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      Late Lawsuit Could Shape Political Ad Wars in Final Days of Campaign

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      House Democrats are suing to stop Republicans from using a legal loophole to bolster their Senate candidates.A legal battle is playing out in D.C. federal court that could determine how much money the Democratic and Republican Parties can pump into advertising in pivotal congressional races in the final week of the 2024 campaign and beyond.At issue is what Democrats say is a potentially illegal political advertising strategy that Republicans have used in recent weeks to try to overcome a significant fund-raising deficit in states with critical Senate races, such as Arizona and Pennsylvania.With less than two weeks until Election Day, House Democrats’ campaign arm has sued the Federal Election Commission for failing to stop the Republicans and are seeking a ruling to either bar the practice or clear the way to use it themselves.A hearing on the matter is set for Monday, and both parties expect a ruling as soon as Tuesday, either blocking or allowing the practice in the critical last stretch before Election Day.Here’s what to know:Democrats have been dominating Republicans in fund-raising in key Senate races.Continuing a recent trend, Democratic Senate candidates have been trouncing their Republican rivals in fund-raising battles in pivotal races across the country.In Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown has raised about four times as much money as his Republican challenger, Bernie Moreno. In Montana, Senator Jon Tester has raised about three times as much as Tim Sheehy. And in Arizona, Representative Ruben Gallego has raised more than twice as much as Kari Lake.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Wisconsin Mayor, a Former Republican, Endorses Harris

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      Shawn Reilly, the mayor of Waukesha, Wis., said he had never thrown his support behind a Democrat before.Mayor Shawn Reilly of Waukesha, Wis., an independent who was a Republican for most of his life, said in an interview on Wednesday that he was endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.The endorsement is a key one for Ms. Harris, whose campaign has lavished attention on the suburbs of Milwaukee, which lean Republican but are so densely populated that they deliver a pivotal number of Democratic votes in the swing state.Mr. Reilly, 63, said that he had never endorsed a Democrat before. But this election is different, he said, describing his own evolution from loyal Republican for decades to an independent in 2021.“It’s very easy to not even stick your nose in this — that’s the easiest way to go about it,” he said. “But the reason I’m doing it is because I think we’re at a crossroads. I’m very afraid of the direction our country will head in if Donald Trump becomes president. I think we’ll be heading down a road of authoritarianism and fascism.”The Harris campaign has poured considerable energy and resources into Waukesha County, which includes the city of Waukesha, hoping that Ms. Harris will be able to cut into Mr. Trump’s margins there. In 2020, Mr. Trump won the county with just under 60 percent of the vote. More than 400,000 people live in Waukesha County, the third-most populous county in Wisconsin, behind Milwaukee and Dane.Since 2014, Mr. Reilly has been the mayor, a nonpartisan role. When asked during his initial mayoral campaign if he was a Republican, he always answered yes, he said.When Mr. Trump ran for president in 2016, Mr. Reilly did not vote for him, but did not vote for Hillary Clinton, the Democrat, either. After the attack on the Capitol in 2021, Mr. Reilly disavowed the Republican Party, saying he no longer considered himself a member.He attended a rally in Waukesha County on Monday, where Ms. Harris appeared with former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, in an appeal to conservative women in the Milwaukee suburbs.On Tuesday, early voting began in Wisconsin. From Mr. Reilly’s perch in City Hall in Waukesha, he could see a line of voters snaking down the sidewalk. About 800 people were voting in person each day, he said.Mr. Reilly said he was concerned about whether Ms. Harris would win Wisconsin, a crucial battleground state that President Biden won by less than 21,000 votes in 2020.He probably should have endorsed Mr. Harris sooner, he said.“But it’s one of those things where I’d much rather do it now, even if it doesn’t have as much of an effect,” he said. More

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      Early In-Person Voting Begins in Nevada, With Obama Set to Rally Democrats

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      Tony Chavez and his wife, Elizabeth, came to Cardenas Market in East Las Vegas on Saturday to pick up a few essentials — bread, three dozen eggs and ingredients for tamales.Mr. Chavez did not expect to check something else off his list. But when he saw poll workers and signs saying that he could vote, well, why not?“I already made my decision, and it’s better to be early to beat that line as well,” said Mr. Chavez, 38, with a prominent “I Voted” sticker on his all-black Las Vegas Raiders letterman jacket.“I saw the signs and was like, ‘Is that the voting?’” he added. “‘Let me just do it right now.’”Mr. Chavez, who works as a cook, was part of a steady stream of people who took advantage of that particular polling location in Las Vegas on what was the first day of in-person early voting in Nevada, which runs through Nov. 1.He declined to say whom he was supporting for president, but he said that rights for migrants and for women were important to him and that this choice “would affect my kids’ future.”Another voter, James Still, also marveled at the convenience. His wife, Jennifer, wore a shirt supporting Ms. Harris, and Mr. Still said they had both voted for her because “politicians shouldn’t tell women what to do with their bodies.” For them, as for Mr. Chavez, voting was an added benefit of coming to the store.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Harris Sticks Up for Detroit Against Trump

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      Vice President Kamala Harris let her T-shirt do the talking in Detroit on Saturday.The black shirt — which she wore under a gray blazer as she addressed several hundred campaign volunteers in a gym at Western International High School — bore the words “Detroit vs. Everybody.” The attire was a clear response to former President Donald J. Trump, who last week disparaged what is one of the nation’s largest majority-Black cities, portraying Detroit as a decaying harbinger of America’s future under Ms. Harris.In brief remarks to the crowd on the inaugural day of early voting in the city, Ms. Harris urged her supporters to reject Mr. Trump’s division and insults.“We stand for the idea that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it’s on who you lift up,” she said, saying that her campaign was seeking the kind of “grit” and “excellence” possessed by “the people of Detroit.”“He spends full time talking about himself and mythical characters, not talking about the working people, not talking about you, not talking about lifting you up,” Ms. Harris added.Mr. Trump had attacked Detroit while giving remarks at an economic forum in the city on Oct. 10, earning widespread scorn from Democrats and offering fodder for a Harris campaign ad. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” he had warned of Ms. Harris.Black voters, especially Black men, are supporting Ms. Harris with less enthusiasm than they had for the Democratic nominee in previous elections, and Mr. Trump has tried to take advantage. The Harris campaign has lately ramped up outreach efforts to Black voters, including by releasing an economic policy agenda designed for Black men. Turnout in Detroit could help decide the race in Michigan, one of the nation’s top battleground states, where polls show an even contest.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Democrats’ Report Calls Trump Hotel Business Unethical and Unconstitutional

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      Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the former president overcharged the Secret Service and accepted money from officials and people who were seeking pardons and appointments.House Democrats on Friday accused former President Donald J. Trump of accepting “hundreds of unconstitutional and ethically suspect payments” through the Trump International Hotel in 2017 and 2018, moving weeks before the election to remind voters of the ethical issues raised by his refusal to divest from his businesses while in office.The 58-page report from Democrats on the Oversight Committee includes their final findings in a yearslong investigation digging into the Trump Organization’s management of the hotel. It accuses Mr. Trump of ripping off the Secret Service by charging the agency exorbitant rates and of inappropriately accepting payments from clients who worked for state governments or were seeking appointments and pardons from him.“Mr. Trump has made clear that he will not only refuse to divest from his businesses in a possible future presidency, but he will seek to multiply opportunities to commodify the Oval Office for his personal enrichment by turning thousands of civil service jobs into patronage positions — all with the attendant payoff possibilities from supplicant job-seekers and the prospective blessing of his handpicked Supreme Court justices,” said Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee.House Republicans dismissed the report as old news and accused Democrats of hypocrisy for investigating Mr. Trump but not members of President Biden’s family, including his son Hunter.“Unlike the Bidens, the Trumps actually have businesses and made money from the services they provided,” said Jessica Collins, a spokeswoman for the Republican-led House Oversight Committee. “Today’s report is more recycled garbage from the Democrats’ fruitless and close to a decadelong investigation of President Trump.”The committee has already documented how officials from other countries spent lavishly at Mr. Trump’s hotel in Washington while he was president and how the Secret Service was charged hefty prices for rooms.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Could Second-Home Owners Swing New York’s Swing Districts?

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      A group is pushing thousands of New Yorkers to vote from weekend homes in swing districts. Its pitch: “Your second home could determine the next speaker.”Lauren B. Cramer has raised two daughters in Brooklyn, where she lives and commutes into Manhattan as a lawyer. Allen Zerkin, an adjunct professor of public service, lives just a few miles away. So does Heather Weston, an entrepreneur.But come this Election Day, all three Brooklynites — along with five other members of their households — plan to cast their ballots to support Democrats much farther afield in closely divided swing districts in New York’s Hudson Valley.They are part of a growing set of affluent, mostly left-leaning New Yorkers taking advantage of an unusual quirk in state law that allows second-home owners to vote from their country cottages, vacation homes and Hamptons houses that just happen to dot some of the most competitive congressional districts in the country.Call it the rise of weekender politics.It is no accident. With a half-dozen competitive districts, New York has taken center stage in the fight for Congress, and Democratic organizers believe that registering a fraction of the tens of thousands of New Yorkers who own second homes could help tip a Republican majority to a Democratic one.As of late September, they had helped nearly 2,500 voters shift their registration from New York City into one of the state’s swing districts, according to data provided by MoveIndigo, a group spearheading the effort. The numbers are expected to grow as voting nears.The sprawling 19th District has seen the biggest shift, with 1,040 voters newly registered at second homes in the Hudson Valley and Catskills regions, according to the group. Representative Marc Molinaro, a Republican, won the seat by 4,500 votes in 2022, and is running neck and neck with Josh Riley, a Democrat.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Michelle Obama to Host a Rally to Encourage Voter Turnout in Georgia

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      Michelle Obama, the former first lady, plans to host a rally in Atlanta a week before Election Day, aiming to encourage young and nonwhite voters to head to the polls.Mrs. Obama is one of the Democratic Party’s most popular figures but is also one of its most elusive surrogates. She delivered an impactful speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, encouraging viewers to “do something” to help Vice President Kamala Harris defeat her Republican rival, former President Donald J. Trump, and delivering an emphatic takedown of Mr. Trump in the process.Unlike her husband, former President Barack Obama, she has not been involved in events since.The Oct. 29 rally, announced on Wednesday by Mrs. Obama’s nonpartisan voting-rights organization When We All Vote, is not expected to be the only event she participates in. The organization’s executive director, Beth Lynk, said in a statement that the event will “set the tone for the entire country — especially first-time voters — to vote early.”Mrs. Obama’s appearance will be aimed at bolstering activity in a state where officials have already reported record turnout for early voting. Nearly five million Georgians voted in 2020, when Joseph R. Biden Jr. carried the state by 12,670 votes, making him the first Democratic presidential nominee to win there since Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, in 1992.Mrs. Obama remains one of the best-known public figures in America, ranking third on a list of prominent people compiled by YouGov, a market research firm. (Her husband ranks sixth.) Since leaving the White House, Mrs. Obama has balanced a well-known distaste for politics with constant demands to be on the public stage stumping for Democrats.In 2016, Mrs. Obama made her first campaign appearance in support of Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic nominee, in mid-September. After that, she delivered a handful of speeches, including an appearance on the eve of Election Day. During the pandemic election season in 2020, she released her last speech in support of Mr. Biden in a video message on Oct. 6. More

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      Tim Walz Blasts Trump and Vance at Pennsylvania Event

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      Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, wearing a camouflage baseball cap and red-and-black plaid flannel, took the stage on Tuesday as the skies cleared on a muddy farm in Lawrence County, Pa.He opened with tender talk of his rural roots. Then, he painted the kind of haunting picture frequently evoked by the Republicans opposing him and his running mate atop the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris: of a rural America under attack.“Been a lot of talk about outsiders coming in, coming into rural communities, stealing our jobs, making life worse for the people who are living there,” he said, alluding to the hostile remarks about immigrants.But Mr. Walz — speaking pointedly before a couple hundred people, with barns, bins and tractors as his backdrop — paused for dramatic effect.“Those outsiders have names. They’re Donald Trump and JD Vance,” he said, eliciting laughter and a few whistles from the audience.The event on Tuesday was part of a Wisconsin and Pennsylvania swing that Mr. Walz used to unveil his ticket’s plans to address the needs of rural voters. And Mr. Walz, who has been on a quest in recent days to reclaim male voters and football from the Republican Party, sought to make the most of the moment as a born and bred Nebraskan.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More