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The Heartland POD for Friday, February 23, 2024
A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:
Primary voting is underway in Texas | Kansas Medicaid expansion update | Illinois Gov J.B. Pritzker lays out priorities as a progressive pragmatist | Missouri Democrats filibuster ballot candy | KS Gov Laura Kelly’s veto will stand
- Primary voting is underway in Texas
BY SEJAL GOVINDARAO
FEB. 21, 2024
WASHINGTON — In 2018, Rep. Colin Allred flipped Texas’ 32nd Congressional District, turning the Dallas-based district into a blue stronghold. Now, as the Democrat vies to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a crowded field of 10 Democrats is lining up to replace him.
Dr. Brian Williams, a trauma surgeon, and State Rep. Julie Johnson, of Farmers Branch, are leading the field in the Democratic primary with their fundraising efforts, each amassing about a million dollars in campaign donations since their campaigns were registered at the beginning of last summer.
Ideologically, Williams and Johnson are aligned. They both rank health care a top priority if elected, and have touted their ability to work across the aisle.
Johnson, a trial lawyer in her third term in the state House rode the 2019 blue wave to unseat hardline conservative incumbent Matt Rinaldi, by 13 points. Rinaldi now chairs the state GOP. In her three terms, at least 40 of the bills Johnson has co-authored or joint-authored have been signed into law.
As a Democrat in the Republican-dominated state Legislature, Johnson has played a lot of defense trying to kill bills she and other progressives deem harmful. Johnson, who is gay, said she and other members of the House’s LGBTQ caucus have had success in killing anti-LGBTQ bills by mastering the rules of procedure and “being better at the rules than the other side.” In 2019, she took down a House version of the so-called “Save Chick-fil-A bill” on a rule technicality. The bill was a response to a San Antonio airport kicking out the fast food restaurant over criticism of its religiously affiliated donations to anti-LGBTQ groups. It was revived in another bill and passed into law.
If elected, Johnson would be the first openly LGBTQ member of Congress from a Southern state. She’s drawn notable endorsements from Beto O’Rourke, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, EMILY’s List, Equality PAC, and several labor unions.
Matt Angle, director of Lone Star Project, a Texas group that works to boost Democrats, said Johnson is the frontrunner in the race, but Williams is a formidable challenger.
“Make no mistake about it though,” Angle said. “Julie Johnson has a voter base within the district not only from her old district, but also just from years of being an active Democratic activist and a donor and really a couple of just outstanding terms in the legislature.”
While he may be new to the Texas political arena, Williams is no stranger to the halls of Congress.
Williams was a health policy adviser to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy — who endorsed him — to help pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022 – the farthest reaching gun safety legislation in decades. The legislation, crafted in the aftermath of the shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo New York, allocated millions of dollars to expand mental health resources, strengthens background checks and tightens the boyfriend loophole. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was a lead negotiator on the bill with Murphy, and Williams worked closely with Cornyn’s office. In his role as a health policy advisor for Murphy, he worked across the aisle with Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on mental health legislation.
Williams also worked with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California to pass federal health care legislation related to pandemic preparedness and reducing health care costs.
Williams said his experience as a trauma surgeon — operating on victims of gun violence and women experiencing reproductive health emergencies — has fueled his priorities to fight for gun restrictions and increase access to abortions and other womens’ health. Williams added his perspective as a Black doctor seeing racial disparities in health care will resonate with the district’s diverse constituency, given that the district is now a majority-minority district with a 37% Hispanic or Latino population, 22% Black population and 8% Asian population.
“They’re excited that there’s someone that looks like them that can represent them in Congress,” Williams said in an interview.
As Allred opted to stay neutral in the race to succeed him – Williams said he had pursued his endorsement while Johnson said she had not – the tension between Johnson and Williams has been heating up.
Williams has publicly criticized Johnson for a vote she took that would have made some changes and tweaks to the state’s Alternatives to Abortions program, which provides information about resources to women seeking the procedure.
“I draw contrast between myself and Representative Johnson about how I am the better candidate,” Williams said.
Johnson, who is endorsed by Planned Parenthood, said Williams misrepresented the vote, which she said she cast to bring the already-funded program under the scope of the Health and Human Services Commission so it could be subject to public transparency. Her campaign published a fact-check on her website, likening Williams’ misrepresentation of her record to “Trumpian-style, false attacks.”
Planned Parenthood was critical of the legislation.
Johnson said women’s health is also a priority for her, and she stands by her record.
“Texas leads the nation of uninsured folks, and in maternal mortality, and in infant mortality. Obviously, we're leading the nation in an attack on women's freedom for women's reproductive health, and I've been a champion of a lot of these issues,” she said.
Other candidates vying for the open seat in the March 5 primary include businessman Raja Chaudhry, tech entrepreneur Alex Cornwallis, former Dallas City Councilman and real estate broker Kevin Felder and attorney Callie Butcher, who would be the first openly transgender member of Congress if elected.
If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, there will be a runoff in May. The winner of the Democratic primary will face off against the winner of the Republican primary in November but is likely to win given that the district is solidly blue.
And, from Dallas we go to Houston where
After bruising loss in Houston mayoral race, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee faces her toughest reelection yet
Jackson Lee faces off against Amanda Edwards, her most formidable congressional opponent in three decades.
BY SEJAL GOVINDARAO
FEB. 19, 2024
In 1994, Sheila Jackson Lee, then a 44-year-old Houston city councilwoman, unseated four-term U.S. Rep. Craig Washington in the Democratic primary, securing a seat she’d come to hold for the next 30 years.
This March, former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards, 42, is hoping to replicate that political upset as she faces off against Jackson Lee in the Democratic primary for Congressional District 18.
Jackson Lee, who did not respond to requests for an interview, has only drawn four primary challengers over her 14-term career, all of whom she defeated by landslide margins.
She’s a household name in her Houston-based district, known for her frequent visibility at constituent graduations, funerals and baby showers.
But last year she ran for Houston mayor against then-state Sen. John Whitmire. It was a bruising primary — unfamiliar territory for Jackson Lee — and her campaign was roiled with negative media after audio of her berating her congressional staffers was leaked. She ended up losing the race by 30 points and then immediately announced she was running for reelection to the U.S. House.
Amanda Edwards, a former intern in Jackson Lee’s office, initially announced she was running for Houston mayor until the congresswoman threw her hat in the ring. At that point, Edwards pivoted — endorsing Jackson Lee as mayor and beginning her own bid for Congress.
By the time Jackson Lee announced she was running for her House seat again, Edwards had already gained momentum. In the fourth quarter of last year, Edwards outraised the congresswoman 10 to 1 — $272,000 to Jackson Lee’s $23,000.
Mark Jones, Baker Institute fellow in political science at Rice University said, “This could be the year that Congresswoman Jackson Lee loses. And given that as a safe, Democratic, seat whoever wins the primary will be headed to Washington in January of 2025”
Jackson Lee holds a narrow lead in primary polls, while 16% of voters remain undecided.
Edwards, a native Houstonian, said her commitment to public service is propelled by her father’s battle with cancer when she was a teenager, where she learned firsthand about the cracks in the health care system and how “policy could be a matter of life and death.”
She served as an at-large Houston City Council member from 2016 to 2020, where she represented a constituency of more than 2 million people.
In her race to beat Jackson Lee, Edwards has garnered some notable endorsements including the Harris County Young Democrats, and the Harris County chapter of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats – both of which endorsed Jackson Lee in past races.
The Harris County Young Democrats rescinded its endorsement of Jackson Lee in the mayoral race — citing a “zero tolerance policy” for staff abuse.
Lenard Polk, Harris County chapter president of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, said Jackson Lee's leaked audio tape controversy also factored into the committee’s decision to not endorse her. On the recording Jackson Lee berates a staffer for not having a document she was looking for and calls two of her staffers “Goddamn big-ass children, fuckin’ idiots who serve no Goddamn purpose.”
He said endorsement committee members were still “quite upset” over the tape and it “wasn’t a good look” for Jackson Lee. The leaked tape fueled discourse about Jackson Lee’s reputation as an unkind boss on Capitol Hill – she regularly makes Washingtonian Magazine’s worst of Congress list and her office has high turnover rates.
Polk added that voters felt abandoned by Jackson Lee, who jumped into the mayor’s race without endorsing someone to take her place, only to file for reelection a day after losing.
Jackson Lee’s battle to retain her seat is made tougher by 2021 redistricting, because the 18th district now includes more young white professionals who do not have the same level of loyalty to her as longtime district residents.
But despite any damage she may have incurred from her mayoral run, Jackson Lee remains a powerful political force in her district.
County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who is backing Jackson Lee, said he doesn’t know anyone in local politics with her “energy level,” and that Jackson Lee has secured meaningful federal grants for her district – most recently $20.5 million to Harris County Public Health Department’s Uplift Harris Guaranteed Income Pilot project. He also said she has a reputation for being a reliably progressive voice in Congress.
Jackson Lee has a long list of powerful endorsements from House Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Minority Whip Katherine Clarke. She’s backed by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and other members of Texas’ Washington delegation including Democratic Reps. Lizzie Fletcher of Houston, Lloyd Doggett of Austin, Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Joaquin Castro of San Antonio.
Ellis said Jackson Lee may not be a strong fundraiser but she will benefit from her incumbency advantage.
Linda Bell-Robinson, a Houston Democratic precinct chair, said she is fighting for Jackson Lee to retain her seat because seniority in Congress is important and Edwards would be learning the ropes as a freshman if elected.
“We need fighters,” she said. “We don't need people trying to learn how to fight on the battlefield. We need people who are already fighting and know how to fight their fight.
SEAN: Super interesting race. For my part, I don’t have any problem with members of Congress being extremely tough to work for. I have problems with lying, fraud, criminal activity, and squishy voting records.
Congresswoman Jackson Lee has 100% ratings from Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and AFL-CIO. She has a 95% rating from League of Conservation Voters
New estimate predicts Medicaid expansion would serve 152K at no cost to state
A $509M federal incentive would help offset state cost for first eight years
BY: SHERMAN SMITH - FEBRUARY 22, 2024 4:22 PM
TOPEKA — The Kansas Health Institute on Thursday unveiled its analysis of Gov. Laura Kelly’s proposal to expand Medicaid, predicting 152,000 Kansans would enroll in the first year with no additional cost to the state government.
The Democratic governor has made passage of Medicaid expansion a top legislative priority this year, following her statewide campaign to promote the policy last fall. But Republican leadership in the Legislature opposes the policy and has blocked hearings on Medicaid expansion for four years.
Kansas is one of just 10 states that still haven’t expanded Medicaid since President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
The state-run version of Medicaid, called KanCare, provides health care services to low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities. Currently, those who earn less than 38% of the federal poverty level are eligible. For a family of four, the annual income limit is $11,400.
Under the ACA, also known as Obamacare, the federal government offers to cover 90% of the cost of Medicaid services in exchange for expanding eligibility to 138% of the federal poverty rate. The annual income threshold for a family of four would be $41,400.
Kelly’s proposal includes a work requirement with exceptions for full-time students, veterans, caregivers, people with partial disabilities, and former foster kids. Her plan also would add a new surcharge for hospitals.
KHI predicts the change in income eligibility would result in 151,898 people enrolling in KanCare — 106,450 adults and 45,448 children. Those numbers include 68,236 adults and 16,377 children who are currently uninsured.
About 68.9% of the adults are already working at least part-time, according to the KHI analysis. Of the remaining 31.1% KHI determined 19.1% of the unemployed adults have a disability, 16.1% are students and 3.8% are veterans.
KHI calculated the cost to the state for expanding Medicaid over the first eight years would be fully offset — mostly because of a $509 million incentive included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Other savings would come from the federal government picking up more of the tab on existing services, as well as the new surcharge on hospitals.
The Kansas Sunflower Foundation on Thursday released findings from surveys that found 68% of Kansas voters, including 51% of Republicans and 83% of small business owners support Medicaid expansion.
Steve Baccus, an Ottawa County farmer and former president of Kansas Farm Bureau, said in a news release that expanding Medicaid was about “investing in the well-being of our communities.”
Baccus said “Our rural communities are often struggling to keep Main Street open and to continue to offer the necessary services to the surrounding agricultural enterprises. A community that can offer a total health care package has an advantage in maintaining a viable town.”
The findings are consistent with a Fort Hays State University poll that was released in October.
With budget proposal and fiery address, Pritzker paints himself as progressive pragmatist
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Governor’s spending plan advances progressive-backed policies in tight fiscal landscape
By HANNAH MEISEL
Capitol News Illinois
hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – In delivering his annual State of the State and budget address on Wednesday, Gov. JB Pritzker cast his administration as both progressive and pragmatic – a balance he’s worked to strike as his national profile has grown.
Some elements of the governor’s proposed spending plan, like using $10 million in state funds to eliminate $1 billion worth of Illinoisans’ medical debt, are hardline progressive ideas. Others, including a goal to achieve “universal preschool” by 2027, fit in with a more traditional liberal platform.
But Pritzker has also defined his success in traditional economic terms, putting particular stock into how New York City-based credit ratings agencies view Illinois’ finances, while also positioning Illinois as a hub for emerging technologies like electric vehicles and quantum computing.
As Illinois faces an influx of migrants from the southern U.S. border Pritzker has leaned into a leadership style that prioritizes progressive ideals while projecting an image of fiscal responsibility.
As he outlined a proposal to add $182 Million toward the state’s migrant response, Gov. Pritzker said, “We didn’t ask for this manufactured crisis, But we must deal with it all the same.”
“Children, pregnant women, and the elderly have been sent here in the dead of night, left far from our designated welcome centers, in freezing temperatures, wearing flip flops and T-shirts,” Pritzker said. “Think about that the next time a politician from Texas wants to lecture you about being a good Christian.”
The governor was met with big applause from Democrats in laying out his proposed “Healthcare Consumer Access and Protection Act,” which would, in part, ban “prior authorization” requirements for mental health treatment.
Pritzker characterized the practice of prior authorization as a way for insurance companies to deny the care that doctors have prescribed.
Pritzker is also proposing spending $10 million in state funds to buy Illinoisans’ past-due medical debt that’s been sent to collections. Partnering with national nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, which buys debt for pennies on the dollar on the same market that collections agencies purchase the rights to the debts, the governor said Illinois could “relieve nearly $1 billion in medical debt for the first cohort of 340,000 Illinoisans.”
The governor spent time noting two key places he said Illinois fails its Black citizens: maternal mortality and disproportionate rates of homelessness.
To combat Black maternal mortality rates, Pritzker proposed helping more community-based reproductive health centers to open, citing Illinois’ first freestanding nonprofit birthing center in Berwyn as a model.
He said, “Black women in our state are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.”
Pritzker proposed spending an additional $50 million on the state’s “Home Illinois” program launched in 2021, in part to “attack the root causes of housing insecurity for Black Illinoisans.” He cited a statistic that Black people make up 61 percent of Illinois’ homeless population despite only being 14 percent of the state’s general population.
Additionally, the governor proposed a $1 million pilot program for free diapers for low-income families, as well as a $5 million increased investment in an existing home visit program “for our most vulnerable families” with babies in their first year.
His budget also includes $12 million to create a child tax credit for families with children under three with incomes below a certain threshold.
Among the successes Pritzker pointed to, perhaps the most salient is his claim that Illinois’ new “Smart Start” early childhood program – proposed last year in the governor’s second inaugural address – had exceeded its first-year goals.
The program aimed to create 5,000 new preschool seats last year, but ended up creating 5,823, Pritzker said – a 15 percent overperformance.
“As a result, right now we have over 82,000 publicly-funded preschool classroom seats – the highest number in our state’s history. Staying on the Smart Start plan, we will achieve universal preschool by 2027.”
Echoing his 2022 election-year call for a temporary pause on the state’s 1 percent tax on groceries, Pritzker on Wednesday proposed nixing the grocery tax altogether.
He said “It’s one more regressive tax we just don’t need. If it reduces inflation for families from 4 percent to 3 percent, even if it only puts a few hundred bucks back in families’ pockets, it’s the right thing to do.”
Even while proposing a series of progressive expenditures, the governor also sought to cast himself as a pragmatist when it comes to state finances. The state has seen strong revenue performances in the past few years, But in November, the governor’s own economic forecasting office predicted a nearly $900 million deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
“Our FY25 budget proposal makes some hard choices,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “I wish we had big surpluses to work with this year to take on every one of the very real challenges we face.”
Illinois’ once-paltry “rainy day” fund now has $2 billion socked away, the governor noted, and the state has paid off high-interest debt during his five years in office.
To mitigate Illinois’ previously projected deficit, Pritzker is proposing to more than double the tax rate paid by sportsbooks on profits – a change that would bring in an estimated $200 million annually. He also proposed extending an existing cap on operating losses that businesses can claim on taxes, which could help generate more than $500 million, the governor’s office claims.
Another revenue generator proposed by the governor: raising $101 million by capping a sales tax credit retailers are allowed to claim. But business groups on Wednesday signaled they’d put up a fight.
In his first few months in office in 2019, Pritzker used his fresh political capital to muscle a $15 minimum wage ramp through the legislature – a long-fought-for progressive policy goal – followed closely by a trip to New York City to meet with executives at the influential big three credit ratings agencies.
When Pritzker took office, Illinois’ credit ratings were hovering around “junk” status after a two-year budget impasse under his predecessor, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. And though Illinois suffered a final credit downgrade in the early months of COVID, the state has since received nine upgrades.
The governor on Wednesday held those upgrades in high regard, saying
“My one line in the sand is that I will only sign a budget that is responsibly balanced and that does not diminish or derail the improving credit standing we have achieved for the last five years,”
Andrew Adams contributed.
- Missouri Senate Dems Hold The Line In Ballot Fight
BY: RUDI KELLER - FEBRUARY 20, 2024 5:15 PM
A Democratic filibuster that stretched more than 20 hours ended this week when Senate Republicans stripped provisions critics derided as “ballot candy” from a proposal to make it harder to pass constitutional amendments proposed by initiative petitions.
Ballot candy refers to language designed to trick voters - into thinking the initiative is about ensuring only citizens vote, for instance - when that’s totally irrelevant to the question voters are deciding.
By an 18-12 vote, with nine Republicans and nine Democrats forming the majority, language that stated non-citizens could not vote on constitutional amendments was removed, as were sections barring foreign governments and political parties from taking sides in Missouri ballot measures.
The Senate then, by a voice vote, gave first-round approval to the bill that would require both a statewide majority and a majority vote in five of the state’s eight congressional districts to pass future constitutional amendments.
The proposal would alter the way Missourians have approved constitutional changes since the first statewide vote on a constitution in 1846.
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo of Independence, a Democrat, said, “All we’re asking for is a fair fight. And the Republicans know if it’s a fair fight, they lose, which is why they have to pump it full of ballot candy and mislead voters.”
Meanwhile, the House spent much of Tuesday morning debating legislation that would make changes to the signature gathering process for initiative petition campaigns.
Among numerous provisions, the bill would require signatures be recorded using black or dark ink and that signature gatherers be citizens of the United States, residents of Missouri or physically present in Missouri for at least 30 consecutive days prior to the collection of signatures.
Its most sweeping provision grants new authority to the secretary of state and attorney general to review initiative and referendum petitions for compliance with the Missouri Constitution.
The effort to make it harder to get on the ballot and harder to pass a constitutional amendment has been a GOP priority for several years. In the past two election cycles, voters have expanded Medicaid coverage and legalized recreational marijuana, circumventing the GOP majority that opposed both.
The push to raise the threshold on amendments proposed by initiative has taken on a new urgency for Republicans as abortion-rights supporters move ahead with a signature campaign to make this year’s ballot.
The results on abortion amendments in other states has Missouri abortion foes anxious about whether they can defend the state’s almost total ban in a statewide election.
Voters in Ohio last year rejected an effort to increase the majority needed to pass constitutional amendments before voting 57% in favor of abortion rights. And in 2022, Kansas voters defeated an attempt to restrict abortion rights by a landslide vote.
- Gov. Kelly Keep Kansas GOP In Line
Kansas House Republicans fail to override governor’s veto on massive tax reform bill
BY: TIM CARPENTER - FEBRUARY 20, 2024 12:41 PM
TOPEKA — The Republican-led Kansas House failed Tuesday to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly ‘s veto of a tax reform bill anchored by implementation of a single, flat state income tax rate of 5.25% in addition to elimination of the state sales tax on groceries and creation of a tax exemption for all Social Security income.
The GOP holds supermajorities in the House and Senate, but there was skepticism that both chambers could muster two-thirds majorities necessary to rebuke Kelly given opposition among conservative and moderate Republicans to parts of the three-year, $1.6 billion tax cut favoring the state’s most wealthy.
Kelly said the decision of House members to sustain her veto was a win for working-class Kansans who would have seen “little relief under this irresponsible flat tax experiment.” The Legislature should move ahead with her proposal for reducing $1 billion in taxes over three years.
The governor said “I urge legislators to work together to cut taxes in a way that continues our economic growth and maintains our solid fiscal foundation while benefitting all Kansans, not just those at the top,”.
Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said the cost of the tax reform bill could reach $600 million annually when fully implemented, and the plan didn’t do enough for the middle class in Kansas. He said a married couple earning $42,000 to $75,000 per year would only see an income tax reduction of about 75 cents.
Rep. Trevor Jacobs of Fort Scott was among Republicans who opposed overriding Kelly’s veto. He said the flat tax would force the state’s working class to carry a larger burden of the state tax load. And the 2024 Legislature had sufficient time to develop an alternative that provided tax relief to all Kansans rather than just a select few.
Good thinking! See it’s not just Democrats who think KS Gov Laura Kelly knows what she’s doing.
Welp, that’s it for me! From Denver I’m Sean Diller. Stories in today’s show appeared first in the Missouri Independent, Kansas Reflector, Texas Tribune, and Capitol News Illinois. Thanks for listening, see you next time.
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