Politics
Brad Raffensperger targeted by threat as he runs for governor
Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State and candidate for governor, was the target of a credible written threat, his campaign said Tuesday.
Campaign spokesperson Ryan Mahoney said the threat came in the form of an apparent manifesto to a sheriff’s office in Mississippi that featured a photo of Raffensperger with the word “boom” scrawled across his face.
It was unclear if it was related to the discovery on Tuesday — a day after the campaign was notified about the written threat — of a suspicious object found inside a vending machine at a campaign stop in Macon that prompted the campaign to move the event outside.
The manifesto was not released and the motive was not publicly known, but the incidents are an apparent reminder of the potent threat of political violence in the U.S. especially for a high-profile candidate such as Raffensperger, who drew fierce criticism for resisting President Donald Trump’s efforts to resist the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
“When you stand on principle, when you do the right thing, and when you put people ahead of politics, not everyone will like it. In fact, some people may try to intimidate or do you harm,” Raffensperger said in a statement posted to social media. “So yes, we are dealing with an active threat. And no, I will not back down.”
The Atlanta Journal Constitution first reported the written threat.
The suspicious object was detected by a law enforcement canine at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport where Raffensperger was set to hold a campaign event later in the day. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release later that there were no hazardous devices detected, but did not provide specifics of what was discovered.
The campaign went ahead with the scheduled event, opting to hold the gathering outside in the parking lot instead.
No arrests have been made.
Georgia State Patrol is leading the effort with support from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI, Mahoney said, and the secretary will continue campaigning in the last week ahead of Georgia’s May 19 primary with heightened security.
“The secretary of state’s office has a law enforcement unit, so we’ll start traveling with a handful of those guys until the threat is alleviated,” Mahoney said.
Spencer Cox: America’s political divide is destroying families and friendships
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The Shaheen political dynasty lives on in New Hampshire.
Stefany Shaheen, the eldest daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), won Tuesday’s hotly contested Democratic primary for the state’s 1st District, defeating Maura Sullivan and a host of other rivals despite facing attacks that she was leaning on her well-known surname.
The seat, left open by Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas when he opted to run for Senate, is considered to be fairly competitive for the general election — former Vice President Kamala Harris won it by just two points in 2024.
Shaheen attempted to create distance from her mother throughout her campaign, rebuking the deal the senator helped broker to end last fall’s government shutdown and leaning into her public service in Portsmouth and medical-research advocacy on the trail.
Still, her family name helped her build an early polling lead and bank financial support.
Nearly $740,000 raised by Shaheen’s campaign came from donors who had previously given to her mother — 39 percent of total itemized campaign dollars, according to a Blue Light News analysis. One of those donors told Blue Light News the senator reached out last fall seeking their support for her daughter.
Sullivan, Shaheen’s main rival, attempted to weaponize the scion’s family ties in a year where the Democratic base has repeatedly spurned candidates with a perceived connection to the establishment.
The primary grew acrimonious in its closing weeks as Shaheen and Sullivan tangled over campaign donations and aired attack ads as polls showed a tightening race. The contest also underwent a rapid winnowing toward the end as two candidates dropped out; one, progressive Christian Urrutia, endorsed Shaheen.
A ruling from the Supreme Court on Tuesday means Missouri voters will likely go to the polls this fall under the same congressional map used two years ago, not one Republican state lawmakers adopted to try to pick up an additional House seat for the GOP.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh turned down a Republican-backed emergency appeal that sought to block a Missouri Supreme Court ruling last week restoring earlier district lines and ordering voters to weigh in on the redistricting plan in November for use in future elections.
Kavanaugh issued the ruling because he handles urgent matters arising in the 8th Circuit, which includes Missouri. Kavanaugh issued no explanation of his decision, nor did he indicate that he referred the matter to the full court, as is customary in significant cases. Missouri officials could ask another justice for relief, but such requests are almost never granted.
The justices rarely disturb state courts’ decisions about matters like the referendum petitions in Missouri that sought to put the redistricting before voters for approval.
However, lawyers for Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins warned the Supreme Court that the state faced “disaster” and “unprecedented chaos” in part because primaries already took place under the new lines last month.
Democrats argued any last-minute chaos to Missouri’s election administration was intentionally created by Hoskins, pointing to Republican leaders in the state arguing that delaying the decision on the redistricting referendum would benefit Republicans.
President Donald Trump denounced the state supreme court ruling last week.
“The Election Process, as usual, is being disturbed in America!” he wrotein a post on Truth Social. “Missouri must be able to use the map that was in effect just a couple of months ago, in the Primary. This is a Dark Day for “Justice” in Missouri!”
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