The owner of the Los Angeles Times has instructed the paper not to endorse the president for the first time in 20 years, with the 2024 election just weeks away, Semaphore reported on Tuesday.
Los Angeles Times Editorial Board published On October 14, he released a list of electoral endorsements, calling the 2024 election “the most consequential election in a generation,” but did not mention his support for Vice President Kamala Harris. The board had planned to follow tradition and support the Democratic presidential candidate until the paper’s owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, directed it not to endorse the president earlier this month, two people familiar with the matter reported. said Semaphore.
@latimesThis is the first time in 20 years that no one has supported a presidential candidate. The LA Times is in Harris’ home state. Voters we spoke to say how can they believe that a candidate who did nothing for four years to solve America’s problems could suddenly solve everything? #Latimes pic.twitter.com/isbewPNHE9
— Elizabeth MacDonald (@LizMacDonaldFOX) October 22, 2024
According to Semaphore, the editorial board has supported Democratic candidates in every presidential election since it first publicly endorsed former President Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign. (Related: MSNBC interviews early voters in key battleground states, struggling to find people who voted for Harris)
A Los Angeles Times spokesperson declined to comment on “internal discussions and decisions regarding editorials and endorsements” in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
According to Semaphore, Soon-Shiong, who bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018, will not make any endorsements in the 2020 Democratic primary after the board decided to support Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. He reportedly said that there was no such thing. The paper endorsed President Joe Biden in that year’s general election.
Semaphore has a history of supporting Republican presidential candidates, until the 1970s when it faced backlash for supporting former President Richard Nixon, according to Semaphore. From the mid-1970s until 2008, the paper refused to endorse presidential candidates.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced in September that it would no longer endorse a presidential candidate after internal survey data showed that 56% of the union’s rank-and-file members supported Republican candidate Donald Trump. The union has historically supported Democrats and donated to center-left causes.
The presidential race is considered deadlocked and “too close to decide,” according to national polls, but it appears Trump could “close the gap,” says CNN senior data reporter Harry.・Enten said on Monday. As of Friday, the former president was leading Ms. Harris in all key battleground states, according to RealClear polling averages.
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