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The Federal Tap: Halfway through primary season-- 26 states down, 24 to go

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June 15, 2018Issue No. 117

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Week in review
On tap next week

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Here's what happened in federal politics last week. To see what happened in state and local politics, click here.

Monday, June 11

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sign agreement on denuclearization

  • President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un concluded their summit in Singapore on Tuesday by signing a document in which Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” The document stated that Trump and Kim agreed “to build a lasting and stable peace regime” on the Korean Peninsula, “establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity”, and committed to recovering the remains of prisoners of war and those missing in action. In return, Trump committed to providing security guarantees to North Korea.
  • Trump said of the document, “I think both sides are going to be impressed with the result. We’re going to take care of a very big and very dangerous problem for the world.” Trump also said he would invite Kim to the White House to continue their talks.
  • Speaking about the meeting and the document, Kim said, “We had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change.”
  • Before signing the joint document, Trump and Kim spoke one-on-one with only their translators for 38 minutes before participating in an expanded bilateral meeting and a working lunch. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, chief of staff John Kelly, and national security advisor John Bolton participated in the expanded talks. They then participated in a working lunch. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attended the lunch.
  • The summit was the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. A timeline of events leading to the summit and the signing of the joint document can be viewed here.

Sessions says individuals who are victims of private crime not eligible for asylum

  • Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that individuals who are victims of private crime, including domestic and gang violence, in their home country will no longer automatically qualify for asylum in the U.S. Sessions said in a statement, “Our nation’s immigration laws provide for asylum to be granted to individuals who have been persecuted, or who have a well-founded fear of persecution, on account of their membership in a ‘particular social group,’ but most victims of personal crimes do not fit this definition—no matter how vile and reprehensible the crime perpetrated against them.”
  • Sessions’ decision overturned two asylum rulings from the federal immigration appeals board. In 2016, the board ruled that a Salvadoran woman who came to the U.S. to escape physical and emotional abuse inflicted by her husband should be granted asylum. In 2014, the appeals board ruled that married women from Central America who were not allowed to leave their abusive marriages could apply for asylum because they were members of “a particular social group.”
  • Sessions said of the 2014 decision, “The mere fact that a country may have problems policing certain crimes effectively — such as domestic violence or gang violence — or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim.”
  • Michelle Brané, the director of the Women’s Refugee Commission’s Migrant Rights and Justice program, criticized Sessions' decision, saying, “Attorney General Sessions’ decision to limit the reasons why people can claim asylum is a devastating blow to families who come to our country seeking protection and safety.”

Tuesday, June 12

Maine election review

  • Maine’s statewide primary was held on Tuesday, June 12. One U.S. Senate seat, two U.S. House seats, and the office of governor were on the primary ballot.
    • According to the secretary of state, Maine reports its election results after they are official and certified—approximately 20 days after the election concludes. In the interest of maintaining transparency as the state implemented ranked-choice voting (RCV) during the primary, the office reported it would share results from the four RCV races listed below during the week of June 18, 2018. Additional results will be reported after 20 days.
      • Democratic and Republican nominations for the office of governor
      • Democratic nomination for Maine’s Second Congressional District
      • Republican nomination for representative to the Maine House of Representatives District 75

Nevada election review

  • Nevada held its statewide primary on Tuesday. Ballotpedia covered elections for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, and six other state executive offices, the state legislature, and judgeships on the state supreme court. Ballotpedia also covered school board elections in Clark and Washoe counties and municipal elections in Clark County, Washoe County, and Reno. The general election will be held on November 6, 2018.
    • Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak (D) defeated fellow Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani (D) in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Nevada. Giunchigliani received a late-in-the-race endorsement from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D), while Sisolak had support from former Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other state party officials. Sisolak will face state Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R) in the general election.
    • Attorney Danny Tarkanian won the Republican primary in the 3rd District with 42.8 percent ofthe vote. Tarkanian entered the race in March after President Trump asked him to withdraw from the U.S. Senate election in Nevada and run in the 3rd District instead. The district’s history as a swing district encouraged crowded primaries on both sides of the aisle this year. Outgoing incumbent Rep. Jacky Rosen’s (D) election in 2016 marked the third time the district had changed party hands since its inception in 2003.

North Dakota election review

South Carolina election review

  • South Carolina held its statewide primary on June 12. Ballotpedia covered elections for U.S. House, seven state executive offices, and the state house. Primary runoff elections will take place on June 26 for any races in which a candidate did not receive a majority of the vote. The general election will be held on November 6, 2018.
    • The Republican primary in the 1st District saw Rep. Mark Sanford lose to state Rep. Katie Arrington by a four percent margin. Arrington secured 50.6 percent of the vote, narrowly avoiding a runoff. She was endorsed by President Donald Trump a few hours before polls closed on Election Day.
    • In the Republican primary for outgoing Rep. Trey Gowdy’s (R) seat in the 4th district, no candidate received a majority of the vote, triggering a runoff election. The top finisher was state Sen. Lee Bright (R). As of Thursday afternoon, the second-place finisher had not yet been determined. State Sen. William Timmons (R) led state Rep. Dan Hamilton (R) by 373 votes, within the one percent margin required to trigger an automatic recount.

Virginia election review

  • Virginia held its statewide primary on June 12. Ballotpedia covered elections for one U.S. Senate seat and 11 U.S. House seats. The general election will be held on November 6, 2018.
    • Prince William County Supervisor Corey Stewart won the Virginia Republican Senate primary to face incumbent Tim Kaine (D). He defeated state Del. Nick Freitas by less than 2 percentage points. Election observers such as Geoffrey Skelley at Sabato’s Crystal Ball said a win by Stewart, who supports President Trump and has campaigned on protecting the state’s Confederate monuments, could depress Republican turnout statewide in November. Stewart said that a pro-Trump candidate such as himself could motivate the Republican base.
    • State Sen. Jennifer Wexton (D) defeated former senior State Department official Alison Kiehl Friedman (D), Army veteran Daniel Helmer (D), former Obama administration official Lindsey Davis Stover (D), and two other Democrats in the primary for Virginia's 10th Congressional District. She faces incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) in the general election for a toss-up seat that backed Hillary Clinton (D) by 10 points in the 2016 presidential election.

Candidate filing deadline in Connecticut

Wednesday, June 13

Competing reactions to Cory Stewart’s win in Virginia from Trump and Senate Republicans

  • President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), had differing reactions to Cory Stewart’s win in Virginia’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday. Stewart, a Prince William County supervisor, has faced criticism from fellow Republicans for his campaigning style and his emphasis on protecting the state's Confederate monuments.
  • Trump congratulated Stewart and said that his chances of defeating U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D) in the general election should not be underestimated. Stewart served as the chairman of Trump’s Virginia campaign in 2016. He was fired after participating in a protest at the Republican National Committee.
  • Gardner said the NRSC did not plan to endorse Stewart. He added, "We have a big map, right now we are focused on Florida, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana. I don’t see Virginia in it."
  • The NRCS previously declined to endorse Roy Moore after he won the Republican Senate nomination in Alabama in 2017.
  • Other Senate Republicans, including Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and John Thune (R-S.D.), spoke negatively of Stewart's win. Flake said he would not support Stewart and could possibly endorse Kaine.
  • The Koch brothers-backed group Americans for Prosperity, which supported Nick Freitas in the primary, released a statement saying it would not endorse Kaine or Stewart in the general election.

House Republicans agree to vote on DACA bills as discharge petition fails to earn support

  • House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) office announced that House Republicans will vote on two bills that address the status of children who were brought to the U.S. without legal authorization, also known as Dreamers, next week. One vote will be held on Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-Va.) bill, and a second vote will be held on a compromise bill that is still being drafted by Republicans. GOP leadership agreed to vote on Goodlatte's bill, which is supported by conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus, and a compromise bill to prevent centrist Republicans from signing a discharge petition with Democrats to force votes on a series of four immigration bills. When the compromise was announced, the discharge petition was two signatures short of the 218 required to trigger a “Queen of the Hill” voting procedure. The procedure would have allowed for votes on four immigration bills, and the one that received the most votes would pass.
  • Twenty-three House Republicans, mostly moderates, those in districts with large Hispanic populations, and those in districts Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won in 2016, supported the discharge petition, including Reps. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and Will Hurd (R-Texas). Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) was concerned that the petition could help get Republicans elected in November. He said, “I think that right now they are getting all of the benefits of acting like they’re doing something on immigration reform and helping DACA without actually putting a bill forward for a vote.”
  • If the House passes Goodlatte's bill or the compromise bill, it is unlikely that it would be taken up by the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the Senate would likely not vote on immigration again. In February, four immigration proposals failed in the upper chamber.

Thursday, June 14

DOJ IG releases report on Comey’s handling of Clinton email investigation

  • Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, released a 500-page report on James Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state. The report found that Comey and other FBI officials deviated from FBI and Justice Department procedures and made several errors in judgment in handling the investigation. Horowitz said in the report, “While we did not find that these decisions were the result of political bias on Comey’s part, we nevertheless concluded that by departing so clearly and dramatically from FBI and department norms, the decisions negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice.”
  • The report also stated that Horowitz found a “troubling lack of any direct, substantive communication” between Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch before Comey announced on July 5, 2016, that no charges would be filed against Clinton and before he notified Congress on October 28, 2016, that the FBI had found emails relevant to the agency's investigation of Clinton's private email server. The report stated, “We found it extraordinary that, in advance of two such consequential decisions, the FBI director decided that the best course of conduct was to not speak directly and substantively with the attorney general about how best to navigate those decisions.”
  • The report also addressed text messages sent between Peter Strzok, an investigator on both the Clinton email case and the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. On August 8, 2016, Page wrote, “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Strzok replied, “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.” Horowitz said in the report, “We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed.” He added, “The conduct by these employees cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation.”
  • Read more about the investigation into Clinton use of a private email account here.

Friday, June 15

New Hampshire filing deadline

  • The filing deadline will pass for candidates wishing to run in New Hampshire’s statewide primaries on September 11, 2018. Two U.S. House seats, the office of governor and five seats on the state executive council, all 24 state senate seats, and all 400 state house seats will be on the ballot in September. The general election will be held on November 6, 2018.

Trump administration releases list of tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods

  • Citing “China’s theft of intellectual property and technology and its other unfair trade practices,” the Trump administration announced that it would place a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of goods from China beginning on July 6, 2018. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released a list of 1,102 products that are “from industrial sectors that contribute to or benefit from the 'Made in China 2025' industrial policy, which include industries such as aerospace, information and communications technology, robotics, industrial machinery, new materials, and automobiles” that will be subject to a 25 percent tariff. It did not include cellular telephones or televisions. On July 6, 2018, the first round of tariffs on 818 products will go into effect. A second round of tariffs on 284 products will be subject to further review by the USTR before taking effect.
  • In response, China's Commerce Ministry accused the Trump administration of “provoking a trade war.” The statement said, "This move is not only damaging bilateral interests but also undermining the world trade order.” China also said it that would "immediately introduce taxation measures of the same scale and strength." President Donald Trump said that the U.S. would impose additional sanctions if China placed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods and services.

Congress is in session

The Senate will be in session Monday through Friday. The House will be in session Tuesday through Friday.

SCOTUS is in session

The Supreme Court has finished its argument scheduled for the term. To learn more about this term, read our review.

WHAT'S ON TAP NEXT WEEK

Here's what is happening in federal politics this week. To see what happened in state and local politics, click here.

Tuesday, June 19

District of Columbia primary

  • Washington D.C. is holding primaries for mayor, city council, attorney general, one nonvoting U.S. Representative, one shadow U.S. Senator, and one shadow U.S. Representative. Seven of the 13 city council seats are up for election this year, including the chairman, two at-large seats, and four by-district seats. Currently, 11 board members are affiliated with the Democratic Party and two are independent. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Attorney General Karl Racine are also Democrats, as are Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, Shadow Senator Michael D. Brown, and Shadow Representative Franklin Garcia.
    • All opposed primaries will be Democratic primaries. Of the 34 candidates who will appear on the ballot, 26 are Democratic, four are D.C. Statehood Green Party, three are Libertarian, and one is Republican. Elections for the nonvoting U.S. Representative, mayor, and two city council seat are the only four general elections that will be contested on November 6, 2018.

Where was the president last week?

  • On Monday, President Donald Trump met with Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore. He spoke by phone with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He then met with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
  • On Tuesday, Trump departed Singapore and landed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam in Hawaii before heading back to the White House.
  • On Wednesday, Trump returned to Washington, D.C.
  • On Thursday, Trump celebrated his 72nd birthday.

Federal Judiciary

  • 146 federal judicial vacancies
  • 85 pending nominations
  • 31 future federal judicial vacancies


About

The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.

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