Author: Reporter

It is the election that no one could have foreseen. Not so long ago, Donald Trump was marinating in self-pity at Mar-a-Lago after being impeached twice and voted out of the White House. Even some of his closest allies were looking forward to a future without the charismatic yet erratic billionaire leading the Republican Party, especially after his failed attempt to overturn an election ended in violence and shame. When Trump announced his comeback bid two years ago, the New York Post buried the article on page 26. At the same time, Kamala Harris was languishing as a low-profile...

Christian nationalist leaders are telling followers that Vice President Kamala Harris is under the influence of a “Jezebel spirit,” using a term with deeply racist and misogynistic roots that is setting off alarm bells for religious and political scholars. The concept is inspired by the biblical story of the evil Queen Jezebel, who persecuted prophets and was punished with a horrible death. The word “Jezebel” was used during slavery and throughout U.S. history to describe Black women, casting them as overtly sexual and untrustworthy. In the context of “Jezebel spirit,” the term has sinister connotations, suggesting the person is...

Sensing an opportunity in swing-state Wisconsin, Republicans are pouring money into the bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin in that state’s closely watched Senate race. Democrats also have dialed up their efforts in the contest, which remains crucial to their hopes of maintaining their Senate majority. They maintain an overall spending advantage and insist that the contest was always going to tighten as Election Day nears. A loss in Wisconsin to GOP nominee Eric Hovde would make preserving Democrats’ majority extremely difficult in a national landscape in which Republicans have far fewer seats to defend this year....

President Joe Biden tried to explain that he does not really think Donald Trump’s supporters are “garbage,” but that does not mean that other people do not believe the label occasionally fits. “I would say that some of them are garbage,” said Samantha Leister, 32, who went to see Kamala Harris at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As for the rest of them? Leister, whose parents and father-in-law are backing Trump, says they are “misguided.” That same day, at Trump’s rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the idea of voting for Harris was impossible to fathom. “I just think they...

The online advertisement to Donald Trump supporters was clear enough: Click here, and receive a free Trump 2024 flag and a commemorative coin. All in exchange for taking a quick survey and providing a credit card number for the $5 shipping and handling. “You’ll get two free gifts just by taking this quick poll in support of Trump,” said the ad’s narrator. The ad — which has appeared on Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms — did not mention the $80 charge that would later appear on credit card statements. Those who clicked were scammed. Political advertisements on social media...

“The Associated Press” will have thousands of people on hand to count votes and declare winners and losers in the U.S. election, continuing a tradition that began in 1848. There is an even greater priority this year on explaining that process to outsiders. The AP has already run a series of stories outlining how everything works, and has a team of reporters who will be assigned on election night to write in plain language why it is “calling” key individual states for presidential candidates Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. Similar plans are afoot at other news organizations. At the...