Tuesday's Campaign Round-Up, 4.8.25: Texas' Abbott finally calls a key special election
* NBC News reported that the North Carolina Supreme Court temporarily blocked a lower court's ruling 'that would have required that more than 65,000 votes cast in the disputed 2024 state Supreme Court race be recounted and verified.'
* As Democratic officials start to feel some optimism about the 2026 midterm elections, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced this week that it's targeting 35 Republican-held House seats. The party will need a net gain of three seats to take back the majority in the chamber.
* Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, a longtime Republican donor, condemned the White House's trade tariffs in an interview this week. 'I don't understand the goddamn formula,' Langone told The Financial Times.
* To the surprise of no one, Republican Rep. John James of Michigan launched a 2026 gubernatorial campaign this week. It will be his third bid for statewide office, following failed Senate campaigns in 2018 and 2020.
* In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott finally scheduled a congressional special election to fill the vacancy left by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner's death. That said, voters in the Houston-area district won't get to choose a new representatives until November, leaving them without a voice in Congress for the next six months.
* In Georgia, Sen. Jon Ossoff's re-election campaign raised $11 million in the first quarter, and if that sounds like a lot, it is: As Politico noted, the Democratic senator's haul was 'the most ever raised by an incumbent in the first quarter of an off-year.'
* And while state attorneys general races tend not to generate a lot of national attention, The New York Times reported that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's group will spend $10 million to help elect Democratic attorneys general this year and in 2026. This first test will be this fall in Virginia, where a Republican incumbent, Jason Miyares, is seeking a second term.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Elon Musk says he will start a new political party
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Musk has spoken with friends in recent days about his plan for a political party and what it would take to accomplish it, according to a person briefed on those conversations. The discussions have been more conceptual than pragmatic, the person said. Advertisement Even as Musk has proved that he is willing to use his resources to move quickly and dramatically, he also has a long history of not following through on promises. Musk, who helped slash government programs and funding by leading the Department of Government Efficiency before publicly feuding with Trump, had grown incensed by the president's sweeping domestic policy bill. Last month, on social media, he called it a 'disgusting abomination,' adding that it would 'massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit' and that 'Congress is making America bankrupt.' Advertisement For weeks, Musk teased that he would start a new political party if the legislation passed, but he had not explicitly stated his intention to do so until Saturday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The two-party system has been a defining feature of modern American politics, and plenty of moderate billionaires have dreamed of a successful third-party effort for decades. But the barriers to creating a new, influential political party are plentiful, including heavily gerrymandered districts, deep political polarization and onerous state laws, some of which require expensive and complicated ballot-qualification procedures that would most likely challenge even Musk. Musk donated nearly $300 million to Republican candidates in the 2024 election, and his super political action committee led Trump's get-out-the-vote operation in battleground states. But the tech billionaire failed to deliver the GOP a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat this year, even after putting over $20 million into that race. On Friday, Musk wrote on X that an initial approach could be to back America Party candidates in just two or three Senate races and between eight and 10 congressional races in next year's midterm elections. He reiterated a version of that plan Saturday, saying on X that he would 'crack the uniparty system' through 'extremely concentrated force at a precise location on the battlefield.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The Hill
4 hours ago
- The Hill
Greene to introduce ‘weather modification' bill
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Saturday she plans to introduce a bill aimed at tackling 'weather modification.' 'I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity. It will be a felony offense,' she wrote in a Saturday post on X. 'I have been researching weather modification and working with the legislative counsel for months writing this bill,' Greene added. The Georgia lawmaker said the legislation would resemble Florida's Senate Bill 56, which was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in late June. The text makes it illegal for individuals to practice geoengineering and weather modification by imposing a $100,000 fine and a five-year prison sentence. The punishment would apply to cloud seeding, an 80-year-old technology that adds tiny particles—usually silver iodide crystals—to clouds to trigger rain or snow, as defined by the Government Accountability Office. Some states have practiced the measure, but it's rarely been undertaken by federal jurisdictions. 'We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering,' Greene said of the forthcoming bill. However, lawmakers in the Sunshine State said cloud seeding is a safe practice that has been undermined by conspiracy theories about weather alteration, as contrails, condensation trails left in the air by planes, are sometimes confused as chemtrails. '[They are] kind of two different things, and I think people have got them mixed up, because they think that they've heard that this chemtrail conspiracy theory is about geoengineering and weather modification,' Mick West, a science writer and fellow for the Committee of Skeptical Inquiry, told 12News. 'Then, they discover that there's this thing called cloud seeding, which actually is weather modification. And then they kind of put two and two together and make 17.' Greene made headlines last year when she suggested Democrats were able to 'control the weather' in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, prompting then-President Biden to condemn what he called 'irresponsible' and 'beyond ridiculous' falsehoods. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) poked fun at Greene's bill in a post online. 'I'm introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release or dispersion of stupidity into Congress,' he wrote in a Saturday post, quoting Greene's original announcement. But one of her Republican colleagues has already signaled he'll back her efforts. 'Let's roll Chairlady!' Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) wrote online. Greene's office did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment on the bill and potential federal penalties outlined in the text.
CNBC
4 hours ago
- CNBC
Rep. Mark Green resigns from Congress, leaving Speaker Johnson with an even narrower Republican majority in the House
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., announced his official resignation from Congress on Friday, a move that was expected but one that could, at least for now, shrink Republicans' already narrow majority in the House. "To my constituents across Tennessee's 7th District—thank you. The trust you put in me is humbling. I will look back fondly on my years of serving as your voice in Washington," Green wrote in a post on X. With his resignation, Republicans are down to a 219-212 majority in the House, at least until his seat in the solidly red district is filled. His resignation will be effective July 20, Fox News reports from a letter Green sent to House Republican leadership. Green's resignation is a blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson's already narrow majority in the lower chamber, a fact that was on stark display this week as he was trying to pass President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill." Johnson struggled to coalesce his conference around the megabill, and the narrow majority gave him little wiggle room for defections. With Green's resignation, Johnson's could face an even more challenging road ahead. Green, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, said he was returning to the private sector to start his own business, but did not provide details about the business. "While I cannot give the details here, I will be doing something specifically designed to help America compete against the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], but this time in business," Green said in a video on X. Green was elected to serve in Congress in 2018, succeeding Sen. Marsha Blackburn. While his retirement has been expected — he said in June that he was stepping away from his role — it comes after Congress has experienced turnover among lawmakers in recent months, such as Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who left his post to serve in the Trump administration, before he stepped down from that role. Another Republican, Rep. Don Bacon, a centrist, also recently announced his retirement from Congress. Bacon's retirement creates an opportunity for Democrats to win the House seat representing Bacon's Omaha, Nebraska, district.
