One of the betting favorites to replace Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary declared Wednesday that she is not in the running for the job.The 28-year-old White House press secretary, fresh off maternity leave, announced earlier this month that she would end her tenure at the podium at the end of August to spend more time with her two young children.

A Missouri judge handed President Donald Trump and Republicans a major redistricting victory Wednesday, ruling that the state’s referendum process cannot be used to challenge congressional maps drawn by the Legislature and allowing a new GOP-friendly map to remain in place for November’s midterm elections.

A Chinese national living in Massachusetts was arrested Wednesday after federal prosecutors said he impersonated another Chinese national to register and vote in the 2024 presidential election then reported the alleged victim to immigration authorities for illegally voting.Yupeng Sun, 33, of Andover, was charged with one count of fraudulent voter registration and one count of fraudulent voting, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a stern warning to any nation thinking about offering a lifeline to Iran after announcing the launch of a U.S. operation he likened to an “economic D-Day.””Today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed said he wanted to “take it a step further” when asked whether he supported Bernie Sanders’ public ownership model for major artificial intelligence companies. El-Sayed argued for “some system of public control,” days after a top House Democrat rejected suggestions that young socialists are talking about “seizing the means of production.

The special election to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., remained undecided in the early Wednesday morning hours.The battle to succeed Swalwell comes after he resigned in April amid sexual assault allegations from at least five women. Prior to the allegations, Swalwell was also making a bid for California’s gubernatorial race, but he dropped that bid as well.Vying for Swalwell’s seat are two women: progressive state Sen.

Seventeen governor-lieutenant governor candidate pairs battled Tuesday to make the primary cutoff and advance to the November general election to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Michael Dunleavy.Former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and running mate Zac Johnson finished first, while former Democratic state Sen. Tom Begich and Julia Hnilicks finished second. They will advance to the November general election, alongside two more winning governor-lieutenant governor pairs.

A heated battle for Alaska’s only U.S. House seat will see a handful of candidates face-off in November after four candidates advanced in Tuesday’s rank-choice primary.First-term incumbent Rep. Nicholas Begich III, R-Alaska, is hoping to hang onto his seat, and will have a chance to do so in November. But he is facing an insurgency from independent candidate Bill Hill.AP called the race for Begich and Hill early on, and Begich led by a 47.9% to 29.5% margin.

Four candidates advanced out of Alaska’s nonpartisan jungle primary on Tuesday evening in one of the races that could decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate come November.Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska and former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, will advance alongside two other candidates in the state’s four-candidate general election.

Wyoming’s Republican Secretary of State Chuck Gray has won the GOP nomination for the state’s at-large U.S. House seat to replace Rep. Harriet Hageman, who is running for Senate.Gray emerged from a crowded primary to become the heavy favorite to represent the deeply conservative state in Congress. Gray, a prominent Trump-aligned conservative who has served as secretary of state since 2023, defeated a field that included businessman Steve Friess and Reid Rasner.