West
All eyes on California as House majority still hinges on tight races
Congressional leaders are anxiously watching several outstanding races in the West as the battle for the majority in the House of Representatives continues.
Most of those races are in California, where Republican incumbents are fighting to hold on to several seats, including districts around the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
The Democratic stronghold was pivotal to House Republicans clinching the majority in 2022, and their leaders are looking for it to deliver again.
“California’s got a lot of the outstanding races, and I’ve talked to each one of our incumbents who are in those 50/50 races — they’re all leading, by the way — but they feel like what is outstanding … are good areas for them,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told “Fox & Friends” Friday.
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Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are battling over the House majority (Getty Images)
It’s a different story in New York, the other deep blue coastal state critical to the House GOP’s midterm success.
Of the four sitting House Republicans projected to lose their seats, three were first-term GOP lawmakers from New York who got elected as part of a suburban backlash against big cities’ progressive crime policies.
They were also expected to be some of the more vulnerable incumbents in Congress.
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Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., is among the New York incumbents to lose his seat (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)
Scalise said he anticipated a four- to six-seat majority for Republicans when all the races were over, not a dissimilar scenario to the one the House GOP has grappled with for much of the 118th Congress.
Ballots are being counted in other close races in Arizona, Oregon, Alaska, Nebraska and Iowa.
House Democrats, who privately expressed dismay over their narrowing path to victory earlier this week, are also closely watching the western states for the final results.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pointed out that the election is still undecided.
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Republicans are fighting for a GOP government trifecta after President-elect Trump won back the White House. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
“It has yet to be decided who will control the House of Representatives in the 119th Congress. We must count every vote and wait until the results in Oregon, Arizona and California are clear,” Jeffries said Thursday.
“I am proud that the Democratic Party does not believe in election denial. Our democracy is precious, and it involves elevating public trust in our system of free and fair elections, not undermining it.”
The first party to reach 218 seats will claim the House majority.
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SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Mia Bailey, a transgender woman who pleaded guilty to killing both her parents, will be housed in a men’s housing unit, at least initially.
A Utah Department of Corrections spokesperson said Bailey will be in the intake unit while various needs are assessed, adding that it can take a few weeks to make the housing assignment, depending on availability within the unit that best fits the person’s needs.
Under a Utah law that took effect in May 2024, UDC is required to assign inmates to housing units based on their biological sex at birth, not gender identity, as a default rule.
The law does allow for an exception in cases for transgender inmates to request to be housed in a living area that does not match their biological sex at birth, only after a detailed, individualized security analysis.
That analysis must consider the inmate’s anatomy, physical characteristics, criminal history, past behavior while in custody, and whether the inmate has a history of predatory or violent behavior. It also must be determined that the placement poses a low risk to others and to the inmate, does not disrupt facility operations, and is not being sought solely to change housing assignments.
If at any point that placement is found to create safety or security issues, the inmate must be reassigned back to housing that corresponds with their biological sex at birth.
The Utah Department of Corrections currently houses other transgender inmates, according to a department spokesperson.
Bailey was given two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life earlier this month after previously pleading guilty to killing her parents.
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Federal immigration agents shot at a moving vehicle on Wednesday morning during an enforcement and removal action in Glen Burnie, Maryland, striking one person and injuring another, officials said.
A spokesperson for the Anne Arundel County Police Department said neither person had life-threatening injuries, and both were taken to the hospital.
Anne Arundel police responded to a report of a shooting involving federal agents at about 10:50 a.m. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were the only officials involved in the shooting, police said.
Preliminarily, police said the agents approached a white van, but the vehicle attempted to run them over. The agents fired at the van, which accelerated until coming to a stop in a wooded area, police said.
When asked for comment, Department of Homeland Security officials said both civilians involved in the altercation with ICE are in the U.S. illegally. They did not indicate whether either of the men had been arrested.
“Continued efforts to encourage illegal aliens and violent agitators to actively resist ICE will only lead to more violent incidents,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Anne Arundel police said they will investigate the shooting, while the FBI investigates the alleged assault on the agents and ICE conducts an internal investigation.
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