August 1, 2024, presidential campaign news

Our live coverage has ended. Follow the latest 2024 election news here or read through the posts below.

Rep. Bob Good on Capitol Hill on May 7.

Rep. Bob Good on Thursday conceded the Republican primary in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District after a recount. 

“While I am disappointed in the ultimate outcome, it has been my distinct honor to serve as the congressional representative for Virginia’s 5th District over the past 3.5 years,” Good said in a statement on Facebook.

Good requested the recount, which he had to fund, after the certified results found him 374 votes, or 0.6 percentage points, behind state Sen. John McGuire. 

Both former President Donald Trump and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy endorsed McGuire against Good, who chairs the hard-line House Freedom Caucus. 

Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, will survive a primary challenge in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, CNN projects.

Ogles, a freshman lawmaker who had former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, is projected to defeat challenger Courtney Johnston, a member of Nashville’s Metro Council who outraised him in the race.

Ogles will be heavily favored in the general election for the Middle Tennessee seat, which Republicans redrew two years ago to favor their party.

Since taking office, Ogles has been dogged by questions about his resume. A series of investigative reports by WTVF, the CBS affiliate in Nashville, raised questions about the congressman’s campaign finances, his academic background, his work history, his claims of volunteer work and more.  

On July 23, following Kamala Harris’ elevation as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Ogles introduced two articles of impeachment in the House against the vice president, accusing her of willfully refusing to uphold immigration laws and a breach of public trust. The effort has no chance of advancing in the House.

JD Vance gives remarks at a campaign rally at Arizona Christian University in Glendale, Arizona, on July 31.

Former President Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, said Thursday in an interview with NewsMax that he doesn’t “really care” who his opponent is.

“I don’t really care about who my opponent is,” he said.

Vance also took a dig at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a potential running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, claiming he did “nothing” during the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment and toxic spill.

Vance’s comments come as anticipation mounts around who Harris will choose to join her atop the Democratic ticket. Her campaign announced earlier this week that she and her vice presidential pick will embark on a swing state tour next week, starting in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Gloria Johnson, who made national headlines last year as one of three Tennessee state lawmakers facing expulsion over their protest on the state House floor for more gun control, will win the Democratic nomination for Senate in the Volunteer State, CNN projects.

Johnson will take on Republican incumbent Marsha Blackburn, who will be heavily favored in the deep-red state. Tennessee hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1990.

Johnson made headlines in 2023 when she, along with fellow Democratic state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, faced expulsion from the state Legislature after advocating gun reform measures following a mass shooting at a Nashville school. Republicans in the chamber accused the trio – who soon earned the moniker “Tennessee Three” of “knowingly and intentionally” bringing “disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives.”

Jones and Pearson, who are Black, were expelled, though they later won back their seats. Johnson, who is White, narrowly avoided expulsion.

In an interview with CNN at the time, Johnson slammed the votes to expel Jones and Pearson as racist.

“I am a 60-year-old White woman, and they are two young Black men,” Johnson said, noting that both Pearson and Jones were questioned in a “demeaning way” by lawmakers before their expulsion. 

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear heads to the Windy City Monday, where he’s set to headline a fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.

The fundraiser is hosted by Christie Hefner; former US Ambassador to the Netherlands Fay Hartog-Levin; and the Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs, a Jewish-Dem organization.

JB Pritzker speaks during an interview in Chicago, Illinois, on May 6.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, one of several Democratic politicians being considered as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, joked about reports of other vice presidential contenders cancelling events over the coming days ahead of Harris’ expected decision.

In an interview with MSNBC on Thursday, Pritzker confirmed that “people have called to talk to me about the possibility of being the vice presidential candidate,” and he acknowledged reports of other candidates clearing their schedules this weekend as the vice presidential decision draws closer.

The Harris campaign has announced that her running mate will make their first public appearance at a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

“Lollapalooza is happening this weekend here in Chicago, and my kids and, I mean, tens of thousands of others are going to be there,” Pritzker said, referring to the popular music festival in his home state that began Thursday.

“I’ve heard other governors talk about how they’ve cancelled their weekend plans. I was going to perform, of course, with Blink-182 on Sunday, but I’ve cancelled in order to clear my schedule,” he said.

A Pritzker spokesperson told CNN he does not have any planned public appearances this weekend. The governor’s comments come after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg scrapped some plans they had been slated to attend this weekend.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is set to go on a swing state tour next week with her running mate. But she has yet to announce who that will be.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro had been scheduled to do a series of donor and fundraising events in New York this weekend, including in the Hamptons, but those have now been canceled, two people informed of the plans tell CNN. Shapiro has had multiple meetings with Harris aides who are leading the vetting process.

Another possible running mate, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, has also changed some of his plans. A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation told media on Thursday that a roadway safety roundtable Buttigieg was slated to attend Friday afternoon was canceled “due to some unforeseen scheduling constraints.”

Meanwhile, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker had initial and follow-up running mate vetting interviews with aides, a person familiar with the process told CNN. Both interviews were conducted virtually, with the second one taking place on Wednesday.

CNN’s Donald Judd and Alison Main contributed to this report.

This post has been updated with additional reporting.

Kamala Harris greets the crowd during her presidential campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 30.

Voting to officially make Vice President Kamala Harris the Democratic Party’s nominee for president began earlier today, with the party’s roughly 4,700 delegates receiving digital ballots. 

Delegates have until 6 p.m. ET on Monday to return their ballots. 

There isn’t much suspense over the outcome of the vote. Harris is the only name on the ballot, as she was the only candidate to a gather the necessary number of signatures from delegates. 

The party announced Tuesday that 3,923 delegates had petitioned for Harris, or 99% of those who participated in the process. No other candidate met the 300-signature threshold to qualify for the ballot. 

After Harris is officially the nominee, party rules allow her to name her running mate without a separate vote. 

Democrats are nominating Harris ahead of their convention in Chicago later this month to avoid potential litigation over ballot access, especially in Ohio. 

While the official voting is happening virtually, delegates will have a ceremonial roll call at the convention, which begins August 19.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about the release of Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who were detained in Russia, as she departs to return to Washington, DC, at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, on Thursday August 1.

Vice President Kamala Harris gave solemn remarks on Thursday’s historic prisoner swap, nodding to her work with President Joe Biden on the release of wrongfully detained Americans Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and US permanent resident Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said that it was “my honor to work alongside our president, Joe Biden, to bring home more than 70 Americans in the last three-and-a-half years.”

“Today, in spite of all of their suffering, it gives me great comfort to know that their horrible ordeal is finally over,” she told reporters on a tarmac as she prepared to depart Houston for Washington, where she is expected to meet with the freed Americans later Thursday. 

“Over many years, President Biden and I and our team have engaged in complex, diplomatic negotiations to bring wrongfully detained Americans home. We never stopped fighting for their release,” she added.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren arrives to the US Capitol on July 11 in Washington, DC.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren downplayed Vice President Kamala Harris’ shift to the middle on key policy issues in an interview with CNN on Thursday.

“She’s her own person. She’s going to figure out her views around fracking and other issues,” Warren said.

In the past, Harris had indicated that she supported “Medicare for All” and banning fracking, but her campaign has since said her position has changed on those issues. 

“But at the end of the day, I’ve watched her year after year after year on issue after issue after issue show up for working families and fight back against the giant banks, fight back against Wall Street, fight back against the Republicans and their donors in order to stand up for those working families,” Warren continued.

“So, I’m really excited about the fact that I think Kamala Harris is going to pull us together. She’s going to take on Donald Trump, toe to toe, and she’s going to win,” she added.

The Trump campaign said Thursday it and authorized committees raised $138.7 million in July for former President Donald Trump’s reelection effort and that it now has $327 million cash on hand.

Context: Trump’s total is a jump from June when the former president’s campaign and aligned committees reported bringing in nearly $112 million, but the July total is expected to be dwarfed by the fundraising haul of his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Harris’ campaign and affiliated committees have not yet released full July fundraising numbers, but her campaign has said it collected an eye-popping $200 million in roughly the first week of her candidacy.

This post has been updated with additional details.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Thursday defended Donald Trump’s false comments about Kamala Harris’ racial identity, saying that it was “totally reasonable” for his ticket mate to describe the vice president as someone who “pretends to be somebody different, depending on the audience she’s talking to.”

The Ohio senator’s comments, in an interview with CNN’s Steve Contorno, came the day after Trump said at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention that Harris – the biracial daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father who both immigrated to the United States — “happened to turn Black” in recent years.

Vance, who is the father of three biracial children, said Trump’s comments “don’t give me pause at all.”

“Look, all he said is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon,” said Vance, who was on a visit to the US-Mexico in Cochise County, Arizona.

Read more here.

Vice President Kamala Harris gives the eulogy during Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee's during funeral service at the Fallbrook Church on August 1 in Houston.

Vice President Kamal Harris stepped into the role of “consoler-in-chief” at the celebration of life service for the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee on Thursday, praising her legacy of service, dedication to the people she served and their friendship.

When recognizing Jackson Lee’s efforts in designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday, Harris accidentally referred to herself as “president” before quickly correcting to say “vice president.”

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. delivers a speech outlining his foreign policy vision at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda on Wednesday, June 12.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has qualified for the presidential ballot in Colorado, the state’s elections office announced on Thursday.

In July, Kennedy’s campaign submitted more than 30,000 signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. The secretary of state’s office said in a press release that of the signatures submitted by the campaign, 21,702 signatures were deemed valid. Independent presidential candidates are required to submit 12,000 valid signatures to appear on the state’s ballot.

Kennedy’s campaign submitted signatures to qualify him as an independent candidate despite his having received the endorsement of the Libertarian Party of Colorado, which said it planned to nominate Kennedy on its party line in Colorado. Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver has also said he will submit paperwork to fill the Libertarian party line in the state.

Kennedy has also gained ballot access in 12 other states: New Mexico, Tennessee, Minnesota, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Delaware, California, Nebraska, North Carolina, Michigan, Hawaii and Utah.

That means Kennedy is eligible to receive 155 electoral college votes.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday called for the Biden administration to provide details of the prisoner swap that resulted in Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan and others being released as part of the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War. 

The swap involved 24 detainees and seven countries, and Turkey said it played a mediator role. A host of Russian dissidents were also freed and Moscow also got a convicted Russian assassin who had been jailed in Germany.

Sen. JD Vance talks with Sheriff Robert Watkins of Cochise County, President of the National Border Patrol Council Paul A. Perez and local ranchers while touring the U.S. Border Wall on August 1 in in Montezuma Pass, Arizona.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Thursday toured the US southern border in Arizona, using the opportunity to blame Vice President Kamala Harris for what he called the “crazy border mess” and the Biden administration’s border policies.

During his brief remarks, Vance did not mention President Joe Biden by name but repeatedly railed against the “Harris administration.” He blamed Harris for having “kept those promises to open” the border, stopping deportation on “day one,” and halting construction on the border wall.

He derided the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration and border security policies as “terrible and idiotic” and argued that the policies “cause real human beings to suffer.”

Mentioning his own mother’s struggle with drug addiction, Vance accused Harris of allowing fentanyl to cross into the US. He also falsely referred to Harris as “border czar.”

Vice President Kamala Harris praised the multinational prisoner swap with Russia, saying it gives her “great comfort” to know the released prisoners will soon be reunited with their loved ones.

Four American citizens or residents were released as part of the complex prisoner exchange between Russia, the US and other Western nations: Wall Street reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan, Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Russian opposition politician and human rights defender Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Harris is in Houston today to deliver the eulogy at a service for Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

Former President Donald Trump sits at the defendant's table inside the courthouse as the jury is scheduled to continue deliberations for his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City.

A New York appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to lift a gag order that continues to restrict the former president’s public statements in the wake of his New York criminal conviction.

As it stands, the gag order bars Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, from publicly discussing the prosecutors, court staff and their families.

Judge Juan Merchan had previously lifted parts of the gag order after Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records, allowing him to discuss trial witnesses and the jury.

Read more here.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said Thursday that the prisoner exchange between the United States, Russia and other Western nations was made possible because “Donald Trump’s about to be back in office.”

In an interview with CNN’s Steve Contorno, Vance said the prisoner exchange was “great news, at least what little we know.”

“We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with,” Vance said in the interview, which followed his visit to the US-Mexico border Thursday morning in Cochise County, Arizona.