Morning Digest: The first high-profile primary test for House Democrats looms next week

A North Carolina congresswoman had looked set for a long career, but her rival is outhustling her

Rep. Valerie Foushee (second from right) faces a competitive Democratic primary contest next week. (Credit: Valerie Foushee campaign site)

Leading Off

NC-04

Rep. Valerie Foushee will square off next week against Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam in a closely-watched rematch that will be one of the first high-profile tests of the resiliency of House Democratic incumbents facing energetic primary challengers.

When they first met in 2022, Foushee won a previous incarnation of North Carolina’s safely blue 4th Congressional District after defeating Allam 46-37 for the Democratic nod.

Foushee, the first Black woman to represent the rival college towns of Chapel Hill and Durham in Congress, seemed to be in for a long career after easily securing a second term without primary opposition in 2024.

But Allam, who would be the first Muslim person to serve North Carolina in the House, announced a rematch in December, arguing that Foushee had done little to help her constituents.

Much has changed since their initial matchup, not least the intense anger many Democratic voters now feel toward Democrats in Congress. But the specific contours of this year’s race are also very different.

Four years ago, Foushee enjoyed a huge financial advantage over Allam thanks to heavier outlays from third parties. Much of the pro-Foushee spending came from groups aligned with the hawkish pro-Israel group AIPAC and the crypto sector.

This time, though, voters are seeing far more messaging on behalf of Allam than they are for the congresswoman. The local alt-weekly INDY Week notes that Allam has benefited from over $1 million in outside expenditures, which is roughly three times larger than the amount spent to aid Foushee as of Sunday evening.

About half of the pro-Allam spending has come from American Priorities, a new group that formed earlier this month. While the outfit hasn’t said what its specific policy goals are, NBC writes that it intends to “counter AIPAC spending in Democratic primaries.”

American Priorities’ opening ad names AIPAC as one of “the big guys” that has “bought and paid for” Congress, though it’s not the only group it highlights. The narrator also says that Foushee has received support from “big banks, big pharma, big tech, crypto,” and “even corporations working with ICE.”

The spot goes on to praise Allam for having “fought for healthcare” and for earning an endorsement from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Other pro-Allam organizations like Leaders We Deserve, the group founded by activist David Hogg, have used a similar message to argue that “Valerie Foushee only works for the big guys” while Allam “works for the people.”

The incumbent, by contrast, has gotten almost $300,000 in assistance from Jobs and Democracy PAC, which is linked to an organization funded by the AI company Anthropic. Anthropic, CNBC recently noted, has been one of the rare major players in the industry to call for more regulation. Foushee has also gotten $100,000 in help from an organization allied with the Congressional Black Caucus.

The entities that spent heavily for her in 2022, however, have remained on the sidelines.

Foushee, though, is arguing that voters should now be asking who is pouring in money to oust her on March 3.

“An out-of-state PAC is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat me,” she said in a video responding to Leaders We Deserve’s offensive. “And why is this PAC running ads against me funded by billionaires?”

Foushee singled out one billionaire in particular: venture capitalist Ron Conway, who contributed $500,000 to Hogg’s group during the last election cycle. The American Prospect says that Conway has not yet donated to the organization for the 2026 elections.

Foushee has also sought to distance herself from AIPAC. Her team told INDY Week last summer that she would not accept contributions from the organization going forward.

The congresswoman has, however, struggled to raise money from donors to get her message out.

And despite waiting to announce her second campaign in December, Allam ended 2025 with more cash on hand than the two-term incumbent. Updated campaign finance reports released Thursday show that Allam has continued to outraise Foushee during the new year.

Foushee, though, believes she can prevail thanks to her support from prominent North Carolina Democrats.

In her recent video, she highlighted endorsements from Gov. Josh Stein; former Gov. Roy Cooper, who is running for the U.S. Senate this year; and former Rep. David Price, whose decision not to seek reelection in 2022 paved the way for Foushee’s own election to Congress.

Foushee also argues that Allam and her allies have it wrong when they try to portray her as insufficiently liberal.

“I was a progressive before she was born,” Foushee, 69, told the News & Observer of her 32-year-old opponent.

The second Foushee-Allam primary will also be different than their first bout because the 4th District itself is different.

Republicans passed a new gerrymander ahead of the 2024 elections that moved more than a third of Foushee’s constituents to other constituencies and replaced them with other North Carolinians. (The GOP’s latest gerrymander did not impact the 4th.)

One of the new communities that’s now part of the district is the town of Apex, which is near the proposed location for a 190-acre data center dubbed the New Hill Digital Campus. The growth of data centers and the ensuing backlash against them has become a major election issue in races across the country, and the primary for the 4th District is one such contest.

Foushee has not spoken out either in support of or against the New Hill project. She instead told attendees at a recent candidate forum, “While we’re talking about how we set up guardrails, what we make by way of framework for AI has to be where data centers can or should be located. What I don’t want Congress to do is to preempt what a local government decides for itself.”

Allam, by contrast, has made her opposition to the plan a centerpiece of her campaign.

“I’ve been hearing from hundreds of residents across this district with concerns about AI data centers,” she told Prospect. “I am proud to have rejected donations from the AI lobby and the tech industry. People will know that I’m working for them.”

No one has released any polling of the race, but observers across the country—including some of Foushee’s colleagues—will be closely watching the result next week for early clues about what’s in store for Democrats as the 2026 primary season starts.

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The big Colorado redistricting surprise

Redistricting Roundup

UT Redistricting

The Utah Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Republican lawmakers in a long-running redistricting legal battle on Friday, meaning that the new congressional map imposed by a trial court last year will remain in effect.

In a six-page decision, the justices unanimously agreed that Republicans had failed to properly file their appeal.

Normally, a party can only seek appellate review after a lower court has fully resolved the case in question. Last year, however, the GOP passed a law allowing immediate appeals when a trial court grants an injunction in cases challenging a state statute as unconstitutional—as was the situation here.

But despite giving themselves additional chances to appeal, Republicans missed deadlines to do so in September and then again in December.

By the time Republicans did finally act in January, the only avenue left to them was to appeal a final ruling. However, no such ruling existed: As the lower court explained, many aspects of the case remain unresolved.

A case brought by Utah Republicans in federal court earlier this month seeking to block the new map remains pending, but it rests on discredited legal theories that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected in 2023. Republicans are also hoping to qualify a measure for the ballot that would repeal the anti-gerrymandering reforms voters approved in 2018, but even if they succeed, it would not affect the map used in November.

VA Redistricting

Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Friday signed a revised version of the new congressional map that both chambers of Virginia’s legislature passed earlier that same day. Democrats want voters to approve a constitutional amendment in a special election on April 21 that would allow the new boundaries to become law in time for the November midterms.

The final version of the map makes further changes to the 2nd District, which is held by Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans.

Under the Democrats’ initial proposal, the 2nd would have voted for Kamala Harris by a narrow 50-49 margin, according to data from the Redistricting Data Hub uploaded to Dave’s Redistricting App. The tweaked version, by contrast, would have supported Harris by a wider 52-47 spread by shifting some turf from the safely blue 3rd District into the neighboring 2nd.

The April election is still on hold after a state court judge ruled the legislature had failed to follow proper procedures in putting the Democrats’ amendment before voters, but the decision is being appealed.

Senate

SD-Sen

Amid chatter that Kristi Noem could be on the outs as Donald Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer reports that some South Dakota Republicans fear she might seek an escape hatch by returning home to run for office once again.

There’s no indication of any actual interest from Noem, who served as the state’s lone member of the House and then was elected governor twice before Trump tapped her for his Cabinet last year. However, Scherer says that supporters of Republican Sen. Mike Rounds “have begun preparing” for the possibility that she could challenge the incumbent in the June 2 GOP primary, though they “remain skeptical” that she’ll actually bite.

Scherer also speculates that Noem could try to reclaim her old House seat by campaigning to replace Rep. Dusty Johnson, who is running for governor.

WY-Sen, WY-Gov, WY-AL

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon seems intent on keeping everyone guessing as to whether—and how—he might seek to prolong his political career.

At a public Q&A last week, the two-term incumbent was asked about a “rumor” that he might jump into the GOP primary for the state’s open Senate seat.

“I’ll put an end to that,” Gordon answered. “I’m not planning about that.”

Yet at the very same event, Gordon also said, “I might challenge for a third term. Who knows? I might run for Senate, might run for House.”

Wyoming’s lone House seat is also open because Rep. Harriet Hageman is running to replace Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who unexpectedly announced her retirement just before Christmas. Hageman, though, already has an endorsement from Donald Trump—a still-powerful weapon, even if it’s not as potent as it once was.

Gordon, as we’ve previously explained, could also challenge a state law prohibiting governors from seeking a third consecutive term. He’d likely prevail—state courts have struck down similar laws with regard to other officials—but time is running out, if it hasn’t already. And making matters more awkward, Trump has already endorsed another candidate for governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder.

Governors

GA-Gov

A federal judge issued a restraining order on Friday in a case brought by wealthy businessman Rick Jackson, who is asking that one of his opponents in the GOP primary for Georgia’s open governorship, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, be barred from raising and spending unlimited sums.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash ruled from the bench and promised a written opinion would follow. However, Jackson said in a press release that the order bars Jones’ “leadership committee” from spending any more money and directs it to cancel any media reservations, as he had sought.

Jones has taken advantage of a Georgia law that allows a handful of politicians, including incumbent governors and lieutenant governors, to set up these special committees, which face no caps on contributions from donors. Campaigns are normally limited to raising just $8,400 per donor for the primary and another $4,800 if there’s a runoff.

Jackson recently filed a lawsuit seeking to have the leadership committee law struck down in its entirety, since other courts previously agreed that it was likely unconstitutional. In the interim, though, he asked for the restraining order that Thrash just granted.

House

CO-03

Donald Trump upended Colorado Rep. Jeff Hurd’s plans to win a second term in Congress on Saturday when he yanked his endorsement from the incumbent and instead asked primary voters to support Hope Scheppelman, a former official with the state GOP.

Trump originally gave his backing to Hurd in October, a few months after Scheppelman launched a campaign against the incumbent. In her kickoff, Scheppelman sought to tie Hurd to the Koch network’s Americans for Prosperity, which became toxic in MAGAworld last cycle when it backed Nikki Haley’s unsuccessful presidential bid.

“Jeff Hurd and his fake conservative puppet masters at ‘Americans for Chinese Prosperity’, the so-called AFP, tricked and lied to CD3 voters last year,” she charged in a statement, “but they can’t deceive us any longer now that he’s exposed himself as just another liberal elitist who is dead set against President Trump and the millions of MAGA citizens like me who demand that Congress does the will of voters.”

Scheppelman’s take now seems to have won over Trump, who lambasted Hurd for his “lack of support, in particular for the unbelievably successful TARIFFS imposed on Foreign Countries and Companies which has made America Richer, Stronger, Bigger, and Better than ever before.”

Earlier this month, Hurd was one of six House Republicans who sided with Democrats to pass a resolution aimed at rolling back tariffs Trump imposed on Canada. Shortly before that vote, Trump had threatened that any Republicans who crossed him on tariffs “will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!”

Now he’s made good on that threat, with potentially dangerous results for Republicans.

In 2022, the GOP nearly fumbled away western Colorado’s 3rd District, despite its conservative lean, thanks to the singular ineptitude of Lauren Boebert. It was a problem even Boebert herself recognized: After holding off Democrat Adam Frisch by just 546 votes following a recount, she then switched to an even redder district to seek reelection in 2024.

Hurd, who had launched a challenge to Boebert before she fled to the friendlier 4th District on the other side of the state, soon became the new frontrunner for the GOP nod. However, far-right figures like Scheppelman despised Hurd and unsuccessfully sought to stop him in the primary.

Their gambit failed, but Hurd went on to defeat Frisch by a soft 51-46 margin, despite the fact that Trump simultaneously carried the 3rd District by a considerably larger 54-44 spread. That outcome alone suggested the seat could be a reach target for Democrats, but a victory by Scheppelman in the June 30 primary would move the district up the list.

In addition to her extreme views, Scheppelman has also been a weak fundraiser, pulling in under $100,000 from donors throughout all of last year, compared to nearly $2.4 million for the incumbent. The lone notable Democrat, private equity investor Alex Kelloff, raised more than $500,000 in 2025, so he’d almost certainly prefer to face Trump’s new favorite rather than his old one.

TX-23

The Office of Congressional Conduct began investigating allegations last year that Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales had an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles, a staffer who died by suicide in September, Punchbowl News reported Friday morning.

NBC subsequently reported that the OCC has finished its probe and will deliver its findings to the House Ethics Committee on March 4, a day after Gonzales’ primary. The OCC is prohibited from sharing its report with the committee within 60 days of an election in which the member of Congress under investigation is on the ballot, though Gonzales’ potential May 26 runoff falls outside this window.

Separately on Friday, journalist Juliegrace Brufke reported that two unnamed former Gonzales staffers, both women, said that the congressman “sent them text messages that made them uneasy during the course of their time working for him,” with one adding she was “surprised that information about ‘toxic’ office dynamics has not come out sooner.”

Gonzales faces a challenging renomination battle next week against Brandon Herrera, a far-right candidate whom he narrowly defeated in 2024, in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District. Candidates need to win a majority of the vote on March 3 to avert a second round of voting almost three months later. (Two other Republicans are also on the ballot.)

Herrera has responded to the renewed scrutiny surrounding Gonzales’ alleged relationship with Santos-Aviles by calling for the congressman to resign, but the incumbent has signaled he won’t go anywhere willingly.

Gonzales has instead publicly accused Santos-Aviles’ widower, Adrian Aviles, of attempting to blackmail him. Aviles’ attorney has denied the allegation.

At least two media outlets, CNN and ABC, also reported on Friday that Gonzales had denied that he’d had an affair with Santos-Aviles. However, neither publication offered a quote from the congressman, whose recent statements have avoided any denials.

In November, though, Gonzales responded to a question about his relationship to Santos-Aviles by saying that “[t]he rumors are completely untruthful, and Regina’s family has asked for privacy.” When he was asked what rumors he was referring to, Gonzales responded, “Just in general. I said all rumors in general.”

Poll Pile

• NC-Sen: Change Research (D): Roy Cooper (D): 50, Michael Whatley (R): 40. (Jan.: 47-42 Cooper.) Respondents were told candidates’ most recent occupations before they were asked whom they’d support. The January poll was done on behalf of the progressive group Carolina Forward.