August 3, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Kay Granger, who blazed trail from Fort Worth to heights of Congress, dies at 83

Former U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, who became one of the most powerful Texans in Congress after breaking barriers as Fort Worth’s first female mayor, has died at the age of 83. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker shared posts honoring Granger, a Republican who served 14 terms representing Tarrant and Parker County, on social media Sunday evening. “Kay Granger devoted her life to serving her Fort Worth, Texas community — as a teacher and businesswoman, on the Fort Worth Zoning Commission and City Council, as Mayor, and in Congress for nearly three decades,” Johnson said.

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Granger joined the U.S. House in 1997 representing Texas’ 12th Congressional District. She announced she wouldn’t seek reelection to Congress in November 2023. Granger was the first Republican woman to represent Texas in the U.S. House. She worked steadily to gain clout as one of a handful of House members who directed federal spending. From her perch on the Appropriations Committee, she gained influence over defense projects in particular, helping to protect jobs for top Fort Worth employers Lockheed Martin and others. Parker described her as “a trailblazer and tenacious leader.” “Over the years that I worked with Kay, I learned from her indelible spirit, work ethic, constant sacrifice, and unwavering commitment to Texas and Fort Worth,” said Parker, a former Granger aide. “I’m fortunate to have called her a mentor and friend.” Granger was born in Greenville in Hunt County, Texas in January 1943 and grew up in Fort Worth. She graduated from Eastern Hills High School and Texas Wesleyan University, before going on to become a teacher and open an insurance agency. She served on Fort Worth’s zoning commission and on the Fort Worth City Council. She was mayor from 1991 to 1995.

Judge declines to block Big Bend area border wall

A federal judge on Sunday declined to block construction on the Trump administration’s Big Bend area border wall, saying plaintiffs could not argue the plan violates a federal law because the administration was legally allowed to bypass that law. The Presidio Municipal Development District, a local economic development group, sued the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in June, claiming the agencies had violated the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 in seeking to build the wall along the city’s levee system without approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The group argued the plan could lead to “deadly” flooding in the area if not properly evaluated. On July 2, just two weeks after the lawsuit was filed, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin responded by waiving the law in question, allowing the agencies to bypass it entirely.

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At that point the Rivers and Harbors Act joined the slew of other environmental, cultural resource protection and contracting laws already waived by DHS to expedite border wall construction across the region. PMDD had asked U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton to at least temporarily block impending wall construction while the case played out in court. In his ruling Sunday, Walton wrote that the July 2 waiver “defeats any claim that the defendants violated” the Rivers and Harbors Act. “Despite the understandable concerns expressed by the plaintiff regarding the harms it and the plaintiff’s residents might sustain by the potential construction of the Smart Wall,” Walton wrote, he was “compelled” to reject PMDD’s request for a temporary block on construction. “We are very disappointed that the court will allow this potentially disastrous construction to continue, but we remain committed to protecting the Big Bend area and those who rely on the threatened levees,” Democracy Forward, the national nonprofit representing PMDD in the case, said in a statement Sunday.

Kansas’ data center boom is shaking up the governor’s race

The fight over data centers has suddenly become a defining battle in the race to run Kansas — on both sides of the aisle. Gubernatorial hopefuls are trying to leverage the issue to weaken their rivals in the final stretch before Tuesday’s primaries, with attack ads, dark money and accusations of flip-flopping roiling the race. Democratic state Sen. Cindy Holscher and GOP state Sen. Ty Masterson, two of the top contenders in their respective fields, are bearing the brunt of the criticism. Republican businessman Philip Sarnecki has spent more than $300,000 on ads attacking Masterson for voting for a bill last year to expand data center construction and give 20-year tax breaks to developers, accusing him of being beholden to big tech.

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On the Democratic side, Holscher voted for the same bill but has now staked out a populist stance calling for a moratorium on data centers — an appeal to the same grassroots base that has put her in a strong position to win. Her primary opponents are attacking her as a flip-flopper, and social media ads fueled by anonymous backers keep highlighting her past vote in support of data centers. She’s up against state Sen. Ethan Corson, whom Gov. Laura Kelly endorsed, and Overland Park Mayor Kurt Skoog. The brawl shows just how divisive and complicated the politics of data centers has become, as politicians in both parties struggle to define a clear winning position on the mass hubs amid growing voter backlash. A July POLITICO Poll found that Americans are increasingly souring on data centers, a trend that’s especially evident among Democrats but crosses partisan lines. Republican and Democratic candidates are harnessing that opposition to gain an edge in crowded primaries, a rare moment of partisan crossover that speaks to its potency.

Acting AG Todd Blanche reaches deal with holdout senators to scrap $1.8B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

After a weekslong standoff between senators and the Trump administration, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Sunday night that the parties had reached a deal and that had he issued an order “officially” rescinding a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. “My team and I have met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions,” Blanche wrote on X. “We have enjoyed good faith discussions, and as a result issue the following order and update with regard to the May IRS settlement. The Department always welcomes and appreciates productive engagement with all members of Congress.” Attached to his post was a signed order that said, “The Attorney General’s May 18, 2026 Order establishing the Anti-Weaponization Fund (‘Fund’) is rescinded and shall have nor force or effect.”

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“This order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no fund,” the order read. Blanche’s announcement comes two days before the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote his nomination to be attorney general in a permanent capacity. The fund was part of a settlement agreement that stemmed from a lawsuit President Donald Trump filed against the IRS, which also shielded the Trump family from tax audits. The fund has been criticized in part because the payouts could extend to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Blanche faced pushback from key GOP Sens. John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, who said their support for him hinged on the administration’s rescinding its plans for the fund. Tillis and Cornyn have feuded with Trump in the past. Tillis announced he would not seek re-election; Cornyn was unseated by Trump-endorsed GOP primary challenger Ken Paxton. The two senators previously said other senators shared their concerns about the fund, but they did not sit on the Judiciary Committee and therefore could not vote on Blanche’s nomination until it came before the full Senate.

State Stories

Ken Paxton is acting like he thinks he could lose

Ken Paxton was feeling good. The day after securing Donald Trump’s endorsement in his primary race against John Cornyn, the soon-to-be-crowned U.S. Senate nominee was onstage at a Katy barbecue joint, riffing like a crowd-work comedian and surveying staffers on potential nicknames for the Democratic nominee, James Talarico. “Six-Gender Jimmy,” one campaign worker suggested. “Low-T Talarico,” chimed another. Paxton liked them all, but had his own: “Tofu Talarico,” he said with a grin. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause. On a television nearby, Fox News played a clip of President Donald Trump speaking to reporters. “TRUMP: TEXANS WON’T ELECT A VEGAN,” read the chyron. This, it seemed, was to be the central focus of Paxton’s campaign: the idea that Talarico, a former schoolteacher and Texas House member, was simply too much of a wimp to ever be elected in Texas.

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The strategy doesn’t seem to be working. Recent headlines about allegations that Paxton committed voter fraud, photos of him gallivanting in Europe with his girlfriend, and scrutiny of his expanding luxury real estate portfolio have largely overshadowed his attempts to frame Talarico and the race as he’d like. With three months until the November midterms, Talarico has a massive fundraising edge. And poll after poll shows that the race is somewhere between a toss-up and one that favors Talarico—on Thursday a stunning Fox News poll showed the Democrat leading by three points. Voters are angry with Trump. They’re furious about gas prices, the economy, and the war with Iran. Not coincidentally, while Paxton has focused on hammering his opponent on culture-war issues, Talarico has made economic inequality a staple of his campaign. Now, after months of meager campaigning, Paxton is pivoting. On Friday—weeks after agreeing to at least one debate with Talarico—Paxton announced a four-city “Protecting the Texas Promise” tour to promote his newly unveiled economic plan. Among the planks, according to The Texas Tribune: a $50,000 tax deduction for first-time homebuyers; a $5,000 deduction to “stimulate healthy lifestyle choices,” including paying for nutrition plans and GLP-1 medications to aid in weight loss; an expansion of so-called Trump accounts, which invest federal money into savings accounts for all American children; and a doubling of the child tax credit. “Washington is making it harder than ever to get ahead,” Paxton says in a new ad, also released on Friday. “And the American dream is slipping away, as the cost of everything, from housing to health care, rises.” Paxton has never been afraid to critique Washington—he’s long framed himself as an outsider and a crusader against entrenched D.C. bureaucrats and their “swamp.” It’s a huge part of his seemingly unwavering appeal to the culture-warring, GOP-primary voters who catapulted him past Cornyn. But general elections are a different animal. History tells us that “the economy, stupid” is and will always be the defining issue for most voters. Talarico’s campaign understands that. And while Paxton probably won’t ever campaign as “Ten-Gender Ken,” his sudden shift to kitchen-table issues indicates that he knows who currently has the electorate’s pulse.

Tesla wanted millions in tax breaks. Travis County found problems.

To win the latest installment of its Travis County tax breaks, Tesla Inc. had to address a grave loss. The issue stretched back to a hot day in 2021, when a worker died at the site of Gigafactory Texas, the company’s sprawling plant and headquarters then under construction east of downtown. In the years since it happened, Tesla has insisted the heat-related death of contractor Antelmo Ramirez was due to a pre-existing medical condition. It did so again this year, in a report Tesla’s general counsel for tax incentives provided to a county commissioner ahead of a review and vote on tax breaks for developing the project. As the company was making its case about the contributions it’s made to the county’s economy, though, it also had to live up to other standards and the matter of Ramirez’s death, and Tesla’s safety record came to haunt the company.

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Ahead of the April vote, safety became a sticking point as commissioners considered the company’s tax rebates ahead of a vote that resulted in the county withholding 9% of Tesla’s scheduled rebates for 2020, 2021 and 2022. At the time, the dollar amount was unknown. Ultimately, Travis County withheld $854,127 over Tesla’s failure to comply with some elements of the deal it reached back in 2020. It marked the first time commissioners had so publicly questioned the company’s performance. Now, documents obtained from the planning and budget office shed light on how the county used the formula it reached then to determine how the tax breaks would be awarded after this year’s review. Still eligible for the bulk of rebates, Tesla will receive about $8.6 million for the years 2020 through 2022. But email, text messages and calendar invitations from the period leading up to the vote offer a glimpse of how Tesla pitched its compliance with its economic development performance agreement with the county to secure those millions.

Pflugerville voters could weigh surveillance oversight

Pflugerville voters could soon decide whether to require new oversight for the city’s use of artificial intelligence, facial recognition and surveillance technology. The proposed amendment is one of several recommendations made by the city’s Charter Review Commission that could appear on the Nov. 3 ballot if the Pflugerville City Council approves the measure on second reading at its Aug. 11 meeting. If approved by voters, the amendment would require the City Council to adopt protections governing the collection, use, retention, and oversight of data, facial recognition, and surveillance technologies, to establish transparent approval processes for such technologies, and to require a responsible artificial intelligence framework.

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The proposal comes as governments across Texas and the country continue exploring how artificial intelligence and surveillance technology can be used in public safety, city operations and other government services, while also balancing concerns surrounding privacy and transparency. According to the proposed charter amendment, the City Council would be responsible for establishing policies governing how those technologies are implemented and monitored. The AI and surveillance proposal is one of 14 charter amendments recommended by the Charter Review Commission, a group of Pflugerville residents appointed every five years to review the city’s Home Rule Charter and recommend updates. “I really want us to have a framework and evolve over time, given that there’s only going to be more,” council member Jonathan Coffman said. “I really see AI surveillance and technology infused in almost anything a city is going to do anymore and so really the idea is to elevate it to the same level as things like ethics and accountability and transparency, other principles that are already in the city charter,” said Coffman. Coffman told KXAN surveillance technology has generated more emails, phone calls and public feedback than any other issue he’s dealt with since taking office. Coffman also said the city is looking at proposing a resident advisory committee on advanced technology to provide ongoing public input as AI and surveillance technology continue to evolve.

VP Vance expected at Port of Brownsville on Tuesday

Vice President JD Vance is expected to speak Tuesday at the Port of Brownsville, the site of a planned $300 billion oil refinery that President Donald Trump announced back in March. Details remain unclear; however, Brownsville Mayor John Cowen said Friday evening that Vance is expected to speak around noon at the port and anticipates the remarks to be about the expected industrial developments in the area. In March, Trump announced that a company named America First Refining would be opening a refinery at the port as part of an investment and partnership with India.

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News of the visit also comes after the White House on Thursday announced a presidential permit authorizing Cameron County to own, operate and maintain the B&M (Brownsville and Matamoros) International Bridge. The county on Oct. 7, 2025, approved an agreement acquiring 50% owning interest in the bridge, which was made possible by purchasing Union Pacific Railroad’s entire stake, a county news release stated. The permit will provide Cameron County “with an opportunity to strengthen international trade through modernization and improved operational efficiency across our land ports of entry,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. said in the release.

For sale: early access to Trump's Truth Social posts

President Trump, his critics like to say, learned one major lesson during his first term: Never leave any money on the table. But even for a president who raked in $2 billion, fueled mostly by his lucrative cryptocurrency ventures, the latest offering from his social media platform, Truth Social, stands out. Trump Media & Technology Group is now shopping to traders and investors a premium version of Truth Social delivering early access to the feeds of high-profile users, including the president. Starting Saturday, for a fee of up to $100,000 a month, trading firms can access "Truth API" to get a glimpse of the president's often market-moving announcements about economic policy and global affairs before the rest of the world.

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Trump's media company says customers have already started signing up. Such an offering would give institutional investors a leg up in areas of finance like high-frequency trading, where an advantage of a few milliseconds can mean the difference of millions of dollars. But will the service be widely adopted across Wall Street? "It's insane," said one Wall Street executive, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration. "I can say for myself and 200 of my friends in finance, we're not getting anywhere near this. In another administration, this would be considered criminal." NPR reached out to 12 other major players in finance, brokers, hedge fund managers and other investors. None would speak publicly about the service, with some saying the risk of landing in Trump's crosshairs was too high. Securities experts, however, are drawing attention to the legal concerns surrounding the service. Renée Jones, a Boston College professor and former top official at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said the paid offering appears to run afoul of insider trading laws. She pointed to federal securities laws prohibiting schemes in which non-public information is misused to give a trader an unfair advantage. The law states that sharing such information is a breach of "a duty or trust of confidence."

Frost CEO warns of ‘race to the bottom’ on Texas loan structure

Frost Bank’s CEO expects intense banking competition in Texas may cool slightly after some lenders making “structure-light” loans learn over time whether their decisions were right. CEO Phil Green told analysts during the bank’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday that Frost is seeing heightened lending competition, and when the bank loses deals, it’s mainly commercial real estate loans and related to loan structure. To Green, it seems like “a bit of a race to the bottom on some of these structures,” he said. “We see people who are very aggressive in the market, and then things turn a little bit and they disappear.”

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A day earlier, executives at Texas peer Prosperity Bank said competition in the state, particularly from larger banks, was making it tough to grow loans profitably. Many top-10 banks as well as regionals such as Fifth Third, Huntington and Regions are chasing business in Texas as the state’s population and business presence has expanded. “We’re not going to put a bunch of stuff on the books,” Prosperity CEO David Zalman said Wednesday, “just to grow loans and not be profitable and take the risk.” While $54 billion-asset Frost seeks to remain competitive on price, the structure element of loans can be tough, because it’s “dangerous to do that poorly,” Green said in an interview. If economic conditions sour as loans mature, “you could end up working through some problems that you didn’t want to,” Green said. “If they’re not quite what you thought they were, you’re going to figure it out in a couple of years.”

A new policy geared toward safety for workers around rail lines leave some contractors worried about limitations on workforce

In late June, the Texas Department of Transportation sent a memo to the state’s Rail Transit Agencies (RTA) enforcing that all safety training exams must be administered in English exclusively. RTAs are required to provide Roadway Worker Protection training to employees and contractors who are working around rail lines in order to keep them safe from trains and equipment. Contractors hoping to work near a rail line must take a course and pass a multiple-choice test to be credentialed. Those tests used to be administered in Spanish as well, but TXDOT now requires all those tests to be in English only. The memo says RTAs are allowed to provide study and reference materials in the native language, but the tests must be exclusively in English.

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A spokesperson for TXDOT said the agency implemented the change “due to safety concerns with using multiple languages while conducting track maintenance and establishing work zones.” Sergio de la Llata, who manages Gold Lion Services, a contractor in Houston, said the change has created a challenge for his company to complete some contracts. For instance, Gold Lion Services secured a contract with Houston METRO to repaint some canopies at some stations. de la Llata sent five workers to the training course to get their credentials to work near the rail line, but he said four of the five were sent away because of the English requirement. de la Llata argues the new policy limits their ability to find enough men to do the job because of how many in the workforce speak predominantly Spanish. “There happens to be quite a few folks that work in construction and speak Spanish primarily and are comfortable speaking in Spanish but understand English,” de la Llata said. “And they could probably read it as well but are just not comfortable speaking it.” de la Llata said he doesn’t believe the new policy ensures more protection for workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) collects work-related injury data through various industries, such as construction. OSHA does not keep track specifically of injuries caused by a language barrier on the job site. In 2010, OSHA said that workers must be able to understand the safety training they receive, which does not mean the training is required to be in English, but in a language the worker can understand. OSHA also went on to say that it is important that construction workers be able to communicate with their co-workers and supervisors on the job site, but that communication can also be established in a language other than English. TXDOT said it would conduct random checks to ensure compliance with the new policy.

Houston mothers challenge Texas Ten Commandments law under state religious freedom protections

Three Houston mothers are suing to stop displaying the Ten Commandments in Texas public school classrooms, arguing it violates the state’s religious freedom law and a voter-approved parental rights amendment. Their lawsuit is the latest challenge to Senate Bill 10 — this time under Texas law. Other attempts to prohibit the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools under federal law — primarily the First Amendment’s guarantee of separation of church and state — have been unsuccessful so far. The mothers’ suit, filed in Harris County on Thursday (July 30), demands that the displays be taken down and that the court act before mid-August, when the school year begins. The bill was signed by the governor last year.

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Emily Roth, one of the plaintiffs, said in a Friday morning press release that the state’s Ten Commandments poster purposefully ignores religious differences in the classroom and will make students feel like they do not belong. “It teaches students, and their teachers, that exclusion is acceptable, maybe even preferred,” she said. “That is not a lesson I want my children learning from the state of Texas.” The parents are suing under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which the legislature passed in 1999, and declares that “a government agency may not substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion.” They are also suing under the recently approved Texas Proposition 15 — also known as the Parental Rights amendment — which ensures parents have the right “to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.” Senate Bill 10 requires Texas classrooms to display donated posters of the King James Version of the Ten Commandments. The posters must be visible in the classroom and cannot be smaller than 16 by 20 inches. However, various faiths — such as Jewish, Catholic and Protestant traditions — number and word the commandments differently, the press release from the plaintiffs noted. Sixteen families sued 11 school districts to block the new law in July 2025. They argued that it violates the separation of church and state and pressures students to embrace religious principles and values they may not align with.

Austin faces uphill battle to fund $8.2B light rail expansion

The expansion of Austin's light rail system is expected to cost $8.2 billion, and the federal government has long been expected to provide over $4 billion to cover the construction costs. But the path to securing federal funding for the landmark project appears uncertain, and a contingency plan is not being discussed in the event those dollars aren't awarded, according to Austin Transit Partnership officials. ATP said the light rail project — focused largely on bringing more trains to Central Austin — is on track to get federal funding in early 2028. However, the program from which ATP hopes to secure federal funding hasn't handed out grants to new projects since President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office in January 2025. ATP said it still needs to advance to the engineering phase of the project next year before funding can be awarded, indicating it is premature to assume anything about a decision from the feds.

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ATP officials said they aren't having conversations about a contingency plan if they don't secure funding by 2028. They said their conversations are focused on advancing the project under the idea that the federal government will eventually provide funding. Officially, it's planned that the federal government will cover 49.4% of the price tag. Under that plan, funding would be awarded through the Capital Investment Grants program, which is overseen by the Federal Transit Administration. The path to funding from the CIG program is a competitive process with projects from other cities. The FTA reports it has 50 projects in its CIG program that have either received or are seeking funding. But only four of the 50 active CIG projects have received the full grant funding as of July 29. Of those four projects, none were awarded the funding during the current Trump administration. The New York Times recently reported funding for CIG projects across the U.S. is at a virtual standstill under the Trump administration. ATP officials are undeterred. "Funding follows when we've achieved outcomes as we move along the way," said Jennifer Pyne, ATP's executive vice president of planning, community and federal programs. "We're moving on that path, so we just have to keep demonstrating readiness and being prepared for what comes, be prepared for that opportunity (to get federal funding)." A former ATP board member doesn't think Austin will be able to secure the federal funding.

Austin City Council hires firm for efficiency review

Austin City Council voted unanimously Thursday to hire Public Works LLC to conduct an independent efficiency review of all city departments, advancing an audit that has become entangled with a competing ballot proposal and questions about the firm’s standing in Texas. Mayor Kirk Watson said the vote completed months of work to establish the council-initiated review, which will be conducted by the outside firm in coordination with the city auditor. “It insists on something that I believe was essential from the very beginning and this council has endorsed and pushed forward:?independent judgment,” Watson said. “We're bringing in professionals because we want professional analysis, not political analysis.”

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City staff said Public Works was selected from 25 competing bids for the firm's understanding of the assessment’s needs and Austin’s unique challenges. The firm has also conducted efficiency assessments for local governments across the country, including the city of Chicago, Baltimore County, Broward County, Travis County, six state governments and two U.S. territories. Save Austin Now, a political action committee led by former Travis County Republican Party Chair Matt Mackowiak, has criticized the selection of Public Works while promoting its own proposed charter amendment requiring regular audits of city government. The measure is expected to go before Austin voters in November. The PAC said earlier this month that Public Works’ right to do business in Texas was revoked in 2024 after the company failed to pay state taxes. City spokesperson Jenny LaCoste-Caputo said at the time that the company had previously been registered in the Texas but intentionally allowed its registration to lapse because it had no active projects in the state and owed no Texas taxes

Jones vows to revisit veteran vouchers, slamming fellow council members as ‘OK with a little bit of discrimination’

In May the San Antonio City Council passed an ordinance that banned landlords with five or more properties from turning away veterans who were paying rent with a federal housing voucher. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and veteran advocates argue the ordinance does not do enough to help expand access to housing for veterans. “There are more restrictions to a dog being off the leash than there are to discriminating against a veteran using a voucher,” Jones said. “That’s ludicrous and unacceptable in Military City USA.” According to a City Council ordinance, a dog owner found to not be in compliance with the city’s leash policy will be fined $100 for the first violation, $500 for the second and $750 for the third.

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A landlord found to not be in compliance with the city’s voucher acceptance policy will be given a written warning on the first offense, a mandatory training on the second offense and a $500 fine on the third offense. When the ordinance hits its six-month mark in November, Jones said she will revisit it, aiming to remove all exemptions. A veteran of the Air Force herself and a former Pentagon official, Jones chided her fellow council members for passing the ordinance without closing the loopholes on exemptions. “Some of my colleagues were OK with a little bit of discrimination… I, of course, advocate for no discrimination,” she said. The My City is My Home chapter of the American GI Forum worked with students at UTSA’s Rowdy Corps Community Scholars program to create a report analyzing housing options across the city, and build two online tools to help renters see where vouchers are accepted. “The central idea of this report is simple: an advertised unit is not necessarily an accessible unit,” said Wael Albakri, a masters student working on the project.

National Stories

Iran war not popular on K Street

As the U.S. war with Iran enters its sixth month, the memorandum of understanding that was supposed to end the conflict didn’t go over well with K Street, according to our latest Canvass survey. Nearly all K Street leaders (91%) view the Trump administration’s MOU with Iran as a failure for the United States. In fact, 70% said that former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran was a more beneficial deal. Almost half of the Republican K Street leaders said Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was better. The Canvass K Street was conducted July 6-24 in partnership with independent public affairs firm LSG. The MOU was signed in June to huge fanfare, but since then, the fighting has resumed and four more Americans have been killed in the hostilities. In all, 18 troops have been killed since the conflict started on Feb. 28 and more than 600 have been wounded.

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The ongoing war is unpopular on Capitol Hill, as well. The successful passage of a war powers resolution through Congress has done nothing to stop President Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East. Now, Hill Democrats are looking to the appropriations process to limit military operations in Iran. U.S.-Israel relations. Since the war started, the relationship between the United States and Israel has been front and center. Most K Street senior leaders (82%) believe the relationship between the United States and Israel has worsened as a result of the conflict, and 65% say Israel’s involvement had a negative impact on the outcome. Want to take part in The Canvass? Our survey provides anonymous monthly insights from top Capitol Hill staffers and K Street leaders on key issues facing Washington.

A normie Democrat revolt is pushing Abdul El-Sayed yoward victory in Michigan

Kent Tisdale spent most of his life voting for Republicans before he started voting for Democrats, even backing Donald Trump in 2016. The 70-year-old retiree can even remember that his biggest concern backing Mitt Romney in 2012 was that the GOP presidential nominee wasn’t conservative enough. He is now seriously considering supporting Abdul El-Sayed in Tuesday’s Senate Democratic primary. Tisdale, now a member of his local Indivisible chapter, said Trump’s presidency and the deluge of money in politics led him to El-Sayed, whose passion has impressed him even if the candidate’s politics are further left than he’d like. “I don’t feel I’ve changed that much,” said Tisdale, who spoke to NOTUS while attending an event for a local House candidate. “But I feel the environment has changed.” In Michigan and across the country this year, voters like Tisdale are transforming Democratic primaries — and potentially putting the party on a different path as it heads into the 2028 presidential campaign.

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Rank-and-file Democratic voters who once naturally inclined toward establishment-backed candidates are instead supporting — or at least showing an openness to — lefty candidates they would have previously believed to be outside the political mainstream. They’re driven by disappointment in old-guard Democrats’ inability to beat Trump in 2024 and a growing sense that the country’s politics need a fresh direction. It’s that change in the electorate that, more than anything this year, explains why El-Sayed is now favored to beat Rep. Haley Stevens in Tuesday’s Senate primary in Michigan. Stevens is running the type of campaign — backed by key party endorsements, support in the Black community and plenty of money — that has helped centrist Democrats like her defeat progressive challengers for years. That pattern held for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. But the voters on the receiving end of that effort are in a much different place than they were in 2024, much less 2018 or 2016. “So many people feel the same way I do, that something needs to be done,” said Jan Cohen, who founded a local Indivisible chapter last year. “And the only reasonable thing seems to be: Burn it down and start over, and make it different. We have to take the stands and do everything we can.” Cohen voted against El-Sayed in 2018 when he ran for governor against Gretchen Whitmer. But she said she’s grown frustrated with Michigan Democratic leaders recently, worried they no longer seem to be pushing progressive policy through the state and upset at their support for Stevens.

MTG teams up with Tucker Carlson and Thomas Massie to plot new political party: ‘The movement has begun’

Former Republicans Majorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson are apparently serious about their plans to launch a new political party — and they’ve got some help too. Greene posted a picture on Saturday of her and her new husband Brian Glenn sitting at a wooden table headed by Carlson, who was flanked by lame duck Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and another ex-fan of President Donald Trump: Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who quit earlier this year in protest of the Iran war. Massie and Kent’s wife are also seated at the table. Everyone appears to be pretty jolly in the picture — and focused on their mission to upend American politics.

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“We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise. But he’s betrayed us all,” Greene wrote. “Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left, and center.” “The movement has begun,” Greene capped off her post. And the gang’s fuel-of-choice for the plotting session? A batch of chocolate chip cookies and milk, based on the spread on the table. MTG’s pic comes a month after Carlson said he was working to “help build” a new third party. Carlson said it was imperative because the Republicans and Democrats are too busy worrying about foreign affairs while the lives of average Americans crumble. His announcement followed Carlson saying in June he was done voting for Republicans. MTG made the same announcement soon after.

How a top law firm went from standing up to Trump to bending the knee

On his desk at the law firm Paul Weiss, Brad Karp keeps a framed picture of a young girl and her father embracing after they had been separated at the border by the immigration policies of the first Trump administration. It is a reminder of one of the firm’s proudest moments — when Mr. Karp, as chairman, led its lawyers to fight the administration in court and undertake the painstaking work to reunite families. “It was a call to arms,” Mr. Karp said later. But two months into the second Trump administration, when the president came for Paul Weiss with an executive order imposing crippling sanctions, Mr. Karp did not just lay down arms. He rushed to the White House to surrender. The legal and political worlds were shocked.

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Paul Weiss was a titan in the legal business, known for its stable of elite litigators and for its history of standing up to the government and championing progressive causes going back to the civil rights movement. But sitting in the Oval Office in March 2025, Mr. Karp bent without a fight to an executive order that was widely seen as illegal. Four law firms that fought similar executive orders won quick injunctions from incensed judges, making Paul Weiss’s capitulation particularly consequential for President Trump’s retribution campaign against an array of perceived enemies. Eight other firms followed Paul Weiss in making deals with the White House, agreeing to perform a total of nearly $1 billion in free legal work for causes Mr. Trump supported. “They’re just saying, ‘Where do I sign?’” Mr. Trump bragged. “No one can believe it.” But behind the public disbelief was a deeper story of an institution that had slowly come loose from its roots. That story, pieced together in a New York Times investigation, reveals that Paul Weiss’s bow to the White House was the culmination of a reordering of power and finances behind the scenes at the firm for years.

Gulf states pressed Trump to hold off on Iran strikes and pursue talks

President Trump held off on a new attack on Iran as mediators made fresh progress on a plan to open the strategic Strait of Hormuz and some Gulf states pressed the president to pursue dialogue with Tehran, people familiar with the matter said. Trump’s abrupt announcement on social media, posted early Sunday in the Middle East, that he had called off the strikes eased tensions between the U.S. and Iran—at least for the moment. His pivot was the latest in a pattern by the president, who has swung between dire threats against Tehran and soothing claims that a peace deal is within reach. Regional mediators have worked to push the U.S. and Iran into a new ceasefire. Qatari mediators presented Iran on Saturday with a fresh proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian diplomats reacted positively to it, raising hopes that a compromise may be near, mediators said.

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An Iranian diplomat confirmed Tehran had expressed openness to a proposal from mediators, though it wasn’t clear if Iran would ultimately agree to it. The proposal would create new traffic patterns for ships transiting the strait, which is bordered by Iran on the northern shore and Oman on the southern. Iran insisted last week that it control at least part of both lanes through the strait, which usually carries 20% of the world’s oil trade. It was unclear Sunday how the new proposal addresses a key sticking point—Iran’s stated desire to collect fees or tolls from ships passing through the strait, a position the U.S. has strongly opposed. Iranian diplomats also presented new ideas Friday to open the strategic waterway and lift sanctions on their country’s oil, regional officials said. Just a few hours before Trump’s announcement, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held a call with the U.S. president urging dialogue to reduce escalation in the region, according to Saudi state media and Saudi officials familiar with the matter.

RFK Jr. targets Fauci and pushes medical misinformation in fiery CNN interview

In attempting to rewrite the history of the US Covid-19 response, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday pinned the blame for pandemic lockdowns on Dr. Anthony Fauci, while simultaneously reviving a string of debunked assertions about vaccines, RSV and measles. Kennedy’s appearance came in the wake of a congressional hearing with Fauci last week, when the infections disease expert invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination more than 100 times, as Republicans lambasted him for his role in handling the pandemic. Kennedy joined the chorus of criticism on CNN’s “State of the Union with Dana Bash,” saying President Donald Trump, who was in office at the beginning of the pandemic and notably downplayed the virus, was not to blame for the government’s response.

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“Trump, as you recall, wanted to end the lockdowns. I think the thing that did the most damage to our country was the lockdowns,” he said. The lockdowns were overseen by state and local leaders who were responding to ICUs being overwhelmed and hospitals asking for help to get control of the situation in the early stages of the pandemic. Dr. Ashish Jha, who served as the White House Covid-19 response coordinator under President Joe Biden from 2022 to 2023, pushed back on Kennedy’s claims, saying, “accountability has to be with our political leaders,” while condemning his false claims on the inefficacy of vaccines. “The accountability has to be with our political leaders, not with scientists who are giving advice. Second issue that i just want to quickly reflect on. There was a lot of information that Secretary Kennedy said that just isn’t true. It’s just factually not true,” Jha told Bash in an interview following Kennedy’s appearance.

Copyright August 03, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved