Ex-Alaska lawmaker details mystery recruiter as FBI, Congress widen ‘Decoy Dan’ scrutiny
A former Alaska Republican lawmaker told Fox News Digital the FBI interviewed him after an apparent Democratic political operative allegedly posed as a conservative recruiter and tried to persuade him to enter the state’s U.S. Senate race amid an intensifying congressional investigation into the controversial “Decoy Dan Sullivan” ballot scheme. The allegations raise questions about potential federal criminal liability. Article III Project attorney Will Chamberlain argued that a coordinated effort to deceive voters about a candidate’s identity could violate 18 U.S.C. § 241, the federal conspiracy-against-rights statute. The revelations come after former campaign staff for Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola spoke to the New York Times about their knowledge of a reported scheme to stack Alaska’s four-person ballot with other “Dan Sullivans” to help siphon votes from incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan. MARY PELTOLA’S CAMPAIGN, DEMS BACKED COVERT SCHEME TO FIELD SPOILER CANDIDATES IN ALASKA SENATE RACE: REPORT The ballot ultimately included Peltola, incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, Republican Gerald Heikes and retired Petersburg teacher Dan J. Sullivan. Whether the similarly named candidate diverted votes or affected the outcome remains unproven. Chamberlain told Fox News Digital the alleged operation could constitute a federal felony if prosecutors establish that participants conspired to interfere with voters’ constitutional rights. PELTOLA CAMPAIGN’S ALLEGED DAN SULLIVAN SPOILER PLOT TAKES NEW TURN AS DOJ FACES MAJOR LEGAL HURDLE “The basic concept is you’re not allowed to conspire to injure or harm people’s constitutional rights. And one of those rights is to vote for the candidate of your choice,” Chamberlain said. “These people conspired to put a fake ‘Decoy Dan’ Sullivan on the ballot in order to trick people who were going into the ballot box intending to vote for the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan,” he alleged. “There’s a lot of good precedent on this that suggests that’s a crime and a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.” Chamberlain cited historical cases involving ballot manipulation, while acknowledging that the precise circumstances of recruiting a same-name candidate have not previously been addressed in an identical case. “Nothing exactly like this has happened before in the sense of recruiting a same-name candidate to trick people in the ballot box,” he said, adding that a lot of slanted electoral messaging is not illegal. ALASKA’S GOVERNOR ORDERS INVESTIGATION AFTER NYT REPORT ON ALLEGED DEM-LINKED SENATE ELECTION SCHEME “If you want to pretend that another Republican is better than the current incumbent or pretend that the incumbent’s not running and then persuade someone to vote for that candidate, that’s not a ‘conspiracy against rights’ because the right to vote for the candidate of your choice has not been impinged upon,” he said. “It’s the fact that when you’re conspiring to put two people with the exact same name on the ballot to trick people who are going in there intending to vote for the incumbent and get them to vote for somebody else by deception.” Meanwhile, former state Rep. David Eastman, a Republican from the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, told Fox News Digital by phone from Wasilla that he was approached by an operative under what he later surmised were false pretenses to recruit him into the race. Eastman said he also received several “fake mailers” suggesting “Decoy Dan” Sullivan was the real or only Sullivan in the race. The mailers, shared with Fox News Digital, are framed in a “meet the candidates” format and do omit Senator Sullivan. Eastman told Fox News Digital he was approached in the Mat-Su by an operative he later identified in a blog post as Jerid Kurtz, who was named in the New York Times report. Eastman said the operative claimed to represent conservative donors and encouraged him to run for Senate. “He approached me through a constituent. I sat down with him in April here in Wasilla,” Eastman said. “He pretended to represent conservative donors and was looking for conservative candidates to run for federal office; none of which was true,” Eastman added. Eastman alleged Kurtz “pretended” to represent conservative donors and used a false name, but said the operative never mentioned either Sullivan or disclosed an intention to confuse voters during their meeting. Fox News Digital reached out to the DSCC, Peltola’s campaign and Wingspan Strategies — where Kurtz is named in congressional documents as a co-owner — for comment. Dan J. Sullivan reportedly “vanished” as investigators began knocking on doors in his remote community, according to the Wall Street Journal. The allegations come as federal investigators examine whether Democratic political operatives improperly recruited Dan J. Sullivan in an effort to confuse voters who intended to support Senator Sullivan. The controversy has also reached Capitol Hill. In an October 29 letter, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., requested that Kurtz appear for an in-person transcribed interview on November 6 concerning allegations that operatives associated with Mary Peltola’s campaign sought to recruit similarly named candidates to confuse voters. “As a Democrat operative who was allegedly tasked with assisting in this effort, you have information that will assist the Committee’s investigation,” Comer wrote. “If you do not voluntarily appear for the interview, we will be forced to evaluate the use of compulsory process,” he warned. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER Eastman said Kurtz did not mention either Sullivan or disclose an effort to confuse voters during their April meeting. He nevertheless questioned the operative’s intentions after subsequent reporting connected Kurtz to the alleged candidate recruitment effort. Eastman also confirmed the FBI has interviewed him. Fox News Digital reached out to the bureau for comment.
Gavin Newsom wipes out California’s death row in historic mass commutation
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he will spare the lives of 548 inmates currently on the state’s death row, effectively clearing capital punishment in the state years after issuing an executive moratorium on executions. In a letter to constituents, Newsom, a Democrat, declared the state’s capital punishment system fundamentally flawed, error-prone, and morally incompatible with California’s core values. “After nearly 30 years in public office, I have come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish,” Newsom wrote. “I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us.” EX-CHIEF SAYS CHRISTA PIKE WAS ‘ALMOST GIDDY’ DESCRIBING MURDER AS GOVERNOR WEIGHS IN AFTER BOTCHED EXECUTION Under the executive action, all death sentences will be converted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The move comes amid renewed national conversations surrounding capital punishment following a botched execution in Tennessee involving death row inmate Christa Pike. California has not carried out an execution since 2006. Shortly after taking office in 2019, Newsom placed an official moratorium on executions and ordered the dismantling of the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison. The decision drew immediate criticism from victims’ rights advocates, including Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and murdered in 1993. Her killer, Richard Allen Davis, remains on death row. CHARLES MANSON FOLLOWER TIED TO SHARON TATE MURDERS GETS RECOMMENDED FOR PAROLE AFTER 55 YEARS IN PRISON “He just gave the gift of life to [hundreds of] people who took the gift of life from their victims,” Klaas told Fox News Digital, expressing disappointment over the decision. “I don’t understand his rationale behind it… but it’s probably the same old tired stuff that he said when he did his moratorium.” “He has definitely secured the serial killer vote now,” he added. POPE LEO DENOUNCES DEATH PENALTY AS ‘INADMISSIBLE’ AHEAD OF PENTAGON’S PLANNED LIVESTREAMED EXECUTION Conversely, anti-death penalty advocates strongly praised the move. “The silence after the very breath of a human is violently wrestled out of them is deafening,” Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual adviser to death row inmates, said in a statement reported by The Sacramento Bee. “I’ve heard it 14 times. Today, Governor Newsom has courageously chosen to break that silence. These commutations represent the height of moral leadership,” he added. “Cruelty laid down. Now, I’m left with one prayer: God, don’t let any of the governors in the other executing states get any sleep until they find the ethical stamina to follow Newsom’s lead.” Despite the move, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman noted that it doesn’t eliminate the death penalty. “Only the Legislature or the voters can do that,” he said in a statement. “Californians have been asked on two separate ballot initiatives to abolish the death penalty and both times they have chosen to keep it for the most serious crimes.” “Until the law is changed, my office will continue to evaluate every death penalty-eligible case with the rigor, care and restraint these decisions demand. As always, we will be guided by the facts, the law and the evidence. If the Legislature or the voters remove the death penalty, we will follow that law just as faithfully,” he added, noting that his thoughts “are with the families of victims, who deserve a justice system that honors the law as it is written and pursues it with fairness and due process.” Dan Dow, the district attorney for San Luis Obispo County, said framed Newsom’s order as an insult to murder victims. “Governor Newsom just told the families of Rachel Newhouse, Aundria Crawford, Kesha Gurke and every other innocent victim of California’s 548 condemned killers that the killers’ lives matter more,” he said. “Juries chose justice case by case, voters chose it five times, and one outgoing governor tried to erase it all with a pen. California voters have consistently supported the death penalty. In 2016, voters rejected Proposition 62, which sought to repeal the death penalty, while narrowly approving Proposition 66 to expedite the appeals process.
Democrats ‘divorced from voters’ as 5 states back citizen-only voting, bolstering GOP push
Voters in five states overwhelmingly approved ballot measures barring noncitizens from voting, including Kansas, where Democrats scored a major Senate upset, and Alaska, where the Senate race remains uncalled. Federal law already prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, but measures approved in Kansas, Alaska, Arkansas, South Dakota and West Virginia clarify or explicitly codify citizenship requirements for voting in state and local elections, with support exceeding 60% in each state. Election integrity advocates pointed to the results as evidence supporting President Donald Trump and Republicans’ argument that their push to require proof of citizenship for federal voter registration has “overwhelming bipartisan support.” REPUBLICANS SUFFER HISTORIC SENATE UPSET AS DEM FLIPS DEEP-RED STATE FOR FIRST TIME IN NEARLY A CENTURY “I would absolutely agree that noncitizen voting bans are overwhelmingly popular,” Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project, told Fox News Digital. “They enjoy bipartisan support.” A 2024 Gallup poll found that 83% of Americans, including 66% of Democrats, support requiring first-time voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The ballot measure wins also come as the conservative-majority Supreme Court prepares to consider a related dispute over whether Arizona can require proof of citizenship on its state voter registration form and remove suspected noncitizens from the rolls before an election, a ruling that could affect how states enforce citizenship requirements. Related election measures failed in California and Arizona. California’s Proposition 39 was defeated 58.5% to 41.4%, a margin of roughly 17 percentage points; the measure would have required voter ID and additional citizenship-verification procedures. “I would note that the unique thing there is not only that California is openly hostile to the idea of trying to prevent noncitizen voting in terms of its elected leadership, but also the left poured more than $30 million into the ballot measure campaign to defeat that,” Snead told Fox News Digital. Snead said Arizona’s measure was broader legislation that included several provisions beyond noncitizen voting, which may have contributed to its defeat. The victories for the measures barring noncitizens from voting follow the Trump administration and congressional Republicans’ failed efforts to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. ARIZONA VOTER LAW FIGHT REACHES SCOTUS AS ELECTION GROUPS WARN ‘ABSURD’ CONSEQUENCE COULD ENSUE The SAVE America Act also became a flashpoint in Congress, with Republicans and Democrats sparring over whether to attach it to a budget reconciliation package. Trump’s effort to tie the bill to Department of Homeland Security funding contributed to a prolonged standoff during the department’s shutdown. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Republicans lacked the votes to pass it, while Democrats argued it would disenfranchise eligible voters. Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission and senior legal fellow of Advancing American Freedom, said the Democratic Party is completely “divorced” from its voters. Snead agreed, saying Democrats took a “90-10 issue” and turned it into a highly politicized fight. “The left is far out of step with the American public, and they really should be answering the question, ‘Why are you opposed to something that 90% of the public is in favor of?” Snead said. “Only citizens should vote in our elections. And if you believe, as the left claims to, in democracy, well then, we should start by making sure that we have free and fair elections that are decided only by American citizens.” But while Spakovsky applauded the passage of the ballot measures, he warned they could prove ineffective unless states are allowed to verify voters’ citizenship. “Look, I’m glad those states passed that referendum, but those provisions aren’t going to be much good unless states are able to do two things,” Spakovsky said. Spakovsky pointed to Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota, a case in which the Supreme Court will decide whether federal law prevents Arizona from requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and from removing suspected noncitizens from its voter rolls. He said the ruling could affect how effectively states can enforce citizenship requirements. ELECTION EXPERT SOUNDS ALARM ON HOW NONCITIZENS ARE LANDING ON VOTER ROLLS Snead said simply checking a box attesting to citizenship on a federal form has not been sufficient. “As we have seen in a number of recent arrests by the Justice Department, with indictments going out against noncitizens, and with the failures of the automatic voter registration system in New Jersey, which added 6,600 noncitizens to the rolls, with almost 400 of them voting, we clearly have been let down by that check-a-box system,” Snead said. However, Spakovsky said a ruling in favor of Arizona would only go so far, arguing that proof of citizenship would only apply to future voter registrations. “The only way for them to try to check the citizenship of people who are already registered is by using the SAVE database at the Department of Homeland Security, and with complete control of Congress, I have no doubt that one of the first things Democrats will do is try to defund the database so that states can’t use it,” Spakovsky said. Snead applauded the Trump administration’s efforts to expand states’ access to the SAVE database to clean up their voter rolls, arguing the previous process of tracking down ineligible voters was “cumbersome.” He also voiced concerns that Democrats will gut the database. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER “I would not be surprised if they try to defund the entire safe system or pass legislation to prevent its use for cleaning up voter rolls,” Snead said. “I think that we are fast approaching the point where it is fair to say, ‘Why are Democrats actively pushing for noncitizen voting?’” Snead continued. “I think that’s the direction that we are going.”
Harmeet Dhillon resigns as Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights: sources
Harmeet Dhillon resigned Thursday as the Department of Justice’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, sources told Fox News. Dhillon, who assumed office in April 2025, ran the Civil Rights Division. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Alito reiterates he’s not retiring, is committed through end of current Supreme Court term
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito confirmed to Fox News that he has no plans to retire and is committed through at least the current term, which is set to end in late June. Alito made the statement Thursday amid speculation about the future of the Supreme Court after a disastrous GOP performance in the midterm elections. When the new congressional term begins in January, Democrats will be in firm control of the Senate, with predictions, including from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, that this will not change for at least six years. That would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for President Donald Trump to fill any potential vacancy with a conservative after this year. ALITO NOT EXPECTED TO RETIRE THIS TERM, COOLING SUPREME COURT VACANCY SPECULATION: SOURCES After Justice Clarence Thomas, 78, Alito is the oldest member of the Supreme Court at 76 years old. “Chance of confirming a worthy successor to Justice Thomas and/or Alito during President Trump’s term: Zero. Chance of confirming a worthy successor during a hypothetical GOP admin 2029-2033: probably zero (GOP won’t be able to recapture enough seats in 28),” DeSantis posted to X on Tuesday night. REPUBLICANS SOUND ALARM OVER HIDDEN MIDTERM STAKES THAT COULD RESHAPE SUPREME COURT FOR DECADES “Assuming Republicans lose the seats where prediction markets have the Democrats at 90+% to win, that would produce 55 Democrat Senate seats,” DeSantis added. JONATHAN TURLEY: SHERROD BROWN’S PLEDGE TURNS ADVICE AND CONSENT INTO A PUNCHLINE DEMS SEIZE THE SENATE AS BLUE TIDAL WAVE CRASHES DEEP INTO TRUMP COUNTRY, TOPPLES GOP STRONGHOLDS Ed Whelan, a conservative legal expert who clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, wrote on X that Trump is now effectively blocked from appointing federal judges or Supreme Court justices during the final two years of his term. “If a Republican is elected president in 2028, that president will not be able to appoint any justices or judges until Republicans regain the Senate,” Whelan wrote. “Given the deep hole, that might not happen until 2033. “ Whelan also explained that a justice resigning during the upcoming “lame duck” session is highly unlikely and Republicans would have a hard time securing 51 votes. “If Sherrod Brown wins Ohio seat, he gets sworn into Senate in early December, so Senate becomes 52R-48D,” Whelan wrote. “Collins and Murkowski would be unlikely to support anyone Trump would nominate. John Cornyn, Thom Tillis, and Bill Cassidy aren’t going to be eager to do Trump any favors. And there are other senators—e.g., John Curtis of Utah—who would be leery of anyone Trump would be eager to push through.” Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
House conservative emerges with 2028 presidential pick after GOP’s midterm massacre: ‘I am all in’
One of the original members of the House Freedom Caucus has made his decision on who to support in 2028 after Republicans’ historic losses in Tuesday night’s midterms. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital “I am all in” for Secretary of State Marco Rubio and called on fellow Republicans to begin thinking about how to rebuild in the wake of their election losses. “He can be a unifier,” Stutzman said. FLORIDA CONGRESSMAN DIAGNOSES GOP’S BLUE TSUNAMI LOSSES: ‘WE FAILED TO MAKE THEM THINK WE CARED ABOUT THEM’ He also told Fox News Digital that Republicans “have to do better at communicating” since they “can’t push policy” after losing the House and Senate majorities. Among those communication changes, he suggested changing the way Republicans discuss immigration. STATE OF PLAY: BLUE WAVE SWEEPS DEMOCRATS INTO POWER, WITH KEY RACES STILL HANGING IN BALANCE “We need to get off the deportation messages, take credit for closing the border, and now start finding a path forward for those here illegally obeying the laws,” Stutzman said. “No citizenship just work visas.” A blue tsunami swept both federal and state races on Tuesday night. In the House, both battleground districts and seats considered safe GOP strongholds saw upset Democrat victories. Dozens of races have yet to be called, but Democrats are projected to hold at least 54 seats in the Senate. In the House so far, they’re projected to win 240 seats, compared to 147 projected for Republicans. Democrats also scored upset victories in multiple governorships, namely in Texas and Iowa. FROM TEXAS TO KANSAS, 6 STUNNING MIDTERM RESULTS THAT UPENDED THE POLITICAL MAP And within hours of the writing landing on the wall, various GOP factions began publicly discussing how to rebuild and move forward. Vice President JD Vance quickly distanced himself from the war in Iran, which is thought to be one of the biggest drivers of voters moving away from the GOP. TRUMP TOLD DONORS ‘WE NEED TO ELECT JD,’ SOURCE CONFIRMS, AS HE WEIGHS VANCE OR RUBIO IN 2028 “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance posted on X in a lengthy statement. “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.” Vance is considered a top presidential contender for Republicans in 2028, as is Rubio. But it’s not clear yet whether their senior roles in the Trump administration will similarly sandbag their prospective bids.
Democrat poised to flip deep-red House seat without airing a single TV ad
Two years after losing to Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais by 43 points, Democrat Victoria Broderick is leading in his deep-red Tennessee district by just 280 votes in the state’s unofficial final results — despite spending under $100,000 and airing no paid TV ads. If her lead holds, the result would end DesJarlais’ 16-year congressional career. First elected in 2010, the Republican was seeking his ninth term in a district President Donald Trump carried by 24 points in 2024. The latest FEC figures available before Election Day show DesJarlais’ campaign spent $508,166 through Oct. 14, compared with just $90,062 for Broderick. His campaign also raised more than seven times as much as hers — $667,181 to $94,217 — yet the longtime incumbent is trailing in the deep-red seat. REDISTRICTING EFFORTS BLOW UP IN REPUBLICANS’ FACES AMID HISTORIC HOUSE LOSSES Axios reported, citing AdImpact, that Broderick’s campaign had no record of airing paid television ads. Instead, she credited a grassroots operation that had been building for more than two years. Broderick was not the only Democrat threatening to pull off a low-dollar House upset. Axios also highlighted a similar race in North Carolina, where High Point Mayor Cyril Jefferson currently leads Republican Rep. Addison McDowell 51.1% to 48.9%. Axios reported, citing AdImpact, that Jefferson had no tracked advertising spending, although a separate tracker lists $2,000 in Google ads, including YouTube placements. LEE CARTER: THE 5 WORDS THAT EXPLAIN THIS ELECTION BETTER THAN ANY COMMERCIAL McDowell had won the district by 38.3 points in 2024, according to election results. Broderick told Axios that her apparent upset was not a surprise to her team. “I know it was a shock for the rest of the country, but it wasn’t a shock for our team,” she said. Jefferson similarly credited volunteers, saying, “You have to go engage them.” Wake Forest University political science professor John Dinan told local news outlet WFDD that challengers in such a Republican-leaning district would normally need “a lot of TV ads and a lot of money,” but “there wasn’t a whole lot of money spent.” SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER The two races showed how grassroots organizing and strong local candidates can make traditionally Republican districts competitive despite major financial disadvantages. Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the Associated Press has not yet called either race.
Alaska, Mississippi Senate races separated by razor-thin vote margins
Races between the candidates for U.S. Senate in Alaska and Mississippi are separated by razor-thin margins days after polls closed in the crucial midterm elections. In Mississippi, where 95.6% of the votes have been counted, according to the Associated Press, Democratic candidate Scott Colom leads incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., 464,926 votes to 463,788, as of Thursday morning. In Alaska, former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, leads incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, by less than 700 votes. DOJ SET TO APPEAL RULING IN ALASKA SENATE RACE DISPUTE OVER ‘DECOY DAN’ While Alaska still has a quarter of its votes to count, according to the AP, if the gap between Peltola and Sullivan remains this slim, the introduction of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan will loom large in post-election analyses. In July, the U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation into Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher who entered the Senate race in May. TRUMP PROSECUTIONS UNDER BIDEN SET PRECEDENT FOR DOJ’S ALASKA ‘DECOY DAN’ PROBE, EX-FEC CHAIR SAYS An October report from The New York Times said Daniel J. Sullivan had met with Democratic operatives and members of Peltola’s campaign staff to encourage him to run. Peltola has denied any involvement in the scheme. One voter interviewed after he cast his ballot Tuesday revealed that he believed he accidentally voted for the wrong Dan Sullivan. MARY PELTOLA’S CAMPAIGN, DEMS BACKED COVERT SCHEME TO FIELD SPOILER CANDIDATES IN ALASKA SENATE RACE: REPORT “I don’t remember seeing the other Dan Sullivan, I totally forgot to look for two Dan Sullivans,” the bewildered voter revealed. “I definitely intended to vote for the real Dan Sullivan.” As of Thursday morning, Daniel J. Sullivan, aka “Decoy Dan,” had garnered 3,600 votes from Alaskans, a number that’s more than five times larger than the 637-vote margin separating Sen. Sullivan and Peltola. PELTOLA CAMPAIGN’S ALLEGED DAN SULLIVAN SPOILER PLOT TAKES NEW TURN AS DOJ FACES MAJOR LEGAL HURDLE Under Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, if no candidate achieves a 50% share of the vote, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and voters who chose that candidate first will have their votes redirected to their second choice. President Donald Trump weighed in on the saga, demanding Daniel J. Sullivan’s votes be given to Sen. Sullivan. “The vote totals for the Fake Dan Sullivan, plus the other ‘slug’ that the Dems put on the Ballot, should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over – He easily wins,” Trump wrote in a Thursday morning post on Truth Social. “There is no other fair solution! President DJT” he concluded. GOVERNOR PROBING ‘DECOY DAN’ SULLIVAN ELECTION SCANDAL WARNS SYSTEM FLAW HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT In Mississippi, officials are still waiting to receive a batch of 3,600 mail-in ballots, according to a statement from Secretary of State Michael Watson. The state allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they’re received within five business days of the election, provided they were postmarked with a date of the election day or earlier. NBC News’ Decision Desk pegs the remaining ballots to be counted at 45,000. TIM SCOTT DECLARES ALLEGED ‘DECOY DAN’ PLOT A ‘CRIMINAL OFFENSE’ AS DOJ INVESTIGATION ROCKS ALASKA Mississippi has no formal process for recounts, making a legal fight over the results increasingly likely. “We will protect the process of this election, we’ll protect the integrity of this election,” Colom told reporters Wednesday, adding that he had “an army of lawyers” preparing for a court battle, Mississippi Public Broadcasting reported. ALASKA’S GOVERNOR ORDERS INVESTIGATION AFTER NYT REPORT ON ALLEGED DEM-LINKED SENATE ELECTION SCHEME Hyde-Smith’s team, meanwhile, remains assured that the sitting senator will prevail. “Our campaign is closely monitoring the remaining count,” campaign manager Scott Monssen told MPB in a statement. “We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith,” he concluded. Fox News Digital reached out to all five campaigns for further comment.
Blue wave nearly swallowed some of America’s reddest states as election data exposes GOP’s close calls
Races in traditionally staunch Republican strongholds came incredibly close to flipping amid Tuesday night’s landslide Democratic victory, even in states where GOP candidates enjoyed overwhelming financial advantages. Signs of something going horribly wrong for the GOP appeared late in the election cycle when Fox News rated the Senate races in South Carolina and Kansas, two states with decades-long loyalty streaks for the Republican Party, as competitive. As results poured in on election night, however, it became clear that even states that practically nobody thought would be competitive, such as Louisiana and Tennessee, were coming within a razor’s edge of going blue. Mississippi, seen by most political forecasters as among the safest of GOP seats, remains undecided as of publication, with just dozens of votes separating incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and her Democratic challenger, Scott Colom. AMERICA SAW THE BLUE WAVE COMING — BUT DRASTICALLY UNDERESTIMATED THE EXTENT OF THE DEM TSUNAMI In Tennessee, for instance, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerri Green spent just over $2 million, dwarfed by the nearly $13 million Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the GOP nominee, poured into the race. Outside groups burned through millions more to boost Blackburn’s candidacy. The result of outspending a Democrat by nearly 6-to-1 in one of the reddest states in the country was Blackburn defeating Green by less than three points in a state that favored Republicans by almost 30 points in 2024. Louisiana’s Senate race told a similar story. The Republican nominee, Rep. Julia Letlow, and her allies paid out approximately $9.4 million to win the seat, compared to the roughly $3.89 million Democrats spent on the race. Letlow ultimately won by just under two points in a state President Donald Trump carried by roughly 22 points in 2024, underscoring the dramatic erosion of the GOP’s advantage in one of its longtime strongholds. FROM TEXAS TO KANSAS, 6 STUNNING MIDTERM RESULTS THAT UPENDED THE POLITICAL MAP Many Democratic strategists and observers have lamented that the party didn’t spend more money on long-shot races that could have delivered even more commanding margins to liberals when the new class of lawmakers and governors take office early next year. Even Florida, a state that has become nearly synonymous with Republican ascendancy, saw the GOP come dangerously close to losing its grasp, an outcome that was avoided, in the telling of some, thanks to the political apparatus constructed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. FIRST MUSLIM SENATOR, FIRST BLACK FEMALE GOVERNOR: 2026 MIDTERM ELECTION RESULTS MAKE HISTORY Republicans outspent Democrats by roughly five-to-one in their bid for the state’s governor’s mansion, ultimately winning by less than two points. In 2022, DeSantis carried the state by nearly 20 points. The GOP won its Senate race in the Sunshine State by a similar margin, also outspending the opposition by millions. Similar trends played out across the country, with multiple House and state legislative seats that Republicans won by double digits in 2024, flipping to Democratic control. The election night bloodbath for the GOP has ignited a brutal blame game within the party that could easily bleed into the 2028 Republican presidential primary.
At 26, Sean Duffy’s son-in-law is headed to Congress as its youngest member
Michael Alfonso is set to become the youngest member of Congress at 26 years old after winning a key Wisconsin House seat. Alfonso, a Republican, will head to Washington this January after running a campaign focused on delivering on affordability and restoring the American Dream, two priorities he emphasized throughout his campaign. “As the youngest member of Congress and a new dad, I have a personal stake in our future, and I’m going to Washington with one job: put Wisconsin and America first by making life affordable, restoring the American Dream, and putting the prosperity of American citizens above all else,” the congressman-elect told Fox News Digital. WATCH: DUFFY FLIPS SCRIPT ON DEM SENATORS WITH POINTED QUESTIONS ABOUT THEIR OWN CAMPAIGN CASH Alfonso, who is married to Duffy’s daughter Evita, defeated Democratic challenger Fred Clark, a former Wisconsin state lawmaker, in Tuesday’s election to represent Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, a seat previously held by his father-in-law, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Alfonso will succeed Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., who opted against seeking re-election to pursue the Wisconsin governorship. Alfonso, who received endorsements from President Donald Trump and Duffy, has vowed to champion policies aimed at helping first-time homebuyers and reducing healthcare costs, protect individual freedoms and bring a new generation of conservative leadership to Washington. Alfonso has also pledged to introduce legislation strengthening Title IX protections by restricting transgender women and girls from using facilities designated for women. BERNIE SANDERS ADMITS DEMOCRATS FAILED WORKING-CLASS VOTERS ON ECONOMICS, DRIVING THEM TO DONALD TRUMP Duffy, who previously represented the district in Congress, publicly supported his son-in-law’s campaign, highlighting his working-class background and construction experience. “I think it’d be great to have someone who knows how to put on a pair of jeans and a pair of boots and a hard hat and work his butt off 12 hours a day,” Duffy said during an August appearance on NewsNation’s “Morning in America.” Alfonso, who was born in February 2000, works as an accountant for the Diocese of Superior and lives in Hayward, Wis., with his wife and their 5-month-old daughter. Before entering politics, Alfonso worked in the construction and concrete industry while attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also spent time in Florida, where he worked as a producer for “The Dan Bongino Show.” Trump endorsed Alfonso in May, describing him as a “MAGA warrior” and a “young ‘STAR.’” LAURA INGRAHAM: RICHER, SAFER AND STRONGER: WHY THE TRUMP AGENDA DESERVES TO KEEP GOING Alfonso celebrated the president’s endorsement as the “greatest honor” and pledged to support Trump’s agenda in Congress. During an Election Day interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Alfonso pushed back against concerns about his age and lack of political experience, arguing that longtime politicians have failed to deliver results for Americans. “What has experience gotten us at the congressional level? Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, I mean, Joe Biden was a senator for a long time … we tried that already,” Alfonso told the outlet. “It’s not working.” During his primary race, Alfonso faced criticism from his Republican opponents about his family connections, as they raised questions about nepotism and his campaign donors.