Welcome to the online version of From the Politics DeskA daily newsletter that brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News Politics team from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, Steve Kornacki delves into heavy turnout in the Texas Democratic primary for Senate. Plus, Andrea Mitchell explores the Trump administration’s growing list of mixed messages on Iran.
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– Adam Wollner
What Democrats’ sky-high turnout in the Texas primary will and won’t do in November
Analysis by Steve Kornacki
Democrats in Texas are feeling fired up about their voters’ enthusiasm — and for good reason.
For the first time in a generation, he has outpaced Republicans in midterm primary voting in the state. This is a significant achievement for the party that believed in it Come on James And 2026, the moment it finally finds a nominee and delivers a stunning victory in a traditional Republican stronghold.
But while Democrats are emerging from Tuesday’s primary with understandable optimism about Talarico’s chances of capturing the Senate seat, the results come with some cautionary notes.
Start with the numbers. With final votes still being tallied, more than 2.2 million votes have been cast in the Democratic Senate primary involving Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett. That’s twice the figure seen in midterm primaries for Texas Democrats this century. That’s more than 100,000 votes above the current turnout level for the GOP race.
Democrats’ turnout in the race was doubly impressive in that it came even as Republicans were locked in their own unusually competitive primary with Sen. John Cornyn Facing challenges from the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and representative. Wesley Hunt. In a red state like Texas, one would imagine that a high-stakes GOP contest would easily draw more interest from voters, especially with the astronomical amount of money being poured into it.
Clearly, Democratic-aligned voters are deeply — even historically — powerful right now. What’s not clear, though, is what this means for November.
Obviously, primary voting does not always correlate with general election victory. For example, during the 2008 presidential primary season, nearly 3 million voters participated in the hotly contested Democratic race in Texas. Barack Obama And Hillary ClintonCompared to just over 1 million in the GOP battle between John McCain And Mike Huckabee. But in November, Texas remained safely in the GOP field, with McCain beating Obama by 12 points in the state.
The Democratic turnout in this year’s Texas Senate primary is part of a much broader national trend that has accelerated since Trump’s return to the White House. Turnout has skyrocketed, especially among economically-advanced, college-educated voters who have become a large part of the party’s base. These are voters turned off by Trump and intent on using any and every opportunity to register their views at the polls.
In primaries and special elections, this kind of power imbalance can really show. But November brings a much broader electorate, and in Texas, a Senate general election could attract 10 million voters. His show of strength on Tuesday was so impressive that it would need Democrats to win about 3 million additional voters in a state that gave Trump a 14-point victory in 2024. As the Democratic candidate, Talarico needs to persuade voters, not just inspire them.
Read more from Steve →
More from last night’s elections:
- President Donald Trump The Texas Senate said it will “soon” endorse a candidate in the Republican primary, now that Cornyn and Paxton are headed to a runoff. Trump said, “Those who don’t back down should stay out of the race.”
- Two more Democratic House incumbents were forced into runoffs in Texas: Reps. Al Green And Christian Menefee May 26 will face off in the 18th District, but Rep. Julie Johnson and former Rep. Colin Allred There will be an encounter in 33 districts.
- After another victory in Arkansas, Democrats have wrested control of nine state legislative seats in special elections since Trump took office last year. At the same time, Republicans did not flip a single state seat controlled by Democrats.
Mixed messages from the Trump administration on the Iran war
Analysis by Andrea Mitchell
Top administration officials are trying to reconcile their explanations to the president Donald TrumpDecision to launch military operations against Iran.
His justifications ranged from eliminating the nuclear threat that Trump claimed had been “erased” last June, to removing Iran’s growing supply of conventional missiles and drones, to preempting an imminent strike by Tehran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio It added a new twist that it was to preempt Iran’s expected retaliation to an expected Israeli strike that has yet to occur. Twenty-four hours later, the president made it clear that Israel had not forced its hand.
Now, NBC News reports that one of the factors dictating the timing of the strikes is a call from Israel’s prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu Last week, Trump was told that Israeli intelligence had learned of the ayatollah Ali Khamenei And his closest advisers will be together on February 28.
First reported by Axios and confirmed today by the White House press secretary Caroline LeavittUS intelligence quickly confirmed the planned meeting, creating an opportunity to remove regime leaders – another objective of the war. Trump made his promise to remove Iran’s regime clear in his video announcing the strike, urging the country’s people to rise up and take control of their own destiny.
In that video, Trump justifies attacking Iran by tracing Iran’s 47 years of hostility, starting with Iran’s revolution, including seizing the US embassy in Tehran, taking US diplomats hostage for 444 days, and bombing a barracks in Barinut, Barracks, for decades. 241 personnel killed.
For Trump, Iran’s terrorism is personal: the president and the defense secretary Pete Hegseth Both mentioned two Iranian plots to assassinate Trump this week. The leader of one of those plots was killed in Tuesday’s strike, Hegseth said.
“Iran tried to kill President Trump and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth said this morning.
Today at the Council on Foreign Relations, Elbridge ColbyThe Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy described the war’s objectives as dismantling Iran’s missiles, one-way attack drones and naval forces. Two administration officials yesterday briefed reporters on failed diplomatic talks that have focused on eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat – its insistence on its stockpile of enriched uranium and its right to enrich more nuclear fuel for medical isotopes.
He described Iran’s response as “games, tactics, stall tactics.” He said he had limited his talks to the nuclear issue as regional players sought to eliminate the missile issue and Iran’s support for proxy terrorist groups. No one has identified who those alleged regional players are, or where or when any alleged talks on those issues may have taken place.
Previous presidents have made the decision to abandon preparing the American people for the start of combat operations. Trump briefly brushed off Iran in his State of the Union address last week, including falsely claiming Iran would “soon” have long-range missiles capable of reaching the US, which the Defense Intelligence Agency said would take another 10 years.
But the decision not to prepare the public left thousands of US citizens in the Middle East unable to evacuate when the war broke out. Now the White House and the State Department contend there were warnings, but most were not issued until this week. By then, the airspace was already closed to commercial aircraft due to full-scale warfare.
More on Iran War:
NBC News Poll: Majority of Voters Disapprove of Trump’s Handling of Iran By Ben Commissar
Senate Blocks Resolution to Block Trump’s War on Iran by Scott Wong and Frank Thorp V
By Jonathan Allen Iran will fuel more voter frustration over the economy with rising gas prices
Vance’s anti-war stance echoed that of Henry J. Conflicts with Gómez’s more eccentric views on Iran
Trump Officials Consider Mobilizing Kurdish Opposition Against Iranian Regime By Katherine Doyle, Dan De Luce, Courtney Kubey, and Monica Alba
🗞️ Today’s other important news
- 📝 The Epstein Saga: The GOP-led House Oversight Committee voted to submit to the attorney general Pam Bondi For testimony about the Department’s handling of records related to Jeffrey Epstein. Read more →
- 🚫 Dogs have: The House voted to defeat the attempt by the representative. Nancy MaysRS.C., to shed more light on sexual misconduct allegations against members of Congress. Read more →
- 🪑 In the hot seat: Labor Secretary two Lori Chavez-DeremerA top aide has resigned amid an ongoing investigation into possible wrongdoing by officials in the department. Read more →
That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter is compiled by Adam Wollner.
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