Candidates Split With Trump as Party Power Holds

Angie Nixon said her Florida campaign had received more than 300,000 contributions averaging about $31, while she accused state Rep. Ashley Moody of enriching herself through stock trading. Moody denied wrongdoing. On the Oct. 18 broadcast of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” candidates around the country made their cases to voters as polls showed widespread concern about corruption and economic strain.

Power on the Ballot

Nixon, Florida’s Democratic Senate nominee and a state representative, said more than 4,000 people attended her rallies the previous day, including in deep-red counties. Her campaign, she said, had raised more than $2 million more than her opponent in the past quarter. Nixon joined the Democratic Socialists of America in June and said she backed access to quality health care, fully funded public schools and housing.

Brennan said Nixon’s platform called for Medicare for all, a national rent-stabilization standard, a higher federal minimum wage, abolishing ICE and a 5 percent annual wealth tax on billionaires. Nixon said she’d work across the aisle with anyone who put working people first. She also said she wanted the Department of Justice to investigate nearly $10 million she said was taken from Medicaid funds intended for sick children. Brennan said Moody denied wrongdoing.

Nixon said she’d voiced frustration with support from the national Democratic Party, telling MS NOW in September that it could do more. “Folks are a little gun-shy because Vice President Harris lost as a black woman, and so people are very hesitant in terms of funding black women in the South,” she said. Nixon said Leader Schumer and Senator Gillibrand had agreed to host fundraisers. She pointed to her work raising Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and said she wanted corrupt politicians held accountable, calling the situation “Donald Trump 2.0” in Florida.

Polls on the program set the machinery of electoral choice against widespread distrust. Brennan cited a Fox poll in which six in 10 respondents were extremely concerned about government corruption. An AP poll found six in 10 adults believed Trump was illegally profiting from the presidency or doing something unethical.

Promises, Prices and Polls

Republican candidates in Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Maine described disagreements with President Trump on selected issues. Michele Tafoya, the R-Minnesota senatorial candidate, said, “When Trump is right, I will work with him. When he’s wrong, I will stand up for Minnesota.” Representative Ashley Hinson, the R-Iowa senatorial candidate, said the country needed lower gas and diesel prices, but not “a deal with Russia to do it.” Mike Rogers, the R-Michigan senatorial candidate, said, “Here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end this tariff war now.” Senator Susan Collins of Maine said Trump “did not have a good plan” and should have anticipated the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Ohio Republican Congressman Mike Turner said Trump had endorsed him and that he’d appeared at a rally with him, but added, “I don’t run with the president. I don’t run from the president.” He said he had “my own agenda.” Turner urged people to vote in every race, recalling that he won his first race by 244 votes out of 44,000. He said Congress had pushed back against the administration and described himself as part of his community’s economic development team.

Turner said jobs had doubled “both inside and outside the fence” at his local base, and that the VA had created senior housing. He said Trump had committed to sign legislation restoring Delphi salaried pensions, which Turner said the Obama administration had taken away. Brennan noted the legislation hadn’t yet passed. Turner said restoring the pensions would affect more than 5,000 people in his community.

The Limits of the Slate

The Columbus Dispatch said it couldn’t endorse the Republican Senate candidate because of the “abject failure” of Republicans in Congress to stop visible corruption and abuse of power by the Trump administration. It described Republicans as “almost entirely spineless.” Turner replied that the paper wasn’t his local paper, said he was from Dayton, and argued voters consider individual candidates rather than a team or slate.

Anthony Salvanto, the program’s election director and surveys, said a CBS Texas poll showed Democrat Talarico and Republican Paxton at 51-49. Talarico did better with independents and people who said prices had left them financially strained. Salvanto described Ohio and Alaska as toss-ups, Iowa as leaning Republican but competitive, Kansas as a state to watch, and Michigan and Maine as toss-ups Democrats would need to hold. He said CBS estimates gave Democrats an edge to take the House and that they needed four seats to take the Senate.

Caitlin Huey-Burns said Republican sources worried Trump was “underwater on the economy,” citing tariffs and the Iran war’s effects on diesel and gas prices. She said Trump faced the challenge of turning out voters for down-ballot Republicans while showing little deference to Congress. Salvanto said Democratic voters were more likely than Republicans to say they’d definitely vote, while Republicans hit hard by inflation might stay home rather than vote for Democrats.

In Kansas, Huey-Burns said no Democrat had won a Senate race since 1932. A cattle farmer who supported Trump told her he was considering voting for Democrat Adam Hamilton for the first time, citing the administration’s decision to allow beef imports. Huey-Burns said diesel costs mattered to Kansas farmers and that administration policies affected constituencies that tend to vote for Trump.

The broadcast also reported that threatening envelopes containing suspicious substances had gone to 36 lawmakers and election officials, with many intercepted before reaching Capitol Hill offices. Federal law enforcement was investigating and hadn’t identified who might be responsible, Huey-Burns said. The election contest continues; the envelopes put officials and their families in the frame of threats the program said had risen by more than 50 percent in the past year.