With Harris’ announcement this week that she’s out, a new question arose: Who’s the front-runner now?

Because of Harris’ star power, the answer is far from simple. For months, other candidates saw their campaign planning and fundraising undercut by the possibility she would run, meaning the race got a big reset seconds after Harris made her announcement Wednesday.

Some political observers give the nod to former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, who appears to have a small leg up over her opponents.

Porter was the only Democrat to receive double-digit support in multiple polls when Harris was not included in the field.

A prodigious fundraiser while she was in Congress representing an Orange County district, Porter reported a strong infusion of cash in the months after launching her campaign in March, and said she raised $250,000 in the 36 hours after Harris’ announcement.

“The enthusiasm we’re seeing from donors at every level shows that Californians know how critical this race is,” Porter said in an email blast.

Other candidates — including Xavier Becerra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration and a former California attorney general — have also tried to assert that, with Harris out, they are moving up.

“BECERRA CAMPAIGN BUILDING MOMENTUM IN ‘WIDE OPEN’ RACE,” read the subject line of an email sent Friday by the Becerra campaign, saying he is “well-positioned to unite a broad swath of voters around his plans to make health care and housing less expensive and more accessible.”

Outside observers, however, said that none of the candidates really stand out from the pack at the moment.

“That these remaining candidates are jockeying for bragging rights about who may be the front-runner — it’s to be expected, but it’s ludicrous,” said Garry South, a veteran Democratic strategist who has worked on a number of past gubernatorial campaigns, including for former Gov. Gray Davis.

“With Harris opting out, there will likely be no obvious front-runner among the remainder of the current field for quite some time,” South said. “None of these candidates start out with statewide name recognition.”

With such a wide-open field, factors such as endorsements and communication strategies will be important to watch, experts said. So will the candidates’ ability to raise money and use it to broaden their appeal.

“I would start spending money on social media, on television advertising, on every single platform I could find to build up my name ID,” South said, but “none of them have enough money to do that at the moment.”

Experience and endorsements

With Harris out, will she back someone else?

“Obviously if she did endorse, that would be a big plus” for whichever candidate she rallied behind, said John Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College.

Harris has long relationships with several of the candidates in the race. A source familiar with her thinking told The Times after Harris bowed out that she was still considering whether and how to approach the governor’s race.

Other endorsements could affect the race as well. Hours after Harris announced her decision, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the influential former House Speaker, appeared on CNN to endorse Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, whom she has known for years.

“We have many great candidates, one in particular Eleni Tsakopoulos, whom I support,” Pelosi said, referring to Kounalakis by her maiden name.

Kounalakis’ father, the wealthy developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, helped bankroll an independent expenditure committee supporting his daughter’s 2018 campaign for lieutenant governor. Political observers are watching to see if he dumps money into a similar effort backing her gubernatorial campaign.

Pitney said Pelosi’s opinion “would carry a lot more weight” if she were still speaker. He said it “isn’t necessarily going to sway a large chunk of the electorate,” but could be important if it sways Bay Area donors.

A former GOP legislative aide and national party staffer who renounced his membership in the Republican Party the night Trump was elected in 2016, Pitney said that endorsements are far from a determining factor in today’s political landscape.

“I hesitate to rule anybody out, because very often candidates seem to come out of nowhere — like Mamdani in New York City,” he said, referring to the sudden rise and stunning upset primary win of 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral race.

Pitney added that experience in government and administrative leadership also matters, but could also cut against candidates at a time when many voters are frustrated and want something new.

For example, Antonio Villaraigosa, the former state Assembly speaker and L.A. mayor who is in his 70s, “obviously has a long history, but that long history is both an advantage and a disadvantage,” Pitney said.

Villaraigosa has said his campaign is “about the future.” But voters “may not regard him as a fresh face,” Pitney said.

Name recognition and money

None of the current candidates for governor have the same profile as Harris. In fact, they are broadly unknown to huge swaths of the electorate.

That means they have their work cut out for them, Pitney and South said — namely in terms of fundraising.

South said that there “is no question that the Democratic donor base has basically been sitting on their haunches waiting to see what Harris is going to do.”

But, he said, he hasn’t seen any sign yet that donors have picked a favorite candidate now that she’s out, either — which is a problem for candidates with little or no name recognition.

“None of these candidates in the remaining field with Harris out have enough money in the bank to run a statewide campaign for governor,” he said.

South said that could change if Kounalakis gets another major infusion of cash from her father and once again taps her personal wealth.

At the same time, there could also be a “huge blowback” from that sort of splashy family spending, South said, especially if Kounalakis’ opponents pounced on it as distasteful.

“We have not tended in this state to elect moneyed people who try to buy the governor’s race,” he said.

South said he is watching to see if big Bay Area donors decide to back Porter “because of her profile as a progressive.”

Los Angeles developer and 2022 mayoral candidate Rick Caruso “could be a force” if he were to enter the race, Pitney said, because “he has prominence in Southern California and also has a lot of money.”

Fundraising reports

The most recent fundraising reports, which were due Thursday night, shine a light on candidates’ coffers — but only through the end of June, well before Harris dropped out.

The Democrats who do not have the potential to self-fund their campaigns reported having millions of dollars in cash on hand as of June 30, including some who transferred money from prior campaign committees to their gubernatorial accounts.

Former legislative leader Toni Atkins reported having $4.3 million in the campaign, while raising $648,000 and spending $549,000 in the first six months of this year.

Villaraigosa raised $1.1 million and spent $550,000 this year, but reported $3.3 million cash on hand based on fundraising he did last year.

Becerra had $2.1 million in the bank after raising $2.5 million and spending $449,000 in the first six months of the year.

Porter reported raising $2.5 million and spending $449,000 since launching her campaign in March. She said she has $2.1 million in the bank.

Unlike the other candidates, Porter’s campaign revealed her fundraising because her filing on the state disclosure website didn’t show any dollar figures.

Spokesman Nathan Click said her number of small-dollar donors crashed the state’s system, and that they had been working with state officials to get the documents displayed on the secretary of state’s website all day Friday. He said most of Porter’s 34,000 donors contributed less than $200 each.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco reported raising $1.6 million and spending $609,000 this year, leaving him with $1 million in the bank.

A few candidates reported mediocre fundraising numbers, but have personal wealth they can draw on.

Kounalakis raised just over $100,000 and spent nearly three times as much during the first half of this year. She has more than $4.6 million on hand and millions more in her lieutenant governor campaign account, although some of that money can’t be transferred because of campaign finance rules.

Businessman Stephen J. Cloobeck, a Los Angeles Democrat, raised about $160,000 and spent $1.5 million — including more than $1 million on consultants. He had about $729,000 on hand at the end of the period. He also said he made a $10-million contribution Friday that he said “turbocharged” his campaign.

“One of my many advantages is that I’m not a politician and I am not compromised,” Cloobeck said.

Former Fox News host Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate, raised about $1.5 million, of which $200,000 was a personal loan. Hilton spent about $1 million and has a little less than $800,000 in the bank.

At the lowest end of the fundraising were former state controller Betty Yee, who raised almost $238,000 and spent $255,000, with $637,000 on hand; and state schools superintendent Tony Thurmond, who raised about $70,000, spent about $180,000 and had almost $560,000 on hand.

Both Yee and Thurmond told The Times last month that fundraising had slowed while Democratic donors waited on Harris to make a decision.

The post ‘No obvious frontrunner.’ Why Harris’ exit has scrambled the race for California governor appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

And that’s not a question to be answered based strictly on her prospects for winning.

Initially, at least, the former vice president would be the heavy favorite to succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom — although, eventually, she could find herself in a tough election fight next year.

Rather, the answer should be determined based on what strengths, goals and ideas she would bring to the table — her specific plans for fixing California’s enormous problems, her eagerness to fight even political allies to achieve her objectives and her own desire to lead the state’s comeback.

She shouldn’t view the job as a consolation prize after losing the presidential election to Donald Trump. Voters would smell that and, anyway, Harris would be miserably bored in the state Capitol dealing with budget minutiae and relatively inexperienced legislative leaders.

So far, since returning from Washington to her native state, Harris, 60, has displayed none of the above criteria that California needs in its next governor.

But neither did she previously in any noteworthy way as a U.S. senator or — particularly — state attorney general. As attorney general, Harris refused to take positions on important ballot measures, including those dealing with her role as California’s so-called top cop — propositions to stiffen criminal sentences and both abolish and expedite the death penalty.

Harris has a record of being overly cautious about taking positions that could alienate interests she deems important to her political career.

Sure, Harris isn’t running for anything right now. So, she deserves a pass on issuing 10-point plans to patch up the state.

But, look, you don’t need to be a gubernatorial candidate to express concerns about your state. Any resident who’s conscious should be alarmed.

“Home prices have skyrocketed as supply slumped over the past three decades,” the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California noted in a report last week.

California’s median home price in March was $884,000 — very tough if not impossible for many middle-class families. The housing shortage is largely due to over-regulation, tangled red tape that slows issuance of building permits and abuse of California’s environmental protection laws.

There’s a strong move in the Legislature to ease regulations, but it’s highly controversial. Does Harris have a thought on this?

Homeowner insurance rates are rising fast in the aftermath of wildfires. And in many fire-prone regions, traditional policies are impossible to obtain. The next governor needs to fix this.

California’s poverty rate is the nation’s highest when the cost of living is considered, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Despite our spending many billions of dollars and regardless of ugly finger-pointing at each other by Newsom and local officials, 187,000 Californians are homeless — a 35% increase in 17 years. That’s the highest in the nation — only partly because we’ve got the largest population.

Gasoline prices are roughly $1.60 a gallon higher in California than the U.S. average. And two oil refineries are planning to shut down, invariably hiking pump prices even higher.

We’re a high-tax state, a fact Newsom is in denial about. We lean too heavily on the wealthy for tax revenue and that produces roller-coaster budget deficits and surpluses depending on the stock market. It’s ridiculous. State taxes should be modernized. But no politician has the guts to attempt that.

Then there’s California’s historic problem of not enough water for its thirst.

Does Harris have anything to say about any of this? She hasn’t so far.

Of course, the seven leading announced Democratic candidates have been practically mute themselves on matters that risk aggravating party interest groups.

One exception is former Los Angeles Mayor and state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, who has been bolder than most of his rivals.

Harris has said she’ll decide by the end of summer whether to run for governor in 2026. Maybe she’ll seek the presidency again in 2028 or retire from politics and make a bundle in the private sector.

But Villaraigosa already is taking shots at her — including last week for allegedly helping to cover up former President Biden’s cognitive decline while in the Oval Office. Villaraigosa included in the attack another gubernatorial candidate: former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.

Harris is a lot more vulnerable than Becerra on the issue.

But it’s a cheap shot. How many people would publicly accuse their boss of being mentally incompetent? And Harris would have instantly been blasted for being self-serving by plotting to push the president aside so she could grab the Democratic nomination.

Harris could help herself and California’s voters, however, by occasionally voicing some anxiety about her home state.

The little we’ve heard from her this year are attacks on Trump. She also has been lending her name to anti-Trump fundraising appeals by the Democratic National Committee.

But the last thing California Democrats need is another politician — especially a potential governor — telling them that Trump is an evil, ignorant con artist. They’re fully aware of that. They need someone who can tell them how their state can be fixed.

If she ran, Harris would be the initial favorite because of her broad name recognition, past election successes in California and fundraising ability. Some current candidates would probably drop out.

But there doesn’t seem to be a public clamoring for her to run.

Harris needs to start showing people why she should even consider seeking the job. Because, so far, she’s sounding more like a 2028 presidential retread.

The post Harris hasn’t shown much interest in being California governor appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Harris, defeated by Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election, was the first woman and the first person of color to serve as vice president. She had previously been a U.S. senator from California and the state’s attorney general.

“Vice President Kamala Harris is more than a leader — she is a force of change, driven by an unwavering passion to shape a brighter, more equitable future. It is with great honor that we present her with the Chairman’s Award at this year’s NAACP Image Awards, celebrating her relentless dedication to justice, equality, and the betterment of our society,” Leon W. Russell, chair of the NAACP’s national board of directors, said in a statement Monday.

Other winners of the Chairman’s prize have included former President Barack Obama, the late Rep. John Lewis and the late actor Ruby Dee.

The Image Awards, co-presented by the NAACP and BET, will take place Saturday at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California. Categories range from entertainer of the year to best movie to outstanding work of poetry.

The post Former Vice President Kamala Harris to be honored by NAACP with its Chairman’s Award appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Nov. 5 election results certified by Riverside and San Bernardino counties Tuesday, Dec. 3, show Trump becoming the first Republican presidential candidate since George W. Bush in 2004 to win the two Inland counties.

Trump carried Riverside County by just under 12,000 votes — 49.30% to Kamala Harris’ 48.04%. He beat Harris by more than 16,000 votes — 49.67% to 47.53% — in San Bernardino County.

The president-elect, who staged a rally in the Coachella area in October, lost California as a whole. Results posted by the Secretary of State on Thursday, Dec. 5, show Harris, an Oakland native and former California attorney general, received 58.5% of the statewide vote, compared to 38.3% for Trump.

That said, Democratic presidential hopefuls typically get 60% or more of the vote in deep-blue California.

Nationally, Harris underperformed President Joe Biden’s 2020 totals as Trump made inroads with a broad range of demographic groups, including people of color.

Trump’s Inland Empire success may be due to the region’s Latino, working-class roots. Latinos make up more than half the population in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and Trump did particularly well with Latino men nationwide.

The Inland Empire lags behind California’s coastal counties in the percentage of residents with college degrees. Trump’s base relies on blue-collar voters who didn’t attend or graduate from college.

It was quite a successful election cycle for Inland Republicans.

For example, Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, a target of Democrats hoping to flip the House of Representatives, won reelection.

Also, GOP candidate Leticia Castillo scored an upset win for an Inland Assembly seat.

And while he lost statewide, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey beat Democrat and Sen.-elect Adam Schiff in the Inland Empire.

The Secretary of State is expected to certify the election by Friday, Dec. 13.

The post It’s official — Donald Trump won the Inland Empire appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The 2024 results must still be signed off by the County Board of Supervisors and the California Secretary of State, and recount requests can still be submitted through 5 p.m. Dec. 8. (A recount cost is the requestor’s responsibility.)

Here are some at-a-glance stats from the 2024 certified results:

• A total of 959,098 ballots were processed and counted with 69.89% of eligible Riverside County voters turning out.
• Riverside County was evenly split on its choice for president. Republican Donald Trump received 463,677 votes, or 49.30%, while Democrat Kamala D. Harris garnered 451,782 votes, or 48.04%. Of the other candidates on the ballot, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (AIP) received the most votes in Riverside County with 11,160, or 1.19%.
• Though former Major League Baseball star Steve Garvey (R) lost his U.S. Senate bid to Democrat Adam Schiff in the statewide contest, the ex-first baseman narrowly beat the veteran politician in Riverside County by just over 3 percentage points.
• In the six U.S. House races in Riverside County, county voters chose a Republican over a Democrat in four of the contests.
• Likewise, in Riverside County’s six state Assembly races, voters chose a Republican in four of the contests.
• In the two state Senate races, it was a different story: Riverside County voters chose Democrats.

See Riverside County’s full Nov. 5, 2024, Presidential General Election results here.

Riverside County’s 2024 Presidential General Election results were not so different from the 2020 final tallies, though the race for the White House shows a contrast:

• A total of 1,016,896 ballots were processed and counted in 2020, with 81.80% of eligible Riverside County voters turning out.
• When Joe Biden ran against Trump four years ago, Biden garnered 528,340 votes in Riverside County compared to Trump’s 449,144.
• In 2020, there were four U.S. House races to be decided in Riverside County, with local voters choosing Democrats in two of the contests and Republicans in the others.
• The two state Senate races on the ballot in 2020 were also evenly split in Riverside County, with local voters picking a Democrat in one and a Republican in the other.
• In Riverside County, seven state assembly races were voted on in 2020. County voters chose Democrats in three of the contests and Republicans in three others. In the seventh race, county voters chose a “No Party Preference” candidate over a Republican.

See Riverside County’s full Nov. 3, 2020, Presidential General Election results here.

The post Certified Election Results Are In: Small Red Wave In Riverside County appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

But then I realized I already have.

I live in California.

If you do, too, you might be hungover, right about now. Or you’re wondering if this is all a nightmare.

It’s not. Well, it kind of is.

Vice President Kamala Harris, a California native, lost to former President Trump, and it wasn’t even close. A convicted male felon ran against a female former prosecutor and won decisively, running the table even in so-called battleground states, and Republicans also reclaimed the Senate and could well take the House.

A guy whose own running mate referred to him as “America’s Hitler,” called him a reprehensible idiot and “a total fraud,” will soon be moving back into the White House after months of juvenile name-calling and vulgarity.

Putin is partying. Ukraine is weeping. And you’re Googling real estate listings in Portugal, or Canada, or maybe you’re looking into those homes in Italy that sell for $1.

No need.

You live in California, which stands apart (along with 18 other states).

Not entirely, of course. Roughly 40% of the state’s votes will be logged for Trump when the counting is complete, with red streaks running down the center of the state.

And California had its own mini-version of a rightward tilt, with Proposition 36 (tougher penalties for criminal and drug offenses) leading in a rout as of Wednesday morning, and criminal justice reform-minded L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s reelection bid going down in flames.

To be fair, California’s dominant, super-majority liberal leadership has been feeble in the face of homelessness, income inequality, child poverty and the housing affordability crisis.

Not that Trump policies as president had much of an impact on those problems in California or any other state, and not that he’s come up with any new or ambitious plans since then.

“The state of California is a mess,” Trump said in September, using us as a foil, but also as a springboard, casting a global economic powerhouse as a failure, a sanctuary cesspool and a symbol of wretchedly woke excess.

Insult, or badge of honor?

California said no to the candidate who has waged an assault on women’s reproductive rights and called his female opponent dumb as a rock.

No to the candidate who called climate change a hoax.

No to the candidate who calls immigrants savages and animals.

No to the candidate who has embraced RFK Jr., who wants to pull vaccines off shelves, get fluoride out of drinking water, and who knows — maybe send the nation’s science teachers off to a gulag somewhere.

No to the candidate whose allies put together a second-term playbook called Project 2025, which would seek to wage war nationally on the very idea of California’s progressive policies on abortion, inclusion, gun control, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights and the environment.

No to the candidate who appeals to the worst in us.

Jimmy Carter once said, “We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”

Trump once said, “They are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. … They are eating the pets of the people that live there.”

In California, we did not vote for that candidate.

We understand that immigration reform is badly needed but know that Trump’s promised deportation of millions of people would cost a fortune, destroy major industries, raise the prices of goods and services, rip families apart and cripple the economy.

In California, defeat does not signal the end of the fight (the state could well end up in court, forced to defend and preserve its progressive policies against Trump attacks). And don’t forget that while we stand apart, we do not stand alone.

The other states that went for Harris are Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota, Illinois, Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

So I suppose you could consider moving to one of those places in these ever-more-divided United States.

But I was born in California and plan to stay put for now, here in the home of the resistance.

The post Column: Trump return could be a growing California nightmare. But leave the U.S? No need appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The Democratic vice president said the battle would continue “in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square.”

“Sometimes the fight takes a while,” she said at Howard University, her alma mater, where she had hoped to make a victory speech after the election. “That doesn’t mean we won’t win.”

Harris’ decisive defeat shattered hopes that she could rescue Democrats’ chances after President Joe Biden’s reelection effort stalled and she replaced him at the top of the ticket.

She trailed in every battleground state to Trump, a Republican whom she described as an existential danger to the country’s foundational institutions. And Trump appeared on track to win the popular vote for the first time in his three campaigns for the White House — even after two impeachments, felony convictions and his attempt to overturn his previous election loss.

Despite her stark warnings about Trump, Harris reached for optimism on Wednesday.

“It is OK to feel sad and disappointed, but please know it’s going to be OK,” she told supporters as some of them wiped tears from their eyes.

Biden released a statement praising Harris after her speech, saying: “She will continue the fight with purpose, determination, and joy. She will continue to be a champion for all Americans. Above all, she will continue to be a leader our children will look up to for generations to come as she puts her stamp on America’s future.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, was in the audience with his family. So were Reps. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, and Barbara Lee, both from Harris’ home state of California.

Before her speech, Harris called Trump to congratulate him on his victory. She told the crowd that “we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power,” an implicit reference to Trump’s unwillingness to do the same four years ago.

Some in the audience expressed disappointment that Harris was not able to make history as the country’s first Black female president. Harris would also have been first U.S. president of South Asian descent

Gregory Pate, 38, said he appreciated that Harris said she was “committed to the fight and not looking at this as a permanent defeat, but just another obstacle that we have to go through as Black people.”

“I think it was perfect. I think that it was timely, and it was a message that I came to hear,” said Pate, of Fairfax, Virginia.

Jay Evans, of Greenbelt, Maryland, said after Harris’ spoke that he’s wistful for what could have been.

“We’re partly sad, because hearing her speak, she would have been an amazing person to bring the country together and to keep us in a better path,” Evans said.

After Trump lost to Biden, he directed his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol, leading to a violent insurrection that interrupted the ceremonial certification of the election results.

Now Harris is expected to oversee the same certification process to finalize Trump’s victory as voters brush off concerns about the future of American democracy and return the former Republican president to the White House.

Biden plans to address the election results on Thursday. The White House said he spoke with Harris and Trump on Wednesday, and he invited the president-elect to meet with him soon.

David Plouffe, a top Harris adviser, said campaign staffers “left it all on the field for their country.”

“We dug out of a deep hole but not enough,” he said. “A devastating loss.”

Harris became the Democratic candidate after Biden, who was already struggling to convince voters that he could serve as president until he was 86 years old, stumbled badly in his June 27 debate with Trump.

He dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed his vice president, who swiftly unified the Democratic Party around her candidacy.

It was a remarkable twist of fate for Harris. Four years earlier, her own presidential campaign had flamed out and revealed the political limitations of someone once dubbed “the female Barack Obama.” Even though Biden chose Harris as his running mate, she languished in the role after taking office as the first woman, Black person or person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

Some Democrats started writing her off when they pondered the party’s future after Biden. But Harris found fresh purpose after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and she became the White House’s leading advocate for abortion rights.

Harris also made a more concerted effort to network with local politicians, business leaders and cultural figures, forging connections that could serve her down the road. The moment arrived sooner than she anticipated, and she was catapulted into the presidential race with Biden’s departure only a month before the Democratic National Convention.

Harris instantly reset the terms of the contest with Trump. She was 18 years younger and a former courtroom prosecutor going up against the first major presidential candidate convicted of crimes. Her candidacy energized Democrats who feared they were destined for defeat with Biden at the top of the ticket.

But she also faced steep odds from the beginning. She inherited Biden’s political operation with just 107 days until the end of the election, and she faced a restless electorate that was eager for change.

Although Harris pitched “a new way forward,” she struggled to meaningfully differentiate herself from the unpopular sitting president. In addition, she had limited time to introduce herself to skeptical voters, who never cast a ballot for her in a presidential primary.

Democrats now face the prospect of picking up the pieces during a second Trump presidency, and it’s unclear what role Harris will play in her party’s future.

“The work of protecting America from the impacts of a Trump Presidency starts now,” wrote Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’ campaign chair, in a letter to staff. “I know the Vice President isn’t finished in this fight, and I know the very people on this email are also going to be leaders in this collective mission.”

The post Harris says nation must accept election results while urging supporters to keep fighting appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Tony Hinchcliffe, a comic who called Puerto Rico “garbage” before a packed Trump rally in New York appears to be the catalyst.

“The reason why I supported Donald Trump was because I thought he was the best for the economy in the United States, where many Latinos live, many of us Latinos live, myself included, many immigrants who are suffering because of the economy and him, being a businessman, I thought it was the best move,” Jam said in Spanish, in a video statement posted to his official Instagram page.

“Never in my life did I think that a month later a comedian was going to come to criticize my country and speak badly of my country and therefore, I renounce any support for Donald Trump, and I sidestep any political situation. Respect Puerto Rico, Nicky Jam.”

Representatives for Jam did not immediately respond to the Associated Press’ request for comment.

Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections despite being U.S. citizens, but they can exert a powerful influence with relatives on the mainland.

The effects of Hinchcliffe’s remarks are felt on the island and elsewhere: One of the biggest artists on the planet, the Grammy-award winning Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, shortly afterward.

Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez, shared a video to his Instagram account Tuesday detailing the origins of Puerto Rico and its inhabitants’ prominence in politics, sports and entertainment. The caption read: “garbage.”

“We have been fighting since day one of our existence, we are the definition of heart and resistance,” he wrote in Spanish. “Here we stand, here we are, and for those who forget who we are… don’t worry, we proudly remind you.”

Actor Aubrey Plaza addressed the remarks at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards on Tuesday night, saying her grandmother, if alive, would respond profanely to Hinchcliffe’s characterization of Puerto Rico.

“I just wanted to very quickly respond to the racist joke that was made at that Trump rally about Puerto Rico, where most of my family is from,” Plaza told attendees. “Thankfully, my sweet abuelita wasn’t here to hear that disgusting remark.”

Ricky Martin, who had previously endorsed Harris, was also offended by the comment and said “that’s what they think of us,” on Instagram.

A representative for Anuel AA, another famous Puerto Rican star who endorsed Trump last month, said he was on tour and unable to comment on Hinchcliffe’s remarks.

Jam, known for songs such as “Travesuras,” “Voy a Beber” and the J Balvin collaboration “X” expressed his support for Trump last month at a rally in Las Vegas, where Trump seemed to mistake him for a woman. “Latin Music superstar Nicky Jam! Do you know Nicky, she’s hot. Where’s Nicky?” he said.

As a result, the Mexican pop-rock band Maná has removed its 2016 song with Nicky Jam, “De pies a cabeza,” from online platforms. “Maná does not work with racists,” the group said in an Instagram post explaining the decision.

Maná is rallying with Harris in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The post Nicky Jam withdraws endorsement of Donald Trump over comedian’s ‘garbage’ comment about Puerto Rico appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Vice President Kamala Harris is skipping attending the event in person as she campaigns in battleground states, breaking with presidential tradition. But she will appear on screen in a recorded video, organizers said.

The white tie dinner in New York raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities and has traditionally offered candidates from both parties the chance to trade light-hearted barbs and show that they can get along — or at least pretend to — for one night in the election’s final stretch.

It’s often the last time the two nominees share a stage before Election Day.

Trump is being joined at the dinner by his wife, Melania, who has been an infrequent presence on the campaign trail.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris shake hands before the start of an ABC News presidential debate at the National Constitution Center, Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

The dais includes a mix of Trump allies and foes. Also sitting onstage is New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a successful civil fraud case against him and his business. New York’s embattled mayor, Eric Adams, other top city officials, business leaders and sports and media personalities are also in attendance. Adams was charged last month with accepting illegal campaign contributions and lavish overseas trips from Turkish officials and businesspeople. Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was booed when he was announced.

Two members of Trump’s transition team — Robert F. Kennedy, who is attending with his wife, Cheryl Hines, and Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald — are also onstage.

The dinner is being emceed by comedian Jim Gaffigan, who has a history of criticizing Trump.

In 2020, he wrote on X, then known as Twitter: “We need to wake up. We need to call trump the con man and thief that he is.”

Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on her plans, but her team had previously said that they wanted her to spend as much time as possible campaigning in battleground states that will decide the election, rather than detouring to heavily Democratic New York. Her team has told organizers that she would be willing to attend as president if she wins.

The Daily Caller was first to report that Harris would address the dinner by screen.

Trump had blasted Harris for declining to attend, accusing her in a social media post of being anti-Catholic. “Any Catholic that votes for Comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined,” he wrote.

That was the kind of tone that drew boos in 2016 when Trump appeared at the dinner with his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and unleashed a particularly nasty speech, calling her “corrupt” and accusing her of “pretending not to hate Catholics.”

Trump’s 2016 speech, delivered the night after their final debate, had begun on a less hostile tone.

Trump joked that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., used to love him when he when he was a Democrat. After noting that these kinds of dinner remarks typically begin with a self-deprecating joke, he quipped that he was “actually a modest person.”

One of his best lines of the night came at the expense of his wife as he complained that the media was biased against him.

“You want the proof? Michelle Obama gives a speech and everyone loves it — it’s fantastic. They think she’s absolutely great. My wife, Melania, gives the exact same speech and people get on her case,” he joked in a reference to her convention speech that year, parts of which had been plagiarized.

But Trump’s remarks soon veered into bitterness as he turned to the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state and he praised “the wonder of WikiLeaks” for its revelations.

“Hillary believes that it’s vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private,” he said to jeers. “For example, here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.”

Clinton also offered her share of personal digs, noting that the Statue of Liberty, for most Americans, represents a symbol of hope for immigrants.

“Donald looks at the Statue of Liberty and sees a ‘4,’” Clinton joked. “Maybe a ‘5’ if she loses the torch and tablet and changes her hair.”

Trump’s sense of humor is often cited by his supporters as key to his appeal. While he infamously glowered through former President Obama’s jokes at his expense during the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, he also sometimes pokes fun at himself.

At several rallies this year, he has remarked on his hair after catching a glimpse of himself on screen.

“What the hell can you do. There’s nothing I can do about it. We’re stuck with it,” he joked at a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania last month.

Both Trump and President Joe Biden, who is Catholic, spoke at a virtual version of the fundraiser in 2020, which was moved online due to concerns over large gatherings at the height of the pandemic. Both candidates used their speeches not to tell jokes, but to appeal to Catholic voters, with Biden speaking about how his faith had guided him through moments of tragedy and Trump emphasizing his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who plays a prominent role in the dinner, offered a message to both men about the upcoming election. “I also dare remind them that Al Smith was a happy warrior, that he was never a sore loser,” he said.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is named for the former New York governor, a Democrat who was the first Catholic to receive a major party nomination for president when he unsuccessfully ran for the White House in 1928.

The event has become a tradition for presidential candidates since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared together in 1960. In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York decided not to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, reportedly because Clinton vetoed a late-term abortion ban.

The post Trump attends Al Smith charity dinner with his wife, Melania, while Harris appears virtually appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

“Inflation has eaten up my savings,” she said. “I don’t have anything to fall back on — the cushion is gone.” So even with the anticipated increase she’s looking for work to supplement her retirement income, which consists of a small pension and her Social Security benefits.

About 70.6 million Social Security recipients are expected to receive a smaller cost of living increase for 2025 than in recent years, as inflation has moderated. The Social Security Administration makes the official COLA announcement Thursday, and analysts predicted in advance it would be 2.5% for 2025. Recipients received a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, after a historically large 8.7% benefit increase in 2023, brought on by record 40-year-high inflation.

The AARP estimates that a 2.5 percent COLA would increase the average benefit for a retiree who receives about $1,920 a month by $48 a month starting in January 2025.

“I think a lot of seniors are going to say that this is not really enough to keep up with prices,” said AARP Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Bill Sweeney.

The silver lining is that it’s an indication that inflation is moderating, he said.

The announcement comes as the national social insurance plan faces a severe financial shortfall in the coming years.

The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in May said the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035. If the trust fund is depleted, the government will be able to pay only 83% of scheduled benefits, the report said.

The program is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers. The maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes was $168,600 for 2024, up from $160,200 in 2023. Analysts estimate that the maximum amount will go up to $174,900 in 2025.

On the presidential campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have presented dueling plans on how they would strengthen Social Security.

Harris says on her campaign website that she will protect Social Security by “making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes.”

Trump promises that he would not cut the social program or make changes to the retirement age. Trump also pledges tax cuts for older Americans, posting on Truth Social in July that “SENIORS SHOULD NOT PAY TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY!”

AARP conducted interviews with both Harris and Trump in late August, and asked how the candidates would protect the Social Security Trust Fund.

Harris said she would make up for the shortfall by “making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes and use that money to protect and strengthen Social Security for the long haul.”

Trump said “we’ll protect it with growth. I don’t want to do anything having to do with increasing age. I won’t do that. As you know, I was there for four years and never even thought about doing it. I’m going to do nothing to Social Security.”

Lawmakers have proposed a variety of solutions to deal with the funding shortfall.

The Republican Study Committee’s Fiscal Year 2025 plan has proposed cutting Social Security costs by raising the retirement age and reducing the annual COLA. Trump has not endorsed the plan.

Linda Benesch, a spokeswoman for Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the social insurance program, said “we are concerned about this Republican Study Committee budget, and the provisions in it that would cut benefits for retirees.”

Social Security Works endorsed Harris for president in July, in part for her decision as a California senator, to co-sponsor a bill that called on the Social Security Administration to use a different index to calculate cost of living increase: the CPI-E, which measures price changes based on the spending patterns of the elderly, like health care, food and medicine costs.

The COLA is currently calculated according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, or CPI.

The post Social Security’s scheduled cost of living increase ‘won’t make a dent’ for some retirees appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.