Politics Election category, Page 144
Sara Innamorato, Joe Rockey debate crime, public safety ahead of Allegheny County executive race
Former state Rep. Sara Innamorato and former PNC executive Joe Rockey on Tuesday outlined their platforms in an hourlong live, televised debate hosted by Tribune-Review news partner WTAE and the League of Women Voters. Innamorato, of Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood, and Rockey, of Ohio Township, spent much of the debate discussing...
Pa. bill would allow cities to crack down on illegal dirt bikes, ATVs
State legislators from Pennsylvania’s urban areas are hoping a bill that would allow cities to pass their own, stricter rules regarding dirt bikes and ATVs will help curb the problem of off-road vehicles ridden by thrill-seekers on city streets. The Pennsylvania House passed the bill Monday with a bipartisan 160-43...
Speaker McCarthy ousted in historic House vote, as scramble begins for a Republican leaderVideo
WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown — a first in U.S. history, forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and throwing the House and its Republican leadership into chaos. It’s the end of the political line for McCarthy, who has...
Western Pa. members of Congress weigh in on potential ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
Congress could lose its House Speaker on Tuesday afternoon, as the U.S. House could vote this afternoon to vacate its top position. The effort is led by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a hard-line conservative from Florida, who is upset with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., over a recent vote to...
Donald Trump wants future GOP debates to be canceled
Donald Trump’s campaign is calling on the Republican National Committee to cancel all remaining presidential primary debates, saying the RNC must instead “refocus its manpower” on defeating Joe Biden next year. In a statement late Monday, top Trump advisers also repeated debunked falsehoods about election fraud, claiming without evidence that...
Pennsylvania House proposes April 2 for presidential primary, 2 weeks later than Senate wants
HARRISBURG — Most Pennsylvania lawmakers want to move their state’s presidential primary election up from late April, but disagreements arose in the House on Tuesday over whether to embrace a Senate-backed plan that would shift the election to mid-March. A House committee first rejected, but later passed, a bipartisan Senate...
Here’s where all the cases against Trump stand as he campaigns for a return to the White House
The civil fraud trial that kicked off against Donald Trump this week in a New York courtroom is just one of many legal problems facing the former president as he campaigns for a return to the White House. The judge overseeing the case, Arthur Engoron, resolved the lawsuit’s top claim...
Edgewood’s Bhavini Patel announces Democratic challenge to U.S. Rep. Summer Lee
After a roughly contested primary in 2022, Western Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District could be in for another competitive spring race. Bhavini Patel, 29, a Democrat from Edgewood, said Monday that she plans to challenge freshman U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, in next year’s primary. Less than two years ago, Lee...
Rep. Matt Gaetz’s motion to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy throws House into new turmoilVideo
WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy is facing an extraordinary referendum on his leadership of the House after a conservative member of his own Republican majority, a longtime critic, moved to launch a vote to oust him from the helm. Late Monday, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., rose in the chamber as...
Trump seethes through the start of trial in New York lawsuit accusing him of lying about his wealth
NEW YORK — Aggrieved and defiant, former President Donald Trump spent a day in court Monday for the sometimes testy start of a trial in a fraud lawsuit that could cost him control of Trump Tower and other prized properties. “Disgraceful trial,” he declared during a lunch break, after listening...
California governor to name Laphonza Butler, former Kamala Harris adviser, to Feinstein Senate seat
LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom will name Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a spokesman in his office said Sunday. In choosing Butler, Newsom fulfilled his pledge to...
Trump aims to lock down supporters in Iowa counties that he flipped from Democrats in 2016
OTTUMWA, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump will be in southeast Iowa on Sunday in the middle of a fall campaign push aimed at locking in supporters with large organizing events. As he has with his other recent travels to the leadoff caucus state, Trump will campaign in an area...
Matt Gaetz says he will seek to oust McCarthy as speaker this week. ‘Bring it on,’ McCarthy saysVideo
WASHINGTON — Rep. Matt Gaetz said Sunday he will try to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a fellow Republican, from his leadership position this week after McCarthy relied on Democratic support to pass legislation that avoided a government shutdown. “Bring it on,” McCarthy responded. Gaetz, a longtime McCarthy nemesis, said...
Pennsylvania governor’s voter registration change draws Trump’s ire in echo of 2020 election clashes
HARRISBURG — Donald Trump has a familiar target in his sights: Pennsylvania’s voting rules. He never stopped attacking court decisions on mail-in ballots during the covid-19 pandemic, falsely claiming it as a reason for his 2020 loss in the crucial battleground state. Now, the former Republican president is seizing on...
On the brink of a federal shutdown, House passes a 45-day funding plan and sends it to Senate
WASHINGTON — On the brink of a federal government shutdown, the House on Saturday swiftly approved a 45-day funding bill to keep federal agencies open as Speaker Kevin McCarthy dropped demands for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic votes for passage to send the package to the Senate. The...
Top Shapiro staffer was accused of sexual harassment before resigning
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds the power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — A top official and longtime ally of Gov. Josh Shapiro who abruptly resigned this week had been accused months earlier of sexually...
How a government shutdown would impact Western Pa.
Time is running out for the federal government to avert a shutdown. The Republican-controlled House had been unable through Friday afternoon to pass funding bills that accommodate the demands of the party’s far-right faction, and a Saturday deadline looms. If a funding bill package is not reached and approved by...
McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep government open collapses, making shutdown almost certain
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open collapsed on Friday as a robust faction of hard-right holdouts rejected the package, making a shutdown almost certain. McCarthy’s right-flank Republicans refused to support the bill despite its steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to...
Supreme Court will decide if state laws limiting social media platforms violate the Constitution
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether state laws that seek to regulate Facebook, TikTok, X and other social media platforms violate the Constitution. The justices will review laws enacted by Republican-dominated legislatures and signed by Republican governors in Florida and Texas. While the details vary, both...
House GOP’s impeachment witnesses say there’s no evidence yet that Biden committed a crimeVideo
WASHINGTON — House Republicans launched a formal impeachment hearing Thursday against President Joe Biden, promising to “provide accountability” as they probe the family finances and lucrative business dealings of his son Hunter and make their case to the public, colleagues and a skeptical Senate. The chairmen of the Oversight, Judiciary,...
Christie calls Trump ‘Donald Duck,’ DeSantis knocks former president and other debate takeaways
Seven Republican presidential hopefuls gathered at the Reagan Library in California on Wednesday for the second of the party’s primary debates. The contest’s dominant front-runner — former President Donald Trump — skipped the event again. With less than four months until the Iowa caucuses officially jumpstart the GOP nomination process,...
Kari Lake, prominent Trump supporter and election denier, will launch U.S. Senate campaign in Arizona
PHOENIX — Republican Kari Lake, a Donald Trump ally who has refused to acknowledge her loss in last year’s race for Arizona governor, will soon launch her campaign for the U.S. Senate seat held by independent Kyrsten Sinema, a senior adviser said Thursday. Lake’s entrance in one of next year’s...
House Republicans are set to make their case for Biden impeachment inquiry at first hearing
WASHINGTON — Republicans have insisted for months that they have the grounds to launch impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden. On Thursday, they will begin formally making their case to the public and their skeptical colleagues in the Senate. The chairmen of Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means will hold...
Donald Trump skipped the GOP debate again. This time, his rivals took him on directlyVideo
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Several of Donald Trump’s rivals stepped up their attacks against him in Wednesday’s second Republican presidential debate, urgently trying to dent the former president’s commanding primary lead during an event that often seemed like an undercard without him. Trump went to Michigan, aiming to capitalize on...
Report: Elon Musk to cut X election integrity team by half
Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, reportedly plans to gut its election integrity team and dump the group’s boss — a decision that has caused concern as the United States and countries around the world prepare for major elections. X’s worldwide cuts will reduce the team’s...
