David Crowley Wins Wisconsin Gubernatorial Primary
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley won Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday, edging out state Assemblymember Francesca Hong by a narrow margin, with about 39% of the vote and roughly 1,200 votes over Hong. A win in November would make Crowley Wisconsin’s first Black governor.
Deep Dive: Crowley, a moderate Democrat, reentered the race after securing Gov. Tony Evers’s endorsement, having dropped out roughly a month earlier and re-entered days later. He will face Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump, in the November general election. The winner will take over Wisconsin’s governorship in a top battleground state, where each of the last three open-seat gubernatorial races has flipped party control. Crowley became the 7th and current county executive of Milwaukee County in 2020, making him the first African American to hold Milwaukee County’s top office and, at 33, its youngest.
Federal Courts Order Trump Administration to Release Billions in Climate Justice Grants
Federal courts have ruled the Trump administration cannot cancel more than $22 billion in Biden-era climate grants, dealing a blow to efforts to dismantle environmental justice programs. U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel ruled Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency must reinstate $1.6 billion in grants, finding the agency failed to show it would be harmed by returning the money, while blocking the funds would harm grant recipients. A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia separately restored an injunction against EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s move to claw back billions in Biden-era grants aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Why It Matters: The case tied to Gergel’s ruling was brought by 11 nonprofits and six cities, including Madison, Wisconsin, who argued the administration unlawfully terminated their environmental and climate justice grants. Congress had allocated nearly $3 billion to the EPA’s Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program under the Inflation Reduction Act. The Associated Press has estimated that EPA programs and rules targeted for cuts were projected to prevent roughly 30,000 deaths annually, particularly in Black and disadvantaged communities.
Rep. Ilhan Omar Demands Answers After ICE Agent Spotted Outside Her Town Hall With Mismatched Plates
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security after local police found a Homeland Security Investigations agent parked outside her town hall in Richfield, Minnesota, in a car with mismatched license plates. Police providing security at the Thursday event became suspicious of a woman sitting in a Ford Explorer monitoring the building, ran her plates and found they didn’t match the car. The woman first identified herself as security before acknowledging she worked for Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE agency, and said she was conducting an undercover operation. In a letter Friday to Michael McCarthy, who oversees DHS’s St. Paul field office, Omar said she’d raised concerns about the practice with DHS officials in March and was told it had ended. “It appears that this commitment was untrue,” she wrote, giving McCarthy until Aug. 14 to respond.
The Bigger Picture: The incident matters beyond one town hall. Mismatched plates on federal vehicles violate Minnesota law, and Omar tied the episode to broader concerns that the Trump administration is using ICE to surveil political opponents and interfere with democratic processes. It also raises questions about coordination protocols between federal immigration agents and local police at public congressional events.
Trump Signs Executive Order Reshaping Childhood Vaccine Recommendations
President Trump signed an executive order Monday directing a major overhaul of federal childhood vaccine recommendations. The order proposes reducing the total number of immunizations recommended for children in their earliest years and divides the nation’s vaccine schedule into three categories. It splits vaccines into tiers, recommending some for all children while advising others, including shots for RSV and hepatitis A and B, only for children considered high-risk. The order also recommends separating the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three individual shots given at separate visits, though separate versions of those vaccines aren’t currently available in the U.S.
The Impact: For families this fall, the practical impact may be limited initially. Insurance coverage isn’t expected to change, since childhood vaccines remain on the CDC’s recommended schedule even if reclassified under “shared clinical decision-making,” which requires provider sign-off.
Shomari Figures Faces Tougher Fight After GOP Wins Nomination In Redrawn Alabama District
Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures faces a tougher fight to keep his Alabama congressional seat after Republican state Rep. Rhett Marques won the GOP nomination Tuesday in the state’s newly redrawn 2nd Congressional District. Marques, who had President Donald Trump’s endorsement, defeated five other Republicans and will face Figures in the November general election. The race has taken on added significance because Alabama’s new map makes the district more favorable to Republicans. The redrawing followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed Alabama to use a map eliminating one of the state’s two majority-Black congressional districts. Figures won the 2nd District in 2024 with 54.6% of the vote under the previous boundaries.
What To Know: The race has taken on added significance because Alabama’s new map makes the district more favorable to Republicans. The redrawing followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed Alabama to use a map eliminating one of the state’s two majority-Black congressional districts. Figures won the 2nd District in 2024 with 54.6% of the vote under the previous boundaries. Figures, a first-term Democrat and one of Alabama’s two Democratic members of Congress, now must defend his seat in a district that has been reshaped before voters return to the polls. The contest will test whether the incumbent can hold a seat Democrats won in 2024 despite boundaries that now give Republicans a stronger advantage.