The Latest: Progressives challenge establishment in Democratic primaries in Wisconsin and Minnesota
President Donald Trump is scheduled to swear in Todd Blanche, his old personal lawyer, as attorney general Monday after the Senate voted to confirm him early Saturday. Blanche’s path toward confirmation exposed deep concerns — from some Republicans as well as Democrats — over installing Trump’s close ally atop a Justice Department that historically prided itself on its independence from the White House.
Progressive candidates for governor in Wisconsin and U.S. Senate in Minnesota are making their final pushes ahead of Tuesday’s election, increasing the pressure on the Democratic establishment. In Wisconsin, democratic socialist Francesca Hong seeks to win a four-way Democratic primary for governor. Minnesota voters will choose between moderate U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in a Democratic U.S. Senate primary in the aftermath of Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement surge.
Iran says it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States lifts its blockade on the strait, pays compensation for months of war damage, lifts economic sanctions and releases Iran’s frozen assets. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly rejected Trump's proposed exit strategy for Gaza.
Here’s the latest:
The court-inspired actions in Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee, as well as earlier legislative actions in other states to redraw boundaries through unusual mid-decade redistricting, were part of a nationwide Republican effort championed by Trump to maximize the party’s chances of holding its slim U.S. House majority this year.
Candidates in Tuesday’s special primaries in Alabama are running under the new Republican-backed boundaries, which go into effect in January 2027. Both Democratic representatives are unopposed in their party primaries, but facing tougher odds in November.
Rep. Shomari Figures, for example, was elected in a district where Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris beat Trump 53% to 46%. In his newly drawn district, Trump would have beaten Harris 57% to 42%.
Voters in four of Alabama’s seven congressional districts select U.S. House nominees in special primaries Tuesday under a new map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts currently represented by Democrats.
Republican Gov. Kay Ivey had postponed contests for the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prompted a handful of Republican-controlled Southern states to throw out their congressional maps.
Ten Republicans are competing in Tuesday’s special primary election, including two congressmen, a former governor and Graham’s sister, now a U.S. senator appointed to serve out the final months of his current term.
Lindsey Graham’s unexpected death, a month after winning the June 9 Republican primary for the seat he first won a quarter-century ago, created this vacancy for the GOP’s nominee on the November ballot for another six-year term.
U.S. Sen. Darline Graham has Trump’s endorsement. Her opponents include Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman, former Gov. Mark Sanford and business owner Mark Lynch, who ran against Lindsey Graham in the June 9 primary.
If no candidate receives a majority, the top two vote-getters advance to a special primary runoff on Aug. 25. The winner will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a Charleston pediatrician.
It’s been 12 months since Trump announced a crime emergency in Washington, pledging to make the city “safe and beautiful” and deploying the National Guard.
But a mission that seemed temporary has been extended through January 2029. Residents and a new cadre of local officials consider it an unacceptable federal attempt to restrict the heavily Democratic city’s autonomy. A year in, they still question the necessity of troops on the streets of the nation’s capital.
“Here we are in the capital of the free world, and our president is treating it like a police state,” said Scott Michelman, legal director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia.
The continued deployment will be a major test for the politicians taking office after this year’s elections — residents will want them to use their limited powers to push back on Republican encroachment into the city’s affairs.
Congressional Democrats are probing the Trump administration’s efforts to deport military service members and their families after The Associated Press found that the spouses or parents of more than 50 active-duty troops have been detained by immigration authorities, breaking promises to shield their families from enforcement.
More than 60 lawmakers signed a letter Sunday evening to the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It says “these efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’ morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives on the line for our nation.”
The Pentagon declined to comment, stating it would “reply directly to the authors of the letter.”
DHS told the AP that it values service members’ contributions but “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”
The White House has not commented on the Israeli Prime Minister’s dismissal of Trump’s deal for Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”
Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that “Israel rejects the 15-point document” but is still discussing plans for Gaza with Washington. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw as the Hamas militant group’s disarmament is completed. Israeli forces control over half the Palestinian enclave of about 2 million people that’s been largely destroyed.
“We remain committed to the road map,” said a member of the Hamas political bureau, Bassem Naim, adding that the group expects mediators and the U.S. to pressure Netanyahu — who also faces domestic tensions as he struggles to hold onto power ahead of the next elections scheduled for Oct. 27.
The 36-year-old Democratic New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained her decision in an ABC “This Week” interview on Sunday and said she has not ruled out running for president or for the U.S. Senate seat held by the Democrats’ floor leader, Chuck Schumer.
Ocasio-Cortez says in her social media posts that she’s taking a political risk in sharing such a personal decision about her potential plans to have children. The congresswoman says she wants to feel more control over her life and normalize conversations about what women face in their professional and personal lives.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States meets its conditions.
“It is up to the U.S. side to stop and make amends for its illegal and destructive actions,” Esmail Baghaei said Monday, noting the American blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran wants the U.S. to lift its blockade on the Strait, pay compensation for months of war damage, lift economic sanctions and release Iran’s frozen assets. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway that normally carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies — has become the war’s most lasting consequence. The impasse has kept energy prices as a major focus of U.S. politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Iran is holding separate talks with Oman over transit through the strait, including potentially a temporary shipping corridor, but has said any actual reopening is contingent on talks with the U.S.
Democratic socialist Francesca Hong is trying to win a four-way Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin, where her top opponent has been endorsed by popular Gov. Tony Evers, who isn’t seeking a third term.
Evers got behind Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on July 18, the same day Crowley reentered the race after dropping out 10 days earlier. Crowley rejoined after the candidate he backed, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, ended her candidacy amid a campaign finance scandal.
Evers and more establishment Democrats were hoping to finally coalesce around Crowley in the final days of the chaotic primary that saw two other candidates drop out, most notably former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on July 29.
Republicans are spending to support a Hong victory, betting she's the better matchup for Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. The Republican Governors Association has spent nearly $3.6 million through its Right Direction Wisconsin PAC on ads contrasting Hong with Trump and playing up her liberal proposals.
Efforts to resist Trump found their footing in the streets surrounding a drab federal office complex next to the Minneapolis airport. As U.S. immigration agents staged at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building for a monthslong deportation campaign, protesters with whistles and cellphone cameras assembled to oppose them. Two were shot and killed in the city’s streets before Trump pulled back under pressure.
Months later, those confrontations remain the backdrop to Minnesota’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, which features establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and the more progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. The immigration debate is an added schism in a race that otherwise echoes many of the other left versus center divides that have played out across the United States this year.
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