The latest coverage of the 2024 presidential, House and Senate elections.
A primary challenger jumping could pit progressives against the Democratic Party's campaign apparatus.
Progressives have spent millions of dollars over the last two cycles trying to unseat Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar — only to watch him spoil their plans each time.
Now, as Democrats are trying to claw their way back to the majority, some of those groups are gearing up to try and take out Cuellar again.
Donors, governors and plenty of GOP voters are just waiting for the Florida governor to enter the race before they ditch the former president, according to DeSantis’ growing team of political pros.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gathered around a conference table at the Florida Republican Party’s headquarters here late last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis inner circle did little to hide their eagerness to get into the presidential race or mask their frustration over the rising skepticism about their candidate-in-waiting.
Nearly six months after DeSantis won a landslide reelection in what was once a battleground state, emerging as one of the few good news stories in a disappointing year for Republicans, the Florida Story has been overwhelmed by a pair of countervailing narratives, to borrow one of the governor’s favorite words: his own inadequacies and the suffocating reemergence of one Donald J. Trump.
But one GOP consultant says "the cuffs will be off" once the governor is officially a candidate.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — During Donald Trump’s chaotic townhall, the super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went on the attack. It slammed him in real time during the event, claiming it was "an hour of nonsense" and Trump "still doesn't know where he stands on important conservative issues."
But the next day, DeSantis supporters and the governor avoided any mention of Trump. They discussed another round of bill signings designed to highlight the legislative accomplishments that DeSantis racked up during the recently concluded 60-day session. On Thursday, he signed a bill that makes permanent Florida’s bans on mask mandates and Covid-19 vaccine mandates.
Anxiety mounts that the 2020 playbook isn’t replicable and that Biden world may be too confident in it.
Donald Trump’s CNN town hall on Wednesday night was viewed as a gift from the political gods inside Biden world.
But within broader Democratic circles it fed a nagging and growing concern. Is the president’s team a touch too confident about a Trump-Biden rematch?
Employees inside the company are slamming the network for giving Trump a platform to spout false claims on a multitude of issues.
CNN employees are lambasting the network for its hour-long town hall Wednesday with former President Donald Trump, where he continued to push false claims about the 2020 election and defended his actions on Jan. 6.
“It was a complete disaster,” one CNN employee told POLITICO Playbook, arguing that the format — specifically, stacking the audience with Trump supporters who cheered his lies — was a “strategic error.”
The event showed an unvarnished view of the former president — but it also elicited real news.
CNN’s New Hampshire town hall with former President Donald Trump Wednesday night may have done more to boost his chances of winning the GOP presidential nomination than anything that’s happened since the 2020 election.
Over and over again, a self-assured Trump lied and rewrote history. And the live studio audience — which seemed vocally pro-Trump, as if imported from Mar-a-Lago — ate it up.
“If you don't say that you think Ukraine should win the war, I don't know where you stand with Putin," the former governor said.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called former President Donald Trump a “coward” and a “puppet of Putin” for refusing to say that Ukraine should win in its war against Russia.
During a CNN town hall Wednesday night, Trump said it wasn't wise to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal, since that would make negotiating with him more difficult. When asked about the comment Thursday morning, Christie said he strongly disagrees.
The youngest candidate in the Republican presidential field is preparing to announce a proposal to raise the voting age to 25 for most people.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the youngest candidate in the Republican presidential field, is preparing to announce a new policy proposal: Raising the voting age.
He says even his staff doesn’t like the idea.
He’s constructed a political force field against failures and scandals that would have felled any other politician.
By now, Donald Trump should be tired of all the winning.
Pretty much since late-February, he’s been on the political upswing — no matter what. Good, bad or ugly, it either helps him in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, or doesn’t hurt him. The verdict against Trump in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case can now be probably added to the list.
Collins, who will moderate a town hall with Trump on Wednesday, was known for getting under the former president’s skin during his time in office.
Former President Donald Trump will join a CNN town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday, his first appearance on the network since his 2016 presidential campaign.
The current GOP 2024 presidential frontrunner will take questions live from Republican and undecided New Hampshire voters, CNN announced last week. CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins is moderating the event, which will be at 8 p.m.
Trump’s town hall is the latest in a mainstream media offensive by the former president.
When the lights flick on for Donald Trump’s town hall on CNN tonight, much of Washington will fixate on the clash between the former president and a network he's derided as “fake news.”
But what the prime-time event will lay bare is something far more consequential for the presidential primary: Trump is fast-forwarding toward a broader, general election media strategy, while some of his rivals are stuck in primary mode.
The former president will fundraise off the E. Jean Carroll verdict. But he also has to get through a televised town hall where it will come up.
Former President Donald Trump’s appearance on CNN tonight was already going to be a blockbuster — a primetime TV appearance in front of a live audience on a network he regularly lambasts.
But with a Manhattan federal jury finding him liable in the sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll, the stakes for the GOP frontrunner were instantly raised, virtually ensuring he will be pressed on issue by a network that has historically had an adversarial relationship with the former president.
Trump's legal team did not call any witnesses during the trial, and Trump himself did not testify in court during the trial.
A federal jury on Tuesday found that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, a writer who accused the former president of attacking her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.
The verdict in the civil trial marks the first time that Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women, has been held legally responsible for sexual assault. And it adds fresh tarnish to the former president’s reputation as he seeks to regain the White House amid a tide of legal troubles.
MAGA Inc. says it’s time already to treat Trump as the nominee.
A pro-Trump super PAC is trying a new tactic to woo donors, warning that any cent spent on any GOP candidate other than Donald Trump is a de facto in-kind donation to President Joe Biden.
In a memo sent to top Republicans on Tuesday, MAGA Inc.’s CEO Taylor Budowich painted the 2024 GOP primary as a fait accompli (even without all the candidates even in it). He cited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ tumble in the polls and Nikki Haley’s inflated fundraising numbers as reasons for donors to unite around Trump.
The former first lady hasn’t been seen at her husband’s campaign events since he launched his reelection bid in November.
Former President Donald Trump has the support of his wife Melania in his reelection campaign, she says, after the former first lady has rarely been seen at her husband’s campaign events.
"He has my support, and we look forward to restoring hope for the future and leading America with love and strength," Melania Trump told Fox News in an interview published Tuesday.
The governor's move in Florida is the clearest sign yet that he'll jump into the 2024 race soon.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis severed his connection to his long-standing state political committee and the tens of millions of dollars that it now controls, a step he needs to take ahead of a presidential campaign.
The Republican governor is expected to jump into the race for president soon and the move to rebrand his Florida political committee — called Friends of Ron DeSantis — is the most concrete sign so far that his candidacy is imminent.
The longshot candidate's eclectic fan base is making a mark on the 2024 campaign.
WINDHAM, N.H. — Vivek Ramaswamy will return your call. He’ll say “yes” to almost any interview request — no matter the outlet — and will linger long after scheduled events die down, autographing a piece of fruit or letting prospective supporters lay hands on his chest to cancel Satan’s plans.
It’s the most always-on, always-available strategy of the 2024 presidential race. And it appears to be working.