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Second Texas GOP elector bolts from Donald Trump
Elector Chris Suprun says Trump is not qualified to be president
♦By Rich Shumate, Chicken Fried Politics.com editor
DALLAS (CFP) — A Texas Republican presidential elector has announced he won’t vote for Donald Trump, making his case in a New York Times op-ed in which he argues the president-elect “shows daily he is not qualified for the office.”
Chris Suprin (Photo: Twitter)
“The election of the next president is not yet a done deal,” said Chris Suprun, a paramedic from Dallas. “Electors of conscience can still do the right thing for the good of the county. Presidential electors have the legal right and a constitutional duty to vote their conscience.”
Suprun said that while he has “poured countless hours into serving the party of Lincoln and electing its candidates,” Trump is an divisive demagogue who lacks foreign policy experience and has overseas business interests that would conflict with his role as president.
“I owe no debt to a party,” he said. “I owe a debt to my children to leave them a nation they can trust.”
Suprun did not say who would get his vote when Texas’s 38 electors meet to cast their ballots in Austin on December 19. However, he called on electors to “unify behind a Republican alternative, an honorable and qualified man or woman such as Gov. John Kasich of Ohio.”
Under Texas law, electors are not bound to vote for the candidate who carried the state in the November 8 election. However, the Texas Republican Party required all electors to take an oath pledging to vote for the winner.
Suprun was selected as the elector representing the 30th U.S. House District, a majority-minority area that includes much of the city of Dallas and southern Dallas County. While Trump carried the state, Hillary Clinton won Suprun’s district.
Suprun is the second Texas elector to refuse to vote for Trump, following Art Sisneros, who resigned as an elector rather than cast a ballot for the president-elect, which he said “would bring dishonor to God.
Sisneros will be replaced by the remaining electors when they meet on December 19.
Pat McCrory concedes to Roy Cooper in North Carolina governor’s race
Concession comes after vote recount in Durham County
♦By Rich Shumate, Chicken Fried Politics.com editor
RALEIGH (CFP) — Nearly a month after election day, North Carolina’s hotly contested governor’s race has finally been settled and will flip into Democratic hands.
Attorney General Roy Cooper
Republican Governor Pat McCrory conceded the race to Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper on December 5, after it became clear that an ongoing recount in Durham County would not overturn Cooper’s lead.
“Despite continued questions that should be answered regarding the voting process, I personally believe that the majority of our citizens have spoken,” McCrory said in a video posted on YouTube. “We now should do everything we can to support (Cooper).”
Cooper welcomed the concession in a Facebook post, bringing to an end a contentious race that became the most expensive governor’s race in state history.
“While this was a divisive election season, I know still that there is more that unites us than divides us,” Cooper said. “I’d like to thank all of the hardworking families in North Carolina, and I look forward to serving the greatest state in the country as your governor.”
Cooper’s lead over McCrory was 10,263 votes, out of more than 4.7 million votes cast, a difference of just .22 percent.
Cooper’s win is a rare moment of good news for Democrats in North Carolina, which went Republican in both the presidential and U.S. Senate races. The Cooper-McCrory contest was the only governor’s race in the country that shifted the office from Republican to Democrat.
Democrats will now hold four out 14 Southern governorships. The others are in Virginia, West Virginia and Louisiana. Republicans hold the remaining 10.
The contention over the results in Durham began on election night, when a batch of 90,000 votes came in all at once, propelling Cooper — who had trailed most of the night — into the lead statewide.
McCrory and his campaign found those results suspicious and demanded a recount. However, Durham election officials said the late reporting of results was caused by a technical problem that forced them to enter the results from voting machines by hand.
The Durham County elections board turned down McCrory’s request for a recount, but the State Board of Elections voted along party lines to order one.
In North Carolina, both state and county elections boards are appointed by the governor, and the governor’s party holds a majority.
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory
McCrory rode a GOP wave into office in 2012, but the Republican-controlled legislature’s passage of a controversial voter ID law and measures favored by religious conservatives made the governor a lightning rod.
The issue that dominated the race was McCrory’s decision to sign a law requiring transgendered students to use bathrooms that match their gender of birth, rather than their gender of identity, in public facilities.
McCrory continued to defend the law, even after a number of businesses scuttled expansion plans and the NCAA, NBA and ACC pulled events from the state.
Cooper not only opposed the measure, but he also refused to defend it in court when students and the federal government took legal action to overturn it.
Recount begins in North Carolina governor’s race
State board sets Monday deadline for recounting ballots in Durham County
♦By Rich Shumate, Chicken Fried Politics.com editor
RALEIGH (CFP) — The hotly contested North Carolina governor’s race has entered what is likely its final stage, with elections officials in Durham County now recounting ballots to meet a Monday deadline.
Republican Governor Pat McCrory has indicated that he will concede to Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper if the recount doesn’t overturn Cooper’s slight lead.
With ballots certified in 98 of the state’s 100 counties, Cooper leads McCrory by 10,263 votes, out of more than 4.7 million votes cast.
If that margin holds after the Durham recount, McCrory won’t be entitled to a full statewide recount, which is only triggered if the margin is less than 10,000 votes.
The deadline for finishing the recount is 7 p.m. ET Monday.
Attorney General Roy Cooper
Cooper beat McCrory by a margin of 91,000 votes in Durham County, taking a whopping 79 percent of the vote, which was his best performance in any county.
The contention over the results in Durham began on election night, when a batch of 90,000 votes came in all at once, propelling Cooper — who had trailed most of the night — into the lead statewide.
McCrory and his campaign found those results suspicious and demanded a recount. However, Durham election officials said the late reporting of results was caused by a technical problem that forced them to enter the results from voting machines by hand.
The Durham County elections board turned down McCrory’s request for a recount, but the State Board of Elections voted along party lines to order one.
In North Carolina, both state and county elections boards are appointed by the governor, and the governor’s party holds a majority.
McCrory’s campaign has indicated that he will concede to Cooper if the Durham results don’t change the outcome. He has already filed the paperwork for a statewide recount, although that request would be moot if Cooper’s margin holds.
Cooper’s campaign has been calling on McCrory to concede and bring to an end the three-week drama over who will lead the Tar Heel State.
“It’s clear there is no path to victory for Governor McCrory,” said Cooper campaign manager Trey Nix in a statement posted on Facebook. “It’s time for Governor McCrory to accept the election results and respect the will of the voters.”
Should Cooper hang on, North Carolina would be the only state where Democrats flipped a governorship in 2016 and would give them a third Southern governorship, compared to 11 for Republicans.
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory
McCrory rode a GOP wave into office in 2012, but the Republican-controlled legislature’s passage of a controversial voter ID law and measures favored by religious conservatives made the governor a lightning rod.
The issue that dominated the race was McCrory’s decision to sign a law requiring transgendered students to use bathrooms that match their gender of birth, rather than their gender of identity, in public facilities.
McCrory continued to defend the law, even after a number of businesses scuttled expansion plans and the NCAA, NBA and ACC pulled events from the state.
Cooper not only opposed the measure, but he also refused to defend it in court when students and the federal government took legal action to overturn it.
Georgia U.S. Rep. Tom Price nominated to Cabinet post overseeing Obamacare
Price is Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services
♦By Rich Shumate, Chicken Fried Politics.com editor
WASHINGTON (CFP) — U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, who has led the charge in Congress to repeal Obamacare, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to head the department that oversees the nation’s health care system.
U.S. Rep. Tom Price
Price, 62, an orthopedic surgeon from Roswell in the Atlanta suburbs, is Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, a post that took on vast new powers under the Affordable Care Act passed in 2009.
“I am humbled by the incredible challenges that lay ahead and enthusiastic for the opportunity to be a part of solving them on behalf of the American people,” Price said in a statement announcing the appointment.
“There is much work to be done to ensure we have a health care system that works for patients, families, and doctors; that leads the world in the cure and prevention of illness; and that is based on sensible rules to protect the well-being of the country while embracing its innovative spirit.”
In his own statement, Trump said Price “has earned a reputation for being a tireless problem solver and the go-to expert on healthcare policy, making him the ideal choice to serve in this capacity.”
“He is exceptionally qualified to shepherd our commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare and bring affordable and accessible healthcare to every American.”
Price, chairman of the House Budget Committee, was one of nine Republican chairman to jointly endorse Trump in early May, just before he had secured the party’s presidential nomination.
During the campaign, Trump vowed to repeal and replace Obamacare, something Republicans have tried to do repeatedly while President Obama was in office. Price has been among the leaders of that repeal effort in the House.
The HHS secretary is responsible for overseeing key parts of the Obamacare machinery, including the exchanges that offer subsidized insurance coverage to lower-income Americans and the Medicaid program that allows states to cover the medical costs of the poor.
Price was elected to the U.S. House in 2004, representing Georgia’s heavily Republican 6th District, which takes in upscale suburbs north of the city of Atlanta.
If he is confirmed to the HHS post, a special election will be held to pick his replacement in the House. Given the political leanings of the district, the seat is almost certain to remain in Republican hands.
Texas GOP presidential elector resigns, says voting for Trump would “bring dishonor to God”
Elector Art Sisneros will be replaced when Lone Star electors meet on December 19
♦By Rich Shumate, Chicken Fried Politics.com editor
HOUSTON (CFP) — A Christian conservative presidential elector in Texas has resigned rather than cast a vote for Donald Trump, dismissing the New York real estate mogul as not “biblically qualified” to be president.
Former Texas elector Art Sisneros (Courtesy Art Sisneros via Texas Monthly)
In a November 26 post on his personal blog announcing his resignation, Art Sisneros said he could neither vote for Trump nor break a pledge he made to the Texas Republican Party to support the winner of the November 8 election.
“If Trump is not qualified and my role, both morally and historically, as an elected official is to vote my conscience, then I cannot and will not vote for Donald Trump for president. I believe voting for Trump would bring dishonor to God,” Sisneros said.
Under state law, the rest of Texas’s electors will select a replacement for Sisneros when they convene in Austin on December 19 to cast their votes for president and vice president.
Sisneros said he had received “hundreds of angry messages” after commenting publicly about his reluctance to vote for Trump, but none of them convinced him to change his mind.
“The people will get their vote. They will get their Skittles for dinner,” he said. “I will sleep well at night knowing I neither gave in to their demands nor caved to my convictions. I will also mourn the loss of our republic.”
Sisneros was picked as one of the Lone Star State’s 38 presidential electors at the state GOP convention in May, about two weeks before Trump won enough delegates to clinch the party’s nomination.
Texas was one of just two Southern states that Trump failed to carry during the primary season, losing to the state’s junior U.S. senator, Ted Cruz.
In the general election, Trump won 52 percent of the vote in Texas and carried 227 of the state’s 254 counties. However, state law does not bind electors to vote for the candidate who won most votes, although the Texas Republican Party requires electors to sign a pledge to do so.
Sisneros said he resigned rather than violate that pledge by voting for someone other than Trump.
“I have sinned in signing that pledge,” Sisneros said in his post. “I humbly confess that it was wrong for me to do so. I am grateful for the forgiveness I have in Christ for all my foolishness.”
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