Dems face uphill battle in challenge to Georgia Congressional map under new SCOTUS rules

August 29, 2026 6:09pm EDT / Fox News

Under the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling, challengers must show intentional discrimination, not just diminished influence

By Elaine Mallon Fox News

Chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram details the escalating redistricting battles in Southern states, where Democratic lawmakers are challenging Republican-led efforts to redraw congressional maps. Democrats, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Cory Booker, argue these changes are designed to suppress minority voting power. Speaker Mike Johnson states the aim is to ensure constitutional maps.

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Then-President Joe Biden put Georgia at the center of the national voting-rights fight in 2021 when he branded the state’s Republican-backed election overhaul “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”

Now, five years later, a separate Georgia voting-rights battle involving allegations of racial discrimination is garnering national attention as it plays out in federal court. This time, the dispute centers on the state’s redrawn Congressional and state maps redrawn in 2021, with challengers facing a significantly tougher burden of proof following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.

The latest development came when the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court judgment striking down Georgia’s 2021 maps and returned the case to U.S. District Judge Steve Jones.

The appeals court instructed Jones to reconsider the challenge under the new framework established in Callais, which raised the bar for plaintiffs alleging racial discrimination in redistricting.

Under that standard, evidence that a map weakened Black voters’ electoral influence is not enough by itself. Plaintiffs must present evidence supporting a “strong inference” of intentional racial discrimination and distinguish the effects of race from those of partisan politics.

SUPREME COURT RULES ON KEY VOTING RIGHTS ACT RULE AS REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS WAGE REDISTRICTING WAR

Four Republican Georgia state Sens., from left, Steve Gooch, John Kennedy, Bill Cowsert and Bo Hatchett vote in favor of their party’s plan to draw new voting districts for the state Senate on Nov. 30, 2023, at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. Lawmakers were ordered by a federal judge to draw additional Black-majority voting districts after he found current districts illegally dilute Black voters’ power.(AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

That distinction is especially important in Georgia, where Black voters overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates, creating significant overlap between race and partisan affiliation. That overlap could make it more difficult for the challengers to prove that race, rather than political advantage, drove the district lines.

Black voters and voting-rights organizations filed three lawsuits challenging the maps between December 2021 and January 2022, arguing that the districts diluted Black voting power in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Jones ruled for the challengers in 2023 and ordered Georgia to create additional majority-Black districts, including one Congressional district, two state Senate districts and five state House districts.

Georgia subsequently enacted replacement maps that satisfied Jones’ order while preserving the Republican Party’s political advantage elsewhere. Those maps were used in the 2024 elections and remain in place for the 2026 election cycle, while the legality of the original maps remained at the center of Georgia’s appeal.

MEDIA OUTRAGE OVER SUPREME COURT’S VOTING RIGHTS ACT DECISION COLLIDES WITH REALITY

Republican Georgia state Sen. John Kennedy, presents the state’s now-current congressional maps in during a special legislative session in Atlanta, Friday, Nov. 19, 2021.(Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Before Callais, plaintiffs suing based on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act could win their case without proving that lawmakers intentionally discriminated on the basis of race. Courts focused heavily on whether a map had the effect of diminishing minority voters’ ability to elect their preferred candidates. But under Callais, courts must more closely examine whether present-day racial discrimination was behind the redrawing of the maps rather than political advantages.

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior fellow at Advancing American Freedom, said he does not believe the Georgia challenge will survive the new test.

“I don’t think a challenge will succeed because there is no evidence of current racial discrimination going on in the state legislature,” von Spakovsky said. “Prior rulings against the state were based on judges misconstruing and misinterpreting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by claiming there was racial dilution resulting from partisan gerrymandering.”

“That is not the correct legal standard under Section 2,” he continued. “Partisan gerrymandering is constitutional and is not a violation of Section 2.”

GEORGIA REDISTRICTING BATTLE REVIVED AFTER APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS FEDERAL COURT DECISION

Georgia can argue that lawmakers were pursuing partisan objectives rather than targeting Black voters because of their race. Because the state’s Black and Democratic voting blocs substantially overlap, separating those possible motivations could prove difficult for the challengers.

“The Supreme Court in the Callais decision specifically said that a viable claim under Section 2 can only be shown if there is evidence of current racial discrimination, and judges must distinguish between racial and political bases for the way people vote,” von Spakovsky said.

Black Louisiana voters and civil rights advocates call on SCOTUS to uphold a fair and representative congressional map in Louisiana v. Callais at Supreme Court of the United States on Mar. 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Legal Defense Fund)

“In other words, there’s no racial dilution going on when individuals are voting a particular way because of their politics,” he added.

Jones must now decide how to handle the remanded case. The plaintiffs could ask to supplement the record with revised maps, updated statistical analyses or additional evidence addressing the Supreme Court’s new requirements. The 11th Circuit, however, did not automatically grant them a new trial or authorize them to rebuild their case from the beginning.

Georgia could argue that the plaintiffs already received a full trial and that Jones should apply the new standard solely to the existing record.

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Whatever Jones decides is unlikely to alter Georgia’s districts before the November 2026 midterm elections. The appeals court did not order the state to reinstate the original 2021 maps, and Georgia has already conducted its primaries using the replacement districts created from the 2023 map.

Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6395944924112

美国向尼泊尔提供360万美元人道主义援助

2026年8月30日 07:09 / 联合早报

8月29日，中国救援人员在吉隆港附近展开搜救行动。 （路透社）

美国将向尼泊尔提供360万美元（约458万4600新元）的人道主义援助，以应对造成数百人死亡和数千人失踪的严重洪灾。

法新社报道，美国国务院星期六（8月29日）发声明说：“美国与尼泊尔人民站在一起，提供价值超过360万美元的救生人道主义援助，包括为多达1万个受灾家庭提供长达三个月的紧急粮食援助。”

尼泊尔与中国西藏交界的喜马拉雅山区星期三（26日）发生大规模山体崩塌，泥石流阻断河道，并引发特大洪灾。

截至星期五（28日），这场洪灾在尼泊尔和西藏地区已知分别造成至少579人和五人死亡。两地分别有1924人和558人失联，尼泊尔的失踪者包括933名水力发电站员工和至少517名外国人，许多是前往西藏的冈仁波齐峰（Mount Kailash）和玛旁雍错（Lake Mansarovar）朝圣者。

朝鲜国防部长努光铁遭解职 执政党内部同样降职

2026年8月30日 07:21 / 联合早报

朝鲜领导人金正恩在星期六（29日）的会议宣布“结构重组计划”，这是朝鲜军方领导层改组的一部分。 （路透社档案照片）

朝鲜国防部长努光铁（No Kwang Chol）遭解职，也在执政党内部被降职为“军需工业部第一副部长”。

朝中社星期天（8月30日）报道称，这次“结构重组计划”由朝鲜领导人金正恩在星期六（29日）的会议上宣布。这是朝鲜军方领导层改组的一部分。

朝鲜人民军总政治局局长金宋基（Kim Song-gi）将接任国防部长一职。

另一名高级官员国防顾问朴正天（Pak Jong Chon）则将被任命为中央军事委员会副委员长，并进入执政党政治局。会议还宣布了其他几项人事晋升。

在另一篇报道中，朝中社称，金正恩在星期六举行的仪式上表彰科学家、研究人员和官员在国防技术领域取得的成就，并授予他们国家最高荣誉。

报道称，获奖者为“解决新型作战武器系统研发中具有划时代意义的科技难题”做出巨大贡献，但并未具体说明是哪种类型的系统。

这次领导层改组发生在韩美年度联合军演结束后不久。

这些军演经常被平壤谴责为入侵前的准备，今年在美国总统特朗普下令缩短军演时间后，受到密切关注。特朗普批评，这些军演是对朝鲜的挑衅，并抨击首尔不支持他对伊朗的战争。

特朗普也向金正恩示好，称正考虑今年尾与金正恩会面。他在第一任期内曾两次与金正恩会晤。

不过，朝鲜几乎没有做出任何回应，反而发射导弹并谴责美韩军演，也抨击华盛顿批准向韩国出售武器以及计划资助记录朝鲜侵犯人权行为的项目。

El-Sayed apologizes to Jewish Democrats as he seeks to bridge party divides

2026-08-29T20:24:33.081Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/29/politics/el-sayed-michigan-jewish-democrats-synagogue

Lansing, Michigan—

Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee, is scrambling this weekend to try to win over skeptical Jewish Democrats — meeting individually and with groups of Jewish party leaders and apologizing for controversial past remarks as he tries to unite a fractured party before November.

But he downplayed the importance of his relationship with Hasan Piker, the far-left Twitch streamer who campaigned with El-Sayed during the primary — even after Piker told his audience earlier this month that Israel has become so toxic American Jews who support the country could be met with violence.

“I don’t ever want my comments to hurt anybody’s feelings. It’s important to me that people understand that I take seriously the pain of all communities in this state,” El-Sayed told CNN. “But I don’t want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California. It’s just not a serious conversation.”

El-Sayed, the progressive firebrand, defeated Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate who was supported by tens of millions in spending linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, in a hard-fought primary early this month. He is seeking to unify the Democratic Party ahead of his matchup with Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in November’s midterm election.

The race is critical in the larger battle for the Senate majority. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to flip the chamber, and that path would grow much more complicated if they lost the seat of Michigan’s retiring Democratic senator, Gary Peters.

At a state party convention Saturday in Lansing, the fissures from the primary had all but disappeared. The crowd of several hundred Democrats gave El-Sayed one of the day’s loudest cheers when he was introduced, and applauded his jabs at Rogers and President Donald Trump during his nine-minute speech.

Norma McDaniel, a 79-year-old delegate from Inkster who works for the Detroit Department of Elections, said she opposed El-Sayed in the primary and arrived Saturday with serious concerns about his candidacy — but that his speech won her over.

“He’s very articulate, he knows what points to hit, and he knows how to hit people’s hearts. He reached my heart today,” she said. “We have to unify the Democrats against what’s going on in Washington.”

Notably absent from El-Sayed’s remarks onstage Saturday was an attack on one of his most frequent targets during the primary: AIPAC. He pointed to more than $60 million spent against him during that race, but did not mention the group responsible for that spending by name.

It was one of several ways El-Sayed used the convention to seek to make inroads with the party’s most active Jewish members.

This convention featured a much smaller, less raucous crowd than the Michigan Democratic Party’s spring gathering, where progressive pro-Palestinian activists booed Democrats they viewed as insufficiently critical of Israel’s actions in its war with Hamas. State Attorney General Dana Nessel skipped Saturday’s convention, saying she feared she would again be harassed and booed off the stage.

Nessel was among the sharpest Democratic critics of El-Sayed’s response to the March attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit.

Officials said Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized US citizen from Lebanon, drove a vehicle laden with explosives into the synagogue, which caught fire. The assailant, who killed himself at the scene, lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon a week before the Michigan attack.

At the time, El-Sayed condemned the attack and antisemitism broadly, but also said that “violence is a cycle” and that “hurt people hurt people.”

He apologized Saturday to the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus over those comments, which some interpreted as justification for the violence.

“My comments might have been misconstrued to be justifying something I did not intend to justify,” he told reporters afterward. “To anybody who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention.”

“We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright. What I was trying to do is offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context. And you don’t ever want to trample somebody’s pain,” El-Sayed said.

Rogers responded to El-Sayed’s comments Saturday by accusing him of “trying to con Michiganders into thinking his beliefs have changed. Let me be clear: they have not.”

“Abdul has had six months to apologize for his incredibly horrific remarks regarding the Temple Israel attack,” Rogers said on social media. “Instead, he chose to surround himself with terrorist sympathizers and some of the most notable antisemites in the country.”

Jewish Democrats who were in the room for El-Sayed’s comments said they considered his apology sincere.

“That was the first time that I’ve heard him say it in that explicit way,” said Daniel Rivkin, a University of Michigan communications staffer from Ann Arbor who is a delegate at the party’s convention.

“I think there’s a lot of dialogue going on, and that the dialogue will continue,” Rivkin said. “We have to work for every vote. I think that we have progressives who are real progressives who are nevertheless still struggling.”

El-Sayed plans to court that group’s members again in a longer meeting Sunday, as he speaks at the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus Summer Simcha celebration.

That gathering is private. When El-Sayed was asked by reporters to preview his message to the group, he said that “we may not agree on everything.”

“When it comes to foreign policy, I believe deeply in equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination for Palestinian and Jewish Israelis alike. I’m not going to stop fighting for Palestinian self-determination because all of the money that we have spent to foreclose on it is money that should have been spent here, right?” El-Sayed said. “The question of where we spend our tax dollars — that should be a foregone conclusion. It should be spent here.”

“And we can show here in Michigan how we can disagree agreeably on some of those issues having to do with what we do 6,000 miles away, and show that we can stand arm in arm to protect the well-being of all of us here at home,” El-Sayed said.

Still, it was clear Saturday that El-Sayed isn’t conceding all of the concerns some Jewish Democrats have raised about his candidacy.

He remained largely dismissive about concerns over his relationship with Piker, a strident critic of Israel who recently suggested that American Jews’ support of Israel will make antisemitism worse and invite violence. Piker has said his comments weren’t meant to be taken as antisemitic.

Piker appeared with El-Sayed multiple times on the campaign trail during his primary race. El-Sayed said he wanted to reach Piker’s massive audience of young progressives.

Piker recently drew scrutiny for criticizing a Democratic congressional candidate, state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who is Jewish, for failing to endorse El-Sayed. El-Sayed has sought to keep Piker at arm’s length, saying in a statement that “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople.”

That wasn’t enough for some Democrats, including Rep. Hillary Scholten, who said she won’t campaign with El-Sayed as long as he associates with Piker. She said on X earlier this week that Piker is “hurting the chances of a Democratic majority in November.”

Pressed by reporters Saturday about Jewish Democrats’ concerns about Piker, El-Sayed repeatedly insisted that “this is not a campaign that is about a single streamer in California.”

“This is about affordability in Michigan; anybody who’s ever said that they’re existentially worried about Donald Trump; anybody who’s ever said that they believe in religious pluralism and the right to pray as you choose to pray,” he said. “All that we hold dear is on the line. It is time for us to unite around taking that on.”

伊朗再强调：霍尔木兹完全关闭 船只通行须伊朗许可

2026年8月30日 07:29 / 联合早报

6月16日，从阿曼穆桑达姆省拍摄的画面显示，霍尔木兹海峡上有不少船只航行。 （路透社）

伊朗外交部副部长加里布阿巴迪说，霍尔木兹海峡目前完全关闭，任何船只若要通过这个海峡都须经过伊朗的协调和许可。

据伊朗伊斯兰共和国广播电视台报道，加里布阿巴迪星期六（8月29日）说，伊朗武装力量完全掌握霍尔木兹海峡的一切动向，美国方面有关船只通过海峡的说法“完全不属实”。

他说，伊朗已与阿曼就船只通过霍尔木兹海峡的相关安排达成谅解，但在美国履行承诺之前，霍尔木兹海峡不会重新开放。

Trump cannot deport students for criticizing Israel, federal judge rules

2026-08-29 17:07:03-0400 / CBS News

August 29, 2026 / 5:07 PM EDT / AP

Citing the importance of the First Amendment, a federal judge in California says the U.S. government is unconstitutionally silencing critics of Israel’s war in Gaza and others as part of the Trump administration’s quest to deport noncitizens who it says disrupted college campuses while expressing their views.

Judge Noël Wise, in a ruling Friday, delivered a victory for The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper at Stanford University, which has said some international students were afraid to speak out because of the deportation threat.

“Freedom of speech is illusory if we are only ‘free’ to express complementary views about the government and its leaders,” the judge wrote.

The decision largely piggybacks on findings from nearly a year ago by a U.S. district judge in Boston, who ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it targeted people who are not citizens for deportation solely for supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel.

Wise wrote that the freedoms of speech and the press are “foundational to America’s enduring democracy.” The judge cited free-speech and vagueness flaws that violate the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment as she struck down portions of the provisions that the federal government follows regarding deportations.

Wise cited retaliation in March 2025 by U.S. immigration authorities against people who engaged in speech supporting the Palestinians and against Israel’s actions — which a growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body — have said amount to genocide. The judge also cited retaliation against people who were critical of Charlie Kirk after the Turning Point USA co-founder was assassinated last September.

“Tomorrow, or perhaps even today, targets may include anyone in the United States who exercises their freedom of speech to simply express opinions the government does not like,” the judge in San Jose said.

“This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognizes our right to speak freely,” she added. “Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person’s speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it. Zealous protection of our Constitutional right to free speech is a provocative demonstration of our country’s powerful lack of fear.”

The Justice Department did not respond Saturday to a message seeking comment on the decision.

George Porteous, the editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily, responded to the ruling by saying on X: “The reporters in our newsroom shouldn’t have to fear that writing a story will result in their deportation. Today’s victory means they won’t have to.”

Conor Fitzpatrick, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which brought the lawsuit, praised the ruling.

“In America, free speech doesn’t just belong to the people who say things the government agrees with,” Fitzpatrick said in a release.

In her decision, Wise said it was clear that the government’s tactics has had an effect on college campuses.

“The government has offered a chilling message regarding protected speech – speak out against Israel or in support of Palestinians and we will revoke your visa and deport you. Behave. Noncitizen students heard the warning and heeded. And, as the idiom goes, the silence is deafening,” the judge wrote.

At The Stanford Daily, lawfully present noncitizens at the paper have quit, withheld articles, refused assignments, requested articles be taken down, and asked for anonymity due to fear of adverse immigration consequences, Wise noted.

She said noncitizens have the same First Amendment rights as citizens and yet were left to guess what the U.S. foreign policy was at any given moment and on any given subject.

“This is an incomprehensible standard,” she said. “While the Court understands that the government has been granted considerable discretion on foreign policy and immigration matters, that discretion must nevertheless still ensure that ordinary people can understand what the law permits and prohibits.”

Wise added: “Our Constitutional right to freedom of speech guarantees people the right to express – through their words, actions, or assembly – opinions that may be repugnant, views that run counter to prevailing political norms, or beliefs that otherwise challenge the country’s domestic or foreign policy, military engagement, or war.”

日本凌晨向福井县发布最高级别暴雨警报

2026年8月30日 07:35 / 联合早报

日本海沿岸福井县的东阵坊峭壁，被指定为国家天然纪念物。（档案照片）

日本气象厅凌晨向福井市、大野市、胜山市发布最高级别的5级大雨特别警报。

日本共同社报道，日本气象厅星期天（8月30日）凌晨紧急发布大雨警报。受暖湿气流流入锋面影响，以福井县为中心地区正遭遇强降雨。

日本气象厅和国土交通省当天早上召开记者会称，福井县因暴雨极有可能已经发生灾害，呼吁民众立即确保自身安全。

气象厅说，不排除向其他市町发布特别警报的可能。此外，由于福井县坂井市一座水坝水位上升，存在实施紧急泄洪的可能，呼吁民众密切关注最新信息。

截至星期天清晨6时（新加坡时间凌晨5时）的12小时内，胜山市和坂井市降雨量超过200毫米，都刷新当地观测史上的最高纪录。

The Wisconsin congressional candidate’s financial disclosure revealed fellowships with Third Way and the Pipeline Fund

By Elaine Mallon Fox News

Published August 29, 2026 2:42pm EDT

‘Imperative’ all Democrats must stand up against DSA candidates and say ‘enough is enough’: Jonathan Cowan

Third Way president Jonathan Cowan details moderate Democrats’ $15 million campaign to actively discredit socialist policies ahead of upcoming elections.

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A waitress running for Congress in Wisconsin’s third district was on the payroll of two left-leaning organizations with ties to billionaire investor George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.

Rebecca Cooke has portrayed herself as a working-class outsider, touting her experience as a waitress, small-business owner and nonprofit leader raised on a dairy farm. But a personal financial disclosure released two days after Wisconsin’s Aug. 13 primary shows she received more than $5,000 apiece for work with Third Way and the Pipeline Fund, two left-leaning organizations with financial ties to George Soros’ Open Society network.

The Open Society network awarded $1 million to Third Way’s nonprofit research arm between 2023 and 2024, while the Pipeline Fund received $1.4 million directly from the Open Society Action Fund in 2024.

Through the Open Society Foundation, which serves as the umbrella organization for Soros’ philanthropy network, Soros has distributed tens of millions of dollars to nonprofits and groups championing left-leaning causes like policing reform, LGBTQ rights and drug decriminalization.

Soros has donated more than $32 billion of his personal fortune to the Open Society’s Foundation, which has been overseen by his son Alex Soros since 2022.

Rebecca Cooke, candidate for Congress in Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, speaks during a town hall hosted by Pete Buttigieg at the La Crosse Center on January 16, 2026 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.(Kayla Wolf/Getty Images)

DEMOCRATIC GROUP LAUNCHES $15M WAR ON DSA AFTER SOCIALIST PRIMARY WINS: ‘MORTAL DANGER’

The financial disclosure forms only report that the amount of money Cooke received from each organization was above $5,000, but they do not specify the exact amount. The personal financial disclosure form covered Jan. 1, 2025, through July 14, 2026.

A spokesperson for Third Way confirmed with Fox News Digital reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Cooke received $30,000 in payment “for a project focused on elevating the voices and concerns of working-class Americans that have too often been missing from the rooms where decisions are made.”

The Foundation to Promote Open Society, a grant making arm of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations network, donated a $500,000 grant to the Third Way Institute in 2023 and another one in 2024, according to IRS-derived grant records.

Third Way Institute serves as the 501(c) research arm of the Third Way. In 2024, Third Way Institute transferred $21.9 million to Third Way, accounting for roughly 98% of the institute’s total spending that year. The institute said the money was used to support charitable and educational work on economic, national security, energy and social policy issues.

SOROS NETWORK REBUILDS PROGRESSIVE PROSECUTOR PUSH AFTER STRING OF ELECTION LOSSES

George Soros, Founder and Chairman of the Open Society Foundations arrives for a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on April 27, 2017.(Olivier Hoslet/AFP via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to Third Way for comment.

Pipeline Fund is a organization that works to train, recruit and support progressive candidates running in state and local election races. It began operating independently in 2024 after spinning off from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a liberal nonprofit network that has received tens of millions of dollars from the Soros-founded Open Society network.

Tax records also show that the Pipeline Fund received $1.4 million directly from the Open Society Action Fund and approximately $2.26 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund in 2024.

Scattered across the country, Pipeline Fund has a network of campaign consulting groups, including one in Wisconsin known as Wisconsin Progress.

“We can confirm Rebecca Cooke worked as a contractor for The Pipeline Fund in 2025 to help advance our mission of building a reflective democracy where working-class people, women, people of color, and other underrepresented communities are fully supported to run for office and advance the needs of their communities,” Pipeline Fund said in an emailed statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) arrives at the U.S. Capitol on September 25, 2024 in Washington, DC(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

HOUSE DEMOCRATS’ CAMPAIGN ARM DRAWS PROGRESSIVE FURY FOR TRYING TO ‘TIP THE SCALES’ IN KEY HOUSE PRIMARY

Prior to making a bid for Congress herself, Cooke opened up her own Democratic campaign consulting firm in 2015, in which she worked with eight state and federal campaigns from 2015 to 2021.

“Radical Rebecca Cooke is a paid political operative for far-left liberals and wants to push their socialist agenda. Commie Cooke may fit in at [a] Soros-funded consulting firm, but she is far too extreme to represent western Wisconsin,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Zach Bannon said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Cooke’s personal financial disclosure was not released until two days after the Aug. 13 primary, following an extension she requested from the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives in April.

All candidates who spend or raise more than $5,000 for a House of Representatives race must submit a personal financial disclosure form 30 days before the election.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., blasted Cooke’s delay in releasing her financial records, saying it tells voters all they need to know about her.

“For months, Democrats and Republicans across the Third District called on Cooke to release her financial disclosures. She had every opportunity to be transparent with voters. Instead, she chose to keep them hidden until after the primary,” Van Orden said in a news release.

DEMOCRAT ESTABLISHMENT STRIKES BACK AS SOCIALIST CANDIDATE DOWNED IN BATTLEGROUND PRIMARY

“That tells Wisconsin voters everything they need to know about Rebecca Cooke’s character. She was willing to deceive her own party to protect the political persona she built and gain political power,” Van Orden said.

But Cooke said her financial forms reveal that she truly is a working-class American.

“I’ve always worn multiple hats to make ends meet and in addition to waitressing I worked on two projects related to getting more working class people to run for office and conducted research for an organization about how to better connect with working class voters,” Cooke said in an email to the Sentinel.

“There are unique challenges to running for office as a working class person with an hourly wage job and a full-time campaign schedule. For example, I’m one of the thousands of people in this district who can’t afford health insurance. I’ve been proud to help make it easier for the next generation of working class leaders to step up and take our fight to Washington D.C.”

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Fox News Digital reached to Open Society Foundation, Cooke’s campaign and Pipeline Fund for comment.

Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.

House Republican aims to put Democrats on the record over DSA with resolution condemning socialism

2026-08-29 13:46 EDT / Fox News

The measure cites Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral win and calls for passage of the SAVE Act

By James Cirrone, Fox News

Published August 29, 2026 1:46pm EDT

Colorado congressman introduces House measure condemning all forms of socialism amid DSA rise

Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., told Fox News Digital his measure is aimed at getting moderate Democrats on the record about their stance on the Democratic Socialists of America.

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Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., introduced a measure Thursday condemning socialism in all its forms, telling Fox News Digital he wants to use the vote to force moderate House Democrats to take a more public stance against the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

“I keep hearing people like Hakeem Jeffries and others in the Congress saying that they oppose the DSA. Let’s see if they’re willing to vote for a resolution that would oppose them,” Crank told Fox News Digital in an interview on Friday.

Crank’s House resolution cites New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory as one of the clearest signposts of the DSA’s growing political momentum.

A recent Brookings Institution analysis found that as of August 12, 123 candidates endorsed or recommended by national, state or local DSA chapters had won primaries this cycle. Most were running for local or state-level office.

FAR-LEFT SURGE: MAMDANI-BACKED CANDIDATES OUST DEM ESTABLISHMENT INCUMBENTS

Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., leaves the House Republican Conference caucus meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on May 13, 2026.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Crank described the DSA movement as “anti-American” and “anti-Constitution,” arguing that its members are often hostile to free speech, one of the core rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.

He also accused DSA members of being anti-Semitic in their advocacy against Israel, particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.

“I would almost say the DSA in some ways is the marriage between socialism, the traditional socialism of Bernie Sanders, and the anti-Semitism of this sort of radical Arab movement,” Crank said.

He continued: “If that’s a marriage, their child is violence, right? It’s violence and intimidation. It’s showing up at town hall meetings and trying to shout elected officials down, which, by the way, is completely anti-democratic.”

Demonstrators hold a “Democratic Socialists of America” banner ahead of a vote by the Rent Guidelines Board at El Museo del Barrio in New York, on June 25, 2026.(Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

MAMDANI FACES QUESTIONS OVER TIES TO OUTLET ACCUSED OF ANTISEMITIC TROPES

One recent example of DSA members disrupting an elected official came in February, when San Francisco DSA led a protest at a news conference held by Mayor Daniel Lurie, who is Jewish.

Lurie was announcing a tax-cut proposal when demonstrators repeatedly chanted “Tax the rich.” During the disruption, a woman also shouted “tax the Jews,” though DSA and other protesters said she was not affiliated with the group.

Crank also took aim at several proposals contained in the DSA’s national program, arguing that they undermine “free and fair elections.”

His House resolution calls for passage of the SAVE Act — which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections — while also highlighting the DSA’s support for extending voting rights to “noncitizens.”

According to the DSA’s program, all permanent U.S. residents should have the right to vote, as should incarcerated people and those with criminal convictions.

The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen at dusk on July 8, 2026, in Washington, D.C. The DSA has expressed a desire to replace the Supreme Court with a “judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.”(Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

CLINTON-APPOINTED JUDGE TRIGGERS APPEAL AFTER BLOCKING KEY VOTER CITIZENSHIP LAW

The program also calls for abolishing the Senate and replacing the Supreme Court with “a judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.”

Crank also criticized the DSA’s explicit opposition to capitalism, arguing that socialism has repeatedly failed both in the United States and abroad.

“I find it ironic that many of the people who are pushing socialism or who are involved in the DSA movement, they’re people who came here from a different country and now they come here and want to impose… the socialism that they left, that didn’t work,” Crank said.

He singled out Mamdani as “the first verified failure of socialism,” citing his pied-à-terre tax.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaking at a press conference in Manhattan Housing Court in New York City on Aug. 25, 2026.(Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect)

DSA CO-CHAIR PUSHES BACK ON SOVIET UNION COMPARISONS, WANTS PRISONS TO BE ‘LESS NECESSARY’

“You’re seeing socialism at its worst in places like New York with Mamdani who’s saying, ‘Well, I am just going to tax anybody who has a big house here,’” Crank said. “Well, people can choose to not have a house in New York. So they leave. It doesn’t work.”

He added: “He’s the first one to sort of get elected, and now he’s trying to spread it and get other DSA members around the country elected.”

Crank also mentioned Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old DSA member who won her Colorado primary in July after handily defeating Democratic incumbent Diana DeGette.

“[Kiros] said America deserved 9/11. So tell me why that’s different? When you have a bunch of terrorists on September 11th killing Americans because of ideology, how is that different than what Mao did? It isn’t. This is the insidiousness of this movement,” Crank said.

Melat Kiros, second from left, poses for a photo at a canvassing rallying point in La Raza Park in North Denver, Colo., on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. About 100 volunteers gathered to knock on doors and encourage votes for Kiros in the final hours before polls closed in the Democratic primary.(Jamie Vera/Fox News Digital)

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Crank’s resolution similarly draws a line between modern Democratic socialists and past communist regimes under leaders such as Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin, asserting that socialism has led to famine, mass killings and more than 100 million deaths worldwide.

Kiros’ comments on 9/11 stem from an interview she did on June 22 with 9News journalist Kyle Clark, who asked her whether she believed the attacks were an “inevitable consequence” of American intervention.

“Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place,” Kiros said.

Crank’s resolution will be considered by the House Rules Committee on Monday, and there will be a vote likely sometime next week, the congressman told Fox News Digital.

James Cirrone is a writer on the Breaking/Trending News team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to james.cirrone@fox.com.

Pennsylvania commissioner accuses Shapiro of ‘deceptive’ measles death framing as RFK Jr blasts Dem governor

August 29, 2026 1:07pm EDT / Fox News

Lancaster County coroner says no measles deaths were reported, raising questions about two fatalities announced by Shapiro

By Robert McGreevy, Fox News

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6404212214112Lancaster County commissioner accuses Shapiro of ‘deceptive’ framing in measles press conference

Joshua Parsons, one of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania’s commissioners, accused Gov. Josh Shapiro of deception for framing an infant’s death as being from measles after the county coroner said the baby did not die from the disease.

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A Pennsylvania county commissioner is challenging Gov. Josh Shapiro’s announcement of two measles-associated deaths, fueling a growing clash with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the state’s outbreak swells to 460 confirmed cases across 31 counties.

Joshua Parsons, one of three Lancaster County commissioners, accused Shapiro of being intentionally “deceptive” during a press conference earlier this week, when the Democratic governor pointed to two “measles-related deaths” in the county.

“Well, the governor, in the press conference, they said they were measles-associated deaths, but it was framed, and very much the underlying assertion to it, was that these were measles deaths,” Parsons told Fox News Digital.

During a Tuesday press conference alongside Dr. Debra Bogen at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Hospital, Shapiro announced the deaths of two people who were unvaccinated for measles.

“Today, we see the consequences of a lack of immunizations in the first measles-associated deaths that our Commonwealth has seen in 35 years,” Shapiro said.

FORMER CDC ADVISER SAYS DECLINE IN KINDERGARTEN VACCINATIONS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT: ‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’

Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, during the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, US, on Wednesday, July 15, 2026.(Tom Brenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Shapiro strongly urged Pennsylvanians to get vaccinated for measles during the press conference.

“I want to be clear: This illness and death from measles is completely preventable,” he said.

Parsons said Shapiro cast the deaths as being the result of measles.

MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS

Parsons noted that national media outlets framed the deaths as being from measles. The New York Times, in a Tuesday story still posted to its website, wrote the headline, “Two Unvaccinated People Died From Measles in Pennsylvania, Officials Say.”

MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS

Joshua Parsons, one of three Lancaster County Commissioners and the Vice Chairman of the County Commission.(Lancaster County Commissioners Office)

However, according to conversations he had with the Lancaster County Coroner, Parsons claimed nobody in the county has died from measles this year.

“The coroner reported that they don’t have… they had zero measles deaths or measles associated-deaths reported. And in Pennsylvania if you have someone who dies of a contagious disease, that does have to be reported to the county coroner,” Parsons told Fox News Digital.

MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS

The coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamoantoni, has also publicly stated in interviews with local media that he had not been contacted by either Shapiro or the Pennsylvania Department of Health and was surprised to learn of the press conference.

“The coroner had one case where there was an infant who died in a home birth, and he’s talked about this publicly, and that infant died with measles but not of measles. At the time of the press conference, the state did not indicate who these two cases were or anything about them. Subsequently, they came out and said that this infant is one of the ones they’re counting,” Parsons told Fox News Digital.

MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS

The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in a statement to Fox News Digital, asserted that it consistently referred to the cases as “measles-associated.”

“PA DOH did not describe the cause of death of either individual. As PA DOH has repeatedly made clear since Tuesday, the Department consistently used the term ‘measles-associated’ in relation to these two deaths. That term means laboratory or epidemiologic evidence of measles is present — in both cases there was a positive measles test — but the disease may not be assessed by the medical certifier or coroner to be the immediate cause of death,” the statement read.

MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS

The coroner did acknowledge the presence of measles in the infant who died, but said neither he nor the pathologist who examined the infant believed measles to be the cause of death.

Individuals can be infected for days without seeing a rash.(iStock)

The coroner, according to Parsons, said the infant died of a lacerated spleen. He also said he has received no information about the second person mentioned by Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

MEASLES DEATHS MAY HAVE BEEN ‘FABRICATED,’ RFK JR CLAIMS AFTER CORONER RAISES QUESTIONS

Parsons said that suggested the deaths not being from measles.

“The Health Department put out a statement in reply to some of these questions. And I think it just raised more questions, but one line they had in there was that not all deaths in Pennsylvania have to be reported to the county coroner, and that’s true. If you have, for example, an elderly person who dies of natural causes, that does not have to be investigated or reported to the coroner,” Parsons said.

“But if you have someone who dies of an infectious disease, that does have to be reported. So if there is a second death in Lancaster County, that should have been reported,” Parsons said. “Now, there’s an unlikely scenario that someone contracted measles here and then died outside the county, and that would be reported to another county coroner. And if that’s the case, which I think is highly unlikely, if it is the case, they should state that.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in response to Fox News Digital asking the department why it did not contact the coroner, said “Pennsylvania Statutes Title 16 (Pennsylvania Statutes Title 16 P.S. Counties § 4236 | FindLaw) outlines when a coroner would be called in to investigate a death. While DOH collaborates with county coroners in various ways, including death reporting, DOH does not regulate or oversee coroner operations, nor are coroners involved in most deaths within their county. “

The measles virus, paramyxoviridae from the Morbillivirus family, transmission microscopy view.(BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Kennedy was also critical of Shapiro’s comments.

“Governor Shapiro’s unseemly rush to Lancaster County to convene a national press conference and his giddy delight in announcing two measles deaths was a morose commentary on the contemporary political dialogue,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in a Wednesday post on X.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. addresses the media at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota on May 21, 2026.(David Berding/Getty Images)

“The performance was a replay of the Democrats’ COVID playbook: fearmongering, misinformation, finger-pointing, and the weaponization of infectious disease fears for political gain,” his post continued.

“The announcement appears to have been premature, and the deaths may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers. The Lancaster County Coroner says that it has no record of any measles deaths. State law requires that all measles deaths be reported to the coroner,” Kennedy also added.

Kennedy and Shapiro, according to The Washington Post, had a heated phone call just minutes before Shapiro’s Tuesday announcement. During the call, Shapiro reportedly told Kennedy he did not want the federal government’s help with the ongoing measles outbreak.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during an announcement addressing mental health and addiction initiatives in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 2, 2026.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

As of Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said 460 measles cases have been confirmed across 31 counties in the state so far in 2026. It marks the nation’s largest measles outbreak since 1991, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The majority of infected persons in the state are not vaccinated, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Parsons highlighted that much of the outbreak is relegated to religious communities whose members choose not to get vaccinated.

“There’s certainly measles here,” Parsons told Fox News Digital. “There are in other Pennsylvania counties as well. And a lot of the focus has been on the plain population, Amish and Mennonites. Many of them choose not to get vaccinated. And by and large, they’re going about their life and they’re living their life and just continue on. So, we certainly have resources available for people if they wanna get vaccinated, but I believe strongly that’s each individual’s choice,” Parsons concluded.

In response to a request for comment, Shapiro’s office referred Fox News Digital to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Reached by Fox News Digital, a representative from the Times said the newspaper is “confident in the accuracy of our story.”

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Fox News Digital also contacted the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services for additional comment.