Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Wednesday, Oct. 23. I’m Bill Thomas, and we have some very intriguing stories to share with you right now. Here’s what’s going on.
A worrying trend for Democrats in a key battleground state, California voters could decide who controls the next Congress, and another crucial swing state might determine the next Senate majority.
Also, the CDC releases new data regarding your children and vaccines, and a Chinese drone-making giant sues the Pentagon.
Georgia Shows Concerning Trend for Democrats
A recent poll taken in Georgia shows that Vice President Kamala Harris is trailing former President Donald Trump by nearly 2 percentage points, indicating that the Democratic candidate will have a difficult time holding onto the state in the upcoming election, and the edge may be due to the changing attitudes of black voters.In the 2020 election, President Joe Biden won the state by a razor-thin margin of a little more than 11,000 votes, and the victory was considered an upset in a state that had voted for Republicans in every presidential contest since 1992.
Biden’s slim victory in 2020 was helped in large part by high black voter turnout, the fact that black voters make up nearly one-third of Georgia’s electorate, and that according to exit polling, Biden took in nearly 88 percent of the state’s black vote.
Four years later, however, a number of current polls show that Trump now leads Harris. These polls show that Trump is gaining significant ground with black voters, and a couple of those polls indicate that nearly 25 percent of this key demographic now favors Trump.
Several black residents recently told The Epoch Times that they’re supporting Trump and know many others who are as well. However, many of them said they were reluctant to share their support with people in their community, citing the risk of “retaliation.”
At a recent Harris rally in Atlanta, a number of people told The Epoch Times that they were energized by the vice president. However, one black voter said that he would vote for Harris out of obligation instead of passion, and many voters expressed distrust of both candidates.
California Voters to Make Major Move
Golden State voters will consider 52 races for the House of Representatives, and these critical seats are currently split between 40 Democrats and 12 Republicans.However, even though many see California as deep blue, the state has millions of Republicans and independent voters who could determine the balance of power in the next Congress.
Republicans currently control the House with a slim eight-seat majority, due in part to some California seats flipping from blue to red in 2022.
Many of the tightest races are in districts in the Central Valley, Orange County, and east of Los Angeles in the Inland Empire. Additionally, Republicans control seven of the seats in the 10 closest districts.
By the way, in the upcoming election, Californians will also decide who replaces the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. They’ll be voting in both a special election to fill the remaining two months of her original term, as well as casting ballots for a candidate to fill the next six-year term, which begins in January.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Republican Steve Garvey, who’s known for his major league baseball career with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, are vying for the position.
Fate of the Senate Determined Here
Pennsylvania could not only determine which party wins the White House, but also which party controls the Senate.Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) is running for a fourth term. However, he’ll have to beat the Republican nominee, millionaire businessman and military veteran Dave McCormick, to earn the right.
You should know that the FiveThirtyEight poll average shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump by less than a percentage point in the presidential race, while the RealClearPolitics (RCP) average shows Trump leading Harris by a fraction of a percentage point.
The RCP average also shows Casey leading McCormick by just over 3 percentage points, and a recent poll commissioned in part by The New York Times shows Casey up by 4 percentage points.
Last month, McCormick told The Epoch Times that he knew from day one that it would be a close race, and he said that the key to his victory will be to talk to voters who are on the fence.
McCormick served in the U.S. Army, fought in the 1991 Gulf War, and previously served in numerous roles in the Bush administration. McCormick has also been endorsed by Trump.
The Republican candidate’s campaign has focused on the economy, crime, fentanyl, the border, and energy.
CDC Calls on Local Officials to Get Kids Vaccinated as Participation Continues to Decline
Health officials say childhood vaccinations are critical to stopping preventable diseases from spreading, but fewer of our nation’s children are getting the recommended jabs. Here’s what we’ve learned.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that routine childhood vaccinations among kindergartners in U.S. public and private schools are down for the school term that ended earlier this year.
Earlier this week, the health agency announced that inoculation updates among kindergartners dropped to just under 93 percent for all reported vaccines, including the shots for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTAP) and the injections for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR).
The CDC said there were also similar numbers for kindergartners who got the vaccines for either polio or the chickenpox. They also pointed out that nearly 280,000 kindergartners did not have documentation showing that they’d received two doses of the MMR vaccine, and therefore, are potentially at risk to be infected by measles.
The agency says that the waning vaccination coverage increases the risk for preventable disease outbreaks, and that greater efforts are needed by both schools and health departments to ensure that students are fully vaccinated.
The CDC says that during this same period, the vaccine exemption rate increased slightly to just over 3 percent, and in a number of areas, that figure was around 5 percent.
In its report, the CDC also pointed out that there was some hesitancy regarding COVID-19 vaccines, which are not mandated to attend any public school. The agency says that the reluctance to get these jabs could be spilling over into other vaccine requirements in general.
Earlier this year, a Gallup survey found that “far fewer” people in the United States believe that childhood vaccines are important, and that Americans also are less likely to say the government should mandate that children receive vaccinations including the DTAP and MMR shots.
Chinese Drone Maker Sues Pentagon Over Military Designation
Last week, the drone-making giant DJI sued the Department of Defense, because the Pentagon included it in the department’s list of Chinese military companies.The China-based business accounts for over half of the U.S. commercial drone market, and the company has asked a district court in Washington to remove them from the list.
DJI says that it does not contribute either to China’s military-civil fusion strategy or to the modernization of China’s military, and that the company is neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military.
The drone maker says that its military designation has “caused significant and ongoing harm” to DJI, resulting in canceled contracts and a “stigmatization” of both the company and its employees.
A few years ago Congress passed legislation requiring the Pentagon to compile a list of Chinese military companies operating in the United States, and DJI was added to that list at the end of 2022. The lawsuit points out that earlier this year, the Pentagon renewed that designation, even though the company has been trying to get removed from the list for the past 16 months.
However, the company has also been flagged by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Treasury Department as both a national security risk and an alleged contributor to the Chinese communist regime’s human rights abuses.
DJI’s drones are popular in the United States among search and rescue teams, agriculture workers, and hobbyists. Additionally, the company says that it does not control how its products are used by customers, and that each individual user is in control of their own data.
This latest legal challenge against the DOD follows a number of similar lawsuits involving other Chinese tech giants who have been placed on the list. Earlier this year, an important Chinese chipmaker sued the Pentagon, and another legal challenge was brought forth by an important Chinese laser-technology producer whose customers include almost three-quarters of the robotic cars market.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so that’s a wrap for the Wednesday edition of the Epoch Times News Brief.
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And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote, and this one comes to us from the late Olivia Newton-John, who said:
“I feel very passionately that we need to take care of the planet and everything on it. Whether it’s saving the Amazon or just being kind to those around you, we need to take care of each other and Mother Earth.”
For all of us here at the Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
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Enjoy the remainder of your Wednesday, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for another edition of the Epoch Times News Brief.
