Poll: Pa., 2020 battleground voters say Trump’s immigration policies firing a ‘No’ vote | Wednesday Morning Coffee

Good Wednesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

Just in time for the start of Hispanic Heritage Month this week, a trio of immigration reform groups are out with a new poll showing President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on immigration costing him support among voters in a dozen 2020 battleground states — including Pennsylvania.

The poll’s release comes as former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign launches a charm offensive targeting Latino voters, whom polls show warming to Trump despite his radioactive language about immigrants and his vow to build a wall along the nation’s southern border.

Forty-three percent of respondents to the new poll, conducted by Global Strategies Group. say the Republican president’s tough talk on immigration has given them a reason to vote against Trump in 2020.

The sample of 1,500 likely voters includes includes 201 respondents from Pennsylvania, a state that Trump carried by barely a percentage point in 2016. Conducted from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7, the poll had a margin of error of 2.5 percent.

Helpfully for Biden, a clear majority of independent voters (56 percent), who were key to Trump’s win in 2016, say the administration’s family separation policy raised “major doubts” about voting for him in 2020, the poll, released Tuesday, found.

“Battleground voters, including Pennsylvania voters, have consistently moved away from Trump’s trifecta policies: deportations over citizenship, diverting funds for his border wall over COVID-19 relief, and family separation over fair and humane border policies,” Tyler Moran, the executive director of the advocacy group, the Immigration Hub, said in a statement.

“Consistent with recent voter model data that showed a large percentage of suburban, white men and women who can be persuaded against Trump with pro-immigration messaging, the issue of immigration is a loser for Trump, but can be a winner for Democrats,” Moran said.

Biden traveled to the critical swing state of Florida on Tuesday for the official start of Hispanic Heritage Month. Sunshine State voters were included in the Global Strategies poll.

“I will talk about how I am going to work like the devil to make sure I turn every Latino and Hispanic vote,” Biden said Monday ahead of his trip, MarketWatch reported.

An NBC News/Marist poll released last week showed Trump taking 50 percent support among Florida’s Latino voters, thanks to a strong showing among the state’s Cuban residents. The poll found Biden and Trump tied at 48 percent apiece, according to MarketWatch.

A Monmouth University Florida poll released Tuesday, however, told a different tale, with Biden leading Trump among Latino voters 58-32 percent, Politico reported, which reflected Hillary Clinton’s hefty lead in 2016. Biden held an overall 5-point lead in the Monmouth poll of 428 registered voters.

As of Tuesday, Biden led Trump by an average of 6.6 points nationwide in the RealClear Politics polling average.

In Pennsylvania, where Hispanic voters make up a smaller, but not less vital, share of the electorate, Biden held a 4.3 percent average lead over Trump, according to RealClear Politics. Immigration issues didn’t even chart as a concern in an August poll by Franklin & Marshall College.

In a conference call with Pennsylvania political reporters on Monday, senior Biden campaign officials downplayed the Democrat’s apparently soft standing among Latino voters, noting that they’d been pitching to them aggressively through radio campaigns and other outreach efforts.

“We’re seeing a lot of excitement from the Latino community,” a senior Biden adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There’s a lot of strong coalition organizing. There’s a small business event, specifically geared to the Latino community for Hispanic Heritage Month.”

High-profile Latino leaders have said such efforts are good, but Biden still has some catching up to do.

“The campaign understands that this is a priority, but at the same time there needs to be a little bit more support shown,” Julián Castro, a former Obama administration official, and the only Latino who ran in the Democratic presidential primary, told the Washington Post in a story published over the weekend.

“If we allow a narrative to take shape that somehow the issues of concern to this growing community are not prioritized, then we risk backsliding in the years to come,” Castro told the Post.

Our Stuff.
A fourth Pennsylvania Senate employee has tested positive for COVID-19, Elizabeth Hardison reports.An environmental regulatory board has approved a plan to limit carbon emissions from power-plants, but hurdles remain, Stephen Caruso reports.

In Lancaster, protesters were being held on $1 million bond on Monday for rioting and other charges tied to unrest over a police shooting Sunday in the Red Rose City, Cassie Miller reports.

In Pittsburgh, inmates have sued Allegheny County Jail, alleging inadequate mental health care and ‘dehumanizing’ conditions, our partners at Pittsburgh City Paper report.

Pitt, CMU y afiliados planifican animada celebración del Mes de la Hispanidad, por Presente: Pittsburgh Latino Magazine.

On our Commentary Page this morning, Joseph Otis Minott. of the Clean Air Council, praises that state regulatory board’s vote allowing Pennsylvania to enter into a regional greenhouse gas compact. And two advocates say that with drug overdoses on the rise during the pandemic, Pennsylvania law is moving in the wrong direction.

Elsewhere.
Philadelphia City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson and his wife want a federal judge to toss the corruption case against them, the Inquirer reports.
Pitt researchers are planning human testing for a COVID-19 treatment in 2021, the Post-Gazette reports.
Retiring state Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati’s re-election campaign is suing Pa. journalists to recoup $6,070 worth of public records costs, SpotlightPA reports.
A Bethlehem man had a pointed question for President Donald Trump during Tuesday night’s ABC-TV town hall in Philadelphia, the Morning Call reports.
Voters in one NEPA community will get to decide whether they want to keep their paid, full-time fire department, the Citizens-Voice reports.

Here’s your #Harrisburg Instagram of the Day:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Waiting for the @uspostalservice carrier like #SaveUSPS

A post shared by Kat Breitmayer (@kbreitmayer) on Aug 17, 2020 at 11:16am PDT

Positive COVID-19 tests are at their lowest rates since March, WHYY-FM reports.
The Republican-controlled state House voted Tuesday to ban shutdowns of churches during disasters, the Associated Press reports (via WITF-FM).
High school football fans in Erie are watching from outside fences to get their gridiron fix, GoErie reports.
Pa. likely voters aged 50 and older prefer Biden to Trump, 50-46 percent, PoliticsPA reports.
U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., fended off a progressive challenger during the First State’s primary on Tuesday, Roll Call reports.

What Goes On.
The House comes in at 11 a.m.
10 a.m., Main Rotunda: Rally for Pa. games of skill
11 a.m., Capitol Steps: Rally to legalize adult-use recreational cannabis

WolfWatch.
Gov. Tom Wolf, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, and Lehigh Valley NORML Executive Director Jeff Riedy hold a 2 p.m. newser at PEMA HQ in suburban Harrisburg to call for cannabis legalization — again.

What Goes On (Nakedly Political Edition).
Hope you packed your running shoes. It’s a big day — again.
7:30 a.m: Breakfast for Rep. Gerald Mullery
7:30 a.m: Breakfast for Rep. Bud Cook
8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Anita Kulik
8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Zach Mako
8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Joanna McClinton
8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Jason Ortitay
8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. Mike Schlossberg
8 a.m.: Breakfast for Rep. David Millard
8 a.m: Breakfast for Rep. John Galloway
8 a.m.: Breakfast for Pa. House candidate Rob Mercuri
11:30 a.m.: Golf outing for the Senate Republican Campaign Committee
5:30 p.m.: Reception for House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff
5:30 p.m.: Reception for Rep. Mike Dowling
Ride the circuit, and give at the max, and you’re out what we’re pretty sure is a record-shattering $38,550. It might be the highest, one-day tally in all the years that we’ve been cataloguing Harrisburg’s shakedown culture.

You Say It’s Your Birthday Dept.
Best wishes go out this morning to John Neurohr, at Shelly, Lyons Communications in Harrisburg. Congratulations, sir. Enjoy the day.

Heavy Rotation.
Here’s one from The Pretenders that will get you humming along. It’s the lovely ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong.’

Wednesday’s Gratuitous Hockey Link.
The Isles beat Tampa 2-1 in double OT in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference final on Tuesday night, dodging elimination. The ‘Bolts lead the series 3-2.

And now you’re up to date.