| June 19, 2020: Donald Trump is requesting a fourth general election debate with Joe Biden. Amy Klobuchar removed herself from consideration for Democratic vice presidential nominee.
Each Friday, we highlight a presidential candidate’s key campaign staffer.
Pete Kavanaugh is a Democratic staffer with experience in campaign strategy and political organizing. Kavanaugh graduated with a B.A. in government from Georgetown University.
Previous campaign work:
- 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, Virginia senior advisor
- 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign, New Hampshire state director
- 2009 Jody Wagner lieutenant gubernatorial campaign, advisor
- 2009 Terry McAuliffe gubernatorial campaign, advisor
- 2008 Virginia Democratic Coordinated Campaign, field director
- 2008 John Edwards presidential campaign, New Hampshire deputy field director
- 2006 Missouri Democratic Coordinated Campaign, deputy director
- 2005 Scott Lang mayoral campaign, field director
- 2004 Jim Stork congressional campaign, political director
- 2004 John Edwards presidential campaign, New Hampshire political assistant
Other experience:
- 2013-2019: Revolution Field Strategies, president
- 2009-2019: Hilltop Public Solutions, partner
Notable Quote of the Day
“David Becker, director of the [Center for Election Innovation and Research], said in such an unprecedented election climate, it’s difficult to predict how the COVID-19 setbacks will hurt or help both candidates’ ground games.
Voter-registration drives may not be as instrumental as the changing nature of voting itself, how voters respond to expanded mail-in options spurred by COVID-19 social-distancing efforts, and the anticipated high voter enthusiasm for participating in this presidential election with so many contentious news events shaping it, he said.
Becker pointed to Georgia’s June 9 primary, which was postponed from March. Absentee ballots were sent to every voter, with 1.1 million returned. Total Democratic turnout surpassed the previous record of 1.06 million in the 2008 primary, when Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in a landslide.”
– Susan Crabtree, RealClearPolitics national political correspondent
Election Updates
- Joe Biden will accept the Democratic presidential nomination in Milwaukee, CNN reported. Democratic officials are in the process of organizing smaller events in battleground states. Since the convention will be primarily virtual, CNN said the “overarching goal now is to produce several hours of compelling programming each night that would be carried by the major TV networks.”
- In response to the Supreme Court decision blocking the Trump administration from ending the DACA program due to procedural issues, Biden said he would make DACA permanent on his first day in office.
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) removed herself from consideration to be the Democratic vice presidential nominee on Thursday night. She said, “This is a historic moment, and America must seize on this moment. And I truly believe as, I actually told the vice president last night when I called him, that I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket.”
- Donald Trump is seeking a fourth general election debate with Biden. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is leading the push. Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield rejected the idea. The Trump campaign is also requesting the debates begin before early voting.
- Facebook removed a Trump campaign ad targeting Antifa on Thursday because it featured a red triangle associated with Nazism. A Facebook spokesperson said, “Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group’s symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.” Trump communications director Tim Murtaugh said the symbol was used by Antifa. He continued, “We would note that Facebook still has an inverted red triangle emoji in use, which looks exactly the same, so it’s curious that they would target only this ad.”
What We’re Reading
Flashback: June 19, 2016
The California Democratic Party passed a resolution calling for limiting superdelegates to Democratic National Committee members, eliminating caucuses, and revising the primary calendar. |
