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☆ J.D. Vance, in the Mix to Be Trump’s Running Mate, Joins Him in Court
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Michael C. Bender | More About Michael C. Bender | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Senator J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican, joined Donald J. Trump’s entourage in court on Monday as the prosecution’s star witness, Michael D. Cohen, the former president’s fixer-turned-nemesis, took the stand. Mr. Vance’s presence could signal a new frontier for Mr. Trump’s testing of potential running mates. But Mr. Vance, who had been aggressively critical of Mr. Trump before running for office, has worked to repair that relationship, and is now one of his most vocal defenders in the Senate. Mr. Vance’s seat in court on Monday could also be chalked up simply as well-timed support for the former president.

Persons: J.D, Vance, Donald J, Michael D, Cohen, Trump, Vance’s, Tommy Tuberville, Nicole Malliotakis, Brenna Bird Organizations: Ohio Republican Locations: Ohio, Alabama, New York, Iowa

is a Times political correspondent covering Donald J. Trump, the Make America Great Again movement and other federal and state elections.

Persons: Donald J, Trump

☆ Larry Hogan Will Run for Senate in Maryland
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( Michael C. Bender | More About Michael C. Bender | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Larry Hogan, the popular Republican former governor of Maryland, announced on Friday that he would run for the state’s open Senate seat, a surprising move that immediately made the state a top battleground for control of the chamber. “I am running for the United States Senate — not to serve one party — but to stand up to both parties, fight for Maryland, and fix our nation’s broken politics,” Mr. Hogan wrote on X. “It’s what I did as Maryland’s governor, and it’s exactly how I’ll serve Maryland in the Senate. Let’s get back to work.”Mr. Hogan has been one of his party’s most vocal critics of former President Donald J. Trump and has endorsed former Gov. Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican and the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, welcomed Mr. Hogan into the race, saying he was “a great leader for Maryland, and that’s why he remains overwhelmingly popular in the state.”

Persons: Larry Hogan, United States Senate —, ” Mr, Hogan, I’ll, Let’s, Donald J, Trump, Nikki Haley, Steve Daines, ” Organizations: Republican, United States Senate, Maryland, Gov, Montana Republican, National Republican Senatorial Locations: Maryland, South Carolina, Montana

With only about 48 hours left to campaign in the New Hampshire primary, Nikki Haley finally got the two-person race she wanted. For months, it has been an article of faith among Ms. Haley’s supporters and a coalition of anti-Trump Republicans that the only way to defeat Donald J. Trump was to winnow the field to a one-on-one contest and consolidate support among his opponents. That wishcasting became reality on Sunday afternoon, when Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ended his White House bid. And yet, as the race reached the final day, there was little sign that Mr. DeSantis’s departure would transform Ms. Haley’s chances of winning.

Persons: Nikki Haley, Haley’s, Donald J, Trump, Ron DeSantis, DeSantis’s Organizations: Trump Republicans, Gov Locations: New Hampshire, Florida

☆ How College-Educated Republicans Learned to Love Trump Again
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Michael C. Bender | More About Michael C. Bender | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Working-class voters delivered the Republican Party to Donald J. Trump. Often overlooked in an increasingly blue-collar party, voters with a college degree remain at the heart of the lingering Republican cold war over abortion, foreign policy and cultural issues. Even as Mr. Trump dominates Republican primary polls ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Monday, it was only a year ago that he trailed Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida in some surveys — a deficit due largely to the former president’s weakness among college-educated voters. Mr. DeSantis’s advisers viewed the party’s educational divide as a potential launching point to overtake Mr. Trump for the nomination.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Ron DeSantis Organizations: Republican Party, Trump . College, Republican, Gov, Mr Locations: Iowa, Florida

This turn inward has sounded new alarms among experts on autocracy who have long worried about Mr. Trump’s praise for foreign dictators and disdain for democratic ideals. They said the former president’s increasingly intensive focus on perceived internal enemies was a hallmark of dangerous totalitarian leaders. Scholars, Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans are asking anew how much Mr. Trump resembles current strongmen abroad and how he compares to authoritarian leaders of the past. “There are echoes of fascist rhetoric, and they’re very precise,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor at New York University who studies fascism. These ambitions include using the Justice Department to take vengeance on his political rivals, plotting a vast expansion of presidential power and installing ideologically aligned lawyers in key positions to bless his contentious actions.

Persons: Trump, ”, Ruth Ben, Mr Organizations: Trump Republicans, New York University, Justice Department

Senator Joe Manchin III said he decided to forgo re-election because he’d accomplished all his goals. But for the Democrats he’s leaving behind in Washington, the work to hold the party’s already slim Senate majority is just beginning. The state has become so conservative that only Wyoming delivered a wider Republican margin in the 2020 presidential race. “This is a huge impact,” Ward Baker, a former executive director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the group that oversees Senate races. “Manchin not running will save Republicans a ton of money — and it takes a seat off the board early.”

Persons: Joe Manchin III, he’d, Jim Justice, ” Ward Baker, “ Manchin, ” Organizations: Democrats he’s, Democratic, West Virginian, Republican, National Republican Senatorial Committee Locations: Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming

☆ Tim Scott’s Debate Night Date Night
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Michael C. Bender | More About Michael C. Bender | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

She was later identified by a person close to the campaign as Mindy Noce, Mr. Scott’s girlfriend and a design and renovations manager for a real estate company in the Charleston, S.C., area. Even the pictures taken at his debate lectern with his girlfriend had the feel of being the final souvenirs from a stalled campaign. Mr. Scott entered the race as an underdog, but had proven to be a strong fund-raiser with the party’s base of online, small-dollar donors. Still, Mr. Scott, who champions himself as a “happy warrior,” remains an optimist. I’ll be on the stage.”The emergence of Mr. Scott’s companion onstage, like her emergence in the campaign itself, took a while.

Persons: Mindy Noce, Scott’s, Scott, “, we’ll, I’ll Organizations: NBC News Locations: Charleston, S.C, Iowa, Alabama

☆ Virginia Dashes Youngkin’s Hopes of a G.O.P. Takeover, and Maybe More
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Michael C. Bender | More About Michael C. Bender | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For months, some of the Republican Party’s top donors have dreamed of a dramatic late entrance into the presidential race by Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, envisioning an improbable scenario in which the fleece-vested former financier rips control of the party away from Donald J. Trump. Mr. Youngkin had been viewed by some Republicans as the key to unlocking their political problems in the suburbs. Mr. Youngkin’s blueprint, the thinking went, could help the Republican Party halt a series of stinging defeats since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Mr. Youngkin encouraged his party to lean into the fight, spending heavily on a television ad that explained the Republican plan to ban abortion in Virginia after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the woman.

Persons: Glenn Youngkin, Donald J, Trump, Youngkin, Roe, Wade, Mr Organizations: Republican, Gov, Senate, Republican Party Locations: Virginia, Virginia’s

One of Donald J. Trump’s new comedic bits at his rallies features him impersonating the current commander in chief with an over-the-top caricature mocking President Biden’s age. With droopy eyelids and mouth agape, Mr. Trump stammers and mumbles. A burst of laughter and applause erupts from the crowd as he feigns confusion by turning and pointing to invisible supporters, as if he does not realize his back is to them. Mr. Trump has had a string of unforced gaffes, garble and general disjointedness that go beyond his usual discursive nature, and that his Republican rivals are pointing to as signs of his declining performance. On Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, Mr. Trump wrongfully thanked supporters of Sioux Falls, a South Dakota town about 75 miles away, correcting himself only after being pulled aside onstage and informed of the error.

Persons: Donald J, Biden’s, Trump, squints Organizations: Republican Locations: Sioux City , Iowa, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

The setting was an economic conference in far eastern Russia, with discussion of the ruble and domestic investment, but that didn’t stop President Vladimir V. Putin from wading into American politics on Tuesday, branding the criminal cases against Donald J. Trump political persecution and praising the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. For years, the Russian leader has demonstrated an ability to exploit political divisions within Western nations, often by signaling to conservatives abroad that he is aligned with them in a global fight against liberal values. Mr. Putin’s remarks on Tuesday, made at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, appeared aimed at lending firepower to the Republican outcry over the prosecutions of Mr. Trump, who has long expressed public admiration for the Russian leader and has helped encourage a sizable Moscow-friendly contingent within his party. The cases against Mr. Trump — who faces 91 felony counts in four jurisdictions — represent the “persecution of one’s political rival for political motives,” Mr. Putin said. He predicted that the entire affair would help Russia by exposing American domestic problems for the world to see and revealing the hypocrisy of American democracy.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Donald J, Elon Musk, Putin’s, Trump, Mr Organizations: Trump, Eastern Economic, Republican, Trump — Locations: Russia, Western, Vladivostok, Moscow

☆ Race to Be Trump’s Running Mate Begins, With Noem Likely to Endorse Him
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Michael C. Bender | More About Michael C. Bender | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just three — Mike Dunleavy of Alaska, Jim Justice of West Virginia and Henry McMaster of South Carolina — have backed Mr. Trump. Two others — Ron DeSantis of Florida and Doug Burgum of North Dakota — are running against him. Some close to the former president said that was most likely rooted in superstition that such consideration would jeopardize his own nomination. Mr. Trump raised eyebrows among some associates with private, offhand comments that Mr. Scott had not received much coverage for his performance during the first Republican presidential debate. Mr. Scott has been mentioned as a potential vice-presidential pick even though he is currently running against Mr. Trump, who didn’t participate in his party’s first debate.

Persons: Ms, Mike Dunleavy, Jim Justice, Henry McMaster of, Trump, Ron DeSantis, Doug Burgum, Noem, I’d, ”, Scott Organizations: South, Republican, West, Henry McMaster of South, Fox News, White House, Mr Locations: South Dakota, Alaska, West Virginia, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Florida, North Dakota

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