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Trump-linked MAGA Inc pours $10M into Ken Paxton’s Texas Senate race against James Talarico

Trump-linked MAGA Inc pours M into Ken Paxton’s Texas Senate race against James Talarico

MAGA, Inc., the super PAC linked to President Donald Trump, has made its first major midterm buy with $10 million in ad spending to support Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his Senate race, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission. Paxton and Democrat state Rep. James Talarico are locked in a tight race in which polls continually show the two candidates neck and neck. The $10 million will go toward digital and TV ads across the state. FOX NEWS POLL: GOP DIVISIONS SHAPE TEXAS SENATE RACE Trump’s endorsement earlier this year already helped Paxton beat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary. “While James Talarico has a record of raising taxes on working families, my Protecting the Texas Promise Agenda cuts costs and makes life more affordable. Thank you, President @realDonaldTrump, for your support,” Paxton wrote on X on Saturday while sharing a post about the ad buy. “Together we will win for Texas and America.” The decision comes after weeks of speculation over whether the super PAC would put money into the hotly contested race. Talarico’s campaign also responded to the move, telling Fox News Digital, “Billionaire-backed dark money groups are lying about James Talarico because they’re scared of the people-powered movement we’re building to fix this broken, corrupt political system.” BERNIE SANDERS DEMANDS DEMOCRATS BAN SUPER PACS FROM PRIMARIES, BLASTS AIPAC, ‘CORRUPT SYSTEM’ Talarico, who has called for higher taxes on the wealthy, called out billionaires heading to the Republican midterm convention starting Wednesday. “Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption,” he said.  “They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof. We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats and independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.” Calling him “High Tax Talarico,” MAGA Inc. spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer told Fox News Digital the Democrat “wants to take money out of Texans’ pockets. MAGA Inc. is going to ensure Texas knows about Talarico’s radical policies and elects Ken Paxton to the U.S. Senate.” TALARICO’S ‘PROUD CAPITALIST’ ABOUT-FACE COLLIDES WITH RESURFACED CALL TO ‘DISMANTLE’ CAPITALISM Talarico’s campaign has raised $72 million since the campaign began, mostly from small donors, compared to $16.8 million by Paxton’s campaign, according to the Texas Tribune. The two anti-Talarico ads slam his policies on taxes and rural hospitals while touting Paxton’s support for doubling the child tax credit, allowing tax breaks for medical expenses and a $50,000 deduction for first-time homebuyers. MAGA, Inc. has around $400 million in campaign funds, which Trump called “my money” while speaking to reporters this week, adding, “I’m going to spend whatever amount of money necessary to try and help us.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.

North Carolina Dem Senate candidate added former Bloods gang member to criminal justice task force: report

North Carolina Dem Senate candidate added former Bloods gang member to criminal justice task force: report

Roy Cooper, the former Democrat governor of North Carolina now running for Senate, added an ex-member of the notorious Bloods gang to a Racial Equity in Criminal Justice task force in 2020. In the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 death, Cooper created the task force via executive order, The Washington Free Beacon reported. Cooper, who tapped then-state attorney general turned current Gov. Josh Stein to lead the task force, stocked the panel with a mix of state officials and community activists, including Kerwin Pittman, who was convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to commit murder, serving 14 years in prison for the crime, according to records obtained by the Free Beacon. Pittman was also identified as a “ranking member of the Bloods” by prosecutors during a murder trial for Bloods member Michael Contrez Jones. SIX-FIGURE PRIVATE SECURITY BILL FOR TOP DEM SENATE HOPEFUL FUELS GOP HYPOCRISY CLAIMS Pittman was convicted in a 2006 drive-by-shooting of 19-year-old Jamel Amiens Jeffreys, the Free Beacon reported. Pittman defended his involvement in the task force and argued his past actions were the result of poor judgment as a teenager. “I was asked to contribute to conversations about criminal justice reform because of both my lived experience and the work I was doing in communities,” Pittman told the Free Beacon.  “I have never hidden my past. The gang involvement and criminal conduct you reference occurred when I was a teenager and young man at or before the age of 19. I am now 39 years old. ONE YEAR AFTER IRYNA ZARUTSKA MURDER, VIOLENT CRIMES FUEL NORTH CAROLINA PUBLIC SAFETY DEBATE “I made decisions as a young person that had serious consequences, including spending more than a decade incarcerated.” Pittman, according to his LinkedIn profile, worked at the time of the task force’s creation for Emancipate NC, an organization which, as the Free Beacon reported, has often called for the abolition of police, writing that “maintaining white supremacy has always been the goal of policing” in a 2023 company blog post. Cooper, who is running for Senate against former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, referenced his opponent’s record when asked to comment on the Free Beacon story. DEM SENATE HOPEFUL PIVOTS ON DATA CENTERS AS RISING POWER COSTS COLLIDE WITH CAMPAIGN “While Roy spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars and signing tough-on-crime laws as governor, Michael Whatley spent his appointing a convicted child sex predator who served six years in prison and spent over a decade as a registered sex offender to a top role within the North Carolina Republican Party that gave him access to events with children,” the Cooper campaign told Fox News Digital in a statement. Pittman and the Whatley campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Judge allows ‘homewrecker’ lawsuit against former Sen Kyrsten Sinema to move forward

Judge allows ‘homewrecker’ lawsuit against former Sen Kyrsten Sinema to move forward

Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema can be sued under North Carolina’s so-called homewrecker law after a federal judge ruled the state has jurisdiction over allegations she helped break up a marriage by having an affair with a woman’s husband. Sinema acknowledged having a sexual relationship with Matthew Ammel, who was a member of her security detail while she was a senator, but said she could not be sued in North Carolina because she lacks a meaningful connection to the state. U.S. District Judge David A. Bragdon rejected that argument and denied Sinema’s motion to dismiss the case, saying she knew Ammel lived in the state with his wife, Heather Ammel, and their three children. Bragdon also pointed out that Heather Ammel discovered the affair in early 2024 after reading nine messages Sinema sent to her husband while he was in North Carolina. He found that those communications were enough for Heather Ammel’s lawsuit to move forward in the state. JONATHAN TURLEY: FORMER SEN KYRSTEN SINEMA FIGHTS AFFAIR LAWSUIT INVOKING CENTURIES-OLD MARRIAGE TORT In her civil complaint, Heather Ammel is seeking damages from Sinema, claiming the ex-lawmaker interfered with what she described as a “good and loving marriage” by pursuing her husband. North Carolina is among the few states that recognize alienation-of-affection claims, allowing spouses to seek damages from a third party they believe caused the breakdown of their marriage. Sinema’s lawyers, Steven Epstein and Abigail Jenkins, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In his ruling, the judge found that the messages between the two affair partners showed Sinema was “furthering a romantic relationship” with Ammel and “invading” his marriage both while she went on trips with him and when he was home. SPURNED SPOUSES CASH IN AS NORTH CAROLINA’S ‘HOMEWRECKER’ LAW TURNS CHEATING INTO A COURTROOM JACKPOT According to Heather Ammel’s lawsuit, her husband joined Sinema’s security team in 2022 after retiring from the U.S. Army. He then began traveling with her domestically and internationally. Sinema, who is unmarried, said in a July 31 deposition that she first had sex with Ammel around Memorial Day 2024. “We were staying at an Airbnb in Napa, California. We were outside. Matt kissed me. We went inside and had sex,” Sinema said in her deposition, which took place at a law office in Raleigh. That summer, Ammel stopped wearing his wedding ring and was given a job as a national security fellow in Sinema’s Senate office, according to Heather Ammel’s lawsuit. Sinema, who represented Arizona in the U.S. House and later in the Senate, said in her deposition she had sexual encounters with Ammel in New York, Washington, Colorado and Arizona but never North Carolina. The Ammels separated on Nov. 1, 2024, and their divorce was finalized in March 2026, according to court records.

Trump weighs in on Lindsay Clancy murder trial dubbed ‘kangaroo court’ by GOP leaders

Trump weighs in on Lindsay Clancy murder trial dubbed ‘kangaroo court’ by GOP leaders

President Donald Trump said Lindsay Clancy will still have to pay “the price” for the deaths of her three small children — Cora 5, Dawson 3, and Callan, 8 months — after a mistrial was declared Friday. During a press gaggle in the Oval Office, a reporter asked Trump if he’d been following the murder trial of Clancy, a Massachusetts mom whose defense did not deny that she strangled her children with exercise bands in January 2023. It argued she was not guilty by reason of insanity. Her attorneys claimed she suffered from postpartum psychosis, a severe but rare psychiatric condition in which a person is disconnected from reality. LINDSAY CLANCY MISTRIAL DECLARED AFTER JURY DEADLOCKS IN KILLINGS OF HER THREE CHILDREN “It’s a horrible tragedy,” Trump told reporters. “It’s a horrible tragedy. I see what’s happened, and it looks like it’s a hung jury.” “I assume there’s going to be another trial. It’s a terrible situation. Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing. Can’t be worse. But you’ll find out what the price to pay is. There’ll be a price. It’s going to be [a] mental institution or jail or something.” The six-week trial, which was supposed to determine whether Clancy was to be held criminally responsible, quickly evolved into a flashpoint in the internet culture war over women’s postpartum mental health and spurred misinformation and conspiracy theories, including false claims accusing her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, of being responsible for the children’s deaths. After nearly a week of deliberations, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial when the jury deadlocked 11 to 1. Eleven jurors voted to acquit Clancy, while one holdout refused to join them. The jury consisted of 9 women and 3 men. PROSECUTOR IN INFAMOUS KILLER MOM CASE SAYS WOMEN ON LINDSAY CLANCY JURY MAY BRING ‘STRANGE TWIST’ TO VERDICT Clancy’s defense attorney requested that the lone juror be removed because a note given to the judge by the jurors said the holdout had doubt but refused to apply it, according to People. The mistrial invoked a strong reaction from Republican lawmakers, while Democratic lawmakers and leaders — including those from Clancy’s state — have remained mum on the high-profile case. “Out of 12 people, only ONE had the courage to hold a serial killer accountable for her actions,” Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, posted on X. “That’s not just bravery. That’s a hero.” “Holdout juror’s going to need security,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted on X. “Sad.” Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis called the mistrial a “miscarriage of justice.” “The victims deserved far, far better than a kangaroo court,” DeSantis wrote. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who has been vocal against Clancy’s supporters, who have been gathered outside the courthouse and posted videos showing support online, suggested Clancy would not have this support if she were Black. “This case is not about the excuses for why she committed murder,” Mace posted on X. “This is about justice for the three beautiful souls whose lives were taken after their mother strangled them with her bare hands and workout bands.” PATRICK CLANCY SPEAKS OUT AFTER HUNG JURY IN LINDSAY CLANCY CASE, ADDRESSES PROSPECT OF ANOTHER TRIAL “12 jurors looked at this onesie,” Mace continued. “Only ONE stood his ground to defend the children.” But Clancy’s defense argued that she was a devoted and loving mother who was desperately seeking to get help, alleging that the cocktail of medications she was on worsened her mental state. Clancy had been prescribed 13 psychiatric medications — more than 30 prescriptions — in the four months leading up to the murders. Patrick Clancy is suing for wrongful death and medical malpractice against Clancy’s providers, Dr. Jennifer Tufts, Rebecca Jollotta, Aster Mental Health and South Shore Health System. Clancy also filed a separate lawsuit alleging negligence, medical malpractice and personal injury. “Lindsay was struggling. We were all very concerned,” Susan Clancy, Clancy’s mother-in-law, told jurors. “She was very nurturing, very loving. She was a wonderful mother. Wonderful.” Clancy is due back in court Sept. 29 for a status hearing, trial assignment and a defense Rule 25 motion.