The new voter protection director for Florida Democrats told party activists on Saturday that they should assume there will be a recount during next year’s presidential election.

“We are going to be prepared,” Brandon Peters told a packed room of Democratic activists at the state party’s Leadership Blue 2019 meeting at Walt Disney World in Orlando. 

Peters, who was hired by the state party last month, said there will be teams of volunteers trained in how to monitor county canvassing boards for recount problems around the state, should one take place in the 2020 presidential election.

Florida became famous for recounts after the 2000 presidential election, and last year there were recounts in three statewide races. The Florida Democratic Party is the second state Democratic party in the nation to hire a voter protection director, behind the Georgia Democratic Party.

Peters said by July 2020 he hopes to have 15,000 lawyers and volunteers in place around the state to address any voter problems.

Those problems include making it difficult for ex-convicts to register after Florida voters last year passed a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to as many as 1.4 million felons and creating earlier deadlines for mail-in ballots, Peters said.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has pledged to sign a bill requiring repayment of financial obligations before felons’ voting rights are restored.

Other nonelectoral changes in Florida could have consequences for voters, such as the rollout this month of new driver’s licenses with magnetic strips removed, Peters said. 

Voters often check in at polls where information on the strip is run against a database for ID verification. Without that, poll workers may have to resort to manually checking the ID against paper rolls, creating long lines, Peters said.

The state party is coordinating with the Democratic National Party to set up a tool to track election problems in real time. There also will be a hotline for volunteers to call in problems, Peters said.

If you see something, say something,'' Peters said.Once we are aware of the problem, we will do something about it.”

Even though President Trump is announcing his re-election campaign in Orlando in less than two weeks, and Florida promises to be crucial for any path to the White House, none of the major Democratic presidential candidates were at the Florida conference since most of them were attending a competing event hosted by Iowa Democrats this weekend. 

Some candidates sent video messages that were played at a dinner for the Florida Democrats, and two candidates, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg, made plans to send their spouses. But Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, was a no-show after running into a transportation snafu.

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez encouraged the Florida Democrats “to date” all the presidential candidates.

Fall in love with multiple people at one time. Date as many people as you want,'' Perez said.And then when we have our nominee, fall in line together as Democrats. Our unity is our greatest strength and it’s Donald Trump’s biggest fear.”
…

The new voter protection director for Florida Democrats told party activists on Saturday that they should assume there will be a recount during next year’s presidential election.

“We are going to be prepared,” Brandon Peters told a packed room of Democratic activists at the state party’s Leadership Blue 2019 meeting at Walt Disney World in Orlando. 

Peters, who was hired by the state party last month, said there will be teams of volunteers trained in how to monitor county canvassing boards for recount problems around the state, should one take place in the 2020 presidential election.

Florida became famous for recounts after the 2000 presidential election, and last year there were recounts in three statewide races. The Florida Democratic Party is the second state Democratic party in the nation to hire a voter protection director, behind the Georgia Democratic Party.

Peters said by July 2020 he hopes to have 15,000 lawyers and volunteers in place around the state to address any voter problems.

Those problems include making it difficult for ex-convicts to register after Florida voters last year passed a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to as many as 1.4 million felons and creating earlier deadlines for mail-in ballots, Peters said.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has pledged to sign a bill requiring repayment of financial obligations before felons’ voting rights are restored.

Other nonelectoral changes in Florida could have consequences for voters, such as the rollout this month of new driver’s licenses with magnetic strips removed, Peters said. 

Voters often check in at polls where information on the strip is run against a database for ID verification. Without that, poll workers may have to resort to manually checking the ID against paper rolls, creating long lines, Peters said.

The state party is coordinating with the Democratic National Party to set up a tool to track election problems in real time. There also will be a hotline for volunteers to call in problems, Peters said.

If you see something, say something,'' Peters said.Once we are aware of the problem, we will do something about it.”

Even though President Trump is announcing his re-election campaign in Orlando in less than two weeks, and Florida promises to be crucial for any path to the White House, none of the major Democratic presidential candidates were at the Florida conference since most of them were attending a competing event hosted by Iowa Democrats this weekend. 

Some candidates sent video messages that were played at a dinner for the Florida Democrats, and two candidates, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg, made plans to send their spouses. But Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, was a no-show after running into a transportation snafu.

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez encouraged the Florida Democrats “to date” all the presidential candidates.

Fall in love with multiple people at one time. Date as many people as you want,'' Perez said.And then when we have our nominee, fall in line together as Democrats. Our unity is our greatest strength and it’s Donald Trump’s biggest fear.”
…

As Washington and Mexico City both took victory laps Saturday over a deal that headed off threatened tariffs on Mexican imports, it remained to be seen how effective it may be, and migration experts raised concerns about what it could mean for people fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.  

Other than a vague reiteration of a joint commitment to promote development, security and growth in Central America, the agreement focuses almost exclusively on enforcement and says little about the root causes driving the surge in migrants seen in recent months.  

My sense is overall the Mexican government got out of this better than they thought. The agreement though leaves a lot of big question marks,'' said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute.It’s good that the two sides reached an agreement which allows both of them to save face, but it’s not clear how easy it is to implement.” 

Guard deployment

The deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops appears to be the key commitment in what was described as “unprecedented steps” by Mexico to ramp up enforcement, though Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero said that had already been planned and was not a result of external pressure.  

I have said before, migration into Mexico also has to be regulated ... orderly, legal and safe,'' Sanchez Cordero told The Associated Press.So the National Guard that we were going to deploy anyway, we’re going to deploy. It’s not because they tell us to, but rather because we’re going to do it anyway.”  

​Mexican measures

Mexico was already increasing enforcement with detentions, deportations and checkpoints. In recent weeks it broke up the latest migrant caravan, snuffing out most of the appetite for traveling in large, visible groups.  

If Mexico does more as promised, it’s likely to be seen in intensification of those same efforts, experts said — raids on hotels where migrants stay or on bus companies transporting them north to the U.S. border. The two countries also agreed to share information on and disrupt people-smuggling networks, a new focus seen earlier this week when Mexico arrested two migration activists and froze accounts of over two dozen people alleged to have organized caravans.  

A concern is that even more aggressive enforcement could put migrants with legitimate asylum claims at risk of being deported from Mexico to the dangers they fled in the first place. Also, Mexican security forces are known for often being corrupt and shaking migrants down for bribes. A renewed crackdown is seen as making migration through Mexico more difficult and more dangerous, but doing little to discourage Central Americans desperate to escape poverty, hunger and violence.  

People are fleeing their homes regardless of what the journey might mean and regardless of what chance they may have for seeking protections in Mexico or in the United States,'' said Maureen Meyer, an immigration expert at the Washington Office on Latin America,simply because they need to leave.” 

Human element missing

It seems like in all these discussions [about tariffs and immigration], the human reality of these people and why they're leaving Central America was lost,'' she continued.It was ‘what can we do to stop them,’ and not ‘what can we really do to create the conditions in their home countries so that people don’t have to leave.’ ”  

Another key element of the deal is that the United States will expand a program known as the Migrant Protection Protocol, or MPP. According to Mexican immigration authorities, since January there have been 10,393 returns by migrants to Mexico while their cases wend their way through U.S. courts.  

MPP has been plagued by glitches and so far has been introduced only in California and El Paso, Texas, and Selee said there are logistical hurdles to further expansion. Right now the MPP figure of 10,000 or so represents “a drop in the bucket” compared with overall migration, he added.    

Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who led the negotiations, said the agreement does not include any quotas.  

If MPP does roll out on a mass scale along the United States’ entire southern border, it could overwhelm Mexican border cities. Mexico promised to offer jobs, health care and education for returnees, but has little infrastructure to do so. Currently most shelters and support programs are run by the likes of NGOs and the Roman Catholic Church.  

And if the program were to include places like Tamaulipas, the Gulf coast state where cartels and gangs control large swaths of territory, migrants could be at even greater risk.  

Dangerous area

This is an area that the U.S. government considers that it's not safe for any American citizen,'' Meyer said, referring to the State Department's highest-level warning against all travel to Tamaulipas  because of crime and kidnappings.And yet it’s OK for us to send people back there?”  

Still, the deal was hailed by many in Mexican industry and politics.  

Arturo Rocha, a Foreign Relations Department spokesman, tweeted late Friday that it was an unquestionable triumph for Mexico.'' Avoiding tariffs sends a calming message to ratings agencies worried about a possible trade war, he said, adding that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government had won U.S. recommitment to Central American development and resistedsafe third country” designation, a concession sought by Washington that would have required asylum seekers to apply first in Mexico.  

However, Abdel Camargo, an anthropologist at the Frontera Sur College in southern Mexico, said that by accepting MPP returnees, “Mexico does not become a safe third country but de facto is going to act as one.”  

Some such as ex-President Felipe Calderon of the conservative opposition National Action Party questioned whether Mexico was truly master of its own migratory policy. But Jose Antonio Meade, a five-time Cabinet minister who lost last year’s election to Lopez Obrador, praised Ebrard for avoiding damaging tariffs “in the face of very complex conditions.”  

In San Jose del Cabo for a summit of North American mayors, Juan Manuel Gastelum of Tijuana, across from San Diego, said he’s fine with more migrants being returned to his city as long as the federal government invests in caring for them. He added that the threat of tariffs may have been necessary to force his country’s hand.  

“How else was Mexico going to understand that it is not right to leave migration uncontrolled?” said Gastelum, who is also a member of National Action.  

​Tijuana rally

Meanwhile, a rally later Saturday in Tijuana that Lopez Obrador called to defend Mexican pride and dignity was expected to take on more of a festive atmosphere.  

It was [originally supposed to be] a meeting to show support for the incoming governor ... that turned into a demand for peace and respect on the tariffs issue,'' local restaurateur and businessman Francisco Villegas said.But since the tariffs issue was sorted out by having Marcelo Ebrard and his team up there, it is now turning into a celebration.” 
…

To save babies from brain-damaging birth defects, University of Pittsburgh scientist Carolyn Coyne studies placentas from fetuses that otherwise would be discarded — and she’s worried this kind of research is headed for the chopping block.

The Trump administration is cracking down on fetal tissue research , with new hurdles for government-funded scientists around the country who call the special cells vital for fighting a range of health threats. Already, the administration has shut down one university’s work using fetal tissue to test HIV treatments, and is ending other fetal tissue research at the National Institutes of Health.<

“I knew this was something that’s going to trickle down to the rest of us,” said Coyne. She uses the placenta, which people may not think of as fetal tissue but technically is classified as such because the fetus produced it, to study how viruses such as Zika get past that protective barrier early in pregnancy.

“It seems to me what we’re moving toward is a ban,” she added. If so, when it comes to unraveling what happens in pregnancy and fetal development, “we’re going to stay ignorant to a lot of things.”

Different types of tissue left over from elective abortions have been used in scientific research for decades, and the work has been credited with leading to lifesaving vaccines and other advances. Under orders from President Donald Trump, the Health and Human Services Department abruptly announced on Wednesday the new restrictions on taxpayer-funded research, but not privately funded work.

Aside from the cancellation of an HIV-related project at the University of California, San Francisco, university-led projects that are funded by the NIH — estimated to be fewer than 200 — aren’t affected right away.

But as researchers seek to renew their funding or propose new studies, HHS said it will have to pass an extra layer of review, beyond today’s strict scientific scrutiny. Each project will have a federal ethics board appointed to recommend whether NIH should grant the money.

HHS hasn’t offered details but under the law authorizing the review process, that board must include not just biomedical experts but a theologian, and the nation’s health secretary can overrule its advice.

“I predict over time we will see a slow and steady elimination of federal funding for research that uses fetal tissue, regardless of how necessary it is,” said University of Wisconsin law professor Alta Charo, a nationally recognized bioethics expert.

Necessity is the crux of a fierce debate between abortion foes and scientists about whether there are alternatives to fetal tissue for research.

Zika offers a glimpse at the difficulty. Somehow, the Zika virus can sneak from the mother’s bloodstream across the placenta, which protects and nourishes the fetus, and target the fetus’ brain. It’s something researchers hope to learn to block.

Studying the placentas of small animals or even monkeys isn’t a substitute because they differ from the human organ, said Emory University researcher Mehul Suthar. For example, the specific type of placental cell where Zika can lurk in humans isn’t thought to be present in mouse placentas.

And because the placenta continually changes as the fetus that created it grows, first-trimester tissue may show a very different vulnerability than a placenta that’s expelled during full-term birth, when it’s no longer defined as fetal tissue but as medical waste.

Suthar recently submitted a new grant application to study first- and second-trimester placental tissue, and is worried about its fate under the still uncertain ethics provision.

It “sounds a bit murky as to what the impact could be,” he said. It could be small, “or it could be an outright ban on what we’re doing.”

Anti-abortion groups argue there are alternatives, such as stem cells, growing organ-like clumps of cells in lab dishes, or using tissue taken from newborns as they have heart surgery.

Indeed, NIH is funding a $20 million program to research alternatives to fetal tissue and to prove whether they work as well.

“Taxpayer funding ought to go to promote alternatives that are already being used in the production of treatments, vaccines and medicines, and to expand approaches that do not depend on the destruction of unborn children,” said Mallory Quigley of the Susan B. Anthony List, which works to elect anti-abortion candidates to public office.

But dozens of medical and science organizations have told HHS there is no substitute for fetal tissue in studying certain — not all — health disorders, such as HIV, Zika, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, spinal cord injury, and a variety of eye diseases.

To Pittsburgh’s Coyne, part of the political debate is a “completely unsubstantiated belief that not allowing research and science is going to prevent or stop abortions, which is not the case.”

Medical research using fetal tissue won’t stop but will move to other countries, said Charo, who advised the Obama administration. The United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and China are among the countries using fetal tissue to seek breakthroughs.

“Other countries work with this in a regulated fashion and they will continue to outstrip us,” she said. “We have allowed patients’ interests to become collateral damage in the abortion wars.”

…

To save babies from brain-damaging birth defects, University of Pittsburgh scientist Carolyn Coyne studies placentas from fetuses that otherwise would be discarded — and she’s worried this kind of research is headed for the chopping block.

The Trump administration is cracking down on fetal tissue research , with new hurdles for government-funded scientists around the country who call the special cells vital for fighting a range of health threats. Already, the administration has shut down one university’s work using fetal tissue to test HIV treatments, and is ending other fetal tissue research at the National Institutes of Health.<

“I knew this was something that’s going to trickle down to the rest of us,” said Coyne. She uses the placenta, which people may not think of as fetal tissue but technically is classified as such because the fetus produced it, to study how viruses such as Zika get past that protective barrier early in pregnancy.

“It seems to me what we’re moving toward is a ban,” she added. If so, when it comes to unraveling what happens in pregnancy and fetal development, “we’re going to stay ignorant to a lot of things.”

Different types of tissue left over from elective abortions have been used in scientific research for decades, and the work has been credited with leading to lifesaving vaccines and other advances. Under orders from President Donald Trump, the Health and Human Services Department abruptly announced on Wednesday the new restrictions on taxpayer-funded research, but not privately funded work.

Aside from the cancellation of an HIV-related project at the University of California, San Francisco, university-led projects that are funded by the NIH — estimated to be fewer than 200 — aren’t affected right away.

But as researchers seek to renew their funding or propose new studies, HHS said it will have to pass an extra layer of review, beyond today’s strict scientific scrutiny. Each project will have a federal ethics board appointed to recommend whether NIH should grant the money.

HHS hasn’t offered details but under the law authorizing the review process, that board must include not just biomedical experts but a theologian, and the nation’s health secretary can overrule its advice.

“I predict over time we will see a slow and steady elimination of federal funding for research that uses fetal tissue, regardless of how necessary it is,” said University of Wisconsin law professor Alta Charo, a nationally recognized bioethics expert.

Necessity is the crux of a fierce debate between abortion foes and scientists about whether there are alternatives to fetal tissue for research.

Zika offers a glimpse at the difficulty. Somehow, the Zika virus can sneak from the mother’s bloodstream across the placenta, which protects and nourishes the fetus, and target the fetus’ brain. It’s something researchers hope to learn to block.

Studying the placentas of small animals or even monkeys isn’t a substitute because they differ from the human organ, said Emory University researcher Mehul Suthar. For example, the specific type of placental cell where Zika can lurk in humans isn’t thought to be present in mouse placentas.

And because the placenta continually changes as the fetus that created it grows, first-trimester tissue may show a very different vulnerability than a placenta that’s expelled during full-term birth, when it’s no longer defined as fetal tissue but as medical waste.

Suthar recently submitted a new grant application to study first- and second-trimester placental tissue, and is worried about its fate under the still uncertain ethics provision.

It “sounds a bit murky as to what the impact could be,” he said. It could be small, “or it could be an outright ban on what we’re doing.”

Anti-abortion groups argue there are alternatives, such as stem cells, growing organ-like clumps of cells in lab dishes, or using tissue taken from newborns as they have heart surgery.

Indeed, NIH is funding a $20 million program to research alternatives to fetal tissue and to prove whether they work as well.

“Taxpayer funding ought to go to promote alternatives that are already being used in the production of treatments, vaccines and medicines, and to expand approaches that do not depend on the destruction of unborn children,” said Mallory Quigley of the Susan B. Anthony List, which works to elect anti-abortion candidates to public office.

But dozens of medical and science organizations have told HHS there is no substitute for fetal tissue in studying certain — not all — health disorders, such as HIV, Zika, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, spinal cord injury, and a variety of eye diseases.

To Pittsburgh’s Coyne, part of the political debate is a “completely unsubstantiated belief that not allowing research and science is going to prevent or stop abortions, which is not the case.”

Medical research using fetal tissue won’t stop but will move to other countries, said Charo, who advised the Obama administration. The United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and China are among the countries using fetal tissue to seek breakthroughs.

“Other countries work with this in a regulated fashion and they will continue to outstrip us,” she said. “We have allowed patients’ interests to become collateral damage in the abortion wars.”

…

Sen. Elizabeth Warren electrified California Democrats on Saturday with a pledge for bold action, matching if not outshining enthusiasm for the state’s own Sen. Kamala Harris to kick off a day when more than a dozen presidential candidates planned to make their cases to thousands of activists in the nation’s largest liberal stronghold. 

Some say if we all just calm down, the Republicans will come to their senses,'' Warren said in bringing the crowd to its feet with a thinly veiled shot at former Vice President Joe Biden, who has expressed hope the GOP will havean epiphany” after President Donald Trump is gone. “But our country is in a crisis. The time for small ideas is over.” 

Biden was the only major candidate not attending the three-day gathering in San Francisco, opting instead to campaign in Ohio. 

California has shifted its 2020 primary earlier on the calendar, to March 3, part of the Super Tuesday collection of contests, in hopes of giving the state more sway in choosing the party’s nominee. California will offer the largest delegate haul, but it is a notoriously difficult state to campaign in, given its massive size and expensive media markets. 

Harris, with a built-in advantage, looked to make a show of force in Saturday’s prime speaking slot to kick off addresses from presidential hopefuls, the day’s main event. She played up her deep connection to California voters, having won statewide office three times, once to the U.S. Senate and twice as the state’s attorney general, and also having been elected as San Francisco’s district attorney. 

Harris, too, sparked a standing ovation when she declared, “We need to begin impeachment proceedings and we need a new commander in chief!” 

Earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also a Californian, avoided mentioning impeachment in her remarks but said the House would hold Trump accountable.  

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke addressed the morning session of the convention, slipping seamlessly between Spanish and English, a key move in a state with a large Hispanic population. He praised California Democrats for their massive turnout in the 2018 midterms, when the party flipped seven U.S. House seats held for years by Republicans, and noted that his unsuccessful Senate bid drew record Democratic turnout as well.  

You, California Democrats, have offered the rest of the country an example,'' he said.And in Texas we were right there with you.”  

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is expecting to build heavily on the California organization he built in the last presidential campaign. He wasn’t scheduled to address the full crowd until Sunday, but he greeted union workers at a Saturday morning breakfast and received an enthusiastic reception Friday night at a meeting of the Chicano-Latino caucus, which endorsed him during the close 2016 contest with Hillary Clinton. 

“This time we are going to win California,” he declared.  

Other candidates attending the gathering: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; California Rep. Eric Swalwell; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; former Obama housing chief Julian Castro; and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney.
…

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg knows firsthand the burden of six-figure student loan debt. He and his husband, Chasten, are far from alone, though, and their personal college indebtedness is helping to keep the issue on the national stage. 

With loans totaling more than $130,000, they are among the 43 million people in the United States who owe federal student loan debt. 

The debtors are so numerous and the total debt so high — more than $1.447 trillion, according to federal statistics — that several of the Democratic candidates have made major policy proposals to address the crisis. Their ideas include wiping away debt, lowering interest rates, expanding programs that tie repayment terms to income, and making college free or debt-free. 

Student loan debt is often discussed as an issue that mostly affects millennials, but it cuts across age groups. Federal statistics show that about 7.8 million people age 50 and older owe a combined $291.9 billion in student loans. People age 35 to 49, a group that covers older millennials such as Buttigieg as well as Generation X, owe $548.4 billion. That group includes more than 14 million people.  

One of the most detailed plans to help solve the problem has come from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who says she would entirely erase student debt for 75% of borrowers while making public colleges and universities free. Her plan would be paid for by a tax on “ultramillionaires,” those households with a net worth of $50 million or more. Warren wants to cancel $50,000 in student loan debt for each borrower with a household income under $100,000 and would cancel smaller amounts for those who earn more.  

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has outlined a plan to make public universities tuition-free and says he wants to lower student loan rates and “substantially lower student debt.”  

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas stops short of advocating for programs to cancel all debt, like Warren wants to do. Instead, he has suggested wiping away debt for people who go into jobs where there’s a manpower shortage, such as doctors in rural areas, but it’s not clear which professions would qualify. 

He also has said he wants to give Americans two years of free tuition at community colleges, make four-year state universities debt-free for those with low and modest incomes and allow borrowers to refinance student loans at lower interest rates.  

Julian Castro, housing secretary in the Obama administration, says he wants to eliminate tuition at public colleges and universities. He has issued a plan that would not require loan repayment until borrowers earn more than 250% of the federal poverty level, currently $25,750 for a family of four. It would cap monthly payments at 10% of their income after that.   

Sen. Kamala Harris of California has publicly called for debt-free college, wants to allow people to refinance their loans at a lower interest rate, base repayment on income and simplify financial aid applications to make it easier for needy students to apply.  

If elected, Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., would likely be the first president with student loan debt. Barack and Michelle Obama said they paid off their student loans a few years before he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006.  

Buttigieg often speaks about the experience that he and his husband have had with student loan debt. Buttigieg graduated from Harvard in 2004, then won a Rhodes scholarship and graduated from Oxford in 2007. The mayor previously told Vice that he got through school without much debt, but that Chasten racked up loans while getting bachelor’s and master’s degrees to become a teacher.  

In his financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics in mid-May, Buttigieg reported that he and his husband have between $110,000 and $265,000 in student loan debt. The report requires a range rather than a specific dollar amount. Chris Meagher, a campaign spokesman, said the exact amount is $131,296.  

Americans with student loans owe on average $33,000, so the Buttigiegs’ debt is on the high end. They are among the 2.8 million Americans who owe more than $100,000 in federal student loan debt. 

Meagher did not answer questions about whether the loans belonged to Buttigieg or his husband, or both. 

The disclosure statement shows that the couple has 20 loans outstanding, with interest rates ranging from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, on loans that were opened between 2009 and 2017. Fifteen of those accounts, more than $100,000 of the balance, were reported to be on an income-based repayment plan. 

Buttigieg has spoken about making it easier to refinance student loan debt. During a town hall hosted by Fox News, he discussed expanding the federal Pell Grant program and making it easier to pay off debt through public service. On his website, he called for middle- and low-income families to pay zero tuition'' at public colleges, or to attend themdebt free.”  

Buttigieg has also called for more support for students who enter public service, such as teaching. 

Seven 2020 presidential contenders have proposed legislation in the Senate to do that. The bill would simplify and expand a program that forgives federal loans for public service workers who make 120 monthly loan payments while working for a government agency or qualified nonprofit. Only about 1% of borrowers who applied to the program were approved. The candidates backing the legislation are Warren, Sanders, Harris, and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado.  

Former Vice President Joe Biden made a call for a similar simplification and expansion Tuesday in a speech in Houston before one of the nation’s largest teachers unions. 
…

Beto O’Rourke stumbled with women from the start, featuring his wife sitting silently in his presidential campaign launch video and joking repeatedly about being a part-time parent.

But with his campaign at risk of stalling, O’Rourke is attempting to improve his standing with female voters. His wife, Amy, will begin a rare string of campaign appearances on Friday in Iowa, speaking at joint events and making herself available to chat and take pictures with would-be supporters.

Her presence will be an important test of whether Beto O’Rourke can reverse his less-than-favorable first impressions with women. It’s an unusual position for a candidate whose appeal with women helped make him a national political phenomenon while nearly upsetting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last fall. And it shows how much work has to be done to get his presidential bid back on track.

“Any perceived entitlement by a young white male candidate did disqualify him with some young women activists,” Judy Downs, executive director of the Des Moines-area Polk County Democratic Party, said of O’Rourke. Downs remains undecided in the party’s 2020 primary but added, “In a field where we have 24 qualified candidates, that kind of small-level of gaffe can be enough to cut someone off the list.”

This Iowa swing comes as O’Rourke seeks to reintroduce himself to voters.

He burst into the presidential race at a breakneck pace, bouncing around the country and prioritizing town hall crowds over national media appearances and building out a campaign infrastructure. When initial buzz fizzled, O’Rourke changed course, hiring dozens of new staffers, appearing more often on national TV and rolling out detailed proposals on immigration and other hot-button issues, attempting to shake perceptions he offered more style than substance.

Aides insist that strategy shift doesn’t extend to Amy O’Rourke, noting that she campaigned in New Hampshire last month. They say her stepping more into the presidential race spotlight is due to the logistics of their three children finishing the school year — not an acknowledgement that his campaign needs her help.

“When she can get on the road, she wants to get on the road,” O’Rourke spokesman Chris Evans said. “She is as much of the core of the campaign as he is.”

But others in O’Rourke’s orbit acknowledge there’s ground to be made up.

“He has this kind of persona of the preppy rich kid and it’s easy to say, He's just another privileged white guy and does America need that now?' I totally see that," said Tzatzil LeMair, who helped organize campaign events while O'Rourke was running for Senate in Texas and helms the "Latinos for Beto" page on Facebook. "Beto is like this product, but you have to try it. You have to get people to meet him. You need toexperience’ Beto.”

Iowa state Sen. Clarie Celsi remains undecided in the primary but said O’Rourke’s parenting quip was a “deal breaker for me,” despite his quickly apologizing and abandoning it during the campaign’s opening days.

“You see young men with five kids running for office, and you’re like, `Oh, I wonder how you’re able to do that — oh, you have a wife at home, great.’ But women have to fight a lot harder to be able to have that much freedom,” she said.

Playing an active role in the campaign, Amy O’Rourke could smooth over such impressions. A 37-year-old teacher and school administrator, she advised on policy and strategy during the Senate race and is doing the same for the presidential bid, aides say. Even while not personally campaigning, she helps plan travel schedules, reviews major issue proposals and critiques things like designs on campaign shirts.

“We’re better when Amy talks. We’re better when she’s talking, be it in a video, on stage or in Beto’s ear,” said Kim Olson, a friend of the O’Rourkes who campaigned unsuccessfully for Texas agriculture commissioner last year and is now running for Congress in a district between Fort Worth and Dallas.

Winning over women will be crucial to success in Iowa. Women made up a majority of Iowa voters who supported Democratic House candidates, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of voters from the 2018 midterms, and they typically turn out in stronger numbers than men for the caucuses, which begin the presidential nominating process.

O’Rourke received 52 percent of the 2018 female vote in the nation’s largest red state compared to 48 percent for Cruz, according to VoteCast, though Cruz won the race by 2.6 percentage points. O’Rourke’s campaign also points to recent polling suggesting he could beat President Donald Trump in a head-to-head, 2020 matchup, fueled by strong favorability ratings with women.

Even as he reboots his campaign, though, the new Beto O’Rourke at times looks like the old one. He recently livestreamed getting a haircut, a move he also made while running for Senate. But he joked this time about “cutting off some of this ear hair you get when you get older,” a quip that women on social media quickly noted a female candidate wouldn’t have been able to live down.

Avery Blank, an adviser to the Washington-based Wilson Center’s Women in Public Service Project, wrote a column about Amy’s nonspeaking role in the O’Rourke launch video. She says the campaign missed a chance to leverage what she knew about her husband as a person — but appearing together before voters can fix that.

“Let Amy speak,” Blank said. “Give her the mic.”
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Beto O’Rourke stumbled with women from the start, featuring his wife sitting silently in his presidential campaign launch video and joking repeatedly about being a part-time parent.

But with his campaign at risk of stalling, O’Rourke is attempting to improve his standing with female voters. His wife, Amy, will begin a rare string of campaign appearances on Friday in Iowa, speaking at joint events and making herself available to chat and take pictures with would-be supporters.

Her presence will be an important test of whether Beto O’Rourke can reverse his less-than-favorable first impressions with women. It’s an unusual position for a candidate whose appeal with women helped make him a national political phenomenon while nearly upsetting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last fall. And it shows how much work has to be done to get his presidential bid back on track.

“Any perceived entitlement by a young white male candidate did disqualify him with some young women activists,” Judy Downs, executive director of the Des Moines-area Polk County Democratic Party, said of O’Rourke. Downs remains undecided in the party’s 2020 primary but added, “In a field where we have 24 qualified candidates, that kind of small-level of gaffe can be enough to cut someone off the list.”

This Iowa swing comes as O’Rourke seeks to reintroduce himself to voters.

He burst into the presidential race at a breakneck pace, bouncing around the country and prioritizing town hall crowds over national media appearances and building out a campaign infrastructure. When initial buzz fizzled, O’Rourke changed course, hiring dozens of new staffers, appearing more often on national TV and rolling out detailed proposals on immigration and other hot-button issues, attempting to shake perceptions he offered more style than substance.

Aides insist that strategy shift doesn’t extend to Amy O’Rourke, noting that she campaigned in New Hampshire last month. They say her stepping more into the presidential race spotlight is due to the logistics of their three children finishing the school year — not an acknowledgement that his campaign needs her help.

“When she can get on the road, she wants to get on the road,” O’Rourke spokesman Chris Evans said. “She is as much of the core of the campaign as he is.”

But others in O’Rourke’s orbit acknowledge there’s ground to be made up.

“He has this kind of persona of the preppy rich kid and it’s easy to say, He's just another privileged white guy and does America need that now?' I totally see that," said Tzatzil LeMair, who helped organize campaign events while O'Rourke was running for Senate in Texas and helms the "Latinos for Beto" page on Facebook. "Beto is like this product, but you have to try it. You have to get people to meet him. You need toexperience’ Beto.”

Iowa state Sen. Clarie Celsi remains undecided in the primary but said O’Rourke’s parenting quip was a “deal breaker for me,” despite his quickly apologizing and abandoning it during the campaign’s opening days.

“You see young men with five kids running for office, and you’re like, `Oh, I wonder how you’re able to do that — oh, you have a wife at home, great.’ But women have to fight a lot harder to be able to have that much freedom,” she said.

Playing an active role in the campaign, Amy O’Rourke could smooth over such impressions. A 37-year-old teacher and school administrator, she advised on policy and strategy during the Senate race and is doing the same for the presidential bid, aides say. Even while not personally campaigning, she helps plan travel schedules, reviews major issue proposals and critiques things like designs on campaign shirts.

“We’re better when Amy talks. We’re better when she’s talking, be it in a video, on stage or in Beto’s ear,” said Kim Olson, a friend of the O’Rourkes who campaigned unsuccessfully for Texas agriculture commissioner last year and is now running for Congress in a district between Fort Worth and Dallas.

Winning over women will be crucial to success in Iowa. Women made up a majority of Iowa voters who supported Democratic House candidates, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of voters from the 2018 midterms, and they typically turn out in stronger numbers than men for the caucuses, which begin the presidential nominating process.

O’Rourke received 52 percent of the 2018 female vote in the nation’s largest red state compared to 48 percent for Cruz, according to VoteCast, though Cruz won the race by 2.6 percentage points. O’Rourke’s campaign also points to recent polling suggesting he could beat President Donald Trump in a head-to-head, 2020 matchup, fueled by strong favorability ratings with women.

Even as he reboots his campaign, though, the new Beto O’Rourke at times looks like the old one. He recently livestreamed getting a haircut, a move he also made while running for Senate. But he joked this time about “cutting off some of this ear hair you get when you get older,” a quip that women on social media quickly noted a female candidate wouldn’t have been able to live down.

Avery Blank, an adviser to the Washington-based Wilson Center’s Women in Public Service Project, wrote a column about Amy’s nonspeaking role in the O’Rourke launch video. She says the campaign missed a chance to leverage what she knew about her husband as a person — but appearing together before voters can fix that.

“Let Amy speak,” Blank said. “Give her the mic.”
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