Southwest
Behind-the-scenes battles: Legal challenges that could impact the vote before Election Day begins
Battleground states have already seen their share of fights before Election Day as legal challenges centered on voting issues, and while some have already been decided, others remain up in the air just hours before polls open Tuesday morning.
From issues including mail-in ballots, drop boxes and concerns about ineligible voters, here are some of the high-profile swing state cases and where they currently stand.
Arizona
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes acknowledged in September that 218,000 people in the state were allowed to register to vote without proof of citizenship despite state law that requires it. A state court set a deadline of Monday for production of a full list of affected people so that the recorders of each county can verify the citizenship of voters who had not previously provided proof of citizenship.
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Monday before receiving any list that approximately 2,000 people had tried to submit voter registration updates and subsequently received notices that they had to prove their citizenship.
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“These voters were contacted individually to let them know their registration was incomplete. However, after further consideration, the decision was made to fully restore those voters from the not-registered status, only if they were previously an existing, registered voter,” the statement said.
Georgia
Georgia has seen multiple lawsuits involving mail-in ballots. In Cobb County, the ACLU sued, claiming that at least 3,000 voters did not receive their ballots on time. A lower court had ordered new ballots to be sent overnight to the affected voters, saying that their votes would be counted as long as they are received by Nov. 8 at 5 p.m., but the Georgia Supreme Court stayed that ruling on Monday, so these voters now have to make sure their ballots get to the county elections office by 7pm on Election Day or vote in person.
Also in Cobb County, as well as in Fulton, Dekalb and Gwinnett Counties, the Republican National Committee sued, claiming that election offices improperly opened over the weekend to allow voters to drop off their mail-in ballots in person. The RNC cited state law that says drop boxes should be closed after the end of the early voting period, which was Friday. A state court said the county elections offices had the discretion to open for additional hours.
Another Georgia case involved Fulton County’s offices being open over the weekend for dropping off mail-in ballots. At first, poll observers were barred from entering, with Fulton County elections director Nadine Williams stating that they were not allowed because it was a county office and not a polling site. Just hours later, it was announced that observers would be permitted after all.
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Nevada
A lawsuit from the Trump campaign, RNC and Nevada Republican Party opposing the potential counting of mail-in ballots that the state receives after Election Day that do not bear a postmark. The state Supreme Court ruled that such ballots can still be counted up to three days after Election Day. There is a similar case in federal court where challengers also lost but are appealing to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The same issue was also brought before the Fifth Circuit after a case was brought in Mississippi, and while the court said such ballots cannot be counted after Election Day, the ruling does not apply to this year’s election.
North Carolina
The RNC also has a lawsuit in North Carolina, involving 225,000 people it alleges are improperly registered because they had used an old form that did not ask for their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. The RNC claims that this violates the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
“Because of these errors, the North Carolina voter rolls, which both HAVA and state law mandates that Defendants regularly maintain, are potentially replete with ineligible voters – including possible non-citizens – all of whom are now registered to vote,” the RNC and North Carolina GOP said in a court filing.
Pennsylvania
The Keystone State remains a key battleground, not just on the ballot but in courtrooms, with several lawsuits having been filed over a variety of voting issues, many involving mail-in ballots.
Republicans scored a win when they appealed a court ruling that said mail-in ballots without a required handwritten date could still be counted. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overruled, saying that handwritten dates must be on the ballots.
The GOP was not so fortunate in a separate case in which it sought an emergency appeal from the U.S. Supreme Court after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that provisional ballots should be counted if voters’ mail-in ballots were disqualified for technical errors, such as not being in mandatory secrecy envelopes. Republicans cited a state law that they argued prohibited voters from casting provisional ballots if they had already submitted mail-in ballots on time.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned away the RNC’s appeal, with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas issuing a statement that made clear that because the case only involved two votes in a small county, it would not have impacted the results of the election either way.
Both parties won legal challenges when voters in multiple counties did not receive mail-in ballots on time. Democrats in Erie County sued when as many as 20,000 voters did not receive their ballots from a third-party vendor on time. A judge ruled that the Erie County Board of Elections had to remain open last Friday and Saturday so voters could fill out ballots.
In Bucks County, Republicans sued over voters waiting in line for mail-in ballots being turned away at 5 p.m., even though they had been there waiting. A judge swiftly ruled that voters should get an additional three days to apply for a mail-in ballot.
Another Pennsylvania case involves six Republican members of Congress who sued Pennsylvania’s State Department with allegations that overseas voters’ ballots were vulnerable to fraud because those voters were not made to adhere to the same identification requirement as absentee ballot voters in the U.S. The GOP lawmakers lost when a judge dismissed their case based on standing, timeliness, not presenting a viable cause of action and failing to join indispensable parties.
One situation that remains ongoing involves a potential voter fraud operation that is under investigation. Officials have said that several counties have seen large batches of voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications that were suspicious. In Monroe County, District Attorney Mike Mancuso said that some of the forms detected in his county were submitted by “Field and Media Corps,” an apparent subsidiary of Fieldcorp, an Arizona-based organization working in Lancaster County.
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Southwest
ICE accuses Dem lawmaker of joining ‘rioting crowd’ in Arizona, interfering in mass arrest
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Wednesday accused Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., of joining a “rioting crowd” and attempting to interfere with agents during a mass arrest operation last week.
The accusation came after Grijalva claimed she was “pushed aside and pepper sprayed” during an immigration raid on Dec. 5 in Tucson, an account ICE flatly rejected.
“During the operation, U.S. Representative Adelita Grijalva joined the rioting crowd and attempted to impede law enforcement officers, then took to social media to slander law enforcement by falsely claiming she was pepper sprayed,” ICE said in a statement.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Grijalva’s office for comment.
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Law enforcement deal with protesters after an ICE raid on a restaurant in Tuscon, Arizona, on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. The business, Taco Giro, is being investigated on suspicion of immigration and tax evasion. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
ICE and its federal partners arrested 46 illegal immigrants during the operation, the result of a “multiyear investigation into a transnational criminal organization involved in labor exploitation, tax violations, and immigration violations,” the agency said.
ICE said “over 100 agitators” arrived at one of the locations it searched and “attempted to impede law enforcement operations.”
“Agitators quickly turned violent, assaulting officers and slashing tires,” ICE added.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Wednesday pushed back against accusations from Arizona Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who claimed she was pepper sprayed during an immigration raid. (@Rep_Grijalva via X)
In a post on X on Friday, Grijalva said she was “pushed aside and pepper sprayed” after seeking information from officers during ICE’s operation near the Taco Giro restaurant.
“ICE just conducted a raid by Taco Giro in Tucson — a small mom-and-pop restaurant that has served our community for years,” Grijalva wrote. “When I presented myself as a Member of Congress asking for more information, I was pushed aside and pepper sprayed.”
Grijalva also called ICE a “lawless agency” that is “operating with no transparency, no accountability, and open disregard for basic due process” in a separate X post.
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Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin immediately disputed Grijalva’s account, saying she was never directly sprayed but merely in the “vicinity of someone who was.”
“If her claims were true, this would be a medical marvel,” McLaughlin said. “But they’re not true. She wasn’t pepper sprayed. She was in the vicinity of someone who was pepper sprayed as they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement.”
ICE said two people in the crowd were arrested – one for assaulting a federal law enforcement officer and another for damaging a government vehicle. Two Homeland Security Investigation Special Response Team operators were also injured.
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Protesters stand behind a gate locked with a bike lock, which blocked federal agents from leaving a restaurant in Tuscon, Arizona, after an ICE raid was conducted on the business on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
When reached for comment, DHS referred Fox News Digital to ICE’s statement on the operation and ICE declined to comment further, referring to DHS’ post on X.
Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton contributed to this report.
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Southwest
Dem strategists say Texas requires centrists — but their new Senate frontrunner is anything but
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When it comes to the heavily contested Senate battle in Texas, former Rep. Colin Allred is out, Rep. Jasmine Crockett is in, and Democrats appear divided over whether Crockett’s a political liability in the ruby-red Lone Star State as the party works to flip the crucial seat.
The stakes in the race are extremely high, as it’s one of a handful across the country that will likely determine if Republicans hold their Senate majority in next year’s midterm elections.
Crockett, a two-term lawmaker who represents a Dallas-area district, is a progressive firebrand and rising Democratic Party star with a large social media following who is known as a vocal critic and foil of President Donald Trump. Her launch will likely further rock the Texas ballot box showdown, which, on the Republican side, includes a very combustible battle between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and GOP primary rivals state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt.
“The Democratic Party’s aspirations to win statewide in a red state like Texas simply don’t exist without a centrist Democrat who can build a winning coalition of ideologically diverse voters,” Liam Kerr, co-founder of the Welcome PAC, a group which advocates for moderate Democratic candidates, argued in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, speaks after announcing her run in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Dallas. (LM Otero/AP Photo)
Allred, who was making his second straight bid for the Senate after losing last year to conservative Sen. Ted Cruz by nine points, abandoned his bid on Monday and announced he would run next year to return to the House, hours before Crockett launched her campaign.
Crockett will now face off in her party’s primary with state Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who is also seen as a rising Democrat. The two surging contenders will face off in the March 3 primary.
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“I think we’re in a period where we’re looking for new fresh faces to lead the party, and that’s what you’ve got in Texas,” veteran Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital.
And Caiazzo, apparently pointing to Allred, said, “No more retreads. If you ran and lost, it’s time for something new.”
Allred, facing the prospect of battling two younger rivals with formidable fundraising, opted to switch races.
Former Democratic Rep. Colin Allred of Texas on Monday suspended his 2026 Senate bid and launched a House campaign. (Reuters/Marco Bello)
“I don’t think he was pushed out of the race. I think he was considering it on his own. But I don’t doubt that he was certainly urged to continue considering it until he finally did it,” a veteran Texas-based Democratic strategist told Fox News Digital.
The strategist, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, said, “With Crockett getting into the race, she cuts into a lot of Allred’s base. They’re both pulling from the Black Democratic primary vote, and they’re both from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, except she’s in office right now with a huge following and making a lot of headlines. That’s a real threat to his Senate campaign.”
With less than three months until the primary, political pundits list Crockett as the Democratic frontrunner.
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“I’m done watching the American dream on life support while Trump tries to pull the plug. The gloves have been off, and now I’m jumping into the ring,” Crockett said as she announced her candidacy.
And her launch included a video playing several soundbites of President Donald Trump attacking her.
Kerr said Crockett as the party’s nominee would be a problem in a state where no Democrat has won a Senate election in nearly four decades — since Sen. Lloyd Bentsen’s re-election in 1988.
“We appreciate Rep. Crockett being so explicit that she’s not trying to win over Trump supporters or persuadable voters, but that approach simply doesn’t work in statewide Texas races. You can’t win competitive or red territory without persuading less partisan, independent, and Republican voters,” he argued.
But Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist and founder of Winning Margins, a communications firm, told Fox News Digital that “Rep. Crockett is running to change the political landscape in Texas.”
“If she wins, she becomes a legend who can run for president. If she loses, she still becomes a political voice for years to come who gets the money to talk and move people.”
Ceraso argued that the Democratic Party is “a reactionary party to President Trump and will be that way for the next few years. Crockett is turning this ‘reaction’ into a platform, and maybe she’ll stick the landing on policies that connect with voters.”
Asked if Crockett is too far to the left to win statewide, the Texas-based Democratic strategist who asked for anonymity, pointing to the party’s poor performances, said, “It can’t get any worse, right. We keep losing by 10 points. We may as well try something different.”
Republicans are over the moon at the prospect of Crockett as the Democrats’ 2026 Senate nominee.
“I think it says something about who the Democrats are nationally, not just in Texas. What it says is that they’ve been overrun by this radical left agenda that focuses on rhetoric, not reality,” said Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital on Monday.
But Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin isn’t buying the GOP messaging that all Democrats are far-left radicals.
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“We have conservative Democrats, we have centrist Democrats, we have progressives, and we have leftists. And I’ve always said that you win elections through addition, not subtraction. You win by bringing people into your coalition and growing your party,” Martin told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
And Martin argued that “unlike the Republicans, who are fairly homogenous, who, you know, basically have one ideology and do not allow for any dissent, the Democratic Party has a lot of different thoughts and ideas which certainly share the same goals, but many different ways to get to those goals.”
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Southwest
Kyrsten Sinema warns US adversary will program AI with ‘Chinese values’ if America falls behind in tech race
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Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., warned that the U.S. risks ceding global leadership on artificial intelligence to China, calling the AI race a matter of national security that the nation has “got to win.”
“China is doing everything it can to dominate AI globally, and they will program the AI with Chinese values,” Sinema said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday.
“And President Trump is 100% right. We’ve got to double down and make sure that American values are the values of the world, and that we control this global AI agenda. And that’s why these data centers are so important all across the country.”
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Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., speaks to reporters in the Ohio Clock Corridor of the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 9, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Sinema argued the U.S. needs to quickly expand domestic data centers and invest in AI infrastructure.
“We have got to win that race,” she said.
Sinema pushed back on concerns that AI may take American jobs, drawing a comparison between today’s “AI revolution” and the “internet revolution” of the 1990s.
Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has advocated for greater investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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She maintained the internet has made life more convenient, productive and efficient, despite anxieties that it would “ruin jobs” or “take control.”
“People think, ‘Oh, the robots are gonna take over.’ But what they’re maybe not thinking about is how it’s enhancing their lives already,” she said, pointing to AI-optimized firetruck and school bus routes as early examples of how communities are already benefiting from the new technology.
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Sinema then called out the left for spreading “misinformation” about the impact of AI and data centers within communities and praised the Trump administration’s messaging on the issue.
“This administration is doing a good job of telling the truth,” she said.
“That communication is bringing people together who just want efficient, proactive, good lives. Where their kids have a better life than they had,” she added. “So this is, I think, a really important issue that has nothing to do with partisanship.”
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