AP US Politics News

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against California that sought detailed voting records and personal data on its 23 million registered voters, concluding that the government’s request was “unprecedented and illegal.” The Trump administration’s lawsuit, filed last year, contended that California and other states

By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A group of mostly Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter Thursday to the U.S. Postal Service, voicing concern that mail processing changes could affect postmark dates for mail-in ballots during an election year that will determine control of Congress. Updated agency policy says postmarks might not

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema had a romantic relationship with a member of her security detail that led to the breakup of the man’s marriage, his ex-wife alleges in a lawsuit seeking at least $75,000 from Sinema. Matthew and Heather Ammel had “a good and loving

By CLAUDIA LAUER Associated Press Federal immigration agents deployed to Minneapolis have used aggressive crowd-control tactics that have become a dominant concern in the aftermath of the deadly shooting of a woman in her car last week. They have pointed rifles at demonstrators and deployed chemical irritants early in confrontations. They have broken vehicle windows

By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is halfway home in approving government funding for the current budget year that began Oct. 1 after the Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a three-bill package. Now comes the hard part. Lawmakers still must negotiate a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security amid soaring

By BILL BARROW Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump would not be the first president to invoke the Insurrection Act, as he has threatened, so that he can send U.S. military forces to Minnesota. But he’d be the only commander in chief to use the 19th-century law to send troops to quell protests that

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Betsy McCaughey, a Republican former lieutenant governor of New York who switched parties in an unsuccessful 1998 bid to unseat then-Gov. George Pataki, is now running for governor of Connecticut. McCaughey, 77, currently a conservative host on Newsmax and columnist for the New York Post, filed

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A top ICE official resigned her job on Thursday in hopes of ousting the longest-serving woman in Congress, Democrat Marcy Kaptur, this fall. In a video launching her campaign for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, former ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said she had stopped more

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Talk to any Wisconsin Democrat about their hopes for 2026 and it’s not long before the T-word comes up. No, not Trump. Trifecta. Democrats think new district boundaries in the Senate and Assembly ordered by the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court, an open race for governor and

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp delivered his final State of the State speech on Thursday — but it may not have been a farewell. As the rare Republican who has defied President Donald Trump and thrived, Kemp is still trying to mold politics in the battleground state in

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is imposing a new round of sanctions against Iranian officials accused of repressing nationwide protests that challenge Iran’s theocratic government. Included in Thursday’s sanctions is the secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security, whom the Treasury Department accuses of being one of the first

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Democratic-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court raised 10 times as much last year as her Republican-endorsed opponent, putting in stark relief the challenge conservatives face in winning the race in the battleground state. The reports filed this week offer the first glimpse at one key

By BILL BARROW and JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press Donald Trump is determined to maintain Republicans’ threadbare House majority this fall and avoid a repeat of his first presidency, when Democrats won control of the chamber in midterm elections and went on to impeach him twice. This time, Trump is involved in candidate recruiting, dispensing

By The Associated Press Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado discussed her country’s future with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, even though he has dismissed her as an option to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro. Less than two weeks after U.S. forces seized

By MAYA SWEEDLER, EUNICE ESOMONU, HYOJIN YOO, SIMRAN PARWANI and PABLO BARRIA URENDA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s starting to look like an exodus. Dozens of U.S. House members have announced they are not running for reelection, putting a record number of seats up for grabs at this point in the midterm election cycle.

By LINLEY SANDERS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s second term has been eventful. You wouldn’t know it from his approval numbers. An AP-NORC poll from January found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Trump’s performance as president. That’s virtually unchanged from March 2025, shortly after he took office for

By BECKY BOHRER and MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A state appeals court will decide whether to dismiss felony voter misconduct charges against an Alaska resident born in American Samoa, one of numerous cases that has put a spotlight on the complex citizenship status of people born in the U.S. territory. The

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer If the byproduct of a raid on a Washington Post journalist’s home is to deter probing reporting of government action, the Trump administration could hardly have chosen a more compelling target. Hannah Natanson, nicknamed the “federal government whisperer” at the Post for her reporting on President Donald Trump’s changes

By STEVEN SLOAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The president was barely a year into his administration when a health care debate began to consume Washington. On Capitol Hill, partisan divides formed as many Democrats pressed for guaranteed insurance coverage for a broader swath of Americans while Republicans, buttressed by medical industry lobbying, warned about

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — One week after the nation marked the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, the history of what happened that day is being reconsidered, revised and reassessed by the party in power. The House GOP’s new Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack held

By TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Liberian man arrested over the weekend after heavily armed immigration agents used a battering ram to break through the front door of his Minneapolis home had been checking in regularly with federal authorities for years, his attorney said Tuesday. The arrest of Garrison Gibson, 37 during

By MATT BROWN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a year before an American military operation deposed Nicolás Maduro, a senior aide to President Donald Trump argued that the Venezuelan leader had been dispatching gang members into the United States. “If you’re a dictator of a poor country with a high crime rate, wouldn’t

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — There was a glass bottle of milk on the Resolute Desk, and President Donald Trump promised to get to it soon. But first he had to talk about Iran, the capture of someone accused of leaking secret information about Venezuela and a pair of executive orders he

By TRÂN NGUYỄN Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California can use a new voter-approved U.S. House map that is designed to boost Democrats in the 2026 midterms, a federal three-judge panel ruled Wednesday. In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel in Los Angeles denied requests from state Republicans and the U.S. Justice Department to

By TIFFANY STANLEY and GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — At a time of tightening immigration restrictions, the Department of Homeland Security is attempting to make it easier for visa-holding religious workers to serve their U.S. congregations with less disruption. DHS announced on Wednesday a regulatory change aimed at reducing visa wait times abroad

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A district attorney, a state senator and a trash-hauling entrepreneur are among the 22 candidates bidding to succeed former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in a Georgia congressional seat. A total of 17 Republicans filed to run for the seat by the time qualifying closed Wednesday, as

By BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Wednesday he wants to move forward with redrawing the state’s congressional map and have the Democratic-controlled legislature vote on it, despite opposition from a key fellow Democrat concerned that mid-decade redistricting could backfire and cost the party a seat instead of

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The head of a nonpartisan group that supports Georgia prosecutors said the new state law that President Donald Trump and others charged in an election interference case are using to seek millions in attorney fees and costs from the Fulton County district attorney’s office is likely unconstitutional.