Midterms 2022 updates: Republican Sen. says she will back Democrats; polls tighten across country

The View hosts revealed their blind spots to the major issues concerning voters as the midterm elections approach.

Joy Behar began by reading what she called a “depressing” poll from the New York Times that found while 70% of voters agree that democracy is under threat, only 7% rank it as a major issue during the upcoming election.

“I find that so depressing, I can’t begin to tell you,” Behar said.

“That’s why I don’t like polls,” Whoopi Goldberg responded.

“That is depressing,” Sunny Hostin agreed.

“I have to ask, something that I want to say this respectfully, I worry there might be a blind spot about at this table is the fact that average American family lost $6,000 in annual wages last year due to inflation,” Alyssa Farah said. “Blame Biden or don’t, but the reason that Tim Ryan is running in Ohio away from Biden and away from Nancy Pelosi. This is a state that both times nominated Barack Obama for president then flipped to Donald Trump. Workers feel they’re not getting the most out of the economy.”

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The Republican super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is canceling $5.6 million in television ads for New Hampshire Senate hopeful Don Bolduc reserved for the closing weeks of the race.

The Senate Leadership Fund’s announcement Friday means that the PAC is effectively giving up on Bolduc’s bid to unseat Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) in a race that was once viewed as winnable for Republicans. Bolduc, a retired Army general who has denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election, won a crowded GOP Senate primary in early September.

GOP leaders had viewed New Hampshire, and Hassan’s seat specifically, as vulnerable for Democrats this election cycle. Bolduc’s fate, however, began to turn as polls showed Hassan gaining ground in what was originally expected to be a tight race.

“As the cycle comes to a close, we are shifting resources to where they can be most effective to achieve our ultimate goal: winning the majority,” Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law said in a statement explaining the decision.

The decision comes less than a month after the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, pulled $2.5 million in planned spending out of New Hampshire to direct toward other states, specifically Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

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He may no longer be inside the West Wing, but former President Donald Trump may soon be soaring on the wings of “Trump Force One” alongside a 2024 debut.

Trump’s marquee Boeing 757 has been getting off the ground in recent days, making apparent test flights at a small Louisiana airport before touching down at the Palm Beach International Airport in Florida on Wednesday, CNN reported.

Palm Beach International Airport is roughly 15 minutes from Mar-a-Lago. Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Texas on Saturday and is expected to take his newly refurbished jet down to the Loan Star State to attend the event, according to a Real America’s Voice reporter.

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Less than three weeks out from the midterm elections, over half of election deniers in key races across the country are projected to win their respective contests.

Of the 291 Republican candidates ranked election deniers by the Washington Post, about 189 are favored to win, according to an analysis from Newsweek.

The initial Washington Post assessment concluded that there were 171 GOP election deniers favored to win and 48 locked in tight races. But the Newsweek analysis found that 18 of the Republicans who were locked in tight races were more likely than not to win, hence the larger projection.

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Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel put the Biden administration on blast for a Friday release of unfavorable immigration data.

The Biden administration revealed that the United States weathered a record-breaking 2.4 million encounters at the southern border for the fiscal year.

Prior reporting indicated that arrests had topped 2 million, but the administration released a more specific figure Friday.

“Of course the Biden admin waited until late on a Friday night to announce the record 2.4 million illegal immigrant encounters this fiscal year. That’s a new record — and a new low in Democrats’ complete failure to secure our borders and keep us safe,” she tweeted.

Seeking to brandish his appeal to working-class voters in the Rust Belt, Ohio Senate hopeful Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) ripped a “bulls***” claim that Democrats should stick to highly educated voters.

Ryan pointed to remarks from a Democratic strategist to the Washington Post that noted the party can’t compete in places such as Ohio and must stick to “states that have more college-educated people.”

“That pisses me off. That is an absolute slap in the face to everyone who’s out there busting their a** who just may not have a college degree,” Ryan said. “I will not let the Democratic Party turn into a party where you have to go get a college degree as a passport to get into the party. That’s bulls***. And I’m not gonna let that happen.”

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Less than three weeks out from the midterm elections, the polls are moving in one direction. Even MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough “senses” the shift in voter sentiment.

Earlier this week, he spoke to NBC analyst Steve Kornacki, who compared the midterm elections to previous elections. He sees striking similarities to 2014 when a “slow and late-building wave to the point where, even on election night, the magnitude of it took some folks by surprise.” He pointed out that Republicans in 2014 won back the Senate and “reached their highest level in terms of House seats since 1928.”

As Democratic candidates try in vain to resurrect the fervor among pro-choice voters triggered by the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, Kornacki confirmed the obvious: The economy, inflation, and crime are the most important issues.

Even widely followed, left-leaning data analyst Nate Silver has dialed back his expectations of a Democratic victory in the Senate from 71% a month ago to 61% on Wednesday. Much of this shift has come in the last two weeks, which is an indication that Republicans are gaining momentum.

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Campaigning is in full swing nationwide with the Nov. 8 midterm elections just days away and control of Congress on the line.

The battle for the evenly split Senate hinges on just a handful of states — with Republicans seeing their pathway to the majority through Nevada. Incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) is locked in a toss-up race with Republican challenger Adam Laxalt. The pair held dueling campaign events Thursday to court Latino voters.

Meanwhile, Republicans need to net five seats to win back control of the House. Virigina’s 7th Congressional District is among the most competitive races in the nation as Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) tries to fend off a challenge from Yesli Vega, a Prince William County supervisor. Vega got a campaign assist on Monday from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).

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FORT MYERS, Florida — Hurricane Ian killed more than one hundred Floridans and wreaked billions of dollars worth of damage on the state last month, so hard-hit Fort Myers residents could be forgiven for deprioritizing the midterm election cycle.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) issued an emergency order last week making it easier for Fort Myer and other Lee County residents to vote in the Nov. 8 elections, along with their counterparts in neighboring Charlotte and Sarasota counties.

The order, which expands early voting and eases the vote-by-mail process, has been criticized by skeptics as a ploy to shore up support in the Republican stronghold. For instance, Fort Myer’s Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) won his first term in Congress representing the 19th district by 23 percentage points in 2020.

But even driving into the once-thriving tourism hot spot, it is hard to ignore stripped highway signs, blue tarpaulin-covered homes, and the odd convoy of emergency service vehicles. That is before you reach the beach, where the category 4 storm surge lifted at least one yacht out of the water and left it on top of a nearby four-wheel drive.

University of South Florida communications professor Joshua Scacco described Ian’s aftermath as “horrendous” and “heartbreaking.”

“The election isn’t on people’s minds,” he said. “[But] we have to remember the reason why the governor had to issue that executive order for Sarasota, Charlotte, and for Lee counties is because the legislature passed restrictions on those particular things.”

DeSantis has been to Fort Myers numerous times and will return later Saturday for a press conference.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) will be crossing party lines at the ballot box this midterm election cycle.

The incumbent senator, who is vying for reelection in her own race, revealed that she will rank Democrat Mary Peltola as her first choice on the ballot for Alaska’s at-large-district. Alaska relies on ranked-choice voting in which voters rank the candidates they prefer numerically.

“Mary is a friend … We have been friends for 25 years, and the fact that we’re Republican and Democrat has never interfered with that friendship,” Murkowski told reporters, per Anchorage Daily News.

Peltola is running to replace the late Rep. Don Young (R-AK). She won a special election for the seat earlier this year after defeating former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and is currently serving out the remainder of his term in Congress.

ST PETERSBURG, Florida — Florida’s Gulf Coast 13th congressional district, anchored by St Petersburg, is one of the House seats Republicans are poised to flip this midterm election cycle.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist (D-FL) forfeited the redistricted seat, which he had held since 2017, to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), creating an opportunity for Obama State Department and Pentagon alumnus Eric Lynn (D-FL) to enter the race against Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Turning Point USA’s National Director of Hispanic Engagement and a U.S. Air Force veteran.

Crist defeated Luna in 2020 by 6 percentage points, 53%-47%. But redistricting after the 2020 Census has upended the contest’s dynamics in the Republican’s favor, according to University of Central Florida politics professor Aubrey Jewett.

“The old boundaries of district 13 supported [President Joe] Biden over [former President Donald] Trump by 4 points, 51.5% to 47.4%,” the Politics in Florida author said. “However, under the new boundaries, district 13 supported Trump over Biden by 7 points, 53% to 46%, a swing of 11 points.”

Cook Political Report considers Florida’s 13th district to be “likely Republican,” along with the newly created 15th district further inland. FiveThirtyEight predicts Luna has a 97% chance of winning on Nov. 8, forecasting that she will do so with a 13-point margin of victory, 55% to 42%.

Republicans only require a net gain of five seats to control the House next Congress.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is confident Republicans are on track to hold at least 52 seats in the Senate after the midterm elections, predicting the party even has a chance to gain a 55-seat majority in November.

The comments from Scott, who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, mark a shift in confidence compared to other top Republicans in the Senate, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who conceded last month that the battle for control will be “really close either way.”

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President Joe Biden has predicted “one more shift back to our side” as he tries to will Democrats across the finish line in the midterm elections.

With just weeks to go before voting is finished, Biden predicted the polls would move back in his party’s favor during a campaignlike speech on the economy and national debt.

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LAS VEGAS — Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt joined Latino voters for dueling campaign events here Thursday, battling over a community that holds the key to this closely fought Nevada contest, and with it the Senate majority.

Struggling politically amid a building Republican wave, Cortez Masto sought to shore up her reelection prospects with some home cooking at a Mexican restaurant and bakery in a middle-class neighborhood on the east side of Las Vegas. For an hour, the senator mingled intimately with a packed house of patrons and supporters, many of them small business owners, hearing concerns about skyrocketing grocery prices and high gas prices while posing for pictures and exchanging hugs.

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As the country inches closer to Election Day, voters are homing in on issues that may decide the fate of Congress and several state governments in November.

The Washington Examiner is tracking which issues are on the top of voters’ minds as they prepare to head to the polls, particularly in key battleground states that could bring a shift in power to the federal government. Specifically, we’re tracking how voters are researching our top five issues — abortion, crime, education, inflation, and taxes — and how these interests fluctuate as we get closer to Election Day.

Click here to read the full story.

As the country inches closer to Election Day, voters are homing in on issues that may decide the fate of Congress and several state governments in November.

The Washington Examiner is tracking which issues are on the top of voters’ minds as they prepare to head to the polls, particularly in key battleground states that could bring a shift in power to the federal government. Specifically, we’re tracking how voters are researching our top five issues — abortion, crime, education, inflation, and taxes — and how these interests fluctuate as we get closer to Election Day.
As the country inches closer to Election Day, voters are homing in on issues that may decide the fate of Congress and several state governments in November.

The Washington Examiner is tracking which issues are on the top of voters’ minds as they prepare to head to the polls, particularly in key battleground states that could bring a shift in power to the federal government. Specifically, we’re tracking how voters are researching our top five issues — abortion, crime, education, inflation, and taxes — and how these interests fluctuate as we get closer to Election Day.

Click here to read the full story.

Sarah Sanders said that she would have supported an Arkansas bill banning transgender medical intervention for minors that was vetoed by Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Sanders, previously the press secretary for President Donald Trump and now running for governor as a Republican, said one of the first jobs of the state is to protect its residents. For that reason, she said during Friday’s Arkansas gubernatorial debate, she would have signed into law legislation banning certain “gender-affirming” treatments for youth under the age of 18.

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Staring down the prospect of a Republican flipping his seat, the largely reserved Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) is turning up the heat on congressional hopeful Alan Fung.

Langevin unloaded on Fung for a recent mailer sent out with a quote from the congressman lavishing praise on him, countering that it was ‘disingenuous” and echoing attack lines from Democrat contender Seth Magaziner that Fung could serve as a trojan horse for the “radical MAGA agenda.”

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President Joe Biden said Friday it would be “irresponsible” to eliminate the federal debt ceiling, which is the maximum amount of money Washington can borrow by issuing bonds.

The comment came in response to a reporter’s question after Biden’s remarks on the economy turned into a blistering attack on what Republicans would do if they captured Congress in the midterm elections.

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As the country inches closer to Election Day, voters are homing in on issues that may decide the fate of Congress and several state governments in November.

The Washington Examiner is tracking which issues are on the top of voters’ minds as they prepare to head to the polls, particularly in key battleground states that could bring a shift in power to the federal government. Specifically, we’re tracking how voters are researching our top five issues — abortion, crime, education, inflation, and taxes — and how these interests fluctuate as we get closer to Election Day.

Click here to read the full story.

Buckeye State Senate hopeful Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) foreshadowed that he may make a habit of bucking his party should he win his bellwether Senate race.

A self-described “underdog,” Ryan was noncommittal about voting for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to be the top Democrat in the upper chamber and underscored that he would “be beholden to absolutely nobody” in the Senate.

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A Maryland school district had blocked visiting the Republican gubernatorial candidate’s website from its computers before fixing access on Thursday.

A student of Frederick County Public Schools had been working on a school assignment from home on a district-issued computer when the student discovered the website of Dan Cox, the Republican candidate running against Democrat Wes Moore, could not be accessed on the device. After being alerted to the issue, FCPS began to work on fixing it, according to Fox 45 News.

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The gloves are off in Georgia’s Senate race.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock broke his relative silence on allegations that Republican rival Herschel Walker paid a former girlfriend to have an abortion in a pair of scathing television ads that call out the football legend over his alleged hypocrisy on the topic as well as claims of domestic abuse.

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A day before departing his role as campaign manager for Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, Austin Durrer was reportedly arrested.

Durrer, 43, was taken into custody Tuesday for a second-degree misdemeanor assault charge following a domestic dispute at his Maryland home with the mother of his child, Jackie Whisman, NBC reported Friday. Crist’s campaign has replaced him with Sydney Throop, who did prior work on Crist’s congressional campaigns.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) released a new ad on Friday targeting the issue of crime as top Democratic leaders dismiss the issue ahead of the midterm elections.

“A safe walk home at night, a subway ride free of fear, a safer New York for every child — that’s what Kathy Hochul is working for as governor,” the ad says.

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BEND, Oregon — Christine Drazan, Oregon’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, joined the ranks of prominent Republicans vowing to fight an effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to require COVID-19 vaccine doses for young children.

“Yeah, I will be pushing back against that as governor,” she said in a Thursday interview with the Washington Examiner. “We’re not talking about eradicating measles. We are not talking about polio.”

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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) predicted that the 2022 midterm elections next month will only be “OK” for Republicans, instead of the “huge” success the party could have had.

Hogan said he is confident his party will win back the House of Representatives, but that the Senate was still too unpredictable. Hogan also predicted there would not be a major swing in the state gubernatorial races.

“It should be a huge year for Republicans. But we haven’t always nominated the strongest candidates for a general election,” Hogan told CBS News. “It could have been a bigger year, but I think it’s still going to be an OK year for Republicans.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) leadership PAC violated campaign finance rules, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Greene’s Save America Stop Socialism PAC disclosed “impermissible, excessive, and prohibited contributions” in its July quarterly report and had other financial filing discrepancies, the FEC said Wednesday in a letter to the PAC.

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Some former staffers of the late Rep. Don Young (R-AK) have endorsed Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola over her Republican challengers, former Gov. Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III.

Peltola won the special election to represent Alaska at-large shortly after Young’s death earlier this year, but she faces both Republican challengers in the general election in her bid for her first full term.

The staffers who reached across the political aisle to endorse Peltola have credited her commitment to running a positive race, her bipartisan approach to public service, and her legislative priorities that put Alaska at the forefront as worthy of their endorsements.

As the country inches closer to Election Day, voters are homing in on issues that may decide the fate of Congress and several state governments in November.

The Washington Examiner is tracking which issues are on the top of voters’ minds as they prepare to head to the polls, particularly in key battleground states that could bring a shift in power to the federal government. Specifically, we’re tracking how voters are researching our top five issues — abortion, crime, education, inflation, and taxes — and how these interests fluctuate as we get closer to Election Day.

Click here to read the full story.

As the country inches closer to Election Day, voters are homing in on issues that may decide the fate of Congress and several state governments in November.

The Washington Examiner is tracking which issues are on the top of voters’ minds as they prepare to head to the polls, particularly in key battleground states that could bring a shift in power to the federal government. Specifically, we’re tracking how voters are researching our top five issues — abortion, crime, education, inflation, and taxes — and how these interests fluctuate as we get closer to Election Day.

Click here to read the full story.

More than 60,000 residents in Virginia were sent to the wrong polling locations ahead of the midterm elections in November.

At least 30,000 people were sent to the wrong locations in northern Virginia after the incorrect address was printed on notices sent to voters, election officials said Friday. However, the error will not impact anyone’s ability to vote, and corrected notices will be sent to affected voters in Fairfax and Prince William counties on Monday.

Another 30,000 people faced a similar problem and were sent to the wrong locations in southern Virginia after notices went out to physical addresses that should have gone to P.O. boxes.

Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) campaign released a new tool Friday allowing voters to report suspected voter fraud via a portal on his website.

The portal is intended to ensure confidence in the voting system by giving voters a way to report suspicious activities or any action that is not consistent with state election laws. Using the portal, voters can submit images and files, share questions and concerns, and leave contact information so Johnson’s office can follow up.

The new portal also features a YouTube video that outlines what would disqualify someone from voting or what would otherwise cause a ballot to be invalid.

Registered voters near Houston can receive a free round-trip ride to the polls and back on Election Day, The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County announced.

To get the ride comped, voters will need to inform bus operators and fare inspectors that they are heading to or returning from the polls, according to a press release.

Free rides will be offered Oct. 24-30 for early voters and on Election Day, authorities said. The offer includes free rides on the METRORail, local buses, METRORapid, curb2curb, and METROLift paratransit services.

The Senate Leadership Fund is canceling $5.6 million in New Hampshire ads for Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc, the Super PAC’s spokesperson confirmed Friday.

“As the cycle comes to a close, we are shifting resources to where they can be most effective to achieve our ultimate goal — winning the majority,” SLF President Steven Law said in a statement.

Another $1.7 million in ad buy reservations were canceled by the organization in the Boston and Portland markets for Oct. 25-Nov. 8.

The House now ranges from +8 to +25 in favor of Republicans, according to polls from Inside Elections on Friday, with 13 House races shifting in favor of Republicans, including competitive races in New York and Oregon. Eight races moved in the Democrats’ favor including a pair of Michigan House races.

The Iowa Senate race has shifted from “solid Republican” to “likely Republican,” according to polls from Inside Elections on Friday.

Projections for the Senate overall still remain in a range of R+1 to D+1, but the House of Representatives is predicted to be flipped Republican.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) currently has an 11-point lead over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke among Texans likely to vote in next month’s midterm elections, according to a new poll.

In a University of Texas poll surveying 883 respondents, with a margin of error of +/- 3.3, taken from Oct. 7-17, 54% of respondents said they were going to vote for Abbott, with just 43% choosing Beto. Green Party candidate Delilah Barrios earned just 1% of the vote, while the Libertarian Party’s Mark Tippets earned 2%. Another 2% answered “someone else.”
The same poll found that Texans are most focused on border security (32%) and the state economy (14%), two areas where voters see Abbott as stronger. Abortion followed closely behind at 13%.

Among Republicans, 60% said their primary issue was border security/immigration, followed by the state economy at 18%. No other issue received more than 4% of votes.

Democrats’ priorities were much more split, led by abortion (26%), followed by gun violence (16%), the environment/climate change (13%), and healthcare (10%).

Republicans led Democrats in every other major midterm election in Texas as well.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s nonpartisan group One More Mission is attempting to recruit military veterans and police officers to monitor polls on Election Day.

Promotional materials for the organization claim veterans and law enforcement officers are the most trusted individuals in the United States and called the move an “apolitical solution” that would protect the voting process against voter fraud.

Despite its claim of being “nonpartisan” or “apolitical,” the organization is funded by the conservative group The America Project, which is run by Flynn, his brother, and former millionaire Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.

Early voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, are reporting that they experienced harassment from people watching a ballot box.

A voter filed a complaint with the Arizona secretary of state stating that he and his wife were placing their early ballots at a box in Mesa on Oct. 17 when watchers began to photograph them and follow them, calling them “mules,” per the Guardian.

“They took a photographs [sic] of our license plate and and of us and then followed us out the parking lot in one of their cars continuing to film,” the complaint said.

Arizona law states that people can only drop off ballots for people in their household, themselves, or people they are caring for.

The county’s website has live video surveillance of the ballot boxes. In a press conference on Wednesday, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said he is hearing election workers are also being approached and photographed as they head into work.

“They’re harassing people,” Gates said. “They’re not helping further the interests of democracy. If these people really want to be involved in the process, learn more about it, come be a poll worker or poll observer.”

Maricopa County has been under severe scrutiny since the 2020 election and was the center of former President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud. The state Senate spent months auditing the 2020 election in Maricopa County.

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate Josh Shapiro emphasized his Jewish faith in attacking his opponent, Doug Mastriano, for “extremism.”

Shapiro said his Jewish faith guides his value before quickly pivoting to accusing Mastriano of antisemitism due to the Republican’s suggestion that Shapiro was out of touch for sending his children to a private school. He also suggested Mastriano was an existential threat, adding he was afraid of what he represented if he won.

“I think it’s undeniable that he courts white supremacists and racists and antisemites,” Shapiro told the Washington Post. “It’s undeniable that he makes antisemitic comments, racist comments routinely, and that, you know, that forms a big part of his coalition.”

Residents of Delaware strongly back the legalization of marijuana, according to a new poll.

About 60% of registered voters in the Small Wonder state believe the psychoactive drug should be legal, surpassing the 30% of voters who believe it shouldn’t and 10% who are undecided, per a poll from the University of Delaware Center for Political Communication.

Support was highest among Democrats, with 73% ahead of independents at 70% and Republicans at 40%. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden, perhaps the state’s most famous resident, announced sweeping plans to pardon minor marijuana federal offenses.

President Joe Biden appeared lost and did not know where he was supposed to exit the stage after giving his speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Thursday.

Biden was departing the stage after giving remarks on infrastructure in the Keystone State, notably appearing alongside Senate candidate and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D-PA).

The appearance with the Senate candidate in what has become a toss-up race is a rarity for the president this midterm cycle, who has not campaigned as much as his predecessors, likely due to his unpopularity.

Mike Christy/AP

Democratic Arizona House nominee Kirsten Engel released a campaign ad featuring a former state representative who said he was “a lifelong Republican.” But Engel’s campaign failed to disclose that since 2013, the former “lifelong Republican” has donated almost exclusively to Democrats, including Engel, records show.

“I was a lifelong Republican,” said former Republican Arizona state House member Pete Hershberger in the Tuesday Engel campaign ad. “But every time I turn on the TV, it’s like, how did we get here? First, [Gov. Doug] Ducey, and now, this new bunch. They’re not just radical. They’re dangerous.”

Hershberger, who served in Arizona’s House between 2001 and 2008, has contributed about $27,500 between 2013 and 2022 to over a dozen Democratic candidates and causes, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by the Washington Examiner. This notably includes $50 to Engel’s campaign in 2021, filings show.

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Big Tech companies such as TikTok and Facebook struggled to remove political ads containing misinformation about the elections despite their promises to protect information sharing in the 2022 midterm elections.

TikTok failed to block all but two of 20 test ads filed by a research team, according to a report released on Friday by the nonprofit group Global Witness and the Cybersecurity for Democracy at New York University. The organization filed several ads presenting false information about the elections to see if the platforms would block them as their policies stated. Facebook and YouTube did significantly better but still platformed several misinformation ads.

“For years, we have seen key democratic processes undermined by disinformation, lies, and hate being spread on social media platforms — the companies themselves even claim to recognize the problem,” Jon Lloyd, a senior adviser at Global Witness, said in a statement. “But this research shows they are still simply not doing enough to stop threats to democracy surfacing on their platforms.”

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Jamie Valdez/AP

BEND, Oregon — Christine Drazan, Oregon’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, joined the ranks of prominent Republicans Thursday vowing to fight an effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to require COVID-19 vaccine doses for young children.

“Yeah, I will be pushing back against that as governor,” she said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “We’re not talking about eradicating measles. We are not talking about polio.”

Drazan’s comments came hours after the CDC voted to add COVID-19 vaccines to the list of immunizations considered standard for children attending school. A number of Republican governors, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, quickly pledged to block the measure.

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Chris O’Meara

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Charlie Crist has downplayed speculation his bid to become Florida‘s governor again is in turmoil after campaign manager Austin Durrer announced he was leaving the team to focus on a family matter.

“Not at all. Not at all,” Crist told reporters in Jacksonville, Florida, on Thursday after an appearance with Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison.

Crist, who gave up his Gulf Coast House seat near Tampa to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis, projected confidence about his chances despite polling an average between 8 and 10 percentage points behind the potential Republican 2024 presidential candidate.

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TAMPA, Florida — The Republican National Committee likes to underscore its “multimillion-dollar commitment” to organizing Latino and Hispanic voters through its community centers.

“Of our five community centers in Florida, three are designated for Hispanic outreach: Doral, Tampa, and Orlando,” an RNC spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner.

The Doral and Tampa centers, for instance, are currently instructing staff and volunteers on how to teach civics classes so permanent residents can become voting citizens by passing USCIS’ naturalization test.

“The main goal of the [Republican Civics Initiative] is to grow the Republican Party through education and engagement with those seeking full citizenship in the U.S.,” the RNC official said.

Nestled between an amateur theater company and a music store, the Tampa center, in Hillsborough County, is a simple, sparse white-walled space with a meeting table and function area.

Hillsborough County is “pretty competitive,” according to University of Central Florida politics professor Aubrey Jewett.

“But it’s beginning to lean perhaps a little Democratic over in the Tampa area,” the Politics in Florida author said.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is confident Republicans are on track to hold at least 52 seats in the Senate after the midterm elections, predicting the party has a chance to gain a 55-seat majority in November.

The comments from Scott, who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, mark a shift in confidence compared to other top Republicans in the Senate, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who conceded last month that the battle for control will be “really close either way.”

“It starts right here, we’re going to get 52 Republican senators, we have to win here,” Scott said during a campaign event with Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolina on Thursday. “I think we can get 53, 54, 55. The energy is on our side. People are fed up with the Biden agenda.”

Republicans have long had the upper hand throughout the midterm cycle because there are 19 Democratic-held seats that election forecasters have deemed vulnerable. But there are other races that could offer rare pickup opportunities for Democrats instead.

There are seven GOP incumbents who are considered to be in tight toss-up races in November, including Reps. David Schweikert (R-AZ), David Valadao (R-CA), Mike Garcia (R-CA), Don Bacon (R-NE), Yvette Herrell (R-NM), Steve Chabot (R-OH), and Mayra Flores (R-TX), according to ratings from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Of those, Republican operatives are most concerned about Valadao, Herrell, and Chabot.