Supreme court races in key states could tip scales on policy questions
Little noticed but high-stakes elections on the November ballot will be for seats on state supreme courts, where legal precedents will be set on matters such as abortion, election integrity, gun rights, redistricting and other issues. In 2024, 82 state supreme court seats are to be decided by voters in 33 states and Guam, according to Ballotpedia. Of those, 18 races are partisan, 34 are nonpartisan and 30 are retention elections, meaning that rather than deciding between two candidates, voters will determine whether a justice typically appointed by a governor will remain on the state’s high court. However, some of the races have already been decided, while other candidates are running unopposed on the November ballot. Some of these judicial contests are happening in key battleground states, such as Arizona, Michigan and North Carolina, where turnout will almost certainly be high for the presidential contest. “Across the nation, as the federal Supreme Court is tearing back the role of the federal court, you’ve seen an increased role for state courts,” said David Porter, a former Michigan assistant attorney general. In Michigan, where Democrats hold a 4-3 majority on the state’s high court, two Supreme Court seats are being contested. Although races are nonpartisan, state parties endorse a candidate. Andrew Fink, a Republican state representative, is running against Kimberly Thomas, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, for an open seat. Incumbent Supreme Court Judge Kyra Harris Bolden was appointed by Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November 2022. This year she is running to retain her seat against Patrick O’Grady, a state circuit court judge. Whitmer appointed Bolden to fill a vacancy left by the departure of Judge Bridget Mary McCormack. “In the last two decades, the state Supreme Court was led by a conservative majority,” Porter said. “We are now seeing a big shift. Liberal justices have taken control and are more interested in revisiting decisions of the past 20 years.” Porter described Justice Elizabeth Clement as a swing vote; so, if Democrats expand their majority to 5-2, it could sometimes be 6-1 decisions. MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATES CLASH ON NATIONAL SECURITY, IMMIGRATION AND ABORTION In Arizona, voters will determine if two Republican-appointed justices, Clint Bolick and Katheryn Hackett King, will remain on that state’s high court. It’s not clear if voters are noticing state Supreme Court cases more, but political donors seem to, said former Arizona Solicitor General Dominic Draye. “I don’t know if voters are paying more attention to these races, but there is more out-of-state money being spent than in the past retention races,” Draye told Fox News Digital. “I don’t remember before seeing yard signs. Now I see yard signs everywhere, and I’m getting mailers to retain or don’t retain.” ARIZONA SUPREME COURT RULES 98,000 PEOPLE WHOSE CITIZENSHIP IS UNCONFIRMED CAN VOTE IN PIVOTAL ELECTION All seven justices are Republican appointees, and two are up for retention in November. If the seats open up, Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs would pick their replacements. “It has devolved into a policy debate instead of a debate about whether a judge can be fair and impartial,” Draye said. “There are people who want to obtain certain outcomes in the judicial process and change the composition of the court.” In North Carolina, Republicans have a 5-2 state Supreme Court majority and aim to make it 6-1. Incumbent Judge Allison Riggs, a Democrat, is running against Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge. Although Nevada is a fiercely contested battleground state between presidential candidates, three incumbent state Supreme Court judges, Elissa Caddish, Patricia Lee and Lidia Stiglich, are running unopposed and have nothing to worry about from the likely high voter turnout. PA GOV TAKES VICTORY LAP AFTER SUPREME COURT REJECTS GOP BID TO OVERTURN ELECTION LAW ‘USURPATIONS’ Meanwhile, another high-profile state on the national stage, Georgia, already had state Supreme Court elections in May. Though not a battleground in the presidential race, other states will likely have high voter turnout for competitive Senate races that will trickle down to the supreme court races. Montana has two nonpartisan high court races. One is between Broadwater County Attorney Cory Swanson and former federal magistrate Jerry Lynch. Another is between two district judges, Katherine Bidegaray and Dan Wilson. Ohio also has a highly competitive Senate race, another incentive for voters to turn out. The state has a 4-3 Republican majority. One Ohio race has two incumbent justices. Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Justice Joseph Deters in 2023 to fill the remaining term of Justice Sharon Kennedy after Kennedy won the chief justice seat. But Deters opted to remain on the court and is challenging another incumbent, Democrat Justice Melody Stewart. Also in Ohio, Democrat Justice Michael Donnelly is facing Republican challenger Megan Shanahan, a Hamilton County judge. Democrat Lisa Forbes, a state appeals court judge, is facing Republican Dan Hawkins, a Franklin County judge, for an open seat. In Kentucky, conservative-leaning Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter is retiring at the end of his term. That leaves a nonpartisan race for a vacant seat between Lexington attorney Erin Izzo and Pamela R. Goodwine, an appeals court judge who has the backing of Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear. Though the winner of the race will fill a vacant seat, the next chief justice will be chosen by colleagues on the court. Two of the nation’s largest states also have supreme court races in November. In Texas, three Republican justices are facing Democrat challengers, who are all district judges. GOP incumbent Jimmy Blacklock is facing Democrat DaSean Jones; GOP Justice John Devine faces Democrat Christine Weems; and Justice Jane Bland is fending off Democrat Bonnie Lee Goldstein. In Florida, two justices, Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso, have retention elections. Both are appointees of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Bank Holidays 2024: Will banks remain closed on 16-17 October? Here’s all you need to know
According to the holiday list of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) banks will remain closed on October on 16-17.
As a cautious Kamala loses momentum, Democrats are panicking over a Trump win
The Kamala Harris campaign rocket, which soared to dazzling heights when she got into the race, is losing altitude. Despite raising a billion dollars, despite overwhelmingly positive coverage by the mainstream media, she has failed to deliver a compelling message and is especially struggling to win over Black and Latino voters. There’s no question that many Democrats, who grew accustomed to reading stories about who’ll be in the Harris Cabinet, are panicking. Now you could look at the glass as half-full and say it’s remarkable that a relatively unpopular vice president, in a short period of time, is running neck and neck with Donald Trump. She is tied nationally in a new NBC College poll. But that’s a drop of five points for Harris since the last survey in September. Trump is the ultimate Teflon candidate. The press may jump on him for refusing to release his medical records (as Harris just did) but demanding she take a cognitive test; for using incendiary language against illegal immigrants, or for vowing to protect women when it’s his Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe. NOW THAT KAMALA HARRIS IS DOING INTERVIEWS, PEOPLE ARE REMINDED THEY ‘DON’T LIKE HER’: LISA BOOTHE It doesn’t matter. MAGA loyalists can’t stand the media, and they’re not going to change their minds at this late date. He has the advantage of having held the job. They remember Trump’s presidency with growing fondness, particularly for a strong economy and greater limits at the border, and brush aside any negative developments, especially Jan. 6. Harris has certainly made policy proposals and done a bunch of softball interviews. But she made a big mistake on “The View,” saying she couldn’t think of a single thing where she’d differ from Joe Biden. It was not intended as a gotcha question. How can she grab the mantle of the change candidate and, with that sentence, cast herself as Biden 2.0? KAMALA 2.0’S CHALLENGE? MAKING MORE NEWS, AND NOT JUST WITH ULTRA-FRIENDLY HOSTS If she feels loyalty to Joe, it’s misguided. As a veteran pol, he would understand if she said he did a good job but here’s several areas where I disagree with him and would do things differently–no word salad allowed. Axios and others are reporting tension between the Harris and Biden camps – she’s replaced the president’s top strategists and spokesmen – precisely the kind of leaks that mark a sputtering campaign. When people complain that they don’t really know Kamala, they’re really saying they’re not yet prepared to trust her with the nuclear codes. She still has to pass the commander-in-chief test. But she also has to seem warm and approachable. That’s a daunting challenge in a country that, unlike much of the world, has never elected a female president. Here’s some British invective from Andrew Sullivan on his Substack: “The more I listened to her in these interviews, the more worried I became that she doesn’t actually believe in anything… “Her team either fears or knows she may not be up to it. And this is bleeding obvious. A presidential campaign where you rarely face the press, never deal with a hostile interview, and never hold a presser is a campaign defined by fear. You can smell it from miles away.” Andrew, by the way, is voting for Harris, mainly because he’ll do anything to keep Trump out of the White House. Kamala keeps talking about being the underdog, but she’s run a very cautious campaign. The anxiety about making a mistake should be outweighed by the need to make news, at a time when Trump is back to dominating the news. Many days go by in which she’s a minor TV presence compared to the ratings-boosting Trump. It’s smart that she’s now agreed to several network town halls, but she should have been doing these from the start, rather than reciting the same stump speech at rallies. Drinking beer with Stephen Colbert doesn’t quite cut it. WHY VANCE EASILY BEAT WALZ IN DEBATE, SOFTENING HIS IMAGE IN THE PROCESS And who would have thought that the woman of color would be lagging behind the usual Democratic margins among Blacks – particularly Black men – and Latinos? Things reached the point where Barack Obama had to scold Black men for sexism, accusing them of not being comfortable with voting for a woman. The battleground polls are tight, so obviously Harris can still win. But she basically needs to camp out in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin rather than trying to pick off these Sunbelt states. In fact, if she had put aside any personal friction and picked Josh Shapiro, she’d probably have more of an edge in his state. Instead, she went with Tim Walz, who’s not helping the ticket much no matter how many pheasants he hunts. He has, however, done well in two straight interviews with “Fox News Sunday.” A major step forward: Harris agreeing yesterday to an interview with Fox anchor Bret Baier, on Wednesday in Pennsylvania. Some headlines are calling this a risky move, but Bret has vast experience with such interviews and will absolutely be fair. The upside for her: reaching the largest audience by far in cable news. Bret said on the air that he believes there’s “a sense that they have inside the campaign, their strategy has to change, they’ve got to change. They’re losing Black males… I think that the campaign realizes they have to do more outreach.” SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES Maybe this is all too much to lay on Kamala’s shoulders. Maybe she’s doing the best she can against a former president whose message is clear and simple: Stop illegal immigration, mass deportations, combat inflation, end wars in the Middle East. And an incumbent is always subject to the counter-charge: Well, why haven’t you done it already? The vice president simply hasn’t been able to generate the excitement that surrounded her initial campaign launch. Three weeks is a
EC to announce Maharashtra, Jharkhand Assembly Election schedule today
In addition to the assembly polls, the ECI may also reveal dates for by-elections, including the crucial…
South India Rains: Heavy rainfall alert for Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, know IMD update
Meanwhile, Delhi has been grappling with poor air quality recently, with pollution levels reaching 234, categorizing it as ‘poor’ according to the Central Pollution Control Board.
Harris plays mashup of Trump’s ‘enemy within’ comments at Erie rally, shortly after crowd chants ‘lock him up’
Vice President Kamala Harris’ criticisms of former President Trump and her drawing of connections between his agenda and that of the conservative Project 2025 initiative spurred chants at an Erie, Pennsylvania, rally reminiscent of the 2016 White House race. Shortly after the crowd erupted in “lock him up” retorts – similar to Trump rallygoers’ reaction to Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified communications during the 2016 cycle – Harris played a mashup of clips in which Trump warned of dangers from “the enemy within.” “The worst people are the enemies from within… those people are more dangerous; the enemy within; than Russia and China. These people should be put in jail the way they talk about our judges and our justices,” Trump collectively stated in some of the television clips played. “You heard his words,” Harris said after the montage. “He’s talking about the enemy within, Pennsylvania. He’s talking about the enemy within our country, Pennsylvania. He’s talking about how he considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will, an enemy of our country. It’s a serious issue,” she said. TRENDS ARE GOOD IN SWING COUNTY GOP CHAIR CALLS ‘LITTLE PENNSYLVANIA,’ PREDICTS REPEAT OF 2016 In recent comments on the matter to Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Trump spoke about such “enemies,” and quipped that while China and Russia are “dangerous” at times to deal with, “the thing that’s tougher to handle are these lunatics that we have inside like Adam Schiff.” Schiff, a congressman from Burbank, Calif., is currently the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate against Republican retired MLB star Steve Garvey. In Erie, Harris said Trump opened the door to using the military to “go after” groups, hypothesizing that they might include journalists critical of him, election officials he clashes with or judges that rule against his will. The Democratic nominee said that, therefore, voting for Trump would be a “huge risk for America” and that her GOP opponent is “increasingly unstable and unhinged.” Reached for comment, the Trump campaign rejected her warnings, expressing that it was the “Harris-Biden administration that weaponized our justice system to go after President Trump with trumped-up charges in an effort to silence their political rivals.” “If Kamala wants to cry about ‘unchecked’ abuse of power, she should look in the mirror,” said Pennsylvania Team Trump spokesman Kush Desai. PA TOWN ROILED BY TALK OF MIGRANT HOUSING IN CIVIL-WAR-ERA ORPHANAGE BUILDING Meanwhile, Harris’ preceding comments about the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling in Trump’s favor led to the aforementioned “lock him up” chants. Harris appeared to sidestep any agreement with such expression, telling the crowd, “hold on, hold on,” and advising that they make their voice heard instead at the ballot box. “The courts will handle that. Let’s handle November, shall we?” Harris said. “Look, anybody who said they would terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States – never again.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Prior to the rally, Harris stopped at a local business, and was greeted upon arrival in Pennsylvania’s only beachfront city by Democratic Mayor Joe Schember and State Rep. Ryan Bizzarro, D-Erie, according to reports. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., offered the warm-up speech, and the Democratic nominee was ultimately introduced by Karen Kalivoda, a retired civil servant and Erie native. On the other end of the Commonwealth, Trump was participating in a Pennsylvania town hall hosted by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem at an exposition center near King of Prussia.
Tim Walz boasts about having support of Dick Cheney, Bernie Sanders, Taylor Swift during Wisconsin rally
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Monday to shore up support just three weeks before the presidential election. While warning the crowd about what he said is at stake if former President Trump were to take back the White House, the vice presidential candidate bragged about the unorthodox trio of supporters backing the Harris-Walz ticket. “The road to the Super Bowl, the road to control of the Senate, and the road to the White House, goes right through the NFC North, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Look, you had a Lions fan, a Packers fan and a Vikings fan up here,” Walz said, referring to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Ivers, and himself. “The only thing more amazing is we got Bernie Sanders, Dick Cheney and Taylor Swift on the same ticket.” Cheney, who was vice president to former President George W. Bush, was vilified by Democrats for his hawkish defense of the Iraq War. But last month, Cheney made the stunning announcement that he planned to vote for Kamala Harris as president. TRUMP ALLY TIM SCOTT MULLS BID FOR TOP ROLE AT SENATE CAMPAIGN ARM Taylor Swift also announced her endorsement of Harris last month, just minutes after the presidential debate between the two candidates. Walz used his speech in Green Bay on Monday to hash out a list of grievances against Trump and his running mate JD Vance, who he debated earlier this month. TRENDS ARE GOOD IN THE SWING COUNTY GOP CHAIR CALLS ‘LITTLE PENNSYLVANIA’: IT’LL ‘BE A REPEAT OF ’16′ Walz attacked Trump’s mental acuity and age, alleging that the former commander-in-chief has “been forgetting things.” “He’s confused. He’s a nearly 80-year-old man. He’s ranting and rambling until people get bored and leave his rallies,” Walz said. Walz appealed to men who were on the fence about who they planned to vote for. “I’m going to make a message to the guys here. You got any women you love in your life? Your wives, your daughters, your mothers, and friends? Let’s not forget their lives are literally at stake in this election,” Walz said, invoking Trump’s appointment of three Supreme Court Justices who were instrumentally in overturning Roe v. Wade. “He brags about it. He’s glad my daughter Hope now has fewer rights than her mother had,” Walz said. “That’s what he’s bragging about.” Walz ended his speech by imploring the crowd to vote for Harris, likening them to the “underdogs.” “For Christ’s sake, I’m a Vikings fan,” Walz quipped. “We’re always the underdogs.”
Kamala Harris accused of plagiarizing in 2009 book about being ‘smart on crime’
Vice President Harris is being accused of plagiarizing from several sources in her 2009 book on policing that was released while she was district attorney of San Francisco. The book, “Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer,” was co-authored with Joan O’C Hamilton. The so-called “plagiarism hunter,” Austrian professor Stefan Weber, found 27 times that Harris, the 2024 Democrat nominee for president, and her co-author allegedly committed some form of plagiarism. He found that “24 fragments are plagiarism from other authors, [and] 3 fragments are self-plagiarism from a work written with a co-author.” TRUMP ALLY TIM SCOTT MULLS BID FOR TOP ROLE AT SENATE CAMPAIGN ARM Manhattan Institute senior fellow and conservative activist Chris Rufo first reported on the allegation on Monday, pointing to multiple examples from Harris’ book in which entire sentences and phrases were apparently lifted from other sources without the use of quotations, though in some cases a footnote cites the source. ‘THE LEFT HAS PERFECTED THIS’: CONSERVATIVES TAKE PAGE FROM OBAMA’S PLAYBOOK IN BATTLEGROUND WISCONSIN “Taken in total, there is certainly a breach of standards here. Harris and her co-author duplicated long passages nearly verbatim without proper citation and without quotation marks, which is the textbook definition of plagiarism,” Rufo wrote. ‘DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO HE IS’: WISCONSINITES TALK HARRIS’ MIDWESTERN RUNNING MATE, TIM WALZ Fox News Digital independently verified that Harris’ book features verbatim and near-verbatim reproductions from a 2008 NBC News report, a press release from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a Wikipedia page and a report from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), among others. A 2007 press release from John Jay reads: High Point had its first face-to-face meeting with drug dealers, from the city’s West End neighborhood, on May 18th, 2004. The drug market shut down immediately and permanently, with a sustained 35% reduction in violent crime. High Point repeated the strategy in three additional markets over the next three years. There is virtually no remaining public drug dealing in the city, and serious crime has fallen 20% citywide. The High Point strategy has since been implemented in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Raleigh, NC; in Providence, RI; and in Rockford, IL. The US Department of Justice is launching a national program to replicate the strategy in ten cities. Harris’ book includes the following: High Point had its first face-to-face meeting with drug dealers, from the city’s West End neighborhood, on May 18, 2004. The drug market shut down immediately and permanently, with a sustained 35 percent reduction in violent crime. High Point repeated the strategy in three additional markets over the next three years. There is virtually no remaining public drug dealing in the city, and serious crime has fallen 20 percent citywide. The High Point strategy has since been implemented in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Raleigh, North Carolina; in Providence, Rhode Island; and in Rockford, Illinois. The U.S. Department of Justice is launching a national program to replicate the strategy in ten additional cities. In another instance, a report published by BJA in 2000 says: Although West Palm Beach is less than 1 mile from Palm Beach, one of the most affluent cities in the country, 41 percent of the neighborhood’s 5,360 residents live in poverty and the unemployment rate stands at 20 percent. The physical characteristics of the community are striking: deteriorated houses and businesses, vacant lots with discarded mattresses and piles of trash, and litter strewn throughout the streets, sidewalks, yards, and parks. No new businesses have opened in the area, and few new houses have been built in recent years. And Harris and her co-author wrote: Although West Palm Beach is less than one mile from Palm Beach, one of the most affluent cities in the country, more than a third of the town’s residents live in poverty, and unemployment is high. The community is full of deteriorated houses and businesses, vacant lots with discarded mattresses and piles of trash, and litter strewn throughout the streets, sidewalks, yards, and parks. At the time the community considered adding a court, no new businesses had opened in the area, and few new houses had been built in recent years. LEAD COUNSEL HITS NEW DEM EFFORT TO ‘DELEGITIMIZE’ SUPREME COURT AMID SENATOR’S REPORT ON KAVANAUGH PROBE Harris is running against former President Trump, the Republican nominee. With the election less than a month away, many polls are showing the battle within the margin of error in critical swing states. Harris’ campaign and the White House did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
User’s manual on what House races to watch on Election Night
It’s pretty clear which states to watch to know whether Democrats or Republicans will control the Senate. Contests in Ohio, Montana, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are all battlegrounds. But it’s a different story to understanding which might control the House. The path to power isn’t direct in the House. A patchwork of districts – hopscotching from northern Maine to the tundra of Alaska – might decide the House majority. So on election night, let me decode the signs to interpret which party may serve in the House majority in 2025. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: WITH NO GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, IT FEELS LIKE CHRISTMAS IN SEPTEMBER It’s about the math. Let’s begin with the current breakdown in the House. There are presently 432 House members. 220 Republicans and 212 Democrats. There are three vacancies. Late Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tex., and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., died. Former Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., resigned. None of these are swing districts. So, if the House were at full membership with 435 seats, the breakdown would be 221 Republicans to 214 Democrats. The margin is seven. But Democrats only need a net gain of four seats to capture control. Also, note that some districts have morphed – especially in North Carolina – due to redistricting. In fact, Republicans could gain several seats there alone. So here’s the charge for Democrats: hold seats they currently have – and pluck off a handful of seats as they skip around the map. Also, make up the difference from what they will likely lose in the Tar Heel State. This is not a comprehensive list. But it will provide a general feel for the evening. Here’s an early race to watch which could give a you a clue as to the direction of the House: Maine’s 2nd District. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, faces Republican challenger and former NASCAR driver Austin Theriault. This is a massive, rugged, rural district which stretches north to the Canadian border. Golden is one of the most moderate – and vulnerable Democrats in the House. Former President Trump won the singular electoral vote by carrying this district in 2020. Maine employs a proportional system to divide its electoral votes. If Golden holds this seat, that could serve as an early canary in the coal mine indicating that Democrats are in good shape. But if Theriault prevails, that might signal the House could drift the other direction. TRUMP CAMPAIGN HINTS AT ELECTION DAY TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS FOR VOTERS IMPACTED BY HURRICANES HELENE, MILTON Political analysts believe that Democrats lost the House in New York in 2022. That’s ironic because the former chairman of the Democrats reelection efforts two years ago, former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., hailed from New York. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is from Brooklyn. That’s to say nothing of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Empire State Democrats have an opportunity to make significant inroads if they perform well in House races this year. The fact that it’s a presidential election could also bolster Democratic performance in New York. Democrats already won back the seat occupied by former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., – who was expelled. But Democrats are angling to defeat freshman Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., and Nick LaLota, R-N.Y. A clean sweep in the early returns sends a message that Democrats are performing substantially well on the evening of November 5. Democrats will be disappointed if they don’t capture at least three of these seats. Virginia is also a place where both parties have pickup opportunities. A sweep by either side could reveal the overall direction of the night. Freshman Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., faces Democratic challenger Missy Cotter Smasal in the Tidewater area. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., is retiring to run for governor next year. Democrat Eugene Vindman faces Republican Derrick Anderson to succeed Spanberger. The parties could split these races, making Virginia a wash. Veteran Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio and freshman Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio, are both defending battleground districts in a state which should go overwhelmingly for Mr. Trump. The fact that Republican Vice Presidential nominee and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, hails from the Buckeye State could influence voter turnout. It’s a boon if Republicans are able to topple either Kaptur or Sykes. And Republicans could be looking at a grand slam if both Democrats lose. However, Kaptur is the longest-tenured woman in House history. Republicans have been trying to defeat her for years. It’s far from clear that they can do so this year. Democrats also have a shot at winning a redrawn seat in Alabama. A federal court decided that Alabama violated the Voting Rights Act by packing Black voters into a single majority Black district. The court ruled that Alabama must retool its Congressional maps, making what was once a Republican district into one favoring Democrats. Shomari Figures hopes to capture that district for the Democrats. In Iowa, Democrats are eyeing two seats – although winning either may be a stretch. One seat pits Democrat Lanon Baccam against Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa. Democrats also hope Christina Bohannan can unseat sophomore Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa. Miller-Meeks squeaked out a victory in 2020 by just six votes. But Miller-Meeks won by seven points in 2022. Democrats would be fortunate to knock off either Nunn or Miller-Meeks. But they definitely believe Bohannan has a bona fide shot at toppling Miller-Meeks. In Colorado, Rep. Yadira Caraveo D-Colo., won her first term by about 2,000 votes. She’s up against Republican challenger Gabe Evans. But it’s believed a strong showing at the top of the ticket in blue Colorado could help Caraveo. TRUMP ALLY TIM SCOTT MULLS BID FOR TOP ROLE AT SENATE CAMPAIGN ARM In New Mexico, Freshman Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M. is in a rematch with former Rep. Yvette Harrell, R-N.M. This district is one of the swingiest in the country and bears watching. Former Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M., flipped this district in 2018 after former Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., ran for
Hurricane-hit battleground states face additional voting hurdles in run-up to Election Day
Voters in storm-ravaged parts of the Southeast could face new hurdles at the ballot box this year following the destruction wrought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, back-to-back disasters that have sparked a flurry of new outreach from states, parties, and even campaigns themselves in a bid to expand voters’ access to the polls and ensure their votes are counted. Though the efforts in the hurricane-hit southern states have taken very different shapes, the shared goal is to increase engagement and participation in the 2024 presidential race, in which candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump remain locked in a virtual dead heat with less than a month until Election Day. In North Carolina, efforts have been focused on helping displaced residents access polling locations in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which barreled onto shore last month as a Category 4 storm, killing more than 220 people and causing billions of dollars in destruction. The bulk of the storm’s destruction was concentrated in western North Carolina and in Georgia, two competitive states that could play a key role in determining the next president. Roughly 17% of North Carolina’s registered voters reside in the counties that were designated as disaster areas in the aftermath of Helene, Michael Bitzer, a professor of politics and history at Catawba College, previously told Fox News. ‘CAN’T WAIT TILL THE LAST MINUTE’: NC CONGRESSMAN RAISES ALARM ON VOTER ACCESS IN AREAS HARD HIT BY HELENE To that end, the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted last week to approve changes for 13 counties in the region, whose access to infrastructure, polling locations and postal services is believed to remain “severely disrupted” through Election Day. State election officials also announced coordination with FEMA and North Carolina Emergency Management to set up portable restrooms, generators and trailers to support the more than 500 polling places in the state’s western region — and an area of devastation that spans some 25 counties. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign also hinted at new efforts to help transport voters to the ballot boxes in hurricane-hit states. Speaking to Fox News in an interview Monday, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the campaign has been in contact with state and local election officials in the Southeast to survey the damage and ensure voters have access to the ballots. The campaign leadership, she said “has sent a letter “to state and local officials on the ground in North Carolina saying, ‘You need to provide as many accessible voting locations as possible on the ground,’” Leavitt told Fox News, adding: “Our campaign is reviewing how we can possibly provide transportation for voters who need to get to the polls and ensuring they have access to the ballot box.” In Florida, which was battered by both Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order granting election officials in hard-hit counties additional flexibility to alter their election procedures — including polling locations and requests for mail-in ballot addresses to be changed at the last minute. Meanwhile, Democrats suffered a blow in Georgia last week after a federal judge ruled that she will not order the state to reopen its voter registration process or extend its voter registration deadline in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, rejecting arguments from the Georgia conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition of the People’s Agenda, and the New Georgia Project, which said disruptions from the storm had unfairly deprived them of their right to register. The ruling could have a major impact in Georgia, a key battleground state that narrowly selected Biden by just 12,000 votes in 2020. (A federal judge in Florida also rejected a similar request brought in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, filed by the Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters.) Federal judges in both states claimed that voters had ample time to register for the November election. It is unclear what — or if — the Harris campaign is providing in terms of transport or options for voters in North Carolina or other states that were impacted by the natural disasters, or what specific actions might be taken by Trump’s campaign. Campaign officials did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment.