Category: Politics

Democrats should “play hardball” ahead of a looming partial government shutdown and use their “leverage to reform ICE,” according to a new polling memo circulating among Democratic senators Tuesday.

The polling, in the field January 23 to 26 during the height of public backlash to Alex Pretti’s killing in Minneapolis, found that 58 percent of likely midterm voters want ICE to be reined in. More voters prefer reforming ICE than the number who prefer eliminating the agency entirely by 30 percent to 19 percent, according to the survey shared first with POLITICO.

“Voters want ICE to follow the law, and focus enforcement on people who pose a threat to public safety. They want to see tangible changes to ICE operations and oppose letting ICE detain U.S. citizens, enter homes without warrants, or fail to wear identifying uniforms,” according to the memo. “There is a desire for immigration enforcement that is lawful, reasonable, and effective. “

The memo was written by Adam Jentleson, the former chief of staff to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) and top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), for his organization the Searchlight Institute, which conducted the 1,502-person online survey alongside Tavern Research.

The influential new think tank seeks to push the Democratic Party toward broadly popular positions, regardless of ideology. In the case of ICE, Jentleson writes, Democrats should embrace reforming, not abolishing, the agency.

“Democrats should use their leverage to demand commonsense reforms to ICE that have the backing of broad bipartisan majorities of Americans,” Jentleson writes in the memo, which came across the desk of aides to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday and continued to make the rounds among Senate Democrats early Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Searchlight’s latest survey finds that “bipartisan majorities of voters oppose ICE’s lawless tactics, including detaining U.S. citizens (73 percent), entering people’s homes without warrants (79 percent), and failing to wear clearly identifying uniforms (70 percent)”, according to the memo.

The polling comes as Senate Democrats are demanding to re-negotiate a hulking DHS funding bill ahead of a Friday midnight deadline for a partial government shutdown, carving it off from a six-bill appropriations package.

“This is likely to be their last major leverage point for several months at least if not for the rest of the year” to curtail the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Jentleson told POLITICO. “But there’s a larger reason, which is that the tragic events that have unfolded in Minneapolis have shocked the conscience of Americans and brought their attention to the horrible shit that ICE is doing. Those two things combined give them a lot of leverage at this moment.”

Democratic likely midterm voters were split in the poll over how to change ICE, with 34 percent favoring reforming ICE and 33 percent wanting to get rid of it as an agency — meaning that it’s “a coin flip among Democrats,” Jentleson said. That indicates that in contested Democratic primaries, it’s not clear which side of that debate will have the edge with base voters.

What’s clearer, he wrote in the memo, is that voters do support some degree of immigration enforcement. The memo notes that the view that “immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should not be deported” receives no more than 30 percent support among Democrats and young people, and even less among other groups.

Senate Democrats have embraced this push.

Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, Schumer seemed to set the predicate for the partial shutdown, saying any administrative actions on ICE wouldn’t be enough and that “any fix should come from Congress. The public can’t trust the administration to do the right thing on its own and the Republicans and Democrats must work together to make that happen.”

Senate Republicans face a Friday midnight deadline to avert a shutdown. GOP Sens. Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski have said that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should be fired. President Donald Trump acknowledged shaking up his border security leadership team Tuesday.

“Senate Democrats should embrace this reality and use their leverage to achieve meaningful changes that rein in ICE’s abuses and refocus the agency on its critical law enforcement mission,” Jentleson writes.

​Politics

The RNC distributed talking points highlighting Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino’s false statements about the killing of Alex Pretti just hours before he was sidelined by President Donald Trump — a sign of how quickly the party’s messaging has shifted on the events in Minneapolis.

The memo, sent to party surrogates midday on Monday and obtained by POLITICO, encouraged Republicans to cast blame for the shooting on Democrats for “inciting protestors to attack and aggressively confront law enforcement in Minneapolis.” The talking points also delve into administration officials’ account of how the shooting took place, including Bovino’s Saturday comments that the U.S. citizen killed by immigration agents “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” The government’s initial account has been called into question by videos shot by witnesses as well as analyses conducted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

The memo includes the talking point that “Agents attempted to disarm the individual as he violently resisted. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots.” Video from the scene appears to contradict that statement.

The whiplash between the RNC’s promotion of Bovino’s comments and his sudden removal shortly afterward from the federal operation in Minneapolis shows how the administration and other Republicans scrambled to contain the fallout from the shooting. A significant number of elected GOP officials have called for an official investigation into the matter, a rare and notable break with the Trump administration.

Immediately following the shooting on Saturday, high-profile administration officials like Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly described Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, as a “domestic terrorist.”

By that evening, however, Trump was already more cautious in his description of what had transpired. In an interview that day with The Wall Street Journal, the president did not answer directly when asked whether the officer involved in the shooting did the right thing and said his administration is “reviewing everything.”

Speaking at a restaurant in Iowa on Tuesday, Trump said that he hadn’t heard the assessment from Noem and others in his administration, such as deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” or assassin, but said that “certainly he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun.” Pretti had a permit to carry a firearm, according to Minnesota officials.

Monday’s talking points memo notably omits reference to any comments made by Noem since the shooting took place. While the White House has publicly stood behind Noem, administration allies have increasingly placed blame on the secretary’s handling of the chaotic crackdown in Minnesota as calls among Democrats for her impeachment have grown. On Tuesday evening, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Noem should be “out of a job,” while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she “should go.”

Trump announced on Monday morning that border czar Tom Homan would go to Minneapolis to oversee the administration’s immigration operation there, a move seen as an acknowledgement that DHS’s leadership had mishandled the situation. Hours later, Bovino had been removed from his post as commander at large, according to The Atlantic.

Kiersten Pels, a spokesperson for the RNC, would not confirm the authenticity of the memo but echoed its overall sentiment in a written statement. “Democrats incited this violence by encouraging protesters to confront law enforcement,” she wrote. “Democrats are demonizing ICE and threatening to defund DHS instead of condemning attacks on officers – while President Trump and Republicans stand with law enforcement and public safety.”

Trump’s approval rating on immigration has dropped significantly since he first came into office, with only 39% of Americans now approving of the president’s handling of immigration, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. The high-profile shooting in Minneapolis, following the fatal shooting earlier this month of Renée Good in the city, has only brought more attention to the administration’s goal of a mass deportation.

Democrats in the Senate have pledged to vote against funding DHS in a crucial vote later this week unless the bill is amended to add guardrails for the agency — and the RNC’s talking points seize on the potential for a partial government shutdown as well.

“Now, Democrats are threatening to defund law enforcement later this week by refusing to pass a DHS funding bill,” the memo concludes.

“While Democrats will stand in the way of ICE and law enforcement to defend terrorists and criminal aliens, President Trump and Republicans are working to keep our communities safe.”

​Politics

AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills issued a dire warning in her annual address to state lawmakers Tuesday night: The federal immigration raids sweeping the state are part of an ongoing attack on democracy nationwide.

The speech from Mills, who is a leading Democratic challenger to Republican Senator Susan Collins, marks perhaps the most prominent example of how the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration raids have upended communities — and potentially electoral politics — around the country. The crackdown has become a political crisis for the White House in recent days following two fatal shootings by federal officers in Minnesota.

“Tonight, I say to the people of Maine: We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced,” Mills said. “And to anyone outside these halls, including any federal officials, I say: if you seek to harm Maine people, you will have to go through me first.”

The Democratic governor’s defiant State of the State address on Tuesday came as a sweeping ICE operation in Maine has led to hundreds of arrests and prompted widespread protests throughout the state since it began last week. The killing of a protester in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers this weekend has amplified those pressures — and the political stakes.

​Politics

A Virginia state court blocked Democrats’ plans to redistrict this year, a blow to the party’s hopes of redrawing the state’s congressional lines ahead of the midterms.

Jack Hurley Jr., a judge on the Tazewell County circuit court, ruled that Democrats did not follow the right procedure to approve the proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for the last-minute redraw of the state’s lines.

Democrats are expected to appeal the decision. But the ruling is still a major loss for the party in the ongoing mid-decade redistricting fight, and one that could — if ultimately upheld — block the party from picking up as many as four seats in next year’s midterms.

Democrats in the Legislature first passed a measure to take up redistricting in October of last year, utilizing a special session left open by then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Lawmakers took up the issue again in January, finalizing the plan to put the issue before voters ahead of the midterms.

But Hurley said using the still-open special session was not allowed because early voting in last year’s elections had already begun, and state law requires the Legislature to pass proposed constitutional amendments both before and after an election. Hurley also ruled that the proposed constitutional amendment was not properly noticed in state courts.

The judge also noted that lawmakers in the special session passed a procedural resolution along party lines, with the Democrat-controlled legislature delivering the decisive votes for the resolution’s passage. Because lawmakers did not vote unanimously, as is required under the Legislature’s own rules, and did not pass it by a two-thirds Senate majority, it was a violation of the rules governing a special session.

“Certinaly, both houses of the Commonwealth’s legislature are required to follow their own rules and resolutions,” Hurley wrote.

The Republican plaintiffs in the suit issued a statement praising the court’s ruling, calling it a “decisive victory for the rule of law” but also noting this legal challenge was not about partisanship, rather the process the majority used in attempting to rewrite Virginia’s Constitution.

“The court confirmed that Democrat legislative leaders unlawfully expanded a Special Session, violated their own rules, and attempted to force through a redistricting constitutional amendment while Virginians were already voting,” said Del. Terry Kilgore, the top Republican in the Virginia House, state Sen. Minority Leader Ryan McDougle and former Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in a joint statement Tuesday.

Virginia had been seen as the crown jewel in Democrats’ redistricting fight, especially as state Republicans in GOP-led Florida eye midcycle redistricting later this year. Currently in Virginia, Democrats control six congressional seats and Republicans hold five. Virginia Democrats, had been forging ahead with their plans to unveil a proposed map by their self-imposed deadline of Jan. 31, with the goal of holding a special election to approve the maps in spring.

Democrats strongly criticized Hurley’s ruling.

“This is a clear attempt to confuse voters and block them from having a say,” said Karen Charles Dongo, who is heading Virginians for Fair Elections, the Democrat-affiliated group that launched this month to urge the state’s voters to pass a pending ballot measure. “We’re prepared for what comes next, and Virginians deserve both the right to vote and the chance to level the playing field.”

Spokespeople for the top Democrats in the Virginia legislature, state Sen. Majority Leader Scott Surovell and state House Speaker Don Scott, did not respond to requests for comment on whether the ruling will impact the release of their proposed maps.

But in a joint statement along with other top Virginia Democrats on Tuesday, the group struck a defiant tone and promised to continue with plans to redraw maps, suggesting the ruling was but a minor blip in their quest to deliver what could be a 10-1 map that favors their party.

“Nothing that happened today will dissuade us from continuing to move forward and put this matter directly to the voters,” the Democratic lawmakers said. “We will be appealing this ruling immediately and we expect to prevail.”

Julie Merz, who heads up the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, suggested the court overreached.

“This rogue decision is a disappointing, but temporary setback issued by a lower court that will be immediately appealed — where we’re confident it will be overturned,” Merz said in a statement. “The order issued today has no constitutional basis, but is instead a desperate attempt to keep electoral power out of the hands of Virginia voters.”

​Politics

A Democratic opposition research powerhouse is putting massive troves of its work product online ahead of the midterms. And it’s using artificial intelligence to help everyone from campaigns to podcasters figure out how to navigate it.

The project from American Bridge 21st Century, shared first with POLITICO, reflects an expansion of its efforts ahead of the 2026 midterms — as well as the evolving nature of political campaigning, including oppo research, in an increasingly fragmented media environment.

“Swing voters are generally speaking getting their information very ambiently,” American Bridge President Pat Dennis said in an interview.

A challenge in recent election cycles, he said, has not been a lack of opposition research, but rather how to best convey it when more voters are getting political news from podcasts, social media influencers or group chats. “If people can’t find it or read it, it’s no good,” Dennis said.

The new tool, titled Research Books, is a public-facing website featuring opposition research on dozens of Republican candidates in races that American Bridge has identified as crucial to deciding control of Congress. It also includes select statewide candidates.

Pages for each candidate feature messaging around key votes, candidate-specific research and — in some races — videos from Democratic trackers and sample media based on the oppo that closely resemble campaign ads.

It also includes an AI-powered search tool that aims to bring together different sources about a candidate into cohesive messaging. (The AI agent only probes the super PAC’s internal database, not external sources or the wider internet.)

Results from the search link back to original sources, which include news articles, videos and public records. The tool also integrates with other external large language model platforms such as ChatGPT.

The notion of publishing opposition research files online, rather than keeping them closely held by party operatives for strategic deployment, is not entirely new for American Bridge. Ahead of the 2020 election, the group posted 1,043 pages of opposition research about President Donald Trump online for use by other Democratic groups.

Sharing such research publicly is a way for super PACs to avoid running afoul of campaign finance laws that prohibit direction coordination.

Because the new research tool is publicly available online, it could similarly be used by Democratic campaigns or other outside groups — though American Bridge hopes the uptake is broader than that, including among influencers and voters.

For its initial public rollout, Research Books includes 15 GOP House incumbents in seats Democrats are hoping to flip this year, along with Republican Senate candidates in four seats Democrats are trying to flip, as well as Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is seeking reelection.

The initial list also includes 15 candidates for governor or attorney general in key states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Hampshire and Iowa.

The inclusion of attorney general candidates, newer territory for American Bridge, reflects in part the greater role that they have played in suing the Trump administration, Dennis said. He expects the tool to include more races and candidates as the midterms near, with the super PAC seeking to help Democrats cast a broad net.

“There are times where opposition research can fundamentally reshape a race, so we prefer to take an expansive view on this,” he said.

​Politics

Amy Klobuchar planned to officially launch her gubernatorial campaign on Monday, but has delayed it in the wake of the fatal shooting of a protester by immigration agents in Minneapolis over the weekend, according to two people familiar with the Minnesota Democrat’s plans.

The senator instead spent Monday morning speaking to White House officials, urging deescalation and pushing to get the administration to end its immigration crackdown in her state, according to a third person, who is close to the senator and, like the others, was granted anonymity to describe private conversations.

Her decision to wait on her campaign launch comes amid weeks of turmoil in Minnesota that further escalated over the weekend when Border Patrol agents on Saturday fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse and American citizen.

Over the last two days, Klobuchar has been meeting with city and state leaders, strategizing with Senate colleagues over Department of Homeland Security funding and calling Trump administration officials, according to the third person, who said Klobuchar’s “focus is on de-escalating the situation and getting ICE out of Minnesota. There’s not time for politics today.”

Klobuchar’s nascent gubernatorial campaign has run headlong into a national crisis, another twist for a campaign that started under unusual circumstances. Earlier this month, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz unexpectedly dropped his reelection bid for a third term, as a swirling fraud scandal threatened to engulf his campaign, and met with Klobuchar about running for the office herself. Since then, two American citizens have been killed by federal immigration agents, thrusting Klobuchar into the center of a battle on an issue for which she’s traditionally cut a moderate profile.

“Regardless of what [campaign] Klobuchar is considering, this is what I’d expect from her, she’s been the leader in this state,” said Democratic Minnesota state Sen. Grant Hauschild. “We’re facing unprecedented circumstances of federal overreach and harm to our communities, and she’s stepped up, being present on the ground and fighting in Congress.”

The two people who described her changed launch plans said they expect the senator to formally launch before next Tuesday, when the state’s party precinct caucus kicks off. Klobuchar already filed paperwork with the state’s campaign finance board last week, allowing her to begin raising funds ahead of an expected bid.

Pretti’s killing also shook up the GOP side of the Minnesota governors’ race. Chris Madel, an attorney who launched his campaign as a Republican late last year, announced on Monday he would be dropping out, calling the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics “wrong” and “an unmitigated disaster.”

“I cannot support the national Republican-stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so,” he said in a video posted to social media.

Klobuchar is not expected to face a serious Democratic opponent when she enters the gubernatorial race, giving her some breathing room on both her announcement timeline and on her stance on immigration. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a well-known progressive who was considered a potential candidate, confirmed he would not be running for the job last week.

“What you hear from Klobuchar is, ‘ICE needs to get out of here,’ and I don’t think she needs to say more than that [because] without a primary challenger, I don’t think she’ll have to change her position on it,” said a Minnesota Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “She’s smart, she’s careful and she’s cautious, and she knows how to win suburban and independent voters.”

Klobuchar has always cut a moderate profile. She rose up in Hennepin County as its prosecutor before running for Senate. During her presidential campaign in 2020, Klobuchar rejected calls for “abolishing ICE,” drawing fire from immigration rights advocates groups in that race, and instead called for reforms of the agency.

When asked during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday whether she supported abolishing ICE, Klobuchar said “we’re always going to have some immigration enforcement in this country, and border control.” But she called for the ICE operation to leave the state because “this agency has been functioning is completely against every tenet of law enforcement.”

Klobuchar ticked through several reforms she supports: “New leadership. Stopping these surges across the country, not just in my state. Training them like they were supposed to be trained. … Mandatory body cameras. Stopping ramming into people’s houses without a judicial warrant.”

Those specifics could become part of Senate Democrats’ demands to give enough votes to pass a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and other parts of the government.

Other Democrats have called for more aggressive policies, including abolishing ICE altogether. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) posted on X that “voting NO on the DHS funding bill is the bare minimum,” adding that ICE is “beyond reform” and to “abolish it.”

Klobuchar’s approach is once again drawing criticism from some immigrant-rights advocates. “I do not believe that’s far enough,” said George Escobar, executive director of CASA, an immigration advocacy organization. “Unless we deal with the cancer that is causing this, which is ICE itself, and unless we have a comprehensive reform of that agency, which to us, means abolishing it, then honestly, this cycle is just going to repeat over and over again.”One Democratic consultant who has worked on Minnesota races warned that Klobuchar’s deliberative approach could hurt her. “She’s incredibly cautious, and this is not a cautious moment,” they said. “So far, she has not put her foot in it by being too moderate, but she’s also not been under a huge spotlight — and that will change with the gubernatorial run.”

Nonetheless, Klobuchar’s messaging earned her praise from even some progressives. “I think she’s spot on,” said Mark Longabaugh, a former adviser to Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “If you’re going to step up and say that this organization needs to be restructured, or shut down and restructured, you also have to tie that to, ‘Listen, there is a legitimate law enforcement need here, both for customs and for border control.’”

Most Minnesota Democrats don’t think Klobuchar will suddenly center anti-ICE messaging in her gubernatorial campaign. Interviews with a half dozen operatives and elected officials found they still expected the campaign to largely revolve around the economy. “Affordability is still going to be central to her work, along with protecting her state,” said the person close to Klobuchar. “She will always stand up for Minnesota on both.”

“Who knows if, in 10 months, it will specifically be a part of the narrative or messaging,” said a Minnesota Democratic donor adviser. “But this isn’t going to go away any time soon … because we’re traumatized here.”

​Politics

Former Portland Trail Blazer center Chris Dudley has launched a second attempt to run for governor of Oregon as a Republican, a long-shot bid in a blue state even as the incumbent has struggled in polls.

Dudley, who played six seasons for the Trail Blazers and 16 for the NBA overall, said in an announcement video Monday that he would ease divisiveness and focus on public safety, affordability and education in a state where support for Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek has been low for her entire tenure.

“The empty promises, the name calling, the finger pointing and fear mongering that has solved nothing must stop,” said in his election announcement. “There are real solutions, and I have a plan.”

Dudley is one of the most successful Republicans of the last 25 years in Oregon, coming within 2 points of defeating Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2010.

“I think it’s imperative that we get somebody from outside of Salem who’s away from the partisan politics, away from the name calling, the finger pointing,” Dudley told The Oregonian. “Who has the expertise and background and the ability to bring people together to solve these issues.”

In his election announcement, Dudley spoke about his love of the state and frustration people have with the current state of politics. He mentioned education, safety and affordability as key issues he plans to address but did not give any key policy specifics.

Dudley is a Yale graduate who worked in finance after leaving the NBA. A diabetic, he also founded a foundation focused on children with Type 1 diabetes.

In the GOP primary, Dudley faces a field that includes state Sen. Christine Drazan, who lost to Kotek by nearly 4 percentage points in 2022.

Other candidates include another state lawmaker, a county commissioner and a conservative influencer who was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Kotek is a relatively unpopular governor. Her approval rating has consistently remained under 50 percent her entire term in office, according to polling analysis by Morning Consult. In December, she announced her intention to seek reelection.

Despite expectations that Democrats will do well in the midterms, a number of Oregon Republicans have become more involved in state politics since the last election. Phil Knight, a co-founder of Nike, donated $3 million to an Oregon Republican PAC focused on gaining seats in the state Legislature in October. It was his largest political donation to date, according to the Willamette Week.

Dudley received significant backing from Knight in his 2010 race, but it’s unclear if he will get the same level of support this time around.

Any Republican faces an uphill battle for governor in Oregon, where a GOP candidate has not won since 1982 and where Democrats have a registration edge of about 8 percentage points.

CORRECTION: A previous version incorrectly reported that Gov. Kotek had not announced plans to seek reelection.​Politics

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday called video footage of the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minnesota “deeply troubling” as he urged a full investigation into the deadly incident.

“In the wake of the tragic shooting that claimed the life of Alex Pretti this weekend, our prayers are with his family, the citizens of Minneapolis and local, state and federal law enforcement officers serving there,” Pence said in a post on X. “The images of this incident are deeply troubling and a full and transparent investigation of this officer involved shooting must take place immediately.”

Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents on Saturday. The incident, which occurred about 2 miles from where Renee Good was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7, has ignited a heated debate between the Trump administration and Minnesota officials amid intense scrutiny of the tactics of the president’s immigration crackdown.

Protesters have flooded the streets of Minnesota in the aftermath of Pretti’s killing.

State leaders have alleged federal officials have blocked them from being involved in an investigation into the shooting. Administration officials have accused Minnesota authorities of refusing to collaborate with immigration authorities on deportations.

But Pence on Monday called for law enforcement at all levels to work together on investigating the latest shooting.

“The focus now should be to bring together law enforcement at every level to address the concerns in the community even while ensuring that dangerous illegal aliens are apprehended and no longer a threat to families in Minneapolis,” Pence said.

The former vice president is the latest high-profile Republican to express concerns over the events unfolding in Minnesota. Like Pence, some of the party’s top voices have called for a full investigation into the shooting.

Others have disputed the administration’s justification that Pretti’s carrying of a gun was legal justification for his killing, which Pence echoed on Monday.

“The American people deserve to have safe streets, our laws enforced and our constitutional rights of Freedom of Speech, peaceable assembly and the right to keep and bear Arms respected and preserved all at the same time,” said Pence. “That’s how Law and Order and Freedom work together in America.”

​Politics

Anti-Muslim rhetoric has emerged as a potent ingredient in the looming Texas Republican primary while candidates compete to raise fears about the spread of Sharia law in the state and portray themselves as the toughest option to stand against it.

From the state’s white-hot GOP Senate primary down to local races, Republican candidates are pledging to fight the hardest against a proposed residential development of 1,000 homes centered around a Mosque north of Dallas, while issuing dire warnings about the supposed threat of Islam and questioning their opponents’ commitment to the cause.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and his top primary opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, have sparred in attack ads and on the trail over that project and Afghan refugee resettlement program, at times veering into inflammatory anti-Islamic rhetoric. Cornyn called for a federal investigation into the project; Paxton launched several probes and in December sued the development over alleged securities fraud.

Texas is a heavily diverse state, with non-Hispanic whites representing less than two fifths of its total population — a flashpoint for years on the right. The state’s relatively small but fast-growing Muslim population has become a charged issue for Republicans seeking to distinguish themselves in competitive races. This year’s GOP ads – which vary from condemning terror attacks to burning the Quran – represent an escalation of rhetoric the party has long used to rally its voters.

“The Muslim community is the boogeyman for this cycle,” said Texas GOP consultant Vinny Minchillo. “One hundred percent this message works — there’s no question about it. This has been polled up one side and down the other, and with Texas Republican primary voters, it works. It is a thing they are legitimately scared of.”

Muslim advocacy organizations and Democrats decry the ads as racist and grossly inaccurate characterizations of those communities.

“The Texas GOP has declared war on Islam in Texas, claiming that Islamic leaders in the state are implementing Sharia law and using it in court,” said Joel Montfort, a north Texas-based Democratic strategist. “None of it is true, it is just fearmongering and racism to stir up the GOP base and get them to vote.”

A POLITICO review identified ads in half a dozen races since the start of 2025 that highlighted “Sharia law,” according to data from AdImpact, which tracks political advertising. All were from or backing Republican candidates touting their fights against it, and most were common in Texas.

Last week, Cornyn launched a seven-figure ad buy titled “Evil Face” that declares “radical Islam is a bloodthirsty ideology,” referencing the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel and December Bondi Beach shooting in Australia. The ad also references his bill to revoke the tax-exempt status of Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy organization.

Paxton has gone after Cornyn’s past support of an Afghan refugee resettlement program. And in his capacity as attorney general, Paxton said the project is an “illegal land development scheme” and its leaders are “engaged in a radical plot to destroy hundreds of acres of beautiful Texas land and line their own pockets.”

In the four-way GOP race for Texas attorney general, candidate Aaron Reitz says in an ad out this week that “Islam is not compatible with Western civilization” and vows to “stop the invasion” of Muslims. Reitz served less than a year in the Justice Department before launching his bid for attorney general. His opponent, state Sen. Mayes Middleton, also has an ad boasting that he’s running to “stop Sharia law” in Texas.

And, most provocatively, Valentina Gomez launched her candidacy in Texas’ 31st Congressional District last year with a video showing her burning a Quran and declaring that “your daughters will be raped and your sons beheaded, unless we stop Islam once and for all.” Gomez, who is challenging President Donald Trump-endorsed Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), is a known conservative activist and provocateur who won just 8 percent of the primary vote when she ran for Missouri secretary of state last year.

Anti-muslim sentiment in the U.S. grew out of the 9/11 terror attacks, which some Republicans used to rally their base for political gain. False rumors on the right that Barack Hussein Obama was a secret Muslim persisted from his rise to the White House and for years after. The planned construction of a mosque blocks from Ground Zero became a right-wing cause celebre early in his presidency, with multiple national Republican figures rallying against it.

Trump intensified those feelings, first by elevating conspiracy theories that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., then by repeatedly disparaging Muslims, pledging in his 2016 campaign to ban Muslims from entering the country and once he became president implementing travel bans against majority-Muslim countries. On Tuesday, Trump reposted a comment calling Islam a “cult.”

But in recent years Islam hasn’t been as much of a focus within GOP campaigns — until now.

The Texas ads come as Republicans nationwide have placed heightened scrutiny on CAIR, the largest Muslim advocacy group in the U.S. Sameeha Rizvi, CAIR Action Texas Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, called Cornyn’s ad “defamatory and despicable” and borne out of “desperation to compete with Ken Paxton’s anti-Muslim bigotry.”

“CAIR is not going anywhere, American Muslims are not going anywhere, and our community will show its strength at the ballot box, God willing,” Rizvi said in a statement.

Cornyn has introduced legislation seeking to revoke CAIR’s tax-exempt status. U.S. Rep Chip Roy, who is also in the Texas attorney general race, introduced a similar bill last year.

When a super PAC on behalf of Cornyn launched an attack against Paxton on Thursday, calling him “weird” and highlighting his divorce and alleged extramarital affairs, Paxton shot back on X : “This desperate hail mary can’t erase the fact that he [Cornyn] helped radical Islamic Afghans invade Texas and that his family’s making a fortune securing visas for foreigners.”

Paxton was referencing Cornyn’s past support for increasing the number of Special Immigrant Visas available to Afghans following the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of the country. Cornyn, who had once been supportive of the program, reversed course along with other Republicans late last year following the shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan who’d been granted asylum in the U.S., on the basis that the vetting of applicants was inadequate.

Cornyn has responded to Paxton’s attacks with a digital ad stating that Paxton talks tough but he’s actually “soft on radical Islam,” claiming that Paxton directed $2.5 million to resettle Afghan refugees in Texas, and his former attorney who defended him during impeachment proceedings now represents the East Plano Islamic Center.

Several ads from different candidates in Texas use footage of the project from the East Plano Islamic Center, which would also feature a K-12 school and retail. Texas leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have said that the presence of the planned Muslim community raises national security concerns. The East Plano Islamic Center did not respond to a request for comment.

“Texans overwhelmingly care about this – they’re looking at their communities transform in radical ways,” said Reitz, the attorney general candidate.

“You look at the number of mosques that have been built in Texas in just the last 10 to 20 years, and it’s explosive,” he said. “It’s alarming for good reason, and I think that Republican voters in particular are looking for their public office holders to address it, and so it’s such a pressing issue that I chose to really lean into this.”

Cornyn’s ad declares that “Sharia law has no place in American courts or communities,” a reference to the development. Trump’s Justice Department also launched a civil rights investigation into the project last year after Cornyn requested the federal government to investigate “religious discrimination.”

The project was already on the radar of Paxton, who had opened his first of several probes into its construction. In December, Paxton — whose candidacy is boosted by his reputation as an aggressive attorney general who frequently files lawsuits on behalf of MAGA causes — sued the development for alleged securities fraud.

The Justice Department quietly closed its investigation last summer without filing any charges. But Abbott still went forward and signed multiple laws last year that banned “Sharia compounds” and designating CAIR and Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations. CAIR sued Texas in response, arguing the action was unconstitutional and defamatory.

Paxton, in his official capacity as attorney general, said last week that the state comptroller can exclude private schools from the school voucher program if they violate the recently signed anti-terror laws, declaring that “Texans’ tax dollars should never fund Islamic terrorists or America’s enemies.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated John Cornyn’s level of involvement in legislation to revoke CAIR’s tax-exempt status. He introduced it.

​Politics