Politics Election category, Page 182
Trump to hold 1st public campaign event in South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump is planning to hold the first public campaign event of his 2024 White House bid in the early-voting state of South Carolina. Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Associated Press on Thursday that Trump will visit South Carolina later this month. No other...
Nebraska governor names predecessor to U.S. Senate seat
LINCOLN, Neb. — In one of his first acts as Nebraska’s governor, Republican Jim Pillen named his predecessor to the state’s vacant U.S. Senate seat on Thursday. Pillen surprised no one in naming fellow Republican Pete Ricketts to the seat vacated Sunday by Ben Sasse. The governor said 111 people...
Merrick Garland appoints special counsel to investigate Biden docsVideo
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed a special counsel to investigate the presence of classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at an unsecured office in Washington dating from his time as vice president. Robert Hur, a onetime U.S. attorney appointed by...
In Washington, ‘classified’ is synonymous with ‘controversy’
WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s presidential dreams were undermined by her use of a private email server that included classified information. Donald Trump has risked criminal charges by refusing to return top-secret records to the government after leaving the White House. And now misplaced files with classified markings could cause a...
Pennsylvania Senate bill aims to undo 2023 gas tax increase
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state Senate on Wednesday voted to undo an automatic wholesale tax increase on gasoline and diesel that kicks in this year in an effort to prevent motorists from paying more per gallon. The vote, 29-19, sent the bill to the state House of Representatives, where a partisan...
Mike Kelly’s federal bill would ban abortions after fetal heartbeat is detected
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Butler County Republican, has re-introduced a bill to ban abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected. “Our founders understood that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are our most fundamental rights,” Kelly said in a statement. “First among these is life.” Kelly, who introduced...
George Santos refuses to resign despite political pressureVideo
NEW YORK — State and local Republican leaders in New York on Wednesday called for the immediate resignation of their new GOP congressman George Santos, who is facing multiple investigations by prosecutors over his personal and campaign finances and lies about his resume and family heritage. “His lies were not...
Pa. House at a standstill as deadline nears to get relief for child sex abuse survivors on May ballot
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 — Pennsylvania’s closely divided state House has recessed indefinitely, throwing the chamber’s agenda, including a number of far-reaching constitutional amendments,...
Biden team finds more docs with classified markings
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s legal team has discovered additional documents containing classification markings in a second location, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The revelation comes days after an attorney for the president said Biden’s lawyers had discovered a “small number” of classified...
House Democrats ask ethics panel to probe Santos’ financial disclosures
WASHINGTON — Two New York Democratic House members filed a complaint Tuesday with the House Ethics panel against fellow Empire State Rep. George Santos, a Republican who has found himself mired in scandal since winning his seat in November. Reps. Dan Goldman, a freshman like Santos, and Ritchie Torres, who...
Sarah Huckabee Sanders sworn in as Arkansas governor
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was sworn in as Arkansas governor Tuesday, becoming the first woman to hold the office in the state and portraying herself as part of a new generation of leaders. Sanders took the oath of office as the state’s...
Having elected House speaker, Republicans try governingVideo
WASHINGTON — Electing the House speaker may have been the easy part. Now House Republicans will try to govern. Speaker Kevin McCarthy passed his first test Monday evening as the Republicans approved their rules package for governing House operations, typically a routine step on Day One that stretched into the...
Ethics group seeks investigation of Rep. George Santos’ campaign financesVideo
WASHINGTON — Freshman Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican who became embroiled in scandal after news reports cast doubt on his stated biography and on his campaign expenditures, faced yet another complaint Monday. The Campaign Legal Center, a Washington group that focuses on political money laws, filed a 50-page...
Pa. officials fly high in state plane on taxpayers’ dime
Gov. Tom Wolf appeared in Allentown one day last fall to celebrate his success in boosting early education funding. An hour later he was at a news conference 90 miles away in Steelton, touting free breakfasts for students. Despite the distance, no speed limits were broken. Wolf winged it from...
Pa. county is about to start a hand recount of its 2020 presidential election results
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. This article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeat’s republishing policy. More than two years after the last ballot was cast in the 2020 election, Lycoming County...
Allegheny County lawmaker Jessica Benham named as co-chair to state LGBTQ caucus
Pennsylvania’s statewide LGBTQ caucus has new leadership and one new co-chair is a lawmaker from Allegheny County. State Rep. Jessica Benham, D-South Side, is the new co-chair of the state legislature’s LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. Her co-chair is state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia. This marks the first time since the caucus’...
Georgia special grand jury finishes probe of 2020 election
ATLANTA — The special grand jury in Atlanta that has been investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia has finished its work, bringing the case closer to possible criminal charges against Trump and others. Fulton County...
Can council presidents make a motion? State boroughs association says yes
Delmont Council President Andy Shissler had to restrain himself from using his newfound power at the borough’s Dec. 13 meeting. Or perhaps he just didn’t want his first presidential motion to be payment of an annual service fee. “I’d rather not make my first motion paying Westmoreland Transit,” Shissler joked....
GOP Rep. Scott Perry won’t step back from House probe that could involve allegations against himVideo
As the newly Republican-controlled House of Representatives readies to push back against recent federal investigations, one GOP lawmaker says he won’t sit things out in spite of a potential conflict of interest. The House is set to vote Monday on new rules including the formation of a special committee to...
‘Crisis and confusion’: 4 days of GOP barbs, chaos and cigarsVideo
WASHINGTON — It was a near-fist fight on the House floor. It was four days of name-calling, late-night huddles, rush deliveries of pizzas and burritos. It was cigar smoke wafting through the hallways, diaper changes and a dog on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Establishment Republicans were...
Lauren Boebert’s backers urge her to ‘tone down the nasty rhetoric’Video
RIFLE, Colo. — Debbie Hartman voted for Lauren Boebert for Congress in 2020 and again in 2022, delighted by Boebert’s unequivocal defense of cultural issues that animate the Republican Party’s far right flank. But as Hartman shopped recently at a supermarket in this Rocky Mountain ranching outpost, she had one...
Rob Ritson, Sen. Ward’s chief of staff, on his local impact
To Rob Ritson, public service is an “intimate responsibility.” When people seek a public official’s help, it’s typically with concerns about their homes, neighborhoods and communities, he said. It’s personal. “In that moment, they don’t care if you’re a Republican or Democrat,” said Ritson, who has been a key player...
New year brings new faces and new politics to Western Pa.
After a midterm election with several surprising results, Southwestern Pennsylvania is poised to see a new class of politicians and a different political makeup beginning this year. Some well-known incumbents and familiar names are out, and some political upstarts are in, including progressives who are left of the region’s prior...
Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert announces bid for 2nd term
Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert is running for a second term. Albert launched his campaign with an announcement Saturday afternoon to a gathering of about 200 supporters and local officials at Greensburg’s Pizza Siena restaurant. Albert, 73, of New Alexandria, said he’s overcome hurdles that remained from the previous two-term...
McCarthy elected House speaker in vote 15 after chaotic week
WASHINGTON — Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected House speaker on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot early Saturday, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks and floor tensions boiling over after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern. After four days of grueling ballots, McCarthy flipped more...
