By Jessica Hill, Las Vegas Review-Journal

All eyes are on Nevada’s Senate race — which could determine the balance of power in Congress — where Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is fighting to keep her seat from Republican Sam Brown.

The race is one of seven Senate races the Cook Political Report considers competitive, though the nonpartisan political analysis newsletter thinks Rosen has the advantage. Polls show the Nevada junior senator ahead of her GOP opponent, but in a state like Nevada where polling is difficult due to fluctuations in the state’s electorate, the seat could go either way.

If 2022’s Senate race is any indication (Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto won her reelection by less than 0.1 percentage points) voters can expect a tight race between Rosen and Brown.

Rosen was first elected to the Senate in 2018 and previously served as a representative of Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District. She comes from a background in computer programming, and she sits on several senate committees, including armed services, homeland security and governmental affairs. She also serves as the co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism and the Abraham Accords caucus.

Rosen was named one of the senators who breaks from their party ranks the most often, and she has framed herself as a bipartisan senator who is willing to cross the aisle. Her opponent, however, has rebutted that Rosen still votes with her party about 93% of the time.

Brown, a Purple Heart veteran, has gripped Nevadans’ attention with his story of surviving an explosion while on duty in Afghanistan. He previously ran for office in Texas in 2018 and then in Nevada for the Senate in 2022 but didn’t make it past the primary. Brown, who moved to Nevada in 2018, worked at an Amazon fulfillment center and founded a business that provides emergency pharmaceutical drugs to veterans.

U.S. Senate candidate from Nevada, Sam Brown, leaves the stage after endorsing Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, during a campaign event Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Henderson. (File photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS)

He has prioritized the economy in his fight against the sitting junior senator, calling her a rubber stamp for the Biden-Harris administration that exacerbated rising costs. Democrats, on the other hand, have picked apart Brown’s positions on abortion and Yucca Mountain.

On the biggest issue: the economy

Multiple polls show Nevadans care most about the economy, and both Rosen and Brown have plans to address rising costs and the lack of affordable housing.

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Rosen is working to prevent price gouging in the housing market and crack down on investors driving housing costs up, according to the Review-Journal’s voter guide. She helped introduce bills to cut taxes for first-time home buyers who need down payment assistance, and she has worked to expand housing development through public lands legislation. She has also called on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, and she is working to cap insulin costs for all Americans, according to the voter guide.

Brown wants to stop what he calls reckless spending in Washington that caused prices to skyrocket, and he wants to lower taxes on food, gas, medicine and energy, according to the voter guide. He also wants to create better energy and monetary policies that lower costs for production and transportation of goods. To help with housing, Brown pledges to enact legislation to release federal lands in Nevada for housing on a “regular and reliable timetable,” as well as cut regulations that slow down housing development projects.

Candidates Chris Cunningham, a libertarian, and Janine Hansen, an independent candidate, are also running for the seat.

©2024 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com.. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By MATT BROWN and LINLEY SANDERS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Black registered voters have an overwhelmingly positive view of Vice President Kamala Harris, but they’re less sure that she would change the country for the better, according to a recent poll from the   AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The poll, which was conducted in mid-September, found about 7 in 10 Black voters have a somewhat or very favorable view of Harris, with few differences between Black men and women voters on how they view the Democratic candidate. Younger and older Black voters also had similar views of the vice president.

Black voters’ opinions of former President Donald Trump, by contrast, were overwhelmingly negative, underscoring the challenges that the Republican candidate faces as he seeks to erode Harris’ support among Black men. Black voters are an important Democratic constituency, and few are aligned with the Republican Party. According to the survey, two-thirds of Black voters identify as Democrats, about 2 in 10 identify as independents and about 1 in 10 identify as Republicans.

But the poll also found that despite this dramatic gap in views of the candidates, Black voters are less certain of whether Harris would set the country on a better trajectory, or make a substantial difference in their own lives. Only about half of Black voters say “would change the country for the better” describes Harris very or extremely well, while about 3 in 10 say it describes her “somewhat well” and about 2 in 10 say it describes her “not very well” or “not well at all.” And only about half believe the outcome of this presidential election will have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of impact on them personally, an assessment that’s in line with Americans overall.

“The Democratic Party is not strong enough for me,” said Raina Johnson, 53, a safety case manager in Chicago. Johnson predicted that Harris would “try to do something for the people” but she felt that Harris would be limited as it was “with (Barack) Obama, because the Republican Party shut him down.”

While Johnson felt that the stakes of the election were extremely high, she did not think it would have a large personal impact on her.

“Because I’ll still live my life. I’ll just have to roll with the punches,” she said.

Most Black voters think Harris is better on the issues

When asked which candidate would do a better job handling their top issues, including the economy, health care and crime, Black voters had the same answer: Harris.

Like voters overall, about 8 in 10 Black voters said the economy is one of the most important issues to their vote. But about three-quarters of Black voters said health care was one of their most important issues, compared to slightly more than half of registered voters, and they were also more likely than the electorate as a whole to say gun policy and crime were top issues.

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In all of those areas, as well as on other topics like abortion and climate change, Harris held a commanding advantage over Trump among Black voters. But the size of that edge was bigger on some issues than others. About 6 in 10 Black voters said Harris was better positioned to handle the economy, while about 2 in 10 said this about Trump, giving Harris about a 40-point advantage. On abortion policy, she had around a 60-point advantage over Trump.

The Trump campaign has stepped up with some outreach to Black communities this year. The former president’s campaign believes that his message on the economy, immigration and traditional values can make notable inroads into the Democrats’ traditional base of support among Black voters, especially younger Black men.

Rod Wettlin, a retired Air Force veteran in Surprise, Arizona, who wants greater action on issues like health care and immigration, said he was deeply opposed to Trump and was concerned about the implications of the election for American democracy.

“What’s going on now is the culmination of a lot of stuff that’s been in our face for years,” said Wettlin. “Hopefully after the election it is civil, but these cats out here are already calling for bedlam. And that’s their right, I fought for them to have that right. But don’t infringe on mine.”

There are signs that some groups of Black voters see Harris as a stronger figure, though. Black women voters and older Black voters were especially likely to describe Harris as someone who would “fight for people like you,” compared to Black men and younger Black voters.

FILE – A supporter holds up a sign as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Trump National Doral Miami, July 9, 2024, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

Black voters view Trump negatively, and some are skeptical about Biden

Relatively few Black voters have a positive view of Trump, or see him as a candidate who has important qualities for the presidency. The poll found that about 8 in 10 Black voters have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Trump, while just 15% have a somewhat or very favorable view. About 1 in 10 said “would change the country for the better” or “would fight for people like you” describes Trump at least very well, and a similarly low share of Black voters said that Trump would make a good president.

“I think we’re headed in the right direction if Kamala Harris gets it,” said Roslyn Coble, 63, and a resident of Oakboro, North Carolina. “But if Donald Trump gets it, it’s going to be bad. He already told us what he’s going to do. He’s going to be a dictator.”

About 7 in 10 Black voters say the phrase “will say anything to win the election” describes Trump at least very well.

In a sign of how former President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw as the Democratic candidate in July may have altered the race, only 55% of Black men voters have a favorable view of Biden, compared to 7 in 10 Black women voters.

“He did his best,” said Wettlin. He said that Biden should have bowed out of the presidential race far sooner and was skeptical of some of his achievements.

Black voter engagement organizations say they have also seen a burst of energy from voters and advocates since Harris’ entrance into the race, and both the Harris and Trump campaigns are continuing to focus on this group.

The Trump campaign has been conducting listening sessions and community events in Black neighborhoods in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee. The campaign has also coordinated a “Black Voices for Trump” bus tour across cities in September. Meanwhile, the Harris campaign has held a number of events geared toward Black voters, especially Black men, and has deployed a number of high-profile surrogates, including lawmakers, celebrities and civil rights leaders, to Black communities in recent weeks.

The poll of 1,771 registered voters was conducted Sept. 12-16, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for registered voters is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

By John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris expressed confidence in an interview that aired Monday night that she could get her agenda through Congress, though she signaled a fight with lawmakers over how to pay for it.

Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, was interviewed by “60 Minutes” on CBS as some polls showed a close race getting even tighter with less than a month until Election Day. That included the seven key battleground states expected to decide the contest.

Harris was questioned by correspondent Bill Whitaker for the first half of the show. The second half initially was intended for Scott Pelley to interview former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, but Trump backed out. Asked about her opponent no-showing the program, the vice president encouraged viewers to tune in to his campaign events.

“Watch his rallies. You’re going to hear conversations about himself and all of his personal grievances,” Harris said. “And what you will not hear is anything about you, the listener. You will not hear about how he’s going to try and bring the country together, find common ground. That’s why I believe … the American people are ready to turn the page.”

In Pennsylvania, an Emerson College poll had Harris and Trump tied. A RealClearPolitics average of several recent surveys showed the same. The same Emerson poll gave Trump a 1 percentage point advantage in North Carolina, a state he carried in 2016 and 2020.

Whitaker pressed the vice president on a range of issues. Here are four takeaways.

Pay-fors?

Harris was pushed on how she, if elected, would pay for what would be a pricey agenda.

She has proposed tax breaks and other federal aid for first-time homebuyers, would-be small-business owners and parents, accompanied by revenue from a proposal to raise corporate tax rates.

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“My plan is about saying that when you invest in small businesses you invest in the middle class, and you strengthen America’s economy,” she said before Whitaker interjected: “Pardon me, Madam Vice President, the question was, ‘How are you going to pay for it?’”

“Well, one of the things I’m going to make sure that the richest among us — who can afford it — pay their fair share in taxes,” Harris said. “It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations. And I plan on making that fair.”

Harris almost certainly would face an uphill fight on Capitol Hill to pass any tax hikes, though myriad Trump-era tax reductions are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025.

‘A capitalist’

Harris suggested she is banking on pressure from voters to help her get that economic plan through what analysts expect will be a narrowly divided Congress, no matter which party wins control of the House and Senate.

“When we talk quietly with a lot of people in Congress, they know exactly what I’m talking about because their constituents know what I’m talking about. Their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses … middle-class, hard-working folks,” she told Whitaker.

“I disagree with you,” Harris replied when the correspondent noted there is scant evidence that many lawmakers want to pass her plans. “There are plenty of leaders in Congress who understand and know that the Trump tax cuts blew up our federal deficit. … I’m also a capitalist. … I know the limitations of government.”

Harris’ best bet to get some of her proposals through Congress likely would be Democratic majorities in both chambers, allowing the party to use the reconciliation process. A number of Democratic congressional candidates are polling ahead of Harris.

‘Netanyahu is not listening’

Perhaps Whitaker’s most pointed questions came about Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza and military strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Whitaker noted that the U.S. sends Israel hundreds of billions of dollars in military aid, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not heeded the Biden administration’s warnings about how it has executed the conflict. “Does the U.S. have no sway over Prime Minister Netanyahu?” he asked.

“Now, the work that we do diplomatically, with the leadership of Israel, is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles, which include the need for humanitarian aid, the need for this war to end, the need for a deal to be done, which would release the hostages and create a cease-fire,” Harris replied. “And we’re not going to stop in terms of putting that pressure on Israel and in the region, including Arab leaders.”

The Biden administration has little to show for its diplomatic outreach to other Arab countries, and no Arab peacekeeping force has emerged to patrol Gaza, should the conflict end or be paused.

Whitaker shot back that “it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.”

“Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region,” Harris replied.

But some pro-Palestinian groups have said the Biden administration has not done enough and been too ineffective at restraining Netanyahu. As Harris spoke at an Oct. 7 remembrance event in Washington on Monday, protesters could be heard outside her residence at the Naval Observatory chanting and banging drums.

Notably, she declined to answer in the affirmative when asked if Netanyahu is a true “close ally.”

‘It’s about surrender’

Harris also took several jabs at Trump, saying she believes she will win next month because her campaign is about helping voters, “not trying to divide us.”

She is betting that voters will side with her vision of leadership, which she described as being “not based on who you beat down, it’s based on who you lift up.”

Harris also criticized Trump’s foreign policy proposals, including his statements about ending the Ukraine-Russia war as quickly as possible, if he is elected again.

“Donald Trump, if he were president, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now,” she said. “He talks about, oh, he can end it on day one. You know what that is? It’s about surrender.”

Earlier Monday, Trump told a conservative radio host that undocument immigrants have brought “bad genes” into the United States, prompting a rebuke from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

“That type of language is hateful, it’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate,” she told reporters during a briefing. “It has no place in our country.”

©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By MATTHEW DALY and MICHAEL PHILLIS

WASHINGTON (AP) — A decade after the Flint, Michigan, water crisis raised alarms about the continuing dangers of lead in tap water, President Joe Biden is setting a 10-year deadline for cities across the nation to replace their lead pipes, finalizing an aggressive approach aimed at ensuring that drinking water is safe for all Americans.

Biden is expected to announce the final Environmental Protection Agency rule Tuesday in the swing state of Wisconsin during the final month of a tight presidential campaign. The announcement highlights an issue — safe drinking water — that Kamala Harris has prioritized as vice president and during her presidential campaign. The new rule supplants a looser standard set by former President Donald Trump’s administration that did not include a universal requirement to replace lead pipes.

Biden and Harris believe it’s “a moral imperative” to ensure that everyone has access to clean drinking water, EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters Monday. “We know that over 9 million legacy lead pipes continue to deliver water to homes across our country. But the science has been clear for decades: There is no safe level of lead in our drinking water.”

The rule is the strongest overhaul of lead-in-water standards in roughly three decades. Lead, a heavy metal used in pipes, paints, ammunition and many other products, is a neurotoxin that can cause a range of disorders from behavioral problems to brain damage. Lead lowers IQ scores in children, stunts their development and increases blood pressure in adults.

The EPA estimates the stricter standard will prevent up to 900,000 infants from having low birthweight and avoid up to 1,500 premature deaths a year from heart disease.

The new regulation is stricter than one proposed last fall and requires water systems to ensure that lead concentrations do not exceed an “action level” of 10 parts per billion, down from 15 parts per billion under the current standard. If high lead levels are found, water systems must inform the public about ways to protect their health, including the use of water filters, and take action to reduce lead exposure while concurrently working to replace all lead pipes.

Lead pipes often impact low-income urban areas the most. They are most commonly found in older, industrial parts of the country, including major cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Detroit and Milwaukee, where Biden and Regan will announce the standards on Tuesday.

The new rule also revises the way lead amounts are measured, which could significantly expand the number of cities and water systems that are found to have excessive levels of lead, the EPA said.

To help communities comply, the agency is making available an additional $2.6 billion for drinking water infrastructure through the bipartisan infrastructure law. The agency also is awarding $35 million in competitive grants for programs to reduce lead in drinking water.

The 10-year timeframe won’t start for three years, giving water utilities time to prepare. A limited number of cities with large volumes of lead pipes may be given a longer timeframe to meet the new standard.

Biden will make the announcement in Milwaukee, a city with the fifth-highest number of lead pipes in the nation, according to the EPA. Officials there are using money from the federal infrastructure law to accelerate lead-pipe replacement work and meet a goal to remove all lead pipes within 10 years, down from an initial 60-year timeframe.

Lead pipes can corrode and contaminate drinking water; removing them sharply reduces the chance of a crisis. In Flint, a change in the source of the city’s drinking water source more than a decade ago made it more corrosive, spiking lead levels in tap water. Flint was the highest-profile example among numerous cities that have struggled with stubbornly high levels of lead, including Newark, New Jersey, Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Washington, D.C.

The original lead and copper rule for drinking water was enacted by the EPA more than 30 years ago. The rules have significantly reduced lead in tap water but have included loopholes that allowed cities to take little action when lead levels rose too high.

“I think there is very broad support for doing this. Nobody wants to be drinking lead-contaminated tap water or basically sipping their water out of a lead straw, which is what millions of people are doing today,” said Erik Olson, a health and food expert at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, speaking generally about the EPA’s efforts to replace lead pipes ahead of the official announcement.

Actually getting the lead pipes out of the ground will be an enormous challenge. The infrastructure law approved in 2021 provided $15 billion to help cities replace their lead pipes, but the total cost will be several times higher. The requirement also comes as the Biden administration proposes strict new drinking water standards for forever chemicals called PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. These standards will also improve public health although at a cost of billions of dollars.

The American Water Works Association, an industry group, said when the proposed rule was announced that it supports EPA’s goals, but warned that costs could be prohibitive.

Another hurdle is finding the lead pipes. Many cities do not have accurate records detailing where they are. Initial pipe inventories are due this month, and many cities have said they don’t know what substances their pipes are made of.

Phillis reported from St. Louis.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/environment