by Allison Detzel | Jul 15, 2026 | 2026 election, Congress, Donald Trump, News
Ahead of the president’s primetime address on Thursday, Sen. Jon Ossoff is warning that Donald Trump could be setting the stage for an “unconstitutional use of federal power” to interfere in November’s midterm elections.
The Georgia Democrat sat down with MS NOW’s Jen Psaki on Tuesdasy to discuss the upcoming remarks and why, almost six years after the 2020 election, Trump is still obsessed with the Peach State. MS NOW reported that the president’s speech will focus on voting machine security and alleged efforts by foreign nations to influence U.S. elections, two claims central to the election conspiracy theories Trump has pushed, without evidence, since his 2020 loss.
The president is also expected to release declassified intelligence documents on both subjects, including files related to Georgia’s 2020 results and the January 2021 Senate runoffs that followed. In that election, the two Democratic candidates, Ossoff and Sen. Raphael Warnock, won both of the state’s open Senate seats.
When Psaki asked Ossoff why he thinks Trump is so focused on Georgia, he told her the president is “obsessed” with the state “because he can’t get over the fact that it was Black voters and Black political power who were instrumental to his defeat in Georgia.”
He also addressed reports that the president could use his primetime address to declare that he and Warnock are illegitimate senators. “Obviously, the president has no power to do that,” he said. “But he does have the power to try to intimidate people.”
The Georgia Democrat said Trump has “demonstrated his will to abuse power” and predicted the speech will be used to “lay the groundwork” for challenging any midterm result the president
by Ryan Teague Beckwith | Jul 14, 2026 | 2026 election, Opinion
The location of a national political convention is a pretty big clue to a party’s electoral strategy.
Republicans met in Cleveland in 2016 as they targeted the Rust Belt, selected Charlotte in 2020 to shore up North Carolina and chose Milwaukee in 2024 to focus on tearing down Democrats’ Midwestern “blue wall.”
As Republicans plan for an unprecedented midterm convention in September, the choice of Dallas sends a very different message.
Unlike past convention sites, Texas is not a battleground state. It’s a Republican stronghold.
No Democrat has won a Texas Senate race since 1988; Trump carried the state by double digits in 2024, the GOP’s strongest showing since native son George W. Bush’s re-election. Yet incredibly, Republicans head into the midterms on the defensive. State Attorney General Ken Paxton begins the general election with just a 34% approval rating after years of ethics controversies, while Democrat James Talarico has built a commanding fundraising advantage. The open Senate seat — the first in Texas since 2012 — has become one of the GOP’s biggest concerns.
By normal political standards, then, Dallas is a startling choice. Imagine Barack Obama or Joe Biden holding the Democratic Party’s first-ever midterm convention in Los Angeles for a similar reason.
Play
‘At greater odds’: Trump becoming political liability for midterms as he campaigns in PA this week
July 12, 2026 / 05:08
That said, nothing about Trump’s midterm strategy is typical. Unpopular presidents usually try to fade into the background during midterm elections. They raise money behind closed doors in friendly territory to help the party, while letting candidates distance themselves from the White House and run on local issues.
Trump’s convention will do the
by Erum Salam | Jul 13, 2026 | 2026 election, Congress, News
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline, as his temporary replacement in the Senate on Monday, two days after the lawmaker’s sudden passing.With Darline Graham alongside him, McMaster said she “agreed to serve through tears” in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Graham is nine years her brother’s junior and has never held public office. Her parents died before she reached the age of 14, and her brother later became her legal guardian. She is the Commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, where she has worked for nearly seven years; serves on the state’s Workforce Development Board; and is the president-elect of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind.
“Lindsey has always been there for me, and now, I will be there him,” Graham said in her first public remarks after the senator’s death, calling it a “privilege” to temporarily fill his seat.
President Donald Trump wrote on social media earlier Monday that he recommended the Republican governor appoint Graham to serve the remainder of his term, which expires in January.
“This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!” Trump wrote.
Tim Scott, South Carolina’s senior senator, appeared to agree, saying that she would be “a fantastic pick” to serve out the remainder of the senate term.
“After speaking with Darline, there is no one better who understands Lindsey’s love for family, our state, and our country,” Scott wrote in an X post Monday morning.
Appointing the senator’s sister as a neutral placeholder avoids the appearance of favoritism in the special primary later this summer to decide the new Republican nominee
by Steve Benen | Jul 13, 2026 | 2026 election, Maddowblog, News, Politics
Sen. Lindsey Graham’s unexpected death over the weekend will have broad implications on Capitol Hill, and the effects will be felt quickly. The South Carolina Republican was poised to play an important role on a variety of pending measures — defense spending, Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination, new sanctions on Russia, et al. — and his sudden passing, coupled with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence, adds new complexities to an already challenging dynamic.
What’s more, Graham chaired the Senate Budget Committee, which was also in the process of tackling several key issues, including pending spending bills that need to pass to avoid a government shutdown in the fall.
But that’s not the only complexity surrounding the late senator’s death.
Graham appeared well positioned to win a fifth term in the fall, which means there will now be two parallel processes unfolding simultaneously: one to fill his vacancy in the Senate in the short term, and another to replace him on the November ballot.
On the former, South Carolina’s outgoing Republican governor, Henry McMaster, will soon choose a replacement to serve out the final five months of Graham’s current term. Even this exercise won’t be entirely straightforward: McMaster could choose a caretaker, who’d serve the rest of the year with no further ambitions, or the governor could select a Republican who intends to run for the seat in the fall, effectively creating an appointed incumbent who’d have a leg up on would-be rivals.
For now, it’s not clear which way the governor is leaning, though McMaster reportedly met with Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette on Sunday to discuss the interim appointment. (Evette recently came up short in
by Allison Detzel | Jul 10, 2026 | 2026 election, Donald Trump, News, Voting Rights
Just months ahead of the midterm elections, President Donald Trump has fired the last remaining members of the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission, or EAC, an independent federal agency that assists election administration officials across the country. Trump’s decision comes on the heels of a recent Supreme Court ruling that said the president has the authority to fire most independent regulators for any reason.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes slammed the firings on MS NOW’s “The Briefing,” telling Jen Psaki that they set a “dangerous precedent, not just for the country — given the recent decision by the Supreme Court that allows this kind of thing — but really for elections in general.”
Fontes explained the importance of the EAC, which he described as a “bipartisan partner to election administrators across the United States of America” who “depend on them to be that even keel to help us set standards.”
The agency’s work in setting technical guidelines, providing messaging assistance and facilitating data sharing all works to “help us do our jobs better,” the secretary of state told Psaki.
“This is so bad, just so close to an election when a lot of the assistance they give us is really necessary,” he said of the firings.
While Fontes said that most state and local officials are already preparing for November’s elections and have a “great degree in the bag,” the absence of the EAC will still be felt.
“The problem that we have is the stability and sort of the foundational underpinnings of a consistency that we get out of the EAC, and the experience that we’re losing there really can impact us at the last
by Jessica Huseman | Jul 10, 2026 | 2026 election, 2026 Elections, 2026 midterms, Donald Trump, Election Assistance Commission, elections, Help America Vote Act, midterms, News, Supreme Court, Voting, Voting Rights
President Donald Trump fired all three remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, abruptly disabling the only federal agency devoted solely to election administration at a moment when Trump has sought to reshape federal voting rules. The two Democratic commissioners, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, were notified by email. “On behalf of President Donald J.
Source
