LEAD STORY: SPRINGFIELD OHIO
🐶The “Tail” of an Anti-Immigration Campaign
😳 What’s the issue? A false claim made by former President Trump at the Presidential debate, alleged that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets. Despite being debunked, the rumor spread online with Trump and Senator JD Vance (R-OH) continuing to double-down, leading to bomb threats that forced the evacuation and closure of City Hall and several schools and other services.
👀 What’s the history In 2014, Springfield, OH launched a "Welcome to Springfield" initiative to attract immigrants for economic improvement and cheap labor. Haitians in Florida, Haiti and South America heard from friends and family about Springfield and its need for workers. They began arriving to take jobs in warehouses, in manufacturing and the service sector. By 2024, approximately 12k-20K legal Haitian immigrants had settled in Springfield, OH through the Temporary Protected Status designation. This status entitled immigrants, by law, to receive health and nutrition benefits and other public benefits. Anti-immigrant sentiment grew, especially after an August 2023 crash involving an unlicensed Haitian driver, killing a child.
In July 2024, JD Vance invoked Springfield to criticize the Biden/Harris administration’s border policies. Later, the city’s mayor and manager went on “Fox & Friends” calling for assistance to handle an influx that they blamed on the federal government. In August, the false rumor about Haitians stealing pets went viral, fueled by Elon Musk, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Vance. Trump echoed these false claims, promising mass deportations, if elected, on day one.
🏉 Welcome to Politics 101: To win elections, messaging expert Anat Shenker-Osorio says, it’s essential to shape the electorate and boost turnout by focusing on issues and attacks that “…keep the base engaged and enraged.” David Pepper adds that the “minority side avoids a direct vote on its unpopular issues, instead defining the opposition in ways that energize their coalition while undermining the other side with true swing voters.” Read more
🖼️ The big picture: The attack on Ohio’s immigrants is ACTUALLY an attempt to regain control of the Senate. As renowned historian Heather Cox Richardson writes, “convincing Ohio voters that the immigrants in their midst are subhuman could help Republicans defeat popular Democratic incumbent senator Sherrod Brown.” Because as she continues, “ [Defeating Senators] Brown and Montana’s Jon Tester (D-MT), in states that supported Trump in 2020, are key to controlling the Senate.” Read more
ClIMATE AND ENERGY
🌎 Who Needs a Planet?
📉 Trump’s track record: During Trump’s first administration as president, he withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement rolled back Obama-era environmental regulations, and approved two controversial oil pipelines.
🥵 Trump’s 2024 climate plans:
Will rescind every one of Joe Biden’s electricity regulations.
Will drill for oil throughout the US including national parks and public lands.
Will remove all red tape for oil and natural gas projects, including speeding up approval of natural gas pipelines into the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York.
Will end delays in federal drilling permits and leases.
Will end all wind subsidies, and DoE and EPA regulations for incandescent lightbulbs, gas stoves, quality dishwashers and shower heads.
Will support nuclear energy production by modernizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Will exit the Paris Climate Accords.
Will cancel April 2023 emission regulations for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles.
Will end fuel economy standards.
Trump plans to make deep cuts and changes to environmental agencies. Diminish the authority of regulatory agencies and open federal land for drilling.
🌡️ What else could Trump do? A second Trump administration will reverse a number of Biden/Harris policies and regulations. His Treasury appointees will rewrite implementation for the $526 billion in tax incentives for low-carbon technologies.
🤑 Who benefits? Since March 2024, four oil billionaires have contributed almost $10 million to Trump-aligned committees and the RNC. They are some of Trump’s biggest donors, and their contributions have substantially increased from past election cycles.
🛤️ Biden/Harris Track Record: As POTUS, Biden PASSED the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which marked a milestone in the US climate policy landscape. Notably, the Act is mobilizing historic investments in clean energy solutions, driving a wave of clean projects across the country, fostering the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs, encouraging private sector investment, and accelerating state and local action. Significantly, it lowers energy costs, increases cleaner production, and reduces carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030. Read more
📌 UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS ⤵
🗓️ TENT TALK: NEW POLITICS | TUES. 09.17 | NOON PM ET
Join us Tuesday, September 17 at 12:00PM ET as BigTentUSA welcomes New Politics Founder and Executive Director, Emily Cherniak. Emily is on a mission to train and recruit service leaders to run for office and who put community and country over self. See her recent article here.
➡️ RSVP HERE: TUES. 09.17 | NOON PM ET
🗓️ SPOTLIGHT SPEAKER: JOHN DELLA VOLPE | THURS. 09.26 | 7:00PM ET
Join us Thursday, September 26 at 7:00PM ET as we welcome John Della Volpe - one of America’s premier thought leaders on Gen Z. Volpe is an author and Director of Polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. He will speak on the enormous power Gen Z can wield in the coming elections, and on the formative factors that have defined Gen Z’s place in the arena of American politics and culture.
➡️ RSVP HERE: THURS. 09.26 | 7:00PM ET
📌 EVENT RECAPS ⤵
Lucille Wenegieme, Executive Director of Headcount joined us to discuss HeadCount’s impactful work in fostering voter engagement and civic involvement with young voters, through concerts and culture. She dove into their strategies to promote voter registration and democratic participation - all leading to the November elections.
Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff for Zurawski v. Texas, and Tara McGowan, publisher and co-Founder of Courier Newsroom, joined us. Zurawski’s powerful testimony highlighted the devastating impact on women who are denied essential reproductive healthcare. This conversation was a vital reminder of the importance of personal and courageous storytelling to produce social change.
🤯 Election Low-High lights
😗 Is Looney Laura Loomer Trump’s new dog whisperer or just another lapdog? | Loomer is a two-time failed Florida Congressional candidate. She is known as a far right nut job and conspiracy peddler. Have we reached late stage Trumpism? Read more
🗳️ Missourians will have the opportunity to vote to enshrine abortion in the state constitution this November said the Missouri Supreme Court. In a decision published less than three hours before the constitutional deadline to remove a question from the ballot, the Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s ruling that recommended the measure be stripped from the Nov. 5 ballot. Read more
👏 Ten retired U.S. military generals and admirals are backing Vice President Harris and warning against picking former President Trump in the upcoming election, according to a new letter. And many more servicemen and women to follow. Read letter
💃 This election actually Is about Taylor Swift. The singer is a perfect bogeywoman for almost everything the MAGA is targeting in 2024. Read more (gift article)
🔖 BOOKMARKS 🔖
Stories Keeping Us Up At Night 😳
📚 MAGA Republicans pushing Christianity into public schools are hitting resistance — even in red states. New policies in places like Florida, Louisiana and Oklahoma are rekindling the debate over the separation of church and state. | Read more
🎧 In this five-part podcast series Autocracy in America, Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev lay out the authoritarian tactics already at work in the United States. This series from The Atlantic, hosts Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev, lays out the authoritarian tactics already at work in the United States, from the tightening grip of conspiracies to the politicization of the courts.
💲Global investment bank Goldman Sachs warn that Trump’s economic policies could push the U.S. into a trade war that would raise inflation and weaken the economy. Goldman Sachs economists this week said a Harris presidency would be better for growth than a Trump 2.0 would be.
"In our nation's 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump." former VP Dick Cheney, September 2024