NationalWatch

ATLANTA – The head of the Georgia Democratic Party has a message for right-leaning voters who are undecided about November’s presidential election.

“Vote for someone who is going to move us forward into the next iteration of our country,” Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga., told Fox News Digital in an interview roughly a month before Election Day.

“We are tired of the vision of Donald Trump and his Republican Party, because right now what we know is there are Republicans out there willing to put country over party, and we need more like-minded people willing to do that.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has sought to make inroads with a litany of different voting blocs, including those that traditionally skew Republican. 

GEORGIA GOP CHAIR SHARES 2-PRONGED ELECTION STRATEGY AS TRUMP WORKS TO WIN BACK PEACH STATE

Georgia Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikema Williams spoke with Fox News Digital about the 2024 presidential race. (Getty Images/Fox News Digital)

Likely nowhere will that strategy prove more critical than Georgia, which Democrats are fighting to hold onto after President Biden took the Peach State by less than 1% in 2020, breaking a yearslong streak of the state voting Republicans into the White House.

Williams, who took over as state party chair in 2019 and was elected to Congress in 2020, said Democrats were not taking those recent victories for granted when asked how the Left’s strategy has shifted since then.

“When I became chair in 2019, nobody believed that Georgia was in play,” Williams said. “We are a true battleground state, which means we have to talk to every voter, take nothing for granted.”

SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’

The Democratic leader said the state party’s organizing efforts spanned all of Georgia’s 159 counties, with nearly 30 field offices and more than 200 paid staffers.

“We’ve got to have conversations with the voters about the issues that matter to them. I’m hearing about people who are so concerned that their freedom and our freedoms are on the ballot,” Williams said.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump lost Georgia by less than 1% in 2020. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)

When pressed later about what issues voters are most concerned about, Williams suggested abortion access was a top topic.

She referenced the death of 28-year-old Amber Thurman, a Georgia mother who died after allegedly being denied emergency abortion care for 20 hours after a rare complication from abortion pills.

Democrats and pro-choice activists have blamed her death on the Republican Georgia state government’s recent law banning abortion after six weeks except in cases of rape, incest, or medical emergencies.

Republicans and pro-life groups have pushed back on those attacks, however. They have instead blamed Thurman’s death on complications caused by the abortion pills she took, and argued that there was nothing stopping doctors from performing surgery on her after the fetus’s heartbeat was already stopped.

FORMER REPUBLICAN US SENATOR ENDORSES KAMALA HARRIS, SAYS ELECTION OFFERS ‘STARK CHOICE’

“She has an eight-year-old son growing up without a mother. But it doesn’t have to be this way. These are policy decisions,” Williams said.

Meanwhile, both the Harris and Trump campaigns have courted Georgia’s Black population — voters who were key to Biden’s 2020 victory. 

Georgia was key to President Biden’s 2020 victory. (POOL)

Trump has made it a point in particular to try to appeal to Black and brown men, a group of voters who Republicans believe are growing disenchanted with Democrats’ progressive policies.

Williams said Black voters were “not a monolith,” however, and signaled that the Harris campaign is also working to appeal to as many people as possible.

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“We can’t win this election based on any one demographic group. We’re building multiracial coalitions here on the ground in battleground Georgia, and we’re going to continue to do that,” Williams said.

“It proved successful in 2020. It proved successful in our run-offs in 2021 and again in 2022 when we sent our senator, Reverend Raphael Warnock, back for a full six-year term. And we’re going to do it again in November.”

It was a cringe-inducing moment.

No one expected Kamala Harris to be grilled on “The View,” comprised of cheerleaders for her candidacy. 

But Whoopi Goldberg introduced her by bellowing “the next president of the United States,” it was a slap-your-forehead moment.” Seriously?

The whole session yesterday was an in-kind contribution to the Harris campaign. 

KAMALA 2.0’S CHALLENGE? MAKING MORE NEWS, AND NOT JUST WITH ULTRA-FRIENDLY HOSTS

I know, they’re not straight journalists, they’re liberal commentators slash entertainers. They read their questions verbatim off blue cards. That’s precisely why she wanted to do the show. 

There were some reasonable questions: How would her presidency differ from Joe Biden’s? How would she handle the border? Why wouldn’t Ron DeSantis take her calls about hurricane preparations with a Category 4 storm about to hit Florida?

And then there was Joy Behar, who went on about Trump’s lies and asked how anyone could possibly support him. That enabled the Vice President to say Trump was all about personal grievances, not the voters. 

Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on Tuesday’s episode of “The View.” (ABC)

Kamala made good use of the forum, such as dishing on how she was working out and with her kids when Joe Biden called to say he was stepping aside. 

Bottom line: “The View,” an ABC program founded by Barbara Walters – it’s still in the news division – was even more embarrassing than I expected, with the ladies falling all over themselves to praise Harris and trash Trump. 

Some reasonable questions were asked, but Kamala ran circles around them and deflected what she didn’t want to answer while getting her familiar talking points in.

It was a good forum for her, and for once she came prepared to make news. In a move earlier leaked to Politico, Harris made her pitch for having Medicare reimburse caring for the elderly at home instead of only in expensive institutions – the first new policy proposal she’s made in weeks. She said she would pay for it by demanding deeper discounts on certain drugs paid for by Medicare. Needless to say, she was not exactly cross-examined on the subject.

WALZ-HARRIS WILL BE THE MOST ‘RADICAL’ ELECTED OFFICIALS THE WORLD HAS SEEN: COREY LEWANDOWSKI

The ladies seemed awed that Kamala Harris was even there.

It was a very different Kamala who appeared on a “60 Minutes” prime-time special aired the night before.

To be sure, the news magazine show repeated some of her criticisms of Trump, with Bill Whitaker saying: “You have accused Donald Trump of using racist tropes when it comes to Haitian immigrants. In Springfield, Ohio. When it comes to birtherism, when it comes to Charlottesville, in fact, you have called him a racist and divisive, yet Donald Trump has the support of millions and millions of Americans.”

The veep’s talking-point response: “I believe that the people of America want a leader who’s not trying to divide us and demean.”

But Whitaker was a bulldog when it came to asking for followups again and again when the Democratic nominee offered generalities.

CBS News appears to have made a favorable edit to its “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.  (Screenshot/CBS News)

When asked about the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget saying her plan would add $3 trillion over the next decade – it was much higher for Trump – Harris talked about economists liking her plan and pivoted to praising small business.

Whitaker’s response: “Pardon me, Madam Vice President. The question was, how are you going to pay for it?”

This time, Harris said she’d make sure billionaires and big corporations would have to pay their “fair share,” and Whitaker expressed skepticism that Congress would approve that.

This was the question that Harris hasn’t really had to answer.

“Let me tell you what your critics and the columnists say, okay? They say that the reason so many voters don’t know you is that you have changed your position on so many things,” said Whitaker. “You were against fracking. Now you’re for it. You supported looser immigration policies, now you’re tightening them up. You are for Medicare for All. Now you’re not so many that people don’t truly know what you believe or what you stand for.”

’60 MINUTES’ DEFENDS HANDLING OF HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP COVERAGE AS IT HITS TRUMP FOR SKIPPING INTERVIEW

Harris offered this answer: “In the last four years I have been vice president, United States. And I have been traveling our country. And I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground. I believe in building consensus.” Translation: The world has changed and I have to be realistic about what I can get passed.

The interview was so heavily edited that you could see the changes several times as Harris magically limited her answers to two sentences. That’s the overproduced “60 Minutes” style, but I think it was a mistake. CBS should have run the whole thing, or a major chunk of it, unedited. 

(SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Scott Pelley said Trump had agreed to an interview but backed out with shifting explanations, including that there be no fact-checking.

By yesterday afternoon, Kamala was taping her interview with Howard Stern, who loved Trump back in the day when they were rating women and has been totally opposed to him as a candidate and president.

Reacting to Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book saying Trump secretly sent Vladimir Putin a COVID test machine during the pandemic – which the former president denies – the VP said: “I believe that Donald Trump has this desire to be a dictator. He admires strongmen and he gets played by them because he thinks that they’re his friends and they are manipulating him full-time and manipulating him by flattery and with favor…

“This guy who is President of the United States is sending them to Russia? To a murderous dictator for his personal use?”

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Stern called it “maddening” and “insanity” that anyone would support Donald Trump. He told Harris he would vote for her, but could also vote for “that wall over there” over the ex-president.

Harris is finally starting to make some news. Imagine if she’d started some of these interviews weeks ago.

With a second powerful hurricane in less than two weeks bearing down on Florida, President Biden on Tuesday canceled an upcoming international trip in order to oversee federal storm preparations and response efforts.

As the death toll rises and nearly 200,000 people remain without power or running water over a week and a half after Hurricane Helen tore a path of destruction through the southeast United States, Hurricane Milton – an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm – is on course to slam into Florida on Wednesday.

“Given the projected trajectory and strength of Hurricane Milton, President Biden is postponing his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola in order to oversee preparations for and the response to Hurricane Milton, in addition to the ongoing response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on Tuesday.

The president was scheduled to leave for Berlin on Thursday, followed by a stop in Angola before returning home on Oct. 15. The trip would have marked Biden’s first stop on the African continent during his tenure as president.

EYE OF THE STORM: BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES IMPACT HARRIS-TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL RACE

President Biden, center, delivers remarks on the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, the president called Milton a potentially “devastating” storm that could be one of the worst to hit Florida in a century. He also urged anyone under an evacuation order to “evacuate now, now, now.”

“It’s a matter of life and death,” Bien emphasized.

Biden also said he spoke on Monday with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, adding that the conservative governor had been cooperative and that he gave his personal phone number to DeSantis.

CLICK HERE FOR UP-TO-DATE FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE STORMS

When asked about the federal storm response, DeSantis said during a news conference on Monday that “we have gotten what we need from the feds… the president has approved what we asked for… I’m thankful for that.”

“Everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he’s approved,” DeSantis highlighted.

The governor reiterated those comments Tuesday morning in an interview on “Fox and Friends.”

“Every request that we’ve made – I’ve been in contact with the president, I’ve been in contact with the FEMA director,” DeSantis highlighted. “All of our requests have been answered.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holds multiple storm preparation news conferences on Oct. 7, 2024, as Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida. (Office of Florida governor)

While DeSantis has complimented the president’s actions, he has taken aim at Vice President Kamala Harris. The Democrats’ presidential nominee on Monday – reacting to reports that the governor had refused to take her calls regarding federal storm efforts – described him as “selfish.”

When asked about the dispute, DeSantis argued in his “Fox and Friends” interview that “my focus has not been on dealing with Kamala Harris. I saw the news report. I didn’t know that she tried to contact me. But I’d also say it’s not about you, Kamala. It’s about the people of Florida. My focus is exactly where it should be.”

“I’ve worked on these Hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden. Neither of them ever tried to politicize it. She’s never called on any of the storms we’ve had since she’s been vice president until apparently now. Why all of a sudden is she trying to parachute in and inject herself when she’s never shown any interest in the past? We know it’s because of politics. We know it’s because of her campaign. I have zero time to entertain these political games,” DeSantis charged.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS WEATHER UPDATES ON HURRICANE MILTON

The war of words appeared to be triggered by reports from NBC and later ABC News on Monday afternoon that the Florida governor was not taking calls from Harris regarding storm recovery efforts, citing unnamed aides to the governor who said the calls seemed political in nature.

When asked a couple of hours later, DeSantis said he was not aware Harris was trying to reach him.

“I didn’t know that she had called. I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me,” he said. “It wasn’t anything that anybody in my office did, in terms of saying it was political.”

Speaking around the same time, as she departed the nation’s capital for New York, the vice president took aim at DeSantis.

“People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations…is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” Harris charged. “It is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.”

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at LaGuardia Airport on Monday Oct. 7, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

However, DeSantis, pushing back in his Fox News interview, argued that “Harris is not even in the chain of command. She has no role in this. The idea that I should be…worrying about her when I’m focused on the task at hand is quite frankly absurd.”

When asked if his vice president has been helpful as the federal government deals with back-to-back dangerous hurricanes, Biden nodded and told reporters “yes.”

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Harris, speaking on Tuesday on the popular daytime program “The View,” said, “I have called and talked with, in the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, with Democrat and Republican governors…. So, obviously, this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders, but maybe it’s for others.”

With four weeks to go until Election Day in November and Harris and former President Donald Trump locked in a bitter margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election – the politics of federal disaster relief are once again front and center on the campaign trail.

Trump, for a week and a half, has been repeatedly attacking Biden and Harris over the federal response to Hurricane Helene, and making unproven claims. 

On Monday, Harris clapped back, accusing Trump of pushing “a lot of mis and disinformation.” 

Fox News’ Nick Rojas contributed to this story.

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

WAUKESHA, Wisconsin – At Cozy Nook Farm, they cover three areas: Cows, pumpkins, and Christmas trees. 

“We’re diversified here,” laughed dairy farmer Tom Oberhaus in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

He explained that he and his wife are conservative Republicans who have been sure of who they were supporting in the 2024 election for a long time. 

“There’s no question in our mind that our four years under Trump management was much better than the three and a half years under Biden management – or whoever is, you know, that’s the great mystery is, who is actually running the government right now?” he asked. 

WISCONSIN SENATE RACE SHIFTS TO ‘TOSS UP’ BY HANDICAPPER AS TAMMY BALDWIN FIGHTS FOR RE-ELECTION

Tom Oberhaus explained to Fox News Digital why he was supporting Trump again in 2024.  (Fox News Digital)

They previously voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. 

One issue he has with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat presidential nominee, is that she vouched for President Biden’s cognitive ability. 

“It bothers the heck out of me that we’re thinking about electing a person that just six weeks ago… told us ‘Oh, Biden’s on top of it. He’s really aggressive and really knows what he’s doing,'” Oberhaus said. 

“We all seen that in the debate, you know, he’s past his time,” he said of Biden’s June debate with former President Trump that preceded his campaign suspension. 

TRUMP, REPUBLICANS VENTURE TO BLUE AREAS IN WISCONSIN TO BOOST GOP TURNOUT

Cozy Nook Farm is located in Waukesha, Wisconsin. (Fox News Digital)

Critics have claimed Trump is bad for farmers, pointing to his fondness for tariffs and his past trade conflict with China. But Oberhaus said the tariffs, which ramped up in 2018, “certainly didn’t hurt us.” 

“We’re much better off with tariffs than having that government printing press printing out money,” he added. 

At Cozy Nook Farm, Oberhaus said their biggest struggle has been inflation. “We’ve been [eaten] alive by inflation,” he claimed. 

He explained that they do not set their own prices, and they tend to “run a couple of years behind everybody else.” 

They’re now paying “twice as much for tires and fuel and feed and everything else.” However, “our milk price stays the same, until just now in the last month that it finally came up.” 

VULNERABLE DEM JON TESTER TURNS ON BIDEN ADMIN OVER DEI AFTER MONTANA UNIVERSITIES STRIPPED OF FEDERAL FUNDS

A truck passes a stack of 40-foot China Shipping containers at the Port of Savannah in Georgia on July 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File)

He also stressed illegal immigration as a top issue for him, even hundreds of miles from the southern border. But the problem is surfacing even as far north as Wisconsin, he explained. 

“Little town of Whitewater 35 minutes away,” he said. “It’s a town of, what, 15,000 people? And then they got a thousand new immigrants.”

Local Wisconsin outlets reported that last year Whitewater Police Chief Daniel Meyer and City Manager John Weidl penned a letter to Biden, asking for help after the “rapid increase” of about 800 to 1,000 immigrants since 2022.

“As a municipal government, our focus is not on legal status, but rather ensuring we are providing the resources expected of a municipality to all residents of the City. Unfortunately, we are increasingly finding it difficult to do that,” the letter reportedly read. 

HERE’S WHAT 2 UNDECIDED WISCONSIN VOTERS ARE HOLDING OUT FOR IN 2024 ELECTION

National Guard troops watch over more than 1,000 immigrants who had crossed the Rio Grande overnight from Mexico on Dec. 18, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)

“How do you handle that?” asked Oberhaus. 

As for those who argue that with strict immigration enforcement there would result in fewer people to work on farms, he called it “baloney.”

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“We got plenty of people to do the farm work,” he said. 

On Trump, who recently ventured into Wisconsin’s biggest Democratic enclaves in Dane and Milwaukee counties, the farmer said, “I think that’s the sign of a leader – that you’re not afraid to go into the other camp and tell them what your ideas are.”

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

Former President Donald Trump holds a razor-thin two-point edge over Vice President Kamala Harris in battleground Arizona, according to a new public opinion poll.

Fueling the former president’s margin appears to be support from voters age 50 and over.

Trump stands at 49% among likely voters in Arizona, with Harris at 47%, according to an AARP poll conducted Sept. 24-Oct. 1 and released on Tuesday. According to the survey, Green Party candidate Jill Stein grabs 1% support, with 3% undecided.

The survey points to a generational divide.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall on Thursday in Tucson, Arizona. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

“Among voters 50+, Trump is ahead by 7 points, driven by a 14-point lead among voters 50-64,” the poll’s release highlights.

Harris holds a 4-point advantage among voters under 50, according to the survey, “while the race is a tossup with seniors.”

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION

The poll also points to a gender gap in Arizona which favors Trump.

The former president and Republican nominee is up 11-points over the vice president and Democratic nominee among men, but down only 6 points among female voters, the survey indicates.

While on the presidential campaign trail stopping in battleground states, Vice President Kamala Harris walks out into a packed rally in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The survey is the latest to indicate a margin of error race between Harris and Trump in Arizona, a state President Biden narrowly carried over Trump in the 2020 election.

Arizona’s one of seven crucial battlegrounds whose razor-thin margins decided Biden’s White House victory four years ago and are likely to determine if Harris or Trump win the 2024 election.

NEW POLL INDICATES WHETHER HARRIS OR TRUMP IS WINNING KEY VOTERS IN TWO CRUCIAL SOUTHWEST BATTLEGROUNDS

The survey was released on the eve of the kick-off of early in-person voting in Arizona.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump during their first and likely only presidential debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The major party vice presidential nominees – Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota – each hold campaign events in Arizona on Wednesday. Harris returns to the state on Friday.

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Besides being a crucial presidential swing state, Arizona is also holding one of a handful of competitive Senate elections that will decide if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority.

The AARP poll indicates Democratic Senate nominee Rep. Rueben Gallego holding a 51%-44% lead over Republican nominee Kari Lake, a former news anchor who narrowly lost the state’s 2022 gubernatorial election.

The AARP poll was conducted by the bipartisan polling team of Fabrizio Ward (Republican) & Impact Research (Democrat). The firms interviewed 1,358 likely voters in Arizona. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points.

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

Increased support from Republicans appears to be one factor fueling Vice President Kamala Harris with four weeks to go until Election Day in her White House showdown with former President Trump, according to a new national poll.

The vice president and Democratic presidential nominee stands at 49% support among likely voters nationwide, with the former president and GOP nominee at 46%, in a New York Times/Siena College survey released on Tuesday.

According to the poll, Harris stands at 47% and Trump at 44% in a multi-candidate field. Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Chase Oliver each grabbed 1%, with roughly 7% supporting another candidate or undecided.

Harris’ edge – which is within the survey’s sampling error – is up from the New York Times/Siena poll from last month, when the two major party nominees were deadlocked at 47%.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW

The top-line number in the new poll is in the range of most other national surveys, which indicate the vice president with a slight edge over Trump.

The poll indicates Harris’ support among Republican voters stands at 9%, up four points from last month.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION

As she turns up the volume on her efforts to court Republicans disgruntled with Trump, Harris last week teamed up with the most visible anti-Trump Republican in the town that claims to be the birthplace of the GOP.

Harris campaigned in battleground Wisconsin with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a one-time rising conservative star in the GOP who, in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, has vowed to do everything she can to prevent Trump from returning to power.

Vice President Kamala Harris teams up with former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney at a campaign event in Ripon, Wisconsin, on Oct 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

“I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Cheney told the audience as she formally endorsed the Democrat presidential nominee. “As a conservative, as a patriot, as a mother, as someone who reveres our Constitution, I am honored to join her in this urgent cause.”

Harris praised Cheney as a leader who “puts country above party and above self, a true patriot.”

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The campaign event took place in Ripon, Wisconsin, where a one-room schoolhouse was designated a national historic landmark due to its role in holding a series of meetings in 1854 that led to the formation of the Republican Party.

The new poll also indicated Harris consolidating her support among older voters, and for the first time taking a slight edge over Trump in being identified as the candidate of change.

Former President Trump addresses the crowd at a rally on Saturday, Oct, 5, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, where an assassin tried to kill him on July 13. (Matthew McDermott for Fox News Digital)

That’s crucial in a race where voters have repeatedly shared with pollsters that they think the country’s headed in the wrong direction. And the Trump campaign, feeding off such polling data, has repeatedly tied Harris to President Biden and their administration in the nearly three months since she replaced her boss at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket.

The poll was conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 6, with 3,385 likely voters nationwide questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

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

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday called for the elimination of the Electoral College during a fundraiser in California, a move some Democrats have advocated for in the past after election defeats. 

Walz was in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s private home in Sacramento when he remarked about the process by which U.S. presidents are elected.  

“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” he said, according to a pool report at the event, Bloomberg reported. “We need a national popular vote, but that’s not the world we live in.”

THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS REMOVED FROM VOTER ROLLS, DOZENS OF LAWMAKERS WANT ANSWERS FROM GARLAND

Democrat vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for the elimination of the Electoral College. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In 2023, the Minnesota governor signed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement in which each state would allocate all its electoral votes to whoever wins the popular vote for president, regardless of how individual states voted. The compact would take effect only if supporters secure pledges from states with at least 270 electoral votes. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the campaigns of Vice President Harris and former President Trump. 

The Electoral College comprises a certain number of electors from each state who cast votes for the president and vice president. In 48 states and Washington, D.C., whichever candidate receives the most ballots in their favor is awarded all the electoral votes for that state. Maine and Nebraska assign their electors using a proportional system.

The winner needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidential election. 

The Electoral College was created by the Founding Fathers in an effort to make sure large states didn’t dominate small ones in presidential elections or wield too much power. Abolishing the system would require a major constitutional change. 

TRUMP CAN WIN ON THESE 3 KEY ISSUES, MICHIGAN VOTERS TELL FOX

People arrive to cast their vote during early voting. (Christopher Mark Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In recent years, some Democrats have called for eliminating the process in favor of a popular vote. Recent examples cited include former President Trump’s 2016 win over Hillary Clinton, in which she won the popular vote but received fewer electoral votes. 

In 2000, former President George W. Bush lost the popular vote but narrowly won the electoral vote. Many Republicans have argued against getting rid of the Electoral College system, saying such a move would result in states with larger populations having undue influence.

Others argue it would cause presidential candidates to focus on a few states during the campaign season while ignoring others.

In 2012, Trump panned the electoral system, calling it “a disaster for a democracy.” In 2018, he again voiced support for the idea because a popular vote would be “much easier to win.”

Tim Walz during a “60 Minutes” interview (Screenshot/CBS News)

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A majority of Americans – 63% – favor doing away with the Electoral College, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll released last month.

Vice President Kamala Harris had harsh words for Iran in an interview Monday evening as she said the regime is America’s biggest foe. 

In a sit-down with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the Democratic presidential nominee was asked to name the U.S.’s greatest foreign adversary. “I think there’s an obvious one in mind, which is Iran. Iran has American blood on their hands.”

“This attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles. What we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power. That is one of my highest priorities.”

Harris declined to say whether she would take military action if given proof that Iran is building a nuclear weapon.

“I’m not going to talk about hypotheticals at this moment,” she told Bill Whitaker.

The suggestion that Iran was the greatest U.S. adversary raised some eyebrows — as China is thought by many to be foe No. 1. 

“Iran is our biggest adversary, not China?,” Mary Kissel, former adviser to ex-Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

Kamala Harris pictured in her sit-down interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes.” (Screenshot/CBS News)

5 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HARRIS’ ‘60 MINUTES’ INTERVIEW 

“Harris is completely clueless for claiming that Iran is America’s greatest adversary rather than China,” former Trump adviser Steve Cortes said. 

“Really? It’s not Russia? It’s not China? A middle power is America’s greatest adversary?” Iranian nuclear researcher Sina Azodi questioned. 

Harris also defended U.S. aid to Israel — at a time when many liberals are calling on her to halt that aid or put conditions on it amid the rising death tolls across Gaza and Lebanon. 

“The aid that we have given Israel allowed Israel to defend itself against 200 ballistic missiles that were just meant to attack the Israelis and the people of Israel,” she said. 

Harris highlighted threats from “Hamas, Hezbollah… Iran,” asserting it is “without any question our imperative to do what we can to allow Israel to defend itself against those kinds of attacks.”

Still, she held out hope that Israel and its enemies could get to a ceasefire deal. 

“The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles, which include the need for humanitarian aid, the need for this war to end, the need for a deal to be done, which would release the hostages and create a ceasefire.” She added, “We’re not going to stop in terms of putting that pressure on Israel and in the region, including Arab leaders.”

“China is the far greater threat just about, I think, everyone’s estimation,” said Rob Greenway, a former Trump aide and senior director of the National Security Council. “If you really do view Iran as a threat, then the behavior they’ve made makes absolutely no sense.”

Former President Donald Trump has blamed President Joe Biden and Harris for loosening sanctions on Iran, which he said made the U.S. adversary “very rich in a very short period,” and prompted the turmoil that began with the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Residents of Jerusalem take shelter during an Iranian missile barrage on Oct. 1, 2024 (Credit Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS-IL)

During a rally last week, Trump tore into the September 2023 prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Iran that facilitated a detainee swap in Qatar and resulted in the release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets from oil sales. 

“If they have somebody who was kidnapped, it’s always $6 billion. Whoever heard of that?” Trump said. “Somebody else gets like $4,000.”

Iran said it had reached a “good understanding” to access the money from a Qatari bank account on Monday.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, has long claimed it has not rolled back sanctions on Iran. But “it’s not enforcing any sanctions,” according to Greenway. Iran is now bringing in nearly $36 billion per year from oil sales.

Last week, Iran rained down 200 missiles toward Tel Aviv, many of them intercepted by both Israeli Defense Forces and U.S. capabilities. Though Iran’s proxies have long attacked both Israeli and U.S. postures, it was the regime’s first direct attack on Israel since April. 

Harris was sharply critical of Trump for pulling out of the Iran deal in 2018. President Joe Biden campaigned on returning to the deal, but failed to do so in office. 

“[Iran] made a tremendous amount of money. They have had doors opened by the U.S. administration,” Greenway said. 

HARRIS’ ‘WORD SALAD’ ON ISRAEL ALLIANCE 

The Trump administration’s policies “brought them to the brink of financial collapse.” 

After Biden rolled back sanctions on Iran, the regime went from 500 centrifuges needed to make a nuclear bomb to 7,000. It went from 5% enriched uranium to 60% (90% is needed for a nuclear weapon.) It went from exporting 400,000 barrels of oil per day in 2019 under the Trump administration’s harsh sanctions to 1.7 million barrels per day today.

Iran, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is on the brink of mastering production of a nuclear weapon. (Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Reports also suggest renewed activity in two nuclear weaponization sites in Iran – Sanjarian and Golab Dareh.

Last week, Biden warned Israel to make sure its response to the Iranian missile attacks was “proportional,” and urged them not to go after Iranian nuclear facilities.

Trump on Friday said Israel should go after the nuclear facilities.

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While speaking at a campaign event in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he said when Biden was asked about Israel attacking Iran, the president answered, “’As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you wanna hit, right? I said, ‘I think he’s got that one wrong. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit?’”

He added nuclear proliferation is the “biggest risk we have.” 

Trump said when Biden was asked about Israel and Iran: “His answer should have been: ‘Hit the nuclear first. Worry about the rest later.'”

Triangles of orange and yellow candy corn are now spread around the house. Reese’s Cups have now morphed into chocolate and peanut butter pumpkins from their original, fluted wafer form. The dog regularly freaks out when you take it for a walk and some mechanical ghoul begins cackling in an evil laugh when you ’round a corner in your neighborhood.

The calendar flipped seamlessly from September to October. It’s especially seamless in Congress. And while September is “government shutdown season” on Capitol Hill, Congress escaped unscathed this year. Bipartisan lawmakers approved a stopgap spending measure that keeps the lights on through Dec. 20. That’s why those who toil on Capitol Hill – or for the federal government – can enjoy the “Halloween” season this October. They don’t have to focus on “Continuing Resolutions” to keep the government afloat. They can instead embrace apparitions rather than appropriations. 

September’s salvation also rescued Thanksgiving next month. It’s customary for Congress to approve a stopgap spending bill or two each fall. Depending on the congressional schedule – and if it’s an election year – one might run the government through mid-October or later. Another may punt until just before Thanksgiving or just afterward. 

But this year’s emergency spending plan is special. It funds the government for autumn. All of October. All of November. It expires just before Christmas. So does everyone on Capitol Hill get to celebrate Christmas? Don’t bank on it. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

You got Halloween and Thanksgiving. Two out of three ain’t bad.

“Why have we picked Dec. 20th?” asked Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., during a meeting of the House Rules Committee prepping the temporary spending package. “Because it’s the same reason we always have [with] Dec. 20th. Everybody up here is human. There are no AIs or robots in Congress. And when you get to Dec. 20th, you’re five days from Christmas. You’re four days from Christmas Eve. And you desperately want to be there with your family. This is when the leadership here has the maximum influence.”

FORMER NIH OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF MAKING EMAILS ‘DISAPPEAR’ PLEADS FIFTH TO COVID SUBCOMMITTEE

Massie argues that bipartisan congressional leaders choose such a date so they can maximize their leverage over members. The proximity to the holiday helps leaders wrangle the votes to pass another spending plan – anything – to avoid a holiday government shutdown.

Massie said he’s been in meetings where a speaker of the House basically threatened Republicans that they’d better vote “yes” on a spending measure.

“[He] walks in and says, ‘If you vote for this, you can go home and unwrap presents with your kids. And if you don’t vote for this, you’re going to spend Christmas here with Nancy Pelosi.’ And then the chants start, ‘Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote!’ literally, people get enthusiastic to vote for something that they haven’t read,” said Massie.

The soupcon of jet fumes will permeate the Capitol in mid-December as lawmakers try to fund the government and avoid a shutdown over Christmas. The question is, how long a spending plan might run? Deep into calendar year 2025? Maybe until February? Perhaps late March as some conservatives advocated? Or will lawmakers actually reach an agreement on the 12 annual spending bills or even knock a few out, one by one?

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is ruling out an “omnibus.” He’s also spoken out about doing “minibuses.” That’s where they glom several spending measures together. It’s not an “omnibus.” It’s smaller, hence the Volkswagen comparison. 

What would Herbie the Love Bug say? 

However, the length of another interim spending plan likely hinges on which party controls the House and Senate next year, as well as who won the White House. The wishes of the president-elect will prompt lawmakers to bend the spending bill in his or her direction. 

But in September, the goal was to avert a shutdown and hash out the hard stuff later.

“We’re out of time. We cannot afford a shutdown,” said House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., last month. “This path ensures Americans aren’t needlessly punished with a costly shutdown and allows, importantly, the next president to have a say in the appropriations process.”

Even though the Democrat-controlled Senate advanced zero spending bills on the floor this year, the Republican-operated House did a little better, approving five appropriations measures. But Cole partly blamed his own GOP colleagues for the legislative stumbles.

“We’re the majority. The majority ought to be governing,” said Cole. 

He added that it was “disappointing” that the House GOP majority had to again rely on Democrats to avert a shutdown.

That’s why Cole and others hope the House is able to knock out a few if not the remainder of outstanding spending bills after the election. Otherwise, a harrowing holiday season awaits.

Like Massie, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, warned against “a crazy, massive omnibus train, which is the inevitability of doing something right before Christmas.”

So how is Johnson going to manage this? Especially with the distinct possibility of Congress having to boost FEMA with an “immediate needs” bill nearly as soon as lawmakers return in mid-November? Then there’s the question of a shutdown in December. And that’s to say nothing of approving some plan to address Hurricanes Helene and Milton along with other natural disasters.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: ALL ABOUT THE POLITICS OF DISASTER RELIEF

By the way, if it’s clear that Democrats lost the Senate, failed to capture the House and lost the presidency, there’s a good chance they’ll balk at assisting Republicans with any spending bills. That could well launch the potential second term of former President Donald Trump under a government shutdown. 

There are headaches galore for Mike Johnson as he attempts to fund the government, address multiple crises, satisfy irate conservatives who are already grumbling about his leadership, and possibly cling to power. Calling the wrong play could jeopardize Johnson’s status in the speaker election on Jan. 3, if Republicans maintain the majority.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

But what is the right play call for Johnson? No one knows. Johnson tried to appease the right with a spending plan that included a provision to require proof of citizenship to vote last month. However, Republicans couldn’t even pass their own bill. In other words, kowtowing to the margins doesn’t automatically guarantee success in the House Republican Conference.

But regardless, there was little drama passing the interim spending bill to avoid a government shutdown in late September.

That opened the door for the denizens of Capitol Hill to enjoy the end of the rest of the month. Embrace Halloween in October. Even Thanksgiving.

But Christmas? You’ve got to be kidding me.

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Christmas may be a struggle.

Face it. Christmas came early this year. In September. There was no government shutdown.

Which is why actual Christmas could be a nightmare this year. 

A group that has labeled Vice President Harris a “pro-genocide candidate” has endorsed third-party presidential candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 contest.

The “Abandon Harris” campaign says America, as well as presidential candidates Harris and former President Trump, is supporting an “Israeli project of Palestinian annihilation” and urges Muslim Americans and those who oppose genocide to cast their ballot for the Green Party this year.

“In October 2023, under the darkening shadow of the U.S.-backed Israeli project of Palestinian annihilation, the Abandon Harris campaign – formerly Abandon Biden – was born. Our movement remains dedicated to ensuring that the American people, especially the Muslim-American community, recognize the responsibility we share in standing up against oppression and using all our power to stop genocide – wherever it may arise,” the group declared in a press release.

ABANDON BIDEN CAMPAIGN RELAUNCHES, TARGETS HARRIS IN KEY SWING STATES

Jill Stein (THOMAS URBAIN/AFP via Getty Images)

“We are confronting two destructive forces: one currently overseeing a genocide and another equally committed to continuing it. Both are determined to see it through. We call on Muslim-Americans and all those who stand firmly against genocide to vote for the Green Party in 2024,” the press release states.

Stein has expressed her gratitude to the group and its support of her candidacy.

The Abandon Harris campaign says on its website that its “current goal is to hold Harris accountable for her continued support of genocide.”

“It’s painfully obvious that Kamala Harris can only sound articulate and firm when parroting US support for Israel,” the group wrote in an August post on X. “She fumbles through everything else, but when it comes to endorsing the killing of Palestinians, she suddenly finds a pristine level of eloquence,” the post added.

GEORGIA’S MUSLIM VOTERS OPPOSING HARRIS, TRUMP IN ELECTION OVER BOTH CANDIDATES’ SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL

Vice President Harris sat down with the women of “The View” on Oct. 8, 2024. (ABC/The View)

Israel launched a war effort last year in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks perpetrated by Hamas terrorists who committed atrocities that included rapes, kidnappings and murders.

“What Hamas did that day was pure evil – it was brutal and sickening,” Harris said in a statement marking the one-year anniversary of the attack on Monday. “I will do everything in my power to ensure that the threat Hamas poses is eliminated, that it is never again able to govern Gaza, that it fails in its mission to annihilate Israel, and that the people of Gaza are free from the grip of Hamas,” she declared in the statement.

JILL STEIN SLAMS DEMOCRATIC EFFORTS TO ‘SILENCE COMPETITION,’ SAYS THEY ARE ‘NOT SERVANTS OF DEMOCRACY’

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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“Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7 launched a war in Gaza. I am heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year – tens of thousands of lives lost, children fleeing for safety over and over again, mothers and fathers struggling to obtain food, water, and medicine. It is far past time for a hostage and ceasefire deal to end the suffering of innocent people. And I will always fight for the Palestinian people to be able to realize their right to dignity, freedom, security, and self-determination,” Harris said in the statement.

President Joe Biden praised GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for being “cooperative” and doing a “great job” in his response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, despite Vice President Kamala Harris slamming DeSantis for “playing political games” instead of doing his job in response to the storms.

NBC News reported Monday that DeSantis was denying phone calls from Harris’ team. “People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games with this moment, in these crisis situations, these are the height of emergency situations, it’s just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” Harris told reporters Monday. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s opinion about the GOP Florida governor’s response to Hurricane Helene and his preparation for Milton, diverged substantially from that of his vice president’s. 

“The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and I said – no – you’re doing a great job, it’s all being done well and we thank you for it,” Biden said at a press conference from the White House Tuesday. “There was a rough start in some places, but every governor, every governor – from Florida to North Carolina – has been fully cooperative and supportive.”

RON DESANTIS: 51 COUNTIES ARE UNDER A STATE OF EMERGENCY

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, second from right, speaks to linemen before a news conference, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at the Tampa Electric Company offices in Tampa, Fla., as Tropical Storm Helene, expected to become a hurricane, moves north along Mexico’s coast toward the U.S.

After a DeSantis staffer told NBC on Monday that the Florida governor had chosen not to take the vice president’s call, DeSantis later clarified that he was never even aware Harris was trying to contact him. 

DeSantis also shot back at Harris’ claims that he was playing politics with the storm, accusing her of being the actual culprit of engaging in political gamesmanship.  

“I’ve worked on these hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden. Neither of them ever tried to politicize it. She has never called on any of the storms we’ve had since she’s been vice president until apparently now,” DeSantis told “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning following reports of the vice president’s criticism. “Why, all of the sudden, is she trying to parachute in and inject herself when she’s never shown any interest in the past? We know it’s because of politics, we know it’s because of her campaign.”

“Harris is not even in the chain of command. She has no role in this,” DeSantis added. “The idea that I should be, like, worrying about her when I’m focused on the task at hand is just quite frankly absurd.”

BIDEN CANCELS OVERSEAS TRIP AS MILTON BEARS DOWN ON FLORIDA; DESANTIS TELLS VP ‘IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU KAMALA’

Biden, who has had multiple phone calls with DeSantis since Hurricane Helene began barreling down on the Southeast, told him and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to “call him directly” if any further support is needed. DeSantis, meanwhile, noted Tuesday morning that “every” one of his federal requests for more support have been answered.  

DeSantis pointed out as well that, at the state level, he has been reallocating resources as necessary to help Florida’s smaller communities that have fewer resources. 

COASTAL FLORIDIAN WARNS OTHERS TO ‘GET OUT’ AS HURRICANE MILTON CLOSES IN: ‘WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S COMING’

Gov. DeSantis’ office declined to comment to Fox News Digital on the record, but pointed to the governor’s comments on both “Fox & Friends” and “Hannity,” respectively. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Harris campaign for comment, but did not receive a response in advance of publication time. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference from his home state following the second attempted assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life, which took place at his Florida-based Mar-A-Lago golf club.

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As Florida continues to clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, it is now preparing for a potentially even worse storm in Hurricane Milton and is calling on millions of residents to evacuate.

“Helene was a wake-up call – this is literally catastrophic,” Castor said Tuesday. “And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die.”

Welcome to Fox News’ Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. 

What’s happening…

–North Carolina residents will see changes to early voting after Hurricane Helene

-Atlanta voters split on who will win Georgia

-Prospects of a deal with Israel fade away as Saudis invite Iranian foreign minister to visit

5 Key Takeaways 

Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for an interview on “60 Minutes” on Monday, when she dodged or refused to get specific about her plans for the country.

With less than a month before the election, CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker repeatedly pressed Harris for details on how to pay for her economic proposals, on whether President Biden’s loose immigration policies were a mistake and how a Harris foreign policy might differ from Biden or former President Donald Trump. There were several moments when Whitaker had to ask follow-up questions after Harris did not directly answer his inquiries. 

Overall, the Democratic vice president did not differentiate herself much from her 2020 running mate, the sitting president of the United States. CBS said her Republican rival, former President Trump, backed out of an invitation to appear on “60 Minutes,” though the Trump campaign said there was never a formal agreement for Trump to appear on the program…Read more

Vice President Kamala Harris joined “60 Minutes.” (Screenshot/CBS)

White House

‘BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS’: Kamala Harris’ tough words on Iran confounds critics…Read more

‘ALL OUR REQUESTS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED’: Biden cancels overseas trip as Milton bears down on Florida; DeSantis tells VP ‘it’s not about you Kamala’…Read more

STRAINED RELATIONSHIP: Biden White House has ‘very low’ trust in Netanyahu regime, urges transparency…Read more

FLORIDA’S WORST HURRICANE?: Biden says Hurricane Milton could be ‘worst storm to hit Florida in over a century’…Read more

Capitol Hill

FIRST ON FOX: Top outside group backing House Republicans sets fundraising record…Read more

DENIED: PA gov takes victory lap after Supreme Court rejects GOP bid to overturn election law ‘usurpations’…Read more

LETHAL WEAPONS: GOP lawmaker unveils effort to ban illegal immigrants from using IDs to buy guns…Read more

POST-MCCONNELL PLAN: Mike Lee outlines roadmap for McConnell successor, warns the ‘health of the Republican Party’ is at stake…Read more

Tales from the Trail 

BATTLEGROUND 2024: Wisconsin Senate race shifts to ‘toss up’ by handicapper as Tammy Baldwin fights for re-election…Read more

CHANGED AGENT: Harris takes slim lead over Trump in new poll as voters view her as candidate of change…Read more

TACKLING TURNOUT: Trump, Republicans venture to blue areas in Wisconsin to boost GOP turnout…Read more

‘CHAOS AND FEAR’: Trump announces rally in ‘war zone’ Colorado city…Read more

COURTING REPUBLICANS: New poll shows Harris taking a slim lead over Trump thanks to support from a surprising group…Read more

WHO’S MORE ACCESSIBLE?: Trump-Vance ticket has done combined 69 interviews since August compared to 31 for Harris-Walz…Read more

HISPANIC VOTERS IN KEY SWING STATES: Hispanic voters rail against ‘dishonest’ Biden-Harris border record as poll shows Trump gaining in key states…Read more

Across America

‘IT CAME THROUGH UPS’: Overseas meth sent to US election building shuts down office for hours…Read more

REGISTERED, NOT VERIFIED: Texas AG demands Biden-Harris admin help verify citizenship of nearly 500K registered voters…Read more

EATEN ‘ALIVE BY INFLATION’: Wisconsin dairy farmer says ‘no question’ Trump admin was ‘much better’ than Biden-Harris…Read more

POLITICAL STORMS: Mayorkas rips ‘politicized’ atmosphere over FEMA disaster response amid GOP criticism: ‘It sows distrust’…Read more

HITS KEEP COMING: NYC First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright resigns as Eric Adams’ administration suffers more departures…Read more

SERIOUS CONCERNS: Oregon mistakenly registered hundreds more voters without proving citizenship…Read more

DEEPLY TROUBLED: Vulnerable Dem Jon Tester turns on Biden admin over DEI after Montana universities stripped of federal funds…Read more
 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

One year ago, Saudi Arabia and Israel were supposedly on the brink of a deal to normalize relations. 

That deal has seemingly evaporated as Iran’s foreign minister visits the kingdom on Tuesday to discuss efforts to halt Israel’s incursions into Gaza and Lebanon. 

“Our dialogue continues regarding the developments in the region to prevent the shameless crimes of the Zionist regime in Lebanon, in continuation of the crimes in Gaza,” Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a video broadcast on state media. 

He added: “Starting today, I’ll begin a trip to the region, to Riyadh and other capitals, and we will strive for a collective movement from the countries of the region… to stop the brutal attacks in Lebanon.”

The Saudis share a longtime strategic partnership with the U.S. and are the largest purchaser of its weapons. But in recent years, they’ve had a political rapprochement with Iran. 

Prospects of a deal between Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Saudi Arabia, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have faded. (Getty Images)

9/11 FAMILIES URGE TRUMP, HARRIS TO OPPOSE SAUDI DEAL UNTIL KINGDOM ADMITS INVOLVEMENT IN TERROR ATTACK 

Last week, Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, reaffirmed their neutrality in the conflict between Israel and Iran. Iran has warned that if “Israel supporters” intervene directly, their interests in the region would be targeted. That could mean missile strikes on their oil facilities. 

Iran rained some 200 missiles down on Israel last week, many of which were intercepted by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) with U.S. assistance. 

“The Gulf states think it’s unlikely that Iran will strike their oil facilities, but the Iranians are dropping hints they might from unofficial sources. It’s a tool the Iranians have against the U.S. and the global economy,” Ali Shihabi, a Saudi commentator close to the royal court, said.

In 2019, drones attacked Saudi Arabia’s key refinery at Abqaiq, briefly shutting down around 5% of the world’s oil supply. Those drones originated in Iran, according to U.S. intelligence.

Prior to Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Biden administration considered a proposed deal, akin to the Abraham Accords, a major priority. This deal aimed to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, including security guarantees and cooperation on civil nuclear matters. For months, the White House had been saying the deal was nearly done. 

The prospect of a deal was largely blamed as a catalyst for the Hamas attacks. 

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rained some 200 missiles down toward Tel Aviv last week, many of which were intercepted by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) with U.S. assistance. (Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, Oct. 1, 2024. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)

OPINION: WHY SAUDI ARABIA MATTERS MORE THAN EVER TO THE US

“I don’t think we were ever really that close,” Robert Greenway, former senior director of the National Security Council, told Fox News Digital. 

“We were closest probably in the waning days of the Trump administration, but we knew that that would be a second-term issue if there was to be one, and obviously that didn’t play out. I don’t know that the Biden-Harris administration ever took it that terribly seriously.” 

Just before the Hamas attack, a group of 20 Democratic senators made clear their opposition to the treaty, voicing concerns over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and that a peaceful nuclear energy program might one day be converted to a military one to produce a nuclear weapon.

And Oct. 7 changed the Saudis’ calculus: they now demand a plan for a Palestinian state. 

“If anyone believes there was a chance of getting the House or Senate in an election year with virtually no majority, getting anything as controversial as a security treaty, with Saudi Arabia – permission for them to enrich with our blessing and support – I don’t know if anyone credibly believes that that was ever possible.”

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Former deputy national security adviser Victoria Coates was optimistic that the Saudis could be brought back into the fold. 

“From what I’m hearing from both sides, it’s when, not if,” she said. “There are various reasons you might want to wait to find out what the makeup of the Congress is going to be… you’re going to need supportive majorities in the Senate to get [a civil nuclear agreement] through.”

A package of crystal meth from Europe shut down a board of elections office in New York for hours this week.

The Dutchess County Board of Elections office shut down for three hours on Monday, when officials discovered a suspicious package from Europe, sparking a Hazmat team to respond to the office and investigate. 

“It came in through UPS from Greece. Prior to Greece, the inner envelope had been around a few other countries as well including France and then UPS’ed to the Dutchess County Board of Elections,” Republican Elections Commissioner Erik Haight told the MidHudson News. “The FBI is involved and I know they will be working with the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office and State Police to determine who sent this to us and why.”

A bipartisan team of BOE employees flagged the suspicious package to commissioners, with the team then donning Personal Protective Equipment to further investigate the package before calling law enforcement. The Dutchess County HAZMAT team ultimately responded to the scene, according to a press release from the county’s board of elections. 

TRUMP’S TOP LEGAL FOE TO BE HANDED ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ ELECTION POWER AHEAD OF NOVEMBER: ELECTION ATTORNEY

A voter arrives at a polling location. (REUTERS/Joel Page)

“Dutchess County HAZMAT personnel, under the observation of the bi-partisan Elections Commissioners, examined the suspicious package. The substance was carefully removed from the envelope and tested with advanced chemical and gaseous identification equipment. HAZMAT personnel determined that the material was methamphetamine or more commonly known as ‘crystal meth,’” the press release explained. 

Staffers who came into contact with the package have not “reported any symptoms,” the press released stated. 

Entrance to office building home to the Dutches County Board of Elections office.  (Google Maps)

The county commissioners celebrated that even though the office shut down for three hours, it did not disrupt “a single voter’s right to vote or harm any of our hardworking staff members.”

NY ELECTION LAW THAT ‘NATIONALIZES’ LOCAL POLITICS FLIES UNDER THE RADAR DESPITE BEING ‘MONUMENTAL’: EXPERT

“The cowards that sent this dangerous chemical to our office failed in disrupting a single voter’s right to vote or harm any of our hardworking staff members. These bad actors may hide in the shadows and endeavor to strike fear, but we will remain vigilant and fulfill our oaths of office by delivering free and fair elections to the good voters of Dutchess County,” Democratic Commissioner Hannah Black said in the press release. 

 People arrive to cast their vote during the early voting.  (Christopher Mark Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images)

BLUE STATE EFFORT TO UPROOT ELECTION LAW COULD FOREVER CHANGE LOCAL RACES: EXPERT

“I join my colleague Commissioner Black in commending our staff and am deeply appreciative of all law enforcement, the City of Poughkeepsie FD and emergency personnel that were critical in assisting us through this stressful and dangerous ordeal,” Haight added. 

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The sheriff’s office took possession of the package and is working in conjunction with the FBI and State Police to investigate. The sheriff’s office told Fox Digital on Tuesday that there are no updates to share on the investigation at this time. 

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

North Carolina election officials are adjusting their voting rules to ensure residents in areas impacted by the recent hurricane damage can vote early in the upcoming election.

Hurricane Helene made a damaging sweep across the southeast, covering swing states that had already started early voting.

But the storm caused severe damage to several predominantly red counties and early voting centers as focus shifted to disaster relief.

On Monday, the North Carolina Elections Board passed a bipartisan emergency resolution that reformed the state’s early voting process in 13 counties. Notably, all except one, Buncombe, voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.

NORTH CAROLINA GOP FOCUSING ON ‘HAND-TO-HAND POLITICAL COMBAT’ TO RAMP UP GROUND GAME IN BATTLEGROUND STATE

Workers, community members, and business owners clean up debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Marshall, North Carolina on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The adjustments include changing or adding voting sites and maintaining their availability, extending the hours when a voting site is open, and adding or reducing days that any site is open within the early voting period, according to the election board.

Voters in these counties will also have more time to request an absentee ballot, with the deadline being Nov. 4. 

RESIDENTS IN KEY NORTH CAROLINA DISTRICT REVEAL HOW THEY THINK THEIR COUNTY WILL VOTE IN NOVEMBER

The state’s elections board identified 13 counties in western North Carolina as the most impacted by the hurricane.

The counties that will see the changes applied to their early voting processes include: Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, and Yancey.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks outside the Chez What furniture store as he visits Valdosta, Ga., a town impacted by Hurricane Helene, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024.  (Evan Vucci)

Voters in these counties will now have the option of turning in absentee ballots to another county’s election board, rather than following previous protocol that mandated they only submit their ballots to their local counties. 

Trump narrowly won North Carolina in 2020 by roughly 1.4 percentage points, and early voting has since been made a focus of Republican ground game efforts this cycle, the state’s GOP told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. 

The former president, however, told Fox News that he believes despite the storm’s impact, voters will still turn out for the election.

“I believe they’re going to go out and vote if they have to crawl to a voting booth,” Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in an interview that aired Monday. “And that’s what’s happening.”

Swannanoa residents walk through devastating flood damage from the Swannanoa River in western North Carolina on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024.  (Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service)

The former president added that his daughter-in-law, who co-chairs the Republican National Committee (RNC), is working on helping North Carolinians in impacted areas cast their votes.

“Lara is working on it. Other people are working on it, and we’re trying to make it convenient for them, but they just lost their house,” Trump said.

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In-person early voting in the Old North State begins Thursday, Oct. 17 and ends on Saturday, Nov. 2.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has written to the Biden-Har­ris administration urging it to provide data that would help identify up to half a million people who could be erroneously registered to vote in the state but not be a citizen.

Paxton, a Republican, said that the Biden-Har­ris administration has “legal obligations” to hand over such information so that the Lone Star state can help determine the citizenship status of certain registered voters who do not have a state of Texas-issued driver’s license or identification card since those are only issued after citizen checks. 

Non-U.S. citizens lawfully present cannot legally vote but can lawfully apply for and receive a driver’s license or ID card.

Paxton said he is investigating those registered voters so Texas can be in compliance with federal and state election laws which prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting. He penned his letter Monday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ur Jaddou.

ARIZONA LAW REQUIRING PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP TO VOTE SUPPORTED BY 24 STATE AGS IN EMERGENCY STAY WITH SCOTUS

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has identified 454,289 registered voters who have never had their citizenship verified. (Justin Lane/Reuters)

“I demand full cooperation from the federal government to ensure that any noncitizens remaining on Texas’s voter registration rolls are identified,” Paxton said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris Administration is legally obligated to assist States in doing so, and it is imperative that we use every tool available to uphold the integrity of our elections.” 

Paxton said that while it is a crime for noncitizens to register to vote, federal law paradoxically creates opportunities for non-citizens to illegally register to vote while also prohibiting states from requiring voters to have proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

He said it is particularly troubling given the current scale of the illegal immigration and that the Senate has not passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (“SAVE Act”), which would allow states to ensure that votes are being cast legally by eligible voters. He said that requiring proof of citizenship is a commonsense measure that helps identify illegal registration.

Paxton has obtained a list of approximately 454,289 Texas registered voters who have never had their citizenship verified. The list is derived from the Texas Secretary of State’s (SOS) computerized list of voters the office is required to maintain.

THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS REMOVED FROM VOTER ROLLS, DOZENS OF LAWMAKERS WANT ANSWERS FROM GARLAND

A voter wearing a protective mask and gloves signs a document at a drive-thru mail ballot hand delivery center in Austin, Texas, on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has written to the Biden-Har­ris administration urging it to provide data that would help identify up to half a million people who could be registered to vote in the state but not be a citizen. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Although I have no doubt the vast majority of the voters on the list are citizens who are eligible to vote, I am equally certain that Texans have no way of knowing whether or not any of the voters on the list are noncitizens who are ineligible to vote,” Paxton wrote in the letter.

“Indeed, a recent SOS audit verified that over 1,300 noncitizens were registered to vote in the four randomly chosen counties that were subject to an election audit—and that is just what was verifiable. That is 1,300 too many when so many of our federal, state, and local election are decided by a handful of votes.”

Paxton has been trying to crack down hard on non-citizens voting. 

In August, his office’s Election Integrity unit executed searches in three South Texas counties as part of his ongoing probe to investigate fraud and ballot harvesting allegations. 

In the same month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced 6,500 potential noncitizens had been removed from the voter rolls since 2021. Approximately 1,930 had a voter history.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks with Fox News Digital along the sidelines of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, on Sept. 5, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Abbott announced in August that 6,500 potential noncitizens had been removed from the voter rolls since 2021. Approximately 1,930 had a voter history. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

Republicans have raised concerns about voter integrity issued and non-citizens being registered to vote ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

Officials in Oregon announced Monday that they have identified an additional 302 people on the state’s voter rolls who didn’t provide proof of citizenship when they were registered to vote. The announcement comes just two weeks after officials in the Beaver State said 1,259 possible noncitizens have been registered to vote since 2021, bringing the total number of mistaken registrations to 1,561. 

Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that nearly 98,000 people whose U.S. citizenship has not been confirmed will be allowed to vote in the upcoming state and local elections.

READ TEXAS AG’s LETTER. APP USERS CLICK HERE.

LAS VEGAS – Hispanic voters at a pro-Trump event in Nevada ripped the Biden-Harris administration on immigration following news that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants charged with rape and murder are in the United States.

“The current administration are very, very responsible,” Demesio Guerrero, a Trump supporter at a GOP Hispanic outreach event in Clark County, Nevada, told Fox News Digital in response to a question about recently released ICE data showing tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with sexual assault and murder convictions are living in the United States. 

“They are like traitors of the United States. Because you know what, all the crimes, all the innocent Americans that are dying every day in many, many, many cities in the United States are the result of those criminals being loose.”

Blanca Fox, a Trump campaign volunteer originally from Guatemala, told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration should have warned the American public about the ICE numbers. 

HARRIS SURROGATES TRY TO EXPLAIN AWAY ‘FLIP-FLOPPING’ IMMIGRATION POLICY

Hispanic Trump supporters speak to Fox News Digital in Las Vegas. (Fox News Digital)

“They’re being like so dishonest right now with the whole country,” Fox said. “Everybody is hurt and they don’t see the reality that Kamala Harris has been for four years in the [vice] presidency and all we have is like problems. We have no solutions with them. We’re not against people to come to the United States, but the legal way, if you come to look for a better future, do it the right way and don’t come and commit crimes and be a problem.”

Lydia Dominguez, a Trump supporter from Clark County who spoke on a panel at the Latinos for Trump event, told Fox News Digital that “there is a crisis occurring at the border.”

HARRIS SUPPORTERS SAY SHE’LL FIX IMMIGRATION, BLAME TRUMP FOR BORDER CRISIS

Border Patrol picks up a group of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border near Sasabe, Arizona, on March 13, 2024. (Justin Hamel/Getty Images)

“Between the drugs, the human trafficking, and now the millions of illegal immigrants that we have crossing over that we have not vetted or that have actually been charged for murder in other countries,” Dominguez said. “So it’s alarming what’s happening at the border.”

“They say that that’s only a very small group,” RNC Hispanic communications director Jaime Florez told Fox News Digital about criminal illegal aliens in the United States. “You know, try to explain those statistics to the parents of the girl that was killed in the University of Georgia. When 10 million people come into this country without being vetted in any way, it is impossible to think that no criminal is going to come among them.”

A Las Vegas resident called the current status of the southern border “terrible,” pointing out that “anyone can declare” asylum and “they’re just allowed to come in.” Former Texas congressional candidate Rolando Rodriguez told Fox News Digital that he grew up around the border and explained that today it is a “disaster like never before in the history of this nation and probably in the history of the world.”

This week, a pair of Suffolk University/USA Today surveys showed that Harris leads Trump among Hispanic voters in the key swing states of Nevada and Arizona, but also showed Trump has made gains with younger male Hispanic voters compared to four years ago.

LAKE RIPS BIDEN-HARRIS ‘DOUBLE WHAMMY’ POLICIES AFFECTING ARIZONANS : ‘DRIVEN US OVER THE CLIFF’

Vice President Kamala Harris visits the U.S.-Mexico border with Border Patrol Tucson Sector Chief John Modlin, right, in Douglas, Arizona, on Sept. 27, 2024. (Rebecca Noble/AFP via Getty Images)

“So far, Harris is falling short of the 24-26 point advantage that Joe Biden carried with Hispanic voters in Arizona and Nevada in 2020, according to the exit polls from those states,” Suffolk University Political Research Center director David Paleologos highlighted. “This Democratic shortfall is largely due to young Hispanic men.”

The Hispanic voters who spoke to Fox News Digital expressed a similar sentiment to what was highlighted in the polling and said they expect Trump will increase his numbers with Hispanic voters in 2024, in part because of the immigration crisis. 

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“President Reagan used to say Hispanics are Republicans. They just don’t know it yet,” Florez told Fox News Digital. “We’re finding out. I think that many Hispanics that are Democrats found out that the Democratic Party has taken them for granted for way too long. They have made us promises that they never fulfilled, including immigration reform that President Obama promised never happened.”

“We had a great time, it was a very prosperous time for us when President Trump was in the White House,” Florez added, noting that Hispanic household income was up during the Trump presidency.

“I’m sure that Trump is going to win Nevada. Definitely.”

New York City First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright reportedly resigned from her position Tuesday after the FBI raided her home in early September, becoming the latest senior official to depart Mayor Eric Adams’ administration as he faces federal corruption charges. 

Wright’s reported resignation comes just days after her husband, New York City Public Schools Chancellor David Banks, announced that he would resign earlier than expected in October. The New York Times, citing sources, says Wright is expected to be replaced by Maria Torres-Springer, who is the current deputy mayor for housing, economic development and workforce.  

When asked about the matter on Tuesday morning, the mayor’s office told Fox News Digital that “No announcement is final until and if it is made.” 

On Monday, Winnie Greco, the mayor’s director of Asian affairs, also resigned from her role, according to the New York Post. 

Her attorney Steven Brill – who did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital – told The City that Greco “officially resigned… on her own volition.” 

ERIC ADAMS CHANNELS TRUMP AS HE RAMPS UP REVENGE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, EXPERT SAYS 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Sheena Wright attend Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2023 on Dec. 31, 2022, in New York City.  (Noam Galai/Getty Images for Dick Clark Productions)

The same day, Rena Abbasova, a staffer for Adams who worked in the office of international affairs, was fired from her job, with sources telling Fox News that she was let go because she is the “key cooperating witness” in the federal investigation of Adams. 

Senior New York City Hall official Mohamed Bahi also stepped down on Monday. This morning, federal prosecutors announced they unsealed a complaint charging him “with witness tampering and destruction of evidence in connection with a federal investigation of unlawful contributions to a particular 2021 mayoral campaign.” 

“If there were no vulnerabilities here, nobody would have to resign,” former NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro told Fox News Digital. “Obviously, a lot of them are trying to make the point ‘oh I was going to leave anyway’ — but these are all the people from [Adams’] tightest inner circle and this is the team he put together to run the city and for them to be leaving prematurely when he would normally be gearing up for re-election, I don’t see how you can argue that this is business as usual. It’s very obvious something heavy is going on.” 

MOST NEW YORK CITY RESIDENTS WANT INDICTED MAYOR ERIC ADAMS TO RESIGN: POLL 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is flanked by his Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, left, and adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin, during his weekly in-person news conference at City Hall Blue Room on March 5, 2024, in New York.  (Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Adams is facing a five-count indictment on fraud, bribery and corruption charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. 

The mayor, 64, is accused of soliciting illegal campaign donations from foreign entities and falsifying paper trails to cover it up. As part of the plot, he allegedly defrauded taxpayers for $10 million over the past decade and frequently took free or steeply discounted vacations bankrolled by his foreign benefactors. 

Adams has said in a video statement that any charges filed against him would be “entirely false, based on lies,” and he insinuated that his criticism of the Biden administration’s disastrous border policies made him a target for retaliation. 

ERIC ADAMS IS LIKELY TO FACE MORE CHARGES 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives at federal court after being charged with bribery and illegally soliciting a campaign contribution from a foreign national, in New York City, on Oct. 2. (REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs)

The mayor was quoted by The New York Times as saying in a statement that will be circulated Tuesday that “We are grateful for First Deputy Mayor Wright’s years of service to the city and all she has done to deliver for children, families, and working-class New Yorkers.”  

“She is an exceptional leader who assembled a strong team and constantly demonstrated a bold vision for this city,” he reportedly added. 

The mayor’s office says on its website that Wright served in the administration since January 2022, first as deputy mayor of strategic initiatives and then as first deputy mayor starting in January 2023. 

“During her time in the administration, she helped launch the first phase of the MyCity portal, a one-stop-shop where New Yorkers can easily apply for and track city services and benefits. She has helped the city deliver on key planks of the Blueprint for Child Care & Early Childhood Education in New York City — most notably, clearing a backlogged waitlist for vouchers and allowing families of 36,000 children to apply for low-cost, high-quality child care,” her bio reads. 

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Wright, a graduate of Columbia University and Columbia Law School, also “previously served as the first female president and CEO of United Way of New York City,” it added.

Fox News’ Alexis McAdams, Michael Ruiz and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report. 

A top political handicapper shifted its rating for the Wisconsin Senate race on Tuesday to “Toss Up” with less than a month until Election Day. 

The race in Wisconsin, a pivotal battleground state in both the presidential and Senate matches, was most recently considered “Lean Democrat” by the Cook Political Report.

TRUMP, REPUBLICANS VENTURE TO BLUE AREAS IN WISCONSIN TO BOOST GOP TURNOUT

Tammy Baldwin and Eric Hovde will face off in the election in November. (Getty Images)

The handicapper cited changes in polling in recent days, with Hovde appearing to close the gap with Baldwin. But Cook also referred to private polling from both campaigns, which it said each showed the race within the margins of error. 

A source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital that Baldwin’s internal polling shows such a race. 

VULNERABLE DEM JON TESTER TURNS ON BIDEN ADMIN OVER DEI AFTER MONTANA UNIVERSITIES STRIPPED OF FEDERAL FUNDS

Baldwin is a two-term senator. (Drew Angerer)

In response to the rating shift, Hovde spokesman Zach Bannon said, “Sen. Baldwin’s radical agenda has sparked record high inflation, created chaos [at] the southern border, and made our communities less safe. Eric Hovde is going to win because the people of Wisconsin are ready for change.”

HERE’S WHAT 2 UNDECIDED WISCONSIN VOTERS ARE HOLDING OUT FOR IN 2024 ELECTION

Hovde has started to close the polling gap with Baldwin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“After 25 years in Washington, Tammy Baldwin has become the typical D.C. politician, voting in lockstep with the failed Biden agenda and hiding her Wall Street partner’s stock trades from her constituents. Wisconsinites are ready for change, and Eric Hovde has the momentum,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Tate Mitchell in a statement.

SENATE REPUBLICANS MARK OCT 7 ATTACK 1 YEAR OUT AS ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR CONTINUES

A woman dons a cheese hat with an American flag on it in Wisconsin. (Reuters)

The latest Marquette Law School poll showed Baldwin winning the battle, 51% to Hovde’s 45%. The survey interviewed 882 registered voters over Sept. 18-26. The poll’s margin of error was +/-4.4 percentage points. 

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The most recent Fox News Power Rankings from last month had Wisconsin at “Leans Dem.”

With Cook’s ratings change, Wisconsin joins other “Toss Up” Senate races in Ohio and Michigan. 

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

A Democratic win in Indiana. A Republican victory in New Mexico. And an election where Missouri was decided by less than 4,000 votes.

They’ve all happened in the last twenty years.

These results are little more than trivia questions today (the answers are 2008, 2004, and 2008 again). At the time, they raised eyebrows and changed our understanding of the electorate.

Surprises happen on election week. And when the national race looks this close, one unexpected flip can decide who wins the White House.

Harris still closer to 270 than Trump, but it’s anyone’s game

Vice President Harris still has the edge in this week’s forecast. It predicts that Harris will take home at least 241 electoral college votes to Trump’s 219.

Fox News Power Rankings presidential forecast.

Her advantage is no larger than it was in September, and as this column has mentioned, battleground states are usually – and mostly – won and lost together. The six toss-up states in this forecast are worth 78 votes, enough to give either candidate a victory on election night. 

National polls show a tight race: a Quinnipiac survey has Harris and former President Trump tied at 48%-48% with likely voters, while Marist has the candidates at 50%-48%, well within the polls’ margins of sampling error.

FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: TRUMP MAINTAINS LEAD ON TWO TOP ISSUES

Neither poll shows Trump slipping with the national electorate. Other recent polls showed a point worth of erosion after the September presidential debate.

Fox News Power Rankings presidential map. 

Battleground state polls have been sparse. (Hurricane Helene has devastated communities in Georgia and North Carolina, and Hurricane Milton will soon make landfall in Florida. This will affect the accuracy of polling in these areas.)

Overall, this race is still anyone’s game.

All eyes on an October surprise 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance debated a week ago in New York City. Vance mostly broke through the character that Democrats had constructed for him, while Walz stumbled out of the gate. 

A flash poll showed neither candidate winning the night. As always, wait for results from multiple polls conducted in the weeks after the debate to properly assess the polling impact.

That was the only scheduled event that could surprise voters this month. (Fox News Media has proposed a second Harris-Trump debate later in October.)

Four weeks until election night.

Of course, it’s the unexpected events in years past that have done more to reshape the race. And events in two categories have already resurfaced. 

• Severe weather: Hurricane Sandy tore through the northeast in late October 2012. President Obama’s cooperation with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was a landmark moment. This year, Helene and Milton are testing the candidates. Trump made visits to Georgia and North Carolina last week, and Harris was in Asheville over the weekend with Governor Roy Cooper.
• Foreign policy: A video from Osama Bin Laden four days before the 2004 election refocused the race on 9/11, national security and America’s war on terrorism. Yesterday marked a year since Hamas’ terrorist attack in Israel and war rages between Ukraine and Russia; both are reminders of global instability during the Biden Administration.

FOX NEWS POLL: VOTERS CITE HIGH PRICES AS BIGGEST MOTIVATOR TO VOTE

Polarization will limit the impact of these events on the horserace. But watch Harris and Trump’s support with independents over the coming weeks. Those voters made up 5% of the electorate in 2020, and they broke for President Biden by 15 points; recent polls put Harris in that ballpark. Trump likely needs to claw that back to win the race.

Two states that could surprise in November

Fox News Power Rankings Likely D & Likely R races.

There are nine “likely” races on the Power Rankings map. The two that would have the biggest impact on the race are Florida and Virginia.

Former President Trump improved his performance in Florida in the 2020 presidential election, bringing his margin up to about 372,000 votes.

That’s a win of 3.4 points, or his second-closest victory of the cycle. (The closest was North Carolina, a toss-up in the rankings, which he won by 1.3 points.)

Florida is Likely R on the Power Rankings.

Republicans have strong advantages. The state’s White working-class and senior voters lean towards Trump, while its large Hispanic population, particularly the Cuban and Venezuelan communities, has shifted right in recent years.

The GOP won big at every level in the midterms and enjoys a 1 million-plus voter registration advantage, and most tellingly, the Democratic Party is not making significant investments.

Democrats hope that a competitive Senate race, where incumbent Republican Rick Scott has personally spent more than $8 million, means the presidential election is closer than people think. Florida is also one of three competitive states with an abortion measure on the ballot.

It would take a blowout night for Harris to flip the Sunshine State. It would also be the first state after the battlegrounds to go blue.

Florida stays at Likely R in the rankings. 

A win for Trump in Virginia would also be shocking, especially since Biden won this state by more than 10 points in 2020.

Virginia is Likely D on the Power Rankings.

The state has a higher proportion of Black, suburban, and college-educated voters than the rest of the country, and all three groups help Democrats run up the margin. While Republicans talked about Virginia after the June presidential debate, the race has changed, and neither party is making big investments in the state today.

Harris leads in Virginia.

Some polls show a race that isn’t over for the GOP. A survey from Virginia Commonwealth University in September put Harris at 47% with registered voters and Trump at 37%. A poll from the Washington Post earlier in the month had Harris at 50% to Trump’s 42%.

Still, it would take a blowout in the other direction for the Old Dominion to reject Harris. Virginia remains a Likely D race.

Four weeks until election night

1.5 million voters have cast a ballot so far.

More than 1.5 million voters have cast their ballot as the countdown to election night continues. Early voting has now begun in: 

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The Harris ticket continues a media tour this week while Trump will rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The GOP has done surprisingly well there in recent years.