The GOP's Attacks on James Talarico Are Straight Out of the Incel Handbook Claims about low testosterone and false accusations of veganism might play well to the online far right, but will they win an election? Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico speaks in Houston, Texas. On Tuesday, with Donald Trump's endorsement and the backing of the MAGA faithful, scandal-ridden Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defeated incumbent US senator John Cornyn in a runoff primary to claim the Republican nomination for that seat. He then quickly set about painting his general-election opponent, Democratic Texas state representative James Talarico, as insufficiently masculine. "My opponent is the most extreme radical that Democrats have ever nominated," Paxton said in his victory speech.

The Trump administration keeps threatening to send federal agents to oversee elections. State and local officials are preparing, and even gaming out what happens if they're arrested. Last week, as President Donald Trump prepared to leave the White House on his way to China for a state visit, he was asked if he would be willing to deploy troops from the National Guard or agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to polling locations during November's midterms. "I would do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections," Trump responded . Trump's comments are the latest in a litany of confusing and sometimes contradictory statements from his administration about the possibility of deploying federal agents to oversee the elections.

The Institute for Primary Facts has compiled more than 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files for public display at the newly opened Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room. It's an early 2016 email thread between Jeffrey Epstein and a woman whose name is redacted by the Department of Justice . In the thread, Epstein asks the unidentified woman for a "naughty selfie" and later sends her a camera. In late February, he replies with a different ask: "Do you have any friends that might want to work for me?...I will give you money if you find someone willing to travel, 22-25, educated. The exchange carries extra resonance when you consider that Epstein is accused of sex trafficking minors, with the Department of Justice estimating that he had more than 1,200 potential victims.

In a bizarre turn of events, two AI chatbots are running for elected office for the first time--ever. VIC is campaigning for mayor in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and AI Steve is running for Parliament in the UK. Reporter Vittoria Elliot interviewed both of the bots and the people behind them. She explains their motivations, and if any of this is even legal. Meanwhile, reporter David Gilbert talks about how Google and Microsofts' AI chatbots are refusing to confirm who won the 2020 election.

Election deniers are mobilizing their supporters and rolling out new tech to disrupt the November election. These groups are already organizing on hyperlocal levels, and learning to monitor polling places, target election officials, and challenge voter rolls. And though their work was once fringe, its become mainstreamed in the Republican Party. Today on WIRED Politics Lab, we focus on what these groups are doing, and what this means for voters and the election workers already facing threats and harassment. Write to us at politicslab@wired.com. Our show is produced by produced by Jake Harper. Jake Lummus is our studio engineer and Amar Lal mixed this episode. Jordan Bell is the Executive Producer of Audio Development and Chris Bannon is Global Head of Audio at Conde Nast. Also be sure to subscribe to the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter here. You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. Leah Feiger: Welcome to WIRED Politics Lab, a show about how tech is changing politics. Today, we're going to talk about how election deniers are mobilizing their supporters and rolling out new tech to disrupt November.