National
Republicans from the U.S. House delegation from Minnesota continue to call on Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) to resign.
“If you come to this country and you defraud Americans and Minnesotans because they’re generous and you refuse to assimilate, you should get the hell out of here, you should go home,” said Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R, MN-06) in a statement on Friday evening, joined by two other House members. “I’m going to be Minnesota real. Tim Walz should resign, and if he doesn’t resign, he’s probably going to leave the office in cuffs.”
Minneapolis continues to grapple with demonstrations after the shooting of Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday morning.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bodycam footage, as well as footage from multiple angles, are now showing that Good was intent on instigating with the ICE agents before driving into one of the officers, Jonathan Ross, and down the street. Good was shot as she was colliding with the officer, who was not seriously injured, and pronounced dead at the scene.
Ross said that only six months prior, he had been dragged about 100 yards by a driver during an operation in Minneapolis.
A similar incident of alleged vehicle weaponization occurred in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday. A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent shot and injured two people. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleges that the shooting occurred at a “targeted” traffic stop on a vehicle suspected to be carrying two members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
“When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents,” DHS said in a statement, adding fear for their own safety prompted them to open fire.
The two alleged gang affiliates are hospitalized but in stable condition.
More news continues to come out about the United States’ raid on Caracas, Venezuela, that led to the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro. According to a surviving Venezuelan guard, drones and helicopters descended on the compound, with American forces wiping out hundreds of Venezuelan fighters without a single casualty.
“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it,” the guard said. “It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose,” he said. “Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (R-NH) shared the post of the guard’s account, effectively verifying the information.
In electoral news, Democrats just landed a top recruit in the 2026 Senate race in the Last Frontier.
Former Congresswoman Mary Peltola (D-AK) has thrown her hat into the ring for Alaska’s Senate race this year. The move makes for a potentially more competitive race in a long-time red state that has been trending blue during the Trump Era.
Peltola won the special election for Alaska’s at-large House seat in 2022, ending a fifty-plus-year streak of GOP control, largely in part to ranked-choice voting. Peltola won a full term in 2022, but narrowly lost re-election in 2024.
Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) ousted Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) in the 2014 midterms, securing a decisive re-election in 2020. Sullivan faces nominal primary opposition, while Peltola is set to be the heavyweight in the small Democratic field that’s formed as of press time.
Alaska has a reputation as one of the most reliably red states in the country. Since it’s been voting in presidential elections in 1960, it’s only backed the Democratic nominee once: Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) in 1964. Since then, Alaska has only had four Senators of the Democratic Party. George W. Bush (R-TX) eclipsed 61% of the vote in 2004. On the other hand, Donald Trump (R-FL) never got north of 55% in all three of his presidential runs. This, combined with Peltola’s ability to win statewide recently, makes Alaska a possible sleeper target for Democrats’ quest to take back control of the Senate this November.
Alaska started the century as one of the most obdurately Republican states.
In other political news, Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D, CA-26) is retiring. The Los Angeles Democrat first flipped her seat blue in 2012, continuing her re-election wins in what was once a prime, exurban Los Angeles swing seat that includes Thousand Oaks, Ventura, and Simi Valley.
The seat has re-entered the competitive fray in recent cycles, although only prohibitively so. The district was last decided by a single-digit margin in 2022. California’s gerrymander under Proposition 50 changes the calculus of the seat, albeit slightly. It sheds some of its redder portions to shore up a Republican seat in Orange County in exchange for some blue northern pockets. The GOP might be inclined to keep the seat at the edge of the competitive table, but Brownley’s retirement could make for a development.
State
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-Astoria) continues to face backlash for his pick to lead housing reform in the Big Apple and faces legal setbacks in his ambitious overhaul of the problem.
The Mamdani Administration has sought to slow the sale of thousands of rent-controlled apartments. Tenants have complained that the owner, Pinnacle Group, had not maintained the properties and suspected that the likely buyer, Summit Properties USA, would not make a difference. The Mamdani Administration had hoped to intervene, as Pinnacle owes New York City over $12 million in unpaid fines, as found by Gothamist.
Bankruptcy Judge David Jones shut down Mamdani’s attempt.
Mamdani also continues to face heat over his pick for Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, Cea Weaver. Weaver, a steering committee member of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has received backlash for her past comments on housing. In 2017, she advocated for voters to “elect more Communists”, and in 2018, she wrote on social media that the government has a “sacred right to seize private property” and labeled homeownership as “racist”.
She also argued that “homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”
Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn) countered her arguments, writing on X, “Homeownership is how immigrants, Black, Brown, and working-class New Yorkers built stability and generational wealth despite every obstacle. You have to be completely out of your f****ing mind to call that ‘white supremacy.’”
Weaver later called her comments “regretful” and “not something I would say today”, upon her ascension to Mamdani’s administration. Moreover, she had been nominated in 2021 to the City Planning Commission. However, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (D) withdrew her nomination due to her past social media controversies.
Local
Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) has introduced the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) Athletics Act to “modernize and strengthen athletic programs” at the Kings Point facility to “ensure the academy can operate on equal footing with other federal service academies.”
USMMA currently fields seventeen NCAA Division III varsity teams for midshipmen, but its federal status limits its ability to receive NCAA funding, charge for tickets, or enter into “standard athletic and licensing agreements.” Garbarino’s bill, H.R.6961, would create a nonprofit organization to support such athletics, “bringing the Academy in line with institutions such as the Military Academy, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy.”
“The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is a critical national asset, and its midshipmen serve our country both in uniform and on the field,” said Garbarino in a statement. “This bill gives the Academy the tools it needs to fully support its student-athletes and help ensure USMMA remains strong for generations to come.”
Captain James F. Tobin, President and CEO of the USMMA Alumni Association and Foundation, Inc., praised the initiative.
“This investment in core infrastructure is the single most important priority for the Academy’s long-term future. The Alumni Association and Foundation have a long history of supporting midshipmen athletics and would welcome any additional funding streams that may result from this legislation,” said Tobin in a statement. “We appreciate Rep. Andrew Garbarino’s continued leadership and advocacy on behalf of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and its Midshipmen. He has been a steadfast champion for USMMA, and we are grateful for his consistent dedication to the Academy and its mission. We especially commend his strong support for the Campus Modernization Plan, which is essential to revitalizing the Academy’s 80-year-old infrastructure and ensuring USMMA can continue to train the merchant mariners and US Navy Strategic Sealift Officers our nation depends on.”
