by Steve Benen | Jul 10, 2026 | 2026 election, elections, Maddowblog, News, Politics
In the wake of the 2000 elections, there was one thing Democrats and Republicans could agree on: The entire election cycle was a mess that exposed structural and institutional flaws that required reforms.
It wasn’t easy, but Congress ultimately passed the Help America Vote Act (better known as HAVA) in 2002, which included a variety of constructive changes and created a new entity called the Election Assistance Commission.
In the 24 years that followed, the EAC wasn’t particularly controversial. The point of the commission, as its name implies, is to assist state and local election administrators with training, security grants, voluntary election management guidelines and detailed information on best practices, including specifications for testing and certifying election equipment.
There was no reason to gut the commission. Donald Trump did it anyway. MS NOW reported:
President Donald Trump fired the remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, a White House official confirmed to MS NOW.
The move effectively leaves the bipartisan agency without any commissioners and unable to carry out its official duties just months before the 2026 midterm elections.
For all of the Republicans’ overwrought rhetoric about “election security” and “election integrity,” the gutting of the EAC moves the nation in the opposite direction.
Until very recently, such a move wouldn’t have just been seen as a power grab, it also would have been recognized as legally dubious. Commission members are Senate-confirmed officials serving on an independent agency. The idea that a president could just send them an email and push them into unemployment was unrealistic.
But after Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court issued their ruling in Trump v. Slaughter early last week, the executive
by Allison Detzel | Jul 10, 2026 | 2026 election, Congress, News, Politics
Joe Scarborough issued a warning to Washington Democrats as the race to replace Graham Platner on Maine’s Senate ballot begins: Stay out of it.
The “Morning Joe” host said establishment members of the party should steer clear of interfering in the process and let Democrats in Maine choose who will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
“Washington needs to stay out of this, and Maine Democrats need to figure out who is going to replace Graham Platner on the ballot,” he advised.
Scarborough shared some of what he has heard from voters on the ground in the state since a scandal over sexual assault accusations imploded the oyster farmer’s campaign earlier this week. The MS NOW host said there have been rumors for months of a “conspiracy” to bring down Platner.
“Rank-and-file Democrats who have been supporting Platner from the very beginning think that this was cooked up in Washington, D.C., with a lot of money behind it, to find anything that could be found to get Graham Platner off the ballot,” he said on Thursday.
While Scarborough dismissed evidence of a “conspiracy,” he warned out-of-state Democrats that any meddling could be seen as the establishment tipping the scales, which he said could backfire in November.
“If Washington thinks they can micromanage this and fix this,” he said, “they’re going to piss off their base, and their base won’t come out and vote in the general election. They just won’t.”
You can watch Scarborough’s full analysis in the clip at the top of the page.
The post Joe Scarborough warns Washington: Let Maine Democrats decide who replaces Platner appeared first on MS NOW.
by Hunter Woodall | Jul 10, 2026 | 2026 election, Congress, News
Maine Democrats vying to replace Graham Platner as the party’s Senate nominee hustled to start up campaigns and collect endorsements Thursday, a day after he ended his bid following an allegation of sexual assault.
There’s a July 27 deadline set by state law for the party faithful to pick a new standard bearer in a race that is expected to be instrumental when it comes to whether Republicans can keep control of the Senate in this fall’s midterms.
Incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins may be vulnerable, but she has won five straight races for the seat dating back to 1996, and trying to defeat her was likely to carry challenges for Democrats even in the best case scenario.
Their new candidate will have to essentially start from nothing in the race, mend the divisions sown by Platner, introduce (or reintroduce) themselves to the broader electorate and corral support from the ex-candidate’s outsider-minded current and former followers, all in less than four months.
That amounts to a daunting task with massive implications not only for Maine Democrats, but potentially for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s time in the White House. Democrats need to flip at least four GOP-held Senate seats, and maintain all their current ones from several competitive states, to vault themselves into the majority in the midterms. A loss in Maine would be a significant setback.
Maine Democratic Party leaders announced plans “to hold a nominating convention to choose a new nominee,” while stating that “transparency is of the utmost importance.”
Already, several major voices are in the race, including unsuccessful candidate for governor and past Platner supporter Troy Jackson. The former
by Steve Benen | Jul 9, 2026 | 2026 election, Maddowblog, News, Politics
It’s been almost three years since Kevin McCarthy became the first sitting House speaker to be ousted in the middle of a congressional session, but the California Republican has nevertheless tried to maintain a public profile and has routinely appeared on conservative media to push partisan talking points.
So it wasn’t too surprising to see McCarthy on Fox News on Monday night, responding to the latest sexual assault allegations against Graham Platner, still a candidate for Senate at the time.
Kevin McCarthy on Platner Allegations: That one thing I know about Republicans is when we had a very bad candidate, we didn’t vote for that person. We walked away.— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2026-07-07T00:19:33.384Z
As part of an apparent effort to contextualize the scandals surrounding the Maine Democrat, the former GOP leader said, “One thing I know about Republicans is when we had a very bad candidate and found out, we didn’t vote for that person. We walked away.”
Moments later, McCarthy added, “When Matt Gaetz came forward, we got rid of him.”
As is too often the case, the failed former House speaker not only had it backward, but his mistake also offered a timely reminder of details that made him and his party look worse, not better.
Indeed, Gaetz offers a rather extraordinary example. The Justice Department investigated the Florida Republican over allegations of alleged sex trafficking, and while Gaetz repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and the prosecutors’ probe ended without charges, his House GOP colleagues made no effort to “get rid of him” as the scandal intensified.
What’s more, the House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz “regularly” paid women for sex, had sex with a
by Shawna Thomas | Jul 9, 2026 | 2026 election, Congress, News Analysis
Normally, we’d already be finished talking about Graham Platner.
The Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine would have dropped out within a day of being credibly accused of rape and losing establishment and progressive support across the board.
Former backers called the accusations against him “troubling,” “deeply serious” and “damning” as they raced to withdraw their endorsements. (He has denied the allegations.)
The two days since the most serious allegations broke have been filled with nasty exchanges between state party leaders and Platner, as well as speculation about when he’ll step aside and who will take his place on the ticket.
Regardless of who that is, how the Maine Democratic Party replaces him seems likely to be just as important to winning the race for a party clinging to hope of flipping the Senate.
The state party can be forgiven for not having a plan ready to go. While there is a law that designates timing for replacing a statewide candidate, party leaders have indicated there was no established internal process for it.
But it’s possible whatever process they settle on to choose the next candidate will become a proxy fight for the questions around establishment politics and transparency.
On an all-hands call Wednesday evening, Maine Democratic Party Chair Charlie Dingman told state committee members that party leaders want to hold a nominating convention, two members on the call told MS NOW.
Under Dingman’s proposal, county committees would convene this weekend to choose a total of 500-600 delegates, according to the people on the call, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Later, the party put out a statement signed by Dingman and two other party leaders saying the roughly
by Steve Benen | Jul 8, 2026 | 2026 election, Maddowblog, News, Politics
On Capitol Hill, Democratic and Republican officials may not agree on much, but there’s at least one area of common ground: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is one scandal-plagued Senate candidate.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said in May that Paxton “could reasonably be indicted for a felony.” Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has described Paxton as “an ethically challenged individual.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina added, “To call Paxton ethically challenged is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder.”
That his list of controversies continues to grow isn’t helping matters for the GOP’s Senate nominee in the Lone Star State.
When it comes to Paxton’s real estate holdings, the Republican has already faced difficult questions about why he and his now-estranged wife declared three separate homes as their primary residence in mortgage documents, a practice his party has characterized as scandalous and potentially criminal.
This week, a related problem emerged. ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported:
Paxton appears to have used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years, including in May’s runoff that made him the Republican nominee for U.S. senator, according to records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.
This might not seem especially notable, except for the fact that Paxton, just months earlier, reminded Texans that under state law, “You must register to vote using the address where you reside.”
If the latest reporting (which has not been independently verified by MS NOW) is correct, the state attorney general failed to heed his own warning. In fact, the report added, “Three election lawyers told the news organizations
