Politics
Vulnerable Dem incumbents move to the center in key swing states as Biden panders to far-left base
Democratic incumbent Senate candidates across the country in key battleground states are moving more and more to the center and right as polls continue to show President Biden trailing former President Trump in many key swing states.
Biden trails Trump in six battleground states with about six months to go before the election, according to Fox News polling last month, with Biden finding himself behind in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.
Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen has made it a point to tout her bipartisan credentials on the campaign trail.
“I know what Nevada families are going through,” Rosen said in her first ad launching her re-election campaign. “It’s why I first ran for Congress. And it’s why in the Senate, I’ve worked with both parties to solve problems. And always focused on making a difference in people’s lives.”
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Democratic senators, from left, Jon Tester, Jacky Rosen, Sherrod Brown, Tammy Baldwin and Bob Casey (Getty Images: Anna Moneymaker, Drew Angerer, Ethan Miller, Sarah Silbiger)
Rosen, like many other incumbent Democrats, is in a tough re-election campaign under the backdrop of historically low approval ratings for Biden, while also carrying a record of voting with the president 98.6% of the time last year, Fox News Digital reported.
“Since day one, Sen. Jacky Rosen has worked to get things done in a bipartisan way,” a Rosen campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “That’s why she’s been recognized as one of the most bipartisan and effective senators in the nation. No matter what year it is, Sen. Rosen will always be focused on bringing Republicans and Democrats together to deliver for Nevadans.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen, speaks to the media after a Senate Democratic policy luncheon on Oct. 17, 2023, on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
Longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey is up for re-election in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, which Biden narrowly won in 2020 in a race he has acknowledged will be “tough.”
Casey recently distanced himself from the defund the police movement, despite recent endorsements from groups advocating that police departments be defended, and promoting a bill that would have overhauled policing practices at the height of 2020s protests and riots.
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President Biden speaks at a campaign event at Pullman Yards on March 9, 2024, in Atlanta. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
Casey has faced strong criticism from his Republican opponent, businessman Dave McCormick, for allegedly shifting positions on key issues like immigration over the years, particularly when he is up for re-election.
The Pennsylvania Democrat has adopted a populist message on the economy, where Biden is underwater with voters, according to Fox News polling, by attacking “greedflation” – a blunt term for corporations that jack up prices and rip off shoppers to maximize profits – and trying to reframe the election-year narrative about the economy.
“Casey’s biggest vulnerability is the Biden administration,” GOP consultant Vince Galko recently told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Casey wins or loses based on what Biden does in the next couple of months.”
Sen. Bob Casey leaves the Capitol after a vote on April 18, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Casey campaign spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said, “Bob Casey is consistently ranked among the most effective and bipartisan senators in Washington and has worked across the aisle to create jobs and lower costs. Meanwhile, his opponent David McCormick has only worked to increase his bottom line, from outsourcing American jobs to investing in Chinese military companies.”
In Wisconsin, Dem. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is running in a state Trump won in 2016 and narrowly lost in 2020, and she has attempted to position herself as a “pro worker” candidate who champions the needs of the working class.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, April 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
While Baldwin often touts her relationship with Biden, she recently joined several other vulnerable Democrats and opposed the president’s unfreezing of Iranian assets in October.
“Tammy Baldwin is willing to work with and stand up to anyone if it means getting the job done for Wisconsin,” Baldwin campaign spokesperson Andrew Mamo told Fox News Digital. “She has stood up for our workers by voting to repeal President Biden’s policy that let China cheat in the solar industry and successfully pausing his Indo-Pacific trade deal, and has gone to bat for our farmers by taking on the FDA for their wrongheaded decision to allow plant-based products to use the good name of Wisconsin milk.”
Incumbent Democratic senators in Ohio and Montana are also finding themselves in close races, with the Cook Political Report labeling both a “toss up,” prompting each senator to publicly take more moderate positions.
President Biden trails former President Trump in almost every single battleground state, often by a significant margin. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Sherrod Brown has served as a Democrat representing Ohio in the Senate since 2007 and finds himself running for re-election in a state that Trump carried by eight points in 2020 and is expected to carry again.
Brown, who carries with him a record of voting with Biden 99% of the time from 2021-2023, and 97% of the time since 2023, has broken with the president on a few issues in recent months.
Brown became only the second Democrat earlier this month to oppose Biden’s electric vehicle tax credit plan, Politico reported, and also bucked the president over his repeal of Title 42 last year.
Sen. Sherrod Brown and President Biden (Getty Images)
Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, running in a state that Trump carried by almost 20 points in 2020, has been described by his GOP challenger Tim Sheehy as “two-faced” during election years, and has been taking positions to the right of Biden on key issues such as immigration.
Tester recently became the first Democrat in the Senate to back the Laken Riley Act, which would require federal officials to arrest illegal immigrants charged with certain crimes like burglary, similar to the illegal immigrant alleged to have killed the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student for whom the bill is named.
Tester has publicly criticized Biden’s handling of the border and recently secured over $10 million to support law enforcement in Montana.
“Jon Tester does what’s right for Montana. President Trump signed more than 20 of his bills into law, including to help veterans, crack down on government waste and abuse, and support our first responders, and Jon stood up to President Biden by demanding action be taken to secure our border and protect Montana’s way of life,” Tester campaign spokesperson Monica Robinson told Fox News Digital. “That’s why Jon has been ranked one of the most effective U.S. senators of either party.”
While incumbent Democrats across the country move to the middle and pitch themselves as pragmatic problem solvers who work across the aisle, Biden faces accusations of moving even further to the left on issues such as the conflict between Israel and Hamas and student loan handouts.
Biden has faced criticism, including from his own donors, over threatening to delay weapons shipments to Israel if they continue a military campaign to rid Hamas from the city of Rafah, Gaza. Republicans have alleged that Biden is siding with progressive activists in his own party in an attempt to win over voters in key swing areas like Dearborn, Michigan, rather than give full support to Israel.
Sen. Jon Tester recently became the first Democrat in the Senate to back the Laken Riley Act. (Getty Images)
Biden has made a noticeable effort in recent months to win back his Democratic base by holding events with progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in April and issuing a “flurry of left-leaning policy announcements,” according to Axios.
Biden continues to be plagued by historically low approval numbers and low popularity in key swing states as Republicans grow more and more optimistic about taking back control of the Senate, which Democrats currently hold 51-49.
Polling this week shows that Democratic incumbents, or likely nominees, in the Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Senate races all lead their respective GOP opponents, or hypothetical opponents, with less than six months to go until the general election in November, but the president trails Trump in almost every single battleground state, often by a significant margin.
The Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report
Politics
Socialism goes west as DSA-backed challenger ousts longtime Democrat
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Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., a 30-year incumbent, lost to a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-backed challenger in a high-profile primary on Tuesday evening.
Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old socialist, defeated DeGette in a Democratic primary for a deep-blue House seat anchored in Denver, according to The Associated Press, scoring a major victory for the socialist left on Tuesday evening.
The DSA had been aiming to cast DeGette’s loss as evidence of its growing momentum after a slate of socialist candidates won Democratic primaries in New York City last week.
“Today, the East Coast, next week the Mountain West,” the DSA wrote in a social media post last week.
Rep. Diana DeGette speaks during a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 10, 2024. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
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If elected in November, Kiros, who was born in Ethiopia, will likely join the ranks of the far-left group known as the Squad and become one of a handful of the House chamber’s outspoken socialists.
The millennial challenger was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and the anti-incumbent leftist organization Justice Democrats. Controversial socialist streamer Hasan Piker, who has said Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel and praised the Chinese Communist Party, also backed Kiros’ insurgent primary run.
DeGette, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sought to win a 16th House term by flexing her leftist bona fides. She argued her seniority on an influential House committee would allow her to push for Medicare-for-All legislation — a longtime priority of the party’s far-left flank.
DeGette, who was endorsed by former CPC Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., also spotlighted her experience as an impeachment manager during Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021.
Though DeGette and Kiros shared few policy disagreements, they diverged sharply over Israel and antisemitism. Kiros also sharply criticized DeGette for accepting corporate PAC contributions.
Kiros, a PhD student and lawyer, was fired from a New York firm in 2023 after publishing an open letter, arguing that pro-Palestinian student protesters calling for the elimination of Israel were not antisemitic and appearing to defend Hamas.
Melat Kiros participated in a League of Women Voters Congressional District 1 candidate forum at Montview Presbyterian Church in Denver on May 28, 2026. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post)
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She has also described the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against the Jewish state as the “inevitable consequence of apartheid” and declined to characterize the deadly firebombing of protesters in Boulder last year who were urging the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza as antisemitic.
“I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator,” Kiros told Colorado’s 9News in a recent television interview. “All I know is that he went and attacked innocent people because of what they might have believed.”
A June 2025 bipartisan resolution condemning the attack as part of a “rise in ideologically motivated attacks on Jewish individuals” won every present lawmaker’s support, except for Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who voted present.
Kiros has also suggested the United States deserved 9/11.
“Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East that forced people to believe that another act of violence was the only response,” Kiros told 9News when asked if she thought the terror attack was “the inevitable consequence of American foreign policy.”
“And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,” Kiros continued.
DeGette argued that Kiros’ embrace of Piker and her comments about antisemitism and 9/11 were disqualifying.
“I’m shocked and disgusted that Kiros is doubling down on excusing terrorism and the murder of innocent people,” the 30-year incumbent wrote on Facebook earlier this month.
Streamer and creator Hasan Piker speaks at a press conference during day two of Web Summit Vancouver at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, Canada, on May 13, 2026. (Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images)
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Colorado’s 1st Congressional District is the most liberal seat in the state and voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris by 56 points in 2024.
The primary fight was further scrambled by University of Colorado Regent Wanda James, also running for DeGette’s seat. Though James did not pose the same threat as Kiros, her vote share could ultimately have swayed the contest.
Politics
Newsom signs off on 100% California tax for money from Trump’s $1.8-billion ‘slush fund’
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed off on a 100% state tax on money any Californians receive from Trump’s $1.8-billion “anti-weaponization” fund for his political allies.
Newsom unveiled his proposal in May, after Trump’s Justice Department said it would create a fund to compensate Trump’s allies who claim they have “suffered weaponization and lawfare” under Biden’s Justice Department.
The settlement fund was criticized by politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who described it as a “slush fund to pay people who assault cops.”
The fund remains in legal limbo. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Virginia extended a court-ordered block on the plan, which critics warned could be used to pay pardoned Jan. 6 rioters.
Fast-tracked into law as part of Senate Bill 122, Newsom’s plan imposes “a tax on any settlement fund payment from the federal Anti-Weaponization Fund, or any subsequent fund, settlement, or agreement, as provided, at a rate of 100%,” according to the bill text. The tax applies to all tax years between 2026 and 2030.
Newsom signed the bill Tuesday. In a statement, his office said the tax is meant to ensure that, should Trump’s fund proceed, California recipients won’t “receive favorable state treatment on those payments.”
“We believe democracy is worth defending, the rule of law matters, and public dollars should support victims—not those who attacked the very institutions that protect our freedoms,” Newsom said in the statement.
University of Southern California law professor Ariel Jurow Kleiman, an expert on tax law and policy, said that while Newsom’s tax is a “novel legal strategy,” she believes there is “no categorical legal restriction” preventing California from implementing it.
States have a “wide degree of discretion” to design their tax systems — including how they define income — so long as they do not violate their constitutions, Jurow Kleiman said.
If a California resident wanted to challenge the tax in court, they would need to show they were harmed by it to have standing to sue, according to Jurow Kleiman. That would mean receiving a payment from Trump’s settlement fund and then paying the 100% California tax. Unless the settlement fund is established and distributes payments, that scenario is unlikely.
While there have been proposals to levy a 100% tax on income above certain thresholds — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2023 said he supports a 100% tax on income exceeding $1 billion — Jurow Kleiman said she is not aware of any governments that have adopted such a policy.
Politics
Congress eyes rare bipartisan housing win with or without Trump’s help
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The House has officially shipped a colossal bipartisan housing package to President Donald Trump, and lawmakers are hoping that, at the very least, he doesn’t veto it.
Trump was supposed to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act last week, but his last-minute decision to ghost the signing ceremony with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put into question whether the bill was dead.
His refusal to sign the bill, which passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in both chambers, was to leverage the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which doesn’t currently have the votes to succeed in the Senate.
WARREN TELLS TRUMP TO ‘SIGN THE DAMN BILL’ AS BIPARTISAN HOUSING PACKAGE REMAINS STALLED IN WASHINGTON
Trump has refused to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump appears to be in no hurry to sign the bill, despite Republicans who are hungry for a win in the affordability fight ahead of the midterm elections.
“It’s so unimportant … compared to the SAVE America Act,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “I think the SAVE America Act is exactly what it says. It’s saving America from crooked elections.”
“Here’s what I would like to sign, much more than a bill that — big deal, it’s a yawn,” he continued. “Some people say it’s wonderful. To me, compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.”
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It’s legislation that is loaded with nearly 60 provisions from both sides of the aisle in both chambers that’s designed to make it easier for homes to be built and for younger Americans to buy their first home. It also includes a ban on hedge funds buying up housing stock that Trump pushed Congress to include during the State of the Union earlier this year.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the architects behind the bill in the upper chamber alongside Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., charged that Congress handed the bill to Trump “on a silver platter.”
“When you ask me what happens next, if he cared about the American people, he’d have already signed the damned thing, and we’d be underway,” Warren said on WCVB’s “On the Record” on Sunday.
But Trump doesn’t have to put his signature on the bill for it to become law.
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The Senate advanced a massive, Trump-backed housing package geared toward lowering the costs of homes and supercharging the housing supply. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pitched it as legislation to prevent America from becoming a “nation of renters.” (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Protect Borrowers; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Constitution grants presidents the ability to veto a bill within 10 days of it being transferred over to the White House. In that scenario, Congress could override a veto of the housing package.
It’s happened before under the Trump administration. In early 2021, Congress overrode Trump’s veto of the annual National Defense Authorization Act — a massive Pentagon funding authorization package that some House Republicans are trying to use as a vehicle to pass the SAVE America Act.
But during that 10-day period, if Trump doesn’t sign the bill, it would automatically become law. That’s unless Congress completely adjourns, in which case a “pocket veto” could happen. The Senate is currently in recess and the House is scheduled to leave town by week’s end, but neither count as a full adjournment.
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Johnson, who spent the last few days meeting with Trump at the White House about the housing bill and the SAVE America Act, said: “I hope he does sign it.”
“If he doesn’t, it’s still law,” Johnson said. “We’ll still celebrate it, but he’s trying to make a point, and I think he’s making it very effectively. And the fact that you all ask me every three steps down the hallway illustrates that he has achieved the desired objective, and that is to make SAVE America the number one thing, because if we don’t get that right, everybody’s concerned about what happens next.”
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