Harris campaign office in Arizona damaged by apparent gunfire, police say
(TEMPE, Ariz.) — An office in Arizona used by Kamala Harris’ campaign was shot at early Monday morning in the second apparent gun attack in a week, according to investigators.
Police in Tempe, Arizona, responded to the office, which the local Democratic Party also uses, after they received calls from staffers about the damage. At least five bullet holes were found in the windows and the door.
“No one was inside the office during the overnight hours, but this raises concerns about the safety of those who work in that building, as well as those nearby,” Tempe Police spokesperson Sgt. Ryan Cook told ABC News.
Tempe police said they were analyzing evidence and were taking “additional measures” after the shooting “to ensure the safety of staff and others in the area.” A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined and the investigation continues, according to the police.
The same office was shot at just a week prior, on Sept. 16, in an incident the police said appeared to involve a BB or pellet gun. That shooting also happened just after midnight and caused “criminal damage,” according to the police.
Arizona Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano condemned the vandalism in a statement to ABC News Phoenix affiliate KNXV.
“It’s extremely sad that the Arizona Democratic Party has become the target of violence — it’s not who we are as Arizonans or Americans. We are working with law enforcement to ensure this threat is taken seriously and that our staff members are safe while they’re at work,” she said in a statement.
Law enforcement around the country is under heightened alert over an increase in political violence threats.
(PHILADELPHIA) — Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly announced presidential campaign running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, took the stage to a roaring crowd in Philadelphia Tuesday in their first joint public appearance where, together, they took aim at what they called Trump’s “backward agenda” for America.
Hundreds of supporters waited in lines outside the Liacouras Center at Temple University, which has a capacity of 10,000 people, for the event and packed the arena.
That crowd gave Walz and Harris a lengthy standing ovation as they took the stage to the song “Freedom” by Beyoncé.
Walz and Harris hit the stage touting an agenda of unifying the country, working for all Americans, and sharing their vision in comparison to the conservative policies being pushed by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance.
“We need to level set; we are the underdogs in this race, but we have the momentum, and I know exactly what we are up against,” she said.
Harris said her campaign is not just a fight against Trump but a “fight for the future.”
Harris talked up Walz to the crowd and told them about her decision to choose the Minnesota governor as her running mate.
“Since the day that I announced my candidacy, I set out to find a partner who can help build this brighter future,” she said. “So, Pennsylvania, I’m here today because I found such a leader.”
The vice president focused on Walz’s time as a high school teacher and football coach as she introduced him to supporters, repeatedly referring to him as “Coach Walz,” which prompted the crowd to repeat that title.
“The nation will know Coach Walz by another name, vice president of the United States,” she said.
Harris spoke about how Walz, while working as a teacher and coach, became a faculty advisor for his school’s student LGTBQ group and how his care for others has been a hallmark of his time in office.
The vice president reiterated that she and Walz are committed to protecting women’s reproductive rights and restoring rights that were taken away after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“With Tim Walz by my side when I am president of the United States, [and] we win majorities in the United States Congress, we will pass a bill to restore reproductive freedom, and I will proudly sign it into law,” she said.
Harris noted that she and Walz “may hail from different corners of our great country, but our values are the same, and we both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down.”
“When we look at folks, we see in our fellow Americans neighbors, not enemies,” she said.
Walz touted Harris’ experience as a prosecutor, senator and vice president during his speech. stating that she “fought on the side of the American people.”
“She took on predators and fraudsters, took down transnational gangs, stood up against powerful corporate interests, she’s never hesitated to reach across the aisle if it meant improving people’s lives. And — she brings joy to everything she does,” he said.
The governor spoke highly about his time as a teacher and how that pushed him to run for office.
“It was my students. They encouraged me to run for office. They saw in me what I was hoping to instill in them – a commitment of common good, a belief that one person can make a difference,” he said.
“These same values I learned on the family farm and tried to instill in my students, I took to Congress and the state capital, and now, Vice President Harris and I are running to take them to the White House,” he added.
Walz took several shots at Trump, contending the former president’s policies while in office hurt Americans.
“He drove our economy into the ground. And make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That’s not even counting the crimes he committed,” he said.
“He never sat at that kitchen table, like the one I grew up at, wondering how we were going to pay the bills. He sat at his country club in Mar-a-Lago wondering how he can cut taxes for his rich friends,” Walz said.
Walz also took a few jabs at his opponent JD Vance, noting that the senator shares Trump’s “dangerous and backward agenda for this country.”
The governor contended that despite Vance’s talk about his rural upbringing, his career was funded by “Silicon Valley billionaires.”
“I got to tell you, I can’t wait to debate the guy, that is if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up,” Walz said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was in the running for the vice presidential spot on the ticket before Walz was chosen, received a huge standing ovation from the crowd as he took the stage before Walz and Harris spoke.
“I want you to know I am going to continue to pour my heart and soul into serving you as your governor,” he told the crowd.
He also touted Harris’ record, contending she is “battle-tested and ready to go.”
Shapiro went on to criticize Trump for his role in dismantling reproductive rights and warned that if the former president is re-elected, more restrictions could come.
“Let me tell you something: I am not going back,” he said to the crowd.
Shapiro also lauded Walz, calling him a “great patriot” and “dear friend.”
“I think it is fitting and special for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to launch their campaign here in Philly, the city of brotherly love, and importantly, they chose to launch their campaign right here in the birthplace of real freedom,” he said.
Walz, during his speech, praised Shapiro as a “visionary leader” and a “guy who cares deeply about his family, a man with compassion [and] vision.”
“There is no one you would rather go to a Springsteen concert in Jersey with than him,” Walz said as the audience shouted, “Bruce.”
The rally ended with the candidates’ spouses, second gentleman Doug Emoff and Minnesota first lady Gwen, taking the stage and waving to the cheering crowd.
Tuesday’s Harris-Walz event kicks off a five-day campaign road trip that will visit seven crucial swing states.
The vice president and Walz are scheduled to visit Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; Durham, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Phoenix, Arizona; and Las Vegas this week.
(WASHINGTON) — Both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have extensive records when it comes to criminal justice policy – records that are sometimes completely opposed to one another, and at other times are aligned.
As Trump – who has a criminal record of his own, having been convicted on 34 felony counts – prepares to face off in the general election against Harris, who is a former prosecutor, district attorney and attorney general, their past actions on criminal justice have come into the spotlight.
Here’s a look at some of the candidates’ policy records on crime, the death penalty, policing, and prison reform:
Recidivism
In 2005, as the district attorney for San Francisco, Harris launched “Back on Track,” a reentry initiative aimed at reducing recidivism among young, low-level, first-time felony drug-trafficking defendants.
Candidates between the ages of 18 and 30 who first complete six weeks of community service and then plead guilty to their charges are eligible to participate in the program, during which their sentencing is deferred until they complete a 12 to 18-month supervised “individualized personal responsibility plan” that includes “concrete achievements in employment, education, parenting, and child support,” among other mandates. The program reported that fewer than 10% of the program graduates reoffended after being released, compared to a 53% recidivism rate for California drug offenders within two years of release from incarceration.
The Biden-Harris administration also implemented a new Small Business Administration rule that removed loan eligibility restrictions based on a person’s criminal record.
“Making this available, reducing and eliminating that restriction is going to mean a lot in terms of second chances and the opportunity for people to excel,” Harris said of the program earlier this year.
In 2018, Trump signed a bipartisan bill into law similarly aimed at supporting recidivism reduction programs – a bill Harris voted for as a senator.
The First Step Act (FSA) called for the development of risk and needs assessment programs to reduce recidivism, and required the Bureau of Prisons to help incarcerated people access federal and state benefits, obtain identification, and more. Under the act, incarcerated people could earn time credit for participating in recidivism reduction programming and other activities, which could be applied toward early release.
According to the Council on Criminal Justice, recidivism is estimated to be 37% lower among FSA releases when compared to “similarly situated pre-FSA releases.”
Death penalty
Trump has consistently been pro-death penalty. Federal executions began under the Trump administration in 2020 for the first time in roughly 17 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
In 2020, the federal government completed 13 federal executions in the final months of the Trump presidency, according to the DPIC.
In 1989, prior to his time in office, Trump called for the return of the death penalty in a series of ads amid the case of five Black and brown boys then known as the “Central Park Five” who were convicted of assaulting and raping a woman in New York City.
Trump took out full-page ads in local newspapers within two weeks after the April 19, 1989 attack, calling to “Bring back the death penalty. Bring back our police!” However, the ads never explicitly mentioned the five boys, who were incarcerated for years before they were exonerated after another man confessed to the crime.
Harris has been consistent in her stance against the death penalty: “My entire career I have been opposed – personally opposed – to the death penalty,” Harris said in an August 2019 debate. “And that has never changed.”
However, some have criticized Harris for decisions regarding several death penalty-related cases.
For example, Harris declined to take up the case of convicted murderer Kevin Cooper, who was sentenced to death for a quadruple homicide in California in 1983 and is currently awaiting execution. His team had asked the state for additional DNA testing that they maintained could have exonerated him.
Harris has since changed her views on Cooper’s request, later telling The New York Times “I feel awful about this.”
Additionally, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney overturned the death sentence of Ernest Dewayne Jones in 2014, ruling that the nearly 20 years he spent waiting for execution on death row was a form of cruel and unusual punishment, and so the death penalty was unconstitutional.
As the state’s attorney general, Harris appealed the ruling, arguing that the court’s decision “is not supported by the law, and it undermines important protections that our courts provide to defendants.” Carney’s ruling was overturned on appeal the following year.
Prison policy
Under the Trump administration, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017 rescinded an Obama-era initiative to phase out private prisons. Sessions then began distributing contracts for new privately-run detention centers.
In January 2021, the Biden-Harris administration ordered the Department of Justice not to renew contracts for privately-operated criminal detention centers. In December 2022, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) ended all contracts with privately owned prisons and transferred federal inmates who had been incarcerated in them to BOP-operated prisons.
Pardons and commutations
The Trump administration commuted the sentences of more than 90 individuals and granted pardons to more than 140 people, according to the DOJ. The Biden-Harris administration has so far commuted the sentences of more than 120 individuals and granted pardons to 25 people, according to the DOJ. The plan ahead
Though the Harris campaign hasn’t yet released the vice president’s official 2024 platform, she previously has supported legalizing marijuana at the federal level, ending solitary confinement, embracing cash bail reform, ending federal mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders, and furthering rehabilitative services for the incarcerated. She has also supported the Justice in Policing Act, which would limit “unnecessary” use of force and no-knock warrants, limit qualified immunity for police officers, and increase accountability for law enforcement misconduct.
The Trump administration’s plan, according to his official campaign website, states that he plans to increase funding to hire and retrain police officers, strengthen qualified immunity and other “protections” for police officers, increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement, and “surge federal prosecutors and the National Guard into high-crime communities.”
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Every election cycle, political observers speculate about the power and prevalence of ticket-splitters: voters who support one party for president and another on down-ballot races. This year, their influence is unquestioned: they hold the House and Senate majorities in their hands.
Given the congressional maps and margins, both chambers are set for flips. In the Republican-controlled House, if Democratic House candidates win every district that President Joe Biden won in 2020, the party will regain control there. And if states with Senate races follow the expected presidential results, Republicans will retake the Democratic-controlled upper chamber in November.
That leaves the already influential but dwindling tribe of voters willing to split their tickets with a particularly uncommon amount of sway this November, underscoring the unsteady footing Democrats and Republicans hold in Washington and the vast importance of candidates’ ability to reach beyond partisan loyalties.
“I don’t recall any time in our history where it’s been this way, especially not in my lifetime,” said former Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Bishop, who was swept out of office in the 2018 blue wave. “It’s going to be razor thin.”
Republicans are defending their tissue-thin majority in the House, with 17 Republicans holding the line in districts that Biden took four years ago — 10 of which are in sapphire blue California and New York. And Democrats can afford to suffer only one loss in the Senate — and with a surefire defeat in West Virginia’s open Senate race, they’ll need battle-tested incumbents to hang on in ruby red Montana and Ohio.
That’ll leave both parties leaning on a trend that has precipitously dropped in recent years.
In 1988, the first of a series of consecutive, competitive election years, half the states with Senate races supported the same party for president and Senate, a number that grew to around 70% by 2000. By 2016, there was no difference between the Senate and presidential map, and in 2020, only Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, bucked her state’s presidential results, winning reelection on the back of a longstanding brand of pragmatism.
The trend has bucked the historic mantra that “all politics is local,” leaving national politics to rule the day and margins in statewide and House races to more closely track presidential election results.
“With ticket-splitting, you’re dancing on the head of a pin,” said Mike Madrid, a GOP strategist based in California, which is home to several House Republicans in Biden-won districts.
The key to winning over enough of the remaining ticket-splitters, Democrats and Republicans said, is establishing a candidate’s unique brand, which lawmakers this year are hard at work trying to accomplish.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, makes a concerted effort at bolstering his just-like-you reputation as a farmer, while Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown doubled down on his blue-collar appeal as a pre-Trump era populist.
And in California, Republican Reps. David Valadao and Mike Duarte have highlighted their own experience as farmers, for instance, while Republican Rep. Mike Garcia has promoted his time as a naval combat pilot.
All the while, the lawmakers have avoided hammering away at the other party, instead focusing on flaws specifically with their leaders, while working to push bipartisan measures in Congress that could address local issues and constituents’ concerns.
“It’s the way you act and the way you speak,” said New York GOP strategist Tom Doherty. “Work with the other side. Everything you do can’t be, ‘they’re bad people because they’re Democrats,’ or ‘they’re bad people because they’re Republicans.'”
“It’s incredibly important that the brand is built on authenticity, and that’s really why people split tickets,” added one Democratic strategist working on Senate races. “Partisanship tells us a lot, but ultimately, people tend to vote for the candidate who they think is A, on their side, and B, giving it to them straight.”
For some lawmakers in particularly hostile political territory, having a high-profile break with your party or staking out a big claim on an unconventional issue given a candidate’s partisanship could also prove beneficial.
New York Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro used his opening ad to discuss abortion, saying that “I believe health decisions should be made between a woman and her doctor, not Washington.” Tester stayed away from his party’s national convention in Chicago this month. And Brown is out with an ad featuring a Republican sheriff highlighting efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl across the southern border.
“You need to have something that people don’t expect,” said former Republican Rep. Steve Stivers, a former chair of House Republicans’ campaign arm. “It doesn’t need to be a giant disagreement, but it needs to be unexpected, I think, to really catch people’s attention and build an independent brand.”
“You have to have those disagreements,” agreed former Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall, whose opposition to abortion and A+ rating from the National Rifle Association helped protect him in a red district in Ohio until Republicans finally unseated him in 2014. But, he warned, “it’s not a guarantee.”
Already, the country saw some candidates defy political gravity.
Despite having a disappointing 2022 cycle overall, Republicans were able to win and flip several Biden-won House districts in California and New York — the same seats that make up the path to the House majority — on messages on crime and the border while keeping former President Donald Trump at arm’s length.
But that was then. This year, the matchup between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump will be the gravitational force in elections.
“Republicans in Biden districts found an issue that resonated with persuadable voters,” said former New York Rep. Steve Israel, who chaired House Democrats’ campaign arm for two cycles.
Replicating that success, though, will be “more difficult in a presidential year for Republicans,” Israel said.
This year’s presidential election is shaping up as another test of how much the rubber band between presidential and down-ballot margins can stretch — before it snaps.
“There are elections where the top the ticket is so overwhelming that everybody gets washed away. That is certainly something that can happen. But the only defense is to control your own persona and your own message,” said William O’Reilly, a GOP strategist who has worked on down-ballot races in New York. “You have to swim the tide, do the best you can and hope it’s not too overwhelming.”
There’s no way to know precisely how far a candidate can run ahead of the top of the ticket, but Madrid, who is also a senior fellow at the University of California, Irvine, studying the state’s competitive Orange County, said, “anything over 5-7 points is stretching the rubber band pretty tight.”
That’s on top of the increasing tribalism of modern politics.
Bishop, the former Michigan congressman who lost in 2018, said more and more people are less eager to split tickets and more than willing to simply pull a lever against a party they dislike — and there’s virtually nothing a candidate can do to reach those voters.
“There was nothing that I could say,” Bishop said of his 2018 race. “It didn’t matter who I was, what I stood for, whether or not they had confidence in my ability to represent them. It was an absolute protest vote, and for the first time I almost lost my hometown that I used to drag through at 60%, 70%.”
When asked if there’s anything down-ballot candidates can do to distance themselves from the party standard bearers, Bishop sounded a pessimistic tone.
“I just think the current is so strong at the top of the ticket that they’re getting pulled along,” Bishop said of the presidential candidates’ pull. “These personalities are bigger than life.”