Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) shook up the Senate race in Texas by throwing her hat in the ring this week — but according to NOTUS, this may have all been by Republicans' own design.

"Just a month ago, there was grave concern among Republicans about the Senate race, where incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is running for reelection," reported Reese Gorman. "Democrats were running two formidable candidates, and Cornyn was caught in the middle of a bruising three-way primary that Republicans were concerned would weaken the eventual nominee."

Then, strategists at the National Republican Senate Committee adopted an unusual tactic: putting out polls that tested Crockett alongside declared candidates Colin Allred and James Talarico, and showing her leading them. They did this until nonpartisan pollsters began testing her as well, and began planting interest in progressive circles for her to run, trying to tempt her into joining.

Crockett, an outspoken critic of Trump who has grabbed headlines for her speeches in Congress, is popular among much of the Democratic base — but polling has shown she has the worst general-election favorables of any major candidate in consideration.

"The NRSC then worked to amplify those polls and is taking credit for helping 'orchestrate the pile on of these polling numbers to really drive that news cycle and that narrative that Jasmine Crockett was surging in Texas,'" one source told NOTUS. Meanwhile, "In what the source dubbed an 'AstroTurf recruitment process,' the NRSC had 'allies that were seeding these new polls pretty aggressively into progressive digital spaces.' There were several recruitment phone calls and text messages that went out to Democrats and high-propensity voters across the state that would urge voters to contact and advocate for Crockett to join the race, the source said."

Ultimately, the strategy seems to have worked, as Crockett said in her announcement speech, “The more I saw the poll results, I couldn’t ignore the trends that were clear.”

With her entry into the race, Allred, who was the Democrats' Senate nominee in 2024, exited the race, setting up a two-way contest between herself and Talarico, a Christian preacher and state representative from the Austin area.

A Pennsylvania Republican kneecapped Donald Trump's claims that prices are falling moments before the president was supposed to take the stage for a rally in the battleground state.

Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who was sworn into Congress in January, spoke to MAGA fans on Tuesday evening before Trump took the stage to deliver remarks on the economy amid a nationwide squeeze on everything from beef to coffee.

After Mackenzie touted Republicans' accomplishments on lowering social security taxes, the lawmaker made an eyebrow-raising admission that the Trump administration and Republicans have not brought down prices.

"There is more work to be done," he said. "We know that's not enough. We are not gonna rest on our laurels. We know so many people are struggling because of those prices from Joe Biden's inflation. That does not mean that prices come down when we say that we have tamed inflation. It just means that we have stopped the rate of growth from that massive spending that was going on for four years.

He concluded, "We have a lot more work to be done."

Trump, however, has repeated false claims that prices of groceries, gas and more have fallen.

Gene Simmons, legendary frontman and bassist for KISS, sharply criticized lawmakers on Tuesday while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property.

Speaking in support of the American Music Fairness Act — a bill that would require AM/FM radio stations to pay royalties for sound recordings — Simmons argued that a decades-old loophole has deprived generations of American artists, from Bing Crosby to Elvis Presley, of fair compensation whenever their songs are played on the radio.

Calling the situation “an injustice that has been going on for many decades,” he urged Congress to act, noting that even countries with authoritarian governments compensate performers more fairly than the U.S.

“Our children are tomorrow’s stars,” he said. “If you work hard and get to the top, you shouldn’t get nothing. That’s not the American way. If you are against this bill, you are un-American.”

Simmons’ push echoes past bipartisan efforts, including President Donald Trump’s 2018 Music Modernization Act, which updated copyright laws for the streaming era.

Watch the video below:

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