6 Black-Owned Beverage Brands to Support (Wines, Teas, and Energy Drinks!)

African American entrepreneurs are widening out and starting companies in all kinds of industries. They are no longer just owners of barbershops, hair salons, and restaurants. Nowadays, they are investing in bigger more global ideas like tech companies, investment firms, and global food and drink distribution.

Here are 6 Black-owned beverage companies that you can find online and in local grocery stores:

#1 – Jive Juice: offers organic cold-pressed juices and smoothies for delivery and retail. With a focus on making juicing fun and “greening your life with juice,” J.I.V.E. Juice offers vegetarian and vegan products with concentrated enzymes and nutrients.

#2 – Ellis Island Tea: an all-natural, antioxidant-rich hibiscus tea founded in 2008 by Nailah Ellis-Brown. She got the recipe from her late great grandfather, who told her, “This recipe is to be sold, not told. Ellis Island Tea is a smooth, flavorful Jamaican blend, steeped in family tradition, brewed and bottled in Detroit, Michigan.

#3 – Jin+Ja: a revitalizing, anti-inflammatory and metabolism-boosting tea brand that was started in the summer of 2009 by entrepreneur Reuben Canada. He initially made the drinks for himself and for friends, but then realized that he had something bigger on his hands. After doing a test at a local retailer, the product kept selling out every 3 days for the first three months and the rest is history!

#4 – Me and the Bees Lemonade: an award-winning, ready-to-drink all-natural lemonade drink available in five refreshing flavors. Mikaila Ulmer created the brand when she was just 5-years old. Her drinks are now available in Whole Food grocery stores,

#5 – Heritage Link Brands: a delicious wine brand founded by entrepreneur Selena Cuffe after she learned there that, out of South Africa’s $3-billion wine industry, less than two percent were owned by blacks despite them representing 80% of the country’s population. Recognizing an untapped opportunity to introduce a new era of producers to the American market, the idea for Heritage Link Brands was born. Today the company serves a customer base of over 4,000 outlets, including household names from Disney to Whole Foods, and their award-winning portfolio is represented in over 40 U.S. states, South Africa, Nigeria, and literally, worldwide, on three different airlines.

#6 – Bee D’Vine: a popular brand of honey wine that was created by entrepreneur Ayele Solomon after he realized that flowering trees in Ethiopia were an ideal source of nectar and pollen that bees use to make valuable honey. This set him on a quest to better understand the art and business of creating honey wine. He evaluated production in Ethiopia and South Africa but settled on the world-class wine region of Sonoma – not far from where he grew up – using California honey for the first varietals.

This article was originally written by BlackBusiness.com.

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Trump gets an education in the art of reversal

President Donald Trump has strong views on just about everything. Until he doesn’t.

He ordered states to reopen in the spring, only to extend national social distancing guidelines. He insisted he would have the Republican convention at full size, only to scrap much of the event. He suggested the election should be delayed, only to reverse course and declare it should actually be held early.

And, in recent weeks as parents, teachers and local officials debated how to teach America’s 50 million public school students this fall, he threatened to withhold federal aid from districts that failed to offer in-person learning. But instead of fighting the many districts that defied him, he scaled back his combative rhetoric and toned down his demands.

As America has battled the coronavirus for the past five months, Trump has fought everyone else as he pushed his own contentious plans — governors, mayors, lawmakers, judges, even his own administration officials — before later reversing course, backing away from his initial stance or simply moving on to the next issue and declaring victory. Sometimes, the people he’s fighting have confronted him. Other times, they refused to engage.

Both supporters and critics say Trump wants to appear as if he is taking charge — even when he clearly lacks the authority to act — as he scrambles to find anything to latch onto while facing sinking poll numbers months before the election. He often changes his mind after he faces backlash or further weighs the politics of his actions.

“Whatever he says today he will change tomorrow, and he’s going to pretend like whatever he just said he never said,” National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García said. “What he says and what he does are two different things. We look at what he does.”

In the last few days, as Congress debates another round of coronavirus relief, Trump backed an extension of $600-per-week unemployment benefits he opposed only days ago and he appeared to have quietly dropped his own requests to cut the payroll tax and fund a new FBI headquarters through a coronavirus bill.

“They know what I want,” Trump told reporters Friday about congressional negotiators, even though some on Capitol Hill have grumbled that they, in fact, don’t know what he wants.

Trump’s most recent back-and-forth with school officials has taken on increasing urgency in the White House and the president's campaign where there’s a belief that rebuilding the coronavirus-decimated economy — which can only happen if working parents have child care and can return to work — may be his best chance at winning reelection.

And with just over three months from Election Day, as the pandemic worsens in more than half the states, Trump is lagging behind presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in most national polls and battleground states. His standing has even fallen in traditionally red states.

But most polls still show Americans trust Trump over Biden on handling the economy, though those numbers have started to fall, too. Some allies also believe the push for in-person learning could play well with the women and suburban voters the president needs to remain in office.

“He’s desperate to reopen the economy for the election. He knows you can’t reopen the economy unless you reopen schools,” said Rep. Donna Shalala, a Democrat who represents Miami-Dade County and served as secretary of health and human services under President Bill Clinton. “How many lives are we willing to lose? To open the economy or open the schools, you’re making a judgment about your willingness to lose lives.”

Trump blasted Democrats for keeping schools closed, saying they were trying to hurt him politically, and pushed his own administration to revise its guidelines to favor school openings because he says children are less likely to get sick or transmit the virus. Public health experts say children are still vulnerable and that many aspects of the virus are still unknown

Still, Trump and his aides have continued to push the reopening of schools in speeches, interviews and social media. On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos flew to North Carolina to visit a reopened private school to urge other schools to do the same.

“We have to remember that there is another side of this, keeping them out of school and keeping work closed is causing death also, economic harm but death for different reasons,” Trump said at a news conference Thursday. “But death, probably more death.”

While the president once threatened to cut off funding if schools didn’t offer in-person learning, he has acknowledged some schools may remain closed in his more scripted remarks from the White House podium and requested more than $100 billion from Congress for school districts. Senate Republicans propose giving more money to schools that offer in-person learning, but Democrats have balked at that proposal.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y), who supports Trump, dismissed the president’s prior remarks on funding, saying he has been clear this week that he backs providing schools the money they need to reopen in person.

“What we know about the online-only [learning] is it wasn’t working for a huge amount of our students, particularly those with special needs and disabilities,” she said. “And we have a responsibility ... to ensure we’re meeting the needs of those students.”

Trump pulled back on his more bellicose threats after America’s school districts, large and small — even in some Republican-friendly states led by Republican allies — defied him.

Los Angeles and San Diego announced they will start the school year virtually. Then Houston did. Then Miami-Dade joined two other large south Florida districts in opting for online learning Wednesday. And the next day, Washington, D.C., reversed course and joined the largest districts in neighboring Virginia and Maryland to keep their doors closed.

So far, 11 out of the nation’s 15 largest districts announced they will keep students home in the fall, affecting nearly three million students, according to Education Week. Nearly every district allowing in-person learning only plans to do so part-time.

Elsie Arntzen, a Republican who was elected superintendent of public instruction in Montana, said she applauds Trump for his focus on learning and getting life back to normal but that her state’s school districts are making their own decisions.

“We are very much independent and relish that local control,” she said. “Any kind of word of a mandate, any kind of statement to say ‘Montana you shall and you must’ is extremely challenging…. One size does not fit all.”

School officials also say they didn’t believe Trump’s threat. Only Congress has the authority to withhold federal funding — most of which goes to schools in low-income areas and special education.

Trump now suggests if public schools are closed, money should be given to parents to use at a private educational institution instead. A group of states sued the administration over its push to use money in a previous coronavirus relief bill for private schools.

“The threat to withhold federal funds is bullying and like all forms of bullying, it is unacceptable,” said Michael Rice, Michigan’s superintendent of public instruction.

State and local officials aren’t the only ones pushing back. Trump has faced fierce opposition from teachers, unions and parents who worry about surges in infections if schools don’t get enough money to reopen with social distancing. Teachers in some states may even go on strike.

And the president retreating from his demands — as he did at other points on reopening states, the Republican convention and myriad other issues — may be driven in part by a backlash in the polls.

Fifty-three percent of voters said they were somewhat or strongly opposed to fully reopening K-12 schools or daycare, according to a recent POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

“You’re seeing an inconsistency on the part of the president depending on what audience he is in front of,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said.

Biden, who is largely trying to make the race a referendum on Trump’s response to the coronavirus, has started criticizing him for not providing the money and resources needed to open the schools and released his own plan to reopen schools safely when they are ready — and not before.

Former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, a Biden supporter who is considered a national expert on education, said Trump is hurting schools by trying to tell them what to do. “We have to trust the local people to make those decisions and we have to stand behind them, not threaten them,” he said.

This week, the Democratic National Committee began airing a new ad in battleground states criticizing Trump's push to open schools following criticism that he initially downplayed the coronavirus, failed to quickly produce tests and supplies and then pushed the states to reopen early.

“Do you trust him to do what's best for our children?” the narrator asks. “Because this is not a test. Trump is failing.”

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‘Hating Joe Biden doesn’t juice up their base’: Key swing state slips away from Trump

PHILADELPHIA — Senior citizens and suburban voters are sinking President Donald Trump’s campaign across the country.

But here in Pennsylvania — home to one of the largest populations of residents age 65 or older and where suburbanites comprise more than half of the electorate — their defection to Joe Biden is hurting Trump even more acutely.

It’s a very big problem in a swing state that’s central to his Rust Belt path to victory. Four years ago, Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate since 1988 to carry Pennsylvania, in part by winning older and suburban voters, as well as blue-collar white workers in ancestrally Democratic areas. Now, with less than 100 days till Election Day, surveys show those voters are eyeing something different yet again.

Joe Biden has an overall early lead in the state of 6 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics’ polling average, and has led Trump in all 12 public polls released since the beginning of June.

“Joe Biden — his party is not in power — so just by definition, he’s the candidate of change. That’s a huge advantage,” said Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. “No matter what Hillary Clinton did with her campaign schedule, she was running after eight years of a Democratic president. So when you’re running after eight years of your party, you are not the change candidate.”

Democratic elected officials, party leaders and strategists in Pennsylvania said that Biden is ahead because of Trump’s mishandling of Covid-19 — which is particularly risky to seniors — as well as his broken campaign promises to workers about spending big on infrastructure and rewriting trade deals to benefit them. They believe voters like Biden because he is known as someone who can work across the aisle to solve the nation’s problems.

They argued Biden is also being buoyed by the fact that he is a Scranton native and former Delaware senator who was covered by the Philadelphia media network for years. And they said that Biden doesn’t anger GOP or swing voters like Clinton — instead, he’s a moderate white man who rarely makes waves in a state that has elected more than its fair share of milquetoast white male politicians.

“Hating Joe Biden doesn’t juice up their base and their Fox News viewers the way going after Hillary and Nancy Pelosi and AOC do,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, who endorsed Biden the day he launched his 2020 campaign. “You can make certain assumptions and wonder why that is. Is gender a factor? Is race a factor? I don’t know. I have certain suspicions.”

Trump’s nickname for Biden, “Sleepy Joe,” closely resembles his moniker for Casey during the senator’s 2018 reelection campaign: “Sleeping Bob.” Casey, who defeated his opponent Lou Barletta by 13 percentage points, said “there is something to that” idea that Pennsylvania voters like un-flashy politicians. He added that a local columnist once “compared me to oatmeal.”

But to some Democrats, still stung by Trump’s upset in 2016, it’s political malpractice to count Trump out.

“I don’t know how what happened in 2016 wouldn’t have cured any Pennsylvania Democrat of their swagger,” said John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s Democratic lieutenant governor. “At the end of the day, it’s not unlike the confidence that set in with Clinton.”

In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes by taking a path that defied expectations: He won blue-collar, often traditionally Democratic areas in northeastern and northwestern Pennsylvania, surged in rural regions, and performed poorly in the moderate Philadelphia suburbs. Overall, he carried suburban voters by 8 points and seniors by 10 points in the state, according to exit polls.

A July FOX poll of Pennsylvania found Biden leading Trump by 26 points among suburban voters and 7 points among seniors. Other surveys show a closer race, such as a CNBC/Change Research poll that had Biden ahead in the state by 2 points.

Many of Trump’s campaign aides and allies said the polls — which in 2016 undercounted white voters without college degrees, a voting bloc that Trump did significantly better among than Mitt Romney — are off again.

“They’re dead wrong,” said Barletta, who was one of Trump’s earliest supporters in Congress. “I had told then-candidate Trump two weeks before the election, ‘Don’t believe the polls in Pennsylvania. They’re wrong.’”

Some Republicans said the polls may be accurate, especially when it comes to Trump’s sagging support among suburban voters, but that there’s still time for Trump to recover in large part because he still has the upper hand on the economy. Trump is leading or polling even with Biden on the issue.

“I believe that it’s eventually going to come down to the economy. Even if you take into account the pandemic, the implications of the pandemic ultimately come down to the economy,” said Charlie Gerow, a Harrisburg-based GOP strategist. “I’ve always been bullish about President Trump’s prospects.”

Some Democratic officials said they are wary of Trump’s strength on the economy. In an attempt to shore up one of his clear weak spots, Biden has spent the last several months outlining his economic recovery plans, including reviving the country’s manufacturing industry and boosting federal spending on American-made goods.

“I think that the big challenge for our party is continuing to just have an economic message and I’ve been urging the vice president’s team to do that,” said Casey. “They were already there, but I keep reminding them.”

To drive down Biden’s support among suburban and older voters, Trump’s campaign has spent at least $4.5 million on misleading campaign ads across Pennsylvania that claim police will be defunded by a Biden administration. Biden has said repeatedly he opposes the idea.

Rep. Dwight Evans, a Philadelphia Democrat who represents a majority-Black district, said he worries about the spots, as well as Trump’s attempts to stoke fear about recent civil unrest and crime in the largest city in the state.

“When he talks about these beautiful suburbs and then says Democratic cities are not run right, he’s throwing codes out the window. He’s just blatant,” he said. “I will not deny that does concern me.”

The Trump team’s Pennsylvania ads have also attacked Biden’s past support of tough-on-crime bills and free trade deals, strategies he used against Clinton in 2016 to reduce her support among voters of color and the white working class.

With an eye on western Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry, America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC, has aired spots accusing Biden of wanting to eliminate fracking. Though he supports barring new leases on federal land, Biden has not proposed banning fracking.

Ads by Biden’s campaign and a pro-Biden super PAC in the state have centered on Trump’s mismanagement of the coronavirus. The pro-Biden American Bridge 21st Century super PAC also countered Trump spots accusing Biden of being soft on China with its own ad charging Trump of the same.

Trump’s team believes its ground game in Pennsylvania is a key strength: It has been working in the state for months, whereas Biden’s team only announced that it had hired a state director in July.

“We're confident about where we are in the state right now. We've made an unprecedented effort here on the ground with staff hirings and offices,” said Ted Christian, a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign in Pennsylvania. “We're up to 120 staff in the state now. We've got 29 offices. We've made almost 4.4 million voter contacts. And I can tell you that the energy exists that was here four years ago — and we have better infrastructure than we did.”

Biden’s campaign declined to share the number of employees it has hired in the state. Sinceré Harris, a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign in Pennsylvania, said the state party set up a successful ground game here before Biden’s campaign set up its operations so that it could build upon it.

If the former vice president holds onto his lead in Pennsylvania despite getting off to a later start, it would somewhat mirror the primary, when Biden won states in which he hadn’t even campaigned. Comparatively, candidates with rumored superior field operations such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were unsuccessful.

In a call with reporters last month, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien touted the fact that Republicans have registered more voters than Democrats in Pennsylvania — about five times as many — since 2016. The team said it is working to identify first-time or infrequent voters who support Trump, something it successfully did in 2016.

“The RNC made a $350 million investment to revamp our data program, and as a result of us getting staff on the ground sooner, we’re able to identify these pockets and these specific voters,” said Christian. "And we do believe there are still votes out there to be had.”

Many Democrats in Pennsylvania don’t buy it — and remain cautiously optimistic.

“Come mid-November, after Joe Biden wins, after Democrats win a substantial number of House seats and quite possibly win back the Senate, I think we’ll look at a year’s worth of polling and we’ll look back at the 2020 race and we’ll say, actually, in an unbelievably tumultuous year, things didn’t move much in terms of public opinion,” said Boyle.

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Netanyahu says media inciting hate and violence against him

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed on Sunday at swelling protests against his rule, saying they are egged on by a biased media that distorts facts and cheers on the demonstrators.

Netanyahu has faced a wave of protests in recent weeks, with demonstrators calling for the long-serving, indicted leader to resign and panning his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Netanyahu has painted the protests as dens of “anarchists” and “leftists” out to topple “a strong right-wing leader.”

The protests have largely been peaceful. In some cases they have ended with clashes between demonstrators and police. In others, small gangs of Netanyahu supporters and individuals affiliated with far-right groups have assaulted demonstrators.

In a six-minute rant at a meeting of his Cabinet, Netanyahu slammed the media for “inflaming” the protests and for misrepresenting incidents of violence against the protesters.

“There has never been such a distorted mobilization — I wanted to say Soviet but it has already reached North Korean terms — of the media in favor of the protests,” he said.

Netanyahu said the media ignored “wild and unfettered incitement, including daily calls — including the day before yesterday — to murder the prime minister and his family.”

He said the protests were breeding grounds for the virus that were being allowed to take place with no limits, shutting down streets and neighborhoods. He said right-wing protests have not been given such free rein.

He condemned violence “from all sides” at the start of his remarks before tearing into the media he has long viewed as hostile toward him.

Also at the Cabinet meeting, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who is the country’s “alternate” prime minister under a power-sharing deal, said the protests must be allowed to take place with protesters shielded from violence.

“The right to protest is the lifeblood of democracy and violence is the erosion of the foundation of democracy,” he said.

Netanyahu’s tirade came as his son Yair Netanyahu was summoned to a Jerusalem court after tweeting the names, addresses and phone numbers of prominent protesters, calling his followers to demonstrate outside their homes “day and night.” The court granted the 28-year-old Netanyahu an exemption from appearing in court. Protesters said they received threatening calls after the tweet.

Throughout the summer, thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets, calling for Netanyahu to resign, protesting his handling of the country’s coronavirus crisis and saying he should not remain in office while on trial for corruption charges. Though Netanyahu has tried to play down the protests, the twice-a-week gatherings show no signs of slowing and Saturday night’s Jerusalem gathering drew more than 10,000 people.

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GOP dread over possible Kobach nomination in Kansas

On Thursday, the top operative for Senate Republicans' campaign arm appeared on a private Zoom call organized by GOP operatives to discuss the party's efforts to stave off a Democratic takeover.

During the presentation, National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Kevin McLaughlin warned that if hardline conservative Kris Kobach wins next Tuesday's Kansas Senate primary, it could doom the GOP Senate majority — and perhaps even hurt President Donald Trump in a state that hasn't voted Democratic since 1964.

“The Senate majority runs through Kansas,” McLaughlin warned, according to people familiar with the call.

The new warning came after a flurry of Democratic meddling has scrambled the closing weeks of a primary race that had otherwise gotten back on track. Senate Republicans have opposed Kobach for a year, fretting that he can’t win a Senate contest after losing the 2018 gubernatorial race, and have warned about him consistently in public and in private.

After failing to woo Secretary of State Mike Pompeo into the race, Republicans had mostly rallied behind Rep. Roger Marshall, who was leading Kobach comfortably in internal polling earlier in the summer. But after nearly $5 million was dumped in by a super PAC with ties to Democrats to elevate Kobach and bash Marshall’s image, Republicans acknowledge that the primary is a dead heat.

A Kobach victory would upend the battle for control of the Senate. Democrats haven't won a Senate race in Kansas since the 1930s, but with Kobach on the ballot, Republicans would be forced to sink millions into trying to defend a seat party officials believe should have stayed safely in their column.

Republicans are already stretched thin on a Senate map that features more than a half-dozen GOP incumbents in competitive races. GOP leaders concede the fight to keep the Senate has gotten harder in recent months but believe the party still can maintain control if it isn't dumping money into places like Kansas.

Democrat Barbara Bollier, a state senator and former Republican, faces only nominal opposition in her primary and has outraised all of her potential GOP foes.

Trump has remained on the sidelines in the race, frustrating some Republicans who believe a late endorsement could deliver a victory to Marshall, whom they view as much more electable.

Republican officials, including Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), the NRSC chairman, have spoken with the president as recently as last week about making an endorsement in the race, believing that he could single-handedly alter the current trajectory, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations. Internal Republican polling has shown a Trump endorsement would shift potential Kobach supporters towards the president’s pick, according to a Republican familiar with the data.

The president discussed the race with his political advisers on Air Force One last week returning from an event in Texas. Trump indicated he was unlikely to intervene, according to people familiar with the discussion.

During the in-flight conversation, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) pointed out Marshall’s previous support for John Kasich in the 2016 presidential primary, according to two sources briefed on the discussion. CNN first reported on the conversation. A person familiar with the White House’s thinking disputed the idea that Cruz’s comment swayed the president but acknowledged that it made it harder for Marshall to earn the endorsement.

All of the candidates have relied on Trump’s name and his supporters, even without his backing. An ad from Senate Leadership Fund, the GOP super PAC aligned with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, featured a photo of Trump and Marshall, with a narrator saying Trump has called Marshall a “great friend.” A recent Kobach ad featured heavy use of footage from an October 2018 rally Trump held boosting Kobach's gubernatorial campaign, with a small insignia in the corner making the date clear.

Two years ago, Trump endorsed Kobach the day before the 2018 gubernatorial primary, and Kobach defeated then-Gov. Jeff Colyer by 343 votes. Kobach then lost to now-Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, by five percentage points. Trump has expressed frustration with expending political capital for Kobach only to see him lose, according to Republicans familiar with the discussions.

Recent polling has shown this year's primary coming down to the wire. One recent GOP survey showed Marshall with 33 percent support compared to 30 percent for Kobach, with busienssman Bob Hamilton and former NFL player Dave Lindstrom trailing, according to multiple officials who described the poll.

Additionally, an internal survey conducted for the NRSC last week showed that in a general election matchup, only 54 percent of Republican primary voters would back Kobach, while 29 percent would instead to vote for Democrat Barbara Bollier, according to three people familiar with the data, which has been presented to the White House. That much potential crossover support for Bollier, who has the backing of major Kansas and national Democrats, could doom Republicans' chances in the race.

In addition to private entreaties, Republicans opposed to Kobach have sounded the alarm consistently and publicly. The NRSC blasted Kobach on the day he announced last year. Sen. Pat Roberts, who is retiring from the seat, endorsed Marshall last month despite previously pledging to stay neutral, and Senate Leadership Fund is spending nearly $2 million on positive ads boosting Marshall, according to recent FEC filings. Additionally, a GOP-linked super PAC that won't have to disclose its funding until after the primary, has spent more than $3 million to run TV ads attacking Kobach.

The president has intervened privately in the race. He called David McIntosh, the head of the conservative Club for Growth, to ask the group to stop running ads attacking Marshall, according to people familiar with the conversation, which was first reported by The New York Times.

Many Kansas Republicans hoped Trump would endorse and boost Marshall to ease their concerns about the fall. One veteran Republican operative in the state, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, said Trump likely knows “if he doesn’t have Kansas, the Senate majority is fried.

“Republicans were hopeful the president would be doing something by now already — and are agitating that if he’s going to do it, he better do it quickly,” the GOP operative said.

Kelly Arnold, a former state GOP chairman, told POLITICO Trump’s endorsement put Kobach over the top in 2018. But while many Republicans would like to see him endorse Marshall, Arnold said Republicans on the ground are unsure where he stands.

“All of our candidates are making a bid to get his support [and to] try to show to the voters that they are the president's closest supporter. It is important,” Arnold said. “They're definitely making that play to try to earn the president's endorsement and the president's supporters here in Kansas.”

While Trump hasn't weighed in, other Republicans are trying to help Marshall close things out. Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, made an appearance on a local radio station last week and hammered Kobach as a threat to the GOP majority. After the radio appearance, Gingrich agreed to sign a fundraising email for Marshall and to record a robocall for him.

In the call, going out to Kansas voters, Gingrich calls Marshall a “committed pro-life conservative, a great supporter of President Trump.” While he doesn’t mention Kobach, he does say, "Too much is at stake to take a chance on anyone else."

“Every poll I’ve seen says that Kobach can't win a general election,” Gingrich said on the radio. “[Kobach] did the worst statewide numbers when he ran for governor of any Republican in the last more than a decade. He's weaker now. Kobach is the Schumer candidate, and people just need to understand that.”

Alex Isenstadt contributed to this report.

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