Politics Election category, Page 157
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton likely broke laws, Republican investigation findsVideo
AUSTIN — A Republican-led investigation on Wednesday accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of committing multiple crimes in office — including felonies — during an extraordinary public airing of scandal and alleged lawbreaking that plunged one of the GOP’s conservative stars into new political and legal risk. For more than...
Haley commits to federal abortion ban but says it’s unlikely without more Republicans in Congress
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday pledged to sign a federal ban on abortion but noted that passing one would be highly unlikely without more Republicans in Congress. Although Haley didn’t say how many weeks a federal ban should encompass, her commitment to signing one is...
Texas governor sent bill abolishing position of Harris County elections chief
AUSTIN — Shaking up elections in Texas’ largest county, the GOP-controlled Legislature on Tuesday approved abolishing a position in Harris County that oversees more than 2 million voters around Houston months before the city chooses a new mayor. At the same time, Republicans advanced a separate plan that would also...
AP: DeSantis to announce 2024 presidential bid Wednesday on Twitter with Elon Musk
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will announce his 2024 presidential campaign in a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk on Wednesday, according to two people with knowledge of his plans. DeSantis, who has long been seen as Donald Trump’s leading rival for the Republican nomination, will reveal his plans in an...
Pa. Sen. Doug Mastriano on GOP opposition to his U.S. Senate bid: ‘It’s irrelevant to me’
Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano on Monday shrugged off calls from inside his party to oppose his potential U.S. Senate bid, including one from a current legislative colleague. “Of any of the detractors, none have had the cojones to look me in the eye and have a conversation,” Mastriano told...
Judge dismisses Kari Lake’s final claim in election loss for Arizona governor
PHOENIX — A judge on Monday dismissed the only remaining legal claim in Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her loss in last year’s race for Arizona governor, affirming the election of Democrat Katie Hobbs. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson said Lake failed to prove her claim that...
No debt ceiling agreement in White House meeting, though Biden, McCarthy call talks productiveVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy both said they had a productive debt ceiling discussion late Monday at the White House, but there was no agreement as negotiators strained to raise the nation’s borrowing limit in time to avert a potentially chaotic federal default. It’s a...
TikTok files lawsuit to overturn Montana’s 1st-in-nation ban on the video sharing app
HELENA, Mont. — Social media company TikTok Inc. filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to overturn Montana’s first-in-the-nation ban on the video sharing app, arguing the law is an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights and is based on “unfounded speculation” that the Chinese government could access users’ data. The lawsuit...
Bill to boost funding for road and bridge project advances in Pa. House
HARRISBURG — Legislation designed use the state’s gas tax revenue in its entirety for road and bridge work is advancing in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The House Transportation Committee on Monday unanimously approved a bill that aligns with Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal to gradually reduce the annual appropriation taken...
Nebraska governor signs 12-week abortion ban, limits on gender-affirming care for minorsVideo
LINCOLN, Neb. — Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill Monday that bans abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy and restricts gender-affirming medical care for people younger than 19. The abortion ban takes effect immediately, while the ban on gender-affirming care takes effect on Oct. 1. The hybrid measure...
Tim Scott launches 2024 presidential bid seeking optimistic contrast with other top rivals
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott launched his presidential campaign on Monday, offering an optimistic and compassionate message he’s hoping can contrast the two figures who have used political combativeness to dominate the early GOP primary field: former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The...
Why Biden is wary of using the 14th Amendment to address the debt limit crisis
WASHINGTON — If the fight with Congress over raising the government’s debt limit is such a dire threat, why doesn’t President Joe Biden just raise the borrowing ceiling himself? It’s theoretically possible, but he’s all but ruled it out for now. The administration has been searching for possible ways to...
Progressive shift in Allegheny County Democratic politics years in making, observers say
Three high-profile wins by progressive candidates in last week’s Democratic primary punctuated a shift in the party in Allegheny County that has been years in the making, political observers say. In recent years, progressive candidates have increased the county’s delegation of women in elected office and broken barriers by bringing...
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s return to Capitol has been closely watched. Can she still do her job?
WASHINGTON — For seven months in 1988, Joe Biden was absent from the Senate, recovering from operations to repair brain aneurysms. The first lasted eight hours. Three months later, a second aneurysm sent him back to surgery. The Delaware senator’s convalescence was so guarded that he wouldn’t take phone calls...
Biden endorses F-16 training for Ukrainians at G7 summit
HIROSHIMA, Japan — President Joe Biden told allies Friday he was approving plans to train Ukrainian pilots on U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, according to two people familiar with the matter, as leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies worked to toughen punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine....
Sen. Tim Scott makes it official: He’s a GOP candidate for president
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina made it official Friday: He’s running for president. Scott, the Senate’s only Black Republican, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring his intention to seek his party’s nomination in 2024. His candidacy will test whether a more optimistic vision of...
Sen. John Cornyn says Trump can’t win in 2024, GOP needs someone else as presidential nominee
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Cornyn has joined the anyone-but-Trump caucus, becoming the most prominent Texas Republican to shun the former president’s 2024 comeback bid. “We need to come up with an alternative,” Cornyn said. “I think President Trump’s time has passed him by and what’s the most important thing to...
Texas Legislature OKs ban on gender-affirming care for minors
AUSTIN — Texas would become the largest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors under a bill sent Wednesday night to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has previously ordered child welfare officials to investigate such treatment as abuse. The bill cleared the GOP-controlled Legislature after a final vote in the...
Montana becomes 1st state to ban TikTok
HELENA — Montana became the first state in the United States to enact a complete ban on TikTok on Wednesday when Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a measure that’s more sweeping than any other state’s attempts to curtail the social media app, which is owned by a Chinese tech company....
Effort to expel George Santos falters as Republicans vote to send measure to Ethics CommitteeVideo
WASHINGTON — A resolution to expel Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., from Congress was referred to the House Ethics Committee on Wednesday as Republicans successfully sidestepped an effort to force them into a vote that could have narrowed their already slim four-seat majority. The House voted along party lines, 221-204, to...
Abortion pill case moves to appeals court, on track for Supreme CourtVideo
NEW ORLEANS — Appellate judges with a history of supporting abortion restrictions heard arguments Wednesday over access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion. The closely watched case is likely to wind up at the Supreme Court, which already intervened to keep the drug, mifepristone, available...
Trust in Supreme Court fell to lowest point in 50 years after abortion decision, poll shows
WASHINGTON — Confidence in the Supreme Court sank to its lowest point in at least 50 years in 2022 in the wake of the Dobbs decision that led to state bans and other restrictions on abortion, a major trends survey shows. The divide between Democrats and Republicans over support for...
CNN names Kaitlan Collins to fill prime-time vacancy in Chris Cuomo’s old slot
NEW YORK — CNN said Kaitlan Collins will host a new hourlong show at the center of the prime-time lineup, filling a slot left vacant since the firing of Chris Cuomo and as the network’s ratings are at a low ebb. Collins will begin regularly hosting the 9 p.m. Eastern...
Biden declares ‘America will not default’ — confident of deal with GOP lawmakers
WASHINGTON — An optimistic President Joe Biden declared Wednesday that he is confident the U.S. will avoid an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic debt default, saying talks with congressional Republicans have been productive as he prepared to leave for a global summit in Japan. Biden’s upbeat remarks came as a select...
Jacksonville voters elect Florida city’s first female mayor
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Democrat Donna Deegan’s decisive win over a Republican in the open Jacksonville mayor’s race will make her the first woman to hold the job in the Florida city’s history, sparking a flicker of hope for a besieged Democratic Party that has few levers of power in a...
