He was a reality show villain. Can he be the mayor of one of America's largest cities?
Republican Spencer Pratt, known for his TV role on The Hills, appears to be in a tight race with two Democrats in Los Angeles.

In New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, incumbent GOP Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. now knows who he will be competing with this year in the general election: Rebecca Bennett, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot who, in a Tuesday primary, defeated three other Democrats. And Never Trump conservative George Conway used the outcome to take a swipe at the "missing" Kean.Political Polls reported the election results on X late Tuesday night, tweeting, "Former navy helicopter Bennett wins the democratic nomination in NJ-07, the most vulnerable seat for Republicans in NJ. She will run against Missing congressman Kean Jr." And Conway had a humorous response to that tweet: "Maybe she can lead a search-and-rescue mission for her opponent."Kean, according to many reports, has been missing from Congress for months.The 39-year-old Bennett defeated three fellow New Jersey Democrats in the primary: businessman Brian Varela, medical doctor Tina Shah and former Biden administration official Michael Roth. Conway himself is running for office in the United States' 2026 midterms.Although the conservative attorney, now 62, spent most of his life as a Republican and was a prominent figure in the right-wing legal movement, he became a Democrat in 2025 and is seeking the Democratic nomination for a race in New York's 12th Congressional District — where Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler isn't seeking reelection. Conway is promising to "make America boring again" if he wins the primary and the general election — an obvious swipe at President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.Despite his conservative background, Conway is a scathing critic of Trump and the MAGA movement. Conway supported Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, and he has been quite active in The Lincoln Project (a conservative anti-Trump group).Conway attacks Trump repeatedly during his frequent appearances on MS NOW; Trump, Conway argues, is terrible for conservatism and terrible for the Republican Party. His ex-wife, GOP strategist Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway, however, was among Trump's top allies during his first administration.Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. is the son of another well-known New Jersey Republican: Thomas Kean Sr., who served as governor of New Jersey from 1982-1990. Before that, in the early 1970s, the older Kean was speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly.Although New Jersey is a blue state, it sometimes goes GOP in gubernatorial races. The Garden State's other Republican ex-governors include Christine Todd Whitman (who is very much a Never Trumper) and Chris Christie (who, unlike other GOP primary candidates, attacked Trump vigorously when he ran for president in 2024).
Republican Spencer Pratt, known for his TV role on The Hills, appears to be in a tight race with two Democrats in Los Angeles.
Plus: the Democratic Party's candidate problem, property tax breaks for seniors, and the UFC on the White House lawn
Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the exact kind of Democrat I usually criticize. She’s been in Congress for more than 20 years, done nothing particularly remarkable or courageous during that time, did a disastrous job of running the Democratic National Committee in 2016 by pouring gasoline on the Hillary-versus-Bernie fire, and disingenuously suggested that Joe Biden was a strong candidate even after his horrible debate performance two years ago. I never imagined writing a piece in defense of her. Yet here I am. Democrats and Black Americans desperately need to rethink our approach to racial politics, and Wasserman Schultz has accidentally ended up on the right side of some critical questions.Here’s the story. Wasserman Schultz’s political life was upended a few weeks ago when Florida Republicans further gerrymandered the state. The GOP is aiming to win 24 of Florida’s 28 U.S. House seats, four more than they have now. So they shifted the South Florida communities that comprise the 25th district that Wasserman Schultz represents in a way that turns the electorate from one that Kamala Harris won by about five percentage points in 2024 to one Harris lost by nine. The elections website Planscore estimates that a Democrat has about a 20 percent chance of winning the new version of the 25th district. Such a victory would be particularly hard for Wasserman Schultz, a sharp-elbowed partisan who has done little to appeal to centrist voters. So Wasserman Schultz, 59, has opted to run in Florida’s 20th district. Under the new maps, Harris won that district by around 37 points in 2024, according to estimates from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. PlanScore puts the odds of a Democrat winning there at over 99 percent. So whoever wins the Democratic primary on August 18 will almost certainly head to Capitol Hill. Here’s the conundrum. Both the old and new versions of the 20th district have sizable Black populations. Many of these communities were long represented by Alcee Hastings, who is Black and served in the House from 1993 to 2021. Hastings was succeeded by another Black politician, Shelia Cherfilus-McCormick. The congresswoman held the seat until this April, when she resigned from the House because she was likely to be expelled after being indicted for allegedly stealing federal disaster relief funds and using them for her campaign. The 20th district seat is currently vacant. Many Democrats in Florida say that at a time when Republicans are using the Supreme Court’s recent Louisiana v. Callais ruling to eliminate majority-Black districts and effectively expel African Americans from Congress, a white pol like Wasserman Schultz shouldn’t be running in a seat that has traditionally been held by a Black politician. The Black Caucus in Florida’s state legislature called Wasserman Schultz’s decision to run in the 20th district “disheartening.” A group of 10 Florida DNC members, some Black and some not, released a letter blasting Wasserman Schultz in fiery terms. They said her district choice “reinforces the same message Republicans have pushed for years: that Black representation does not matter.” “Our party cannot credibly denounce the dismantling of Black political power by Republicans while treating one of Florida’s few remaining majority-Black districts as a political opportunity for an incumbent seeking a safer seat,” they added. “We cannot claim to defend voting rights, racial justice, and representation while undermining Black political power when it becomes politically convenient.” Wasserman Schultz has argued that she can bring more money home to the 20th district than a newly elected member because of her seniority. And she emphasizes her long-standing relationships with Black leaders and support of Black organizations in Southern Florida. That’s all true. Let’s not ignore the obvious, though: She isn’t running in the 20th district on some altruistic mission to help Black people in South Florida, but rather because it’s the easiest way to continue her political career. That said, I don’t want the congresswoman to stand down. Wasserman Schultz’s candidacy embodies two important principles worth defending. First, Black voters should get the chance to choose the candidate who they feel best represents them, whatever that person’s race. The new 20th district is about 40 percent Black. So it’s likely that the Democratic primary electorate is majority Black. A successful candidate will have to convince Black voters that they will advance the interests of African Americans on Capitol Hill. What’s happening in Florida’s 20th district is much different than in Louisiana and Tennessee, where heavily Democratic, majority-Black districts are being replaced by ones that have Republican majorities.
Iran launched one of its most damaging drone and missile attacks since the April ceasefire, hitting Kuwait and Bahrain and dealing extensive damage to a Kuwaiti airport, triggering a round of retaliatory U.S. strikes. U.S. Central Command said Iran fired two missiles at Kuwait and three at Bahrain, claiming all five broke apart or were […]
Kuwait suspended flights at its international airport on Wednesday, after an Iranian drone attack caused heavy damage to one of its passenger terminals.
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on Tuesday said it shot down multiple Iranian drones launched in an “attempted attack” on its regional neighbors. CENTCOM said all of the Iranian ballistic missiles “failed to hit their intended targets.” “Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart enroute, and three missiles launched at Bahrain…
The likely outcome of the hotly contested California gubernatorial primary teased the potential for a first in two decades as the top candidate declared, “Change is coming […]
Second Lady Usha Vance is demanding that Supreme Court Justices be respected after they've faced fury from both sides of the aisle.