Elections
Statehouse Democrats want to use Trump’s big bill to drag down Republicans
PITTSBURG, Kan. — Amid a summer swelter last week, more than 80 people crowded into a trendy gastropub in downtown Pittsburg, Kansas, for cold drinks and hot talk. The subject? Democrats. After disappointing results in November, Kansas state House Democrats are touring the Republican-leaning state, trying to improve relationships and set the stage for a […]
Good-government group pans partisan gerrymandering, urges blue states not to follow suit
States led by Democrats should resist the temptation to conduct their own mid-decade redistricting in response to Republicans in the Texas Legislature moving to redraw U.S. House lines before the 2026 elections, officials with the nonpartisan election integrity group Common Cause said on a press call Tuesday. While blasting Texas Republicans’ effort to remake congressional […]
Missouri ethics panel dismisses complaint involving Republican state senator
An ethics complaint alleging a GOP state senator from Grain Valley was using his church as a political action committee has been formally dismissed. The Missouri Ethics Commission determined the allegations against New Covenant Ministries and state Sen. Joe Nicola were unfounded, dismissing them at a meeting earlier this month. Brad Ketcher, a Democrat attorney […]
‘Kicked a hornet’s nest’: Missouri GOP repeal of voter-approved laws inspires backlash
Republican lawmakers’ decision to overturn a voter-approved expansion of paid sick leave means benefits Missouri workers accrued in recent months will disappear on Aug. 28. They also placed a question on the 2026 ballot rolling back abortion rights that voters enshrined in the state constitution in November. It’s not the first time the GOP-dominated legislature […]
Trump White House pressing Missouri Republicans to redraw congressional map
The Trump White House is ratcheting up pressure on Missouri Republicans reluctant to pursue a new map that could give the GOP seven of the state’s eight seats in Congress. Missouri House Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins of Bowling Green said he received a call Friday afternoon from the White House after staff read his […]
‘We’ve already done that’: Missouri lawmakers show little enthusiasm for new congressional maps
As Texas embarks on a special legislative session that includes revising that state’s congressional districts to help Republicans, President Donald Trump is reportedly asking for Missouri to do the same. The reaction among legislative leaders, however, is decidedly negative. Asked by text about a report from Punchbowl News on a new redistricting effort, state Senate […]
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks in Iowa on education, 2021 election win
Though Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has not said whether he is planning a run for president in 2028, he said during the Iowa GOP Lincoln Dinner on Thursday that he supports keeping the Iowa caucuses first in the nation. Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann asked Youngkin during a “fireside chat” at the fundraiser if he likes […]
Trump’s DOJ wants states to turn over voter lists, election info
The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking the voter registration lists of several states — representing data on millions of Americans — and other election information ahead of the 2026 midterms, raising fears about how the Trump administration plans to use the information. The DOJ is also demanding Colorado turn over all records related to […]
Local election officials worry about federal cuts to security, survey shows
Local election officials across the country fear the loss of federal support for election security, according to a new survey. Sixty percent of local election officials expressed some level of concern, a survey by the Brennan Center for Justice found. The center, a left-leaning pro-democracy institute, surveyed 858 officials between mid-April and mid-May. The concern […]
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison: ‘We are a whisper away from Jim Crow’
When President Donald Trump’s performance in the polls in 2024 signaled a possible re-election, Keith Ellison and fellow Democratic attorneys general read Project 2025 and started getting ready, especially when Trump hired the key author of the planning document after his election. They divided the documents into sections and marshaled their staff lawyers to be […]
Proposed abortion ban one vote away from Missouri ballot
A proposed constitutional amendment that would again ban abortion in Missouri passed out of a state Senate committee on Wednesday, meaning it is one step away from heading to a statewide ballot. The legislation approved on a 4-2 party line vote would repeal the reproductive rights amendment known as Amendment 3 but allow exceptions for […]
Missouri campaign watchdog is once again unable to function due to vacancies
Last fall, St. Louis attorney Brad Ketcher read the news that a Republican candidate for the Missouri Senate was using money from his church to help fund his campaign. As the chief of staff to former Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan in the 1990s, Ketcher helped establish the Missouri Ethics Commission, a state agency that enforces […]