A new poll indicates a deadlocked Senate race in Maryland, where Republicans are aiming to flip a long-held Democrat seat in an overwhelmingly blue state in a key contest that may decide if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority.

Former two-term Gov. Larry Hogan – the Republican nominee in the race – and Democratic nominee Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks both stand at 46% support among likely voters in Maryland, according to an AARP public opinion survey released on Tuesday.

Seven percent were undecided, according to the survey conducted Aug. 14-20.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: TEN WEEKS LEFT UNTIL ELECTION DAY

The poll is the first since the May primary in Maryland to indicate a tied race, with previous surveys suggesting Alsobrooks with the lead. The winner of the November election will succeed Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who is retiring this year after serving nearly two decades in the Senate and nearly six decades as a state and then federal lawmaker.

TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN CRISS-CROSSES THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN ‘MAKE OR BREAK’ MOMENT TO WIN BACK MAJORITY

While Hogan and Alsobrooks are tied, the poll indicates Vice President Kamala Harris far ahead of former President Donald Trump in Maryland. According to the survey, Harris tops Trump by 30 points in a multi-candidate field and by 32 points in a head-to-head match-up.

“Hogan is running a net 32-points ahead of Trump,” the poll’s release highlighted. “Not surprisingly, he is outrunning Trump among all major demographic groups.”

Democrats control the Senate by a razor-thin 51-49 margin, and Republicans are looking at a favorable election map this year with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs.

SENATE DEMOCRATS CAMPAIGN CHAIR GOES ONE-ON-ONE WITH FOX NEWS

One of those seats is in West Virginia, a deep red state that Trump carried by nearly 40 points in 2020. With moderate Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joe Manchin, a former governor, not seeking re-election, flipping the seat is nearly a sure thing for the GOP.

Republicans are also aiming to flip seats in Ohio and Montana, two states Trump comfortably carried four years ago. And five more Democratic-held seats up for grabs this year are in crucial presidential-election battleground states.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

With Democrats trying to protect their fragile Senate majority, Hogan’s late entry into the race in February gave them an unexpected headache in a state previously considered safe territory. Hogan left the governor’s office at the beginning of 2023 with very positive approval and favorable ratings.

The poll highlights that “Hogan is making the race competitive in spite of Maryland’s large Democratic registration advantage by winning Independents by 23-points and also a quarter of Democrats.”

Hogan, a vocal Republican Trump critic who flirted with a 2024 White House run before deciding against it, has repeatedly said that he won’t vote for the former president in November’s election. And in the spring, he stood out from most other Republicans for publicly calling for the guilty verdicts in Trump’s criminal trial to be respected.

Asked about having Trump at the top of the Republican ticket, Hogan said in a Fox News Digital interview earlier this year that “it’s a tough hurdle to overcome because he lost my state by 33 points…It’s not going to be helpful to me, but I think we’re going to be able to overcome that challenge.”

The AARP poll was conducted by the bipartisan polling team of Fabrizio Ward (Republican) & Impact Research (Democrat). The firms interviewed 1,258 likely voters in Maryland.

The family of a Massachusetts man found dead beneath a house in Hilton Head, South Carolina, after he disappeared from a family vacation is speaking out.

Stanley Kotowski, 60, was apparently suffering from insomnia and anxiety when he left his family’s Hilton Head vacation rental and wandered off on the morning of Aug. 16. He was missing for 10 days before the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office located what they believe to be his remains on Monday.

“It is with deep sorrow that I share the heartbreaking news that Stan has been found,” Kotowski’s wife, Jackie Kotowski, wrote in a Monday Facebook post. “Sadly, he is no longer with us. Our hearts are heavy with grief as we begin to process this unimaginable loss.”

She thanked “everyone who offered their support, shared information, and helped in the search efforts.”

SOUTH CAROLINA POLICE FIND BODY OF MASSACHUSETTS MAN WHO VANISHED FROM HILTON HEAD FAMILY VACATION

“Your kindness and concern have meant the world to us during this incredibly difficult time,” Jackie wrote. “As we take the time to come to terms with this news, we ask for your continued thoughts and prayers. We have not yet made arrangements, but we will share more information when we are able.”

Authorities found Kotowski’s body “beneath a residence” in the Sea Pines area of Hilton Head, a popular yet quiet vacation spot on the South Carolina coast.

“At about 11:30 a.m., today, August 26, 2024, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office was alerted to a home in Sea Pines in connection to suspicious activity. Throughout the course of the investigation, the body of a deceased male was located underneath a residence,” the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted to Facebook. “It is believed that the deceased male is 60-year-old Stanley Kotowski of Massachusetts. Mr. Kotowski was reported missing on August 16, 2024.”

MASSACHUSETTS MAN MISSING IN SOUTH CAROLINA AFTER HE VANISHED FROM HILTON HEAD VACATION

The sheriff’s office added that his body “was recovered from underneath the home at about 3:30 p.m.” on Monday afternoon.

Ring doorbell footage released over the weekend shows Kotowski leaving his family’s Hilton Head, South Carolina, rental residence on the same day he disappeared. 

In the video released by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, Kotowski can be seen walking out the front door of the South Sea Pines Drive rental, barefoot. Kotowski also appears to be confused in the video as he stops walking and looks around in the middle of the street before continuing on.

Jackie told local news outlet WJCL that “[h]e just walked out the door.”

“He had really bad insomnia for about a month. He doesn’t have dementia. His anxiety just kept getting worse and worse and worse and he started to get a little paranoid,” she said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

A BCSO report obtained by WJCL says Jackie told deputies her husband “believes Sea Pines is a ‘set up’ and has a conspiracy that the people here are out to get him. She stated that Stanley has made several statements of people at this place ‘watching him.’”

Before Stanley left their rental, he apparently told Jackie, “Promise me you will go on without me,” according to the report.

The county coroner will conduct an autopsy on Tuesday.

Riley Gaines is set to speak Tuesday morning at the Georgia General Assembly’s Special Committee on Protecting Women’s Sports, more than two years after she tied transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the NCAA Championships held at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Gaines is expected to address Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera. In prepared remarks obtained by Fox News Digital, Gaines questions why Cabrera didn’t protect Gaines or any of the other female swimmers who took part in the championships.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

“Dr. Cabrera, you knew that a 6’4″ fully intact man was coming to compete against me, my teammates, and my competitors in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving National Championships,” Gaines’ remarks read. “Do you have a daughter? You could have stopped it, you could have at least said, ‘not here, not on the campus of Georgia Tech University,’ but you did not. You had the chance at the outset to bring a sane, rational, science-based, perspective to the protection of women’s sport, but you looked the other way, and you did nothing. Why didn’t you intervene?

“The scientific evidence for immense male performance advantages in sport is overwhelming- I don’t have to explain that to you or this committee, but you ignored the science to the harm of women.

WOMEN’S SOCCER CLUB THAT FEATURES SEVERAL TRANSGENDER PLAYERS WINS LEAGUE TITLE, FINISHES UNDEFEATED

“Your Georgia Tech University officials knew a naked adult man with full male genitalia was being authorized by Georgia Tech University to share a locker room with hundreds of college coeds who would themselves be naked, unable to hide, unable to protect our privacy. This was intentional, premeditated, sexual harassment, and it happened right here, in the capitol city of the State of Georgia, just a few blocks away the grounds of Georgia Tech University.

“Because you did nothing, that man walked into the women’s locker room at your university and saw me undressed down to nothing. I did not even know he had access to the women’s locker room until I heard a man’s voice and turned around and saw him a few feet in front of me, and I was unclothed. You allowed college women to be traumatized on your campus in this way. Why didn’t you protect me? Why didn’t you protect us?”

Cabrera apparently declined to testify before the committee, and Gaines called on him to redeem himself.

“Dr. Cabrera, if you want to redeem the past and protect women in college sports today, you can take a momentous step towards a more just future for women and for humanity,” she added. “Thousands of women across this country and hundreds of girls who dream of swimming for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and more broadly who dream of competing in sports at all look forward to your response.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Read Riley Gaines’ full remarks below.

“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.” Those words from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg came this week with an admission in a letter that his company, Facebook, did yield to pressure from the Biden-Harris administration to censor American citizens on a wide array of subjects.

For those of us who have criticized Facebook for years for its role in the massive censorship system, Zuckerberg’s belated contrition was more insulting than inspiring. It had all of the genuine regret as a stalker found hiding under the bed of a victim.

Zuckerberg’s sudden regret only came after his company fought for years to conceal the evidence of its work with the government to censor opposing views. Zuckerberg was finally compelled to release the documents by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and the House Judiciary Committee. 

Now forced to admit what many of us have long alleged, Zuckerman is really, really sorry. 

META CEO ADMITS BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN PRESSURED COMPANY TO CENSOR AMERICANS

In my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss Facebook’s record at length as a critical player in the anti-free speech alliance of government, corporate, academic, and media forces.

In prior testimony before the House Judiciary Committee and other congressional committees, I noted that Zuckerberg continued to refuse to release this information after Elon Musk exposed this system in his release of the “Twitter Files.”

Zuckerberg stayed silent as Musk was viciously attacked by anti-free speech figures in Congress and the media. He was fully aware of his own company’s similar conduct but stayed silent.

When the White House and President Joe Biden repeatedly claimed that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, Facebook continued to withhold evidence that they too were pressured to suppress the story before the election.

When the censorship system was recently put before the Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri and the justices asked about evidence of coordination and pressure from the government. In Murthy, states successfully showed lower courts that there was coercion from the government in securing an injunction. The Biden administration denied such pressure and the Court rejected the standing of plaintiffs, blocked an order to stop the censorship, and sent the case back down to the lower court.

Zuckerberg still remained silent.

But Facebook was not silent when it came to censorship, or “content moderation” as the company prefers to call it. While Zuckerberg now expresses “regret” at not speaking out sooner, his company previously sought to sell Americans on censorship.

In 2021, I wrote about the Facebook commercial campaign in which the company attempted to rally young people to embrace censorship. 

The commercials show people like “Joshan” who says that he “grew up with the internet.” Joshan mocks how much computers have changed and then objects how privacy and censorship has not evolved as much as our technology. As Joshan calls for “the blending of the real world and the internet world,” content moderation is presented as part of this not-so-brave new world.

Joshan and his equally eager colleagues Chava and Adam were presented by Facebook as the shiny happy faces of young people longing to be content modified.  They were all born in 1996 — the sweet spot for censors who saw young people as allies to reduce free speech.

For years, young people have been taught that free speech is harmful and triggering. We are raising of generation of speech-phobics and Zuckerberg and Facebook wanted to tap into that generation to get people to stop fearing the censor and love “content modification.”  It was time, as Joshan and his friends told us, to “change” with our computers. 

Now, Zuckerberg and Meta want people to know that they were “pressured” to censor and really regret their role in silencing opposing voices.

It is the feigned regret that comes with forced exposure.

The Facebook files now put the lie to past claims of the Biden administration and many Democrats in Congress. For years, members attacked some of us who testified that we had no evidence of coordination or pressure from the government. At the same time, they opposed any effort to investigate and release such evidence. 

The evidence is now undeniable. 

The Biden administration has long demanded the removal of opposing views on a wide array of subjects and Democrats in Congress pushed Zuckerberg to expand the scope of censorship to include areas like climate change denial.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is an example of the chilling scope of this effort.  Her agency was created to work on our critical infrastructure but Easterly declared that the mandate would now include policing “our cognitive infrastructure.” That includes combating “malinformation,” or information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”

Consider that for a second: true facts are censorable if the government views them as misleading.

As I write in my book, President Joe Biden is arguably the most anti-free speech president since John Adams. His administration helped create a censorship system that was described by one federal judge as “Orwellian.” Vice President Kamala Harris has been entirely supportive of that effort. 

In 1800, Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams in the only election where free speech was one of the principal campaign issues. It should be so again. Harris should have to take ownership of the censorship system maintained by the administration. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

In my book, I propose a federal law that would bar the government from using any federal funds to support efforts to censor, blacklist, or suppress individuals or groups. It would take the government out of the censorship business. Harris should be asked if she would oppose such a law and dismantle the current censorship apparatus in the federal government. 

Democracy is not on the ballot in 2024, as many have claimed, but free speech is.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM JONATHAN TURLEY

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) announced a record catch while the agency was conducting its annual sturgeon survey. 

Fisheries staff were on Lake St. Clair capturing, gathering data about, tagging and releasing the fish.

It was while conducting their research that they found a monstrous lake sturgeon, according to an MDNR post on Facebook.

TWO WEST VIRGINIA FISHING BUDDIES BREAK STATE RECORDS WITHIN HOURS OF EACH OTHER

The crew reeled in a 125-pound fish stretching over six feet long.

Lake St. Clair is also known as the “Heart of the Great Lakes,” at only 430 square miles in surface area and an average depth of 11 feet, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. 

The MDNR posted a photo of the huge catch saying, “The crew hauled in their largest (by length) in the history of this survey.”

“While aging is a bit more difficult, it wouldn’t be surprising to find out some of these fish are knocking on 80 years old,” said the post.

BOY REELS IN COLOSSAL 118-POUND WHITE MARLIN ON NANTUCKET, POSSIBLY BREAKING JUNIOR WORLD RECORD

Lake sturgeon typically are between four and six feet long, and weigh 30 to 80 pounds.

They can live to be between 50 and 100 years old, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“These activities provide our biologists and technicians with information on how lake sturgeon are doing. This helps track abundance, survival, movement, habitat use and more,” said the MDNR on Facebook. 

The prehistoric fish have a shark-like tail and a bony, plate-armored covering.

“Sturgeon are an amazing and unique species, and efforts like this help us keep up conservation practices to help them thrive,” added the MDNR. 

Facebook users responded to the enormous catch by commenting on the post.

“My dad turns 80 this week, to think that fish has been around since the 40s … That is unreal! Can you imagine the thoughts of that fish… ‘dang it, I’ve escaped the hook for 80 years,’” one woman said.

Another person commented, “Did you all let him go, I hope?”

“So a six-foot sturgeon around 80 years old!” said one man.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

“Amazing,” commented a woman.

One man said, “Sounds like a fun job.” 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News Digital reached out to the MDNR for additional comment.