WASHINGTON — The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that more than half of the population in America will be non-white by 2050.

According to a new poll, a majority of Republicans — and about one in five Democrats — say that demographic milestone will weaken the country’s customs and values.

The new poll from the Pew Research Center finds that, overall, about 30 percent of Americans say that having a majority of the population made up of black, Hispanics, Asians and other racial minorities would strengthen the nation’s cultural fabric, while 38 percent say it would weaken it.

But those who view the expected majority-minority population in a negative light include 59 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, while just 13 percent say that demographic change will strengthen the country. Another 27 percent say the change will have little impact.

That data point comes as the GOP becomes more and more identified with a Republican president who has referred to immigration at the southern border as an “invasion,” supported a ban on Muslims entering the United States during his campaign and reportedly used slurs to describe immigration from Haiti and some African countries. According to exit polls, only 13 percent of Trump’s voters in 2016 were non-white.

Negative views of a more heavily non-white American population weren’t limited to Republicans. A smaller but significant 22 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said that a majority-minority would weaken American culture. Forty-two percent of Democrats said the change will strengthen the country, while another third say it will not have much of an impact.

Race is also a factor. The Pew poll found that nearly half of whites — 46 percent — viewed a majority-minority in a negative light, while only 18 percent of black respondents and 25 percent of Hispanics agreed.

WASHINGTON — Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sander is putting his money where his mouth is on climate change, announcing Thursday that his campaign is "offsetting all carbon emissions produced from campaign travel activities."

That's a notable ask for a campaign that has to crisscross the country, often by plane. His 2018 reelection campaign spent almost $300,000 on private jet travel, with his campaign spokeswoman telling VT Digger those flights were to help campaign for Democrats and that it spent almost $5,000 to purchase carbon offsets in response to that flight. Sanders also invested in carbon offsets to help balance out his 2016 travel too. 

This is yet another example of what NBC's Benjy Sarlin and Alex Seitz-Wald pointed out yesterday—Democratic candidates are trying to live their campaign values this cycle through how they run their own campaigns. 

Click here to read more from Sarlin and Seitz-Wald, and read on for more stories you may have missed from the 2020 beat. 

• Former Colorado Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper drew some headlines from his CNN town hall last night, but perhaps not one he was intending to garner.
• Axios is reporting that former Vice President Joe Biden's advisers are debating whether to announce Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams as his vice presidential pick early on in the process. It would be a move meant to shore up many of his potential weaknesses, as Benjy Sarlin writes in new NBC anaylsis. But it's not one without some big risks too, as it could also look like an acknowledgement he needs a crutch to run. 
• Seitz-Wald also broke some news this morning about Democratic super PAC American Bridge's plans to chip away at President Trump's base with a $50 million effort. 
• Politico reports that there's going to be a Texas-sized showdown in the Lone Star State's Democratic primary, with California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris making moves to challenge Texans Beto O'Rourke and Julián Castro.

WASHINGTON — With some Democrats advocating a re-evaluation of the U.S relationship with Israel, the progressive political advocacy group MoveOn is calling on 2020 candidates to boycott this year’s conference of prominent pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.

It’s not clear yet which 2020 Democratic candidates — if any — were planning to attend this year. But in the past three presidential cycles, the eventual nominees for both parties spoke at the conference the year of the election.

Iram Ali, MoveOn’s campaign director, told NBC News that the boycott only applies to this year’s conference. That could leave the door open for candidates to attend next year, when the Democratic presidential primary will be in full swing. But she described alignment with AIPAC as anti-progressive.

“It’s important that the next Democratic nominee has progressive values, not only in their domestic policies, but also in their foreign policies,” Ali said. “You cannot be a progressive and support AIPAC because of the policies that they’ve supported.”

Josh Orton, the policy director for Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, told NBC News that “Sen. Sanders has no plans to attend the AIPAC conference. He’s concerned about the platform AIPAC is providing for leaders who have expressed bigotry and oppose a two-state solution.”

Sanders didn't attend the 2016 conference while he was running in the Democratic primary, but addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at length during a speech around the conference. 

Four announced 2020 Democratic candidates have spoken at AIPAC before: Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar have all spoken at the policy conference. Former Vice President Joe Biden has also addressed AIPAC before.

While there’s no confirmation that any candidates will attend this year’s conference, Rep. John Delaney’s communication’s director Will McDonald said he plans to attend in the future.

“John is very disappointed that he can't attend this year, he has attended every year since he has been in Congress and he very much looks forward to being back next year,” McDonald said.

No other 2020 Democratic campaigns have committed to attending or avoiding the conference in the future.

Ali said MoveOn won’t use speaking at AIPAC as a litmus test, but that it will be one of several benchmarks used to endorse a 2020 candidate.

“We will be setting various benchmarks over the next year and a half. This is not the only benchmark that we’re measuring candidates against,” Ali said. “We will be looking holistically at candidates going into the primaries.” 

WASHINGTON — South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday sat down for an interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe" where he spoke at length about his own connection to religion and how it plays into his political perspective

Buttigieg, an Episcopalian, emphasized his strong feelings in support of the separation of church and state but argued that there should be more of an embrace of how faith informs politicians on the left too. 

"I think anybody in this process needs to demonstrate how they will represent people of any faith, people of no faith, but I also think the time has come to reclaim faith as a theme," he said.

"The idea that the only way a religious person could enter politics is through the prism of the religious right, I just don't think that makes sense."

Hear more from Buttigieg's interview by clicking here, and read on for more stories from the 2020 trail below.

• Former Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke filled in some of the blanks on his massive first-day donation haul—he raised an average of $48 from 128,000 individual donors.
• NBC News' Benjy Sarlin and Alex Seitz-Wald just published a smart dive into how presidential campaigns are looking to send a message in how they run the nuts and bolts of their campaign. 
• The Wall Street Journal reports  former Vice President Joe Biden has started telling supporters he's running for president and is lining up donors in the hopes of making a big splash. 
• CNN reports that only four Democratic presidential campaigns were using a fundamental form of email security as of a March study, despite rampant concerns about phishing and hacking after the 2016 election.

WASHINGTON — No, he's not writing the snarky tweets lambasting both President Trump and the 2020 Democratic field. 

And he doesn't expect to win the White House.

But former Alaska Democratic Sen. Mike Gravel says he hasn't closed the door on a presidential bid in 2020 amid his new viral moment. 

Questions about a possible Gravel candidacy surfaced late Tuesday night, when founding documents for the "Mike Gravel for President Exploratory Committee" were posted to the Federal Election Commission's website and a Twitter account in Gravel's name began tweeting. 

Reached by NBC News, Gravel explained that a small group of students had recently reached out to him in the hopes of convincing him to run for president because they felt his platform deserved wider attention.

"When they called me, I said: Do you realize how old I am?" Gravel, who turns 89 years old this spring, recounted to NBC. 

(Politico's Zach Montellaro first reported the arrangement between Gravel and the students).  

During Gravel's 2008 presidential bid, he issued a broad condemnation of the Iraq war and promoted his idea that Americans should be allowed to vote directly on potential new laws. And his opposition to the Vietnam War and interventionist foreign policy in general were central pillars of his political career. 

Neither Gravel nor the students (who are running his eponymous Twitter account) expect Gravel to win, he said. But they are interested in amplifying Gravel's policy platform either through the media or by a longshot effort to make the debate stage.  

Gravel, who is finishing up a book on direct democracy, didn't rule out a presidential bid to NBC, and said he's looking forward to meeting the students next month when they travel to California to pitch him on a plan. And in the perspective of a politician who raised eyebrows with some of the more unusual campaign ads in American presidential history, the viral moment could help get his message out. 

"I'm not closing the door, my wife needs to be persuaded," he said.

"I would go along — a group of millennials really want to advance the ideas that I had, primarily the idea of direct democracy, which I've spent the past 30 years of my life on."

WASHINGTON — Priorities USA, the major Democratic super PAC expecting to spend heavily in the 2020 race, is launching its opening salvo of digital ads across Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

The new spots, part of a six-figure digital buy, contrast President Trump's campaign promise to prioritize Americans over special interests with criticism that his policies on trade, taxes and health care are jeopardizing the well-being of average Americans.  

One new spot uses a profane blurb, saying Trump's promise to average Americans is "b*******."

"Trump's trade war is costing me;" one person featured in the ad says.  "The president has put my kids one medical emergency away from bankruptcy," another claims. 

"All Trump cares about is the people at the top," says a third. "Working people have to fight back." 

The ad's style, direct-to-camera criticism from people who are supposed to be average Americans, harkens back to President Obama's re-election ad strategy when he ran against Republican Mitt Romney. 

The digital buys are part of Priorites' already announced $100 million investment across those four swing states, an investment it announced earlier this year. The group also plans to spend heavily in other swing states too throughout this year and next year. 

Watch one example of the ad here. 

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Less than a year ago, South Carolina’s top Democrat was predicting that Joe Biden could win the state’s critical early primary “going away” if he were a candidate. As the Democratic field has expanded — and with Biden possibly just days away from entering himself — House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn is being more cautious.

“Well, not going away maybe,” Clyburn told NBC News during an interview on the steps of the South Carolina capitol Tuesday. “When you get this many people into a race you have no idea how the spread will occur. What I do know is, according to all the polls I’ve seen in South Carolina and around the country, he is the leading contender among Democratic voters. Now, how big that lead is I think depends upon whether or not any of the other people catch fire. And some of them may.”

The two men have been friends for decades, and Clyburn said the two spoke as recently as three weeks ago. Even though he said he has not been told about Biden’s final decision, he offered some advice, suggesting that Biden's focus should be about the country’s future.

He also advised Biden against something the former vice president's team has considered: naming a vice presidential running mate at the same time he announces his candidacy.

“I think that we have to be careful about doing cute things in campaigns,” he said. “I think it would be a mistake for Joe Biden to come out – or any other candidate – and announce a running mate right out of the gate.”

Clyburn, who said he does not plan to endorse in the race, expects about half of the Democratic contenders to attend his annual fish fry fundraiser, scheduled for June 21.

Asked about former Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s candidacy ahead of his first trip to South Carolina, Clyburn questioned whether the enthusiasm that brought him to nearly upset Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last November would carry over into 2020.

“His [challenge] is whether he’s able to show that same kind of energy, intensity, and fundraising capacity that he did against Cruz. I’m not too sure that that can happen in the presidential race. But if he can, he’s going to be very formidable,” he said.

WASHINGTON — Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the latest Democratic presidential candidate to call for abolishing the Electoral College, an issue that's becoming more and more popular among the party's candidates. 

Warren made the announcement during a CNN town hall on Monday, noting that candidates don't typically campaign in red states like Mississippi or California because those states aren't winnable in a general election. 

"Every vote matters. And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College," she said. 

That makes her the second Democrat in the race to support the policy, joining South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, who is considering a bid, also supports ending the Electoral College, and former Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke said Tuesday there's "a lot of wisdom in that" idea but did not explicitly support it. 

The issue is just one of a handful of issues front-and-center in the Democratic primary this cycle that aren't normally a part of the debate. 

That's not all that's been happening on the trail—read on for more stories from the 2020 beat. 

• New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is drawing a hard line on punishing drug manufacturers for their involvement in the opioid crisis, criticizing those who "purposefully made these drugs stronger more addictive" to goose their sales. She made the comments during an "All in 2020 Town Hall with Chris Hayes" on MSNBC—click here for more coverage of that event.
• The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is teaming up with UCLA for a Democratic presidential campaign forum that will center on LGBTQ policy. The forum is set for October 10, 2019 and will use the same qualifying metrics that the Democratic Party used for its first debate—either 1 percent of the vote in three national polls or 65,000 individual donations from donors in at least 20 states.
• California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell reiterated on MSNBC Tuesday that he's going to announce his presidential decision by the end of the month. But he also shed some light on why he's been waiting so long to announce, noting that he's still paying off almost $100,000 in student loans, and has two young children who will need childcare if he embarks on a presidential bid. 

 

WARREN, Ohio — Beto O’Rourke has spent the first week of his presidential campaign working to educate himself on issues central to the lives of various communities across the Midwest, and on Monday night he joined the fight on the side of one of those issues.

The former Texas congressman and current Democratic presidential candidate inserted himself into a debate between President Donald Trump and the leader of the local union representing workers at the General Motors auto plant in Lordstown, Ohio. He met with UAW Local 1112 President David Green Monday evening, one day after the president launched an attack on Green on Twitter over the status of the facility.  Production was stopped at the Lordstown GM plant two weeks ago, but its future is currently uncertain.  

O’Rourke live-streamed part of their discussion on Facebook, and then spoke with NBC News.

“The president with his actions has added insult to injury,” O’Rourke said. “Not only has he done nothing to prevent this job loss, he actually blames the workers and their leadership in the UAW president of 1112 for something that GM and his administration caused. He’s literally financed GM’s ability, through this tax cut, to move jobs elsewhere.”

President Trump won Ohio in 2016, along with much of the rest of the manufacturing belts of the Midwest — areas O’Rourke has attempted to emphasize on his trip this week. Trump has repeatedly promised to bring lost jobs back from many of these industrial communities that have deteriorated with closing factories.

“I asked Dave, the UAW President here, ‘what can we do to get those jobs back?’” O’Rourke said. “He said we can ensure that our trade policies and our tax code does not incentivize offshoring these jobs."

"I think UAW is going to do everything they can to salvage something from GM’s investment and the public’s investment, perhaps there are other auto manufacturers that could relocate a plant here. The investment is here. This community is ready.”

Ahead of his Ohio stop, O’Rourke contacted the state’s senior senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, for insight on campaigning in the Buckeye State.

He said he didn’t ask Brown for an endorsement, “just asked him for advice.”

“I wanted to give him the courtesy of letting him know I was in the state,” O’Rourke said. “He was very helpful and I imagine he’s going to be very helpful to every candidate who puts in a call.”

WASHINGTON — The 2020 Democratic primary features the most wide-open field in decades, with candidates who are already bringing in massive amounts of money. And it's getting even more crowded by the day. 

The large field is also creating space for a new set of issues not normally discussed during nominating contests. There's even increased interest in debating procedural changes to grease the wheels, an idea explored by NBC's Benjy Sarlin and Lauren Egan. 

Read on to see how the candidates are handling three of these issues — reparations, court packing and abolishing the electoral college.

Broad support for some form of reparations

Reparations hasn't been at the forefront of any recent primary conversation. But this cycle, seven candidates have offered support for reparations, with varying definitions. 

Julián Castro thinks reparation payments should be on the table, and promised to create a commission to offer a plan for reparations.

Others — Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar — all say they're open to the debate on how to best handle reparations, pointing to policies aimed at helping low-income families as a way to help level the playing field. However, Sanders has ruled out the idea of direct reparation payments.

And Beto O'Rourke has broadly called for the country to recognize the ills of slavery without committing to any specifics. 

Candidates split on court packing

There's less unanimity on the idea of making structural changes to the Supreme Court. 

Pete Buttigieg has offered one idea to expand the number of justices to 15 — a third Republican-appointed, a third Democratic-appointed, and a third of consensus picks. 

Warren, Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand all signaled an openness to the idea in a new Politico piece on the debate. 

O'Rourke has mused about the idea, but hasn't settled on a specific answer. 

But Booker and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who is exploring a bid, are throwing cold water on the idea. 

Abolishing electoral college gaining some traction

As a coalition of states is pushing to abolish the electoral college, two of the younger presidential candidates are making abolishing the electoral college a key issue.

Buttigieg regularly talks about the idea during interviews and candidate events, while Seth Moulton penned a column in The Washington Post earlier this month on abolishing the electoral college as well as the Senate filibuster.