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Year: 2024

House launches poll watcher program amid GOP-wide push for election security

House launches poll watcher program amid GOP-wide push for election security

FIRST ON FOX: A program is being rolled out and overseen by the House of Representatives this week that is aimed at boosting transparency in the high-profile fight for control of Congress. “We’re excited to really ramp the program up, roll it out, as we come into the final eight weeks before the election,” House Committee on Administration Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital in an interview about the program, which has been used in several election cycles. More than a dozen House races are expected to come down to razor-thin margins in November. Democrats are fighting to win back control from the House GOP and the fight is likely to be close either way. The House Committee on Administration is moving to boost accountability efforts at the polls for such races through the Election Observer Program. BERNIE SANDERS SAYS HARRIS DROPPING FAR-LEFT POLICIES ‘IN ORDER TO WIN THE ELECTION’ Congressional staffers are eligible to volunteer for a training program that would set them up to be poll watchers in the upcoming election.  They would then be sent out to districts, not including their own, if requested by a congressional candidate in a close race. “I think uniquely this Congress, we can raise awareness, engagement and participation in the program,” Steil said. “This is a program that’s been around for some time, and it’s been a successful program. My staff has participated in it, and I think it’s an important piece of the puzzle as we work to enhance the integrity and Americans’ confidence in our elections.” He said it is imperative to boost the program’s visibility so that candidates and incumbents running across the political spectrum in November know it is available to them. HARRIS TEAM MOVES TO SOFTEN POTENTIAL DEBATE IMPACT ‘BEFORE IT EVEN HAPPENS’ AND MORE TOP HEADLINES Asked if he had any particular security concerns about this year’s elections, Steil said he was “frustrated” by a lack of answers from the Biden administration in response to his probing of a June executive order aimed at using federal resources to bolster voter access. “The administration continues to hide the ball on the work they’re doing as it relates to President Biden’s executive order, and I think there’s areas in particular as it relates to noncitizen voting that we should work to continue to get in place,” Steil said. The House’s Election Observer Program is one of several election security measures Steil has used his committee gavel to focus on. Democrats, meanwhile, have panned several key GOP-led election efforts as voter suppression.  Congressional Democrat leaders are also opposing a short-term government funding bill that is attached to legislation mandating proof of citizenship in the voter registration process. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called the Republican plan “extreme.” Steil said he hopes Democrats utilize the program as they had before, though he conceded that election integrity issues have become highly political. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “A lot of things that did not used to be viewed as partisan in nature, in particular as it relates to election integrity, have become an attempt by the left to try to weaponize the efforts in the other direction,” he said. “We’ll see how our Democratic colleagues respond to a program they participated in the past.” “But I am of the view that we have an opportunity to take this program and move it up to the next level, both in visibility and in participation.”

Harris and Trump face off in historic debate, experts point to ‘High, high stakes’

Harris and Trump face off in historic debate, experts point to ‘High, high stakes’

In what may be the defining moment of the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump face off Tuesday in their first and potentially only debate. And with a margin of error race with eight weeks to go until Election Day and early voting getting underway this month in some crucial battleground states, there’s no denying how much is on the line as Harris and Trump face-off for 90 minutes in primetime at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center. “It’s high, high, high stakes. This is going to be a really, really important moment in the campaign,” longtime Republican strategist and veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns David Kochel told Fox News Digital. With the presidency up for grabs, the intense jockeying by both candidates and their camps has been heating up ahead of the debate. HERE’S WHAT TRUMP ALLIES SAY THE FORMER PRESIDENT SHOULD DO IN HIS DEBATE WITH HARRIS “There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go. And, and we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth,” the vice president charged in a radio interview on the eve of the debate. The comment appeared to be the latest stab by Harris to roil Trump in the days leading up to the showdown. TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT’S DEBATE ADVICE FOR TRUMP: ‘LET HARRIS SPEAK’ Trump has repeatedly insulted the vice president over her intelligence, mockingly nicknamed her ‘Comrade Harris,’ and even questioned her racial identity in the month and a half since Harris replaced President Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket. And Trump, using familiar tactics, has been laying the groundwork for what he calls a “rigged” debate as he has repeatedly blasted ABC News – the host of the 90-minute face-off, and accused the networks’ top talent of being biased against him. The debate comes as Harris has enjoyed a wave of momentum in both polling and fundraising after taking over as the Democrats’ standard-bearer, but the Trump campaign counters Americans’ honeymoon with the vice president is subsiding. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE HARRIS-TRUMP DEBATE Biden’s disastrous performance in his late June debate against Trump instantly fueled questions about his physical and mental abilities to serve another four years in the White House – and spurred a rising chorus of calls from within his own party for the 81-year-old president to end his bid for a second term. Facing increased pressure from fellow Democrats, Biden, in a blockbuster announcement on July 21, ended his re-election campaign and endorsed his vice president. “I don’t know if we’ll ever see a debate that was more consequential than the one that drove Biden from the race, but if there is one, it would be this one,” Kochel emphasized. Pointing to the latest national and key battleground state polls, which indicate a margin-of-error race, he pointed out “this race has settled into an absolute tie, and this may be the only real point that can create a dynamic where these candidates can move up or down.” Harris and Trump are taking vastly different approaches to preparing for Tuesday’s showdown. TRUMP AND HARRIS ON COLLISION COURSE AS 2024 CAMPAIGN ENTERS FINAL STRETCH Harris spent most of the past four days hunkered down in a downtown Pittsburgh hotel, taking part in an intensive “debate camp,” which included numerous mock debate sessions. She arrived in Philadelphia on Monday evening, 24 hours ahead of the debate. Trump spent much of this past weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, taking part in less formal ‘policy sessions’ with aides and allies. But Trump also traveled to swing state Wisconsin on Saturday to headline a campaign rally.  Fox News learned that Trump would be spending Tuesday huddling with advisers at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, before flying to Philadelphia just a couple of hours before the start of the 9pm ET debate, which will be simulcast on the Fox News Channel. “Trump is prepared for every style because that’s what he’s been doing on the campaign trail; has been doing unscripted pressers, pull-asides, interviews,” Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters on the eve of the debate. The former president has repeatedly criticized Harris for sitting for only one major interview, and holding no news conferences, since taking over for Biden as the Democrats’ standard-bearer. And on the eve of the debate, the Trump campaign announced that the former president will hold another news conference Friday in Los Angeles. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS 2024 ELECTION POLLING  Both candidates come into the debate aiming to achieve certain goals. For Harris, job number one is doing no damage by avoiding major gaffes. Another goal – appealing to the remaining undecided voters in the race and neutralizing Trump’s repeated accusations that the vice president is more liberal than progressive rockstars Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Up for discussion – how much Harris will need to push back on Trump’s misstatements. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a top Harris surrogate and a rising star in the Democratic Party, told reporters on Monday that I think he thinks the vice president “is not going to spend her time fact checking Donald Trump. I don’t think that’s a useful exercise.” And Moore said that Harris, who is much less well known to Americans than Trump, needs to “spend her time presenting her vision for what the future of this country is.” A top job in the debate for Trump, who faces a large polling deficit among women voters, is to avoid further insulting Harris, who if elected would make history as the nation’s first female president. Also high on Trump’s to-do list, effectively tie Harris to Biden, who’s approval ratings remain well underwater as Americans continue to deal with lessening but persistent inflation.  “She can run, but she cannot hide from her tenure during the Biden administration,” senior Trump campaign

Race to replace GOP governor in blue state on tap as primary season comes to a close on Tuesday

Race to replace GOP governor in blue state on tap as primary season comes to a close on Tuesday

NEWFIELDS, N.H. — After six months of contests, the final states hold primaries in the 2024 election cycle as voters in Delaware, New Hampshire and Rhode Island head to the polls on Tuesday. And grabbing the most attention, the competitive and combustible Republican and Democrat gubernatorial primaries in New Hampshire in the race to succeed GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, who isn’t running for re-election after winning four straight two-year terms as the Granite State governor. And the race in New Hampshire, a perennial general election swing state, is considered by political pundits as the only competitive governor’s race in the nation this year. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS ELECTION RESULTS The polling and fundraising front-runner for the Republican nomination is former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a former state attorney general who narrowly lost her Senate re-election in 2016 after breaking with former President Trump after the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” video. But Ayotte endorsed Trump this year as he runs to win back his old job in the White House. WHAT AYOTTE TOLD FOX NEWS ALONG THE NEW HAMPSHIRE CAMPAIGN TRAIL Her opponent, former state Senate President Chuck Morse, has spotlighted his conservative credentials and his support for Trump. But the former president stayed neutral in the race. Ayotte, who received Sununu’s endorsement this summer, told Fox News earlier this year that “the path that Gov. Sununu has us on is one of prosperity, one of more freedom. … I want us to continue down that path. I appreciate his leadership and the work that he’s done, and I want to continue his success for this state.” Morse has repeatedly questioned Ayotte’s conservative credentials as a senator and her support for Trump. “I think there’s a big difference between myself and Kelly Ayotte,” Morse said this summer. “I started as a conservative, and I finished as a conservative as Senate president, and I promise you, I will be a governor that’s a conservative. … That’s not what Kelly did when she went to Washington.” CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS 2024 ELECTION POLLING  Ayotte, pushing back on Morse’s attacks, has pointed to Morse’s unsuccessful bid in 2022 for the GOP Senate nomination, and she added that “I’ve known Chuck a long time, and this is a sad way for him to end his political career.” The winner of the Republican nomination will face off in an eight-week sprint to the general election against either former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig or Cinde Warmington, the only Democrat on New Hampshire’s Executive Council, which is an elected five-member panel that approves state agency heads, judges and major state contracts. Similar to the Republican gubernatorial primary, the Democrat’s nomination battle has also turned into a war of words. In a state hard hit by the opioid crisis, Craig recently released an ad criticizing Warmington’s past work as a lobbyist for drugmaking giant Purdue Pharma, known for producing the controversial painkiller OxyContin. Warmington fired back with an ad of her own as she charged that Craig went on the attack to deflect from her record of steering New Hampshire’s largest city through crime and homelessness crises. Also grabbing the spotlight in New Hampshire is the race to succeed retiring six-term Democrat Rep. Annie Kuster in the 2nd Congressional District, which covers the western half and northern region of the state. Kuster is backing Colin Van Ostern, a former staffer and former executive councilor who narrowly lost the 2016 gubernatorial election to Sununu. But Sen. Maggie Hassan, a former governor, and former four-term Gov. John Lynch are supporting Van Ostern’s rival, Maggie Goodlander, a former top lawyer in President Biden’s administration who served as a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department and who is married to Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. The Democrat congressional primary turned nasty with carpetbagger allegations directed at Goodlander, who hadn’t lived in the district for years and, through her husband, also has connections to top Democrats, including former President Clinton and former Secretary of State and 2016 Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Vikram Mansharamani, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2022 GOP Senate nomination, and Lily Tang Williams, who’s making her second straight bid for the congressional nomination, are considered the front-runners in a crowded Republican primary field. Delaware also has an open-seat gubernatorial race, as Democrat Gov. John Carney is term limited. Carney, who won three terms as Delaware’s lone member of the U.S. House before serving two terms as lieutenant governor and later won election and re-election as governor, is running instead as mayor of Wilmington, the state’s largest city. Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and National Wildlife Federation CEO and former state Natural Resources Secretary Collin O’Mara are running in the Democrat primary to succeed Carney.  Retired police officer Jerry Price, state House Minority Leader Michael Ramone and small business owner Bobby Williamson are seeking the GOP gubernatorial nomination. There are also primaries for the open lieutenant governor’s seat and for the state’s U.S. House seat as Democrat Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester is running to succeed retiring Sen. Tom Carper, a fellow Democrat. In Rhode Island, Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse faces a long-shot primary challenge from Mike Costa, a former GOP gubernatorial candidate. State Rep. Patrick Morgan is the front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination and would face a steep uphill climb to defeat Whitehouse in November’s general election in the reliably blue state. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Kamala Harris’ new climate director said she is hesitant to have children because of climate change threats

Kamala Harris’ new climate director said she is hesitant to have children because of climate change threats

Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign hired a new climate director who has frequently said the effects of climate change are part of what’s stopping her from having children. Camila Thorndike, who previously worked in the Senate managing the climate portfolio of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was given the title of climate engagement director for the Harris for President campaign in September 2024, according to her LinkedIn page.  Prior to joining the Harris campaign, Thorndike said on several occasions that she considers climate change a factor when deciding whether to have kids. “I was 15 when I first saw the climate ‘hockey stick’ graph. I realized that this skyrocketing arrow of temperature would take place in my lifetime. All of the big milestones of life that I was looking forward to would be in the context of this big global crisis. It led to the question of whether or not to have kids – which is still a big question for me – where I would put down roots, what my family would do,” Thorndike said in 2018 when she was the D.C. campaign director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. CONSERVATIVES REACT TO KAMALA HARRIS’ LATEST ‘WORD SALAD’ ON CLIMATE ‘DEADLINES’ Again in November 2019, Thorndike described it as an “ethical question that keeps me up at night.” “I have always been someone who enjoys children and loves the idea of a family, and that’s why I have wrestled with this, because my logical mind and the facts of the future I can see bearing down on us are not supportive of the life I would want for them,” she told Yahoo News at the time.  RESURFACED 2023 VIDEO SHOWS KAMALA HARRIS ARGUING YOUNG PEOPLE SUFFER ‘CLIMATE ANXIETY’ During an appearance on the “My Climate Journey” podcast in August 2022, a show hosted by Jason Jacobs and Cody Simms for people seeking to better understand climate change, Thorndike again made a connection between the decision to have children and what it might look like in the future amid climate change.  “I plotted my own lifetime against that and realized that around the time that I would, especially, be considering having kids or whatever, in around my 30s, we would start to see the escalation of this crisis. And so that was when I realized that, at the time, the grownups were not coming to save us and my generation would have to fight to take the wheel.” Featured in a Washington Post article about whether people should not have kids due to climate change, the new Harris campaign official said she worried about her potential kids “suffering” from climate-related issues.   “It’s coming partly from a place of love for my hypothetical child,” she said. “I want to protect them from suffering. Not that life is ever free from suffering, but what of the joys and peace and goodness that make me happiest to be alive will be accessible in 20, 30, 40 years?” Harris acknowledged this idea during a discussion at the “Fight for Our Freedoms” event in September 2023. “I’ve heard young leaders talk with me about a term they’ve coined called ‘climate anxiety,’ which is fear of the future and the unknown of whether it makes sense for you to even think about having children, whether it makes sense for you to think about aspiring to buy a home,” Harris said in a clip that has resurfaced since she became the 2024 Democratic nominee. A clip of the comment, shared by Donald Trump Jr. in July, prompted backlash from critics of Harris. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, who is now former President Trump’s running mate, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “It’s almost like these people don’t want young people starting families or something. Really weird stuff.” “Shamala is an extinctionist. The natural extension of her philosophy would be a de facto holocaust for all of humanity!” wrote billionaire and X owner Elon Musk on his platform.