Politics

Hegseth’s fortunes rise, at least for now

Published

2 years ago

December 6, 2024

After a bruising week of headlines about allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct, and the uphill battle he faces in the Senate, aides and allies of Donald Trump say Hegseth is in a better position politically now than he was just 48 hours ago, when it was leaked that the president-elect was already coming up with a contingency plan to tap Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis should his preferred pick drop out.

That isn’t to say Hegseth is out of the woods. Multiple Republican senators have said the allegations against him are serious and deserve scrutiny. He has yet to meet with key GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine and some senators have indicated they are not ready to support Hegseth. But Trump’s advisers say they are optimistic that none have said “no” and Hegseth may benefit from some good timing.

On Thursday night, Trump attended the Fox News Patriot Awards in New York, where the president-elect heard praise for Hegseth from his colleagues. And Trump was pleased with Hegseth’s pledge to fight for his nomination on Capitol Hill earlier in the day.

By Friday morning, Trump — who has been quiet this week as Hegseth met with senators — publicly praised him with a post on Truth Social.

“Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep,” Trump wrote.

Vice presidential nominee JD Vance echoed Trump’s support, writing on X, “Led by President Trump, we’re fighting for Pete Hegseth…We’ve got his back.”

Trump is also scheduled to pre-tape his interview with Kristen Welker for NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Friday afternoon before flying to Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame. One Trump ally said they expected he would have the opportunity to reiterate his support for Hegseth, providing a video clip that could help shield him from skeptics for at least a few days.

Meanwhile, Hegseth has been working to save himself in the media. He was notably the only Senate-confirmable candidate to sit down for an interview this week as it appeared he was making a last-ditch effort to salvage his chances and garner public support. And his own mother appeared on “Fox & Friends” as a character witness after The New York Times published a 2018 email she wrote blasting her son as an “abuser of women.” She said her son is now a “new man.”

Still, Trump’s allies and advisers are closing watching key senators — in particular female Republicans. While some, like Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), indicated they’re supporting Hegseth, others such as Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) have not yet decided.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has been the most outwardly skeptical of Hegseth. Earlier this week she indicated to Trump that Hegseth would have a difficult time getting confirmed, according to two people familiar with their conversation. Her skepticism of Hegseth prompted a fierce pressure campaign from the right, with some even threatening to primary her when she is up for reelection in 2026. There is also a whisper campaign that she is trying to trip up Hegseth to get the Defense secretary role herself, which she has denied.

Notably on Friday morning, the Republican National Committee blasted out an op-ed written by Trump ally Brenna Bird, the attorney general of Iowa, that was viewed by some Republicans as a veiled primary threat.

“In recent days, it’s become clear that D.C. politicians think they can ignore the voices of their constituents and entertain smears from the same outlets that have pushed out lies for years,” Bird wrote.

But Ernst told RealClearPolitics she is not angling for Defense and she doesn’t “have a campaign against Pete.”

“I just want to make sure the process is able to play out and that we’re thoroughly vetting him. I do believe that Pete deserves to have a hearing. All the rumblings out there are absolutely false. My role as a senator is to make sure that we are putting to bed any rumors, any anonymous whatever,” she said.

One adviser to Trump predicted that if Hegseth gets to a committee hearing, he will survive. But another adviser said they are acutely aware that having yet another nominee for Trump drop out — after Matt Gaetz withdrew and the DEA nominee declined the nomination this week — would drive a new cycle of negative headlines about his Cabinet choices.“The grassroots isn’t going to tolerate another scalp,” said a Trump aligned operative.

Politics

Supreme Court rejects bid to revive Missouri’s pro-GOP redistricting before midterms

Published

4 hours ago

September 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

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!”

Politics

Gavin Newsom’s first 2028 test: This fall, in Nevada

Published

2 days ago

September 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

LAS VEGAS — If California Gov. Gavin Newsom runs for president in 2028, next-door Nevada will be a crucial test. This fall’s governor’s race is offering a preview.

As GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo runs for reelection, he’s trying to pin high Nevada fuel prices — a majority of which is imported from California — on “Gavin Newsom’s energy policies.” He lambasts California as too expensive and too regulated. And he’s hammering his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Aaron Ford, for accepting Newsom’s endorsement, betting that it will turn off Nevada swing voters.

“The contrast is simple: I’m fighting Gavin Newsom’s agenda and Aaron Ford is trying to import it into Nevada,” Lombardo said in a statement to Blue Light News.

This could be a test run for 2028, when Newsom may call upon Nevadans — one-fifth of whom were born in California — to deliver him a primary victory in the early-voting state, and possibly a presidential victory.

“They understand California costs more,” Donna West, chair of the Nevada Democratic Party’s senior caucus, said of Nevada’s California expats. “They also understand that California is the fourth-largest economy in the entire world, and that Gavin Newsom ran that as effectively as he possibly can.”

Newsom’s office declined to comment. A person close to the governor, granted anonymity to discuss the sentiment in his orbit, said they are “thrilled” Republicans are spending money to “plaster Newsom’s name across a key early state.”

“Republicans seem awfully concerned about an endorsement from someone who leads the 2028 Democratic field in Nevada by nearly 2-to-1,” the person said, pointing to a November 2025 Emerson poll of a hypothetical 2028 Democratic primary field.

Ford, for his part, shrugs off the attacks.

“Lombardo tries to cast blame elsewhere, but everyone knows that when the war started in February, that we saw our gas prices increase almost immediately,” Ford told Blue Light News after a recent town hall in Las Vegas. “People believe their own eyes, and they remember their experiences.”

The demonization of California is nothing new in Nevada politics: For years, Republicans have blasted their western neighbor as too expensive and too woke.

But the stakes are higher, and the connection more palpable, this year, as Newsom explores a presidential bid. He would likely need to perform very well in Nevada, now second on the Democratic calendar, to build early momentum toward the party nomination. And come November 2028, he’d need to fare well in Nevada again, this time among the state’s general electorate, a plurality of which are independents.

Newsom has stumped for Democrats across the country this cycle, and he blitzed through the South this week, including a swing through South Carolina, whose Democrats will vote first, right before Nevada, in 2028.

But Republicans are looking to weaponize Newsom’s Silver State swing in July, where Ford introduced him at a new Las Vegas field office as “the governor of the great state of California.”

“Our next president!” an audience member shouted, eliciting cheers.

The Lombardo-aligned Better Nevada PAC shared polling with Blue Light News in July showing Newsom’s favorability 20 points underwater in Nevada and losing a hypothetical 2028 head-to-head with Vice President JD Vance. Shortly thereafter, the PAC began an ad blitz tying Ford to the California governor.

Billboards touting Newsom’s endorsement of Ford, paid for by the PAC, now line highways across Nevada, and digital and streaming ads have run consistently since the visit. “Newsom and Ford: Shared vision. Shared values,” one ad says.

A person familiar with the PAC’s internal polling, granted anonymity to discuss private data, said it shows Newsom’s endorsement is now the second-most-known datapoint about the attorney general.

“Gavin Newsom is the singular most unpopular elected official in Nevada,” said Jeremy Hughes, a longtime Nevada GOP strategist running the Lombardo-aligned PAC. “Aaron Ford brought him into the state. … There’s no better way to help him out than to put up these signs and run ads, letting people know that he’s excited about being endorsed by Gavin Newsom.”

Republicans in the state have long blamed Californian expats for housing shortages and rising prices and connect their opponents to California liberals. A surge of ex-Californians leaving the state during the Covid-19 pandemic, some fleeing high taxes and cost of living, accelerated the trend.

Sam Brown, the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in 2022, blasted the “energy policies of Gavin Newsom”; in 2018, GOP governor nominee Adam Laxalt lamented the “Californization” of Nevada, even as Californians bankrolled his campaign. During Lombardo’s first run for governor in 2022, he slammed incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak for taking his cues from Newsom: “Don’t let Steve Sisolak turn Nevada into California,” one post said. Republicans tied their opponents to Nancy Pelosi for decades.

Lombardo’s argument this time around is more focused. He notes that the vast majority of Nevada’s gasoline comes from California, and argues that California’s efforts to cut carbon emissions have caused fuel prices to soar. A gallon of gas in Nevada costs nearly $5, according to AAA, one of the highest prices in the nation.

“The policies coming from Gavin Newsom and California Democrats … don’t stop at their state line,” Lombardo said in a statement. “Nevada and other states import a significant portion of our fuel from California, so when Governor Newsom shuts down refineries and imposes regulations that reduce supply and increase costs, Nevada families feel the consequences at the pump.”

It’s a strategy that allows Lombardo — running in a difficult national environment for incumbent Republicans — to acknowledge voters’ economic pain without blaming President Donald Trump or his own party. Indeed, Lombardo shared an April column in the Nevada Independent that placed blame at the feet of both Newsom and Trump. (Lombardo, in his post, blamed only Newsom.)

Democrats don’t think voters will buy it. ‘“As far as gas prices, it’s so obviously increased since the war,” Rep. Dina Titus said. “People in Nevada aren’t stupid.”

Ford has his own millstone to saddle Lombardo with: the president. At a recent town hall in Las Vegas, he repeatedly blasted the “Lombardo-Trump economy” that is “making everything too expensive.”

“Voters absolutely tie the handling of the economy to Trump,” said Mike Noble, an independent Phoenix-based pollster who works in Nevada regularly. “Instead of blaming Trump, why not tie it to the boogeyman next door and blame California?”