Politics Election category, Page 116
Bob Graham, ex-U.S. senator and Florida governor, dies at 87
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Former U.S. Sen. and two-term Florida Gov. Bob Graham, who gained national prominence as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks and as an early critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 87. Graham’s family announced the death...
House panel says China subsidizes fentanyl production to fuel crisis in the United States
WASHINGTON — China is fueling the fentanyl crisis in the United States by directly subsidizing the manufacturing of materials that are used by traffickers to make the drug outside the country, according to a report released Tuesday by a special House committee focused on countering the Chinese government. Committee investigators...
House Republicans send Mayorkas impeachment articles to the Senate, forcing a trial
WASHINGTON — House impeachment managers walked two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas across the Capitol to the Senate on Tuesday, forcing senators to convene a trial on the allegations that he has “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce immigration laws. While the Senate is obligated to...
Garland defends Biden’s mental fitness and says he has ‘complete confidence’ in him
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers on Tuesday that President Joe Biden has shown no signs of cognitive impairment while defending Biden’s ability to serve as commander in chief. Garland, appearing before a House committee overseeing funding for the Justice Department, was answering questions on the report from...
Facing a GOP revolt, House Speaker Johnson pushes ahead on U.S. aid for Ukraine, allies
WASHINGTON — Defiant and determined, House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back Tuesday against mounting Republican anger over his proposed U.S. aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other allies, and rejected a call to step aside or risk a vote to oust him from office. “I am not resigning,” Johnson said...
Biden returns to his Scranton roots to pitch his plan for higher taxes on the rich
SCRANTON — President Joe Biden returned to his childhood hometown of Scranton on Tuesday to open three straight days of campaigning in Pennsylvania, capitalizing on the opportunity to work the battleground state while Donald Trump spends the week in a New York City courtroom for his first criminal trial. The...
House Speaker Mike Johnson taking complicated approach to passing aid for Ukraine and Israel
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday unveiled a complicated proposal for passing wartime aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, leaving its path to passage deeply uncertain as he rejected pressure to simply approve a package sent over by the Senate. The Republican speaker huddled with fellow GOP lawmakers...
Sen. Bob Casey has big cash advantage over Dave McCormick, latest campaign finance filings show
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey has nearly double the available cash of Republican challenger Dave McCormick, who has put nearly $2 million of his own money into this year’s campaign. Federal campaign finance reports for the first quarter of the year show that Casey raised $5.67 million, including $4.35 million...
Semiautomatic firearm ban passes Colorado’s House, heads to Senate
DENVER — Colorado’s Democratic-controlled House on Sunday passed a bill that would ban the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms, a major step for the legislation after roughly the same bill was swiftly killed by Democrats last year. The bill, which passed on a 35-27 vote, is now on its...
Summer Lee, Bhavini Patel face off in contentious Democratic primary for Congress
In October, Edgewood Councilwoman Bhavini Patel announced she would challenge U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, in the upcoming primary election, running against the fiery progressive for a second time. Five days later, on Oct. 7, Hamas attacked Israel, and suddenly war in the Middle East dominated the race for Pennsylvania’s...
McCormick gets Trump’s endorsement in Pa. Senate race despite awkward history
Former President Donald Trump endorsed U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick of Pennsylvania on Saturday, urging his supporters in the state to “go out and vote for him” in one of the year’s most hotly contested Senate races. Trump’s endorsement came two years after he successfully helped sink McCormick in Pennsylvania’s...
How a hush money scandal tied to a porn star led to Trump’s first criminal trial
NEW YORK — It was the kind of tawdry tale that Donald Trump might have relished before politics: a porn actor claiming they had had sex. But on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Trump feared the story, which he says is false, would cost him votes. So, prosecutors...
Biden also used political donations to cover lawyer costs
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, who has criticized Republican rival Donald Trump for relying on political donations to pay his legal bills, used nearly $2 million raised by the Democratic National Committee to pay his own lawyers. The DNC paid $1.1 million to Bob Bauer PLLC, the firm of the...
Trump pushes Arizona lawmakers to ‘remedy’ abortion ruling he says ‘went too far’
TUCSON, Ariz. — Former President Donald Trump urged Arizona lawmakers Friday to swiftly “remedy” the state Supreme Court ruling allowing prosecutors to enforce a near-total abortion ban that he declared anew “went too far.” Trump repeatedly has expressed pride in his role in overturning the national constitutional right to an...
Voting rights groups appeal ruling that directs Pa. to reject undated mail ballots
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. After a court defeat, Pennsylvania voting rights organizations are trying to convince a larger group of federal appellate judges that the state shouldn’t be allowed to reject mail ballots...
Filings show top conservative donor Jeffrey Yass gave $800K to PAC attacking Summer Lee
A political group behind recent ads attacking U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, received $800,000 from Jeffrey Yass, a billionaire and conservative donor in the Philadelphia area, federal filings this week show. The group, called Moderate PAC, has spent more than $586,000 in the Pittsburgh area, running a series of ads...
Trump assails Jewish voters who back Biden: ‘Should have their head examined’
ATLANTA — Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Jewish voters who back President Joe Biden and framed this year’s election as a referendum on the strength of Christianity in the U.S., part of his sharp-edged continuing appeal to evangelical conservatives who are a critical element of his political base....
Conservative revolt in the House blocks effort to reauthorize a key spy tool
WASHINGTON — A bill that would reauthorize a crucial national security surveillance program was blocked Wednesday by a conservative revolt, pushing the prospects of final passage into uncertainty amid a looming deadline. The legislative impasse follows an edict earlier in the day from former President Donald Trump to “kill” the...
GOP lawmakers offer alternative to Gov. Shapiro’s higher ed plan
Senate and House Republican lawmakers have crafted a college affordability plan that seeks to make Pennsylvania more competitive for both in-state and out-of-state students in high-demand fields in exchange for a requirement that they remain in the state after graduation. The Grow PA proposal introduced on Wednesday also establishes a...
Shouts of ‘Shame! Shame!’ erupt in Arizona House as fight over abortion ban engulfs lawmakersVideo
PHOENIX — The Arizona Legislature devolved into shouts of “Shame! Shame!” on Wednesday as Republican lawmakers quickly shut down discussion on a proposed repeal of the state’s newly revived 1864 law that criminalizes abortion throughout pregnancy unless a woman’s life is at risk. The state Supreme Court cleared the way...
Why independents can’t vote in the 2024 Pa. primary, and the slow-moving push to change that
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. HARRISBURG — Millions of voters are expected to cast ballots during Pennsylvania’s April 23 primary, choosing candidates to represent the Democratic and Republican parties in...
Trump says Arizona’s abortion ban goes too far and defends the overturning of Roe v. Wade
ATLANTA — Donald Trump said Wednesday that an Arizona law that criminalizes nearly all abortions goes too far and the former president called on Arizona lawmakers to change it, while also defending the overturning of Roe v. Wade that cleared states to ban the procedure. “It’ll be straightened out and...
As medical perils from abortion bans grow, so do opportunities for Democrats in a post-Roe world
WASHINGTON — For much of her life, Angela Crawford considered herself a fairly conservative Republican — and she voted that way. But then a wave of court rulings and Republican-led actions in states restricted abortion and later in vitro fertilization, the very procedure that had helped her conceive her daughter....
Pennsylvania poised to become the next state to ban using a handheld device while driving
Pennsylvania is on its way to becoming the next state to ban the use of handheld cellphones while driving. The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 124-77 to approve an amended version of a Senate-passed bill championed by Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-Monroe County, that would make it illegal for a...
Appeals court rejects Donald Trump’s latest attempt to delay April 15 hush money criminal trial
NEW YORK — A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s latest attempt to delay his hush money criminal trial, taking just 12 minutes to swat aside an argument that it should be postponed while the former president fights a gag order. Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling was the...
