Firebrand Monk Known as the ‘Burmese bin Laden’ Surrenders to Myanmar Police

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906742"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module video-2" data-src="https://time.com/5906742/wirathu-surrenders-myanmar/" data-widget-id="SB_4" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>(YANGON, Myanmar) — A nationalist Buddhist monk in Myanmar noted for inflammatory rhetoric surrendered on Monday to police, who have been seeking his arrest for over a year for insulting comments he made about the country’s leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.</p> <p>The surrender of the monk Wirathu came just days ahead of a general election on Sunday which Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy party is expected to win.</p> <p>“Mainly, I would like to request my fellow monks around the country to ask their followers to vote for the parties that work to protect the country’s race and religion,” Wirathu said to a small crowd of followers outside the police station in Yangon before entering.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p>Wirathu and his supporters were successful in lobbying for laws making interfaith marriages difficult, but unsuccessfully endorsed the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party in the 2015 general election, which Suu Kyi’s party won in a landslide.</p> <p>His appeal Monday was seen as another endorsement of the USDP, the main opposition party in parliament and the sole serious challenger to Suu Kyi’s NLD.</p> <p>In May last year, a court issued an arrest warrant for Wirathu, charging him with sedition for insulting comments he made about Suu Kyi at a nationalist rally while comparing the military’s representatives in parliament to Buddha.</p> <p>If found guilty, he could be sentenced to three years to life in prison. Under Myanmar law, he would have to be defrocked by Buddhist authorities before he could be arrested.</p> <p>Wirathu became prominent in 2012 after deadly riots broke out between Buddhists and Muslims of the Rohingya ethnic minority in the western state of Rakhine. He founded a nationalist organization, since disbanded, that was accused of inciting violence against Muslims.</p> <p>Muslims from other ethnic groups and in other areas also faced disrespect and occasional violence after Wirathu and his supporters launched their nationalist campaign.</p> <p>Time Magazine called Wirathu “The Face of Buddhist Terror” in a cover story in 2013.</p> <p>Wirathu was able to build upon widespread prejudice in Buddhist-majority Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslims, who are seen as having immigrated illegally from Bangladesh, even though many of their families have lived in Myanmar for generations.</p> <p>In 2017, attacks by Rohingya militants on police posts triggered a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the army that caused more than 700,000 Rohingya villagers to flee across the border to Bangladesh for safety.</p> <p>Wirathu was accused of hate speech, and Facebook shuttered his account in 2018, but he managed to stay on other social networks and gave speeches around the country. The National Monks Council banned him from giving public talks for a year, but its action was not tightly enforced.</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/qQalxIS4ocI" width="1" />

Firebrand Monk Known as the ‘Burmese bin Laden’ Surrenders to Myanmar Police

(YANGON, Myanmar) — A nationalist Buddhist monk in Myanmar noted for inflammatory rhetoric surrendered on Monday to police, who hav...

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Asylum Seekers With Disabilities Challenge Trump Admin’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy in New Lawsuit

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906321"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/5906321/asylum-seekers-disabilities-lawsuit-trump-administration/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>In pigtails and a bright red letterman jacket, Carmen looks just like any other 7-year-old girl. But she suffers from a rare brain disorder called lissencephaly, and can experience seizures at any moment.</p> <p>Up until about two months ago, Carmen and her mother Jenny, asylum seekers from Honduras, lived in a <a href="https://time.com/5830807/asylum-seekers-coronavirus-mpp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">makeshift refugee camp</a> in Matamoros for a year, an <a href="https://time.com/5888791/covid-19-asylum-seekers-mexico/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">encampment</a> on the banks of the Rio Grande river across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Despite official <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Jan/MPP%20Guiding%20Principles%201-28-19.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">guidelines</a> to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that anyone with “known physical/mental health issues” are <a href="https://time.com/5751734/ill-asylum-seekers-sent-back-to-mexico/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">exempt from the Trump Administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols</a> (MPP), otherwise known as <a href="https://time.com/5713317/migrant-children-drawings-remain-in-mexico-policy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Remain in Mexico,”</a> a policy that keeps asylum seekers in Mexico throughout the duration of their legal proceedings, they are still being forced to wait in Mexico for their case to be heard.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p>Carmen is listed as one of 22 individual plaintiffs named in a class action lawsuit filed at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego Monday against the federal government. Additionally, the nonprofit legal aid organization Al Otro Lado has joined as a 23rd plaintiff. The lawsuit alleges the government has violated laws that protect people with disabilities from discrimination and administrative procedure laws. Lawyers involved in the case hope the lawsuit could allow hundreds of asylum seekers with physical disabilities or mental health conditions to wait out the remainder of their asylum proceedings in the U.S. rather than in Mexico.</p> <p>Jenny spoke to TIME on the condition that their names be changed for fear that speaking to the media could impact their pending asylum case. They, along with all other asylum seekers involved in the lawsuit, are being identified in the legal documents by their initials.</p> <p>After COVID-19 began to spread in Matamoros, Carmen and Jenny moved into a shelter farther away from the port of entry to the U.S. to try to provide a more stable environment for Carmen and limit her exposure to others. They are among more than 24,500 asylum seekers waiting to have their cases heard, according to the <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/628/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse</a>. COVID-19 has slowed down hearings and many are waiting in dire conditions, living in shelters or in tent encampments exposed to floods, extreme weather and violence in the region.</p> <p>“This population of folks are clearly delineated in CBP’s own policy,” says Erin Thorn Vela, a senior attorney at the <a href="https://txcivilrights.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Texas Civil Rights Project</a> (TCRP) that has assisted with locating plaintiffs for the lawsuit. “It says explicitly, do not place these people in MPP, and [CBP] continuously, with this group of people, do it over and over again.”</p> <p>A CBP spokesperson tells TIME the agency does not comment on pending litigation. Along with CBP, the Department of Homeland Security, DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, and Mark Morgan, the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner of CBP, are named as defendants in the case.</p> <p>For Jenny and Carmen, winning this lawsuit could mean a chance for them to reunite with family already in the U.S., and for Carmen to have access to American doctors and special education she hasn’t been able to receive so far in her home country of Honduras or in Mexico.</p> <p>In Mexico, Jenny relies on free medical services provided by American NGOs and couldn’t otherwise afford to see a doctor. She also has not been able to work because she cannot afford reliable child care for a child with a disability.</p> <p>“I’m afraid to leave her alone without me because here I don’t have any family,” Jenny tells TIME in Spanish. “At times I feel very nervous, because this is hard, with children.”</p> <p>Jenny and Carmen are among the individually named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, all of whom are waiting to enter the U.S. at ports of entry along the border region from Texas to California.</p> <p>Though the lawsuit has been filed a day before the <a href="https://time.com/5905903/election-misinformation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">presidential election in the U.S.</a>, those involved say it’s a necessary step to help to asylum seekers with disabilities as quickly as possible. The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to MPP, and an <a href="https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/oct/28/lawsuit-asylum-seekers-languishing-mexico-must-be-/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">additional lawsuit was filed</a> last Wednesday arguing that MPP has limited asylum seeker’s access to lawyers. The Biden campaign has <a href="https://joebiden.com/immigration/#" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">promised</a> to end MPP, but lawyers who spoke to TIME said they were concerned that it could take months for the policy to be reversed.</p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Monday’s lawsuit, however, is the first to address asylum seekers with disabilities.</span></p> <p>“These things take time and they’ll play out over time,” says <a href="https://www.orrick.com/en/People/E/A/C/Robert-Shwarts" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Robert Shwarts</a>, a partner at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, the law firm representing all of the plaintiffs and is lead council in the lawsuit. “The thing is we’re hopeful that we can reach a resolution with the government, an amicable resolution that provides relief for our clients. Ultimately that’s the goal, whether that’s through settlement, or through ultimate success in the litigation…but the election may well bring a successful conclusion to our litigation faster.”</p> <p>The lawsuit originated as part of an ongoing effort by immigration lawyers to get asylum seekers paroled out of MPP and admitted into the U.S because of their disabilities. For months, <a href="https://www.lawyersforgoodgovernment.org/leadership" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Charlene D’Cruz</a>, an immigration attorney who also has a background in disability law, made it a part of her practice to present asylum seekers with health conditions to CBP officials at the port of entry to the U.S. armed with a copy of CBP’s MPP guidelines. When she was successful, her clients would be allowed to wait out the remainder of their asylum proceedings in the U.S. and get access to the medical treatment they needed. However, many times the clients would be sent back to Mexico.</p> <p>Jenny, for example, says she has tried at least four times to present herself and her daughter to CBP officials at the port of entry with a lawyer and a doctor to explain Carmen’s medical condition, but they were turned away each time despite being eligible under the guidelines to be allowed into the U.S.</p> <p>COVID-19 put a halt on even this possibility. Most lawyers aren’t able to visit with asylum seekers in person anymore, and even if they tried presenting clients with disabilities to CBP officials at the ports of entry, the implementation of <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics/title-8-and-title-42-statistics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“expulsions”</a> at the border that began as a response to COVID-19 mean that anyone trying to enter the U.S. could immediately be sent back to their last country of transit without a hearing.</p> <p>So together with TCRP, D’Cruz began planning a lawsuit. “We reached out to our other partners along the border in California, in El Paso, and we realized that there were so many people,” D’Cruz tells TIME. “MPP is using Mexico as a detention center, essentially…Here, out of sight is out of mind, and that is what the Administration wanted.”</p> <p>Asylum seekers in Mexico under MPP can access to the Mexican health care system when they can afford it, but lawyers including D’Cruz, and several asylum seekers who have spoken to TIME say they can’t afford health care or are discriminated against by doctors because of their refugee status (the Mexican Department of Health did not respond to TIME’s request for comment).</p> <p>Juan, 52, an asylum seeker from Cuba who now lives in Matamoros, has hypertension and a growth in his heart that requires him to wear a pacemaker that he has not yet been able to access in Matamoros. “The days have been really hard during this pandemic,” Juan says in Spanish. Juan also spoke on the condition that TIME withhold his true name for fear that speaking publicly could harm his asylum case. Juan and his wife are now also plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit filed Monday. “We’re stuck inside a house day after day… We don’t want to come into contact with the coronavirus, any of us, because if any one of us get it, the person who would suffer the most would likely be me.”</p> <p>The family depends on money sent from relatives in the U.S. to make ends meet in Matamoros. “With the right treatment I could work—not anything physically intensive—but I could work,” Juan says. “Here in Mexico I can’t get that treatment. I’ve tried, I’ve gone to the hospital here, but then they say, ‘no, we can’t do anything for you.'”</p> <p>Juan and his wife spoke to TIME via Zoom from D’Cruz’s office in Matamoros, an office space she rented across the street from the tent encampment. Juan chose to wear a pull over sweater decorated in bald eagles and the American flag.</p> <p>“We do feel happy. We think we’ll get a positive result,” Juan says of the lawsuit. “Because here, if I can’t get the treatment I need, my condition will get worse.”</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/LEw7LnubFns" width="1" />

Asylum Seekers With Disabilities Challenge Trump Admin’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy in New Lawsuit

In pigtails and a bright red letterman jacket, Carmen looks just like any other 7-year-old girl. But she suffers from a rare brain ...

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Storm Damage Causes Polling Place Relocations and Power Outages in the U.S. Deep South

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906583"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/5906583/storm-damage-election-2020/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>(MONTGOMERY, Ala.) — Elections officials in the Deep South spent election eve tending to lingering storm damage from Hurricane Zeta and other storms that damaged buildings or left polling places without power ahead of Tuesday’s election.</p> <p>Storm damage caused polling places to be moved in Louisiana, and power companies and election officials scrambled to restore power, or make sure generators were available, at polling places in Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. Election officials expressed confidence that the sites would be operational Tuesday.</p> <p>Thousands of voters in southwest Louisiana will be casting ballots in different locations Tuesday because Hurricane Laura wrecked their traditional polling sites in late August, and they have not yet been repaired. Across the state in the New Orleans area and in other southeastern parishes, several dozen voting locations will be running on generator power because outages caused by Hurricane Zeta last week have not been fixed.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p>“No polling location will be without power on Election Day,” Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, the state’s chief elections officer, said in a statement.</p> <p>By far, the greater disruption in Louisiana was caused by Laura in southwestern Calcasieu and Cameron parishes, where Ardoin’s office provided charts showing locations for 95 polling precincts have shifted because of the destruction of the Category 4 storm.</p> <p>In rural Cameron Parish, most voters will be casting ballots at either a local fire station or a neighborhood market. Calcasieu Parish has created several consolidated voting sites, with most voters in Lake Charles casting their ballots at two mega-polling locations, the Burton Coliseum entertainment arena or the Lake Charles Civic Center. Elections officials have cautioned that the megasites may require longer waits for voters than usual.</p> <p>Some polling sites in southeastern Louisiana will be operating on generators to keep machines and lights running because of outages caused by Hurricane Zeta, which made landfall in the state as a Category 2 storm. The number of voting sites that will require generators “gets lower and lower as each hour passes” and power is restored, said Tyler Brey, a spokesman for Ardoin’s office.</p> <p>New Orleans Democratic Mayor LaToya Cantrell criticized the Republican-led secretary of state’s office Sunday for “failing to fulfill its duty” in providing the generators needed for polling sites, risking disenfranchisement of voters. But Brey said every polling location will have adequate power. He said the generators for voting sites were provided largely by Entergy, but also some by the state as well. Ardoin accused Cantrell of “trying to score cheap political points” with her criticism.</p> <p>Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, had asked utility companies to prioritize restoration to voting locations even before Zeta struck.</p> <p>Across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, more than 150,000 electrical customers had outages Monday because of recent storms, according to the utility tracking website poweroutage.us.</p> <p>In Alabama, Zeta caused damage along a line stretching from the southwestern to northeastern counties of the state. Multiple Alabama voting places remained without power Monday, but generators will be provided to any that still lack service on Election Day, said Secretary of State John Merrill.</p> <p>Merrill would not say how many places were still in the dark, however.</p> <p>“I can’t speak to that. It’s not important, because that number changes every time the number blinks,” Merrill said.</p> <p>A spokesman for Alabama Power said the company has assessed polling locations provided by election officials and is working to ensure that all polling locations in its service territory have power before the polls open Tuesday.</p> <p>Officials in some of the hardest-hit counties spent the final day before the election trying to determine just how many places might lack electricity or have storm damage. In Talladega County, which has 26 polling sites, chief probate clerk Lawana Patterson said emergency management officials had told her “everything is in working condition.”</p> <p>“I’m not saying everything is perfect, but I’m working on it,” she said.</p> <p>Dallas County Probate Judge Jimmy Nunn said all but one of the county’s 29 voting places had power back on, and state emergency management officials were connecting a generator at the rural Beloit Community Center, where normal service had not been restored.</p> <p>“They’ll have lights and everything, so people won’t even know they’re out,” Nunn said.</p> <p>In neighboring Mississippi, seven counties had power outages. Electricity has been restored to all polling places in three of those counties — Hancock, Jackson and Stone.</p> <p>Three other Mississippi counties have a small number of precincts without power, but generators were available in two — George and Greene — and supervisors were meeting in Perry County to discuss buying generators.</p> <p>In Georgia, two or three polling places remained without power Monday, said Gabriel Sterling, statewide voting system implementation manager.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Deslatte reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/politics/~4/q-kv1uOcxw4" width="1" />

Storm Damage Causes Polling Place Relocations and Power Outages in the U.S. Deep South

(MONTGOMERY, Ala.) — Elections officials in the Deep South spent election eve tending to lingering storm damage from Hurricane Zeta...

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An Election Day Upset Hangs on Donald Trump’s Formidable Ground Game

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906581"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/5906581/donald-trump-campaign-ground-game/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">President Donald Trump heads into the final day of the 2020 race</span> <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/national/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">trailing Joe Biden by an average of 8 points in national polls</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, but Republicans are banking that Trump’s hard-charging campaign schedule and the GOP’s year-long investment in training millions of volunteers will pay off in votes cast for Trump on Election Day.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trump campaign officials point to Trump’s breakneck pace of rallies — held at cavernous airport hangars and sports arenas with no social distancing during a pandemic that has claimed more than 230,000 American lives — as a major part of Trump’s strategy to drive turnout, despite being outspent by his opponent Joe Biden and polling below him at a stable rate for the entirety of the campaign. Trump has amplified his campaign by using the trappings of his office, holding rallies with Air Force One as the backdrop, <a href="https://time.com/5884318/trump-political-use-of-office-convention/">accepting his party’s nomination in front of the columns of the White House,</a> and</span> having <a href="https://time.com/5905219/in-last-minute-swing-through-key-states-dhs-and-ice-are-making-the-case-for-donald-trumps-re-election/">agencies launch an unusual publicity blitz that spotlight his immigration enforcement actions in key battleground states.</a><br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think we’re going to take it because we’re going to have a turnout probably on Tuesday. You know what, people like to vote, they like to vote on Tuesday,” Trump said at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Saturday.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ground effort run jointly by the RNC and the Trump campaign has used 2.6 million volunteers, according to figures provided by the RNC. The field effort made more than 182 million voter contacts — more than five times what they did in 2016— and volunteers registered nearly 174,000 new GOP voters.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The campaign is focusing its efforts in the final days to reach “infrequent and low propensity voters,” according to a Trump campaign official.</span> <a href="https://time.com/5901862/republicans-voter-registration-swing-states/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Early voter registration figures</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in Florida, North Carolina and other states show that Republicans have “essentially neutralized what had been a Democrat advantage” by mobilizing new voters, John Podesta, who ran Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 bid for president, tells TIME.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Will that be enough for Trump to squeak out a win in key battleground states? To win Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral college votes, for example, Trump will probably need an “epic performance” among white working class voters who haven’t turned out in previous presidential elections, says Christopher Borick, political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“That’s hard. Unlikely voters are unlikely for a reason,” Borick says. “Even for Trump and his campaign that sometimes defies political gravity, translating lots of nonvoters— is still a pretty big hurdle,” Borick says. Biden is outspending Trump on television ads in crucial media markets in Pennsylvania, Borick noted, though he adds one of Trump’s “magic pills” has been his ability to get media attention without having to buy lots of television ads.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Enter Trump’s rally blitz. In the final week of the campaign, Trump has held a blistering pace of rallies that would exhaust men decades younger: he held three rallies in three different cities in Pennsylvania on Oct. 26, and rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska within hours of each other the following day. He was up to five rallies in five different states by Sunday. But the 74-year-old president, just weeks out from his hospital stay while he battled COVID-19, was defiant. “Our rallies are bigger than they’ve ever been,” Trump crowed to a rally under a cold, steady rain in Lansing, Michigan on Oct. 27, one week before Election Day. Trump wore an overcoat and gloves and the assembled crowd was dotted by rain ponchos and winter hats. “I gotta say, I’m working my ass off here!” Trump yelled to his sodden fans. “Sleepy Joe, the guy goes to his basement.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An RNC official says all of those events are a “treasure trove” of data. RNC teams were “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">outside of every single rally registering new voters and updating existing voter files to ensure accurate information,” the official says, and the RNC continued to follow up with those supporters after the rally. The local organizers then used their email addresses and phone numbers to reach out to see if they want to volunteer at the nearest Trump Victory office and remind them of important voting deadlines, the official says.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For over a year, Bill Stepien, Trump’s political director-turned-campaign-manager, has zeroed in on the President’s ability to generate crowds as a key to his re-election. The campaign has used them not only to generate enthusiasm, donations and wall-to-wall local media coverage, but also to create a database of voters to contact, register, and encourage to show up at the polls. “People sometimes poo-poo the rallies and say there’s really no campaign structural benefit to them,” says Brian Ballard, an influential lobbyist with ties to Trump. But with rallies that can draw thousands of people, “We were able to utilize not only the crowds that go, but the crowds that register to go, and sometimes that number is five times the amount of folks that actually show up,” he says.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After a rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 26, for example, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPChairwoman/status/1320809767770599430" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">that of the</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">18,894 signups for the rally — just one of three rallies that day — 22.2% were not registered Republicans, and 20.8% did not vote in 2016.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">In Circleville, Ohio on Oct. 24, McDaniel</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPChairwoman/status/1320182597453053957" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">of the 18,949 people signed up for the rally, more than 40% of them were not Republicans, and nearly 30% had not voted in 2016.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Republicans hustled in the field, the Biden campaign shut down its ground operation in the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, and through the summer focused on building an entirely digital operation. Biden’s forces didn’t knock on a single door until October, ceding the field to Trump until late in the race.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the Biden campaign has engaged in aggressive digital outreach: they made 58 million voter contacts Halloween weekend alone, according to the campaign, whereas the RNC made 15 million voter contacts from Oct. 23 through Oct. 29, according to the RNC. “A ground game matters,” said Stepien, who took over the campaign from Brad Parscale, who had burned through hundreds of millions of dollars to little evident effect, frittering away a sizable cash advantage and leaving the campaign outgunned in the final stretch.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trump’s many rallies also come with a liability, however.</span> <a href="https://time.com/5886343/trump-fear-swing-voters/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Republican strategists have counseled Trump to stick to a clear message</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">on how he will bring the country out of the pandemic, improve its economy, protect communities from crime, and keep confirming conservative federal judges like his third confirmed Supreme Court justice</span> <a href="https://time.com/5898043/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Amy Coney Barrett</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. But Trump’s rambling stump speeches swamp any attempt at delivering a disciplined message. Instead he’s let loose on a host of grievances, from the false claims of wide-spread fraud in mail-in voting to downplaying the coronavirus. In the last few days, he has said after the election he’ll fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of America’s most trusted experts on the pandemic.</span></p> <p>In very short order, Trump’s team will see if their bet on rallies pays off at the polls.</p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">—With reporting from Charlotte Alter</span></i></p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/politics/~4/gF86Tzf6pDU" width="1" />

An Election Day Upset Hangs on Donald Trump’s Formidable Ground Game

President Donald Trump heads into the final day of the 2020 race trailing Joe Biden by an average of 8 points in national polls , ...

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Federal Judge Rejects GOP Effort to Throw Out 127,000 Houston Votes Cast at Drive-Thru Polling Centers

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906625"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/5906625/houston-voting-drive-thru/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>(HOUSTON) — A federal judge on Monday rejected another last-ditch Republican effort to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Houston because the ballots were cast at drive-thru polling centers established during the pandemic.</p> <p>The lawsuit was brought by conservative Texas activists who have railed against expanded voting access in Harris County, where a record 1.4 million early votes have already been cast. The county is the nation’s third largest and a crucial battleground in Texas, where President Donald Trump and Republicans are bracing for the closest election in decades on Tuesday.</p> <p>U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision to hear arguments on the brink of Election Day drew concern from voting rights activists, and came after the Texas Supreme Court <a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-virus-outbreak-houston-elections-57796e23983587f358127dfe050070a3" target="_blank">rejected a nearly identical challenge</a> over the weekend.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p>The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by conservative GOP activists who have filed a battery of court challenges over moves to expand voting options during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges have not involved Trump’s campaign.</p> <p>Another 20,000 or more voters were expected to use drive-thru polling locations Tuesday, said Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, the county’s top elections official. Several voters who already used the drive-thru centers rushed to join mounting opposition to the lawsuit, including a Houston attorney whose wife was 35 weeks pregnant when she cast her ballot. She gave birth to twins Friday.</p> <p>“My vote counts,” David Hobbs said. “My wife’s vote counts.”</p> <p>Trump won Texas by nine points in 2016 but polls have shown Democrat Joe Biden still within reach in America’s biggest red state. Democrats also need to flip only nine seats to reclaim a majority in the Texas House for the first time in 20 years, and have aggressively targeted several races in Harris County.</p> <figure class="inline-medium alignnone"><img alt="Demonstrators" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?w=300&w=300" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg 5456w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=550,367 550w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1100,733 1100w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=280,187 280w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=560,373 560w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=405,270 405w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=838,559 838w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=810,540 810w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1620,1080 1620w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=840,560 840w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1680,1120 1680w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=407,271 407w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=814,542 814w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1500,1000 1500w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=190,127 190w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=380,253 380w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=263,175 263w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=526,351 526w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=61,41 61w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=616,411 616w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1232,821 1232w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=321,214 321w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=642,428 642w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=925,617 925w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1850,1234 1850w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=640,427 640w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=760,507 760w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1520,1013 1520w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=700,467 700w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1000,667 1000w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=47,31 47w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=1012,675 1012w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=2024,1349 2024w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=730,487 730w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=345,230 345w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=270,180 270w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=192,128 192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-2.jpg?resize=375,250 375w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption" style="max-width:300px"><span class="credit">David J. Phillip—AP</span><span class="caption">Demonstrators stand across the street from the federal courthouse in Houston, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, before a hearing in federal court involving drive-thru ballots cast in Harris County.</span></figcaption> </figure> <p>Harris County offered 10 drive-thru locations as an option for its nearly 5 million residents amid worries of spreading the coronavirus. Jared Woodfill, a former chairman of the Harris County GOP, argued that Texas election law makes no explicit allowances for drive-thru voting and framed it is as an unlawful expansion of curbside voting, which is legal in Texas but limited to people who are unable to enter polling places because of their health.</p> <p>Portions of the hearing were consumed by debate over what exactly qualified as a legal structure for a polling place under Texas law.</p> <p>“You have a fundamental right to vote in a car?” Hanen tersely asked an attorney for the ACLU.</p> <p>Woodfill’s lawsuit noted that all but one of the drive-thru centers were set up “in Democrat areas of the county.” More than 40% of Harris County residents are Latino, and about one in five residents are Black.</p> <p>The lawsuit drew objections even from Republicans, include former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus. Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who is facing the toughest reelection battle of his career Tuesday against Democrat MJ Hegar, also said during a weekend campaign stop that the Texas Supreme Court made the right decision earlier in rejecting an identical challenge.</p> <figure class="inline-medium alignnone"><img alt="Demonstrators" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?w=300&w=300" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg 5489w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=550,367 550w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1100,733 1100w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=280,187 280w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=560,373 560w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=405,270 405w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=838,559 838w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=810,540 810w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1620,1080 1620w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=840,560 840w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1680,1120 1680w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=407,271 407w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=814,542 814w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1500,1000 1500w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=190,127 190w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=380,253 380w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=263,175 263w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=526,351 526w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=61,41 61w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=616,411 616w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1232,821 1232w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=321,214 321w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=642,428 642w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=925,617 925w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1850,1234 1850w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=640,427 640w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=760,507 760w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1520,1013 1520w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=700,467 700w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1000,667 1000w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=47,31 47w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=1012,675 1012w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=2024,1349 2024w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=730,487 730w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=345,230 345w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=270,180 270w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=192,128 192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/houston-voting-drive-thru-1.jpg?resize=375,250 375w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption" style="max-width:300px"><span class="credit">David J. Phillip—AP</span><span class="caption">Demonstrators stand across the street from the federal courthouse in Houston, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, before a hearing in federal court involving drive-thru ballots cast in Harris County.</span></figcaption> </figure> <p>The Texas Supreme Court, which is controlled entirely by Republicans, rejected an identical lawsuit last month and on Sunday <a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-virus-outbreak-houston-elections-57796e23983587f358127dfe050070a3" target="_blank">refused to invalidate</a> the votes already cast. The state’s highest court did not explain <a href="https://www.txcourts.gov/supreme/orders-opinions/2020/november/november-1-2020/" target="_blank">its decision</a>.</p> <p>Hollins had asked Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to affirm that the drive-thru locations are legal but received no response.</p> <p>Texas is one of just five states that did not allow for widespread mail-in voting this year during the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 18,000 people statewide. Abbott instead expanded early voting by one week, and that extra time helped Texas already surpass 2016’s total votes even before Tuesday’s election.</p> <p>More than 9.7 million people have cast early ballots in Texas, where turnout typically ranks among the lowest in the country. Some elections experts predict that total turnout in Texas could surpass 12 million, and Harris County officials have taken more steps than most to expand voting access.</p> <p>The county tripled the number of polling places and last week <a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-politics-houston-voting-texas-351f6e1c4820d8f2b2eb7468a725cce0" target="_blank">had eight locations that stayed open</a> for 24 hours.</p> <p>____</p> <p>Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, and Jake Bleiberg in Dallas contributed to this report.</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/politics/~4/Cc8PwIlMgRc" width="1" />

Federal Judge Rejects GOP Effort to Throw Out 127,000 Houston Votes Cast at Drive-Thru Polling Centers

(HOUSTON) — A federal judge on Monday rejected another last-ditch Republican effort to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Houston b...

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Several People Injured After Gunfire Erupts Near Vienna Synagogue: Austrian Police

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906614"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module video-2" data-src="https://time.com/5906614/vienna-austria-shooting/" data-widget-id="SB_4" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>VIENNA — The Austria Press Agency reported Monday that the country’s top security official says several people have been injured in an attack in the capital Vienna and there may be fatalities.</p> <p>APA quoted Karl Nehammer as saying that authorities believe there were several attackers involved and that it was still ongoing. It earlier cited Nehammer’s office saying that one attacker was killed and another could be on the run.</p> <p>Vienna police urged people to avoid all open spaces and public transport in the city. Police said trams and buses weren’t stopping and urged social media users not to post videos of the ongoing police operation, so as not to endanger officers.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p>“There are several injured persons,” police tweeted. “We are on site with all available forces. Please avoid all public squares in the city.”</p> <p>Oskar Deutsch, the head of the Jewish community in Vienna, said the shooting took place in the street where the city’s main synagogue is located but that it wasn’t clear whether the house of worship had been targeted.</p> <p>The synagogue was already closed at the time of the shooting around 8 p.m. (1900 GMT), Deutsch tweeted.</p> <p>Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister told The Associated Press that he saw at least one person fire shots at people sitting outside bars in the street below his window.</p> <p>“They were shooting at least 100 rounds just outside our building,” Hofmeister said.</p> <p>“All these bars have tables outside. This evening is the last evening before the lockdown,” he added. “As of midnight, all bars and restaurants will be closed in Austria for the next month and a lot of people probably wanted to use that evening to be able to go out.”</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/nNBCVTIFTeY" width="1" />

Several People Injured After Gunfire Erupts Near Vienna Synagogue: Austrian Police

VIENNA — The Austria Press Agency reported Monday that the country’s top security official says several people have been injured in...

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Inside Joe Biden Campaign’s Plan to Get Out the Vote Online

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906237"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/5906237/inside-joe-biden-campaigns-plan-to-get-out-the-vote-online/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>Inside the virtual staging location for a Florida canvassing shift, the organizer in charge is taking bites of her lunch as she takes attendance in the Zoom room. Another volunteer has just finished a shift and is planning to start another, once her son was done with school. Another was having problems with the internet connection.</p> <p>It’s Friday afternoon, five days before Election Day, and this Zoom room of volunteers are part of one last digital push to help former Vice President Joe Biden win the White House. “We’re the campaign office that used to be in the neighborhood,” says Kevin O’Connor, a paid organizer with a Biden 2020 sign hanging in the backdrop of his Zoom setup.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p>O’Connor helps train and manage digital volunteers for Biden, part of what staffers say is the largest experiment in digital organizing in American political history. Two weekends ago<strong>,</strong> the Biden digital organizing operation reached over 37 million people with calls and text messages, the vast majority of them in battleground states. Last weekend, volunteers made 58 million voter contacts between calls, texts, and door knocking. Compare that to the final four days of the Obama campaign, where organizers reached 25 million people, according to a staffer who worked on both campaigns.</p> <p>Six months ago, Biden’s digital organizing team was nearly nonexistent; now, it has 98 digital organizing staff members dedicated to battleground states alone. In July, the campaign’s Victory 2020 Slack channel—known as the main digital field office—had about a thousand people in it. By the end of October, there were 200,000 Biden volunteers in the channel, where they ask organizers for help and send special emojis when they reach a supporter or recruit a volunteer.</p> <p>“The biggest surprise for me has been the scale that we’ve been able to achieve in the shortest timeline of any presidential campaign in recent history,” says Caitlin Mitchell, a senior advisor for digital strategy for the campaign. “I do believe that a digital-first and primarily virtual approach has allowed us to reach this level of voter contact.”</p> <p>Democrats are <a href="https://time.com/5876600/joe-biden-internet-2020-election/">banking on this unprecedented push</a> to make up for the lack of door-to-door canvassing that has normally been the party’s strong suit. This year, Republicans have been hitting the streets to reach voters, and the GOP is boosting a formidable ground game operation. A Trump campaign spokeswoman says they have knocked on 35 million doors in total this cycle, and numbers released by the RNC boasted 15 million voter contacts in seven days. Biden and the Democrats, in deference to public health guidelines, waited until October to start knocking on doors, and have only gone out in some states.</p> <p>Instead, they’ve betting big on digital outreach. Most of the virtual staging locations are hosted through Mobilize, a digital platform founded in 2017 to help Democrats organize online. Over the last three years, nearly 4 million people have signed up for more than 13 million volunteer shifts on the platform. Before the pandemic, Mobilize helped grassroots organizers organize their in-person events; now, it has pivoted mostly to digital events, for the Biden campaign as well as other campaigns and liberal organizations. Since May, volunteers have attempted almost 400 million voter contacts through Mobilize, and more than one million people have signed up to volunteer in the four days leading up to November 3.</p> <p>The Biden campaign has more <strong>than</strong> 8,000 Mobilize events in the four days leading up to the election, including more than 400 events in North Carolina alone The Trump campaign, by comparison, has just over 50 <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/events/" target="_blank">“Trump Army” events</a> nationwide, according to its website. But the Trump campaign also has an ambitious digital organizing operation to supplement its in-person canvassing: a Trump campaign spokeswoman says the campaign has 2.6 million volunteers who have made 180 million voter contacts, including the door knocks.</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alfred Johnson, founder and CEO of Mobilize, says the current level of voter engagement is roughly twelve times higher than the mobilization just before the 2018 midterms, and at least triple what he saw before Super Tuesday.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“We’ve never seen organizing that even closely approximated what we’re looking at right now,” he says, adding that it is the culmination of years of anti-Trump organizing, from grassroots activists to Congressional candidates to the presidential primary. “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">This didn’t originate overnight. This has been percolating over the Trump presidency.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Now Democrats are trying to channel that energy into actually getting people to vote. In ordinary times, they would be constrained by physical concerns: for example, if Californians took a bus to Nevada to help knock on doors, the volunteer capacity would be constrained by how many people could fit on the buses. With digital organizing, those constraints are eliminated, and the campaign can direct volunteers from all over the country to target specific swing areas.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">“The system allows us to be able to navigate our volunteer activity on the flip of a dime, and be able to direct traffic to specific virtual station locations that may need support,</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">“ says digital organizing director Jose Nunez. If the campaign thinks they need more volunteers in Pennsylvania, for example, they can digitally send them there—without having to worry about travel times or logistics.</span></p> <p>The Biden team is also capitalizing on years of data building by the DNC in the closing days of the campaign. Since 2016, the DNC has done multiple rounds of cell phone data acquisition, and cleaned up their data file so it’s easier to use. Now, volunteers can use the “VoteJoe” app on their phones to cross-reference their personal contacts with that data. Contacts who live in battleground states have a little ballot next to their name; contacts who have requested ballots are marked with a green star. This allows volunteers to be more targeted with their asks. “You don’t have to hit up every single person in your contact book,” Mitchell says. Cross-referencing users’ contact data with voter data allows the app to say “here are your top 10 suggested friends to make sure that they’re putting that ballot in the mail.”</p> <p>If it’s successful, this new digital organizing model may be the new paradigm for Democrats. And it means the Biden campaign will have effectively trained a new cadre of digital organizers to take those skills into future elections. “Now we are coming out of the general election running with a massive army of volunteers that know how to have effective conversations, they know how to use digital tools,” says Nunez. “I think that’s going to change the landscape.”</p> <p><em>—With reporting by Tessa Berenson</em></p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/politics/~4/0VvjNdMZ6wc" width="1" />

Inside Joe Biden Campaign’s Plan to Get Out the Vote Online

Inside the virtual staging location for a Florida canvassing shift, the organizer in charge is taking bites of her lunch as she tak...

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Majority of ‘Karens’ Voting for Joe Biden in 2020 Election, New York Times Polling Data Finds

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906491"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/5906491/karens-joe-biden-new-york-times-poll-database/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>Around 60% of people named <a href="https://time.com/5857023/karen-meme-history-meaning/">Karen</a> are voting for <a href="https://time.com/5905502/biden-covid-19-plan/">Joe Biden</a> in the <a href="https://time.com/5905986/america-is-on-edge-as-election-day-nears/">2020 election</a>, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/briefing/the-2020-vote-preferences-of-102-common-first-names.html" target="_blank">collection of data gathered by the New York <em>Times</em> and Siena College</a>.</p> <p>After polling more than 17,000 likely voters in 18 battleground states since September, the <em>Times</em> decided to sort the accumulated data based on the most common first names and find any trends that the database provided. They sorted the 10 most common male names and the 10 most common female names and graphed how the data showed those polled planned to vote.</p> <p>This approach found that the majority of people named Karen are planning to vote for Biden over President Donald Trump. Of the top 10 most common female names, Karens were joined by Barbaras, Lisas, Patricias, Elizabeths, Susans and Marys in favoring the Democratic presidential nominee, while the data suggested Nancys, Jennifers and Lindas tended to back Trump.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <div class="time-embed time-embed__twitter" data-provider="twitter" data-url="https://twitter.com/alex_abads/status/1323258603508293632"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">really didn't expect biden to carry the coveted "karen" vote. huge implications for florida. <a href="https://t.co/pFIJ16FDzs" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/pFIJ16FDzs</a></p> <p>— alex (@alex_abads) <a href="https://twitter.com/alex_abads/status/1323258603508293632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">November 2, 2020</a></p> </blockquote> </div> <p>Stemming from the popular <a href="https://time.com/5683398/tropical-storm-karen-memes/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Can I speak to a manager?”</a> meme, the name Karen has become a pejorative slang term for entitled, and often racist, middle-aged white women who engage in flagrant displays of privilege. But the <em>Times’</em> Karen findings reportedly have more to do with age than anything else.</p> <p>“This is an age thing, not a meme thing,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/02/us/elections/02names-polls.html" target="_blank">the <em>Times</em> said</a>. “Karens are a cross section of women ages 40 and up. The name entered the top 20 in 1941 and stayed there through 1971.”</p> <p>Over the past year, the Karen moniker has been given to a number of white women who went viral after videos of their inappropriate or dangerous behavior surfaced online. Some notable examples include <a href="https://time.com/5899879/amy-cooper-second-911-call-assault/">Amy Cooper</a>, the “Central Park Karen” who called the police on a birdwatching Black man who asked her to leash her dog in a part of New York’s Central Park that required it, and <a href="https://time.com/5853442/san-francisco-white-couple-police-black-lives-matter-viral-video/">Lisa Alexander</a>, the “San Francisco Karen” who confronted a man who identifies as a person of color for writing “Black Lives Matter” in chalk on the front of his own home.</p> <p>Last September, <a href="https://time.com/5683398/tropical-storm-karen-memes/">Tropical Storm Karen</a> even inspired the internet to make memes poking fun at the storm’s name. “<span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">This Forecast Cone is an actual visual representation of the rising anger of everyone in line behind</span> <span class="r-18u37iz"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" data-focusable="true" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Karen?src=hashtag_click" rel="noopener noreferrer" role="link" target="_blank">#Karen</a></span> <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">as she argues with the manager because her coupons are not working,” <a href="https://twitter.com/JWButta/status/1175737272844599296" target="_blank">one Twitter user wrote</a>.</span></p> <div class="time-embed time-embed__twitter" data-provider="twitter" data-url="https://twitter.com/JWButta/status/1175737272844599296"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">This Forecast Cone is an actual visual representation of the rising anger of everyone in line behind <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Karen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">#Karen</a> as she argues with the manager because her coupons are not working. <a href="https://t.co/uMIhtbou4t" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/uMIhtbou4t</a></p> <p>— 🧈MeltLikeButta🧈 (@JWButta) <a href="https://twitter.com/JWButta/status/1175737272844599296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">September 22, 2019</a></p> </blockquote> </div> <p>The <em>Times</em> also provided <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/briefing/the-2020-vote-preferences-of-102-common-first-names.html" target="_blank">a searchable graph</a> of the 102 most common names and the reported voting preference, of those who responded to its recent polling.</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/politics/~4/Fbz8A_L0lkk" width="1" />

Majority of ‘Karens’ Voting for Joe Biden in 2020 Election, New York Times Polling Data Finds

Around 60% of people named Karen are voting for Joe Biden in the 2020 election , according to a collection of data gathered by th...

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Celebrity-Backed ‘Mood Chews’ and Gummies Promise to Decrease Stress. But There’s Rarely Scientific Evidence Behind That Promise

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5904050"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/5904050/mood-chews-mental-health/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">L-theanine. Rhodiola. Ashwagandha. Cannabidiol. GABA. These ingredients were once relegated to alternative-health shops and mail-order supplement businesses. Now, they’re just a few of the buzzy alternative substances that celebrities are hawking as answers to our contemporary anxiety crises—despite the lack of conclusive evidence that they can help people with mental health challenges.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On October 22, Zak Williams, son of actor Robin Williams,</span> <a href="https://fashionista.com/2020/10/zak-williams-pym-mood-chews" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">announced</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">the upcoming release of his new line of mood-enhancing candies, PYM, short for “Prepare Your Mind,” and, according to its spokesperson, designed to address “feelings of: overwhelm, stress, anxiety.” Williams’s father died by suicide in 2014; Williams</span> <a href="https://www.inc.com/lindsay-blakely/zak-williams-pym-mental-health-wellness-startup.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has been open</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">about his own struggle with depression and dissatisfaction with prescription medication, which he says spurred him to start this company as an alternative resource.</span><br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The “mood chews,” with their combination of L-theanine, rhodiola and GABA, are maybe the celebrity-backed product most clearly marketed at reducing anxiety, but Williams is not the first notable figure to make a move in the space.</span></p> <div class="time-embed time-embed__twitter" data-provider="twitter" data-url="https://twitter.com/youcanpym/status/1306757469503254528?s=20"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Stressed? Anxious? Overwhelmed? Take two to feel better in 20 minutes or less. 🙂 <a href="https://t.co/qyLL1r55tp" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/qyLL1r55tp</a></p> <p>— PYM (@youcanpym) <a href="https://twitter.com/youcanpym/status/1306757469503254528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">September 18, 2020</a></p> </blockquote> </div> <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/style/martha-stewart-at-home.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last month</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, home and garden guru Martha Stewart shared the news of her own new CBD gummies, oil and softgels, marketed for “wellness.” Figures like Whoopi Goldberg, Seth Rogen, Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg and Chelsea Handler have also dipped into the broader cannabis industry, making it one of the more popular areas of recent investment from celebrities, although these particular individuals have steered clear of directing their messages at mental health specifically.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. has entered a mental health crisis: 40% of adults reported struggling with mental health or substance issues this spring, according</span> <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6932a1.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">to a report</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in June, based on a survey reviewed by a team at Monash University in Australia. Symptoms of anxiety disorder were up about 300% compared to the same quarter in 2019, and 10% of respondents reported “seriously considering suicide” in the month prior.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The wellness market is working overtime to take advantage, as in-person therapy becomes more difficult to access. According to</span> <a href="https://www.iriworldwide.com/en-us/insights/publications/self-care-trends" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">some</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">market</span> <a href="https://asdonline.com/blog/retail-news/what-self-care-trends-mean-for-retailers-in-2020/#:~:text=Self%2DCare%20Products%20Will%20Drive,it's%20boomed%20to%20%24450%20billion." target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">analyses</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the broader self-care industry, which encompasses many forms of wellness-focused consumption, currently has an estimated value of</span> <a href="https://asdonline.com/blog/retail-news/what-self-care-trends-mean-for-retailers-in-2020/#:~:text=Self%2DCare%20Products%20Will%20Drive,it's%20boomed%20to%20%24450%20billion." target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">about $450 billion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. One slice of that substantial pie are these over-the-counter products that claim to reduce anxiety or otherwise improve mental health—with no approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or other verification that they are effective or safe. These new brands are unified by trendy direct-to-consumer distribution and sleek Millennial-aimed marketing. And they’re boosted by high-profile backers, like Williams, who lend them legitimacy.</span></p> <p>But evidence-backed science is thin on many of the ingredients in question. “<span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the challenges with anxiety and depression is that we tend to see fairly high placebo response rates,” says Dr. Martin Antony, a professor of psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada and author of <em><a href="https://www.guilford.com/books/The-Anti-Anxiety-Workbook/Antony-Norton/9781593859930/tools" target="_blank">The Anti-Anxiety Workbook</a></em>. “It’s probably pretty difficult to create a treatment that people don’t find effective, because when people are at their worst they tend to get better,” he says.</span></p> <div class="time-embed time-embed__twitter" data-provider="twitter" data-url="https://twitter.com/marthaliving/status/1317110747730792448?s=20"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Relax and unwind into wellness with <a href="https://twitter.com/marthacbd?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">@marthacbd</a> . Martha’s citrus medley gummies are not only made of gourmet deliciousness but these flavors are combined with state-of-the-art CBD isolate to promote better living.<a href="https://t.co/P0tAmcovFo" target="_blank">https://t.co/P0tAmcovFo</a> <a href="https://t.co/kq6J7OnoA9" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/kq6J7OnoA9</a></p> <p>— Martha Stewart Living (@marthaliving) <a href="https://twitter.com/marthaliving/status/1317110747730792448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">October 16, 2020</a></p> </blockquote> </div> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For instance, studies suggest that while CBD might be useful for</span> <a href="https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/medical-marijuana-and-mental-health-cannabis-use-psychiatric-practice" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">improving sleep</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">quality, other effects need</span> <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwepad/lancet-study-on-weed-and-mental-health-reveals-just-how-little-we-know" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">more study;</span></a> Antony says the claims “<span style="font-weight: 400;">go way beyond the findings.”</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">But entrepreneurs like Stewart are powering ahead with their products. Her decision to lend her brand name to these products appears to be more about keeping up with consumption trends than anything else. “I want to be current,” she told the New York</span> <i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Times</span></i> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in a profile last month. The “Martha Stewart” branding and luxury flavors—Meyer lemon, kumquat—don’t hurt.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since the onset of COVID-19, people have been more stressed than ever, and CBD is a natural way to manage life’s difficulties,” a spokesperson for the brand shared with TIME.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“Martha Stewart is a name that people know and trust. We believe this brand will invite ‘CBD intenders’—people who are curious about CBD but who have never tried it—to experience the many wellness benefits that Martha herself enjoys</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.”</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">(In cannabis products, CBD and THC are the two cannabinoid compounds that are most commonly found. Both are regulated differently at the federal and state levels. THC is the compound responsible for a cannabis “high,” while CBD does not offer the same psychoactive response. Both, however, are being studied for their impacts on mood and anxiety.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">L-theanine, rhodiola and GABA, meanwhile—the primary components in Williams’s new vitamins—are adaptogens and amino acids found in foods like green tea and kimchi and used regularly in alternative and non-Western medical practices.</span> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6836118/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Several studies</span></a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464611000351" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">have</span></a> <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26192072/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">shown</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">that L-theanine reduced some stress symptoms in patients.</span> <a href="https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/rhodiola" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rhodiola</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">is less well-researched, with</span> <a href="https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/2015-09/rhodiola-rosea-vs-sertraline-major-depression" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">inconclusive</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">results in some studies. Past research into</span> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4594160/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">GABA</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">has also been inconclusive, although some more recent studies</span> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6696076/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">suggest</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">it has potential for various positive health effects, including the prevention of depression. “</span>A lot of these studies often look at whether they’re reducing symptoms of anxiety, not treating an anxiety disorder,” Antony cautions, and while proven treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy have thousands of studies behind them, these alternatives are still in their early stages of research. “<span style="font-weight: 400;">There are lots of other strategies; they’re not as quick as putting a capsule in your mouth, but there are a lot of other strategies that are better studied. Some are medications, but there are lots of non-pharmacological options,” he says. Meditation and mindfulness, for instance, has become a proven mental health intervention.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Williams is far from the first to peddle unproven substances as mental-health treatments. Perhaps most prominently, actor Gwyneth Paltrow has, through her Goop brand, long been selling vitamin packets with names like “Why Am I So Effing Tired?,”</span> <a href="https://shop.goop.com/shop/products/why-am-i-so-effing-tired?variant_id=24243&country=USA&utm_source=google&utm_medium=sem&utm_campaign=SEM_ALL_NOTARGET_BRAND_GWELLNESS_E&gclid=CjwKCAjw0On8BRAgEiwAincsHEsMhJ1xkA8NWKoG_pwTXYUqRz9GCGF7_5JtUM6ELfV8vBvfIPTZZxoCaJMQAvD_BwE" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">which includes</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">an adaptogen mix for “physical and emotional stress” with ashwagandha and holy basil,</span> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5376420/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">or tulsi,</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">both Ayurvedic treatments that</span> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3573577/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">some studies</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">have found improve mood and alleviate stress. Other brands favored by the celebrity set, like L.A.’s Moon Juice or DTC brands like Ritual and Care/Of, also</span> <a href="https://moonjuice.com/products/superyou" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">bundle up</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">adaptogens like ashwagandha and rhodiola in products marketed as anti-stress treatments.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The problem lies in the marketing: people desperate for help managing depression and anxiety who can’t afford traditional mental healthcare may turn to these over-the-counter options promoted by their favorite celeb, and find no relief. “These products are not well regulated; they don’t have to be proven to be safe or effective to go on the market,” Antony says. “It’s kind of like selling cupcakes rather than selling a medication.”</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">In a year when many are struggling with severe anxiety around the global pandemic and economic recession, that could do more harm than good.</span></p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/business/~4/Jg0gRAM8e-g" width="1" />

Celebrity-Backed ‘Mood Chews’ and Gummies Promise to Decrease Stress. But There’s Rarely Scientific Evidence Behind That Promise

L-theanine. Rhodiola. Ashwagandha. Cannabidiol. GABA. These ingredients were once relegated to alternative-health shops and mail-or...

Read more »

Without Georgia and Texas, Republicans’ Red Wall Is More Like a Pink Curtain

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906534"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/5906534/republicans-texas-georgia/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p class="p1"><i>This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up</i> <a href="https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletter_opt-in?qs=3a19a0aa35903a2d9f214b74f69a37910b58de73cf3f2b89adc123fac024f0478c72f91010ae9d01f08f46c616068cab3e74726837cd2cce70dac3796e46c2b4"><span class="s1"><i>here</i></span></a> <i>to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday.</i></p> <p>For the last three decades, Democrats have leaned on what was known as the Blue Wall: the 18 states and the District of Columbia that have consistently gone for the Democratic presidential nominee since 1992. The bloc was an insurance policy of sorts — until four years ago, when Donald Trump broke through in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and in a lone congressional district in Maine. Voters in those places put Trump over the top and sent him to Washington on a mission to destroy it.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p>Republicans, meanwhile, also enjoyed their version of a lesser-heralded Red Wall, or states that were prone to go for Republicans. Some called it the Red Sea, stretching from South Carolina to Idaho. But that, too, has started to break down — or become shallow, depending on the metaphor — and it’s not quite as red as it used to be. Now, as Trump is running for a second term, it’s more like a Pink Curtain or a Pink Pond that stands between him and defeat. The fact that normally deep-red Georgia and Texas and the swing states of Iowa and Ohio are in play this late in the campaign shows just how much the Democrats’ intense spotlight on those states has managed to dull the crimson sheen.</p> <p>Democrats have made tremendous pushes into Republican territory in the last four years, as well as worked to rebuild what was once their safety nets in the Upper Midwest and Pennsylvania. They’ve boosted local and state parties, patched data disadvantages and recruited solid candidates for local races. Intense voter-registration efforts have followed, although <a href="https://time.com/5901862/republicans-voter-registration-swing-states/">Republicans</a> have made up for lost time at a faster clip in some cases and the confluence of a pandemic, an economic slump and a reckoning on race that will all contribute to what are predicted to be <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/08/14/election-2020-a-once-in-a-century-massive-turnout/" target="_blank">once-a-century</a> levels of voter participation.</p> <p>Collectively, Trump and his allies have spent more than $47 million on TV ads in these four states and their 78 electoral votes, according to an NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/13/923427969/presidential-campaign-tv-ad-spending-crosses-1-billion-mark-in-key-states" target="_blank">analysis</a>. (Biden, meanwhile, is spending a modest $23 million.) On average, Trump carried these states by 8.1 percentage points in 2016; now he’s polling ahead on average by 0.7 percentage points in that quartet, according to Real Clear Politics’ polling averages. Trump won Texas by 9 points four years ago but is showing up in the RCP average of polls there with a mere 2.3-percentage-points advantage.</p> <p>Trump’s precarious hold on these states is a lot about voters’ exhaustion with the last four years. Consider Ohio, a perennial swing state that has sided with the White House winner in every election but two since 1896. It has an unbroken streak of going with the eventual presidential winner since 1964. Four years ago, Trump carried 46% of Ohio women, according to exit <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-polls/ohio/president" target="_blank">polls</a>. In Quinnipiac University’s <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/images/polling/oh/oh10292020_crosstabs_bgth12.pdf" target="_blank">poll</a> of Ohio voters released last week, Trump’s standing with Ohio women had faded by 12 percentage points, sinking to 34%. If history holds, women will make up more than half of the electorate, meaning this is a potentially fatal slump.</p> <p>But don’t write off Trump in Ohio — or any of these states, really — just yet. Among Ohio voters, Republicans have grown their number of early votes by 209% over 2016 levels. That’s a faster pace than Democrats’ still-impressive growth of 154%, according to <a href="https://targetearly.targetsmart.com/" target="_blank">figures</a> provided by TargetSmart, a Democratic data firm. In terms of share of total votes, Ohio Republicans are running 6 percentage points ahead of Democrats in returning ballots. And perhaps more damning for Ohio Democrats: only 24% of them <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/images/polling/oh/oh10292020_crosstabs_bgth12.pdf" target="_blank">told</a> Quinnipiac pollsters that they planned to vote on Tuesday, compared to the 66% of Republicans who planned to do the same. In other words, most of the Democrats’ votes were supposed to come early, and they’re already losing by this one measure.</p> <p>What’s clear from this quartet of states is that Republicans still have advantages in them. Trump’s strongest defense is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/us/politics/texas-battleground-state.html" target="_blank">Texas</a> with its 38 electoral votes. Judging from his supporters’ <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/31/biden-trump-texas-bus/" target="_blank">skirmish</a> over the weekend with Democrats on a Texas highway, his team is emboldened.</p> <p>But down-ballot energy is a real thing in Texas, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/21/texas-congress-democrats-optimistic/" target="_blank">according</a> to The Texas Tribune, and TIME’s Chris Wilson broke down the <a href="https://time.com/5904873/texas-blue-biden-trump/">math</a> last week. There’s a reason Jill Biden, Kamala Harris and her husband have all made stops there during the final weeks of the campaign. The last Democrat to win electoral votes from Texas was Jimmy Carter in 1976, but population changes have made Texas something of a white whale for Democrats, who in 2018 came within 2.6 percentage points of making Republican Sen. Ted Cruz a one-termer.</p> <p>The mere fact that Trump and his allies had to spend any money at all in Texas TV markets says a lot.</p> <p><span class="s2"><i>Make sense of what matters in Washington.</i> <a href="https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/politics?source=dc_article"><i>Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter.</i></a></span></p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/politics/~4/-R-USHW_Rsw" width="1" />

Without Georgia and Texas, Republicans’ Red Wall Is More Like a Pink Curtain

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There May Be a Link Between COVID-19 and Preterm Birth, CDC Says

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5906483"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module video-2" data-src="https://time.com/5906483/covid-19-preterm-birth/" data-widget-id="SB_4" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>Contracting COVID-19 during pregnancy may put expectant mothers at a higher risk of delivering early, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6944e2.htm?s_cid=mm6944e2_w" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to new data</a> from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).</p> <p>The CDC’s new report is based on data from almost 4,500 people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 during pregnancy and provided public health departments with information about their pregnancy outcomes. Roughly 3,900 mothers gave information about their baby’s gestational age. Within that group, nearly 13% of babies (about 500) were born preterm—slightly but significantly higher than the 2019 national rate of about 10%.</p> <p>Preterm birth—a birth that occurs before the 37th week of pregnancy—<a href="https://www.marchofdimes.org/mission/reportcard.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">has been on the rise</a> around the world in recent years, though researchers aren’t entirely sure why. Preterm birth is the leading cause of death for children under five years old, <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/preterm-birth" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to the World Health Organization</a>. Babies born early can experience both <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/premature-birth/symptoms-causes/syc-20376730" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">short- and long-term health problems</a>, which tend to be more serious the earlier a baby is born.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p>Understanding a possible connection between COVID-19 and preterm birth could help inform obstetric care for the rest of the pandemic. Many of the characteristics that put people at increased risk for severe COVID-19 infection, including preexisting health conditions, also increase the <a href="https://time.com/4274355/air-pollution-preterm-birth/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">risk of preterm birth</a>. Black women also experience higher-than-average rates of both preterm birth <a href="https://time.com/5866854/black-women-health-care/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">and COVID-19 infection</a>. The CDC’s dataset disproportionately included women of color, many of whom had prior health problems, so it’s possible the data reflects some of those preexisting disparities.</p> <p>The CDC’s report didn’t specify why pregnant women may be at risk of delivering early, but <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6925a1.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">prior studies</a> suggest expectant mothers who get sick with coronavirus are more likely than the general population to have severe symptoms and require intensive care. There may be a link between the two findings.</p> <p>The report also found that babies were fairly unlikely to contract COVID-19 in the womb. Test results were not available for most babies included in the study, but among the 610 with results available, only 2.6% tested positive within a week of birth. Women diagnosed with COVID-19 a week or less before giving birth appeared to be the most likely to pass the virus to their child, according to the agency.</p> <p>Half of the babies that tested positive for COVID-19 were born early, but this high positivity rate may reflect better testing practices within intensive care units, the report says.</p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">The CDC’s recommendations for pregnant women and their families are the same as for the general population:</span> <a href="https://time.com/5880867/face-masks-coronavirus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;" target="_blank">wear masks</a> <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">in public spaces,</span> <a href="https://time.com/5903992/indoor-socializing-coronavirus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;" target="_blank">practice social distancing</a> <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">and wash hands frequently. Pregnant women should also stay up-to-date with vaccinations and prenatal appointments to ensure general health, the CDC says.</span></p>

There May Be a Link Between COVID-19 and Preterm Birth, CDC Says

Contracting COVID-19 during pregnancy may put expectant mothers at a higher risk of delivering early, according to new data from t...

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Kids Are Participating in COVID-19 Vaccine Trials. Here’s What Their Parents Think

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-5905272"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/5905272/covid-19-vaccine-trials-kids/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>Katelyn Evans, 16, has never met Randy Kerr—and there’s no reason she should have. It was 66 years ago that Kerr, then 6, became briefly famous, receiving the first injection of Jonas Salk’s experimental polio vaccine during the massive field trial of hundreds of thousands of children in the spring of 1954. History notes that the vaccine worked, and the children who stepped forward to receive either the actual shot or a placebo were heroically dubbed the Polio Pioneers.</p> <p>Evans is a pioneer of the modern age, one of an eventual group of 600 children in the 16-to-17 year-old age group (along with 2,000 more between 12 and 15) to volunteer to be part of a Phase 3 trial to test an experimental COVID-19 vaccine made by the multinational pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The company <a href="https://www.pfizer.com/science/coronavirus/vaccine" target="_blank">had already enrolled 42,113 adult volunteers in its Phase 2 and 3 trials</a>, but only recently did the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) give approval to include children. And Evans, a high school junior in Cincinnati, was among the earliest, receiving her first of two injections on Oct. 14, at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.<br /></p> <div class="article-video ad_brightcove_video right-rail-adjacent"> <div id="ad_brightcove" class="ad_brightcove_video-wrapper"></div> </div> <p>“She was the youngest one to receive the vaccine at that point in time,” says her mother, Laurie Evans, an elementary school teacher. In the spring, the family saw a news report that Pfizer was looking for volunteers and Evans and both of her children signed up. “Katelyn was the only one who got the call,” Laurie says. “I know from the response we’ve gotten that there are some people out there who don’t think this is the smartest thing for us to have done. But I’m more afraid of COVID than the vaccine.”</p> <p>With good reason. The 8.8 million Americans who have contracted the disease include about 800,000 children, with the <a href="https://downloads.aap.org/AAP/PDF/AAP%20and%20CHA%20-%20Children%20and%20COVID-19%20State%20Data%20Report%2010.15.20%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)</a> reporting a 13% increase in total pediatric cases in just the first two weeks of October. Children with COVID-19 may typically fare better than adults who catch the virus, but they can still become severely ill: some 3.6% of total U.S. COVID-19 patients who have had to be hospitalized have been children, according to the AAP. That reality makes volunteering for the Pfizer field trial more than an act of public-service heroism; it is also a potential act of preventive medicine.</p> <p>Certainly, that’s the way Sharat Chandra saw things. Sharat was already part of the Pfizer adult trial and when word first went around that children would soon be included too, he and his wife discussed the possibility of enrolling their 12-year-old son Abhinav, and then posed the question to him.</p> <p>“I raised it to my son and we felt that it might be a good thing for him because if he got the vaccine, it could protect him from getting the virus himself,” Sharat says. “Because he was attending school in person, we felt that it would be good to minimize his risk for infection, if we can.”</p> <figure class="inline-portrait_small_2x alignnone"><img alt="" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?w=560&w=560" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg 1200w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=300,225 300w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=768,576 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=600,450 600w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=489,367 489w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=979,734 979w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=249,187 249w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=499,374 499w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=360,270 360w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=745,559 745w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=720,540 720w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=407,305 407w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=814,611 814w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=280,210 280w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=560,420 560w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=190,143 190w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=380,285 380w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=263,197 263w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=526,395 526w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=61,46 61w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=640,480 640w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=760,570 760w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=700,525 700w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=1000,750 1000w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=41,31 41w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=550,413 550w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=1100,825 1100w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=840,630 840w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=1012,759 1012w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=320,240 320w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=649,487 649w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=192,144 192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=533,400 533w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=267,200 267w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=171,128 171w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abhinav-vaccine-2.jpg?resize=333,250 333w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption"><span class="credit">Courtesy of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital</span><span class="caption">Abhinav Chandra participating in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trial.</span></figcaption> </figure> <p>Even younger kids could eventually receive the same experimental prevention as part of expanded trials before long. The FDA requires all drugs submitted for approval have a pediatric plan, but that rule is lenient to the point of being no rule at all. “The plan can be simply ‘We don’t have a plan,’” says Dr. Robert Frenck, director of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospitals Center for Vaccine Research. That means a COVID-19 vaccine tested only in adults and then approved could potentially be prescribed off-label to kids—but doctors don’t especially like that idea.</p> <p>“It’s a hard sell for pediatricians to say to parents, ‘I have a licensed vaccine that hasn’t been tested in the pediatric age group, but I want to give it to your children,’” says Frenck.</p> <p>For that reason, he and other doctors are advocating for robust testing in the 12-17 age group, pausing to see how that goes, and, if the results are good, continuing to test in younger cohorts. “We are looking to test in older kids and then age de-escalate, even down to as young as six months,” he says.</p> <p>For now, they’re a long way from that. Pfizer is currently the only company testing its COVID-19 vaccine in children of any age and the eventual sample group of 2,600 total children is not yet fully assembled. Still, while testing in children is not a requirement for the vaccine to be released and be used in kids, Frenck believes that other vaccine developers will take their cue from Pfizer and develop pediatric testing plans of their own. “My assumption is most of the companies—or many of the companies—will follow suit,” he says.</p> <p>There are, of course, risks associated with choosing to participate in these studies. No experimental vaccine is 100% safe; determining the degree of risk is part of the reason for field trials in the first place. The Pfizer vaccine does not use a killed or weakened virus to trigger the immune response. Rather, it uses messenger RNA (mRNA) from SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—which prompts the body’s cells to produce coronavirus proteins. That, in turn, causes the immune system to produce antibodies. A vaccine with no whole virus—killed or weakened—makes some parents more comfortable, but the field trial protocols nonetheless call for warning them of all possible adverse outcomes.</p> <p>“They sent us a whole 11-page document of all the ifs and whys and hows and whats,” says Evans. “They told us [the side effects] that people got in the Phase 1 trials. And it was like a little bit of achy body. A low-grade fever. Little things like that. Nothing drastic or dire.”</p> <p>Still, the overall process involves both commitment and a certain tolerance for pain and inconvenience. Subjects are enrolled in the trial for two years and in the early phases must report for periodic blood draws and nasal swabs, followed by half a dozen quicker check-ups over the remainder of the two-year period. None of that thrilled Abhinav.</p> <p>“When we first spoke to him, he wasn’t too excited to be honest,” says Sharat. “And it was not so much the vaccine itself. He wasn’t too excited about the blood draw part of it. That was the main thing he wasn’t happy about.”</p> <p>The families haven’t been happy about some other things either—not least the inevitable Internet trolling that seems to follow even the most virtuous act.</p> <p>“I’ve gotten a few comments on Facebook—’What kind of mother would let her kids do that?'” says Evans. “But Katelyn has also had teachers and other students in the hallway say, ‘Hey, my gosh, that’s so cool’ and, ‘You’re so brave!'”</p> <p>Neither the Chandras nor the Evanses feel especially brave, insisting that they trust the science and the assurances of the doctors who explained the risks and the benefits of participating. One thing they do worry about is whether or not their kids are receiving placebo or the actual injection. Laurie Evans frets that the two-year commitment to which Katelyn agreed means that, if she received a placebo she might be discouraged from getting the actual vaccine when it is approved since that would contaminate the ongoing research. Katelyn herself is concerned about that scenario—especially if her school requires kids to be vaccinated in order to attend. Laurie reports that Pfizer has so far been surprisingly vague on that point so far—not yet spelling out what it will expect from its placebo recipients. But the families have a fail-safe option: “We’re allowed to back out of the trial at any point,” Laurie says.</p> <p>For now, they have no such plans. The long-ago polio pioneers were lauded as heroes—as they certainly were in an era in which science knew far less about immunology. The COVID-19 pioneers may not receive the same applause, but even if the risks they face are smaller, the nobility of their actions is not.</p> <p>“We feel like normal, every-day people that are just doing a little teeny-tiny thing that we believe will help lots of people,” says Evans. “Someone has to.”</p>

Kids Are Participating in COVID-19 Vaccine Trials. Here’s What Their Parents Think

Katelyn Evans, 16, has never met Randy Kerr—and there’s no reason she should have. It was 66 years ago that Kerr, then 6, became br...

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