Politics Election category, Page 248
Texas constituents take to the internet to take down Sen. Ted Cruz’s trip to MexicoVideo
As the state of Texas was in a deep freeze, Sen. Ted Cruz was feeling the heat. Cruz, who took his family this week to sunny Cancun, Mexico, for a vacation while citizens in the Lone Star State struggled during a deadly winter storm, was raked over the coals Thursday...
Democrats consider piecemeal approach to immigration reformVideo
WASHINGTON — After decades of failed attempts to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden are signaling openness to a piece-by-piece approach. They unveiled a broad bill Thursday that would provide an eight-year pathway to citizenship for 11 million people living in the country without legal status....
Philadelphia lawmaker Malcolm Kenyatta to run for U.S. SenateVideo
HARRISBURG — A Philadelphia Democrat, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, said Thursday that he is running for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat in the election next year. Kenyatta, 30, is in his second term in the state House of Representatives. Last year, he campaigned around the country for President Joe Biden...
Georgia House Republicans push to ban early voting on Sunday
ATLANTA — Republican lawmakers in Georgia’s state House on Thursday introduced a sweeping election bill that would place restrictions on absentee voting and ban counties from holding early voting on Sundays, a popular day for Black churchgoers who vote during “Souls to the Polls” events. The bill comes after Black...
Ivanka Trump tells Marco Rubio she won’t run for his Senate seat
WASHINGTON — Ivanka Trump will not be running for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s U.S. Senate seat in 2022 as she settles into life after Washington. The former president’s eldest daughter and ex-senior White House adviser spoke with Rubio several weeks ago and told him she would not be running for...
Sen. Ted Cruz says he went to Mexico amid deadly storm ‘to be a good dad’
DALLAS — With Texas paralyzed by a winter storm, Sen. Ted Cruz took his family on vacation to Cancun, Mexico, drawing criticism from leaders in both parties and potentially damaging his political ambitions. In a statement on Thursday, Cruz said he was returning to Texas. He said he accompanied his...
Arkansas state senator says he’s leaving Republican Party
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A longtime Arkansas legislator and nephew of the state’s Republican governor said Thursday that he’s leaving the GOP, citing former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol by the former president’s supporters. State Sen. Jim Hendren’s announcement closes the door on...
Florida governor threatens to pull coronavirus vaccine from communities that criticize distributionVideo
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Wednesday that he would divert covid-19 vaccines from communities that criticize his distribution methods, sparking complaints that he is playing politics with lifesaving medicine. DeSantis is facing questions in Manatee County over a decision to give seniors living in two of...
Fact check: Joe Biden and his shifting goalposts on reopening schools
WASHINGTON — How do you define success when it comes to reopening schools in the pandemic? President Joe Biden and his aides are having difficulty settling on an answer to that question. At his town-hall forum Tuesday night, Biden denied that his administration ever thought one day of classroom instruction...
Biden reframes his goal on reopening of elementary schoolsVideo
MILWAUKEE — President Joe Biden is promising a majority of elementary schools will be open five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office, restating his original goal after his administration came under fire when aides said schools would be considered open if they held...
Trump slams Mitch McConnell as GOP divide deepens post-impeachmentVideo
WASHINGTON — In the most caustic sign yet of deepening GOP divisions, former President Donald Trump blistered Mitch McConnell as a “political hack” on Tuesday, days after the Senate’s top Republican denounced him as the inciter of U.S. Capitol attack. “The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong...
Western Pa. GOP focuses ire on Pat Toomey, as Republicans battle for control of the party
The border separating Allegheny County from the surrounding metro area is beginning to look more like the fault lines shaking a Republican Party trying to come to terms with the aftermath of a second impeachment trial of former President Trump. County GOP chairs in Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette, Lawrence, York and...
Delay in census data could put transparency in Pa.’s redistricting process at risk
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, including TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Votebeat, a project focused on election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — The data needed to redraw Pennsylvania’s political...
5 Republicans seek party nod for special election in 59th state House district
Five Republicans — four from Westmoreland County and one from Somerset County — are seeking the party’s nod to run in the May 18 special election to fill the vacancy in the 59th District State House seat created by the death of Mike Reese. The 42-year-old Republican from Mt. Pleasant...
Democrat’s lawsuit accuses Trump of inciting deadly Capitol riotVideo
WASHINGTON — The House Homeland Security chairman accused Donald Trump in a federal lawsuit Tuesday of inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and conspiring with his lawyer and extremist groups to try to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election he lost to Joe Biden....
N.C. GOP votes to censure Sen. Richard Burr for impeachment vote
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Republican Party unanimously approved a resolution Monday to censure Sen. Richard Burr over his vote to convict former President Donald Trump during Trump’s second impeachment trial. Michael Whatley, the state party chairman, said the central committee’s decision serves as a symbolic gesture of the party’s...
Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson downplays attack on U.S. Capitol
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson downplayed the storming of the U.S. Capitol last month, saying on conservative talk radio Monday that it “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.” Johnson’s comments on WISN-AM in Milwaukee came after he voted Saturday to acquit former President Donald...
Pelosi says independent commission will examine Capitol riot
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress will establish an independent, Sept. 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol. Pelosi said the commission will “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic...
The inside story of how Pennsylvania failed to deliver millions in coronavirus rent relief
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 — It was late August, just past noon, and time was running out. Bryce Maretzki was in charge of a...
Biden faces questions about commitment to minimum wage hike
WASHINGTON — Union activist Terrence Wise recalls being laughed at when he began pushing for a national $15 per hour minimum wage almost a decade ago. Nearly a year into the pandemic, the idea isn’t so funny. The coronavirus has renewed focus on challenges facing hourly employees who have continued...
Support grows for Capitol riot inquiry after Trump acquittalVideo
WASHINGTON — After what one called a “heartbreaking” verdict, House prosecutors who argued for Donald Trump’s conviction of inciting the U.S. Capitol riot said Sunday they had proved their case and railed against the Senate’s Republican leader and most of his colleagues for “trying to have it both ways” in...
Impeachment isn’t the final word on Capitol riot for Donald TrumpVideo
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s acquittal at his second impeachment trial may not be the final word on whether he’s to blame for the deadly Capitol riot. The next step for the former president could be the courts. Now a private citizen, Trump is stripped of his protection from legal liability...
Trump remains dominant force in GOP following acquittal
NEW YORK — The Republican Party still belongs to Donald Trump. After he incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last month, the GOP considered purging the norm-shattering former president. But in the end, only seven of 50 Senate Republicans voted to convict Trump in his historic second impeachment...
California GOP pumps $125K into recall against Gov. Newsom
LOS ANGELES — The California Republican Party announced Saturday it is giving $125,000 to the campaign aimed at recalling Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. The infusion of cash comes at a critical time for organizers, who are required to collect 1.5 million valid petition signatures by mid-March to qualify the proposal...
Trump acquitted, denounced in historic impeachment trial
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday of inciting the horrific attack on the U.S. Capitol, concluding a historic impeachment trial that spared him the first-ever conviction of a current or former U.S. president but exposed the fragility of America’s democratic traditions and left a divided nation to come to...
