Election category, Page 11

WASHINGTON — Just hours after Republican Sen. John Thune was elected as the incoming Senate majority leader on Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump presented him with one of his first tests — an announcement that he intends to nominate controversial Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general. The Florida Republican is one...

WASHINGTON — Demand Justice, a progressive organization focused on the judiciary, is set to bombard Capitol Hill with a message for the closing weeks of the 118th Congress: Do “whatever it takes” to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominees as a second Donald Trump presidency looms. The Republican president-elect’s victory and...

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has had few defenders in Congress as reliable as Matt Gaetz, who has thundered at one prosecutor after another for perceived bias against the president-elect and emphatically amplified the Republican’s rallying cry that the criminal investigations into him are “witch hunts.” That kinship was rewarded Wednesday...

WASHINGTON — Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump. A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in slow-counting California earlier Wednesday, gave the GOP the 218 House victories...

PHILADELPHIA — The $1 million voter sweepstakes linked to billionaire Elon Musk was allowed to continue through Election Day because Philadelphia’s top prosecutor failed to show that it was an illegal lottery, a judge said in a new opinion. District Attorney Larry Krasner had filed suit last month to try...

Pennsylvania’s hard-fought U.S. Senate race is being extended potentially another two weeks. With the contest between Democratic incumbent Bob Casey and Republican businessman Dave McCormick within 0.5 percentage point, the race is legally required to go to automatic recount under Pennsylvania law, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced Wednesday....

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world by nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary, tapping someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world’s largest and most powerful military. The news was met...

The Republican Party is calling on the state Supreme Court to discount mail-in ballots that arrive on time but lack written dates. On Tuesday, the Republican National Committee and Republican Party of Pennsylvania filed a petition asking the court to reverse a decision last month by the state’s Commonwealth Court....

University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg students Sadiki Raessa and Brionna Woodson were anxious to cast their first votes in a presidential election. Raessa, 22, of Lancaster and Woodson, 21, of Philadelphia learned Tuesday their votes will not count. Both were among the 39 voters whose provisional ballots were rejected by...

WASHINGTON — For a man who loves the spotlight, Donald Trump has been conspicuously out of view since his triumph in last week’s presidential election. There have been no rallies, no press conferences, no speeches. Instead, Trump has spent most of his first week as president-elect behind closed doors at...

After a tumultuous year filled with anxiety and a legal battle about its future in the U.S., TikTok may have just been thrown a lifeline by the man who was once its biggest foe: Donald Trump. President-elect Trump, who tried to ban the social media platform the last time he...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has reversed course and invited Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick to the chamber’s orientation for new senators following an initial snub because of uncounted ballots in McCormick’s race. McCormick was declared the winner Friday by The Associated Press in an upset victory, but Democratic incumbent...

WASHINGTON — All that’s left is for President-elect Donald Trump to put his name on it — if he wants. Trump won the White House in large part because of voters’ frustration with high prices and a sense that the United States needs major changes. But when he enters office...

SAN DIEGO — Donald Trump’s first picks for immigration policy jobs spent the last four years angling for this moment. Stephen Miller and Thomas Homan had critical roles in the first Trump administration and are unapologetic defenders of its policies, which included separating thousands of parents from their children at...

PHOENIX — Democrat Ruben Gallego has been elected Arizona’s first Latino U.S. senator, defeating Republican Kari Lake and preventing Republicans from further padding their Senate majority. Gallego’s victory continues a string of Democratic successes in a state that was reliably Republican until Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. Arizona...

Republican Dave McCormick said Monday he is off to Washington, D.C. for freshman orientation at the U.S. Senate, even as the chamber’s Democratic leaders are withholding an invitation while waiting for the remaining votes to be counted in Pennsylvania. The Associated Press Friday declared McCormick the winner in an upset...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania House Democrats have clung to their one-vote majority despite a statewide wave of GOP wins that...

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday named former Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency as he continues to build out his future administration with loyal supporters. Trump, in a statement, said Zeldin, who mounted a failed bid for governor of New York in 2022, would...

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Rep. Elise Stefanik to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations. “Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement Monday announcing his pick. Stefanik, 40, who serves as House Republican Conference Chair, has...

NEW YORK — A gut punch for most defendants, Donald Trump turned his criminal conviction into a rallying cry. His supporters put “I’m Voting for the Felon” on T-shirts, hats and lawn signs. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” Trump proclaimed after his conviction...

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t be a dictator — “except for Day 1.” According to his own statements, he’s got a lot to do on that first day in the White House. His list includes starting up the mass deportation of migrants, rolling back Biden administration policies...

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump says Tom Homan, his former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, will serve as “border czar” in his incoming administration, a position that is likely to play a key role in Trump’s campaign pledges to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and mount a massive deportation...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will host President-elect Donald Trump for a traditional postelection meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the White House said Saturday. Such a meeting is customary between the outgoing president and the incoming president, and is meant partly to mark the start of a peaceful...

EAGAN, Minn. — Gov. Tim Walz vowed on Friday to make Minnesota a safe haven for the values that drove the Democratic presidential ticket he helped lead, while at the same time promising to work harder to understand the concerns of President-elect Donald Trump’s voters. Inside a high school auditorium...