Category Archives: Democrats

Democrat Raphael Warnock holds narrow poll lead in crucial Georgia Senate runoff – live

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Two years ago, Georgia was the state that decided control of the Senate in Democrats’ favor. This year, its importance will be slightly diminished – but that doesn’t mean the results of Tuesday’s run-off election between Democratic senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker won’t be closely watched.

Democrats won enough seats in last month’s midterm elections to control Congress’s upper chamber for another two years, but only by a margin so slim they’ll need vice-president Kamala Harris to cast tie-breaking votes on legislation Republicans don’t support. But if Warnock wins, the Democrats will control the chamber outright, and the influence of senators like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who repeatedly acted as spoilers for some of Joe Biden’s policy proposals over the past two years, will be lessened.

The supreme court at 10am eastern time will hear arguments in a case over whether Colorado’s anti-discrimination law violates the free speech rights of a web designer because she only wants to create wedding pages for heterosexual couples.

Joe Biden, fresh off welcoming French president Emmanuel Macron to Washington, hosts the congressional ball at 6.30pm.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters at 2.30pm.

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Will the ‘cool, calm, collected’ Hakeem Jeffries change when in power?

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Some believe Black lawmakers adapt to leadership by becoming more moderate – others disagree

Democratic congressman Hakeem Jeffries first emerged in the mid-2000s as a former corporate lawyer homegrown from central Brooklyn. With his focus on criminal justice reform and housing affordability, he was seen as a progressive of the moment who took on the existing Democratic machine in New York.

Now, as the newly-elected successor to House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Jeffries has graduated from state politics to the national stage with the opportunity to make an impression on American politics for years to come.

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Hakeem Jeffries ‘stops talking’ when asked what he thinks of Kevin McCarthy

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McCarthy seeking votes to be speaker when Republicans take over the House next year party

In his first major interview since being elected the first Black leader in Congress, the New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries was asked what he thought of Kevin McCarthy, the Californian now seeking the votes to be speaker when Republicans take over the House next year.

“We serve in Congress together,” Jeffries said.

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Newt Gingrich warns Republicans that Joe Biden is winning the fight

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Former speaker who led charge against Bill Clinton raises eyebrows with column heralding Democrat’s first-term success

Republicans must “quit underestimating” Joe Biden, the former US House speaker Newt Gingrich said, because the president is winning the fight.

Writing on his own website, Gingrich said: “Conservatives’ hostility to the Biden administration on our terms tends to blind us to just how effective Biden has been on his terms.

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Biden tells Democrats to revise primary calendar to boost Black voters’ voices

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Predominantly white New Hampshire reportedly could be scheduled later with South Carolina tipped to move up to first

Democrats are poised to shake up the way in which they nominate presidential candidates, after Joe Biden said the primary process should better represent the party’s non-white voters.

Biden has reportedly told Democrats that Iowa, the state that has led off the Democratic voting calendar since 1976, should be moved down the calendar, with South Carolina instead going first.

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Biden ‘working with Macron’ to hold Russia accountable for ‘brutal’ Ukraine war – as it happened

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We’re still waiting for Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron to appear for their press conference at the White House.

Elsewhere in Washington, the Florida Republican congressman Matt Gaetz might be a little uneasy today, as a former tax collector whose arrest led to a wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation faces sentencing.

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Garland vows to hold January 6 attackers to account after Oath Keepers conviction – live

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Attorney general condemns ‘those responsible for crimes related to the attack on our democracy’ – follow US politics live

The former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who was also Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, will use the coming Christmas holidays to decide whether to launch a run for the presidency in 2024.

Speaking in her home state and at her alma mater, Clemson University, on Tuesday, Haley said: “We are taking the holidays to kind of look at what the situation is. If we decide to get into it, we’ll put 1,000% in, and we’ll finish it.”

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Congress to take up bill to avert rail strike as Biden and unions clash – live

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Progressives in Georgia are leaving nothing to chance with just one week to go before polls close in the state’s Senate runoff election.

A coalition of progressive groups has launched a massive canvassing effort for the Democratic party since election day, when neither Democrat Raphael Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker were able to win enough support to avoid a runoff.

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Record early voting in runoff for Georgia Senate seat

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Monday the largest in-person early voting day as Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker neck and neck before 6 December election

The number of people casting early ballots in the runoff election for one of Georgia’s seats in the US Senate has already broken records since the process began on the weekend, with some counties posting staggeringly long wait times at early voting sites during the first days of early voting.

Reports on Monday’s turnout varied from more than 250,000 voters to more than 300,000 on the first day of statewide early operation of the polls. Some counties began earlier.

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Hakeem Jeffries’ likely elevation set to please US pro-Israel groups

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Democrat set to succeed Nancy Pelosi maintains ties to Aipac and others but could be challenged by critics in his own caucus

Hakeem Jeffries might be about to make history but some critics fear that on one issue, at least, he will be on the wrong side of it.

The progressive New York congressman widely expected to lead the Democrats in the US House of Representatives will be the first person of color to head either party in the chamber. Jeffries’ election as House minority leader in the new Congress in January would also see the baton pass to a new generation of Democratic leaders as the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, 82, steps aside.

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Congress returns after holiday break to face lengthy to-do list – as it happened

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Here’s more on Arizona’s election controversy, from the Hill.

Maricopa residents can cast a ballot at any of the county’s vote centers, so poll workers print customized ballots on demand to match one of more than 12,000 ballot styles, depending on where a voter lives.

But after previously testing the printers, county officials say they began hearing at 6:30 a.m. on Election Day that some machines were printing ballots too light for tabulators to read.

Republican supervisors in Mohave County said last week that they will sign off Monday but wanted to register a protest against voting issues in Maricopa County.

In Cochise County, GOP supervisors demanded that the secretary of state prove vote-counting machines were legally certified before they will approve the election results.

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What can Democrats push through Congress in the lame-duck session?

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Legislation on the debt ceiling, civil liberties and elections is still possible before Republican House majority kicks in

As a new era of divided government looms in the US, Democrats are rushing to complete a lengthy legislative to-do list that includes landmark civil liberties legislation, a routine but critical spending package and a bill to prevent another January 6.

There are only a handful of working days left before the balance of power in Congress shifts and Democrats’ unified control of government in Washington ends. In January, Republicans will claim the gavel in the House, giving them veto power over much of Joe Biden’s agenda.

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Mary Peltola, first Alaska Native in Congress, wins bid to retain seat

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Peltola made history to become the first woman to represent the state when she won a special election in August

Mary Peltola, a Democrat and the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress, has won her bid to retain the state’s sole seat in the House of Representatives.

Peltola made history when she won a special election this summer to replace the Republican Don Young after his death. She is also the first woman to represent Alaska in Congress since it became a state in 1959.

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Trump in apparent Twitter snub after Musk lifts ban – as it happened

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Speaking of Trump and lawyers, another of his former top White House officials is going to South Carolina’s high court to stop a subpoena from a Georgia prosecutor looking into meddling in the state’s 2020 election, Politico reports:

The appeal to South Carolina’s supreme court by Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff for his final months in the White House, is the latest development in his lengthy battle to resist the summons from Fanni Willis. She’s the district attorney in Fulton county, which contains most of Atlanta, and has empaneled a special grand jury to look into attempts by Trump’s allies to interfere in Joe Biden’s election victory in the state.

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US attorney general appoints special counsel in Trump DoJ investigations – as it happened

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Merrick Garland names Jack Smith, a veteran prosecutor, as special counsel to decide whether to bring charges against Trump

Why didn’t last week’s midterm elections produce a landslide victory for Republicans? Why did so many people vote for Democrats, despite Joe Biden’s approval rating being underwater for more than a year?

Definitive answers to these questions are elusive, no matter how important they may be. The Guardian surveyed readers for their views on last Tuesday’s polls, and you can read what they had to say below:

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Republicans gain narrow majority to control House – live

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Last week’s elections produced winners, losers and candidates like Kari Lake.

The Associated Press has already called the Arizona governor’s race for Democrat Katie Hobbs, but her Republican challenger Lake is refusing to concede. She said as much in a video released to supporters today:

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Karen Bass becomes the first female mayor of Los Angeles

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The Democrat takes over as the second Black mayor in LA’s history, beating a rival who spent over $80m of his own money on the race

The congresswoman Karen Bass was elected mayor of Los Angeles, defeating billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso and becoming the first woman to run the second-largest city in the US.

The Democrat, who has served as a US representative for more than a decade, had amassed an insurmountable lead of nearly 47,000 votes, with 70% of the votes counted, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, nearly one one week after the election. Caruso had a slight lead in the first counts after the polls closed, but Bass soon surpassed him and steadily increased her lead as ballots were counted.

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Republicans scrape back control of US House after underwhelming midterms

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The slim majority effectively hands great power to every member of the party, possibly stymying any legislation

Republicans have won back control of the House of Representatives scraping a victory from a midterms election that many had expected to be a red wave of wins but which instead turned into more of a trickle.

Nevertheless, the party finally won its crucial 218th seat in the lower chamber of Congress, wresting away control from the Democrats and setting the stage for a showdown with Joe Biden in the next two years of his presidency.

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Same-sex marriage bill clears key Senate hurdle as Republicans on brink of House majority – as it happened

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Mike Pence was once Donald Trump’s sidekick in the White House, but in an appearance on Fox News today, he made clear he doesn’t think much of the former president’s latest attempt to win office:

This isn’t exactly a new position for the former vice-president. The two fell out over Pence’s refusal to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, and he has since joined the apparently growing ranks of Republicans casting doubt on Trump’s ability to continue leading the party.

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Murdoch press turns on Donald Trump in favour of ‘DeFuture’ Ron DeSantis

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Rightwing media empire looks for new Republican protege after poor showing in midterm elections

Rupert Murdoch has reportedly warned Donald Trump his media empire will not back any attempt to return to the White House, as former supporters turn to the youthful Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

After the Republican party’s disappointing performance in the US midterm elections, in particular the poor showing by candidates backed by Trump, Murdoch’s rightwing media empire appears to be seeking a clean break from the former president’s damaged reputation and perceived waning political power.

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