Category: Politics

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is wading into the heated Texas Democratic Senate primary recording a robocall for Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the final days before Tuesday’s election.

“Hi, this is Kamala Harris, and I’m calling to encourage you to please go vote for my friend Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary,” Harris says in a pre-recorded message, which was first reported by the Texas Tribune.

“Texas has the chance to send a fighter like Jasmine Crockett to the United States Senate. Jasmine has the experience and record to hold Donald Trump and his billionaire cronies accountable,” she continues. “It’s time to turn Texas blue.”

Harris’ endorsement marks a major jolt for Crockett in her intensifying primary fight with Texas state Rep. James Talarico on the final day of early voting in the state. The outcome of the Democratic primary, and the equally turbulent Republican primary, could prove pivotal in determining whether Democrats have a chance of taking control of the Senate.

Crockett and Harris have forged a close relationship — Crockett served as a co-chair of Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign and spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where she detailed Harris’ mentorship when she first arrived in Congress. In a December interview, Crockett said she sought advice from the former vice president before entering the Senate race.

Crockett’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The endorsement comes as Crockett has drawn criticism for her handling of media coverage of her campaign. A reporter for The Atlantic said Crockett’s campaign removed her from an event due to her past coverage and her campaign reportedly called the police on a CNN reporter who visited a campaign office. Crockett has said there is “no evidence” the reporter was ejected from a campaign event.

Since her 2024 defeat, Harris has only weighed in on a handful of electoral contests, but this is her first time backing a Democrat ahead of a primary as bitterly contested as the face-off between Crockett and Talarico. She traveled to Tennessee in support of state Rep. Aftyn Behn’s closer-than-expected defeat to Rep. Matt Van Epps in December.

She also endorsed some other close allies who sought higher office, including New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, who worked on Harris’ 2019 presidential campaign before running for mayor last year, and Dan Koh, a former White House aide in the Biden administration running in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional district.

The endorsement offers a test of Harris’ political capital in the wake of the 2024 election. In interviews and appearances tied to her book tour detailing the whirlwind presidential campaign, Harris repeatedly refused to rule out running for political office in the future, despite passing on running for governor of California.

​Politics

DALLAS — When President Donald Trump pops up in Texas for an event at the Port of Corpus Christi on Friday, he’s not expected to put his finger on the scale in the closely watched Republican Senate primary between incumbent John Cornyn, state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt — all of whom will be in attendance.

But Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign team’s involvement with Cornyn’s reelect is opening a fresh wound for some pro-Paxton MAGA types.

Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s top pollster, is working for Cornyn’s campaign, and Chris LaCivita, one of Trump’s top campaign hands, works as a senior adviser for the pro-Cornyn super PAC Texans for a Conservative Majority. Steve Bannon, the longtime MAGA torchbearer, has taken issue with Fabrizio and LaCivita’s involvement.

“My belief is the Trump team should have stayed out of this race, absolutely,” Bannon told POLITICO from a rented ranch in North Texas, where he’s been broadcasting his “War Room” show.

Asked about Bannon’s criticism of their involvement with Cornyn’s reelection efforts, Fabrizio did not respond — but LaCivita texted POLITICO a fiery reply: “Associating with Senator Cornyn is better than being a lacky [sic] for Epstein,” he said, an apparent reference to Bannon’s newly surfaced ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Justice Department’s release of documents in January revealed extensive exchanges that Epstein had with Bannon as he mounted a political influence campaign across Europe. Bannon has said little publicly about his relationship with Epstein, but he did previously call for an independent investigation into the files. Bannon didn’t respond to a request for comment on LaCivita’s response.

The intraparty conflict also foreshadows what’s likely to be an increasing number of such battles for the future of the Republican Party. Bannon, who’s all in for Paxton, is portraying the expected runoff between Paxton and Cornyn as nothing less than the battle for the soul of MAGA.

“The Paxton situation is critical, because he has been the MAGA guy since Day One,” Bannon told Playbook. Paxton, Bannon said, is more than just a candidate in a contested GOP primary. “He is a symbol of the heart of the grassroots MAGA movement.”

A White House official told POLITICO “the president is neutral until he’s not,” and added that “John Cornyn votes with the President.”

LaCivita declined to share the backstory of how he and Fabrizio ended up working with Cornyn.

But the White House doesn’t seem bothered. “We don’t regulate the business/political choices of private individuals — if they are a part of our world — in a race where the President is neutral,” the White House official said.

Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO’s Playbook newsletter.

​Politics

Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here’s an offering of the best of this week’s crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.​Politics

Senator Slotkin on why Dems need their own ‘Project 2029’ | The Conversation

lead image

​Politics

Turning Point Action, the political organization founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, will bring together U.S. and international politicians at a conference next week — including members of far-right parties across the globe.

Markus Frohnmaier, a political leader from the far-right German party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), is among the announced guests at the Alliance of Sovereign Nations, scheduled for March 4 to 6 in Washington. Other guests include House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.); Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.); George Simion, founder of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians; and European Parliament members Barbara Bonte of the far-right Vlaams Belang party and Petra Steger of Austria’s right-wing Freiheitliche Partei (FPÖ).

In an interview, Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer said the event was “spurred” by Luna and that more attendees will be announced soon. He referred to the parties that will be represented, including AfD, as “center-right.”

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in May 2025 classified parts of the AfD as “proven right-wing extremist” for being an alleged threat to the country’s democratic order and agitating against migrants. But the party filed a legal challenge, and a court made a temporary ruling this week suspending the designation until the case is fully decided.

“There’s a lot of people from a lot of different countries that are representing center-right politics across the world. So it’s important to hear everyone,” Bowyer said. “There’s a lot of things going wrong in Germany right now. It’s important to hear everybody out.”

A spokesperson for Johnson didn’t respond to an inquiry. A rep for Luna declined to comment. In a social media post Wednesday morning, Luna wrote, “Next week members of government from around the world will be coming together at the Alliance of Sovereign Nations! @SpeakerJohnson will be there!”

The conference’s mission statement declares “every country has a rightful obligation to defend its sovereignty and put their interests first,” according to its website. The conference is also sponsored by Republicans for National Renewal.

The AfD party has gained increasing support in Trump’s Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance have condemned efforts to label the party as extremist. Frohnmaier has recently traveled several times to Washington for meetings with Luna and other Republican representatives as well as State Department officials. State Department officials have accused the German government of suppressing freedom of opinion, an accusation the German government strongly rejects. Sarah Rogers, undersecretary of State for diplomacy, this week called a criminal investigation by German police of a critical post directed at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “a case of lèse-majesté.”

In October, Luna posted on X that she met with Anna Rathert, a member of Germany’s federal parliament who’s part of the AfD’s parliamentary group and member of the foreign affairs committee in Bundestag. She and other members of Congress also met with Kay Gottschalk and other members of the AfD in Washington in December. She praised the party as “actually working to strengthen ties with the United States and restore a healthy relationship between our governments” and accused Germany’s chancellor of “trashing our president and censoring German citizens.”

In an interview with Welt last November, Luna said she was planning the conference as an event that “will counter Davos” and be more focused on “the sovereignty of nations.”

In Germany, AfD currently polls in second place, only a few percentage points behind the governing Christian Democrats of Merz.

Last December, Frohnmaier was awarded a prize at the New York Young Republican Club gala for AfD’s “courageous work undertaken in the particularly suppressive and hostile political environment of Germany,” as the invitation stated.

Only weeks earlier, the New York State Young Republicans chapter was disbanded after POLITICO reported on a group chat in which leaders praised Adolf Hitler and joked about the Holocaust.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

​Politics

Data centers, once popular with elected officials in both parties, are fast becoming a midterms bogeyman.

Democratic governors are racing to rein in new warehouse projects they once offered up millions of dollars in tax incentives to secure as they face voters furious over soaring electric bills. And President Donald Trump, who has slashed red tape around the industry he’s lauded as a job engine, used his Tuesday State of the Union address to announce he’s told major tech companies to build their own power plants to shield ratepayers from further hikes.

It’s a remarkable pivot by leaders of both parties. And it reflects the rapidly shifting politics around data centers they had hailed as economic generators but are now retreating from as voters blame their proliferation for rising utility costs — part of an overall frustration with high prices that is dominating the midterms.

“The fact that everyone is talking about this all of a sudden shows how quickly this issue is moving and that politicians are reflecting the frustration that people are feeling over paying so much on their energy bills while data centers get tax breaks,” said Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist and co-founder of climate advocacy group Evergreen Action.

These recent contortions also show both parties are still grappling with the way forward on an increasingly potent political issue.

Democrats harnessed voters’ frustrations over rising utility bills — and their fears that power-hungry data centers could push them higher — to win governor’s offices in New Jersey and Virginia and oust two Republicans on Georgia’s utility regulating commission last fall.

Voters’ worries haven’t ebbed. The POLITICO Poll found in mid-January that voters’ chief concerns about data centers involved household costs. Asked about the drawbacks to building data centers in the U.S., 29 percent of Americans said it would mean higher electricity bills, 24 percent said an increased risk of blackouts and 23 percent said the projects would cost taxpayer money.

Both parties have seized on making tech companies pay for their power as a salve.

Just six months ago, Trump declared he was accelerating federal permitting for data centers and headed to western Pennsylvania to praise companies for investing tens of billions of dollars in energy infrastructure as part of his push to be the “world’s No. 1 superpower in artificial intelligence.”

But on Tuesday, the president said he was negotiating with the companies behind data centers to build their own power plants to secure their power supply “while at the same time lowering prices of electricity” for Americans.

Trump was light on the details about what his “ratepayer protection pledge” actually meant in practice, though the White House said tech companies are expected to head to Washington next week to sign the agreements. But the president has been signaling such a step since at least January, when he said he was working with Microsoft to “ensure that Americans don’t ‘pick up the tab’” for data centers’ power consumption. He also banded together with Democratic governors to push grid operator PJM to control energy prices and tech companies to shoulder the burden of power costs.

Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas-based GOP strategist, said the shift shows Trump and his team “don’t want to be on the wrong side of this.”

“This is smart by the administration to recognize that there are concerns about energy prices and water usage,” said Steinhauser, who serves as CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, a group that backs more AI industry regulation. “They don’t want to be seen as allowing the companies to accelerate without any input from the community, they don’t want to be seen as on the side of allowing energy prices to go up.”

Democrats don’t, either.

At least half a dozen Democratic governors — several of whom are potential 2028 presidential contenders — used their annual state-of-the-state addresses to pitch regulations or call to retract old sweeteners for an industry they had previously championed.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is pushing to hit pause on tax incentives he’s long touted to lure data centers to his state. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is seeking to eliminate the tax breaks for tech companies she previously backed as a state lawmaker a decade ago, while looking to impose new water-use fees.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was positioning her state as a “national leader in AI research and innovation,” has rolled out plans to make data center operators pay more for energy or supply their own. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signaled his state would look to “slow down new data centers,” unless they add more power generation.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, who supports legislation to expand tax breaks for data centers, has also cautioned the industry’s growth rate is “not sustainable” in her state. She launched an advisory committee to recommend how to protect “affordable power” and other resources while still fostering economic development.

And Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who streamlined permitting to help his state be “all in on AI,” is now calling on his legislature to codify a set of “responsible infrastructure development” standards for data center developers — including hiring locally and bringing their own power generation — as he looks to mitigate voters’ concerns. A survey released Wednesday from Pennsylvania pollster Quinnipiac University showed 68 percent of registered voters would oppose a data center being built in their community, including 81 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of independents and 53 percent of Republicans.

Shapiro insisted his new guardrails were “not a shift” when asked last week about the policy rollout. Instead, he cast them as part of his ongoing efforts to balance creating jobs with “holding down energy costs.”

“I’ve always been for the end-users having to bring their own power or generate new power and pay for it so we’re not burdening the local community,” Shapiro told POLITICO on the sidelines of the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington last week. “We just are more open about it, so anyone thinking about doing business in Pennsylvania now knows what those standards are going to be.”

The proliferation of data centers across battleground states has similarly pushed energy costs to the forefront of key congressional campaigns. Imposing guardrails on the artificial intelligence industry has become a rallying cry for insurgent candidates in primaries and an attack line in competitive districts. Calls are growing on both sides of the aisle for a moratorium on new projects.

Politicians are “beginning to catch up with where their constituents are” in opposing unregulated data center growth, said Mitch Jones, the managing director of policy and litigation for environmental firm Food & Water Watch, which is pushing for a construction pause.

But Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who has sketched out a similar set of rules for new projects in his state, argued that a “binary” approach to data centers was misguided.

“Oftentimes, when people talk about data centers, it’s either like what they’ve done in Northern Virginia, which is kind of like, ‘let them just run wild and do whatever they want to do.’ Or it’s like trying to put a ban on them. I don’t think either is the right answer,” Moore said in a brief interview at NGA. “I understand how this critical infrastructure is necessary for economic growth. … But industry cannot determine the rules.”

​Politics

With just days until Texas’ primary, Republicans in Washington are growing more alarmed that their increasingly vicious intraparty contest could cost them a must-win Senate seat.

Sen. John Cornyn appears to be headed to an expensive and nasty 10-week runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, with a strong chance that Paxton wins the nomination even after national Republicans spent months airing his dirty laundry all over the Texas airwaves in an effort to boost Cornyn. 

“Honestly, if you look at the polling in a general election setting, I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that the seat [flips], depending on who the Democrats nominate,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, when asked about the possibility that Republicans could lose the race if Cornyn, who he endorsed, is not the party’s nominee.

If Cornyn loses the primary, Senate Republicans worry they could be forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollarsthat could otherwise go toward key battleground races in expensive states like North Carolina, Georgia or Michigan, complicating their path toward holding Senate control.

Republicans have already spent nearly $100 million on TV advertising in the primary, which also includes Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), according to data from AdImpact. And Cornyn launched new ads this week, with support from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, that hammer Paxton in ways that could hurt him in the general election too: highlighting his messy ongoing divorce and accusations of corruption and calling Paxton a “wife-cheater and fraud.”

But those attacks haven’t stopped Paxton, a MAGA hero more aligned with the party base who has been bolstered by positive polling and a wave of grassroots enthusiasm.

“All signs indicate that Paxton probably finishes first,” a Washington GOP operative close to Cornyn who was granted anonymity to candidly discuss the race told POLITICO. “We’re just hoping the gap is close enough the narrative isn’t ‘Paxton kicked the crap out of Cornyn.’”

Paxton attended the president’s State of the Union address Tuesday night as a guest of Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who called warnings of an expensive general election a “scare tactic.”

“What you’re doing now is you’re telling Texas you can’t elect Ken Paxton, not because you do a better job than me, but it’ll cost too much to win it,” said Nehls. “What a desperate attempt to convince voters to not vote for Ken Paxton because it could cost too much money in November. That’s ridiculous.”

Paxton is predicting a massive victory. Speaking with reporters after a campaign rally in the Houston suburbs last Friday, he suggested he may win the race outright and avoid a runoff.

Both Paxton and Cornyn allies have been running ads attacking Hunt in recent days, a sign either that they see a chance that Hunt could edge Cornyn for a spot in the runoff — or that Paxton could win outright.

If the race does extend until the end of May, Paxton said he doesn’t intend to change his strategy.

“It’ll be grassroots, just like it always has been, and we’ll be out trying to compete,” Paxton said. “Obviously, [Cornyn] has got a lot of money, D.C. money. I don’t have that money. We’ll have our money from Texas.”

A spokesperson for Hunt said the congressman told NRSC chair Sen. Tim Scott last year before he got into the race that Cornyn was going to lose, but “Washington ignored it.” They also warned that Paxton could be vulnerable in the general election.

“If Senate Republicans lose the majority, it will be because the NRSC failed to plan for the future and chose to spend a record-breaking sum meddling in a Republican primary in Texas, of all places, where the GOP nominee is almost always favored to win,” the spokesperson said. “That’s malpractice.”

Republican Party officials and Senate GOP leaders think Cornyn has a far better chance than Paxton of staving off a Democratic challenger in the general election. When asked for comment on the race, the NRSC pointed to a memo it circulated to donors earlier this month that said that “John Cornyn is the only Republican candidate who reliably wins a general election matchup,” and warned “Paxton puts this seat at risk.”

“We have to be prepared to spend there, and that’s a very different scenario if Cornyn’s the nominee,” Thune said. “He is by far, I think, the best candidate on the ballot in a general election, not only for the Senate, but also for down-ballot races in the House that could be impacted by the Senate race too.”

The polls bear that out. The NRSC released polling toplines showing Cornyn leading state Rep. James Talarico by 3 points and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) by 7 points in general-election matchups. Paxton would trail Talarico by 3 points and lead Crockett by just 1 point. Nonpartisan public polls have found similar numbers.

A Democrat has not won a U.S. Senate election in Texas since 1988.

Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas), who hasn’t made an endorsement in the race, said she hopes the Republican primary avoids a runoff. “We’ve got to keep Texas red,” she said. “That is not a choice, and so the faster we can get someone in place, the better it is for all Texans.”

During a Fox News appearance Monday, Cornyn said he anticipates he will face Paxton in a runoff and warned that a Paxton victory would give Democrats a boost in November.

“Unfortunately, the attorney general has got so much baggage and corruption in his wake that he will jeopardize our chances of keeping this seat red in November,” Cornyn said. “I believe that I can help President Trump in [the] end of his second term by not only winning this race, but bringing along some of these congressmen who are running in these five new congressional seats. Ken Paxton jeopardizes all of that.”

Paxton has led or been in a statistical tie with Cornyn in nearly every primary poll since launching his bid in April of last year, despite campaigning minimally and spending a small fraction compared with Cornyn’s war chest. It’s a testament to Paxton’s status as an aggressive MAGA figure in Texas, a reputation he has forged while serving as Texas’ top lawyer for a decade. Paxton used the power of his office to stoke the culture wars in court, like suing to overturn the 2020 election and defending the state’s strict abortion ban.

Dave Carney, an adviser to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, predicted that Cornyn and Paxton will face off in a runoff, where he suggested Paxton would have the edge. The most conservative candidate tends to win because they often have the most driven supporters in low-turnout primary runoff elections.

“They have to run real campaigns, both of them, they got to model their voters and turn them out,” said Carney.

To date, Trump has resisted making an endorsement in the primary. “I’m friendly with all of them,” he said earlier this month. “I like all of them, all three.”

Thune and other Senate Republicans for months privately lobbied to get Trump to endorse Cornyn, believing he would be the most formidable candidate in the general election. Thune has been careful not to predict what Trump will do in the future. Some top Trump political aides are working on Cornyn’s campaign — but the president has a longstanding relationship with Paxton. There is lingering skepticism in and outside of the Capitol that Trump would endorse Cornyn if the senator comes in second heading into the runoff.

Trump is scheduled to make an appearance in Corpus Christi on Friday to deliver a speech on the economy. A White House aide, granted anonymity to speak freely, said the president will not endorse at the event. The White House hasn’t announced if any of the GOP Senate candidates will join Trump on the trip.

Top GOP donors, too, worry that the party is burning money — and that Paxton still has the upper hand in spite of the huge spending against him, with some concerned about an outright Paxton win.

“Nobody truly knows what is going to happen based on the polling,” said one GOP donor. “There is a scenario [where] Cornyn doesn’t make it into a runoff. But even if he does, a runoff with Paxton will be very tough because of [the] low number of voters who turn out — most of whom are very conservative and viewed as Paxton voters.”

The person added that there is “frustration from everyone that Trump lets this happen by not endorsing.”

Another GOP donor said there’s “not a lot of cautious optimism” among donors that Cornyn will even make it to a runoff. “It’s going down to the wire,” the donor lamented.

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report. 

​Politics

Republicans are betting President Donald Trump just handed them the lifeline they need to win on immigration again.

It came as just one quick moment during the president’s record-breaking State of the Union address Tuesday night, when he asked lawmakers to rise if they agreed with a “fundamental principle.”

“If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens,” Trump said, prompting Republicans to take to their feet while Democrats remained roundly seated and expressionless.

That visual — a literal juxtaposition of the two sides of the aisle — is one Republicans are eager to spread across the airwaves and highlight on the campaign trail after weathering months of backlash to Trump’s unpopular mass deportation campaigns. The National Republican Congressional Committee held a meeting Wednesday morning on how best to deploy that specific moment in attack ads against vulnerable Democratic House members, according to one person familiar with the conversation, granted anonymity to discuss private planning.

At least one group is already making its move: The conservative nonprofit American Sovereignty will begin airing a 30 second ad Thursday that plays the moment in full, overlaid with text claiming Democrats are “for illegal alien criminals.” The ad, first shared with POLITICO, is part of the group’s ongoing seven-figure television blitz in critical battleground states like North Carolina, Michigan and Georgia.

“For most of the history of our country, Democrats and Republicans have disagreed in good faith on how to best protect the citizens of this country,” said David Shafer, a GOP strategist who previously served as chair of the Georgia Republican Party. “The Democrats made clear that protecting American citizens is no longer their primary objective.”

Several GOP candidates in high-profile races and lawmakers quickly amplified the clip on social media and released statements slamming Democrats for staying in their seats.

This moment is potentially critical for Republicans, who have found themselves underwater on both the economy and immigration — two issues they used to own. Recent polling from POLITICO and Public First shows nearly half of all Americans found Trump’s immigration tactics to be too aggressive and 46 percent of them think the Trump administration is responsible for high costs.

Although Trump’s Tuesday speech left some Republicans feeling skeptical that he did enough to sell a forward-looking economic agenda that would assuage Americans’ concerns, others are thrilled with his effort to reframe the GOP’s immigration platform.

Rather than focusing on his controversial mass deportation efforts, Trump honed the immigration portion of his address on two aspects that enjoy broader support: border security and removing violent criminals. That, coupled with the made-for-TV moment contrasting Republicans and Democrats, has helped give GOP campaign strategists more room to maneuver ahead of the midterms.

“That was incredibly helpful, it paints a different picture,” said Preya Samsundar, a Republican communications strategist involved in several races, including New Mexico’s gubernatorial election and the House special in Georgia’s 14th district. “It sets the tone for why the majority of Americans — regardless of the Republican, Democrat or Independent — were supportive of the President’s immigration policies in the first place.”

Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia, who is running in the competitive GOP primary to unseat incumbent Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, was among the first candidates to take aim over immigration after the State of the Union.

“Tonight, Democrats — including Jon Ossoff — refused to stand for the American people,” he said in a statement Tuesday following Trump’s speech. “We saw a clear-cut division tonight between the Republicans, under the leadership of President Trump, who are standing up for our country, and the Democrats who stay seated and refused to acknowledge the truth: The State of our Union is strong.”

Still, Democratic operatives, like pollster Brian Stryker, argue that immigration is no longer the “lead weight” that it was for their party in 2024. Democrats’ recent special election wins, including in Texas where Hispanic voters ran en masse back to Democrats, nod to their momentum on the issue.

“A Democrat with a moderate immigration policy can be heard right now, while two years ago, they assumed every Democrat was for open borders,” he said.

If Republicans were to gain the front foot on immigration again, that could help them redirect some of the focus from their perceived weak spots on the economy — at least temporarily. They’re betting that the images of Democrats staying in their seats on immigration will have staying power.

“I saw Stephen Miller’s tweet afterwards saying it was the biggest moment in the history of the Congress. Doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” said Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) of the White House deputy chief of staff’s late-night posts on social media. “The whole thing is disgraceful to me. It was a stunt, and it was pathetic.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rushed to defend Democrats after Trump’s speech, saying they “agree” on protecting Americans and the president is the one risking their safety with his immigration operations — a nod to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti.

But the damage may have been done.

“It’s theatrics, but at the end of the day it’s kind of a shake your head move for Democrats not to stand up,” Ben Voelkel, a Wisconsin-based Republican strategist, said.

Brakkton Booker, Elena Schneider and Calen Razor contributed to this report.

​Politics