The debate has concluded. It was much feistier than the past debates, with the stakes now higher because ballots are in the mail.

Becerra was a top target, as expected given his steady rise in the polls, but there were also some standout moments, with Porter addressing questions about her temperament head-on and Hilton refusing to allow any daylight between himself and Trump, who is deeply unpopular in the liberal state.

The two-hour debate has covered a lot of ground. As it nears the end, the moderators asked the candidates a very California-themed question. Which actor would you want to play you.

Mahan was up first and asked for the moderators to come back to him, before shouting out Russell Crowe in Gladiator.

Becerra dived in with a quick answer: Antonio Banderas. Bianco said he had no ideas, before the moderator offered a suggestion: the mustachioed Tom Selleck. Clint Eastwood, Bianco finally settled on.

The British-born Hilton said there was “only one choice really” – the English actor Jason Statham.

Steyer named Gregory Peck, star of To Kill a Mockingbird. Porter named Tina Fey while Villaraigosa also named Antonio Banderas, whom Villaraigosa said once told him he would have wanted to play him in a movie.

In Michigan, a special election in a small swing district on Tuesday could determine whether Democrats retain their slim majority in the state Senate for the final months of governor Gretchen Whitmer’s term.

Republican Jason Tunney conceded the 35th state Senate district race to Democrat Chedrick Greene, saying in a statement that he “fell short in the special election.” The Associated Press has not yet called the race.

The candidates were asked to summarize the outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom’s eight-year tenure in a single word.

“Performative,” Villaraigosa said,
“Bold,” Porter replied, a reflection of the governor’s relative popularity among Democrats in the state.
“Progressive,” Steyer offered.
“Failed,” Hilton said.
“Steve - failure, you can’t take my word,” Bianco chimed in.
“Game-changing,” Becerra said.
“Incomplete,” said Mahan, who has cultivated a reputation for challenging Newsom, especially on issues like homelessness and crime.

Xavier Becerra has come under sustained pressure to clarify his support for a single-payer healthcare system.

“We should try to get to a Medicare for All program, and while we are continuing to work in that direction, we should make sure we are expanding coverage,” Becerra said.

“I’d like to use my magic wand and give everybody affordable healthcare,” Katie Porter said. She later said it was “disqualifying that Becerra wouldn’t give a clear answer.

The LAist recently reported that Becerra had softened his support for a government-run healthcare system. “He said very clearly that, at this point, he wasn’t supportive of single payer,” Dr René Bravo, president of the California Medical Association, told the outlet. The influential trade group, which has long opposed a single-payer system, endorsed Becerra.

In a speech Tuesday night, Sherrod Brown thanked supporters at an election night party in Ohio before pivoting to his economic message.

“No one in the Senate is standing up to these corporations who raise your prices and who game the system,” Brown said, per the AP. “Instead, the people who are supposed to be representing you in Washington, they play the stock market, they cycle through the revolving door, they lobby for special interests the moment they leave the United States Congress.”

He denounced major banks, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, as well as “big corporations” that build data centers in Ohio.

“Ohioans don’t have anyone fighting for you, until November,” Brown told the crowd.

Another fiery exchange erupted between Antonio Villaraigosa, the former LA mayor, and Chad Bianco, a conservative county sheriff.

“You’re an oath keeper,” Villaraigosa said, referring to the militia group of which the sheriff was a member of.

“I’m very proud of it,” Bianco replied.

“I don’t think an oath keeper is qualified to be governor,” Villaraigosa said.

The moderator followed up, “You said you’re a proud oath keeper. Are you referring to the group?”

Bianco snapped that he had sworn an oath to defend the constitution and then encouraged the other candidates to “read the mission statement to the oath keeper”.

Villaraigosa snapped back that members of the Oath Keepers have been indicted in connection with the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

“I saw a politician molest kids. Does that mean you molest kids,” Bianco shot back, stumping the entire stage. “Huh?” someone replied.

Back in Ohio, former state representative Derek Merrin has won the Republican nomination for the House in the Toledo area’s 9th District, according to the AP, setting him up for a rematch with Democratic representative Marcy Kaptur.

Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in Congress, ran unopposed and is considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country.

In an unexpected deviation from the topic – at this moment the debate had moved on to immigration – Katie Porter assailed the other candidates on the stage for their terse back-and-forth.

“I can’t believe that on a stage with 30 minutes of interrupting and bickering and name-calling and shouting and disrespect for everyone up here who’s stepping into public service, that anyone wants to talk about my temperament,” Porter said.

“You were actually interrupting them, too,” Chad Bianco interjected. “Oh cowboy...,” Porter responded to the Riverside sheriff.

The former Orange County congresswoman had been seen as an early leader in the field, but a video of her shouting at a staffer and a contentious interview with a local TV reporter renewed questions about her temperament and management style. Porter’s campaign has tried to recast the viral 2021 video where she tells a staffer to “get out of my fucking shot” during a meeting. A new ad for Porter ends with her asking: “Now, could you guys please get out of my shot?”

Katie Porter and Tom Steyer sparred over their differing views of the proposed billionaire’s tax, which crossed a key threshold to qualify for the ballot last month.

Asked why she didn’t support the wealth tax, Porter replied: “Because I support good ideas not things that help me dodge political potholes due to my own background. This billionaires tax is simply not good tax policy.”

The response was a dig at Steyer, a billionaire who has cast himself as a “class traitor” who wants to tax the wealthy more. “Billionaires like me” and corporations should pay more taxes, Steyer argued, while stating that he would vote for the one-time 5% tax on the accumulated wealth if it makes it onto the ballot. At the same time, he is pushing a proposal that would close loophole allowing multinational corporations to shelter profits in low-tax foreign countries.

The CNN debate in Los Angeles has kicked off - and it’s already shaping up to fiestier right out of the gate, a sign of the stakes as voters start returning their mail ballots.

The moderators, CNN anchors Kaitlan Collins and Elex Michaelson, began with the issue of affordability, asking the seven candidates on stage whether the California dream was still attainable.

Xavier Becerra highlighted his experience leading HHS – and taking on Donald Trump – to argue that he was the most qualified to manage the world’s fourth largest economy.

“I’m the change-agent,” billionaire Tom Steyer said, arguing that he would take on corporate interests to make the state more affordable. “I’m the progressive.”

San Jose mayor Matt Mahan used his time to attack Becerra, trying to position himself in the ideological gap between Steyer and the Republicans on state. “We don’t need Maga values but we don’t need more of the same,” he said.

“We need some fresh thinking after 16 years of one-party rule,” Republican Steve Hilton, the top-polling candidate in the race.

At one point, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa leaped into the conversation, asking Hilton if he could answer the question of who won the 2020 election. Hilton got caught in the fray responding to multiple candidates, but declined to answer Villaraigosa’s question, which would put him at odds with Donald Trump, who has endorsed him in the race.

“Boys. Boys! Enough with the bickering,” interjected former Congresswoman Katie Porter, who is the only remaining female candidate in the race.

Most Republican state senators in Indiana whose opponents were endorsed by Donald Trump lost today, giving the president wins in a deep red state just four months after lawmakers rejected his redistricting plan.

GOP senator Jim Banks called Tuesday a “Big night for MAGA in Indiana”.

Conservative activists also touted the election results.

“It’s clear the Trump Team delivered,” Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, wrote on social media. Kolvet was a confidant of the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk and producer for his podcast.

Kolvet also congratulated activists from the conservative youth group, who he said “worked so hard mobilizing on the ground in Indiana.”

The US military said on Tuesday that it killed three men in a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, claiming the targets were involved in “narco-trafficking operations”.

The announcement did not provide evidence to support its claims that the targets were engaged in narco-trafficking.

The US Southern Command said in a social media post that the vessel it bombed was allegedly operated by “designated terrorist organizations”. The statement did not provide further detail on the identities of the men who were killed.

More results are coming in from Ohio:

David Taylor won the Republican nomination for the House in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, according to the AP, while Vanessa Enoch won the Democratic nomination for the House in Ohio’s 8th Congressional District.

Patrick McAuley won the Republican nomination for the House in Indiana’s 7th Congressional District, while Blake Fiechter won the Republican primary election for state Senate in Indiana’s 19th District, per the AP.

In Ohio, Greg Landsman was declared the winner of the Democratic nomination for the House in the state’s 1st Congressional District,

Republican senator Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown won their party’s nominations in Ohio’s primary elections on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press – teeing them up for what is expected to be a high-profile and expensive Senate race in November’s midterm elections.

Husted ran unopposed, while Brown had a single opponent who he handily outraised.

The veteran politicians are standing in a special election to be decided in the 3 November midterms that will determine who serves the remainder of the six-year term JD Vance won in 2022, before becoming vice-president last year.

Husted was appointed by Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, to take over for Vance, while Brown, a former three-term senator, is seeking to make a comeback after losing his re-election bid in 2024.

Ohio’s Senate seat is one of four that Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic minority leader, has prioritized in the party’s bid to retake control of the chamber, which appeared to be a long shot after Donald Trump won election two years ago, but seems increasingly attainable as the president’s approval ratings slump.

Read the full story:

Ohioans are slated to select candidates to replace the Republican governor, Mike DeWine, who cannot run again because of term limits.

Among the candidates is biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican frontrunner, and former state health department director Amy Acton, the leading Democrat.

Ramaswamy swept onto the state’s political scene early last year as a shuffle was taking place, when then-senator JD Vance was ascending to the vice presidency and front-running gubernatorial candidate Jon Husted was being appointed to replace him in Washington. That opened a window of opportunity at the top of Republicans’ statewide ticket.

Contests on the ballots will set the stage for Ohio’s third competitive Senate race in the last four years, as well as a handful of House races that are expected to be closely fought in the fall.

Every statewide executive office is open this year due to term limits.

Want to feel old? Donald Trump’s tweet of him celebrating Cinco de Mayo, grinning and giving a thumbs up, about to eat a taco bowl with the caption “I love Hispanics!”, turned 10 years old today.

Earlier today, the White House posted an AI-generated image of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing sombreros and drinking margaritas with a sign that read, “I love illegal immigrants.”

Schumer didn’t hold back, and he posted a real photo of Trump and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, modified to add sombreros to their heads, and captioned “Happy Cinco de Mayo, @WhiteHouse!”

Outside groups have spent over $8m targeting Indiana incumbents, per the AP.

In state senate district 23, Donald Trump has endorsed Paula Copenhaver against incumbent Spencer Deery. Although state filings show Deery has a massive fundraising lead, garnering $500,000 to Copenhaver’s $15,000, the ad-tracking firm AdImpact reports that outside groups have spent over $2 million in ads for Copenhaver.

Meanwhile, in state senate district 1, the Trump-endorsed challenger Trevor de Vries raised just over $30,000 as of the latest filings, while incumbent Dan Dernulc has raised over $200,000.

AdImpact shows outside groups spending more than $200,000 to help trump Dernulc.

Human rights activist Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee legislative leaders expressing “grave concern” about the plan to divide Memphis’ congressional representation, joining a slew of people pushing back against the special session called to redraw congressional maps after the supreme court ruling.

“This decision undermines the work that my father, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., carried out to help secure passage of the Voting Rights Act,” he wrote, adding that his father was assassinated in Memphis.

“Do not dismantle the only Congressional district that provides Black voters in Memphis a fair opportunity to have a voice in our democracy. Do not take this nation back to the days of Jim Crow,” he added.

As voters in Indiana head to the polls for the state’s primaries, Donald Trump flocked to social media to encourage his endorsed candidates and mock Republican state senators who rejected his effort to redraw the state’s congressional map in December, referring to them as “Republican in name only.”

“Good luck to those Great Indiana Senate Candidates who are running against people who couldn’t care less about our Country, or about keeping the Majority in Congress,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“There are eight Great Patriots running against long seated RINOS — Let’s see how those RINOS do tonight!” he added.

The Palm Beach International Airport in Florida will officially be renamed after Donald Trump, roughly a month after the state’s governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law approving the name change.

Palm Beach County commissioners approved the transition on Tuesday, officially renaming the facility the Donald J Trump International Airport.

Trump’s son, Eric Trump, shared the airport’s logo via social media, saying “there is no person more deserving of this incredible honor” than his father.

The airport’s logo features a gold eagle holding two olive branches.

On his upcoming meeting with Pope Leo XIV, Rubio said that the trip had been “planned before” the rift between the Trump administration and the Vatican. The president continued to chide the pontiff earlier this week for his condemnation of the war in Iran.

In the briefing room today, Rubio downplayed any tension ahead of his visit to Rome.

“I cannot understand why anyone would think that it’s a good idea for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon,” the secretary of state said, despite the fact that Leo has never said that Iran should have nuclear weapons, but has repeatedly opposed the war on the country and the subsequent escalation of the conflict in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, calling for ceasefires and dialogue.

“The trip is really not tied to anything other than the fact that it would be normal for us to engage with them, and other secretary states have done that in the past,” Rubio added.

In response to a question about pushback from US lawmakers who say that the blockade in the strait of Hormuz is an act of war, Rubio insisted that Iran is trying to make shutting down the waterway a “new normal”.

“Under no circumstances can we ever allow them to normalize the fact that they get to blow up commercial ships and put mines in the water,” he added. “So the response to that is, we’re going to blockade your ships.”

Rubio said there the Iranian regime is disingenuous when it repeats claims that it has no intent to develop a nuclear weapon.

“They just don’t mean it,” the secretary of state said. “They innovate and try to innovate long range delivery missiles that now, in some cases, are capable of reaching much of Europe. They build these large underground centrifuges to for enrichment activity. There are many, there are countries in the world that are involved in the enrichment business, but these guys do it in mountains and in caves and in hiding.”

Marco Rubio kicked off his press conference noting that the aim of Project Freedom is to rescue almost “23,000 civilians from 87 different countries that are trapped inside of the Gulf and left for dead” by the Iranian regime. The secretary of state underscored that it is a “defensive operation” and “there’s no shooting unless we’re shot at first”.

The significant amount of oil that travels through the strait of Hormuz, along with large volumes of fuel and fertilizer that operate through the passage is in jepoardy, according to Rubio. “The Iranian regime cannot be allowed to dictate who uses this vital waterway,” he told reporters. “Our preference is for these straits to be opened to the way they’re supposed to be open, back to the way it was. Anyone can use it. No mines in the water, nobody paying tolls. That’s what we have to get back to, and that’s the goal here.”

In a short while, we’re expecting to hear from secretary of state Marco Rubio, who will address reporters for a White House press briefing.

This comes a day before Rubio is set to travel to Rome, Italy to meet with Pope Leo XIV and other Vatican officials.

The US education department is investigating one of the country’s largest women’s colleges over its admittance of transgender women in another escalation of the Trump administration’s attacks on trans people.

The department’s office of civil rights announced the investigation on Monday in a press release, saying the Massachusetts college could be violating federal law by “allowing biological males into women’s intimate spaces”, including dorms, bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams.

Title IX, the federal law that seeks to prevent sex-based discrimination in education and extracurriculars, includes an exemption for all-male or all-female colleges. But, the department said, that applies only to “biological sex difference, not subjective gender identity”. Admitting transgender students would mean the college no longer qualifies as single sex.

“An all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males,” assistant secretary for civil rights, Kimberly Richey, said in a statement. “Allowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness, and compliance under federal law. The Trump administration will continue to uphold the law and fight to restore common sense.”

Smith’s admission policy allows for “any applicants who self-identify as women”, including “cis, trans and nonbinary women”, according to the college’s website. The college opened in 1875 and counts among its alumni multiple first ladies, elected officials and civic leaders.

We have more pictures coming through of protests outside the Tennessee capitol as Republican state lawmakers weigh new congressional maps.

Further to my earlier post, Alabama lawmakers heard testimony today on legislation that would allow a special congressional primary, if the US supreme court clears the way for the state to change its US House districts.

In light of the court’s ruling last week on Louisiana’s districts, Alabama officials have asked the high court to set aside a judicial order to use a US House map that includes two districts with a substantial number of black voters and instead let the state revert to a map previously passed by Republican lawmakers. That map could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats currently held by Democrats.

The state’s primaries are scheduled for 19 May. If the supreme court grants the request after or too close to the primary, the legislation under consideration would ignore the results of that primary and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.

“This is the voice of the people,” Alabama House speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter claimed while promoting the Republican plan. “We had three judges determine how five million people were supposed to vote, and I don’t think that’s the way.”

Before a House committee advanced the plan today, several black residents urged lawmakers not to change the current congressional districts.

“Representation matters — not just politically but in access, in power and in who gets to be heard,” Eliza Jane Franklin, of rural Barbour County, told the Associated Press.

Trump also downplayed soaring oil prices as a “small price to pay” for eliminating Iran’s nuclear ambitions, adding that he thought the prices would actually have been higher.

I also thought oil would go up to $200, $250, maybe $300, and I know it will be short term.

I look today, it’s like at 102 [$] and that’s a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.

The price of oil would “neutralize” when the war ends, he added.

The average price of a gallon of gas is now $4.48, according to AAA, up by roughly 50% since the US and Israel launched this war at the end of February.

In brief remarks, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the “Project Freedom” is ongoing and insisted that the United States has control of the strait of Hormuz.

He added another familiar line:

Ultimately, Iran has a choice to make … We hope they make a wise choice.

Donald Trump was due to sign a proclamation in the Oval Office at 10.30am ET, but he’s running a little late. He’ll likely take questions from reporters after the signing, and I’ll bring you all the key lines once that gets under way.

Donald Trump has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.

The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Speaking to Hugh Hewitt, a prominent conservative radio talkshow host on the US-based Salem News network, Trump said the pope “would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don’t think that’s very good”.

“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people,” the US president added. “But I guess if it’s up to the pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Leo has never said that Iran should have nuclear weapons, but has repeatedly opposed the war on the country and the subsequent escalation of the conflict in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, calling for ceasefires and dialogue.

Donald Trump is in Washington today. He’ll spend the day in meetings, tape an interview, and sign a proclamation before attending a Rose Garden Club dinner at the White House at 7pm ET.

We’ll hear from the president directly at 10:30am ET in the Oval Office, and then secretary of state Marco Rubio will address reporters for a press briefing at 3pm ET. We’ll also bring you the latest lines as that gets under way

Earlier, Caine said some 22,500 mariners remain trapped in the strait of Hormuz and are unable to transit.

He says commercial vessels in the region will feel US military power around them in the seas and the skies.

The joint force is “ready to resume major combat operations” against Iran if ordered to do, he added.

Joint chiefs of the staff chair Dan Caine says Iran has continued to attack its neighbours, referring to yesterday’s strikes on Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Speaking about Operation Freedom, he says Iran has fired at commercial vessels nie times and seized two container ships since the ceasefire was announced.

Caine says the Iranian attacks have all fallen below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point.

Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, is addressing reporters at a Pentagon press conference now. He’s discussing the latest developments on Project Freedom, and the ongoing naval blockade in the strait of Hormuz.

Hegseth, once again, threatened fierce retaliation if Iran attacks any US warships or commercial shipping throughout the vital waterway.

“To Iran, let innocent ships pass freely,” the defense secretary said. “These international waters belong to all nations, not to Iran, to tax toll or control, to our partner, partners, allies and the rest of the world.”

Secretary of state Marco Rubio expects a “frank” meeting with Pope Leo during a visit to the Vatican this week, the US ambassador said on Tuesday.

“Nations have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is ... through fraternity and authentic dialogue,” said Brian Burch, the US ambassador to the Holy See.

“I think the secretary is coming here in that spirit,” Burch told journalists. “To have a frank conversation about US policy, to engage in dialogue.“

Trump has repeatedly disparaged the first US-born pope in recent weeks, drawing a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.

Indiana voters go to the polls today in a test of the Republican party’s staying power after the party’s state lawmakers resisted Donald Trump’s bruising campaign to pressure them into redrawing the congressional districts.

The vote has turned into a statewide referendum on political retribution.

Seven state senators who voted against Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push now face challengers endorsed by the president, who said that “every one of these people should be “primaried,” after the effort failed.

Trump-aligned dark money groups have spent upwards of $7m on TV ads in Indiana this year, according to a tally from AdImpact – the majority spent targeting Republicans who allied themselves with Democrats in the December redistricting vote.

Greg Goode, a first-term Republican representative from Terre Haute, now faces a competitive race in district 38 against city council member Brenda Wilson – who received backing from both Mike Braun, Indiana’s governor, and Trump – as well as a third candidate, Alexandra Wilson, who shares her last name but bears no relation.

Goode voted against Trump’s redistricting push after hosting a town hall event in which 71 people spoke out against the revision and none spoke in favor.

Jim Buck, a state senator from Kokomo, also faces a Trump challenge, after 18 years in office.

“We’ve never had Washington meddle into our elections like they have this time,” Buck told NPR. “Now I’ve got over $1m against me in one race.”

One ad takes aim at the 80-year-old public servant by calling him “old, pathetic, liberal”.