Election category, Page 103
Ziccarelli concedes, Brewster to be sworn in Wednesday morning
State Sen. Jim Brewster, who will be sworn in Wednesday to the 45th District seat, said it has been a long two months of legal maneuvering as he defended his seat from court challenges raised by Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli. The incumbent Democrat said Tuesday — hours after a federal...
Sens. Toomey, Murkowski urge Trump to resign; impeachment gains support
WASHINGTON — Two Republican senators now say Donald Trump should resign and a third says the president should be “very careful” in his remaining days in office as the House prepares to impeach Trump in the wake of deadly riots at the Capitol. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday joined...
Pennsylvania Republicans weigh the party’s future post-Trump
Republicans and party leaders are wondering what direction the GOP in Pennsylvania will take in the era of the post-Trump presidency and in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by an angry mob of President Trump’s supporters. Will the party return to its more moderate roots as...
Toomey calls on Trump to resign, says it’s what’s best for countryVideo
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is calling on President Donald Trump to resign for what Toomey says would be the good of the country after the Capitol riot that was carried out by supporters of the president. Toomey says resignation is the “best path forward, the best way to get...
Twitter bans Trump, citing risk of incitement
Twitter banned President Donald Trump’s account Friday, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Twitter has long given Trump and other world leaders broad exemptions from its rules against personal attacks, hate speech and other behaviors. But in a...
Westmoreland elections bureau to hire deputy director
Westmoreland County is seeking candidates to fill a deputy director’s position for the elections bureau ahead of the 2021 campaign season to help ease the burden on an office that was understaffed and pushed to its limits last fall. Applications will be accepted through Jan. 20. “We need to be...
GOP’s David Perdue concedes to Jon Ossoff in Georgia runoff
ATLANTA — Republican David Perdue conceded his loss to Democrat Jon Ossoff on Friday, bringing Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoffs that will deliver Democratic control of the chamber one step closer to an end. A day earlier, the GOP’s Kelly Loeffler conceded to Democrat Raphael Warnock in the other race....
GOP’s Loeffler concedes to Warnock in Georgia runoff
ATLANTA — Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler on Thursday conceded to Democrat Raphael Warnock in one of two Georgia Senate runoffs that will give control of the U.S. Senate to Democrats. Loeffler, who was appointed to the position a year ago to replace outgoing Sen. Johnny Isakson, posted a video to...
Pittsburgh-area historians, political scientists weigh in on Capitol chaos
The chaos and destruction Wednesday on Capitol Hill will go down as one of the most significant events in American history, and academics are still coming to terms with it. As calls for President Trump’s removal intensified Thursday, scholars are trying to establish how the events will be remembered in...
Jim Brewster waits, works as 45th Senate race remains unresolved
Jim Brewster, the McKeesport Democrat who was a Pennsylvania senator until Tuesday, was working as usual for people who live in the 45th Senate District. “My staff is functioning with constituent issues,” Brewster said Thursday. But, he said, “I can’t do anything official.” On Tuesday, Republican leadership took control of...
Here’s who objected, supported certification of Pennsylvania’s electors
Members of Congress confirmed Joe Biden’s presidential win early Thursday morning, but not without first deliberating on proposals aimed to discredit the results of the contentious 2020 presidential election. The U.S. Congress voted on proposals that objected electoral votes from Pennsylvania and Arizona, key battleground states. Both proposals were rejected....
Biden win confirmed after pro-Trump mob storms U.S. Capitol
WASHINGTON — Congress confirmed Democrat Joe Biden as the presidential election winner early Thursday after a violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a stunning attempt to overturn America’s presidential election, undercut the nation’s democracy and keep Trump in the White House. Lawmakers were resolved...
Pa. Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward defends election questions as U.S. Capitol stormed
State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward on Wednesday refused to budge from her position questioning the integrity of Nov. 3 election in Pennsylvania, even as an angry crowd of Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol and Gov. Tom Wolf called out state Republicans for fomenting a “shameful lie.” Ward of...
‘An absolute disgrace’: Pa. delegation reacts to violent storming of U.S. Capitol
Mike Doyle has served in Congress since 1995. The Democrat from Forest Hills said he has never seen a day like Wednesday when protesters stormed the Capitol and created a violent scene that caused House and Senate members to flee. “This looks like something that would happen in a Third...
Biden calls on protesters to ‘pull back,’ urges restoring decency
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden called Wednesday for the restoration of “just simple decency” as a mob incited by his predecessor stormed the U.S. Capitol and delayed Congress from certifying the results of November’s election in which Biden won the White House. Biden had planned to deliver a speech...
Pence defies Trump, says he can’t reject electoral votes
WASHINGTON — Defying President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged Wednesday he does not have the power to throw out the electoral votes that will make Democrat Joe Biden the next president in two weeks, dashing Trump’s baseless hopes that Pence somehow could find a way to keep him...
Capitol session on Biden victory halted as protesters swarm buildingVideo
WASHINGTON — Angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, marching through the building, shouting and waving Trump and American flags and forcing a halt to congressional deliberations over challenges to Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Senators were being evacuated. Some House lawmakers tweeted they were sheltering...
Trump challenges to election reverberate in New Mexico
SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico’s top elections official is urging a federal court to dismiss a challenge by President Donald Trump of absentee voting procedures for ballot drop boxes. She also wants Trump’s campaign to be sanctioned for pursuing meritless litigation. Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver says the...
Warnock, Ossoff win in Georgia, handing Dems Senate control
ATLANTA — Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats — and with them, the U.S. Senate majority — as final votes were counted Wednesday, serving President Donald Trump a stunning defeat in his last days in office while dramatically improving the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s progressive agenda. Jon Ossoff and...
Georgia counts ballots as Senate control hangs in balanceVideo
ATLANTA — Georgia officials counted the final votes of the nation’s turbulent 2020 election season early Wednesday as polls closed in two critical races that will determine control of the U.S. Senate and, in turn, the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda. The two Senate runoff elections are leftovers...
Uncounted ballots discovered among Westmoreland County voting equipment
Westmoreland County elections officials disclosed Monday that 21 uncounted provisional ballots submitted at a North Huntingdon voting precinct on Election Day were discovered last week among computer equipment used at the polls in November. Elections bureau staffers found the unopened ballots during a routine inspection of voting machines stored at...
Satellite offices gave Pa. voters more options to cast early ballots in person. Were they worth it?
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — A week before the Nov. 3 election,...
More GOP lawmakers enlist in Trump effort to undo Biden win
WASHINGTON — A growing number of Republican lawmakers are joining President Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn the election, pledging to reject the results when Congress meets next week to count the Electoral College votes and certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Saturday announced a...
GOP torn over Trump’s Electoral College challenge of Biden
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s extraordinary challenge of his election defeat by President-elect Joe Biden is becoming a defining moment for the Republican Party before next week’s joint session of Congress to confirm the Electoral College results. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is urging Republicans not to try to overturn...
Sen. David Perdue quarantines for coronavirus exposure ahead of Georgia runoff
ATLANTA — Republican Sen. David Perdue was forced into quarantine Thursday in the home stretch of Georgia’s high-stakes Senate runoffs, disclosing just five days before the election that he had been exposed to a campaign worker infected with the coronavirus. Perdue’s campaign did not say how long he plans to...
