Two Dan Sullivans face off in Alaska Senate primary
Florida and Alaska voters are casting primary ballots Tuesday in contests that will help shape November’s midterm elections, where Republicans retain a narrow edge in Congress, AFP reported. The primaries will serve as the first major test of Republican-led redistricting efforts that have scrambled congressional maps in several states, and offer a referendum on Trump’s second term.
In Alaska’s Senate race, incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan, a Trump ally seeking a third term, faces another candidate also named Dan Sullivan. The second candidate, listed on the ballot as “Daniel J Sullivan Jr,” is a retired teacher who has denied Republican claims that he is a sham candidate running at the behest of Democrats to cause confusion. Also running is former US representative Mary Peltola, who was the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress and would become the first Alaska Native senator if she wins in November.
In Florida, a GOP-led redrawing of the congressional map has created what the Guardian described as “awkward matchups.” Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, first elected to Congress in 2004, is running for a new seat in Florida’s 20th congressional district, centered in Broward County, after her existing seat was redrawn to favor Republicans. Wasserman Schultz, who is white, has faced criticism for running in the historically Black district from activists who are already worried about losing Black representation in Congress following a Supreme Court decision that weakened a landmark civil rights law.
She faces several Black candidates, including rapper Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell, who found fame with the 1989 hit “Me So Horny,” and former Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who faces criminal charges of stealing $5 million in disaster relief funds. Cherfilus-McCormick, who has denied wrongdoing, resigned from Congress in April ahead of a possible expulsion.
In other developments, Trump voted by mail in Florida’s Republican primary, according to Palm Beach County voting records reported by Politico. The White House has confirmed the president’s mail-in vote, the New York Times reported, adding that this is at least the third time the president has mailed his ballot.
A northern California county plans to hire Tina Peters, the prominent Colorado election denier recently released from prison, to work on elections. Shasta County, a conservative region home to 182,000 people, has emerged as a center of the US election denialism movement in recent years. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said the state is investigating Peters’ hiring.
CNN has said it stands behind reporter Kristen Holmes after Trump repeatedly told the CNN reporter to “be quiet” and accused her of being “a fake reporter” during questioning over conditions onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Shortly after the president reprimanded Holmes, the White House invoked her children in a social media post further attacking the reporter when she asked about comments from Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff in a speech on Sunday. Ossoff had told a crowd that Trump “doesn’t want to do the job” and instead “wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar” — an apparent reference to Natalie Harp, the president’s executive assistant.
Trump again threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of his effort to end the US-Israel war on Iran, as the two-month window to negotiate peace with Iran expired on Monday with no end to the conflict in sight. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News.
Trump also said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had responded to his overtures after he ordered the US to scale back military exercises with South Korea. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked why Kim had not responded to his overtures.