Good morning from the financial times. Today is Friday October 23rd. This is your ft news briefing.
Last night's US presidential debate contentious but less chaotic than the first and local races in Texas and elsewhere around the US might not get as much attention as the presidential race other job is important explain why + big news for the covid-19 drug rug does a beer and some not-so-great news for Intel Highmark Filipino. You need to start your day.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden squared off on Thursday in the last scheduled debate before the u.s. Presidential election. The tone was, and had more clear discussion than the first debate last month. It was still combative the candidates part over everything from coronavirus to American race relations. Just a few highlights. Biden said Trump had alienated you as allies and hasn't done enough to keep China in check on trade. He Embraces guys, like the thugs like in North Korea and the Chinese President Putin than others and he poked his finger that I have all of our friends. We need to be having the rest of our friends with us and China. These are the rules you play. By the way, you're going to pay the price for Nothing by them Trump defended his record on China and blamed it Beijing for the spread of coronavirus Topix turn to healthcare where Trump accuse Biden of wanting to socialize American medicine. He's talking about destroying your Medicare and this whole country will come down, you know, Bernie Sanders try to he tried it.
Joe Biden, I beat all those other people because I disagreed with them. Joe Biden is running again. The future of healthcare is important as coronavirus spikes around the u.s. State of Texas for example reported on Thursday. Its biggest daily jump in new infections since late August and the highest level of hospitalization in 2 months.
Speaking of Texas with 38 electoral votes it carries a lot of weight in presidential elections has been a republican stronghold for decades, but things could be change. It is possible that come November 3rd local races in Texas and around the us will have big repercussions for the country's National politics back with me now is he is every Friday during the election is Dimitri said stop Hilo or Washington bureau chief Dimitri. Why is Texas been so Republican for so long after the Civil War it was Democratic, but the Democrats in Texas were bit more conservative than Democrats in other parts of the country and then in the 1970s and 80s when you had an oil boom on your lot of conservatives who came in they were looking for other jobs. They were looking for lower taxes and less regulation on Texas provided all of those, you know, then Ronald Reagan won, Texas in 1980, and essentially do Republicans have never looked back since.
In 2002, they finally gained control of the Texas House of Representatives for the first time in a hundred thirty years and that helped them kind of solidify control over many parts of the politics in the state. I'm not a control all the big offices. They have a large majority in the Texas Congressional Delegation. They have both Texas Senate seats on the Republicans off the control of the governor's mansion Siri really is right. Now very very red, you know, there are a handful of candidates on the Democratic side that think that this is there a moment to turn the state blue. Why do they think that song from squeaked through in 2016 with about 52% in Texas, which is not very good for a Republican or not State. There has been a dramatic demographic change in Texas over the last two decades of may have reached a tipping points that will favor the Democrats. Another big factor was in 2018 Beto O'Rourke the former El Paso Democratic Congressman launch The Longshot bed.
To oust Senator Ted Cruz and you're not to be talked about earlier. A Democrat hasn't been elected to the Senate since 1998. He came really close to beating cruise and more importantly he kind of created this energy among Democrats in Texas and said, this is the first time in a long time that I actually maybe you can do better than you think so he kind of spurred people to get more involved. Let two more fundraising both internally and outside from Texas. And then finally, you know, what would Biden thing so close to Trump in the polls? There's a lot of excitement in my talk to former head of the Republican party in Texas, and he said to me that the Trump campaign on the Republican National Committee, which is kind of the National Organization that decides which races to invest in the day thought it was a lot for them and Trump would have no problem, but he said it's much closer than people realize Beetle. You don't some of the Republicans you talk to their saying, you know, not so fast this kind of optimism comes around during every election and the state still mostly stays red.
Can still consider Texas a stronghold?
Set timer for Penzone on what you're looking at. So because of redistricting that happened over the last few decades for congressional seats, even if the Democrats do a little bit better this time, they won't be able to break the Republican lock on the Texas delegation and Congress until does the next 2-3 District in which should happen next year. They contest at their most fired up about are the State House races of the Texas House of Representatives the majority they lost in 2002. They think they can win. Back until this huge effort going into that. But the Republican say, hold on a second these demographic changes have been in for a long time and understand my Graphics voted Texas would already be a democratic State. They also point out that you know, for example, Donald Trump is actually doing better with Hispanics done Mitt Romney did in 2012 when he won, Texas, but lost the white has to Barack Obama really interesting. Why are those battles how important this year?
What the main reason is why I guess two reasons one is if you control the House of Representatives in your state, you have a big impact on the politics and the policy of your State's that's one but almost more important in the long term is after the US has a census every 10 years. You have a redistricting so that the number of congressional seats in each in each state mirrors any changes in the overall population Texas has been growing very fast. So right now it has 36 congressional seats after this current census. It's expected to probably get three more. I'm when you get more congressional seats, you get more of what people call the Electoral College votes that essentially determine the presidential election. So that's a big difference. It's a complicated system in Texas in terms of how you do the redistricting. But if you control the Statehouse you have much bigger Sway and so if the Democrats do in the State House back that will be massively important for their efforts in the long-term unique to Texas or or is it everywhere?
It's a little bit different in every state. But essentially it's the same factors that are playing out. I knew what was interesting is during the Obama Administration and Obama got a lot of Praise from democrats for many of the things that he did one of the things we're some Democrats were not as enthusiastic with his performance was they felt that he didn't invest enough time and effort and helping Democrats around the country in the State House races. I know the results over time, even though the Democrats control the White House and they have the House of Representatives at one time. They were losing ground to Republicans in local and state races. And it's also very important for developing a pipeline of candidates who can then step up to the state level or the national level in Texas. There are groups who are pouring money into State House races around the country trying to give the Democrats more of a foothold in some of these legislators, you know with the aim to kind of building the party making it much stronger.
For the foreseeable future Dimitri set of stop yellow is our Washington bureau. Chief. Take you to Mitri. Thanks Mark.
Gilead Sciences just got a big boost for it's covid-19 drug Food and Drug Administration yesterday granted regulatory approval to give hospitalized covid-19 patients randez appear now because of an emergency use authorization event that the antiviral was already being used to treat patients and it was one of the drugs Donald Trump took when he had covid-19.
And Intel walked away from its most recent quarter in rough shape the US semiconductor Giants. It rings fell by nearly a quarter from a year ago because of the pandemic Intel data center group took a real beating is the area of the business that sells chips and processors to Enterprise clients. It reported a seven and a half percent Decline and revenue last quarter and tilt Enterprise and government business Hedy 47% drop in Revenue. The Mark II Street quarterly Report with bad news for until the company announced in July. It was pushing back the launch for its next generation of chips by 6 months until shares were down as much as 10% in after-hours trading yesterday.
Before we go things that blink beep and run on batteries lifted Mattel to its biggest increase in quarterly sales in a decade parents desperate to keep their kids entertained during the pandemic Hot Wheels cars and Barbie dolls and flew off the virtual shelves online sales Rose 50% last quarter, but investors weren't playing around yesterday. She was a Mattel jumped 7% in after-hours Trading.
You can read more on all of these stories at ft.com. This is been your daily African use breathing. Make sure you check back next week for the latest business news.
EFT news briefing is produced by Fiona Simon and me Park Filipino help from Gavin common, Michael Bruning in a bikini or theme song by metaphor music.
