August 6

Election deadline: Arizona Primary Election 2030

Voting for Arizona Primary Election 2030 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. Senate; U.S. House (9 seats); Governor; State Legislature. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Election deadline: Missouri Primary Election 2030

Voting for Missouri Primary Election 2030 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. Senate; U.S. House (8 seats); Governor; State Legislature. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Election deadline: Kansas Primary Election 2030

Voting for Kansas Primary Election 2030 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. Senate; U.S. House (4 seats); Governor; State Legislature. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Election deadline: Michigan Primary Election 2030

Voting for Michigan Primary Election 2030 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. Senate; U.S. House (13 seats); Governor; State Legislature. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Election deadline: Washington Primary Election 2030

Voting for Washington Primary Election 2030 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. Senate; U.S. House (10 seats); Governor; State Legislature. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Election deadline: Missouri Primary Election 2028

Voting for Missouri Primary Election 2028 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. House (8 seats); Governor; State Legislature; President. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Election deadline: Washington Primary Election 2028

Voting for Washington Primary Election 2028 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. House (10 seats); Governor; State Legislature; President. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Election deadline: Tennessee Primary Election 2026

Voting for Tennessee Primary Election 2026 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. Senate; U.S. House (9 seats); Governor; State Legislature. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

AIPAC-backed challenger defeats Rep. Cori Bush with $8.5 million in Missouri primary

St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Rep. Cori Bush in the August 6, 2024, Missouri Democratic primary, 51.2% to 45.6%, after AIPAC's United Democracy Project spent $8.5 million backing Bell. Bush became the second member of the progressive Squad ousted by AIPAC-backed challengers in two months, following Jamaal Bowman's June defeat. Total outside spending in the race exceeded $18 million.

Alabama man threatens Fulton County sheriff and Fani Willis before Trump indictment

Arthur Ray Hanson II left threatening voicemail messages for Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat and District Attorney Fani Willis days before Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted in Georgia. Prosecutors said the calls were tied to anger over the Trump election-interference investigation and were intended to intimidate officials involved in the case.

Trump signs Executive Order 13846, reimposing first tranche of JCPOA sanctions

Trump signed Executive Order 13846, reimposing the first batch of JCPOA-related sanctions after the 90-day wind-down period. Targeted Iran's trade in US dollars, gold, precious metals, the automotive sector, and the Iranian rial. This was the beginning of the largest sanctions architecture ever built against a single country.

Trump tweets that Obama's birth certificate is "a fraud" a year after its release

On August 6, 2012, Donald Trump tweets: "An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud." The tweet comes 15 months after the White House released Obama's long-form Hawaiian birth certificate and 11 months after Obama publicly mocked Trump's fixation at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner while Trump sat stone-faced in the audience. Trump offers no evidence for the fraud claim. He continues publicly questioning Obama's birthplace through 2014, when he suggests Obama's college records would reveal his true "place of birth." Trump finally acknowledges Obama was born in the United States on September 16, 2016 — only after his campaign recognizes the issue is damaging his outreach to Black voters. Colin Powell, in hacked emails, calls Trump's birther campaign "racist." Bernie Sanders says it was "about delegitimizing the first African-American president in our history."

Bush invokes AECA emergency authority to rush $2.2 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia four days after Iraq invades Kuwait

President George H.W. Bush invokes the Arms Export Control Act's emergency certification authority on August 6, 1990, approving an emergency $2.2 billion arms package to Saudi Arabia four days after Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2. Bush certifies to Congress that an "emergency exists which requires the immediate sale of such articles or services in the national security interests of the United States," bypassing the standard 30-day notification period under Section 36(b). The sale includes M1A1 Abrams tanks, artillery, ammunition, and air defense equipment. The invocation sets an important precedent for using Section 36(c) emergency authority for large-scale wartime arms transfers — the same authority Secretary of State Rubio uses 36 years later.

Johnson signs Voting Rights Act, banning literacy tests and creating federal preclearance

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law on August 6 at the U.S. Capitol, flanked by civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. The law bans literacy tests, provides for federal voting examiners in covered jurisdictions, and under Section 5 requires nine Southern states and other covered jurisdictions to obtain "preclearance" from the DOJ or a federal court before making any change to voting laws or procedures. Section 2 establishes a nationwide ban on voting practices that discriminate based on race. Within months, Black voter registration in the covered states rises dramatically.