Tag Archives : Build House

25-year-old Maxwell Alejandro Frost wins Democratic nomination to succeed Demings

Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old gun control activist, is projected to clinch the Democratic nomination on Tuesday to succeed Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) in the House. 

The Associated Press called the race at 9 p.m.

Frost overcame a crowded primary field that included longtime Florida Democratic politicos, including former Reps. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and Corrine Brown (D-Fla.). Given the strong Democratic tilt of Florida’s 10th District, he’s almost certain to win the seat in November and become among the first Gen Z members of the House.

“Today’s election is proof that Central Florida’s working families want representation that has the courage to ask for more,” Frost said in a statement following his win. “I share this victory with the nurses, forklift drivers, teachers, caregivers, social workers, farmers, union organizers, cashiers, and other members of this vibrant community who supported this campaign.”

Throughout the primary, Frost campaigned on key progressive issues like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. That helped him rack up support from key liberals in Washington, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). 

Demings’ seat opened up after she opted to challenge Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for his seat this year. She easily clinched the Democratic Senate nomination on Tuesday.

Source: TEST FEED1

DCCC chair Maloney fends off challenge from Biaggi in New York House primary

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of House Democrats’ campaign arm, is projected to fend off a challenge from state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi in the Democratic primary for New York’s 17th Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race at 9:50 p.m.

Maloney’s decision to run in the redrawn 17th Congressional District rather than his current 18th was controversial. It would have pitted the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who is tasked with electing more Democrats, against first-term progressive Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), who currently represents the district. Jones opted to run instead in the 10th District to avoid an awkward member-on-member primary.

Maloney was considered the favorite in the race, but Biaggi, whose grandfather was former Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.), was seen as a formidable challenger given her history. She beat former state Sen. Jeffrey Klein (D) in the state Senate Democratic primary in 2018, considered a major defeat given that Klein had been a part of a group of Democrats who aligned themselves with Republicans in the legislature. 

Biaggi also received endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the Working Families Party and Democracy for America.

Maloney, meanwhile, received coveted endorsements from The New York Times editorial board, former President Clinton and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). 

Both Maloney and Biaggi have ties to the Clintons: Maloney was a senior adviser under the Clinton administration, and Biaggi served on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as deputy national operations director.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the House seat as “lean Democratic.”

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Nadler ousts Maloney in contentious New York House primary

Rep. Jerry Nadler is projected to beat Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th Congressional District, a contest that pitted two powerful committee chairs with decades of experience in the House against each other.

NBC, CBS and CNN called the race before 9:35 p.m.

Nadler is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and currently represents the 10th District, while Maloney is the chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and holds the 12th District. The decennial redistricting process merged the cores of their districts along the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side.

Nadler had opened up a strong polling lead going into Tuesday’s primary and had key endorsements from Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and The New York Times editorial board — which strategists had said may prove consequential given Nadler’s and Maloney’s similar voting records and years in Congress.

In an interview with The Hill last week, Nadler’s campaign touted several votes that differentiated him from his colleague: his votes against the Patriot Act and Iraq War and his vote in favor for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Maloney had voted against the 2015 deal while voting for the Patriot Act and Iraq War. 

But Maloney has been hitting back, arguing against what she called an “old boys network” and making the case that in an era with a conservative Supreme Court and states rolling back reproductive rights, it’s more important than ever to have a woman with her experience in the House.

Progressive attorney Suraj Patel also ran in the primary, framing himself as a fresh face focused on the future.

The Cook Political Report rates the district as “solid Democrat.”

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Oz aide mocks Fetterman's stroke in escalation of crudité tiff

Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz’s campaign is taking a jab at Democratic opponent John Fetterman after the lieutenant governor’s campaign ridiculed — and raised money off of — a video showing the GOP hopeful shopping for groceries while complaining about the price of crudité.

“If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn’t have had a major stroke and wouldn’t be in the position of having to lie about it constantly,” Rachel Tripp, Oz’s senior communications adviser, said in a statement, which was first reported by Insider.

The statement was criticized by Fetterman in a tweet on Tuesday evening. 

“I had a stroke. I survived it. I’m truly so grateful to still be here today,” he said. “I know politics can be nasty, but even then, I could *never* imagine ridiculing someone for their health challenges.”

On Tuesday, Fetterman’s campaign released a letter signed by more than 100 Pennsylvania doctors warning against Oz’s candidacy. In an event promoting the letter, Val Arkoosh, a physician who ran in the Democratic Senate primary earlier this year, slammed Oz’s comments. 

“No real doctor, or any decent human being, to be honest, would ever mock a stroke victim who is recovering from that stroke, in the way that Dr. Oz is mocking John Fetterman,” Arkoosh said. 

At issue was a video made in April that showed Oz grocery shopping as he sought to make the case that inflation was making items such as asparagus, broccoli, guacamole and salsa more expensive. In the video, he referred to the store name as “Wegners,” an apparent combination of Wegmans and Redner’s.

Oz also referred to the items as crudité, which Fetterman mocked, saying in a tweet, “In PA we call this a… veggie tray.”

Fetterman’s campaign said it had raised more than half a million dollars off the viral video within a day, including more than $65,000 from a sticker that has the phrase “Wegners: Let them eat Crudite” on it. 

The produce-centric tit-for-tat comes as Fetterman’s campaign seeks to portray Oz as a carpetbagger from New Jersey who is out of touch with Pennsylvania voters.

Oz’s team, meanwhile, has sought to show Fetterman as inauthentically engaging with voters on the ground, at one point sending out a “basement tracker” update of the Senate hopeful.

Fetterman suffered a stroke in May, keeping the Democrat off the campaign trail for several months.

The Senate race, one of many that could determine control of the currently 50-50 upper chamber, has become one of the most closely watched in the nation.

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Mullin clinches Oklahoma GOP Senate nod

Oklahoma Rep. Markwayne Mullin is projected to win the state’s Republican Senate runoff on Tuesday, advancing to November’s general election. 

The Associated Press called the race at 8:35 p.m. EDT.

Mullin defeated former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon in the runoff after neither candidate received 50 percent of the vote outright in the June primary.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) announced in February he wouldn’t finish out his term, triggering a special election to fill the seat.

Polls going into the runoff showed Mullin leading Shannon. The runoff also marks a victory for former President Trump, who endorsed Mullin in the race. 

Mullin will go on to face former Rep. Kendra Horn (D-Okla.) in the general election, where he stands a strong chance of winning. The Cook Political Report rates the race as “solid Republican.” 

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Biden approval rating ticks up to highest since June: Reuters-Ipsos poll

President Biden’s approval rating is at its highest point since June, a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll found.

The two-day poll, completed Tuesday, shows Biden’s rating at 41 percent — the first time it has topped 40 percent since the beginning of the summer.

Of the 1,005 adults surveyed, 78 percent of Democrats voiced support for Biden, a figure that stood at 69 percent in early July. Republican approval held steady at 12 percent.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which has a credibility interval of 4 percentage points, shows a slow climb in Biden’s polling numbers from last week when he polled at 40 percent. That stat marked Biden’s highest approval rating in two months.

The president’s poll numbers first dropped below 50 percent approval in August of 2021, amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and had since steadily declined, reaching their lowest — 36 percent — in May, data shows.

Biden has faces lingering criticism over inflation, and the cost of gas in particular.

His small increase in favorability in recent weeks comes on the heels of a few victories, including dropping gas prices and a blockbuster legislative win.

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a climate, health care and tax package, and the successful drone strike that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, have put Biden on a more recent upward trajectory.

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Gaetz staves off challenge in Florida House primary

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) is projected to stave off a primary challenge from former FedEx executive Mark Lombardo, meaning the Florida incumbent is likely to win another term in Congress. 

The Associated Press called the race at 8:32 p.m.

Gaetz, Lombardo and retired military officer Greg Merk all ran for the GOP nod in Florida’s 1st Congressional District. 

Gaetz is a member of the House Freedom Caucus and a key ally to former President Trump known for controversial and sometimes incendiary rhetoric. The former president’s son Donald Trump Jr., campaigned for the Florida Republican earlier this week.

The primary comes as Gaetz is under investigation for sex trafficking allegations involving a minor, accusations he denies. Lombardo targeted Gaetz over reports the congressman sought a pardon from Trump and that his campaign paid a lawyer who previously represented Jeffrey Epstein.

The 1st Congressional District includes the counties of Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton and Escambia. The Cook Political Report rates it as “solid Republican.”

In a last-minute boost ahead of the primary, Trump announced his endorsement of the Florida incumbent on Saturday, saying Gaetz was “a relentless Fighter for the incredible people of Florida’s 1st Congressional District!” 

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Capitol Records walks away from AI rapper project, offers 'deepest apologies to the Black community'

Capitol Records has announced that it is walking away from an artificial intelligence rapper project after receiving backlash for the AI model’s “gross stereotypes” of the Black community. 

“CMG has severed ties with the FN Meka project, effective immediately,” the Capitol Music Group said in a statement on Tuesday. “We offer our deepest apologies to the Black community for our insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about equity and the creative process behind it. We thank those who have reached out to us with constructive feedback in the past couple of days — your input was invaluable as we came to the decision to end our association with the project.”

FN Meka, a virtual rapper powered by AI, was first created by Factory New in 2019, according to The New York Times. The virtual rapper has amassed more than 10 million followers on its TikTok profile. 

Capitol Records signed FN Meka earlier this month, and the virtual rap artist’s first single “Florida Water,” a collaboration with Atlanta-based rapper Gunna and Fortnite player Clix, dropped on Aug. 12, Music Business Worldwide reported. 

The public promptly criticized FN Meka’s use of a racial slur in rap lyrics and an image that circulated on social media showing the digital rapper being beaten by a police officer in prison. 

In a statement, nonprofit organization Industry Blackout called the AI rapper a “direct insult to the Black community and our culture,” also mentioning that Gunna, whose real name is Sergio Kitchens and who is currently incarcerated on felony racketeering charges, is in major legal trouble for “rapping the same type of lyrics” FN Meka mimics. 

“While we applaud innovation in tech that connects listeners to music and enhances the experience, we find fault in the lack of awareness in how offensive this caricature is. It is a direct insult to the Black community and our culture,” Industry Blackout said, also asking Black artists under Capitol Records to speak out on this matter. “An amalgamation of gross stereotypes, appropriative mannerisms that derive from Black artists, complete with slurs infused in lyrics.” 

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Judge gives Trump until Friday to clarify request for special master on records seized by FBI

A federal judge on Tuesday responded to former President Trump’s lawsuit requesting a special master to review the documents collected by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago residence, giving Trump a Friday deadline to clarify his request. 

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon issued an order for Trump to elaborate on how the court has jurisdiction and precisely what he wants the court to order in the case.

She also asked Trump’s team to provide more details on whether it served the Department of Justice (DOJ) with the suit and on the lawsuit’s effect on another proceeding determining if parts of the affidavit that supported the search warrant should be released.

The request was one of two brief orders filed on Tuesday by Cannon, who was nominated to the position by Trump in 2020. She also issued a separate one asking two of his attorneys to correctly format and resubmit their motions to appear pro hac vice, which allow lawyers to appear in courts in which they are not admitted for a particular case.

The former president filed the lawsuit on Monday to temporarily block the FBI from reviewing the documents it seized from his Florida home until the agency appoints a special master to provide outside oversight, marking Trump’s first major legal action since agents executed a search warrant at the property on Aug. 8.

A letter released by the National Archives on Tuesday said the DOJ seized at least 700 pages of classified materials when it first recovered documents from Trump’s Florida home in January. Authorities separately seized another 11 sets of classified documents earlier this month.

Trump has repeatedly attacked the FBI and the search as being politically motivated, and he has said the materials include those protected by attorney-client privilege and potentially executive privilege. 

He alluded to the forthcoming suit on Friday, claiming the FBI violated his Fourth Amendment rights protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures.

His attorneys outlined many of those concerns in Monday’s motion, asking the court to appoint a special master, who generally ensures a court’s orders are carried out. The appointment is typically rare in the context of the execution of a search warrant.

The request comes after the DOJ began its common practice of leveraging a “filter team” to examine the documents, which is designed to avoid prosecutors seeing protected materials.

Trump also asked the court to require the government to provide a more detailed property receipt, which lists the seized materials, and to return any documents outside the scope of the search warrant.

A federal judge signed off on the warrant days before the search took place, permitting agents to search the “45 Office,” all storage rooms and other areas at Mar-a-Lago available to be used by Trump and his staff in which boxes or documents could be stored.

The warrant allowed the agents to seize any property in those areas that constituted evidence of violations of the Espionage Act and two other statutes.

The laws included one statute that bars the concealment, removal and mutilation of government documents, and the other prohibits similar actions when done “with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence [an] investigation.” 

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Crist to face off against DeSantis for Florida governor

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) is projected to win Florida’s Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday, setting up a general election matchup against Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican heavyweight who’s seen as a potential 2024 presidential contender.

The Associated Press called the race at 8 p.m.

Crist, who won the governor’s mansion as a Republican more than 15 years ago, defeated state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in the Democratic nominating contest.

His victory sets him up for his second general election campaign to reclaim the office since he vacated the governor’s mansion in 2011, having opted against running for a second consecutive term. 

He lost a bid for governor to incumbent Rick Scott in 2014 before winning a seat in the U.S. House representing St. Petersburg in 2016. 

Throughout her campaign, Fried, the lone statewide elected Democrat, sought to cast herself as a new face for Florida Democrats, who have struggled for years to fix a crumbling party infrastructure and reverse a painful losing streak. 

But in nominating Crist, Florida Democrats turned to a familiar face to help them reclaim the governor’s mansion after more than 20 years of being locked out, convinced that his brand of collegial, compromise-minded politics can help win over moderates and independents turned off by DeSantis’s combative political style.

Defeating DeSantis, however, is shaping up to be a herculean task. 

The Florida governor has a swelling national profile, is a rising star among conservatives and has so far raised more than $100 million for his reelection campaign — far more than anything that Crist has. Recent polling shows DeSantis’ approval rating above water, a positive sign for an incumbent seeking a second term in office.

Of course, there’s still time for things to change. Despite his popularity among the Republican Party’s conservative base, DeSantis isn’t immune to controversy. And with the Democratic primary now out of the way, the party still has a chance to coalesce around Crist ahead of the November election.

Crist said on Monday that Florida Democrats are planning to hold a unity rally in South Florida later this week, though Fried hasn’t yet committed to endorsing Crist. 

Source: TEST FEED1