Democratic donors are pouring money into Senate races as Republicans build an advantage in gubernatorial contests that could shape the party’s future.
Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly speaks in front of supporters during a primary election night watch party Aug. 18, 2026, in Miami Lakes, Florida. | Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Jonathan Martin is POLITICO’s senior political columnist and politics bureau chief. He’s covered elections in every corner of America and co-authored a best-selling book about Donald Trump and Joe Biden. His reported column chronicles the inside conversations and major trends shaping U.S. politics.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Perhaps emboldened by the rush of sweet tea he was sipping at The Floridian, an Old Florida institution here, David Jolly told me he “can get outspent by $100 million and win this race.”

#democratic #gubernatorial

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is following the upcoming Brazilian election “very closely,” referring to Brazil as a “very important" country. "The people of Brazil are fantastic people,” he told reporters outside the White House. “It’s a very important election.”
The U.S. State Department later announced the suspension of its consular services in Brazil ahead of the election taking place on Sunday, citing unspecified security concerns. “U.S. citizens seeking emergency ****** istance during this time should not come to the Embassy, the Consulates, or other U.S. diplomatic facilities,” the security alert advised.
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Brazilians are heading to the polls for a set of federal elections spanning congressional and gubernatorial races, alongside the first round of the presidential election votes. It’s set to be a decisive moment for Latin America’s largest nation, as the region has seen a shift toward the right in recent years. An Oct. 25 runoff is expected, as polls show a tight contest between leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and far-right Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted last year for plotting a coup to overturn his 2022 election loss. Trump led the conservative voices denouncing the conviction, referring to the trial as a “witch hunt.”
While Trump has acknowledged his active interest as Brazil votes on its political future, there are concerns he could be too involved. Trump and his Administration have been accused of attempting to interfere with the high-stakes overseas election.

#Brazil #important #people

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa spent the summer keeping Republican Gov. Greg Abbott within arm's reach — never letting him lead by more than a few points.
However, two new polls disagree on whether that's still true, and the answer may decide how competitive the race really is.
A Sept. 15 poll from Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. showed that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is leading his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa, by 7 points, 48% to 41%, with 8% of voters undecided.
The Mason-Dixon had a 4-point margin of error, with Libertarian Pat Dixon at 1% and Independent Jenn Mack Raphoon at 2%. It surveyed 625 registered Texas voters Sept. 8-10 who said they are likely to vote in the November 2026 election.
The poll follows a Sept. 13 poll from SoCal Strategies that showed Abbott still in a strong position in his bid for a fourth term, leading Hinojosa 52% to 44%.

#dixon #gina #republican

Wisconsin congressman Tom Tiffany was on his way home Saturday evening following a demanding day of parades and political events when his plane plunged into the pitch-black darkness of Lake Wausau.
As he was returning from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner in Onalaska, Wisconsin, Tiffany, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, was aboard a Beechcraft K35 when it lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport, the congressman told reporters during a Sunday news conference.
"Hang on, Tom, and buckle up because we're going to go down," Tiffany recounted pilot Len Bolt warning him moments before the emergency landing.
About 10 seconds later, the plane hit the water.
"We were down to 70, 80 miles an hour at that point, and so it was a fast-moving car crash, and all that happened to me was my head hit the dash in front of me, and that was the extent of the damage," Tiffany said. "We're just really fortunate. We're fortunate the plane didn't flip."

#wisconsin

Authorities say an armed man lunged at Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton as she spoke at a local fair on Sunday. Her campaign says security stopped the man from reaching the candidate, but several people were injured as he pushed his way through the crowd. NBC's Maggie Vespa reports for TODAY.

#candidate #authorities #today #lunged

Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds rejected comedian Bill Maher's claims that Donalds lost key counties in the recent primary in part due to the racism within the state.
Appearing on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" Friday night, Donalds, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, pushed back on Maher's **** ertion that he lost parts of Florida's Panhandle because of the area's predominantly White electorate.
"You did lose the 'Redneck Riviera' badly," Maher said, referring to Donalds' losses in Calhoun, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Hardee, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Suwannee, Taylor, Union and Washington counties, rural counties where roughly 94% of Republican voters are White.
Stephen A Smith Admits Byron Donalds Could Make Him A Republican, Calls Him 'The Real Deal'
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., is the Republican nominee for Florida governor.

#donalds #counties

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms highlighted her past move to cut ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2018 as mayor of Atlanta, prompting a strong rebuke from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday.
As Bottoms gave the keynote speech at a Democratic fundraiser in Dalton, Georgia, the former Biden official, now running for governor in the Peach State, spoke about refusing to cooperate with ICE during President Donald Trump's first term.
In her speech, she recalled her musician father's struggle with addiction, saying that her first tour around Georgia was visiting him at various prisons. She said this helped teach her the value of "seeing the humanity in people" even those who have made mistakes or "had a different pathway to this country."
"When I was mayor of Atlanta, when ICE had the family separation policy in our state, in our nation, I made the decision to end our multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement with ICE because all money ain't good money," Bottoms said. "And when we did that, other cities followed, counties followed, other states followed and it made a difference."
Democrat Mayor Blasted By Dhs For 'Hunting Down' Property Owners Leasing To Ice: 'Unhinged'

#georgia #democratic #speech

Minnesota Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Klobuchar is facing heat from her Republican opponent and critics on social media for campaigning on addressing the massive fraud scandal in her state despite not mentioning it a single time in any press release since the crisis emerged.
A Fox News Digital review found that Klobuchar's Senate office repeatedly issued press releases addressing other forms of fraud between 2022 and 2025, but a review of 1,000 of her official press-release archive found no release directly addressing or offering solutions to fix Minnesota's sprawling social-services fraud scandal or Feeding Our Future.
The $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal, that has ballooned into an overall social services scandal that prosecutors say could total over $9 billion, broke in late January of 2022. In more than 1,000 press releases from Klobuchar's office from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2025, the Feeding our Future scandal was not mentioned in Klobuchar's releases, nor were the terms "Minnesota fraud," "social services fraud," "Medicaid fraud," "autism fraud," "Housing Stabilization Services," "child nutrition fraud," "DHS fraud," or "nonprofit fraud."
"As Feeding Our Future was breaking and all of the fraud that was being talked about, the absent voice that I was noticing was Senator Klobuchar," Minnesota Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth told Fox News Digital in an interview on Friday.
Final Walz Fraud Report Rips 'Culture Of Tolerance' As Minnesota Taxpayers Face Billions In Alleged Losses

#minnesota #feeding #press #addressing

(Bloomberg) -- Success in the midterm elections for the Republicans and the Texas gubernatorial contest would set up stocks for a further rally, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists.
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#Startup #republicans #bank #selena

MyPillow founder Mike Lindell is refusing to concede in Minnesota's Republican gubernatorial primary, alleging irregularities in the vote totals.
The businessman, who is backed by President Trump, lost to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R) by roughly 11 percentage points, according to Decision Desk HQ.
When asked by a reporter on his live network, LindellTV, about whether he would concede the race if The ****** ociated Press called it for his opponent, the GOP candidate responded, "Why would I listen to the AP?"
"There's 265,000 votes left to count. I'm down by 18,000 now," he continued. "I'm not going to give up this race until the votes are counted. That's nonsense."
Lindell, who stepped down as My Pillow CEO to focus on his campaign, has a history of casting doubt on election results and has been a leading supporter of Trump's unsubstantiated claim that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen."

#lindell #down #mypillow

A socialist candidate for governor in Wisconsin with an extensive history of inflammatory online posts once described America as "an abundance of suffering," Fox News Digital has found.
"I want this country to stop being an abundance of suffering but a wealth of opportunity," reads a Jan. 20, 2022 X post from Wisconsin state Rep. Francesca Hong, who is running in the Democratic Party's primary election to become the state's top official.
"We can do this by providing equal rights to Black and Brown folks," the post continues. "Elect more Black and Brown folks who won't be racist obstructionists. We can all be better and do so much more."
Wisconsin Gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong waves as she acknowledges the crowd during a campaign rally on August 2, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Socialist Frontrunner In The Hot Seat After 'Cancel Thanksgiving' Post Emerges Online

#francesca #brown #online #abundance

The midterm primary rush continues on Tuesday as voters in six states choose their parties' candidates in pivotal races that could decide control of Congress.
Most eyes will be on South Carolina, where Republicans are holding a special Senate primary to choose a new nominee following the sudden death of longtime incumbent Lindsey Graham in July. His sister, Darline Graham, was chosen by South Carolina's governor to fill her brother's seat until January. She announced a week later that she would run for a full six-year term.
Republicans aren't clearing the way for her nomination, though. Nine other candidates have jumped into the race, including GOP Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. Polls have shown Graham and Norman ahead of the field, but both are well short of the 50% support they'd need to avoid a runoff. If no one receives at least half the vote, the top two finishers will go to a runoff on Aug. 25.
In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has chosen not to seek another term, setting off a messy battle between the progressive and moderate wings of the party over who should be their nominee to replace him. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, has held a consistent lead throughout the primary. But Evers has said he believes Hong may be too far to the left to defeat the likely Republican nominee, Rep. Tom Tiffany, in the general election. Instead, the governor has thrown his support behind Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who had briefly dropped out of the race before resuming his campaign with less than a month left in the primary. Polls suggest Crowley has an enormous amount of ground to make up if he wants to pull off a surprising victory.
From left: Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidates David Crowley and Francesca Hong during a primary debate in Milwaukee on July 28, 2026.

#graham #nominee #left

Gary Cordery, who owns a contracting company, won the Republican nomination for Hawaii governor after defeating business owner Ken Fujiyama in Saturday's primary.
He is now set to face Democratic Gov. Josh Green in November in a race that heavily favors the incumbent. The Cook Political Report rates the contest as Solid Democratic, with a Partisan Voting Index of D+13.
Cordery faces a steep challenge: Hawaii has not had a Republican governor since Linda Lingle left office in 2010.
Former Top Oregon Gop Official Secures Nomination For Governor As Republicans Target Blue-state Pickup
Businessman Gary Cordery is a Republican candidate for governor in the 2026 Hawaii gubernatorial election.

#cordery #republican #gary #josh

Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong's campaign told Fox News Digital Tuesday that she does not recall posting on social media in favor of abolishing the Senate in 2021 and said that was not her current position.
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) co-chair Megan Romer went viral Sunday for confirming that the DSA supported abolishing the Senate, eliminating national borders and prisons, replacing the presidency and the Supreme Court, and more during an interview with Shannon Bream on "Fox News Sunday."
Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor Tom Tiffany said in a post to X that Hong believed in all the ideas mentioned in the viral video.
"This sounds a lot like DSA-backed FrancescaHongWI. Does she want to abolish the police? Yep. Does she want to abolish prisons? Absolutely. Did she call for abolishing the U.S. Senate? Yes. Socialism is knocking on Wisconsin's door. This November, we slam it shut," Tiffany wrote.
Dem Socialist Running For Wisconsin Governor Pushed 'Abolishing The Police'

#abolishing #senate #tiffany

By Bo Erickson
MARIETTA, Georgia, July 22 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump rallied supporters in Georgia on Wednesday to press for stricter nationwide voting requirements, leaning into his election-security message that some Republicans worry could hurt them in the state's competitive U.S. Senate race.
Trump's ‌speech in the Atlanta suburbs follows months of attacks on Georgia's election system, which he has criticized since his 2020 loss in the ‌state. So far this year, the president has questioned Georgia's voting system at least nine times during public events and interviews, according to a Reuters review.
In a June podcast, Trump falsely said the 2020 election in Georgia was rigged. Days later, during a telephone rally for a Republican gubernatorial candidate, Trump said: "Our elections are corrupt."
On Wednesday, Trump said some Republican victories in the state were "not going to be that easy with the cheating and everything else going on."

#reuters #president

As the field for the race to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham takes shape, one prominent lawmaker is declining to dive into the arena hours after the contest was shaken up.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., opted against a bid after she strongly suggested that she'd throw her hat into the arena on Monday in a video statement. Last August, Mace launched a campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster, but she finished a disappointing fifth out of five major candidates in last month's Republican primary.
"I want to be straight with you, I'm not running for the U.S. Senate, not because I'm backing down from a fight, but because the one I'm already in matters right now," Mace said.

"I'm not chasing another **** le, I'm chasing justice, justice for me, justice for other women and justice for every little girl who was told to stay silent," she continued. "That's where my focus is today, and that's where it's going to stay."
Fox News Channel's 'Hannity' To Air Exclusive First Interview With Sen Darline Graham On Monday
Her decision followed a move by Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., to take up her brother's mantle after she was appointed to finish off the remainder of her late brother's term. She made her decision to officially enter the upcoming special election after a push from President Donald Trump.

Socialist Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros blamed Israel's activity in the Middle East for inspiring attacks on Jewish people in other countries during an interview on Wednesday.
Kiros is part of a wave of anti-Israel, far-left candidates gaining popularity in the Democratic Party. She won her primary in her Denver-area district this week, ousting longtime incumbent Diana Degette after far-left candidates won their primaries in New York last month.
Colorado Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Weiser recently condemned her hesitance to answer whether a deadly attack on a pro-Israel rally in Boulder last year could be described as antisemitic, something a 9News host brought up to Kiros earlier this week.
Melat Kiros Becomes 28Th Far-left Candidate To Win A Democratic Primary This Year As Socialists Amass Power
"I just spoke with Attorney General Phil Weiser, who won the Democratic primary for governor last night. He is very likely to be Colorado's next governor in the same way that you are very likely to be a member of the Colorado congressional delegation come next year," the host noted.

The housekeeper attacked by a security dog at Chris Brown's Los Angeles mansion nearly five years ago wept on the witness stand Wednesday as she described the mauling, saying it left her with severe injuries to her arm and face, extensive and painful scarring, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I will never be the same again," Maria Avila told jurors in a courtroom in Van Nuys, California.
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President Donald Trump abruptly ended an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" and walked away after moderator Kristen Welker challenged him about unsubstantiated claims of "cheating" in the California primary elections.
The dustup between Trump and Welker arrived during a rain-heavy sit down, full of weather-related interruptions, amid the president's pre-midterms visit to Wisconsin, a crucial swing state for both parties that he won in 2024.
After Welker noted that "Republicans are doing well in California" following the June 2 primary contests, Trump said "they're dropping fast because it's a rigged election," which led to a tense back-and-forth in the interview that aired June 7.
Republicans have criticized the dayslong, ongoing counting process in California's primary races.
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, a conservative, and Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton are both in second place standings in their respective contests, but Democratic foes have gained ground. California has what's known as "jungle primaries," in which all candidates regardless of party compete against each other, and the top two hopefuls advance to the general election.

Ohio Republican Vivek Ramaswamy edits video initially proposing year-round school

(The Center Square) – Ohio Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is quickly backing away from an idea to send children to school year-round and extend the school day.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton posted a clip of Ramaswamy’s social media video, which outlined ideas to reduce the cost of child care, including sending students to school until 4 p.m. and keeping schools in session throughout the year.
Ramaswamy later deleted the video, and a new version without the school plan was upload