Election Watch

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The master messenger is at it again, this time handing the GOP the 2026 midterm talking points directly. During a rally Tuesday evening in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, President Trump reminded both Republicans and Democrats of just how savvy a messenger he can be when energizing his base. He crushed former President Joe Biden and his administration for overseeing the runaway inflation we are still battling today. He discussed his efforts to bring higher wage jobs to American workers, not illegal aliens. He dismantled Obamacare, highlighting high costs and the trillions in taxpayer dollars given to insurance companies instead of the American people. President Trump went full MAGA.

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Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, has stunned conservatives after he appeared to endorse the presidential prospects of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro,  a rising Democrat star widely expected to run for president in 2028.

Cox joined Shapiro for a joint CNN interview that aired while President Donald Trump was holding an economic rally in Pennsylvania.

Shapiro, who enjoys strong poll numbers in his battleground state, has long been viewed as a likely Democrat contender and was reportedly a finalist to become former Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate before she ultimately chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

During the interview, CNN host Dana Bash directly asked Cox whether Shapiro would make a good president.

“Yeah, I do,” Cox replied immediately.

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The Indiana House of Representatives passed a controversial bill that would redistrict the state and possibly flip two seats to the Republican column in the midterm elections.

Fifty-seven members voted for the bill, while 41 voted against it. The bill will go to the Indiana Senate, where some Republicans have said they oppose the redistricting effort.

‘Fair maps are essential to protecting Hoosiers’ voices in Washington, and today the House voted to do just that.’

Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun urged the Senate to pass the bill.

“Fair maps are essential to protecting Hoosiers’ voices in Washington, and today the House voted to do just that, delivering a strong congressional map,” Braun said. “I commend Speaker Huston and his caucus for having the courage to protect Hoosier voters. I urge the Senate to move quickly next week and adopt this map so Indiana can move forward with confidence.”

Blurb:

CNN political commentator Scott Jennings had a stern warning for Republican lawmakers after the Republican-dominated Indiana State Senate overwhelmingly voted against a congressional map redraw that would have netted the party two seats in next year’s midterm elections, a move that significantly increases the odds of a Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in 2026.

The proposed maps would have split the Democratic Party stronghold of Indianapolis four ways, effectively eliminating the districts currently controlled by Democrats to give the GOP a 9-0 sweep when it comes to U.S. House seats. After the Indiana House advanced the motion last week, the proposed map went to the Senate, where it was soundly defeated on Thursday.

The vote was not particularly close, as 21 Republicans voted against the measure while just 19 voted in favor.  President Donald Trump and a number of key allies were furious over the move, leading organizations like Turning Point USA and the president himself to vow primary challenges.

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One of the biggest whoppers Democrats told during the Schumer Shutdown was that they were not fighting for taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegals as part of the demands they wanted to be met to end the shutdown.

“Federal law prohibits the use of Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act to provide health insurance in any way, shape, or form to undocumented immigrants—period, full stop. Democrats aren’t trying to change that,” Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) proclaimed at the time.

Though that is exactly what Jeffries and his fellow Democrats were trying to do, it was clear that the subject of taxpayer funding of illegal immigrant healthcare was a sore spot and for good reason, considering the likelihood that Jeffries knew the longer the shutdown dragged out, the more frustrated the American people would get with Democrats holding up funding for the military and SNAP recipients just to get some assurances on healthcare for illegals.

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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito blocked a federal court ruling Friday that struck down Texas’ new congressional map, allowing Republicans to continue using the disputed boundaries while the high court weighs the case.

Alito ordered the League of United Latin American Citizens and other challengers to respond by Monday at 5 p.m. EST, according to the court document. The administrative stay blocks the Nov. 18 order from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas while the Supreme Court considers the case.

The Supreme Court order states the district court’s ruling “is hereby administratively stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.” Alito signed the order personally on Nov. 21.

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“By design or by default, Judge [Dianna] Gibson has authorized the most partisan and thus the most gerrymandered map,” Senate leader Stuart Adams said.

The Utah state legislature is set to appeal the state’s new congressional map that carves out a congressional seat that will all but certainly give a seat to the Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections. The map was brought about after Judge Dianna Gibson ruled in favor of the map that was in place.

The announcement was made on Tuesday. “By design or by default, Judge [Dianna] Gibson has authorized the most partisan and thus the most gerrymandered map in the history of the state of Utah,” Senate President Stuart Adams announced at a press conference.

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Iowa Democrat Christina Bohannan is selling herself as a humble, hard-working champion of the middle class who knows what it’s like “to struggle to put food on the table.”

But her real estate holdings and financial disclosures tell a much richer story — one featuring million-dollar homes, a Florida waterfront condo, and a stock portfolio stuffed with Big Tech giants.

“You know, I know what it’s like to work so hard and to, to still struggle to put food on the table,” Bohannan told fairgoers at the Iowa State Fair. She has repeatedly invoked her upbringing in a trailer park and memories of choosing “between putting groceries in the cart and filling prescription drugs.” She even told Iowa Public Radio that “she knows what it’s like to struggle.”

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Financial records have emerged that reveal Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) has been quietly cashing checks from the very billionaire class he claims is poisoning the system.

The records have surfaced while the vulnerable senator is sounding alarms about corruption and “vast sums of corporate and billionaire money” corrupting American politics.

Ossoff faces a tough re-election fight in 2026 and has been described by CNN as the “most endangered Senate Democrat.”

He told the left-wing “Pod Save America” podcast that the political system was “corruption on steroids” thanks to wealthy donors unleashed by Citizens United.

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As more candidates throw their hats in the ring ahead of the 2026 midterms, yet another Democrat has joined the fray to succeed one of the most infamous governors in America.

Anti-Trump Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell announced on Thursday that he will be running for governor of California in 2026.

‘I love California. It’s the greatest country in the world.’

Swalwell, who spearheaded Trump’s second impeachment, made the announcement on a segment of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” a show for which President Trump has repeatedly expressed his distaste.

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Listening to Gavin Newsom talk about “free and fair elections” is like listening to Yoko Ono sing. It just doesn’t sound right. In both cases, it’s very wrong.

But Newsom, born without the encumbrance of integrity, insists on lecturing Republicans about election integrity.

“Donald Trump and Greg Abbott played with fire, got burned — and democracy won,” the leftist California governor stricken with political delusions of grandeur gloated on X this week after a federal court panel in a 2-1 ruling blocked Texas from implementing a mid-decade revision to its U.S. House map. Republicans have appealed the decision, which the dissenting judge excoriated as “the most blatant exercise of judicial activism” he has witnessed in his 37 years on the federal bench.

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“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process.”

The US Department of Justice has filed suit against California Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber, alleging that the state’s newly enacted congressional map violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The legal challenge targets the redistricting framework created under Proposition 50, which shifted responsibility for drawing congressional districts from an independent commission to the state legislature. The new map favors Democrats in the upcoming 2026 midterms.

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Amid the several race-based redistricting fights across the country ahead of the midterms, including states like Texas and California, one Southern state joined the ranks Monday in a move that has left nobody satisfied.

A federal judge ordered a small redistricting effort after finding back in August that the current Alabama state Senate district map violated the Voting Rights Act.

The new plan does enough to remedy the disparities while not upsetting other districts.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco, a first-term Trump appointee, ordered that a new map that rearranged District 25 and District 26, two Montgomery-area districts, be implemented in time for the 2026 midterms.

Democrat state Senator Kirk Hatcher currently represents Senate District 26, and Republican state Senator Will Barfoot represents Senate District 25.

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Since the Democrats swept the 2025 mid-midterms, the MSM is already talking about an “upset” in the 35 midterm U.S. Senate races.

The RCP average is now flashing “red”, with President Trump at 42.3% approval, versus 54.7% disapproval.  Trump has been at the dangerous 43% approval number since November 3 (which is unfortunate, since that is also my birthday ☹).  This is Bush territory, and as such, it could lead to a “blue wave” if it is left unchecked.

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The proposition granting the Democrat-controlled legislature authority to redraw California’s congressional districts won by a decisive margin, but the Trump administration is suing to stop the gerrymandering scheme.

On Thursday the Department of Justice filed to join a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law that would allow Democrats to possibly flip five Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

‘Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Prop. 50.’

Blurb:

President Donald Trump weighed in on a pair of Indiana Republicans involved in thwarting redistricting efforts in the Hoosier State ahead of next year’s midterm elections. As you might have guessed, he wasn’t pleased with their actions.

As reported by RedState’s Teri Christoph, Indiana’s Republican Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray announced earlier this week that the chamber, controlled by the GOP, would not reconvene in December to vote on redistricting.

Bray, along with state Sen. Greg Goode (R), was the target of the President’s ire as he railed against their “politically correct” cowardice for developing an acute case of weak knees at the thought of redistricting.

“Very disappointed in Indiana State Senate Republicans, led by RINO Senators Rod Bray and Greg Goode, for not wanting to redistrict their State, allowing the United States Congress to perhaps gain two more Republican seats,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform.

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While President Donald Trump launches an initiative to make America affordable again, Democrats are crafting their own messaging on cost of living, an issue that will likely define the midterms.

Affordability Already Playing Central Role in Elections

One of the most recent Democrat politicians to seize on topics of affordability is Amy Acton, a medical doctor who is running to be the Democrat nominee for the 2026 Ohio gubernatorial election.

In a recent post on social media, the Ohio doctor attacked her potential Republican opponent in the general election, former biotechnology executive Vivek Ramaswamy, over comments he had made in 2024 about American culture.

Blurb:

Radical Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is distancing herself from a growing far-left effort to mount a primary challenge against House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

Ocasio-Cortez’s response is signaling a rift inside the party’s progressive wing as activists target one of its most powerful figures.

The dust-up began after leftist New York City Council member Chi Osse, a close ally of socialist NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, filed paperwork for a 2026 primary campaign against Jeffries.

Like Mamdani and Osse, AOC is a prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

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A panel of three unelected judges issued an injunction Tuesday blocking Texas from using its newly drawn congressional map. If Texas loses the appeals process, the injunction could stand, which means the five seats Texas thought it was gaining will not materialize. But five seats that could materialize will be in California. Which means that Republicans in red states must step up or risk losing the House to Democrats permanently.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown ruled alongside Judge Davi Guaderrama in a 2-1 decision that the new map appears to be a race-based gerrymander, which is illegal.

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” the majority opinion reads. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

Blurb:

Now that the “Schumer Shutdown” has become the “Schumer Surrender,” the Democrats are distracted, disorganized, and organizationally discombobulated. For the next few weeks, they’ll be preoccupied with finger-pointing and nasty recriminations — with the radical left blaming the middle-left, the middle-left blaming the radical left, and every other donkey ducking for cover.

So the timing is perfect: Trump should strike while the metal is smoldering.

And for his next PR move, he should demand a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering once and for all.

Gerrymandering isn’t a new thing. It’s named after Elbridge Gerry, the fifth vice president of the United States. Before joining James Madison’s 1812 ticket, he was the governor of Massachusetts, where he approved oddly-shaped legislative districts, one of which resembled a salamander.

Blurb:

An unelected district court judge ruled late Monday night that a Republican-proposed congressional map in Utah — a state that voted for President Donald Trump by nearly 22 points last November — was unconstitutional and instead, the state would have to adopt a map that creates a solid Democrat seat. The decision marks the latest setback in a string of redistricting battles that Republicans appear increasingly unwilling to fight, even as Democrats move full steam ahead with their own partisan redistricting efforts.

Utah District Judge Dianna Gibson ruled that the GOP proposal “unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats.” The state legislature was ordered to draw a new map after the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government sued over the current maps. Gibson previously ordered the state to draw a new map. The legislature approved a new map that retained the four congressional districts, though it made two of the districts slightly more competitive. But Gibson struck the new map down, instead accepting the plaintiff-drawn map that creates a new, safely Democratic district. Cook Political Report Senior Editor and Elections Analyst Dave Wasserman said the new district is a +24 for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Blurb:

The Utah Third District Court has struck down the congressional map crafted by the Republican-led state legislature, labeling it an unconstitutional “gerrymander” and replacing it with a map drawn by left-wing plaintiffs.

The new map, which the court claims better complies with the state’s anti-gerrymandering initiative, is projected to give Democrats an additional seat in one of the nation’s deeply red states.

At the heart of the controversy is the court’s decision to affirm a lower court injunction blocking the legislature’s maps (S.B. 1011 and S.B. 1012, known as Map C), claiming they violated Proposition 4 — a 2018 initiative designed to curb partisan gerrymandering.

The Court, led by Judge Dianna M. Gibson, has thrown out the legislature’s S.B. 1012 (Map C) and S.B. 1011, both approved earlier this year by the state’s duly elected representatives.

And instead adopts “Map 1,” drawn by the plaintiffs themselves, after declaring that the legislature’s map “unduly favored Republicans.”

Blurb:

Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision to embrace democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for mayor could come back to haunt her bid for a second term.

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, a close ally of President Donald Trump, announced her campaign to unseat Hochul on Friday morning, torching the incumbent for aligning herself with a “defund the police, tax-hiking, antisemitic communist.” Stefanik, 41, rolled out a campaign launch video with the slogan “Save New York” after hinting at a gubernatorial run for months. (RELATED: Moderator Presses Mamdani On Hochul Snub As He Fumbles Praise For Her Job)

WATCH:

“From the ashes of Kathy Hochul’s failed policies, New York will rise like we always do,” the video’s narrator says. “The spirit of the Empire State cannot be broken. All we need is a courageous leader ready for the fight. Elise Stefanik will make New York affordable and safe.”

Blurb:

California overwhelmingly approved Prop 50 on Tuesday, which will potentially add five Democrat seats to the U.S. House in opposition to Republicans in Texas.

The Associated Press called the election in favor of Prop 50 shortly after the polls closed on Tuesday night.

“California voters approved new congressional district boundaries Tuesday, delivering a victory for Democrats in the state-by-state redistricting battle that will help determine which party wins control of the U.S. House in 2026,” the AP noted.

Republicans hold 219 seats in the U.S. House, while Democrats hold 213; those five seats in the 2026 midterm could make a huge difference in the balance of power. California Gov. Gavin Newsom strongly backed Prop 50, pledging it would be a bulwark against President Trump.

Blurb:

President Trump on Tuesday called California’s Proposition 50 a “giant scam” and revealed that the Golden State’s mail-in ballots are under “serious legal and criminal review.”

Governor Gavin Newsom and the Democrat-controlled state Legislature placed the Prop 50 constitutional amendment on California’s 2025 special election ballot in August.

It authorizes a temporary override of California’s independent redistricting process for congressional districts, allowing the Democrat-controlled Legislature to gerrymander new maps starting with the 2026 midterm elections.

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review,” he added. “STAY TUNED.”

Blurb:

As Townhall reported last week, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are using New York’s likely next mayor, Zohran Mamdani (and his campaign), as a blueprint for other races across the nation. Why? They believe they can use the Democratic Party as a springboard to enact socialist policies in America and topple our great nation in the process. They’re doing the same thing in Minneapolis with mayoral candidate Omar Fateh.

It’s alarmingly clear these radical socialists understand that all politics is local, and they’re pushing for more Mamdani-like candidates in places like Gulfport, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas.

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“You have to be a citizen to vote but you can’t verify the citizenship of a voter?”

Understand that without illegal voting, Democrats cannot win elections.

Judicial tyranny is destroying the country. And how is it that these same corrupt judges get the big Trump cases? Corrupt judges must be impeached.

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It looks like California Gov. Gavin Newsom just succeeded in his ploy to gerrymander California for Democrats.

The Proposition 50 redistricting measure, which will likely give five more House seats to Democrats, has officially passed.

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Looks like Republicans have folded their tent in their effort to defeat a Democratic gerrymander of California’s House districts one week before the special election. Good news for Democrats, and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who’s been leading the fight for California redistricting. Via Politico:

As Democrats pummel the state with Yes on 50 advertising, the Republican side of the battle has gone quiet. Major GOP donors and party leaders have effectively vanished from the front lines.

The biggest funder of the campaign to defeat Proposition 50, Charles Munger Jr., has not contributed any significant cash to the cause in weeks, and his Protect Voters First committee cut its weekly spending from more than $4 million to less than $300. The other opposition committee, Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab, spent $155,000 on advertising last week, compared to $3.8 million from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Yes on 50 campaign.

“It’s as full-throated a campaign for Democrats in California as if we were in the middle of a presidential election,” said Jon Fleischman, a former executive director of the California Republican Party. “But you can go to the house next door, occupied by Republicans, and it’s crickets — other than receiving their ballot in the mail.”