The Dictatorship
The latest generational test for Democrats: A House race in Mississippi
The next test of whether a new generation of Democrats can unseat members of the old guard comes Tuesday, in a battle over who will represent much of western Mississippi in the U.S. House.
The race to represent the state’s 2nd Congressional District features 34-year-old Evan Turnage — a former lawyer in the offices of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — mounting a longshot bid to replace 78-year-old incumbent Rep. Bennie Thompson. Whoever wins the Tuesday primary will almost certainly win the general election in the solidly Democratic district. (A third candidate, Petris Williams III, is also running in the Democratic primary.)
Turnage has branded himself as a fresh alternative to Thompson, alleging the incumbent hasn’t done enough to reduce poverty and other issues in the majority Black district — which has ranked among the poorest nationwide — during his 33 years in the seat.
“People in this district are ready for change,” Turnage told MS NOW in a phone interview on Monday. “This is the poorest district in the poorest state in the country, and it’s been like that for my entire life. People want better.”
Turnage is one of more than 80 Gen Z and millennial Democrats mounting primary contests this year against veteran House Democrats, according to data released last month by the Democratic political fundraising platform Oath. Others include Melat Kiros, a 28-year-old, Justice Democrats-backed lawyer and barista taking on 68-year-old Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado in June; and Justin Pearson, a 31-year-old state legislator in Tennessee vying to replace Rep. Steve Cohen in August and backed by both Justice Democrats and Leaders We Deserve, the political action committee founded by 25-year-old Democratic activist David Hogg.
Progressive power broker Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., has also endorsed a small handful of the candidates taking on House Democrats, including Donavan McKinney, a Michigan state representative running in the state’s 13th district; and 32-year-old Nida Allam, a member of the Durham County Board of Commissioners who lost a tight race to oust Rep. Valerie Foushee in North Carolina last week. (Spokespeople for Sanders did not respond to requests for comment from MS NOW.)
Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, told MS NOW the deep field of young primary challengers shows that “voters are overwhelmingly ready to usher in a new generation of leadership in this party.”
But he added that the group is not “simply looking to replace old incumbents with young incumbents,” and is instead focused on backing candidates who oppose “democratic corporatism and billionaire greed” and display “moral and political courage.”
“It does us no good to replace aging corporate shills with youthful corporate chills,” Andrabi said. “The problem is that the Democratic Party is overrun with corporate shills.”
“People in this district are ready for change,” Turnage told MS NOW in a phone interview on Monday. “This is the poorest district in the poorest state in the country, and it’s been like that for my entire life. People want better.”
In Mississippi, Thompson has leaned on his experience in Washington, which has included wielding significant power as the first Black Democrat to represent the state in Congress. He’s currently the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, and formerly served as chair of the Select Committee on Jan. 6.
In an emailed statement to MS NOW, Thompson did not directly address the arguments Turnage has made about the need for generational change.
“Elections are about giving people a choice, and I respect that process. I have always run my campaigns by focusing on the needs of the people of Mississippi’s Second Congressional District and the work we’ve done together,” Thompson said. “There is always more to be done, and I remain committed to continuing that progress. Ultimately, I trust the voters of the district to look at the record and make the choice they believe is best for their communities.”
Tough Democratic primaries for some veterans is a hallmark of the 2026 midterm election cycle.
But the recent outcomes of some of these early races underscore the uphill battles younger candidates like Turnage face — and emphasize that they do not all share the same strategies for unseating older incumbents.
In North Carolina, Allam’s race against Foushee was widely seen as a bellwether for how far a left-wing challenger could go in a bid to oust an establishment Democrat in a deep blue district.
And in Texas, Rep. Christian Menefee, the 37-year-old elected to the House in a special election earlier this year, and Rep. Al Green, who has served in Congress for more than two decades, will head to a May runoff election to represent a newly-redrawn district after neither cleared earned 50% of votes in their race last week. (Menefee came out on top, earning about 46% of votes to Green’s 44%, according to the Associated Press.)
Similarly to Allam, Turnage has taken direct aim at his opponent in emphasizing the benefit of electing a millennial to Congress.
“People in my age group are the first age group in generations in America who are expected to have less wealth than their parents, expected to have lower life expectancy than their parents, and that is because of failed leadership from the current generation,” Turnage said.
Both he and Allam also criticized their opponents’ reliance on big-money donors.
Turnage noted that Thompson’s top donor is a group associated with Aflac, the insurance company, and that he has taken thousands from corporate political action committees. (Campaign filings show that, as of last month, Turnage had about $40,000 cash on hand and $85,000 in debts, compared to Thompson’s $1.5 million on hand.)
Allam — who did not respond to repeated inquiries from MS NOW — criticized Foushee for receiving support from outside groups aligned with AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby. (Allam had close to $229,000 on hand last month and $86,000 in debts, compared to Foushee’s approximately $184,000 on hand.)
Menefee, on the other hand, swatted away questions about his candidacy representing a generational shift, telling MS NOW in an interview last week that he sees his challengers as President Donald Trump and the Republicans who supported gerrymandering the district in which he’s running rather than Green.
“Our support in this race has been intergenerational,” Menefee said.
“We’ve focused very heavily on making sure that folks know that I’m looking to bring new strategies to standing up to the Trump administration,” he added.
Green, on the other hand, has criticized Menefee for missing several votes during his first couple months in Congress, and has said he is proud of his own voting record; he has also claimed, “I am the generational change.”
When it comes to critiques of big-money donors in the Texas race, it is Menefee who has fielded criticism for earning the support of the cryptocurrency lobby — though he has said he was “not at all cognizant” of the financial power they wield.
For the Justice Democrats and the candidates they back, big-money is an ever-present obstacle. Still, Andrabi said, we “want to win every campaign we run.”
But the group also sees Allam’s loss to Foushee — by a single percentage point, compared to a 9-point difference in 2022 — as a win. They also take credit for pushing Foushee to denounce U.S. funding of the Israeli military and regulate artificial intelligence, two issues she said are among her priorities in her statement celebrating her victory.
“If nothing else,” Andrabi said, “we are showing Democratic incumbents that what they are doing is wholly insufficient for their own voters.”
In Mississippi, Turnage has been trying to send the same message to Thompson. But he said he did not seek out the support of groups like Justice Democrats because he did not want “to nationalize this race.”
“We are focused on the issues in Mississippi,” he said.
Still, Turnage said he finds hope in both Allam’s close race and the fact that Menefee — who Turnage said is a friend — will proceed to the runoff.
“I think it’s just another sign that, especially here in the South, people are ready for a new generation of leadership,” Turnage said.
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.
The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination, a spokesperson said late Wednesday, as two retiring Republicans on the panel dug in over President Donald Trump’s personal “anti-weaponization” deal with the government he runs.
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s decision to delay the committee vote that had been set for Thursday marks a setback for one of Trump’s highest-profile Cabinet nominees, at the hands of Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a pair of Republicans set to leave the chamber next year.
“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure. Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement,” the committee spokesperson said.
Blanche’s nomination to permanently head the Department of Justice needs the support of either Cornyn or Tillis to make it out of the committee to a vote by the full Senate, assuming all Democrats remain opposed.
“Why don’t you call over the Department of Justice and tell them they have one hour and 50 minutes to get me what I asked for,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday afternoon amid the hardening standoff over his demand that Blanche and the DOJ put in writing a commitment never to pursue the president’s prized “anti-weaponization” fund, and to clarify the terms of Trump’s personal deal with the Internal Revenue Service.
Tillis told MS NOW that the conversations were complicated by the need for the Justice Department to get “several parties” to agree on the language of the statement Cornyn and Tillis are seeking.
“What I’ve advised the chair, and I would assume Senator Cornyn said something similar, is that we’re not prepared to vote yes yet,” he added.
“The Department has been in regular communication with Committee members for weeks, and we look forward to continuing to work productively with Senators to address any concerns,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in response to the decision to postpone the committee vote.
Cornyn was set to meet with Blanche on Wednesday morning, but the meeting was called off after Blanche failed to meet the senator’s demand for written proposals to modify the controversial settlement agreement he brokered between Trump and the IRS. The Republican senator is set to leave Congress when his term ends in January after a bruising May primary loss to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Trump’s chosen candidate.
“Maybe John Cornyn’s upset with me because I didn’t endorse him,” Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon in the Oval Office. “I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t heard that there’s a problem. I heard (Blanche) is going through quite nicely.”
Cornyn made clear to Blanche during his confirmation hearing that he will not get his support until he agrees to reopen and modify the settlement. Due to the committee’s narrow Republican majority, one GOP “no” vote is enough to sink Blanche’s nomination.
The senator has asked Blanche to provide proof that the proposed nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund established as part of the deal between Trump and the IRS is formally dead, and he has also demanded Blanche narrow the tax audit immunity provisions the settlement afforded to Trump and his family.
Blanche has publicly stated that his department has dropped the fund, but he and the DOJ have dodged requests from Cornyn and a federal judge to put that in writing.
After announcing his meeting with Blanche would not take place Wednesday morning, Cornyn told reporters that changes from Blanche “in a modified release form” would be acceptable, but that “for some reason … they simply refuse to do it,” referring to the DOJ.
Shortly after the meeting was called off, a Justice Department official told MS NOW that the department “provided a written proposal to Senator Cornyn’s staff yesterday following ongoing discussion with both the Committee and the Senator’s office.”
Cornyn said that proposal was “not responsive” to his demands because it did not address the tax audit immunity provisions in the settlement, one of his key demands.
In May, Blanche signed an addendum as part of the deal that granted Trump, his family and his businesses immunity from pending IRS tax audits. That agreement, which has been decried by former IRS officials and legal experts as unlawful self-dealing, is being contested in federal court.
Cornyn noted that Blanche testified under oath that he could meet the request during his confirmation hearing.
“Maybe they think I’m just going to give up or you know, go along, but they’re mistaken,” Cornyn said when asked why he thinks the DOJ could be slow-walking his request.
Kevin Frey contributed to this report.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.
Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at BLN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived this week for his tour of Washington, he may have had a mission in mind.
Netanyahu needed to overcome his newly diminished stature and waning influence over his once close friend President Donald Trump as both leaders grapple with the unpopularity of a war they started together and is escaping their control.
His meeting at the White House with Trump on Tuesday, which was closed to the press, was the first face-to-face encounter between the two allies since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack against Iran on Feb. 28.
Trump gave him a muted welcome and afterwards simply described the meeting as “very good.” “Obviously, many important subjects were discussed,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Rather than an intimate one-on-one setting, the Oval Office was full of top U.S. officials — Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
But Netanyahu continued the full court press on the Trump administration.
Over the course of two days, in addition to seeing Trump and attending Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral at the Capitol, Netanyahu also met separately with Vance, Hegseth, and Rubio, White House and Israeli officials confirmed to MS NOW.
The Israeli prime minister’s slate of meetings with key U.S. national security officials comes at a pivotal moment in the Iran conflict as tensions escalate in the region and Americans increasingly sour on the war. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows 60% of American voters opposing U.S. military action against Iran and 74% against sending U.S. ground troops into Iran.
Not only does Trump face pressure as Republicans face an uphill battle to retain congressional control in this fall’s midterms, Netanyahu’s fate as prime minister is at stake in Israel’s upcoming September elections – and he can’t afford to lose Trump’s favor.
The talks largely focused on what to do next as Iran continues to menace shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and retaliate against American bases in the region and launch attacks on Gulf allies.
According to a senior Israeli official who was granted anonymity to describe the closed-door meeting, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu did not come to a final decision after discussing three paths forward: get a “good deal” focused on Iran’s nuclear program and enriched material, have no deal and instead continue the blockade and economic pressure, or take escalated military action.
But Netanyahu did not tell Trump what he should do – nor did he express a preference.
The senior Israeli official noted Netanyahu has not ruled out diplomacy – as long as it is coupled with “very strong pressures,” calling the push to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program “a contest of will and a contest of force.”
“There are ways of squeezing them and squeezing them and squeezing them and negotiating at the same time,” the official said.
Netanyahu did not present President Trump with new intelligence regarding the underground Iranian nuclear facility Pickaxe Mountain, per the senior Israeli official, noting the U.S. and Israel already are constantly sharing intelligence – and know where Iran’s highly enriched material is. “We don’t think it’s moved, and I think we have a pretty good grasp on that,” the official said.
During their meeting on Tuesday, Trump and Netanyahu discussed ways Israel and the U.S. can work together to stop Iran’s nuclear program and get the Strait of Hormuz open to maritime trade, the senior Israeli official said.
The two leaders also discussed a third goal: to continue to undermine the Iranian regime and “possibly create future conditions for a change in that area.” U.S. officials have backed away from pursuing paths that would overthrow the current leadership, but Netanyahu still believes that could happen.
“The chasm that has been created between the people and the regime is not about to be closed,” the senior Israeli official said of Netanyahu’s thinking.
Netanyahu advised Trump in February that Israeli intelligence indicated launching strikes against Iran would lead to the toppling of the Islamic Republic’s regime – and five months later, the slain ayatollah’s son retains power with a close circle of hardliners, calling into question the accuracy of Israel’s intelligence apparatus.
But the senior Israeli official said at the time, Netanyahu did not promise the Iranian people would take fate into their own hands following a coordinated attack. Rather, he chose his words carefully and said that an attack could create conditions to “advance the probability or the possibility that that would happen.”
The conditions needed for the Iranian regime to fall, “did not materialize,” the official told MS NOW, adding, “not for lack of insight, but for either operational failure or decisions that were made.”
Despite Netanyahu insisting Israel and the U.S. are on the same page, differences still remain: the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and the Saudi nuclear arrangement did not come up during Wednesday’s White House meeting, according to a second Israeli official granted anonymity to describe sensitive discussions.
Meanwhile, the conflict continues to spread, with an Iranian drone attacking a U.S. gas storage tanker off the coast of Egypt on Wednesday.
Trump indicated he would not let Iran’s latest action slide, telling reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. would retaliate against Iran even as he leaves room for diplomatic talks to resume.
“It’s our turn, and we’ll see if we get there with an agreement at some point,” Trump said. “But we’re going to hit them very hard.”
As for what it would take for Israel to join the U.S. strikes, the senior Israeli official said that if Israel is attacked by Iran, “We will respond very, very forcefully and very quickly. And I think Iran would make a great mistake.”
Julia Jester covers politics for MS NOW and is based in Washington, D.C.
International rage over FIFA’s close ties to President Donald Trump has reached a fever pitch after soccer’s governing body announced a plan to sell a significant stake to an investor group led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law.
The president and his family have all but turned the White House into their personal piggy bank. And FIFA — which has its own sordid history of corruption — seems to have made itself a party to Trump’s self-enrichment under Gianni Infantino’s leadership, such as by paying for space inside Trump Tower in New York. (The organization has defended the office rental as a World Cup outpost.)
Soccer is seen by many as a unifying game. But Trump’s incorporation of FIFA into his political dynasty is threatening that idea.
FIFA has announced plans to sell a large minority stake in a new company that will run its main events, including the World Cup and Club World Cup, as part of a plan to triple the amount of development money it dishes out to its 211 member associations.
Under the proposals — which are subject to approval by a majority of those national associations and FIFA’s 37-member council — a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) will take over all commercial operations, while FIFA remains the game’s global governing body and retains a majority stake in FFE.
A press release from FIFA confirmed the plans and said Thrive Eternal, which was launched by Joshua Kushner, is expected to lead the investment group that would control FIFA Forward Enterprise. FIFA did not clarify why Thrive Eternal was selected, and Kushner was already dabbling in sports.
But Trump basically has already given son-in-law Jared Kushner carte blanche to dictate U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East while simultaneously hatching business plans in the region. (Jared Kushner has denied any conflicts of interest.)
Joshua Kushner reportedly has been a major donor to Democrats. But, predictably, the idea of another Kushner becoming financially entwined with the World Cup — the world’s most popular sporting event — and basically being dropped into a position of global significance isn’t going over well. Several other soccer governing bodies have expressed concerns, including Europe’s UEFA.
“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” UEFA said in a statement about The Athletic’s report, adding: “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also rebuked the plan, writing on X: “Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough — now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors.”
FIFA, Donald Trump’s favorite corrupt racketeering enterprise in world sports, is now going directly into business with the Trump family!
Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough—now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a… https://t.co/knSZibuMea
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) July 28, 2026
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has already launched an investigation into the FIFA leader’s relationship with the Trump administration, while dozens of European lawmakers — citing concerns about “potential breaches of political neutrality” — have called for the FIFA Ethics Committee to investigate Infantino. This new proposal seems unlikely to assuage those concerns.
But what it does seem likely to do is fuel global anger toward the U.S. — the kind that has been growing since Trump retook office.
And when you consider that, it’s truly remarkable how the same MAGA movement whose members whined for years about politics mixing with sports is now in lockstep with a president who seems dead-set on casting his shadow over every sports event he can.
This post on X basically sums up the foul stench around FIFA’s latest proposal.
Sepp Blatter was Infantino’s predecessor as FIFA president and oversaw the organization amid some of its many scandals. When heof all people, is warning about how Trump and Infantino’s relationship is “deeply damaging” soccer, it’s a sign of how far FIFA has descended into the gutter.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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