In this week's version of The Federal Tap, we examine a February special election in MN, President Trump's new Supreme Court nominee, and the first presidential debate of the 2020 general presidential election.

Read the full Tap online

       

On Tap This Week

Thursday, September 24

• The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office confirmed that the general election for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District has been postponed after the death of Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate Adam Weeks. A special election for the seat is scheduled for February 9, 2021.
• According to Minnesota law, if a major party candidate dies within 79 days of the general election, a special election must be held. The Legal Marijuana Now Party is qualified as a major party in Minnesota.
• The race for MN-02 will still appear on the November 3 ballot. However, any votes cast on November 3 will not count. The outcome of the February special election will determine who wins the seat.
• The remaining candidates in the race—incumbent Angie Craig (D) and Tyler Kistner (R)—automatically qualify for the special election. The Legal Marijuana Now Party will have the opportunity to select a new candidate.
• The state law requiring a special election was passed in 2013 and inspired by the circumstances in the state’s 2002 U.S. Senate race. Democratic incumbent Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash weeks before the general election. The Democratic party nominated former Vice President Walter Mondale as a replacement candidate, but he was defeated by Republican Norm Coleman.
• Rep. Craig’s term ends on January 3, 2021, which means that Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District will be without a representative in the House until the winner of the special election assumes office.
• This will be the first special election for a seat in the 117th Congress.

• The U.S. Senate confirmed John Hinderaker to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and Roderick Young to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The District of Arizona and the Eastern District of Virginia are one of 94 U.S. District Courts. They are the general trial courts of the United States federal courts.
• After Hinderaker receives his federal judicial commission and takes his judicial oath, the 13-member U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona will have six Republican-appointed judges and seven Democrat-appointed judges. Hinderaker will join four other judges appointed by President Trump.
• After Young receives his federal judicial commission and takes his judicial oath, the 11-member U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia will have one vacant seat, five Republican-appointed judges and five Democrat-appointed judges. Young will join two other judges appointed by President Trump.
• The U.S. Senate has confirmed 218 of President Trump’s Article III judicial nominees—two Supreme Court justices, 53 appellate court judges, 161 district court judges, and two U.S. Court of International Trade judges—since January 2017.

On the Campaign Trail

What's On Tap Next Week

Saturday, September 26

President Trump to announce Supreme Court nominee 

• President Trump (R) is scheduled to nominate a successor to former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at 5:00 p.m Eastern Time Saturday. On September 25, the New York Times and CNN both reported that Trump had selected Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy.
• Ginsburg died on September 18 at the age of 87 of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer. She was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton (D) in 1993. At the time of her death, Ginsburg was one of four members of the Supreme Court appointed by a Democratic president, alongside fellow Clinton appointee Stephen Breyer and Obama appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
• This will be President Trump’s third nominee to the nine-member court. He appointed Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy resulting from Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016 and Brett Kavanaugh following Anthony Kennedy’s 2018 retirement.
• At a rally on September 19, Trump announced his intention to appoint a woman to succeed Ginsburg. Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa are the two most likely candidates, according to Politico.
  • Barrett was appointed by President Trump to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2017 after spending 15 years on the faculty of Notre Dame Law School. She was reported as a candidate in consideration for both the Scalia and Kennedy vacancies.
  • Lagoa was appointed by President Trump to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 2019 after serving for 13 years in the Florida state courts, including nine months on the Florida Supreme Court. She was among 20 candidates President Trump added to his Supreme Court shortlist on September 9.
• After President Trump nominates a candidate, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the nominee. This process involves an investigation and background check, one-on-one meetings with committee members, and a final hearing in which the nominee takes questions from the committee. The committee is currently chaired by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and the ranking member is Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
• After the Judiciary Committee considers the nominee, the committee votes on whether to advance the nomination before the full Senate. Should the nominee advance, a period of debate on the nomination is permitted before the Senate votes.
• Recent nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court have been confirmed by narrow margins in the U.S. Senate. Gorsuch was confirmed by a 54-45 vote and Brett Kavanaugh’s vote was 50-48.

Tuesday, September 29

Biden, Trump set to discuss SCOTUS, coronavirus in first presidential debate

• Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic are hosting the first presidential debate between former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and President Donald Trump (R). The debate will be 90 minutes long without commercial breaks.
• It will be divided into 15-minute segments on the following six topics selected by moderator and Fox News anchor Chris Wallace:
  • The Trump and Biden records
  • The Supreme Court
  • COVID-19
  • The economy
  • Race and violence in our cities
  • The integrity of the election
• Two more presidential debates are scheduled for October 15 in Miami and October 22 in Nashville. The first and only vice presidential debate between Sen. Kamala Harris (D) and Vice President Mike Pence (R) will be held in Salt Lake City on October 7.

Voters in Georgia’s 5th Congressional District to select new representative 

• Georgia’s 5th Congressional District is holding an all-party special general election on September 29, 2020, to fill the seat left vacant after the death of John Lewis (D). In the event that no candidate receives at least 50% of the vote, the top two contenders will advance to a runoff election December 1.
• The winner of this race will serve the remainder of Lewis’ congressional term through January 3, 2021. If a candidate wins the primary outright, their time in Congress will last 96 days, and if the election advances to a runoff, their tenure in Congress will last 33 days.
• Five candidates have received the most media coverage:
  • Robert Franklin (D): a professor of theology at Emory University who was on the Georgia Democratic Party's shortlist of replacement nominees for the November election in Georgia's 5th.
  • Kwanza Hall (D): a former member of the Atlanta City Council who, leading up to the election, worked as Managing Director at Entrepreneurial Enterprises.
  • Barrington Martin II (D): an educator who ran in the June primary against John Lewis, where he garnered 12.4% of the vote. 
  • Mable Thomas (D): a representative in the Georgia House of Representatives since 2013. 
  • Keisha Sean Waites (D): a former representative in the Georgia House of Representatives, who ran for the 2020 Democratic nomination in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, garnering 25.5% of the vote.
• Steven Muhammad (I) and Chase Oliver (L) are also running.
• The Democratic and Republican nominees for the November election in Georgia’s 5th, Nikema Williams (D) and Angela Stanton King (R), are not running in this special election.

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