Grammy Awards

An ad from Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) in her competitive reelection race against Democrat Bobby Pulido featured "Deputy Garcia" of Goliad County, who criticized Pulido as "anti-cop." Reporting identified the officer as Zachary Garcia, who was fired from the Wilson County Sheriff's Office in 2024 after an internal investigation found he sexually harassed a female dispatcher and a female supervisor. Records describe him tracking the dispatcher's phone location, repeatedly calling her, and waiting outside her home in uniform after she ended their relationship. Garcia later took the same role in Goliad County, whose sheriff defended him and criticized the ad's critics as partisan.

De La Cruz's campaign says it filmed the ad before the allegations became public and stands by its content, pointing instead to Pulido's past social media criticism of police and his association with a convicted sex offender. Pulido's campaign disputes those characterizations. The race is rated a toss-up, and the dispute adds a new flashpoint to an already contentious contest.

Michigan's Senate contest between Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers has become a test of how much religious identity shapes voter behavior heading into the 2026 midterms. El-Sayed, a Muslim epidemiologist, has faced attacks invoking his faith, including comments from Rep. Nancy Mace calling Muslim officeholders a "trojan horse" and President Trump's unsubstantiated claim that El-Sayed "hates Jews." Rogers has run ads tying Democrats to voter disillusionment and linked El-Sayed to remarks made by others about 9/11.

Commentators have drawn comparisons to anti-Catholic bias faced by John F. Kennedy in 1960, with Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Debbie Dingell framing the race as a broader referendum on democracy versus authoritarianism rather than religion. The race also follows a pattern seen in a Michigan House primary, where a Trump-endorsed Christian candidate with an Arabic name underperformed among Republican primary voters. The outcome could signal whether economic and foreign-policy discontent with the Trump administration outweighs identity-based appeals for Michigan voters this cycle.