Politics
Sen. Brian Schatz to fundraise for Graham Platner amid scandals
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) is set to help rally donors for Graham Platner on Sunday — a major show of support from a top establishment figure for the embattled Maine Senate candidate.
Schatz is listed as the special guest at a “virtual pre-primary event in support of Graham Platner,” according to two donors familiar with the event and an invitation obtained by Blue Light News. Tickets range from $100 to $7,000, the maximum allowed contribution, for the Sunday evening event, per the invite.
It’s not clear when the event was organized, but the invitation was circulated to donors on Friday afternoon — as the campaign continued to face an onslaught of criticism from fellow Democrats over a series of scandals.
The event is the first public stamp of approval from Schatz, who has not endorsed Platner previously. Making it even more notable is Schatz’s status as a rising leader in the party: He is currently deputy conference secretary and chief deputy whip for the Senate Democratic Caucus, and he has secured the votes — and Chuck Schumer’s endorsement — to take over the No. 2 role next year.
One person from Schatz’s campaign, granted anonymity to discuss a not-yet-public donation, said the senator had given money to Platner’s campaign in May after he became the presumptive nominee, part of a practice of donating to battleground Democrats who clear their fields. (Donations from that time have not yet been disclosed in campaign finance reports.)
One person close to Platner’s campaign, granted anonymity to share private details, confirmed the event and that the senator had not formally backed Platner yet.
Schatz’s presence is the latest signal that Senate Democrats are standing by Platner as he weathers a series of scandals.
Last week, news broke that Platner had sent sexually explicit texts to other women while married. Then, on Thursday, the New York Times reported new allegations of violent and disturbing behavior toward ex-girlfriends. One of them said the Democrat knew about his tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol when he got it done, despite his saying otherwise.
Platner has denied the claims. He is poised to lock up the Democratic nomination against GOP Sen. Susan Collins in Maine in Tuesday’s primary as the sole major candidate remaining and said he has “not once” considered dropping out.
His campaign on Friday announced that it had raised more than $200,000 since the Times story was published, calling it the best day of fundraising since Democratic Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign.
Democrats have been torn over how to respond to the escalating controversy surrounding Platner, with some arguing he is undermining the party’s values and should drop out of the race and others maintaining that he’s their best option to beat Collins. Maine, which former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024, is the party’s crown jewel of Senate pickup opportunities this cycle and effectively a must-win if they are to take back control of the chamber.
But Democrats and allied groups that have backed Platner have reiterated their support, including Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.); Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.); VoteVets, a group that has historically been aligned with Schumer; the Working Families Party and Showing Up for Racial Justice.
At a pre-planned Friday rally alongside Khanna, Maine 2nd District candidate Matt Dunlap and gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson, a defiant Platner thanked the crowd for having his back.
“As every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated and weaponized, you have my back,” he said to loud applause. “And when politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me, Maine, you have my back.”
The presence of Dunlap and Jackson — who are both in contested down-ballot races in Tuesday’s primary — suggests they see associating with Platner as a net positive with Maine voters, despite the controversies.
Khanna, speaking after Platner, said “no one should make excuses” for the candidate’s past relationships, but urged rallygoers to give him room for redemption — and focus on the upcoming battle in November.
“The Democratic Party, from Schumer to Sanders, is united with a single goal: we will defeat Susan Collins in November,” he said.
Still, some Democrats are closely watching what happens Tuesday — and whether a protest vote for Mills emerges — before renewing their calls for Platner to drop out.
Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.
Politics
Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.
President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.
In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.
Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.
Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.
“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.
Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.
“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.
He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”
Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.
“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”
The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.
In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.
“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.
He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”
The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.
“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.
Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.
“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.
He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”
While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.
“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”
Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.
Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.
“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.
He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”
Missouri’s Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands this November.
The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall.
Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November. But in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s original Kansas City-based district will likely stay in Democrats’ hands this fall.
Construction crews could begin the excavation process for what will be President Donald Trump’s massive 250-foot-tall arch in as soon as the next two weeks, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced on Thursday.
The monument — which will be erected in a traffic circle at the head of the Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River, coming between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery — has generated controversy as concerns emerged about the design and traffic congestion during construction.
The arch would take two to three years to construct on the proposed schedule, according to documents released in June.
“We are pleased to announce that after a very long wait (over 125 years!), we are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck,” Burgum said in a social media post.
The 250-foot-tall arch will be among Trump’s most visible projects, as the administration continues its attempts to remake Washington. Critics, however, have voiced fears that the structure may be too large, and overshadow other monuments, like the Lincoln Memorial on the other side of the Potomac River.
The proposed arch will dwarf the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in size. It is unclear at this time how much construction will cost; the National Endowment for the Humanities earmarked $15 million for the monument.
“This will be one the the Great Pieces of American Architecture, honoring the history and significance of Arlington National Cemetery and befitting the most powerful Capital in the World,” Burgum said.
The monument will be constructed on land overseen by the National Park Service, and critics have argued Trump’s latest project requires explicit congressional approval. However, the Interior secretary continues to rebut these claims.
Instead, Burgum echoed previous statements and said historically “Congress and various congressionally chartered commissions decreed that a monumental work should adorn Columbia Island,” the traffic circle where the monument is planned to be constructed.
“Despite Congress’s intent, the site became and remains today a barren traffic circle lacking any monumental treatment and significant historic value,” he said.
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