Politics Election category, Page 162
How some White House hopefuls inflate their fundraising success
WASHINGTON — Long before ballots are tallied and reliable polls are conducted, one of the earliest ways to gauge the popularity of presidential candidates is with dollars. Getting donors to part with their money is a key measure of viability, especially in the early stages of a White House campaign....
Printing error forces Pennsylvania county to replace ballots
HARRISBURG — Elections officials in a central Pennsylvania county were scrambling on Monday to fix an error on more than 18,000 mail-in ballots for the spring primary, when voters will elect judges for the state Supreme Court and other positions. Late last week someone noticed that the ballot for Superior...
Florida Gov. DeSantis seeks to control Disney with state oversight powersVideo
ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers ratcheted up pressure on Walt Disney World on Monday by announcing legislation that will use the regulatory powers of Florida government to exert unprecedented oversight on the park resort’s rides and monorail. Lawmakers will introduce a bill in coming weeks that...
‘It’s great to be back’: John Fetterman returns to the Senate
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Fetterman made his highly anticipated return to the Senate on Monday, following a six-week hospital stay for depression, which put mental health challenges under a spotlight that had already been trained on him and his health for months. Fetterman, D-Braddock, climbed out of a black SUV...
Trump’s House GOP allies take fight to Manhattan DA’s turfVideo
NEW YORK — Republicans upset with Donald Trump’s indictment are escalating their war on the prosecutor who charged him, trying to embarrass Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his home turf partly by falsely portraying New York City as a place overrun by crime. The House Judiciary Committee, led by...
Ron DeSantis hits back with ads attacking TrumpVideo
A political group aligned with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched video attack ads against Donald Trump, striking back at the former president for scathing criticism of DeSantis and ratcheting up hostilities between the rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis group, blasted Trump as a “gun...
Abortion bans raise fears inside GOP about backlash in 2024
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As a new election season begins, the Republican Party is struggling to navigate the politics of abortion. Allies for leading presidential candidates concede that their hardline anti-abortion policies may be popular with the conservatives who decide primary elections, but they could ultimately alienate the broader set of...
TikTok ban gets final approval by Montana’s GOP legislature
HELENA, Mont. — Montana’s House gave final passage Friday to a bill banning the social media app TikTok from operating in the state, a move that’s bound to face legal challenges but also serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America many national lawmakers envision due to concerns over...
Florida GOP passes 6-week abortion ban, DeSantis supports
TALLAHASSEE — The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on Thursday approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a proposal supported by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares for an expected presidential run. DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks....
Expelled to reinstated: Pearson to return to Tennessee House
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The second of two Black Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House will follow his colleague in returning to work at the Capitol on Thursday, a week after their banishments for a gun control protest on the House floor that propelled them into the national spotlight. Justin...
After calls to resign, Feinstein seeks Judiciary replacement
LOS ANGELES — Recuperating U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California asked Wednesday to be temporarily replaced on the Judiciary Committee, shortly after two House Democrats called on her to resign after her extended absence from Washington. In a statement, the long-serving Democratic senator said her recovery from a case of...
Doven launches attacks against Hallam in Allegheny County Council race
The mudslinging continued Wednesday in the Democratic primary race for Allegheny County’s at-large council seat. Challenger Joanna Doven held a news conference in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park to launch a series of personal attacks against incumbent Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, D-North Side. Doven, who runs a public relations firm and...
Expelled Black lawmaker Justin Pearson to return to Tennessee HouseVideo
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The second of two Black Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House will return to the Legislature after a Memphis commission voted to reinstate him Wednesday, nearly a week after his banishment for supporting gun control protesters propelled him into the national spotlight. Hundreds of supporters marched...
Democrats, GOP convention picks show Midwest’s political influence
CHICAGO — Donald Trump won the White House in 2016 by breaking up the famed electoral “blue wall,” snatching the Midwestern battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin, along with Pennsylvania, from Democrats. He lost the White House four years later when those same states flipped to Joe Biden. Both parties...
Dominion allowed to discuss general threats in Fox defamation trial
WILMINGTON, Del. — The judge presiding over a voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News for airing bogus allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election indicated Tuesday he would allow jurors to hear some testimony about threats directed at the company, but only to a point. Delaware Superior...
Pa. Democrats aim to appeal to working-class voters with policy, symbolism, and some anger
Pennsylvania Democrats are trying to show they can be populists, too. When Gov. Josh Shapiro took office in January, he sent a symbolic message by using his first executive order to end the four-year college degree requirement for most state government jobs. Sen. John Fetterman campaigned as a Democrat who...
Justice Department appeals Texas abortion pill order
AUSTIN, Texas — The Justice Department on Monday appealed a Texas court ruling that would halt approval of a drug used in the most common method of abortion in the U.S., calling the decision “extraordinary and unprecedented.” If allowed to stand, the order issued last week by U.S. District Judge...
Black lawmaker who was expelled to return to Tennessee House
NASHVILLE — One of the two Black Democrats who were expelled last week from the GOP-led Tennessee House was reinstated Monday after Nashville’s governing council voted to send him straight back to the Legislature. The unanimous vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council took only a few minutes to restore Rep....
Trump appeals ruling that Mike Pence has to testify to Jan. 6 grand juryVideo
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is appealing a court decision that would require former Vice President Mike Pence to appear before a federal grand jury investigating efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election, according to a person familiar with the matter. A federal judge in Washington in late March rejected the...
Pa. Supreme Court candidates with party backing show fundraising advantage
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 — The candidates running for an open seat on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court are getting campaign money from wealthy donors, their...
DeSantis to make 1st public appearance in South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to make his first public appearance in South Carolina, a state where votes will be critical if he launches an expected 2024 presidential bid. State Sen. Josh Kimbrell told The Associated Press that he would host DeSantis for an event on...
Biden kicks off Easter egg roll with talk of reelection bid
WASHINGTON — Not even the annual White House Easter Egg Roll is safe from presidential politics. President Joe Biden, the host of Monday’s festivities on the South Lawn, said he plans to participate in “at least three or four more Easter egg rolls, maybe five.” Biden was alluding to his...
Trump’s response to criminal charges revives election lies
NEW YORK — Legally, the most important words former President Donald Trump said after he was charged with 34 felonies by the Manhattan District Attorney last week were “not guilty.” But, politically, the most significant may be “election interference.” Trump’s repetition of those words, which have been taken up by...
Pa. Democratic Sen. Bob Casey to seek 4th term
HARRISBURG — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey will seek a fourth term in office, bringing the power of incumbency and unmatched name recognition in Pennsylvania politics to his party’s defense of a seat in a critical presidential battleground state. The announcement by Casey, the longest-serving Democratic U.S. senator in Pennsylvania history,...
HHS Secretary Becerra slams abortion pill ruling as ‘not America’Video
WASHINGTON — The nation’s top health official said Sunday that a court ruling threatening the availability of a main drug used in medication abortion was “not America” and he did not rule out defying the judge’s order if necessary. “We want the courts to overturn this reckless decision,” Xavier Becerra,...
