# Sports fan Trump hits UFC fights and big games to try to put his 2024 nomination in a headlock
By **JILL COLVIN**
December 15, 2023. 9:56 AM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - After Donald Trump attended South Carolina's annual Palmetto Bowl, video of the crowd chanting "We want Trump!" as the former president arrived at Williams-Brice Stadium spread across conservative social media.

It was much the same two weeks earlier when the GOP front-runner attended an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in New York, fist-bumping and waving to the crowd as he entered Madison Square Garden like he was one of the fighters, with an entourage that included the musician Kid Rock, UFC president Dana White and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

While Trump has spent less time campaigning in early-voting states than many of his Republican primary rivals, his campaign has been filling his schedule with appearances at major sporting events including Saturday's UFC fight in Las Vegas. Videos of his appearances routinely rack up hundreds of thousands of views across social media, particularly on non-political outlets, including popular online sports channels and fan sites. And they are far easier and cheaper to produce than campaign rallies.

It's a strategy that, aides say, puts him in front of potential voters who may not closely follow politics or engage with traditional news sources. And it is part of a broader effort to expand Trump's appeal with young people and minority voters, particularly Latino and Black men, that the campaign hopes to win over in greater numbers after gains in 2020. UFC's fanbase in particular is overwhelmingly male.

Aides stress Trump is a genuine sports fan who frequented fights and games long before he ran for the White House and would be attending even if he weren't running. He is a particular aficionado of boxing and other combat sports. During a summer appearance on the "UFC Unfiltered" podcast, Trump recalled his favorite fights from decades ago, blow by blow.

In the 1980s, he befriended boxing legends like Mike Tyson and promoter Don King as he hosted high-profile fights at his Atlantic City casinos and became so involved with professional wrestling that he starred in WrestleMania 23's "Battle of the Billionaires." And for a time, he owned the New Jersey Generals, a professional football team that played in the NFL-rival United States Football League.

In recent years, he has become particularly tied to mixed martial arts and its machismo. He is close personal friends with White, UFC's founder, who spoke at the Republican National Conventions in 2016 and 2020 and credits Trump for saving the sport by hosting fights when others shunned it as too violent.

Campaign staff often tune into fights late at night aboard Trump's private plane as he returns to Palm Beach, Florida, following events, streaming fights on ESPN+ or DAZN.

Trump has also drawn support from the sport's stars, including Colby Covington, who will be fighting Leon Edwards Saturday night for UFC's welterweight title. Covington said this week that organizers overruled his request to have Trump walk him out to the octagon. But Trump may still get a role if he wins.

"He's going to wrap that belt around me," Covington told reporters on Thursday, wearing a suit jacket signed by Trump that featured the former president's mug shot on the back. "It's going to be a spectacle."

There is of course a long history of sports in presidential politics. Candidates have used them to project an image of strength and vigor, endear themselves to voters and seem more accessible.

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss wrote about how Theodore Roosevelt was frequently pictured boxing, horseback riding and hiking, while John Kennedy swam, sailed and played touch football despite serious injuries sustained during the war. Richard Nixon "went to great lengths" to emphasize his football and baseball fandom as he tried to court working-class voters, while George W. Bush famously threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the first World Series game in New York after 9/11, trying to signal to nervous Americans that life would go on after the terror attack.

Trump's team sees the appearances as a way to connect with sports fans, signaling he shares their interests, and a way to showcase a different side of the combative politician, who has been indicted four times and is usually shown on the news railing from behind a rally lectern. They also hope to capitalize on his history as a celebrity and his relationships with business and entertainment figures.

When Trump attends an event like Saturday's fight, "The audience gets to see him through an unvarnished filter that isn't tainted by news media and political biases," said his spokesman Steven Cheung, who previously worked for UFC himself. "It gives us the great opportunity to connect with voters who are, quite frankly, turned off by many traditional news outlets."

Jeffrey Montez de Oca, a professor of sociology and the founding director of the Center for Critical Sport Studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, said politicians "use sports all the time and they're used to connect with regular people," as well as to "project strength and power."

Sports, he said, generate "powerful emotions" that take hold of fans and "make you feel like you're a part of something much larger than yourself" - emotions that politicians try to harness.

"For Trump to walk into that space, he's able to participate in the general feeling going on in that room. The love, the enthusiasm, the feeling of connection with the sport, with the athletes, then attaches to him as well," he said.

Kyle Kusz, a University of Rhode Island professor who studies the connection between sports and the far right, recalled how Trump aligned himself with sports figures during his 2016 campaign, appearing with basketball coach Bobby Knight, who was fired for abusive behavior, and invoking Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who was fired in connection with the child sex abuse scandal involving his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, among others facing scandal. He noted all were white men whose diehard fans saw them as unfairly victimized.

Sports stars in 2016 were among the few celebrities willing to campaign with Trump, who was shunned by the Hollywood establishment.

This time, Trump's appearances are part of a broader effort by the former president's team to engage with non-traditional media outlets, including YouTube shows and podcasts like "UFC Unfiltered" that can drive millions of views. The appearances allow Trump to reach listeners who may be turned off by the mainstream media and politics, and get their news from alternative sources.

They have also tried to harness the power of social media by creating their own viral moments. His team realized early on that video of Trump interacting with supporters had particular traction, and now often organizes stops where he has passed out Blizzards at Dairy Queen or tossed autographed footballs into the crowd at a frat house in Iowa.

The scenes have also provided a contrast, first with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, once seen as Trump's leading primary rival, who is often criticized for seeming wooden and awkward at public events, and now with President Joe Biden as both men gear up for a widely expected general election rematch. Biden has largely eschewed campaign events, holding just a single rally, his campaign launch event.


# 'Uniquely horrible choice:' Few US adults want a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024, an AP-NORC poll shows
By **SEUNG MIN KIM** and **LINLEY SANDERS**
December 14, 2023. 12:27 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - It's the presidential election no one is really jazzed about.

Relatively few Americans are excited about a potential rematch of the 2020 election between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, although more Republicans would be satisfied to have Trump as their nominee than Democrats would be with Biden as their standard-bearer, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That palpable apathy from voters comes even as both Biden and Trump are facing relatively few obstacles in their paths to lock down their respective parties' nominations next year. Biden has amassed broad support from Democratic officials as a handful of mostly token primary challengers have struggled to spark momentum. And despite 91 indictments across four criminal cases - including some centered on his attempts to overturn his electoral loss to Biden in 2020 - Trump's grip on GOP primary voters shows no signs of loosening a month before the first nominating contest in Iowa.

"Probably the best way to put it is, I find it sad for our country that that's our best choices," said Randy Johnson, 64, from Monett, Missouri. Johnson, who is a Republican, said he wishes there were a third legitimate option for president but that the political system does not make that viable and added: "We're down to the lesser of two evils."

Andrew Collins, 35, an independent from Windham, Maine, said: "This is probably the most uniquely horrible choice I've had in my life."

About half of Democrats say they would be very or somewhat satisfied if Biden becomes the party's 2024 nominee. About one-third of Democrats would be dissatisfied, and about 1 in 5 would be "neither satisfied nor dissatisfied." When it comes to the Republican Party nomination, enthusiasm is higher for GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Two-thirds of Republicans would be satisfied with Trump as the Republican nominee for 2024. About one-quarter would be dissatisfied, and 9% would be neutral.

Looking at U.S. adults broadly - setting aside party affiliations - there's still not much enthusiasm for a Biden-Trump rematch.

Most U.S. adults overall (56%) would be "very" or "somewhat" dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024, and a similar majority (58%) would be very or somewhat dissatisfied with Trump as the GOP's pick. Nearly 3 in 10 U.S. adults, or 28%, say they would be dissatisfied with both Trump and Biden becoming their party's respective nominees - with independents (43%) being more likely than Democrats (28%) or Republicans (20%) to express their displeasure with both men gaining party nominations.

Deborah Brophy is an independent who says she supported Biden in the 2020 presidential election. But now, the 67-year-old has soured on the president, saying she felt Biden is too focused on dealing with conflicts abroad rather than "what's going on under his own nose," such as homelessness, gun violence and the economy.

"What's going on with Biden right now?" said Brophy, of North Reading, Massachusetts. "I don't think he's, health-wise, able to continue another four years in office. I think his mind is a little bit going the wrong way in the way of not being able to think."

Yet she is turned off by Trump's attitude and said he "seems a little racist," even while praising his business acumen.

"So I don't know what I'm going to do," Brophy added.

Among Democrats and Republicans alike, having a candidate who can win is given slightly more importance than having a candidate whose views represent most people in the party or even themselves, according to the AP-NORC poll.

Only about 3 in 10 Democrats are "extremely" or "very" confident that the Democratic Party's process will result in nominating a candidate who can win the general election in November. About half are somewhat confident, and 18% are not very confident or not at all confident. While relatively few are highly confident they'll get a winning nominee out of the process, three-quarters of Democrats say it's "extremely" or "very" important that the party's process for nominating a presidential candidate does result in a candidate who can win the general election.

Meanwhile, one-third of Republicans are extremely or very confident that the Republican Party's process for nominating a presidential candidate will result in someone who can win the general election. Slightly fewer than half, or 46%, are somewhat confident, and 2 in 10 are not very or not at all confident. Seven in 10 Republicans say it's extremely or very important that their process results in a nominee who can win in 2024.

"I've voted for Trump twice. I'll vote for him again if I had to. I certainly would not vote for Biden," said Joe Hill, 70, a Republican from West Point, Georgia. "But I would welcome someone new and quite frankly, I'm not confident he can win against Biden."

Hill said he was concerned that Trump could be too polarizing with a wide swath of voters.

"I want a Republican to be elected, so I'm in favor of any Republican that would be on the ballot," Hill said. "I would more so, if it wasn't him."

The poll shows neither man is viewed favorably by a majority of the U.S. public, with only 42% saying they have a favorable view of Biden and 36% saying the same of Trump.

Both are generally viewed favorably within their own party: About three-quarters of Democrats have a favorable view of Biden and about 7 in 10 Republicans have a favorable view of Trump. But Republicans are more likely to say their view of Trump is strongly favorable than Democrats are to say the same of Biden, 46% vs 34%. Democrats are more likely than Republicans are to say they have only a somewhat favorable view of their party's 2024 frontrunner, 44% vs 24%.

Josh Reed, of Pittsburg, California, said he prefers alternatives to Trump in the Republican field such as South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who withdrew from the race last month.

But if the choice in front of voters next fall is Biden and Trump, "it's between those two," said Reed, 39, a registered Republican, though he says he holds more libertarian views. "There's no third party that's going to make a dent in anything. Sometimes it is what it is. You got to pick between those two."

He will definitely vote next year, Reed said. But, he added: "I'm not really excited for either one of these guys."

The poll of 1,074 adults was conducted Nov. 30 - Dec. 4, 2023, using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, designed to represent the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.


# Top strategist resigns from DeSantis-backing super PAC
By **JILL COLVIN**
December 17, 2023. 12:12 AM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - The top strategist for the embattled super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ' campaign for the White House resigned Saturday night in the latest sign of trouble for the GOP hopeful less than one month before voting begins with Iowa's kickoff caucuses.

Jeff Roe, the top adviser to Never Back Down, is the latest senior staffer to exit Never Back Down, which has been the largest outside group supporting DeSantis' candidacy.

He announced his departure on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, hours after The Washington Post published a story focused on internal disputes and suspicions between Never Back Down, the campaign, and other DeSantis allies that included accusations of "mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information."

"I can't believe it ended this way," Roe wrote on X, sharing a statement in which he said he "cannot in good conscience stay affiliated with Never Back Down given the statements" in the story, which he said were false.

Numerous senior members of Never Back Down have been fired or resigned in recent weeks, including two chief executives, the group's chairman and its communications director. At the same time, DeSantis' Florida allies have created a new super PAC, Fight Right, which had earned the public blessing of the DeSantis campaign.

The Associated Press reported earlier this week on growing concern among some within DeSantis' operation that interactions between his campaign and his network of outside groups were blurring the lines of what's legally permissible.

Super PACs are legally barred from directly coordinating with campaigns. But multiple people familiar with DeSantis' political network said that he and his wife had expressed concerns about Never Back Down's messaging as his Iowa poll numbers stagnated - concerns DeSantis' team then shared with members of Never Back Down's board, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

Some of the board members then relayed the DeSantis team's wishes to super PAC staff, which was responsible for executing strategy, the people said. DeSantis' campaign has denied any wrongdoing.

Never Back Down had taken an unprecedented role in the election, overseeing functions normally handled by campaigns. The group was charged with organizing voters through a massive door-knocking and get-out-the-vote operation, organizing campaign, as well as advertising, and has spent tens of millions of dollars on commercials this year.

Roe, one of the Republican Party's most prominent strategists, ran Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign, which beat former President Donald Trump in that year's Iowa caucuses, and also worked as an adviser on Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's winning run. But he had little preexisting relationship before this year with DeSantis, who has long struggled to maintain close relationships with political consultants.

Weighing in on his social media site from Las Vegas, where he is watching a UFC fight, Trump late Saturday cheered the news. "Jeff Roe is out-GAME OVER for DeSanctimonious!" he wrote.

DeSantis has staked his campaign on Iowa, where Trump is leading by wide margins in recent polls.

The super PAC was seeded with more than $80 million from DeSantis' political accounts this spring.


# Scores of candidates to seek high-profile open political positions in North Carolina as filing ends
By **GARY D. ROBERTSON**
December 15, 2023. 6:49 PM EST

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**RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)** - Scores of candidates filed for nearly a dozen high-profile elected positions in North Carolina where the incumbents aren't running in 2024 because of redistricting, retirements or term limits.

The two-week candidate filing period for next year's elections ended at noon Friday at the State Board of Elections and at all 100 county boards. Primaries will be held March 5 to whittle down the field where multiple candidates are running for their party's nominations.

Six of the 10 statewide elected officials making up the Council of State - with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper heading the list - and five of the 14 members of the U.S. House delegation aren't running again or are seeking new positions.

The state constitution prevents Cooper from running for a third consecutive term. Nearly a dozen people across four parties filed candidacy papers to succeed him, according to a state elections board list. They include Democrats Attorney General Josh Stein and former Supreme Court Justice Mike Morgan and Republicans Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, State Treasurer Dale Folwell and attorney Bill Graham.

Missing from the elections board list was former state GOP Sen. Andy Wells, who had announced his candidacy for governor months ago. He didn't immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.

State Auditor Beth Wood and Labor Commissioner Josh Dobson also aren't seeking reelection. Wood prepared to resign on Friday from the auditor's position that she has held in 2009. Cooper's choice to finish out her term, Jessica Holmes, is an auditor candidate next year.

For lieutenant governor, 15 people signed up to succeed Robinson, including four current or former state legislators. Filing for the post minutes before the noon deadline was Mark H. Robinson, a Sampson County Democrat who has been running for several months.

Mark H. Robinson, a former Navy officer, said Friday that his campaign isn't designed to cause voter confusion with the other Mark Robinson, saying he has believed for decades that he would run for statewide office.

While the two names won't appear on the same primary ballot, they could if both advance to the general election, albeit for different positions.

"I'm not trying to confuse anyone," Mark H. Robinson, 62, told reporters. "I think this is what my calling is, and that is to help as many people in the state of North Carolina before I die."

A leading candidate must get more than 30% of the primary vote to win the nomination outright. Otherwise runoffs are possible later in the spring.

Three of the five members of Congress who aren't running are Democratic Reps. Jeff Jackson, Kathy Manning and Wiley Nickel. Each of them said it was futile to seek reelection given that the redrawing of the congressional map by the Republican-controlled General Assembly this fall makes their districts lean strongly Republican. Jackson is now running for attorney general.

Fourteen Republicans alone are seeking the GOP nomination in Nickel's now-reconfigured 13th District, which includes part of Raleigh but stretches north to rural counties on the Virginia border and points south.

The Republicans not running again for Congress are Rep. Dan Bishop, who is also running for state attorney general, and Rep. Patrick McHenry.

Six Republicans are running for the 6th District seat currently held by Manning. The GOP field includes former Rep. Mark Walker, 2022 congressional candidate Bo Hines and Addison McDowell, a recent entry who received former President Donald Trump's endorsement.

Six GOP candidates also are seeking the nomination in the south-central 8th District that Bishop is leaving and five are running for the nomination in McHenry's reconfigured 10th District, which now ranges from Winston-Salem to counties north and west of Charlotte.

State House Speaker Tim Moore is one of three Republicans seeking the GOP nomination in the 14th District that will stretch from Charlotte west to foothills counties. Jackson is the current 14th District representative.

Republicans appeared all but assured to win the 6th District and 3rd District seats because Democrats failed to field candidates in either race. GOP Rep. Greg Murphy, the 3rd District incumbent, currently only faces a Libertarian challenger.

One state Supreme Court and three Court of Appeals seats, and all 170 General Assembly seats also will be on ballots. Republicans currently hold narrow veto-proof majorities in both the House and Senate.

Several legislators had already announced that they wouldn't seek reelection. Late additions to that list on Friday were Senate Majority Whip Jim Perry of Lenoir County and first-term Democratic Sen. Mary Wills Bode of Granville County.

Perry, who joined the Senate in 2019 and is a Senate Finance Committee chairman, said Friday in a statement that he reached the conclusion he couldn't "make the time commitment necessary to be an effective Senator if I served an additional term."

"I am entering a season of life where I will need more time to support those closest to me," he said.

Bode cited family considerations in a social media post explaining her decision.


# With Iowa's caucuses a month away, Trump urges voters to hand him not just a victory, but a blowout
By **THOMAS BEAUMONT** and **HANNAH FINGERHUT**
December 15, 2023. 8:44 PM EST

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**CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP)** - Donald Trump was uncharacteristically serious when he implored an audience in eastern Iowa to carry him to a blowout in next month's Republican caucuses.

"The margin of victory is very important, it's just very important," Trump told about 1,000 people attending a Wednesday rally aimed at organizing campaign volunteers. "It's time for the Republican Party to unite, to come together and focus our energy and resources on beating Crooked Joe Biden and taking back our country. Very simple."

For the blustery former president, it was both caution against complacency and a sign that he and his team believe the first contest on Jan. 15 can be not just the start of the nominating campaign, but the beginning of the end.

Trump is the overwhelming favorite to win Iowa, one month away from the caucuses. A myriad of well-qualified GOP challengers and anti-Trump groups haven't changed that dynamic after crisscrossing the state over the last year and spending more than $70 million in Iowa on advertising, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. And unlike his first time in the caucuses, which he narrowly lost in 2016, Trump's campaign is now run by Iowa veterans who are not just locking in caucus commitments but building a formidable organization to try to lock in his lead.

Among rival campaigns, most question not whether Trump will win, but by how much - and whether a second-place finisher can claim momentum for the rest of the race.

"For me, it looked like for a long time there was a narrow lane, but there was a lane, for a not-Trump candidate," said Gentry Collins, a veteran Republican strategist and former state GOP executive director who ran Mitt Romney's 2008 GOP caucus campaign. "But there isn't really a single alternative people can rally around."

Trump was the first choice of 51% of likely Iowa caucus participants in a Des Moines Register-NBC News-Mediacom Iowa Poll published Monday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has vowed that he will win Iowa, had the support of 19%. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has suggested she can beat DeSantis in the state and go head to head with Trump in later primaries, was at 16%.

Next year's GOP nomination is officially an open race. But many primary voters believe Trump was cheated in 2020 when he lost his reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden. Multiple government and outside investigations have not found evidence of any voter fraud, despite Trump's frequent and repeated false claims that are often repeated by many of his supporters.

Trump remains popular with Republicans, both in Iowa and nationally, who credit him for his handling of the economy, the U.S.-Mexico border, and his appointment of three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn a federally guaranteed right to abortion.

"You've got basically a quasi-incumbent president," said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster and senior adviser to Marco Rubio's 2016 campaign. "Of course, he's got the overwhelming advantage."

Beyond Trump's built-in advantages, a massive and ongoing effort on his behalf in Iowa reflects the campaign's realization - especially compared to his seat-of-the-pants 2016 effort - that turning out many thousands of Iowans to caucus on a cold January night requires intense organizing.

State Republican Party officials who run the contests and strategists with the various campaigns suggest January's caucuses will break the record of nearly 187,000 people in 2016.

Trump's team says it has collected and processed tens of thousands of commitment cards, most of them coming from his 11 visits to Iowa in the past three months. Aides say the cards are entered into a database within three days before a campaign volunteer replies by phone.

Though Trump has visited far less often than DeSantis, Haley and others, he has drawn more than 20,000 to events since early September, thousands of whom say they are first-time caucus participants.

When asked if they were first-timers, hundreds of people raised their hands at Wednesday's event in Coralville. The audience sat before a stage flanked by large video screens with a QR code and text code that guided them to the campaign's digital portal.

Volunteers circulated around the Hyatt Regency hosting the event, identifiable with their white ball caps emblazoned in gold lettering with "Trump Caucus Captain."

One volunteer, a University of Iowa student, approached Ginger Marolf as she was waiting in a line of hundreds of people snaking around the hotel. The student asked Marolf to fill out a caucus pledge card and give it back so they could get "an accurate count of how many people support Trump in Iowa."

After signing her card, Marolf called Trump a fighter for "us, the people" and suggested that she isn't considering any of the other Republican candidates.

"Trump needs to be back in office, like now," she said, blaming Biden for high prices, an unprotected southern border and global instability.

Caucus captains are given a list of 25 neighbors and responsible for delivering at least 10 to a caucus. Key between now and the caucuses is "grinding away at recruiting caucus captains and training them," said Alex Latcham, the campaign's early state director whose background is in Iowa politics.

Other candidates also claim to have the backing of strong organizations.

DeSantis entered the race to the national fanfare of a big-state governor who had won a crushing 2022 reelection victory and is pushing through conservative priorities in a traditional swing state. But he faltered during the summer and fall, with several shake-ups in his campaign and overall strategy.

Still, the main super PAC backing him, Never Back Down, is the largest political operation on the ground in Iowa and claims to have tens of thousands of signed support cards for DeSantis, who has said he plans to win the caucuses.

Haley won a second look from some in Iowa after early fall debate performances. Her candidacy had little apparent support on the ground in Iowa but is now supported by Americans for Prosperity Action, the political arm of the well-heeled conservative Koch Brothers network. AFP Action backed Haley in late November and began knocking on doors for her this month.

In a sign that she's still trying to reintroduce herself to Iowans, Haley began a recent event by retelling her early life's story to an audience of about 400 in suburban Des Moines near word for word as she did on her first Iowa trip as a candidate 10 months ago.

DeSantis remains the primary focus of the Trump campaign's attacks. Trump, who continually has accused DeSantis of disloyalty for running against him despite the president's 2018 endorsement of him in Florida, has long sought to bury the governor in Iowa. Despite Trump's markedly different to DeSantis' traditional county-by-county effort and fewer overall visits, the president's Iowa push appears to have kept him well ahead.

Sondra Michels said she had long avoided politics before this year. She plans not only to caucus for the first time but to be a caucus leader in her precinct in Walcott, an eastern Iowa town known for being the home of the world's largest truck stop.

"We've got to see him win here and keep going," said Michels, 49. "He had the prices lower and we were safer."


# Michigan court rejects challenges to Trump's spot on 2024 primary ballot
December 14, 2023. 7:06 PM EST

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LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Michigan Court of Appeals said Thursday it won't stop former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state's 2024 Republican primary ballot, turning aside challenges from critics who argue that his role in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol disqualifies him.

The court affirmed two lower court rulings without determining whether Trump falls under the insurrection clause in the Constitution's 14th Amendment.

"Who to place on the primary ballot is determined by the political parties and the individual candidates," the appeals court said in a 3-0 opinion, citing Michigan law.

The court further said Trump's possible spot on a general election ballot was not ripe for consideration.

The two-sentence clause in the 14th Amendment has been used only a handful of times since the years after the Civil War. It's likely that one of the lawsuits challenging Trump eventually will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has never ruled on the insurrection clause.

The Michigan court decision was similar to one from the Minnesota Supreme Court, which said Trump could stay on that state's primary ballot there because the election is a party-run contest.

In one of the Michigan lawsuits, the anti-Trump plaintiffs included Bob LaBrant, a longtime Republican who was a lawyer and political strategist for decades at the state Chamber of Commerce.

In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said, "The Soros-funded Democrats have once again failed in their desperate attempt to interfere in the election via a bad-faith interpretation of the 14th Amendment."


# Man accused of making death threats to Ramaswamy released, can't have contact with any candidate
December 14, 2023. 2:23 PM EST

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**CONCORD, N.H. (AP)** - A judge on Thursday released from jail a New Hampshire man accused of sending text messages threatening to kill a presidential candidate.

Tyler Anderson, 30, of Dover, was arrested Saturday and charged with sending a threat using interstate commerce. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing Thursday.

A federal prosecutor argued to keep Anderson in detention pending his trial, saying "very violent, concerning language" was used. But both the prosecution and defense lawyers said Anderson acknowledged that he had no intent to follow through on his texts.

Anderson also has no criminal record.

The judge set forth several conditions for his release, including that he avoid contact with any presidential candidate and their political campaigns. Anderson, who is receiving mental health treatment, must also take all of his prescribed medications. Guns in his home, belonging to a roommate, must be removed.

The U.S. Attorney's office did not name the candidate. However, a spokesperson for Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Monday that the texts were directed at his campaign.

According to court documents, Anderson received a text message from the candidate's campaign notifying him of a breakfast event in Portsmouth on Monday. The campaign staff received two text messages in response, according to an FBI agent affidavit. One threatened to shoot the candidate in the head, the other threatened to kill everyone at the event and desecrate their corpses.


# Israeli military veteran tapped as GOP candidate in special election to replace George Santos
By **ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE**
December 14, 2023. 5:47 PM EST

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**ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)** - Republicans have picked a little-known county lawmaker who once served in the Israeli military as their candidate in a special election to replace ousted New York congressman George Santos, party officials said Thursday.

Nassau County legislator and former Israeli paratrooper Mazi Pilip will face off against Democratic former congressman Tom Suozzi in a Feb. 13 special election for the seat, which includes northern parts of Queens and Long Island.

The selection pits Pilip, a relatively unknown local lawmaker originally from Ethiopia, against a political veteran in Suozzi, who previously represented the district for six years during a lengthy career in Long Island politics.

In a statement, Republicans in Queens and Nassau County loosely outlined some of her potential policy positions and said she would bring a new perspective to the House.

"Pilip is an effective tax fighter who will prioritize public safety, economic recovery, border security and tax relief in Congress," the statement read. "She will bring a fresh new perspective to Washington, starkly contrasting her from the candidate for the other major political party."

The party will hold a formal announcement ceremony for Pilip on Friday. She did not immediately return a message left at her office.

The election is expected to draw significant attention as both parties zero in on New York as a potential battleground for control of the House.

Republicans picked Pilip after vetting a number of potential candidates following the expulsion of Santos from Congress earlier this month for fabricating much of his life story and being criminally charged with defrauding donors.

The selection process appeared to be slowed after media began digging into the personal and professional histories of potential candidates, revealing damaging information that could become public during a campaign.

Politico reported last week that Pilip is a registered Democrat, though she holds her current position as a Republican and has been backed by Republicans when she was running for county office. The arrangement is not entirely uncommon in states that have closed primaries, where so-called crossover voters who identify with one party register under another so they can vote in primary elections.

Suozzi was tapped by Democrats last week after emerging as the party's frontrunner for the nomination. His extensive political experience could be a major advantage when it comes to name recognition and fundraising for the special election.

Suozzi, a centrist Democrat, was elected to the House in 2016 and won reelection in 2020, before leaving to launch the unsuccessful campaign for governor. He also served as the mayor of Glen Cove from 1994 to 2001, and as Nassau County's elected executive from 2002 to 2009.


# North Carolina Rep. Nickel won't seek reelection due to remapping, points to 2026 Senate bid
By **GARY D. ROBERTSON**
December 14, 2023. 5:17 PM EST

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**RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)** - Democratic U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel said Thursday he won't seek reelection to Congress next year, the result of congressional redistricting by Republican state legislators this fall that's likely to shift North Carolina's delegation to the right. And Nickel said he is interested in a U.S. Senate bid in an election that is almost three years away.

The decision by the first-term congressman on the day before candidate filing ends for the March primary means three incumbent House Democrats from North Carolina won't run in 2024. Each of them blamed the reconfigured lines by GOP lawmakers - now the subject of litigation - that they say make it futile for them to run.

Democratic Reps. Jeff Jackson of Charlotte and Kathy Manning of Greensboro already said they wouldn't seek reelection. Nickel's decision should benefit national Republicans in their efforts to retain a U.S. House majority in 2025.

"Here in North Carolina, Republicans have rigged the system to favor themselves, and I do not have a path for re-election in the 13th District. But I'm not giving up and neither should you," Nickel told supporters at an event in Cary.

Nickel, a lawyer and state senator from Cary before his 2022 victory, said he would now work next year to help get Democrats elected up and down the ballot and talk about what he considers illegal gerrymandering.

"Then for me, in January 2025, I'm going to look to flip our U.S. Senate seat blue," Nickel said to cheers from supporters, adding that legislative Repubilcans "can't gerrymander a statewide election."

2026 is the next time a Senate seat is scheduled for North Carolina ballots. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis currently holds that seat.

In a text before his speech, Nickel said he planned to file paperwork soon with the Federal Election Commission to shift his House campaign committee to a Senate committee. But he declined to say that he had already decided to run in 2026. A Nickel news release said that he would "explore a path forward" in the Senate.

The 2022 elections were conducted under a map for the state's 14 congressional seats drawn by state judges that resulted in Democrats and Republicans winning seven seats each. One of the seven belongs to Nickel, who narrowly won in the closely competitive Raleigh-area 13th District.

But the Republican-dominated General Assembly, emboldened by a state Supreme Court ruling that tossed out previous partisan gerrymandering claims as outside the courts' purview, enacted a map that made it likely for the GOP to win at least 10 of the 14 seats, according to election data.

The recalibrated 13th Congressional District is now considered a strongly leaning Republican district and two other districts adjoining the 13th are heavily Democratic and where Democratic incumbents Deborah Ross and Valerie Foushee are seeking reelection.

At least 10 Republicans have filed as candidates for the new 13th District, which, while still including parts of Raleigh, wraps around Wake County and stretches north to the Virginia border and south into several rural counties.

Jackson, the 14th District incumbent, is running instead for state attorney general. Manning, who currently represents the 6th District, said last week that she would change her mind and run again for Congress should litigation alleging the retooled 6th District is an illegal racial gerrymander succeeds.

Nickel has been particularly vocal about the congressional map, declaring that litigation was needed to strike it down.

More than 20 Black and Latino voters sued over the 6th and three other congressional districts earlier this month, but it appears unlikely that any resolution of the lawsuit will occur in time to delay the congressional primary elections. Absentee ballots for the primary start getting mailed to requesters on Jan. 19.

Republicans backing U.S. House candidates were pleased with Nickel's departure.

"Wiley Nickel just gave Republicans an early Christmas gift with another pickup in the battle for the House majority," Delanie Bomar, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a news release.


# US Rep. Drew Ferguson, a Georgia Republican, says he won't seek reelection in 2024
By **JEFF AMY** and **RUSS BYNUM**
December 14, 2023. 6:42 PM EST

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**ATLANTA (AP)** - Republican Rep. Drew Ferguson said Thursday he won't seek reelection to his Georgia seat in 2024.

"Julie and I look forward to spending more time with our children and grandchildren while continuing to work to keep Georgia the best state in America to live and do business," Ferguson said in a statement.

He said he plans to serve the remainder of his fourth term representing western Georgia's 3rd District, which expires at the end of next year.

The announcement comes two months after Ferguson said his family had received death threats amid the inner turmoil Republicans faced in electing a new House speaker following the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California.

The threats came after Ferguson publicly withdrew his support for GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a favorite of hard-right conservatives. Ferguson said he refused to support "a bully" for speaker and that the threats were "unacceptable, unforgivable, and will never be tolerated."

A former mayor of West Point, Ferguson was elected to Congress in 2016 in a district west of Atlanta that hugs the Georgia-Alabama state line. Ferguson later moved from his hometown to a house in Pike County, south of Atlanta, near the rural town of The Rock.

He served in the House GOP leadership as the chief deputy whip from 2018 through 2022 and holds a seat on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. But his attempts to rise in the House leadership were spurned by fellow Republicans. He lost a three-way race for whip to Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer in 2022.

Ferguson's retirement is likely to set off a scramble among ambitious Republicans who would like to go to Congress. Ferguson was already being challenged by Jim Bennett, a Republican activist from Carroll County who had criticized Ferguson as insufficiently conservative.

Other Republicans who said they were considering bids Thursday include state Sen. Matt Brass of Newnan, state Rep. David Jenkins of Grantville and former state Rep. Philip Singleton, who wrote on Facebook that "We are very open to a run." Singleton lost a challenge to Ferguson in the 2018 Republican primary before serving two terms in the state House and being redistricted out of office by a GOP leadership who didn't like his hard-right politics and confrontational style.

Republican state senators who represent other parts of the district, including Mike Dugan of Carrollton and Randy Robertson of Cataula, could also be contenders. Neither immediately responded to text messages Thursday asking about their interest.

Others could include Brian Jack, a former White House political director for President Donald Trump and former aide to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Chris West, a Republican who lost a bid for southwest Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in 2022 to longtime Democratic incumbent Sanford Bishop. West recently moved from Thomasville to Newnan.

West called Ferguson "a great friend and fighter for the 3rd District of Georgia" on Facebook Thursday, but didn't say anything about his own plans.

Ferguson's 3rd District seat leans solidly Republican. He easily fended off a GOP primary challenger last year before winning reelection to a fourth term with 69% of the vote.

State lawmakers in recent weeks redrew Georgia's congressional map under a federal judge's order to add a majority-Black district. But the Legislature's Republican majority produced a map that didn't change the boundaries of the 3rd District, which runs from Carrollton south to Columbus along the Alabama state line and skirts the southwestern edge of Atlanta's suburbs, stretching to Griffin and Barnesville. The map overall would maintain the GOP's 9-5 hold on the state U.S. House delegation and protect Republican incumbents.

However, those who successfully sued to overturn Georgia's congressional districts have asked a federal judge to reject the plan and draw his own. Those challengers have suggested changes that could bring big changes to the 3rd District, injecting uncertainty into the decisions of possible candidates.


# Janet Yellen says the Trump administration's China policies left the US more vulnerable
By **FATIMA HUSSEIN**
December 14, 2023. 8:33 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said former President Donald Trump 's policies toward China left America "more vulnerable and more isolated" in the global economy, a rare jab by her at the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

Yellen, at a U.S.-China Business Council event Thursday night, said the Trump administration "failed to make investments at home in critical areas like infrastructure and advanced technology, while also neglecting relationships with our partners and allies that had been forged and strengthened over decades."

Her comments come as the U.S. rebuilds its relationship with the Asian superpower, including a November meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco. The two nations agreed to curb the production of illicit fentanyl, a deadly component of drugs sold in the United States, and agreed to resume military-to-military communications.

"Proceeding purposefully and carefully to responsibly manage our economic relationship" is the Biden administration approach on China, she said.

Yellen, who rarely comments on the previous administration's approach on trade, said Trump-era policies on China "left America more vulnerable and more isolated in a competitive global economy that demands that nations take exactly the opposite approach."

"It damaged our global standing and meant significant missed economic opportunities for American firms and workers," she says.

In her speech, Yellen highlighted the Biden administration's strategy of strengthening relationships with like-minded nations through "friend shoring" with nations like South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, India and Indonesia. And establishing economic working groups between China and the U.S. that meet regularly to exchange information is an achievement, she said.

"Over the past three years, the Biden administration has course-corrected," she said. "We're investing at home through President Biden's Investing in America agenda," she noted, citing new laws on infrastructure, climate and semiconductors, among others.

The Biden administration has, however, kept in place some major Trump-era policies that are punishing to China, including tariffs on select Chinese goods imported into the United States.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in May, Yellen said the U.S. wouldn't likely lower the tariffs.

"I can imagine some adjustments taking place to rationalize the tariff structure, but my sense is the general feeling in the administration is that it's not appropriate to lower the tariffs," she said.

In addition, Biden signed an executive order over the summer designed to regulate and block high-tech U.S.-based investments going toward China, a move his Democratic administration said is based on protecting national security. And in 2022, the U.S. moved to block exports of advanced computer chips to China.

Eswar Prasad, a Cornell trade policy professor, said there are major differences between the way the two administrations have approached the U.S,-China economic relationship.

"The Biden administration has maintained a tough but constructive approach toward China, prioritizing national security considerations but also seeking avenues of cooperation and progress in areas with mutual benefits," Prasad said. "The Trump administration took a more hostile and aggressive approach that was not tempered by a recognition of shared interests between the two countries."

Goods and services traded between the two nations totaled a massive $758.4 billion in 2022, according to the U.S. Trade Representative. However, Chinese investment in the U.S. is decreasing, to $28.7 billion in 2022, down 7.2% from the prior year.

Yellen said that in 2024, the U.S. "will aim to continue to responsibly manage the U.S.-China bilateral economic relationship" but the "relationship will face continued challenges." She said China still deploys unfair economic practices and is too slow in resolving relief plans for debt-distressed countries.

"We seek not to resolve all our disagreements nor avoid all shocks," she said. "This is in no way realistic. But we aim to make our communication resilient so that when we disagree, when shocks occur, we prevent misunderstanding from leading to escalation and causing harm."


# Ex-President Trump endorses new candidate McDowell for central North Carolina congressional seat
December 13, 2023. 10:41 PM EST

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**RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)** - Former President Donald Trump endorsed a health insurance industry lobbyist for a central North Carolina congressional seat on Wednesday, choosing him before the candidate had publicly unveiled his bid.

Trump said on his Truth Social account that he was backing Republican Addison McDowell in the 6th Congressional District, writing that if elected McDowell will "work hard to Secure the Border, Defend the Second Amendment, Lower your Taxes, Grow our Economy, and Strengthen the Military."

McDowell, a registered lobbyist for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, previously worked for GOP Rep. Richard Hudson's campaign and as a district staffer for then-Rep. Ted Budd, who is now a U.S. senator.

Trump chose McDowell over other Republican candidates, at least four of whom have already filed candidacy papers to get on the March 5 primary ballot, including Bo Hines, whom Trump had endorsed for the 13th District seat in 2022. Hines narrowly lost in the general election to Democrat Wiley Nickel. Also in the 6th District GOP field is former Rep. Mark Walker, who represented a Greensboro-area district for six years through 2020. Walker ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2022, losing to the Trump-endorsed Budd.

Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning, who represents the current 6th District, said last week she wouldn't seek reelection in 2024 because she said redistricting enacted by the state legislature this fall is slanted toward Republicans and prevents her from winning. As of mid-Wednesday, no Democrat had filed for the nomination in the reconfigured district, which includes parts of Greensboro, Salisbury and Concord, among other communities.

McDowell highlighted the endorsement when he put out his own release to announce that he was running for the seat minutes after Trump's message. McDowell visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida to meet with the ex-president on Tuesday, campaign adviser Jonathan Felts said.

McDowell, a native of Davidson County - one of the six counties that comprise the reconfigured 6th District - had not filed as a candidate as of late Wednesday. Felts said that McDowell would turn his candidacy papers at the State Board of Elections before the candidacy filing period ends at noon Friday. McDowell filed other paperwork with federal election officials on Tuesday.


# Some 2024 GOP hopefuls call for 'compassion' in Texas abortion case but don't say law should change
By **MEG KINNARD**, **CHRISTINE FERNANDO**, and **MICHELLE L. PRICE**
December 13, 2023. 4:08 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Some of the Republicans seeking their party's 2024 presidential nomination have said the case of a Texas woman whose health deteriorated as she unsuccessfully sought an abortion should be handled with "compassion," but they did not criticize the state's law.

It's the latest indication that the candidates see the politics surrounding abortion as a delicate - and fraught - issue for the GOP after the Supreme Court's reversal of constitutional protections for the procedure helped power Democrats to unexpectedly strong performances in the 2022 midterms.

While campaigning Tuesday, both former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed sympathy for Kate Cox, a mother of two who sought an abortion after learning the baby she was carrying had a fatal genetic condition and suffering health complications of her own. Her request for an exemption from Texas' ban - one of the most restrictive in the U.S. - was ultimately denied by the state Supreme Court, and Cox left the state to seek an abortion elsewhere.

Asked about Cox's case at a CNN town hall, DeSantis, who signed a six-week ban in his state earlier this year, said that "these are very difficult issues" and pointed to Florida's exceptions allowing abortions when the mother's life is in danger or for a "fatal fetal abnormality."

"We have to approach these issues with compassion," said DeSantis, though there have been reports in Florida of women who have not been able to obtain abortions under the exception because their doctors, facing steep penalties if they are wrong, were unwilling to perform the procedure. The window of time for women to make the wrenching choice is also limited.

Haley also spoke of compassion and suggested Texas' medical board review the case. But she notably did not call for the law to be changed.

"You know I'm pro-life. I welcome the states that have become pro-life. But this is exactly why I've said you have to show compassion and humanize the situation," said Haley, who signed abortion restrictions after about 20 weeks into law as South Carolina governor in 2016. "We don't want any women to sit there and deal with a rare situation and have to deliver a baby in that sort of circumstance, any more than we want women getting an abortion at 37, 38, 39 weeks" - a rare occurrence generally due to grave medical complications.

President Joe Biden has called the Texas ruling "simply outrageous" and said what happened to Cox "should never happen in America, period."

Many Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, have been reluctant to stake out clear positions on what restrictions they support, including bans on abortion even when doctors determine a pregnancy is not viable and a baby will not survive outside the womb.

Much of that reluctance may be due to public sentiment, which favors abortion rights. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll this past summer found that about two-thirds of Americans said abortion should generally be legal. Voters have either affirmed abortion access or turned back attempts to undermine it in all seven states where the question has been on the ballot since Roe v. Wade's reversal.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was alone among the 2024 Republican candidates in declaring that the Texas Supreme Court erred in denying the abortion. He said Texas legislators should change their law.

"I think the Texas Supreme Court was wrong. And I think that, in a situation like this, you're not protecting any life because the child clearly has been diagnosed with having a fatal illness," Christie told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "So all you're doing is putting the life of the mother at risk by making her carry it to term."

Former President Donald Trump, who has taken credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn national abortion protections, has not issued any statement on the Texas case, and his campaign did not respond to messages Wednesday inquiring about his stance.

Another GOP presidential candidate, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, has not spoken out about Cox's case. He said in a video on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday night that the Supreme Court was correct to overturn Roe, that states should decide their own abortion restrictions and that Republicans should campaign on the idea of "sexual responsibility for men" by allowing any woman who carries a pregnancy to term to legally make the father solely responsible for caring for the child.

Cox's case and others like hers "prove exceptions don't exist in reality," said Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of communications and research for the national group Reproductive Freedom for All.

"If politicians like DeSantis and Haley really believed in exceptions and in compassion, they would have been fighting to find ways to work with doctors to clarify these laws and to help people facing these nightmarish situations in their own states to access care," she said. "They threw compassion out the window the moment they signed these bans."

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, also called for "compassion and care and dignity" for the mother and child but said Texas' law gives doctors the ability to perform an abortion if they determine a woman has a life-threatening condition or is in risk of impairment of a major bodily function.

The Texas law, however, is vague on how close to death a patient must be to get the procedure, and lawmakers have refused to clarify and amend the measure.

Christie, who is anti-abortion, nonetheless believes regulations on the procedure should be left to the states, not the federal government.

He said the Texas case demonstrates "why so many people don't trust certain members of my party with this issue, because either they are completely unmovable on it, no matter what the facts are, or they say nice words but are unwilling to take a position."


# Trump rails against opponents while urging Iowans to 'put big numbers up' in caucuses next month
By **THOMAS BEAUMONT** and **MICHELLE L. PRICE**
December 13, 2023. 9:09 PM EST

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**CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP)** - Donald Trump on Wednesday made his third trip to Iowa this month and urged his supporters to turn out in "big numbers" when Republicans cast the first presidential nomination votes in 33 days.

The former president, who has remained far ahead of his rivals in national polls and those of likely Iowa caucusgoers, pressed his supporters not to be complacent despite his frontrunner status.

"We have to put big numbers up, really big numbers," Trump said. Addressing Iowa voters directly, he said: "We are leading by a lot but you have to go out and vote. That margin of victory is so, so powerful."

He also insulted his GOP rivals and President Joe Biden and boasted about everything from keeping Iowa at the forefront of the Republican nominating process to bringing back the phrase "Merry Christmas," though he didn't offer details explaining when he thought it had gone missing.

He vowed that if he won the November 2024 election, the economy would be thriving again by Christmas of that year.

Though he has faced a bevy of legal problems, including four criminal cases, Trump campaigned regularly in the Iowa throughout the autumn, far more than in any other early-voting state for the 2024 Republican nomination. Wednesday marks his 11th visit since September.

His "Commit to Caucus" event in the eastern city of Coralville near Iowa City was part rally, part "caucus 101." Besides Trump's address, it featured an explanatory video featuring an animated character and panel of local organizers instructing Iowa Republicans on how and where to participate in the in-person meetings.

Before Trump arrived, hundreds wound around the hotel, waiting to enter the ballroom where he was to speak.

About a quarter of the crowd of more than 1,000 people raised their hands to indicate that it was their first time participating in a caucus.

"That is an expansion of the electorate only President Trump can do," Republican state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, an Iowa adviser for Trump's campaign, said onstage.

Trump closed out his remarks with a performance he has been frequently tacking onto his speeches, where he speaks in a soft, lilting voice over an instrumental song that adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory have claimed as their anthem.

Speaking over the music rising and falling, Trump described America as a country in ruin, "where free speech is no longer allowed and where crime is rampant" and where "once revered airports, those beautiful, beautiful airports, are dirty."

"And now they sit and wait for hours and then are notified that the plane won't leave. And they have no idea when they will."

"With you at my side, we will demolish the 'deep state.' We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists. We will throw off the sick political class. We will rout the fake news media. We will drain the swamp and we will liberate our country from the tyrants and villains once and for all," he said, drawing whoops and cheers.

Though Trump has increasingly embraced fringe elements and authoritarian and violent rhetoric, his campaign organization is more disciplined in the mechanics of the process as he seeks the nomination a third time. When he first ran in 2016, the businessman and reality television star was unfamiliar with a caucus, and the need for intense organization to turn out supporters at hundreds of local meetings around the state.

Trump lost Iowa in 2016. In a foreshadowing of the false claims of fraud he still relentlessly makes about the 2020 presidential election, he claimed rival Ted Cruz stole the caucus based on "fraud" and demanded a do-over. He didn't provide proof of fraud in the caucus results but pointed to a mailer sent by Cruz's campaign that aimed to drive voters to the polls by showing their voting history and a false rumor spread by a Cruz surrogate warning that another candidate was dropping out.

Trump's campaign has already started reviving the fraud claims in 2024's Iowa race, with his campaign firing off a statement over the weekend that said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife had a "plot to rig the Caucus through fraud."

In an interview on Fox News on Friday, Casey DeSantis issued a call for supportive "moms and grandmoms" to come to Iowa, saying that people "do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus."

The Iowa Republican Party limits the selection process to residents. Casey DeSantis posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, attempting to clarify her remarks by noting that while voting was limited to Iowa residents, others can volunteer.

Ron DeSantis echoed that rationale when speaking to reporters, but the Trump campaign on Saturday condemned the comments.

DeSantis has wagered his candidacy's future on Iowa, and has predicted he will win there.

A Des Moines Register NBC News Mediacom Iowa Poll taken last week showed the Florida governor running a distant second with support from 19 percent of likely GOP caucusgoers, the same support he had in the Register's August survey, and trailing Trump by 32 percentage points. DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley are battling for second place.


# DeSantis goes after Trump on abortion, COVID-19 and the border wall in an Iowa town hall
By **JONATHAN J. COOPER**
December 12, 2023. 10:56 PM EST

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Donald Trump "flip-flipped" on abortion, overreached in response to COVID-19 and failed to uphold his campaign pledge to get Mexico to pay for a wall on the southern U.S. border, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday in Iowa.

DeSantis, who is in a distant second place behind Trump in most national polls in the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, stepped up his case against the former president during a CNN town hall in Des Moines five weeks before the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses.

He zeroed in on abortion in a state where evangelical voters form the backbone of the GOP, contrasting Trump's recent skepticism about strict anti-abortion laws with his earlier comments about protecting the sanctity of life.

"You should be consistent in your beliefs, especially on something that's very fundamental, and he has not been consistent," DeSantis said. "And there's a lot of voters in Iowa who really care about this, who need to know how he's changed his position."

DeSantis last month picked up the endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent Iowa evangelical leader who has also questioned Trump's commitment to the anti-abortion movement. Trump has responded by emphasizing his support from more than 150 pastors around the state.

Abortion has become a flashpoint in U.S. politics since a Supreme Court majority shaped by Trump's three appointments eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, helping to power unexpectedly strong Democratic performances in the 2022 midterms. Trump has not backed a national abortion ban and has criticized the way many Republican politicians talk about the issue. He has implied that a Florida law DeSantis signed, which outlaws abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, is " too harsh."

Asked about the case of Kate Cox, a Texas woman who sought an abortion when her health deteriorated as she carried a fetus with a fatal condition, DeSantis was vague. He said "these are very difficult issues" and pointed to the Florida law's exceptions allowing abortions when the mother's life is in danger, though in Cox's case, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that her pregnancy complications did not constitute the kind of medical emergency under which abortions are allowed.

DeSantis has staked his campaign on a strong showing in Iowa's leadoff caucuses on Jan. 15, but he's struggled to break out of a distant second place. Like most of his rivals, he has largely treated the front-runner gingerly, avoiding direct criticism of Trump, who remains popular with GOP primary voters.

But sprinkled through the CNN town hall was a case to Trump-supporting voters that it's time to move on. Trump, he said, is no longer the colorful "America First" advocate whom Republicans embraced in 2016.

"Now a lot of it's about him," DeSantis said.

And he worked to pierce rosy memories of Trump's tenure in the White House. He said Trump erred in his response to COVID-19, an issue that helped catapult DeSantis to GOP prominence when he refused to go along with strict lockdowns that most other governors imposed early in the pandemic.

"The first three years of the Trump administration, the economy's better than it has been, but that last year with COVID, I think was mishandled dramatically," DeSantis said. "Shutting down the country was a huge mistake. Printing trillions and trillions of dollars was a huge mistake."

DeSantis also took aim at one of the defining themes of Trump's first run for the White House: his promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and have the Mexican government pay for it.

"That didn't happen," DeSantis said. "And why didn't it happen? Well, one, I think he got distracted, and he didn't do it on day one. But, two, he didn't utilize the levers of power that he had."


# Congressional candidate's voter outreach tool is latest AI experiment ahead of 2024 elections
By **ALI SWENSON**
December 12, 2023. 6:57 PM EST

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A phone-banking tool powered entirely by artificial intelligence is getting its first real-world test in a Pennsylvania Democrat's congressional campaign.

The chatbot, named Ashley, calls voters and engages in two-way, interactive conversations about candidate Shamaine Daniels, one of seven Democrats running so far in next year's primary. The voice tool from the startup Civox represents one of many ways AI technology is breaking into politics ahead of the 2024 campaigns, but experts say its direct contact with voters could threaten data security and has the potential to undermine voter trust.

Daniels announced the partnership with Civox on Tuesday, saying the the first-of-its-kind political campaign tool had already completed more than 1,000 calls with likely Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania's 10th House district, which includes the state capital, Harrisburg.

Unlike other robocallers, Ashley doesn't use canned responses or give call recipients a menu of options. Instead, it uses generative AI technology to devise immediate humanlike responses to voter questions.

The tool was created by Civox in partnership with another new company, Conversation Labs. Civox CEO Ilya Mouzykantskii and co-founder Adam Reis, who also founded Conversation Labs, said they tested it rigorously to ensure it could accurately answer questions about Daniels' policies and what differentiates her from other candidates in the race.

The founders said they decided to give the tool a machine-like voice because in internal testing, call recipients preferred that to other, more realistic voices.

"It's often not the voice itself that influences how natural or human-feeling the conversation is," Reis said. "It's often the nuances of interactions and how quickly it responds and the language it uses."

In a demonstration with Ashley on Tuesday, the tool disclosed that it was powered by AI and that the call was being recorded. When prompted, it clearly and accurately shared Daniels' positions on affordable health care and education reform.

It tactfully answered pointed questions about election integrity and the Republican who holds the seat, six-term incumbent Rep. Scott Perry, pausing only a few seconds before each response.

But when asked off-topic questions, the tool sometimes got tripped up and shared false information. In a conversation about snacks, it said Cheetos were "known for being both delicious and health-conscious."

That's an example of an AI " hallucination " - a problem with still-evolving generative AI technology in which large language models tend to make statements that sound convincing but are false or made up.

Mouzykantskii said the mistake was fascinating but "not representative" of voters' experiences with the tool so far. "We have tested Ashley much more extensively on political topics than on the topic of food and nutrition," he said.

Voters' responses so far to Ashley have been mixed, said Joe Bachman of Indigo Strategies, a spokesperson for Daniels. He noted that while some call recipients engaged in thorough conversations, many stuck to one-word answers as one might in a phone conversation with a banking chatbot.

"There's not a replacement for live one-on-one conversations, either on the phone or at doors," he said. "It's a new technology. It's going to take voters some time to get used to it, just as when campaigns started using SMS text messaging to communicate with voters."

He said the campaign felt the chatbot, which can speak over 20 languages, was a good opportunity to reach voters in the southern Pennsylvania district, which has a significant refugee population.

Mouzykantskii and Reis said they created Ashley using a combination of over 20 AI models, including both open-source and proprietary models. They declined to share what data its AI models are trained on and would not say whether they incorporated systems from OpenAI or other high-profile AI companies that have rules against usage in political campaigning.

Other entrepreneurs at the intersection of AI and politics said they were skeptical about Ashley's direct interaction with voters and more often advise campaigns to use the rapidly advancing technology on the back end of campaigns, such as in drafting advertising copy.

"The guidance I've offered and seen from most people is that they are steering away from AI personalities when it comes to politics and campaigns this cycle," said Betsy Hoover, a founding partner at the progressive tech accelerator and venture capital firm Higher Ground Labs. "You don't need people to be less trustful of politics right now. In fact, we need the opposite, and so this is not the cycle to try that."

Mike Nellis, CEO of the progressive digital agency Authentic, said he was concerned about the possibility of the chatbot making mistakes in conversations and didn't believe there was enough data to say whether its calls would be effective in motivating voters. The data the tool gathers through its phone calls is another concern, he said.

"Right now, that large language model knows sensitive voter information and knows the voters' responses to it," Nellis said. "I don't know how safe and secure that is."

Mouzykantskii said Civox protects voter information in line with "political campaign, technology, industry standards" and added that he encourages regulators to pay attention to these emerging tools and set stronger guidelines for them.

Daniels, 45, is an immigration lawyer and member of the Harrisburg City Council making her second run for the congressional seat, which is in a Republican-leaning district. The state's primary election is April 23.

Perry beat Daniels in 2022 by 8 percentage points, easily outspending her.


# Haley gets endorsement from Gov. Chris Sununu ahead of pivotal New Hampshire primary
By **MEG KINNARD** and **HOLLY RAMER**
December 12, 2023. 10:52 PM EST

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**MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)** - New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu endorsed Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Tuesday, six weeks before the state's pivotal first-in-the-nation primary.

Sununu appeared with Haley during a campaign town hall at a ski area in Manchester, where he said she has shown she understands the values Republicans associate with the state's "Live Free or Die" motto, including low taxes, limited government and local control.

"This is an opportunity for New Hampshire to lead this country, for New Hampshire to say we're not looking in the rearview mirror anymore," Sununu said.

His message for Donald Trump: "Thank you for your service, Mr. President, we're moving on. This is New Hampshire, and we go forward."

"This is a race between two people: Nikki Haley and Donald Trump," Sununu told reporters after the event. "That's it. Nikki's spent the time on the ground here, she's earned people's trust, and that's going to be the real decider."

Joining Sununu, Haley called it "about as rock solid as an endorsement as we could hope for."

"It's a great night in New Hampshire, I mean it doesn't get any better than this," she said.

The endorsement, first reported by WMUR-TV, comes as Haley angles to whittle away at Donald Trump's wide lead for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. A New Hampshire poll conducted in November by CNN and the University of New Hampshire found that Haley was in second place, well behind Trump, but slightly ahead of fellow candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

It's unclear how Sununu's endorsement will affect the race. While he remains popular in the state, Sununu has faced pushback from more conservative and libertarian-leaning factions within the New Hampshire Republican Party. Candidates he endorsed in last year's U.S. Senate race and a congressional race lost their primaries to candidates more closely aligned with Trump. The nominees then lost to Democrats in the general election.

Haley said that track record doesn't bother her.

"What I care about is that he's won four terms here, he knows New Hampshire like the back of his hand, he's one of the most popular governors in the country and he's got a high approval rating here," she told reporters. "I'm thrilled to have his endorsement."

Sununu's backing of Haley comes a month after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds endorsed DeSantis for president ahead of that state's first-in-the-nation caucuses, saying he was best poised for victory in the general election. Trump, meanwhile, has been endorsed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who heads the fourth state on the GOP voting calendar.

DeSantis praised Sununu Tuesday as "a good guy" and "a good campaigner" whose support will benefit Haley, but he said it won't be enough to convince conservatives she will deliver for them.

"Even a campaigner as good as Chris is not going to be able to paper over Nikki being an establishment candidate," DeSantis said during a CNN town hall in Iowa.

Haley on Tuesday kicked off a three-day campaign swing through New Hampshire, where she has campaigned steadily since launching her bid in February. Last week, she went up with the first ads of a $10 million television, radio and digital buy across that state, as well as Iowa, spending designed to give the former United Nations ambassador an advantage over DeSantis at a critical moment in the GOP nomination fight.

The ads have called on Republicans "to leave behind the chaos and drama of the past" - a reference to her frequent critique of the "chaos" that follows Trump - as well as her pledge to shore up America's military strength.

Trump, who has led the Republican field since launching his campaign a year ago, remains the heavy favorite in early polls of likely GOP voters in New Hampshire, although some polls suggest his position in those states is not quite as strong as his national standing.

Sununu, a frequent Trump critic, himself passed on entering the 2024 presidential race, arguing in June that Republican candidates with "no path to victory must have the courage to get out" of their party's primary in order to stop Trump.

"People are frustrated. Over the last eight years, we've had a president that's more concerned about nap time and we've had a president that's worried about his jail time. We've got to be able to move forward. That's drama. That is chaos," he said Tuesday. "So we're not going to as a party bring someone forward that is constantly distracted with whatever nonsense and drama that the former president brings to the table."

At the time Sununu decided against running, a broad field of GOP candidates was angling for the party's nomination, something Sununu argued only helped Trump's effort. Since then, the size has dwindled, a consolidation that in part has helped boost Haley, coupled with momentum from her performance in the four candidate debates.

Trump won New Hampshire's 2016 GOP presidential primary with just 35% of the vote. He went on to lose the state to his Democratic challenger in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Sununu, who is in his fourth two-year term, has stumped with several 2024 hopefuls - including Haley, DeSantis and Christie - as they've campaigned in his state, saying he would ultimately endorse one of the three. Of the three, Christie has been by far the most critical of Trump.

"This puts us down one vote in New Hampshire," Christie spokesperson Karl Rickett said of Sununu's endorsement. "And when Gov. Christie is back in Londonderry tomorrow, he'll continue to tell the unvarnished truth about Donald Trump."

Asked whether Haley has been doing a sufficient job confronting Trump, Sununu said, "Oh, sure." He acknowledged Christie has built his campaign around criticizing Trump, but said Haley has gone beyond telling voters what not to vote for. And Haley insisted she has explained her differences with Trump, including economic woes she blames on his administration.

"Anti-Trumpers don't think I hate him enough, pro-Trumpers don't think I love him enough," she said. "At the end of the day, I put my truths out there and let the chips fall where they may."

In November, Americans for Prosperity - the political arm of the powerful Koch network - formally endorsed Haley's campaign, promising to commit its nationwide coalition of activists and money to helping Haley defeat Trump.


# DeSantis' campaign and allied super PAC face new concerns about legal conflicts, AP sources say
By **STEVE PEOPLES** and **THOMAS BEAUMONT**
December 12, 2023. 4:16 PM EST

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**CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)** - Ron DeSantis has visited each of Iowa's 99 counties. He has the endorsement of the governor and boasts the largest get-out-the-vote operation in the state. And he has predicted victory in Iowa's Jan. 15 caucuses.

But as the Florida governor works to project strength in the Republican primary and cut into former President Donald Trump's huge lead, DeSantis' expansive political machine is facing a churn of leadership, stagnant polling numbers and new concerns about potential legal conflicts.

Specifically, there has been concern in recent weeks among some within DeSantis' operation that interactions between his campaign and his network of outside groups are blurring the lines of what's legally permissible.

Multiple people familiar with DeSantis' political network said that he and his wife had expressed concerns about the messaging of Never Back Down, the largest super PAC supporting the governor's campaign, in recent months as his Iowa polling numbers stagnated in late summer and autumn.

The governor and his wife, Casey, who is widely considered his top political adviser, were especially frustrated after the group took down a television ad last month that criticized leading Republican rival Nikki Haley for allowing a Chinese manufacturer into South Carolina when she was governor.

DeSantis' team shared those messaging concerns with members of Never Back Down's board, which includes Florida-based members with close ties to the governor, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions. Some of the board members then relayed the DeSantis team's wishes to super PAC staff, which was responsible for executing strategy, the people said.

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

Federal laws prohibit coordination between presidential campaigns and outside groups. There is no known lawsuit or federal complaint alleging DeSantis' campaign broke the law. And in the super PAC era that began with the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, murky relationships between campaigns and allied outside groups have become commonplace.

Still, Adav Noti, legal director for the Campaign Legal Center, said that the reported communication between DeSantis' team and the super PAC goes "too far." Noti suggested the communications could draw the scrutiny from the Federal Election Commission, which is responsible for enforcing campaign finance laws but has been gridlocked by internal divisions.

"To actually have a conversation with the candidate's agents and the super PAC's agents about strategy - there is no plausible argument that that is legal," Noti said. "This is not a gray area."

DeSantis' campaign has strongly denied the governor has tried to influence the network of outside groups supporting him given the federal laws prohibiting coordination. Asked for comment, DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo described the AP's reporting as "more nonsense from unnamed sources with agendas."

"While the media continues to obsess over attacking DeSantis with anonymous tabloid trash to support a false narrative, we remain focused on organizing in Iowa and sharing our vision for how to help the many Americans struggling this holiday season," Romeo said.

Never Back Down founder Ken Cuccinelli dismissed questions about DeSantis' political operation as insignificant in the overall campaign, saying "not a single voter gives a flying rat's tail about personnel stuff."

"We're going to be backing the governor all the way through this thing," Cuccinelli said in an interview at last Wednesday's GOP debate in Alabama. "We're not going anywhere, and I fully expect to be right there for it."

Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general, also made clear he was speaking of his own personal experience when asked directly if he felt any pressure from the DeSantises about the super PAC's strategy.

"No, not to me. No, no, I don't play those games. I just don't play those games," Cuccinelli told The Associated Press. "I've met the governor, and I've encountered Casey at events, but I don't have those conversations."

Five Never Back Down senior officials have either been fired or quit in the past two weeks, including two chief executives, the chairman and the communications director. The group has not explained the departures publicly. At the same time, DeSantis' Florida allies created a new super PAC, Fight Right, which quickly earned the public blessing of the DeSantis campaign.

DeSantis said he was unfamiliar with Never Back Down's ads last week when asked at an event in Cedar Rapids - an event sponsored by the super PAC, which has hosted him on campaign stops across the state - about how well he thought they represent him.

"I don't know. I don't see them, to be honest with you. I don't watch a lot of TV. So, I don't know. I can't really speak to that," DeSantis told reporters, pivoting to and praising his own campaign-financed ads.

The Florida governor is relying on super PACs more than any other leading presidential candidate in the brief history of the outside groups, which exploded in importance after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2010.

Never Back Down has spent nearly $43 million on paid advertising so far this year, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. By contrast, DeSantis' formal campaign, which he does legally control, has spent just $4.4 million.

In Iowa alone, Never Back Down has spent more than $16 million on advertising. That's more than any other political entity, campaign or super PAC in Iowa. The group was airing several ads in November, some promoting DeSantis and others critical of Haley.

Never Back Down remains responsible for many of DeSantis' campaign stops and get-out-the-vote efforts.

DeSantis has visited all of Iowa's 99 counties, a traditional gesture some candidates make before the caucuses to demonstrate their commitment to Iowa. Never Back Down hosted DeSantis at events in 92 of the counties he visited, according to the group's schedule.

Super PACs can accept unlimited donations, while campaigns have strict limits. The big catch: Groups like Never Back Down cannot legally coordinate with the formal campaigns on how to spend that money. And a candidate is barred from controlling a super PAC.

But as is the case with most candidate-focused super PACs in 2024, those who lead outside groups are usually close to the candidate. Many of Never Back Down's original top staff and officers, including most of those who left this month, did not have longstanding relationships with DeSantis. Late last week, Phil Cox, who managed DeSantis' 2022 reelection, was named a senior adviser to the super PAC.

DeSantis on Friday praised Never Back Down, which claims 26 paid staff in Iowa and says it has collected written commitments from more than 30,000 Iowa Republicans to caucus for DeSantis next month. That's a significant figure for a contest in which the record number of participants was 186,000, in 2016.

Iowa's caucuses traditionally reward well-organized campaigns. DeSantis' allies hope the months of effort will help them overcome expectations from polls suggesting Trump will be dominant on Jan. 15.

"I think the idea was that they would be able to really focus on this organization," including in all 99 counties, DeSantis said on Iowa PBS's "Iowa Press" Friday. "So I think it was smart that they did that."

Many voters who gathered to see DeSantis at a crowded bar along Iowa's border with Nebraska late last week said they were not aware of the apparent turmoil. And those who were said they weren't particularly concerned.

"That happens with every campaign. It's early. Shakeups with people are going to happen," said 57-year-old Sally Madsen of Council Bluffs.

Madsen, who previously supported Trump, has already decided to caucus for DeSantis. She said Trump lost her support in the final year of his presidency for how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic and his failure to help who she described as "innocent" Jan. 6 rioters, many of whom have been convicted and some sent to prison.

"He didn't do anything for them," Madsen said of Trump. "I don't know if he could even attract good people to work for him at this point."


# Early, often and unequivocally: How Whitmer's fight for abortion rights helped turn Michigan blue
By **JOEY CAPPELLETTI**
December 12, 2023. 9:56 AM EST

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**LANSING, Mich. (AP)** - Ten years ago, as Michigan's Republican-led Legislature was on the verge of passing one of the nation's most restrictive anti-abortion laws at the time, a 42-year-old state senator from East Lansing took to the Senate floor to speak out against what she knew was about to happen.

Minutes into her speech, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer tossed aside her prepared remarks and revealed for the first time publicly that she had been raped while attending college. Had she become pregnant, Whitmer said, she would not have been able to afford an abortion under the proposed law.

The bill, which Whitmer had derisively called "rape insurance" because it required women to declare when buying health insurance whether they expected to receive an abortion, passed anyway. But Whitmer, now in her second term as Michigan's governor after winning reelection by nearly 11 percentage points in 2022, this week removed the requirement from state law with the stroke of a pen after Michigan's Democratic-controlled Legislature sent her a bill tossing it aside.

"It's kind of a stunning full-circle moment where it does reinforce that these fights are worth having and they're winnable, even if sometimes it takes a little longer than it should," Whitmer said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Whitmer recalled the hundreds of calls and emails she received after her 2013 speech as a turning point for her, the moment when she realized how much people care about protecting a woman's right to choose whether she should have an abortion. It's a lesson she hopes to drive home all over the country as one of the nation's leading abortion rights advocates during what could prove to be a pivotal election year for the issue in 2024.

"The voters speak loud and clear," she said. "And so I do think that in this moment, in this country, this is an important, crucial issue for a lot of people."

Abortion rights moved to the political forefront after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had long preserved them as a constitutional right. The court gave states the power to decide for themselves whether abortion should be legal.

Conservative states across the country moved quickly to enact abortion bans in various forms, leading to a wave of legal fights in places such as Texas, where a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal condition was forced to leave the state this week to obtain an abortion. Some Republicans, including several contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, have also called for a national abortion ban.

The political fallout at the ballot box has mostly gone in the opposite direction. Democrats did better than expected in last year's midterms, limiting their House losses and maintaining a narrow Senate majority, and defending abortion rights worked in Democrats' favor in several states again this year. When constitutional questions about abortion rights appeared on the ballot, even voters in Republican-leaning states from Kansas to Ohio rejected GOP-backed efforts to curb them.

Whitmer says Democrats have won in Michigan by running unapologetically on the issue. Her party controls all levels of state government for the first time in 40 years after flipping both chambers of the Legislature last November.

That success was fueled by a citizen-led ballot initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. Whitmer and other Michigan Democrats emphasized their support for the initiative in their 2022 election campaigns.

President Joe Biden's reelection campaign views the defense of abortion rights as a winning issue for Democrats in 2024. They are quick to make note of boasts by former President Donald Trump that his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices instigated the court's reversal.

Biden himself is less outspoken on the issue than other members of his party, and occasionally seems personally conflicted.

"I happen to be a practicing Catholic. I'm not big on abortion," he said during a June fundraiser. "But guess what? Roe v. Wade got it right."

Biden's hesitancy comes as his reelection campaign faces vulnerabilities. Michigan was a critical component of the so-called blue wall of states, including Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, that Biden returned to the Democratic column, helping him win the White House in 2020.

The president's support in the state has wavered since the 2020 election, however, and a CNN poll released Monday showed that only 35% of respondents approved of the job he's been doing.

Michigan is also home to one of the largest Arab-American and Muslim communities in the nation, and many of their leaders have been vocal about saying that his pro-Israel stance on the war that began with an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 could jeopardize his chances to win in Michigan again.

Whitmer, who is co-chair of Biden's reelection campaign and has herself been frequently mentioned as a future presidential candidate, deflected questions Monday about his chances in Michigan, insisting that she was only going to "focus on reproductive rights today."

Whitmer also said she understands that talking about abortion is "not comfortable for everyone." But she said the chances of Republicans pushing for a federal ban on abortion should be taken seriously.

For her, that's reason enough to talk about abortion rights early, often and unequivocally.

"The prospect of a national abortion ban is real," she said. Using other words to talk about reproductive rights or being overly cautious about the issue, she said, "dilutes the importance of the moment."

In June, Whitmer launched a "Fight Like Hell" federal PAC to raise money for Democratic candidates who are "unapologetic in their fight for working people and their basic freedoms" heading into the 2024 election. The PAC will support candidates for Congress and other offices but also will provide financial support for Biden's reelection bid.

A group of eight U.S. House Democrats seeking reelection in competitive districts were announced on Tuesday as the PAC's first endorsements.

Since winning full legislative control, Michigan Democrats have struck down the state's 1931 abortion ban, prohibited Michigan companies from firing or retaliating against workers for receiving an abortion and lifted regulations on abortion clinics.

For Whitmer, those successes help justify her decision a decade ago to discuss abortion in such personal terms.

"I think about my daughters who I was so worried to hear that their mom had been raped when they were 10 and 11 years old," Whitmer said. "And now they're 20 and 21, and I know they're proud to see that I've stayed in this fight, and I'm trying to make life better for other women."


# After losing Houston mayor's race, US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to seek reelection to Congress
December 11, 2023. 5:40 PM EST

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**HOUSTON (AP)** - Two days after losing her bid to be Houston's next mayor, longtime U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee announced on Monday she will seek a 16th term in Congress in 2024.

Jackson Lee first took office in 1995. Her district includes downtown Houston and some of the city's historically Black neighborhoods, including Third and Fifth Wards.

"I am enthusiastic about the prospect of continuing our shared journey to uplift the 18th Congressional District," Jackson Lee, a Democrat, said in a statement. "Your support has been invaluable, and I eagerly welcome it as I strive to further serve and represent our community with my ability to get the job done."

Jackson Lee's announcement comes after she was handily defeated by state Sen. John Whitmire in a mayoral runoff election on Saturday.

She had sought to be Houston's first Black female mayor. Jackson Lee was heavily outspent by Whitmire in the campaign and also had to deal with fallout from the release in October of an unverified audio recording that purportedly captured her profanely berating staff.

In her reelection bid to Congress, Jackson Lee will be facing at least one challenger in the Democratic primary: former Houston City Council Member Amanda Edwards, who once was an intern in the congresswoman's office.


# Wisconsin's Democratic attorney general vows to defend potential 2024 Trump victory in court
December 11, 2023. 4:00 PM EST

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin's Democratic attorney general vowed Monday to defend a potential Donald Trump victory in the swing state next year, saying he's confident that the state's election systems work.

Trump, a Republican, refused to concede that Democrat Joe Biden won Wisconsin in 2020. Multiple court challenges and a partial recount ultimately confirmed Biden's victory. Attorney General Josh Kaul defended the results in court.

Kaul told The Associated Press on Monday that the legal challenges over the 2020 election showed that Wisconsin's election systems accurately reflect the will of the voters.

Asked if he would defend the 2024 results even if they show that Trump won the state, Kaul said: "We're going to defend the results regardless of who wins the election. What is paramount is the will of the voters prevails."