Manufacturers suggest Trump’s removal as business groups condemn violence

A group representing U.S. manufacturers said Vice President Mike Pence should consider moving to eject President Donald Trump from office. Another lobbying group representing corporate executives called on Trump himself to end the chaos in the nation’s capital. Leading bank CEOs weighed in with their own pleas.

The storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on Wednesday, after the president urged a larger group of protesters to march on Congress, spurred a flurry of warnings from the nation’s top business organizations that had long been supportive of the president and his party.

National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons, a Republican who once enjoyed a close if uneasy relationship with Trump, raised the the specter of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president and Cabinet to declare the president unfit to discharge his duties and assume power.

“This is sedition and should be treated as such,” Timmons said in a written statement. “The outgoing president incited violence in an attempt to retain power, and any elected leader defending him is violating their oath to the Constitution and rejecting democracy in favor of anarchy.”

The blunt statement stood out even on a day in which Washington was consumed by fear and heartbreak as a violent mob stormed the Capitol. “Vice President Pence, who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy,” Timmons said.

Other business groups, many of whom had good relationships with the White House and the Trump administration, also weighed in Wednesday afternoon, many abandoning their veneers of diplomacy and typically measured corporate rhetoric to condemn the action of Trump’s supporters, who interrupted the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win, forced lawmakers to evacuate their chambers and threw the Hill into panic.

“I am disgusted by the actions of those who have stormed the U.S. Capitol,” Citi CEO Michael Corbat wrote. “I have faith in our democratic process and know that the important work of Congress will continue.”

American Gas Association President and CEO Karen Harbert called the violence “a horrible and dangerous affront to democracy in our nation.”

At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which sits within view of the White House, CEO Tom Donohue called for the “attacks” against the Capitol building to end.

The business community’s outrage was the final breaking point in a relationship with a president that had begun his term waging rhetorical wars on companies that refused to his bidding. The two sides settled into an apprehensive truce as the Trump administration rolled back regulations even as he upended trade and foreign policy, roiling markets.

The Business Roundtable, which represents chief executives of many of the nation’s largest businesses, called on Trump to put an end to the unrest. “The chaos unfolding in the nation’s capital is the result of unlawful efforts to overturn the legitimate results of a democratic election,” the group wrote. “The country deserves better. Business Roundtable calls on the President and all relevant officials to put an end to the chaos and to facilitate the peaceful transition of power.”

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter won't attend Biden's inauguration

Former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter will not attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. It marks the first time the couple, 96 and 93, will have missed the ceremonies since Carter was sworn in as the 39th president in 1977.

A spokeswoman at The Carter Center in Atlanta said the Carters have sent Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris their “best wishes” and “look forward to a successful administration.”

Biden was a young Delaware senator and Carter ally during the Georgian’s term in the White House.

The Carters have spent the coronavirus pandemic mostly at their home in Plains, Georgia, where both were raised and where they returned after leaving the White House in 1981.

Separately, former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura will attend the inauguration in person. Their spokesman, Freddy Ford, said, “President and Mrs. Bush look forward to returning to the Capitol for the swearing in of President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

The announcement from Bush, a Republican, came a day before Congress was scheduled to convene for a joint session to confirm the Electoral College vote won by Biden. President Donald Trump's Republican allies in the House and Senate plan to object to the election results, a longshot effort that is all but certain to fail.

The Bushes also attended Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Ford added that “witnessing the peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of our democracy that never gets old.”

Carter, a Democrat, became the longest-lived American president in March 2019, surpassing former President George H.W. Bush, who died the previous November. Carter survived a melanoma diagnosis that spread to his brain in 2015. He has since had several falls and hip replacement surgery. He no longer teaches Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, as he had for decades, but still participates in church activities via video amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carter was the first former president to confirm his plans to attend Trump’s inauguration in 2017. The Carters were seated on the aisle, next to former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, and former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush. The elder Bush was the lone former president at the time who did not attend Trump’s inauguration. The Carters did travel to Washington for the elder Bush’s funeral.

‘We need aggressive healing’: How governors are leading divided states

President-elect Joe Biden is about to inherit a situation that governors in politically divided states know all too well.

He’ll assume the presidency in a country that’s not only divided about how to control the coronavirus but also about how to emerge from the pandemic-related economic downturn, how and whether to reopen schools and how to prevent future virus outbreaks.

Governors in the nation’s two dozen states with divided governments or divided electorates worked through this dynamic for much of 2020 as their policies angered constituents and colleagues alike.

Republican lawmakers in Michigan sued Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over her emergency orders. In North Carolina, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest sued Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper over his executive orders. In Louisiana and Kansas, Democratic governors sued Republican state lawmakers over efforts to limit their pandemic powers.

The lawsuits are just one symptom of the deep partisan fracture in the U.S. that was seen on Election Day, when the majority of voters in 25 states cast ballots for Biden and majorities in another 25 states cast ballots for Donald Trump.

“It’s really been kind of ugly — the rhetoric,” Whitmer, the target of an alleged kidnapping plot, said in an interview.

Still, Whitmer continues to meet with Republican lawmakers regularly. “I know we have zero shot of finding common ground if we're not even talking to each other,” she said.

Republicans governors, too, are doing the same.

“There is no shortage of critical issues before our state and nation, and we’ll need both sides working together to really make a difference,” Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, the incoming head of the Republican Governors Association, said in a statement after meeting recently with newly elected Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. Ducey has come under intense fire from Trump and other Republicans for not doing more to overturn Biden’s win in the state.

As part of The Fifty, a series that examines the role of state and local leaders in America today, POLITICO asked governors from the country’s most divided states to discuss how they’ve dealt with these challenges and how Biden, too, can unite the country. No Republicans accepted our invitation, but Whitmer and Cooper both agreed to interviews.

Here are their perspectives, edited for length and clarify:

Polarized America

You have been sued and our country feels really polarized right now. There is so much resistance to Covid orders and you both govern in states where both Republicans and Democrats are in charge. How are you working with members of the opposite party in this environment?

Whitmer: This last year has been really hard with Covid. Once the president put the spotlight on me, it kind of changed my politics on the ground here. Unfortunately, not for the better. So it’s going to be challenging, but I'm absolutely determined to do everything that we can to get an agenda accomplished. And it's got to be centered by what the vast majority of people care about. That's why I keep going back to those dinner table issues.

We have continued to hold conversations [with Republican lawmakers] every other week. We've kept the schedule even when the legislature was suing me. We’ve been doing that virtually because they don't subscribe to the same mask wearing that I do. Even when those conversations are hard, they're still happening. It's not always easy. It's not always fun, but it's essential.

Cooper: You have to rely on cooperation and you have to have an ability to put yourself in the other shoes to try to figure out where they are coming from. A lot of us have the same goals of wanting a great future for our kids and good paying jobs and having clean water when you turn on the tap. Sometimes in a state — a purple state that's divided — sometimes our people do that intentionally to try to make sure that one is a check on the other.

I think you have to be satisfied continuing to get four yards on every play and making sure you get a first down instead of the long bomb. And eventually you can get where you need to go. But sometimes it takes a little longer.

Fighting the virus

Michigan was hit really hard with Covid early on and cases have been spiking again. In North Carolina, cases have been growing this fall and winter. How are you trying to get the pandemic under control given the opposition to your orders?

Whitmer: The legislature started suing me and lost in the [Michigan] Supreme Court, so now the nature of our powers are a little bit different. I still have the ability to take actions to protect people. Like every governor in the country, we have to always weigh what we know to be the perfect action. If we could all really stop in place for three weeks, we would see a dramatic improvement.

What can the people tolerate and what is the medically smartest thing to do and where is the place where the two meet? Because the perfect policy that is not accepted by anyone won't do anything to address the issue. A half measure that everyone buys into won't do it. Ultimately it is individual choices that the people are making.

It's going to get worse. I hate having to continue to say that. But these vaccines on the horizon, that gives us great hope and optimism. Our call to Michiganders is to buckle down and do what we got to do right now.

Cooper: It’s been a struggle because I've had a Republican legislature that has passed legislation that would undercut a lot of the authority that I have used. Fortunately, I've been able to veto them and have had the vetoes upheld. We've had a lot of lawsuits. Fortunately, we've been able to beat most of those back, but it’s about continued cooperation, continued information. I think the public knows that this can be a matter of life and death for their loved ones. Most of the public realizes that we can't get our economy fully going again until we slow the spread of this virus. So we're trying to use that support we believe we have out there to try to get things done.

Putting the election behind

Michigan has been at the center of Trump’s false election fraud claims. Trump won North Carolina by about 1 percentage point. This has obviously been an election season that is unlike any we have seen in its intensity and divisiveness. How does the country move on from this election and its aftermath?

Whitmer: It's going to be harder to recover from it. However, it doesn't mean it's not doable. I do think that leaders like President-elect Biden, who in his first speech after being declared the victor, talked about unity and being a president for every American, that's really important. I'm hopeful that that kind of spirit will change what's happening in Washington and we can reflect that here in Michigan as well.

Cooper: It’s clear that we've had a president that is intentionally trying to divide people. I do not think people are as divided as our politics would suggest. I think there are a lot of everyday people who are just trying to put food on the table, particularly during this pandemic, who are on the edge trying to pay their utility bills, trying to pay the rent. I'm grateful this election is over. A lot of people need to realize that it's over and we need to begin transition and we need to now look forward and stick to the science and data.

Working with Washington

Trump told governors that they should take control of the pandemic in their states. Early on he left state leaders in charge of securing testing supplies and personal protective equipment, but also didn’t dictate which orders they should implement to control the virus. How should the Biden administration work with states to combat Covid? Should he let state leaders decide what’s best for their states or take a more national approach?

Whitmer: First and foremost, a strategy around consistent and accurate information dissemination would go a long way. Second, the resources to continue our Covid response, as well as building up the administration of vaccines, that's going to be crucial. I know we are all being lobbied about prioritization within vaccine groupings in terms of who's eligible and who gets it and what tranche. The fact of the matter is, a lot of that is going to be determined at the federal level. There will be some discretion for the states, and I think that's OK.

For the state to have some discretion is important. States need to really own a lot of the messaging to different populations. Every state's different. When I'm talking to people in Dearborn, Mich., a very Arabic community, versus talking to the Upper Peninsula, talking to Detroiters, there are different communities that make up these different geographies. Those unique challenges are going to need to be met at the local level. However, the resources to meet them are going to have to be a part of the federal strategy.

Cooper: We need a better coordinated federal strategy. Operation Warp Speed was well devised and it has held a lot of promise. But we've been lacking in most other things from a federal strategy. It has been difficult because this president has taken the position that at times he's been interested in it, but at other times that we really don't need to worry about it and actually arguing that people should protest and disobey executive orders that governors have put in place across the country.

A new president might be able to do a favor to some governors by taking some of the political pressure off of them to say we are going to have a national mask mandate. It would be a big help if we had a president that said you should wear a mask, social distance, stay six feet apart, and you should try to wash your hands. If we can have our leaders who are talking about the basic things that really don't cost anything, that really don't cause any economic harm, but actually, in fact, help the economy, just that central core messaging, that this is something serious, even if you don't give us another dollar and we need lots of dollars.

Redistricting by commission

Michigan will rely on an independent commission to draw congressional districts while North Carolina’s legislature will continue to draw districts. What’s your take on doing redistricting through an independent commission?

Whitmer: Our secretary of state will be working with this commission that's been created by our amendment to the Constitution in 2018. This is the first time we've ever done anything like this. I'm excited because I think that this is eminently smarter than having the legislature draw districts where they don't make a lot of sense. They were gerrymandered. They were designed to promote the current occupant of the seat in winning. That’s why we have such a big disconnect between the people and the decisions that are made in the legislature. This is going to be a great opportunity for us to rectify that disconnect.

Cooper: I'm all in favor of an independent, nonpartisan commission like in Arizona. We need that in North Carolina. It's worked well in other states that have done it. The key is that we don't have a citizen initiative. It would have to be the legislature which has the power now to give up that power. I vowed that I would sign a bill to do that.

But what we're trying to do is create a bipartisan effort here to get this done. Now, as we are entering into redistricting, the Republicans do have a majority in our state legislature. We don't necessarily expect them to go to an independent redistricting commission. But that's one way to avoid a lot of the litigation and it's one way to avoid that very red, very blue districts issue that I talked about. More purple districts, more swing districts are better for negotiation and compromise. We can cooperate without giving up on our principles.

Bringing the country together

What happens now? How can we all come together when the country is so divided?

Whitmer: I believe that this election was really about coalitions of people coming together to plot a new course in America. The other piece, though, that I think that we have to be very mindful of and thoughtful and intentional about is understanding that there still was 70 some million people who voted for Donald Trump. We have to understand what motivates people as we develop an agenda so that every American can see something of a value in that. For some, it's probably not possible, but I think for the majority, we should be working hard to try.

Cooper: I think it's been made much more difficult now for a couple of reasons. One is social media, which continues to amplify the loudest, most stringent voices, and in addition, the hyper partisan gerrymandering that's in place that draws very blue and very red districts and elects members to state legislatures and members of Congress that don't have political incentive to compromise and to move forward, although I believe they have the moral incentive to do that simply because they are elected representatives.

I think we have to appeal to that everyday person. We have to do what we think is right, even though we may have to stand up to some loud voices in our own parties in order to get something done. And I hope we can do that because we have a lot to do. There's a lot to repair.

We need aggressive healing, a strong voice that will continue to understand that diversity is our strength. That will help us heal, but also being aggressive in the things that we need to do to get help to people right now.

No charges against Wisconsin officer who shot Jacob Blake

KENOSHA, Wis. — A Wisconsin prosecutor announced Tuesday that he will not file criminal charges against a white police officer who shot a Black man in the back in Kenosha last summer, leaving him paralyzed and setting off sometimes violent protests in the city.

Officer Rusten Sheskey’s shooting of Jacob Blake on Aug. 23, captured on bystander video, turned the nation’s spotlight on Wisconsin during a summer marked by protests over police brutality and racism. More than 250 people were arrested in the days that followed, including 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a self-styled medic with an assault rifle who is charged in the fatal shootings of two men and the wounding of a third.

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said Tuesday that he “would have to disprove the clear expression of these officers that they had to fire a weapon to defend themselves.”

He added: “I do not believe the state ... would be able to prove that the privilege of self-defense is not available.”

Graveley said he had informed Blake of the news before a news conference to announce the decision.

The Blake shooting happened three months after George Floyd died while being restrained by police officers in Minneapolis, a death that was captured on bystander video and sparked outrage and protests that spread across the United States and beyond. The galvanized Black Lives Matter movement put a spotlight on inequitable policing and became a fault line in politics, with President Donald Trump criticizing protesters and aggressively pressing a law-and-order message that he sought to capitalize on in Wisconsin and other swing states.

Kenosha, a city of 100,000 on the Wisconsin-Illinois border about 60 miles north of Chicago, was braced for renewed protests ahead of the charges, with concrete barricades and metal fencing surrounded the Kenosha County Courthouse and plywood protecting many businesses. The Common Council on Monday night unanimously approved an emergency resolution giving the mayor the power to impose curfews, among other things, and Gov. Tony Evers activated 500 National Guard troops to assist.

Sheskey was among officers responding to a woman who had reported her boyfriend was not supposed to be around. Cellphone video shows Blake walking to the driver-side door of an SUV as officers follow him with guns drawn, shouting. As Blake opens the door and leans into the SUV, Sheskey grabs his shirt from behind and opens fire.

The Kenosha police union said Blake was armed with a knife, and Sheskey ordered him several times to drop it but he would not. Sheskey’s attorney, Brendan Matthews, said Sheskey fired because Blake started turning toward the officer while holding a knife.

State investigators had said only that officers saw a knife on the floor of the SUV and hadn’t said whether Blake threatened anyone with it. The officers were not equipped with body cameras.

Sheskey, 31, has been the subject of five internal investigations since he joined the Kenosha department in 2013, including three reprimands for crashing his squad car three times over three years. He has also earned 16 awards, letters or formal commendations, his personnel file shows.

The state Department of Justice investigated the shooting under a state law that requires outside agencies to investigate all officer-involved incidents. The department asked former Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, who is Black, to review its findings after Graveley asked for an outside expert to review the investigation.

Rittenhouse, who was among armed people who took to Kenosha streets during the violence and said he was there to help protect businesses, faces multiple charges including intentional homicide. Bystander video showed Rittenhouse shooting Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounding a third man. Rittenhouse, who is white, has claimed the three men attacked him and he fired in self-defense. Conservatives across the country have been raising money for his legal team. Rittenhouse was 17 at the time of the shooting.

Rittenhouse pleaded not guilty to all charges at a hearing Tuesday.

Prosecutors dropped a sexual assault charge against Blake in November as part of deal in which he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to two years’ probation.

D.C. National Guard activated to respond to pro-Trump protests

The D.C. National Guard has been activated to respond to protests expected this week in the capital when Congress certifies that President-elect Joe Biden has defeated President Donald Trump, city officials said at a news conference on Monday.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser requested that city’s National Guard support local police in handling the influx of people expected in D.C. on Tuesday and Wednesday. D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III said the National Guard has committed to helping law enforcement “through the life cycle of this event.” Bowser said about 100 members are being called up.

“We will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city,” Bowser said.

Context: Weeks of protests erupted in the capital this summer following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. While some of the early protests did include looting and damages to local businesses, Bowser never called in the National Guard.

Against the mayor's wishes, Trump ordered Guard personnel to the city, where the military faced backlash for using overly aggressive crowd control tactics against peaceful protesters, including flying helicopters low over the city to create rotor wash, an action used in overseas conflicts.

This week: Congress on Wednesday will certify Biden’s Electoral College win, though several Republican lawmakers have said they plan to object to the results in their states after the president falsely claimed that he lost the election because of widespread fraud. The efforts on Capitol Hill are unlikely to change the outcome of the election.

Protests coming: Four rallies are planned throughout the city on Wednesday and online chatter has indicated that the protests could turn violent, NPR reported.

Trump tweeted that he “will be there” for at least one of the rallies in the White House Ellipse set to begin Wednesday at 9 a.m. Other gatherings are expected at the Washington Monument, Freedom Plaza and the Capitol, CNBC reported. Permit requests to the National Park Service predict thousands of people will attend, according to USA Today.

No guns: Bowser ordered that the National Guard personnel not be armed when responding to the protests and that they will not perform surveillance, searches or seizures of protesters.

'Disgusting': Perdue hammers Georgia secretary of state for recording Trump call

Sen. David Perdue tore into Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday for recording a phone call with President Donald Trump over the weekend, calling it “disgusting” to do so.

“I guess I was raised differently,” Perdue, a Republican, said on Fox News. “To have a statewide elected official, regardless of party, tape without disclosing a conversation — private conversation — with the president of the United States, and then leaking it to the press is disgusting.”

Perdue also downplayed the significance of the hourlong call, in which Trump implored the secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia, setting off alarm bells with legal experts and lawmakers.

“I didn't hear anything in that tape that the president hasn't already said for weeks now since the November election,” he said.

The president may have opened himself to legal exposure by potentially violating federal and state statutes against soliciting of election fraud. Raffensperger on Monday said the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney may investigate the president’s actions but sidestepped whether he believed Trump’s conduct to be lawful.

“I’m not a lawyer. All I know is that we’re going to follow the law, follow the process,” Raffensperger said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Truth matters. And we’ve been fighting these rumors for the last two months.”

The Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first obtained audio of the call on Sunday, and it was subsequently confirmed by POLITICO. The recording came to light after Trump lashed out at Raffensperger via tweet Sunday morning.

Perdue and fellow Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler have gone all-in with Trump as they seek to save their seats ahead of Tuesday’s run off. The pair previously called for Raffensperger to resign after the secretary of state and his office repeatedly dismissed unsubstantiated allegations of rampant voter fraud in the November election.

The president is scheduled to travel to the state Monday for a campaign rally in support of the two GOP senators. Democrats need to knock off both in the runoff to take control of the Senate.

Perdue said he will participate “virtually,” as he and his wife have been isolating after announcing Thursday that he had been in proximity to a person who had tested positive for Covid-19. Perdue said he had tested negative “repeatedly” in the days since.

“My wife and I are in good health — no symptoms,” Perdue added.

The Southern state where Black voters are gaining in numbers, but not power

Georgia’s fast-changing demographics — its multiracial contingent of newcomers, as well as college-educated and working class urbanites and suburbanites — are a big reason why Joe Biden won the state and why Democrats think they can pull off an upset in the Senate runoffs on Tuesday.

But a couple states over, in Mississippi, is a stark reminder of how far out of reach most of the South remains for Democrats. If Georgia is the epitome of the “New South,” Mississippi remains very much still the old South: a conservative stronghold where the GOP is composed almost exclusively of white voters, and the Democratic Party of Black voters.

At first blush, Mississippi would seem to be fertile terrain for Democrats. It has the highest percentage of Black people of any state in the country, 38 percent, and virtually all of them of voting age are Democrats. But in contrast to Georgia, Mississippi politics have become increasingly segregated.

After fracturing over the past decade, political alliances have settled along racial lines because of defections of white Democrats. About 90 percent of white people in the state vote Republican, a higher share of conservative white voters than any other state, according to Tom Bonier, CEO of TargetSmart, a Democratic data firm.

“What we’re seeing is that our politics is no longer red and blue,” said Jared Turner, a political strategist who worked on Democrat Mike Espy’s failed Senate campaign in Mississippi last year. “It’s Black and white.”

Mississippi does have a growing non-white population in common with Georgia. The share of nonwhite Mississippi residents is expected to reach 46 percent in 2030, according to the State Data Center in Mississippi. But demography often isn’t enough for Democrats to turn Southern states into presidential battlegrounds.

For starters, Mississippi lacks key features that have put Georgia and a handful of other Southern states in play: bustling metropolitan areas with an influx of highly-educated, liberal professionals and a booming economy with an array of high-paying jobs. While states such as Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas are becoming more competitive, it takes a unique combination of factors to flip a state blue. And as the results of the presidential election in Florida showed, political loyalties can shift among communities of color, so there’s no guarantee for Democrats even when demographics appear to be moving in their favor.

Trouble in rural areas

In Mississippi and many other states, the most daunting challenge for Democrats is the near-wholesale rejection of the party by rural voters.

The party is still reeling from down-ballot losses in congressional and state house races even as Joe Biden won the presidency. Democrats spent millions of dollars in an attempt to flip seats in deep red states with little to show for it.

To notch statewide Democratic wins in the near future, two things will need to happen in Mississippi: More white voters will need to cross over, and there will need to be explosive turnout from Black voters, who have become increasingly disillusioned with Democrats.

“We’re not a one-party state, but it isn’t easy for Democrats to win statewide or in large sections of the state,” said former Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. “Our state is a good deal harder than Georgia for Democrats.”

White Mississippians have fled the Democratic Party since the state House and Senate flipped to Republican majorities in 2011. The trend has accelerated during the Trump administration. Just five of 44 Democrats in the state House, which elects members in odd years, are white. Two white lawmakers switched their party allegiance from Democrat to independent last year, saying they were looking out for their moderate districts, both of which are majority Black.

Just two of the 16 Democrats in the state Senate now are two white.

Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi’s junior senator, was a Democratic state Senator until she ran as a Republican for agriculture commissioner about a decade ago.

“The most difficult problem in Mississippi is race,” said Tyree Irving, who last year was elected the first Black chairman of the Mississippi Democratic party in a quarter-century. “When I was describing the relationship between white Democrats and Black Democrats in recent years, race looms large in that situation.”

The previous six Democratic party chairman have been white, according to Mississippi Today, a local non-profit news organization. Many in the party, such as Rep. Robert L. Johnson III, think the party’s past appeals to moderate white voters failed. Irving’s win with two-thirds of the Democratic executive committee members was an implicit acknowledgment that a new approach is needed.

In 2019, for example, Democrat Jim Hood, then the state’s attorney general, ran for governor with a campaign that showed off his conservative credentials: namely, his pro-gun, anti-abortion stance. He lost to Republican Tate Reeves by nearly 6 points.

The losses by Hood and Espy exposed an existential challenge in Mississippi, said Brannon Miller, a Democratic strategist in the state. Broadly speaking, when the party tries to win over white voters, it loses Black ones. When a candidate goes after Black votes, it loses white ones.

“It’s like playing whack a mole,” Miller said.

‘I’m not into moral victories. We lost.’

Unlike Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, Mississippi hasn’t experienced explosive population growth that’s shifted the political balance of power. There isn’t a surfeit of big cities and suburbs or major corporations. Tort reform all but killed the state Democratic party’s major donor base. And widespread poverty has made small-dollar fundraising challenging, as out-of-state donors rarely put money into what they see as long-shot bids.

Even when out-of-state donors do open up their wallets, Democrats still lose statewide.

Espy raised $12 million for his Senate campaign compared with $3.3 million by Hyde-Smith, according to federal election data. Polls showed him within striking distance of the Republican incumbent.

But when Espy arrived to vote at 7 a.m. on Nov. 3 at a church in Ridgeland, and saw a line of mainly white, unmasked voters wrapped around the parking lot, he knew he was going to lose.

Espy outperformed Biden, who lost Mississippi by 16.5 percentage points, and made inroads in three predominately white suburban counties. He won more votes than Barack Obama did in the state in 2012. But he still lost to Hyde-Smith by 10 percentage points.

“I’m not into moral victories,” Espy said. “We lost.”

Espy said that much of the money he raised came in the months before the election, which wasn’t enough time to build out the infrastructure that a Democrat needs to win the state. Republicans, however, were motivated early on to show up for Donald Trump.

“Trump just gave the order for his base to turn out. We saw more voters turn out in Mississippi, and they were aligned against the Democratic Party brand,” Espy said in his first interview since the election.

To illustrate his point, he described three progressive ballot initiatives — a measure legalizing medical marijuana, one approving a state flag design without the Confederate Battle Flag, and one removing a hurdle for people running for state office. All three initiatives passed the same day he lost.

“If you told me that all three of those would have passed handily and I would have lost by 130,000 votes, I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Espy, who in 1987 became the first African American from Mississippi to serve in Congress since Reconstruction.

“Me as an emblem of the Democratic brand wasn’t acceptable in this environment.”

‘Democrats allowed themselves to become an urban party’

Mississippi is one of the only states in the South to lose population during the past two years because of the lack of jobs, according to the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. Georgia and Texas, on the other hand, are two of the fastest-growing states in the country.

Immigration has grown in Mississippi, but not enough to significantly shift the state’s political landscape, as it did in Georgia. Around 2.4 percent of Mississippi’s population was born in another country, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

One political outlier is DeSoto County, tucked in in the northwestern corner of the state, which has become a bedroom community for people who work across the border in relatively liberal Memphis, Tenn. In 2019, Democratic state Rep. Hester Jackson McCray beat her Republican opponent by 14 votes, becoming the first Black person to represent the majority white county. DeSoto still voted for Trump this November, but it ranked 80^th out of 3,006 counties that swung towards Democrats, said Bonier.

Democratic strategist James Carville said that the party’s challenges in Mississippi point to broader problems within the party. Democrats aren’t reaching the rural population, white or Black.

“The problem is that Democrats allowed themselves to become an urban party,” he said. “In a state with not many urban centers it makes it difficult. Until we’re able to have some broader appeal we’re going to be relegated to being an urban party.”

‘It’s not about the color of anybody’s skin.’

Irving, the state Democratic chair, said he thinks there’s an appetite for progressive ideas in Mississippi, pointing to the success of the ballot initiatives and Espy’s strength compared to Biden’s.

Nearly 20 percent of Mississippians live in poverty, the highest in the country, according to the U.S. Census. Health and educational outcomes have been dismal. The pandemic has left a trail of devastation across the state: More than 4,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands have filed for unemployment assistance since March.

Irving said the party needs to move left and lean into its Black base of support rather than taking their votes for granted. His goal isn’t to alienate white voters, but rather embrace an agenda that appeals to a broader group of Black voters in the state.

“It is an insult to think or suggest that Black Democrats should do more to elect white Democrats to statewide office without the white candidate putting forth a policy agenda that addresses the needs and concerns of Black Democrats,” Irving said in a follow-up email.

He’s focused on turning out Black voters — and some younger white voters — by talking about issues like reducing student loan burdens and building a bench of local Black lawmakers who are ready to run statewide. But he said the party also needs to counter a narrative that Democrats want to take money from white people to give to Black people, or that Black people disproportionately receive benefits in the state.

“You have Southern politicians, and white Democrats in years past were guilty as well, they have fed white Mississippians a racial diet — three meals a day of it — to keep poor and average middle-income Mississippians separated along racial lines,” Irving said.

He’s also got to rebuild a local party infrastructure. Espy’s campaign left behind voter data and a volunteer network that Irving hopes to build in the coming years.

A hollowed-out state party

Starting local rather than focusing on high-profile statewide races will be the key to eventually breaking Republican dominance in Mississippi, said Rep. Bennie Thompson, the lone Mississippi Democrat in Congress and the longest serving African American elected official in the state.

Thompson said the state party has been hollowed out over years. Even the party headquarters was run down until a few years ago. The party needs to rebuild brick by brick, he said, a task that will require investment and attention from national Democrats.

Irving “understands that you have to build that infrastructure locally if you expect to win statewide or nationally,” Thompson said.

“I’m a realist,” he said. “It’s not a two- or three-round fight. It might be a two-year or three-year fight, but we’re fighting.”

One of Irving’s first goals is to oust Greenwood’s popular incumbent mayor, Carolyn McAdams, in June. More than 73 percent of the population of Greenwood, Irving’s hometown and the site of Emmitt Till’s death, is Black. McAdams is white. McAdams was first elected in 2009, beating incumbent Sheriel Perkins, Greenwood’s first Black mayor. She’s been reelected repeatedly as an independent.

“I hope people see I am fair,” said McAdams. “It’s not about the color of anybody’s skin.”

But local Democratic youth activist Robert Wilson Jr. said that he thinks she’s been in office too long. Like Irving, he wants to replace her with a progressive Democrat.

“She’s a great person, but sometimes just being a great person isn’t enough,” said Wilson. “She lost touch with things going on in actual communities.”

Wilson said that after Irving first got elected to serve as state party chair, Irving sent him an email inviting him to an online meeting. It was the first time the state party had sought him out.

“The previous chairman, I would reach out to him and nothing would ever come of it,” said Wilson. Now he feels “a little bit of optimism” that the state Democratic party is finally paying attention to younger voters and local elections.

Irving knows it’s an uphill battle in the deeply conservative state. But he’s setting his sights on flipping at least one statewide office in 2023.

“I know how that may sound, given Mississippi’s history — that a Black man in Mississippi thinks he can provide a path towards a blue state,” said Irving. “But I’m not smoking anything funny.”