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  • IRS Direct File Won’t Be Available Next Year. Here’s What That Means for Taxpayers

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS Direct File, the electronic system for filing tax returns for free, will not be offered next year, the Trump administration has confirmed.

    An email sent Monday from IRS official Cynthia Noe to state comptrollers that participate in the Direct File program said that “IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026. No launch date has been set for the future.”

    The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical. However, it faced criticism from Republican lawmakers, who called it a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist (though they are difficult to use), and from commercial tax preparation companies, which have made billions from charging people to use their software.

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is also the current IRS commissioner, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that there are “better alternatives” to Direct File. “It wasn’t used very much,” he said. “And we think that the private sector can do a better job.”

    The Center for Taxpayer Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act request for IRS’ latest evaluation of the program and the report says 296,531 taxpayers submitted accepted returns for the 2025 tax season through Direct File. That’s up from the 140,803 submitted accepted returns in 2024.

    Direct File was rolled out as a pilot program in 2024 after the IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a “direct file” system as part of the money it received from the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by Biden in 2022. The Democratic administration spent tens of millions of dollars developing the program.

    Last May, the agency under Biden announced that the program would be made permanent.

    But the IRS has faced intense blowback to Direct File from private tax preparation companies that have spent millions lobbying Congress. The average American typically spends about $140 preparing returns each year.

    The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency slashed their way through the federal government. But The Associated Press reported in April that the administration planned to eliminate the program, with its future becoming clear after the IRS staff assigned to it were told to stop working on its development for the 2026 tax filing season.

    As of Wednesday, the Direct File website states that “Direct File is closed. More information will be available at a later date.”

    The Washington Post and NextGov first reported on the email to state comptrollers confirming the program would not be offered next year.

    Adam Ruben, a vice president at the liberal-leaning Economic Security Project, said “it’s not surprising” that the program was eliminated.

    “Trump’s billionaire friends get favors while honest, hardworking Americans will pay more to file their taxes,” he said.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Democrats Are Hopeful Again. but Unresolved Questions Remain About Party’s Path Forward

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — For a day, at least, beleaguered Democrats are hopeful again. But just beneath the party’s relief at securing its first big electoral wins since last November’s drubbing lay unresolved questions about its direction heading into next year’s midterm elections.

    The Election Day romp of Republicans stretched from deep-blue New York and California to swing states Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. There were signs that key voting groups, including young people, Black voters and Hispanics who shifted toward President Donald Trump’s Republican Party just a year ago, may be shifting back. And Democratic leaders across the political spectrum coalesced behind a simple message focused on Trump’s failure to address rising costs and everyday kitchen table issues.

    The dominant performance sparked a new round of debate among the party’s establishment-minded pragmatists and fiery progressives over which approach led to Tuesday’s victories, and which path to take into the high-stakes 2026 midterm elections and beyond. The lessons Democrats learn from the victories will help determine the party’s leading message and messengers next year — when elections will decide the balance of power in Congress for the second half of Trump’s term — and potentially in the 2028 presidential race, which has already entered its earliest stages.

    “Of course, there’s a division within the Democratic Party. There’s no secret,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters at a Capitol Hill press conference about the election results.

    Sanders and his chief political strategist pointed to the success of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as a model for Democrats across the country. But Rep. Suzan Del Bene, who leads the House Democrats’ midterm campaign strategy, avoided saying Mamdani’s name when asked about his success.

    Del Bene instead cheered the moderate approach adopted by Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill in successful races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey as a more viable track for candidates outside of a Democratic stronghold like New York City.

    “New York is bright blue … and the path to the majority in the House is going to be through purple districts,” she told The Associated Press. “The people of Arizona, Iowa and Nebraska aren’t focused on the mayor of New York.”

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a likely Democratic presidential prospect who campaigned alongside Democrats in several states leading up to Tuesday’s elections, noted the candidates hit on a common issue that resonated with voters, regardless of location.

    “All of these candidates who won in these different states were focused on peoples’ everyday needs,” Shapiro said. “And you saw voters in every one of those states and cities showing up to send a clear message to Donald Trump that they’re rejecting his chaos.”

    Amid Democrats’ celebratory phone calls and news conferences, members of the party’s different wings had some sharp critiques for each other.

    While Shapiro cheered the party’s success during a Wednesday interview, he also acknowledged concerns about Mamdani in New York.

    Shapiro, one of the nation’s most prominent Jewish elected leaders, said he’s not comfortable with some of Mamdani’s comments on Israel. The New York mayor-elect, a Muslim, has described Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks as “genocide” against the Palestinian people and has been slow to condemn rhetoric linked to anti-Semitism.

    “I’ve expressed that to him personally. We’ve had good private communications,” Shapiro said of his concerns. “And I hope, as he did last night in his victory speech, that he’ll be a mayor that protects all New Yorkers and tries to bring people together.”

    Meanwhile, Sanders’ political strategist, Faiz Shakir, warned Democrats against embracing “cookie cutter campaigns that say nothing and do nothing” — a reference to centrist Democrats Spanberger and Sherrill.

    Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat who defeated democratic socialist Omar Fateh to win a third term, said at a news conference Wednesday that “we have to love our city more than our ideology.”

    “We need to be doing everything possible to push back on authoritarianism and what Donald Trump is doing,” Frey said. “And at the same time, the opposite of Donald Trump extremism is not the opposite extreme.”

    Despite potential cracks in the Democratic coalition, it’s hard to understate the extent of the party’s electoral success.

    In Georgia, two Democrats cruised to wins over Republican incumbents in elections to the state Public Service Commission, delivering the largest statewide margins of victory by Democrats in more than 20 years.

    In Pennsylvania, Democrats swept not only three state Supreme Court races, but every county seat in presidential swing counties like Bucks and Erie Counties, including sheriffs. Bucks County elected its first Democratic district attorney as Democrats there also won key school board races and county judgeships.

    Maine voters defeated a Republican-backed measure that would have mandated showing an ID at the polls. Colorado approved raising taxes on people earning more than $300,000 annually to fund school meal programs and food assistance for low-income state residents. And California voters overwhelmingly backed a charge led by Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw its congressional map to give Democrats as many as five more House seats in upcoming elections.


    Key groups coming back to Democrats

    Trump made inroads with Black and Hispanic voters in 2024. But this week, Democrats scored strong performances with non-white voters in New Jersey and Virginia that offered promise.

    About 7 in 10 voters in New Jersey were white, according to the AP Voter Poll. And Sherrill won about half that group. But she made up for her relative weakness with whites with a strong showing among Black, Hispanic and Asian voters.

    The vast majority — about 9 in 10 — of Black voters supported Sherrill, as did about 8 in 10 Asian voters.

    Hispanic voters in New Jersey were more divided, but about two-thirds supported Sherrill; only about 3 in 10 voted for the Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli.

    The pattern was similar in Virginia, where Spanberger performed well among Black voters, Hispanic voters and Asian voters, even though she didn’t win a majority of white voters.


    Democrats will soon face a choice

    The debate over the party’s future is already starting to play out in key midterm elections where Democrats have just begun intra-party primary contests.

    The choice is stark in Maine’s high-stakes Senate race, where Democrats will pick from a field that features establishment favorite, Gov. Jan Mills, and Sanders-endorsed populist Graham Platner. A similar dynamic could play out in key contests across Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Michigan.

    Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is aligned with the progressive wing of the party, said the people he speaks to are demanding bold action to address their economic concerns.

    “Folks are so frustrated by how hard its become to afford a dignified life here in Michigan and across the country,” he said.

    “I’m sure the corporate donors don’t want us to push too hard,” El-Sayed continued. “My worry is the very same people who told us we were just fine in 2024 will miss the mandate.”

    Associated Press reporter Mike Catalini in Newark and Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Jury Deliberates in Assault Case Against DC Man Who Threw Sandwich at Federal Agent in Viral Video

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the Justice Department’s assault case against a man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent, turning him into a symbol of resistance to President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital.

    Prosecutors told jurors that Sean Charles Dunn broke the law when he threw his submarine sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent on the night of Aug. 10.

    One of Dunn’s lawyers urged the jury to acquit Dunn, a former Justice Department employee, of a misdemeanor assault charge after a two-day trial. Defense attorney Sabrina Shroff questioned why the case was brought in the first place.

    “A footlong from Subway could not and certainly did not inflict any bodily harm,” Shroff said during the trial’s closing arguments. “Throwing a sandwich is not a forcible offense.”

    Prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office said Dunn knew he didn’t have a right to throw the sandwich at the agent.

    “This is not a case about someone with strong opinions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiLorenzo said. “It’s about an individual who crossed the line.”

    Dunn didn’t testify at his trial. But the jury heard him explain why he confronted a group of CBP agents on the same weekend that Trump announced his deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops and federal agents to assist with police patrols in Washington, D.C.

    After his arrest, a law-enforcement officer’s body camera captured him saying: “I did it. I threw a sandwich. I did it to draw them away from where they were. I succeeded.”

    A grand jury refused to indict Dunn on a felony assault count, part of a pattern of pushback against the Justice Department’s prosecution of surge-related criminal cases. After the rare rebuke from the grand jury, Pirro’s office charged Dunn instead with a misdemeanor.

    When Dunn approached a group of CBP agents who were in front of a club hosting a “Latin Night,” he called them “fascists” and “racists” and chanted “shame” toward them. An observer’s video captured Dunn throwing a sandwich at an agent’s chest.

    “Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.

    Dunn ran away but was apprehended. DiLorenzo said the agents confronted by Dunn showed “the utmost restraint.”

    “He spent seven minutes trying to get them off that corner,” the prosecutor said.

    CBP Agent Gregory Lairmore testified that the sandwich “exploded” when it struck his chest hard enough that he could feel it through his ballistic vest.

    “You could smell the onions and the mustard,” he recalled.

    Lairmore’s colleagues jokingly gave him gifts making light of the incident, including a sandwich-shaped plush toy and a patch that said “felony footlong.” Lairmore acknowledged that he kept the gifts, placing the patch on his lunchbox.

    “If someone assaulted you, someone offended you, would you keep mementos of that assault?” Shroff asked jurors. “Of course not.”

    Dunn was released from custody but rearrested when a team of armed federal agents in riot gear raided his home. The White House posted a highly produced “propaganda” video of the raid on its official X account, Dunn’s lawyers said.

    Dunn worked as an international affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s criminal division. After Dunn’s arrest, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his firing in a social media post that referred to him as “an example of the Deep State.”

    His lawyers urged the judge to dismiss the case for what they allege is a vindictive and selective prosecution. They argued that the posts by Bondi and the White House show Dunn was impermissibly targeted for his political speech.

    Dunn is charged with assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer. Dozens of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol were convicted of felonies for assaulting or interfering with police during the Jan. 6 attack. Trump pardoned or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of them.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Pentagon Denies Republican Accusations It Is Shutting Them Out

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    By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Pentagon on Wednesday denied accusations from senior Republican lawmakers that the agency’s top policy official, Elbridge Colby, was not fully briefing Congress on important national security issues, suggesting a widening rift between the Department of Defense and senators from both parties.

    Republican and Democratic lawmakers slammed the Pentagon’s top official on Tuesday for a lack of briefings and said at times officials appeared to be undermining U.S. President Donald Trump’s own policies, in a rare bipartisan show of frustration with the administration.

    The lawmakers had singled out Colby, the Pentagon’s under secretary of defense for policy.

    “The Department values its relationship with the Hill, and we look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with Congress to support a robust national defense,” Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson said in a statement. 

    Wilson added that Colby’s team had “briefed Congress dozens of times, in both classified and unclassified settings, in addition to other meetings.” She did not provide details on what the briefings were about. 

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has worked to control the information flow about the world’s most powerful military and told Pentagon staff they must obtain permission before interacting with members of Congress.

    During the more than two-hour hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, lawmakers said senior Pentagon officials were unresponsive to questions and concerns from Congress.

    “Man, I can’t even get a response, and we’re on your team,” Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican who is a staunch Trump administration supporter, said. 

    Colby is set to meet Sullivan later on Wednesday, officials said.

    Colby’s team is one of the most powerful parts of the Pentagon, responsible for making policy recommendations to Hegseth.

    (Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil StewartEditing by Rod Nickel)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Mamdani’s Historic Win as New York City’s Mayor Sparks Excitement and Hope Among Many US Muslims

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    Zohran Mamdani’s historic election as New York City’s first Muslim mayor has sparked excitement and hope among American Muslims.

    Many are relieved and proud that anti-Muslim vitriol directed at Mamdani during the campaign didn’t discourage New Yorkers from voting for him.

    “For the first time in a very long time I feel hope — as a Muslim, as a Democrat, as an American, as an immigrant,” said Bukhtawar Waqas, who literally jumped for joy and called her father to celebrate.

    She said she attended Mamdani’s victory speech and was reassured by the diversity of New Yorkers around her despite any challenges that may be ahead.

    Growing up, Waqas, a Pakistani American physician, never thought she’d see a Muslim become mayor of New York City. She said she gravitated toward Mamdani’s messages to the working class and found his affordability vision to have wide resonance.

    Mamdani won the vast majority of Muslim voters; about 9 in 10 Muslim voters supported him, according to the AP Voter Poll. They made up a very small group of voters in the city: about 4% of NYC voters were Muslim.

    Mamdani, a democratic socialist who cast his win as a boon for blue-collar workers struggling to get by, has campaigned on an agenda that includes free buses, free child care and a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments.


    Lives shaped by 9/11’s legacy

    His victory enables “a collective sigh of relief from Muslim New Yorkers, which would ripple across the country,” said Sylvia Chan-Malik, who teaches about Islam in America at Rutgers University. “The legacy of 9/11 and the War on Terror has wholly shaped the lives of entire generations of Muslims in NYC and beyond.”

    It also offers some reassurance that “there are many non-Muslims who see through the lies and distortions about Islam,” she said.

    Waqas said some of the vitriol Mamdani faced reminded her that Islamophobia “is certainly alive and well — and it’s heartbreaking.”

    During his speech, Mamdani said that “no more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election.”

    Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action, a Muslim American advocacy organization that endorsed Mamdani, said the victory was a rebuke to those who stoke fear and spew anti-Muslim bigotry. Calling it a historic moment, he said Mamdani “won on the issues,” including affordability.

    Given 9/11 and its aftermath, it’s hard to overstate the symbolic weight of Mamdani’s win, said Youssef Chouhoud, who teaches political science at Christopher Newport University.

    “It sends a powerful message that Muslims are not just part of this nation’s civic fabric, we help shape it,” Chouhoud said. “For years, American Muslims have worked to show that we belong in this society. Mamdani is showing that we belong in the halls of power, and that we’re ready to lead.”


    A shift from outsiders to insiders

    Muslims make up a small but racially and ethnically diverse percentage of Americans. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, many have faced hostility, mistrust, questions about their faith and doubts over their Americanness. In the years since, many have also organized, built alliances and wrote their own nuanced narratives about their identities.

    “The bigger story here is how a community once seen mainly as outsiders or even scapegoats has steadily built political capital and visibility,” even as some tensions remain, said Chouhoud. “With every gain comes pushback.”

    With Mamdani’s win, Chouhoud said he keeps “thinking about all those young immigrant boys and girls throughout New York who will be standing just a bit taller.”

    New York City resident Ibtesam Khurshid, a Bangladeshi American, is proud that Mamdani succeeded “without betraying any part of his identity.” She is excited that her children will “witness that a South Asian Muslim can lead our great city.”

    His win speaks to New York’s open-mindedness and diversity, she said, adding she hopes his visibility and that of other Muslim politicians can further shatter stereotypes.

    Many Mamdani supporters and detractors will be watching whether he delivers on his promises. Before Mamdani, 34, won a stunning upset over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June’s Democratic primary, he was a state lawmaker unknown to most New Yorkers. Cuomo, who also ran against him in Tuesday’s general election, has argued Mamdani was too inexperienced.

    “I will wake each morning with a singular purpose: To make this city better for you than it was the day before,” Mamdani promised in his victory speech.


    Israel-Hamas war a factor in New York election

    Takiya Khan, who canvassed for Mamdani, said a candidate’s faith and ethnicity have no bearing on her voting decisions, but his support of Palestinian rights and ideas for New York City were a significant draw.

    Positions on Israel and its war in Gaza were points of contention during the race, with some of Mamdani’s detractors assailing him over his vehement criticism of Israel ’s military actions and other related stances.

    Khan said Mamdani’s victory may be impactful. Also on Tuesday, Democrat Ghazala Hashmi became the first Muslim and first Indian American to win statewide office in Virginia.

    “That could be a catalyst for more Muslim mayors, more Muslim politicians to be in office and we need that representation because America is a country for everybody,” she said.

    New York voter Ismail Pathan, an Indian American, was heartened by the support Mamdani received from so many who “don’t look like him.”

    “The United States is a country of different cultures. That’s what makes us incredible,” Pathan said. “Being able to — especially as I’m about to have a child and bring them into the world — to say, ‘Oh look, a Muslim man was elected mayor in New York,’ how incredible of a thing is that?”

    Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Why California Voters Approved a Redistricting Ballot Measure, According to the AP Voter Poll

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Most California voters didn’t like redrawing their congressional districts to favor Democrats. But many may have felt Republicans left them with no alternative.

    The AP Voter Poll, an expansive survey of more than 4,000 voters in California, captured the mixed emotions of an electorate that chose to adopt President Donald Trump’s own strategy of rewriting the rules by redistricting outside of Census years. Most voters in favor of the proposition hoped to counter his efforts to preserve Republican control of the House in next year’s midterm elections – even if they thought redistricting should ideally happen another way.

    The ballot measure’s success, as well as voters’ apparent hesitations, demonstrates how many people appear to see the current redistricting fight as a political necessity, even if they don’t agree with it in principle. The findings suggest that voters see this as a tense and high stakes moment for the country, where compromises may be required.


    California voters said party control of Congress was highly important

    About 9 in 10 California voters said that, generally speaking, each state’s congressional district lines should be drawn by a non-partisan commission. But a majority nevertheless backed Proposition 50 to replace the existing districts with new maps crafted to send more California Democrats to the House of Representatives.

    Roughly 7 in 10 California voters said party control of Congress was “very important” to them, and those voters overwhelmingly supported the amendment to the state’s constitution backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has emerged as one of Trump’s leading antagonists.

    Newsom said ahead of the vote that democracy itself was at risk.

    “Prop 50 is not about drawing lines on a map,” Newsom told a crowd. “It is about holding the line to what makes us who we are.”

    The ballot measure was a response to Trump’s efforts earlier this year to tilt more congressional districts toward the GOP. Voter discontent with the status quo was apparent. About half of California voters said they are angry about the country’s direction, and a similar share pointed to the economy as the most important issue facing the state. Many voters have been left frustrated as Trump’s pledge to vanquish inflation has gone unfulfilled, while his import taxes have created a sense of confusion and chaos among businesses and the public.

    The president has successfully pushed Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri to craft new congressional districts, with Trump placing pressure on additional states in an attempt to swing midterm races that have traditionally favored the party out of the White House.

    “The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump wrote.


    Proposition 50’s “Yes” voters hoped to counter Republicans in other states

    Two-thirds of California voters said they were opposed to states redrawing their congressional district lines in response to how other states have drawn their lines. But the vast majority of the voters who supported the ballot measure said it was necessary to counter the changes made by Republicans in other states.

    California now has the chance to do that by recrafting its 52 House seats in ways that could add five Democrats to Congress in next year’s elections. Democrats and voters who lean toward the Democrats — who make up a majority of voters in the state — overwhelmingly voted in support of the ballot measure.

    Many acknowledged the process so far has been unjust. About half of California voters said neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are handling the redrawing of congressional district lines fairly.

    But knowing the choices made by other state legislatures, enough California voters decided they had the right reason – even if it felt like the wrong thing.

    The 2025 AP Voter Poll, conducted by SSRS from Oct. 22 – Nov. 4, includes representative samples of registered voters in California (4,490), New Jersey (4,244), New York City (4,304) and Virginia (4,215). The AP Voter Poll combines data collected from validated registered voters online and by telephone, with data collected in-person from election day voters at approximately 30 precincts per state or city, excluding California. Respondents can complete the poll in English or Spanish. The overall margin of sampling error for voters, accounting for design effect, is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points in California, 2.1 percentage points in New Jersey, 2.2 percentage points in New York City, and 2.1 percentage points in Virginia.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Factbox-Ten US House Races to Watch in 2026

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    (Reuters) -Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will defend a narrow majority in the November 2026 elections a year from now. Below are some of the races to watch as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the chamber.

    ANOTHER CLOSE CALL IN IOWA?

    Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican, was elected to Congress in 2020 by the thinnest of margins. Her six-vote victory in 2020 swelled into a 20,000-vote advantage over Democratic state Representative Christina Bohannan in 2022. Bohannan closed the gap in a 2024 rematch but still lost by about 800 votes.

    Bohannan is running yet again to unseat Miller-Meeks, but other Democrats are also eager to try to flip one of the most competitive districts in the country. The field for the June 2 Democratic primary includes former state Representative Bob Krause, who served in the Iowa Legislature in the 1970s, healthcare worker Travis Terrell and attorney Taylor Wettach.

    Bohannan outraised Miller-Meeks and her Democratic challengers in the third quarter, which covers July through September, but Miller-Meeks began October with $2.6 million in the bank, and she notably performed better in the lower-turnout 2022 midterms than she did in 2020 and 2024, when President Donald Trump was also on the ballot.

    A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY IN MAINE

    Representative Jared Golden, the lone Democrat to back House Republicans’ stopgap funding bill to avert the ongoing government shutdown, is the most vulnerable House Democrat seeking reelection. Trump won Golden’s district last year by nearly 10 points.

    State Auditor Matt Dunlap, a progressive Democrat, is challenging Golden in the June 9 primary. Former Maine Governor Paul LePage, a Republican, is also running for the seat. The moderate-progressive battle among Maine Democrats is also playing out in a high-profile Senate primary between Governor Janet Mills and oysterman Graham Platner.

    NO INCUMBENT IN NEBRASKA’S SECOND DISTRICT

    Representative Don Bacon is one of just three House Republicans who were reelected in districts that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won last year. The difficulty for Republicans to retain that seat is twofold: Harris won it by more than 4 points, and Bacon is retiring, leaving Republicans without an incumbent in Democrats’ top target.

    Harris also won the districts of Republican Representatives Mike Lawler of New York and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, but her margins were a fraction of a percentage, and both are running for reelection.

    Brinker Harding, an Omaha city councilman, and former state Senator Brett Lindstrom are Republicans contesting the May 12 primary. Democratic primary candidates include Kishla Askins, former deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, state Senator John Cavanaugh, former Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland’s policy director James Leuschen, small business owner Denise Powell and Crystal Rhoades, a district court county clerk.

    CAN REPUBLICANS CAPTURE KAPTUR’S DISTRICT?

    Ohio’s redistricting commission approved a compromise map that will make two Democratic seats more competitive for Republicans. The delegation has 10 Republicans and five Democrats. Representatives Marcy Kaptur, Emilia Sykes and Greg Landsman are the most vulnerable Democrats in the state. Sykes’ district will be slightly less competitive for Republicans.

    Trump won Kaptur’s district by nearly 7 points in 2024. Kaptur won reelection by less than 1 point. A Libertarian candidate won 4% of the vote, an indication that Republicans may have flipped the seat had it been a two-person race. Sykes won by 2 points, and Landsman won by almost 9 points. The compromise avoids a worst-case scenario for Democrats, as Republican lawmakers could have drawn a more partisan map to try to unseat Kaptur, Sykes and Landsman. 

    Representative David Schweikert, a Republican, is vacating his battleground seat to run for governor of Arizona. Schweikert defeated former state Representative Amish Shah by fewer than 4 points in 2024. Shah is seeking the Democratic nomination again in a crowded field for the August 4 primary that includes former journalist Marlene Galán-Woods, who finished a close third in last year’s primary. 

    The Republican field includes Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda and former federal prosecutor Jason Duey. Schweikert’s district was the most competitive in Arizona, a politically divided state that Trump and Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego both won last year.

    TEXAS DEMOCRATS REACH FOR A STAR

    Democrats are excited about the candidacy of Bobby Pulido, a Tejano music star hoping to oust Republican Representative Monica De La Cruz. Though Texas state lawmakers drew a new congressional map to net Republicans as many as five new seats, De La Cruz’s South Texas district remains largely intact. 

    De La Cruz defeated Democrat Michelle Vallejo by 8.5 percentage points in 2022 and 14 points in 2024. House Democrats’ campaign arm has the seat on its target list of districts in play, but Trump won it by 18 points last year, giving Republicans optimism that Democrats risk wasting resources chasing victory in an unwinnable seat. 

    Pulido is not running uncontested for the Democratic nomination in the March 3 primary. Ada Cuellar, an emergency room doctor, is also in the race. De La Cruz has reported raising nearly $2.6 million through September, and she entered October with $1.7 million in the bank, giving her a sizable financial advantage over her opponents with several months to go before the general election matchup is set.

    WILL A WASHINGTON STATE DISTRICT RETURN TO REPUBLICANS?

    Washington’s 3rd Congressional District had been in Republican hands for 12 years until Democratic Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez won it in 2022, narrowly defeating Republican Joe Kent. The longtime incumbent, Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, finished third in the state’s open nonpartisan primary, a system in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election. 

    Gluesenkamp Perez defeated Kent by a larger margin in their 2024 rematch, but Republicans believe a stronger candidate can return the district to their column. Trump carried it by 3 points last year, and Perez won it by nearly 4 points. State Senate Minority Leader John Braun, a Republican, is running for the seat.

    MASSIE’S MESSY MAGA PRIMARY

    Trump pre-endorsed Ed Gallrein over Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky in an October social media post, urging the retired Navy SEAL officer to challenge the incumbent with the president’s “Complete and Total Endorsement.” Gallrein announced his candidacy to take on Massie in the May 19 primary days later.

    Massie voted against Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act and teamed up with Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California on legislation to require the Justice Department to publicly release all unclassified materials related to the federal government’s investigation into the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Massie has also joined Democrats in an effort to circumvent House Republican leadership and force a floor vote on the proposal.

    Trump has called Massie a “Third Rate Congressman” and “Weak and Pathetic RINO” — a party slur  meaning “Republican in name only” — who “must be thrown out of office, ASAP!” Massie has raised $1.8 million this year, more than he has ever raised during any two-year cycle. He entered October with more than $2 million cash on hand.

    DEMOCRATS LINE UP TO OUST LAWLER

    While Republican Representatives John James of Michigan and David Schweikert of Arizona sacrificed their battleground districts to run for governor of their respective states, Republican Representative Mike Lawler did the opposite, avoiding a potential gubernatorial primary against fellow New York Representative Elise Stefanik, a likely candidate, to help House Republicans preserve their majority.

    Lawler is one of three Republicans representing a district Harris won in 2024. Harris won the district by more than half a point, though Lawler defeated former Democratic Representative Mondaire Jones by 6 percentage points. A long line of well-funded Democrats has launched campaigns for the June 23 primary seeking their party’s nomination to unseat Lawler, including Village of Briarcliff Manor Deputy Mayor Peter Chatzky, Army combat veteran and national security expert Cait Conley, Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson, nonprofit leader Jessica Reinmann and former FBI intelligence analyst John Sullivan.

    Lawler has raised more than $4 million this year and has $2.8 million in the bank.

    A SURPRISE IN SAN FRANCISCO?

    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 85, is expected to announce whether she’ll seek reelection to her San Francisco seat after the 2025 election.

    Pelosi stepped down from her leadership role after the 2022 midterms, but she continues to serve in Congress. Her potential departure from the House after nearly 40 years in office could pressure her former deputies, Representatives Steny Hoyer, 86, of Maryland and Jim Clyburn, 85, of South Carolina, to retire as well.

    But Democrats aren’t necessarily waiting for Pelosi to step aside. Saikat Chakrabarti, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff, and state Senator Scott Wiener have already entered the field for the June 2 primary. Other Democrats could also enter the race if Pelosi retires. The seat is safely Democratic.

    (Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Column-A Fair Fight: Defense Lawyers Urge Reform to Allow Criminal Depositions

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    (Reuters) -A group of prominent defense lawyers across the country have joined an effort to fix what they see as a fundamental imbalance in the federal criminal justice system: the near-total ban on pretrial depositions. 

    Federal rules generally prohibit defense lawyers in criminal cases from compelling witnesses to answer questions under oath before trial, even as prosecutors can use grand jury subpoenas to nail down testimony. By contrast, in civil cases — where money, not freedom is at stake — witnesses routinely sit for questioning as part of the evidence-gathering process.

    Historically, arguments against depositions in criminal cases have included concerns about trial delays, the cost of a court reporter to memorialize the proceedings and potential harassment or safety of witnesses.

    Now, defense counsel from law firms and public defenders’ offices are rallying behind a proposal to amend Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to allow up to five depositions in criminal cases, subject to judicial approval. Judges could also allow more under exceptional circumstances.

    At a meeting on Thursday, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’ Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules may opt to begin the years-long process to amend the rule, continue studying the proposal or reject it outright.   

    The rules of civil and criminal procedure provide a standardized framework for all federal court proceedings. Any change requires additional public comment followed by approval from the Judicial Conference, review by the U.S. Supreme Court and transmission to Congress for a final sign-off.

    The proposed Rule 15 amendment is the brainchild of Akerman partners Michael Kelly and Sergio Acosta, who told me they were inspired by their experience representing a criminal defendant in Indiana.

    Their client Bobby Peavler, a former trucking company executive, was charged with accounting and securities fraud in 2019. Peavler denied wrongdoing.

    His case offers a window into how the lack of depositions can distort the fact-finding process.

    Early on, Peavler met with law enforcement for a interview, accompanied by the Akerman lawyers. As is customary, an FBI agent wrote a report summarizing the meeting, but defense counsel said the account was riddled with errors.

    Given the alleged inaccuracies, Kelly and Acosta questioned how they could rely on the government’s summaries of dozens of interviews with other witnesses in the case — meetings where they were not allowed to be present, and where the witnesses had declined to meet with them voluntarily.

    They asked U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson in Indianapolis in 2022 to dismiss the indictment, arguing the allegedly dubious reports meant they couldn’t identify exculpatory information that their client was entitled to under the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland. 

    The judge offered what she termed an “unusual remedy,” permitting the Akerman lawyers to depose 10 witnesses to fact-check the accuracy of the interview notes.

    Rather than allow the depositions to take place, prosecutors moved to dismiss all charges against Peavler, ending the case. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Indiana did not respond to a request for comment. 

    To Kelly and Acosta, there’s an obvious way to avoid such a morass: Allow limited pre-trial depositions of key witnesses. 

    Since Rule 15’s adoption in 1944, depositions in federal criminal cases have only been permitted to preserve testimony (for example, if an ill witness was in danger of dying before trial), not for discovery. 

    However, multiple states including Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Vermont and Missouri allow depositions in criminal cases, and several lawyers submitted comments to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts rules committee to share their positive experiences under those systems.

    Among them were six lawyers from Dowd Bennett including Edward Dowd, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, who represented former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens.

    In 2018, Greitens faced felony invasion of privacy charges in Missouri state court. The defense lawyers said they were able to use pretrial depositions to materially advance “truth-finding by exposing serious credibility and evidentiary issues,” the Dowd Bennett lawyers wrote in comments last week, ultimately leading prosecutors to dismiss the charges. The outcome “reveals a simple proposition: depositions make the litigation process more transparent and reliable.”

    Likewise, Dykema partner Jennifer Beidel pointed to a recent win in Maryland federal court as example of how depositions could have helped prosecutors avoid missteps.

    Beidel represented a medical scientist facing criminal charges of research fraud, which he denied. After jury selection, prosecutors abruptly dropped the case last month after problems with their expert witness and other evidence-disclosure violations surfaced, she said.

    “If there had been depositions, we would have gotten an earlier and better understanding” of problems with the evidence, Beidel told me. 

    Six Williams & Connolly lawyers including senior partner Brendan Sullivan, a dean of the defense bar, also weighed in to support amending Rule 15.

    “In our witness-driven trial system, unequal access to witnesses is unequal access to justice,” they wrote in an Oct. 24 letter to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts — one of more than a dozen comments from lawyers supporting the proposed amendment. 

    So far, there have been no submissions in opposition. 

    A spokesperson for the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys told me the group is still evaluating the proposal, and a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson declined to comment.

    Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell, whose clients facing federal criminal charges currently include New York Attorney General Letitia James and former national security adviser John Bolton, also supports amending Rule 15 to allow limited depositions.

    Doing so, he told me via email, could serve as a check on prosecutorial power, and would be “an important step towards reforming an evidentiary process that as it stands, can unfairly disadvantage criminal defendants.”

    (Reporting by Jenna Greene)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Supreme Court Weighs Legality of Tariffs in Major Test of Trump’s Power

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    By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court is due on Wednesday to hear arguments over the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs in a case with implications for the global economy that marks a major test of the Republican president’s powers and the willingness of the justices to let him push the limits of his authority.

    The arguments are set to begin at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) after lower courts ruled that Trump’s unprecedented use of a 1977 federal law meant for national emergencies to impose the tariffs exceeded his authority. The challenge involves three lawsuits brought by businesses affected by the tariffs and 12 U.S. states, most of them Democratic-led. 

    Trump has heaped pressure on the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, to preserve tariffs that he has leveraged as a key economic and foreign policy tool. The tariffs – taxes on imported goods – could add up to trillions of dollars for the United States over the next decade. 

    If the justices strike them down, “we would be defenseless, leading perhaps even to the ruination of our Nation,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday.

    Highlighting the importance of the case to the administration, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent plans to attend Wednesday’s arguments in person. Trump earlier had spoken of attending but decided against it. 

    If the Supreme Court rules against Trump, these tariffs are expected to remain as the administration switches to other legal authorities, Bessent told Reuters. 

    While the Supreme Court typically takes months to issue rulings after hearing arguments, the Trump administration has asked it to act swiftly in this case.

    The justices will consider Trump’s actions invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose the tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partner. The law allows a president to regulate commerce in a national emergency but does not specifically mention the word tariffs. 

    Trump is the first president to use IEEPA in this manner, one of the many ways he has aggressively pushed the boundaries of executive authority since he returned to office in areas as varied as his crackdown on immigration, the firing of federal agency officials and domestic military deployments.

    The U.S. Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the authority to issue taxes and tariffs. Trump’s Justice Department has argued that IEEPA allows tariffs by authorizing the president to “regulate” imports to address emergencies.

    The IEEPA-based tariffs have generated $89 billion in estimated collections between February 4 and September 23, when the most recent data was released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. Trump has imposed some additional tariffs invoking other laws. Those are not at issue in this case.

    The Supreme Court has backed Trump in a series of decisions issued this year on an emergency basis. These have let Trump policies that were impeded by lower courts amid questions about their legality proceed on an interim basis, prompting critics to warn that the justices are refusing to act as a check on the president’s power. 

    The tariffs case marks the first time the court has heard arguments on the legal merits of one of Trump’s policies this year. It heard arguments in May in a case concerning Trump’s effort to restrict birthright citizenship but focused not on the legality of his policy but on the authority of federal judges to block actions nationwide.

    Trump instigated a global trade war when he returned to the presidency in January, alienating trading partners, increasing volatility in financial markets and fueling global economic uncertainty.

    He invoked IEEPA in slapping tariffs on goods imported from individual countries to address what he called a national emergency related to U.S. trade deficits, as well as in February as economic leverage on China, Canada and Mexico to curb the trafficking of the often-abused painkiller fentanyl and illicit drugs into the United States.

    Trump has wielded tariffs to extract concessions and renegotiate trade deals, and as a cudgel to punish countries that draw his ire on non-trade political matters. These have ranged from Brazil’s prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, India’s purchases of Russian oil that help fund Russia’s war in Ukraine, and an anti-tariff ad by Canada’s Ontario province.

    ‘AN UNUSUAL AND EXTRAORDINARY THREAT’

    IEEPA gives the president power to deal with “an unusual and extraordinary threat” amid a national emergency. It historically had been used for imposing sanctions on enemies or freezing their assets, not to impose tariffs. In passing IEEPA, Congress placed additional limits on the president’s authority compared to a predecessor law.

    The Supreme Court is reviewing two rulings against Trump. The Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sided with challengers including five small businesses that import goods and the states of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont. A Washington-based federal judge sided with a family-owned toy company called Learning Resources.

    “It seems unlikely that Congress intended, in enacting IEEPA, to depart from its past practice and grant the president unlimited authority to impose tariffs,” the Federal Circuit said. 

    The Federal Circuit also said that the administration’s expansive view of this law violates the Supreme Court’s “major questions” doctrine, which requires executive branch actions of vast economic and political significance to be clearly authorized by Congress. The Supreme Court applied this doctrine to strike down key policies of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.

    (Reporting by Andrew Chung in Washington; Additional reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Will Dunham)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Zohran Mamdani’s Rise: From Queens Lawmaker to New York City Mayor

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    NEW YORK (AP) — When he announced his run for mayor last October, Zohran Mamdani was a state lawmaker unknown to most New York City residents.

    But that was before the 34-year-old democratic socialist crashed the national political scene with a stunning upset over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June’s Democratic primary.

    On Tuesday, Mamdani completed his political ascension, again vanquishing Cuomo, as well as Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, in the general election.

    The former foreclosure prevention counselor and one-time rapper becomes the city’s first Muslim mayor, first born in Africa, and first of South Asian heritage — not to mention its youngest mayor in more than a century.

    “I will wake up each morning with a singular purpose: To make this city better for you than it was the day before,” Mamdani promised New Yorkers in his victory speech.

    Here’s a look at the next chief executive of America’s largest city:


    Mamdani’s progressive promises for New York City

    Mamdani ran on an optimistic vision for New York City.

    His campaign was packed with big policies aimed at lowering the cost of living for everyday New Yorkers, from free child care, free buses to a rent freeze for people living in rent-regulated apartments and new affordable housing — much of it funded by raising taxes on the wealthy.

    He’s also proposed launching a pilot program for city-run grocery stores as a way to combat high food prices.

    Since his Democratic primary win, Mamdani has moderated some of his more polarizing rhetoric, particularly around law enforcement.

    He backed off a 2020 post calling to “defund” the New York Police Department and publicly apologized to NYPD officers for calling the department “racist” in another social media post.

    While Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, he’s said he’s running on his own distinct platform and does not embrace all of the activist group’s priorities, which have included ending mandatory jail time for certain crimes and cutting police budgets.


    NYC’s first Muslim mayor

    Outside a Bronx mosque in late October, he spoke in emotional terms about the “indignities” long faced by the city’s Muslim population, and vowed to further embrace his identity.

    “I will not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I’m proud to call my own,” he said. “But there is one thing that I will change. I will no longer look for myself in the shadows. I will find myself in the light.”

    Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian parents and became an American citizen in 2018, shortly after graduating from college.

    He lived with his family briefly in Cape Town, South Africa, before moving to New York City when he was 7.

    Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, is an award-winning filmmaker whose credits include “Monsoon Wedding,” “The Namesake” and “Mississippi Masala.” His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is an anthropology professor at Columbia University.

    Mamdani married Rama Duwaji, a Syrian American artist, earlier this year. The couple, who met on the dating app Hinge, live in the Astoria neighborhood of the city’s borough of Queens.

    Mamdani attended the Bronx High School of Science, where he cofounded the prestigious public school’s first cricket team, according to his legislative bio.

    He graduated in 2014 from Bowdoin College in Maine, where he earned a degree in Africana studies and cofounded his college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

    After college, he worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor in Queens, helping residents avoid eviction, a job he says inspired him to run for public office.

    Mamdani also had a notable side hustle in the local hip-hop scene, rapping under the moniker Young Cardamom and later Mr. Cardamom. During his first run for state lawmaker, Mamdani gave a nod to his brief foray into music, describing himself as a “B-list rapper.”

    Mamdani cut his teeth in local politics working on campaigns for Democratic candidates in Queens and Brooklyn.

    He was first elected to the New York Assembly in 2020, knocking off a longtime Democratic incumbent for a Queens district covering Astoria and surrounding neighborhoods. He has handily won reelection twice.

    The democratic socialist’s most notable legislative accomplishment has been pushing through a pilot program that made a handful of city buses free for a year. He’s also proposed legislation banning nonprofits from “engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.”

    Mamdani’s opponents, particularly Cuomo, dismissed him as woefully unprepared for managing the complexities of running America’s largest city.

    But Mamdani framed his relative inexperience as a potential asset, saying in a mayoral debate he’s “proud” he doesn’t have Cuomo’s “experience of corruption, scandal and disgrace.”

    Mamdani used buzzy campaign videos — many with winking references to Bollywood and his Indian heritage — to help make inroads with voters outside his slice of Queens.

    On New Year’s Day, he took part in the annual polar plunge into the chilly waters off Coney Island in a full dress suit to break down his plan to “freeze” rents.

    He interviewed food cart vendors about “Halal-flation” and humorously pledged to make the city’s beloved chicken over rice lunches “eight bucks again.”

    In TikTok videos, he appealed to voters of color by speaking in Spanish, Bangla and other languages.

    During his general election campaign, the viral clips were joined by talked-about television commercials — with on-theme ads that aired during “The Golden Bachelor,” “Survivor” and the Knicks’ season opener.

    A longtime supporter of Palestinian rights, Mamdani continued his unstinting criticism of Israel — long seen as a third rail in New York politics — through his campaign.

    Mamdani has accused the Israeli government of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and has said Israel should exist as “a state with equal rights” for all, rather than a “Jewish state.”

    He was hammered by his opponents and many leaders in the Jewish community for his stances, with Cuomo accusing Mamdani of “fueling antisemitism.”

    After facing criticism early in the race for refusing to denounce the phrase “globalize the intifada,” Mamdani vowed to discourage others from using it moving forward. He also met with rabbis and attended a synagogue during the High Holy Days as he courted Jewish voters.

    In his victory remarks Tuesday, he pledged that under his leadership, City Hall will stand against antisemitism.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Excessive Force Allegations Will Be the Focus of a Chicago Court Hearing

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    The preliminary injunction hearing stems from a lawsuit filed by news outlets and protesters who say agents have used too much force, including tear gas, during demonstrations.

    U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis has already ordered agents to wear badges and banned them from using certain riot-control techniques, such as tear gas, against peaceful protesters and journalists. After repeatedly chastising federal officials for not following her previous orders, she added a requirement for body cameras.

    The hearing comes after Ellis questioned senior Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino at a public hearing last week, where she took the rare step of ordering him to brief her each evening on the federal immigration crackdown in Chicago. That move was swiftly blocked by an appeals court.

    On Tuesday, Bovino appeared in court yet again for a deposition — a private interview — with lawyers from both sides. Parts of the videotaped deposition will be played in court Wednesday, according to court filings.

    Attorneys may also call to the stand a pastor who was hit in the head by a container containing a chemical agent while praying outside a federal immigration facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview, local officials detained during protests outside the facility, and a protester who alleges she was hit by a flash-bang grenade that caused temporary hearing loss, court records show.

    Court filings released late Monday night shed light on a previous deposition by Bovino in which he acknowledged tossing tear gas and being hit by a rock in the predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood of Little Village last month. Bovino also testified that he has “instructed his officers to arrest protesters who make hyperbolic comments in the heat of political demonstrations,” court records show.

    Meanwhile, a federal judge is expected to rule Wednesday afternoon after a group of detainees filed a class-action lawsuit against federal authorities, alleging “inhuman” conditions at a Chicago-area immigration facility.

    On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman called the alleged conditions “unnecessarily cruel” after hearing people held at the facility detail overflowing toilets, crowded cells, no beds and water that “tasted like sewer.” He called for the hearing to reconvene at 4:15 p.m. local time Wednesday so that he can issue a temporary restraining order to address the conditions.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • AP Race Call: Democrat Jay Jones Elected Virginia Attorney General Over GOP Incumbent Jason Miyares

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Jay Jones won the race for attorney general of Virginia on Tuesday, ousting Republican incumbent Jason Miyares.

    Jones was criticized during the campaign after text messages he wrote in 2022 endorsing violence toward a political rival were made public.

    Jones is a former member of the state House of Delegates, representing a district around Norfolk for two terms.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Democrat Jay Jones Wins Race to Be Virginia Attorney General Despite Texts Endorsing Violence

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    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrat Jay Jones was elected Tuesday as Virginia attorney general, riding a wave of voter dissatisfaction with the White House to overcome the revelation that in 2022 he sent widely condemned texts embracing violence against a fellow state lawmaker.

    The former Virginia delegate defeated Republican incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares weeks after it emerged that Jones had texted a fellow delegate suggesting the then-House speaker should get “two bullets to the head.” Jones apologized for the private messages both in statements and at a debate in October.

    Jones’ victory amid the controversy could signal trouble for Republicans heading into next year’s midterm elections. He weathered the storm in part by working to shift the debate away from his character and toward President Donald Trump’s administration.

    Jones campaigned against the impact of federal encroachment on Virginia since Trump took office in January — shrinking the civil service, levying tariffs and a Republican federal tax cut bill that Democrats argued imperiled the state’s health care system.

    The win could soon add Virginia to the roster of Democratic-led states legally challenging actions taken by Trump.

    A descendant of slaves, Jones is set to become the first Black attorney general in the former capital of the Confederacy. His victory is a landmark moment for Black Virginians in a statewide contest that was already poised to make history, with voters choosing between two women to elect the state’s first female governor.

    Miyares faced a difficult political climate in his bid for reelection. Ever since Democrat Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, every time a new president has been elected, Virginia has voted in a governor the following year from the opposite party.

    And while the state has had split tickets before — meaning voters backed candidates for statewide offices from a party that differs from the elected governor — they haven’t picked an attorney general from the opposite party in 20 years.

    Republicans had hoped to persuade swing voters to reelect Miyares but faced challenging headwinds in a state with tens of thousands of federal employees.

    Outrage over Jones’ text messages is unlikely to fade once Jones is sworn into office. Republicans, including Trump and Miyares, described his conduct from three years ago as disqualifying him from the attorney general’s position in 2025.

    Even Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Ghazala Hashmi, the party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor Tuesday, had stayed silent about whether Jones still had their endorsements. Jones did, however, speak at a Spanberger campaign rally on Saturday.

    Jones comes from a family of Hampton Roads politicians and civil rights pioneers. His father was also a Virginia delegate, and his grandfather was the first Black member of the Norfolk School Board. Jones previously ran for attorney general in 2021 but lost the primary to then-incumbent Mark Herring.

    Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • AP Race Call: Democrat Mikie Sherrill Elected NJ Governor Over Trump-Backed Jack Ciattarelli

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill was elected New Jersey governor on Tuesday over Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump.

    Sherrill will succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, marking the first time since 1961 that one party has won three consecutive terms in the New Jersey governor’s mansion.

    The race was closely watched as a potential bellwether for the 2026 midterms.

    Sherrill, a Navy veteran who represented a northern New Jersey district in the U.S. House for four terms, will be the state’s second female governor. The Associated Press declared Sherrill the winner at 9:22 p.m. EST.

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  • Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell Faces a Hard Reelection Fight Against Progressive Activist Katie Wilson

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    SEATTLE (AP) — Democratic Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell faces a tough reelection fight against progressive activist Katie Wilson as voters in the liberal city recoil from President Donald Trump’s second term and question whether the incumbent has done enough to address public safety, homelessness and affordability.

    Harrell, an attorney who previously served three terms on the City Council, was elected mayor in 2021 following the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests over George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police.

    With crime falling, more police being hired, less visible drug use and many homeless encampments removed from city parks, the business-backed Harrell seemed likely to cruise to re-election at this time last year. He’s been endorsed by Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, Attorney General Nick Brown and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

    But Trump’s return to office has helped reawaken Seattle’s progressive voters. The lesser-known Wilson, a democratic socialist running a campaign that echoes some of the themes of progressive mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in New York, trounced Harrell by nearly 10 percentage points in the August primary.

    “Voters in places like Seattle are frustrated with the status quo, particularly in the context of Trump’s attacks on blue cities,” said Sandeep Kaushik, a Seattle political consultant who is not involved in the race. “They’re kind of moving back into their progressive bunker and are much more inclined to say, ‘Yeah, we should go our own way with our own bold progressive solutions.’ That all that plays into Katie’s hands.”

    Wilson, 43, studied at Oxford College but did not graduate. She founded the small nonprofit Transit Riders Union in 2011 and has led campaigns for better public transportation, higher minimum wages, stronger renter protections and more affordable housing. She herself is a renter, living in a one-bedroom apartment in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and says that has shaped her understanding of Seattle’s affordability crisis.

    Wilson has criticized Harrell as doing too little to provide more shelter and said his encampment sweeps have been cosmetic, merely pushing unhoused people around the city. Wilson also paints him as a city hall fixture who bears responsibility for the status quo.

    She has been endorsed by several Democratic organizations as well as by U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

    Harrell, 67, played on the Rose Bowl champion University of Washington football team in 1978 before going to law school. His father, who was Black, came to Seattle from the segregated Jim Crow South, and his mother, a Japanese American, was incarcerated at an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho, during World War II after officials seized her family’s Seattle flower shop — experiences that fostered his understanding of the importance of civil rights and inclusivity.

    Harrell has said Wilson, who has no traditional management experience, isn’t ready to lead a city with more than 13,000 employees and a budget of nearly $9 billion. He also has criticized her for supporting efforts to slash the city’s police budget amid the 2020 racial justice protests.

    Wilson has said that proposal was based on some fundamental misunderstandings and that she since has learned a lot about how the police department works. She says she supports having a department that is adequately staffed, responsive and accountable to the community.

    Both Harrell and Wilson have touted plans for affordable housing, combatting crime and attempting to Trump-proof the city, which receives about $150 million a year in federal funding. Both want to protect Seattle’s sanctuary city status.

    Wilson has proposed a city-level capital gains tax to help offset federal funding the city might lose and to pay for housing; Harrell says that’s ineffective because a city capital gains tax could easily be avoided by those who would be required to pay it.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Trump Silent on Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Death

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    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House lowered flags to half-staff on Tuesday following the death of former Vice President Dick Cheney, while President Donald Trump and his administration remained silent about the Republican politician’s passing.

    As of Tuesday afternoon, the White House had not issued a statement marking Cheney’s death, nor had Trump weighed in on social media.

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered only a brief acknowledgement of Cheney’s death at age 84 on Monday when prompted by a reporter during a press briefing.

    “I know the president is aware of the former vice president’s passing. And as you saw, flags have been lowered to half-staff in accordance with statutory law,” Leavitt said on Tuesday.

    Cheney, who served two terms as vice president under President George W. Bush, had long represented a brand of Republican politics that clashed sharply with Trump’s populist approach.

    The divide deepened after Cheney and his daughter, former U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, became fierce critics of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

    Liz Cheney, who served as vice chair of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Trump had “summoned a violent mob” and “caused a constitutional crisis.”

    Her father publicly supported her stance, saying in a 2022 campaign ad that “there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”

    Trump frequently attacked both Cheneys during his 2024 presidential campaign. He accused the former vice president of leading the U.S. into “endless wars” and mocked his daughter’s defeat in Wyoming’s Republican primary.

    At an October 31, 2024, campaign event with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump said he was “never a fan of Cheney” but was surprised the former vice president backed his daughter over him.

    (Reporting by Nandita Bose in WashingtonEditing by Colleen Jenkins and Deepa Babington)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • White House Is Working on Executive Order on Elections, Press Secretary Says

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    (Reuters) -The White House is working on an executive order on elections, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday.

    “The White House is working on an executive order to strengthen our elections in this country and to ensure that there cannot be blatant fraud, as we’ve seen in California with their universal mail-in voting system,” Leavitt said.

    (Reporting by Nandita Bose, writing by Christian Martinez, editing by Chris Reese)

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  • Trump Slams California Redistricting Vote, Says Votes Under ‘Review’

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    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump accused the California redistricting proposal on the ballot on Tuesday of being “unconstitutional” and said all mail-in ballots were under “very serious legal and criminal review,” without giving any evidence for his allegations.

    Trump did not say what entities were reviewing the ballots.

    (Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Bhargav Acharya; editing by Susan Heavey)

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  • California Voters Take up Democrats’ Push for New Congressional Maps That Could Shape House Control

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — The national battle to control the U.S. House shifts to California on Tuesday as voters consider a Democratic proposal that could erase as many as five Republican districts and blunt President Donald Trump’s moves to safeguard his party’s lock on Washington power.

    The outcome will reverberate into next year’s midterm elections and beyond, with Democrats hoping a victory will set the stage for the party to regain control of the House in 2026. A shift in the majority would imperil Trump’s agenda for the remainder of his term at a time of deep partisan divisions over immigration, health care and the future direction of the nation.

    “God help us if we lose in California,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom says.

    Democrats need to gain just three seats in the 2026 elections to take control of the House.

    Heavily Democratic California and its 52 congressional districts represent by far the Democrats’ best opportunity in an unprecedented state-by-state redistricting battle, which started when Texas Republicans heeded Trump’s demand that they redraw their boundaries to help the GOP retain its House majority. Democrats hold 43 of the state’s seats and hope to boost that to 48.

    Trump is fighting not just the Democrats but history. Midterm elections typically punish the party in the White House, but four GOP-led states so far have adopted new district maps to pack more Republican voters into key districts.


    Measure supported by Newsom, Obama

    California’s Proposition 50 asks voters to suspend House maps drawn by an independent commission and replace them with rejiggered districts adopted by the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Those new districts would be in place for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.

    The recast districts aim to dilute Republican voters’ power, in one case by uniting rural, conservative-leaning parts of far northern California with Marin County, a famously liberal coastal stronghold across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

    The measure has been spearheaded by Newsom, who has thrown the weight of his political operation behind it in a major test of his mettle ahead of a potential 2028 presidential campaign. Former President Barack Obama has urged voters to pass it as well.

    Newsom has sought to nationalize the campaign, depicting the proposal as a counterweight to all things Trump.

    “Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama says in one ad. “You can stop Republicans in their tracks.”

    Critics say two wrongs don’t make a right. They urge Californians to reject what they call a Democratic power grab, even if they have misgivings about Trump’s moves in Republican-led states.

    Among the most prominent critics is Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star and former Republican governor who pushed for the creation of the independent commission, which voters approved in 2008 and 2010. It makes no sense to fight Trump by becoming him, Schwarzenegger said in September, arguing that the proposal would “take the power away from the people.”

    After an early burst of TV advertising, opponents of the plan have struggled to raise cash in a state with some of the nation’s most expensive media markets. Data compiled by advertising tracker AdImpact last week showed Democrats and other supporters with over $5 million in ad buys booked on broadcast TV, cable and radio. But opponents had virtually no time reserved, though the data didn’t include some popular streaming services like Hulu and YouTube or mail advertising.

    Total spending on broadcast and cable ads topped $100 million, with more than two-thirds of it coming from supporters. Newsom told people to stop donating in the race’s final weeks.

    Trump, who overwhelmingly lost California in his three presidential campaigns, largely stayed out of the fray. A week before the election, he urged voters in a social media post not to vote early or by mail — messaging that conflicts with that of top Republicans in the state who urged people to get their ballots in as soon as possible.


    The national House map is in flux

    Democrats hope to pick up as many as five seats in California if voters approve the new boundaries, offsetting the five that Republicans hope to pick up through their new Texas maps. Republicans also expect to gain one seat each from new maps in Missouri and North Carolina, and potentially two more in Ohio.

    Congressional district boundaries are typically redrawn every 10 years to reflect population shifts documented in the census. Mid-decade redistricting is unusual, absent a court order finding fault with the maps in place.

    Five other GOP-led states are also considering new maps: Kansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska.

    On the Democratic side, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Virginia have proposals to redraw maps, but major hurdles remain.

    A court has ordered new boundaries be drawn in Utah, where all four House districts are represented by Republicans, but it remains to be seen if the state will approve a map that makes any of them winnable for Democrats.

    Cooper reported from Phoenix and Nguyen from Sacramento, California.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Trump’s Not Going to the Supreme Court Hearing on Tariffs. but His Treasury Secretary Will Be There

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump won’t be going in person to the Supreme Court hearing Wednesday that will determine the fate of the tariffs at the heart of his economic and foreign policy — but his treasury secretary says he will be there.

    “I’m actually going to go and sit the — hopefully in the front row and listen — have a ringside seat,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

    Trump had said he badly wanted to attend the arguments, but ruled out what would have been a highly unusual appearance, saying it would have been a distraction. “It’s not about me, it’s about our country,” he told reporters Sunday.

    On Monday, his top economic adviser said he would be there instead, signaling the importance of the case to the Trump administration. Asked whether his presence could be criticized as trying to intimidate the justices, Bessent told Fox: “They can say what they want. I am there to emphasize that this is an economic emergency.”

    Earlier this year, lower courts determined that the president did not have the power under IEEPA to set tariffs, but left them in place while the Supreme Court considered the issue.

    Bessent described the hearing as “a matter of national security.” But he has said there are contingencies in place. Last month, he told a group of reporters that in the event the court rules against the Trump administration, “there are lots of other authorities that we can operate under.”

    “Remember too,” he said, “we also have numerous trade deals in effect. So I don’t think that countries are going to back out of the trade deals,” he said.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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