DELEITURAS

Newly-announced presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris will visit South Carolina Friday in an attempt to appeal to black women voters, who have historically been a solid voter base for Democrats.

The California Democrat will visit with her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters during the trip to the early-primary voting state, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Ninety-two percent of black women voted Democrat in the state’s 2018 midterms, according to an Associated Press VoteCast poll. Black women made up 37 percent of the electorate in the state’s 2016 Democratic primary — the largest voting block when broken down by race and gender, according to a CNN exit poll.

“Black women have enormous power. We vote overwhelmingly for Democrats no matter what,” said Our Revolution President Nina Turner. The group is an American progressive political action organization.

Nearly 30 percent of South Carolina’s population is black, according to Census data.

Black women were “critical” to Democrat Doug Jones’ victory over Roy Moore for the Alabama Senate seat, according to Harris.

Harris announced Monday that she is officially running to be the next president of the United States. Harris raised roughly $1.5 million Tuesday after her announcement.

A CNN reporter said in October that Harris has received a “rock star reception” in Iowa. The future candidate now has even an action figure, according to The Hill.

No other senator spent as much money on Facebook as Harris did in summer 2018, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Harris is the third female senator to announce her bid for president. Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand are also running for president.

Sunland Park, N.M. – As large groups of illegal aliens continue to cross through the Lordsburg area near the Antelope Wells, New Mexico, Port of Entry, U.S. Border Patrol Agents from the Santa Teresa Station discover a group of over 300 illegal crossers entering at Sunland Park, New Mexico.

On Monday, February 11, 2019, shortly before midnight, Border Patrol Agents working near Mt. Cristo Rey noticed a large group of 311 illegal aliens make their way around the pedestrian fence in Sunland Park and took them into custody. Though this trend has been a constant in the Antelope Wells area of New Mexico, this is the first large group that has been encountered in this area this fiscal year. As with the previous groups encountered in Antelope Wells, this group is comprised primarily of Central American families and unaccompanied juveniles.  The group was transported to the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station for continued processing.

The Sunland Park group is the second to include more than 300 people on February 11.  Earlier in the day, Border Patrol agents at Antelope wells apprehended a group of 330 who entered illegally.

The smuggling of large groups within the local communities present various challenges to ensure criminals do not use these tactics to exploit vulnerabilities. Criminal organizations continue to search for ways to shift Border Patrol resources from one area in hopes of creating gaps in coverage to move drugs and criminals through other areas. Agents remain ever vigilante to counter those efforts and provide the border security that is paramount for our citizens.

A Maine lawmaker is pulling his bill imposing a carbon tax on citizens as the state sought be the first to adopt one of the key pillars of the Democratic Party.

State Rep. Deane Rykerson, a Democrat from Kittery, Maine, announced Thursday that he is pulling a bill imposing the nation’s first statewide carbon tax. He intends instead on creating a “Carbon Pricing Study Group” that will explore the tax and recommend solutions. State Republicans are cheering the decision.

“This is a middle- and low-income family crushing tax,” Nick Isgro, mayor of Waterville, told reporters Thursday, adding in a subsequent tweet to his followers that “the sponsor (Rykerson) now wants the tax bill replaced with a study. Thank you all…WIN!” Maine’s decision to ding the proposal comes amid a similarly crushing defeat in the state of Washington.

Washington voters rejected two ballot measures imposing a carbon tax, one of which was designed to be revenue neutral. Initiative 1631 was the third attempt to impose a carbon tax in Washington state. Voters rejected a similar ballot measure in 2016, and carbon tax legislation failed earlier in 2018.

Supporters of Washington’s November 2018 proposal pumped more than $15 million into their campaign, including $1 million each from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who is considering a presidential run in 2020. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, was a supporter of the measures before he officially announced his intention to run for higher office.

Maine’s proposals would have resulted in sky-high gas prices for many citizens, according to some experts. The nonprofit group Maine People Before Politics, for instance, claimed in a February press statement that the bill would result in taxes of about 40 cents per gallon, which would have given the state one of the highest gas tax in the country.

Democrats and Republicans passed a measure in July 2018 disapproving any carbon policies. The measure at the time passed along party lines, with only six Republicans opposing the resolution. Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the measure, which would voice opposition against any future carbon tax Congress might propose.

The Democratic Party is now moving toward more lofty goals as it takes up the majority in the House. Democrats’ Green New Deal resolution, for instance, calls for “upgrading all existing buildings” to “achieve maximum energy efficiency” as well as a slew of other completely unrelated welfare and “social justice” goals. Costs of upgrading every U.S. building within the decade laid out in the resolution would be expensive.