Election 2024: 'Squad' member Ilhan Omar fends off challengers; Walz hits back at Vance over military record

TV advertising showing candidates touring the U.S.-Mexico border has become a staple of Republican political campaigns around the country. But this summer, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego got in on the action as his party tries to win voters’ trust in his battleground Arizona Senate race — and beyond.

“Ruben Gallego has stood side by side with me, the only member of Congress that has come regularly to my border,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway says in the ad. “He is fighting for solutions. Better technology. More manpower.”

It’s far from the only border security ad on Arizona’s airwaves. Gallego’s competitor, GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake, has been bashing him on the border, with one ad tying Gallego to Biden and Harris’ border policies and featuring a 2017 clip of Gallego on the House floor referring to “Trump’s stupid, dumb, border wall.”

Read the full story here.

Six years before Walz was tapped to be Harris’ running mate, he was busy running for governor of Minnesota. Shortly before Election Day, Walz huddled with dozens of business leaders at a luxurious hotel off the shores of Gull Lake.

Eric Gibson, then president of Ultra Machining Co., recalled asking Walz whether he believed high corporate and state taxes hurt workers.

“We’re not taxing people,” Walz replied, according to Gibson. “We’re taxing businesses.”

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Businessman Eric Hovde won the Wisconsin Republican primary for the Senate, NBC News projects, setting up a critical battleground state race against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

Hovde, who was backed by Trump and other national Republicans, easily fended off two lesser-known primary opponents, while Baldwin ran unopposed as she seeks a third term.

Baldwin’s seat is a top priority for both parties in the battle for control of the closely divided Senate. She has worked to build up a sizable campaign war chest and leverage her appeal in rural parts of the state.

Read the full story here.

Vance and his wife, Usha, are enjoying a night of professional tennis in their hometown before Vance is back on the campaign trail tomorrow.

The Vances are seated in a box overlooking center court at the Cincinnati Open as American players Taylor Fritz — fresh off his bronze medal in doubles at the Paris Olympics — and Brandon Nakashima face off in the first round of the tournament’s men’s singles championship.

Between points, Vance has been chatting with his seatmates and offering applause at the end of most points.

When he is back on the campaign trail, he'll be in western Michigan, followed by stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Walz blasted Trump's stance on key issues, saying, “No one is asking for the crap he’s asking for."

Speaking at a fundraising event today in Newport Beach, California, Walz said that instead of being focused on banning books, many voters are thinking about child care and educating their kids.

He also addressed reproductive freedom after Trump last week signaled an openness to banning a drug that is used in medication abortion.

“This obsession with telling women how to run their lives and what their health care is, it is not popular," Walz said.

The Harris campaign is making plans to hold a rally in Milwaukee on Aug. 20, the second day of the Democratic National Convention, two sources with knowledge of the planning told NBC News.

Logistics are still fluid, according to the sources, but the discussions center on Harris’ seizing the chance to energize crowds in the battleground state 80 miles from the convention site.

The sources said it was too early to specify the time of day the rally would be held, and noted that former President Barack Obama is tentatively slotted to speak at the convention on the night of Aug. 20.

Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which has one electoral vote, could play a decisive role in this year’s presidential election by preventing a tie between Harris and Trump in the Electoral College. NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff spoke with voters there about key issues, including inequality and the cost of living.

There is mounting pressure on Trump to abandon his race-focused, off-message criticism of Harris and hasten his return to the campaign trail to talk about the issues at stake as the Republican nominee works to navigate a new state of play in the presidential race.

Some feedback has been private, with lawmakers, donors and informal outside advisers asking Trump and top campaign aides directly to stick to the issues and drop the race- or personality-driven attacks, according to four sources briefed on the discussions.

“When we’re able to effectively put Biden’s record on her, it will go back to what it was before,” said an outside adviser who is familiar with the dynamics of the race but was not authorized to speak publicly. “Everybody knows what needs to be done.”

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Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said today that he is endorsing both Trump and Kari Lake, the state's Republican nominee for the Senate.

"Much is on the line this election year & I’m encouraging all eligible Arizonans to vote & prioritize the issues that most affect our state & nation," Ducey wrote on X. "I will be voting for Republicans up & down the ballot in November — and both Donald Trump and Kari Lake have my endorsement."

Ducey sustained attacks from Trump after he certified Biden’s 2020 electoral victory in Arizona. He also broke with Trump when he backed Karrin Taylor Robson over Lake in the 2022 governor’s race, which was ultimately won by Democrat Katie Hobbs.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., suffered a mild stroke Sunday and sought medical treatment, a spokesperson for the former House majority leader said in a news release today.

Hoyer, 85, responded well to treatment and has no lingering symptoms, his office said. The spokesperson, Margaret Mulkerrin, also said Hoyer plans to return to his normal schedule next week.

The House is not in session.

Former Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., says he plans to vote for Trump in November, even though he voted to convict him at his second impeachment trial.

Burr, who did not seek re-election in 2022, told Spectrum News that the impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot was “not a disqualifier as to whether you can serve” and that he plans to vote for Trump.

Burr was one of the few Republicans to vote for either impeachment or conviction. After he cast his vote, the North Carolina GOP censured him.

Burr told Spectrum News that despite the backlash, he voted to convict Trump because it was a "bad choice I thought a president made one time."

Biden was in Louisiana today to announce what the White House described as $150 million in federal awards as part of Biden's "moonshot" initiative to combat cancer.

The "goal is to end cancer as we know it," Biden said at Tulane University in New Orleans. The grants will go toward technology that makes it easier and faster to identify cancerous cells.

Tulane is developing an imaging system that would allow doctors to scan a tumor and quickly determine whether any cancer tissue was missed in minutes instead of days or weeks.

It will "reduce the need for follow-up surgeries," Biden said.

Biden began working on the "cancer moonshot" project while he was vice president after his son Beau Biden died of the disease. "Cancer touches us all," he said.

Walz today defended his military record amid attacks from Republicans led by his election rival, JD Vance, who has accused him of stolen valor.

“I am damn proud of my service to this country,” Walz said in Los Angeles at his first solo event on the campaign trail.

Walz said he served in the National Guard for 24 years “for the same reason all my brothers and sisters in uniform do: We love this country.”

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A Trump campaign account today posted side-by-side photos contrasting homes and well-manicured lawns with a group of mainly Black migrants gathered outside a New York City immigration reception center.

The houses, one of which has an American flag flying outside, is labeled "Your neighborhood under Trump," while the photo of the migrants is labeled "Your neighborhood under Kamala."

"Import the third world," the campaign account, which is named “Trump War Room," posted. "Become the third world."

The phrase has been used by Trump allies before, including former White House adviser Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.

A Harris campaign official told NBC News today that the FBI notified the campaign in July that it had been targeted by a “foreign influence operation.”

"We have robust cybersecurity measures in place and are not aware of any security breaches of our systems resulting from those efforts. We remain in communication with appropriate law enforcement authorities,” the official said, a day after the FBI said it was investigating efforts to hack both the Trump and Harris campaigns.

The Trump campaign said over the weekend that an Iranian group hacked it in June.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien today bashed employment actions that Trump praised last night in his interview with Elon Musk.

“Firing workers for organizing, striking and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism,” O'Brien said in response to the UAW's filing federal labor charges against Trump and Musk after their comments last night.

O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention last month and called for both parties to support labor.

The Teamsters, representing more than 1 million U.S. workers, has not endorsed a presidential candidate in the election.

Harris’ campaign is intently focused on making sure the burst of enthusiasm after her rapid ascent to the Democratic presidential nomination is organized into a sustained campaign that will mobilize an army of volunteers ahead of November.

In the last week, as Harris and Walz has crisscrossed the country speaking to packed rallies with thousands of voters, the campaign has also been hard at work signing up volunteers at those events in an effort to ensure victory.

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Vance will hold a rally in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, next week alongside three members of Congress who are also veterans, the Trump-Vance campaign announced in a news release.

Vance will be joined by GOP Reps. Jim Banks, of Indiana, and Brian Mast and Michael Waltz, both of Florida, as Vance and his allies continue to attack Walz over his military service. Meanwhile, Democratic House members who served in the military and the progressive veterans group VoteVets have come to his defense.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Trump's recent false claims that a photo showing a large crowd at Harris' Michigan rally was AI-generated is "laying the groundwork for rejecting the election results if he loses."

"If you can convince your supporters that thousands of people who attended a televised rally do not exist, it will not be hard to convince them that the election returns in Pennsylvania, Michigan and elsewhere are 'fake' and 'fraudulent,'" Sanders said in a news release.

Trump in a Truth Social post Sunday pointed to a photo of the rally and said that Harris “A.I.’d” it. The Harris campaign denied the photo was manipulated. Video from the event matches the photo in question, and reporters who attended the rally denied Trump's claim.

Sanders has not endorsed Harris for president.

An amendment that would enshrine access to abortion in Missouri's Constitution will appear on the November ballot, the Missouri secretary of state's office announced today.

If voters approve the ballot initiative, abortion rights would be protected up until fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy, with exceptions after that point for the life and health of the woman.

Missouri has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, with exceptions to protect the life of the woman and for medical emergencies.

Eight states now have measures to protect abortion rights on their ballots this fall.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, Trump and other senior GOP leaders have repeatedly called for the Biden administration to revoke the visas of foreign nationals in the U.S. who openly support Hamas or other U.S. designated terrorist organizations. 

Last month, one of the 20 promises in the preamble of the platform adopted at the Republican National Convention was to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”

But protest organizers contend that Trump and other Republicans are ignoring a key fact. The overwhelming majority of demonstrators are U.S. citizens who, under the First Amendment and current U.S. law, have the right to express pro-Hamas, antisemitic or anti-Israel views as long as they don’t break the law.

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Jury selection for former Rep. George Santos' trial on fraud charges will begin Sept. 9 and should last about a week, the judge presiding over the case said today.

Federal prosecutors said they have about three dozen witnesses who will testify against Santos, R-N.Y., a number U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert urged them to whittle down at a conference in federal court on Long Island.

The judge also shot down Santos' request for potential jurors to answer a 137-question questionnaire that included queries about their political views and familiarity with the allegations against him. Prosecutors had contended it was too late in the process to use such a questionnaire. Seybert said she would question the potential jurors herself.

Santos, who was expelled from Congress last year following an ethics investigation, faces charges that include conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S., wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He pleaded not guilty.

Actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus will host a panel of Democratic women governors during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, the Democratic Governors Association announced today.

"They will discuss the essential leadership of Democratic women governors as state executives, this historic class of women governors, and the DGA Women Governors Fund," the DGA said in a news release.

Memes and clips from Louis-Dreyfus' show "Veep" have been circulating on social media since Harris announced that she was running for president.

Louis-Dreyfus was a celebrity host for the DNC in 2020, which largely took place virtually due to the Covid pandemic.

Harris is expected to travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday to deliver a speech “focused on her plan to lower costs for middle-class families and take on corporate price-gouging,” Harris campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a post on X.

Harris’ visit to North Carolina comes after her swing-state blitz with Walz last week. Biden lost North Carolina in 2020 by less than 2 % of the vote.

The United Auto Workers today filed federal labor charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Trump and Musk for publicly applauding the practice of firing employees who threaten to strike.

“I look at what you do,” Trump said to Musk during a two-hour interview on X last night. “You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike,” Trump said of Musk, who is CEO of the EV car maker Tesla and SpaceX. Musk also owns X, formerly Twitter.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said her house was “swatted” twice this week.

“Hateful rhetoric and violent threats have no place in our democracy. Yet twice in the last 48 hours my home was targeted in a disturbing ‘swatting’ attack,” Benson, a Democrat, wrote last night in a post on X. “I’m grateful for the professional, coordinated response from local and federal law enforcement who quickly contained the threat and worked to ensure our safety.”  

Rep. John Gottheimer, D-N.J., said that he is “strongly considering” jumping into the crowded field of candidates running for New Jersey governor next year.

“I’ve been incredibly honored that everybody from labor leaders to mayors to party leaders and communities around the state have encouraged me to run, and I’m strongly considering it,” Gottheimer said in an interview with Axios yesterday.

Gottheimer, a member of the moderate Blue Dogs Coalition and co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, suggested he wouldn’t make any announcement before the November presidential election.

The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the nation's oldest historically Black sorority, has formed a political action committee, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission.

Harris is an AKA member and spoke at the organization's convention last month.

NBC News has reached out to PAC organizers for comment.

In an interview on NPR's "Morning Edition," former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy discussed the Trump campaign ahead of the election and said it should reset to focus on policy.

Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, has been vocal about the campaign needing to focus on policy and not personal attacks. NBC News reported that Trump allies and advisers have also privately urged him to stay on message.

"I think a stronger focus on policy is the path to winning this election," Ramaswamy said on NPR.

He added, "Who's going to secure the border, who's going to grow the economy, who's going to stand at World War III and more intangibly, who's going to restore national pride in this country? I think Donald Trump has a strong case on all of those counts."

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to participate in an event on the administration’s “Cancer Moonshot” initiative at Tulane University in New Orleans at 4:30 p.m. ET today.

They will participate in a tour and deliver remarks on how the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is fast-tracking progress made in the initiative aimed at preventing, treating and detecting cancer.

Biden in 2022 relaunched the “Cancer Moonshot” program that began under the Obama administration with the goal of reducing the deaths of more than 600,000 people a year from cancer in the U.S. The president, whose eldest son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015, also formed a “Cancer Cabinet” advisory group in 2022.

The White House last year announced a $240 million investment from the ARPA-H to fight cancer, with the investment going toward research on cancer prevention, detection, treatment and survival projects.

Winning for Women, a group supporting GOP women candidates, is launching a new ad campaign in three competitive House districts.

The ads, shared first with NBC News, are part of a $1 million investment in a TV, mail and digital ad campaign across the three districts, supporting California Reps. Michelle Steel and Young Kim and Virginia Rep. Jen Kiggans. All three women are top Democratic targets, representing districts Joe Biden won in 2020. The ads encourage viewers to call the congresswomen and urge them to support a measure aimed at reducing regulations around online sales.

Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., will appear for a pretrial conference today in the federal fraud case against him on Long Island.

Santos will also be arraigned on a superseding indictment, which does not contain any new charges, but fixes some minor errors. He pled not guilty to charges in May 2023 and in October 2023 to additional charges.

During the court proceeding, parties are expected to discuss pretrial deadlines, jury selection and a trial schedule.

The trial is set to begin with jury selection Sept. 9 and according to an agenda from prosecutors for today's pretrial conference, the parties have proposed that opening statements begin Sept. 16.

Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, the first local election official to be charged with a security breach after the 2020 election as unfounded conspiracy theories swirled, was found guilty by a jury on most charges yesterday.

Peters, a one-time hero to election deniers, was accused of using someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the Mesa County election system and deceiving other officials about that person’s identity.

Read the full story here.

The Harris campaign is fundraising off of Trump’s virtual event with tech billionaire Elon Musk last night.

In a fundraising email released after the conclusion of the online discussion, titled “Trump/Musk: The two worst people you know are live this evening,” the campaign wrote that “the richest person in the world is a lackey for Team MAGA.

Harris does not have any public events scheduled today. But Walz, her running mate, is scheduled to deliver remarks at the convention of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), one of the nation’s largest public sector unions, in Los Angeles today at 12:35 p.m. PT. 

Walz, a former public high school teacher and union member, is an outspoken supporter of unions and has enacted legislation championing the working class. Harris has gained endorsements from many major labor unions in the U.S., including the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Walz is also scheduled to deliver remarks at a campaign reception in Newport, California, at 2:30 p.m. PT today.

Harris’ campaign is hiring Nasrina Bargzie to lead outreach to Muslim and Arab voters, according to a campaign official who first shared details of the plan with NBC News — a move focused on a key constituency that soured on President Joe Biden over his support of Israel.

Bargzie worked in Harris’ White House office until July as a policy adviser on Muslim, Arab and Gaza-related issues, as well as reproductive rights, voting and democracy, the campaign official said. She will cover the same broad portfolio on the campaign.

Harris has faced interruptions from pro-Palestinian protesters at recent rallies, and Democrats are bracing for large protests at the Democratic National Convention next week in Chicago.

Read the full story here.

Today's primaries in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Connecticut and Vermont will set the matchups in a slew of competitive races that will be key to the battle for the House and the Senate in November.

While there is not much drama in this week’s primaries, they will officially kick off the general election in four states, most notably in Wisconsin, a presidential battleground that will also be central to Democrats’ efforts to protect their narrow Senate majority.

Businessman Eric Hovde, who secured Trump’s endorsement, is expected to advance out of Wisconsin’s Republican primary to face Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, as he does not face any high-profile opponents.

Read the full story here.