Senate Races

News Source
EXCERPT:

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.”

News Source
EXCERPT:

The stories of troubling past comments and behavior keep surfacing in the campaign of US Senate candidate Graham Platner, a Democrat from Maine.

After an initial controversy surrounding a tattoo that appeared to depict Nazi symbolism, he attracted backlash for unearthed explicit Reddit posts that many described as disturbing.

Now, more of his previous online musings are coming to light, and these are particularly objectionable, as Breitbart reported:

“This video never gets old,” Platner wrote in a June 2019 Reddit post, referring to a viral video featuring Pfc. Ted Daniels in a 2012 firefight with the Taliban, which resulted in the soldier being shot four times and earning a Purple Heart for his injuries.

“Dumb motherfucker didn’t deserve to live,” the Democrat Senate hopeful — whose archived Reddit rants can be found on the Maine Monitor’s database — said in his since-deleted post.

Platner went on to write, “At least his stupidity and fat ass wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt.”

“Poor marksmanship on the Taliban’s part is the only reason this mouthbreather made it home, he managed to make every possible shit decision possible when it comes to small unit combat,” Platner added.

The unearthed posts come from a deleted, but archived, Reddit account known as “P-Hustle,” which Platner previously acknowledged was his.

News Source
EXCERPT:

Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) will advance to a runoff in June after securing his spot in the Republican U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday night.

Since no GOP candidate in the Georgia U.S. Senate race received more than 50 percent of the votes, two candidates, including Collins, will vie for the Republican nomination in a runoff on June 16. The Associated Press (AP) called the race at 9:43 p.m. with nearly 60 percent of votes counted.

At the time, Collins had secured 41.6 percent of the votes, followed by Derek Dooley at 28.5 percent and Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) at 25.8 percent. Whoever secures the second-most amount of votes will face Collins in June.

News Source
EXCERPT:

The Senate GOP is having a full-blown meltdown at President Trump’s decision to endorse Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate Republican primary over establishment darling John Cornyn. And it is nothing short of glorious.

Flanked by frowning members of Senate GOP leadership, Majority Leader John Thune somberly reaffirmed his support for the gun control-loving Cornyn, whom he called a “principled conservative.” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker reportedly “remained stone-faced (appeared to be intentional) for about 20 seconds” when asked for his reaction to Trump’s endorsement of Paxton. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is reported to have thrown a temper tantrum at the president’s refusal to back Cornyn.

News Source
EXCERPT:

Taya Kyle, widow of the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, accused Maine Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner of making things up regarding her husband.

During a 2024 podcast interview, Platner claimed that Kyle ran up his kill count by shooting unarmed civilians while he served in a unit known as Task Force Bruiser.

“[Kyle’s] stories about how many people he was shooting certainly tracked with the behavior I witnessed [in Ramadi, Iraq]. It’s relatively easy to get high numbers like that if you’re a little less discriminating in your fire than, say, a more professional unit would be,” Platner said.

News Source
EXCERPT:

News Source
EXCERPT:

Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) holds a sizable cash advantage over his GOP rivals in the race for New Hampshire’s open Senate seat.

The Democrat raked in $3.3 million to his campaign account over the first quarter of the year as he vies to succeed retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). Pappas, who faces only nominal opposition for his party’s nomination, entered April with $4.2 million in his war chest, according to his Federal Election Commission filing.

Pappas’ leading GOP competitor, former Sen. John E. Sununu, raised $1.1 million directly to his campaign account and had nearly $1.9 million in cash on hand. He spent just $349,000, per his filing — a significantly lower burn rate than Pappas, who spent $2.3 million over the last three months.

Sununu’s primary rival, former Sen. Scott Brown, lagged even further behind. Brown raised a modest $321,000 and entered the second quarter with $783,000 in his campaign coffers. He spent more money than he brought in, according to his filing.

News Source
EXCERPT:

The New York Times published a detailed article about how national Democrats are losing enthusiasm for Maine’s Senate race. Incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins is at risk, but the leading candidate in the Democratic primary is an oyster farmer with Nazi tattoos, who also trained with an Antifa-like militia. He apologized for getting the tattoo, removed it, then withdrew the apology, and now appears to suggest that his military service turned him into a Nazi, or something similar.

News Source
EXCERPT:

Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff holds a massive fundraising advantage over the Republicans hoping to unseat him in November, giving him a head start as the GOP field remains fractured.

Ossoff, considered one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents of the cycle, raised $14 million during the first quarter of the year and ended with more than $31 million cash on hand — a significant war chest that dwarfs the combined totals of his Republican challengers, according to filings from the Federal Elections Commission.

On the GOP side, Rep. Mike Collins led in first-quarter fundraising, raising just over $1 million and entering the second quarter with $2.1 million in cash on hand. Collins has been a front-runner in public polling of the race, but with a large share of voters still undecided ahead of the May primary, the contest appears increasingly likely to head to a June runoff.

News Source
EXCERPT:

When the 2026 midterm cycle began, even Democratic operatives would have laughed in your face if you said that control of the Senate was up for grabs.

But now, less than seven months from Election Day, Democrats’ odds of wresting control from Republicans have grown as President Donald Trump’s sagging popularity—spurred by Americans’ anger over his war and its negative impacts on the economy—imperils the GOP.

Roy Cooper, former governor of North Carolina and Democratic Senate candidate, seems poised to defeat GOP candidate Michael Whatley.

Trump-Impeaching GOP Senator Reportedly Melted Down Over Not Getting Enough Money– www.westernjournal.com
News Source
EXCERPT:

A GOP senator who voted to convict President Donald Trump accused the Republican establishment of not pouring enough money into his already cash-rich reelection campaign, Punchbowl News reported Friday.

Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy is set to face voters for the first time since his vote following Trump’s second impeachment, as he competes against Louisiana Rep. Julia Letlow and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming in a brutal May 16 GOP primary.

Despite spending millions of dollars in his bid for a third term, Cassidy lashed out at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in a phone call, accusing the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm of not sufficiently funding his campaign, according to Punchbowl News.

NRSC Executive Director Jennifer DeCasper gave a profanity-laced response to the embattled senator, stating that he should not have joined Democrats and six other GOP senators in convicting Trump in January 2021, the outlet reported, citing multiple anonymous sources.

Blurb:

While their spring convention was held beneath mostly sunny San Diego skies, delegates and leaders of the California Republican party basked in a different sort of glow over the weekend as the campaign for a leading Democratic candidate for governor imploded because of allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.

The party did not endorse a candidate for governor on Sunday because neither of the top Republicans — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton — received the support of 60% of delegates. Bianco won 49% while Hilton had 44%; 7% of delegates voted not to endorse in the race.

Blurb:

A new poll from Quantus Insights — one of the most accurate pollsters of the 2024 presidential election — found Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leading longtime Senator John Cornyn in the runoff election for the state’s Republican U.S. Senate primary.

The poll, which surveyed 1,217 likely voters between March 22-23, found Paxton leading with 48.8 percent of the vote to Cornyn’s 41.3 percent. An additional 9.9 percent of respondents indicated that they remain undecided.

When asked about their likelihood of voting in the runoff, 89 percent said they were certain to vote, 8.9 percent said they probably would vote, and 2.1 percent said it was 50-50. When asked to recall their vote in the initial March 3 primary, 40 percent of respondents said they voted for Cornyn, 38.6 percent for Paxton and 10.6 percent for U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Blurb:

James Talarico may have won the Democratic primary for Senate in Texas based on electability, but that’s only relative to his competition, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

In the past few weeks, Talarico — a state representative, former teacher, and Presbyterian seminarian — has had his past statements prove just how marginal the relative electability advantage really was.

In the latest of a trove of opposition research that’s gone over well with the left but will get played from now until Election Day for normal Texans, Talarico said that not only did he think positively of the illegal immigrant students he taught, but they were actually more American than Americans.

“Before I was a politician, I was a public school teacher in San Antonio, Texas, on the west side of the city, and I taught a lot of undocumented students, and those students tended to be my most patriotic students,” Talarico said in an interview last week.

“They understood something about this country that a lot of us who are native-born forget: that this is supposed to be the land of opportunity,” he continued.

Blurb:

The candidate endorsed by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker secured the Democrat nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, as Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton prevailed in a closely watched primary.

The primary was widely viewed as a test of the Democrat governor’s political influence in his home state.

Pritzker’s Pick Prevails in Competitive Primary

Stratton captured 39.7% of the vote, defeating Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).

Krishnamoorthi received 33.4%, with 85% of ballots counted, according to the Associated Press.

Pritzker endorsed Stratton early in the race and backed her campaign with significant financial support, contributing at least $5 million and helping shape the contest.

The governor, who is running for a third term and is widely viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, faced criticism for his heavy involvement in the primary.

Blurb:

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), battling a runoff challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), is touting support for his Senate campaign from pastors who are signatories of the Evangelical Immigration Table, a group linked to George and Alex Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and which has a record of backing amnesty for illegal aliens living in the United States.

This week, Cornyn rolled out his campaign’s Faith Advisory Council, which comprises five pastors across Texas. Among those pastors are Max Lucado of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Dr. Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, and Dr. Gus Reyes of Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission in Dallas.