James Skoufis announces bid to lead DNC, becomes third to vie for chairmanship
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(NEW YORK) — New York state Sen. James Skoufis announced his long-shot bid for chairman of the Democratic National Committee on X on Saturday.
Skoufis, who paints himself as an outsider, underdog and part of a new generation, said he intends to point to his successful record in his district that favors President-elect Donald Trump.
Arguing for a new script, Skoufis said, “Voters have spoken, and we need to listen, not lecture. We need to be strong fighters again.”
“I may be an outsider, but I know how to win,” he continued. “I will throw out the DNC’s stale, Beltway-centered playbook so that we rebuild, stop ceding ground to Republicans and start winning again — everywhere. Not just the party, but the country depends on it. We can win this fight together.”
Skoufis, who has served in the New York legislature since 2013, joins the field with Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who has served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration since December 2023, and Ken Martin, a vice chairman of the DNC who also leads the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Jaime Harrison, the current chairman, is not seeking a second term.
The election of a new DNC chair will take place at the party’s winter meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, on Feb. 1, 2025. Harrison announced earlier this week that there will be four forums for candidates to make their cases to DNC members, who will also select a vice chair, treasurer, secretary and national finance chair, after the party lost the presidency and couldn’t obtain a majority in either the Senate or the House in the 2024 elections.
“As my time as Chair comes to a close and we prepare to undertake the critical work of holding the Trump Administration and Republican Party accountable for their extremism and false promises, we are beginning to lay out the process for upcoming DNC officer elections in the New Year,” Harrison said in a statement. “The DNC is committed to running a transparent, equitable, and impartial election for the next generation of leadership to guide the party forward.”
The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet on Dec. 12 to determine the Rules of Procedure for the contest, including what will be necessary to gain access to the ballot. In 2021, candidates needed the signatures of 40 DNC members, which is expected to hold for the 2025 race.
The 448 DNC members voting at the winter meeting includes 200 state-elected members from 57 states, territories and Democrats Abroad; members representing 16 affiliate groups; and 73 at-large members elected by the DNC, ABC News previously reported.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., the chair of the bipartisan panel investigating the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in July and the apparent one last week in Florida, called for more resources and reforms at the Secret Service during a tense time before Election Day.
Speaking to “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos along with Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., the ranking member of the committee, Kelly cited an array of explanations for breakdowns in Secret Service protection in Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the first attempt on Trump, including lack of resources and overworked agents, and that it is crucial to remedy them.
“We can redeploy money, and we need to do that. Secret Service works under Homeland Security, but getting more people on the ground, people who are trained, people who are competent, and people who have a nose for all this,” Kelly said. “These guys are exhausted. They have been played out to the very end. Why don’t we look at where we’re spending money, redeploy it, try to get more people on board.”
“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. This is an American issue. We have to protect those who we have up for election and those that are already serving,” Kelly added. “It’s a very dangerous time for us to be looking at this and thinking this is just the way the world is. It’s not and we cannot accept this as Americans.”
The remarks come as Congress and the Secret Service both scramble to plug any operational holes that allowed a gunman in Butler in July to get off shots at Trump. The urgency of protecting him and other top candidates this election cycle was put into stark relief again just a week ago when the Secret Service thwarted another apparent assassination attempt by a man armed with a rifle outside Trump’s golf course in Florida.
In a report on Butler released Friday, the Secret Service said it failed to secure the line of sight to the former president by not securing the roof on which the shooter had taken up a firing position. It also said law enforcement did not adequately communicate that there was a threat to Trump and cited a “lack of due diligence” in establishing a secure perimeter.
“It’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13, and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this,” acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said Friday.
In a joint interview with Stephanopoulos, both Kelly and Crow agreed the solution involved both resource redistribution and personnel adjustments.
“You can redeploy funds to where it is that you need them the most. I will say this. Our Secret Service now is trying to guard more people than they’ve ever had to guard in the past,” Kelly said.
“It takes years to create a Secret Service agent. So we have to rely on Department of Defense agents, other federal agencies to cover down and provide some relief to these folks, because one of the issues that we saw in Butler, Pennsylvania, was the over-reliance on local law enforcement. These are fantastic folks. They do really well, but they are not trained and equipped to provide presidential level security,” Crow added.
Both lawmakers also called on Americans to tone down rhetoric around politics amid concerns that the tense atmosphere around November’s election is playing a role in the heightened threat environment.
“Mike is a very conservative Republican. I’m a very proud Democrat,” Crow said. “And what we’re trying to show folks is we can go through an election cycle, we can have fierce and tough debates, and we can show people that we will settle our political differences and debate, but we’re going to come together on an issue that Americans expect us to come together on,” Crow said.
“There is no place in our American society, whether you’re Republican and Democrat for anybody ever to take actions into their own hands and resort to violence,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — While the presidential race may be getting the spotlight this election season, key regulations, laws and policies are on the ballot in several states.
And those ballot measures could have huge ramifications for the rest of the country.
Forty-one states have a combined 147 ballot measures in the 2024 election. While some measures are hyperlocal, some state initiatives dovetail with national topics.
Here are some of the major ballot initiatives in this election.
Reproductive rights
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in 2022, voters in a handful of states have turned to ballot measures to enshrine or expand reproductive access in the face of abortion bans.
Ten states in this election season will give their voters a chance to change their laws on the topic.
Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and Nevada all have measures that would amend their state constitutions with specific language to protect or recognize the right to an abortion for all constituents.
Nebraska also has another ballot measure that would change the state constitution to prohibit abortions in the second and third trimesters except for cases of “medical emergency or when the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest.”
New York state has a ballot measure that would change the constitution’s equal rights amendment to protect against discrimination for pregnancy outcomes, including abortion.
South Dakota voters will decide on a measure that would establish a right to an abortion and add an amendment to the state constitution that would determine when the state may regulate abortions.
Vice President Kamala Harris has repeatedly called for the restoration of the reproductive rights established by Roe v. Wade.
Former President Donald Trump, who has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v. Wade, has said on the campaign trail that the states should decide abortion access and indicated he will vote “no” on Florida’s ballot initiative.
Illinois voters will decide on a measure that would advise state officials on whether to provide for medically assisted reproductive treatments, including in vitro fertilization, to be covered by any health insurance plan in Illinois that provides full coverage to pregnancy benefits.
Immigration, voting rights
Even though it is already illegal for non-documented immigrants to register to vote and cast a ballot in federal and state elections, some leaders in states have been pushing laws and measures to prohibit those groups from casting ballots in local elections.
A handful of municipalities have passed laws allowing some noncitizens to vote in certain local races. For example, non-U.S. citizens who have children attending public schools can vote in school board elections in San Francisco, following a 2016 ballot measure.
This year, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin have ballot measures that would prohibit noncitizens from voting in state and local elections.
Proponents have argued these laws would secure elections and prevent localities from allowing non-Americans to vote.
However, opponents have emphasized that non-American citizens cannot vote in state and federal elections and the ballot measures are moot.
Six states have already passed ballot measures banning noncitizens: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota and Ohio.
Ranked choice voting
Under a ranked-choice voting system, or RCV, voters cast a ballot ranking their candidates. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the No. 1 ranking, they win the election.
If no candidate receives that 50% majority, the election goes into an instant runoff.
Election officials will look at the ballots and eliminate candidates with the fewest number of No.1 rankings. The ballots that listed the eliminated candidate as the top choice are then re-examined.
The candidates ranked No. 2 on those ballots are tallied, and those votes are transferred to the remaining candidates. The process continues until one candidate reaches the 50% majority.
Alaska and Maine are the only two states in the nation that hold their state and federal elections using RCV, but that could change after this election.
Nevada and Oregon have ballot measures to change their state and federal elections to RCV. The District of Columbia also has a ballot measure that would change local elections to an RCV method.
Missouri would ban the method if its voters pass a ballot measure that also includes banning noncitizens from voting.
A ballot measure in Alaska would repeal its laws that mandate RCV for state and federal elections. Voters approved a measure in the 2020 election with 50.55%. Two years later, the method came under the national spotlight when an instant runoff decided the Senate race.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent who did not have the support of Republicans following her vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, went on to win the election following the first elimination round.
Republican-controlled legislatures in 10 states -Tennessee, Florida, Idaho, South Dakota, Montana, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma- have passed laws in the last four years banning RCV from all elections.
LGBTQ+ rights
Voters in a few states will decide on state changes for laws and regulations concerning LGBTQ+ rights.
Colorado and Hawaii voters will vote on a ballot measure that would change their state constitutions to change language and allow same-sex couples the right to marry.
A measure in South Dakota would change male pronouns in the state constitution to gender-neutral terms or titles.
California voters will decide whether to repeal Prop 8, the 2008 voter measure that banned same-sex marriages. The law became invalid after the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that same-sex marriages were constitutional.
Other major ballot measures
Marijuana laws are potentially up for change in two states this election season.
Florida and South Dakota both have ballot measures that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults over the age of 21. This is South Dakota voters’ third time deciding on the matter in four years.
Voters approved a measure in 2020 to legalize recreational cannabis, but it was struck down by a lawsuit a year later. In 2022, a ballot measure to legalize marijuana failed to pass.
Arizona has a voter initiative that would change state laws to allow for state and local police to arrest noncitizens who cross the border unlawfully and allow for state judges to order deportations.
A North Dakota ballot includes an initiative that would require future ballot measures to be passed by voters in two consecutive elections before it’s approved.
Colorado voters will decide on a measure that, if passed, would levy a 6.5% excise tax on the manufacture and sale of firearms and ammunition. Tax money would go “to fund crime victim services programs, education programs, and mental and behavioral health programs for children and veterans.”
Kentucky has a ballot initiative that would amend the constitution to enable the General Assembly to provide state funding to students who attend private schools.
(WASHINGTON) — Despite Kamala Harris’ loss, pro-abortion rights activists are celebrating the results of the 2024 election, arguing that abortion rights won.
“When we look at the election results from this week, we saw voters in states that are really different from each other, in large majorities support abortion rights,” Elisabeth Smith, the director of state policy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told ABC News in an interview.
Abortion was a central issue in Harris’s campaign as she sought to draw a stark difference between her vision for the country and President-elect Donald Trump’s. But, exit polling shows some supporters of abortion rights still voted for Trump, despite Roe v. Wade being overturned as a result of his U.S. Supreme Court appointments.
The battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada were among 10 states with abortion on the ballot Tuesday. Some strategists hypothesized that this would boost turnout among the majority of voters who support legal abortion, aiding Democratic candidates in the process.
Trump’s approach, focusing on states’ rights, appeared to resonate with voters who didn’t view abortion access as incompatible with a Trump presidency. In Arizona, 23% who voted “yes” on the state’s initiative enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution also voted for Trump. In Nevada, where another abortion rights measure was approved, 27% of “yes” voters elected Trump.
This followed at the national level. Among the two-thirds of voters who said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, 28% voted for Trump; that included 30% in Arizona, 33% in Nevada and 36% in Florida.
Supporters of legal abortion still broke strongly for Harris, but partisan elasticity on the issue did not cut both ways. As Harris made abortion access a central focus of her campaign, she won only 9% of voters who said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. In Arizona, anti-abortion voters made up 31% of the electorate and backed Trump by 95%.
“In thinking about what seems like a contradiction, research has shown that Americans — when there is an abortion ballot or abortion-protecting constitutional amendment or initiative on the ballot — they don’t see abortion as a partisan issue,” Smith said. “Americans see abortion as an issue of liberty and of freedom.”
“In 2022, 10% of voters in the state of Kentucky voted against the restrictive constitutional amendment that was on their ballot and for Rand Paul — a senator who has made his opposition to abortion rights known,” Smith said.
Trump has also told voters that there won’t be a federal abortion ban and it could be that voters were persuaded by him, Smith said.
“I don’t think that people know that a federal abortion ban would preempt state constitutional protection. So I think there could also be this sense ‘I’m voting yes on this amendment, and that means my state is fine,'” Smith said.
At least 14 states have ceased nearly all abortion services since Roe v. Wade was overturned. In total, 21 states have restrictions on abortion in effect.
Seven of the 10 states with abortion on the ballot are projected to vote in favor of abortion rights while three states are projected to uphold abortion restrictions — marking a first since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Six states previously voted in favor of abortion rights in the 2022 midterm elections.
In Florida, 57% of voters voted in favor of enshrining protections for abortion rights in the state’s constitution, but the measure failed to reach the 60% threshold it needed to pass. Still, abortion rights groups dubbed this measure a success, saying a majority of voters sided with abortion.
“Abortion won big,” said Gretchen Borchelt, the vice president for reproductive rights and health at the National Women’s Law Center, at a press conference Wednesday. “If not for the rigged rules and for the very intentional and purposeful efforts to confuse and mislead voters and change the goal post and change the rules, abortion access would have won, certainly in Florida but in Nebraska and South Dakota too.”
In Nebraska, two contradicting abortion-related amendments on the ballot confused voters, likely contributing to the failure of the initiative, Smith argued.
“There is research, outside of the abortion context, but about ballot initiatives that show that when voters are confronted with two choices on the same question, that creates a lot of confusion about what people are voting for. And in Nebraska, when signatures were being collected, there were voters who alleged that they were told they were signing the abortion rights petition and later found out they had signed the petition against abortion rights,” Smith said.
Despite the success of ballot initiatives, advocates need to make it more understandable to people that their elected officials greatly determine their ability to access reproductive healthcare like abortion, Kelly Baden, the Guttmacher Institute’s vice president of policy told ABC News in an interview.
“Women are dying from these abortion bans. And so unfortunately, to to see that that reality wasn’t sufficient for people to fully prioritize abortion rates up and down the ballot in every way possible is it’s a tough pill to swallow,” Baden said.
“Seven states did soundly declare their support for abortion, active rights via ballot measures and I think there’s a bigger conversation of how and why people are able to make that make sense in their own voting patterns. That is a problem that predates Trump,” Baden said.
