Cheney Dead at 84
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has died at 84 “due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease,” according to a family statement.
As George W. Bush’s vice president from 2001 to 2009, Cheney embodied the single-minded determination to do whatever was necessary to prevent terrorism on US soil following 9/11. A veteran of three previous presidential administrations, he wielded influence rarely seen in a vice president. Read More
Election Day
Four years ago, Republicans were bouyed after upping their legislative strength in New Jersey and winning the governorship in Virginia — only to see candidates with strong prospects fail to meet expectations in the 2022 mid-terms. So our chief election watcher, Greg Giroux, always follows the returns with a skeptical eye and a little caution about drawing big conclusions from limited data.
Despite the risks, everyone who’s working on the 2026 campaigns will be going through the turnout data, polling, and results for guidance on what motivated voters.
The outcome “will have high stakes on everything from responding to the reckless policies coming out of the Trump administration to the redistricting fight playing out across the country,” said Heather Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
Giroux has an hour-by-hour guide on what to watch as the results come in for those two governorships and other major contests.
See Also:
- US Elections Face Security Test as DHS Cuts Local Support
- Mamdani’s Edge Has Democrats Asking If He’s a Model or Fluke
- New York, Capitalism’s Capital, Prepares for a Socialist Mayor
- Trump Threatens to Reduce Federal Funding to NYC if Mamdani Wins
- Cuomo PACs Rake in Millions While Mamdani Holds His Lead
Elevated Take: Political Calculus
BGOV’s White House reporter, Mica Soellner, notes that President Donald Trump is still not giving his overt seal of approval to every nominee his party puts up for a major office.
In today’s Virginia election, of all the Republicans running for executive offices, Trump has formally endorsed only Attorney General Jason Miyares.
Unlike the GOP nominee at the top of the ticket, polling has shown that Miyares could be a winner. He’s been leading Democrat Jay Jones, whose candidacy became plagued by a text scandal where he had expressed a desire for political violence.
Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is significantly trailing Democrat Abigail Spanberger for the governorship, while GOP Lt. Gov. candidate John Reid has been slightly behind his Democrat opponent, Ghazala Hashmi.
Unlike in some other states, Virginia’s attorney general acts as an independent office, which means a victorious Miyares could legally challenge much of the Democrats’ agenda. That makes the Trump endorsement one that could pay off politically. Read More
‘Deadly Consequences’
The last time Robert Kadlec faced senators as a nominee, he was Trump’s first-term pick to be in charge of preparing for a biological disaster. As he faces the Armed Services Committee today, the physician and retired Air Force officer will have the chance to rebut senators’ criticism about actions he took in that earlier role and respond to questions about his fitness to lead the office responsible for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense.
In that earlier role, Kadlec’s arm of HHS made a deal to buy up to $2.8 billion of smallpox vaccine from a company that once paid Kadlec as a consultant. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she wants to know why he didn’t disclose that when he was nominated.
In a letter, she told the nominee she’s interested in allegations that he pressured career government officials “in order to benefit your former clients financially.” And she wrote that she wants information on “a culture of `cronyism and backroom dealing’ that marred the HHS response to the COVID pandemic.”
“These were significant policy mistakes, with deadly consequences,” Warren wrote. —Roxana Tiron
Shutdown Day 35
The House’s take-it-or-leave-it temporary spending bill (
As Jack Fitzpatrick reminds us in this morning’s edition of the BGOV Budget newsletter, 55 votes is the closest backers have come to the minimum of 60 needed to advance the bill in the Senate.
Republicans have refused to negotiate with Democrats to get those five extra votes, and Democrats have dug in on their demand to help people who are about to have a big Obamacare cost hike. Later this evening, we’ll cross the line into the longest-ever government shutdown, surpassing the partial funding lapse that lasted from December 2018 into January 2019.
However, Maeve Sheehey reports that there’s a glimmer of bipartisanship: Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) unveiled what they are calling “a statement of principles” that they said would cut health-care costs while extending the enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire Dec. 31. More details are in the BGOV Health newsletter today.
See Also:
- Trump Extends Aid for Infants, Mothers During Food Stamp Delay
- Trump Administration Says Food Stamps Will Be Partially Funded
- Why the Shutdown Is Making Flight Delays Worse: QuickTake
Eye on the Economy
If you use a computer, a smartphone, an electric or hybrid car, or have been through an MRI medical screening, you’ve been a consumer of a product that uses rare earth magnets.
Now, as a taxpayer, you’re about to back Vulcan Elements, a US company that produces them, Joe Deaux and Maggie Eastland report. “It’s a dream come true,” Vulcan Elements Chief Executive John Maslin said in an interview. “This is all about ramping up the existing production that we have and getting to a scale that is meaningful to the country.”
The Commerce Department signed a non-binding, preliminary letter of intent to provide $50 million to purchase equipment needed to produce the kinds of magnets used in fighter jets, wind turbines, and a range of other critical goods. The company separately said it’s receiving a $620 million direct loan from the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital and $550 million in private capital to build a 10,000-metric-ton magnet facility in the US.
Rare-earth magnets are a big part of the trade war with China, the No.1 supplier of those materials. Read More
K St. Open for Business During Shutdown
As the government shutdown drags on, Covington’s Bill Wichterman has a message for lobbyists: Don’t take your foot off the gas. This period of reduced activity can be an opportunity to keep issues on policymakers’ radar.
“Shutdowns aren’t fun for anyone,” he writes in a lobbying Insight for Bloomberg Government. “But lawmakers won’t forget those emails, phone calls, and meetings they took during the fight.” Read More
Before You Go
Summit Scrapped: A key meeting for leaders from across the Americas has been shelved until next year, as US military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and near South America’s Pacific coast intensify tensions with Venezuela and divide the region. Jim Wyss and Eric Martin report that the Dominican Republic had been set to host the 2025 Summit of the Americas. Its foreign ministry cited “deep differences of opinion” as the reason for the postponement without going into further detail. Read More
Interested Backers: A majority of the corporate donors identified as giving to Trump’s ballroom construction project have received government contracts in recent years, according to a report released Monday by a watchdog group. Read More
Trump Probe: In a brief, unsigned ruling, a three-judge panel said US District Judge Aileen Cannon has been too slow to resolve requests filed in February asking that she lift her order blocking disclosure of the Justice Department’s report on Trump’s handling of classified information. Read More
Know Someone Who’d Like Starting Line?
They can get it for free on weekday mornings by signing up here.
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editors responsible for this story: