02c U.S. Politics – Election

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Nithya Raman speaks at her election night event as early Los Angeles mayoral returns show Spencer Pratt ahead of her.

Spencer Pratt’s stunning Los Angeles mayoral surge now has a viral election-night reaction to go with it.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman became visibly emotional as the early mayoral numbers put Pratt in second place and left her runoff path looking increasingly difficult.

The video does not show a race that is officially over. It does show the moment the progressive favorite realized the math was moving hard against her.

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Adam Hamawy, a controversial candidate who previously volunteered with an al-Qaeda-linked group, has won the Democratic primary for retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s (D-NJ) seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Hamawy, who was endorsed by the so-called “Squad,” became a lightning rod for criticism on the campaign trail due to his intense criticism of Israel and his having volunteered with the Benevolence International Foundation in Bosnia, per the New York Post:

An Iraq War veteran, Hamawy has made national headlines for saving Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s (D-Ill) life after a helicopter crash as well as for his volunteer work in the Gaza Strip.

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President Donald Trump has criticized California for its vote-counting delay in the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral races, accusing the state’s Democratic leaders of “BIG cheating.”

While California polls closed at 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday, that state’s counting appears to remain at a standstill as of Thursday morning.

‘Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.’

Only 56% of the votes have been counted in the race for governor and 62% in the mayoral election, according to the Associated Press. This is a 2% decrease for both races compared to Wednesday morning.

In the race to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Fox News host and small-business owner Steve Hilton (R) currently holds a slight lead over former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra (D), and climate advocate and businessman Tom Steyer (D) remains in third position.

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Democrat Rep. and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (CA-11) has held her congressional seat in California for 39 years. Once Pelosi announced in November 2025 that she planned to retire from the House of Representatives, several people scrambled to run for the District 11 seat. As the votes in California are still being counted, three Democrats are vying for the Top 2 spots that will move to the November general election: the Pelosi-endorsed San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, State Sen. Scott Wiener, and former chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Saikat Chakrabarti.

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Key Democratic leaders appeared to continue their support for embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner on Tuesday after meetings in Washington DC.

Platner is contending with yet another revelation – this time about sexually explicit texts with women outside of his marriage – threatening his campaign, which is at the center of his party’s hopes of regaining control of Congress.

“I met with Graham Platner today. We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate,” the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday.

“I know that the Democrats are going to cheat. No one’s really addressing the problem that I spent my time in prison as retribution for, and that was exposing the election machines that allow the votes to be flipped. I’m very concerned and burdened with why no one is talking about this.” – Tina Peters, Election Fraud Whistleblower, after being released from prison. She had been locked up for 20 months.

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The court has granted Fulton County’s request to unseal their case against the Department of Justice, who issued a subpoena seeking the identity information of everyone associated with the 2020 election.

That’s according to a statement released Sunday from Robb Pits, chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Fulton County.

The county filed a motion to quash to keep the DOJ from enforcing the subpoena.

“The recent decision to unseal means that you will be able to follow future developments because the public and media now have access to the docket and the documents filed in the case,” Pitts said.

The subpoena comes after the FBI in January went to a Fulton County elections warehouse and seized ballots and other documents from the 2020 election, which Georgia’s certified totals showed Trump lost in the state to Biden by 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast

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A number of South Carolina Republicans in the state Senate joined Democrats on Tuesday to defeat a procedural vote needed to advance a congressional redistricting plan. The effort sought to redraw the state’s seven U.S. House districts ahead of the 2026 elections, with the aim of creating a map that would favor Republican candidates in all seven seats and draw out the lone Democrat-controlled district under the current map.

The proposal stemmed from a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that altered interpretations of the Voting Rights Act regarding congressional districts on the basis of race. In response to the landmark ruling, a number of Republican-controlled states in the South moved to draw out districts that were drawn in order to be majority black under prior criteria.

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A U.S. judge on Thursday declined to immediately block President Donald Trump’s executive ‌order tightening rules on mail-in voting, but left the door open for the Democratic Party to challenge it again after the administration takes further steps to implement the measure.

Washington-based U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols wrote that the Democrats’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s March 31 order, which directed his administration to ​compile a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state, was premature. The decision did not address ​whether Trump’s executive order was lawful.

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With the midterms looming as summer kicks off, the recent victory of Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb in the Democrat primary election for the 3rd Congressional District suggests that socialism remains strong on the left.

In the May 19th primary, Rabb defeated the so-called establishment candidate, state Sen. Sharif Street, a former Democrat Party Chair and proud partner of the Philadelphia political machine.

During the campaign, Rabb openly criticized the Democrat Party, blasted the status quo, earned endorsements from progressive groups like the Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America and Our Revolution, received shout-outs from socialist superstars like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), praised New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and boldly ran as a democratic socialist.

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A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on November 3, 2024.Kamil KrzaczynskI/AFP/Getty

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The Voting Rights Act is widely considered one of the most effective laws in prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. One of its key provisions has long allowed states to take race into account when drawing voting maps to ensure that nonwhite voters have electoral power. But earlier this year, the Supreme Court narrowed that provision. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan described the court’s decision as the “now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.”

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Mayes Middleton addresses the media in the Texas Capitol on July 13, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)

Texas state Sen. Mayes Middleton has won the Republican runoff for Texas attorney general.

The Associated Press called the race for Middleton at 9:57 p.m. EDT when he had a 55.8% to 44.2% lead over Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

The runoff election comes after neither candidate obtained at least 50% of the vote in their respective primary races on March 3.

Despite pushing a hardline conservative agenda in the U.S. House—including authoring the SAVE America Act and co-founding the Sharia-Free America Caucus—Roy fell short of securing the party’s nomination.

While President Donald Trump has not weighed in on the race, Middleton secured endorsements from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and his former primary opponent, Aaron Reitz.

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Maine Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss isn’t a fan of Graham Platner, his party’s presumptive Democratic nominee to face off against Incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. He finds his Nazi tattoos disqualifying. It’s sad we even have to say that—I mean, no kidding, my dude. Yet, here we are. Less than 24 hours after saying that during an interview on CNN, he’s kowtowing to the Fuhrer—I mean, Platner’s camp.

 

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Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt filed a formal complaint Tuesday accusing Mayor Karen Bass of illegal electioneering near a ballot drop box during early voting, escalating the fight ahead of the June primary.

The complaint, sent to the Los Angeles City Clerk’s Office, claims Bass campaigned within restricted distance of a voting location while encouraging supporters to cast ballots early. Pratt’s campaign says the alleged violations were “clear, repeated, and publicly documented” in social media footage.

Attorney Peter McNulty, representing Pratt’s campaign, alleged Bass appeared in videos “soliciting votes” and “holding signs asking voters to vote for her” near a polling place and ballot drop box. The letter argues the conduct violated electioneering restrictions that bar campaigning within 100 feet of voting locations.

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During a recent appearance on the Jennifer Welch podcast, Tom Steyer, a billionaire Democrat running for governor of California, said that he is ‘totally’ in favor of trans athletes in high school.

I have been saying that Democrats learned absolutely nothing from the 2024 election, and this is further proof. They have every intention of returning to the same issues they supported before losing power.

Not only does the public not support the idea of trans athletes in high school sports, but the very idea of ‘trans kids’ has been soundly rejected.

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No, Jake Auchincloss did not mouth the words “I support Susan Collins and go vote for her instead,” but that’s essentially what he did yesterday with his appearance on CNN. Bad-mouthing the presumptive Democratic nominee in a Senate seat that the Democrats absolutely need to gain control of the U.S. Senate is beyond stupid. Still, it’s always worth reminding ourselves that Republicans don’t have a monopoly on stupid politicians. Almost, but not quite.

Source: Mediaite

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) trashed his party’s presumptive nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, Graham Platner, on Monday, calling the Democratic candidate’s Nazi tattoo scandal and his claims about it “personally disqualifying.”

The controversy stems from a report last year that Platner had a tattoo on his chest of a Nazi SS “Totenkopf” symbol. Platner has since covered the tattoo and denied knowingly displaying Nazi imagery, saying he got the tattoo with fellow Marines during a trip to Croatia in 2007 and did not understand its meaning at the time.

Auchincloss had previously become one of the first elected Democrats to publicly urge Platner to abandon the Senate contest against incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) after the tattoo controversy surfaced.

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Dems dug themselves a big hole with their presumptive candidate for Senate in Maine, and he proved that again during his rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Monday.

Sanders was all in, supporting Platner at the “Fighting Oligarchy” rally in Portland, Maine.

“The last time, well, before last night, I shared a state with Senator Standers, it was here in Portland, 13 days after we had launched this campaign. It felt surreal then, and to tell you the truth, it still feels as surreal today.”

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Redistricting is the fight of the year as we’re getting involved in the 2026 election season; primary elections are already being held across the fruited plain, and the battle lines are being drawn for November. By and large, the redistricting efforts have favored Republicans, but there are some truly baffling exceptions.

One of those is South Carolina, where the state Senate refused to pass a redistricting bill; several Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure.

The Republican-led South Carolina Senate on Tuesday voted against a measure to advance a new congressional map, ending the redistricting effort in the state for now.

The failed vote was a surprise rejection of President Donald Trump, who had urged lawmakers to pass a redrawn map that eliminated the state’s single majority-Black district, represented by longtime Democratic Rep. James Clyburn.

The South Carolina House approved the map last week in hopes of putting it into place for this year’s midterm elections. As part of the effort, lawmakers also sought to set another primary election for the affected districts in August. But after early voting began on Tuesday for the previously scheduled June primary, some Republicans changed their tune, arguing it was too late to enact new district lines.

“Neither my conscience nor my common sense will allow me to stop an election that is already underway,” said Republican state Sen. Richard Cash, a Republican who changed his vote due to timing.

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Alabama Republicans immediately called for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing a redistricting battle at a three-judge panel of a federal court.

Republicans are trying to reinstate a 2023 congressional map that would allow them the possibility of picking up a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democrats claimed the new map would send Alabama back to the ‘1950s and 60s.’