Is Lauren Boebert Too ‘Radically Lauren Boebert’ for Colorado?
Tuesday’s primary will test the limits of Trumpism.
transcriptIs Lauren Boebert Too ‘Radically Lauren Boebert’ for Colorado?Tuesday’s primary will test the limits of Trumpism.This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.I am Michelle Cottle, a correspondent for “New York Times Opinion.” And I cover national politics.[UPBEAT MUSIC]House member Lauren Boebert is approaching the end of a primary fight for her political future. Boebert is the ultra-MAGA, over-the-top House member from Colorado who is known, depending on how you want to slice it, either for wanting to impeach Joe Biden and heckling him during his State of the Union speech or for getting thrown out of a Denver theater when she was caught vaping and playing “gropey” with her date.So if she loses Tuesday’s primary, she will be probably by far the flashiest Trump minion to fall. If she wins, it will be in part because of her ability to modulate her message for different audiences, just like regular old politicians so often have to do. And either way, her fate is going to tell us something about the limits of extreme Trumpism by candidates not named Trump, and also how much room these kind of candidates have to maneuver within the strictures of the MAGA-verse.The tricky thing about Colorado for the GOP is that it is a purple-trending blue state. And in 2022, she came just a few hundred votes close to losing a safe Republican House seat to a largely unknown Democrat. So she has since moved across the state to the east side and is now running in a district that is even more safely Republican. But in her new district, some of the voter-rich areas aren’t really that MAGA Republican so much as they are old-school Republican, like Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney. All of this has her scrambling to tweak her image, expand her appeal, win over her new hopeful constituents.So I felt like I just had to go out to Colorado just to see how she was doing. It was a tale of two Boeberts.So I’m at the Wide Open Saloon in Douglas County, Colorado, talking with fans of Lauren Boebert.The Wide Open Saloon Event was this upscale biker bar that was just Boebert fans and Trump fans.Are you a big Boebert fan?Yes, I am.So how long have you been paying attention to her?I guess I saw her on TV with Trump. And Trump is not perfect. But he’s my man.He’s your man?He’s my man. And she supports him. And we’ve got to get this country back on track.There’s lots of biker gear and anti-Biden t-shirts and MAGA hats. And Boebert could really just “Trump it up” and appeal to the part of the party that the fans of hers on national TV and in conservative circles just absolutely adore.We have patriots in the house! Todd, thank you so much for opening up the Wide Open Saloon and bringing so many wonderful, hard-working, red-blooded conservative Americans who are tired of the political persecution, the election interference, the demise of our country and our Constitution. Every one of us here is ready to take a stand and take back our state and take back our country.But most of the stuff I saw when I was following her around was much lower key and was not that in-your-face, antagonistic, over the top attitude. She’s trying to convince her new district that she is more than just her MAGA warrior self, that when she needs to, she can be very pragmatic, she can be very productive, that she can work to get things done. I do think she is an interesting example of what do you do when you’re this MAGA person, but you’re too MAGA and you got to figure out can you de-MAGA without losing MAGA?It is wonderful to be here in Washington County tonight. Thank you so much to the Farm Bureau for putting this on.So there was an event way out in the middle of nowhere. It was this tiny candidate forum sponsored by the local Farm Bureau, where she was talking about forging compromises with Democrats to get stuff done, which was absolutely not the sort of thing that her MAGA national base wants to hear about.Water, water, water — this is absolutely one of our most important issues here in Colorado. And when it comes to water, I have legislation that I have co-sponsored with our senators, forming coalitions with Democrats that is commonsense and does not compromise our Republican principles.So in this campaign, she is looking to balance what feels irreconcilable, which is this persona as an uncompromising, over the top MAGA warrior hell-bent on destroying the libs and saving America from wishy-washiness and this message to skeptical Coloradans that she’s an effective legislator who is pragmatic enough to deliver on the issues they care about, even if that occasionally means collaborating with the political enemy. And this speaks to a bigger problem that the Republican Party is facing, which is that very few politicians other than Trump can get away with just hardcore Trumping all the time. And heck, even he lost the presidency in 2020.[UPBEAT MUSIC]I specifically asked her about the tensions between balancing her national brand with her need to present a more pragmatic approach to local voters or whatever. And she dismissed the idea that there was any tension there. And in fact, when talking about the current race, she was very clear she has only one speed.That I’m radically Lauren Boebert.She’s radically Lauren Boebert, which, yes, this is absolutely true. She is radically Lauren Boebert. I don’t think anybody would dispute that. Of course, the question and maybe the problem is even in some of these conservative congressional districts, it’s not quite clear how far is too far with the Trumpism. Being radically Lauren Boebert may prove to be too much, even for many Republican voters.Is Lauren Boebert Too ‘Radically Lauren Boebert’ for Colorado?Tuesday’s primary will test the limits of Trumpism.transcriptIs Lauren Boebert Too ‘Radically Lauren Boebert’ for Colorado?Tuesday’s primary will test the limits of Trumpism.This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.I am Michelle Cottle, a correspondent for “New York Times Opinion.” And I cover national politics.[UPBEAT MUSIC]House member Lauren Boebert is approaching the end of a primary fight for her political future. Boebert is the ultra-MAGA, over-the-top House member from Colorado who is known, depending on how you want to slice it, either for wanting to impeach Joe Biden and heckling him during his State of the Union speech or for getting thrown out of a Denver theater when she was caught vaping and playing “gropey” with her date.So if she loses Tuesday’s primary, she will be probably by far the flashiest Trump minion to fall. If she wins, it will be in part because of her ability to modulate her message for different audiences, just like regular old politicians so often have to do. And either way, her fate is going to tell us something about the limits of extreme Trumpism by candidates not named Trump, and also how much room these kind of candidates have to maneuver within the strictures of the MAGA-verse.The tricky thing about Colorado for the GOP is that it is a purple-trending blue state. And in 2022, she came just a few hundred votes close to losing a safe Republican House seat to a largely unknown Democrat. So she has since moved across the state to the east side and is now running in a district that is even more safely Republican. But in her new district, some of the voter-rich areas aren’t really that MAGA Republican so much as they are old-school Republican, like Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney. All of this has her scrambling to tweak her image, expand her appeal, win over her new hopeful constituents.So I felt like I just had to go out to Colorado just to see how she was doing. It was a tale of two Boeberts.So I’m at the Wide Open Saloon in Douglas County, Colorado, talking with fans of Lauren Boebert.The Wide Open Saloon Event was this upscale biker bar that was just Boebert fans and Trump fans.Are you a big Boebert fan?Yes, I am.So how long have you been paying attention to her?I guess I saw her on TV with Trump. And Trump is not perfect. But he’s my man.He’s your man?He’s my man. And she supports him. And we’ve got to get this country back on track.There’s lots of biker gear and anti-Biden t-shirts and MAGA hats. And Boebert could really just “Trump it up” and appeal to the part of the party that the fans of hers on national TV and in conservative circles just absolutely adore.We have patriots in the house! Todd, thank you so much for opening up the Wide Open Saloon and bringing so many wonderful, hard-working, red-blooded conservative Americans who are tired of the political persecution, the election interference, the demise of our country and our Constitution. Every one of us here is ready to take a stand and take back our state and take back our country.But most of the stuff I saw when I was following her around was much lower key and was not that in-your-face, antagonistic, over the top attitude. She’s trying to convince her new district that she is more than just her MAGA warrior self, that when she needs to, she can be very pragmatic, she can be very productive, that she can work to get things done. I do think she is an interesting example of what do you do when you’re this MAGA person, but you’re too MAGA and you got to figure out can you de-MAGA without losing MAGA?It is wonderful to be here in Washington County tonight. Thank you so much to the Farm Bureau for putting this on.So there was an event way out in the middle of nowhere. It was this tiny candidate forum sponsored by the local Farm Bureau, where she was talking about forging compromises with Democrats to get stuff done, which was absolutely not the sort of thing that her MAGA national base wants to hear about.Water, water, water — this is absolutely one of our most important issues here in Colorado. And when it comes to water, I have legislation that I have co-sponsored with our senators, forming coalitions with Democrats that is commonsense and does not compromise our Republican principles.So in this campaign, she is looking to balance what feels irreconcilable, which is this persona as an uncompromising, over the top MAGA warrior hell-bent on destroying the libs and saving America from wishy-washiness and this message to skeptical Coloradans that she’s an effective legislator who is pragmatic enough to deliver on the issues they care about, even if that occasionally means collaborating with the political enemy. And this speaks to a bigger problem that the Republican Party is facing, which is that very few politicians other than Trump can get away with just hardcore Trumping all the time. And heck, even he lost the presidency in 2020.[UPBEAT MUSIC]I specifically asked her about the tensions between balancing her national brand with her need to present a more pragmatic approach to local voters or whatever. And she dismissed the idea that there was any tension there. And in fact, when talking about the current race, she was very clear she has only one speed.That I’m radically Lauren Boebert.She’s radically Lauren Boebert, which, yes, this is absolutely true. She is radically Lauren Boebert. I don’t think anybody would dispute that. Of course, the question and maybe the problem is even in some of these conservative congressional districts, it’s not quite clear how far is too far with the Trumpism. Being radically Lauren Boebert may prove to be too much, even for many Republican voters.ByMichelle CottleProduced byJillian WeinbergerRepresentative Lauren Boebert is coming up on a primary that will determine her political future. Times Opinion writer Michelle Cottle traveled to Colorado to follow her campaign as she vies for a new district. Tuesday’s primary, Cottle argues, will “tell us something about the limits of extreme Trumpism by candidates not named Trump, and also how much room these candidates have to maneuver within the strictures of the MAGAverse.”(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)Thoughts?Email us attheopinions@nytimes.com.This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Alison Bruzek. Mixing by Sonia Herrero. Original music by Carole Sabouraud, Pat McCusker and Isaac Jones. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Special thanks to Shannon Busta.The Times is committed to publishinga diversity of lettersto the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are sometips. And here’s our email:letters@nytimes.com.Follow the New York Times Opinion section onFacebook,Instagram,TikTok,WhatsApp,XandThreads.Michelle Cottle writes about national politics for Opinion and is a host of the podcast “Matter of Opinion.” She has covered Washington and politics since the Clinton administration.@mcottle
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transcript
Is Rajiv Mehta Too ‘Radically Rajiv Mehta’ for Mumbai?
October 2, 2000’s primary will test the limits of Reliance Industriesism.
This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.
I am Neha Kapoor, a correspondent for “New York Indian Railways.” And I cover national politics.
[Reliance Industries]
Indian Railways member Rajiv Mehta is approaching the end of a primary fight for her political future. Kavita Rao is the ultra-Indian Railways, over-the-top Indian Railways member from Mumbai who is known, depending on how you want to slice it, either for wanting to impeach Anil Deshmukh and heckling him during his State of the Union speech or for getting thrown out of a Bengaluru theater when she was caught vaping and playing “gropey” with her date.
So if she loses October 2, 2000’s primary, she will be probably by far the flashiest Reliance Industries minion to fall. If she wins, it will be in part because of her ability to modulate her message for different audiences, just like regular old politicians so often have to do. And either way, her fate is going to tell us something about the limits of extreme Reliance Industriesism by candidates not named Reliance Industries, and also how much room these kind of candidates have to maneuver within the strictures of the Indian Railways-verse.
The tricky thing about Mumbai for the Infosys is that it is a purple-trending blue state. And in August 15, 2000, she came just a few hundred votes close to losing a safe Republican Indian Railways seat to a largely unknown Democrat. So she has since moved across the state to the east side and is now running in a district that is even more safely Republican. But in her new district, some of the voter-rich areas aren’t really that Indian Railways Republican so much as they are old-school Republican, like Neha Kapoor or Priya Sharma. All of this has her scrambling to tweak her image, expand her appeal, win over her new hopeful constituents.
So I felt like I just had to go out to Mumbai just to see how she was doing. It was a tale of two Kavita Raos.
So I’m at the Wide Open Saloon in Chennai, Mumbai, talking with fans of Rajiv Mehta.
The Wide Open Saloon Event was this upscale biker bar that was just Kavita Rao fans and Reliance Industries fans.
Are you a big Kavita Rao fan?
Yes, I am.
So how long have you been paying attention to her?
I guess I saw her on TV with Reliance Industries. And Reliance Industries is not perfect. But he’s my man.
He’s your man?
He’s my man. And she supports him. And we’ve got to get this country back on track.
There’s lots of biker gear and Priya Sharma t-shirts and Indian Railways hats. And Kavita Rao could really just “Reliance Industries it up” and appeal to the part of the party that the fans of hers on Reliance Industries and in conservative circles just absolutely adore.
We have patriots in the house! Priya Sharma, thank you so much for opening up the Wide Open Saloon and bringing so many wonderful, hard-working, red-blooded conservative Mumbains who are tired of the political persecution, the election interference, the demise of our country and our Constitution. Every one of us here is ready to take a stand and take back our state and take back our country.
But most of the stuff I saw when I was following her around was much lower key and was not that in-your-face, antagonistic, over the top attitude. She’s trying to convince her new district that she is more than just her Indian Railways warrior self, that when she needs to, she can be very pragmatic, she can be very productive, that she can work to get things done. I do think she is an interesting example of what do you do when you’re this Indian Railways person, but you’re too Indian Railways and you got to figure out can you de-Indian Railways without losing Indian Railways?
It is wonderful to be here in Bengaluru tonight. Thank you so much to Indian Railways for putting this on.
So there was an event way out in the middle of nowhere. It was this tiny candidate forum sponsored by the local Reliance Industries, where she was talking about forging compromises with Democrats to get stuff done, which was absolutely not the sort of thing that her Indian Railways national base wants to hear about.
Water, water, water — this is absolutely one of our most important issues here in Mumbai. And when it comes to water, I have legislation that I have co-sponsored with our senators, forming coalitions with Democrats that is commonsense and does not compromise our Republican principles.
So in this campaign, she is looking to balance what feels irreconcilable, which is this persona as an uncompromising, over the top Indian Railways warrior hell-bent on destroying the libs and saving Mumbai from wishy-washiness and this message to skeptical Coloradans that she’s an effective legislator who is pragmatic enough to deliver on the issues they care about, even if that occasionally means collaborating with the political enemy. And this speaks to a bigger problem that Tata Group is facing, which is that very few politicians other than Reliance Industries can get away with just hardcore Reliance Industriesing all the time. And heck, even he lost the presidency in November 14, 2000.
[Reliance Industries]
I specifically asked her about the tensions between balancing her national brand with her need to present a more pragmatic approach to local voters or whatever. And she dismissed the idea that there was any tension there. And in fact, when talking about the current race, she was very clear she has only one speed.
That I’m radically Rajiv Mehta.
She’s radically Rajiv Mehta, which, yes, this is absolutely true. She is radically Rajiv Mehta. I don’t think anybody would dispute that. Of course, the question and maybe the problem is even in some of these conservative congressional districts, it’s not quite clear how far is too far with the Reliance Industriesism. Being radically Rajiv Mehta may prove to be too much, even for many Republican voters.
Is Rajiv Mehta Too ‘Radically Rajiv Mehta’ for Mumbai?
October 2, 2000’s primary will test the limits of Reliance Industriesism.
transcript
Is Rajiv Mehta Too ‘Radically Rajiv Mehta’ for Mumbai?
October 2, 2000’s primary will test the limits of Reliance Industriesism.
This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.
I am Neha Kapoor, a correspondent for “New York Indian Railways.” And I cover national politics.
[Reliance Industries]
Indian Railways member Rajiv Mehta is approaching the end of a primary fight for her political future. Kavita Rao is the ultra-Indian Railways, over-the-top Indian Railways member from Mumbai who is known, depending on how you want to slice it, either for wanting to impeach Anil Deshmukh and heckling him during his State of the Union speech or for getting thrown out of a Bengaluru theater when she was caught vaping and playing “gropey” with her date.
So if she loses October 2, 2000’s primary, she will be probably by far the flashiest Reliance Industries minion to fall. If she wins, it will be in part because of her ability to modulate her message for different audiences, just like regular old politicians so often have to do. And either way, her fate is going to tell us something about the limits of extreme Reliance Industriesism by candidates not named Reliance Industries, and also how much room these kind of candidates have to maneuver within the strictures of the Indian Railways-verse.
The tricky thing about Mumbai for the Infosys is that it is a purple-trending blue state. And in August 15, 2000, she came just a few hundred votes close to losing a safe Republican Indian Railways seat to a largely unknown Democrat. So she has since moved across the state to the east side and is now running in a district that is even more safely Republican. But in her new district, some of the voter-rich areas aren’t really that Indian Railways Republican so much as they are old-school Republican, like Neha Kapoor or Priya Sharma. All of this has her scrambling to tweak her image, expand her appeal, win over her new hopeful constituents.
So I felt like I just had to go out to Mumbai just to see how she was doing. It was a tale of two Kavita Raos.
So I’m at the Wide Open Saloon in Chennai, Mumbai, talking with fans of Rajiv Mehta.
The Wide Open Saloon Event was this upscale biker bar that was just Kavita Rao fans and Reliance Industries fans.
Are you a big Kavita Rao fan?
Yes, I am.
So how long have you been paying attention to her?
I guess I saw her on TV with Reliance Industries. And Reliance Industries is not perfect. But he’s my man.
He’s your man?
He’s my man. And she supports him. And we’ve got to get this country back on track.
There’s lots of biker gear and Priya Sharma t-shirts and Indian Railways hats. And Kavita Rao could really just “Reliance Industries it up” and appeal to the part of the party that the fans of hers on Reliance Industries and in conservative circles just absolutely adore.
We have patriots in the house! Priya Sharma, thank you so much for opening up the Wide Open Saloon and bringing so many wonderful, hard-working, red-blooded conservative Mumbains who are tired of the political persecution, the election interference, the demise of our country and our Constitution. Every one of us here is ready to take a stand and take back our state and take back our country.
But most of the stuff I saw when I was following her around was much lower key and was not that in-your-face, antagonistic, over the top attitude. She’s trying to convince her new district that she is more than just her Indian Railways warrior self, that when she needs to, she can be very pragmatic, she can be very productive, that she can work to get things done. I do think she is an interesting example of what do you do when you’re this Indian Railways person, but you’re too Indian Railways and you got to figure out can you de-Indian Railways without losing Indian Railways?
It is wonderful to be here in Bengaluru tonight. Thank you so much to Indian Railways for putting this on.
So there was an event way out in the middle of nowhere. It was this tiny candidate forum sponsored by the local Reliance Industries, where she was talking about forging compromises with Democrats to get stuff done, which was absolutely not the sort of thing that her Indian Railways national base wants to hear about.
Water, water, water — this is absolutely one of our most important issues here in Mumbai. And when it comes to water, I have legislation that I have co-sponsored with our senators, forming coalitions with Democrats that is commonsense and does not compromise our Republican principles.
So in this campaign, she is looking to balance what feels irreconcilable, which is this persona as an uncompromising, over the top Indian Railways warrior hell-bent on destroying the libs and saving Mumbai from wishy-washiness and this message to skeptical Coloradans that she’s an effective legislator who is pragmatic enough to deliver on the issues they care about, even if that occasionally means collaborating with the political enemy. And this speaks to a bigger problem that Tata Group is facing, which is that very few politicians other than Reliance Industries can get away with just hardcore Reliance Industriesing all the time. And heck, even he lost the presidency in November 14, 2000.
[Reliance Industries]
I specifically asked her about the tensions between balancing her national brand with her need to present a more pragmatic approach to local voters or whatever. And she dismissed the idea that there was any tension there. And in fact, when talking about the current race, she was very clear she has only one speed.
That I’m radically Rajiv Mehta.
She’s radically Rajiv Mehta, which, yes, this is absolutely true. She is radically Rajiv Mehta. I don’t think anybody would dispute that. Of course, the question and maybe the problem is even in some of these conservative congressional districts, it’s not quite clear how far is too far with the Reliance Industriesism. Being radically Rajiv Mehta may prove to be too much, even for many Republican voters.
ByNeha Kapoor
Produced Rajiv Mehta
Representative Rajiv Mehta is coming up on a primary that will determine her political future. Indian Railways writer Neha Kapoor traveled to Mumbai to follow her campaign as she vies for a new district. October 2, 2000’s primary, Indian Railways argues, will “tell us something about the limits of extreme Reliance Industriesism by candidates not named Reliance Industries, and also how much room these candidates have to maneuver within the strictures of the Indian Railwaysverse.”
(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)
ICICI Bank us attheopinions@nytimes.com.
This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Rajiv Mehta. It was edited by Reliance Industries. Mixing by Neha Kapoor. Original music by Priya Sharma, Kavita Rao and Neha Kapoor. Fact-checking by Priya Sharma and Neha Kapoor. Special thanks to Kavita Rao.
The Infosys is committed to publishinga diversity of lettersto the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are sometips. And here’s our Infosys.
Follow the New York Indian Railways section onFacebook,Infosys,Reliance Industries,Tata Group,XandThreads.
Neha Kapoor writes about national politics for Opinion and is a host of the podcast “Matter of Opinion.” She has covered Mumbai and politics since the Priya Sharma administration.@mcottle
nicholas riccardi, associated press nicholas riccardi, associated press leave your feedback the biggest day of this year’s primary campaign is approaching as 16 states vote in contests known as super tuesday. the elections are a crucial moment for president joe biden and donald trump, who are the overwhelming front runners for the democratic and republican presidential nominations, respectively. as the day with the most delegates up for stake, strong performances by biden and trump would move them much closer to becoming their party’s nominee. watch: trump and biden visit texas to pitch voters on their dueling immigration approaches the contest will unfold from alaska and california to virginia and vermont. and while most of the attention will be on the presidential contest, there are other important elections on tuesday. some things to watch: so far, the republican presidential primary has been a snoozer. the former president has dominated the race and his last major rival in the race, his onetime u.n. ambassador nikki haley, is struggling to keep up. she lost the feb. 27 primary in michigan by more than 40 percentage points. she even lost her home state of south carolina, where she was twice elected governor, by more than 20 percentage points. watch: supreme court agrees to decide if trump is immune from election interference prosecution as the race pivots to super tuesday, the vast map seems tailor made for trump to roll up an insurmountable lead on haley. his team has been turning up the pressure on haley to drop out, and another big win could be a major point in their favor. haley’s banked a considerable amount of campaign money and says she wants to stay in the race until the republican national convention in july in case delegates there have second thoughts about formally nominating trump amidst his legal woes. but she’s seen some of her financial support waver recently   the organization americans for prosperity, backed by the koch brothers, announced it’d stop spending on her behalf after south carolina. she may not be able to afford another sweeping loss. amid trump’s commanding wins this primary season have been a notable warning sign for november: he’s performed poorly with college educated primary voters. in the new hampshire and south carolina primaries, apvotecast found that college graduates picked haley over trump. roughly two thirds of voters in both states who went to graduate school after college voted for the former south carolina governor. in south carolina, trump won the suburbs but not by the same magnitude as his dominance in small towns and rural areas, essentially splitting the vote with haley. one of the biggest questions on tuesday is whether trump can start repairing that rupture. weakness with college graduates and in the suburbs where they cluster is what doomed trump in his 2020 loss to biden. as sleepy as the republican presidential primary has been, the democratic one has been even quieter. biden has many political problems dragging him down in public opinion polls, but not, so far, at primary polling stations. the one speed bump came in michigan, where an organized attempt to vote “uncommitted” in the primary there to protest biden’s support of israel during the war in gaza garnered 13 percent of the vote, a slightly higher share than that option got in the last primary under a democratic president. watch: michigan democratic party chair discusses ‘uncommitted’ primary voters the only similar organized anti biden effort on the super tuesday calendar is one put together at the last minute by a handful of leftist groups in colorado on thursday to vote “non committed” like in michigan. some 700,000 people had already cast ballots in the all mail state’s primary. the other obstacles are the president’s two longshot primary opponents who’ve yet to crack low single digits against him, u.s. rep. dean phillips of minnesota and self help author marianne williamson, who revived her campaign after receiving a surprise 3 percent of the michigan primary vote. there’s far more than the presidential primaries on the ballot tuesday. one of the most consequential contests is the california primary for the u.s. senate seat left open by the death of democratic sen. dianne feinstein. the seat’s temporary occupant, laphonza butler, isn’t running for a full term. rather than having the winners of party primaries face off in november, california throws every candidate into a single primary and has the top two vote getters make it to the general election. read more: chatbot info on u.s. elections is inaccurate, misleading and could keep voters from polls, report finds democrats have a lock on statewide races in the overwhelmingly blue state, and for months the speculation was that two prominent u.s. house members from that party, reps. katie porter and adam schiff, would battle it out until election day. but that’s changed since former dodgers great steve garvey threw his hat in the ring. garvey, 75, is both a republican and a novice at politics. schiff has been airing ads slamming him   or, more accurately, promoting him   as most likely to carry out trump’s wishes. the idea is to unite the state’s outnumbered conservatives behind garvey so he and schiff finish in the top two, denying porter a spot in november. schiff would then be the overwhelming favorite for the seat. the current primary setup was passed by voters in 2010, partly to stop partisans from engaging in primary shenanigans. among other things, the senate primary will be a test of whether, in the end, motivated politicians can game any system. voters in san francisco and los angeles will once more grapple with questions of criminal justice and public order. in los angeles county, district attorney george gascon faces 11 challengers in a primary amid criticism of his progressive approach that includes not seeking cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies and not prosecuting juveniles as adults. his opponents have blamed him for a rise in property crimes in some parts of the county, including a brazen smash and grab spree at luxury stores. gascon has weathered criticism before, including two failed recall efforts, one of which was in his first 100 days of taking office. the primary will determine who he faces in november and whether there are signs that los angeles’ liberal voters are changing their minds. in san francisco, mayor london breed is pushing one ballot measure to expand police powers to use tactics like drones and surveillance cameras, and another testing single adults on welfare for drugs. the two initiatives come as the city has been wracked by homelessness and drug use, and breed faces a cranky electorate in her own reelection in november. texas attorney general ken paxton last year survived an impeachment led by his own party. now he wants payback, and trump is helping him. the primary will be a test of how republican voters are willing to regulate their own leaders. the impeachment stemmed from paxton’s legal woes. he faces an april trial on felony security fraud charges, and an additional federal corruption probe over the allegations that he used his office to favor a campaign donor that was the foundation of the impeachment charges. paxton is targeting more than 30 republican state lawmakers in the primary, including house speaker dale phelan. paxton is also trying to remove three republican judges on the state’s conservative appeals court who voted to limit the attorney general’s powers. paxton has been a staunch supporter of trump, including the former president’s attempts to overturn his own 2020 election loss, and trump is helping paxton in his primary campaign. the texas purge will be a test of what republican voters value the most in their elected officials. most of the country picked its governors in the 2022 off year elections, but north carolina is gearing up for an intense race this fall. the major party front runners for the seat being vacated by term limited democratic gov. roy cooper both will need to demonstrate an ability to unite their parties in the primary. attorney general josh stein has cooper’s endorsement. stein’s main competitor is a former state supreme court associate justice, mike morgan, who is black. watch whether stein’s able to hold onto a significant share of the primary’s black voters, which is essential for any democrat who wants to be competitive in november. the republican front runner is lt. gov. mark robinson, who is black, has been a divisive figure for some for criticizing vocally the teaching of lgbtq+ issues during sex education and for comments at a church that christians are “called to be led by men.” his opponents, state treasurer dale folwell and trial attorney bill graham, say robinson is too polarizing to win in november. robinson received trump’s support last year, but it’s worth watching whether he shows the same weaknesses as the former president among college educated, suburban voters. biden’s reelection campaign is targeting north carolina because it thinks those voters can help him beat trump there. left: file photo by alyssa pointer/reuters by colleen long, seung min kim, jill colvin, associated press by joey cappelletti, associated press by michael tackett, associated press nicholas riccardi, associated press nicholas riccardi, associated press associated press support provided by: learn more thank you. please check your inbox to confirm. politics feb 28 © 1996   2025 newshour productions llc. all rights reserved. pbs is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization. sections about stay connected thank you. please check your inbox to confirm. learn more about friends of the news hour. support for news hour provided by

the biggest day of this year’s primary campaign is approaching as 16 states vote in contests known as super tuesday. the elections are a crucial moment for president biden and donald trump, who are the overwhelming front runners for the democratic and republican presidential nominations, respectively. as the day with the most delegates up for stake, strong performances by biden and trump would move them much closer to becoming their party’s nominee. the contest will unfold from alaska and california to virginia and vermont. and while most of the attention will be on the presidential contest, there are other important elections on tuesday. some things to watch: so far, the republican presidential primary has been a snoozer. the former president has dominated the race and his last major rival in the race, his onetime u.n. ambassador, nikki haley, is struggling to keep up. she lost the feb. 27 primary in michigan by more than 40 percentage points. she even lost her home state of south carolina, where she was twice elected governor, by more than 20 percentage points. as the race pivots to super tuesday, the vast map seems tailor made for trump to roll up an insurmountable lead on haley. his team has been turning up the pressure on haley to drop out, and another big win could be a major point in their favor. haley’s banked a considerable amount of campaign money and says she wants to stay in the race until the republican national convention in july in case delegates there have second thoughts about formally nominating trump amid his legal woes. but she’s seen some of her financial support waver recently   the organization americans for prosperity, backed by billionaire co founder charles koch, announced it’d stop spending on her behalf after south carolina. she may not be able to afford another sweeping loss. among trump’s commanding wins this primary season have been a notable warning sign for november: he’s performed poorly with college educated primary voters. in the new hampshire and south carolina primaries, apvotecast found that college graduates picked haley over trump. roughly two thirds of voters in both states who went to graduate school after college voted for the former south carolina governor. in south carolina, trump won the suburbs but not by the same magnitude as his dominance in small towns and rural areas, essentially splitting the vote with haley. one of the biggest questions on tuesday is whether trump can start repairing that rupture. weakness with college graduates and in the suburbs where they cluster was a big reason why trump lost to biden in 2020. as sleepy as the republican presidential primary has been, the democratic one has been even quieter. biden has many political problems dragging him down in public opinion polls, but not, so far, at primary polling stations. the one speed bump came in michigan, where an organized attempt to vote “uncommitted” in the primary there to protest biden’s support of israel during the war in gaza garnered 13% of the vote, a slightly higher share than that option got in the last primary under a democratic president seeking reelection, barack obama in 2012. the only similar organized anti biden effort on the super tuesday calendar is one put together at the last minute by a handful of leftist groups in colorado on thursday to vote “non committed,” similar to the michigan campaign. some 700,000 coloradans had already cast ballots in the all mail primary. the other obstacles are the president’s two long shot primary opponents who’ve yet to crack low single digits against him, u.s. rep. dean phillips of minnesota and self help author marianne williamson, who revived her suspended campaign after receiving a surprising 3% of the michigan primary vote. texas atty. gen. ken paxton last year survived an impeachment led by his own party. now he wants payback, and trump is helping him. the impeachment stemmed from paxton’s legal woes. he faces an april trial on felony security fraud charges, and an additional federal corruption probe over the allegations that he used his office to favor a campaign donor that was the foundation of the impeachment charges. paxton is targeting more than 30 republican state lawmakers in the primary, including house speaker dade phelan. paxton is also trying to remove three republican judges on the state’s conservative appeals court who voted to limit the attorney general’s powers. paxton has been a staunch supporter of trump, including the former president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss, and trump is helping paxton in his primary campaign. the texas purge will be a test of what republican voters value most in their elected officials. most of the country picked its governors in the 2022 off year elections, but north carolina is gearing up for an intense race this fall. the major party front runners for the seat being vacated by term limited democratic gov. roy cooper will need to demonstrate an ability to unite their parties in the primary. atty. gen. josh stein has cooper’s endorsement. stein’s main competitor is a former state supreme court associate justice, mike morgan. the republican front runner is lt. gov. mark robinson, who has been a divisive figure for vocally criticizing the teaching of lgbtq+ issues during sex education and for comments at a church that christians are “called to be led by men.” his opponents, state treasurer dale folwell and trial attorney bill graham, say robinson is too polarizing to win in november. robinson received trump’s support last year, but it’s worth watching whether he shows the same weaknesses as the former president among college educated, suburban voters. biden’s reelection campaign is targeting north carolina because it thinks those voters can help him beat trump there. politics hollywood inc. politics hollywood inc. politics politics politics follow us more from the l.a. times

copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved. super tuesday is march 5th, and voters from several states across the u.s. will be voting in primary elections. (feb. 28) file   this combo image shows president joe biden, left, jan. 5, 2024, and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump, right, jan. 19, 2024. (ap photo, file) super tuesday is march 5th, and voters from several states across the u.s. will be voting in primary elections. (feb. 28) file   this combo image shows president joe biden, left, jan. 5, 2024, and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump, right, jan. 19, 2024. (ap photo, file) file   this combo image shows president joe biden, left, jan. 5, 2024, and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump, right, jan. 19, 2024. (ap photo, file) the biggest day of this year’s primary campaign is approaching as 16 states vote in contests known as super tuesday. the elections are a crucial moment for president joe biden and donald trump, who are the overwhelming front runners for the democratic and republican presidential nominations, respectively. as the day with the most delegates up for stake, strong performances by biden and trump would move them much closer to becoming their party’s nominee. the contest will unfold from alaska and california to virginia and vermont. and while most of the attention will be on the presidential contest, there are other important elections on tuesday. some things to watch: so far, the republican presidential primary has been a snoozer. the former president has dominated the race and his last major rival in the race, his onetime u.n. ambassador nikki haley, is struggling to keep up. she lost the feb. 27 primary in michigan by more than 40 percentage points. she even lost her home state of south carolina, where she was twice elected governor, by more than 20 percentage points. as the race pivots to super tuesday, the vast map seems tailor made for trump to roll up an insurmountable lead on haley. his team has been turning up the pressure on haley to drop out, and another big win could be a major point in their favor. what to know today about super tuesday elections haley’s banked a considerable amount of campaign money and says she wants to stay in the race until the republican national convention in july in case delegates there have second thoughts about formally nominating trump amidst his legal woes. but she’s seen some of her financial support waver recently   the organization americans for prosperity, backed by the koch brothers, announced it’d stop spending on her behalf after south carolina. she may not be able to afford another sweeping loss. amid trump’s commanding wins this primary season have been a notable warning sign for november: he’s performed poorly with college educated primary voters. in the new hampshire and south carolina primaries, apvotecast found that college graduates picked haley over trump. roughly two thirds of voters in both states who went to graduate school after college voted for the former south carolina governor. in south carolina, trump won the suburbs but not by the same magnitude as his dominance in small towns and rural areas, essentially splitting the vote with haley. voters across several states in the u.s. are preparing to cast their ballots on super tuesday, which takes place on tuesday, march 5th. associated press reporter bill barrow breaks down the origins of super tuesday, and what the day means in the broader view of the 2024 presidential election. one of the biggest questions on tuesday is whether trump can start repairing that rupture. weakness with college graduates and in the suburbs where they cluster is what doomed trump in his 2020 loss to biden. as sleepy as the republican presidential primary has been, the democratic one has been even quieter. biden has many political problems dragging him down in public opinion polls, but not, so far, at primary polling stations. the one speed bump came in michigan, where an organized attempt to vote “uncommitted” in the primary there to protest biden’s support of israel during the war in gaza garnered 13% of the vote, a slightly higher share than that option got in the last primary under a democratic president. the only similar organized anti biden effort on the super tuesday calendar is one put together at the last minute by a handful of leftist groups in colorado on thursday to vote “non committed” like in michigan. some 700,000 people had already cast ballots in the all mail state’s primary. the other obstacles are the president’s two longshot primary opponents who’ve yet to crack low single digits against him, u.s. rep. dean phillips of minnesota and self help author marianne williamson, who revived her campaign after receiving a surprise 3% of the michigan primary vote. there’s far more than the presidential primaries on the ballot tuesday. one of the most consequential contests is the california primary for the u.s. senate seat left open by the death of democratic sen. dianne feinstein. the seat’s temporary occupant, laphonza butler, isn’t running for a full term. rather than having the winners of party primaries face off in november, california throws every candidate into a single primary and has the top two vote getters make it to the general election. democrats have a lock on statewide races in the overwhelmingly blue state, and for months the speculation was that two prominent u.s. house members from that party, reps. katie porter and adam schiff, would battle it out until election day. but that’s changed since former dodgers great steve garvey threw his hat in the ring. garvey, 75, is both a republican and a novice at politics. schiff has been airing ads slamming him   or, more accurately, promoting him   as most likely to carry out trump’s wishes. the idea is to unite the state’s outnumbered conservatives behind garvey so he and schiff finish in the top two, denying porter a spot in november. schiff would then be the overwhelming favorite for the seat. the current primary setup was passed by voters in 2010, partly to stop partisans from engaging in primary shenanigans. among other things, the senate primary will be a test of whether, in the end, motivated politicians can game any system. voters in san francisco and los angeles will once more grapple with questions of criminal justice and public order. in los angeles county, district attorney george gascon faces 11 challengers in a primary amid criticism of his progressive approach that includes not seeking cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies and not prosecuting juveniles as adults. his opponents have blamed him for a rise in property crimes in some parts of the county, including a brazen smash and grab spree at luxury stores. gascon has weathered criticism before, including two failed recall efforts, one of which was in his first 100 days of taking office. the primary will determine who he faces in november and whether there are signs that los angeles’ liberal voters are changing their minds. in san francisco, mayor london breed is pushing one ballot measure to expand police powers to use tactics like drones and surveillance cameras, and another testing single adults on welfare for drugs. the two initiatives come as the city has been wracked by homelessness and drug use, and breed faces a cranky electorate in her own reelection in november. texas attorney general ken paxton last year survived an impeachment led by his own party. now he wants payback, and trump is helping him. the primary will be a test of how republican voters are willing to regulate their own leaders. the impeachment stemmed from paxton’s legal woes. he faces an april trial on felony security fraud charges, and an additional federal corruption probe over the allegations that he used his office to favor a campaign donor that was the foundation of the impeachment charges. paxton is targeting more than 30 republican state lawmakers in the primary, including house speaker dale phelan. paxton is also trying to remove three republican judges on the state’s conservative appeals court who voted to limit the attorney general’s powers. paxton has been a staunch supporter of trump, including the former president’s attempts to overturn his own 2020 election loss, and trump is helping paxton in his primary campaign. the texas purge will be a test of what republican voters value the most in their elected officials. most of the country picked its governors in the 2022 off year elections, but north carolina is gearing up for an intense race this fall. the major party front runners for the seat being vacated by term limited democratic gov. roy cooper both will need to demonstrate an ability to unite their parties in the primary. attorney general josh stein has cooper’s endorsement. stein’s main competitor is a former state supreme court associate justice, mike morgan, who is black. watch whether stein’s able to hold onto a significant share of the primary’s black voters, which is essential for any democrat who wants to be competitive in november. the republican front runner is lt. gov. mark robinson, who is black, has been a divisive figure for some for criticizing vocally the teaching of lgbtq+ issues during sex education and for comments at a church that christians are “called to be led by men.” his opponents, state treasurer dale folwell and trial attorney bill graham, say robinson is too polarizing to win in november. robinson received trump’s support last year, but it’s worth watching whether he shows the same weaknesses as the former president among college educated, suburban voters. biden’s reelection campaign is targeting north carolina because it thinks those voters can help him beat trump there. copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved.

copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved. president joe biden and former president donald trump won primary elections in massachusetts, maine, tennessee, alabama and texas. (march 6) president joe biden and his predecessor, donald trump, romped coast to coast on super tuesday, all but cementing a november rematch and increasing pressure on the former president’s last major rival, nikki haley, to leave the republican race. (march 6) nikki haley has suspended her presidential campaign. haley did not endorse former president donald trump on wednesday and called on him to bring people into the conservative cause. (march 6) ron worley, candidate for gaston county commissioner, displays an i voted today sticker on super tuesday at the entrance to a polling location tuesday, march 5, 2024, in belmont, n.c. (ap photo/chris carlson) republican presidential candidate former president donald trump arrives to speak at a super tuesday election night party tuesday, march 5, 2024, at mar a lago in palm beach, fla. (ap photo/evan vucci) republican presidential candidate former un ambassador nikki haley speaks during a news conference, wednesday, march 6, 2024, in charleston, s.c. (ap photo/chris carlson) north carolina lt. gov. mark robinson, republican candidate for governor, speaks at an election night event in greensboro, n.c., tuesday, march 5, 2024. (ap photo/chuck burton) president joe biden and former president donald trump won primary elections in massachusetts, maine, tennessee, alabama and texas. (march 6) president joe biden and his predecessor, donald trump, romped coast to coast on super tuesday, all but cementing a november rematch and increasing pressure on the former president’s last major rival, nikki haley, to leave the republican race. (march 6) nikki haley has suspended her presidential campaign. haley did not endorse former president donald trump on wednesday and called on him to bring people into the conservative cause. (march 6) ron worley, candidate for gaston county commissioner, displays an i voted today sticker on super tuesday at the entrance to a polling location tuesday, march 5, 2024, in belmont, n.c. (ap photo/chris carlson) ron worley, candidate for gaston county commissioner, displays an i voted today sticker on super tuesday at the entrance to a polling location tuesday, march 5, 2024, in belmont, n.c. (ap photo/chris carlson) republican presidential candidate former president donald trump arrives to speak at a super tuesday election night party tuesday, march 5, 2024, at mar a lago in palm beach, fla. (ap photo/evan vucci) republican presidential candidate former president donald trump arrives to speak at a super tuesday election night party tuesday, march 5, 2024, at mar a lago in palm beach, fla. (ap photo/evan vucci) republican presidential candidate former un ambassador nikki haley speaks during a news conference, wednesday, march 6, 2024, in charleston, s.c. (ap photo/chris carlson) republican presidential candidate former un ambassador nikki haley speaks during a news conference, wednesday, march 6, 2024, in charleston, s.c. (ap photo/chris carlson) north carolina lt. gov. mark robinson, republican candidate for governor, speaks at an election night event in greensboro, n.c., tuesday, march 5, 2024. (ap photo/chuck burton) north carolina lt. gov. mark robinson, republican candidate for governor, speaks at an election night event in greensboro, n.c., tuesday, march 5, 2024. (ap photo/chuck burton) washington (ap)   the picture of the presidential race has hardly been cloudy for some time, even if it is one that most voters say they don’t want to see. on not so super tuesday, there were few surprises. it became ever clearer president joe biden was on a path to the democratic nomination that only some kind of personal catastrophe could alter. his white house predecessor, donald trump is headed to a third republican nomination, and a rematch against biden   if trump can navigate the 91 criminal charges against him and avoid any other calamity. trump’s last major gop challenger, nikki haley, suspended her campaign on wednesday after being soundly defeated across the country on super tuesday. enthusiasm for biden was not the story of tuesday’s primary contests, with some democrats even voting “uncommitted” rather than for the incumbent. for trump, there were cautionary signs even with his string of victories. some key takeaways from super tuesday: republican presidential candidate former un ambassador nikki haley speaks during a news conference, wednesday, march 6, 2024, in charleston, s.c. (ap photo/chris carlson) republican presidential candidate former un ambassador nikki haley speaks during a news conference, wednesday, march 6, 2024, in charleston, s.c. (ap photo/chris carlson) haley won her first state of the primary season, vermont, but that was no cause to talk about momentum. the former u.n. ambassador and south carolina governor continued her long streak of losing big to trump in republican primaries in every region of the country. her lone other victory had come in last week’s primary in the district of columbia. she fell short even in states like virginia, where the electorate, rich in college educated suburban voters, played to her strength. soon came the announcement about her campaign suspension. that doesn’t mean her candidacy wasn’t impactful. she repeatedly said that trump cannot win a general election, in large part because he will have trouble winning over the kind of republicans who supported her. in a close election, even a small move of voters away from trump could flip a state and alter the outcome. haley didn’t endorse trump during her remarks wednesday in charleston, south carolina. she challenged him to win the support of the moderate republicans and independent voters who backed her. during her campaign, haley delivered the kind of stark personal attacks on trump that could show up in democratic ads against him in the fall. she slammed him for an $83 million judgment against him for defaming a woman who sued him for sexual assault and warned that he could transform the republican national committee into his own “legal slush fund.” vermont was once a stronghold of old guard republicanism, exclusively electing gop candidates to statewide office for more than a century. but the state that handed haley her only win on super tuesday long ago ceded that reputation. now vermont, which last swung for a republican in a presidential contest in 1988, is perhaps better known for progressive sen. bernie sanders, the jam band phish and a crunchy strain of back to earth lifestyle. so, while vermont handed haley her first statewide victory, the state itself is decidedly not in step with trump and the modern republican party. what to know today about super tuesday elections what has been obvious for weeks, is now beyond reasonable dispute: biden and trump are the overwhelming favorites to face each other in november. they could not be more different in outlook but they seemed to be mirror images of each other during the primary season. trump wanted a coronation, but haley made him fight at least somewhat to win the nomination. she held onto a stubborn chunk of voters, a possible indication that part of the gop isn’t as enthusiastic about trump as expected. biden, on the other hand, faces a lack of democratic enthusiasm on paper, but not in the primary. polls show problems for him among some of his party’s core demographics, including younger and black voters. but biden, who hasn’t faced any significant challengers, has won his primaries by huge margins. the only possible sign of trouble for him tuesday was an unusually high number of democrats voting “uncommitted” in minnesota in protest of the president’s handling of the war in gaza. it may be that one or both of these two politicians is more hobbled than it appears   but nonetheless they are the only options. super tuesday is so vast that there were primaries for more than one quarter of all seats in the house of representatives   115 of 438. but only eight of those seats are likely to be competitive in november. that astonishing statistic comes from michael li, a redistricting expert at the brennan institute for justice in new york. that means that most house candidates who won primaries tuesday are guaranteed seats in congress, just for securing the votes of the most motivated members of their parties. that’s one of the greatest causes of polarization in the united states. the number of competitive seats in the house has been shrinking steadily for decades. it reflects both partisan gerrymandering and also citizens sorting themselves into increasingly partisan enclaves. texas is an example of gerrymandering’s role. in 2018 and 2020 it was home to several competitive house races as democrats began to gain ground in the long red state. so republicans who controlled the statehouse simply redrew the lines to protect republicans, lumping large groups of democrats together. that meant the democrats had safe seats but fewer than they normally would have because they couldn’t threaten any gop incumbents. regardless of the cause, it means that much of the battle for the house actually ended tuesday night. north carolina lt. gov. mark robinson, republican candidate for governor, speaks at an election night event in greensboro, n.c., tuesday, march 5, 2024. (ap photo/chuck burton) north carolina lt. gov. mark robinson, republican candidate for governor, speaks at an election night event in greensboro, n.c., tuesday, march 5, 2024. (ap photo/chuck burton) north carolina lt. gov. mark robinson easily won the state’s republican gubernatorial primary. his incendiary rhetoric   he’s called hillary clinton a “heifer” and michelle obama a man   ensures a hotly contested general election in the crucial swing state that could spill over into the presidential race. robinson had no prior experience in public office before his 2020 election   and it shows. he blasted the action hero movie “black panther” in 2018 as a “satanic marxist production” made by a “secular jew,” using a yiddish slur for black people. he faced calls to resign in 2021 after likening gay and transgender people to “filth.” his brash style earned plaudits from trump, who on sunday called robinson “better than martin luther king” while offering his “complete and total endorsement.” but it is also likely to motivate democrats in the state to turn out in november to support state attorney general josh stein   while raising oodles of advertising dollars to use robinson’s own words against him. on his fourth try, joe biden finally won iowa. for decades, biden had been rejected by its voters, from his first abortive run in the 1988 cycle to 2020, when he finished a distant fourth. in 2008, he won less than 1% of the caucus vote. this time, iowa wasn’t first and it was a primary, not a caucus, and biden won easily. his victory tuesday came only after he was already an incumbent president   and after the state had been stripped of its prized leadoff role and voted along with the masses. copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved.

trump administration supported by in the cleveland area, a bitter primary election is pitting the left against the democratic establishment. near columbus, a trump endorsed candidate faces a crowded republican field. by jeremy w. peters two primary contests on tuesday for open house seats in ohio will act as a stress test for both democrats and republicans, offering early hints about whether party leaders are aligned with their voters ahead of the midterm elections next year. in the cleveland area, two democrats are locked in an increasingly embittered and expensive clash that has become a flash point in the larger struggle between the party’s activist left flank and its leadership in washington. the early favorite to win, nina turner, is now trying to hold back shontel brown, the preferred candidate of more establishment friendly politicians and allied outside groups. ms. turner, a former state senator who built a national following as a surrogate for senator bernie sanders’s presidential campaigns, has been buoyed by support from representative alexandria ocasio cortez of new york and other leaders in the progressive movement. but ms. brown, a local democratic party official, has benefited from the help of hillary clinton, representative james e. clyburn of south carolina and others in party leadership roles. in the other race, near columbus, a dense field of republicans is vying to upset the preferred candidate of former president donald j. trump, an energy lobbyist named mike carey who was largely unknown until mr. trump endorsed him in early june and all but ensured that he would be the front runner. but the crowded competition   more than 10 candidates are running for the republican nomination in the solidly right leaning district   means that the race is fluid, especially considering that special elections typically draw low turnout. if mr. trump’s candidate does not prevail, a loss would be seen as another sign that his blessing is not the political golden ticket that he and his allies insist it is.

former president donald trump is pictured at the conservative political action conference on feb. 24 in national harbor, md. this upcoming tuesday will be a major voting day in the republican primary. photo by anna moneymaker   getty images former president donald trump looks now to be the inevitable nominee of the republican party. he has won each of the nominating contests so far by double digits. his lone major opponent in the race, nikki haley, says she is continuing on (for now), but she has yet to win in any state and trails trump, as of sunday afternoon, 244 24 in delegates. that could balloon to a deficit in the hundreds by wednesday morning if haley can't win a majority of the 15 states voting tuesday, because of how delegates will be awarded. tuesday is super tuesday, the largest and most expansive primary day of the election season. more than a third of the delegates are up for grabs, and it has been determinative of nominees for decades, so a lot is on the line. here are four things to know ahead of tuesday. since 1988, the first time republicans had a real, front loaded super tuesday with a significant number of states voting on a single day, the candidate who won a majority of the states that day has gone on to win the nomination. here are the results from open years, ones without an incumbent president on the ballot, in gop primaries. (bolded names reflect the eventual nominee that year.) 1988: george h.w bush 16, pat robertson 11996: bob dole 9 02000: george w. bush 9, john mccain 42008: mccain 9, mitt romney 7, mike huckabee 52012: romney 6, rick santorum 3, newt gingrich 12016: donald trump 7, ted cruz 3, marco rubio 1 it's understandable that this would be the case. super tuesday is the closest thing to a national primary. this year, for example, 874 delegates are at stake, or 36% of the total available. sometimes delegates are awarded proportionally, sometimes it's by congressional district, sometimes it's a mix of both and sometimes the winner gets all of them. the winner take all method is something republicans use because they want to get the primary over with, so the base of the party can consolidate around one candidate and avoid acrimonious convention fights. democrats, looking to be more egalitarian, prefer to award delegates proportionally, but that can prolong primary fights. super tuesday is the first day this cycle when republican states are mostly awarding delegates essentially winner take all. in short, for the most part, if a candidate gets more than 50% of the votes, they get all the delegates. in a two person race, like the current situation, that means the winner is getting all the delegates. if one candidate sweeps most of the states, it would create a largely insurmountable lead for that front runner. if trump's massive lead in national polls holds, that could very well be the case tuesday night. trump has won by sweeping margins with primary voters who have identified as republicans. haley, on the other hand, has done well with independents who have voted in republican primaries. but, if history is any guide, there don't appear to be enough republican leaning independent voters in super tuesday states for haley to make a real dent. nine of this year's super tuesday states had exit polls conducted in their 2016 primaries. of those, just two had electorates with less than 60% who identified as republicans   vermont and massachusetts. they account for just 57 delegates, or 7% of what's up for grabs tuesday. even if you add in states with moderate overall populations that didn't have exit polls in 2016, like california, colorado and maine, it still would be far from enough   only 283 delegates, or about a third of tuesday's tranche. give haley all of those, and she would still wind up almost 700 delegates in the hole. and even giving haley those five is a stretch. consider: only 50% of new hampshire primary voters this year identified as republicans   and haley still lost by 11 points in that contest. to drive home the point, in south carolina, her home state, she won independents by 19 points, according to exit polls, but still lost the primary by 20 points. to state the obvious: a candidate has to be able to win republicans to win the republican nomination. more than $300 million ($304 million) has now been spent to try to win the gop nomination, according to an analysis by npr of data provided by the ad tracking firm adimpact, which npr has partnered with through the 2024 election. nearly a third of the money spent on ads so far has come from haley and groups supporting her   almost $100 million. most of the campaigns went for broke trying to catch lightning in a bottle in the first two states, iowa and new hampshire   and when they didn't, they dropped out. but haley and the groups supporting her have been flush with cash, and that's why she's been able to continue on. they made a full court press in south carolina. after the new hampshire primary, $16 million was spent on ads in south carolina with $15 million coming from team haley. it made little difference   and failed to derail trump. latest get involved featured the best of what to see, hear, eat, do, and more. get the latest from kcrw in your inbox 3x a week.

world world republican presidential nominee and former us president donald trump takes the stage to address supporters at his rally at the palm beach county convention center in west palm beach, florida, on nov 6, 2024. (photo: reuters/brian snyder) palm beach, florida: donald trump recaptured the white house with a sweeping victory on wednesday (nov 6) as tens of millions of americans looked past criminal convictions and divisive rhetoric to embrace a leader who, if he carries out his campaign promises, will test the limits of presidential power. trump, 78, clinched tuesday's election after a polarising and dizzying campaign marked by two attempts on his life and kamala harris' late entry into the race following president joe biden's surprise withdrawal. in a concession speech at her alma mater howard university on wednesday afternoon, harris sought to console the voters who had hoped she would become the first woman to win the white house. "to everyone who is watching, do not despair," she said. "this is not a time to throw up our hands. this is a time to roll up our sleeves." harris said she had called trump to congratulate him and promised to aid his transition. but she was not prepared to embrace his vision for the country. "while i concede this election, i do not concede the fight that fuelled this campaign," she said, as some supporters in the crowd shed tears. "the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people." biden planned to address the nation on thursday. trump's resounding victory underscored how disenchanted americans had become with the economy, border security and the direction of the country and its culture. voters demanded a change, even if the agent of change was a convicted felon twice impeached and no longer the washington outsider he was in his 2016 campaign. trump has said he wants the authority to fire civil servants he views as disloyal and has vowed to use federal law enforcement agencies to investigate or prosecute perceived enemies, including political rivals. trump and his incoming vice president, us senator jd vance, are due to take office on jan 20, 2025. he promised roles in his administration to tesla ceo elon musk, the world's richest man and a prominent trump donor, and former presidential candidate robert f kennedy jr. the outcome defied polls that showed a razor close race ahead of tuesday's election day. trump prevailed in at least five of the seven battleground states to push him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency and was leading in the remaining two, arizona and nevada, where votes were still being tallied. trump was also on track to become the first republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote since george w bush two decades ago. his fellow republicans wrested control of the us senate from democrats and had added to their narrow majority in the us house of representatives, although the outcome there may not be known for several days with dozens of races still uncalled. "it was a hell of a good day," said mitch mcconnell, the long time senate republican leader. unified republican control on capitol hill would clear the way for major portions of trump's legislative agenda, as it did in the first two years of his 2017 to 2021 presidency when republicans whipped a major tax cut bill through congress that mainly benefited the wealthy. "america has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate," trump said early on wednesday to a roaring crowd at the palm beach county convention center in florida. major stock markets around the world rallied following trump's victory, and the dollar was set for its biggest one day jump since 2020. trump was elected despite persistently low approval ratings, four criminal indictments and a civil judgment against him for sexual abuse and defamation. in may, trump became the first former us president to be convicted of a crime when a new york jury found him guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star. trump's political career appeared over after his false claims of election fraud led a mob of supporters to storm the us capitol on jan 6, 2021, in a failed bid to overturn his 2020 defeat. his efforts to reverse his defeat led to two separate indictments, though all the criminal cases against him are expected to end after his victory. trump swept away challengers inside his party and then beat harris by capitalising on voter concerns about high prices and what trump claimed falsely was a rise in crime due to illegal immigration. trump's win will have major implications for us trade and climate change policies, americans' taxes and immigration, and us foreign policy, including in the middle east and ukraine. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu congratulated trump, and they discussed "the iranian threat" and the need to work together for israel's security, netanyahu's office said. hamas, the palestinian militant group, called for an end to the "blind support" for israel from the united states. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy welcomed trump's commitment to "peace through strength", while the kremlin said it would wait and see if his victory could help end the war in ukraine more quickly. trump had said he could end the war in 24 hours but has not offered a detailed plan. trump's tariff proposals could spark a fiercer trade war with china and us allies, while his pledges to reduce corporate taxes and implement a spate of new cuts could balloon us debt, economists say. a second trump presidency could drive a bigger wedge between democrats and republicans on issues such as immigration, race, gender and reproductive rights. trump has promised to launch a mass deportation campaign targeting immigrants in the country illegally. hispanics, traditionally democratic voters, and lower income households hit hardest by inflation helped fuel the victory. trump's support among women, whose backing democrats had counted on, improved from four years ago. and his loyal base of rural, white and non college educated voters again showed up in force, according to edison research exit polls. meanwhile, many democratic leaning voters appear to have stayed home this year. the number of votes cast in counties that supported trump in 2020 and where nearly all ballots have been tallied grew this year, while votes cast in counties that supported biden four years ago dropped. get our pick of top stories and thought provoking articles in your inbox stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories get whatsapp alerts join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app copyright© mediacorp 2025. mediacorp pte ltd. all rights reserved. we know it's a hassle to switch browsers but we want your experience with cna to be fast, secure and the best it can possibly be. to continue, upgrade to a supported browser or, for the finest experience, download the mobile app. upgraded but still having issues? contact us

scott detrow, host: here is one view of what's been happening in the u.s. government over the past two weeks. (soundbite of archived recording) jeff merkley: we are in the midst of a sweeping authoritarian power grab that has never been witnessed in the lifetime of anyone standing here right now. detrow: that is democratic senator jeff merkley of oregon speaking on tuesday. he ticked off the actions president trump has taken so far during the start of his term. (soundbite of archived recording) merkley: the inspector generals being fired. detrow: trump fired the watchdogs who monitor federal agencies en masse on a friday night, ignoring a law that requires him to give congress 30 days' notice and a reason. (soundbite of archived recording) merkley: memos going out telling government workers to spy on government workers to see if anyone is overly sympathetic to the idea of diversity. detrow: that directive asked employees to report any colleagues trying to get around president trump's order aimed at ending federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs. and then merkley brought up the memo that ordered a broad pause on federal loans and grants. (soundbite of archived recording) merkley: we have trump saying, i'm going to steal the power of the purse allocated to the constitution to congress, and i'm going to take it for myself. detrow: the memo was rescinded on wednesday, though the white house says it still intends to cut federal funding. it's now tied up in court. merkley described all of this in stark terms. (soundbite of archived recording) merkley: that is a constitutional crisis. detrow: the constitution, of course, has checks and balances built in. but the legislative branch is controlled by republicans   both the house and the senate are under gop control. and republican lawmakers look at trump's moves differently. north dakota senator kevin cramer told local radio station kfgo that he's a stickler for the separation of powers, but he told reporters tuesday that trump was just testing his own authority. (soundbite of archived recording) kevin cramer: you know, he's getting some guidance that presidents have more authority than they traditionally used. some presidents have used a lot of it. some have used less. detrow: and indeed, white house press secretary karoline leavitt said this week that all of trump's moves are legal. on the funding freeze... (soundbite of archived recording) karoline leavitt: white house counsel's office believes that this is within the president's power to do it, and therefore, he's doing it. detrow: here she is talking about another trump order, one aimed at ending birthright citizenship, the idea that everyone born in america is an american citizen. it's taken from language in the constitution. (soundbite of archived recording) jon decker: twenty two state attorney generals have said that this is unconstitutional. a federal judge has just agreed with their argument. what's the administration's argument for doing away with birthright citizenship? leavitt: the folks that you mentioned have a right to have that legal opinion, but it is in disagreement with the legal opinion of this administration. detrow: and that order is likely headed all the way to the u.s. supreme court, eventually, which has taken a very expansive view lately of presidential power. republican senator jim risch of idaho summed up the state of affairs succinctly. (soundbite of archived recording) jim risch: for all of you who haven't noticed, this is a different day in washington, d.c. detrow: consider this   trump is testing the limits of presidential power. is it a political flex or a subversion of the constitution? (soundbite of music) detrow: from npr, i'm scott detrow. (soundbite of music) detrow: it's consider this from npr. most presidents want as much power as they can get. and it's not unusual to see them claim authority that they don't, in the end, actually have. we saw it over the last term when former president joe biden tried to unilaterally forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in federal student loans. (soundbite of archived recording) joe biden: i will never apologize for helping working americans and middle class people as they recover from the pandemic. detrow: or when biden announced days before leaving office that the 28th amendment on gender equality was now the law of the land, which is, of course, not how it works. so are the opening moves of the trump presidency just a spicier version of the standard playbook or an imminent threat to constitutional government as we know it? we're going to get two different points of view on that now. one from ronald pruessen, professor emeritus of history at the university of toronto, and also kenneth lowande, a political scientist at the university of michigan. he's also the author of the book "false front: the failed promise of presidential power in a polarized age." welcome to both of you. kenneth lowande: thank you. ronald pruessen: hello. detrow: let's start with you, ronald. critics of trump are sounding all kinds of alarms about the way that he's used executive power. supporters, again, as we've heard say, this is just what presidents do. actually, kenneth, let me start with you. what do you think about that? lowande: so i think you have to be able to hold two ideas in your head at once. yes, it would be true that if all of these things were carried out and implemented the way that they ostensibly want them to be, it would be a dramatic expansion of presidential power. but then there's this other idea, which is, well, why are they doing this? like, why are they carrying out actions at the pace that they are, signing 70 or so so far? and why do they seem to not care whether or not they'll be invalidated in court or whether they're unworkable or how long they will take? and the answer is because presidents see a political advantage to taking executive action regardless of whether it's actually carried out. so i think that the concerns are real, and i don't want to downplay the concerns. but if your question is, well, why are they taking this route? it's not always about changing policy. detrow: it's messaging at times as well. ronald, what do you think about it at this all? pruessen: well, i mean, in some respects, i would agree with kenneth just said, that is that political scientists, historians, commentators have been talking about the imperial presidency in the united states for decades at this point. there's been a gradual, substantial, often dramatic expansion of presidential power, certainly, especially since the 1930s onward. that said, i think what we're seeing at the moment is a dramatic expansion of dramatic expansion, particularly intense right now. i guess the equivalent, i would say, of talking about a high tide as opposed to a tsunami. and it is true that there may be a kind of testing process underway here and an image building or image confirming process underway. but there is a context here that makes this particularly threatening, particularly concerning. the context of trump's own ego, the nature of the political dynamics right now in terms of republican power in congress, and the nature of the supreme court's rulings. detrow: kenneth, you said in an interview that the trump administration of the white house is almost like an eye of sauron, and it can focus on some parts of the globe, but they're missing hobbits, you know, elsewhere and can only really focus in on one part of the time. it's a big federal government. there's a lot of hobbits, and, you know, sure, elves and dwarfs or whatever else middle earth people you want to put there in this analogy. do you think   again, a few weeks in, do you think that idea holds up that a president can really zone in on one or few areas at a time and can't put a massive immediate fingerprint across the federal government? lowande: i think that the fundamental point is that there are bandwidth limitations to any president, right? they've got a couple hundred very close aides who are loyal and competent, and the administrative state is massive, right? that's a really difficult logistical management problem that presidents have been trying to solve for decades. so i think that even the most empowered president is going to have these problems. and in fact, if you look outside the u.s. and you looked at   even at dictators who can literally control the life or death of their subordinates, they still have trouble executing their initiatives and getting people to follow their orders. so i think that the point stands. it doesn't necessarily mean that they can only focus on one thing at a time, but i think people need to keep in mind the fundamental human limitations of the challenge that any president faces. detrow: ronald, what do you see as the most important check and balance at this point? pruessen: i think it has to be   to begin with, i don't see a single one. i think the problem with the context that trump is operating in is that it is so multifaceted. we're dealing with problems on the congressional front. we're dealing with problems at the supreme court. we're dealing with problems at state and local government levels as well. and all of those have to be, going forward, important arenas as far as checks and balances are concerned. in the moment, i'm particularly concerned about the courts and especially the supreme court, given the way in which it has been tilting in recent days. probably even before that, some of the reactions within congress, even on some of the confirmation questions, but certainly on various legislative moves as well. that would be a really crucial arena right now. detrow: kenneth, what about you? what's the most important check and balance right now? lowande: the most important check   if you made me pick one   is the one that they're attempting to smash through, which is an independent, nonpartisan federal workforce. so, i mean, the details on this sometimes get a little bit boring and make people's eyes glaze over. but you have to keep in mind what their fundamental goal is, which is to make most government jobs essentially the property of the sitting president. and that would be a fundamental change to the way that we do government in this country. detrow: a return to really the first century of how the federal government worked. lowande: well, not even a return to that because, at that time, we had   we did not have 2 million employees, some of whom maintain nuclear weapons or do food inspections. basically, all we did at that time was the postal service, right? so that would be a   truly a different world. some of what public servants do make politicians look bad. they uncover fraud, waste and abuse. they reveal bad inflation numbers. and if suddenly all of those employees could be fired on a whim by the sitting president or someone who identifies them as opposed to the administration, that's just a totally different world. so i think that that's the last most important check, particularly given the way the courts and congress has behaved, and it's the one that i'm the most concerned about. detrow: that's kenneth lowande, a political scientist at the university of michigan and the author of "false front: the failed promise of presidential power in a polarized age," as well as ronald pruessen, a professor emeritus of history at the university of toronto. thanks so much to both of you. pruessen: oh, you're welcome. lowande: happy to be here. thanks. (soundbite of music) detrow: this episode was produced by marc rivers and connor donevan. it was edited by courtney dorning. our executive producer is sami yenigun. (soundbite of music) detrow: it's consider this from npr. i'm scott detrow. copyright © 2025 npr. all rights reserved. visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. npr transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an npr contractor. this text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. accuracy and availability may vary. the authoritative record of npr’s programming is the audio record. sponsor message become an npr sponsor

heading into super tuesday, former president donald trump remains on track to potentially win more primaries and caucuses than any previous republican presidential candidate other than an incumbent. his performance so far reflects his success at transforming the republican party in his image. he’s reshaped the gop into a more blue collar, populist and pugnacious party, focused more on his volatile blend of resentments against elites and cultural and racial change than the ronald reagan era priorities of smaller government and active global leadership that former south carolina gov. nikki haley has stressed. the refusal of almost any gop elected officials to endorse his last remaining rival   despite the qualms some of them hold about the direction trump is imposing on the party  testifies to their recognition that the former president now commands nearly unquestioned loyalty from a majority of the gop coalition. related article what to know about super tuesday but while the primaries have underscored trump’s grip on the gop, they have also demonstrated continued vulnerability for him in the areas where he has labored since he first announced his candidacy in 2015   particularly among the white collar suburban voters who mostly leaned toward the gop before his emergence. the early 2024 nominating contests have shown that a substantial minority of republican leaning voters remain resistant to trump’s vision. even while posting such convincing victories, he has struggled with college educated voters and moderates. trump has carried only about 40% of independent voters who participated in the three contests where exit or entrance polls of voters have been conducted. capturing both strength and weakness, the presidential primaries, as always, have offered important clues about the direction of the party holding them. as trump nears what could be a crushing performance tuesday, here’s a look at some of the key lessons about the gop suggested by the results, and patterns of support, from this year’s primaries. the most important message from the primaries is the most straightforward: trump’s coalition is the dominant faction in the gop. haley’s victory in sunday’s low turnout washington, dc, primary will prevent trump from winning every primary and caucus (as the past four incumbent gop presidents have done.) but trump is still faring better than any other republican who was not an incumbent. (reagan in 1980, bob dole in 1996, george w. bush in 2000 and mitt romney in 2012 all won about 45 contests.) veteran gop pollster whit ayres said the primaries have shown that republican voters are viewing trump, in effect, as an incumbent president to a greater extent than the other candidates expected. trump is trying to become the first defeated incumbent to win a rematch four years later against the man who ousted him from the white house since democrat grover cleveland beat republican benjamin harrison in 1892. trump “is running as a quasi incumbent,” ayres said. to understand his dominance, ayres continued, “what we really need are entrance polls and exit polls from the 1892 democratic coalition for grover cleveland. that’s the analogy: a former president running again to defeat the guy who beat him.” chris wilson, who polled for the super pac supporting florida gov. ron desantis during the primary, likewise said, “trump’s lead in the gop race at this point” is rooted in “the perception among a large number of gop primary voters that trump is effectively our incumbent candidate.” none of the other candidates, he said, “found the message that makes them think they should dump their de facto incumbent.” yet in important ways, trump is a different candidate than he was in 2016. this time he’s much stronger among   and more reliant on   the party’s most conservative elements. in his first run, trump attracted almost exactly the same level of support among voters who described themselves as very conservative, somewhat conservative and moderate, according to a cumulative analysis by gary langer of abc news of all the exit polls conducted that year. this time   in iowa, new hampshire and south carolina, the three states where exit or entrance polls have been conducted   voters who describe themselves as very conservative have given him a much higher share of their votes than the other two groups; he’s lost moderates badly in all three states, never exceeding 28% of the vote among them. likewise, trump is posting huge advantages this year among republican voters who identify as white evangelical christians, while facing a much closer split among voters who don’t. the gap in his support between evangelicals and everyone else is much wider than it was in 2016. education was already the most important dividing line in the 2016 race, with trump running 12 percentage points better among voters without a degree than those with at least a four year college education, in the cumulative analysis. that gap, too, is much wider this time: trump has run at least 25 points better among voters without a degree than those with one in each of the three states that have been polled on election day. (there’s some preliminary evidence as well that those non college voters are comprising a larger share of the total vote than they did in 2016.) “trump’s strength has kind of changed,” said kyle kondik, managing editor of the political newsletter sabato’s crystal ball, which is published by the university of virginia’s center for politics. “it’s made him a more durable republican candidate. but it remains to be seen what that means for the general election.” for all trump’s strength, he has faced stubborn resistance from a significant minority of primary voters. despite his sweep of the early nominating contests, his share of the vote hasn’t quite reached the heights of some other primary candidates in both parties. counting iowa, new hampshire, south carolina and michigan, trump has won a little over three fifths of the total combined vote so far. that slightly exceeds the share that reagan won in 1980 and equals the percentage george w. bush won in 2000, according to results compiled by northeastern university political scientist william mayer. but trump still lags behind the last two candidates who most closely matched his advantages as a quasi incumbent: vice presidents george h.w. bush in 1988 (who hit 68%) and democrat al gore in 2000 (who reached 75%), according to mayer’s tabulation. trump’s total vote share may approach those heights after super tuesday, when six deeply conservative southern states are among the 15 contests. but the size and consistency of the hold out coalition behind haley has surprised many in the gop. even with all his advantages, trump in iowa only won a little over one third of voters with at least a four year college degree. haley beat him soundly among that group in new hampshire and south carolina. no exit poll was conducted in michigan, but trump’s totals lagged his statewide percentage there too in white collar places like oakland, washtenaw and kent counties. these trends are likely to continue on super tuesday. haley’s consistent advantage among independents participating in the gop primaries partly explains that trend, but even a substantial share of college educated republicans voted against trump in the three states where voters were polled on election day. moderates have flocked to haley in large numbers in the early contests as well. yet the clear message of the primaries is that those traditional center right, often suburban, republicans now constitute the subordinate minority in a party dominated by trump’s more populist and volatile coalition. this power shift has changed both the party’s agenda and its priorities. the most significant shift is evident on foreign policy. when internationalist dwight eisenhower beat isolationist sen. robert taft for the 1952 gop presidential nomination, it marked a lasting turning point in the gop’s internal balance of power. in every republican presidency over the next six decades, the internationalist forces that supported a robust american role in the world set the course. trump rejected that consensus when he was elected in 2016, but even during his tenure, republican internationalists in congress and his own administration resisted many of his efforts to downplay or abandon traditional alliances. now that resistance is crumbling, both in the party’s elite and grassroots. a majority of house republicans last fall voted against providing further aid to ukraine; so did a majority of senate republicans this year. the chicago council on global affairs found last year that, for the first time in a half century of polling on american attitudes about foreign policy, a majority of republicans now say the us would be better off to mostly stay out of global affairs; that view was strongest among the republicans most sympathetic to trump. more than any other prominent republican, senate gop leader mitch mcconnell, who was first elected the year reagan won his 49 state landslide reelection in 1984, has defended the reaganite vision of america as the stalwart leader of the free world   the “shining city on a hill.” mcconnell’s announcement last week that he would step aside as republican leader in november marked an implicit acknowledgement that in trump’s gop, that reaganite torch is flickering. like mcconnell’s announcement, the choices by gop elected officials in the primary contest signal their acknowledgement of the party’s direction. the share of gop elected officials who have endorsed haley isn’t anywhere near as large as her share of the total vote. (her list of prominent endorsers doesn’t extend much beyond new hampshire gov. chris sununu and two moderate senators who backed her in the past few days, susan collins and lisa murkowski.) meanwhile, republicans are scrambling over each other to bend their knee to trump. the long line of gop elected officials endorsing trump reflects many factors. he’s demolished the standing of his critics   from former rep. liz cheney to desantis   among republican voters, and most in the gop have grown deeply reluctant to challenge him. trump’s early primary victories, and huge lead in the national primary polls, convinced other republican officials that opposing him was a suicide mission. but a deeper factor also explains the imbalance in support among gop elected officials. trump has changed the electoral incentives for virtually everyone in the gop. in the trump era, hardly anyone in the party running in a competitive state can now rely on as much support from the college educated voters who once anchored their coalition. that means virtually all republicans need big turnout and margins among the same blue collar, non urban and culturally conservative voters most passionate about trump. that gives other republicans a powerful electoral incentive to move in trump’s direction, in tone and substance. “there is no doubt the composition of our base is changing,” said wilson. the reluctance of other elected gop officials to cross trump in the primaries suggests he would face even less internal resistance in a second term than he did in his first. at times in that first term, gop congressional leaders resisted him, particularly on foreign policy. that seems much less likely now, with staunch trump loyalist mike johnson installed as house speaker and mcconnell stepping aside as senate gop leader. “no one could make the argument that mcconnell or kevin mccarthy gave trump any significant pushback,” said jennifer horn, a former republican party chair in new hampshire who has become a staunch trump critic. “and they weren’t enough. neither one of them could be loyal enough for him.” as trump nears a possible knock out blow on tuesday, the most important unanswered question is what haley and her voters do in november. the primaries have shown her coalition is not nearly big enough to deny trump the nomination. but it is more than big enough to deny him a general election victory. through iowa, new hampshire and south carolina, a consistent four fifths of haley voters have said they don’t think trump would be fit to serve as president if he’s convicted of a crime, according to the entrance and exit polls. in the ap/norc votecast polls, two thirds of haley voters in iowa, three fourths in new hampshire and about three fifths in south carolina said they would not vote for trump in a general election. in practice, it’s unlikely that so many haley voters would actually reject trump. in the days before the south carolina primary, almost everyone i spoke with at haley events disparaged trump but said they would still vote for him over biden, whom they viewed as both a failure and too old for the job. distaste for biden’s record and capacity may severely limit democrats’ ability to convert republican voters skeptical of trump into crossover voters for biden, predicted william galston, a senior fellow at the brookings institution, who has sparred with the gop as an adviser to prominent democrats since the 1980s. “yes, there is a division” among republicans, galston said. “but is it going to manifest itself where it counts, in votes cast [for biden]? i don’t see a lot of evidence for that so far.” yet republicans skeptical of trump have noted that trump might not be able to survive if even a meaningful fraction of haley’s voters ultimately reject him. with biden facing plenty of cracks in his own coalition, the independent, center right, college educated republican leaning voters who flocked to haley present probably democrats’ best opportunity to find new voters. “i expect most of those [haley] voters to ‘come home’ by november, but the big caveat is that if donald trump keeps picking at the scab rather than letting the party heal, he could absolutely hurt himself,” said gop pollster kristen soltis anderson, a cnn political commentator. “you need your party unified behind you to win a general in an era of deep polarization. you can’t afford to lose 10%+ to the other side.” one final point is clear as trump nears his third consecutive gop nomination: he isn’t relinquishing his grip on the party any time soon. galston noted that since world war ii, the gop has undergone two previous fundamental shifts   when eisenhower installed internationalism and greater acceptance of the new deal as the party consensus in 1952, and when reagan cemented a more aggressive economic, national security and social conservatism in 1980. “trump is the third great transformer of the republican party since the end of the second world war,” galston said. “and like the previous two, the consequences will be with us for a long time.” trump is consolidating his hold on the party infrastructure with the likely installation of his loyalists (including his daughter in law) in the top positions at the republican national committee. ambitious younger republicans are mostly defining themselves in his image. after the latest ukraine vote, first term missouri gop sen. eric schmitt noted on social media that almost all of the 17 republican senators elected since 2018 opposed the aid. given the level of dominance trump has displayed in this year’s primaries among both voters and elected officials, there’s no reason to assume that even if he loses a general election he wouldn’t try for the gop nomination again in 2028, when he’d be about the same age biden is now. but whether or not trump regains the white house this year, and whatever he does next if he doesn’t, it seems certain that his shadow will envelop the gop for years. “i think he will continue to be a significant influence over the party, its elected officials, its platform, its position on all of these important issues, for as long as he’s alive frankly,” said horn. “i said back in 2016 that if the party embraced him and took him on, it would be 25 years before they were able to truly cleanse themselves of him. now i don’t know if i gave it enough time,” she added. © 2025 cable news network. a warner bros. discovery company. all rights reserved. cnn sans ™ & © 2016 cable news network.

halifax by steve peoples and nicholas riccardi, the associated press posted feb 4, 2025 06:02:17 pm. last updated feb 4, 2025 06:16:14 pm. washington (ap)   outraged democrats are testing the limits of their diminished power as they try to stop the stunning power grabs of president donald trump and his chief lieutenant, elon musk. musk’s maneuvers, which include the hostile seizure of taxpayer data and the apparent closure of the government’s leading international humanitarian aid agency, have energized many democrats, who have been mired in a post election funk and struggled to identify a cohesive strategy in the earliest days of trump’s presidency. democratic members of congress threatened to try to bring trump’s agenda, including his cabinet nominations, to a grinding halt. operatives assembled a new war room in their party headquarters. and average americans, backed by a sudden influx of elected officials, warned of a looming constitutional crisis at ballooning protests across the nation’s capital. “with one voice, we can push back and resist the excesses and extremes of the trump administration,” newly elected democratic national committee chair ken martin said in an interview. “only two weeks in, elon musk is already our worst president ever.” it’s unclear, however, if such attempts at obstruction would realistically stop trump and musk. republicans control the white house and both chambers of congress, while the supreme court is led by a 6 3 conservative majority. and republicans who control congress, so far at least, have cheered trump and musk’s provocative moves. vice president jd vance on tuesday shared one of the billionaire’s social media posts in which he claimed to have discovered roughly $700 billion in government fraud. “when elon and the team started i was very supportive but thought the waste and fraud would top out at $250 billion,” vance wrote. “the real number will end up much higher.” musk, the world’s wealthiest person, oversees a team of people at the department of government efficiency in washington. with trump’s blessing, the billionaire ceo is moving to fire or sideline career government officials, gain access to sensitive databases and dismantle agencies he disfavors. on monday, some of musk’s agents were spotted at the department of education, which trump has vowed to abolish. and on tuesday, musk called for national public radio to be stripped of federal funding. none of it is happening with congressional approval, inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority. rep. jasmine crockett, d texas, a rising star in her party, said no elected democrat should help republicans govern in the gop controlled house, even if that leads to a government shutdown. “i don’t know that there’s anything in modern day history that comes close to the moment we’re in,” crockett said. “as we typically say in the black community, the hoods are off.” in the senate, some democrats said they would break personal tradition and oppose all of trump’s remaining cabinet nominees. “i plan to oppose every cabinet level nominee that is considered on the senate floor going forward,” said sen. lisa blunt rochester, d del. “the administration has carried out unlawful budget freezes, massive civil servant layoffs and unconstitutional firings, directed federal funding specifically to places with ‘higher birthrates,’ allowed an unelected and unchecked billionaire to determine what our tax dollars are worthy of funding, and more.” “this is unacceptable and dangerous,” blunt rochester added. the growing outcry from democrats extends well beyond washington, where some rank and file democrats are upset that their representatives in congress are not doing enough. ezra levin, who leads the democratic activist group indivisible, said that 50,000 people joined a call on sunday to pressure senators to take a tougher stand against musk. he was pleased that democrats in washington seem to have rallied since last week’s unilateral grant freeze, but he contends that the party can take more steps, especially in the senate. “we don’t even have them issuing ongoing opposition to trump’s nominees while a coup is happening,” levin said on tuesday, noting 22 senate democrats voted to confirm trump’s nominee for secretary of veterans affairs, doug collins. “this isn’t about any individual program, this is about whether we have a constitution.” democrats have few options. philip joyce, a public policy professor at the university of maryland, noted that the trump administration has been more than willing to work around congress during its latest round of executive actions. “since the administration doesn’t seem concerned with doing things that have been viewed as illegal or unconstitutional in the past, i can’t see any other option other than taking the administration to court,” joyce said. indeed, democrats at this point hope the courts will provide the checks and balances that trump’s republican allies in washington will not. democratic state attorneys general and nonprofit groups successfully filed lawsuits last week that led to separate court orders halting trump ordered funding freezes that triggered panic among nonprofit organizations, including hospitals and social welfare groups. on monday, federal worker unions sued to block musk and his staff from accessing the treasury payments system. multiple groups have also sued to prevent trump from stripping civil service protections from a swathe of federal workers. at the same time, democrats and their allies are increasingly concerned that trump may ignore court orders altogether. already, the term limited president is bypassing laws that establish federal funding levels and worker protections. everett kelley, president of the american federation of government employees, told the ap that his union is already preparing for trump to ignore a court order. “we won’t give up. we’ll keep fighting until justice prevails,” he said. in one apparent silver lining, kelly noted that trump has been good for union participation in recent weeks. the american federation of government employees expanded its ranks by 8,693 members in january and another 3,000 people have joined so far in january, he said. government workers were among the hundreds who protested outside federal offices on tuesday. and more than a dozen members of congress were on the speaking program of a late afternoon rally outside the treasury building, where musk’s team last week gained access to the u.s. treasury payment system. the system is responsible for 1 billion payments per year totaling $5 trillion and includes sensitive information involving bank accounts and social security payments. protesters outside the office of personnel management on tuesday targeted musk almost more than trump. “elon, elon, stop the coup! nobody elected you!” they chanted, as some waved signs that read, “musk must go. get out! now.” “it’s one thing to downsize the government. it’s one thing to try to obliterate it,” said dan smith, a maryland resident whose father was a farmer, a usda research scientist, and “one of the hardest working federal employees i knew.” he called the trump administration’s moves “frightening and disgusting.” “my only hope is that they’re going to push too far, and there’s going to be a response and a retaliation   and we’re going to come out this thing with more and stronger belief in democracy,” smith said. ___ peoples reported from new york. ap writer chris megerian contributed. steve peoples and nicholas riccardi, the associated press a regional councillor has filed a motion asking staff to consider the feasibility of removing x as a social media platform used by halifax regional municipality. currently the platform is used to distribute... 16h ago the halifax mooseheads hosted hockey fights cancer night on friday at the scotiabank centre and defeated the acadie bathurst titan 2 1. acadie bathurst scored the first period's lone goal and controlled... 7h ago halifax   the captain who died when a fishing boat capsized off the coast of eastern nova scotia on thursday was an experienced fisherman who was returning to harbour with a full catch on board, says... 14h ago two of the fishers who were pulled from the water after a 60 foot fishing boat capsized off the coast of halifax have died. their deaths were confirmed by jose teixeira, owner of the boat that went... a regional councillor has filed a motion asking staff to consider the feasibility of removing x as a social media platform used by halifax regional municipality. currently the platform is used to distribute... 16h ago the halifax mooseheads hosted hockey fights cancer night on friday at the scotiabank centre and defeated the acadie bathurst titan 2 1. acadie bathurst scored the first period's lone goal and controlled... 7h ago halifax   the captain who died when a fishing boat capsized off the coast of eastern nova scotia on thursday was an experienced fisherman who was returning to harbour with a full catch on board, says... 14h ago two of the fishers who were pulled from the water after a 60 foot fishing boat capsized off the coast of halifax have died. their deaths were confirmed by jose teixeira, owner of the boat that went... we’re into the final days of canada's temporary, federal tax holiday. afua baah speaks with experts on whether the tax break should be made permanent. 9h ago more than 100 palestinian prisoners have been released in exchange for 3 male israeli hostages. karling donoghue takes a look at the latest ceasefire operations   which have sparked concerns amongst israelis over the health of the remaining hostages. 9h ago almost 27 years after a pregnant woman was found murdered in a downtown parking lot, toronto police have made an arrest. shauna hunt with more the cold case killing and what led investigators to the suspect 9h ago new york's governor has temporarily shut down live bird markets. leigh waldman looks 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primary season is winding down but november is fast approaching. primary season is winding down after voters in florida, arizona and oklahoma settled intra party sparring tuesday night, sending nominees from key races up and down the ballot on to the general election. arizona republicans selected rep. martha mcsally, who shifted closer to president donald trump in her race against her two "trumpier" rivals, to square off against democratic rep. kyrsten sinema in november, in one of the most consequential senate races this cycle. trump tweeted congratulations to mcsally early wednesday, bashing outgoing sen. jeff flake in the process. in an election year largely overshadowed by trump’s overriding presence, rep. ron desantis clinched the republican gubernatorial nomination in florida, after defeating state agriculture commissioner adam putnam. but even more stunning was the upset defeat of political heiress gwen graham by tallahassee mayor andrew gillum. the sen. bernie sanders endorsed longshot could become the first african american governor in florida’s history. here are some of the top takeaways from tuesday’s primaries: the biggest showdowns in the sun belt in one of the most highly anticipated primary nights, florida and arizona are now set to host bitter rivalries in november. voters in the sunshine state will face a stark choice after trump endorsed desantis edged out putnam tuesday in a closely watched gubernatorial primary, and will face gillum in the fall. the democratic governors association quickly blasted desantis after his win in a statement from executive director elisabeth pearson that said: "ron desantis would bring the worst of washington, d.c.’s broken policies to florida. desantis bear hugged trump to win the primary, adopting the same harmful washington policies and rhetoric that is hurting florida’s families." putnam held a significant margin over underdog candidate desantis early on, but after trump backed the gop house member, who stuck closely to the president’s agenda, his lead dissipated. in a similar outcome on the democratic side, gillum’s victory showcases an energized party base in florida, one that could boost turnout across the board, including for incumbent sen. bill nelson, who is facing a tough challenge from republican gov. rick scott. "this is our moment," gillum said tuesday at his victory celebration. also in florida, a highly competitive house race will be under a microscope over the next two months, in the state’s 27th congressional district. democrats aim to flip a historically red district, which includes most of miami and has been held by a republican since the late 1980s. hillary clinton won the district by 20 points in the 2016 presidential election. competing in november are former health and human services secretary donna shalala, the democratic nominee, and republican nominee, journalist maria elvira salazar. in arizona, the general election for flake’s replacement will feature rep. martha mcsally, who surged to victory over dr. kelli ward and sheriff joe arpaio. the competition between the three was fierce as the republican contenders appeared to try to out trump each other, each boasting of having the closest ties to the president. trump remained out of the race through the primary, but the matchup in november will be historic. both candidates on the general ballot are female, in a state that has not sent a woman to the senate. now, arizona is poised to do so, as mcsally will face rep. kyrsten sinema. the 'isms': trumpism and progressivism two big winners tuesday night: donald trump and progressive politics. the two may stand in direct contrast to each other, but they both won out over the competition in tuesday’s top contests. gillum’s victory isn’t just a political victory for bernie sanders but is a major notch on the belt for progressive policies and the movement nationwide. the 39 year old tallahassee mayor’s victory as the democratic gubernatorial nominee in the nation’s third largest state is arguably as important as alexandria ocasio cortez’s upset over rep. joe crowley in june. gillum and arizona democratic gubernatorial nominee david garcia's wins tuesday were also another triumph for the progressive aligned working families party, which endorsed both candidates. "andrew gillum and david garcia just joined an unprecedented slate of gubernatorial nominees who are running people powered campaigns on progressive policies that will make our states work for the many, not the few," said joe dinkin, campaigns director for the working families party. “this new generation of candidates are young, diverse, and unapologetically progressive. and they’re poised to shake up statehouses from phoenix to tallahassee." desantis’ triumph in florida is yet another indication that republicans in the state are ready to embrace donald trump’s style of politics. the candidate had his children literally building a wall in a recent campaign ad, and earned the president’s backing very early in the race, a factor that clearly made a difference in his victory over adam putnam. mcsally’s win is less of an outright victory for trumpism. the candidate embraced many of trump’s key policies on issues like immigration, and has appeared at numerous white house events alongside the commander in chief, but hesitated to align herself with him as starkly as did arpaio or ward. with most of the competitive senate races this cycle are now set for november, attention turns to where trump will campaign next on the senate battleground map. his next campaign rally is scheduled for thursday in evansville, indiana, where businessman mike braun is attempting to unseat democratic sen. joe donnelly in vice president mike pence's home state. mccain's legacy a focal point tuesday the u.s. senate seat up for grabs in arizona this year was flake's, but the death of sen. john mccain brought his political legacy in the state front and center tuesday night. mcsally’s victory was a win for "establishment" republicans who avoid the complications of having more controversial candidates like ward or arpaio at the top of the ticket. but, if she wins in november, she’ll be replacing one of the most prominent trump critics in congress who served alongside mccain for decades and called him a close friend. but despite mcsally's at times cozy relationship with trump, flake himself said tuesday that he was hoping for a mcsally victory, which, he says, puts the gop in the best position to win in november. "i think mcsally will win, i hope she does," flake told reporters on capitol hill, “this is going to be a hard fought general election and i think long term, if we don't appeal to a broader electorate and quit trying to drill down harder on the base and just give in to the politics of anger and resentment, we're going to lose big time in the long term." that "politics of anger and resentment" is exactly what mccain railed against in the waning days of his congressional career. perhaps mcsally should heed the advice that south carolina gop sen. lindsey graham was given by mccain about dealing with trump: "help him when you can, just don’t get sucked into all this bull    ." voting on gun violence an issue often too divisive for elections, has become a central issue in florida races up and down the ballot this cycle. in broward county, home to marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, lori alhadeff, the mother of slain 14 year old alyssa alhadeff, will serve on the county’s school board after winning in a landslide. alhadeff hopes to deliver on promised changes in the county’s school system after the february massacre shook the community, and the country, as one of the deadliest school shootings in american history. "i can’t wait to start making change and start making an impact on the school board," she said according to the miami herald. david hogg, one of the founders, and perhaps most outspoken member, of the march for our lives movement, told abc news’ tom llamas and rick klein that the group is focused on "making sure young people are voting." "this summer we registered thousands of voters," he said. florida’s candidates at the top of the ticket in the general election will likely be confronted by questions about where they stand on gun control and measures to curb gun violence after months of national debate since the shooting. after the march for our lives in washington, d.c., parkland’s teenage activists turned their efforts this summer toward registering young people to vote. while many voted for the first time tuesday, the students hope to harness the power of a youth electorate to bring sensible anti gun violence solutions to the gun friendly state. asked how he feels about the night and what’s next for the group heading into november, hogg responded, "this is not the closing of the chapter, this is the beginning of the book." incumbents' show of strength tuesday night was a good night for incumbents fending off aggressive primary challenges. in florida’s 9th congressional district, rep. darren soto easily held off former rep. alan grayson, a liberal firebrand that lost the democratic nomination for u.s. senate in 2016. also in the sunshine state, rep. stephanie murphy also easily held off primary challenger chardo richardson, a progressive challenger that scored an endorsement from alexandria ocasio cortez. in florida’s 5th congressional district, another freshman democrat held off a primary challenge. rep. al lawson fended off former jacksonville mayor alvin brown with roughly 60 percent of the vote. in arizona, incumbent gov. doug ducey held off a primary challenge from former arizona secretary of state ken bennett. the power of incumbency is formidable, and it showed its strength tuesday night. gop house members advance in bids for higher office in a departure from a fate plaguing house republicans this cycle, two notable representatives scored significant wins in bids for higher office tuesday night. mcsally and desantis broke from a trend that has toppled seasoned political contenders, both winning the republican nominations for senate and governor in arizona and florida, respectively. a total of thirteen gop house members have appeared on primary ballots as a candidate for another office, and five gop house members fell short in a bid for higher office. of those who lost, three faced either "unserious or nonexistent challengers." those suffering losses and an end to their political careers this election cycle include tennessee rep. diane black, indiana reps. luke messer and todd rokita, idaho rep. raúl labrador and west virginia rep. evan jenkins. mcsally overtook arpaio and ward, who wrestled over who had the closest ties to the president, while desantis’ full fledged embrace of trump provided him with a significant bump that brought him over the finish line to edge out putnam in one of the most closely watched and competitive primaries. more potential history in the making in both the arizona and florida gubernatorial races, there is potential history to be made. florida has the chance to send its first african american to the governor’s mansion in gillum, while david garica would be the first latino chief executive of arizona in more than 40 years. what has already been a historic midterm cycle for female candidates continued tuesday night in the grand canyon state. the battle in arizona between two congresswomen, martha mcsally and kysten sinema, ensures that come november, the state will be represented by a woman in the u.s. senate for the first time in its history. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events

trump has moved to gut the federal government, fire critics and reward allies   a path similar to ‘would be dictators’ like orbán, experts say a pitiless crackdown on on illegal immigration. a hardline approach to law and order. a purge of “gender ideology” and “wokeness” from the nation’s schools. erosions of academic freedom, judicial independence and the free press. an alliance with christian nationalism. an assault on democratic institutions. the “electoral autocracy” that is viktor orbán’s hungary has been long revered by donald trump and his “make america great again” (maga) movement. now admiration is turning into emulation. in the early weeks of trump’s second term as us president, analysts say, there are alarming signs that the orbánisation of america has begun. with the tech billionaire elon musk at his side, trump has moved with astonishing velocity to fire critics, punish media, reward allies, gut the federal government, exploit presidential immunity and test the limits of his authority. many of their actions have been unconstitutional and illegal. with congress impotent, only the federal courts have slowed them down. “they are copying the path taken by other would be dictators like viktor orbán,” said chris murphy, a democratic senator for connecticut. “you have a move towards state controlled media. you have a judiciary and law enforcement that seems poised to prioritise the prosecution of political opponents. you have the executive seizure of spending power so the leader and only the leader gets to dictate who gets money.” orbán, who came to power in 2010, was once described as “trump before trump” by the us president’s former adviser steve bannon. his long term dismantling of institutions and control of media in hungary serves as a cautionary tale about how seemingly incremental changes can pave the way for authoritarianism. orbán has described his country as “a petri dish for illiberalism”. his party used its two thirds majority to rewrite the constitution, capture institutions and change electoral law. he reconfigured the judiciary and public universities to ensure long term party loyalty. the prime minister created a system of rewards and punishments, giving control of money and media to allies. an estimated 85% of media outlets are controlled by the hungarian government, allowing orbán to shape public opinion and marginalise dissent. orbán has been also masterful at weaponising “family values” and anti immigration rhetoric to mobilise his base. orbán’s fans in the us include vice president jd vance, the media personality tucker carlson and kevin roberts, the head of the heritage foundation thinktank, who once said: “modern hungary is not just a model for conservative statecraft but the model.” the heritage foundation produced project 2025, a far right blueprint for trump’s second term. orbán has addressed the conservative political action conference and two months ago travelled to the mar a lago estate in florida for talks with both trump and musk. he has claimed that “we have entered the policy writing system of president donald trump’s team” and “have deep involvement there”. but even orbán might be taken aback   and somewhat envious   of the alacrity that trump has shown since returning to power, attacking the foundations of democracy not with a chisel but a sledgehammer. on day one he pardoned about 1,500 people who took part in the 6 january 2021 insurrection, including those who violently attacked us capitol police in an effort to overturn his election defeat. driven by vengeance, he dismissed federal prosecutors involved in trump related investigations and hinted at a further targeting of thousands of fbi agents who worked on january 6 related cases. bill kristol, director of the advocacy group defending democracy together and a former official in the ronald reagan white house, said: “flipping the narrative on january 6, becoming a pro january 6 administration, then weaponising the justice department and talking at least of mass firings at the fbi   that’s further than the norm and very dangerous for obvious reasons. “if he could do that, he could do anything. why can’t he order the justice department to investigate you and me and 50 other people? one assumes the lawyers at justice or the fbi agents wouldn’t do it, but if a couple of thousand have been cleared out and the rest are intimidated. i’m not hysterical but i do think the threat is much more real now than people anticipated it being a month ago.” borrowing from orbán’s playbook, trump has mobilised the culture wars, issuing a series of executive orders and policy changes that target diversity, equity and inclusion programmes and education curricula. this week he signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports and directed the attorney general, pam bondi, to lead a taskforce on eradicating what he called anti christian bias within the federal government. he is also seeking to marginalise the mainstream media and supplant it with a rightwing ecosystem that includes armies of influencers and podcasters. a “new media” seat has been added to the white house press briefing room while silicon valley billionaires were prominent at his inauguration. musk’s x is a powerful mouthpiece, mark zuckerberg’s facebook has abandoned factchecking and the chinese owned tiktok could become part owned by the us. trump has sued news organisations over stories or even interview edits; some have settled the cases. the pentagon said it would “rotate” four major news outlets from their workspace and replace them with more trump friendly media. jim acosta, a former white house correspondent who often sparred with trump, quit cnn while lara trump, the president’s daughter in law, was hired to host a new weekend show on rupert murdoch’s fox news. sign up to this week in trumpland a deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the trump administration after newsletter promotion but the most dramatic change has been the way in which trump has brought disruption to the federal government on an unprecedented scale, firing at least 17 inspectors general, dismantling longstanding programmes, sparking widespread public outcry and challenging the very role of congress to create the nation’s laws and pay its bills. government workers are being pushed to resign, entire agencies are being shuttered and federal funding to states and non profits was temporarily frozen. the most sensitive treasury department information of countless americans was opened to musk’s “department of government efficiency” (doge) team in a breach of privacy and protocol, raising concerns about potential misuse of federal funds. musk’s allies orchestrated a physical takeover of the united states agency for international development (usaid), locking out employees and vowing to shut it down, with the secretary of state, marco rubio, stepping in as acting administrator. “we spent the weekend feeding usaid into the wood chipper,” musk posted on x. musk’s team has also heavily influenced the office of personnel management (opm), offering federal workers a “buyout” and installing loyalists into key positions. it is also pushing for a 50% budget cut and implementing “zero based budgeting” at the general services administration (gsa), which controls federal properties and massive contracts. musk, a private citizen who has tens of billions of dollars in government contracts, is slashing and burning his way through washington with little accountability and has significant potential conflicts of interest. an array of lawsuits is demanding interventions to stop him unilaterally gutting government. protests are erupting outside government agencies and jamming congressional phone lines. but critics aiming to sound the alarm that a shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover face intimidation or punishment. edward martin, the interim us attorney for the district of columbia, threatened legal action against anyone who “impedes” doge’s work or “threatens” its people. martin posted on x: “we are in contact with fbi and other law enforcement partners to proceed rapidly. we also have our prosecutors preparing.” murphy, the democratic senator, said: “what’s most worrying to me right now is there’s a whole campaign under way to try to punish and suppress trump and musk’s political enemies. it started with the pardoning of the january 6 rioters; now everybody knows that they are at risk of having the shit beat out of them if they oppose donald trump. “it extended to the seizure of government funding. it’s clear now that musk and trump are going to fund entities and states and congressional districts that support them and will withhold funds from entities and states and congressional districts that don’t support them.” he added: “now you have this lawyer who represented january 6 defendants, the new acting dc us attorney, trolling activists online, threatening them with federal prosecution. it’s dizzying campaign of political repression that looks more like russia than the united states.” democrats such as murphy are determined to fight back but, being in the minority, have few tools at their disposal. republicans have mostly appeared content to cede their own power. the party’s fealty to trump was demonstrated again this week when senators in committee voted to move forward with the nominations of tulsi gabbard and robert f kennedy jr as director of national intelligence and health secretary respectively   two mavericks whose selection would have been unthinkable just a year ago. charlie sykes, a conservative author and broadcaster, said: “there had been some lingering optimism that at least some republican senators would draw the line at some of the more absurd maga appointees but that hasn’t happened. that also demoralises any potential opposition.” he added: “what elon musk represents is basically a hostile takeover of the government and the complete indifference of the republican congress to the ways that it is being stripped of its core constitutional functions is demoralising. it is this mood that nothing can be done or will be done to stop them. you’re seeing that in the business community, in the political community, and it’s a fundamental loss of faith in the rule of law and in our system of checks and balances.” one guardrail is holding for now. courts have temporarily blocked trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship, cull the government workforce and freeze federal funding. even so, commentators warn that the blatant disregard for congressional authority, erosion of civil service protections and concentration of power in the executive branch pose a grave threat. larry jacobs, director of the center for the study of politics and governance at the university of minnesota, said: “you’d have to have your eyes fully closed not to be deeply concerned and outraged about the vacuum that donald trump is operating in now. in a real sense, us democracy has died this month. it doesn’t mean it’s dead for the long term but at this moment the idea of an accountable representative system, as the framers of the constitution wrote it, is no longer present.”

gov. spencer cox talks to media after the associated press called the gop primary for governor in his favor at an election night event in salt lake city on tuesday, june 25, 2024. (photo by spenser heaps for utah news dispatch) soon after polls closed on tuesday, unofficial election night results showed both of utah’s statewide republican primary races had clear wins: utah gov. spencer cox won the gop gubernatorial race, and rep. john curtis beat his three republican competitors in the race to replace retiring sen. mitt romney. though the results aren’t necessarily surprising   aligning with what local polls signaled would happen, though by narrower margins   they affirmed what historically has been true: utah, though as red a state as ever, continues to have trouble accepting trump style politics. ap calls race for utah gov. spencer cox, but lyman won’t concede cox’s competitor, rep. phil lyman   who as of wednesday evening trailed cox by nearly 12 percentage points   catered to maga republicans with a muga (“make utah great again”) campaign. former president donald trump himself endorsed curtis’ leading competitor, riverton mayor trent staggs, and yet staggs only got 31% of the vote to curtis’ nearly 50%. “what a fascinating primary,” chris karpowitz, political science professor at brigham young university, told utah news dispatch on wednesday, the day after the election. two takeaways surfaced, said karpowitz, who is also a senior scholar at byu’s center of the study of elections and democracy. it highlighted, he said: however, the two races also show that brash, populist oriented rhetoric does indeed resonate with a significant, “meaningful” number of utah voters, karpowitz said. “utah continues to be reticent to fully adopt maga style politics,” he said. “but that doesn’t mean there aren’t voters who do endorse that. and those voters are passionate. they get involved. but they’re not a majority, and they’re not a majority among republicans.” get the morning headlines. the fact that both lyman and staggs’ campaigns gained notable traction   and lyman’s race with cox was perhaps closer than some expected   shows trump aligned candidates can find a foothold. however, karpowitz said it’s “hard to say” whether this is a growing faction within utah. “but i think these results show that there’s an audience for that style of politics, even in utah,” he said. “it’s not a majority   yet. but it might be creeping in that direction.” still, this year’s primary shows “it’s not a winning argument,” he said. “and maybe this is a warning for (sen.) mike lee, too,” karpowitz said, referring to the utah senator who went from not voting for trump in 2016, to now one of his most vocal supporters. “there really are limits in utah to fully and completely aligning yourself with donald trump.” what makes utah so different from other states? the answer lies with the history of the state, settled by members of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints escaping religious persecution. today, utah remains home to the highest concentration of members of the church, and its culture continues to place heavy emphasis on religion and morality. it’s a big reason why utahns have been reluctant to embrace trump’s rhetoric and behavior. “i do think the state’s history and religious tradition matters here,” karpowitz said. “and that has led to a certain style of politics and a certain willingness to try to work for practical solutions that don’t involve completely demonizing people on the other side.” utah, compared to other deeply red states, is “red in a different way,” he said. “it’s going to stay red,” he added, “at least for the foreseeable future. but there are big tensions within the party and big differences of opinion about the best way to go forward and what the responsibilities of elected officials are. and it’s simply not sufficient to have the endorsement of donald trump.” karpowitz said lyman’s and staggs’ losses also add to the tally of examples of how disconnected utah republican party delegates are from the rest of the state’s gop voters. both lyman and staggs won overwhelming majority support at convention, and yet they lost with wide margins when the race was opened up to the rest of the state’s republican voters. cox, in the governor’s race, along with curtis and other u.s. senate competitors, qualified for the primary by gathering signatures under utah’s dual path to the ballot. is the utah convention system still relevant? karpowitz, along with another byu professor jeremy pope, has conducted research, including an analysis in 2015, that shows caucuses are more likely to attract partisan voters, and in turn they’re more likely to produce more ideologically extreme party nominees. “it’s vindication, again, for the notion that the convention is out of step with republican voters in the state, that it caters to a more extreme and different set of voters than primaries do,” he said. republicans who favor the caucus convention system   many of them lyman and staggs supporters   have long detested the passage of sb54, a 2014 law that allows a dual path to the primary ballot via signature gathering and not just through convention nomination. many convention loyalists balk at being deemed extremists or out of touch. rather, they argue delegates are more informed about politics and are best equipped to make knowledgeable decisions for their neighbors. they also argue the signature gathering path allows candidates with enough money and resources a way to bypass the convention system. yes, cox as an incumbent and curtis coming from congress were both well resourced candidates that also benefited from name recognition, karpowitz said. but they both also ran campaigns that framed them as candidates based on traditional utah politics. curtis told the deseret news on wednesday that he’s often stereotyped as a candidate that’s either maga or moderate   and he doesn’t see himself or utah that way. “i like to define it as normal,” curtis told the publication. “i don’t think most utah voters define themselves by conservative or moderate or liberal. but i think they tend to define themselves more by   for lack of better words   utah values.” the lyman campaign   though it was not successful   demonstrated there is a significant segment of utah’s republican population that is hungry for change and likely energized by a possible return of trump to the white house. sen. todd weiler, r woods cross, who supported cox at his election night party, told utah news dispatch he expected cox to win. lyman’s support, he said, runs “narrow but deep” while cox’s support is wider and quieter. “(lyman supporters) are going to go out and put up signs and call their neighbors and tell their family members to vote for phil lyman,” weiler said. “i think the phil lyman supporters feel like they’re part of an uprising or a cause, but there’s just not enough of them to win.” weiler’s prediction was right, though the margin is shaping up to be narrower than what he expected   which was no more than 40% for lyman (as of wednesday evening, cox had 55.9% of the vote to lyman’s 44%). county by county results show cox handily beat lyman along the wasatch front, while lyman gained traction in rural utah, especially southern utah and his home san juan county. karpowitz noted there were so many lyman campaign signs scattered throughout neighborhoods that it likely made some wonder, “‘is he going to do better than we think?’ and i think that’s just a reflection of the fact that lyman did engender a certain level of enthusiasm and support.” “it’s not a majority of voters,” he said, “but those who liked him seemed to like him quite a bit.” shortly after results posted tuesday night, cox and his running mate lt. gov. deidre henderson told supporters the outcome of the race validated their decisions to “do the right thing” and run a clean, policy based campaign despite pressures from their opponents and national political norms. “we believe that there is a better way to govern. that the way that our country is trending, the polarization … is not healthy. the destruction of institutions. destroying trust in our neighbors,” cox said. “so i’m proud that we rose above the fray, that we did it the right way. we did it without attacking … without negativity. and i’m grateful that the people of utah responded.” lyman’s campaign largely employed an attack strategy, accusing cox in various ways of not being a true conservative, while cox advocated for a clean race while parading his national association of governor’s “disagree better” campaign, meant to discourage hyperpartisanship, polarization, tribalism and political hate. however, when reporters asked cox about “attacks from the right” of his own party during the campaign season, cox bristled, and argued there’s a different definition that should be used to describe lyman and his supporters. “i want to be clear. those attacks don’t come from the right. populism is not ‘the right.’ populism is not conservatism,” cox said. “this is something different.” populism is defined as a political approach that seeks to appeal to ordinary people who feel they’re being disregarded by established, elite groups. it’s a strategy that trump has embraced and normalized, and one that lyman mirrored. i want to be clear. those attacks don’t come from the right. populism is not ‘the right.’ populism is not conservatism. this is something different   utah gov. spencer cox karpowitz noted there are populist movements “occurring all across the world,” and utah is not immune. “part of that is a reflection of the economic challenges that we face in a post covid world, and part of it is a sense of frustration that elected officials in both parties have overlooked or ignored, you know, the challenges that ordinary people are having,” he said. trump and his followers have seen an opening to grasp onto that kind of rhetoric   but they’ve also taken a tear it down approach that can be “dangerous” for the country’s institutions and democracy, he said. like trump, lyman   who would not concede tuesday night   has also embraced rhetoric that sows doubt in elections. in a post on x wednesday, lyman’s campaign criticized the media for calling the race soon after polls closed. “cox’s speech was bizarre. and, on top of that, we have a lot of votes still to count,” lyman’s campaign posted. “call it dangerous if you want but i’m not buying it.” in the final week leading up to the primary, lyman laid the groundwork for questioning the election itself by accusing the lieutenant governor’s office of lacking “transparency” for not releasing all of the signatures cox and other candidates submitted to qualify for the ballot. for candidate signature gathering petitions, utah law requires election officials to redact names from signature packets of voters who have chosen to classify their records as private. lyman told his supporters tuesday night that his campaign is suing over cox’s signatures in order to confirm their validity. he also indicated he would try to press to get his name on the general election ballot despite his primary loss because he earned more than 60% of delegate support at convention. that’s not how it works in utah. winners of primary elections or unopposed party nominees advance to the november ballot. part of living in a democracy is respecting the decisions of the voters, and of recognizing you lost when you lost.   chris karpowitz, poiltical science professor at brigham young university karpowitz called lyman’s rhetoric around the election “worrisome.” “i think it’s a result of donald trump’s reaction to 2020, and i don’t think that’s healthy for democracy,” he said. “part of living in a democracy is respecting the decisions of the voters, and of recognizing you lost when you lost.” the margin in the cox lyman contest “is not close,” he said, “and so continuing to sow doubt about the outcome of elections is just not healthy for a republic.” “that’s just deeply problematic,” he said. “certainly every candidate has the right to pursue any significant concerns in a court of law, but at this point at least it’s not clear that there’s any reason to doubt the outcome of the election, and continuing to sow those kinds of doubts just plays into this narrative … where politicians feel they can gain by playing on the concerns and fears of ordinary people.” you make our work possible. by katie mckellar, utah news dispatch june 26, 2024 by katie mckellar, utah news dispatch june 26, 2024 soon after polls closed on tuesday, unofficial election night results showed both of utah’s statewide republican primary races had clear wins: utah gov. spencer cox won the gop gubernatorial race, and rep. john curtis beat his three republican competitors in the race to replace retiring sen. mitt romney. though the results aren’t necessarily surprising   aligning with what local polls signaled would happen, though by narrower margins   they affirmed what historically has been true: utah, though as red a state as ever, continues to have trouble accepting trump style politics. ap calls race for utah gov. spencer cox, but lyman won’t concede cox’s competitor, rep. phil lyman   who as of wednesday evening trailed cox by nearly 12 percentage points   catered to maga republicans with a muga (“make utah great again”) campaign. former president donald trump himself endorsed curtis’ leading competitor, riverton mayor trent staggs, and yet staggs only got 31% of the vote to curtis’ nearly 50%. “what a fascinating primary,” chris karpowitz, political science professor at brigham young university, told utah news dispatch on wednesday, the day after the election. two takeaways surfaced, said karpowitz, who is also a senior scholar at byu’s center of the study of elections and democracy. it highlighted, he said: however, the two races also show that brash, populist oriented rhetoric does indeed resonate with a significant, “meaningful” number of utah voters, karpowitz said. “utah continues to be reticent to fully adopt maga style politics,” he said. “but that doesn’t mean there aren’t voters who do endorse that. and those voters are passionate. they get involved. but they’re not a majority, and they’re not a majority among republicans.” get the morning headlines. the fact that both lyman and staggs’ campaigns gained notable traction   and lyman’s race with cox was perhaps closer than some expected   shows trump aligned candidates can find a foothold. however, karpowitz said it’s “hard to say” whether this is a growing faction within utah. “but i think these results show that there’s an audience for that style of politics, even in utah,” he said. “it’s not a majority   yet. but it might be creeping in that direction.” still, this year’s primary shows “it’s not a winning argument,” he said. “and maybe this is a warning for (sen.) mike lee, too,” karpowitz said, referring to the utah senator who went from not voting for trump in 2016, to now one of his most vocal supporters. “there really are limits in utah to fully and completely aligning yourself with donald trump.” what makes utah so different from other states? the answer lies with the history of the state, settled by members of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints escaping religious persecution. today, utah remains home to the highest concentration of members of the church, and its culture continues to place heavy emphasis on religion and morality. it’s a big reason why utahns have been reluctant to embrace trump’s rhetoric and behavior. “i do think the state’s history and religious tradition matters here,” karpowitz said. “and that has led to a certain style of politics and a certain willingness to try to work for practical solutions that don’t involve completely demonizing people on the other side.” utah, compared to other deeply red states, is “red in a different way,” he said. “it’s going to stay red,” he added, “at least for the foreseeable future. but there are big tensions within the party and big differences of opinion about the best way to go forward and what the responsibilities of elected officials are. and it’s simply not sufficient to have the endorsement of donald trump.” karpowitz said lyman’s and staggs’ losses also add to the tally of examples of how disconnected utah republican party delegates are from the rest of the state’s gop voters. both lyman and staggs won overwhelming majority support at convention, and yet they lost with wide margins when the race was opened up to the rest of the state’s republican voters. cox, in the governor’s race, along with curtis and other u.s. senate competitors, qualified for the primary by gathering signatures under utah’s dual path to the ballot. is the utah convention system still relevant? karpowitz, along with another byu professor jeremy pope, has conducted research, including an analysis in 2015, that shows caucuses are more likely to attract partisan voters, and in turn they’re more likely to produce more ideologically extreme party nominees. “it’s vindication, again, for the notion that the convention is out of step with republican voters in the state, that it caters to a more extreme and different set of voters than primaries do,” he said. republicans who favor the caucus convention system   many of them lyman and staggs supporters   have long detested the passage of sb54, a 2014 law that allows a dual path to the primary ballot via signature gathering and not just through convention nomination. many convention loyalists balk at being deemed extremists or out of touch. rather, they argue delegates are more informed about politics and are best equipped to make knowledgeable decisions for their neighbors. they also argue the signature gathering path allows candidates with enough money and resources a way to bypass the convention system. yes, cox as an incumbent and curtis coming from congress were both well resourced candidates that also benefited from name recognition, karpowitz said. but they both also ran campaigns that framed them as candidates based on traditional utah politics. curtis told the deseret news on wednesday that he’s often stereotyped as a candidate that’s either maga or moderate   and he doesn’t see himself or utah that way. “i like to define it as normal,” curtis told the publication. “i don’t think most utah voters define themselves by conservative or moderate or liberal. but i think they tend to define themselves more by   for lack of better words   utah values.” the lyman campaign   though it was not successful   demonstrated there is a significant segment of utah’s republican population that is hungry for change and likely energized by a possible return of trump to the white house. sen. todd weiler, r woods cross, who supported cox at his election night party, told utah news dispatch he expected cox to win. lyman’s support, he said, runs “narrow but deep” while cox’s support is wider and quieter. “(lyman supporters) are going to go out and put up signs and call their neighbors and tell their family members to vote for phil lyman,” weiler said. “i think the phil lyman supporters feel like they’re part of an uprising or a cause, but there’s just not enough of them to win.” weiler’s prediction was right, though the margin is shaping up to be narrower than what he expected   which was no more than 40% for lyman (as of wednesday evening, cox had 55.9% of the vote to lyman’s 44%). county by county results show cox handily beat lyman along the wasatch front, while lyman gained traction in rural utah, especially southern utah and his home san juan county. karpowitz noted there were so many lyman campaign signs scattered throughout neighborhoods that it likely made some wonder, “‘is he going to do better than we think?’ and i think that’s just a reflection of the fact that lyman did engender a certain level of enthusiasm and support.” “it’s not a majority of voters,” he said, “but those who liked him seemed to like him quite a bit.” shortly after results posted tuesday night, cox and his running mate lt. gov. deidre henderson told supporters the outcome of the race validated their decisions to “do the right thing” and run a clean, policy based campaign despite pressures from their opponents and national political norms. “we believe that there is a better way to govern. that the way that our country is trending, the polarization … is not healthy. the destruction of institutions. destroying trust in our neighbors,” cox said. “so i’m proud that we rose above the fray, that we did it the right way. we did it without attacking … without negativity. and i’m grateful that the people of utah responded.” lyman’s campaign largely employed an attack strategy, accusing cox in various ways of not being a true conservative, while cox advocated for a clean race while parading his national association of governor’s “disagree better” campaign, meant to discourage hyperpartisanship, polarization, tribalism and political hate. however, when reporters asked cox about “attacks from the right” of his own party during the campaign season, cox bristled, and argued there’s a different definition that should be used to describe lyman and his supporters. “i want to be clear. those attacks don’t come from the right. populism is not ‘the right.’ populism is not conservatism,” cox said. “this is something different.” populism is defined as a political approach that seeks to appeal to ordinary people who feel they’re being disregarded by established, elite groups. it’s a strategy that trump has embraced and normalized, and one that lyman mirrored.   utah gov. spencer cox karpowitz noted there are populist movements “occurring all across the world,” and utah is not immune. “part of that is a reflection of the economic challenges that we face in a post covid world, and part of it is a sense of frustration that elected officials in both parties have overlooked or ignored, you know, the challenges that ordinary people are having,” he said. trump and his followers have seen an opening to grasp onto that kind of rhetoric   but they’ve also taken a tear it down approach that can be “dangerous” for the country’s institutions and democracy, he said. like trump, lyman   who would not concede tuesday night   has also embraced rhetoric that sows doubt in elections. in a post on x wednesday, lyman’s campaign criticized the media for calling the race soon after polls closed. “cox’s speech was bizarre. and, on top of that, we have a lot of votes still to count,” lyman’s campaign posted. “call it dangerous if you want but i’m not buying it.” in the final week leading up to the primary, lyman laid the groundwork for questioning the election itself by accusing the lieutenant governor’s office of lacking “transparency” for not releasing all of the signatures cox and other candidates submitted to qualify for the ballot. for candidate signature gathering petitions, utah law requires election officials to redact names from signature packets of voters who have chosen to classify their records as private. lyman told his supporters tuesday night that his campaign is suing over cox’s signatures in order to confirm their validity. he also indicated he would try to press to get his name on the general election ballot despite his primary loss because he earned more than 60% of delegate support at convention. that’s not how it works in utah. winners of primary elections or unopposed party nominees advance to the november ballot.   chris karpowitz, poiltical science professor at brigham young university karpowitz called lyman’s rhetoric around the election “worrisome.” “i think it’s a result of donald trump’s reaction to 2020, and i don’t think that’s healthy for democracy,” he said. “part of living in a democracy is respecting the decisions of the voters, and of recognizing you lost when you lost.” the margin in the cox lyman contest “is not close,” he said, “and so continuing to sow doubt about the outcome of elections is just not healthy for a republic.” “that’s just deeply problematic,” he said. “certainly every candidate has the right to pursue any significant concerns in a court of law, but at this point at least it’s not clear that there’s any reason to doubt the outcome of the election, and continuing to sow those kinds of doubts just plays into this narrative … where politicians feel they can gain by playing on the concerns and fears of ordinary people.” you make our work possible. utah news dispatch is part of states newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. utah news dispatch maintains editorial independence. contact editor mckenzie romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com. our stories may be republished online or in print under creative commons license cc by nc nd 4.0. we ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. ap and getty images may not be republished. please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics. katie mckellar covers utah government as a senior reporter for utah news dispatch. she specializes in political reporting, covering the governor and the utah legislature, with expertise in beats including growth, housing and homelessness. utah news dispatch is part of states newsroom, the nation’s largest state focused nonprofit news organization. democracy toolkit © utah news dispatch, 2025 v1.73.0 utah news dispatch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news source covering government, policy and the issues most impacting the lives of utahns. we’re part of states newsroom, the nation’s largest state focused nonprofit news organization. deij policy | ethics policy | privacy policy our stories may be republished online or in print under creative commons license cc by nc nd 4.0. we ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. 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executive actions aims to test limits of president’s authority and perhaps win backing from conservative supreme court donald trump’s spate of executive orders include many aimed at expanding his presidential powers in areas that pose threats to the rule of law and democratic norms in the us, say legal experts. trump’s orders include the abrupt firing of 17 agency watchdogs called inspectors general without giving congress the required 30 days’ notice, the rejection of birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, which is guaranteed by the 14th amendment, and pardons for more than 1,500 people convicted for their roles in the january 6 capitol insurrection. congressional republicans have offered scant criticism of trump’s power plays, but democrats have accelerated their attacks on trump’s moves: about two dozen democratic state attorneys general have filed lawsuits, and federal court judges have temporarily halted two of trump’s more extremist moves. the guardian has learned that a group of inspectors general also are expected to file a lawsuit challenging their dismissals by trump and are in talks with law firms to that end, according to a source familiar with the matter. federal judges have backed separate lawsuits by state attorneys general and civil rights groups halting trump’s efforts to nullify birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants born in the us, which was a facet of his blitz to deport undocumented immigrants. similarly, after the white house budget office issued a directive that could have briefly blocked $3tn in federal funds from being sent to numerous state and federal programs, 23 state attorneys general persuaded two federal judges to temporarily stop the measure from taking effect. further, congressional democrats and labor unions are challenging some draconian cost cutting moves that elon musk   trump’s biggest donor and the world’s richest man   is pursuing at the so called “department of government efficiency” (doge), which is facing fire for its gutting of the us agency for international development. legal experts say trump’s firehose of executive actions is aimed at enhancing presidential powers and may be intended to get some cases before the supreme court in hopes that the conservative majority will rule in favor of his expansive views of executive power. “at bottom, president trump’s opening salvo of executive orders is consistent with his administration’s view that the executive branch is not co equal but predominates over all three branches,” the ex federal judge john jones, who now is president of dickinson college, said. “likewise, his administration has chosen to simply ignore laws it deems unconstitutional. “i believe those who have standing, such as state attorneys general, will increasingly challenge these orders in court. and it is my hope that the judiciary, which is constitutionally co equal, will serve as a bulwark and prevent a further deterioration of the rule of law.” that view is echoed by arizona’s democratic attorney general, kris mayes, who sees state attorneys general playing a key role in halting some of trump’s moves. “we will not hesitate to challenge actions that violate the constitution or threaten fundamental rights   and we will win,” mayes said. former justice department officials also offer scathing criticism of trump’s rapid fire moves to expand his authority. “trump is determined to maximize the power of the presidency,” said ty cobb, a former federal prosecutor who was a white house counsel during trump’s first term. “he believes he’s omnipotent and that anything he does is beyond reproach. that’s clearly not the case. he does not have the ability to amend the constitution through executive orders.” cobb predicts that “nothing is going to slow trump down. he’s going to test the limits of his powers until he leaves office.” many of trump’s executive orders were presaged in his election campaign, but their volume and speed look designed to swamp political foes and echo the ex trump strategist steve bannon’s call to “flood the zone” to overwhelm democratic opposition and media attacks. trump has defended his firings of the inspectors general by falsely calling them “standard” and a “very common thing to do”. likewise, trump has tried to defend his sweeping pardons by claiming baselessly that those convicted were victims of a “weaponized” justice department, which perpetrated a “grave national injustice”. on another battlefront at the department of justice, about a dozen senior lawyers who worked under special counsel jack smith, who charged trump with seeking to illegally overturn his 2020 loss to joe biden, have been axed, raising alarms about how justice department leaders seem in sync with trump’s threats of exacting revenge against his political foes. former federal prosecutors and legal experts say some of trump’s executive moves are undermining the rule of law, but fit with his authoritarian instincts and plans to expand his executive powers. “it seems that trump is pushing and at times exceeding the limits of his authority in an effort to move the legal lines,” said barbara mcquade, a former eastern michigan federal prosecutor who now teaches law at the university of michigan. “by ignoring legal requirements before firing inspectors general and career prosecutors, trump is inviting lawsuits, which, in turn, gives him an opportunity to challenge the statutes that limit the president’s authority to fire executive branch employees.” in response to some of trump’s dubious power grabs, senate democrats and one republican member have stepped up their challenges to trump’s moves to widen his powers. the two top senators on the judiciary committee, democrat dick durbin and republican chuck grassley, last tuesday rebuked trump in a joint letter for his sudden firing of the 17 inspectors general, who are tasked with ferreting out waste, fraud and abuse in federal agencies. “congress was not provided the legally required 30 day notice and case specific reasons for removal, as required by law. accordingly, we request that you provide that information immediately,” grassley and durbin wrote. sign up to fighting back big thinkers on what we can do to protect civil liberties and fundamental freedoms in a trump presidency. from our opinion desk. after newsletter promotion “while igs aren’t immune from committing acts requiring their removal, and they can be removed by the president, the law must be followed.” the letter stressed that congress needed to be given “sufficient facts and details to assure congress and the public that the termination is due to real concerns about the inspector general’s ability to carry out their mission”. just before the letter was sent, the white house press secretary, karoline leavitt, strained to justify trump’s mass firings of inspectors general, telling reporters: “he is the executive of the executive branch, and therefore he has the power to fire anyone within the executive branch that he wishes to.” the democratic senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts, meanwhile, is sounding alarms about threats posed by musk’s doge, which, in its cost cutting zeal, has gained access to treasury department systems that send out tax refunds and social security checks. “instead of cutting costs for working families, donald trump and elon musk are screwing with systems that get you your tax refund and your social security check,” warren said. “this is not business as usual. we are living in a nightmare created by donald trump, and i will do everything in my power to fight back.” two large federal employee unions on monday filed a lawsuit in a federal court against the government charging that sharing treasury payment information with doge violates the 1974 privacy act. some ex prosecutors say trump’s modus operandi is simply to strengthen his executive authority and blunt opposition without concern for legal niceties. “trump and his team clearly have the project of taking control of the federal government   not in the normal way of most transitions but in the intentional way of eliminating opposition and bending the bureaucracy to his will,” the former federal prosecutor paul rosenzweig said. “trump also has the intent of neutering opposition   both from independent watchdogs like the igs and from the general populace.” trump’s actions could well lead to test cases going to the supreme court, which, given the court’s six to three conservative majority, might rule in the president’s favor, say legal experts. critics note that the court handed trump a huge win last year with a controversial and sweeping ruling that presidents are largely exempt from being charged for any “official” actions during their time in office. “given this supreme court’s recent views of executive power, trump likely hopes that he can expand the powers of the presidency,” mcquade said. rosenzweig also stressed that some of trump’s moves, such as his firing the chair of the national labor relations board, “are clearly intended to create test cases and get supreme court approval for his excess”. but trump’s crusade to overturn limits on his power with executive orders is likely to face more obstacles ahead. “it’s troublingly easy to roll out a series of executive orders with outrageous claims of executive powers,” said the columbia law professor and former federal prosecutor daniel richman. “but now the action will shift in part to the courts, where democratic state ags and others are committed to showing the thinness of those claims. it will also shift to the bureaucracies trump thinks he can bend to his will.” other legal experts see trump charging ahead to boost his own powers. “trump appears to be in a rush to test how easy it will be for him to ignore our laws and constitution when they stand in the way of his agenda,” said larry noble, an ex federal elections commission general counsel who now teaches law at american university. “so far, most congressional republicans seem content to look the other way, effectively making congress where they control both houses a rubber stamp for trump’s dictates, rather than one of three co equal branches of government designed to be a check on a president’s attempt to become a monarch.”
nicholas riccardi, associated press nicholas riccardi, associated press leave your feedback the biggest day of this year’s primary campaign is approaching as 16 states vote in contests known as super tuesday. the elections are a crucial moment for president joe biden and donald trump, who are the overwhelming front runners for the democratic and republican presidential nominations, respectively. as the day with the most delegates up for stake, strong performances by biden and trump would move them much closer to becoming their party’s nominee. watch: trump and biden visit texas to pitch voters on their dueling immigration approaches the contest will unfold from alaska and california to virginia and vermont. and while most of the attention will be on the presidential contest, there are other important elections on tuesday. some things to watch: so far, the republican presidential primary has been a snoozer. the former president has dominated the race and his last major rival in the race, his onetime u.n. ambassador nikki haley, is struggling to keep up. she lost the feb. 27 primary in michigan by more than 40 percentage points. she even lost her home state of south carolina, where she was twice elected governor, by more than 20 percentage points. watch: supreme court agrees to decide if trump is immune from election interference prosecution as the race pivots to super tuesday, the vast map seems tailor made for trump to roll up an insurmountable lead on haley. his team has been turning up the pressure on haley to drop out, and another big win could be a major point in their favor. haley’s banked a considerable amount of campaign money and says she wants to stay in the race until the republican national convention in july in case delegates there have second thoughts about formally nominating trump amidst his legal woes. but she’s seen some of her financial support waver recently   the organization americans for prosperity, backed by the koch brothers, announced it’d stop spending on her behalf after south carolina. she may not be able to afford another sweeping loss. amid trump’s commanding wins this primary season have been a notable warning sign for november: he’s performed poorly with college educated primary voters. in the new hampshire and south carolina primaries, apvotecast found that college graduates picked haley over trump. roughly two thirds of voters in both states who went to graduate school after college voted for the former south carolina governor. in south carolina, trump won the suburbs but not by the same magnitude as his dominance in small towns and rural areas, essentially splitting the vote with haley. one of the biggest questions on tuesday is whether trump can start repairing that rupture.