POLITICO NIGHTLY: How racism became a kitchen table issue

By Maya King and Renuka Rayasam

With help from Myah Ward SICK AND TIRED — In the two weeks since George Floyd died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, the conversation about race in America has made its way to the polls. Priorities have shifted among an overwhelming number of voters from issues like health care or the economy to racial tensions in the country. A plurality (42 percent) of registered voters surveyed by CNN said that race relations would be an “extremely important” factor in who they vote for in November — 11 percentage points higher than those who said the coronavirus was their top election priority (31 percent) and two percentage points above those who said they were most concerned about the economy (40 percent). So what changed? Racism has become a kitchen table issue. Floyd was laid to rest in Houston this afternoon and civil rights leaders weren’t the only ones who marked the occasion. Texas conservatives including Gov. Greg Abbott, Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz condemned his death. Monuments to Confederate leaders are being removed from public spaces. Politicians and big-name corporations have released statements in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, in exchange for good will among consumers of color. Vice President Mike Pence is being pushed to address institutional racism more widely, an issue he once brushed off in public forums. On Capitol Hill, Congress is floating legislation that could dramatically change police practices. Minneapolis’ city council voted to begin the process of disbanding the city’s police force. All the while, the protests against police violence towards black men and women enter their third week across the country against the backdrop of a global pandemic that disproportionately kills African-Americans. There are major implications for November, which is quickly turning into a referendum on race relations in the country. And President Donald Trump, who has championed tough policing and been slow to criticize white nationalist movements, while antagonizing protesters on Twitter, is losing ground among several key demographics: non-college educated white voters, 60+ voters and women. It’s opened up a window for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to fill those key gaps by riding a wave of enthusiasm stoked by the current social climate and given rise to a bloc both Republicans and establishment Democrats once counted out: young people of color, who have been at the frontlines of the protests. Low enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket helps explain why so many black voters stayed home in 2016. While Hillary Clinton won an overwhelming majority of black support, black turnout was at a 20-year low. Feeling overused and unenthused by Democrats, the black voters who didn't vote for Clinton either supported Trump or stayed home altogether. If the pattern repeats itself this November, that spells trouble for Democrats up and down the ballot. But that was 2016: The coronavirus didn’t exist, police violence was not front of mind for voters and unemployment was not in double-digits. Though some worry that polling problems, like the kind seen in Georgia today , could keep black voters from casting their ballots in November.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. Check out this Twitter thread from Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein to see what primary voting looked like in Georgia today, featuring cameos from my hometown Jonesboro and LeBron James! Reach out with tips: rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.

HAPPENING TOMORROW AT 9 a.m. EDT – "A WORLD TRANSFORMED” PART III: AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. RAJIV SHAH: Join Global Translations author Ryan Heath for a virtual interview with Dr. Rajiv Shah, president, The Rockefeller Foundation and former Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to discuss the Foundation’s work in expanding Covid-19 testing, the role that philanthropy and partnerships can play in recovery, and lessons learned fighting the spread of Ebola while serving in the Obama administration. REGISTER HERE.     Pallbearers bring the casket into the church for the funeral for George Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston today. | Getty Images First In Nightly RURAL AMERICA VS. COVID — Coronavirus outbreaks among farm workers are popping up in rural communities across the country , sparking fears within the agriculture industry that cases will skyrocket as harvest season stretches into summer. In the coming weeks, more crews will be sent into fields to pick, pack and ship ripening crops. About a quarter of the 2.5 million-person workforce follows the harvest into other regions, bringing concerns that migratory workers could spread the disease to more farms and states. Like meatpacking plant employees, farm workers have been deemed essential for their role in the nation’s food supply. But the federal government has not made safety rules mandatory, agriculture reporter Liz Crampton reports, leaving it to farmers’ discretion whether to enact any safety measures at all. Advocates for the low-income, mostly immigrant workforce say not enough farming operations have taken steps to protect workers, warning that pickers of the nation’s fruits and vegetables could trigger Covid-19 contagions in new places just as they are reopening their economies. “It’s very concerning given that there have been several outbreaks at farm labor camps this early in the season in North Carolina,” said Lori Johnson, managing attorney of the Farmworker Unit of Legal Aid of North Carolina. On The Hill MORE TWEETS, MORE SIGHS — If there was ever a tweet from Trump that Senate Republicans didn’t want to touch, it’s this one. Trump’s tweet this morning attacking a 75-year old protester in Buffalo — who was shoved by the police and bled from his head after falling — stunned some in a caucus that’s grown used to the president’s active Twitter feed. After examining a print-out of the tweet, Sen. Lisa Murkowski gasped: “Oh lord, ugh.” “Why would you fan the flames?” she said of the president’s tweet. “That’s all I’m going to say.” But though the moderate Murkowski was nearly rendered speechless, the missive mostly failed to get a rise out of Senate Republicans, congressional reporters Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett write. Many know Trump will tweet something else soon they will be asked to respond to, even if the Buffalo tweet seemed a new frontier for Trump’s insult-laden social media persona. But few senators spoke out. Even Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who marched with Black Lives Matters protesters and voted to oust Trump from office in the impeachment trial, seemed exasperated. “I saw the tweet,” Romney said. “It was a shocking thing to say and I won’t dignify it with any further comment.” Covid-2020 HOW DEFUND SHOOK UP 2020 — Biden says he opposes the growing movement to defund police departments amid national outrage over police brutality. But Trump is still using it as a rallying cry against the Democratic nominee. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, national correspondent Natasha Korecki explains what defunding really is — and how it’s forcing Biden to tread a fine line between scaring off moderates and alienating activists. Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast ‘We cannot turn away’ — In a video message that played during Floyd’s funeral in Houston, Biden urged Floyd’s family and friends to allow their pain to fuel a push for racial justice in America. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to deal with the denial of the promise of this nation to so many people for so long,” Biden said. The former vice president, who has seldom left his Wilmington, Del., home over the past few months amid the coronavirus pandemic, on Monday flew to Houston, where he met with Floyd’s family ahead of today’s funeral. Ask The Audience This week’s question: If there's a second wave, which pandemic restriction do you hope doesn't come back? Please write us and we’ll include some answers in our Friday edition. Around the Nation PANDEMIC, PROTESTS AND POT — The cannabis industry started the year with hopes that Congress would reform banking laws, but instead it got the pandemic and protests. Pot sales are soaring and calls to end the war on drugs have gotten more vocal. About two-thirds of Americans now support marijuana legalization, according to Gallup, a figure that’s doubled over the last 20 years. But even as more states have loosened marijuana laws, racial disparities in arrests remain as stark as ever. Black people are still almost four times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana-related crimes, even though blacks and whites use the drug at roughly the same levels, according to the ACLU. In Minnesota, where Floyd was killed, black people are nearly 5.5 times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana-related offenses. Renu spoke with cannabis editor Paul Demko about whether the industry is facing a watershed moment and how ultra-conservative Oklahoma has become an unlikely beacon of cannabis reform. This conversation has been edited. How has the pandemic affected cannabis sales? Most evidence suggests that this industry is proving to be recession resilient. There was a huge spike in sales just as the economy was shutting down and people panic shopped because they didn’t know if pot shops would be shuttered. But almost all dispensaries were allowed to remain open across the country and sales have remained robust. But there have been downsides too, right? Hasn’t federal cannabis legislation taken a backseat to pandemic aid? Absolutely. The industry had been hopeful that it might get some federal relief, particularly on access to banking. Many cannabis companies have to operate primarily as cash businesses and have very limited access to loans. But hopes for that happening have cratered. Cannabis lobbyists are still hoping that cannabis banking might get attached to a must-pass coronavirus relief bill. It was in the most recent House bill, but Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — have ridiculed its inclusion. On the federal level, it’s probably stasis for the time being — at least until we see how the election pans out. Why is it so tough to move the needle on the war on drugs, even as George Floyd’s death has put a focus on criminal justice reform? That’s a challenging puzzle to unlock. The drug war is highly entrenched, and it’s only relatively recently that there’s been growing resistance to locking people up who commit crimes primarily related to their addiction problems. On this one, in particular, there’s also a generational divide. Many older lawmakers are less comfortable with marijuana legalization than their younger counterparts, regardless of political party. As long as Mitch McConnell controls the Senate, it seems highly unlikely that you’ll see significant loosening of federal restrictions on marijuana. Is this a watershed moment? At the state level, it seems like we’ve already passed the watershed moment. Look at a staunchly conservative state like Oklahoma, which traditionally has had some of the harshest criminal drug penalties in the country. It now has the biggest medical marijuana program in the country — and it’s not even close — with nearly 300,000 people enrolled in the program, and looks poised to enact recreational legalization soon. And you’ve already seen a Republican lawmaker in Oklahoma tout taxing recreational marijuana as a way to bolster the state’s sagging revenues, arguing that they could raise $100 million in taxes annually. From the Health Desk WALKING IT BACK — The World Health Organization has walked back a top official’s claim that asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is “very rare” after it sparked controversy and confusion worldwide, writes health care reporter Brianna Ehley. The remarks Monday by epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove — the WHO’s technical lead on the pandemic — contradicted advice given by health experts and policymakers in most countries, who have based calls for social distancing and mask wearing on the idea that people without symptoms can unwittingly spread infection. And several prominent Republicans jumped on Van Kerkhove’s initial statements as evidence the country could safely, and completely, reopen. The initial comments — and later retraction — reignited a debate over how prevalent asymptomatic spread is and what it even means. Most public health experts believe that such asymptomatic spread is a driving force behind the pandemic. One study showed that 40 percent to 45 percent of those infected don’t exhibit symptoms, but could be spreading the virus. Other studies have put the share of asymptomatic cases at around 20 percent. There’s even confusion over what counts as an asymptomatic case. Some infected people have mild symptoms or unusual symptoms and don’t realize they have Covid. Others may be spreading the virus before they even become sick themselves. Another study showed that 44 percent of secondary cases come from people before they show Covid symptoms. The Global Fight EUROPE’S FIGHT WITH RACISM — It took the killing of a black man in the U.S., choked under the knee of a white police officer, to bring people out into the streets in Europe, writes assistant editor Esther King . The continent doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to tackling racism — or even admitting it exists. Despite the prevalence of racial profiling, police brutality and discrimination against non-white citizens in labor and housing markets, Europe hasn’t seen a tide-turning civil rights movement capable of making an impact on the political sphere. Now, after an angry week that saw unprecedented protests across the continent, some activists see reason for hope: that Europe is finally ready to start grappling with racial injustice on its soil. Racism in Europe "might be less visible," said Tunde Adefioye, who is from L.A. and works at the Brussels theater KVS, "but it’s not true that it’s less intense.” Nightly Number 10,000 The record-high mark the Nasdaq Composite briefly hit today, fueled by tech stocks and hopes on the economic reopening. The Nasdaq closed 0.3 percent up at 9,953.75. Parting Words Matt Wuerker LOVE AND THE LOCKDOWN — Spending countless hours with loved ones has turned into … some less than loving feelings. Divorces in China surged in March, as couples emerged from two months of isolation. Incidents of domestic violence around the globe have multiplied. And in the U.S., lawyers and counselors report an uptick in inquiries from couples in distress. Some of that can be explained by closed courthouses and couples having more time, a lot more, to think about their relationships. But all of the numbers add up to a warning for U.S. couples. “You've got just the complete emotional uncertainty that people are feeling, just as a result of being isolated and in a world where people are sick and now you've got people that are peacefully protesting, and rioting,” said Los Angeles-based family law attorney Laura Wasser, who’s worked with a number of high net worth clients, including Angelina Jolie, Kim Kardashian and Stevie Wonder. Clients have come to her with annoyances about their partners, complaints about their spouses chewing too loud, or irritating them with loud phone calls in their home offices. Couples already separated are confronting a new set of problems: Some can no longer pay child support. Custody disputes have taken on another dimension, with parents concerned about ex-partners exposing their children to the virus. Psychologists Julie and John Gottman, co-founders of the Gottman Institute, which provides resources to help strengthen relationships and offers training to clinicians, have both seen a 30 percent spike in their respective couples therapy clients in recent months. Juggling child care and economic uncertainty means couples are facing “a circle of increasing stress,” said John Gottman. “It’s kind of like couples are in a pressure cooker,” Julie Gottman said, “and the pressure is building, building and building, and there’s really no escape.” It’s not all bad news for relationships. Couples who went into quarantine with a strong relationship may come out stronger, said D.C.-based Life Coach Sara Oliveri Olumba, who has also seen a spike in clients seeking couples coaching. “My observation is that the restrictions associated with the pandemic have actually really helped people to improve their relationships.”   JOIN TOMORROW AT 4 p.m. EDT - WOMEN AND COVID-19, SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS IN CRISIS PART II : What if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016? Join Women Rule editorial director Anna Palmer for a virtual interview with Curtis Sittenfeld, author of “Rodham,” to discuss the novel that reimagines Hillary Clinton’s life and political career without a marriage to Bill Clinton. Curtis will also share the process of releasing a book in the midst of global pandemic and how she is working with independently owned bookstores struggling as a result of this crisis. REGISTER HERE.     Did someone forward this email to you? 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