Facing a heated primary against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) accused his right-wing challenger on Thursday of associating with antisemitic and anti-Israel voices within the MAGA movement. 

Cornyn told Jewish Insider in a wide-ranging interview that Texas Republican voters should view Paxton’s associations with figures such as former Trump advisor Steve Bannon as “alarming” — while urging Republicans to call out antisemitic and anti-Israel voices within the party, along the lines of his outspoken Texas GOP colleague Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) warned on Thursday that the U.S. needs to continue to monitor the “shifting loyalties” of Saudi Arabia, amid concerns that Riyadh is pivoting away from its traditional allies and toward Islamist actors. 

The Texas senator, who serves on the Senate intelligence Committee and foreign relations committees, told Jewish Insider that while he supports the Trump administration working to add Saudi Arabia to the Abraham Accords, the U.S. should be cognizant of “shifting loyalties and alliances there.”

New Jersey’s Democratic congressional delegation has fully lined up behind progressive activist and congressional candidate Analilia Mejia — with the exception of Rep. Josh Gottheimer.

After both of the state’s senators and several members of the congressional delegation endorsed Mejia earlier this week, most of the remaining Democratic holdouts, including Reps. Donald Norcorss, Frank Pallone and Nellie Pou, joined their colleagues on Thursday in a joint statement endorsing Mejia in both the April special general election and the June regular primary.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) urged voters in her district not to vote for East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, one of the 17 candidates running to replace her, accusing him of being a “hardline supporter” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Cohen, the top fundraiser in the field, was singled out for criticism by Watson Coleman, who declined to endorse a candidate in the 12th Congressional District primary, according to the New Jersey Globe.

Congressional candidate and former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander condemned social media posts from a former top campaign consultant that promoted Hamas, Iran and anti-Israel conspiracy theories — but refused to explain how he came to hire him in the first place.

Lander, challenging Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s backing, stressed that he had cut ties with ‘Hot Girls for Zohran’ co-founder Kaif Gilani after Jewish Insider presented him with a raft of the activist’s posts to X. These included retweets of a Holocaust revisionist suggesting Israeli involvement in 9/11 and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a video of Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar and numerous pro-Hamas and pro-Iran statements, as well as original posts attacking Democratic figures and law enforcement.

The Mississippi man indicted last month in connection with setting the state’s largest synagogue on fire is facing two additional federal charges. 

Stephen Spencer Pittman, a 19-year-old who admitted to committing arson on Jackson’s Congregation Beth Israel in the early hours of Jan. 10 due to “the building’s Jewish ties,” was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on civil rights and arson offenses. The indictment adds additional counts to an earlier arson charge, making it a three-count indictment. 

The nomination of Jeremy Carl, tapped to be the assistant secretary of state for international organizations, appears bound for failure after Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) announced his opposition to Carl’s confirmation following a contentious confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning. 

Curtis and a series of Democrats questioned Carl over past antisemitic, anti-Israel and otherwise inflammatory comments that the nominee had made online and in a series of podcast appearances. All Democrats are expected to oppose the nomination.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his team refused to condemn social media posts from the co-founder of the group ‘Hot Girls for Zohran’ that boosted antisemitic and pro-Iran voices and bashed police and leading U.S. politicians.

The refusal came one day after Jewish Insider revealed Kaif Gilani — a finance professional who spearheaded a social media, merchandising and volunteer canvassing operation  supporting the mayor’s election last year — had shared conspiracy theories from a Holocaust revisionist and a video cheerleading ex-Hamas military chief and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, along with posts insulting law enforcement and various political figures.