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October 1st 2024

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

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The US in brief

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

Donald Trump visited Valdosta, a city in southern Georgia hit by Hurricane Helene. The storm killed more than 130 people in six south-eastern states. Hundreds are missing. The Republican presidential nominee accused Joe Biden of sleeping through phone calls from Brian Kemp, Georgia’s governor. Mr Kemp, in fact, confirmed that he spoke to the president on Sunday. Meanwhile Roy Cooper, the governor of hard-hit North Carolina, told Politico, a news website, that it’s “not the right time” for politicians—who require security and other resources—to come see the devastation. Kamala Harris cut short a trip to Nevada to be briefed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington.

The Biden administration announced tougher restrictions at America’s southern border. Under a policy introduced in June, asylum applications would be suspended when encounters between border-crossers and border-patrol agents were high, and could not restart until the daily average remained below 1,500 for seven days. Under the new rules that period is extended to 28 days. That will probably help Kamala Harris project a tougher image on border security and blunt Mr Trump’s criticisms.

Tens of thousands of dockworkers walked off the job in the first strike of the International Longshoremen's Association since 1977. The union, which represents port workers, fears port automation and wants a wage increase of nearly 80%. The strike will affect 36 ports that collectively handled $588bn-worth of containerised imports last year.

Democrats sued Georgia’s elections board, arguing that it did not have the authority to require ballots to be counted by hand. They contend that the rule, adopted in September, will lead to confusion and “significant delays in reporting vote counts”. Georgia’s top election official and its attorney-general earlier warned that in approving the measure the board probably exceeded its authority.

In other Peach State news, a Fulton county judge struck down Georgia’s ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Robert McBurney ruled that Georgians’ rights to “liberty” extend to a woman’s power to control her body. He said that the state must revert to the rule it had before the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022. That rule prohibited the procedure after fetal viability.

By the by

A Democrat’s victory in New Jersey’s tenth congressional district on September 18th was the latest in a string of strong showings by Democrats in special elections. Although such votes do not give much indication of how presidential elections will go, they can be revealing about trends in congressional contests. Read our story about what special elections portend.

A view from elsewhere

J.D. Vance and Tim Walz represent “two conflicting versions of masculine strength”, wrote Lorcan Nyhan in the Irish Independent, a newspaper. Mr Walz talks about how “the key to male success is being surrounded by smart women”. Mr Vance paints his opponent as “weak and as unmasculine”. The televised debate between them, to be held on Tuesday, could “turbo-charge” or “help halt” the growing gap in voting intentions between young men and women.

Figure of the day

18, the number of people put to death by states so far this year. The annual number of executions has fallen by four-fifths since the late 1990s. Read our story about how capital punishment has fallen out of fashion.

We want to hear from you
Will you be tuning into the vice-presidential debate on October 1st, and do you think J.D. Vance or Tim Walz will come out on top? Please send your views to usib@economist.com. And, of course, we welcome your feedback on this newsletter.

Editor’s picks

Our latest US coverage

Hillbilly energy

J.D. Vance is now the heir apparent to the MAGA movement

What Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick suggests about how he would govern

Minnesota nice

Tim Walz’s life story is appealing, but his record is complex

Kamala Harris’s running-mate is hard to categorise

The Economist explains

Do vice-presidential picks matter?

If they have any effect on an election’s result, it is at the margins

Today’s forecast

Kamala Harris has pulled ahead in national polls. But because candidates must win the electoral college, not the popular vote, our forecast reckons that she and Donald Trump have nearly equal chances of becoming president.

Daily quiz

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things American. This week Jimmy Carter turns 100. To celebrate the former president’s centenary, we’ve got a set of questions on his life.

Tuesday: Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 today, has lived longer than any other American president. Who is the second-longest-lived?

Monday: Jimmy Carter grew up on a farm in Georgia, which he later ran. What was its main crop?

See how to take part in the quiz at the bottom of this page.

If you enjoyed this week’s quiz, play Dateline, The Economist’s history game.

Heard at the White House

It’s called a telephone.

—Mr Biden credits cutting-edge technology with allowing him to manage the federal response to Hurricane Helene, even from Delaware, after Mr Trump criticised him for not returning to Washington immediately.

Read all of our recent coverage of the 2024 election. Confused about a term? Check out our A-Z of American politics.

Also from The Economist

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