TAMMY BALDWIN

Wisconsin Republicans still reeling from an April election that saw conservatives lose majority control of the state Supreme Court hope to use their upcoming state convention to unify and refocus on the looming presidential race in which Wisconsin will once again be a battleground.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is seeking a third term in battleground Wisconsin.

A conservative tilt on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has given Republicans victories in high-stakes cases in recent years, from voting restrictions to gerrymandered legislative districts.

Passing legislation to protect same-sex marriages in the Senate was a monthslong effort, building on a decadeslong push.

The House has given final approval to protections for same-sex marriages.

Legislation that ensures same-sex and interracial marriages are recognized as legal unions appears headed for final approval and President Joe Biden’s signature.

The Senate has passed landmark bipartisan legislation to protect same-sex marriages.

Democrats celebrating a successful effort to keep control of the U.S. Senate this year will soon confront a 2024 campaign that could prove more challenging.

Legislation to protect same-sex and interracial marriages has crossed a major Senate hurdle, putting Congress on track to take the historic step of ensuring that such unions are enshrined in federal law.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is leaning into controversy as he runs for his third term.

Democrats are punting a vote to protect same-sex and interracial marriages until after the November midterm elections, a blow for the legislation that comes days after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to put the Senate on the record on the issue “in the coming weeks.”.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says the Senate will vote on legislation to protect same-sex marriage “in the coming weeks” as a bipartisan group backing the bill is tweaking it to gain Republican support.

The Respect for Marriage Act would ensure that same-sex marriages are recognized nationwide.

As the Senate contemplates legislation to protect same-sex marriages, there has been a sharp shift in Republican support for the issue.

Wisconsin Democrats gathering for their annual state convention this weekend are focused on reelecting Gov. Tony Evers and defeating Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.

Republican former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson announced Monday that he won't run again in a bid to take on the Democratic incumbent in the battleground state.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is pushing Ketanji Brown Jackson closer to confirmation, setting up a vote next week to recommend her nomination to the full Senate and seat her as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's opposition to President Joe Biden's judicial nominee in Wisconsin has surprised Democrats and is providing the latest test to the Senate tradition of letting home state senators block district court judges from advancing.

The Democrats’ fragile hold on the Senate majority has become vividly apparent with the sudden illness of of New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján.

Democrats are fretting about how they’d divide a shrinking pie amid signs that negotiations over President Joe Biden’s massive domestic policy bill could yield a smaller serving of health care spending.

Three Democratic U.S. senators from states that have refused to expand Medicaid want the federal government to set up a mirror plan to provide health insurance coverage to people in those states.

Ten liberal senators are urging President Joe Biden to back India and South Africa’s appeal to the World Trade Organization to temporarily relax intellectual property rules so coronavirus vaccines can be manufactured by nations that are struggling to inoculate their populations.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)WASHINGTON – The U.S. is scrambling to expand DNA mapping of coronavirus samples taken from patients to identify potentially deadlier mutations that are starting to spread around the country. The U.S. now maps only the genetic makeup of a minuscule fraction of positive virus samples, a situation some experts liken to flying blind. Baldwin says the U.S. should be analyzing at least 15% of positive virus samples. “Genomic sequencing testing is how we will spot variants early before they spread,” said White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients. The CDC will have to set standards for state health officials and academic research institutions to fully share the information they glean from analyzing virus samples.

“People are confused by this whole witness requirement,” said Barbara Beckert, an advocate for Disability Rights Wisconsin, which was part of a lawsuit that unsuccessfully challenged the witness mandate. To get it right, you have to follow a lot of very specific rules.”There are early signs that voters are struggling to follow those rules. In North Carolina, over 200,000 ballots have been returned and processed since early voting began almost three weeks ago. “This agreement is a victory for all eligible older voters in North Carolina,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, whose North Carolina affiliate sued over the rules. ___AP’s Advance Voting guide brings you the facts about voting early, by mail or absentee from each state: https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020/

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)LAS VEGAS Democratic Party luminaries, rising stars, former presidents and presidential contenders have been making a pitch for Joe Biden over three days of an atypical convention. Biden will speak Thursday night from Wilmington, Delaware, as he closes out the fourth night of the all-virtual Democratic National Convention, starting at 9 p.m. The 78-year-old moderate and former Republican being given a spot to help to close out the Democratic convention is striking. The convention is also available to watch on Twitch, Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire TV. A celebrity-studded afterparty hosted by Andy Cohen is scheduled to be shown immediately after Bidens speech on the official livestream.

In a report issued Wednesday, the State Department called out Bosnia, Belarus, Ukraine and particularly Poland for not having acted on restitution claims. Croatia, Latvia and Russia were also taken to task in the report, which is likely to draw angry responses from the governments identified. The report noted that Poland, which had the largest Jewish community in Europe before the outbreak of World War II, has not yet enacted comprehensive legislation on national property restitution or compensation covering Holocaust confiscations. Only about half of 5,500 claims for Jewish communal property have been adjudicated and half of those were rejected, it said. As the JUST Act report makes clear, Holocaust survivors and Jewish communities continue to wait for justice for property that was wrongfully taken from them, said Gideon Taylor, operations chairman of the World Jewish Restitution Organization.

Wisconsin, where Trump won by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016, joins newly emerging battleground Arizona as the first two states where Biden has named his campaign team. Two veterans of Sen. Tammy Baldwins successful 2018 reelection campaign will run Bidens Wisconsin operation. Shirley Ellis, a longtime adviser to U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, will join Biden team as a strategic adviser focused on Milwaukee. She will join Bidens campaign formally after the August convention, according to the campaign. The Wisconsin team, especially, is intended to show that the Biden campaigns talk of a wide map isnt at the exclusion of traditional battlegrounds.