AP US Politics News

By ROBERT YOON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Houston voters who have gone almost a year without representation in the U.S. House will finally fill the seat in a special runoff election Saturday. Meanwhile, voters in the Fort Worth area will elect a new state senator. Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards were the top

By GARANCE BURKE and BYRON TAU Associated Press Luis Martinez was on his way to work on a frigid Minneapolis morning when federal agents suddenly boxed him in, forcing the SUV he was driving to a dead stop in the middle of the street. Masked agents rapped on the window, demanding Martinez produce his ID.

By JOSH BOAK and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he plans to announce his choice for chairman of the Federal Reserve on Friday morning, a long-awaited decision that could set up a showdown on whether the U.S. central bank preserves its independence from the White House and electoral politics.

MATT BROWN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Aggressive immigration enforcement in Minnesota, which resulted in the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens by federal agents, and this week’s FBI search of the election office in Georgia’s most populous county have Democratic election officials concerned about what could be in store for this fall’s midterm elections.

By The Associated Press President Donald Trump held his first Cabinet meeting of 2026 on Thursday, focusing on the economy, housing, energy, health initiatives and drug prices. But while he painted a rosy picture of his administration’s accomplishments, some of his boasts —- and that of other officials —- were off the mark. Here’s a

By DAVID FISCHER Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Detainees have been pepper-sprayed on at least two occasions at a Florida immigration detention center dubbed “ Deportation Depot ” since it opened last September. The Florida Division of Emergency Management confirmed Thursday that the most recent incident at the former Baker Correctional Institution in northeast Florida

By DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army general tapped to lead the U.S. National Security Agency assured lawmakers Thursday that he will follow the Constitution and the law when it comes to using the NSA’s powerful surveillance tools. Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd, if confirmed by the Senate, would also run the Pentagon’s

By TRÂN NGUYỄN Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan on Thursday announced he’s joining the crowded race for California governor, casting himself as a moderate Democrat with a track record of tackling some of the state’s most persistent issues including homelessness and crime. Elected to lead Silicon Valley’s largest city

By CHARLOTTE KRAMON Associated Press/Report for America ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge has rejected for now Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ‘s bid to gain more spending power in the state’s race for governor, upholding campaign finance rules that some Republicans argue give certain candidates an unfair advantage. Raffensperger’s independent political action committee,

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are proposing sweeping changes to the nation’s voting laws, a long-shot priority for President Donald Trump that would impose stricter requirements, including some before Americans vote in the midterm elections in the fall. The package released Thursday reflects a number of the party’s most

By The Associated Press Democrats and White House have struck a deal to avert a partial government shutdown and temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security as they negotiate new restrictions for President Donald Trump ’s surge of immigration enforcement. As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal

By BILL BARROW and STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Thursday she is running for governor of Minnesota, promising to take on President Donald Trump while unifying a state that has endured a series of challenges even before the federal government’s immigration crackdown. Klobuchar’s decision gives Democrats a high-profile

By MAYA SWEEDLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s increasingly one place that U.S. senators want to be — anywhere but Washington. Democrat Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota became the fourth sitting senator to seek leadership of a home state in 2026 when she announced her campaign on Thursday. That’s the most in recent history, according

By SUDHIN THANAWALA Associated Press A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower

By GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA Associated Press The Federal Emergency Management Agency would have enough money to respond to the massive winter storm still impacting large swaths of the U.S. even if a partial government shutdown begins at midnight Friday, experts and former FEMA officials said, despite Trump administration warnings to the contrary. FEMA would have

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press DENVER (AP) — Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection in 2020. But for more than five years, he’s been trying to convince Americans the opposite is true by falsely saying the election was marred by widespread fraud. Now that he’s president again, Trump is pushing the federal government to

By STEVE PEOPLES AP National Political Writer NEW YORK (AP) — No longer confined to the partisans and activists, the fierce backlash against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has begun to break out across American culture, spanning the worlds of business, sports and entertainment. Bruce Springsteen released a new song Wednesday that slammed “Trump’s federal thugs.”

By STEVEN SLOAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Elizabeth Kautz says she now carries her passport around the Minneapolis suburb where she’s been the mayor since 1995. “Those ICE agents don’t know that I’m the mayor of the city of Burnsville,” Kautz, a Republican who has occasionally diverted from the Trump administration’s views, said Wednesday

ERIC GAY Associated Press DILLEY, Texas (AP) — Texas state police deployed pepper balls to disperse protesters outside the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, where 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held. Demonstrators against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown rallied outside the facility, banging

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has concluded that San Jose State University discriminated against women by letting a transgender athlete play on the women’s volleyball team, the U.S. Education Department said Wednesday. The department offered San Jose State a deal that would resolve the case. The university, located

By VALERIE GONZALEZ, ERIC GAY and BILL BARROW Associated Press DILLEY, Texas (AP) — Democratic Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett on Wednesday visited a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father at a Texas federal detention center, in a case that has stirred anger over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and given fuel to Democrats

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — It is a goal spreading among anti-tax crusaders — eliminate all property taxes on homeowners. Rising property values have inflated tax bills in many states, but ending all homeowner taxes would cost billions or even tens of billions in most states. It is unclear if lawmakers can

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s high-profile deployment of federal troops to six U.S. cities has cost taxpayers roughly $496 million through the end of December, and continued deployment could cost over $1 billion for the rest of the year, according to new data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer Bruce Springsteen is dedicating his new song to the people of Minneapolis, criticizing President Donald Trump’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations in the city. The lyrics of “Streets of Minneapolis,” released Wednesday, describe how “a city aflame fought fire and ice ’neath an occupier’s boots,” which Springsteen calls “King Trump’s

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI on Wednesday searched the election office of a Georgia county that has been central to right-wing conspiracy theories over President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, acting just one week after the Republican leader predicted prosecutions over a contest he has baselessly insisted was tainted by

By MICHAEL BIESECKER, FARNOUSH AMIRI, MATT BROWN and JACK BROOK Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar blamed President Donald Trump for threats to her safety on Wednesday, one day after she was accosted and squirted with liquid at an event in Minneapolis. The man arrested for Tuesday’s attack has posted online

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s endorsement of U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin’s open race for governor led the congressman’s top Republican rival to drop out of the race less than a day later. Tiffany now faces only nominal opposition for the Republican nomination in the battleground state