Politics Election category, Page 226
Senate Democrats announce $3.5 trillion budget agreement
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats announced Tuesday that they have reached a budget agreement among themselves that envisions spending an enormous $3.5 trillion over the coming decade. The fiscal plan would pave the way for Democrats’ drive to direct a huge pool of federal resources at climate change, health care and...
Ex-Tennessee vaccine leader: Firing put politics over healthVideo
NASHVILLE — Tennessee’s former top vaccinations official said Tuesday that she couldn’t stay silent after she was fired this week amid scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her department’s outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against covid-19. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, who was the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs...
Governor hopeful told Trump he was waved off Pa. election investigations. Bill Barr says that’s not true
PHILADELPHIA — Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Tuesday sharply denied that he ordered the top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia at the time not to investigate allegations of 2020 election fraud, and said Bill McSwain is only leveling that accusation to curry favor with former President Donald Trump in his...
Biden picks ex-West Virginia health official as drug czar
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is nominating West Virginia’s former health commissioner as the nation’s top anti-drug official, tapping a doctor who served on the front lines of the nation’s opioid epidemic. The White House said Tuesday that Dr. Rahul Gupta will be the first physician to lead the Office...
‘This is a test of our time,’ Biden says in Philly speech on voting rightsVideo
PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden called the right to vote “a test of our time” and called on Americans to protect it amid GOP-led changes to election laws and threats to voting rights in a speech Tuesday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. “Some things in America should be...
Biden pressed to do more to protect voting rights, democracy
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will lay out the “moral case” for voting rights as he faces growing pressure from civil rights activists and other Democrats to combat efforts by Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to the ballot. Biden has declared that protecting voting rights was the central cause...
Tennessee fires top vaccination official amid pandemic
NASHVILLE — Tennessee officials have fired the state’s top vaccination official, who had been facing scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her department’s outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against covid-19. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health, told The...
Texas Democrats leave state to try to stop GOP voting billVideo
AUSTIN — Democrats in the Texas Legislature on Monday bolted for Washington, D.C., and said they were ready to remain there for weeks in a second revolt against a GOP overhaul of election laws, forcing a dramatic new showdown over voting rights in America. Private planes carrying a large group...
Listen up: Biden speaks volumes in a whisper to make a point
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden was at a public transit station in Wisconsin, talking about repairing roads and bridges, when he shifted gears and began defending his plan to send money to parents for each minor child, payments some critics call a “giveaway.” Biden folded his arms, rested on the...
Donald Trump spins tales of rigged election, hints at 2024 comeback
DALLAS — Donald Trump swept into Dallas on Sunday spinning tall tales about the 2020 election and the crowd that mobbed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 hoping to keep him in the White House despite his defeat. “No evidence? There’s so much evidence,” he insisted at the Conservative Political...
Biden tells Putin that Russia must crack down on cybercriminals
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Friday phone call that he must “take action” against cybercriminals acting in his country and that the U.S. reserves the right to “defend its people and its critical infrastructure,” the White House said. The conversation came less than...
Michigan court won’t extend voting redistricting deadline
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday denied a request to extend the deadline for drawing new legislative and congressional maps despite a delay in census redistricting data. The Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, whose members have been meeting since September 2020, asked the court in April to allow...
Amid growing frustration, Biden administration pushes voting rights
WASHINGTON — Facing a call to “save American democracy,” the Biden administration has unveiled new efforts to help protect voting rights amid growing complaints from civil rights activists and other Democrats that the White House has not done enough to fight attempts by Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to...
DeSantis parts with Trump in response to Surfside tragedy
SURFSIDE, Fla. — When the coronavirus ravaged Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis defiantly bucked mask mandates. He later cracked down on protesters advocating racial justice, blasted President Joe Biden on immigration, jumped into the fight over transgender athletes and signed sweeping legislation to toughen voting rules. But after a deadly building...
Why a funding boost for the office that exposes Pa. puppy mills stalled again
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 — Partisan divides are stymying legislation to boost funding for the Pennsylvania bureau tasked with exposing puppy mills and handling...
Texas governor revives GOP’s thwarted new voting laws
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday revived the GOP’s thwarted efforts to pass new voting laws in America’s biggest red state after Democrats temporarily derailed a restrictive bill with a late-night walkout in the state Capitol in May. As expected, Abbott made new election laws one of...
Trump files suit against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has filed suit against three of the country’s biggest tech companies, claiming he and other conservatives have been wrongfully censored. Trump announced the action against Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube, along with the companies’ CEOs, at a press conference Wednesday in New Jersey. He...
Eric Adams wins Democratic primary in New York City’s mayoral race
NEW YORK — Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City after appealing to the political center and promising to strike the right balance between fighting crime and ending racial injustice in policing. A former police captain, Adams would be the city’s...
Ex-ambassador, investment CEO Carla Sands seeks Pennsylvania Senate seatVideo
HARRISBURG — Carla Sands, former President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Denmark, announced Tuesday that she will join the crowded Republican primary field for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat. She brings possibly significant personal wealth to the race, as well as ties to Trump in a race where such ties may...
Ethics panel closes investigation into former Pa. Victim Advocate Jennifer Storm
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 — After a more than yearlong investigation, state ethics investigators have found that Pennsylvania’s former chief advocate for crime victims...
Allen West will challenge Texas Gov. Abbott in GOP primary
AUSTIN, Texas — Republican Allen West, the former Florida congressman and firebrand who rode into office on the tea party wave a decade ago, said Sunday that he will run for governor of Texas in a bid to again seize on restless anger from the right. His odds are far...
Redistricting reform in Pa. is dead for now, advocates say. So what’s next?
This article is part of a yearlong reporting project focused on redistricting and gerrymandering in Pennsylvania. It is made possible by the support of Spotlight PA members and Votebeat, a project focused on election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — Redistricting reform supporters in Pennsylvania are having a moment of...
Biden: U.S. ‘coming back together,’ but covid not yet finished
WASHINGTON — Calling a vaccination “the most patriotic thing you can do,” President Joe Biden on Sunday mixed the nation’s birthday party with a celebration of freedom from the worst of the pandemic. He tempered the strides against covid-19 with a warning that the fight against the virus wasn’t over....
Trump voices radio ad for Rep. Mo Brooks in US Senate race
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former President Donald Trump is appearing in a radio ad for U.S. Rep Mo Brooks as he tries to sway the outcome of the state’s Senate race. Brooks’ campaign said the ad began airing Friday. “Hi Alabama, this is your favorite president, Donald Trump. Few Republicans have...
‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author JD Vance joins U.S. Senate campaign
The venture capitalist and author of “Hillbilly Elegy” officially joined the crowded Republican race for the Ohio U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman. JD Vance, whose book was widely seen in 2016 as helping explain Republican Donald Trump’s appeal to struggling white, working-class voters, made the announcement Thursday...
