September 8, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Inside GOP’s big-money Dallas events

The Republicans’ “midterm convention” in Dallas begins Wednesday. The made-for-TV event is aimed at boosting GOP base turnout in the midterm elections. But this is also Texas — the Republican Party’s biggest ATM. So there’s a lot of big-money fundraising taking place on the sidelines of the main event at the American Airlines Center. House and Senate Republicans are competing for cash from a small group of big-time GOP donors who can dole out hundreds of thousands — or millions — of dollars. The goal of the party committees and super PACs is to convince the check writers that they’re the best investment to save the endangered GOP majorities on Capitol Hill with just 56 days to go. The White House. First, let’s talk about President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. This convention is Trump’s brainchild, designed to counter slumping GOP ratings, although it’s unclear how focusing even more attention on a widely unpopular president can do that.

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Trump posted on Truth Social Monday night yet another promise that oil prices “will drop precipitously” when the United States wins the war with Iran. The war is now in its seventh month. Trump will appear at an RNC roundtable Wednesday. The get-in-the-door price is $250,000. If you want a photo with the president, that will run you $88,600. Vance has his RNC fundraiser Thursday. The roundtable for the VP is $75,000 per person. A photo will cost $35,000. But an event like this, and the confluence of big-money donors, means a lot more to candidates, congressional party committees and super PACs than it does to Trump and Vance. The Senate. The Senate map is increasingly competitive as Trump’s poll numbers sink. Republicans are trying to hold seats in North Carolina, Ohio, Maine, Texas, Iowa and Alaska, and are fighting to flip seats in Michigan, New Hampshire and Georgia. Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP super PAC, has a number of events in Texas, the cycle’s surprise battleground state. SLF has a suite both nights at the convention, as does the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House Republican super PAC. SLF’s brass is participating in the NRSC programming. Alex Latcham, the group’s executive director, will speak at an NRSC “battleground plan lunch” Wednesday.

Canada imposes new tariffs on U.S. goods, as trade war intensifies

New Canadian tariffs targeting roughly $20 billion in U.S. imports officially snapped into place on Tuesday, the latest escalation in an increasingly costly trade war that has ensnarled two longtime allies. The duties apply to a variety of U.S. goods, including clothing, cheese, metal parts and wood products. The approach is meant to mimic the taxes that President Trump imposed on Canada after trade talks between the two neighbors collapsed in acrimony last month. For now, the economic effects of the tit-for-tat may be limited because the tariffs encompass only a small portion of the annual trade between the United States and Canada. The more pressing concern is a potential cycle of retaliation, one that results in even higher and more exhaustive duties that harm families and businesses on both sides of the border.

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In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney has sought to position himself as a bulwark against Mr. Trump’s trade aggression, describing his nation as “at war.” Canadian officials generally have pledged to respond “dollar for dollar” to any U.S. duties. In Washington, the president and his aides have repeatedly mocked their Canadian counterparts and the size of their ally’s economy and military. Mr. Trump has already threatened additional tariffs on auto imports from Canada, and on Friday, he even suggested he could try to halt bilateral trade outright. Then, hours before Canada’s new tariffs took effect, Mr. Trump took to social media to continue his attack. He singled out Bombardier, a Canadian plane manufacturer, claiming there would be “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!” Sign up for Your Places: Global Update. All the latest news for any part of the world you select. In doing so, the president accused Canada of blocking “our GREAT American Banks, and Companies,” and he encouraged U.S. consumers to refrain from buying some Canadian goods. “BUY AMERICAN. FLY ON AMERICAN AIRLINERS. ENJOY AMERICAN LIQUOR AND BEVERAGES. SAIL ON LAKE AMERICA,” Mr. Trump wrote.

As Social Security fund runs dry, some Republicans say it’s time to raise taxes

For decades, Washington has replayed the same fight over taming the soaring national debt: Democrats cite a need for more taxes. Republicans refuse. And anyone who suggests cutting the biggest source of spending — federal retirement benefits — gets attacked. But a coming crisis in Social Security appears to be pushing at least a few Republicans off the GOP’s long-standing pledge never to raise taxes. This summer, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) in proposing to raise the payroll tax cap so people with higher incomes pay more into the program. Now the idea is emerging as an acceptable fix among other GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Tom Cole, the influential chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

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“We’ve got too many people who say, ‘Well, we have to stay within the current income level or stay at the current tax rate,’” Cole (Oklahoma) said in an interview. “I’m willing to look at the tax rate. I am willing to raise the amount of income through tax.” The rare GOP concessions on taxes come as lawmakers begin to confront a Social Security shortfall so large and so imminent that the party’s traditional demand for curtailing benefits is unlikely to suffice. In just six years, millions of Social Security recipients will absorb a 22 percent cut in benefits unless lawmakers provide an immediate infusion of nearly $500 billion. “Twenty or thirty years ago,” when the shortfall was far in the future, “you could come up with a straight-faced solution” that solved the problem entirely by cutting future benefits, said Charles Blahous, a senior research strategist at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center who served from 2010 to 2015 as the Republican public trustee for Social Security. Now the problem is so big and urgent, Blahous said, “I don’t think you can look at it with a straight face and not do all of the above.”

Farmers are going broke amid rising gas prices, while the Ag Secretary profits off them

As farmers grapple with soaring diesel and fertilizer prices and the Department of Agriculture yanks support for cheaper, renewable forms of energy, the agency’s chief, Brooke Rollins, is carrying millions in highly profitable oil and gas investments. In disclosure reports filed in July, Rollins indicated that she and her husband, Mark Rollins, an oil and gas industry executive, together hold as much as $2.5 million in fossil fuel investments. At least $1 million of that is in HKN II, a limited partnership with oil and gas interests in the Kurdistan region of Iraq; another $1 million, at least, is in Hillwood Energy New Ventures, which has interests in oil and gas operations in Texas, Rollins’ home state. Rollins also disclosed that she holds between $250,000 and $550,000 in investments in operating companies that own oil and gas assets in Texas. Since the beginning of this year and President Donald Trump’s launch of the war in Iran, oil and gas prices have skyrocketed, and so have industry profits.

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Prices for diesel hit record highs this week, while prices of fertilizer, which are manufactured with natural gas and tied to the market, have also spiked this year, hitting an agriculture industry already battered by Trump’s tariffs and increasingly extreme weather events. “Farmers have spent a billion and a half [dollars] just on additional costs for diesel because of the Iran war,” said former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a former presidential candidate who campaigned on progressive climate policies. “American farmers are paying through the nose for this.” Inslee is currently working with Climate Power, a strategy and communications group that’s working to push climate and clean energy policies. According to a Climate Power analysis, the only other top Trump administration official with significant fossil fuel investments is Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, who held as much as $320,000 in oil and gas stocks as of the end of 2025. Trump himself has been the biggest beneficiary of his own war.

State Stories

Ted Cruz racks up private jet flights ahead of midterms

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has been crisscrossing the country campaigning for Republicans ahead of November's midterm elections. And he isn't flying coach. Through the first six months of the year, Cruz's Jobs, Freedom and Security PAC spent close to $200,000 on private air travel for the Texas Republican, who spent among the most of anyone in Congress on private fights. Cruz spent twice as much as Senate Majority Leader John Thune's Heartland Values PAC, according to analysis of campaign finance records.

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The flights come as Cruz attempts to fortify Republicans ahead of a midterm election in which the GOP is trying to hold control of the U.S. House and Senate amid flagging approval ratings for President Donald Trump. The flights appear to comply with federal rules, which largely bar members of the U.S. House from private air travel but not senators. Still, doing so can present a problematic image for politicians, said Bill King, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. "Both parties have the populist problem, where people don't like politicians making a lot of money and cozying up to business interests," he said. Cruz's private jet travel marks a significant increase from last year when his campaign committees spent close to $61,000 on private flights, far behind the $560,000 in flights U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders reported and the $178,000 reported by Thune's PAC. A spokesperson for Cruz declined to answer questions about the purpose of the flights, but Cruz has been eager to tout his efforts to boost the GOP. "In the last decade, there has not been another Republican who’s campaigned for more Senate candidates, more House candidates, more gubernatorial candidates than I have," he claimed on Meet the Press last week. "These are the most consequential midterms we have ever had," he said. "I’m going to be on the road non-stop from now to Election Day. If the Democrats take the Senate and House, we will see the entire Trump legislative agenda grind to a halt." The dates of Cruz's private jet payments largely correlate with a run of campaign appearances ahead of state GOP primaries, which run from March to September.

TEA is pushing for more third-party groups to run struggling schools. Does it work?

With several public school districts in North Texas and across the state on the cusp of state takeovers, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath has increasingly encouraged them to turn to third-party organizations to run struggling campuses and avoid state intervention. Texas public districts are subject to a TEA takeover if one of their campuses receives five consecutive F grades in the state’s annual A-F Accountability rating system. That gives Morath the ability to name a new superintendent and replace the school board with a Board of Managers, a process that has already played out at both Fort Worth ISD and Lake Worth ISD in the last calendar year. But a Texas law passed nearly a decade ago could put takeovers on hold — and an increased number of districts in North Texas are using it to maintain control of their campuses.

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Senate Bill 1882 made it legal for districts to partner with external groups to manage struggling campuses. By doing so, campuses get a two-year exemption from state takeovers, meaning a campus can get up to seven F ratings in a row and still not be subject to a takeover. Everman ISD is the latest Tarrant County district to turn to a third party organization to dodge a takeover. Last month the district announced it was partnering with Third Future Schools, a nonprofit educational management organization, to run two of its schools. One of the schools just received a fourth F grade. In a press conference last month, Morath said more districts should turn to third-party organizations, like Everman did. “What I think some school districts are thinking through is, are there partners that might have specialized or a higher degree of expertise in some areas of curriculum, instructional support, those sorts of things?” Morath said. “I think some districts are doing this. They may be doing this because of accountability issues, but like, if it’s a good idea for kids, you should do it. You should do it today. Period. You shouldn’t wait.”

Judge declines to halt Texas THC ban, court records show

Possession of products containing delta-8 and other forms of THC are still a state felony after the Texas officials banned the substances earlier this year. A Texas judge has allowed a wide-ranging THC ban to stay in effect after a hearing last week. Delta-9 THC can generally be regarded as “regular THC.” When state and federal lawmakers legalized hemp, they defined it as cannabis with .3% delta-9 THC or less on a dry-weight basis. However, there are other forms of THC that were not originally regulated by state and federal hemp laws. So, manufacturers and retailers began making and selling products with other forms of THC such as delta-8, which exploded in popularity over the last few years. Now, those other forms of THC are banned in the state. A Travis County District Court judge recently ruled this ban can stay in effect as hemp businesses sue the state over it.

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This is all the result of a Texas Supreme Court decision over the legality of delta-8 THC stemming from a lawsuit brought by hemp manufacturer Hometown Hero in 2021. That year, the Texas Department of State Health Services said all forms of the substance besides .3% delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis were schedule I controlled substances. Hometown Hero sued over the change. For a time, the ban on these other forms of THC was on pause while litigation was pending. The Texas Supreme Court ruled this year that the state could ban delta-8 and other forms of THC outside of delta-9. The state implemented that ban on July 31, adding other forms of THC to the state’s controlled substances list. Possession of these alternative forms of THC is now a state felony. The Texas Supreme Court decision, however, said trace amounts of these substances are allowed in hemp products. However, the court did not define what it meant by “trace amounts.” That’s why hemp businesses such as SS Distro USA LLC and Topps Distro filed suit against the state. Their attorney David Sergi argued in Travis County District Court that trace amounts must be defined if the state hopes to enforce this restriction, and it must be done through a rule-making process. The businesses hoped a judge would grant a temporary restraining order, putting a halt on the ban. The judge ruled otherwise. The businesses and their attorneys are still seeking halts on the bans in court.

Federal crackdown hits CDL training schools, including 13 in Texas

More than 100 commercial driver’s license training providers are being removed from a federal registry as part of a nationwide crackdown on programs accused of failing to meet federal requirements, with 13 Texas schools included on the removal list. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the removals last week. Federal officials said they traced more than 5,000 commercial drivers who failed English-language proficiency requirements back to the providers being removed. According to the spreadsheet provided to KVUE by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the 13 entries where training was conducted in Texas are:

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ASC Technical Institute LLC, Asere Transport, Brothers CDL Training LLC, CDL Aris Truck LLC, CDL Commercial Trucks Training LLC, Cultural Technical Institute LLC, EP Texas Trucking School, Mountain View Vocational Institute LLC, MT Training Center LLC, One Stop CDL Driver Training LLC, Prime Time CDL, Sun City CDL LLC, and Tony CDL Training. The federal action is part of a broader effort to scrutinize how commercial drivers are being trained before they get behind the wheel. Elyas Aboseid, CEO of Get Drivers Ed, said he supports efforts to hold training programs accountable. “It's our responsibility to make sure who actually is licensed on the road, so I support it,” Aboseid said. Get Drivers Ed is not among the providers on the federal removal list. The company offers the online portion of entry-level driver training nationwide and connects students with partner schools for behind-the-wheel instruction.

State Rep. Venton Jones, Gregory Scott Jr. are married

Texas state Rep. Venton Jones, Texas House Democratic Caucus whip and vice chair of the Texas LGBTQ Caucus, on Saturday, Aug. 29, issued a statement announcing his marriage to Gregory D. Scott Jr. “With full hearts, immense joy, and deep gratitude, Gregory and I are proud to share that we are officially married. Surrounded by our families, loved ones and community, we have taken this sacred next step to build our lives, our family and our future together,” Jones said in that statement. “From the day I asked Gregory to marry me on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives, our journey has been grounded in the belief that love conquers all, “Jones continued. “In a time when the LGBTQ+ community and our families continue to see our rights and our very existence challenged — often within the halls of government itself — living, loving and celebrating our union openly and unapologetically is an act of resilience. “Gregory and I stand together as living proof that love wins, progress is unstoppable and no amount of hate can erase the truth of who we are,” he said.

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Dallas City Hall relocation debate stalls as August deadline passes without manager's report

The debate over whether to relocate City Hall appears stuck in a public standstill. Back in June, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert explicitly told the Dallas City Council she did not want the City Hall debate to drag on past August. In the same June 10 meeting, council directed Tolbert to return by Aug. 26 with specific information on relocation plans and possible leasing options. August has now come and gone, and Tolbert's report to the council hasn't happened. City staffers did not present any items to council members for consideration or approval by the Aug. 26 deadline. The reasons for the delay are varied, city council members say. One explanation is that estimates to demolish the current I.M. Pei-designed building are coming in higher than city officials expected — "astronomically" high in the words of one council member. If the city exits the site, it could sell the site as is or raze the building and clear the grounds. Creating a blank slate for the site's next incarnation would likely make it more marketable.

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In the days since Aug. 26, Dallas Business Journal has repeatedly requested an update from the city on the timeline for City Hall decisions, but has not received a response. When asked where the City Hall process stands, Council Member Paula Blackmon said: "I have no idea." She added that she has asked Tolbert for the report but has not seen it. Council Member Cara Mendelsohn, who like Blackmon opposes moving out of City Hall, told the DBJ on Sept. 3 that she believes City Hall plans are not being presented to council because demolition costs are coming in "astronomically higher" than what city staff anticipated. To date, the city has not released any costs estimates for demolition or moving out of City Hall. Dallas City Council Member Gay Donnell Willis told WFAA in an interview that aired Aug. 30 that the council should get proposals on properties to consider "in the next week or so." She called the process a "thoughtful, exhaustive, public process," adding that the long-term savings of exiting the building could be upward of "hundreds of millions of dollars."

Busy City Council meeting awaits Mayor Guajardo after suspension

Mayor Paulette Guajardo is set to return to City Hall on Tuesday morning following a 30-day suspension. Guajardo was formally reprimanded and suspended Aug. 7 after a four-day hearing over a petition seeking her removal from office. Several major decisions involving Corpus Christi’s water supply were made during her absence. The city returned to Stage 1 water restrictions, and City Council voted 5-3 against moving forward with additional design work for the Inner Harbor desalination project. A busy meeting awaits Guajardo upon her return. The council’s agenda includes an ordinance adopting the city’s budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

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Sources: Big 12 withdraws federal suit against Texas Tech

The Big 12 has withdrawn the federal lawsuit it filed against Texas Tech in June, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel on Monday. The suit was intended to allow the league to enforce its own rules amid former quarterback Brendan Sorsby's legal quest for eligibility. All issues related to the suit have been handled internally and the conference is moving forward, sources added. Sorsby was ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA in April after he acknowledged placing more than 9,000 wagers totaling at least $90,000 on professional and college sports over four years. Sorsby was issued a temporary injunction by a Texas court to clear his path to play for the Red Raiders, but when the Big 12 filed in federal court with aims to punish the quarterback and Texas Tech, he withdrew his suit and declared for the NFL supplemental draft, which the league ultimately decided not to hold. He previously said he is preparing for the 2027 NFL draft.

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Dallas woman who protested Reagan in 1984 returns to challenge Trump

Mavis Belisle protested President Ronald Reagan’s policies outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas. Forty-two years later, she is preparing to return to the streets, this time to protest President Donald Trump. Next week, Trump and Republicans will gather at the American Airlines Center for the party’s first midterm convention. Demonstrators plan to challenge his administration and its policies, much as they did in when Reagan accepted the GOP's nomination for a second term. “The America that I grew up in hardly exists anymore, but it doesn’t make me want to give up,” Belisle said. “I’m ready to be back out there next week.”

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The issues that brought protesters to Dallas in 1984 included Reagan’s military buildup and policies in Central America, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, corporate power, government contracting and gay rights. This year’s demonstrators are organizing around immigration, war, civil rights, economic hardship and concentrated political power. The language and targets have changed. But the question of whether government is serving ordinary people has not. Belisle, 82, an Oak Cliff resident, has spent decades protesting. She helped lead one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Texas history at the Comanche Peak nuclear plant near Glen Rose. She later became executive director of the Peace Farm, a nonprofit focused on nuclear weapons and hazardous waste. In 1984, she recruited and trained demonstrators as a member of the Dallas March and Rally Committee. She rallied against Reagan’s military policies and the defense budget, which she believed contributed to poverty and economic inequality. Organizers worked out of a small office on Ervay Street, not far from the city convention center. The cramped space became a hub for organizing peacekeepers. “By being present at the same time and place that the Republican Party was, we could show those alternatives,” Belisle said. She spent long, hot days that August moving between rallies, marches and a nearby tent city.

Central Texas is rejecting Flock cameras. What will Austin do?

At least five more Central Texas cities have moved to end or pause their use of Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader cameras in recent weeks, adding momentum to a backlash against the company — and the surveillance technology it sells — that has spread from local privacy advocates to the governor’s office. The latest wave began Aug. 25 in Pflugerville, where the City Council voted to cancel the city's contract with Flock after a resident requested logs showing which outside law enforcement agencies had searched the city’s data. The following week, after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to stop spending money on Flock cameras, officials in Bastrop, Elgin, Manor and Leander moved to sever ties with the company.

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In Austin, officials had already decided to part ways with Flock. But leaders have also not ruled out contracting with another vendor—or rejected license-plate-reader technology altogether. The City Council approved new surveillance-technology protections in April, but in the months since, Police Chief Lisa Davis has not publicly said whether the Police Department will recommend another system. Any new agreement would require council approval. Meanwhile, Austin police continue to receive license-plate data from other agencies, even though the Police Department does not directly access an automated license plate reader database. As other Texas cities move away from Flock, Austin is confronting whether to replace its cameras, regulate its indirect access to the data or abandon the technology altogether. The unresolved question has divided Austin’s elected officials but only three Austin City Council members told the American-Statesman they opposed the use of license-plate-reader technology altogether. Six members, along with Mayor Kirk Watson, said they were open to a different system with tighter controls. (Two other council members did not respond.) "This isn't an all-or-nothing conversation," Watson said in a written statement. "Technology can be used in law enforcement to assist in protecting the public and, at the same time, protect the privacy of our people and avoid unintended negative consequences."

Board approves $60M for Spurs arena site as McKee-Rodriguez calls vote a 'betrayal'

The city is closer to buying the land for a new San Antonio Spurs arena. The Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) board of directors voted 7-4 to allocate up to $60 million to acquire the former site of the Institute of Texan Cultures at Hemisfair. The city is still negotiating with the University of Texas Board of Regents for the site, and city staff said a deal is likely to close by the end of this year. City staff estimates that the total acquisition costs, including financing, will be $115.7 million. District 2 Council Member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who was appointed to the now 11-member board this week, voted against the measure. Board members Seema Kairam, George Grimes and Joseph Bravo also voted against it.

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Just before the vote was taken, McKee-Rodriguez said he requested to join the board to push for more funding for affordable housing projects, which he said is part of why the Midtown TIRZ was resurrected. He called Friday's vote a "betrayal of values." "I think the use of TIRZ dollars for an arena property for the Spurs deviates greatly from the intention of not just the reconstitution, but TIRZ as a whole and the purpose of using these public tax dollars," he said. A TIRZ collects projected future tax growth within a defined boundary. A board then takes applications from public and private developers to partially fund projects. District 1 Council Member Sukh Kaur, who chairs the board, said she backed the measure as an economic development tool and predicted the vote would split along Project Marvel lines. The vote comes as the city weighs extending the Midtown TIRZ lifespan, which expires in 2041. The city's financial team estimates that pushing that further out to 2060 would unlock about $580 million in additional funds for public and private development. The board also voted to earmark $10 million each for expansion projects at the San Antonio Zoo, San Antonio Botanical Gardens and the Brackenridge Park Conservancy. A city council vote on the TIRZ extension is due in the fall.

Texas native and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes subject of new shocking documentary

A new documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced Theranos founder who was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for multiple counts of fraud, is set to be released next month. Holmes, who began her prison sentence on May 30, 2023, is seen speaking to filmmaker Nathan Fielder at her home in the trailer for A24’s You Can See Everything, which is expected to hit theaters in October. The clip, released on Sunday, Sept. 6, shows Holmes speaking to Fielder while sitting on a couch. “I’m not that person, I can promise you that. I don’t have anything to deceive you on, of course I’m not deceiving you,” she says in a close-up shot in the teaser. Holmes adds, “I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.”

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“Okay. Alright. Okay, good chat … You’re being real right now?” Fielder replies. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Holmes then insists, “I’m always being real,” before the camera panned back to reveal her baby in a bouncer. PEOPLE reported in February 2023 that Holmes had given birth to her second child with her partner, Billy Evans. It’s since been confirmed that the pair had a daughter, named Invicta (Latin for “invincible”), after welcoming their first child, son William Holmes Evans, in July 2021. The trailer’s release came as the documentary’s world premiere took place at the Telluride Film Festival on Sunday night, Deadline reported. The movie was unveiled at a top-secret screening, per the outlet.

National Stories

Could Vance’s soccer mom bonus nudge married women back to the GOP?

Every Republican is liable to give you a different answer if you ask them what constitutes their party’s “base.” But from a purely demographic standpoint, it’s indisputable: older, married, working-class white men. The picture of the 2024 GOP electorate from The Associated Press’s now defunct VoteCast (a loss sure to be long lamented) is plain about the party’s core: 84 percent white, 56 percent age 50 or older, 53 percent male, 60 percent without college degrees. That’s not a bad thing for the GOP. There are some problematic policy implications with persuadable voters, like, for example, being too blithe about how things like tariffs and mass deportations would play with the broader electorate.

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There are some demographic cliffs out there, too — especially as the college-educated voters become a majority of the electorate in coming years. But if you had to pick a single bloc of the electorate as your core, the archetypal Republican stacks up pretty well against his Democratic counterpart from 2024: an older, college-educated, unmarried white woman. The two base groups are about evenly matched, but neither is sufficient to win elections on its own, so they have to start adding on. For Democrats, that tends to mean, most crucially, nonwhite voters (34 percent of the 2024 Democratic vote) and younger men (21 percent). The Democrats’ misadventure with Kamala Harris speaks to how even small shifts in coalition subgroups like those can cause a party to founder. It’s a lesson Republicans may soon learn themselves. The first and most essential addition to the Republican base is married white women. These voters were about a quarter of Donald Trump’s 2024 total, and as a whole, broke 56 percent in his favor compared with 43 percent for Harris.

Trump officials strip military language criticizing Confederate memorial

The Trump administration has removed language criticizing a memorial to the Confederacy formerly located in Arlington National Cemetery, part of its ongoing effort to reshape portrayals of the Civil War. The Confederate Memorial, a 32-foot bronze statue commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and unveiled in 1914, was removed from the military cemetery in 2023. Its removal followed a congressional mandate to rid U.S. military property of names and symbols honoring the Confederacy and its leaders. The decision by the bipartisan Naming Commission to remove the statue was based on criticism and backlash over the memorial’s depictions, which included an enslaved woman carrying an infant child of a white officer and an enslaved man following his owner to war.

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A Defense Department website and a marker at the memorial’s former site included contextual language describing the sculpture as portraying a “nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.” The website also described the two Black figures as enslaved people, including an enslaved woman depicted as a “Mammy,” and it remarked on how the portrayal of the “faithful slave” helped to shape American pop culture. Now, that language has been removed from the website, and the marker in the cemetery has been replaced by a new sign that omits wording critical of slavery and the Confederacy. The website also formerly featured additional context about the sculpture’s symbolism, including a Latin phrase inscribed on it. “An inscription … construes the South’s secession as a noble ‘Lost Cause,’” the website previously read. “This narrative of the Lost Cause, which romanticized the pre-Civil War South and denied the horrors of slavery, fueled white backlash against Reconstruction and the rights that the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments (1865-1870) had granted to African Americans.”

Missouri group asks the Supreme Court to let former district maps stand

A citizens group fighting a Republican-led redistricting effort in Missouri is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a request from GOP state officials to allow new maps to go into effect ahead of the midterms. Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that voters should elect members of Congress from a 2022 map, not the new map passed by the state legislature during a special session in September 2025. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule the state court’s decision. Missouri was one of the first states to take up President Donald Trump’s call to engage in mid-decade redistricting efforts ahead of the midterms. The new map would probably give Republicans seven of the state’s eight U.S. House seats, one more than they hold now, by slicing 11-term Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City district into three parts.

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People Not Politicians Missouri, which sued the state over the redistricting plan and the state’s rejection of a petition to put the issue on the November ballot, responded Monday to a petition in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the state high court’s decision.That was the deadline the group had been given by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who covers this region for emergency appeals. “Now that the Missouri Supreme Court has rejected [Hoskins’] gambit, he asks this Court to deliver him the political victory to which he was never entitled under the Missouri Constitution,” People Not Politicians Missouri asserts in the filing. “This Court cannot and should not reward the Secretary’s scheme to outsmart Missouri voters, Missouri law, and the Missouri Supreme Court by granting Applicants the extraordinary relief they seek.” The citizens group — which collected over 300,000 signatures from Missouri residents to force a referendum on the November ballot — accused Hoskins of filing a last-minute appeal “in the hopes of running out the clock on the judiciary’s tolerance for a last-minute reversion to the 2022 districts.” The group argues that the Hoskins’ decision to block its “timely” referendum from the November ballot violated state laws that give “voters the power to suspend legislation through the referendum process.”

What to expect in Rhode Island’s state primary

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee faces a tough Democratic primary challenge Wednesday in his bid for a second full term. Ocean State voters will also choose nominees for a full slate of federal, state and local offices. McKee was elected governor by a wide margin in 2022 after first assuming the role in March 2021 when then-Gov. Gina Raimondo stepped down to become U.S. commerce secretary. He now is at risk of becoming the nation’s first elected governor since 2014 to lose renomination and the first in Rhode Island since 1994. His challenger is Helena Buonanno Foulkes, a former longtime executive with Rhode Island-based CVS. She placed a close second behind McKee in the five-way 2022 Democratic primary. She is the niece of former Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut.

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A top issue in the campaign has been McKee’s handling and oversight of the reconstruction of the Washington Bridge, which connects Providence and East Providence and carries 100,000 vehicles per day. McKee closed the westbound bridge in December 2023 after authorities discovered critical structural flaws. Authorities then determined in March 2024 that the bridge would need to be demolished and replaced. State officials initially estimated the bridge would be reopened to traffic this year, but that has since been pushed back to Nov. 2028. Campaign ads have also referenced a 2024 joint investigation of McKee by the state Attorney General Peter Neronha and the state police that found that the governor “personally and directly intervened” in the awarding of a multimillion-dollar state contract, but that he did not violate the state’s bribery or campaign finance laws. Neronha endorsed Foulkes in March. McKee meanwhile has focused on Foulkes’ work at CVS and the company’s alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis. Foulkes’ campaign fundraising and spending has almost doubled that of McKee’s, according to state campaign finance records. Independent polling from the University of New Hampshire shows that Foulkes has maintained a lead over McKee throughout the year, although in the latest poll many voters remained undecided.

New Hampshire voters pick nominees as Sen. Shaheen’s exit sparks a scramble for key seats

New Hampshire primary voters are choosing candidates for Congress, governor and the 424-seat state Legislature on Tuesday, and incumbents aren’t the only familiar names on the ballot. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s decision to not seek reelection created a cascade of competitive races. Two of the eight Republicans hoping to replace the three-term Democrat are former U.S. senators she previously defeated: John E. Sununu and Scott Brown. The five-way race for the Democratic nomination includes U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, whose departure from his 1st Congressional District seat in turn attracted a crowd of candidates. Shaheen’s daughter, Stefany Shaheen, is among those seeking the Democratic nomination for Pappas’ seat, along with former candidate Maura Sullivan. Several other candidates in top races also are making repeat appearances.

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Sununu, who spent six years in the U.S. House and one term in the Senate before being ousted by Shaheen in 2008, has this time focused on themes including affordability for housing, healthcare and energy, holding Congress accountable and constituent service. “I’ve been out of politics for 17 years. I’m not worried about reelection,” he said during a campaign stop last month. “I don’t need an appointment or a job. I don’t need to make anyone happy. I need to do one thing: Stand up for the people of New Hampshire.” Brown previously represented Massachusetts, where he won a special election in 2010 after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy before losing in 2012. He unsuccessfully challenged Shaheen in 2014 and served as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during President Donald Trump’s first term. In a July interview, he said he decided to run again because New Hampshire Republicans have no representation in Congress and because, in his view, his experience as a veteran, lawmaker, ambassador and grandfather is unmatched.

EverBank to combine with WaFd in $3.9 billion reverse merger

Florida-based EverBank Financial has agreed to acquire WaFd, a smaller ?bank in the Pacific Northwest, in a $3.9 billion reverse ?merger transaction, ?the ?companies said on Monday. The deal would create a regional bank with some $75 ?billion ?in assets, the Wall Street Journal ?reported earlier on Monday, citing a statement from the companies. Under the deal, EverBank will merge ?into WaFd, with the latter remaining a publicly traded company ?after changing its name to EverBank Financial Corp and trading under the new ticker ?symbol EVBK on the Nasdaq. Upon completion of the ?transaction, EverBank investors will ?collectively own about 59.2% of the pro forma combined company, with WaFd shareholders owning ?the remaining 40.8%. The companies said the merger, ?which is expected to ?close in early 2027, is projected to increase WaFd’s 2027 earnings ?per share ?by roughly 29% and recoup tangible book value dilution in less than two years.

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Republicans are making Muslims a campaign issue in the 2026 US midterms

Republican Vice President JD Vance called Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim and a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, "very, very evil" at a rally last week, accusing him of defending terrorism because of remarks he made after a March attack on a suburban Detroit synagogue. In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott, in ?a close race for another term, attacked a proposed Muslim-led development and called for an investigation into what he described as efforts to create “sharia courts,” a claim disputed by developers and civil rights groups. In Alabama, ?where Muslims make up less than half a percent of the population, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican running for governor, warned that “the enemy is inside the gates,” referring to what he called radical Islam.

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The comments reflect an effort to make Muslims and Islam part of the election debate ahead of the November 3 midterms that will determine whether Democrats can wrest control of Congress from President Donald Trump's Republican Party. Critics say the rhetoric unfairly targets Muslims, while Republicans say they are raising legitimate concerns about security, extremism and the role of religion in public life. Abbott campaign spokesman Eduardo Leal ?said the Texas governor's actions regarding the development were aimed at alleged illegal conduct, not religious beliefs. Muslims number about 5.5 million people in the United States, up from 2.4 million in 2007, according to Pew Research Center. Over the past year, Muslims have gained more political power than at any point in recent memory. New York City elected its first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, ?while El-Sayed could become the first Muslim senator. Last year, Ghazala Hashmi became the first Muslim woman elected to a statewide office when she became Virginia's lieutenant governor.

Copyright September 08, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved