Politics Election category, Page 200
Gift ban, other good-government changes stall in Pa. despite promises from leadership
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 — Rabbi Michael Pollack stood at a podium in the Capitol, just steps away from where the legislature meets, to...
Biden to meet Fed chair as inflation bites U.S. pocketbooks
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to meet with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as soaring inflation takes a bite out of Americans’ pocketbooks and the president’s public approval. Tuesday’s meeting is the first since Biden renominated Powell to lead the central bank and comes weeks after his...
Christian nationalism on the rise in some GOP campaigns
PITTSBURGH — The victory party took on the feel of an evangelical worship service after Doug Mastriano won Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial primary this month. As a Christian singer led the crowd in song, some raised their arms toward the heavens in praise. Mastriano opened his remarks by evoking Scripture: “God...
Senate GOP blocks domestic terrorism bill, gun policy debate
WASHINGTON — Democrats’ first attempt at responding to the back-to-back mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, failed in the Senate on Thursday as Republicans blocked a domestic terrorism bill that would have opened debate on difficult questions surrounding hate crimes and gun safety. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y....
Wisconsin GOP leader open to arming teachers in schools
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s top legislative Republican said Thursday that he is open to the idea of arming teachers following the latest school shooting in Texas, while he dismissed as “disingenuous” an offer from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to find common ground. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told the Associated Press...
Abrams-Kemp slugfest promises to be pricey, long and ugly
ATLANTA — Georgia voters didn’t get much of a break from election talk on the day after the Tuesday primary in which Republican Gov. Brian Kemp demolished GOP challenger David Perdue and Democrat Stacey Abrams finally clinched a nomination waiting for her after no other members of her party jumped...
Ohio’s high court rejects latest GOP-drawn Statehouse maps
COLUMBUS — A frustrated Ohio Supreme Court rejected Republican-drawn Statehouse maps for a fifth time Wednesday, extending the string of GOP defeats in a redistricting process that has ground the state’s legislative primaries to a halt. Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor was clearly angered by the Republican-dominated Ohio Redistricting Commission’s decision...
Will Congress act on guns after Sandy Hook, Buffalo, Uvalde?Video
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer swiftly set in motion a pair of background-check bills for gun buyers Wednesday in response to the school massacre in Texas. But the Democrat acknowledged Congress’ unyielding rejection of previous legislation to curb the national epidemic of gun violence. Schumer implored his Republican...
‘Trump is in the past’: Mounting losses show limits of power
WOODSTOCK, Ga. — Donald Trump opened May by lifting a trailing Senate candidate in Ohio to the Republican nomination, seemingly cementing the former president’s kingmaker status before another possible White House run. He’s ending the month, however, stinging from a string of defeats that suggests a diminishing stature. Trump faced...
Greene’s divisive politics face test in Republican primary
With millions raised to defend her seat in Congress and five fellow Republicans running to take it, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene faced her first reelection vote Tuesday in a GOP primary race that tests how her conservative Georgia constituents judge her turbulent freshman term. Greene, 47, became a celebrity...
GOP to intervene in lawsuit over Pa. Senate race vote-count
HARRISBURG — The national Republican Party is stepping in on the neck-and-neck GOP primary contest for U.S. Senate and opposing a lawsuit that could help former hedge fund CEO David McCormick close the vote gap between him and celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s votes. McCormick’s lawsuit was...
David Perdue says Stacey Abrams ‘demeaning her own race’ ahead of primaryVideo
ATLANTA — Georgia Republican candidate David Perdue on Monday accused Stacey Abrams of “demeaning her own race” in Abrams’ recent criticism of Georgia’s quality of life for its residents. Abrams is bidding to be the first Black woman to be a governor of an American state. She’s without opposition in...
Watchdog: West Virginia Rep. Alex Mooney likely broke rules with Aruba trip
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A congressional watchdog has determined that Rep. Alex Mooney likely broke House rules when the West Virginia Republican accepted a trip to Aruba allegedly paid for by a campaign client and family friend. The latest allegations were included in a statement released Monday by the House Ethics...
Ethics panel opens investigation into GOP’s Madison Cawthorn
WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn had a conflict of interest in a cryptocurrency he promoted and engaged in an improper relationship with a member of his staff, the panel said Monday. The investigation is just the latest moment of high-profile scrutiny...
How Doug Mastriano built a grassroots movement in Pa. on election denial, Christianity and Facebook
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 — Two years ago, one Republican operative responded to the thought of a Doug Mastriano gubernatorial run with: “Seriously?” Now,...
Herschel Walker’s ties to veterans program face scrutiny
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Herschel Walker, the football legend and leading Republican Senate candidate in Georgia, often boasts of his work helping service members and veterans struggling with mental health. In interviews and campaign appearances, the former Dallas Cowboy and Heisman Trophy winner takes credit for founding, co-founding and sometimes operating...
Texas race tests abortion’s resonance with Democratic voters
SAN ANTONIO — By the time Dr. Hector Gonzalez arrived in Laredo, Texas, in 2001, the last abortion clinic had already closed. He spent the next 20 years experiencing firsthand where the largely Hispanic and heavily Catholic community along the border with Mexico usually sided. “Definitely it was, ‘No abortion,’”...
What went wrong with Conor Lamb’s U.S. Senate campaign?
On paper and in person, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb looked like the perfect candidate to take the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat in the fall. He checked all the boxes: smart, accomplished, former prosecutor, Marine Corps veteran, young, attractive, previously tested in a tough race. “His profile...
GOP directs culture war fury toward green investing trend
SALT LAKE CITY — Republicans are coming out swinging against Wall Street’s growing efforts to consider factors like long-term environmental risk in investment decisions, the latest indication that the GOP is willing to damage its relationship with big business to score culture war points. Many are targeting a concept known...
Gisele Fetterman steps into campaign after husband’s stroke: ‘I didn’t have to think twice’
The whirlwind of the previous five days finally caught up with Gisele Fetterman on Wednesday at a rest stop along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Pennsylvania’s second lady, taking advantage of a rare moment of calm, fell asleep while sitting on a bench inside the rest stop. Her children couldn’t help but...
Bill de Blasio, ex-NYC mayor, to run for redrawn House seat
NEW YORK — Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that he will run for Congress in a redrawn district that includes his Brooklyn home. De Blasio, whose second mayoral term ended last year, announced on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he will seek the Democratic nomination for...
House passes bill to crack down on gasoline ‘price gouging’
WASHINGTON — A closely divided House approved legislation Thursday to crack down on alleged price gouging by oil companies and other energy producers as prices at the pump continue to soar. A bill backed by House Democrats would give President Joe Biden authority to declare an energy emergency that would...
Senate OKs overhaul of baby formula rules in aid program
WASHINGTON — The Senate approved a bill Thursday aimed at easing the baby formula shortage for families participating in a government assistance program that accounts for about half of all formula purchased in the United States. The House passed the bill the day before, so it now goes to President...
FDA head: Baby formula factory could reopen by next week
WASHINGTON — The head of the Food and Drug Administration told lawmakers Thursday that a shuttered baby formula factory could be up and running as soon as next week, though he sidestepped questions about whether his agency should have intervened earlier at the plant at the center of the national...
La’Tasha Mayes poised to win Democratic nomination in 24th State House District
Reproductive rights activist La’Tasha Mayes is poised to secure the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s 24th State House District. As of Wednesday afternoon, Mayes had collected 46.7% of the votes counted compared with recently elected state Rep. Martell Covington’s 37.8% and fair housing activist Randall Taylor’s 15.5%, according to unofficial tallies....
