All posts tagged: Kamala Harris

Trump MAGA Inc. 3 million war chest spending in 2026 midterms

Trump MAGA Inc. $403 million war chest spending in 2026 midterms

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump speaks on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, Sept. 9, 2026. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images After sitting on a $403 million war chest for months, President Donald Trump’s flagship super PAC has finally opened the spending floodgates. The rapid deployment of Make America Great Again Inc.’s cash is reshaping some of the tightest congressional races ahead of the 2026 midterm election. For Republicans, the cavalry couldn’t come soon enough. GOP candidates spent months wondering when Trump’s massive coffer would come to their aid as Democratic opponents outraised them, sentiment soured on the economy and an expanding number of competitive Senate races pushed the party onto the defensive. But with fewer than seven weeks until Election Day, the question is how much value Trump’s allies can wring from such an enormous sum, with some of the best advertising space already reserved and the most valuable voters being bombarded from every direction. “They can still effectively use that …

North Carolina Senate race puts affordability front and center

North Carolina Senate race puts affordability front and center

Published by Sam Flores

CONCORD, N.C. — Rachel Wagoner describes Concord, North Carolina, as the kind of place where she always envisioned raising her three children: safe, with good schools, a lively downtown and neighborhoods filled with families. But lately, that idyllic life has become harder to afford. Wagoner’ husband works outside of the home while she stays home with their children, but rising grocery and gasoline costs have squeezed the family’s budget enough that she has spent the past year considering going back to a paid job. “It gets harder and harder to make ends meet,” Wagoner told CNBC. Things her family once considered routine “have now become a luxury, like eating out and coming and shopping downtown.” The cost-of-living squeeze has become a defining issue in North Carolina’s pivotal open Senate race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, as well as in numerous other contests that will determine control of the chamber. Meanwhile, Concord keeps growing. Across Cabarrus County, just northeast of Charlotte, subdivisions are spreading, major employers are expanding and billions of dollars in investment …

Data centers, crypto, tax revisions at issue in primary elections

Data centers, crypto, tax revisions at issue in primary elections

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, during a debate against her Republican opponent in the 2024 general election, Nick Begich, at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association’s annual conference in Anchorage, Aug. 28, 2024. Ellen Schmidt | Las Vegas Review-Journal | Tribune News Service | Getty Images Primary election season continues Tuesday as voters in Alaska, Florida and Wyoming head to the polls to choose their party’s candidates for November’s midterm elections, which are less than three months away. The November midterms will determine control of Congress for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. If Democrats, who are ahead in the polls, capture one or both chambers of Congress, it would severely limit legislation for the next two years and potentially increase oversight of the White House and industry. “The decline in President Trump’s approval ratings across a range of issues has increased Democratic prospects,” said one recent analysis from TD Cowen. “Divided government could leave policy in a gridlock.” Tuesday’s elections come in the wake of contests in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota over the …

Taylor Swift Silently Shuts Down Donald Trump

Taylor Swift Silently Shuts Down Donald Trump

Published by Sam Flores

For years, Donald Trump and his team has been engaging in a particular form of digital provocation: using the biggest hits by major pop stars as background music for propaganda videos posted to TikTok and other social media platforms. From posts detailing ICE raids to those that boost the war in Iran, the strategy seems designed to provoke direct conflict with artists—who often oppose the president’s policies—in order to amplify their media impact. However, this tactic has just run up against the copyright empire of the most powerful singer on the planet: Taylor Swift, who has apparently managed to completely silence multiple posts from the White House and the Republican campaign that went up the past week. Several videos shared on the president’s official TikTok account no longer have any audio, though when first posted Swift’s work was the soundtrack. Among the affected posts was a video released in early August showing Donald and Melania Trump watching fireworks to the tune of “August,” a track from her acclaimed album Folklore. Included is a sarcastic caption: …

World Cup viewership stayed bipartisan despite Trump’s role: CNBC survey

World Cup viewership stayed bipartisan despite Trump’s role: CNBC survey

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump on stage with FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the FIFA World Cup 2026 draw at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, Dec. 5, 2025. Jia Haocheng | Pool Via Reuters President Donald Trump made the World Cup one of the most visible political stages of his second term. But the tournament’s U.S. audience remained strikingly bipartisan, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey. Forty-nine percent of registered voters said they watched at least some of the World Cup, according to the survey. That included 51% of Democrats, 47% of Republicans and 47% of independents. “It crosses partisanship, one of the few things in the world that seems to at the moment,” said Jay Campbell, a partner at Democratic polling firm Hart Research, which conducted the survey along with Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies. The split was equally narrow along other political lines, the survey found. Fifty-one percent of voters who backed Kamala Harris in 2024 watched, compared with 47% of Trump voters. Voters who approved or …

Trump says he is more popular on TikTok than Taylor Swift

Trump says he is more popular on TikTok than Taylor Swift

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa alongside the NATO leaders summit at the Bestepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters President Donald Trump touted that he’s “No. 1” on TikTok multiple times this week.  “The new numbers just came out,” Trump told reporters at the White House Monday. “You know who the No. 1 person on TikTok is by far? Trump. Me,” he said. The president added that he surpassed Taylor Swift, who he said was “No. 11” on the social media app.  As of July 9, Trump has 16.7 million followers on TikTok. Taylor Swift has a little over double Trump’s TikTok following, sitting at 33.5 million followers as of July 9.  The most followed person on the app is Khabane Lame, a Senegalese and Italian influencer known for his comedic skits. Lame has 162.3 million followers on the video-sharing platform. That’s nearly 10 times Trump’s following. After Lame, the second-most followed person on TikTok is 22-year-old Charli D’Amelio who rose to …

Erdogan’s ties with Trump offer Turkey an edge ahead of NATO summit

Erdogan’s ties with Trump offer Turkey an edge ahead of NATO summit

Published by Sam Flores

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump meet as part of the NATO Summit in The Hague, the Netherlands on June 24, 2025. Turkish Presidency | Anadolu | Getty Images President Donald Trump has berated and belittled many of his European counterparts expected to attend next week’s NATO summit in Turkey. But host Recep Tayyip Erdogan has drawn on his close ties with the U.S. leader to secure the U.S. leader’s presence at the Ankara event — an appearance that may even come with a significant gift related to Turkish defense. “I would not have gone for most people,” Trump said last week. “But he called me up. He said: ‘Please, I have it in Turkey. You got to be there. The United States has to be in there.’ And so I’m going out of respect to President Erdogan.” Leveraging that respect has helped Erdogan avoid the disarray that Trump’s absence would cause in the alliance, particularly at a time when the Republican president has repeatedly threatened to pull U.S. forces from …

Democrats see midterm hope in reliably red Iowa as Trump approval ratings sag

Democrats see midterm hope in reliably red Iowa as Trump approval ratings sag

Published by Sam Flores

IOWA — Connie Klug didn’t leave the Republican Party. The party left her, she said. She was raised in the GOP, considers herself a fiscal conservative and married a registered Republican. But decades ago, Klug said, she felt the party drifting. The isolation she felt intensified more recently, as she watched her former political comrades turn a blind eye to what she views as President Donald Trump’s abuses of power. “It’s astonishing to me how the Republican Party is just looking the other way. Trump continues to stretch the law, and no one’s doing anything,” Klug said from the kitchen of her home in Adel, Iowa, down a long dirt road about a 30-minute drive west of Des Moines. Klug was hosting several friends for a roundtable with Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democratic state senator and one of a handful of candidates who have at least a fighting chance of flipping Republican-held U.S. House seats in the former swing state that is now reliably red. Trone Garriott is running in the 3rd Congressional District, which …

Obama Center brings Democratic politicos to Chicago ahead of elections

Obama Center brings Democratic politicos to Chicago ahead of elections

Published by Sam Flores

The Barack and Michelle Obama statue outside The Obama Presidential Center in the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, May 29, 2026. Joshua Lott | The Washington Post | Getty Images The opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Thursday will be a celebration of the legacy of former President Barack Obama and his accomplishments. The star-studded event that will feature an address from Obama and performances by Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen and Jennifer Hudson is also expected to be the biggest gathering of donors, fundraisers and business leaders aligned with the Democratic Party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. “It’s a celebration of Obama’s historic candidacy and a celebration of the extraordinary work he did on behalf of our country,” said John Rogers, a co-founder of Ariel Investments and a long-time Obama supporter who donated to the center and will attend the opening. In addition to the nostalgia, insiders expect conversations on the sidelines between large donors, business leaders, electoral candidates and hopefuls in the next presidential cycle about fundraising and the …

Roy Cooper North Carolina race could help decide control of the next Senate

Roy Cooper North Carolina race could help decide control of the next Senate

Published by Sam Flores

Roy Cooper, left, former governor of North Carolina and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate for North Carolina, and Michael Whatley, former chair of the Republican National Committee and Republican U.S. Senate candidate for North Carolina. Al Drago | Shelby Tauber | Bloomberg | Getty Images Every few years, North Carolina offers Democrats the same bargain: spend here with election dollars, organize campaigns here and believe this time will be different. The state gives them reasons to hope. Growth is reshaping its suburbs. Urban centers like Raleigh, Charlotte and the Research Triangle are producing more Democratic votes. Statewide races remain close. Then, in the contests that decide power in Washington, North Carolina usually turns Democrats down. That contradiction is now central to the fight for Senate control in 2026 when every competitive seat could matter in deciding the next congressional majority. Democrats’ narrow path back to a majority runs through a handful of Republican-held seats, and few are more consequential than the one in the Tar Heel State. Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is facing Republican Michael …