The Arizona Supreme Court declined to extend a deadline for voters to fix errors with mail-in ballots.
The top court's ruling came as the state's Senate race was called for Democrat Ruben Gallego, marking the second major defeat for Republican Kari Lake.
On the other hand, voters in the state chose President-elect Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump's win is a reversal from 2020, when Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Arizona since the 1990s. Biden narrowly flipped Arizona by about 10,000 votes.
While Trump won by a comfortable margin of about 180,000 votes this time, Lake lost her race by about 70,000.
This year's election results were tallied much faster than in 2020, but the nation was still waiting on Arizona and Nevada until the weekend. Both states make heavy use of mail-in voting.
Left-leaning groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, made a request Saturday to Arizona's Supreme Court to allow more time to "cure" mail-in ballots with errors. The petitioners asked for a four-day extension, arguing thousands of voters could be disenfranchised by delays in ballot processing.
Justice Bill Montgomery, however, said there was no evidence that voters were denied a "reasonable" opportunity to fix their ballots, which is required by state law. The court found that election officials in eight of the state's 15 counties had adequately informed voters of issues with their ballots.
"The Court has no information to establish in fact that any such individuals did not have the benefit of 'reasonable efforts' to cure their ballots," Montgomery wrote.
Lake, a former news anchor, became a rising star on the right in the 2022 midterms cycle, when she lost a close race to Governor Katie Hobbs (D).
Lake never conceded the race, which she alleged was impacted by malfeasance with ballot printers that disenfranchised Republican voters on Election Day. Last week, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected Lake's final appeal in her effort to challenge her 2022 defeat.
Ruben Gallego, a Marine vet and Democratic congressman, has defeated Lake for the open Senate seat vacated by Kyrsten Sinema. Lake has not conceded the race yet.
Republicans also failed to flip Senate seats in Nevada, Wisconsin, and Michigan. But they still regained the U.S. Senate and kept the House, leaving President-elect Trump with a "trifecta" to pursue his agenda in January.
President-elect Donald Trump has officially won Arizona, completing his historic re-election victory with a battleground state sweep.
The AP called the state and its 11 electoral votes for Trump on Saturday night, leaving Trump with 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris' 226.
Joe Biden narrowly flipped Arizona in 2020, putting the state in the Democratic column for the first time in decades. But Trump reclaimed the state by a commanding margin of 52.6% to 46.4%, about 185,000 votes.
This means that Trump won all of the swing states, including Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Trump is on pace to win the popular vote, something he did not achieve in 2016 when he beat Hillary Clinton with 304 electoral votes.
His swing state sweep is part of a dominating performance nationwide that saw him expand his popularity with a broad swathe of the electorate and come within single digits of flipping some reliably Democratic states, like New Jersey and Illinois.
Trump's presidential victory was clear in the early morning of Wednesday, November 6, as Trump paved a path to 270 electoral votes through Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
He was declared president-elect on November 6, and Harris conceded the race in a defiant speech that day. News organizations did not call Nevada and Arizona until the weekend, however. Both states vote primarily by mail.
While Trump did not need either Arizona or Nevada to win the presidency, his wins expand his Electoral College margin to 312 votes and bolster his mandate to govern.
Trump narrowly lost Arizona in 2020 to Joe Biden, who won by about 10,000 votes. Until then, Republicans had won Arizona in every presidential election since 1996.
While Trump's commanding victory nationwide helped Republicans regain a Senate majority, the party lost key Senate races in many of the battleground states, including Arizona, where Trump-endorsed Republican Kari Lake fell short to Democrat Ruben Gallego. Lake also lost a governors' race in 2022.
Arizona shares a border with Mexico and was at the center of Trump's tough pitch to seal the southern border and carry out a massive deportation operation. Trump repeatedly lambasted vice president Harris for her failures as "border czar."
Trump has named Tom Homan, his former ICE director, to be his "border czar" and lead the largest mass deportation operation in history.
President-elect Donald Trump's resounding victory over Vice President Kamala Harris last week is one for the history books, to say the least.
President Trump utilized some of the brightest and innovative minds in politics and campaigning to help push his "America First" message to the right people, but according to reports, his youngest son, Barron Trump, was instrumental in pushing his dad across the finish line.
Trump reportedly relied on his son's savvy regarding popular podcasts that reach large, young male audiences, which paid off, big time.
It was reported that Mr. Trump would often tell his campaign leadership to run any podcast appearances by his son first to see what he thought and if they would have the impact they were looking for.
Barron Trump is not only in tune with which podcast hosts are the most popular and influential, he's even friends with some of the biggest names in the business, which gave his father a cutting edge that Harris did not have.
The Cut called Barron Trump the "mastermind" behind the final push to have President Trump appear on a long list of popular podcasts that reached exactly the right audience.
The outlet noted:
In the lead-up to Election Day, Trump went on a slew of massively popular podcasts catering to right-leaning young male audiences. That demographic, white men ages 18 to 29, wound up voting for Trump by a 28-point margin. As it turns out, the mastermind behind this plan might have been Trump’s 18-year-old son, Barron.
Earlier on in the campaign, Alex Bruesewitz, described as a "hotshot political consultant," was tasked with coming up with a podcast interview plan for Mr. Trump.
The president immediately directed Alex to run his ideas by Barron first before agreeing to the schedule. Barron's input on the podcasters was critical in his father's campaign.
"Call Barron and see what he thinks and let me know," President Trump reportedly said when Bruesewitz said he hadn't ran his podcast plan by Mr. Trump's youngest son.
Trump fans across social media praised Barron Trump for his savvy on the subject.
"Lara Trump is right, Barron deserves some credit on his dad’s win. Barron Trump was the person behind his father, telling him which podcasts to go on, etc. The Democrats didn't prepare for this genius to get involved," one X user wrote.
Lara Trump is right, Barron deserves some credit on his dad’s win.
Barron Trump was the person behind his father, telling him which podcasts to go on, etc. The Democrats didn't prepare for this genius to get involved🙏🏼❤️🇺🇸💥. pic.twitter.com/JNC53iKmhf
— ꪻꫝể ꪻꫝể (@TheThe1776) November 9, 2024
Another X user wrote, "I have a feeling that he might be a force to reckon with in the future."
Trump Derangement Syndrome is reaching its highest peak in years, especially in the wake of President-elect Trump's amazing victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
But even before Trump was once again elected to the White House, TDS was alive and well within the ranks of the federal government, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FDA).
According to Breitbart, a bombshell report emerged this week that revealed a FEMA official reportedly told relief workers in hurricane-stricken areas to skip homes that appeared to support Trump.
Government employee whistleblowers informed The Daily Wire that a top official gave the orders, which resulted in several Trump-supporting homes being skipped in Florida.
According to the report, Marn’i Washington, a FEMA supervisor, reportedly instructed volunteers “verbally and in a group chat,” to “avoid homes advertising Trump," in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.
EXCLUSIVE: Internal messages obtained by The Daily Wire show a FEMA official ordered relief workers in Florida not to help houses with Trump signs pic.twitter.com/o73ejUuYUG
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 8, 2024
That resulted in "at least 20 homes" with Trump flags or signs being passed over for federal relief help, a sickening thought, to say the least.
The report noted:
The government employees told The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags were skipped from the end of October and into November due to the guidance, meaning they were not given the opportunity to qualify for FEMA assistance. Images shared with The Daily Wire show that houses were skipped over by the workers, who wrote in the government system messages such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership.”
The employees added that they were instructed to "discriminate against people" in the wake of the hurricane due to staff shortages.
"I know they’re short-staffed, I thought we could go help and make a difference,” the government employee told the outlet.
“When we got there we were told to discriminate against people. It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay.”
The story isn't difficult to believe, especially since many in the hurricane-affected areas, which happen to be red, politically speaking, were essentially left to fend for themselves.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Haris were heavily criticized for being conveniently slow to respond.
If the reports are true, the FEMA supervisor responsible should be terminated, immediately.
After President Trump's historic comeback, will there be pardons for the January 6th prisoners? Some who were convicted over the Capitol riot are already preparing for that possibility.
Multiple January 6th protesters have asked the courts to pause their cases as they await a potential reprieve from the president-elect, the Daily Caller reported.
Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump often defended the January 6th participants as patriots who have been treated unfairly by the justice system.
Over 1,5000 people have been charged in the Justice Department's investigation, and more than 1,000 have already been sentenced. Trump has floated pardons for some of those who entered the Capitol, many of whom were non-violent.
“I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they got out of control,” Trump told a CNN town hall in 2023.
Lawyers for Christopher Carnell, a non-violent offender, cited a hypothetical pardon in a request to delay a November 8 hearing. The judge shot it down.
"Mr. Carnell, who was an 18 year old nonviolent entrant into the Capitol on January 6, is expecting to be relieved of the criminal prosecution that he is currently facing when the new administration takes office," his lawyers wrote.
January 6th defendant Mitchell Bosch, while seeking a trial delay, argued he could face retaliation over Trump's re-election from a jury in overwhelmingly Democratic Washington D.C. That request was also shut down.
Meanwhile, Trump has received a pardon from the voters, who chose to send him back to Washington with a resounding mandate despite his alleged role in starting an "insurrection" on January 6th, 2021.
The judge in Trump's "election interference" case pressed pause Friday after a request from Jack Smith, who is expected to drop his prosecutions against President-elect Trump.
The Biden Justice Department has dropped some charges against January 6th defendants after the Supreme Court rebuked the DOJ for stretching a federal obstruction statute to charge hundreds of Trump supporters.
Trump told the National Association of Black Journalists in July that he would "absolutely" pardon those who are innocent, adding, “They were convicted by a very tough system."
“President Trump will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis,” Trump's campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to the Daily Caller.
Jack Smith is finally dropping his prosecutions of Donald Trump after his stunning re-election victory, bringing an end to a failed effort to deny Trump a second term with lawfare.
The move is "based on longstanding Department of Justice policy that a sitting president cannot face criminal prosecution while in office," sources told ABC News.
The Biden Justice Department appointed Smith in November 2022, the same month that Trump launched his historic comeback campaign. Smith brought charges against Trump last summer for allegedly stealing classified documents and conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump repeatedly criticized Smith as a "deranged" political operative of the Democratic party, as Smith furiously pushed to bring Trump to trial and secure a conviction before Election Day.
When that effort failed, Smith shared a filing in his "election interference" case in October, sparking pushback from Trump and others who said Smith was meddling with the presidential election.
Smith is now in talks to wind down his prosecutions into the former and future president, who won a stunning popular mandate from voters on Election Day despite the efforts of Democrats to paint him as an aspiring dictator and "convicted felon."
While Smith had no problem trying to block Trump from returning to power, Smith is facing the reality that he simply can't prosecute a sitting president.
In addition to the Justice Department cases, Trump has also been harassed by Democratic prosecutors in New York and Georgia.
An election interference case in Georgia was derailed by prosecutor Fani Willis' highly publicized workplace romance, which raised a conflict of interest and an ongoing effort by Trump to disqualify her.
Trump is also facing a sentencing on November 26 in New York over his conviction for "falsifying business records" in his "hush money" case involving Stormy Daniels.
Trump has threatened to fire Smith on day one of a second Trump administration, but it appears Smith wants to pre-empt that possibility.
"We got immunity at the Supreme Court. It's so easy. I would fire him within two seconds. He'll be one of the first things addressed," Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt last month.
Democrats thought they could stop Trump by weaponizing justice, but now true justice is being served, and Trump is getting the last laugh.
Donald Trump's epic re-election victory on Tuesday night saw him expand his popularity in the former swing state of Ohio, as Republicans flipped a Senate seat there and stormed the state's Supreme Court.
The GOP won all three state Supreme Court races, handing them 6-1 control starting in January. The bench is currently split 4-3.
Republican Justice Joseph Deters left his own Supreme Court seat to run for a full term against Democrat Melody Stewart - and won. Governor Mike DeWine (R) had appointed Deters, a former Hamilton County prosecutor, to fill a vacancy in 2023.
Another Republican, Judge Dan Hawkins defeated Democratic Judge Lisa Forbes to serve the remaining two years in Deters' open seat. Republican Megan Shanahan defeated Democrat Michael Donnelly to round out the GOP's sweep of the top court.
The expanded control will presumably give Republicans leverage on contentious issues such as abortion and election integrity. However, the victorious Republican justices pledged to follow the law, not prescribe it.
“I’m honored and grateful to the millions of Ohioans who have put their trust in me to be their Ohio Supreme Court Justice,” Shanahan posted on her campaign Facebook page.
“I’ll be true to what I campaigned on and will be a Supreme Court Justice who knows that my job is to interpret the law, not to make it. I’ll go to work each day and focus on protecting Ohio’s citizens, communities, and constitution.”
Ohio, a state Barack Obama won in 2012, has been shifting red since President Trump flipped the state in 2016. Trump lifted his vice president-elect, J.D. Vance, to a Senate victory in Ohio in 2022.
In another sign of Ohio's red shift, Trump-endorsed Bernie Moreno soundly defeated Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown on Tuesday.
With Republicans projected to win back the Senate, President Trump will have an opportunity in his second term to solidify the 6-3 conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court, which he pushed rightward during his first term.
Trump delivered a dominating performance nationwide on Tuesday, sweeping every battleground state and putting himself on the path to a popular vote victory.
Trump's commanding 12-point margin in Ohio was the largest of any presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide.
President Trump's victory resonated throughout the Rust Belt as he secured a path back to the White House in the "blue wall" states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Election officials in the swing state of Arizona have restored thousands of people without verified citizenship to the voter rolls after a glitch exposed up to 218,000 who registered without proof.
Once the glitch was found, officials in Maricopa County last month contacted voters individually to give them an opportunity to provide proof. But then the decision was made to waive the requirement, Fox News reported.
"However, after further consideration, the decision was made to fully restore those voters from the not registered status, only if they were previously an existing, registered voter," Maricopa County Recorder's office told Fox News.
"Additionally, we know roughly 2,000 voters who were impacted in the MVD data oversight submitted voter registration updates and some of those may have been contacted about providing DPOC," the statement read.
"But since then, regardless of if they have provided that additional information, they have since been restored their original status for this election."
Arizona requires proof of citizenship to vote in state and local elections, but voters who lack proof and swear that they are citizens can vote "federal only," meaning only for U.S. president and Congress.
The Arizona Court of Appeals has ordered the state to release the full list of 218,000 voters, over the objections of Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
The court found that Fontes had given "inconsistent" testimony about his office's records, after he claimed that only a partial list of 98,000 voters existed.
The push for the records came from America First Legal, a conservative watchdog founded by Trump adviser Stephen Miller. Fontes has claimed sharing the list would lead to partisan intimidation.
"I’ll tell you exactly what I think these folks are planning. I think they are planning on going after voters that they politically disagree with. I think they're planning on knocking on their doors and trying to intimidate them out of voting. I mean these folks, these folks are shameless in their legal efforts. They believe that their right to investigate and harass voters is more important than their right to actually cast a ballot," Fontes said.
Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that 98,000 voters impacted by the glitch should be able to cast full ballots, citing the short notice.
Maricopa County is the most populated in Arizona, containing about 62% of the state's population. President Biden flipped Arizona to the Democrats in 2020 by just 10,000 votes.
A video of Tim Walz calling Elon Musk "gay" produced yet another PR gaffe for the Harris campaign in the last stretch before Election Day.
While stumping for Kamala Harris in Michigan, Walz seemed to have a slip of the tongue while doing his folksy shtick bashing billionaires.
"If you're a billionaire, Elon Musk for example," Walz said. "That guy, that gay guy...." he trailed off, before stopping himself.
"Michigan knows that word," Walz said.
The Harris campaign said Walz was stuttering after someone in the crowd threw him off track.
“In the video, you can hear someone in the crowd yell ‘dips–t! when the governor brings up Musk,” a campaign spokesman said. “The governor started laughing and stuttered while trying to say ‘that guy got’ — he did not refer to Elon as a gay guy.”
“He got stuck on the G in that guy got while trying not to laugh at the remark from the crowd," the campaign said.
While the campaign says Walz misspoke, the insult that a Harris supporter cried out was one that Walz previously used against Musk deliberately.
Walz - who has attracted notice for his theatrical mannerisms - faced an incredulous reaction when he accused Musk of skipping around "like a dip---."
Musk, who is backing President Trump, shrugged off Walz's latest remark, stating on X, which he owns, "I have no problem being called gay."
As Americans anxiously await the results of the presidential election on Tuesday, some of her supporters have pre-emptively begun to blame a Harris loss on her choice in running mate.
Walz's critics say that Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, would have been more of an asset for her campaign. Pennsylvania is a must win for Harris, who has essentially no path to the presidency without sweeping the "blue wall" of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Since he became Harris' running mate in July, Walz has been at the center of numerous scandals. He has repeatedly claimed to "misspeak" when confronted for lying about various aspects of his personal life, including his military service and overseas travel to China.
The governor famously called himself a "knucklehead" during the vice-presidential debate, and was recently mocked for misusing football terminology, undermining his image as a folksy high school coach.
"Tampon Tim is such a dork. You’d think a so-called football coach would be aware that you don’t run a pick 6!" the Trump campaign wrote in response.
In the final hours before Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris has not felt the same kind of momentum and support felt by former President Donald Trump and his campaign.
From surrogate gaffes to shifting poll numbers in the wrong direction, Harris and her campaign have been in a total nightmare for the past several weeks, and recently, it worsened as she wasn't even supported by one of her progressive allies.
According to Breitbart, "Squad" Rep. Rashida Tlaib snubbed Harris at a United Auto Workers (UAW) union rally in Detroit, Michigan.
Michigan is one of a few states that are absolutely critical to providing a path to the White House for either Trump or Harris, and Harris is already struggling in the union-heavy state.
During the rally, Tlaib encouraged those in attendance and Democrat votes in general to turn out at the ballot box on Tuesday, but stopped short of telling them to endorse Harris.
She spent most of the time bashing Trump, as most Democrats do as they have nothing else to talk about, let alone any accomplishments that they can brag about.
“Don’t underestimate the power you all have,” Tlaib said. “More than those ads, those lawn signs, those billboards, you all have more power to turn out people that understand we’ve got to fight back against corporate greed in our country.”
Her message comes as Donald Trump continues to see a swell of support among the state's Muslim and Arab voters, with Harris dropping in those categories mostly due to the Biden-Harris administration's stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
A local news outlet ran cover for Tlaib, saying she "focused her speech to UAW members on down ballot races."
But that's not really the reason, as Tlaib has publicly expressed her disdain for Harris and Biden and suggested voters move away from Biden over the Israel-Hamas situation.
Michigan, which is home to a large Muslim-American voter population, is looking much more favorable for Trump as the election draws closer.
Those voters, which number in the tens of thousands, could be key to solidifying a victory for either candidate in what will otherwise be a close race.
Should Trump win Michigan, it will be a massive boost and likely propel him to victory.
One can be assured that Harris' ho-hum support in the state is keeping the campaign up at night.