Alice Stewart, a CNN political commentator and veteran political adviser who worked on a number of GOP presidential campaigns, has died at age 58, the news network reported Saturday.

Police in northern Virginia told CNN that Stewart’s body was found outdoors in the Bellevue neighborhood early Saturday morning and that no foul play was suspected. Officials believe Stewart suffered a medical episode, according to CNN.

In an email to staff, the network’s CEO Mark Thompson called Stewart “a very dear friend and colleague to all of us at CNN.”

“A political veteran and an Emmy Award-winning journalist who brought an incomparable spark to CNN’s coverage, known across our bureaus not only for her political savvy, but for her unwavering kindness,” he wrote. “Our hearts are heavy as we mourn such an extraordinary loss.”

No further information about the cause of death or survivors was available Saturday.

Stewart was born on March 11, 1966, in Atlanta, and began her career as a local reporter in Georgia before moving to Little Rock, Arkansas to be a news anchor. She went on to serve as the communications director in then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s office. She assumed similar roles during Huckabee’s presidential run in 2008 and served as communications director for the 2012 presidential bids of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and then former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Most recently, Stewart was the communications director for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign.

“Heartbreaking,” Cruz posted Saturday on X, formerly Twitter. “⁦Alice was wonderful and talented and a dear friend. And she loved America fiercely. She lived every day to the fullest, and she will be deeply missed. May God’s comfort and peace be upon her loved ones. RIP.”

Stewart came on board CNN as a political commentator before the 2016 election and frequently appeared on air to provide insight on the political news of the day. She last appeared Friday on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

Stewart told the Harvard Political Review in 2020 that she brings “a perspective that I think CNN appreciates.”

“My position at CNN is to be a conservative voice yet an independent thinker,” Stewart said. “I’m not a Kool-Aid drinker; I’m not a never-Trumper, and I didn’t check my common sense and decency at the door when I voted for (Trump).”

Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson posted on X that Stewart’s “sudden death is such a loss to all who valued her friendship as well as her political passion”

“I first met Alice in Arkansas and I am proud that she focused on making friends in politics and not making enemies,” he posted. “Thank you Alice Stewart!”

Stewart also co-hosted the podcast “Hot Mics from Left to Right” alongside fellow CNN commentator Maria Cardona and served on the senior advisory committee at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School where she was previously a fellow.

In her free time, Stewart was an avid runner, according to CNN. She frequently posted photos from road races on social media, including from the TCS New York City Marathon, which she ran in November, and the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race, which she ran last month.

Arizona’s attorney general says former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been served an indictment in the state’s fake elector case alongside 17 other defendants for his role in an attempt to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes posted the news regarding the Trump-aligned lawyer on her X account late Friday.

“The final defendant was served moments ago. @RudyGiuliani nobody is above the law,” Mayes wrote.

The attorney general’s spokesman Richie Taylor said in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday that Giuliani faces the same charges as the other defendants, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

Giuliani’s political adviser, Ted Goodman, confirmed Giuliani was served Friday night after his 80th birthday celebration as he was walking to the car.

“We look forward to full vindication soon,” Goodman said in a statement Saturday.

The indictment alleges that Giuliani “pressured” Arizona legislators and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to change the outcome of Arizona’s election and that he was responsible for encouraging Republican electors in Arizona and six other contested states to vote for Trump.

Taylor said an unredacted copy of the indictment will be released Monday. He said Giuliani is expected to appear in court Tuesday unless he is granted a delay by the court.

Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, is among others who have been indicted in the case.

Neither Meadows nor Giuliani were named in the redacted grand jury indictment released earlier because they had not been served with it, but they were readily identifiable based on descriptions in the document. The Arizona attorney general’s office said Wednesday that Meadows had been served and confirmed that he was charged with the same counts as the other named defendants, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

With the indictments, Arizona becomes the fourth state where allies of the former president have been charged with using false or unproven claims about voter fraud related to the election.

Giuliani faces other legal proceedings, and a bankruptcy judge this past week said he was “disturbed” about the status of the case and for missed deadlines to file financial disclosure reports. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after being ordered to pay $148 million to two former election workers for spreading a false conspiracy theory about their role in the 2020 election.

Giuliani was also indicted last year by a grand jury in Georgia, where he is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel state lawmakers in Georgia to ignore the will of voters and illegally appoint pro-Trump electoral college electors.

Among the defendants are 11 Arizona Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Trump won in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election — including a former state GOP chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers. The other defendants are Mike Roman, who was Trump’s director of Election Day operations, and four attorneys accused of organizing an attempt to use fake documents to persuade Congress not to certify Biden’s victory: John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn and Jenna Ellis.

Trump himself was not charged but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.

The 11 people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claiming that Trump carried the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.

Eastman, who devised a strategy to try to persuade Congress not to certify the election, became the first person charged in Arizona’s fake elector case to be arraigned on Friday. He pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

Eastman made a brief statement outside the courthouse, saying the charges against him should have never been filed.

“I had zero communications with the electors in Arizona (and) zero involvement in any of the election litigation in Arizona or legislative hearings. And I am confident that with the laws faithfully applied, I will be fully be exonerated at the end of this process,” Eastman said. He declined to make further comment.

Arraignments are scheduled May 21 for 12 other people charged in the case, including nine of the 11 Republicans who had submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump had won Arizona.

The Arizona indictment said Eastman encouraged the GOP electors to cast their votes in December 2020, unsuccessfully pressured state lawmakers to change the election’s outcome in Arizona and told then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could reject Democratic electors in the counting of electoral votes in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Associated Press writers Jacques Billeaud and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix and Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report.

As Donald Trump increasingly infuses his campaign with Christian trappings while coasting to a third Republican presidential nomination, his support is as strong as ever among evangelicals and other conservative Christians.

“Trump supports Jesus, and without Jesus, America will fall,” said Kimberly Vaughn of Florence, Kentucky, as she joined other supporters of the former president entering a campaign rally near Dayton, Ohio.

Many of the T-shirts and hats that were worn and sold at the rally in March proclaimed religious slogans such as “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president” and “God, Guns & Trump.” One man’s shirt declared, “Make America Godly Again,” with the image of a luminous Jesus putting his supportive hands on Trump’s shoulders.

Many attendees said in interviews they believed Trump shared their Christian faith and values. Several cited their opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, particularly to transgender expressions.

Nobody voiced concern about Trump’s past conduct or his present indictments on criminal charges, including allegations that he tried to hide hush money payments to a porn actor during his 2016 campaign. Supporters saw Trump as representing a religion of second chances.

And for many, Trump is a champion of Christianity and patriotism.

“I believe he believes in God and our military men and women, in our country, in America,” said Tammy Houston of New Lexington, Ohio.

“I put my family first, and on a larger scale, it’s America first,” said Sherrie Cotterman of Sidney, Ohio. “And I would any day of the week, take a president that openly knows he needs the strength from God over his own.”

In many ways, this is a familiar story.

About 8 in 10 white evangelical Christians supported Trump in 2020, according to AP VoteCast. Pew Research Center’s validated voter survey found that a similar share supported him in 2016.

But this is a new campaign, and that support has remained durable — even though Republican voters in the early primaries had several conservative Christian candidates to choose from, none of whom faced the legal troubles and misconduct allegations that Trump does. In the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina Republican primaries, Trump won between 55% and 69% of white evangelical voters, according to AP VoteCast.

Trump even criticized one competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for signing strict abortion curbs into law.

Trump was the only Republican candidate facing scores of criminal charges, ranging from allegations that he conspired to overturn his 2020 election defeat to his current trial on allegations he falsified business records in seeking illegally to sway the 2016 election with hush money to porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Trump was also the only GOP candidate with a history of casino ventures and two divorces, as well as allegations of sexual misconduct — one of them affirmed by a civil court verdict.

Republican primary voters still overwhelmingly chose Trump.

This has frustrated a minority of conservative evangelicals who see Trump as an unrepentant poser, using the Bible and prayer sessions for photo props. They see him as lacking real faith and facing credible, serious misconduct allegations while campaigning with incendiary rhetoric and authoritarian ambitions.

Karen Swallow Prior, a Christian author and literary scholar who criticized fellow evangelicals’ embrace of Trump, said this support in 2024 is familiar but “intensified.”

In the past, she said Trump supporters hoped but weren’t certain that he shared their Christian faith.

“Now his supporters believe themselves,” she said. “Despite the fact that Trump clearly wavers on abortion and he wavers on LGBTQ issues, those things are just ignored, they’re just erased out of the narrative.”

At the Ohio rally, several attendees cited their belief that Trump has followed the Christian path of repenting and starting a new life.

“We’ve all come from sinning. Jesus sat with sinners, so he’s going to sit with Trump,” Vaughn said. “It’s not about where Trump came from, it’s about where he’s going and where he’s trying to take us.”

The Ohio rally, like other Trump events, featured a recording of the national anthem sung by some of those convicted for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, whom Trump called “patriots.”

At the rally’s entrance, one group handed out pamphlets urging attendees both to “trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation” and to support the “J6 patriots.”

Jody Picagli of Englewood, Ohio, said her Catholic faith and views on abortion are central.

“I’m a big right-to-life person,” she said. “That’s huge for me. And just morals. I think the moral compass is so out of whack right now. And we need religion and church back in here.”

She acknowledged that, with the Supreme Court turning the abortion issue over to the states, a future President Trump may not impact abortion law.

“But I know he’ll never go to an abortion clinic and visit it, like our vice president did,” she said, alluding to Kamala Harris’ tour of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota in March.

Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute and an author of books on white supremacy in American Christianity, said the strong evangelical support for Trump isn’t surprising. But he said that in a 2023 PRRI poll, less than half of white evangelicals said that abortion was a critical issue to them personally. More than half said that five others were a critical issue, including human trafficking, public schools, rising prices, immigration and crime.

“One of the biggest myths about white evangelical support for Trump is this idea that it’s really about abortion and they’re holding their nose and voting for Trump,” Jones said.

He added that Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants “invading the country and changing our cultural heritage” resonates with his audience.

The slogan “Make America Great Again” echoes an “ethno-religious vision of a white Christian America, just barely underneath the surface,” Jones said.

He acknowledged the racial lines aren’t absolute, with Trump attracting Black supporters such as South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

The Ohio rally included a vast majority of white attendees but with some Black and other ethnic groups represented.

Trump’s rallies take on the symbols, rhetoric and agenda of Christian nationalism, which typically includes a belief that America was founded to be a Christian nation and seeks to privilege Christianity in public life.

Trump endorsed a Bible edition that includes U.S. founding documents and the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”

“This is a Bible specifically for a kind of white evangelical audience that sees themselves as the rightful inheritors of the country,” Jones said, citing a 2023 PRRI poll in which about half of white evangelicals agreed that God intended America as a promised land for European Christians.

At the Ohio rally, some attendees said they believed the nation or its founding documents, such as the Bill of Rights, had Christian origins, though historians dispute such assertions.

Some Trump supporters voiced hope for a more Christian America.

Thomas Isbell of Greensboro, North Carolina, who has set up vending booths at many Trump rallies, said his “God, Guns & Trump” shirts are a top seller.

“It’s a Christian country,” he said, adding that if he were president, he would only allow public worship by Christians.

“We’re not going to set up a temple to no other gods in our land,” he said.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By Gram Slattery

DALLAS (Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pledged to unravel gun regulations put in place by Democratic President Joe Biden during a lengthy speech to the National Rifle Association on Saturday, during which he accepted the influential group’s endorsement.

The address to thousands of NRA members at the group’s annual Leadership Forum in Dallas was light on new policy, but he used the platform to urge gun supporters to go to the polls in the November election.

“We’ve got to get gun owners to vote,” Trump said in his wide-ranging speech, which covered everything from his criminal trials to trade and immigration over more than 90 minutes.

“I think you’re a rebellious bunch. But let’s be rebellious and vote this time.”

The nation’s top gun rights group has now endorsed Trump three times – in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

The organization had cheered on Trump during his 2017-2021 term, as he appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court and took a series of steps sought by the gun lobby. That included designating firearm shops as essential businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them to stay open.

During the speech, Trump repeated a pledge to fire the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, known as the ATF, on Day One of a potential administration. He accused that agency, which enforces U.S. gun laws, of being heavy-handed with firearm owners and revoking licenses on frivolous grounds.

Republicans largely oppose stricter gun laws, saying the right to bear arms is established in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment. That stance has remained fixed even in the face of a steady stream of mass shootings that have led to calls from many Democrats to impose more controls on guns.

“In my second term, we will roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment. The attacks are coming fast and furious,” Trump said.

Following the speech, the Biden campaign accused Trump of prioritizing the desires of the gun lobby over public safety. Trump and Biden are set to face off in the general election on Nov. 5.

“Tonight, Donald Trump confirmed that he will do exactly what the NRA tells him to do – even if it means more death, more shootings, and more suffering,” Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said.

As in previous addresses, Trump repeated a false claim that he won the 2020 election, and he went after Biden in aggressive terms, repeating claims of corruption that are not supported by available evidence.

Trump also unleashed a torrent of attacks on independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is running a distant third and siphoning off votes from both frontrunners.

Surveys show gun regulations are a divisive issue in the U.S., though a strong majority of Americans support at least some limits.

In a March Reuters/Ipsos survey, 53% of respondents said the government should regulate gun ownership, while 38% of respondents disagreed. Among Republicans, only 35% said the government should be involved.

The four-day annual NRA convention gathered tens of thousands of gun enthusiasts and dealers, with many in the heavily Republican crowd wearing Trump gear.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Dallas; Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Editing by Richard Chang)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — At a recent primary debate, congressional candidate Dave Williams took the microphone and unleashed the same MAGA arguments that vaulted him from a former state representative to chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.

“Right now we have a battle for the soul of our party,” Williams said.

Williams’ zeal and deployment of former President Donald Trump’s combative style of politics as state pary chairman has riven the Colorado GOP, reflecting the Trump-shaped rift in the national Republican Party.

But recent brazen maneuvers from Williams, including using his position as chair to try to usher himself into Congress, inflamed tensions. Some Republican officials in Colorado fell in lockstep, others demanded Williams’ resignation.

Through it all, Williams has caught Trump’s attention, a fact he didn’t let the crowd forget at the debate against his Republican rival for a Colorado House seat, Jeff Crank.

“I’m Dave Williams. I’m chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. And I’m also the Trump endorsed candidate,” he said in his first utterances of Thursday’s debate, later touting Trump’s cell phone number saved in his own phone.

Crank tried to make sure the audience didn’t forget the tempest around Williams, referencing Williams’ refusal to step down as party chair after joining the primary race, allegedly using the state party’s email list to announce his campaign for Congress and spending party money to purchase mailers that included an attack on Crank.

“My opponent has spent too much time fighting other Republicans than fighting Democrats,” Crank said. “Where’s all the money to fight Democrats? It’s going to him, it’s going into his pocke and it’s going into his campaign.”

Williams’ maneuvers flouted state party norms across the U.S.

“He’s cannibalizing the Republican party so he can go to Congress,” said Kelly Maher, a veteran GOP operative who filed a complaint against Williams with the Federal Elections Commission.

A statement from the Williams campaign did not respond to the complaint’s accusations, instead lobbing invective at Crank and calling the complaint an attempt “to generate fake news.”

William’s ascension and campaign mirror the national split among the GOP between a more combative, MAGA flank, which includes Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, and more traditional Republicans, some of whom, such as Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, have fled Congress while citing the new divisiveness in their party.

Whoever wins in the GOP June 25 primary for the reliably Republican seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Doug Lamborn will likely win the general election. Williams unsuccessfully challenged Lamborn in the 2022 primary when a judge barred him from listing his name on the ballot as Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams.

“The Colorado Republican Party, in my opinion, certainly under Williams’ leadership, has been forced to ask questions that they never grappled with before,” said state Rep. Matt Soper, a Republican who worked with Williams in the Statehouse. “What kind of Republican Party do we want to be?”

Williams’ tenure has left Colorado GOP rife with public infighting, in no small part prompted by his own attacks on fellow Republicans. While avoiding news interviews, Williams has sent short statements amounting to diatribes against rival Republicans, Democrats or the media.

Some Republicans appreciate the defense of the party’s conservative core from more moderate Republicans they see as muddling the movement and failing constituents.

“We’ve had decades of Republicans telling us that they are going to go and limit government, but then they don’t,” Williams said at the debate, as some audience members murmured in agreement.

That agenda has pushed Williams to wade beyond the traditional purview of a state party chair. State parties, at least publicly, tend to stay out of primary races, giving voters breathing room to choose their candidates. Under Williams, the Colorado Republican Party endorsed Republican primary candidates over others.

That included Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, who faced her own accusations of opportunistic maneuvers after hopping congressional districts. Boebert politically falls near Williams as an unyielding, far-right member of Congress in line with Gaetz.

In April, Williams ejected a journalist from an official Republican Party gathering, provoking a national outcry and disapproval from Colorado Republicans, including Boebert primary opponent Deborah Flora. The state party subsequently announced its endorsement of Boebert over Flora.

Seth Masket, a University of Denver political scientist, noted that while political parties are supposed to be neutral, in internal primaries they often informally back one candidate or another. Williams has erased even the appearance of neutrality, he said.

“There are definitely lines being crossed,” Masket said. “Williams is doing it in a much more overt and official way. There’s nothing subtle about it.”

Kolby Zipperer, chairman of the El Paso County Young Republicans, attended Thursday’s debate. When he entered the room, Zipperer, 35, was leaning toward Crank, concerned in part about the accusations of a lack of integrity against Williams.

“If I hear something in the lines of you’re a king, or your breaking the rules to benefit yourself. If I heard the same thing about (Crank) I’d have the same problem,” Zipperer said.

But by the end of the event, it was a coin flip for Zipperer, who appreciated Williams’ calm and talking points. While Williams can mirror Trump’s fiery disposition in statements and social media posts, in front of an audience he is more even-keeled.

“If he’s lying, he’s tricking me,” he said, adding that he also really likes Crank. “It’s like trying to pick two step dads.”

Former Colorado GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown doesn’t see the party’s divide as being between Trump and anti-Trump, saying she supports Trump not because of the former president’s political style, but chiefly because of his U.S. Supreme Court appointments and policy during his time in office.

“You can embrace that without thinking that, ‘Oh good. Now our entire party needs to adopt a combative, shove your face in the dirt style,’” Brown said. “Hate and divisiveness eventually blows up in its own face.”

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Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

DALLAS (AP) — Former President Donald Trump urged gun owners to vote in the 2024 election as he addressed thousands of members of the National Rifle Association, which officially endorsed him just before Trump took the stage at their annual meeting in Texas on Saturday.

“We’ve got to get gun owners to vote,” Trump said. “I think you’re a rebellious bunch. But let’s be rebellious and vote this time.”

Trump, in his speech, said the Second Amendment “is very much on the ballot” in November, alleging that, if Democratic President Joe Biden “gets four more years they are coming for your guns, 100% certain. Crooked Joe has a 40-year-record of trying to rip firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”

The Biden administration has taken a number of steps he says will combat gun violence, including a new rule that aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who do not perform background checks.

Trump has pledged to continue to defend the Second Amendment, which he says is “under siege,” and has called himself “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House.”

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been criticized by Biden, specifically for remarks that Trump made this year after a school shooting in Iowa. Trump called the incident “very terrible” only to later say that “we have to get over it. We have to move forward.”

Trump, during his speech, also laced into independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling him “radical left” and “a disaster,” and noting that Kennedy had once called the NRA a ”terror group.”

“Don’t think about it. Don’t waste your vote,” he said. “He calls you a terrorist group, and I call you the backbone of America.” (Kennedy later said in a Fox News interview that he didn’t remember his 2018 tweet. “I don’t consider them a terror group, and I support the Second Amendment,” he said.)

Trump noted he will be speaking next week at the Libertarian Party’s convention and said he will urge its members to vote for him.

“We have to join with them,” he said. “We have to get that 3% because we can’t take a chance on Joe Biden winning.”

Earlier Saturday, Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced the creation of a new “Gun Owners for Trump” coalition that includes gun rights activists and those who work in the firearms industry.

On Saturday, Trump also brought up the criminal cases against him as his New York criminal trial heads into the final stretch next week and accused Democrats of being behind these cases because he is Biden’s opponent.

“Never forget our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom,” he said.

Trump criticized Biden’s border policies, repeating his pledge that he will order the largest domestic deportation operation. He spoke about abortion and warned Republicans not to be so extreme on abortion to remain electable.

“In my opinion, Republicans have not been talking about it intelligently. They haven’t been talking about it with knowledge,” he said. “Remember, speak from your heart. But you also have to get elected again.”

PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long argued that the biggest hurdle of his presidential campaign is the perception that independent candidates can’t win. He has looked to the debates as a singular opportunity to stand alongside Joe Biden and Donald Trump in front of a massive audience.

But to make the first debate stage, he’ll have to secure a place on the ballot in at least a dozen more states and improve his showing in national polls in one month.

With a famous name and a loyal base, Kennedy has the potential to do better than any third-party presidential candidate since Ross Perot in the 1990s. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns, who fear he could play spoiler, bypassed the nonpartisan debate commission and agreed to a schedule that leaves Kennedy very little time to qualify for the first debate.

Publicly, Kennedy is expressing confidence that he will make the stage.

“I look forward to holding Presidents Biden and Trump accountable for their records in Atlanta on June 27 to give Americans the debate they deserve,” he posted on the X platform.

CNN has said candidates will be invited if they’ve secured a place on the ballot in states with at least 270 votes in the Electoral College, the minimum needed to win the presidency, and have hit 15% in four reliable polls published since March 13. The criteria mirror those used by the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonpartisan group that has organized debates since 1988, except the commission’s first debate would have been in September, giving Kennedy more time.

Kennedy doesn’t appear to have met the polling criteria yet, although he has reached 15% or higher in at least two polls meeting CNN’s standards.

The ballot access hurdle is even tougher.

State officials have confirmed Kennedy’s place on the ballot in Delaware, Oklahoma and Utah, which have just 16 electoral votes between them. In California, Hawaii and Michigan, minor parties have selected Kennedy as their nominee, in effect offering up existing ballot lines, though the states have not formally affirmed Kennedy’s position. Adding them would bring Kennedy’s total to 89 electoral votes, though it’s not clear that his position in those states would meet CNN’s criteria.

Kennedy’s campaign says he has collected enough signatures in Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, states with 112 electoral votes in total. But he has either not submitted the signatures or they have not yet been affirmed by state election officials.

Those states still only add up to 201 electoral votes.

Independent candidates like Kennedy face a labyrinth of laws that vary wildly from state to state but generally require hundreds or thousands of signatures and compliance with strict deadlines.

The patchwork of laws is littered with pitfalls. And the Democratic National Committee has pledged to scrutinize Kennedy’s submissions for mistakes that could keep him off the ballot or at least tie up his campaign’s time and money.

Kennedy, in turn, has resorted to secrecy and creative tactics in a sort of cat-and-mouse game to get on the ballot before his critics can thwart him. In California, Delaware and Michigan, Kennedy allied with little-known existing parties and received their nominations. In Hawaii, he formed his own political party to nominate him, and he’s pursued a similar strategy in Mississippi and North Carolina.

Elsewhere, he’s waiting to turn in signatures until the deadline to limit the time for critics to pore over them in search of errors. Getting on the debate stage next month would almost certainly require him to change his strategy and submit the petitions he’s sitting on as soon as possible.

Signatures are due in New York by May 28, which would get Kennedy 28 votes closer if they’re affirmed in time. He could then try to make an all-out push in a bunch of states with relatively easy requirements — many require 5,000 or fewer signatures, but they generally don’t bring many electoral votes — or focus on bigger states, such as Illinois with 19 electoral votes or Florida with 30.

Further complicating matters, some states aren’t yet accepting filings from potential independent candidates and won’t before the first debate.

Kennedy’s vice presidential nominee, Nicole Shanahan, who is divorced from Google co-founder Sergei Brin, committed $8 million from her personal fortune for ballot access, the campaign announced Thursday, declaring their $15 million effort “fully funded.”

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Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (AP) — One political party is holding urgent news conferences and congressional hearings over the topic. The other says it’s a dangerous distraction meant to seed doubts before this year’s presidential election.

In recent months, the specter of immigrants voting illegally in the U.S. has erupted into a leading election-year talking point for Republicans. They argue that legislation is necessary to protect the sanctity of the vote as the country faces unprecedented levels of illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Voting by people who are not U.S. citizens already is illegal in federal elections and there is no indication it’s happening anywhere in significant numbers. Yet Republican lawmakers at the federal and state levels are throwing their energy behind the issue, introducing legislation and fall ballot measures. The activity ensures the issue will remain at the forefront of voters’ minds in the months ahead.

Republicans in Congress are pushing a bill called the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) Act that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Meanwhile, Republican legislatures in at least six states have placed noncitizen voting measures on the Nov. 5 ballot, while at least two more are debating whether to do so.

“American elections are for American citizens, and we intend to keep it that way,” House Administration Committee Chairman Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin said during a hearing he hosted on the topic this past week.

Democrats on the committee lambasted their Republican colleagues for focusing on what they called a “nonissue,” arguing it was part of a strategy with former President Donald Trump to lay the groundwork for election challenges this fall.

“It appears the lesson Republicans learned from the fiasco that the former president caused in 2020 was not ‘Don’t steal an election’ — it was just ‘Start earlier,’” said New York Rep. Joe Morelle, the committee’s top Democrat. “The coup starts here. This is where it begins.”

The concern that immigrants who are not eligible to vote are illegally casting ballots has prevailed on the right for years. But it gained renewed attention earlier this year when Trump began suggesting without evidence that Democrats were encouraging illegal migration to the U.S. so they could register the newcomers to vote.

Republicans who have been vocal about voting by those who are not citizens have demurred when asked for evidence that it’s a problem. Last week, during a news conference on his federal legislation to require proof of citizenship during voter registration, House Speaker Mike Johnson couldn’t provide examples of the crime happening.

“The answer is that it’s unanswerable,” the Louisiana Republican said in response to a question about whether such people were illegally voting. “We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections, but it’s not been something that is easily provable.”

Election administration experts say it’s not only provable, but it’s been demonstrated that the number of noncitizens voting in federal elections is infinitesimal.

To be clear, there have been cases over the years of noncitizens illegally registering and even casting ballots. But states have mechanisms to catch that. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently found 137 suspected noncitizens on the state’s rolls — out of roughly 8 million voters — and is taking action to confirm and remove them, he announced this past week.

In 2022, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, conducted an audit of his state’s voter rolls specifically looking for noncitizens. His office found that 1,634 had attempted to register to vote over a period of 25 years, but election officials had caught all the applications and none had been able to register.

In North Carolina in 2016, an audit of elections found that 41 legal immigrants who had not yet become citizens cast ballots, out of 4.8 million total ballots cast. The votes didn’t make a difference in any of the state’s elections.

Voters must confirm under penalty of perjury that they are citizens when they register to vote. If they lie, they can face fines, imprisonment or deportation, said David Becker, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research.

On top of that, anyone registering provides their Social Security number, driver’s license or state ID, Becker said. That means they already have shown the government proof of citizenship to receive those documents, or if they are a noncitizen with a state ID or Social Security number, they have been clearly classified that way in the state’s records.

“What they’re asking for is additional proof,” Becker said of Republicans pushing Johnson’s bill. “Why should people have to go to multiple government agencies and have them ask, ’Show us your papers,’ when they’ve already shown them?”

Democrats fear adding more ID requirements could disenfranchise eligible voters who don’t have their birth certificates or Social Security cards on hand. Republicans counter that the extra step could provide another layer of security and boost voter confidence in an imperfect system in which noncitizen voters have slipped through in the past.

The national focus on noncitizen voting also has brought attention to a related, but different phenomenon: how a small number of local jurisdictions, among them San Francisco and the District of Columbia, have begun allowing immigrants who aren’t citizens to vote in some local contests, such as for school board and city council.

The number of noncitizen voters casting ballots in the towns and cities where they are allowed to do so has been minimal so far. In Winooski, Vermont, where 1,345 people cast ballots in a recent local election, just 11 were not citizens, the clerk told The Associated Press. Still, the gradually growing phenomenon has prompted some state lawmakers to introduce ballot measures that seek to stop cities from trying this in the future.

In South Carolina, voters in November will decide on a constitutional amendment that supporters say will shut the door on any noncitizens voting. The state’s constitution currently says every citizen aged 18 and over who qualifies to vote can. The amendment changes the phrasing to say “only citizens.”

Republican state Sen. Chip Campsen called it a safeguard to prevent future problems. California has similar wording to South Carolina’s current provision, and Campsen cited a California Supreme Court decision that ruled “every” didn’t prevent noncitizens from voting.

Democratic state Sen. Darrell Jackson asked Campsen during the debate last month, “Do we have that problem here in South Carolina?”

“You don’t have the problem until the problem arises,” Campsen replied.

On Friday, legislative Republicans in Missouri passed a ballot measure for November that would ban both noncitizen voting and ranked-choice voting.

“I know that scary hypotheticals have been thrown out there: ‘Well, what about St. Louis? What about Kansas City?’” said Democratic state Sen. Lauren Arthur of Kansas City. “It is not a real threat because this is already outlawed. It’s already illegal in Missouri.”

Asked by a Democrat on Thursday about instances of noncitizens voting in Missouri, Republican Rep. Alex Riley said he didn’t have “specific data or a scenario that it has happened,” but wanted to “address the concern that it could happen in the future.”

In Wisconsin, an important presidential swing state where the Republican-controlled Legislature also put a noncitizen voting measure on the ballot this fall, Democratic state Rep. Lee Snodgrass said during a hearing earlier this week that she couldn’t understand why someone who is not a legal citizen would vote.

“I’m trying to wrap my brain around what people think the motivation would be for a noncitizen to go through an enormous amount of hassle to actively commit a felony to vote in an election that’s going to end up putting them in prison or be deported,” she said.

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Associated Press writers Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

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By Gram Slattery

(Reuters) – Donald Trump falsely claimed on Friday that he won the 2020 presidential election in Minnesota and he said he would win this year in the state that has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate in over 50 years.

During an address to the Minnesota Republican Party’s annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in St. Paul, Trump repeated the unfounded claim that the last presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden, a Democrat, was tainted by widespread fraud.

“I know we won (Minnesota) in 2020,” Trump said to applause. “We’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to watch those votes.”

Ahead of their Nov. 5 presidential rematch, Trump campaign officials have publicly and privately insisted that Trump can beat Biden in Minnesota. While an upset in the state appears possible, available polling and the state’s political history indicate that the former president faces an uphill battle.

Major independent polls show Biden with a slim but consistent lead in Minnesota – typically between 2 and 4 percentage points. A Trump campaign official would not say directly whether they planned to dedicate resources to the state.

While Minnesota’s rural areas have swung towards Republicans over the last decade, suburban areas around Minneapolis have moved toward Democrats, reflecting broader nationwide trends.

During the speech, Trump repeated his calls for a “massive deportation” of immigrants in the country illegally, and he doubled down on promises to construct a new missile defense system, likening it to Israel’s “Iron Dome” program.

He also again hinted that North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a former primary rival who introduced Trump on Friday evening, was a top contender to be his vice-presidential running mate.

“A lot of people think it’s that guy right there,” Trump said of Burgum. “He’s very good.”

As with other recent speeches, Trump took personal and even profane jabs at Biden throughout the evening, at one point saying the president was “full of shit.”

During presidential campaigns, it is common for major candidates to insist they can capture states that appear to be a reach. Biden officials say they have a shot at taking Florida, though he is trailing by around 10 points there in most polls.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Dallas; Editing by William Mallard)

ATLANTA (AP) — A media personality who co-founded a conservative political action committee has been appointed to a seat on the Georgia State Election Board, which is responsible for developing election rules, investigating allegations of fraud and making recommendations to state lawmakers.

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican, on Friday announced the appointment of Janelle King to the board, effective immediately. She replaces Ed Lindsey, a former Republican state lawmaker, who resigned his seat after having served on the board since 2022.

“Janelle will be a tremendous asset as an independent thinker and impartial arbiter who will put principle above politics and ensure transparency and accountability in our elections, and I look forward to her work on behalf of the people of Georgia,” Burns said in a news release announcing King’s appointment.

King is the third new member appointed this year to the board, which has four Republican members and one Democrat. In January, Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Waffle House executive John Fervier to chair the board, and the state Senate approved the nomination of former state Sen. Rick Jeffares. Janice Johnston is the Republican Party appointee to the board, and Sara Tindall Ghazal is the Democratic Party appointee.

King and her husband, Kelvin King, co-chair Let’s Win For America Action, a conservative political action committee. Kelvin King ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 but lost in the Republican primary.

Janelle King has previously served as deputy state director of the Georgia Republican Party, as chair of the Georgia Black Republican Council and as a board member of the Georgia Young Republicans. She appears on Fox 5 Atlanta’s “The Georgia Gang,” has a podcast called “The Janelle King Show” and has been a contributor on the Fox News Channel.

State Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon, speaking to a fundraising dinner at the state Republican Convention Friday night in Columbus, said the party had been lobbying for Lindsey to be replaced, to flip the board to “a three-person working majority, three people that agree with us on the importance of election integrity.”

McKoon, who saluted Johnston for her work on the board, said such a majority will help ensure the election of Donald Trump in November.

“I believe when we look back on November 5th, 2024, we’re going to say getting to that 3-2 election integrity-minded majority on the State Election Board made sure that we had the level playing field to win this election,” McKoon said. ”So it is incredibly good news.”

Stephanie Jackson Ali, policy director of the New Georgia Project Action Fund, which pushes progressive policies generally favored by Democrats, said in a statement that King’s appointment “will only weaken the Board’s power and efficacy at a time when our elections systems and Georgia voters, more importantly, already face tremendous obstacles.”

“With this appointment, I’m increasingly concerned about the future politicization of a board that should be focused on running our elections smoothly and accessibly for Georgia voters, not on moving forward an agenda for partisan gain,” she said.

Despite her history as a Republican operative, King said she plans to use facts and data to make the right decisions while serving on the board.

“While my conservative values are still the same personally, when it comes to serving, I believe that I have to do my job,” she said in a phone interview Friday. “So I think I’m going to show people over time that I am fair, I am balanced and that I’m able to put my personal feelings to the side when necessary if that’s what it takes to make the best decision.”

The State Election Board has had an elevated profile since the 2020 election cycle resulted in an increased polarization of the rhetoric around elections. Its meetings often attract a boisterous crowd with strong opinions on how the state’s elections should be run and the board members sometimes face criticism and heckling.

King said that wouldn’t faze her: “Look, I’m a Black conservative. Criticism is nothing for me. I am not worried about that at all.”

Recent meetings have drawn scores of public comments from Republican activists who assert that former President Donald Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. They are calling for major changes in Georgia’s elections, including replacing the state’s touchscreen electronic voting machines with paper ballots marked and counted by hand.

King declined to comment Friday on her feelings about the state’s voting machines, but in a February episode of her podcast she said she has seen “no proof of cheating on the machines” and that she wasn’t in favor of an exclusively paper ballot system.

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Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed from Columbus, Georgia.