September 13, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Exclusive new poll of Hispanic Texas voters shows a collapse of the GOP’s 2024 coalition in the state

A new survey of Texas Hispanic likely voters, conducted for The Cook Political Report and TelevisaUnivision, finds the Democratic candidates in the state’s Senate and gubernatorial contests leading their GOP opponents by a 2-1 margin with the key voting bloc, as President Donald Trump’s job approval rating in the state has sunk to just 33% with a demographic group that swung hard in his direction in 2024. The poll, conducted August 26 —September 3 by Democratic firm Hart Research and Republican firm OnMessage Inc, also included an oversample of Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley/South Texas, the centerpiece of Trump’s 2024 coalition and the home to three marquee House races (in TX-15, TX-28 and TX-34). In that subsample, Democrats enjoyed a 14 point advantage over Republicans, 53% to 39%, on the generic ballot.

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Hispanic voters in Texas understand the important role they play in Texas elections. Seven in ten said they think Hispanics in the state have a lot or some political influence, including 41% who said they have “real political power” in Texas. Moreover, two-thirds said they’d like candidates to conduct outreach in the Hispanic community in Spanish, and 69% said they believe candidates signal that they “want to earn my vote” when they appear on Spanish-language media. Democrats’ strong showing among Hispanics in the Lone Star state is a significant shift from 2024, when Trump carried Hispanic voters by 10 points and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz carried them by three. In this cycle’s Senate contest, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico leads Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton among Hispanic voters by 63% to 30%, including a whopping 73% of self-described independents. And in her race against incumbent GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who won 40% of Hispanics in 2022, Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa leads among Hispanic voters, 60% to 33%.

Why thousands of Texas students returned school vouchers

Shundelon Ross hoped the seventh school would be the one to work. Her son wandered the hallways, clutching his favorite stuffed animal. He threw high fives to the employees. He stared, mesmerized, at the chickens pecking around the coop. Ross believed a private school would better serve her 5-year-old son, who has autism. Affording tuition became possible after he was approved for a school voucher. That’s why, as they toured First Baptist Academy in Dallas, her anticipation soared. After the visit came the application, then the admission decision.

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The Texas Education Freedom Accounts promised vouchers would give students with special needs options beyond public schools. Despite being awarded taxpayer-funded accounts, many families struggled to find a suitable school to spend it on. This means private education is still out of reach for Texas’ most vulnerable children, critics of the voucher program say. “Private does not always mean better,” Ross said. “With more opportunity, comes more work, more heartbreak, more disappointment.” Proponents believe private schools will proliferate and meet demand. The comptroller’s office, which oversees TEFA, plans to survey families to understand why they opted out, and their responses will inform the improvements made to the program, a spokesperson said. It’s also possible parents were unaware of deadlines, considering public school, or moved out of state, he said. While 29,400 applicants with disabilities were deemed eligible, at least 7,400 have since returned their voucher. By early September, a total of 27,500 students left the funds on the table, according to data received through a public records request. The Dallas Morning News spoke to six North Texas parents about the challenges they faced in their private school search.

Top A.I. leaders call for slowing down A.I. development

Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development in a 3,800-word essay on Saturday, just days after one of the company’s employees quit over concerns about the safety of the technology. Top executives of other major A.I. companies quickly signed on to the effort. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI; Elon Musk, whose SpaceX rocket company has been ramping up spending on A.I.; and Demis Hassabis, the chair of Google DeepMind, wrote in social media posts that they agreed on the need for a slower pace. Mr. Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic to focus on securely and carefully building A.I., wrote in his essay that while he believed the technology could bring many benefits, it was advancing at too rapid a pace for researchers to continue safely.

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“Over the last few months, I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence — not just investing in risk prevention, but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up,” Mr. Amodei wrote. “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of A.I. models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.” Mr. Amodei has warned about the safety risks of A.I. for years. But his essay amounted to one of the most full-throated calls for urgent action from a leading A.I. company executive to date. He called for independent auditors to check the companies for safety standards and urged global cooperation in creating rules around A.I. development. The appeal for an industrywide pause follows months of escalating concerns across the technology industry as A.I. model development has made significant strides at companies like Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, as well as OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and Google’s DeepMind.

These are the Trump investigations Democrats plan if they win in November

House Democrats are eagerly preparing to wield a power they do not yet have. Favored to regain the majority in November’s midterm elections — and with little official business to consider in the handful of days left in this session — Democrats’ attention has turned to mapping out an accountability agenda that would pull President Donald Trump, his administration and his family into a harsh spotlight next year. The Washington Post spoke to a dozen Democratic members and staffers poised to run committees should the party retake the House. They said they are preparing sweeping investigations of Trump’s growing wealth in office, his remaking of the federal government and his pursuit of his political enemies. In recent weeks, staffers have connected with outside groups for guidance on how to conduct effective investigations.

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These are the priorities now emerging: Democrats are laying the groundwork for investigations of how Trump and his family are getting richer while he is in office. Garcia’s committee launched a running tracker of the Trump family’s profits from cryptocurrency and foreign deals, calculating that Trump pocketed $2.25 billion from foreign payments in the first year of his second term. Meanwhile, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), who would play a key investigatory role as head of the Judiciary Committee for a Democratic majority, has sought more information about investments by 1789 Capital and American Ventures, venture capital firms linked to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Raskin’s investigation would probe companies the Trump sons invested in that got government contracts or favorable policies from the administration. Democrats have slammed Trump for using his clemency power to pardon convicted fraudsters who donated to his campaigns or who maintain close ties to his political circle. Many of those pardoned fraudsters were absolved of the requirement to pay restitution to their victims. One case they’ve flagged for review is that of nursing home executive Joseph Schwartz, who spent nearly $1 million lobbying last year for a pardon, which Trump granted seven months after Schwartz was sentenced for defrauding the government out of $38 million.

Republican groups rush to Paxton’s aid in Texas after staying on sidelines

A major Republican group booked more than $51 million worth of advertising in the Texas Senate race on Friday to help Ken Paxton, the G.O.P. nominee whose tight race has become a growing concern in the party as it seeks to keep control of the upper chamber of Congress. For months, top Republican outside groups stayed away from Mr. Paxton’s contest, where polls show a close competition between him and a well-funded Democratic opponent, James Talarico. But a flood of outside money suddenly arrived over the last two weeks to help Mr. Paxton amid Mr. Talarico’s rising prospects of winning. The new $51 million investment from Texas PAC, a group affiliated with the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC allied with Senate Republican leaders, adds to the more than $23 million that has already been booked by a half dozen other G.O.P. groups on advertising for Mr. Paxton from Sept. 1 through Election Day.

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That gives Mr. Paxton and Republican allies a 5-to-1 spending advantage over Mr. Talarico and Democratic allies, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm. For months, the Democratic side had possessed a clear spending advantage. The approximate total of $75 million doesn’t include all of a $10 million Texas ad buy disclosed by President Trump’s super PAC last week or the $2 million-plus investment in voter contact work from Elon Musk’s super PAC. That Mr. Paxton is abruptly in this position is a twist in the Texas race. After defeating Senator John Cornyn in the primary, with Mr. Trump’s help, Mr. Paxton spent months as a heavy financial underdog, with various Republican groups hoping that at least one would step up to spend in an expensive state that can drain an organization’s coffers. Now, the Republican financial establishment appears to have decided to jump in together to boost Mr. Paxton. When the Senate Leadership Fund outlined its spending plans in April, an investment in Texas was notably omitted. Pressure to spend mounted from fellow Republicans for months. Alex Latcham, the head of the Senate Leadership Fund, said on Friday that its ad buy “affirms our commitment to maintaining the Republican majority.” When Mr. Paxton defeated Mr. Cornyn, who some Republicans argued was the stronger general election option, many in the party braced for a more difficult and expensive general election. Allies of Mr. Cornyn, who is close with many donors and served in Senate leadership, were embittered by the outcome, complicating Mr. Paxton’s path to consolidating support. Some wondered why they should have to rescue a candidate they saw as flawed and didn’t want to nominate in the first place.

State Stories

Texas Supreme Court blocks Galveston County from using new precinct map in November election

The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Galveston County cannot use its newly approved 2026 precinct boundaries for the November general election. In the Sept. 11 opinion, the court states the county cannot "change the lines applicable to an election after the election has begun." The new boundaries, which affect precincts for county commissioners, constables and justices of the peace, were redrawn and approved on June 29 — between the March primary election and the November general election. County officials made the maps effective immediately. A Galveston County constable and two county residents filed an emergency petition asking the Texas Supreme Court to block the new precinct boundaries so they couldn't be used in the November election.

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The plaintiffs argued the change wasn’t fair to voters or potential candidates whose precincts changed mid-election year. The court instructed the county to use the same precinct maps from the March 2026 primary election in the upcoming November election and only conduct a general election for offices where a primary election was held. However, Sarah Chen, an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said nothing prevents the County from using the map after the general election. Galveston County Judge Mark Henry previously told Houston Public Media that the new map was designed to improve judicial function for the justices of the peace, create opportunities for fiscal efficiencies within the county government and enhance the likelihood of Republican victories in the area.

Charging document in decorum case against ex-state Rep. Burnam too vague: defense

The document that serves as the charging instrument for former state Rep. Lon Burnam in connection with his conduct last month at a lectern during a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting is improperly vague and includes an erroneous date for the alleged offenses, the retired politician’s defense attorney argues in a motion seeking the case’s dismissal. The arguments in the motion to quash are similar for each of two offenses, hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct and disrupting a meeting or procession. The charging instrument, known as an information, omits references to the specific acts that the state alleges are the basis for the disruption offense, the attorney, Tiffany Burks, wrote in the motion that was filed on Wednesday.

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Charging instruments for offenses in which recklessness is the alleged culpability, as it is in the hindering crime, require specificity, Burks argues. The motion helpfully offers an example of how a hindering information document could have been properly written. The offense date in the information document is off by a year. It alleges Burnam committed the crimes on Aug. 4, 2025. The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office has not yet filed a motion in response. Sheriff’s deputies carried Burnam out of the Aug. 4, 2026, meeting after he picked up a microphone during his public comment slot. “The government cannot simply accuse someone of committing a crime and leave the defense to guess what specific conduct supposedly made that person a criminal,” Burks wrote in a statement distributed on Thursday to the press. “Mr. Burnam is entitled to know precisely what the State alleges he did, particularly in a case arising from speech and conduct at a public government meeting.”

Teacher prep programs across Texas directed to bar faculty from teaching about the 1619 Project

A new mandate from the Texas Education Agency says teacher preparation programs at both public and private colleges must promise to follow the state’s K-12 anti-DEI law under penalty of perjury. The promise comes with the apparent weight of a legal document. The form obtained by Texas Public Radio required the signature of the leadership of every Educator Preparation Program in the state by September 1, including their full name, birthdate and address. By signing the form, the leaders pledge that their staff will comply with a three-page list of limitations on discussions about race, gender and history. The list is derived from two laws limiting classroom instruction at the K-12 level: the so-called “anti-CRT” law passed in 2021 and Senate Bill 12 in 2025, which has been described as both a “parental rights” law and an anti-DEI or “Don’t Say Gay” law.

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Key provisions in the form include a ban on discussion of the 1619 Project, a series by The New York Times Magazine marking the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in America, and an edict that slavery and racism can only be described as a “deviation from” or "betrayal" of American values. Although the laws limiting course topics are intended for K-12 schools, the Texas Education Agency form stated that Educator Preparation Programs are required to comply “in the same manner as if the program were a school district.” TEA told Educator Preparation Programs they would need to sign the form in July, stating that compliance was required starting in July 2025 and that, this year, a new agency rule required program leaders to sign an “attestation document” promising compliance. Texas currently has 119 Educator Preparation Programs. They are certified by TEA as the authority overseeing teacher certification in the state. That authority gives TEA some oversight, even with programs located at private institutions. TPR confirmed with a staff member at Trinity University in San Antonio that their Educator Preparation Program had received the form and were required to sign, despite being a private university that had elected not to receive state funding for teacher certification.

Morgan Meyer: Why I support the UNT Dallas law enforcement training center

( State Rep. Morgan Meyer represents Texas House District 108 which includes North Dallas, University Park and Highland Park. He is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.) Public safety sits at the core of what we expect from government. Public safety is infrastructure — the foundation that supports a healthy economy, vibrant neighborhoods and strong families. That’s why I was a strong advocate for state funding for the new law enforcement training center at the University of North Texas at Dallas. Today’s officers face a complex set of demands: responding to violent crime, de-escalating tense situations, adapting to new technologies, addressing mental health crises and earning the trust of diverse communities. The quality of their training and their ability to handle the daily demands they face impact us all. With North Texas growing at a remarkable pace, our public safety needs are evolving just as quickly.

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The new training center isn’t just for Dallas police cadets; it will serve experienced officers from across the region. This means departments large and small will have access to advanced training and ongoing education that might otherwise be out of reach. That’s why state involvement is appropriate. When a facility serves officers and communities beyond city lines, it becomes a vital part of Texas’s public safety infrastructure. State support ensures North Texas can train the workforce we need to keep up with both our population and our economy. Locating the center at UNT Dallas adds another layer of significance. Placing a major law enforcement training facility on a university campus creates opportunities for collaboration and learning that simply aren’t possible when an academy stands alone. We should encourage more officers to pursue college degrees and commit to lifelong learning throughout their careers. Tomorrow’s law enforcement leaders need to understand not just policing, but the broader criminal justice system they operate within. A university setting helps build stronger connections between policing, criminal justice, behavioral health, public policy, research and community engagement.

Texas makes history with a win it badly needed against No. 1 Ohio State

More than 105,000 were inside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday night, but more than 405,000 will claim they were there to see something that may never happen again. You can watch college football for the rest of your life and never see what Texas did to Ohio State when the Longhorns scored 21 fourth-quarter points to beat the Buckeyes 24-23. It is the first time Texas beat the top-ranked team in the country in Austin since 1950. Saturday night in Austin for No. 4 Texas against No. 1 Ohio State is one of the times when college football proves it can do whatever it wants, shoot itself in the foot and face, treat the fans like garbage, and it doesn’t matter. There is nothing else like a big-on-big college football game, and we will deal with anything to watch it. “You dream of playing in games like this,” Texas quarterback Arch Manning said.

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After the game, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian called it the best win at home he’s enjoyed in his tenure. “I know what football means to this state, and this university, and when you can win a game like this for these people I appreciate it,” Sarkisian said. “Is this the biggest win? I don’t know. This one is special. To beat the No. 1 team in the country in the fashion we did, to represent the name on our chest, means a lot." Sarkisian is fine, and safe, but he needed this. So did Manning. So did Texas. The University of Texas board of regents and UT athletic director Chris Del Conte rescued Sarkisian’s head coaching career with an opportunity that his past said he may never receive; their trust and faith has been rewarded by an era that is better than those of Tom Herman and Charlie Strong. An era that is very good. Not great. Not Ohio State great. Texas under Sark isn’t even Indiana great.

Ted Cruz booed during 'College GameDay' appearance at Texas

"College GameDay" panelist Nick Saban has been one of the most outspoken proponents of the "Protect College Sports Act," and the show brought Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on ahead of Texas-Ohio State on Sept. 12 to rally support for the bill. It didn't go as planned. Cruz drew a chorus of boos from the Austin crowd upon his appearance with Rece Davis, and a myriad of jeers throughout his segment. Cruz touched on everything from the Lane Kiffin situation in LSU to Brendan Sorsby's offseason as why the bill should pass, labeling it as "chaos."

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Though he didn't conduct the segment, Saban has appeared in advertising spots professing the importance of the bill, as has Colorado head coach Deion Sanders. Cruz sponsors the bill, as does Maria Cantwell (D) out of Washington. Though the crowd petered out a bit toward the end, it obviously wasn't keen on having Cruz on the dais. Cruz spoke for a little under eight minutes. What is the Protect College Sports Act? The Protect College Sports Act is a bipartisan bill meant to wrangle some of the offseason chaos that has permeated college sports since the emergence of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). It allowed student athletes to be compensated by NIL while requiring reporting of agreements over $600. It also bans agreements outside of NIL meant to circumvent fair market value. The bill further places restrictions upon agents, forcing them to be registered with their state, and it allowed for one transfer without losing any eligibility and a second transfer with a year of lost eligibility. It gives five years of eligibility for athletes. "College GameDay" did not give opposition of the bill a platform, with a vote upcoming this week. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) has been one of the more outspoken critics of the bill, writing on his website in May that the antitrust exemption in the bill will keep the athletes underpaid alongside the hard cap.

Texas legislature to hold hearings on annexing New Mexico counties

A proposal by two New Mexico legislators to allow three counties along the Texas border to secede from the Land of Enchantment was dead on arrival in Santa Fe earlier this year, but across the border in Texas Lone Star legislators are running with the idea and holding hearings backed by Texas’ Speaker of the House. In January, New Mexico Representatives Randall Pettigrew and Jimmy Mason, both Republicans representing parts of Chaves, Eddy & Lea Counties on the Texas border with New Mexico, introduced a draft of a state Constitutional amendment allowing “three or more contiguous counties” to secede from New Mexico.

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Pettigrew said at the time that he introduced the proposal to draw attention to the political differences between those more conservative-leaning counties and the Democratic majority in the legislature and state offices. The New Mexico proposal landed flat in Santa Fe but it appears to have spurred interest in the Republican-controlled Texas legislature. The Texas Governmental Oversight Committee announced this week that it would hold hearings in late September exploring whether to annex Lea, Roosevelt and Eddy Counties. “We didn’t initiate this, state representatives from New Mexico initiated bills to remove themselves – not to become their own state – but to become part of West Texas,” Lubbock State Representative Carl Tepper, who is on the Governmental Oversight Committee, told KCBD. Even if Texas passes a bill, a companion bill would still have to be approved in New Mexico and Congress gets the final say.

$100 billion pipeline company Energy Transfer will move stock listing from New York to Dallas

Dallas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer and its affiliates, together worth nearly $100 billion, are moving primary stock listings from the New York Stock Exchange to the Texas Stock Exchange, marking one of the biggest wins yet for “Y’all Street.” Energy Transfer, one of the largest oil and gas transporters in the world, announced Thursday it expects its shares to begin trading through TXSE on Oct. 5. The company said the move aligns its "Texas-based legacy with TXSE's technology-driven platform." Energy Transfer LP CEO Kelcy Warren also owns a 30% stake in TXSE Group, the stock exchange's parent company, according to the Wall Street Journal. TXSE Chairman and CEO James Lee called the move a "watershed moment for capital markets."

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"The movement of primary listings out of New York and into Texas has begun," Lee said. "This is the beginning of a larger trend that will reshape the broader listings landscape in the United States for decades and position Texas as a global capital markets leader." The NYSE and Nasdaq have a virtual duopoly on stock listing. That means TXSE snagging even one corporate listing away could be seen as a major win. But those exchanges haven’t been idle. The two separately launched NYSE Texas and Nasdaq Texas in response to TXSE. This primary listing comes as Texas tries to beef up its business-friendly environment with institutions like the Texas Business Court, which was created in 2023 to handle complex business disputes. Oil and gas giant ExxonMobil voted this year to move its home from New Jersey to Texas. "Companies across the U.S. are reevaluating where they are headquartered, where they are legally domiciled, and where they list," Lee said. "Texas has built a complete business ecosystem with advantages across all three."

Houston students receive new shoes with help from Olympic champion Carl Lewis

Olympic champion Carl Lewis helped welcome about 100 Houston-area middle school students to a shopping trip for new athletic shoes Thursday at Academy Sports + Outdoors. The event was part of Kicks for Class, a charitable initiative sponsored by the Heil Law Firm and organized by Communities In Schools of Houston. The program provides shoes to students who might otherwise be unable to participate in school sports and team activities. Students from Edison Middle School, Owens Intermediate School, Paul Revere Middle School and Spring Woods Middle School selected and tried on new shoes with help from CIS volunteers. Each school brought 25 students. The event was held in conjunction with Communities In Schools’ national Ready, Set, Learn! Back-to-School Tour and CIS National’s Site Coordinator Appreciation Week.

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What is KPRC 2 ENOUGH? Inside Houston's new 10 p.m. show

If you've spent any time scrolling social media lately, you may have seen KPRC 2 anchor Stephania Jimenez appearing in ads alongside frustrated Houstonians venting about high bills, missed trash pickup and problems they can't seem to get fixed. The ads all end on the same word: ENOUGH. But what exactly is ENOUGH? The answer starts to take shape Sunday, when KPRC 2 launches a new digital-first accountability series and reworked 10 p.m. newscast built around deeper reporting on issues affecting Houston-area residents. Chron got an early look Wednesday at a portion of the show inside KPRC's studios, where station leaders described the project as a major departure from the familiar rhythm of local TV news.

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One previewed episode focuses on Texas' new Education Freedom Accounts program. Reporter Rilwan Balogun examines what happened after one private-school parent said his existing financial aid was reduced once his family qualified for state funding. Balogun said he emailed 287 qualifying Houston-area private schools about their policies, traveled to Austin seeking answers from state officials and went to Phoenix to examine how a similar program has played out in Arizona. Jimenez also interviewed a journalist at KPRC sister station WKMG in Orlando about Florida's voucher program. "We're so focused on breaking news, we're so focused on just what local news has become over the last 20 years," McLaughlin said, describing the development of ENOUGH as a "complete reset." The changes extend beyond what viewers will see on television. News Director Ana Lastra said much of the reporting begins online, where reporters post about subjects they are investigating, ask questions and sift through audience feedback before a finished segment reaches the broadcast. "This is truly digital conversation with the community on the issues that they care about," Lastra said.

A Texas LNG plant pumps out chronic, unpermitted pollution, a watchdog finds

A gas export terminal on the Gulf Coast of Texas has routinely violated air pollution permits for years with little consequences from state regulators, according to a report released this week by Oilfield Witness, an environmental watchdog. The Texas-based activist group cited thousands of pages of documents and a month of optical gas monitoring in its 27-page report on Freeport LNG, the nation’s third-largest exporter of liquified natural gas, where an explosion in 2022 caused an eight-month shutdown. Oilfield Witness identified 532 unpermitted emission events reported by the company since 2019, along with more than 200 other permit deviations, but just seven penalty fines levied by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. “The findings in this report paint a stark picture of an out of control operator,” said the report. “This incompetence is enabled by regulators failing to act.”

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The report tallied annual emissions more than 100 times greater than established limits. It also found that part of the $14 billion Freeport LNG complex reported emitting a staggering 1,500 pounds of the carcinogen benzene, known to cause leukemia, in 2024—five times more than its larger counterpart down the coast, Corpus Christi LNG. A spokesperson for Freeport LNG, Heather Browne, said in a statement: “Freeport LNG’s unwavering commitment to safety, reliability and environmental stewardship and preservation are at the forefront of our operations. Our electric-drive LNG facility reduces plant emissions by over 90% relative to a typical LNG liquefaction facility, and our facility’s carbon footprint is the lowest of any LNG liquefaction facility in the world.” Freeport LNG is currently expanding with a fourth liquefaction unit in development. Earlier in September, Japan’s state-owned lender announced an investigation into its $2.6 billion financing for the project following complaints from community leaders and environmental groups, Global Trade Review magazine reported on Wednesday. “Japanese financial institutions and companies are deeply involved in the Freeport LNG project,” said Ayumi Fukakusa, executive director of climate, energy, and development at Friends of the Earth Japan, in a press release Thursday. “They should re-examine the environmental and social risks.”

National Stories

Trump likes to talk about being friends with pro golfers

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump loves the game of golf. He likes to watch, play and even design courses. He also isn’t shy about his friendships with the pros. Trump is spending the weekend at his golf resort in the village of Doonbeg, Ireland, where he is watching the Irish Open being played there. Irish golfer Shane Lowry held a four-shot lead going into Sunday’s final day of competition. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin was expected to join Trump for the match. Trump’s friend, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, said golf is one of the things the president does for fun. “The president works all day, every day. And there are two things that he does for enjoyment,” Lutnick told reporters recently. “He plays golf on the weekend and he builds. He loves to build.”

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Trump has built friendships with some of the pros. He name drops and lavishes praise on them whenever he talks about them. “I have so many friends that are professional, top professional golfers,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s “The Five” earlier this year. He then named Rory McIlroy,Tiger Woods,Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler, among them. He also posts pictures on social media of him with pro golfers after their rounds. Trump has given awards to some and invited them to the White House. Others are helping him redesign Washington-area golf courses. Trump said DeChambeau is among the “great pros.” The two have played together and DeChambeau has appeared at the White House. He celebrated his first U.S. Open title in 2020 at one of Trump’s golf properties in New York. Last year, he was chosen as the chairperson of Trump’s reconstituted version of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, an advisory committee. The South African pro golfer was in the Oval Office in May 2025 as part of the delegation accompanying Cyril Ramaphosa, his country’s president, to a meeting with Trump. Fellow South African golfer Retief Goosen was also part of the group. “Ernie Els is a great golfer. He’s a truly great golfer and Retief Goosen, who’s another really — we call him really a great golfer, too, Ernie, right?” Trump said. “These two guys are fantastic, and we could add Gary to the group, Gary Player. What a group of golfers South Africa has had. There must be something in the water, right?”

Speaker Johnson says Congress would work to deliver $5,000 checks Trump promised to Americans

House Speaker Mike Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that Congress would “work through” President Donald Trump’s promise to give $5,000 to American adults if Republicans keep the House and Senate after the midterm elections. “I commit that Congress will work through it and find consensus on that, like I have to do everything else,” Johnson said, when asked whether he would commit to carrying out Trump’s promise. Johnson said “it takes some time,” pointing to Republicans’ slim majorities. “I never go out and give big commitments on the front end because I’ve got to work through it, and that’s what we do every single day,” he said. Asked whether he was willing to double down on Trump’s promise to voters, Johnson said: “I’ll work with the president hand in hand, as I do all the time, and we’ll deliver for the American people.”

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“That’s the promise,” he added. At Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas, Trump spoke on both nights, making a promise to the American people on Wednesday to issue $5,000 checks called the “Trump dividend” if Republicans do well in the midterms. The move sparked concerns from from Democrats, some Republicans and economic experts. Critics have characterized the president’s promise as an attempt to bribe voters and said that the move would drive up inflation. “So if the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump dividend,” the president told attendees. Asked later whether Congress would need to approve such a disbursement of funds, Trump told CBS News, “We think not,” but added: “I think they will do it if we needed it.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., sidestepped a question Thursday on Fox News about whether congressional Republicans would support such a measure. “Well, that’s a good question. And we’ll cross our bridge when we come to it,” he said. Johnson also addressed the war with Iran, which shows no signs of resolving soon. Congress controls the nation’s funding, but Republicans have largely been willing to provide the administration with requested funds. Asked whether the White House has a blank check to continue the war, Johnson said “no.”

Kimberley A. Strassel: Trump targets the wrong base

(Kimberley Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes editorials, as well as the weekly Potomac Watch political column, from her base in Alaska.) “Know your audience,” goes the old line, a maxim to maximize a speaker’s effectiveness. President Trump opened the GOP’s midterm convention Wednesday by speaking for nearly two hours to all the wrong people. Excitement in Dallas’s American Airlines Center was certainly huge. Thousands of loyal supporters donned Trump hats and buttons and pins, waved signs and roared approval throughout the president’s address. Fans traveled hundreds of miles and waited in line for hours, considering “Trump Live” the fulfillment of a bucket list. This is the GOP’s midterm strategy: Triple down on the MAGA base. The impulse stems from polls showing Republicans suffering from a big enthusiasm gap compared with Democrats.

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The GOP has internalized the belief that its problem is MAGA loyalists who tune out when Mr. Trump isn’t the main event. So they are running this president as if he’s on the ballot, while the president runs entirely to his most loyal crowd. That’s an incredibly risky midterm bet, based on a potentially fatal misreading of the data. “Bases” are sprawling things, and today’s Republican version can be broadly separated between MAGA enthusiasts—deeply loyal to Mr. Trump—and more-traditional Republicans. Pollster Scott Rasmussen of RMG Research makes that distinction by asking voters the following question: If you had to choose between four candidates of equal character and competence, would you prefer someone who advocated: A) Trump-like policies, B) traditional Republican policies, C) traditional Democratic policies, or D) policies like those of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? The key point coming out of RMG’s most recent polling on that question? That MAGA base—those who answered A—is already fired up. The August numbers show that more than 50% of them are “very enthusiastic” about voting. “Every bit of data we have show the Trump group is just as excited as Democrats,” Mr. Rasmussen says. “This base remains ready to crawl across glass for this guy.”

Charlie Kirk’s lieutenant has second thoughts

Five days a week, or sometimes more if news requires it, Blake Neff takes his seat behind a V-shaped plexiglass desk on the set of the Charlie Kirk Show. Directly to Neff’s left, toward the center of the V, sits “Charlie’s chair,” the high-back green leather rolling chair favored by the show’s namesake, the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Following Kirk’s death one year ago during an event at Utah Valley University, his colleagues at the Charlie Kirk Show started filling the studio with a collection of the gifts and commemorative knick-knacks that fans were sending in droves. The tidal wave of gifts eventually tapered off, but the habit of keeping a small pile of items stacked in front of Kirk’s seat persisted, transforming “Charlie’s chair” into a kind of semi-permanent memorial to the show’s departed host.

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On a Tuesday morning earlier this summer, Neff, a bespectacled 36-year-old with a clean-shaven head and a naturally nerdy affect, catalogued the contents of that pile for me: a gold and white Trump “47” hat, a pocket Constitution, a gold challenge coin inscribed with a Bible verse and a plush giraffe hand puppet beloved by Kirk’s two children. Neff joined the staff of the Charlie Kirk Show in 2022 as a writer and producer, but since Kirk’s death, he has assumed full-time hosting responsibilities alongside Kirk’s longtime spokesperson Andrew Kolvet. His new role as the public face of the Charlie Kirk Show has come as something of a surprise — chiefly to Neff himself. A self-described “cultivated wordcel” with a passion for elaborate military-historical board games, Neff told me that he never expected to have a permanent on-air presence, having spent most of his career cranking out scripts for more telegenic bosses. But in another sense, Neff’s new gig is just the latest unlikely twist in a career that has been unusually full of them. By his own admission, Neff has become a kind of Forrest Gump of the conservative movement, a little-known figure who, through a combination of dumb luck and sheer pluckiness, has found himself at the center of several pivotal moments in the recent history of the American right. In 2016, while working as an education reporter at the conservative website The Daily Caller, Neff was tapped to serve as the lead writer of the newly created Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight, which Neff helped transform into the leading organ of MAGA-style populism during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The new threat election officials fear: Trump’s federal government

The activists staking out the ballot drop boxes in suburban Phoenix wore body armor and face coverings. With guns at their sides, they recorded residents as they deposited their votes during the last midterm elections. Voting-rights groups sued, and a federal judge put a stop to them, ruling they had to stay at least 250 feet away while armed to ensure voters were not intimidated. Four years later and 100 miles to the south, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover is treating the 2022 incident as a lesson on the importance of moving quickly this fall if anyone — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — tries to interfere with the election’s administration. For her county along the U.S.-Mexico border, Conover has drawn up court papers so she can immediately file litigation to protect the vote.

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“When it comes to preparing for elections, we are on overdrive,” she said. In 2022, one of the greatest threats to elections came from activists like the armed men and women looming near drop boxes and questioning America’s voting procedures. This year, Conover and other officials across the nation are preparing for the possibility that the most serious risks may come from President Donald Trump, his agencies and allies — including many now in power at the federal, state and local levels. Election officials are contemplating ideas that once sounded outlandish, such as troops seizing voting machines, the president dictating last-minute election rules or rogue officials blocking the certification of results. For the last year and a half, Trump and his administration have disparaged long-standing voting practices, dismantled federal agencies that protect elections, impounded ballots from past elections, amplified conspiracy theories, threatened to prosecute election officials, tried to limit mail ballots and pushed to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Their efforts have touched on nearly every stage of voting and could affect control of Congress, as Republicans try to retain their slim majority. A Democratic takeover of the House would stall Trump’s agenda, block funding for his initiatives, trigger a flood of investigations and mire his administration in congressional hearings.

GOP women sound alarm as Lindsay Clancy backlash revives calls to repeal 19th Amendment: ‘Definitely a threat’

Calls to repeal women’s rights to vote are emerging from the online firestorm over the Lindsay Clancy trial, prompting Republican women to warn that the intraparty rhetoric could hurt the GOP. "I think there’s definitely a threat in the Republican Party right now," political and legal strategist Mehek Cooke told Fox News Digital. The online calls to repeal the 19th Amendment come after Clancy’s high-profile murder trial ended in a mistrial, with 11 of the 12 jurors favoring a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. Clancy admitted to killing her three children, but her defense argued that she was not criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

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"Convict Clancy. Also Repeal the 19th Amendment!" one user posted on X. "The female jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial are speaking out about their deliberations and disagreements with the sole male holdout. The more they speak the better they make the case for repealing the 19th Amendment," posted another user. Cooke warned that calls to strip women of the right to vote, largely coming from accounts identifying as conservative, risk alienating female voters from the Republican Party. "When you have these fringe activists online talking about repealing the 19th Amendment or alienating women, it really doesn’t help," Cooke said. The calls followed after the case made waves on social media, particularly after hundreds of mostly female Clancy supporters gathered outside a Massachusetts courthouse during the murder trial. The demonstrators rallying behind Clancy argued the case is an example of the lack of understanding of postpartum depression.

Copyright September 13, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved