| | | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker | With help from Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
| 
Nina Turner and Shontel Brown. | AP Photo and Getty Images | What up, Recast family! A bombshell draft opinion revealing that the Supreme Court has voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, first reported by POLITICO, is reverberating through the political world – and may shake up this year's midterm contests. And of course it's another big primary day, with voters casting votes in Ohio and Indiana. We'll kick things off with a look at the rematch in Ohio. Ohio's 11th Congressional District – that would be the Cleveland-area House seat – is once again the focus of outsize national attention. And that's thanks in large part to the two Black women battling for the job. Freshman Democratic Rep. Shontel Brown is defending her seat just six months after being sworn into office. She's facing off against progressive darling Nina Turner in a do-over of sorts. Turner, you may recall, is a former Democratic state senator, longtime Bernie supporter, MSNBC fixture – and bona fide star of the progressive movement.
| 
Sen. Bernie Sanders at a campaign event with Turner, Feb. 26, 2020, in North Charleston, South Carolina. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo | In August, Brown bested Turner in a special election to fill the opening left by former eight-term Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, the current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. (Brown won by roughly 6 percentage points.) The political landscape has shifted in the months since. Back then, political observers framed the race as a bellwether that would forecast how Democrats felt about President Joe Biden's first months in office. But now, some are looking at this through a different lens. This race, they say, is a case of national progressives circling the wagons to consolidate more political capital in Washington – and in the process, abandoning one of their movement's biggest stars. For his part, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) remains unequivocal about his ongoing support for Turner. After all, during his 2020 presidential bid, she served as a surrogate and national co-chair of his campaign, where she defended him with pugilistic gusto. But the increasingly powerful Congressional Progressive Caucus snubbed her, flipping its support to Brown. That backing came a little more than a year after the group's leadership characterized Turner's impact on the movement as "unmistakable." "That's something certainly that caucus is going to have to answer [about] why they did that," Turner told The Recast.
| 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who gave a late endorsement to Turner, next to Pramila Jayapal, chair of the CPC. The caucus endorsed Brown. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), herself a member of the CPC and one of the high profile figures canvassing for Turner in 2021, didn't throw her support behind Turner until Monday evening, just hours before voters were to head to the polls in Ohio. That endorsement was probably too little, too late to sway Ohioans who cast their ballots during the early voting period. Also missing from Turner's campaign this time around: Campaign appearances from prominent liberal figures like hip hop artist Killer Mike, and progressive stalwarts Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). None have publicly supported Turner this time around – even though they did so during her last matchup with Brown. Some on the left are fuming about the foot-dragging and lack of support for Turner from national progressives. Jeff Cohen and Norman Soloman, the co-founders of RootsAction, an online initiative that advocates for progressive causes, write in Salon that Brown is one of the many "PINOs" – Progressive In Name Only – that the CPC has in its midst. "The Progressive Caucus leadership approach that gave up leverage for Build Back Better is akin to the one that just endorsed Shontel Brown against Nina Turner," they write. Caucus leaders had initially threatened to hold up its passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill to gain concessions for a climate bill, which has yet to pass in the Senate.
| 
Brown at her ceremonial swearing-in with her predecessor Marcia Fudge, the current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Nov. 4, 2021. | Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images | Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs the caucus, told POLITICO there is a review underway for how the group considers endorsements. Punchbowl News also notes Jayapal describes Brown as a caucus member "in good standing for four months" who meets the other requirements for an endorsement. Jayapal denied that the Progressive Caucus' endorsement was rooted in her own purported ambitions for leadership position within the House Democratic Caucus. Brown appears to be taking all of this in stride. In addition to the Progressive Caucus, President Joe Biden also endorsed Brown, calling her "an ardent advocate for the people of Ohio and a true partner in Congress." And over the weekend, House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) campaigned with Brown. Brown is enjoying all the trappings of the incumbency and running on a record that includes casting a vote in favor of the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure package.
| 
Brown at the Bedford Community Center, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, in Bedford Heights, Ohio. | Tony Dejak/AP Photo | She's also leaning into her experience leading the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, which she says enables her to work with both liberal and moderate members of the party. "I reached out to my challenger's supporters and said, 'Hey, now that I've won the election, I'd like to work collaboratively so we can get things done,'" Brown told POLITICO. We'll keep an eye out on this latest kerfuffle between the competing wings of the Democratic Party. Will any of this make a difference to the voters in Cleveland today? All the best,
The Recast Team
| | | | 
| Power dynamics are changing. With The Recast, you'll get a twice-weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy. Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Subscribe to the newsletter here.
| | | THE ROUNDUP: SUPREME COURT EDITION Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion repudiating the landmark 1973 ruling of Roe v. Wade – as well as 1992's Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirming abortion rights – could, if it becomes law, have far-reaching implications for generations to come. POLITICO's Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward first reportedthe existence of the document last night: "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Alito wrote.
| 
Abortion rights activists in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, Dec. 1, 2021, as the court heard arguments on the Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. | Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo | Here's what you need to know: Read Josh's 10 takeaways from Alito's draft opinions. And read the entire document here. Democrats are hoping this will give them the jolt they need in the midterms, report POLITICO's Sarah Ferris and Marianne Levine. Meanwhile, POLITICO'S Quint Forgey reports that President Joe Biden is reiterating his support for abortion rights, promising a comprehensive White House response should Roe be overturned: "We will be ready." And POLITICO founding editor John Harris says Alito's bruising for a brawl. In this video, POLITICO's Michael Cadenhead takes a look at the Supreme Court on abortion, then and now. Nearly half the states are likely to restrict abortion in the coming months, if they haven't already, as outlined in this graphic by POLITICO's Annette Choi and Sean McMinn.
| 
| And in an analysis for POLITICO magazine, Robert L. Tsai argues that the draft opinion overturning Roe, despite Alito's assurances, "outlines a roadmap for the withdrawal of other cherished constitutional rights." This is also a good reminder of just who exactly gets abortions in today's America. The New York Times republished its data breakdown from December looking at the typical patient: She's usually already a mother, usually in her late 20s, usually poor, usually very early in her pregnancy and usually lives in a blue state. Slate's Dahlia Lithwick argues we're not going back to pre-Roe days – we're heading somewhere worse. And in this Twitter thread, Slate's Mark Joseph Stern breaks down the racial implications in Alito's draft opinion as well as what his ruling could mean for LGBTQ rights.
| 
| The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus argues the draft opinion will be a "disaster" for the Supreme Court, while the National Review's Rich Lowry calls the circulation of the draft a " shocking assault on the Supreme Court." In September, Elle's Brea Baker spoke with Black and Latina women working on the frontlines for reproductive rights about what's at stake for women of color. According to Gallup polling,58 percent of Americans oppose the Supreme Court overturning Roe, with47 percent — a record high — believing abortion is morally acceptable. In September last year,approval of the Supreme Court hit a record low, at 40 percent, shortly after the courtdeclined to block a Texas abortion law that outlaws abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy.
| | | A CHANGE IS GONNA COME? The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community isn't immune from violent encounters with the police and must play a role in fostering a new era of police reform, according to a report out Tuesday. The report, published by the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund, a political advocacy nonprofit, is intended as a tool to educate the community on the history of policing, which has some roots in the slave patrols. The report examines the resulting systemic discrimination within the criminal justice system and encourages the AAPI community to be active stakeholders in the movement – despite past tensions between the Black and AAPI communities. "In short, our lives and the possibility of a just society depend on it," writes civil rights attorney Je Yon Jung, author of the report "Beyond the Hashtags and Slogans: the Role of AAPI in Police Reform." She tells The Recast that often AAPIs are marginalized, with some dismissing the community as being too few in number to be considered outspoken leaders in this reform movement. "AAPIs," she writes, "must actively reject being used as a pawn or wedge group to distract from and manipulate the systemic reform movement that is being led by BLM and other Black-led organizations." "I think that those are actually very much misnomers and misunderstandings of the Asian community," says Jung, who previously served as a federal civil rights prosecutor at the Department of Justice. Black Americans, she says, aren't the only victims of police brutality. To that end, the report highlights some key cases: Chiasher Vue, a Hmong American who was killed in 2019 by Minneapolis police; Christian Hall, a Chinese American who was shot and killed in 2020 by Pennsylvania State Police; and Iremamber Sykap, a 16-year-old Micronesian boy who was shot and killed by Honolulu police last year.
| 
A memorial honoring Iremamber Sykap who was shot and killed by Honolulu Police. | Jennifer Sinco Kelleher/AP Photo | Jung hopes the report will be a vital tool to encourage coalition building to enact change on the local, state and federal level. "I think the most fundamental piece is about educating ourselves … and [learning about] what other groups are doing and trying to find those connections with groups that are already doing much of this work." "Building bridges and trying to lend our voices is the start of that." Read the full report here.
| | | THE RECAST RECOMMENDS Eric Adams takes a leaf from AOC's playbook with a political statement at the Met Gala.
| 
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP | Trevor Noah roasts — well — just about everyone at the weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner.
| 
| Former Wall Street Journal tech reporter Vauhini Vara pens a dystopian debut,"The Immortal King Rao" in which governments have been replaced by corporations. Apple announces a second season of "Pachinko," its adaptation of Min Jin Lee's novel following a Korean family who immigrate to Japan. The first season just wrapped, so it's the perfect time to catch up. In "The Family Roe," released last September, journalist Joshua Prager unpacks the complexity and contradictions of the late Norma McCorvey, the real Jane Roe in Roe v. Wade. Pusha T hits the No.1 spot on the Billboard 200 album chart for the first time in his career with "It's Almost Dry." In other music news, actress Rosie Perez has signed on to narrate an audiobook, a memoir by the late Ronettes singer and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ronnie Spector. The K-pop artist of "Gangnam Style" fame, PSY, teams up with BTS' SUGA to bring you "That That."
| 
| TikToks of the day: Get on Lizzo's level
| 
| Making the flute cool
| 
| | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment