AP US Politics News

By ROBERT YOON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a dozen candidates will compete for their parties’ nominations Tuesday to fill a vacant Tennessee congressional seat in the closely divided U.S. House. The winners will face off in a Dec. 2 special election to replace Republican former U.S. Rep. Mark Green, who resigned in

By TIFFANY STANLEY, LUIS ANDRES HENAO and MARIAM FAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Zohran Mamdani ’s swift rise in New York City’s mayoral race has made him into a national symbol — both as a point of pride among many Muslim Americans and a political foil for the right. His campaign has been met

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is openly embracing the conservative blueprint he desperately tried to distance himself from during the 2024 campaign, as one of its architects works to use the government shutdown to accelerate his goals of slashing the size of the federal workforce and punishing Democratic

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico lawmakers moved quickly Thursday at a special legislative session to prop up funding for food assistance and rural health care services in response to President Donald Trump’s cuts to federal spending on Medicaid and nutrition programs. The Democratic-led Legislature sent a flurry of

By ALI SWENSON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Army veteran Samuel Port couldn’t believe what he was reading in his latest weekly newsletter emailed from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It blamed Senate Democrats for the federal shutdown, saying they were blocking a stopgap bill to fund the government “due to unrelated policy

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — When the government shut down in 2018, a Mississippi nonprofit interceded to fund a bare-bones crew to keep one of the state’s most-visited cultural attractions operating. Now, the group is committed to doing that for Vicksburg National Military Park once again. The hilly Civil War battlefield where

By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska officials missed a deadline this week granting licenses to marijuana growers as part of a voter-approved measure that legalized medical marijuana, offering the latest example of pushback in Republican-led states against efforts to legalize the drug. “How many times do we have to go

By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — On Thursday morning, as thousands of federal employees stayed home and faced potential layoffs because of the government shutdown, President Donald Trump got right to work on social media. He started by sharing praise from supporters. Then he falsely claimed that “DEMOCRATS WANT TO GIVE YOUR HEALTHCARE

By SOPHIE BATES Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Democratic civil rights attorney who has advocated for better treatment of prisoners and testified against Mississippi’s diversity, equity and inclusion ban said Thursday that he is running for Congress. Cliff Johnson, the director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of

By MATTHEW DALY and MICHAEL PHILLIS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is cancelling $7.6 billion in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 states, all of which voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election. The move comes as President Donald Trump threatens deep cuts in his

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Gathered in the unusually quiet halls of the U.S. Capitol, Republican leaders faced the cameras for a second day and implored Democrats to reopen the government. “We want to protect hardworking federal workers,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday morning, before criticizing his counterparts.

By PAUL WISEMAN and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — Shutdowns of the federal government usually don’t leave much economic damage. But the one that started Wednesday looks riskier, not least because President Donald Trump is threatening to use the standoff to permanently eliminate thousands of government jobs and the state of the

By The Associated Press President Donald Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors, by threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting “irreversible” cuts to programs important to Democrats. Rather than simply furlough employees, as is usually done during any lapse of funds, White House

By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government had shut down, and Donald Trump was calling on Democrats and Republicans to work together to get out of the mess. “You have to get people in a room, and you have to just make deals for the good of the country,” Trump

By LISA MASCARO, JOSH BOAK and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors, saying he planned to meet with budget director Russ Vought to talk through “temporary or permanent” spending cuts that could set

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A week after her decisive win in an Arizona special election, Adelita Grijalva arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where her father had served for decades. But as she roamed the familiar halls, she said she could not help but feel like a tourist.

By WILL WEISSERT and JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and Democrats spent the first day of the federal government shutdown blaming each other for the dysfunction, as iconic sites representing the nation’s core identity — from the Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii — were temporarily closed. The Trump

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Andrew Cuomo has apologized to New York City’s Jewish community for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic when he was governor, a rare retreat on a signature campaign issue as he runs for mayor. In a video that circulated online Wednesday, Cuomo said

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats kept their promise to reject any Republican spending bill that didn’t extend or restore health care benefits, choosing instead to force a government shutdown. Now they have to figure out how to get out of it. Just hours after the shutdown began, Senate Democratic

By PATRICK WHITTLE and GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A network of medical clinics that serves low-income residents in Maine said Wednesday it is shutting down its primary care operations because of Trump administration cuts to abortion providers. President Donald Trump’s policy and tax bill, known as the “ big beautiful bill,”

ISABELLA VOLMERT Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cast doubt on the prospect of running for president in 2028 while speaking in Toronto on Wednesday. Whitmer was asked by a Canadian journalist in a moderated discussion whether she is considering seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2028. “I anticipate helping,

By JOSH FUNK AP Transportation Writer The Democratic member of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board that President Donald Trump fired ahead of the group considering the largest rail merger ever filed a lawsuit challenging his dismissal as illegal. Robert Primus, who had served on the board since 2001, said the White House never even gave

By LINLEY SANDERS and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump got a significant amount of blame during the last partial government shutdown, which took place toward the end of his first term after he forced a shutdown over border wall funding — but with Democrats embracing the shutdown fight this time,

By JOSEPH FREDERICK, MATTHEW BROWN and SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Crowds of people loaded onto boats to tour the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Wednesday with no immediate signs of a government shutdown that has triggered the furlough of about two-thirds of National Park Service employees. But in Philadelphia,

By PHILIP MARCELO and BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City rapper who joined President Donald Trump during a campaign rally last year has been sentenced to five years behind bars after he admitted he used earnings from his music career to fuel gang violence in Brooklyn. Sheff G, whose

By GARY FIELDS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Historically, the U.S. military has been an engine for cultural and social change in America. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s vision for the armed forces he leads runs counter to that. In comments Tuesday to hundreds of military leaders and their chief enlisted advisers, Hegseth made clear he

By ALI SWENSON and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government shut down Wednesday, with Democratic lawmakers insisting that any deal address their health care demands and Republicans saying those negotiations can happen after the government is funded. At issue are tax credits that have made health insurance more affordable for

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Former Republican U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who was defeated in 2022 in a North Carolina primary, is looking for a comeback by running for Congress again, this time from Florida. Cawthorn, 30, announced in an online video Wednesday that he would seek the southwest Florida

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A conservative Wisconsin appeals court judge announced Wednesday that she is running for an open seat on the battleground state’s Supreme Court, promising to stop the politicization of the courts after record-high spending in the last race, fueled by billionaires Elon Musk and George Soros. Appeals

By The Associated Press The U.S. Senate adjourned for the day on Wednesday with no resolution on how to reopen the government. Blame was being cast on all sides on the first day of the shutdown. A vote to end the government shutdown failed earlier Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the