Day: September 29, 2021

Donald Trump’s letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demanding he pursue an “audit” of the 2020 election set off a “mad dash” in the governor’s office as aides sought to figure out just how serious the former president was, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

In the letter, Trump called on Abbott to hold a “Forensic Audit of the 2020 Election” and pass HB 16, a bill recently filed in the Third Special Session of the Texas legislature, which would allow for an Arizona-style “audit” of the presidential election.

“Despite my big win in Texas, I hear Texans want an election audit!” Trump wrote in a public letter addressed to Abbott on Thursday. “Texas needs you to act now. Your Third Special Session is the perfect, and maybe last, opportunity to pass this audit bill. Time is running out.”

Just hours after Trump released the letter, a statement was put out by Sam Taylor, assistant secretary of state for communications, who said the office had “already begun the process” of reviewing 2020 votes in the state’s two largest Democrat and two largest Republican counties: Dallas, Harris, Tarrant and Collin. Trump only won Collin County, and Biden won Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties in 2020.

During an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Abbott said that the audits “began months ago”— a statement that echoed the claim made by the office of the secretary of state.

“State audits conducted by the Texas Secretary of State’s office have already been underway for months,” Renae Eze, press secretary for the governor, said in a statement. “Under federal law, county election officials only have to keep these materials for 22 months, and it is imperative that all aspects of elections conducted in 2020 are examined before the counties clear out these materials in September 2022.”

But in reports from both the Texas Tribune and CNN, local officials in counties targeted by the “audit” said they had not learned of the review until Thursday’s statement from the secretary of state’s office.

And behind the scenes, the Texas governor’s office was caught off guard by Trump, whose letter made no mention of “audits” already underway. There had not been contact between Trump and Abbott ahead of the release, and Abbott’s office was uncertain if they could meet Trump’s demands to pass HB16 without complicating the legislative agenda. One Texas political aide familiar with how the process played out said, “The secretary of state‘s decision to call for audits in the four largest counties in Texas was predicated on Trump’s statement mentioning Gov. Abbott.”

“There was a mad dash to determine if Trump was actually being serious with his statement and it was decided this was the best route to take without blowing up the special session,” the aide said.

The scramble among Abbott’s team to placate the president illustrated the degree to which Trump and his election conspiracies continue to set the rules of engagement for virtually all other GOP elected officials.

Trump won Texas by 6 percentage points — over 600,000 votes — in the 2020 election, which raises questions as to why he would want the result audited. Indeed, the decision by the secretary of state’s office (a position that has been vacant for months) prompted criticism about eroding public trust in elections and the use of taxpayer dollars.

Ruth Ruggero Hughs stepped down as Texas secretary of state in May 2021 after the Texas Senate refused to confirm her position. Now, the governor is poised to pick the state’s next top elections officer, who will have new powers via the new Republican elections bill.

Earlier this year, a deputy to Hughs told lawmakers that “Texas had an election that was smooth and secure.”

In a statement, Taylor said he expected the state legislature to provide funds for the audit. In his Fox News interview, meanwhile, the governor defended the audits.

“Why do we audit everything in this world, but people raised their hands in concern when we audit elections, which is fundamental to our democracy?” Abbott said on Fox News Sunday. “We have a responsibility to ensure the integrity and confidence in the elections in the state of Texas.”

Trump’s push for Texas to hold an audit came one day before a Republican-commissioned report was released in the state of Arizona concerning a so-called “audit” there. The effort was criticized extensively for being the purview of conspiracy theorists intent on finding a way to flip the state to Trump. But the final report reaffirmed President Joe Biden’s victory and did not find evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Democrats say they fear that the audits and voting restriction bills making their way through GOP statehouses are pretenses for Republicans — led by Trump — to challenge the election in 2024 should the party again lose the presidency.

Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.

A strict new abortion law kicked off a huge national backlash. Thousands of Haitian migrants seeking asylum prompted mass deportations and scrutiny on Border Patrol policy. State officials announced four new reviews of the 2020 vote.

And that was just in September — and just in Texas.

The massive, Republican-controlled state has dominated the national political spotlight this year, driving increasingly conservative policies into the heart of big debates over everything from voting to public health initiatives, critical race theory and more. These legislative moves have positioned Texas as a counterweight to Democratic-dominated Washington — and a leader charting the potential course of the Republican Party nationally.

This year, the state was one of the first to reverse mask mandates and block local Covid-19 vaccine requirements. In the summer, Democratic state lawmakers fled Texas for a month to delay GOP voting legislation, which passed shortly after they returned. Laws that allowed carrying a gun without a permit, penalized reducing police budgets in large cities and limited discussion of systemic racism in classrooms went into effect on Sept. 1.

And other times, big events in Texas took center stage: A massive winter storm exposed the state’s weak energy infrastructure in February, and Texas’ southern border has been at the front of this month’s national news.

Even for a big state, Texas has seen an outsized amount of political attention as conservatives try to break new ground, expanding on decades of GOP control and a national political environment that tilts toward Republicans. Two more key trends are also behind the attention-grabbing policy drive: The Republican governor is preparing to face primary challengers in his 2022 reelection race and potential presidential run, while conflicts are mushrooming between diverse, liberal cities and the Republican-dominated state government — mirroring the same tensions animating national politics.

“You put all those things together, and I think there’s been basically no lane markers for Republicans in this session,” said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project, which conducts public opinion polling in the state. “They’re very confident about the 2022 election given recent precedents and… a Democrat in the White House, so there have been no natural checks.”

Former President Donald Trump’s influence still looms large in the state’s politics — as seen in his open letter to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott last week. Trump demanded the state legislature pass House Bill 16, which would allow state officials to request an electoral audit for future elections as well as for 2020.

Despite Trump’s nearly 6-point win over Biden in Texas last year, the secretary of State’s office soon announced a “full and comprehensive forensic audit” of Collin, Dallas and Tarrant counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as Houston’s Harris County. The release did not provide any details but said the agency expects the state legislature to fund the effort.

Former Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs, who previously called the 2020 election “smooth and secure,” resigned in May when the state Senate did not take up her nomination. The Texas secretary of State’s office is currently helmed by a former Abbott staffer on an interim basis.

In a Fox News Sunday interview, Abbott said election audits by the Texas secretary of State’s office already began “months ago.”

“There are audits of every aspect of government,” Abbott said when asked about the potential waste of taxpayer money. “Why do we audit everything in this world, but people raise their hands in concern when we audit elections, which is fundamental to our democracy?”

But the top executives in three of the four counties have called the move unnecessary: “It’s time to move on,” Republican Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley told the Texas Tribune.

After thousands of Haitian migrants fled to Del Rio this month, Abbott directed hundreds of state troopers and Texas National Guard members to create a “steel wall” with patrol vehicles to prevent more people from entering the country. The state has budgeted more than $3 billion over the next two years on border security, adding nearly $2 billion of that funding earlier this month.

“Because the Biden administration is refusing to do its duty to enforce the laws of the United States, they have left Texas in no position other than for us to step up and do what we have to do,” Abbott said of his decision to forcibly stop and imprison migrants this month.

“As much as these issues are in the national news, they’re very, very local,” said GOP state Rep. James White. The national attention after the recent border struggles, for example, could “move the discussion where we need it. … Maybe it moves [Biden] to really pick up his game.”

The past few months have also stirred up new engagement among Democrats, said Democratic state Rep. Ron Reynolds, one of the more than 50 lawmakers who walked out of the first special session in July to meet with federal lawmakers in Washington.

“All of these things play out, people really understand like, ‘Oh, this isn’t normal? You mean other states aren’t doing this?’” Reynolds said. “It helps lay people understand that this isn’t just politics, this isn’t normal.”

The scale of conservative policies has been a “game changer” for Democratic state Rep. Erin Zwiener’s constituents, she said. Legislation like Senate Bill 8, which allows virtually anyone to sue someone who had assisted with an abortion after six weeks, didn’t get as much fanfare during the regular legislative session this year because of the baseline confidence in Roe v. Wade.

Her district’s mix of suburban and rural constituents didn’t think they needed to vote on issues like those, Zwiener added. The onslaught of agenda items about gun control, voter rights and other Abbott priorities didn’t help, she said.

“It’s hard for anybody to decide what to pay attention to when there’s a new crisis every day,” the state representative said. “People just had a hard time keeping up with which thing they should be angry about that day.”

As for the governor’s seat, many in the state are still skeptical of the possibility of ousting Abbott, especially since assumed candidate Beto O’Rourke hasn’t even made an announcement yet. Reynolds said if O’Rourke maintains a centrist message, he could be in a good position to win over vulnerable moderates and independents that are increasingly disappointed in Abbott’s performance.

While some Democrats in the state are cautiously hopeful about a changing tide, Zwiener said it will take a much more concerted effort to prove Texas is more of a swing state than others assume.

“Democrats have been out-organized by Republicans, and we’re not going to start to win and win sustainably until we match them for that organizing and think beyond the next election,” Zwiener said.

Suzanne Tuttle was about to call the police. Her 4-year old son, Max, should have been home from his first day of prekindergarten at J. Harvey Rodgers School in Glassboro four hours earlier, but his bus still had not arrived.

Tuttle had received a robocall from the school earlier in the day telling her to expect delays because of a shortage of bus drivers, but after waiting for two hours at the stop in 90-degree heat, Max was still missing. Tuttle, her husband and mother desperately called and texted the school and even got a passing bus driver to radio other buses. No one knew where Max’s bus was.

“I want to believe my son is safe, but nobody is at school and nobody is answering calls or the radio — and at this point it’s 5:30 and I put that little boy on a bus at 7:45 in the morning,” Tuttle said in an interview. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Finally, at about 6 p.m., a minibus carrying Max and other children arrived and dropped him off. Tuttle said Max was hungry but otherwise calm. Other kids on the bus were crying.

Amid a nationwide bus driver shortage, many New Jersey families say they‘ve been worn down by endless lengthy delays, no-show drivers and poor communication from districts. Three weeks into the school year, parents and school leaders say the shortage is becoming a crisis and they’re demanding the state take action.

It’s unclear how widespread the driver shortage is in New Jersey. The state Department of Education did not respond to multiple requests for comment or to answer questions about how many districts they’ve heard from with busing issues.

But a review of local news stories, district websites and parent Facebook groups reveals kids in Glassboro, Camden, Paterson, Deptford, Jersey City, Wayne, Toms River and dozens of other districts have been left waiting for hours or were never picked up at all.

The shortage of drivers is just one more obstacle schools and parents have faced this school year in addition to mask mandates, structural building issues and learning loss brought about by the pandemic, as well as flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida.

To be sure, bus driver shortages are nothing new. Even before the pandemic, many districts struggled to contract with companies as drivers with Commercial Drivers Licenses were being lured away to jobs with higher pay, better benefits and more regular hours.

Now, with the Delta variant raging across the country, drivers are even more reluctant to board an enclosed vehicle with 50 potentially-unvaccinated kids who may or may not abide by mask mandates. Some drivers quit when mask and vaccine mandates were issued by state and federal leaders.

Across the country, states and school districts are frantically trying to find solutions to the shortage — Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker activated the National Guard, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is targeting the onerous licensing process, the School District of Philadelphia is paying parents to drive their kids and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan created a “Bus Drivers’ Day at the MVA” to streamline appointment scheduling for bus driver trainees.

New Jersey has not yet presented a statewide plan, though individual districts are patching together fixes where they can, including offering parents cash to transport their kids and launching social media campaigns to recruit community members to apply for CDLs.

In Camden — a district under state control — Serita Young said she was told just before classes started that a bus would not be available to take her son to the new Camden High School, but that he could get tickets to use NJ Transit to get himself to school.

Young said she tried calling school officials to explain her son tore ligaments in his ankle over the summer and needs crutches and a medical boot, and that mass transit is not an option for him.

She said she was told essentially, “there’s nothing we can do.” Her son is one of around 500 students in Camden who still don’t have secured transportation from the district.

Now, Young said, she’s paying $140 a week, out of pocket, for an Uber or Lyft to transport her son to school.

“I’m frustrated, I’m aggravated. It’s not a guarantee that I can keep up with the money,” Young said. “These kids are being forced either to walk or catch NJ Transit when a bus should be provided … where are the buses we were promised?”

Parents POLITICO spoke to said that at the beginning of the school year, they understood the driver shortage was not unique to their town or even their state and were willing to be flexible wherever they could.

Now, they say they‘re furious and exhausted and fed up with the lack of answers from their districts. School leaders told POLITICO the issue is too big to tackle on a local level — the preferred problem-solving method of Gov. Phil Murphy’s Department of Education.

“We need help, we’re failing our kids,” Paterson Public Schools Superintendent Eileen Shafer said in an interview. “It’s discriminatory. Those kids who need transportation, many of them are special needs and we’re discriminating against them.”

Shafer said that just before the first day of school earlier this month, she had several bus companies quit, saying they didn’t have enough drivers, leaving some 700 students without busing.

Despite Murphy’s insistence that all students attend class in-person, full-time this year, some schools in Paterson and Camden have resorted to online learning — not because of Covid outbreaks but because there was no way to get kids to class.

Shafer said she’s reached out to the state Department of Education to request help and offer solutions, such as paying parents to drive their kids to school, enlisting the help of local police and firefighters, even calling in the National Guard as Massachusetts has done.

She said she’s still waiting for a response.

“As adults, we failed,” Shafer said. “We need some answers and we need them quick. We’re already into the third week of September.”

Responding to reporters’ questions about the shortage during his regular briefing on Wednesday, Murphy said, “I think all options are on the table, including anything we could do with the [Motor Vehicle Commission].“ But, he said, “I don’t think we, at this moment, feel like we need to do what Massachusetts did with the National Guard, but that’s an option that we certainly could look at.”

Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan, who was at the briefing, did not weigh in.

Camden City Schools Superintendent Katrina McCombs said in an interview she had begun thinking of creative solutions to the potential dearth of drivers back in June, including staggering school start times to allow drivers to cover more routes. Still, she said, vendors were calling her on the first day of classes saying drivers were quitting.

“I don’t think any of us realized how dire the bus driver shortage was and how dire it would be,” McCombs said.

This week, the district announced it will offer parents $1,000 to drive their children to and from school every day.

McCombs said the group typically hired as drivers — retirees and older individuals— were hit especially hard by Covid and it’s been a challenge to diversify the driver applicant pool.

In New Jersey, those who want to pursue the job amid the shortage face steep barriers. School administrators have said state motor vehicle agencies have been offering limited operations because of the pandemic and there have been significant delays in background checks for drivers.

Chloe Williams, president of the New Jersey School Bus Contractors Association, said in an interview the CDL process is “a chore” and designed for long-haul truckers rather than school bus drivers. She said it can normally take 10 to 12 weeks for drivers to get their license, but with the pandemic “the backlog at motor vehicles has been horrendous.”

Williams said though she sees “a light at the end of the tunnel,” with driver applications coming in, “it may be next school year that we really see a huge improvement.”

One Glassboro school board member told parents at a special meeting Tuesday that the state Department of Transportation does not have any appointments available to accommodate out-of-state drivers with a CDL who may want to drive buses in New Jersey.

The school transportation crisis has been well-documented in nearly every state. But parents POLITICO spoke to said they’re watching as governors and school leaders in Ohio, New York, Massachusetts and Maryland take action or at the very least, acknowledge the problem.

It’s been crickets in New Jersey, parents said.

In Glassboro, Tuttle and dozens of other upset parents blasted Superintendent Mark Silverstein during this week’s special board meeting.

“The district has known that there have been problems in transportation for a very long time but they’re not solving the problem,” parent Natalie Kautz said. “They’re hoping beyond hope that some bus drivers will come out of the woodwork and will come sign up to work at Glassboro schools but they haven’t come.”

While administrators and elected officials ponder policy solutions, parents like South Camden’s Maria Montero say they can’t wait any longer.

“I can’t afford for someone to make a mistake,” Montero said. “My biggest fear is once we leave them at a stop, if the bus doesn’t come, these kids are going to end up getting hit by a car. They could step on a needle … It’s so sad, these kids were so ready to go back after being home for so long. But these buildings are not ready, these buses are not ready, the systems are not ready.”

The White House on Friday evening clarified an earlier statement by press secretary Jen Psaki suggesting that President Joe Biden had opted against shielding any of Donald Trump’s records from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Following Psaki’s comments at a briefing earlier in the day, the White House said it intends to review each request by the former president to prevent the disclosure of such records on a “case-by-case” basis. Psaki intended to refer to a decision weeks earlier by the Justice Department not to invoke privilege to block officials from providing documents and testimony to the committee.

During Friday’s White House press briefing, Psaki told reporters that members of the Trump administration haven’t reached out to suggest protecting any of the records and that they don’t have regular communication with the former president or his team.

“I would say that we take this matter incredibly seriously. The president already concluded that it would not be appropriate to assert executive privilege,” Psaki said. “And so, we will respond promptly to these questions as they arise. And certainly, as they come up from Congress, and certainly we have been working closely with congressional committees and others as they work to get to the bottom of what happened on Jan. 6.”

The White House has been considering releasing the information to Congress about what Trump and his aides were doing during the Jan. 6 attacks, according to the Washington Post, which first reported Biden’s thinking Thursday night. Trump has said he will cite “executive privilege” to block the committee’s requests, seeking protection from a legal theory that has allowed past presidents and their aides to avoid or delay congressional oversight for decades.

But Biden on Thursday was already leaning toward releasing the material for use, given the weight of Jan. 6 and what it meant for American democracy, according to The Post.

The House panel, which is examining whether the White House or Trump allies tried to delay the certification of the presidential election, sent a letter to the National Archives on Aug. 25, requesting any documents and communications within the White House on Jan. 6 that relate to the insurrection. The National Archives has identified hundreds of pages of relevant documents, which will be sent to Biden and Trump lawyers, as required by statute.

Once the documents are delivered, Trump has 30 days to approve or deny the release, according to the statute. If Trump decides to object, Biden can still turn the material over, since his White House has the final say on the matter.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden can’t afford Terry McAuliffe to lose the governor’s race in Virginia — and the White House knows it.

It’s a scenario the president and his aides and close allies increasingly view as a real possibility, given tightening poll numbers in the race and signs of Democratic apathy. The White House, Democratic National Committee and outside partners are closely coordinating their efforts and speaking almost daily, according to three people familiar with the dynamic. Just over a month before Election Day, they are planning to ramp up activity and engagement — in addition to the $5 million the DNC has already budgeted for Virginia, one of the people said.

They know what’s at stake. A loss to Republican Glenn Youngkin in the off-cycle governor’s race could set off a domino effect, with Democrats panicking and thinking it’s 2009 all over again — the year they last lost the state’s gubernatorial race, followed by a wipeout in Congress. Democrats fear the party will lose faith in the idea that Biden’s agenda will help boost their electoral prospects; that they’ll fret about his broader handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and even question the embrace of vaccine mandates as an electoral cudgel after it found favor with a wide swath of Americans.

“There should be concern, it’s a close race. If Terry loses that’s going to scare a lot of Democrats on the Hill. It’s going to make people worry about the midterms and it’s going to make it harder to pass the president’s agenda,” said Josh Schwerin, a Democratic strategist who has worked as a McAuliffe political adviser and former press secretary. “People are going to get skittish if we lose this.”

“It would be the wrong reaction,” Schwerin added, “but it would be the reaction.”

A source familiar with the White House’s thinking said officials always anticipated a close race in Virginia, noting that Biden himself suggested so when he stumped for McAuliffe in late July. Among their concerns is the number of undecided voters in the contest, said another source familiar with conversations between White House aides and national Democratic Party leadership. Virginia has trended Democratic in recent years, with Biden winning the state by 10 points, but if voters remain on the fence as the election approaches, it gives Youngkin the type of opening he would need.

“Of course I believe the White House is concerned,” said Chris Korge, national finance chair at the DNC who is close with McAuliffe. “Knowing Terry the way I do, this guy is tireless, he never stops, he’ll pull it out. But it’s going to require him running a near perfect campaign.”

Fear within the administration is real. Specifically, a third person expressed concerns about complacency among Democratic voters setting in, and pledged that much of their work over the final 35 days will be on ensuring those restive voters turn in their ballots.

“If Democrats, if the McAuliffe campaign, if the coordinated campaign run a strong [get out the vote] effort, which I believe that they will, I think that they’re going to be in a great spot,” the person told POLITICO. “But people have to show up. They’ve got to show up and vote.”

McAuliffe, whose second and final debate with Youngkin is Tuesday evening, isn’t shying away from the warnings. Recently, he’s sat for interviews on cable TV to lay out the stakes for Democrats in Virginia and beyond.

Operatives in the state compared the early alarm bells to those rung in California this summer after polls showed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom only narrowly turning back a recall attempt. Newsom successfully branded the effort a GOP-led recall, tagged his opponents as mini-Donald Trumps, and mobilized Democrats before turning out his voters en masse.

But Virginia is a far more closely divided state and unlike in California, not every voter is being sent a mail-in ballot. Korge and others said they’d breathe easier if the Biden administration and lawmakers showed progress — and ultimately passed — the president’s major legislative proposals: infrastructure and a party-line social spending bill.

“Honestly, if they pass infrastructure and reconciliation, my comfort level of Terry winning goes up by a 1,000,” he said.

Schwerin stressed that even though Democrats will likely be spooked into thinking there are wider implications for Biden’s agenda if McAuliffe loses, it likely would be due to other dynamics, including a different electorate in off-year elections and the absence of a motivating anti-Trump sentiment. “I think McAuliffe is running a good campaign and he’s a good candidate,” he said. “It’s the climate.”

While McAuliffe has worked to yoke Youngkin to Trump — contending that the state’s progress on Covid and the economy will go to shambles under Republican leadership — Youngkin has largely resisted invitations to nationalize the race. Still, Republicans see more opportunities to leverage Biden’s shortcomings to drive turnout.

The messy and ultimately fatal U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, rising prices for goods and groceries driven by inflation and another wave of migrants to the southern U.S. border have the GOP bullish about Youngkin’s prospects.

“Republicans are angry and motivated, and independents are acting more like Republicans today than any time in the last year,” said Phil Cox, the former campaign manager for Republican Bob McDonnell’s Virginia gubernatorial campaign, citing a recent public survey showing that independent voters supported Youngkin over McAuliffe by six points. “I think we’ve got the best chance in more than a decade.”

Chris Saxman, a conservative who is executive director of the nonpartisan business group Virginia FREE, went as far as suggesting that Youngkin “could be a unicorn candidate” for the GOP.

“He’s new, he’s completely outside politics. He’s never run for office before,” Saxman said. “So, he’s coming in this [with his] eyes wide open on what’s going on in Virginia and figuring out what needs to change.”

Several public surveys of voters have been within the margin of error, though a Monmouth University Poll published Monday showed McAuliffe holding onto a five-point advantage over Younkin with registered voters, with 48 percent of those surveyed supporting the Democrat and 43 percent backing the Republican newcomer.

Those numbers were virtually unchanged from where the two candidates stood in Monmouth’s August poll. While Biden’s approval numbers have lagged in the state, largely due to the resurgence of Covid-19, those queried put their faith behind McAuliffe, who led Youngkin 41 percent to 28 percent on the question of who they would trust more on handling the pandemic.

The people close to the White House said they’ve come to view Youngkin as boxed in with Trump on the virus, election security and the Jan. 6 insurrection, which they contend could resonate more widely with voters given Northern Virginia’s proximity to the Capitol.

At times, they note, Youngkin has equivocated or shifted his answers so as not to offend the base of the party. In a recent interview with Axios, he would not say whether he would have voted to certify the 2020 election on Jan. 6 were he a member of Congress. Youngkin later said he would have voted to do so.

Democrats also are encouraged by what they see as his inability to settle on a closing message.

“For a Republican to win, their base has to be at maximum intensity and our base has to be at minimal intensity,” said former Rep. Tom Perriello, who ran and lost in a Democratic primary for Virginia governor.

Perriello said he’s cautiously optimistic in Democrats’ turnout effort and the partnership of the campaign and allies. He also notes that this is the first gubernatorial election with extensive in-person early voting and mail voting. Recent polling shows that there is still a divide between parties on how people plan to vote: Most Republicans still plan to vote on Election Day and a majority of Democrats said they plan to vote before Nov 2.

“But that doesn’t mean I am not terrified,” Perriello allowed. “Cause the stakes for the state and the country are huge.”