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AUSTIN (AP) — Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas faced his first election Tuesday since his indictment on bribery charges, one of three closely watched races along the U.S.-Mexico border where Republicans are trying to widen inroads in the predominately Hispanic region.

The election is another test for Democrats in a region that has historically been a stronghold and is a recurring backdrop in the national debate over immigration.

Cuellar and his wife have pleaded not guilty to charges related to the couple’s ties to the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. Republicans mounted an aggressive campaign in 2022 to oust Cuellar, one of his party’s most outspoken moderates, but lost by double digits and pulled back in the district this year despite the indictment.

The border House districts are a competitive outlier in Texas, where Republicans have full control of the Legislature and a Democrat has not occupied a statewide office for more than 30 years.
Congressman running under indictment

Cuellar is running against Republican Jay Furman, a political newcomer and Navy veteran who is the incumbent’s first challenger since being indicted on bribery charges in May.

Cuellar and his wife are accused of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico. The charges have given Furman room to make his case in the 28th Congressional District, where Cuellar first took office in 2005.

However, the seat has drawn less attention this cycle from the GOP than in 2022, when a multimillion-dollar challenge still ended in a decisive Cuellar victory.
A rematch in a new Texas district

Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz is again trying to fend off a challenge from Democrat Michelle Vallejo after winning by 8 percentage points in 2022.

De La Cruz was the first Republican to win a congressional race in South Texas. The 15th Congressional District was one of two new seats awarded to Texas following the 2020 census, driven by the state’s booming Hispanic population, and was drawn by Republican mapmakers to give them an edge.

Vallejo’s campaign has leaned into protecting Social Security and Medicare, which are popular programs among her primarily Latino and working-class base. De La Cruz has touted her support of tougher border security policies, including those backed by former President Donald Trump.
Republicans hone in on the Rio Grande Valley

Republicans are zeroing in on Democratic Rep Vicente Gonzalez in a rematch with former Rep. Mayra Flores, who Republicans see as a rising star on the southern border.

Of the three border races in Texas, Republicans have thrown most of their muster behind their campaign to unseat Gonzalez, a moderate Democrat who defeated Flores by more than 8 percentage points in 2022.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has campaigned for Flores, who was the first Mexican-born woman elected to Congress and has outraised Gonzalez in a race that is one of the GOP’s biggest targets nationally. Flores previously held the seat after winning a special election earlier in 2022, under a map that was more favorable to Republicans.
Shifts in South Texas

Counties along the Texas-Mexico border made significant swings in 2020 toward Trump. The rightward shift represents a changing political landscape along the U.S.-Mexico border where border security has become a key issue for voters. President Biden won Hidalgo County, a reliably blue district, by less than half the margin that Hillary Clinton did in 2016. In rural Zapata County, Trump flipped the county altogether after Clinton won it by 33 percentage points four years prior.

The gains have led to Republicans to invest millions of dollars into what were once considered deep blue districts.

Democrats did, however, close the gap statewide in 2020 where Trump won Texas by less than 6 percentage points. It was the closest margin of victory for a GOP presidential nominee in Texas in decades.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Republican-led states say they will block the Justice Department’s election monitors from going inside polling places on Election Day, pushing back on federal authorities’ decades-long practice of watching for violations of federal voting laws.

Officials in Florida and Texas have said they won’t allow federal election monitors into polling sites on Tuesday. And on Monday, Missouri filed a federal lawsuit seeking a court order to block federal officials from observing inside polling places.

The Justice Department announced last week that it’s deploying election monitors in 86 jurisdictions across 27 states on Election Day. The Justice Department declined to comment on Monday on the Missouri lawsuit and the moves by other Republican-led states.

The race between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump is a dead heat, and both sides are bracing for potential legal challenges to vote tallies. The Justice Department’s election monitoring effort, a long practice under both Democratic and Republican administrations, is meant to ensure that federal voting rights are being followed.

Here’s a look at election monitors and the states’ actions:
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Who are the election monitors?

Election monitors are lawyers who work for the Justice Department, including in the civil rights division and U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. They are not law enforcement officers or federal agents.

For decades, the Justice Department’s civil rights division has sent attorneys and staff members to monitor polling places across the country in both federal and non-federal elections. The monitors are tasked with ensuring the compliance of federal voting rights laws.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforces a number of statutes protecting the right to vote. That includes Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidation and threats against those who are casting ballots or counting votes. And it includes the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates that election officials ensure people with disabilities have the full and equal opportunity to vote.

Where are election monitors being sent?

The 86 jurisdictions that the Justice Department will send monitors to on Tuesday include Maricopa County, Arizona and Fulton County, Georgia, which in 2020 became the center of election conspiracy theories spread by Trump and other Republicans. Another place on the list is Portage County, Ohio, where a sheriff came under fire for a social media post in which he said people with Harris yard signs should have their addresses recorded so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democrat wins the presidency

Other areas where federal monitors will be sent include Detroit, Michigan; Queens, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; Jackson County, South Dakota; Salem, Massachusetts; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Manassas, Virginia; Cuyahoga County, Ohio and Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska. The Justice Department’s monitors will be in St. Louis, Missouri; four jurisdictions in Florida and eight jurisdictions in Texas.

What’s happening in Missouri?

In filing the lawsuit on Monday, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said state law “clearly and specifically limits who may be in polling places.” He also accused the federal government of “attempting to illegally interfere in Missouri’s elections.”

The lawsuit states that Missouri law “permits only certain categories of persons to be present in voting locations, including voters, minor children accompanying voters, poll workers, election judges, etc.,” and not federal officials.

The Justice Department also sought to monitor polling places in Missouri in 2022. The agency planned to have officials at Cole County, which includes Jefferson City, the state capital. County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer had said he wouldn’t let them in if they show up.

The federal agency backed down after Ashcroft showed Justice Department officials the state law, Ashcroft said. He says the Justice Department is now “trying to go through the back door” by contacting local election officials for access.

Messages were left Monday with the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners.

The St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners reached a settlement in 2021 with the Justice Department aimed at ensuring people with mobility and vision impairments can access to polling places after federal officials found problems, such as ramps that were too steep and inaccessible parking, according to the court papers. The settlement, which expires next year, says the board must “cooperate fully” with Justice Department’s efforts to monitor compliance, “including but not limited to providing the United States with timely access to polling places (including on Election Day).”

What are the other states saying?

In a letter to the Justice Department on Friday, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said wrote that “Texas law is clear: Justice Department monitors are not permitted inside polling places where ballots are being cast or a central counting station where ballots are being counted.”

“Texas has a robust processes and procedures in place to ensure that eligible voters may participate in a free and fair election,” Nelson wrote.

In a similar letter Friday, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd told the Justice Department that Florida law lists who is allowed inside the state’s polling places and that Justice Department officials are not included. Byrd said that Florida is sending its own monitors to the four jurisdictions the Justice Department plans to send staff to and they will “ensure there is no interference with the voting process.”

THE VALLEY – Inside Climate News reports that the year was 1897. Floodwaters from the Rio Grande submerged entire blocks of downtown El Paso. The New York Times described the crash of crumbling houses and the “cries of frightened women and children” on its May 26 front page. The raging river displaced hundreds of people and destroyed scores of adobe homes. In Mexico, the Rio Grande is known as the Rio Bravo — the rough, or wild, river — signifying the force that caused several devastating floods in El Paso and neighboring Ciudad Juárez. Today, these historic floods are hard to imagine. The river channel in El Paso-Juárez now only fills during the irrigation season. Farther downstream, the river is frequently dry in a 200-mile section known as the Forgotten Reach. Inside Climate News documented this remote stretch of the river in July on a flight with the nonprofit Light Hawk. Other than limited flows from springs and creeks, known locally as arroyos, this section of the Rio Grande barely has water.

That’s because reservoirs now harness the flows of snowmelt and monsoon rains that once defined the river and deliver that water to thirsty cities and sprawling farms. Making matters worse, climate change is increasing temperatures and aridification in the desert Southwest. Competition over dwindling water is growing. All that leaves little water to support fish, birds and wetland ecosystems that once thrived along the Rio Grande. But environmental scientists and local conservation advocates say there are opportunities to restore environmental flows — the currents of water needed to maintain a healthy river ecology — on the Rio Grande and its West Texas tributaries. Proponents of environmental flows are restoring tributaries and documenting little-known springs that feed the river. They are working with counterparts in Mexico to overcome institutional barriers. Samuel Sandoval Solis, a professor of water resource management at the University of California Davis and an expert on the Rio Grande, compared this restoration model to a “string of pearls.” “Ultimately, we start connecting these pearls,” he said. “And we start putting it back together.” But to replicate and expand these local initiatives will require more funding and political support on the embattled binational waterway.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans vying to replace longtime leader Mitch McConnell have been crossing the country to campaign and fundraise for colleagues, making their final arguments before a consequential ballot the week after the presidential election. But their pitches are mostly behind closed doors, and most GOP senators won’t yet say which lawmaker they are backing. South Dakota’s John Thune, McConnell’s current No. 2, and John Cornyn of Texas, who held that job before Thune, are the front-runners in the Nov. 13 secret ballot to replace McConnell. The Kentucky senator is stepping aside from the post in January after almost two decades as leader. The winner could steer the direction of the party for years to come and possibly become the next Senate majority leader if Republicans win enough seats in Tuesday’s election. The outcome is, for now, uncertain.

Only a few Republican senators have publicly endorsed a candidate. Many say they are still undecided. The third senator in the race — Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who is dealing with his own reelection bid — could act as a spoiler. Another candidate could still jump in. In many ways, “the two Johns” are remarkably similar, making the choice difficult for their colleagues. Both are well-liked and, in the mold of McConnell, lean toward the more traditional wing of the Republican Party. But both have also suggested they will try to move on from the McConnell era with a more open approach. “I’m trying to find differentiation because they’re both great guys,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has worked closely with both of them. The two men are also trying to distinguish themselves from McConnell by making clear that they support Donald Trump in this year’s presidential election. Like McConnell, they have both sparred with Trump in the past, especially after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. But both Thune and Cornyn have talked to Trump frequently in recent months, attended campaign events and visited his Florida home.