Author: rpnadmin

After Tuesday night’s elections, Republicans are starting to worry that the shock and awe of President Donald Trump’s second term will haunt them in the 2026 midterms. Inside the GOP, there is a growing sense that the party should get back to basics and focus on the pocketbook issues that many voters sent them to Washington to address. There’s internal disagreement about the effects of Trump’s new tariffs announced on Wednesday. Some say they will ultimately lead to reviving American manufacturing — but even many of the president’s allies fear they could drive up prices and potentially crash the economy.…

Rod Blagojevich has a new job: representing the interests of an ultranationalist politician known as the “Bosnian Bear” who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The former Illinois governor, who was pardoned in February by President Donald Trump, has agreed to lobby on behalf of the Republic of Srpska, a Serb-majority territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina long mired in the bitter ethnic tensions of the region. RRB Strategies, Blagojevich’s firm, “will provide communications and public affairs support on behalf of the Republic of Srpska,” according to the registration statement he was required to file under the Foreign Agents Registration…

Democrats are getting ready to push deeper into Republican-held turf next November. Emboldened by the special elections last Tuesday, the GOP’s adversaries are sensing opportunity. Three buzzy Senate candidates announced bids this week — the same week that Democratic turnout powered them to a decisive win in the swing state of Wisconsin and two long-shot Democrats overperformed in a pair of deep-red Florida districts. Now, party recruiters are reporting an uptick in interest from candidates in tough-to-win territory. “This puts a lot more on the field. That puts Democrats on offense. That is us saying — if you’re in a…

Christina Hines kicked off a bid for Congress, landing Democrats a competitive recruit in a purple district in the Detroit suburbs. “We need people in Washington that we can trust, and I spent my whole life trying to fight for others and to fight for my community, and I’m hoping that I can be a trustworthy person in Congress,” said Hines, a former special victims’ prosecutor. She’d been inspired to run after seeing the news that President Donald Trump issued an executive order to wind down the Department of Education. “My husband and I looked at each other like, ‘yeah,…

Facing a tough reelection in battleground Georgia, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff raised $11 million in the first quarter of 2025, according to his campaign, which shared the totals first with POLITICO. Ossoff’s campaign said the haul is the most ever raised by an incumbent in the first quarter of an off-year. POLITICO was unable to identify any Senate campaign that had raised more in an equivalent quarter. “I’m grateful to the hundreds of thousands of record-shattering supporters who have already joined what will be the biggest and most relentless turnout effort in Georgia history,” the 38-year-old first-term senator said in…

For months, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned that the Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs stands to harm his state’s economy, including its bourbon, auto and aerospace industries. Now that President Donald Trump is ratcheting them up, the Democratic governor said the impacts will be “devastating” not just for the Bluegrass State, but for the entire country. In an interview with POLITICO on Monday, Beshear, a potential 2028 presidential contender, said there isn’t much Democratic governors can do when it comes to international trade, even as another potential presidential candidate, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, pressed trading partners to spare California-made products…

President Donald Trump praised Gretchen Whitmer in a White House meeting on Wednesday, echoing a bipartisan message the Michigan governor delivered during an earlier speech in Washington, D.C. The meeting was Whitmer’s second sit-down with the president since he took office. She raised the ongoing ice storm in northern Michigan, investments in the Selfridge Air National Guard Base outside of Detroit, invasive fish in the Great Lakes and the hottest topic of the day — tariffs — according to a spokesperson for the governor. Trump spoke positively of Whitmer’s leadership, and even brought her with him to the Oval Office…

Ken Paxton’s entry into the U.S. Senate race in Texas is becoming a major headache for Republicans. Top GOP senators were maneuvering to undercut the Texas attorney general even before he announced his primary campaign this week against four-term Sen. John Cornyn. Others urged President Donald Trump after Paxton got into the race to endorse the incumbent leadership adviser and former chair of the Senate campaign arm with a deep donor base. “The best thing would have been to keep Paxton out of the race,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a close Trump ally. He added that at this point…

Democrats are targeting Donald Trump’s weakened standing on the economy — even after the president paused his far-reaching reciprocal tariff policy that reverberated across global markets. In interviews with more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers, congressional staffers and media strategists, many in the party see a prime opportunity to attack Trump on a key campaign promise they argue he’s failing to deliver — a message likely to be featured prominently in political ads if the economy continues to falter. Some candidates are already hitting tariffs in campaign launch ads, while the party is planning to capitalize on anger over the…

Former Michigan state Sen. Adam Hollier on Monday launched a Democratic primary challenge against two-term Rep. Shri Thanedar. The announcement marks Hollier’s third attempt to secure the House seat representing most of Detroit. Hollier previously served as a Michigan state Senator from 2018 to 2022 and has also led the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “From housing to daycare to the rising costs of everything from groceries to the brakes on our cars, we’re in a real crisis in this country,” Hollier said in a press release announcing the run. “We need bold solutions and leaders who…