Politics

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Democrats say they want to vote in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate primary for the candidate who gives the party its best chance to flip a Republican-held seat in November.

Some just haven’t decided which of the two state lawmakers in the race fits the bill.

“I am having a lot of trouble,” said Mike Lazere, a 65-year-old Democrat who always votes on Election Day.

State Rep. Josh Turek and state Sen. Zach Wahls are seeking the nomination for the seat held by retiring Sen. Joni Ernst in the state where Republicans have an advantage but Democrats think they could have a chance.

It means the primary choice carries high stakes for Iowa’s Democratic voters, who haven’t had many recent examples of successful statewide candidates to help guide their decision. The last Democrat to win federal office statewide was President Barack Obama in 2012. All six members of the federal delegation are Republicans, and the GOP has had a statehouse trifecta for nearly a decade. The most recent Democratic U.S. senator from Iowa, Tom Harkin, was elected in 2008 and retired from office six years later.

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson is running for the GOP nomination, and a Republican-aligned political group has already pledged $29 million to defend the seat.

Turek and Wahls say the differences between them are clear, but voters still weighing their options disagree.

“They both have strong legislative records. They both have compelling stories. I think they both share my values,” Lazere said Thursday outside of the Ames public library, where Story County Democrats had just held their monthly meeting.

“Since they’re so close, I just want the candidate who is more likely to have a chance,” he said. “It’s an uphill battle, probably, in Iowa still.”

At the Des Moines Farmers’ Market last weekend, where both candidates waded through the crowds, Sundie Ruppert shouted her support for Turek as he passed by her tent, saying he had her vote.

Ruppert called the race an “embarrassment of riches,” something that’s been rare as of late. She said the two stand for “virtually everything the same,” so for her, it’s a matter of who can win the crossover support to get over the finish line in November.

Turek, a four-time wheelchair basketball Paralympian born with spina bifida, says his story of overcoming adversity and his politics appeal to independent and moderate Republican voters. He represents a state House district that supported President Donald Trump.

Turek said he’s laser-focused on securing a livable wage, health care access and drinkable water, not the culture-war issues that he said Republicans use to distract voters from the core problems they are facing.

“I’m not gonna get dragged down the rabbit hole of worrying about these distraction issues,” Turek said in an interview.

“I think that if we are going to win again in a state like Iowa, it is going be a message of economic populism,” he said. “It is going to be that we as a Democratic Party stand for the workers and for the middle class. That’s the way forward.”

Ruppert said she thinks general election voters are more likely to vote for Turek, even if they “have to hold their nose.”

“We’ve got to get the independents,” she said. “I do believe that Josh in a red district has better pull than Wahls.”

About 37 miles (60 kilometers) north in Ames on Thursday, Shellie Orngard said she’s heard that logic and doesn’t buy it.

Orngard said both are good people and strong candidates, but Wahls strikes her as “somebody with real character behind his convictions.”

“I think that whether you’re Democrat or Republican or independent, you appreciate authenticity and real values,” Orngard said. “I think Zach Wahls just seems to have the character that I feel he’s the person that I want to put my vote behind.”

Wahls says he’s the candidate willing to defy leadership in both parties, and he has criticized Turek for not rejecting Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer as caucus leader.

He says his anti-establishment message is winning back the working-class voters, especially common across eastern Iowa, who supported Obama before they pivoted to Trump.

“We’re not just talking about building a coalition that can win in November, we are already doing it,” he said. “These are voters who are not hardcore MAGA Trump Republicans. A lot of them are just really frustrated with both parties, they don’t trust Washington, they don’t trust the establishment.”

“And what we hear from people all the time is, ‘Even if we don’t agree on every issue, if you are willing to take them on, you’ve got my vote,’” Wahls said.

Iowa has shifted considerably since Obama’s win in 2012, voting for Trump in the last three presidential elections. Democrats lag Republicans by roughly 200,000 registered voters statewide.

Rob Sand, state auditor and candidate for governor, was the only Democrat to win statewide in 2022.

Nearly 30,000 Democrats have already cast their ballots as of Friday, according to data from the secretary of state’s office. Still, in Ellston on Wednesday, many of the two dozen southwest Iowa Democrats waiting to hear from Turek said they’d rely on a gut feeling.

“As far as I’m concerned, Ashley Hinson has got to be beat,” said Lynne Wallace, a 67-year-old from Mount Ayr. The staunch Democrat said she’d support either candidate in the general election, already eager to make calls and knock on doors, but added that she’s got “shaky faith” that either Democrat can pull it off.

Lois Rose, 77, and her 79-year-old husband, John, said at the Des Moines farmers’ market that they might not vote in the primary at all since they, so far, hadn’t been able to make up their minds on whether one candidate is stronger than the other.

She suggested the pair could also coordinate their votes, each casting a ballot for one of the two. John liked the idea.

“They’re both so qualified,” said Lois Rose of West Des Moines. “They’re both very genuine, hence the difficulty.”

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By Joseph Ax

May 29 (Reuters) – Louisiana Republicans on Friday approved a new congressional map that dismantles a Democratic-held, majority-Black seat, boosting their party’s odds of retaining the U.S. House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections.

The state joined several other Republican-led Southern states that have rushed to break up Democratic seats with significant Black populations after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in April severely weakened legal protections for such districts.

The map, which passed the state House of Representatives on Thursday, was approved 28-10 by the state Senate on Friday along party lines. The bill now goes to Republican Governor Jeff Landry, who is expected to sign it.

Republicans hold four of the state’s six districts under a map drawn in 2024 to comply with a court order mandating the creation of a second district with a Black majority or near-majority, under the federal Voting Rights Act. Black Democrats represent the two districts with large Black populations.

But the Supreme Court struck down the 2024 map as an illegal racial gerrymander, a ruling that opened the door for Louisiana and other states to take aim at majority-minority districts that had previously enjoyed more robust guardrails.

Landry postponed the May 16 U.S. House primary elections to give lawmakers time to draw the new map, which breaks up Democratic U.S. Representative Cleo Fields’ Baton Rouge-centered district. At the time of Landry’s order, thousands of mail ballots had already been cast, and voting rights advocates warned the decision would cause confusion and chaos for voters.

Democratic lawmakers criticized the map as an effort to disenfranchise Black voters, while Republicans argued that they drew the lines solely based on partisanship, not race.

The wave of Southern redistricting efforts is the latest front in a national redistricting war that started last summer, when President Donald Trump pushed Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional map to target incumbent Democrats.

Republicans have emerged as the redistricting victors, gaining an advantage in as many as 10 seats pending the outcome of legal challenges.

But Democrats remain well positioned to capture a U.S. House majority in November in light of Trump’s sagging approval ratings and voter frustration over rising costs.

(Reporting by Joseph AxEditing by Nick Zieminski)

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By David Shepardson and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service would require states to provide lists of voters who received mailed ballots as part of new rules proposed on Friday, one day after a federal judge declined to immediately block President Donald Trump’s related executive order.

The USPS proposal, published in a Federal Register notice, would require states to give the USPS the names and barcodes tied to their mail-in ballots for federal elections, but it would not apply to primary elections. The public has 30 days to comment on the plan before the Trump administration can finalize it.

The Postal Service is proposing to require states also provide unique barcodes applied to the outbound and return ballot mail envelopes, saying it “will help determine adherence to federal law and facilitate law enforcement efforts.”

On Thursday, Washington-based U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols declined to block Trump’s March 31 order on mail-in ballots but did not say whether it was lawful.

A judge in Boston has set a hearing for Tuesday on a separate lawsuit filed by Democratic state attorneys general against Trump, the USPS, and others challenging the voting order.

The order also directed the administration to use federal data to help state election officials verify who is ⁠eligible to vote, required the Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list, and required states to preserve election-related records ​for five years.

A group of Democratic senators said the order illegally seeks to transform USPS “into an election administration agency with the power to determine who can vote by mail and to establish ballot specifications.”

Trump, a Republican, has ‌for years pushed the false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud and has called for tighter rules on voting by mail ahead of the November midterm elections.

In March 2025, Trump forced out ⁠Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Current Postmaster General David Steiner has warned the USPS could run out of money by early next year.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Susan Heavey; additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Rod Nickel)

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump endorsed two Republican gubernatorial candidates Friday, wading into contests in South Carolina and Iowa that have pitted allies against each other in a fierce competition for their party leader’s blessing.

In a pair of social media posts, Trump gave his backing to South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Iowa Rep. Randy Feenstra, as primary elections in both states approach.

Iowa’s primary is Tuesday, and South Carolina’s is on June 9.

For two terms, Evette has served alongside Gov. Henry McMaster, one of Trump’s earliest backers during his first presidential campaign. Earlier this year, the long-serving governor endorsed his No. 2, telegraphing to some that Trump’s backing could be next.

On Friday, Trump expressed both appreciation for Evette and the state she represents, noting that she stumped for him in 2024. He also said “A BIG added plus” for her campaign is that Henry McMaster Jr. — the sitting governor’s son — may be Evette’s running mate.

In the deep red state of South Carolina, the competition for the president’s support has been the most intense part of the primary race.

In a separate post, Trump described Feenstra as “MAGA all the way” and said he would “fight tirelessly” for the state on issues including the economy, border security and support of law enforcement.

Both Evette and Feenstra have been vocal about wanting Trump’s endorsement, in the hopes that it would carry weight in states that helped propel Trump’s return to office in 2024. Feenstra said earlier this year that he asked for Trump’s support, and much of Evette’s campaign media has featured photos of her next to Trump.

Along with Feenstra, four other Republicans — state Rep. Eddie Andrews, businessman and former conservative political director Zach Lahn, former state Rep. Brad Sherman and former director of the state Department of Administrative Services Adam Steen — are in the primary to replace outgoing Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who opted out of a third bid.

Evette is competing for the South Carolina nomination against Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Ralph Norman and state Attorney General Alan Wilson.

Both states are having their first competitive Republican gubernatorial primaries in years, with Reynolds and McMaster in office for roughly a decade each.

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Hannah Fingerhut contributed reporting from Des Moines, Iowa.

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

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge has said that New Hampshire must make voter registration easier by allowing applicants to attest to their U.S. citizenship if they don’t have the documents to prove it.

The case was seen as the first major legal test of an election reform that has been pushed nationally by President Donald Trump and has gained favor among many Republicans, though U.S. District Court Judge Samantha Elliot said she was not deciding whether requiring proof of citizenship itself is constitutional. Her ruling late Thursday night on a narrower question of New Hampshire law was significant, however, because it underscored the potential perils of implementing strict requirements for voters to document their U.S. citizenship so they can cast a ballot.

Elliot found that changes in 2024 to the state voter registration law unconstitutionally removed one method of proof — namely, a voter’s sworn affidavit attesting to citizenship.

“The evidence shows that this is the only method of proof available to a significant number of New Hampshire voters,” she wrote.

The changes took effect last year, after former Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, signed the bill two years ago. The attorney general’s office said it plans to appeal the judge’s ruling, calling the citizenship requirements a “common-sense approach to voter registration and election administration designed to protect the integrity of our elections.”

The ruling was a win for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and other plaintiffs who argued that the changes that took effect last year were burdensome and unnecessary.

“New Hampshire’s elections have always been safe, secure, and accurate — and this law could have unconstitutionally and needlessly prevented thousands of eligible voters from casting a ballot,” said Henry Klementowicz, deputy legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire.

In her ruling, Elliott said eliminating the affidavit option created a significant burden for voters and did little, if anything, to further the state’s interests. She noted that an expert on voter fraud found only 47 instances of wrongful voting out of roughly 8.3 million votes between 1998 and 2024. During that time, only eight noncitizens may have cast ballots, she said.

“If wrongful voting is rare in New Hampshire, wrongful voting by noncitizens is essentially non-existent,” she wrote.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Coalition for Open Democracy, the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire, the Forward Foundation and five voters, called the state’s voter registration law one of the most restrictive in the nation. During town elections last fall, some voters had trouble gathering passports, birth certificates or other proof of citizenship.

New Hampshire is not the only state with a proof-of-citizenship law for voters. Arizona, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming have similar laws already in effect, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Florida passed a law this year requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote, but it won’t take effect until next year.

A similar law in Kansas, which required proof of citizenship for state and federal elections, was found in 2018 to violate both the U.S. Constitution and the National Voter Registration Act after it prevented more than 31,000 citizens from registering to vote.

Arizona established a two-tiered system after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the state could not require citizenship documentation for federal elections. In August 2024, the court allowed some parts of the state’s proof-of-citizenship law to be enforced as the legal fight continued in lower courts.

The ruling comes as Trump is trying to push a proof-of-citizenship bill, the SAVE America Act, through Congress. Voting rights advocates say such a federal requirement could disenfranchise millions of people. A 2025 University of Maryland study estimated that 21.3 million Americans who are eligible to vote do not have or have easy access to documents to prove their citizenship, including nearly 10% of Democrats, 7% of Republicans and 14% of people unaffiliated with either major party.

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said he will reimplement the use of voter affidavits for registrants to prove citizenship, but noted the ruling doesn’t affect other 2024 changes to the law, including a requirement that those registering to vote provide documentary proof of identity, age and address. Voters also will continue to be required to show proof of identity on Election Day.

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Carr Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana enacted a new map of congressional districts Friday that is designed to help Republicans pick up a seat while eliminating one of the state’s two majority-Black House districts, both of which are represented by Democrats.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the plan hours after it overwhelmingly passed the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature.

Approval of the new House map came a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s current map — with its two majority-Black districts — as an illegal racial gerrymander, weakening the landmark 1965 federal Voting Rights Act. That decision intensified a national redistricting battle fueled by President Donald Trump’s efforts to protect Republicans’ slim U.S. House majority in the midterm elections. Louisiana is one of several Southern states now redrawing their maps to help Republicans.

Louisiana Republicans had considered drawing a map giving the party a shot at winning all six of the state’s U.S. House seats. But that would have required adding more registered Democrats to Republican-held districts, potentially backfiring with GOP losses.

The map approved Friday in a 28-10 state Senate vote along party lines reflected Republican arguments that a 5-1 map is safer for the GOP and better protects U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson from facing a difficult reelection. Republicans currently hold four of Louisiana’s six congressional seats.

Democrats contend that the new map is racially gerrymandered to squeeze more Black voters — who tend to be registered Democrats — into a single district.

Democratic state Sen. Royce Duplessis pointed out during floor debate Friday that some other Southern states, such as South Carolina, had refused to redraw their maps in the middle of an election year, and said Louisiana is participating in a “vicious, vicious race to the bottom.”

The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. Jay Morris, repeatedly insisted that party affiliation, not race, drove district boundaries.

“I purposely put more Democrats into District 2 to make the remaining districts better performing for Republicans,” Morris said at one point.

Morris said he told the map demographers to avoid including any data on race or including those statistics in information shared with lawmakers before the vote.

Democratic state Sen. Sam Jenkins told Morris, “I think it’s a racially gerrymandered district that’s going to get us into a lot of trouble here.”

“Agree to disagree,” Morris told Jenkins.

Louisiana is currently using a map ordered by a lower court in 2024 to comply with the Voting Rights Act by including a second district with a majority-Black population.

That map, however, was challenged in court, and the Supreme Court responded on April 30 by striking it down as an illegal racial gerrymander.

Landry postponed the state’s closed U.S. House primary slated for May 16. He later signed a law making the U.S. primary open and shifted the date to Nov. 3 to allow time for Republican lawmakers to draw and pass a new map. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will be on the ballot for voters in their district.

The new map redraws Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields’ district, clustering it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana. It also adds part of Baton Rouge to a heavily Democratic, majority-Black district based in New Orleans currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.

More lawsuits were expected over the new map.

Democrats say the map could draw a legal challenge over racial gerrymandering, and the ACLU of Louisiana suggested Friday that it could sue, calling the map a “racial gerrymander hiding behind the thin veneer of partisanship” and warning that “this fight is just beginning.”

Meanwhile, the victorious plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision criticized the Legislature’s map earlier this week for leaving a majority-Black district in place.

In the weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision, several other Republican-controlled Southern states have seized upon a weakened federal Voting Rights Act to try to redraw their own congressional districts.

So far, Republicans are winning the redistricting contest. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will win a narrowly divided U.S. House in November. Republicans think they could gain as many as 15 seats from their redistricting efforts so far, while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.

Meanwhile, a court decision in Wisconsin on Friday could give Democrats a new avenue to pick up seats in 2028.

The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal of a case filed by a bipartisan coalition of business executives that seeks to redraw the state’s Republican-friendly congressional districts. Republicans hold six of the state’s eight House seats, but only two are considered competitive.

A three-judge panel dismissed the case in April. Those who filed the lawsuit weren’t seeking a ruling in time for the 2026 election. Instead, they are asking the state Supreme Court to send the case back to the lower court for a trial on their claims, which would likely not take place until 2027.

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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show that Landry ultimately postponed Louisiana’s closed U.S. House primary elections to Nov. 3, not “later this summer” after signing a law making the primary election open.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Democratic leaders in a handful of southern states are lobbying for South Carolina to reprise its role as the party’s first-in-the-nation state to cast primary ballots in 2028, arguing that the state best represents the initial playing field for presidential candidates to build the coalitions needed to win.

The state party chairs of five Democratic parties wrote a letter Thursday to the Democratic National Committee calling on party leaders “to do everything in your power to ensure South Carolina continues to serve as the indispensable first proving ground for Democratic presidential nominees.” The DNC is currently debating the order in which states will vote in the next round of presidential primaries.

The state should hold the first presidential balloting in 2028, they argued, in part because it “is not simply a geographic starting point. It is a moral and political compass for our party and our nation.”

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is meeting this week, hearing presentations from the dozen states seeking to lead off its 2028 calendar. Other southern states, including Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, are in the mix.

South Carolina chair Christale Spain, who made her argument on behalf of the state Thursday afternoon, has said she believes her state has “more to offer than other states do,” including “the role of Black folks.”

“The fight for voting rights is no longer just a courtroom battle, it is an electoral one,” the Democratic chairs from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia wrote in the letter, provided to The Associated Press ahead of its release. “And it begins in South Carolina.”

“Any effort to diminish South Carolina’s role in the primary process would be a step backward for the Democratic Party’s stated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” they wrote. “It would signal to Southern Democrats and to Black voters in particular, that their loyalty to this party is taken for granted. We refuse to accept that, and we will stand firmly against it.”

In a separate letter to DNC leaders, Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus Institute — which has partnered with the South Carolina Democratic Party on several presidential debates in the past — reiterated those sentiments.

“To remove or diminish South Carolina’s standing in the primary calendar would send precisely the wrong message to Black voters and to every voter who has been told their voice does not matter until after the outcome is already decided,” Thompson wrote.

For years, South Carolina has held one of the earliest Democratic primaries in the country. As the first southern state to hold its primary, South Carolina has been the initial gauge of a candidate’s ability to appeal to Black voters, who play an outsized role among the state’s Democratic voters.

In 2020, Joe Biden’s ability to make that appeal — along with a coveted endorsement from Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state’s lone congressional Democrat and for a time the top Black Democratic lawmaker on Capitol Hill — helped him revive a flagging primary campaign, win a resounding victory in South Carolina, and go on to secure the nomination.

For the 2024 cycle, Biden led a DNC effort to have South Carolina go first overall in the party’s primary, citing the state’s more racially diverse population compared to the traditional first-in-the-nation states of Iowa and New Hampshire, which are overwhelmingly white. New Hampshire, which rejected the DNC’s plan, held a leadoff primary ahead of South Carolina anyway, and Biden — who didn’t campaign or have his name on the ballot — still won by a sizable margin after supporters mounted a write-in campaign on his behalf.

Biden, who also handily won South Carolina’s 2024 contest, pushed for a revamped primary calendar that saw Nevada go second. He also pushed the Democratic primary in Michigan — a large and diverse swing state — ahead of the expansive field of states voting on Super Tuesday, the date in early March when multiple states hold primaries and the largest number of delegates needed to win the nomination are up for grabs.

Although the calendar won’t officially be set until later this summer, Democrats likely to be among their party’s 2028 contenders have been making the rounds in South Carolina for months. ___

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

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MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Democrats hoping to avoid a bruising primary in a must-win U.S. Senate race instead found themselves with a fiery and at times combative debate Thursday, as progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly went on offense against his rivals.

The clash underscored a broader fight inside the Democratic Party as it tries to recover from its 2024 losses and chart a path forward in a premier battleground state. Voters in Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary will choose among three candidates offering different visions for the party’s future.

“Democrats across our country and across Michigan are crying out for a new Democratic Party. We need a reckoning,” state Sen. Mallory McMorrow said from the stage Thursday.

The seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is one the party must hold if it hopes to reclaim the Senate majority in this fall’s midterm elections. Seeking the nomination are Rep. Haley Stevens, McMorrow and El-Sayed, a former public health official.

Here’s what else took place at the first statewide televised debate and where things stand in the race:

The debate at Michigan’s annual bipartisan policy conference laid bare the increasingly sharp contrasts emerging in one of the nation’s last major Democratic primaries.

El-Sayed repeatedly attacked the other candidates over campaign donations, arguing he was the only candidate in the race not accepting corporate money.

“I’ll tell you this, the revolution is definitely not coming if we’re not fighting for it,” El-Sayed said before targeting both his rivals and a sponsor of the conference. “So let’s play a game. If you’re on this stage and you’ve never taken a check from Blue Cross Blue Shield, raise your hand.”

El-Sayed then raised his hand as the other two on the stage didn’t, drawing laughs from the crowd.

Stevens, a fourth-term congresswoman representing a district just outside Detroit, is seen as the more moderate, establishment-aligned candidate. She has described herself as a “staunchly pro-Israel Democrat” and has previously received support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

A newly formed outside group, Center for Democratic Priorities Inc., recently reserved over $5 million in television advertising backing Stevens. AIPAC has denied affiliation with the group.

Stevens largely focused Thursday on her congressional record and what she framed as a results-driven approach. She mostly avoided directly attacking her rivals and declined to take questions from reporters afterward.

“The people of Michigan deserve a functional Congress,” Stevens said from stage. “I write bills, I pass bills on behalf of the people of Michigan.”

McMorrow, meanwhile, took a strategy somewhere in the middle of the others — both in her campaign and on the debate stage. She emphasized unity and generational change while still pushing back at El-Sayed during several exchanges.

“There is more that unites us than divides us,” McMorrow said about the candidates on stage in closing remarks.

Still, she did not shy away from responding sharply at times. After El-Sayed said he would choose “having a message” over donors, McMorrow shot back that “you actually need to know how to deliver” on that message.

One issue the candidates aligned on during Thursday’s debate was eliminating the filibuster, the longstanding Senate rule that effectively requires 60 votes to advance most legislation in the 100-member chamber. Trump has repeatedly urged Senate Republicans to eliminate it, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune has made clear there is not enough support within the GOP conference to do so.

Among the many elected officials attending the Mackinac Island conference were Michigan’s two Democratic senators.

Peters and Sen. Elissa Slotkin both told The Associated Press on Thursday that they were not planning to make an endorsement in the primary and while they thought primaries could be beneficial, it was becoming more contentious than they had hoped.

“It is messy. Messier than I would have liked. I think it’s important in any primary that the candidates focus more on what they want to do and their positive affirmative plan,” Slotkin said.

Peters said the eventual nominee will need to bring the party together.

“What are the types of candidates that win in purple states? That should be what we’re looking for,” said Peters. “Who can bring people together and build the kind of broad coalition to win in a purple state?”

Rogers lost to then-U.S. Rep. Slotkin in 2024 by fewer than 20,000 votes in a state that Republican Donald Trump carried on his way to a second term.

This time, Rogers will not benefit from having Trump atop the ballot. But Rogers heads into the general election with advantages of his own, including an uncontested primary.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Rogers acknowledged the difficulties in the last campaign, saying the financial disadvantage he faced after a tough primary “made it really difficult” to win the general election.

But he said this year is different.

“This is a change election. People want to talk about Washington. This is about Michigan,” Rogers said.

It may prove difficult to localize a race shaped by national issues such as tariffs and gas prices, both of which are hitting Michigan hard. Outside spending is expected to climb into the nine figures. The Republicans’ U.S. Senate campaign organization has reserved $45 million in ads, compared with $20 million by Democrats.

“They’re going to spend a lot of money trying to make you not like me. We’re going to spend our money trying to tell people what we’re going to do for them and make their lives in our state better,” Rogers said.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement Thursday to extend the ceasefire in the 3-month-old war by 60 days and start a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

Iran did not immediately confirm any deal, and the official noted that President Donald Trump has yet to sign off on it.

The emerging memorandum of understanding came as the fragile ceasefire in the war between the U.S. and Iran appeared to be wavering. The latest flare-up in fighting happened less than a day earlier, when Kuwait intercepted missiles fired from Iran, according to U.S. Central Command.

The memorandum makes clear that Iran will not be able to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz and that Iran will have to remove all mines from the vital waterway within 30 days, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

During the war, Iran has effectively closed the strait, which had been the conduit for about a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas. Its closure has sent oil prices skyrocketing around the world. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted Thursday at a news briefing that the cost of oil could “come down very quickly” once a deal is finalized.

Iran has said it’s letting some commercial vessels pass — about two dozen daily in recent days, compared with more than 100 a day before the war — but the Islamic Republic also has charged tolls for at least some ships. It set up a formal gatekeeper agency earlier this month, spurring a new round of U.S. sanctions this week.

Under the tentative agreement, the U.S. would gradually lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports. The U.S. would also agree to relax sanctions, allowing Iran to sell more of its oil.

A second U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomacy, said the broad outlines of an agreement have been reached but stressed that until Trump signs off on it, there is no deal. The official said there still are questions about whether Trump will accept the proposal.

Among the first issues to be negotiated during the 60-day ceasefire is what will happen to Iran’s highly enriched uranium, the first official said. The Islamic Republic has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran has not publicly committed to giving up the stockpile. It is believed to buried under a trio of nuclear sites that were badly damaged by U.S. airstrikes last year.

Nuclear analysts have said that Iran might consider China or Russia, which have close relations with Tehran, to be a potential acceptable third party to take possession of the enriched uranium. But Trump said Wednesday that he “wouldn’t be comfortable” with such a plan.

Details of the tentative pact were first reported by the news outlet Axios.

Kuwait announced that its air-defense systems intercepted incoming missiles and drones on Thursday, without detailing what had been targeted. Iran said it had retaliated for strikes earlier in the week by firing on a U.S. base in a Gulf state it did not name.

The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry condemned Iran for what it called “blatant aggression,” and U.S. Central Command called the attack on one of America’s top allies in the Persian Gulf an “egregious ceasefire violation.” Kuwait repeatedly came under fire from Iran and Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq before the April ceasefire began.

The exchange took place after U.S. officials said late Wednesday that American forces launched more strikes on Iran, shooting down four one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the strait and hitting an Iranian ground-control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged the attack around Bandar Abbas International Airport and said via the state-run IRNA news agency that it launched a retaliatory attack on the air base that launched the assaults. The Revolutionary Guard did not specify whether the response targeted Kuwait, which houses U.S. Army Central’s forward headquarters, air bases and a naval base.

On Monday, the U.S. said it conducted what the Pentagon called “self-defense” strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.

Although they have traded strikes and accusations of ceasefire violations, Washington and Tehran have not returned to full-scale hostilities and keep negotiating.

The developments unfolded with the Middle East on edge.

Besides sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets, Iran has insisted that any deal must include an end to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. Tensions deepened Thursday in Lebanon as Israel conducted an airstrike on a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut, and other strikes in the southern coastal city of Tyre. At least 14 people were killed across the country’s south.

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By Daniel Trotta

HUNTINGTON BEACH, California, May 29 (Reuters) – Huntington Beach, the right-leaning California city that banned the Pride flag from City Hall and elected a city council of MAGA supporters, is heavily favored to get a new Democratic congressman who is gay, progressive and an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump.

It’s a result of redrawing congressional districts. A flurry of redistricting was touched off when Trump pushed states, starting with Texas, to come up with voting maps favorable to his Republican Party. With control of the U.S. House of Representatives at stake in November’s elections, heavily Democratic California countered the Texas redistricting, with voters approving a plan that targets five Republican seats. 

“So, two wrongs make a right?” Huntington Beach City Councilman Pat Burns said from his council office, where a bust of Trump that he once placed on the dais at city council meetings now sits on his desk. “It’s just California ugly-ass politics, and they are all about their agenda and not about the people. They don’t care about the people of California one bit.”

Huntington Beach counts itself among the cities and towns in roughly a dozen U.S. states caught up in the redistricting battle, with political parties reconfiguring voting maps to their advantage in what is known as gerrymandering. 

As a result, voters can suddenly find themselves in a new district – with representation that they say fails to reflect their interests.

A conservative enclave in mostly liberal Southern California, Huntington Beach has set itself on a collision course with liberals in the Trump era, defying Democrats in the state capital on issues such as voter identification and housing density. Officially nicknamed Surf City USA, it reflects the individualist and independence-minded aspects of surf culture, not the cliché of laid-back free spirits. 

At the moment, Huntington Beach, which banned the rainbow Pride flag and other nongovernmental banners from city property after a local voter referendum in 2024, is represented in the House by Representative Dave Min, a Democrat seen as moderate and pragmatic. 

Redistricting, however, means that after the November elections the city will most likely be represented by the more progressive Robert Garcia, a 48-year-old gay immigrant, who said in an interview he has “been dealing with homophobia my whole life.”

A two-term Democratic U.S. representative, Garcia comes from Long Beach, a city of 450,000 people across the Los Angeles County line from Huntington Beach. Once in different districts, Long Beach and Huntington Beach have been coupled together into one district through gerrymandering and will share a representative in the House.

Born in Peru, Garcia came to the U.S. as a child. A former mayor of Long Beach, he was elected to Congress in 2022 and won his 2024 re-election by 36 percentage points. He is heavily favored to finish first in the primary election on June 2 that will test the new districts for the first time, and to prevail in the November general election.

Garcia, a Trump critic, is the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, the congressional watchdog over the executive branch. His stands on issues including immigration, climate and healthcare clash with the MAGA agenda. 

“I’ve represented people I don’t agree with on everything, my entire time as mayor, and currently as a member of Congress,” Garcia said. “That’s OK. That’s America.”

‘RULE BY FIAT’

Domnic McGee, a Huntington Beach Planning Commission member and outspoken conservative, sees redistricting as part of a broader effort by Democrats to consolidate power in California and advance policies he opposes. McGee said he plans to “fight for traditional American values” and resist “overreach” by the left.

“The Democrats now with redistricting are set to take even more power in California,” McGee said. “They want to rule by fiat.”

Janet Jacobs, who attended a recent city council meeting, is also firmly in the “Make America Great Again” camp.

“Trump is doing a hell of a job, and God is on his side,” said Jacobs, who wore a red baseball cap emblazoned with “Make Huntington Beach Great Again” and “7-0” on the side, extolling the 7-0 MAGA majority on the council.

Still, Garcia predicts cooperation rather than confrontation.

“I expect actually there’s going to be a lot of partnerships with the cities, especially communities like Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. While they might have a more conservative council, at the end of the day, they want the same thing that communities in Long Beach want,” Garcia told Reuters.

Garcia flagged one issue he said unites the district: offshore oil drilling. “Whether you’re in Huntington Beach or Newport Beach or Seal Beach, that is a huge concern to everybody here,” Garcia said. He said he would be “much more engaged on that issue” given the Trump administration’s moves toward reopening California’s coast to oil production.

Huntington Beach Mayor Casey McKeon also said he expects any representative to do the job professionally. He cited previous Representative Michelle Steel, a Republican who worked with a then-liberal council on beach sand replacement.

“She still did what was right for Huntington Beach,” McKeon said. “She didn’t let politics get in the way of that.”

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Huntington Beach; editing by Donna Bryson and Cynthia Osterman)

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