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Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, weighed in Thursday on the high-profile and contentious Idaho gubernatorial race, saying he was happy to see Gov. Brad Little beat his rivals, including his own lieutenant governor, in the primary.

Gov. Little is a good friend and an excellent governor, and Im very proud that he won the Republican nomination by a very large margin, Cox said during his monthly PBS Utah news conference.

Asked what Littles victory over his more conservative opponent says about Republican politics in the West these days, Cox challenged using the word conservative to describe Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Little, Cox contends, is the true conservative and the type of conservative that the U.S. needs.

I would push back a little bit on the contention that he was running against somebody more conservative, Cox said. I think that term has been changed from what I believe conservative means.

McGeachin isnt more conservative, Cox added. She was more something, but not more conservative.

Little, Cox said, is one of the most conservative governors in the country. I think hes an excellent conservative. Hes a model conservative. Hes the type of governor that we need and the effective governor that I aspire to be.

Idahos contentious governors race has garnered national headlines after Little and McGeachin became bitter rivals over the past two years, feuding over how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Littles primary election win represents a victory for a traditional, establishment Republican over a more extreme, far-right challenge from McGeachin, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.

Twice, when Little traveled out of state and McGeachin served as acting governor, she issued executive orders thatbanned mask mandates even though Idaho never had a statewide mask mandate andCOVID-19 testing and vaccinations in schools, according to the Idaho Capital Sun. Little immediately repealed each of McGeachins executive orders and accused her of abusing authority to score cheap political points.

Cox is a Republican who has at times taken a more moderate approach on issues, most recently by vetoing the Utah Legislatures ban on transgender girls competing in school sports.

Hes also been an outspoken ally for LGBTQ issues. In 2016, before he was elected governor, Cox went viral for an emotional speech he gave at aSalt Lake City vigil to honor the victims of the Pulse Nightclub massacre, a shooting at a gay bar in Florida that left 49 dead. In that speech, Cox apologized for at times not being kind to some of his high school classmates who he later found out were gay, saying his heart has changed and he will forever regret not treating them with the love, kindness, dignity and respect the love that they deserve.

As governor, Cox has urged his fellow Republicans to focus less on culture war wedge issues and more on policy issues that impact the day-to-day lives of Utahns. Hes garnered national attention for his approach, including in Vanity Fair, which highlighted Cox and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb for both vetoing anti-transgender sports bills and refusing to join their partys anti-trans culture war.

Utah lawmakers swiftly overrodeCoxs veto and tweaked it to address some of his concerns.

Coxs veto frustrated the far-right wings of Utahs GOP. But Cox said during last months PBS Utah news conference he believes most Utahns admire that, even if they disagree ... that were not always just pandering or making decisions based off of poll results or whatever talking heads on cable news say they should do.

Cox received a wave of negative national attention when Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson named him in atirade earlier this month for, among other things, sharing his preferred pronouns in an online conversation with high school students.

The Utah Republican Partys chairman, Carson Jorgensen, joined Carlsons April 11 programto say Cox is out of step with GOP delegates.

Cox, when asked last month if hes concerned about the political fallout from his veto, told reporters, Oh, you know, I dont know, nor do I care to be perfectly honest.

He said he knew there would be political repercussions, but hes not making decisions based on what will boost his poll numbers.

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Idaho governor election: Little is the Republican we need, Utah governor says - Deseret News

To a degree surpassing any other contest in the 2022 midterms so far, Donald Trump has poured his personal prestige into Pennsylvanias Republican Senate primary race, which is going through a final spasm of uncertainty as Kathy Barnette, an insurgent candidate with a sparse rsum, gives a last-minute scare to Trumps pick, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

The outcome of that election, as well as the G.O.P. contest for governor, is threatening to implode the states Republican Party with a blast radius that might be felt in states as far away as Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina over the coming weeks and months.

The turbulence also has major implications for Trumps hold on the party, which is growing more alarmed that the former presidents involvement in primaries could scupper Republicans chances of reclaiming the Senate despite President Bidens unpopularity.

Trump endorsed Oz, a celebrity physician, over the advice of many Republicans inside and outside Pennsylvania. The bill is coming due, those Republicans now say.

Many of Trumps own voters have expressed skepticism of Oz, who has fended off millions of dollars in negative advertising highlighting his past Republican heterodoxies on issues as varied as abortion and gun rights. As of Monday, Oz is leading by nearly three percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls in the primary, which roughly matches the Oz campaigns latest daily tracking poll, Im told.

Its not clear how late-deciding Republicans will ultimately vote, although a new poll by Susquehanna University found that 45 percent of respondents who had made up their minds in the last few days were backing Barnette.

On Saturday, Trump finally endorsed Doug Mastriano, a conspiracy-theory-minded retired military officer who leads polls in the governors race, in an apparent attempt to hedge his bets.

Hes clearly upset that its not going his way, said David Urban, a political operative and early Trump backer who led the former presidents efforts to win Pennsylvania in the 2016 election.

Urban is supporting Dave McCormick, a fellow West Point graduate, in the Senate race, and said he had not spoken to Trump recently about the primary.

The McCormick camp is hoping the fireworks between Barnette and Oz will earn him a second look from voters, who seem to be wavering between the three leading contenders.

Not everyones buying it.

One veteran Republican operative in Pennsylvania who is not aligned with any Senate campaign likened McCormick to Hans Gruber, the villain in the movie Die Hard, who tries to fire upward at Bruce Williss character even as he is falling from the top of Nakatomi Plaza.

Barnette has endorsed Mastriano and vice versa, and the two have held events together almost as if they are running together as a kind of super-MAGA ticket. She has fended off questions about her background in recent days, including about her military service and her past Islamophobic comments.

Oz, who if elected would become Americas first Muslim senator, called those comments disqualifying and reprehensible in an interview on Saturday with The Associated Press.

In the governors race, Republicans aligned with the party establishment are desperate to stop Mastriano from winning the nomination, and have urged other candidates to unite around former Representative Lou Barletta, who is running for governor with the help of several former top Trump campaign aides.

One of the first members of Congress to embrace Trump, former Representative Tom Marino of Pennsylvania, blasted the former president at a news conference this weekend for what he said was a lack of loyalty to Barletta.

In a follow-up interview, Marino said he hadnt been planning to endorse anyone in the race, but decided to back Barletta because he felt that Barletta had earned Trumps support by risking his career to throw his lot in with Trump early in the 2016 campaign.

I did what I did because I was just so outraged over Trumps endorsement of Mastriano, Marino said. Loyalty is important to me.

Watching the events in Pennsylvania, which included the leading candidate in the Democratic race for Senate, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, suffering a stroke on Friday, plugged-in observers in both parties used words like gobsmacked and stunned.

Its just bang-bang crazy here, said Christopher Nicholas, a Republican consultant based in Harrisburg.

Recriminations are flying over why the Pennsylvania Republican Party failed to appreciate the rise of Barnette and Mastriano until it was too late to arrest their momentum. Ballots have already been printed, fueling despair among party insiders that the efforts to unify the party against one or both outsider candidates might ultimately prove futile.

The press paid very little attention to Barnette until the last two weeks, said G. Terry Madonna, an expert on Pennsylvania politics who ran polling at Franklin and Marshall College for many years.

National Democrats are watching the events in Pennsylvania closely, and many predicted that the results of Tuesdays contests would affect other Republican primaries for Senate in the weeks to come.

And while the publics anger over inflation and supply-chain disruptions is weighing in the G.O.P.s favor, Democrats hope to compete in the fall against candidates they perceive as easier to defeat, like Barnette.

The greatest impact of Trumps meddling might be felt in Arizona, where he has yet to issue an endorsement. Trump has slammed the establishment candidate, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, for failing to overturn Bidens victory there in 2020, but has not yet chosen an alternative.

David Bergstein, the communications director at the Democratic Senate campaign committee, said that Trumps meddling in G.O.P. primaries was having an even greater effect on the Republican Party than many Democrats had anticipated. Chaos begets chaos, he said.

how they run

When Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina signed legislation that critics called the bathroom bill in 2016, it set off a firestorm.

Why are these midterms so important? This years races could tip the balance of power in Congress to Republicans, hobbling President Bidens agenda for the second half of his term. They will also test former President Donald J. Trumps role as a G.O.P. kingmaker. Heres what to know:

What are the midterm elections? Midterms take place two years after a presidential election, at the midpoint of a presidential term hence the name. This year, a lot of seats are up for grabs, including all 435 House seats, 35 of the 100 Senate seats and 36 of 50 governorships.

What do the midterms mean for Biden? With slim majorities in Congress, Democrats have struggled to pass Mr. Bidens agenda. Republican control of the House or Senate would make the presidents legislative goals a near-impossibility.

What are the races to watch? Only a handful of seats will determine if Democrats maintain control of the House over Republicans, and a single state could shift power in the 50-50 Senate. Here are 10 races to watch in the Houseand Senate, as well as several key governors contests.

When are the key races taking place? The primary gauntletis already underway. Closely watched racesin Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia will be held in May, with more taking place through the summer. Primaries run until September before the general election on Nov. 8.

Go deeper. What is redistrictingand how does it affect the midterm elections? How does polling work? How do you register to vote? Weve got more answers to your pressing midterm questions here.

The law, which required transgender people to use public restrooms that matched their birth gender, drew protests from major businesses and athletic powerhouses including the N.B.A. and the N.C.A.A., which withdrew their All-Star Game and March Madness basketball tournament games from the state.

A few months later, McCrory lost re-election.

Fast-forward six years, and Republicans are pushing anti-transgender legislation across the country and punishing companies that dare to object. But McCrory, running for Senate in North Carolina, is floundering in his attempted return to electoral politics, trailing heavily in polls to a rival backed by Donald Trump.

McCrory also isnt talking on the campaign trail about the hot-button issue of L.G.B.T.Q. rights that brought him to national prominence back in 2016.

Its not an issue that drives me, never was, McCrory said in a telephone interview on Monday. But its an issue, if asked, Ill state where I am.

McCrorys bid to replace Senator Richard Burr, who is retiring, has been complicated by the strength of Representative Ted Budd, who has support from both Trump and the conservative Club for Growth and seems to be leading the race.

McCrory supports the recently enacted Florida law that restricts discussion of sexual orientation in schools. He said that he had been told before that he was the Ron DeSantis before Ron DeSantis.

But as he seeks the Senate nomination in Tuesdays primary, hes more interested in talking about inflation. He describes himself as a Ronald Reagan Republican whos interested in national defense, fighting crime, cutting taxes and balancing budgets.

He also described himself as the Jason Bourne of the Republican Party. Ive got these outside special interest groups trying to give me a false identity, he said, taking particular issue with the Club for Growths attacks. Who in the hell are they to determine what type of conservative I am?

Carter Wrenn, a longtime Republican strategist in North Carolina, said the Club for Growths spending might be the biggest factor in the Senate race, and he agreed with McCrory that the top issue for voters was inflation.

Wrenn said he didnt think transgender rights were a major issue in the primary because the top candidates most likely agree with McCrorys actions in 2016.

Obviously none of his opponents are attacking him for it in the primary, Wrenn said, because if you attack Pat for what he did in the past, it would probably help him.

Blake & Leah

Is there anything you think were missing? Anything you want to see more of? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.

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Republican Chaos in Pennsylvania Threatens to Upend the Midterms - The New York Times

Republicans have frequently claimed that social media censors them unfairly. However, a recent study on the subject indicated the reality is much more complicated. The study illustrated that Republicans are correct that they are censored substantially more on social media platforms. In fact, the study showed that Republicans get suspended from Twitter at almost four times the rate of Democrats. It is then easy to see why cries of social media bias ring so strongly in Republican circles.

Even so, that same study looked deeper into the issue and concluded that the reason for Republicans being suspended more often isn't a function of their ideology but is instead linked to their greater propensity to share misinformation. The GOP, the party of alternative facts, is steeped in lies and conspiracy theories. From Q-Anon, pizza-gate, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as COVID-19 treatment, microchips in COVID vaccines and dozens of more examples all make clear that the Republican Party is practically committed at a fundamental level to spreading outrageous falsehoods.

Social media companies targeting those who spread falsehoods with suspension is perfectly within their right as a private company, just as it is their right to suspend accounts sharing pornography, hate speech, or any other content they disagree with or believe will harm their brand by hosting it. The law on this is rather clear, making laws like HB 20 out of Texas doomed to fail absent a rather significant reworking of First Amendment precedent.

The Supreme Court in Citizens United, a case championed by Republicans who were looking to dramatically increase the level of corporate cash in elections, rested on the notion that private companies have a right to free speech. Relatedly, the Court has held since a landmark case in 1943 that the government cannot compel speech, that is to say it cannot force someone to say or sponsor a message they disagree with. One or both of these cases would have to be directly overruled for Republicans to have any hope of truly regulating who or what social media companies have to host on their platforms.

This is what makes it so curious that a Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals panel has recently allowed HB 20 in Texas to go into effect. This law gives both the state of Texas and its citizens the right to sue social media companies that discriminate in any way based on "the viewpoint of the user or another person." This overly broad law seeks to fundamentally alter the way social media companies operate by turning them into an anarchic free for all where anything goes. HB 20 not only strips social media companies of their First Amendment rights, but it also prevents them from exercising their judgment in a host of ways that they believe would improve a user's experience.

Another issue this law is likely to run into is what lawyers term the "dormant commerce clause." The U.S. Constitution explicitly empowers Congress with regulating interstate commerce, which in effect means states cannot pass laws that interfere interstate commerce. Given that social media inherently operates across state borders, HB 20 would inevitably interfere with the user experience citizens of other states enjoy when using these services outside of Texas' borders. The state of Texas simply cannot control these commercial entities as they operate outside the state, Congress would need to do so using its power under the commerce clause.

When Republicans retake the House and Senate, whether it be after the 2022 midterms or any time thereafter, we can expect them to try for just that. The First Amendment considerations that so plainly give social media companies the right to be free of government regulation when it comes to hosting speech they do not want on their platforms will ultimately result in Republicans losing this battle and their leaders know it. Regardless, that will not stop them as their party's identity is built on victimhood and multi-billion dollar social media companies make for excellent fodder in their never ending culture wars.

Nicholas Creel is an assistant professor of business law at Georgia College and State University. His Twitter is @Prof_Peacock.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

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Republican Attacks on Social Media Are Doomed to Fail. That Won't Stop Them | Opinion - Newsweek

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove joined "Jesse Watters Primetime" to break down what the primary numbers in Pennsylvania and North Carolina mean for the U.S. midterms in 2022.

KARL ROVE: Take a look at Pennsylvania. Four years ago, 737,000 people voted in the Republican primary. This year, 1,338,000. Seven-hundred, seventy-six thousand people voted four years ago in the Democratic primary, outnumbered the Republicans, this year they had a 1,252,000 79% increase in the Republican vote. Sixty-one percent of the Democrat and the Republicans outnumber them. Worse in North Carolina. North Carolina, four years ago, 294,000 Republicans. This year, 759. That's a 158% increase. Democrats went from 432 to 613. So again, the Republicans outnumber the Democrats in North Carolina as well as in Pennsylvania, an exact reversal of four years ago.

I'm happy with the idea that Republican turnout is larger than Democratic turnout. Not necessarily happy with all the outcomes because quality of candidates and quality of message matters in the general election.

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE:

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Karl Rove: PA and NC primaries are showing Republican turnout is larger than Democratic turnout - Fox News

Four candidates are on the Republican ballot for Crawford County sheriff. Watch video above for more information!Daniel Perry, Wayne Sandusky, James Mirus and Shannon Gregory are all hoping to be the next Crawford County sheriff.Each candidate has law enforcement experience and each candidate told 40/29 News that getting better pay and benefits for county deputies would be their top priority if elected to office.Daniel Perry is currently a captain with the Van Buren Police Department. He is also a justice of the peace."We want to make it a place where a deputy wants to stay and make his career there," Perry said. "I think the training of the deputies, the retention of deputies, is probably the most important. That should be the most important part. The deputy who is out there on the road, that they have the best training available to protect them and be able to go home with their families at night."Wayne Sandusky works part-time as a Cedarville police officer and works full-time as a construction manager."I'm definitely not doing it for the money and I'm not doing it for the retirement. I'm doing it for the citizens of Crawford County and to make the sheriff's office a better agency," he said. They're very short-handed. It's hard to keep deputies with the pay these guys have. It's not a good environment, easy environment to work in. And at times when I work at Cedarville, I see where there's only one deputy working. This not only threatens the deputies, it threatens the citizens."James Mirus is the chief deputy for the sheriffs department."I'm going to make sure that we get more deputies on the street, which provides better protection for the citizens. If you give back to your employees, they're going to provide a better service to our county, he said. In 2022 we took money from our own budget to give our employees a raise. The county came back and gave us another dollar raise on top of that, so the county deputies alone have gotten over a $4,000 raise in the last six months. I have the know-how from the inside with the visions of criminal investigations, with patrol, with the jail, which is one of the most important things a sheriff can do is control the jail."Shannon Gregory is currently the police chief for the town of Mulberry."It starts at the top. I'm not going to ask my people to do anything that I'm not willing to do or I have not done, he said. We want to be completely transparent. If the people want to talk to the sheriff, they can come in and talk to the sheriff. I believe that with the proper teamwork we can get the benefits up or we can keep people. With retention comes more people on the street, a safer community and more effective patrols."All of the candidates also told 40/29 News that equipping deputies with police body cameras would be something they would enact if elected as sheriff. The Crawford County Sheriffs Department is one of the few agencies in the River Valley that does not have body cameras or dash cameras inside patrol vehicles.Current Sheriff Jim Damante can not seek election since he was appointed to fulfill the remaining term of former Sheriff Ron Brown, who retired from office.Since there are no Democrat candidates seeking the sheriffs position, the race could be decided during the Republican primary election on Tuesday. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, a runoff election will be held in June.

Four candidates are on the Republican ballot for Crawford County sheriff. Watch video above for more information!

Daniel Perry, Wayne Sandusky, James Mirus and Shannon Gregory are all hoping to be the next Crawford County sheriff.

Each candidate has law enforcement experience and each candidate told 40/29 News that getting better pay and benefits for county deputies would be their top priority if elected to office.

Daniel Perry is currently a captain with the Van Buren Police Department. He is also a justice of the peace.

"We want to make it a place where a deputy wants to stay and make his career there," Perry said. "I think the training of the deputies, the retention of deputies, is probably the most important. That should be the most important part. The deputy who is out there on the road, that they have the best training available to protect them and be able to go home with their families at night."

Wayne Sandusky works part-time as a Cedarville police officer and works full-time as a construction manager.

"I'm definitely not doing it for the money and I'm not doing it for the retirement. I'm doing it for the citizens of Crawford County and to make the sheriff's office a better agency," he said. They're very short-handed. It's hard to keep deputies with the pay these guys have. It's not a good environment, easy environment to work in. And at times when I work at Cedarville, I see where there's only one deputy working. This not only threatens the deputies, it threatens the citizens."

James Mirus is the chief deputy for the sheriffs department.

"I'm going to make sure that we get more deputies on the street, which provides better protection for the citizens. If you give back to your employees, they're going to provide a better service to our county, he said. In 2022 we took money from our own budget to give our employees a raise. The county came back and gave us another dollar raise on top of that, so the county deputies alone have gotten over a $4,000 raise in the last six months. I have the know-how from the inside with the visions of criminal investigations, with patrol, with the jail, which is one of the most important things a sheriff can do is control the jail."

Shannon Gregory is currently the police chief for the town of Mulberry.

"It starts at the top. I'm not going to ask my people to do anything that I'm not willing to do or I have not done, he said. We want to be completely transparent. If the people want to talk to the sheriff, they can come in and talk to the sheriff. I believe that with the proper teamwork we can get the benefits up or we can keep people. With retention comes more people on the street, a safer community and more effective patrols."

All of the candidates also told 40/29 News that equipping deputies with police body cameras would be something they would enact if elected as sheriff. The Crawford County Sheriffs Department is one of the few agencies in the River Valley that does not have body cameras or dash cameras inside patrol vehicles.

Current Sheriff Jim Damante can not seek election since he was appointed to fulfill the remaining term of former Sheriff Ron Brown, who retired from office.

Since there are no Democrat candidates seeking the sheriffs position, the race could be decided during the Republican primary election on Tuesday. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, a runoff election will be held in June.

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Four candidates are on the Republican ballot for Crawford County sheriff - 4029tv