Trump campaign looks to Vance to help them over the finish line in Pennsylvania

(NEW YORK) — Linda McMahon’s background — in both education and as a co-founder of sports entertainment company World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. — has come under scrutiny since President-elect Donald Trump named her as his pick to lead the Department of Education on Tuesday.

McMahon is a longtime ally of Trump who served as his transition co-chair and the former head of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Though she is primarily known for founding and leading the WWE, she has had several stints in education — starting with her nomination to the Connecticut State Board of Education in 2009.

At the confirmation hearing in 2009, she said education was her passion and that her work as CEO of the WWE taught her “firsthand the skills Connecticut students need to obtain through education to be successful.”

She said that youth-oriented programs at WWE — such as the GET R.E.A.L. Program, which brought WWE stars into schools to teach students messages about “Respect, Education, Achievement and Leadership” — were examples of her past educational pursuits.

However, McMahon had written on her board application that she had a degree in education, even though her degree from East Carolina University was in French, according to local reports from that period. Her spokesman at the time called it an “honest mistake” in the Connecticut Post.

Regardless, McMahon stepped down from her post on the Connecticut State Board of Education — and her position as CEO of WWE — shortly after, in 2010, to run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican.

On her 2010 campaign website, she signaled support for “competition and choice through charter schools” and “secondary school reform” — a position that is reflected in her views today.

“I believe in local control. I am an advocate for choice through charter schools,” her campaign website at the time stated.

She lost that race, as well as her second attempt in 2012.

Other forays into education included her role as a member of the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University. She was on the board from January 2004 to February 2017. She returned after serving in Trumps first administration, in 2021.

McMahon also co-founded the conservative research group America First Policy Institute in April 2021, which says its mission is to “provide sound research and carefully crafted policy recommendations to advance the America First agenda,” according to a press release.

During that time, McMahon vouched to expand Pell Grant access for short-term workforce training programs.

“The country is facing a historic labor shortage, and a multiyear degree program is not necessary for many Americans to obtain high-paying, fulfilling careers,” said McMahon.

While announcing her as his choice as secretary of education, Trump said McMahon “will fight tirelessly to expand ‘Choice’ to every State in America.”

The nomination was criticized by the National Education Association, which argued that her “only mission is to eliminate the Department of Education and take away taxpayer dollars from public schools, where 90% of students — and 95% of students with disabilities — learn, and give them to unaccountable and discriminatory private schools.”

According to his Agenda47 policy platform, Trump’s top education priorities do include eliminating the Department of Education. They also include expanding school voucher programs and giving more power to parents in classrooms.

School “choice” has been a key proponent of conservative education policy in recent years, aiming to expand “education savings” policies so that families can redirect public school funding toward private schools or homeschooling.

Arizona passed the country’s first of such program in 2011, and at least eight other states have followed its lead: Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia.

However, voters in three states — Nebraska, Kentucky and Colorado — rejected efforts to codify or expand this kind of program.

As head of the Department of Education, McMahon would oversee federal policies impacting millions of students in the U.S.

The purview reaches far beyond curricula. For example, the department investigates the handling of sexual misconduct allegations under Title IX.

At the same time, McMahon’s nomination comes as she and her husband Vince, co-founders of WWE, are facing allegations that they created a culture of tolerating and fostering the alleged sexual abuse against underage “ring boys.”

“Linda McMahon was in the thick of it, acting as Vince’s wife, confidante, co-leader in running the business, and the leader in trying to conceal the sordid underbelly of WWE’s sexual abuse culture,” according to the current lawsuit.

ABC News reached out to both Trump’s and McMahon’s teams for comment.

“This civil lawsuit based upon thirty-plus year-old allegations is filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations,” said McMahon’s lawyer in a statement to ABC News. “The matter at the time was investigated by company attorneys and the FBI, which found no grounds to continue the investigation.”

“Ms. McMahon will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit and without doubt ultimately succeed,” the statement continued.

On Wednesday, McMahon accepted the president-elect’s nomination and said she is “hopeful” for Senate confirmation, which is a requirement of the role, in a post on X.

McMahon wrote, “I look forward to working collaboratively with students — educators — parents and communities to strengthen our educational system; ensuring every child regardless of their demographics is prepared for a bright future.”

She added: “Thank you for this extraordinary opportunity. I am ready to Serve!”

T. Michelle Murphy contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are locked in a race that refuses to budge outside the polling margin of error despite historic developments — and outside factors are starting to play increasingly important roles.

Two assassination attempts, a debate, controversies over conspiracy theories and theorists from the Trump campaign and more have largely failed to move the electoral needle in any significant way, leaving the players on the court looking for help from the stands before Election Day.

For Trump, a recent push to change the way Nebraska’s electoral votes are tallied and changes to the rules in Georgia marked an effort to gain advantages in key battleground areas. Meanwhile, Harris is leaning on referendums on abortion to juice turnout while hoping that a firestorm surrounding North Carolina Lt. Gov. and GOP gubernatorial nominee will depress Republicans in the purple state.

Taken together, the maneuvers serve as a way to find some — any — edge, even if on the margins, in a race that poll after poll shows remains a nailbiter.

“With a highly polarized electorate, a lot of these states and a lot of these elections come down to winning or losing on the margins, so every bit helps,” said North Carolina Democratic strategist Morgan Jackson.

“It’s an environment that a blowout is 3 points,” he added. “People are just locked in. Forty-seven percent of people are locked in on one side, 47% of people are locked in on the other side, and whatever candidate has that ability to move the needle in the margins is going to win.”

The need to find an edge has been underscored in most national and swing state polls, which rarely show either side having a lead outside the margin of error. The polling average from 538 hasn’t grown beyond a 3.7-point lead for Harris since the end of July, an edge that doesn’t leave Democrats sitting pretty or Republicans out of the game.

That’s not for lack of trying.

Two assassination attempts on Trump are the type of black swan event that would ordinarily fuel a flood of goodwill for a candidate. On the flip side, Harris’ debate performance and controversies around the former president about his remarks about legal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, and affiliation with conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer might help lift the vice president’s standing in yesteryear’s political climate.

But with each candidate enjoying high floors of support, they’re forced to look elsewhere for boosts.

Trump allies pushed through new vote-counting rules in Georgia, including the hand tallying of ballots versus relying on machines — a push the former president has alleged will help weed out fraud but that experts have insisted will instead lead to more errors.

He also waged a pressure campaign to have Nebraska’s electoral count be a winner-take-all system rather than allot Electoral College votes by congressional district, offering Harris a window to get one vote in Omaha. That effort died due to insufficient support among Republican state legislators.

Harris is banking that a base energized by abortion ballot initiatives will lift her to victory in target states like Arizona, Florida and Nevada. And Robinson’s scandal, involving posts on a chat forum for a pornographic website in which he called himself a “black NAZI,” among other things, is taking place in the one swing state that went for Trump in 2020 and Democrats believe is flippable.

“When it comes to abortion referendums or hand-counting ballots or Robinson, you’re not moving a whole point here on anything. You’re maybe moving a couple thousand votes. And are these states going to come down to a couple thousand votes, is really the core question,” said one former senior Trump administration official. “You try to get your bits and pieces.”

The importance of the outside factors makes sense in a race where on candidate, Trump, has universal name recognition. Harris has room to cultivate voter perceptions of her, but also is a prominent political figure, having spent four years as a California senator and another nearly four years in her current office.

“A little bit,” a source familiar with the Harris campaign’s thinking said when asked if they were surprised by the overall lack of movement in the race. “We all how well-defined and well-known Trump is, so it should come as no surprise that it’s harder to move views of him. But I did expect, given voters’ lack of familiarity with the vice president, that by all accounts, a strong debate performance would have done more to move the needle for her.”

“Look, [Trump] had the best 10 weeks of his political career this summer, and Harris has had the best 10 weeks of any Democrat ever running, and we’re exactly where we were three months ago,” added Dave Carney, a GOP strategist and head of a pro-Trump super PAC.

Leaning on outside factors isn’t a wholly original tactic.

Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, noted that former President George W. Bush leaned on anti-same sex marriage ballot initiatives to gin up enthusiasm among conservatives in 2004 and that former President Bill Clinton traveled in 2106 for a fundraiser in Utah, a deep red bastion, to try to make gains among Mormon voters who were skeptical of Trump. The Clinton campaign also released an op-ed in a state newspaper.

“Campaigns are looking for places where they can gain even a little bit of an advantage, sometimes that comes in unexpected places,” Finney said. “Given how close the margins are, you don’t want to leave anything on the table.”
It’s unclear how much the candidates will benefit.

Bush coasted the victory in 2004, but that win was largely attributed to the country reelecting a commander-in-chief during wartime. And Clinton famously lost to Trump.

But, strategists in both parties said, it’s at least worth a shot

“There isn’t anybody who doesn’t have an opinion about Donald Trump, and it’s not going to move,” said Peter Giangreco, a Democratic strategist and presidential campaign trail veteran. “So, if you can’t affect turnout, then what else are you going to do?”

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(NEW YORK) — Much of the work of election campaigning goes on beneath the radar, where campaigns fight furiously to identify and register potential supporters and ensure their participation. Identifying likely voters, as such, is a moving target — but with absentee voting now beginning, an initial look reveals some intriguing patterns.

As previously reported, Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump by a slight 4 percentage points, 50-46%, among all adults and registered voters alike, and by 6 points, 52-46%, among likely voters in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll. While those numbers are virtually identical, closer assessment shows movement to Harris in some groups when comparing all adults with likely voters — notably, those younger than 40, younger women in particular and Black people.

This analysis, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, finds that support for Harris goes from 54% of all adults younger than 40 to 64% of those identified as likely voters. Trump’s support, meanwhile, drops from 42% of adults in this age group to 33% of those likely to vote.

That shift is driven largely by women: Harris’ support increases from 60% of all women younger than 40 to 73% of those in this age group who are likely to vote. Trump sees a corresponding drop in support, from 35% among all women younger than 40 to 24% of those likely to vote.

Harris has 82% support among all Black people, rising to 93% among those who are likely voters. Trump, for his part, goes from 15% support among all Black people to 7% among those who are likely to vote. Harris also gains among liberals.

Countervailing movement in Trump’s direction doesn’t reach the level of statistical significance in any group. He has, for example, 52% support among all 50- to 64-year-olds (his best age group) and 56% among likely voters in this group. He goes from 85% to 88% among conservatives and from 52% to 54% among people who don’t have a four-year college degree.

But it’s not all about who receives more support in likely voter groups; it’s also about the size of those groups. Harris, for example, leads Trump by 23 points, 60-37%, among likely voters with four-year degrees — and, as such, benefits from the fact that this group makes up 45% of likely voters, vs. 35% of the general population.

Trump pushes back with his 10 point likely voter advantage among white people: they account for 61% of all adults but 71% of likely voters. He’s also aided by a lower prevalence of adults younger than 40; they make up 36% of all adults vs. 25% of those identified as likely to vote.

All told, it’s the combination of group sizes and preferences among groups that add up to keep the race a close one. Likely voters are defined here, in part, by people saying they are certain to vote. Motivating them actually to do so is what both campaigns are all about — starting now.

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