Politics

SEATTLE (AP) — The Republican mayor of Wenatchee, a small city in central Washington’s orchard country, didn’t support Democrat Kim Schrier when she was first elected to Congress in 2018. Since then, though, he’s been impressed.

Schrier helped Wenatchee score major federal money for a new bridge. When the city was initially left out of additional transportation spending by Democrats in the state Legislature, Schrier stepped in again, helping secure tens of millions more. She also helped land money for body cameras for the police department.

And now as the GOP targets Schrier’s seat in hopes of retaking the House, Mayor Frank Kuntz has given the incumbent a full-throated endorsement, appearing in a campaign ad for her, and undercutting challenger Matt Larkin’s efforts to paint her as an extreme liberal.

“This is a results business, and she delivered the results,” Kuntz said in an interview.

Washington’s 8th Congressional District stretches across the Cascade Mountains, encompassing wealthy Seattle exurbs populated by tech workers and central Washington farmland. It’s one of two competitive seats in the state, along with southwest Washington’s 3rd District, that will help determine which party controls Congress come January.

Larkin, 41, is a lawyer and former Washington attorney general candidate who works for his family’s company, Romac Industries, which makes parts for water pipes. He topped several other Republicans, including King County Council Member Reagan Dunn, whose mother once held the seat, for the chance to try to stop Schrier from winning a third term.

Unlike some Republican candidates, Larkin acknowledges President Joe Biden was legitimately elected, though he also notes that many people disagree and are frustrated about it. He says both parties need to do a better job “giving a voice to these people who feel very disenfranchised.” Former President Donald Trump continues to lie about the election results.

Larkin has hammered Schrier on inflation, gas prices and crime, saying Democrats’ policies have aggravated all three. As a conservative business owner, he says, he’s better suited to handling the economy. Lowering taxes and ensuring energy independence would be priorities.

His campaign slogan, “Make crime illegal again,” is a play on Trump’s and earned him appearances on conservative cable shows. His focus on crime has also won him the support of four of the five elected sheriffs from counties that fall in the 8th District.

“My family has deep roots here — we homesteaded here over 165 years ago — and I’m passionate about this place,” he said. “I started to see it decline and I thought, if I’m not going to try to fix it, who is? We’ve got a bunch of real problems we’re trying to address and now inflation is choking people out on top of it all.”

He says that Schrier’s voting record, perfectly aligned with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, is far out of touch with the district she represents.

“You can pretend all you want — pretend to be a moderate, pretend to be pragmatic,” Larkin said. “This is a moderate district, and voters did not elect a San Francisco Democrat to represent them.”

As for Schrier’s support from the Republican mayor of Wenatchee? “The reason he’s given is, oh, she brought us a bridge — that’s his price tag,” Larkin said. “That’s fine, but there is not a long list of bipartisan supporters for her.”

Schrier, a pediatrician, is the only Democrat to hold the seat since the district was created in the early 1980s. She won reelection in 2020 against Army veteran Jesse Jensen, who used a playbook similar to the one Larkin has embraced: painting her as a Seattle-style liberal too extreme for the district.

And, as she did against Jensen, Schrier is stressing the results she’s achieved in office. Those include the Wenatchee road money, which will help bring the region’s apples, pears and cherries to market; securing broadband access for 200 homes in rural Entiat; and getting the city of Roslyn, best known as the setting for the TV show “Northern Exposure,” support for projects to reduce the risk of wildfire.

“What these mayors know is that I am meeting, I am listening, I am hearing what their priorities are, and then I am working my tail off to make sure I deliver,” Schrier said.

Schrier is also emphasizing she’s the only pro-choice female doctor in Congress. Given the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, eliminating the right to an abortion under federal law, that’s crucial, she says. Since the ruling, total bans or restrictions on abortion have taken effect in more than a dozen states, and Republicans have introduced federal legislation that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

In Washington, the right to an abortion is enshrined in state law, but any federal ban or restrictions would trump that. Larkin, a Christian conservative, opposes abortion except when the life of the mother is at risk; he makes no exceptions for rape or incest. He declined to say how he might vote on a federal abortion ban if elected, but he said there is no threat to safe and legal abortion in Washington state.

He accused Schrier of exaggerating the issue to drum up enthusiasm among her supporters, while Schrier called his position dangerous.

“Voters should be scared,” she said. “There was a time people said, ‘Oh, Roe will never be overturned.’ Look what happened! States across the country one by one are taking this decision away from women.”

Schrier, with the power of her incumbency, has raised $8 million for her reelection bid. Larkin has raised about $2 million — $772,000 of it his own money.

Schrier lamented that largely due to partisan gerrymandering, only about 30 of the 435 seats in the House are considered swing districts.

“If more districts were like this one, that could swing either way, we would have a whole lot more incentive to move to the center and truly represent where most people in this country are,” Schrier said.

Because Washington is a vote-by-mail state, with ballots due to be postmarked by Election Day, it often takes days to learn final results in close races.

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BARRE, Vt. (AP) — In the race for Vermont’s single seat in the U.S. House, Democrat Becca Balint could be on the verge of being elected as the first woman and first openly gay person to represent the state in Congress.

Balint, 54, president of the Vermont Senate and a former teacher, faces Republican Liam Madden, a 38-year-old Marine Corps veteran and antiwar activist, who describes himself as an independent, and who does not have the backing of the state GOP party. Three independents and one libertarian candidate are also in the race in the largely Democratic state.

Balint wants people who don’t know her to understand that she’s a middle-school teacher at her core.

“When you teach middle school, you have to understand what it is to survive a hellscape. And so I’m ready for Congress,” she joked at a recent campaign rally with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch, who is running for the Senate.

“But you also have to believe in possibility and promise and potential, and you have to believe that things will get better, OK, and I do. I do. That is a value that I hold dear,” she told the crowd.

Balint said she plans to take the deep listening skills she honed as a teacher to Washington to try to find common ground. And she said with democracy at stake and election deniers on the ballot in other states, she is determined to protect voter rights to uphold democracy.

Balint said she is particularly concerned about what she calls a lack of transparency within the U.S. Supreme Court, and that she would like to see term limits introduced for justices on that court, other federal judges, and members of Congress.

The rare opening in Vermont’s three-member congressional delegation occurred after U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, announced last November that he would not seek reelection this year. Welch is running for Leahy’s seat, opening up the state’s lone seat in the U.S. House.

While Vermont is considered to be one of the more liberal states, with a higher-than-average percentage of women serving in the state Legislature, in 2018 it became the only state to have never sent a woman to Congress.

“The really tough contest for her was the primary, where it looked like it was going to be very competitive among a number of very strong candidates, and it wound up being a situation where many of the people who had been identified with the activist left dropped out and their support gravitated to Becca Balint,” said Bert Johnson, a professor of American politics at Middlebury College.

Balint, of Brattleboro, was born in a U.S. Army hospital in Germany, where her father was stationed, and she grew up mostly in upstate New York. She said she is the daughter of an immigrant, her father, and a working class mother, and the granddaughter of a man who died in the Holocaust.

She came to Vermont to be a rock-climbing instructor in 1994 and moved to the Green Mountain State permanently in 1997. She taught history and social studies in the rural communities of Londonderry, Marlboro, Guilford and Washington, as well as at the Community College of Vermont. She has a masters degree in education from Harvard University and a masters in history from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

She said she decided to run for the state Senate after seeing families struggling due to rising poverty in her county, and that her driving mission is to relieve suffering. Balint has served four two-year terms, including as majority leader from 2017 to 2020. Last year, she was elected president of the Vermont Senate, becoming the first woman and first openly gay person in that role.

“With all her passion, with all her wonderful presentations, there’s another thing I want let you in on,” Welch said of Balint at the rally. “In the quiet of the back rooms, this woman knows what she’s doing. She gets it done.”

For voter Pat Rodar, of Woodbury, Balint offers some hope.

“I like the fact that she’s an independent thinker, that she’s a woman, she’s strong, that she’ll make a difference and that she’ll work well in Congress,” said Rodar.

Joanne Virkler, of Waitsfield, said she likes that Balint was involved in public education, is a gay woman and is community oriented. Her husband Lyndon Virkler added that he supports Balint because she “pro-choice and pro-democracy.”

Meanwhile, it’s a difficult race for Republicans. GOP state Sen. Randy Brock said he likely will not cast a vote for any of the candidates. He said he has a good working relationship with Balint in the Senate but that politically they are not compatible.

“Becca is essentially largely a progressive in many ways. I’m concerned about that approach to government generally,” he said.

Brock said he’s also not well aligned with Madden, the Republican running as an independent, and that he does not support the libertarian candidate.

Balint, who has two children with her wife, an attorney, hopes her campaign, if successful, will inspire more people to run for office, “whether they’re LGBTQ young people, people of color, people who come from working class backgrounds who never imagined that they could run for office.”

“I never thought I’d be where I am right now,” she said.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a 2.6% annual rate from July through September, snapping two straight quarters of contraction and overcoming high inflation and interest rates just as voting begins in midterm elections in which the economy’s health has emerged as a paramount issue.

Thursday’s better-than-expected estimate from the Commerce Department showed that the nation’s gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of economic output — grew in the third quarter after having shrunk in the first half of 2022. Stronger exports and consumer spending, backed by a healthy job market, helped restore growth to the world’s biggest economy at a time when worries about a possible recession are rising.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity, expanded at a 1.4% annual pace in the July-September quarter, down from a 2% rate from April through June. Last quarter’s growth got a major boost from exports, which shot up at an annual pace of 14.4%. Government spending also helped: It rose at a 2.4% annual pace, the first such increase since early last year, with sharply higher defense spending leading the way.

Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26% annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates as the Federal Reserve aggressively raises borrowing costs to combat chronic inflation. It was the sixth straight quarterly drop in residential investment.

Overall, the outlook for the overall economy has darkened. The Fed has raised interest rates five times this year and is set to do so again next week and in December. Chair Jerome Powell has warned that the Fed’s hikes will bring “pain” in the form of higher unemployment and possibly a recession.

“Looking ahead, risks are to the downside, to consumption in particular, as households continue to face challenges from high prices and likely slower job growth going forward,’’ Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a research note.

With inflation still near a 40-year high, steady price spikes have been pressuring households across the country. At the same time, rising loan rates have derailed the housing market and are likely to inflict broader damage over time. The outlook for the world economy, too, grows bleaker the longer that Russia’s war against Ukraine drags on.

The latest GDP report comes as Americans, worried about inflation and the risk of a recession, have begun to vote in elections that will determine whether President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party retains control of Congress. Inflation has become a signature issue for Republican attacks on the Democrats’ stewardship of the economy.

Economists noted that the third-quarter gain in GDP can be traced entirely to the surge in exports, which added 2.7 percentage points to the economy’s expansion. Export growth will be difficult to sustain as the global economy weakens and a strong U.S. dollar makes American products pricier in foreign markets.

Thursday’s report offered some encouraging news on inflation. A price index in the GDP data rose at a 4.1% annual rate from July through September, down from 9% in the April-June period — less than economists had expected and the smallest increase since the final three months of 2020. That figure could raise hopes that the Fed might decide it can soon slow its rate hikes.

Last quarter’s U.S. economic growth reversed annual declines of 1.6% from January through March and 0.6% from April through June. Consecutive quarters of declining economic output are one informal definition of a recession. But most economists have said they believe the economy skirted a recession, noting the still-resilient job market and steady spending by consumers. Most of them have expressed concern, though, that a recession is likely next year as the Fed steadily tightens credit.

Preston Caldwell, head of U.S. economics for the financial services firm Morningstar, noted that the economy’s contraction in the first half of the year was caused largely by factors that don’t reflect its underlying health and so “very likely did not constitute a genuine economic slowdown.” He pointed, for example, to a drop in business inventories, a cyclical event that tends to reverse itself over time.

Higher borrowing costs have weakened the home market, in particular. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, just 3.14% a year ago, topped 7% this week for the first time since 2002, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Sales of existing homes have fallen for eight straight months. Construction of new homes is down nearly 8% from a year ago.

Still, the economy retains pockets of strength. One is the vitally important job market. Employers have added an average of 420,000 jobs a month this year, putting 2022 on track to be the second-best year for job creation (behind 2021) in Labor Department records going back to 1940. The unemployment rate was 3.5% last month, matching a half-century low.

Hiring has been decelerating, though. In September, the economy added 263,000 jobs — solid but the lowest total since April 2021.

International events are causing further concerns. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted trade and raised prices of energy and food, creating a crisis for poor countries. The International Monetary Fund, citing the war, this month downgraded its outlook for the world economy in 2023.

While the U.S. economy expanded, the European Central Bank predicted weakening growth in the 19 countries that use the euro currency the rest of this year and next, pointing to the uncertainty of Russia’s war in Ukraine that could keep food and energy prices high. While ECB President Christine Lagarde said the likelihood of recession had increased, the central bank on Thursday still announced its second big interest rate hike in a row to target inflation running at 9.9%.

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CARMICHAELS, Pa. (AP) — In one of the most closely watched races in one of the most contested of battleground states, both gubernatorial candidates bring up religion. But in starkly different ways.

Republican Doug Mastriano’s campaign has several hallmarks of Christian nationalism, which fuses Christian and political imagery, words and rituals and promotes a belief that America has been and should be a Christian nation.

Democrat Josh Shapiro, meanwhile, talks about his Jewish faith in speeches and ads, saying it inspires him toward public service while he seeks to build a classic Democratic coalition of Black clergy and other progressive religious groups, including Christians and Jews, and the non-religious.

“My faith grounds me and calls me to do public service. I don’t use my faith to make policy decisions or to exclude others the way my opponent does,” Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s current attorney general, said in an interview.

Mastriano, a state senator, has rejected the “Christian nationalist” label, though his political events often carry the feel of a worship service. He was introduced at a church-hosted event near Pittsburgh by a pastor who mixed Christian and political imagery: “Get ready for a great ‘blood of Jesus’ red wave!”

At a campaign event in Pennsylvania’s rural southwestern corner, Mastriano stood at the front of a church, to the backdrop of an oversized campaign sign and a towering cross.

A pastor laid hands on him in a common Pentecostal custom and asked God for protection.

“We pray that you give him this courage and strength for what he’s about to face,” the pastor said at the gathering at Crosspoint Assembly of God. “We pray against the darkness and the enemies that come against him in the spiritual realm.”

Mastriano’s campaign did not respond to emailed requests for an interview. He has consistently ignored requests for comment from The Associated Press and many other media outlets.

At the recent church event, a campaign staffer told a reporter Mastriano would not be taking questions. Mastriano contended that he “watched various media outlets mock our faith” in their coverage of his primary victory rally, which was infused with worship music and Bible quotes. “My campaign has no place for intolerance and bigotry,” he said.

That’s been challenged by Shapiro and others because Mastriano’s campaign paid $5,000 for what it described in a financial disclosure form as “consulting” services to Gab— a social media site popular with white supremacists and antisemites. It was on Gab, authorities say, that a suspect signaled his plans for the 2018 massacre of 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue building in Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

Mastriano led efforts to overturn Pennsylvania’s vote for Joe Biden in 2020. He chartered buses to bring Pennsylvanians to the outdoor rally preceding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. According to a Senate Judiciary Committee report, he passed through “breached barricades and police lines.”

The two candidates are appealing to the contrasting religious and ethnic demographics that have supported each side in recent campaigns such as the 2020 presidential election, when a majority of white Catholics and a large majority of white evangelical Christians voted Republican while Democrats drew on strong support from Black Christians, Latino Catholics, Jews, Muslims and people of no religion.

Several recent polls have shown Shapiro with a lead over Mastriano.

A September survey by the Franklin & Marshall College suggests Shapiro and Mastriano are running about even among Protestants and Catholics overall, while Shapiro leads among followers of no religion. The poll shows Mastriano leading among self-identified born-again or evangelical Christians.

Mastriano has “made no effort to soften” his hardline stances to a general election electorate, said John Fea, a history professor at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and author of “Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.”

Mastriano takes a “black-and-white, spiritual-warfare view of the world,” Fea said. “Anyone who criticizes him is the devil. I’m not meaning this metaphorically. He really believes they are working for the cause of evil. … That’s what makes him so dangerous.”

Still, some evangelicals “may be disgusted by his (Mastriano’s) Christian nationalism but cannot imagine themselves voting for a prochoice candidate like Shapiro,” Fea said.

He said Shapiro appears to be contrasting his broader view of religious freedom in a diverse population with Mastriano’s narrower one. Shapiro has criticized Mastriano’s statement that “all religions are not equal.”

A Pew Research Center report released Thursday said 45% of American adults surveyed, and 67% of those leaning Republican, believed the U.S. “should be a Christian nation,” though fewer want the federal government to formally declare itself Christian.

Mastriano spends much of his stump speeches denouncing a rise in crime, the incumbent Democratic administration’s COVID-19 restrictions and the participation of transgender athletes in girls’ sports. He has called banning abortion without exception a top priority.

Shapiro has said “my office is dedicated to protecting legal access to abortion in our Commonwealth,” where it is permitted through the 23rd week of pregnancy.

Each candidate draws supporters with a shared understanding of religion’s role.

At the Carmichaels church, Mastriano addressed a small but enthusiastic crowd on a September morning.

“I like the fact that he’s emboldened to (express) our religious values and our freedoms in the Bill of Rights,” said Steven Grugin of Dunkard Township. Speaking in a church “tells people that he’s very much for freedom of speech, freedom of religion,” he said.

The Rev. Marshall Mitchell, senior pastor of Salem Baptist Church of Abington, Pa., who has known Shapiro for years, said Shapiro “is as comfortable in a Black Baptist church as he is in a Conservative shul or a temple or a mosque,” Mitchell said. “He sees the common humanity, which he believes originates in God.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is zeroing in on a largely economic-focused message amid raging inflation and recession risks Thursday as he takes his closing argument for the November midterm elections to a top congressional battleground and tries to reassure restive voters around the country.

Biden’s travels to Syracuse, New York, on Thursday and to Philadelphia on Friday are part of a strategic two-step crafted for a persistently unpopular president: Promote his administration’s accomplishments at official White House events while saving the overt campaigning for states where his political power can directly bolster Democratic candidates.

The White House of late has paid outsize attention to Pennsylvania, where Democrats are aggressively contesting a Republican-held Senate seat to help offset potential losses in other marquee Senate races.

Publicly, the White House and senior Democratic leaders express optimism that they’ll defy traditional midterm headwinds and retain control of Congress. But in private, there is angst that the House will be lost to Republicans and that control of the Senate is a coin flip.

It’s a position that Democrats point out is far more favorable than earlier in the election cycle — particularly before the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade ended constitutional protections for abortion and upended the political landscape — yet many in the party are nonetheless bracing for the loss of at least one chamber.

Biden got a boost on Thursday on the news that the U.S. economy grew at a better-than-expected 2.6% annual rate from July through September, overcoming inflation and interest rates and snapping two straight quarters of economic contraction.

“For months, doomsayers have been arguing that the U.S. economy is in a recession and congressional Republicans have been rooting for a downturn,” Biden said in a statement. “But today we got further evidence that our economic recovery is continuing to power forward. This is a testament to the resilience of the American people.”

The president has had a steady uptick in travel in recent weeks, although he has avoided states such as Nevada and Arizona in which Democratic candidates prefer not to be tagged with the national party brand. He has appeared with a smattering of vulnerable House Democrats at official White House events in California and New York and raised campaign cash for candidates in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Oregon, as well as millions of dollars for the Democratic National Committee at fundraisers in Washington and elsewhere. He held a trio of virtual fundraisers Wednesday night for congressional candidates in Iowa, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

A reception scheduled for Friday in Philadelphia with the state Democratic Party, which Vice President Kamala Harris will also attend, will mark Biden’s 15th visit to Pennsylvania during his presidency. Plans for a joint appearance in the state with former President Barack Obama are in the works for next week.

Also next week, Biden is scheduled to headline a political rally Tuesday in Florida. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist has been publicly encouraging the president to campaign with him in a state that has increasingly trended toward Republicans in recent election cycles.

In Syracuse on Thursday afternoon, Biden will showcase a significant investment by the U.S.-based company Micron, one of the largest microchip manufacturers in the world. The company has credited a new law boosting domestic production of semiconductors for its new, so-called megafab in the area that will create 50,000 new jobs, which will pay an average of $100,000 a year.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., privately encouraged the White House to deploy Biden to Syracuse for a Micron-specific event, according to a person familiar with the conversations. Democrats believe that will help voters to draw a direct connection to the party’s achievements and job growth. The person insisted on anonymity to detail private conversations.

White House officials said Biden would use the Micron event to hammer home a closing message aimed at framing the contrast between the two parties’ economic agendas — an argument that the president began sketching out at a Democratic National Committee event earlier this week.

“Everybody wants to make it a referendum, but it’s a choice between two vastly different visions for America,” Biden said of the midterms. “Democrats are building a better America for everyone with an economy that grows from the bottom up and the middle out, where everyone does well. Republicans are doubling down on their mega MAGA trickle-down economics that benefits the very wealthy.”

He continued: “It failed their country before and will fail it again if they win.”

In recent weeks, Biden has used the presidential bully pulpit considerably to promote Democratic accomplishments, from boasting about his infrastructure law while standing next to a rebuilt bridge in Pittsburgh to reassuring seniors in Portland, Oregon, that they will soon see the costs of prescription drugs capped.

Still, there’s some concern among Democrats that voters are not connecting economic growth in their communities often enough to what a Democratic-controlled government has completed during the first two years of Biden’s presidency.

“I think we have to be far more aggressive,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. “We’re actually bringing jobs back, but we’re not going out enough and acknowledging people’s anger and fear and say, ‘Here’s what we’re doing.’”

The Syracuse area is home to a House race for a seat being vacated by moderate Republican Rep. John Katko, a critical pickup opportunity for Democrats in a district that Biden won by more than 7 percentage points in 2020. Biden’s visit could also give a boost to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose reelection contest against Republican Lee Zeldin has tightened in recent weeks. Schumer, Hochul, Katko and Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will all be at the event, according to a White House official.

Cabinet officials are fanning out nationwide to promote the administration’s economic message. For instance, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Cleveland on Thursday to talk about Biden’s manufacturing agenda with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. The retirement of his Republican colleague, Sen. Rob Portman, has led to another critical Senate race, this one between Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Ryan.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms.

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FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday lambasted Democrats’ leadership on inflation, crime and foreign policy as he urged Tennessee voters to send Republican Andy Ogles to Congress.

Cruz is on 17-state bus tour, stumping for various Senate and House candidates ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, where control of both chambers is at stake. He joined Ogles in Franklin, Tennessee — an affluent city just south of Nashville — as the former rural county mayor vies to win a newly redrawn congressional seat that cuts into left-leaning Nashville.

“Revival is coming and I believe that with all my heart,” Cruz said, as he warned that the U.S. is in a crisis that would continue if Democrats maintain control. “In two weeks, we’re not just going to see a red wave, we’re going to see a red tsunami.”

Ogles is running against Democrat Heidi Campbell, who outraised and outspent him last quarter. Her campaign issued a statement ahead of Ogles’ rally, accusing both Ogles and Cruz of being willing to use their power to cut benefits and give “giant corporations and billionaires another tax break.”

Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District has drawn national attention this year after Republicans carved up Nashville during redistricting in the hopes of gaining an additional GOP seat in Congress. The move caused longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper to announce he would retire because there was no path for him to win, creating a rare open congressional race in Tennessee.

Since then, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hasn’t added any of the three seats that divide Nashville to the list of seats it plans to spend on this election as the House Democratic majority remains on the line.

Ogles has led a relatively low-profile campaign after emerging from a crowded and bruising primary race, where he declared, “Liberals, we’re coming for you.” in his victory speech. He’s declined multiple invitations to debate Campbell, largely avoided media interviews and only recently put up a television ad.

However, on Wednesday, Ogles stated that the country was at a “crossroads,” calling President Joe Biden’s administration a “criminal enterprise” and repeated calls to impeach both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. He also criticized the acceptance of transgender Americans, particularly transgender athletes participating in female sports — prompting loud applause from the crowd.

“Sometimes you’ve got to bring salt and pour it on the wound and remind people where we’ve gone astray,” Ogles said. “When we win the House and when we win the Senate, we’re going to bring truth, we’re bringing light and we’re bringing a truck load of salt to run them out of town.”

After the event, Ogles declined to answer direct questions about whether he supported a national abortion ban and instead praised the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to revoke the constitutional right to the procedure. Cruz also voiced his support of states now having the power to put their own limits on abortion.

Other speakers at the event included Tennessee U.S. Rep. Mark Green and Outkick founder Clay Travis.

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Agriculture Department announced Thursday it is making available $759 million in grants and loans to enable rural communities to access high-speed internet, part of the broader $65 billion push for high-speed connectivity from last year’s infrastructure law.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and White House senior adviser Mitch Landrieu unveiled the grants during a visit to North Carolina.

There are 49 recipients in 24 states. One is North Carolina’s AccessOn Networks, which will receive $17.5 million to provide broadband service to 100 businesses, 76 farms and 22 educational facilities in the state’s Halifax and Warren counties. Both counties are rural and have predominantly Black populations.

“Rural America needs this,” Vilsack said. “Rural America deserves this.” He made the announcement in front of John Deere equipment, noting that rural areas tend to be where the electricity for cities is generated and where city dwellers and suburbanites go for vacations.

The announcement and visit to North Carolina, a state with an open U.S. Senate seat, come as President Joe Biden and other top Democratic officials are trying to sell their achievements to voters before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. Landrieu, the infrastructure coordinator and former New Orleans mayor, told reporters on a Wednesday call that the Biden administration has already released $180 billion for various infrastructure projects.

The administration is specifically targeting support for small towns and farm communities, places that generally favor Republicans over Democrats.

“Rural communities are the backbone of our nation, but for too long they’ve been left behind and they have been underrecognized,” Landrieu said. “We all know how essential the internet is in order to access lifesaving telemedicine, to tap into economic opportunity, to connect with loved ones, to work on precision agriculture and so much more. That’s just beyond unacceptable that that’s not available to rural America.”

Vilsack said he and Landrieu would “learn firsthand” from people in North Carolina about the opportunities internet access can create. They met with state and local officials including North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper at Wake Technical Community College. They will also hold a town hall in Elm City.

Cooper attributed the broadband advances to the pandemic shutdowns that made people more reliant on the internet.

“It tossed us into the future by about a decade — we had to make something good out of something bad,” he said. He added that 1 million of the state’s residents have been on the wrong side of the digital divide, something the build-out will help to correct.

Neither candidate in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race — Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Ted Budd — was slated to appear at the events.

Vilsack said that past trips show how broadband connectivity is starting to make a difference. While in Nevada this summer, he heard from people in the town of Lovelock who plan to use the improved internet to enhance their emergency responder services and tourism opportunities as well as help high school students who are earning college credit online.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voters are being asked to reduce the authority of the governor and other state officials and give legislators a bigger say in how the state regulates businesses, protects the environment and preserves residents’ health.

A proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution on the Nov. 8 ballot would make it easier for the Republican-controlled Legislature to overturn regulations written by state agencies and boards — those under the control of the governor but also others in the executive branch of state government. At issue are rules as varied as which shots are required for children attending school and how often hotels must clean guest rooms.

Business groups and advocates of smaller government view the measure as reining in unelected bureaucrats. But in the fall campaign’s final weeks, abortion rights advocates have begun warning that it is another attempted power grab by far-right legislators.

The November vote comes three months after voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed amendment to eliminate state constitutional protections for abortion and give lawmakers authority to more tightly regulate or ban the procedure. Those who oppose the regulation amendment have repurposed the “vote no” yard signs from the abortion vote for their fall campaign.

“I’m saying it loud and clear: We need you to vote no on that amendment,” Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said after casting an early ballot Tuesday. “It clearly is a violation of the separation of powers and would create chaos all across the state.”

Republican leaders hold veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate but have not always been able to override Kelly’s vetoes. Republicans pushed for the constitutional change after months of battling her over the coronavirus pandemic.

“When you are in a supermajority in the Legislature, but you do not control the apparatus of administrative regulation, executive orders and administrative actions are going to be one of the most potent ways the executive can carry out their policies,” said David Adkins, CEO of the Council of State Governments and a former Kansas state senator, who along with his group is not taking a position on the measure. “And so this is a pushback by the Legislature.”

The Legislature has a joint committee that reviews regulations, but if lawmakers object to one, their most effective tactic is to raise a stink and push the agency to back off. They also can pass a bill overturning the rule, but the governor can veto it.

“We can tell them that we don’t like what they’re doing,” said state Rep. Barbara Wasinger, a Republican from western Kansas and the joint committee’s vice chair. “And they can just look at you and say, ‘Don’t care.’”

November’s proposed amendment would allow the Legislature to nullify agency rules or parts of rules with a simple majority vote in both chambers, with no option for the governor to veto the move.

Kelly and fellow Democrats have been the most vocal critics. State Treasurer Lynn Rogers said Wednesday that the measure would strip agencies of their independence from lawmakers.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican seeking to unseat Kelly in the November election, backs the measure even though it would apply to his office. Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s spokesperson said Thursday that he’s supporting it, because “it makes the most sense” for lawmakers to have that power over policy. Another statewide elected Republican, Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, hasn’t taken a public position.

While the measure would apply to a host of boards and commissions, it’s not clear how it would effect the elected State Board of Education, whose 10 elected members oversee the K-12 public school system. The Kansas Supreme Court decades ago ruled that the board can set policy on its own, without legislators’ permission, yet lawmakers still enact education policy regularly. The board has not taken a position on the proposed amendment.

Kansas law used to give the Legislature the power to revoke or rewrite agencies’ rules, but in 1984, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the practice violated the state constitution’s separation of powers.

In most states, legislators review agencies’ regulations, but their power to block or repeal them varies widely. Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, New Jersey and Nevada have provisions in their state constitutions to allow the Legislature to invalidate regulations.

In Colorado, agency rules are temporary unless lawmakers vote to extend them. In Illinois and Wisconsin, joint legislative committees can block rules, though in Wisconsin, enforcing the decisions can require court rulings.

In Kansas, clashes between legislators and agencies sometimes focus on fears that regulators are too eager to extend their reach.

Early in 2020, lawmakers expressed concern about an existing state health rule requiring beauty shops, nail salons and skin-care providers to have separate sinks for hand-washing and services for clients. And a longstanding Kansas law exempting hair braiders from state regulation resulted from anger over a state board telling two women known as the Braiden Maidens that they couldn’t work the Kansas City-area Renaissance Festival without a license.

Supporters of the proposed amendment say lawmakers probably would use the new power sparingly, when agencies clearly do something the Legislature didn’t intend. Business groups backing it say they don’t have particular regulations in mind.

But Democrats and other critics are uneasy, saying GOP lawmakers and business groups could target rules for controlling air and water pollution or worker safety regulations.

And, with support from vaccine opponents, a few Republicans this year sought to strip the state health department of the power to revise its regulations to require new vaccines for children enrolling in school or day care. The proposed constitutional amendment would save them the trouble of passing such a law and getting past a governor’s veto: They could instead work to nullify any additions to the department’s list of shots.

“It’s open season on the administration’s ability to run the government,” said Joan Wagnon, a former state revenue secretary and Kansas Democratic Party chair who helped form a new anti-amendment group, Keep Kansas Free. ___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman’s rocky debate performance fueled concern inside his party on Wednesday, as leaders assessed whether it would significantly shift a race that could decide control of the U.S. Senate and the future of Joe Biden’s presidency.

Appearing on stage five months after his stroke, Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s 53-year-old lieutenant governor, struggled to complete sentences, and he jumbled words throughout the hourlong televised event.

That was no surprise for medical professionals, who noted that the format, including time limits on answers, was the opposite of what a person recovering from a stroke would need to support his communication. And for those who have known Fetterman for years, the debate was a reminder that he was never a smooth orator — even before the stroke.

But with so much hinging on his campaign, some Democrats expressed concern that Fetterman’s appearance at Tuesday night’s debate was a mistake. While he would have been criticized for skipping the forum, they felt that might have been better than exposing him in such a difficult environment — for a performance that his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, can exploit in ads and social media clips in the closing days of the contest.

“In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have debated,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, said in an interview. “But the key is he is recovering from a stroke.”

“The only way to recover from this,” he added, “is for John to go out in public as much as possible, to be seen, to be interviewed, and do as much as he can to let people know that he’s ready to take office.”

In fact, Fetterman was appearing at a rally later Wednesday in Pittsburgh with musician Dave Matthews. He’s also expected to attend a dinner Friday night in Philadelphia for the state Democratic Party headlined by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

His campaign did not respond to an interview request on Wednesday. It said Fetterman had already raised more than $2 million since the end of the debate in what campaign manager Brendan McPhillips called “a gigantic show of support for John and his debate performance.”

During the debate, the Democratic Senate contender refused anew to commit to releasing his medical records, but independent experts consulted by The Associated Press said Fetterman appears to be recovering remarkably well.

“In my opinion, he did very well,” said Dr. Sonia Sheth, of Northwestern Medicine Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in suburban Chicago, who watched the debate. “He had his stroke less than one year ago and will continue to recover over the next year. He had some errors in his responses, but overall he was able to formulate fluent, thoughtful answers.”

Still, the debate was difficult to watch for Brooke Hatfield, a Maryland speech pathologist who has worked extensively with stroke patients.

“Putting a timer on someone adds pressure to a system that is already working hard,” Hatfield said. “Ultimately it’s important to remember that changes in communication are different than changes in intelligence, reasoning and other cognitive skills.”

For now, the political implications of the debate are unclear.

The Pennsylvania contest represents the Democratic Party’s best opportunity to flip a Senate seat currently held by Republicans, who are aggressively challenging Democratic incumbents across Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire. Any shift in Pennsylvania, where at least 639,000 mail votes have already been returned, could imperil Democratic efforts to keep the Senate, which they hold by the narrowest of margins.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told CNN on Wednesday that the debate was “hard to watch, frankly.”

But he said voters have a “stark choice” between Fetterman and Oz, a heart surgeon and TV personality.

Other U.S. senators have experienced strokes, but none faced fiercely competitive contests so quickly. Both Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., disclosed this year that they had suffered minor strokes. Van Hollen is likely to easily win reelection in his deeply Democratic state this year, and Lujan isn’t on the ballot again until 2026.

Former Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., had a serious stroke in 2012 and would go on to lose his reelection four years later.

Over the years, many other senators have faced questions about their age. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa would be 95 at the end of his next term, assuming he wins reelection on Nov. 8.

Fetterman’s campaign and other Democrats sought to focus Wednesday on Oz’s comments about abortion during the debate. The Republican said he wanted abortion access decided by “women, doctors, local political leaders,” a comment that suggested he believed there was a role for public officials in determining whether women can obtain the procedure, which remains legal in Pennsylvania.

Fetterman’s new ad focuses on Oz’s reference to “local political leaders,” repeating the phrase three times in a 30-second spot.

“Oz would let politicians like Doug Mastriano ban abortions without exceptions,” the narrator says, referring to the state’s polarizing Republican candidate for governor. “Oz is too extreme for Pennsylvania.”

Biden shared the new ad on social media.

The White House would not say whether Biden watched the debate. But press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden has found Fetterman to be “just as capable as always” to govern.

“In his conversations that he’s had with Lt. Gov. Fetterman, he finds the lieutenant governor to be a strong and authentic advocate for the middle class,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that the president “finds him incredibly impressive.”

Meanwhile, Oz on Wednesday was attending an event in the state capital with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate. Oz avoided Fetterman’s health at the event, as he did during the debate, focusing instead on crime.

“I vow here and now that, as a U.S. senator, I’ll do the right thing for our communities,” he declared. “Amongst them, I’m going to let police do their jobs. I want our prosecutors to do their jobs.”

But the debate was on the minds of many voters.

Barbara Orr, a psychotherapist and registered Democrat who supports Fetterman, said she and a group of like-minded friends who watched the debate were saddened and nervous, but unswayed from their decision to vote for him.

Her “heart hurt for him,” she said, and she worried that voters who weren’t familiar with the candidates might take away a bad impression.

“Unfortunately, people who don’t know what he stands for and haven’t heard him elsewhere might think he’s not smart,” said Orr, who lives in Lampeter.

She added: “I’m hoping some people at least pulled their empathy pants on and realized that he’s trying to recover from something.”

Democratic voter Frank Mallon, a 61-year-old driving instructor who lives in suburban Philadelphia, said Fetterman “came across as not being sure of himself.”

“Yes, I do know about the disability,” Mallon said. “Do I think that everyone who watched that debate knows about his disability? No, I don’t.”

He said he’d still vote for Fetterman.

Fetterman’s allies noted that he also had performed poorly in a primary debate earlier in the year before the stroke.

“It needs to settle with people for a minute. People on the Democratic side were terrified about what was going to happen,” said Jamie Perrapato, executive director of Turn PA Blue. “His performance was actually better than I expected.”

Meanwhile, it’s unclear how many Pennsylvania voters were paying close attention.

Bonnie Chang, a telecommunications retiree from Doylestown who describes herself as a liberal Fetterman supporter, didn’t tune in.

“I was so fearful I did not watch the debate,” Chang said. “First of all, Oz is a TV guy. He has honed his skills. … I think Fetterman is in a no-win situation. He’s recovering from the stroke.”

“I’m willing to give him time to recover.”

___

Peoples reported from New York. AP writers Carla K. Johnson in Washington state; Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; and Seung Min Kim in Washington, D.C., contributed.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman came forward Wednesday to accuse Herschel Walker, the anti-abortion Republican running for U.S. Senate in Georgia, of encouraging and paying for her 1993 abortion — an accusation that came just weeks after a former girlfriend said he did the same for her in 2009.

Walker dismissed the newest allegation as “foolishness” and “a lie,” similar to his vehement denials earlier this month of the abortion alleged to have happened 13 years ago.

“I’m done with all this foolishness. This is all a lie, and I will not entertain any of it. I also did not kill JFK,” Walker said in a statement later Wednesday.

The second accuser, identified only as “Jane Doe,” spoke to reporters via an audio Zoom call arranged by her lawyer, Gloria Allred. The woman alleged that Walker, a former college and professional football star making his first bid for public office, pressured her into an abortion and paid for one after she became pregnant during their six-year relationship while he was married to his first wife.

“The reason I am here today is because he has publicly taken the position that he is ‘about life’ and against abortion under any circumstances when, in fact, he pressured me to have an abortion and personally ensured that it occurred by driving me to the clinic and paying for it,” the woman said. She said she was not revealing her identity because she fears “reprisals against myself, my family and my livelihood.”

“I do not believe that Herschel is morally fit to be a U.S. senator and that is the reason why I am speaking up and providing proof,” she said.

She said partisan allegiances were not a factor in her decision to come forward. She called herself a registered independent and said she voted twice for Donald Trump, the former Republican president who has endorsed Walker.

The second round of abortion allegations against Walker returned the issue to the forefront of the campaign in the final two weeks before the Nov. 8 elections. Walker is competing against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a tight race that could help determine party control of the Senate.

Walker, campaigning Wednesday in north Georgia, seemed to blame Democrats for the latest accusation, much as he did the first, saying in a written statement that they “will say and do anything to hang on to power.”

“Well, I’m Herschel Walker, and they picked the wrong Georgian to mess with,” Walker wrote.

Allred, speaking to reporters in her Los Angeles office, detailed, among other items, cards that she said Walker gave her client and a hotel receipt from Minnesota. Allred played audio of what she described as a telephone message that Walker allegedly left her client in 1992 after he had arrived in Europe as part of the U.S. Olympic bobsled team.

A notable women’s rights lawyer, Allred has represented several clients who have accused powerful men, including Trump and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, of sexual assault and harassment.

When The Daily Beast broke the story this month of the first abortion allegation, Walker insisted he had no idea who could make such a claim, but that was undermined by a follow-up report in which the woman identified herself as the mother of one of his children. The child was born two years after the 2009 abortion.

Her evidence included a $575 receipt for an abortion, along with a get-well card signed by Walker and a personal check for $700 from the multimillionaire celebrity athlete. The check is dated five days after her abortion receipt.

On Wednesday, Jane Doe said Walker gave her cash to have an abortion after she told him she was pregnant. She alleged that she first went to a clinic alone but was unable to go through with an abortion. She said Walker was “upset” when she told him and he insisted they return the following day. She said he drove her to the clinic that day, waited in the car while the procedure occurred and then took her to fill prescriptions.

Allred declined to discuss the cost or any records of the alleged abortion, “at least at this time.”

Walker’s responses to The Daily Beast’s stories evolved from absolute denials to suggesting the signature on a get-well card wasn’t his to suggesting he did send the woman money but that he didn’t know it was to cover an abortion.

Doe said she heard Walker’s denial that he ever signed anything with a lone initial “H,” as the get-well card was signed. She said she knew that wasn’t true because he had signed cards to her that way.

The first woman has not been identified publicly, asking that her name not be used out of concern for her privacy. She said she is a registered Democrat who is speaking out because of what she called Walker’s hypocrisy over abortion rights.

She has spoken to multiple media outlets, revealing herself to be the same woman who filed a paternity suit for child support in New York family court. She has also alleged that Walker encouraged her to end their second pregnancy, though she refused, and that Walker has seen their son only a handful of times.

Walker’s campaign has since shared with NBC News texts between his current wife and the woman acknowledging his relationship to the child.

Walker promised to sue The Daily Beast after its initial story on the abortion claim was published Oct. 3. As of Wednesday afternoon, Walker had not confirmed that he has taken any legal action against the outlet.

The reporting has put Walker on the defensive both about his claims of being a family man and his previous support for a national abortion ban, without any exceptions. That’s a notable position because the Supreme Court in June ended a constitutional right to an abortion and Congress has been discussing federal legislation to set a national regulation.

During the primary campaign, Walker was consistent about his absolute opposition to abortion. He repeated that approach after winning the nomination but has since shied away from it, trying to turn the issue back on Warnock by suggesting the Democrat supports no limits on abortion access.

In their lone debate, Walker denied his previous position and said he has settled on backing Georgia’s new state law that bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they’re pregnant. That law includes exceptions for pregnancies involving rape, incest or threats to a woman’s life or health.

Walker has been dogged throughout his campaign with intense scrutiny of his past.

He’s been accused of repeatedly threatening his ex-wife’s life, exaggerating claims of financial and business success, suggesting he’s been a sworn law enforcement officer and overstating his role in a for-profit program that is alleged to have preyed upon veterans and service members while defrauding the government.

After a story by The Daily Beast in June, Walker acknowledged the existence of three children he had not previously talked about publicly, including the son of the woman who first accused Walker of urging her to have abortions.

More than 1.1 million Georgia voters have cast ballots so far ahead of Election Day, either by mail or through advance in-person voting that began Oct. 17 and continues through Nov. 4. That is about 50% higher than at this point in 2018, the last midterm election.

With a Libertarian nominee also on the ballot, it remains possible that neither Warnock nor Walker attracts the required majority to win outright. In that case, the two would meet in a Dec. 6 runoff.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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