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Rock The Vote launches "Democracy Class" to register 160,000 students

Photo: Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images

Rock The Vote is launching "Democracy Class" this week, bringing a one-period high school class on the importance and history of voting to over 2,000 schools.

Why it matters: Rock The Vote says that youth voters registered through their program had a turnout rate 30 points higher than the national youth average in the 2014 and 2016 elections. Their goal is to register — or pre-register, for those under 18 — 160,000 students in time for the midterm elections.

The backdrop: The Democracy Class curriculum covers the importance of local elections, a civics lesson through which students can work on a project to address an issue impacting their community, and modern-day voting rights.

  • More than 100 organizations and school districts have signed up to bring Democracy Class to their classrooms. 
  • American Eagle Outfitters is sponsoring this pre-midterms effort as a way to try to reach even more youth voters.

By the numbers: In 2014, among those registered to vote through Rock The Vote, 53% voted compared to the national youth voter turnout average of 19.9%. They had an 81% turnout rate in 2016 — and 58% of those voters had never voted before.

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3 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Scoop: Gina Haspel threatened to resign over plan to install Kash Patel as CIA deputy

CIA Director Gina Haspel. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

CIA Director Gina Haspel threatened to resign in early December after President Trump cooked up a hasty plan to install loyalist Kash Patel, a former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), as her deputy, according to three senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the matter.

Why it matters: The revelation stunned national security officials and almost blew up the leadership of the world's most powerful spy agency. Only a series of coincidences — and last minute interventions from Vice President Mike Pence and White House counsel Pat Cipollone — stopped it.

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Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Health: Coronavirus deaths reach 4,000 per day as hospitals remain in crisis mode — CDC warns highly transmissible coronavirus variant could become dominant in U.S. in March.
  2. Politics: Biden says, "We will manage the hell out of" vaccine distribution — Biden taps ex-FDA chief to lead Operation Warp Speed amid rollout of COVID plan — Widow of GOP congressman-elect who died of COVID-19 will run to fill his seat.
  3. Vaccine: Battling Black mistrust of the vaccines — "Pharmacy deserts" could become vaccine deserts — Instacart to give $25 to shoppers who get vaccine.
  4. Economy: Unemployment filings explode again — Fed chair: No interest rate hike coming any time soon —  Inflation rose more than expected in December.
  5. World: WHO team arrives in China to investigate pandemic origins.
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Lachlan Markay
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John Weaver, Lincoln Project co-founder, acknowledges “inappropriate” messages

John Weaver aboard John McCain's campaign plane in February 2000. Photo: Robert Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

John Weaver, a veteran Republican operative who co-founded the Lincoln Project, declared in a statement to Axios on Friday that he sent “inappropriate,” sexually charged messages to multiple men.

  • “To the men I made uncomfortable through my messages that I viewed as consensual mutual conversations at the time: I am truly sorry. They were inappropriate and it was because of my failings that this discomfort was brought on you,” Weaver said.
  • “The truth is that I'm gay,” he added. “And that I have a wife and two kids who I love. My inability to reconcile those two truths has led to this agonizing place.”
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