On Friday, October 23 Axios' Mike Allen, Margaret Talev, and Stef Kight hosted a conversation on voter turnout and how national security will play a key role in November's election, featuring Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), CEO of Voto Latino María Teresa Kumar and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
María Teresa Kumar discussed Voto Latino's registration of 567,000 new voters in six key battleground states, and trends across the Latino electorate.
- On the growth of eligible Latino voters and its effect on swing states: "Four million more young Latino voters are eligible to vote. Every 30 seconds, a young Latino becomes eligible to vote. So that is why you see such a shifting in our electoral map of what is now considered a toss up."
Rep. Karen Bass unpacked her concerns about the election, voter suppression, and her priorities in the coming weeks.
- On President Trump's political rhetoric: "I'm really worried about November 4th, frankly, because the president has been so divisive...He doesn't use a dog whistle. He has a bullhorn and he's telling [white supremacist groups] to all come out."
- On the priorities of the Congressional Black Caucus going into 2021: "Our number one, number two, and number three priorities are COVID. "
Retired Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster discussed Russia's attempts to disrupt U.S. elections in 2016 and 2020, American foreign policy, and his view of Russian President Vladimir Putin's long-term goals.
- On Russia's election disruption strategies: "Russia is engaged in a sustained campaign of political subversion against us...The broad effort is to use disinformation to shake our confidence in who we are as a people, to polarize our society, to pit us against each other, and to shake our confidence in our democratic principles, institutions and processes."
Thank you Bank of America for sponsoring this event.