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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cornyn trailing Paxton by 22 points in Texas GOP Senate primary: Poll
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) trails Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) by 22 points in the state's Republican Senate primary, according to a poll released Tuesday. The survey, which was conducted by pollster Robert Blizzard on behalf of the Educational Freedom Institute and first obtained by Punchbowl News, showed Paxton leading Cornyn 50 percent to 28 percent among Republican primary voters. Paxton expanded his lead among voters described as 'very conservative GOP primary voters,' leading Cornyn 60 percent to 22 percent. Among voters described as 'high propensity 3/3 GOP primary voters,' Paxton leads Cornyn by 30 points. The poll also showed Paxton leading Cornyn by 35 points among 'MAGA voters' and by 12 points among senior voters. In a statement to The Hill, Cornyn's campaign said it was 'silly season for polling and this one takes the gold medal.' 'A poll conducted by a longtime Paxton supporter doesn't pass the smell test. We remain confident that once Republican primary voters fully understand Ken Paxton's record of ethical failures, mismanagement and corruption, we will win this primary,' said Matt Mackowiak, a Cornyn campaign senior adviser. The poll is the latest in a string of data points showing the incumbent trailing the conservative primary challenger. Last week, a poll from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University showed Paxton leading in a hypothetical two-way contest with 43 percent to Cornyn's 34 percent, and 23 percent unsure. A separate internal poll released last month by the Senate Leadership Fund, which is supporting Cornyn, showed Paxton trailing Cornyn by 16 points. Cornyn's allies have maintained that once the primary campaign kicks into full swing and voters become more engaged, the gap in the polls will begin to close. Another factor that stands to impact the race is a potential President Trump endorsement. However, Tuesday's poll finds Cornyn appears to lose support on 'an informed ballot test.' After voters were told to assume Trump would endorse Cornyn, Paxton would attack Cornyn for his past comments on Trump and Paxton would attack Cornyn over working with Democrats on gun safety legislation, Cornyn trailed Paxton 62 percent to 21 percent. The poll was conducted May 27-28 among 600 Texas Republican primary voters on behalf of the Educational Freedom Institute. The margin of error is 4 percentage points. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
7 days ago
- General
- The Hill
Cornyn trailing Paxton by 22 points in Texas GOP Senate primary: Poll
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) trails Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) by 22 points in the state's Republican Senate primary, according to a new poll released on Tuesday. The survey, which was conducted by pollster Robert Blizzard on behalf of the Educational Freedom Institute and first obtained by Punchbowl News, showed Paxton leading Cornyn 50 percent to 28 percent among Republican primary voters. Paxton expanded his lead among voters described as 'very conservative GOP primary voters,' leading Cornyn 60 percent to 22 percent. Among voters described as 'high propensity 3/3 GOP primary voters,' Paxton leads Cornyn by 30 points. The poll also showed Paxton leading Cornyn by 35 points among 'MAGA voters' and by 12 points among senior voters. The poll is the latest in a string of data points showing the incumbent senator trailing the conservative primary challenger. Last week, a poll from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University showed Paxton leading in a hypothetical two-way contest with 43 percent to Cornyn's 34 percent, and 23 percent unsure. A separate internal poll released last month by the Senate Leadership Fund, which is supporting Cornyn, showed Paxton trailing Cornyn by 16 points. Cornyn's allies have maintained that once the primary campaign kicks into full swing and voters become more engaged, the gap in the polls will begin to close. Another factor that stands to impact the race is whether or not President Trump endorses in the primary. However, Tuesday's poll finds that Cornyn appears to lose support on 'an informed ballot test.' After voters were told to assume Trump would endorse Cornyn, Paxton would attack Cornyn for his past comments on Trump, and Paxton would attack Cornyn over working with Democrats on gun safety legislation, Cornyn trailed Paxton 62 percent to 21 percent. The poll was conducted May 27 and May 28 among 600 Texas Republican primary voters on behalf of the Educational Freedom Institute. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 points.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Republican senator admits Trump is Canada's ‘adversary' as DC delegation grovels in Ottawa
Washington's delegation to Canada seemed to have one message in mind: please keep taking us seriously. Months of provocative statements about the Great White North joining America as the 51st state in the Union, however, led the delegation's lone Republican member to admit to reporters that the US president had become an 'adversary' of one of America's two closest neighbors. On Friday, five members of the US Senate were in Ottawa ahead of King Charles's speech to the Canadian parliament. The delegation, typically a routine bipartisan gesture to an American neighbor whose relationship with Washington transcends political divides, was this year split between four Democrats and one lone Republican senator representing a border state — North Dakota. Other Republicans, seemingly fearful of tough questions about Trump's vow to use 'economic force' to coerce Canada into joining the US, stayed home. Kevin Cramer, the GOP 'co-leader', told reporters on the trip that Prime Minister Mark Carney centered him in his conversation with the group, given the senator's relationship with the Republican US president. He told reporters that he sought to encourage Canadian officials to reach a trade deal with the United States. The Trump White House boasted that it would announce 100 trade deals in 100 days as the US president rolled out a slate of so-called 'reciprocal' tariffs this spring; Canada has been a top target of his accusations of unfair practices. 'I don't want to get in Donald Trump's way. There's no [trade] deal that happens without his involvement. But at the same time [I want to] be an encourager to Canada and their officials and try to be a partner in some way,' said Cramer after the meetings Friday, according to Punchbowl News. He added, jokingly: 'Hopefully I navigated it OK, but I'll find out on Truth Social.' Cramer did not take a beating on Truth Social, much to his relief — even though he did lay the blame for the fraying of ties squarely on Trump's shoulders. 'We have an obligation to stop the offenses,' the Republican senator told reporters, speaking of the United States. 'For the moment, the United States has become an adversary to the Canadian people because of the offense that so many have felt,' he continued. 'What I would stress with the president would be, let's keep our eye on the common adversary and how much stronger we can be.' The tone of Cramer's outreach veered sharply towards outright groveling in an interview with Canadian newscast The West Block. 'I'm just here to say thank you, and then to encourage Canadians to take another look and give us another chance,' said Cramer. Democrats on the trip had notably little to offer the conversation. Tim Kaine, according to Punchbowl, pitched Carney on his bill to block US sanctions on Canada — which even he tacitly acknowledged was going nowhere in the Senate. Senator Jeanne Shaheen said that she hoped some of the 'cracks' in the bonds between the US and Canada could be healed. But she added: 'Ultimately it's the prime minister and the president who will decide to reset the relationship.' Their visit is not likely to shift the dynamic one way or the other. Carney, elected on a Liberal Party mandate to stand up to the US president, flew to Washington in early May after telling the BBC in an interview that Canada would negotiate with America 'on our terms'. Rather than pursue a unilateral response to Trump's tariffs, the Canadian prime minister reportedly invited Claudia Sheinbaum to the upcoming G7 summit in Kananaskis next month. The Mexican president's attendance would allow Carney to pursue a discussion with Trump aimed at salvaging the USMCA trade agreement signed during Trump's first term. A defiant Carney told Trump that Canada was 'not for sale' during their meeting at the White House in early May. The US president, avoiding another Zelensky-like blowup, declined to challenge him. On Tuesday, the US president wrote on Truth Social that he presented Canada's government with a $61bn price tag to be involved with the US's proposed 'Golden Dome' missile defene system, adding that it would be free if Canada relented and became a state. 'They are considering the offer!' Trump said. And on Tuesday, the visit of King Charles provided another opportunity to Canada to celebrate its own growing political distance from the United States. In an address scripted by the Canadian government, Charles declared that Canada, under Carney's government, would bond with 'reliable trading partners and allies' — a clear warning shot for Washington. He'd add that Canada's government was determined to protect the right to 'self-determination' for the country. 'We must be clear-eyed: the world is a more dangerous and uncertain place than at any point since the Second World War,' said Charles on Tuesday. 'Canada is facing challenges that are unprecedented in our lifetimes.'
Fast Company
23-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
One product, three prices: This company is using pricing transparency to show just how expensive it is to manufacture in the U.S.
What does it really cost to manufacturer products in America? And will high tariffs on Chinese goods bring those jobs back to the U.S.? These are questions that have been swirling since Trump announced a 145% tariff on Chinese products last month, since reduced to 30%. But rather than debate or speculate, the pleasure jewelry company Crave has decided to do something else: It's opening its books, sharing the full figures, and letting consumers choose what version they'd like to buy while exploring the global impact. In a Kickstarter campaign for their new Tease Necklace—a vibrator worn around the neck as an accessory—Crave will offer three ways to buy it at three different prices. The first Tease will be made in San Francisco, with (most) of its parts sourced domestically. The second Tease will be assembled in the U.S., with parts acquired from China. And the third Tease will be completely sourced from China. In a quest for full transparency, Crave shared a spreadsheet accounting their costs to produce each model. The takeaways are fascinating. The total build cost is $80.31 sourced in the US, $47.83 assembled in the U.S., and $25.74 made in China. They will retail for $195, $149, and $98 for this Kickstarter promotion on which Crave says it's not cutting a profit. Even with tariffs currently sitting at ~30% on Chinese components and goods, the difference in the cost of tariff fees for each necklace negligible ($4.16, $5.34, and $5.87 respectively). But the Tease is sill less than ⅓ the cost to create in China than it is in the U.S. 'Take China off the map as a global supply chain or factory? That's not what's going to happen,' says Crave CEO Michael Topolovac. 'If tariffs hold this rate, China will be as strong as ever.' Unpacking transparent pricing Last month, a report from Punchbowl News claimed that Amazon was considering including the tariff costs on product listings. When the White House heard, they called the move 'hostile.' Who knows if Amazon was ever actually going to take such a step, but the story struck a nerve with the public because tariffs are an invisible tax that's typically built directly into a product's pricing. Nearly every product we buy today has a global footprint, and in an era where we've just faced considerable inflation, that's a scary premise. While digging through Crave's spreadsheet with Topolovac and co-founder Ti Chang, I began to understand why they believe high tariffs will be devastating to small businesses—and ultimately futile as a strategy to get more goods built in the U.S. For instance, the San Francisco model can have its steel sourced in America for $25. That same metal costs $3.50 if you import it from China (and even after a 30% tariff, it's only $4.55). That tariff will make the product cost more, but still a whole lot less than if Crave went with American suppliers. When you add labor, the price difference only grows. The core metal cylinder costs $20 in labor to machine it in the U.S., meaning it costs $45 between material and labor in all. That's $20 more than buying the entire product sourced and assembled from China. Tracing components you simply can't make in the U.S. But truth be told, a piece of machined metal is a simple case. Let's consider the electronic components of the system. Batteries and motors can't be sourced in America, Crave explains, since the factories to make them don't exist. So even their full U.S.-made Tease has these pieces purchased overseas. Crave can source its microprocessor from the U.S., but the circuit boards are made in China. And the microprocessor needs to be affixed to the board there. So Crave buys a microprocessor, pays a 30% tariff to ship it to China. Then China plants it onto a board, and ships it back, adding another 30% tariff. Theoretically, you can have discussions with the government to have tariffs waved in some of these more complex cases. 'If you're Apple, you've probably got a whole division in China that's managing that,' says Topolovac. 'But there's no way that our factories can deal with the overhead of the Chinese government.' The spreadsheet also reveals the futility of sourcing goods in China and then assembling them in the U.S. You end up paying a tariff cost and a higher labor cost. 'It's the worst of both worlds that way,' says Topolovac, who notes that there's just nothing to encourage this practice at the scale and cost structure of their product. For most small businesses—and even many large—the math simply doesn't work out to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. (These issues affect mega corporations too. Logistics are why major performance apparel companies, like Nike, have grown so reliant on Vietnam.) In theory, tariffs could encourage more factories established in the U.S. But new infrastructure of this scale is completely outside the reach of Crave or its peers. They'd need to raise hundreds of millions of dollars and spend years spinning up supportive factories, and even still, they'd need to source rare earth minerals globally. 'If your plan was to take out two to three million US manufacturers or brands like us, this is how you would do it, and [a 145% tariff] is how you would kill them,' says Topolovac. Modern small business rely upon mega infrastructures Chang remembers building Incognito, her company before Crave, and relying on the technological cushion of China to do so. 'I was able to get that business going because we have free trade. I could go over to China, have an idea, have things made, and bring that inventory into the U.S. And that enabled ideas and innovation to happen,' she says, noting that efficient manufacturing abroad lowers risk. 'As an entrepreneur, you can experiment and you can test…now, if you're a new entrepreneur making products, you have no stability.' And that lack of stability is ultimately the most frustrating point to Crave. They are constructing new products for the market as they follow the news cycle and project their ever-shifting costs. If they hadn't planned ahead, stocking up on inventory in anticipation of the 145% tariff spike, they would have been sunk. Overall, even when the business works out, the mental overhead and additional planning it's required has become a distraction for Crave on top of the day-to-day challenges of running any product business. 'The world sets up the rules and supply chains, and you play by those rules,' says Topolovac. 'But if the rules change every week, or whatever, it's brutal.'
USA Today
22-05-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Trump's tax bill passed the House. A Republican fell asleep through the vote.
Trump's tax bill passed the House. A Republican fell asleep through the vote. Show Caption Hide Caption Who will benefit from President Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? The nations richest Americans will see benefits from the Trump administration's "Big, Beautiful Bill," while the poorest will be left behind. WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a sweeping bill packed with President Donald Trump's legislative priorities in a huge win for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana. The bill passed by a vote of 215-214. But there were a few Republican lawmakers who didn't cast yes votes - including one who fell asleep. Johnson said that New York Republican Rep. Andrew Garbarino 'fell asleep in the back' after an all-night session with others discussing the bill and inadvertently missed the vote. 'I'm going to just strangle him,' Johnson joked. 'But he's my dear friend.' Garbarino said in a statement later, according to Punchbowl News, that he was 'moments away from the House floor, to vote 'yes,' when the vote was closed.' 'While I am frustrated that the vote was closed before I was able to cast my vote, I am proud of the work we accomplished to deliver huge results for Long Island. I congratulate President Trump on getting this bill passed and look forward to voting 'yes' when it comes back to the House floor from the Senate," he added. Arizona Rep. David Schweikert also missed the vote. Johnson said Schweikert slipped his electronic voting card into place after the vote had ended. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson voted against the bill, while Maryland Rep. Andy Harris voted present. Contributing: Riley Beggin, USA TODAY
