Swinging Michigan: Not As Big a Win as El-Sayed Expected. Apparent Trump Assassination Attempt Foiled. Susan Collins to Vote Against Blanche. Will Judge Jeanine Get as Many Last Chances as Iran? DEI at Cambridge U. More
“There’s a reason it’s a swing state.”
That’s how the New York Post begins its report on what early this morning remained a nail-biter in Michigan. Even if there is a winner by the time you read this, the NYP analysis is relevant:
Michigan voters threw a wrench in expectations that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed would easily coast to victory over Rep. Haley Stevens in the closely watched Democratic Senate primary.
El-Sayed’s backers had seen the race as a battle for “the soul of the Democratic Party,” and the far-left’s attempt to prove that their candidates are just as electable, if not more, than centrist Dems.
But despite El-Sayed’s frequent double-digit leads in most polls, he wrapped up his watch party speech with a nearly two-percentage-point lead that was shrinking on Tuesday night.
Polling guru Nate Silver delivers this verdict: “Abdul El-Sayed’s apparent victory is a big win for the left — but a disaster for polling and a case study in poor expectations management.” Polls gave El-Sayed an overwhelming lead, but when Silver was writing at 4 am Eastern Time, he was only 1.4 points ahead. Jack Butler of The Wall Street Journal’s “Free Expression” section says El-Sayed’s apparent win only amounts to “Michigan’s Middling Momentum for the Left.”
Elsewhere in the Wolverine state, William Lawrence—a Bernie Sanders anti-ICE activist—cruised to victory, defeating two more moderate contenders to win the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s seventh congressional district. Primaries in other states provide mixed signals for the entrail readers:
Across the country, similar ideological battles were waged with mixed results. And in two red states, voters rejected GOP-led ballot measures that would have given state legislators more power to reshape law on key issues, including abortion.
Virginia’s 1st district congressional race will be among the most competitive in November. Democrat Shannon Taylor, a moderate-leaning candidate and county prosecutor, goes up against GOP incumbent Rep. Rob Wittman. The district includes Richmond. More Virginia results. Missouri was one of the most interesting congressional races (back to the WaPo):
The Missouri race assessed the power of AIPAC as it did when the duo competed in 2024.AIPAC’s spending that year made the race one of the most expensive primaries in U.S. history and helped [Rep. Wesley] Bell unseat Cori Bush. The former congresswoman, an ex-member of “the Squad” of several progressive lawmakers, harshly criticized Israel over the war in Gaza before some Democrats even began to question their stance. On the night of her 2024 loss, Bush hinted at a comeback bid: “AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down.” On the night of her 2024 loss, Bush hinted at a comeback bid: “AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down.”
But don’t heave a sigh of relief, AIPAC. Squad member Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state had a better night and will advance to the general election with 53% of the vote in the state’s jungle primary.
Not Again. In what appears to have been yet another Trump assassination attempt, a man carrying ammunition was arrested near the Trump National Golf Club in LA before the president’s Southern California trip. From CBS:
When deputies approached the man, who has been identified as 38-year-old Downey resident Jeanine John Taele, they determined he was already under investigation by the El Segundo Police Department for a separate incident.
Investigators said an illegally modified AR platform rifle, a 1911 .45 caliber pistol, an AR platform upper receiver, body armor, high-capacity magazines, bulk pistol and rifle ammunition, two radio signal devices and multiple notebooks containing “concerning statements” were recovered from the home during Monday’s search warrant.
Ms. Must is most eager to find out more about the strangely named suspect Jeanine John Taele and those “concerning statements.”
Maine Senator Susan Collins announced that she will not vote to confirm acting AG Todd Blanche. From Politico:
The Maine Republican, who is facing a difficult race for reelection, said in a statement she would oppose Blanche, citing “several actions that have further eroded the Department’s independence.” She specifically mentioned his role in a controversial IRS settlement with President Donald Trump and over having “promised an anti-abortion organization that he would seek to prohibit the mailing of abortion medication to women nationwide.”
Senators Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski are undecided. Blanche must win one of their votes to be confirmed.
Iran seems to have found something it likes even more than the prospect of nuclear annihilation. “Iran Is Staking Everything on Controlling the Strait of Hormuz,” the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the WSJ, “Tehran’s hard-line approach threatens to destroy its economy and relations with neighbors.”
A Foundation for the Defense of Democracies analyst sums up the regime’s ruse to win:
“This is a regime that knows it cannot win an outright battle of conventional capability,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies Iran Program Senior Director Behnam Ben Taleblu said on Fox News’ “America Reports.”
“They’re even fighting a battle of wills right now against the Trump administration, both on the battlefield and diplomatically,” he added.
Warnings that the U.S. is low on munitions are alarming, and such information should be classified, as Dana Perino astutely noted on The Five. It’s not unfair to note that former President Joe Biden’s $7 billion Taliban weapons tab, which is still coming due, is a factor.
Meanwhile, the (just barely) satirical Babylon Bee responds to the impasse in Iran with this:
Trump Warns Iran This Is Their Fourth-To-Last Chance at Peace
Is U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro getting a last-chance warning from President Trump? Judge Jeanine was called on the carpet by the president, who claimed that the reason she dropped charges in the Lincoln Reflecting Pool case was that she “choked.” Pirro dropped criminal charges in three Reflecting Pool vandalism cases involving the pool lining. The president disputes that faulty construction caused the problems.
A Washington Post editorial charges that Judge Jeanine, as the U.S. attorney is known, is fighting for her job because of what it terms the “absurdity of the Reflecting Pool prosecutions.” Riddle Me This: How many last warnings will Judge Jeanine get?
DEI is everywhere and nowhere more hilariously than at the U.K.’s revered Cambridge University, where academic superstar Jason Arday was “hired three years ago amid great fanfare as the youngest black professor in the history of that institution.”
Arday, as Kyle Smith tells us, was also a fabulist. He fabricated astonishing academic credentials and a tale of overcoming adversity (he claimed to have been diagnosed with autism at three). Arday’s story fell apart when seemingly irrefutable charges of plagiarism emerged. Smith recounts:
Shortly after being hired, Mr. Arday claimed he was sent vicious racist emails; that the severed head of a pig was sent to his parents’ place in South London; and that an intruder came at him in his office, twice, the second time with a knife. After the first incident, the university installed extra surveillance equipment including CCTV but no images of anyone with a knife have been found. Mr. Arday helpfully gave the Guardian the name of a local butcher’s shop that police supposedly investigated because it had supposedly sold a whole pig on the morning of the incident, but the butchers denied this (“That’s the kind of thing we’d remember”) and so did the police (“categorically”).
When the Guardian, whose woke credentials are usually seen as unassailable, confronted Mr. Arday about his misadventures with truth, he said, “To be honest with you, I thought you’d just believe me.”
If you can’t get enough of Jason Arday—and, dear me, who can?—here, here, and here. Here’s my favorite and most relevant to college admissions: “Who Had to Lose for Jason Arday to Win?“
Married Ladies to Starve in Mamdani’s New York: “NYC Mayor Mamdani Demands ID for Groceries but Not Voting.”
Two from Compact Magazine. “Why Democrats Can’t Stop the DSA,” by Alex Hogan, and “The Racial Crossroads,” by Helen Andrews. It was published two days ago, but I can’t stop thinking about Dominic Green’s “The Ceuta Invasion Is Stranger Than Fiction,” about the Moroccan invasion of Spain.
