August 8

Election deadline: Tennessee Primary Election 2030

Voting for Tennessee 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: Hawaii Primary Election 2026

Voting for Hawaii Primary Election 2026 occurs on this date. Offices on ballot: U.S. House (2 seats); Governor; State Legislature. See the linked election record for registration, early voting, and mail ballot deadlines.

Maui wildfire destroys Lāhainā deadliest US wildfire in over a century with at least 100 killed

A fast-moving wildfire fueled by winds from Hurricane Dora destroys the historic town of Lāhainā on Maui, Hawaii, killing at least 100 people, the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century. The fire overruns the town in minutes, trapping residents in their cars and homes. Emergency alert sirens in Lāhainā did not sound during the fire, and the state's emergency management agency faces intense scrutiny. Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visit Maui on August 21. Biden later makes controversial remarks suggesting his home had "nearly burned down" in a small kitchen fire, the comment draws ridicule and factual correction.

FBI executes a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, recovering 102 classified documents

FBI agents executed a court-authorized search warrant at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8, 2022, recovering over 13,000 government documents including 102 classified records — seven marked Top Secret, 54 Secret, and 31 Confidential — along with materials containing nuclear-related information. Attorney General Merrick Garland personally authorized the search after NARA's criminal referral, and Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart approved the warrant application. Trump claimed presidential authority to have declassified the materials, an assertion federal courts and the Justice Department rejected. The search was the first FBI execution of a search warrant at a former president's residence in American history.

Nixon accepts the Republican nomination and deploys "law and order" as racial code

Richard Nixon accepts the Republican presidential nomination at the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach on August 8, 1968, building his acceptance speech around the theme of "law and order" in response to urban unrest, civil rights protests, and the antiwar movement. Nixon strategist Kevin Phillips has already mapped an internal campaign memo advising that winning conservative Democrats will turn on the "law and order/Negro socio-economic revolution syndrome." Nixon bluntly tells the convention that when he says law and order, it is not a code word for racism — but his core audience, including white Southerners fleeing the Democratic Party after the Civil Rights Act, understands the subtext. Nixon goes on to win Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Historians trace his convention speech as the public launch of the Southern Strategy's coded language phase that would define Republican messaging on race for the next five decades.