Politics
Hochul considers Cuomo mayoralty
WE’RE ALL FRIENDS NOW: Gov. Kathy Hochul is pledging to work with a future Andrew Cuomo administration — if her former boss’ speculated run for mayor proves successful.
“My nature is to work with whoever is sitting in office, whether it’s the president of the United States, other governors or mayors,” the governor said when she was asked whether she supports Cuomo’s speculated run for mayor.
“I’ll continue on that path,” she added.
Hochul, who was on Long Island to unveil a proposal to provide free lunches for all K-12 students in the state (more on that below), made the comments on the heels of a new POLITICO report that signals Cuomo is continuing to line up the pieces for his run for mayor.
The Thursday report details how Cuomo is expected to hire Charlie King, a partner at the Manhattan-based consulting and lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs.
Hochul has enjoyed a sunny relationship with Mayor Eric Adams, even as he battles federal corruption charges that could turn into even worse charges. She opted not to oust him — a power she holds — after his September indictment, in exchange for him pushing out scandal-scarred top aides.
“My job as governor of this great state is to work with whomever the voters choose to be the Mayor of the City of New York,” Hochul said, still in response to the Cuomo question. “I’ve demonstrated that. I’ve had a better relationship with the mayor of New York than probably any of my predecessors. It has been collaborative, because I recognize one thing — we both represent the same people.”
Cuomo — whose own petty feuds with former Mayor Bill DeBlasio have become the stuff of legend — declined to comment for this story. His team continues to avoid confirming the drips of news about his seemingly embryonic campaign for mayor mean he is actually running.
(Jewish Insider also reported in November that Cuomo’s team is preparing to run, and is setting up an independent expenditure group.)
“This all remains premature, but Andrew Cuomo will always be a Queens boy who loves New York, is deeply concerned about its direction, and will always help any way he can,” Azzopardi told our colleague Nick Reisman in response to the Mercury Public Affairs news. He also insisted that “nothing has changed and neither apparently has the rumor mill in all its glory.”
When asked if she would rank Adams at the ballot box in June, Hochul balked — “I’m not a voter in New York City,” she said, sidestepping the hypothetical.
The governor’s comments, about President-elect Donald Trump, Adams and Cuomo (who Cuomo has insisted are all the same) come as she continues to signal a non-aggression pact with, well, everyone after quickly abandoning a Trump-resistance posture.
If you remember, the day after Election Day, Hochul hosted a Trump-bashing press conference with Attorney General Letitia James, where James said the two are “ready to fight back again.”
But immediately afterward, her stance softened, a prerogative that seems to have been solidified by her “lengthy,” “cordial” and “very productive” phone call with Trump the next day.
Since the pair’s cuddly chat, the governor has pledged to work with — not obstruct — the Trump administration’s efforts, even pledging to be “the first to call up ICE” to deport immigrants who break the law when asked about Trump’s mass deportation plan.
While she plays nice with the three criminally probed men, she still must ward off a challenge from Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres and Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who are both doing their best to ramp up speculation they will campaign against her for governor in 2026.
“The change of heart about Cuomo is the latest flip-flop from the foremost flip-flopper in New York politics,” Torres texted Playbook. “Just like Kathy Hochul was for congestion pricing before she was against it before she was for it, Hochul was for Cuomo before she was against him before she was for him.”
Lawler also chimed in: “Governor Hochul’s new ‘Kumbaya Kathy’ act is laughable,” he said. “Commonsense people in both parties know that she doesn’t work with, or listen to, anyone who disagrees with her and her bad ideas. If she did, we wouldn’t be dealing with congestion pricing, sanctuary cities, or cashless bail.” — Jason Beeferman
YOU GET A LUNCH, AND YOU GET A LUNCH … : New York is set to become the ninth state in the nation that provides free lunches and breakfasts to all K-12 school students, regardless of their income.
“I’m proposing free school meals for every student in New York — giving kids the sustenance they need and putting more money back in parents’ pockets,” the governor said today.
The announcement is the final in a trifecta of affordability proposals Hochul is unveiling ahead of her State of the State.
Hochul has long centered affordability from her perch in Albany, but the recent emphasis on “putting money back in your pockets” comes after Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris revealed losses of Democratic support from working class voters across most demographic groups.
“It’s just a statement of our values,” Hochul said. “Helping put more money in the pockets of parents, families in countless ways. This is just one of the other initiatives we’ll be announcing in my State of the State on Tuesday.”
The governor’s new initiative, known as Universal Free School Meals, would eliminate any income requirements, expanding eligibility to nearly 300,000 additional pupils.
The investment into the state’s free student meals program, which Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas and state Sen. Michelle Hinchey had fought to expand over the last two years, means around 2.7 million students will be entitled to free meals.
“Reducing the stigma is so important,” Rojas said. “We’ve heard about so many children who are teased, families who are embarrassed to do all this work and get that attention, because they just want their kids to learn and not be focused on the challenges they’re facing,” Rojas said.
“These arbitrary cutoffs that we have for things, just because you may not qualify doesn’t mean your family is not right on the brink and struggling,” Hinchey said.
The initiative is expected to cost $340 million and would go into effect in the 2025-26 school year, according to the governor’s office. — Jason Beeferman and Madina Touré
TO BE (THERE) OR NOT TO BE: Adams is open to attending Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, but his Albany ally is staying put.
Hochul campaign spokesperson Jen Goodman today confirmed the governor will not attend Trump’s swearing-in ceremony in Washington.
Adams and Hochul are moderate Democrats who have worked well together. But Adams, who is fighting a five-count federal felony indictment, has trod lightly in Trump world.
Unlike the governor, Adams was not a vocal surrogate for President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris when she replaced him at the top of the ticket. Adams also met with incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan and has been critical of how Biden has handled immigration policy. (Hochul has been in virtual alignment with the Biden administration on the issue and has blamed Republicans for a scuttled border security bill last year.)
The inauguration will coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and prominent New York officials typically unite at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s celebration of the civil rights leader at the National Action Network in Harlem.
Hochul has not disclosed her plans for Jan. 20, but she is also expected to deliver her state budget presentation in Albany the following day. — Nick Reisman
BITTER TAX FIGHT: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is drawing a line in the sand in the heated battle to lift the cap on the state and local tax deduction, or SALT, as House Republicans meet Saturday with Trump to argue for an increase.
Schumer wants a full repeal, full stop.
Reps. Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Nicole Malliotakis, Andrew Garbarino and their colleagues from New Jersey and California view a substantial hike in the current $10,000-per-household cap as a realistic opening bid in the light of the contention to come over renewing the broader tax cuts package.
But Schumer and other Democrats, including Hochul, are staking out total restoration as their position. The senior senator previewed the Dems’ strategy Friday in remarks to the pro-business Long Island Association.
“President-elect Trump and many southern and midwestern Congress members who pushed the unfair SALT cap in their 2017 tax bill are now having second thoughts, and we have to take advantage of that,” he told the business community in a suburban stretch where SALT is a very big deal. “There’s been a lot of chatter this week about various potential increases to Trump’s SALT limits, but remember: If we don’t renew them, then the Trump SALT cap will expire … and this attack on New York taxpayers ends for good.”
As House Republicans from high-tax states make their SALT case, they’ve also made sure to blame the Democratic leaders of those states, including Hochul, for hefty taxes that make the deduction so crucial in the first place. — Emily Ngo
— GUILTY PLEA: Turkish-American construction executive Erden Arkan pleaded guilty Friday to making straw donations to Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign. (POLITICO)
— LESS TERRIBLE TWOS: City parents are starting a campaign to push City Hall to fund free universal child care for 2-year-olds. (Daily News)
— DON’T GIMME SHELTER: The city is shuttering 10 migrant shelters as the rate of arrivals for asylum seekers continues to hit new lows. (New York Post)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Politics
‘I’ll never bow down’: Montana Democratic Senate nominee refuses to pave way for independent
Montana’s Democratic Senate nominee on Monday refused to drop her campaign to clear the way for an independent candidate, setting up a crowded race that is likely to help Republicans win in November.
Alani Bankhead made certain with hours to go before Monday’s deadline that she would not step aside to give independent Seth Bodnar — who is backed by former Sen. John Tester (D-Mont.) — a clearer run at Republican Kurt Alme.
“I’ll never bow down,” Bankhead said during a press conference ahead of the 7 p.m. Eastern Time deadline to drop out. “I am in this race to win it and I am staying through Nov. 3.”
Bankhead accused her opponents of being “hand picked” by the establishment while she won the Democratic Primary.
Her refusal to drop is no surprise. She told Blue Light News earlier this month that it would take “a lighting bolt from God” to convince her to exit, and she’s cast Bodnar’s backing from Tester as proof that he’s more aligned with the establishment than she is.
It’s caused a significant headache for Democrats, who have had some success getting their candidates to drop out for independents in other deep-red states carried by President Donald Trump by wide margins in 2024. Democrats in Idaho, South Dakota and Nebraska have all dropped their bids, though legal challenges could still complicate some of those efforts.
But Montana is Democrats’ best shot of actually flipping a seat with an independent candidacy, and Bankhead remaining on the ballot is likely to complicate that path exponentially.
Polling has shown Bodnar in a competitive head-to-head position against Alme and closer than if Bankhead had a one-on-one contest. But with both on the ballot, Alme leads by more than 20 points. Democrats like Tester and former Gov. Steve Bullock have found success in the red-leaning state, but a split ticket all but cedes the race to the GOP and narrows Democrats’ path to a majority in the upper chamber.
Bodnar and his allies have upped their focus on Bankhead in recent days. A super PAC backing Bodnar has been hammering her on television while another group is posting signs around the state calling for her to drop out.
More than 20 local Democratic lawmakers recently called on Bankhead to drop out, as well as former Democratic Party leaders. But in the end, their argument wasn’t enough to change Bankhead’s mind.
Bodnar recently told reporters ahead of the Monday deadline that he, too, had no plans to drop — while publicly bashing Bankhead for the first time.
“On the Democratic side, millions of dollars of outside dark money poured into a primary to determine an outcome,” Bodnar said at a press conference. “Now they have a candidate who’s unvetted.”
KENOSHA, Wisconsin — The progressive movement’s midterms march has arrived in Wisconsin, where a democratic socialist is forcing establishment Democrats to mount an all-out, last-ditch effort to stop her.
State Rep. Francesca Hong is the front-runner to become the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, fueled by a populist campaign tapping into voters’ cost of living concerns. David Crowley, the Milwaukee County Executive backed by outgoing Gov. Tony Evers, has emerged as the top candidate trying to cut off Hong’s bid.
Ahead of Tuesday’s primary, electability was top of mind for voters and both candidates as they raced to prove they could build the widest, strongest coalition against presumptive Republican nominee Tom Tiffany.
Crowley and Evers have been barnstorming the swing state over the past week, warning a vote for Hong risks losing the governor’s mansion in November to Tiffany, a hard-right member of the House Freedom Caucus backed by President Donald Trump.
“You know, it’s the only time that I know that the governor — Tony Evers — the Republican Governors Association and Turning Point USA have ever been on the same page: in thinking that Francesca Hong is the best candidate to lose this race,” Crowley said in an interview at a local tavern in Sheboygan on Friday.
Hong rejects those warnings. Speaking to voters at events across the state, Hong argues Democratic voters are fed up with the establishment ahead of November — and that she can appeal to a wide array of Democrats, Republicans and people who don’t feel represented by either party.
“We have to take this moment, a movement moment, and be bold with transformative change, and build the actual big tent that we can and we must be as Democrats,” Hong told a crowd of about 50 people gathered at a senior community center in deep-red Siren.
Hong, a 37-year-old former chef and single mother who represents the bluest district in the state assembly, has charted a remarkably rapid rise in a purple state that Trump won by just shy of 30,000 votes in 2024. She launched her campaign as a long shot, with far less name recognition than other Democrats in the race like Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. Both of them have since dropped out. And despite being at a consistent fundraising disadvantage — Hong still has not put out a single television ad — the progressive has maintained wide leads in public polling.
But Hong’s campaign has also faced intense scrutiny over a string of controversial past social media posts, including advocating for defunding the police and railing against Thanksgiving. She was later slammed for being unable to give a straightforward answer to CNN about whether she would “cancel Thanksgiving.”
Following those missteps, Hong’s team has clamped down on her interactions with both local and national media at campaign events in the final stretch. She has also moderated some of her past positions in public remarks, emphasizing repeatedly that she is “serious about public safety” and even attempting to eschew some of her anti-establishment ties.
On Wednesday, she reversed herself on Thanksgiving, telling POLITICO that it was, in fact, her favorite holiday. And asked by Blue Light News on Saturday if she had any regrets about her past, she told reporters at a campaign stop in Sheboygan that she had learned from her tweets.
“I had some hot takes, some bad takes on Twitter, but when you’re a business owner running a restaurant during Covid, trying to pay bills as a student, you’re putting feelings out there into the world,” Hong said. “But I’ve evolved, I’ve learned. I think it’s more dishonest not to learn.”
Hong has leaned heavily into affordability policies, including raising the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $20, progressive taxation and a statewide one-year moratorium on data center construction — a salient issue in Wisconsin, where several local governments have already voted on moratoriums.
“While many of our supporters or other folks have framed us as anti-establishment, what we are for is working-class people,” she told Blue Light News. “It’s not so much being anti-establishment as it is ensuring that we’re listening to voters who are demanding change.”
But many Democrats in the state worry her ideology — including the old social media posts hawking far-left talking points — will be a political risk in a battleground general election.
Pro-Republican PACs, including one associated with the Republican Governors Association, have spent millions of dollars to boost Hong in the primary so they can face who they perceive to be a weaker candidate in November.
Kyle Kilbourn, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran against Tiffany for his House seat in 2024, said he still had not decided who to support in the primary because of concerns about “electability statewide.”
“The last several elections have been very very close, by one or two percentage points, and so it matters,” he told Blue Light News while attending a Hong event at a brewery in Rhinelander.
Even some of Hong’s supporters are anxious.
“It’s always going to be a concern,” Jan Stroman, who attended an event in River Falls, said when asked if Hong could win against Tiffany.
Robert LaGesse, 74, said at an event in far-north Superior on Friday he was voting for Hong — but admitted Hong’s tweets about abolishing the police “sounds like a foolish statement that could hurt her big time.”
At the same event, a young Hong campaign volunteer asked her about those social media posts.“I’m not going to abolish the police as governor,” Hong responded. “I cannot and I will not defund the police.” She was asked a similar version of the same question at nearly every other event last week.
Some supporters also fear that Hong will face racist and sexist backlash as an Asian American woman. Wisconsin has never elected a governor who is not a white man.
“There’s a lot of sexism yet in our country,” Tim Freiss, 60 — a Hong supporter who previously voted for both Bush presidencies — said in an interview outside his home in Green Bay.
“Honestly, what I’m worried about is her race, because our state is very racist,” another Hong supporter, Heidi Meyer, 48, said as Hong canvassed her neighborhood in Appleton.
Democratic officials in the Badger State are determined to unify after the primary, but many are deeply concerned Hong isn’t running the disciplined campaign required to defeat a Trump-backed Republican in Wisconsin.
The messy race has also deeply divided Democrats in the state. Hong’s allies bristle at Evers’ campaign against her, using his resources — including his own communications staff — to boost Crowley. Evers defeated Republican then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2018 by deploying his brand of more moderate Democratic policies to win over independents and limit deep losses in rural areas. But he decided not to run for a rare third term as governor.
Evers on Friday would not commit to endorsing or campaigning with Hong should she win — though Democrats expect he’ll have to.
“I want to have a chance to take a breath, and once that’s in a position, we’ll see,” Evers said in an interview as he walked with Crowley from a Hmong family-owned bakery in Sheboygan to the corner tavern packed with supporters.
Crowley, asked if he would campaign for Hong this fall if she wins the nomination, shot back with a smile: “Ask her that too.” But he quickly added: “I want to be very clear: I’m not in this race running against any of my opponents. I’m running for the votes of Wisconsinites, and if they don’t choose me to be the nominee, my job is to make sure that it’s blue no matter who.”
Asked Saturday if she would endorse and campaign with Crowley if he wins on Tuesday, Hong replied with one word: “Yes.”
Hong has admitted the democratic socialist label comes with baggage — “I can’t say I always love it for me,” she said at a restaurant in River Falls — but she also rejected the notion that her campaign is undisciplined and noted that establishment Democrats had consistently underestimated her bid. She hopes to work with Democrats across the ideological spectrum in the sprint toward November.
“We’re a serious campaign that has built a movement and turned out new voters, folks who are voting for the first time,” Hong said. “We’re a serious campaign that knows how to win, but we’re also serious about working as a coalition and making sure that we collaborate and coordinate with the people that we need to to make sure we defeat Tom Tiffany in the fall.”
Crowley has charted a more moderate path than Hong’s blistering democratic socialism. In an interview, he argued the party needs “someone who’s not just going to fight back, but also who can sit at the negotiating table and be able to work with folks who want to deliver for those that we represent.” He also ruled out the data center moratorium popular with a wide swath of voters that Hong is running on and using to pull in some pockets of rural support: “So, the way I hear that question is that we’re going to preempt local communities from not being able to focus on their own economic development,” Crowley said.
There are signs that Crowley is making some gains. But he’s still 20 percentage points behind Hong in the latest polling.
“Crowley is closing the gap, but it’s likely too little, too late,” said one longtime Wisconsin Democratic strategist, who was granted anonymity to candidly discuss the governor’s pick.
Crowley’s team argues that Wisconsin polling is likely off just as it was in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed clinched the Democratic Senate nomination last week by a tighter than expected margin. But the signs of Hong’s strength are evident across the state, beyond just her stronghold of Madison. The first voter Crowley greeted at his opening Sheboygan stop Friday, Paige Gerber, said in an interview later she had already voted early for Hong.
Supporters at the Crowley event later in the day were well aware of his standing. Voter after voter in interviews with Blue Light News expressed alarm that their party was poised to pick Hong, a losing horse in their view.
Retirees in “radicalized by basic decency” T-shirts sipped on beer and cheered when Evers walked through the door with Crowley, alongside local IBEW union workers and teachers. “Tony! Tony!” chants eventually rang through the bar.
A Crowley staffer at one point tried to start a “David! David!” cheer. But it never caught on.
Tyler Katzenberger contributed to this report.
South Carolina Republicans might be watching history repeat itself.
A special election Senate primary on Tuesday, triggered by Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden death, has all the makings of their rollercoaster governor’s primary back in June: A front-runner endorsed by President Donald Trump but facing a steep uphill battle to consolidate the field behind her. And the looming threat of a runoff election that could lead to a late surge from another Republican.
Darline Graham is running for a full term to replace her late brother, leading in some public polls over GOP Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman, former Gov. Mark Sanford and businessman Mark Lynch.
The crowded field makes it very unlikely she or anyone else will clinch the majority needed to avoid a bitter runoff. And, aside from deploying his standard playbook of a few Truth Social posts supporting Graham and a last-minute tele-rally scheduled for Monday, Trump has made no public indication of what else he is planning to do to help.
For one particular South Carolina Republican, the situation is all too familiar: Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette had Trump’s backing in the GOP governor’s primary — and then lost to Alan Wilson in the runoff after he rose in the polls and secured a rare double endorsement from the president.
Asked if she wished Trump would have done more to boost her, Evette told Blue Light News: “Obviously, yes. I do wish that, but you know, it didn’t happen that way.” She said she has not yet decided who to endorse in the Senate primary and is keeping a close eye on how it plays out.
“Run it back,” said one national GOP operative, granted anonymity to speak openly about how the South Carolina Senate primary may turn into a redux of the governor’s race. “The long and short of it, [Graham’s] got a pretty low ceiling.”
The snap Senate election tees up another test of Trump’s influence over the Republican Party. It will reveal whether the president’s word alone is enough to carry his preferred candidate to the nomination, and the lengths to which he is willing to go to boost his picks — especially ones who find themselves with an uncertain path to victory.
This will be Graham’s first ever contest at the ballot box in a state known for its bruising GOP political battles. Nearly half a dozen local Republican officials and strategists alike believe Graham is in a strong position to win the first round of voting. But whoever secures the second place spot will determine just how much more support she may need from Trump to overcome a one-on-one challenge.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Republicans differed on whether Norman or Fry would pose the bigger challenge to Graham’s path to victory in a runoff scenario. Norman boasts a longtime base of conservative support in the state, while Fry, who was elected to Congress in 2022, is seen as an up-and-coming star who has caught Trump’s interest.
“If it’s Darline and Russell, it definitely has some flavors of the governor’s race,” said Tyson Grinstead, an RNC committee member and chair of the Richland County GOP, who is staying neutral in the Senate race. Both candidates have good relationships with the president — and Trump has already proven he’s willing to double endorse in a runoff.
However, Grinstead added, there are some key differences.
The main flaw in Evette’s strategy that Republicans in South Carolina have pointed to was her decision to run too intensely on her ties to the president in lieu of a more issues-first message.
“I think most of the criticism came because I got his endorsement, and everybody was fighting for his endorsement. That’s how I looked at it,” Evette said in an interview, deflecting the criticism. “In states like this that have these runoffs, where very few people come out, I think if you’re not tied into the establishment, I think it hurts you in some form of fashion.”
With the president’s endorsement already secured, Graham is making a clear effort to differentiate herself not only from her field of contenders, but from her brother as well.
In an interview with Fox News announcing her run, Graham made a point to emphasize her intention to focus on domestic issues in contrast to the late senator’s foreign policy-hued legacy. And she brought the same focus to her first debate stage appearance last week.
“If anybody understands the struggles of South Carolinians, it’s me,” Graham said on stage last week, talking about her own cost of living struggles — even as she vowed to support Trump’s pet projects while in office, including the SAVE America Act.
“Of course the campaign’s advertising highlights the Trump endorsement. We’re proud of it, and there’s no question it’s still the gold standard in Republican politics,” said a person familiar with Graham’s approach, granted anonymity to discuss internal campaign strategy.
“But Darline knows an endorsement opens a door, it doesn’t walk through it for you,” this person added. “She’s out there every day earning this on her own, because that’s what voters deserve — a candidate who shows up and makes her own case, not one who assumes the race is already won.”
One of Graham’s key advantages in staving off a late upset lies in her inherited slate of seasoned operatives and statewide campaign infrastructure — a hallmark of Lindsey Graham’s decades of success in the state.
“Lindsey’s team has been the best team in South Carolina,” said Grinstead, who worked for the late senator’s campaigns in past cycles. “They’re organized, they have a grassroots presence, they have field staff.”
Still, Graham is likely to face a competitive runoff regardless of which candidate squeaks into second place. Fry and Norman are seen as the two most likely contenders based on limited public polling available in the race so far. In a glimpse of how fluid and unpredictable the primary has become, a straw poll conducted by the South Carolina Republican Party showed Graham in third place, trailing both Norman and Fry.
The two representatives offer competing flavors for Republicans to choose from.
Fry is seen in both Washington and Columbia as a rising star in the party. He also has a fan in Trump who, in the muddied political waters immediately following Lindsey Graham’s death, said in an interview with Newsmax that the House Republican is “outstanding” and a “very talented person.”
But questions remain about the legal process of what happens to his congressional seat should he win his party’s nomination for Senate and go on to win in the general election. The state party has signaled they would act quickly to address a vacancy to protect House Republicans’ extremely narrow majority in Congress.
Norman, for his part, already gave up his House seat to run for governor earlier this year. He is a longtime fixture of the state’s most conservative factions, who has at times been a thorn in Trump’s side, like when he endorsed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for president in 2024.
But he’s seen as the standard bearer for the powerful Freedom Caucus’ ultraconservative politics in the state, and his gubernatorial bid has left him with a statewide operation that he can reactivate in his run for Senate.
Graham, Fry, and Norman all declined to comment.
Both of Graham’s likely top opponents have honed most of their fire on each other — one of the clearest signs that the first round of the primary is shaping up to be a battle for second place. Still, Graham’s allies have lobbed their own attacks against Fry.
Security in Strength, a PAC that once supported Lindsey Graham’s 2024 reelection, is up on TV with an ad that shows an AI-depiction of Fry’s likeness transposed onto a slice of meat in a frying pan, dumped out by Trump with the words “REJECTED” splashed across the screen.
Fry has recently started taking aim at Graham, launching an ad claiming that she “ballooned the size” and doubled the spending of a government agency — but did not specify which. Graham has worked for the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department and has led the Commission for the Blind since 2019.
“If Russell Fry wants to attack Senator Darline for helping people with disabilities find jobs and live independently, that’s a bold fight to pick,” Abby Zilch, a Graham spokesperson, said in response in a post on social media.
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