Page 3 – Texas Weekly Online

‘Suspicious envelope’ sent to Kari Lake’s office deemed safe after lockdown, police say

The office of Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake was put on lockdown Tuesday after a campaign staffer opened a package with a “suspicious” substance. A campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital that an intern at the campaign’s Phoenix office opened an envelope with a suspicious substance and a note that said, “caution anthrax.” CONTENTIOUS EXCHANGES OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FRONT AND CENTER IN ARIZONA SENATE DEBATE The campaign called authorities, prompting a response from multiple law enforcement agencies and a hazmat team. Officers and firefighters cleared the building and sent in a team to investigate the substance. The Phoenix Police Department said the substance was tested and deemed “non-hazardous.” “There were no immediate threats to the community and the occupants of the building will be allowed access shortly. Investigators have been assigned,” Phoenix police told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The radical left, with help from the mainstream media, has escalated its attacks against me from baseless smears and legal harassment to physical threats. Today, my office received a suspicious envelope, potentially containing anthrax — an attempt to intimidate and silence me,” Lake said in a statement. “This isn’t just about me; it’s an attack on our movement. I won’t be intimidated, and those responsible must be brought to justice. The time to unite against these dangerous, un-American tactics is now.” Lake’s Democratic opponent, Ruben Gallego wrote on X: “I condemn any act of violence of threats against Kari Lake, her office, or other public officials.” “My thoughts are with the staffer involved, and I’m grateful for the swift response by @PhoenixPolice, @PHXFire, and the hazmat team,” he said. “I hope everything is resolved safely and quickly.”

Kari Lake’s office on lockdown after campaign staffer opened envelope with ‘suspicious’ substance inside

McConnell, GOP descend on Nebraska to save Deb Fischer’s endangered Senate seat

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other Republicans are coming to the rescue of Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who faces a legitimate threat to her re-election from independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn, a union leader and mechanic. Millions of dollars have been poured into Fischer’s Nebraska Senate race in the last month as Republicans look to prevent an upset that could hurt their chances of taking the upper chamber’s majority. The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund recently launched a $3 million ad buy in the state to shore up the Nebraska Republican’s support. TOP REPUBLICANS ACCUSE FTC CHAIR OF HATCH ACT VIOLATIONS OVER ‘CAMPAIGN-STYLE EVENTS’ WITH DEMS “California and New York Democrats are putting crazy money into Dan Osborn’s campaign. They’re not going to succeed, especially as Nebraska voters learn about Osborn’s Democrat ties and Bernie Sanders’ ideology. We’re just closing the gap a bit,” Senate Leadership Fund President and CEO Steven Law said in a statement. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has also gotten involved, putting more than $500,000 into ad reservations as of the beginning of October, according to AdImpact. Additionally, Fischer is getting help from well-known top Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in neighboring Iowa. In a new radio ad, he tells voters, “This is your neighbor Chuck Grassley,” adding, “my friend Deb Fischer needs your vote.” PENNSYLVANIA SENATE RACE LABELED ‘TOSS UP’ IN LAST-MINUTE SHIFT BY TOP HANDICAPPER Grassley’s radio ad in Nebraska went out over the airwaves last week and will run through Election Day. The Iowa senator’s five-figure ad buy covers 90% of the state, according to a source familiar with his political operation. The ad is on both FM and AM radio and plays during the University of Nebraska’s football games to reach farmers, families and football fans. Osborn’s popularity in Nebraska has appeared to take the Fischer campaign by surprise, given the seeming last-minute efforts to fortify her support. It’s frequently difficult for independent candidates to gain traction, especially against an incumbent. However, without a Democratic candidate nominated in the Senate race, Osborn has a much larger pool of potential voters. SCHUMER-TIED GROUP DROPS MILLIONS AGAINST TED CRUZ AS DEMS EYE PICKUP OPPORTUNITY IN TEXAS Republicans are heavily favored to regain the Senate majority in the next Congress, with expected gains in both West Virginia and Montana, as well as several other competitive races that could build a larger advantage for the GOP over Democrats in the upper chamber. However, those expectations rely on incumbents in relatively safe races winning their re-election matches. Fischer’s Senate race has been shifted away from Republicans by top political handicapper the Cook Political Report two times in the past month, indicating a quickly tightening battle. GOP CHALLENGER TIES SEN BALDWIN’S REMARK ABOUT TRUMP VOTERS TO CLINTON’S INFAMOUS ‘DEPLORABLES’ MOMENT In the most recent rating shift by Cook, the race is considered “Lean Republican,” putting it in the same category as Sen. Ted Cruz’s re-election bid in Texas against Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas. Osborn has criticized Fischer in ads as being beholden to lobbyists and special interest groups that have donated to her, likening her to a race car driver with sponsors on her jacket. The independent candidate has claimed he would not caucus with Democrats or Republicans in the Senate if elected. Osborn has faced some controversy during his campaign, with revelations that groups backing him heavily in the election are funded in part by a dark money group that has received tens of millions in grants from billionaire George Soros’ group, the Open Society Foundations. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Harris aide walks back promise not to support new drilling

Vice President Kamala Harris’ top campaign climate adviser is walking back comments she made last week that Harris would not support an expansion of fossil fuel drilling as president. “I didn’t explain myself clearly,” Camila Thorndike, Harris’ climate engagement director, said in a post on X Monday. “Contrary to Trump’s claims, the VP has not banned fracking, doesn’t support banning fracking, and in fact cast the tie-breaking vote on the biggest pro-climate law ever, which, yes, opened new fracking leases.” The comments come after Thorndike said in an interview with Politico last week that the vice president would not “promote” new fossil fuel drilling, comments that raised eyebrows as Harris has tried to alleviate fears over her previous positions on fracking. HARRIS WON’T SUPPORT EXPANDING FOSSIL FUEL DRILLING, CAMPAIGN SAYS “Just to be clear, Vice President Harris hasn’t said anything that the administration hasn’t already said. She is not promoting expansion [of fossil fuel drilling]. She’s just said that they wouldn’t ban fracking,” Thorndike said. Harris has faced continued pressure to clarify her stance on energy production over the last few months, most notably in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where support for fracking is high. But Thorndike’s comments seemed to go against Harris’ new theme on the trail, which has included boasting that the “largest increase in domestic oil production in history” happened during her time as vice president. HARRIS TOUTS OIL PRODUCTION DURING 2024 RUN AFTER SAYING COMPANIES NEED TO ‘PAY THE PRICE’ FOR CLIMATE CHANGE “We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over rely on foreign oil,” Harris said during a debate with former President Trump in Pennsylvania. “I am proud that as vice president over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels,” Harris said. The campaign’s evolving position has drawn the scorn of proponents of fossil fuel production, with the U.S. Oil & Gas Association taking to social media after Thorndike’s initial comments and accusing the vice president of making a “change in her prior, prior, position.” “So Harris’s new position in Oct is she now opposes fracking and no longer supports her position in July when she changed her position to support fracking, which was subsequently a change in her prior, prior position of June, which was to oppose fracking? Got it,” the organization said. The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

High-profile Trump surrogate casts ballot for former president in early voting

Fox News Exclusive – Republican Sen. Tim Scott, a top surrogate for former President Trump, made a pitch for Republicans to embrace early voting as he cast his own ballot on Tuesday in his home state of South Carolina. “Donald Trump is for early voting. I’m for early voting. Every Republican should be for early voting. So let’s just go do it, and that’s what I’m doing today,” the senator said in an exclusive national news outlet interview with Fox News Digital before casting his ballot. Scott emphasized that “we’re going to continue to see more Republicans vote early, vote often, and take advantage of every option on the table to vote.” The former president was a very vocal early voting critic, blaming it in part for what he has repeatedly claimed – without offering proof – was massive fraud that led to his 2020 election defeat at the hands of President Biden. CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS 2024 ELECTION POWER RANKINGS As he runs to win back the White House this cycle, Trump has sent mixed messages on early voting, even as the Republican National Committee and the GOP have worked hard the past year to encourage Republicans to embrace the practice of casting their ballots before Election Day. But in recent weeks, Trump apparently has listened to his advisers as he’s implored Republicans to vote early. And while Democrats still have the clear edge when it comes to early voting, Republicans appear to be narrowing the gap. Asked about whether Trump has helped or hurt the GOP effort, Scott emphasized that “this cycle the president has been crystal clear. He wants every Republican voting every single way they can. We’re going to make sure we win this election, and I’m glad that President Trump and I are on the same page once again.” States vastly expanded early voting – by absentee ballot, voting by mail or early in-person voting – during the 2020 election, due to health concerns amid the coronavirus, the worst pandemic to strike the globe in a century. And four years later, most states have similar rules. Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, last year launched an unsuccessful bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. After ending his White House bid, Scott endorsed Trump in January at a campaign event in New Hampshire, ahead of the state’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary. And Scott became a leading surrogate for the former president. Scott was also considered to be among a handful of politicians in contention as Trump’s running mate, before the former president named Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his junior partner on the GOP national ticket. The conservative senator, who remains a very popular figure in the GOP, is also known for his fundraising prowess, and has helped raise money for Trump as well as for Republican Senate candidates, as the GOP works to win back the chamber’s majority in the 2024 elections. Asked about his campaign efforts in the final two weeks leading up to Election Day, Scott said he’ll be campaigning in key battleground states – including Pennsylvania and Michigan – for Trump and Republican Senate candidates. “I’ll be talking about President Trump and four more years and why that matters and in addition to that, I’ll be talking about the importance of winning the Senate, and I’m excited about where we are,” he emphasized. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

‘It’s a mess’: Vulnerable House Dem shreds Biden on border crisis in ‘closing message’ of campaign

A House Democratic incumbent running in a tight race is touting his agreement with Republicans about President Biden’s responsibility on the border crisis. Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., released a new ad his campaign called his “closing message” emphasizing his willingness to break from his own party. “My first commander in the Army always said, ‘You’re not doing your job right if you don’t piss a few people off.’ I guess you could say I took his advice,” Ryan began in the minute-long clip. “Even my own party — when I stood with Republicans and demanded Biden take action to secure our border. It’s a mess. He needs to clean it up.” CLUB FOR GROWTH POURS $5M INTO TIGHT HOUSE RACES AS GOP BRACES FOR TOUGH ELECTION He then accused Republicans, including his opponent Alison Esposito, of walking in lock-step with former President Donald Trump. “Their loyalty is to big donors and Trump. The only flag I pledge allegiance to is the one I wore on my shoulder in combat,” Ryan said. Esposito campaign manager Ben Weiner blasted Ryan in response, “Pat Ryan has been an open-border, pro-sanctuary proponent his entire career.” “This is a lame attempt from Pat Ryan to run away from his pro-illegal migrant record two weeks before an election. Pat Ryan is wrong on all the issues. He has voted against lifting the SALT Cap, supports the radical Green New Deal, and thinks New Yorkers will not recognize that he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Hudson Valley voters know the real Sanctuary Pat and won’t be fooled,” Weiner told Fox News Digital. Weiner also pointed out that Ryan signed an order in 2019 as Ulster County executive stopping local agencies from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’ New York’s 18th Congressional District includes part of New York City’s northern suburbs and is anchored by the city of Poughkeepsie. It also includes West Point Military Academy, Ryan’s own alma mater. Republicans, whose 2022 House majority win was driven by victories in the Big Apple’s suburbs, have eyed Ryan’s seat as a prime pickup opportunity. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates his seat D+2. Esposito is a 25-year veteran of the New York Police Department (NYPD). Her own campaign emphasized the border in a recent ad warning her district is “paying the price of an open border.” “DC politicians are funding illegal immigrants. Who’s fighting for us?” she asked. FORMER REPUBLICAN US SENATOR ENDORSES KAMALA HARRIS, SAYS ELECTION OFFERS ‘STARK CHOICE’ Her campaign also created a website using the “Sanctuary Pat” label to point out Ryan taking softer stances on the border in the past. But the issue has become a political lightening rod in this election. What’s long been a hot-button issue for Republicans has now become a metric of moderation for Democrats who are working to appeal to middle-ground voters. The paradigm shift shows the effects the border crisis has had on cities and towns throughout the country, with apprehensions between ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border hitting record levels under the Biden administration. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Harris claims Trump win would be ‘catastrophic’ for Social Security, but first term tells different tale

Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Trump’s proposal to eliminate income taxes on Social Security benefits during a campaign stop on Monday, citing a nonpartisan budget report that claimed Trump’s plan would “dramatically worsen Social Security’s finances.” The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonpartisan policy think tank, published a report Monday claiming Trump’s plans to “eliminate taxation of Social Security benefits, end taxes on tips and overtime, impose tariffs, and expand deportations would all widen Social Security’s cash deficits.” “What I think most of us know is that we have many, many seniors in our country, their Social Security check is their only form of income,” Harris said during a campaign stop in Michigan Monday. “It’s everything and the only thing they have to live on: to pay rent, groceries, all of that. So we must protect Social Security.” MOST US ADULTS WORRY ABOUT FUTURE OF MEDICARE, SOCIAL SECURITY, GALLUP POLL FINDS: ‘MAGNITUDE OF CONCERN’ If elected, the policy think tank also found that Social Security’s cash shortfall could increase by $2.3 trillion through 2035. This change would push the program’s insolvency date up from 2034 to 2031, meaning the next president will need to deal with this issue sooner than expected. If these changes happen, people could face a 33% cut in their benefits by 2035, compared to a 23% cut projected earlier, the report noted. Additionally, the annual shortfall is expected to rise by about 50% in 2035, going from 3.6% to 4% of payroll. To fix the long-term funding issues for Social Security, the report suggests there would either need to be benefit cuts by one-third or revenue increases of about 50%. But a former Trump administration adviser who worked on Social Security policy told Fox News Digital in an interview that “what the Biden Harris folks are doing to mismanage the agency is bleeding money in over payments.” ‘THE VIEW’ CO-HOSTS ANGRILY SUGGEST BIDEN DOESN’T NEED TO ‘LOWER HIMSELF’ TO DEBATE TRUMP “And now sort of waving everyone’s over payment, as what [Commissioner Martin O’Malley] is doing, I think is a lot more reckless and doing a lot more harm to the trust fund than proposing even these ideas,” the source said. “Obviously every candidate is going to be very afraid to touch it,” he added. “But what I will also say, and I actually helped work on some of these, is that Trump did propose tens of billions of dollars in savings in the Social Security Program generally in his first two budgets. And he did that not by going after seniors, but he did that by trying to modernize disability. And you know, that doesn’t necessarily help the trust fund issue real largely, but it does help sort of fix the Disability Trust Fund and start to bring some of the finances under control a little bit.” Harris later told CNN she believed Trump was “hostile” toward the “notion and purpose of Social Security” and that it would be “catastrophic” if the SS trust fund was insolvent in the next few years. Meanwhile, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in an emailed response: “President Trump delivered on his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare in his first term, and President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term. The only candidate who poses a threat to the solvency of Social Security is dangerously liberal Kamala Harris – whose mass invasion of millions of illegal aliens will, if they are allowed to stay, cause Social Security to buckle and collapse. By unleashing American energy, slashing job-killing regulations, and adopting pro-growth America First tax and trade policies, President Trump will quickly rebuild the greatest economy in history and put Social Security on a stronger footing for generations to come, all the while eliminating taxes on Social Security for America’s well-deserving seniors.” FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: VOTER OUTREACH, BALLOT EFFICIENCY AND A LITTLE HOUSEKEEPING The annual Social Security trustees’ report over the summer said the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund is on track to reach insolvency in 2033, at which point benefits would be cut by 21%. The U.S. has an aging population, more than 67 million of whom receive Social Security benefits. And the older an American is, the more likely they are to vote, so many politicians shy away from discussing reforms of the program at all. But if no reforms are made, the same Americans who receive Social Security benefits now – particularly those who rely on the benefits – face a significant threat to their income come 2033. Fox Business’s Breck Dumas contributed to this report.

More than 1 in 4 voters already cast ballots as key swing state smashes records

More than 1 in 4 Georgia voters have cast ballots in the 2024 presidential election so far. The Peach State has been smashing pre-Election Day turnout records and is expected to be a critical factor in the White House contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1.8 million of Georgia’s some 7.2 million active voters cast absentee or early in-person ballots, or 25.2%. ‘ILLEGAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND VOID’: GEORGIA JUDGE STRIKES DOWN NEW ELECTION RULES AFTER LEGAL FIGHTS “Another milestone reached,” Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, wrote on X. “At 1:30, 25.2% of active voters in Georgia have cast their ballots. That is more than 1 in 4 voters, with 9 more mandatory days of Early Voting to go. These are amazing numbers. Congratulations to our counties for their work and voters for theirs.” Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have poured enormous time and resources into Georgia, a state President Biden won by less than 1% in 2020. GEORGIA GOP CHAIR SHARES 2-PRONGED ELECTION STRATEGY AS TRUMP WORKS TO WIN BACK PEACH STATE On the first day of early voting alone, Georgians cast more than 313,000 in-person ballots. That was 123% higher than the previous Day 1 record, according to Sterling. And the single-day vote total on Sunday wound up being nearly twice the number seen on the first Sunday of early in-person voting in 2022. White voters made up the largest share of that total so far, followed by Black voters. Georgia women also slightly outnumbered men in the pre-Election Day tally by 55.3% to 44.4%. FORMER REPUBLICAN US SENATOR ENDORSES KAMALA HARRIS, SAYS ELECTION OFFERS ‘STARK CHOICE’ Both presidential candidates will also be in Georgia this week. Harris will be in Atlanta on Thursday alongside former President Barack Obama, while Trump will participate in multiple events on Wednesday. The former president will partake in a religious event in rural Georgia on Wednesday, according to WRBL, followed by an evening rally in Duluth. Georgia has seen surging early voter numbers but is not the only state breaking records — both North Carolina and South Carolina broke their previous Day 1 thresholds, according to local reports.

‘I love you’: Longtime Harris ally has been friends with CCP group’s top exec for over a decade

FIRST ON FOX: A decades-long friend and mentee of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for Congress in California, has been friends with a top executive of a CCP front group for over a decade, a Fox News Digital review found. In early 2022, a year before James Chau became the president of the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), he wrote on Twitter, “Belated best wishes to my friend and sister [Lateefah Simon] as she builds on her years is [sic] service [Akonadi Foundation] to lead Meadow Fund.” “These are complex times — yet also times in which skill and compassion count even more,” he continued. “Looking forward to seeing the deep impact of your work.” Simon, who is currently running for Rep. Barbara Lee’s House seat and was a key speaker at the 2024 DNC convention on behalf of Harris, responded, “I love you James. Hong Kong this summer!” CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS CONSULTANT PAID LAVISHLY TO TARGET HBCUS ON BEHALF OF A CCP GROUP “You have the freehold on my heart,” he responded. In another social media post, Chau posted a picture of what appears to be an art exhibit of a tree with dozens of leaves and a caption that reads, “What are you THANKFUL for?” Chau said the tree is “not large enough” and tagged Simon, prompting her to respond with a red heart emoji. The two Twitter exchanges, along with several other social media posts from Chau, came at a time when Chau was already actively working for CUSEF. Chau “joined CUSEF in 2018” and was “working with its founder The Hon. Tung Chee-hwa” before he became the group’s president in 2023, according to his CUSEF bio. Fox News Digital has extensively reported on Tung Chee-hwa, who served as a vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a key part of the CCP’s united front system, which operates to advance the CCP’s interests at home and abroad. UNEARTHED REPORT REVEALS POWERFUL HARRIS ALLY ‘WILLING TO SHARE’ RESOURCES FROM BLACK BUSINESSES WITH CCP One report details how Julia Wilson, a Black public relations consultant, was paid over $1 million by Chee-hwa’s CUSEF to help the Chinese government learn about Black Americans and gain influence with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Black leaders. “In 2009, the former chief executive of Hong Kong [Tung Chee-hwa] visited me in my office with his staff from the China-United States Exchange Foundation, and they wanted to know how we got a Black president,” Wilson, whose office is across the street from the White House, told college students during a 2017 presentation. “They were saying, ‘We don’t know anything about Black people. So can you write us a white paper and share it with us? How did Black people get enough power to vote a Black man into office?’ So they really needed an overview of our history. Who are we? Who are African Americans?” CUSEF’s most recent annual report, which was published in July, reveals how the “independent, non-profit and non-governmental foundation” is heavily influenced by the CCP, ranging from advisers and partners to donors. One of the top partners of CUSEF is the People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, which was previously labeled as a “Beijing-based organization tasked with co-opting subnational governments” and seeking to “directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRC’s global agenda,” according to a 2022 report from the Biden administration’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Another partner on CUSEF’s annual report is the China Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an instrumental part of the CCP’s apparatus that regularly coordinates with top CCP branches and leaders, according to its website. Other partners include top Chinese and American universities like Princeton, Georgetown, Harvard and Columbia. Sidwell Friends School, the elite boarding school where former President Obama’s daughters and President Biden’s grandchildren attended, was also on the list. FORMER AIDE TO NEW YORK GOV. HOCHUL, WHO IS ACCUSED OF BEING CHINESE SPY, WENT ON A TOUR OF THE WHITE HOUSE Several of CUSEF’s donors, which include Chinese billionaires, also have CCP ties. Wang Jianlin, the billionaire chairman of the Wanda Group, is a CCP member, and served in the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. He is also a longtime member of the CPPCC. Bernard Chan, another donor listed in CUSEF’s annual report, appears to be the same Bernard Chan who served as the Hong Kong Deputy to the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, the highest organ of state power in the CCP, for 15 years. Multiple members of CUSEF’s governing board also have CCP ties, including Peter Woo, who is currently a member of the Standing Committee of the 11th CPPCC. Liu Changle, the founder of the Chinese state-owned Phoenix Satellite Television, also has several CCP ties, according to CUSEF’s website. Chau, who was previously an anchor for China’s state-owned China Central Television (CCTV), has posted about Tung several times on his X account and has interviewed him multiple times. In 2017, while serving as a contributor for China’s state-owned CGTN, Chau sat down for an interview with Tung and discussed U.S.-China relations. A year later, he started working with Tung at CUSEF. Earlier this summer at the DNC, Simon reflected on her longtime friendship with Harris, including her experience working alongside her in the early 2000s. “When she sees you, she truly sees you,” Simon said in August at the 2024 DNC. “She is the best among us. After working with Kamala Harris day in and day out for five years to create programs that supported young people to get out of the criminal justice system once and for all with good jobs, with opportunity, she wanted to get to the root cause of a broken criminal justice system.” Chau and Simon met in San Francisco in 2008 while working to combat HIV and have been friends over the years, including connecting over her husband and Chau’s father both passing

Key battleground state voter registration data shows influential shifts favoring GOP

The Democratic Party is losing its edge over the GOP in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, with Democrats changing their party affiliation at more than twice the rate of Republicans, according to state data released after voter registration ended Monday evening. A total of 9,088,583 registered voters were tallied across the state when the sign-up period ended at midnight on Monday. Registered Democrats maintained a lead over registered Republicans, at 3,971,607 registered Democrats to the GOP’s 3,673,783. More than 1.4 million voters are registered as third-party or independent voters in the Keystone State. Though the Democratic Party accounts for nearly 44% of registered voters compared to the GOP’s 40%, it has seen its advantage over Republicans dwindle this year. BIDEN’S OLD BACKYARD NOW A KEY PENNSYLVANIA BATTLEGROUND FILLED WITH ‘PURPLE’ VOTES In 2020, there were 9,090,962 registered voters across the parties in Pennsylvania, only slightly more than the 9,088,583 voters registered this cycle. President Biden won the state in 2020 by 1.17 percentage points. That year, Democrats had a larger margin of registered voters compared to their Republican counterparts, at 4.2 million to 3.5 million. The data show that Democrats had a registration advantage over Republicans by 685,818 voters during an election Biden won by 80,555 votes. The GOP has whittled down that lead this year to a 297,824 margin. When comparing registered voters this election year to 2020, Democrats face a net loss of 257,281 voters, while Republicans have a net gain of 428,537 registered voters. ‘BLUE WALL’ DEMOCRAT ALIGNS WITH TRUMP IN NEW PITCH TO VOTERS BEFORE ELECTION More than double the number of previously registered Democrats changed their party affiliation this cycle compared to the number of registered Republicans who left the party: 54,668 registered Democrats changed their party affiliation compared to 25,634 Republicans, Pennsylvania Department of State data shows. The data is broken down by county, with Philadelphia notably reporting 18,928 Democrats changed their party affiliation compared to just 3,401 Republicans doing the same. Bucks County, which sits outside of the City of Brotherly Love, reported 2,089 Democrats changed their party affiliation compared to 1,624 Republicans. In Allegheny County, home to the state’s second-largest city of Pittsburgh, 6,564 Democrats changed their party affiliation while 2,202 Republicans did the same. The registered voter data comes after reports surfaced that concerns were mounting within the Democratic Party that the Harris campaign is failing to effectively connect with voters in Pennsylvania. Poor campaign management and staffers lacking relationships with Democratic political leaders in the Keystone State are allegedly rocking the campaign, Politico reported last week. The outlet reported that Democrats are worried that the campaign’s state manager lacks an understanding of Philadelphia, the state’s largest city, while campaign staffers have allegedly not invited local Democratic politicians to events in the state, and have not effectively deployed surrogates. KAMALA HARRIS ‘HAS BECOME TOXIC’ FOR PENNSYLVANIA, TOP KEYSTONE STATE LAWMAKER SAYS Politico reported that it spoke with 20 Democratic politicians, allies and party leaders for the story, who reported they are restless over Harris’ campaigning efforts. “Our campaign is running the largest and most sophisticated operation in Pennsylvania history,” Harris’ national campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez said in comment to Fox News Digital when asked about the report last week. “While Trump’s team still refuses to tell reporters how few staff they have in the state, we have 50 coordinated offices and nearly 400 staff on the ground.” “While the Trump campaign closed its ‘minority outreach offices,’ we invested in targeted advertising to Black and Latino voters starting in August of 2023 and have now spent more than any previous presidential campaign on outreach to these communities. The Vice President is also campaigning aggressively in Pennsylvania – spending 1 out of 3 days in the state in September.” Vulnerable incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey made national headlines last week when he distanced himself from Democratic Party leaders and launched a campaign ad detailing how he “bucked Biden” and “sided” with former President Trump. The ad features a married couple – Republican Marygrace and her Democrat husband Joe – praising Casey as an “independent,” citing his support for Trump’s trade policies and efforts to “protect fracking” from the Biden administration. INEFFECTIVE PLANNING, LACK OF CONNECTIONS HAS DEMS ON EDGE IN ‘KEY’ BATTLEGROUND: REPORT “Our marriage – pure bliss! But on politics, we just don’t agree. Except for Bob Casey. He’s independent,” Marygrace says, with her husband chiming in, “That’s right!” “Casey’s leading the effort to stop corporate greedflation and price-gouging,” Marygrace continues. “Casey bucked Biden to protect fracking and he sided with Trump to end NAFTA and put tariffs on China to stop them from cheating. So in this house, we agree, it’s Bob Casey who’s doing right by Pennsylvania.” MCCORMICK SEIZES ON PENNSYLVANIA SENATE RACE GAP, LAYING BORDER BLAME ON CASEY Casey has served in the Senate since 2007, ultimately becoming a stalwart within the Democratic Party, voting on legislation Biden supported, for example, 98.5% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight data. He is now facing his toughest re-election effort yet, as he squares up against Republican challenger Dave McCormick. The Fox News Power Rankings score the presidential contest in Pennsylvania as a toss-up, with the Senate race a lean Democrat designation. The Cook Political Report, this week, however, shifted the Senate contest from a leans Democrat race to a toss-up race, underscoring Casey’s difficult re-election battle. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Pennsylvania is touted as the state that will likely determine the outcome of the general election on Nov. 5. A Fox News survey of Pennsylvania voters published late last month found Harris narrowly ahead of Trump by 2 points (50-48%) among registered voters, while the race is tied at 49% each among likely voters. Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolofo and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

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