Congress
House members stare down a grueling summer on the campaign trail
The Iran war’s increasing unpopularity, including inside the MAGA base, is weighing on House Republicans as they head back to their districts for a five-week recess to face voters ahead of the looming midterms.
They know they need to ease Americans’ worries about what many of them fear is beginning to look like an endless war yielding higher gas prices and other major affordability concerns.
“All of these issues will come up. I mean, Iran will absolutely come up,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise acknowledged Thursday. “Cost of living comes up. Safety and security, border security comes up. All of them come up, you know, and that’s why it’s important to remind people that we’re addressing those issues.”
It didn’t help that GOP lawmakers left Washington after four of their own broke ranks Thursday morning to help advance a Democrat-led war powers resolution rebuking President Donald Trump’s military operation in Iran.
The timing of the war powers vote right as members were leaving town — where among the four Republicans defecting was Rep. Tom Barrett, a vulnerable incumbent fighting to hold onto his competitive Michigan seat — had an unsettling effect among some House GOP lawmakers already spooked by poll numbers appearing to favor Democrats for a takeover in 2027.
“We have a hell of a lot of work to do, that’s clear,” one House Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said as the chamber headed out this week.
Amid the political pressure around the war, National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson and other party leaders are trying to draw a contrast between the GOP and a Democratic Party facing down an rising insurgent left flank.
“We’ve passed some really good policies that are actually working. And so we’ve got a great story to tell to the voters,” the North Carolina Republican told reporters Thursday. “This election’s a choice between Donald Trump’s vision and Mamdani’s vision, and the voters are going to be with us.”
He was referencing Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist mayor of New York City who has become a GOP stand-in for the party following a string of progressive Democrats’ primary wins.
Some House Republicans tried to paint a rosy picture of their own achievements, having spent the past few days successfully pushing through major pieces of legislation that were seen as being in risk of failure at several points. Those anxieties were compounded by recent internal party meltdowns that forced Speaker Mike Johnson to lose control of the House floor for weeks.
Johnson’s wins this week include an annual defense policy bill, a measure to fund the government through Dec. 4 and a budget blueprint for a $95 billion party-line package. That package includes a massive cash infusion for the Iran war, plus farm aid and funding for the voter ID and citizenship components of the GOP election overhaul bill known as the SAVE America Act — Trump’s top legislative priority.
“If you would have told me on Sunday we could get all that done with low drama, I would have never believed you,” Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) said in an interview. “We’ve got a plan going into the fall. We are committed to making sure the government continues to operate.”
But each of those House bills now head to the Senate, where they are expected to hit several hurdles — assuming any of them can move at all. Senators’ own version of the National Defense Authorization Act has stalled, while Senate appropriators are hoping to negotiate their own stopgap funding plan.
And Senate Majority Leader John Thune won’t commit to a timeline for moving the budget resolution, underscoring Thursday it does not have the votes at this point. It’s more likely than not that even if GOP leadership does decide to take up the fiscal blueprint, it won’t be before the Senate starts its own August recess, complicating the message for House Republicans during theirs.
Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) said he believed there was a “50/50” chance that Senate Republicans will adopt the budget resolution in the coming weeks, “and I’m not optimistic.”
House GOP leaders also keep pressing their members to highlight some of the benefits of Republicans’ “One, Big Beautiful Bill,” over the upcoming recess. But that message has largely fallen flat among Americans.
It has Democrats projecting confidence in their own midterm message and seizing on what they see as a series of political blunders by the GOP — including that the House Republican budget plan would greenlight billions in funding to cover the Trump administration’s exploits in Iran, which has driven up inflation.
“Donald Trump and Republicans have failed the American people, which is why they clearly are on the run and are on the verge of losing control of the House of Representatives,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday.
Democrats are also feeling good about affordability and accountability-oriented legislative efforts they say are translating to promising polls and fundraising hauls. And while they have yet to fully outline how they would attempt to lower costs legislatively if they take the majority, Jeffries teased he will launch a new affordability “effort” on Sunday to mark 100 days until the midterm elections.
The party is also touting polling that shows mounting voter frustration with the Iran war — including among Republicans. A Wednesday Fox News poll shows voters saying Democrats can better handle income inequality by 22 percentage points, health care by 21 points, inflation by 10 points and immigration — Republicans’ top 2024 campaign issue — by one point.
On a generic ballot, Democrats are up by 11 points, according to an Emerson College poll.
“The cost of living goes up under Donald Trump and his war of choice,” the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Greg Meeks of New York, said in an interview. “And so that’s the messaging that we will continue to have to pour out to the American people, along with some of the crazy ethical problems that this administration has.”
Republicans have downplayed the polling so far. While Hudson acknowledged that midterm elections often benefit the party not in power in the White House, he believes this time around “that’s not the case,” pointing out that Republicans are trying to flip many House seats that Trump won.
“I’m polling in about 35 districts, and that’s going to decide the election,” Hudson said. “And in those polls, we’re leading in most, and we’re in the fight in the rest because we have better candidates. We actually have solutions to make people’s lives better, and thankfully we’ve got more resources, so we can tell that story.”
A handful of Democratic incumbents are also facing primary challenges that threaten to distract from the party’s salespitch of unity to contrast with their narrative about Republican disarray; Democrat-on-Democrat infighting is taking place in contests involving Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida, Ed Case in Hawaii, Shri Thanedar in Michigan and John Larson in Connecticut.
“I have to confess, I’m a little more worried about some of the folks that have primaries,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said. “I just hate the idea of replacing people we know can win easily in November with people who could lose.”
Democrats aren’t taking anything for granted: “There’s only two ways to run: scared or unopposed,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, a vulnerable Democrat from New York, said in an interview. “You just got to keep on fighting.”
Calen Razor contributed to this report.
ALBANY, New York — In a time of massive political upheaval, Gov. Kathy Hochul is selling herself as a conventional politician.
Thrust into the job five years ago, Hochul is running for a second full term without the baggage of Andrew Cuomo, her scandal-scarred predecessor. She has a package of policy wins to tout — like banning cellphones in schools, no-cost child care and an effort to lower car insurance rates. A prodigious fundraiser, Hochul also has a mammoth cash advantage over her Republican rival, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
Yet there are nagging worries among New York Democrats.
Frustrated voters are rejecting incumbents and establishment-backed candidates. An ascendant left is putting centrist Democrats on their back foot and providing a convenient foil for Republicans to exploit. Sweeping affordability woes and the perception that people are less financially secure than prior generations are driving voters to embrace populist, charismatic candidates.
And then there’s New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has formed a steady, pragmatic relationship with the governor, but is nevertheless highly polarizing to moderate Jewish voters and the business community. Blakeman has sought to leverage that by frequently blaming both Hochul and Mamdani for crime and high taxes.
Ratcheting up the pressure is Hochul’s need to perform well at the top of the ticket and help push down-ballot Democrats over the finish line, including those in moderate suburban enclaves. Success would enable the governor to reverse the perception — stoked by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi four years ago — that her 2022 campaign’s weak showing against Republican Lee Zeldin kept the House in GOP hands.
Hochul’s campaign referred Blue Light News to an ally, Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan, for comment.
“Voters are increasingly calling BS on the sort of typical politicians and the establishment is not delivering,” he said. “The reason why Gov. Hochul is in such a strong position is because she’s so ruthlessly focused on delivering and she has delivered.”
New York is home to a handful of contested House districts that will potentially determine which party controls the chamber and the course of President Donald Trump’s final two years in office. Those stakes have led Hochul to significantly expand the New York Democratic Party’s infrastructure — long a political fiefdom solely meant to aid a governor — to support local candidates.
To win reelection by a comfortable margin — her supporters believe it should be by at least 10 points — Hochul must hold together an increasingly fraught Democratic coalition, riven by debates over socialism, Israel and how aggressively to fight Trump.
“Kathy Hochul has prided herself on being a mom governor and you see those motherly attributes coming out in how she runs the government,” said former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a Hochul ally. “She’s someone who keeps all the balls in the air at one time, but simultaneously unites everybody. It’s about the grind and moving forward. It’s not about giving grand speeches or winning over the media with flashiness — it’s about getting it done.”
Hochul, a 68-year-old moderate who has spent much of her professional life in elected office, would appear to be an unlikely fit for this tumultuous moment. The mild mannered Buffalo-native does not lean on bombast. And she can appear purposefully hokey, like in her recent video with actor Kevin Bacon to promote the repeal of an anti-dancing regulation in bars.
This sedate public persona hasn’t lit voters aflame. A Siena Research Institute survey last month found her drawing only 49 percent of the vote to Blakeman’s 39 percent. Just 48 percent of voters in this deep blue state have a favorable view of her, even as many of her policies — like attempts to curb Trump’s deportation campaign and a data center moratorium — are popular.
Republicans want to capitalize on her so-so polling and persistent voter fears over public safety. They have hammered the governor over the cost of living in a deeply expensive state, blaming her for rising utility costs. Blakeman’s light-on-policy campaign has pledged to cut utility bills in half and significantly reduce taxes without explaining how he would accomplish either task.
The 70-year-old Republican nominee has hugged Trump tightly during the campaign, showing no daylight with the president even as gas prices have soared due to the war in Iran and upstate farmers have decried the impact of his tariff regime. Blakeman hosted Trump at an August campaign-style rally in which Republican speakers blasted Democrats over public safety with cheering police officers behind them.
Hochul’s campaign is eagerly highlighting the Trump-Blakeman dynamic: One of her first TV ads concludes with Blakeman declaring “peace, love and Donald Trump.”
“Everyone wants to talk about individual issues, but this is still an election on where Donald Trump stands with voters in New York — whether Democrats perceive the governor will be a voice in opposition to Donald trump or if Bruce Blakeman is going to be in lockstep with his policies,” said Jay Martin, a strategist who is working on a pro-Hochul super PAC. “That’s really the question that’s going to be answered.”
Blakeman is considered by Republicans to be their best bet to bolster down-ballot GOP candidates, especially on bellwether Long Island, where Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen are trying to hold their suburban swing seats. Blakeman has touted his ability to twice win purplish Nassau County, where Mamdani remains a deep concern for suburban voters. Those vulnerable House Democrats, as well as upstate congressional contender Blake Gendebien, have kept Hochul at arm’s length — an indication they believe her presence would hurt their chances of winning.
The Republican’s campaign, meanwhile, has eagerly laced into Mamdani and his alliance with Hochul. Blakeman has churned out videos produced with artificial intelligence depicting a smiling mayor and governor walking together. He pledged to repeal a surcharge on costly second homes in New York City that was proposed by Hochul and enthusiastically cheered by Mamdani.
And Blakeman slammed the governor for appearing at an Islamic cultural center in a head scarf, calling her “Hijab Hochul.”
“Less than two weeks before the 25th anniversary of 9/11, this kind of political pandering is especially tone-deaf,” he posted on X.
(Hochul’s campaign was quick to amplify that Blakeman appeared in religious garb while attending a Sikh center.)
After Trump posted about the hard scarf photo, Hochul responded: “I’ll never apologize for treating people of any faith with dignity, no matter how Islamophobic you and your enablers are.”
While significantly lagging the governor in fundraising, Blakeman has deep-pocketed allies, including New York Knicks owner James Dolan, the top donor to a super PAC supporting the GOP nominee’s bid. And Republicans believe there is a path, given the Democratic Party’s factionalism and voters’ affordability woes that have proven troublesome to incumbents.
“He needs to raise more money to do the traditional ways of introducing him as a viable alternative to Kathy Hochul — I think he is, but obviously money is the next star that has to align,” former Republican Rep. Tom Reed said. “He doesn’t have to match her one to one. The path is aligning itself.”
Blakeman will also need to win over pockets of voters who have traditionally supported Democrats — moderates who are uncomfortable with the party’s leftward drift in the Trump 2.0 era and continue to be concerned with the cost of living. And while Republicans haven’t won a statewide race since 2006, public polling this year shows independent voters are consistently disgruntled with the direction of the state.
“The traditional red-versus-blue analysis is going out the door,” Reed said. “You saw Trump tap in with the African-American vote, the trades — it’s a reflection of that,” Reed said. “It’s an opportunity for those of the silent majority that are just sick and tired of the status quo, big party bosses, they think they can just phone it in and not listen to the people of New York.”
But Zeldin’s 2022 bid — conducted in the middle of Joe Biden’s single-term presidency — still had trouble making sufficient in-roads in Democratic-dominated New York City.
Mamdani’s successful mayoral campaign last year signaled a different kind of political realignment. He knit together a coalition of mostly young voters upset with costs and highly skeptical of establishment politicians like his main opponent, Cuomo.
But Mamdani’s rise has also unnerved New York’s large Jewish population. Business leaders have been uneasy with his unapologetic battle cry to raise taxes on wealthy people and large corporations. And he has struggled to win over older Black and Latino voters — people who’ve traditionally been the backbone of the New York Democratic Party.
The governor sidestepped what stood to be a divisive primary fight when Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado dropped his long-shot bid after Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed her reelection. Hochul’s team purposefully declined to directly attack Delgado — a strategic decision that helped keep the party together. She’s been able to work well with the mayor, forgoing the historic tensions that arise between governors and mayors. Unlike some moderate Democrats, Hochul has not excoriated the hard left in her party while making clear she disagrees with them on issues like Israel and hiking taxes.
Hochul told Blue Light News in August that she expects Mamdani will be “helpful” to her campaign. But it’s an open question as to whether the mayor’s supporters can be sufficiently marshaled to support his Albany ally. At the same time, Hochul must delicately thread a needle to ensure that she does not alienate those within her own coalition who are disquieted by Mamdani’s success.
“Mamdani is a double-edged sword for the governor,” said Evan Thies, a Democratic strategist and former political adviser to ex-Mayor Eric Adams. “The numbers show he can turn out Democratic voters for her in the city — but also that he can hurt her elsewhere.”
James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.
The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.
“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”
The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.
Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.
“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.
A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.
Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.
Congress
‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call
A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.
In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.
“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.
Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.
“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”
Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.
Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.
She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.
But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.
Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.
“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”
Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.
But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”
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- NATO races to guard against Russian nuclear subs without the US
- Confirmation of measles death gives Pennsylvania governor another chance to call out RFK Jr.
- How Talarico is countering Trump’s midterms convention
- ‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call
- Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.
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