Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Just two days after dismal new polling numbers for President Joe Biden showed the public views him unfavorably and rival Donald Trump would hypothetically defeat him in key swing states next year, Democrats saw a string of successes around the country.

The party won notable contests on Tuesday in Kentucky and New Jersey and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Virginia, in blood red and bright blue areas alike, often while highlighting their support for abortion access or while pushing back on what they called extremism.

Democrat Brandon Presley, campaigning for expanded health care, also came within 5 points of unseating incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in Mississippi, a state Trump won by a 16% margin three years ago.

The contrast between Biden’s continued weakness in polls and the wins that other Democrats continue to notch suggests conflicting dynamics ahead of next year’s elections, according to conversations with more than a dozen strategists, lawmakers and potential voters.

These people suggested that one trend is fueling both Biden’s poor polling and Democrats’ otherwise strong performance: The public is disgruntled with Biden, which poses a potentially serious problem for his reelection chances — but when voters have to actually fill out a ballot now rather than predict what they’ll do next year, they spurn Republicans.

“The reality is that we are dealing with a largely dissatisfied electorate right now. And for as dissatisfied as they are with Democrats, they’re more pissed off at Republicans and their overreach on issues like abortion,” Democratic strategist Lis Smith argued.

Still, “the Biden campaign should continue to educate voters about the good things he’s done,” Smith told ABC News. “It’s important to get his accomplishments out there and also to improve his standing before next November.”

Tuesday’s results continue the pattern of Democratic over-performances seen in the 2022 midterms and the special elections so far this year — all of which came in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court decision scrapping constitutional protections for abortion.

Experts and strategists have also stressed that off-year contests are not foolproof predictors of presidential elections, which usually see much larger voter turnout amid national dynamics that can be different from the quirks and preferences of local races.

The 2024 presidential election is also still a year away — a lot can change.

“The results don’t mean that we are entirely out of the woods,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left group Third Way. “But they do mean that when this moves from a referendum on Biden to a choice between Biden and Trump, even some voters skeptical of Biden will recognize how much is at stake and do what they must to avoid catastrophe.”

Some Republicans explained the losses by pointing to fixable missteps in the party’s campaign strategies.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, had blitzed the campaign trail and swamped rival Republican Daniel Cameron, the state attorney general, in fundraising and advertising, and Democratic outside groups dumped millions of dollars in Mississippi, Ohio and Virginia, with opposing Republican groups unable to keep up.

While GOP strategist Bob Heckman contended that “Democrats spent a ton of money to break even in Kentucky and Mississippi and make marginal gains in Virginia,” he added: “Republicans can’t continue to let themselves be outspent by such huge margins.”

Yet other conservatives conceded that they risking facing similar results in the 2024 race, with Trump as their standard-bearer — at least among voters who have made clear that they have negative views of both the former and current presidents.

“There is a cohort of voters who are deeply dissatisfied with Biden, they don’t think the Democratic policies are helping. And yet, they’re still willing to vote Democrat because they don’t like Trump’s influence on our politics,” said GOP strategist Scott Jennings, who volunteered for Cameron’s campaign. “Joe Biden is deeply unpopular in Kentucky and, at least at the top of the ticket, they voted Democrat despite those reservations about the Democratic Party agenda.”

“Obviously, we’re going through this now in the presidential primary. [Trump’s] very popular in the primary, and I know there’s polling that looks pretty good for him right now against Biden. But this was a warning,” Jennings said.

Republicans expressed frustration at their failure, in 2022 and 2023, to produce sweeping wins at the polls even with survey after survey showing Biden underwater in his approval rating and with how Americans view his handling of issues like the economy.

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Sunday found that three-quarters of Americans (76%) believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, with one in three (33%) Americans viewing Biden favorably while Trump is viewed favorably by only 29%.

Separately, a New York Times/Siena College poll released on Sunday surveyed registered voters in key battleground states and showed that in hypothetical matchups between Biden and Trump, Trump won in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Biden won all four states in 2020, and they will likely be key to him securing a second term.

Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist and veteran of the presidential campaign trail, said Tuesday’s elections didn’t present “any good news for Republicans” and showed more “evidence that abortion could be the Democrats’ 2024 antibodies for poor ratings on the economy.”

Interviews with some people who responded to the ABC News/Ipsos poll signaled at least some willingness to vote for Biden despite misgivings about him.

Andrew Pehler, a retired engineer in Las Vegas, said he has concerns over how old both Trump and Biden are but, while typically leaning toward Republicans, would vote for Biden next year because “it’d be horrible if [Trump] got another four years.”

“I think I disagree more with Trump’s policies, but Joe Biden, I don’t think, has been very effective. And I also think that both of them are far too old to be running for president,” added Stephen K., an attorney in Denver who didn’t feel comfortable giving his full last name. Yet presented with a binary choice, “I would most likely be voting for Joe Biden again if it were between the two. I wouldn’t be happy about it.”

And Democrats predicted that Trump will only become a bigger factor the closer it gets to the general election next November and as more of the public starts tuning in, assuming he retains his hefty primary lead and clinches the GOP nomination next year.

“I think a poll one year out might not fully measure what the consequences of election are. And I think part of what you’re going to see is Biden will be the Democratic nominee, Trump will be the Republican nominee, there’s going to be people who don’t want that and are gonna have to pick a little bit more. And you’ll also see that people are going to stop viewing Trump just through the rearview mirror and start viewing him as an object ahead on the road,” said Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist.

That doesn’t mean Democrats are leaving behind any worries about Biden’s candidacy — and how the party overall will fare in 2024.

Biden’s involvement in Tuesday’s races was mixed: The White House issued a slate of endorsements for legislative candidates in Virginia and voiced support for a pro-abortion access effort in Ohio, but Beshear assiduously kept the president at arm’s length.

During a 30-minute sit-down with ABC News on Tuesday before voting ended, Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm, wouldn’t clearly say if she thought Biden should be running, only touting his past record and saying, “He’s been a strong president.”

It won’t be clear until Election Day 2024 if Biden will be able to keep anti-Trump voters in his coalition once he’s on the ballot after serving a full term.

Thomas Hood, a retired nurse in Lafayette, Indiana, told ABC News, “I would probably have to vote for Trump” even though “I can’t stand his personality.”

And Samantha Guerrero, who works in data entry at the IRS in Austin, Texas, said, “I would vote for somebody else because both of them have not done anything they said that they would do.”

“It’s another election where MAGA and extremism lost — which is a problem for the GOP,” Democratic strategist Karen Finney said of Tuesday’s results. “Democrats still cannot take anything for granted.”

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(MIAMI) — As Donald Trump continues to campaign off of his four unprecedented indictments, denying wrongdoing in each of them, he’s taken his message directly to a community that he believes can relate.

On Wednesday night, rather than attend the third 2024 GOP debate in Miami, the former president held a rally for supporters in nearby Hialeah, Florida, a heavily-Hispanic city which has trended increasingly conservative in recent years.

As part of the state’s largest county, the area could be key to Trump continuing to win in Florida after he beat Hillary Clinton there in 2016 by 2.2% and then beat now-President Joe Biden by about 3.3% in 2020.

Now, as Trump mounts his third presidential bid and as Florida Republicans have worked to turn the state solidly red, he is looking toward Hialeah to expand his support in Miami-Dade County, which he almost flipped three years ago.

On Wednesday night, Trump sharpened his rhetoric of alleged “persecution” and resistance to communism — invoking the experiences of attendees and their families, particularly Cuban Americans who remember the communist rule of the late dictator Fidel Castro.

“Just like the Cuban regime, the Biden regime is trying to put their political opponents in jail, shutting down free speech, taking bribes and kickbacks to enrich themselves,” Trump claimed without evidence, drawing cheers from his supporters.

Then, Trump told the crowd that electing him over Biden would be the only way to save the country from being run like those many in the crowd had escaped from.

“If you don’t want to let the communists destroy America like they destroyed Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and so many other countries, you need to send a message by voting crooked Joe Biden and all of his friends, the people that are actually really running our country, and every last Democrat, get them the hell out of office,” Trump said.

The Biden campaign was swift in slamming Trump’s comments, arguing he was “no real ally of Cuban Americans” and highlighting his past praise of authoritarian leaders and his attempts to undo Obama-era health care legislation.

“His presidency saw consistent efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act, even though Cuban-heavy Hialeah has the second-highest enrollment in the country,” Maca Casado, a spokesperson for Biden’s reelection campaign, said. “And his calls for economic opportunity were only realized by President Biden’s historic investments in Hispanic small businesses.”

But some rally attendees told ABC News that Trump’s messaging resonated with and persuaded them.

Al Lopez, an immigrant from Cuba, said, “I saw what happened firsthand to members of my family, friends in Cuba when Castro took over. A lot of people felt that he was the answer, but he wasn’t — so he betrayed us just like Biden is betraying us. The whole Democratic Party is betraying us.”

Through tears, a woman named Aiantxa, who was born in Cuba and immigrated to the U.S. 15 years ago, said she believed Trump’s criminal charges were brought for political reasons.

Prosecutors who brought the four criminal cases against Trump have all defended the accusations, laying out extensive evidence and other detail, in court filings, about the nature of the charges against him.

He collectively faces 91 charges across four cases: two state-level prosecutions, in New York City and Fulton County, Georgia; and two federal prosecutions, in Florida and Washington, D.C.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and said he did nothing wrong.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Department of Justice’s investigation of Trump, has defended his work, which included charging Trump in an election subversion case related to Jan. 6 and the push to overturn the 2020 presidential results.

“The attack on our nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment [against Trump], it was fueled by lies,” Smith said in August. “Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”

Nonetheless, Esther Hernandez, an attendee at Wednesday’s rally from Cuba, said Trump’s claims of persecution aligned with her personal experiences. “No freedom, political prosecution — the same thing that’s happening here,” she said. ‘It started like that, little by little, until your rights were not anymore.”

Speakers at the rally before Trump cast his platform in the political terms of other countries.

“Many of us left Cuba, Venezuela for freedom,” said Pastor Mario Bramnick, president of the Latino Coalition for Israel, who set the tone of the night. “We never thought that communism would come to our shores. We need President Trump so that communism will never come to the United States of America.”

“He understands us,” Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo said of Trump. “He made a commitment to this community that he was going to reverse the treacherous policies of Obama with Cuba, and he did it.”

But Casado, the Biden campaign spokesperson, said Trump was being dishonest — illustrating the dueling pitches Hispanic voters in Florida will likely face in the 2024 race.

“Trump can shout ‘socialism’ all he wants,” Casado said, “but he’s the only candidate in this race that has praised Putin, called Kim Jong Un ‘brilliant,’ and legitimized Latin American dictators.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced Thursday that he will not run for reelection next year, fueling speculation over whether he plans on mounting a third-party White House bid.

“What I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together,” he said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris and the White House on Wednesday took a victory lap following Democrats’ strong showing in Tuesday night’s elections, especially around the issue of abortion rights, attempting to link the wins to President Joe Biden, who continues to face a flurry of negative poll numbers.

“Last night, I think the American people made clear that they are prepared to stand for freedom and for the individual freedoms and the promise of freedom in America and by extension, was a good night for democracy,” Harris told reporters after coming out to speak briefly in the White House driveway.

“I think that if you look at from the midterms to last night, from California to Kansas, Ohio to Virginia, the voters said, ‘look, the government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,'” Harris added, referencing the Ohio referendum guaranteeing abortion rights that passed overwhelmingly Tuesday.

Abortion has proven to be a salient issue for Democrats in off-year elections, with voters voting in large numbers against efforts to strictly limit access. In Ohio on Tuesday, 57% voted to add abortion protections to the state’s constitution, and prevent bans on abortion before a fetus is viable or for the mother’s health.

“I think voters have been clear, regardless of whether they’re in a so called red or blue state, that one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” the vice president continued.

Biden did not come before the cameras to tout the election results even though he had no public events on his schedule.

As Harris addressed reporters outside the West Wing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was boasting about Democratic success at the daily press briefing inside.

“President Biden’s values and agenda won big across the country last night,” Jean-Pierre said, putting emphasis, like Harris, on the issue of abortion. “In Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and in Virginia, voters once again sided with President Biden’s agenda to stand up for fundamental freedoms and build an economy for the middle class and protect democracy.”

While Biden not speak Wednesday, Harris and Biden’s aides try to the sell Democrats’ performance in the election as a foreshadowing of the president’s strong position one year away from the 2024 vote.

Jean-Pierre said “he’ll certainly speak to this tomorrow” when he travels to Illinois on Thursday for engagements with the United Auto Workers union.

Another big moment for Democrats was Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s successful reelection campaign in a ruby red state. Biden’s campaign and the White House have sought to tie the president to Beshear, though the governor distanced himself throughout the race.

Jean-Pierre argued that the connection to Beshear was fair by saying the governor ran on Biden’s policies — the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Beshear also notably attacked his state’s abortion ban.

ABC News’ Elizabeth Schulze pressed Jean-Pierre why Democrats’ victories were incongruent with Biden’s dismal polling.

“You have to take these things with a grain of salt,” Jean-Pierre said, later adding, “We don’t put much stock in polls.

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll out Sunday found that Biden was struggling to sell his policies to the American people, with 76% of Americans believing the country is heading in the wrong direction. Additionally only 33% viewed the president favorably, only slightly better than former President Donald Trump (29%).

“And so it was a good night and the president and I obviously have a lot of work to do to earn our reelection, but I’m confident we’re gonna win,” Harris said, before walking away without taking questions.

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(MIAMI) — Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was almost exactly center stage in the third GOP presidential primary debate, on Wednesday, trading attacks in a policy-heavy affair in Miami.

Haley mixed it up with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. The three were joined by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Sen Tim Scott. For the third straight time, former President Donald Trump skipped the debate entirely — but remains the clear front-runner in the race.

Here are five takeaways from the debate:

Haley in the spotlight

Haley was one podium off from the center of the debate stage, reflecting her standing in the polls, but she was directly in the spotlight on Wednesday night.

The South Carolinian and former U.N. ambassador under Trump has seen her poll numbers steadily rise since the debates started in August, according to 538, rivaling or surpassing DeSantis in some polls as the No. 2 most popular GOP candidate.

The other candidates sometimes went after her head on. Ramaswamy tore into Haley over her past support for American military involvement overseas, but the most pointed exchange occurred during a segment on TikTok when Ramaswamy accused Haley’s daughter of using the app.

“Leave my daughter out of your voice,” Haley shot back.

As Ramaswamy played down the boos he faced, she added: “You’re just scum.”

She also fended off an attack from Ramaswamy comparing her to former Vice President Dick Cheney “in three-inch heels.”

“I’d first like to say they’re five-inch heels, and I don’t wear them unless you can run in them. The second thing that I will say is, I wear heels, they’re not for a fashion statement, they’re for ammunition,” she said, drawing applause.

Haley and DeSantis took aim at each other over perceived weakness on China during their terms as governor of their respective states.

They accused each other of opening up their states to Chinese investments as Beijing loomed as the largest foreign adversary.

“Yes, I brought a fiberglass company 10 years ago to South Carolina. But Ron, you are the chair of your economic development agency that as of last week said Florida is the ideal place for Chinese businesses,” Haley said after coming under attack.

“I abolished that agency that she’s talking about. We abolished it and of course we banned buying the website, banned them from purchasing in Florida,” DeSantis responded.

Debate highlights foreign policy views and differences on Ukraine

The debate was advertised as focusing largely on international affairs and it featured lengthy conversations on foreign policy. That also underscored the candidates’ differences on how much to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion.

Haley, Christie and Scott all appeared eager to send aid to Kyiv, adopting traditional Republican stances in which America is more aggressively involved in foreign affairs to try and achieve key priorities, including supporting America-aligned governments.

“Here is a freedom-loving, pro-American country that is fighting for its survival and its democracy. No, I don’t think we should give them cash, I think we should give them the equipment and the ammunition to win,” Haley said.

“This is not a choice,” Christie added of whether the U.S. should back Ukraine. “This is the price we pay for being leaders of the free world.”

Scott, who has been a consistent voice for Ukraine aid, said the U.S. should keep up its support but nodded to skeptics in the GOP who argue Washington is doing too much and that the large sums of money could be better spent on domestic priorities — and not on overseas fighting.

“We have been very effective using our resources and our weaponry and the very high price of Ukrainian blood to achieving that objective,” Scott said of degrading Russia’s military.

Still, he argued, “The American people are frustrated that they do not have a president who reminds us and tells us where’s the accountability, how are those dollars being spent. We need those answers for us to continue to see the support for Ukraine.”

DeSantis, meanwhile, veered away from Ukraine, instead only saying he wouldn’t send troops there.

And Ramaswamy, a major skeptic of Ukraine aid in the presidential primary, again accused Ukraine of having a corrupt government, which its leaders deny.

“Level with the American people here, Ukraine is not a paragon of democracy,” he said. “To frame this as some kind of battle between good and evil, don’t buy it.”

Candidates largely aligned on Israel in wake of Hamas attack

While the White House hopefuls on stage were divided over Ukraine, they were largely united over Israel.

Most said they would stay out of Israel’s way and allow it to respond however it sees fit after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.

“The only thing we should be doing is supporting them in eliminating Hamas,” Haley said, while also stressing the need to bring hostages home.

Israeli officials have said Hamas is believed to be holding more than 200 people captive since its attack last month.

Christie added, “You must make sure that Hamas can never do this again.”

The five candidates also said they would take hard-line stances on any students at universities who support Hamas, though they did not clarify where they would draw the line between support for the group and general support for Palestinian civilians amid the conflict.

The Biden administration has repeatedly stressed that Hamas is not representative of the Palestinian people as a whole.

“To every student who’s come to our country on a visa to a college campus, your visa is a privilege, not a right,” Scott said. “To all the students on visas who are encouraging Jewish genocide, I would deport you from those campuses.”

Candidates pressed on welfare

The moderators from NBC News and the Salem Radio Network pressed the five on where they stood on Social Security and the potential future in which it runs out of money, though many sought to dance around that issue.

Christie and Haley would not get into whether they would change the retirement age because they wanted to save that as a negotiating point with Congress, they said. Scott, meanwhile, said he would not change it.

However, Trump has advocated for keeping Social Security and Medicare as is, casting himself as a protector of seniors — and with his sway in the GOP, many other Republicans have followed him.

A reminder: Trump wasn’t there and is currently the favorite to win

The debate featured fireworks and more in-depth policy discussions than the two previous faceoffs. But it remains to be seen whether it will change the fundamental primary dynamic: Polls all show it’s Trump’s to lose.

Despite an array of legal troubles, which he denies, and not attending any of the debates thus far, Trump retains a very large polling edge, with DeSantis and Haley still nowhere close to toppling him as the calendar dwindles down to the Iowa caucuses.

The moderators opened the debate by asking the candidates why they were the better choice than Trump, and they notably used that time to attack Trump directly.

“He was the right president at the right time. I don’t think he’s the right president now,” Haley said, going on to attack how the national debt grew during the Trump administration.

Trump separately held an event in nearby Hialeah on Wednesday night, rallying supporters in a heavily Hispanic part of Florida where Republicans have seen gains in recent years.

“Unless you’re a fan of cheap knockoffs or out-of-tune tribute bands, tonight’s GOP debate was a complete waste of time and money,” Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita contended in a statement afterward.

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(WASHINGTON) — As five 2024 Republican hopefuls take the debate stage in Miami to make their case to voters on Wednesday night, for the third time this year, the primary front-runner — former President Donald Trump — will once again be absent.

Trump has said he sees no value in attending the debates, despite some outcry and criticism, because his polling lead with GOP voters gives him no incentive to face attacks from the other candidates.

“I like to debate. I probably am here because of debates. I don’t mind it at all,” he told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview this summer. “But when you’re 40 points up …. Why would I let these people take shots at me?”

Having skipped the first two faceoffs, Trump continues to poll at No. 1 both nationally and in the key early primary states, according to 538.

Instead of debating, Trump has been holding various events as counter-programming. He plans to do that again on Wednesday, with a campaign rally in Hialeah, Florida, just 10 miles northwest of where his primary rivals will be debating.

Speaking in an area where Hispanics and Latinos make up 95% of the population, Trump’s rally is intended to help him grow his support among a group who has trended Republican in recent years.

The Hialeah rally will feature celebrity supporters and several of Trump’s close allies, including former White House press secretary and now-Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders, who just endorsed her old boss. After the remarks, the Trump campaign is hosting a debate-style “spin room” with its own surrogates at the rally site, an attempt to take the spotlight away from his competitors.

The next day, on Thursday, Trump is throwing a party at his Mar-a-Lago Club for Florida Republican Party leaders — a jab at DeSantis in the governor’s home state.

In the wake of the second debate, Trump’s team called for the Republican Party to cancel the future ones in order to focus on the potential rematch between him and President Joe Biden.

Trump echoed that while speaking at the Florida Freedom Summit over the weekend, saying it was time for the “Republican establishment to stop wasting time and money trying to push weak [Republicans in name only] and ‘Never Trumpers’ that nobody wants on the ballot.”

During the first GOP debate, in August, Trump released an hourlong pre-taped interview with Tucker Carlson. And during the second GOP debate, in September, he held a campaign rally in front of an auto manufacturing plant in Clinton Township, Michigan, to court workers amid the United Auto Workers strike (though the plant itself was non-union).

His primary challengers have been increasingly vocal about their criticism of him not facing them in debates, with DeSantis even mockingly inviting him to bring a teleprompter to the stage if he wants.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Trump adviser-turned-vocal critic, taunted Trump during the second GOP debate in September for “ducking” the other candidates and not having to defend his record, calling him “Donald Duck.”

On Monday, Christie insisted that he believes Trump will, eventually, show up to a debate “because he knows that his most effective moments are when he’s on television.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans on Wednesday took a hard look at Tuesday night’s punishing election results in some key battleground states, and they’re not pleased with what they’re seeing.

“Yesterday to me was a complete failure,” said Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Republicans were handed a string of rebukes, from red-state Kentucky’s projected move to reelect Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to Virginia projected to elect Democratic majorities in both chambers of its state Legislature, likely thwarting GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s election promise to enact a 15-week abortion ban.

But most telling for Senate Republicans was the message red-state Ohio sent on abortion, where voters were projected to have overwhelmingly chosen to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

“I don’t think it’s a big secret, but in many states, abortion is not a winning issue for Republicans,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Wednesday. “The winning issues are related to the economy and the cost of living.”

“Focusing on abortion didn’t turn out to be the big winner,” he added.

Ohio’s election results continued a string of successful ballot initiatives that have secured abortion access in multiple states since the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade.

“Last night was a pretty clear case that most Ohioans by almost 15 points said they believe that women and their doctors should make their health care choices not a bunch of Columbus politicians, it’s about as simple as that,” Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown said.

To some Senate Republicans, the results indicate that restrictive abortion policy isn’t resonating with their voters.

“That’s an indication in my view that maybe more women voted maybe more young women voted,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said “When people vote their voice is heard and I think that’s what happened. They don’t agree with some of the more stringent abortion restrictions across the country.”

Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said it will be up to each individual candidate to navigate how to handle abortion in their respective campaigns as the nation turns its attention to 2024.

“Abortion is a matter of conscience and so it’s not just something you change based on political gain. But this is something each individual candidate has to try to figure out for themselves and every part of the country is a little bit different,” Cornyn said. “I wouldn’t state a general rule that would apply nationwide.”

Senate Republicans have recently been forced to stare down the implications of abortion policy in their own chamber, where a monthslong blockade by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville over a Pentagon abortion policy — that compensates service members to travel to receive abortion — has stalled the confirmation of hundreds of military promotions.

The Ohio results are not changing Tuberville’s mind, he said Wednesday.

“No, I represent Alabama, I know how we stand,” Tuberville said. “So, as a national party, I don’t think there’ll be any movement on that. I don’t think the country changes I think just sometimes you have momentum shifts in different directions.”

Many Republicans suggested that, after Tuesday night’s results, it’s past time to shift the narrative from abortion to more “kitchen table” issues, which they believe will gain more traction with voters.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who heads the Senate Republican campaign arm, said he believes the 2024 election will focus more on the border, the economy, and what he called the “disaster geopolitically.”

“There’s a big difference in running on state issues, and these were all state elections, and running on federal policies defending Joe Biden,” Daines said. “It will be a very different set of issues in 2024 with the United States Senate.”

The Senate’s #2 Republican, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., also said it’s time to shift focus to issues he believes will work for the GOP.

“We have to have a compelling message that appeals to the suburban voters no question about that,” Thune said. “So, I think that’s economy, jobs, cost of living, public safety the border. I think those are the issues that really resonate with people across the country and our candidates this year are going to be on offense on that issue.”

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(MIAMI) — With the GOP candidates descending on Miami for the third Republican primary debate Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee will deploy a bilingual mobile billboard to circle the venue and jab the frontrunner not in the room: former President Donald Trump.

The billboard message, which the DNC shared exclusively with ABC News, focuses largely on Trump and his alleged shortcomings — and teasingly adds, “We almost forgot about the debate…” — a pointed reference about how the former president is sucking oxygen from the Republican race.

“As Donald Trump and 2024 Republicans head to Florida for their next MAGA-off, we’re reminding voters that beyond the chaos and squabbling you’ll see tonight, the entire 2024 field is united around ripping away as many of our freedoms as they can,” DNC spokesperson Marco Frieri said in a statement to ABC News.

Trump isn’t the only target — the billboard will also troll the five candidates appearing on stage: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. The billboard briefly displays headshots of the five debate-night contenders, labeling their faces as “MAGA” to tie them all, in the end, back to Trump.

This, while Trump holds a rally roughly 10 miles away in Cuban-heavy Hialeah, marking his third RNC debate snub.

On the billboard, in both English and Spanish, the DNC will focus on branding what it calls Trump’s “extreme MAGA agenda.”

It quotes Trump telling MSNBC in 2016 that women who have abortions should see “some form of punishment,” as well as more recent controversial comments such as his calling Hezbollah, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, “very smart.” More messaging calls out how he has denied the results of the 2020 election, the first modern president to refuse a peaceful transfer of power.

The billboard also accuses Trump of trying to cut Medicare and Social Security every year he was in office, creating incentives to send jobs overseas and failing to deliver on infrastructure and lower prescription drug prices. While the messaging does not mention President Joe Biden, it highlights issues where he could directly contrast his agenda with the GOP.

The RNC “welcomes Democrats’ efforts to waste time and money in the red state of Florida,” said the organization’s press secretary Anna Kelly.

“Voters know that any of our candidates would be better than Joe Biden, which is why he continues to flail in poll after poll,” she said in a statement to ABC News.

The Biden-Harris campaign put up lawn signs of the “Dark Brandon” meme around the debate venue Wednesday. The meme depicts the president with laser eyes and is often used by the campaign to push back on Republican messaging. The name “Dark Brandon” comes from the “Let’s go, Brandon” Republican rallying cry against Biden.

In a statement, Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz confirmed the lawn signs were the work of the campaign and said, “To Republicans running to strip away abortion rights, gut social security and Medicare, and undermine our democracy: You better watch out, Jack.”

Biden team shrugs off polling showing Trump ahead

The signs and mobile billboard comes as some Democrats may be riding high after a promising election night for the party with electoral wins in Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky — still polling indicates with one year until the election, Trump could beat Biden in key battleground states.

A New York Times/Siena College poll published over the weekend showed Trump beating Biden in hypothetical matchups in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, with Biden taking Wisconsin by a slim margin. A new CNN poll released Tuesday night also showed Trump narrowly leading Biden among registered voters.

“From our vantage point, right now, this is just a snapshot in time,” said Biden-Harris Campaign Manager Julie Chavez-Rodriguez.

In a press conference Tuesday, Chavez-Rodriguez and a slate of campaign surrogates defended the president from polling, homing in, instead, on condemning “MAGA Republicans.”

“We’re a year out from the election and so polling at this stage is not predictive,” Chavez-Rodriguez said. “I think we can look at some of the historical data around this, whether it’s President [Barack] Obama this time in 2011, headline’s ‘Obama toast’ and other things. Past presidents have faced similar sort of experiences, but they’ve gone off to win reelection.”

Hours later, when Democrats saw resounding election night wins across the country, Chavez-Rodriguez released a statement indicating it was a promising sign for the reelection campaign.

“Tonight, Democrats across the country won because they ran on standing up for personal freedoms, defending democracy and fighting for working families,” she said. “Voters across the political spectrum once again showed up and voted for our agenda and rejected the dangerous MAGA extremism that has come to define today’s Republican Party at every level.”

ABC News’ Fritz Farrow and Gabriella Abdul-Hakim contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Chairman James Comer of the House Oversight Committee announced a slew of subpoenas on Wednesday targeting members of President Joe Biden’s family, including his son Hunter Biden, brother James Biden, and former Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker, demanding they appear for depositions.

The subpoenas, which Comer has threatened for months, marks an escalation in his panel’s ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The committee had previously subpoenaed banks for records belonging to Hunter and James Biden.

In addition to the subpoenas, the committee is requesting transcribed interviews with other Biden family members and associates, including both Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen, and the widow of Beau Biden, Hallie Biden. Also asked for transcribed interviews were James Biden’s wife, Sara; Elizabeth Secundy, the older sister of Hallie Biden; and Tony Bobulinski a former business associate of Hunter Biden.

The investigation, which also includes the Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees, had been briefly stalled amid the prolonged speaker fight last month.

In a statement to ABC News, Comer said, “The House Oversight Committee has followed the money and built a record of evidence revealing how Joe Biden knew, was involved, and benefited from his family’s influence peddling schemes. Now, the House Oversight Committee is going to bring in members of the Biden family and their associates to question them on this record of evidence.”

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said in a statement, “This is a yet another political stunt aimed at distracting from the glaring failure of Rep. Comer and his MAGA allies to prove a single one of their wild and now discredited conspiracies about the Biden family. Nevertheless, Hunter is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum and at the right time, to discuss these matters with the Committee.”

Besides Biden family members, one subpoena targets a former business associate of Hunter Biden, Walker, who in a December 2020 interview with the FBI, Walker, stated he “certainly never was thinking at any time that the V.P. [Biden] was a part of anything we were doing” and explained that the idea that President Biden would ever get involved was “wishful thinking” on the part of another business partner, James Gilliar, akin to “unicorns and rainbows.”

Comer’s impeachment inquiry has been marked by criticism — even from some Republicans — claiming the nearly yearlong investigation into Biden has still not produced sufficient evidence for impeachment.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, slammed the subpoenas and “their buffoonish impeachment hearing.”

“The Committee has already obtained the personal financial records of the three private citizens Chairman Comer has subpoenaed: the President’s brother, his son, and one of their business partners, Rob Walker,” Raskin wrote in part in a lengthy statement. “The Committee also has Mr. Walker’s interview with the FBI and the summary of his interview with the IRS, which Republicans have already released. These subpoenas and interview requests are yet further proof that this sham impeachment inquiry is driven only by the demands of the vengeful and prevaricating Donald Trump.”

Attorneys for Hunter Biden submitted a lengthy letter on Wednesday morning to newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson — prior to the subpoenas — seeking his intervention in Republicans’ probe of Joe Biden and his family and to “[stop] them from continuing their partisan political games.”

The 12-page letter, which was obtained by ABC News, lays out seven alleged lies told by Comer, and Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Jason Smith, R-Mo., about the Biden family and their various business endeavors.

Lowell, the author of the letter, said the Republicans’ conduct “is ripe for your intervention” and asked him to follow up on his pledge to “restore the integrity and reputation of your chamber.”

“Even in the era of ‘alternative facts,’ your colleagues’ manipulation and disregard for the truth is breathtaking,” Lowell wrote. “Please remind [them] what you recently said: that House Republicans have a ‘constitutional responsibility to follow th[e] truth,’ wherever it leads, and you promised to ‘only follow facts’ and not ‘use this for political partisan games.'”

“These chairmen are about to ignore your admonition by continuing to pursue baseless allegations,” Lowell added.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House of Representatives voted to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Tuesday night, despite her emotionally defending herself, as Republicans and some members of her own party voted for a resolution that claimed she had been “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.” The tally was 234 yes votes to 188 no votes.

This was the second time Tlaib faced a censure resolution over her criticism of Israel.

Tlaib became emotional on the House floor earlier Tuesday as she defended her views on the deadly conflict.

Tlaib rose to speak during debate on the resolution, which had been introduced by Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga.

Tlaib’s critics have pointed to her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea,” which is considered by some as a call for ending Israel’s existence. Tlaib, however, has said it’s “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”

Surrounded by some of her progressive Democratic colleagues, Tlaib said earlier Tuesday she would not be “silenced” and accused members of distorting her words.

“I can’t believe we have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable,” she said before she broke down in tears for several seconds earlier on Tuesday.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., stood to comfort Tlaib before she continued.

“We are human beings just like anyone else. My sity, my grandmother — like all Palestinians — just wants to live her life with freedom and human dignity we all deserve,” she said. “Speaking up to save lives no matter faith, no matter ethnicity should not be controversial in this chamber. The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me. What I don’t understand is why the cries of Palestinian children sound different to you all. We cannot lose our shared humanity.”

An attempt by House Democrats to table, or effectively kill, the McCormick resolution failed on Tuesday afternoon. The House debated the censure resolution Tuesday and voted on Tuesday night.

A vote to censure a member of Congress does not hold power beyond a public condemnation of the member’s behavior. It does not deny privileges in Congress or expel the member. A simple majority is all that is needed for a censure resolution to pass.

Censures are relatively rare — only 25 House lawmakers had been censured in history. Tlaib becomes the 26th.

Tuesday’s vote was the second attempt in as many weeks looking to condemn Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American member of Congress, for her controversial comments about Israel amid its response to the deadly Hamas terror attack. The U.S. has designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

In Israel, at least 1,400 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured since the surprise attack on Oct. 7, according to Israeli officials. In the neighboring Gaza Strip, where Israel Defense Forces are deepening its operational activities, more than 10,000 people have been killed and nearly 26,000 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

The first resolution, brought by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene last week, was killed by House Democrats with the help of some Republicans. The House rejected the Georgia congresswoman’s effort by a vote of 222-186.

Tlaib first drew ire of some colleagues for refusing to apologize for blaming Israel for a deadly hospital blast in Gaza that U.S. officials believed to have been caused by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket.

More recently, she’s faced pushback for calling for a cease-fire as the Israel-Gaza war rages on. She’s gone as far as to accuse President Joe Biden of supporting a Palestinian “genocide” over his administration’s resistance to a general cease-fire, though Biden has called for temporary pauses in the fighting to allow humanitarian aid to enter and for civilians to leave.

Tlaib defended her views during her five-minute speech on the House floor.

“Let me be clear: my criticism has always been of the Israeli government and Netanyahu’s actions. It’s important to separate people and governments, Mr. Chair, no government is beyond criticism,” Tlaib said. “The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent and it’s being used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation.”

She also again took aim at President Biden, specifically over his past comment questioning the death toll statistics provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry as well as his resistance to an overall cease-fire.

“Seventy-one percent of Michigan Democrats support a ceasefire. So, you can try to censure me, but you can’t silence their voices … President Biden must listen to and represent all of us, not just some of us,” she said.

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