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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 1, 2026

An 80-Year-Old Senator Beats the 47-Year-Old Congressman Who Ran on Generational Change by Roughly Two to One — Ed Markey Says "Tonight Is a Testament to the Power of the Progressive Movement," and Seth Moulton Says the Conversation Still Needed Having

On September 1, 2026, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) beat Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary, taking roughly two-thirds of the vote. It was the most direct test yet of the generational-change argument that has been running through Democratic primaries all cycle — and the incumbent won it going away. Moulton, 47, built his challenge on the proposition that Markey, 80, is too old for another six-year term, invoking Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Dianne Feinstein and Joe Biden as cautionary tales. Markey answered by consolidating the left: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez all endorsed him, and he campaigned on the same young-progressive coalition that saved him from Joe Kennedy III in 2020. In his victory speech in downtown Boston he called the win a "testament to the power of the progressive movement of our nation," told the crowd "there is a big blue wave coming to drown out all those red MAGA hats," and answered the age question directly — "I'm always the youngest guy in the room when it comes to new ideas." Moulton conceded the night of the primary, said he had called Markey to congratulate him, and pledged his full support for the general election while refusing to retract the argument he had run on. His House seat in the 6th District is now open. Markey advances to the November 3 general election against Republican John Deaton, in a state he carried with 66 percent in 2020. Elsewhere on the ballot, incumbents held: Rep. Richard Neal survived his primary in the 1st District, and Mike Minogue won the Republican gubernatorial primary to face Gov. Maura Healey.

“Donald Trump brings out the Malden in me every day — and I fight him every day.”
Ed Markey (D-MA) · Sep 1, 2026

After Two Record-Breaking Shutdowns in Ten Months, the Senate Votes 90-6 to Fund the Government Past the Midterms — and Pushes the Real Fight to December 11

Government funding was set to lapse at midnight on September 30, 2026, which would have opened a shutdown on October 1 — four and a half weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. On Sunday, August 2, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) released the text of a continuing resolution holding most agencies at current levels through December 11. The Senate passed it 90-6 in the early hours of Saturday, August 8, before leaving for the August recess. The bill is a stopgap, but it is not a clean one. Democrats won three things House Republicans' version did not contain: language closing a transfer loophole that would have let the administration move money appropriated for other programs into Border Patrol; a temporary block on a proposed OMB rule giving senior political appointees a larger role in reviewing and cancelling federal grants; and rejection of the White House's request for $1 billion to begin work on the new "Trump-class" battleship. It also carries adjustments for WIC, shipbuilding and the Disaster Relief Fund. The six no votes were an unusual left-right pairing — Cassidy, Paul, Kaine, Markey, Warren and Sanders — with progressives objecting to funding the administration's agenda at all and fiscal conservatives objecting to another stopgap. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said voting yes would be "signing a check for President Trump to continue his illegal, reckless agenda." The politics behind the 90-6 margin are straightforward: the country has already been through three funding lapses in a year, including a four-day shutdown from January 31 to February 3 and a record 76-day DHS lapse from February to late April. Neither party wanted a fourth one running through the campaign. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) framed it as owing the public predictability. What the vote does not do is settle anything. It moves the deadline to December 11 — after the election, into a lame-duck session, with the OMB grants rule, immigration enforcement funding, hemp-derived THC products and the unfinished full-year appropriations bills all still live. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), asked what it would take to finish a budget by then, listed "whiffs of frozen hell, donkeys flying." The House still has to pass the measure when members return in September before it reaches the President's desk.

“House Republicans are in charge here, and we’re continuing to do the grown-up thing and make sure we get the job done. And we’re happy that we just passed that continuing resolution to fund the government through early December, and then we’ll continue through the process after the election.”
Mike Johnson (R-LA) · Sep 1, 2026

Two Fatal ICE Shootings in Houston and Maine Trigger Senate Demands for Body Cameras and Vetting Answers

Two people were killed by federal immigration officers in July 2026, neither of whom was the target of the operation that killed them. On July 7, ICE officers shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, during a traffic stop in Houston as he was on his way to work. On July 13, officers shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, in his car near his home in Biddeford, Maine, after ICE attempted a vehicle stop; DHS said the officer fired "fearing for public safety," while Sen. Angus King's office said Durán Guerrero was not the target of the warrant. The Associated Press subsequently reported that the ICE officer who fired in Maine, David Brouillette, had a documented history of serious mental health problems and violent behavior toward family members recorded in family court files. On July 20, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) led a letter signed by 38 Democratic senators demanding that DHS explain its vetting and training of new agents and its vehicle pursuit policies, and calling for body cameras to be issued to all officers. ICE subsequently pulled back on vehicle stops. At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since the start of the administration's crackdown.

“We have the permanent cameras, but we also have Motorola [that] is working with us on the mics that we use.”
Markwayne Mullin (R) · Sep 1, 2026

Israel Opens Bidding to Build 1,234 Homes in E1 — the Corridor That Would Sever the West Bank — and 29 Senate Democrats Tell It to Rescind the Tenders While the State Department Pointedly Says Nothing About E1

On Aug. 18, 2026, Israel's Construction and Housing Ministry published a tender inviting contractors to build seven residential compounds totaling 1,234 housing units in E1, the tract of occupied West Bank land east of Jerusalem that every U.S. administration since Clinton has treated as a red line. Bids are due Oct. 19. Building E1 would wall occupied East Jerusalem off from Bethlehem and Ramallah and cut the northern West Bank from the southern one — which is why successive American governments, Republican and Democratic alike, have pressed Israel not to develop it. The Trump administration's response was conspicuously narrow. Asked about the tenders, the State Department restated existing language — that the United States "does not support Israel annexing the West Bank" — without mentioning E1 at all. On Aug. 28, Sen. Ruben Gallego led a statement signed by 29 congressional Democrats calling on Israel to withdraw the tenders outright. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who has pushed hardest in the Senate on West Bank settler violence, had already gone further, calling E1 a violation of international law that would leave Israel "an apartheid, pariah state." No Republican member of Congress is on record objecting to the tenders.

“We urge the Israeli government to immediately rescind these tenders, halt settlement expansion in the West Bank, and take urgent action to rein in settler violence.”
Jeff Merkley (D-OR) · Aug 28, 2026

Aug 28, 2026· Updated

Eleven Senate Democrats Invoke a Cold War-Era Human Rights Law to Force a Floor Vote on Israel — Demanding the State Department Account for Nine Americans Killed in the West Bank

On August 27, 2026, Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced their intent to introduce a privileged resolution under Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act requiring the State Department to report to Congress on escalating violence in the West Bank — including the killings of at least nine American citizens there since 2022, investigations (or the absence of them) into killings by Israeli settlers and security forces, and Israel's detention of Palestinian children. Section 502B(c) lets any senator force a floor vote on a demand for a human rights report about a country receiving U.S. security assistance. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has ten days to act on the resolution; if it does not, the resolution can be brought straight to the floor. If it passes, the administration has 30 days to submit the report or certain security assistance to Israel is cut off. Eight more senators joined as original cosponsors: Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Peter Welch (D-VT). No Republican senator had publicly responded to the resolution as of the announcement.

“We write to reiterate our alarm about the potential for a dangerous collapse in the West Bank now that the only two Israeli banks providing vital services have indicated difficulties with banking waivers.”
Brian Schatz (D-HI) · Aug 28, 2026

Ten Weeks Before the Midterms, a Second Person in Mike Collins’s Orbit Surfaces With Nazi and Klan Imagery — a Former Staffer Who Calls Himself a "Twink Fascist," and Jon Ossoff Says It Is "Disqualifying"

On Thursday, August 27, 2026, The Washington Post reported that Preston Parra, 24, who interned for Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) in 2024 and then worked as a contractor for the congressman's political action committee into 2025, had posted a swastika to his X account in June and July and shared an image of himself in Ku Klux Klan robes. Parra, who describes himself online as a "twink fascist," defended the posts to the Post as satirical and provocative, and said the Klan image was generated with X's Grok AI tool. Collins is the Republican nominee challenging Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in what is expected to be one of the most expensive Senate races of the 2026 midterms. A spokesman said Parra has no affiliation with Collins's office or campaign and that Collins "unequivocally condemns" the posts. The report landed on top of an earlier and unresolved controversy. In July 2026, CNN's KFile reported that Collins's son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II — who is registered to vote at a Collins-owned property, has appeared in Collins campaign photos, and attended Collins's June primary victory party — had shared content from the white nationalist group Patriot Front along with antisemitic conspiracy material and calls to deport Muslims. Collins abruptly ended a press conference at Monroe County Hospital on July 30 after reporters repeatedly pressed him on the relationship, saying only that he had "fully addressed" it before pivoting to attacks on Ossoff. On August 11, more than 50 Black Georgia state legislators signed a statement condemning Collins and demanding answers; Collins responded that "no one speaks for me" and condemned antisemitism generally without disavowing his son-in-law by name. The Washington Post framed the Parra posts as part of a pattern that some Republicans have begun to notice, coming as Republicans defend a Senate majority and Georgia sits near the center of the map.

“This morning's news should shock not just the entire state of Georgia but the entire country.”
Jon Ossoff (D-GA) · Aug 27, 2026

Aug 25, 2026· Updated

Lindsey Graham's Sister Appointed to His Senate Seat on Trump's Recommendation

On Monday, July 13, 2026, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham Nordone — the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's sister — to fill his Senate seat, after President Trump publicly recommended her for the post. Nordone, who had held no prior elected office, was sworn in by Senate Majority Leader John Thune the following afternoon and will serve until at least January 3, 2027, when the new Congress convenes. A special Republican primary was set for August 11 to choose a nominee for the November ballot. The appointment preserved a narrow Senate Republican majority. It was initially presented as a placeholder arrangement, and drew criticism as nepotism from across the spectrum — sharpening considerably when Nordone later said she would seek a full term, with Trump's endorsement, after South Carolina Republicans had been promised an open primary with no incumbent.

“I continue to miss Lindsey every day, and there is still a big hole in my heart. But I know he's looking down right now, very proud of everyone in this room.”
Darline Graham Nordone (R-SC) · Aug 25, 2026

A Republican Senator Has Frozen Every One of Trump’s Postal Board Nominees Ten Weeks Before a Mail-Heavy Midterm — and Says He Will Not Lift the Hold Until Service Matches "the Days of the Pony Express"

Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota has placed a blanket hold on every one of President Trump's nominees to the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, blocking floor confirmation of the entire slate. His grievance is service, not politics: first-class mail that is supposed to arrive in three days is taking closer to ten in South Dakota, veterans' prescriptions arrive late or not at all, and bills reach constituents on the day they are due. Rounds announced the holds on Aug. 12 alongside a bill to strip bonuses from USPS executives, and on Aug. 21 told the Postal Service he would release the hold only when service "returns to levels at least equal to the days of the Pony Express." By Aug. 28 USPS had told the South Dakota delegation it would upgrade its Sioux Falls facility, and Rounds's office said it was in talks with the White House. The hold lands on a slate that is already contested for a different reason. Trump has nominated only Republicans to a board that has been bipartisan by tradition, and in July the Homeland Security Committee's ranking Democrat, Gary Peters, asked Chairman Rand Paul to freeze the nominees until the administration puts forward Democratic names as well. Two nominees, Jeffrey Brodsky and William Gallo, were otherwise headed for a floor vote.

“First-class mail is supposed to be delivered in three days. It's taking closer to 10 for a lot of the mail in South Dakota.”
Mike Rounds (R-SD) · Aug 21, 2026

Israel’s National Security Minister Says Israel Should Kill "30 to 40" People in Gaza Every Night Because "There Are People There Who Are Not Worthy of Life" — and Two of the Senate’s Most Reliably Pro-Israel Democrats Tell Him to Resign

In an interview recorded for the debut episode of a podcast hosted by former Hamas hostage Rom Braslavski and aired the weekend of August 15–16, 2026, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Israel should be carrying out "targeted assassinations" in Gaza at a rate of "30 to 40 every night" — and made clear he did not mean only people posing an immediate threat. Ben-Gvir, who was criticizing the reduced tempo of Israeli operations under the armistice, said of Palestinians in Gaza that there are people there "who are not worthy of life." In the same conversation he called for Palestinians to be encouraged to leave Gaza permanently and said he viewed "all of Gaza as ours." The remarks circulated widely on Sunday, August 16, and drew condemnation from a narrow but notable slice of Washington: two Senate Democrats who have consistently voted to keep U.S. weapons flowing to Israel and have resisted party pressure to block arms sales. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) called the comments "horrific and completely indefensible" and became the first sitting U.S. senator to say outright that Ben-Gvir should leave the Israeli government, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly disavow him. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), a former CIA analyst and Pentagon official, followed on August 20, calling the remarks "abhorrent and a shameful part of the Netanyahu government." The episode is a marker of where the pro-Israel center of the Senate Democratic caucus has moved: the officials calling for a sitting Israeli cabinet minister's removal are not the caucus's left flank but two of its most dependable supporters of U.S. military aid to Israel. German lawmakers separately called for EU sanctions on Ben-Gvir over the same comments. The Trump administration did not issue a public statement on the remarks in the days that followed.

“Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has once again made violent, dehumanizing comments about innocent civilians in Gaza. It is abhorrent and a shameful part of the Netanyahu government. He should be long gone from any government role and publicly condemned by anyone who claims to care about civilians, Israeli or Palestinian, in the region.”
Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) · Aug 20, 2026

Wyoming Sends Harriet Hageman to a Near-Certain Senate Seat and Election-Denying Secretary of State Chuck Gray to Her House Seat — but Rejects Trump's Pick for Governor

Wyoming's August 18, 2026 primaries reshuffled the entire federal delegation of the country's reddest state, and split the difference on President Trump. Rep. Harriet Hageman, the state's lone House member and Trump's endorsed candidate, won the Republican nomination for retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis's open seat with roughly 65% of the vote against businessman Sam Mead. She will face Democrat James Byrd, a former state representative, in November. In her victory statement Hageman framed the race as a fight against "a rising tide of Marxists." Secretary of State Chuck Gray — a prominent election denier and Trump ally — won the crowded nine-way primary for Hageman's open at-large House seat with about 25% of the vote, ahead of conservative activist Steve Friess at 20%. Former Wyoming Freedom Caucus chairman John Bear, whose faction backed rivals, said "I don't think any of us anticipated this kind of loss." But in the governor's race, Trump's endorsement did not carry. State Sen. Eric Barlow, a Gillette rancher and former speaker of the Wyoming House, beat Trump-backed Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder and Wyoming GOP-endorsed Brent Bien for the nomination to succeed retiring Gov. Mark Gordon. Barlow, who ran on a "we're running for Wyoming, not against anybody" message, credited a backlash to "a lot of out of state money and agendas." Degenfelder's loss was one of three Trump-endorsed primary defeats that night, pushing his 2026 cycle total to 12 — more than 2018, 2020 and 2024 combined.

“I don't think any of us anticipated this kind of loss.”
John Bear (R-WY) · Aug 19, 2026

Aug 19, 2026· Updated

Mary Peltola Finishes First in Alaska's Senate Primary — Ahead of the Incumbent — and Dan Sullivan, Whose Ballot Line Was Shadowed by a Second Dan Sullivan, Says Democrats Tried to "Steal an Election"

Alaska's nonpartisan top-four primary on August 18, 2026 sent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola to a November general election that the Cook Political Report rates a toss-up. Peltola led on primary night with roughly 48 percent to Sullivan's 42.8 percent — a first-place finish for the challenger over a two-term incumbent, though Alaska's primary sends the top four candidates forward regardless of margin and Peltola led the 2024 House primary before losing that November. The race was dominated by the presence of a second Republican candidate named Dan Sullivan — a Petersburg man who filed as Dan J. Sullivan and drew 2.4 percent. Sen. Sullivan and President Trump called the candidacy a Democratic trick; Trump posted on Truth Social two days before the primary that "the Crooked, Radical Left Dumocrats have put up another man named 'Dan Sullivan'" and told voters on primary day to pick the incumbent. Peltola's campaign said it had no involvement with either Dan Sullivan. Peltola, who has outraised Sullivan roughly $18 million to $12 million and campaigns on "fish, family, freedom," attacked the senator's votes as service to "corporate greed" and to the reconciliation law she says pushed 10,000 Alaskans off Medicaid. Sullivan, who won Trump's endorsement, dismissed the primary-night numbers, renewed his objection to Alaska's ranked-choice system, and accused national Democrats and the Peltola campaign of complicity in trying to trick Alaska voters. Democrats need a net four seats to take the Senate.

“Like many others who did not support ranked choice voting in 2020, I still believe that this new election system has created unnecessary confusion among voters.”
Dan Sullivan (R-AK) · Aug 19, 2026

A Democratic Socialist Who Raised Under $1 Million Beats a $16 Million Impeachment Witness: Angie Nixon Upsets Alex Vindman for Florida's Democratic Senate Nomination

On August 18, 2026, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon — a Jacksonville Democrat and former union organizer who joined the Democratic Socialists of America during the campaign — defeated Alex Vindman in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat Marco Rubio vacated, winning roughly 56% to 44%. The margin was the story. Vindman, the retired Army lieutenant colonel who became nationally known as a witness in President Trump's 2019 impeachment, raised more than $16 million; Nixon raised under $1 million, a spending gap of roughly 16 to 1. She ran on Medicare for All, opposition to U.S. military aid to Israel, and an economic message aimed at working-class voters, and was endorsed by Reps. Maxwell Frost, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley — but not by Sen. Bernie Sanders or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the left's best-known national figures. Nixon will face Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who took roughly 75% of her own primary vote and was appointed to the seat by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2025. No Democrat has won a Florida Senate race since 2012. On the same night, Rep. Byron Donalds won the Republican gubernatorial nomination and former Rep. David Jolly won the Democratic one, and Rep. Jared Moskowitz turned back a DSA-backed primary challenger in Florida's 25th District — making the night a split verdict for the left rather than a sweep. Senate Democratic leaders moved quickly to embrace Nixon, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee said Florida "will never elect a socialist to the US Senate."

“Angie Nixon has dedicated her career to fighting for Florida. A lifelong native of Jacksonville and a former union organizer, Angie's dedication to put working families first runs deep — and now, she's running to take that fight to the Senate. Ashley Moody's votes have cost Florida, from her siding with private insurance companies over Floridians to ripping away health care. In November, Florida will have a clear choice at the ballot.”
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) · Aug 18, 2026

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