General election matchup set in potentially historic race for new Alabama district, CNN projects
CNN
Shomari Figures will win the runoff for a seat redrawn under a new map that could result in two Black House members from Alabama serving together for the first time.
Former US Justice Department official Shomari Figures will win the Democratic primary runoff in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, CNN projects, a seat that was redrawn under a new map that could result in two Black House members from Alabama serving together for the first time in history. Figures is projected to defeat state House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels in the runoff, which was prompted after neither took more than 50% of the vote in a crowded 11-candidate first round last month. The Republican primary was also decided in a runoff Tuesday, with real estate lawyer Caroleene Dobson clinching the nomination over former state Sen. Dick Brewbaker. Figures will be the favorite against Dobson in November in a seat that cuts across the southern portion of the state and would have backed President Joe Biden by 12 points in 2020. Victory for Figures would likely see him make history with Rep. Terri Sewell, a fellow Black Democrat who is heavily favored to win an eighth term in the neighboring deep-blue seat. Alabama has never had two Black members in its congressional delegation serving at the same time. The new seat came into existence after a three-judge panel approved a new map last fall that significantly boosted the district’s Black population, creating a pickup opportunity for Democrats with control of the US House on the line in this year’s elections. The fight over the new Alabama map went all the way to the US Supreme Court, which in a surprise ruling affirmed the panel’s opinion that ordered the state to include a second Black-majority district or “something quite close to it.” A statement by former US Attorney General Eric Holder, who chairs a national Democratic redistricting group, called Tuesday’s election “another step toward progress and increased voter turnout as a result of the state’s new, fair map.” “Alabama voters now stand on the cusp of making history in November, when Black Alabamians could — for the first time — elect two members of Congress who truly reflect their political desires,” Holder said.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.
The FBI arrested a person Thursday who investigators believe planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.
Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office are expected to appear in federal court in Albany on Thursday to try to disqualify a US attorney from investigating the state’s civil case against President Donald Trump.