Politics

By Erin Banco

NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) – Democrats in the U.S. Senate called on the Trump administration on Wednesday to provide regular election  security briefings ahead of the November midterm elections, claiming they’ve received only one.

• Congress normally receives election security briefings on threats to critical infrastructure or attempts by foreign adversaries to influence the outcome of the vote.

• Democratic senators said they have only received one briefing, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Requests for similar briefings from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) were ignored, lawmakers said in a letter.

• “No meaningful steps have been taken to coordinate information sharing and incident response between Executive Branch agencies or to ensure timely information dissemination to election stakeholders,” the letter said.

• The Trump administration last year cut staff from key offices at the FBI and DHS responsible for safeguarding elections.

• Democrats have raised concerns about efforts by the administration to re-investigate disproven claims that President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

(Reporting by Erin Banco in New York; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Mark Porter)

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WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement through the remainder of President Donald Trump’s administration.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Chris Reese)

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Republican-turned-independent Rep. Kevin Kiley and former Democratic state Sen. Richard Pan advanced to the November election Tuesday in a Northern California congressional district while a progressive Democrat advanced to face Republican Rep. David Valadao in a Central Valley one.

The races set up significant tests of whether Democrats’ redraw of California’s House maps will pay off for the party.

Several other major U.S. House races also were set Tuesday as California’s protracted vote count from the state’s June 2 primary ground on. Two Republicans will face each other in a Southern California House district drawn to end one of their careers. And a Sacramento seat will become a high-profile generational clash between two Democrats.

But the most attention was on two districts in the vast midsection of the state that will help determine whether Democrats can claim victory in California’s role in the mid-decade redistricting wars. Both will be crucial to determine which party controls the U.S. House in this year’s midterm elections.

Progressive Randy Villegas, a political science professor and school board member, on Tuesday beat the favored pick of establishment Democrats, moderate Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, to advance to the November election against Valadao, a perennial target whose district Democrats redrew to shift further to the left.

Democrats narrowly beat Valadao in their 2018 wave, only to see him win back the seat in 2020. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee threw its weight behind Bains, but Villegas won the primary and will test whether progressives or moderates are best positioned to face the resilient Republican.

“Voters in the Central Valley have spoken and they have declared that the Valley is not for sale,” Villegas said in a statement.

Republicans had hoped to face Villegas.

“Socialist Randy Villegas clawed his way out of a bruising Democrat primary by sprinting to the far left and embracing the same failed policies that made California unaffordable for working families,” said Christian Martinez, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, in a statement.

For a few days after last week’s primary, California’s 6th District near Sacramento was a possible warning sign for Democrats, as Kiley and a long-shot Republican who ran on peace in the Mideast held the top two slots in the nonpartisan primary. But the state’s slow but regular tally of late Democratic mail ballots catapulted Pan onto the November ballot.

Democrats broke up Kiley’s conservative Northern California district, so the congressman opted to run in the new, Democratic-leaning district, left the GOP and became a vocal opponent of partisan redistricting.

“This race will be a choice between the extreme partisan politics that have made California the most unaffordable state in the country, and the independent leadership that allows our local communities to thrive,” Kiley said in a statement.

California Democrats scrambled their map to counter gains Republicans made in Texas and elsewhere after President Donald Trump called for the GOP to create as many conservative seats as possible in its bid to hold onto the House of Representatives in November.

California’s 52 House races provided a miniature of national trends. That included the fallout from redistricting ahead of this year’s midterm elections, this time with Democrats redrawing the map, the generational battle among Democrats and questions of whether moderates or liberals are better positioned to win in swing districts.

In more fallout from redistricting, Republican Rep. Young Kim on Tuesday advanced to the November election. She will face fellow Republican Rep. Ken Calvert after Democrats drew them both into a single district, guaranteeing that one would not return to Congress next year.

“Throughout this campaign, we made the case that after more than three decades in Washington, it is time for fresh conservative leadership, and I look forward to continuing that conversation with voters in the months ahead,” Kim said in a statement.

Calvert replied in his own statement: “Voters throughout the district recognize I’m an effective member of Congress with a history of delivering results, cutting taxes and making life more affordable.”

Also on Tuesday, a major generational Democratic clash was set up as Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang advanced to face longtime incumbent Rep. Doris Matsui on the November ballot.

The 81-year-old congresswoman has held the Sacramento-based seat since the death of her husband, former Rep. Bob Matsui, in 2005. Bob Matsui had represented the district since the 1970s.

Vang, 41, is one of a slew of Democrats across the nation mounting an explicitly generational challenge in the wake of Joe Biden’s presidency.

“People are tired of leaders who answer to their biggest donors instead of the families they represent,” Vang said in a statement after the race was called. “The squeeze on working families doesn’t check your party registration — and neither will I.”

Matsui released her first ad of the general election Tuesday night, focusing on a local mother whose son had muscular dystrophy and who praised Matsui for legislation funding therapies for the disease.

Two other veteran House Democrats in California also made it past younger challengers to the November ballot. Rep. Brad Sherman, 72, a 15-term congressman representing part of Los Angeles, will face a Republican in the fall. Mike Thompson, 75, is seeking his 13th term in a Northern California district.

In San Francisco, a wealthy progressive challenger was unable to crack the top two slots to fill retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat. Instead, state Sen. Scott Wiener and city Supervisor Connie Chan will face off to replace the former House speaker.

The 7th District seat held by Matsui is considered a safe one for Democrats, but was redrawn as part of the party’s bid to add five more U.S. House seats elsewhere. Voters signed off on the changes with a constitutional amendment last year.

Democrats initially were concerned about getting locked out of the general election in a San Diego-area seat under the state’s primary system, which sends the top two vote-getters to the November ballot regardless of party. But San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert managed to emerge from a large field of other Democrats and will face Republican Jim Desmond, a San Diego County supervisor.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The race for California governor this fall will be a battle between a Democrat promising to cement the state’s status as a stronghold of liberal policies and a Republican pledging to dramatically reverse course in the nation’s most populous state.

Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator backed by President Donald Trump, has won enough votes to advance to the general election, The Associated Press determined Tuesday. He’ll face Democrat Xavier Becerra, a former state attorney general and health secretary under President Joe Biden.

The winner will succeed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to lead the state that is home to roughly 39 million people, Hollywood, a booming tech industry and a vast farming region that helps feed the nation. By itself California represents one of the largest economies in the world.

The next governor will have to take on stubborn issues including a high cost of living, housing shortages and homelessness.

Hilton is banking his campaign on voters being frustrated enough to do something they have not done in two decades: elect a Republican to statewide office. The last time that happened was when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won a second term in 2006. Hilton has campaigned as an outsider who would bring change after more than 15 years of one-party rule.

“If you’re happy with the way that California is being run, Xavier Becerra is your guy,” Hilton said in a recent interview. “If you want change, vote for me.”

But simply having an ‘R’ next to his name stacks the odds against Hilton, since Republicans make up just about 25% of registered voters compared with Democrats’ 45%. Trump’s endorsement likely boosted Hilton with GOP voters during the primary but could be a major liability in the general election.

Becerra was a chief architect of the state’s resistance to Trump during the first years of his presidency after then-Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, appointed him attorney general in 2017. In that role Becerra filed at least 120 legal actions against the federal government.

Becerra has made pushing back against Trump’s incursions a central piece of this campaign, as the president has repeatedly gone after the state during his second term including by curbing a signature plan to reduce planet-warning emissions from cars, withholding aid for wildfire recovery and suing over state policies supporting transgender student-athletes.

“Donald Trump is doubling down on decline and counting on people being too fearful, distracted or gullible to fight back,” Becerra told a crowd on primary night. “As governor I will never back down from the threats of small cowards in big offices.”

It took nearly a week to determine the general election matchup for governor due to California’s notoriously slow vote-counting process. Ballots are mailed to every eligible voter and they are counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at an election office within seven days. Counties process and count mail ballots in roughly the order they are received, so the last ones returned are the last ones counted.

The AP determined Friday that Becerra had won enough votes to advance to November. Hilton had been vying for a second spot against Democrat Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund manager turned climate activist who poured $215 million of his personal fortune into the campaign and blasted Californians’ screens with ads.

Steyer steadily narrowed Hilton’s lead for second place every day since Election Day on June 2. But he was never on track to fully close the gap. The AP advanced Hilton to the general election on Tuesday after determining there weren’t enough outstanding votes for Steyer to catch Hilton.

Election data shows that large numbers of Democratic voters held onto their ballots until the final days of the election. That helped explain why Steyer did better than Hilton in the votes counted after Election Day.

Steyer conceded Tuesday and urged his supporters to back Becerra.

“It would be a travesty for Steve Hilton to win the governorship, and Californians must unite behind Xavier Becerra to ensure he does not,” he said in a statement.

How to make the state more affordable was a major theme throughout the primary. Hilton promised to make Californians’ first $100,000 free of income tax, create a loan program for first-time homebuyers and freeze in-state tuition at public colleges. Becerra, meanwhile, said he would declare states of emergency to address high energy costs and housing shortages and to freeze home insurance rates.

The two have one thing in common: They both come from immigrant backgrounds.

Hilton moved to California from the United Kingdom in 2012 and became a citizen in 2021. Back in the U.K., he was an adviser to Conservative Party officials including former Prime Minister David Cameron.

Hilton has poked fun at his British accent by comparing himself to the Austria-born Schwarzenegger.

“I know that some of you may be watching and saying, ‘Who is this guy with a funny accent?’” he said on election night. “Well you know there was actually an immigrant who was governor of California not that long ago.”

Becerra was born to Mexican immigrant parents in Sacramento and also raised there. He said his family’s story mirrored his “underdog” campaign for governor.

“Like my parents, I never gave up,” he told supporters on election night. “I never stopped believing in the beaconlike goodness of California. And thankfully, neither did you.”

Becerra would be the state’s first Latino governor since the late 1800s.

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Associated Press journalists Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington contributed.

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By Erin Banco

NEW YORK, June 9 (Reuters) – Staff at the office of the top U.S. spy have been told by managers to expect extensive cuts in the coming months following comments by President Donald Trump that he wants the new interim director to shrink the agency’s ranks, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Trump announced last week that he would appoint federal housing regulator Bill Pulte as interim Director of National Intelligence when Tulsi Gabbard leaves her post later this month, a decision that has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and some Republicans given Pulte’s lack of intelligence experience.

Trump said he thought Pulte should make further staff cuts at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, an agency created after the attacks of September 11, 2001, to coordinate the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies and which some Republicans say has become bloated. 

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview last week. 

The sources were granted anonymity to speak about sensitive internal matters. 

Gabbard has already cut the workforce of the agency by about 40% since taking up the position last year. It is unclear how many staff remain at the agency, which had more than 1,000 people previously.

Following Gabbard’s restructuring last year, some employees found their jobs eliminated, though they were not fired and instead labeled as “excess to need,” two of the sources said.

Some of those employees have since left the agency. Others were told by agency management in recent weeks that they would likely not be placed in another permanent position and that they should seek employment elsewhere, the sources said.

“Trump’s announcement has essentially accelerated their exit,” one of those sources said. 

An intelligence official told Reuters that all those employees had already “moved on to other opportunities.”

Asked for comment on more cuts expected at the agency, ODNI spokeswoman Olivia Coleman said that Gabbard’s initial workforce reduction saved “nearly $1 billion, making the agency exponentially more efficient and effective in delivering results for the American people.”

TENSIONS BETWEEN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

Pulte’s appointment as interim Director of National Intelligence comes amid a turf war between ODNI and the CIA – a rift that originated with Gabbard’s formation of a task force with the stated goal of “rooting out” politicization from the intelligence community. 

The infighting has led to a breakdown in collaboration between the agencies, particularly on analytical products, as Reuters previously reported.

Further cuts at ODNI would likely reduce the number of staff assisting the National Intelligence Council, the premier analytical group inside the intelligence community, one of the sources familiar with the matter said.   

That group has already faced setbacks following Gabbard’s cuts last year, which included the firing of two CIA officers who served on the NIC. 

The CIA is also no longer contributing to some of the council’s intelligence assessments as a result of its tensions with ODNI, people familiar with the matter have said.

Some Republicans have called for the abolishment of ODNI, arguing the agency has become too big. 

“I’ve long advocated for downsizing, if not outright eliminating this bureaucracy,” said Senator Tom Cotton, the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, on X last week. 

Pulte’s appointment has also complicated efforts to reauthorize a key surveillance authority, with Democrats threatening to block the renewal unless Trump reconsiders his decision. Pulte’s critics say he is likely to further politicize the intelligence community, citing his lack of experience and loyalty to Trump.

The authority, known as FISA 702, allows U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor emails and other communications of foreigners located outside the United States without individual judicial warrants. The authority is set to expire Friday.     

(Reporting by Erin Banco; Editing by Don Durfee and Deepa Babington)

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Voters across Maine, Nevada, South Carolina and North Dakota headed to the polls Tuesday for another day of primaries in America.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

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June 9 (Reuters) – Former Maine Governor Paul LePage won the Republican nomination on Tuesday to run in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, U.S. media projected, setting up a November contest in a race that could help decide control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The district, which covers much of Maine’s forested interior, is considered a key battleground and one of a handful of competitive seats likely to play a decisive role in determining the balance of power in Congress.

LePage, a combative political figure who served two terms as governor, is seeking a return to elected office and is expected to mount a high-profile campaign.

He will face the Democratic nominee emerging from a crowded primary field that included state Senator Joe Baldacci and progressives Matt Dunlap, Jordan Wood and Paige Loud.

The seat will be open following the decision of centrist Democrat Jared Golden to not run for re-election. He had managed to hold the district despite its Republican leanings in presidential elections.

As with other Maine races, the final outcome may take time to confirm because of the state’s ranked-choice voting system.

(Editing by Michael Learmonth and Howard Goller)

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) – An oyster farmer and political newcomer besieged by questions about his sexting practices. A Republican congresswoman who was years ago branded “disloyal” and “nasty” by President Donald Trump.

These are two of the story lines we are watching on Tuesday as primary voters go to the polls in Maine, South Carolina, Nevada and North Dakota.

Graham Platner will likely be the winner of Maine’s U.S. Senate Democratic primary, even though his own party has the jitters over a New York Times report quoting former girlfriends saying he at times behaved in ways they described as unsettling.

Meanwhile, in the South Carolina primary for governor, Representative Nancy Mace could be the latest casualty of Trump’s efforts to topple fellow Republican officeholders after she demanded the release of the government’s Jeffrey Epstein files.

THE MAINE EVENT

Democrats had high hopes of capturing a U.S. Senate seat from Republicans in Maine, where five-term Senator Susan Collins is running for reelection at a time when voters are soured by high consumer prices and the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. 

Platner, a former combat Marine, built momentum on a pitch as a man of the people that resonated with moderates and progressives, drew substantial campaign funding and led Democratic Governor Janet Mills to suspend her primary bid.

Now, the married Platner is fighting off reports he sent sexually explicit texts to multiple women last year. Platner, 41, has apologized for the behavior and said he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The big question: Does any of this matter, considering that Trump himself has thrived politically despite successive controversies over his alleged extramarital activities including a videotape in which he is heard boasting of grabbing women’s genitals. The answer could determine whether Democrats can capture majority control of the Senate.

If Platner cannot put the controversy to rest, he could be facing intra-party pressure to drop out of the race by July 13, the deadline for putting a replacement on the November ballot.

GOLDEN MOMENT FOR REPUBLICANS?

Representative Jared Golden, one of the most moderate Democrats in the U.S. Congress, is retiring and Republicans can taste victory in the race for his replacement.

Former Republican Governor Paul LePage is running for the seat in a district that Trump won in 2024 and he has Trump’s “complete and total endorsement” as the president likes to say.

Three Democrats appeared to be locked in a tight race for their party’s nomination. This race could help define whether Republicans hold onto their narrow U.S. House majority.

ANOTHER TRUMP PRIMARY TARGET

Already in this year’s primary elections Trump-backed candidates have defeated Republican Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, John Cornyn of Texas and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

Will Representative Nancy Mace lose out too as she seeks the Republican nomination for governor? That is looking more and more likely following Trump’s late May endorsement of South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, who is running on an “America First” platform.

A crowded field could result in a June 23 runoff between the top two contenders. The Cook Political Report has raised the prospect of Mace failing to make the cut.

The Republican primary winner is expected to also win the November general election as it has been nearly three decades since a Democrat has been elected governor in this Republican-leaning state.

DEMOCRATS’ NEVADA GAMBLE

If Democrats are to win control of the House of Representatives in November they need to hang on to Nevada’s 3rd congressional district, a Las Vegas-area seat now held by Democrat Susie Lee.

Trump narrowly won the district in 2024, but Lee also won her race by nearly 7 percentage points and the seat is one of 13 that Trump won that are currently held by Democrats.

Lee is seeking renomination against cardiologist James Lally, a self-funded Republican-turned-Democrat who has infused his campaign with $1 million. 

Republicans have a four-way primary, led by three largely self-funded candidates: Trump-endorsed video game composer Marty O’Donnell, neurosurgeon Aury Nagy and former U.S. Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter. The fourth candidate is businesswoman Tera Anderson.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Michael Learmonth and Howard Goller)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters across Maine, Nevada, South Carolina and North Dakota head to the polls Tuesday for another day of primary elections in America, but much of the political world will be focused on Maine’s high-stakes U.S. Senate contest.

The results are not in question. Neither Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins nor Democratic challenger Graham Platner faces serious opposition for their party’s nomination. And yet Tuesday marks an especially significant moment for Platner, the embattled veteran and oyster farmer, who is fighting to rebuild his credibility in a campaign rocked by controversy.

Elsewhere, President Donald Trump’s clout within his party will be tested anew in states like South Carolina and Nevada, where he’s endorsed his favored candidates. Democrats hope to build momentum in Nevada in their broader push to reclaim key governor’s seats.

Powerful family ties will also be in the spotlight in Maine and South Carolina, where candidates with political pedigrees are running for office.

Here’s what we’re watching Tuesday.

Platner sits at the very center of the Democratic Party’s quest to reclaim the Senate majority this fall. So Democrats need him to take a significant step forward Tuesday, with the eyes of the nation watching, in the urgent task of rebuilding his credibility.

It was barely a week ago when revelations surfaced that Platner had engaged in sexually explicit messages with multiple women while married. Allies wondered if more baggage would emerge, and then The New York Times reported new allegations about his behavior during previous relationships.

There is no doubt that Platner will win his party’s Senate nomination Tuesday. His most serious opponent, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her campaign in April after it became clear Platner was in a commanding position. That said, Mills is still technically on the ballot and some advocates have suggested voting for her as a way to protest Platner.

More important, perhaps, will be Platner’s public remarks Tuesday night. Friends and foes alike will be paying close attention to how he addresses the evolving questions about his past and whether he can refocus the race on Collins.

It’s not just Platner who will be tested Tuesday — the Democratic Party itself will face new scrutiny about its standards in the Trump era.

So far, Platner’s biggest national supporters have remained firmly behind him. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of his earliest backers, reiterated his support for the Maine Democrat on Saturday, a day after Rep. Ro Khanna appeared alongside Platner at a campaign event.

The public show of support reflects how much Democratic politics have changed over the last decade.

At the height of the #MeToo movement, Democrats argued they held their candidates to a higher standard than Republicans, particularly as Trump faced a series of sexual misconduct allegations. Back in 2017, Democratic leaders pressured Sen. Al Franken to resign in the wake of allegations of inappropriate touching and kissing.

The reaction to Platner has been markedly different. Even after allegations surfaced that he locked a woman in a room, among other accusations of inappropriate behavior, most Democrats have declined to abandon him.

“I think President Trump set a new standard,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

Expect Democratic leaders to face a new round of difficult questions about their own standards after Tuesday’s primary.

Just a week ago, Trump’s pick for Iowa governor was defeated in a rare rebuke from his own party. Trump hopes to move past the political embarrassment during a fresh test of his political clout in South Carolina and Nevada.

The biggest may come in South Carolina, where Trump has endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in a five-person Republican gubernatorial primary. There are a number of other high-profile candidates in the race, including Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, who may prove formidable. State Attorney General Alan Wilson and millionaire Rom Reddy are also running.

Trump will also keep a close eye on whether one of his closest allies in Congress, Sen. Lindsey Graham, is forced into a runoff for the first time ever. Graham faces appliance business owner Mark Lynch, who Trump has said “would be a DISASTER for the Republican Party” if elected.

Candidates must earn a majority of the vote to avoid a June 23 runoff.

Meanwhile, in Nevada’s 2nd congressional district, Trump-backed candidate retired Lt. Col. David Flippo is facing former state Sen. James Settelmeyer. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, who announced his retirement from the seat, has endorsed Settelmeyer, as has the state’s governor, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.

Democrats will select a nominee for Nevada’s governor race, where they have a real opportunity to flip control of the swing state this fall. Republican incumbent Gov. Joe Lombardo is considered one of the most vulnerable governors in the country.

The race is a window into the broader political landscape this fall as Democrats go on the offensive in several states Trump won in 2024.

The Democrats vying to challenge Lombardo include state Attorney General Aaron Ford, who has the backing of the Democratic congressional delegation and former Vice President Kamala Harris. He would be the first Black man elected governor of Nevada. He’s facing Democrat Alexis Hill, a county commissioner in northern Nevada who campaigned as a candidate willing to shake things up.

Democrats are also fighting to win Republican-held governors’ seats in states like Georgia, Ohio and Iowa.

Republicans, of course, have several pickup opportunities of their own, despite the challenging political environment for their party. They include Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The power of political family ties will be tested in at least two states where candidates with last names you’ll likely recognize are on the ballot.

In Maine, Democrats Angus King III and Hannah Pingree are competing for their party’s nomination for governor. King is the businessman son of U.S. Sen. Angus King. Pingree, a former speaker of the state House, is the daughter of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, who has represented the state’s 1st congressional district since 2009.

There’s a member of an even bigger political dynasty on Maine’s ballot, too. Republican candidate for governor Jonathan Bush, a 57-year-old businessman, is the nephew of former President George H.W. Bush — and yes, that also makes him the cousin of former President George W. Bush. Despite the family ties, Jonathan Bush is casting himself as the outsider in the race and focusing heavily on his local business experience.

And don’t forget about South Carolina, where Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson is running for governor. While he has established his own resume as the state’s top law enforcement official, Wilson also happens to be the son of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, who has served South Carolina in the House of Representatives for a quarter century.

Just weeks ago, longtime Rep. James Clyburn, the dean of South Carolina Democrats, appeared to be facing the greatest threat to his political future.

Republican lawmakers, backed by Trump, considered a congressional map that would have significantly altered Clyburn’s majority-Black district and made it harder for him to hold onto the seat for an 18th term. But the Republican-led state Senate rejected the effort, leaving his district largely intact.

Clyburn is heavily favored in Tuesday’s Democratic primary against a little-known challenger. As South Carolina’s lone Democratic House member, he’s one of the party’s most influential figures, with many Democrats expecting him to play a significant role in the lead-up to the 2028 presidential race.

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Peoples reported from New York.

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A Democratic group that previously focused on presidential races is wading into the midterms by targeting more than a dozen House and Senate contests, many of them on Republican turf, in a new advertising campaign that begins Tuesday.

American Bridge 21st Century’s $50 million effort adds financial firepower to Democrats’ attempt to flip control of Congress in the midterm elections. The party has struggled to match Republicans’ fundraising, and it has lost ground in a nationwide redistricting battle that President Donald Trump initiated last year.

“We really have to maximize our wins and gains this year, particularly in Republican territory,” American Bridge co-founder Bradley Beychok said. “We are going all in.”

American Bridge, known for its opposition research, has been escalating its own advertising efforts. During the last presidential election, it announced plans to spend $140 million in an attempt to siphon away Trump’s support among rural voters.

Beychok said the idea for the midterms campaign was seeded last year, when he attended an inauguration rally and saw the slogan “Trump will fix it.”

“Trump made a big promise to these working-class voters that he was gonna bring down costs,” Beychok said. Now it’s clear, he said, “that Trump and Republicans really broke that covenant.”

The House seats American Bridge is targeting are in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. On the Senate side, they’re getting involved in races in Alaska, Iowa, Michigan and Mississippi.

The group passed on Senate races in states like Maine, North Carolina and Texas because it doesn’t expect those to lack resources.

The campaign will involve digital ads, streaming audio and television, social media, direct mail and radio.

Beychok said the organization is learning to focus on issues at a “visceral level,” and featuring specific voters so they can offer firsthand accounts of their experiences with the economy.

Making the pitch in American Bridge ads will be voters like Brad Singleton, a 50-year-old personal trainer from Walford, Iowa. Singleton said he was a Republican for 32 years until recently when dissatisfaction with the president led him to change registrations to Democratic.

For Singleton, the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was the start of his changing view of the president, who he said “threw a fit like a toddler” over the 2020 election results. But by 2024, he voted for Trump again, persuaded by the Make American Healthy Again movement.

“I immediately regretted it,” Singleton said. “Because of the economy, because of this war with Iran, because so many things that have happened.”

“I feel like Donald Trump cares about himself and his millionaire buddies,” he added. “He does not care about me.”

Jill Kordick, 64, a retired health care administrator from Norwalk, Iowa, is another voter featured in the group’s ads.

A registered independent, she described her political views as moderate to progressive. She said Trump’s second term has spurred her to get more involved in politics, such as attending No Kings rallies and speaking up at meetings with lawmakers.

Kordick said she’s aware how challenging it could be to flip Republican-leaning districts, and she’s asking herself how best to bring people who feel like the president let them down to the Democrats’ side.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be easy,” she said. “I think there has to be some way to invite people to the table so that they can feel better about how they vote and not feel so stuck or embarrassed by what they voted for in the past.”

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Catalini reported from Morrisville, Pennsylvania.

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