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Democrats set to win majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years

Democrats are poised to control the majority of governor’s offices for the first time in 16 years after the GOP racked up major losses across the country. Democrats flipped governorships in Iowa, Ohio, Georgia and Texas and defended competitive races in Maine and Wisconsin, according to unofficial results from The…

Arizona Democrats poised to flip two U.S. House seats

Arizona Democrats held strong leads early Wednesday in two of the state’s most competitive congressional districts, with JoAnna Mendoza and Amish Shah both poised to defeat their Republican opponents. As of just after midnight on Wednesday, Mendoza was leading Republican incumbent Juan Ciscomani by 12 percentage…

Mixed results on the 8 ballot measures Republicans put before voters

Arizona voters weighed in on multiple ballot measures on Tuesday that were sent to the ballot by GOP lawmakers, and they overwhelmingly agreed with Republicans that taxes on groceries should be prohibited, but appear to have rejected other proposals, including a move to place a ban on diversity policies in the state…

The blue tsunami sweeps the US, as Democrats land huge gains in Congress

Voters across the country administered a sharp reprimand to President Donald Trump and Republicans who hold majorities in Congress, with Democrats gaining comfortable majorities in the Senate and the House. Several U.S. Senate and House races remained uncalled by The Associated Press as Election Day ended on the East…

Voters poised to reject GOP bid to reshape elections and endanger voting by mail

The opposition to Proposition 144, which would make significant changes to Arizona’s elections via amendments to the state constitution, declared victory Tuesday evening after initial election results were posted by the Arizona Secretary of State. As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, voters were rejecting the proposition by about…

Adrian Fontes handily defeats Alexander Kolodin in secretary of state race

Incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes trounced Republican challenger and election denier Alexander Kolodin and won reelection. Early Wednesday morning, with Fontes leading Kolodin by more than 11 percentage points, The Associated Press called the race in Fontes’ favor. Kolodin was one of many…

Katie Hobbs wallops Andy Biggs, wins reelection handily amid Democratic wave

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who outspent her Republican opponent Andy Biggs by 2.5 times, easily won reelection on Tuesday. Unofficial election night results as of Wednesday morning show the incumbent Hobbs with 56% of votes counted to Biggs’ 43%. Early Wednesday morning, The Associated Press called the race in…

Backup Air Force One makes unexpected trip to Arizona on Election Day

The aircraft formerly used as Air Force One by President Donald Trump is currently stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale for a two-day training. The Boeing VC-25A has long served as the aircraft used by presidents when traveling, until Trump recently unveiled a new aircraft gifted to him by Qatar. This plane…

Party control of state leadership could flip across the country

While much of the national attention on today’s midterm elections has focused on control of Congress, voters across the country will also choose which party controls the levers of state power. Across the states, more than 6,000 legislative seats are up for grabs, leaving the partisan control of numerous chambers…

As Election Day arrives, Democrats poised to see gains and pump brakes on Trump agenda

WASHINGTON — Tens of millions of Americans have already cast a ballot in the 2026 midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and shape President Donald Trump’s remaining policy agenda. As of Monday, more than 57 million Americans had cast a vote, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab…

Maricopa County prepares for Election Day, has already tabulated 1M ballots

The Maricopa County Elections Department had already tabulated over a million ballots on Monday and said it is fully prepared for any situations that arise come Tuesday as election officials across the country prepare for a midterm with a litigious Department of Justice being wielded by an election-denying president…

Growing scrutiny of the bench shadows Arizona’s judicial retention vote

Nestled on Arizona ballots below the big-ticket races like governor and congressional representative, but before the ballot propositions that aim to change the state constitution and impose new laws that the legislature either can’t or won’t approve, sit the names of dozens of judges. The jurists aren’t on the ballot…

Election officials brace for federal interference but expect to persevere

As concerns rise about the potential for federal influence over the results of next week’s midterm elections, many voting experts and advocates remain confident that the nation’s highly localized systems of administering and counting votes will persevere. Facing sinking approval ratings over high prices, the White…

Explosive spending, ugly ads and courtroom battles set stage for tense midterm elections

WASHINGTON — When the polls close Tuesday night, the 2026 U.S. election will go down as one of history’s most expensive and extraordinarily ugly midterms — galvanizing record-breaking early voter turnout among a deeply divided electorate. Voters on Saturday crossed the high-water mark of 52.7 million early votes cast…

Early voting tops 46 million, setting a midterm record and surpassing 2022 turnout

WASHINGTON — As of early Friday, more than 46 million Americans had cast ballots ahead of Election Day, eclipsing the early voting turnout of the 2022 midterms, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab. In the 2022 midterm elections, 45.9 million Americans voted early, according to the UF Election Lab…

Conservative PAC funded by TPUSA and Republicans campaigns for ‘sham’ Green candidate

A political action committee run by a conservative political operative has spent thousands of dollars telling voters to support a “sham” Green Party candidate for governor who is facing two investigations for campaign finance fraud. Risa Lombardo has been disavowed by the Arizona Green Party as a “sham” candidate. The…

Paradise Valley district faces civil rights complaint over ignoring antisemitic abuse

The Anti-Defamation League filed a federal civil rights complaint against Paradise Valley Unified School District, accusing school officials of failing to address the antisemitic harassment of a teen girl. In a 33-page complaint to the U.S. Department of Education, attorney Gregory D. Speier, who filed the complaint…

On private call, Arizona GOP candidates voice worry over Election Day prospects

In a virtual “rally” call held by Arizona Republican hopefuls obtained by the Arizona Mirror, Republicans voiced concerns over their prospects on Election Day. “I have to say, after we had a gangbusters start to the week, the drops today were quite less than I was hoping for,” Alexander Kolodin, a state lawmaker who is

In a blizzard of lawsuits, Trump’s DOJ battles across the US over midterm elections

The Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to combat noncitizen voting and assert authority over elections came under intense scrutiny in courtrooms across the country on Thursday, as Democrats and voting rights groups alleged federal election interference. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the U.S…

Judge strikes down Trump ‘medical frailty’ rule in Medicaid work requirements

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration’s definition of “medical frailty” illegally made it harder for certain people to be excused from Medicaid’s work requirement, a victory for Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and the attorneys general and governors in 26 other states. “This is a major…

Where are the tightest races for US House control right now? Here’s the rundown.

WASHINGTON — Communities throughout the country have been inundated with television ads and outside spending as politicians try to spur voter turnout in the most competitive U.S. House races in Tuesday’s midterm elections. The focus on a short list of campaigns highlights how much power voters in a small number of…

A wave of new laws is reshaping voting rights for people with felony convictions

A half-dozen states enacted laws this year changing voting rules for people with felony convictions, including when their rights can be restored and how they can register to vote — affecting voters in next week’s elections. A couple other states advanced measures that will affect such voters in future elections. And…

Voters turn out early in force ahead of a pivotal midterm

WASHINGTON — Tens of millions of Americans have already made their way to the ballot box as early voting is underway in a midterm election that will determine control of the House and the Senate, possibly flipping one or both from Republicans to Democrats. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 34 million people have…

Can you understand your ballot? Many measures are written above a college level

This year’s statewide ballot measures are written, on average, at a graduate-school reading level, according to a new report. The readability of 2026’s ballot questions — which ask voters to weigh in on issues as varied as abortion, property taxes, voter ID and firearms — varies by state, political data tracking…

‘They deserve our gratitude’: group rallies behind Arizona election workers

Faith leaders and an Arizona Supreme Court justice gathered at the state Capitol a week away from the midterm election to call for the respectful treatment of election workers. Justice Maria Elena Cruz said she empathizes with election workers because, like judges, they endure vitriol from the public. She denounced…

The percentage of people without health insurance is growing

The percentage of working-age adults without health insurance has increased in the past two years, largely because many people can no longer afford Obamacare coverage after Congress allowed federal subsidies to expire at the end of last year. The uninsured rate for adults ages 19-64 rose to 11.2% this year, up from…

Commentary: A New Approach to Closing the Disability Wealth Gap

It was another financial institution’s commercial that motivated me to create something different. Two busy white, apparently nondisabled, suburban parents were standing on their carefully manicured lawn talking about how they needed to go to the bank to plan for the future of their adult son with Down syndrome. They…

Commentary: A classroom-spending mandate could cost students with special needs

What if a plan to increase teacher pay and improve Arizona schools actually hurts our most vulnerable population — our students with special needs? I’m a mom to a child with Down syndrome. I am also an educator with nearly two decades of experience as a teacher and school administrator in both district and charter

‘We don’t want it’: Voter backlash against data centers consumes midterm elections

SPRINGDALE, Pa. — Residents in a small southwestern Pennsylvania town are facing the prospect of a 47-acre data center facility on their doorstep. “Right here behind this fence is where they want to put up the data center, and as you can see, there’s houses right across the street, roughly 100 feet,” said lifelong…

Arizona Supreme Court limits Clean Elections’ power but lets fraud probe continue

The Arizona Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Citizens Clean Elections Commission does not have the legal authority to overturn the secretary of state’s qualification of a candidate. But it also said that it won’t stop the commission, which oversees the state’s public campaign finance system, from investigating…

Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship voting law heads to the Supreme Court in December

The U.S. Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments for early December in a case that could decide whether Arizona can require proof of citizenship to register to vote and if it can purge voter rolls prior to an election. Earlier this year, the high court agreed to hear the 2022 case in which Mi Familia Vota

Trump’s DOJ sues over Alaska Senate race, expanding preelection legal fights

The U.S. Department of Justice is stepping up its legal campaign over the midterm elections, suing Alaska over its U.S. Senate election and appealing a lawsuit against suspected noncitizen voters in California. Election law experts have cast doubt on the strength of the cases, criticizing them as performative. The…

Commentary: The Cost of ‘I Do’ in the Disability Community

When Patrice Jetter and Garry Wickham became engaged, the first decisions were of small, giddy consequence: where to hold the ceremony, whom to invite, what to wear. But soon enough, a far weightier question eclipsed them all: whether they could afford to marry at all. They learned that, as people with disabilities…

These white suburban moms regret voting for Trump — but aren’t sold on Democrats

Two years ago, six White suburban mothers were among the more than 77 million Americans who voted to put President Donald Trump back in the White House. Now, they say they regret it. In a recent focus group convened by Navigator Research, a Democratic polling and public opinion firm, and shared exclusively with The…

Judge blocks Homeland Security from conducting election-related sweeps in 9 states

A federal judge on Wednesday night blocked the Department of Homeland Security from conducting election-related field operations that could sweep up U.S. citizens in nine states. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, an appointee of President Joe Biden in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, issued a…

Democrats warn federal voucher credit would spread Arizona’s problems nationwide

Arizona’s congressional Democrats are calling to repeal a federal plan that would spend billions on a school voucher tax credit, saying the Grand Canyon State’s universal voucher program is proof that public schools across the country will suffer. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” that President Donald Trump and…

Maricopa County election HQ locked down briefly due to ‘suspicious activity’

The Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center went into a brief lockdown Wednesday afternoon due to “suspicious activity” that an election worker observed in a nearby building. The lockdown happened at approximately 12:30 p.m., leading to the building being put on lockdown for about half an hour, according to a…

Supreme Court blocks Trump admin plan to forcibly detransition federal inmates

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to implement a rule that would terminate gender-affirming care for transgender people incarcerated in federal prisons. It means a lower court order that blocked the policy from going into effect will remain in place for…

Threats of ICE at the polls could just be a fear tactic. Arizona is preparing anyway.

On a recent weeknight, standing at the head of a small room in a nondescript office building, Karime Rodriguez projected a map of metro Phoenix onto the wall. The green dots, she explained, represented voting sites. The red ones were reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity that her organization…

Why Arizona and five other states are weighing measures to bar noncitizen voting

Voters in six states are considering ballot measures in the midterm elections that would make it clear that only U.S. citizens may vote — and block local governments from expanding that right to others. Proposed constitutional amendments or law changes in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota and West…

Data centers are now the largest financial bet in US history

The sheer size of investment in data centers is drawing concern as it surpasses all other historical booms and crowds out other more job-creating ventures. Until now, no industry had driven the U.S. economy with such force since the railroad expansion of the late 1800s, when titans battled one another to lay the…

FBI investigating suspicious letters sent to Grijalva, Ansari and Stanton

Suspicious letters, some of which contained unknown substances, were sent to three of Arizona’s Democratic members of Congress, just days after the Secretary of State’s Office was evacuated because of an envelope filled with white powder. In a joint statement, U.S. Reps. Adelita Grijalva, Yassamin Ansari and Greg…

With 2 weeks until midterms, analysts say Dems still on track to win US House majority

Democrats have used President Donald Trump’s unpopularity to expand the midterm map, and analysts project the party carries momentum heading into the final two weeks of the election cycle, even as Democrats are expected to flip fewer U.S. House seats than wave elections this century. The Cook Political Report with Amy…

Arizona congressman demands answers on unmarked ‘pop-up’ immigration courts

Democratic U.S. Congressman Greg Stanton learned that the Department of Homeland Security was using a Federal Emergency Management Agency building as an immigration court, but when he went to inspect it, he was met with roadblocks. “No. 1, there is no signage indicating this is an immigration court room,” Stanton told…

Trump creates women’s health task force, revokes Biden research actions

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday establishing a Women’s Health Division within the National Institutes of Health. The new division is set to work with the agency’s existing Office of Research on Women’s Health, which was established in 1990 and “has served as the focal point for…

Democrats could flip legislative chambers, break GOP supermajorities, analysis finds

Party control is up for grabs in 15 state legislative chambers across the country as Republicans are increasingly on the defensive this midterm election cycle, a new analysis found. The nonpartisan newsletter Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics released its final analysis of state…

Arizona No Kings crowds channel anger at Trump and Republicans into early votes

Tens of thousands of Arizonans rallied and voted early on Saturday as part of the fourth No Kings day of protest that saw 44 demonstrations across the Grand Canyon State in opposition to President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies. The protests and marches in Arizona were part of some 3,000 similar events…

Prison healthcare takeover put on hold as Arizona’s appeal moves forward

A last-minute order from a federal appeals court on Friday delayed a takeover of the state prison healthcare system. The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry was slated to lose control of healthcare operations on Monday. But in a new order, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to put…

Arizona moves to join lawsuit against federal Colorado River plan

The Grand Canyon State announced Friday that it intends to join Nevada’s lawsuit challenging the federal government’s most recent plan for the future of the Colorado River. The announcement comes after years of unsuccessful negotiations among the seven states that depend on Colorado River water to develop a plan to…

Gun safety advocates launch ad campaign to flip Arizona legislature

Gun safety advocates are investing millions of dollars in Arizona and other battleground states, where they hope to convince voters to topple the state’s GOP legislative majority and elect candidates that will support stricter gun ownership laws. Earlier this week, Everytown for Gun Safety, a national organization…

Commentary: Don’t let the intimidation work: Vote like your future depends on it

Schemes to disrupt elections became frighteningly real in Arizona on Thursday when a hazardous-materials response team swarmed the state Capitol after election officials received an envelope containing an unknown white powder. The Executive Tower was briefly evacuated on Thursday afternoon. Thankfully, no one was…

White-powder letter sent to Arizona Secretary of State amid national threat wave

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office was evacuated Thursday after a worker opened a letter containing an unknown white powder, one of dozens of election offices across the country targeted with similar letters that the FBI and U.S. Postal Service are actively investigating. “Yesterday’s attack was not a harmless…

AZ Supreme Court takes up scope of Clean Elections’ power in Green Party fraud case

The state’s highest court is set to determine whether the Clean Elections Commission has the power to investigate whether two Green Party candidates fraudulently obtained millions in public campaign funds and then claw back the money if it concludes they did. Risa Lombardo and Duwayne Collier, the Green Party nominees…

Progressive group targets GOP donations from PAC tied to charter school CEO

A progressive advocacy group is calling for Republicans who took money from a political action committee founded by the head of one of Arizona’s largest charter school networks to return it as the PAC is being investigated for alleged campaign finance law violations. Glenn Way is the CEO of Charter One LLC and the…

Powered by spikes in energy prices, inflation surges to 3.7%

Inflation grew to a 3.7% annual rate in September, according to an Oct. 14 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 3.4% in August. In the last consumer price inflation report before midterm elections, with voters already fed up with higher prices, September’s number was the highest since May, when it…

Trump: Execution of Fort Hood shooter will not be livestreamed

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Thursday announced that the execution of a man convicted of the Fort Hood shooting will not be livestreamed, a reversal after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that Nidal Hasan’s death by firing squad would be public. “I think streaming the execution for all to see might…

Arizona sues OpenAI over the dangers ChatGPT poses to children

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is suing OpenAI over its ChatGPT feature, saying it violates the state’s consumer fraud protections and endangers children. In a wide-ranging, 87 page lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday, Mayes argues that OpenAI should be forced to implement stronger safety…

Prop. 144 could reshape Arizona mail voting while doing little to speed results

Proponents of Proposition 144 say that it will make Arizona’s elections faster and more secure, but critics say it’s unlikely to significantly speed up results — and it could spell the end of no-excuse voting by mail, by far the most popular way to vote in the Grand Canyon State. Prop. 144 would make numerous

Trump admin resists government watchdog’s call to automate ICE body cameras

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection need to improve oversight and guidance for federal immigration officers’ use of body-worn cameras, according to a Wednesday report from independent federal investigators. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security…

Trump immigration policies could turn away much-needed foreign doctors, critics say

As the nation’s physician shortage worsens, some fear the Trump administration’s immigration policies will dissuade or prevent doctors who earned their medical degrees in foreign countries from practicing in the United States. Among all U.S. doctors, an estimated one quarter were educated abroad. But they make up an…

Supreme Court won’t hear bid to overturn sanctions against Kari Lake’s lawyers

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal to overturn hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal sanctions against lawyers who represented failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and made baseless claims about election fraud in her bid to upend how Arizona conducts elections. The high court released a list…

Commentary: The true cost of mass deportation isn’t just the price tag

As a college student in South Phoenix and someone who was once undocumented myself, I know deportation is not an abstract political talking point. I have watched friends and neighbors disappear from our community after being deported and the lasting damage that separation leaves behind. A neighbor shared how her…

US senators from both parties blast Trump order to import Russian diesel as illegal

The Trump administration’s order to allow import of Russian diesel violates a 2022 law banning Russian energy imports while the country’s war with Ukraine is ongoing, according to a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. Following an Oct. 9 call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S…

Trump heads West in latest swing to bolster GOP in rocky lead-up to midterms

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump this week will journey out West in an effort to galvanize support for Republican candidates three weeks before the midterm elections and convince voters to support his party amid low presidential approval ratings. As the deeply unpopular war in Iran enters month eight, resulting in…

Measles cases reach 4,080 for the year — the highest in decades

Measles cases for the calendar year surpassed 4,000 for the first time in decades, with as many as five deaths in Pennsylvania, as the federal government steps in with financial help for states but also fans vaccination fears and skepticism. A weekly report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed…

Data center backlash set to sway midterm elections

In the course of a single election cycle, the backlash against data centers has grown from an issue at local planning commission and city council meetings to become a flashpoint in state and federal races across the country. Candidates who once touted data centers as an economic boon have backtracked, and voters in at…