WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans’ top campaign spending organization is pulling back in North Carolina and pouring money into Kansas, a striking shift that shows how the party’s plan to keep its majority has turned into an increasingly defensive fight ahead of November's midterms.
The decision by the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with top Senate Republicans, was disclosed Friday by four people with direct knowledge of the situation who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
The Senate Leadership Fund will make a seven-figure advertising buy in Kansas, a state that Republican Donald Trump won by nearly 16 percentage points in the last presidential election, according to the four people. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican seeking a second term, is facing a challenge from Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton, the leader of the nation’s largest United Methodist Church.
The shifting resources signal a lack of confidence that Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman who was Trump's choice to run for Senate in North Carolina, can beat Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper.
The moves offer a stark sign of how dramatically the Senate map has shifted just a month before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. Republicans entered the cycle believing they had more opportunities to flip Democratic-held seats than they had incumbents at serious risk. Now they are dumping money into states where Trump won comfortably in 2024.
Senate Republican campaign leaders have pointed to spiking fuel prices, driven in part by the war with Iran, as one of the issues weighing on their candidates.
In Kansas, Marshall won his first Senate race by more than 11 percentage points in 2020, the year Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump for president. However, diesel costs and other economic concerns have made the state more competitive than Republicans had expected.
The Senate Leadership Fund had planned to spend $18 million in North Carolina over the next month, according to reservations tracked by AdImpact. The group has already spent about $32 million there.
Trump campaigned with Whatley last month, saying higher fuel prices were “a very inexpensive price to pay” for preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Though gas prices are near historic highs, they remain below the nationwide record set in 2022.
Trump won North Carolina by just over 3 percentage points in 2024. Republicans have held both of the state’s Senate seats since 2015, even as Cooper won two terms as governor and served from 2017 to 2025.
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
FILE - Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., gestures as Vice President JD Vance speaks, Sept. 14, 2026, in Olathe, Kan. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool, File)
FILE - North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley listens as President Donald Trump speaks, Sept. 16, 2026, in Gastonia, N.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The woman who accused members of a Cornell University fraternity of gang rape was “failed” by people obligated to protect her, including campus police and the county prosecutor, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday.
Hochul said at a news conference that she decided to appoint Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor to take over the investigation after learning “troubling details” about how authorities have handled the woman’s claims thus far, including that the district attorney closed the case without having anyone interview the accuser or anyone else involved in the alleged attack.
“In what world does the district attorney not even interview her, or anyone else involved, or even request the full transcript?” Hochul said. “This woman, this young woman, had already endured something that is utterly unspeakable. And then at every turn, she was failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her.”
She also assailed the Cornell University Police Department for not fully conveying the woman’s story to prosecutors.
“After this young woman came forward, she spoke to the police. She sat for hours and told them exactly what happened to her. And according to new reports, she could not have been clearer that she was 100% confident that she had been raped," the Democratic governor said. "Yet, shockingly, those words never made it into the account that the Cornell police sent to prosecutors.”
Hochul said Thursday that she appointed James to oversee the case because she had lost faith in the local district attorney’s ability to handle it.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who was removed from the case, said Friday that he supports James’ appointment.
“I trust that she will examine the facts and apply the law," Van Houten said in a statement. ”It has become clear that we were not provided the full picture by the University. The focus has been and should continue to be on the victims.”
James didn't say how long her investigation might take, but suggested it would take months.
“We will review the facts, gather evidence, interview witnesses and, if warranted, pursue prosecutions,” James said. “I know that you want answers. I do too. A comprehensive investigation of this nature takes time, but my office is committed to seeing it through.”
The investigation initially was closed without charges in 2024. Van Houten reopened the investigation on Monday after the woman filed a new lawsuit against seven former members of the Chi Phi fraternity, as well as Cornell and others.
Van Houten has defended his decision not to prosecute, maintaining that a sworn statement by the woman prepared by police didn’t include the woman's allegations that she was drugged against her will, incapacitated beyond the ability to consent and forced into sex.
The case has roiled the Ivy League school and raised questions about its response and the larger issue of how sexual assaults are handled on college campuses.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, told campus police in November of 2024 that she was sexually assaulted, then discussed it with the university’s internal investigators as part of Cornell’s disciplinary process.
Her lawsuit alleges that she was plied with drugs and alcohol, then subjected to sexual acts by a group of men while she was partially or entirely incapacitated. One of the men sent a social media message to other fraternity members alerting them to what was happening and inviting people to take part, according to the lawsuit.
Lawyers for two of the men she is suing have denied they participated in a sexual assault. One said his client didn't touch the woman. Attempts to reach the other men or their representatives for comment have been unsuccessful.
Hochul also threw her support behind proposals to change an element of New York law that has long made it more difficult to prosecute people who have engaged in sex with someone who voluntarily became intoxicated to the point where their ability to consent was compromised.
Under the law, rape charges generally need to involve force or a clear refusal of sex, unless the victim is physically helpless due to being unconscious, or mentally incapacitated due to being drugged without their consent. New York is one of 19 states with such laws.
“If someone is too intoxicated to consent, it should not matter whether they chose to use drugs or alcohol. Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang rape, period,” the governor said.
New York governors have turned to attorneys general and special prosecutors to oversee important cases in the past.
In 2018, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed a Long Island district attorney to investigate Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who resigned after women accused him of abuse. In 2021, James appointed two outside lawyers to conduct a non-criminal investigation into sexual harassment allegations against then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, leading to his resignation.
James’ office also handles other criminal work and has the power to investigate every death in the state involving law enforcement. But, typically, she can’t initiate a criminal investigation without a referral from a local district attorney, the governor or a state agency.
James, a Democrat who took office in 2019, is perhaps best known for suing President Donald Trump over allegations that he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. An appeals court overturned Trump’s fine, which ballooned to more than $500 million, but upheld a judge’s fraud finding.
Trump’s Justice Department, in turn, brought mortgage fraud charges against James last year as part of the president’s retribution campaign against political enemies, but a judge dismissed the case and a grand jury rejected another attempt to indict her. James denies wrongdoing.
This story was updated to correct the spelling of Letitia James' name.
Associated Press reporter Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut contributed to this report.
New York Attorney General Letitia James attends a news conference with New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a news conference, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference with New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a news conference with New York Attorney General Letitia James, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
FILE - New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, left, listens as Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference in New York, Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Shown is the the Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
