Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) is projected to win the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Kentucky. Barr defeated former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron and other, lesser-known, candidates. Andy Barr wins Kentucky GOP Senate primary https://t.co/L6VdwuR1b9 — POLITICO (@politico) May 19, 2026 NBC News shared further: He will be a heavy general election favorite against the Democratic nominee in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since it awarded Wendell Ford a fourth and final term in 1992. Trump waded into the race this month when backed Barr and urged Nate Morris, a businessman with strong ties to the president’s MAGA movement, to end his campaign for the GOP nomination and instead accept an ambassadorship. Morris agreed and quickly got behind Barr. Though Morris is friends with Vice President JD Vance and received an endorsement from Charlie Kirk before the influential conservative activist’s assassination last year, he had not shown enough growth in polls to win Trump’s support. “Just like the President said at his Northern Kentucky rally in March, I’ve been with him all the way and I always will be,” Barr said in a statement after clinching Trump’s endorsement. “As our next Senator, I’ll stand with President Trump 100% to deliver for Kentucky and to keep Making America Great Again.” The Democratic primary has not been called yet. Charles Booker, Amy McGrath, Pam Stevenson, and Dale Romans are among the Democrats competing for the party’s nomination. CBS News projects that Andy Barr wins the Kentucky Republican Senate primary. Barr will face a Democratic opponent in November to determine who will win the seat currently held by retiring GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell. pic.twitter.com/5eatvzcO8D — CBS News (@CBSNews) May 19, 2026 WHAS 11 noted: McConnell, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history before ceding the position in 2024, is retiring when his current term ends in January 2027. He was first elected in 1984. Kentucky’s general election is November 3, 2026. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, who holds Kentucky’s other Senate seat, won’t be up for reelection until 2028.

According to Semafor, the Trump administration will not move forward with a requirement directing financial institutions to collect proof of citizenship for their customers. Trump Administration Allegedly Considering Executive Order Requiring Banks Verify Citizenship From Customers, White House Spokesperson Responds A White House official told Semafor that Trump will sign a pair of executive orders "aimed at insulating the US’ financial system from undocumented immigrants and expanding fintech firms’ access to the Federal Reserve’s payment rails," the outlet reports.

Federal prosecutors in California have charged a Marina del Rey woman with paying homeless people on Los Angeles’ Skid Row to register to vote. Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, a longtime ballot-initiative petition circulator also known as “Anika,” has agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of paying another person to register to vote. She is expected to formally enter that plea in the coming weeks and faces up to five years in federal prison. According to the Department of Justice, this was not a vague paperwork dispute. The Department of Justice said Armstrong worked for roughly 20 years as a petition circulator, collecting voter signatures on petitions used to qualify initiatives, referendums, and recalls for California ballots. She was paid by coordinators for signatures tied to registered voters, so the incentive was obvious: get people registered, then get their petition signatures. DOJ said Armstrong drove around Los Angeles looking for registered voters, but Skid Row gave her a dense population of people willing to sign in exchange for small payments. Federal prosecutors said Armstrong regularly paid or offered to pay people cash, usually $2 or $3, to induce them to sign her petitions. Starting no later than 2025, DOJ said, she began offering payment not only for signatures but also for completed voter registration forms, using forms she had gathered from the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters. That is the part the “voter fraud never happens” crowd never wants to explain. The registration form becomes a live election document when it feeds directly into a mail-ballot system. JUST IN: Department of Justice credits James O'Keefe undercover videos for the indictment of LA Election Fraudster Brenda Brown Thank you @TheJusticeDept! pic.twitter.com/U3i64mMzQB — James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) May 18, 2026 The Department of Justice announcement laid out the exact danger in plain language. DOJ said many homeless people on Skid Row were not registered to vote, and some did not have an address to put on the registration forms. On several occasions, prosecutors said Armstrong provided a homeless individual with her own former Los Angeles address so the person had something to write on the form. Those forms registered the individual for both California and federal elections. Because California automatically sends a vote-by-mail ballot to every registered voter, DOJ said ballots in some homeless individuals’ names could potentially be sent to Armstrong’s former residence, where the homeless registrant did not live or collect mail. Prosecutors said that on January 30, 2026, Armstrong knowingly and willfully paid another person for the purpose of causing that person to register to vote in federal elections. The FBI and investigators with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California investigated the matter. That is not a theory. That is the federal government’s own description of how this could touch actual ballots. The case also shows why undercover journalism still matters. O’Keefe Media Group published hidden-camera reporting from Skid Row earlier this year, alleging that petition circulators were paying people to sign ballot petitions and use names or identities tied to real registered voters. O’Keefe Media Group reported that its undercover journalists posed as homeless individuals on Skid Row and recorded petition circulators taking the scheme beyond ordinary signature gathering. The group said its footage showed people being handed printed lists of voter names and addresses, then being directed what to write and how to sign so the signatures would match official records and pass verification. OMG reported that participants appeared to be paid $2 or $3 per form. Multiple people were seen using the same lists, pointing to a coordinated system operating across Skid Row. The group also reported that residents tied to the names being used said some listed voters had not lived at those addresses for years, even while election mail was still arriving. OMG framed the findings as potential forgery and election fraud involving real voters’ identities, small cash payments, and a system operating in plain sight on Skid Row. James O’Keefe later posted that the DOJ credited his undercover videos in the case. That matters because local officials and the legacy press have spent years pretending election-integrity concerns are automatically illegitimate. Now there is a federal charge, a plea agreement, and an official DOJ statement describing payments, registrations, addresses, and automatic mail ballots. As PatriotFetch noted in its analysis, the case raises serious questions about California’s election framework and how vulnerable people can be exploited inside it. The publication pointed to the use of small payments or goods, the role of Skid Row, and the basic oversight problem when the system depends on clean registrations but allows bad actors to game the process. NBC Los Angeles also reported on the case locally, confirming that Armstrong appeared in federal court after agreeing to plead guilty. NBC Los Angeles reported that prosecutors accused Armstrong of bringing voter registration forms to Skid Row and offering payments for people to complete them. The local report said Armstrong worked as a petition circulator and that federal court documents described Skid Row as a convenient location because many people there were concentrated in a small area and willing to sign petitions for payment. The report also echoed the DOJ’s central allegation that Armstrong offered money or items to people who were not already registered so they could complete voter registration forms and then sign ballot petitions. That is the core of the case: prosecutors say the payments were tied to registering people to vote. NBC also noted that the federal charge carries a potential five-year prison sentence, matching the DOJ announcement and making clear this was being treated as a criminal election matter, not a local paperwork mistake. This is happening under President Trump’s DOJ, which has made election integrity enforcement a priority. The political establishment spent years insisting voter fraud was a myth, a conspiracy theory, and a racist talking point. Now a California woman has agreed to plead guilty in a federal case involving cash payments, homeless registrations, an address the registrant did not live at, and a state system that automatically mails ballots to registered voters. Armstrong has not been sentenced. The formal guilty plea is still expected in the coming weeks. The facts in the DOJ’s own announcement are damning enough. Voter fraud is not a myth when the Department of Justice is charging people over cash-for-registration schemes that feed directly into a state’s automatic mail-ballot pipeline. It is a federal crime. And now, at least in this case, it is being treated like one.

The Trump administration has moved to admit 10,000 additional white South Africans, arguing an “emergency refugee situation” warrants an expansion of the number of Afrikaners allowed into the country. The administration proposed increasing the refugee admissions ceiling for Afrikaners this fiscal year from 7,500 to 17,500. The Trump administration plans to admit up to 10,000 more white South African refugees into the United States in the coming months, arguing that their status as Afrikaners has left them open to discrimination and persecution at home. Read more: https://t.co/CGM2Y5mOUC — ABC News (@ABC) May 19, 2026 More from The New York Times: The government has calculated that the additional 10,000 refugee slots for Afrikaners will cost roughly $100 million, according to the report submitted to Congress. The administration is expected to hold formal meetings with Congress to discuss the report in the coming days, according to a person familiar with the matter. But the Trump administration has in the past treated such consultations with Congress over its refugee program as a formality before finalizing the changes. The White House and State Department did not return requests for comment. Mr. Trump early last year dramatically lowered the number of refugees allowed into the country to 7,500 for this fiscal year, down from the cap of 125,000 set by the Biden administration in 2024. The limited number of slots were reserved mostly for Afrikaners, as well as some other South African minorities. Mr. Trump and his aides have claimed Afrikaners face racial persecution, an assertion strongly disputed by South African officials. The administration has also publicly attacked the South African government on issues like government land seizures and laws meant to redress the legacy of apartheid. “This escalating hostility heightens the risks to Afrikaners in South Africa, who are already subject to far-reaching government-sponsored race-based discrimination,” the report sent to Congress read, according to CNN. “For these reasons, a revised ceiling of 17,500 is justified by grave humanitarian concerns and in the national interest as detailed in E.O. 14204 and will further the U.S. foreign policy interests described in that order,” it added. “Proposing to admit only white South Africans as ‘refugees’ while denying legitimate asylum seekers, like Afghans who fought alongside Americans, is a disturbing policy. It erodes the purpose of this life-saving program and contradicts our values as Americans,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said. “Proposing to admit only white South Africans as ‘refugees’ while denying legitimate asylum seekers, like Afghans who fought alongside Americans, is a disturbing policy. It erodes the purpose of this life-saving program and contradicts our values as Americans." –@SenatorShaheen https://t.co/ywJggE857V — Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) May 19, 2026 CNN wrote: President Donald Trump has justified the administration’s decision to resettle Afrikaners in the US by citing claims that “a genocide is taking place” in South Africa, saying that “White farmers are being brutally killed and their land confiscated.” South African authorities have strongly denied such claims. CNN has investigated the claims of White “genocide” in South Africa and found no evidence to back them up. The emergency determination cited remarks from the South African president and an incident last year when the South African government questioned US personnel on assignment in the country.

The Senate on Tuesday advanced a resolution to limit President Trump’s war powers against Iran, marking the first time after several attempts that the upper legislative chamber moved forward with such a measure. The Senate advanced the measure in a 50-47 vote. Some GOP senators did not vote, while Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) became the fourth Republican to support the war powers resolution. BREAKING: A War Powers Resolution meant to STRIP President Trump of his military powers has ADVANCED in the US Senate after RINO Sen. Bill Cassidy voted YES, 50-47 Cassidy is LIVID because Trump SUCCESSFULLY ousted him from his seat this week THIS IS WHY CORNYN MUST GO TOO!… pic.twitter.com/dpFqnKN79I — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 19, 2026 The Hill shared further: Cassidy joined Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) in voting Tuesday for a motion to discharge the war powers resolution sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The motion passed by a vote of 50 to 47, setting up a future vote to proceed to the motion on the Senate floor. Murkowski broke ranks with Senate Republican leaders last week to vote to advance the war powers resolution. Collins began voting to end the military conflict against Iran late last month, just before the 60-day window set forth by the 1973 War Powers Act allowing the president to deploy U.S. troops without congressional authorization was about to expire. Paul has consistently voted in favor of Democratic-sponsored resolutions to end the military conflict in Iran. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the lone Democrat senator to vote against the measure. “Sen. Bill Cassidy, who just lost his primary after Trump worked to oust him, joined 3 other Republicans and all Democrats to move the measure forward. Still a long way from becoming law, and Democrats almost certainly lack the votes to override a veto,” Fox News noted. GOP senator spurned by Trump hands Democrats the key vote to advance Iran war powers resolution — their 8th attempt finally clears a procedural hurdle. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who just lost his primary after Trump worked to oust him, joined 3 other Republicans and all Democrats to… pic.twitter.com/6KfIprQcQk — Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) May 19, 2026 CBS News has more: And three Republicans — Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — did not vote, tipping the scales in Democrats’ favor for the first time since they began bringing war powers resolutions related to Iran. “Vote by vote, Democrats are breaking through Republicans’ wall of silence on Trump’s illegal war,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement after the measure advanced. “Today proved our pressure is working: Republicans are starting to crack, and momentum is building to check him. We are not letting up.” The resolution, led by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, would direct the president to “remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force.” The vote marked only a first step in the Senate. And even if both chambers approved the resolution, the president would be expected to veto it. But Democrats say the move would carry significance, and have the potential to change the president’s thinking in the war.