WASHINGTON — As the federal shutdown has dragged on to become the longest in American history, President Trump has shown little interest in talks to reopen the government. But Republican losses on election day could change that.

Trump told Republican senators at the White House on Wednesday that he believed the government shutdown “was a ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Despite their party’s lopsided victories in Tuesday’s elections, Senate Democrats remain torn over an exit strategy for what has become the longest partial government shutdown in history.

As the shutdown reached its 36th day Wednesday, breaking a record set in President Donald Trump’s first term, hopes for a resolution this...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Democratic brand, badly bruised in 2024 when voters handed Republicans a governing trifecta in Washington, snapped to life Tuesday as the party collected victories up and down the ballot across the country.

Democrats won governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey while bolstering their legislative majorities in both states...Read more

SEATTLE — At 8 p.m. every election night, candidates, consultants and other politics watchers obsessively click on the Secretary of State's website, waiting for the first vote tallies to roll in.

But in some recent elections — including on Tuesday — those initial vote counts have shown wildly inaccurate percentages in some closely watched...Read more

WASHINGTON — Reps. Kevin Kiley and Ami Bera slugging it out to win the 3rd District congressional seat? Maybe not.

Kiley, R-Roseville, told The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday in an interview in his Capitol Hill office that while he plans to seek reelection, he’s not sure where he’ll run.

His current district, which stretches from the ...Read more

CHICAGO — Democratic state Sen. Willie Preston is pitching himself as a fighter for working-class families and a product of South Side struggles, hoping that message will stand out in a crowded field vying for Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District seat.

But as Preston campaigns on authenticity and lived experience in the race to represent ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The passage of California’s Proposition 50 redistricting measure Tuesday turned Republican Rep. Ken Calvert’s GOP-leaning district a deep shade of blue, but on Wednesday, he said he would seek reelection next year in an adjoining GOP-held district that the referendum made even redder.

The only problem for the powerful House ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A Democratic romp in Tuesday’s off-year elections is raising new questions about President Donald Trump’s coattails heading into a key midterm election year.

“On Nov. 5, 2024, the American people reclaimed our government. We restored our sovereignty. We lost a little bit of sovereignty last night in New York. But we’ll ...Read more

Key races in New Jersey, Virginia and Georgia made it clear that energy affordability was on the ballot this Election Day as Democrats who campaigned on the issue swept the field.

Candidates in the three states campaigned on tackling rising energy costs through renewables, such as wind and solar, or by supporting the Trump administration in ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Jared Golden said Wednesday that he won’t seek reelection next year, opening up a Republican-leaning seat in Maine that could be tough for his party to retain without him on the ballot.

In an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News, the fourth-term congressman said he has grown discouraged by the incivility of politics. ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A Democratic romp in Tuesday’s off-year elections is raising new questions about President Donald Trump’s coattails heading into a key midterm election year.

“On Nov. 5, 2024, the American people reclaimed our government. We restored our sovereignty. We lost a little bit of sovereignty last night in New York. But we’ll ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s immigration policies have led to increasingly visible incidents of U.S. citizens being caught up in wrongful detention, and Democratic members of Congress say the administration has not responded to requests for information about the number of incidents.

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., a member of the Senate ...Read more

MIAMI — Trump took a victory lap in Miami on the one-year anniversary of his 2024 election victory Wednesday, but his speech at a business-focused conference in downtown was shadowed by another anniversary: the crossing of the threshold to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Trump’s meandering hour-long speech made little ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's signature plan to impose import taxes on products coming from countries around the world ran into sharp skepticism at the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Most of the justices, conservative and liberal, questioned whether the president acting on his own has the power to set large tariffs as a weapon of ...Read more

WASHINGTON — With a year to go before the midterm elections, the defining political issue of 2026 is still not certain. But what is clear so far is that mid-decade redistricting will have a major impact on the House battlefield.

Newly enacted maps in a handful of states have influenced where some lawmakers land on our list of the most ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The residents of Texas’ 18th District have come a step closer to full representation in Congress, with a pair of Democrats emerging as the top two finishers in Tuesday’s nonpartisan special election to succeed the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner.

Christian Menefee, the acting Harris County attorney, was leading Amanda ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Republicans in Congress are vastly outnumbered by their Democratic counterparts in the state — and it may get worse.

Five of the nine GOP seats are at risk after California voters passed Proposition 50 in Tuesday’s special election. The measure, put on the ballot by the Democratic-led state Legislature, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — While it may take a few days, or even weeks, to properly digest the 2025 elections, the results are clear: Democrats won decisively. In races from New Jersey and Virginia to Georgia and California, there really wasn’t any ambiguity about who won and who lost.

Even though votes are still being counted and final margins aren’t ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Hours after an Election Day shellacking for his party, President Donald Trump on Wednesday poured cold water on reports that Senate Democrats are moving toward reopening the government and urged Republican senators to nix a key Senate rule so the party can pass its own bills without opposition support.

“The Democrat radicals in...Read more

MIAMI — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is leading the charge to defend Miami Dade College in higher court from allegations it violated the state’s Sunshine Law, raising the stakes in a case involving Donald Trump’s presidential library that could have sweeping implications for the future of government transparency.

Uthmeier’s ...Read more