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Welcome to the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Insider, a newsletter that features regular updates about upcoming Dem-NPL events, legislative happenings, and news that affects North Dakotans! If you would like to have something added to the newsletter, email us at [email protected]. Spread the word of our newsletter by sharing our sign-up link today: https://demnpl.com/join-our-newsletter/.
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Presidential Primary Season is upon us, and North Dakota Democrats are now able to request mail-in ballots for the Presidential Primary!
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North Dakota is one of just five states where the political parties run the presidential primary process. Because of this, the North Dakota Democratic-NPL is working with the Merriman River Group to facilitate our primary. One important thing to note is that almost all the voting will be done by mail. The Dem-NPL is working with Tribal Leadership to have in-person voting locations available on North Dakota’s reservations with dates and times to be determined.
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Any qualified North Dakota voter or any person who will have met all the qualifications of a voter at the next general election, and who has completed a form declaring they wish to participate as a Democrat is qualified to vote in the Party-Run Primary.
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Ballots will start being mailed out on February 20 and must be received by Saturday, March 30, 2024, at noon. Ballots requested before February 7 will go out on February 20, and requests after February 7 will be fulfilled as they come in. The Democratic-NPL is encouraging voters to request their ballots as soon as possible, to ensure they are returned in time to be counted.
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North Dakota will send 19 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. This vote will determine the proportion of delegates pledged to each presidential candidate. Delegates to the National Convention will be elected at the North Dakota Democratic-NPL State Convention in Fargo on April 4-7.
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Request your ballot today!
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- Laura Dronen, Communications and Digital Director
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District 16 Meeting
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Monday, January 22, 2024 – 6:00 PM
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Meeting for District 16 Democrats! Request log-in information from Judy Jabs [email protected]
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District 15 Executive Committee Meeting
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Tuesday, January 23, 2024 – 10:00 AM
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The Liquid Bean
316 4th Ave NE, Devils Lake
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A meeting for District 15’s Executive Committee.
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Districts 42 & 43 January Meeting
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Thursday, January 25, 2024 – 5:30 PM
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Eagles Crest Grill
5301 S Columbia Rd., Grand Forks
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Join us to hear Cindy Pic discuss her journey from deciding to run for County Commissioner, through her campaign, to post-election developments. Our meeting will start following our speaker. We will discuss upcoming 2024 events including the upcoming District & State Conventions.
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Raise your hand for democracy! Be a candidate in Districts 18, 20, or 42 or be a district delegate at the State Convention in Fargo April 4th-7th. Join us!
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We will meet in the Eagles Crest Community Room reserved for us. Arrive at 5:30 to order food and drinks before the meeting starts at 6
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District 12 Winter Blue Dinner
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Friday, January 26, 2024 – 6:00 PM
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The Bunker
1520 3rd St SE Jamestown
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Celebrate 2024 and Dem-NPL community! Dinner and drinks will be served, and we’ll hear from guest speakers and enjoy a live auction of locally famous homemade pies.
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Whether it’s an evening gown or crewneck sweatshirt, wear your favorite blue for this fun, family-friendly event to support local Dem-NPL organizing.
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District 21’s Winter Gathering
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Saturday, January 27, 2024 – 11:00 AM
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Fargo AMVETS
1001 1st Avenue South, Fargo
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District 21 Democrats would like to invite you to our Winter Gathering on Saturday, January 27th at AMVETS Fargo from 11:00-1:00 PM.
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There will be Brats and sides available for purchase through AMVETS for $8 we will also have vegetarian brats available. Along with that, we will have baked goods for purchase. Let’s break up the winter blues and meet our District 21 neighbors!
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District Conventions
February 6, 2024 – March 16, 2024
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Legislative Districts will have District Conventions between Feb 6 and March 16. See below or contact your District Chair for information about your district’s convention.
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All districts will elect delegates to the North Dakota Democratic-NPL State Convention.
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Even-numbered districts will nominate candidates for the North Dakota State House and Senate
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North Dakota Democratic-NPL State Convention
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Thursday, April 4 – Sunday, April 7, 2024
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Join us in Fargo for the Official ND Democratic-NPL State Convention!
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Become a delegate and participate in active democracy! We will officially nominate candidates for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Governor & Lt. Governor, State Auditor, State Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner, and Public Service Commissioner. Most activities will happen on Friday and Saturday.
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You can now request a ballot for the North Dakota Democratic Presidential Primary. Ballots can be requested at MRGballot.com.
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Ballots will start being mailed out on February 20, and must be received by Saturday, March 30, 2024. Ballots requested before February 7 will go out on February 20, and requests after February 7 will be fulfilled as they come in.
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Candidates who will appear on the ballot are:
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Armando "Mando" Perez-Serrato
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North Dakota will send 19 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. This vote will determine the proportion of delegates pledged to each presidential candidate. Delegates to the National Convention will be elected at the North Dakota Democratic-NPL State Convention in Fargo on April 4-7.
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Get involved in your local district! District Conventions will happen between Feb 6 and March 16. At District Conventions, Even Districts, District 9, and District 15 will endorse candidates for the state legislature. Every district will elect delegates to the State Convention. We'll keep you up to date as more conventions are scheduled! The following is arranged by district:
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Joint District Conventions
Bismarck-Mandan District Conventions
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Saturday, February 24 — 10:00 AM
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Horizon Middle School
500 Ash Coulee Dr, Bismarck, ND 58503
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Join us for Legislative Candidate Endorsements, State Convention Delegate elections, and good conversation with other local Democrats. Stay tuned for more information to come!
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Bismarck-Mandan Democratic-NPL Districts include 7, 8, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 47.
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Cass County District Conventions
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Saturday, March 2 — 10:00 AM
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Ben Franklin Middle School
1420 8th St N., Fargo, ND 58102
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Join us for Legislative Candidate Endorsements, State Convention Delegate elections, and good conversation with other local Democrats. Stay tuned for more information to come!
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Cass County Democratic-NPL Districts include 10, 11, 13, 16, 21, 22, 27, 41, 44, 45, 46.
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Northern Valley District Conventions
Join us for Legislative Candidate Endorsements and State Convention Delegate elections. More information to come!
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This includes Districts 17, 18, 20, 42, and 43.
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Single District Conventions
District 2
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Saturday, February 24 — TBD
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A district-wide, virtual event. Special guests to be announced later.
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District 6
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Saturday, February 24 — 3:30 PM
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A district-wide, virtual event. Special guests to be announced later.
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District 12
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Sunday, March 3 — 3:00 PM
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District 19
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Saturday, February 19 — TBD
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Join us for the District 19 Dem-NPL Convention!
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District 24
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Sunday, February 18 — 2:00 PM
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Gaukler Family Wellness Center
733 8th Avenue SW, Valley City 58072
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Join us for the District 24 Dem-NPL Convention!
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District 28
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Sunday, February 11 — 1:00 PM
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Growing Small Towns
510 Main Ave. Oakes, ND 58474
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Join us for District 28 Dem-NPL officer elections, candidate endorsements, and an afternoon of lighthearted fun. Light refreshments will be served.
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District 29
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Saturday, February 24 — 1:00 PM
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Join us for the District 29 Dem-NPL Convention!
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Read what North Dakotans are talking about and learn how news right here in the Peace Garden State is impacting you.
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Press Releases from the Dem-NPL
| Help us amplify our message and important issues for North Dakotans today! |
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Gov. Doug Burgum endorses Trump for president in Iowa
North Dakota Democratic-NPL Chair Adam Goldwyn criticized Burgum’s endorsement in a statement Sunday.
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“That Doug Burgum won’t do business with Trump tells you everything you need to know about Trump,” Goldwyn said. “That Doug Burgum still thinks Trump should be president tells you everything you need to know about Doug Burgum.”
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Immigrant lawmaker honors King’s legacy, condemns ‘hate’ in legislation
North Dakota isn’t living up to Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, Rep. Hamida Dakane said in an emotional speech Monday evening in Bismarck.
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“There is so much hate that we’re putting into our Century Code,” she said.
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Dakane was the keynote speaker at an event hosted at Trinity Lutheran Church commemorating King’s work.
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The Fargo Democrat, whose term began in 2022, is believed to be the first Black woman and Muslim person elected to the state Legislature, though there is no official tracking of lawmakers’ race or ethnicity.
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Speaking out: Attorney General's Office scandal involves corruption and incompetence
Dockter recently pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge. He’s accused of voting for an appropriations bill, knowing a portion would end up in his pocket. He denies wrongdoing and says the lease was fair. But he completely misses the point. He’s not accused of imposing unreasonable lease terms, but of using his vote in the Legislature and his relationship with the attorney general to benefit his own company. If that’s his idea of fairness, he’s unfit for public office.
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As if the corruption and incompetence were not enough, the investigation has not inspired confidence. According to the state auditor, officials never asked Microsoft to retrieve Stenehjem’s and Seibel’s now-infamous deleted emails, which eventually were purged from the servers. A state official actually asked Microsoft to write a letter saying Stenehjem’s account was no longer available. Microsoft responded that “just because an account is deleted does not mean that the data is gone.”
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Burgum flew to New York on Trump's private airplane after Iowa endorsement
A stop in New Hampshire makes sense. That's the next state to vote, so it makes sense Trump would want to visit alongside Burgum, his new campaign surrogate, who saw some of the strongest of his meager poll numbers in the Granite State.
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But the stop-off in New York? That's interesting. We know what Trump was doing there. He showed up in the courtroom to exchange some verbal fisticuffs with the judge in E. Jean Carroll's second defamation lawsuit against him (Carroll won her first suit, with a jury finding Trump liable for raping her).
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But why was Burgum along for the ride? And does it reflect well on our governor that he traveled with Trump on his way to a court proceeding where, again, he's previously been found to have raped a woman? Perhaps that sort of thing doesn't matter anymore.
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Williston lawmaker who berated police pleads guilty, fined
The Williston lawmaker who berated police during a December drunk driving arrest has been sentenced to pay $1,050 in fines.
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Nico Rios, a Republican member of the House, pleaded guilty Jan. 8 to a misdemeanor drunk driving charge, court records show. He received a suspended jail sentence of 10 days and one year of unsupervised probation.
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North Dakota Democratic-NPL announces candidates for presidential primary
Voters can request ballots now at MRGballot.com. Ballots requested by Feb. 7 will be mailed out starting on Feb. 20; requests after Feb. 7 will be fulfilled as they are received. All ballots must be returned by March 30.
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Katrina Christiansen Campaign announces high donation totals going into 2024 election season
The campaign says they received $177,000 from 3,300 individual donors. Those donation totals are a 158% increase compared to the total of her previous campaign in 2022, and 25x the funds raised during her previous first quarter. Additionally, Christiansen says none of the money comes from corporate PACS.
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Trygve Hammer doubles 2022 campaign pledges
Minot’s Trygve Hammer is vying to win Representative Kelly Armstrong’s house seat — and has begun his campaign on a high horse.
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Hammer shares that back in 2022 when he ran, he was the Democrat who earned the most votes in North Dakota. Now, he states, that he has outraised his previous campaign after less than a week launching his bid for US Congress.
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Biden Administration aiming to close loophole related to overdraft fees
"Decades ago, overdraft loans got special treatment to make it easier for banks to cover paper checks that were often sent through the mail," said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. "Today, we are proposing rules to close a longstanding loophole that allowed many large banks to transform overdraft into a massive junk fee harvesting machine."
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Letter: It's time we took his word for it
Trump uses many words to identify himself. Words like internment, detention camps and executing military officers, locking up his opposition political rivals. I can use many words of Trump to identify him and his history, but everyone knows the words.
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North Dakota Dem-NPL congressional candidate Hammer supports U.S. funding war in Ukraine
"We basically have hired a mercenary army to take care of a murderous dictator or autocrat," said Trygve Hammer, while referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin
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DISTRICT 12 DEM-NPL WINTER BLUE DINNER JANUARY 26
District 12 Democratic-Nonpartisan League (Dem-NPL) is hosting a Winter Blue Dinner on Friday, January 26th at 6pm at The Bunker in Jamestown. The event will consist of a catered dinner and guest speakers, including State Party Chair, Adam Goldwyn and U.S. Senate Candidate, Katrina Christiansen. The dinner will kick off a year of local and regional organizing.
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Call him what he is
The problem Haley has is that she brought a pocketknife to a gun fight. She isn’t willing to point out that Trump lost a case where the Judge called him a rapist. She isn’t willing to point out that he fights dirty. His tactic works primarily because people won’t get in the gutter with him to fight. In fact, people like our Governor embrace that. They’ll condone and encourage it because they want what he was. Simply put, they want power.
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Don't miss these national stories!
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The Biden administration’s plan to slash bank overdraft fees, explained
Banks call it a service — I call it exploitation,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
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Biden has shined in tackling these kinds of small economic injustices shouldered by regular Americans. He’s also been going after junk fees more broadly: hidden fees that make everything from airline bookings to concert tickets more expensive than their sticker price, but also just feel like shady corporate attempts to get the better of consumers. It’s an initiative that has overwhelming bipartisan backing.
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Trump, awaiting ruling, says presidents must have 'complete and total' immunity
As former President Donald Trump awaits a ruling from a federal appeals court on his broad claim of presidential immunity, he said early Thursday that a U.S. president "must have complete and total presidential immunity."
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"A president of the United States must have full immunity, without which it would be impossible for him/her to properly function," Trump said in a lengthy post on Truth Social in all caps. "Any mistake, even if well intended, would be met with almost certain indictment by the opposing party at term end. Even events that 'cross the line' must fall under total immunity, or it will be years of trauma trying to determine good from bad."
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Biden-Harris campaign to unveil new effort to push abortion rights advocacy ahead of Roe anniversary
"Trump directly paved the way for Republican extremists across the country to enact draconian bans that are hurting women and threatening doctors," Biden-Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. "In 2024, a vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is a vote to restore Roe, and a vote for Donald Trump is a vote to ban abortion across the country. These are the stakes in 2024 and we're going to continue to make sure that every single voter knows it.
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Iowa voting in popcorn buckets exposes GOP ‘election integrity’ hypocrisy
Chris Hayes: Watching Republicans count votes is popcorn buckets is mind-blowing in the context of four years of The Big Lie and the constant, racist drumbeat about Democrats stealing elections by way of poll workers of color.
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Biden administration to forgive $4.9 billion in student debt for 73,600 borrowers
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The Biden administration announced Friday it would forgive $4.9 billion in student debt for 73,600 borrowers.
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The relief is a result of the U.S. Department of Education’s fixes to its income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
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“The Biden-Harris Administration has worked relentlessly to fix our country’s broken student loan system and address the needless hurdles and administrative inaccuracies that, in the past, kept borrowers from getting the student debt forgiveness they deserved,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
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Biden may get some help from Republicans against Trump
“While I’ve never voted for a Democrat a day in my life, I would support Biden over Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee. I won’t support someone who refused to participate in a peaceful transfer of power, tried to overthrow a free and fair election, and incited a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol,” Sarah Matthews, a former press aide on Trump’s 2020 campaign and in the Trump White House who resigned on Jan. 6, 2021, told The Hill.
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The RNC wants Republicans to embrace early voting. Trump's rhetoric makes it tough
Aaron Scherb, senior director of legislative affairs for government accountability group Common Cause, said members of the GOP mostly have themselves to blame for the growing stigma around early in-person and absentee voting.
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"Getting voters to unlearn or unhear those messages is, you know, it's tough to undo that damage," Scherb said. "And so I think that's what this Bank the Vote program is trying to essentially do. It's somewhat analogous to getting a jury to unhear extremely damaging information that's presented against the defendant."
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Judge loses patience with Trump lawyer in E. Jean Carroll sex assault defamation trial
A jury last year in a separate but closely related civil trial found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million. Trump is appealing that verdict.
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Ahead of the current trial, Kaplan ruled that Carroll defamation claims against Trump had already been proven, and that the trial would focus solely on deciding the amount owed in damages.
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Carroll’s lawyers are asking for at least $10 million in damages in this case.
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The former president, who faces dozens of criminal charges in four separate courts in addition to multiple civil cases, has turned his legal strife into a key feature of his 2024 presidential campaign. He is currently the clear frontrunner for the GOP nomination.
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Biden to push broadband access during Raleigh visit as 2024 Trump rematch looms
Biden plans to announce $82 million in new investment to expand internet broadband to an additional 16,000 North Carolina homes and businesses, moving closer to his goal of ensuring all Americans have reliable and affordable access by 2030.
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The new money come from American Rescue Plan funds. Biden plans to highlight the impacts on North Carolina from the ARP and the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
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President Joe Biden signs bill to avoid a partial government shutdown
The bill averts what would’ve been a partial government shutdown starting Saturday. It does not address additional aid for Ukraine, which remains in limbo as key legislators continue to negotiate a border security measure that would go in tandem with more support for Kyiv.
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The Century Club supports our year-round work to build party infrastructure supporting candidate recruitment, local district and regional leadership, issue-based education, and tools for Dem-NPL success.
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Help us elect great Democrats up and down the ballot!
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The North Dakota Democratic-NPL is launching a new grassroots program called “Neighbor to Neighbor” where volunteers will connect with voters in your community to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. As a volunteer, you will be responsible for connecting with voters in 25 homes in your neighborhood or friends and family to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot about 3-4 times this year.
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Grassroots organizers are the lifeblood of the Dem-NPL! Sign up to volunteer with the Dem-NPL!
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