John Curtis

Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. By Mary Ellen McIntire, Daniela Altimari and Niels Lesniewski Editor’s note: At the Races will not come out on Aug. 29. It will return [...]The post At the Races: Can ‘joy’ give Democrats the House gavel? appeared first on Roll Call.

A look at recent property transfers in Buffalo County.

Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah won the Republican primary in Utah's 2nd congressional district on Tuesday. She will take on the Democratic nominee in November. The seat has been solidly red and will likely be won by Republicans.

Another member of the “squad” of progressive lawmakers is fighting for political survival in Tuesday’s primaries, which will also put former President Donald Trump’s endorsement to the test once again, including in Michigan’s crucial battleground Senate race.

Hours after United States President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, British musician Charli XCX endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, tweeting “kamala IS brat.”The tweet immediately went viral, bemusing media commentators yet electrifying certain segments of the electorate.Charli XCX’s chart-topping album Brat is a brash mix of dance and electronic club hits that celebrates drugs, cigarettes, messiness and vulnerability. To be “brat”, then, is to embrace your messiness and vulnerability – being your own authentic self.It is dominating chunks of Gen Z and queer culture, for whom it is now “brat summer” (or for her Australian fans, “brat winter”).The link between Harris and Brat has been building for weeks, driven by online fan communities and linking seamlessly into pre-existing Harris memes.To the delight of many, on the day Biden stepped down a group of gay men were spotted in unofficial Brat/Harris crop tops.Harris’ campaign has embraced the pop culture moment, sensing its potential to excite young voters. Her account immediately followed Charli XCX on X, and the background on Harris’ official account briefly changed to Brat’s distinctive “slime green” colour.Music and presidential electionsWhile the “brat vote” is unlikely to decide the election, the role of music and popular culture in a political contest is one of the few historical continuities in a campaign that has been unprecedented on multiple fronts.For decades, presidents and presidential aspirants have tried (with varying degrees of success) to use music and musicians to connect with voters.In the 20th century, this was primarily through the campaign song.In 1960, John F. Kennedy used a modified version of High Hopes, performed by the celebrated crooner and his personal friend Frank Sinatra.In 1992, Bill Clinton ran a Baby Boomer campaign, using Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop as his song. The band reunited to headline Clinton’s 1993 inauguration ball.Republicans tended to rely on more personalised songs rather than popular hits, with titles such as Go with Goldwater in 1964 and Nixon’s the One in 1968.When Republicans did try and engage with contemporary artists, they tended to fare poorly.In 1984, Ronald Reagan referenced Bruce Springsteen’s hit Born in the USA, claiming they had a shared vision of the American Dream. Springsteen – who had already refused to allow the campaign to use his song – quickly expressed his profound disagreementYet subsequent Republican presidential aspirants, including Pat Buchanan and Bob Dole, also used the song until Springsteen objected.The politics of contemporary musicIn the 21st century, the politics of popular culture and the music industry are front and centre. Presidential contenders choose songs by artists who are in broad ideological agreement with their core themes. They aim for songs that will be a sonic shorthand for their base.Thus Republicans tend to rely on country music and patriotic rock songs by artists such as Billie Ray Cyrus, Lee Greenwood, Billie Dean and Van Halen. Kid Rock, a conservative country rock/rap rock artist, has been both a song choice and a performer at the Republican National Convention.Democrats have emphasised civil rights and feminist icons such as Curtis Mayfield, Dolly Parton and Aretha Franklin, politically conscious rock stars such as Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp, and pop artists such as Katy Perry.Sometimes, musical choices offer instructive insights into how politicians see themselves.Reflecting his Gen X status and punk rock past, Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s 2020 presidential campaign song was by The Clash.In 2020, Donald Trump liked to dance at campaign events to the Village People’s camp classics YMCA and Macho Man. The group sent him a cease and desist letter.Republican Nikki Haley, a 2024 presidential challenger, waxes lyrical about the inspiration she draws from Joan Jett and liked to walk out on stage to I Love Rock’N’Roll and Bad Reputation.Obama, music super fanNo discussion of music and the presidency would be complete without reference to Barack Obama.Where once rap and hip hop groups like 2-Live Crew and NWA were arrested on obscenity charges, Obama enthusiastically enjoyed these genres and defended them as both forms of artistic expression and sources of social commentary.As President, Obama loved to quote Jay Z, invited Beyoncé to perform the national anthem at his second inauguration, called Kanye West a “jackass”, and shrugged off Trump’s conspiracy theories about his birth certificate by jokingly demanding to know, “Where are Biggie and Tupac?”Obama’s association with popular culture has continued unabated since he left the White House. Twice a year, he releases playlists of his “favourite songs” and has defended himself from charges that youthful interns are curating the eclectic choices.On social media, artists often share when they have been added to Obama’s “liked songs” on Spotify. Recently, there was the hilarious claim by The Dare that Obama had favourited Girls, a two minute “indie sleaze” ode to horniness.The power of musicHarris talks frequently about her love of R&B. On election eve in 2020, she chose to walk out on stage to Mary J Blige’s Work That, a song celebrating female empowerment and self love.Given the many firsts Harris represented, it was a fitting song in a moment of profound symbolism.And on the day that Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Beyoncé, who is extraordinarily strict about approving song use, gave permission for Harris to use Freedom as an official campaign song. Freedom honours the historic power and resilience of Black women and is a rallying cry for the future.While Harris likely won’t be filmed doing the viral Tik Tok dance to Charli XCX’s track Apple anytime soon, “kamala IS brat” is just another, perhaps more memetastic moment, where music functions as a means of political connection and community for Americans.Prudence Flowers, Senior Lecturer in US History, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Flinders UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A federal judge said that Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy has not been officially dismissed because the former New York City mayor has refused to pay administrative expenses — even though he seems to have the funds to do so.In July, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane said he would dismiss the bankruptcy case at the request of Giuliani and two former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Giuliani had initially declared bankruptcy after a court ordered him to pay Freeman and Moss $148 million for defamation.In a five-page order on Thursday, Lane noted that the order to dismiss the case had not been entered into the court record because Giuliani claimed he could not afford to pay related administrative expenses."The administrative expenses in question are the fees for the financial advisors retained by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors," the judge's Thursday order said. "What little we know about the Debtor's financial situation makes his stance here more troubling.""Even assuming that the Debtor does not have the funds on hand to immediately pay these bankruptcy expenses, he certainly has considerable assets upon which he can draw to pay such expenses," Lane continued. "It is undisputed that he owns two apartments of considerable value."Giuliani's New York apartment was said to be worth $5.6 million, and his Florida apartment was valued at approximately $3.5 million.EXCLUSIVE: Trump ‘secretary of retribution’ won't discuss his ‘target list’ at RNCLane explained that the "most obvious path forward" would be to hold hearings to determine Giuliani's financial conditions and possibly force him to testify."[T]here may come a point when dismissal is no longer an option because the Debtor is unwilling to pay these administrative expenses, a necessary requirement under the law for dismissal of the case," Thursday's order said. "Under such circumstances, the Court may be forced to reevaluate the alternative of a Chapter 11 trustee to supervise the administration of the Debtor's financial affairs and to promptly liquidate assets such as the New York apartment as appropriate."Lane gave Giuliani and his creditors until July 31 to submit proposals for a path forward.

A GOP strategist unleashed an attack on Kamala Harris that was dripping in sarcasm Thursday after losing his cool over positive media coverage of the Democratic Party’s presumed presidential candidate.Doug Heye was on CNN as the vice president finished a rally speech in Houston. As his co-guest, Democratic Party strategist Maria Cordona, finished praising the candidate’s performance, Heye got flustered.Raising his voice, he said, “Everything we heard is 'Oh my god, Kamala Harris is the greatest thing ever. She's the greatest cook that we've ever had near the Oval Office. She knows more about wine than anybody other than maybe Thomas Jefferson. Everything she does is amazing.'“So we should just cancel the election because clearly she's going to win by 25 points?”He then tried to bring the CNN panel back from what he saw as rose-colored adoration.ALSO READ: ‘Creepy weirdos’: Senator fears Trump WH staff would destroy government from ‘inside’“The reality is, i'm not going to get in Donald Trump's head, don't want to be there, don't know what's in there. But he sees the same polling that we do," he said.“Kamala Harris is marginally less unpopular than Joe Biden. She's not winning in the polls. Maybe that changes in a week or two, or six or eight, but at this point, Donald Trump is still winning despite this barrage of nothing but positive press for Kamala Harris and has been marinated in the public's mind.”Cardona had set him off by suggesting that Trump was “going through a mental meltdown” because of his opponent's popularity.“Not just that she is incredibly accomplished as DA, AG, senator, VP,” she said, “but the fact that she is also very attractive. I mean, I have to say it.“...In addition to that, she's not only a woman, she's a woman of African American Asian descent, daughter of immigrants, Jamaican descent.I mean, it's it's this sort of cauldron of all of the things that Trump has nightmares about every single night.”Watch the video below or click the link here.

Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. Vice President Kamala Harris could become the nation’s first woman, Black woman and Asian American president. Two other Black women — Prince George’s County, [...]The post At the Races: High-profile races aside, women candidates decline appeared first on Roll Call.