REPUBLICANS

Former Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway breaks down the messaging Republicans need to push for a "monster vistory" in November on "Hannity."

Wisconsin is home to a high-profile senatorial and gubernatorial race, and crime rates are a hot-button issue.

WASHINGTON — (AP) — President Joe Biden signed into law Friday a bill that finances the federal government through mid-December and provides another infusion of military and economic aid to Ukraine after lawmakers acted to avert a partial government shutdown set to begin after midnight. Look what's happening in Florida right now. The bill generally keeps spending at current levels, though it does provide more than $12.3 billion in Ukraine-related aid. The bill would provide an additional $1 billion for a program that helps low-income households heat their homes. One thing missing from the bill is the billions of dollars in additional funding that Biden sought to aid the response to COVID-19 and monkeypox.

Just people,” Biden said at a luncheon during the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum's annual conference. She described new laws enacted by President Joe Biden as “some of the most transformational legislation in generations.”“And we did it with only 50 votes in the Senate,” the first lady said. “We can’t decide what Republicans do, but we can decide what we’re going to do, and what women do is win,” Jill Biden said. “Republican leaders have underestimated the power of women, but we’re going to make sure that they never make that mistake again,” she said. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

First lady Jill Biden says Republican leaders have underestimated the power of women and that it's up to Democrats to make sure the GOP doesn't make that mistake again.

Her comments came as a response to the transportation of migrants to New York City, Washington D.C., and other localities that have touted themselves as sanctuaries for illegal immigrants.

WASHINGTON — (AP) — The Democratic-led House passed a short-term spending bill on Friday that finances the federal government through mid-December and provides another infusion of military and economic aid to Ukraine as lawmakers acted to avert a partial government shutdown set to begin after midnight. Look what's happening in Florida right now. But Republicans complained the bill brought to the floor was not subject to bipartisan negotiations in the House and didn't reflect their priorities. The bill generally keeps spending at current levels, though it does provide more than $12.3 billion in Ukraine-related aid. The bill would provide an additional $1 billion for a program that helps low-income households heat their homes.

President Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that finances the federal government through mid-December and provides another infusion of military and economic aid to Ukraine.

Instead, Republicans could be on the verge of winning control of the Illinois Supreme Court, where Democrats currently hold a 4-3 majority. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe, state judicial races have become even more important for Democratic groups working to protect abortion rights. Curran touted his opposition to abortion rights when he ran unsuccessfully for Senate two years ago. The state supreme court races that abortion rights supporters say they are most concerned with are ones Republicans already have been targeting, but for other issues. "We have to do more in the states about the influence and power of our state supreme court."

The case for Democrats eliminating the debt ceiling in the lame-duck session is as strong as ever.

Oct. 2 marks 100 days since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, ending federal abortion access.

The continuing resolution will extend current government funding levels until Dec. 16. It also includes $12.4 billion in military and diplomatic spending to help Ukraine and $18.8 billion for domestic disaster recovery efforts.

"Special Report" panelists weigh in on the competitive races in Wisconsin, Georgia and others ahead of the 2022 November midterm elections.

Republican and Democratic senators explain their reasoning behind their votes on a continuing resolution that extended government funding through mid-December.

WASHINGTON — (AP) — The House on Thursday approved sharply scaled-down legislation targeting the dominance of Big Tech companies by giving states greater power in antitrust cases and increasing money for federal regulators. The more limited bill would give states an upper hand over companies in choosing the location of courts that decide federal antitrust cases. Proponents say this change would avert the “home-court advantage” that Big Tech companies enjoy in federal court in Northern California, where many of the cases are tried and many of the companies are based. Amazon has used its dominance to copy competitors’ products and run small businesses into the ground.”The Biden administration, which has pushed for antitrust legislation targeting Big Tech, endorsed the bill this week. Mike Lee of Utah, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Chuck Grassley of Iowa came out this week in support of the new House legislation.

It doesn't control debt and Congress increasingly doesn't even pretend that it does.

The House has approved antitrust legislation targeting the dominance of Big Tech companies by giving states greater power in competition cases and increasing money for federal regulators.

The Senate voted 72 to 25 to pass a funding bill to avert a federal shutdown and fund government operations through mid-December.

Claiming she wanted to make things 'uncomfortable' like Republicans do, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talked about her preferred birth control method during a House hearing.

Examining Hunter Biden's entire existence isn't something Rep. James Comer said the GOP relishes, but it's also something they just can't drop.

The GOP is leading in Wisconsin's Senate and governor's race among Republican and Independent voters, while Democrats continue to make abortion the center of their midterm focus.

Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner defended his crime policies and refused to resign during an interview with local media on Wednesday. Krasner argues his policies are "working."

Six GOP-led states are suing the Biden administration to try and halt its plan to forgive student loan debt.

Hispanics care more about economic issues like the spike in gas and food prices than about cultural issues like abortion. That's a huge GOP opportunity.

WASHINGTON — (AP) — Six Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration in an effort to halt its plan to forgive student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans, accusing it of overstepping its executive powers. “It’s patently unfair to saddle hard-working Americans with the loan debt of those who chose to go to college,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who is leading the group, said in an interview. Iowa has a Democratic attorney general, but the state's Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, signed on the state's behalf. Biden's forgiveness program will cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 in income. Democratic lawmakers battling in tough reelection contests also distanced themselves from the student loan plan, as Republican officials called it an unfair government giveaway for relatively affluent people at the expense of those who didn’t pursue higher education.

Six Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration to try and halt its plan to forgive student loan debt for millions of Americans.

AUSTIN, Texas — (AP) — Beto O'Rourke spent his 50th birthday this week behind the wheel of his pickup in Texas, fast approaching a big moment in his uphill climb for governor. "Here's the way I see it: Most Texans are just beginning to tune into this election," O'Rourke said in an interview. But as Texas Democrats also know, those same issues have failed to carry them in past elections. To say O'Rourke has been here before would be true of just about anywhere in Texas. Villalba, who now runs the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation, said O'Rourke has had to overcome “baggage” from his presidential campaign.

The stakes are high for Democrat Beto O’Rourke on Friday night in his only debate against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas.

A memo making rounds in the Senate this week details how the border and fentanyl crises are correlated as overdose deaths take a toll on Americans across the country.

Voters keep track and journalists document events. All politicians need to "pay the fiddler" eventually and this week was Senator Joe Manchin's turn.

Schumer had agreed to try to pass a Manchin-drafted bill that would streamline the federal permitting process for energy projects, both clean energy and fossil fuels. “Senate Republicans have made very clear they will block legislation to fund the government if it includes bipartisan permitting reform,” Schumer said. "A failed vote on something as critical as comprehensive permitting reform only serves to embolden leaders like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin who wish to see America fail," Manchin said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon. They had opposed the permitting reform initiative because it would have made it easier for fossil fuel projects to gain approval. But most of them had gradually come out against attaching permitting reform to the government funding bill, known as a continuing resolution.

“We are in a bunch of close races,” McConnell told reporters during a press conference. “Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” McConnell said at a press conference in Florence, Kentucky, in mid-August. Republicans have been pleading with him to help direct money to lift Blake Masters, the GOP candidate for Senate there. McConnell and his counterpart in the House, Kevin McCarthy, have pledged to focus on “kitchen table” issues like rising costs and crime. “I think that issue is playing out in different ways in different states,” McConnell said when asked if Republicans were concerned about it.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that he believes his party now has a “50-50 shot” of getting the chamber back less than six weeks away from the midterm elections. “We are in a bunch of close races,” McConnell told reporters during a press conference. The comments reflect a greater degree of optimism from the GOP leader after he drew criticism last month from fellow Republicans when he downplayed the party’s chances in the fall elections, saying it would be more likely for the party to gain control of the House than the Senate.

Both Democrats and Republicans keep retreating into their corners.

Shapiro's massive cash haul brings the candidate's fundraising total this cycle to more than $50 million — the most of any gubernatorial candidate in the state ever.

Voters tend to react against the party in power, but a Republican Supreme Court is exercising more power than a Democratic Congress and White House.

The bipartisan bill is meant to prevent another Jan. 6, 2021.

The Congressional Leadership Fund is running seven new ads in competitive House districts.

Democrats facing tough elections for seats in the House have seemingly abandoned their support for criminal justice provision they once championed.

Kansas voters responded in August by overwhelmingly rejecting a ballot measure expected to lead to more restrictions or a ban on abortion. Davids on Saturday launched an ad attacking Adkins on abortion that follows up on multiple Kansas Democratic Party mailings, including to Republicans. It would have removed protections for abortion from the state Constitution, which would have allowed the state Legislature, dominated by abortion opponents, to greatly restrict or ban abortion. Davids voted last year for a Democratic measure to guarantee abortion rights across the U.S. and override state restrictions. But Republican state Rep. Samantha Poetter Parshall said that Davids is an “extremely hard sell,” especially with conservative farmers.

Kansas' only Democrat in Congress is hoping abortion-rights voters remain fired up enough to save her swing-district seat even if some of them blame her party for housing and grocery prices.

USA TODAY Sports' Paul Myerberg and Dan Wolken break down why Michigan could be in trouble this season.

The "Special Report" All-Star panel offered predictions on the political implications of the national crime wave and sounded off on the government spending bill.

WASHINGTON — (AP) — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has abandoned, for now, his push to speed up the permitting process for energy projects, easing the Senate’s path toward passing a stopgap spending bill that would keep the federal government running when the fiscal year ends at midnight Friday. Manchin said he was ready to work with colleagues to move forward with permitting legislation at another time. McConnell said he would vote against proceeding to the short-term spending bill if it included Manchin's legislation and encouraged others to vote no, too, a powerful signal to GOP lawmakers. The bill would have effectively approved the pipeline and steered legal challenges to a different federal court. The White House issued a statement in support of the stopgap spending bill as the voting took place, applauding the help for Ukraine.

The bipartisan bill is meant to prevent another Jan. 6, 2021.

Republicans took their revenge on Democrat Manchin over his vote last month for Democrats' big climate and health law, the Inflation Reduction Act.

Conservatives in the South Carolina House have rejected what they contend is a watered-down abortion measure, meaning the state likely will maintain its ban on the procedure at six weeks.

Sen. Joe Manchin Tuesday asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to take energy permitting language out of a government funding bill.

WASHINGTON — (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he will “proudly support” legislation to overhaul rules for certifying presidential elections, bolstering a bipartisan effort to revise a 19th century law and avoid another Jan. 6 insurrection. McConnell made the remarks just before a committee vote on the legislation. The Senate Rules Committee is expected to approve the legislation Tuesday and send it to the full chamber for consideration. Differences between the House and Senate bills will have to be resolved before final passage, including language around congressional objections. The House bill also lays out new grounds for objections, while the Senate does not.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — (AP) — Conservative South Carolina lawmakers voted Tuesday not to make changes to the state's abortion laws after this summer's U.S. Supreme Court decision, meaning rules on abortion likely will not become more restrictive. South Carolina was for decades at the forefront of passing more restrictive abortion laws that challenged Roe v. Wade, before the landmark case was overturned this summer. The Senate could only muster enough votes to tweak South Carolina's current six-week ban — which isn't even in effect at the moment because of a state Supreme Court challenge. The Senate’s three women joined two other Republicans against a nearly total abortion ban, leaving the chamber short of votes needed to end a potential filibuster. McCravy had said he plans to join about a dozen other of the House's most conservative members who agree the Senate bill is unacceptable to their promise to protect all life.

Like a similar bill that passed the House last week, the Senate bill was prompted by the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob seeking to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win.

The New York Times suggested the Republican Party was selling a deceptive and racially divisive message on crime to voters ahead of November's election.

Conservatives on Twitter hammered a PolitiFact fact-check arguing that Democrats' stolen election claims from previous campaigns were "mostly symbolic."

House Republicans wants DHS to take "every possible step" to stop illegal immigration from Venezuela, as the border cities has seen a spike in migrant encounters.

Republican Denver Riggleman brands House Freedom Caucus members Louie Gohmert and Paul Gosar as conspiracy theorists in Jan. 6 tell-all, "The Breach."

The sweeping measure would provide more than $12 billion to Ukraine, steer millions to Jackson, Miss., to deal with its water crisis and deliver billions in domestic disaster aid.

Sen. Joe Manchin has abandoned his push to speed up the permitting process for energy projects.

Abortion laws in South Carolina almost certainly won’t get more restrictive after Republicans in the General Assembly couldn’t agree on a total ban.

The way President Joe Biden sees it, the overturning of Roe vs.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is rolling out his party's Trump-like midterm election agenda.

Governors races often are overshadowed by the fight for control of Congress during midterm elections.

The House has passed legislation to overhaul the rules for certifying the results of a presidential election as lawmakers accelerate their response to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Donald Trump’s failed attempt to remain in power.

Sen. Joe Manchin on Tuesday railed against what he called “revenge politics″ being used against him, as liberals in the House and Senate team up with Republicans to oppose his plan to speed permits for natural gas pipelines and other energy projects.

Some independent voters who began 2022 looking to Republicans for answers have drifted back to moving toward Democrats.

The far-right forces that former Sen. John McCain successfully marginalized within the Arizona Republican Party are back and in full control, with profound implications for one of the nation’s most closely matched battlegrounds.

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a Texas law targeting major social media companies like Facebook and Twitter.

The Republican leaders of the Arizona Legislature won't try to defend a new law limiting up-close filming of police that has been blocked by a federal judge.

The Louisiana Bond Commission has approved a $39 million future line of credit for a critical New Orleans area power plant project that had become an unlikely pawn in the ongoing political tug-of-war over enforcing Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban.

Republican candidates have given wildly differing responses to South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s plan to ban abortion nationwide at 15 weeks.

President Joe Biden has gathered a crowd at the White House to celebrate last month’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

The House Jan. 6 committee is eyeing a close to its work and a final report laying out its findings about the U.S. Capitol insurrection by the end of the year.

Retired Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc has won New Hampshire’s Republican Senate primary and will face potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan in November.

With the fall campaign rapidly approaching, the time-honored tradition of debates as a forum for voters to evaluate candidates may be the latest casualty of the nation’s polarized political climate.

A Michigan election board has approved a November ballot question on whether the state should expand opportunities to vote.

The Michigan Supreme Court has ordered that an abortion-rights initiative appear on the November ballot.

Wisconsin's 1,800-plus election clerks are racing to understand a judge’s ruling nine weeks before the election that some fear could lead to absentee ballots being counted in some parts of the battleground state but rejected in others.

South Carolina senators have rejected a ban on almost all abortions in a special session.

President Joe Biden’s request for $47 billion in emergency funding is getting a thumbs down from Republicans in Congress.

Republicans hoping to hold on to the Massachusetts governor’s office are choosing between a Donald Trump-backed candidate and a moderate businessman in Tuesday’s primary election.

Conspiracies about rigged elections are now believed by millions of people in the United States, and conferences being held across the country that feature prominent figures pushing such theories are one reason why.

Hundreds of thousands of people have signed initiative petitions for ballot measures in several states that would expand voting access, ensure abortion rights and legalize recreational marijuana.

Kansas' Democratic governor wasted little time after a decisive state vote in favor of abortion rights.

An abortion-rights group has asked the Michigan Supreme Court to approve a November ballot question on whether the right to abortion should be enshrined in the state constitution.

Strict, anti-abortion Republicans running in competitive House, Senate and governor’s races in key battleground states are trying to distance themselves from their past statements and positions.

The wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas contacted at least two Wisconsin state lawmakers urging them to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in 2020 in the tightly contested state.

The few Republican candidates across the U.S. this year who say they support abortion rights still find themselves under attack on the issue.

Wisconsin secretary of state hopeful Amy Loudenbeck says if she wins lawmakers should give her some control of elections in the key battleground state but the Republican candidate isn't saying what she wants to do with it.

State governments flush with money are returning billions of dollars to their residents.

Michigan’s state Board of Canvassers has rejected a ballot initiative seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

An Arizona judge has ordered three Republicans to pay $75,000 in attorney fees for filing a defamation suit against a former Democratic lawmaker “primarily for purposes of harassment.”.

The South Carolina House has approved a bill that outlaws abortion except in the cases of pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

To Democrats championing the White House’s student loan forgiveness plan, it was the long-awaited delivery of one of President Joe Biden’s campaign promises.

Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker has plenty to say about how his Democratic rival, Sen. Raphael Warnock, does his job in Washington.

More than 40 million Americans could see their student loan debt reduced — and in many cases eliminated — under President Joe Biden’s long-awaited forgiveness plan.

With Nikki Fried running to be Florida governor, the Florida commissioner of agriculture seat is open for a new occupant.

The candidates were Lateresa Jones, Tuan Le, Thuy Lowe, Willie Montague, Peter Weed and Calvin Wimbish.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is proposing a $600 million annual tax cut, an election year proposal that Republican legislative leaders are rejecting as a “vote-buying ploy.

Most U.S. adults want to see gun laws made stricter and think gun violence is increasing nationwide.

Potential White House hopefuls from both parties often swing by Iowa’s legendary state fair during a midterm election year.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott often knocks President Joe Biden for the country's high rate of inflation and fears of a looming recession.