Politics and views in the United States

Graham’s death complicates Senate vote counting and South Carolina politics. Trump fires federal election assistance officials, and Latino business owners sour on his immigration moves.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

I've never been more optimistic than I am today that we have the formula to end this war.

Help Ukraine be more lethal.

Let those supporting Russia to know it's going to be a price to be paid if you keep doing it.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham's son death from a heart attack could be bad news for Ukraine.

The foreign policy hawk had just returned from Kiev and was among those hoping more U.S. aid could add to Ukraine's new momentum in the war with Russia.

His absence so complicate leadership's math for close defense and Iran votes.

Graham had seemed headed for an easy re-election in Deep Red, South Carolina.

Now the state will hold a snap primary in a month.

Representative Nancy Mason is reportedly exploring a bid, and Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evatt says she hasn't made a decision after her loss in last month's gubernatorial primary.

Representative Ralph Norman reportedly asked President Donald Trump for an endorsement, and the state's Republican governor could put a finger on the scale when naming Graham's temporary replacement.

A new poll of Hispanic businesses in Texas is confirming a source of trouble for Attorney General Ken Paxton in his Senate run. 70% of 1,000 owners surveyed say Trump's immigration policies go too far, and his tariffs have hurt them.

Half of them identified as Republicans, but they favor state representative James Tallarico by seven points.

Other polls have found Texas Hispanics who shifted to Trump returning to the Democratic Party.

Just months before the midterms, election officials across the country were thrown a curveball when Trump fired the bipartisan Federal Election Assistance Commission.

The White House argues the president has the right to remove individuals who may not be totally aligned with the task of securing elections.

Pamela Smith is an election administrator from Cass County, Minnesota.

She says she's confident they'll still hold free, safe, and secure balloting there.

But Smith says local agencies are losing things like voting system certifications and having federal election funding for operational needs being thrown into doubt.

We kind of feel like orphaned children, you know, without a federal election commission.

It just doesn't seem right.

I don't know how those can keep going.

The Department of Justice was dealt its 12th straight loss in its lawsuits to force states to release private voter data.

A federal judge threw the bid for New York's unredacted voter registration lists.

The courts have proven reluctant to let the administration intervene in state-run elections in that way and have been protective of voter privacy.

The Trump administration has finalized a rule removing habitat protections from the landmark Endangered Species Act.

The new rule narrows the definition of harm, which originally included significant habitat degradation that kills or injures animals by impairing their ability to eat, shelter, or breed.

Conservationists were the new definition of harm could open endangered species' habitat to logging, mining, drilling, and real estate development.

Tara Zuardo, with the Center for Biological Diversity, expects lawsuits.

A particular project that's going to bulldoze a species' home isn't technically harming the species because it's not someone shooting the animal, it's just someone taking all of their habitat.

And that is when we would challenge the actual implementation of the law. 30 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled against developers saying that harm could include habitat destruction.

I'm Zamone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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