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As expected, the Reform UK leader easily won the Clacton by-election but was nowhere to be seen after the result.
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We speak with Tennessee lawmaker Justin J. Pearson, who just won the Democratic primary to represent part of Memphis in the state's 9th Congressional District. Pearson's campaign focused in part on opposing large artificial intelligence data centers, particularly Elon Musk's Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, which are in the Memphis area.
"People don't want toxic data centers polluting the air that they breathe," says Pearson. "It's not a fight of right versus left; it's a fight of those who are at the top and the rest of us."
Pearson is a longtime environmental justice organizer and advocate who first gained national prominence three years ago, when he was expelled from Tennessee's House of Representatives for protesting Republicans' inaction on gun violence. He is now running in a congressional district that was recently gerrymandered to dilute Black voting power in the state following a Supreme Court ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act. His opponent in November is Republican state Senator Brent Taylor, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.
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Kansas state Senator Cindy Holscher won Tuesday's primary race to become the Democratic nominee in the state's gubernatorial race, facing Republican Ty Masterson in November. Holscher clinched the nomination over fellow state lawmaker Ethan Corson, who was backed by the outgoing Democratic Kansas Governor Laura Kelly. Holscher's victory is seen as another resounding defeat for establishment Democrats in Kansas and nationwide. The fight over data centers became a defining issue in the Kansas race.
"We see [data centers] suck up the resources in terms of water. We see energy usage causing utility bills to skyrocket. So, certainly not things that you want to have happen during an affordability crisis," Holscher tells Democracy Now!
Holscher also celebrates the defeat of a ballot measure to change how state Supreme Court justices are elected, which she calls a "backdoor attempt" to attack abortion rights, voting access and public education.
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President Trump said Thursday he may temporarily withdraw his nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general after two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said they would not vote to advance Blanche's nomination until they received written assurances that he would limit some of the terms in the controversial deal reached between the Department of Justice and President Trump to settle his personal lawsuit against the IRS.
Blanche, currently acting attorney general, is "refusing to make a clear commitment that American tax dollars aren't going to go to the rioters of January 6th," says Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna. "He's refusing to make a clear commitment that Trump's family could still be held liable for violating financial laws."
Khanna also speaks about his ongoing efforts to bring justice for survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse, about which he says Blanche "has been the biggest obstacle to justice," his recent trip to the occupied West Bank where he was detained by armed Israeli settlers and more.
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An Emerson College Poll found that the GOP has a slight lead on the generic congressional ballot and that more Americans would vote for Trump if the election were held today.
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