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      Brian Kemp Must Testify in Trump Inquiry After Election

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      ATLANTA — A judge ruled on Monday that Gov. Brian P. Kemp of Georgia must appear before a special grand jury investigating election interference by former President Donald J. Trump, but will not be compelled to do so until after the Nov. 8 election.Mr. Kemp, who is running for a second term this year, is one of a number of high-profile Republicans who have been fighting subpoenas that call upon them to testify in the sprawling case. Unlike many of those other Republicans, Mr. Kemp does not appear to have been involved in efforts after the November 2020 election to overturn Mr. Trump’s election loss in Georgia.Indeed, Mr. Kemp resisted a personal entreaty from Mr. Trump, in December 2020, to convene the state Legislature in order to appoint pro-Trump electors from Georgia, even though Joseph R. Biden, a Democrat, had won the popular vote in the state.Nevertheless, Mr. Kemp’s lawyers in recent days have tried to persuade Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court that under Georgia law, the sitting governor should not be subject to subpoenas. They argued, among other things, that the governor was protected by the doctrine of sovereign immunity, and that the subpoena had been issued “for improper political purposes” because his presence was being demanded before the November 2022 election. The investigation is being overseen by a Democrat, District Attorney Fani T. Willis of Fulton County, which encompasses most of Atlanta.In a prepared statement on Monday, a spokesperson for Mr. Kemp said the court had “correctly paused” his testimony until after the election, saying the governor’s office would work “to ensure a full accounting of the governor’s limited role in the issues being investigated is available to the special grand jury.”Understand Georgia’s Trump Election InvestigationCard 1 of 5Understand Georgia’s Trump Election InvestigationAn immediate legal threat to Trump. More

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      Beto O’Rourke Sidelined With Bacterial Infection Amid Texas Run

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      The Democrat, who is trying to unseat Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, said that although his symptoms had improved, he would be resting at home on doctors’ orders.Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who is running to unseat Greg Abbott in the tightening race for Texas governor, said on Sunday that he would be sidelined from campaigning because of a bacterial infection.Mr. O’Rourke, 49, said on Twitter that he had gone to Methodist Hospital, in San Antonio, after feeling ill on Friday.“While my symptoms have improved, I will be resting at home in El Paso in accordance with the doctors’ recommendations,” he said. “I am sorry to have had to postpone events because of this, but promise to be back on the road with you as soon as I am able.”Mr. O’Rourke on Friday postponed a weekend of campaign stops in the Coastal Bend region of Texas after falling ill and had also left early from a book signing in San Antonio that afternoon, according to The Caller Times, a newspaper in Corpus Christi. A campaign spokesman said that Mr. O’Rourke did not have Covid-19 and did not provide more details, the newspaper reported.In his statement on Sunday, Mr. O’Rourke did not say when he expected to be back on the trail.His uphill candidacy, an attempt to wrest the Texas governor’s mansion from Republican control for the first time since Ann Richards’s underdog win in 1990, has relied heavily on traveling the state and meeting Republican voters, even inviting protesters to his events.“I can’t win this with Democrats alone,” Mr. O’Rourke said in a recent interview with The New York Times after an event in Texarkana.A poll earlier this month from The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler found that Mr. Abbott, who is seeking his third term, was leading Mr. O’Rourke by 7 percentage points. More

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      Doug Mastriano Wore a Confederate Uniform in a Faculty Photo

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      Doug Mastriano, the far-right Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, wore a Confederate uniform for a faculty photo at the Army War College that surfaced on Friday.The photo, from the 2013 to 2014 academic year, shows Mr. Mastriano wearing a gray military uniform, including a gray cap with yellow trim, and holding a Civil War-era firearm. It was first reported Friday evening by Reuters, which obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request.Mr. Mastriano — a retired Army colonel and now a state senator whose district includes Gettysburg, the site of the battle where the tide of the Civil War turned against the Confederacy — is running for governor against the Pennsylvania attorney general, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.Mr. Mastriano’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening. Neither did the Army War College, which Reuters reported had recently removed the photo from a wall of faculty portraits. Mr. Mastriano used to work for the college’s Department of Military Strategy, Plans and Operations.Some of the other faculty members in the photo also appear to be wearing historical outfits, though others are in regular attire. Mr. Mastriano is a leading figure on the far right in Pennsylvania, where he spearheaded efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and funded buses that took supporters of former President Donald J. Trump to Washington for the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol.If elected in November, Mr. Mastriano would appoint Pennsylvania’s top elections official. He has suggested de-registering all of Pennsylvania’s roughly nine million registered voters and requiring them to register again.Mr. Mastriano was criticized in recent months for his ties to the founder of the far-right social media platform Gab, who has made antisemitic remarks. Mr. Mastriano’s campaign paid Gab a $5,000 consulting fee, and he did an interview with the founder, Andrew Torba, in which the two praised each other. In response to criticism, Mr. Mastriano said last month that he rejected antisemitism and that Mr. Torba “doesn’t speak for me or my campaign.” More

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      Ads Begin in Texas Governor Race, With O’Rourke’s Highlighting Abortion

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      HOUSTON — With early voting now two months away, the ad competition has begun in the race for Texas governor. Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott released a first ad and, on Thursday, Beto O’Rourke, the former El Paso congressman and perennial Democratic hopeful, countered with two of his own.The O’Rourke campaign, looking for leverage in a tightening but still uphill campaign, focused on abortion, seeking to harness anger among women at the overturning of Roe v. Wade and to direct that anger at Mr. Abbott.Its two ads were released on the day that a so-called trigger law — made possible by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade — went into effect in Texas. The law, signed last year by Mr. Abbott, bans abortion with no exception for rape or incest and with only limited medical exceptions.“From this day forward, Aug. 25, women all across Texas are no longer free,” several women say in one ad, speaking one after another. “All because of Greg Abbott’s abortion law.”“So I’m voting for Beto, who will give women our freedom back,” they conclude.Another 30-second ad from Mr. O’Rourke similarly seeks to link him to the idea of freedom, trying to recapture a word that is more often used by Republicans. That ad, also focused on the state’s abortion ban under Mr. Abbott, features a politically mixed Texas couple who are now both supporting Mr. O’Rourke.More Coverage of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsAug. 23 Primaries: The Democratic establishment in Florida and New York had a good night. Here are some key takeaways and a rundown of who won and who lost.The Evidence Against a Red Wave: Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, it’s increasingly hard to see the once-clear signs of a Republican advantage. A strong Democratic showing in a special election in New York’s Hudson Valley is the latest example.Bruising Fights in N.Y.: A string of ugly primaries played out across the state, as Democrats and Republicans fought over rival personalities and the ideological direction of their parties.Challenging DeSantis: Florida Democrats chose Representative Charlie Crist, a former Republican, to take on Gov. Ron DeSantis, setting up a contest between a centrist and a hard-right G.O.P. incumbent.“This is a free country,” says the husband, Trey Ramsey, shown as a lifelong Republican who supported former president Donald J. Trump. “We need a governor who gets that, and that’s Beto.”The ad appeared to be part of a strategy by Mr. O’Rourke to challenge Mr. Abbott for wavering Republican votes, including in typically conservative strongholds around rural Texas. In recent weeks, he has crisscrossed the state, appearing in front of supportive crowds in deep-red areas but occasionally attracting vocal, and armed, protesters.In contrast to Mr. O’Rourke’s attacks, the governor’s campaign opted for a strategy for its first ad that has worked well in previous elections: a biographical portrait of the governor, a two-term incumbent who uses a wheelchair and has been in statewide elective office in Texas since the 1990s.An ad by Mr. Abbott tells a biographical story about his family, injury and recovery.Texans for Greg AbbottThe ad recounts his recovery from an accident that partly paralyzed him and is narrated by his wife, Cecilia, who is Hispanic. The governor’s campaign has said it believes Mr. Abbott can win a majority of Hispanic voters, who have been increasingly turning to Republicans, particularly in more rural areas of South Texas.“Hard work, perseverance and family: That’s what defines Greg Abbott and how he governs Texas,” Mrs. Abbott says.The ad is the first of what is likely to be a barrage of messages from Mr. Abbott, who has vowed to spend $100 million on the race and whose campaign has already secured some $20 million in television and digital space for ads.Mr. O’Rourke, also a proficient fund-raiser, started behind Mr. Abbott, who entered the race with tens of millions on hand. As of the July filing, the governor had $46 million on hand and Mr. O’Rourke had $24 million. The O’Rourke campaign has repeatedly stressed to potential donors the high cost of advertising statewide in Texas.Several polls in recent weeks put Mr. O’Rourke at five to seven percentage points behind Mr. Abbott, who won in 2018 by 13 percentage points. More

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      Charlie Crist to Face Gov. DeSantis in Florida This Fall

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      FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida Democrats chose Representative Charlie Crist as their nominee for governor on Tuesday, betting that the former Republican governor who campaigned on a return to political decency was their best bet to try to defeat Gov. Ron DeSantis, the polarizing Republican incumbent.Mr. Crist’s blowout victory sets up the general election against Mr. DeSantis as a contest between a centrist and a hard-right conservative, with Democrats believing that the well-known and peaceable Mr. Crist can attract independent voters and Republicans who are fed up with Mr. DeSantis’s aggressive right-wing policies.“They want a governor who cares about them, who solves real problems, who preserves our freedom,” Mr. Crist told supporters gathered in his hometown, St. Petersburg, as he pivoted quickly to attacking Mr. DeSantis. “Not a bully who divides us and takes our freedom away.”But Mr. DeSantis is a formidable foe, having built his national profile during the coronavirus pandemic as a Republican eager to fight public health experts. His political rise has made him a favorite to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 and helped him amass more than $130 million for his re-election campaign, an eye-popping amount that Democrats are not expected to come close to matching.Mr. DeSantis did not face a primary challenger but still campaigned for down-ballot candidates and started a series of highly produced television ads, including a national spot on Monday inspired by the film “Top Gun,” with Mr. DeSantis, clad in a pilot jacket, “dogfighting” against “the corporate media,” which he frequently portrays as his foil.He has also reminded Floridians at every turn that he refused to impose coronavirus lockdowns for very long in 2020, a position that thrust Mr. DeSantis into the national spotlight.“They have opposed every decision I’ve made to keep this state open,” Mr. DeSantis said of Democrats on Tuesday. “To save their jobs. To keep kids in school. To save businesses.”In the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, Representative Val B. Demings of Orlando, who had only nominal opposition, handily won the nomination to face off against Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican.In Florida’s congressional primaries, far-right Republicans won in a number of races on Tuesday night. Many are now favored to win in November; Mr. DeSantis and Republicans in the State Legislature redrew House districts this year to strongly favor the G.O.P., leaving few competitive general election contests in a state known not long ago for its abundance of them.Representative Matt Gaetz from the Florida Panhandle defeated Mark Lombardo, a Marine Corps veteran and retired FedEx executive. Cory Mills, an Army veteran and conservative commentator won in a suburban Orlando district that the Republicans are expected to win in the fall. And the Republican primary in Mr. Crist’s district in the Tampa Bay area, which was redrawn to favor the G.O.P., was won by Anna Paulina Luna, who was endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump.In one bright spot for progressives, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old activist from Orlando, bested nine other Democrats, including former Representatives Corrine Brown and Alan Grayson, in an open district in the Orlando area. Mr. Frost, who is Afro-Cuban, would be the first Gen Z member of Congress.Florida Democrats went into Tuesday knowing that their candidates for governor had raised far less money than Mr. DeSantis and that their party infrastructure was far from robust compared with Republicans.Nikki Fried speaks to the press after conceding to Charlie Crist in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022.Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesMr. Crist won a resounding victory over Nikki Fried, the state’s agriculture commissioner, who had cast herself as a fresh option in a state where Democrats have fallen short in election after election and felt little optimism about their chances in November. Unofficial results showed Mr. Crist leading by such a wide margin that the race was called when the final polls in the state closed at 8 p.m.“Nobody ever broke the glass ceiling on the first pitch,” Ms. Fried said in Fort Lauderdale after conceding to Mr. Crist. “We are going to make Ron DeSantis a one-term governor and a zero-term president of the United States.”Florida has trended more and more Republican since President Barack Obama won the state twice by building a massive organization that no candidate or party leader has been able to replicate. President Biden lost Florida by more than 3 percentage points, the biggest margin in a marquee race since 2004.The last incumbent Florida governor to lose re-election was Bob Martinez, a Republican, who conceded to Lawton Chiles in 1990. No Democrat has won the governorship since Mr. Chiles secured re-election in 1994.Mr. Crist has lost two statewide races since he was first elected governor in 2006, including one as an independent before he switched to the Democratic Party in 2012. But some Democrats think a centrist like Mr. Crist would have succeeded against Mr. DeSantis in 2018, had voters nominated Gwen Graham, a former congresswoman, in the primary. Instead, Democrats chose Andrew Gillum, who captivated them with his progressive platform and charismatic personality but lost the general election by about 32,000 votes.“There is a pragmatism from the Democratic perspective that says, ‘Yes, we want to fall in love, but we’d rather win,’ and at this point that is the main calculus driving people,” said Fernand R. Amandi, a Democratic pollster based in Miami.Democrats see a narrow path to defeating Mr. DeSantis, in trying to cast him as a divisive leader who plays up his policies as promoting freedom despite restricting the rights of women, Black and Hispanic Floridians and the L.G.B.T.Q. community.They also hope to persuade voters that Mr. DeSantis is to blame for the rising costs of living, especially when it comes to housing, electricity and insurance — issues that Democrats say have been ignored as Mr. DeSantis and Republican lawmakers have fought cultural battles.“I no longer recognize the leaders of the Republican Party,” Mr. Crist said on Tuesday night. “They’re extremists. They want to turn back the clock on our freedom. They’re trying to undermine our democracy in ways no one could have imagined.“That stops here,” he continued. “That stops now. And it stops with our Florida.”Ms. Fried initially struggled to home in on an effective message, though it crystallized after the Supreme Court eliminated federal protections for abortion rights. No woman has ever been elected Florida governor, and Ms. Fried ran on the belief that a female nominee would offer voters a clearer contrast against Mr. DeSantis.But with limited money to advertise in the state’s expensive, urban television markets, Ms. Fried was unable to introduce herself to enough Democratic voters. Mr. Crist made her task more difficult when he cast her as a business lobbyist who was cozy with Republicans. Both questioned each other’s liberal bona fides, though the contest was defined less by sharp ideological differences and more by contrasts in style.Mr. Crist led the Democratic race from the start, declaring his candidacy before Ms. Fried, the only Democrat currently holding statewide elected office. He devoted himself to reaching out to county and state leaders, and the early work paid off: Mr. Crist amassed more endorsements from Democratic officials, labor unions and local newspapers than his rival. During campaign stops, he posed for photos with people who greeted him simply as “Charlie.”Michael Joseph, a city commissioner in North Miami Beach, endorsed Mr. Crist after the congressman traveled to see him last year, knowing that he needed the support of the Haitian American community that Mr. Joseph represents.“He’s very personable and he remembers your name,” Mr. Joseph said. “I’ve never seen DeSantis reach out to different communities. Charlie didn’t have to come to my neighborhood to have a burger — but he did.”Maggie Astor and Jennifer Medina contributed reporting. More

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      When Will We Know Who Won in New York and Florida Elections?

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      Florida and New York are on the clock: A series of primaries on Tuesday, some fiercely competitive, are posing the latest test of each state’s efficiency at counting votes and reporting timely results.New York is holding its first primaries since it streamlined its process for counting mail-in ballots, which election experts say should reduce delays. And Florida makes few exceptions for accepting absentee ballots after in-person voting ends, so relatively few votes will remain uncounted after polls close.But close races could upend the timely reporting of results, those experts cautioned.In Florida, most of the polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern time, but voting ends an hour later for parts of the Panhandle in the Central time zone.A half-hour after the polls close, election supervisors in the 67 counties are required to report to the state early voting and vote-by-mail results that they have received by that point, said Mark Ard, a spokesman for the Florida Department of State.The first results should appear on the state’s election website shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern time, with counties required to release updates every 45 minutes until they have completed their counts, he said.Absentee ballots must be received by the counties by 7 p.m. local time, except for those from military and overseas voters. The number of uncounted ballots after Election Day should be relatively small, according to Mr. Ard, who said the state would track those totals.About 98 percent of the vote in Florida is typically counted on Election Day, said Stephen Ohlemacher, election decision editor for The Associated Press.In the 2020 general election, 100 percent of Florida’s precincts had reported election results as of 1:02 a.m. Eastern time the morning after the election, according to The A.P.In New York, in-person voting ends statewide at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Under a new state law, counties must start processing mail-in ballots within four days of receiving them and may begin tabulating those results an hour before the polls close, Mr. Ohlemacher noted. In the past, he said, the counting of mail-in ballots did not start until a week after the election.The change already had a major effect during the June 28 primaries in New York, which hosted intraparty contests for governor and the State Assembly, the lower chamber of the Legislature. Just 1 percent of the vote remained uncounted after Election Day. In the 2020 general election, it was 23 percent, according to The A.P.But New York continues to lag behind other states in providing information about the number of mail-in ballots cast, Mr. Ohlemacher said, adding that this could delay The A.P. from determining who wins close races.Counties will start to post results in real time on the state’s election results website around 10 p.m. Eastern time, said Jennifer Wilson, a spokeswoman for the New York State Board of Elections. More

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      Florida Primary: How to Vote and Who’s on the Ballot

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      It is Primary Day in Florida, where Democratic voters will choose challengers to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio, both Republicans, for the fall.Here is what to know about voting in the state:How to voteThe deadline to register to vote in the primary election was July 25. Not sure if you are registered? You can check here.The mail-voting period has ended in Florida, and it is too late to return a mail or absentee ballot by mail for this election.Polls close in most of the state at 7 p.m. Eastern time, and an hour later in the western counties in Florida’s panhandle that are in a different time zone.Voters who requested an absentee ballot but have not returned it yet can vote in person at a polling place, or can deliver it by hand to their county elections offices. You can find the location of your elections office here.Do not forget to bring valid photo identification with you to the polls. Examples of acceptable forms can be found here. If you forget your ID, you can still cast a provisional ballot. If the signature on that ballot matches the signature on your registration file, officials will count the ballot.Where to voteYou can find your voting location on your county’s website. A list of counties with links to their sites is available here.Who is on the ballotNikki Fried, who is Florida’s commissioner of agriculture and consumer services, and Representative Charlie Crist, who was a Republican while he served as governor from 2007 to 2011, are among the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge Mr. DeSantis in November.Representative Val B. Demings leads the Democrats competing for the chance to take on Mr. Rubio. Neither Mr. Rubio nor Mr. DeSantis is facing primary challengers.Kevin Hayslett, a former prosecutor, and Anna Paulina Luna, a conservative activist and Air Force veteran, are locked in a competitive Republican primary in the House district that Mr. Crist currently represents. Former President Donald J. Trump endorsed Ms. Luna, giving her an advantage in the district, which became more conservative during redistricting earlier this year. More