Politics
Former ICE official falls short in GOP House primary in Ohio
A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official who quit her job with the agency to run for Congress came up short Tuesday in her bid to secure the GOP nomination for a northwest Ohio-based seat in the U.S. House. Madison Sheahan, 29, finished third among a crowded Republican field in Tuesday’s primary…
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Kamala Harris will campaign with Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia and headline a fundraising dinner hosted by Fulton County Democrats next month, marking her latest involvement in the midterm elections.
Harris is also slated to join Nevada attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford next month in Las Vegas and campaign with Democratic challengers in two competitive House races in her home state.
“It is critical for Democrats to win this November so we can fight the Trump administration’s corruption and work to lower costs for the American people,” a Harris spokesperson said in a statement. “Vice President Harris will continue to do whatever is needed to support candidates in races where she can be helpful.”
The events in Georgia were first reported by CNN. Harris will also be the keynote speaker at the fundraising dinner on Oct. 30 in Atlanta. An Ossoff campaign spokesperson confirmed his plan to campaign with Harris. Ossoff’s campaign previously told Blue Light News that it would welcome Harris to Georgia to stump with or on behalf of the senator.
Still, the announcements come as some Democrats have been keeping distance from the party’s last presidential nominee.
In Iowa, where Democrats are hoping to flip a Senate seat and retake the governor’s mansion in a state where Harris lost by 13 points in 2024, the two candidates both declined to have Harris’ help. So did Mary Peltola, the Democratic Senate candidate in Alaska who “isn’t seeking endorsements from anyone from the Lower 48,” and House candidates in some red states and rural districts.
For her part, Harris has skirted the question of whether she will run again in 2028 and said she is focusing on the midterm elections.
“Right now midterms [are] full-time occupying my thoughts, my mind and my work,” Harris said in a recent podcast episode with Megan Rapinoe on Vox Media. “I’m spending full time working on doing everything I can to help people restore some balance in our government, which is through the midterms, winning back Congress, the House and the Senate.”
“I haven’t decided. But honestly, from my perspective, ’28 doesn’t matter if we don’t win ’26,” she said to a question on another presidential bid.
It’s been a bad year to be an incumbent.
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee’s ouster on Wednesday, the first primary defeat for an incumbent governor in eight years, caps off a primary season that’s seen longtime leaders fall across the map and politicians across both parties struggle to make the leap to higher office.
Thirteen members of Congress have lost their reelection bids: seven Democrats and six Republicans, including two GOP senators. At least 16 more who were trying to move from the House to the Senate or take on statewide office have lost primaries: nine Republicans and seven Democrats, including Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet who unsuccessfully ran for governor.
The upheaval has been driven by a confluence of factors that will continue to dog incumbents through November. Voters are frustrated with both parties’ leadership in Washington. President Donald Trump has targeted some GOP foes as he looks to cement his legacy; Democrats are in the midst of pitched generational and ideological battles. Some members in both parties faced daunting new district lines. Others faced scandals that sank them.
In some races, those factors converged. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) didn’t benefit much from her years in Washington in her Senate bid — and lost her primary to a left-flank rival who yoked her to the party establishment.
Caitlin Legacki, who advised Stevens’ bid, said incumbents’ losses this year show voters are simply fed up.
“It speaks to the high level of dissatisfaction that voters have with everyone,” said Legacki, who noted the anti-incumbent climate contributed to Stevens’ loss. “It’s a major ‘throw the bums out’ moment.”
DEMS KICK INCUMBENTS TO THE CURB
Democrats disillusioned with their leadership in Washington are taking it out on the party’s rank and file.
Progressives picked off more-moderate House members from New York to Colorado. Younger challengers ousted older incumbents from Texas to Connecticut. Local elected officials outran Washington incumbents. And voters have spurned lawmakers seeking higher office from Michigan to Minnesota.
Sometimes age was the biggest factor, sometimes it was ideology and sometimes both played a role. Democratic socialists defeated decades-older Reps. Diana DeGette of Colorado and Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York. Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin relied on generational change to topple longtime Rep. John Larson in Connecticut.
THE TRUMP FACTOR
For Republicans, Trump played a major role in directing voters against his longstanding Washington foes.
Trump-backed challengers wiped MAGA irritants Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) off the map. And the president’s late-stage endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Senate runoff helped sink Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
REDISTRICTING RIPPLE EFFECTS
The unusual mid-decade gerrymandering war took out members of both parties, who lost competitive races in less favorable districts, ran for other offices or switched parties to avoid similar fates.
Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green was ousted by Rep. Christian Menefee in a member-on-member primary forced by gerrymandering that played on their generational divide.
Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson lost her redrawn Dallas-area district to former Rep. Colin Allred, while Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s right-flank challenger leveraged the redraw (as well as some of Crenshaw’s breaks with Trump) to oust the Republican.
Others chose to retire rather than keep fighting uphill battles. Democratic Reps. Steve Cohen of Tennessee (who had already been facing a generational primary challenge before the redraw), Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Cleo Fields of Louisiana hung it up after Republicans dismantled their districts. So did GOP Reps. Darrell Issa of California and Burgess Owens of Utah after their districts were redrawn. California Rep. Kevin Kiley, who opposed the mid-decade gerrymanders and switched from GOP to independent after his district was redrawn, said the new maps have unleashed “chaos” on the House and “reduced the quality of representation in Congress.”
SWEPT OUT BY SCANDAL
Call it the midterms of controversy: Incumbents in both parties have succumbed to the political pressures of their scandals this year.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell ended his run for California governor and exited Congress amid sexual assault and misconduct allegations. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) dropped his reelection bid and resigned after admitting to having an affair with a staffer who later killed herself.
Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles, despite his Trump endorsement, couldn’t overcome his past controversies, a newly redrawn district and outside spending. Republican Florida Rep. Cory Mills faced attacks over probes of his conduct from primary winner Ryan Elijah. Elijah told Blue Light News this week that he believed Mills’ controversies collided with voters’ anti-incumbent angst.
“We ran on our merits, but trust was a factor,” Elijah said. “I think trust was the biggest factor.”
HIGHER OFFICE FLAMEOUTS
Several congressional Democrats struggled to outmatch opponents without Washington ties in Senate primaries. Bennet, Stevens and Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) all lost statewide primaries to rivals who hadn’t served in D.C.
Voters haven’t been kind to GOP representatives seeking higher office either. Reps. Randy Feenstra of Iowa, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota and Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman of South Carolina all lost their gubernatorial bids. Voters rejected Norman twice: He also lost the snap primary for Lindsey Graham’s seat to the late senator’s sister — a total political newcomer. Texas Rep. Chip Roy also lost a runoff for state attorney general.
Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Dan McKee became the first governor in eight years in the U.S. to lose a primary, falling on Wednesday to former CVS executive Helena Foulkes and becoming the latest victim of a rough year for incumbents.
McKee’s campaign was bogged down by the botched handling of a years-long project to rebuild the Washington Bridge, which transports more than 70,000 drivers through Providence each day. The project has suffered from delays, cost overruns and disputes between state officials and former contractors that have raised questions about transparency and accountability for the project.
Foulkes spent much of the primary hammering McKee over his handling of the bridge project — a strategy that ultimately proved successful.
McKee had partially closed the bridge in 2023, and estimated at the time that it would fully reopen this summer. But last year, he said the bridge likely won’t be completed until 2028. Construction began in June.
Throughout his campaign, McKee continued to insist that the bridge project was handled well. He told The New York Times in August that “people are going to realize we did the right thing.”
The last incumbent governor to lose a primary was Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer in 2018. McKee’s loss Wednesday adds to the substantial list of Democratic incumbents ousted in primary challenges, though this race didn’t feature the same generational and ideological contrasts as other primaries that have felled Democrats this cycle. Foulkes and McKee, both baby boomers, both ran center-left campaigns.
Foulkes’ victory adds a chapter to her family’s long political lineage. Her grandfather, Thomas J. Dodd, and her uncle, Chris Dodd, were both senators from Connecticut. She worked as an executive at CVS for over 25 years before launching a 2022 run for governor.
McKee won that round, but she got the final word on Wednesday.
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