Political developments with market and economic implications.
Coverage of political events, elections, legislation, and regulatory changes that influence markets and economic policy. Focuses on political risk, fiscal decisions, and policy uncertainty relevant to investors.
713 total articles
An investigator enlisted by the president to re-examine the 2020 election and alleged foreign interference pressed ahead with allegations after a federal forensic review of Dominion voting machines seized in Puerto Rico found no trace of hacking. The probe, led by a prominent election-denying attorney, used federal resources and expanded into Georg…
The Legal Accountability Center has filed a complaint with the Virginia State Bar accusing U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas of breaching professional conduct rules by instructing staff to stop processing certain discrimination claims and by sending extensive information requests to 20 large law firms. The filing conte…
A Reuters/Ipsos survey shows that claims questioning the integrity of U.S. elections have taken strong root among Republican voters, with large shares endorsing unproven assertions about non-citizen voting and mail-in ballot fraud. The poll also finds wide bipartisan support for voter ID rules, localized backing for federal law enforcement at polls…
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on April 22 signed legislation that prevents local governments from creating or maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices or programs and bars public funds from being used to advance DEI. The law requires grant recipients to certify they will not use state or local grants to support DEI, establishes pen…
Kennedy Center leaders held their first public media tour of planned, taxpayer-funded renovations after President Donald Trump appended his name to the building and assumed its board chairmanship. Officials promised increased transparency while outlining structural problems - from eroding support beams to corroded electrical vaults - that they say …
A Virginia circuit court has declared invalid a voter-approved referendum that would have enacted a Democratic-drawn congressional map capable of flipping four Republican-held U.S. House seats, halting any state action to implement the new districts. The Republican National Committee was the plaintiff in the suit, and Virginia's attorney general ha…
President Donald Trump asserted without presenting evidence that a Virginia referendum to redraw congressional districts was "rigged," following voter approval of the measure. The redistricting vote, held Tuesday, could enable Democrats to contest as many as four Republican-held U.S. House seats and strengthen their bid to win control of the chambe…
A recent Reuters/Ipsos online poll indicates that President Donald Trump's robust deportation campaign may reduce support for Republican candidates in the November midterm congressional elections. Majorities of Americans, including many independents, say they are less likely to back a candidate who endorses the president's approach to deportations,…
Six candidates will square off in California’s first prominent gubernatorial debate since Eric Swalwell abruptly left the race and stepped down from Congress. The debate, slated for 7 p.m. PDT Wednesday (0200 GMT Thursday) and broadcast by Nexstar in six of the state’s largest markets, comes as polls show shifting support and underscore the strateg…
A divided 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-7 that Texas may require a visible poster of the Ten Commandments in every public elementary and secondary school classroom, reversing a lower court injunction. The ruling, authored by Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan and joined by Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod and seven other judges, found no…
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told members of Congress on Tuesday that no one in the White House instructed him to halt public discussion of vaccines or other contentious positions ahead of November’s midterm elections. Speaking at his fourth hearing of the week, Kennedy emphasized nutrition and food safety in his prepared remarks, and den…
On April 21, civil liberties organizations filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., asking a judge to bar the U.S. Department of Justice from accessing or using states' registered voter lists and to delete voter data it already collected. The complaint argues the department's requests for detailed, unredacted voter information risk creating…
A Reuters/Ipsos national online poll of 4,557 U.S. adults found President Donald Trump’s approval rating steady at 36%, near the lowest of his term. The survey showed widespread doubts about the 79-year-old president’s temperament and mental sharpness following recent incendiary public statements related to the war with Iran and attacks on Pope Leo…
Virginia residents are voting on a Democratic-drawn congressional map that could shift four Republican-held U.S. House seats to Democrats in November. The referendum follows an intensive, high-dollar campaign by both parties, ongoing court challenges, and a broader national contest over redistricting sparked last year.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from the Archdiocese of Denver and allied Catholic entities seeking exemption from Colorado’s preschool funding program nondiscrimination requirement. The case pits the Free Exercise Clause against state conditions that require participating preschools to offer equal enrollment opportunities regar…
A federal appeals panel has permitted construction of a $400 million ballroom at the site of the White House's demolished East Wing to continue while it considers an appeal of a lower court's injunction. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit put a preliminary injunction on hold and set oral arguments for June 5 to decide whether the projec…
Michigan state officials have refused a Justice Department demand for ballots and related materials from Wayne County tied to the 2024 election, calling the request baseless. The department, led on the matter by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, has pursued access to voter records in multiple states while facing court setbacks.
The U.S. Department of Justice has added Joseph diGenova, an attorney who has advised former President Donald Trump, to the team in the Southern District of Florida working on an inquiry into former CIA Director John Brennan, CNN reported. The move follows staffing changes in the Miami U.S. Attorney's Office and comes amid internal frustration over…
With a statewide special election looming, Virginia has become the focal point of a national battle over congressional maps. Former President Barack Obama has emerged as a prominent presence in advertising from both sides: he has publicly supported the referendum that would allow the state legislature to redraw districts, while Republicans are repu…
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday allowed construction to continue on a $400 million ballroom at the site of the White House's demolished East Wing, putting on hold a federal judge's order that had halted the project. The appeals court granted a temporary stay of the preliminary injuncti…
A federal judge in Rhode Island rebuffed the U.S. Department of Justice's effort to obtain non-public voter registration data for roughly 750,000 residents, ruling the department did not demonstrate legal authority under federal election statutes or the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to pursue the files. The decision follows similar defeats for the depar…
Two additional Democrats, former California attorney general Xavier Becerra and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, met the polling criteria to participate in next week’s gubernatorial debate after Congressman Eric Swalwell withdrew from the race. Nexstar Media Group’s commissioned Emerson College Polling places Becerra at 10% and Mahan at 5%, reshaping the…
Federal investigators are lining up roughly half a dozen interviews in a criminal inquiry tied to former CIA Director John Brennan's role in the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian election interference. The probe, run out of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami and active for months, reportedly focuses on Brennan's 2023 congressional testimony …
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators wrote to Taiwan’s legislative leaders, saying pending U.S. weapons sales to the island are expected to be announced in the coming weeks and urging Taipei to speed up stalled defense expenditures as China increases pressure. The letter, sent April 14, outlines specific capability packages and comes ahead of a plan…
BCA Research cautions that current prediction markets may be underestimating the risk that an Iran-related energy shock could alter U.S. midterm prospects. The firm says delayed second-round effects on consumer prices and demand could worsen Republican chances and lift the odds of a Democratic Senate sweep, with investment implications favoring Tre…
