Republicans’ midterm convention kicks off as national party chair says event will be about ‘defying history’ – live

Pressed on a timeline for a potential decision to run for president, Pritzker kept things vague.

“First of all, I’m running for reelection as governor, and I do want to serve as governor of the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “And any decisions that get made after that are going to be about whatever’s best for the people of our state.”

JB Pritzker has taken the microphone a few more times for the Democrats in Texas, fielding questions from reporters. He’s accused Republicans stumping for Trump of “bootlicking,” and alleged that Trump’s efforts to enact restriction on mail-in voting amount to a promise to end fair elections in the future.

“If Democrats don’t win, if they don’t win in this election, we may not have other elections,” Pritzker said. “Or certainly we’re going to have future elections, every single one of which will be rigged.”

A leading Democratic organiser in Texas has called on Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett to “get on the team” and support James Talarico in the election for the US Senate.

Wendy Davis, president of Blueprint Texas, a political action committee that aims to flip down-ballot races, told a Bloomberg roundtable in Dallas on Wednesday that “there will need to be work done” to ensure that Black and Latino voters turn out in November.

Democrats are struggling to reunite after Talarico, who is white, defeated Crockett, who is African American, in a hard-fought Senate primary election earlier this year. Talarico now faces the scandal-haunted Republican Ken Paxton. Davis said: “I wish it were the case that Jasmine Crockett had come out strongly for James and campaigned for him.

“I think that could have a very beneficial impact for him but it’s not just about him; it’s about the state and we need to be all hands on deck to make sure that our candidates have the best chance to succeed. I don’t know if she’ll do that as we come into these final weeks but I certainly hope so because she has a lot of respect and people pay attention to her opinions and positions. I just hope she’ll get on the team and help make that happen.”

Asked why she believes Crockett has not yet fully joined the effort, Davis, a former state senator, replied: “I don’t know; I can’t answer for her; I’ve never had a tough primary. That was a tough primary and I think there was some bruising along the way. I’m sure there has been some pain associated with that. I don’t know what her process has been to work through that but there’s likely some difficulties that remain as a consequence of that. Just guessing.”

Local Texas Democrats speaking to reporters in Dallas have repeatedly brought up Texas Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting push, which Donald Trump heavily pushed for, as an example of presidential overreach. That move saw the state’s congressional maps redrawn in 2025 to make district lines more favorable to the GOP, likely securing the party extra seats in the midterms.

The redistricting effort in Texas was the first shot in a redistricting war that has seen congressional maps redrawn across the country, with both Democrats and Republicans carving up districts in an effort to win more seats.

Democrats are holding a press conference in Texas ahead of the GOP’s Dallas-based midterm convention.

JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, was just speaking to the assembled reporters. He lambasted the Trump administration for, in his words, launching a war on Iran that worsened inflation, for trying to undermine voting rights, and for engaging in corruption and self-dealing – lines of attack we can expect to hear frequently through the midterms.

“Republicans are lying, and they’re corrupt,” Pritzker said.

He continued: “I’m done pretending that these self-dealing, racist, misogynist grifters are an aberration of the Republican Party. They are the mainstream of the Republican Party now.”

Pritzker, a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, notably faced off with Trump when the President sent a legion of ICE agents – and later the National Guard – to target to the city in a mass deportation operation in 2025.

Republicans are descending on Dallas today to prepare for an unconventional midterm convention, convened at Donald Trump’s request, to try to rally the party ahead of a testy midterm election. The US president himself is slated to take the stage twice during the convention’s two-day run, as well as JD Vance, top congressional Republicans and several members of Trump’s cabinet.

The convention’s first night will kick off at 3pm, local time. Among the speakers on deck are Steve Scalise, the House majority leader; Mehmet Oz, the television personality turned head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; the Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton; and Scott Bessent, Trump’s treasury secretary. Expect plenty of breaks in between for music and hype videos.

All of it will build up to Trump’s keynote address, scheduled for after 8pm.

Americares, a non-profit that delivers medical supplies and other aid to poverty- and disaster-stricken parts of the world, received a record $50m donation in light of cuts to US foreign aid programs.

Donald Trump has taken a hatchet to US-funded foreign aid programs in his second term, including the dismantlement of the US Agency for International Development. Those cuts have left non-profits scrambling to make up for canceled funds and programs covering food and medical aid, in addition to other kinds of assistance, around the world.

The $50m donation, announced on Wednesday, is the largest in Americares’ history, the organization said in a statement. It will go toward expanding access to critical medicines in the countries Americares serves.

Nebraska’s Republican governor, a staunch conservative who has backed Trump’s mass deportation campaign, has employed undocumented immigrants in his massive pork production business, a report published by the Flatwater Free Press and the New York Times found.

The governor, Jim Pillen, rose to prominence as the founder of Pillen Family Farms, now one of the country’s biggest pork producers. He won Nebraska’s governorship in 2022, and more recently he has embraced and aided Trump’s deportation crackdown.

But according to the Times and Flatwater Free Press’ reporting, at least 20 hog farms under Pillen Family Farms relied on labor from the same undocumented workers Trump is pushing to deport en masse.

Pillen has echoed Trump’s rhetoric on immigration as he runs for re-election, facing off against Democratic nominee Lynne Walz.

Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of a longtime New Hampshire senator and former governor, has won the Democratic nomination in the race for Chris Pappas’s former House seat.

Stefany Shaheen’s mother Jeanne Shaheen is a former governor who has represented New Hampshire in the Senate since 2009. The younger Shaheen’s family ties to the Democratic establishment – and accusations of nepotism – became a point of attack by her opponent in the primary race.

With their respective victories in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, Pappas won the nomination to replace the elder Shaheen in the Senate, as Stefany Shaheen won the nomination to replace Pappas.

Stefany Shaheen will go up against the Trump-backed Republican nominee, Anthony DiLorenzo, in a swing-district race that could prove competitive.

Howard Lutnick, Trump’s secretary of commerce, scrapped a planned trip to Mexico City on Wednesday to meet with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, the country’s secretary of economy said in a post to social media on Wednesday morning.

Lutnick’s meeting with Mexican leaders will instead take place over a video call, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s economy secretary, said in a brief statement posted to X. Their conversation, which will include discussions of trade between the US and Mexico, will take place in the shadow of the escalating tariff war between the US and Canada.

As the US and Iran again trade fire in the Middle East, the global benchmark for oil prices has surged back past $100 a barrel.

The increase in Brent crude, which now stands at $100.6, comes as the US and Iran step up their attacks on oil tanker ships in and around the Persian Gulf. American authorities said they took out five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday in retaliation for attacks on a US naval vessel. Iran, in turn, launched a missile barrage targeting a US base in Jordan as well as several oil tankers.

Crude oil is the primary component in gasoline and diesel fuel, and as crude oil prices rise, so do the costs American drivers pay at the pump.

Surging gas prices downstream of the US and Israeli campaign against Iran have rankled voters, and loom over Republicans’ efforts to retain control of Congress through the midterms. Trump campaigned heavily on bringing down prices – and gas prices in particular – ahead of his 2024 election.

It would be the first time in nearly a decade that an incumbent governor has been ousted in a party primary.

Dan McKee, Rhode Island’s Democratic governor, stands to lose his seat as voters head to the polls today in the state’s primary elections. McKee has been trailing in the polls for weeks against Helena Foulkes, a former CVS executive who he narrowly bested to win the party’s nomination in 2022.

This contest, however, isn’t the kind of progressive vs. establishment showdown that has turned heads in other Democratic primary races this year.

Rather, McKee’s problems stem, in large part, from his handling of repair work on Providence’s Washington Bridge, a major east-west traffic artery. Foulkes has criticized McKee for bungling those repairs, which have dragged on longer than originally planned.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz cancelled a planned phone call with US president Donald Trump on Wednesday, hours after Trump publicly celebrated a regional election win by Germany’s far-right AfD party.

A spokesman for Merz declined to give a reason for the cancellation, but noted in response to questions from journalists that it was not due to scheduling conflicts.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, hailed the “really big night” for the AfD.

“They finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly,” Trump wrote on Tuesday night Washington time.

Merz’s spokesman did not directly respond to Trump’s comments, but noted that the chancellor had frequently objected “in general terms” to “interfering in or commenting on the domestic political situation, particularly regarding elections”.

On the first day of the fall semester at California State University, Northridge, student organizers holding “Hot People Vote” signs wheeled a bright pink wagon outside the student union.

They offered “no strings attached” donuts, heart-shaped sunglasses and voting information for the November general election. Even though it was 105F outside, dozens of people stopped by to chat with the Donuts + Democracy volunteers and register to vote.

One student told organizer Dzian Tran that she didn’t plan to vote because she was disillusioned with politics. Tran chatted with her about how civic engagement is important to democracy and how some elections are won by a margin of only 400 votes. As she thanked Tran, the student held her phone up to a QR code to get more information about voting.

About 50 million young people are eligible to vote in 2026, but nearly half are either not registered or civically engaged, according to US Census Bureau data. After young people shifted right for Donald Trump in 2024, Democratic-aligned groups have been eager to capture gen Z voters who may be disaffected by politics. From bringing politicians, celebrities and donuts to campuses to hosting tailgating events, happy hours and street parties, a crop of youth-led and youth-focused organizations are employing fresh tactics to meet gen Z where they are – and luring them in with fun.

Heather Haggarty, who runs Democracy + Donuts with her daughter, said traditional voter engagement strategies such as postcards, clipboards and phone-banking fail with young voters. When her two gen Z children suggested taking donuts to a university voter registration event a few years ago, she ended up speaking to more than 100 kids in 90 minutes. Haggarty said the deep-fried snack is akin to “breaking bread”, making zoomers more willing to talk and connect.

“Young kids aren’t apathetic,” she said. “They care. But voting isn’t easy and traditional voter engagement can feel transactional and alienating.”

Americans are more skeptical of government information than they were a few years ago, with majorities now saying they have little or no trust in federal government information about elections and politics, foreign affairs or the environment, a new poll has found.

The survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USA Facts shows that while mistrust of government information has grown since 2024, it is higher than it was at the end of president Donald Trump’s first term.

Those suspicions extend to the results of the coming midterm elections. Only 34% of US adults trust government certifications of election results “a great deal” or “quite a bit,” which is down slightly from 40% in 2024.

Certification is a typically routine process in which local and state officials confirm the vote count but it has become politicized since Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.

Trust in government information has also become more partisan since Trump’s first term, the survey found.

Here are some images from the Republican national convention in Dallas, Texas:

Donald Trump gave sizable holiday gifts to four White House aides, according to new financial disclosures released by the administration, including $45,000 to executive assistant Natalie Harp.

Communications adviser Margo Martin and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris also received $45,000, while director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta received a $20,000 gift.

The gifts were noted in the staffers’ annual financial disclosure forms that were published by the administration last week. Harp, Martin and Harris make $150,000 annually and Nauta is paid $175,000 a year, according to the White House’s salary disclosure report to Congress.

A White House official told the Associated Press that Trump “has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including at times employees and aides, both in government and in his time in the private sector.”

The official did not say if any other staffers were given similar gifts from the president, but added that the cash gifts were not related to the “individuals’ official government duties, and therefore are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards.”

The disclosures of the gifts were first reported earlier on Tuesday by The Washington Post.

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

Donald Trump is due to address Republicans tonight at the party’s first ever national convention ahead of the crucial midterm elections, with the GOP hoping to energize voters as it fights to hold its narrow congressional majorities.

The two-day gathering takes place in Dallas, marking a break from the longstanding tradition of holding national conventions only during presidential election years.

“It has never been done before, and will be a truly Historic Event,” Trump said in July while announcing the convention, promising the convention would feature “Great Entertainment”.

Trump first floated the idea for a convention last year, arguing that it would provide an opportunity to showcase his administration’s achievements since he returned to the White House in 2024.

More than 100 House members and candidates are expected, with over 50 speakers or presentations scheduled each night.

Trump delivers this evening’s keynote speech and returns for Thursday’s finale after his vice-president, JD Vance, speaks. Cabinet members, congressional leaders and candidates in closely watched House and Senate races are also on the program.

Republicans plan to highlight tax cuts, immigration enforcement, manufacturing and prescription drug prices, while depicting Democrats as dangerously far to the left.

In other developments:

• Clashing court rulings plunged Missouri’s congressional elections into uncertainty. The US supreme court decided not to intervene to reinstate a Donald Trump-backed US House map, upholding a ruling from the state’s highest state court that prevented the use of the map in the November elections. But shortly after, a federal judge temporarily barred the state from using its old congressional maps in November.

• The US military destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers after a US navy warship was targeted with ballistic missiles. Iran had targeted the warship twice over two days, US Central Command said.

• The US will ban Canadian dairy products, motorcycles and most alcoholic beverages. The move marked an escalation in the ongoing trade war between the North American countries, and comes just after Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on $20bn in US goods.

• Congressman Chris Pappas beat back progressive challenger Karishma Manzur in the New Hampshire Democratic primary for US Senate. Former senator John E Sununu, who is backed by Trump, won the state’s Republican Senate primary.

• Lonnie G Bunch III announced he is stepping down as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution after seven years in the role amid Donald Trump’s unprecedented crackdown on the world’s largest museum complex’s autonomy.