Senate IVF bill fails again to advance on mostly party line vote

(GREENBELT, Md.) — As Democrats in Maryland tell it, the state’s key Senate race isn’t about any particular person — even the candidates themselves.

On the campaign trail, you’ll hear Democrats vying to keep an open Senate seat blue knock former Gov. Larry Hogan, the GOP nominee. But you’ll also hear lamentations about Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, firebrands who are primed for committee chairmanships in a potential Republican-controlled Senate.

In paid television ads, you’ll see videos painting Hogan as a partisan, not the moderate he cast himself as during two terms in Annapolis. But you’ll also see attacks on outgoing Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, a vaunted political knife fighter and self-proclaimed “grim reaper” of liberal legislation.

That duality is a core feature of the campaign for Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee and Prince George’s County executive — as much as she’s talking about her opponent, she’s also sounding the alarm about a Senate she’s hoping to join.

There are few motivators in politics as potent as fear and anger. But Alsobrooks is at a disadvantage in that regard — Hogan left office in 2023 as a popular two-term governor with a reputation as a pragmatist before running for a Senate seat in a year when any race can determine the chamber’s majority.

And while Alsobrooks and her allies are still casting Hogan as a Republican whose values are misaligned with deep-blue Maryland, particularly on abortion, they’re also diverting some of their fire at prominent Senate Republicans and what they could do with committee gavels.

“Marylanders are very savvy. They understand that this race is about the 51st vote and about control of the Senate. It is bigger than Larry Hogan. It’s actually bigger than me,” Alsobrooks told ABC News Monday at an annual community barbecue her family hosts in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It is much bigger than any one person. It is about the future of our state and of our country and the kind of country that we want to build for our children.”

The Senate race is tight, especially by Maryland’s standards.

The 538 polling average shows Alsobrooks up by nearly 6 points in a state where Democratic presidential candidates typically romp by at least 25, a difference universally attributed to Hogan’s entry into the race.

Hogan has continued to reinforce his reputation as a moderate, saying he’d vote to restore abortion protections that existed under Roe v. Wade and serve as a check on the GOP’s more hard-line impulses. However, he has still said that as a lifelong Republican, he’d caucus with the GOP in the chamber, and Alsobrooks has made hay of his past record, including vetoing state legislation to expand abortion protections.

Still, the need to tie Hogan to bogeymen like Cruz, Graham and McConnell was underscored Monday, when conversations with nearly a dozen of Alsobrooks’ most vocal supporters revealed little negative to say about the former governor, but a greater eye on the levers of power in Washington.

“I guess he’s OK. He hasn’t really done a bad job since he’s been here in Maryland, but I think it’s time for a fresh face,” said Bertley Thomas, a retired teacher, about Hogan. “I am a lifelong Democrat, and so is Angela. Hogan happens to be a Republican, it doesn’t mean I don’t like him any less. However, I think we would like to see the Democrats control the Senate.”

Waymon Lynch, a small business owner, said she voted for Hogan twice, but praised Alsobrooks’ record as a local politician.

“He’s definitely not the Trump wing of the party, no, not at all. That’s not his history,” Lynch said of Hogan. “And if it were someone other than Angela running against Mr. Hogan, I might consider him. But in this particular case, it goes a little bit further than that.”

That’s not to say voters aren’t also considering the issues and where Hogan stands.

“I was really kind of concerned when all of a sudden he came out to run against her. I just feel that Democrats serve me and my needs, and I am for women’s rights,” said Valerie Callender, a dermatologist. “I know Angela is going to fight. She’s a mother, and she believes in women’s rights. And to take total control of their body, as a physician, I feel that’s very important.”

Nevertheless, the race’s dynamics have left Alsobrooks with limited ability to run against her actual opponent, instead making future colleagues of the very chamber she hopes to join top antagonists in the race.

“Angela Alsobrooks is playing the best card she has to play. She is never going to win a contest of personality or popularity with former Gov. Hogan. He is just far too known and too well liked for her to change public opinion on that front. So, she has to run exclusively on the notion that, regardless of how one feels about Gov. Hogan personally, he can and would be the deciding vote in favor of tipping the Senate over to Republicans,” said Maryland Democratic strategist Len Foxwell.

The argument requires voters to generalize the importance of the race beyond their state’s borders, but Democrats are betting that Marylanders — living in proximity to Washington and many working for the federal government — are more attuned than the average voter on the current 51-49 Senate majority and the importance of chamber control.

“The beauty of it is that the voters we’re talking about are voters in Maryland, and this is about one of the most savvy electorates that you can find, not just in the Washington suburbs, but throughout the state,” said Maryland Democratic Party Chair Ken Ulman. “We know what this is about.”

At the same time, Alsobrooks has work to do to define herself more concretely outside of her powerbase in Prince George’s County, particularly in the vote-rich areas in and around Baltimore.

Alsobrooks is working to boost her own policy bona fides with a new ad out Wednesday, noting the threat of GOP Senate control but adding what she would “also” do as Maryland’s senator, including taking on “price gouging” and standing “up for a woman’s right to choose.”

Hogan and his allies are trying to do the same, with a well-heeled supportive super PAC releasing an ad Wednesday hitting her over a CNN story alleging she improperly took tax deductions on properties in Maryland and Washington.

“Raising her name ID, especially in the Baltimore suburbs, is really important. When you see the polling, you still see Hogan has pretty universal name ID. We’ve got room to grow her ID,” Ulman said.

To be certain, Alsobrooks is still viewed as having an advantage.

Vice President Kamala Harris is anticipated to win Maryland, one of the nation’s bluest states, by as many as 30 points, possibly creating tailwinds long enough to carry Alsobrooks over the finish line and forcing Hogan to lean on a potentially unrealistic number of ticket splitters, voters who support one party for president and another in down-ballot races.

“If Larry Hogan doesn’t win this race, from what I’ve seen thus far, it has very little to do with whatever Angela Alsobrooks is doing,” Doug Mayer, a former Hogan aide. “If Larry Hogan doesn’t win this, it’s just because it’s extremely difficult to have a million switch voters. If anyone can do it, it’s him.

And while operatives of all stripes agreed that Hogan is the only person who could make the race competitive, Democrats’ emphasis on the threat of Republicans who Marylanders are less familiar with and more aligned with former President Donald Trump could help Alsobrooks lean into her state’s existing partisan advantage, experts said.

“With the base energized in a presidential year, I find it implausible to think that there will be enough ticket splitters, and we’re reminding people every day what the stakes are,” said Ulman, who was the Democratic lieutenant governor nominee in 2014 when Hogan won his first term. “Nobody will take the former governor more seriously than me, having seen his success in the past, but it just makes the math very, very hard in a presidential year.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and painted a picture of an “absolutely obliterated” Ukraine as the foreign leader is in the U.S. to present what he calls his “victory plan” to 2024 candidates and President Joe Biden.

At a campaign event in North Carolina, Trump went after Zelenskyy for “making little nasty aspersions” toward him.

While Trump didn’t elaborate on what the comments were, Zelenskyy was recently critical of Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, in an interview with The New Yorker.

Zelenskyy expressed doubt Trump knew how to end the Russia-Ukraine war despite Trump’s assertions, without detail or specifics, that the war never would have happened if he were president and he could end it on the first day of his new administration.

“My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how,” Zelenskyy told the magazine. “With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand. I’ve seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it’s not that simple.”

Zelenskyy also called Vance “too radical” over his position that Ukraine will likely have to cede territory taken by Russia. Zelenskyy said the senator’s “message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice.”

Trump, in his freewheeling stump speech on Wednesday, claimed Ukraine is “obliterated” with towns and cities gone that can “never be duplicated.” He said “millions and millions” were dead and accused Ukraine of “using young children and old men” as its military experiences a shortage of soldiers.

Trump continued to call Zelenskyy the “greatest salesman on Earth” amid his apparent criticism of the amount of aid the U.S. has given to Ukraine to help the nation fight President Vladimir Putin’s forces, and how Zelenskyy has used the aid.

“Those buildings are down. Those cities are gone. They’re gone. And we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal,” Trump said.

A day prior, at a campaign event in Georgia, Trump expressed little confidence Ukraine could win while praising Russia’s military capabilities.

“But we’re stuck in that war unless I’m president. I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated. I’ll get out. We got to get out. Biden says we will not leave until we win. What happens if they win? That’s what they do, is they fight wars. As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler. They beat Napoleon. That’s what they do.”

Zelenskyy will hold meetings with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday to present what his “victory plan.” The proposal includes specific figures and amounts of military assistance that he says Ukraine needs to force Russia to stop the war, as well as a list of certain diplomatic and political steps, a source close to Zelenskyy told ABC News.

Trump said last week that he would “probably” be meeting with Zelenskyy but now is not expected to meet with him while he is here in the U.S. this week, sources said, saying Trump’s plans were never firm.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, the top Republican on Capitol Hill, also won’t meet with Zelenskyy, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday after a meeting had been previously announced. Johnson, who has a mixed record on Ukraine aid, has recently taken issue with Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova organizing a tour for Zelenskyy of an American munitions manufacturing plant in election battleground Pennsylvania.

Vance on Wednesday, during a call with reporters hosted by the Republican National Committee, was asked if he sees an opportunity to discuss with Zelenskyy how a Trump-Vance administration would approach the conflict and if he believed Ukraine should cede land in exchange for the war to end.

Vance said “everything’s going to be on the table” in negotiating an end to the war and that “the biggest problem here is that this war has distracted and consumed a lot of resources at a time when Americans are suffering.”

“I think that the president has said very clearly that, first of all, Russia would have never invaded Ukraine if he had been president, and he’s gonna negotiate an end to the conflict,” he said.

While Trump and Vance voiced skepticism of how much further assistance should be given to Ukraine, President Biden, in his final address at the United Nations General Assembly, urged world leaders not to relent on the issue.

“The world now has another choice to make: Will we sustain our support to help Ukraine win this war and preserve its freedom, or walk away, let aggression be renewed and a nation be destroyed? I know my answer,” Biden said. “We cannot grow weary. We cannot look away and we will not let up on our support for not Ukraine.”

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Hannah Demissie and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is joining Georgia Democrats’ efforts against the Republican-controlled Georgia state election board after it implemented a series of changes to give local officials more powers, which Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said would cause “11th-hour chaos” due to concerns about delays in certification.

The Democratic Party of Georgia, the Democratic National Committee and the Harris-Walz campaign are asking a state court to intervene, alleging the state election board created an “uncertain legal regime” due to the changes.

“Indeed, county officials across Georgia have already sought to block or delay certification after recent elections, and the amended rules give them new tools to try again,” the petitioners wrote in their suit.

The petitioners are asking the court to make election certification mandatory by 5 p.m. on Nov. 12, “absent a valid judicial order to the contrary,” to ensure certification isn’t delayed by what they call rogue officials. It also asks the court to clearly state that it is the venue for resolving election disputes and not local election boards.

The Republican-controlled election board passed a rule earlier this month authorizing local boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certification.

Advocates of the rule change say it will bring more transparency to the election process; but critics say because there is not a clear definition of “reasonable inquiry,” local officials could make their own interpretation that could potentially postpone or prevent results from being certified due to challenges — especially as former President Donald Trump continues to push unfounded claims of potential election fraud in the upcoming election.

Then, in its most recent meeting, the board passed a rule requiring investigations into ballot discrepancies before county certification, instructing local election board members to “compare the total number of ballots cast to the total number of unique voter ID numbers” in each precinct.

Should there be a discrepancy between the number of ballots cast and the number of unique voters, local board members are now in charge of investigating them. While the investigation is ongoing, “no votes shall be counted from that precinct” until the results are presented to the board.

“For months, MAGA Republicans in Georgia and across the country have been trying to lay the groundwork to challenge the election results when they lose again in November,” said Quentin Fulks, Harris-Walz principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks in a statement about the lawsuit. “But Democrats are prepared, and we will stop them. Certifying an election is not a choice, it’s the law. A few unelected extremists can’t just decide not to count your vote.”

The Georgia Republican Party defended the board’s changes and slammed state Democrats’ actions, calling their rhetoric “dangerous.”

“In no way, do these rule changes interfere with anyone’s right to vote or cause undue burdens on election workers, but these steps will ensure transparency, accountability, accurate reporting and reconciliation, and preservation of the right for both parties to observe the processing of ballots,” Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon wrote in a statement.

Other Republicans in the state have also raised concerns about the new election changes. Raffensperger has been attempting to quell concerns about the rule change, doubling down on Georgia’s certification deadline.

“Georgia’s Election Integrity Act requires counties to certify the election results by November 12th and we fully anticipate that counties will follow the law,” Raffensperger posted on X.

At the same time, he has also advocated against the last-minute changes by arguing about the strength of Georgia’s election integrity laws, which were passed after the 2020 election.

“Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers,” Raffensperger said.

“The General Assembly knew that quick reporting of results and certification is paramount to voter confidence and passed S.B. 202, but misguided attempts by the State Election Board will delay election results and undermine chain of custody safeguards. Georgia voters reject this 11th hour chaos, and so should the unelected members of the State Election Board,” he said.

The three Republican board members — Janelle King, Rick Jeffares and Janice Johnston — have been pivotal in securing the election changes as they comprise a majority voting bloc on the five-person board. At his most recent rally in Atlanta, Trump called the three members “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”

The former president has zeroed in on Georgia’s election process after narrowly losing the state to President Joe Biden in 2020.

It was a loss that Trump attempted to overturn by pressuring Republican officials, such as Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, to persuade the state legislature to overturn the state’s results.

Those actions were the center of a sweeping racketeering indictment in Fulton County, which charged Trump and 18 others for the alleged plot to subvert the will of Georgia voters.

Three defendants in that case, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall, took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify in the case.

Last month, however, the Georgia Court of Appeals halted the criminal case pending resolution of an appeal of a disqualification ruling that allowed District Attorney Fani Willis to stay on the case.

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