Here’s some encouraging news from Missouri courtesy of Reuters/Ipsos/UVA’s latest poll:
Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill’s vote against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation appears not to have cost her greatly in conservative-leaning Missouri, where she is in a tight re-election race, a Reuters opinion poll showed. The Reuters/Ipsos/UVA Center for Politics poll released on Wednesday found that 44 percent of likely Missouri voters said they would support McCaskill in the Nov. 6 congressional elections, while 45 percent backed Republican challenger and state Attorney General Josh Hawley. The poll had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 3 percentage points. Other recent polls also showed the Missouri race as a toss-up. Democrats need to gain two seats to win control of the U.S. Senate, where they could act as a check on Republican President Donald Trump. Achieving that will require successfully defending Democratic seats in states that Trump won in 2016, which include Missouri, West Virginia and Indiana. McCaskill joined all but one of her Democratic colleagues in voting against Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by a 50-48 vote after being accused of sexual assault while he was a teenager. The confirmation process became a political brawl that deepened the country’s divisions. Hawley hammered her for months before the vote, pressuring her to support Kavanaugh and criticizing McCaskill in campaign ads as a “radical.” “Kavanaugh may not have changed any minds” in the state, said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the Center for Politics. “People who said they were more likely to vote for her because of him were probably going to do so anyway.”
Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill’s vote against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation appears not to have cost her greatly in conservative-leaning Missouri, where she is in a tight re-election race, a Reuters opinion poll showed.
The Reuters/Ipsos/UVA Center for Politics poll released on Wednesday found that 44 percent of likely Missouri voters said they would support McCaskill in the Nov. 6 congressional elections, while 45 percent backed Republican challenger and state Attorney General Josh Hawley.
The poll had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 3 percentage points. Other recent polls also showed the Missouri race as a toss-up.
Democrats need to gain two seats to win control of the U.S. Senate, where they could act as a check on Republican President Donald Trump. Achieving that will require successfully defending Democratic seats in states that Trump won in 2016, which include Missouri, West Virginia and Indiana.
McCaskill joined all but one of her Democratic colleagues in voting against Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by a 50-48 vote after being accused of sexual assault while he was a teenager. The confirmation process became a political brawl that deepened the country’s divisions.
Hawley hammered her for months before the vote, pressuring her to support Kavanaugh and criticizing McCaskill in campaign ads as a “radical.”
“Kavanaugh may not have changed any minds” in the state, said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the Center for Politics. “People who said they were more likely to vote for her because of him were probably going to do so anyway.”
Sixty-nine percent of likely voters in the state told the poll said they were “very motivated” to support a candidate who would “defend laws that protect healthcare for people with pre-existing conditions.” That could spell trouble for Hawley. He has said he wants to protect people with pre-existing conditions, even though he joined a multi-state effort to repeal the federal law that does so, the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.
Which is why Hawley really wants to talk about the Supreme Court over health care:
Hawley, the Republican looking to knock off Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, recently wrote a column outlining his plan to protect patients with pre-existing conditions from losing health insurance. His proposal is incoherent. Remember: Missouri is one of 20 states suing the federal government to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Officials in those states argue that since Congress ended penalties for people who don’t buy insurance, all of Obamacare should fall. McCaskill has criticized Hawley for pursuing the case. Full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, she knows, will eliminate popular parts of the law, including the guarantee that sick people can get good insurance coverage at a reasonable cost. Hawley knows it, too. That’s why he’s insisted he wants to protect people with pre-existing conditions if Obamacare is killed. But the plan he released this week doesn’t come close to delivering on that promise. Hawley says everyone would get insurance at roughly the same price with the same coverage. He goes on to say: “The federal government would then pay for insurance costs that exceed, say, $10,000. And the insurers, in turn, would be required to give most of the premiums they collect from these patients to the government.” The Hawley campaign says that means the federal government would pay premium costs “above a certain threshold” for patients with pre-existing conditions. It says that will keep premium costs low. But that also means insurance companies would be getting a taxpayer-financed federal subsidy to cover those patients. Hawley’s answer? Require insurers to send premiums back to Washington. That’s just silly. If you give a barber $15 to cut your hair, and she cuts your hair, you can’t ask for the money back when she’s done. She’ll soon go out of business. Insurance companies would face the same fate.
Hawley, the Republican looking to knock off Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, recently wrote a column outlining his plan to protect patients with pre-existing conditions from losing health insurance.
His proposal is incoherent.
Remember: Missouri is one of 20 states suing the federal government to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Officials in those states argue that since Congress ended penalties for people who don’t buy insurance, all of Obamacare should fall.
McCaskill has criticized Hawley for pursuing the case. Full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, she knows, will eliminate popular parts of the law, including the guarantee that sick people can get good insurance coverage at a reasonable cost.
Hawley knows it, too. That’s why he’s insisted he wants to protect people with pre-existing conditions if Obamacare is killed.
But the plan he released this week doesn’t come close to delivering on that promise.
Hawley says everyone would get insurance at roughly the same price with the same coverage. He goes on to say: “The federal government would then pay for insurance costs that exceed, say, $10,000. And the insurers, in turn, would be required to give most of the premiums they collect from these patients to the government.”
The Hawley campaign says that means the federal government would pay premium costs “above a certain threshold” for patients with pre-existing conditions. It says that will keep premium costs low.
But that also means insurance companies would be getting a taxpayer-financed federal subsidy to cover those patients. Hawley’s answer? Require insurers to send premiums back to Washington.
That’s just silly. If you give a barber $15 to cut your hair, and she cuts your hair, you can’t ask for the money back when she’s done. She’ll soon go out of business. Insurance companies would face the same fate.
By the way, Hawley is realizing you can’t call someone an extremist while getting support from actual extremists:
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s campaign abruptly canceled an event with a preacher who once called for government regulation of homosexuality. Hawley was set to appear with Pastor David Barton in Springfield on Wednesday evening for an event geared toward evangelical voters, according to an Eventbrite page promoting the event. The Star contacted Hawley’s campaign Tuesday afternoon to see whether the candidate agreed with Barton’s views about the LGBT rights movement, which he has compared to Nazism in the past. The campaign promoted the event in a news release Tuesday evening, but within 20 minutes of sending that release, Hawley’s spokeswoman Kelli Ford said that it would no longer be taking place due to a scheduling conflict.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s campaign abruptly canceled an event with a preacher who once called for government regulation of homosexuality.
Hawley was set to appear with Pastor David Barton in Springfield on Wednesday evening for an event geared toward evangelical voters, according to an Eventbrite page promoting the event.
The Star contacted Hawley’s campaign Tuesday afternoon to see whether the candidate agreed with Barton’s views about the LGBT rights movement, which he has compared to Nazism in the past.
The campaign promoted the event in a news release Tuesday evening, but within 20 minutes of sending that release, Hawley’s spokeswoman Kelli Ford said that it would no longer be taking place due to a scheduling conflict.
Let’s keep up the momentum and have the Blue Wave hit Missouri hard. Click below to donate and get involved with McCaskill and her fellow Missouri Democrats campaigns:
Claire McCaskill
Cort VanOstran