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The November elections technically start on September 4, when North Carolina starts sending out absentee-vote-by-mail ballots, Jamie Dupree reports.
Jonathan Bernstein: “Other states follow soon after; by early October lots and lots of people will be voting; almost a third of the states begin early voting by the end of the first week of October.”
“A Missouri judge has allowed new U.S. House districts backed by President Donald Trump to be used in the November elections, rejecting a bid by to put the Republican-friendly districts to a statewide vote of the people,” the Associated Press reports.
“The ruling Wednesday by Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green is a victory for Republicans seeking to hold onto their slim majority in the U.S. House. But the case is likely to end up in the state Supreme Court.”
Punchbowl News: “Andrew Tupone is running for a crucial Pennsylvania swing seat as a Green Party candidate. But it’s Republicans who have played a key role in helping him get on — and stay on — the ballot.”
“Tupone’s bid for Pennsylvania’s 7th District quickly raised alarms for House Democrats. His presence in the race could siphon liberal voters from Democratic nominee Bob Brooks and make it easier for incumbent GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie to win reelection.”
“A former registered Republican, Tupone says he switched his registration to the Green Party earlier this year in protest of both major parties. But the Green Party of Pennsylvania has disavowed him.”
“The hard-right Freedom Caucus is having a rough primary season,” Politico reports.
“Candidates with backing from the caucus and its allies flopped in primaries from Florida to Wyoming on Tuesday, adding to a string of recent losses for the group.”
“After nearly six months in a fast-paced, unplanned war with Iran, the parts onboard the Navy’s aircraft carriers are at risk of wearing out. That includes the plumbing and air-conditioning systems, catapults that launch fighter jets and the gear that catches the planes slamming to a halt on the floating runway,” MS NOW reports.
“Retired senior Navy leaders are raising concerns over the wear and tear the unexpected record-breaking deployments have on the $22 billion carriers, the expensive aircraft they transport around the world and the badly needed extended maintenance time it will take to repair them.”
“Six weeks from Brazil’s election, the talk of its campaign season is less about who will win than what President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will do when he does,” Bloomberg reports.
“From the capital Brasilia to trading desks in Sao Paulo, Lula is broadly considered the favorite to beat right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, whose campaign has been marred by a feud with his stepmother and links to a banker at the center of a massive financial fraud probe.”
MS NOW: “As of June 29, Republican members of Congress had held just 39 in-person town halls this year, according to LegiStorm, marking the lowest first-half-of-the-year number since the Capitol Hill-focused platform began tracking that data. Democratic lawmakers, in contrast, had hosted 451 town halls during the same period.”
“South Korea estimates North Korea possesses between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads, its defence minister said on Thursday, citing a range significantly higher than President Donald Trump’s recent assertion that Pyongyang has 57 nuclear weapons,” Reuters reports.
Financial Times: North Korea dismisses Trump overture.
“They are not seriously negotiating, nor are they shooting at each other. Instead, Iran and the United States have settled into an uneasy, in-between state that risks either a return to fighting or a hardening stalemate,” the New York Times reports.
“At the core of this unresolved status are calculations, perhaps miscalculations, by each side.”
“Iranian officials believe they have more to gain from withstanding U.S. economic pressure and maintaining control over the Strait of Hormuz than they do from making major concessions in a negotiated deal, analysts said. And the United States appears to be betting that putting Iran in a tighter economic stranglehold will succeed where military strikes have not.”
ABC News: Trump appears to have dropped his tit-for-tat approach to Iran attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.
“The Trump administration has taken a series of extraordinary steps to attack California’s position as a national leader in environmental protection, enlisting at least a half-dozen federal agencies to undermine the state’s efforts to pivot away from fossil fuels,” the New York Times reports.
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has shown he’ll do unconventional things to get markets moving his way. His latest maneuver is his most radical yet,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Facing an uncomfortable rise in longer-term interest rates, Bessent took action early Wednesday when the agency he leads announced that it would significantly step up purchases of government bonds as part of its existing buyback program. Markets quickly responded in a way they haven’t to Bessent’s previous moves, with stocks rising and Treasury yields falling sharply.”
Associated Press: An alarmed bond market gets the Trump administration to act again.
“Vice President Vance hosted a Wednesday evening fundraiser in Southampton, N.Y. for young Republican donors that raised more than $5 million,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: The event drew several up-and-coming donors in their 20s and 30s — providing a glimpse into the finance network Vance is assembling ahead of a possible run for president in 2028.”
“President Donald Trump’s director of legislative affairs is expected to depart the White House in the coming weeks,” CNN reports.
“James Braid has served as the president’s top liaison between the West Wing and Capitol Hill throughout Trump’s second term. His plans to leave the role less than three months before the midterm elections could complicate any final legislating the White House has planned.”
“President Donald Trump’s latest step away from military escalation in Iran comes as the U.S. side sees talks between Iran and Oman — which had appeared to be a rare fruitful negotiation path — as having stalled in recent days,” Semafor reports.
“As the Iran war grinds past the six-month mark, House Democrats are betting that candidates with military credentials will help them win back the majority — adding three veterans, including a former Navy admiral fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to their list of top recruits Thursday,” MS NOW reports.
“The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced five additions to its ‘Red to Blue’ program on Thursday, giving candidates access to strategic guidance, staff resources, and more robust fundraising help.”
“President Trump’s half-built White House ballroom is a 90,000-square-foot embodiment of a recurring legal conundrum: What happens when a boundary-pushing president moves faster than courts can keep up?” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to allow Trump to continue building the $400 million project. But he and his administration’s lawyers have told the justices that they have no real choice at all.”
“Construction of the ‘concrete-and-steel superstructure,’ they say, has already advanced so far that it would be ‘practically impossible’ to stop now, let alone tear down what has already been built.”
“A new populist fever is coursing through the midterms, forcing campaigns to retreat and recalibrate as they confront a groundswell of hostility toward AI data centers,” Axios reports.
“Grassroots pressure is breaking the bipartisan consensus that enabled America’s AI buildout. Candidates in both parties are now racing to distance themselves from projects their own leaders spent years courting.”
“For years, the U.S. and South Korea militaries have participated in one of the largest military exercises in the world, with thousands of troops from both countries preparing for possible North Korea aggression,” the New York Times reports.
“On President Trump’s orders, the Pentagon curtailed this year’s exercises and scaled back some live-fire components of the drill, which were already underway.”
“Current and former military officials say the move is likely to undercut U.S. military readiness in the region at a time when allies are questioning the Trump administration’s commitment to longstanding partnerships and countering China.”
“The president’s decision is also unlikely to affect the person he hoped to sway: North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un.”
CNBC: Trump scaling down U.S.-South Korea drills risks more than just joint military readiness.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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