Politics Election category, Page 179
Emhoff to host Jewish leaders for discussion of antisemitism
WASHINGTON — Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, will host Jewish leaders this week to discuss a rise in antisemitism and efforts to fight hate in the United States. The White House roundtable on Wednesday follows a surge in anti-Jewish vitriol spread by a famous rapper, an...
Arizona certifies 2022 election despite GOP complaints
PHOENIX — Arizona’s top officials certified the midterm election results Monday, formalizing victories for Democrats over Republicans who falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged. The certification opens a five-day window for formal election challenges. Republican Kari Lake, who lost the race for governor, is expected to file a lawsuit...
Trump rebuked for call to suspend Constitution over electionVideo
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump faced rebuke Sunday from officials in both parties after calling for the “termination” of parts of the Constitution over his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Trump, who announced last month that he is running again for president, made the claim over the...
Iowa caucuses, built on myth, lose place at head of the line
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Hy-Vee Hall ballroom in Des Moines erupted in cheers in 2008 when the youthful Illinois senator hinted at the improbable possibility of the feat ahead: “Our time for change has come!” That Iowa, an overwhelmingly white state, would propel Barack Obama’s rise to become America’s...
Pa. lawmakers’ pay increase kicks in; 2 elected to higher office without ‘double dipping’
Salaries for Pennsylvania lawmakers jumped Thursday when an automatic 7.8% pay increase took effect, the largest in over a quarter century. Two sitting lawmakers, who ran in simultaneously for other offices, will be getting the legislative pay raise, albeit briefly, before taking more lucrative elected posts next month. Allegheny County...
Senate moves to avert rail strike amid dire warnings
WASHINGTON — The Senate moved quickly Thursday to avert a rail strike that the Biden administration and business leaders warned would have had devastating consequences for the nation’s economy. The Senate passed a bill to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail...
The teams helping Josh Shapiro prepare to become Pa.’s next governor include wealthy donors, Republicans
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 — Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro is preparing for his inauguration and making key decisions about his administration surrounded by some of...
Montgomery County president judge launches bid for Pa. Supreme Court
NORRISTOWN — Montgomery County President Judge Carolyn Tornetta Carluccio, the first woman in county history to lead the county bench, has announced her candidacy for Pennsylvania Supreme Court in next year’s elections. “Pennsylvanians want their judges to read and apply the law,” Carluccio said in a press release announcing her...
Treasury making Trump taxes available to House committee
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said Wednesday it has complied with a court order to make former President Donald Trump’s tax returns available to a congressional committee. The Supreme Court last week rejected Trump’s request for an order that would have prevented the Treasury Department from giving six years of...
Date set for special election to replace the late state Rep. Tony DeLuca
A special election to fill the late state Rep. Tony DeLuca’s vacant seat will be Feb. 7, outgoing House Speaker Bryan Cutler announced Wednesday. DeLuca, D-Penn Hills, passed away in October after a brief battle with lymphoma, but his name still appeared on the November ballot, and he was reelected...
Jeffries wins historic bid to lead House Dems after Pelosi
WASHINGTON — Emboldened House Democrats ushered in a new generation of leaders on Wednesday with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries elected to be the first Black American to head a major political party in Congress as long-serving Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team step aside next year. Showing rare party unity after...
Congress prepares to take up bill preventing rail strike
WASHINGTON — Congress is moving swiftly to prevent a looming U.S. rail workers strike, reluctantly intervening in a labor dispute to stop what would surely be a devastating blow to the nation’s economy if the transportation of fuel, food and other critical goods were disrupted. The House was expected to...
Pa. Senate sets rules for Philly DA Larry Krasner’s impeachment trial
HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday approved two procedural measures needed to stage an impeachment trial for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, the latest step in an unprecedented effort to remove the city’s prosecutor from office. The resolutions set the rules of the trial, which is expected to begin...
Landmark same-sex marriage bill wins Senate passageVideo
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex marriages, an extraordinary sign of shifting national politics on the issue and a measure of relief for the hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples who have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide. The...
Supreme Court wrestles with Biden’s deportation policy
WASHINGTON- — The Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with a partisan-tinged dispute over a Biden administration policy that would prioritize deportation of people in the country illegally who pose the greatest public safety risk. It was not clear after arguments that stretched past two hours and turned highly contentious at...
Freedom Caucus brings its national brand of conservatism to the Pennsylvania state House
The new Pennsylvania branch of the House Freedom Caucus is open and ready for business. The original Freedom Caucus, for the uninitiated, launched within the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015, as a wing within the House’s Republican conference for conservative members who resolved not to compromise on conservative principles...
State lawmaker resigns to take new role in Pennsylvania Senate
A state legislator who represented parts of northcentral Pennsylvania for the past three decades is resigning his Senate seat to take on a new role in that legislative chamber. Sen. John Gordner, a Republican, announced on Monday that he will vacate his 27th state senatorial district seat on Wednesday to...
Pennsylvania campaign wild card Fetterman turns to governing
HARRISBURG — When John Fetterman goes to Washington in January as one of the Senate’s new members, he’ll bring along an irreverent style from Pennsylvania that extends from his own personal dress code — super casual — to hanging marijuana flags outside his current office in the state Capitol. Pennsylvania’s...
Trump faulted for dinner with white nationalist and rapper Ye
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump is renewing attention to his long history of turning a blind eye to bigotry after dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West just days into his third campaign for the White House. Trump had dinner Tuesday...
Here’s why Pa. House Democrats will lose their majority for at least a few weeks
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 — Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania state House on Nov. 8, but their majority is going to disappear for...
Impeachment process of Philly DA Krasner to continue next week
Following a 107-85 vote in the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania state House, the impeachment process of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner will move forward next week with a tentative trial date set for January. Krasner, a Democrat who has pushed for criminal justice reform policies and harsher punishment for police misconduct, has...
Next act for Sarah Palin unclear after Alaska House losses
JUNEAU, Alaska — Republican Sarah Palin re-emerged in Alaska politics over a decade after resigning as governor with hopes of winning the state’s U.S. House seat. She had a lot going for her: unbeatable name recognition, the backing of former President Donald Trump in a state he carried twice, an...
Doubts about candidates tipped the scales in tightest races
ATLANTA — Casting his vote this month in one of the most politically competitive states in the U.S., Seung Lee happily backed Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s reelection. But when it came to the other top Republican on the ballot, Senate candidate Herschel Walker, he was uneasy. Walker “doesn’t know...
Supreme Court OKs handover of Trump tax returns to Congress
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the imminent handover of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns to a congressional committee after a three-year legal fight. The court, with no noted dissents, rejected Trump’s plea for an order that would have prevented the Treasury Department from...
Benninghoff to step down from Pa. House Republican leadership
More fall-out from the tumultuous 2022 election cycle hit Pennsylvania’s General Assembly Monday with the news that current House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre County, will not seek a Republican leadership position for the 2023-24 term. For state House Republicans, that means at least two of the current top three...
