Connect with us

INTERNACIONAL

Alaska Republicans scramble to educate voters on suspected Dem plant as ‘ballot fatigue’ threatens race

Published

on


NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

In addition to fending off a Democratic challenger, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is wrestling against confusion caused by a candidate who shares his name — Dan J. Sullivan Jr., an independent — and a shrinking window to clear it up.

Advertisement

Alaska state Sen. James Kaufman, a Republican, said he personally remains worried about conflation between the two.

«I’ve had at least one person say they had to slow down to make sure they didn’t make a mistake. And I can only imagine people who are less engaged in politics — I think it can be confusing,» Kaufman said.

Results on Tuesday seem to confirm his hunch.

Advertisement

Sullivan Jr.’s campaign, which has focused on his background as a logger, has meaningfully splintered support from the incumbent Republican candidate in the primary — but not enough to create ambiguity about who the frontrunner was in the primary. Now, the question becomes whether the Sullivan look-alike will have a proportional impact in November, given Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, a larger pool of voters and more time for Republicans to warn voters about the dueling Sullivans.

MORNING GLORY: ALASKA’S ‘REAL’ SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN STOOD UP OVER CHALLENGER

Dan J. Sullivan, who has filed to run for U.S. Senate in Alaska, poses for a photo in Petersburg, Alaska, on June 26, 2026. (Katie Holmlund/Associated Press)

Advertisement

Former congresswoman Mary Peltola convincingly led the field on Tuesday, beating out Sen. Sullivan by a 5.4% lead.

Notably, the votes that went to Sullivan Jr. wouldn’t have closed the gap entirely had they been cast for the senator, having received just 2.3%.

Even so, Randy Ruedrich, former Republican Party chairman from 2000-2013, believes the confusion is evident.

Advertisement

As an Alaska resident, he pointed out that Alaska’s lone congressman, Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, had received as much support in his own primary as the top non-Democrats vying for the Senate seat: Sen. Sullivan, Sullivan Jr. and Gerald Heikes, a veteran.

«Nick Begich, without all this entertainment, has 60,061 votes. Nick Begich has slightly less Republican votes than these three Republicans together,» Ruedrich said.

«There is some obvious crossover.»

Advertisement

Ruedrich noted that Alaska has grappled with voter name confusion before. He recalled that, in 2022, little-known Buzz Kelly advanced to a general election when enough voters confused him with Republican Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka. Tshibaka had been campaigning using just her first name, effectively creating two «Kelly» candidates.

«We had a lady running who was using her first name to identify herself because her last name is a nightmare,» Ruedrich recalled. «We’ve had identity issues and confusion in the past.»

Ruedrich believes that attempts to muddy the waters also go beyond just Sullivan Jr.’s campaign. He pointed out that this year looks different for Heikes — the Republican with the third-most support on Tuesday and a familiar face in Alaska politics.

Advertisement

«Now, why am I bringing up Heikes? He is a perennial candidate. He has run a number of times, but he’s always been unfunded,» Ruedrich said.

JUDGE RULES REPUBLICAN WITH SAME NAME AS SEN DAN SULLIVAN CAN STAY ON ALASKA PRIMARY BALLOT

Alaska House 2022 Election

U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat, is shown before a debate for Alaska’s sole U.S. House seat on Oct. 26, 2022, in Anchorage, Alaska. Peltola faces Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich and Libertarian Chris Bye in the November general election. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

«This year, he has a significant contribution of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Massachusetts liberal who is contributing to this ultra-conservative Republican, and they’re running ads saying that Dan Sullivan is not pro-life; he’s pro-abortion.»

Advertisement

Heikes has backing from groups like Right for Alaska, which has put roughly $1.2 million up to oppose Sen. Sullivan and $410,000 to support Heikes.

It remains unclear if Heikes will advance to the general election as election results remain unfinalized.

One notable difference between Alaska’s top-four jungle primary and its general election is the implementation of ranked-choice voting in November.

Advertisement

Under this system, voters rank their preferred candidates. If their top choice is eliminated, their support passes on to their next-ranked option. While supporters of the process argue it expands voters’ power and greatly increases the influence of candidates that may not otherwise be a top choice, critics believe it also introduces confusion.

Kaufman fears that some voters won’t bother to fill out both the «Sullivans» on the ballot to cover their bases.

He believes there are still some voters in Alaska, especially Republicans, who refuse to use the system, citing disagreements with its implementation.

Advertisement

«Some people have a pretty strong traditionalist perspective: one person, one man, one vote,» Kaufman said.

«And so, the ballot fatigue where people just don’t rank because maybe they disagree with it; there’s a pretty strong segment of the population here that just patently disagrees with the rank-choice voting system we ended up with. And they don’t necessarily believe in utilizing it.»

Both Kaufman and Ruedrich remain unclear about how much confusion the Sullivan Jr. campaign will add in November, but noted that Republicans will likely make it a focus to highlight the issue in the remaining months of the campaign.

Advertisement

SAME-NAME CANDIDATE DISQUALIFIED FROM KEY SENATE RACE OVER ALLEGED DEM SCHEME TO CONFUSE VOTERS

Senator Dan Sullivan standing in the Senate Subway of the US Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, stands in the Senate Subway of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 2026. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg)

«It has had some blog coverage and some social media coverage,» Ruedrich said.

«I expect that’s going to go up significantly to get more people to understand what the problem really is,» he added.

Advertisement

In terms of proportionality, Sullivan Jr.’s most notable support came from his hometown, Petersburg Kupreanof. There, he received 66 votes to Sen. Sullivan’s 213 votes — roughly 33% of the incumbent’s support.

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

Advertisement

politics, alaska, senate

Advertisement

INTERNACIONAL

Top House chairman warns Congress against ‘complacency’ 25 years after 9/11

Published

on


NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., remembers exactly where he was when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

Advertisement

«I was a senior in high school. I was in Mr. Ponzi’s government class. And that’s when the first plane hit. And one of the other teachers came in and was telling Mr. Ponzi about it,» he told Fox News Digital. «We all thought it was a little plane. And then we went to the next class. And then the second plane hit, and everybody realized that stuff was wrong.»

Twenty-five years later, Garbarino leads a congressional committee that oversees a Cabinet department created explicitly after the terror attack. He’s warning that Congress needs to change how it deals with potential threats to avoid another tragedy of that scale.

«Being chairman of the committee, being a New Yorker, it’s one of those things you focus on, and you want to make sure another 9/11 doesn’t happen, and doesn’t ever happen again. And that’s my goal. That’s my priority,» he said.

Advertisement

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., is sounding the alarm against congressional «complacency,» 25 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (Newspix via Getty Images)

9/11 IS BECOMING HISTORY. MY GENERATION MUST MAKE SURE AMERICA NEVER FORGETS

«Congress is very good at being reactive… We don’t want another 9/11. So if I could leave my fingerprints on something here, it’s the fact that the focus, Congress’ focus on national security, Congress’ focus on homeland security or safety, is that we address an issue before something happens.»

Advertisement

HOW 9/11 TRANSFORMED SYNAGOGUE SECURITY INTO A NEW REALITY FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

He said Congress needed to get into the habit of passing laws ahead of time, «instead of being like, ‘Oh my God I can’t believe this happened, how did this happen, let’s fix it now.’»

«That’s why 9/11 happened. 9/11 happened because our intelligence agencies, they were siloed, they were not sharing information. I don’t know if it was a complacency or whatever, but there were a lot of problems,» Garbarino said. «I don’t want to fall into that same complacency.»

Advertisement

Garbarino represents New York’s 2nd Congressional District, part of Long Island’s south shore. As a suburb of New York City, its residents are deeply attuned to that tragedy 25 years ago.

A lawmaker sits during a formal congressional hearing inside a government building.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Andrew Garbarino presides over a hearing in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on Dec. 11, 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

«We have people that lost loved ones that day that are still dealing with it 25 years later,» Garbarino said. «So the scar is still there.»

His district and others are also still dealing with illnesses stemming from that day, including first responders who bravely rushed to the collapsing twin towers.

Advertisement

«There are now more people that have died from 9/11-related illnesses than died on the actual day. So it’s a day that keeps taking people away from us,» Garbarino said.

«You have firemen who, 9/11 was their first call. They were 21, 22 years old. They’re now 47… And a lot of these, some of these cancers, they take a while to take hold, and they’re now just getting sick.»

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER POSSIBLE LINK BETWEEN 9/11 AND ACCELERATED AGING

Advertisement
People rush away from the collapsing World Trade Center in New York City.

People rush away from the collapsing World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, after two hijacked airplanes hit the twin towers in New York City in a terrorist attack. (Getty Images)

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed legislation led by Garbarino and others to address a projected funding shortfall for the World Trade Center Health Program, which helps survivors pay for their medical treatment.

He said nearly all congressional districts across the country have at least one person participating in the program, a testament to how widespread the tragedy’s effects are.

«People moved out of New York, people who came from all over the country after 9/11 to help, they all went back home, they also got sick. So this does affect the entire country,» Garbarino said.

Advertisement

september 11, politics, new york city, homeland security, terror

Continue Reading

INTERNACIONAL

9/11 sent them to war. 25 years later, veterans grapple with what followed

Published

on


NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

John Byrnes was swimming in a pool beneath Hunter College in Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when he stepped outside for coffee and heard sirens blaring down Lexington Avenue.

Advertisement

He learned that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Minutes later, he saw the North Tower collapse on a campus television and immediately headed toward his National Guard armory.

Byrnes spent the next two weeks helping secure Ground Zero. And spent the following years in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Each of the five veterans who spoke with Fox News Digital ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11 remembers where they were when they learned the nation had been attacked — and how Sept. 11 changed the trajectory of their life and service.

Advertisement

Some were already in uniform. Others, including a successful businessman and a teenager who watched the attacks unfold on television at his school, felt compelled to enlist.

Looking back 25 years later, Byrnes draws a sharp distinction between the wars, including the decision to respond to the terrorist attacks and the choices that followed to continue the war on terror.

Advertisement

«The decision to go to Afghanistan, that was absolutely necessary,» Byrnes, who is now a strategic director at Concerned Veterans for America, told Fox News Digital. «The decision to go to Iraq, which was not necessary.»

«The decision to stay in Afghanistan for so long was unfortunate, but it all came down to that day.»

ARMY VET LAWMAKER MARKS ABBEY GATE ANNIVERSARY WITH BLISTERING MESSAGE FOR BIDEN-HARRIS: ‘ABJECT FAILURE’

Advertisement

«The decisions that didn’t seem wrong at the time were just pebble after pebble into an avalanche,» he said.

Veterans who spoke to Fox News Digital all went to war believing they were protecting Americans by keeping the fight «over there.» Twenty-five years later, they remain proud that they answered that call. Their harder questions are about what came afterward: how the mission expanded, what two decades of war accomplished and whether the country ultimately made good on the sacrifices it asked of them — and the people of Afghanistan.

Chris Hoff was working for the state Department of Corrections while studying to become a special education teacher in his post-military service life. For him, the decision to return to service came as he watched the towers fall from the New Jersey shoreline.

Advertisement
Michael Matthews

Michael Matthews was already serving in the Army when the attacks happened that fateful day in 2001. He deployed to Iraq in 2003 with one of the first divisions to cross the border from Kuwait. His team was later hit by an IED. (Michael Matthews)

«When September 11 happened, I knew right then and there that I was going back in the military,» Hoff told Fox News Digital.

He returned to the reserves and deployed to Afghanistan twice. During his second deployment, he suffered multiple concussions and was ultimately forced to end his military career.

«For 20 years, all I knew was prison and war,» Hoff said. «And I was good at both of them.»

Advertisement

When he could no longer continue in either career, Hoff said he felt as though he had failed. But he credits connecting with the Wounded Warrior Project and beginning equine therapy for ultimately saving his life.

Hoff now shares his story in hopes other veterans will seek help sooner.

«If I can help just one soldier… get help,» he said, «it’s okay to get help. It truly is. I’m glad I did.»

Advertisement

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

John Byrnes

John Byrnes was swimming in a pool beneath Hunter College in Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when he stepped outside for coffee and heard sirens blaring down Lexington Avenue. He learned that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Minutes later, he saw the North Tower collapse on a campus television and immediately headed toward his National Guard armory. (John Byrnes)

Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., now serving his first term in Congress, was moose hunting in remote Alaska when he first learned that the World Trade Center had been attacked.

He had been dropped in the bush with only an aviation radio, and no planes had flown overhead for days. When a pilot finally reached the hunting party, Downing learned that both towers had fallen.

Advertisement

«This country has been good to me,» Downing recalled thinking at the time when learning about the attack on U.S. soil. «What have I ever done to deserve it? We’re being attacked right now. Everything that this country stands for is being attacked. And I’ve never done anything to deserve this.»

Downing, the son of a single teenage mom, grew up poor. He went on to teach at New York University and help build a technology startup that became Yahoo.

He was 34, with no prior military service, when he returned home and walked into a recruiter’s office the next day. Downing joined the Air National Guard and served in combat search and rescue, including during two deployments to Afghanistan.

Advertisement

The way the war ended did not change Downing’s view of the decision to serve. But it did shape how he viewed what the country ultimately did with that service.

Downing called the withdrawal under former President Joe Biden «a blemish» that «squandered everything that we gained there.» He urged veterans not to conclude that their own sacrifices had been in vain.

«I just want to make sure that my brothers and sisters in arms, the folks that have served this mission, understand that they served this country and they served honorably,» Downing told Fox News Digital. «And not think just because of that one misstep that it was in vain because you stepped up to the dotted line when your country asked you to.»

Advertisement

MAMDANI TO RELEASE DOCUMENTS ON 9/11 HEALTH IMPACTS BEFORE 25TH ANNIVERSARY

Brandon Newberry has wrestled directly with that question.

Just 16 years old when he walked out of gym class and saw news coverage of the World Trade Center falling on a TV in his Spanish classroom, Newberry said: «I just felt lost and hopeless.»

Advertisement

«I wanted to do something,» he went on. «I wanted to help. I knew there were people suffering, people dying, and it hurt me really bad.»

Newberry joined the Marine Corps in 2006 because he believed the branch would put him closest to the fight. He deployed to Iraq in 2007 and later served two tours in Afghanistan.

«My whole philosophy behind it was take the fight to them,» Newberry told Fox News Digital. «As long as I kept it in their backyard, they couldn’t put it in our backyard.»

Advertisement
Chris Hoff

«For 20 years, all I knew was prison and war,» Hoff said. «And I was good at both of them.» (Chris Hoff)

Newberry said he spent roughly seven years in Afghanistan, including time as a government contractor after leaving the Marines. The years there gave him a close view of the Afghan people and the changes he believed had taken place while U.S. forces were in the country.

«At the time, women were allowed to go to school. We had women doctors,» he said. «They didn’t have that fear of the unknown, as long as we were there trying to help them out.»

Newberry said the U.S. «fumbled the ball» and could have done more to establish a lasting government and security force before leaving.

Advertisement

«It could have definitely been done better,» he said.

He also felt the conclusion of the two-decade war was a tragedy. «The withdrawal hurt us military guys. I lost a lot of good friends, and it hurts.»

The ending, Newberry said, raised a more personal question about the years he had spent there: «I almost feel like everything that I did was almost for nothing because, again, I feel like at this point I failed the Afghan people.»

Advertisement

Michael Matthews was already serving in the Army when the attacks happened that fateful day in 2001. He deployed to Iraq in 2003 with one of the first divisions to cross the border from Kuwait. His team was later hit by an IED.

Matthews suffered injuries to his face, neck, head, back, arms and legs, spent three and a half weeks in a coma and remained hospitalized for nearly nine months.

He had hoped to make a career of military service, but the injuries forced him onto a different path.

Advertisement

«It just ultimately changed the trajectory of what my goal was, which was to, of course, do this amazing life in the military and make a huge career out of it,» Matthews told Fox News Digital.

Instead, Matthews said the experience also gave him a new purpose: «Helping veterans and helping the community.»

Michael Matthews

Michael Matthews was already serving in the Army when the attacks happened that fateful day in 2001. He deployed to Iraq in 2003 with one of the first divisions to cross the border from Kuwait. His team was later hit by an IED. (Michael Matthews)

For the men who served, questions about the wars do not necessarily translate into regret over their own decision to fight.

Advertisement

Byrnes said one of the central lessons of the post-9/11 wars is that military and political leaders must look beyond the immediate objective — and be willing to acknowledge when a strategy is not working.

«You can never admit failure,» Byrnes said. «You always want to, no matter how bad things were, set the positive note. You tell the boss you’re winning until somebody else comes to take your place so you can get promoted without saying that you’re not winning.»

But 25 years after the attacks, the veterans’ reflections resist a simple judgment on the wars that followed.

Advertisement

They describe pride in having served despite the physical and psychological wounds, expressed frustration over the decisions that prolonged or expanded the wars, and issued sharply different conclusions about what the United States ultimately accomplished in its 20-year endeavor in the Middle East.

Matthews put that tension simply.

«We’re proud of what we did,» he said. «Even though we may not have fully understood what we were doing or why we were doing it.»

Advertisement

september 11, us marines, national guard, patriotism, veterans, us army, politics, tunnel to towers steel across america

Continue Reading

INTERNACIONAL

AOC’s ‘modern-day lynchings’ claim torn to shreds online as Black hanging case findings tell a different story

Published

on


NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Advertisement

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., warned Friday of «racial terror» and «widespread modern-day lynchings» in the U.S. as she joined dozens of Democrats demanding that the DOJ and FBI investigate hanging deaths of Black Americans.

Multiple official findings in several recent cases show that law enforcement or medical examiners ruled the deaths suicides, while at least one very recent death remains under a homicide investigation.

AOC alleges there is systemic racial bias at the agencies, while fellow progressive lawmaker Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., called the hangings a «national crisis» in a letter to the agencies that she spearheaded.

Advertisement

MS RACHEL SPEAKS OUT ON BLACK HANGING CASES AS RALEIGH DEATH IS DECLARED SUICIDE

«This year, there have already been 10 reported hangings of Black people in the U.S. I’m proud to have signed onto Rep. Pressley’s letter to address these widespread modern-day lynchings and put a stop to this racial terror,» Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X in support of the call.

Pressley warned in her letter that «Black folks are being found hanged in America» and insisted: «We cannot stand by while strange fruit hangs from trees across the country.»

Advertisement

The letter, addressed to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, was signed by Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez and about 50 Democrats. They demanded a «thorough, transparent, and comprehensive federal investigation into every hanging death of a Black individual across the United States,» arguing that federal agencies have failed for decades to adequately investigate such deaths.

FAMILY IDENTIFIES YOUNG WOMAN FOUND FATALLY SHOT IN HOME OWNED BY REP AYANNA PRESSLEY’S HUSBAND

One 2026 case involved the death of a 21-year-old Atlanta man who had gone missing. He was later found hanging from a tree in a Cobb County park, where officials ruled out foul play and deemed the death a suicide, according to Atlanta’s NBC affiliate.

Advertisement

Another 2026 case involved Delta State University student Demartravion Reed in Mississippi. Officials «determined the cause of death to be a hanging and the manner of death as suicide.»

At the time, the case reopened old memories of the murder of Emmett Till, according to reports. Till was a Black teen kidnapped and murdered by White men not far from the site after he was falsely accused of flirting with a White woman in 1955.

15-YEAR-OLD BLACK TEEN’S MURDER REVEALS THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT WHITE GUILT IN AMERICA

Advertisement

A Grio report on Pressley’s letter also referenced the hanging deaths of a 58-year-old man in Albany, N.Y., and a 39-year-old man in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

The Albany Police Department said Earl Smith’s death was «ruled a suicide» and investigators found «no evidence» of criminal activity.

«The Albany Police Department is aware of concerns posted on social media suggesting that criminal activity was involved with this incident, which has understandably caused public concern,» the department said.

Advertisement

A preliminary investigation of the Wisconsin man’s death also indicated suicide, according to Brookfield’s police chief cited by the Waukesha County Freeman.

At least one case remains under homicide investigation, according to reports.

Tasia Fortune was found hanging outside an abandoned house in Jackson, Mississippi, CNN reported Thursday. Authorities later questioned Terence Bernard Anderson, the father of one of her children, and arrested him on unrelated weapons charges, according to several reports.

Advertisement

AOC SLAMS ‘OPPRESSED’ TRUMP STATES WHILE TOUTING NYC SERVICES DESPITE $5B DEFICIT AND TRANSIT CRIME SPIKE

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., talks with reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 11, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The lawmakers’ characterization also drew criticism on social media.

Advertisement

«Those community notes are stacking up,» one critic said, as X’s crowdsourced correction indicator included several wire reports and media links disputing Ocasio-Cortez’ claims.

«There should be some sort of penalty for willfully lying on social media, especially for a politician,» another claimed.

Former Energy Department official Matt Van Swol posted to X, «In the last ‘lynching’ of a Black woman, the media conveniently left out the prime suspect in the case was her Black boyfriend. Zero White people are lynching Black people in America today.»

Advertisement

WATCH: SQUAD DEMOCRAT SPEAKS OUT AFTER TEEN FOUND SHOT DEAD AT HUSBAND’S BOSTON PROPERTY

Former Senate staffer Matt Whitlock added that «every death is a tragedy, but what do you think ‘widespread’ means if only one of these was actually a homicide. Not sure you’ve landed the point about ‘racial terror’ with this.»

Rep. Ayanna Pressley speaks in front of a background

Ayanna Pressley at the Featured Session «Repro Revolution: A Conversation with Rep. Ayanna Pressley» during the SXSW Conference & Festivals held at the Austin Convention Center on March 9, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Amy E. Price/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images)

X’s crowdsourced Community Notes feature also pointed readers to law-enforcement and medical-examiner findings in several of the cases, stating that most high-profile hanging deaths it identified in 2025 and 2026 had been ruled suicides and that one remained under homicide investigation.

Advertisement

When reached for comment, Pressley spokesperson Ricardo Sanchez directed Fox News Digital back to the lawmakers’ letter to Blanche and Patel, specifically a line reminding them that «Congress enacted the Emmett Till Antilynching Act in 2022 to ensure the DOJ and FBI are empowered to fully investigate suspicious deaths and hold individuals accountable.»

Fox News Digital reached out to Ocasio-Cortez, the DOJ and the FBI for comment.

Advertisement

alexandria ocasio cortez, hate crime, homicide, controversies state and local, politics, the squad, democrats

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Tendencias