TV News LIES

State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D) defeated conservative talk show host John Reid in the Virginia lieutenant governor’s race on Tuesday, becoming the first Indian person to hold statewide office in the commonwealth and the first Muslim woman to win a statewide race in the U.S.

Hashmi led Reid throughout the general election, but polling in the race narrowed considerably in the run-up to Election Day.

Hashmi narrowly won her Democratic primary in June, defeating former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and state Sen. Aaron Rouse. 

Hashmi hails from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and had the support of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) in the primary.

More...

Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) defeated Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) in Virginia’s gubernatorial election on Tuesday, according to Decision Desk HQ, becoming the first woman to serve as governor of the commonwealth. 

Her victory in the closely watched bellwether state will be touted by the Democrats’ moderate wing in particular, as the party wrestles with how to define itself heading into next year’s midterm elections.

Spanberger first came onto the political scene in 2018 when she ousted former Republican Rep. Dave Brat in the state’s 7th Congressional District. She served in Congress, where she had a history of working with Republicans, from 2019 to the beginning of 2025. 

Spanberger’s gubernatorial campaign kicked off two years ago, and while there was speculation Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) was considering a run as well, the former congresswoman went unchallenged in the primary. 

Her campaign was defined by its highly disciplined nature, with Spanberger staying focused on her affordability message and defending Virginia from the impacts of President Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce.

More...

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) defeated former New Jersey General Assembly member Jack Ciattarelli (R) in the New Jersey governor’s race, securing a major win for Democrats in their first election cycle since the start of President Trump’s second term, according to Decision Desk HQ.

Sherrill, a fourth-term congresswoman representing a district in northern New Jersey, fended off a competitive challenge from Ciattarelli, who ran for governor for a third time after narrowly losing to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in 2021. Murphy is term-limited and couldn’t run again.

The race turned increasingly competitive in recent weeks, with some polling showing the election as a toss-up, as both candidates grappled with crisscrossing political headwinds.

More...

He was the most powerful and the most controversial vice president in American history.

Richard Bruce Cheney was a laconic onetime college dropout who found his place in Washington, moving to the capital as a congressional fellow and rising in short order to become White House chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, a Wyoming congressman in the House Republican leadership and wartime secretary of defense for President George H.W. Bush.

Then, for eight years as vice president for the younger President George W. Bush, Cheney acted as no second-in-command had before − directing the presidential transition, devising policy on energy and leading a concerted administration effort to restore and expand executive authority from what he saw as congressional incursion.

Cheney, 84, died surrounded by family on the evening of Nov. 3 of complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, according to a statement from the Cheney family. It called him "a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing."

After the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, he played a central role in shaping a hard-edged approach toward terrorism that included unprecedented electronic surveillance within the United States and aggressive interrogation of foreign combatants that many called torture. He was an architect of the decision to invade Iraq, a war that in large part defined Bush’s presidency.

More...

President Trump said Sunday he knows “nothing” about Binance founderdespite pardoning the convicted crypto billionaire._

Trump’s decision to pardon Zhao, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering regime, has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks given the Trump family’s business dealings with the crypto exchange.

“I don’t know who he is,” Trump told CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell in an interview for “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday. “I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.” 

“My sons are involved in crypto much more than me,” he added. “I know very little about it, other than one thing. It’s a huge industry. And if we’re not going to be the head of it, China, Japan, or someplace else is. So, I am behind it 100 percent.”

More...

Polling is giving observers a clearer picture of what to expect on Election Day as voters cast their ballots.

Key elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City and California could hold big implications for what to expect in next year’s midterms.

Here’s what the polling tells us about Tuesday’s major races:

VirginiaMore...

Throughout Virginia’s gubernatorial campaign, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) has maintahttps://tse1.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.wAp11aZFDh9GqobhZsuhggHaFj?pid=Api&P=0&h=220ined a solid lead over Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R). The latest Emerson College/The Hill survey, released Saturday, showed Spanberger leading Earle-Sears 55 percent to 44 percent. Spanberger improved her standing by 3 points in the poll, while Earle-Sears improved her standing by 2 points.

The polling average from The Hill’s partners at Decision Desk HQ has Spanberger up nearly 10 points over Earle-Sears. 

However, the most closely watched race in the state this cycle is the attorney general contest. The race was always seen as one of the closer statewide races in Virginia, given Attorney General Jason Miyares’s status as an incumbent and fundraising advantage. Democratic nominee Jay Jones, however, still held a narrow lead over Miyares.

That all changed in early October when texts sent by Jones in 2022 surfaced in which he talked about inflicting violence on former state House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R). Jones apologized for the texts, but polls show the scandal has narrowed the Democrat’s chances at ousting the Republican attorney general.

The same Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey released Saturday shows Jones leading Miyares 49 percent to 47 percent, well within the poll’s 3.2 point margin of error. Meanwhile, a Roanoke College poll released last week showed Miyares with an 8-point lead over Jones.

New Jersey

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) leads her Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli, but the race is close enough that some Democrats are sweating.

The Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) polling average shows Sherrill leading Ciattarelli 50.1 percent to 45.5 percent. A Suffolk University poll released last week shows Sherrill with a 4-point lead, while an AtlasIntel poll also released last week showed Sherrill up 1 point over Ciattarelli. 

The race comes a year after President Trump made notable gains in the blue-leaning state. Trump lost New Jersey to former Vice President Kamala Harris by just less than 6 points, a marked improvement from 2020 when he lost the state to former President Biden by nearly 16 points. 

Ciattarelli also performed better than expected in his race against Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in 2021, losing by roughly 3 points.

New York City

Polls suggest Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is well on his way to becoming mayor of New York City. Mamdani began the mayor’s race as a relatively unknown figure but has skyrocketed in stature following his surprise win in the Democratic primary.

Strategies to stop Mamdani’s support from growing have continuously been floated throughout the campaign. The city’s incumbent Mayor Eric Adams dropped his bid for reelection and eventually backed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s independent bid. Republican Curtis Sliwa has also faced calls to drop his bid, with critics arguing that his presence in the race benefits Mamdani because he takes votes away from Cuomo. 

Despite Cuomo’s high name ID and warnings about Mamdani’s far-left policy platform, Mamdani has only continued to consolidate support in the Democratic enclave. According to the DDHQ polling average, Mamdani leads the field with 44.6 percent, followed by Cuomo at 31.6 percent, and Sliwa at 18.6 percent. 

However, Cuomo’s allies were somewhat heartened over the weekend when an AtlasIntel poll showed Cuomo appearing to close the gap with Mamdani. The poll showed Mamdani leading Cuomo 40.6 percent to 34 percent ahead of Election Day.

California 

Proposition 50, the ballot measure backed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) that would establish new congressional district maps that temporarily override the state’s independent redistricting committee, appears to be on a glide path to passing. The measure would allow Newsom and the state’s Democrats to move forward with redistricting efforts ahead of next year’s midterms in an effort to counter Republican-led efforts in Texas. 

The measure has gotten some pushback, including from former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), but has proven to be widely popular in the state. An Emerson College Polling survey released last month found that 57 percent of likely voters in the state said they backed the measure while 37 percent said they did not support it. A separate CBS News/YouGov poll showed an even larger margin, with 62 percent of respondents saying they would vote yes on the measure and 38 percent saying they would vote no.

More...