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Lombardo promises tax cuts, sweeping K-12 spending boost in State of the State speech – The Nevada Independent

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In his first State of the State address, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo laid out plans for aggressively saving for a potential economic downturn, cutting gas and payroll taxes, boosting public school spending and expanding a much-fought-over school choice program.

During his inaugural State of the State speech, Lombardo announced details of his proposed two-year $11 billion budget, shared Tesla’s plans for a $3.5 billion manufacturing facility in Northern Nevada and pledged to provide raises and bonuses for state employees, although to a lesser extent than former Gov. Steve Sisolak proposed last month. 

Speaking before members of Nevada’s Assembly and Senate, he also took aim at recently passed Democratic policies — calling for a rollback of universal vote-by-mail and seeking harsher sentences for certain drug-related crimes. 

Lombardo’s remarks to the Democrat-controlled Legislature set the stage for likely partisan policy fights during the upcoming legislative session as he pledged to take certain policies, such as requiring voter ID, to the ballot box if legislators oppose his agenda. 

Continuing messaging from his inaugural address earlier this month, Lombardo again spoke about the “Nevada Way,” highlighting Nevadans’ history of perseverance, and highlighting “exciting opportunities within our grasp” because of an “unprecedented budget surplus.”

“On one hand we have exciting opportunities within our grasp,” he said. “But on the other, we must not allow ourselves to give way to the temptation to overspend. 

Below, we explore highlights from Lombardo’s speech and his policy goals for the upcoming year. For a detailed look at the governor’s proposed budget, read more here.

Budget and taxes

Lombardo said his proposed budget would lower the tax burden on working families and businesses while also reserving more than $1 in savings for every new dollar in general fund spending — an aggressive move to save state funds as economists have warned that another recession could be on the horizon.

The tax changes include a yearlong suspension of the state motor vehicle fuel tax — a 23-cent-per-gallon tax on all motor vehicle fuel — and increasing the Commerce Tax threshold from $4 million to $6 million, meaning the tax would apply only to annual business revenues exceeding $6 million.

“No sunsets. No court decisions. No gimmicks. Just plain old fashion tax cuts that allow Nevadans to keep more of what they earn,” he said, referring to maneuvers in recent legislative sessions that yielded lower taxes

Lombardo also noted that his budget includes a rate reduction for the Modified Business Tax — a tax businesses owe on the wages they pay workers. That change complies with state law requiring business tax rates to be reduced when collections from the tax exceed projections by a certain amount.

Besides tax changes, his push to increase state savings comes as the projected size of Nevada’s two-year general fund budget is set to balloon from about $9.2 billion to more than $11.4 billion in the two-year period beginning this July, with the increase driven by inflation and increased consumer spending.

With a budget surplus collected in the current two-year budget period, Lombardo announced plans to put an additional $630 million in the Rainy Day Fund “to be used when dark clouds again gather on the horizon.” The Rainy Day Fund acts as an emergency savings account for the state and had been drained early in the COVID-19 pandemic as the coinciding recession decimated the state budget. 

“Overall, my budget sets aside more than $2 billion dollars in total savings to safeguard against cuts to education and critical programs in the years to come,” Lombardo said.

State employee raises

Flush with extra cash, Lombardo’s proposed budget includes 8 percent increases for all state workers in the next fiscal year (July 2023-June 2024) and a 4 percent increase in the year after that — both slightly smaller than raises of 10 percent and 5 percent proposed by outgoing Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in December.

Lombardo proposed a slightly larger increase of 10 percent next year for state public safety employees, such as members of the highway patrol, “to help bring them closer to parity with local agencies.”

Lombardo’s proposed budget also includes $2,000 annual bonuses — split into four $500 bonuses each quarter — for “every executive branch state employee,” and he called upon the Legislature to prioritize passing a bill that would fund the bonuses starting at the end of March, rather than requiring state workers to wait until after the session for the payments.

Education

In outlining the policy fundamentals behind his campaign promises to reform the state’s ailing K-12 education system, Lombardo made sweeping promises to increase education spending. 

That includes $2 billion in additional education funding for the next biennium, up 22 percent from the two years prior. That amount would boost funding by $2,000 per pupil, Lombardo said, in addition to fully funding so-called “targeted weights” as part of the state’s Pupil Centered Funding Plan, which aims to send extra money to schools  based on how many English language learners, at-risk and gifted and talented students they serve. 

He added, however, that he would not accept “a lack of funding as an excuse for underperformance,” and that he would call for “systematic” governance change for K-12 education in 2025 “if we don’t start seeing results.” 

Lombardo also called for the investment of $730 million into an education-specific rainy day fund, dubbed the Education Stabilization Account. Interest on the account would help provide scholarships for in-state students attending Nevada colleges and universities and who commit to teaching in Nevada for a minimum of five years after they graduate. 

To address the teacher shortage, Lombardo also called on lawmakers to adjust state law so retired educators could draw a salary, too — in essence allowing retired teachers to return to the classroom without jeopardizing their retirement money. 

Lombardo also attributed an uptick in violence in Nevada schools to the passage of a “restorative justice” law, AB168, in 2019. In calling for the repeal of the “most onerous” sections of the law, the governor characterized the measure as having “handcuffed” teachers and administrators and left them unable to address repeated misbehavior and classroom violence. 

Though the law does not prevent administrators from expelling students, it did make the process more difficult and came with no additional funding. After an increasingly large number of violent incidents since the law’s passage, the measure has drawn criticism from teachers, especially in Southern Nevada, who protested the measure last year. The Clark County Education Association (CCEA) and the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) have called for changes to the law. 

In a nod to another campaign promise, Lombardo said he would give schools five years to increase reading scores and called on lawmakers to reinstate elements of the state’s Read by Grade 3 law that would hold back students who are not proficient in reading by the third grade. Originally passed during the Sandoval administration, lawmakers repealed the hold-back provisions in 2019. 

The governor stopped short, however, of promising major policy wins on school choice, or state government investments into private education. 

An issue central to Lombardo’s 2022 campaign, school choice in Nevada came most notably in 2015 through the Education Savings Accounts program under Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval. The funding mechanism for those accounts were quickly deemed unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court — even as the program itself was left standing — and a Democrat-controlled Legislature later axed the program in 2019 under Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak. 

In his speech, Lombardo instead announced a planned bill to create an “Office of School Choice,” a subdivision of the state’s Department of Education designed to “to ensure students and their parents have the information they need” to assess “every available option.” 

Still, Lombardo also pledged a record $50 million in funding for the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program, a tax credit-funded program designed to fund scholarships for certain students at private K-12 institutions. The program is currently offering less than $7 million in scholarships each year.

“Traditional public schools are not — and should not — be the only option,” Lombardo said. 

And though he did not clarify additional school choice policies, Lombardo said his post-legislative session goal was to “give Nevada parents significantly more choices to make about their child’s education.”

Asked after the speech why he did not seek to fund Education Savings Accounts, Lombardo told The Nevada Independent that “the court opined on it, and we’re going to work through that process.” 

Separately, Lombardo also pledged extensive investments in the state’s higher education system, which saw hundreds of millions in operating cuts as a result of the pandemic. He pledged to restore those cuts, totaling $76 million, and proposed $5 million for a funding formula study that could revamp the state’s decade-old credit-hour-based formula. 

That funding formula study would also require “increased transparency and accountability” for self-supporting budgets, or those funded by tuition, student fees and other non-state dollars. 

Lombardo’s proposed budget also would provide tens of million in new dollars for increasing graduate student stipends, the state’s Millennium scholarship, the Promise Scholarship (designed to cover the costs for certain students attending community colleges), faculty at the UNLV’s School of Medicine and for so-called “deferred maintenance,” designed to repair or maintain buildings and infrastructure across the system. 

Economy and business

Lombardo said the main tenet of his economy and business plans is recentering Nevada as a pro-business, pro-development state.

Though he said the best opportunity for the state’s growth includes offering pro-development incentives for the expansion of new businesses and industry, he did not offer details.

He illustrated his commitment by saying he would join Elon Musk and the team at Tesla on Tuesday for an unveiling of plans to build a $3.5 billion manufacturing facility in Northern Nevada for the company’s all-electric semi-trucks. It was unclear if the state will offer tax breaks or other incentives to the company.

In 2014, then-Gov. Brian Sandoval wooed Tesla to set up shop in Northern Nevada with an unprecedented tax incentive policy estimated to be worth about $1.25 billion over 20 years. 

Economists and other economic development authorities have attributed Northern Nevada’s successful navigation of the pandemic in part to the economic diversification of the region, including the arrival of the Tesla gigafactory. 

In February, 2022, Brian Bonnenfant, the project manager for UNR’s Center for Regional studies, attributed a rise in income levels in Northern Nevada to companies such as Tesla and Switch. However, those wage increases combined with geographical limitations helped increase median home prices in the region and have contributed to a housing shortage.

Lombardo addressed those issues by saying that money from economic investments must be responsibly reinvested and used to address transportation, education, housing and public safety demands.

He also touted the inaugural Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, which former Gov. Steve Sisolak helped unveil in March 2022.

Crime and public safety

On the campaign trail, Lombardo criticized the Legislature’s passage of “soft-on-crime” policies under former Democratic governor Gov. Steve Sisolak. During his State of the State address, Lombardo again took aim at the policies, which were geared toward reducing the costs of incarceration. 

“I will be introducing legislation that makes it harder — not easier — to commit a crime in the state of Nevada,” he said.

He said part of the proposed legislation will include enhancing charges for repeat offenders, empowering judges and probation officers to impose tougher sanctions for parole violations and increasing penalties for fentanyl possession by making possession of the drug a category B felony, for which the punishment is one to 20 years imprisonment. 

Elections

Lombardo sharply criticized Democrat-backed legislation from 2020 and 2021 creating universal mail-in voting. Calling for a return to the prior system of opt-in absentee ballot requests, Lombardo derided the current laws as both “unnecessary” now that the pandemic has ebbed, and too expensive. 

The governor also backed the creation of a voter ID law and called on lawmakers to end “unregulated ballot harvesting” — another part of Democrat-backed election reforms that allow non-family members to submit mail ballots. 

Separately, Lombardo also called on lawmakers to create an independent redistricting commission that would end the use of partisan maps created by state lawmakers after each census. 

An often-contentious partisan process, Nevada’s 2021 redistricting, led by Democrats, produced maps that maximized the number of Democrat-held seats across the board, producing a super-majority in the state Assembly, near-super-majority in the Senate and helping Democrats to win three out of four congressional districts — even as Lombardo won the governor’s race. 

Lombardo told assembled lawmakers that if they did not act on his proposed election policies, he would turn to ballot measures that would give voters statewide a say on the ideas. 

Water, energy and land

Amid a crushing, decades-long drought that has devolved into a worsening crisis on the Colorado River, Lombardo signaled he would be more heavily involved in future negotiations over water rights with the six other states, as well as Mexico, that reside along the river basin. 

“There are no simple solutions to these complicated water challenges, but we must be assured that our neighbors share the same commitment that we ask of ourselves,” Lombardo said. 

Lombardo also called for Nevada to reduce its reliance on the western energy market and seek “energy independence,” and announced he would sign an executive order allowing energy providers to develop “in-state generation resources” that would reduce the state’s reliance on the outside market. 

Lombardo also pushed for a “more predictable approach” to the “timely” release of public lands from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a federal agency that manages more than 48 million acres in Nevada, or about 67 percent of the state’s total land. 

For decades, Las Vegas, in particular, has balanced surging population growth through the sale of publicly managed BLM land. A more recent bid by Clark County to expand the boundary of developable federally owned land stalled last year in the U.S. Senate. 

Lombardo did not specifically mention Clark County in his remarks, nor did specify how his administration would pursue such an approach, though he did signal it would be in “coordination” with the state’s congressional delegation. 

Health care

Lombardo took a swing at the public health insurance option the Legislature passed during the 2021 legislative session, calling it “political theater.” 

“Getting Nevadans insured is the goal,” Lombardo said. “At a minimum this law needs to be substantially revised, or better yet repealed, so we can re-focus on the real problem which is getting eligible but uninsured Nevadans the coverage they need.”

In early January, his administration pushed back a hearing on the necessary Medicaid waiver for Nevada’s public health insurance option.

“An agenda was scheduled for a public hearing the day after [a roughly 400-page actuarial study] was published; that’s unacceptable,” Lombardo Chief of Staff Ben Kieckhefer said during a roundtable with statehouse reporters on Jan. 6.

Nevada Medicaid indicated a public comment period will restart no later than Nov. 15.

While on the campaign trail in April, Lombardo called the public option, which was an unrealized goal of Obamacare, “bullshit.”

Though Lombardo panned the public health option, he championed access to mental health services and said he will make sure the government increases reimbursement rates in areas of acute need, especially mental health services.

“Jails and prisons are all too often places where we house those we have failed to educate, failed to treat or otherwise failed to get them the help they need,” Lombardo said. 

In his proposed budget, Lombardo includes an enhancement in Medicaid aimed at expanding community behavioral health centers. The $17 million expansion will result in up to six clinics across the state in underserved areas, the governor said.

Rural Nevada

Lombardo discussed priorities for rural Nevada, noting that broadband connectivity and improved relationships with the mining industry are key for his administration.

“The soul of Nevada can be found in the people and places that make up our rural counties,” Lombardo said.

As part of improving communications with rural communities, Lombardo said he appointed a staff member to act as a liaison to Nevada’s rural communities and would be recommending a $400 million dollar broadband investment for rural communities in his budget.

He also said understanding rural Nevada is tied to understanding Nevada’s mining industry. But Lombardo said the mining industry’s relationship with the state government deteriorated in recent years and he is committed to improving the relationship.

“My office will make sure that the five key state agencies with jurisdiction over mining issues are working in cooperation with the industry,” Lombardo said. 

Gaming

Lombardo, who announced two weeks ago that Las Vegas attorney Kirk Hendrick would be appointed chairman of the Gaming Control Board by the end of this month, said the agency’s testing lab needed improvement.

He said “concerns have surfaced” over the time it takes for the lab to approve new slot machines and associated gaming equipment, such as cashless payment technology. Lombardo said new gaming products are being introduced “with more speed outside of Nevada,” which gives other casino states a competitive advantage in the opinion of casino operators.

“We need to work with the control board to ensure the logjam is cleared,” Lombardo said.

He also proposed repealing a bill passed during the 2020 special session that required mandatory COVID-19 daily cleanings and time-off requirements.

“Personal time off and daily cleaning requirements add to the labor shortage and exceed current CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance,” he said. “Yet, our hotel operators’ hands are tied by this burdensome legacy law, and it should be repealed.”

Updated: 1/23/23 at 7:40 p.m. – This story was updated to include comment from Lombardo when asked why he did not seek to fund Education Savings Accounts in his recommended budget.



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Entertainment

Jeremy Renner thanks his fans for their sympathies in his first social media post after snow plowing accident

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CNN
 — 

Actor Jeremy Renner thanked fans from his hospital bed Tuesday as he continued to recover from two surgeries following being injured by a snowplow machine in what officials described as “a tragic accident.”

“Thank you all for your kind words. Im too messed up now to type. But I send love to you all,” Renner wrote in a caption under a selfie photo showing him apparently in a hospital bed.

The “Hawkeye” actor was injured on New Year’s Day near his Nevada home while he was clearing snow from a private driveway to help family members leave his house after gathering for the holidays, according to his publicist, Samantha Mast.

“Jeremy is making positive progress and is awake, talking and in good spirits,” Mast said a statement released Tuesday evening. “He remains in ICU in critical but stable condition. He is overwhelmed by the showing of love and support. The family asks for your continued thoughts while he heals with his close loved ones.”

Renner, 51, was run over by his snowcat, an engine-powered machine used to clear snow, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said on Tuesday during a news conference.

At some point, the machine started to roll away while Renner was not in the driver’s seat, Balaam said. He was injured as he tried to get back into the machine, Balaam explained. Renner’s family members were with him when he was injured.

A Renner spokesperson previously told CNN that he sustained “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries.” So far, the actor has undergone two surgeries related to the injuries, a source close to the actor told CNN.

Minutes before 9 a.m. on Sunday, authorities received word of the accident through a 911 call reporting a crash involving a snowcat and a pedestrian on Mount Rose Highway, Balaam said Tuesday.

Even though it was not snowing at that time, that highway was closed and at least a dozen cars were stranded due to the severe winter weather that was hitting the area, Balaam said.

Due to these conditions, a helicopter landed in the vicinity of the highway at 9:37 a.m., and Renner was taken to a Reno-area hospital at 9:56 a.m., Balaam said.

At the time of the injury, parts of western Nevada were blanketed with snow. The Reno area received between 6 and 12 inches of snow at elevations below 5,000 feet between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and up to 18 inches at higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

“He was being a great neighbor and he was plowing those roads for his neighbor,” Balaam said of Renner.

Authorities do not believe Renner was intoxicated during the incident, with Balaam calling it “a tragic accident.”

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office has Renner’s taken the snowcat to analyze it to “rule out any potential mechanical failure,” which is a normal part of the investigation with this severity of injuries, Balaam said.

During an appearance on “CNN This Morning” Wednesday, Balaam said the actor is very active in the Reno community.

“He’s one of our honorary deputies here at the Sheriff’s Office,” Balaam said. “That’s one of the nonprofits [for] members in our community. And they help us do ‘Shop For The Sheriff,’ where they spend $50,000 and donate it and he’s one of those members. He does a lot for our community.”

“When I took office in 2019 he showed up for ‘Shop For The Sheriff’ and you should see the kids and the parents,” Balaam added. “He took the time out of his busy days to give autographs and shop with kids. He does a lot in the community and what I truly enjoy about Mr. Renner is a lot of times he does it and no one knows. He does it out of the kindness of his heart.”

A day after the accident, Renner’s family released a statement thanking hospital staff and first responders while the actor remained hospitalized.

“Jeremy’s family would like to express their gratitude to the incredible doctors and nurses looking after him, Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue, Washoe County Sheriff, Reno City Mayor Hillary Schieve and the Carano and Murdock families,” a statement from his spokesperson read. “They are also tremendously overwhelmed and appreciative of the outpouring of love and support from his fans.”



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Entertainment

Actor Jeremy Renner in critical condition after snowplow accident

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Jeremy Renner critically hurt in snowplow accident


Jeremy Renner critically injured in snowplow accident

00:28

Movie star Jeremy Renner, known for his role as Hawkeye in several Marvel blockbusters, was in critical but stable condition following an accident, his representative confirmed to CBS News. Renner had been plowing snow when he suffered serious injuries, representative Sam Mast said.

“We can confirm Jeremy is in critical but stable condition with injuries suffered after experiencing a weather-related accident while plowing snow earlier today,” Renner’s representative said, confirming that the accident took place in the Reno, Nevada area.

“His family is with him and he is receiving excellent care,” Mast added.

Actor Jeremy Renner on July 19, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California.

Jason Merritt/Getty/MIU MIU


The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that Renner was injured was flown to a local hospital after suffering a “traumatic” injury. He was the only person involved, and the sheriff’s office is investigating.  

Renner, 51, has been nominated for two Oscars for his roles in “The Hurt Locker” and “The Town.”

He has also appeared as Clint Barton, also known as superhero Hawkeye, in several Marvel films and a recent miniseries.

Renner owns property near Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe, an area near Reno, Nevada that has been hit by winter storms, according to The Hollywood Reporter.


Massive storms batter California with heavy rain, wind and power outages

02:26

He recently posted on social media about severe weather conditions in the area around Lake Tahoe, which borders California and Nevada and is a world-renowned skiing destination.

On December 13, Renner tweeted a photo of a car buried by snow with the caption “Lake Tahoe snowfall is no joke.”




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Business

MGM Resorts sells land on Las Vegas Strip where 2017 mass shooting took place

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CNN
 — 

The land on the Las Vegas Strip where the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting took place has been sold, the company that owned the land said.

The sale, finalized on Friday, was for land across from The Luxor hotel known as the Village property and does not include a plot of land where a memorial is slated to go, MGM Resorts International said in a letter that was distributed to employees announcing the sale and its details.

“In 2021, we were honored to commit to donating a portion of the land to Clark County to house the permanent memorial honoring the victims and heroes of 1 October,” MGM Resorts CEO & President Bill Hornbuckle said in the letter.

On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock shot into a crowd of concertgoers, killing 58 people and injuring more than 500. The FBI has since concluded its investigation of the attack, without finding a clear motive.

Hornbuckle acknowledged that having a permanent memorial “is essential to our community’s healing, and we’ll continue working with and supporting the county as they move forward in the development and construction process.

“We know the importance this location holds to so many and have always put tremendous thought into every consideration involving the site,” Hornbuckle said. “This is no exception.”

The remaining portion of the Village property has been sold to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, according to the letter.

“The Three Affiliated Tribes have demonstrated that they care about our community, its future and, of course, its past. I’d like to thank them for their commitment to the community and wish them the best moving forward,” Hornbuckle said. “They will announce their plans for the space on a future date.”

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Winter storm barrels into Sierra Nevada, prompting avalanche warning

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A winter storm packing high winds and potentially several feet of snow blew into the Sierra Nevada on Saturday, triggering thousands of power outages in California, closing a mountain highway at Lake Tahoe and prompting an avalanche warning in the backcountry. The storm is expected to bring as much as 4 feet of snow to the upper elevations around Lake Tahoe by Monday morning, the National Weather Service said.

A 250-mile stretch of the Sierra from north of Reno to south of Yosemite National Park was under a winter storm warning at least until Sunday.

“Travel will be very difficult to impossible with whiteout conditions,” the weather service said in Reno, where rain started falling Saturday.

A flood advisory was in effect from Sacramento to the California coast near San Francisco.

This image from a Caltrans traffic camera shows snow conditions on California SR-89 Snowman in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, California, Dec. 10, 2022.

Caltrans via AP


The storm will impact the California coastline into the southwest this weekend with “heavy to excessive rainfall along the Golden State coastal areas and widespread heavy snow from the Sierra into much of the intermountain West,” the National Weather Service said in a statement. The excessive rainfall will affect the central California coast on Saturday, and Southern California around the greater Los Angeles and San Diego areas on Sunday.

The U.S. Forest Service issued an avalanche warning for the backcountry in the mountains west of Lake Tahoe where it said “several feet of new snow and strong winds will result in dangerous avalanche conditions.”

A stretch of California Highway 89 was closed due to heavy snow between Tahoe City and South Lake Tahoe, California, the highway patrol said. Interstate 80 between Reno and Sacramento remained open but chains were required on tires for most vehicles.

More than 30,000 customers were without power in the Sacramento area at one point Saturday morning. It had been restored to all but about 3,300 by midday. But forecasters warned winds gusting up to 50 mph could bring down tree branches and power lines later in the day.

About 10 inches of snow already had fallen at Mammoth Mountain ski resort south of Yosemite where more than 10 feet of snow has been recorded since early November.

“It just seems like every week or so, another major storm rolls in,” resort spokeswoman Lauren Burke said.

The storm warning stretches into Sunday for most of the Sierra, and doesn’t expire until Monday around Tahoe.

As much as 18 to 28 inches of snow was forecast through the weekend at lake level, and up to 4 feet at elevations above 7,000 feet with 50 mph winds and gusts up to 100 mph.

On the Sierra’s eastern slope, a winter weather advisory runs from 10 p.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. for Reno, Sparks and Carson City, with snow accumulations of 1 to 3 inches on valley floors and up to 8 inches above 5,000 feet.

The system will become a “large-scale and significant storm early next week” across the central and southern U.S. with heavy snow, rain and severe weather, according to the weather service. The snow is expected to spread into the mountains of the central Rockies and Arizona Sunday, with totals of 6 to 12 inches anticipated through early Monday morning, the weather service said.

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Dems move to make South Carolina, not Iowa, 1st voting state

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats voted Friday to remove Iowa as the leadoff state on the presidential nominating calendar and replace it with South Carolina starting in 2024, a dramatic shakeup championed by President Joe Biden to better reflect the party’s deeply diverse electorate.

The Democratic National Committee’s rule-making arm made the move to strip Iowa from the position it has held for five decades after technical meltdowns sparked chaos and marred results of the state’s 2020 caucus. The change also comes after a long push by some of the party’s top leaders to start choosing a president in states that are less white, especially given the importance of Black voters as Democrats’ most loyal electoral base.

Discussion on prioritizing diversity drew such impassioned reaction at the committee gathering in Washington that DNC chair Jaime Harrison wiped away tears as committee member Donna Brazile suggested that Democrats had spent years failing to fight for Black voters: “Do you know what it’s like to live on a dirt road? Do you know what it’s like to try to find running water that is clean?”

“Do you know what it’s like to wait and see if the storm is going to pass you by and your roof is still intact?” Brazile asked. “That’s what this is about.”

The committee approved moving South Carolina’s primary to Feb. 3 and having Nevada and New Hampshire vote three days later. Georgia would go the following week and Michigan two weeks after that.

The move marks a dramatic shift from the current calendar, which has had Iowa holding the first-in-the-nation caucuses since 1972, followed by New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary since 1920. Nevada and South Carolina have gone next since the 2008 presidential election, when Democrats last did a major overhaul of their primary calendar.

The changes will still have to be approved by the full DNC in a vote likely early next year, but it will almost certainly follow the rule-making committee’s lead.

The revamped schedule could largely be moot for 2024 if Biden opts to seek a second term, but may remake Democratic presidential cycles after that. The president has said for months that he intends to run again, and White House aides have begun making staffing discussions for his likely reelection campaign, even though no final decision has been made.

The DNC also plans to revisit the primary calendar again before 2028 — meaning more changes could be coming before then.

Biden wrote in a letter to rules committee members on Thursday that the party should scrap “restrictive” caucuses altogether because their rules on in-person participation can sometimes exclude working-class and other voters. He told also told party leaders privately that he’d like to see South Carolina go first to better ensure that voters of color aren’t marginalized as Democrats choose a presidential nominee.

Four of the five states now poised to start the party’s primary are presidential battlegrounds, meaning the eventual Democratic winner would be able to lay groundwork in important general election locales. That’s especially true for Michigan and Georgia, which both voted for Donald Trump in 2016 before flipping to Biden in 2020. The exception is South Carolina, which hasn’t gone Democratic in a presidential race since 1976.

The first five voting states would be positioned to cast ballots before Super Tuesday, the day when much of the rest of the country holds primaries. That gives the early states outsize influence since White House hopefuls struggling to raise money or gain political traction often drop out before visiting much of the rest of the country.

Scott Brennan, a rules committee member from Iowa, said “small, rural states” like his “must have a voice in the presidential nominating process.”

“Democrats cannot forget about entire groups of voters in the heart of the Midwest without doing significant damage to the party in newer generations,” Brennan said.

The Republican National Committee has already decided to keep Iowa’s caucus as the first contest in its 2024 presidential primary, ensuring that GOP White House hopefuls — which include Trump — have continued to frequently campaign there.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, South Carolina’s lone congressional Democrat and one of Biden’s top supporters in Congress, said the president called him Thursday to inform him of his push to move his state up.

“I didn’t ask to be first,” Clyburn said. “It was his idea to be first.”

Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden in 2020 boosted the candidate’s flagging presidential campaign just ahead of South Carolina’s primary, which he won big. That helped Biden shake off early losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada and eventually take the White House.

“He knows what South Carolina did for him, and he’s demonstrated that time and time again, by giving respect to South Carolina,” Clyburn said.

Still, the vote by the rules committee has faced serious pushback, with some states vowing to ignore the changes altogether. That’s despite the panel approving language saying states could lose all of their delegates to the party’s national convention if they attempt to violate new rules.

Iowa and New Hampshire have said laws in their states mandate them going before others, and they intend to abide by those, not DNC decrees. Only committee members from Iowa and New Hampshire objected to the proposal that passed Friday, with everyone else supporting it.

Nevada, with its heavily Hispanic population, initially balked at sharing the second-place slot with New Hampshire, a state 2,500 miles away. Nevada committee member Artie Blanco’s voice cracked as she argued against the change.

“If we want to build a strong relationship with Latinos,” Blanco said, “then Nevada must stand alone on a date and not have to share that date.”

After more discussion, Blanco said later that she would support the new calendar. It was “not ideal” for her state to go the same day as another, she said, but “we accept what the will of the president is.”

Harrison said the new slate of five early voting states will need to show they are working toward moving their primaries to those dates by early next year or risk losing their place. Some state legislatures set primary dates; others have their secretaries of state or the directors of their state parties do it.

The DNC chair choked up after the vote as he talked about South Carolina once having been the site of the first attack of the Civil War and now being in line to lead off his party’s primary.

“This proposal reflects the best of our party as a whole, and it will continue to make our party and our country stronger,” Harrison said.

___

Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard contributed from Columbia, S.C.

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Democrats vote to move forward with Biden plan to put South Carolina first on 2024 primary calendar

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CNN
 — 

The rule-making arm of the Democratic National Committee on Friday voted to approve a proposal to drastically reshape the 2024 presidential nominating calendar and make South Carolina the first state to hold a primary, followed by Nevada and New Hampshire on the same day a few days later, and then Georgia and Michigan before Super Tuesday.

President Joe Biden this week asked DNC leaders to adopt this early state lineup, which strips Iowa of its first-in-the-nation status. The proposal by the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee needs to be approved at a full DNC meeting, which will take place early next year, and states will still need to set their own primary dates.

The DNC rules panel proposed that the 2024 presidential calendar schedule South Carolina’s primary on February 3, Nevada and New Hampshire’s contests on February 6, Georgia’s primary on February 13 and Michigan’s on February 27.

The proposal passed overwhelmingly, with the only objection coming from the members from Iowa and New Hampshire. Iowa has gone first in the nominating process since 1972, while New Hampshire has held the first primary in the process since 1920.

Enacting these new dates could prove to be a steep challenge. Primary dates are set at the state level and each state has a different process. In Georgia, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is responsible for selecting a single date to hold both the Democratic and Republican primaries. In Nevada, the proposed date aligns with a state law passed last year. But Democrats, who control the state legislature, still may have a hard time should they need to enact another law to change the date of their contest after their new Republican governor takes office next month. In South Carolina, each party is free to select their own primary date.

The new Democratic lineup would break with the Republican calendar, as the Republican National Committee voted earlier this year to reaffirm the early state lineup of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. That could cause conflict for the new states hoping to move up, as their Republican parties could risk sanctions from the national GOP if their state primaries are held too early.

New Hampshire and Iowa also have state laws that enshrine their early statuses.

Under the proposal adopted Friday, each of the five states selected have until January 5 to take steps toward changing their primary dates. If they don’t, they would give up the ability to hold an approved early contest.

Despite the logistical hurdles, almost all of the committee members who spoke on Friday praised the proposed changes and the diversification of the early-state slate.

“We hold on to traditions because they give us a sense of security sometimes,” said Donna Brazile, the former DNC chairwoman who sits on the rules panel. “Sometimes we hold on to traditions because they give us a foundation from which we grow. But as many of us know on this committee, we also believe that traditions can be passed down and transferred especially when you’re opening up new doors and you’re helping to expand the electorate so that every American can enjoy full citizenship.”

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison grew emotional Friday talking about what it would mean to have South Carolina, his home state, as the first primary state and the kind of voices such a move would elevate.

“Society called folks like my grandparents simple people and don’t always value them, don’t always cherish them, don’t always give them their roses,” Harrison said.

Comments made by committee members at Friday’s meeting made it clear that Biden’s expression of his preferences played a significant role in the process. Many members praised the letter the president sent to the DNC panel on Thursday that called for a new calendar to prioritize diverse states in the early lineup and to not allow caucuses, which he described as “inherently anti-participatory.” In addition to the letter, Biden’s proposed early-state line-up was announced to the committee members Thursday evening by the panel’s leaders, CNN has reported.

Elaine Kamarck, who represents Massachusetts on the committee, said: “That’s why I think the president’s proposal, which will be our proposal I dearly hope, is so on point. You start with your base but then you move to where you ask the question: Can our candidates win in these diverse swing states?”

But the proposal was also met with objection, particularly from the impacted states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status came under scrutiny after the chaos of the 2020 Iowa caucuses received widespread backlash. Beyond the issues with the 2020 caucuses, there has been pressure on the Democratic side to oust Iowa from its top slot because it is largely White and no longer considered a battleground state.

Iowa’s representative on the committee, Scott Brennan, forcefully denounced the move and was among the few members to vote against the proposal.

“While I support the guiding principles established by this committee and reinforced by the president, I cannot support the proposal before us,” Brennan said, arguing: “Small, rural states like Iowa must have a voice in our presidential nominating process.”

Brennan said: “Democrats cannot forget about entire groups of voters in the heart of the Midwest without doing significant damage to the Party for a generation.”

The DNC earlier this year approved a plan to prioritize diverse battleground states that choose to hold primaries, not caucuses, as it considers which states should hold early contests. It heard presentations over the summer from 16 states and Puerto Rico about either holding on to their early-state status or moving their primary up in the calendar ahead of Super Tuesday.

Committee member Joanne Dowdell, who represents New Hampshire, also voted against the proposal, which would strip New Hampshire of its first-in-the-nation primary status. That status, Dowdell noted, is protected by state law.

“I feel that the president of the United States has made a very bold statement about his vision for this country, the importance of diversity. I don’t think there is a person in this room that would argue with any of that. I will, however, say that New Hampshire does have a statute, we do have a law and we will not be breaking our law,” Dowdell told the committee. “And I feel that any lawyer in the room or around the table would agree that it is not in the best interest of this body to even suggest that we do that.”

This story and headline have been updated.

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U.S. to boost spending on tribal lands, protect Nevada sacred site

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WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – The Biden administration will give Native American tribes more say in managing federal and tribal lands as part of a plan that includes assistance for tribes whose land has been harmed by climate change, the White House said on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden and other Cabinet officials announced the measures at a two-day Tribal Nations Summit, with additional steps focused on providing better access to capital for tribal nations.

Biden also said at the summit that he intends to protect the area surrounding Spirit Mountain in Nevada, known as Avi Kwa Ame to the Fort Mojave tribe, which has been urging the United States to designate the huge swath of land as a national monument.

“I’m committed to protecting this sacred place that is central to the creation story of so many tribes that are here today,” Biden announced during remarks at Tribal Nations summit in Washington.

Biden was met by applause when he commented that he intends to visit tribal lands while in office.

Among the other new actions announced by the administration are efforts to boost purchases of tribal energy and other goods and services, and to revitalize Native languages.

The three signature pieces of legislation passed during Biden’s time in office – laws dealing with infrastructure, climate and COVID-19 relief – have provided nearly $46 billion in funding for tribal communities and Native American people, the White House said.

The actions include new uniform standards for how federal agencies should consult Native American tribes in major decisions that affect their sovereignty, the creation of a new office of partnerships to advance economic development and conservation initiatives and agreements promoting the co-stewardship of federal lands, waters, fisheries and other resources of significance and value to tribes.

“I made a commitment my administration would prioritize and respect nation-to-nation relationships,” Biden said. “I hope our work in the past two years has demonstrated that we’re meeting that commitment.”

The Interior Department also announced it would award $115 million to 11 tribes that have been severely impacted by climate-related environmental threats, and $25 million each to two Alaska tribes and the Quinault Nation in Washington state to help them execute their plans to relocate their villages to safer ground.

Federal agencies will also be instructed to recognize and include indigenous knowledge in federal research, policy, and decision-making, by elevating tribal “observations, oral and written knowledge, practices, and beliefs” that promote environmental sustainability.

The Small Business Administration will announce plans to boost access to financing opportunities, while the Energy Department plans to increase federal agencies’ use of tribal energy through purchasing authority established under a 2005 law unused for more than 17 years.

The administration will also work to deploy electric-vehicle infrastructure in tribal lands, prioritize the replacement of diesel school buses with low or zero emission school buses, and help tribes buy or lease EV fleet vehicles.

As part of that drive, the Interior Department will set a goal to award 75% of contract dollars from Indian Affairs agencies and 10% of the department’s remaining contract dollars to Native-owned businesses. Along with a new Indian Health Service goal of 20% of purchases, the actions could redirect hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses on tribal lands.

The government will also release a draft of a 10-year plan to revitalize Native American languages and which underscores the urgency for immediate action, while formally recognizing the role that the U.S. government played in erasing Native languages.

The administration also announced a new initiative that will aim to widely deploy broadband and other wireless services on tribal lands, helping Native American tribes improve communication services that have lagged those of non-tribal lands.

Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Valerie Volcovici and Jeff Mason in Washington
Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson in Washington
Editing by Robert Birsel and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Republican Jewish Coalition: GOP elites weigh Trump — and the alternatives — at high-profile Vegas gathering

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CNN
 — 

Former President Donald Trump is set to address the influential Republican Jewish Coalition on Saturday, days after becoming the first declared GOP candidate of the 2024 presidential campaign.

But the chandeliered ballroom at the opulent Venetian resort hotel in Las Vegas will teem with his rivals – including potential chief nemesis Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – as some of the party’s most influential donors weigh alternatives to the divisive former president.

Trump still retains a “following” within the party, Mel Sembler, a Florida real-estate developer and GOP donor who sits on the coalition’s board, told CNN this week. But, he said, “I think people are getting tired of his controversies all the time.”

“What concerns me is if he wins the primary and loses the general,” added Sembler, who has not endorsed a 2024 candidate.

The annual leadership conference of prominent Jewish conservatives marks the first major gathering of GOP establishment forces since this month’s midterm letdown for the party, which saw Democrats retain their hold on the Senate and make inroads in state governments around the country.

Republicans did flip the House but will hold a slim majority in January after the “red wave” their party envisioned all year failed to materialize.

Leading Republican figures in Washington and elsewhere are casting blame on Trump for his role in boosting far-right Senate candidates who faltered in the general election – and for continuing to publicly nurse his own grievances about the 2020 election and his ongoing legal troubles. During his campaign kickoff Tuesday, he called himself a “victim” of a federal law enforcement system that he has spent years politicizing.

Trump’s legal difficulties appeared to deepen Friday when Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at his Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

Rather than seeing the party unify behind his third presidential bid, Trump faced immediate blowback. Minutes after his announcement, daughter and former senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump distanced herself from her father’s campaign, saying she does “not plan to be involved in politics.”

His announcement also overlapped with a high-profile book tour by his own former vice president – and potential 2024 rival – Mike Pence, who has spent the past several days reminding Americans of Trump’s role in the violent US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

Perhaps the biggest blow to Trump’s campaign infrastructure was the swift and public defection of several billionaire GOP donors – including a close ally, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman – who said the country needed leaders “rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday.”

Others are hedging their bets.

Among those playing the field is Miriam Adelson, the billionaire widow of Las Vegas casino magnate and RJC benefactor Sheldon Adelson. The Adelsons have donated nearly a half-billion dollars to Republican groups and candidates in the last four election cycles – including tens of millions to boost Trump’s presidential ambitions, federal records show.

Trump in 2018 bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian honor – on Miriam Adelson, citing her philanthropy.

Despite that relationship, Adelson intends to remain neutral in the GOP presidential primaries, an aide confirmed to CNN this week. Adelson, whose political contributions have slowed some since her husband’s death in January 2021, has indicated that she will financially support the eventual GOP nominee, whether that be Trump or someone else.

RJC executive director Matt Brooks said Trump has won plaudits from coalition members for his stalwart support of Israel during his presidency and unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Still, Brooks said, “people are window-shopping right now. There are people who are asking if we need a new direction and a new face.”

Even as Trump prepares to make his pitch to the RJC, his allies and aides have sought to position him as the outsider in the 2024 contest, despite his recent White House occupancy.

“President Trump is running a campaign that represents everyday Americans who love their country,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to CNN. “There are others who will answer to the political establishment, be beholden to corporations, and drag the United States into more unnecessary wars.”

And his allies note that Trump’s fundraising operation largely relies on a small-dollar donor base, reducing his reliance on the party’s elite and giving him a potential edge over opponents who do not boast the same small-donation game.

He enters the 2024 campaign with more than $100 million in cash reserves across a sprawling network of political committees – although federal law could constrain his ability to fully tap those funds for his campaign.

“He has proven he can raise a lot of money on his own,” Michael Caputo, a former Trump administration official who remains close to the former president, recently told CNN.

Trump is not making the trek to Las Vegas but is scheduled to address the gathering live via satellite Saturday as part of a morning lineup that will feature several other potential rivals for the GOP nomination, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, newly reelected New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Trump’s remote appearance was announced on Thursday, after it became clear that several of his potential 2024 rivals were scheduled to deliver their own remarks.

DeSantis – fresh off the momentum of his double-digit reelection victory in Florida – is slated to address the group Saturday night during its gala dinner.

Trump recently has stepped up attacks on DeSantis, and another potential 2024 challenger, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Two sources familiar with Trump’s thinking said part of the reason he has lashed out is because he believes both governors are actively soliciting support from “his donors.” Trump has told aides and allies that DeSantis especially is trying to pitch himself to deep-pocketed Republicans who helped bankroll Trump’s reelection campaign.

A Republican fundraiser in Florida with knowledge of DeSantis’ political operation said, “Of course he’s talking to those people. They’re fair game and every Republican is going to go after those donors because that’s the smart thing to do, it’s not with the mindset, ‘Let’s screw Trump.’”

The conservative Club for Growth, one of the biggest outside spenders in politics, already has broken with Trump and earlier this week circulated internal polling that suggested DeSantis could mount a serious challenge to the former president in early voting states and Florida, where both reside. The group plowed $2 million into DeSantis’ reelection efforts this election cycle, according to Florida campaign filings.

David McIntosh, the former Indiana congressman who runs the group, declined a CNN interview request through a spokesman.

This week, as the contours of the new GOP majority in the House became clear – DeSantis won praise from national Republicans for injecting himself into congressional map-making this year. In a rare move for a governor, DeSantis pushed state lawmakers to adopt his map, which controversially eliminated two districts represented by Black Democrats and gave the GOP the advantage in as many as 20 of 28 districts.

“That map created four new Republican wins,” said a GOP consultant who has been close to Trump and asked not to be named to speak candidly about the 2024 race. “That’s the practical reality of a conservative governor standing up to his own party and saying. ‘We’re not going to cut deals and do things the old way.’”

DeSantis this week sought to sidestep questions about the growing rivalry with Trump, urging people “to chill out a little bit” – even as he touted his 19-point margin of victory in his reelection. CNN has previously reported that those close to DeSantis believe he does not intend to announce his plans before May.

“The smartest thing DeSantis could do is stay out of the fray for as long as possible,” said the Republican consultant. “Don’t stick your face in the frying pan too early.”

Many of Trump’s potential 2024 rivals spoke at the conference in Las Vegas, offering post-midterm assessments and making their pitch for how the party should move forward.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an early ally of Trump, issued a long and passionate indictment of the former president on Saturday, casting Trump as a cancer on the Republican Party and the sole responsible figure for its recent election losses.

“We keep losing and losing and losing,” Christie said. “The reason we’re losing is because Donald Trump has put himself before everybody else.”

Christie slammed Trump for recruiting candidates under the singular qualification that they deny the results of the 2020 election.

“That’s not what this party stands for,” the former governor said. “It’s not what it should stand for in the future, and we’ve got to stop it now.”

Christie pointed to midterm GOP defeats in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and warned that without a resurgence in those states – especially in the suburbs – Republicans held no hope of winning back the White House in 2024.

Echoing those fears, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said that “candidate quality matters,” while adding, “I got a great policy for the Republican Party: Let’s stop supporting crazy, unelectable candidates in our primaries and start getting behind winners that can close the deal in November.”

Sununu was initially courted to run for US Senate, but ultimately decided to run for reelection. The GOP nominee, retired Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who has pushed falsehoods about the 2020 election, went on to lose to Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who headed the Senate GOP’s campaign arm this election cycle, said Republicans’ midterm hopes for a “red wave” did not materialize because the party focused too much on “how bad the Democrats are” and did not offer voters its own policy vision.

“The current strategy of most Republicans in Washington is to only be against the crazy Democrats – and they’re crazy – and never outline any plan what we are for and what we will do. That is a mistake,” the senator said.

Scott’s comments come days after his failed bid to oust Mitch McConnell as the party’s Senate leader.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who unsuccessfully ran for president against Trump in 2016, urged the GOP to try to broaden its appeal outside the party’s base.

“We spend far too much time preaching to the choir; talking to the same 2.6 million people watching Fox News every night,” Cruz said.

Cruz also said he had spoken at Senate Republicans’ leadership election this week to urge the party to take a harder line against Democratic policies.

“Republicans in the Senate don’t fight,” he said Saturday.

Cruz said he urged GOP leaders to “pick two or three or four things that matter and say, ‘We believe in it.’”

Outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan took a hard stance against the former president Friday night, saying in Las Vegas that the Republican Party was “desperately in need of a course correction.”

“Trump was saying that we’d be winning so much we get tired of winning. Well, I’m sick and tired of our party losing. And after this election last week, I’m even more sick and tired than I was before,” Hogan said.

“Look, this is the third election in a row that we lost and should have won. I say three strikes and you’re out. If you repeatedly lose to a really bad team, it’s time for new leadership,” he added.

This story has been updated with more information.

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Democrats retain control of Senate with victory in Nevada

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Democrats will continue to control the Senate following the 2022 midterm elections, after Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on Saturday was projected by CBS News to win a tight reelection race against Republican Adam Laxalt.

Her victory gives Democrats 50 seats in the 118th Congress. Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote, should it be needed, gives them the majority, regardless of the outcome of the Georgia runoff election in December between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker. 

“The election is a great win for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a briefing late Saturday night. “With the races now called in Arizona and Nevada, Democrats will have a majority in the Senate, and I will once again be majority leader.” 

Republicans could still take control of the House, where a handful of races remain unresolved. However, control of the Senate means Democrats will have the ability to effectively kill any legislation emerging from a GOP-led House, enabling them to shield President Biden from politically risky legislation that a Senate led by Republicans might have brought to a vote. A Democratic Senate also makes it much easier for Mr. Biden to win approval for judicial nominations and appoint his desired candidates to positions across the government over the last two years of his term.

A pleased Mr. Biden — who is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, attending the summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — told reporters Sunday morning that Schumer has “got a majority again.”

“We’re focusing now on Georgia,” Mr. Biden said. “We feel good about where we are. And I know I’m a cockeyed optimist. I understand that from the beginning, but I’m not surprised by the turnout. I’m incredibly pleased by the turnout. And I think it’s a reflection of the quality of our candidates. And they’re all running on the same program. There wasn’t anybody who wasn’t running on what we did. They’re all staying, sticking with it. And so, I feel good. I’m looking forward to the next couple years.”

Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday that control of the Senate is crucial for advancing the president’s agenda. 

“Control of the Senate is hugely consequential both for judiciary nominations and appointments, the most diverse group of judicial nominations ever under the first two years of President Biden, but also for controlling the agenda in the U.S. Senate, and that means continued progress for the working families, middle class of this country,” she said.

Before Election Day, some Republicans had begun to believe Senate control was within reach, since Mr. Biden is suffering from underwater approval ratings amid high inflation and voters’ negative views of the economy in all the battleground states. 

But in the months before the general election, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed doubt that Republicans could take the Senate, which he blamed on “candidate quality.” Many of the Republican candidates who lost were far-right and endorsed by former President Donald Trump, which gave them momentum during the primary season. They failed to appeal to independents and moderates in the general election. 

Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring from the Senate, and whose seat was won by Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, blamed Trump for the missed GOP opportunity.

“The data is overwhelmingly clear — the more candidates who are associated with Donald Trump, and the ultra MAGA movement, and this false notion that the election was stolen from him in 2020, the more that was the message, the more they lost, and in many places, it was a stark to a more conventional Republican who was winning,” he said in an interview on Fox News Saturday.

Though he didn’t identify him by name, Toomey referred to the far-right Republican candidate for governor Doug Mastriano as “a weak candidate who loses by 15 points, the most for an open seat since the 1950s.” 

He went on to note that “we lost three opportunities to flip House seats, lost control of the state House…and the party needs to get past Donald Trump.”

Alaska, where three candidates were on the ballot in a ranked-choice voting system, has also not yet been called, but with the top two finishers both Republicans, CBS News projects it will stay in Republican hands.

On Friday evening, CBS News projected Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly will win reelection over Republican challenger Blake Masters.

In other battleground states, CBS News projected the races in Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio and North Carolina will go to Republicans, while Democrats will win in Colorado, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. 

In each of the Senate battlegrounds where CBS News has conducted exit polls, voters said control of the Senate was important to their vote. CBS News conducted statewide surveys in 11 key battleground states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. In these states, voters had negative views of the nation’s economy.

In most of the Senate battleground states, the issue of inflation outpaced abortion in terms of the importance of the issue to voters. But in Pennsylvania’s closely watched race, where Fetterman came out ahead of Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, exit polling showed abortion outpaced inflation as a concern for voters.

According to early exit polling Tuesday, nearly three in four voters said they were dissatisfied about the country. That includes almost one-third who said they were angry. Almost three-quarters said the economy is bad, and nearly half of voters said their family’s finances are worse than they were two years ago.

Thirty-five Senate seats were up for grabs in total in the 2022 midterm elections, but under one-third were expected to be close. 

Musadiq Bidar and Jack Turman contributed to this report. 

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