Congress

Why Senate Republicans won’t scrap the ‘blue slip’

Published

10 months ago

August 19, 2025

President Donald Trump last month tried to goad Sen. Chuck Grassley into ending the practice of giving deference to home-state senators in the judicial nominations process — a pressure campaign that quickly escalated into an all-out social media war on the 91-year-old Judiciary Committee chair.

“Senator Grassley must step up,” Trump said on Truth Social, noting that he got the Iowa Republican “re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot.”

It didn’t work. Despite Trump’s threats to rally his base against Grassley, Senate Republicans rebuffed the attempts to get their colleague to give up on so-called blue slips, which allow members of the minority party power to effectively veto nominees for U.S. attorneys and district court judges who would serve their regions.

It also doesn’t look like their position will change heading into the fall, either, as Republicans have indicated they’ll seek a rules change to speed up the confirmation process for certain Trump nominees on the Senate floor but not at the committee level.

“As a practical matter, the Senate’s not going to give up the blue slip,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, in an interview. “So my appeal to the president is: please reconsider. Why do we want to have this fight for nothing?”

It marks a rare instance where Hill Republicans have publicly broken with the president, underscoring how even Trump’s most loyal allies are willing to stand up to him when it comes to protecting their institution’s traditions — and their own ability to exert influence back home.

“The Senators have a real vested interest in what happens in their states,” said Mike Fragoso, a former chief counsel for nominations and constitutional law for the Senate Judiciary Committee. “At the end of the day, there’s probably very little support for what Trump wants within the conference.”

Fragoso, who also served as chief counsel for former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, argued that even Republicans wary of crossing the president now have taken advantage of the blue slip policy when Democrats held power. He added that there are relatively few bench seats in solidly Democratic states that Trump could even fill now without consent from Democrats.

Ultimately, said Fragoso, the blue slip’s elimination would just expose future seats in reliably red states like Florida and Texas to being filled with progressive judges by future Democratic administrations — and without the GOP getting much in return.

Grassley has also already made changes to the blue slip practice once, in 2017, when he announced he would move forward with circuit court nominees over home state senators’ objections. Although Judiciary chairs over the years had not always strictly followed that precedent, Grassley’s decision to consistently disregard it helped Trump see hundreds of judges confirmed during his first term in the White House.

It also helped to facilitate the recent confirmation of Emil Bove to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals over objections from New Jersey’s Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim. As a senior Justice Department official, Bove was accused of recommending the administration defy court orders that would interfere with Trump’s immigration agenda.

But circuit court judges are different from district court judges: They have jurisdiction that extends beyond a senator’s state, while district judges and U.S. attorneys sit entirely within a given lawmaker’s home turf. And Republicans are finding themselves protective of maintaining control over these more localized positions as Trump is struggling to overcome Democratic roadblocks to confirming additional lower-level nominees.

Most recently, a court battle has broken out over Trump’s interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, after her temporary appointment expired and federal judges — not the president — installed a replacement. The Trump administration swiftly fired the court-selected pick and again appointed Habba, who Booker and Kim continue to oppose.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is also leveraging the blue slip process by promising to withhold support for Jay Clayton to be the top federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York — effectively blocking his confirmation.

Trump, losing patience, took to Truth Social in late July, calling in his post for Grassley to have the “Courage” to “step up” and abandon the blue slip “SCAM” as Democratic “SLEAZEBAGS … have an ironclad stoppage of Great Republican Candidates.”

He went on to repost a slew of messages from various users of the platform backing up Trump’s calls for a blue slip boycott and directing their ire at the longest-serving senator. One person argued that Grassley’s abandonment of the blue slip practice would be a fitting “Swan song” for his political career, with another calling Grassley a “RINO” — or, a “Republican in Name Only.”

Grassley, however, was unmoved.

“I was offended by what the President said,” he said in opening remarks at a Judiciary Committee hearing the morning after Trump’s initial post. “And I’m disappointed that it would result in personal insults.”

Grassley’s colleagues defended him, too, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune saying there simply was no appetite to change the practice on Capitol Hill.

But while Republicans continue to make the argument for keeping blue slips for political preservation purposes, others insist there will be political consequences for not eschewing the process.

Rob Luther, who was a top administration official involved in judicial confirmations during Trump’s first term, said he has long advocated for getting rid of the blue slip policy.

The conservative base, Luther explained, will soon get agitated by the outstanding number of bench vacancies that cannot be filled because of obstacles imposed by Democrats. That will especially be the case, Luther said, because there are so few openings — only about 50 free seats, according to the U.S. courts website.

“The district court blue slip issue is going to come up this term because there just aren’t enough vacancies,” Luther said. “It’s in Republican interest to get rid of the blue slips because we really need to get some solid conservatives in these deep blue states, and it’s the only way it’s ever going to happen.”

The blue slip practice also incentivizes senators to be uncooperative with their peers across the aisle, Luther said, recalling how there were significant vacancies on federal district courts during the first Trump administration because some progressive lawmakers from deep blue states were unwilling to make a deal on nominees.

Grassley seems to have anticipated this could become a liability for Republicans. Before he became the subject of Trump’s ire on the very subject, he began polling members of his committee to see if they’d support eliminating blue slips, Sen. Thom Tillis recently said on the Senate floor.

The North Carolina Republican — a member of the panel who is not seeking reelection — said he told Grassley that even if the policy were to be rescinded, he would continue to honor it anyway by opposing all relevant nominees who lacked support from their home state senators.

That stance would likely result in nominees being reported unfavorably out of the Judiciary Committee, setting up additional procedural roadblocks on the Senate floor — a counterintuitive outcome if eliminating blue slips was designed to clear the way.

In an interview, Tillis also warned of what would happen if Republicans changed the rules and then lost control of the Senate to Democrats: “It just means that you will not have any control when the roles are reversed.

“We can’t bow to pressure because of legitimate frustration in the moment,” he continued. “I get President Trump is frustrated. But I also understand, as somebody who’s spent 10 years in this institution and 10 years on Judiciary, it would be a bad idea. And he would even regret it.”

Congress

Key Democrats urge House to reject kids’ safety proposal

Published

2 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Commerce Committee’s top Democrat Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) warned House lawmakers against advancing their chamber’s version of the Kids Online Safety Act, arguing it would face intense lobbying from tech companies in the Senate and risk unraveling years of bipartisan work.

“If it is passed by the House it will come to the Senate,” Blumenthal, the bill’s Senate cosponsor, told reporters at a Friday press briefing. The Connecticut Democrat said he is concerned senators will be influenced by the tech industry’s “armies of lawyers and lobbyists” who may “confuse and exploit” misunderstandings about a House bill with the same name as a Senate version but excludes key provisions, such as the “duty of care.” (This concept requires online companies to design social media platforms with an eye for children’s safety.)

“We’re not going to let bad legislation with a good title just get across and think somebody’s done something,” Cantwell said.

The House version of KOSA — which is included in the KIDS Act, a revised bipartisan package that the Energy and Commerce Committee advanced along party lines in March — is scheduled to be considered on the House floor next week under suspension of the rules.

“We need to stop this bill in the House, and we need to prevent the White House from forming an alliance with Big Tech on this issue,” said Blumenthal, who characterized the version of KOSA that House leadership is pushing as a “sham.”

Both Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern that Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could adopt the House version of KOSA in a kids’ safety package he has yet to publicly release but has pledged to markup by August recess. Cruz said “negotiations are ongoing” earlier this week when asked by Blue Light News whether he would be open to incorporating such changes put forward in the House.

Cruz’s package is expected to include KOSA as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media, and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots.

Although Blumenthal remains hopeful that Cruz will “stay true to his first vote in favor of KOSA,” which overwhelmingly passed in the Senate last Congress, the Connecticut Democrat said Friday he’s worried Cruz and others may be tempted to “take the bait” and abandon the bill’s basic principles.

Congress

Moderates beware: Mamdani coalition portends a dramatically different Democratic Party in NYC

Published

6 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — A coalition powered by Mayor Zohran Mamdani expanded the left’s reach Tuesday, winning younger voters across racial and ethnic lines and once again upending conventional wisdom about elections in New York City.

A series of hotly contested congressional and state elections pit a slate of Mamdani-backed democratic socialists and progressives against establishment candidates who, in several cases, differed little on policy aside from U.S.-Israel relations.

The results were staggering.

Midterm election cycles in deep-blue New York City tend to be sleepy affairs. Both this year and in 2022, just over 500,000 people cast ballots, less than 20 percent of eligible voters. But turnout within a congressional district spanning Upper Manhattan and the Bronx increased by roughly 50 percent between 2022 and Tuesday, with more than 66,000 voters heading to the polls.

In another seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, turnout more than doubled from 2022, though state and federal elections were held on different days that year and the seat was not competitive, which would have reduced the number of voters going to the polls.

Congressional candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America were able to replicate the mayor’s success by winning younger Latino voters in Brooklyn and a majority of Black voters in Harlem. Combined with the DSA’s base in relatively wealthy neighborhoods, the result charted the far left’s broadening appeal and a potential reorientation of the electorate that will influence races for years to come.

“This was a big wave for DSA and they did a good job capitalizing on it,” said Evan Roth Smith, a pollster with Slingshot Strategies. “The question now is: Was this a wave cycle that will abate, or is it the start of the takeover?”

Much of Mamdani’s base is concentrated in the so-called “commie-corridor,” a series of neighborhoods along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront filled with young, educated and affluent voters who’ve propelled several DSA candidates into office. They went gaga over Mamdani’s candidacy and, as Tuesday’s results show, will turn out for candidates he supports.

The area was crucial to Assemblymember Claire Valdez’s crushing 56-38 defeat of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

“The factor that felt most significant to me were all of these New Yorkers who got activated and politicized in the mayor’s race last year who were looking for the next fight,” said Andrew Epstein, a political adviser to Mamdani who worked on Valdez’ campaign. “Those people didn’t go away. And they want to keep going.”

Valdez also won several heavily Latino areas that were expected to break for her opponent.

Reynoso was born in Brooklyn to Dominican parents and just a few years ago was a City Council member representing Bushwick, a long-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood that’s home to Latino families and young hipsters. Valdez was born in Texas, moved to New York City in 2015 and served in the state Assembly for just one term before launching her Mamdani-backed bid for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat.

She ended up winning areas of Bushwick by even greater margins than the total results — in some election districts winning upwards of 80 percent of the vote.

“You don’t win the district by 35 points if you don’t have broad advantages across age and demographic groups,” said Michael Lange, an election analyst and Mamdani supporter who has tracked several contested races with extreme granularity. “Is she blowing him out of the water with Hispanic voters under 50? I see tons of evidence that the answer is yes.”

The age advantage was the common thread across several other races.

In Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, for example, younger Black voters in Harlem were key to Darializa Avila Chevalier’s win over Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had built a small political empire in the district.

While gentrifying, the neighborhood remains a seat of Black political power and is home to younger households who tend to rent. That particular demographic is a strong indicator of why Mamdani won the area in 2025, even as he lost the Black vote overall to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose support was concentrated among older Black homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens.

While Espaillat never healed a rift with the Black community in upper Manhattan opened during his election in 2016, which contributed to his weak performance, Avila Chevalier demonstrated Tuesday that a significant share of voters there were not just supportive of Mamdani the person, but of the broader political movement he’s now leading.

Overall, she edged out Espaillat with Black voters 48-46, according to an analysis from The New York Times, which charted demographic breakdowns for several contested races.

Three winning congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani — including former city Comptroller Brad Lander in Brooklyn, who unseated incumbent Dan Goldman — share several similarities. They won younger, college-educated and wealthier voters by huge margins, in several cases by 30 points or more, and lost lower-income voters to incumbents or candidates affiliated with incumbents — a sign that the movement seeking to boost struggling New Yorkers has not won them over.

While the DSA was able to win three state races without the support of Mamdani — a testament to the organizing prowess of the left that was essential to reactivating the mayor’s coalition — there were limits to the city’s leftward shift.

Rep. Grace Meng won her reelection race, though she only vanquished challenger Chuck Park by 14 points, an uncomfortable margin for an incumbent of her stature. Park, who ran to Meng’s left, was boosted by a huge turnout in Woodside, Queens, a multiethnic neighborhood that went heavily for Mamdani in last year’s mayoral race.

Elsewhere in the Bronx, however, incumbents remained strong. Rep. Ritchie Torres handily won reelection with 72 percent of the vote, though it was a low-turnout affair more consistent with an uncompetitive midterm. Nevertheless, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries touted the results — even as he watched a series of his endorsed candidates fall to the DSA in Brooklyn, his home borough, in a preview of the intraparty battles to come.

“In some higher-income districts, there was an outsized focus on the Middle East. In other districts, for instance, in the South Bronx, Ritchie Torres ran against somebody who was heavily critical of his position on Israel, and he won by fifty points,” Jeffries told MS NOW on Wednesday.

Congress

Divisive Israel vote to be discussed on Sunday House Democrats call

Published

8 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

An anticipated vote on cutting off U.S. military aid to Israel is among the subjects House Democrats are slated to discuss on an unusual teleconference Sunday evening.

Six people granted anonymity to describe private caucus plans confirmed the member call, which has not been publicly announced. Two of them said it would involve an amendment that would block aid to Israel and other appropriations matters.

Democrats are likely to be sharply divided on an amendment drafted by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to a fiscal 2027 spending bill funding the State Department and foreign aid programs. Massie is proposing to end Israel aid and cut the overall foreign military aide program by $3.3 billion.

House Republicans have not yet announced a vote on that bill, but two other people granted anonymity to describe GOP planning said it is likely to be added to the floor schedule next week. The House Rules Committee voted last week to set up debate on Massie’s amendment.

Senior Democrats want to talk through member concerns and strategy on the Sunday call, according to one of the six people.

The call comes just days after three outspoken critics of U.S. aid to Israel swept hotly contested House primaries in New York City, ousting two incumbents.

Meredith Lee Hill and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.