JOHN CORNYN

Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas on Thursday blasted one of his party's top leaders back home, calling the mounting pile of accusations and legal woes Attorney General Ken Paxton faces an “embarrassment" just days before a primary runoff election. Paxton, who is within reach of winning the GOP nomination to seek a third term Tuesday, has been under state felony indictment since 2015 on securities fraud charges and is separately being investigated by the FBI after his top deputies accused him of corruption. “This is the chief law enforcement officer of the state of Texas and it’s a source of embarrassment to me that that has been unresolved,” Cornyn told reporters.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says Finland and Sweden would be “important additions” to NATO.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says senators who visited Ukraine on Saturday have reaffirmed that the U.S. will back Ukraine until it wins its war with Russia.

The senators travelled to Ukraine days before the Senate is expected to pass a $40 billion package of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell led a delegation of Republican senators to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.

The bill follows a leak last week of a draft Supreme Court opinion that, if unchanged, would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that federally legalized abortions.

The Senate has passed legislation to beef up security for Supreme Court justices.

The U.S. House has given final passage to legislation that would streamline a World War II-era military lend-lease program to help Ukraine fight the Russian invasion.

A global computer chip shortage has made it harder for consumers to get their hands on cars, computers and other modern-day necessities.

Recent hearings suggest they still haven’t grappled with the reality of when went on in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some mentioned body parts. Some cited chromosomes. Others didn't want to talk about it at all.

The policy will end on paper April 1, but it will not take effect until May 23, to allow border officials time to prepare.

The Biden administration’s decision to end sweeping asylum limits at the border this May satisfied demands by prominent Democrats.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are shooting down the idea of boycotting the panel's vote on Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. "There's not going to be any boycott. There's zero, not one iota chance that we would boycott," said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the committee.The idea of a committee boycott, which has floated around Capitol Hill for weeks, was spun up after 10 Republicans sent Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill...

The left and abortion-rights supporters have tried to get Supreme Court nominees to label Roe v. Wade a "super precedent." But Jackson stopped short of that.

Tension grew, and Republicans finally broached the idea that Jackson's past rulings were anti-Trump.

Ketanji Brown Jackson faces senators' questions for a second day, following her 13-hour session on Tuesday.

Four men once held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center were central to some of the questions Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson fielded during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee will face sharp questions from Republican lawmakers this coming week about the work she did as a public defender representing four Guantanamo Bay detainees.

GOP senators have not agreed on a strategy for questioning the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, or even whether they have a strategy.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson may not get any Republican votes.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is expected to face sharp questions from Republican senators about whether she would sit out an upcoming case examining the role race can play in college admissions because of her close ties to Harvard University.

Evenly divided between the two major parties, the U.S. Senate has operated for more than a year under a power-sharing arrangement that gives Democrats a leg up (thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote) but makes Republicans more than a silent minority. That’s the backdrop as the Senate weighs whether to confirm President Joe Biden’s choice for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Though Democrats expect their narrow advantage to be enough to confirm Ketanji Brown Jacks

Federal judges would have to publicly disclose more information about their own finances under a bill approved by the Senate this week.

A rift over the Republican National Committee's symbolic vote to censure former President Donald Trump’s House GOP critics has exposed the competing forces fighting to control the party.

Former President Donald Trump says Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell “does not speak for the Republican Party.”.

The legislation addresses key gripes app developers including Spotify, Epic Games, Basecamp and others have raised about Apple and Google.

Donald Trump’s relentless, false claims about the 2020 presidential election have sparked fresh urgency in Congress for changing the Electoral Count Act.

In a Senate where bitter Supreme Court battles have left a lasting imprint, the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s pick for Supreme Court has the potential to be much less combative and toxic.

A year after the Jan. 6 attack, Congress is more deeply divided than ever, and it shows in how lawmakers are choosing to mark the day.

South Dakota political candidates are revving into full campaign mode this week, with one big exception — Republican Sen. John Thune.

Congressional leaders have reached a deal to lift the nation's debt limit.

During his confirmation to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh assured Sen_ Susan Collins a woman's right to an abortion was “settled law.”.

The Senate has passed a stopgap spending bill that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates.

The federal government could be heading for a temporary shutdown.

As the DOJ's new antitrust chief, Kanter will inherit a lawsuit against Google filed during the Trump administration.

President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are looking to give U.S. automakers with union employees the inside track when it comes to winning the burgeoning electric vehicle market.

Former President Donald Trump struggled during his first year in office to get his nominees confirmed in a timely fashion in the Senate.

Why Republicans are blocking Democrats from raising the debt ceiling

It's been a tempestuous week in Washington, with insults and accusations flying, deadlines pressing and some major things to get done.

It's a rare show of unity amid increasingly polarized domestic politics.

The Senate voted 69-30 on Tuesday to pass the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, handing a major victory to President Biden and a group of senators that spent months negotiating on the agreement.Why it matters: The monster bill would deliver hundreds of billions of dollars for roads, bridges, waterways and other "hard infrastructure" items. It is widely seen as a victory for both parties and the reputation of the Senate, especially given the current level of polarization in Congres

Senators are struggling to wrap up work on the bipartisan infrastructure plan.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is looking to speed up consideration of a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan national infrastructure package.

The over 2,700-page bipartisan bill, finalized Sunday night, includes money for roads, transit systems and high-speed internet access. It's the first phase of President Biden's infrastructure plan.

The Senate wrapped up a rare Saturday session without producing the text of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

After much delay, senators have unveiled their $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer encouraged the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure plan to finish writing their bill so that senators can begin offering amendments.

The Senate has further advanced a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan with a bipartisan group of senators helping it clear one more hurdle Friday.

"I think that what people saw with their own eyes reflects a different reality," GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said.

Republicans criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’s upcoming trip to the Texas border, arguing she’ll be nowhere near the towns most overwhelmed with an influx of illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico.

The Vice President’s Texas visit will be about 800 miles from ground zero of the border crisis, they say.

Cruz, Cornyn oppose Dems’ voting rights bill, see it as a partisan power grab.

Not all Senate Democrats are up for Joe Biden's planned social programs or the methods to finance them, and Republicans hope to split the difference.

The Senate passed the bill yesterday under a unanimous consent agreement that expedites the process for considering legislation.

President Joe Biden has signed legislation Thursday establishing a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery, saying he believes it will go down as one of the greatest honors he has as president.

The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery.

It’s a celebration of Black history and freedom that relatively few white Americans had heard of until recent years, if at all.

The Senate passed a bill Tuesday to establish Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the United States, as a national holiday.

The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that designates Juneteenth, the anniversary of the emancipation of those who were enslaved in the United States, a national holiday.

The Senate has confirmed the first appellate court judge of President Joe Biden’s tenure.

Texas has allocated $1 billion in funding for a new border wall amid a surge in illegal migrant crossings, as its governor says the state “will not sit idly by as this crisis grows.” More than 180,000 people were apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection in May - the most since April 2000. Governor Greg Abbott blamed Joe Biden for the record crossings, saying: "It is out of control and a change is needed.” A clearer plan will be revealed next week, but vowing to continue a signature Donald

Republican George P.

Senate Republicans have blocked the creation of a bipartisan panel to study the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

REUTERSA bipartisan effort to create an independent commission to investigate the Capitol insurrection was defeated by Senate Republicans on Thursday, all but ensuring that one of the darkest days in U.S. history will not get the fullest possible accounting.Thirty-five Senate Republicans voted to block legislation that would create a 10-member panel, modeled after the 9/11 Commission, to trace the factors that led to the Jan. 6 attack and to probe the actions of insurrectionists, security officials, and top federal government leaders that day.Six Republicans joined all Senate Democrats in voting yes, meaning they fell short of the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome the filibuster—the first time that GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has deployed the filibuster since being relegated to the minority in January. The minority leader had to ask senators to vote against it as a personal favor to him, according to CNN.The six Republicans voting to advance the legislation were Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA).Congressional Democrats have discussed creating a special congressional committee to investigate the insurrection as a backstop, and they have vowed that there will be some kind of deep dive into Jan. 6 no matter what. But the GOP’s successful opposition effectively forecloses what many on both sides believe was the most effective, transparent, and credible option to do that work: an independent commission, insulated from the political process, with a well-defined mission and resources to carry it out.The failure of such a proposal seemed unthinkable in the aftermath of the attack, when GOP senators largely expressed support for an independent commission. Many of them, however, changed their tune after McConnell went all-in on opposing the bill last week. For example, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) tweeted in February that he supported a “9/11-style” commission; this week, he told reporters that the process had been “hijacked” for political purposes.But, while they tried, Republicans could not hide behind the explanation that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had engineered a partisan bill. The legislation passed her chamber in an unexpectedly bipartisan fashion last week, complicating McConnell’s opposition and weakening his argument that the commission would be “slanted” in a partisan way.An eleventh hour attempt by the mother of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was killed during the attack, to personally lobby senators also complicated McConnell’s hard stance against the bill.While most of the House Republican conference voted against the bill, 35 GOP lawmakers joined all Democrats in supporting it, a mini-jailbreak that amounted to a stinging rebuke of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s push against the legislation.But McConnell and his lieutenants quickly maneuvered around that show of force and convinced most Republicans that an independent effort to review Jan. 6 would only serve to hurt the GOP in the 2022 midterm elections.To justify their opposition, Republicans deflected by saying an independent commission shouldn’t focus on the insurrection but political violence generally. Others simply tried to memory-hole that three-dozen of their House colleagues thought the bill was a good idea. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told reporters he would oppose the commission “until they make it bipartisan,” ignoring that it already was the product of a compromise.The commission, proposed in legislation written after a series of negotiations between Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and John Katko (R-NY), was to be modeled after the Sept. 11 commission in having an even partisan makeup, with commissioners picked by leaders of both parties. Republicans said they became concerned over unequal staff resources and the possibility the commission could release a report before the 2022 election.Seeking to address those concerns, on Wednesday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) proposed an amendment to the commission bill to give the GOP side equal staffing resources, among other things. But because senators voted against moving to debate on the measure, there was no chance to consider it.One of the bill’s few GOP proponents, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), said the opposition might come back to haunt his party. “I think the perception on the part of the public is that the Jan. 6 Commission is just trying to get to the truth of what happened,” Romney told reporters on Wednesday, “and that Republicans would be seen as not wanting to let the truth come out.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

President Biden has been clear that he wants to raise taxes on capital gains for high earners. But, until a Wall Street Journal scoop published Thursday night, it wasn't known that he wants those taxes raised retroactively.Why it matters: It's unscrupulous. Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.This isn't a judgment on the merits or demerits of raising top capital gains rates, either to Biden's preferred 39.6% (plus an ACA surcharge) or closer to the 30% rate than many Democrats prefer. It's a judgment on changing the rules after the game has been played.Per WSJ: "Biden's expected $6 trillion budget assumes that his proposed capital-gains tax rate increase took effect in late April, meaning that it would already be too late for high-income investors to realize gains at the lower tax rates if Congress agrees, according to two people familiar with the proposal."This is different than what White House economic adviser Heather Boushey told me last month on Axios Re:Cap, when asked about retroactivity.The White House argument is likely to be that retroactivity will prevent investors from taking advantage of the period between Biden's original announcement and ultimate bill passage. But this ignores that Biden's announcement was just a starting point for negotiations, and was more press release than bill. And, again, the White House chose not to say at the time that the taxes would be retroactive, leading reasonable investors to make decisions under the assumption that any hikes would take effect either once legislation is signed, or perhaps at the beginning of 2022.The bottom line: It's laudable that the administration wants its math to work, as part of the most ambitious infrastructure and social spending plan of our lifetimes. But it shouldn't use unfair means to ensure the rich pay their fair share.More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

After Republican delays, Schumer pushes a final vote until after the Senate returns from a weeklong Memorial Day break.

Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican John Cornyn believe they may have landed on a new way to beef up background checks while attracting bipartisan support.

Democrats are eager for legislative wins ahead of 2022 midterms, but progress has been elusive on immigration, infrastructure and policing.

Democrats have carried Fort Worth in several recent state and federal elections, but city races have been nonpartisan — so far.

The Senate and House lawmakers are reintroducing legislation to create "one stop" shops for formerly incarcerated individuals to reduce crime and keep people out of prison once they leave.

President Joe Biden has met with six young immigrants who benefited from an Obama-era policy that protected those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

For now, Trump has won the battle for the soul of the GOP. Dissenters to his big lie are not welcome.

A bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers want to hold universities that receive federal funding accountable for sexual abuse cases.

The roar of applause that typically greets a new president entering the House chamber softened to just a few hundred hands clapping as Joe Biden arrived to deliver his first joint address to Congress.

Sen. Cruz says he will attend President Biden’s joint address and will wear a mask.

Tim Scott of South Carolina is the only Black Republican senator.

President Joe Biden is putting the finishing touches on his first address to a joint session of Congress.

Trust between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill has cratered as Joe Biden prepares to address House and Senate lawmakers for the first time in his presidency.

With their bill, Senators Sinema and Cornyn aim to help manage the flow of migrants at the southern border and ensure migrants are treated humanely.

President Joe Biden will meet with members of Congress from both parties about his infrastructure bill as Republicans back a smaller proposal.

The Senate will take up the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act this week, although it is unclear whether it will receive GOP support.

Republican Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro led dueling delegations of lawmakers to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Friday, amid concerns over the surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the border. His takeaway from conversations with state troopers and the Border Patrol is that the system is overburdened. For the most part, journalists have not been permitted to visit Border Patrol facilities to document the conditions. There were approximately 18,000 unaccompanied migrant children in U.S. federal custody as of Friday morning, according to government figures released this afternoon. The president also said that all migrants should be turned back at the border, except for unaccompanied children.

Washington — The Senate approved President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package Saturday, over 24 hours after opening debate on the bill. The final vote was 50-49, with all Democrats voting in favor of the bill and all Republicans voting against it. Senate Democrats reached a deal to limit the eligibility for who receives direct checks earlier this week. On Friday evening, Senate Democrats reached a deal accepted by Manchin, after he had an extended meeting with Schumer. The Senate version of the bill differs from the House bill in several ways, including the amendments that passed on Friday and Saturday.

Under the new deal, Senate Democrats will offer an amendment to extend additional unemployment insurance benefits through September 6 at $300 per week. However, that amendment will be superseded by the Democratic amendment when the Senate votes on it sometime later this morning. After nearly 12 hours, the vote on Sanders' amendment closed shortly before 11 p.m., the longest vote in modern Senate history. Senate Democrats reached a deal to limit the eligibility for who receives direct checks earlier this week. The House passed a version of the bill last week, but the final bill passed in the Senate will be slightly different.

Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin struck a deal late Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a logjam that had stalled the party's showpiece $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. AdMore significantly, the jobless benefits agreement suggested it was just a matter of time until the Senate passes the bill. The House approved a relief bill last weekend that included $400 weekly jobless benefits — on top of regular state payments — through August. Republicans criticized the overall relief bill as a liberal spend-fest that ignores that growing numbers of vaccinations and signs of a stirring economy suggest that the twin crises are easing. AdIn another late bargain that satisfied moderates, Biden and Senate Democrats agreed Wednesday to make some higher earners ineligible for the direct checks to individuals.

“When a crisis hits our states, like the one that hit Texas, it’s not a Republican or Democrat that’s hurting," Biden said. With tens of thousands of Houston area residents without safe water, local officials told Biden that many are still struggling. AdThe president's first stop was the Harris County Emergency Operations Center for a briefing from acting FEMA Administrator Bob Fenton and state and local emergency management officials. Some state officials initially blamed the blackouts on renewable energy even though Texas relies heavily on oil and gas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent emergency generators, bottled water, ready-to-eat meals and blankets.

President Joe Biden is expected to speak to Saudi King Salman for the first time in Bidens just over a month-old administration. The language came in contrast to Biden's pledge as a candidate to make Saudi Arabia “a pariah” over the killing. The Saudi Arabia Embassy spokesman in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. U.S. intelligence findings are coming out more than two years after Khashoggi walked hand-in-hand with his fiancee to the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Once in office, Biden said he would maintain whatever scale of relations with Saudi Arabia that U.S. interests required.

The once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden's choice for attorney general. Garland, an appeals court judge, is widely expected to sail through his confirmation process, beginning Monday at a hearing, with bipartisan support. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)WASHINGTON – Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, will appear for his confirmation hearing vowing to prioritize civil rights, combat extremist attacks and ensure the Justice Department remains politically independent. Others, including two sons of former Attorney General Edward Levi, have also written letters of support to Congress. A special counsel’s inquiry started by William Barr, while he was attorney general, into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation also remains open.

Judge Merrick Garland, nominee to be Attorney General, is sworn in at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. “The attorney general represents the public interest, particularly and specifically as defined by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States,” Garland said. That is what I intend to do as the attorney general, I don’t care who pressures me in whatever direction,” he said. Garland said the death penalty gives him “great pause” and is concerned about what he sees as the “almost randomness or arbitrariness of its application” and the “disparate impact” the death penalty has on Black Americans. Others, including two sons of former Attorney General Edward Levi, have also written letters of support to Congress.

The once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden's choice for attorney general. Now, the once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden's choice for attorney general. Garland's high court nomination by President Barack Obama in 2016 died because the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a hearing. The Justice Department on late Saturday released a copy of Garland’s opening statement. Graham said in a tweet that Garland would be a “sound choice” to lead the Justice Department.

City agencies in Arlington, Texas, have been cut by up to 8%, with officials bracing for more later this year. AdA bipartisan group of mayors notes that aid should be the easy part. A Republican, Williams has joined Democratic Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio, to lead the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ lobbying effort for local aid. State and local lobbies tried again in a second round of COVID-19 aid but were left out altogether. AdMayors attributed the rebuff to McConnell blocking state and local aid as leverage against Democrats who opposed Republicans’ provision to shield businesses' immunity from lawsuits related to COVID-19.

He argued that Trump could not have — and would not have — encouraged the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. “We’re really here because majority in the House of Representatives does not want to face Donald Trump as a political rival in the future. AdHis reemergence as an impeachment lawyer for Trump was a head-scratching moment for Pennsylvania's political and legal world. He had not campaigned for Trump, and a longtime friend, Brian Miles, told the Inquirer that the two men had never discussed Trump before Castor mentioned recently that he was up for the job. For all the criticism directed at him, Castor suggested that Trump did not criticize his performance.

In this image from video, Bruce Castor, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, speaks during the second impeachment trial of Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021. Senators, too, criticized what they described as an unfocused and rambling performance as Trump's team and Democratic House managers began to lay out their cases in front of the Senate jury. The anger was echoed by Trump allies, who blasted the lawyers both publicly and privately and with repeated profanities. GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Castor “just rambled on and on and on and didn’t really address the constitutional argument. Trump's team did not respond to requests for comment on the day's events or questions about whether they are planning any shakeups to the legal team.

Neera Tanden also admitted to spending “many months” removing past Twitter posts, saying, “I deleted tweets because I regretted them." He said that included Tanden calling Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton "a fraud” and tweeting that “vampires have more heart” than Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford said Tanden had tweeted more over the past four years than even Trump did. Still, Senate discussion of Tanden's nomination is likely to center more on her past tweets than her budget priorities. Cotton has said they were “filled with hate.” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn suggested previously that she'd face “certainly a problematic path” to nomination.

The Senate's longest-serving member, 80-year-old Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, was taken to a hospital Tuesday evening for observation after not feeling well, a spokesman said. Now, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is stepping into one of his most visible and physically grueling roles: presiding over former President Donald Trump's second Senate impeachment trial. “I had some muscle spasms," Leahy, 80, told reporters the morning after feeling ill in his Capitol office. Carle, Leahy's spokesperson, said Senate leaders have been discussing the trial process, and it is “likely to be limited in duration.” Trump's first impeachment trial lasted almost three weeks. Leahy will preside as Senate president pro tempore, a largely ceremonial post that usually goes to the majority party's longest-serving member.

The Senate's longest-serving member, 80-year-old Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, was taken to a hospital Tuesday evening for observation after not feeling well, a spokesman said. Now, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is stepping into one of his most visible and physically grueling roles: presiding over former President Donald Trump's second Senate impeachment trial. “I had some muscle spasms," Leahy, 80, told reporters the morning after feeling ill in his Capitol office. Carle, Leahy's spokesperson, said Senate leaders have been discussing the trial process, and it is “likely to be limited in duration.” Trump's first impeachment trial lasted almost three weeks. Leahy will preside as Senate president pro tempore, a largely ceremonial post that usually goes to the majority party's longest-serving member.

Democrats ousted Cory Gardner for John Hickenlooper in Colorado, a must-win seat if Democrats were to wrest the majority. Rep. Roger Marshall prevailed over Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier, a former Republican, who energized Democrats in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. Republican Cynthia Lummis, the former congresswoman from Wyoming, won the Senate seat opened by retiring GOP Sen. Mike Enzi. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis joined Trump’s rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Monday. And in Alaska, newcomer Al Gross, a doctor, broke state fundraising records in part with viral campaign ads as he took on GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday overcame a boycott by Democrats to approve Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court, sending President Trump’s third pick for the high court to the full Senate for confirmation as early as next week. Barrett’s nomination is expected to move to the full Senate floor Friday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in particular has been under intense scrutiny by fellow Democrats after praising Graham’s handling of the nomination, undercutting Democrats’ message. Advertisement“Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee did not have the votes to defeat Judge Barrett in committee,” Feinstein said. On the Senate floor, Schumer asked the Senate to block the nomination because the quorum requirement was violated.