Republican contest in May could provide Democrats with opening to finally win over staunchly red stateSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.As the war in the Middle East rages on half a world away, the midterm primary season kicked off with James Talarico winning the Democratic nomination for a US Senate seat in Texas – and a Republican runoff.Senate Republicans are expected today to vote down a Democratic-backed war powers resolution that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the conflict in Iran. “The president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities, the operations that are currently under way there,” majority leader John Thune said Tuesday.The vote comes one day after Trump attempted to counter a simmering anti-Israel backlash in Congress and among his own Maga supporters by denying suggestions that he had ordered the attack on Iran because Israel had already decided to do so – a claim that appears to counter comments made by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in a classified briefing for all members of Congress.In more Iran news, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, are scheduled to hold a news conference at the Pentagon this morning to discuss the conflict.Minnesota is set to be front and center on the Hill with governor Tim Walz and attorney general Keith Ellison scheduled to go before the House oversight committee this morning over their state’s fraud scandal.Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem is then set to go before the House judiciary committee, one day after she was grilled before the Senate judiciary committee and refused to retract her statements calling the two US citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis earlier this year “domestic terrorists”.In more Minnesota news: The Department of Homeland Security has opened an internal investigation into allegations that Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official who became the face of the state’s highly scrutinized federal immigration crackdown, the New York Times reported. Bovino is being investigated for allegedly making disparaging remarks about the Jewish faith of Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor. Continue reading...