Masani Francis – Introduction to U.S. National Politics

SWA #4 Masani Francis

Among many Democratic candidates for the 2020 Presidential election, there are Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. Kamala Harris is a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate from California. When she was elected in 2016 to the Senate, she became the second African American woman and the first Indian American woman elected to serve in the United States Senate. Harris was formerly the attorney general of California, where she became the first African American and Asian American female to have the position. Harris was born in Oakland, California. She earned her law degree and served as a deputy district attorney and eventually became the attorney general of California, before announcing her candidacy for president of the United States (Kamala Harris Ballotpedia). Harris is a lifelong public safety and civil rights leader (Kamala Harris). Elizabeth Warren is a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. She was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and grew up in the middle class. Warren eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology from the University of Houston. She then went to Law school soon after and began to teach law at several prestigious universities. She became the Senator of Massachusetts in 2012 and formally declared her candidacy for president of the United States early this year. Warren has a background in both government and academia (Elizabeth Warren Ballotpedia).

Warren and Harris have put emphasis on several of the same issues. On her official website, Harris shows she is “For the People”, as this is her slogan, along with “Speaking Truth, Demanding Justice”. These reflect her interests in issues and her background, as she makes it clear that she is a defender of American values and the American people. She hopes to fix the broken criminal justice system and take on Wall Street banks for middle-class homeowners. Warren’s slogan is “We Will” or “Fighting for America’s Promise for All of Us”. Similar to Harris, Warren bases her campaign on her promise to fight for America and the American people’s best interests. The pictures on her official website reflect her slogan and theme, because they include pictures of her with children of various ages and races, reinforcing her goal, “fighting to give every kid the same chance to succeed” (Elizabeth Warren). Other pictures show her with supporters in the middle class fighting for union jobs or protesting Wall Street. These support her themes, because she hopes to “rebuild the middle class” and “end Washington corruption” (Elizabeth Warren). Harris’s pictures on her official website do not effectively represent her cause because the majority are solely of her. One picture, though, may help support her theme because it shows her among the American people.

Both candidates are more issue-oriented, but Warren may be more personable than Harris. Warren’s website has a list of her focus of issues, but reading into the issues and pictures, it seems that Warren takes a person-to-person approach. Harris, differently, is mainly about issues. Although her slogan is “For the People” she goes with a more issue-oriented approach, stating issues she feels need handling and stating her goals for America and American people. In the media, Warren’s coverage lately has been less serious, jokingly referencing her chasing a train (Lang, Photo), but other stories cover her agenda for presidency (Patterson). Harris has mostly positive coverage, reporting her plans to raise teacher salaries, and her use of small donors for fundraising (Goldmacher, Reilly, Scott). It appears that both candidates put emphasis on being for the people and promise to work in the American people’s best interest. Despite some differences, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren are quite similar with their common themes and goals as President.

SWA #3 Masani Francis

Foreign Policy	Domestic Policy
US-China Trade	Border Security
NATO Allies	Tax Cuts
Crisis in Venezuela	Cuts to Regulation
Eliminating ISIS	Deregulation
Anti-Semitic Incidents	Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
Immigration	Criminal Justice Reform (First Step Act)
Tariffs	Strengthened Military
Building the wall	Energy and Infrastructure
	Health Care
	Education
	Funding for HIV and Childhood Cancer
	Prescription Drug Pricing
	Abortion Restrictions

The table above is of either legislation or specific issues that Donald Trump mentioned in his State of the Union Address. He touched on some of these briefly and others he proposed and plans to follow up by signing legislation on the issue. Several of these topics, he is absolutely correct in saying there is work to be done, even if his view does not necessarily reflect that of the entire country. Some of the proposals he made in his SOTU (State of the Union) Address, can truly be passed. Some of these include Health Care issues, such as funding for HIV and childhood cancer, which he spoke of in the address. With this proposal, he is attempting to reach a goal of his administration’s, “eliminating HIV in the United States by 2030” (Vox.com Dylan Scott). He states, “My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years. Together, we will defeat AIDS in America”. Here, he is specifically talking about both sides, Democrats and Republicans, working together in order to defeat HIV in America. To persuade viewers and listeners of the good this would do, despite the sum of $500 million a year, he explains that the ten-year program would be funding “critical lifesaving research”. Some issues he touched on would be quite difficult for him to pass, but it would not be too unlikely. An example of this would be his huge infrastructure bill. He says, “This is not an option. This is a necessity”, and “many of the newly elected House Democrats from swing districts are (perhaps naively) optimistic about trying to get an infrastructure bill passed”, from the Vox article. (Vox Scott). Prescription drug pricing is also an area that Trump has stressed some importance, but it is an issue that even Democrats agree needs to be fixed. The only issue is that “there is not yet a consensus within the party about the best way to tackle high drug costs” (Vox Scott).

Concerning Executive Power, Donald Trump certainly has a different view than other presidents have had. A particular quote from the address had some people bothered. He said, “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation”. Nancy Pelosi, a Representative from California, saw this statement as a threat. She stated, “The president should not bring threats to the floor of the House,” Pelosi said. “He said he wasn’t going to cooperate unless we didn’t exercise our constitutional responsibility to oversight” (Roll Call Lindsey McPherson). Trump stated a lot of things about having to cooperate and compromise for the common good, wanting bipartisan unity in the divided Congress, but his past actions and the ideals of the Democratic members prove it may be difficult to achieve that status.

The Democratic response to the address was given by former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, Stacey Abrams. She stressed several things in her speech. She especially emphasized issues with gender and race prevalent in the United States, but she also touched on topics such as voting rights and equality, compromise between parties, and education. She spotlighted the fact that children should be educated from “cradle to career”. Regarding voting rights, she stated, “This is the next battle for our democracy, one where all eligible citizens can have their say about the vision we want for our country. We must reject the cynicism that says allowing every eligible vote to be cast and counter is a ‘power grab’”. She also mentioned, “In this time of division and crisis, we must come together and stand for, and with, one another. America has stumbled time and again on its quest towards justice and equality; but with each generation, we have revisited our fundamental truths, and where we falter, we make amends”.

The legislative agenda outlined in the State of the Union Address had many similarities to the agenda outlined for my state legislature of Pennsylvania. Some issues and topics that occurred in both were, education, health care, infrastructure, and voting reform. Voting reform and education were more so talked about in the response to the Address, because Abrams stressed these things in her response, whereas Trump may have just touched on these issues briefly. Issues and legislation on infrastructure and health care were talked about in Trump’s address, especially infrastructure, as he is pushing for legislation on this topic. Some points outlined in my state legislature that were not talked about or barely talked about in Trump’s address were housing issues, criminal justice and gun violence, as well as energy and environment.

SWA #2 Masani Francis

My member of Congress is Matt Cartwright. He is the Democratic representative from Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District. He previously served as the representative for Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District from 2013 to 2018, serving 3 terms. He was elected into office on November 6, 2018, serving his first term as the representative from the 8th Congressional District, and he is up for reelection in 2020 (Ballotpedia). Cartwright won 54.6% of the votes, defeating the Republican candidate, John Crin, who received 45.4% of the votes. Cartwright serves on several committees. He serves on the Committee if Appropriations, along with its subcommittees: Subcommittee in Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies and the Subcommittee in Financial Services and General Government. He is also a member of a lot of caucuses. Some of these include the Democratic Caucus, Adult Literacy Caucus, Animal Protection Caucus, LGBT Equality Caucus, Childhood Cancer Caucus, Cybersecurity Caucus, Clean Water Caucus, Public Service Caucus, and many others that reflect upon issues of his interests (cartwright.house.gov). Cartwright is committed to working across the aisle to advocate for working families. He has introduced over 60 pieces of legislation and more bipartisan bills than any other House Democrat. His priorities are creating jobs, ensuring quality health care, strengthening the middle class, protecting seniors, supporting veterans and military families, and his campaign themes were equality, defense, infrastructure, economy, and environment (cartwright.house.gov).

The representative from the 16th District of Ohio is Republican, Anthony Gonzalez. The district is rural and includes some suburbs of Cleveland. Important issues to Gonzalez include National Security, Education and the Workforce, Jobs and the Economy, Immigration, Federal Spending, and Veterans (gonzalez.house.gov). His focus on these issues somewhat reflect upon the characteristics of his district, as he focuses on jobs for American projects and strengthening the economy, but also more national issues such as federal spending, national security, and immigration. The racial demographics of the district are relatively racially homogenous. Racially, the district is 94.3% White, 2.0% Asian, and 1.6% Black, and ethnically, it is 2.0% Hispanic (Ballotpedia).

My State House Representative is Jack Rader Jr. of the 176th District of Pennsylvania. He is a Republican and has been serving as a member of the House since 2015. In the most recent election, Rader defeated Claudette Williams, a Democrat, 54.7% to 45.3% (Ballotpedia). His committee assignments are Children & Youth, Finance, Local Government, and Tourism & Recreational Development, but no caucuses were listed. His focus includes eliminating property tax, promoting economic growth and job creation, reducing government involvement in everyday life, and supporting a balanced budget. The district is rural and agricultural in some areas. These characteristics of the district are not directly reflected in the issues focused on by our representative, but some of the areas of focus may overlap onto these characterisitcs. The area is 51% female, and the demographics for race and ethnicity are 73% White, 10% Black, 1% Asian, and 14% Hispanic (censusreporter.org). In some areas it may seem diverse, but for the most part, the district is racially homogenous.

SWA #1 Masani Francis

In New York’s state legislature, the Democrats are in control. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is the Governor of New York. The Speaker of the House and Senate Leader, both Democrats, are Carl Heastie and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, respectively. The minority party leaders, obviously Republicans, are John Flanagan of the Senate and Brian Koll of the House. Seeing that Democrats have control in Albany, it is fair to say that New York does not have a divided government. “On Election Day, Democrats won an impressive majority in the chamber, putting them in control of both houses for the first time in years” (City & State). In the 2018 elections, Democrats expanded their majority for the New York Senate and gained control of the chamber. As all the 63 Senate seats were up for grabs, the Democrats won 40 seats, while the Republicans won 23 seats. “At the time of the election, Democrats held 32 seats to Republicans’ 31. However, Republicans controlled the chamber, as one Democratic state senator caucused with the Republican Party” (Ballotpedia). The legislative process will be considerably different, and there are several bills on the table to possibly reach the governor, and maybe even get signed. Some of the top bills that will be discussed in 2019 include issues such as, housing, criminal justice/ gun violence, education, health care, infrastructure, energy and environment, and several bills could return to the table. These returning bills include issues and bills on sports betting, DREAM Act, voting reforms, LLC loopholes, and speed cameras, all of which if passed would have serious effects on the state (City & State). One bill has been reviewed so far in 2019. The Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act is “an act to amend the insurance law and the social services law, in relation to requiring health insurance policies to include coverage of all FDA approved contraceptive drugs, devices, and products” (Program Bill #1). My state house representative is Jack Rader, a Republican, and my state senate representative is Mario Scavello, also Republican. They are the representatives of the 176th and 40th Districts of Pennsylvania, respectively. Scavello pushes for support and action on several issues, such as school property tax reform, transportation infrastructure investment, economic development, and tourism promotion. He mainly would like to shift school funding away from the burdensome school property tax (senatorscavello.com). Jack Rader focuses on similar issues. He would like to eliminate the property tax and reduce government involvement in everyday life. He also promotes economic growth and job creation and supports a balanced budget (jackrader.com). Generally, their position on most of the issues facing Pennsylvania line up with mine.