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WASHINGTON – We have to go back to Obama against Clinton in 2008 to think of a more mean Democratic primary than what played out in Tuesday’s special primary elections in the Cleveland-Akron area to take the seat of Congress vacated by the secretary of the HUD, Marcia Fudge.
And what also sets this primary between Nina Turner and Shontel Brown apart is that it’s the latest installment in the Bernie Sanders wars against the establishment that have rocked the party for the past six years.
This weekend, in fact, Sanders is fighting for Turner (who was the national co-chair of his 2020 campaign), joining figures like Andrea Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., and progressives Keith Ellison and Cornel West, who help all the former state senator.
Also this weekend, House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn is campaigning for Brown, and Hillary Clinton endorsed the Cuyahoga County Council member.
What resulted, writes NBC’s Henry Gomez, is a race whose national ideological fault lines have eclipsed local issues like poverty and gun violence.
“It all kind of drowned in a battle that has become about a lot of things that have nothing to do with the city of Cleveland,” Turner endorser David Pepper told Gomez. “And it was quite painful to watch.”
How mean is the race, which strategists on both sides see as a draw?
“Turner has a habit of attacking and lying about Democrats,” says a television commercial from Brown. “Turner harshly criticized President Biden. She even attacked Biden for choosing Kamala Harris as vice president.”
Here is an announcement from an outside group supporting Brown: “Our country is more polarized than ever. And Nina Turner stirs up division instead of bringing people together. Turner refused to back Joe Biden against Trump. “
Turner’s campaign hit back with this ad: “Shontel Brown – she voted to donate $ 32 million to a business related to her boyfriend and family, voted to give herself a raise of $ 7,000 while opposing Biden’s $ 15 minimum wage plan. “
And to top it off, there’s this new ad from Turner: “Now a new report reveals that Brown is facing an investigation by the Ohio Ethics Commission for voting to give millions of dollars to a woman. business related to her boyfriend and family. Brown could face criminal charges and, if convicted, jail time. “
(Brown campaigned responded“Only Nina Turner would launch a ‘lock her in’ ad against another Democrat days before the election. This announcement is clearly false and constitutes an attempt to deceive voters. “)
High stakes for progressives
The stakes for the progressive left in this contest couldn’t be higher, especially after Turner started with the first lead.
After the primary wins of Joe Biden in 2020, Terry McAuliffe in Virginia and Eric Adams in New York, the Progressives have not fared very well in recent high-profile primaries.
Two things can be true at the same time: Progressives have pushed mainstream Democrats further to the left on politics over the past four years.
But when it comes to the actual contests, they were less successful.
And we’ll be watching this race on Tuesday to see if that trend changes.
Tweet of the day
Downloading data: the numbers you need to know today
35,000: The estimated number of symptomatic Covid infections among people vaccinated in America per week, by CDC internal slides reviewed by the Washington Post.
34 819 913: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, according to the most recent data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 114,578 more than yesterday morning.)
615 885: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far, according to the most recent data from NBC News. (That’s 458 more than yesterday morning.)
344 071 595: The number of vaccine doses administered in the United States, according to the CDC. (It’s 710,071 since yesterday morning.)
49.4%: The share of all Americans who are fully immunized, according to the CDC.
60.3%: The share of all US adults 18 years of age or older who are fully immunized, by CDC.
Talk politics with Benjy
Will there be a wave of evictions? Protections against evictions during the pandemic have been a patchwork policy, writes NBC’s Benjy Sarlin. After a moratorium on evictions passed by Congress expired last year without a replacement, President Trump ordered a new one through the CDC. But federal courts ruled it unconstitutional in June and ordered it shut down by July 31. Now, the Biden administration is asking Congress to extend it, citing the increase in cases of the Delta variant.
There is another story behind the moratorium on evictions that has also been a theme in Covid’s response – an overburdened bureaucracy struggling to manage the scale of relief.
The vast majority of the $ 45 billion in housing assistance that Congress passed in December and March to help keep tenants and landlords afloat during the moratorium remains unspent due to a variety of issues. at national and local levels. An NBC News survey found that 26 states had disbursed less than 10% of their initial funding.
Housing advocates fear that tenants will be evicted before they and their landlords can access assistance that would keep them in their homes. The White House called on state and local governments to “urgently accelerate their efforts to disburse these funds given the imminent end of the moratorium on CDC evictions” and said there was “no excuse” for failure. They also directed Americans to a federal website to help them see if they qualify for state or local programs.
It is a recurring problem during the pandemic. Workers have faced barriers to accessing unemployment programs throughout the pandemic. PPP, the program to keep businesses afloat, faced a variety of issues that initially made it more difficult for small businesses to access money. The IRS took months to implement the new child tax credit, and there are concerns that millions of the most vulnerable eligible recipients may not be able to access the benefit.
Congress has taken action to address these issues and there is ample evidence that the programs have always had a dramatic impact. A new report from the Urban Institute has found that poverty rates fell in 2021 as vulnerable families received tens of thousands of dollars in aid, leaving many better off than before.
But difficulties in accessing benefits mean more people are likely to fall through the cracks. And it’s a problem that predates the pandemic: Annie Lowrey of the Atlantic dubbed it a “time tax” in a must-read article on how outdated systems and a maze of rules make it worse. difficult helps it reach the people who need it most. With billions in potential new spending this year, making sure the money comes out is as important as allowing it.
ICYMI: what else is happening in the world
Michigan’s longest-serving senator, former Democratic Senator Carl Levin, has died.
The first evacuated Afghans arrive in the United States as the Taliban flock in following the military withdrawal.
President Biden has said federal workers must get vaccinated or tested and is urging them to pay $ 100 for those newly vaccinated.
Senator Bernie Sanders and President Nancy Pelosi are key faces of the Democratic two-track infrastructure plan.
NBC’s Sahil Kapur and Benjy Sarlin explain why Mitch McConnell supports the bipartisan infrastructure deal.
Simone Biles said she was still suffering from the “twists” on Friday and “literally can’t tell the top from the bottom,” raising serious doubts about her ability to compete in her individual events at the Tokyo Olympics.
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