| | | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker and Zach Montellaro | With help from Joseph Gedeon, Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
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People cast votes at Edmondson Westside High School during Maryland's primary election, Tuesday, July 19, 2022, in Baltimore. | Julio Cortez/AP Photo | What up, Recast family! Opening arguments began today in the contempt-of-Congress criminal trial of former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland resumes work after breaking her leg on a hike and multiple members of Congress are arrested while protesting for abortion rights outside the Supreme Court. We kick things off with a look at today's high stakes gubernatorial primary contests in Maryland. For Maryland Democrats, it's been a long eight years. And the party finally sees an opportunity to wrest control of the governor's mansion from the state's popular Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. He's term-limited and is barred from running again. But there are two outstanding wild cards that will determine how heavily Democrats will be favored — who their nominee is and whether their meddling in the Republican primary paid off. Today's Maryland primary contests will provide clarity for both those questions. Democrats are offering primary voters a slate of nine candidates. It's no wonder that, with a field this crowded, no clear leader has broken through. State Comptroller Peter Franchot touts his record of statewide electoral wins. Then there's Tom Perez, the former head of the Democratic National Committee, who served in local and statewide positions in the state in the early 2000s. There's also Wes Moore, a bestselling author and Rhodes Scholar — all jockeying for position in a state that hosts one leg of horse racing's Triple Crown. None of the frontrunners, however, topped 20 percent in a poll from the Baltimore Banner/WYPR/Goucher College last month. Franchot, who has served a decade and a half as Maryland's top tax officer, tells The Recast his familiarity with voters gives him the "quiet confidence" his campaign will prevail. He's faced criticism from his Democratic rivals over his shifting policy stances and for being too chummy with Hogan.
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Wes Moore talks to reporters on June 6, 2022 in Owings Mills, Md., after a Democratic primary debate for governor of Maryland. | Brian Witte/AP Photo | Moore, an Afghanistan War veteran and first-time candidate with the backing of entertainment icon Oprah Winfrey, has battled questions about his background — including his ties to Baltimore. He's even resorted to filing a complaint about an anonymous dossier circulated among Maryland insiders to state election officials. That dossier, he says, features "false and disparaging information" about him. (It's unclear if celebrity endorsements matter much in Maryland. In 2018 comedian Dave Chappelle stumped for his childhood friend Ben Jealous, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee. He lost to Hogan by roughly 12 points that year.) For his part, Perez has leaned on his deep relationships with the labor movement and his work as Labor secretary for former President Barack Obama. In a TV spot, Obama is featured praising Perez from the White House podium as "tireless" and "wicked smart." If either Moore or Perez goes on to win in the fall, they'd be the first person of color to serve as Maryland's chief executive. Republicans have a competitive gubernatorial primary of their own — one that's become a proxy war between Hogan and former president Donald Trump, with each backing rival candidates.
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Kelly Schulz speaks at a news conference on June 30, 2022, in Annapolis, Md. | Brian Witte/AP Photo | This contest features state Del. Dan Cox, a Trump acolyte who organized tour buses to drop constituents off at the Jan. 6 rally ahead of the Capitol attack. Not surprisingly, he's got Trump's endorsement. And Hogan is embracing his former Cabinet member Kelly Schulz, who would be the state's first female governor if she prevails in the fall. This primary race is also seen as a test to see whether Hogan's endorsements have the Midas touch in Maryland. The closing weeks of the Republican primary have been punctuated by an ad by the Democratic Governors Association that appears to be attacking Cox. The ad, released this month, describes Cox as "100 percent pro-life" and "too close to Trump, too conservative for Maryland." In reality, though, that ad is being used to boost his profile. It's a risky bet Democrats are taking to pump up a GOP nominee they think will be easier to topple in the general election. "They're trying to boost Dan because they know I can beat a Democrat," Schulz said in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month.
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Hogan holds a news conference at the Maryland State Capitol on August 5, 2021 in Annapolis, Maryland. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | The demographics of the state also play a key factor. Maryland is among the most racially diverse states in the country; white non-Hispanic residents account for less than half the population, according to the latest census figures. Vote counting is expected to take some time, as the counting of mail ballots won't start until Thursday. As always, we'll be keeping tabs on how this shakes out. All the best,
The Recast Team
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| 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.
| | | MARYLAND'S OTHER PROXY BATTLE There's a bruising primary battle being fought in Prince George's County, located on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. This majority-Black, solidly Democratic district is a contest to replace Rep. Anthony Brown in the state's 4th Congressional District. There's little daylight between the two Black candidates on issues. But outside groups are spending millions on the race, bombarding voters on the airwaves and through direct mail, in a proxy war fought by pro-Israel groups. The United Democracy Project, with its ties to the hawkish, pro-Israel group AIPAC, has dropped just under $6 million in their efforts to paint former Rep. Donna Edwards as an ineffective legislator who ignored the concerns of her constituents. In the past, Edwards came under fire for her support of Palestinians.
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POLITICO's Political Mailer Project. | Edwards, the first Black woman elected to Congress from Maryland, is attempting a comeback. She stumbled in her most recent elections, losing to current Sen. Chris Van Hollen in the primary in 2016 and again two years later in the primary contest for the county's top elected post. Edwards is being boosted by groups like J Street Action Fund, which has spent $728,000 in the race. The group is mostly targeting her opponent Glenn Ivey, a former Prince George's County state's attorney who argues that Ivey's candidacy is supported by GOP billionaires. All told, nearly $8 million in outside spending has flooded the primary.
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POLITICO's Political Mailer Project. | Ivey, like Edwards, is also attempting a political comeback, after losing to Brown for the same congressional seat in 2016. This proxy battle is the latest evidence that the divisive battle between Democratic groups supporting the party's growing progressive wing shifts the party further to the left on Middle East issues. The genesis of the proxy fight likely stems from "present" votes Edwards cast on legislation supportive of Israel during her time in Congress. She defended those votes, saying they were protest votes for what she saw as biases in the GOP-drafted resolutions, according to The New York Times. For his part Brown, the departing three-term congressman, is seeking to become Maryland's attorney general. He's in a tight race of his own against Katie O'Malley, the wife of former Gov. Martin O'Malley, whom Brown served as lieutenant governor from 2007 to 2015. If you have received political mailers, we want to hear from you. You can submit via our Political Mailer Project here. Or email us at mailers@politico.com . Your privacy is very important to us, so while we may publish photos of the campaign mailers you send, we first remove any of your identifying information, like name and address.
| | | TIKTOK'S NEWEST STAR? Fam, you know we love us some TikToks! So when we caught word our frequent contributor Sabrina Rodriguez was investigating President Joe Biden's TikTok dalliance, we were all in! As Sabrina, POLITICO's newest White House correspondent, points out, Biden's been on the app for a few months. Neither Biden nor the White House has a separate TikTok account. Instead, Democrats are experimenting with the DNC's TikTok account, which was launched earlier this year. But let's not get it twisted: Biden is not doing any dance routines or comical duets. In his most-watched video, Biden breaks down the specifics of a billionaire minimum income tax.
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| Important, but not the most riveting material for the mostly Gen Z users of the app. "Biden hasn't necessarily been the party's most viral messenger," Sabrina writes. In another Tiktok, he is seen walking with the two women he selected as historic firsts: Vice President Kamala Harris and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
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| Biden could take some tips from more TikTok-proficient Democrats like Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke and Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.). Still, as one expert sees it, his message is breaking through. "People are looking for genuine personalities and people who they think are authentic," Ellen Sciales of the Sunrise Movement, an environmental group led by young activists, told POLITICO. "It's the progressive message from them that's resonating. And they're actually reaching young people by being authentic and genuine and no bullshit." Read Sabrina's full story (and you really should) here.
| | | AND IN OTHER FIRSTS… Ukraine's first and only Black member of Parliament is visiting the U.S. on his first official visit as an elected official. POLITICO fellow Joseph Gedeon tracked him down and filed this dispatch: Indiana is currently hosting MP Zhan Beleniuk and the Ukrainian Greco-Roman Olympic wrestling team for a monthlong training camp. But the Olympic gold medalist plans to break away to do a little politicking on the Hill. That includes giving senior D.C. officials an update on the war effort in Ukraine. "My main responsibility [in Parliament] is sport, but now our country is at war and we still need weapons," said Beleniuk, who was born in the Ukraine to a Ukrainian mother and a Rwandan father. "It's very important for us because the level of motivation for our soldiers is high. … Without heavy weapons it's difficult for us to get a victory." Beleniuk told The Recast he also plans to meet and connect with the Congressional Black Caucus when he's in town. "I need to represent myself and talk about my case as a Black parliament member in Ukraine," he said.
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Beleniuk celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony for the men's 87kg Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in Chiba, Japan. | Aaron Favila/AP Photo | The 31-year-old was first elected to parliament in 2019 as a member of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's party while he was an active member of the country's Olympic team; in 2020 he won a gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He says his rise within the political world is proof that Ukraine is a tolerant country — despite reports of Ukrainian border officials discriminating against Black and brown refugees attempting to flee the border. "Of course, in Ukraine like any country we have idiots who say something wrong," he said. "I can tell you there is a lot of Russian propaganda that is not true about racism here." Since Ukraine's Black population is microscopic, it's unlikely we will see more Afro-Ukrainians enter the political scene in the near future, he said. Despite his status as the lone Black lawmaker in the chambers, Beleniuk is laser-focused on reforming Ukrainian politics to be more inclusive. "I don't know if I'll compete in the next Olympics," he said. "My main goal now is to change the country."
| | | THE RECAST RECOMMENDS Jamil Jan Kochai's new story collection, out today, explores the echoes of war and displacement in modern-day Afghanistan and among the Afghan diaspora in America. Check out Han Ong's "Elmhurst," published in The New Yorker today. While writing the story, Ong said his "deep childhood faith in telepathy and telekinesis came right back and reasserted itself." We've been following the saga of WNBA star Brittney Griner's detention in Russia. Terri Carmichael Jackson, the executive director of the league's player association, talked with Trevor Noah about the ordeal. Brazilian-born singer/producer/DJ Lyzza — not to be confused with Lizzo — has a new single, "Deserve It."
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| Rhiannon Giddens takes over from Yo-Yo Ma as the new artistic director of Silkroad Ensemble. Pharrell is working overtime these days, this time bringing us "Stay with Me," a collab with Calvin Harris, Halsey and Justin Timberlake.
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| TikToks of the day: Beyoncé o'clock
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| Congratulations!
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