Politics
5 Races to Watch in Texas Runoffs on Tuesday
Senator John Cornyn, the senior Texas senator, is fighting for his political life in a two-way runoff on Tuesday after President Trump endorsed his right-wing challenger, Ken Paxton, in the marquee matchup.
Mr. Paxton, a scandal-plagued state attorney general, narrowly finished behind Mr. Cornyn in the Republican primary in March, even with record-setting spending from pro-Cornyn forces and before Mr. Trump endorsed him.
Mr. Paxton is hoping to become the second Trump-endorsed challenger to oust a sitting senator this year, after Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana didn’t even make the runoff in his state earlier this month. Mr. Trump’s backing has proved formidable in the House, too, where he helped a G.O.P. challenger defeat Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky last week.
The Senate race is the highest-profile contest on Tuesday, as Texas has emerged as a surprise addition to the map of competitive Senate races and the fight for the majority this fall. Mr. Cornyn and several of his Republican colleagues in the Senate decried the Paxton endorsement, arguing that Mr. Paxton is more vulnerable to an upset by James Talarico, a Democrat, than the incumbent is.
A number of intriguing and consequential runoffs are also appearing on the ballot. They include two representatives facing off against each other, one of whom will become the first Democratic incumbent to lose this year; and a border-district seat that pits a Democratic sex therapist accused of antisemitism who has been boosted by a secretive super PAC linked to Republicans against a sheriff’s deputy from Bexar County.
What else to watch on Tuesday:
Can Cornyn sell an electability pitch?
Mr. Cornyn has argued that Mr. Paxton would put the senior senator’s seat needlessly at risk this fall against Mr. Talarico in a state where Republicans haven’t lost statewide in three decades.
Mr. Talarico, a state legislator from Austin, has captured the attention of small Democratic donors who were drawn to his embrace of a religious message as a salve to the party’s generation-long struggles in the state. He raised $27 million in the first quarter, nearly four times what Mr. Paxton has raised in the entire race.
Mr. Trump’s endorsement last week of Mr. Paxton makes Mr. Cornyn the underdog: He rolled out a hashtag of “#stillwithCornyn,” which underscored the uphill nature of his re-election bid.
The race has broken primary advertising records, but Republicans warned that taking down Mr. Talarico could force the party to spend money in Texas in the general election.
A generational clash in Houston
No Democratic member of Congress has lost a primary so far in 2026, despite a groundswell of voter antipathy toward party leadership and the old guard.
That will change on Tuesday, when two incumbents will seek the same Houston-area seat in a test of the appetite of voters for generational change.
The race for the state’s 18th Congressional District pits Representative Christian Menefee, 38, against Representative Al Green, a 78-year old, 11-term incumbent. Mr. Menefee is an incumbent but only barely: He first won his seat in a special election earlier this year. Mr. Green currently represents the Ninth District, which was gerrymandered to elect a Republican, and is seeking renomination in the 18th, which includes portions of his current district.
A wave of crypto spending on behalf of Mr. Menefee and against Mr. Green has influenced the race. Mr. Green has been a critic of the industry and sits on the powerful House Financial Services Committee.
Can national Democrats stop one of their own they say is antisemitic?
In yet another Democratic face-off, Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy, has the look, on paper at least, of a candidate who should be coasting to victory in his runoff in the 35th Congressional District on Tuesday.
The Democratic candidate has been endorsed by the national party’s House campaign arm, by Mr. Talarico and by the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats in the House.
His rival, Maureen Galindo, is a sex therapist and left-wing activist who has suggested an immigration detention center be turned into “a prison for American Zionists,” which Democrats have denounced as “straight out of the Nazi playbook.”
Yet Ms. Galindo has been lifted by nearly $900,000 in spending from a secretive super PAC that has reported no donors but has loose ties to Republicans and has been meddling in Democratic races.
Ms. Galindo finished first in the initial election in March. Democrats believe Mr. Garcia could compete for the seat in November, even though Republicans drew it to elect a Republican in their redistricting gambit last year.
A Democratic showdown in Dallas
When Colin Allred vacated his congressional seat in 2024 to run for Senate — he lost to incumbent Ted Cruz — his career in the House of Representatives seemed over. But after he initially tried running for Senate again this cycle, he decided his chances of serving again would be stronger if he ran for the House.
That decision has put him on a collision course with his successor, Representative Julie Johnson.
The race has been marked by some of the same racial dynamics of the Senate primary that Mr. Allred exited. Mr. Allred is Black and Ms. Johnson is white. Mr. Allred supported Representative Jasmine Crockett, who is Black, in the Senate race; Ms. Johnson endorsed Mr. Talarico, who is white, before Ms. Crockett entered the race. Mr. Talarico defeated Ms. Crockett by a six-point margin.
Adding to the tension was recent audio of Ms. Johnson dismissing another Black member of the delegation, Representative Marc Veasey, as a lawmaker holding a safe Democratic seat and “not doing a damn thing.”
Two conservatives vie to be Texas’s top cop
One of the other key races on Tuesday is a runoff for the Republican nomination to replace Mr. Paxton as the state attorney general, a powerful post that he used to raise his national profile.
The contest pits Mayes Middleton, a conservative state senator, against Representative Chip Roy, who has carved a reputation as a hard-liner on Capitol Hill but who at times has split with Mr. Trump, including in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
Mr. Roy is a former top aide for Senator Ted Cruz, who has backed his candidacy.
Mr. Middleton contributed $3 million to his own campaign; Mr. Roy was supported by $2.75 million from Alex Fairly, an Amarillo businessman.
The Democrats will also hold a runoff Tuesday between Nathan Johnson, a state senator, and Joe Jaworski, a former mayor of Galveston. Republicans are heavily favored in November.
Politics
Preliminary Hearing for Man Accused of Killing Charlie Kirk Starts in Utah
Prosecutors on Monday began laying out their case against the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk. It was the first day of a weeklong preliminary hearing that will determine whether or not there is enough evidence against the accused killer to stand trial.
Politics
Top Platner ally turns on him after bombshell rape allegation rocks campaign: ‘Red line’
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Support for embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is cratering among Democrats, with one of his most prominent supporters calling on him to exit the race following a harrowing rape allegation.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., rescinded his endorsement and called on Platner to suspend his campaign following a bombshell Politico report detailing a rape allegation by Maine resident Jenny Racicot, 41, who previously dated the scandal-plagued candidate.
Platner immediately denied Racicot’s account — which alleges that he barged into her home in 2021 and forced her to have unprotected sex — but has said his campaign is determining its next steps.
She also went on CNN Monday evening shortly after the report was published to tell host Jake Tapper that “by dictionary definition” Platner “raped” her.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., speaks at a town hall event on Feb. 20, 2026 in Stanford, California. The town hall focused on taxing billionaires and the future of AI. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
DEMOCRATS BREAK WITH SCANDAL-PLAGUED GRAHAM PLATNER, WARN OF ‘CIVIL WAR’ IN PARTY
“I thought, here’s a man who was drunk and who, by dictionary definition, raped me. And he’s blaming drunk women,” Racicot said. “So I just felt like that was a very odd take to have on that. And I also feel like with all of the comments that he made about women, sexual assault, rape, even, um, you know, the comments that he had made that was in The New York Times article about, you know, threatening people with rape, like, why does this person have this issue, like scattered throughout their life, throughout their commentary, like it‘s on their mind?”
“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna said in a post on social media Monday evening. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”
Khanna’s statement preceded Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the head of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, issuing a joint statement calling on Platner to “immediately” leave the race, so the party can choose a new nominee.
The pair said the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) would not invest in Maine — a top pick-up opportunity for Democrats in November’s midterm elections — if he continued to seek the battleground seat held by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Both Schumer and Gillibrand supported Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, in the contentious primary and did not endorse Platner until he won the party’s nomination.
Meanwhile, Khanna, a far-left populist with likely presidential ambitions, had embraced Platner’s insurgent Senate campaign for months amid a patchwork of controversies.
Khanna personally campaigned with the Maine Senate hopeful in June shortly before Platner became the party’s nominee. The campaign stop came just one day after Lyndsey Fifield, a former Platner girlfriend, accused Platner of abuse — an allegation first reported by The New York Times that Platner has fiercely denied.
By that point, Platner was also facing scrutiny for sending sexually explicit messages to at least half a dozen women while married, making a plethora of offensive online statements over the period of a decade and getting a Nazi-linked tattoo that he wore for most of his adult life.
Shannon Watts, a Democratic strategist and founder of the gun control group Mom Demands Action, slammed the timing of Khanna’s statement.
“You flew to Maine to campaign with him AFTER he was accused of assault against another woman,” Watts wrote on social media.
Khanna previously appeared to dismiss the severity of Fifield’s account alongside many Democratic lawmakers, who seized on her background in Republican politics. He also argued that Platner, a combat veteran who has struggled with PTSD, had overcome a dark past and was deserving of redemption.
“Here you have a case of someone who had a dark chapter in his life, was in toxic relationships, was ashamed about it, who served this country, and the Maine voters are saying, ‘Look, let’s give him some grace, and his focus is stopping these wars, and it’s getting national health insurance, and it’s taking on economic inequality,” Khanna told CBS News in an interview.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at his primary election event in Blue Hill, Maine, on June 9, 2026. (CJ Gunther/Getty Images)
WATCH: DEM SENATORS EXCUSE PLATNER’S CONDUCT AT CRISIS HUDDLE WITH EMBATTLED MAINE CANDIDATE
And Khanna told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum in June that he asked Platner if there were any credible allegations of sexual assault that had yet to be revealed. He said Platner denied it.
“I made it clear that, for me, is a red line,” the California lawmaker said. “And he said, no, there is not.”
“Now, obviously, he had texts that were allegedly consensual, and while he was married, And that’s a matter for him and his wife. And his wife came out and said that she forgave him. And so that is a different matter for me than abuse or assault or what people did in the Epstein class. It’s a very different matter.”
Khanna was not the only prominent Platner supporter to disavow the Senate hopeful following Monday’s rape allegation.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., an early Platner supporter, was the first prominent Democrat to rescind his endorsement after Politico’s report broke.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., rescinded his endorsement Monday evening, but stopped short of calling on Platner to exit the race.
Gallego, a former ally of disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., has faced scrutiny over his past treatment of women. The Senate Ethics Committee recently dismissed a complaint brought by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., in a bipartisan manner.
His Arizona colleague, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who did not endorse Platner, also called on the Senate hopeful to suspend his campaign.
“Character and accountability matter regardless of party,” Kelly wrote on social media. “It’s time for Graham Platner to drop out and allow for someone else to be nominated and give Democrats the best chance to win this seat in November.”
Far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has championed socialist candidates across the country, also distanced himself from Platner on Monday.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., talks to reporters as he heads for a vote at the U.S. Capitol on Jun. 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“This is beyond red flags. This is irredeemable,” Piker said during his livestream.
Fox News Digital reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment.
Politics
Trump heads to NATO as tensions simmer with Europe
WASHINGTON — The leaders of Europe are bracing for another turbulent summit with President Trump this week as NATO members gather for their annual meeting in the Turkish capital.
European diplomats view Trump’s decision to attend as a positive sign of his continued commitment to the alliance. But the president’s grievances with several European governments over their refusal to join the U.S. war with Iran have cast a pall over a summit already strained by Trump’s wavering support for the continent.
The secretary-general of the transatlantic alliance, Mark Rutte, told reporters on Monday that Trump had aired his resentments in a recent phone call. But Rutte countered with a mix of flattery and countervailing facts that has thus far kept Trump engaged.
While Trump has accused European leaders of denying U.S. forces access to allied bases for takeoffs and refueling during the war, Rutte noted that about 5,000 sorties supporting Operation Epic Fury launched from European airfields. And last Friday, France and Britain committed to a joint military mission with Oman to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz — “an extremely important development,” Rutte said.
At last year’s summit, held in The Hague, all NATO member states — with the exception of Spain — agreed to spend 5% of their GDP on defense by 2035, marking a significant increase in historic spending goals for modern Europe. The pledge is divided into two categories, with 3.5% of spending allocated to core military requirements, and the rest committed to a broad set of security-related investments.
Trump’s tough love on the alliance “is, I think, bringing NATO closer together,” the secretary general told reporters.
“You could argue that he is the first president of the U.S. since Eisenhower who was able to come to this situation where the Europeans and the Canadians will spend the same as the Americans” on security, Rutte said. “This equalization was a wish for 50, 60 years, and now it’s happening — I think in large part due to his leadership.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte speaks to reporters Monday ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
(Hussein Malla / Associated Press)
In a video message posted on social media Monday, Trump’s ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, said the summit this week would serve as a “report card” to determine whether countries were beginning to fulfill their commitments from last year.
He offered a note of optimism and suggested the president’s goal is to enhance, rather than undermine, the alliance.
“The United States will be here, but we also need our allies to be here. We cannot do it alone, and the American taxpayer should no longer bear the burden,” Whitaker said.
A White House schedule for Trump’s trip lists bilateral meetings with Rutte and the leaders of Turkey, Syria and Ukraine, in between alliance-wide meals and conferences.
Ukraine will remain at the top of the agenda, Trump told reporters Monday, expressing hope that the war could soon come to an end after four brutal years of fighting.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused the greatest loss of life in Europe since World War II, resulting in more than 1 million casualties, including an estimated 600,000 dead. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022, following his covert invasions of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and eastern regions in 2014, Russian forces have captured roughly 12% of Ukraine’s territory.
The war has settled into a deadly stalemate since a 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive failed to break Russian defensive lines. While Russian forces have occasionally advanced, they have only managed to hold marginal gains along the front, at tremendous cost.
In recent weeks, however, expanded Ukrainian drone and missile capabilities have shifted the dynamic, striking military production sites deep inside Russia and targets near Moscow, bringing the war more directly into the Russian public consciousness and raising questions in the Russian capital whether the war effort is sustainable.
Ukraine’s boldness has impressed the Trump administration, Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, told the Financial Times this week.
“I think he does feel pressure,” Trump said of Putin, addressing reporters in the Oval Office before departing for Turkey on Monday.
The president referred to an ongoing U.S. effort to end the war, a goal that has remained elusive for Trump since returning to office.
“I think we’re getting much closer than people realize,” he said. “President Putin wants it to end, I will tell you that. Very strongly. Had a good call. And President Zelensky actually wants it to end now.”
“We’re going to be going to NATO, and we’re going to be talking about it,” Trump added. “And I think we’re going to get it ended. It’s been terrible.”
-
Tennessee2 minutes ago
TN Lottery Powerball, Lotto America winning numbers for July 6, 2026
-
Texas9 minutes agoSupreme Court won’t block Texas from enforcing a law requiring age verification for app downloads
-
Utah17 minutes agoMemphis Grizzlies vs Utah Jazz Jul 6, 2026 Game Summary
-
Vermont24 minutes ago
VT Lottery Powerball, Gimme 5 results for July 6, 2026
-
Virginia27 minutes agoVirginia man charged with murder in crash that killed family of 4 on I-75 in Oakland County
-
Wisconsin41 minutes agoWisconsin DOT begins $6.87M I-41 ramp deck overlay upgrades in Brown County Tuesday
-
West Virginia47 minutes ago11 Marshall student athletes suing NCAA over new rule – WV MetroNews
-
Wyoming54 minutes agoElection Q&A: Qwenton Eagle Oviatt for Wyoming secretary of state