Latest news with #RepublicanCampaign
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Scoop: Republican launches House bid in key swing district GOP aims to flip in 2026 midterms
FIRST ON FOX: Eric Flores, an Army veteran and former federal prosecutor, on Monday launched a Republican campaign for Congress in a key battleground House district at the southern tip of Texas. "We need fewer politicians and more fighters who will put our communities first," Flores said in a video that was shared first with Fox News Digital. He pledged that "in Congress, I'll stand with President Trump, fight and deliver for South Texas every single day." Flores is running in Texas' 34th Congressional District, which stretches along the Gulf Coast from just south of Corpus Christi to the border with Mexico. It includes Brownsville and stretches westward to include parts of McAllen. Scoop: House Republican Campaign Arm Aims To Anchor Mamdani To Vulnerable Democrats The district is one of 26 the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is targeting in the 2026 midterm elections, as the House GOP's campaign arm defends the party's razor-thin majority in the chamber. Read On The Fox News App The district appears to be a prime pickup possibility for Republicans, as it's been trending to the right. Former President Joe Biden carried the district by 15 points in the 2020 White House race. Four years later, President Donald Trump won the district by nearly five points. First On Fox: House Republicans Launch Ad Promoting Passage Of 'Big Beautiful Bill' However, Democrats carried the district in last year's Senate election, with now-former Rep. Colin Allred (who is running again for the Senate in 2026) topping Sen. Ted Cruz by six points. Republicans view incumbent Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez as vulnerable. Gonzalez, who's in his fifth term in Congress, defeated former GOP Rep. Mayra Flores in the 2022 and 2024 elections, but his victory in last November's rematch to hold the district was by just 2.5 points. Flores, who has met with NRCC officials, is a Spanish speaker who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. He was commissioned in the U.S. Army as an infantry officer and rose to the rank of captain. He has served in the Texas Army National Guard and has commanded soldiers during Operation Guardian Support along the U.S. southern border with neighboring Mexico. Flores is also a former assistant U.S. attorney, helping in the prosecutions of cartel-connected and human trafficking operations. His campaign biography also notes that Flores "secured the conviction of one of Texas's 'Top Ten' most-wanted fugitives — accomplishments recognized with two U.S. Attorney's Awards." Flores, who also served as a municipal judge in Alton, Texas, is currently a partner at a statewide legal firm where he leads the litigation department, defending municipalities and school districts across Texas. He is married and the father of two children. "Every day, I see how broken policies hurt our community," Flores said. "Enough is enough. Politicians put themselves first, while the Valley gets left behind." Flores said that "President Trump stood up to the insiders and fought for places like ours: the communities the career politicians always forget. We cannot lose this opportunity. That's why I'm running for Congress. We need bold, principled leadership, and we need it now." While several other Republicans are running in the GOP primary in the district next March, Flores is considered the only major Republican article source: Scoop: Republican launches House bid in key swing district GOP aims to flip in 2026 midterms
Fox News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Scoop: Republican launches House bid in key swing district GOP aims to flip in 2026 midterms
FIRST ON FOX: Eric Flores, an Army veteran and former federal prosecutor, on Monday launched a Republican campaign for Congress in a key battleground House district at the southern tip of Texas. "We need fewer politicians and more fighters who will put our communities first," Flores said in a video that was shared first with Fox News Digital. He pledged that "in Congress, I'll stand with President Trump, fight and deliver for South Texas every single day." Flores is running in Texas' 34th Congressional District, which stretches along the Gulf Coast from just south of Corpus Christi to the border with Mexico. It includes Brownsville and stretches westward to include parts of McAllen. The district is one of 26 the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is targeting in the 2026 midterm elections, as the House GOP's campaign arm defends the party's razor-thin majority in the chamber. The district appears to be a prime pickup possibility for Republicans, as it's been trending to the right. Former President Joe Biden carried the district by 15 points in the 2020 White House race. Four years later, President Donald Trump won the district by nearly five points. However, Democrats carried the district in last year's Senate election, with now-former Rep. Colin Allred (who is running again for the Senate in 2026) topping Sen. Ted Cruz by six points. Republicans view incumbent Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez as vulnerable. Gonzalez, who's in his fifth term in Congress, defeated former GOP Rep. Mayra Flores in the 2022 and 2024 elections, but his victory in last November's rematch to hold the district was by just 2.5 points. Flores, who has met with NRCC officials, is a Spanish speaker who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. He was commissioned in the U.S. Army as an infantry officer and rose to the rank of captain. He has served in the Texas Army National Guard and has commanded soldiers during Operation Guardian Support along the U.S. southern border with neighboring Mexico. Flores is also a former assistant U.S. attorney, helping in the prosecutions of cartel-connected and human trafficking operations. His campaign biography also notes that Flores "secured the conviction of one of Texas's 'Top Ten' most-wanted fugitives — accomplishments recognized with two U.S. Attorney's Awards." Flores, who also served as a municipal judge in Alton, Texas, is currently a partner at a statewide legal firm where he leads the litigation department, defending municipalities and school districts across Texas. He is married and the father of two children. "Every day, I see how broken policies hurt our community," Flores said. "Enough is enough. Politicians put themselves first, while the Valley gets left behind." Flores said that "President Trump stood up to the insiders and fought for places like ours: the communities the career politicians always forget. We cannot lose this opportunity. That's why I'm running for Congress. We need bold, principled leadership, and we need it now." While several other Republicans are running in the GOP primary in the district next March, Flores is considered the only major Republican candidate.
Fox News
09-07-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Former Navy SEAL and 'political outsider' announces GOP campaign for Wisconsin governor
FIRST ON FOX: Bill Berrien, a Wisconsin manufacturing executive, former Navy SEAL and self-described political outsider, announced his Republican campaign for governor of Wisconsin on Wednesday. In the Republican's first national exclusive interview since announcing his gubernatorial bid, Berrien told Fox News Digital, "We [have] to get away from the six years of Tony Evers, where we're going in the entirely opposite direction. This race is extremely winnable. I can win it. I can be the conservative governor that is going to make this the Wisconsin century." Berrien said Democrat Gov. Tony Evers' tenure has felt like the "gears in reverse" of any gains made by former GOP Gov. Scott Walker. The Republican hopeful called Evers a "tax and spend" Democrat who isn't moving the state forward. "I'm an outsider. I'm a businessman, just like President Trump," Berrien said. "He's taking back Washington. We need to take back Madison for Wisconsinites." Berrien is the CEO of manufacturing companies Pindel Global Precision and Liberty Precision and served as a Navy SEAL for nine years. According to his campaign website, his top priorities in the race are revitalizing Wisconsin manufacturing, restoring law and order and strengthening Wisconsin families. "Wisconsin is the best of the country," Berrien said. "We make things, we build things, we work with our hands. My vision is we can be the manufacturing powerhouse of the world again. We can be ground zero for the success of the Trump-driven re-industrialization." President Donald Trump campaigned on unleashing American manufacturing as president and, through his often controversial trade and tariff policies, seeks to return business to the United States. Trump's win in battleground Wisconsin landed him the White House in 2024. Berrien called his win "historic" and said it reflected a "shift across the board" among the Wisconsin electorate. "It is the Republican workers' party – that's due to his leadership. I think we're gonna be building on that through this campaign," Berrien said. While Trump secured Wisconsin in 2024, a liberal Democrat-backed Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate, Susan Crawford, won a contentious multimillion-dollar election over conservative Brad Schimel earlier this year. When Elon Musk was still in Trump's good graces, he invested millions to support Schimel, but Democrats from across the country threw their political weight behind Crawford, and she was ultimately elected to the open seat. "It means all the more that we need to have a Republican in the governor's mansion," Berrien said before asking, "How do we apply a military leadership-type mindset across all 72 counties, winning up and down the ticket?" And when asked about Democrats' early 2026 midterm messaging about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's Medicaid cuts, Berrien said he supports Medicaid work requirements and called Trump's megabill "wind in our sails for creating the Wisconsin century, making Wisconsin the manufacturing powerhouse to the world again." "When you look at the business incentives for factory construction, investing in technology, investing in people, it's like a Black Friday sale or factory expansion, no coupons required." Berrien announced his candidacy in a campaign video released Wednesday morning. Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann announced his own Republican gubernatorial campaign in May. Evers has yet to announce whether he will seek re-election in 2026. He did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. "When we think about the last 10 years, there has only been two candidates that have been successful on a statewide basis, [Sen.] Ron Johnson and Donald Trump. We have on my team, leaders who've been part of both of those races, and we have the team to win this. We have resources, and we have a clear lane and opportunity. Let's make this the Wisconsin century," Berrien said.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgia lieutenant governor launches bid to succeed Kemp
Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R) launched his much-anticipated campaign for governor Tuesday, making him the second major Republican to make a run for term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp's (R) job. 'Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has brought real conservative leadership that has protected our freedoms, our values and our families, and Burt Jones has worked closely with President Trump, helping Georgia make America great again,' says a narrator in the more than two-minute ad Jones posted to announce his bid. Jones said in the ad that his campaign priorities would be eliminating the state income tax, ending the fentanyl crisis and making sure transgender women aren't allowed to play in women's sports leagues. 'And if anyone doesn't like that, they can move to California,' Jones says in the ad. Jones joins Attorney General Chris Carr in vying for the GOP nod for the governor's race next year. The first-term lieutenant governor and former state senator is a Trump ally who was among a slate of more than a dozen fake electors in 2020 that sought to certify Trump as the winner in the Peach State, looking to overturn former President Biden's win. Fulton County District Attorney General Fani Willis (D), who initially investigated Trump and Republicans' efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state, was disqualified from investigating Jones, given her involvement fundraising for Jones's 2022 Democratic challenger, Charlie Bailey. Jones ultimately was not charged from the probe. Jones will be vying for the president's endorsement, though Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also could run — potentially pitting two Trump allies against each other. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could also make a run for the seat or run for Senate instead, opening the door to a potentially crowded field next year. Democrats have yet to coalesce around a candidate. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, state Sen. Jason Esteves, state Rep. Derrick Jackson and former pastor Olu Brown have all launched bids for the seat. Yet, that field could also be joined by two-time gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams or former GOP Lt. Gov. George Duncan, who's been vocally critical of Trump. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Texas Judge Race That Republicans Are Suddenly Eyeing
When Aliza Dutt entered the race to recapture the top Houston-area elected office for the Republican party, her launch received little fanfare. There was a barely 200-word blurb in The Houston Chronicle, which mostly pulled its information from the one-page press release she posted to Instagram—which has, at the time of writing, about 70 likes. Indeed, without having caught her May 20 interview with a dead-eyed reporter 'exclusively' on the local Fox affiliate, one would be forgiven for not knowing who she was. Her website's campaign promises are as vague as they are banal: To address crime, she'll 'back the badge, restore order'; for immigration, she'll 'support state-led enforcement, back law enforcement'; with county funds, she'll 'protect taxpayers, cut waste'—all of which signal the type of campaign she wants to represent, without much substance beyond that. But lurking behind the curtain of her marginal campaign for Harris County Judge (an executive position, presiding over a four-person Commissioners Court) is a national powerhouse. On the same day Dutt announced her campaign, she also appointed her campaign treasurer: Cabell Hobbs, a veteran staffer of major Republican campaigns going as far back as 2008. The Austin, Texas, P.O. Box provided under Hobbs' name connects back to other PACs registered in Florida, North Dakota, and West Virginia. His most recent work also may be his best-known: In the lead-up to the 2024 election, Hobbs' Future Coalition Super PAC, funded to the tune of $5 million by Elon Musk, targeted battleground voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania with digital ads promoting Kamala Harris's husband Doug Emhoff's Jewish faith in a play to undercut Harris's appeal with Muslims. The ads, which CNN and The New York Times called antisemitic, were targeted based on zip codes and worked both sides of the street: On the one hand, some ads tried to connect Emhoff's religious beliefs to Harris's position on Israel—referring to Emhoff her 'top adviser,' spliced with footage of the Israeli flag; on the other hand, Harris was characterized as a 'two-faced' supporter of Palestine. Dutt, an immigrant from Hong Kong, is the mayor of Piney Point Village—a real city, apparently. With a population of around 3,000 and a median income of over $250,000, this wealthy enclave is pointedly separated from the city of Houston, on the sprawling west side of Harris County (population: 5 million). Before that, according to her campaign website, she worked as a reporter covering Capitol Hill and as an energy analyst. Her desire to control the Harris County Judge position isn't unique among Republicans; although Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat, rode into the office in 2019 and successfully but narrowly defended her seat in 2022, the position has long been the central focus for local conservative pundits and mattress salesmen, even with a 4-1 Democratic majority on the court Hidalgo oversees. Indeed, one locally beloved mattress salesman known as Mattress Mack dropped millions of his own cash to unseat Hidalgo, and later bankrolled the quixotic legal effort questioning the validity of the election. One county insider, who requested anonymity to speak to The New Republic, says that Hobbs' involvement in Dutt's campaign signals that Republicans are 'tired of [the] Mattress Mack amateur shit, and they're coming for the seat.' Republicans also sense weakness in Hidalgo's camp: Despite the strong Democratic majority, her fights among members of the Commissioner's Court have become more frequent. Hidalgo's side lost a recent budget vote 3-2, plunging the county deeper into a major deficit in order to increase pay in the Sheriff's Department. Annise Parker, a well-connected fellow Democrat and former Houston mayor in the late 2000s, is expected to enter the race soon. In December, Houston's current blue dog mayor John Whitmire even suggested she wouldn't pursue a third term, which she flatly denied. 'Right now, county and city leaders are mortgaging our future to pay for raises for cops,' another county insider said, referring to the budget vote and a recent deal between Houston's mayor and the police, which will increase officer pay by a whopping 36.5 percent. 'Despite her many failings, Lina [Hidalgo] is the one local leader who has been willing to call out corruption and cronyism, and that has earned her a lot of enemies on both sides of the aisle.... Lina has been a nightmare, but honestly man, everyone is a nightmare here right now. The failure of leadership is astonishing.' Hobbs has previously worked with the Ted Cruz Victory Fund and, per The New York Times, took over 'nearly every aspect' of Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign, setting tens of millions of dollars on fire. One might ask why, then, he's concerning himself with a tiny candidate lacking immediate name recognition even locally. The answer may be in the name of his old Super PAC — Future Coalition. Why could that be? Consider this Houston race a dress rehearsal. The 2024 results showed significant inroads for Republicans among people of color. Harris County is the most ethnically diverse city in Texas, making for the perfect petri dish to test out messaging and, if all goes according to plan, taking it national. Dutt may not prevail in this election, but this may be the proving ground for the next spate of Republican campaign messaging.
