’s not a whole lot worse than ending up in the morning and knowing your son or daughter is in a war zone,” Biden said.
The black and Latino communities will prove crucial for Biden and Democrats in November, and data shows they are energized.
Biden has polled well with black voters throughout the 2020 Democratic primary. The voting group’s support bolstered him to victory in a number of key states, including South Carolina, his first win in the nominating contest.
Seventy-three percent of black voters said they had a favorable view of Biden, according to a poll released last month by the left-leaning progressive group Black PAC.
Meanwhile, internal research conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s (CHC) campaign arm, Bold PAC, showed 78 percent of Hispanic voters said they were “almost certain” to vote and 48 percent said they were “extremely enthusiastic.”
— Julia Manchester
FROM THE TRAIL:
Biden’s campaign is planning some strategic new hires amid concerns from Democrats that their field operations are understaffed. Amie Parnes and Jonathan Easley report.
Trump’s campaign is putting seven figures behind a new ad saying Trump will lead the U.S. to a great economic recovery coming out of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden won the Kansas Democratic primary over the weekend, taking just short of 77 percent of the vote and 29 of the state’s 39 delegates, according to the Associated Press (AP). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who ended his campaign last month, won about 23 percent of the vote and 10 delegates.
The progressive group Indivisible endorsed Biden on Monday, saying that the former vice president is “Abraham Lincoln compared to Donald Trump,” The Hill’s Rebecca Klar reports. Biden wasn’t the group’s first choice in the Democratic nominating contest, but its co-founder Leah Greenberg said that about 95 percent of the group’s members supported the decision to endorse him.
Biden’s vice presidential selection committee is vetting “more than a dozen” women for his running mate slot, The Hill’s Zack Budryk reports. Speaking to Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s “Politics Nation,” Biden also said that the committee is going to consider “significantly more than one black woman” for the job.
PERSPECTIVES:
Janusz Bugajski: This is how Russia and China will exploit U.S. elections.
Glenn Nye and Chris Condon: How to protect the right to vote.
J.T. Young: Incumbent absence, challenger opportunity?
Juan Williams: GOP needs quarantine from Trump.
Newt Gingrich: Biden will implode.
FROM CONGRESS & THE STATES:
Trump on Monday endorsed Lacy Johnson, the Republican candidate challenging Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in the 2020 election cycle. Morgan Chalfant reports.
MONEY WATCH:
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) is poised to spend roughly $4 million on a series of ads pushing back on criticism of her financial transactions and touting her efforts to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Loeffler has vowed to spend $20 million of her own money on the Senate race, where she faces a challenge from Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), a Trump loyalist. Max Greenwood reports.
The Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund rolled out a $250,000 ad campaign Monday focusing on Republican-held House seats in Texas. Julia Manchester reports.
POLL WATCH:
PUBLIC POLICY POLLING – IOWA PRESIDENTIAL
Trump: 48 percent
Biden: 46 percent
PUBLIC POLICY POLLING – IOWA SENATE
Ernst: 43 percent (-4)
Greenfield: 42 percent (+1)
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
(Keep in mind these dates could change because of the outbreak.)
May 12:
Nebraska primaries
May 19:
Oregon primaries
May 22:
Hawaii Democratic primary
June 2:
Delaware primaries
District of Columbia primaries
Indiana primaries
Maryland primaries
Montana primaries
New Mexico primaries
Pennsylvania primaries
Rhode Island primaries
South Dakota primaries
June 9:
Georgia primaries
West Virginia primaries
June 23:
Kentucky primaries
July 7:
New Jersey primaries
July 11:
Louisiana
July 14:
Alabama Republican Senate primary runoff
August 11:
Connecticut primary
August 17-20:
Democratic National Convention
August 24-27:
Republican National Convention
One hopeful thing
MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU: Happy Star Wars Day!
Star Wars fans of all stripes took to social media to celebrate the fan holiday, bolstering spirits during the pandemic.
Figures and groups such as CNN’s Jake Tapper and the U.S. Navy showed they were loyal fans.
And CNN’s David Allan writes how we’re seeing many of Star Wars’ themes of “friendship, banding together to fight a deadly threat” amid the pandemic.
We’ll see you tomorrow for the latest campaign news and updates.