Late revisions to new North Carolina abortion restrictions scheduled to begin this weekend cleared the state Senate on Monday night, changes that if enacted could frustrate pending litigation seeking to stop the law’s enforcement.

The Senate voted overwhelmingly for a measure containing what the Republican supporters have called clarifying and technical changes to a law approved last month over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto that in part will ban starting Saturday most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. This will replace current rules that ban nearly all abortions after 20 weeks. The new law also adds exceptions to the 12-week ban.

The bill needs just on more affirmative vote from the House — scheduled for Tuesday — before it goes to Cooper’s desk. A federal judge has scheduled arguments Wednesday in Greensboro on legal motions by Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and a physician to stop much of the new abortion restrictions from taking effect well before any lawsuit trial.

The plaintiffs complained last week in a court filing that many provisions in the new abortion law are ‘riddled with inconsistencies, irrational requirements and unconstitutional restrictions.’

The clean-up language offered by the Senate and tacked on to a pending state health agency bill appears to address several provisions identified in the lawsuit. For example, it makes clear that medication abortions are permitted through 12 weeks just like procedural — often referred to as surgical — abortions. Another change seeks to clarify that it wouldn’t be illegal for someone to help a woman obtain an abortion outside of North Carolina in states where the procedure would remain lawful.

Democrats were vehemently opposed to the new abortion law, developed privately by Republican legislators before its passage, and they voted initially last week against the bill that contains the revisions. But all but two Democrats voted for the bill on Monday, when it received final Senate passage by a count of 45-2.

Sen. Sydney Batch, a Wake County Democrat, said during floor debate that two GOP amendments approved Monday night contained language suggested by Senate Democrats.

‘And so while it still lacks clarity and doesn’t make all of the fixes necessary … it’s a commonsense amendment going in the right direction,’ Batch said about one of the amendments.

Still, Senate Democrats spent Monday’s debate offering a dozen additional amendments, including those that would codify the right to an abortion in state law based on the Roe v. Wade decision and another court decision; declare the right to contraception in North Carolina; and keep private women’s health information. Republicans used parliamentary maneuvers to block all of them.

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Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., will introduce the States Choose Life Act of 2023 on Tuesday to protect Tennessee and other pro-life states from the Biden administration and ‘retribution’ from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Fox News has learned.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Green said his legislation would prevent the HHS from stripping Title X funding from states that do not allow abortions and do not refer residents to abortion-allowing states, as it is doing to Tennessee.

‘HHS cannot be allowed to continue forcing states to participate in abortions or risk losing Title X healthcare funding,’ Rep. Green said in an exclusive statement. ‘Tennesseans and Americans from coast to coast rely on Title X for access to care.’

Green, who is also an ER physician, added: ‘If states are unable to backfill the void of revoked Title X funding, many Americans could be left without access to cancer screenings and pregnancy services. We must protect the rights of states to pass pro-life laws, without the federal government seeking retribution.’

Title X is a family planning program that was established under the Public Health Service Act in 1970. It offers access to contraceptive care and other services, particularly to low-income Americans, and serves approximately 4 million people annually, according to the HHS.

The Trump administration initially passed a rule that widely prohibited funding from being used for abortion services, but the Biden administration reversed this rule.

Rep. Green is taking action to prevent the HHS from weaponizing Title X to remove funding against states that choose to protect the right to life, saying his bill ‘will protect Tennessee from being bullied by the federal government into propping up the abortion industry.’

‘Specifically, my legislation amends Title X of the Public Health Service Act to prohibit HHS from revoking funding for states that don’t make referrals for abortion,’ he said.

The bill also comes after the HHS wrote a letter to the State of Tennessee saying it would no longer be providing Title X funding, which the state has utilized to support low-income families for decades.

Green wrote a letter earlier this month to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra expressing ‘great concern’ over the revocation.

‘This funding has supported Tennessee families for decades, and your decision to revoke this funding to score political points is unacceptable,’ the Tennessee Republican said. ‘While your department may struggle to comprehend statutory law and your solemn oaths to uphold said laws, the State of Tennessee is operating well within its constitutional and legal bounds.’

He added in the letter: ‘This administration has made it clear that it will exploit every opportunity to skirt the laws and push its radical agenda on American citizens. I am extremely disappointed that you [have] chosen this divisive path.’

The legislation also comes nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which recognized a constitutional right to abortion, in its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The ruling was decided on June 24, 2022.

Green said the anniversary marks the ‘beginning’ of the fight to protect unborn life.

‘As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, it’s important to remember that the fight for life is just beginning,’ Green cautioned. ‘Though the tyranny of Roe is over, it is now up to states to protect unborn babies. And states should be allowed to do so without suffering repercussions, financial or otherwise, from the federal government.’

He added: ‘No medical professional should be forced against his or her conscience to refer patients for abortions. As it stands today, Secretary Becerra is using Title X funding as a cudgel to force states to participate in abortions or risk losing funding. This is abhorrent.’

Tennessee was awarded more than $7.1 million in Title X funding last year, according to the HHS. The Biden administration awarded $256.6 million for Title X family services nationwide.

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FIRST ON FOX: Tim Sheehy – businessman, firefighting pilot, and former Navy SEAL – is ‘answering the call to serve’ in officially launching a 2024 campaign for the U.S. Senate in Montana.

The Republican officially announced his candidacy exclusively with Fox News Digital Tuesday calling for ‘a new generation of leadership’ in his bid to unseat vulnerable incumbent Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., in 2024.

‘From inflation to our border to our deficit, America is ready for change. And I think it’s time for a new generation of leaders to step up,’ Sheehy told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. ‘Leaders who understand servant leadership, which is putting the mission before yourself, and leaders who understand how to get results.’

‘I think Americans are feeling underrepresented. They’re tired of a government that they don’t feel is working for them,’ the candidate said when asked why he decided to throw his hat into the ring for the Democrat-held seat.

Sheehy is running in one of the most closely watched races of the 2024 cycle that could likely determine whether Republicans gain a majority in the Senate – but shifting the focus away from political parties, Sheehy said that ‘one thing I learned in a foxhole in Afghanistan or the belly of a submarine, is when the chips are down there is really only one political party – and that’s American.’

Before entering the political scene, Sheehy served in Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, and the Pacific region, receiving the Bronze Star with Valor for Heroism in Combat and the Purple Heart Medal. On top of also owning several businesses, the veteran recipient shares four kids with his Marine veteran wife, Carmen Sheehy. 

‘I joined the military right out of high school and did several deployments overseas,’ Sheehy told Fox News Digital. ‘And after I was wounded, I started my company and created a lot of jobs here. And those jobs are all still in service of this country, fighting wildfires and building critical protective gear for our troops.’

Sheehy, who is running in the state of fellow former Navy SEAL Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., noted that ‘we’re in one of the lowest participation rates in history of veterans in Congress. And that’s a huge problem. We want to get combat veterans in and those who understand service back to help fix this government and get things working right.’ 

As CEO of veteran-founded Bridger Aerospace, a Montana-based company that builds aerial firefighting aircraft, Sheehy touched on how forest management and wildfire suppression in the U.S. is currently ‘held back by bureaucracy.’

Sheehy suggested that rather than the federal government dictating land management with ‘2000 mile away environmental policies that put a chain and a padlock around our resources and around our forests,’ preventative wildfire decisions should be dealt with locally, using ‘common sense land management policy that’s rooted in local governance and business principles.’

Along with founding Bridger Aerospace in 2014 that created over 200 jobs in Montana, Sheehy helped grow Ascent Vision Technologies and owns Little Belt Cattle Company, a local beef production company. 

‘One thing that I’ve done with my businesses is create good, high paying jobs here in the state,’ Sheehy said. ‘These aren’t jobs that are dependent on out-of-state visitors or out of state revenue. These are jobs that exist here in our state that are creating careers in our state. And I think that’s a very important trajectory we want to put our state economy on.’

‘Whether it’s our deficit, whether it’s the southern border, or our kid’s education, Montanans don’t want more federal government in their lives every day,’ the businessman told Fox that he’s hoping to bring Montanans ‘commonsense government that runs like a business.’

Each election has seen more Republicans elected up and down the ballot in Montana, and Tester remains the only Democrat with a state-wide seat in the Big Sky State, which Sheehy believes is due to the Democratic Party turning on the cultural values prized by the state’s residents.

‘I actually don’t think Montana has gotten redder,’ Sheehy said when asked about the state shifting red in past elections. ‘I think the Democrat Party has left Montana. I think Montanans have always been socially conservative, hardworking people that have a mindset of accountability and get’er done.’

The Senate candidate said that the Democrats and Tester, who announced re-election in February, want ‘more government, not less.’

‘Democrats made their blueprint for America incredibly clear during COVID, and that is more government, not less,’ Sheehy told Fox. ‘Jon Tester has been in lockstep with that vision his whole life. And now I think it’s going to be hard for him to run away from that path because it’s very clear.’

‘Jon Tester has been in lockstep with that vision his whole life. And now I think it’s going to be hard for him to run away from that path because it’s very clear,’ Sheehy said of the vulnerable Democrat.

When asked about other potential Republican contenders launching a campaign, Sheehy said ‘we’ll have to see who throws their hat in.’

No other Republican contenders have entered into the Senate primary thus far, however, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., is rumored to be seriously mulling a bid.

‘Montanans can know that I’ve laid everything on the line for this country. I’ve been wounded in combat. I’ve led hundreds of missions and put it all on the line for all Americans, Republicans and Democrats,’ the Republican candidate said.

‘We have serious challenges as a nation, and I think we need serious people who want to bring common sense solutions to actually move the country forward,’ Sheehy told Fox News Digital. ‘I think Americans and Montanans, who are an incredibly practical people, they just want things to get done, and they want a leader who can actually bring common sense solutions to some of our serious problems.’

Former President Donald Trump, who is for running for a second term in 2024, won Montana in both the 2016 and 2020 elections. Sheehy said that while he doesn’t know if the former president will play in the Montana Senate primary, the two ‘had one conversation a while back that was very positive.’

‘I think he’s going to be supportive of our campaign. I think he likes a profile like mine, but I’m not sure what he’s going to do,’ the Republican said.

In a press release obtained first by Fox News Digital, Sheehy described his Democrat opponent Tester as ‘not representing our Montana values’ and called for ‘a new generation of leadership to rebuild America.’

The Montanan detailed his ‘positive vision for the future of our country’ that includes standing ‘against Jon Tester and the Democratic Party’s agenda of inflation, open borders, criminals over cops, drugs and violence in our communities, and a woke culture impacting our classrooms and military bases,’ as stated in the press release.

‘Jon Tester has been in office for nearly a quarter of a century, and he’s lost sight of our Montana values,’ Sheehy said in his highly anticipated Senate announcement. ‘Like any good politician, Jon talks one way but votes another. Montanans have had enough of these career politicians who are full of empty promises and are not representing our Montana values. It’s time for a new generation of leadership to rebuild America.’

FBI Director Christopher Wray will testify before the House Judiciary Committee next month, Fox News has confirmed. The hearing will put Wray face-to-face with several Republican lawmakers who have accused him of politically weaponizing the FBI against churches, parents, and political opponents of the Biden administration.

The hearing, scheduled for July 12, comes as House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, subpoenaed Wray for information from him and his agency concerning various investigations and as Republicans call for the FBI to investigate President Biden and the Biden family.

Wray also faces allegations of mishandling a probe into President Biden’s son after the FBI revealed Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two tax violations and one gun felony following a five-year investigation. Republican lawmakers blasted the ‘sweetheart’ plea deal.

Details about what will be discussed at the July hearing were not immediately available.

Wray has faced increased attention from Capitol Hill after Republicans recaptured the House majority in Nov. 2022.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., nearly held Wray in contempt of Congress for withholding a classified document that alleges Biden was involved in a bribery scheme. A vote was canceled after Wray agreed to show the full committee of nearly 50 lawmakers to review the document and some related files.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI for comment, but a response was not immediately received.

Some Senate Republicans have urged Wray to resign over how he has led the bureau and his alleged weaponization of the FBI.

‘He should’ve resigned a long time ago,’ Sen. Josh Hawley told Fox News.

Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance agreed, telling Fox News, ‘Christopher Wray should absolutely resign. What has happened in the last four or five years is the American people have seen that the leadership of the FBI is engaged in political hackery.’

The Republican criticism of Wray has also dipped into the 2024 Republican presidential primary race, as several candidates have said they would fire Wray.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed last month to dismiss Wray, saying the FBI and the Justice Department have ‘lost their way’ and allowed themselves to be ‘weaponized’ against Americans.

‘No, I would not keep Chris Wray as director of the FBI. There’ll be a new one on day one,’ DeSantis told Fox News host Trey Gowdy during an appearance on ‘Fox News Tonight.’

He added, ‘And I think the DOJ and FBI have lost their way. I think that they’ve been weaponized against Americans who think like me and you. And I think that they become very partisan.’

‘As president, you have a responsibility to be involved in holding those agencies accountable, clearing out people who are not doing the job, and making sure that they’re doing the people’s business, and they’re not abusing their authority,’ DeSantis also said.

Former Vice President Mike Pence also said he would fire the FBI director.

‘The American people have lost confidence in the Department of Justice,’ Pence told the New York Post. ‘And if I’m President of the United States, on day one, we’re going to clean house on the top floor of the Department of Justice and bring in a whole new group of people.’

During a town hall hosted by ‘Hannity’ in South Carolina on Tuesday, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. called the Justice Department ‘weaponized’ and vowed to ‘fire’ President Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Wray if he is elected president.

‘With your help,’ Scott told Hannity, ‘we are going to fire Joe Biden, and then we are going to fire Merrick Garland and fire Christopher Wray.’

Scott continued, ‘And we are going to restore confidence, integrity in our Department of Justice. We can’t have them going after the pro-life activists with a SWAT team. You cannot call parents who show up at a school board meeting domestic terrorists. And you cannot, it is unacceptable and un-American to weaponize the Department of Justice against your political opponents. It is just wrong.’

Criticism of Wray and the FBI surged again after special counsel John Durham released a report concluding his four-year investigation into former President Trump, his 2016 campaign and alleged ties to Russia.

Durham concluded that authorities within the DOJ did not have sufficient evidence to initiate the investigation.

Fox News’ Jon Michael Raasch and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

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EXCLUSIVE: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met privately last year with the head of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a non-profit dedicated to electrifying the U.S. economy from transportation to home appliances like stovetops.

According to his internal agency calendar obtained via information request by government watchdog group Americans for Public Trust (APT), Buttigieg met with RMI CEO Jon Creyts on Nov. 30, 2022. Creyts, who assumed the leadership position earlier that same month, is described by RMI as an ‘internationally recognized leader on global energy issues and climate change.’

‘Secretary Buttigieg’s misguided motto that ‘every transportation decision is a climate decision’ explains why he’s meeting with the group working overtime to ban gas stoves instead of ensuring U.S. travel is safe and efficient,’ APT executive director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News Digital. 

‘Buttigieg’s regular consultations with radical climate activists — whose chief goal is to eliminate all fossil fuels — while flying around the country on taxpayer-funded private jets is the height of elitist hypocrisy that has become a hallmark of the Biden administration,’ she continued. ‘It’s no wonder Americans across the country are fuming about his out-of-touch priorities.’

Buttigieg’s calendar showed the meeting was in-person and listed Creyts as the sole participant, but failed to include an agenda for the meeting. RMI, though, explained that the meeting focused on the group’s work electrifying the transportation sector.

‘This meeting focused on RMI’s work to electrify the transportation sector, including electric vehicles, vehicle charging infrastructure, and other clean mobility solutions,’ RMI spokesperson Rachel Sarah told Fox News Digital.

The Department of Transportation didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Ensuring zero-carbon transportation is listed as one of RMI’s top priorities on its websites. The group calls for zero-emissions freight, electric passenger fleets and for an electric vehicle charging network to be rapidly constructed nationwide. The group further states that it is ‘ending tailpipe emissions to create cleaner air, save millions of lives, and align the transportation sector with a 1.5ºC target.’ 

As part of it transportation initiative, RMI has advocated in favor of states adopting California’s recent regulations banning gas-powered vehicle sales beginning in 2035.

‘As states consider whether to adopt [California’s regulations] in whole or in part, it is valuable to consider not just the many economic, consumer, and health benefits of EV deployment but also the effect this regulation can have on tipping the market toward more rapid EV adoption,’ an RMI blog from April states.

‘Business-as-usual cannot be an option if the U.S. and the world are to meet our climate goals,’ it continues. ‘The path forward is clear, and there is no time to waste.’

Since taking office, meanwhile, Buttigieg has repeatedly pushed for greater electric vehicle proliferation and manufacturing.  

And the group recently made headlines after it funded a study that highlighted public health dangers posed by gas stove usage. The study, authored by RMI researchers Talor Gruenwald and Brady Seals, was cited in a Bloomberg article in January that included comments from a Consumer Product Safety Commission member who told the outlet a gas stove ban was ‘on the table.’

The group’s position is to ensure the U.S. only builds zero-carbon buildings with electric appliances in the future, while continually retrofitting existing construction. 

‘Burning fossil fuels (mainly gas) in U.S. homes and businesses accounts for roughly one-tenth of the country’s carbon emissions,’ another RMI blog post, from February, states. ‘Cutting this climate pollution is essential for the United States to meet its climate targets and to prevent the worst consequences of climate change.’

In addition, RMI has collaborated with the Chinese government to study transitioning away from traditional fossil fuels. 

The group’s only office outside the U.S. is located in Beijing, China’s capital city. Creyts, who Buttigieg met with in his November meeting, helped found RMI’s China Program and establish the group’s Beijing office.

In 2013, RMI worked with the National Development and Reform Commission, a Chinese government entity, to create a roadmap for ‘China’s revolution in energy consumption and production to 2050.’ The report largely showed how China’s economy could adopt new clean energy technologies to replace oil and gas infrastructure.

On its website, RMI lists 30 reports it has helped assemble on China. For example, a March report on the Chinese power sector lists Xue Han, of the government-run Development Research Center of the State Council, as a contributor.

RMI is also a member of the China Clean Transportation Partnership, a green group with significant ties to the Chinese government.

Additionally, RMI board member Wei Ding was previously the chairman of the China International Capital Corporation, a bank partially owned by the Chinese government.

‘RMI has worked for four decades alongside governments to accelerate the adoption of market-based solutions that cost-effectively bring about a clean energy transition,’ Sarah, RMI’s spokesperson, told Fox News Digital. ‘We aim to work with any entity accelerating the transition to a zero-carbon future and securing its benefits for all.’ 

‘We share our research and analysis routinely with governments, policymakers of both parties, fellow non-profit organizations, and corporations — including those in the fossil fuel business. RMI works in China because reducing emissions in China is critical to preventing the worst consequences of climate change.’

CONCORD, N.H. – EXCLUSIVE –One-time clandestine agent and former Republican congressman turned GOP presidential candidate Will Hurd is heading to the nation’s northern border with Canada on Tuesday, Fox News has learned.

And Hurd, who represented a congressional district in Texas that stretched for hundreds of miles along the southern border with Mexico, took aim at President Biden and former President Donald Trump in a Fox Digital interview on the eve of his Tuesday border tour in the northern tip of New Hampshire.

‘Joe Biden is and will be the worst border security president in our history,’ Hurd charged. ‘The crisis that we’ve seen and the fact that they don’t want to call it a crisis is shocking to me.’

Hurd argued that the Biden administration’s ‘policies have actually encouraged illegal immigration… They’re treating everybody who’s coming into the country as an asylum seeker….That is what is causing the volume of people coming from over 180 different states.’

But Hurd – who’s a vocal Republican critic of Trump, the current commanding front-runner in the GOP nomination race – argued that ‘treating everybody as an asylum seeker started under Donald Trump and something that Joe Biden continued. And Joe Biden just added fuel to that fire. So doing that is something we would stop on day one.’

Hurd pledged if elected to the White House that he would resume construction of the border wall begun under Trump and halted by Biden in ‘some places where a physical barrier makes sense.’ But he added that in addition, ‘you need to be deploying technology along the border as well.’

The former CIA spy on Tuesday will head to the northern reaches of New Hampshire to join local authorities for a tour of the U.S. border with Canada. Hurd said he hopes get a better ‘understanding of the interplay between border patrol and local law enforcement.’

‘The amount of miles that we have on the northern border and the so few people patrolling it. How easy it is to get back and forth across the northern border. I think in the last six months there’s been over 400 people that have been on the known and suspected terrorist watch list that have been apprehended coming through the northern border. That’s just the people that we know are coming in,’ Hurd emphasized.

And he also spotlighted that ‘when you look at the amount of fentanyl that is coming into the country, that’s coming from China, a lot of it is going to Canada. We always talk about Mexico – but much of it is going to Canada and coming through our northern border as well.’

Hurd, who launched his long shot bid for the GOP nomination last Thursday, reiterated in his Fox Digital interview that he won’t sign the pledge to support the eventual GOP 2024 nominee which the Republican National Committee is mandating that all candidates sign in order to make the stage at the first debate in August, which Fox News is hosting.

While Hurd’s decision – due to his opposition to Trump – could jeopardize his ability to make the debate stage, he stressed ‘I just can’t lie to the American people in order to earn a microphone. It would be for me to say ‘yeah, I’ll do it,’ and then not support at the end. But I just can’t lie to people about that.’

‘I’ve taken one oath in my life, and that’s to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. I’ve taken one vow and that’s to my amazing, beautiful wife. And I take one pledge, and that’s when I put my hand on my heart and pledge allegiance to the United States of America,’ Hurd said. ‘So I won’t be singing the pledge but guess what – I’m going to be accessible. I’m going to talk about ideas. I’m going to talk about the future – not just complain about the past. I’m not going to be petty. So I will get my message out other ways.’

Hurd – who was the only Black Republican in the House during his final two years in Congress – has plenty of company on Tuesday in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary and second overall contest in the Republican presidential nominating calendar following Iowa. 

Trump and Florida Gov.Ron DeSantis, who trails the former president by double digits but leads the rest of the field of GOP contenders in the latest primary polls, will capture the spotlight as they hold what’s being billed as competing events. And former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur, author, and conservative commentator Vivek Ramaswamy are also campaigning in the Granite State.

Hurd said he’ll spend plenty of time in the state.

‘New Hampshire appreciates a dark horse candidate like me. New Hampshire appreciates people who have ideas and so this is a place that is going to very important in for me to build the operation and the momentum to go further into this process,’ he said. ‘So you’ll be seeing a lot of me in New Hampshire.’

One nearly became Buffalo’s first female mayor. The other was thrust into prominence after her son survived a racist mass shooting.

Democrats India Walton and Zeneta Everhart consider themselves political allies but they are pitted against each other in a race for a seat on Buffalo’s Common Council, one of many local government offices at stake in primary elections being held across New York on Tuesday.

The two Black women are vying to represent a part of the Rust Belt city still healing from a white supremacist’s attack that killed 10 people at a neighborhood supermarket just over a year ago. That mass shooting was followed by a punishing December blizzard that killed 47 people in the city and its suburbs, with a disproportionate number of the victims coming from Buffalo’s Black neighborhoods.

Walton, 41, is trying to make a comeback after a rollercoaster defeat in the city’s mayoral race in 2021. In that contest, she stunned the political establishment by scoring an upset win over the longtime incumbent, Byron Brown, in a primary where she ran far to his left as a democratic socialist.

With no Republican on the ballot, Walton briefly looked like a sure winner in the general election, too, but Brown came back as a write-in candidate and won with the support of centrist Democrats, Buffalo’s business community and Republicans who said Walton, a former nurse and labor organizer, was too liberal.

While Walton remains a political outsider in Buffalo, Everhart, a former television producer, had been quietly building a more conventional career in politics as an aide to a state senator when tragedy thrust her into the spotlight.

Her son, Zaire Goodman, was one of 13 people shot at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo on May 14, 2022. Goodman, who worked part-time at the supermarket, was hit in the neck but survived.

Weeks later, Everhart testified before Congress, telling members that some shrapnel will be left in her son’s body for the rest of his life. She’s continued to speak publicly in the months since about racism and gun violence in the U.S.

Everhart, 42, said Monday that she probably would have run for the seat, representing Buffalo’s Masten district, even if the attack never happened, but that it influenced her decision.

‘Part of me wanting to run for Masten is about paying it forward because of the love that was shown to my son,’ Everhart said during a phone interview. ‘People are still dropping off gifts, leaving things on my doorstep for Zaire. And that, to me, means that I have to give back to my community.’

The supermarket targeted by an 18-year-old white supremacist now lies just outside the district the two women are running to represent.

Walton could not be reached for an interview Monday. In interviews and on the campaign trail, the two candidates have highlighted their different approaches to governing, with Walton stressing that she’s willing to fight a political establishment she says hasn’t done enough, and Everhart citing her abilities as a coalition-builder.

Everhart has been endorsed by the county Democratic Party while Walton has been endorsed by the left-leaning Working Families Party.

The two women have known each other for years and have expressed respect for each other.

‘We’re not adversaries, in my book,’ Everhart said.

Primaries held across the state Tuesday will select party nominees for a variety of local offices, including some county legislators, town supervisors, district attorneys, mayors and members of the New York City Council.

There are no statewide offices on the ballot in 2023.

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The Biden administration on Monday said it doesn’t know Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s whereabouts, including which country he is in, following his short-lived rebellion against Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

State Department spokesman Matt Miller confirmed as much during a news briefing, adding that it was a ‘new thing to see President Putin’s leadership directly challenged’ amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Prigozhin shocked the world this weekend when he turned his private military group against Russian forces, while taking control of Russian military bases. He relented on Saturday after Belarus held negotiations between the two sides.

The Kremlin said it made a deal in which the mercenary chief will move to Belarus and he and his soldiers will receive amnesty. 

‘I don’t have any assessment about his location,’ Miller said of Prigozhin. ‘This certainly was a new moment.’

On Monday, Prigozhin posted an 11-minute voice recording on social media outlining his reasons for going against Putin as his forces headed toward Moscow before an abrupt halt. 

The march toward Moscow was intended to be a protest against the prosecution of the war in Ukraine and not aimed at regime change in Russia, he said, according to a Reuters translation. 

‘We started our march due to injustice. We showed no aggression, but we were hit by missiles and helicopters. This was the trigger,’ the warlord said in the recording.

Prior to his revolt, Prigozhin had criticized Russian military leaders, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, for failing to provide his troops with enough ammunition during the bloody battle of Bakhmut. 

Miller said the conflict between Putin and his former ally is an internal Russian affair ‘in which the United States is not involved and will not the involved.’ He added that the U.S. does not take a position as to who leads Russia.

‘We want a Russia that is not invading its neighbors and not trying to violate the territorial sovereignty of its neighbors,’ Miller said. 

He noted that Wagner forces have committed numerous human rights violations and generally bring destruction and chaos in any country the group operates in. 

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to his report. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged on the campaign trail for president on Monday that his administration will change the rules of engagement at the border to physically stop drug smugglers with deadly force.

‘We’re going to create adequate rules of engagement, if somebody were breaking into your house to do something bad you would respond with force,’ DeSantis said while visiting the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Monday. ‘Yet why don’t we do that at the southern border?’

‘So if the cartels are cutting through the border wall trying to run product into this country, they’re going to end up stone-cold dead as a result of that bad decision.’

DeSantis added, ‘If you drop a couple of these cartel operatives, they’ll stop coming.’

The Florida Republican was in Texas unveiling his border security agenda that he pledged will ‘stop the invasion’ at the southern border.

‘On Jan. 20, 2025, we will be on a mission to stop the invasion at our southern border to fight the drug cartels that are poisoning our citizenry, to build the border wall, and to reestablish the sovereignty of this nation,’ DeSantis said. ‘We are done with promises. We are done with slogans. Now is the time for action. No excuses. We will get the job done.’

The governor stressed that it’s ‘humiliating as a country to not have control over our own territory.’

And he slammed President Biden, charging that ‘this border because of the neglect of the Biden administration, because of their intentional failures, this border is controlled by the Mexican drug cartels. That is a disgrace. That is horrific.’

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report