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Senate Democrats again blocked a plan by Republicans to ensure that federal workers and the military would receive a paycheck as the shutdown back and forth revs into high gear.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., again tried to advance a modified version of his “Shutdown Fairness Act” bill that would see federal workers and the military paid now and during subsequent government shutdowns. However, the bill failed 53-43 with 3 Democrats defecting to support the bill. Georgia Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico voted for the bill.

Last month, it was blocked over concerns from Senate Democrats that it did not include furloughed workers.

SCHUMER, DEMS UNVEIL ALTERNATIVE SHUTDOWN PLAN, ASK FOR ONE-YEAR EXTENSION TO OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES

Johnson noted on the Senate floor that after discussions with Senate Democrats he changed the bill to include furloughed workers, and that his legislation had the backing of several federal employee unions.

“They are sick and tired, being used as pawns in this political dysfunction here. They’re tired of it,” Johnson said.

Still, after fireworks on the Senate floor where Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who initially blocked the bill over concerns that it allowed President Donald Trump to pick and choose who got paid, the bill was blocked largely along party lines.

THUNE SAYS ‘WHEELS CAME OFF’ AS REPUBLICANS MULL NEXT SHUTDOWN MOVE

“It’s about leverage, isn’t it? Isn’t that what y’all have been saying? It’s about leverage,” Thune said. “This isn’t leverage. This is the lives of the American people.”

Johnson’s bill appearing on the floor wasn’t the initial plan Senate Republicans had going into Friday. Thune wanted to put the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) up for a vote again, but newfound Democratic unity after a sweeping victory on Election Night earlier this week had derailed bipartisan attempts to build an off-ramp.

The GOP’s attempt to pay federal workers amid the ongoing, 38-day shutdown came as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus announced their counter-offer to Senate Republicans’ plan to reopen the government.

‘TWISTED IRONY’: DEMOCRATS RISK BETRAYING THEIR OWN PET ISSUES WITH GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN GAMBLE

Schumer’s offer included attaching a one-year extension onto expiring Obamacare subsidies — the main sticking point of the shutdown — in exchange for the Democratic votes to reopen the government.

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But the offer, which a source told Fox News Digital had been made in private to Senate Republicans last week and was summarily rejected, was again not going over well with Republicans.

The Senate is expected to return on Saturday to vote on the House-passed plan for a 15th time. Whether Schumer and his caucus block it once more remains to be seen.

EXCLUSIVE: A federal grand jury has subpoenaed former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, among others as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, Fox News Digital has learned.

Sources told Fox News Digital Brennan; Strzok, the FBI’s former deputy assistant director of counterintelligence; and Page, a former FBI lawyer, were served with federal subpoenas on Friday.

Law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital that up to 30 subpoenas will be issued in the coming days relating to the investigation.

The grand jury is out of the Southern District of Florida. U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones is supervising the probe.

Fox News Digital first reported in July that Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey were under investigation.

Comey has been charged with making false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. He has pleaded not guilty. His trial is expected to begin in January.

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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

EXCLUSIVE: An American family is still looking for answers and justice after they lost a daughter and mother in a 2001 head-on auto accident caused by an illegal immigrant driving on the wrong side of a Florida highway.

In video interviews by The American Border Story (TABS), which was obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, angel mom Vickie Schermock Lyon and her grandchildren, Brieanna and Brandon Schermock, described the utter devastation they have felt after losing their daughter and mother, Dennielle Nicole ‘Nikki’ Schermock, in the collision.

According to Vickie, the illegal immigrant in the other vehicle was driving under the influence of both alcohol and drugs when he veered into the opposite side of the highway in Fort Myers, Florida. While driving on the wrong side of the road, the illegal rammed his pickup truck into Nikki’s small Honda. Nikki, who was 25 years old, died instantly. The illegal, meanwhile, survived, though he was ejected from the truck and broke two legs.

Brieanna and Brandon, who were just 4 years old and 16 months at the time, respectively, were also in the car at the time of the accident and were life-flighted to a hospital in Orlando. Brandon suffered skin abrasions and bruises, while Brieanna had to undergo emergency brain surgery.

RACHEL MORIN’S MOTHER EXPLAINS PAINSTAKING PROCESS OF WRITING STATEMENT TO READ AT KILLER’S SENTENCING

In the interview, Vickie shared that she said goodbye to her daughter for the last time just twenty minutes before the accident. When she received a call from her son, sharing the news, Vickie said she jumped into her car immediately.

“I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing. I went out, and I jumped in my car, and I just took off, and I just knew that I had to find my kids,” she said.

When she got to the scene, authorities and paramedics informed her that the kids had already been life-flighted to the hospital.

Vickie said she could not believe her daughter was gone and kept asking, ‘Where’s Nikki? Where’s Nikki?” When a paramedic confirmed that her daughter had passed, Vickie said she “just collapsed.”

Authorities rushed her to the hospital, where she checked in on her grandchildren.

“Finally, the coroner’s office came over and said, ‘We need you to come in and identify your daughter’s body,” she said, fighting back tears. “So, her father and I went over to the coroner’s office, the morgue, and we had to identify Nikki’s body. I had just seen her twenty minutes before. I could tell you what she had on, what she was wearing that day, and then to see her broken body, it still haunts me.”

EX-WNBA PLAYER’S MOM DIES IN CAR CRASH INVOLVING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, OFFICIALS SAY

The illegal, meanwhile, was also transported to the hospital and later to a rehab center for treatment. However, according to the Shermock family, the immigrant’s family came “in the middle of the night” and removed him from the hospital, and he has never been seen or heard of since.

In the video, Brandon explains that the illegal’s “family came in and just swooped him away.”

“There was no cameras, that I know of, they just said, ‘He’s coming with us,’ and after that he just disappeared. There’s no way to document where he was, where he went, he’s just gone.”

Today, nearly 25 years later, the illegal immigrant has still not paid for his crimes, the family said.

Vickie noted that “probably with the open border from the Biden administration, that he’s back here somewhere.”

Speaking of the Biden White House, Vickie said, “He and all of his administration, they have blood on their hands, and they have no conscience about what they’ve done to us as parents and loved ones.”

CALIFORNIA FATHER SAYS NEWSOM IGNORED PLEAS AFTER MIGRANT TRUCKER’S CRASH LEFT DAUGHTER CRITICALLY INJURED

On the other hand, the family praised the measures the Trump administration has taken to shut down the border and restore immigration enforcement in the U.S.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Vickie shared that President Donald Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan “promised me that he would do everything in his power to help locate the illegal immigrant responsible for my daughter’s death.”

“He made it clear that this fight isn’t over, not for my family, and not for the other Angel Families still waiting for justice,” Vickie said. “Knowing that someone like Border Czar Homan, who truly understands the failures of our broken system, is helping gives me a sense of hope I haven’t felt in years. It means the world to know that this administration actually cares about holding criminals accountable and putting American families first.”

“Sharing our story is painful, but I know it’s important,” she explained, adding, “If one more person understands what’s really happening in this country and why we need to secure our border, then maybe another family won’t have to go through what we did.”

“Losing Nikki shattered our world,” Vickie went on. “There’s no playbook for how to rebuild after something like that. You just wake up every day and do your best to survive it. I’ve tried to be strong for her children, Brieanna and Brandon, and to make sure they grow up knowing who their mother was and how much she loved them.”

ICE REVEALS STUNNING STATISTIC AFTER EXPOSING HALLOWEEN WEEKEND’S ‘WORST OF THE WORST’ ARRESTS

Brieanna shared a message of persistence despite tragedy and trauma, telling interviewers that “even when they say you can’t, you can. I was given a 30 percent chance to live after the accident, and I am 27 years old, I’m about to get married and have a baby.”

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Commenting on the case, Nicole Kiprilov, executive director of TABS, told Fox News Digital that after Democrats’ election victories on Tuesday night, “we are more determined than ever to make sure Americans understand the real impact of the border crisis – not just on policy, but on families.”

“Every time Democrats gain control, we see the border unravel and innocent Americans pay the price,” said Kiprilov.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told Fox News Digital on Friday it is “blatantly false” to claim that a popular abortion-inducing drug now under federal review is “safer than Tylenol,” launching a multimillion-dollar lawsuit and citing RICO statutes.

Mifepristone, a pharmaceutical that blocks pregnancy hormone progesterone, is often utilized as part of a two-drug process that critics call a “chemical abortion.” About 24 hours after mifepristone is taken, the pregnant woman will take misoprostol – which induces uterine contractions and allows for the likely deceased fetus to be pushed out.

Current FDA approval allows for mifepristone to be prescribed within 10 weeks of conception, though now the State of Florida and FDA chief Dr. Marty Makary are separately scrutinizing the safety of the drug.

REPUBLICAN SENATORS BLAST FDA FOR EXPANDING ABORTION PILL ACCESS

Uthmeier said there is mounting evidence of adverse health consequences to women who take mifepristone – and that studies have shown an average of more than one death per year this century have been ascribed to complications from it.

The $350 million figure is calculated to allow for statutory damages of $10,000 per affected Floridian in 35,000 cases, as the attorney general balked in court filings at the idea a common pain reliever – recently under federal scrutiny itself — could be compared to such “chemical abortions.”

“Planned Parenthood sells profitable abortions to vulnerable women by lying to them about abortion pills being safer than Tylenol,” Uthmeier wrote in the filing.

HAWLEY BLASTS FDA APPROVAL OF NEW ABORTION DRUG, CITES SAFETY AND TRUST CONCERNS

“The ‘safer than Tylenol’ marketing campaign has been ongoing for years and targeted to women in Florida. Just a few weeks ago, Defendant Planned Parenthood Florida Action proclaimed on X.com that ‘Mifepristone is safe. Safer than Tylenol.’ — That claim is manifestly false.”

Tylenol, a commercial name for acetaminophen pills marketed by Summit, N.J.-based Kenvue Pharmaceuticals, is widely regarded as a ubiquitous drug but is also not without its controversies.

A spat between the Trump administration and Kenvue – a spinoff of the more-recognized Johnson & Johnson – over whether the headache reliever causes autism, and there had been a scandal in the 1980s wherein capsules marketed in Illinois had been adulterated with cyanide and killed several people.

MAJOR PRO-LIFE GROUP DEMANDS INVESTIGATION INTO ABORTION PILL BILLBOARDS IN FLORIDA

Florida claimed Planned Parenthood knows their Tylenol-mifepristone claims are “false” and “badly misleads women… about the safety and risks of chemical abortion.”

“Use of chemical abortion drugs routinely lands women in the emergency room with hemorrhaging and other serious complications,” the state said.

Uthmeier’s suit cited a recent analysis finding that about 10% of women who underwent a “chemical abortion” went septic or suffered similar life-threatening side effects within 45 days.

ARREST WARRANT ISSUED FOR CALIFORNIA DOCTOR IN LOUISIANA ABORTION PILL CASE

The suit alleged that Planned Parenthood appears to prefer chemical abortions to surgical ones because they are more “profitable.”

“Business is booming for Planned Parenthood. Its most recent annual report lists over $2 billion in revenue and $3.1 billion in assets,” the suit said.

“The secret to the organization’s recent success is a top-down strategy of decreasing unprofitable health services and increasing profitable abortions,” it added, citing comparative statistics on other services like cancer screenings from 2013 and 2023.

MORE THAN 20 GOP ATTORNEYS GENERAL CALL ON RFK JR, FDA TO REINSTATE SAFEGUARDS FOR ABORTION DRUGS

The suit also accused Planned Parenthood of violating RICO statutes – typically reserved for organized crime and mob syndicates.

The state asked the court to declare Planned Parenthood’s repeated advertisements touting mifepristone’s safety as a “pattern of racketeering activity.”

Both Planned Parenthood’s national and Sunshine State arms fired back at Uthmeier and Tallahassee in statements to Fox News Digital.

“Once again, for the lawmakers in Florida: Mifepristone is safe and effective, and has been used by more than 7.5 million people for abortion and miscarriage care in the U.S. since its approval more than two decades ago,” said Susan Baker Manning, general counsel for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

“See you in court,” Baker Manning said.

Alexandra Mandado, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Florida, added that her group “proudly offers patients medically accurate and comprehensive information” along with their care.

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“[T]his politically motivated attack won’t change that.”

In response to Trump administration claims about Tylenol, Kenvue said at the time that “sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism.”

Senate Democrats unveiled their alternative to Republicans’ plan to reopen the government that would see an extension to expiring Obamacare credits for one year, and are asking that Republicans just say “yes.” 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced the plan in dramatic fashion on the Senate floor Friday afternoon with a backdrop of the Senate Democratic caucus in a bid to show a tangible version of the newfound unity among Democrats since their Election Night sweep earlier this week. 

Schumer argued that after 14 failed votes on the House-passed continuing resolution (CR), “It’s clear we need to try something different.” He offered to attach a one-year extension to the expiring Obamacare subsidies, and to create a bipartisan committee that could negotiate further on how to deal with the subsidies after the government reopened, a clear nod to the GOP’s position that negotiations wouldn’t happen until the government reopened. 

THUNE SAYS ‘WHEELS CAME OFF’ AS REPUBLICANS MULL NEXT SHUTDOWN MOVE

“Democrats are ready to clear the way to quickly pass a government funding bill that includes healthcare affordability,” Schumer said. “Leader Thune just needs to add a clean, one-year extension of the [Obamacare] tax credits to the CR so that we can immediately address rising health care costs. That’s not a negotiation. It’s an extension of current law, something we do all the time around here.”

“Now the ball is in the Republicans’ court,” he continued. “We need Republicans to just say ‘yes.’”

Whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Republicans will accept the offer remains in the air. Republicans are set to meet Friday afternoon and are expected to discuss the Democrats’ olive branch. 

Initially, Thune had planned to hold a vote on the House-passed plan as a means to amend it and attach a trio of spending bills in a package known as a minibus to jumpstart the government funding process. 

However, that plan was canned Friday morning after Thune charged that the “wheels came off” of ongoing bipartisan discussions with Senate Democrats on the minibus and a path forward. 

It also comes after Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., made a bid to have his bill that would ensure that federal workers and the military would be paid during this shutdown and future shutdowns move through a fast-track process known as unanimous consent that doesn’t require a full vote of the Senate. 

‘TWISTED IRONY’: DEMOCRATS RISK BETRAYING THEIR OWN PET ISSUES WITH GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN GAMBLE

However, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., blocked the bill – despite it being amended to include furloughed federal workers into the mix – over lingering concerns that it still gave President Donald Trump too much power to pick and choose “which federal employees are paid and when.”

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That move prompted a fired-up Thune to question why exactly Peters, and more broadly Senate Democrats, would object to the bill, given that it would solve a major pain point of the shutdown. He said that lawmakers would vote on the bill on Friday. 

“In other words, we’re going to keep federal employees hostage,” Thune said of Peters’ objection. 

“It’s about leverage isn’t it, that’s what ya’ll have been saying,” he continued. 

President Donald Trump said Friday that European leaders should respect Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “very strongly because he’s been right on immigration.” 

“Look what’s happened to Europe with the immigration. They have people flooding Europe all over the place. And it’s hurting it. The crime rates are way up. A lot of bad things are happening. His crime rates are very low. They’re the same as they always were, which is very little crime. Because he’s kept it the way it should be,” Trump said as he hosted Orban at the White House. 

“He was right on immigration. They were wrong. They are flooding Europe with people from all over the world. And Europe is becoming a different place. And I tell the leaders all the time, ‘you better stop or you’re not going to have Europe anymore.’ It’s a very dangerous thing they’re doing,” Trump added. 

“So on migration issue, just for clarification, in Hungary, the number of illegal migration is like that — zero, zero because we have a crystal-clear system. If somebody would like to come to Hungary first, he should ask for that,” Orban said. “If he gives the permission, they can step in. Nobody can step on the territory of Hungary without having permission from the Hungarian authorities. This is the regulation. Simple, while working.” 

“What is the consequence of that? If we are under sanctions, financial sanctions of European Union, because we don’t let the illegal migration to come to Hungary and to the European Union as well. So we have to pay just to inform you, we have to pay every day €1 million as a punishment… this is the absurd world we are living now in Europe,” Orban added. 

The Associated Press reported that in June 2024, the European Union’s top court ordered Hungary to pay a $223 million fine for depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum and an additional fine of 1 million euros per day for failing to comply. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

Democrats historically have touted race and identity politics in the lead-up to high-profile elections, including former President Barack Obama chastising Black men for not supporting former Vice President Kamala Harris for president just one year ago. 

On the 2025 gubernatorial campaign trail in Virginia, however, race was dropped from the common talking points as Obama and other Democrats rallied around former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a White woman, in her battle against Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, a Jamaican immigrant and Marine veteran. Earle-Sears would have been the state’s first Black female governor if she had been victorious Tuesday. 

Former Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is in the midst of his 2026 Senate campaign to replace outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell, advocated that identity politics should be dropped from public discourse and replaced with discussions on merit, while noting Democrats employ race rhetoric when it’s most advantageous. 

Democrats “certainly pick and choose when they want to highlight a candidate’s race and use that for political expediency,” Cameron said. “But the Republican Party has been consistent that we’re a party about merit.”  

FOX NEWS POLL: HOW SPANBERGER WON VIRGINIA GOVERNOR

Obama campaigned in the Old Dominion state to drum up support for Spanberger, who is the first woman elected governor in the state, just roughly a year after he chastised Black male voters in Pennsylvania for not offering an outpouring of support to then-Vice President Harris’ campaign.

“We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all corners of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running,” Obama said of support for Harris’ race. 

“Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers. So if you don’t mind — just for a second, I’ve got to speak to y’all and say that when you have a choice that is this clean: When on the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, went to college with you, understands the struggles (and the) pain and joy that comes from those experiences,” Obama said, continuing that Trump “has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person — and you are thinking about sitting out?”

A year later, Obama called on Virginia voters to snub the Black female candidate in favor of Spanberger. 

OBAMA INSISTED BLACK MEN VOTE FOR HARRIS BUT NOW STUMPS AGAINST VIRGINIA’S BLACK LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

“There is absolutely no evidence Republican policies have made life better for you, the people of Virginia,” Obama said in his speech from the Virginia campaign trail Saturday. “I mean, they’ve they’ve devoted enormous energy to trying to entrench themselves in power and punishing their enemies and enriching their friends and silencing their critics. They they put on a big show of deporting people and targeting transgender folks. They never missed a chance to scapegoat minorities and DEI for every problem under the sun.”

Obama, specifically, has a lengthy list of invoking identity politics while on the campaign trail or in public settings, while Democrats since his presidency have amplified their promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from the highest echelons of government down to school classrooms until Trump signed executive orders barring such programs from government.  

“I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election,” Obama said in 2016 of the Black community supporting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential run. “You want to give me a good send-off, go vote.”

Former President Joe Biden also focused on identity politics during his lengthy tenure in the nation’s captial, including vowing he would nominate a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court as he went through the merits of candidates. Biden ultimately nominated now-Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court in 2022. 

OBAMA ENDORSES SPANBERGER, ATTACKS REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA GOVERNOR’S RACE ADS

“While I’ve been studying candidates’ backgrounds and writings, I’ve made no decision except one: the person I nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity — and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue, in my view,” Biden said before announcing Jackson’s nomination. 

Race, however, was left out of the 2025 gubernatorial race in Virginia as Earle-Sears faced off against Spanberger, with Cameron saying Democrats “played it down” as it did not benefit their party. 

“The leadership in the Democratic Party certainly discounts race when it’s not somebody from their campaign or not somebody on their side of the aisle that is in the election. And that is what you saw here, is that they discounted it and they played it down, it didn’t have much significance,” Cameron told Fox Digital in a Thursday Zoom interview. 

“I do think the Democratic Party historically has focused on the identity of candidates. And that’s why I tell folks that we don’t need a country that’s built on diversity, equity, inclusion. We need a county that’s built on merit, excellence, intelligence and integrity. And that should be the case … not only in the corporate space or in industry, but in politics as well. Does a candidate connect with people? Does a candidate have the values of a particular community? That should be the focus,” he said, adding that Republicans are all-in for supporting candidates with merit over identity. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Obama’s office for comment regarding his previous remarks on race and identity politics compared to the 2025 election but did not immediately receive a reply. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Winsome-Sears campaign for any post-election comment Thursday. 

UNDERCOVER VIDEO EXPOSES WHAT SPANBERGER’S CAMPAIGN ORGANIZER REALLY THINKS OF HER: ‘WHAT THE F—‘

Spanberger’s campaign was rocked by an undercover video showing a campaign organizer lamenting the race pitted a “White woman who was in the CIA” against “a Black woman.”

“CIA agent, literally, which is crazy, like yeah, vote for the CIA agent, guys, like what the f—,” a campaign organizer for Spanberger said in a video with an undercover journalist in September that was first reported by Fox News Digital. 

“I don’t know what happened. We’re in, like, the darkest timeline,” she continued. “Our only choices are between a Black woman, which ordinarily all for, but this time you think we should bring back slavery, Winsome.… Even with that, it’s like either vote for the Black woman who thinks that slavery should be brought back or vote for the White woman who was in the CIA.”

Only two states across the country held gubernatorial elections this off-season election in 2025: New Jersey and Virginia. Earle-Sears was the only Black candidate to run for governor out of the four major-party candidates running in either state. 

Cameron said that his tenure as Kentucky attorney general, as well as his run for the Senate, focus on his merit and policies, while encouraging that example be used by all politicians going forward. 

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” I want folks to focus on my values when I was the attorney general, certainly,” he said. “I won, I think, 113 of 120 counties, and people didn’t care what I looked like. They cared about my values. And so I’m optimistic that when it comes to the future of this country, people, here in Kentucky, and I think in Virginia, and a lot of places is:  Do you stand with the America first agenda? Are you focused on standing with president Trump? And that’s certainly something that I’m focused on in my race here for the Senate here in Kentucky.” 

Senate Democrats for years have warned of the negative side effects of government shutdowns that would largely affect their priorities, but as the shutdown drags on, they find themselves in direct opposition to their own pet projects. 

“There’s a tremendously twisted irony,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital.

John Feehery of EFB Advocacy, who served as press secretary to former Republican House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert, said, “The most unbelievable thing” about the shutdown is Democrats “hurting their own constituents.”

“Democrats never shut the government down. This is the first time they’ve ever done this. I mean, they’ve let the Republicans shut the government down, but they’ve never done it on purpose,” he said.

MIKE JOHNSON UNDERCUTS JOHN THUNE ON OBAMACARE NEGOTIATIONS TO END SHUTDOWN

As Senate Democrats have pushed the shutdown into the longest on record, they still aren’t ready to reopen the government, even as millions who rely on food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are only set to get partial benefits.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus have remained firm in their demand that they get a guarantee to extend expiring Obamacare premium subsidies in exchange for their votes to reopen the government.

Democrats have blasted President Donald Trump and his administration for threatening to not fund federal food benefits. Earlier this week, Trump said that food stamps would not be funded despite a court order requiring that they at least be partially paid for.

“They’re the ones who shut down the government,” Lummis said. “They won’t reopen it, and so they got nothing to complain about. It’s within their control to reopen the government. It’s in their control.”

His administration has since changed course, however, and announced in a memo from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that Americans that rely on the benefits would receive 65% of their typical allotted amount. A federal judge then ordered the administration to fully fund food benefits by Friday. 

“We’re finding out that it’s hurting the union workers, it’s hurting air travelers, it’s hurting people who rely on food stamps. I mean, it’s hurting Democrats,” Feehery said. “Their higher priority is showing that they’re tough against Trump, and they’re more than happy to use their constituents as cannon fodder.”

SCHUMER, DEMS CALL ‘BULL—-‘ ON TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER FOOD STAMP SHUTDOWN THREAT

Democrats acknowledge that the pain of the shutdown can’t be ignored but remain firm that their fight to extend the healthcare subsidies is one worth having.

“Shutdowns suck. I want it over here, but I don’t think we have fully come to recognize how much pain is going to exist in this country when 4 million people lose their healthcare insurance,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said. “That’s as devastating, if not more devastating, in the long run, than the pain people are feeling this month.”

Julian Epstein, former chief counsel for House Judiciary Committee Democrats, told Fox News Digital that Republicans had an opportunity to seize the narrative on healthcare.

“If I were advising Trump, I would tell him to make the case in an Oval Office address that the Democrats are voting to close the government and that it’s the Republicans that want to open it. The president should also lay out his vision for controlling healthcare premiums,” Epstein said. “Voters are starting to tune out the invective from both sides, and all the noise. They want a clear plan for their economic concerns.”

And Feehery similarly argued Republicans should take their moment on healthcare, pointing out that Democrats are effectively delaying the discussion on Obamacare by prolonging the shutdown.

“If Republicans were smart, they would be talking about why Obamacare is fundamentally broken and how to fundamentally change that. But Republicans don’t really like to talk about healthcare, which is kind of annoying,” he said. “But yeah, I do think that the fact that it’s gone past the [Nov. 1 open enrollment] deadline has made this even more complicated.”

There is a sense on Capitol Hill that the shutdown could be coming to an end, but Republicans contend it will be up to Senate Democrats.

A dozen centrist Democrats are mulling an offer from the GOP that would guarantee a vote on the expiring subsidies after the government reopens, coupled with the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) and a trio of spending bills to jump start the government funding process.

SENATE DEMS EMBOLDENED IN SHUTDOWN STRATEGY AFTER ELECTION SWEEP

But many in the caucus say that’s not enough, and demand that Trump sit down and meet with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to hash out a deal.

Democrats also believe that Republicans are feeling the heat from Tuesday night’s elections, where Democratic candidates swept their Republican opponents in statewide elections, and they point to comments Trump made that the shutdown was hurting the GOP.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., contended that what Trump meant was Democrats were using the shutdown “to fire up their base.”

“But I think it’s also incredibly sad that SNAP recipients and federal workers and their families and Head Start families all had to go without so they could help the New York City election,” Lankford said. “And that’s pretty sad.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who is running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, told Fox News Digital, “Every day the Schumer Shutdown drags on, Americans pay the price — missed paychecks, canceled flights, and threats to public safety. Democrats aren’t helping anyone, they’re sowing chaos and achieving nothing.”

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Still, Democrats largely remain firm that the only off-ramp they want starts at the White House.

“Shutdowns are terrible. I mean, I don’t know what to tell you,” Sen. Bryan Schatz, D-Hawaii, told Fox News Digital. “It’s really awful what people are going through. And the only way out of this is a negotiation.”

China formally brought its next-generation aircraft carrier, the Fujian, into active service Wednesday — a milestone in its drive to transform the People’s Liberation Army Navy into a force capable of projecting power far beyond Asia’s shores.

The Fujian is China’s third aircraft carrier, compared with the U.S.’s 11, and the first that it designed and produced at home. It’s one of the most significant milestones in President Xi Jinping’s push to modernize the People’s Liberation Army by 2035, part of a sweeping military overhaul aimed at countering U.S. influence in the Indo-Pacific.

China’s state media said the Fujian will continue sea trials and flight tests before becoming fully combat-ready, but its commissioning signals Beijing’s growing confidence in operating larger, more complex warships. The 80,000-ton vessel is equipped with electromagnetic catapults that can launch heavier aircraft, including advanced J-35 stealth fighters, giving it longer range and greater strike capacity than China’s two previous carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong.

Defense analysts say the Fujian marks a shift toward a true blue-water navy — one designed to operate far from Chinese shores — bolstering Beijing’s ability to project power across the Indo-Pacific and potentially into the western Pacific, where U.S. carriers have long dominated. Still, China remains years away from matching the U.S. Navy’s global reach or experience in carrier operations. The Fujian is conventionally powered, limiting its endurance compared with America’s nuclear fleet.

TRUMP’S AIRCRAFT CARRIER VISIT SENDS CHINA A MESSAGE: US SEA POWER STILL RULES THE WAVES

The Fujian’s launch also reignited debate over the use of electromagnetic catapults — a technology Beijing has embraced and one that President Donald Trump has publicly criticized as unreliable.

Speaking aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington while visiting sailors in Japan, Trump announced his intention to sign an executive order directing the United States Navy to revert to steam-powered catapults and hydraulic elevators on new carriers, rejecting the modern electromagnetic system (EMALS) as too costly, unreliable and difficult to repair.

“They’re spending billions to build stupid electric. And the problem is, when it breaks, you have to send it up to MIT…. The steam — you can fix it with a hammer and a blowtorch. And it works just as well, if not better,” Trump said.

TRUMP SAYS MISSILES FOR JAPAN’S F-35S WILL ARRIVE ‘THIS WEEK’ DURING VISIT TO USS GEORGE WASHINGTON

He told the assembled sailors: “When we build aircraft carriers, it’s steam for the catapults, and it’s hydraulic for the elevators. We’ll never have a problem.”

News of the Fujian’s commissioning prompted immediate concern in Japan, which has been expanding its own defense capabilities in response to China’s growing military power. Minoru Kihara, a former defense minister who now serves as chief cabinet secretary under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, said the launch showed that Beijing is “extensively and rapidly strengthening its military power without transparency.”

Kihara told reporters that Japan believes China is working to extend its naval and air operations farther from its shores and warned that Tokyo will “calmly but decisively respond” to any potential threats.

The United States maintains a carrier strike group presence in the western Pacific and conducts regular freedom-of-navigation operations near disputed islands to counter China’s territorial assertions.

A senior War Department official told Fox News Digital this week: “China’s military buildup sends a signal to all that Beijing intends to use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.”

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Still, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and his Chinese counterpart appeared to smooth over some tensions in a meeting last week, agreeing to establish military-to-military communications channels to “deconflict.”

“We have more meetings on that coming soon. God bless both China and the USA!” Hegseth wrote in a post on X after the meeting.

A Democratic lawmaker is backing the Trump administration’s decision to reduce air traffic as a consequence of the ongoing government shutdown.

Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said, “Safety must always be the highest priority” for the aviation industry in a statement on Thursday evening.

“The decision by Secretary Duffy to reduce flights at America’s 40 busiest airports is the right call for the safety of the flying public,” Stanton wrote on X. “Now it’s critical that Republicans and Democrats get together and reach a bipartisan agreement on a plan to reduce health costs and end the shutdown.”

GOP LAWMAKER WARNS OF POSSIBLE FOOD, MEDICINE SHORTAGES AS FLIGHTS GROUNDED

He concluded, “Arizona deserves better, and so do the hardworking professionals who keep our skies safe.”

Friday marks the 38th day of the government shutdown. Bipartisan Senate efforts to end the standoff have still not produced a clear off-ramp.

Thousands of federal employees have been furloughed as agencies and critical programs run low on funds, while government workers deemed “essential” have been forced to work without pay for weeks.

People in the latter group include air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers, many of whom have been forced to take second jobs and call out sick to make ends meet.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) directed a 4% reduction in air traffic across 40 of the busiest airports in the U.S., taking effect on Friday.

That reduction will gradually ramp up to 10% by Nov. 14 if the shutdown does not end by then.

An emergency order issued by the FAA said the reduction would ensure the National Airspace System could “maintain the highest standards of safety” amid shortages fueled by the shutdown.

AMERICANS COULD FACE AIRPORT CHAOS IF DEMS DON’T END SHUTDOWN, TRUMP OFFICIAL WARNS

That includes Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the largest airport serving Stanton’s district.

Stanton’s nearby 4th Congressional District encompasses parts of Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs, including portions of Tempe and Mesa.

Back in Washington, whose two main airports are also affected by the reduction order, Democratic leaders are still publicly insisting that any funding deal be paired with an extension of COVID-19-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year.

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Republicans have argued against partisan policy riders in a funding bill to end the shutdown.

Stanton was among the House Democrats who voted against the GOP’s funding proposal when it passed the House on Sept. 19.

As the Trump administration has carried out its crackdown on illegal immigration, Americans have begun to see little-known countries like the African absolute monarchy of Eswatini in headlines increasingly often. Though obscure, these tiny countries, including Eswatini, can play a “vital role” in U.S. national security, according to a border and immigration expert.

With over 515,000 total deportations since inauguration day and 600,000 expected by the end of President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, the administration is on track to blow past the record number of deportations in a single year.

Even with these large numbers, the administration has been hit with court rulings that have slowed down its deportations. In many instances, such as in the case of alleged MS-13 gang member and Salvadoran illegal Kilmar Abrego Garcia, illegal immigrants can further delay their deportation by arguing that returning to their home country poses a risk to their safety or well-being.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Simon Hankinson, a border and immigration senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, explained that this is where third-party countries come into play.

TRUMP ADMIN STRIKES NEW DEPORTATION DEAL WITH RWANDA TO GET ILLEGAL ALIENS OFF AMERICAN SOIL

He said the ability to still deport illegal aliens who claim risk of injury or torture in their home country denies them an effective “veto” on deportation. Hankinson said that while U.S. immigration law allows for these third-party deportee countries, some countries in Europe cannot do the same, with disastrous results.

“With a good lawyer and a lot of BS, even the worst of the worst are able to remain in European countries where some of them kill people, rape people, do horrible things,” he explained. “So, the United States does not want to be in that position.”

“Our law allows us, if we can’t send someone back to their home country, we can send them back to a country in which they resided for some time, or in which have gotten protection before or in a pinch to another country that will accept them and will not torture them or otherwise abuse them,” he said.

LIST OF COUNTRIES TAKING IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT DEPORTEES GROWS WITH LATEST AFRICAN PARTNERS

In the U.S., however, illegal immigrants can continue arguing that they face torture or harm in third-party countries that the government proposes deporting them to.

“If you look at someone like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, his home country is El Salvador. That’s where he’s from. He was ordered, deported, given a final order of removal some years ago, but the judge said you can’t send him back … to El Salvador. But that was the one exception. He could have been sent anywhere else in the world. And so ever since then, the government has been trying to send him to other countries that will accept him. And in each case, I believe it’s 22 countries now, he’s claimed that he’s under threat of torture or abuse if he goes to those countries,” explained Hankinson.

Then there are recalcitrant countries that refuse to take their nationals back, such as how China, Russia and India have done in the past.

As a result, Hankinson said the Trump administration has sought out new countries to partner with to send deportees to.

“We’re the United States, we’ve got leverage, we have carrots and sticks to try to get countries to take their people back,” said Hankinson, noting that that these third-party country agreements can serve as one of those “sticks.”

Thus far, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of illegal aliens to third-party countries, including El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Rwanda, South Sudan and Eswatini.

ICE REVEALS STUNNING STATISTIC AFTER EXPOSING HALLOWEEN WEEKEND’S ‘WORST OF THE WORST’ ARRESTS

On Sept. 5, the Department of Homeland Security sent Abrego Garcia’s lawyers a notice that in light of his fears of persecution in 22 other countries, he would be deported to Eswatini.

“That claim of fear is hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries,” the DHS notice read. “Nonetheless, we hereby notify you that your new country of removal is Eswatini, Africa.”

Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a tiny landlocked country largely surrounded by South Africa. It has a population of approximately 1.2 million people who are ruled over by the last absolute monarch in Africa, King Mswati III.

Hankinson said that countries such as Eswatini can benefit from these mutually beneficial deals. While the U.S. rids itself of some of the excess illegal immigrants in the country while the third-party countries gain America’s good will, which can result in increased trade or assistance.

Though the numbers being sent to these third-party countries are small relative to the numbers being sent back to their home countries, Hankinson said he thinks these operations can be scaled up.

“I would think that the Trump administration would want to have as many of these deals as possible. So, that when you get a really lawyered up dude like Kilmar, no matter how many times he claims that he can’t go to country A, B or C, out of the 195 countries in the world, eventually he’s going to run out, and we’re going to be able to send him somewhere,” he said.

TOP TRUMP OFFICIALS URGED TO CLOSE ‘CRITICAL GAPS’ IN ILLEGAL ALIEN CRIME REPORTING: ‘GROWING PROBLEM’

Hankinson said that this ability is “vital” to national security.

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“If an alien has a veto on being sent home, then it’s a one-way street. It’s just a ratchet and never goes back down again,” he said.

“There are a lot of people who were let in under the Biden administration, thousands of people, who have criminal records back home that we know nothing about, and they’re sooner or later going to victimize American citizens,” he went on. “The power of these agreements is that they make everyone understand that one way or another, if you have to leave, we’re going to find someone to take you.”

FIRST ON FOX — When Nebraska Democrats gather in Omaha Friday to attend a gala headlined by former President Joe Biden, they’ll be greeted by a mobile-billboard blitz that will link a Senate candidate to some highly recognizable — and polarizing — rising figures in the Democratic Party.

The campaign to re-elect Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., is deploying mobile billboard trucks with bold, neon graphics portraying his rival, Independent candidate Dan Osborn, as a “fake Independent” and part of the Democratic Party’s far-left future, along with New York City’s socialist mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and controversial Maine candidate Graham Platner.

“Nebraska Democrats’ brand is too toxic to run a candidate under the party label,” Ricketts campaign Communications Director Will Coup told Fox News Digital. “Even though Fake Dan Osborn doesn’t have a D next to his name, he still supports the party’s most far-left beliefs.”

WILL ELECTION DAY 2025 BE REMEMBERED AS THE RISE OF THE SOCIALISTS?

Biden is delivering remarks at the Nebraska Democratic Party’s 2025 Ben Nelson Gala in downtown Omaha. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn were also invited as featured speakers.

REPUBLICANS PUSH TO MAKE MAMDANI THE NEW FACE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Omaha is considered a “blue dot” in Republican-leaning Nebraska. Nebraska is one of only two states that splits its electoral votes by congressional district, and Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Omaha, typically votes for the Democratic presidential nominee. 

While the district voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, Republican Rep. Don Bacon nevertheless won re-election for his U.S. House seat in that same district. Bacon is not seeking re-election in 2026. 

While Osborn is running as an Independent, Chair Jane Kleeb has affirmed the Nebraska Democratic Party is “supporting” his bid to unseat Ricketts, the two-term senator and former Nebraska governor.

“Nebraska Democrats proudly support Dan Osborn,” will be the message on one of the three mobile billboards.

The Ricketts campaign has called Osborn a “fake” Independent — another message that will be on display around downtown Omaha Friday.

“Osborn’s campaign is even staffed by the same people who ran Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s campaign in New York. A communist, a socialist, and a Fake Independent: that’s the best the Democratic Party has to offer,” Coup told Fox News Digital.

Mamdani and Osborn share 28-year-old media strategist, Morris Katz, as reported by Vanity Fair.

Katz is also the media strategist for Graham Platner, the controversial candidate running for the U.S. Senate in Maine next year.

Between 2020 and 2021, Platner posted and has since deleted Reddit posts calling himself a “communist,” which he recently said he was “joking” about.

Platner has faced calls to drop out of his Senate race, and a top campaign staffer resigned after he faced backlash for photos revealing that he had a tattoo resembling the Totenkopf used by Hitler’s SS paramilitary forces.

NATIONAL DEMS BANKROLL CAMPAIGN OF ‘FAKE INDEPENDENT’ SENATE CANDIDATE FROM MIDWESTERN STATE

An image of Platner with “communist” plastered across his face will be featured on one of the mobile billboards, alongside the message “fake ‘Independent'” on Osborn and “socialist” on Mamdani, above a slogan describing the “future of the Democratic Party.”

Osborn, a union leader who ran as an Independent against Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., last year, is now mounting his second straight bid to unseat a sitting Republican in the U.S. Senate.

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Nebraska Democratic Party, Biden, Platner and Mamdani for comment. 

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

As President Donald Trump intensifies his administration’s war on drugs through direct military action at sea, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced yet another deadly strike on Thursday.

In a post on X, Hegseth said the U.S. military strike killed three men aboard the vessel, which he described as operated by a designated terrorist organization.

“Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” Hegseth wrote.

TOP DEMOCRAT BACKS US INTEL ON NARCO-TRAFFICKING STRIKES, FAULTS BIDEN FOR ‘NOT GOING FAR ENOUGH’ ON MADURO

“The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean and was struck in international waters. No U.S. forces were harmed in the strike, and three male narco-terrorists — who were aboard the vessel — were killed,” he noted.

The post included video footage of the strike, showing the moment the vessel was destroyed.

The Trump administration, which has already killed dozens in the deadly strikes, plans to continue pursuing the controversial policy.

US MILITARY KILLS 2 SUSPECTED NARCO-TERRORISTS IN 16TH EASTERN PACIFIC STRIKE, HEGSETH SAYS

“As we’ve said before, vessel strikes on narco-terrorists will continue until their the poisoning of the American people stops,” Hegseth asserted.

“To all narco-terrorists who threaten our homeland: if you want to stay alive, stop trafficking drugs. If you keep trafficking deadly drugs—we will kill you,” he warned.

HEGSETH BLASTS ‘NARCO-TERRORISTS’ TARGETED BY TRUMP ADMIN AS ‘THE AL QAEDA OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE’

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President Trump has previously said “the cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere.”

Top Democrats emerged from a classified Capitol Hill briefing Wednesday expressing confidence in the intelligence behind recent U.S. strikes on suspected narco-trafficking vessels near Venezuela. But they also faulted the Biden administration for what they called a failure to confront Nicolás Maduro after Venezuela’s disputed 2024 election.

The Office of Legal Counsel presented lawmakers with its written justification for a series of missile strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that U.S. officials say have killed 63 suspected traffickers. Lawmakers from both parties said the briefing reassured them the targets were legitimate, even as some voiced unease about the broader strategy.

“The final comment I’ll make is just that nothing in the legal opinion even mentions Venezuela,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

“I think they do have visibility into drug trafficking,” Warner added, saying he trusted U.S. intelligence assessments but would prefer traffickers be “interdicted and taken to court rather than blown up.”

TRUMP TOUTS US STRIKE AS MADURO SLAMS MILITARY ‘THREAT’ OFF VENEZUELA

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, War Secretary Pete Hegseth and senior Pentagon lawyers led the closed-door briefing for congressional leaders and the chairs and ranking members of the Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees.

Lawmakers have complained for days about being left in the dark as the Pentagon launched multiple maritime strikes without first consulting Congress. Officials declined to discuss the intended scope or duration of the campaign and provided few details about who was killed or what evidence tied the targets to narcotics trafficking.

“Lots of mistakes could get made,” said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “But, again, they are applying the eyes and ears of our intelligence community to these boats. I don’t worry too much that there will be a strike on a fishing boat or a pleasure boat, but that’s always possible.”

Himes said the administration described “the process by which these boats are selected” but did not share photographs or the identities of those killed.

House Speaker Mike Johnson also backed the intelligence underpinning the operation.

“We have exquisite intelligence about these strikes on these vessels,” Johnson said. “We know the contents of the boats. We know the personnel almost to a person.”

WASHINGTON’S SHADOW WAR: HOW STRIKES ON CARTELS THREATEN TO COLLAPSE MADURO’S REGIME

Officials told lawmakers there were no plans to expand the maritime campaign to land operations or to target Maduro directly.

“There are no apparent plans to expand this beyond what they say they are doing,” Himes said.

Reports that the administration was considering potential strikes on Mexico did not appear to come up in the briefing, which lawmakers said focused almost exclusively on cocaine — some of which is trafficked through Venezuela — rather than fentanyl, Mexico’s top export.

“It’s as described — to stop the flow of drugs, and, to be clear, to stop the flow of cocaine,” said Himes.

Still, several Democrats said the Biden administration missed a critical moment last year to rally Latin American allies after Venezuela’s contested election, when independent monitors and several Western governments recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the rightful winner.

“I frankly think the Biden administration didn’t go far enough after the Venezuelan people voted overwhelmingly to get rid of Maduro,” Warner said. “We missed a huge opportunity when Venezuelans — in numbers probably in the mid-sixties percent — came out against Maduro, even under threat of violence. The fact that we didn’t rally the region at that point was, in retrospect, a huge mistake.”

After the July 2024 vote, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on high-level Maduro officials but stopped short of reimposing broad restrictions on Venezuela’s oil sector, a move officials said could have driven up global fuel prices and worsened migration pressures.

By contrast, the Trump administration has taken a harder line. It reimposed sweeping sanctions on Maduro during Trump’s first term and has since increased pressure on the South American strongman in his second. The Justice Department has offered a $50 million bounty for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, and officials have not ruled out whether the current strikes could be intended to pressure him to step aside.

Asked in a CBS interview over the weekend whether Maduro’s days were numbered, Trump said, “I would say yeah. I think so.”

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Pressed on whether the U.S. would go to war with Venezuela, he added, “I doubt it. I don’t think so.”

Former President Barack Obama resumed his campaign trail advocacy at the 11th hour of the 2025 election cycle, rallying support for the pair of Democrat gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey before they successfully defeated their Republican opponents. 

“Congratulations to all the Democratic candidates who won tonight. It’s a reminder that when we come together around strong, forward-looking leaders who care about the issues that matter, we can win,” Obama posted to X Tuesday as the elections were called and handed Democrats wins in the handful of high-profile elections. “We’ve still got plenty of work to do, but the future looks a little bit brighter.”

The former president’s star power was touted as likely giving a boost to Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill in the lead-up to Tuesday, though his presence became more of a “side note” as the Trump administration and its economic policies loomed large over both campaigns. 

“The further we get away from the Obama presidency, the more people believe that he didn’t get that much accomplished. I don’t think many voters are looking backward, even if Obama may still be an iconic voice inside the party,” former chief counsel to House Judiciary Committee Democrats Julian Epstein told Fox News Digital when asked about Obama’s presence at rallies, saying the president was more of a “side note” amid the campaign. 

OBAMA INSISTED BLACK MEN VOTE FOR HARRIS BUT NOW STUMPS AGAINST VIRGINIA’S BLACK LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Obama endorsed both Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill in October in video endorsements touting their leadership, while also taking digs at the Trump administration and Republicans. Obama has long served as the Democratic Party’s campaign closer, zig-zagging states to drum up support in local, state and federal elections since he departed the White House in 2017. 

Obama kept that momentum going in 2025, as the party overall still navigates its path forward with new leadership following former Vice President Kamala Harris’ election loss to President Donald Trump. 

Epstein said Democrats are currently benefiting from “anti-Trump energy,” noting that “60% of Virginians think the local economy is good but 2/3rds think the country is headed in the wrong direction.” 

“This is an extraordinary paradox, and it means people don’t believe Trump is delivering on the economy,” he said. “We still have 3% inflation, and very few voters think their overall economic position is improving.” 

The Democrat added that economic and affordability concerns weighed heavily on voters heading to the ballot boxes just a year after electing Trump in an election that also largely focused on the economy and inflation woes from the Biden-era.

“What that should tell Trump is that there’s too much noise and too much distraction, and that he needs to focus on getting the economy into overdrive. This means concluding the trade agreements ASAP, reducing the tariffs, and allowing the economy to soar after the tax cuts in deregulation,” he said. 

“First and foremost, the Republicans won because voters trust them more in the economy,” he said of the 2024 election. “They need to prove that this trust was not misplaced. All of this would’ve been exactly the same whether or not Obama showed up.” 

In New Jersey, voters reported that the state’s notoriously high taxes and the economy were their top issues heading into the polling stations, according to Fox News Voter Poll data. In Virginia, half of voters reported that the economy was their top issue, more than double the number who reported healthcare as their top concern, according to Fox polling data. 

The Virginia and New Jersey campaigns both focused on deriding the Trump administration as taking the U.S. down the wrong path, including both candidates vowing to ease affordability and housing crisis woes on the state level while battling White House policies as they relate to their states. Obama also took part in slamming the Trump administration while making his pitch to voters. 

“Virginia’s elections are some of the most important in the country this year. We know Republicans will keep attacking abortion rights and the rights of women. That’s why having the right governor matters, and I’m proud to endorse Abigail Spanberger,” Obama said in an ad endorsing the Virginia Democrat. 

“Republican policies are raising costs on working families so (that) billionaires can get massive tax cuts,” he said in another ad endorsing Spanberger. 

Just days after releasing the ads, Obama hit the campaign trail in the candidates’ respective states. Obama first traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, Saturday for a Spanberger rally before heading up to New Jersey for a rally in Newark for Sherrill’s candidacy. In both speeches, Obama focused his remarks on deriding the Trump administration and offering the Democrats’ respective elections as an opportunity to vote against Republican and MAGA policies. 

“Let’s face it, our country and our politics are in a pretty dark place right now,” Obama told the Newark audience Saturday.

OBAMA THE ‘CAMPAIGN CLOSER’ FOR DEMOCRATS IN TOP 2025 ELECTIONS AS PARTY AIMS TO REBOUND

He said at both rallies: “Every day, this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and recklessness and mean-spiritedness and just plain craziness.”

Fox News Digital traveled to Newark for the Sherrill rally featuring Obama, with attendees celebrating that they believed Sherrill would win the election while remarking Obama’s presence only helped drive further support. The crowds at the Newark, New Jersey, rally were so large that some supporters were turned away at the door of the rally, which was held at the local community college’s gymnasium. 

“I heard Barack Obama was gonna be here. And I love Barack Obama, so I really came out here for that,” one voter, Alexis from South Jersey, told Fox News Digital. “But I do support Mikie, as well.” 

WITH LEGACY ON THE LINE, OBAMA HITTING CAMPAIGN TRAIL TO BOOST DEMOCRATS IN KEY GOVERNOR ELECTIONS

“I want to hear Obama,” another attendee, Robert, from Spring Lake, told Fox Digital ahead of the election. “I think a lot of people want to hear Obama. Wouldn’t it be great to have a message of hope at this point in time?” 

Both candidates notched victories over their Republican challengers as part of a blue wave during the 2025 off-year election cycle, which also delivered a win to Socialist New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in another high-profile election. 

Former Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is running for the Senate in Kentucky to replace departing longtime Sen. Mitch McConnell, told Fox Digital that Democrats are still in the midst of finding their footing following their 2024 election losses and promoted Obama’s star power to help carry the gubernatorial candidates across the finish line. 

“I think when it comes to the Democratic Party, they certainly are trying to figure out what their next steps are, and that means they bring in people from the past and have them be a part of the conversation. We’ve got a standard-bearer within the Republican Party, and we’ve got right now in the White House, that standard-bearer is President Trump,” Cameron told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday. 

OBAMA CONTINUES TRADITION OF SLOW-ROLLED POLITICAL ENDORSEMENTS AS GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS HIT FEVER PITCH

“President Trump has got the loudest voice in the party. And you know his voice is much bigger than former President Obama’s,” he said. 

Bradley Devlin, politics editor at The Daily Signal, added that “whatever the ‘Obama Bump’ might be—assuming there is one at all,” it would not “make up for the fact that Obama was the one who set the Democrat party down this path of extremism, taking the side of the 20 in 80-20 issues, and creating the fundamentals for the rise of Trump and the resurgence of conservative politics and American values.” 

Trump did not physically campaign in New Jersey or Virginia. He endorsed New Jersey Republican Jack Ciattarelli’s candidacy and took part in virtual tele-rallies ahead of the election. Trump additionally did not endorse Virginia Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears, and instead promoted Virginia residents vote for GOP Old Dominion State candidates across the board during a tele-rally where the president did not mention Earle-Sears by name. 

The president wrote on Truth Social late Tuesday as the election results came in that unspecified pollsters reported that Republicans lost the election because Trump was not physically on the ballot, as well as the ongoing shutdown woes since. Oct. 1. 

White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital when asked about the election that “Americans are grappling with affordability because it was Joe Biden and Democrats who created the worst inflation crisis in decades.”

“Putting this inflation crisis behind us has been a Day One priority for President Trump. The Administration’s supply-side economic agenda has already cooled inflation to a 2.5 percent annualized rate – half the average inflation rate under Joe Biden. Americans are paying less for essentials like gas and eggs, and today the Administration inked yet another drug pricing deal to deliver unprecedented healthcare savings for everyday Americans,” Desai continued. 

“As President Trump’s agenda of tax cuts, deregulation and energy abundance continues to take effect and real wages continue increasing, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come.” 

THE ONLY GOP GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES RUNNING IN 2025 ELECTIONS LEAN INTO TRUMP’S MAGA CAMPAIGN TACTICS

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Obama previously has campaigned in New Jersey during current Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s campaigns in 2017 and 2021, but has not spent as much time in the state compared to battleground jurisdictions such as Pennsylvania or Wisconsin during federal elections. Obama’s rally in Norfolk, Virginia, marked the first time since 2012 that he campaigned in the city, adding to the fanfare of a former president rallying support for the Democrat ticket. 

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: A Trump-aligned legal group is ramping up its pressure campaign targeting big blue cities violating President Donald Trump’s Executive Orders and federal civil rights law by continuing to embed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into their practices. 

America First Legal (AFL) sent three more civil rights complaints to the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights this week requesting it investigate the Virginia cities of Richmond, Alexandria and Arlington for violating Title VI and Title VII of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as Trump’s Executive Orders on discriminatory DEI initiatives, via its city and county programs, hiring, and public services. 

AFL argues the cities receive federal grant money and distribute it across their city governments in various departments and for multiple purposes, opening them up to federal scrutiny.  

The civil rights complaint letters to the Justice Department follow the agency’s decision to launch an investigation into the city of Austin for similar DEI violations, which was followed by AFL’s first complaint letter to the Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights earlier this month, asking the agency to investigate Seattle over its allegedly discriminatory DEI practices. AFL filed a complaint against Portland a few days later as well, alleging similar accusations.   

TOP UNIVERSITY HIT WITH SCATHING FEDERAL COMPLAINT CALLING FOR PROBE INTO ‘UNSAFE’ AND ‘UNLAWFUL’ DEI AGENDA

“Despite these federal civil rights laws, these jurisdictions openly engage in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) policies in their respective jurisdictions, ordering local departments to implement discriminatory ‘equity’ programs and directives,” an AFL press release states. “Race-based policies do not create justice—they destroy it. As Virginia lurches to the Left, America First Legal will continue leading the fight to ensure that federal funds never support programs that divide citizens, weaken public safety, or erode the rule of law.”

In AFL’s complaint, the legal watchdog accuses the City of Richmond of creating a “government-wide pattern or practice of discrimination” by embedding racial equity in every department. The complaint cites hiring materials embedded with discriminatory themes, mandatory DEI training, Richmond’s Equity Agenda, and the capital city’s establishment of an Office of Equity and Inclusion, which AFL claims to have an aim to empower “only certain people and communities wholly based on race,” rather than merit.

Richmond’s fiscal year budgets reportedly measured department performance by the percentage of employees completing “equity training,” with a stated goal of 100% participation. Meanwhile, AFL also cited Richmond’s “Climate Equity Action Plan” and “Racial Equity and Environmental Justice (REEJ) program,” which the group accuses of funneling resources to only certain racial groups. 

CONSERVATIVE MOM SUED FOR CALLING DEI TEACHER ‘WOKE’ CELEBRATES AS DEFAMATION CASE TOSSED

The civil rights complaints against Alexandria and Arlington include similar allegations to those levied against Richmond.

Alexandria’s Office of Race and Social Equity (RASE), AFL alleges, serves to embed “racial and social equity into all city policies, programs, decisions, and environments” and ensure city policies and programs “are discussed and evaluated through a racial and social justice lens.”

In particular, AFL calls out Alexandria’s Police Department’s development of a “Racial Equity Plan,” which the complaint claims has instructions for the police department “to make efforts in creating a diverse workforce” with the goal of “improv[ing] the demographic representation” through recruitment. A similar “strategic plan” from the city’s fire department reportedly pushes similar hiring preferences on its department as well, AFL alleges.

Arlington, meanwhile, is accused of establishing an “Affirmative Action Plan,” which AFL says includes “underutilization goals” based on race for specific job groups. These goals include increasing minority representation in the “Senior Administrators” job group from 35.23% to 45%, and minority representation in “Police Officers” from 27.38% to 38%, according to AFL’s complaint.

To prove the real-life consequences of these cities’ policies, AFL’s complaint against Arlington pointed to an incident at a local public school from last year.

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“In September 2024, a male sex offender was permitted to use the girls’ locker room at Washington Liberty High School in Arlington County for months because he claimed to be transgender—a direct result of the County’s policy allowing individuals to use facilities based on their claimed ‘gender identity.’ The individual ultimately exposed his genitals to a 9-year-old girl,” AFL’s complaint to the Department of Justice chronicles. “This incident demonstrates how Arlington County’s race- and sex-conscious policies not only violate federal civil rights law but also compromise student safety.”

Last month, AFL reached a settlement with the City of Philadelphia that began in 2019 over alleged race- and sex-based quotas and “discriminatory” union-membership requirements in public contracting. Under the settlement, the City of Philadelphia agreed to rewrite its “Project Labor Agreements,” which AFL said penalized city contractors that refused to abide by its DEI mandates. Under the settlement, the city was compelled to make previous workforce diversity goals “strictly aspirational” and end “quotas or mandatory minimums.”

A federal judge in Rhode Island on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to fully fund the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food aid program by Friday, rejecting the administration’s effort to only partially fund the benefits program for some 42 million low-income Americans.

“People have gone without for too long,” U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell said in court Thursday. 

He scolded the Trump administration for failing to comply with the order he issued last week, which required the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the SNAP benefits programs before its funds were slated to lapse on Nov. 1, marking the first time in the program’s 60-year history that its payments were halted. 

TWO JUDGES RULE TRUMP ADMIN MUST KEEP SNAP BENEFITS IN PLACE AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON

The judge also said Trump officials failed to address a known funding distribution problem that could cause SNAP payments to be delayed for weeks or months in some states. He ordered the USDA to tap other contingency funds as needed.

“It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” McConnell said Thursday. 

Trump administration officials said in a court filing this week that they would pay just 65% of the roughly $9 billion owed to fund the SNAP program for November, prompting the judge to update his order and give the administration just 24 hours to comply.

TWO JUDGES RULE TRUMP ADMIN MUST KEEP SNAP BENEFITS IN PLACE AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON

“The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur,” McConnell said. “That’s what irreparable harm here means.”

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This is a breaking news story. Check back shortly for updates.

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” – Winston Churchill

It’s not an agreement. Just a plan.

But the political ice which has frozen lawmakers and closed the government for 37 days is softening.

Just barely.

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO WHERE WE STAND WITH A POTENTIAL BREAK IN THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

“There seems to be some indication of a thaw,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Let’s face it:

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are skittish about the shutdown. They’re agonizing about aviation. There’s increasing worry among bipartisan lawmakers about federal workers not getting paid and the cessation of emergency food benefits known as SNAP. Everyone wants a deal. However, no one knows where to find one.

Any agreement will be about the math. But lawmakers are locked in this shutdown box and can’t find the combination to escape.

That’s why it’s significant there are at least attempts to turn the wheels of Congress to open the government. But that may take a while.

That’s why it’s notable that, for the first time since October 1, lawmakers are even attempting to turn the gears of government back on.

“I’m optimistic that we should get something done this week,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D. “I think there’s a path forward here.”

Back on Tuesday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., believed the Senate would vote soon.

“I think it probably could happen Thursday. It might be pushed until Friday. But more than likely Thursday,” said Mullin.

But the Oklahoma Republican offered this caveat.

“I’m just making assumptions,” cautioned Mullin.

OVER ONE MONTH INTO GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AND NO END IN SIGHT – BUT PREDICTIONS RUN RAMPANT

This is the government shutdown of 2025. And no one knows anything.

Mullin was back on FOX Business on Wednesday, recalibrating what he said a day earlier.

“There’s been a group working in a very strong bipartisan manner, saying once this election is over, we’re going to reopen. And then today, they came back with some of the most ridiculous demands to take authority away from President Trump – wanting us as a Senate to guarantee what the House can and can’t do. And it’s just not feasible,” said Mullin.

Republicans have long known that the House-passed interim spending bill (from September 19) simply doesn’t work anymore. Even if the Senate were to align with the House, that legislation only funds the government through November 21. And that would deposit Congress right back where it started on October 1 with a shutdown.

So Republicans began eyeing a longer temporary spending bill running through late January.

“We’ve lost five weeks. So the November 21st, deadline no longer makes a lot of sense,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., referring to the end date of the original spending bill – still not passed by the Senate.

But Republicans need buy-in from Democrats to break a filibuster on any bill to terminate the record-breaking shutdown.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was circumspect when asked what Democrats might support after a lengthy lunch meeting of Democratic senators on Tuesday.

“We had a very good caucus and we’re exploring all the options,” was Schumer’s anodyne reply.

SHUTDOWN SEEN FROM THE PULPIT: INCHING ALONG ON A WING AND A PRAYER

But despite discussions, no one is exactly sure what could court Democratic votes. Especially since Republicans aren’t relenting.

“It seems they’re pretty dug in and they’re okay, screwing people over on their healthcare,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.

Schumer and a group of Senate Democrats incensed House liberals when they helped the GOP avoid a filibuster on a bill to fund the government in March. So it’s natural that House Democrats are leery of getting burned again.

“How much skepticism would there be from House Democrats on any sort of agreement that would come from the Senate?” yours truly asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

“We said from the very beginning that we will evaluate in good faith any bipartisan agreement that emerges from the Senate,” said Jeffries.

And that’s why the government likely remains shuttered for a while – even though there are bona fide efforts to solve the crisis.

“I don’t think any of us expected that it would drag on this long,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

But on Thursday, Senate Republicans developed a new plan which they hoped might end the government shutdown.

Or at least liquefy the ice a little more.

OPTIMISM FADES AS SENATE DEMOCRATS DIG IN, HOLD OUT OVER OBAMACARE DEMANDS

Republicans are challenging Democrats to block a test vote on a new gambit which would fund the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, the Department of Agriculture and Congress itself. That represents three of the 12 federal spending areas which Congress must approve each year. This plan would fund those three sectors until September 30, 2026. Lawmakers would attach another Band-Aid spending bill for the rest of the government until late January. But it was unclear if Democrats would go along.

“I’m less optimistic this morning than I was yesterday,” said Johnson. “What I understand is that Chuck Schumer has pulled them back from that and that they’re being instructed and told they can’t go there.”

And progressives are again leaning on Schumer.

Especially after his decision to help fund the government in March.

“He’s got to keep doing it and we’ve got to deliver a win because we can’t have what happened in the spring happen again,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., to colleague Aishah Hasnie.

Democrats are invigorated after Tuesday’s election results.

“There is no reason to surrender now. Every reason to stand firm,” said Blumenthal. “The message of Tuesday simply confirms what we’ve been hearing again and again and again.”

The plan could include an agreement to hold a vote by a particular date in the future related to healthcare subsidies. That’s the Democrats’ key request. But Democrats want more: a guarantee that Congress will offset spiking ObamaCare costs.

With the House not voting since September 19, Democrats are turning to political guerrilla tactics to make their points about the shutdown.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Penn., showed up at a press conference by the House Republican leadership on Wednesday and hectored Johnson. U.S. Capitol Police tried to remove Houlahan – until they realized she was a member of Congress.

Johnson called Houlahan’s interruption “beneath her.”

TRAVEL INDUSTRY SOUNDS ALARM OVER HOW SHUTDOWN WILL IMPACT AMERICANS AHEAD OF THANKSGIVING

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., set up a table outside the speaker’s office on Thursday afternoon, promising to answer questions, discuss healthcare and the Epstein files. Ansari says Capitol Police told her she could “get arrested if the table’s not moved.”

Ansari hawked healthcare subsidies as the nation’s air traffic controllers continue to work without paychecks.

“They’re heroes. They keep us safe every single day,” said Ansari of the controllers.

But she added a caveat: 

“Is it more important than 24 million Americans losing their health insurance or not being able to afford their rent?” asked Ansari. “No.”

Aviation concerns are gripping the nation. But only one Republican is saying out loud what everyone is thinking.

“All it takes is one little accident. And if people die?” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. “So air travel is nothing to mess around with.”

Even if the Senate votes this week, few expect an immediate breakthrough.

“My hopes and expectations are always that we’re going to have enough Democrats to actually proceed. But I don’t know. We’ll see,” said Thune. “The Dems are having a hard time taking yes for an answer.”

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., offered his own time frame.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY PREDICTS HOW LONG SHUTDOWN WILL LAST, SAYS DEMOCRATS ARE STILL ‘STAMPING THEIR LITTLE FEET’

“We’re at least seven days and more likely ten and very possibly two weeks away from opening up at best,” said Kennedy.

Democrats are split as to what they want to do. Still, many want an off-ramp. And progressives are ready to rage if moderate Democrats burn them again.

So we are far from the end of the government shutdown saga. But we’re not at the beginning anymore. Perhaps that’s solace to those tracking the shutdown.

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After all, anything which begins – usually ends.

Eventually.

Any optimism either side of the aisle had that the government shutdown could end this week appeared to fade on Capitol Hill, as Senate Democrats appear ready to hold out longer for a deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies.

Senate Democrats left another long closed-door caucus lunch on Thursday, signaling a unified front as the shutdown entered its 37th day amid Republican demands to make a deal to reopen the government.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus are still riding high after a successful Election Day Tuesday that saw Democratic candidates pummel their Republican opponents. While there are bipartisan talks among centrist Senate Democrats and Republicans on a way out, the majority of the caucus appeared ready to hold the line.

MIKE JOHNSON SHOOTS DOWN OBAMACARE VOTE GUARANTEE AFTER THUNE FLOATS COMPROMISE IN SENATE

“We had a very good, productive meeting,” Schumer said as he exited the lunch.

Others espoused messages of unity among the ranks and bristled that they were holding out from reopening the government.

“It’s not about holding out,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said. “We fight for access to healthcare for millions of people across this country. Affordability is a giant issue for American families. They told us that at the polls on Tuesday, but they tell us that every day of their lives.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to put the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) on the floor again Friday to test Democrats’ resolve. It’s expected they’ll block the bill once again.

Thune and Republicans have remained firm in their position that the Obamacare issue would be considered after the government reopens, and he has offered Senate Democrats a vote on the matter, which is also expected to fail.

SENATE DEMS EMBOLDENED IN SHUTDOWN STRATEGY AFTER ELECTION SWEEP

But Senate Democrats demand that President Donald Trump get involved and negotiate a deal on the expiring subsidies. Democrats also brushed aside comments from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who earlier in the day said he would not promise a vote in the House on the expiring subsidies.

“I can tell you that Mike Johnson is only going to do what one person tells him, and that one person is Donald Trump, who has declared himself basically the Speaker of the House,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said.

Still, Senate Republicans hope that Senate Democrats will accept the offer, along with the plan to pair the CR with a trio of spending bills to jump-start the government funding process.

SCHUMER PUSHES SHUTDOWN INTO RECORD BOOKS AFTER REJECTING GOP BILL A 14TH TIME

“I think the clear path forward here with regard to the [Obamacare] issue, open up the government, and we head down to the White House and sit down with the president and talk about it,” Thune said. “But I just, right now there is hostage taking, as you all know. The consequences are getting more pronounced.”

There is also the question of whether the Senate stays in over the weekend ahead of a scheduled recess for Veterans Day next week.

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Senate Democrats want to remain, but Republicans aren’t keen to stick around unless there are signs of real progress toward reopening the government.

“I do expect to be here this weekend,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said.

Rep. Elise Stefanik will officially launch her long-anticipated campaign for New York governor on Friday, entering the 2026 race as a Republican challenger to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, multiple sources confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.

Stefanik, a top House Republican and one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies, represents a conservative-leaning district in upstate New York and has been weighing a gubernatorial run for months.

“It will be very, very soon and people are very excited,” Stefanik said Thursday in an interview on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”

“There’s been an outpouring of support from Republicans, Democrats, independents, all across our great state,” Stefanik touted. “Many Democrats who previously supported Kathy Hochul are lining up in support.”

STEFANIK WRITING NEW BOOK AMID GUBERNATORIAL RUN BUZZ

Stefanik, a member of the House Republican leadership, for months has repeatedly charged that Hochul is “the worst governor in America.”

And Stefanik has blasted Hochul over the governor’s endorsement earlier this autumn of Zohran Mamdani, who this week was elected mayor of New York City. 

REPUBLICANS AIM TO LINK VULERNABLE DEMOCRATS TO MAMDANI

“People are looking for strong, commonsense leadership to be a check on this radical insanity that we’re seeing play out in New York City with Zohran Mamdani as a tax-hiking, defund the police, antisemite socialist,” Stefanik said in her Fox News interview, again linking Hochul to the progressive mayor-elect.

Stefanik, who once criticized Trump, has since become one of his staunchest defenders in Congress.

After Trump’s White House victory last year, he briefly considered naming Stefanik U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but ultimately backed off amid concerns that her departure would shrink the GOP’s razor-thin House majority.

It has been more than two decades since a Republican last won a New York gubernatorial race. The last was former Gov. George Pataki’s re-election in 2002.

COULD THIS TRUMP ALLY BREAK THE GOP’S 20-YEAR LOSING STREAK IN THIS KEY STATE?

Hochul, meanwhile, could face a tough re-election fight.

A former lieutenant governor, Hochul took office in 2021 after Democrat Andrew Cuomo resigned amid multiple scandals.

She defeated then-Rep. Lee Zeldin by just over six points in 2022 to win a full four-year term. But Zeldin’s showing was the best by a Republican gubernatorial nominee since Pataki won re-election to a third term in 2002.

Meanwhile, Trump, who lost New York by 23 points in the 2020 presidential election, trimmed his deficit by 10 points last November.

Hochul, a moderate Democrat from Buffalo, is facing a primary challenge from New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, in a very rare move by a lieutenant governor to primary challenge a sitting incumbent.

Stefanik is expected to hammer Hochul as she focuses her campaign on the issue of affordability.

“People are very concerned about affordability and I have a strong record of delivering for families,” she highlighted in her Fox News interview.

And she charged that Hochul had made New York “the most unaffordable state in the nation. We have the highest taxes, the highest energy prices, the highest utility prices, the highest grocery prices, and rent that continues to skyrocket.”

Democrats notched double-digit victories this week in New Jersey and Virginia, emphasizing affordability as a top issue. Stefanik said those results show Republicans must put forward a clear economic vision.

“You have to have a vision, and you have to put forth policies to make your state affordable again,” she said. “We are going to win the affordability message because her [Hochul] record is making it the most unaffordable state in the nation.”

But New York State Democratic Party Spokesperson Addison Dick charged that “Elise Stefanik is a rubber stamp in Washington for Trump’s deeply unpopular agenda that is raising costs, gutting health care, and defunding New York schools, hospitals, and police.”

And Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Kevin Donohoe charged that “from gutting health care to backing cost-raising tariffs, Stefanik’s record as Trump’s cheerleader in chief could not be more toxic with New York voters.”

Earlier this year, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York seriously mulled a run for governor. But Lawler announced in July that he would seek re-election and forgo a gubernatorial run.

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Stefanik, however, has already begun assembling a seasoned campaign team that includes veteran Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, who served as chief pollster for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

But Stefanik may not have the Republican nomination to herself. 

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Trump ally who was re-elected this week, may be eyeing a run for governor, GOP sources in New York confirmed to Fox News.