Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - March 1, 2016
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Tuesday's Leading Stories
- Super Tuesday has arrived. “The presidential candidates will contest delegates in 12 states and American Samoa … More than a fifth of the pledged delegates for both parties are up for grabs, making Super Tuesday the richest single-day delegate prize for the Democratic and Republican presidential contenders,” reported Ballotpedia senior writer Jim Barnes. (Ballotpedia)
- Several Republican U.S. senators have stated that they or other members of the Republican Party will likely disassociate themselves from Donald Trump if he receives the Republican nomination. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly said he would drop Trump “like a hot rock.“ Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, “We can't have a nominee be an albatross around the down-ballot races. That's a concern of mine.” In an open letter posted to Facebook on Sunday night, U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) detailed his opposition to Donald Trump’s candidacy. He announced, “If Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee, my expectation is that I will look for some third candidate – a conservative option, a Constitutionalist.” (CNN, The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, Facebook)
Polls
- According to an Emerson College tracking poll released on Monday, Ted Cruz holds a narrow lead over Donald Trump, 35 percent to 32 percent. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by more than 40 points with 68 percent support. (Emerson College)
- Emerson College also released a tracking poll of Massachusetts voters. Trump tops the Republican field with 51 percent. Clinton leads Sanders, 54 percent 43 percent. (Emerson College)
- According to Monmouth University, Trump is leading in Alabama with 42 percent support and Oklahoma with 35 percent. In the Democratic race, Clinton leads Sanders in Alabama, 71 percent to 23 percent. In Oklahoma, Sanders has the advantage with 48 percent to Clinton’s 43 percent. (Monmouth University)
- On Tuesday, CNN/ORC released a national poll with general election matchups. It found Donald Trump lost by eight points to Hillary Clinton and 12 points to Bernie Sanders. Matchups between Clinton and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were within a three-point range. Sanders, however, topped Cruz by 17 points and Rubio by eight. (CNN)
- Trump leads Rubio in Oklahoma, 34 percent to 21 percent, according to a News 9/News On 6 poll released on Tuesday. (Sooner Poll)
- On the Democratic side in Oklahoma, Clinton leads Sanders by nine points with 40 percent. “This race is being driven a lot by the undecided, conservative Democrats who don’t feel like they have any candidate in this race,” said pollster Bill Shapard. (Sooner Poll)
Democrats
- U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), who is running against John McCain for his U.S. Senate seat, released an ad on Monday highlighting McCain’s potential support for Donald Trump in the general election, in spite of controversial comments the presidential candidate has made about McCain, himself, and others. CNN noted, “The ad underscores what Democratic strategists have been saying publicly and privately for months: They believe that a Trump nomination would divide the GOP and be windfall for Democrats down-the-ticket, especially in the race for the Senate where Republicans currently hold a 54-46 majority. In particular, Democrats believe a Trump nomination would hurt blue-state Republicans in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois and New Hampshire, where GOP senators would almost certainly try to separate themselves from the top of the ticket.” (CNN)
Hillary Clinton
- On Monday, the State Department released the final batch of approximately 3,800 pages of emails from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. According to ABC News, “The State Department said that although there were no additional ‘top secret’ upgrades in today's release, two emails had to be withheld. One was an exchange with President Obama, which is sealed until a later date under rules governing presidential records, and the other was an unclassified message that was withheld at the request of a law enforcement agency.” (ABC News)
- Clinton received an endorsement from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ PAC on Monday. The chair of the caucus, U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), said, “We love Sen. Sanders as a senator. But I think that oftentimes he has some a very utopian idea of how he can reform the country and Washington, D.C. in particular. ... [Clinton] has built up those relationships in order to navigate and to try to get things done in a place, admittedly, very little gets done. I think that makes her far superior." (The Huffington Post)
- U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) wrote an op-ed for TIME on Monday explaining why he supported Clinton. He wrote, “Clinton’s vision goes well beyond immigration and education; her message of inclusion applies to every person in this country. As she said last week to a crowd in Nevada, ‘Tens of thousands of men and women with kids to raise, bills to pay, and dreams that won’t die, this is your campaign, and it is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back.’” (TIME)
- Priorities USA PAC and Emily’s List both released digital ads on Monday in support of Clinton. (The New York Times)
Bernie Sanders
- U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) endorsed Bernie Sanders on Monday. “Bernie Sanders and I share a goal of building a grassroots movement of people who want to take back our country from the billionaires and the multinational corporations. We want to make elections into something different: Not the lesser of two evils, but the greater good,” he wrote in an online post announcing his endorsement. (Politico, Tumblr)
- During a campaign event in Minnesota on Monday, Sanders expressed opposition to Enbridge Inc.’s Sandpiper and Alberta Clipper pipelines. “Our moral responsibility is to make sure that we leave this planet in a way that is healthy and inhabitable for future generations. Fossil fuel companies cannot wreck our planet for their short term profits,” he said. (USA Today)
- KSTP-TV reported on Monday that Sanders declined an endorsement from former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura (I). (KSTP-TV)
- Sanders’ campaign announced on Tuesday that it had raised $42 million in February. CNN noted this haul “would bring the total raised by Sanders to roughly $137 million, and continue giving him the fuel needed to do battle with Hillary Clinton, even if a path to the nomination has narrowed greatly.” (CNN)
Republicans
Ben Carson
- While campaigning in Lexington, Kentucky, on Monday, Ben Carson discussed the anger some voters have in this election and urged them to “calm down and start thinking logically.” He also discussed his Christian spirituality, saying, “We in America must stop being phobic about our faith. It’s OK to live by God.” (Lexington Herald-Leader)
- According to a Morning Consult poll released on Monday, Carson is the top choice for Donald Trump’s running mate. He received 11 percent of the vote. (Morning Consult)
- The Times Free Press reported on Tuesday that Candy Carson “said her husband believes God led him to run for president and, even though he trails in polls for the Republican presidential nomination, he has no intention of dropping out unless he hears from God to do so.” She added that her husband was called to run to speak out on national security issues and the nation’s $19 trillion debt. (The Times Free Press)
Ted Cruz
- According to NBC News, Ted Cruz’s campaign and pro-Cruz organizations have outspent all other candidate forces on advertising in Super Tuesday states. They have spent $6.2 million. (NBC News)
- N.Y. State Supreme Court Justice David Weinstein was expected to hear arguments in a case on Tuesday challenging Cruz’s eligibility to run for president because he was born in Canada. CNN reported on Tuesday morning that the hearing had been rescheduled for Thursday. (Newsday, CNN)
- Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and current Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) joined Cruz on the campaign trail in Texas on Monday to bolster his bid in that state. “If all Texans turn out and vote in a large number, Ted Cruz is going to be leaving the state of Texas with the wind at his back. Ted Cruz has the opportunity of Tuesday to turn this into a two-person race. And we know that if this is a two-person race, the person who is going to be the victor is Ted Cruz,” said Abbott. Perry argued, “We need consistency. With Donald Trump, Lord knows what he’s going to do. And I think that’s of great concern to most thoughtful individuals because he’s been all over the board.” (The Dallas Morning News)
John Kasich
- During a campaign event in Massachusetts on Monday, John Kasich was asked about the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Although he said that participants in the conference “should have been over there talking about ISIS,” he acknowledged that man was “affecting the climate.” He continued, “Here's what I do know: I know we need to develop all of the renewables, and we need to do it in an orderly way." (Esquire)
- The New York Times reported over the weekend that former U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said Kasich’s path to the White House, as planned by his “emissaries,” “probably ends up with the second-highest delegate count going into the convention” before competing for the nomination there. Gregg endorsed Kasich on Monday. (The New York Times, The New Hampshire Union Leader)
- Kasich called the detention of college student Otto Warmbier in North Korea “inexcusable” and called on President Obama to "make every effort to secure Mr. Warmbier's immediate release and keep [his] family constantly apprised,” according to The Associated Press on Monday. (U.S. News & World Report)
Marco Rubio
- On Monday, Nate Cohn of The New York Times analyzed where Marco Rubio would have the best chance to win a state on Super Tuesday. Cohn found Colorado, Minnesota and Virginia to be most favorable to Rubio. He noted, however, “Colorado’s precinct caucuses will not hold a ‘straw poll’ this year. Each precinct will nominate delegates to the county conventions, but those delegates will not be pledged to a candidate, like, say, the Democratic caucus in Iowa. … Mr. Rubio, in other words, will not have an opportunity to win what ought to be one of his best states on Super Tuesday. He might ultimately claim the most delegates, but he won’t be able to point to a win on Tuesday night.” (The New York Times)
- Rubio criticized Donald Trump on Monday for attributing his comments on David Duke during a CNN interview to a poor earpiece. Rubio said, “I don't care how bad the earpiece is, Ku Klux Klan comes through pretty clearly. … You say, 'David Duke' to me, I say, 'racist,' immediately. Why wouldn't he condemn the Ku Klux Klan? There is no room in the conservative movement and there is no room in the Republican Party for members of the Ku Klux Klan or racists like David Duke." (CNN)
- Former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) endorsed Rubio on Monday. “America desperately needs a president who will appeal to people's highest aspirations rather than their deepest fears; a president who will model servant leadership rather than self-promotion; and a president who will cast a vision and unite the country instead of denigrating dissenters as second-class citizens,” Coburn said in a statement. (CNN)
Donald Trump
- During a rally for Trump in Virginia on Monday, a veteran photographer for TIME, Chris Morris, was grabbed by the neck and slammed to the ground by a Secret Service agent as he tried to film protesters being ejected from the event. According to TIME, “Unlike other presidential campaigns, which generally allow reporters and photographers to move around at events, Trump has a strict policy requiring reporters and cameramen to stay inside a gated area, which the candidate often singles out for ridicule during his speeches. The entrance to the penned area is generally monitored by the Secret Service detail.” The Trump campaign said of the incident, “We are not aware of all the details surrounding the incident and all future inquiries should be directed to local law enforcement.” (TIME, ABC News)
- Trump attributed his unwillingness to condemn David Duke and white supremacist groups during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper to a poor earpiece. He said, “I'm sitting in a house in Florida with a very bad earpiece that they gave me, and you could hardly hear what he was saying. But what I heard was various groups, and I don't mind disavowing anybody, and I disavowed David Duke and I disavowed him the day before at a major news conference, which is surprising because he was at the major news conference, CNN was at the major news conference, and they heard me very easily disavow David Duke.” (Politico)
- Thirty black college students were reportedly removed from a Trump rally at Valdosta University in Georgia on Monday night at the request of Trump. “We didn’t plan to do anything. They said, 'This is Trump’s property; it’s a private event.' But I paid my tuition to be here,” said one student, Tahjila Davis. Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks denied the story. (USA Today)
- CNN anchor Anderson Cooper conducted an interview with Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, on Monday. She discussed her marriage and her husband’s profanity and disavowal of the Ku Klux Klan. She said of Trump’s use of an obscenity to describe Ted Cruz, “He's with the momentum, he goes with the flow, he goes with the people. They're having fun, everybody was cheering. And he said it and the next day -- but he repeated the word. That was not his word.” (CNN)
- BuzzFeed reported on Monday that The New York Times has off-the-record audio of Donald Trump suggesting he would be flexible on his immigration positions. Both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have called on Trump to give permission to The New York Times to release the audio. (BuzzFeed, The Hill)
Third Party Candidates
- Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura (I) said he would launch a presidential campaign by June if Bernie Sanders does not win the Democratic nomination. (The Daily Beast)
Jill Stein (Green Party)
- Jill Stein appeared on C-SPAN, RT America and New England Public Radio programs over the past few days. She said in one interview, “Basically, America is in revolt. I think it’s really a critical time for us to open up debate not only to a revolutionary campaign, but to a revolutionary party. … We’re not going to fix this in six or eight or nine months. This is going to take a sustained effort.” (Green Party Watch)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- The Libertarian Republic assessed each Libertarian candidate’s performance during the party’s debate over the weekend. It noted, “Johnson had a resounding night. The former New Mexico governor made the case of why he should be the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee for the second time in a row. He is the most experienced candidate up there and the only one to hold office; plus he is already known to the national media.” (The Libertarian Republic)
See also
- Presidential election, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Important dates in the 2016 presidential race
- Polls and Straw polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
