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CNBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Senate passes landmark GENIUS stablecoin bill, giving crypto industry its first major win
The Senate on Tuesday passed the GENIUS Act, a landmark bill that for the first time establishes federal guardrails for U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins and creates a regulated pathway for private companies to issue digital dollars with the blessing of the federal government. The bill passed with a 68-30 vote. It's a milestone day for the crypto industry and for President Donald Trump's sprawling digital asset empire. This is the first legislative victory for the digital asset industry, which put around $250 million in the 2024 cycle to elect what's now considered to be the most pro-crypto Congress in U.S. history. The bill still faces hurdles in the Republican-held House, but passage in the Senate signals a turning point — not just for the technology, but for the political clout behind it. The GENIUS Act, short for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, sets guardrails for the industry, including full reserve backing, monthly audits, and anti-money laundering compliance. It also opens the door to a broader range of issuers, including banks, fintechs, and major retailers looking to launch their own stablecoins or integrate them into existing payment systems. The bill grants sweeping authority to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who last week told a Senate appropriations subcommittee in a hearing that the U.S. stablecoin market could grow nearly eightfold to over $2 trillion in the next few years. "Stablecoin legislation backed by U.S. Treasuries or T-bills will create a market that will expand U.S. dollar usage via these stablecoins all around the world," Bessent said. GENIUS now heads to the House, which has its own version of a stablecoin bill dubbed STABLE. Both prohibit yield-bearing consumer stablecoins — but diverge on who regulates what. The Senate's version centralizes oversight with Treasury, while the House splits authority between the Federal Reserve, the Comptroller of the Currency, and others. Reconciling the two could take a while, according to Congressional aides. The GENIUS Act was supposed to be the easiest crypto bill to pass, but took months to reach the Senate floor, failed once, and passed only after fierce negotiations. "We thought it would be easiest to start with stablecoins," Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said on stage in Las Vegas at this year's Bitcoin 2025 conference, which focused heavily on stablecoins. "It has been extremely difficult. I had no idea how hard this was going to be," she said. At the same event, Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., echoed the frustration: "It has been murder to get them there," he said of the 18 Senate Democrats who ultimately crossed the aisle. Stablecoins are a subset of cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of real-world assets. About 99% of all stablecoins are tethered to the price of the U.S. dollar. The appeal is simple: Stablecoins offer instant settlement and lower transaction fees, cutting out the middlemen and directly threatening legacy payment rails. Shopify has already rolled out USDC-powered payments through Coinbase and Stripe. Bank of America's CEO said last week at a Morgan Stanley conference that they're having conversations with the industry and individually exploring stablecoin issuance. Payment stocks like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Block slid after The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon and Walmart are exploring their own stablecoins. That action has helped drive Circle's blockbuster stock surge, with shares up 400% since its public debut on June 5. Deutsche Bank found that stablecoin transactions hit $28 trillion last year, surpassing that of Mastercard and Visa, combined. Still, there are limits. The GENIUS Act limits non-financial Big Tech companies from directly issuing stablecoins unless they establish or partner with regulated financial entities — a provision meant to blunt monopoly concerns. JPMorgan, meanwhile, is taking a different route, launching JPMD, a deposit token designed to function like a stablecoin but tightly integrated with the traditional banking system. Issued on Coinbase's Base blockchain, JPMD is only available to institutional clients and offers features like 24/7 settlement and interest payments — part of the broader push by legacy finance to adapt to the stablecoin era without ceding ground to crypto-native firms. While Democrats tried to amend the bill to prevent the president from profiting off crypto ventures, the final legislation only bars members of Congress and their families from doing so. Trump's first financial disclosure as president, released Friday, revealed he earned at least $57 million in 2024 alone from token sales tied to World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform closely aligned with his political brand. He holds nearly 16 billion WLFI governance tokens — the crypto equivalent of voting shares — which could be worth close to $1 billion on paper, based on prior private sales. That's just one slice of the Trump crypto pie. The family's ventures, which include the controversial $TRUMP meme coin, a $2.5 billion bitcoin Treasury and proposed bitcoin and ether ETFs via and a newly launched mining firm called American Bitcoin, reflect a full-throttle push into digital finance. Forbes recently estimated Trump's crypto holdings at nearly $1 billion, lifting his total net worth to $5.6 billion.
NBC News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Five takeaways from New Jersey's primaries for governor: How the candidates are handling Trump and more
The matchup in New Jersey's race for governor is officially set — and Tuesday's primaries also laid down big indicators about the state of both political parties after the first major intraparty contests since the 2024 election. Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former state legislator, easily won his party's primary with President Donald Trump's endorsement, underscoring Trump's significant sway over the GOP electorate. U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the crowded Democratic primary, pitching herself as the candidate with the best shot at holding on to the governorship and steering past ideological and antiestablishment sentiment simmering in her party. She defeated candidates who were to her left and to her right. The race to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, one of two governor's races this year, is expected to be competitive. Trump lost the state by 6 percentage points in November, a 10-point swing in his direction compared with his 2020 margin. Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's primaries: Democrats revive 2018 playbook Sherrill won as many Democratic voters were weighing which candidate would be most electable and as each Democratic candidate pitched a different path forward for the party. Sherrill's victory suggests some Democratic voters want to dust off the party's successful playbook from the 2018 midterm elections, when she flipped a longtime Republican-held House seat. In that campaign and in her primary run this year, Sherrill stressed her background as a Navy helicopter pilot and a former federal prosecutor and pitched 'ruthless competence' as a counter to Trump. 'It just seems so obvious to me what the path forward is. It's effectively govern,' Sherrill recently told NBC News. 'And this is what I've been doing since 2018 when I first ran, right? ... I say to people, 'What's keeping you up at night?'' 'I tell people it's not maybe the sexiest tagline, but ruthless competence is what people in New Jersey want to see in government,' Sherrill added later. 'And that's what I've always provided, and that's what I think stands in stark contrast to the most incompetent federal government we've probably ever seen in this nation.' Still, while Sherrill won with over a third of the vote, the results revealed a fractured party. Two candidates who pitched themselves as more progressive, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, won a combined 36% of the vote. Two of the more moderate candidates, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, got 20% combined, while teachers union president Sean Spiller won 10%. Trump boosts Ciattarelli with the MAGA faithful and shows his hold on the GOP After having come just 3 percentage points shy of defeating Murphy in 2021, Ciattarelli made one thing clear in his bid four years later: He's all in on Trump. Like many prominent Republicans, Ciattarelli wasn't always on board — he criticized Trump as a 'charlatan' in 2015. And while he embraced Trump during his previous bid for governor, he didn't campaign with him. That led Ciattarelli's opponents, including his top competitor, former radio host Bill Spadea, to try to frame him as insufficiently loyal to Trump. (Spadea had voiced criticism of Trump before he fell back in line.) But Trump's endorsement of Ciattarelli cemented his front-runner status, helping hasten the end of the campaign. And in a nod to Ciattarelli's past criticism, Trump tried to inoculate him from any attempt to undercut his Trump bona fides. 'Jack, who after getting to know and understand MAGA, has gone ALL IN, and is now 100% (PLUS!),' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing his backing. Tuesday's result suggests that Trump's seal of approval was good enough for most GOP primary voters. By late Tuesday evening, Ciattarelli was carrying all of the state's 21 counties. Ciattarelli's vote share was at 67% by late Tuesday evening, compared with just 22% for Spadea. State Sen. Jon Bramnick, who had been critical of Trump, had won just 6%, followed by two other candidates who had each won less than 3% of the vote. Ciattarelli thanked Trump in his victory speech for his 'endorsement and strong support,' making a joke about his being a 'part-time New Jersey resident.' (Trump owns a home and a golf course in Bedminster.) But Ciattarelli spent most of his speech focused on a general election argument, not on shoring up his base — indicative of the line he'll have to walk in a state Trump lost three times, even after the improvement he showed last year. Old-school political machines still have some sway Both parties are grappling with antiestablishment sentiment, wondering how to handle it, channel it or just avoid getting run over by it. But Tuesday's results were also a reminder that political institutions still have some staying power. New Jersey's traditional political machines were dealt a blow last year following a lawsuit from Democrat Andy Kim during his Senate run, when a court ordered that county parties could no longer give advantageous ballot positions to their preferred candidates. That diminished the sway those parties had Tuesday, but they still demonstrated some power. Ciattarelli was the only Republican who competed for county party endorsements. Fulop didn't compete for Democratic county party endorsements, and Gottheimer sat some out, as well. Some county parties split between the candidates, with Sherrill earning the most endorsements from 10 of the 21 counties. While Sherrill was carrying 15 of the state's 21 counties late Tuesday, Gottheimer was winning his home county, Bergen, which endorsed him. Sweeney, the only candidate from South Jersey, fared far better in the six counties that backed him. He was winning 40% of the vote in Gloucester County while garnering 7% of the statewide vote. The county party endorsements were no guarantee of victory: The Essex County Democrats, for example, endorsed Sherrill. But as of late Tuesday evening, she was trailing Baraka in Essex County, where he is mayor of Newark, the state's largest city. Even in that instance, though, the party endorsement may have helped Sherrill cut Baraka's margins in his home base. Both parties frame the November fight Tuesday night's victory speeches were also important table-setters, indicative of how each party is looking to frame the general election. And New Jersey's general election this year may foreshadow much of what we see on the campaign trail around the country in the 2026 midterms. Outside of a quick thanks to Trump, Ciattarelli kept his focus tightly on Sherrill and New Jersey Democrats in his victory speech. He criticized her as 'Phil Murphy 2.0,' arguing that she has 'enabled every extremist and costly idea Phil Murphy has put forth,' and he even revived a key criticism of Murphy from his 2021 campaign. He also criticized Sherrill's focus on Trump as a deflection. 'Mark my words: While we focus on these key New Jersey issues, my Democratic opponent will do everything in her power. Trust me ... if you took a shot every time Mikie Sherrill says 'Trump,' you'd be drunk off your ass every day between now and Nov. 4,' he said. 'But every time you hear her say 'Trump,' I want you to know what it really means: What it really means is Mikie doesn't have a plan to fix New Jersey,' he continued. During her victory speech, Sherrill leaned heavily on her biography but also emphasized a dual mandate — a fight against New Jersey Republicans and also against Trump, a recipe that Democrats have successfully leaned on in past midterm elections. Calling Ciattarelli a 'Trump lackey' who shouldn't lead the state, Sherrill criticized 'Trump and MAGA Republicans in D.C. [who] want to raise your taxes and take away your health care and education dollars.' 'This country is too beautiful to be beholden to the cruelty and self-interest that Jack and Trump are trying to hoist on her,' she said. 'The future is built on hard work and hope, and here in New Jersey, we're known for our grit, our tenacity — maybe a little bit for how loud we are — but it's going to take a strong voice to cut through the noise from Washington and deliver for the people,' she said. 'So I stand here tonight doing just that. And as a mom of four teenagers, you guys know I'm not going to put up with the incompetent, whiny nonsense coming from aggrieved MAGA Republicans.' The power and limits of money Tuesday's results showed how money matters in campaigns — and how it has its limits. On the Democratic side, Sherrill won despite having been outspent by some of her opponents whose outside groups dropped millions of dollars on the race. The largest outside spender was Working New Jersey, a super PAC funded by the state's teachers union, which Spiller leads. The group had spent a whopping $35 million on the race as of May 27, according to the latest campaign finance reports, while Spiller's campaign had spent $342,000. As of late Tuesday, Spiller had about 10% of the primary vote. Gottheimer and Fulop were also boosted by outside groups that spent millions of dollars on the airwaves. (Gottheimer drained his congressional account to fund the outside group supporting him.) Sherrill got support on the airwaves from One Giant Leap PAC, which spent less than either Gottheimer's or Fulop's groups but spent most of its funds in the final weeks of the race. Ciattarelli and an aligned outside group, Kitchen Table Conservatives, outspent the other Republicans. And Ciattarelli touted his strong fundraising as proof that he would be a formidable general election candidate.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Trump test, Democrats' future and big money: Three things to watch in New Jersey's primaries
New Jersey voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday to pick nominees for this year's race for governor, in the first high-profile primaries for both parties since the 2024 election. New Jersey is one of two states with a gubernatorial race this year, along with Virginia. And both contests will be closely watched as early indicators of how voters are responding to President Donald Trump's second term. Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy cannot run for re-election due to term limits, so there are contested races for both parties' nominations. Candidates and groups have spent $85 million on ads this year in both primaries, according to to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, with more than $75 million spent in the Democratic primary alone. As Democrats nationally have tried to regroup following Trump's 2024 victory, where he also narrowed his margin of victory in bluer states like New Jersey, the six Democratic candidates have presented different paths forward for their party. And the race is still unsettled heading into the primary. On the Republican side, five candidates are on the ballot — but former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, whom Trump endorsed in mid-May, is viewed as the front-runner. Polls close at 8 p.m. ET. Here are three things to watch as voters make their choices. The crowded Democratic primary remains the most unpredictable race New Jersey has seen in decades, in part because county parties can no longer give advantageous ballot positions to their preferred candidates, following a lawsuit from Democrat Andy Kim during his Senate run last year. The suit weakened the state's party machines and contributed to a wide-open contest. As Democratic voters in New Jersey have evaluated the candidates, some have prioritized electability, raising concerns that Ciattarelli will be tough to beat in November. The former state legislator lost to Murphy in 2021 by 3 percentage points. And Trump also made gains in the state last year, losing by 6, a 10-point improvement on his 2020 margin, which was the second-largest swing toward Trump in the country. Democratic voters also say they are looking for a candidate to take on Trump. Against that backdrop, each Democrat has been pitching a different path forward for their party, and Tuesday's primary will be Democratic voters' first major opportunity to weigh in on which path they should take. Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill has been viewed as the relative front-runner after leading in limited public polling, although candidates are often clustered together within the margin of error. Sherrill has leveraged the party's successful playbook from the 2018 midterm elections, when she and other Democrats flipped Republican-held House seats. She has emphasized her background as a Navy helicopter pilot and a federal prosecutor in her pitch as someone who can effectively govern and take on Trump. Sherrill has faced recent attacks for her House campaign accepting donations from a corporate PAC tied to Elon Musk's SpaceX, and for being late to disclose two stock trades related to her husband's work. Sherrill's House campaign donated the PAC money to charity. She also paid a fine for the late disclosure and supports a stock trading ban for members of Congress. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has been pitching himself as the true progressive in the race who's willing to take on the president. He garnered national attention when he was arrested last month at a federal immigration detention facility. (The charges were later dropped, and Baraka is now suing New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba in response.) The attention has given Baraka's campaign a last-minute boost, with recent fundraising reports showing that his campaign raised $962,000 in the 17 days following the arrest, more than twice as much as his next closest Democratic competitor. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop is also appealing to the party's liberal voters, describing his supporters as 'pragmatic progressive' voters. Fulop has been running an anti-establishment campaign, criticizing the state's Democratic political machine and Murphy, whom he described at a recent campaign stop as a 'sub-average' governor. Teachers' union president Sean Spiller has said he also considers himself a progressive and has criticized those in his party who he says are backed by wealthy corporate interests. Spiller himself has been boosted by Working New Jersey, a super PAC funded by the New Jersey Education Association, which Spiller leads. Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, one of the more moderate members of Congress, has been pitching an economic-focused message, saying he will work to bring down the state's high cost of living. And former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, who lost re-election in 2021 to an underfunded GOP challenger, has argued that he is best equipped to lead the state government given his legislative experience. Sweeney, who is also stressing his blue-collar roots as a former ironworker, could have a geographic advantage as the only candidate from South Jersey. The GOP primary will be a key test for Trump's endorsement and determine whether the president has helped consolidate his supporters around Ciattarelli, his preferred candidate in the race. Ciattarelli sharply criticized then-candidate Trump in 2015, calling him a 'charlatan' and unfit to be president, and he notably did not campaign with Trump when he ran for governor in 2021. Trump knocked Ciattarelli for failing to do so in a radio appearance last year with Ciattarelli's chief competitor in the GOP primary, Bill Spadea. 'This guy never came to ask for my support,' Trump said then of Ciattarelli. 'And you know what, when MAGA sees that, they don't like it and they didn't vote for him. He would have won easily if he did.' Spadea also asked for Trump's endorsement in the race, and the possibility that Trump would take sides in the primary loomed over the contest for months. The president ultimately endorsed Ciattarelli on May 12, writing on Truth Social that Ciattarelli is now '100%' MAGA and is best positioned to win in November. Ciattarelli, for his part, now says he fully supports Trump and dismissed his past comments in an April interview with NBC News, noting other Republicans (including Vice President JD Vance) have criticized Trump in the past. The primary could also shed light on the size of the anti-Trump wing of the GOP in New Jersey, with state Sen. Jon Bramnick in the race. Bramnick, a longtime state legislator who is also a standup comedian, has called for a return to civility, and he has sharply criticized Trump in the past. Two other candidates are also on the Republican primary ballot: former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, a a self-described 'forever Trumper' who has been endorsed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and contractor Justin Barbera. Tuesday's primaries in New Jersey will also test outside groups' influence as they've spent millions of dollars in the pricey New York and Philadelphia media markets to reach Garden State voters. The pro-Spiller super PAC Working New Jersey, which is tied to the state's teachers' union, had spent a whopping $35 million on the race as of May 27, according to the latest campaign finance reports, while Spiller's campaign itself had spent $342,000. The group has spent $12.1 million on ads this year, according to AdImpact. That ad-spending sum was surpassed only by Affordable New Jersey, a super PAC supporting Gottheimer, which was funded largely by transfers from Gottheimer's congressional campaign. That group has spent $14.8 million on the airwaves. Fulop has also gotten a boost by a super PAC called Coalition for Progress, which has spent $8.1 million on ads this year. Sherrill's aligned super PAC, One Giant Leap PAC, has dropped nearly $5.9 million on the airwaves, largely over the last month of the race. Ciattarelli has had a financial advantage in the GOP primary, spending $6 million on ads, compared to Spadea's $1.7 million and Bramnick's $1.2 million, according to AdImpact. Both Ciattarelli and Spadea have also gotten boosts from super PACs, but both groups have spent less than $1 million on ads in the race. This article was originally published on
NBC News
10-06-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
The Trump test, Democrats' future and big money: Three things to watch in New Jersey's primaries
New Jersey voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday to pick nominees for this year's race for governor, in the first high-profile primaries for both parties since the 2024 election. New Jersey is one of two states with a gubernatorial race this year, along with Virginia. And both contests will be closely watched as early indicators of how voters are responding to President Donald Trump's second term. Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy cannot run for re-election due to term limits, so there are contested races for both parties' nominations. Candidates and groups have spent $85 million on ads this year in both primaries, according to to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, with more than $75 million spent in the Democratic primary alone. As Democrats nationally have tried to regroup following Trump's 2024 victory, where he also narrowed his margin of victory in bluer states like New Jersey, the six Democratic candidates have presented different paths forward for their party. And the race is still unsettled heading into the primary. On the Republican side, five candidates are on the ballot — but former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, whom Trump endorsed in mid-May, is viewed as the front-runner. Polls close at 8 p.m. ET. Here are three things to watch as voters make their choices. Which path will Democrats choose? The crowded Democratic primary remains the most unpredictable race New Jersey has seen in decades, in part because county parties can no longer give advantageous ballot positions to their preferred candidates, following a lawsuit from Democrat Andy Kim during his Senate run last year. The suit weakened the state's party machines and contributed to a wide-open contest. As Democratic voters in New Jersey have evaluated the candidates, some have prioritized electability, raising concerns that Ciattarelli will be tough to beat in November. The former state legislator lost to Murphy in 2021 by 3 percentage points. And Trump also made gains in the state last year, losing by 6, a 10-point improvement on his 2020 margin, which was the second-largest swing toward Trump in the country. Democratic voters also say they are looking for a candidate to take on Trump. Against that backdrop, each Democrat has been pitching a different path forward for their party, and Tuesday's primary will be Democratic voters' first major opportunity to weigh in on which path they should take. Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill has been viewed as the relative front-runner after leading in limited public polling, although candidates are often clustered together within the margin of error. Sherrill has leveraged the party's successful playbook from the 2018 midterm elections, when she and other Democrats flipped Republican-held House seats. She has emphasized her background as a Navy helicopter pilot and a federal prosecutor in her pitch as someone who can effectively govern and take on Trump. Sherrill has faced recent attacks for her House campaign accepting donations from a corporate PAC tied to Elon Musk's SpaceX, and for being late to disclose two stock trades related to her husband's work. Sherrill's House campaign donated the PAC money to charity. She also paid a fine for the late disclosure and supports a stock trading ban for members of Congress. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has been pitching himself as the true progressive in the race who's willing to take on the president. He garnered national attention when he was arrested last month at a federal immigration detention facility. (The charges were later dropped, and Baraka is now suing New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba in response.) The attention has given Baraka's campaign a last-minute boost, with recent fundraising reports showing that his campaign raised $962,000 in the 17 days following the arrest, more than twice as much as his next closest Democratic competitor. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop is also appealing to the party's liberal voters, describing his supporters as 'pragmatic progressive' voters. Fulop has been running an anti-establishment campaign, criticizing the state's Democratic political machine and Murphy, whom he described at a recent campaign stop as a 'sub-average' governor. Teachers' union president Sean Spiller has said he also considers himself a progressive and has criticized those in his party who he says are backed by wealthy corporate interests. Spiller himself has been boosted by Working New Jersey, a super PAC funded by the New Jersey Education Association, which Spiller leads. Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, one of the more moderate members of Congress, has been pitching an economic-focused message, saying he will work to bring down the state's high cost of living. And former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, who lost re-election in 2021 to an underfunded GOP challenger, has argued that he is best equipped to lead the state government given his legislative experience. Sweeney, who is also stressing his blue-collar roots as a former ironworker, could have a geographic advantage as the only candidate from South Jersey. How influential is Trump's endorsement? The GOP primary will be a key test for Trump's endorsement and determine whether the president has helped consolidate his supporters around Ciattarelli, his preferred candidate in the race. Ciattarelli sharply criticized then-candidate Trump in 2015, calling him a 'charlatan' and unfit to be president, and he notably did not campaign with Trump when he ran for governor in 2021. Trump knocked Ciattarelli for failing to do so in a radio appearance last year with Ciattarelli's chief competitor in the GOP primary, Bill Spadea. 'This guy never came to ask for my support,' Trump said then of Ciattarelli. 'And you know what, when MAGA sees that, they don't like it and they didn't vote for him. He would have won easily if he did.' Spadea also asked for Trump's endorsement in the race, and the possibility that Trump would take sides in the primary loomed over the contest for months. The president ultimately endorsed Ciattarelli on May 12, writing on Truth Social that Ciattarelli is now '100%' MAGA and is best positioned to win in November. Ciattarelli, for his part, now says he fully supports Trump and dismissed his past comments in an April interview with NBC News, noting other Republicans (including Vice President JD Vance) have criticized Trump in the past. The primary could also shed light on the size of the anti-Trump wing of the GOP in New Jersey, with state Sen. Jon Bramnick in the race. Bramnick, a longtime state legislator who is also a standup comedian, has called for a return to civility, and he has sharply criticized Trump in the past. Two other candidates are also on the Republican primary ballot: former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, a a self-described 'forever Trumper' who has been endorsed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and contractor Justin Barbera. Will the millions of dollars matter? Tuesday's primaries in New Jersey will also test outside groups' influence as they've spent millions of dollars in the pricey New York and Philadelphia media markets to reach Garden State voters. The pro-Spiller super PAC Working New Jersey, which is tied to the state's teachers' union, had spent a whopping $35 million on the race as of May 27, according to the latest campaign finance reports, while Spiller's campaign itself had spent $342,000. The group has spent $12.1 million on ads this year, according to AdImpact. That ad-spending sum was surpassed only by Affordable New Jersey, a super PAC supporting Gottheimer, which was funded largely by transfers from Gottheimer's congressional campaign. That group has spent $14.8 million on the airwaves. Fulop has also gotten a boost by a super PAC called Coalition for Progress, which has spent $8.1 million on ads this year. Sherrill's aligned super PAC, One Giant Leap PAC, has dropped nearly $5.9 million on the airwaves, largely over the last month of the race. Ciattarelli has had a financial advantage in the GOP primary, spending $6 million on ads, compared to Spadea's $1.7 million and Bramnick's $1.2 million, according to AdImpact. Both Ciattarelli and Spadea have also gotten boosts from super PACs, but both groups have spent less than $1 million on ads in the race.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tarrant County leaders urge public turnout ahead of redistricting vote
Tarrant County political organizations have been rallying residents for weeks leading up to Tuesday's Commissioners Court redistricting vote. In the last 24 hours before the vote, leaders are preparing signs and encouraging people to sign up to speak at the 10 a.m. meeting. The Tarrant County Commissioners Court will vote whether to establish new precinct boundaries for the four commissioners seats. The fast-paced, two-month-long process began when the county selected Public Interest Legal Foundation to advise in redrawing the maps ahead of the 2026 primary and general elections. The law firm, based in Alexandria, Virginia, have presented the court with seven maps drawn by National Republican Redistricting Trust's president, Adam Kincaid. All of them would likely lead to an additional Republican-held seat on the court. A Harvard law professor told the Star-Telegram the maps show 'telltale signs of racial gerrymandering.' After four county-hosted public meetings, Public Interest Legal Foundation added two more maps to the original five for the court's consideration. Now with the deciding vote around the corner, leaders are making a final push for their supporters to speak out. Julie McCarty, CEO of True Texas Project, said in an emailed newsletter that the Democrats are turning out 'in droves' to speak against redistricting. She wants redistricting supporters to do the same. 'The Left is freaking out,' the newsletter said. 'They've not only called on all the questionable organizations they control, like Act Blue, to register their choice for a new map, but they have gone so far as to offer babysitting and rides to show up at district meetings and at the court for the final vote! Hey, ya gotta admire their passion. Can our passion match that?' In recent meetings, most of the people speaking have opposed redistricting, so the email gives guidance on how to support the redrawing. 'Just like at the district meetings, all you have to do is stand up and say, 'I am John Doe, and I support redistricting with the most conservative map that gives us 3 Republican county commissioners. Thank you,'' the newsletter said. Allison Campolo, former county chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said she is rallying her troops to sign up for public comment and to stay through the long day until their voice is heard. 'We are reminding people that the real crux of the issue here is that these maps are illegally cracked and packed irreconcilable with the Voting Rights Act,' Campolo said. 'This will cost Tarrant taxpayers hundreds of thousands or millions in court costs to defend these illegal maps.' In a letter of opposition to the Commissioners Court, the Texas ACLU, Texas Civil Rights Project and Southern Coalition for Social Justice pointed to the $4 million cost of Galveston County's redistricting litigation the Public Interest Legal Foundation was involved in. Attorneys from Texas ACLU and the Texas Civil Rights Project said success on June 3 would look like the Commissioners Court listening to the 'robust public opposition' and voting accordingly. If that doesn't happen, the organizations will consider their legal options. Katherine Godby, chair of the Justice Network of Tarrant County, said the organization is working with other groups to host an 8 a.m. rally against redistricting in front of the county administration building, where the vote will take place. She said the energy surrounding the redistricting opposition has continued to grow and that people are angry over the effort. Godby said she wants to see one of the Republicans on the court join Democrats Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles in opposition so that the maps stay the same. If it doesn't go that way, Godby said the Justice Network will continue speaking out at commissioners court meetings as they have done for years.
