Texas Weekly Online

Menu
Menu
Facebook Twitter Youtube

Author:

Montana Senate race, which could determine majority, seeing ‘intense ground game operation’: NRSC Chairman

Montana Senate race, which could determine majority, seeing ‘intense ground game operation’: NRSC Chairman

EXCLUSIVE: Montana’s U.S. Senate race has one of the most “intense” ground games of the 2024 cycle with the chamber majority hanging in the balance, according to the chairman of the Republican campaign arm.  Sen. Steve Daines is spearheading Republican efforts to take control of the Senate as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), with a heightened emphasis on ousting a three-term Democrat in red state Montana. Daines exclusively told Fox News Digital the Montana Senate race pitting Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy against three-term Democratic Sen. Jon Tester features one of the strongest ground game efforts from the GOP he has witnessed in the state. “I’ve watched a lot of Montana Senate races, House races, governor races over the years. This is the most intense ground game operation and the most far-reaching that I’ve seen in many election cycles,” Daines told Fox News Digital. “It’s a door-to-door type of persuasion, as well as a lot of phoning, a lot of digital. So, it’s a really strong ground game, knowing that I think well-run ground games win elections.” COLLEGE ATHLETES ARE BEING OFFERED THOUSANDS TO ENDORSE MONTANA SENATOR’S RE-ELECTION BID THROUGH NIL DEALS The New York Times recently reported that Sheehy is leading Tester by eight percentage points, but Daines emphasized that while the Republican candidate remains ahead in several polls, they are going to continue energizing their get-out-the-vote efforts until Election Day. “It’s a very aggressive, active time with just a little over 2½ weeks until the election focused on voter turnout and ground game operations, as well as continuing to have the sufficient resources,” Daines said. “Get the message out to those few undecided voters that are left, whether it’s through television, radio, digital mail. So, we’re not letting up. You keep working hard all the way until Election Day.” The Montana race figures to be the most expensive Senate race on a per-vote basis, which Daines attributes to its high stakes. “This is what secures the majority for the Republicans and takes the gavel out of Chuck Schumer’s hands,” he told Fox. “And that’s why there’s so much focused attention on this race.” In early September, two political forecasters shifted the Montana race from a toss-up to “leans Republican,” along with AARP and the NYT surveys showing the Republican leading the race against the three-term Democrat. A visit to Bozeman by former President Trump in August, who endorsed Sheehy earlier this year, contributed to the recent polling shift in the Republican candidate’s favor, according to the chairman. KEY SENATOR REPORTEDLY BEHIND HARRIS’ RISE IN POWER WITHHOLDS HIS ENDORSEMENT FOR PRESIDENT The electorate in Montana has shifted toward the GOP over the years, and Tester remains the only Democrat to hold a statewide office in the state. “I think what’s happened is Montana, in terms of their voting and their thinking, has moved a bit more. But the biggest problem for the Democrats is they’ve moved so far left. This is not the same Democrat Party that I grew up with here in Montana,” Daines said of the red wave in the state. Daines also highlighted the national implications of the Big Sky Senate race. “This race is bigger than Montana, because this race indeed will decide the future of the United States Supreme Court, the future of the circuit courts,” Daines said. “There’s also the Trump tax cuts that expire in ’25, which would be a massive tax increase for Montana’s small businesses.  “Jon Tester voted against that tax bill. I voted for it. Tim Sheehy would vote for that. So, there’s just a lot at stake, not only for Montana but for the nation. And, so, we here in Montana will probably be able to flip the majority control of the U.S. Senate with Tim Sheehy’s victory. And that has significant implications, not only for the great state of Montana, but for our great country.”  There are 34 Senate seats up for grabs this cycle, and Democrats are protecting 23 of them. The Senate majority stands at 51-50 with Democrats in the majority, meaning just a one seat flip could shift the majority to the Republican Party.

Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico launch early in-person voting

Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico launch early in-person voting

With a little more than two weeks until Election Day, Massachusetts, Nevada and New Mexico have each begun in-person early voting on Saturday. Here’s what you need to know if you’re casting a ballot in these states: Voting also begins today in several battleground House districts. For a full list of competitive races, see the latest Senate and House rankings. FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: HARRIS LOSES HER LEAD AND A NEW ELECTORATE EMERGES This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Massachusetts. Massachusetts has begun early voting. The deadline to turn in a mail-in application is 5 p.m. on the fifth business day before the election, which this year is Oct. 29. The secretary of state’s website encourages mail-in voters to submit their applications “as early as possible,” and at least two to three weeks before Election Day. Applications may be submitted online, by mail or by email or fax.  Ballots can be returned by mailing them back in the envelope provided, hand-delivering them to a local election office, dropping ballots off at an early voting location during early voting hours or using a ballot drop box. Ballots cannot be dropped off at a polling place on Election Day. Massachusetts permits all registered voters to cast their ballots early at designated voting sites. The early voting period begins Saturday and extends through Nov. 1.  The deadline to register to vote or change your party affiliation in Massachusetts is 10 days before any election or town meeting. The last day to register to vote in the Nov. 5 election is Oct. 26.  Voters can register online, by mail or in person.  Massachusetts automatically registers citizens to vote when they apply for or renew a driver’s license, apply for MassHealth benefits or seek health insurance through the Commonwealth Health Connector.  NEVADA SENATE HOPEFULS TACKLE TRANS ATHLETES, IMMIGRATION AND UFOS IN ONLY DEBATE This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Nevada.  Nevada has begun early voting. State law requires that all registered voters receive a ballot by mail. The period to receive a mail-in ballot is Oct. 16-22. Voters who do not receive their ballot in the mail should contact their local election office. Returned ballots by mail must be postmarked before Nov. 5. The deadline to return a mail ballot in person is 7 p.m. ET on Nov. 5.  Nevada counties offer early voting in-person beginning Saturday, continuing through Nov. 1. The deadline to register to vote by mail passed on Oct. 8. Those who wish to register to vote online must do so before Oct. 23. Nevada has same-day in-person voter registration. Those who wish to register and vote on Election Day must present a valid Nevada driver’s license or Nevada ID card and must vote in-person at a polling location.  PRO-DEFUND POLICE DEM IN KEY RACE ONCE THREATENED TO ‘KILL’ AND ‘BURY’ MAN OVER THE PHONE: POLICE RECORDS This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for New Mexico. New Mexico has begun early voting. Voters may request an absentee ballot or vote in person at their local County Clerk’s office or an early voting location before Election Day, according to the secretary of state’s website. No excuse is required to vote absentee. Voters must request an absentee ballot by Oct. 22. The deadline to return a requested ballot is 7 p.m. ET on Nov. 5.  Voters have been able to cast their ballots in-person early at their local polling place since Oct. 8 and may continue to do so until Nov. 2. The deadline to register to vote is 28 days prior to an election. It passed on Oct. 8.  Same-day voter registration is available in New Mexico. Any eligible voter in New Mexico can register to vote or update their voter registration and then vote on the same day at their County Clerk’s office or at any polling location in their county on Election Day and participating Early Voting locations.   To register and vote on the same day, voters must present a valid New Mexico driver’s license or New Mexico identification card. Alternatively, voters may present a document that contains an address in the county together with a photo identification card.  Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Trump teases he will ‘do everything’ while working behind McDonald’s counter in crucial swing state

Trump teases he will ‘do everything’ while working behind McDonald’s counter in crucial swing state

Former President Trump is making an unusual campaign stop this weekend in battleground Pennsylvania. The Republican presidential nominee will be behind the counter working the fry cooker at a McDonald’s restaurant in the Philadelphia area. “A friend of mine owns a McDonald’s someplace,” Trump said Friday in an extended interview on “Fox and Friends” when asked about his weekend plans for manning the fry station at the fast-food institution.  “Oh, I’m going. I’m going to do everything.” CRUNCH TIME: HARRIS TEAMING UP WITH OBAMAS NEXT WEEK ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL With 2½ weeks to go until Election Day, Trump remains locked in a tight presidential race with Vice President Kamala Harris.  And Trump continues to claim Harris never worked at McDonald’s. CAMPAIGN BATTLE BETWEEN THE BILLIONAIRES: MARK CUBAN AND ELON MUSK HIT THE TRAIL FOR HARRIS AND TRUMP As Harris campaigns to succeed President Biden in the White House, she has spotlighted her middle-class upbringing and her time working at McDonald’s while studying for her undergraduate degree in the 1980s, contrasting Trump’s wealthy upbringing. “I have” [worked at McDonald’s], Harris said in an MSNBC interview last month. “Part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald’s is because there are people who work at McDonald’s in our country who are trying to raise a family,” she added. “I worked there as a student. “I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility, then, is to meet those needs.” But Trump claims she’s not telling the truth. “I’m going because she lied,” Trump said in his “Fox and Friends” interview. “You don’t think she ever worked in McDonald’s?” co-host Brian Kilmeade asked. “I know she didn’t. We checked it out,” Trump said. “They said she never worked here.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Trump: ‘I’m gonna do everything’ as he works behind a McDonald’s counter this weekend

Trump: ‘I’m gonna do everything’ as he works behind a McDonald’s counter this weekend

Former President Trump is making an unusual campaign stop this weekend in battleground Pennsylvania. The Republican presidential nominee will be behind the counter working the fry cooker at a McDonald’s restaurant in the Philadelphia area. “A friend of mine owns a McDonald’s someplace,” Trump said Friday in an extended interview on “Fox and Friends” when asked about his weekend plans for manning the fry station at the fast-food institution.  “Oh, I’m going. I’m going to do everything.” CRUNCH TIME: HARRIS TEAMING UP WITH OBAMAS NEXT WEEK ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL With 2½ weeks to go until Election Day, Trump remains locked in a tight presidential race with Vice President Kamala Harris.  And Trump continues to claim Harris never worked at McDonald’s. CAMPAIGN BATTLE BETWEEN THE BILLIONAIRES: MARK CUBAN AND ELON MUSK HIT THE TRAIL FOR HARRIS AND TRUMP As Harris campaigns to succeed President Biden in the White House, she has spotlighted her middle-class upbringing and her time working at McDonald’s while studying for her undergraduate degree in the 1980s, contrasting Trump’s wealthy upbringing. “I have” [worked at McDonald’s], Harris said in an MSNBC interview last month. “Part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald’s is because there are people who work at McDonald’s in our country who are trying to raise a family,” she added. “I worked there as a student. “I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility, then, is to meet those needs.” But Trump claims she’s not telling the truth. “I’m going because she lied,” Trump said in his “Fox and Friends” interview. “You don’t think she ever worked in McDonald’s?” co-host Brian Kilmeade asked. “I know she didn’t. We checked it out,” Trump said. “They said she never worked here.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Swing-state college students largely support Harris but acknowledge ‘razor-thin’ margin with Trump

Swing-state college students largely support Harris but acknowledge ‘razor-thin’ margin with Trump

Students at one major Pennsylvania university in a “swing” area of the commonwealth were bullish on Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances in November but acknowledged the race remains tight. Fox News Digital visited Lehigh University, a prominent private college in Bethlehem, with such famous alumni as Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, businessman and NASCAR team owner Roger Penske and top Trump confidante Alina Habba. The Philadelphia Eagles once held training camp at Lehigh’s Murray Goodman athletic campus on the other side of South Mountain. Along Packer Avenue in the middle of the main campus, Jack Ciavolella of the Lehigh University College Democrats was staffing a Democrats table Tuesday with other students and a volunteer from the Harris-Walz campaign. KEY PA REGION SEES ‘WAITLIST’ FOR TRUMP SIGNS AS LAWMAKER SAYS VOTERS ARE READY TO REVERSE DEM POLICIES A colorful totem pole of campaign signs stood waving in the wind next to the table for Harris, Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa.; Eugene DePasquale, a candidate for attorney general; and State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-North Philadelphia, a candidate for auditor general. “Since Northampton County is a swing county in a swing state — and probably one of the most important states in the Union — we kind of got to do our part,” Ciavolella said. “So that’s what I’m here for.” He added that as Election Day draws nearer, the campaigns are increasingly becoming a topic on campus, whether from Trump-supporting students, independents or those who agree with Ciavolella’s group. Fox News Digital reached out to the College Republicans via an email listed on the campus website but did not receive a response. “A lot more people are starting to get interested about it, about how the election’s coming and its razor-thin margins,” Ciavolella said. “So, people start to get a lot more interested in things like this.” Students are more engaged in politics this term than they have been in recent years, he said. INSIDE DEMOCRATS’ GROUND GAME IN PENNSYLVANIA’S ‘SWING’ LEHIGH VALLEY AREA As Fox News Digital conversed with other students walking down the mountainside campus from Sayre Park, none who stopped identified as Trump supporters. Ciavolella said his group has been more visible as the deadline for voter registration approaches. In the nearby vestibule of a campus coffee shop, a volunteer for a nonpartisan voter registration group was indeed trying to do just that. Lehigh is not unlike other schools in Pennsylvania, like Penn State, where students often register to vote on campus rather than in their out-of-state hometowns. That dynamic has made Centre County, where State College is located, into a swing county in national elections. Meanwhile, Eric Cepeda from New York said he is registered to vote on campus at Lehigh and said equality and community issues are most important to him this cycle. Tuition costs are also top of mind for him these days, he said, adding Lehigh has been helpful to students who need assistance and that Harris is the better candidate to address college affordability. HAMILTON COLLEGE STUDENT ADMITS TO POSTING ‘ANTISEMITIC REMARKS’ ON CAMPUS, NEW YORK STATE POLICE SAY Ethan, a student from New Jersey, said abortion and student loans are major issues for him this election. “Just, morally, how people are going to handle being in charge of the country and in charge of people,” he said. “I’ve seen people from both sides.” Political advertising has also been very noticeable in the area as of late, he added, crediting Pennsylvania’s “swing state” position for that increase. “Personally, I like to do my own research and not get, you know, swayed by the opinions of others,” he added. POPULAR PA DEMOCRATIC MAYOR WARNS TRUMP IS ‘OUT-MESSAGING’ HARRIS: I GET MORE FROM STEPHEN COLBERT Looking down toward the rest of Bethlehem, the roof of the historic “Hotel B” stuck out next to the busy Hill-to-Hill Bridge, as the rusted, long-silenced blast furnaces from Bethlehem Steel lined the near bank of the Lehigh River below. Noticeably absent from the city’s skyline, however, was Martin Tower, the blue and silver cruciform-shaped skyscraper north of Center City that once housed Bethlehem Steel’s headquarters. The site, which also hosted a Durkee spice factory, is being redeveloped, a theme throughout much of the Lehigh Valley. Down at the end of campus closest to the steel stacks, Mina Handelsman of California and Sophia Ross of Washington, D.C., were waiting for a campus shuttle that runs to Lehigh’s nearby Mountaintop and Goodman campuses. Both political science majors said abortion rights are a big issue for them, adding there are several important subjects that come to mind. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I also think plans for both the national debt and student college debt [are important],” Handelsman said. “Student loan programs: I agree,” added Ross. “What I think is really important and then also some economic issues. And I think some of the immigration policy is pretty interesting.” The students said they are both enrolled in classes that deal with elections and politics.  “[W]e don’t hear a lot of discord or disagreement [on campus],” Ross said, adding it is important to get registered to vote either way. Handelsman said she predicts Harris will win Pennsylvania but have a tougher time in other swing states. “In Pennsylvania, young people are really being mobilized to get out the vote. And I think that as the younger generation, a lot of us, our issues are being more represented by Kamala Harris.” “I’m guessing it will be Kamala Harris, but I really don’t know,” Ross added. The Lehigh Valley is also home to several other schools, including DeSales University in Center Valley, Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Lafayette College in Easton and Moravian University in Bethlehem, where students’ votes weigh heavily in the swing area.