WordPress database error: [The table 'wp_yoast_indexable' is full]UPDATE `wp_yoast_indexable` SET `object_id` = '2478', `object_type` = 'term', `object_sub_type` = 'post_tag', `permalink` = 'https://virusreports.net/tag/campaigning/', `blog_id` = '1', `primary_focus_keyword_score` = NULL, `is_robots_noindex` = NULL, `is_public` = NULL, `open_graph_image` = NULL, `open_graph_image_id` = NULL, `open_graph_image_source` = NULL, `open_graph_image_meta` = NULL, `twitter_image` = NULL, `twitter_image_id` = NULL, `twitter_image_source` = NULL, `canonical` = NULL, `primary_focus_keyword` = NULL, `title` = NULL, `description` = NULL, `readability_score` = NULL, `inclusive_language_score` = NULL, `breadcrumb_title` = 'campaigning', `open_graph_title` = NULL, `open_graph_description` = NULL, `twitter_title` = NULL, `twitter_description` = NULL, `is_cornerstone` = '0', `is_robots_nofollow` = NULL, `is_robots_noarchive` = NULL, `is_robots_noimageindex` = NULL, `is_robots_nosnippet` = NULL, `object_published_at` = '2020-04-27 13:25:07', `object_last_modified` = '2020-06-01 13:21:19', `version` = '2', `permalink_hash` = '41:f2712e01a5b045aabdac59cb230a2f63', `updated_at` = '2026-09-06 01:51:38' WHERE `id` = '34155'
WordPress database error: [The table 'wp_yoast_indexable' is full]UPDATE `wp_yoast_indexable` SET `object_id` = '2478', `object_type` = 'term', `object_sub_type` = 'post_tag', `permalink` = 'https://virusreports.net/tag/campaigning/', `blog_id` = '1', `primary_focus_keyword_score` = NULL, `is_robots_noindex` = NULL, `is_public` = NULL, `open_graph_image` = NULL, `open_graph_image_id` = NULL, `open_graph_image_source` = NULL, `open_graph_image_meta` = NULL, `twitter_image` = NULL, `twitter_image_id` = NULL, `twitter_image_source` = NULL, `canonical` = NULL, `primary_focus_keyword` = NULL, `title` = NULL, `description` = NULL, `readability_score` = NULL, `inclusive_language_score` = NULL, `breadcrumb_title` = 'campaigning', `open_graph_title` = NULL, `open_graph_description` = NULL, `twitter_title` = NULL, `twitter_description` = NULL, `is_cornerstone` = '0', `is_robots_nofollow` = NULL, `is_robots_noarchive` = NULL, `is_robots_noimageindex` = NULL, `is_robots_nosnippet` = NULL, `object_published_at` = '2020-04-27 13:25:07', `object_last_modified` = '2020-06-01 13:21:19', `version` = '2', `permalink_hash` = '41:f2712e01a5b045aabdac59cb230a2f63', `updated_at` = '2026-09-06 01:51:38' WHERE `id` = '34155'
The post Primaries become test run for campaigning during the coronavirus crisis appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Tuesday’s primaries in eight states are the biggest test to date of campaigning during the coronavirus era, a way for parties to test-drive new ways of getting out the vote during a time when it can be dangerous to leave your home.
Voters from Pennsylvania to Iowa to New Mexico will cast ballots in both the Democratic presidential contest, where former Vice President Joe Biden is the only contender with an active campaign, and a host of down-ballot primaries for everything from governors to state representatives. Many states postponed elections scheduled between mid-March and May to the date because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Unable to send candidates out to barnstorm the states or volunteers to knock on voters’ doors, campaigns have had to improvise. One Pennsylvania Republican congressional campaign recruited 100 people, including its candidate’s large extended family, to hand-write thousands of letters to voters urging support. Another organized “pop-up food banks” for the needy. Others moved up television advertising to capitalize on a captive audience locked down at home. Democrats have created a phone banking model almost along the lines of a technology support hub, where knowledgeable volunteers and staffers can guide confused voters, step by step, through the process of voting by mail.
“Any plan you had three months ago is out the window,” said Brock Lowrance, a Republican strategist working on two Montana races – Sen. Steve Daines’ reelection bid and Rep. Greg Gianforte’s bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. “Campaigns are having to adapt in the ways they’re talking to voters but also in the ways voters are going to vote.”
Some voting experts predict half or more of all ballots cast in the November election will be sent through the mail, as the Centers for Disease Control recommends as a way to lessen risk of exposure to the virus at polling stations. States have scrambled to adjust to the new reality with some sending every voter an absentee ballot request.
In Iowa, the traditional frenzy of pre-primary barbecues and rallies has shifted to twice-a-week Zoom training of volunteers for Democratic Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield, who then start dialing voters to ensure they’ve requested and returned their mail ballots.
“Just because we’re staying home doesn’t mean we’re standing still,” said Sam Newton, communication director for Greenfield.
In Montana, where the populace is more accustomed to voting by mail, the outbreak has still altered the rhythm of the political season. Lowrance says he’s noticed far more down-ballot races advertising on television, a reflection of how campaigns have fewer ways to reach voters and more eyeballs glued to the screen during quarantine.
Lowrance said campaigns, including his own, have had to watch their budgets as the pandemic and economic crash have crimped fundraising and refrained from hiring the legion of door-knockers who usually hit the streets before elections. And now they are having to plan for two possibilities – that November will resemble the intense lockdowns of the past two months, or the more mixed reality of reopened states.
“It’s really trying to build two different plans and execute them,” Lowrance said.
The greatest attention is on Pennsylvania, however. It’s simultaneously the biggest state voting on Tuesday, the only one that is likely to be a presidential battleground in November and the state that’s seen the biggest shift in voting in the COVID-19 era.
That’s because this is the first statewide election under a new, more permissive mail voting law passed last year. In 2016, only 4.6% of the state’s voters cast a ballot by mail. Now 21% of all the state’s 8.5 million voters have already requested absentee ballots.
Democrats are overwhelmingly the ones asking to vote by mail – 1.3 million have filed requests, compared with 525,000 Republicans, state records show. That’s partly a reflection of GOP distrust of mail voting that’s been stoked by President Donald Trump, who’s claimed without evidence it will lead to widespread fraud. Even the Trump campaign, recognizing that getting supporters to mail ballots in is key to winning elections, has been pushing Republicans to use the technique.
Some Pennsylvania Republicans have worried Trump is hobbling the party by making its voters distrust the easiest method of voting during the pandemic. Others argue the gap will close in the fall, when Democrats aren’t the only ones to have a presidential candidate on the ballot.
“They had that Bernie and Biden thing going, and it drove some enthusiasm, as it naturally would,” said Dave Feidt, the party chairman in Dauphin County, home to the state capital of Harrisburg. “But to come full circle, you’ll see a very different dynamic in the fall when things are R against D.”
Democrats are elated with their mail ballot lead, saying it reflects their voters’ excitement. “They’re willing to crawl through broken glass to make sure they participate,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman David Bergstein.
The party has also shifted its campaign tactics, building upon its success in Wisconsin, where the state party pushed mail voting heavily and Democrats won a contested state supreme court election in April. The party has distributed new call scripts to volunteers with detailed instructions on mail voting and ensured there are experts who can walk confused voters through requesting ballots. People marooned at home are answering phones and texts at a notably higher rate, Bergstein said.
Pennsylvania has revealed one potential weak spot for Democrats in the mail voting era – African Americans voters, who operatives say have been requesting ballots at lower rates. Claudette Williams, a black Democrat running for a state legislative seat in eastern Pennsylvania, has had to replace her regular circuit of black churches with regular Zoom calls with black ministers and their parishioners. Her campaign has also organized “pop-up food banks” to distribute food to the needy, at a distance, during the outbreak.
Normally Williams would be frantically meeting voters in the days before a primary. “Today I have to pick up 60 pounds of meat for a pop-up pantry,” she said Friday.
Republicans have also been testing new ways of reaching voters. Once the lockdowns began, it switched its Trump Victory organizing push to online meetings, says it recruited 300,000 new members who have made millions of calls, often with the aid of the campaign’s app that helps target voters in key states.
“Within just 24 hours, our teams transitioned to an entirely virtual campaign,” said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Mandi Merritt.
Also conducting primaries Tuesday are Indiana, Maryland, Rhode Island and South Dakota.
Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC.
The post Primaries become test run for campaigning during the coronavirus crisis appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post Jeff Sessions says campaigning amid social distancing restrictions is ‘strange,’ China ‘anger’ resonating appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.
Quarantine Routine is a regular feature that asks political power brokers how their daily lives have changed — and how they’re still doing their jobs — during the coronavirus crisis.
Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions admits it’s “a bit strange” to be running for office without being able to hit the road and campaign in-person.
But the former Republican senator — locked in a tough runoff battle with former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville for the Republican nomination for the Alabama Senate seat he once held — says he’s hearing a lot about China from voters as he works from home, but uses phone and video conferencing to campaign. (The March 31 contest with Tuberville was rescheduled by Alabama to July 14 because of the outbreak).
“It is amazing to do TV interviews with national networks and local stations across the state, from right here at home,” says former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
(Photo provided by Sessions campaign.)
“There has also been a lot of frustration and anger with China,” Sessions told Fox News. “People are very aware of how China covered up the virus, especially at the beginning in Wuhan, and Alabamians want the Chinese government to be held accountable.”
Sessions – who says he and his wife, Mary, take a break from working by sitting on their back porch to enjoy the Alabama weather – explained his new daily campaign routine amid coronavirus in a Q&A with Fox News:
How has your daily routine changed since social distancing measures began?
Sessions: Mary and I are striving to comply with the social distancing guidelines, staying here at home in Mobile. But like many Americans, I am working hard now from home. A lot can be accomplished with platforms like Zoom and Skype, and I have used both to conduct over a dozen conference calls with various civic groups and TV interviews with state and national networks. And I have done several dozen other conference calls and radio interviews over the phone. So with those tools, combined with social media, I have been able to stay very active in communicating with voters in Alabama.
It is amazing to do TV interviews with national networks and local stations across the state, from right here at home. By far, the broadest outreach has been doing a host of interviews with radio stations across Alabama, as well as several national shows like Hugh Hewitt’s.
“By far, the broadest outreach has been doing a host of interviews with radio stations across Alabama, as well as several national shows like Hugh Hewitt’s,” says Sessions.
(Photo provided by Sessions campaign.)
On Tuesday, I did a Zoom call with a Republican women’s group from Huntsville and I also did a conference call with the Republican clubs from Autauga and Elmore counties. On Thursday, I did a conference call with a group in Pickens County. The Q&As give you a sense of what people are concerned about—the No. 1 concern people have is the pandemic and how we can get the economy safely reopened and get people back to work.
There has also been a lot of frustration and anger with China. People are very aware of how China covered up the virus, especially at the beginning in Wuhan, and Alabamians want the Chinese government to be held accountable. I recently did a Facebook Live where I took questions people had on China, and that was a useful way to connect with voters and explain my “Betting on America” plan to reset the U.S. relationship with China and make the communist Chinese government pay for its lies.
Even though the method of communicating has changed, people want to see real plans, actionable ideas, for how we can come through this crisis stronger than ever. Now certainly isn’t the time to passively sit on the sidelines, idly twiddling your thumbs.
What are the biggest challenges in doing your job during this crisis?
Sessions: While it is frustrating to not be able to venture out to campaign, as I love to do, Mary and I truly appreciate those who are out there daily serving Alabama’s communities: the law enforcement officers and first responders, health care providers, and the clerks running the checkout lines and the stockers keeping the shelves full at our grocery markets. Our inconveniences are very small compared to the hard work of a lot of people, and the risk and challenges that they are facing. But Alabamians are tough, confident, resourceful, and independent, and we are going to beat this pandemic and emerge stronger than ever.
What do you miss the most about how you did your job before this began?
Sessions: Well, I miss being out on the road, visiting with folks across Alabama and hearing their stories and perspectives. I talk on the phone regularly with small business owners and people from a variety of backgrounds to hear how they are doing, but you just learn so much when you are out meeting with folks from every corner of the state. When I served as senator before, I visited every one of Alabama’s 67 counties yearly, and it is a bit strange now to not have that in-person communication with people.
What surprised you the most about how life has changed?
Sessions: I am thankful that technology allows us to stay connected with our family, even if we can’t go visit them. We have 10 grandchildren, and while we really miss seeing them in person, it’s been good to keep up with them via FaceTime and the like. Although the grandkids seem to be getting antsy—I am proud that my children and their spouses have taken the opportunity to take the kids hiking and go on historical field trips, which has helped the grandkids blow off some excess energy.
How do you blow off steam?
Sessions: Even though I haven’t been on the road, I have stayed busy. This last week, I did 23 events where I was either talking directly to voters on conference calls or doing interviews with TV, radio, and print outlets from across Alabama, as well as with a few national organizations like Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council. And just in the past few weeks, I have done interviews with Hugh Hewitt, Ben Shapiro, Neil Cavuto, Maria Bartiromo, and Tucker Carlson. So we haven’t slowed down that much. I go for a walk every day, and Mary and I will sit on our back porch at least once a day, enjoying the beautiful Mobile spring weather. It has been good to see families outside more, riding bicycles and walking together. Several times a week, we will get take-out from our favorite local restaurants in Mobile, doing what we can to support small businesses during this tough time.
The post Jeff Sessions says campaigning amid social distancing restrictions is ‘strange,’ China ‘anger’ resonating appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>