• Today is the special election in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District for the seat that was previously held by former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). More below.
• Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are slated to give a press briefing at 8 a.m. ET.
• The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a classified briefing today on the U.S. and Israel’s military campaign in Iran.
• The Senate is voting this morning on the nomination of Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd to be director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command.
• National Review and the Republican Jewish Coalition are co-sponsoring a daylong symposium on antisemitism. Speakers include Sens. Jim Banks (R-IN), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), White House antisemitism envoy Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the Justice Department’s Leo Terrell, the Department of Education’s Noah Pollak, Brandeis Center founder Ken Marcus and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD

Voters are casting ballots today in the special election for the ruby-red House seat previously held by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), but the final outcome will likely remain uncertain for another month. 

With 17 candidates on the all-party ballot, the race is expected to go to a runoff — unless any candidate receives 50% or more of the vote, making today’s race effectively a competition over which two candidates are likely to finish with the most support. 

On the GOP side, the race is dominated by two candidates. The first is Clay Fuller, a local district attorney, veteran and former White House fellow who is backed by President Donald Trump. 

The second, former state Sen. Colton Moore, a hard-line conservative rabble-rouser often at odds with his own party’s leadership, is running as the anti-establishment populist — a profile that more closely matches Greene’s. 

The district is one of the most Republican in the country: Trump carried the district by 37 percentage points in 2024, and paid a visit to the district in late February to throw his support behind Fuller.

A third Republican candidate, Brian Stover, a local businessman, has raised a significant amount of campaign cash and is a wild card. 

On the Democratic side, the likely leader is Army veteran Shawn Harris, who lost to Greene in 2024 by nearly 30 points. He’s pulled in $4.2 million from Democrats outraged by Greene and who’ve been attracted by a far-fetched pitch that he can flip the seat. But he’s likely to secure a runoff spot, given how many Republican candidates are on the ballot.

Fuller’s campaign has been touting Trump’s endorsement, and his own military service. Fuller’s Air Force career included work on counterterrorism operations, and he was deployed in 2024 to the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar supporting U.S. Central Command operations. He also has the support of the conservative Club for Growth.

He has backed the U.S.-Israeli offensive against Iran, and expressed support for Israel. “President Trump tried the peace route with Iran not once, not twice, but THREE separate times—and they refused. He’s the peace President, but you can’t negotiate with a death cult,” Fuller said, emphasizing he had supported operations against Iran and that the regime and its proxies had killed many Americans.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Wolpe’s Wit: In a tongue-in-cheek essay in The Atlantic, Rabbi David Wolpe responds to a statement from California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office reaffirming his belief in Israel’s right to exist, issued after the governor came under fire for a series of anti-Israel remarks. “Given this statement, I feel it is appropriate to affirm that I believe that Gavin Newsom also has the right to exist, and I further believe that California itself has the right to exist. And the right to defend itself, specifically from Nevada, but not necessarily from Oregon. … As a spiritual leader, it is my responsibility to follow my conscience and not the shifting polls, which, coincidentally, currently align with my conscience. Yes, this position may arouse some ire. Many insist that California is a colonial enterprise, and much of it was stolen from its original inhabitants, the members of the liberal-arts faculty of UC Berkeley.” [TheAtlantic]

Chaos Be Damned: In The Washington Post, Douglas Feith, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy from 2001-2005, posits that President Donald Trump is attempting a new strategy in Iran. “Trump shows no concern about chaos. He is giving the Iranians a chance to take control away from the ayatollahs. Trump sees that as a gift — he doesn’t think the U.S. owes Iranians an on-the-ground effort to prevent chaos or to make their country stable, let alone democratic and prosperous. The president’s goal is to deprive Iran of the power to hurt the U.S. and its interests. If dangers develop down the road, he expects to be able to deal with them far more easily than if he had left in place the Islamic regime that was pursuing nuclear weapons and developing ever-longer-range missiles.” [WashPost]

Doha’s Decision: In his Substack “The Abrahamic Metacritique,” Hussein Aboubakr Mansour observes the developing inflection point in Qatar as the Arab state’s leaders determine its political and diplomatic future. “The question we should ask is whether Qatar will use this moment of crisis to do what its critics have demanded for years: sever its ties to political Islam, expel the Muslim Brotherhood networks it has funded and housed since the 1990s, abandon the Hamas patronage that made it indispensable as a mediator but also made it a target, and, perhaps, reposition as a clean, reliable American partner. The question sounds simple, but the answer is not.” [AbrahamicMetacritique]

Ari the Interviewer: The New York Times’ Brooks Barnes spotlights former Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel following the launch of the Hollywood agent’s new podcast, in which he takes center stage as an interviewer. “For people who have dealt with the combative Mr. Emanuel over the decades, this can be a bit like watching a body-swapping comedy: Who are you, and what have you done with Ari Emanuel? In contrast to his reputation, Mr. Emanuel comes across on ‘Rushmore’ as eminently likable. He’s polite and thoughtful. He’s able to maintain his focus for more than 90 seconds. Mr. Emanuel even allows himself brief moments of vulnerability — when the armor slips, and he’s not the alpha.” [NYTimes]

The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into President Donald Trump‘s potential backing of either Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio — the latter of whom the president has expressed a growing preference for — as the GOP’s 2028 presidential candidate…

Politico looks at the diplomatic efforts of White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as they represent a presidential administration that “views diplomacy like a real-estate venture, requiring a business mindset and a small team tasked with securing a big development deal”...

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the Florsheim loafers being gifted by Trump to all manner of White House visitors, noting that while at the White House in January, far-right commentator Tucker Carlson was given a pair of brown wingtips…

The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reflects on the consequences of “Signalgate” a year after he was accidentally added to a group chat of senior Trump administration officials ahead of and during a U.S. operation targeting the Houthis…

Led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), 31 Senate Democrats pressed the administration for accountability for the death of a U.S. citizen in the West Bank, writing that there has been “a consistent pattern in which Americans are being killed in the West Bank by settlers or the IDF without justice or accountability, despite promises from U.S. officials”…

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board rejected for the second time in as many months a proposal for a virtual Jewish charter school, citing a state Supreme Court ruling that charter schools must be non-sectarian…

A mayoral candidate in Ann Arbor, Mich., featured an open Hamas supporter in his campaign video, JI’s Haley Cohen has learned…

A kosher concessions stand is setting up shop at Camden Yards for the Baltimore Orioles’ upcoming season; Birdland Kosher will sell ballpark and American Jewish fare, including hot dogs, chicken nuggets, soft pretzels, hot pastrami sandwiches on rye, potato knishes and chocolate chip cookies…

Australia will grant asylum to five members of Iran’s national women’s soccer team who had been in the country when the war broke out; the move came after President Donald Trump called on Canberra to help the women and offered them asylum in the U.S….

Team Israel was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic following its 10-1 loss to the Dominican Republic on Monday; the Israeli team will still play against the Netherlands today in Miami…

Comic book colorist Tatjana Wood, who survived the Holocaust in hiding at a Quaker school in the Netherlands before immigrating to the U.S. and becoming an award-winning artist, died at 99…

Argentine President Javier Milei was the featured guest at Yeshiva University last night for the latest in its “Great Conversations” series hosted by the school’s president, Rabbi Ari Berman (right). 

Co-founder of Twitter and then Jelly, which he headed from 2014 until its acquisition by Pinterest in 2017, Christopher Isaac “Biz” Stone turns 52… 

Member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he played for the San Diego Chargers of the AFL and then for the Oakland Raiders of the NFL, Ron Mix turns 88… Long Beach, Calif., general surgeon, Leonard M. Lovitch, MD… Former chairman and president of Purdue Pharma, he and his family are the subject of multiple lawsuits relating to the opioid crisis, Richard Sackler, MD turns 81… Author and publisher of the Phoenix Scottsdale Jewish Friendship Trail Guidebook, Michael Alan Ross… Senior cryogenics engineer at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Ariz., he is also an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona, Lawrence Sobel… Founder and CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Pegasystems, Alan N. Trefler turns 70… Editor-at-large of Mishpacha Magazine, Binyamin Rose turns 70… Founder of two Israeli companies, Strategy3i Ltd. and Fluenzy, Jeffrey Kahn turns 68… Winner of four gymnastics medals in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, now in the reverse mortgage business in Sarasota, Mitch Gaylord turns 65… Record producer, former co-president of Columbia Records and a co-founder of Def Jam Records, Frederick Jay “Rick” Rubin turns 63… Financial journalist for CNBC and one of the co-hosts of its morning show “Squawk on the Street,” David Faber turns 62… Executive director until 2024 of the America Israel Friendship League, Wayne L. Firestone turns 62… Stage, screen and television actor, he is the son of novelist Norman Mailer, Stephen Mailer turns 60… Investigative reporter for The New York Times since 2000, Danny Hakim… Former White House official in the Clinton administration, she is now the first lady of Pennsylvania, Lori Shapiro turns 53… Real estate agent on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing,” Josh Altman turns 47… Former IDF officer, then a financial executive, Aliza Landes… Former deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. State Department, now executive director at The Vandenberg Coalition, Carrie Filipetti… Actor and director, he is the son of Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg, Sawyer Avery Spielberg turns 34…