ON THE TRAIL

HEALTH CARE CONVERSATION
Patient advocate Peter Morley hosted North Carolina AG Josh Stein, Indiana’s Democratic AG nominee Jonathan Weinzapfel and Montana’s Democratic AG nominee Raph Graybill for a conversation on the importance of affordable health care. Peter Morley shared his story and why health care is personal to him. AG Stein, Graybill and Weinzapfel all shared why they are running on protecting access to affordable health care and the dangers of the Republican AG-led lawsuit to repeal the ACA, which is being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court just one week after Election Day. Read more about the conversation here. Watch the conversation here. And read more about how health care is shaping the election in the Los Angeles Times here.

DEBATE DODGING IN UT
According to KSL Investigators Utah AG Sean Reyes declined to participate in a debate on October 1st, telling the Debate Commission he would be out of town due to his father’s funeral. However, KSL Investigators found AG Reyes was not in Hawaii on or around October 1st as he claimed. Instead, KSL Investigators found AG Reyes held campaign events in Utah on September 30th, October 6th and again on October 7th. AG Reyes declined to answer questions on camera and his campaign dodged questions about Reyes’s whereabouts on October 1, 2020. DAGA Political Director Farah Melendez said, “Sean Reyes should be ashamed of himself for deceptively using his own father’s funeral to get out of a debate. He is clearly afraid to debate Greg Skordas and give Utahns a real perspective on who he is and what he stands for.” Read the full statement here.

ASK AG SHAPIRO ANYTHING
Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro held a Reddit AMA to talk about how he’s protecting Pennsylvanians’ right to vote and fighting back against Trump’s dangerous attempts to undermine the election. During the AMA, folks asked about all kinds of things, from the U.S. Postal Service and naked ballots to yard signs and how best to get involved. AG Shapiro reassured one participant saying, “We sued the USPS over their illegal operational changes to delay mail—and won! A federal judge halted those changes. You should feel comfortable mailing your ballot but my advice would be to do so soon.” Read the full AMA here.

ENDORSEMENT CORNER

• INDIANA: Democratic AG nominee Jonathan Weinzapfel was endorsed by LaPorte, Stark and Pulaski Building and Construction Trades Council, the International Association of Firefighters Local 363 LaPorte, Indiana and the National Association of Social Works, Indiana Chapter Pace
• MONTANA: Democratic AG nominee Raph Graybill was endorsed by the editorial board of the Missoulian, DailyKos and the Fort Belknap Indian Community: Fort Belknap Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Tribes
• NORTH CAROLINA: AG Stein was endorsed by VP Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, NCAAT In Action, and the editorial board of IndyWeek
• OREGON: AG Rosenblum was endorsed by the editorial boards of the Eugene Weekly & The Bend Bulletin
• PENNSYLVANIA: AG Shapiro was endorsed by Sierra Club, the Pittsburgh Fire Fighters, and the editorial boards of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Citizens’ Voice
• WASHINGTON: AG Ferguson was endorsed by Vice President Joe Biden and the editorial boards of the Everett Herald, The Tacoma News Tribune, The Stranger & The Olympian
• WEST VIRGINIA: Democratic AG nominee Sam Petsonk was endorsed by the editorial board of The Dominion Post

MULTISTATE MOMENTS

COMPLETE THE CENSUS
The U.S. Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s request to shorten the deadline to count people for the 2020 Census. To help raise awareness and encourage people to fill out their information, Democratic AGs across the country led a digital campaign.

• DAGA Co-Chair Massachusetts AG Maura Healey tweeted, “I cannot stress enough how important it is that you do this. Our representation in Congress, funding for schools, and so much more is dependent on the Census.”
• Maryland AG Brian Frosh tweeted, “It only takes a few minutes and has a huge impact on your community.”
• New York AG Tish James tweeted, “This is urgent. Our state needs its fair share of representation in Congress and federal funding.”

PROTECTING THE VOTE
Democratic AGs, led by District of Columbia AG Karl Racine, filed an amicus brief in a case challenging a Texas order to limit the number of absentee ballot drop-off sites. “Rather than taking responsible steps to make voting safer during this pandemic, Texas authorities are intentionally making voting more difficult and more dangerous, forcing voters, particularly in areas populated by Black, brown, and Democratic voters, to travel longer distances, wait in longer lines, and risk exposure to COVID-19 to cast their ballots,” AG Racine said. Read more about the effort to protect the vote and the integrity of the upcoming election here.

STOPPING TRUMP’s WALL (AGAIN)
Democratic AGs, led by California AG Xavier Becerra, secured another victory over the Trump administration’s efforts to build a southern border wall. This latest court ruling preserves a previous ruling that halted the Administration’s illegal effort to fund a border wall using public funds. AG Becerra said, “We’ve secured a favorable court ruling that puts a stop to President Trump’s desperate attempt to steal public funds to build his unauthorized wall at the border.” Read more about the latest victory in The Hill here.

AG SPOTLIGHT

On the final day of voter registration in Virginia, a computer outage caused the registration system to crash. Acting quickly, Virginia AG Mark Herring filed a brief asking a federal court to extend the registration deadline due to the outage. The next day, AG Herring tweeted, “Judge says he will GRANT our request to extend voter registration deadline.” This is the latest example of Democratic AGs taking swift action to protect people’s constitutional right to vote. Read more about the effort by AG Herring here.

TWEET OF THE WEEK