Politics Election category, Page 214
Democrats walk out of hearing with Florida’s surgeon generalVideo
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo moved closer to Senate confirmation Wednesday after a tense hearing where Democrats accused the state’s top doctor of evading questions on his coronavirus policies and stormed out before casting their votes. Ladapo, appointed in September by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, has drawn...
Biden has long been preparing for a Supreme Court pick
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has already narrowed the field for his first Supreme Court pick. Biden said as a presidential candidate that if he were given the chance to nominate someone to the court, he would make history by choosing a Black woman. And word on Wednesday that Justice...
Herschel Walker reports $5.4M raised for Georgia Senate race
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Herschel Walker raised $5.4 million for his U.S. Senate race in the last quarter of 2021, the former football star’s campaign said Wednesday. Walker is seeking the Republican nomination in Georgia to challenge Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, an Atlanta pastor whose victory in a runoff election a...
Nancy Pelosi to seek reelection with Democratic majority at risk
LOS ANGELES — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday she will seek reelection, ending speculation that she would retire as Democrats face the threat of losing control of Congress in the 2022 midterms. “While we have made progress, much more needs to be done to improve people’s lives,” the 81-year-old...
Biden calls Fox News reporter at White House a stupid SOB
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden responded to a question about inflation by calling a Fox News reporter a vulgarity. The president was in the East Room of the White House on Monday for a meeting of his Competition Council, which is focused on changing regulations and enforcing laws to help...
What delayed redistricting maps could mean for May primary in Pa.
This article is part of a yearlong reporting project focused on redistricting and gerrymandering in Pennsylvania. It is made possible by the support of Spotlight PA members and Votebeat, a project focused on election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — The lawmakers in charge of drawing Pennsylvania’s new political maps...
High court won’t hear pandemic proxy voting dispute
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to the proxy voting system that Democrats put in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic. McCarthy had sought a declaration that proxy voting, an absent representative giving authority for someone in attendance to cast...
Some South Carolina Black Dems want Biden to ‘try a little bit harder’
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Joe Biden’s run for the Democratic presidential nomination was all but declared dead as he headed to the South Carolina primary in late February 2020. He had finished fifth in New Hampshire and fourth in Iowa. Still, Biden advised skeptics to withhold judgment until a state with...
Arizona Democrats censure Sinema over voting rights bill
U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is growing increasingly isolated from some of her party’s most influential officials and donors after playing a key role in scuttling voting rights legislation that many Democrats consider essential to preserving democracy. Leaders of the Arizona Democratic Party voted Saturday to censure Sinema, a symbolic condemnation...
Mitch McConnell responds to uproar over comment about Black voters
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back Friday against the uproar over a comment he made about African American voters, calling the criticism directed his way “outrageous.” McConnell had been accused of racism for saying that “African American” voters cast ballots at similar rates to “Americans.” The comment implied that...
Wisconsin prosecutor weighs in on fake GOP electors
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin assistant district attorney has said state or federal prosecutors should look into a complaint filed a year ago alleging that Republicans committed fraud when they submitted false paperwork saying former President Donald Trump had won the battleground state. Wisconsin is one of seven states where...
Former Pa. House Speaker Mike Turzai declares he is not running for governor
For weeks, there was talk that former Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai was toying with the idea of jumping into the crowded field of Republicans competing to be the party’s gubernatorial nominee. This week, he declared he is not a candidate. In a statement, Turzai said, “While I did not...
AP-NORC poll: Biden approval hits new low at 1-year mark
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden ends his first year in the White House with a clear majority of Americans for the first time disapproving of his handling of the presidency in the face of an unrelenting pandemic and roaring inflation, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center...
Georgia DA asks for special grand jury in 2020 election probe
ATLANTA — The Georgia prosecutor looking into possible attempts to interfere in the 2020 general election by former President Donald Trump and others has asked for a special grand jury to aid the investigation. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Thursday sent a letter to Fulton County Superior Court...
Voting bill collapses, Democrats unable to change filibusterVideo
WASHINGTON — Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital to protecting democracy collapsed Wednesday when two senators refused to join their own party in changing Senate rules to overcome a Republican filibuster after a raw, emotional debate. The outcome was a stinging defeat for President Joe...
West Virginia lawmakers seek to ban school mask, testing requirements
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A group of Republican lawmakers in West Virginia is trying to pass a law forbidding mask mandates in K-12 schools and restricting districts from requiring covid-19 testing for people who don’t have symptoms. The “Public School Health Rights Act” would also prevent students or school employees from...
Biden reviews first year of ‘challenges but also enormous progress’Video
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday sought to reframe his presidency as one of “challenges but also enormous progress,” saying he would restart efforts to pass his signature legislative agenda and use the midterm election campaigns to push harder against Republican obstinance. “For all this progress, I know there’s...
Candidate withdraws from race for Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s former Pa. House seat
A woman who planned to run for the state House seat vacated by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey has rescinded her candidacy, citing proposed legislative maps that will likely put her in a different district. Ashley Comans of Wilkinsburg had previously launched a campaign in the 24th State House District, which...
Florida Democrat sworn in as newest member of HouseVideo
WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida was sworn in as the newest member of the House on Tuesday, filling the seat last held by Alcee Hastings, who died in April of pancreatic cancer. She’ll boost the Democrats’ slender House majority to 222-212, leaving room for no more than...
In unusual move, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis submits redistricting map
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has submitted a proposal to reshape the state’s congressional map and carve up districts held by Black Democrats, as the Republican takes the unusual step of inserting himself into the redistricting process. The proposed congressional map, submitted Sunday on the eve of Martin Luther...
Confusion, lawsuit follow Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin’s order on masksVideo
RICHMOND — Virginia’s new Republican governor was facing pushback from Democratic lawmakers, school districts and a group of parents who sued him Tuesday over an executive order that aims to create an opt-out for classroom mask mandates. The order issued Saturday and set to take effect Monday was among Glenn...
Former AG William Barr’s memoir to be published March 8
NEW YORK — Former Attorney General William P. Barr has a memoir coming out March 8 titled “One Damn Thing After Another,” and billed by his publisher as a “vivid and forthright book” of his time serving two “drastically different” presidents, Donald Trump and George H.W. Bush. “Barr takes readers...
Big voting bill faces defeat as 2 Democrats won’t stop filibusterVideo
WASHINGTON — Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital for protecting democracy appeared headed for defeat as the Senate churned into debate Tuesday, a devastating setback enabled by President Joe Biden’s own party as two holdout senators refuse to support rule changes to overcome a Republican...
Biden year 1 takeaways: Grand ambitions, humbling defeats
Joe Biden’s long arc in public life has always had one final ambition: to sit behind the Resolute Desk of the Oval Office. He achieved it — albeit, at 78, as the oldest person to assume the presidency. After the turbulence and chaos of his predecessor, Donald Trump, Biden was...
Pa. GOP answered Wolf vetoes with constitution changes in strategy that’s here to stay
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 — Gov. Tom Wolf has vetoed more than 50 bills as he begins his final year in office, a number...
