[ad_1]
With help from Ella Creamer, Marissa Martinez, Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
What up, Recast family! It’s yet another Election Day with primary elections and runoffs in a handful of states. Democrats are still working out how to turn the expected overturning of Roe v. Wade into a top campaign issue. First, though, a look at the media blitz Georgia’s GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker is enduring.
Herschel Walker was once one of the fastest men in the world, easily sprinting past defenders in the open field to score touchdowns and wow adoring fans.
But he hasn’t been able to outrun his past — which last week came chasing after him, thanks to a bombshell Daily Beast report revealing the former Hesiman Trophy winner fathered three previously undisclosed children by multiple women.
The one-time Olympic bobsledder is in the midst of a campaign challenging incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) in the nation’s most closely contested Senate race, where each party’s nominee is a Black man. (Warnock, for his part, is ensnared in a child custody dispute with his ex-wife.)
Walker often talks glowingly about his son Christian, a conservative internet celebrity, whose mother is Herschel Walker’s ex-wife.
In a recent Tiktok, the younger Walker derided absentee fathers and men who have children with multiple women.
The politics of respectability and an embrace of social conservative issues are major pillars of Walker’s political career. He’s been critical of absentee fathers, even offering an “apology to the Black community” during a 2020 interview with conservative video bloggers Diamond and Silk.
“I want to apologize to the African American community because I know that fatherless homes is a major, major problem,” Walker said at the time.
The stereotype that Black men are absent fathers isn’t borne out by data; while they are the least likely to marry the mothers of their children compared with fathers of other races, they are the most likely to be actively involved in their children’s lives.
As my POLITICO colleagues Natalie Allison and Brittany Gibson report, on the eve of Father’s Day, Walker sat down for an interview at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual conference in Nashville.
There, he met with a receptive audience. Ralph Reed, the coalition’s founder, said it didn’t take long after Walker secured the GOP nomination before “Democrats and the media” were “firing artillery” at him.
Walker told the cheering crowd he loves and has never “denied” any of his children and quickly pivoted to blasting unnamed forces that he says are out to destroy him. Quoting from the Old Testament, he said, “No weapon formed against me shall ever prosper.”
“That’s why I want you to wake up and be vigilant. Don’t let them do these tricks on you, it’s like a magic trick,” Walker said. “All they’re trying to do is confuse you with racism over here … and confuse you with the Build Back Better plan over here. They’re just trying to confuse you and pass all these terrible policies.”
In the past, Walker has avoided wading into thorny racial issues – like the traumatic event that swept through his hometown of Wrightsville, Ga., during his high school days.
Since Donald Trump, a longtime friend of Walker’s, emerged as a dominant political figure with a penchant for leaning into racial divisions, Walker has grown more at ease talking about race. And when he does, it’s often to criticize Black Americans or Black-led movements.
Take for instance Walker’s tweet about “America is under attack” by Black Lives Matter.
In a recent podcast, Common Sense with Dr. Ben Carson, Walker and the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development complained about the faltering “moral compass” of the nation. “You see family structure falling apart, particularly in the Black community,” Carson said.
“We have to also have our African American brothers and sisters that once you have made good for yourself, go back into those communities,” Walker said, to help educate those younger members of the community.
“We have to be accountable for ourselves,” Walker added.
With predictions of a Republican wave this election cycle, will Walker’s formula prove to be key to the GOP’s quest to take back the Senate? Or will he turn off voters – particularly voters of color – ensuring Democrats a victory in an increasingly diverse battleground state?
As always, we’ll be tracking this throughout the remaining months of the campaign – so stay tuned.
All the best,
The Recast Team
Power dynamics are changing. With The Recast, you’ll get a twice-weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy.
Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Subscribe to the newsletter here.
MAYRA FLORES HEADS TO CONGRESS
Newly elected Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas) is expected to be sworn into Congress this evening, completing a major, though perhaps temporary, victory for Republicans seeking to make inroads with Latinos along the Rio Grande Valley. She also narrows Democrats’ razor-thin advantage in the House, reports POLITICO’s Marissa Martinez.
Flores is the first Mexican-born woman to serve in Congress, making history last week after flipping a longtime Democratic seat in a special election. She sailed to victory in Texas’ 34th District – an area where Democrats have routinely won by comfortable margins.
One of the voters who helped secure her victory was none other than the world’s richest man, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted his support for Flores.
The seat became vacant after former Rep. Filemon Vela, a Democrat, resigned earlier this year to take a lucrative job with a lobbying firm.
Flores immigrated from Burgos, Tamaulipas, Mexico, as a child and grew up in the Rio Grande Valley region. While several Mexican-born men have gone on to be elected to Congress, including Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.), a member of The Recast Power List, Flores is the first woman to hold that distinction.
Her victory is viewed as evidence the GOP is making gains along the Texas border, where other Latina Republicans, including Monica De La Cruz and Cassy Garcia, won nominations in two other congressional districts.
Flores credited her victory to Democrats taking Latino voters for granted, telling Fox Business Network over the weekend, “They feel entitled to our vote, making the same promises over and over and really not making nothing happen.” In a post-election memo, John Billings, executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, added:
“Flores’ victory in the TX-34 Special Election is proof that Republicans have a winning message with Hispanic voters and that no Democrat is safe in the current political environment.”
Flores’ win also fueled outrage among Latino Democrats, who claimed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other leaders had abandoned the race altogether, leaving their candidate, Dan Sanchez, in the dust. Together, the NRCC and the Texas Republican Party spent more than $1 million in the special election, handily overwhelming Sanchez, who aired almost no ads leading up to Election Day.
Still, this GOP victory lap may be short-lived.
Flores will serve out the remainder of the term, which ends in January. And at the same time, she’ll be running for a full two-year term in November, when the political environment will be markedly different. She will face the current Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen, who is switching from his current 15th District to run in the 34th against Flores.
After redistricting, the 34th is far more favorable for Democrats. In 2020, Joe Biden won there by 4 percentage points. In 2022, that district would favor him by nearly 16 points, according to POLITICO’s redistricting tracker.
“Look, I think the Republicans spent millions of dollars to win a seat that’s going away. We’re going to win this seat when it matters,” DCCC chair Sean Patrick Maloney told POLITICO last week.
“You never like to lose, and I understand why people were upset by that. I think Republicans burned a lot of money, and we’re going to end up with that seat.”
THE BATTLE FOR THE “CHOCOLATE CITY”
There are primary contests and runoffs in a handful of states today in Alabama, Georgia and Virginia. We’re also keeping a close eye on the mayoral primary in Washington, D.C. The district is overwhelmingly blue, so the winner of the Democratic primary is almost assured a victory in November. (Earlier this year, The Recast profiled the city as part of our Next Great Migration series.)
Incumbent mayor Muriel Bowser is seeking a third term. She has steered the city through an unprecedented series of events during the previous eight years, including widespread racial justice demonstrations which led to sparring between her and then-President Donald Trump over his decision to deploy federal troops to quell protests.
If she’s going to be reelected, she’ll have to best a pair of Whites – Trayon White Sr. and Robert White Jr., no relation – who both sit on the D.C. Council.
Bowser’s challengers say she hasn’t done enough to quell gentrification as the city enjoys an economic boom – or help the District’s roughly 700,000 residents navigate the pandemic. They complain she’s failed to contain housing costs for the city’s lowest-income residents and hasn’t squelched the rise in violent crime. She hits right back, knocking the lawmakers for failing to introduce their own plans to address these issues on the Council.
If Bowser is able to secure a victory in the contest, she would join the late Marion Berry, the man dubbed “mayor for life,” as the only officials elected to lead the city three consecutive terms.
OPIOID TELEHEALTH MAY VIRTUALLY VANISH
Thousands of patients received treatment for opioid addiction through online services that rapidly expanded during the pandemic. Since 2020, when restrictions eased up, patients have been able to forgo in-person visits in favor of an audio or video appointment. That’s allowed practitioners the flexibility to prescribe buprenorphine, a drug for treating opioid dependence, to patients, even those who live outside their state.
But as POLITICO’s Krista Mahr and Ben Leonard report, those temporary public health emergency measures could expire in a few months as the Drug Enforcement Agency seeks to clamp down on buprenorphine’s misuse – and marginalized communities are likely to be disproportionately affected. Here are some highlights from their reporting:
The country’s opioid crisis deepened under the economic pressures and isolation of the pandemic. More Americans now die by drug overdose than guns or suicide, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
The telehealth treatment option has exploded during the pandemic and provided unexpected benefits and opportunities, experts say. One example: Surveys show that Black patients are nearly 77 percent less likely to be prescribed buprenorphine, according to one substance use and prevention treatment researcher.
Not only can telehealth make it easier for patients to connect with clinicians, but it can also reduce the stigma some patients have about seeking professional help for addiction.
While the DEA says it’s working to make those emergency measures permanent, its track record for doing so has been slow – blowing past several congressional deadlines to expand telehealth access for controlled substances.
Some fear that buprenorphine could be sold illegally and the agency isn’t moving quickly enough to expand access.
“This is all part and parcel of why the DEA does not need to be involved in health care policymaking,” said Bayla Ostrach, a professor at Boston University School of Medicine. She added:
Read the full story here.
THE RECAST RECOMMENDS
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah sparks a revolution with “The Sex Lives of African Women,” which collates 32 diverse portraits of sexual experiences of women from the continent.
Check out Etgar Keret’s new short tale “Mitzvah” — translated from Hebrew — exploring religion and youth with a hedonistic twist.
Nineteen-year-old(!) Leila Mottley became the youngest-ever Oprah book club pick author with her debut novel, “Nightcrawling.”
The “grandmother of Juneteenth,” Opal Lee, is spearheading a $70 million project to build a National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
Fashion designer Anna Sui shows us her “objects of affection”. The apartment envy is real.
Beyoncé’s giving us energy for the week ahead, providing us with a sneak peak of her upcoming album — her new single, “Break My Soul.”
Black Eyed Peas, Shakira, and David Guetta bring us summer party vibes with “Don’t You Worry.”
We’re going to let Chance the Rapper take us out today with his new single, “The Highs & The Lows” where he bounces around Europe with Joey Bada$$.
TikTok of the day: Guilty
[ad_2]
Source link
