
Nation’s most competitive governor’s race tests the power of ticket-splitters in New Hampshire
CNN
The shadow of the presidential race looms over the New Hampshire governor’s election between Republican Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Joyce Craig.
The last time Kelly Ayotte was on the ballot with Donald Trump, she lost. The former one-term Republican senator is giving it another go in New Hampshire this year, running in the most competitive governor’s race in the country. But the shadow of the top of the ticket looms large, with some Republicans in the Granite State worrying how many Kamala Harris voters Ayotte can win over when Trump looks likely to lose here. While Democrats attempt to nationalize the contest – attacking Ayotte on abortion and on Trump – Republicans are trying to localize it by zeroing in on Democratic nominee Joyce Craig’s past tenure as the mayor of Manchester, tying her to the city’s homelessness and drug problems. “It’s not her fault, but it didn’t seem like she did anything to help,” Ray Lawrence, 73, said of Craig while finishing lunch on a recent drizzly Friday here in New Hampshire’s largest city. He likes Ayotte’s record as a senator and former state attorney general, and he’s also voting for Trump. Around the corner on Manchester’s main drag, Claudette Laroche, 71, of Hooksett had a four-word response for why she’s backing Craig: “She’s advocating for women.”

US officials are furiously trying to avert a potential monthslong closure of the Strait of Hormuz, privately acknowledging that reopening the key waterway is a problem without a clear solution and dependent at least in part on what lengths President Donald Trump is willing to go to force the Iranian regime’s hand, multiple administration and intelligence officials tell CNN.

Supreme Court revives First Amendment lawsuit from street preacher who called concertgoers ‘sissies’
The Supreme Court on Friday revived a First Amendment lawsuit from a street preacher who used a loudspeaker to call people “whores,” “Jezebels” and “sissies” as they tried to enter an amphitheater to attend concerts in a suburban Mississippi community.











