Republicans are aiming to break longtime losing streaks by taking first steps toward winning elections for governor and Los Angeles mayor as voters in Democrat-dominated California head to the polls on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s clout over the GOP will once again face a ballot box test, in a gubernatorial showdown in Iowa, while the Hawkeye State’s Democratic Senate nomination is the latest battle between the establishment and progressive wings of the party.

California and Iowa are two of the six states holding primary contests from coast to coast during the first week of June, in elections that will impact November’s midterms, when the GOP’s slim Senate and razor-thin House majorities will be up for grabs.

The election arguably grabbing the most headlines nationally is in Los Angeles, where it’s been three decades since a Republican won a mayoral contest in the nation’s second most populous city. Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star and online influencer-turned-mayoral candidate, is gaining traction, thanks in part to his populist pitch and viral videos.

THE CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS BOOSTING SPENCER PRATT IN THE LOS ANGELES MAYOR SHOWDOWN

Pratt, a Republican running as an independent in the left-leaning city, has been praised by Trump. 

The president recently called Pratt a “big MAGA person” and said, “I’d like to see him do well. He’s a character.”

Pratt’s rise is also fueled in part by his well-known status as one of the victims who lost their homes in last year’s devastating wildfires, when over 17,000 homes in Los Angeles County were destroyed, as well as his right-leaning focus on homelessness, crime and government accountability in a city long run by Democrats.

“I keep saying I become the mayor because of moms. Moms are getting me elected. Moms do not feel safe in Los Angeles. Not just feel safe, they are not safe. Nobody’s safe really in LA unless you’re the drug dealer. The drug dealers and the people giving them the needles, the city, our taxpayer money, the needle givers, they’re safe, the meth pipe givers. They’re safe. Everyone else is not safe in LA,” Pratt argued this past weekend in an interview on Fox News’ “Saturday In America with Kayleigh McEnany.”

Pratt is targeting Mayor Karen Bass, a former Democratic congresswoman seeking a second four-year term steering Los Angeles, over her handling of the wildfires and the homeless crisis. 

Bass, who has been endorsed by former Vice President Kamala Harris, a former California senator and state attorney general, as well as the state’s two Democratic senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, last week landed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom’s backing.

IS THERE A ‘GROWING REVOLT’ AGAINST CALIFORNIA’S ONE-PARTY RULE?

Bass is attempting to fend off challenges from the right from Pratt and on the left from progressive City Council member Nithya Raman. If no candidate tops 50% in Tuesday’s nonpartisan mayoral election, the top two finishers will face off in November.

In the race for governor, a whopping 61 candidates are running to succeed Newsom in steering the nation’s most populous state and the world’s fourth-largest-economy.

But heading into the jungle primary, where all candidates regardless of party affiliation appear on the same ballot, with the top two finishers advancing to the general election, only a handful of contenders have a good chance of making the cut.

Among them are Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton.

Becerra, a former longtime congressman and California attorney general who later served as a Cabinet secretary in former President Biden’s administration, would become the first Latino Golden State governor in modern history. Steyer, meanwhile, is a billionaire hedge fund founder turned environmental activist who unsuccessfully ran for his party’s 2020 presidential nomination.

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Hilton is a one-time British political strategist turned American conservative commentator and former Fox News Channel host who is backed by Trump.

Also in the race is Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican. Hilton and Bianco are both hoping to become the first California Republican win a gubernatorial election since then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 re-election two decades ago.

Bianco has argued that he’s the most conservative candidate in the race.

But Hilton, in an interview with Fox News Digital on the eve of the primary, argued that “every vote for him, I’m afraid to say it’s nothing personal. I have a good relationship, and I’d love to work with Chad. I’d love him to join my team. We can work together to save California. But every vote for him right now is actually a vote for a Democrat, A Democrat top two for the general election, which is a disaster.”

Democratic candidates former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, are among the other better-known contenders.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla mulled launching Democratic bids for governor, but both last year announced they would take a pass. That resulted in the lack of a clear Golden State gubernatorial frontrunner for the first time in more than a quarter century.

And the race was overshadowed for much of last year, as the devastation from the LA wildfires and Trump’s immigration raids grabbed headlines in California.

But the showdown for governor entered the spotlight earlier this year when one of the leading candidates, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, dropped out of the race and then resigned from Congress following a political implosion after facing multiple allegations of sexual assault and misconduct that he continues to deny.

Swalwell’s exit from the race opened the door for first Steyer and then Becerra to rise in the polls. Steyer shelled out more than $200 million of his own money to blanket the airwaves and the internet with ads.

Bianco, who launched his campaign for governor in April of last year, was among the top contenders in the race until Trump’s endorsement of Hilton in early April blunted his momentum.

Iowa showdowns

In Iowa, the retirements of Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and GOP Sen. Joni Ernst along with the rough political midterm climate facing Republicans, have Democrats optimistic they can flip the seats in a one-time battleground state that turned red the past decade.

Trump, who carried Iowa by 13 points in his 2024 presidential election victory, last week weighed in on the competitive GOP gubernatorial primary,

The president endorsed Rep. Randy Feenstra in a race that also includes entrepreneur and private school co-founder Zach Lahn, who is backed by the influential conservative group Turning Point USA, state Rep. Eddie Andrews, former state Rep. Brad Sherman and former state administrative services director Adam Steen.

The winner will face Democratic state Auditor Rob Sand, who is unopposed in his primary. Sand is the only Democrat currently elected to statewide office.

The brute force of the president’s endorsement power and the immense grip he has on the Republican Party has been on display in GOP primaries the past month, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas.

Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa is the overwhelming frontrunner to secure her party’s Senate nomination in the race to succeed retiring Ernst.

Hinson, a former TV news anchor who is in her third term representing Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, is facing a long-shot challenge from former state senator and former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Carlin. Hinson is backed by Trump, Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the campaign arm of the Senate GOP. Hinson, who in 2020 flipped a Democratic-held seat that covers the northeastern portion of Iowa, is seen as a rising star in the party.

The Republican-controlled seat in Iowa is a top target for Democrats and the race is one of about a dozen crucial showdowns in this year’s midterm elections that will determine whether the Republicans hold on to their current 53-47 majority in the chamber.

Hinson will face off in the general election against the winner of an expensive and contentious Democratic Senate primary between state Rep. Josh Turek, a Paralympian, and state Sen. Zach Wahls.

Wahls, a progressive who Republicans have likened to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has the backing of liberal champion Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Turek, the more moderate Senate contender who flipped a GOP-held Iowa House seat in 2022, is backed by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He also has the tacit support of longtime Senate Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. And VoteVets, an establishment-aligned outside group, has spent big bucks on behalf of Turek.

Primaries in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts will set up general election showdowns in crucial GOP-held seats that Democrats are aiming to flip.

Other showdowns

It’s the same story in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, another purple seat Democrats are eyeing as they try to regain the House majority.

The Republican incumbent, Rep. Tom Kean Jr., has been in the national headlines after being absent from Congress and the campaign trail for three months due to a “a personal medical issue.”

In New Mexico, the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is taking top billing.

Former Rep. Deb Haaland, who served as Interior Secretary in former President Joe Biden’s administration and made history as the nation’s first Native American woman to serve as a Cabinet secretary, who’s to make history again as the first Native American woman elected as governor. She faces off against Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman. Three major Republicans are seeking their party’s gubernatorial nomination.

Montana voters will select nominees in Tuesday’s primary to replace departing Republican incumbent Sen. Steve Daines.

The senator and Trump are backing former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme, who jumped into the race in March immediately after Daines announced his retirement just ahead of the state’s filing deadline, in what appeared to be a carefully choreographed move. Alme faces two longshot rivals for the nomination.

Former state Rep. Reilly Neill appears to be the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the solidly Republican state.

The Republican and Democratic nominees will face off in the general election against former University of Montana president Seth Bodnar, who is running as an independent and has outraised everyone else in the race.

In GOP-dominated South Dakota, Gov. Larry Rhoden faces a crowded and competitive field as he seeks a full term as governor.

Rhoden was lieutenant governor in early 2025 when he assumed the top job after then-Gov. Kristi Noem stepped down to become Department of Homeland Security secretary in the Trump administration.

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SANTA MONICA, CA — A business leader and former city council candidate is reacting to Spencer Pratt’s surge in the Los Angeles mayoral race by pointing to crime, the recent wildfires, and the inhospitable business climate as the reason why voters are discontent with the status quo. 

“I think a lot of people are concerned about what’s happening, they really don’t know how to fix this, and I think the crime, the homelessness, the addiction, all the above behaviors of what’s happened in our city as politicians that are causing this, I think a lot people are seeing that,” John Putnam, the president of Putnam Brands & Putnam Accessory Group, told Fox News Digital.

“And I think Spencer’s actually bringing the light in a real way. He’s pretty basic with his delivery of his issues and I think that’s resonating a lot. Even if you don’t want to vote for him, you’re listening, though and I think that’s resonating with a lot of people.”

Putnam, a former candidate for Santa Monica City Council in 2024, told Fox News Digital that even though his town of Santa Monica doesn’t vote for LA mayor, the winner’s platform will have a “trickle down” effect all across the county.

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“California’s got a big issue, but the city, especially where we live, Santa Monica, is a byproduct of what’s happened in Los Angeles and across the world,” Putnam said. “In Santa Monica alone, we’re a people-driven economy. 80% of our revenue comes from outside this city. We need revenue being generated from people that are coming here to visit.”

Putnam’s company, which he has run for 40 years, is based near downtown Los Angeles, and he told Fox News Digital that it’s clear when you drive around the city that the business climate is being significantly handcuffed by crime, homelessness, high taxes and other factors. 

“It costs so much to operate a business here,” Putnam said. “Out of 250 cities that were surveyed a few years ago, Santa Monica came in number one of being the most expensive place to do business and that’s because of all the regulation, all the other aspects.

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“But on top of that, if you can’t create an inviting environment and a safe environment and a clean environment, there’s no hope. I mean, the bottom line, there is zero hope in that arrangement. So we have to do something quickly and the pain is there. We, just as voters, hopefully, will determine what we have to do to change that.”

Crime has been a highly talked-about issue in the mayoral race between Pratt, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and progressive Councilwoman Nithya Raman. Putnam says that over the past few years, crime has gotten worse overall, despite statistics that say specific violent crimes are down. 

“There’s all sorts of stats, it’s worse, everyone’s trying to sugar coat it in different ways, but the stats are out there, they’re saying crime is down, I think violent crime is down across the country, but all this petty stuff is happening,” Putnam said.

SPENCER PRATT ANNOUNCES LA MAYOR RUN ON ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF PALISADES FIRE THAT DESTROYED HIS HOME

“It’s come in all neighborhoods. I mean you know it’s down in the south side of Los Angeles, east. It’s everywhere. You know even here in Santa Monica, we’re definitely being victims of this behavior of crime, and the drug addiction that’s running rampant in our city that’s causing this kind of criminal activity doesn’t really satisfy anyone. It doesn’t protect us. It doesn’t make us feel safe, and it doesn’t help our community just to grow.”

Roughly a year and a half ago, the Los Angeles area was devastated by wildfires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades that killed 31 people. The Palisades fire crept within a few miles of Putnam’s home in Santa Monica and destroyed more than 6,000 structures, including Pratt’s home.

Putnam told Fox News Digital that the fires, and criticism of Bass’s preparedness and response, is “definitely a point of every conversation” with Los Angeles residents as only a handful of homes have been rebuilt. 

“People are feeling left out, they’re not feeling like they’re being helped,” Putnam said. “I mean, their whole town, Altadena and Palisades were just destroyed. Beyond that, you had nail salons, you have all these hair salons, you had restaurants, these people are homeless from their businesses, their income and they aren’t getting the love and the attention they deserve, we need to come together and help those people.”

“That’s what’s frustrating. I think people are angry, but also just really concerned. And I think this is really, Spencer’s really done a good job of bringing that out and letting people know this is not acceptable, and we have a choice here.”

Pratt will face off in the mayoral primary on Tuesday night against Bass and progressive City Council member Nithya Raman in an election where the top two candidates will move on to the November general election; however, if a candidate receives 50% of the vote, they become the next mayor outright.

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Senate candidate Graham Platner has not deactivated his account on a private messaging app associated with casual sex and anonymous encounters — despite facing mounting questions over infidelity and the platform’s ties to sexual exploitation. 

Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine’s 2026 Senate race, has an active profile on Kik, an anonymous chatting platform notorious for lax identification methods that have enabled the proliferation of child sexual abuse material. 

The profile, reviewed by Fox News Digital, contains a sexually suggestive picture of Platner showing the candidate’s naked torso with a towel draped around his waist. It is unclear when the image was taken, but Platner created the account in 2016. 

Platner’s presence on Kik was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which reported that he sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women while married to his wife Amy Gertner, who wedded Platner in 2023. According to the outlet, Platner’s wife first discovered the adulterous messages in the spring of 2025 and later divulged them to a since-departed campaign official.

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Multiple child safety groups have criticized Kik due to its anonymous structure and public group chats that allow strangers to contact each other with little effort.

Users only need an email address to create an account, and there is no enforceable age-verification mechanism. 

Roughly 70% of the platform’s users are estimated to be between 13 and 24 years old, according to multiple industry reports.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation designated Kik as a “predator’s paradise” in 2023 for being rampant with “predatory behavior and child sexual exploitation.” 

The watchdog also placed the platform on its “Dirty Dozen” list for facilitating and profiting from sexual exploitation.

In 2024, Kik was rated the worst app for severe sexual content, according to Bark, a parental control and online safety platform.

Between 2023 and 2025, at least four Maine men were sentenced for distributing child pornography or soliciting nude pictures from underage girls by posing as minors while using Kik.

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It is unclear who Platner messaged on the clandestine platform, but there is no evidence he communicated with minors. 

The Platner campaign said over the weekend that he deleted the app from his phone long before The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.

Gertner released a video slamming the media for reporting on Platner’s alleged cheating, which she labeled “gossip” while insisting she has a “great” marriage with the candidate. 

“It makes me really angry, disappointed,” Gertner said in the video posted Saturday evening. “And I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on.” 

Gertner plays a visible role in Platner’s campaign and is financially compensated in a volunteer coordinator role.

Platner’s alleged infidelity is the latest incident in a string of controversies that has dogged his insurgent campaign. 

The far-left Senate hopeful has previously sparked backlash for posting vulgar messages on a since-deleted Reddit account in which he joked about masturbating in public portable toilets, discussed using satellite phones on an overseas deployment to “cyber f–k” his girlfriend and appeared to defend military personnel who cheat on their spouses.

“You don’t have much experience with Latin American hookers, do you?” Platner wrote in response to a user concerned about the exploitation of female prostitutes in Colombia.

“I’ve heard that idiotic sentiment made within the confines of the the [sic] military. ‘If you can’t remain faithful to your wife, how can you remain faithful to your comrades?’” he wrote in a separate post in response to an article reporting on Secret Service agents paying prostitutes. “Well, I have many good buddies who lied and cheated with women, and yet were straight shooting hard men when it came to their work.”

“I find it is a sentiment only held by moral relativists who need something to cry about, intelligent people realize they are not mutually exclusive,” he went on.

Platner also called himself a communist, denigrated rural White people as “racist” and “stupid” and singled out Black people for not tipping well, in since-deleted posts. 

He has also faced mounting scrutiny over a Nazi-linked chest tattoo that he has since covered up. Platner said last year he got the black skull-and-crossbones tattoo while out drinking with fellow Marines in 2007 during a period of leave in Croatia and denied knowing the symbol’s Nazi origins.

Platner’s hand placement notably shields the heavily scrutinized tattoo from view in his Kik account profile.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Platner campaign for comment but did not hear back. 

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LOS ANGELES — As celebrities continue to rally behind Spencer Pratt’s campaign for Los Angeles mayor, reality TV personality and O.J. Simpson murder trial witness Kato Kaelin tells Fox News Digital that Pratt is the candidate he thinks will bring necessary change to the city.

“It’s clear to me that Karen Bass did an awful job as LA Mayor during the 2025 fires,” Kaelin, a Los Angeles resident who rocketed to fame after testifying in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, told Fox News Digital, alluding to the heavy criticism Bass has faced for being out of the country during the devastating wildfires in 2025 that killed over two dozen people in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

“I supported Rick Caruso for Mayor in 2022 and think Spencer Pratt could shake things up this cycle. LA needs a change in leadership.”

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Kaelin, who has lived in Los Angeles for decades but who cannot cast a ballot in the race because he lives outside LA proper, said it “shocks” him that anyone would even “consider voting for Bass.”

“Her agenda is not for the people of LA, she’s proven it with policy regarding homeless and drug abuse on the streets,” Kaelin said, adding that the current mayor “has proven to be awful” and Pratt “brings energy and a different perspective.”

Kaelin first became a household name during the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial. He testified as a key witness for the prosecution since, at the time of the murders, Kaelin was staying in a guesthouse on Simpson’s Rockingham estate.

The trial transformed Kaelin from an aspiring actor into a pop culture figure, with his distinctive appearance and courtroom testimony drawing intense public attention.

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Over a dozen celebrities have rallied behind Pratt, a former reality television star from “The Hills,” as he continues to make the case that his status as a political outsider is what Los Angeles needs.

Others argue that political experience is a prerequisite to running for mayor of the second-largest U.S. city. 

“I relate to Spencer because he receives hate just because he was on a reality show and I was sometimes hated just for being a witness – vote Pratt!” Kaelin said.

Pratt, a registered Republican running as an independent, will square off on Tuesday night in the mayoral primary against Mayor Bass and progressive City Councilwoman Nithya Rahman.

In Los Angeles, the top vote-getters will advance to a November election, unless a candidate receives 50% of the vote, in which case they will automatically claim victory and be named the next mayor.

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A Nantucket church on the exclusive Massachusetts island long favored by former President Joe Biden canceled its annual Fourth of July reading of America’s founding documents, citing an effort to understand “our own whiteness” and drawing sharp criticism from conservatives.

“Our cancelling the 4th of July celebration this year reflects … an on-going process within the congregation to better understand our own whiteness,” wrote Nantucket Unitarian Universalists (NUU) and the Rev. Erin Splaine of the Second Congregational Meeting House Society in a letter published by the Nantucket Current on Thursday. 

The historic Nantucket Unitarian Meeting House has hosted a public reading of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in downtown Nantucket each Fourth of July holiday for the past 25 years.

The decision comes as communities across the country prepare for events tied to America’s upcoming semiquincentennial celebrations, sparking criticism from social media users amid a broader debate over how the nation’s founding documents should be commemorated.

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Church leaders said the decision reflects ongoing conversations within the congregation about race, privilege and the historical application of constitutional rights.

“For those of us who are white the experience of the Rights and Privileges conferred by the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of the United States have, for centuries, been tragically, often violently, and unequally applied to fellow citizens who are not white,” the letter explained.

In previous years, local leaders and the island’s chamber of commerce had promoted the event on social media platforms for all to attend to celebrate the holiday.

The letter stated that Splaine would not “engage” with anyone concerned with the cancelation on social media, saying those concerned could make an “appointment” to speak with her. 

“Social media is not the place for important, tender conversations,” the letter stated. 

Nantucket, a famed summer retreat off the Massachusetts coast, attracts celebrities, millionaires — and billionaires. Biden and his family head up to the island almost every year to celebrate Thanksgiving with family for decades.

Critics were quick to flood social media with reactions, pointing to the island’s exclusivity and arguing that some on the left appear increasingly uncomfortable celebrating America’s founding ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday.

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“If you know anything about Nantucket, you know that’s where the rich, privileged people live. Just another self important dem who thinks she’s important,” posted an X user. “OK Nantucket,  break out those fireworks.  Don’t let this idiot spoil your fun.”

“Nothing says ‘inclusive’ like canceling a national holiday,” wrote one user on X.

“Someone needs to tell this nitwit that over 600,000 white men died in the battle to end slavery in this country by the way, the only country that decisively fought to end slavery,” said an X user. “I’m so tired of these people spewing lies because they refused to learn the truth. Pick up an old history book. It’s there.”

“She’s throwing a tantrum, and her congregation gets to take it and not ask any questions,” posted another person.

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To salvage the annual event, another church on the island, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, announced it would read the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, the Nantucket Current reported.

 “We may not be there yet but we felt it was important to gather together and try to live up to the promises our country has made,” said St. Paul’s Rev. Max Wolf. “Those documents are aspirational.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Nantucket Unitarian Meeting House for comment, as well as Biden’s office. 

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A congressional candidate in New Mexico is betting that his Hispanic ties — and military background — are just the thing historically Democratic voters will need to go Republican in the fall.

“I connect with them on that level. They wanted somebody with law enforcement or military experience, which, you now know, I have both,” Greg Cunningham said, referring to the Hispanic community in the state’s 2nd Congressional District.

“One of the reasons that I decided to run — that I feel so strongly about this is, you know, Hispanic culture is at its core a conservative culture.”

Cunningham’s hope that the GOP can win over the Hispanic vote, a historically Democratic voting bloc, continues longstanding efforts from Republicans to flip the script among minorities, especially in fringe districts that could decide the balance of power in 2026.

That’s especially true in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District — currently held by Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M.

It’s one of thirteen that voted for President Donald Trump in 2024, but that sent a Democratic representative to Congress anyway. The Cook Political Report indicates the district “leans” Democratic, despite a D+0 rating.

Cunningham, who became the default GOP candidate after a lone primary challenger dropped out in April, will be the first new GOP candidate voters will consider since 2018. Former Rep. Yvette Herrell, who has been the candidate since then, last lost in 2024 by 4.2% to Vasquez.

Cunningham believes his background is uniquely suited to the challenges of the district.

A Marine reconnaissance veteran who served in combat, Cunningham joined the Albuquerque Police Department, spent years on patrol and narcotics, worked as a DEA task force officer on federal drug and cartel cases and later operated in undercover roles before transitioning into private security.

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“I love Yvette Herrell, but I am a different person in every way, shape, and form. And what I bring to CD2 and to this race is exactly what we need,” Cunningham said.

Specifically, Cunningham believes that his background will help address high levels of crime and narcotics that have persisted despite lowered levels of illegal immigration.

“The human invasion portion of that equation is solved. The law enforcement, human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, all of those challenges are the same exact challenges that I faced when I worked down there 20 years ago. Nothing has changed,” Cunningham said.

But more than his practical knowledge and experience, Cunningham said he hopes to appeal to values central to the Hispanic community.

“We value our families, we value our culture, we value our faith. And so, I think when you take Republican or Democrat, take the donkey or the elephant out of it, and you start speaking to people on a core level, who are you?” Cunningham said.

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“We all want the very same things,” he added.

New Mexico is roughly 50% Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Like all Democratic strongholds and competitive districts, Cunningham believes half the battle will be convincing voters that Republicans can secure the seat in the first place.

“I just have to convince [New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District] why we can win this,” Cunningham said.

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France has added a ninth European country to President Emmanuel Macron’s growing nuclear deterrence initiative as European governments move to take on a larger role in its own defense following years of pressure from President Donald Trump to shoulder more of NATO’s security burden.

Norway announced Wednesday that it will join France’s so-called “forward deterrence” initiative, becoming the latest country to participate in discussions over how France’s nuclear arsenal could contribute to European security. The effort also includes Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Greece and the United Kingdom.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre stressed that “our deterrence will continue to be provided by NATO” and said France had consulted both NATO and the U.S. as the initiative expanded.

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The expansion comes as European governments race to strengthen its militaries amid concerns that Russia could eventually push beyond Ukraine and threaten NATO territory. It also marks another step in Macron’s effort to position France at the center of a more self-reliant European security framework as NATO allies increase defense spending and military cooperation.

It also follows years of warnings from Trump that the U.S. should not continue carrying a disproportionate share of Europe’s defense burden.

“If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” Trump said in 2025 when discussing NATO allies that fail to meet defense spending commitments.

Trump repeatedly has argued that European countries relied too heavily on American military power while underinvesting in their own defenses. At NATO’s summit in The Hague earlier in 2026, alliance members agreed to a new goal of spending 5% of GDP on defense and defense-related investments by 2035, a dramatic increase from NATO’s longstanding 2% benchmark.

France has not announced plans to permanently station nuclear weapons in nations participating in the initiative and retains sole authority over any decision involving its nuclear arsenal.

Instead, participating countries will take part in discussions, planning and exercises related to French nuclear deterrence while France signals that the security of its European partners is increasingly tied to its own. Macron also has said participating countries could temporarily host French strategic air forces as part of the initiative.

Macron has increasingly positioned France as a leader in Europe’s push to take greater responsibility for its own security. France is the European Union’s only nuclear-armed country, and the French president has argued that France’s nuclear deterrent should play a larger role in protecting the continent as governments across Europe increase military spending and expand defense cooperation.

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France built an independent nuclear deterrent during the Cold War under President Charles de Gaulle. France conducted its first nuclear test in 1960 and developed its own arsenal in part to ensure the country would never be entirely dependent on Washington for its security.

The arrangement leaves open questions about exactly what commitments France is making.

For decades, Europe’s ultimate nuclear backstop has been the U.S. which stations nuclear weapons in several NATO countries including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands as part of the alliance’s broader deterrence posture. France’s proposal is less explicit, seeking to strengthen deterrence by making Russia consider the possibility that threats against European allies could implicate French security interests without offering a formal nuclear guarantee.

The initiative highlights how some European governments are looking to strengthen regional defense arrangements even as the U.S. remains NATO’s dominant military power and primary nuclear guarantor.

It also comes as Trump and Macron continue a relationship marked by both cooperation and public disagreements.

In March, Trump rated Macron an “8 out of 10” as an ally while discussing French support for a U.S.-led effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

“Not perfect, but it’s France,” Trump said. “We don’t expect perfect.”

At the same time, Macron has increasingly pushed for Europe to take greater responsibility for its own defense and has publicly broken with Washington on several foreign policy issues, including criticism of U.S. military actions in the Middle East.

Those tensions reflect a broader challenge facing NATO as European governments seek to strengthen their own military capabilities while continuing to rely heavily on the United States for much of the alliance’s military power and nuclear deterrence.

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