The 2024 GOP field balloons this week, adding 3 candidates
The growing field of Republicans running for president is set to expand by three this week, with the entry of former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, former vice president Mike Pence, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. The field continues to expand in part because hopefuls see opportunity in the struggle of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to become the undisputed challenger to former president Donald Trump.
DeSantis trails Trump by about 30 points in national polls of Republican voters. No one else is close, but with 1 in 4 Republicans still looking for an alternative to the two front-runners, a fierce competition to be that other option is emerging.
All three of the latest entrants are considered long shots, at least for now.
But each will get a momentary burst of attention when declaring his candidacy, with the hope that from small sparks a brush fire will spread.
Chris Christie
When: Tuesday
Where: A town-hall-style event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics
Christie, who dropped out of the 2016 primary early and became a Trump supporter, has cast himself as the former president’s harshest critic in the field. He says Trump is unfit to serve, alleging Trump incited the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Mike Pence
When: Wednesday
Where: A rally with voters in Des Moines, followed by a CNN town hall at 9 p.m. Eastern
Pence brought credibility with social conservatives to the 2016 ticket, but his star faded with the party base after he refused to comply with Trump’s efforts to block President Biden’s victory. As an evangelical Christian and former Indiana governor, Pence is a natural fit with Iowa conservatives, and he is likely to focus much of his campaigning there in the hope of a strong showing in the first nominating contest next year.
Doug Burgum
When: Wednesday
Where: Fargo, N.D.
Burgum, who is little-known outside his home state, made a large fortune in computer software and is in a position to self-fund his longer-than-long-shot campaign. He has said he believes that 60 percent of American voters constitute a “silent majority” that feels ignored by intense ideological debates that dominate politics. NEW YORK TIMES
GOP hopefuls, with Trump absent, mingle in Iowa
DES MOINES — Republican presidential hopefuls kicked off the summer months of campaigning at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Saturday, offering alternative pitches for their candidacies as they declined to mention Donald Trump, their party’s current polling leader, by name.
Eight candidates or potential candidates attended Republican Senator Joni Ernst’s annual ‘‘Roast and Ride’’ event, delivering mini-stump speeches to win over their party’s first-in-nation caucus-goers.
The notable absence of Trump to some extent encapsulated the race more broadly. While Ernst invited Trump, the former president and current GOP front-runner has had little appetite for sharing the spotlight with his primary rivals. A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The candidate speeches relayed shorter versions of their campaign speeches and covered several issues that resonate with GOP primary voters, including immigration at the southern border, barring transgender athletes from women’s sports, and attacking those they frame as the ‘‘radical left.’’
WASHINGTON POST
Millennials have moved to the right
Fifteen years ago, a new generation of young voters propelled Barack Obama to a decisive victory that augured a new era of Democratic dominance.
Fifteen years later, those once young voters aren’t so young — and aren’t quite so Democratic.
In the 2020 presidential election, voters who were 18 to 29 in 2008 backed Joe Biden, 55 percent to 43 percent, according to estimates, a margin roughly half that of Obama’s 12 years earlier.
Over the last decade, almost every cohort of voters under 50 has shifted toward the right, based on an analysis of thousands of survey interviews archived at the Roper Center.
NEW YORK TIMES
Philadelphia’s voter turnout worries Democrats
PHILADELPHIA — This historic city has long fueled Democratic victories in Pennsylvania, helping candidates for president, governor, and US Senate run up huge margins to offset Republican advantages across much of the state.
But more recently, the oncestrong election engagement by Philadelphia’s voters has been waning. In the 2022 midterms, when turnout rose statewide, just 43 percent of voters in the city cast ballots, down from 49 percent in 2018. And on May 16, when the city had a high-stakes mayoral primary that drew record spending, just 32 percent of Philadelphia’s nearly 800,000 registered Democrats turned out, according to the Philadelphia City Commissioners.
It’s an ominous trend for Democrats, who have seen participation dip nationally among core supporters like Black voters, who make up a large share of the electorate in urban areas like Philadelphia.
WASHINGTON POST
DeSantis relied heavily on big donors in initial haul
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida made a splash when he announced that he had raised a record $8.2 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate. New figures disclosed by the campaign reveal that he relied heavily on larger contributors to set that record.
The DeSantis campaign said it had around 40,000 donors in May as “we raised over” $8.2 million, according to text messages and e-mails to supporters asking for more donations. That works out to an average of more than $200 per donor — a figure far higher than is typical for a campaign heavily funded by grassroots support. By comparison, Senator Bernie Sanders, who was a Democratic online fund-raising powerhouse, raised $5.9 million in his first 24 hours in 2019 — but from 223,000 donors, for an average donation of around $26.
How a campaign raises money matters. Because of strict campaign contribution limits of $3,300 per person for the primary, campaigns that raise money chiefly from bigger contributors cannot return to those same donors again and again.
NEW YORK TIMES