Politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump sees America’s 250th anniversary as a chance to get the country excited again.

The president is hosting a rally Wednesday on the National Mall in Washington. He has said it will be replete with a military flyover by stealth bombers, military bands, singer Lee Greenwood of “God Bless the USA” fame and a speech by Trump.

The rally kicks off weeks of celebrations about America and its 1776 founding as part of “The Great American State Fair” on the mall, the national park that stretches from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

But Trump’s appearance onstage was only announced after several musicians — including Young MC, Martina McBride and the Commodores — canceled their concerts because of concerns the event had become politicized. The president stepped into the void as he hyped his own ability to command a crowd.

“I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History,” Trump posted on social media about his plan to be the event’s headliner.

In a video posted Monday night, he said the event would be “the biggest rally we’ve ever had,” and declared: “It’s our music, our playlist. We don’t have a lot of people boring you with songs you don’t want to hear. We have the hottest people.”

Tuesday afternoon, country singer Alexis Wilkins posted on X that she would be performing at Wednesday’s event.

The America 250 celebration marks the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, featuring various events and activities organized by the United States Semiquincentennial Commission and the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday.

Festivities will include parades, commemorative coinage, and community engagement initiatives across the nation. 

The celebration aims to involve citizens at all levels, encouraging participation through local events, educational programs, and volunteer opportunities. Communities are invited to host their own celebrations, contributing to a nationwide observance of this historic milestone. 

The America 250 celebration is not just a reflection on the past but also an opportunity to inspire future generations about the values of freedom and democracy that the nation was founded upon. 

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By Leah Douglas and Erica Stapleton

WASHINGTON/PHOENIX, Arizona, June 24 (Reuters) – When Angelica Garcia tried to renew her food stamps this spring, she said she thought she knew the drill.

The single mother of three in Tucson filled out the application. She repeatedly called Arizona’s Department of Economic Security, the state agency administering the federal aid, often staying on hold until the line dropped. She visited a thinly staffed DES office and waited hours for a caseworker.

By the time Garcia was reapproved in June, she’d missed two months of benefits while her family got by on food-pantry donations and cheap staples like beans, rice and tortillas.

“There’s hoops to jump through — always,” said Garcia, who has used food stamps in the state for three years. But now the government is “adding more hoops.”

More than 4.7 million people nationwide have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, since President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending law took effect last July, according to data through March from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — about 11% of participants.

Nowhere have the changes to America’s second-largest social safety-net program taken hold as rapidly as in Arizona, where the number of SNAP recipients has fallen by about half, the steepest drop in the country.

That means lost benefits for more than 457,000 Arizonans, including nearly 196,000 children, according to DES data as of the end of May.

The law reduces SNAP funding by $187 billion, or about 17%, over the next 10 years, in part by expanding work requirements and barring some immigrants from receiving benefits.

It also imposes penalties on states that fail to meet certain performance standards beginning in October next year. And it shifts more administrative costs onto states.

Among the reasons enrollment has fallen so steeply in Arizona is that the state has moved to implement the federal changes more quickly than other states, according to two SNAP experts and the DES spokesperson, Brett Bezio.

“Arizona has no choice but to meet these requirements,” Liliana Soto, press secretary for Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, said in an email. “If we don’t comply, we will be fined hundreds of millions of dollars and more vulnerable Arizonans will lose their food assistance.”

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the SNAP overhaul “prioritizes American citizens, and implements reasonable cost-sharing measures with states to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse,” without offering examples.

The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration, which administers SNAP, attributed the decline in enrollment in part to the work requirement changes.

RECORD FOOD-PANTRY DEMAND

The SNAP cuts have driven a record number of people to food banks in Arizona, according to the Arizona Food Bank Network, a statewide organization that works with local pantries.

About 843,000 Arizonans sought support from a food pantry in April, about an 8% increase over 779,000 in April 2025 — and surpassing the number of people receiving SNAP, according to AFBN data. Food bank users fell in May to about 790,000, the data show.

Even so, food pantries are scrambling to fill “a massive gap,” said Terri Shoemaker, executive vice president of the AFBN.

DES and the USDA did not comment on the increase in food-bank use.

Myriam Flores, a mother of seven in Phoenix, said in a May interview she was unable to renew her access to SNAP and lost $1,100 a month in benefits in January.

She said she spent hours on hold with Arizona’s DES, only for calls to drop.

At the time of her interview, she said she visits the St. Vincent de Paul pantry in Phoenix nearly every day so she can feed her children.

“There are nights of crying, nights of not sleeping, when I lose sleep at 2 a.m. doing the math, deciding what to pay for and what to put off,” she said.

Reuters could not determine whether Flores has resumed her efforts to get benefits or whether she’s currently eligible.

‘FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS’

Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said that the longer wait times are partly the result of stricter processes for vetting applicants, introduced by Arizona’s state agency to meet the new performance standards and avoid financial penalties.

“They can’t get through on the overloaded phone line, or they’re being asked for more and more paperwork that they can’t provide, or they do provide it but the state doesn’t have capacity to process it,” she said.

Those standards grew out of the state’s SNAP error rate — a measure of overpayments and underpayments of food stamp benefits.

Arizona’s error rate in 2024 was 8.84%, below the national average of 10.9%, but still above the 6% threshold that — under the new law — would require states to cover up to 15% of the cost of SNAP benefits. Historically, the federal government has paid the full cost of benefits.

That could cost Arizona about $201.5 million next year, according to the DES 2027 budget request.

To avoid the threat of “significant financial penalties,” DES has tightened its application process by requiring documentation like pay stubs or leases, Bezio said.

Cindy Bernardo, a program manager at the St. Vincent de Paul pantry, said many of the organization’s clients have faced delays or lost their SNAP benefits as the state enacts the federal changes.

“So many of them have lost their benefits,” she said. “And they have reapplied, and most of them can’t even get an answer to their questions.”

The federal law also expanded work requirements to areas that previously had waivers because of high unemployment or insufficient jobs.

Fourteen of Arizona’s 15 counties are now subject to work requirements, compared to just one last year, said Joseph Palomino, director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress.

Those changes, as well as the new demands for documentation, are making it harder for people to get timely access to benefits, he said, and they’re “falling through the cracks.”

Bezio said the agency is hiring more staff and contracting with a third-party call center to improve wait times.

SNAP CUTS ROLL OUT NATIONWIDE

Other states are recording steep drops in SNAP enrollment: 17.4% in Louisiana, 11.6% in Wyoming and 13.7% in Virginia, USDA data show.

The USDA’s FNA said states are responsible for accurately implementing the federal changes, and that it has issued guidance to help them meet new requirements.

The Louisiana Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment.

The Wyoming Department of Family Services said “a large portion” of the state’s decline was due to the federal changes.

In Virginia, SNAP enrollment fell 12% in the year ending in March, according to the Department of Social Services.

“The primary impact of this law on the Commonwealth is that now more families are going hungry when nobody should have to go hungry,” said spokesperson Michael Pulley.

(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington and Erica Stapleton in Phoenix; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Suzanne Goldenberg)

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New York (AP) — The Kennedy dynasty won’t be returning to Congress next year.

Kennedy family scion and political novice Jack Schlossberg lost Tuesday to New York state Assembly Member Micah Lasher, in a closely watched and crowded Democratic primary for an open congressional seat in the heart of Manhattan.

Lasher has spent his career in politics, working for officeholders including the man whose seat he hopes to win in November, Democratic longtime Rep. Jerry Nadler. Flanked by another former boss, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and other politicians in New York City’s Democratic establishment, Lasher said in his victory speech that he aimed to “revamp and recharge the Democratic Party in Washington.”

“And just as important, show that Democrats in Congress have bold new ideas to improve the lives of struggling Americans and then deliver on them,” said Lasher, who’s well positioned for November’s general election — Democrats make up two-thirds of the district’s registered voters.

Before the race was called, Schlossberg had made an early appearance at his evening watch party at a Manhattan concert venue to thank his campaign workers and reiterate his message that Democrats need to put forward more frank, responsive and inspiring candidates “who are willing to speak plainly about the cost of living, about corruption and fearlessly about the Constitution.”

“We don’t just need younger candidates. We need different people,” he said, adding, “unless Democrats learn from the signals that are being sent all across the country, we are going to keep on losing.”

About an hour later, deflated “oohs” rippled through the room of largely young supporters as they got news of Lasher’s victory.

The campaign was colorful and hotly contested, partly because of Schlossberg’s star power as the social-media-savvy grandson of the late President John F. Kennedy, but also because the race became an expensive proxy fight among artificial intelligence interests.

Schlossberg got plenty of attention in the race, as a member of a political dynasty who delivered his own “progressive and aggressive” message in dynamic and popular, if sometimes wacky, social media posts.

Supporters “don’t just like me because I’m a Kennedy,” Schlossberg told The Associated Press earlier this year. “They like me because of my experience, my ideas, and they trust me because they see what’s going on with their very own eyes.”

But he also faced questions about his limited professional resume and his seriousness as a candidate. The 33-year-old, who holds a joint law and business degree, worked briefly at the State Department’s environmental bureau and has written political opinion pieces for Vogue. He said that family money bought him independence from political fundraising.

Money cascaded into the race as some tech and AI companies lined up against candidate Alex Bores, a former tech company engineer and a state Assembly member who wrote legislation that many in the industry opposed. But some other, more regulation-friendly AI heavyweights counterpunched by trying to help Bores.

Voters in the district were deluged with mailers and ads, particularly about Bores and rival Micah Lasher, a fellow Assembly member and former Nadler aide. Lasher emphasized his long experience working in government for Nadler and others. Bores positioned himself as a fresher face who stood up to powerful interests.

“I didn’t get in this race to make a point about AI, but some of the most powerful people on the planet, a handful of oligarchs hell-bent on preventing any regulation of their industry whatsoever … decided they wanted to make an example out of this race. This was a huge and unprecedented fight, and we did not back down,” Bores said in a concession speech.

Alongside the AI battle, the race featured competing endorsements from Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, the fellow Congress member whom he defeated in a 2022 primary after their once-neighboring districts were largely combined by redrawn maps. This year, Maloney endorsed Bores, while Nadler endorsed Lasher.

Candidate George Conway had his own political connections, though not necessarily ones he embraced — a former Republican, he was married to Kellyanne Conway, a former adviser to Republican President Donald Trump before distancing himself from both of them. A veteran attorney, George Conway helped create the anti-Trump organization called The Lincoln Project.

Several other candidates also vied for the nomination.

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Associated Press journalist Emily Wang Fujiyama contributed.

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By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, June 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration does not need to reinstall dozens of exhibits that it removed from national parks on topics such as slavery and climate change before the nation’s 250th anniversary next month, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily paused a judge’s July 3 deadline for the National Park Service to reinstall the exhibits removed under a Trump directive targeting displays that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

Boston-based U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley concluded the displays were removed as part of the administration’s unlawful effort to “rewrite the nation’s history with a white-out pen.” Critics have accused Trump of trying to erase aspects of American history to fit what they call his own false narratives about the nation.

The 1st Circuit declined for now to pause Kelley’s main decision to halt Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s implementation of Trump’s March 2025 executive order. But the 1st Circuit panel, composed of three judges appointed by Democratic presidents, said it was still considering whether the administration’s request put Kelley’s entire June 12 ruling on hold while it appeals. The panel said it planned to rule “promptly.”

Kelley acted in a lawsuit by plaintiffs including the National Parks Conservation Association and the American Association for State and Local History challenging the legality of the exhibit removals. In a joint statement, they called the 1st Circuit’s decision to lift the deadline disappointing.

“The administration’s decision not to reinstall and reinstate censored materials, particularly in advance of our nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary, is a disservice to every park visitor this summer and to the broader American public,” they said.

The U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, welcomed the partial pausing of Kelley’s ruling. “We are confident that as this inferior ruling from an activist lower court judge receives further scrutiny, they will be further restrained,” a department spokesperson said in a statement.

Trump’s executive order took aim at what he called a “revisionist movement” that portrayed the United States as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive or otherwise irredeemably flawed,” and directed changes be made to parks nationwide.

At least 51 exhibits from 37 sites were subsequently removed or discarded in keeping with Trump’s directive. One of these was an exhibit at the former U.S. presidential mansion in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park describing the ownership of enslaved people by George Washington, the first U.S. president.

Kelley, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, ordered the signs and exhibits restored “by the 250th anniversary ‌to ⁠properly honor the remarkable achievements of the United States.” The anniversary is on July 4.

The U.S. Justice Department quickly appealed, calling Kelley’s ruling judicial overreach. It had said complying with Kelley’s July 3 deadline to reinstall everything would be a “herculean and unmanageable task.”

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

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New York’s closely watched primary elections took center stage Tuesday as congressional races tested the political influence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, while voters also cast ballots in Maryland, South Carolina and Utah.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

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By Mike Spector

NEW YORK, June 23 (Reuters) – A federal judge in California vacated the Trump administration’s nationwide policies expanding arrests at immigration courthouses and the duration for detaining noncitizens in short-term facilities, finding the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and another government arm “arbitrary and capricious.”

U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts of the Northern District of California on Tuesday vacated ICE’s policies that had rescinded previous strictures on arrests at immigration courthouses and allowed detainees to be held in short-term cells for up to 72 hours. He did the same for a similar policy undertaken by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review that removed limits on courthouse arrests.

The 71-page ruling, issued in a case brought by an asylum seeker arrested upon departing a routine hearing at a San Francisco immigration court, struck down key parts of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies. Judge Pitts, appointed by former U.S. President Joe Biden, effectively reinstated Biden-era policies that limited arrests at immigration courthouses to narrow circumstances and capped detentions in short-term facilities to 12 hours. 

Since U.S. President Donald Trump retook office in January of last year, his administration has ramped up arrests of immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally as part of an aggressive deportation push.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival criticized the ruling on X, calling it “naked judicial activism in service of an anti-American, open borders agenda.”   

Previous guidance limited arrests at courthouses to circumstances such as national security threats, imminent danger and “hot pursuit” of someone posing a public safety risk, the ruling said. The judge found that the Trump administration failed to provide “reasoned explanations” for rescinding previous policies as required under the Administrative Procedure Act.

“For 80 years, Congress has commanded federal agencies to think before they act,” the judge wrote in his ruling, adding that the law requires “an agency at least provide sound reasons for following its chosen course.”

(Reporting by Mike Spector; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation on Tuesday that aims to speed the construction and availability of more affordable housing, sending it to President Donald Trump to be signed into law.

The measure passed the Senate on Monday by a vote of 85-5.

“America is facing a housing supply shortage that’s been years in the making,” House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill of Arkansas, a Republican, said during House debate on the bill.

A majority of American consumers have said, for the first time since 2023, that they would prefer to buy a home rather than rent or move in with family members, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

Hill said the measure would “cut unnecessary barriers to new home construction” and modernize what he said were outdated banking regulations, to facilitate more home loans to lower-income people.

The House voted 358-32 to pass the bill.

Passage of such major legislation in the deeply divided Congress has been rare. Democratic Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut called the bill “a remarkable thing.”

There is an estimated shortage of millions of affordable homes in the United States, according to housing industry groups.

The combination of high mortgage rates, rising home prices and supply chain problems over the past several years has contributed to consumers’ difficulties.

The bill, which has been written and rewritten several times by House and Senate negotiators over the past year, gives Republicans and Democrats an accomplishment to tout on the campaign trail in the run-up to November congressional elections.

The high cost of living in the U.S., with the inflation rate rising significantly during Trump’s second term in office, is ranked as a top worry by voters in public opinion polls.

Among other main provisions of the bill are waiving or speeding up environmental reviews for home construction projects and placing a cap on the number of already constructed single-family homes that big Wall Street investors can own.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edmund Klamann)

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The internal Democratic Party battle that has emerged in this year’s primaries between progressive and moderate candidates will play out Tuesday in an unlikely place, reliably red Utah.

A redraw of U.S. House districts has created a solidly left-leaning seat in the Salt Lake City area, prompting a flood of interest among Democrats.

Former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, who by one analysis was considered the most conservative House Democrat during his single term in Congress, faces three candidates to his political left in the party’s primary in the 1st District. McAdams has sought to shed his reputation as a moderate, while his opponents have urged each other to drop out and clear a path for Utah to send its first progressive to Washington.

The other three of Utah’s four congressional seats are considered safely Republican, including the 3rd District, where Tuesday’s contest for the GOP nomination features a conservative challenger trying to knock off an incumbent congresswoman.

Utah is a rare Republican stronghold where the GOP is expected to lose one of its U.S. House seats following a lengthy legal battle over the previous districts.

That 1st District seat, along with a handful in California, is among the few anticipated Democratic pickups following a national redistricting fight that President Donald Trump started last year to try to help Republicans hold their majority in the U.S. House. Democrats need to net only a few seats in November to win control.

Candidates in the new Salt Lake City-area district have tried to outflank one another on the left. That marks a departure from decades of Democrats trying to appeal to Utah’s mostly conservative electorate.

Because of how the 1st District was drawn, the Democratic primary winner will be strongly favored in the fall to defeat Republican Riley Owen. The intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve was chosen during the state GOP’s spring convention.

State Democrats are holding an open primary, meaning anyone in the district can vote, regardless of party affiliation. That could benefit a candidate such as McAdams, who has built a broad base.

McAdams previously described himself as pro-life and pitched himself as a moderate during his 2018 campaign, when he ousted a GOP incumbent in the midterms of Trump’s first term. This year, as he campaigns in a much more Democratic district, McAdams pledged his support for abortion rights and insisted that he’s only “moderate in tone.”

Among McAdams’ opponents is state Sen. Nate Blouin, a progressive firebrand in the Republican-controlled Legislature who is hoping to bounce back from a social media controversy.

Blouin apologized in April for several posts he made on internet forums between 2009 and 2015 that denigrated women and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Utah-based faith known widely as the Mormon church.

Blouin has tried to energize an electorate he said has grown accustomed to settling for someone who will “play nice” with Republicans. He has racked up endorsements from some of the country’s most prominent progressives, including independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Greg Casar and Maxwell Frost.

Two political newcomers, Liban Mohamed and Michael Farrell, also are vying for the seat.

Mohamed, a former Meta and TikTok employee, was a breakout star at the state’s Democratic convention earlier this year, where he emerged victorious after five rounds of ranked choice voting to earn the party’s backing in the primary over McAdams. His competitors still were able to qualify for the primary ballot by gathering signatures. Mohamed is backed by other prominent progressives, including U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.

Utah’s new congressional map also left Republican U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy vulnerable to a primary challenge from a candidate who is further to the right.

Maloy, who was endorsed by Trump, faces former state lawmaker Phil Lyman in the redrawn 3rd District, which spans most of southern and eastern Utah. Lyman embraced false claims of fraud following the 2020 presidential election and has long had the support of the state’s most conservative voters.

Lyman is best known for organizing an illegal ATV ride in 2014 in protest of a federal land decision. The ride came after federal officials closed a southeast Utah canyon to motorized vehicles to protect Native American cliff dwellings, artifacts and burial sites. He argued that the closure constituted overreach by the federal government.

A judge in 2015 sentenced him to 10 days in jail and three years probation after a jury found him guilty of misdemeanor illegal use of ATVs and conspiracy. Trump pardoned Lyman in December 2020.

Maloy was first elected to Congress in a special election in 2023 and was reelected to a full term in 2024. She worked previously as a soil conservationist and an attorney with a focus on public lands and water policy.

The winner will face Democratic nominee Kent Udell, an engineer, in the November general election. The GOP candidate is heavily favored to win in the deep red 3rd District.

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to remake the Democratic Party into a democratic socialist powerhouse faces a primary election test on Tuesday. But win or lose, it is unlikely to provide an effective blueprint for Democrats taking control of the U.S. Congress in November or the White House in 2028.

The mayor, who shocked the political world with his 2025 election, is backing a slate of fellow democratic socialist candidates running in Tuesday’s New York primaries as they take on establishment Democrats, including one senior Latino in the U.S. House of Representatives.

This comes on the heels of democratic socialist candidates winning primaries in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles mayor races. Furthermore, a democratic socialist won the Seattle mayor’s race last year.

Mamdani’s efforts to expand the democratic socialist base in the U.S. comes after a decade-long effort that was spurred on by Senator Bernie Sanders’ surprisingly popular 2016 presidential campaign and his efforts to nurture a new generation of democratic socialist leaders.

But it is also in response to progressive Democratic voters’ anger at President Donald Trump’s agenda and governing style, and at the Biden administration’s backing of Israel’s war against Gaza following a Hamas attack. Israel’s response resulted in more than 73,000 Palestinian deaths.

“Energy on the far right ignites energy on the far left. Politics is reactive,” said Steve Israel, a former U.S. House member from New York who late in his congressional career ran an operation to elect more Democrats.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY TENSIONS RUN HIGH

For months after Mamdani won his 2025 primary election, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries was dogged by reporters asking whether he would endorse his fellow New Yorker. Jeffries did so, but kept the everyone guessing until just 11 days before the general election.

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York remained silent on Mamdani throughout the campaign.

The rub is that Jeffries is positioned to ascend to U.S. House speaker and thus second in line for the presidency if Democrats win November’s midterm elections.

The path to victory does not run through “blue,” solidly Democratic congressional districts. Instead, it’s the “purple” swing districts where Democrats need to beat Republicans.

Nonetheless, if the Mamdani-backed democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier defeats five-term Democratic Representative Adriano Espaillat in New York City’s 13th district covering northern Manhattan and the Bronx, it would carry national implications that could complicate Jeffries’ task.

“If a DSA member could knock off the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, that could matter,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic consultancy.

Even more relevant could be the controversial stances Avila Chevalier has touted in past social media postings, such as calling for abolishing police and border controls and raising questions about Israel’s right to exist.

“This is precisely the kind of person that they (Republicans) love to use to weaponize against other Democrats” running for office in competitive races, Bennett said.

Steve Israel agreed and said in an interview: “I do worry that the strength of democratic socialists in places like New York and California will be misread as the center of gravity for Democrats across the country” this November or in the 2028 presidential election.

Avila Chevalier has since deleted her social media posts and apologized for some of the language she used.

But in a Thursday interview with a consortium of editors on June 17, Avila Chevalier said: “I think that we just should not have a system that allows (migrant) deportation to happen at all,” saying it “is rooted in deeply racist ideology.”

In response to her views, Espaillat said in a June 16 posting on X: “We can’t just sweep things under the rug. Darializa has taken very extreme positions as reflected in her comments on social media not too long ago.” He added, “She is unfit for office and voters are smart enough to see that.”

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS AGAINST DEMOCRATS

A Democratic socialist is also attempting to defeat incumbent Democratic Representative Dan Goldman in New York City’s 10th congressional district, while another is vying for the 7th congressional district House seat where Democratic Representative Nydia Velazquez is retiring.

Alex Jacquez, a progressive strategist who was a senior adviser to Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, said in an interview that focus groups and opinion polls deliver the message that Democratic voters’ level of dissatisfaction with their leaders runs deep.

“That is really where you are seeing the fault lines. Are you willing to take on the wealthy and take on corporations and take on the status quo to deliver results. Or are you not,” he said of the populist message democratic socialists are trying to win on this fall and through the 2028 elections and beyond.

Meantime, outside of deep-blue districts of New York, California and other Democratic strongholds, the party is running women with strong military backgrounds in places like Florida and Colorado for example.

“Most of the competitive districts for Democrats are red and pink districts that you can only win as a Democrat in … where more moderate stances resonate in races against incumbent Republicans,” Israel said. He added that presidential elections are not won in blue states. “It’s won in seven moderate battleground states.”

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Alistair Bell)

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By Nolan D. McCaskill

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) – New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani isn’t running for Congress, but he’s the main character in a bid to remake New York’s congressional delegation by backing three far-left candidates with ties to the Democratic Socialists of America to take on two mainstream Democratic incumbents, Adriano Espaillat in the Bronx and Dan Goldman in Brooklyn/Lower Manhattan, as well as an open seat in Queens.

Those lawmakers backed other candidates in the mayor’s race and are seen as insufficiently adversarial toward Israel in its war on Hamas, a passionate subject for the mayor. 

Other prominent democratic socialists include Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose district spans the Bronx and Queens.

The New York City primaries risk putting Mamdani at odds with another powerful New York politician, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who will become third in line to the presidency should Democrats win control of the House of Representatives in November.

New York, Maryland and Utah each hold primaries on Tuesday, when South Carolina will host runoffs.

Here is what we’re watching:

MAMDANI VS JEFFRIES, HOUSE DEMS

    Mamdani is using his popularity among young voters to elevate far-left challengers Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander against two Democratic incumbents and Assembly Member Claire Valdez for an open seat.

Avila Chevalier, an activist and doctoral student, is running against the five-term Espaillat, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in a district spanning northern Manhattan and the Bronx.

Lander, a former New York City comptroller and ex-mayoral candidate, is challenging Representative Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who led House Democrats’ investigation into the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, in his Lower Manhattan district. 

Valdez faces Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and New York City Council Member Julie Won in a crowded primary to succeed retiring Representative Nydia Velazquez, whose district includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens. 

Mamdani’s endorsements pit the new mayor against Jeffries, whose job is to protect Democratic incumbents and lead his party back into the majority. The outcomes in the three districts won’t impact Democrats’ path to power, but they will test Mamdani’s clout and the strength of the democratic socialist movement.

LAWLER MEETS HIS MATCHUP

U.S. Representative Mike Lawler, a vulnerable Republican who represents a district Kamala Harris won in 2024, will find out his general election opponent on Tuesday.

Top candidates among the Democrats are combat veteran and national security expert Cait Conley, a member of the “Hell Cats” group of female veterans running for office, and Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson.

The lower Hudson Valley-area district is one of three Republican-held seats in districts Harris won, making it a top flip opportunity for a party aiming to win control of the House of Representatives in November. Harris won the district by just 0.6 percentage points, though Lawler won reelection by 6 percentage points.

And while the current political environment favors Democrats nationally, Lawler will begin the general election with a $3 million to $4 million cash advantage over the Democratic nominee.

KENNEDY, CONWAY AND STATE LAWMAKERS EYE OPEN SEAT

A lawyer who was married to a top Trump adviser, a Kennedy, and two state lawmakers comprise a crowded field of Democrats vying to succeed Representative Jerry Nadler in his Manhattan district.

An Emerson College poll last month found Assembly Members Micah Lasher, a former Nadler aide, and Alex Bores in a statistical tie. The two were significantly ahead of attorney George Conway, whose ex-wife Kellyanne Conway was a Trump adviser during his first administration, and Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg.

The pair were in the low double digits. But nearly a third of likely primary voters were undecided, meaning it’s possible a lower-performing candidate could surge to victory on Tuesday.

Stand for New York PAC, a super PAC funded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has spent more than $10 million boosting Lasher. Think Big, a pro-AI super PAC, has spent nearly $8 million against Bores, who is backed by three other super PACs himself.

The 33-year-old grandson of President John F. Kennedy is the wild card here with a short professional resume, and much like Mamdani, a strong presence on social media with more than 850,000 followers on TikTok.

The winner will be heavily favored to be elected to Congress in November.

TRUMP HEDGES HIS BET IN SOUTH CAROLINA RUNOFF

South Carolina voters will choose their likely next governor in a contest between Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson.

After initially endorsing Evette, Trump signaled to South Carolina Republicans late last week that they can’t go wrong with either.

“These were the two that I was hoping would get into a Runoff, and they did,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so, therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson!”

While Trump’s endorsement power in recent weeks has ousted Republican Senators John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy and Representatives Thomas Massie and Nancy Mace, two of his picks for governor have stumbled, soiling his reputation as a kingmaker in Republican politics.

Iowa voters narrowly rejected Trump-backed Representative Randy Feenstra in favor of businessman and farmer Zach Lahn earlier this month, and Georgia voters elevated billionaire healthcare executive Rick Jackson over Trump-endorsed Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones last week.

The winner of the runoff for governor will face Democratic state Representative Jermaine Johnson but is expected to win in a state Trump carried by 18 percentage points in 2024.

(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Craig Timberg and Alistair Bell)

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