Politics Election category, Page 119

WASHINGTON — Senate bargainers reached agreement Monday on a slimmed-down $10 billion package for countering covid-19 with treatments, vaccines and other steps, the top Democratic and Republican negotiators said, but ended up dropping all funding to help nations abroad combat the pandemic. The compromise drew quick support from President Joe...

NEW YORK — Shares in a company planning to buy Donald Trump’s new social media business plunged Monday on a news report that two key staff members left, deepening losses from last week when it said it would miss a deadline to file its annual financial statements. Digital World Acquisition...

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee took up debate on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination for Supreme Court justice on Monday as Democrats aimed to confirm her by the end of the week as the first Black woman on the court. The committee could deadlock on Monday’s vote, 11-11, meaning Democrats...

Two special election races Tuesday will determine who replaces new Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and his chief of staff, Jake Wheatley, in the state legislature. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the 19th and 24th legislative districts. Absentee and mail-in ballots must be returned by...

Democratic Senate candidates from both ends of Pennsylvania accused the front-runner, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, of flip-flopping on energy issues in the first televised debate in one of the nation’s most-watched campaigns of the year. Fetterman, who is far ahead in the polls, didn’t participate in the debate. Representative Conor...

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, released a statement on Sunday evening announcing his decision to oppose President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. “While Judge Jackson undoubtedly has an impressive educational and professional background, her inability to define her own judicial philosophy makes it difficult to understand...

The Allegheny County Democratic Committee traditionally endorsed incumbents seeking reelection when it gathered for its annual spring endorsement meeting. But the committee has veered from that norm in recent years, starting in 2020 when the committee did not endorse state Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, an outspoken progressive lawmaker who had...

WASHINGTON — Seven months before he faces a critical test from voters in the midterm elections, President Joe Biden is turning his focus to kitchen-table issues as he struggles to get credit for a recovering economy. Since Biden took office last year, job growth has been vigorous and steady —...

JUNEAU, Alaska — Sarah Palin on Friday shook up an already unpredictable race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, joining a field of 50 other candidates seeking to fill the seat held for decades by the late-U.S. Rep. Don Young, who died last month. Palin filed paperwork Friday with a...

ATLANTA — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a lawsuit Friday challenging a state law that a group of voters is using to challenge her eligibility to run for reelection. The challenge filed last month with the Georgia secretary of state’s office alleges that Greene, a Republican, helped facilitate the...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — By now, most voters have likely heard about the congested, double-digit field of contenders jockeying in this year’s primary...

U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, voted Friday to support a bill that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level and allow for some marijuana-related convictions to be expunged. It’s a change of course for Lamb, who in 2020 was one of only four House Democrats to vote against the...

Proposed changes to Pittsburgh City Council’s district map would consolidate Oakland into two districts, move the Strip District and Polish Hill into new districts and maintain two districts where people of color make up a majority of the population. The nine-member Reapportionment Advisory Committee, formed in late September, drew up...

PHOENIX — Arizona’s Republican governor signed a bill requiring voters to prove their citizenship to vote in a presidential election, drawing fierce opposition from voting rights advocates who say it risks affecting some 200,000 people. The bill also requires anyone newly registering to vote to provide proof of their address....

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge struck down portions of a Florida election law passed last year, saying in a ruling Thursday that the Republican-led government was using subtle tactics to suppress Black voters. The law tightened rules on mailed ballots, drop boxes and other popular election methods — changes...

The NAACP Pittsburgh Branch and WPXI-TV are teaming up for a program Thursday night for a televised voter education event that will encourage people to cast their ballots in the upcoming special election and primary. Special elections on Tuesday will determine who finishes out terms for state House seats vacated...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is preparing to order the release of up to 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve, according to two people familiar with the decision, in a bid to control energy prices that have spiked as the U.S. and allies...

Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz spoke at a campaign event in Canonsburg on Wednesday evening, highlighting his energy policies and taking questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Oz, the surgeon and former host of the Dr. Oz television show, held a panel discussion with prominent campaign supporters...

MADISON, Wis. — A judge on Wednesday has ordered that Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos be held in contempt for failing to produce emails and text messages related to the investigation he ordered into the 2020 presidential election. Dane County Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn, who last week told the Rochester Republican...

WASHINGTON — Doctors and demographers recently noticed another tragic example of how polarization shapes America: The pandemic has killed more people in the nation’s Republican enclaves than its Democratic strongholds. They explain the gap by pointing to Republican resistance to vaccines and the GOP’s more cavalier approach to combating the...

WASHINGTON — Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Wednesday she will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, giving Democrats at least one Republican vote and all but assuring that Jackson will become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. Collins met with Jackson a second time this week after...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — A long-awaited transparency bill that would make legislative expenses accessible online for easy public viewing unanimously cleared a key...