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New York congressional primary becomes second most expensive House race ever amid AI fight

June 24, 2026 6:59pm EDT / Fox News

Rival AI factions spent tens of millions backing opposing candidates in the race to replace longtime Rep Jerry Nadler

By Bonny Chu

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The primary for New York’s 12th Congressional District has emerged as the second-most expensive House primary race on record after becoming a high-stakes proxy battle over artificial intelligence (AI) regulation.

The race — which covers Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Upper West Side and Midtown — saw a staggering $26.3 million in ad spending, according to AdImpact Politics.

Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District between Thomas Massie and Ed Gallrein, held this year, reportedly ranked first with $33.2 million in ad spending.

Election results showed Micah Lasher, a strong advocate for stricter AI regulations, defeating state Rep. Alex Bores, a tech expert who campaigned heavily on safety concerns.

DEM LAWMAKERS CRY FOUL AS HOCHUL GUTS AI SAFETY BILL AMID BIG TECH PRESSURE

State Assembly member Alex Bores (D-NY) is surrounded by supporters at his watch party at The Freehand Hotel after conceding the congressional race to Micah Lasher on June 23, 2026 in New York City.(Laura Brett/Getty Images)

The contest was decided by a narrow margin, with Lasher securing 39% of the vote and Bores receiving 35% as they competed to replace longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler.

Bores, a former data scientist at Palantir who holds a master’s degree in computer science, became a key target in the broader fight between competing factions of the AI industry.

AI-BACKED SUPER PAC EXPANDS INTO MULTIPLE GOP PRIMARIES AFTER CLAIMING EARLY WINS

State Representative Micah Lasher, a Democrat from New York and US House candidate, during a primary election night watch party in New York, US, on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.(John Lamparski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

According to AdImpact Politics, $9.3 million was spent supporting Bores, who also faced the largest share of attack ad spending, with $3.6 million in negative ads targeting him.

Beyond ad spending, the Silicon Valley-backed super PAC Leading the Future spent more than $8 million opposing Bores’ nomination in an effort to keep tech-skeptical lawmakers out of Washington, according to the Hill.

The group is funded by major tech figures including OpenAI President Greg Brockman and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.

Meanwhile, multiple AI safety groups spent more than $20 million backing Bores, the Hill reported, highlighting the deep divide within the tech community over how aggressively the government should regulate artificial intelligence.

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Campaign signage for State Rep. Micah Lasher is displayed during a primary election in New York on June 23, 2026.(John Lamparski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Lasher received $8.6 million in support spending, while $1.6 million was spent on attack ads targeting him, according to AdImpact Politics.

Beyond the AI policy battle, billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg poured millions of his own money to support Lasher’s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents.

Bonny Chu is a Breaking and Trending News Writer for Fox News Digital

Appeals court rejects Trump administration’s effort to get Michigan’s sensitive voter information

June 24, 2026 / 4:04 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — A divided federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department is not entitled to Michigan’s voter registration list containing sensitive information from voters in the state.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit is now the first appeals court to weigh in on the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain the unredacted voter rolls from more than two dozen states. At issue in the case decided by the 6th Circuit is the Justice Department’s demand for the information from Michigan.

In a 2-1 decision, the 6th Circuit said a provision of federal civil rights law does not entitle the government to Michigan’s voter registration list, which contains the names, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers of all registered voters in the state, among other information.

That 1960 law, Judge Andre Mathis wrote, gave the government “power to ensure that everyone who had the right to vote could freely exercise that right. But today, the government invokes Title III for an inverse purpose — to ensure that some people have not voted.” He was joined in the majority by Judge Guy Cole Jr. Judge John Nalbandian dissented.

The Justice Department first asked nearly every state and the District of Columbia for copies of their statewide voter registration lists last summer and said the information was needed to ensure compliance with list-maintenance requirements of two federal voting laws, the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

After Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, as well as officials from 30 states and D.C., refused to hand over the unredacted voter rolls, the Justice Department sued the states and sought court orders requiring them to turn over the information. Benson did provide the government with the public version of Michigan’s voter registration list, but argued the government did not have the authority to demand confidential voter information.

So far, nine district courts have dismissed the lawsuits filed against the states, including the Justice Department’s case in Michigan. In that court fight, U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou said the federal laws cited by the Trump administration do not allow it to obtain the voting records and warned that interpreting the National Voter Registration Act to require the disclosure of private information submitted for voter registration “would potentially cause the statute to impose an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote guaranteed by the First Amendment.”

Jarbou was appointed to the federal bench by Mr. Trump in his first term.

The 6th Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling, with the two judges in the majority agreeing that “Title III’s narrow text cannot withstand the weight of the government’s broad request.”

Since Mr. Trump took office for his second term, his administration has undertaken sweeping efforts to overhaul U.S. elections as Republicans fight to maintain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections. The president has signed two executive orders that sought to impose new requirements for mail ballots and voter registration, but they have come under scrutiny in the courts.

Earlier Wednesday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled key provisions of the directive signed by Mr. Trump last year were unconstitutional and permanently blocked their implementation nationwide. One of the measures sought to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, while another imposed conditions on federal funds to specific states not counting mail ballots that arrive after Election Day.

Senior US General in Europe set to retire amid Hegseth’s review of US support for NATO allies

2026-06-24T22:00:01.759Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/24/politics/donahue-hegseth-europe-retirement

A highly respected four-star Army general is stepping down from his post commanding soldiers in Europe and is slated to retire as he has thus far not been nominated for a new job consistent with his rank by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, multiple sources told CNN.

Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of US Army Europe and Africa, is relinquishing command on July 2, a US Army spokeswoman confirmed to CNN. A source familiar said Donahue’s stepping down has been in conversation for at least two months and said it was not an abrupt decision.

Donahue’s exit from the command coincides with the planned decision to lower the required rank for its chief from a four-star general to a three-star general and a series of moves by Hegseth to alter the US footprint in Europe.

Multiple sources told CNN that there has been tension between the Hegseth’s office and Donahue’s command, though not necessarily directly between the two men. Any high-profile publicity the Army received in Europe – even when generally positive or seemingly on-message with Hegseth’s priorities – “was not well received,” the second source familiar said.

Two sources familiar with the matter said Hegseth’s office has been critical of Donahue for some time. One of the sources said he has been labeled unfairly by some as an acolyte of retired Gen. Mark Milley, who has drawn intense ire from President Donald Trump, Hegseth, and some key figures in right-wing media, though the source said Donahue has retained plenty of support in the MAGA universe, particularly among those with special operations backgrounds.

Donahue has commanded the Army’s elite Delta Force and served in various other special operations units throughout his career. Before taking over US Army Europe and Africa, Donahue commanded the 82nd Airborne Division and then the 18th Airborne Corps out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina — two jobs typically reserved for promising senior Army officers.

There has also been some thinking from conservatives and officials around Hegseth that Donahue was responsible for the Afghanistan withdrawal, because he was commanding the 82nd Airborne Division at the time, which responded to the crisis in Kabul. Donahue was famously captured on camera walking off the tarmac and onto the last US aircraft leaving Kabul at the end of the chaotic withdrawal and dubbed the last US service member in Afghanistan.

One of the sources familiar likened placing the blame on Donahue to “blaming the fire department for showing up to the fire.”

Donahue declined to comment for this story through a command spokesperson. The Office of the Secretary of Defense directed questions to the Army.

Army spokeswoman Cynthia O. Smith confirmed that Donahue was stepping down from command in July.

“The Army thanks Gen. Donahue for his leadership of US Army Europe and Africa.”

While Donahue has submitted his paperwork to retire, the sources familiar with his departure from US Army Europe and Africa said the Army has not yet made a final determination on whether to approve the retirement, meaning he could still be nominated to another position. The two sources familiar and a congressional aide said Donahue is still believed to be in the running for other four-star jobs, including chief of staff of the Army.

Several of the sources said other four-star positions, including commander of US Army Transformation and Training Command in Austin, Texas, or commander of a new unmanned systems command, were also being considered by the Pentagon.

Donahue’s deputy, Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, will perform the duties of US Army Europe and Africa commanding general until a permanent replacement is nominated, the US official said. Donahue will also relinquish command as the Allied Land Forces commander in a ceremony in Turkey on July 9, according to US Army Col. Martin O’Donnell, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe spokesperson. British Army Lt. Gen. Jez Bennett will serve as the acting commander until another American is assigned to the three-star role.

Donahue has long been rumored as a choice to eventually take over as the Army chief of staff, the top uniformed position for the service, though Hegseth has recently elevated his former senior military assistant Gen. Chris LaNeve to the role in an acting capacity, after firing Gen. Randy George. Hegseth’s selection of LaNeve over Donahue has rankled some of the military’s joint chiefs, the two sources familiar said.

“You spend your whole career being apolitical and doing the best job you can under civilian leadership that may or may not agree with you, only to watch the SecDef elevate people who have successfully sucked up to him — I imagine that feels like it cheapens their achievements,” one of the sources said.

Donahue is not expected to officially retire for roughly two months, sources told CNN, leaving time for Hegseth to select him for a new job. Upon Donahue’s departure, US Army Europe and Africa will transition to a three-star command. And while the transition has been anticipated for roughly a year, the change comes amid several other changes to the US military’s footprint in Europe, as the Trump administration has suggested that European countries should take primary responsibility for the defense of the continent.

In May, two US deployments to Europe were abruptly cancelled by Hegseth following criticism by Trump about support from European allies. The move received harsh backlash from members of Congress from both parties, who criticized the Defense Department for not communicating with lawmakers or European allies who would be impacted. Days later, Trump appeared to somewhat reverse course, saying the US would send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, after previously saying he would pull 5,000 troops from Germany. It’s still unclear what that change will look like in terms of which units are moved where.

The US military is also expecting to see another three-star US command, Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, or SAG-U, get shut down, though the move has not yet been finalized. Two of the sources familiar and the congressional aide said the functions of the command would still exist to some extent and be taken over by other groups but the closure of SAG-U — established in 2022 — will also see the reassignment of roughly 300 personnel.

And just a week ago, Hegseth indicated more changes could be coming, announcing a six-month review of US forces in Europe while speaking at a NATO meeting in Brussels.

“It’s a review that some countries will fail and others will pass with flying colors,” Hegseth said.

Davis Winkie’s work at CNN is supported by a partnership between Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners (JFP). CNN retains full editorial control of the reporting.

王毅：美伊绝不能重燃战火

2026年6月25日 07:38 / 联合早报

5月30日，从阿曼穆桑达姆（Musandam）拍摄的无人机照片显示，很多船只停泊在霍尔木兹海峡。 （路透社）

中共中央政治局委员、外交部长王毅说，美国和伊朗要巩固全面停火止战局面，绝不能重燃战火。

据中新社报道，王毅星期三（6月24日）晚应约同巴基斯坦副总理兼外长达尔通电话。

达尔通报了伊朗与美国开启新阶段谈判有关情况，感谢中方始终坚定支持巴方和平斡旋努力，巴方期待同中方继续密切协调配合，共同为实现地区持久和平稳定发挥建设性作用。

王毅感谢巴方第一时间通报伊美新阶段谈判情况，表示伊美签署谅备是国际社会共同努力的结果，巴基斯坦在其中发挥了关键和独特作用。和平进程刚刚开始，今后还有很长甚至曲折艰难的路要走。但中方将一如既往支持巴基斯坦和志同道合的国家继续发挥建设性作用，愿同巴方保持密切沟通协调。

王毅说，下阶段应重点做好三件事。一是巩固全面停火止战局面，绝不能重燃战火。伊美谅备符合伊朗根本和长远利益，也符合国际社会普遍期待。中方愿同各方一起坚定支持谈判排除干扰推进下去。

二是尽快恢复霍尔木兹海峡正常通航，确保全球产供链稳定。海峡的安排既要尊重沿岸国主权和合法权益，也要符合国际惯例和各国共同愿望。

三是支持中东国家尽快改善彼此关系，探讨新的地区安全架构。包括海湾在内的中东地区不能再成为大国博弈角斗场和地缘政治牺牲品，地区国家应坚持真正的战略自主，把命运切实掌握在自己手中。中东问题的症结仍是巴勒斯坦问题，中方呼吁地区各国在解决巴勒斯坦问题上形成更加一致的声音，采取更加协调的行动，尽早落实“两国方案”，实现地区长治久安。

美国总统特朗普警告，如果伊朗向通过霍尔木兹海峡的船只收取通行费或其他任何费用，他将终止与伊朗的和平谈判。伊朗和阿曼此前宣布，将共同研究对这条运输要道的管理与收费机制。

美国总统特朗普周三警告，如果伊朗向通过霍尔木兹海峡的船只收取通行费或其他任何费用，他将终止与伊朗的和平谈判。伊朗和阿曼此前宣布，将共同研究对这条运输要道的管理与收费机制。

Trump administration asks Congress for $88 billion in supplemental funding for Iran war, Ebola, farm aid

June 24, 2026 / 6:18 PM EDT / CBS News

By Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.

Read Full Bio

Washington — The Trump administration on Wednesday sent Congress a long-awaited supplemental funding package to help cover the cost of the Iran war.

The administration is asking for about $87.6 billion to address “urgent needs” related to the Iran war, as well as other funding to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa and provide support for American farmers.

Most of the funding — $67 billion — is for the Pentagon, including $21 billion for munitions, $17.3 billion for operational costs and $12.1 billion for classified programs. It cites $767.5 million needed for the Department of Energy related to the war and Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and $300 million for the State Department for embassy security and construction in countries surrounding Iran.

The request will face an uphill battle and puts vulnerable Republicans in a politically tricky position, since backing it could be seen as support for the unpopular war. It’s all but certain to face stiff opposition from Democrats, putting its passage in the Senate in doubt.

Some Republicans have already supported limiting President Trump on Iran as their patience wears thin with the monthslong conflict, especially as Americans are concerned with affordability issues heading in the November elections. Eight Republicans helped push through a war powers resolution this month that directs the president to remove armed forces from hostilities with Iran, unless Congress declares war or authorizes the use of military force.

“After dragging America into a reckless war, he now wants Congress to hand him tens of billions more to paper over the damage — while families are still paying higher prices,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday in response to the supplemental request.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the request “an attempt to secure tens of billions of additional dollars for unrelated Pentagon priorities that should rightly be considered through the annual appropriations process.”

“I will closely review this request in its entirety and ensure we take care of our servicemembers, but I will not rubberstamp tens of billions more for this disastrous war of choice,” she said in a statement.

GOP Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the funding “essential,” saying it would “accelerate immediate production of key capabilities, from exquisite munitions to low-cost hypersonics, strike weapons and drones.”

The supplemental request also seeks $11.1 billion in farm aid and $1.4 billion to go toward efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and elsewhere.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on redistricting: ‘Doing nothing is not an option’

2026-06-24 6:59 PM EDT / CNN Politics

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on redistricting: ‘Doing nothing is not an option’

The Lead

Maryland’s Democratic Governor Wes Moore joins The Lead.

1:10 • Source: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/24/politics/video/wes-moore-redistricting-maryland-lead-jake-tapper

‘He named names’: Trump’s Senate meeting explodes into shouting match over Iran

Sen Bill Cassidy demanded answers on the war’s progress, sparking what one source called a ‘7 out of 10’ confrontation

June 24, 2026 4:59pm EDT / Fox News

President Donald Trump’s meeting with Senate Republicans might have been meant to find a way to pass voter ID and citizenship verification legislation, but it devolved into a tense shouting match over the war in Iran.

Tensions among Senate Republicans were already simmering with Trump over his last-minute decision to nuke the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing package filled with his priorities that the GOP viewed as an easy win to sell to voters in the upcoming midterm elections.

Trump described the closed-door affair in a positive light afterward.

“I think we had a really great meeting, and we’re very proud of the party,” he said. “We like our leader. We like everybody, really, in the room. I don’t like a few people, but that’s okay. I think you know who they are.”

TRUMP HEADS TO CAPITOL HILL FOR PIVOTAL MEETING AS SENATE GOP DIVISIONS DEEPEN

Sen. Bill Cassidy is quietly breaking with President Donald Trump after losing to a Trump-backed candidate in his primary race earlier this month.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Leon Neal/Getty Images)

What started as a push to pass Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act transformed into Trump railing against Republicans for allowing a war powers resolution handcuffing his authorities in Iran to pass on Tuesday.

And that spurred a confrontation with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who Trump campaigned against and defeated earlier this year.

“He asked, ‘why would anybody vote for the War Powers Act?’,” Cassidy said afterward. “As he continued, I said, ‘is that a rhetorical question, or would you like to really know?’ He said, ‘I’d like to know.’”

IRATE REPUBLICANS ACCUSE TRUMP OF HANDING DEMOCRATS A WIN AFTER BLOWING UP HOUSING PACKAGE

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6399290014112

“I stood and said, ‘you have not told the American people what’s going on. It was supposed to last four weeks, it’s lasted four months,’” he continued. “‘Our original objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what’s going on.’”

Then began the shouting match, which Cassidy blamed on the “Irish in me,” until ultimately he was asked to sit down by his colleagues.

“I guess my point is, though, that the American people need to know more than we are being told,” Cassidy said. “The Senate needs to know, and it does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of this is going the way that we were told.”

Lawmakers have still not been fully briefed on the memorandum of understanding Trump and Iranian leaders signed last week, and have raised several issues with its contents and whether it will actually meet the end goals the administration set out to achieve at the start of the war months ago.

TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL SPARKS GOP DEMANDS FOR VOTE AS CONGRESS REMAINS IN THE DARK

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., spoke with reporters as he headed to the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol on March 12, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A source familiar with the meeting said that Trump was “very animated” over the war powers vote because it hurt the administration’s negotiating position with Iran, and that he “named names” of the Republicans who voted with Democrats, including Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., who was absent from the vote because he was with the president at an event in Pennsylvania.

The source described the shouting match as a “7 out of 10.”

“You know, [like] two boys on recess that are yelling at each other over a foul on a basketball court,” they said.

Meanwhile, the meeting came just hours after Trump blew up a ceremony to sign the 21st Century Road to Housing Act into law on his quest to force Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act.

Lawmakers leaving the meeting said the housing package didn’t come up, and neither did a solution to finding a path forward on passing the SAVE America Act. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has told Trump several times that Republicans don’t have the votes to pass it.

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Thune said after the meeting that Trump’s discussion on the SAVE America Act was focused on “the priority he places on it, and how the pathway he thinks there is to get an outcome or result.”

“So, it really wasn’t on that particular issue, much of a back and forth,” Thune said.

And lawmakers didn’t push back on Trump’s desire to pass the legislation, either, despite the political reality that Democrats are blocking the bill and there is no unified front from Republicans to nuke the filibuster to ram it through.

“It was more the president saying, ‘If we don’t do this, we’re gonna get ourselves in real trouble going down the road,’” Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., said. “And basically, that was more of the tone than it was, you know, ‘what do y’all think about this? Is this gonna pass? It’s not gonna pass.’”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

Trump seeks more than $1.4 billion in Ebola funding from Congress

2026-06-24T23:21:24.517Z / Reuters

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – The White House is seeking more than $1.4 billion in new funds from Congress to address the widening Ebola virus outbreak, including $800 million for humanitarian crisis response, according to a Trump administration official.

The move is part of a larger supplemental funding request made by the White House on Wednesday in a letter to Congress.

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It includes $800 million for a quarantine center in Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus, supplies, treatment, contact tracing, a regional logistics network and infection-control practices, the official said.

U.S. officials are also seeking $500 million in global health security funds they say are needed to prevent the virus from spreading to the United States. That funding would include disease surveillance, laboratory capacity, cross-border coordination and potential partnerships with multilateral organizations and the private sector, the official said.

Another $90 million would go to diplomatic efforts, including evacuations and transportation of U.S. citizens with the virus to treatment facilities, according to the official.

Congressional aides said any such request could run into problems in Congress, where lawmakers, including some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, are unhappy that his administration has been refusing to spend money allocated for foreign assistance, including medical care, around the world.

Washington has been criticized for its cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and African public health efforts, prior to the outbreak, which have hurt the response.

SERIOUS RESPONSE NEEDED

Congo’s Ebola outbreak is linked to the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus. It has infected more than 1,000 people and killed 267 — generating the largest number of confirmed cases within the first month of any episode of the disease, the World Health Organization said this week.

The two largest previous Ebola outbreaks occurred in West Africa — in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia between 2014 and 2016 — and in Congo in 2018.

“This is a very serious outbreak, and so a very serious response is needed now,” said Josh Michaud, a public health analyst with KFF, a health policy research group.

Michaud said $1.4 billion is probably in line with what is needed, adding that during the smaller DRC outbreak from 2018 to 2020, the United States spent about $266 million.

“The details matter here,” he said, noting that part of the funding is earmarked for the controversial quarantine center in Kenya for American citizens, which is aimed at preventing any cases of Ebola from reaching the United States.

The U.S. has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to the Ebola response so far. On June 18, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would make $107 million in emergency funding available to strengthen its domestic and international response to the Ebola outbreak and warned it could be the worst outbreak yet.

The U.S. also has provided doses of an experimental antibody drug for use in clinical trials to fight the widening outbreak, a shift from its position of making the drug available only to Americans.

In France, a doctor who recently returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has tested positive for Ebola, marking the European country’s first confirmed case linked to the outbreak.

World Health Organization Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier on Wednesday told a press conference that the risk of the virus spreading further was low.

Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Caroline Humer and Matthew Lewis

Political earthquake strikes House Democrats and Hispanic caucus with Espaillat’s loss

June 24, 2026 / 4:53 PM EDT / CBS News

By Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.

Read Full Bio

Zak Hudak

Five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat was defeated in the Democratic primary Tuesday night in what political observers are calling a stunning upset by newcomer Darializa Avila Chevalier — a political earthquake not just for New York City politics, but also for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which Espaillat chairs.

Avila Chevalier was backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a fellow democratic socialist who was a kingmaker on Tuesday night, with all three of his progressive picks winning their races. Two of those Mamdani endorsed, including Avila Chevalier, defeated incumbent Democrats.

But Espaillat, a power broker in Washington and in the Upper Manhattan and Bronx-based district, was the biggest sitting lawmaker targeted by New York progressives, in what some liberal leaders are calling a progressive Tea Party, similar to the conservative movement that toppled incumbent Republicans in 2010.

Espaillat was the first Dominican American elected to Congress and the first formerly undocumented immigrant to serve as a congressional lawmaker. Avila Chevalier is also of Dominican descent and is Muslim.

House Democratic leaders downplayed the losses of incumbents to Mamdani-backed candidates in deep-blue New York City districts. They said Wednesday they are focused on battleground districts that will deliver them the 218 seats they need to secure the majority in November.

“Our focus, our agenda is 218, and nothing that the mayor did helps or hurts us getting to that number,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the chairman of the Democratic Caucus and a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, added, “Our focus is on the districts that get us the majority.”

Aguilar argued the wins of democratic socialist candidates are a “recoil” against the president and his policies, rather than a reflection on the Democratic incumbents.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has more than 40 members from both parties, including progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Greg Casar of Texas. Ocasio-Cortez — whose district spans a part of Queens known as the “Commie Corridor” and the Bronx — declined to weigh in on Avila Chevalier’s race, though Ocasio-Cortez is a fellow democratic socialist and also rose to prominence by defeating a powerful sitting Democrat in a 2018 primary.

In Espaillat’s remarks to supporters on Tuesday night, he harkened to his personal history as an immigrant.

“When I came to this nation as a young, immigrant boy, I never could have imagined I would be a member of Congress,” he said. “That is the privilege of my life.”

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters on May 27, 2026. AP Photo/Seth Wenig

An activist and Columbia doctoral student, Avila Chevalier attempted to run to Espaillat’s left on issues like immigration, housing and Israel. Supporters of Espaillat, himself a progressive, sought to cast some of her views as radical.

Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist and an expert on Latino outreach, said the “irony is, Espaillat is an immigrant.”

“He’s an advocate for immigrant rights,” Rocha said. ” It’s a shame when we’re spending money to beat good Democrats when we could be spending it to beat Republicans.”

Espaillat had received financial backing from several super PACs, including Latino Victory Fund, which supports Latino Democrats, and Bold America, which was founded by Congressional Hispanic Caucus members. But he also had the financial backing of a super PAC affiliated with American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which supports pro-Israel politicians.

Avila Chevalier, like other democratic socialists, seized on the contributions from an AIPAC-linked group, including at a debate earlier this month.

“He is somebody who has taken $670,000 from AIPAC, all while voting to send our tax dollars to a country that is enacting a genocide,” Avila Chevalier said at the June 16 debate.

In response, Espaillat said he supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and condemned Avila Chevalier’s participation in a pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. “She doesn’t believe in the existence of Israel,” Espaillat said.

In 2024, she also an helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, which is in the district, and she counts Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian activist detained by ICE last year, as a friend.

Espaillat, 71, was first elected in 2016, after twice unsuccessfully challenging powerful Rep. Charlie Rangel, a 20-term power broker in the Harlem-area district. But the district’s boundaries have changed to include more of the Hispanic areas of East Harlem, Washington Heights and the Bronx, and the area has become more gentrified and diverse. Over 50% of the district’s population is made of Latinos, according to 2024 research by Data USA.

During the campaign, an aide to Espaillat, who is now on leave, accused Avila Chevalier of working with Mamdani to replace the Dominican community with Haitians and Muslims,City & State reported. According to The New York Times, Espaillat on Tuesday did not respond to questions about his supporters falsely claiming Avila Chevalier is Haitian, but instead reminded voters of his own heritage. He later called for all to “lower the temperature of this campaign.”

“I am the first Dominican American to be elected to the House of Representatives,” Espaillat said. “I think I bring a different perspective to the table that’s never been heard before.”

Judge tosses Trump administration’s challenge to New Jersey cities’ ‘sanctuary’ policies

2026-06-24T20:17:45.355Z / Reuters

The Department of Justice (DOJ) building in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 28, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

June 24 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Justice had filed challenging ​policies that four New Jersey cities adopted restricting police cooperation with federal immigration ‌enforcement.

The ruling, opens new tab by U.S. District Judge Evelyn Padin in Newark marked the latest in a series of court losses for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in its efforts to challenge laws and policies adopted by so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” run ​by Democrats.

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The Justice Department in a lawsuit filed in May 2025 argued the cities ​of Newark, Hoboken, Jersey City and Paterson are impeding federal immigration enforcement ⁠with policies that violate the U.S. Constitution and are preempted by federal law.

Those policies, it ​said, deny federal immigration agents access to immigrants in local custody, restrict local officers from handing ​over those in custody to federal agents and bar otherwise willing local officers from providing information to federal immigration authorities.

But Padin, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the Justice Department’s case “has a ​fundamental flaw—it treats the challenged policies as though they operate in isolation.”

They do not, she ​said, as under a statewide directive issued by New Jersey’s attorney general in 2008, law enforcement agencies, including ‌those ⁠run by cities are restricted from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents beyond what the law requires.

She said that as a result, the alleged harms the Justice Department claims could not be addressed through the lawsuit, as any ruling in its favor would not free ​municipal law enforcement officers ​to do anything ⁠the statewide policy forbids.

The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Representatives from Newark, Hoboken and Jersey City ​did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jersey City Mayor James Solomon ​in a ⁠statement applauded the court’s ruling and said his city will “continue to do everything within our power to protect our neighbors and push back against the Trump Administration’s abusive and cruel federal overreach.”

Paterson’s ⁠Aymen Aboushi, ​who heads the city’s legal department, welcomed the judge’s ​decision, saying the city’s policies comply with federal law and that the dismissal affirms “the city’s commitment to its residents ​while upholding the law.”

Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alistair Bell and Aurora Ellis

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Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.