2: Kemi Badenoch

UK Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as new leader, first Black woman to head a big British party The first Black woman to lead a major British political party, Badenoch (pronounced BADE-enock) has pledged to bring the right-of-center Tories “renewal” by pushing for a smaller state and rejecting identity politics. ....... Badenoch, 44, replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who in July led the Conservatives to their worst election result since 1832. ........ A business secretary in Sunak’s government, Badenoch was born in London to Nigerian parents and spent much of her childhood in the West African country. ........ The former software engineer depicts herself as a disruptor, arguing for a low-tax, free-market economy and pledging to “rewire, reboot and reprogram” the British state. ........ A self-proclaimed enemy of wokeness, Badenoch opposes identity politics, gender-neutral bathrooms and government plans to reduce U.K. carbon emissions. During the leadership campaign she drew criticism for saying that “not all cultures are equally valid,” and for suggesting that maternity pay was excessive. .......... He predicted Badenoch would pursue “what you might call the boats, boilers and bathrooms strategy .... focusing very much on the trans issue, the immigration issue and skepticism about progress towards net zero.” ......... While the Conservative Party is unrepresentative of the country as a whole — its dwindling membership of 132,000 is largely made up of affluent, older white men – its upper echelons have become markedly more diverse. ......... Badenoch is the Tories’ fourth female leader, after Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss, all of whom became prime minister. She’s the second Conservative leader of color, after Sunak, and the first with African roots. The center-left Labour Party has a more diverse membership but has only ever been led by white men.



Why the Polls Might Be Wrong — in Kamala Harris’ Favor It’s taken pollsters eight years to pin down Trump’s voters. Is 100 days really enough to accurately capture potential Harris voters? ....... The Harris campaign has sensed this GOP soft spot and targeted this group of moderate Republicans with a slew of endorsements designed to create the permission structure to vote for a Democrat.

Harris campaign: Late-deciding voters are ‘breaking by double digits’ for the VP “We have believed all along that there were still undecided voters here," he says.