South

DSA-backed Raman will lead America’s second largest city, promising action on homelessness and affordable housing.

Nithya Raman, a progressive Los Angeles City Council member, has defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, putting her on track to become the first South Asian to lead the second-largest city in the United States.

The Associated Press called the race for Raman on Thursday, with Raman holding 52 percent of the vote.

Raman, 45, overtook Bass despite the incumbent’s support from prominent Democrats such as California Governor Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Her campaign was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), with her victory coming as part of a surge in visibility and electoral wins for the left-wing political movement.

A record number of candidates backed or affiliated with the DSA won federal offices in Tuesday’s midterm elections. On its website, the DSA has claimed credit for contributing to at least 300 candidacies or ballot referendums during the midterms, and it said it is on track to count 105 of those as victories.

Some of those wins came in congressional races, with figures such as Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, Melat Kiros and Chris Rabb winning their first terms as US representatives.

Raman’s victory in Los Angeles follows another high-profile democratic socialist winning a mayor’s race in New York City last year: Zohran Mamdani.

Raman was born in India and worked as an urban planner before running for office. Once an ally of Bass, she had initially endorsed her re-election campaign but reversed course, entering the mayoral race in February, just hours before the filing deadline.

In her victory speech, Raman promised to restore what she called an ambitious, creative and entrepreneurial Los Angeles.

“For too long our broken and unjust status quo has convinced Angelenos that this is the best that we can do,” she told the crowd.

Raman also pledged to expand affordable housing, improve neglected city services and take a different approach to homelessness by deploying more medical teams to assist people who are unhoused.

In addition, she called for replacing the city’s police chief over concerns about cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Raman now faces the task of delivering on those promises in a city of more than 3.8 million people.

Los Angeles also faces the challenge of hosting the 2028 Olympic Games, which open in July of that year.

With the result, Bass has become the first Los Angeles mayor in more than two decades to lose a re-election bid.

Her defeat follows a difficult four years in office. Her administration faced mounting criticism over the city’s homelessness crisis and its response to the deadly Palisades Fire, which broke out while she was overseas and devastated communities across the Los Angeles area.

In a statement on Thursday, Bass congratulated Raman and said she was committed to ensuring a smooth transition.

“Four years ago, you elected me as the first Black woman mayor in the history of Los Angeles. You gave me the honor of serving the city that raised me, and every single day since, I have carried that responsibility with me,” Bass wrote.

“Moving this city forward is what Los Angeles needs from all of us.”

The ANC was on about 32 percent of the vote after almost half of the votes were counted in municipal elections.

South Africa’s early municipal election results have shown the African National Congress (ANC) with a sharply reduced vote share, weakening the long-dominant party’s control of key cities such as Johannesburg.

The ANC was on about 32 percent of the vote, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) in second place at 25 percent, after more than 60 percent of the votes had been counted in this week’s municipal elections, data from the election commission showed late on Thursday.

Meanwhile, former President Jacob Zuma’s breakaway opposition uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party was in third place with 8.5 percent, below levels suggested by opinion polls.

About 15.9 million of 29.2 million registered voters cast ballots, the electoral commission said, putting turnout at an estimated 54.5 percent, up from 46 percent in the pandemic-hit 2021 local elections.

The ANC, which has been South Africa’s largest party since it led the country out of apartheid in 1994, has tended to do worse in municipal elections than nationally and has acknowledged its failures in local governance.

From nearly 70 percent of the national vote in 2004, the ANC fell below 50 percent for the first time in the 2021 municipal elections, winning 46 percent.

At the 2024 national elections, it managed just more than 40 percent and was forced to accept a unity government with nine other parties, including the DA.

The party, now led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, has borne the brunt of criticism about years of municipal mismanagement that have left South Africans grappling with failing water supplies, persistent power cuts and crumbling public services.

It has also faced corruption allegations, while splinter parties have eaten away at its support base.

The results of this week’s local ballot will offer a key measure of voters’ sentiment ahead of the 2029 general election.

Control of the country’s eight major metropolitan municipalities is up for grabs, alongside dozens of district and local councils.

The MK party had been tipped as one of the few parties capable of securing an outright majority in the eastern port city of Durban.

But projections by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a state-funded research body, put its support there at 32 percent.

The DA, meanwhile, was forecast to retain control of tourist magnet Cape Town with 56 percent of the vote, with its leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, already declaring victory.

The party was also leading with 34 percent in Johannesburg, the country’s financial capital, after running a spirited campaign spearheaded by its former leader, Helen Zille, 75, according to CSIR projections.

With outright majorities far from assured in several major cities, the results could usher in another round of complex coalition negotiations, with parties bargaining to assemble the alliances needed to govern.

Final results are expected on Sunday.

Seoul proposes expanding its Cheonghae unit’s operational areas to waters near Duqm in Oman amid pressure from US to support war on Iran.

South Korea plans to expand its anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia to waters closer to the Strait of Hormuz, the Ministry of National Defense said, following pressure from the United States to provide support for the war on Iran.

The government will ask the National Assembly to extend the mandate of the Cheonghae unit, a naval task force due to expire at the end of 2026, a Defence Ministry spokesperson told the Reuters news agency on Thursday. The request would also widen the unit’s area of operations to waters near the port of Duqm in Oman, about 650km (403 miles) from the Strait of Hormuz.

The motion will go to lawmakers after the cabinet endorses it next week, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The Cheonghae unit has patrolled the Gulf of Aden since 2009 to protect commercial shipping. Its latest contingent sailed from South Korea’s Busan on October 2 on board the Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin, a 4,400-tonne destroyer carrying a maritime helicopter and about 300 service members.

Under the new mandate, the unit would push northeast into the Arabian Sea south of Oman, roughly doubling its operating radius to about 1,930km (1,200 miles), officials told Yonhap.

It would add 75 personnel, including a bomb disposal team, and a P-8A maritime patrol aircraft to help monitor shipping routes.

Officials told Yonhap the mission would be strictly noncombat and the unit would remain under South Korean command, operating independently of allied forces.

“The enhancement of the Cheonghae unit’s mission is to protect our citizens and safeguard our economic interests,” a defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Yonhap.

“Operations will remain restricted to the open waters south of Oman, and the maritime patrol aircraft will be prohibited from targeting or monitoring Iranian territory, territorial waters or the interior of the Strait of Hormuz during their missions,” he said.

The latest proposal follows pressure from US President Donald Trump for Seoul to support Washington’s war on Iran.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pledged in April to help safeguard shipping during talks led by the United Kingdom and France. In September, he said he would avoid any deployment that could draw South Korea into the war.

Opposition lawmakers have argued against an expansion of the Cheonghae unit’s mission.

“Expanding the Cheonghae unit’s operational area amounts to a troop deployment,” Kim Joon-hyung, the floor leader of the small left-leaning Rebuilding Korea Party, said at a news conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday.

“It is not a clever solution but a deceptive workaround.”

Kim warned that an expanded mission could expose South Korean forces to Iranian retaliation, even if Seoul insisted that its personnel would not take part in combat.

“If President Donald Trump boasts that South Korea was the first country in the world to dispatch troops, we would become the first country to join the Middle East war,” he said.

Polls suggest the governing party could fall below 40 percent as voters weigh failing services.

South Africans are voting in local elections widely seen as a verdict on the African National Congress (ANC), the party that led the country out of white minority rule in 1994 but has steadily lost support over the past decade.

Polls opened at 7am (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday and close at 9pm (19:00 GMT). A record 29.2 million people are registered to vote at 23,696 voting stations, according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC). More than 1.4 million special votes were cast on Monday and Tuesday.

Voters are electing councils for the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district councils and 205 local councils. Those councils then choose mayors.

The ANC fell below 50 percent in municipal polls for the first time in 2021. In the 2024 national election, it lost its parliamentary majority and was forced into a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and other parties. Polls suggest the ANC’s support could drop below 40 percent this time.

“Municipal failures have contributed to declining public trust and confidence in democratic governance,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter, “From the Desk of the President”.

Ramaphosa is due to vote at Hyde Park High School in Johannesburg, the presidency said.

Johannesburg is the biggest prize in this election. The country’s financial capital has had five mayors in four years.

The DA has fielded its 75-year-old former leader, Helen Zille, for the city’s top job. Her campaign stunts included snorkelling in a mud-filled trench that was flooded by a burst municipal water pipe.

A News24 poll put Zille at 36 percent, meaning she would need coalition partners, particularly the ANC, to govern. Zille told the Associated Press news agency that the ANC was “in free fall”.

This is the first local vote for former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which is mounting a strong challenge in the coastal city of Durban.

“We are going to start by taking back our country here,” Zuma told supporters in the city on Sunday, the AFP news agency reported. Durban has become a centre of anti-migrant sentiment, a prominent theme in the campaign.

Turnout may be a concern. Only 46 percent of registered voters took part in the 2021 municipal elections.

Coalition government is already widespread: 74 of the country’s 257 municipalities were run by coalitions or minority administrations as of February, according to the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection.

Security has also been tightened. Police said 21 election-related cases have been recorded since Sunday. KwaZulu-Natal has 165 voting stations classed as high risk, the most of any province.

Final results are expected on Sunday. They are expected to shape the race to succeed Ramaphosa as ANC leader at the party’s conference in December 2027.

In July, 2004, the IMF and
World Bank commemorated the 60th anniversary of their founding at Bretton Woods, NH to
provide a financial framework of assistance for the postwar world after the
expected defeat of Germany
and Japan.
With breathtaking hypocrisy, an October, 2004 Development Committee Communique
stated: “As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Bretton Woods
Institutions….we recommit ourselves to supporting efforts by developing
countries to pursue sustainable growth, sound macroeconomic policies, debt
sustainability, open trade, job creation, poverty reduction and good
governance.” Phew.

In fact, for 63 hellish years,
both these institutions achieved mirror opposite results on everything the
above comment states. From inception, their mission was to integrate developing
nations into the Global North-dominated world economy and use debt repayment as
the way to transfer wealth from poor countries to powerful bankers in rich
ones.

The scheme is called debt
slavery because new loans are needed to service old ones, indebtedness rises,
and borrowing terms stipulate harsh one-way “structural adjustment”
provisions that include:

• privatizations of state
  enterprises;
• government deregulation;
• deep cuts in social
  spending;
• wage freezes or cuts;
• unrestricted free market
  access for foreign corporations;
• corporate-friendly tax
  cuts;
• crackdowns on trade
  unionists; and
• savage repression for
  non-believers under a system incompatible with social democracy.

Everywhere the scheme is the
same: huge public wealth transfers to elitist private hands, exploding public
debt, an ever-widening disparity between the super-rich and desperate poor, and
an aggressive nationalism to justify huge spending on security for aggressive
surveillance, mass incarceration plus repression and torture for social
control.

An Alternative to Debt Slavery – The Bank of the South

Last December, Hugo Chavez
announced his idea for a Banco del Sur, or Bank of the South, as part of his
crusade against the institutions of international capital he calls “tools
of Washington.”
The bank will be officially launched at a presidential November 3 summit in Caracas, where it is to be headquartered, with seven
founding member-states – Venezuela,
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay,
Paraguay, Bolivia and Ecuador.

On October 12, Colombia’s
President Alvaro Uribe announced his nation agreed to become the eighth member
but said “The decision is not a rejection to the World Bank or
Inter-American Development Bank, but a sign of solidarity and fraternity
towards the South American community.” At this time, only four South
American states aren’t included – Chile,
Peru, Guyana and Surinam,
but Chile seems likely to
come aboard following Colombia’s
lead, and the others may decide to join them.

Finance ministers from the
founding countries met in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil
October 8 to finalize the Bank’s Founding Document. Many key operating issues
have yet to be resolved, but unofficial information was that each nation will
commit 10% of its international reserves and have equal oversight over the new
institution. In a concluding news conference, Brazilian finance minister Guido
Mantega stated: the participating countries “have been able to overcome
all obstacles that were in the way of an understanding around the formation of
the Bank of the South. We can now say that the (bank) is close to becoming a
reality” even though Brazil
(Latin America’s largest economy) hasn’t yet
formalized its entry.

Venezuelan finance minister
Rodrigo Cabezas explained the bank will help develop the region by offering
South Americans more credits. It’s being “created to build a new
architecture that assumes an improved relationship of the bank and its capacity
to offer credits for its people.” It also aims to increase liquidity and
revive socioeconomic development and infrastructure investments in
participating countries and keep them outside the restrictive control of the
IMF and World Bank that are fast losing influence and being phased out of the
region.

In 2005, 80% of IMF’s $81
billion loan portfolio was to Latin America.
Today, it’s 1% with nearly all its $17 billion in outstanding loans to Turkey and Pakistan. The World Bank is also
being rejected. Venezuela
had already paid off its IMF and World Bank debt ahead of schedule when Hugo
Chavez symbolically announced on April 30: “We will no longer have to go
to Washington
nor to the IMF nor to the World Bank, not to anyone.” Ecuador’s Rafael
Correa is following suit. He cleared his country’s IMF debt, suspended World
Bank loans, accused the WB of trying to extort money from him when he was
economy and finance minister in 2005, and last April declared the Bank’s
country representative persona non grata in an extraordinary diplomatic slap in
the face.

The Banco del Sur will replace
these repressive institutions with $7 billion in startup capital when it begins
operating in 2008. It will be under “a new financial architecture”
for regional investment with the finance ministers of each member nation
sitting on the bank’s administrative council with equal authority over its
operations as things now stand. Venezuelan Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas
stressed the bank’s Latin roots, saying: “The idea is to rely on a
development agency for us, led by us” to finance public and private
development and regional integration projects. He added: “There will not
be credit subjected to economic policies. There will not be credit that
produces a calamity for our people and as a result, it will not be a tool of
domination” like the international lending agencies.

Hugo Chavez’s vision is to
liberate the region’s countries from IMF, World Bank, and Inter-American
Development Bank (IBD) control that condemn millions to poverty through their
lending practices. Helped by windfall oil profits, his government is already doing
it with an unprecedented commitment to provide financial aid and below-market
priced oil to regional and other countries. So far this year, it’s on the order
of around $9 billion, and, unlike the Washington-controlled kind, it comes at
low cost and with good will, a cooperative spirit and few if any strings.

Nobel laureate economist Joseph
Stiglitz recognizes Chavez’s efforts and stated his support for the Banco del
Sur on an October 10 visit to Caracas.
He said “One of the advantages of having a Bank of the South is that it
would reflect the perspectives of those in the South (while in contrast IMF and
World Bank conditions) hinder (regional) development effectiveness.”

Stiglitz met with Hugo Chavez
on his visit and praised his redistributive social policies. He also criticized
Washington Consensus neoliberal practices that exploit the region’s people,
“undermin(e)….Andean cooperation, and it is part of the American
strategy of divide and conquer, a strategy trying to get as much of the
benefits for American companies” at the expense of the region and its
people.

Venezuela’s acting ambassador to
the Permanent Mission to the UN, Aura Mahuampi Rodriguez de Ortiz, warned the
world body about Latin American debt during her participation in the General Debate
on Macroeconomic Policies in October. She stressed: “The persistence of
the foreign debt of the developing countries affects negatively on its process
of development. It is not worthy to direct resources for the development of
poor countries if such resources end up directed to the payment of the foreign
debt” instead of going to economic development internally. She also spoke
of the new Bank of the South, how it will help strengthen regional integration
and also fairly distribute investments and finance projects to reduce poverty
and social exclusion.

A less publicized Bank of ALBA
(Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas) will also begin operating by year end
under “a new regional financial architecture under principles that create
a new form of channeling financial resources” to its four country alliance
– Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

Chavez first proposed ALBA as
an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in 2001 with Venezuela, Cuba,
and Bolivia
its original members in December, 2004. Nicaragua then joined the alliance
in January, 2007 under its newly elected president, Daniel Ortega, who signed
on as his first act in office. ALBA’s goal is ambitious. It is the
comprehensive integration of the region and development of the “social
state” for all its people. It is boldly based on member states’
complementarity, not competition; solidarity, not domination; cooperation, not
exploitation; and respect for each participating nation’s sovereign right to be
free from the grip of other countries and corporate giants.

In April, the 5th ALBA summit
was held in Caracas
to discuss ways to improve the alliance. Initiatives covered included a
Permanent (coordinating) Secretariat and a plan to create 12 public companies
to be co-managed by ALBA member states. Its goal is to strengthen key economic
sectors in areas of energy, agriculture, telecommunications, infrastructure,
industrial supplies and cement production. ALBA country foreign ministers then
agreed in June to create a development Bank of ALBA to help finance these
ventures with low-cost credit. It will complement the Banco del Sur and also be
headquartered in Caracas.

Uncertain Future Prospects

Socially responsible regional
banks, like those discussed above, will challenge the dominant institutions of
finance capital if they fulfill their promise. But therein lies the problem.
These new institutions aren’t panaceas and they may end up letting capital
interests exploit them for their own advantage. In addition, financial autonomy
alone won’t free the region from Washington’s
grip without greater change. What’s needed are sweeping nationalizations of
basic industries, an end to one-way WTO-style trade deals, socially
redistributing national resources, developing local economies, achieving land
and housing reform, plus a sweeping commitment to social equity and a resolve
to end a 25 year neoliberal nightmare. From 1960 to 1980, the region’s per
capita income growth was 82%. From 1980 to 2000, however, it was 9%, and from
2000 to 2005 only 4%. For the region, it meant sweeping poverty, inequality and
the most extreme disparity between the super-rich and desperate poor in the
world. 

Change is needed, and Venezuela under
Hugo Chavez has done most in the region to achieve it. Finance Minister Rodrigo
Cabezas just presented his government’s 2008 budget to the National Assembly
that allocates 46% of it to social spending. It devotes special attention to
health and education but also to subsidized and free food, land reform,
housing, micro credit, job training, cooperatives and more as Chavez continues
to use his nation’s resources to address the needs of his people. Since he took
office, social spending per person is up more than threefold and in 2006 was
20.9% of GDP.

Chavez now has an ally in Ecuador under
Rafael Correa, whose early efforts are promising. Hopefully, they’ll continue
under a new constitution to be drafted in the next six months and then put to a
national referendum next year. Other Bank of the South founding countries like Brazil, Argentina,
and Bolivia,
however, claim to be center-left but, in fact, embrace 1990s neoliberalism, and
financial autonomy won’t change that. The Bank of the South will only work if
it fulfills a mandate to prioritize local needs and development, not corporate
ones. That’s a tall order, and achieving it won’t be easy with its dominant
member, Brazil under Lula,
closely tied to Washington
and in its grip.

Nonetheless, small signs of
change are emerging, the Bank of the South may be one of them, and a new
generation of leftist leaders may in the end break Washington’s weakening (but still strong)
hold on the region. That’s the hope, and every step forward means more power to
the people and another possible world.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago
and can be reached at [email protected].

Also visit his blog
site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Steve Lendman News and
Information Hour on TheMicroEffect.com Mondays at noon US central time.

Charleston, South Carolina – Avery Milton thought he was a die-hard supporter of US President Donald Trump. The 28-year-old South Carolina native had voted for Trump in the past three elections and believed in his promise to put America first. But ahead of the midterm elections, the president has left him feeling betrayed.

“He stabbed us in the back during his second term,” Milton told Al Jazeera.

Milton’s disillusionment is not isolated. He said many people close to him share this frustration, particularly younger conservatives around his age who are starting families and entering the workforce. Trump launching a war on Iran, after campaigning on a promise to avoid new wars, was a particular breaking point.

Now, Milton is helping lead a grassroots effort to write in Republican Congressman Ralph Norman for the US Senate, rather than support the party nominee, Senator Darline Graham, who has Trump’s endorsement.

A write-in candidate is someone whose name does not appear on the ballot but can still be chosen by voters who write it in themselves. The option is often used to indicate dissatisfaction with the official candidates, but rarely leads to a victory. One of those rare victories happened in 2010, when Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska won after launching a write-in campaign, having lost her Republican primary that year.

In the 2022 South Carolina Senate race, write-in votes accounted for just 0.1 percent of all votes cast.

Despite the president’s endorsement, Graham has struggled to unite conservatives behind her, potentially giving Democratic challenger Annie Andrews an opening in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1998.

Darline’s unlikely path to Republican Senate candidate

After the sudden death of Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham on July 11, his younger sister, Darline, was appointed to serve out the remainder of his term.

Her appointment followed a tradition of family members succeeding deceased lawmakers, most commonly their spouses. But she made history as the first sibling appointed to fill a Senate vacancy.

Graham initially described the role as an opportunity to finish her brother’s work during the remaining months of his term. But days later, Trump urged her to run for a full six-year term, posting “RUN, DARLINE, RUN!” on Truth Social and promising his “complete and total endorsement” if she entered the race. Three days later, Graham announced on Fox News that she would run.

For some Republicans, the transition from temporary appointment to a full-term campaign happened too quickly. Milton said he felt the appointment had effectively “installed” a candidate.

Graham went on to defeat Republican Ralph Norman in the state’s August primary elections.

Norman, who represents South Carolina’s fifth congressional district, has repeatedly declined to campaign alongside Graham since losing the primary. He has made clear that his support for Graham is limited.

“You have to earn the vote. She hasn’t done that,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “The campaign has been about trying to prop up a candidate.”

The tensions have been particularly pronounced in Upstate South Carolina, where Norman has considerable support. Milton said Graham has done little to reach voters there during the campaign, aside from private dinners and appearances alongside Trump.

“She [Graham] never tried to reach out to everyday people here Upstate. And that spoke volumes about how this South Carolina GOP establishment feels about the grassroots conservatives. They just really don’t care,” Milton said.

Frustrated by what he saw as a failure to represent grassroots conservatives, Milton helped launch the Write-In Ralph movement, building a website and giving the campaign a public platform.

Milton said he and other supporters wanted a senator who would think independently, rather than simply fall in line with party leadership.

“We don’t necessarily want somebody that’s a rubber stamp for everything,” he said, adding that he wanted someone willing to “think of all the sides of an issue and policy”.

South Carolina’s independents

A sizeable group of South Carolina voters does not identify with either major party.

While the state does not register voters by party, a New York Times/Siena poll conducted in October suggested that 30 percent of likely voters identified as independents. Among those voters, Democratic Senate candidate Andrews led Graham by 20 percentage points.

The findings point to a potential blind spot for Republicans seeking to consolidate support around Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) coalition.

John Connolly, a 77-year-old retiree who lives in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, is one example of a voter whose political allegiances have shifted over time. He sees Graham’s appointment as part of a political culture that rewards loyalty over experience.

“I see her as nothing more than a puppet,” he told Al Jazeera. “To nod her head yes whenever she’s told to.”

Leila Ali, a regional campaign adviser who has spent more than a decade working with grassroots organisations across the US South, said political strategists often underestimate the diversity of the Southern electorate.

“The biggest thing that people get wrong is that they think the Southern vote is this monolith,” she told Al Jazeera.

Ali pointed to South Carolina’s early voting figures as evidence of that engagement. Nearly 950,000 early votes have been cast in the state, according to the state’s Election Commission, setting a new record for early voting in a midterm election.

An increasingly close Senate race

The stakes of this race have become increasingly apparent as the November 3 election approaches.

Despite Trump winning South Carolina by nearly 18 percentage points in 2024, he has made two trips to South Carolina in three months to campaign for Graham – an extraordinary show of presidential attention.

And polling suggests the race is far more competitive than Republicans might have expected. The October New York Times/Siena College poll had Graham and Democratic challenger Annie Andrews tied at 48 percent among likely voters.

For Democrats, this division offers a rare opening in a deep-red state where the party has struggled to compete.

Even with the race tightening, Republicans like Milton are willing to risk a Democratic victory by writing in Ralph Norman on their ballot. And if Graham loses, Milton says the blame should not fall on the write-in effort.

“They’re going to try to point the finger on this Write-in Ralph movement,” he said. “But I just want to make something very clear: that would assume that our votes would have gone to Darline anyway, and that’s just not the case.”

Since Joe Root returned as Test skipper, England have not picked a frontline spinner and have instead favoured a four-man pace attack of Jofra Archer, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.

South Africa’s victory in the third Test suggests they will need an alternative before long.

Off-spinner Simon Harmer, who once considered playing for England before opting for the country of his birth, took 10-120 to bowl the Proteas to victory in Cape Town – the venue of the third Test against England.

Newlands is not typically a spinner’s surface but it turned big from the third day. The overall average amount of turn throughout the Test (4.35 degrees) was the fourth-highest in Cape Town on record. The Test a place ahead on the list was last year, against Pakistan.

Harmer was helped by having left-arm pace bowlers Starc and Marco Jansen creating footholes outside the right-handers’ off stump throughout. Starc will not be a factor against England but Jansen will.

England’s spin issues are longstanding, meaning there is no easy answer.

And whether they pick Shoaib Bashir, return to Jack Leach or Mason Crane or hand a debut to Nottinghamshire’s Liam Patterson-White – the recent recipient of an England development contract – they will have stiff competition.

Since Harmer returned to Test cricket in 2022, no spinner has a better average anywhere in the world.

ATLANTA — Two years after Kamala Harris lost the presidential election to Donald Trump, she still delights Democratic donors and activists with jabs against him, saying the Republican is “callous, corrupt and incompetent” and calling him the “decorator in chief” for his White House renovations and gold adornments.

The former vice president also has plenty to say about what her party, the electorate and the country should do next as she also considers whether to run again.

“This is the moment where we turn that anger into action,” Harris said more than once during a busy schedule in the final stretch of the midterm campaign.

Harris campaigned for candidates across seven states, ending with a recent two-day visit to Georgia. It was, in part, the kind of nostalgic tour seen from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton — two-term presidents whose last campaigns are behind them — and the barnstorming from potential future contenders such as Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

As the first Black woman elected to nationwide office, Harris urged fellow Black Americans to “honor the ancestors” with their votes. She also said she has become unapologetically “transactional” by demanding more from politicians.

Harris, a U.S. senator and attorney general from California before joining Joe Biden on the 2020 ticket, also pushed fellow Democrats to govern aggressively and she called for “structural work” that she said was necessary to reinvigorate American democracy: Supreme Court expansion, statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and reconsideration of the electoral college.

“I think she’s hitting all the right notes,” said Melinda Johnson, a retired nurse who attended a Fulton County Democratic Party fundraising gala that Harris headlined in Atlanta.

Harris made it to early presidential primary states, including Nevada, New Hampshire and Michigan. She also went to Mississippi, not exactly a hotbed of presidential politics, on behalf of U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom.

“The South is in play,” she said. “When Democrats invest in the South, we can win in the South.”

In Georgia, Harris delved into civil rights history as she accused the U.S. Supreme Court of “backdoor racism” with its decision to gut the Voting Rights Act and allow Republicans to redraw boundaries for congressional districts that now elect nonwhite lawmakers.

“Ruthlessness” is key, she said at the Democratic dinner in Atlanta. “Not ruthlessness in the sense of cruelty … but in our willingness to use our power to deliver on our commitments.” Democrats, she said, “can no longer let process stand in the way of progress.”

Throughout her stops, Harris nodded implicitly to her loss to Trump.

“You know we’ve been spending the last year and a half, so many of us, going through a range of emotions,” she told students. “Anger, depression, sadness, frustration, a sense of helplessness and powerlessness.”

Warning that Trump could try to meddle in Tuesday’s election, she echoed one of the president’s mantras to encourage people to vote.

“In this case,” she said at Atlanta’s Elizabeth Baptist Church, “we just need to turn out in really large numbers that would be too big to rig.”

Barrow writes for the Associated Press.

Simon Harmer picked a career-best 6-16 as South Africa beat Australia by 176 runs to clinch Test series 2-1.

Australia ‌captain Pat Cummins said it was fair to ask questions about his side after they ⁠slipped to two heavy ⁠defeats in a row against hosts South Africa to lose the three-match series 2-1 at Newlands on Saturday.

Set 288 for victory, Australia were rocked early on and could ⁠manage only 111 to lose the third Test by 176 runs, following their defeat by an innings and 31 runs in the second match in the series.

Australia next host New Zealand, and Cummins ⁠said the series loss meant questions were inevitable as South Africa took over from them as the number one side in the Test world rankings.

“We lost two games in a row. I think it’s fair to be asking questions and we’ll be asking them internally as well,” Cummins told reporters. “We are a very good ‌side, but I think we need to get a little bit better if we want to get back to number one [in the world].

“Maybe that’s a change of style, maybe it’s a change of personnel in some instances. We’ll work it out.”

Cummins made the surprise decision to bowl first after winning the toss on the first morning, something that had been done only 11 times before in Tests at Newlands since 1889.

As it proved, batting last was difficult on a wearing ⁠surface, and Australia fell to the spin of Simon Harmer, who took ⁠career-best figures of 10-120 in the match.

“We knew it was going to be a high-scoring game,” Cummins said. “We probably thought it was going to do a little bit more on day one than it did.

“You don’t win the toss and think you’re ⁠going to bowl the opposition out for 100 or 200, but we thought we could get 10 wickets on day one and that would ⁠put us right ahead of the game.”

Cummins said poor decisions cost ⁠his batters and that their chase was as good as over in the first half-hour of the day.

“Chasing 280-odd was never going to be easy, but we all turned up today and saw a pretty clear path forward. I thought it was ‌achievable, but we never really gave ourselves a chance,” he said.

“There were a few really poor decisions. I know it’s a day-five wicket, but I don’t think it was drastic. There were runs to ‌be ‌scored out there; there were lots of balls to face.

“I think there are a few decisions the boys would like back. We have to get better. It’s happened a few times now.”

The joint statement comes as US President Donald Trump seeks a new meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The United States, South Korea and Japan have reiterated their longstanding call for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, a move  Pyongyang has repeatedly ruled out.

The three countries addressed the issue on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) meeting in the US city of Atlanta on Thursday, with their top diplomats reaffirming their “resolute commitment to the complete denuclearisation” of North Korea, according to a readout by the US Department of State.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also pledged the “full implementation” of United Nations Security Council resolutions, including a ban on supporting revenue for North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

The statement comes despite repeated overtures to North Korea by US President Donald Trump, who held a series of historic summits with its leader, Kim Jong Un, during his first term in office and has continued to call Kim a “friend”.

Last year, Trump bucked a long-held US policy by conceding that North Korea was already “sort of a nuclear power”.

More recently, he has played down concerns about North Korea’s nuclear programme and expressed a desire to meet Kim again. Speculation is mounting that the two leaders could reconnect at next month’s APEC summit in China, which Trump is due to attend.

Analysts and South Korea’s spy agency say Kim may have conveyed Pyongyang’s position on potential talks with Trump to Beijing during a recent visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong.

South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung – who has repeatedly offered Pyongyang talks without preconditions – suggested in September that Washington seek a freeze, rather than the immediate elimination, of the North’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Critics have said such an approach risks tacitly accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while allowing Pyongyang to win sanctions relief without giving up its arsenal.

Despite long-running UN sanctions, North Korea, which is backed by Russia and China, has enshrined its status as a nuclear-armed state in law. Pyongyang’s government has declared its atomic arsenal to be permanent and irreversible.

Pyongyang denounced a joint statement on Saturday by a group of nations monitoring sanctions implementation against it, pledging that “the stereotyped sanctions racket of the US and the West can neither influence the position of the DPRK (North Korea) as a nuclear weapons state.”

Former president faces renewed death penalty demand as he appeals life sentence for insurrection.

South Korean prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for former President Yoon Suk-yeol over his failed attempt to impose military rule.

The team led by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk renewed the demand at an appeal hearing in Seoul on Thursday, arguing that Yoon’s actions threatened South Korea‘s democracy.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in February after being convicted of leading an insurrection.

Prosecutors had previously sought the death penalty at Yoon’s original trial in January, but the court sentenced him to life imprisonment the following month.

At Thursday’s hearing at the Seoul High Court, a prosecutor said there was “no reason to hesitate” over imposing the death penalty, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

South Korea retains the death penalty but has not carried out an execution since 1997.

Prosecutors argued that this long pause should not prevent judges from sentencing Yoon to death.

Yoon declared martial law on December 3, 2024, deploying soldiers and police to the National Assembly, South Korea’s parliament.

Lawmakers overcame a security blockade to vote down the measure, forcing the government to withdraw it about six hours after it was announced.

The lower court found that Yoon had tried to stop parliament from functioning, detain political opponents and remain in control of the country for an extended period.

Yoon’s lawyers told reporters on Thursday that he had intended to warn an opposition-controlled parliament against what he considered attempts to obstruct his government, not to establish authoritarian rule.

Speaking at the Seoul High Court on October 27, Yoon also denied seeking to establish a long-term dictatorship, according to the Hankyoreh newspaper.

The crisis led parliament to impeach Yoon in December 2024. South Korea’s Constitutional Court, which decides whether to uphold impeachments, removed him from office in April 2025.

The appeals court plans two more hearings, including Yoon’s final statement on November 5.

Third Test, Cape Town (day two of five)

South Africa 329: Ackerman 95; Starc 6-72

Australia 330-4: Inglis 85*; Jansen 2-37

Australia lead by one run

Scorecard

Marnus Labuschagne has been front and centre for an era of Australian cricket.

Chirping, chewing and, with bat in hand, often appearing to idolise and mimic his team-mate Steve Smith.

Smith has been ruled out of the enthralling decisive Test against South Africa with a neck injury.

Without him, Australia wanted their number three to feast at last chance saloon, where he has been perched for an eternity, on day two in Cape Town.

The 32-year-old lasted five deliveries and did not score a run.

Labuschagne failed to scored a Test century for the 48th time in a row – a new record for the number of innings an Australian top order batter has waited to raise his bat at three figures.

“That will never be broken,” said former Australia quick Jason Gillespie on ABC.

“I say that because, respectfully, I don’t think anyone will be given that length of time again.”

There was a time when, from his insertion into the 2019 Ashes as a concussion substitute until the end of England’s next quest to win back the earn, Labuschagne averaged 65 in Test cricket.

Repeat that over a Test career and only Sir Donald Bradman’s mark of 99.94 would be ahead.

Instead, since his last Test century at Old Trafford in 2023, he averages 24.77.

Labuschagne may get one more chance in this Test, should Australia not progress from their position of 330-4, leading by one run, and dismiss South Africa before needing to pad up again.

Even that may not be enough.

“I just feel it is too far gone now,” Gillespie added. “It is a very big sample size. Australia are at a point where they need to look elsewhere.”

Labuschagne’s technique has been poured over again and again as his slump progressed.

In August, the great Ricky Ponting, one of his predecessors as Australia’s number three, called for the axe to fall.

“He can’t score off the back foot,” was Ponting’s cutting remark.

Having batted nicely in three or four innings in this series only to give it away after reaching 30, here he was stuck on the crease, playing back to a full ball and nicking spinner Simon Harmer to slip.

“That’s nerves and the pressure the selectors have put him under for an extended period of time,” said former Australia batter Simon Katich on SEN Radio.

“They put him in this position by not making the decision to give him a breather.”

It felt like all of Labuschagne’s issues collapsing into one.

The proposal comes days after Pyongyang says it moved new military units into ‘firing positions’ along the border.

South Korea has proposed holding military talks with North Korea in a bid to calm rising tensions over their heavily fortified border.

Seoul said on Friday that it had invited Pyongyang to discuss restoring communication channels. The offer was made as military activity on the border increases.

Talks with North Korea would aim to “mutually confirm” the precise location of the land Military Demarcation Line (MDL), “discuss ways to restore military communication lines and prevent accidental clashes in border areas”, Kim Hong-cheol, deputy minister for national defence policy, told reporters.

“Specific dates and locations could be discussed through Panmunjom,” Kim said, referring to the symbolic truce village on the North-South border where soldiers from both Koreas stand face to face.

He added that the South was open to three-way talks involving the United States-led United Nations Command and hoped for “a positive response from North Korea”.

It remains unclear whether North Korea would agree to talks. Leader Kim Jong Un has taken a hardline approach towards Seoul and suspended virtually all dialogue and cooperation with the South in recent years.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang has raised its military activity along the border and continues to do so.

On Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, announced that new military units have been moved into “firing positions” along the border.

Mines, barbed-wire fences, tactical roads, antitank walls and other fortifications have also been added to one of the world’s most heavily armed borders.

Tensions have worsened since last month when three South Korean soldiers were injured by explosions near the military demarcation line in the western section of the Demilitarized Zone, the buffer zone that runs between the Koreas, commonly known as the DMZ.

The South blamed the blast on landmines laid by the North and demanded an apology. Pyongyang has fiercely rejected the accusation.

Seoul’s Ministry of National Defence said on Friday that it was difficult to predict “what further incidents could occur if this situation is allowed to continue unaddressed”.

The ministry noted that a proposal for talks last year did not receive a response from Pyongyang.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has called for the North to return to dialogue. However, Kim Yo Jong responded by slamming the suggestion of bilateral talks as “the climax of the farce”.

South Africa storm back to crush Australia by an innings in the second Test and level the series 1-1 with one to play.

⁠South Africa bowled out Australia for 295 to win by an innings and 31 runs in the last session of the second Test at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Thursday to level the three-match ⁠series, winning a race against looming bad weather.

The hosts’ pace trio of Wiaan Mulder, Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen took the last four wickets required as Australia’s resistance crumbled after a century from Travis Head and a doggedly defiant Test high 40 by ⁠nightwatchman Scott Boland.

Mulder, who earlier dismissed Head, then bowled Boland and castled Australia captain Pat Cummins to forge a breakthrough, with Rabada dismissing Mitchell Starc and Jansen finishing off the innings with Josh Hazlewood caught in the slips.

A result in the Test seemed far-fetched when most of the first two days’ play was washed out and South Africa, who were 110-6 when the sun came out on the ‌morning of the third day, looked in early trouble as Australia aimed to capitalise on their success in the first Test.

But a brilliant 179 runs from skipper Temba Bavuma led a fightback that saw South Africa declare on 425-9 and then turn the Test on its head by bowling Australia out for 99 and putting them in to bat again.

Head and Boland had resumed on 156-4 in the second innings after rain returned and wiped out the morning session and Head, who was 87 overnight, went on to score 121 before chopping onto his stumps a rising delivery from Mulder.

It was Head’s 13th Test century but only his second outside Australia, and his departure offered the home bowlers hope ⁠again after almost 90 minutes of frustrating attack without success at the start of the day’s action.

“We were scrambling a bit, not sure about the weather and Australia made us work hard for those last six wickets,” said Bavuma.

Steve Smith, who battled with a neck problem in the first innings on Wednesday, ⁠made three as he came in at number seven.

The former captain was tempted into pulling a delivery from Rabada, bowling with the second new ball, but only got a top edge to ⁠Matthew Breetzke, who juggled it at mid-wicket before holding the catch.

Boland, who batted for ⁠166 balls as he put a high price on his wicket, went soon after tea, when he was bowled through the gate. Then Cummins (4) played down the wrong line and was also clean bowled in Mulder’s next over.

When Rabada came back for a fresh spell as dark clouds loomed ominously overhead, he immediately ‌bowled Starc (11), leaving one wicket to get, which Jansen snagged as Hazlewood showed no sign of sticking around and nicked behind the first ball.

Alex Carey, who lasted only two balls in Australia’s first innings, was 37 not out, with Rabada taking 4-77 on his ‌return ‌after a lengthy injury layoff, and Mulder 3-64.

“I thought we showed some good fight, but it wasn’t quite enough. We were a long way from our best,” said Cummins.

The last Test at Newlands in Cape Town starts on Tuesday.

Second Test, Gqeberha (day five of five)

South Africa 425-9 dec: Bavuma 179, Jansen 85; Boland 5-81

Australia 99 & 295: Head 121; Rabada 4-77, Mulder 3-64

South Africa won by an innings and 31 runs

Scorecard

South Africa broke Australia’s resistance in the final session to complete a famous victory in the second Test and set up a series decider in Cape Town.

Travis Head made 121 for Australia and Scott Boland survived 166 deliveries for 40 runs in an attempt to escape Gqeberha with a draw – the tourists’ hopes also boosted by the first session being wiped out by rain.

But the Proteas stuck to their task to take the six wickets needed to win by an innings and 31 runs as the light faded late on the last day.

Premier paceman Kagiso Rabada finished with 4-77 while Marco Jansen, whose 5-33 on day four put South Africa in the ascendancy, took the final wicket as Australia were dismissed for 295.

But all-rounder Wiaan Mulder also played a crucial hand, bowling with accuracy and finding movement off the pitch to dismiss Head, Boland and Australia captain Pat Cummins.

Some of South Africa’s great Test wins have come against Australia – notably in the last World Test Championship final two years ago and a Test on this ground in 2018 in the infamous Sandpaper series. This must surely rank highly among them.

They were heavily beaten in the first Test in Durban and when 40-4 and 110-6 in their first innings of this Test, there appeared only one winner in this series.

Instead, the contest has been turned on its head by Bavuma’s epic 179 and South Africa twice dismissing Australia, setting up a tantalising finale in Cape Town.

The third Test begins on Tuesday.

Neve Jones will win her 50th Ireland cap as Stacey Flood and Dorothy Wall return for the first of two WXV Global Series Tests against South Africa in Cape Town.

Gloucester-Hartpury’s Jones is named at hooker, while Flood and Wall are reinstalled at full-back and lock for Saturday’s game at Athlone Stadium (14:00 BST).

Wall’s return to partner Jane Clohessy in the second row means Fione Tuite-O’Sullivan switches to blind-side flanker, while Brittany Hogan starts at number eight to deputise for injured star Aoife Wafer.

Jemima Adams Verling, who filled in for Wafer in the 43-19 win over Japan in Cork on 3 October, drops to the bench.

Flood, who replaces Niamh Gallagher in the 15 jersey, is joined by Beibhinn Parsons and Robyn O’Connor in the back three. Anna McGann and Aoife Dalton are again paired in midfield, while Dannah O’Brien and Emily Lane continue their half-back partnership.

Linda Djougang continues at loose-head prop with Eilis Cahill at tight-head either side of Jones, while Erin King captains the team from open-side flanker.

Kate Jordan, who made her debut as a second-half replacement for King in the win over Japan, is one of six forwards on the bench alongside Beth Buttimer, Niamh O’Dowd, Sadhbh McGrath, Grace Moore and Adams Verling.

Aoibheann Reilly and Eve Higgins provide backline cover from the bench.

Ireland’s only previous meeting with South Africa was a 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cup match in Canada, which the Irish won 37-0.

Scott Bemand’s side opened their WXV campaign with defeat by the United States before bouncing back to beat Japan in Galway. They also defeated Japan in Cork in a non-WXV Test match in Cork.

After Saturday’s first meeting, Ireland face South Africa again in Cape Town on 31 October.

Ireland: Stacey Flood; Beibhinn Parsons, Anna McGann, Aoife Dalton, Robyn O’Connor; Dannah O’Brien, Emily Lane; Linda Djougang, Neve Jones, Eilis Cahill, Jane Clohessy, Dorothy Wall, Fiona Tuite-O’Sullivan, Erin King (capt), Brittany Hogan.

Replacements: Beth Buttimer, Niamh O’Dowd, Sadhbh McGrath, Kate Jordan, Grace Moore, Jemima Adams Verling, Aoibheann Reilly, Eve Higgins.

North Korea has said it plans to resume broadcasting anti-South Korea propaganda along the armed border between the two countries, as Seoul urged Pyongyang to discuss easing tensions.

Kim Yo Jong, a senior North Korean official and the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Wednesday that North Korea will place loudspeakers along the entire border, following a visit with top military officials to fortifications along the contested frontier.

Kim warned Seoul of “the most horrible and distressing situation” if South Korea continued what Pyongyang calls interference in the North’s internal affairs.

She added in a follow-up statement on Thursday that North Korea would place “new counter means” on alert along the border, without elaborating, and have its loudspeakers on “standby” within days.

A landmine blast last month that wounded three South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two countries has ratcheted up tensions. Seoul accused North Korean troops of deliberately laying mines in the border zone as part of the North’s fortification work.

Kim had denied the allegation, calling the incident a South Korean fabrication. She said North Korean tactical units had taken up new positions, and accused South Korean troops of conducting warning broadcasts and firing warning shots at multiple locations near the border.

Seoul said the warning shots were fired as “legitimate and defensive measures”.

North Korea has been adding mines, barbed wire fences, anti-tank barriers and other fortifications to what is already one of the world’s most heavily armed borders.

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defence urged North Korea on Thursday to discuss measures to ease tension at the border and prevent any accidental military clash, its spokesperson said.

Pyongyang had cut off a military hotline with the South after declaring it would no longer seek dialogue or unification with what it called its “foe”.

Loudspeaker propaganda

Both North and South Korea have historically used loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda across the border, with South Korean broadcasts featuring K-pop music and news that have long irked Pyongyang and prompted tit-for-tat responses.

The two Koreas are separated by the DMZ, established after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice.

North Korea has been reinforcing its side of the DMZ with mines, barriers and fencing since 2024 as it seeks to establish what it calls a permanent border with South Korea.

If Katich’s words seem strong for a side 1-0 up in the series, this South African subsidence was the latest example of an Australian batting line-up only consistent for its inconsistency.

Bowled out for 132 in the first Test of the Ashes last winter, they piled up 511 in Brisbane in the next.

They scored 567 at the end of the Ashes, but were bundled out for 198 by Bangladesh in their next Test en route to a shock defeat.

Even the highs of Matt Renshaw’s 190 in the first-Test win in Durban were countered by the fact no other Australian made 50.

And after another failure, Marnus Labuschagne appears the most at risk. He will not get another chance to bat for his place before Cape Town hosts the third Test from 27 October.

After edging a drive to third slip for 14 off Anrich Nortje in the morning, he gave it away by hitting spinner Simon Harmer to long-on after tea for 39 – his third dismissal in the thirties in the series.

It was made worse by the fact he had only survived an lbw decision on review just three balls earlier.

It is now 47 innings since the 32-year-old, once the leading batter in the world, has made a Test century.

“Only he knows what was going through his mind when he tried to take Harmer down the ground, against the breeze, when Australia are trying to play for a draw,” added Katich.

“How will the Australian selectors view that dismissal?

“He’s been given plenty of rope over the past few years, when plenty of others haven’t, but he has.”

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats’ top campaign spending group is wading into Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race for the first time this year, an aggressive move in a deep-red state that signals a party on the offensive as Republicans look to protect a slim majority.

The Senate Majority PAC, aligned with Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, will spend $1.2 million on a new television advertisement to boost Scott Colom, a district attorney, in his campaign against Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. The ad, first disclosed to the Associated Press, is set to start Wednesday and run through Election Day.

“Senate Majority PAC has been watching this race closely, and it is clear Colom is running a competitive race that has put Hyde-Smith on her heels,” group spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.

With just two weeks to go in the race, it’s unclear what impact the ad will have in a matchup that’s been set since Colom won a March primary. Still, it’s a substantial investment in a race that’s seen only about $8 million in total spending, with Colom outspending Hyde-Smith nearly $4.6 million to $3.2 million, according to AdImpact.

Hyde-Smith, first appointed and then elected in 2018, is running for reelection in a state Republicans have long dominated. In the 2024 presidential race, Republican Donald Trump won Mississippi by nearly 23 percentage points over Democrat Kamala Harris, and a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race in the state since 1982.

However, some Democrats believe Hyde-Smith is vulnerable, and she underperformed Trump by 6 percentage points in 2020, the year he lost his White House reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden.

The television ad touts Colom’s time as district attorney, while labeling Hyde-Smith a “do-nothing” senator.

“A decade in power, Hyde-Smith hasn’t passed one piece of legislation, but she did vote to kick people off Medicaid,” a narrator says in the ad, which will run on television stations statewide alongside a digital campaign.

Hyde-Smith’s campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Colom has raised Democratic hopes in a year when electoral winds are at their backs. Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock was the latest high-profile Democrat to campaign with Colom last week, and Harris, who was Biden’s vice president, is set to rally with Colom on Thursday.

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate and were expected to face a friendlier map this year with fewer seats to defend. But high costs and gas prices amid an unpopular war in Iran under a Republican president have made Democrats optimistic, with the Senate Majority PAC spending its final weeks investing in conservative territory. It’s already announced spending in Kansas, where megachurch pastor and Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.

Colom would be his state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction, the 12-year period after the U.S. Civil War when the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were adopted.

Some Democrats have criticized national groups for not spending more in Southern states like Mississippi.

“I worry, to be very honest, that Democrats are missing a real opportunity to invest in a serious and sustained way in the South,” Warnock said Sunday on NBC’s ”Meet the Press.”

Cappelletti writes for the Associated Press.