Ballard Partners, the lobbying firm led by a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump, has more than tripled its quarterly lobbying revenues compared with the same time a year ago, as companies and organizations have sought help from a handful of firms close to the new administration to decipher a second Trump administration marked by upheaval and retribution.

The firm will report $14 million in lobbying revenues for the first three months of 2025, more than double the $6.2 million Ballard brought in last quarter. Ballard reported $4.2 million in lobbying revenues during the first quarter of 2024.

Many of the largest firms on K Street have yet to report their first quarter revenues ahead of Monday’s midnight deadline, but Ballard’s haul will likely place it near the top.

The beginning of any new administration tends to be lucrative for the lobbying industry — and business was already booming on K Street before Trump swept into office again.

At the end of last year, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck topped the revenue rankings with $16.9 million in revenue in the fourth quarter, according to a POLITICO analysis, while the runner-up, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, reported $14.6 million that quarter. Brownstein’s revenue dipped slightly in the first quarter of 2025, to $16.8 million.

Longtime Florida lobbyist Brian Ballard set up a Washington office for his firm not long after Trump’s first White House victory in 2017, and quickly became one of the go-to firms for companies and trade associations looking to understand the unpredictable political novice in the Oval Office.

Though Ballard employs a number of Democratic lobbyists, the firm saw its business fall during the Biden administration. Still, it remained among the top 20 firms on K Street, according to POLITICO’s analysis.

Ballard’s rise this year represents a shift that happens every time power changes hands in Washington, as corporate America looks for an in with an incoming president or congressional leader. But that dynamic kicked into overdrive ahead of Trump’s second presidency. Ballard, along with a handful of other firms with close ties to the administration, like Miller Strategies, Mercury Public Affairs, Michael Best Strategies and Continental Strategies, have seen a tsunami of new business since November. Those firms did not respond to requests for their first quarter numbers.

But Ballard has disclosed more than 130 new lobbying clients just since Election Day, including JP Morgan Chase, Chevron, Palantir, Netflix, Ripple Labs and the Business Roundtable. The firm also registered to lobby for several entities that have been singled out for punishment by the Trump administration, such as the governing body of Harvard University, Public Broadcasting Service and the law firm Kirkland & Ellis. (Ballard is also registered to lobby for Axel Springer, POLITICO’s parent company.)

Several former lobbyists at Ballard now serve in high-ranking posts in Trump’s second administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Another Ballard alum, Trent Morse, works as Trump’s deputy director of personnel. The firm’s Florida roots mean that Ballard also has relationships with the Floridians in positions of influence in Trump’s Washington, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the time period for which Ballard will report its revenues.

NEW YORK — Opponents of President Donald Trump’s administration took to the streets of communities large and small across the U.S. on Saturday, decrying what they see as threats to the nation’s democratic ideals.

The disparate events ranged from a march through midtown Manhattan and a rally in front of the White House to a demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration marking the start of the American Revolutionary War 250 years ago. In San Francisco, protesters formed a human banner reading “Impeach & Remove” on the sands of Ocean Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Thomas Bassford was among those who joined demonstrators at the reenactment of the Battles of Lexington and Concord outside of Boston. “The shot heard ’round the world” on April 19, 1775, heralded the start of the nation’s war for independence from Britain.

The 80-year-old retired mason from Maine said he believed Americans today are under attack from their own government and need to stand up against it.

“This is a very perilous time in America for liberty,” Bassford said, as he attended the event with his partner, daughter and two grandsons. “I wanted the boys to learn about the origins of this country and that sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”

Elsewhere, protests were planned outside Tesla car dealerships against billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk and his role in downsizing the federal government. Others organized more community-service events, such as food drives, teach-ins and volunteering at local shelters.

The protests come just two weeks after similar nationwide protests against the Trump administration drew thousands to the streets across the country.

Organizers say they’re protesting what they call Trump’s civil rights violations and constitutional violations, including efforts to deport scores of immigrants and to scale back the federal government by firing thousands of government workers and effectively shutter entire agencies.

Some of the events drew on the spirit of the American Revolutionary War, calling for “no kings” and resistance to tyranny.

Boston resident George Bryant, who was among those protesting in Concord, Massachusetts, said he was concerned Trump was creating a “police state” in America as he held up a sign saying, “Trump fascist regime must go now!”

“He’s defying the courts. He’s kidnapping students. He’s eviscerating the checks and balances,” Bryant said. “This is fascism.”

In Washington, Bob Fasick said he came out to the rally by the White House out of concern about threats to constitutionally protected due process rights, as well as Social Security and other federal safety-net programs.

The Trump administration, among other things, has moved to shutter Social Security Administration field offices, cut funding for government health programs and scale back protections for transgender people.

“I cannot sit still knowing that if I don’t do anything and everybody doesn’t do something to change this, that the world that we collectively are leaving for the little children, for our neighbors is simply not one that I would want to live,” said the 76-year-old retired federal employee from Springfield, Virginia.

In Columbia, South Carolina, several hundred people protested at the statehouse. They held signs that said “Fight Fiercely, Harvard, Fight” and “Save SSA,” in reference to the Social Security Administration.

And in Manhattan, protesters rallied against continued deportations of immigrants as they marched from the New York Public Library north towards Central Park past Trump Tower.

“No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” they chanted to the steady beat of drums, referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Marshall Green, who was among the protesters, said he was most concerned that Trump has invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 by claiming the country is at war with Venezuelan gangs linked to the South American nation’s government.

“Congress should be stepping up and saying no, we are not at war. You cannot use that,” said the 61-year-old from Morristown, New Jersey. “You cannot deport people without due process, and everyone in this country has the right to due process no matter what.”

Meanwhile Melinda Charles, of Connecticut, said she worried about Trump’s “executive overreach,” citing clashes with the federal courts to Harvard University and other elite colleges.

“We’re supposed to have three equal branches of government and to have the executive branch become so strong,” she said. “I mean, it’s just unbelievable.”

President Donald Trump’s pick for Internal Revenue Service commissioner recently cleared a substantial debt from his failed 2022 Senate bid, using campaign contributions that rolled in after Trump announced his intent to nominate him to lead the tax agency, according to federal filings.

Former Republican Rep. Billy Long raked in roughly $137,000 in campaign donations in January — the month after Trump said he would nominate him to serve in Trump’s administration — according to campaign finance disclosures filed late Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

Long then paid back an outstanding personal loan of $130,000 he had made to his now-dormant 2022 U.S. Senate campaign in February. A number of the donors are affiliated with firms in the tax consultancy industry.

The Lever was first to report on the filings.

Before January’s flood of donations, Long had only raised roughly $36,000 through his latent Senate campaign committee over the last two years, much of which came in December.

The IRS directed POLITICO to the Treasury Department for comment, which did not immediately respond. Long's campaign treasurer did not immediately return a request for comment via email, and Long could not otherwise be reached for comment.

The disclosure comes as Long is facing backlash from Democratic lawmakers for connections to alleged tax credit loopholes. The disclosure report lists various contributions from financial advisers working at consulting groups such as White River Energy and Lifetime Advisors, which are in hot water with Democrats.

The firms are mentioned in a letter sent from Senate Finance Committee Democrats to the IRS on Monday urging the agency to open a criminal investigation into the groups’ promotion of allegedly fraudulent “tribal tax credits.”

The Missouri Republican represented the state’s 7th congressional district from 2011 to 2023. He lost the 2022 GOP Senate primary contest to now-Sen. Eric Schmitt.

After leaving Congress in 2023, Long pitched tax products for Lifetime Advisors. He also reported earning at least $5,000 from White River Energy for a duty designated as a “Referral to Capitol Edge Strategies” — a firm that, according to Bloomberg Tax, promotes tribal tax credit resources.

In 2022, the Supreme Court struck down limits on how much post-election cash candidates can use to repay personal loans, opening the door for donors with business before candidates to refill their coffers.

Long’s nomination to lead the IRS is still awaiting Senate confirmation.

CHICAGO — Former President Joe Biden ripped the Trump administration’s efforts to slash Social Security spending in his first major public speech since leaving the White House, but never mentioned the current president.

“In fewer than 100 days, this administration has caused so much damage and destruction. It’s breathtaking,” Biden told about 200 people gathered for the conference of Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled on Tuesday. “They’ve taken a hatchet to the Social Security Administration."

Biden attacked the Trump administration for thousands of job cuts at the federal agency, arguing that they’ve eviscerated services and endangered benefits for the roughly 73 million seniors who rely on the popular financial assistance program.

“They’re shooting first and aiming later,” Biden said. “The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights.”

Biden-isms shined throughout the sometimes rambling, roughly 30-minute speech, as he used the phrases “folks” and “I mean it sincerely” to make his points. The former president told well-trod stories of growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and of seeing his parents struggle to make ends meet, and he reminisced about his decades on Capitol Hill.

Biden’s comments were timed with "Social Security Day of Action" on Tuesday to protest what advocates describe as severe threats to the program under the Trump administration. His gradual reemergence comes as other — more critical — voices begin to shape the narrative surrounding his term. Biden’s aides have been bracing for the release of several books documenting his physical and mental state before he abandoned his reelection campaign last year, with allies already challenging reporting about his decline.

The speaking engagement in Chicago’s River North neighborhood was held just blocks from a high-profile campaign fundraiser held last year for Biden before he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

The central argument of Biden’s speech Tuesday was that the Trump administration presents an untenable threat to Social Security.

“Social Security is more than a government program; it’s a sacred promise," he said.

The White House response to Biden’s speech? “Embarrassing,” said a spokesperson, who referred POLITICO to the Social Security feed on X, which accused Biden of “lying to Americans.”

Two former administration officials granted anonymity to discuss private plans said that although Biden wants to remain “engaged,” his speech in Chicago is not necessarily a sign of a more aggressive public schedule. Instead, Biden is expected to pick his spots on specific issues, like Social Security, that matter deeply to him, these officials said. In recent weeks, he’s spoken to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, accepting an honorary membership, and he dropped in on students at the Model United Nations conference.

“Coming out with a big democracy, rule of law speech would have been, maybe, too on the nose, so picking Social Security, something that is real to people ... and it matters to him, makes a lot of sense,” said a third former Biden administration official. “No one would be talking about Social Security tomorrow if Joe Biden wasn’t giving this speech, so that alone is proof positive that he can still command a certain level of attention and ability to set the agenda."

He’s also working on another book, these officials said.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, "The unprecedented assault on Social Security is an all-hands-on-deck moment that requires all of us to show up, stand up and speak up, which is why President Biden's voice in this fight is going to be so incredibly important.”

Former Democratic Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who introduced Biden at the event, said he thought the former president waited the “appropriate” (almost) 100 days to make his first big speech. And former Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who also was in attendance, said it was “absolutely” important that Biden speak out on what’s happening in Washington, even as some Democrats still have hard feelings about Biden staying in the campaign as long as he did last year.

Earlier in the day, David Hogg, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, described Biden’s return to public view as a natural step taken by former presidents who want to share their expertise.

“He’s not gonna stop being involved. He is a workhorse and he wants to get things done and he wants to help with the party,” Hogg said.

But Biden left office with sagging approval ratings, and many Democrats blamed their party’s losses in November on him staying in the presidential race for so long. Hogg, responding to some of the criticism about Biden in 2024, said: “Somebody can be very good at legislating, but not necessarily the right person to be out there on the front and center of things.”

Biden is not the only former world leader stepping out in recent days. Biden’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, took to social media on Monday night to criticize the Trump administration’s funding freeze for Harvard University. And on the same day Biden spoke in Chicago, Justin Trudeau, who had been laying low since resigning as Canada’s prime minister last month, was back in public view with an exit interview scheduled to air on a PBS station in Buffalo.

Canada is in the middle of a snap election, and voters have largely moved on from the three-term Liberal leader who was intensely unpopular at the time of his exit. And as with Biden, Liberals in Canada may not be eager to see him back in the spotlight.

The conversation with broadcaster Valerie Pringle for “Canada Files” was taped after Trudeau’s final Cabinet meeting Although there is seemingly little in the interview to hijack a campaign, the timing is less than ideal for a Liberal Party that’s counting on Canadians to forget the reasons they wanted Trudeau gone in the first place.

“How are you feeling?” Pringle asked Trudeau off the top of the half-hour broadcast.

“Really good,” he replied. “I'm feeling serene about everything that I got done. I think I had a good run.”

Sue Allen and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

Former Michigan state Sen. Adam Hollier on Monday launched a Democratic primary challenge against two-term Rep. Shri Thanedar.

The announcement marks Hollier’s third attempt to secure the House seat representing most of Detroit. Hollier previously served as a Michigan state Senator from 2018 to 2022 and has also led the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“From housing to daycare to the rising costs of everything from groceries to the brakes on our cars, we’re in a real crisis in this country,” Hollier said in a press release announcing the run. “We need bold solutions and leaders who won’t back down in the face of this challenge.”

Thanedar, an Indian American Democrat, has held Detroit’s plurality-Black district since 2023. Hollier, who is Black, came up short to Thanedar in the 2022 primary and didn’t make it onto the ballot in 2024. Leaders within the Congressional Black Caucus have previously rallied around Hollier.

Thanedar, a multimillionaire, has largely self-funded his congressional bids since taking over the seat held by former Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence.

“The last thing we need are more millionaires and billionaires like Elon Musk and Shri Thanedar who are only in it for themselves,” Hollier said.

“While everyday Michiganders are struggling, Shri Thanedar is spending hundreds of thousands of their hard-earned tax dollars putting up self-portraits of himself all over the district,” he added. “That’s something only Donald Trump would be proud of.”

Democrats are targeting Donald Trump's weakened standing on the economy — even after the president paused his far-reaching reciprocal tariff policy that reverberated across global markets.

In interviews with more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers, congressional staffers and media strategists, many in the party see a prime opportunity to attack Trump on a key campaign promise they argue he’s failing to deliver — a message likely to be featured prominently in political ads if the economy continues to falter. Some candidates are already hitting tariffs in campaign launch ads, while the party is planning to capitalize on anger over the economy, among other issues, in upcoming town halls.

It's an opportunity for Democrats on the economy, a major point of strength for Trump in his presidential campaign last year, even as they conceded the economic crisis had eased somewhat after the president paused some — but not all — tariffs on most countries. On Thursday afternoon, Trump clarified that the combined tariffs on Chinese goods is now at 145 percent. Most other nations will be subject to the 10 percent baseline tariff the administration levied last week. The markets reacted accordingly, with stocks plummeting at the end of the day.

Now, Democrats are banking on rising panic in worldwide markets and fears of a recession to knock Republicans down.

“We heard for five freaking months going into the last election, people beating up Biden and Harris about inflation, and the price of fucking eggs,” said longtime Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher, who worked on both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “So why the hell would we make [ads] about tariffs, as opposed to making it about the economy?”

He said Trump is presenting one of the most favorable gateways to Democrats in recent history, imploring Democrats not to squander the week of earned media about a near-global market implosion.

“There is an opportunity here, of historical proportions, given the advantage on the economy writ large that Republicans have had for decades,” he added. “You see Trump underwater on handling the economy and fighting inflation and bringing down costs – that is a major opening and a historic way for Democrats to take away what has been a major positive for Republicans.”

And recent polling backs up that claim that voters are waning on Trump’s economic stewardship. An Economist/YouGov poll of about 1,700 American adults released Wednesday showed Trump’s overall approval rating drop five percentage points from last week, combined with a four percentage-point drop in his handling of the economy. A poll from the Democratic group Navigator Research released Tuesday also showed 55 percent of 1,000 registered voters disapproving of Trump’s handling of the economy, an eight percentage-point swing since the group’s last poll in March. Another recent poll from the liberal group Data For Progress also showed a majority disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.

Not every poll showed dramatic changes. In a poll of 1,400 registered voters released Wednesday that was conducted April 3-7 from Quinnipiac, Trump’s handling of the economy and his overall approval rating remained steady or dropped only slightly.

Democrats and their affiliated groups are already blaming Trump for his scattershot tariff rollout as a way to pummel vulnerable Republicans in elections later this year and heading into the midterms.

Hours before Trump announced the tariff pause, the Democratic-aligned super PAC American Bridge released audio of Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP gubernatorial nominee, praising Trump’s tariff plan. Democrat Mike Sacks announced his candidacy Wednesday in a nearly two and a half minute ad. It featured an image of the word “tariff” nine times in bold red font along with a crimson-color graphic of a stock market plunging that was superimposed over the face of his opponent, incumbent Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), widely considered one of the most vulnerable House Republicans next cycle.

The Democratic-aligned group Families Over Billionaires, a nonprofit, is putting six figures into an ad running on social media and streaming platforms bashing the Trump administration over tax plans, and Democrats are planning a new round of town halls in GOP-held House districts over the upcoming recess.

Democrats argue the upheaval Trump injected into the economy undercuts the central premise that he campaigned on: that as a businessperson, he would be best positioned to grow the economy.

“The one thing that American voters want is security and safety. What they don’t want is chaos and uncertainty,” said Alex Jacquez, a former economic adviser to former President Joe Biden who is now chief of policy for Groundwork Collaborative. “I think why you've seen such rapid deterioration on his approvals on the economy and on cost of living, tariffs and trade, is because not a single action that he has taken has been in service of addressing people's number one concern, which is cost of living.”

And that is precisely what has Democratic admakers salivating.

“Keep it simple and keep it tangible and keep it relatable to everyone's lives here,” said veteran media strategist Julian Mulvey, who has cut ads for Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris. He urged Democrats and affiliated groups to not overcomplicate their messaging by talking about esoteric economic concepts like supply chains and capital markets.

Instead, he referenced the “you break it, you own it” doctrine of politics.

“Trump is sort of charging headlong into breaking the economy and, and he's going to find out when he does,” he said. “Or in the modern vernacular: fuck around and find out.”

The White House, meanwhile, criticized the Democrats’ planned strategy.

“President Trump is the first president in modern American history to take decisive action to finally corner China and restore American Greatness,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. “If Democrats see an opportunity in President Trump and Republicans standing up for everyday Americans and restoring American Greatness, they’re headed for a worse election night than November 5, 2024.”

Several Democratic media strategists acknowledged it’s too early to say what the economy will look like when prime time campaign season hits. But that hasn’t stopped progressive strategists like Chuck Rocha from storyboarding what the anti-Trump attack ads will look like in the coming months.

“The best way to deliver the ad is from one of his voters, a white guy in his 50s who works in a steel mill, works at whatever the place down the street is that says: ‘Look, I don't really care about either party. I voted for Donald Trump because I thought he would change a rigged system,” Rocha said of a hypothetical ad that features someone speaking directly to a camera. “But he's even rigging it more, and he's rigging it for himself.”

And that's on top of the party's already established playbook around Elon Musk's sledgehammer to government. Some Democratic ad-makers said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutinck's comments about "fraudsters" getting Social Security checks was bound to backfire.

It’s something that’s caught the attention of lawmakers too, including Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), who won reelection in a key swing state that Trump flipped last year. The representative is one of 26 Democrats that the Republican campaign arm is targeting in the midterms.

“Market manipulation … that’s what happened,” Horsford said on Wednesday. “On the same day that they're screwing America.” Horsford was referring to Trump’s social media post Wednesday where the president proclaimed: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY."

Ken Paxton’s entry into the U.S. Senate race in Texas is becoming a major headache for Republicans.

Top GOP senators were maneuvering to undercut the Texas attorney general even before he announced his primary campaign this week against four-term Sen. John Cornyn. Others urged President Donald Trump after Paxton got into the race to endorse the incumbent leadership adviser and former chair of the Senate campaign arm with a deep donor base.

“The best thing would have been to keep Paxton out of the race,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a close Trump ally. He added that at this point he would tell Trump, if the president asked for his advice, to do “whatever is most helpful for John.”

Notably, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is staying neutral in the matchup between Cornyn and Paxton so far. And two members of the Texas delegation have already backed the challenger.

Paxton is just the start of the party’s primary problems. Republicans are on edge that Trump, if he chooses, could elevate more MAGA-aligned challengers to incumbents in several states, forcing a round of bitterly contested primaries. Senate Republican leaders are working to prevent a Trump-backed primary threat to Sen. Thom Tillis in North Carolina, home to one of the most competitive races next November. And Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, who voted to convict Trump following his impeachment in 2021’s riot at the Capitol, is facing a challenge from the right.

Republicans are holding out hope that Trump will help them fend off intraparty upsets that would complicate their Senate map next year. But they also know a single utterance from the president would be enough to upend their plans.

Sen. Tim Scott, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has said that he is working with Trump to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to protecting incumbents. Scott re-emphasized his support for Cornyn after Paxton jumped into what is expected to be the party’s most expensive primary fight of the cycle, calling him "a leader who delivers on President Trump's agenda” and an “essential part of the Republican Senate Majority."

But the behind-the-scenes efforts by GOP leaders to persuade Trump to endorse Cornyn is cementing a well-known reality for Republicans: They need Trump but also know they can’t control him.

The Senate map is heavily tilted toward Republicans in 2026. But they are still eager to avoid what’s been a perennial problem for the party: watching untested candidates win primaries only to cost the party in the general election or force them to spend money on what should have been safe seats. In the 2022 midterms, Trump endorsed candidates like Mehmet Oz, Blake Masters and Herschel Walker who went on to lose hotly contested general elections.

Sen. Steve Daines, last cycle’s chair of the NRSC, went to great lengths to forge a different path, working closely with Trump to handpick candidates with better chances in the general election. He succeeded, helping to deliver the Senate majority to Republicans. But the GOP is playing more defense in 2026, including with incumbents facing new challenges from the right.

“Look, you always have to take primaries seriously, always,” Daines said. “What we tried to do at the NRSC last time is try to minimize that. But you’re always concerned about colleagues in a primary.”

Trump, Daines said, is keeping “a close eye” on Senate races.

Senate Republicans aren’t alone in trying to work Trump to get involved in primaries on their behalf — and in some cases, their efforts are having unintended consequences. Paxton entered the primary sooner than he otherwise would have because he learned Senate Majority Leader John Thune was trying to secure Trump’s endorsement for Cornyn, according to a person close to Paxton who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. Paxton also has allies urging the president to endorse him, the person said.

Cornyn yoked himself to the president during the first two-and-a-half months of his second term and touted his previous work with Trump during his failed bid for majority leader last year. But Paxton has still made clear he will run a campaign accusing Cornyn of being insufficiently loyal to Trump.

Aides to Trump and the Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In North Carolina, Tillis has already drawn primary challengers and could face another bid from Michele Morrow, an inflammatory candidate who unsuccessfully ran for the state’s superintendent for public education last fall. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, has also been floated as a potential challenger – though she recently signed on at Fox News Channel.

Tillis, asked if he had spoken with Trump or his team about an endorsement, said “it’s too early for me to get into those sort of discussions.”

But it’s Cassidy who Trump’s Senate allies are less certain will be able to work himself back into Trump’s good favor. Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming has already announced a run against him, and more Republican challengers are expected to jump into the fray. And while Cassidy has sided with Trump on major GOP causes this year, including providing a key vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead Trump’s Health and Human Services Department, some Senate Republicans aren’t sure that is enough to entice the president to his side.

Cramer, a close Trump ally, wasn't certain that Trump could find his way to help the Louisiana Republican: “I don’t know — impeachment, that’s a tough one.”

Another Trump ally, granted anonymity to speak candidly, predicted there was “no way” the president would remain neutral, much less endorse Cassidy, in the primary. And the normally gregarious Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) declined to comment when asked if he was, or planned to be, in talks with Trump about endorsing or at least staying neutral in Cassidy’s race.

Cassidy was reluctant to discuss the possibility of facing a Trump-backed challenger on Wednesday.

“That’s kind of a silly question,” he said about that prospect. “I’m not worried about that.”

Asked if he had spoken with Trump or his team about an endorsement, he asked: “Where is this coming from?”

A key difference between Cassidy and other potentially endangered incumbents is that his seat in Louisiana is not in play in the general election, so the party’s fate isn’t tied to Cassidy winning his primary.

Cassidy is also facing a new obstacle as he tries to hold onto his seat: Louisiana did away with its unique primary system for congressional races that advances the top two vote-getters to a general election regardless of party (unless one candidate gets over 50 percent of the vote.) That means Cassidy will need to win over a more conservative and Trump-aligned electorate to advance to the general election.

If Trump targets Cassidy, it would open up a public split between Trump and Thune and the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, which backs incumbent senators. Not to mention that any money siphoned away from Republicans during the primary takes away from funding that could be spent in the general election on competitive races.

Asked if he had a similar conversation with Trump and his orbit for Cassidy as Republicans have done for Cornyn, Thune said in a brief interview that Republicans are taking the races “one at a time.”

“Obviously we’re invested in helping our incumbents,” Thune said, adding that he is working with the White House and the Senate GOP campaign arm to “make sure we’re in the best possible shape going into the midterm elections with both our candidates — incumbents, but also some challengers.”

Two Texas House Republicans have endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 2026 Senate bid — breaking with longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn for what’s anticipated to be a heated primary contest.

Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, announced his backing of Paxton in a statement first shared to Fox News on Thursday.

"Attorney General Paxton is the conservative champion we need in the U.S. Senate," Gooden wrote.

He added that Paxton “will take a sledgehammer to the establishment, secure the border, and fight hard for President Trump’s agenda. Ken Paxton has my complete and total endorsement."

Gooden’s endorsement comes two days after Paxton, a widely known MAGA firebrand, launched his highly anticipated 2026 Senate campaign to challenge Cornyn.

“It’s definitely time for a change in Texas,” Paxton said. “We have another great U.S. senator in Ted Cruz. And it’s time we have another great senator that will actually stand up and fight for Republican values, fight for the values of the people of Texas, and also support Donald Trump.”

Gooden isn’t the first Texas Republican to throw his support behind Paxton. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) touted his backing of the attorney general’s campaign bid Wednesday.

“He’s a bulldog, and that’s what we need in the Senate,” Nehls told POLITICO.

Cornyn and Paxton are longtime ideological rivals. Paxton has repeatedly attacked Cornyn for what he views as inadequate embracing of Trump, and Cornyn recently bashed the Trump rabble-rouser over his legal scandals.

Cornyn recently earned the backing of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who beat Cornyn in last year’s battle to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as the party leader in the chamber. The NRSC — led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) — also said it would support the incumbent.

While both moves were expected, it signals the primary could get incredibly expensive — and that national Republicans could be willing to spend to back the longtime lawmaker.

But the Republican endorsement that will likely hold the most weight is Trump’s. While the president has yet to announce whom he’ll support, Trump and Paxton have long been closely aligned.

Ben Jacobs contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump praised Gretchen Whitmer in a White House meeting on Wednesday, echoing a bipartisan message the Michigan governor delivered during an earlier speech in Washington, D.C.

The meeting was Whitmer’s second sit-down with the president since he took office. She raised the ongoing ice storm in northern Michigan, investments in the Selfridge Air National Guard Base outside of Detroit, invasive fish in the Great Lakes and the hottest topic of the day — tariffs — according to a spokesperson for the governor.

Trump spoke positively of Whitmer’s leadership, and even brought her with him to the Oval Office while he signed a number of unrelated executive orders.

"We’re honored to have Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, the great State of Michigan, and she's been, she's really done an excellent job, a very good person," Trump said.

Whitmer's spokesperson said she was “surprised she was brought into the Oval Office” for Trump’s press conference “without any notice.”

Whitmer has emerged as one of the key Democratic contenders to run for president in 2028. Even though the governor insists she is not setting herself up for the White House, Whitmer will come up on her term limit in 2026 and has successfully rallied voters in a state that Trump has carried twice.

Among the directives Trump signed, he opened investigations into two of his first-term aides: former Department of Homeland Secretary official Miles Taylor and former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs. The president accused Taylor of fraud, Krebs of treason, then stripped both their security clearances, repeating false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

“Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event,” Whitmer’s spokesperson said.

Whitmer’s approach with Trump on Wednesday contrasted the staunch criticism that has united much of the Democratic Party’s platform, specifically around tariffs. Other Democratic governors that have been floated as 2028 hopefuls, like Colorado Gov. Jared Polis or Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, have denounced the tariffs as a tax on average American families.

Whitmer struck a different tone in her speech, emphasizing their common ground related to building up manufacturing jobs in Michigan.

“I understand the motivation behind the tariffs, and here’s where President Trump and I do agree. We do need to make more stuff in America,” Whitmer said. “I’m not against tariffs outright, but they are a blunt tool. You can’t just bust out the tariff hammer to swing at every problem without a clearly defined end goal.”

She pushed for tariff exemptions for the auto and energy industries, which are crucial to Michigan’s economy. Trump’s 90-day pause on tariffs will not include those levied on auto imports.

The conciliatory relationship is a departure from Trump’s first term, where he and Whitmer repeatedly butted heads — especially on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when Trump called her inept. He also referred to her as “the woman from Michigan,” which Whitmer reclaimed in a post on X.

As for Trump’s second term, Whitmer signaled that she’s open to working with the president to help her state.

"If you're not at the table, you're on the menu," the governor told journalist Gretchen Carlson at an event on Wednesday.

For months, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned that the Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs stands to harm his state’s economy, including its bourbon, auto and aerospace industries. Now that Trump is ratcheting them up, the Democratic governor said the impacts will be “devastating” not just for the Bluegrass state, but for the entire country.

In an interview with POLITICO on Monday, Beshear, a potential 2028 presidential contender, said there isn’t much Democratic governors can do when it comes to international trade, even as another potential presidential candidate, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, pressed trading partners to spare California-made products from retaliatory measures.

Instead, Beshear argued Democrats’ best recourse is to wage a public information campaign against Trump’s trade agenda, highlighting how the president was elected on a promise to lower costs but instead may make life more expensive for Americans. Democrats need to hammer the point that “he and he alone is making this decision, and he's out there owning it,” Beshear said.

That recommendation comes as Beshear works to raise his own national profile, with frequent appearances on cable news and a podcast launching on Tuesday.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

About a month ago, you said that you were in touch with Canadian officials urging them to pull back on their tariffs on liquor, mainly to protect Kentucky bourbon. What's the latest in those conversations?

Well, as a governor, you can have general conversations with leaders in other countries, but you can't engage in any type of tariff talks. Tariffs are entirely federal, meaning the impact that's happening on my state, the impact that's happening on the US economy, is due to one person and one person alone, and that's Donald Trump. The people in my state who voted for him didn't vote to have the prices of everything that they need go up. Most of them voted thinking that he'd help bring prices down …

I think the law is very clear that tariffs are federal policy, but I also think that that just makes it that much clearer that there's no way around the pain that Donald Trump is causing. When he engages in these actions that harm Americans, so many in the media or others say, ‘Well, what are you going to do to make sure it doesn't harm the people of the United States.’

When the president makes a mistake this significant, when he does something that every single economist says will raise prices, that president typically has the authority to do it, but he should also take the blame for it.

Tell us more about your own trade vision. Kentucky is one of those states that has had communities gutted over the past few decades. Do you support Trump’s long term goal, which is to revitalize those lost industries?

Well, Kentucky is booming. We've had three of our best five years for economic development … We have brought in a record over the last five years for private sector investment, created a record number of new jobs, have the best three year average for wages, broke our export record twice, and it looks like we'll break our tourism record three years in a row. So our economy was growing … What we are seeing is a lot of that momentum directly impacted by President Trump's very different approach.

Look at Kentucky's economy: Our biggest foreign direct investor is Japan, and the president has launched a very aggressive tariff on Japan. I mean, the biggest Toyota plant in the world anywhere is in Georgetown, Kentucky, and so to act like our economy isn't global and there aren't repercussions on the ground, that there aren't manufacturing jobs that are already supported by foreign direct investors, that's just not reality.

Trade is a lot more complicated than this president is acting like it is. Tariffs used surgically can be really important. China is trying to dump steel on the United States, so a targeted steel tariff makes sense. China is trying to dump completed EVs on markets throughout Europe. In the United States, targeted tariffs make sense there … But these across-the-board tariffs, again, I think every economist says are unwise and are not going to lead to the type of investments that the president is talking about.

Regarding the auto tariffs, what impact are you expecting to see on the Toyota manufacturing plant in Georgetown, and will it help or hurt? Because, presumably, it will increase production there.

Here's the thing, if we want more parts made in the United States, that takes years of investment. I mean, a major manufacturing facility will take anywhere from two to five or six years to build. So if the idea is we will have a very aggressive tariff that will try to force that investment, well, that's two to five years of pain on the consumer. There are different ways to encourage U.S. investment.

I believe that Donald Trump is only president because he convinced the last group of movable voters that he was focused on prices and the economy and that his opponent was distracted by other issues. Now he's telling those same consumers he doesn't care about them. He's willing to let them go through pain, and his billionaire buddies are saying the same.

Your home-state senators are among the few in the GOP so far speaking out against the tariffs. With the stock market falling and Trump doubling down today on tariffs against China, do you predict this will become the breaking point for Republican support of Trump?

It should be the breaking point because it's impacting all American families, Democrat, Republican, independent. Prices are going up and life is getting harder for American families solely because of this decision by the president. And like you said, when this Democratic governor and two Republican U.S. senators all say something is a bad idea, in this hyper partisan world, it's because it is a bad idea.

What leverage do Democratic governors have on this front? I know you said earlier, there are federal laws limiting backchanneling, but what options are on the table for them to push back in any meaningful way?

It's important for all of us to speak up and speak out. We are very close to our constituents. We are out in our communities every day, talking with the folks that live in our states. At the end of the day, it's going to need to be more than just our voices. It's going to need to be everybody who goes to the supermarket that sees their grocery tab going up, you know, X percent needs to take a picture or video of it, needs to post it and call it the Trump tax.

That couple that's trying to buy a home for the first time where they were going to be able to afford it, and now it's going up significantly, and they're not going to be able to get that first house needs to tell their story. When somebody's passing a gas station, which is on every corner with the prices going up, that needs to get out there too. What it's going to take is the voice and the pressure of the people of the United States. And I think we see that's growing.

Facing a tough reelection in battleground Georgia, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff raised $11 million in the first quarter of 2025, according to his campaign, which shared the totals first with POLITICO.

Ossoff’s campaign said the haul is the most ever raised by an incumbent in the first quarter of an off-year. POLITICO was unable to identify any Senate campaign that had raised more in an equivalent quarter.

“I’m grateful to the hundreds of thousands of record-shattering supporters who have already joined what will be the biggest and most relentless turnout effort in Georgia history,” the 38-year-old first-term senator said in a statement.

According to the campaign, Ossoff’s average donation during the quarter was $32, coming from 260,000 individual donors and over 155,000 first-time donors. Donations came in from 156 of the state’s 159 counties.

The early fundraising haul is a show of force that could serve to keep some potential GOP challengers on the sideline, though the $11 million is certain to be only a drop in the bucket of the expected overall spending. Georgia’s 2022 Senate race won by Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock saw more than $515 million spent by campaigns and outside groups, according to OpenSecrets.

The Republican nomination in the Peach State will hang on the decision of Gov. Brian Kemp, who remains undecided. A number of other Republicans have expressed interest in the race but have stipulated that they would only run if Kemp does not.

Ossoff is among only a handful of vulnerable Democratic incumbents seeking reelection, with New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen and Michigan’s Gary Peters deciding not to run. Ossoff is already campaigning, hosting an Atlanta rally in late March featuring Warnock.

Georgia’s 2022 Senate race was the most expensive of the cycle, and in four races from 2020 to 2022, $1.4 billion was poured into the state by campaigns, super PACs and other outside groups, per a New York Times analysis.

President Donald Trump carried the state by roughly two points in November, and Republicans already view the state as a top priority in the midterms.

Democrats are making Elon Musk their top political target in Virginia, hammering the tech billionaire in a new campaign blitz in the systems’ off year elections.

The message channels the anti-Musk playbook Democrats used successfully in Wisconsin last week, where the Democratic-aligned candidate defeated Musk's choice for the state Supreme course by a nearly 10 percentage point margin.

Building on their victory in Wisconsin, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is announcing a seven-figure investment in Virginia House of Delegates races, first obtained by POLITICO. The DLCC also rolled out its initial list of “spotlight candidates,” a group of four Democrats in closely divided districts who will now get increased fundraising and visibility from the national group.

Democrats believe they have an even stronger argument against President Donald Trump and Musk's government-slicing Department of Government Efficiency in Virginia, where the state economy depends heavily on the business of Washington, D.C. and thousands of federal workers are facing layoffs.

“This is where DOGE is on display,” said DLCC President Heather Williams. “Virginia is sort of an epicenter for the DOGE destruction and its impact on workers and communities.”

The state has historically been a strong bellwether for the midterms, and Democrats believe that the map for them has significantly widened less than three months into Trump's second term — a reflection of how theparty views battlegrounds across the country in the days after Musk’s involvement with the Wisconsin race backfired for the GOP.

Democratic campaign leaders now see deep-red Virginia districts that Trump won by double digits as within reach. Democrats say recruitment has exploded in the last several weeks, with candidates filing in a record 97 out of 100 districts.

The investment builds on $350,000 the DLCC has already given to the Virginia House Democratic Caucus, which has been running anti-Musk ads since late February and intends to keep targeting Republican candidates for supporting the Trump administration. The caucus has spent five figures on negative ads spotlighting the tech billionaire in twelve districts with GOP incumbents – and plans to ratchet them up as the election approaches.

“Between now and November, there will be lots of ads featuring Musk as he takes a chainsaw to our economy and our democracy, and the Republicans who are too terrified to stand up to him and Trump” said state Del. Dan Helmer, the Democratic campaign chair for the Virginia House of Delegates.

Musk, who Trump has said will step away from his role as a special government employee in the coming months, has indicated he intends to invest heavily to promote Republicans in the Virginia and New Jersey elections, along with the midterms, and the party may have a hard time turning it down.

“If somebody came up to me with a ten million check from Elon Musk, I would be very, very hard pressed to say no,” said one veteran Virginia Republican operative, granted anonymity to speak freely. “Toxic money can buy a lot of TV ads.”

Democrats hold a razor-thin one-seat majority in the state House. They hope to build on that majority and deliver the party a trifecta by winning back the governorship, with presumptive Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger facing likely GOP contender Winsome Earle-Sears. The gubernatorial matchup is expected to be close, and the fight for state House control could be another nail-biter: Democrats returned to power in 2023 thanks to just 975 votes.

But Virginia Democrats are taking a spree of special election wins – including in January, when a pair of Democrats outperformed in Northern Virginia – as a sign that voters across the political spectrum disagree with the direction of the country under Trump. Democratic campaigns intend to make Musk and the axe he has taken to government jobs central to their argument against the Trump administration.They plan to link what they are calling an agenda of chaos and carelessness toward the middle class to Virginia Republicans.

“The MAGA brand is a dying brand, but they just don't know it yet,” said House Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat. “And so we're going to help send that message in Virginia.”

Democrats have set their sights on ousting vulnerable Republicans in the suburbs of Northern Virginia to Hampton Roads to rural areas around Blacksburg. “We see all as part of the map now, as the impact of Musk’s evisceration of the federal government workforce becomes clear,”

In one mostly rural district encompassing Petersburg, Democratic candidate Kimberly Pope Adams is facing off against Republican incumbent Kim Taylor for the second time since losing to her in 2023 by just 53 votes. Adams said that in her conversations with both Democratic and Republicans, those voters are worried about potential cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare – and many are unhappy about Musk’s influence over the federal government.

“I’m hearing anger because people didn’t vote for Elon Musk yet he seems to have such decision making power, and it's really upsetting to the voters in my district,” Adams said.

Democrat Christina Hines kicked off a bid for Congress, landing Democrats a competitive recruit in a purple district in the Detroit suburbs.

“We need people in Washington that we can trust, and I spent my whole life trying to fight for others and to fight for my community, and I'm hoping that I can be a trustworthy person in Congress,” said Hines, a former special victims prosecutor.

She’d been inspired to run after seeing the news that President Donald Trump issued an executive order to wind down the Department of Education.

“My husband and I looked at each other like, ‘yeah, this is not a time to wait. This is not a time to be comfortable,’“ she recalled. “We need a fighter in Congress. And I've spent my whole career fighting for people, and I need to step up. We need a fighter here in Michigan's tent.”

The district, which includes parts of the northern Detroit suburbs in Oakland and Macomb counties, has trended toward Republicans in recent years. Still, Democrats believe this district could be flippable with incumbent Rep. John James (R-Mich.) potentially vacating it for a gubernatorial bid next year to replace term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. James won the seat in 2022 by half a percentage point and by a handier margin in 2024.

Notably, she’s running with the endorsement of former judge and attorney Carl Marlinga, who’s run against James the past two cycles. He’d originally made moves toward a bid this cycle, sparking private concerns among some Democrats that his past baggage could tank their chances in the district.

But he’s not running this time and gave his backing to her campaign in a statement: “Christina is the new generational leader we need in Washington to give our country a fresh start. She is a fighter who knows every corner of Macomb and the people who live here.”

Hines could claim a centrist lane and said, “I'm not particularly far on either side of the spectrum." She she’d been in touch with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about running and was “not expecting a very contested primary."

Still, she's not the only Democrat running. Army veteran Alex Hawkins has already launched a campaign, and former Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), who’d represented parts of the district before redistricting, has flirted with a comeback bid for the seat or other elected offices in Michigan.

Democrats are getting ready to push deeper into Republican-held turf next November.

Emboldened by the special elections last Tuesday, the GOP’s adversaries are sensing opportunity. Three buzzy Senate candidates announced bids this week — the same week that Democratic turnout powered them to a decisive win in the swing state of Wisconsin and two long-shot Democrats overperformed in a pair of deep-red Florida districts. Now, party recruiters are reporting an uptick in interest from candidates in tough-to-win territory.

“This puts a lot more on the field. That puts Democrats on offense. That is us saying — if you’re in a Trump plus-15 district, we’re playing there,” said Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.), a co-chair tasked with recruitment for the party campaign arm. “We’re seeing right now a lot of interest from people all over the country in stepping up for their country to run for office.”

In Iowa, two state lawmakers are considering runs against Rep. Zach Nunn in a district sure to be impacted by tariffs. Two prospective candidates in Pennsylvania and Michigan lost or left jobs thanks to the Trump administration, giving them a powerful story on the campaign trail. A pair of former representatives are considering comeback bids for battleground districts in the Rust Belt.

And Democrats think at least two districts in Virginia, held by GOP Reps. Rob Wittman and Jen Kiggans, are increasingly in play thanks to backlash to Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting frenzy — both have significant military populations. A possible top recruit is emerging: Pamela Northam, the former first lady of Virginia, has been approached to run for Kiggans' seat in the Hampton Roads area, according to two people familiar with those efforts, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

All this comes amid a punishing week for Republicans that saw the stock market crater after President Donald Trump rolled out tariffs and as his officials continue to face tough questions on the “Signalgate” debacle. Democrats are sensing an opening, and hoping to extend the momentum by recruiting candidates who might be newly energized to run.

“People are upset. If you can channel that, use it for the right energy, run a strong campaign, get out there to the people — I think you can win here in Iowa,” said J.D. Scholten, a Democrat who had been leaning against challenging Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) until Tuesday’s elections. Now, he said, he’s 50-50 on another run in a state where a Democrat hasn’t held a Senate seat since 2015.

House Democratic operatives have also reported an increasing openness from prospective Midwest candidates in Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin over the past few weeks. And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee notes that based on Tuesday’s margins in Florida there are roughly 40 additional offensive targets that House Democrats could go after in the midterms.

House Majority PAC, Democrats’ top outside group focused on congressional races, reported “a tremendous amount of interest and enthusiasm from potential candidates across the country” in the days leading up to and after Tuesday.

“People have been receptive in the last 48 hours,” said one House Democratic recruiter, who has spoken to candidates in seats as red as R+7 since the special elections.

Meanwhile, previously dejected Democrats are starting to think seriously about mounting campaigns to win the handful of seats required to recapture the House majority.

Among them are former Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), who is weighing a bid for elected office, possibly for the seat currently held by Republican Rep. John James, and Matt Cartwright, another former Democratic House member who is deciding whether to run again for his swing district in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Cartwright called Wisconsin's election results "very heartening" and said House Republicans made a grave political error when they voted for a budget blueprint that Democrats argue laid the groundwork for cuts to Medicaid. His former opponent, Rep. Rob Bresnahan, was one of them. Cartwright said 200,000 people in his old district depend on the program.

At least two possible candidates have first-hand experience with the upheaval caused by the Trump administration.

Ryan Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor who stepped down after the Department of Justice moved to drop charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, is considering running against freshman Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Crosswell declined to comment.

Andrew Lennox, a veteran who briefly lost his job at Veterans Affairs’ hospital in Ann Arbor, thanks to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, is mulling a run for GOP Rep. Tom Barrett's seat in Michigan. Lennox, a guest of Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) at Trump's address to Congress, said the elections on Tuesday and Sen. Cory Booker’s record-breaking speech left him inspired.

“People actually beat billionaires,” he said. “Seeing that happen, that was a breath of fresh air. And maybe there is some hope out there that this isn't over."

State Sen. Sarah Anthony is another potential candidate to take on Barrett. And in Des Moines, state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, an ordained minister, and state Rep. Jennifer Konfrst are both considering runs against Nunn, according to two people familiar with their thinking.

Bob Harvie, a county commissioner in the Philadelphia suburbs, launched a bid against Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) this week after having conversations with the DCCC, according to a person familiar with the communications.

And while Susan Wild, a former Democratic House member who represented a swing district in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, told POLITICO she is not running in 2026, she is working hard "to make sure we have a really solid Democratic nominee" for her old seat.

"It's got to make people more interested," she said of this week's election results, adding that Trump's tariffs and other factors are also making the political environment more favorable to Democrats. “People who are contemplating running are saying, ‘You know, I think even these tough districts we could flip.’”

However, she cautioned Democrats not to overreach. She said Republican-plus-10 districts are difficult, and the party shouldn't pursue them except in special cases.

"If they get ahead of themselves, if they get cocky about this, then the frontliners are gonna be really hurting," she said, referring to the party’s vulnerable House incumbents.

In New Jersey, for example, Democrats would love to oust Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a former Democrat who switched his affiliation in 2019, but not at the expense of easier targets.

Michael Suleiman, chair of the Atlantic County Democrats, acknowledged that the district "could be in play if we had a strong candidate." But he cautioned that the top two priorities for New Jersey Democrats in 2026 are to protect freshman Democratic Rep. Nellie Pou and oust GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr., both sitting in districts that Trump won by a little more than 1 percentage point. By contrast, he carried Van Drew’s district by nearly 13 percentage points.

And Democrats are still sizing up the impact of a shift among minority voters toward Trump in the 2024 election. Latino-heavy districts in particular moved to the right at the presidential level even as their voters picked Democratic congressional candidates last fall. Democrats are betting that shift was Trump-centric, but the GOP believes they will make even more inroads with Latinos down-ballot.

“Democrats are flailing with no vision, no leader, no message. This is just the latest Hail Mary from a party in freefall,” said Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for the House GOP campaign arm. “While they chase fantasies, we’ll keep exposing them for being out of touch and crush them again in 2026.”

But Democrats involved in flipping the House in the 2018 wave recalled that strong candidates in tough-to-win seats were a crucial part of their recipe for success. Formidable Democratic nominees like Kendra Horn in Oklahoma, Joe Cunningham in South Carolina and Ben McAdams in Utah were able to parlay a favorable political environment into wins in deep-red districts.

Veterans of that cycle said it pays dividends to recruit in longshot seats.

"I'd go as deep as R-plus-10, at least,” said Meredith Kelly, the top spokesperson for the DCCC during the 2018 cycle. “Put the surfboards in the water, you never know what's going to come."

Madison Fernandez and Elena Schneider contributed to this report.

Rod Blagojevich has a new job: representing the interests of an ultranationalist politician known as the “Bosnian Bear" who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The former Illinois governor, who was pardoned in February by President Donald Trump, has agreed to lobby on behalf of the Republic of Srpska, a Serb-majority territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina long mired in the bitter ethnic tensions of the region.

RRB Strategies, Blagojevich’s firm, “will provide communications and public affairs support on behalf of the Republic of Srpska,” according to the registration statement he was required to file under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is held together by the Dayton Accords, a 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian War and unified the country. Blagojevich told POLITICO on Wednesday that he hopes to “use whatever ability I have to persuade the decision-makers that we need to take another look at the Dayton Agreement and bring it in line with the realities of today.”

As he begins the role, Blagojevich is seeking to cast himself as one in a long line of populist leaders thwarted by “unelected bureaucrats who have exceeded their constitutional power,” from Trump to Marine Le Pen in France and Milorad Dodik, Srpska’s president

“I believe the weaponization that's going on in Europe right now by the European Union against certain populist political leaders they don't like started with me as a left of center Democratic governor in Illinois,” Blagojevich said. “I just know this. And then they took it to the next level and did it to President Trump.”

Dodik has long pushed for the Republic of Srpska, to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina and join nearby Serbia. In February, he was sentenced to a year in prison for defying the country’s Constitutional Court. Dubbed "the Bosnian Bear," for his physique and crude antics, Dodik has since fled to Moscow.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March condemned Dodik for “undermining Bosnia and Herzegovina's institutions and threatening its security and stability” in a post on X.

Blagojevich was pardoned by Trump in February after being convicted in 2011 on charges of extortion and for trying to sell or trade the appointment of the Senate seat that had been held by Barack Obama. Acquainted from their days on The Celebrity Apprentice, Trump commuted Blagojevich’s sentence in 2020.

Trump weighed tapping Blagojevich to serve as U.S. ambassador to Serbia before picking former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich for the post.

Blagojevich, whose parents were Serbian, touted to POLITICO his long experience working in Balkan politics. As a Democratic House representative in 1999, he traveled to Belgrade with the Rev. Jesse Jackson to clinch a deal that freed three American prisoners of war.

“I believe the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska can be bastions of Judea-Christian values in the Balkans just like Israel is in the Middle East,” he said. “And I'd like to be able to play a role in that and am fortunate to have been brought on and be hired to do just that.”

After Tuesday night’s elections, Republicans are starting to worry that the shock and awe of President Donald Trump's second term will haunt them in the 2026 midterms.

Inside the GOP, there is a growing sense that the party should get back to basics and focus on the pocketbook issues that many voters sent them to Washington to address. There's internal disagreement about the effects of Trump's new tariffs announced on Wednesday. Some say they will ultimately lead to reviving American manufacturing — but even many of the president's allies fear they could drive up prices and potentially crash the economy.

The Republican anxiety comes in the wake of a landslide defeat in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race and double-digit underperformance in two Florida special elections. Both reverberated across the party on Wednesday, as some Republican elected officials and strategists called for Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk to adopt a more cautious approach to governing.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), one of the most vulnerable GOP senators facing reelection next year, said in an interview that Republicans must be "smart and measured" otherwise they risk a major backlash at the polls. Tillis pointed to the early opposition against then-President Barack Obama, which led to a 2010 wave election where Democrats lost a number of seats in the House, Senate and state legislatures, including the North Carolina House where Tillis was subsequently elected speaker by the new GOP majority.

"What we don't want to do is overreach," said Tillis. "We've got to be careful not to do the same thing. And I think that these elections are going to be proxies, or almost like weather devices for figuring out what kind of storm we're going to be up against next year."

Brian Reisinger, a former GOP strategist and rural policy expert, said Republicans running in battleground races next year must pay attention to Tuesday’s disappointing results and zero in on bread-and-butter issues.

“This is as clear a sign as you're going to get — ringing like a bell — that they have to talk about addressing economic frustration and they have to show they have a plan for it,” he said. “There’s a lot of support in these communities for getting tough on trade, for cutting government spending, but if tariffs spin out of control, and there’s no results on trade deals, then rural communities are really going to be hit by that.”

Inside the White House, however, officials have been shaking off the margins of the Tuesday night election. In the view of Trump’s team, the Wisconsin state Supreme Court race was never close, Republican Rep.-elect Randy Fine was a weak candidate who won against a strong Democrat in Josh Weil, and the other Florida seat previously held by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was never in jeopardy, according to two people close to the White House who were granted anonymity to share private conversations.

“President Trump is the only Republican in nearly 40 years to destroy the Democrats’ blue wall and it’s embarrassing to see them spike the football after their massive defeat in November,” said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields.

It’s a conclusion some outside Trump allies are reaching, too.

“I'm not freaked out about it. Republicans were somewhat panicked that they’d lose a House seat, and they didn’t,” said Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union. “A win is a win in a special election, especially when all this crazy outside money is spent.”

And the White House remains unafraid to wade into even more politically sensitive waters, with Trump announcing a new set of sweeping levies on U.S. global trading partners on Wednesday afternoon.

While many of the president’s allies are sympathetic to his argument that the tariffs will encourage companies to invest in domestic manufacturing and production, they fear that imposing new trade barriers will cause short-term economic harm, drive up prices, potentially throw the U.S. into a recession, and jeopardize Republicans’ chances of hanging onto control of Congress in the midterms.

Just four in 10 voters view Trump's handling the economy and trade favorably, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in late March.

“The thing that’s probably holding Trump back from having a 50 to 55 percent job approval rating is still this overwhelming fatigue about rising costs,” said GOP pollster Robert Blizzard. “Most voters, Republicans included, at the end of the day, aren't exactly sure about what the positive impact for them is when it comes to tariffs.”

Democrats need to flip only a few seats to win the majority in the House. Their overperformance in Florida — and the Democratic apparatus’ success running an anti-Musk campaign in Wisconsin — left Democratic operatives increasingly bullish about using Musk as a midterm-messaging bogeyman.

“As long as he’s there using a chainsaw to all the programs that people back home rely on and need to make ends meet, of course we’re going to make him a central character,” Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), a member of House leadership, said in an interview.

Democratic leadership sees an opportunity to hone in on Musk as part of a winning message.

“The Republicans are going to try to distance themselves from Elon Musk. It's not going to work. It's too late. You're attached at the hip, and you're going to feel the consequences of it, just like you did in Wisconsin last night,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters.

But some Republican House members said they were not shocked by the Tuesday results. And there was little consensus within the party on whether Musk was uniquely to blame. Trump has even told his inner circle that the tech billionaire's role will be stepping back soon.

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) said Tuesday’s outcomes “were not surprising.” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), who represents a top battleground district, said Musk is a “shiny object” and that Republicans failed to turn out Trump voters in an off-election year.

“I think the results are fairly indicative of what we normally see in special elections when it comes to the party of a newly elected president,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), another swing-seat Republican. “I expected to see an uptick in Dem turnout and some inattention by the GOP” after a November victory.

In a sign of how much some GOP lawmakers would prefer to change the subject, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said he was watching the Yankees instead of the results roll in.

But many in the party are still concerned. Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster, saw Wisconsin results as more of a referendum on Musk, who made himself a central character in the race, than on Trump himself.

"Elon Musk is hurting Donald Trump, there's no question about that," Ayres said, noting a survey his firm released last week showing more public support for federal workers than the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who's been tasked with slashing the federal government.

Republicans, Ayres said, should "take his money and tell him to go to Mars."

With reporting from Ally Mutnick, Lisa Kashinsky and Nicholas Wu.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/trumps-america-a-family-rent-asunder-a-f49420e1-8404-4c0d-80af-457218e818c0#ref=rss