Author: NOVA Corp

Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia is a big step closer to re-election, thanks in part to support from President Donald Trump.

Capito defeated five Republican challengers in Tuesday’s GOP Senate primary in West Virginia, the Associated Press reports, to secure her party’s nomination in the solidly red Mountain State.

The two-term lawmaker who served a decade and a half in the House before first winning election to the Senate in 2014 and making history as the state’s first female senator hails from a political family. Her late father was Arch Moore Jr., a former three-term governor and six-term congressman.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

Among those trying to defeat her in Tuesday’s primary was state Sen. Tom Willis, who argued that it was “time for a change” and took aim at “career politicians.”

But Capito, as she ran for re-nomination, spotlighted her support from Trump.

“I’m honored to have President Trump’s complete and total endorsement as we fight to protect West Virginia jobs, make life more affordable, secure our border, and defend our shared values in the Mountain State,” she wrote last month.

SIX MONTHS TILL MIDTERMS: THE TEN RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE’S MAJORITY

And on Tuesday, she took to social media to highlight, “Proud to lead President Trump’s ticket in West Virginia today.”

West Virginia, once a state where Democrats dominated, is nowadays dark red. Trump carried the state by over 40 points in his 2024 White House victory.

DEMOCRATS EYE NARROW PATH TO CAPTURE SENATE MAJORITY, BUT ONE WRONG MOVE COULD SINK THEM

Capito will now be considered the overwhelming favorite in the November midterm elections, as top nonpartisan political handicappers rate the race as solidly Republican.

The GOP currently controls the Senate with a 53-47 majority.

Five Democrats were seeking their party’s Senate nomination.

Democrats in Virginia apparently filed their redistricting appeal to the wrong Supreme Court, drawing even more mockery in a heated battle over the district lines of the state’s congressional map.

Jason Miyares, the former attorney general of Virginia, led the criticism online on Tuesday, pointing to a previous mistake where Democrats spelled the commonwealth’s name incorrectly on legal documents.

“Good news: Dems managed to spell Virginia correctly,” Miyares said in a post to X. “Bad news: They sent their emergency application to SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) to the wrong court.”

“Baby steps,” the former Republican AG quipped.

VIRGINIA GOP LEADER BLASTS ‘POWER-HUNGRY’ JEFFRIES AS DEMS MOUNT ‘INSANE’ GAMBIT TO OVERPOWER HIGH COURT

Sure enough, Virginia legislators emblazoned their emergency petition with an address “to the Supreme Court of Virginia” instead of the highest U.S. court, according to an image of the document shared on social media by Miyares.

He was also one to point out on Friday Democrats’ misspelling of the state as “Virgnia” rather than “Virginia” in their filing to the Supreme Court. In that same mistake-riddled document, they wrote “Sentator” instead of Senator.

Miyares’ latest jab adds insult to injury as Democrats are still reeling from a Virginia Supreme Court decision that struck down a set of new maps designed to overwhelmingly favor their party in the November midterm elections. The post also highlights Republican glee at the foiled maps as Democrats hope to keep their gerrymandering push alive by advancing the issue to the Supreme Court (SCOTUS).

The new maps would have eliminated as many as four Republican-leaning districts.

REPUBLICANS TARGET SPANBERGER AS ‘GOVERNOR BAIT AND SWITCH’ IN BID TO DEFEAT DEMS REDISTRICTING PUSH

Virginia’s highest court ruled late last week that Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger had improperly fast-tracked a constitutional amendment that temporarily undid state-level prohibitions on gerrymandering.

In particular, the court ruled that Spanberger’s redistricting push skirted requirements that any constitutional amendment must receive the approval of two separate sessions of the Virginia legislature before it can be put to a statewide referendum.

Most importantly, at least to the state court’s decision, is that those sessions must be decisively separated by an election.

By the time the referendum reached consideration in the General Assembly last year, early voting for 2025 had already begun. This led Virginia’s court to conclude the amendment’s consideration had not meaningfully been separated by a full election and therefore could not be upheld.

VIRGINA DEMOCRATS’ $70M REDISTRICTING GAMBLE BACKFIRES AFTER COURT DEFEAT, IGNITES BLAME GAME

Virginia is now asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on state-level laws, arguing that the court “impermissibly transgressed the ordinary bounds of judicial review.”

It’s unclear when the matter may reach consideration before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A California Democrat running for Congress in a newly redrawn Central Valley congressional district has campaigned on bringing transparency to his local school board — but during his tenure, the board he served on reportedly settled multiple sex-abuse cases behind closed doors. 

Randy Villegas, running to represent California’s newly redrawn 22nd Congressional District in the U.S. House following passage of the state’s Proposition 50, is a college professor and most recently a school board member who ran on bringing transparency to the Visalia Unified School District (VUSD) in Central California. 

Meanwhile, on the website set up for his congressional candidacy, Villegas says he is running to “bring accountable, people-first leadership to Washington.” But, during his tenure as a Visalia Unified School District school board member, the district settled five confidential sex-abuse cases totaling nearly $14.4 million that included provisions to hide information from the public, according to data and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. 

In at least one of the settlements authorized unanimously by the board Villegas was present, Fox News Digital could confirm. In that settlement agreement, Visalia Unified School District paid out $3 million following sexual assault allegations against a kindergarten teacher from six former students, and it contained explicit provisions to keep the public in the dark. 

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT AGREES TO REMOVE ALLEGED ANTISEMITIC CONTENT FROM ETHNIC STUDIES CURRICULUM

It marked the fifth “secret settlement” in three years at Visalia Unified School District, according to the LA Times, all of which came during Villegas’s tenure on the board that remains ongoing. Fox News Digital could not independently confirm if Villegas was present for the other four votes.

Fox News Digital reached out to Villegas’s campaign and Visalia Unified School District for comment, including questions about Villegas’s past transparency message, the board’s approval of confidential sex-abuse settlements and whether the public deserved more disclosure, but did not hear back in time for publication.

“California Democrats have turned this race into a nightmare for parents,” press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Christian Martinez, told Fox News Digital. “Socialist Randy Villegas quietly approved massive confidential settlements tied to the sexual abuse of children, while Progressive Jasmeet Bains is backed by activists who pushed to weaken sex offender laws and strip parents of their rights proving both are willing to sacrifice kids’ safety to protect their far-left allies and agenda.”

Visalia Unified School District board minutes from March 2025, reviewed by Fox News Digital, state Villegas was present when the board returned from closed session and unanimously approved a settlement agreement only identified as “existing litigation” titled “Tulare County Superior Court, Case No. VCU 294247.”

SEATTLE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD WARNS WASHINGTON STATE PRIORITIZES ACCUSED TEACHERS OVER CHILD SAFETY

When Fox News Digital searched the case number on the Tulare County, California, Superior Court’s case search portal, there were six defendants matching the March 2025 settlement documents shared by the LA Times.

The case involved allegations of sexual abuse and assault from six former students against an adult male kindergarten teacher, with incidents occurring decades prior in both a classroom and the restroom, according to a 2022 complaint shared by the LA Times that detailed the six accusers’ allegations.

The teacher, between the years 1969 and 1971, allegedly “used his kindergarten classroom and position of trust and authority to egregiously assault the youngest and most tender of students,” the complaint says, alleging the teacher “upended the kindergarten classroom into his personal playing field where (the teacher) preyed on and repeatedly assaulted multiple female students.”

The resulting March 2025 confidential settlement agreement, approved by the board with Villegas present, included provisions where parties agreed to state only “the matter has been resolved” and promised to provide no “further elaboration, discussion, or disclosure” to third-parties about it.

The settlements were reached to resolve claims and did not constitute any admission of wrongdoing.

SON OF HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR ACCUSED OF YEARS OF SEXUAL, RACIAL ABUSE OF WATER POLO TEAMMATE AT RITZY PREP SCHOOL

The settlement agreement also acknowledged that the district may be required to disclose settlement terms under the California Public Records Act, but barred former students involved in the settlement from “directly or indirectly” encouraging anyone to file a public-records request about the settlements, or making one themselves.

At least three of the other settlement agreements from Villegas’ tenure on the Visalia Unified School District board and shared by the LA Times, which spanned abuse dating back decades, included the same secrecy provisions, according to a review by Fox News Digital.

The fifth, an $8 million settlement approved during Villegas’s tenure, according to the LA Times’ reporting but unverified independently by Fox News Digital, included allegations from a former student who said, when they were 15, they were allegedly groomed and sexually assaulted by a school staff member in their mid-30s. The alleged abuse, according to a copy of the complaint shared by the LA Times, took place during the 2022–2023 school year. 

The plaintiff accused Visalia Unified School District of negligent hiring, supervision and retention, in the complaint, alleging the district knew or should have known the defendant was unfit to work there.

STEVE HILTON ATTACKS NEWSOM GOVERNMENT DIAPER PROGRAM HE SAYS CHARGES TAXPAYERS TRIPLE RETAIL COST

The plaintiff’s attorney told news outlet ABC 30 that the defendant in the case had been released from the same school a decade earlier over serious misconduct before being brought back in 2022. That lawyer later represented another student with allegations against the same staff member, ABC30 reported, adding the defendant was facing 11 felony counts for misconduct during the 2022–2023 school year.

The settlement in that case was reached one month before a civil trial was expected to start, The Fresno Bee added in coverage from 2025. 

Villegas, while running to retain his vacancy appointment to the school board in 2022, prior to any of the aforementioned settlements, bragged that during his temporary appointment he “pushed for transparency, supporting a policy to grant the public access to meeting recordings,” in a candidate profile for the Visalia Times Delta. In the bio on his congressional candidacy website, Villegas echoes a similar message.

“Randy’s running to fight for working families, protect our democracy, and bring accountable, people-first leadership to Washington,” Villegas’ website says. “He’s challenging Republican David Valadao, who has consistently sided with corporate interests over the needs of our communities.”

Villegas, who teaches political science at the College of the Sequoias since getting his doctorate from the University of California at Santa Cruz, is running in California’s June 2 top-two primary against incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao and Democratic Assemblywoman Bains. 

Fox News Digital reached out to campaigns for Valadao and Bains for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.   

Villegas’ campaign has drawn support from the progressive wing of the party, most notably Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who endorsed Villegas in November 2025, Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers alongside Cesar Chavez, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, whose co-chairs, Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., praised Villegas as a candidate who would bring Central Valley voices to Congress. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., also has endorsed Villegas, according to local California reporting. 

The 22nd Congressional District previously was held by Republicans Devin Nunes and Connie Conway.     

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth dismissed concerns about strained weapons stockpiles outright, saying recent reporting has exaggerated the issue.

“The munitions issue has been foolishly, and unhelpfully overstated,” Hegseth said during a hearing with the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense Tuesday. “We have all the munitions needed to execute what we need to execute.”

Hegseth reiterated that stance during a recent congressional hearing, pushing back directly on claims that U.S. inventories have been significantly drawn down.

“I take issue with the characterization that munitions are depleted in a public forum. That’s not true,” he told lawmakers.

“Even in the conduct of the conflict, working with the chairman and Admiral Cooper, ensuring that any munitions we’re using, we know what we’re trading off of to preserve capabilities. So we have maximum optionality across the globe,” he said, referring to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper. 

US DRAINS CRITICAL MISSILE STOCKPILES IN IRAN WAR AS YEARSLONG REBUILD LOOMS

The comments come as questions about U.S. weapons inventories have intensified following the Iran conflict and new analyses pointing to heavy usage of key munitions.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said after a recent classified briefing that it is “shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines,” pointing to heavy use of systems including Tomahawk cruise missiles, Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and Patriot air defense interceptors.

Hegseth responded by accusing Kelly of improperly discussing sensitive information, suggesting the former Navy pilot may have violated his oath.

HEGSETH SAYS PENTAGON WILL REVIEW MARK KELLY’S PUBLIC STATEMENTS ABOUT CLASSIFIED BRIEFING AMID ONGOING FEUD

“‘Captain’ Mark Kelly strikes again,” Hegseth wrote on X. “Now he’s blabbing on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a CLASSIFIED Pentagon briefing he received. Did he violate his oath… again? @DeptofWar legal counsel will review.”

Kelly pushed back, saying the information was not classified and noting Hegseth had made similar remarks publicly in recent testimony. He added that the cost of the conflict had yet to be fully explained to the American people.

Caine offered a more measured assessment, telling lawmakers that U.S. forces currently have “sufficient munitions for what we’re tasked to do right now,” while acknowledging that commanders will “always want more.”

IRANIAN DRONE ATTACKS STRAIN US AIR DEFENSES AS UKRAINE PITCHES LOW-COST INTERCEPTORS

But concerns about munitions stockpiles are not limited to the U.S.

Across the Middle East, U.S. partners also have relied heavily on high-end air defense systems to counter Iranian missile and drone attacks, raising similar concerns about how long those inventories can be sustained if fighting resumes.

While countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia entered the conflict with deeper and more layered interceptor stockpiles, built over years of investment in missile defense systems, other Gulf allies, which operate smaller inventories and depend more heavily on U.S. resupply, could face greater pressure if the ceasefire breaks down and missile exchanges resume.

Despite the heavy usage, analysts say the U.S. retains enough munitions to sustain current operations.

A recent analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that while stockpiles have been drawn down, they remain sufficient for the ongoing conflict.

TRUMP ADMIN SOUGHT REDACTIONS ON KEY CHINA WAR GAME REPORT WARNING OF US MILITARY READINESS GAPS

The greater concern, the report noted, is whether the U.S. is prepared for a future conflict with a peer adversary like China, which likely would require sustained use of the same high-end missiles now being depleted, including long-range strike weapons and advanced air defense interceptors.

Rebuilding those inventories could take years. Even before recent conflicts, it typically took about two years from contract award to initial delivery for many missile systems, with full production stretching longer. 

Analysts now say those timelines have extended further, with new orders potentially taking four to five years to fully deliver as demand outpaces capacity.

That lag reflects deeper constraints in the defense industrial base. Missile production depends on specialized components such as propulsion systems and guidance technology, often sourced from a limited number of suppliers, making it difficult to rapidly scale output.

Defense contractors are moving to close that gap. 

RTX has said it is increasing missile deliveries and investing billions to expand manufacturing capacity, while Lockheed Martin is working to significantly boost production of systems like the Patriot interceptor. The Pentagon is also pursuing multi-year procurement deals to give companies more predictable demand and incentivize expansion.

Even with those efforts, analysts warn the gap between battlefield use and industrial capacity cannot be closed quickly.

Senate Republicans’ gamble to inflict pain on themselves to thwart future shutdowns just got an unlikely backer: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The upper chamber is set to vote on Sen. John Kennedy’s, R-La., resolution on Wednesday that would prevent senators from getting a paycheck during a government shutdown. It’s a tool that Republicans hope will give them leverage in preventing Democrats from again shuttering the government in the fall.

And Schumer, who has led Democrats through two shutdowns in the last year, plans to support it.

SENATE WEIGHS NEW, PAINFUL LEVERAGE TACTIC AS FEARS OF ANOTHER GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN GROW

“I’m going to vote for it,” Schumer said. “And I think it has a lot of support.”

Kennedy’s resolution would direct the Secretary of the Senate to withhold lawmakers’ pay until a shutdown is resolved. A rank-and-file senator earns $174,000 per year, while a leader of either party can earn over $193,000 per year.

His resolution would only pertain to the Senate, too. However, it wouldn’t take effect until after the November midterm elections, and some Republicans fear that Schumer and Democrats will again shut the government down before voters hit the polls.

KENNEDY PUSHES PLAN TO HALT CONGRESS PAY DURING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Still, with the blessing of Schumer and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who teed up the measure for a vote earlier this week, it’s likely to pass.

That could lessen the desire of lawmakers to thrust the government into yet another shutdown in the next few months as Congress is still reeling from the growing frequency of closures, and the messes that they leave behind.

The latest partial shutdown lasted 76 days, the longest in U.S. history, and was spurred by Democrats’ demands for stringent reforms to immigration operations in the country. Last year, Democrats refused to fund the government for 43 days in pursuit of an extension to now-expired Obamacare tax credits.

REPUBLICANS EYE ENDING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS FOREVER OVER FEARS DEMS WILL DO IT AGAIN

Republicans are now sprinting through the budget reconciliation process to shore up loose ends from the previous shutdown and fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the next three and a half years.

Thune noted that the only reason Republicans turned to that option was because of Democrats’ refusal to fund those agencies, but still hoped that Kennedy’s resolution could be the silver bullet to put an end to shutdowns in the future.

“And if this — passing this and applying it to senators, maybe it will provide an additional incentive to prevent Senate Democrats in the future from shutting the government down again,” Thune said.

Authorities in Minnesota have filed criminal charges against a man accused of a food stamp fraud scheme that defrauded taxpayers out of over $1 million. 

Abdidwahid Mohamed, the owner of Minnesota Food Grocery LLC, allegedly used EBT cards registered to others to purchase items at Sam’s Club and Costco in 2021 before turning around and reselling them in his store, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.

Authorities in Hennepin County say they observed Mohamed making purchases and followed him back to his store with the goods. Surveillance footage and GPS data backed this up, while investigators noted that many of the EBT cardholders were either out of the country or say they never shopped at the stores he used. 

SNAP, the federal program allegedly abused by Mohamed, provides food assistance to low-income households through EBT cards that function like debit cards. 

FOOD-STAMP FRAUD NUMBERS EXPOSE WHICH STATES ARE DRAINING THE MOST TAXPAYER DOLLARS

“Mohamed received $1,141,082 in EBT payments,” according to the complaint, which added that the plan “involved a high degree of sophistication or planning or occurred over a lengthy period of time.”  

Mohamed faces up to 20 years in prison or a $100,000 fine if found guilty.

“Minneapolis didn’t become America’s fraud capital by accident,” Dalia al-Aqidi, a Republican running for Congress in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District against Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told Fox News Digital. “It was earned. This week, it’s a grocer charged with running up $1.1 million in charges on other people’s EBT cards. Next week, it will be something else, but the bill always lands on the Minnesotans who actually pay taxes.”

Aqidi says that families tell her “affordability” is what “keeps them up night” and the “cruel joke is that the money is here to really make a difference for people.”

MINNESOTA MILLIONAIRE WHO QUALIFIED FOR FOOD STAMPS WARNS OF ‘FRAUD BY DESIGN’ LOOPHOLE AHEAD OF HEARING

“It is just lining the wrong pockets and paying for luxury cars and houses on the other side of the world. The fraudsters are only half the story. The other half are the people administering these programs, from the front lines all the way up to Ilhan Omar, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Governor Tim Walz. There has been talk about ending fraud in Minnesota for years. I am going to Washington to actually do it.”

Two Republican lawmakers in Minnesota who spoke to Fox News Digital echoed a similar sentiment, including state Sen. Mark Koran, a Republican, who said the situation is “yet another example of why Minnesota is target number one for fraudsters.”

“The sheer volume of welfare programs, combined with the inability of state agencies to detect obvious fraud is alarming. Once again, it was a private retailer, not the state, that uncovered this fraud scheme,” Koran added, referencing the suspect being initially flagged by Walmart’s Global Investigation Team.

“All individuals involved, including the people that sold their EBT cards to Abdi Mohamed, have to be fully prosecuted,” Koran said. People who come here to steal from hardworking Minnesota taxpayers deserve serious consequences.

Minnesota state Sen. Michael Holmstrom, a Republican, reacted to the news by telling Fox News Digital, “This may be the laziest one yet.”

“We had this guy, Abdi Mohamed, and he named his scam company ‘Minnesota Food Grocery LLC.’ They aren’t even trying, because they have been conditioned to believe there are no consequences.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office for comment.

The charges come amid the massive fraud scandal unfolding in Minnesota within social services programs, particularly within the Somali community, in recent months, along with a renewed crackdown from the Trump administration on food stamp fraud.

“Since its inception, SNAP has helped our most vulnerable citizens afford the essential and nutritious food they need,” Rollins and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in a Fox News op-ed in March. “At least, that is what the program is supposed to do.

“Over time, however, SNAP has been taken advantage of, allowing many to game the system and leaving millions of vulnerable Americans without healthy, nutrient-dense food options.”

The FBI has reportedly begun questioning current and former CIA officials as part of a Justice Department probe into former CIA Director John Brennan and his role in the intelligence community’s 2017 assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Agents have interviewed roughly a dozen officials involved in drafting the assessment, with investigators focusing on how its conclusions were reached and whether Brennan may have misled Congress during his 2023 testimony, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Brennan has been identified as a subject of the investigation, according to his attorney.

BONDI CONFIRMS DOJ HAS RECEIVED CRIMINAL REFERRAL ALLEGING BRENNAN PERJURY OVER STEELE DOSSIER

At the center of the probe is whether the intelligence assessment — which concluded Russia sought to boost Donald Trump’s candidacy — was influenced by the controversial Steele dossier, a collection of largely unsubstantiated allegations about Trump’s supposed ties to Russia that was funded by political opponents.

Brennan has previously said the CIA opposed including the dossier in the assessment, though a summary was ultimately attached to a classified version of the report.

The probe into Brennan gained momentum after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan referred Brennan to the Justice Department last year, alleging he may have made false statements to Congress about the CIA’s role in handling the Steele dossier.

Brennan said in sworn testimony to Jordan’s committee that “the CIA was not involved at all with the dossier.”

“This claim is contradicted by multiple sources that reveal Brennan’s support for including the dossier in the ICA,” Jordan wrote in his letter to the DOJ referring Brennan for criminal prosecution.

“According to a CIA memorandum declassified by the Trump Administration, when two CIA mission center leaders confronted Brennan with ‘specific flaws’ in the dossier, Brennan disregarded their concerns, ‘appear[ing] more swayed by the [d]ossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns,’” Jordan wrote, citing messages from Brennan revealed after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified internal agency communications in July.

BONDI CONFIRMS DOJ HAS RECEIVED CRIMINAL REFERRAL ALLEGING BRENNAN PERJURY OVER STEELE DOSSIER

The original intelligence findings were later upheld by multiple government reviews. However, Trump has long derided the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax” while calling for scrutiny of officials involved in launching it.

Brennan, for his part, claimed the Trump administration is “lawyer shopping,” according to Reuters, after the DOJ removed prosecutor Maria Medetis Long from Brennan’s case in favor of Joe diGenova.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the CIA and the FBI for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: A former Navy SEAL and Marine veteran running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota sees an opening for a statewide GOP victory this election cycle, saying citizens are widely embarrassed by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s “stolen valor” handling of the massive fraud scandal in the state.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Adam Schwarze, one of about half a dozen running for the GOP’s Senate nomination in Minnesota, said that with the Democratic Party embracing socialist policies in the state and across the country, “the stakes cannot be higher.” Without an incumbent to contend with, Schwarze said Republicans have a “20-year opportunity” to flip a seat that could determine which party controls the upper chamber.

He juxtaposed himself with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the No. 2 leader in Minnesota and the current Democratic frontrunner for her party’s Senate nomination. Schwarze posited that Flanagan has been marred by her association with Walz and the still-unfolding fraud crisis that has rocked Minnesota.

“Everybody outside of Minneapolis is angered and embarrassed that Minnesota is internationally known [for] fraud. You can’t even go outside the country and say your state anymore because people are like, ‘What is wrong with your crazy state?’” he said, adding, “That’s going to really have a large effect in the voting in November.”

OMAR CAMP BREAKS SILENCE ON FRAUD PROBE, BLAMES WALZ, TRUMP AS NEW CLAIMS CLASH WITH EARLIER STATEMENTS

Though he has yet to receive the GOP nomination, Schwarze said that with 10 years as an infantry Marine and 11 years as a Navy SEAL officer, he would be a surefire candidate in a general election faceoff with Flanagan.

“Navy SEALs are seven for seven in general elections,” he said. “We don’t miss the target.”

Meanwhile, he accused Flanagan of “openly running as a socialist.”

Flanagan, who is running a progressive, anti-Trump campaign, has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. She recently appeared alongside Sanders at one of his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stops in Rochester, Minnesota.

At the rally, Flanagan cast the current political moment as a “fight for who this country belongs to, billionaires and corporations or the rest of us.” She used much of her time onstage to rip the President Donald Trump-backed “one, big, beautiful bill,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the conflict in Iran and the proposed White House ballroom. 

Flanagan asserted, “They don’t give a damn about you,” saying of the Trump administration, “This is just straight up corruption, period, full stop.”

Schwarze said that Flanagan’s rhetoric encapsulates the state of the Democratic Party right now.

“What’s the Democrat agenda nationally right now? It’s anti-Trump, pro-socialism,” he said. “Now, they’re going to run an open socialist candidate for the U.S. Senate. And I don’t think it’s going to work in Minnesota.”

He posited that “nobody outside Minneapolis is going to vote for socialism.”

MINNESOTA HOUSE SPEAKER WARNS AMERICANS WILL BE ‘SHOCKED’ BY SCOPE OF FRAUD CRISIS

But Schwarze said that while Minnesotans’ distaste for socialism will keep them from voting Democratic this year, he believes the fraud issue will drive voters to seek change at the ballot box.

“Fraud is everything. That’s going to be the thing that takes back our state for people like me who are just patriotic people,” he explained.

While on the campaign trail, Schwarze said he has seen as much as twice the normal number of people registering support for Republicans at local caucuses throughout Minnesota. He said he has also seen support in cities that are typically Democratic strongholds.

“Minnesotans are a really proud people. We’re farmers. We’re laborers. We have businesses,” he said. “What is throughout and known is just the anger and the embarrassment of being a Minnesotan in this time.”

Meanwhile, he ripped the Walz administration, saying, “They’re still trying to cover it up, or try to press for a different narrative on the story, take credit, which is what Walz does, right? Stolen Valor Walz, he loves to take credit, but not actually do the work.”

MINNESOTA DHS WHISTLEBLOWER DETAILS ‘SMEAR CAMPAIGN’ AFTER REPORTING FRAUD CONCERNS TO STATE

Schwarze said that Flanagan, too, shares in the blame.

“We don’t know how many billions it truly is. But there’s still been zero people fired from the Walz administration,” he said. “And at the same time that Walz is now finally getting pushed aside by the establishment Democrats, they’re also trying to elevate Peggy Flanagan to the United States Senate.”

He accused Flanagan of being “right there for the $9 to $19 billion in fraud,” while adding, “Being a military guy my whole life, you don’t fail a mission and then get promoted.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Walz and Flanagan for comment.

Fresh off declaring “victory” over Virginia’s roughly $65 million redistricting ballot measure — which Republicans criticized as a “dark money”-backed gerrymander — the Republican National Committee is looking to capitalize on that momentum.

Describing the RNC as “disciplined and ruthless,” Chairman Joe Gruters revealed that the committee launched a multimillion-dollar election integrity push ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The effort involves hiring directors in 17 states to recruit poll workers, poll watchers and election observers, while coordinating legal and Election Day oversight across key battlegrounds, Fox News Digital has learned.

The directors will be the legal “eyes and ears on every vote cast and counted” in every battleground these midterms, according to officials. It is all coming from the top down, echoing President Donald Trump’s longstanding argument that the people counting votes are as important as those casting them.

WHERE TRUMP, GOP VS DEMOCRATS REDISTRICTING BATTLE HEADS NEXT IN WAKE OF KEY COURT RULINGS

“President Trump made it clear in 2024: secure our elections — and we haven’t let up since,” Gruters said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “We’re building a ground game across the country with poll workers, poll watchers and lawyers to protect every legal ballot.”

“This is a permanent, nationwide effort backed by legal muscle and disciplined operations. The RNC is all-in, year-round, to safeguard election integrity and ensure only legal votes count,” he added.

The RNC is aiming to defy history in maintaining the president’s party majority in the House and Senate through a midterm election.

NEW RNC CHAIR JOE GRUTERS VOWS TO ‘RIDE THE PRESIDENT ALL THE WAY TO VICTORY’ IN MIDTERMS

Rather than relying on high-profile national election attorneys, the RNC is turning to local legal experts in key states — a strategy officials say was key to its legal approach in Virginia, where a multimillion-dollar ballot measure ultimately failed.

The plan revolves around smart data and even artificial intelligence to feed actual, actionable intelligence in the midterm battlegrounds. And the spending and swath of the operation will expand as the conditions on the ground warrant, according to officials.

The RNC hires are part of an initial seven-figure investment and build on the 2024 election integrity operation, which officials said recruited more than 230,000 volunteers in 18 target states for poll watching, poll work and legal support, along with more than 6,000 volunteer attorneys both remotely and on the ground.

MINNESOTA FRAUD CASE IS ‘CANARY IN THE COAL MINE’ FOR GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS — INCLUDING ELECTIONS, LAWYER WARS

The initial “seven-figure” spend remains a “moving target,” officials added, with the expectation that the investment will climb into the tens of millions nationwide.

Democrats spent comparable amounts in Virginia alone, according to critics of that effort. Republicans hope saving tens of millions will have a domino effect on the midterm battlegrounds.

Supporters argue that approach reflects fiscal responsibility and a broader strategic shift — something that seemingly left Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias publicly frustrated.

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“We’ve got the Republican National Committee waging litigation in courtrooms around the country,” Elias lamented to MS NOW last month.

RNC officials pushed back, saying Elias’ “record is terrible” against them, as they outlined their next battle plan Monday.

The RNC said it will avoid hiring what it views as expensive national election attorneys who would be inexperienced and less informed on local law. The officials behind the multimillion-dollar campaign said hires “will not be names you recognize,” but they are the experts in those states and districts.

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Officials compared the strategy to long-term conservative legal efforts that ultimately led to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

“Rather than lawlessly condemning SCOTUS, Dems should listen to Ari Fleischer,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, wrote Monday night on X as Democrats were pushing what Republicans described as a likely unsuccessful U.S. Supreme Court appeal for the Virginia high court ruling.

“For decades, Republicans lived with Supreme Court rulings they didn’t like. [With] Roe v. Wade, [they] didn’t say ‘we need to rig the Supreme Court.’ They worked within the system to change the way things worked.”

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Despite the recent gains in the courts on redistricting and criticism oscillating back to the left, the RNC has also faced criticism, particularly with regard to those upset that Democrats outspent Republicans by nearly a 3-to-1 margin on the ultimately doomed Virginia ballot measure.

RNC officials said they are unfazed by criticism, telling Fox News Digital the election integrity effort is akin to a football team’s offensive line — doing all the grunt work and none of the press.

Republicans have faced criticism for being judicious with what is estimated to be up to an $800 million war chest for the midterms, but RNC officials are signaling confidence in their approach.

“Just watch us” get results, the officials said.

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Defying history in helping Trump keep its congressional majority will “not be cheap” or easy, they admit. Just ask Democrats now upset in Virginia, they added.

RNC officials argued spending just a fraction and getting a narrow margin at the ballot box ultimately gave the “Virginia Supreme Court some cover” to rule the way it did.

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The RNC said it led those legal challenges largely behind the scenes, with legal experts typically not seen on TV, which officials argue demonstrates how effective their quiet midterm legal ground game will be.

While there might be critics of how the RNC is spending on election integrity, the RNC officials stressed they stick to being quietly strategic and targeted in former Raiders head coach Al Davis’ “just win, baby” fashion.

The RNC’s initial field investment includes states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina, with officials saying the operation will cover entire states rather than only targeted congressional districts as the party builds a long-term infrastructure aimed at both the midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

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The RNC said the new state directors will serve as the election integrity program’s “eyes and ears” on the ground, overseeing poll worker and poll watcher recruitment, coordinating with attorneys and supporting Election Day operations in battleground states.

That is the mission the RNC has accepted from the president.

Midterm elections historically have lower participation rates than presidential election years, so having legal “eyes and ears on every vote cast and counted” through this election integrity unit will take up the bulk of the RNC spending up to “eight figures,” according to officials.

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The move comes as Trump vowed Sunday to expand the GOP’s election integrity operation, writing on Truth Social that Republicans would again deploy an “Election Integrity Army” in 2026, but that it would be “much bigger and stronger.”

Trump also criticized a Democrat-led election integrity group involving former Attorney General Eric Holder and Elias, accusing Democrats of trying to “suppress Republican voters” and “interfere in our Elections.”

“The Democrats are totally unhinged, and we will not allow them to threaten the integrity of our Elections,” Trump wrote.

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“During my Historic Election in 2024, when I won every single Swing State, and decisively won both the Electoral and Popular votes by wide margins, the Republicans had an Election Integrity Army in every single State to preserve the sanctity of each legal vote,” he wrote. “We will be doing the same again in 2026, but it will be much bigger and stronger. All Americans should have their voices be heard by casting a vote. Be assured this Election will be fair!”

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Gruters said Sunday the RNC had deployed its first wave of field staff to 17 battleground states to turn out voters he says are needed to win the midterms.

“We’re building the ground game to win, protect our majorities in the House and Senate, and give President Trump a full four years,” Gruters wrote.

In a separate post, Gruters said the RNC is “aggressively fundraising and deploying staff to battleground states across the country to get out the vote and secure our elections,” adding the committee is being “disciplined and ruthless” to make its resources count and stop Democrats from retaking Congress in November.

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The RNC kept its election integrity program intact after the 2024 election and is now expanding poll worker recruitment in 17 target states while also growing operations in non-target states. The committee said it is currently involved in more than 130 active election integrity cases across 30 states.

That included involvement in legal challenges related to the Virginia Supreme Court, which struck down a voter-approved redistricting measure that Republicans had criticized as a gerrymander, in a decision delivered Friday.

“Hey @JamesBlairUSA where are all the people attacking us for not spending enough in Virginia?” Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita wrote Friday on X, directing his slam dunk on critics to the White House deputy chief of staff who is transitioning to leading the midterm operation.

“Oh yea …they are laughing at Dems for wasting $60 million #wannabees,” he wrote.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary is resigning from his position Tuesday, a White House official told Fox News Digital. 

The official said that Makary’s resignation has to do with “process at the FDA” and not a specific issue, and said there is “no bad blood” between President Donald Trump and the outgoing commissioner. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed for Makary’s resignation, according to the White House official. 

Kyle Diamantis, FDA deputy commissioner for Food, will serve as acting commissioner, Fox News Digital learned. 

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Makary’s resignation followed mounting pressure from pro-life advocates and administration critics who had grown frustrated with his handling of several high-profile FDA decisions and claims he has slow-rolled MAHA initiatives, according to media reports in recent weeks.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the president had reportedly already signed off on a plan to fire Makary, citing three familiar sources who cited Makary’s handling of abortion and drug policy. 

“I’ve been reading about it, but I know nothing about it,” Trump said the same day after he was asked by reporters if Makary would be fired.

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The resignation comes one day before Makary was set to testify in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday.

Though Makary’s resignation is not attributable to a specific issue, according to the White House official, his tenure atop the FDA has put him at the center of fights over abortion drug mifepristone – otherwise known as the “abortion pill” – vaccine policy and drug approvals, frustrating pro-life activists and MAHA-aligned critics who argued the agency has moved too slowly to carry out Trump’s health agenda.

When Trump was elected, pro-life groups and voters were banking on the administration rolling-back Biden-era rules that allowed mifepristone to be prescribed online and shipped through the mail. But the FDA left those rules intact and last year, under Makary’s leadership, approved a new generic version of the pill.

“President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy must end this now, remove Commissioner Makary, stop the mail order abortion scheme, and pull these child-killing drugs from the market,” said Live Action president Lila Rose to Fox News Digital ahead of Makary’s resignation.

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“What a mess Makary turned out to be,” a Trump administration official told Fox News Digital earlier in May, claiming the commissioners’ comments and actions have told “every pro-life advocate their concerns are an afterthought.”

“The arrogance is stunning,” they added of the FDA commissioner.

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Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser told the Wall Street Journal earlier in May that “Trump is the problem,” when it comes to the abortion issues falling off for the GOP in recent years. 

And if candidates want her group’s $160 million in the midterms and 2028 presidential election, she said they must commit “to pro-life action at the national level.”

Makary’s exit follows a series of high profile departures this year, including former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.