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      House remains without speaker as Jim Jordan falls short of votes in first ballot

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      The House of Representatives was unable to elect a new speaker on Tuesday, as the hard-right congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio struggled to win the gavel following the historic ouster of the Republican Kevin McCarthy earlier this month.In the first round of voting, 20 Republicans opposed Jordan, while 200 Republicans supported the judiciary committee chair. The result left Jordan far short of winning the speakership, given that he can only afford four defections within his conference and still capture the gavel. All 212 House Democrats supported Hakeem Jeffries of New York, giving the Democratic leader more votes than Jordan.Speaking to reporters after the vote, Jordan initially indicated Republicans would hold another vote on Tuesday evening, but that plan was scrapped as Jordan’s critics doubled down on their opposition. The House will instead reconvene on Wednesday at 11am to commence the next round of voting, but it remained unclear whether Jordan had a path to victory.In a worrisome sign for Jordan, several of his detractors, led by congressman Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida, called for an immediate second vote on Tuesday, potentially indicating that they believed their ranks were growing. Jordan picked up at least one new supporter, congressman Doug LaMalfa of California, after the first failed vote, but that still left him short of a majority.The deadlock marked only the second time since 1923 that the House has required more than one ballot to elect a speaker; the other recent standoff occurred in January, when McCarthy needed 15 rounds of voting to win the top job.The House has now been without a speaker for two weeks, leaving the chamber paralyzed. The House remains unable to pass any legislation, even as many lawmakers of both parties have stressed the urgent need to approve an aid package for Israel following the recent Hamas attacks.The chair of the House Republican conference, Elise Stefanik of New York, kicked off the session on Tuesday by formally nominating Jordan and encouraging her colleagues to support him. She celebrated Jordan, who is best known for his past clashes with leadership and his staunch support of Donald Trump, as “an America First warrior who wins the toughest of fights”.“We are at a time of great crisis across America, a time of historic challenges in this very chamber,” Stefanik said. “I am reminded of the book of Esther: ‘for such a time as this’. Jim Jordan will be America’s speaker for such a time as this.”Congressman Pete Aguilar of California, chair of the House Democratic caucus, then nominated the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to the speakership, and he warned that Jordan’s ascension would represent a dangerous abdication to “extremism”.“A vote today to make the architect of a nationwide abortion ban, a vocal election denier and an insurrection inciter the speaker of this House would be a terrible message to the country and our allies,” Aguilar said.Jordan won the Republican conference’s speakership nomination on Friday, after the House majority whip, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, was forced to drop out of the race due to opposition from hard-right lawmakers. Jordan, who finished second to Scalise in the initial conference vote, secured the nomination in his second attempt, defeating his fellow Republican Austin Scott of Georgia in a vote of 124 to 81.Although he captured the nomination, Jordan’s level of support fell far short of the 217 votes that he will need to win the speakership on Tuesday. Heading into the floor vote, which began at 1pm, it remained unclear whether Jordan had convinced enough of his critics to become speaker. A handful of more moderate Republicans, including Don Bacon of Nebraska and Mike Lawler, continued to insist that they would not support Jordan, and they voted against their conference’s nominee on the first ballot.“I’m not budging,” Bacon said on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday evening. “I’m a five-time commander and deployed to Middle-East four times. I’ll do what is best for country.”Before the session began on Tuesday, Jordan indicated Republicans would keep voting until a new leader is chosen, potentially teeing up another lengthy speakership election. But after the first ballot failed to produce a result, the acting speaker, the Republican Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, announced that the House was in recess. A few hours later, Jordan informed reporters that Republicans would reconvene on Wednesday to resume voting.Jeffries has called on more moderate members of the Republican conference to join with Democrats in forming a bipartisan coalition, but even Jordan skeptics have rejected that proposal, insisting they would not entertain the idea of collaborating with Democrats.If Jordan can win the speakership, Democrats appear ready to use his victory as an example of the extremism that they say has overtaken the Republican party. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ fundraising arm, has circulated a memo to members encouraging them to highlight Jordan’s legislative record, including his vote to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.“A Speaker Jordan means extremism and far-right priorities will govern the House of Representatives,” the memo reads. “It is imperative that our caucus makes clear to voters just how extreme Congressman Jordan is.” More

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      Election lies to Fox News fixture: key things to know about Jim Jordan

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      As the House gears up to vote for its new speaker, all eyes are on Jim Jordan, a founder of the hard-right Freedom caucus. But while the Ohio congressman and his allies say they will have the votes soon, Jordan also has a long history of controversial views that many of his own party members and constituents are not aligned with.Here are some of the key things to know about Jordan as a politician – and a look into how he might act in the role of speaker.Jordan was closely involved in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the electionJordan was a “significant player” in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, according to the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. As early as November of 2020, he was part of discussions with Trump campaign and White House officials examining whether Mike Pence could overturn the election. Immediately after the election, he met with Trump campaign and White House officials at the campaign’s headquarters to help develop a strategy of repeatedly, and falsely, saying the election was fraudulent, the New York Times reported.On 2 January 2021, Jordan led a conference call with members of Congress and the White House in which they discussed urging Trump supporters to march to the Capitol. The day before the January 6 attack, Jordan texted the then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to pass on advice that Pence should “call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all”.After the violence at the Capitol, Jordan was one of several members of Congress to whom the White House reached out to try to delay counting of electoral votes. He received five calls from Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s closest allies, that night, according to the January 6 committee. The two men spoke at least twice that night. Jordan later said he spoke with Trump on January 6, but could not recall how many times.Given his staunch efforts to spread misinformation, it wasn’t much of a surprise that Jordan was one of 147 House Republicans who voted to overturn the election. He also signed on to an unsuccessful lawsuit Texas filed at the supreme court seeking to get electoral college votes thrown out in key battleground states.Jordan helped seed the lie that the election was stolenJordan has been one of the most prolific spreaders of misinformation about the election. Weeks before election day, Jordan accused Democrats of “trying to steal” the election. After election day, he continued to claim that something was amiss in Pennsylvania, one of the key states that swung the election for Biden and repeatedly and falsely tied mail-in voting to fraud. He quickly called for congressional investigations into claims of fraud and supported outlandish investigations by Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani into voting equipment.Jordan blocked efforts to find out more about his involvement in the plan to overturn the electionThe January 6 committee subpoenaed Jordan and four other congressmen after the group refused to voluntarily cooperate with the panel. Jordan refused to comply with that subpoena, calling it “an unprecedented and inappropriate demand to examine the basis for a colleague’s decision on a particular matter pending before the House of Representatives”. The committee referred Jordan to the ethics committee for investigation.Jordan was accused of engaging in a cover-up of widespread sexual abuse at Ohio State UniversityBetween 1987 and 1995, Jordan served as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University. During that time, he worked alongside Richard Strauss, a team doctor who was accused of sexual abuse. A 2019 independent report commissioned by OSU concluded that Strauss “sexually abused at least 177 male student-patients he was charged with treating as a university physician”.Jordan has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Strauss’s actions, but former wrestlers have attested that Jordan was directly informed of the doctor’s misconduct. Earlier this month, four former OSU wrestlers publicly denounced Jordan, saying his inaction rendered him unqualified to become speaker of the House.“Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys?” the former OSU wrestler Mike Schyck told NBC News. “Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?”Jordan is known for disrupting the House – but not getting much doneJohn Boehner, the former Republican House speaker, repeatedly criticized Jordan for pressuring Republican leadership to advance his hard-right agenda. Speaking to Politico Magazine in 2017, Boehner described Jordan as a “legislative terrorist”.Jordan was part of a coalition of archconservative lawmakers that antagonized Bohener, repeatedly threatening to remove him from the speakership. Though they never followed through, the constant pressure and threats ultimately drove Boehner to early retirement.“I just never saw a guy who spent more time tearing things apart – never building anything, never putting anything together,” Boehner told CBS News in 2021.According to Vanderbilt University’s Center for Effective Lawmaking, Jordan consistently ranks among Congress’s least effective lawmakers. In the last Congress, Jordan ranked 217th out of 222 House Republicans.Jordan was behind many recent shutdownsSince arriving in Congress 16 years ago, Jordan has played a central role in several of the most consequential government shutdowns. In an attempt to undermine Barack Obama’s healthcare law, Jordan led the charge to shut down the government in 2013. It lasted 16 days and nearly drove the US to the brink of default.Two years later, in 2015, he and his conservative allies in Congress used similar tactics, threatening a shutdown in an effort to defund Planned Parenthood, though an agreement was reached and a closure was averted in time.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAgain in 2018, Jordan was one of the architects of the 2018 government shutdown that lasted 35 days, the longest in US history. Jordan urged Trump to shutter federal agencies in an attempt to force Congress to fund his border wall. It backfired and Congress and Trump eventually agreed to reopen the government without providing any funding for Trump’s wall.Congress recently passed a stopgap funding measure, part of a deal the former speaker Kevin McCarthy struck with the support of Democrats to avert a government shutdown on his watch. The move enraged conservatives, who then moved to oust him.The next speaker will have to move quickly to address federal funding, set to expire in mid-November, or again risk another shutdown.Jordan has already indicated he will block more aid to Ukraine if he becomes speakerJordan has consistently voted against aid packages to assist Ukraine’s war efforts against Russia, which have become a source of outrage among hard-right lawmakers.As he launched his speakership bid earlier this month, Jordan told reporters that he was “against” providing more funding to Ukraine.“The most pressing issue on Americans’ minds is not Ukraine,” he said. “It is the border situation, and it’s crime on the streets. And everybody knows that. So let’s address those.”Foreign policy experts have warned that, without additional US aid, Ukraine’s war efforts against Russia will falter and more Ukrainian citizens will die.Jordan is a fixture on Fox News, a platform that he has used to elevate Trump and attack the Biden administrationAccording to the left-leaning group Media Matters, Jordan has appeared on Fox News at least 565 times since August 2017, making him the network’s most frequently interviewed member of Congress.Jordan has capitalized on those appearances by consistently touting the virtues of Trump, even as the former president faces 91 felony charges across four criminal cases.“I am 100% for President Trump,” Jordan told Fox News back in April. He added: “No one has demonstrated that they will do what they said and get things done like he did.”That sycophancy has paid dividends, as Trump has now endorsed Jordan’s speakership bid. Jordan has also used his Fox appearances to elevate his work, as chair of the House judiciary committee, to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the justice department, accusing federal officials of giving the president’s son “preferential treatment”.Jordan supports a nationwide ban on abortionJordan, an evangelical Christian, is a staunch abortion opponent. In fact, he has said the desire to restrict access to the procedure was one of the reasons he entered politics. On his congressional website, Jordan boasts that the first piece of legislation he ever co-sponsored was a bill that would extend protections to fetuses under the 14th amendment.He also introduced a “Life at Conception” act that would ban all abortions nationally. After the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, Jordan claimed on social media that the story ​​of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had to travel to Indiana to receive an abortion after being raped was “another lie”. He later deleted the tweet after authorities charged a man in connection with the case and refused to apologize.Additionally, he opposes same-sex marriage. According to his website, Jordan says he is “committed to defending the sanctity of marriage and the family” and “oppose[s] all attempts to redefine marriage”. More

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      Jim Jordan to force floor vote for House speaker on Tuesday after consolidating Republican support – as it happened

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      Jim Jordan has told CNN that he will force a floor vote tomorrow at noon for House speaker.The Ohio representative previously walked back a stance that he would only call a vote if he reached the necessary 217 votes.Jordan told CNN that his stance changed due to fighting between Israel and Hamas.“You can’t open the House, and do the work of the American people, and help our dearest and closest friend Israel if you don’t have a Speaker,” said Jordan.On if he can get 217 votes, Jordan said: “I don’t know if there’s any way to ever get that in the room. … But I think the only way to do this is … you have the vote tomorrow.”Federal judge Tanya Chutkan partially granted prosecutors’ request for a gag order on Donald Trump in his trial over charges related to the trying to overturn the 2020 election. The former president will be banned from attacking special counsel Jack Smith and his team, as well as witnesses in the case and court staff, but Chutkan declined to stop him from alleging the case is politically motivated, or criticizing the government generally. Nonetheless, Trump’s presidential campaign condemned the decision as “another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy”.Here’s what else happened today:
      Jim Jordan is consolidating Republican votes ahead of tomorrow’s election that could see him take over as speaker of the House from the ousted Kevin McCarthy.
      Joe Biden postponed a trip to Colorado to stay at the White House and meet with his national security team ahead of Israel’s expected invasion of Gaza.
      Chutkan turned down a request from Smith’s team to limit how Trump’s attorneys could question potential jurors.
      The election subversion case is one of several Trump is involved in, both at the state and federal level. Here’s a recap of his many legal troubles.
      Biden and Kamala Harris condemned the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian Muslim boy in Illinois, and warned against Islamophobia.
      Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have condemned the killing of six-year-old Palestinian Muslim Wadea Al-Fayoume in Illinois, who police say was targeted over the Israel-Hamas war.“Doug and I grieve with the family of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American Muslim child who was stabbed to death on Saturday. We also pray for the recovery of Wadea’s mother, Hanaan Shahin, who was stabbed 12 times in the same attack,” Harris said in a statement released this afternoon. “The Department of Justice has announced a hate crimes investigation.”Yesterday evening, the president said:
      Jill and I were shocked and sickened to learn of the brutal murder of a six-year-old child and the attempted murder of the child’s mother in their home yesterday in Illinois.The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek – a refuge to live, learn and pray in peace. This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are. As Americans, we must come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred. I have said repeatedly that I will not be silent in the face of hate. We must be unequivocal. There is no place in America for hate against anyone.
      Here’s the Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo with more on Wadea’s murder:Quinn Mitchell, a 15-year-old resident of early voting state New Hampshire who could give many reporters a run for their money in terms of political knowledge, has had yet another run-in with Republican officials who apparently do not want him around, the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports:A 15-year-old aspiring journalist who had a viral encounter with the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, earlier this year was escorted out of a Republican political event by armed police after he was accused of being a Democratic operative.Quinn Mitchell – a politics enthusiast who has attended more than 80 presidential campaign events – said he was given a credential to the First in the Nation Leadership Summit, an event organized by the New Hampshire Republican party.After arriving on Friday, Mitchell watched a speech by Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who is running for president. Mitchell – who is from New Hampshire – then prepared to watch Perry Johnson, a long-shot Republican candidate.But he was prevented from doing so.“This woman comes up to me, I don’t know who she is, but she says to me: ‘I know who you are, you’re a tracker,’” Mitchell said on his podcast.A tracker is a political operative who records rival candidates. Mitchell, who is not a tracker, was then escorted into a room at the Sheraton Nashua hotel, where the event was being held. The woman, who Mitchell said was a Republican official, was joined by a man, and the pair accused Mitchell of having misrepresented himself to gain access.From the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, here’s a full rundown of what happened earlier today, when the federal judge handling his trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election imposed a partial gag order on Donald Trump:Donald Trump has been issued a limited gag order by the federal judge overseeing the criminal case over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, prohibiting him from making public statements attacking prosecutors, court staff and potential trial witnesses.The former president was not prohibited from generally disparaging the Biden administration, the US justice department and the trial venue of Washington DC, and will continue to be allowed to allege that the case was politically motivated.Those were the contours of a tailored protective order handed down on Monday by Tanya Chutkan, the US district judge who said she would enter a written ruling at a later date but warned Trump’s lawyers that any violation of the order could lead to immediate punitive sanctions.The ruling was the culmination of a two-hour hearing in federal district court after prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith had asked the judge to impose restrictions on Trump’s attacks that they felt could intimidate witnesses – and Chutkan agreed.“There is a real risk that witnesses may be intimidated,” Chutkan said as she explained her decision from the bench, adding that just because Trump was a 2024 presidential candidate and the GOP nomination frontrunner did not give him free rein to “launch a pre-trial smear campaign”.Joe Biden was scheduled today to travel to Colorado to promote clean energy policies, but this morning made the unusual decision to postpone the event, apparently to address the crisis in the Middle East.The White House has announced that the president spent this afternoon meeting with his national security team about Israel’s looming invasion of the Gaza Strip:Meanwhile, his re-election campaign has made its own foray into hostile territory, by setting up an account on Donald Trump’s Truth Social. That’s the platform the former president turned to after being banned from X, formerly known as Twitter, following the January 6 insurrection, and has continued to use even after Elon Musk let him back on last year:We have a live blog following the latest on the war between Israel and Hamas:A spokesperson for the Trump campaign has denounced a judge’s recent partial gag order against Donald Trump in the 2020 election case.In a statement shared with the Hill, the spokesperson called the order “an absolute abomination and another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy.”“President Trump will continue to fight for our Constitution, the American people’s right to support him, and to keep our country free of the chains of weaponized and targeted law enforcement,” read the statement, shared by Trump’s campaign.Judge Tanya Chutkan’s ruling prohibits Trump from attacking special counsel Jack Smith and his staff. The former president is also banned from attacking witnesses in the case as well as court staff.Read the full article here.It’s unclear if Jordan will secure the 217 votes necessary for House Speaker. But his team has been making significant headway, CNN reports.As of Monday, less than 10 Republican representatives don’t support Jordan’s bid for House speakership–compare to 20 members on Sunday.From CNN’s Manu Raju:Jordan’s supporters are attempting to garner support as the House speaker vote approaches.Tennessee representative Andy Ogles posted a public letter on Monday, imploring Americans to contact their representatives to support Jordan.In a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Ogles said: “My Fellow Americans, .. Our Nation is in crisis, we need a leader, we need a fighter like [Jim Jordan]”.Jim Jordan has told CNN that he will force a floor vote tomorrow at noon for House speaker.The Ohio representative previously walked back a stance that he would only call a vote if he reached the necessary 217 votes.Jordan told CNN that his stance changed due to fighting between Israel and Hamas.“You can’t open the House, and do the work of the American people, and help our dearest and closest friend Israel if you don’t have a Speaker,” said Jordan.On if he can get 217 votes, Jordan said: “I don’t know if there’s any way to ever get that in the room. … But I think the only way to do this is … you have the vote tomorrow.”Federal judge Tanya Chutkan partially granted prosecutors’ request for a gag order on Donald Trump in his trial over charges related to the trying to overturn the 2020 election. The former president will be banned from attacking special counsel Jack Smith and his staff, as well as witnesses in the case and court staff, but Chutkan declined to stop him from alleging the case is politically motivated, or criticizing the government generally.Here’s what else is going on today:
      Jim Jordan is consolidating Republican votes ahead of tomorrow’s election that could see him take over as speaker of the House from the ousted Kevin McCarthy.
      Chutkan turned down a request from Smith’s team to limit how Trump’s attorneys could question potential jurors.
      The election subversion case is one of several Trump is involved in, both at the state and federal level. Here’s a recap of his many legal troubles.
      Jim Jordan, the GOP nominee for House speaker, has spent today consolidating support ahead of a vote scheduled for tomorrow to pick a new leader of Congress’s lower chamber.While it still remains unclear if he has the 217 votes necessary to succeed Kevin McCarthy, the Republican who was earlier this month booted from the speaker’s chair by eight far-right GOP lawmakers and the chamber’s Democrats, Jordan has made important progress today.He notably won the support of Mike Rogers, an Alabama congressman who had previously refused to vote for him:Jordan has supported baseless conspiracy theories about Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss and received the former president’s endorsement in the speaker’s race. In a letter he sent to his GOP colleagues today, he has pitched himself as a uniter of a conference that’s deeply divided over many issues, including McCarthy’s removal:Judge Tanya Chutkan says with Trump’s public prejudicial statements in the 2020 election case, there is a real risk that witnesses may be intimidated.Trump cannot “launch a pre-trial smear campaign,” Chutkan says, adding violations of order could lead to sanctions.Federal judge Tanya Chutkan has imposed a limited gag order against Donald Trump in the 2020 election subversion case.Chutkan’s order prevents posting or reposting attacks against the special counsel, his staff, court staff or personnel, and statements against potential witnesses or expert testimony. The judge declined to impose restrictions on criticizing the government in general, including the justice department and Biden administration. She also will allow statements alleging the case is politically motivated.Over the past two hours the judge, Tanya Chutkan has heard arguments from both Donald Trump’s attorneys and prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith over whether she should impose a gag order on the former president.Prosecutors have asked her to do so, citing inflammatory statements he has made targeting various players in his federal election subversion case, including witnesses, court staff and attorneys. At the hearing, Trump’s lawyer John Lauro has argued such an order would be unnecessary, saying he can stop the ex-president from making outrageous statements, and unsuccessfully trying to get Chutkan to delay the trial until after the 2024 election.The judge has yet to rule, but as her statement before the hearing went into recess makes clear, she seems to be leaning towards imposing some kind of order limiting what the former president can say.Federal judge Tanya Chutkan has signaled she is partial to a request from prosecutors to impose some kind of gag order on Donald Trump in the election subversion case.“I’m not confident that without some sort of restriction, we’ll be in here all the time,” she said after hearing about two hours of arguments from special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors and Trump’s defense attorneys.The court is now taking a brief recess.Judge Tanya Chutkan is now back to the argument, put forward by Donald Trump’s attorney, about how a gag order could affect a debate with his former vice-president turned rival Mike Pence.Chutkan says she understand how it could be detrimental to their speech, but then asks Trump’s lawyer John Lauro why she could not issue an order stopping him from attacking other witnesses – such as former joint chief of staff chairman Mark Milley. Last month, Trump suggested Milley deserved “DEATH” over a phone call with his Chinese counterpart near the end of his term, where the army general assured him the president would not order military action.Lauro replies that the first amendment does not restrict speech simply because it could be used to spur someone to violence.Judge Tanya Chutkan asks Donald Trump’s lawyer John Lauro why the former president needed to attack the spouse of special counsel Jack Smith.Lauro replies that he gets attacked as well, but that’s permitted under the first amendment, and nothing stops Trump from arguing the case against him is politically biased.Chutkan then turns to Trump’s attacks against court staff, such as the New York City court clerk who he maligned earlier this month. Lauro concedes that comment was out of bounds for a judicial proceeding.The judge then wanted to hear from Lauro his argument against her issuing an order blocking Trump from making derogatory public statements about the court or its staff. His attorney says such a step is not necessary, nothing the civil case in New York is different from the federal criminal proceedings in Washington DC. Lauro adds that he will make sure Trump does not make similar statements.Judge Tanya Chutkan then considers another question: why Donald Trump feels the need to call a prosecutor a “thug” to make the point that the case against him is politically motivated.His attorney John Lauro asks what else he should do in the face of oppression. “Let’s tone this down,” Chutkan replies.“If your honor wants to censor my speech”, Lauro retorts.Judge Tanya Chutkan poses the hypothetical question of how a statement by Donald Trump attacking the election subversion case as political and brought by Joe Biden should be handled.Trump’s attorney John Lauro asks if such a statement would violate the potential gag order. The prosecution initially argues that yes, it would, before backtracking and saying it would not, because Biden is not a party to the case. More

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      Ted Cruz faces new Senate challenge as Democrat attracts huge fundraising haul

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      The Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz spent time last weekend hobnobbing with Liz Truss, the shortest-serving British prime minister – but news closer to home suggested he might have reason to fear for his own job security.As reported by the Dallas Morning News and the Texas Tribune, the Democratic congressman Colin Allred, Cruz’s most likely opponent for re-election next year, reported $10.9m raised since declaring his candidacy in May.That was nearly 20 times as much as Allred’s closest Democratic rival, but it was also, the papers said, almost $2m more than fundraising reported by Cruz in the same period.The hard-right Republican – who was elected to the Senate in 2012, prompted a government shutdown in 2013 and ran for president in 2016 – reportedly raised $8.8m in the same period.In an email to the Guardian, a spokesperson for Cruz contested the reported figures, pointing to a Fox News report earlier in October which said the senator “brought in $5.4m during the July-September third quarter of 2023 fundraising … up from the $4.4m he raised during the April-June second quarter of fundraising and the $1.8m he brought in during the first three months of 2023.“… The Cruz campaign says they entered October with over $6.7m cash on hand.”Either way, Allred, a former Tennessee Titans NFL linebacker elected to Congress from his native Dallas in 2018, presents a formidable figure.Revelling in the show of fundraising muscle, Allred’s campaign manager, Paige Hutchinson, told the Texas Tribune: “Texans’ enthusiasm to retire Ted Cruz – and to elect Colin Allred to the Senate – is reflected in this quarter’s amazing outpouring of grassroots support.”Allred does seem set to breeze to victory in the Democratic primary and therefore advance to challenge Cruz. His party, however, has had its hopes dashed in Texas before.In 2018, Beto O’Rourke, then a congressman, mounted a strong challenge to Cruz but fell short. O’Rourke parlayed resulting prominence in national progressive circles into a campaign for president in 2020 but that and a run for governor of Texas two years later also ended in disappointment.On Saturday, meanwhile, Cruz tweeted a photograph of himself with his wife, Heidi Cruz, and Truss.“We are so grateful for our British friends and for strong leaders on the global stage who will champion conservative principles and defend liberty,” Cruz said.Truss thanked the Cruzes for their “warm welcome in Houston” and said: “It’s vital that conservatives win the battle of ideas both in the US and UK. The time is now.”Truss was prime minister for 49 days last September and October. Historically speaking, that made her the shortest-serving PM of all. In terms of pop culture, as promoted by the Daily Star, a tabloid newspaper, she lasted less time than a lettuce. More

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      Biden campaign joins Trump’s Truth Social platform: ‘Converts welcome!’

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      Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign has joined Truth Social, a rightwing social media platform created by the Republican former president Donald Trump.Using the handle @BidenHQ, the account says it is a “project of Biden-Harris 2024” and includes a banner image that says “the malarkey ends here”, referencing the president’s signature colloquialism.The campaign wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it joined Truth Social “mostly because we thought it would be very funny”.For its profile image, the campaign chose a depiction of Biden as “Dark Brandon”, a meme that shows Biden with laser eyes and stems from the “Let’s Go Brandon” chant rightwing circles used to stand in for saltier language against the president. The stunt is the latest in a line of quips and memes from the president’s digital team.While the new account is meant to be in jest, it’s clear the Biden campaign is also using it to reach conservatives. The first few posts today shared conservatives either giving Biden credit or criticizing Trump.“Well. Let’s see how this goes. Converts welcome!” Biden’s campaign wrote in its first post on the platform.Biden’s camp told Fox News Digital that using Truth Social would “meet voters where they are” while also combatting misinformation about Biden that spreads on the platform.As mainstream social media platforms have attempted to clamp down on misinformation and hateful conduct on their sites, places like Truth Social have cropped up with missions to minimally moderate the content people post, allowing misinformation to spread more easily.The platform is not widely used. Estimates show that Truth Social has about 2 million users; Facebook has nearly 3 billion, while X has about a half-billion. More

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      Louisiana professor quits in protest over rightwinger’s victory in governor’s race

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      A prominent professor at Louisiana’s largest public university has said he is resigning after an extremist Republican candidate won the state’s gubernatorial election – a victory some fear could accelerate the already conservative-dominated state’s march into unfettered rightwing governance.Robert Mann, a journalism professor at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication and a well-known political commentator, said he will step down at the end of the academic year in response to Jeff Landry’s victory in the election to become governor.Landry had previously called for Mann to be disciplined by LSU after the academic criticized him online.“I have this morning informed my dean that I will step down from my position at LSU at the end of the school year,” Mann posted on X.“My reasons are simple: the person who will be governor in January has already asked LSU to fire me. And I have no confidence the leadership of this university would protect the Manship School against a governor’s efforts to punish me and other faculty members.“I’ve seen too much cowardice and appeasement from top LSU officials already. That being the case, it’s clearly best to remove myself from the equation to avoid any harm to the school I love.“I’ll add that I’ve suspected for the past two years it would come to this, so I’ve been making plans for some time. The minute that I knew Landry wanted me fired and was willing to call the [university] president to demand it, I knew there would be dark days for LSU if he won.”Landry won a multi-party – or “jungle” – primary in Louisiana on Saturday with little meaningful resistance from the state’s Democratic party. He is preparing to be sworn in as governor in January after capturing a majority of the votes cast in Saturday’s race.As attorney general, Landry railed against coronavirus vaccine and masking requirements, and measures to address the climate crisis, which he has called “a hoax”.In 2020, he joined with other Republican attorneys general in a lawsuit which attempted to overturn the results of the election that saw Donald Trump lose the presidency to Joe Biden. Landry was endorsed by Trump in the gubernatorial race.Mann – once the communications director for late former Democratic Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco – became the subject of Landry’s ire in 2021 after criticizing the attorney general’s opposition to vaccine mandates.Landry, who sued the Biden administration after it mandated Covid vaccinations for federal contractors, had been opposed to stricter vaccine requirements at LSU. And he sent a representative to a university meeting where vaccines were discussed.In response, Mann tweeted: “Louisiana AG Jeff Landry sending some flunkie to the LSU Faculty Senate meeting today to read a letter attacking Covid vaccines is quite the move from a guy who considers himself ‘pro-life’.”Landry was unhappy with the characterization. He said he had spoken with the LSU president “and expressed my disdain and expectation for accountability”.He added: “This type of disrespect and dishonesty has no place in our society – especially at our flagship university by a professor. I hope LSU takes appropriate action soon.”Neither Landry nor LSU immediately responded to requests for comment.The outgoing Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, a centrist Democrat, has used his veto power to prevent some of the most extreme Republican legislation from passing in the state.Edwards issued 319 vetoes in his first seven and a half years as governor, including against a law which would have dropped compulsory school Covid vaccinations and a “don’t say gay” bill similar to the one in Florida, which would have banned teachers from mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools.Landry’s victory means Louisiana will have a Republican governor and legislature, which will be eager to revisit efforts to enact those laws. More

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      Republican Will Hurd on his failed quest for president: ‘I’m going to always look at this fondly’

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      Will Hurd wanted to be the most powerful man in the world. Like so many candidates before him, he knew the loneliness of the long distance runner criss-crossing Iowa and New Hampshire in a quest for votes that might make him president of the United States. But it was not be.This week Hurd called it a day after a campaign that failed to make much of a splash. Indeed, arguably his biggest headline came in July when he declared, “Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison,” and was roundly booed at the Iowa Republican Party’s Lincoln Dinner. Unrepentant, Hurd told them: “Listen, I know the truth is hard.”It was a telling moment that said much about the Republican party in 2023, cult-like in its devotion to Trump – he remains the runaway favourite for the nomination – and blocking its ears to dissenters making the case that it is time to move on from a doubly impeached, quadruply indicted septuagenarian.Still, in a phone interview from his home in San Antonio, Texas, Hurd – who got married last New Year’s Eve – insists that he has no regrets. “Look, running for president in my first year of marriage was incredibly difficult and it goes back to: why are you doing it?” he says. “For me, it was always very clear.“I’ve been lucky to have some amazing experiences and America is at an inflection point: if we want to make sure we leave this country better off for our kids, we’ve got to start making better decisions now. For me, that was always in my mind, that’s everything that I focused on when I woke up. It was never like, why the hell am I doing this? I knew exactly why I was doing this.”Hurd, 46, is no stranger to the campaign trail. He served three terms in the House of Representatives and was the chamber’s sole Black Republican during his final two years in office. He represented Texas’s then most competitive district, which was heavily Hispanic and stretched from the outskirts of San Antonio to El Paso, spanning more than 800 miles of US-Mexico border.But with the Republican party still in thrall to Trump, Hurd, a trenchant critic of the then president, chose not to seek re-election in 2020, saying he would instead focus his energies on technology companies in the national security domain. Last year he travelled the country promoting his book American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done.Hurd was the last major candidate to join the already crowded Republican presidential primary field when he announced his run in late July. He campaigned as a pragmatic, pro-business moderate with strong national security credentials who was unafraid to seek bipartisan consensus. He took on the grind of countless hours on planes, in hotels and away from family with good grace.“What is it like to run for president?” he muses. “It’s a lot of travel. It’s a lot of interviews. I have the experience of running for Congress before but running for president, because you’re doing so much, is more raw and authentic. It’s not as staged as some of the other experiences I’ve had. To be in a position to run for president and be taken seriously was an honour. I’m going to always look at this experience fondly.”Hurd’s 14-week foray delivered moments he won’t soon forget. On 11 September he joined first responders and people from Iowa on a 21-mile walking salute to those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. At campaign stops, the crowds were often bigger than he expected or had experienced when hustling as a relative unknown in west Texas.“You’d meet some great people. I met this seven-year-old kid in New Hampshire who was super space and the fact that he asked his dad to travel like 90 minutes to come see me talk because he read something I wrote about space. That’s pretty big and cool.”Nine in 10 people in Iowa and New Hampshire are white. Democrats, for their part, have revised their 2024 presidential primary schedule, replacing Iowa with the more racially diverse South Carolina as the leadoff voting state. Hurd, the son of a Black father and white mother, has written about the racism he endured as a teenager and entitled the first part of his book: “The GOP needs to look like America.”But he denies encountering racial prejudice on the trail. “I did not experience any of that. The folks in Iowa and New Hampshire recognise and understand the important role they play in setting the tone of the country and part of that is why a dark horse candidate like me even had a chance to potentially try to catch fire.”Even so, it has been hard for anyone to find a divine spark when confronting the Trump forest fire that has consumed the Republican party for eight years. Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s challenge faded in recent months while other candidates struggled to transcend the quixotic.Asked if there was a moment when they all realised just how formidable Trump still is, notwithstanding his electoral setbacks and legal woes, Hurd replies: “I went in with that clear-minded. I knew that Donald Trump was starting with the largest base and in a place like New Hampshire I think that’s a third of the electorate, a third of the Republican primary voter.“But there’s more people that are considering somebody other than Donald Trump. There are other people that are frustrated with the direction both parties are going that want to be inspired. I also evaluate that in 2020 his support in the Republican primary electorate was 98% so he is without doubt damaged goods. People that voted for Donald Trump twice that still like him recognise his baggage is going to be more harmful than helpful.”What were Hurd’s conversations with Trump supporters like on the campaign trail – did he try to change their minds? “It’s funny, a couple times, especially in New Hampshire, you show up somewhere and someone’s wearing a Trump hat and then after you speak they’re like, ‘Can we get a picture?’ and they take the Trump hat off.“Supporters of other candidates – that’s their right and they should be proud of that. But the opportunity to articulate my positions was great and so I did that everywhere and people were open to having a conversation and I always engage people regardless of who they ultimately supported.“What makes this country great is to be able to have that competition of ideas and this experience proved to me, especially on the ground, we can disagree without being disagreeable and I saw that with the actual voters. I’m optimistic about the future of the country because of the people that I met.”But Hurd and his fellow candidates have faced their share of criticism for, at best, embarking on vanity projects with a view to becoming a TV pundit or Trump’s vice-president and, at worst, splitting the anti-Trump vote and effectively handing him the nomination. He rejects the charge.“The Republican party is supposed to be the party of the competition of ideas. We’re meant to have a diversity of thought and I’ve always said that having a number of people to put their message out there and offer different perspectives is valuable. Donald Trump as the GOP nominee is not inevitable but we put ourselves in a better position by starting to consolidate if there’s not a clear path to victory.”For all his efforts, Hurd barely registered in opinion polls of Republican voters. When he failed to qualify for the first two presidential primary debates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Simi Valley, California, the writing was on the wall. This week he followed the Miami mayor, Francis Suarez, who became the first presidential hopeful to suspend his campaign shortly after failing to make the first debate stage.He explains: “I’ve always been honest, and so when I knew that our pathway to victory was going to be incredibly tough, I had to be honest with supporters and event planners and people that were hosting things, and so that’s why the timeline is what it is.”Hurd is throwing his weight behind Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and ex-US ambassador to the UN, who has been steadily gaining ground as the leading Trump alternative. Her campaign reported that she raised more than $11m between July and September and this week George Will, an influential Washington Post columnist, called on South Carolina senator Tim Scott and other contenders to drop out and rally around the “experienced, polished, steely and unintimidated” Haley.Hurd says: “Running for president is as much about organisation as it is ideas and she has been able to do that. When it comes to areas like how do you create a strong economy, how you deal with our foreign policy, those are things that I’m aligned with her and she has the best chance. There’s a lot of great people in this race and a lot of them are my friends but Nikki has the momentum to win.”Hurd joined the CIA in 2000 and, after 9/11, spent eight years on the frontlines of the “war on terror” including Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Now the world again appears to be catching fire with unpredictable consequences. While Trump and others preach “America First” isolationism, Hurd believes that Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN, is most able to meet the moment.“People are nervous, especially with what’s happening now in Israel, two wars going on, the threat that the Chinese government poses to the US and our allies,” he adds. “People want a leader who understands these issues, who’s going to have a steady hand, and right now that’s Ambassador Haley.”Hurd sounds upbeat for a man who has just joined all those other White House hopefuls on the boulevard of broken dreams. His bio on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, still describes him as “Candidate for President. Common sense Republican. Husband.”Anyone seeking Hurd 2024 merchandise on his campaign website, however, might be out of luck. “No products were found matching your selection,” it says. More

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      Jim Jordan races to try to change minds of holdouts in bid for House speaker

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      The rightwing congressman Jim Jordan is seeking to shore up support for his bid to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, with plans to appear on the House floor early this week to try to sway Republican members of Congress who signaled in a secret ballot vote they will not support his bid.Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, claimed in a brief interview with Politico he believes he will get the 217 votes required to secure the speakership in a vote now set to happen on Tuesday at noon.“We think we’re going to get 217,” Jordan said.Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy has expressed support for Jordan’s bid to succeed him after a small faction of eight Republicans in the House joined Democrats to oust McCarthy from the role earlier this month and plunged the party into a bitter squabble.Congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana was slated to secure the Republican nomination for the speaker role before Scalise withdrew from the speakership race after he failed to secure enough support to win a vote. With Republicans holding a slim majority of three seats in the House, any group of Republican holdouts could cause any nominee to fail to secure the speakership.Several Republicans have publicly said they remain no votes on Jordan’s speakership. Mike Rogers of Alabama and John Rutherford and Carlos Gimenez of Florida are in this group, according to Politico.Meanwhile, yet another potential Republican candidate has emerged if Jordan’s effort fails. Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson plans to jump into the race if Jordan stumbles, according to NBC News.“If Jordan cannot get to 217, Johnson intends to step up,” a source told the television network. “Many members are asking him to do so.”NBC added: “Johnson would seek to be a consensus candidate, attempting to bridge hard-right conservatives and moderates who have been waging a war against one another”.”Trump has vocally supported Jordan for the speakership role. The stalemate has halted legislative business.Supporters of Jordan have gone on social media encouraging followers to call Republican holdouts to demand they support Jordan’s bid or face ousting efforts of their own in primaries.That is a hardline tactic that has prompted some dismay even among Jordan’s own supporters.Texas congressman Dan Crenshaw slammed some of his fellow Republicans for an online pressure campaign on behalf of Jordan, saying it would likely put people off backing him.“That is the dumbest way to support Jordan and I’m supporting Jordan. I’m going to vote for Jordan. And as somebody who wants Jim Jordan, the dumbest thing you can do is to continue pissing off those people and entrench them,” Crenshaw told CNN’s State of the Union show.Democrats have expressed concerns over Jordan’s speakership bid, citing the congressman’s role leading up to and in the wake of the 6 January insurrection.“House Republicans are intent on doubling down and have chosen to nominate a vocal election-denier in Jim Jordan,” Congressman Pete Aguilar, chair of the Democratic caucus, told reporters. “A man whose rhetoric and partisanship fomented the January 6 attack on this very building, on these very steps.” More