| | | | New battleground polls show tight race in key states | | It remains a close race in some key swing states, according to new polls released Wednesday. In North Carolina, the race is neck and neck, with Hillary Clinton at 44% and Donald Trump at 43% among registered voters. Libertarian Gary Johnson is at 11%, according to CNN/ORC's latest poll.
In Arizona, a traditionally red state, Trump has a lead of 5 points among registered voters, 43% to Clinton's 38%, with Johnson at 12% and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 4%.
Democrats have hoped that growing Hispanic and minority populations in states like Arizona might put longtime Republican strongholds in play. North Carolina has been trending more purple in recent presidential elections.
Both states also have Senate races being eyed by Democrats looking to flip the Senate majority and Republicans looking to hold the line. In Arizona, incumbent Sen. John McCain has a strong lead over his Republican primary challenger and likely Democratic opponent in November, both in double digits.
But in North Carolina, McCain's GOP Senate colleague Richard Burr is in a much closer fight, holding a 3-point lead over Democratic challenger Deborah Ross, 49% to 46%.
Those numbers are consistent with a poll out from Monmouth University today tracking North Carolina. That poll found Clinton and Burr with 2-point leads.
Speaking of polling, Trump's campaign manager recently discussed an "undercover Trump vote" as being a factor. Kellyanne Conway told UK's "Channel 4" news that there were secret internal numbers that showed Trump was actually ahead. "The hidden Trump vote in this country is a very significant proposition," she said, per CNN's David Wright. She said she couldn't discuss it, but added, "It's a project we're doing internally. I call it the 'undercover Trump voter,' but it's real."
Though the interview aired this week, Conway told CNN it was recorded weeks ago, and she has said in recent days the campaign is currently behind in the polls. | | Clinton and Trump share one thing: Avoiding the press | | There is one way the two pitched opponents in the presidential race are alike -- ducking media questions. CNN's Brian Stelter reports that with a recent dramatic change from Donald Trump, both candidates are now avoiding tough press situations.
Hillary Clinton has not held a full-fledged press conference since December and has given only a handful of interviews this summer.
While Trump has a reputation for being a frequent media guest, there has been a sharp turn since an unfavorable interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos at the end of July. Since then, Trump has appeared almost exclusively on Fox News and his campaign has declined all interview requests from CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC.
And Politico reports that for Clinton, avoiding too much attention is the campaign's tactic to deal with the drip, drip, drip of critical stories. "With 75 days until Election Day and new emails once again casting a pall over her campaign, Hillary Clinton aims to 'run out the clock,' confidants say, on the latest chapters of the overlapping controversies that have dogged her campaign since the start," reports Annie Karni. | | Trump camp plans concerted outreach to minority voters | | The Donald Trump campaign will make an effort to reach minority voters, a strategy that could bring Trump to more urban and diverse areas including Detroit and black churches. First reported by The Washington Post, an adviser confirmed the story to CNN and said the strategy is "part of an ongoing conversation" and said the campaign is "looking forward."
As CNN's Sara Murray, Jim Acosta and myself have reported, Trump has been making pitches to African-American voters in recent days, and has been "softening" his tone on immigration. Ben Carson, who will be helping Trump in the outreach, said expectations aren't high, but Trump is about doing the right thing.
"He fully recognizes that he's probably not going to win the majority, anywhere near the majority of African-American votes, because of tradition. However, after you enact the right policies, I think people are going to be more interested in things that work ... and I think it's going to be an exciting time in America when that happens," Carson told CNN's Brianna Keilar on Wednesday.
But is he making matters worse? The New York Times' Nick Corasaniti and Maggie Haberman report that comments Trump has made about inner cities, crime and poverty are actually offending the groups he says he is reaching out to.
"Republican pollsters and strategists speculate that Mr. Trump's newfound attention to blacks and inner-city conditions is aimed less at actually vying for African-American support than at softening his image among suburban whites who might otherwise be receptive to him but are loath to vote for someone seen as racist," they write. "Marc H. Morial, the president of the National Urban League, said Mr. Trump's depiction of a desperate, hopeless black America did not match reality."
"It's an inaccurate portrayal of the community that seeks to define the community by only its biggest challenges," Morial said. "Black America has deep problems — deep economic problems — but black America also has a large community of striving, successful, hard-working people: college-educated, in the workforce." | | How a life-saving drug became a political football | | EpiPens are known for saving people from suffering fatal allergic reactions -- but they're getting new attention in the political realm due to skyrocketing prices. And, as CNN's Eugene Scott reports, it's become a family affair on Capitol Hill.
"Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a Democrat whose daughter relies on EpiPen, urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate the price increase of the medication, calling it 'unjustified.' Meanwhile, the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democrat of West Virginia ... Heather Bresch, heads Mylan, the company that produces EpiPens."
The political fight has drawn attention from the likes of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
 | | | Twitter had some fun comparing the star power of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump after he went off-script on Wednesday to call her celebrity backers not "very hot anymore." | | AP's Clinton Foundation story gets pushback | | The Hillary Clinton campaign was out in force denying a story from The Associated Press yesterday that said more than half the people outside of government that she met with at the State Department were donors to her family's foundation.
Her campaign surrogates, and sympathetic voices in the media, denied anything inappropriate took place and objected to AP's methods for its story.
Matthew Yglesias called the story "a mess" on Vox, writing: "Here's the bottom line: Serving as secretary of state while your husband raises millions of dollars for a charitable foundation that is also a vehicle for your family's political ambitions really does create a lot of space for potential conflicts of interest. Journalists have, rightly, scrutinized the situation closely. And however many times they take a run at it, they don't come up with anything more scandalous than the revelation that maybe billionaire philanthropists have an easier time getting the State Department to look into their visa problems than an ordinary person would."
And Paul Waldman had a similar take for The Washington Post's "The Plum Line" blog: "If we find cases where someone actually received some favor or consideration they didn't deserve, then depending on the details it might actually be scandalous. But an email discussion of Bono's wacky idea to send U2 concerts to the International Space Station is not a scandal."
The AP defended the story in a statement from Paul Colford, vice president and director of media relations, on Wednesday, saying, "AP has been transparent in how it has reported this story." | | By the way, what is the Clinton Foundation? | | With all the attention on what the relationship was between the Clinton Foundation and State Department under Hillary Clinton, CNN's Nicole Gaouette has this helpful primer on what the foundation is, and why it's controversial.
And given the claims from Donald Trump that the foundation was "pay for play," his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, explained why he gave $100,000 to the charity. She said it was not for access. "No, it seems like he had access to her anytime he wanted. She went to his wedding," she said, adding, "No, he was not paying to play." | | | Super PAC putting $1 million behind ad campaign for Gary Johnson ... Donald Trump's campaign spent $55,000 buying copies of his book. ... Cher remains defiant after her harsh attacks on Trump. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
Post a Comment