{"id":4103,"date":"2020-09-26T17:38:42","date_gmt":"2020-09-26T17:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=4103"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:52:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:52:48","slug":"supreme-court-fight-adds-intensity-to-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2020\/09\/26\/supreme-court-fight-adds-intensity-to-senate-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court fight adds intensity to Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"

The day after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis broke some news to a crowd of cheering supporters at a rally for President Trump in Fayetteville.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll the press tried to swarm me when I was coming up here, but I thought I would tell you all first,\u201d he said, surrounded by a sea of red MAGA hats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a member of the Judiciary Committee, I\u2019ve seen the list of justices. [The president] is going to nominate one of those justices, and I\u2019m going to vote for their confirmation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The crowd erupted in applause.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, Trump said he would nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett, setting off a fierce battle not just over the nominee, who is said to be staunchly against abortion, but also over the timing of the vote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With less than six weeks before Election Day \u2014 and with many North Carolinians already casting votes by mail \u2014 Ginsburg\u2019s death intensifies a Senate race that had already attracted millions of dollars and strong interest from around the nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is gonna take a race where the volume was already a 10 and crank it up to 11,\u201d said Chris Cooper, professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to make everything louder and more intense. \u2026 The partisanship, the intensity and the consequences\u2014it draws into sharp detail the consequences of controlling the United States Senate.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s effort to speed ahead with a vote has put Tillis and other Republicans in a bind because they took the opposite position in 2016 after Justice Antonin Scalia died. They blocked hearings on President Obama\u2019s nominee, Merrick Garland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In August 2016, Tillis wrote a USA Today<\/span> op-ed<\/span><\/a> that said \u201ct<\/span>he Senate should not hold hearings or votes <\/span>if a Supreme Court seat opened up<\/span> during the [presidential] campaign.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the morning after Ginsburg\u2019s death, Tillis <\/span>tweeted<\/span><\/a> his support for filling the vacancy, distinguishing the situation from 2016 by saying that the latter involved a \u201cdivided government\u201d and a \u201clame-duck president.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That has prompted cries of hypocrisy and shameless opportunism. Tillis\u2019s Democratic opponent, Cal Cunningham, has pushed for the seat to be filled after the election.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Tillis\u2019s decision to support the nominee could be smart politics. It reflects the importance of court nominees to many evangelical Republicans. They are hopeful that a new justice could be the deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>FiveThirtyEight<\/span><\/a>, Tillis has consistently trailed Trump in polls, indicating that some Republican voters who are gung ho about the president may feel hesitant about the senator. By doubling down on his support for the court nominee, Tillis may win them back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe is sort of going above and beyond to try to prove his fealty to Trump to make up for the last year when he very briefly bucked him on the border wall,\u201d said Jessica Taylor, the Senate and governors editor for The Cook Political Report.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She referred to <\/span>Tillis\u2019s response to Trump\u2019s declaration of a national emergency over illegal immigration across the Mexican-American border in 2019. Tillis initially said he would vote <\/span>against<\/span><\/a> the declaration but later <\/span>backtracked<\/span><\/a> and voted for it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Taylor said the Tillis campaign has probably done the math: Promising to confirm Barrett could alienate some moderate voters, but Tillis will win more support from his conservative base.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think they’re just looking at it from a sheer numbers game of what’s my best path to try and move my numbers up,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think it is shoring up that Republican base.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fight could also rouse voters on the left. As the de facto leader of the court\u2019s left wing, Ginsburg championed gender equality and abortion rights, becoming a liberal icon and earning the nickname \u201cNotorious R.B.G.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The possibility of this progressive ally being replaced by a conservative, anti-abortion justice could intensify turnout among young and female voters \u2014 who often vote Democratic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe big question is going to be unmarried women,\u201d said Kristin Goss, a professor of public policy and political science at Duke\u2019s Sanford School of Public Policy. \u201cThe fact that whoever takes that seat could be a deciding vote on Roe vs. Wade could make a big difference for unmarried women, particularly younger, unmarried women.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Goss said that this moment could also be a \u201cflashpoint\u201d for college students and millennials. That, too, could help Cunningham.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The progressive organization NextGen America says Ginsburg\u2019s death is providing new energy for young people to get involved in the campaign and vote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Immediately after the justice\u2019s death, NextGen America debuted a new YouTube <\/span>ad<\/span><\/a> targeting young voters in North Carolina.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJustice Ginsburg\u2019s dying wish was not to be replaced by Trump. But we can\u2019t trust Thom Tillis to do the right thing,\u201d the ad says. \u201cHe has ignored our needs and voted for Trump’s anti-choice, anti-equality judges. We need Cal Cunningham, not a Trump loyalist, in the Senate.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a race that had been dominated by the coronavirus, healthcare and the economy, a new issue has emerged.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not exactly an October surprise, but this is one of those things that happens in politics, where it\u2019s an unforeseen event,\u201d said John Hood, <\/span>chairman of the John Locke Foundation and president of the John William Pope Foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt sort of knocks all the preconceived notions for a loop.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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