Vote for Me, Bro

Today’s notice: Deciphering the bro code, examining the future of the CPC, evaluating the Trump ground game.

Checking In On the Bros of 2024

The cycle of the bro is upon us: Crypto bros are feeling like everyone wants their support, and the bros in the stands at college football games are feeling very confident about espousing their love for Donald Trump.

Crypto fans have not been happy with Joe Biden. His administration is focused on regulating the chaotic world of digital currencies and, well, that does not make for a happy bro. But some of them are starting to believe Kamala Harris may be different. Clipping and replaying recent comments from Harris and other top Democrats, they think they have uncovered “a wink and nod that the campaign is planning to reject the Biden administration’s approach,” NOTUS’ Claire Heddles reports.

These bros have assembled as Crypto4Harris — not an official campaign coalition, but an eager group pushing a potential President Harris-to-be as pro-crypto as they read her campaign-to-be.

“I don’t think the Biden admin cared one or another about crypto. The Harris team has been agressive[ly] seeking out meetings with the industry and actually listening,” chief business bro and Harris surrogate Mark Cuban told Claire in an email.

“Let’s use our resources to, as we’re helping her get elected, advocate for better policy, while putting out this olive branch because we want the Democrats to come around on this issue,” said group organizer G Clay Miller.

Olive branch or no, “all the pro-Harris crypto leaders who talked to NOTUS acknowledged that Trump has garnered far more vocal and financial support from the industry.”

The bros are also a key demographic for Trump and heavily represented in the stands at a recent Georgia-Alabama game, where NOTUS’ Ben T.N. Mause spent an evening trying to figure out why Gen Z’s political gender gap is as big as it is and why the young male voters Ben met there were so unapologetically MAGA.

“If you ask these guys why they’re so taken with the former president, most will give you an economic reason — an answer so safe that it almost seemed disingenuous,” he reports. But they also like him because, well, they think Trump — who attended the game — is their bro.

“It’s simple: Trump is based,” Aaron Doucet, a Trump fan, told Ben. “Can you picture Tim Walz and Kamala Harris coming over here?” (Walz has been a football coach, but one imagines that does not automatically qualify him as based.)

Polling shows that the under-30 set has the largest gender divide of all age demographics this cycle. A small majority of men support Trump in polls, a huge majority of women support Harris. “Young women cite abortion as a motivating factor to support Harris. Polls have consistently shown that women trust Harris more than Trump on the issue by a significant margin,” Ben writes. “Men also believe Harris will be better on abortion. But it’s less of a draw for young guys.”

—Evan McMorris-Santoro

Pramila Jayapal on the CPC’s Next Moves

As Pramila Jayapal’s time as Congressional Progressive Caucus chair comes to an end, she talked with NOTUS about the caucus’s relationship with Harris, the next CPC leader and what’s next for immigration policy.

On Harris’ relationship with the CPC: She said the caucus was “engaged with her as part of the Biden-Harris administration,” but the relationship has centered around Biden. With Harris, she hopes there’s “the same kind of regard for progressives” as there has been under Biden, given the group is the largest Democratic coalition in the House. “We have no reason to believe she wouldn’t,” she said.

Jayapal did suggest, however, that the relationship has room to grow: “We are, first, of course, making sure we do everything we can on the campaign side to elect her. And then we’ll be having those same kinds of deep relationship-building meetings and all of the things we have to do to build that deep working relationship.”

On her potential successor: Jayapal is “very supportive” of Greg Casar, who announced his bid last week. She added that she hasn’t heard of anyone else running and thinks Casar is “going to be a great chair.”

On immigration: Jayapal said she has a “hard time believing” that Democrats would exclusively pursue the bipartisan immigration bill next term or “that we would start there.”

“I do think that we need to get this issue off the table by passing a comprehensive modernization of our immigration system that includes border security, but also includes these legal pathways that will fix the immigration system and make it so that people have other ways to come.”

—Riley Rogerson | Read the story here.

Front Page

• The Crypto Crowd Thinks Harris Is Courting Them — Even If She Can’t Say So: Coconut-pilled crypto heads are interpreting Harris’ recent comments as more than just politics.
• Trump’s Young Male Voters Say There’s a Reason They’ve Gone Full MAGA: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
• Election Integrity Disputes Hang Over North Carolina’s Hurricane Recovery: Republicans are pursuing several cases over voter registration and absentee ballots in a state grappling with how to hold an election after a devastating storm.

Trump’s Low-Propensity Voter Effort Looks Real

The Trump campaign is going all in to earn the support of low-propensity voters, where it sees an opportunity to make up ground. That includes targeting areas and demographics that, at first glance, may appear to be favorable to Democrats. Even operatives who have been bemused by Trump’s ground game to this point told NOTUS’ Alex Roarty and Katherine Swartz that they’re impressed by what they’re seeing now and say it’s enough to potentially outmaneuver Harris in the race to squeeze every vote out of the swing states.

That means a lot of lit landing in mailboxes of people living in heavily Democratic areas, as the Trump team attempts to frack whatever Trump votes can be found there.

“Four years ago, we just tried to generally drive up turnout, period,” Trump political director James Blair told NOTUS. “This time we’re just trying to turn out the right voters, not all voters, and we’re focused on expanding the turnout pool in a way that shifts the electorate in our favor.”

Read the story here.

Harris’ Version

While Trump is trying to surface every voter in his base, the Harris team is trying to expand hers. On Thursday, the VP appeared with Liz Cheney in Wisconsin at an event aimed at Republicans frustrated with Trump.

“We cannot turn away from this truth; in this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration,” Cheney told the audience. “It is our duty.”

Meanwhile, the Republican Accountability PAC is out with an economic-focused effort dubbed “Business Leaders for Harris” (which includes notable Democratic donors Reed Hastings and Reid Hoffman but also small-business owners who previously supported Trump).

—Evan McMorris-Santoro

Number You Should Know

5

North Carolina county election offices remain closed after Hurricane Helene. It’s just one complication in a key swing state that NOTUS’ Calen Razor and Anna Kramer report was already fraught with GOP-led lawsuits, voter roll purges and strict new photo ID requirements.

Not Us

We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by … not us.

• Melania Trump’s book publisher asked CNN for $250,000 in exchange for an interview with the former first lady.
• Former White House advisers said Trump hesitated as president to provide disaster aid to California because of the state’s Democratic leanings, according to E&E News.
• The Green Party has a miniscule presence in Wisconsin, per Politico, but Democrats fear it could jeopardize their efforts in November.

Be Social

Yesterday marked one year since Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the House. It was also the anniversary of the hardest, loudest gavel we’ve ever seen, courtesy of Rep. Patrick McHenry.

Tell Us Your Thoughts

Should Patrick McHenry get a portrait in the Speaker’s Lobby for his brief service as speaker pro tempore?

Send your thoughts to newsletters@notus.org.

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