After a month on the sidelines, the 2026 primary season is back with a vengeance.

A dozen states from coast to coast hold primaries or runoffs in May, and the results of those nomination contests may ultimately determine the outcomes of November’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their slim Senate and razor-thin House majorities.

Also on the line in some of the ballot box showdowns: President Donald Trump’s immense sway over the GOP, as his endorsements in key races will be tested.

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Indiana and Ohio kick off the action on May 5, with Nebraska and West Virginia holding primaries a week later, on May 12. Louisiana’s nominating contest follows on Saturday, May 16. Three days later marks the busiest day of the month, with Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania holding primaries. Texas wraps up May with runoff showdowns on May 26.

Here’s a closer look at some of the top races.

MAY 5 – Indiana and Ohio

The first major test of Trump’s grip on the GOP comes in Indiana.

Five months ago, Republicans in the GOP-dominated state Senate withstood immense pressure from Trump and his allies and voted down congressional redistricting, which would have given solidly red Indiana two more right-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms. Seeking retribution, the president endorsed challengers to eight GOP state senators who voted against the redistricting bill.

The president’s allies have spent millions of dollars to try to oust the state lawmakers who opposed Trump’s redistricting push. Among those in the political fight on behalf of the president are Turning Point USA’s political wing and the Club for Growth.

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The intra-party battle is seen not just as a test of fealty to Trump but rather a fight between MAGA forces and more traditional conservatives for the future of the GOP.

“We’ve got to change those old-style Republicans, put in people who will fight, fight against the Democrat gerrymandering,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh told Fox News Digital.

McIntosh, a former congressman from Indiana, said “I want to see my state do the right thing.”

In neighboring Ohio, there’s a lot less drama.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur and business leader who grabbed national attention during his bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination before dropping out and becoming a top Trump surrogate, is all but certain to capture the Republican gubernatorial nomination in his home state. Ramaswamy, who is backed by Trump, will face off in November against Dr. Amy Acton, a doctor and researcher who served as director of the state Department of Health from 2019 to 2020. Acton is unopposed in the Democratic primary. The winner will succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Mike DeWine.

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It’s the same story in Ohio’s Senate primary, where appointed Republican Sen. Jon Husted, a former lieutenant governor, is unopposed in the GOP primary. Former longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is expected to cruise to his party’s nomination. The winner will serve the final two years of the term of Vice President JD Vance, who stepped down from the Senate after the Trump-Vance ticket won the 2024 presidential election.

Once a top general election battleground state, Ohio has shifted to the right over the past decade, with Trump carrying the state by 11 points in the 2024 election. But this year’s races for the Senate and governor are expected to be very competitive. And the Senate race is one of a handful across the country that may determine if the GOP holds the majority or if the Democrats flip the chamber.

 

May 16 – Louisiana

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is facing primary challenges from two Republicans: Rep. Julia Letlow and former Rep. John Fleming, who is currently the state treasurer. Trump earlier this year weighed into the race by endorsing Letlow.

Cassidy was one of only seven Senate Republicans who voted in early 2021 to convict Trump after he was impeached by the House for his role in the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters who aimed to upend congressional certification of former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump was acquitted by the Senate.

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But since the start of Trump’s second term 15 months ago, Cassidy has been supportive of the president’s agenda and his nominees.

If no candidate cracks 50% of the primary vote, the top two finishers will face off for the nomination in a June 27 runoff election.

 

May 19 – Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania

The third major test of Trump’s endorsement power this month is in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, where Rep. Thomas Massie is facing a challenge from Trump-backed Ed Gallrein.

Massie has long been one of Trump’s most vocal GOP critics in Congress, repeatedly taking aim at the president over the Epstein files and foreign policy.

Trump allies have spent big bucks to boost Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, and to take aim at Massie.

The president’s endorsement is also being tested in Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial nomination, in the 2026 race to succeed popular conservative Gov. Brian Kemp, who is term limited.

Trump has endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is trading fire in a competitive and combustible battle with healthcare executive and mega GOP donor Rick Jackson, who has infused millions of his own money in his bid. Among the others battling for the nomination in a crowded Republican field are state Attorney General Chris Carr and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who later served in then-President Joe Biden’s administration, is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Among the other contenders in the crowded field of candidates are Mike Thurmond, a former DeKalb County CEO and former state Labor Commissioner, and former Republican lieutenant governor turned Democrat Geoff Duncan.

Republicans are hoping to flip the U.S. Senate seat up for grabs this year in Georgia. The GOP views first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat seeking re-election this year. But beating Ossoff, who has built a massive war chest, won’t be easy in the southeastern battleground state.

Making matters worse for the GOP: There’s a nasty primary between major contenders Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, and former college football coach Derek Dooley, who is backed by Kemp. Trump has remained neutral to date in the Senate primary in Georgia.

May 26 – Texas

Longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn is fighting for his political life as he faces off in a runoff election against state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is a MAGA firebrand and major Trump supporter.

Trump has stayed neutral in the showdown between the two Republican titans in right-leaning Texas.

Cornyn narrowly edged Paxton in an early March GOP primary that also included Rep. Wesley Hunt, but with no candidate topping 50%, Cornyn and Paxton advanced to the runoff.

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The winner of the runoff will face off in November with Democratic nominee James Talarico, a state representative and rising Democratic Party star who hauled in an eye-popping $27 million in fundraising the first three months of this year.

Democrats are confident, and Republicans are concerned, that if Paxton wins the GOP nomination, Republicans will have a harder time in the general election holding the seat. And similar to the Senate race in Ohio, the showdown in Texas is one of a handful across the country that may determine if the GOP holds the majority.

The legal battle over abortion pills escalated to the Supreme Court on Saturday, as the manufacturer of mifepristone filed an emergency request warning a lower court ruling is already causing “immediate confusion and upheaval” across the country.

Danco Laboratories is asking the high court to quickly block a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that blocked mail-order access and reinstated in-person requirements for the drug, arguing the ruling is disrupting access and creating nationwide uncertainty about legality.

The ruling directly affects the distribution of mifepristone, Danco’s primary product.

Mifepristone is one of two drugs commonly used in medication abortions.

The application was directed to Justice Samuel Alito, who handles emergency matters from the 5th Circuit and can either act on his own or refer the request to the full court. The Supreme Court could act at any time.

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In its filing, Danco warned the appeals court’s order is already creating “chaos” in real-world medical settings.

“The panel’s ruling injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions,” the company wrote, adding it is forcing “providers, patients, and pharmacies all to guess at what is allowed and what is not.”

The filing raises immediate questions, including what happens to existing abortion pill prescriptions, pharmacy dispensing and access to in-person visits.

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“What happens when patients arrive for scheduled appointments this weekend… or walk into pharmacies… to obtain [the drug] that was prescribed… yesterday?” the filing states.

Danco is asking the court to immediately pause the ruling through an administrative stay, then block it longer term while litigation continues. The company also suggested the justices could take up the case on an expedited schedule before the end of the term, a move that could reshape the court’s already packed 2026 docket.

The emergency appeal comes just one day after the 5th Circuit issued its ruling, which blocked the mailing of mifepristone and effectively barred pharmacy distribution under the challenged FDA rules, requiring women to obtain the drug in-person from a medical provider.

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“Of course they filed an emergency petition. Big Pharma has gotten extremely rich after the unprecedented and radical deregulation of these dangerous abortion pills,” 40 Days for Life President Shawn Carney told Fox News Digital.

“No abortion advocate or anyone from Big Pharma was pushing to send these drugs through the mail just a few years ago, and now they act as if they’re entitled to do so with zero regulation and zero oversight,” Carney added. “This is more evidence the FDA needs to reevaluate how these drugs were approved after years of ER visits from women who take them.”

Abortion-rights advocates said the ruling has “upended” access to care nationwide, particularly for patients relying on telemedicine, while legal groups warned it is creating confusion for providers trying to comply with rapidly changing rules.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said the decision is “yet another cruel attack on abortion access,” adding that “mifepristone is safe, effective, and essential.”

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The underlying case is still ongoing in lower courts, but the emergency filing now places the dispute squarely before the Supreme Court in what could become the next major legal showdown over abortion policy.

The justices could choose to pause the ruling immediately, allowing the current system to remain in place while the case proceeds, or let the restrictions take effect nationwide.

Danco Laboratories did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

EXCLUSIVE: A bipartisan group of lawmakers is moving to crack down on foreign influence in American education by targeting universities’ financial ties to adversarial nations.

The package would ban federal funding to colleges that operate “branch” campuses in adversarial countries or accept research funding for sensitive fields like artificial intelligence, biotech and quantum computing. China, for example, has been a major source of foreign influence in American education through its Confucius Classrooms, which states like Oklahoma have cracked down on.

On a federal level, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has taken the mantle of defending education against issues from foreign influence to antisemitism on campus; famously headlining a hearing after which UPenn’s then-president resigned amid pressure over her responses on the latter.

Stefanik again is out in front of an education protection endeavor, telling Fox News Digital she is part of a bicameral, bipartisan group focused on keeping foreign influence away from America’s young and growing minds.

“I introduced the No Branch Campuses in Hostile Countries Act with Senator Rick Scott, and this is part of the broader higher education reform effort that I have been leading on in the Congress,” Stefanik said in an exclusive interview.

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“One of the challenges that I’ve seen is the influence of foreign adversaries sowing discord on our higher education campuses. And part of this has been coming from the foreign dollars flowing in, but also the existence of branches in these foreign adversarial countries.”

She noted her home state of New York has major universities operating branch campuses in China, but said the problem extends beyond the Empire State to other top schools in Chicago, Washington and elsewhere.

Stefanik added that Confucius Institutes and classrooms were recently banned through the national defense bill, and that just as that effort was bipartisan, so is her second education security bill this week.

The Defending American Research Act prevents any institution of higher education from receiving federal research funding for five years if it receives funds from certain foreign countries including Qatar, Venezuela, Turkey and North Korea.

In Stefanik’s own book, “Poisoned Ivies,” she noted she dove into the topic of dangerous aspects of today’s campus life from foreign influence to antisemitism.

“[Ours] was the most viewed hearing in the history of Congress. It led to multiple university presidents’ resignations, but importantly, it set off an earthquake in higher education reform. There have been seismic shifts in higher-ed, both in the marketplace, as you’re seeing parents and students voting with their wallets and feet, as it’s shifted,” Stefanik said, adding that many American youth are seeking collegiate education at southern schools where the liberal northeast and west coast influence is more muted.

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Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., are joining Stefanik in the effort, and Scott told Fox News Digital that America “has enemies” and should “start acting like it” when it comes to their influence on higher education.

“Countries like Communist China and terror-supporting Qatar should not be able to use America’s colleges and universities as outposts to spy on us, steal sensitive research, and spread anti-American propaganda, but we’ve been letting them do it for years,” Scott said.

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“This legislation is critical to America’s national security and the future of our higher education system — neither of which should be for sale.”

While the list includes more obvious entries like North Korea, Cuba and China, Qatar is also included, even as it remains a somewhat neutral or cooperative partner on national security concerns such as evacuations from Afghanistan and the Iran conflict.

However, Stefanik said when it comes to its influence on U.S. education, her research led her to “billions of dollars” from Doha appearing to prop up antisemitic interests and “pro-terror professors” at some universities including in her home state.

“I think that’s one of the major ways we need to push back on this foreign influence that’s really shifting away from the founding missions of these higher education institutions,” she said.

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Other nations on both bills’ lists include the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation.

The bill sponsors’ collective hope is that their measures will provide the leverage needed to force U.S. universities to cut ties with adversarial governments or risk their bottom line.

Tahrohon Wayne (T.W.) Shannon, who was Oklahoma’s first African American speaker of the House, is pushing back on President Barack Obama’s pessimistic outlook for minority voters following the Supreme Court’s Wednesday ruling reshaping the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Where Obama saw the court “abandoning” principles of equal participation, Shannon believes the ruling further pushes race out of American politics, highlighting his own story as evidence that minorities don’t need special treatment to win office.

“This idea that you must have a racially drawn district in order to win and compete is just nonsense,” Shannon, who is currently running for lieutenant governor, said.

In its 6-3 decision delivered along ideological lines on Wednesday, the court struck down Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, which was redrawn in 2024 to have a predominantly black electorate. The court also ruled that states may not use race to either draw districts that disenfranchise voters or help minority communities support their preferred candidates.

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Obama, reacting to the decision on X, called the ruling disastrous for minorities.

“It serves as just one more example of how a majority of the current Court seems intent on abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach,” Obama wrote.

Shannon disagreed fiercely, arguing that the former president’s framing would only inflame “racial division.”

“What the Supreme Court really did is say that you can’t fix discrimination by discriminating against people. Race should not be a deciding factor when it comes to redistricting,” Shannon told Fox News Digital.

“The entire country is just kind of tired and disappointed in the Obamas and their constantly whining about how awful and racist America is,” Shannon added.

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While Democrats argue the ruling could be abused to dilute minority voting power under the pretext of nonracial factors, Shannon says his experience shows candidates can succeed regardless of how districts are drawn.

“When I was elected, I was 27 years old, to the Oklahoma House of Representatives, I was elected in a majority-white district. They elected me overwhelmingly. I was the first Republican to win my district,” Shannon said.

“And then when I got to the legislature, a predominantly white legislature elected me to be the leader of the Oklahoma State House of Representatives.”

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Shannon noted that he still believes racism exists in America, calling it “sin” that is tied to the human condition.

“The things that made this country great are three. I call them the three C’s. It’s capitalism, it’s the Constitution, and it’s Christianity. The way you fix racism is by having more believers exercising the freedom that exists within Jesus Christ. That’s the only way I know to fix racism,” Shannon said.

Two of the biggest names in the Republican Party are making stops the next few days in Iowa, a key 2026 midterm battleground state whose caucuses, for a half century, have kicked off the GOP’s presidential nominating calendar.

Vice President JD Vance and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas will have the midterms on their minds during their visits, which come with just over six months to go until this year’s elections, when Republicans will be defending their slim Senate and razor-thin House majorities.

But the moment the midterms are over, the next presidential race officially gets underway. So the trips by Vance and Cruz may also pay dividends if either move forward and launch 2028 White House runs in the race to succeed term-limited President Donald Trump.

With three competitive House seats as well as what are expected to be close Senate and gubernatorial showdowns, veteran Republican strategist David Kochel said “Iowa’s important.”

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“Because of how competitive Iowa looks to be right now… there’s going to be a lot of money coming in and a lot of attention paid and because it’s Iowa, I think we’ll have a pretty healthy parade of 2028 potentials coming through to try to do what they can to help in the midterms,” Kochel emphasized. “It’s the best excuse to come to Iowa and get to know people and get seen and road test some messaging.”

Cruz heads to Iowa on Friday, where he’ll deliver the keynote address at the Annual Spring Kickoff for the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, a very influential Iowa social conservative political advocacy group.

The title of the firebrand conservative senator’s speech is “Constitutional Courage — ‘Cruzing’ Toward Victory: A Roadmap for 2026.”

Cruz won the 2016 Iowa presidential caucuses, and was runner-up to Trump in that cycle’s combustible GOP presidential primaries. The senator took a hard look at making another run in the 2024 cycle before deciding to seek re-election to the Senate.

“There will be plenty of time to make those decisions. I don’t have an announcement for you today,” Cruz answered when asked by Fox News Digital recently if he was seriously considering another White House campaign.

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But he appears to be laying the groundwork for a possible bid, as he positions himself as a conservative alternative to Vance, who is currently the odds-on favorite to be Trump’s MAGA and America First heir.

Cruz has grabbed plenty of attention with his clashes with far-right figures, such as Tucker Carlson, and he’s enhanced his already strong standing among conservative leaders and donors. And he’s bolstered his grassroots outreach with his popular and widely downloaded podcast, ‘Verdict with Ted Cruz.’

Vance stops in Iowa on Tuesday, where he’ll appear with Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, who’s facing a tough re-election this year in a swing district in southwestern portion of the state.

The trip — Vance’s first as vice president to either Iowa or New Hampshire, which follows Iowa and holds the first presidential primary in the GOP’s nominating calendar — comes before what is widely expected to be a Vance 2028 campaign for the White House in the race to succeed his boss.

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“He’s going to get a lot exposure and TV coverage,” Kochel said of Vance.

Vance has demurred when questioned about 2028, labeling speculation as “premature” and “disloyal” to Trump. He has said he’s focused on his job as vice president and on helping Republicans defend their slim Senate and fragile House majorities in the midterms.

But Vance has built a political team of advisers who, if he runs as expected, would quickly build out a presidential campaign.

While Vance is the clear front-runner in the very early 2028 Republican presidential nomination polls, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has seen his support for a possible presidential bid soar this year, thanks to an increase in his responsibilities and public profile, most recently around the U.S. operation in Venezuela and the Iran war.

Rubio — who as a senator from Florida was part of the large field of GOP White House contenders who Trump defeated en route to winning the 2016 presidential election — finished a strong second to Vance last month in the 2028 Republican presidential nomination straw poll at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Partially fueling Rubio’s rise is Trump, who has lavishly praised his secretary of state.

The president recently declared that Rubio would go down as “the greatest secretary of state in history.”

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Trump has also promoted a Vance-Rubio ticket — calling it “unstoppable” a few months ago—but has not said who should be at the top of the ticket.

But the president did say last year that Vance is “most likely” his heir apparent. “In all fairness, he’s the vice president,” Trump added.

Rubio told Vanity Fair late last year, “If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him.”

Regardless, Republican sources earlier this year confirmed to Fox News that a group of GOP donors who support the secretary of state are quietly working on ways to boost Rubio’s political profile.

That’s not sitting well with some in the president’s political orbit.

“Vice President Vance is the future of the Republican Party and Marco Rubio is one of his closest friends in the administration,” an operative in Trump’s political orbit told Fox News.

“The divisive stories from some donors trying to cause chaos are not helpful,” the operative, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, emphasized.

Vance has also weighed in, telling Fox News’ Martha MacCallum in February that “Marco is my closest friend in the administration.”

And the vice president, in an interview on Fox News’ “The Story,” said, “I think it’s so interesting the media wants to create this conflict where there just isn’t any conflict.”

In addition to Vance, Cruz, and Rubio, political pundits consider a number of other well-known Republican politicians as possible 2028 presidential contenders.

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They are Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Sarah-Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Rick Scott of Florida.

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Also not to be ignored is Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a MAGA champion who’s running for governor this year.

Then there is Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s eldest son and MAGA warrior. However, the younger Trump is very close to Vance, which would likely prevent him from making any White House bid in the next cycle.

President Donald Trump has signed a bill to fully restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security, ending a record-setting 75-day lapse in funding for the critical agency tasked with protecting U.S. soil.

Trump signed the bill Thursday after the House of Representatives reached a bipartisan agreement to fund DHS. The House approved the Senate-passed spending measure by voice vote, covering most of the department’s appropriations through September.

Notably, however, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will remain unfunded under the current legislation.

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The vote came after the Senate’s DHS funding bill had stalled in the lower chamber for more than a month as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declined to put the bill on the floor over objections to language he said defunded law enforcement. The speaker’s opposition reflected the views of many in the Republican conference, who viewed the bill as a dead letter when the Senate passed it unanimously in March.

Johnson changed course this week after the White House appeared to side with the Senate and urged swift passage of the upper chamber’s bill. 

With more than 200,000 personnel, DHS is one of the largest government agencies under the executive branch. In addition to ICE and CBP, several of the nation’s most critical government agencies fall under DHS, including Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and others.

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At roughly 75 days, the DHS funding lapse was the longest recorded partial government shutdown in U.S. history.

In an internal memo sent to Hill offices and obtained by Fox News Digital, the White House warned it would not be able to pay employees starting in May if the House did not pass the Senate’s partial DHS bill. The administration since early April had been using existing funds to cover six weeks of back pay and a new pay period for DHS employees — but warned that money was quickly being depleted.

“If this funding is exhausted, the Administration will be unable to pay DHS personnel beginning in May, which will once again unleash havoc on air travel, leave critical law enforcement officers — including our brave Secret Service agents — and the Coast Guard without paychecks, and jeopardize national security,” the memo states.

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Republicans are in the beginning stages of writing a separate party-line package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But that legislation will not advance before lawmakers leave Washington for the upcoming recess period. 

Fox News Digital’s Adam Pack and Krista Garvin and Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.

A group of cultural and historic preservation groups on Wednesday called on a federal judge to block President Donald Trump from making major renovations to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which has undergone significant changes since the president returned to office last year.

The groups asked U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent any construction ahead of the scheduled July 6 project launch, saying they worry the president and the center’s board of trustees will ignore historic preservation rules that aim to maintain the building.

Attorney Greg Werkheiser said after the hearing that the laws that govern the process “go to the very fundamental question of: Do we slow down and take stock before we make changes to properties that define the American experience?”

Justice Department attorneys, representing the president and board, argued that the administration’s plans for the building are limited in scope and well within the authority of the board as they claimed extra approvals were not needed.

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After returning to the White House, Trump ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a handpicked board of allies who named him chairman, a move that sparked backlash from many artists. Trump’s name was also later added to the building’s facade so that it reads: “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Trump announced the scheduled renovations for the center earlier this year.

The hearing on Wednesday came after a separate one the day before regarding the future of the center.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, has also filed a lawsuit to stop renovations as an ex officio member of the board, and Cooper is also overseeing that case.

The center’s executive director, Matt Floca, a former facilities manager who was bumped up to the Trump-selected board, testified that the scheduled renovations are simply to repair decades of wear and tear, including extensive water damage to a part of the building that was nicknamed “the swamp.”

“The most efficient and effective way to complete the magnitude of projects we need to complete is to close the center,” Floca said.

Attorneys for the preservation groups questioned claims about the limited scope of the project, citing Trump’s statements that he would “fully expose” the building’s steel skeleton.

Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth said those concerns have been blown out of proportion.

“There’s no risk that there will be unilateral changes … that we’ll wake up and the building will be gone,” Roth said.

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The lawsuits regarding the Kennedy Center’s fate come amid other fights against Trump’s efforts to change historical landmarks in the nation’s capital.

Since he returned to office last year, Trump has frustrated preservationists, including by paving over the White House’s Rose Garden. Last year, the White House tore down its East Wing to make room for the president’s proposed $400 million ballroom, although construction of the ballroom has been halted by a judge as litigation continues.

Trump also has plans to erect a 250-foot “triumphal arch” to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter sent an email to donors that included the phrase “F*** Trump” four times — once even in the subject line — just a day after the most recent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday.

The “F*** Trump” email from Porter’s campaign is the latest controversy to trouble Porter, who has previously been scrutinized for shouting and using expletives on camera at a staffer and for threatening to quit an interview with a journalist. Her behavior has raised questions in California and across the country about whether she is fit to run the state.

Republican National Committee spokesman Nick Poche said Porter’s “F*** Trump” email show’s she’s not fit to be governor.

“Katie Porter is a degenerate loser who is sick in the head, and it’s telling that failing Democrat candidates think their path to victory is to fan the flames of violence right after an assassination attempt,” Poche said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The Democrat Party has completely lost its mind, and anyone who refuses to condemn Porter’s remarks is just as responsible for the rise in left-wing political violence as Porter is.”

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Porter’s email sent out Sunday made no mention of the third assassination attempt on Trump’s life that occurred just the day prior.

“Today, I wanna start with one simple, powerful message we all agree on,” the email stated. :Say it with me. Ready, 1 … 2 … 3 … F*** Trump.”

“Yeah, that’s right, F*** Trump,” the email continued. “Together, we’re going to kick Trump’s a** in November and stop him in his tracks.”

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Writer and X influencer Bethany Mandel shared with Fox News Digital the email sent by Porter’s campaign.

“Imagine Barack Obama surviving three assassination attempts and 18 hours later, a Republican sent a fundraising email like this,” Mandel posted on X.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Porter’s campaign for comment.

The latest assassination attempt on Trump’s life comes as political rhetoric and tensions between Democrats and Republicans have reached a boiling point. Just days before the assassination attempt, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Democrats are in an “era of maximum warfare.” Even in the wake of the assassination attempt and GOP condemnation, Jeffries is not backing down from his comments.

A Pennsylvania hearing on transgender sports legislation erupted in chaos Monday, as Republicans accused Democrats of trying to sidestep votes on two related bills.

Pennsylvania became a focal point of the transgender sports debate in 2022, as UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas competed against female athletes including the University of Kentucky’s Riley Gaines. Since then, conservatives have sought to codify the separation of biological sexes in scholastic sports and public restrooms nationwide.

The top Republican on the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee told Fox News Digital that the scene captured on official video showed the Democratic chairman trying to “re-refer” two bills to the House Health Committee without fully explaining which bills he was citing.

Ranking member Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Chambersburg, said that Republicans ultimately determined the two bills focused on separating scholastic athletes by biological sex and that Democrats resisted any debate before sending them to another committee to restart the process.

GOP LAWMAKERS, RILEY GAINES SLAM DEMOCRATS FOR VOTING AGAINST PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SPORTS ACT

“It’s fascinating. But the key is, in the legislative process, whether it be on the House floor or in any committee meeting, they’ll say the number of the bill and then they’ll give a title or brief description of the bill before anyone votes on it. You don’t just call up a bill by number,” Kauffman told Fox News Digital in a Tuesday interview.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Timothy Briggs was doing just that in a Monday hearing, Kauffman said.

Briggs, D-King of Prussia, sought to move two bills out of the committee quickly, announcing that all Democrats would vote to re-refer them while identifying the measures only by bill number.

Republicans said they were unaware of the bills’ contents because their titles were not read as Briggs tried to re-refer them to the House Health Committee.

Briggs asked the clerk to call the roll for the “sole purpose of referring [them] to the Health Committee” and added that “all Democrats will be voting ‘Yes’.”

“Could we kinda know what the bills are?” interjected Kauffman, before someone in the gallery called out that they were related to transgender athletes in children’s sports.

HB 158 is the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act from Rep. Barb Gleim, R-Mechanicsburg, and HB 1849 is the related Dads Defending Daughters Act by Rep. Clint Owlett, R-Tioga.

Briggs sighed and began to speak before Kauffman continued.

“We can’t vote on a re-referral when we don’t even know what the title of the bill is. Obviously, you don’t want us to know what the title of the bill is,” he said, chuckling as Briggs cut in that the committee is “running out of time.”

Kauffman quipped that if he ever pulled such a move as chairman, Briggs’ caucus would have “lost your mind.”

DEMOCRATS HAVE LOST THEIR WAY ON WOMEN’S SPORTS – AND HERE’S THE POLITICAL PRICE THEY’LL PAY

After another pointed exchange between Briggs and Kauffman, the Democrat ordered the clerk to call the roll on the bills and then claimed aloud that some Republicans were refusing to vote.

One of those named, Rep. Stephanie Borowicz of Lock Haven, objected after learning the bills’ true identities:

“Now you’re deciding how we’re voting?” said Borowicz, who co-sponsored Gleim’s bill.

“We might as well be better off in the Russian Duma at this point,” Kauffman added as Briggs plowed through their objections and tried to move past the two bills.

The blow-up showed that Democrats are “petrified of this issue [so much] that they broke legislative protocol, parliamentary norms and everything I’ve learned in this legislature in 20 years,” Kauffman told Fox News Digital.

He said that if the bills were moved to another committee without first being voted out of his own, the parliamentary “clock” would restart and Democrats could continue moving the measures through committee without taking a direct vote on the underlying transgender sports issue.

Kauffman said the kerfuffle was indicative of the national debate over transgender sports, calling it an “80-90%” issue in favor of separating youth athletes by sex.

ILLINOIS SCHOOL BOARD MEETING MADNESS CONTINUES AS TENSIONS ESCALATE OVER TRANS ATHLETES IN GIRLS’ SPORTS

Kauffman added that Democrats will eventually have to confront the issue because the state Senate is advancing its own transgender sports bill, which will be taken up by the House.

“It’s a mom and dad issue. It’s a biological fact issue. So we’re going to keep at it,” he said, adding that critics are “cater[ing] to the far-progressive fringe” of their party and “generally don’t care what the people want.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to Briggs for a response to the situation.

A representative for the King of Prussia Democrat said he was “regrettably unavailable” for comment.

The clash came just weeks after a Republican lawmaker’s attempt to define “woman” in a Women’s Month resolution led Democrats to pull the commemoration.

Fox News Digital’s Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.

As Democrats and Republicans clash over escalating political rhetoric in the wake of Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., is urging leaders on both sides to “bring the temperature down.”

The call for cooler rhetoric comes after Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., allegedly stormed the lobby of the Washington Hilton hotel during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and opened fire.

“It’s an opportunity, in my opinion, for everyone to bring the temperature down,” Moskowitz told Fox News Digital. “If we do the finger pointing, then the temperature’s never going to come down…We’re like high schoolers.”

Allen, who was armed with a shotgun, handgun and knives, was apprehended by the Secret Service as hundreds of journalists and Cabinet officials were escorted out of the hotel.

DEMOCRATS SILENT ON PAST RHETORIC TOWARD TRUMP CABINET MEMBER AFTER FOILED ASSASSINATION PLOT

“The rhetoric on both sides, for a while now, has been elevated, and listen, the president has had a part of that,” Moskowitz said. “He’s had responsibility in the rhetoric, and he should own that. His tweets exist. There’s a reality of that.”

Allen, who appeared in federal court Monday, is facing charges of attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, transporting a firearm across state lines and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

Authorities said the suspect sent a written manifesto to members of his family outlining his intent to target Trump and other Cabinet officials before the alleged shooting.

DEM SENATE HOPEFULS UNDER SCRUTINY FOR ‘CHOKE THEM OUT’ RHETORIC AFTER TRUMP ATTACK SCARE

“The manifesto doesn’t sound much different than all of the talking heads on every liberal news station,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said.

This would mark another assassination attempt targeting President Trump after two in 2024, when he was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., and later targeted at his Florida golf course.

“You got psycho-frickin’ leftists trying to assassinate President Trump once again… the violence is always on their side,” Boebert said. “It is disgusting, and it needs to end, period.”

She said that President Trump’s plan for a ballroom addition to the White House is a necessary security measure.

“I want the ballroom built,” she said. “This is a national security issue at this time, and it needs to be built.”

She added these incidents are part of a larger pattern. In September, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University as part of his “American Comeback Tour.”

“Look what they did to Charlie Kirk, a man that wanted to sit down and have a conversation,” Boebert said. “They hated him so much, their rhetoric caused him to be assassinated. One of their liberal freaks assassinated him. This only happens with liberals,” Boebert said.

In a news conference on Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters a “left-wing cult of hatred” was to blame for the violence.

PATTERN OF LEFTIST VIOLENCE GROWS AS TRUMP NEARS 10 MONTHS IN OFFICE

Leavitt slammed ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for his recent comment that the first lady had the “glow of an expectant widow.”

“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” she said. “And having experienced what I did with the first lady on Saturday night, I can tell you she was anything but that.”

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Multiple Democrats have also rejected far-left streamer Hasan Piker amid scrutiny of his political rhetoric. Piker pushed back, calling those condemning him “propagandists for the state of Israel.”

“I do reject people on my side, or trying to be on my side, like Hasan Piker, who’s advocating for senators to be killed and saying things like, ‘we deserve 9/11.’ He’s not a Democrat. He doesn’t belong in the Democratic Party,” Moskowitz said.

However, he said Americans “don’t believe” either side is blameless.

“The American people don’t believe that and it’s why our poll numbers for both sides are in the tubes,” Moskowitz said.

Fox News Digital attempted to ask Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., about the shooting and rising political violence, but she ignored the questions.

The motive for the shooting remains under investigation.