Here are the top House Democrats at risk from GOP redistricting

Here are the top House Democrats at risk from GOP redistricting

House Democrats in red states across the country are at risk as the redistricting arms race heats up. Texas Republicans' proposed redraw, a President Trump-backed plan that could net the party five more House seats, has led to other red statesmoving forward withtheir own redistricting plans. Florida, Indiana and Missouri are among the Republican-led states now weighing whether to redo their congressional maps — putting a number of Democratic incumbents at risk. Here are the House Democrats most likely to be targeted across the country: Republicans already control 25 of the 38 congressional seats in Texas, but the proposed changes could give them a 30-8 edge by slashing Democratic-controlled seats in Houston, Dallas and Austin-San Antonio. One of the biggest proposed changes affects Rep. Greg Casar's (D-Texas) 35th Congressional District, which went to former Vice President Harris by 33 points in November. The map would create a new +10 Trump district outside of San Antonio, according toanalysisfrom Cook Political Report. Casar hascalledthe would-be destruction of his district "illegal voter suppression of Black and Latino Central Texans." The Austin base of Casar's current district would be pushed into the 37th Congressional District, now held by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas). The changes couldset up a potential primary matchupbetween Casar and Doggett, who has accused Trump of "taking a hatchet to chop up Austin and our state with the sole objective of maintaining his one-man rule." The Texas plan would reshape the 32nd Congressional District, currently based in Dallas and held by Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas). By stretching the district into East Texas, it would become a +18 Trump seat, according tothe Cook Political Report. Johnson has been amongthe voicesheralding Texas state House Democrats for fleeing the state to break quorum and stall "a rigged map." Rep. Marc Veasey's would see his 33rd Congressional District likely remain blue, but the longtime lawmaker would probably lose his hometown and political base in the redrawing. This could create a primary between Veasey and Johnson as the latter's seat is reshaped,analysisfrom the Texas Tribune suggests, if they both decide to try and stay in the House. Rep. Henry Cuellar's (D-Texas) seat in Texas's 28th Congressional District would shift rightward, from a +7 Trump district to a +10 post. The Cook Political Report says that Cuellar could "conceivably survive" the midterms, though he's currently grappling with anongoing criminal casethat could complicate any reelection prospects. Cuellar and his wife wereindictedby a federal grand jury in Houston last year on charges of participating in a bribery scheme. Like Cuellar, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) would see his 34th Congressional District seat get even redder, according to the Cook Political Report. Gonzalez won reelection byjust three pointslast year, so even a slight move toward the right could imperil reelection prospects. In a statement after the map's release, however, Gonzalez pointed to Trump's approval rating as he promised "we will win again." Rep. Al Green's (D) seat in Texas's 9th Congressional District would merge with the empty blue seat vacated by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D), yielding a more conservative 9th district in the suburbs of east Houston. Al Green "almost certainly wouldn't run" in the new 9th, the Cook Political Report forecasts, but he could run for the vacant 18th seat. Meanwhile, a special election is ongoing to fill the vacancy for Turner's former seat. Ohio is the one state that's required to redistrict this year, after its 2022 maps failed to receive bipartisan support. Republicans boast a 10-5 majority in the current congressional delegation, and redistricting could mean a handful of Democrats see their districts get tougher. Rep. Mary Kaptur (D) in Ohio's 9th Congressional District is considered among themost vulnerableafter winning a highly competitive race in 2024. Her district went to Trump by roughly 7 points last year, according toThe Downballot. Like Kaptur, Rep. Emilia Sykes (D) in Ohio's 13th Congressional District won a tight race in 2024 and has been targeted by the GOP as a potential pickup opportunity. The district waseffectively tiedbetween Trump and Harris in November. "It's no surprise that special interests in Washington and Columbus want to ignore the voters and rig the game," Sykes campaign spokesman Justin Barasky told The Hilllast month. Rep. Greg Landsman (D) in the 1st Congressional District around Cincinnati could also be impacted, according tothe Columbus Dispatch, thoughanti-gerrymandering rulesapproved by voters in 2018preventsredistricting from breaking up the city. Missouri's Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe hasindicated he'll look atthe possibility of redistricting in the state, where Republicans control six of eight districts. The Kansas City Star reportedlast month that Trump's political team had expressed interest in trying to gain another Show Me State seat, which wouldlikely beRep. Emmanuel Cleaver's 5th Congressional District in Kansas City. Cleaver, who has been in the seat for two decades,won reelectionwith 60 percent of the vote last fall, afterline changesin 2022. He told St. Louis Public Radio thatthe pushfor mid-decade redistricting is "very dangerous." Republicans appear to be eyeing Indiana, where Democrats hold just two House seats, as another opening. Amid redistricting chatter, Vice President Vance met on Thursday with Gov. Mike Braun (R), who would need to call a special session of the state General Assembly to initiate redrawing. If Indiana were to redistrict, changes would likely squeeze the 1st Congressional District in the northwest, where Rep.Frank Mrvan(D) has already been named asa national GOP targetfor 2026. "It is no surprise that some believe redistricting is the only option to cling to power when they know the American people are rejecting the damage done by the House Republican Majority," Mrvan said in a statement. A redraw could also affect Mrvan's fellow Democrat, Rep.Andre Carson(D-Ind.), though the 7th Congressional District around Indianapolis may be somewhat safer, since breaking up blue voters in the area could make other Republican House districts more vulnerable. Republicans hold the other seven House seats in Indiana. Florida's state House Speaker this weekannounced he'll forma redistricting committee after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signaled the Sunshine State could follow Texas's lead. There are just 8 House Democrats to 20 Republicans in Florida, and multiple blue seats could be endangered if a redraw moves forward. Republicans are hoping togain at least threeseats in the Sunshine State, Punchbowl News reported this week. One of the potentialSouth Florida targets is Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who won reelection in November by five points in a district thatwent to Harrisby just two points. Fellow South Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Lois Frankelcould also be vulnerable, along with South Florida. Rep. Kathy Castor (D) in the Tampa area and Rep. Darren Soto (D) outside of Orlando. All five of these Democrats won their 2024 races with less than 60 percent of the vote. Moskowitz and Soto are already on the GOP campaign arm's target list. "It's called corruption when the only reason to redraw the maps is to hold onto power cause y'all are going to lose in '26," Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Friedsaid on X. Amid the Texas drama, chatter is percolating about redistricting possibilities in still more states. An analysisfrom Sabato's Crystal Ball forecasts there could be room for changes inNorth Carolina, where a new 2024 map netted the GOP three new seats, and in Kansas, which has just one blue seat — though it's all but guaranteed that Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) wouldn't call a special session to initiate talks. Republican Rep. Ralph Norman in South Carolina hassuggested a redrawthat could target longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state's lone Democratic congressman, but the move isseen as unlikelygiven the already favorable 6-1 delegation split. With the exception of Ohio, it remains unclear which states will ultimately go through with redistricting, as Texas Democrats' dramatic quorum break stalls progress even in the Lone Star State. And even for those who do, it's not a guarantee that change could clear in time take effect before next fall's high-stakes midterms. Meanwhile, Democrats are looking to counter would-be GOP gains by weighingredistricting in blue strongholds, including California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has said he's moving forward with a plan to put redistricting before voters this fall, which would be triggered by what happens in Texas. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

byMario Satorik

in

August 10, 2025

Here are the top House Democrats at risk from GOP redistricting

Here are the top House Democrats at risk from GOP redistricting House Democrats in red states across the country are at risk as the redistri...

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Trump’s pick for the Fed ‘fuels an existential threat’ as central bank independence is targeted, JPMorgan says

Trump's pick for the Fed 'fuels an existential threat' as central bank independence is targeted, JPMorgan says

President Donald Trump's appointment of Stephen Miranas Federal Reserve governor represents more than the addition of a dovish voice at the central bank. It could signal an intention to amend the Federal Reserve Act and diminish policymakers' independence, according to analysts at JPMorgan, which said the Fed may respond by sounding more dovish too. The Federal Reserve could be getting more than another dovish vote with the appointment of Stephen Miran as governor. It could signal an intention to amend the Federal Reserve Act and diminish policymakers' independence, according to analysts at JPMorgan. On Thursday,President Donald Trump named Miran, the chair of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, to fill a vacancy left by Adriana Kugler, who stepped down before her term was due to expire in January. While he is known for a proposal authored before joining the administration that's been dubbed the"Mar-a-Lago Accord"to address the U.S. trade deficit, another paper he cowrote in 2024 calling for theoverhaul of the Federal Reserveis gaining more attention now. In a note on Friday, JPMorgan analysts led by chief economist Bruce Kasman highlighted key proposals, such as giving at-will power to the U.S. president to fire Fed board members and Fed bank presidents, giving Congress control of the Fed's operating budget, and shifting the Fed's regulatory responsibility over banks and financial markets to the Treasury. "There is little doubt that the consequence of these reforms would be to materially increase the influence of the president over US monetary and regulatory policy," analysts wrote. Such changes would require approval from Congress, and JPMorgan pointed out that it's not clear support for such broad changes exists. But what is clear is that Miran is joining the Fed board—armed with a reform agenda. His 2024 paper accused the Fed of suffering from "groupthink" and mission creep, arguing that changes to the Fed would actually help preserve its independence. JPMorgan doesn't see it that way. "The main threat to the Fed independence is not politically motivated turnover shifting the outcome of votes," analysts said. "Rather, the appointment fuels an existential threat as the administration looks likely to take aim at the Federal Reserve Act to permanently alter US monetary and regulatory authority." An administration official toldFortunethat comments made by officials prior to joining the Trump administration do not reflect its policy positions. Congress has the powerto modify the central bank's authority and mission. Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel flagged this potential last month, whenhe told CNBCthat Powell may need to resign in order to preserve the Fed's long-term independence. His reasoning: if the economy stumbles, then Trump can point to Powell as the "perfect scapegoat" and ask Congress to give him more power over the Fed. "That is a threat. Don't forget, our Federal Reserve is not at all a part of our Constitution. It's a creature of the U.S. Congress, created by the Federal Reserve Act 1913. All its powers devolve from Congress," Siegel explained. "Congress has amended the Federal Reserve Act many times. It could do it again. It could give powers. It could take away powers." Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, signaled willingness last week to amend the Federal Reserve Act, including the interest it pays on bank reserves and its dual mandate, though he said he believes in central bank independence. JPMorgan said the Fed still enjoys support in the Senate, where changes to the Federal Reserve Act would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. Still, the Fed will also take the threat to its independence seriously and actively protect it, which could mean "some accommodation" toward demands from the White House and Congress, analysts predicted. "While dramatic shifts are not expected, the coming pressure on the Federal Reserve Act could bias Fed policy dovishly and regulatory decisions in a direction that lightens burdens," they said. A tilt toward monetary easing would come amid relentless pressure from the White House to cut rates, which have remained unchanged as Fed officials eye inflationary pressure from Trump's tariffs. Independence is meant to insulate the Fed from such political pressure. But Fed independence is a tricky concept, as it largely derives from a mix of laws, norms, informal agreements and traditions, Michael Pugliese, senior economist atWells Fargo, toldFortunein an earlier interview. He thinks it's highly unlikely Congress will amend the Federal Reserve Act to allow for more explicit influence from the White House. That's because Democrats wouldn't go along with it, and Republicans probably wouldn't get rid of the filibuster rule in the Senate to immediately erode the Fed's independence, he said. "Getting rid of the filibuster would probably open the door to tons and tons and tons of other policy discussions on a lot of different issues, not just the Federal Reserve Act," Pugliese explained. "The filibuster has stuck around as long as it has because both parties have had reasons and cause to not change it. And maybe that changes one day, but I would be very surprised if the thing that changed it was the Fed." This story was originally featured onFortune.com

byMario Satorik

in

August 10, 2025

Trump’s pick for the Fed ‘fuels an existential threat’ as central bank independence is targeted, JPMorgan says

Trump's pick for the Fed 'fuels an existential threat' as central bank independence is targeted, JPMorgan says President Donald ...

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White Sox celebrate showman Bill Veeck with wedding, 50-foot hot dog, petting zoo at ballgame

White Sox celebrate showman Bill Veeck with wedding, 50-foot hot dog, petting zoo at ballgame

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago White Sox threw a party that would have made Bill Veeck proud. The club celebrated its quirky former owner with Bill Veeck Night on Saturday by bringing back some of the stunts, tricks and exhibitions that added to the lore of the legendary showman and Hall of Famer. There was a pregamepetting zooand a roving circus with — what else? — a clown to entertain fans entering Rate Field. There was ice sculpting on the concourse in the outfield and a chance to get a photo taken with a 50-foot hot dog, along with an offer of free haircuts. The first 15,000 fans received a Veeck bobblehead, and postgame fireworks were planned. Another highlight was what the team described as a"married in a minute"event, with two White Sox fans tying the knot in a 60-second ceremony officiated by 1983 American League Rookie of the Year Ron Kittle. Mike Veeck, Bill's son, threw out the ceremonial first pitchSaturday before the White Sox took on Cleveland, a team the elder Veeck owned from 1946-1949. The fun wasn't limited to fans in the stands. White Sox players turned back the clockby wearing pinstriped shortsduring pregame warmups and batting practice. The team wore those unusual shorts —along with collared uniform tops— for some games during the 1976 season. Bill Veeck was a two-time owner of the White Sox, first from 1959-61 and again from 1975-81. His tenure was marked by memorable and forgettable stunts to enhance the fans' game-day experience through entertainment. His stunts included an exploding scoreboard in 1960 and a disastrous disco demolition night in 1979, when a crate of disco records was blown up between games of a doubleheader. The playing surface at Comiskey Field was so damaged by the blast and fans who rushed the field after the stunt that Chicago was forced to forfeit the second game to Detroit. Another of his famous acts was signing 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to be a pinch hitter in 1951, when Veeck owned the St. Louis Browns. Gaedel, who had a miniscule strike zone, walked on four pitches. Veeck died in 1986 at 71 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. ___ AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

byMario Satorik

in

August 10, 2025

White Sox celebrate showman Bill Veeck with wedding, 50-foot hot dog, petting zoo at ballgame

White Sox celebrate showman Bill Veeck with wedding, 50-foot hot dog, petting zoo at ballgame CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago White Sox threw a p...

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Tom Brady Jokes He Feels 'Kind of Old' as His Statue Is Unveiled by the Patriots Outside of Gillette Stadium

Tom Brady Jokes He Feels 'Kind of Old' as His Statue Is Unveiled by the Patriots Outside of Gillette Stadium

Billie Weiss/Getty The New England Patriots unveiled a 12-foot-tall statue of Tom Brady outside of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., on Saturday, Aug. 9 The retired star quarterback told fans gathered at the unveiling in Patriot Place Plaza that he never imagined "being made of bronze and frozen in time" He also said, "I feel extremely honored, deeply grateful and, if I'm being honest, kind of old" Tom Bradyis being honored for being an unshakable force on the field — fittingly with a 12-foot-tall bronze statue now standing proud outside of Gillette Stadium. The seven-time Super Bowl champion, 48, was immortalized at Patriot Place Plaza on Saturday, Aug. 9, when the New England Patriots organization and CEORobert Kraftunveiled a towering statue in his likeness ahead of the team's 2025 home game against the Washington Commanders. Kraft previously announced the honor during Brady's 2024 Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremony, before making it official on Saturday. After Kraft, 84, spoke about his franchise's former star quarterback, he and Brady stood up to watch theunveiling, as flames shot up behind the statue. Brady then examined the statue from the back, gave Kraft a hug and shared some remarks with fans in attendance. "Right now, I feel extremely honored, deeply grateful and, if I'm being honest, kind of old," Brady joked during the unveiling ceremony outside of the stadium that was his home turf from 2000 to 2019. "I'm also a little surprised because usually they don't build statues until you're really old... It's not every day you get a statue, at least not one like this," he continued. "Seeing myself as a statue isn't something I could've ever imagined growing up. When I was drafted, I just hoped to make the team. I never dreamed I'd be standing here two-and-a-half decades later, made of bronze and frozen in time. It actually feels pretty appropriate, given my 40-yard dash time." https://people-app.onelink.me/HNIa/kz7l4cuf Brady called the moment an "incredible honor," joking that it marked the "first time" in his life that Boston sportswriters would describe him as "chiseled." Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. He then thanked the Kraft family for their "leadership," his former teammates and coaches for their efforts, and his family — which includes childrenJack, 17,Benjamin, 15, andVivian, 12. "I'm sure most of them are mumbling under their breath right now, 'Yeah, we love you, but a statue?' " Brady joked. Billie Weiss/Getty "In the end, this statue isn't just for Pats fans," he later said. "It'll also give Jets fans something to throw beers at as they leave the stadium every year. Probably in the second quarter. Maybe the third." Brady then said that, ultimately, the statue wasn't about just "one guy," but rather a "team and a commitment to being great together." He continued: "To think that a kid from California might someday travel here to this plaza, stop, gaze at this work of art and say, 'Who the hell is that guy?' I've said this before, but I want to say it again: I'm humbled and honored to have been part of this organization for 20 incredible years. You guys shaped my life and the life of my family. And for that, I'm forever grateful." As for Kraft, the team's owner called the statue a way to "immortalize" a man he considered to be the "greatest NFL player of all time." "Tom was the 199th draft pick, who not only transformed himself into the greatest quarterback the league has ever seen, but also helped transform the Patriots into a 20-year dynasty," Kraft said. "He demanded excellence of himself and made everyone around him better. Tom wasn't just the face of our franchise, he was the true heartbeat." Brady played for the Patriots for two decades after being selected 199th in the 2000 NFL Draft. Between then and 2020 — when he left New England for free agency and joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Brady earned six Super Bowl championships with the franchise. He later led the Bucs to a Super Bowl of their own in 2021, before his retirement in 2023. According to thePatriots organization, the newest addition to Gillette Stadium makes Brady the first player in franchise history to earn the honor of having a bronze statue standing at the location. PerESPN, the statue was created by a local sculptor and its granite base was quarried in Vermont. Read the original article onPeople

byMario Satorik

in

August 10, 2025

Tom Brady Jokes He Feels 'Kind of Old' as His Statue Is Unveiled by the Patriots Outside of Gillette Stadium

Tom Brady Jokes He Feels 'Kind of Old' as His Statue Is Unveiled by the Patriots Outside of Gillette Stadium Billie Weiss/Getty The ...

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What to know about how Trump's judicial picks could reshape abortion rights for decades

What to know about how Trump's judicial picks could reshape abortion rights for decades

CHICAGO (AP) — A review by The Associated Press shows that several of PresidentDonald Trump's nominees to the federal courts have revealed anti-abortion views, been associated with anti-abortion groups or defended abortion restrictions. Several have helped defend their state's abortion restrictions in court and some have been involved in cases with national impact, including on access to medication abortion. While Trump has said issues related to abortion should be left to the states, the nominees, with lifetime appointments, would be in position to roll back abortion rights long after Trump leaves the White House. Trump has been inconsistent on abortion Trump hasrepeatedly shiftedhis messaging on abortion, often givingcontradictory or vagueanswers. In the years before his most recent presidential campaign, Trump had voiced support for a federal ban on abortion on or after 20 weeks in pregnancy and said he might support a national banaround 15 weeks. He later settled on messaging that decisions about abortion access should be left to the states. Throughout his campaign, Trump has alternated between taking credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade and striking a more neutral tone. That's been an effort to navigate the political divide between his base of anti-abortion supporters and the broader public, whichlargely supports access to abortion. Many nominees have anti-abortion backgrounds One Trump nominee called abortion a "barbaric practice" while another referred to himself as a "zealot" for the anti-abortion movement. A nominee from Tennessee said abortion deserves special scrutiny because "this is the only medical procedure that terminates a life." One from Missouri spread misinformation about medication abortion, including that it "starves the baby to death in the womb" in a lawsuit aiming to challenge the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Legal experts and abortion rights advocates warn of a methodical remaking of the federal courts in a way that could pose enduring threats to abortion access nationwide. Bernadette Meyler, a professor of constitutional law at Stanford University, said judicial appointments "are a way of federally shaping the abortion question without going through Congress or making a big, explicit statement." "It's a way to cover up a little bit what is happening in the abortion sphere compared to legislation or executive orders that may be more visible, dramatic and spark more backlash," she said. The nominees represent Trump's 'promises' to Americans, White House says Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said "every nominee of the President represents his promises to the American people and aligns with the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling." "The Democrats' extreme position on abortion was rejected in November in favor of President Trump's commonsense approach, which allows states to decide, supports the sanctity of human life, and prevents taxpayer funding of abortion," Fields said in a statement to the AP. Trump focused primarily on the economy andimmigrationduring his 2024 campaign, the issues thatsurveys showedwere the most important topics for voters. Anti-abortion groups, abortion rights advocates respond Anti-abortion advocates say it's premature to determine whether the nominees will support their objectives but that they're hopeful based on the names put forth so far. "We look forward to four more years of nominees cut from that mold," said Katie Glenn Daniel, director of legal affairs for the national anti-abortion organization SBA Pro-Life America. Abortion rights advocates said Trump is embedding abortion opponents into the judiciary one judge at a time "This just feeds into this larger strategy where Trump has gotten away with distancing himself from abortion, saying he's going to leave it to the states, while simultaneously appointing anti-abortion extremists at all levels of government," said Mini Timmaraju, president of the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All.

byMario Satorik

in

August 10, 2025

What to know about how Trump's judicial picks could reshape abortion rights for decades

What to know about how Trump's judicial picks could reshape abortion rights for decades CHICAGO (AP) — A review by The Associated Press ...

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Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is on the defensive in Virginia's race for governor

Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is on the defensive in Virginia's race for governor

HOPEWELL, Va. (AP) — Against an olive drab backdrop in a barbecue joint filled with the aroma of pulled pork and the sweat of a Virginia summer, RepublicanWinsome Earle-Searstold voters she was running hercampaign for governorlike a military-style operation. The lieutenant governor, a former Marine, said she would protect Virginia just as she did America. The way the Earle-Sears tells it, not all attacks come from soldiers. Earlier that day, she was asked on national television why Republican PresidentDonald Trumphad not endorsed her and whether she stood by her description of him asliability back in 2022, before his return to the Oval Office about two years later. She challenged the question as backward-looking and called the interview by CNN's Manu Raju a trap. The interview quickly unraveled into a squabble. "They ambushed me to talk about things that are so in the past, when we've got to move forward," she told a crowd gathered at Saucy's Sit-Down Bar.B.Q, a mainstay in Hopewell. Her words in both settings, while cast in military terms, reflected a campaign on the defensive. Underfunded and lacking unity Earle-Sears, who faces DemocratAbigail Spanberger,a former congresswoman, in November, is taking her "Operation Defend & Deliver" campaign across the state. The off-year election all but guarantees that Virginia will have its first female governor in a race that offers an early sense of voter sentiment before the 2026 midterms. An Earle-Sears victory also would make her the first Black woman to serve as a governor, according to theCenter for American Women in Politics. But that feels like a distant prospect at the moment. The nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project says Spanberger has raised more than$27 millionso far, with more than $15 million on hand. Nearly every Democrat in Virginia politics has pledged to support her. When Democrats Ghazala Hashmi and Jay Jones won their respective primary races for lieutenant governor and attorney general, the three nominees went on a bus tour across Virginia. Earle-Sears' ticket lacks that kind of unity, though that is not entirely of her doing. Once the Republican statewide nominees hadsolidified before the June primaries, GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked John Reid, the candidate for lieutenant governor,to leave the ticketafter opposition research linked him to a social media account with sexually explicit photos. Reid denied the allegations and refused to step down, but a rally for the statewide ticket was canceled. After that, the three top Republican candidates did not campaign together for months. Earle-Sears' campaign, meanwhile, has had its own challenges. This summer, a pastor with little political experience stepped down from managing her campaign, and her team has failed to gain traction with big money donors. Attorney General Jason Miyares, seeking a second term, has raised nearly as much money, with roughly $2 million short of the lieutenant governor. He has more in the bank — nearly$7 millioncompared with almost$5 millionfor Earle-Sears. One of her biggest donors, a political action committee tied to the Republican Governors Association, gave$500,000to her campaign in June. But by this time in August 2021, the association had donated more than$2 millionto Youngkin's campaign. Responding to written questions about the donations, a spokesperson for the association said: "Winsome Earle-Sears is the only candidate in this race who will keep Virginia on the right track forged by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Under their leadership, parents' rights have been protected, Virginia's economy is growing, and communities are safe." Youngkin, who is term-limited, has offered more than$21,000in support to Earle-Sears through his political action committee between March and June. When asked in June whether he would give more, his PAC said the governor was "working to elect the entire GOP ticket and is urging all Virginians to support the commonsense team this November to keep Virginia winning." Tepid support from Trump Republicans went into this election facing tough sledding in swing-state Virginia. Ever since Democrat Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, Virginia has backed a governor from the opposite party of a first-term president in the following year. Whatever the outcome in Virginia, 2025 is a special case, given the gap between Trump's terms. Trump stopped short of an outright endorsement when asked last weekend about supporting Earle-Sears. "I mean, I would," he said. "I think probably she's got a tough race. ... She shouldn't have, because the candidate she's running against is not very good, but I think she's got a tough race. But I would." Many state Republicans are more forceful about standing behind their nominee. At the Hopewell gathering, Republican Dels. Mike Cherry and Scott Wyatt, who are seeking reelection, urged voters to back the lieutenant governor. In a prayer, Cherry asked God to "imbue her with strength and stamina for the days that are to come in the final, waning days of this election." Wyatt encouraged voters to help Earle-Sears continue the successes of Youngkin's administration. Then Earle-Sears walked onto the stage, smiling and cracking jokes. She described a political climate where Democrats and the media were hitting her with everything they've got. She predicted that she would show them come November. "How many of you have seen or read about the polls, which say I am 10 points down?" she said. "Don't believe it." Not that she doesn't need more money to make that happen. "Are we going to pass the offering bucket?" Earle-Sears said to a chuckling crowd. "OK, see, you're laughing again, and I'm not laughing because that's what it's going to take for us to win."

byMario Satorik

in

August 10, 2025

Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is on the defensive in Virginia's race for governor

Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is on the defensive in Virginia's race for governor HOPEWELL, Va. (AP) — Against an olive drab backdrop i...

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'Work of the devil'? Authors, dads test limits of travel sports

'Work of the devil'? Authors, dads test limits of travel sports

BERKELEY, CA - "You want to see what Americans care about?" Michael Lewis asks. You probably know Lewis. He takes sports and societal narratives – the sabermetric undercurrent, a homeless kid seemingly born to be a left tackle, the careful yet tough influence of a high school coach – and turns them into influential books. The really good subjects, he has found, are right under your nose and no one is saying anything about them. That eventually becomes impossible. Take travel sports. "Go to a 10 year old softball game and watch the parents," Lewis said in March at theProject Play Summit. "They care about that more thananything." Across campus at the University of California, another author, Richard Reeves, raised within a British youth sports system much more infatuated with playing than the material things you can get from sports, offered this reading of the landscape: "Travel sports, the work of the devil." Reeves' three sons were around middle school age when he and his wife brought them over from the United Kingdom to America, and into the so-called youth sports industrial complex. "You've got these kids being hauled around the country and think they got to do this, parents shouting in their ears and they had scouts there and individual coaches," he tells USA TODAY Sports. "I was horrified by the culture around it." Lewis had two softball-playing daughters and, like so many of us, gave himself to their careers. "The most pathetic character inside it is the one who's paying for it all," Lewis writes in "Playing to Win," his 2020 audiobook that details life in the complex. "The sports parent funds the entire operation but is regarded by everyone else as expendable. The central truth of this elaborate mechanism we've built so that our children might compete against each other might be this: How little a parent can do to help the child. As a result, the overwhelming emotion of the sport parent is anxiety." But would he do it again? It's a question he thought about as he wrote, and as he spoke to the crowd at Project Play five years later about what has become a $40 billion industry. The two authors (and dads) offer perspective on their zany escapades within travel ball and advice on how we can negotiate it – or perhaps avoid it entirely. Lewis has raised two daughters and a son with his wife, Tabitha Soren. Soren thought softball would be a nice way for dad and his young daughters, Quinn and Dixie, to bond. What could go wrong? Ther local softball league was founded by Cal religion professor Harlan Stelmach under the premise it existed for the "moral education of parents." It was against the rules to talk about the score, or even to use verbs from the stands to instruct or criticize your daughter while she was playing. "Left to their own devices, children playing sports make it fun," Stelmach said. "It's when adults get involved that the problems arise." The goal was a .500 record, and an evaluation was held to select teams balanced equally by skill. But dad coaches whose daughters were good players told their children to "tank" their formal evaluations so they would be undervalued. The rules were about adult behavior. "You're not just teaching the kids, you're teaching the parents," he says. "Most of the competitive landscape was Daddy ball," Lewis says. "It was dads who cared too much, who were frustrated by their own lack of success as baseball players, whose wives had seen this is the one way to interest their husband in their daughter was to get them into competitive sports and have them run their sporting lives." Haley Woods, an All-American catcher and power hitter at Cal who coached Dixie Lewis when she became a competitive travel player, had a poignant message for parents. It's what we need to understand when our kids are young:Don't see them as who you wish them to be, but for who they are. Growing up in England, Reeves played sports all the time, with no infatuation with what he might become. Rugby didn't help you get into Oxford, anyway. "I wasn't very good at anything, but my dad coached rugby," Reeves says. "He'd played. We'd cut a hole in the fence so we could get into the school tennis courts, and they looked the other way, and summers were spent on the tennis courts. I never had an hour of tennis coaching in my life, but I'm an OK tennis player as a result. … "I was fortunate enough to grow up with a very clear sense from my parents of the joy and the value of sport, but always on the play side. … I lived in fear of one of my kids getting good enough to play travel sports." Reeves wrote the 2022 book, "Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to Do About it." His session at Project Play addressed youth coaches and administrators looking for ways to engage more boys in sports astheir participation numbers are plummeting. Problems with boys and girls sports can arise when we get out of our comfortable communities and into the industrial complex. "It's like, you have these small furry creatures who have been raised on an island without predators," Lewis says. We toss them into the jungle, and our education continues. At some point, with players' and parents' inner ambition brimming beneath the surface, the Berkeley softball league formed a travel team. Lewis' older daughter, Quinn, was 9. Now they were driving an hour away to play. At first they got pummeled, which tested the adults' limits' of frustration. "At a kid's ballgame, you're never quite sure who's going to go mad - only that someone will," Lewis writes in "Playing to Win." No trait - education level, income, race or gender – was predictive of it, he observed. The explosion happened to the Berkeley parents the first time the team was close to winning. Near the end of the game, one of their runners slid into home. The umpire called her safe. Lewis recalled four opposing coaches running out of the dugout and screaming at her, profanities flying. The umpire started to cry. "The Berkeley parents were always very good at not being the first one to throw a punch," Lewis said, "but (they) are always on a hair trigger for other parents' bad behavior. So their coaches get their fans riled up, they're all screaming at the ump. The Berkeley parents are then outraged. "On the field, they're like 20 little girls looking back and forth, with 70 parents screaming at the top of their lungs, veins popping, faces red. Through the noise - and the din was incredible - you heard this Berkeley mom shriek,What horrible modeling for our children." The umpire tossed the opposing head coach. He then told her he was director of facilities and said she was fired. Lewis followed her as she moped toward the parking lot. He had to give her a pep talk to stay. "I remember having this feeling like, yeah, on the surface, it is horrible," he said. "On the other hand, softball became one way to show my children - and then basketball with my son - how not to behave as a grown-up. "Mostly what they got from grown-ups was a lot of artificial behavior, like polite grown-up behavior. When they saw the mask come off, then we can have a serious talk about how you behave and shouldn't behave." It's a tacticJeff Nelligan, another sports dad and commentator on American parenting I've interviewed, used with his three sons. Daily life, he writes, offers advice moms and dads can't concoct on their own: good, bad, and inspirational. Our job, Nelligan says, is to judge what we see. "Every single one of us makes judgments about people and situations throughout our day," he writes. "It's the only way to successful navigate through life." We learn about the length people go for our kids, and when we go too far. Perhaps for Lewis, it was when he went to Cal's women's softball team and, in his words, "threw a sack of money" at its players to coach the Berkeley team and reverse their losing. Or when he was interviewing then-President Barack Obama for a story aboard Air Force One. When they arrived in Washington, the president asked Lewis to ride back to the White House to continue their discussion. Lewis said he had to rush home for a girls softball tournament. COACH STEVE:Ranking the 6 worst youth sports parents The next time you're at your child's game and want to say something out loud, pretend you are on a national stage. With social media documenting everything, you essentially are. Best mound visit ever. Listen to this. This should go viral. Amazing and what it's all about. Baseball is fun and this coach absolutely gets itpic.twitter.com/wdkMCwu7zI — F.P. Santangelo Sr (@FightinHydrant)August 5, 2025 Before you speak, think about what you are about to say, whether it be an in-game instruction to your kid, who might just glare at you, or a jab at another parent, which will make you a spectacle. Sports parenting is a lot like driving, Lewis writes. He says you want to go over and scream at the coach who benched your child like you want to give the finger to the person who cheated at the four-way stop sign. But 24 hours later, you have trouble even remembering why you got so upset. Your exercise can start when your kids are young, when the stakes are much lower, nonexistent really. What you stop yourself from saying might teach you something about the industrial complex you are about to enter. Reeves, the British author, says he came into it blindly. "I think this whole college thing, the selection thing, the scholarship thing, it's putting this downward pressure on youth sports that is very distorting, and I don't know what to do about it, but I do know that we survived it," he says. "We were never parents trying to get the kids into these highly selective colleges who would like do oboe on Tuesday and lacrosse on Wednesday and their nonprofit on Thursday and the Mandarin class on Friday. "God, it was exhausting. I was like my kids are just gonna go to a state college and they'll be fine." One of his sons, Bryce, wound up on a travel soccer team and got injured. At that point, the family decided they didn't want the scene to infiltrate their life any further. "Saturdays are for the sofa," he says. "They're not for getting up at 6 to drive to New Jersey." Lewis spent five years of nearly 30 hours per week running his childrens' sports and 10 as commissioner of the travel softball league, mostly to the objections of his wife. "In the beginning (it) was, 'How sweet, Michael's getting very involved in the daughter's lives," Lewis says, "and then it's like, 'Wait, we're spending 52 nights a year at the Hampton Inn in Manteca?' … "Her view is there was a price that was paid, and the price was that our life was less diversified. It was more specialized, even if it wasn't specialized in a single sport. It was severed but it was all or nothing, and the kids all approached it that way. They were all really into it." Dixie had a drive that was different, her dad thought. As a young teenager, she had sought out Haley Woods' Cal Nuggets softball team on her own and made the team. She threw herself into the journey and experience. She played in front of college coaches, and she found a role model. "Everything she says to me, I take seriously, and there's so few grown-ups I feel that way about," she told her father about Woods. "She has a lot to say that's really useful to me." COACH STEVE:'Is it worth it?' Red flags to watch with youth sports programs Lewis admits the tens of thousands spent on travel ball fees, private lessons and travel costs and the pursuit of athletic scholarships is much better invested in a 529 college fund. Still, he also adds, "My view of all this was that there's so many things you can learn through this experience that what sacrifice was involved was totally worth it." Lewis and his daughter observed that top softball schools barely acknowledged ones that couldn't offer athletic scholarships. Dixie found top academic schools that also had softball teams were surprising accessible. As they walked around the campus of Division III Pomona College after she had committed there, she told her dad the travel ordeal had been worthwhile. "Look where it got me," she said. "I feel so good about myself and where I am. I wouldn't change anything." Dixie died in a 2021 car accident during her freshman year of college. Lewisalmost gave up writing. He didn't because it was something that made him feel better. He draws deep satisfaction in knowing, amid his sorrow, his daughter chose her own path through youth sports, and she wound up at her dream school. Lewis, though, fully acknowledges that about half the young athletes in America have been priced out of the industrial complex. Youth sports participation as a whole,Aspen Institute researchhas found, falls off sharply by age 11. Reeves' son, Bryce, is now a Baltimore city public schools teacher and girls soccer coach. He plays on the Baltimore City FC amateur soccer squad. "That makes me so happy," his father says. "I think there's something beautiful to just watching kids running around and having a great time. I'm here to make the case for mediocrity. And the trouble is, that doesn't sound very inspiring." Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons' baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly.For his past columns, click here. Got a question for Coach Steve you want answered in a column? Email him atsborelli@usatoday.com This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Authors Michael Lewis, Richard Reeves test limits of travel sports

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August 10, 2025

'Work of the devil'? Authors, dads test limits of travel sports

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