White nationalism

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff won reelection in Georgia, defeating Republican Rep. Mike Collins to hold one of the cycle's most closely watched Senate seats. Ossoff, first elected in a 2021 runoff, entered the race as the only Senate Democrat defending a seat in a state Trump carried in 2024, but ran an aggressively anti-Trump campaign, raised more than $100 million, and repeatedly attacked Collins over ties to white nationalist figures and alignment with Trump. Collins, who had Trump's endorsement, struggled with fundraising and to counter Ossoff's attacks. The result preserves Democrats' narrow Senate position and fuels speculation about Ossoff's national ambitions, including a possible 2028 presidential run.

Georgia voters are choosing between Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Rep. Mike Collins in a bitterly contested Senate race that has drawn significant attention from Jewish voters and pro-Israel groups. Ossoff, who is Jewish, has increasingly broken from AIPAC's positions, voting since 2024 to block several offensive weapons sales to Israel amid the Gaza war, while still backing Israeli defense funding. Collins has campaigned as strongly pro-Israel but faced controversy over staffers and a son-in-law linked to antisemitic and white nationalist content.

The race has split Jewish organizations, with some condemning Ossoff's votes and others defending them, while also fueling speculation about Ossoff's national political future.

A Kansas Senate race that few expected to be competitive has tightened into a dead heat, with recent polling showing Republican incumbent Roger Marshall running even with Democrat Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor who was a registered Republican until earlier this year. Hamilton leads the Church of the Resurrection, a United Methodist congregation with 24,000 members, and has drawn national attention for a campaign style built around his pastoral background. Outside spending is surging into the race, with Senate Democrats' top super PAC committing $5 million and Republicans pledging $14 million to defend the seat.

The Kansas contest comes amid a broader wave of competitive Senate battlegrounds, including Georgia, Michigan, Maine, Texas, South Carolina, and Iowa, where recent debates turned personal and nonpartisan analysts have shifted ratings on 18 House races in Democrats' favor. For prediction markets, the race underscores growing uncertainty over Senate control in 2026, with a historically safe Republican seat now drawing heavy spending and shifting odds as Hamilton's unconventional candidacy gains traction in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932.

A scheduled debate between Georgia gubernatorial candidates fell apart Tuesday when Republican nominee Rick Jackson declined to appear opposite Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms in an in-studio matchup at 11Alive. Supporters for both campaigns clashed outside the station after Jackson backers crashed a Democratic Party of Georgia news conference. Party chair Charlie Bailey criticized Jackson for rejecting Bottoms' challenge to hold six statewide debates; Jackson has agreed only to an October town hall, saying his campaign is focused on direct voter outreach. It remains unclear whether he will reconsider before Atlanta Press Club debates set for October 12 and 13.

The turmoil comes as Georgia's Senate race also intensifies. Incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff called on GOP nominee Mike Collins to release all communications between his office and white nationalists, after Collins aide Kip Talley departed amid revelations he had contacted figures including Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer to help free a convicted Holocaust denier. Collins' campaign denied Talley was formally affiliated with the office and accused Ossoff of ignoring extremism among his own allies.

Three Bone Theatre closed its 14th season with "Sovereignty," a play by Mary Kathryn Nagle directed by Carolyn Dunn, running Aug. 27-Sept. 6 in Charlotte. The story follows Sarah Ridge Polson, a descendant of Cherokee leaders John Ridge and Major Ridge, as she returns home and confronts the legacy of the 1835 treaty that led to the Trail of Tears. The narrative moves between the present day and the 1830s, contrasting Polson's fight to reinstate Cherokee sovereignty before the U.S. Supreme Court with the historical rift between the Ridge family and John Ross, the Cherokee Nation's chief at the time, whose descendant Jim Ross becomes entangled in Polson's present-day story.

The review praises the cast, particularly Mvnte July's dual performance as both Rosses, while noting the script sometimes states its themes explicitly rather than letting scenes carry them. It highlights the production's engagement with white nationalism, land dispossession, and the complexity of historical judgment.