Texas residents aren’t sold on claims that the Lone Star State could flip blue in either the presidential or senatorial races, despite Democrats’ forecasts. 

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that there is a national characterization of Texas becoming more blue, and thus more vulnerable in statewide elections. 

But, “I think that’s often overstated,” he said Wednesday on the sidelines of a Georgetown rally for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

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Texas voters don’t think the state has a real chance of going blue. (Fox News Digital)

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“We’ve got a big state where, you know, 30 million people and the seventh- or eighth-largest economy in the world with a diverse state. But it’s a solid conservative state. And I don’t think it’s going to be that close in the end.” 

Vice President Kamala Harris recently held a campaign event in traditionally red Texas with celebrity guest Beyoncé, signaling a Democratic effort to get out the vote in the state. 

Her appearance in the state comes as Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, is hoping to unseat Cruz. The Republican led Allred 50% to 46% in a recent New York Times/Siena College Poll. 

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Rep. Colin Allred, left, is hoping to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz. (Getty Images)

The survey interviewed 1,180 voters in Texas between Oct. 23 and 26. The margin of error is +/- 3.3 percentage points.

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Despite the single-digit margin, Texans were confident in the state staying red. 

“I don’t think Texas is getting more competitive,” said Texas resident Jeff Solomon. “I think there’s a perception that is an inaccurate perception through polling. And I think the polling tends to oversample left-leaning voters. And I think that gives the impression that things are closer than they are.”

‘WHAT A DISGRACE’: TRUMP TAUNTS MCCONNELL’S ENDORSEMENT AS GOP SENATE LEADER RACE LOOMS

Former President Trump rallied in Raleigh, North Carolina, before Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with supporters in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (Reuters/Brian Snyder/Kevin Mohatt)

Williamson County GOP Chair Michelle Evans said she thinks Democrats are ambitious about the state, “because, like [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] says, if they transform Texas, they transform it for generations.”

“But unfortunately, they are absolutely in over their skis,” she predicted.

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While most were optimistic about Republicans’ results in Texas, resident Bob Elliott expressed some concern, wishing that former President Trump “spent some more time” in Texas or discussed races in the state more. 

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Ted Cruz speaks with Fox News Digital. (Fox News Digital)

“I think Trump’s going to win Texas. But for Ted Cruz,” he said, “I wish [Trump] would have gave more lip service for talking about Ted Cruz in Texas.” 

The former president only endorsed Cruz in his re-election bid last month. “While I have Endorsed Ted, on numerous occasions, verbally, because of the Importance of the Race, and Ted’s Importance to the future of our Country, I thought the Endorsement should be memorialized in writing,” Trump said at the time. 

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Texas is favored to go Republican in both the Senate and presidential elections in 2024. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Julia Johnson is a politics writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, leading coverage of the U.S. Senate. She was previously a politics reporter at the Washington Examiner. 

Follow Julia’s reporting on X at @JuliaaJohnson_ and send tips to Julia.Johnson@fox.com.

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A woman from Georgia who operated as a “money mule” in a large real estate wire fraud scheme was sentenced to jail time and probation in Ventura County late last week, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said. 

Jasmine Shante Faniel, 39, participated in a scheme where scammers gain access to real estate transactions by impersonating trusted parties like escrow officers, real estate agents and title representatives, among others, the DA’s Office stated in a release issued Monday afternoon. 

“This fraud typically occurs through sophisticated computer scammers operating outside the U.S. who compromise emails between the parties,” officials said. “Once fraudsters gain access to the transaction, they target buyers’ closing fees, sellers’ proceeds, lenders’ funds and even commissions.” 

The legitimate parties in the transaction send funds to the “money mules” after they are deceived through intercepted or manipulated emails, the DA’s office elaborated. The “money mules,” said to be low-level participants in the fraud, receive the stolen funds and launder them to individuals higher up in the scheme who are typically located outside of the United States. 

In the case of Faniel, she was found to have opened multiple bank accounts in her home state under the name Teresa Dennis in March 2023. She used those accounts to accept and launder the funds stolen from a Ventura County family attempting to purchase their first home, authorities said. 

The native of Conyers, Georgia – a city in the Atlanta metropolitan area – received the funds from another co-defendant, Abdoul Aziz Bah, and subsequently transferred most of the money to a bank account in Nigeria, where it was laundered through international auto auctions, the DA’s office release stated.

Investigators said she only retained a small portion for herself. 

“The investigation in this case determined both defendants acted as ‘money mules’ and that they received the stolen $201,000 from the victims and then laundered it,” authorities said. “During the investigation, $33,500 of the victims’ stolen money was traced to an account in Georgia in Faniel’s false name, Teresa Dennis.” 

Bah was sentenced to one year in jail and two years of probation in late September, authorities said. He was also ordered to pay full restitution to the victims; he had already paid $5,000 in restitution before his sentencing. 

Faniel pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property over $950 and money laundering on Sept. 26. Following her plea, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office Real Estate Fraud Unit obtained a court order requiring the funds to be returned to the victims. As of Tuesday, $38,500 has been recovered and returned. 

She was sentenced to nine months in jail followed by two years of formal probation. 

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office Real Estate Fraud Unit was assisted in the investigation by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit, which completed the extraditions of the defendants from Georgia.

Officials remind homebuyers to always verify wire transfer requests by calling a known member of the transaction to confirm the request is valid before ever wiring funds.

SEATTLE (AP) — Factory workers at Boeing voted to accept a contract offer and end their strike after more than seven weeks, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to resume production of its bestselling airliner and generate much-needed cash.

Leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district in Seattle said 59% of members who cast ballots agreed to approve the company’s fourth formal offer and the third put to a vote. The deal includes a 38% wage increase over four years, and ratification and productivity bonuses.

However, Boeing refused to meet strikers’ demand to restore a company pension plan that was frozen nearly a decade ago.

The contract’s ratification on the eve of Election Day cleared the way for a major U.S. manufacturer and government contractor to restart Pacific Northwest assembly lines that the walkout idled for 53 days.

Bank of America analysts estimated last month that Boeing was losing about $50 million a day during the now-ended strike, which did not affect a nonunion plant in South Carolina where the company makes 787s.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to employees that he was pleased to have reached an agreement.

“While the past few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team,” Ortberg said. “We will only move forward by listening and working together. There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”

According to the union, the 33,000 workers it represents can return to work as soon as Wednesday or as late as Nov. 12. Ortberg has said it might take “a couple of weeks” to resume production in part because some workers might need retraining.

The average annual pay of Boeing machinists is currently $75,608 and eventually will rise to $119,309 under the new contract, according to the company. The union said the compounded value of the promised pay raise would amount to an increase of more than 43% over the life of the agreement.

Reactions were mixed even among union members who voted to accept the contract.

Although she voted “yes,” Seattle-based calibration specialist Eep Bolaño said the outcome was “most certainly not a victory.” Bolaño said she and her fellow workers made a wise but infuriating choice to accept the offer.

“We were threatened by a company that was crippled, dying, bleeding on the ground, and us as one of the biggest unions in the country couldn’t even extract two-thirds of our demands from them. This is humiliating,” she said.

For other workers like William Gardiner, a lab lead in calibration services, the revised offer was a cause for celebration.

“I’m extremely pumped over this vote,” said Gardiner, who has worked for Boeing for 13 years. “We didn’t fix everything — that’s OK. Overall, it’s a very positive contract.”

Union leaders had endorsed the latest proposal, saying they thought they had gotten all they could though negotiations and the strike. Along with the wage increase, the new contract gives each worker a $12,000 ratification bonus and retains a performance bonus the company wanted to eliminate.

“It is time for our members to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” leaders of IAM District 751 said before the vote. “We believe asking members to stay on strike longer wouldn’t be right as we have achieved so much success.”

President Joe Biden congratulated the machinists and Boeing for coming to an agreement that he said supports fairness in the workplace and improves workers’ ability to retire with dignity. The contract, he said, is important for Boeing’s future as “a critical part of America’s aerospace sector.”

Biden’s acting labor secretary, Julie Su, intervened in the negotiations several times, including when Boeing made its latest offer last week.

A continuing strike would have plunged Boeing into further financial peril and uncertainty. Last month, Ortberg announced plans to layoff about 17,000 people and a stock sale to prevent the company’s credit rating from being cut to junk status.

The strike began Sept. 13 with an overwhelming 94.6% rejection of the company’s offer to raise pay by 25% over four years — far less than the union’s original demand for 40% wage increases over three years.

Machinists voted down another offer — 35% raises over four years, and still no revival of pensions — on Oct. 23, the same day that Boeing reported a third-quarter loss of more than $6 billion.

The contract rejections reflected bitterness that built up after union concessions and small pay increases over the past decade.

The labor standoff — the first strike by Boeing machinists since an eight-week walkout in 2008 — was the latest setback in a volatile year for the aerospace giant. The 2008 strike lasted eight weeks and cost the company about $100 million daily in deferred revenue. A 1995 strike lasted 10 weeks.

Boeing came under several federal investigations this year after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Federal regulators put limits on Boeing airplane production that they said would last until they felt confident about manufacturing safety at the company.

The door-plug incident renewed concerns about the safety of the 737 Max. Two of the planes had crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. The CEO at the time, whose efforts to fix the company failed, announced in March that he would step down. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday’s vote puts Boeing’s future back on more solid footing.

“Washington is home to the world’s most skilled aerospace workers, and they understandably took a stand for the respect and compensation they deserve,” Inslee said in a statement congratulating the workers.

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Koenig reported from Dallas and Schoenbaum from Salt Lake City.