Politics
Commentary: This district is key to control of the House. That’s about all people agree on
CAREFREE, Ariz. — Elizabeth H. paused recently outside the post office in this small, high-desert community, not far from where Easy Street meets Nonchalant Avenue.
She felt neither easy nor nonchalant.
“I think the climate imposed by the Trump administration is really sad and scary,” said Elizabeth, who asked to withhold her last name to avoid being attacked for the views she expressed.
“I don’t like the way that ICE is being used to bully citizens and even just people who are brown,” she continued. “And I don’t like that governors of blue states are being shut out while governors of red states are being welcomed. I just don’t think he treats us like we’re all Americans.”
For his part, Anthony D. finds little not to like about President Trump. He, too, asked not to use his last name, as did several others who agreed to talk politics.
“We finally don’t have a— in office that are destroying our country and worrying about everybody else in the world,” said Anthony, 66, a plumbing contractor and proudly blunt-spoken New York native. (Just like Trump, he pointed out.) “I mean, his tariffs are working. The negotiations are working. I just see a lot of positive coming out of that office.”
Even so, there’s something that bothers him: The way so many fellow citizens view the president and his America First agenda.
“Most people don’t like what he says, but look what he’s doing,” Anthony said as the late-morning crowd trickled into an upscale North Scottsdale shopping center. “You can hate the person, but don’t hate the message. He’s trying to do the right thing.”
Here in central Arizona, a prime battleground in November’s midterm election, there is precious little agreement about Trump, his policies and motivations.
Supporters see the president turning things around after four disastrous years of Joe Biden. Critics see him turning the country into a place they barely recognize.
There is puzzlement on both sides.
Over what others believe. Over how others can possibly believe what they believe, see the things they see and perceive Trump the way they perceive him.
And although some are eager for the midterm elections as a way to corral the president — “I don’t think they should only impeach, I think they should imprison,” Brent Bond, a 59-year-old Scottsdale artist, said of his hopes for a Democratic Congress — others fear an end to Trump’s nearly unfettered reign.
Or that nothing will change, regardless of what happens at the polls in November.
“The fact is, Trump is going to keep Trumping until he’s done,” said Elizabeth H., who’s semiretired at age 55 after a career in financial services. “My only relief is that he’s an old, old man and he’s not going to be here forever.”
Brent Bond would like to see Trump imprisoned, not just impeached.
(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)
Arizona’s 1st Congressional District climbs from northeastern Phoenix to the mountainous heart of the Sonoran Desert. It takes in the affluent enclaves of Scottsdale and Paradise Valley and — where the urban sprawl finally yields to cactus, palo verde and other flora — Carefree and the Old West-themed Cave Creek.
It is the whitest, wealthiest and best-educated of Arizona’s nine congressional districts, home to numerous upscale resorts, major medical campuses and a large population of retirees comfortably settled in one of many gated communities.
Affordability, as in struggling just to get by, is not a pressing issue here.
In 2020, Biden carried the district 50% to 49%. Four years later, Trump beat Kamala Harris 51% to 48%.
(The Down Ballot, which crunches election data, rated Arizona’s 1st District the median of 435 congressional districts nationwide, meaning in 2024 half were redder on the presidential level and half were bluer.)
For more than a decade, the area has been represented by Republican Dave Schweikert, a local political fixture since the 1990s.
He’s had to fight hard for reelection in recent years as the district, like the whole of Arizona, has grown more competitive. Rather than run again, Schweikert announced he would give up his seat to try for governor. The result is a free-for-all and one of the relatively few toss-up House races anywhere in the country.
A passel of candidates is running and the result will help determine whether Democrats, who need to flip three seats, will seize control of the House in November.
Despite those high stakes, however, the race doesn’t seem to have generated much voter interest, at least not yet. In dozens of interviews across the district, it was the relentless Trump who drew the most attention, admiration and exasperation.
Moe Modjeski, a supporter, allowed as how the president “is no altar boy.”
Even so, “I’ll take his policies over someone that might be nice and polite,” said the 69-year-old Scottsdale resident, a financial advisor who cited the sky-scraping stock market as one example of Trump’s success. “I mean, gas is about half the price it was a year or two ago.”
But for Liz R., who’s “never been a sky-is-falling type,” it certainly feels that way. The 75-year-old cited “everything from tariffs to ICE to destroying the healthcare system and controls for pollution.”
“I lived through the ‘60s and 70s and can’t remember a time when I feared so much for the future of our country,” said Liz, a retired medical technologist.
She’ll vote for a Democrat in November — to put a check on Trump, not because the Carefree resident has great faith in the party or its direction.
“I wish the Dems would get it together and maybe we could get more of a centrist that could unite and not get hung up on some of these social issues,” she said. “There’s a lot of economic issues, bread-and-butter issues, and I think that’s why the Republicans won [in 2024], because of the problems with immigration and inflation.”
As a border state, Arizona has long been at the forefront of the political fight over immigration. It was here lawmakers passed — and opponents spent years battling — legislation that effectively turned police into immigration officers, requiring them to demand the papers of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally
Thomas Campbell, with Keegan and Guinness, blamed blue-state politicians for any overreach by ICE agents.
(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)
Now that aggressive approach has become national policy, which is fine by Thomas Campbell, a retired architect and staunch Trump backer. He blamed any enforcement overreach on blue-state lawmakers.
“For some reason, the Democrats have decided they want to side with the criminals, so they don’t allow their police departments to cooperate,” said Campbell, 72, who stopped outside Paradise Valley’s town hall while running errands with his Irish setters, Guinness and Keegan. “If that wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be any” controversy over ICE’s tactics.
Martha Cornelison agreed the border with Mexico needed to be secured and that serious lawbreakers should be deported.
But why, she wondered, are immigration agents scooping up honest taxpayers, parents with children born in the U.S. and others keeping on the straight and narrow?
“I think they’re going after the wrong people,” said the 76-year-old Scottsdale retiree as a friend, Lily, nodded in agreement. The two were sharing a bench in Scottsdale’s pueblo-inspired civic plaza, a nearby fountain burbling in the 80-degree sunshine.
“I think we need to look at our county jails, look at our city jails,” said Cornelison, who made her living selling large appliances. “How many illegal immigrants are, say, in Florence, which is our state prison? Send them back. Don’t go after Mr. Gonzalez who’s doing my lawn. Empty out our prisons.”
Back at the North Scottsdale shopping center, Denise F. was walking Chase, her Shih Tzu, past a parking lot brimming with Teslas, Mercedes and Cadillac SUVs.
The 73-year-old voted for Trump because she couldn’t abide Harris. But she’s disgusted with the president.
“I don’t like the division in the country. I think Trump thinks he’s a king,” said Denise, a retired banker. “He’s poking the bear with Venezuela and Greenland, Iran” — she poked the air as she named each country — “to see who he can engage in a possible war, which is not the way I think the United States should be.”
As Denise was finishing up, Anthony D., her friend and neighbor, strolled up and joined the conversation, offering his laudatory view of the president. “Trump’s a businessman and he’s running the country like a business,” Anthony said, as Denise looked on impassively.
“How did I do?” he asked after saying his piece.
“Great,” Denise replied amiably and the two walked off together, Chase between them.
Politics
Trump-backed Potomac sewage cleanup complete after massive spill ahead of summer America250 celebrations
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Repairs have been completed after the historic Potomac River sewage spill in Washington, D.C., less than a month after President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration that allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help.
“Emergency repairs to the Potomac Interceptor are complete,” DC Water said Saturday. “Full flow has been restored, and the C&O Canal has been fully drained as part of site restoration. Since Jan 19, crews worked around the clock to stabilize the site and protect the Potomac River.”
The declaration came after a sewage pipe interceptor ruptured Jan. 19, releasing more than 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a disaster emergency over the Potomac sewage spill and requested federal assistance with the cleanup.
Trump said he was worried the Potomac River would still stink when America250 celebrations kick off this summer, according to the White House.
SEWAGE SPILL SENDS E COLI SURGING IN THE POTOMAC RIVER NEAR DC
Repairs have been completed after the historic Potomac River sewage spill in Washington, D.C., less than a month after President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration that allowed FEMA to help. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
The president had directed his ire toward Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and other local leaders in Virginia and Washington, D.C., on the issue, claiming incompetence led to the disaster.
Moore and his office, however, pushed back on Trump’s assertions, claiming the federal government has oversight over the sewer utility.
“This is a Washington, D.C., pipe on federal land,” Moore told Fox News Digital last month. “Maryland has nothing to do with this. In fact, the only thing Maryland did was when we saw a neighbor who was in need. That’s why I ordered people, our people to go support them, and that’s what we’ve been doing the past month.
Raw sewage flows to an interceptor beside the Potomac River in Cabin John, Md., Saturday. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
“We’ve been doing essentially the federal government’s job because it’s the federal government’s job to be able to protect the Potomac interconnector because that’s federal land,” Moore said. “For the president now to come and attack me on this, I find that to be … absurd.”
The sewage pipes are managed by DC Water, an independent utility based in the District of Columbia.
A class action lawsuit was filed by a Virginia resident on March 6 that accused DC Water of negligence.
Noel Boxer, an external affairs officer with FEMA, inspects the flow of raw sewage after a gate was raised to resume the flow along the Potomac River Saturday. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
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The plaintiff, Nicholas Lailas, who is a recreational boater, is seeking compensation for people “whose property interests in and use and enjoyment of the Potomac River … have been impaired by Defendant’s conduct,” the lawsuit said.
He is seeking unspecified damages.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace and Jasmine Baehr and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Politics
Contributor: Federal power grabs on elections are not about fraud
Fans of the musical “Hamilton” know three things about the nation’s first Treasury secretary because of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s brilliance. First, that Alexander Hamilton cheated on his wife, Eliza. Second, he was killed by the vice president, Aaron Burr. Third, and most importantly, he was considered a highly principled man. And when it came to the topic of nationalizing elections, do you know how this Revolutionary War vet and founding father characterized doing so?
A threat.
Referring to corruptible public officials, Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers: No 59: “With so effectual a weapon in their hands as the exclusive power of regulating elections for the national government, a combination of a few such men, in a few of the most considerable States, where the temptation will always be the strongest, might accomplish the destruction of the Union, by seizing the opportunity of some casual dissatisfaction among the people to discontinue the choice.”
Hamilton’s prescient views became the framework for the Election Clause in the Constitution. And since returning to the White House, President Trump has been searching for ways to usurp it. Last month he made calls to nationalize elections. This month he’s at it again.
He’s also pushing Congress to pass his so-called SAVE Act, which would require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote. It sounds innocuous until you realize a driver’s license isn’t good enough; a passport would often be required. But half the country doesn’t have a passport, and it costs roughly $200 and a few weeks to get one. The logistical burden is unreasonable and cruel: Consider that this year, during primary season, we’ve already witnessed natural disaster — such as the tornadoes that recently ripped through the Midwest or the fires in Texas — upend entire communities. Many people would not have been able to vote, simply because they had been separated from their papers during the disaster.
The financial obstacles that would be created by the SAVE Act are at least as onerous: Why would Congress choose to financially burden voters — with what is essentially an unlawful poll tax — at a time when the unemployment rate and gas prices are up and the approval rating for nearly everyone in office is down? There are a couple of reasons. One is that the party controlling Congress hopes to suppress voting in order to defy the will of the American majority and cling to power.
Another reason lawmakers support this terrible bill is simply that Trump wants it. Some Republicans in office are so afraid of angering a vengeful president that they would rather entertain his authoritarian tendencies than go through the fire of his opposition during a primary.
For politicians such as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who this week changed his long-held position on the filibuster in order to push the SAVE Act, it’s simply about political survival. He needs the president’s endorsement heading into the runoff for his Senate seat.
Trump has called the election overhaul bill his top priority — not the war he started with Iran, not returning the billions collected from illegal tariffs, not justice for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Before there was a Constitution, there was a warning, written by Hamilton and other founders, whose concerns about nationalized elections are well documented and have proved to be well founded.
You would think a nation in the midst of beating its proverbial chest about our 250th birthday would take more heed from the country’s founders. But nope: This week Florida state lawmakers, in an attempt to appease their state’s most powerful resident, passed an election overhaul law that mirrors the federal SAVE Act. More red states are likely to follow, not because a national wave of voter fraud has been unearthed by authorities, but because the authorities want to stay in the good graces of someone who has yet to prove any widespread fraud other than his own.
The party that famously railed against “the bridge to nowhere” is now offering bills that solve nonexistent problems. Or in some cases, creating problems, particularly for women who changed their names after marriage so their state IDs don’t match their birth certificates.
Cornyn is not alone in exchanging his principles for Trump’s favor; he’s just the most recent. However, the manner in which he announced his flip flop was particularly tone deaf.
“If a man takes a swing at you and barely misses, that doesn’t make him a pacifist — it just means he has bad aim,” Cornyn wrote in an op-ed about the bill for the New York Post, the newspaper founded by Hamilton in 1801. “Standing still and giving him a second free swing wouldn’t be wise or honorable: it would be foolish.”
In 2016, then-candidate Trump took his first big swing at our elections when he implied — without evidence — that his opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz, had rigged the election after losing to him in the Iowa Republican caucus. Reportedly Trump even tried to get the state’s party chair to overturn the result. He’s been throwing jabs at our elections ever since. The Jan. 6 riot was a haymaker that barely missed. Given the president’s propensity to hand out Trump 2028 hats, it seems passing the SAVE Act would be, in Cornyn’s words, setting voters up to stand there while Trump takes another swing at our democracy.
YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow
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Perspectives
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Ideas expressed in the piece
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Alexander Hamilton, writing in Federalist No. 59, warned that exclusive state power over federal elections posed an existential threat to the Union, cautioning that “a combination of a few such men, in a few of the most considerable States” could “accomplish the destruction of the Union” through control of election regulations[1]
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The SAVE Act requiring proof of citizenship to vote imposes unreasonable logistical and financial burdens on voters, effectively functioning as a poll tax by requiring passports costing approximately $200 that roughly half the country does not possess[1]
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Natural disasters and unforeseen circumstances already disrupt voting access, and citizenship verification requirements would further prevent Americans from voting by separating them from necessary documentation during emergencies such as tornadoes or fires[1]
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The stated rationale for election overhaul legislation—addressing voter fraud—is not supported by evidence, as authorities have failed to unearth a national wave of voter fraud despite repeated claims[1]
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Republicans supporting the SAVE Act are motivated by partisan interests rather than election security concerns, with some lawmakers abandoning long-held principles to secure Trump’s political endorsement during primary races[1]
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Election nationalization efforts represent an authoritarian threat to democracy that the nation’s founders specifically warned against, making it imperative to heed historical lessons about centralized electoral control[1]
Different views on the topic
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Hamilton argued in the Federalist Papers that the national government required ultimate authority over election regulations to prevent state legislatures from abandoning their responsibility to choose federal representatives, which could render “the existence of the Union entirely at their mercy”[4]
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The Constitution’s design allocates election regulation authority primarily to states with a federal backstop, recognizing that the national government must possess a check on state power to maintain union stability and prevent states from exploiting their regulatory control[3][4]
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Federalist No. 60 establishes that the system of separated powers—with the House elected directly by people, the Senate by state legislatures, and the president by electors—creates structural safeguards preventing any single faction from monopolizing electoral control[2]
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Voter identification requirements serve legitimate election integrity purposes, with proponents arguing that citizenship verification represents a reasonable measure to ensure eligible voter participation[1]
Politics
Ex-Dem senator admits to affair with former bodyguard in explosive court filing: ‘Romantic and Intimate’
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Former Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema admitted to having an affair with her former bodyguard while in office and while he was still married — an admission that came by way of an explosive new court filing in the state of North Carolina, seeking to dismiss a so-called “homewrecker” lawsuit filed by the bodyguard’s estranged wife.
Sinema, who served in the Senate from 2019 to 2025, acknowledged the relationship with her former bodyguard, Matthew Ammel, in a motion to dismiss the “alienation of affection” lawsuit filed in North Carolina by his estranged wife.
The complaint accused Sinema of engaging in “intentional and malicious interference” in Ammel’s marriage and sought $25,000 in damages from Sinema as a result of allegedly “willful and wanton” conduct.
KYRSTEN SINEMA RIPS SENATE DEMOCRATS FOR APPARENT FLIP-FLOP ON FILIBUSTER NOW THAT THEY NEED IT
Kyrsten Sinema is seen during a 2023 interview on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Neither the motion to dismiss, nor the sworn declaration Sinema submitted to the court, seeks to dispute the nature of her affair with Ammel — described as both “romantic and intimate.”
Rather, the filings argue that the case should be dropped because the communications in question occurred “exclusively outside” the boundaries of the Tar Heel state.
Combined, the new filings leave little to the imagination regarding the nature of the affair between Sinema and Ammel, which began in May 2024 in Sonoma, Calif., and involved months of phone calls, emails, and Signal messages, in addition to various romantic relations in cities across the U.S. cities.
KYRSTEN SINEMA’S SWITCH TO INDEPENDENT DESCRIBED AS ‘GUT PUNCH’ TO DEMOCRATS: ‘NO WIGGLE ROOM’
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) moves between meetings at the U.S. Capitol on June 01, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“I keep waking up during my sleep and reaching over for your arms to hold me,” Sinema told Ammel in one Signal message, which she recalled was sent in June 2024 from Scottsdale, and received by Ammel while in Kansas.
That fall, another Signal exchange between the two was apparently interrupted by Ammel’s estranged wife. She allegedly responded to Sinema directly, stating: “Are you having an affair with my husband? You took a married man away from his family.”
Just six states, including North Carolina, still recognize “alienation of affection” lawsuits, though the ones that do still require the spouses to meet a difficult legal burden.
In order to succeed in the lawsuit, plaintiffs in an “alienation of affection” lawsuit must prove to the court three things: First, that the marriage had real affection and a viable relationship before any third-party involvement; second, that the “love and affection” was destroyed, or significantly diminished; and finally, that the defendant directly “caused the destruction of that marital love and affection.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Sinema for comment.
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