Harris Makes First Ad Buys as Polling Flags: Campaign Update
Harris ranks among the top candidates in poll numbers and fundraising, but has slipped to fourth in surveys after second debate.
(Bloomberg) -- Kamala Harris is making the first television ad buy of her presidential campaign, booking about $145,000 worth of time in Iowa following a weak showing in recent polls.
The ads will run between Thursday and the following Wednesday, coinciding with the first full week of the Iowa State Fair, which gives candidates the opportunity to meet and greet potential voters in the first contest of the presidential election.
Harris ranks among the top candidates in both poll numbers and fundraising, but has slipped to fourth in surveys taken following the second round of debates in Detroit, behind Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. She ranks second in early Iowa surveys, according to the Real Clear Politics average, based on polls taken before the debate.
Her campaign booked $80,395 worth of airtime in Des Moines and $63,360 in Cedar Rapids, according to data from Advertising Analytics LLC, which tracks political media buys.
Julian Castro’s Twin Defends Tweet on Trump Donors (1:14 P.M.)
U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas, brother of Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro, defended his decision to tweet a list of people in his hometown of San Antonio who gave the maximum donation to President Donald Trump.
Castro said Wednesday he wasn’t trying to incite violence by sharing the list of publicly available information in the wake of a shooting that targeted Hispanic people in El Paso, Texas. The tweet, from his campaign account, said the “contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders.’”
Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, criticized Castro for “harassing Americans because of their political beliefs,” adding that Julian Castro has failed to get momentum in the presidential race. Joaquin Castro shot back that McCarthy is “trying to distract from the racism that has overtaken the GOP.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday tweeted a picture of his dinner at a barbecue restaurant owned by one of the Trump donors singled out by Castro. Sawyer Hackett, spokesman for Julian Castro, criticized the governor for that tweet when 22 of his constituents “were killed by a domestic terrorist 3 days ago.” -- Anna Edgerton
Beto O’Rourke Drops Off Campaigning After Shooting (11:25 A.M.)
Beto O’Rourke won’t attend the Iowa State Fair this weekend as planned, and wouldn’t say when he’ll return to the campaign trail following the mass shooting in his hometown on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters after a memorial ceremony at El Dorado High School in El Paso, the former congressman told reporters he would remain in the city for the time being. He declined to answer questions about his plans and said he wasn’t thinking about politics.
O’Rourke had been scheduled to appear Friday at the Des Moines Register Soapbox, which gives all major presidential candidates a platform for 20 minutes each at the state fair. -- Gregory Korte
Democrats Warier Than GOP voters on Executive Power (10 A.M.)
Democratic presidential contenders have pledged to use executive orders to deliver on campaign promises from climate change to gun control and increasing the minimum wage.
But a new poll out Wednesday suggests that Democrats or voters who lean Democratic are much more wary about giving presidents expanded authority to act on their own than are their Republican counterparts.
The poll, by the Pew Research Center in Washington, finds a drop since 2018 in the share of Americans who say it’s “too risky” to give U.S. presidents more power, with most of the change in opinion coming from Republicans.
The survey found that 66% of adult Americans say that “it would be too risky to give U.S. presidents more power to deal directly with many of the country’s problems,” a decline from 76% in a similar poll in March of 2018.
Just 51% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents surveyed say it would be too risky to give presidents more power, a big drop from 70% among Republicans from the 2018 poll. But among Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, 82% thought it would be too risky, compared with 83% a year ago.
The survey of 1,502 American adults was conducted July 10-15. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. -- Laura Litvan
Warren Proposes More Health Industry Oversight (8:30 A.M.)
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren added new regulations to her health care plans Wednesday, saying that as president she would direct the Federal Trade Commission to block all future hospital mergers that lack sufficient proof that the combined entity would improve medical services.
“If a proposed merger helps maintain or improve access to health care, that’s fine,” Warren wrote in a Medium post Wednesday. “But when it is a first step to closing hospitals or slashing basic services, then a Warren administration will block it.”
Warren also proposed new regulations that would require all health mergers to be reported and said she would authorize the FTC to examine nonprofit hospitals for anti-competitive behavior.
The Massachusetts senator, who has embraced “Medicare for All” and vowed to abolish private health insurance, announced the new proposals as part of a broader plan aimed at wooing rural voters. -- Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou
Coming Up This Week
The 2020 Democratic field heads to Iowa for the showcase Iowa State Fair, a chance for candidates to meet with voters in the first primary contest of the presidential campaign -- and eat fattening food and view butter sculptures.
On Friday, the candidates will participate in the Iowa Wing Ding, a dinner get-together and “cattle call” for candidates to make their pitches.
--With assistance from Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou, Laura Litvan and Anna Edgerton.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Allison in Washington at ballison14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, ;Craig Gordon at cgordon39@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo
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