| | | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker and Jesse Naranjo | What up, Recast fam. On today’s agenda:
- The presidential battle aside, here are the races you should watch.
- New polling shows how AAPIs feel about Kamala Harris and voting.
- Tribes are boosting embattled Montana Sen. Jon Tester.
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Shomari Figures is running to represent a freshly drawn Alabama congressional district. | POLITICO illustration/Photo by AP | By now, we are well aware of the history that will be made at the presidential level come Election Day. Vice President Kamala Harris, of course, would become the first woman, first Black woman and first South Asian in the office. Former President Donald Trump, a generational political figure, should get credit, too. He’d become the first to win the White House as a convicted felon. All of us have been lasered in on the top of the ticket contest. But today, we’re breaking down some down-ballot races you may not be watching as closely. Here are five candidates seeking to become trailblazers in their own right. HOUSE Shomari Figures (D), Alabama 2nd Congressional District nominee This is a freshly drawn district, and Figures wants to be the first person to represent it. It was remade after a federal court found the state’s GOP-led Legislature originally carved out the boundaries in a way that diminished Black residents’ voting power — which violated the Voting Rights Act. Now, it’s a key race for Democrats eager to win back control of the House. Polling is scant in this contest, but the few surveys that are available show Figures, who is Black, leading his Republican challenger Caroleene Dobson, with one poll from August giving him a 12-point lead.
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And, in his quest to make history, Figures is leaning heavily on his direct connections to other trailblazers. During his speech at the Democratic National Convention this summer, he gave a shout out to his mom, Democratic state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures and his late father, civil rights attorney Michael Figures, who led a lawsuit in the 1980s that helped bankrupt the Ku Klux Klan. Figures also touted his own work in the Barack Obama administration, where he served as White House domestic director of presidential personnel.
Sarah McBride (D), Delaware at-large congressional nominee
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Sarah McBride, pictured at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, is running to be the first openly trans U.S. House member. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP | | McBride made history four years ago when she became the first openly transgender state senator in the nation. She’s on a glidepath to make history once again: Why not become the first openly trans U.S. congresswoman? She dominated in her primary this month, winning nearly 80 percent of the vote, and is expected to cruise to victory in this cerulean-blue state against Republican John Whalen III, a retired law enforcement officer and business owner, given that this seat has been under Democratic control since 2010. McBride’s campaign for higher office comes as laws targeting trans rights have become a critical frontier in the culture wars, particularly in conservative states. Currently, there are at least 25 states that bar trans students competing in school sports consistent with their gender identity. Other laws, including in Florida, ban gender-affirming care for trans minors. SENATE Bernie Moreno (R), Ohio Senate nominee
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Republican Bernie Moreno is vying to be the first Latino senator from Ohio. | David Dermer/AP | If he unseats three-term incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Moreno would be the first Latino senator from Ohio. This is one of the most closely watched Senate contests in the nation: Several polls show the two candidates are locked in a tight race, with no clear leader. The winner could determine which party will end up controlling the upper chamber. The Colombian-born Moreno, who immigrated to the United States at 5 years old and earned his citizenship at 18, eventually became a wealthy car dealership owner and a blockchain investor. After receiving the coveted Trump endorsement, Moreno was able to secure victory in the March GOP primary. The Senate candidate has embraced the former president’s hard-line stance on electric vehicles and advocated for burning fossil fuels as a sign of “energy dominance.” He’s also railed against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, and, most recently, against “single-issue votes” focused on abortion. Colin Allred (D), Texas Senate nominee
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If he pulls off an upset against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, Democratic Rep. Colin Allred would be Texas' first Black senator. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP | Democrats have long dreamed of ousting firebrand Republican Sen. Ted Cruz but have yet to find a way to sack him in crimson-red Texas. Allred, a former NFL linebacker-turned-lawmaker, is giving the party hope in his bid to become the Lone Star State’s first Black senator. A new poll from the nonpartisan Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation is showing Allred trailing Cruz by 3 percentage points — a result just outside the margin of error. The Democrat holds double-digit leads among likely Hispanic voters (11 percentage points) and likely Black voters (a whopping 61 percentage points). But there are some headwinds: Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has said he’s not committing financial resources to Allred’s campaign. And some critics argue Allred’s name ID is nowhere near where it needs to be and his strategy is too low-key — a stark contrast with Beto O’Rourke’s media-attracting, barnstorming candidacy, which still ultimately failed to unseat Cruz despite its momentum. GOVERNOR Mark Robinson (R), North Carolina gubernatorial nominee
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If he can overcome the recent scandals and pull off a win in North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson would be the state's first Black governor. | Matt Rourke/AP |
OK, this one we know you’re watching. (How could you not be?) We’d be remiss not to mention it anyway.
Robinson has had a tumultuous week: Several high-level staffers have departed following the CNN investigation that unearthed years-old messages he allegedly posted on a pornographic message board. POLITICO also confirmed an email address belonging to the North Carolina lieutenant governor was registered on the adultery-seeking website Ashley Madison. (Robinson has denied all of it.) However, if — and we want to emphasize the IF — Robinson is able to make up the double-digit deficit he’s facing against Democrat Josh Stein in the most recent polls, he will make history as North Carolina’s first Black governor.
| | | THE NUMBERS GAME
|  | A new survey of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander voters shows Harris enjoying overwhelming support compared with Trump. The poll from AAPI Data and APIAVote found that 64 percent of respondents would vote for Harris and 29 percent for Trump, with another 6 percent selecting an unspecified “someone else.” While this may not be that surprising, what stood out to us were how voters responded to Harris’ racial and gender identity. More of them cared about her being a woman (38 percent of AAPI voters said it was “extremely” or “very” important) than they did about her being South Asian (27 percent) or Black (24 percent).
| | | TESTER GETS A TRIBAL BOOST
|  Sen. Jon Tester is getting a big boost from tribal leaders amid a tough reelection race. | Angelina Katsanis/POLITICO | In yet another closely watched Senate race that could determine control of the upper chamber, an embattled candidate is getting a boost from tribal leaders. The Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council — which includes the Blackfeet, Crow and 13 other tribes — re-endorsed Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in a letter this month, pointing to Republican opponent Tim Sheehy’s disparaging comments about the Crow tribe at multiple events in November 2023. (Sheehy joked that ranching with members of the Crow tribe is “a great way to bond with all the Indians while they’re drunk at 8:00 a.m.” He has since said the recordings were chopped up to “make me sound like somebody I’m not.”) Sheehy currently leads in polls for the Montana Senate seat. The Real Clear Politics average puts him up 5.2 points, and the Cook Political Report moved the race to “leans Republican” earlier this month. But Native Americans make up 6.5 percent of the population in a state with tight margins — and they’ve helped push Tester over the finish line before. He won his election in 2018 by just 18,000 votes. “Senator Tester has stood by Natives in Montana since day one,” reads the letter, which was signed by Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council Chairman Bryce Kirk and Secretary Gerald Gray. Blackfeet tribal member and advocate Tom Rodgers (known also as He Who Rides His Horse East and a former Recast Power List member) says Native Americans are reinvigorated to defeat Sheehy because of his recent rhetoric. “The professional has become personal, and no one of any sound mind appreciates being laughed at,” Rodgers said. “And as far as the vote? It’s only provided gasoline to us — so I thank him.” Montana's Native Americans, who lean heavily Democrat, make up 6.5 percent of the population in a state with tight margins. And they’ve helped push Tester over the finish line before: He won his election in 2018 by just 18,000 votes. However, since 2022 their turnout has declined dramatically — something the Tester campaign is trying to reverse by investing more than $1 million into outreach this election.
| | | IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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Illustration by Jade Cuevas/POLITICO (source images via TKTKTKT) | DRAWING FIRE — As our Matt Wuerker writes, the caricature of Kamala Harris isn’t just precedent setting — it’s a minefield for cartoonists. Even more so because the profession is overwhelmingly dominated by white men of a certain age. Here’s a roundup of how the nation’s top cartoonists are drawing the vice president. And more:
- Ryan Routh, the man suspected of the most recent assassination attempt on Trump, penned a note several months ago urging others to “finish the job,” POLITICO’s Kimberly Leonard and Josh Gerstein write.
- Harris is planning to visit the U.S.-Mexico border while she’s in Arizona on Friday — an attempt to close the gap with Trump on immigration, CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez reports.
- Relatedly: The vice president, in a risky strategy, is switching up how she messages to Latino voters, POLITICO’s Megan Messerly and Daniella Diaz report.
- And as, NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright and Nuha Dolby report, Black operatives are furious that the Harris campaign is relying on white-owned firms for spending.e
| | | TODAY’S CULTURE RECS UH-OH JANET: Her brother said it don’t matter if you’re Black or white. But Janet Jackson, known for hits like “Nasty,” is questioning Kamala Harris’ race. HE’S BACK: A decade after “The Case for Reparations,” Ta-Nehisi Coates talks to New York magazine about Israel, Palestine and the American media. FOR THE D.C. FOLK: The team that brought us the hit Indian restaurant Daru is opening a sister restaurant (Tapori), also on H Street. Edited by Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
