Latest news with #Republican-held
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Tarrant County leaders urge public turnout ahead of redistricting vote
Tarrant County political organizations have been rallying residents for weeks leading up to Tuesday's Commissioners Court redistricting vote. In the last 24 hours before the vote, leaders are preparing signs and encouraging people to sign up to speak at the 10 a.m. meeting. The Tarrant County Commissioners Court will vote whether to establish new precinct boundaries for the four commissioners seats. The fast-paced, two-month-long process began when the county selected Public Interest Legal Foundation to advise in redrawing the maps ahead of the 2026 primary and general elections. The law firm, based in Alexandria, Virginia, have presented the court with seven maps drawn by National Republican Redistricting Trust's president, Adam Kincaid. All of them would likely lead to an additional Republican-held seat on the court. A Harvard law professor told the Star-Telegram the maps show 'telltale signs of racial gerrymandering.' After four county-hosted public meetings, Public Interest Legal Foundation added two more maps to the original five for the court's consideration. Now with the deciding vote around the corner, leaders are making a final push for their supporters to speak out. Julie McCarty, CEO of True Texas Project, said in an emailed newsletter that the Democrats are turning out 'in droves' to speak against redistricting. She wants redistricting supporters to do the same. 'The Left is freaking out,' the newsletter said. 'They've not only called on all the questionable organizations they control, like Act Blue, to register their choice for a new map, but they have gone so far as to offer babysitting and rides to show up at district meetings and at the court for the final vote! Hey, ya gotta admire their passion. Can our passion match that?' In recent meetings, most of the people speaking have opposed redistricting, so the email gives guidance on how to support the redrawing. 'Just like at the district meetings, all you have to do is stand up and say, 'I am John Doe, and I support redistricting with the most conservative map that gives us 3 Republican county commissioners. Thank you,'' the newsletter said. Allison Campolo, former county chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said she is rallying her troops to sign up for public comment and to stay through the long day until their voice is heard. 'We are reminding people that the real crux of the issue here is that these maps are illegally cracked and packed irreconcilable with the Voting Rights Act,' Campolo said. 'This will cost Tarrant taxpayers hundreds of thousands or millions in court costs to defend these illegal maps.' In a letter of opposition to the Commissioners Court, the Texas ACLU, Texas Civil Rights Project and Southern Coalition for Social Justice pointed to the $4 million cost of Galveston County's redistricting litigation the Public Interest Legal Foundation was involved in. Attorneys from Texas ACLU and the Texas Civil Rights Project said success on June 3 would look like the Commissioners Court listening to the 'robust public opposition' and voting accordingly. If that doesn't happen, the organizations will consider their legal options. Katherine Godby, chair of the Justice Network of Tarrant County, said the organization is working with other groups to host an 8 a.m. rally against redistricting in front of the county administration building, where the vote will take place. She said the energy surrounding the redistricting opposition has continued to grow and that people are angry over the effort. Godby said she wants to see one of the Republicans on the court join Democrats Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles in opposition so that the maps stay the same. If it doesn't go that way, Godby said the Justice Network will continue speaking out at commissioners court meetings as they have done for years.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Tim Walz headlines two Democratic conventions but fails to address the party's leadership concerns
Two of California's Democratic hopefuls for the 2028 presidential election — former Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom — were notably absent from the state's 2025 Democratic convention. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris' former running mate from last year, was the headliner at the convention on Saturday. Walz, who is on a sort of apology tour, didn't have an answer to the lingering question about who is best suited to lead the Democratic Party. As the control former President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wielded over the party fades, there is an opening for a new leader with a fresh perspective, but no one obvious enough to fill the role. At the convention, Walz scolded Democrats for failing to listen to voters, costing the party the 2024 presidential election. 'Some of it is our own doing,' Walz said at the Anaheim Convention Center, a few long blocks away from Disneyland. 'The Democratic Party, the party of the working class, lost a big chunk of the working class,' he said. 'We lost to a grifter billionaire giving tax cuts to his grifter billionaire buddies.' In the past election, Trump gained ground in nearly every county in the country. In California, where Democrats control the legislature, Trump flipped 10 counties previously won by Biden in 2020. 'We have to have confidence to get the basic stuff done like helping folks find meaningful work that pays a living wage so they can buy a home in a safe neighborhood and send their kids to good public schools,' the Minnesota governor said. 'Somewhere we strayed from our North Star.' The same day, Walz also headlined the South Carolina Democratic Convention. Wes Moore, another 2028 hopeful, joined Walz in Columbia. Meanwhile, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who seems to be positioning himself for another presidential bid, also showed up in Anaheim. Both the governors and the New Jersey senator dismissed rumors of presidential runs, although Booker first has to run again for his Senate seat in 2026. Walz in a recent interview did admit he's thinking about seeking a third term as governor of Minnesota. But he is going to wait until after calling a special election in July, when he hopes the divided state legislature finalizes the state's budget. After losing the 2024 presidential election, Walz hit the road again in March for a series of town halls in Republican-held congressional districts, starting in Iowa before traveling to Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Texas. 'I'm getting called out on this because I called Donald Trump a wannabe dictator. It's because he is. It's because he is. 'Oh, the governor's being mean and the governor's speaking out on that,'' Walz said in South Carolina. 'Maybe it's time for us to be a little meaner. Maybe it's time for us to be a little more fierce,' he said. Newsom, who is barred by term limits to run for re-election, attended a Democratic Governor's Association conference in Portland, Oregon, on May 31, the day of the convention. The San Francisco Standard's Josh Koehn speculated Newsom is avoiding the fall out of his latest podcast, 'This is Gavin Newsom,' where he has invited MAGA-loyalists to chat about controversial topics, like transgender men participating in women's sports. Unlike Newsom, Harris didn't have any scheduled engagements. Although Harris made an appearance through a pre-recorded video at the California Democratic Convention, she didn't answer any of the burning questions at the top of the minds of elected officials, political consultants, staffers, and union representatives: Is Harris going to run for president? Or does she have her eyes set on the governor's mansion in Sacramento? Harris' tough loss in the last presidential election makes her less of an obvious choice. But she hasn't called off her bid for the highest office just yet. The Golden State's gubernatorial race is already crowded thanks to high-profile names like Xavier Becerra, the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. But many, like Eleni Kounalakis, the lieutenant governor of California, and Katie Porter, a former California representative and a 2024 senatorial candidate, plan to withdraw if Harris launches a bid for governor. Even if Harris runs, does she have enthusiasm behind her? According to the reporting from The Washington Post and The New York Times, many Democratic activists and delegates aren't convinced the former vice president should run for a statewide office. 'I think she'd be fine. I mean, she's already been a state leader, right?' Denise Robb, a Democratic Party delegate from Pasadena, told the Post. 'It's just that she lost the presidential race and she's been almost — gone. We don't hear from her. We don't see her.' Harris shied away from public appearances after her defeat against Trump. Last month, Harris in a rare political address dodged questions around her future plans and instead focused on Trump, criticizing his first 100 days in office. One delegate, Mark Gracyk from San Francisco, told the Times he doesn't support her run for governor either. 'The working class would say, 'Oh, there she is again, she has the support of the elites,'' the delegate said. Walz didn't necessarily provide more comfort to the dejected delegates, nor did he lay out a coherent path for future Democratic success. As he tried his best to energize voters across two states over the course of a single day, Turning Point Action organized a large rally in support of the political vehicle's gubernatorial candidate of choice in Arizona — Rep. Andy Biggs, a Trump loyalist and staunch conservative. At the rally, Biggs said he is all in on President Donald Trump's plan to reinstitute federalism, and when the president gives power back to the states, he is ready to be the 'strong, conservative governor' Arizona will need.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
House Dems' campaign chair says her party's 'on offense' in 2026 battle to win back majority from GOP
With the early moves heating up in the 2026 battle for the House majority, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC) chair argues President Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate are "doing incredible damage to working families and to our country." And with the GOP defending a razor-thin majority in the House in next year's midterm elections, Rep. Suzan DelBene, the DCCC chair, noted, "We only need three more seats." "We have 35 districts in play across the country where we have opportunities," DelBene said in a Fox News Digital interview last week in the nation's capital, pointing to the Republican-held seats the DCCC is targeting. "We are on offense. We are fighting for the American people and for the important issues they care about, and Democrats are united in doing that." House Democrats Predict Republicans Will Pay Price For Passing Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' While the party in power after a presidential election — currently the GOP — typically faces political headwinds and loses House seats in the following midterms, the 2026 map appears to favor Republicans."The battlefield is really laying out to our advantage. There are 14 Democrats who won seats also carried by Donald Trump. There are only three Republicans in seats that were carried by [former Vice President] Kamala Harris. So, that tells me we're going to be on offense," Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) chair, told Fox News Digital at the start of the 2026 cycle. Read On The Fox News App What The House Gop Campaign Committee Chair Told Fox News About Trump's Role In The Midterms DelBene countered that "the reason we have opportunities is because people are outraged, because they do want to see someone come into office who is going to fight for their communities and not just be blindly loyal to a president." And pointing to the small bite House Democrats took out of the GOP's majority in the 2024 elections, she added that "those are the types of candidates that won in our districts last cycle. It's a reason we actually gained seats in 2024 and is absolutely the reason why we're going to take back the majority in 2026." But Hudson noted he has a powerful ally as he works to keep control of the House. "The president understands that he's got to keep the House majority in the midterm so that he has a four-year runway instead of a two-year runway to get his agenda enacted," Hudson said. "He's been extremely helpful to us, and we appreciate it." And the Democrats are facing a polling dilemma because the party's ratings have been sinking to historic lows in a number of national surveys so far this year. The Democrats' ratings in a Fox News poll stood at 41% favorable and 56% unfavorable in a survey conducted April 18-21. Head Here To Check Out The Latest Fox News Polls That's an all-time low for the Democrats in Fox News polling. And for the first time in a decade, the party's standing was lower than that of the GOP, which stood at 44% favorable and 54% unfavorable. The figures were reversed last summer, when Fox News last asked the party favorability question in one of its surveys. But there is a silver lining for the Democrats. The Fox News poll indicated that if the 2026 midterm elections were held today, 49% of voters would back a generic Democrat in their congressional district, with 42% supporting the generic Republican candidate. The Democrats also have another problem — the possibility of primary challenges against longtime and older House lawmakers in safe blue districts. Recently elected Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair David Hogg last month pledged to spend millions of dollars through his outside political group to support primary challenges against what he termed "asleep at the wheel" House Democrats who he argued have not been effective in pushing back against Trump. The move by the 25-year-old Hogg, a survivor of the shooting seven years ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, to spend money against fellow Democrats ignited a firestorm within the party. In response, DelBene said, "Democrats across the country are united in taking back the House." Asked by Fox News if the move by Hogg would force the DCCC and allied super PACs to divert money and resources from competitive districts in order to defend incumbents in safe blue districts from primary challenges, DelBene responded, "I think everyone knows how important it is that we take back the House, and folks are focused in helping make sure that we do that in districts all across the country." But the dispute is giving the GOP ammunition. In response to the intra-Democratic Party feud, NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella argued, "No Democrat is safe. A political earthquake is underway, and the old guard is scrambling."Original article source: House Dems' campaign chair says her party's 'on offense' in 2026 battle to win back majority from GOP
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Steve Kornacki: New Jersey governor's race tests the staying power of Democrats' county machines
One metric has traditionally been all but definitive when it comes to New Jersey Democratic contests: the county line. And by that metric, one candidate is running circles around the others ahead of the June 10 gubernatorial primary: Rep. Mikie Sherrill. Sherrill has won endorsements from 10 of the state's 21 county Democratic organizations, including three of the four largest. Only two of the other five candidates in the race, Rep. Josh Gottheimer and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, have notched any county endorsements. The counties in which Sherrill has won support account for nearly 60% of all registered Democrats in the state. They include the county in which her 11th Congressional District is based, Morris, and the two others that it touches, Passaic and Essex. Gottheimer, whose 5th District is based in Bergen, also represents part of Passaic and Sussex. And Ras Baraka is the mayor of Newark, the largest city in Essex (and the state). Sweeney, the only candidate from South Jersey, has largely swept that region, where the county organizations typically act as a bloc. What has traditionally made these endorsements so meaningful is the preferred ballot position that came with them. An endorsed candidate would run at the top of the Democratic county organization's official line, an official-looking and impossible-to-miss column that would also include a host of familiar local names running for lower offices. Names of the other candidates would be listed by themselves, often in the far reaches of the ballot. The results were predictable: Candidates running off the line almost never won and generally got blown out. The last open Democratic gubernatorial primary was essentially settled a year before any votes were cast, when the largest county organizations threw their support to now-Gov. Phil Murphy. But a successful lawsuit last year and a new law signed by Murphy in March have changed the game. The line is gone and county parties can no longer list all of their endorsed candidates in a special column. Primary ballots now list candidates by the office they are seeking. One of the questions heading into June's primary is how much this has diminished the power of county endorsements. Sherrill has stuck with the traditional approach, aggressively cultivating them. Since her election to the House in 2018, when she flipped a Republican-held seat, she's been seen as a statewide prospect and developed relationships with party leaders and insiders. She won't enjoy the traditional benefits of running on the line, but the county organizations are still free to work on her behalf — no small matter in a state where machine politics are still practiced. And she'll get to display the slogan of each organization that is backing her next to her name on the ballot. But others are playing it differently, either only targeting specific counties (as Gottheimer, Sweeney and Baraka have) or skipping the entire process altogether, as Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop is. Some of this, of course, is simply a nod to the advantage Sherrill already had. Gottheimer found this out the hard way, when the organization in Hudson County, one of the biggest in the state, switched its allegiance from him to Sherrill. But Baraka and Fulop have tried to turn their lack of organizational support into a plus, hoping to tap into popular frustration with the machine style. This has all added up to an unusually muddled primary contest — at least until the past week, when two polls showed Sherrill separating herself from the pack. It could mean her heavy spending on television ads is paying off. But New Jersey's Democratic machines, no doubt, hope it's a sign that the old ways still work. This article was originally published on
NBC News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Steve Kornacki: New Jersey governor's race tests the staying power of Democrats' county machines
One metric has traditionally been all but definitive when it comes to New Jersey Democratic contests: the county line. And by that metric, one candidate is running circles around the others ahead of the June 10 gubernatorial primary: Rep. Mikie Sherrill. Sherrill has won endorsements from 10 of the state's 21 county Democratic organizations, including three of the four largest. Only two of the other five candidates in the race, Rep. Josh Gottheimer and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, have notched any county endorsements. The counties in which Sherrill has won support account for nearly 60% of all registered Democrats in the state. They include the county in which her 11th Congressional District is based, Morris, and the two others that it touches, Passaic and Essex. Gottheimer, whose 5th District is based in Bergen, also represents part of Passaic and Sussex. And Ras Baraka is the mayor of Newark, the largest city in Essex (and the state). Sweeney, the only candidate from South Jersey, has largely swept that region, where the county organizations typically act as a bloc. What has traditionally made these endorsements so meaningful is the preferred ballot position that came with them. An endorsed candidate would run at the top of the Democratic county organization's official line, an official-looking and impossible-to-miss column that would also include a host of familiar local names running for lower offices. Names of the other candidates would be listed by themselves, often in the far reaches of the ballot. The results were predictable: Candidates running off the line almost never won and generally got blown out. The last open Democratic gubernatorial primary was essentially settled a year before any votes were cast, when the largest county organizations threw their support to now-Gov. Phil Murphy. But a successful lawsuit last year and a new law signed by Murphy in March have changed the game. The line is gone and county parties can no longer list all of their endorsed candidates in a special column. Primary ballots now list candidates by the office they are seeking. One of the questions heading into June's primary is how much this has diminished the power of county endorsements. Sherrill has stuck with the traditional approach, aggressively cultivating them. Since her election to the House in 2018, when she flipped a Republican-held seat, she's been seen as a statewide prospect and developed relationships with party leaders and insiders. She won't enjoy the traditional benefits of running on the line, but the county organizations are still free to work on her behalf — no small matter in a state where machine politics are still practiced. And she'll get to display the slogan of each organization that is backing her next to her name on the ballot. But others are playing it differently, either only targeting specific counties (as Gottheimer, Sweeney and Baraka have) or skipping the entire process altogether, as Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop is. Some of this, of course, is simply a nod to the advantage Sherrill already had. Gottheimer found this out the hard way, when the organization in Hudson County, one of the biggest in the state, switched its allegiance from him to Sherrill. But Baraka and Fulop have tried to turn their lack of organizational support into a plus, hoping to tap into popular frustration with the machine style. This has all added up to an unusually muddled primary contest — at least until the past week, when two polls showed Sherrill separating herself from the pack. It could mean her heavy spending on television ads is paying off. But New Jersey's Democratic machines, no doubt, hope it's a sign that the old ways still work.
