Politics Election category, Page 223
Can Biden find the right balance on immigration?
WASHINGTON — Democrats wielded demands to fix the nation’s broken immigration system as a cudgel against Republicans in the 2020 campaign. Elect us, went the argument, and we’ll stop the cruel treatment of migrants at the border and put in place lasting and humane policies that work. A year into...
Chris Christie aims to shape future for GOP and for himself
NEW YORK — Chris Christie is everywhere. The former New Jersey governor and onetime Republican presidential candidate denounced “conspiracy theorists” during a September appearance at the Ronald Reagan Library in California. He followed up with a speech this month to influential Republicans in Las Vegas, warning that the party will...
GOP field in Pennsylvania’s Senate race heads for reshuffle
HARRISBURG — The Republican field of candidates aiming to capture Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat in next year’s election is churning anew, with the candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump out and intriguing new candidates possibly in. Out is Sean Parnell — a favorite of Donald Trump Jr. —...
Biden’s political standing fuels Democratic worry about 2024
COLUMBUS, Ohio — It was supposed to be a moment of triumph for Joe Biden. The Democratic president had just signed into law the most significant infrastructure package in generations. And he had done it by bringing Democrats and Republicans together, just as he promised during last year’s campaign. But...
GOP embraces natural immunity as substitute for vaccines
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republicans fighting President Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccine mandates are wielding a new weapon against the White House rules: natural immunity. They contend that people who have recovered from the virus have enough immunity and antibodies to not need covid-19 vaccines, and the concept has been invoked by...
Rittenhouse acquittal tightens the political vise for Biden
WILMINGTON, Del. — A difficult political atmosphere for President Joe Biden may have become even more treacherous with the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse. Biden was already facing sliding poll numbers with an electorate worn down by the coronavirus pandemic and increasing inflation. Now, the president finds himself caught between outraged...
Senate GOP hires firm to review Pennsylvania’s 2020 election
HARRISBURG — Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate said Friday they will pay up to $270,000 over the next six months to have an Iowa consulting firm examine the 2020 election with an eye toward developing changes to state election law. The “forensic investigation” is being launched in response to pressure...
Biden undergoes routine colonoscopy, Harris briefly in power
BETHESDA, Md. — President Joe Biden briefly transferred power to Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday while he underwent a routine colonoscopy, setting up a history-making moment as Harris became the first woman to hold that authority during the short time she stepped in as acting president. Biden transferred power...
House moves toward OK of Democrats’ sweeping social, climate billVideo
WASHINGTON — Democrats brushed aside months-long divisions and approached House passage of their expansive social and environment bill Friday, as President Joe Biden and his party neared a defining win in their drive to use their control of government to funnel its resources toward their domestic priorities. Final passage, which...
GOP paints Biden’s choice for bank regulator as radical
President Joe Biden’s choice to run one of the agencies charged with overseeing the banking industry faced sharp questioning Thursday from Republican senators, who tried to label Saule Omarova as someone who would nationalize the U.S. banking system. Omarova, 55, was nominated in September to be the nation’s next comptroller...
Florida GOP limits vaccine mandates, flouting White House
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Republicans approved a sweeping bill Wednesday to hobble coronavirus vaccine mandates in businesses, rejecting claims that they were sacrificing public health to hand Gov. Ron DeSantis a win in his fight against White House virus rules. Lawmakers in GOP-controlled statehouse expedited the measure, along with a package...
House censures Rep. Paul Gosar for violent video in rare rebukeVideo
WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to censure Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword, an extraordinary rebuke that highlighted the political strains testing Washington and the country. Calling the video a clear threat to...
House to vote on censuring Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar over videoVideo
WASHINGTON — The House will vote Wednesday on a resolution to censure Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for tweeting an animated video that depicted him striking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., with a sword. Democratic lawmakers said Gosar’s actions amounted to threating another member’s life, calling the video “so beyond...
Jonathan Karl’s ‘Betrayal’ unearths new details about Trump’s attack on democracyVideo
The bountiful genre of Donald Trump books now has another entry, courtesy of Jonathan Karl. As the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News, he’s covered Trump since the start of his presidential campaign. Now he assesses the wreckage of the presidency in ” Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump...
Rep. Speier, survivor of 1978 Jonestown assault, to retire
WASHINGTON — Longtime California Rep. Jackie Speier, who first ran for office after surviving a 1978 ambush by cult followers that killed her congressman boss, said Tuesday that she would not seek reelection. The seven-term congresswoman’s decision to step down from a safe Democratic seat in the San Francisco Bay...
Vote on new Ohio congressional map on track by Thanksgiving
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A definitive map of Ohio’s new congressional districts appeared fast-tracked to be pushed through the Republican-led Legislature before Thanksgiving, over the objections of some voting-rights advocates and Democrats on Tuesday. At issue is the once-per-decade requirement that states redraw congressional districts to reflect updated census figures. The...
Democrat Jumaane Williams says he’s running for N.Y. governor
NEW YORK — Democrat Jumaane Williams, New York City’s elected public advocate, is running for New York governor, making the self-described activist perhaps the most progressive candidate in next year’s increasingly crowded race already featuring two formidable and potentially history-making candidates. Williams, a 45-year-old former New York City councilman who...
Wyoming GOP votes to stop recognizing Liz Cheney as a Republican
CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Republican Party will no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP in its second formal rebuke for her criticism of former President Donald Trump. The 31-29 vote Saturday in Buffalo, Wyo., by the state party central committee followed votes by local GOP...
Biden signs infrastructure bill into law at rare bipartisan gatheringVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed his hard-fought $1 trillion infrastructure deal into law Monday before a bipartisan, celebratory crowd on the White House lawn, declaring that the new infusion of cash for roads, bridges, ports and more is going to make life “change for the better” for the American...
Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy won’t seek reelection
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the longest-serving member of the Senate, said Monday he will not seek reelection in 2022 to the seat he has held for eight terms. Leahy, 81, said he and his wife, Marcelle, have concluded that “it is time to pass the...
Democrat Beto O’Rourke running for Texas governor in 2022
AUSTIN, Texas — Democrat Beto O’Rourke is running for governor of Texas, pursuing a blue breakthrough in America’s biggest red state after his star-making U.S. Senate campaign in 2018 put him closer than anyone else in decades. O’Rourke’s announcement Monday kicks off a third run for office in as many...
DA-elect Nicole Ziccarelli burst onto scene, but her rise should not come as a surprise
In the anxious days after the November 2020 election, Nicole Ziccarelli knew she had the votes to head to the state Senate to represent her adopted home in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the Mon Valley community where she grew up. But after a few tumultuous weeks of vote counting and...
Steve Bannon indicted on contempt charges for defying 1/6 subpoena
Steve Bannon, a longtime ally to former President Donald Trump, was indicted Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress after he defied a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The Justice Department said Bannon, 67, was indicted on one count for refusing...
New limits would curtail lobbyist perks for Pa. lawmakers, but one leader could stand in the way
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 lawmakers and other elected officials have for years been able to pocket almost anything sent their way by...
Big Bird backlash: Vax lands even Muppet in political flap
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Smokey Bear taught kids the importance of preventing wildfires. McGruff the Crime Dog warned them not to talk to strangers. And in 1972, Big Bird lined up on “Sesame Street” to receive a measles vaccine as part of a campaign to get more youngsters inoculated against the...
