It’s been 135 days since the start of the Iran War, and a diplomatic solution seems shakier than ever. President Donald Trump said Monday that “we’re taking over the Strait of Hormuz,” a day after announcing that “we bombed the hell out of them.” Iran also asserted control of the formerly freely navigable waterway after retaliating with attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman.
And Congress is returning following the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham. His death after a tear in his aorta Saturday leaves Republicans with just 51 members, with Mitch McConnell still recovering and South Carolina’s governor needing to appoint Graham’s interim successor.
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Following the downfall of Graham Platner in Maine, progressives view the Upper Midwest Senate races as their last chance to shape the Democrats’ Senate caucus and prove their theory of the case in the midterm elections.
In Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens is running against progressive Abdul El-Sayed for the state’s Democratic Senate nomination in a race Democrats must win to hold the seat held by Sen. Gary Peters, who is retiring and has endorsed Stevens.
In Wisconsin, democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong has surged in the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary against more conventional Democratic lawmakers, including former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and current Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez.
Michigan voters choose nominees on Aug. 4. The primaries in Minnesota and Wisconsin are Aug. 11.
In Minnesota, the two leading Senate candidates have clashed over electability, their ties to corporate interests and willingness to fight Trump’s administration.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, backed by progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, says her opponent, Rep. Angie Craig, is backed by “secretive dark money groups.”
“The very folks who are standing in the way of the things that people need to be able to afford their lives, who are Democrats, are funded by these corporate special interests,” Flanagan told The Associated Press.
Craig counters that Flanagan has raised campaign funds from major companies, and that if she becomes the Democratic nominee, Republicans would focus on her ties to an ongoing fraud inquiry into the state’s Medicaid programs. “To stop Donald Trump, we’ve got to win elections,” Craig told the AP.
Progressives hope to prove economic populism resonates beyond deep blue enclaves. Democratic Party leaders worry progressive candidates could damage their brand and imperil their chances of retaking either chamber of Congress.
August primaries in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota will be another gauge of Democratic voters’ frustration with the establishment. The Upper Midwest is a battleground for progressives and moderates. The outcomes could impact Democrats’ chances in the upcoming midterms and shape their party’s future direction.
South Carolina law requires a one-week filing period beginning July 21, for a special primary to be held on Aug. 11. A runoff if necessary would be held on Aug. 25, leaving the nominee just over two months to campaign for the general election on Nov. 3.
All of this is problematic according to federal law, which requires military and overseas ballots to go out 45 days before any federal election. For the general election primary, that would have been June 27. Federal Election Commission officials didn’t immediately return a message seeking clarity.
No Democrat has won a Senate seat in South Carolina in decades, and Republicans in recent history typically take statewide seats by double digits. When he last ran in 2020, Graham defeated his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, by a 10 percentage point margin. But Republicans are carefully surveying the landscape after margins have tightened in other races.
Charleston pediatrician Annie Andrews won the Democratic nomination last month and has raised more than $8 million, with just under $3 million cash on hand at the end of May, according to federal filings. Graham had taken in $6 million, with just over $4 million on hand.
In a statement Sunday, Andrews called on South Carolinians to join her “in setting partisanship aside and offering gratitude” to Graham for his service.
1. Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette had McMaster’s endorsement before losing the GOP governor’s primary runoff to Wilson. A person with knowledge of Evette’s thinking but not authorized to discuss it publicly said she’s getting encouragement from across the state and feels she would have good chances in the special primary.
2. Rep. Nancy Mace. A person with knowledge of Mace’s thinking but not authorized to speak about it publicly said she was considering the race. Mace is not running for reelection to the House.
3. Rep. Ralph Norman, among House’s most conservative, is said to be in the mix.
4. Joe Wilson, a rumored replacement, said he assured Trump on Sunday that “my goal is to remain in the House to keep his two-vote majority for the American people!!!”
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, lived in South Carolina and has fielded calls about replacing Graham but isn’t interested in the role and enjoys working for the president, according to a person who insisted on anonymity to describe private conversations.
— By Meg Kinnard
Graham’s death on Saturday as he was running for a fifth term begins a tumultuous new chapter in South Carolina politics. As the conservative state’s senior senator and an influential Trump ally, Graham was presumed to be on a glide path toward reelection.
Now, Gov. Henry McMaster must choose a temporary replacement to serve until January while the state also prepares a special primary so voters can choose a new Republican nominee for November’s general election. That appointed temporary caretaker could be a top contender in the special primary.
The rare open Senate seat has ignited a scramble among South Carolina’s most ambitious conservatives, who just finished a sprawling and bruising contest to succeed McMaster. State Attorney General Alan Wilson won the nomination. Also-rans including Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, Rep. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman are all now eyeing Graham’s seat following his death over the weekend.
Mohammed Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, says Tehran will fight for the Strait of Hormuz.
“We defend it so that in the future, for the passage of our ships, we are not forced to pay tribute to the enemy!” he wrote on X. “Retreating from this vital matter has no place in the mind of any friend of Iran.”
That’s what Trump said Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.”
Both the U.S. and Iran asserted Monday that they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East, further threatening any diplomacy to end the war.
Trump also said that “everything was agreed to” in an 11-hour meeting Sunday, but Iranian negotiators called back later “and they say, ’we had to make a couple of changes.” He didn’t specify details.
The latest exchange was sparked by an Iranian attack on a container ship on Sunday in the strait, a critical waterway for international oil and gas over which Iran has asserted control since the United States and Israel started the war on Feb. 28.
Congress is returning after a summer break, with the Senate convening following the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham. His death after a tear in his aorta Saturday leaves Republicans with just 51 members, with Mitch McConnell still recovering and South Carolina’s governor needing to appoint Graham’s interim successor.
This makes Trump’s already contentious congressional agenda even more uncertain. It also leaves Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy without a key ally who had Trump’s ear: Graham was a strong supporter of Ukraine, pressing the president to be firmer on Russia President Vladimir Putin. Now Zelenskyy and Kyiv are reeling from his death.
