Politics

The Hill reports: The Iowa political director of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign Julie Stauch announced Tuesday she is running for Iowa governor. The launch sets up a Democratic primary contest between Stauch and Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, who launched his bid last month. Stauch made the announcement on her campaign website, where she also posted …

Roll Call reports: The special election to complete the late Democratic Rep. Gerald E. Connolly’s term will be held on Sept. 9, Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Tuesday. Youngkin’s announcement sets off a just over three-month sprint to succeed Connolly, who died last month weeks after announcing that his esophageal cancer had returned. Connolly was in his ninth term representing …

Bangor’s ABC affiliate reports: Sen. Susan Collins, Maine’s only Republican lawmaker in Congress, says she is still considering how she will vote on the budget bill narrowly passed by Republicans in the House of Representatives. “I’m still looking at it because it kept changing up until literally the very minute it passed,” Collins said. Collins specifically expressed concern with the …

The New York Times reports: Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that he regretted his decision to resign as governor of New York in 2021 in the face of sexual harassment allegations, suggesting that he and perhaps the state would have been better off had he stayed in office. “If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have resigned,” …

Reuters reports: A Romanian man has pleaded guilty to participating in a years-long series of dangerous hoax phone calls and bomb threats targeting American legislators, law enforcement leaders, and government officials, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday. In a statement, the department said that Thomasz Szabo, 26, who was extradited to the United States last year, admitted targeting more than …

The New York Times reports: When Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York chose Antonio Delgado to be her lieutenant governor in 2022, she had nothing but the highest praise for her new No. 2. She said Mr. Delgado, then a rising Black political star who represented a competitive House district, was a “battle-tested campaigner.” She praised his work ethic and …

The Iowa Gazette reports: State Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City, announced Monday a run for the seat held by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst since 2015. Other state lawmakers, Sen. Zach Wahls from Coralville and Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs, have been talked about as possible challengers for Ernst but so far Nathan Sage, an Iowa Army and Marine Corps …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to the legality of state restrictions on assault-style rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines, passing up for now cases that offered the justices a chance to further expand gun rights. The justices turned away two appeals after lower courts upheld a ban in Maryland on powerful semi-automatic rifles …

USA Today reports: When members of Congress return to Washington on June 2 after a weeklong break, the upper chamber will dig into the more than 1,000-page bill that would extend income tax cuts, implement new tax breaks for tipped wages and overtime, overhaul Medicaid and food stamps, and put more money toward Trump’s deportation plan. Some Republican senators, such …

Politico reports: Sen. Chris Murphy is launching a new PAC aimed at taking on President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress — the latest sign the Connecticut Democrat is eyeing higher office, according to plans that were first shared with POLITICO. Murphy will announce Monday that his group, American Mobilization Project, is doling out $400,000 to organizations that oppose cuts …

CBS News reports: Amid the wave of pardons and commutations President Trump has doled out to some of his supporters and surrogates, one former MAGA loyalist in Idaho is fighting to return her pardon. Pamela Hemphill is one of the more than 1,500 people whom Mr. Trump pardoned earlier this year for their roles in the U.S. Capitol Insurrection. She has …

The Associated Press reports: Conservative Karol Nawrocki won Poland’s weekend presidential runoff election, according to the final vote count on Monday. Nawrocki won 50.89% of votes in a very tight race against liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11%. Nawrocki has most recently been the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, which embraces nationalist historical narratives. Nawrocki’s supporters …

CBS News reports: Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said Sunday that “the math doesn’t really add up” on the cost of President Trump’s “one big beautiful bill,” while outlining his opposition as the legislation moves to the Senate this week. Paul is among a handful of Senate Republicans who have expressed opposition to the centerpiece legislation of Mr. Trump’s …

The Hill reports: An awkward moment came at a town hall meeting on Friday in Butler, Iowa, when Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R) defended the spending reforms in a House-passed budget reconciliation package that are intended to stop people who crossed into the country illegally from receiving federal benefits. Someone in the crowd tried to talk over Ernst, interrupting her …

CNN reports: Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who led the department during the September 11 terror attacks in 2001, has died at the age of 69, according to the New York Police Department and a source close to Kerik. Kerik, a Trump ally who once served three years in federal prison for charges including tax fraud and lying …

The Associated Press reports: Dr. Annie Andrews, the South Carolina Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace in 2022, says she’s running against Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2026, challenging the four-term incumbent in part due to what she characterized as his waffling positions over the course of his political career. “He’s changed his position on nearly every …

The Hill reports: Former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) received a primary challenge Thursday from volunteer firefighter and former “Jeopardy!” contestant Harry Jarin, who is seeking to make age a centerpiece of the campaign. In a statement announcing his bid, Jarin, 35, said Hoyer, 85, “represents a bygone era of politics that isn’t working” and that congressional seats should …

CNN reports: The Supreme Court on Thursday limited the scope of environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects in a decision that could speed up approvals of highways, airports and pipelines. The decision is the latest setback for environmentalists at the conservative Supreme Court, which has in recent years shut down regulations intended to protect wetlands, for instance, and reduce air pollution wafting across …

Politico reports: The New York City Campaign Finance Board sent out over 3.5 million voter guides that incorrectly stated — twice — Mayor Eric Adams would appear on the Democratic primary ballot next month. He is actually skipping his party’s primary to run in November as an independent. The “2025 Primary Election Voter Guide” was mailed to 3,523,795 voters in …

Just in via press release: The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) filed a lawsuit today to compel the White House to immediately resume providing American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters during broadcasts of their press briefings to make them accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people. Two deaf individuals—Derrick Ford and Matthew Bonn—join NAD in this lawsuit. This is …