الصخرة نيوز

الوسم: race

  • Democrats hope to keep winning streak alive in Washington governor’s race

    Democrats hope to keep winning streak alive in Washington governor’s race

    SEATTLE (AP) — Longtime Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is hoping to keep the governor’s mansion in Democratic hands, while former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert is trying to become the state’s first GOP governor in 40 years.

    The two are seeking to replace three-term Gov. Jay Inslee, who declined to seek reelection.

    Ferguson, 59, has been the state’s attorney general since 2013. He came to national prominence by repeatedly suing the administration of former President Donald Trump, including bringing the lawsuit that blocked Trump’s initial travel ban on citizens of several majority Muslim nations.

    Reichert, 74, served two terms as the elected sheriff of King County, which includes Seattle, before spending seven terms in Congress. Reichert highlighted his 33 years at the sheriff’s office, including helping track down the Green River serial killer, Gary Ridgway.

    Reichert faced an uphill battle in a state considered a Democratic stronghold. Ferguson received about 45% of the votes in the August primary to qualify for the general election, compared with about 27% for Reichert. Another Republican in that race, military veteran Semi Bird, got about 11% of the primary vote.

    Reichert spent much of the campaign fending off Ferguson’s accusations that he wouldn’t protect abortion rights. Ferguson’s team often referenced Reichert’s history of voting for a nationwide ban on abortion starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy as evidence of him being “wildly out of touch with the majority of Washingtonians.”

    Abortion has long been legal in Washington until viability, a determination left up to the judgment of a health care provider, and after that in cases where the pregnant individual’s health or life is threatened. Reichert vowed to enforce state law: “I will protect your rights, ladies,” he said during a debate.

    Public safety was also a key issue in the campaign, with the state experiencing a rise in violent crime and ranking last in the nation in law enforcement officers per capita for more than 12 years running, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. Both candidates vowed to hire more police.

    Ferguson’s plan includes directing $100 million to help local jurisdictions bring more officers on board, including through hiring bonuses. Reichert argued that elected officials need to show they support law enforcement, including by protecting qualified immunity laws, in order to recruit more officers.

    Ferguson prosecuted three Tacoma police officers in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who was restrained face-down on a sidewalk while pleading that he could not breathe. A jury acquitted them of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges last year.

  • Democrat Ruben Gallego faces Republican Kari Lake in US Senate race in Arizona

    Democrat Ruben Gallego faces Republican Kari Lake in US Senate race in Arizona

    PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Iraq War veteran, faces well-known former television news anchor and staunch Donald Trump ally Kari Lake in Tuesday’s election for U.S. Senate in a state with a recent history of extremely close elections.

    The race is one of a handful that will determine the Senate majority. It’s a test of the strength of the anti-Trump coalition that has powered the rise of Democrats in Arizona, which was reliably Republican until 2016. Arizona voters have rejected Trump and his favored candidates in every statewide election since then.

    Arizona is one of seven battleground states expected to decide the presidency.

    The winner of the Senate race will replace Kyrsten Sinema, whose 2018 victory as a Democrat created a formula that the party has successfully replicated ever since.

    Sinema left the Democratic Party two years ago after she antagonized the party’s left wing. She considered running for a second term as an independent but bowed out when it was clear she had no clear path to victory.

    Gallego maintained a significant fundraising advantage throughout the race. He relentlessly attacked Lake’s support for a state law dating to the Civil War that outlawed abortions under nearly all circumstances. Lake tacked to the middle on the issue, infuriating some of her allies on the right by opposing a federal abortion ban.

    Gallego portrayed Lake as a liar who will do and say anything to gain power.

    He downplayed his progressive voting record in Congress, leaning on his up-by-the-bootstraps personal story and his military service to build an image as a pragmatic moderate.

    The son of immigrants from Mexico and Colombia, Gallego was raised in Chicago by a single mother and eventually accepted to Harvard University. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and fought in Iraq in 2005 in a unit that sustained heavy casualties, including the death of his best friend.

    If elected, he would be the first Latino U.S. senator from Arizona.

    Lake became a star on the populist right with her 2022 campaign for Arizona governor.

    She has never acknowledged losing the race and called herself the “lawful governor” in her 2023 book. She continued her unsuccessful fight in court to overturn it even after beginning her Senate campaign and as recently as last week refused to admit defeat in a contentious CNN interview.

    Her dogmatic commitment to the falsehood that consecutive elections were stolen from Trump and from her endeared her to the former president, who considered her for his vice presidential running mate. But it has compounded her struggles with the moderate Republicans she alienated during her 2022 campaign, when she disparaged the late Sen. John McCain and then-Gov. Doug Ducey.

    She tried to moderate but struggled to keep a consistent message on thorny topics, including election fraud and abortion.

    Lake focused instead on border security, a potent issue for Republicans in a state that borders Mexico and saw record numbers of illegal crossings during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. She promised a tough crackdown on illegal immigration and labeled Gallego a supporter of “open borders.” She also went after his personal life, pointing to his divorce from Kate Gallego shortly before she gave birth. His ex-wife, now the mayor of Phoenix, endorsed Gallego and has campaigned with him.

    Lake spent the last weeks of the campaign trying to win over voters who are backing Trump but were not sold on her.

    The 2024 election is here. This is what to know:

    News outlets globally count on the AP for accurate U.S. election results. Since 1848, the AP has been calling races up and down the ballot. Support us. Donate to the AP.

    Meanwhile, Arizona has two of the closest races for U.S. House, where Republicans David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani are seeking reelection in districts that voted for Biden in 2020.

    Schweikert, now in his seventh House term, faces a challenge from former three-term Democratic state lawmaker Amish Shah in Arizona’s 1st District, which includes north Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Paradise Valley.

    While Republicans hold a voter registration advantage in the affluent district, it has trended toward the center as college-educated suburban voters have turned away from Trump, reluctantly voting for Democrats or leaving their ballots blank. Redistricting ahead of the 2022 midterms accelerated the trend.

    Schweikert won reelection by just 3,200 votes in 2022 against a relatively unknown challenger who got minimal support from national Democrats. Shah, an emergency room doctor, emerged as the primary winner among a field of six Democrats.

    In the 6th District, Ciscomani is seeking a second term in a rematch against Democrat Kirsten Engel, whom he defeated by 1.5 percentage points in 2022. The district, which includes a stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border, runs from Tucson east to the New Mexico state line.

    Ciscomani, a former aide to Ducey who immigrated from Mexico as a child, calls border enforcement his top priority but has distanced himself from Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.

    Engel, a law professor at the University of Arizona and a former state legislator, has pointed out Ciscomani rejected a major bipartisan border bill in February that would have overhauled the asylum system and given the president new powers to expel migrants when asylum claims become overwhelming.

    Of Arizona’s nine representatives in Congress, six are Republicans and three are Democrats.

  • Alaska voters deciding a hard-fought race for the state’s only U.S. House seat, election issues

    Alaska voters deciding a hard-fought race for the state’s only U.S. House seat, election issues

    JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska voters were deciding Tuesday a hard-fought race for the state’s only U.S. House seat that could help decide control of that chamber. They were also choosing whether to repeal the state’s system of open primaries and ranked choice general elections just four years after opting to give that system a go.

    Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola sought to fend off GOP efforts to wrest back the seat held for 49 years by Republican Rep. Don Young, who died in 2022. Peltola’s main challenger was Republican Nick Begich, who is from a family of prominent Democrats and was among the opponents she defeated in special and regular elections two years ago when Peltola, who is Yup’ik, became the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.

    In addition to the repeal initiative, the ballot included a measure that would raise the state’s minimum wage and require paid sick leave for many employees, a measure opposed by groups including several chambers of commerce and a seafood processors association.

    Fifty of the Legislature’s 60 seats were up for election, too, with control of the state House and Senate up for grabs. The closely divided House has struggled to organize following the last three election cycles. In Alaska, lawmakers don’t always organize according to party.

    In Alaska’s marquee House race, Peltola tried to distance herself from presidential politics, declining to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and dismissing any weight an endorsement from her might carry anyway in a state that last went for a Democratic presidential nominee in 1964. She cast herself as someone willing to work across party lines and played up her role in getting the Biden administration to approve the massive Willow oil project, which enjoys broad political support in Alaska.

    Begich, whose grandfather, the late Democrat Nick Begich, held the seat before Young, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump following his showing in the primary.

    Trump’s initial pick, Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, bowed to pressure from Republicans seeking to consolidate behind one candidate following her third-place finish in the primary and dropped out. Alaska’s open primaries allow the top four vote-getters to advance. The initial fourth place finisher, Republican Matthew Salisbury, also quit, leaving Alaskan Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe and Eric Hafner, a Democrat with no apparent ties to the state who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for threatening authorities and others in New Jersey, on the ballot.

    Begich, the founder of a software development company, sought to cast Peltola as ineffective in stopping actions taken by the Biden administration that limited resource development in a state dependent upon it, including the decision to cancel leases issued for oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

    Alaska is one of just two states that has adopted ranked voting — and would be the first to repeal it if the ballot initiative succeeds. In 2020, Alaskans in a narrow vote opted to scrap party primaries in favor of open primaries and ranked vote general elections. Most registered voters in Alaska aren’t affiliated with a party, and the new system was cast as a way to provide voters with more choice and to bring moderation to the election process. Critics, however, called it confusing.

    U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican and Trump critic who has been at odds with party leaders, appeared in an ad in support of keeping open primaries and ranked voting.

    Opponents of the system succeeded in getting enough signatures to qualify the repeal measure for the ballot — and withstood a monthslong legal fight to keep it on the ballot. Begich was among those who supported the repeal, and the state Republican Party also has endorsed repeal efforts.

  • Democratic Rep. Angie Craig seeks a 4th term in Minnesota’s tightest congressional race

    Democratic Rep. Angie Craig seeks a 4th term in Minnesota’s tightest congressional race

    MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig is seeking a fourth term in Minnesota’s tightest congressional race, a faceoff against Republican former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab.

    And in the race for the open seat being vacated by Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, Kelly Morrison, a Democratic former state senator, was favored over retired Washington County District Judge Tad Jude. He’s a Republican who also served on the Hennepin County Board and in both chambers of the state Legislature, where in 1972 at age 20 he became the youngest member ever elected to the House.

    Craig and Teirab ran in the 2nd District, which includes a political mix of outer suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul south of the Minnesota River, and rural areas farther south that trend Republican. It’s Minnesota’s sole swing district. Morrison and Jude competed in the 3rd District, which includes suburbs surrounding Minneapolis and has gone Democratic in recent elections.

    Craig lost to Republican Jason Lewis by less than 2 percentage points in 2016 before beating him by just over 5.5 points in their 2018 rematch. She defeated Marine Corps veteran Tyler Kistner by just over 2 points in 2020 and just over 5 points in 2022.

    Craig, who was targeted with death threats and forced to move after fighting off a mentally disturbed attacker in the elevator of her Washington apartment building, staked out centrist positions on many issues. But she supports abortion rights and accused Teirab of being an anti-abortion activist. Teirab disputed that, saying he’d vote against any federal ban or restrictions.

    Teirab, a Marine Corps veteran and son of a Sudanese immigrant, was supported by influential Republicans including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer. But despite a strong financial advantage, he lost the GOP endorsement at the district convention to anti-establishment conservative Tayler Rahm. Teirab won the primary with former President Donald Trump’s endorsement after Rahm dropped out to become a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign in Minnesota, but divisions between the Teirab and Rahm camps persisted.

    Craig had raised nearly $7.6 million by the end of the last reporting period in September, compared with nearly $2.8 million for Teirab.

    Morrison touted her leadership on abortion rights in the Minnesota Senate. Jude was an abortion opponent when he was a legislator and supports the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which struck down the nationwide right to abortion. Morrison raised just over $2 million by September, while Jude netted just under $300,000.

    Incumbents were expected to easily win the state’s six other congressional races. They include Emmer and his fellow Republicans Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber, and Democrats Ilhan Omar and Betty McCollum.

  • Trump, Harris facing off on Election Day after heated US presidential race

    Trump, Harris facing off on Election Day after heated US presidential race

  • Wisconsin Senate race pits Trump-backed millionaire against Democratic incumbent

    Wisconsin Senate race pits Trump-backed millionaire against Democratic incumbent

    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s hotly contested U.S. Senate race pits two-term Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin against Republican Eric Hovde, a millionaire businessman backed by former President Donald Trump who poured millions of his own money into the contest.

    A win by Baldwin is crucial for Democrats to retain their 51-49 majority in the Senate. Democrats are defending 23 seats, including three held by independents who caucus with them. That’s compared with just 11 seats that Republicans hope to keep in their column.

    While Baldwin’s voting record is liberal, she emphasized bipartisanship throughout the campaign. Baldwin became the first statewide Democratic candidate to win an endorsement from the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization, in more than 20 years.

    Her first television ad noted that her buy-American bill was signed into law by Trump. In July, she touted Senate committee approval of a bill she co-authored with Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, that seeks to ensure that taxpayer-funded inventions are manufactured in the United States.

    Hovde tried to portray Baldwin as an out-of-touch liberal career politician who didn’t do enough to combat inflation, illegal immigration and crime.

    Hovde’s wealth, primarily his management of Utah-based Sunwest Bank and ownership of a $7 million Laguna Beach, California, estate, has been a key line of attack from Baldwin, who has tried to cast him as an outsider who doesn’t represent Wisconsin values.

    Baldwin also attacked Hovde over his opposition to abortion rights.

    Hovde said he supported the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, but said he would not vote for a federal law banning abortion, leaving it to the states to decide. That is a change of his position from his last run for Senate in 2012, when he “totally opposed” abortion.

    Baldwin’s television ads hit on a consistent theme that Hovde insulted farmers, older residents, parents and others. Hovde, who was born in Madison and owns a house there, accused Baldwin of distorting his comments, lying about his record and misleading voters.

    Baldwin won her first Senate race in 2012, against popular former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, by almost 6 percentage points. Hovde lost to Thompson in that year’s primary.

    Hovde attacked Baldwin for being in elected office since 1987, including the past 12 years in the Senate and 14 in the House before that.

  • Andy Kim and Curtis Bashaw face off in a New Jersey Senate race opened up by a bribery scandal

    Andy Kim and Curtis Bashaw face off in a New Jersey Senate race opened up by a bribery scandal

    TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey voters are deciding between Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim and hotel developer Curtis Bashaw, a Republican, in the race to fill the Senate seat occupied until recently by Democrat Bob Menendez, who resigned following afederal bribery conviction.

    The Senate race has attracted attention because of Democrats’ razor-thin majority. There’s little margin of error for the party in a state like New Jersey, which hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate in more than 50 years.

    “I very much feel the pressure to make sure that we’re delivering not just for New Jersey, but delivering a majority for this country so I can get the important things done,” Kim said recently.

    The contest pits Kim, a three-term House member from New Jersey’s 3rd District, against Bashaw, a first-time candidate and businessman from Cape May. Four others including Green, Libertarian and Socialist party candidates are on the ballot.

    There’s little suspense surrounding New Jersey’s electoral votes in the contest between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former president Donald Trump, who has golf courses across the state and once operated a casino empire in Atlantic City. New Jersey hasn’t gone with a Republican for president since 1988.

    Kim, 42, was first elected to Congress in 2018, defeating Republican Tom MacArthur, a Trump ally. He’s since been re-elected twice. During the campaign, Kim said he would oppose tax breaks for the wealthy and support abortion rights.

    A former Obama administration national security aide, Kim was a Rhodes Scholar and has a Ph.D. from Oxford. He’s presented himself as an unassuming, hard-working official and gained national attention in 2021 when he was spotted cleaning up the U.S. Capitol after the Jan. 6 insurrection, bagging trash.

    Kim was the first Asian-American from New Jersey elected to the House and would become the first Korean-American in the Senate if elected.

    Bashaw has personally financed his campaign with at least $1 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. He gained the GOP nomination in June when he defeated a Trump-backed rival. A first-time candidate, he’s served on several boards including for Stockton University and a state tourism panel.

    Bashaw, 64, has said he considers himself a moderate, noting he supports abortion rights and is a married gay man.

    “When my party’s right, I will support it. But when my party’s not right, I’ll stand up against it,” he said recently.

    Bashaw has said he supports Trump, who’s been a lightning rod in the state. Democrats flipped four congressional seats in the 2018 midterm while Trump was president.

    Kim seized on that in a recent debate.

    “The one endorsement that he has made is for Donald Trump to be president of the United States. And I guess we get a sense of his judgment from that. And it’s something I deeply disagree with,” Kim said.

    The Senate race began chaotically for Democrats. The party, which controls the Legislature and the governorship, found itself with an incumbent senator facing a second federal corruption trial. Menendez was convicted on bribery charges that he traded his office for cash, gold cars and a luxury car, and has resigned. But he’s denied the charges — as he did in the earlier trial, which ended in a hung jury.

    This time, Democrats abandoned him. Kim launched his own race in defiance of Menendez the day after his indictment last fall.

    The 2024 election is here. This is what to know:

    News outlets around the world count on the AP for accurate U.S. election results. Since 1848, the AP has been calling races up and down the ballot. Support us. Donate to the AP.

    But it wasn’t an easy path to the nomination. First lady Tammy Murphy launched a campaign that was well-funded and widely backed by insiders. Kim upended politics in New Jersey when he sued in federal court to stop a practice whereby party leaders were allowed to influence how ballots are drawn up, widely seen as helping preferred candidates. The judge, in an initial ruling, sided with Kim. Murphy dropped out and Kim won easily in June.

    The winner of the Senate race is expected to get an early shot at the job. After Menendez resigned, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy appointed George Helmy as interim senator. The two have said that once the election results are certified in November, Helmy will step down and the governor will appoint the winner to serve the remainder of Menendez’s term, which ends in January.

    Also up for grabs are all of New Jersey’s 12 U.S. House seats. Among them, the 7th District, which stretches from the Delaware River and the Pennsylvania line to the central part of the state, with a slice of the New York suburbs, is perhaps the most closely watched. There, Republican Tom Kean Jr. is running for reelection against former Working Families alliance official Sue Altman, a Democrat. New Jersey’s House delegation has 10 Democrats and three Republicans.

    Votes have poured in for weeks through mail-in ballots and early in-person voting, but results don’t come out until after polls close at 8 p.m. On the ballot as well are all 12 of the state’s House seats.