REPUBLICANS

Kentucky’s top-ranking state House Democrat has announced she won’t seek reelection this year, saying she won’t stand in the way of a “person of color” being elected in her newly redrawn Louisville-area district where Blacks make up nearly 50% of the voting-age population.

If Breyer's replacement doesn't yield controversy, it will be unusual.

Breyer, the court’s oldest justice, has been under unprecedented pressure to retire while Democrats have narrow control of the Senate.

(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) (John Minchillo)WASHINGTON — (AP) — Republicans' faith in science is falling as Democrats rely on it even more, with a trust gap in science and medicine widening substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic, new survey data shows. Overall, 48% of Americans say they have “a great deal” of confidence in the scientific community, the 2021 General Social Survey data shows. The poll also found a gap emerging on confidence in medicine, driven primarily by increasing confidence among Democrats. Sudip Parikh, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general science organization, said it's clear that science has become a wedge issue for many politicians. “It’s easy in the abstract to trust science,” Parikh said.

Republicans’ faith in science is falling as Democrats rely on it even more, with a trust gap in science and medicine widening substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is evidence of more GOP sympathy for Vladimir Putin — as pushed most prominently by Trump and Carlson — but it hasn't manifested in big partisan differences when it comes to Ukraine, at least yet.

In politics and economics, too many predictions give disproportionate weight to the events of the recent past.

The writing has been on the wall for a while. Now Republicans in some states are moving forward with actual proposals.

The blue represents the new 1st Congressional District, and it takes in the city of Lawrence at its far eastern edge. Democratic legislators and some local officials see the worst kind of gerrymandering in the GOP's intentions for Lawrence, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Kansas City. The northeast Kansas city of almost 95,000 residents is home to the main University of Kansas campus. They also argued that Lawrence is oriented toward the Kansas City area, with people commuting there for jobs and fun. Davids' current district is overpopulated by nearly 58,000 residents, so Republicans' map moves part of the Kansas City area — where Davids is the strongest — into the neighboring 2nd District of eastern Kansas.

Election 2022 Congress Cooper FILE - Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., talks to reporters at his Nashville office, on Feb. 16, 2018. Cooper says he won't run for reelection after serving in elected office for more than 30 years. Cooper announced that there was "no way" for him to win his seat under a new congressional map drawn up by state Republicans. Cooper is the 29th Democrat to announce he won't seek reelection to the chamber in the fall. His announcement comes just a day after Tennessee’s GOP-controlled General Assembly approved a new congressional map that would split booming Democratic-tilted Nashville three ways. In the 2020 election, Republicans did not put up a general election opponent against Jim Cooper.

The proposal cannot be vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers, who has clashed for nearly with Republicans over how he has allocated billions in pandemic aid.

Republican lawmakers in Kansas are close to passing a congressional redistricting plan that ties a community known for its “woke” politics to Trump-loving small towns and farms five or hours more west by car on the expansive plains.

Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee is retiring after more than 30 years in elected office.

Legal experts say the illegitimate submissions should motivate Congress to update the Electoral Count Act and "firm up the guardrails" of democracy.

More than any other senator, Jeff Merkley has frayed the fabric of the chamber's vaunted 60-vote threshold. And he doesn't mind if that's used against his own party in the future.

House GOP leaders are privately discussing curtailing lawmakers from owning stocks and are aiming to make it part of their 2022 agenda.

House GOP leaders are privately discussing curtailing lawmakers from trading stocks while in office and are aiming to make it part of their 2022 agenda.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — (AP) — A Trump-aligned Republican and an underdog progressive Democrat are taking an unusually early step in their campaigns for the U.S. Senate: They're holding a debate. The odd match-up between Josh Mandel, a former GOP state treasurer, and Democrat Morgan Harper, a former consumer protection lawyer, is being held Thursday at North Columbus Baptist Church. It comes before either party's competitive primary has been decided, so it's unclear what purpose the event may serve beyond a bit of publicity. But the candidates said — in an, again, unconventional joint press release — that they want the event to be about ideas, and informing voters. "The democratic process needs to be about engaging people, elevating the issues and making sure that voters know where each candidate stands,” she said.

A Trump-aligned Republican and an underdog progressive Democrat are taking an unusually early step in their campaigns for the U.S. Senate: They’re holding a debate.

A new Fox News poll shows voters -- and especially independents -- overwhelmingly say they favor electing someone else in 2024. The numbers are worse even than Obama's and Trump's worst polls.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had proposed the system in May 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and Republicans have used it despite their lawsuit against it

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.

A letter from the office of Attorney General Jason Miyares sent to the Supreme Court cited a "change in Administration" in its new stance.

A letter from the office of Attorney General Jason Miyares sent to the Supreme Court cited a "change in Administration" in its new stance.

The former House speaker said lawmakers investigating the U.S. Capitol riot “face a real risk of jail."

An appeals court said it couldn't resolve a dispute between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy over COVID-19 proxy voting.

Activists warn that the failure to deliver on promises to Black voters could hurt Democrats in the midterm election.

Mackenzie Salmon 'overreacts' to the biggest storylines from the AFC Divisional round games and looks ahead to the AFC title game.

Democrats braced for disaster when state legislatures began redrawing congressional maps, fearing that Republican dominance of statehouses would tilt power away from them for the next decade. For Democrats, the worst case scenario of losing well over a dozen seats in the U.S. House appears unlikely to happen. After some aggressive map drawing of their own in states with Democratic legislatures, some Democrats predict the typical congressional district will shift from leaning to the right of the national vote to matching it, ending a distortion that gave the GOP a built-in advantage over the past five House elections.

The House committee’s conversations with Barr are further indication that several former Trump administration officials are cooperating with the panel even as others are fighting efforts to compel their testimony.

"They have not had to cast one bloody vote — which shows us where they're at," Sanders said of the legislative inaction. "We have got to change that."

Harriet Hageman, the GOP primary candidate endorsed by former President Trump to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), won a straw poll held by Wyoming Republican State Central Committee on Saturday, per the Casper Star Tribune. Why it matters: Hageman won 59 votes, while Cheney only amassed six, according to the Star Tribune. The vote comes eight months ahead of the GOP primary and could be an indicator of the likelihood of Cheney's ouster. Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insigh

"We made significant progress in making it easier for folks to vote in the pandemic in 2020," Sen. Coons said. "Why would we be rolling that back?"

The symbolic action comes as Sinema has come under criticism from progressive groups in Arizona after she voted to uphold the filibuster in the Senate.

It mimics a Texas law ​that leaves enforcement up to private citizens through lawsuits.

After months of damaging internal bickering, the president needs to unite his party behind more realistic legislative goals and refocus voters’ attention on the GOP’s failings.

American Oversight found that groups in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin sent in false documents to Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the criticism he received over a comment made about African American voters is outrageous and offensive.

“I don’t know how you apply stand your ground to that scenario,” said Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican who voted in 2010 for the law currently on the books. “It's meant to be for self-defense, to allow you to protect yourself.”Kansas lawmakers focused on the self-defense rights of private individuals in a 2010 version. The Kansas law eliminated people's duty to retreat before using deadly force against attackers when they believe it's "necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm" to themselves or others. Kansas Republicans' interest in reviewing the law won't necessarily prompt a lessening of "Stand Your Ground" protections in a GOP-leaning state where strong support for gun rights is a political obligation in many areas. Lofton's case is not the first in which Bennett has cited the Stand Your Ground law in not filing a criminal charge.

Even some Republicans who have supported the “stand your ground law” in Kansas want to revisit it following the death of a Black teenager who was restrained at a juvenile intake center in Wichita last September.

Kansas lawmakers were thinking of homeowners facing down burglars and people attacked on the street when they wrote a “stand your ground” law more than a decade ago allowing use of deadly force in self defense. Now even some Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature who support the idea behind the law want to revisit it. Police took 17-year-old Cedric Lofton to the center after a foster care agency said he needed a mental health exam for increasingly erratic behavior.

Seven large tech companies spent nearly $70 million lobbying the U.S. government in 2021 as policymakers from both parties weighed legislation to curtail their power and influence.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Black Americans “are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans,” sparking outrage online. His office said he misspoke and meant to say “other Americans."

In many races, Trump's endorsees are neck-and-neck or behind.

Party leaders have decided that running without a legislative agenda is the winning 2022 strategy. One problem with their plan: If it works, it’ll make governing painful.

A bedrock democratic institution, voting, continues to divide the two major U.S. political parties. States run by Republicans and states run by Democrats are increasingly diverging in their policies on registering to vote, voting in person and voting by mail. These state-by-state battles are a legacy of the 2020 presidential election and former President Donald Trump’s insistence, contrary to all evidence, that it was stolen from him and delivered to Joe Biden. Even the process of declaring whic

Congress Voting Rights Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., alongside other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, stands in front of the Senate chambers to voice his support of voting rights legislation at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. "We know history is on the side of voting rights, and we know that forcing leaders to take stands will ultimately move the ball forward," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday. Just weeks ago, many Democrats were adamant that updating the Electoral Count Act was no substitute for their voting legislation. Biden conceded this week that updating the electoral bill may be Democrats' best opportunity to pass voting legislation through a 50-50 Senate, where much of his agenda has stalled. “It’s a heavy lift, but if we continue to get people to talk there’s a path,” said Tillis, who said tensions over the Democrats' failed voting bill will need to cool before coalition building can seriously begin.

Democrats are picking up the pieces after the collapse of their sweeping voting rights legislation.

The Senate Majority leader downplayed the risks of holding such a public demonstration of the rift within his caucus ahead of the midterm elections.

Linda Blackford: Sometimes gaffes have a way of stating the truth and they confirm many people’s suspicions about who is worthy of our democracy and who is not.

All current members of House Republican leadership, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, voted to overturn the 2020 election result.

Asked about his confidence in the integrity of the 2022 vote, the president missed a golden opportunity to educate Americans about the fragility of democratic institutions.

European Union lawmakers are weighing rules that would require online companies to ramp up efforts to keep harmful content off their platforms and take other steps to protect users.

The rules change was rejected 52-48, with Manchin and Sinema joining the Republicans in opposition. Both Manchin and Sinema say they support the legislation, but Democrats fell far short of the 60 votes needed to push the bill over the Republican filibuster. Next, Schumer put forward a rules change for a “talking filibuster” on this one bill. But that, too, failed because Manchin and Sinema were unwilling to change the Senate rules a party-line vote by Democrats alone. Once reluctant himself to change Senate rules, Biden has stepped up his pressure on senators to do just that.

Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights groups argue is vital for protecting democracy has collapsed.

Biden President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. Biden insisted that voters will come to embrace a more positive view of his tenure — and of his beleaguered party — in time. The president said his “guess” is Russia may move further but he believes President Vladimir Putin doesn’t want full-blown war. “President Biden basically gave Putin a green light to invade Ukraine by yammering about the supposed insignificance of a ‘minor incursion,’” said Republican Sen. Ben Sasse. “President Biden also knows from long experience that the Russians have an extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyberattacks and paramilitary tactics.

President Joe Biden acknowledges that the pandemic has exhausted and demoralized many Americans in his first year in office.

The rules change was rejected in a 52-48 vote, with Manchin and Sinema joining the Republicans in opposition. Both Manchin and Sinema say they support the legislation, but Democrats fell far short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill over the Republican filibuster. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put forward a more specific rules change for a “talking filibuster” on this one bill. But that, too, failed because Manchin and Sinema said they were unwilling to change the rules on a party-line vote by Democrats alone. Once reluctant himself to change Senate rules, Biden has stepped up his pressure on senators to do just that.

A politician who doesn’t doubt the strength of his persuasive powers kept trying to explain himself, defend himself and convince the growing number of Americans who disapprove of him.

He began by reeling off early progress in fighting COVID and showcasing the passage of an ambitious bipartisan roads-and-bridges infrastructure deal.

Biden President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. Biden insisted that voters will come to embrace a more positive view of his tenure — and of his beleaguered party — in time. The president said his “guess” is Russia may move further but he believes President Vladimir Putin doesn’t want full-blown war. “President Biden basically gave Putin a green light to invade Ukraine by yammering about the supposed insignificance of a ‘minor incursion,’” said Republican Sen. Ben Sasse. “President Biden also knows from long experience that the Russians have an extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyberattacks and paramilitary tactics.

Facing high daily Covid cases and major legislative defeats in Washington, President Joe Biden defended his course of action in his first year in office.

For the fifth time in recent months, Senate Republicans this week are expected to block Democrats’ sweeping voting legislation by using a longstanding parliamentary tactic known as the filibuster.

A new election system, narrowly passed by voters in 2020, is set to be used in Alaska races this year.

Martin Luther King III came to Arizona with harsh words for Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, whose refusal to change filibuster rules makes voting rights legislation unlikely to pass in the Senate.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s refusal to provide information to a committee investigating the Capitol riot is deepening a standoff between the committee and GOP lawmakers.

Political divisions about coronavirus policies are evident as state lawmakers across the country are beginning their third year of sessions dealing with another spike in COVID-19 cases.

Gov. Ron DeSantis voices support for a Republican-led bill that would ban most abortions in Florida after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Have an issue you want to talk to your lawmaker about during the Florida Legislative Session? Here's how.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other leading Republicans are intensifying a personal late-stage push to persuade Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to run for the Senate.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, one of former President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters, says he will seek reelection to a third term.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has one message for Americans and the world on the eve of the first anniversary of the Jan_ 6 attack on the Capitol: “Democracy won.”.

In the weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of President Joe Biden’s victory, a small group of House Democrats huddled to contemplate what they would do if then-Vice President Mike Pence tried to overturn the presidential election.

Beneath the glare of television cameras, it seemed hard not to see the Jan. 6 Capitol riot for what it was.

Republican Larry Elder is bypassing a possible rematch with California Gov. Gavin Newsom this year to raise money for House and Senate candidates.

A new poll shows that a year after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, only about 4 in 10 Republicans recall the attack by supporters of then-President Donald Trump as very violent or extremely violent.

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is sounding a skeptical note about the prospects of easing the Senate’s filibuster rules to advance stalled voting legislation.

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is planning televised hearings and a series of reports in the coming months to present its findings and bring its private interviews out into the open.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has signaled her efforts to appeal to moderate Republican and GOP-leaning independent voters whose support is necessary for her to win a tough reelection race in Kansas next year.

President Joe Biden, along with progressive and moderate Democrats, appears determined to return to the negotiating table with Sen. Joe Manchin.

California Democrats appear to have come away with the advantage in a recasting of the state’s congressional districts.

As President Joe Biden announces two more ambassador nominees, the White House and Democrats are warning that maneuvering by some Senate Republicans to block all but a small fraction of Biden’s diplomatic and other national security appointees is doing serious harm to U.S. diplomatic efforts around the globe.

Congress has approved a $2.5 trillion debt limit hike, sending legislation to avert a catastrophic default to President Joe Biden for his signature.

A line from a speech given from the U.S. Senate floor before rioters broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6 tops a Yale Law School librarian’s list of the most notable quotes of 2021.

“19 Kids and Counting" father Jim Bob Duggar has lost his bid for the Arkansas Legislature.

A group supporting former President Donald Trump's agenda is working to bypass Wisconsin's Democratic governor to change the swing state's election laws.

Valérie Pécresse, the head the Paris region and a former conservative minister, has been chosen to run in France’s presidential race for The Republicans party.

The Senate has passed a stopgap spending bill that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates.

President Joe Biden has signed into law the stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government running through Feb. 18.

Vulnerable Democrats from Nevada to New Hampshire are promising to make abortion a centerpiece of their political strategy heading into the midterm elections.

The federal government could be heading for a temporary shutdown.

Election officials in Virginia are painstakenly recounting votes in one of two unresolved races that will settle whether Virginia Republicans have reclaimed the majority in the House of Delegates.

Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the Federal Reserve can’t be sure that inflation will fade in the second half of next year, as many economists expect, a fresh sign of the Fed’s growing concern about rising prices.

Wisconsin Republicans are working to discredit the bipartisan system they created to run elections in the state after President Joe Biden narrowly won last year's presidential race.

Demands by Democrats to fix the nation’s broken immigration system were wielded as a cudgel against Republicans during the 2020 campaign.

The Biden administration has recommended an overhaul of the nation’s oil and gas leasing program to focus on areas that are most suitable for energy development and raise costs for energy companies to drill on public lands and water.

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert has joined the crowded field of Republicans mounting primary challenges against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Ohio's final congressional map sprinted through the Legislature last week and was signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine over the weekend, all in less than five days.

Republicans fighting President Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccine mandates are wielding a new weapon against the White House rules: natural immunity.

A difficult political atmosphere for President Joe Biden may have become even more treacherous after the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse.