unify

Reporting from Washington — With the campaign in its final week, well-funded conservative groups have shifted their focus from the airwaves to voters’ phone lines, front doors and mailboxes — part of a get-out-the-vote effort that could tip the scales in tight races across the country.

But the push to get the nation’s conservative voters to the polls is fractured and untested, with some “tea party” activists refusing to cooperate with more mainstream Republicans, in contrast to the unified and well-organized parallel effort by unions and Democrats, according to key players on both sides.

Up to now, the emphasis on the right has been on television ads, and conservative groups — including American Crossroads, founded in part by GOP strategist Karl Rove — have dominated with the help of undisclosed donors willing to pour millions of dollars into key races.

For the final stretch, Crossroads is dedicating $10 million to the “ground game.” The conservative Americans for Prosperity expects to spend $17 million, opening field offices in 12 states. Tea party organizers, state parties, antiabortion groups and business associations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have also begun their own get-out-the-vote efforts.

The state parties in Illinois and California, in particular, are well funded and sophisticated, and may surpass voter outreach those states have seen in the past.

With money and momentum on their side, Republicans are considered competitive in dozens of districts once thought to be out of reach. But races are tightening, and the voter mobilization program could determine whether the election provides better than average midterm gains for the GOP.

“There is a sense now that Republicans may not be able to capitalize on the backlash against [President] Obama and the Democrats because they lack the well-organized voter ID and get-out-the-vote effort that they have had in the past,” said Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political scientist who has been comparing the ground game of both parties. There is enormous variation now state to state, he said.

Democrats and allied groups are spending most of their $200-million political budgets in the largely invisible effort to turn out sympathetic voters.

The party was shocked to lose control of the House in 1994 in the so-called Gingrich Revolution. Since then, Democrats and labor have emphasized personal voter contact to win close races. In Pennsylvania last week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said his organization planned to “touch” every union member in the state 25 times with mail, phone calls and personal visits in the campaign’s final weeks.

For the GOP, this year’s patchwork approach is a dramatic departure from the last decade, when a single well-organized entity — the Republican National Committee — ran sophisticated voter mobilization programs that were years in the making. But the RNC has faltered in funding and organization recently, and outside groups have stepped up efforts, many of them starting only recently.

“I think the biggest difference in this year is generally this is not a party-driven year, this is not a personality-driven year,” said Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips, whose group has launched its first voter mobilization effort. Phillips said the effort reflected a shift to movement politics organized around issues, not politicians.

American Crossroads, a tax-exempt group receiving contributions from corporations and wealthy individuals, is putting its ground-game resources to use in nine battleground states. It plans to send more than 100 volunteers to Colorado and Nevada, said Steven Law, the organization’s president.

Crossroads will generate 9 million phone calls and 5 million pieces of mail before election day, Law said.

More important, Crossroads has encouraged other conservative groups to share voter contact lists, polling information and geographic priorities, as Democrats have in recent years.

“We wanted to be a resource for exchanging lists of names and voter targeting information,” Law said.

Although some conservative groups — such as the Republican Governors Assn. and Americans for Tax Reform — have cooperated with Crossroads, others resist being too closely associated with establishment figures.

FreedomWorks, a Washington-based group that has supported tea party activists across the country, expects to spend $500,000 on its own program that taps into the network of tea party supporters.

Brendan Steinhauser, director of state and federal campaigns at FreedomWorks, said the distance from the party was an advantage in recruiting new activists.

“A lot of people don’t want to work with the Republican Party, for the most part,” he said. “They like the candidate, but they don’t want to go to GOP headquarters. They’ll work with us.”

In addition to getting out the vote, many conservative organizations continue to buy advertising even though little air time is available. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it would spend $1 million on Washington’s Senate race in the final week, using much of it for Web-based advertising on behalf of Dino Rossi, the Republican hoping to unseat Sen. Patty Murray.

The chamber is also sending funds to newly competitive House races in Washington, Wisconsin, Arizona, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania. All told, the chamber expects to be active in 50 House races and 12 Senate campaigns this cycle, said Political Director Bill Miller.

For tea party groups, the final days of the campaign represent the culmination of months of training and organizing political newcomers.

In West Virginia, where the Senate race is close, a handful of groups are coordinating efforts on weekly phone calls. As they canvass neighborhoods, FreedomWorks arms them with maps pinpointing independent, unreliable voters who are likely to lean conservative.

FreedomWorks, led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, says it aims to reach 50,000 voters in West Virginia with both a knock on the door and a phone call.

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Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk knocks out Daniel Dubois of United Kingdom to unify the heavyweight title belts in London.

Oleksandr Usyk has cemented his status as the outstanding heavyweight of his generation with an emphatic fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois in their undisputed world title bout at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Victory on Saturday saw Ukraine’s Usyk extend his unbeaten professional record to 24 fights as the WBA, WBC and WBO champion added his British opponent’s IBF belt to his collection.

Usyk dominated the opening four rounds and early in the fifth, dropped Dubois to the canvas.

Moments later, he finished the fight in decisive fashion after a trademark left hook left his British rival unable to beat the count one minute and 52 seconds into the round.

It was the second time Usyk, at 38, some 11 years older than his opponent, had defeated Dubois after a ninth-round stoppage success in Krakow, Poland, in 2023, where the Briton was ruled to have landed an illegal low blow in the fifth round.

Lennox Lewis, the last British boxer to be the undisputed world champion in 1999, forecast before Saturday’s fight that Usyk would face a vastly-improved Dubois, saying: “Dubois was a baby in the sport and now he’s a man…You’re not going to see the same Daniel Dubois from 18 months ago.”

But after Usyk was roared into the ring by a huge contingent of supporters, many of them waving Ukraine’s national flag in a 90,000 capacity crowd at Wembley, best known as the London base of England’s national football team, it was largely one-way traffic as their hero conducted a ruthless masterclass against local favourite Dubois.

“Thirty-eight is a young guy, remember,” Usyk told DAZN in the ring after dropping to his knees in celebration. “Thirty-eight is only [the] start.

“I want to say thank you to Jesus Christ. I want to say thank you to my team and Wembley, thank you so much! It’s for the people.

“Nothing is next. It’s enough, next, I don’t know. I want to rest. My family, my wife, my children, I want to rest now. Two or three months, I want to just rest.”

Asked about his next opponent, Usyk, who has already twice beaten former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, added: “Maybe it’s Tyson Fury.

“Maybe we have three choices, Derek Chisora and Anthony Joshua. Maybe Joseph Parker. Listen, I cannot now say because I want to go back home.”

Dubois insisted he would return to the ring, saying: “I have to commend him [Usyk] on the performance, I gave everything I had. Take no credit away from that man, I’ll be back.”

SEOUL, June 4 (UPI) — Lee Jae-myung was sworn in as South Korea’s president on Wednesday, just hours after his victory was certified in a snap election that brought an end to months of political turmoil in the country.

Lee’s term officially began at 6:21 a.m. when the National Election Commission certified his victory over challenger Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party.

The new president received 49.42% of the vote, while Kim garnered 41.15%, the NEC confirmed. Minor conservative Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok finished with 8.34%.

In a speech during a scaled-down ceremony at the National Assembly, Lee pledged to unify a country that saw its political divisions grow deeper in the aftermath of former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law attempt in December.

“Regardless of who you supported in this presidential election, I will become a president of all who embraces and serves all the people,” Lee said.

During his campaign, Lee framed the election as an existential choice for the future of South Korean democracy, and he echoed that theme in his remarks.

“I will become a president who ends the politics of division,” he said. “I will overcome the crisis by using national unity as my driving force. I will restore what was lost and destroyed by the insurrection.”

South Korea “has become a clear example for people around the world who are looking for a new way forward for democracy in crisis,” he added.

Lee inherits a raft of challenges as president, with economic concerns at the top of the list. South Korea saw its economy shrink in the first quarter of the year, and the export-driven country is facing tariff negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump, who doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50% on Wednesday.

In his remarks, Lee said the election was a “turning point of great change” and vowed to stimulate economic growth.

“It is time to revive the people’s livelihoods that have been driven to the brink, restore growth and create a tomorrow where everyone is happy,” he said.

Lee, who rose to fame as a progressive firebrand during his tenure as mayor of Seongam and then governor of Gyeonggi Province, recast himself as a centrist during the campaign.

On Wednesday, Lee said his administration “will be a pragmatic market-oriented government.” He reiterated campaign pledges to invest heavily in science and technology, with a heavy focus on developing one of the world’s top artificial intelligence industries.

Lee also vowed to take a pragmatic approach toward healing the country’s deep political divides.

“Let’s send old ideologies to the museum of history,” he said. “From now on, there will be no problems for progressives. From now on, there will be no problems for conservatives. There will only be problems of the people and of the Republic of Korea.”

The 60-year-old briefly touched on pressing geopolitical concerns during his remarks, including an increasingly dangerous nuclear-armed North Korea.

Lee said he would continue to strengthen cooperation with the United States and Japan — a trilateral alliance that Yoon championed — but said Seoul would “approach relations with neighboring countries from the perspective of national interests and practicality.”

While Yoon and the PPP’s Kim took a hardline approach toward Pyongyang, Lee pledged during his campaign to reopen communications with Seoul’s recalcitrant neighbor.

“We will prepare for North Korea’s nuclear weapons and military provocations, while opening channels of communication with North Korea and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and cooperation,” Lee said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Lee on his election victory Wednesday and affirmed the strong ties between the allies.

“The United States and the Republic of Korea share an ironclad commitment to the alliance grounded in our Mutual Defense Treaty, shared values and deep economic ties,” Rubio said in a statement.

“We will also continue to deepen U.S.-Japan-ROK trilateral cooperation to bolster regional security, enhance economic resilience and defend our shared democratic principles,” he said.

Lee began assembling his cabinet on Wednesday, nominating one of his top campaign aides, Democratic Party Rep. Kim Min-seok, as his candidate for prime minister. He also tapped former Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok to head the National Intelligence Service, the nation’s top spy agency.

Both nominees must undergo confirmation hearings. Lee’s chief of staff will be Democratic Party Rep. Kang Hoon-sik.

WASHINGTON — President Trump implored House Republicans at the Capitol to drop their fights over his big tax-cut bill and get it done, using encouraging words but also the hardened language of politics over the multitrillion-dollar package that is at risk of collapsing before planned votes this week.

During the more than hourlong session Tuesday, Trump warned Republicans to not touch Medicaid with cuts, and he told New York lawmakers to end their fight for a bigger local tax deduction, reversing his own campaign promise. The president, heading into the meeting, called himself a “cheerleader” for the Republican Party and praised Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). But he also criticized at least one of the GOP holdouts as a “grandstander” and warned that anyone who doesn’t support the bill would be a “fool.”

“We have unbelievable unity,” Trump said as he exited. “I think we’re going to get everything we want.”

The president arrived at a pivotal moment. Negotiations are slogging along and it’s not at all clear the package, with its sweeping tax breaks and cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs, has the support needed from the House’s slim Republican majority. Lawmakers are also being asked to add some $350 billion to Trump’s border security, deportation and defense agenda.

Inside, he spoke privately in what one lawmaker called the president’s “weaving” style, and took questions.

The president also made it clear he’s losing patience with the various holdout factions of the House Republicans, according to a senior White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

But Trump disputed that notion as well as reports that he used an expletive in warning against cutting Medicaid. Instead, he said afterward, “That was a meeting of love.” He received several standing ovations, Republicans said.

Yet it was not at all clear that Trump, who was brought in to seal the deal, changed minds.

“We’re still a long ways away,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chair of the House Freedom Caucus.

Conservatives are insisting on quicker, steeper cuts to federal programs to offset the costs of the trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue. At the same time, a core group of lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states wants bigger tax breaks for their voters back home. Worries about piling onto the nation’s $36-trillion debt are stark.

With House Democrats lined up against the package, calling it a giveaway to the wealthy at the expense of safety net programs, GOP leaders have almost no votes to spare. A key committee hearing is set for the middle of the night Tuesday in hopes of a House floor vote by Wednesday afternoon.

“They literally are trying to take healthcare away from millions of Americans at this very moment in the dead of night,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Trump has been pushing hard for Republicans to unite behind the bill, the president’s signature domestic policy initiative in Congress.

Asked about one of the conservative Republicans, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Trump lashed out.

“I think he is a grandstander, frankly,” the president continued. “I think he should be voted out of office.”

But Massie, a renegade who wears a clock lapel pin that tallies the nation’s debt load, said afterward he’s still a no vote.

Also unmoved was Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the New York Republicans leading the fight for a bigger state and local tax deduction, known as SALT: “As it stands right now, I do not support the bill. Period.”

The sprawling 1,116-page package carries Trump’s title, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” as well as his campaign promises to extend the tax breaks approved during his first term while adding new ones, including no taxes on tips, automobile loan interest and Social Security.

Yet, the price tag is rising and lawmakers are wary of the votes ahead, particularly as the economy teeters with uncertainty.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade.

Republicans criticizing the measure argued that the bill’s new spending and tax cuts are front-loaded, while the measures to offset the cost are back-loaded.

In particular, the conservative Republicans are looking to speed up the new work requirements that Republicans want to enact for able-bodied participants in Medicaid. They had been proposed to start Jan. 1, 2029, but Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said on CNBC that work requirements for some Medicaid beneficiaries would begin in early 2027.

At least 7.6 million fewer people are expected to have health insurance under the initial Medicaid changes, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said last week.

Republican holdouts are also looking to more quickly halt green energy tax breaks, which had been approved as part of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, and are now being used for renewable energy projects across the nation.

But for every change Johnson considers to appease the hard-right conservatives, he risks losing support from more traditional and centrist Republicans. Many have signed letters protesting deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs and the rolling back of clean energy tax credits.

At its core, the sprawling legislative package permanently extends the existing income tax cuts and bolsters the standard deduction, increasing it to $32,000 for joint filers, and the child tax credit to $2,500.

The New Yorkers are fighting for a larger state and local tax deduction beyond the bill’s proposal. As it stands, the bill would triple what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year. They have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.

Trump, who had campaigned on fully reinstating the unlimited SALT deduction, now appears to be satisfied with the proposed compromise, arguing it only benefits “all the Democratic” states.

If the bill passes the House this week, it would move to the Senate, where Republicans are also eyeing changes.

Mascaro, Freking, Askarinam and Cappelletti write for the Associated Press. AP writers Darlene Superville and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.