Incumbents brace for primary season: From the Politics Desk

This is the online version of From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Ben Kamisar looks at the members of Congress who are facing heated primary battles next month. Plus, Kristen Welker breaks down the meeting between acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez and U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

And if you want to keep up with the ins and outs of Hollywood, make sure to check out our latest newsletter for subscribers, On the Lot, from entertainment reporter Rebecca Keegan.

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— Adam Wollner

Programming note: We are off on Monday for Presidents’ Day and will be back on Tuesday.

Incumbents brace for primary season

By Ben Kamisar

Lawmakers in both parties face a reckoning from within their own ranks this year — and the first major primary day of the midterm elections puts all of those pressures on full display.

The March 3 primaries are just the start of a flurry of pivotal contests set to run through the summer. It remains overwhelmingly difficult to oust sitting members of Congress, who benefit from many trappings of incumbency. But these races typify the pressure incumbents in both parties may face this year — MAGA purity tests roil the right while the left debates whether to turn over leadership to a new generation and whether their current leaders are rising to the political moment.

Texas Senate: The big prize on the ballot for insurgent Republicans is the Senate primary in Texas, where Sen. John Cornyn is in the fight of his political life against state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Both challengers frame Cornyn as a creature of Washington and not conservative enough to represent Texas. Cornyn has pushed back furiously, unleashing a massive ad campaign casting himself as being in lockstep with President Donald Trump — who has, so far, refused repeated entreaties to endorse anyone in the race.

Texas 23rd District: GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales is set for a rematch against Brandon Herrera, a hard-right gun activist who fell just a few hundred votes short of upsetting him in 2024.

Herrera continues to hammer Gonzales for his vote in favor of a bipartisan gun bill Cornyn championed in 2022, a month after the deadly shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, in Gonzales’ district. Gonzales’ votes on border security, privacy and creating a bipartisan committee to investigate the 2021 Capitol riot have also been at the center of Herrera’s challenge. Gonzales won Trump’s endorsement a few weeks ago.

North Carolina’s 4th District: Democratic Rep. Valerie Foushee, 69, is again facing Nida Allam, a 32-year-old member of the Durham County Board of Commissioners, in next month’s primary, which previews key dynamics threatening blue-district incumbents across the country.

Allam has endorsements from a spate of progressive politicians and organizations, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Leaders We Deserve, the anti-incumbent group started by activist David Hogg. Meanwhile, Foushee is backed by both Gov. Josh Stein and former Gov. Roy Cooper, as well as the state’s Democratic congressional delegation.

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What comes next after Chris Wright’s meeting with Delcy Rodríguez

I had the extraordinary opportunity this week to travel to Venezuela to speak with acting President Delcy Rodríguez and U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright as the two met at a pivotal crossroads for the nation’s future.

The meeting came with an enormous series of tasks in front of them: A need to repair the relationship between the two countries after a U.S.-led operation captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, rebuild the country’s oil infrastructure and navigate its tenuous economy.

Wright praised the “amazing cooperation” between the two countries, but he also told me that while the “Venezuelans are in charge here,” the “largest revenue source that funds the government, that funds the government of Venezuela is now controlled by the United States.”

“If they’re driving positive change that benefits Americans and is improving the life opportunities of people in Venezuela, that money will flow. If they steer off that path, we have just simply tremendous leverage,” Wright added.

That’s part of the complication for Rodríguez, who has remained clear that she’s not in full agreement with the U.S. on every important matter. Through a translator, she told me that “President Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president” and that both he and his wife are “innocent.” Rodríguez promised that oil revenue will go toward supporting Venezuela, while committing to democratic elections in the future even as she declared that opposition leader María Corina Machado would “have to answer to Venezuela” if she wants to return to the country.

And Rodríguez notably decried the “fake news” that she believes has mischaracterized her nation.

“I truly believe that diplomatic dialogue is the way forward. We believe that political, diplomatic, and also the dialogue of energy is a channel that will crush all fake news. I always see that President Trump has been a victim of fake news many times,” Rodríguez said.

“Many times we see little clarity and truthfulness in what is said about Venezuela,” she added.

Most of the story of what’s to come for Venezuela has yet to be written — Wright told reporters that the trip deepened his relationship with Rodríguez, and that he and other top administration officials would return to the country, not ruling out the possibility Trump could visit. With so many unknowns, it’s clear there’s some energy and optimism in Venezuela, especially among the people who are determined to go around their normal lives despite that instability.

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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