Politics

NBC News reports: Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey, in the first of several campaign stops to boost Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Thursday, told the cheering crowd that they are poised “on the precipice of a historic election.” “I want to tell you…no one paid for me to come here. No one asked me to come here,” Winfrey …

San Diego’s ABC affiliate reports: Rep. Duncan Hunter’s lead over Democratic challenger Ammar Campa-Najjar in the 50th Congressional District race has shrunk to just three percentage points, according to a new poll released one week before Election Day. In the latest 10News/San Diego Union-Tribune poll, conducted by SurveyUSA, 48 percent of likely voters in the 50th District said they would …

The New York Times reports: Plans for the final debate of Georgia’s raucous race for governor collapsed on Wednesday after the Republican nominee, Brian Kemp, abandoned the forum’s long-scheduled timing so he could campaign alongside President Trump this weekend. Mr. Kemp had been expected to meet Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate, in a Sunday evening debate that was announced in …

The Washington Post reports: U.S. archivists on Wednesday revealed one of the last great secrets of the Watergate investigation — the backbone of a long-sealed report used by special prosecutor Leon Jaworski to send Congress evidence in the legal case against President Richard M. Nixon. The release of the referral — delivered in 1974 as impeachment proceedings were being weighed …

As usual, Ted Cruz thinks he’s a comedian: Incumbent Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) tweeted a letter from the Zodiac killer in an apparent Halloween joke Wednesday. The once-popular meme that Cruz is the Zodiac killer emerged during the 2016 national election. Five people in Northern California were killed by the Zodiac killer, who was never identified, in the late …

The Portland Press Herald reports: A new poll shows Democrat Janet Mills with an 8-point advantage over Republican Shawn Moody in Maine’s gubernatorial race. The Emerson College poll of nearly 900 registered Maine voters found that Mills, the state’s attorney general, was the top choice for 49.7 percent of respondents while 41.7 percent chose Moody, a business owner. Moody’s political …

The Texas Tribune reports: Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz leads challenger U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, by 3.6 percentage points among likely voters in a new University of Texas at Tyler poll released Wednesday. According to the poll, which is the first one released by the university, 47 percent of the 905 likely voters surveyed online and on the …

NBC News reports: The “Messianic rabbi” who outraged many Jews by invoking the name of Jesus while delivering a prayer in memory of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre victims was also spurned Tuesday by the organization that ordained him. Loren Jacobs, who was invited onstage by Vice President Mike Pence to speak at a rally in Michigan for a GOP congressional …

Buzzfeed News reports: Oprah Winfrey, the Oscar-nominated, self-made billionaire and media icon, is heading to Georgia to campaign for Stacey Abrams. The star will join Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor, on Thursday. If Abrams wins the race, she will be the first black woman governor in the history of the US. Big names in Democratic politics are also rallying …

Axios reports: The national director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, urged House Speaker Paul Ryan in a letter on Tuesday to take action against Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) by stripping him of his subcommittee chairmanship and initiating censure proceedings for King’s “anti-Semitic and offensive” actions. Reuters reports: Agricultural dairy cooperative Land O’Lakes pulled its support on Tuesday …

The Huffington Post reports: On Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Late Show,” Pelosi boldly predicted Democrats would win big in November’s midterm elections. “Let me say this: Up until today, I would have said if the election were held today, we will win,” Pelosi told Colbert. “Now I’m saying is, we will win, we will win, we will win,” she added. …

TMZ reports: Kanye West says he’s been used by people to spread political messages and he’s now done with it. Kanye just fired off a series of tweets apparently distancing himself from Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. He said, “My eyes are now wide open and now realize I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in. I …

The Kansas City Star reports: Emily West has a message for voters in Missouri House District 15. Don’t vote for her dad. “I can’t imagine him being in any level of government,” she told The Star on Monday. Her dad is Steve West, 64, the Republican candidate for the Missouri General Assembly who made headlines after winning the GOP primary …

CNN reports: Local and national officials are declining to appear with President Donald Trump on Tuesday as he visits a grieving Pittsburgh, where funerals for slain congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue were beginning. Trump, accompanied by the First Lady and prominent Jewish members of his administration — including daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin …

Splinter reports: Iowa Representative Steve King, last seen blundering into the truth that his version of the Republican Party looks a whole lot like neo-Nazis, may also now have to worry about his chances of reelection in November. According to a new poll by Change Research, King’s challenger J.D. Scholten is only one point away from King in Iowa’s Fourth …

The Birmingham Herald reports: A Methodist pastor from Massachusetts was escorted out of the room today after interrupting Attorney General Jeff Sessions to question the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Sessions was speaking at the Boston Lawyers chapter of the Federalist Society when a man, later identified as United Methodist Pastor Will Green of Ballard Vale United Church in Andover, Mass., …

Reuters reports: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Monday that Ecuador is seeking to end his asylum in its London embassy and hand him over to the United States, citing new rules governing his residence at the Andean nation’s diplomatic mission as evidence. Assange spoke from the embassy via teleconference at the first hearing in Quito of his lawsuit challenging …

Quinnipiac Polling reports:  Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz clings to a narrow 51 – 46 percent likely voter lead over U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic challenger in the Texas Senate race, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released today. This compares to a 54 – 45 percent Cruz likely voter lead in an October 11 survey. Today, O’Rourke …

Millions of copies of Welcome To The Jungle will soon be burned in a red state near you: Axl Rose continued his recent spate of political tweets when he called on his 1.2 million followers to “Vote Blue … Bitches!” in the midterm elections on Nov. 6. He posted a picture of a vote-by-mail envelope along with his Democrat-endorsing message …

Politico reports: Tallahassee Mayor and Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum hit back at President Donald Trump on Monday, after Trump called Gillum a “thief” in an inflammatory tweet. Soon after, Gillum called out Trump on Twitter. The race for Florida’s governor is one of several nationally watched elections this November. Gillum is the first black nominee from any major party …