Politics

By Humeyra Pamuk and Jacob Bogage

WASHINGTON/LUCERNE, Switzerland, June 19 (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President JD Vance is poised to take on his biggest role yet on the international stage as President Donald Trump’s chief negotiator to end the three-month war with Iran, a moment that could shape Vance’s prospects as a White House successor.

The two nations agreed to a provisional peace agreement on Wednesday that suspended hostilities but left core issues unresolved, deferring decisions on Iran’s nuclear program, its support for regional armed proxies and the economically vital Strait of Hormuz to 60 days of talks.

The discussions are a high-risk scenario for all sides in the conflict, the broader Middle East, and for Vance’s political ambitions. And the situation remains fluid: Vance cancelled a planned Thursday night flight to Switzerland for the start of talks, though the White House said the U.S. delegation is “prepared to depart at the first available opportunity.”

The fast-moving developments coincide with the publication of Vance’s book on his conversion to Catholicism, “Communion,” and a media tour to promote it, during which he discussed his faith while positioning himself as the Iran deal’s top booster.

The campaign-style push peaked on Thursday with a White House news conference where Vance laid out U.S. hopes for a final peace deal and offered one of the strongest rebukes of Israel in U.S. history, while also swatting away a question about a potential presidential run.

“If the Iranians don’t change their behavior, their military and their nuclear program is still destroyed,” Vance said. “If they do change their behavior, then they are going to have a transformative relationship with the Middle East, and the Middle East will have a transformative relationship with the people of Iran.” 

Fellow Republicans have underscored the significance of Vance’s high-profile role in the Iran deal.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a leader in the party’s foreign policy establishment, called Vance the “architect” of the peace agreement, and said the vice president should present a final deal to the Senate for approval.

Trump joked on Wednesday that Vance had little to gain and much to lose from this assignment.

“If it works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD!” the president chortled during a news conference at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France.

Representatives from Vance’s office declined to comment for this report.

DEFENDING TRUMP

Trump ran for office promising lower prices and an end to what he called “forever wars” in the Middle East. Instead, inflation has accelerated, and he launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Some Republican allies have accused Trump of granting Tehran major concessions to alleviate the price pressures caused by the conflict. 

While Trump has touted the provisional peace deal as a total military and diplomatic victory, the agreements announced so far have advanced few of his goals from the outset of the war: Iran’s theocratic government remains in place, it retains ballistic missiles and a stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and it continues supporting anti-Israel militias such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

Vance has had to defend the president’s decisions while trying to establish some distance from Trump’s falling approval ratings. He has attempted to do so by pointing to marginal economic improvements while declaring “there’s a lot more work to do.”

“Have a little bit of faith in the president of the United States. The idea that he is going to strike a deal that’s bad for the American people, it’s preposterous,” Vance said on Thursday. 

He told conservative media host Megyn Kelly earlier in the week that he remained engaged on the Iran war because distancing himself from the effort would be “a very immature way to approach the political process,” while accusing hawkish conservatives of seeking to continue U.S. attacks “until every bomb has been dropped, or until every Iranian is dead.” 

Vance has cautioned against intensifying the war and advocated for Trump to pursue a diplomatic exit. He is one of the leaders of an ascendant wing of the Republican Party that hopes to restrain U.S. global military pursuits. 

He is not without critics.

“In my opinion, the vice president — the chief negotiator on this project — has not well served the president,” right-wing media figure Ben Shapiro said on Thursday on Fox News.

Trump appears to have elevated Vance as the face of the agreement rather than Secretary of State Marco Rubio — traditionally the country’s chief diplomat — triggering questions from administration allies about Rubio’s role in negotiations.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement: “Secretary Rubio and the entire administration is 100% in lockstep behind President Trump.”

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, added that no one on Trump’s team voiced opposition to the provisional peace deal.

Rubio is also seen as a contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, though neither he nor Vance has said they plan to seek the presidency. 

The move to promote Vance, though, is typical of the way Trump has managed cabinet officials in his second term, said one person close to the White House, who asked not to be named to speak freely about internal matters.

“This back and forth is throwing people off, but Trump knows what he’s doing,” the person said. “He is literally conducting a tryout in real time.”

Throughout it all has been Vance’s book, which he has jokingly promoted in nearly every media engagement alongside discussion of the day’s news.

Facing a grilling about Iran, immigration and civil rights on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday, the vice president quipped: “Let’s talk about the book — I’m here to sell books.” 

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Jacob Bogage; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Kevin Buckland and Edmund Klamann)

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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Democrat Hannah Pingree and Republican Bobby Charles will compete this fall to become Maine’s next governor.

Pingree and Charles won their primaries Friday, after the June 9 contests advanced to ranked choice voting.

In another ranked runoff in Maine, Democrat Matt Dunlap won the nomination in the 2nd Congressional District. Dunlap will face the state’s former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, for a seat Democrats are trying to hold in the fight for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The ranked counts conclude a busy primary season in Maine in which Democratic voters also chose oyster farmer Graham Platner to run against longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Platner won that primary by a wide margin and it did not need to proceed to ranked choice.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who has served since 2018, is termed out of office, creating an open field for governor in both parties. Five Democratic candidates and seven Republicans actively campaigned in the June 9 primary.

That created a scenario in which no candidate in either party broke 50% of the popular vote, leading to the ranked choice runoff, which began shortly after the election. The Democratic race was especially close, with the top four challengers within a few percentage points of each other.

Democrats chose between Pingree, the former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives; Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows; former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson; energy executive Angus King III; and former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Nirav Shah.

The Republican ballot for governor was even more crowded. Republicans chose between Charles, the former U.S. assistant secretary of state; healthcare executive Jonathan Bush; former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason; former Paris, Maine, selectman Robert Wessels; and businessmen Owen McCarthy, David Jones and Ben Midgley.

Mills ran in the primary for U.S. Senate in Maine but suspended her campaign in April.

“Throughout my two campaigns for governor and this one for Senate, what I have always loved the most is traveling across our beautiful state and getting to talk to Maine people,” Mills said on election night.

In the 2nd Congressional District, former Maine Secretary of State Dunlap, state Sen. Joe Baldacci, former U.S. Senate candidate Jordan Wood and social worker Paige Loud were on the ballot for the Democrats.

LePage, an ally of President Donald Trump, was unopposed in the Republican primary. LePage served as governor from 2010 to 2018, during which time he fashioned himself as a vocal critic of liberalism and a staunch Trump defender.

The 2nd District seat has no incumbent in the November election because Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who has held the seat since 2018, is stepping down. Golden, a moderate who sometimes breaks from his party, said last year that he has “grown tired of the increasing incivility and plain nastiness that are now common from some elements of our American community.”

While Golden has won in the 2nd District, its voters have also shown strong support for Trump. He won an electoral vote in the district in three consecutive presidential elections.

The district is geographically large and includes much of Maine’s rural territory and logging country and some of its key fishing ports. It is expected to be among this fall’s most competitive House races.

Maine has used ranked choice voting since voters approved it 10 years ago. Voters were allowed to rank the candidates on their ballot in order of preference. Under that scenario, if no candidate breaks 50% of the popular vote, the bottom finisher is eliminated, and voters’ second choices come into play. The tabulations continue until a candidate achieves a majority of the total votes.

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June 19 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s plans to immediately slash the workforce at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by about two-thirds, delivering a setback to the White House’s protracted efforts to shrink the consumer watchdog.

The order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit came in response to a revised plan the Justice Department submitted in late March following repeated legal defeats over its plans to decimate if not eliminate the CFPB.

The appeals court had been reviewing the administration’s appeal of a March 2025 injunction by a federal district court judge which temporarily barred the mass terminations.

The Justice Department, which previously tried to cut up to 90% of employees, had argued that it should be permitted to carry out its new plan immediately.

It also argued that the case should be returned to the district judge with a 45-day deadline to reassess the injunction.

The appeals court on Friday granted the administration’s motion to return the case to the district court, but rejected the requests to resume staff cuts or impose a deadline on the district judge.

The CFPB was created by Congress after the 2008 financial crash to police consumer financial products.

Trump and other high-ranking officials have called for the agency ​to be abolished, accusing it of being a politicized burden on free enterprise. Democrats and agency defenders say damaging ​the agency amounts to ​a giveaway to ⁠industry at the expense of consumers.

Barred legally from enacting the most drastic actions, the administration has taken other measures to weaken the agency. 

In May, the agency said it would reassign all staff to its Washington headquarters, a move likely to drive resignations. Earlier this month, Trump nominated a vocal CFPB critic to head the agency moving forward.

(Reporting by Kenrick Cai in San Francisco; Editing by Don Durfee and Andrea Ricci)

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump changed his tune Friday heading into South Carolina’s runoff next week, saying either Republican contender for governor — not just Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, whom he endorsed before the primary earlier this month — would be a good pick.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump praised both Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson, writing: “Both have had amazing careers, and have been with me from the beginning. They are MAGA and America First all the way!”

The move represents a hedging of Trump’s bets in a primary season where he has seen some of his endorsed candidates fall short, rare defeats that have stirred doubts about his clout as he approaches the back half of his second term.

Trump previously gave Evette his “Complete and Total Endorsement.” He also said “A BIG added plus” for her campaign is that Henry McMaster Jr. — the son of the current governor, a close ally — may be Evette’s running mate. But the 38-year-old lawyer later said he would not be considered for the post.

On social media Friday, Evette posted: “I was proud to come in first as President @realDonaldTrump’s endorsed candidate for Governor on June 9th. Looking forward to doing it again on June 23rd.”

Wilson said in a social media post Friday, “I am honored to have the endorsement of President Donald J. Trump.” Swiftly thereafter, Wilson issued a news release which in part enumerated the legal briefs he’s filed in support of Trump’s policies on issues including restricting birthright citizenship, on which the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet ruled.

Moments after Trump’s double-endorsement post, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said on social media that he was backing Wilson, who he predicted “will lead with humility, courage, and an optimistic vision for our state.”

A person familiar with Scott’s thinking but not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Associated Press that the senator had been making calls for Wilson, helping fundraise and encouraging Trump to back his candidacy.

Evette has called Trump’s endorsement a “golden ticket” for Republicans seeking office in South Carolina, but the results have been a mixed bag in other races for governor. The Republican president’s choices in Iowa and Georgia lost this month.

Just before a 2022 U.S. Senate primary in Missouri between former Gov. Eric Greitens and Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Trump just endorsed “ERIC,” presumably meaning either candidate, both of whom claimed the endorsement. Schmitt won the nomination and the office.

Arizona’s primary is not until next month but Trump has been endorsing Republican candidates for governor for the past two years. In late 2024, Trump said that he was endorsing housing developer Karrin Taylor Robson. His choice angered some of his biggest allies in the state, who are suspicious of Robson’s long-standing ties to the party’s business establishment. Then in April 2025, Trump said he was backing U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs — in addition to Robson.

It has been a bit of a jumble when it comes to Trump’s 2026 primary picks so far.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, in Ohio, and U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, in Alabama, secured backing from Trump early in their campaigns for governor, and they went on to dominate their primaries. Like Evette, former state Sen. Mike Mazzei got Trump’s backing in his bid for Oklahoma governor in a crowded field without a clear front-runner, and advanced to an Aug. 25 runoff.

But Trump’s chosen gubernatorial candidates have failed in other contests. Aided by more than $100 million — mostly from his personal fortune — billionaire healthcare tycoon Rick Jackson battled his way to the Republican nomination in Georgia over Trump’s pick, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.

U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, endorsed by Trump the same day as Evette, failed in his Iowa governor bid, losing to businessman Zach Lahn.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The relationship between President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans neared a breaking point this week as he upended their efforts to speedily confirm one of his own nominees and said he would not sign the renewal of a key surveillance law unless they agree to new terms.

Trump’s overnight social media post Wednesday that he was delaying Jay Clayton’s nomination to become national intelligence director, just hours before the U.S. attorney’s confirmation hearing, further strained relations between the Senate and White House that have been worsening for weeks. Later that day, some Republican senators who have been hesitant to challenge the president directly on the Iran war were blunt in their criticism of his deal to end it.

“This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said in a post on X.

The open tensions are an almost complete reversal from a year ago when Senate Republicans worked closely with Trump on a complicated effort to push through his massive package of spending and tax cuts.

At the time, criticism of the president was almost nonexistent among Republicans on Capitol Hill, and they planned to highlight passage of that bill in the midterms. But as the November election draws closer and Republicans are trying to defend their majorities, Trump is instead needling Congress with his demands and reversals, driving several Republican senators to disparage his actions publicly for the first time.

“I think somebody’s not dialing the president into the complexities of what he’s done here,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Wednesday after Clayton’s confirmation was postponed. “I mean, my God.”

The slow unraveling of what once seemed like an airtight alliance between the executive and legislative branches in a Republican-led Washington extends to their policy priorities.

Trump appears to have lost interest in most of the GOP agenda and has become almost singularly focused on his voting legislation to require proof of citizenship, which has almost no chance of passing. At the same time, he has asked members of Congress to fund parts of his White House ballroom project, allow a temporary intelligence director that none of them like and cede their powers on the Iran war.

The growing rift has brought much of the Senate’s business to a halt and put Republicans who are up for reelection this year on the defensive. It has also put pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has been up-front with Trump about what he can and cannot do in the Senate.

Trump has pressured Thune relentlessly to scrap the filibuster and pass the strict proof-of-citizenship legislation, called the SAVE America Act. Thune, R-S.D., has told Trump publicly and privately that the votes are not there for either step. Still, Trump has kept up the push.

In a social media post Thursday, Trump said he would be “the last Republican president” if the voting bill does not pass.

“Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Senate, must not let this ‘carnage’ happen,” Trump said. “They will go down on the wrong side of History, as will all Republicans who just stood by and watched.”

Nonetheless, Trump has yet to go after the well-liked Republican leader on a personal basis, as he often did with Thune’s predecessor, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.. Trump once called McConnell a “ dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.”

Trump and Thune talk frequently, even as Thune is sometimes giving the president news he does not want to hear. As Trump pushed for the voting bill, Thune scheduled weeks of floor time to consider it, an effort to make clear that the Senate was supportive, even if the votes are lacking.

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, one of the president’s closest allies in the Senate, said he has never heard Trump say anything negative about Thune.

“It’s a difficult position,” Schmitt said of Thune’s role in the Senate. “I think they have a good working relationship.”

One of Thune’s closest allies, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, said the even-keeled leader is the “right person at the right time.”

“In the Capitol today, he is the stable force,” Rounds said. “In Washington, D.C., today, he is the stable force.”

There were no signs of a revolt within the GOP conference, for now, despite Trump’s pressure.

Thune “has managed it better than anyone else could manage it,” said Cassidy, who has become a more frequent Trump critic since a primary loss to a Trump-backed challenger.

Criticism of Trump has at times surfaced even among his closest Senate allies, especially with his proposed $1.776 billion settlement fund for his political allies and his pick for acting intelligence director, Bill Pulte, who has no known intelligence experience.

But the rift with Trump has also stoked some new internal tensions.

Several Republican senators criticized Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has waged an online campaign to eliminate the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act, in a private conference lunch this week for stoking dissension within the party in an election year.

Unbowed, Lee has kept up his social media campaign, including a post Friday on X in which he said that giving up because Republicans lack the votes is a “recipe for failure.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, one of those who spoke out at the meeting, replied that it is Lee’s job to find the votes, “if you can.”

“Can’t just complain about others,” Cornyn posted. “Prove us wrong.”

Some Senate Republicans have made clear they have no plans to separate themselves from Trump.

As several of his colleagues criticized Trump’s agreement with Iran this week, first-term Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, aggressively defended it on social media.

“Let’s get the Nobel Peace Prize ready!” Moreno posted on X.

But Trump has far fewer of those Senate allies than he did when they narrowly passed the tax and spending cuts legislation a year ago. That is in part because he has picked off some of the most loyal Republican votes himself.

Both Cassidy and Cornyn lost in primaries last month after Trump endorsed their opponents. Tillis announced he was not running for reelection last year after Trump repeatedly criticized him on social media.

Now all three have become frequent critics.

Shortly after his election loss, Cornyn posted on social media a fable about a frog and a scorpion. The scorpion asks the frog to carry it across a river, according to the fable, and then stings the frog in the middle of the river, “dooming them both.”

“The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence,” Cornyn’s post read. “To which the scorpion replies: ‘I am sorry, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s my character.’”

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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

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The ballots remain to be cast for the November midterm elections. Yet Democrats and Republicans in some states already are looking at how they could reshape congressional voting districts to gain an advantage in the 2028 elections.

The new gerrymandering efforts are part two of a mid-decade redistricting battle that already spans 10 states, which are home to two of every five U.S. residents.

Part one began last summer, when President Donald Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw U.S. House districts to try to stave off midterm election losses. Some Democratic-led states responded by pursuing their own partisan redistricting. Then a U.S. Supreme Court decision in late April weakened the federal Voting Rights Act, providing new grounds for Southern Republicans to reconfigure districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.

The midterm elections will provide an assessment of those redistricting changes. Republicans think they could net up to 10 additional House seats under the new districts. But Democrats have history on their side — the president’s party often loses seats in the midterms — and could make gains from Trump’s poor approval ratings.

If the November election produces another narrow majority for either party, politicians could have extra incentive to redistrict ahead of the 2028 elections.

Here’s a look at how that could play out:

New York already has taken an initial step toward redistricting ahead of the 2028 elections. The legislature recently approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would authorize mid-decade redistricting, repeal prohibitions on partisan gerrymandering and make it easier for lawmakers to bypass an independent redistricting commission in the future. The measure needs another round of legislative approval next year before it can appear on a statewide ballot.

Maryland’s House speaker has told members to set aside time in July for a potential special session on redistricting. One plan could ask voters to amend the state constitution to alter a requirement for compact districts — one factor cited in a 2022 court ruling that struck down a previous map as “a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.”

Supporters of an initiative petition are attempting to qualify a constitutional amendment for Colorado’s November ballot that would set aside congressional districts adopted by an independent commission and allow new ones.

In New Jersey, a potential constitutional amendment avoiding a bipartisan redistricting commission would need a three-fifths vote in each legislative chamber — or a simple majority in two straight years — to go to voters for approval.

Virginia also could make another run at a redistricting amendment that bypasses a bipartisan commission. Amendments there require legislative approval during two separate sessions with an intervening election. The state Supreme Court ruled in May that lawmakers missed their window to approve a plan before the 2025 elections. But lawmakers could try the two-step process again, centered around the state’s 2027 elections.

Georgia legislative leaders on Wednesday opted against redistricting for the 2028 elections during a special session called by Gov. Brian Kemp. They expressed reluctance to rush into action, but left open the possibility of considering redistricting later.

Kansas lawmakers last year failed to get the two-thirds support needed to call themselves into a special session on redistricting and override a potential veto by the Democratic governor. But if Republicans win the governor’s office in November, they could have a smoother path to approve redistricting next year.

The Indiana Senate last year rejected a congressional redistricting plan pushed by Trump. But in this year’s Republican primaries, Trump-endorsed challengers defeated several senators who had opposed redistricting, creating an opening to consider it again next year.

The South Carolina Senate in May also rejected congressional redistricting ahead of the midterm elections. But the topic could resurface before the next elections.

Minnesota has the nation’s most closely divided legislature, with a tie in the House and a one-seat Democratic majority in the Senate. If Democrats win control of both chambers in November and hold on to the office being vacated by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, they could have the capability to reconfigure the state’s congressional districts. But so could Republicans, if they pull off victories in the gubernatorial and legislative races.

Pennsylvania is in a similar situation. Democrats hold a narrow House majority and Republicans a narrow Senate majority. If Democrats win both chambers in November and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is reelected, they would have the power to redraw congressional districts. But Republicans also have a shot at full control. For either party, a 2018 state Supreme Court decision declaring a Republican-drawn congressional map unconstitutionally gerrymandered provides a cautionary note against going too far.

Wisconsin has a closely contested race to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. And candidates for the Legislature, currently controlled by Republicans, will be running in November under new districts that improve Democrats’ chances. If Democrats sweep into full control, they could reshape the state’s Republican-leaning congressional districts. Republicans also have a shot at taking the governor’s office and retaining at least one legislative chamber. Two pending lawsuits against the current congressional map seek to force redistricting.

Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he expects state lawmakers to redraw congressional districts before the state’s 2027 elections. But no specific plan has been put forward yet.

In Illinois, Democratic state lawmakers last year dismissed a national party suggestion to redistrict congressional seats ahead of the midterm elections. Lawmakers expressed concerns that doing so could weaken representation for Black voters. But Democrats left open the possibility of redistricting later.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — As Janeese Lewis George paves a path to the mayor’s office in Washington, D.C., she’s told voters they could have it all.

Her unapologetically expansive, left-wing agenda includes subsidized or even free childcare, increased down payment assistance for homebuyers and community resources to reduce crime, plus a promise to aggressively confront President Donald Trump’s attempts to reshape the nation’s capital.

“People are tired of hearing what government can’t do. They want to hear what government can do,” Lewis George said in an interview before the city’s primary, where she defeated her Democratic opponents and positioned herself to win the general election in November in a city dominated by Democrats.

Lewis George’s victory signals a break with a quarter-century of centrist governance in Washington, and it puts her in the vanguard of democratic socialists who have ascended in urban politics over the last year. Zohran Mamdani toppled Andrew Cuomo, the scion of a political dynasty, on his way to becoming New York City mayor. Katie Wilson won an upset victory to lead Seattle last fall. And this month, Nithya Raman clinched a spot in the November runoff against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

All of them are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA. The political organization has seen its membership ranks swell from a few thousand to more than 100,000 nationwide over the last decade after an influx of younger Americans joined following the presidential bids of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, also a self-described democratic socialist.

There’s little sign of national coordination among the candidates, and it’s unclear whether voters are gravitating toward their promises of improved government services, their vows to fight the Trump administration or their critiques of capitalism.

But from coast to coast, confrontational progressives are advancing in mayoral races. City leaders can draw outsized attention for their successes and failures, and democratic socialists will be under pressure from residents to deliver on their vows for a new kind of governance. Whether that translates to national politics is a next test for their movement.

“They are all channeling a displeasure with a status quo and a serious desire for economic populism that the establishment Democratic Party hasn’t been preaching,” said Eric Stern, a Democratic strategist with Fight Agency, a political consulting firm that strategized Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.

Stern added that Democratic voters appeared more willing to support the most progressive candidate in mayoral races rather than in contests for the U.S. House. Candidates like Mamdani and Raman, Stern said, are “daring voters to dream and fall in love not just with the individual candidates but also the political process as a whole.”

The trend of progressives surging in urban areas may have limits for its broader impact on Democratic politics. Democratic mayors in cities including Atlanta, Houston, Miami and San Francisco won on relatively moderate platforms in recent years.

Progressive have also faced noteworthy challenges. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was endorsed by the city’s DSA chapter during his 2023 mayoral run but has since faced criticism from both moderate and liberal local leaders on issues such as immigration, the local budget and public safety. Recalls and public pressure ousted progressives elected to district attorney offices in multiple jurisdictions over the last five years, when criminal justice reform efforts ran into dissatisfaction over public disorder following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump’s hardline immigration and law enforcement tactics have also become a challenge for liberal cities. The president’s agenda poses an especially serious threat to Washington, D.C., because of its status as a federal territory.

“Maybe we take back Washington and run it on a federal basis,” Trump told reporters this month when asked about the potential election of a democratic socialist as the district’s mayor. “We won’t put up with it.”

But progressives hope the current wave of anti-Trump furor in deep blue cities across the country will help buoy the chances of those on the hard left.

“It’s not folks looking for the leftmost option so much as looking for a candidate who’s gonna be on their side,” said Ravi Mangla, speaking for the left-wing Working Families Party. The party often endorses the same candidates as the DSA and is readying to target more mayoral offices in the country’s biggest metropolises this fall and in 2028.

“It’s less about whether you are on the right or on the left so much as whether you are willing to punch up at the powerful,” he added.

Mamdani and Lewis George are both self-described “sewer socialists” who emphasize the need for responsive government services rather than critiques of market economics. The phrase recalls the socialist Gilded Age mayors whom critics derided as too preoccupied with managing public works projects.

The term’s revival is partly a strategic move to align leftist ideas with concerns over affordability and the economy, voters’ top concern in the midterm elections, and shift the public perception of democratic socialists from firebrands who support radical policies to independent-minded public servants.

“This is absolutely a change election and I’m excited to bring the change that people want, which is really putting people first in the city and having the moral clarity and courage to stand up to Trump,” Lewis George said.

While conservatives have used the “socialist” label to attack Democrats as extreme or incompetent, some D.C. voters appeared ambivalent before Tuesday’s primary.

Several lifelong residents said they believed Lewis George was a “fighter” but didn’t think she’d have much of an impact on the local economy, given the city’s status as a federal district.

“I go back and forth on my own labels and whether I am supportive of that movement or not, but I am supportive of making D.C. more affordable,” Owen Fitzgerald, a University of Maryland graduate student, said of his support for democratic socialism.

Fitzgerald voted for Lewis George because she would stand up to Trump and said he’d first learned of her campaign from friends in his neighborhood. But he didn’t know she was a democratic socialist until he saw news reports describing her with the label.

“It sends a cultural message to this administration that the people who are surrounding them in the capital are opposed to their platform, opposed to their political agenda, and I think that it will send a message, both nationally and internationally,” Fitzgerald said.

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By Nate Raymond

June 18 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned a judge’s ruling that prevented President Donald Trump’s administration from replacing a slavery exhibit in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.

The ruling by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a judge’s injunction won by the city in February after the National Park Service removed an exhibit describing the ownership of enslaved people by ​George Washington, the first U.S. president.

The exhibit was removed from the President’s House, as the site at the park is known, after Trump last year signed an executive order targeting what he called a “revisionist movement” that portrayed the United States as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”

The Republican president’s order directed the Interior Department to make changes to parks nationwide, leading the National Park Service in January to remove from the historic site an exhibit about nine enslaved people who had lived at Washington’s house.

The Democratic-led city of Philadelphia sued, arguing that the exhibit’s removal breached agreements with the city that gave it a right to be consulted on alterations and matters of importance to the park.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe agreed, granting the injunction. But U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman, writing for a three-judge 3rd Circuit panel, concluded that the exhibit’s removal did not legally constitute an “agency action” subject to court review under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, which governs agency rules.

Hardiman, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, said the National Park Service has presented plans to install replacement panels that are “full of historical context,” discussing the nine enslaved people while stating Washington often expressed a desire to see slavery abolished.

“They acknowledge the evil of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the story of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President’s House, remind us of their essential humanity,” Hardiman said.

A spokesperson for the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service, issued a brief statement after Thursday’s decision: “Trust in Trump.”

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, in a social media post vowed to “pursue every legal action possible to reverse this decision.”

“We cannot and WILL not rest until the full story of American history – including the existence of Slavery at the President’s House here in Philadelphia – is told, for our Nation and the World to see,” she wrote.

While the 3rd Circuit overturned Rufe’s decision, the original exhibit may still need to be reinstalled under a separate ruling issued on Friday by a different judge in Boston who ordered the restoration of all exhibits removed from national park sites nationwide under Trump’s directive.

That judge, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, shortly after the 3rd Circuit ruled, declined to pause her injunction while the administration appeals.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham and Bill Berkrot)

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By Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that something should be done to stop mail-in voting in Utah ahead of the state’s primaries next week.

“It seems as though the Great State of Utah, which I won each time, and handily, is going to the All Mail In Ballot format of Colorado, and the rest, that always head LEFT, as soon as the move is made,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He added, “We should stop Utah from doing this.”

Utah and Colorado are among fewer than a dozen U.S. states that allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

The Republican president said, without evidence, that mail-in ballots would provide Democrats an opportunity to cheat. 

Utah’s Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, a Republican who oversees elections in the state, said more than 90% of voters in the state choose to vote by mail, which she describes as secure.

“Since implementing vote by mail, Utah has gone from having one of the lowest voter participation rates in the country to one of the highest,” Henderson said. “As Utah has demonstrated, HOW you vote doesn’t change who you vote for, it simply makes you a better voter.”

The state’s Democratic Party said it opposes any federal effort to roll back vote-by-mail in Utah, calling Trump’s comments “insulting” to residents of the state.

Trump, who himself voted by mail earlier this year, has repeatedly taken issue with mail-in ballots.

In March, he signed an executive order tightening rules on mail-in voting nationwide, including directing his administration to compile a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state.

Trump directed the U.S. Justice Department last month to investigate what he alleged was an “illegal” move by Maryland to send out 500,000 mail-in ballots, a claim that was rejected by state officials.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; editing by Michelle Nichols)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Janeese Lewis George, who pledged to aggressively stand up to federal intervention into Washington, D.C.’s affairs, won Tuesday’s Democratic primary for mayor, setting up a potential showdown with the Trump administration over its moves to challenge the city’s limited autonomy.

In an overwhelmingly Democratic city, Lewis George is likely to take the top spot in November’s general election, replacing moderate Muriel Bowser, who decided not to run again after three terms.

Lewis George joins Robert White Jr., who won the Democratic primary for the district’s delegate to Congress, as the top local officials who likely will contend with the federal government’s intentions for the city. They each campaigned on a promise to take a harder line than their predecessors against the Trump administration’s moves on the district, including its deployment of the National Guard on an ongoing, open-ended mission meant to fight crime.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday, Lewis George said she hoped she could work together with the administration “as every mayor has had to work with any president of the United States, no matter their party.”

But, she said, she would oppose actions that threaten the city’s residents.

“We are not going to be able to stand up for our autonomy and fight for D.C. statehood ultimately, by just complying in advance,” Lewis George said. “I have also been very clear that I will work with anyone including the president for the best interest of D.C. residents.”

Washington has limited autonomy and federal leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C. Council.

President Donald Trump further encroached on that autonomy last year when he briefly federalized the city’s police force and deployed an ongoing law enforcement surge that included the National Guard. Trump’s efforts to downsize the federal government also roiled the capital region, costing thousands of people their jobs. He has also been reshaping the city by renovating storied landmarks and putting his name or image on buildings.

Lewis George, a self-described democratic socialist and a member of the D.C. Council, has already come under fire from Trump, who last week threatened to place the city under federal control if she won.

“Maybe we’d take back Washington, run it on the federal basis,” he said.

Her main opponent, former D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie, conceded the race Thursday and said he had contacted Lewis George to congratulate her.

“While the final certification process will continue, it is clear that the voters have chosen a different path,” he said in a statement. He wished Lewis George luck in the general election and called on his supporters to continue working.

Lewis George, 38 and a third generation Washingtonian, has vowed to overrule an executive order by the city’s police chief permitting local law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Lewis George argued the order “hurt the trust of our community.”

Lewis George also vowed to use any levers available to her through the city’s home rule compact to resist what she called authoritarian infringements on the district’s local governance.

“We have legal tools we can use to fight back,” she told The Associated Press in an interview before the vote. “And we know that when we have gone to court, we’ve won.”

Bowser found herself walking a fine line between staying in Trump’s good graces and responding to the concerns of constituents, many of whom said she didn’t push back hard enough on Trump’s actions. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the 18-term, 89-year-old delegate to Congress, meanwhile, faced mounting concern from critics who said she wasn’t forcefully pushing back on the Trump administration’s moves against the city.

Lewis George has also made affordability a top priority and her platform has included issues like rent support as well as ending below minimum wage pay for tipped employees and controlling high utility rates.

Tuesday’s primary marked the first time in a generation that D.C. residents voted for a new mayor and delegate in the same election. It was also the city’s first election using ranked choice voting.

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