Politics Election category, Page 157
For many Southern Baptists, the only campaign question is which Republican candidate to support
Southern Baptists form a core part of the white evangelical Christian bloc that has reliably and overwhelmingly voted Republican in recent elections, and is expected to again in 2024. But Southern Baptists are weighing their options in the GOP presidential primary field — some already lining up behind Donald Trump,...
Young lawyer who helped write voting rights bill ‘star-struck’ as he witnessed 1965 signing into law
WASHINGTON — Joel Finkelstein is an accidental witness to one of the seminal events of the civil rights movement, the signing in 1965 of the Voting Rights Act. He was a year out of law school at Cornell when he received the call to head to the Capitol for the...
Voices from the violent civil rights era see attacks on voting rights as part of ongoing struggle
They are part of a small, vanishing group who lived at the epicenter of the struggle for voting rights six decades ago, an era driven by segregation, violence and the yearning for equality that eventually led to laws bringing the U.S. closer to its promise of democracy for all its...
N.D. Gov. Doug Burgum launches bid for 2024 GOP presidential nomination
FARGO, N.D. — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, adding his name to the long list of contenders hoping to dent former President Donald Trump’s early lead in the race. Burgum, 66, made the announcement in the The Wall Street Journal...
Pence says ‘Different times call for different leadership’ in video launching 2024 presidential bidVideo
DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Vice President Mike Pence promised “the best days of the greatest nation on earth are yet to come” in a video released Wednesday formally launching his campaign for the Republican nomination for president. “Different times call for different leadership,” Pence, who served four years alongside...
House conservatives block GOP bills, voice frustration in response to debt ceiling vote
WASHINGTON — House conservatives staged a mini-revolt Tuesday in retaliation for Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership on last week’s vote to raise the debt ceiling, the right wing banding together to block progress on a mixture of bills and vent their frustration. Led by outspoken members of the House Freedom Caucus,...
Allegheny County Council passes minimum wage hike for county workers
Some Allegheny County employees could see a wage increase thanks to a new minimum age wage bill that passed Tuesday evening. Allegheny County Council voted 10-4 to pass a bill that would set $20 an hour as the minimum wage for county workers by 2026. There would be incremental increases...
Abortion providers sue Kansas over new medication rule, longstanding waiting period
TOPEKA, Kan. — Abortion providers sued Kansas on Tuesday, challenging a new law requiring them to tell patients that an abortion medication can be stopped but also existing restrictions that include a decades-old requirement that patients wait 24 hours to terminate their pregnancies. The lawsuit filed in state district court...
Former N.J. Gov. Christie kicks off 2024 GOP presidential bid with swipes at Trump
NEW YORK — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasted no time going after Donald Trump while launching his presidential campaign on Tuesday, calling the former president and current Republican primary front-runner a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog” and arguing that he’s the only one who can stop him. Christie...
Ex-Indiana attorney general eyes GOP governor’s race after groping case derailed 2020 reelection
INDIANAPOLIS — Former Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is considering whether to join the 2024 Republican governor’s race, nearly three years after his reelection bid was derailed by allegations that he drunkenly groped four women during a party. Hill built a following among social conservatives during his time in office...
Judge blocks Florida ban on trans minor care in narrow ruling, says ‘gender identity is real’
TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, saying in a Tuesday ruling that gender identity is real and the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment. Judge Robert...
Protests in France as unions make last-ditch bid to resist higher retirement age
PARIS— French union activists marched on the headquarters of the Paris Olympics and slowed traffic at the capital’s Orly Airport with strikes Tuesday as they sought to reignite resistance to a higher retirement age. But the last-ditch effort drew fewer followers than at the height of the movement earlier this...
Atlanta project decried as ‘Cop City’ gets funding approval from City Council
ATLANTA — The Atlanta City Council early Tuesday approved funding for the construction of a proposed police and firefighter training center, rejecting the pleas of hundreds of activists who packed City Hall and spoke for hours in fierce opposition to the project they decry as “Cop City.” The 11-4 vote...
EU parliament criticized for slow pace of anti-corruption reform as offices searched over Qatargate
BRUSSELS — Six months after a group of European Union lawmakers was swept up in a cash-for-influence scandal, no new anti-corruption rules are in place at the European Parliament and the ones that do exist are not being enforced anyway, anti-corruption officials and parliamentarians said Tuesday. The criticism came as...
LGBTQ+ ‘State of emergency’ declared, ‘Americans Fight Back’ guidebook released
WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. on Tuesday and a released a guidebook summarizing what it calls discriminatory laws in each state, along with “know your rights” information and health and safety resources. Sounding the alarm about the current...
Supreme Court opened the door to states’ voting restrictions
ATLANTA — Within hours of a U.S. Supreme Court decision dismantling a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, Texas lawmakers announced plans to implement a strict voter ID law that had been blocked by a federal court. Lawmakers in Alabama said they would press forward with a similar law...
New Hampshire Gov. Sununu rules out 2024 presidential bid, warns that crowded GOP field helps TrumpVideo
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Monday that he will not seek the presidency in 2024, arguing that Republican candidates with “no path to victory must have the courage to get out” of their party’s increasingly crowded primary to stop former President Donald Trump. The 48-year-old governor, who has emerged...
Allegheny County passes campaign finance law limiting size of individual donations
A law enacted last week will bring campaign finance limits to Allegheny County starting in 2025. Candidates seeking elected office in Allegheny County government now face no limits on how much money people can donate to their campaigns, allowing corporate interests, wealthy people, labor unions and national groups to pour...
Former Vice President Pence files paperwork launching 2024 presidential bid in challenge to Trump
NEW YORK — Former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork on Monday declaring his campaign for president in 2024, setting up a challenge to his former boss, Donald Trump, just two years after their time in the White House ended with an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and Pence fleeing...
Pa. budget 2023: Your guide to what’s on the table, what comes next and how to follow along
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 — June is budget negotiation month in Pennsylvania, when state lawmakers decide how to direct billions of tax dollars and...
Biden’s 2024 pitch highlights pragmatism over Trump’s pugilism
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden promised voters in 2020 that he knew how to get things done in Washington and could bring stability to the capital. It seemed like a message out of step with the more combative era brought on by Donald Trump. But Biden prevailed, by more than...
DeSantis hits Trump from the right while the ex-president looks ahead to the general election
NEW YORK — In his first week on the campaign trail as a presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly hit his chief rival, Donald Trump, from the right. “This is a different guy than 2015, 2016,” DeSantis told a conservative radio host before slamming the bipartisan criminal justice reform...
Western Pa.’s Fetterman, Lee explain votes against debt ceiling bill
Western Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee were among lawmakers in Washington to vote against the debt ceiling and budget cuts package after weeks of tense negotiations. The compromise package negotiated between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy restricts spending for the next two years,...
Justice Department says it won’t charge Mike Pence over handling of classified documents
NEW YORK — The Department of Justice has informed former Vice President Mike Pence ‘s legal team that it will not pursue criminal charges related to the discovery of classified documents at his Indiana home. The department sent a letter to Pence’s attorney on Thursday informing him that, after an...
Just days to spare, Senate gives final approval to debt ceiling deal, sending it to BidenVideo
WASHINGTON — Fending off a U.S. default, the Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, grinding into the night to wrap up work on the bipartisan deal and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law before the fast-approaching deadline. The...
