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      In Red Montana, Two Democrats Take a New Political Approach: Attack

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      Democrats in Republican states have tended toward soft-spoken moderation, but Ryan Busse and Raph Graybill have charted a different course in trying to take down Gov. Greg Gianforte.At a recent campaign event at a brewpub in Whitefish, Mont., Ryan Busse was laying into his political opponent, Montana’s Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, with surprising vehemence for a red-state Democrat.He criticized Mr. Gianforte, who is running for a second term, as an elite, out-of-state rich interloper who simply does not understand Montanans.“I love putting the punch on this guy, because there’s so many places to put it on him,” Mr. Busse told the crowd.A former gun industry executive whose 2021 book “Gunfight” denounced the industry would seem like an unlikely candidate for governor in a state that loves its guns, especially since his book vaulted him to stardom in gun-control circles.But Mr. Busse, 54, and his running mate, Raph Graybill, 35, a crusading constitutional lawyer in Montana, are testing a new approach to campaigning as Democrats in Republican states. Instead of adopting the soft-spoken moderation of, say, the governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, or the recently retired Democratic governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, or even the last Democratic governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, Mr. Busse and Mr. Graybill are campaigning as fighters, eager to activate not only the state’s few progressives but also its many voters disaffected with both parties. (Mr. Busse and Mr. Graybill will officially become the party’s nominees with Tuesday’s primary.)If nothing else, their campaign might bolster turnout for another endangered Democrat seeking election in a state almost sure to vote for former President Donald J. Trump in November, Senator Jon Tester.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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      Trump’s Harder Line on Immigration Appears to Resonate With Many Americans

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      As the 2024 presidential election ramps up, here is what polls say about public views on the growing number of migrants.Former President Donald J. Trump has described his plans to remove large numbers of unauthorized immigrants from the country if elected to a second term by citing the mass deportations under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s.In that initiative, federal agents and law enforcement officers used military techniques such as sweeps, raids and surveillance checkpoints — as well as a blunt form of racial profiling — to round up undocumented workers and load them onto buses and boats. As many as 1.3 million people were expelled, mostly Mexican and Mexican American workers, some of whom were U.S. citizens. Critical to the initiative — named Operation Wetback, for the racial slur — was intense anti-immigrant sentiment. Officials at the time used that sentiment to justify family separations and overcrowded and unsanitary detention conditions — practices that the Trump administration would deploy decades later in its own immigration enforcement.As the 2024 presidential election heats up, some Latino advocacy and immigrant-rights groups are sounding the alarm that Mr. Trump’s tactics could amount to a repetition of a sordid chapter of American history. But recent polling shows that Mr. Trump’s position on immigration appears to be resonating. About half of Americans have said they would support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a CNN poll conducted by the research firm SSRS in January. Authorities have reported record numbers of migrant apprehensions at the southern border for three straight years, including 2.4 million apprehensions in the fiscal year that ended in September 2023. Although the numbers have dropped sharply in recent months, immigration remains an albatross for President Biden: Even some Democratic mayors have complained that they need help from the federal government to contend with the migrant populations in their cities.Americans’ views on immigration are complex and constantly changing. Here is a snapshot of where public attitudes on immigration stand now.Public support for more immigration has ebbed after rising under Trump.Mr. Trump’s restrictive approach to immigration, both legal and illegal, helped push Americans of various political stripes to support more permissive policies.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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      Lara Trump, R.N.C. Leader, Denounces Larry Hogan for Accepting Trump Verdict

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      Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee and former President Donald J. Trump’s daughter-in-law, on Sunday denounced Larry Hogan, the Republican Senate candidate in Maryland, for urging Americans to “respect the verdict” against Mr. Trump — criticizing a prized recruit who has given the party a chance of winning a seat that has reliably been held by Democrats.Late Thursday afternoon, after a Manhattan jury said that it had reached its verdict — but before it had been announced — Mr. Hogan, a former governor of Maryland, posted on social media: “Regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process. At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders — regardless of party — must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”That statement was not shocking coming from Mr. Hogan, a moderate Republican who has long been critical of Mr. Trump. But it enraged some supporters of Mr. Trump, who claimed that the trial was rigged because of grievances including its venue in liberal New York City.Former Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, now running for Senate, has been a frequent critic of Mr. Trump.Daniel Kucin Jr./Associated PressMr. Hogan “doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly anybody in America, if that’s the way you feel,” Ms. Trump, who is married to Mr. Trump’s son Eric, said in an interview on CNN — the latest indication of how fealty to Mr. Trump has become a defining test within the Republican Party.She did not directly answer follow-up questions from the interviewer, Kasie Hunt, about whether the Republican Party would continue to support Mr. Hogan. A spokeswoman for Mr. Hogan did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.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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      Holy Cow, 34 for 45!

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      WASHINGTON — At Nativity grade school, we grew up steeped in the lore — and gore — of martyrs. For their brave deeds and words, these men and women were stoned, crucified, beheaded, stripped of all their skin, shot with arrows and cooked alive on a red-hot griddle.So I’m a little surprised my siblings would somehow put Donald Trump in those martyrs’ sainted company.My sister and brother, disturbed by Trump’s constant chaos and slashing insults, saw their hopes for Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley evaporate.I called my Republican sibs Friday to see if hearing the word “guilty” ring out 34 times in a New York courtroom had finally severed them from Trump; they are, after all, children of a police detective.My sister, Peggy, said she couldn’t sleep all night.“You decided you can’t vote for a felon?” I asked.“I wasn’t going to vote for Trump,” she said. “But now I am because I thought this whole thing was a sham.”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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      Donald Trump and American Justice

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      Readers offer a range of reactions and reflections.To the Editor:Re “Guilty: Jury Convicts Trump on All 34 Counts” (front page, May 31):I was overcome with a sense of giddiness on Thursday afternoon as I walked through Manhattan and news broke that former President Donald Trump had been convicted on 34 felony counts.I was glued to the live news updates on my phone, and soon enough messages began pouring in from like-minded friends who shared my sense of satisfaction that the justice system is alive and well, and that the verdict showed us that no one is above the law.Nonetheless, it took mere minutes before a more sober reality set in, and I contemplated how the verdict will likely play into the strategic hands of Mr. Trump’s campaign, energizing his ardent supporters, perhaps even working in his favor among some sympathetic swing voters.That so many of us find that morally offensive and reprehensible, while so many of our fellow Americans simply do not, reaffirms how deeply and dangerously divided this country truly is.Cody LyonBrooklynTo the Editor:Our system of laws has spoken. A jury of his peers found Donald Trump guilty on all counts in what was supposed to be the weakest of the criminal cases against the former president.Unfortunately, our Constitution does not prohibit a convicted felon from running for president; it even allows an elected candidate who has been criminally convicted to govern, even from prison.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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      Trump Announces $34.8 Million Fund-Raising Haul After Guilty Verdict

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      Former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign announced that he had raised $34.8 million in the wake of his felony conviction, shattering online records for Republicans and an early sign of the extent to which the base was rallying behind him.The campaign said in a statement that nearly 30 percent of the donors who gave online were new to the party’s online donating platform, WinRed, giving the former president an invaluable infusion of new contributions to tap in the coming months. The Trump campaign said the haul was double its previous best day ever on WinRed. And the one-day haul was nearly 10 times the $4 million Mr. Trump raised when his mug shot was released in 2023, after his booking in Atlanta for his indictment there.The figures will not be verifiable until the campaign committees and WinRed make their filings with the Federal Election Commission in the following months.Cash has been one of President Biden’s advantages so far in the race. His campaign has been advertising in key battleground states since Mr. Trump emerged as the Republican nominee while Mr. Trump has been absent from the airwaves. The post-conviction money will help Mr. Trump close the gap with the Democratic incumbent.The one-day haul was even greater than the $26 million that the Biden campaign had announced four years ago in the 24 hours after he had named Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential pick.“From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fund-raising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online because of the amount of traffic, President Trump raised $34.8 million dollars from small-dollar donors,” said Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, two of Mr. Trump’s top advisers, in a joint statement. “President Trump and our campaign are immensely grateful from this outpouring of support from patriots across our country.” In April, Mr. Trump’s operation, working in concert with the Republican National Committee, announced that it had raised $76.2 million, beating for the first time what Mr. Biden’s shared operations with the Democratic National Committee, brought in — $51 million.The conviction appeared to be driving Democratic donations, as well, though to a much lesser extent.ActBlue, which processes online contributions for Democrats, registered three of its four biggest hours of donations in all of 2024 on Thursday evening in the wake of the conviction, topping out near $1.3 million in a single hour, according to its online ticker. More

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      Texas House Speaker Survives Challenge From Hard Right

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      The speaker of the Texas House, Dade Phelan, won renomination in a runoff on Tuesday, surviving a bruising Republican primary challenge from a party activist and first-time candidate who was backed by former President Donald J. Trump and his Texas supporters.The race, in a southeast Texas district that includes part of the city of Beaumont, was a bitter political showdown among some of the most powerful players in Texas politics, and was likely to have been one of the most expensive ever for a Texas House seat.Millions poured in to the campaigns during the primary, including large donations from West Texas oil and gas billionaires and out-of-state school-choice advocates who backed the challenger, David Covey. For his part, Mr. Phelan had help from deep-pocketed donors like Miriam Adelson, the Las Vegas casino magnate and widow of the Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson.Mr. Covey, a technical adviser to the oil and gas industry who has described himself as a “very committed Christian and a conservative,” led Mr. Phelan in the first round of voting in March, when neither candidate won a majority.But during the runoff, Mr. Phelan rallied his supporters and campaign contributors, significantly out-raising his opponent through the middle of May.“We came this close,” Mr. Covey said in a speech to supporters in Orange, Texas. He added that even in defeat his campaign had started a movement.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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      Republican Navy Veteran Will Face Henry Cuellar in South Texas

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      Jay Furman, a retired Navy officer, has won the Republican nomination to challenge embattled Representative Henry Cuellar of South Texas in November, according to The Associated Press.Mr. Furman defeated his challenger, Lazaro Garza Jr., a rancher, in a runoff after the two emerged as the top vote-getters in a crowded March primary. Mr. Cuellar, a centrist Democrat, is still largely expected to win re-election in Texas’ 28th Congressional District. But the terrain has become somewhat more favorable for Republicans after Mr. Cuellar was indicted this month on federal bribery and money-laundering charges.Mr. Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, are accused of accepting at least $598,000 over seven years from a Mexican bank and an oil company owned by the government of Azerbaijan, according to the federal indictment. He has denied any wrongdoing.In his district, which stretches from his hometown, Laredo, and the U.S. southern border to the eastern outskirts of San Antonio, Mr. Cuellar is considered an institution. He has powerful allies on both sides of the aisle and has survived two bruising Democratic primary contests. Even former President Donald J. Trump — who is on trial over allegations that he falsified business records — has come to his defense, arguing Mr. Cuellar became a target of the Biden administration because he supports tight border policies.Mr. Cuellar’s fund-raising efforts have dwarfed those of his Republican opponent. At the end of March, Mr. Cuellar had raised nearly $2 million and had more than $415,000 cash on hand. As of May, Mr. Furman had raised just under $195,500 and had roughly $2,013 cash on hand, according to the latest federal filings for each campaign.Still, Mr. Furman is betting the charges against Mr. Cuellar have improved his odds. The election forecasters Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball have both shifted their rating for the general election from likely Democratic to leans Democratic.Mr. Furman, who grew up in Austin and lives in San Antonio, served in the military for nearly 30 years before returning to Texas. Like Mr. Garza, he has made immigration central to his campaign. He echoes Mr. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and calls for hard-line actions, including mass deportations. On his website, he also has promised to tackle inflation, empower small businesses and block “‘woke’ insanity.”In an interview, Mr. Furman argued the charges against Mr. Cuellar were “exactly in line with what the people have come to expect of the Cuellar dynasty.” But he also echoed Mr. Trump in his criticism of the Justice Department, which he contended had been weaponized against conservatives.“My goal is not only to highlight his charges,” he said, “but also the arbitrary capricious enforcement of the law by our Department of Justice.” More