Kacen Bayless | (TNS) The Kansas City Star JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Cole County judge will decide whether the Missouri Republican Party can block a candidate with alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan from running for governor as a Republican. Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker held a one-day trial in Jefferson City on Thursday over a lawsuit from the state party seeking to remove the candidate, Darrell Leon McClanahan III, from the August ballot. McClanahan, who resides in Milo, a small village in southwestern Vernon County, filed to run for governor as a Republican and paid his $500 filing fee ..read more

Matt Vasilogambros | (TNS) Stateline.org Preventing people who are not United States citizens from casting a ballot has reemerged as a focal point in the ongoing Republican drive to safeguard “election integrity,” even though noncitizens are rarely involved in voter fraud. Ahead of November’s presidential election, congressional and state Republican lawmakers are aiming to keep noncitizens away from the polls. They’re using state constitutional amendments and new laws that require citizenship verification to vote. Noncitizens can vote in a handful of local elections in several states, but alre ..read more

David Matthews | New York Daily News Stormy Daniels blasted Donald Trump on social media Thursday night, just a few hours after she finished testifying against the former president in his Manhattan hush-money trial. “Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh…wait. Nevermind,” she wrote in a post on X — a taunting reference to Trump not testifying in the case and using his own social media accounts to rail against the proceedings. The zinger came after Trump’s lawyers unsuccessfully requested a mistrial based on Daniels’ testimony. If ..read more

By Molly Crane-Newman, Josephine Stratman | New York Daily News A bid by Trump’s lawyers to show he was concerned about how his family would take the news of the Stormy Daniels sex tryst allegations fizzled Friday as testimony in the ex-president’s hush money trial resumed. Former top White House aide Madeleine Westerhout, who famously lost her job after saying she had a better relationship with Trump than his daughters, testified that she couldn’t recall Trump mentioning his wife or kids at all in a conversation after the news broke. Prosecutors are attempting to prove tha ..read more

John T. Bennett | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is headed back to California to raise more campaign cash Friday and Saturday after he sent shockwaves around the globe with a potential landmark change to U.S. foreign policy. Biden sat down with CNN anchor Erin Burnett Wednesday during a campaign stop in battleground Wisconsin. As he did during recent official White House and campaign events, he jabbed at Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and defended his economic record. The president has joked that his staff dreads when he goes of ..read more

By JOHN RABY (Associated Press) CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — For Derrick Evans, being part of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol wasn’t enough. The former West Virginia lawmaker wants to make his path to the halls of Congress permanent. On the other side of the metal barricades that day, Police Officer Harry Dunn couldn’t stand what he saw as he defended the Capitol and its inhabitants from rioters on Jan. 6, 2021. Ultimately, the Maryland resident watched lawmakers he had protected vote to acquit former President Donald Trump and deny the violence and trauma that led to the deaths of some of h ..read more

Coloradans can expect two years of free college for qualifying students, long-term property tax reform after years of Band-Aid measures, and denser development following a legislative session that Democratic leaders called a “breakthrough” for many of their long-held policy goals. A year removed from the bitter divisions and policy losses that marked the 2023 General Assembly, Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic leadership struck a notably more chipper tone as they heralded legislative victories on housing, gun reform, tax policy, and transit and education funding. Along the way, they also batted ..read more

By AYANNA ALEXANDER (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Young Black lawyers and law students are taking on a new role ahead of the general election: Meeting with Black voters in battleground states to increase turnout and serve as watchdogs against voter disenfranchisement. The Young Black Lawyers’ Organizing Coalition has recruited lawyers and law students and is sending them to Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas to meet with Black voters, aiming to better understand the barriers that the historically disadvantaged voting bloc faces when registering to vote and accessing the ballot ..read more

Nathan L. Gonzales | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call WASHINGTON — Despite a persistently tight race in the national polls, President Joe Biden is in a precarious position for reelection and may even be a slight underdog with less than six months to go. Former President Donald Trump has led Biden by about 1 point or less for the last six weeks, according to the FiveThirtyEight national average. But the picture is more grim for Biden in the Electoral College, which is the most important race of all. Biden currently trails in the six most important states, including Arizona (Trump +3.2), Georgia (Trump +5.9 ..read more

It’s a family affair: Almost all of Donald Trump’s children, including 18-year-old Barron, will be Florida Republican Party delegates at the GOP presidential convention this year. Leading the entourage to Milwaukee in July as delegation chairman will be Eric Trump. His big brother Donald Jr. and little sister Tiffany also were chosen as at-large delegates, along with half-brother Barron, who’s graduating from high school this month. Trump’s daughter Ivanka is not a delegate. Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée, was chosen to co-lead the party platform committee. “We are fortunate to ..read more