How worried should the GOP be about two Dan Sullivans on the ballot in Alaska?

2026-08-26T17:01:59.025Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/26/politics/dan-sullivan-alaska-senate-race

The situation that Republicans strove to avoid in Alaska has come to pass: Two Dan Sullivans will appear on the general election ballot for US Senate.

One is an incumbent GOP senator, and the other is a political unknown that the party fears will siphon votes from the senator in a key race for the Senate majority.

But how worried should the GOP be?

In short, history suggests this could hurt the party at least somewhat — but likely only in a very close race.

And Alaska’s unusual ranked-choice system should mitigate some of the potential impact.

Newly reported results in last week’s all-party primary show Dan J. Sullivan, a former school teacher, taking 2.5% of the vote and resting firmly inside the top four alongside GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan (42.6%) and Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola (48.2%). The last spot is to be determined, with two other candidates at 1.1%.

Republicans would have plenty to fear if this were a normal general election and the other Dan Sullivan appeared on the ballot as an independent or third-party candidate. In that case, it’s easy to see a fair number of voters inadvertently voting for the wrong Dan Sullivan.

But Alaska’s ranked-choice system allows voters to rank multiple candidates. So as long as Dan J. Sullivan’s voters also rank Sen. Dan Sullivan — and rank him ahead of Peltola — the other Dan Sullivan’s votes would filter down to the senator.

Scott Kendall, an Alaska lawyer who spearheaded the state’s adoption of ranked-choice voting in 2020, wrote an op-ed this month making a compelling case that ranked-choice voting will blunt the impact of the other Dan Sullivan.

That’s mainly because while Alaska’s system allows voters to rank multiple candidates, many voters don’t do that.

Many voters will “exhaust” their ballots by not listing backup options — either deliberately or because they are unfamiliar with the process — meaning if their chosen candidate is eliminated, their ballot doesn’t count toward the final matchup.

The state’s limited history with ranked-choice voting suggests a fair number of these voters do exhaust their ballots. And many others don’t rank the backup options that might be logically expected.

Perhaps the best example is the state’s 2024 US House race.

Initially, 1.1% of voters picked Democrat Eric Hafner. When he was eliminated, you might have expected his votes to filter down to the only other Democrat on the ballot, Peltola.

But that’s not what happened with most of them. About one-third of Hafner’s supporters didn’t rank another candidate and exhausted their ballots. A similar proportion ranked Peltola next, and the rest ranked either Republican Nick Begich or a third-party candidate next.

So while 1.1% voted for Hafner, just 0.4% worth of that filtered down to the other Democrat, Peltola.

The state also held two US House races in 2022 — a special election and then the general election. Both featured Peltola and a pair of high-profile Republicans: Begich and former Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee.

In both races, around one-quarter of voters initially backed Begich before he was eliminated. And each time, more than 20% of Begich’s voters exhausted their ballots rather than pick an alternative. That amounted to 5-6% of voters overall in both races.

In the special election, only about half of Begich’s voters filtered down to the other Republican, Palin. In November, two-thirds did.

Part of the reason for that, of course, could be how polarizing Palin was. Perhaps Begich’s voters just didn’t want to vote for her or Peltola.

But all told, in the state’s 2022 and 2024 elections for US House and Senate, an average of 28% of a candidate’s voters didn’t rank a backup when that candidate was eliminated.

And only about half of them ranked the candidate you’d most logically expect as a backup — i.e. someone from the same party or someone ideologically closer to their initial choice.

So if Dan J. Sullivan got 2.5% of the vote in November and was eliminated, you might wager about half of that would filter down to Sen. Dan Sullivan.

But it’s not quite so simple.

Just because 2.5% voted for the other Dan Sullivan in the primary doesn’t mean many or even most of them were Republicans who did so mistakenly.

After all, minor candidates do tend to get 1% or 2% of the vote here and there. Some people just don’t want to vote for the major candidates.

There is also a real question from last week’s primary about whether many of the other Dan Sullivan’s votes actually came from Democrats.

He tended to do better in areas where Peltola also did well. So it seems possible that much of his 2.5% vote share was not Republicans, but rather Democrats voting strategically — i.e. trying to get the other Dan Sullivan into the general election to potentially help Peltola.

The confusion factor is also likely reduced by the fact that the other Dan Sullivan, despite being a registered Republican, didn’t appear on the primary ballot as a Republican. Assuming that’s also the case in November, for voters to mix this up, they’d not just have to pick Dan J. Sullivan, but skip over the only Dan Sullivan who is listed as a Republican.

At the same time, the November general election could feature more casual voters who are more likely to get confused.

In other words, it’s difficult to say how this will shake out in November.

It seems quite possible that the other Dan Sullivan’s vote share will drop, after Republicans spend more time educating voters about the differences between him and the senator, and perhaps as Peltola supporters who strategically voted for the other Dan Sullivan in the primary back her in November.

But it’s also possible that a small but significant handful of voters will see “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” on their ballot, vote for him thinking he’s the senator, and be done with it — in a way that could matter in a very close (read: decided by considerably less than 1%) race.

And that would be very bad for the national GOP, given Alaska could be the pivotal race for the Senate majority.

In the meantime, also keep an eye on whoever becomes the fourth candidate to emerge from the all-party primary. Republican Gerald Heikes passed Democrat David Leslie overnight for the No. 4 slot.

If it’s the other Dan Sullivan and another Republican on the ballot, this variable looms larger in a close race.

Man convicted in murder of Microsoft exec in plot allegedly involving victim’s ex-wife

August 26, 2026 3:44 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A man accused of arranging the fatal shooting of a Microsoft design manager on a Florida road was convicted Wednesday in a murder-for-hire scheme fueled by a stormy child custody arrangement between the victim and his wealthy ex-wife.

Jared Bridegan was shot four years ago after he got out of his SUV to remove a tire from a road in Jacksonville Beach. The attack stumped police for months as they struggled to understand why someone with no apparent enemies would be killed while his daughter sat nearby in her car seat.

Prosecutors believe he was killed because of ongoing strife with his former wife over the parenting of their twins.

Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, was convicted on Wednesday of first-degree murder and solicitation of murder after nearly four hours of jury deliberation, according to CBS affiliate WJAX-TV. He’s married to Bridegan’s former wife, Shanna Gardner, whose trial is set to start in September.

Defense attorney James Hill, left, walks in his client, defendant Mario Fernandez Saldana, during his trial on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida. Doug Engle/The Florida Times-Union via AP, Pool

Prosecutors argued that Bridegan was killed in a “targeted ambush” hatched by Gardner and Saldana, following years of post-marriage strife over religion and how to raise twin children. The victim was driving home with his 2-year-old daughter, Bexley, after having dinner with his twins.

Bridegan was “unarmed, unaware, exposed, vulnerable. He couldn’t have known, on that cold asphalt in February of 2022, the architects of his murder had been making preparations for his death for months,” Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler said during closing arguments.

She previously told jurors that Gardner did not want her children involved with the Mormon church.

“They fought over everything … It was nasty. It was petty. It was not good on both sides,” the prosecutor said of the relationship.

Defense attorney Jesse Dreicer told jurors that Fernandez Saldana had no motive to have Bridegan killed. Fernandez Saldana and Gardner are estranged, and Gardner moved to Washington state after the killing.

“He certainly gained no benefit from the death of Jared Bridegan,” Dreicer said, noting there was no testimony that Fernandez Saldana told anyone that Bridegan “deserves to die.”

Jared Bridegan Jacksonville Police

The alleged gunman, Henry Tenon, had no personal connection to Bridegan, but he was a former tenant at Fernandez Saldana’s rental property in Jacksonville. Jurors saw three checks totaling $10,000 written to Tenon after the homicide, marked as payments for handyman work and a business idea.

Tenon’s DNA was identified on the rim of the tire that was intentionally placed in the road, police said.

Tenon, 65, initially pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana, but he later backed out of the deal and will stand trial next year.

Gardner, 39, is the daughter of the co-founder of Stampin’ Up!, an arts-and-crafts company based in Utah.

Bridegan was shot twice when he stopped his Volkswagen Atlas to remove a tire from the road. He had just returned the twins to Gardner’s home after a “date night” meal. At the time of his death, he was married to Kirsten Bridegan and they had two children.

Kirsten Bridegan told the jury that the post-divorce relationship between her husband and Gardner was “pretty terrible,” adding there was “absolutely no trust.”

In 2022, Kirsten Bridegan founded a nonprofit, the Bridegan Foundation, “to make children’s experiences at police stations a little less traumatic and scary” after her daughter spent hours at the police station without her parents or basic necessities for a toddler.

Millions of barrels of Iranian oil sit beyond Trump blockade as he vows ‘zero leakage’

The floating stockpile tests Treasury’s ‘zero-leakage’ campaign as Tehran seeks to monetize oil already past the blockade

August 26, 2026 2:23pm EDT / Fox News

By Morgan Phillips

Iranian oil operations face ‘nuclear option’ as US blockade traps ships

Fox Business correspondent Lauren Simonetti reveals Iran’s critical oil situation, highlighting why seizing Kharg Island is considered a ‘nuclear option.’ Simonetti presents data showing Iran’s oil storage tanks are 77% full, with 46 Iranian oil ships caught in a US blockade. She details Iran’s ship-to-ship transfer tactics to circumvent sanctions.

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Far from the U.S. warships enforcing a blockade at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, nearly 40 million barrels of Iranian crude are sitting aboard tankers in waters near Malaysia, east of Singapore.

The cargo amounts to roughly 20 very large crude carriers’ worth of oil, a floating stockpile that could still give Tehran a way to turn crude already outside the blockade zone into cash even as the blockade sharply restricts fresh exports.

The stockpile poses a test for the Trump administration as it moves from military action and a naval blockade toward what the White House calls its financial “endgame” against Tehran.

TRUMP’S IRAN CRACKDOWN ‘SUFFOCATING’ REGIME AS OIL WELLS COULD SHUT WITHIN DAYS, BESSENT SAYS

Oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026.(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday launched Operation Economic Outcast, promising a “zero-leakage approach” designed to cut off Iran’s remaining sources of revenue after months of pressure on its oil sales, shipping networks and financial enablers.

The blockade appears to be making it substantially harder for Iran to export new oil. China’s imports of Iranian crude have fallen to an estimated 534,000 barrels per day so far this month, down from roughly 823,000 barrels per day in July, according to provisional Kpler data reported by Reuters.

But millions of barrels that moved beyond the blockade line before it tightened remain within potential reach of buyers. Iran has an estimated 80 million barrels of crude held in floating storage, Reuters reported, with roughly half aboard vessels near Malaysia.

That leaves Washington facing a different challenge: stopping Tehran from monetizing oil the blockade did not trap.

If Iran can still turn that crude into cash, the regime can use the proceeds to pay for imports and potentially finance efforts to rebuild its military even as the blockade restricts fresh exports.

That makes the tankers near Malaysia an early test of whether the administration can deliver the “total isolation” it has promised.

CHINA ORDERS FIRMS TO IGNORE US IRAN SANCTIONS, DARING US TO ENFORCE CRACKDOWN

“The blockade as it’s currently being practiced and enforced against isn’t really stopping the flow of Iranian oil that’s already past the blockade line,” Max Meizlish, a former Treasury official focused on sanctions policy and current senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.

Secretary Scott Bessent speaks at a news conference, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, at the Treasury Department in Washington.(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Iranian oil can move through ship-to-ship transfers, in which cargo is shifted from one tanker to another at sea. The practice can help obscure the oil’s origin before it reaches a buyer, often an independent Chinese refinery.

Simply having the crude outside the blockade zone does not automatically give Tehran usable revenue. Iran still needs to deliver the oil, collect payment and move the proceeds through the financial channels it has used to evade sanctions.

Treasury has said Iran primarily settles oil sales in Chinese yuan, with exchange houses and front companies helping convert those funds into currencies the regime can use. The department has also previously tied proceeds from Iranian oil sales to the Iranian government, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, weapons development and Tehran’s regional proxies.

Meizlish noted that the administration has continued sanctioning Chinese and Hong Kong trading houses, maritime service providers and other entities accused of enabling Iranian sanctions evasion but has stopped short of designating a Chinese financial institution.

The U.S. cut the bank off from access to the American financial system in 2012 over dealings with Iran, Meizlish said, but stopped short of placing it on Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals list. He argued that formally designating the bank could put pressure on its owner, China National Petroleum Corporation, and potentially disrupt a channel used to move Iranian oil revenue.

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A ship passes through the Strait of Hormuz during a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran on April 8, 2026.(Shady Alassar/Anadolu/Getty Images)

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Meizlish noted that the administration has continued sanctioning Chinese and Hong Kong trading houses, maritime service providers and other entities accused of enabling Iranian sanctions evasion, but has so far stopped short of designating a Chinese financial institution.

“Secretary Bessent didn’t mention China by name,” he said, adding that the issue could become a subject of higher-level engagement between Washington and Beijing.

The administration has already targeted the Malaysia route.

In April, Treasury sanctioned the Hong Kong-flagged tanker Lynn, saying the vessel conducted a ship-to-ship transfer of Iranian crude off Malaysia before delivering the cargo to China.

Meizlish said another option would be to expand pressure on shadow-fleet vessels operating near Malaysia and elsewhere in Asia in an effort to keep that oil from ultimately reaching Chinese buyers.

“The U.S. could expand the blockades in that sense by going after shadow fleet tankers, operating, for instance, off the coast of Malaysia, which is a huge hub for illicit ship-to-ship transfers,” he said.

He said the sharp decline in Chinese purchases suggests the pressure campaign is having an effect, but argued that crude already aboard shadow-fleet tankers remains a potential future source of revenue for Tehran.

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“There’s a lot more that we can do,” Meizlish said.

“Unless we expect for this regime to ultimately fall, we should be putting a lot of pressure into interdicting this oil that’s on the market right now on shadow fleet tankers, because this money could eventually go into the regime’s pockets down the road,” he said.

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Video: Analyzing how Iran’s ‘shadow oil network’ evades US sanctions

Asked whether the administration planned further action against Iranian oil cargoes and shadow-fleet vessels near Malaysia, a War Department official told Fox News Digital that U.S. forces would continue “global maritime enforcement” to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels supporting Iran “wherever they operate, at the time and place of our choosing.”

“Under Operation Economic Outcast, anyone foolish enough to continue doing business with the Iranian regime cannot continue to enjoy access to the global financial system,” a Treasury Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We will cut every remaining economic lifeline Tehran has.”

Meizlish said money from oil already sitting on shadow-fleet tankers could still wind up in Tehran’s hands and help Iran rebuild military capabilities damaged in the conflict.

Going after those tankers would not be simple. The U.S. Navy is already stretched by operations in the Strait of Hormuz and elsewhere, he said, and seizing ships and their cargo can trigger legal fights over ownership, custody and what happens to the oil afterward.

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Meizlish said Congress could make it easier for the government to seize illicit cargoes. He also argued that Washington should look for ways to expand its capacity to pursue shadow-fleet vessels if the Navy cannot do it alone.

Bessent’s new campaign goes beyond oil, targeting digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. He also threatened broader secondary sanctions against entities that continue doing business with Tehran.

The drop in Chinese purchases shows Iran is having a harder time getting new oil to market. But millions of barrels are already sitting outside the blockade.

Whether Tehran can still sell that oil, and whether Washington is willing to go after it near Malaysia, will help determine how much “zero leakage” actually means.

Carly Pearce recalls meeting Dolly Parton at 16: “I couldn’t believe she was real”

2026-08-26T12:23:00-0400 / CBS News

By Mark Osborne

Many country singers have shared their remembrances of meeting Dolly Parton after they became stars. But few were actually working at Dollywood when they met the legend.

Country star Carly Pearce met Parton when she was just 16 and performing as part of Dollywood’s Country Crossroads show.

“I remember just staring at her because I couldn’t believe she was real,” Pearce told “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday.

“She’s exactly what everybody wants her to be in real life,” she added.

Parton, whose groundbreaking career spanned six decades, 10 Grammy Awards and millions of fans, died at a Nashville, Tennessee, hospital on Tuesday after a brief battle with cancer, her team said in a statement. She was 80 years old.

Pearce had been part of a special show honoring Parton for her songwriting with the ACM Poet’s Award last Wednesday. Parton recorded a video message for the show, thanking the Academy of Country Music for the award, saying, “Songwriting has always been the most important part of who I am creatively.”

“I never thought of a world where she wouldn’t be here,” Pearce said Wednesday. “It just feels not real to me. I was so saddened. We had just honored her at the ACM Honors this past week. I sang ‘9 to 5’ for her, and she had a little video and was a whole part of our show as the ACM icon. So it was just a really crazy thing.”

Carly Pearce attends the ACM Honors at The Pinnacle on Aug. 19, 2026, in Nashville, Tennessee. Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for ACM

Parton was also wildly successful as a businesswoman, even though she was often underestimated in a financial world led by men. She owned the publishing rights to all of her music, which generated millions of dollars. In fact, Whitney Houston’s massively popular recording of “I Will Always Love You” benefited Parton to the tune of many millions alone.

Country singer Lauren Alaina told “CBS Mornings” she was lucky enough to pick Parton’s brain about her business empire several times.

“I asked her her best advice for me, and she said, ‘Never put the career first. Put God first, then your family, then the career.’ And she said, ‘It’s really worked for me,’” Alaina said. “I remember being so in awe of her career. And it really was such an impactful thing for me.”

Another success for Parton turned out to be the unheralded purchase of a local theme park in western Tennessee. Parton’s purchase in the 1980s of the park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, turned into the highly successful Dollywood where Pearce would later work.

“What I find to be really inspiring is, you think about that she was 80, and for decades she continued to raise the bar,” Pearce told “CBS Mornings.” “Look at everything she’s got going on right now — a musical, a new hotel in Nashville, her travel gas station in Tennessee. I mean, the woman never stopped. At 80. And you just go, ‘There is something to be said for always pushing and never thinking that you’ve quote-unquote made it.’”

‘Every day it should get better’: Rep. Gimenez responds to poll showing 8 in 10 Americans see Iran war dragging on

1:48 PM EDT, Wed August 26, 2026 / CNN

By Dana Bash, CNN

‘Every day it should get better’: Rep. Gimenez responds to poll showing 8 in 10 Americans see Iran war dragging on

Inside Politics

Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez joins “Inside Politics” after a new poll shows increasing voter fatigue with the Iran war and its toll on the economy. “Every day it should get better. Is it going to be painless? No, but remember, we’re trying to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” he tells Dana Bash.

5:55 • Source: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/26/politics/video/rep-carlos-gimenez-economy-war-ip

White House to announce new drug pricing deals with biotechs, Bloomberg News reports

August 26, 2026 4:48 PM UTC / Reuters

Pharmaceutical tablets and capsules are arranged in the shape of a U.S. dollar sign on a table in this picture illustration taken in Ljubljana August 20, 2014. Picture taken August 20. REUTERS/Srdjan Zivulovic Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Aug 26 (Reuters) – U.S. ​President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to announce ‌a new round of drug-pricing agreements with midsize biotech companies on Monday, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with ​the matter.

The companies will agree to provide ​discounts on outpatient drugs to state Medicaid programs ⁠such that the prices states pay align with what ​the companies charge in foreign countries, according to the ​report.

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The report did not mention which drugmakers would be agreeing to the price reductions. Reuters could not immediately verify the ​report.

To date, the Trump administration has reached voluntary agreements ​with 17 pharmaceutical companies to slash medicine prices for the government’s Medicaid ‌program ⁠and for cash payers, including Pfizer (PFE.N), opens new tab, Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab and Amgen (AMGN.O), opens new tab.

U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than ​other developed nations. ​Trump has been ⁠pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere.

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As part of ​the voluntary agreements, Trump has also secured price ​reductions ⁠for GLP-1 drugs, expanding Medicare coverage for obesity treatments.

In May, the administration said the pricing deals are expected to ⁠generate $64.3 ​billion in federal and state ​savings in the next 10 years.

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Reporting by Gargi Gupta and Christy Santhosh ​in Bengaluru, Editing by Franklin Paul and Jonathan Ananda

Federal judge won’t require ICE agent to remain imprisoned in Texas while extradition fight plays out

2026-08-26T19:50:52.292Z / CNN

A federal judge declined on Wednesday to order Texas officials to keep an ICE agent accused of shooting an immigrant in custody while Minnesota’s effort to extradite him play out.

The judge said he lacked authority over a lawsuit brought by Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz last week that aimed to keep the agent behind bars for now because he didn’t think there was evidence that Texas’ governor had violated federal law, as Walz argued.

The upshot is that officials in Texas may be able to release the agent, Christian Castro, as soon as Thursday, even as GOP Gov. Greg Abbott mulls an extradition request made to him in June.

“Minnesota cannot premise its causes of action on the allegation that Governor Abbott may” violate extradition laws in the future, Judge Fernando Rodriguez, Jr., a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling. “The record before the court … reveals that Governor Abbott has not denied the request for a rendition warrant.”

He continued: “Minnesota identifies no statutory or constitutional provision requiring Governor Abbott to complete his investigation and decide whether to sign the rendition warrant within a particular time period.”

Texas Rangers arrested Castro in Cameron County, Texas, on May 29 on a nationwide warrant. He faced four felony charges and a misdemeanor in Minnesota after the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis during the height of Operation Metro Surge in the Minneapolis area. Prosecutors in Hennepin County, Minnesota, say Castro shot Sosa-Celis in the leg through the front door of a home, injuring him and endangering several other people who were also inside.

Castro is eligible for release from custody altogether as soon as August 27 due to a Texas criminal procedure policy that puts a 90-day limit on the detention of fugitives awaiting extradition.

The Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Treviño told CNN on Wednesday that he’s waiting for further guidance from county attorneys on whether to release Castro.

CNN has attempted to reach Castro’s lawyer as well as representatives for the Minnesota attorney general and Abbott.

Minnesota, which sued Texas last week, argued that Castro posed a flight risk to Mexico due to a romantic relationship he has with a woman in Mexico. Rodriguez on Wednesday recognized that Castro’s potential flight to Mexico would “impose a hardship on Minnesota’s prosecutorial efforts,” but said that that concern alone was not enough to overcome the procedural issued he identified in the case.

“The threat of injury by itself does not create an issue ripe for adjudication,” the judge wrote.

Texas resisted the extradition because it took issue with Minnesota’s labeling of Castro as a “fugitive.” Castro was ordered back to his home base in Texas in January after the shooting, according to statements from an ICE field office director. Abbott’s office argued that extradition powers only apply to fugitives and it did not consider Castro a fugitive who was fleeing criminal liability, according to the law.

As the extradition fight plays out in Texas, the Justice Department has been considering a federal prosecution, but no decision had been made on Tuesday.

Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Covington told CNN this week that officials in the civil rights division have held conversations with local prosecutors in Minnesota. It is not clear what, if anything, the Justice Department will ultimately charge Castro with. Covington described the conversations as a standard part of any ongoing investigation.

Federal charges would mark a significant move for the Trump administration, which has vigorously resisted attempts to hold ICE officers accountable for other shootings.

Bringing a federal case against the officer wouldn’t on its own stop the Minnesota case from proceeding simultaneously.

Devan Cole and Whitney Wild contributed to this report.

‘Maine has been through a lot’: Democrats sharpen pitch to women after turmoil in must-win Senate race

2026-08-26T16:00:29.309Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/26/politics/maine-democrats-troy-jackson-women

A month after he became the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, Troy Jackson is ramping up his appeals to women and voters who care about abortion rights, looking to sharpen a contrast with Republican Sen. Susan Collins that has long been at the center of the race.

The task of building female support is an urgent one for Jackson after months of intraparty turmoil in Maine threatened to demoralize some in the crucial voting bloc. The state’s female governor, Janet Mills, dropped out before the primary, and the eventual winner, insurgent Graham Platner, saw his campaign collapse after a rape allegation that he denies. Now, Republicans are working to tie Jackson to his predecessor – and his problems with women.

“Maine has been through a lot,” said Mini Timmaraju, the president of Reproductive Freedom for All, who is set to visit Maine on Wednesday evening to unveil the group’s endorsement of Jackson.

Democrats are now hoping to turn the focus to Collins, who describes herself as a “pro-choice” Republican, and her key vote to confirm one of the Supreme Court justices who ultimately signed onto the Dobbs decision, which ended federal abortion rights. Jackson has his own mixed record on the issue – once deeply opposed to abortion rights before becoming more of a supporter in the last decade.

“We are not strangers to supporting candidates who made major evolutions on abortion rights,” Timmaraju said, pointing to former President Joe Biden as perhaps the most prominent example. “We feel like Troy has more than made up for his history by being the kind of critical champion and partner to Janet Mills, a critical leader in the Dobbs response.”

Reproductive Freedom for All endorsed Mills the primary but never backed Platner after his win.

Jackson’s campaign on Wednesday is also set to announce a “Women for Troy” coalition that includes hundreds of women from all 16 counties in the state. And earlier this week, Jackson’s campaign started airing a TV ad where his mother, Colleen McBreairty, testifies to his character over images of him meeting with other women in his life.

“Women should support Troy Jackson because he supports allowing women to make their own decisions about their own bodies,” Caroline Mitchell, a member of the coalition from Oxford County, said in a statement. “Women should not support Susan Collins because she has enabled the government to make that decision for women.”

The new efforts come at a crucial time in the race, which Democrats see as key to flipping the Senate in November. Jackson is still playing catch-up on fundraising, raising $2 million in the two days after he captured the nomination in late July, while Collins entered that month with an $11 million war chest.

Female voters are a highly competitive group in Maine. Exit polls show they made up 3 in 5 voters in Collins’ last reelection campaign, when she narrowly carried the group against Democrat Sara Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. In a Fox News poll released earlier this month, female voters were closely split, with 50% backing Jackson and 46% backing Collins.

Democrats believe this election is fundamentally different because this is the first time Collins is on the ballot since the 2022 Dobbs decision. Collins voted four years earlier to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who joined the majority on the decision.

The senator’s allies say the Democratic enthusiasm around the issue of abortion overlooks her unique relationship with women voters in Maine, who they say respect her thoughtful approach to issues even when they disagree with her.

“Susan Collins has always been pro-choice and a champion for Maine women,” Collins campaign spokeswoman Blake Kernen said in a statement highlighting Jackson’s once-close relationship with Platner and his past opposition to abortion rights. “But because she is a Republican, the national groups continue to twist themselves into a pretzel to support these male candidates with terrible records.”

Tuesday marked one month since Jackson vastly out-organized his competition and won the nomination to replace Platner at a party convention in Bangor. Since then, the national spotlight on the race has dimmed, and Jackson has been less of a lightning rod for controversy compared to Platner.

To some of his supporters, that’s just fine. They see him as running as more of a generic Democrat — in a Democratic-leaning state, in a national environment that favors the party.

“He’s got the right strategy, and it is a departure from Graham in just really focusing on Susan Collins and the stakes of this election,” said Jordan Wood, one of Jackson’s former rivals for the replacement nomination. “In a state like Maine, the best strategy, uniquely for this race, is you make it a question for voters, ‘Who do you want in control of the Senate?’”

“In this moment, Maine is not a state you’ve got to get super creative with,” Wood added.

That is not to say Jackson is the most conventional Democrat. A longtime logger who has spent over two decades in state politics, his supporters say he mixes Platner’s progressive, labor-aligned politics with Mills’ establishment appeal.

Jackson, who was raised Catholic, has also stood out for his evolution on abortion. He has said he was “wrong” to oppose abortion rights early in his political career, and after the Dobbs decision, he worked with Mills to further expand abortion access in the state.

“When Roe was overturned, I didn’t wring my hands or make excuses — I got to work,” Jackson said in a statement.

Timmaraju said her group has had “tough conversations” with Jackson and now feels “really, really confident” in his credentials on the issue.

Platner still hovers over the race, with Republican ads replaying images of him campaigning alongside Jackson earlier this year when Jackson was running for governor.

Wood had argued during the race for the replacement nomination that Jackson’s ties to Platner would be a liability. But in an interview this week, Wood suggested Jackson has done a good job addressing the issue, giving voice to the “betrayal” many Maine Democrats felt – Jackson has said Platner lied to him about his past – and then moving on to a disciplined anti-Collins message.

Platner is set to reemerge next month to speak at a Labor Day rally near his coastal hometown of Sullivan. A small group of former supporters tried to recruit him to run as a write-in candidate, including by meeting with him in person Sunday, but the deadline to register as a write-in candidate passed Tuesday.

While Jackson has said he does not want Platner’s support, he still lacks the endorsement of another major figure in this year’s intraparty saga: Mills. She declined to endorse Jackson in a local TV interview about a month ago, and a spokesperson for the governor did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Platner and Trump loom

Republicans’ attacks on Jackson make it clear that they view female voters as up for grabs.

While Collins’ campaign has largely aired positive ads, a well-funded super PAC, Pine Tree Results PAC, has taken the lead on attacking Jackson. Its ads highlight his past ties to Platner and reports that he clashed with female colleagues in the state legislature and pushed his partner, Lana Pelletier, during a fight with another man in 1988. Jackson has denied ever being violent with Pelletier or any other women.

“First it was Graham Platner’s problem with women,” a woman says in one of the super PAC’s ads, before a second woman says, “And now – Troy Jackson.”

Democrats would much rather talk about Collins. When Planned Parenthood launched its first ads in the race earlier this month, they did not mention Jackson and instead featured a woman who previously voted for Collins saying she regrets her support for the senator, citing in part her recent comments standing by her vote for Kavanaugh.

Lance Dutson, a Maine GOP strategist who has worked on Collins’ previous campaigns, said he doubted such attacks would be decisive in a race where Collins has spent decades earning the trust of some female voters.

“I think that really, really mitigates the lightning-bolt effect that issues like Kavanaugh or others could have,” he said.

Dutson said he thought Collins’ relationship with Trump – in a state that has rejected him three times – was “far more” important to the race. Collins is an occasional critic of Trump policies, most recently warning that his latest tariffs on Canadian imports would “increase costs for Maine families.”

Collins has skipped two recent appearances in her state by Vice President JD Vance, mostly recently Tuesday, when he visited a manufacturing facility outside Bangor. Each time, Vance has shouted her out from the stage and sought to portray as an important – if sometimes frustrating – part of the GOP coalition.

“Whenever I’m in Maine I’ve got to give Susan a little bit of crap because, as you know, Susan is the most independent member of the United States Senate, and as the president of the … Senate, she sometimes makes my job just a little bit harder,” Vance said in Brewer. “But she makes it harder because she is coming to work every single day and fighting not for a political party … [but] for the great people of Maine.”

Trump admin sends Saudi nuclear deal that includes enrichment pathway to Congress

2026-08-26T18:12:33.658Z / CNN

The Trump administration sent the nuclear cooperation agreement it had signed with Saudi Arabia to Congress on Monday, an administration official and multiple congressional aides told CNN.

The civil nuclear deal, which could allow for uranium enrichment on Saudi soil, will go into effect in 90 days unless both houses of Congress pass disapproval resolutions, according to the Atomic Energy Act.

However, the White House said in July the agreement would be off unless Riyadh joins President Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords initiative that creates diplomatic ties with Israel. CNN previously reported that the agreement itself did not include a provision mandating Saudi Arabia join.

An administration official said that Trump’s “position has not changed … the agreement will only move forward if Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords.” The White House did not answer questions about how the administration will prevent the signed deal from going into force after 90 days.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaking at a Wednesday press conference with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that the nuclear agreement and Abraham Accords negotiations “will be worked in parallel.”

A Saudi official responded to a CNN query saying, “Saudi-US relations are ever-evolving and have continued to broaden and to deepen over the years.”

“Saudi Arabia is looking forward to working closely with the US administration and Congress on ways to strengthen our partnership,” the official added.

A source familiar told CNN that the text sent to Congress on Monday was classified, describing the secrecy as “highly unusual.”

It was not immediately clear whether the text of the nuclear agreement and other elements of the package sent to Congress — including any potential side agreements — would be made public, or if additional unclassified documentation would be sent to Congress.

An administration official told CNN in July that the deal includes “side letters” that are “commercially or otherwise sensitive.”

Traditionally, only a small portion of civil nuclear cooperation agreements — an annex with a detailed State Department nonproliferation analysis — is classified, said Andrea Stricker of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. Two additional sources familiar with the US nuclear agreement process said that classifying the entire text of a civil nuclear deal, known as a 123 agreement, would be “unprecedented.”

Wright also confirmed Wednesday that the deal provides Riyadh with a path to enriching uranium on Saudi soil, though he said that such arrangements would be “many years down the road.”

CNN previously reported that the agreement includes a joint US-Saudi study mechanism that could allow the kingdom to enrich its own uranium fuel for civilian reactors without adopting standard enhanced international safeguards known as the Additional Protocol. Wright said Wednesday that the two countries must “mutually (agree that enrichment) makes commercial sense and … fits into our national security framework.”

The protocol, which countries sign with the International Atomic Energy Agency, provides the UN nuclear watchdog with broad authority to sniff out suspected nuclear weapons sites.

Wright downplayed the importance of the protocol and argued that the agreement’s bilaterally negotiated safeguards, developed “in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency,” will be sufficient to prevent Saudi nuclear weapons development.

The IAEA’s director-general, Rafael Grossi, said Wednesday that he and the agency’s Board of Governors will have to review and approve the safeguards agreement.

“The idea is that we will have a number of extra measures … added layers of very stringent verification,” said Grossi. “(I) would never put forward an agreement that would not guarantee nonproliferation.”

It’s unclear how lawmakers will handle the Abraham Accords condition while considering the deal. The accords, an initiative dating back to Trump’s first administration, led several Arab countries to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel.

The diplomatic condition, which Trump announced after the deal was signed, surprised the administration’s own nuclear negotiators, two sources briefed on the matter told CNN.

Former President George W. Bush’s administration withdrew a 123 agreement with Russia from congressional consideration in 2008 after Moscow invaded the country of Georgia. Bush claimed that the invasion meant that he could no longer certify that the deal would not risk the “common defense and security” of the US, as required under the Atomic Energy Act.

Trump formally issued his certification on July 16, according to the Federal Register.

Scott Roecker, who oversees nuclear materials security work for the Nuclear Threat Initiative nonprofit, argued that the administration might simply refuse to finalize the agreement.

“We are entering uncharted territory with the Saudi 123 Agreement, and there is nothing that requires the Administration to finalize it once Congress has completed its review,” Roecker told CNN. “Presumably, it could hold out on that final step until Saudi Arabia agrees to normalize relations with Israel.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

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.

24 states sue to block new Postal Service rules for mail voting ahead of midterms

August 26, 2026 / 3:28 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — A coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Wednesday that seeks to block a new rule from the U.S. Postal Service that imposes requirements for mail voting ahead of the November midterm elections.

The final rule, published by the agency last Friday, came in response to an executive order President Trump signed in March that seeks to tighten the rules for mail voting. The states argue in their lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, that the rule will prevent them from administering their mail voting programs for the midterm elections and risks disenfranchising voters who cast their ballots by mail.

They said in their lawsuit that the Postal Service’s new measure unconstitutionally exceeds the executive branch’s power and interferes with states’ authority to administer elections under their own laws.

“The Rule violates the Constitution and federal statutes many times over,” the state attorneys general said. “It displaces state laws adopted pursuant to each State’s constitutional authority to administer elections, erects new USPS functions and ballot mail constraints that are inconsistent with USPS’s governing statutes, flouts USPS’s procedural requirements, violates the Privacy Act, and cannot be reconciled with federal voting rights law.”

They continued: “Each of these defects would alone establish the Rule’s unlawfulness. Together, they demonstrate USPS’s utter disregard for the law in carrying out the President’s policy preferences.”

The states warned that if the Postal Service’s new requirements are allowed to take effect, election officials will have to devote time, money and resources to implement the changes.

“Today, we’re taking legal action to stop this unlawful rule in its tracks and ensure that voters can exercise their constitutional right to vote,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “Let’s be clear: the U.S. Constitution gives states the power to regulate elections — not the President and not USPS. Ballots are an extension of our voices and we’re asking the court to ensure that every person has the right to make theirs heard.”

The White House defended the new policies from the Postal Service.

“Radical Democrats continue to oppose commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans are electing American leaders,” Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the White House, said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will continue to lawfully enact the agenda President Trump was elected on – which includes the safety and security of our elections.”

The new measure from the Postal Service implements the plans laid out in Mr. Trump’s executive order, which he said are necessary to protect the integrity of U.S. elections. The rule lays out design elements required for mail ballot envelopes, including trackable barcodes, and directs state election officials to submit to an online portal the names and addresses of voters to whom they intend to send mail ballots.

Voters will then be enrolled in a state-specific “Mail-In and Absentee Participation List,” which the Postal Service said is “primarily intended to assist election officials and law enforcement to understand who may have been mailed a ballot, in order to identify potentially anomalous incidents that may merit further investigation.”

The Postal Service “will not play any role in determining voter eligibility, maintaining voter rolls, or counting ballots,” it said.

But the states said that as a result of the rule, they must immediately redesign their mail ballot envelopes to comply with its requirements and seek review from the Postal Service “at significant costs.”

“Plaintiff States’ election officials must also develop new systems at breakneck speed to convey mail voter lists to USPS to ensure that every eligible voter who is entitled to a mail ballot receives one, create new guidance for and train election officials, and educate the public about changes to mail voting,” they said in the suit.

They warned that there may also be an influx of voters who choose to cast their ballots in person instead of by mail because of the Postal Service’s changes.

“In short, they must accomplish multiple Herculean tasks, each necessary to address the disruption caused by the Rule, in a matter of weeks, with limited resources,” the states said.

In addition to the two dozen states, Democratic campaign committees and voting rights groups have also moved to challenge the Postal Service’s rule.

Nearly all of the states that signed onto the new lawsuit filed an earlier challenge to Mr. Trump’s executive order. A federal district court blocked the administration from implementing key provisions of the order, including the directives for the Postal Service. But the Supreme Court on Monday halted the lower court’s injunction.

In a 6-3 decision that rested on procedural grounds, the high court’s conservative majority said the states filed their lawsuit too soon and found the district court lacked jurisdiction to bar the Trump administration from trying to implement the executive order.

“The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful,” the Supreme Court said in an unsigned decision. “On that score, time will tell.”

The president’s executive order also directs the Department of Homeland Security to create lists of residents in each state who are eligible to vote. It instructs the attorney general to prioritize investigations and prosecutions of state and local officials who issue ballots to noncitizens or others who are not eligible to vote in federal elections.

The judge overseeing the states’ lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, had also issued a nationwide order in a separate case that blocked the Postal Service from implementing the plans laid out in Mr. Trump’s executive order. But Talwani set aside that injunction Wednesday, citing the Supreme Court’s decision, which allows the Postal Service to move forward with the mail voting procedures.

As the legal battle over Mr. Trump’s efforts to impose new restrictions on mail voting enters its latest stage, it’s unclear whether the rules will take hold before the November midterms. Some states are set to begin sending mail ballots to voters in the coming weeks. In North Carolina, mail ballots will be distributed to certain voters Sept. 4, while states like New York, Wisconsin and Virginia will start sending mail ballots around mid-September, according to the Center for Election Innovation and Research.