Calif. GOP Rep Leaves Republican Party Narrowing House Majority
Rep. Kevin Kiley of California announced Monday that he is leaving the Republican Party and registering as an independent, effective immediately. The move further narrows Speaker Mike Johnson’s already slim two-vote majority in the House and adds another complication to an already challenging governing environment.
Kiley said he plans to continue caucusing with Republicans for “administrative purposes.” The California lawmaker did not notify House Republican leadership before first announcing the change on Friday.
He said he later spoke with Johnson over the weekend about remaining aligned with the Republican conference, but the announcement had already reduced the party’s margin in the chamber.
Kiley described his departure as a response to what he characterized as increasing partisanship in Congress and pointed to recent mid-decade redistricting that altered the boundaries of his Republican-leaning district. During a press call Monday, he cited those factors as part of his decision to change his party affiliation.
“Since gerrymandering seeks to elevate partisanship above everything else in our politics … the best way to counter gerrymandering and its insidious impacts on democracy is simply to take partisanship out of the equation,” he said.
Asked if would continue supporting GOP priorities, Kiley told Axios: “If you’re talking about just bringing bills to the floor, I think, generally speaking, I’ve been supportive of that.”
He then said: “I can’t commit to do that in each and every case, in advance, I think I’ll have to consider every one on its own merits.”
Meanwhile, in the Georgia special election to replace former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican Clay Fuller and Democrat Shawn Harris advanced Tuesday from a crowded field to an April 7 runoff.
In the firmly Republican district in the northwest corner of the state, Fuller, a district attorney, benefited from President Donald Trump’s support. Greene defeated Harris, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general and cattle rancher, in the 14th District general election of 2024.
Election forecasters predicted that neither candidate would secure a majority required to prevent a run-off election on April 7. Fuller, the GOP candidate, secured 35% of the vote while Harris managed 37% with 99% of the votes counted on Tuesday.
That said, Fuller is the favorite going into the runoff in a district that Trump won by 37 percentage points in the 2024 presidential contest.
Trump weighed in after the race was called and shared several posts on Truth Social praising Fuller, arguing that he would be an “excellent” Republican in Congress for the MAGA movement, and urged Republicans to “finish the job” in the April 7th runoff.
“Congratulations to Clay Fuller, of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, on getting such a high percentage of the vote with 12 Republicans running. We want to make the next vote ‘TOO BIG TO RIG.’ Clay will be a GREAT Congressman — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN! President DJT,” the president wrote on his Truth Social.
All candidates, regardless of party, must appear on the same ballot according to Georgia’s special election regulations.
It was improbable that any of the 22 candidates—17 of whom were Republicans—would receive more than 50% of the vote and avoid a runoff.
The campaigns of five Republican candidates who were on the ballot have since ended.
A voter NBC News spoke to on Tuesday cited Trump’s support as a factor in the race.
Sarah Umphrey, 77, said she voted for Fuller, adding that Trump’s endorsement was “really important. I like Trump.”
Assuming Republicans hold the seat and win the April 7th runoff, it would give Speaker Mike Johnson more breathing room in the U.S. House, where Republicans have a slim majority.
Fuller has repeatedly said he would be “a warrior for President Trump on Capitol Hill,” but other Republican candidates have also promised to fully support the president’s plans.
Top DHS Special Agent And His Wife Found Dead
A Department of Homeland Security special agent and his wife were found dead in their New Jersey home in what appears to be a murder-suicide, prosecutors said.
Police in Sayreville responded to the couple’s home on Glynn Court around 8 p.m. July 3 and found Kelly Latauro, 46, dead inside the residence, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Her husband, 52-year-old Christopher Latauro, was discovered dead in the backyard.
Both appear to have been shot.
Authorities said Christopher is believed to be the shooter and the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide.
Police told residents to keep away from Glynn Court, from Deerfield Road to Scarlet Drive, briefly because of police activity.
The area was reopened about 40 minutes later, but police remained on scene.
According to NJ101.5, citing DHS records from 2019 and 2020, Christopher was a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
Authorities have not said what may have sparked the violence.
Kelly’s sister-in-law Robyn Perlman-Spencer confirmed her death in a Facebook post on July 7, remembering her in a heartbreaking tribute.
“As many of you may now know, my beautiful sister in law Kelly Iatauro was senselessly and suddenly taken from us on Friday. Kelly was a bright light- kind, thoughtful, hysterical, inappropriate, and just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. She left a lasting impression on anyone that was lucky enough to know her,” Robyn wrote in part.
Sayreville police confirmed officers responded to the Glynn Court residence on July 3 and found both people dead of gunshot wounds.
The incident is being treated as a murder-suicide, and Christopher is suspected to be the shooter, the spokesperson said.
The Department of Homeland Security and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment on the case.
What began as a heavy police response to a deadly scene left two people dead and the quiet Middlesex County neighborhood stunned.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened inside the home leading up to the gunfire.
Separately, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made headlines last week with an election-related announcement.
Mullin on Friday said officials who don’t cooperate with the administration’s election security efforts may be slapped with fines — and potentially prison time.
“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections — and they chose not to — then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said during a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Mullin also promised DHS would work to “speed up our security enhancements” for states.
He vowed to hold up federal election security grants until state officials took steps the administration demanded, including running their voter registration lists through a system that checks for non-citizen voters on the rolls.
Mullin made his comments after President Donald Trump’s primetime address on election security Thursday night, when he repeated already known concerns about the security of voting systems, alleged Chinese efforts to get into voter rolls, and aired old gripes about the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
In his remarks on Friday, the DHS secretary focused on DHS’s work with states to secure election systems and scrub voter registration rolls for fraud and concerns about noncitizen voting.
The Justice Department also sent letters this month threatening prosecution to election officials across the country if they don’t remove noncitizens from their voter rolls.
On Friday, Mullin seemed to suggest that the agency was able to estimate the numbers using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and said 23 states are already working with DHS to analyze voter rolls.
And he criticized the legal challenges that are hindering the administration’s efforts: Last month, a judge blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of information about Americans, including Social Security numbers and citizenship status.
