Politics

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge ruled that a state agency previously led by Republican Josh Hawley broke public record laws on purpose to help his U.S. Senate campaign.

Cole County Presiding Judge Jon Beetem on Monday fined the Attorney General’s Office $12,000 and attorney fees, the maximum penalty for violating what’s known as the Sunshine Law.

Open record laws are aimed at making sure the public can access documents related to how taxpayer dollars are spent and how government is being run.

At issue are Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee records requests from 2017 and 2018, when Republican Hawley was serving as state attorney general and campaigning for former Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s seat.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee requested emails and other communications between Attorney General’s Office staff and politicos tied to Hawley’s campaign, claiming that official staffers were being directed by campaigners in order to help Hawley’s Senate bid.

In one instance, the Attorney General’s Office found responsive records three days after receiving the Democratic request but did not release the documents until forced to as part of the lawsuit more than a year later.

Other responsive records were provided to the Secretary of State’s Office within days after that office launched an investigation into whether Attorney General’s Office resources were improperly used to help Hawley’s Senate Campaign. But the Attorney General’s Office never handed those documents over to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The Secretary of State’s Office, led by Republican Jay Ashcroft, found no wrongdoing in terms of misuse of public resources.

“The decision to withhold documents responsive to the DSCC’s Sunshine requests was made by public officials who had personal and professional stakes in the documents not being released and in the success of then-candidate Hawley’s campaign,” Beetem wrote in his ruling.

Beetem ruled that the deception was intentional, pointing to the fact that Attorney General’s Office staffers would switch to private email accounts to message political consultants.

In Missouri, all government records are open to the public, even if officials use private email accounts.

“Attorney General Hawley’s office illegally concealed public documents immediately prior to a U.S. Senate election against Senator Claire McCaskill for the sole purpose of preventing damage to Hawley’s campaign and affecting the outcome of the election,” DSCC lawyer Mark Pedroli tweeted Tuesday. “Concealing public records in order to prevent damage to your campaign is cheating, it deprives competing candidates of a level playing field, and it’s illegal.”

An Attorney General’s Office spokesman said the agency is reviewing the ruling but declined to comment further.

“These allegations are based on Democrat campaign attacks,” Hawley’s campaign spokesman Kyle Plotkin said in a statement. “They have been investigated multiple times, and no wrongdoing has been found, including by a Democrat State Auditor.”

Republican Eric Schmitt is now serving as state attorney general, although voters in November also elected him to the U.S. Senate.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voters have narrowly rejected a proposal to curb the power of the governor and other officials to regulate businesses and set environmental and public health rules, rebuking the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature again after affirming abortion rights this summer.

The Associated Press called the election Tuesday against a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would have made it easier for lawmakers to overturn regulations written by state agencies and boards under the control of the governor and others in the executive branch. The call came a week after Election Day and after Monday’s deadline for mail-in ballots to reach county elections offices.

Opponents of the measure said its defeat showed that many voters remained wary of the Legislature after a statewide vote Aug. 2 decisively rejecting a proposed amendment on abortion pushed by Republican lawmakers. That measure would have said the Kansas Constitution doesn’t grant the right to abortion, which would have allowed the Legislature to greatly restrict or ban it.

“That caused people to question what else the Legislature was up to by way of attempting to increase the Legislature’s power,” said Democratic state Rep. John Carmichael, of Wichita.

At issue in the latest vote were rules as varied as how elk hunting permits are distributed and which shots are required for children attending schools.

The Legislature has a joint committee that reviews regulations, but if lawmakers object to one, their most effective tactic is to object loudly and push the agency to back off. They also can pass a bill overturning the rule, but the governor can veto it.

The proposed constitutional amendment would have allowed lawmakers to suspend or revoke regulations with a simple majority vote in both chambers, with no option for the governor to veto such moves. Business groups and advocates of smaller government viewed the measure as reining in unelected bureaucrats.

“Kansans will instead continue to bear the burden of the high costs of regulation and an inefficient regulatory system,” said Elizabeth Patton, state director for Americans for Prosperity, a free-market, small-government group backed by Charles Koch, the billionaire Koch Industries CEO and chairman.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly opposed the measure, saying it would “create chaos” across the state, and her spokesperson Cassie Nichols said Tuesday that it would have “kept Kansans from receiving help efficiently.”

But Patton said Kelly’s opposition showed that she has no interest in holding government agencies accountable.

In most states, legislators review agencies’ regulations, but their power to block or repeal them varies widely. Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, New Jersey and Nevada have state constitutional provisions that allow their legislatures to invalidate regulations.

Kansas law used to give the state’s Legislature the power to revoke or rewrite agencies’ rules, but in 1984, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the practice violated the state constitution’s separation of powers.

“The whole ballot issue was misunderstood,” said state Rep. Barbara Wasinger, a Republican from western Kansas who has led the rules committee. “We should have done a better job of explaining it.”

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Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will mount a third White House campaign, launching an early start to the 2024 contest.

“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said to an audience of several hundred supporters, including some members of his administration and cabinet as well as  gathered press in a ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago club, where he stood flanked by more than 30 American flags and banners bearing his “Make America Great Again” slogan. “I am running because I believe the world has not yet seen the true glory of what this nation can be.”

“We will again put America first,” he added.

Another campaign is a remarkable turn for any former president, much less one who made history as the first to be impeached twice and whose term ended with his supporters violently storming the Capitol in a deadly bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump enters the race in a moment of political vulnerability.

Far from the undisputed leader of the party, Trump is now facing criticism from some of his own allies, who say it’s time for Republicans to look to the future, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emerging as an early favorite White House contender.

The former president is still popular with the GOP base. Mr. Trump remains the most powerful force in his party. For years he has consistently topped his fellow Republican contenders by wide margins in hypothetical head-to-head matchups. And even out of office, he consistently attracts thousands to his rallies and remains his party’s most prolific fundraiser, raising hundreds of millions of dollars.

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PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is preparing to launch his third campaign for the White House on Tuesday, looking to move on from disappointing midterm defeats and defy history amid signs that his grip on the Republican Party is waning.

Trump had hoped to use the GOP’s expected gains in last week’s elections as a springboard to vault himself to his party’s nomination. Instead, he finds himself being blamed for backing a series of losing candidates after Republicans failed to take control of the Senate. While the party was on the cusp of retaking control of the House on Tuesday, it could end up with its narrowest majority in decades.

“Hopefully, tomorrow will turn out to be one of the most important days in the history of our Country!” Trump wrote on his social media network on Monday. An announcement was expected at 9 p.m. EST Tuesday from his club in Palm Beach.

Another campaign is a remarkable turn for any former president, much less one who made history as the first to be impeached twice and whose term ended with his supporters violently storming the U.S. Capitol in a deadly bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on Jan. 6, 2021. Just one president in U.S. history has been elected to two nonconsecutive terms: Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892.

Trump is also facing a series of intensifying criminal investigations, including a Justice Department probe into the hundreds of documents with classified markings that were discovered in boxes and drawers at his Mar-a-Lago club.

Aides and allies had urged Trump to wait until after the midterms were over — and then until after a Dec. 6 Senate runoff election in Georgia — to announce his plans. But Trump, eager to return to the spotlight, is also hoping to stave off a long list of potential challengers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who cruised to reelection last week and is now being urged by many in his party to run for president a well.

Trump has tried to blame Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for the GOP’s performance — and McConnell allies have criticized Rick Scott, the Florida senator who heads the Senate Republicans’ campaign committee.

However, Trump has received the brunt of criticism for elevating candidates in states like Pennsylvania and Arizona who were unappealing to general election voters because they embraced his lies about the 2020 election or held hard-line views on issues like abortion that were out of step with the mainstream.

While Trump has the backing of the No. 3 House Republican, Rep. Elise Stefanik, others were already moving on.

Asked whether she would endorse Trump in 2024, Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming told reporters Monday: “I don’t think that’s the right question. I think the question is, who is the current leader of the Republican Party?”

Her answer to that question: “Ron DeSantis.”

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, a longtime Trump critic, compared Trump to a pitcher who keeps losing after GOP disappointments in 2018, 2020 and now 2022.

“He’s been on the mound and lost three straight games. If we want to start winning, we need someone else on the mound. And we’ve got a very strong bench that can come out,” Romney said. “I know, there’s some fans that love him. Just like, you know, an aging pitcher, they’re always fans that want to keep them there forever. But if you keep losing games, try to put some new players on the field.”

Others expressed concern that Trump’s announcement would be a distraction from the Georgia race and urged potential candidates to focus there.

“What’s really important for anybody who wants to be a 2024 candidate is to help us right now in 2022 to finish the cycle by winning the state of Georgia,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

“We obviously had higher expectation in the Senate, which didn’t pan out. I think there are a lot of different things that contribute to that,” Thune added. “But I do think that, you know, folks who were unduly focused on the 2020 election, that’s not a winning strategy with independent voices.”

Even the former president’s right-flank allies in the House Freedom Caucus kept their distance ahead of Trump’s announcement.

“I am focused on what’s happening here,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., the Freedom Caucus chairman, as lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill on Monday. “I’m just not paying attention to any of those things, so I don’t want to comment on that.”

Meanwhile, in Utah, 86 Republican lawmakers on Monday sent out a news release urging DeSantis to run, reflecting dissatisfaction with having Trump as their party’s standard-bearer. The state’s Mormon majority has long been skeptical of Trump’s isolationism and foul language.

And in Michigan, Paul Cordes, chief of staff of the Michigan Republican Party, penned a four-page internal memo that criticized Trump-backed candidates for “statewide sweeps” that will give Democrats full control of the state’s government for the first time in 40 years. That includes Tudor Dixon, who lost the governor’s race to Democratic incumbent Gretchen Whitmer by double digits.

Trump, Cordes wrote, was “popular amongst our grassroots and a motivating factor for his supporters, but provided challenges on a statewide ballot, especially with independents and women in the midterm election.”

Rep. Liz Cheney, another Trump critic who is considering her own run in 2024, highlighted losses by Trump-backed candidates while speaking Tuesday morning at The Washington Post’s Global Women’s Summit.

“This is certainly not the rollout I’m sure Donald Trump wanted for his announcement tonight. But it’s also not the first time he’s been totally detached from reality,” Cheney said. “There’s no question he’s unfit for office. And I feel confident he will never be president again.”

Meanwhile, Josh Holmes, a Republican consultant close to McConnell, said Trump remains “far and away the favorite” as he enters the race. But Holmes also said that a third presidential bid will be considerably different for Trump.

“There’s never once been a primary victory by a presidential nominee that is waged in a backward-looking fashion. Everything is about the future,” Holmes said.

As for DeSantis, Holmes said: “His national profile right now is undeniable. … We’re going to find out” whether he can maintain that strength.

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Associates Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Kevin Freking in Washington, Samuel Metz in Salt Lake City, Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, Steve Peoples in New York and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two threatened U.S. House Republicans in California triumphed over Democratic challengers Monday, helping move the GOP within a seat of seizing control of the chamber while a string of congressional races in the state remained in play.

In a bitter fight southeast of Los Angeles, Republican Rep. Michelle Steel defeated Democrat Jay Chen in a district that was specifically drawn to give Asian Americans, who comprise the largest group in the district, a stronger voice on Capitol Hill. It includes the nation’s largest Vietnamese community.

East of Los Angeles, Republican Rep. Ken Calvert notched a win over Democrat Will Rollins. With 80% of the votes tallied, Calvert, the longest serving Republican in the California congressional delegation, established a nearly 5,500-vote edge in the contest.

Ten races in the state remained undecided as vote-counting continued, though only a handful were seen as tight enough to break either way.

It takes 218 seats to control the House. Republicans have locked down 217 seats so far, with Democrats claiming 205.

Should Democrats fail to protect their fragile majority, Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield would be in line to replace Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

In the 45th District anchored in Orange County, Steel, a South Korean immigrant looking for a second term in Congress, faced Chen, a Navy reservist and the son of immigrants from Taiwan. The race was being watched nationally for what it says about the preferences of the Asian community.

The candidates initially made inflation and hate crimes against Asian Americans key issues. But the race took an ugly turn and most of it focused on accusation and recrimination.

Chen’s advertising depicted Steel as an extremist who would threaten abortion rights, while Republicans accused Chen of “racism” after he told supporters an “interpreter” was needed to understand Steel’s remarks, arguing that Chen was mocking her accented English. Chen said he was referring to “convoluted talking points” that he said Steel uses to sidestep issues.

Steel also distributed flyers depicting Chen as a communist sympathizer, while Chen has said his grandmother fled China to escape communist rule.

In California, the primary House battlegrounds are Orange County — a suburban expanse southeast of Los Angeles that was once a GOP stronghold but has become increasingly diverse and Democratic — and the Central Valley, an inland stretch sometimes called the nation’s salad bowl for its agricultural production.

The tightest remaining contest in the state emerged in the Central Valley, where Democrat Adam Gray seized a tissue-thin lead after Republican John Duarte jumped ahead by 84 votes in a fight for an open seat in District 13.

Underscoring the tightness of the contest, Gray’s campaign formed a committee to begin raising money to finance a possible recount. Those costs, which are paid to county election officials, fall on the campaign committee or voter that requested a recount. Generally, such requests cannot be made until a month after the election.

The latest returns showed Gray leading by 761 votes, with nearly 80% of the votes tabulated.

In Orange County, one of the state’s marquee races tightened when an updated vote tally showed Republican Scott Baugh slashing in half a narrow edge held by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter. Porter, a star of the party’s progressive wing, was leading the former legislator Baugh by about 2,900 votes — or just over 1 percentage point — with nearly 80% of the votes counted.

In another battleground district north of Los Angeles, Republican Rep. Mike Garcia held a comfortable edge over Democrat Christy Smith in their third consecutive match-up, after Garcia claimed the first two.

The latest returns — with about two-thirds of the votes counted — showed Garcia with 54.4%, to 45.6% for Smith.

In a statement on Twitter, Smith said her chances for seizing the seat had “narrowed significantly” and “it’s likely Garcia holds the seat.”

Democrats also were holding significant margins in several districts, including the Central Valley’s 9th, where Democratic Rep. Josh Harder had a nearly 13-point edge over Republican Tom Patti.

In the Central Valley’s 22nd District, where about half the votes have been counted, Republican Rep. David Valadao, who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump, had a 5-point margin over Democrat Rudy Salas.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans were on the cusp of retaking control of the House late Monday, just one victory shy of the 218 seats the party needs to secure a majority, narrowing the path for Democrats to keep the chamber and raising the prospect of a divided government in Washington.

Democrats have already won control of the Senate, securing 50 seats with a runoff in Georgia next month that could give President Joe Biden’s party an additional seat. The GOP came into the election needing to gain a net of just five seats for House control.

Nearly a week after the midterm elections, Republicans were closing in on the majority, giving conservatives leverage to blunt Biden’s agenda and spur a flurry of investigations. But a slim numerical advantage will pose immediate challenges for GOP leaders and complicate the party’s ability to govern.

The full scope of the party’s majority may not be clear for several more days — or weeks — as votes in competitive races are still being counted. Still, the party was on track to achieve 218 with seats in California and other states still too early to call.

Even barely achieving 218, though, means Republicans will likely have the narrowest majority of the 21st century. It could rival 2001, when Republicans had just a nine-seat majority, 221-212 with two independents. That’s far short of the sweeping victory Republicans predicted going into this year’s midterm elections, when the party hoped to reset the agenda on Capitol Hill by capitalizing on economic challenges and Biden’s lagging popularity.

Instead, Democrats were able to largely blunt an expected big GOP election, holding on to moderate, suburban districts from Virginia to Minnesota and Kansas. The results could complicate House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s plans to become speaker as some conservative members have questioned whether to back him or have imposed conditions for their support.

The narrow margins have upended Republican politics and prompted finger-pointing about what went wrong. Some in the GOP have blamed Donald Trump for the worse-than-expected outcome. The former president, who is expected to announce a third White House bid on Tuesday, lifted candidates during this year’s primaries who struggled to win during the general election.

Despite its underwhelming showing, the GOP will still see its power in Washington grow. Republicans will take control of House committees, giving them the ability to shape legislation and launch probes of Biden, his family and his administration.

There’s particular interest in investigating the overseas business dealings of the president’s son Hunter Biden. Some of the most conservative lawmakers have raised the prospect of impeaching Biden, though that will be much harder for the party to accomplish with a tight majority.

Any legislation that emerges from the House could face steep odds in the Senate, where the narrow Democratic majority will often be enough to derail GOP-championed legislation.

With such a slim majority in the House, there’s a potential for legislative chaos. The dynamic essentially gives an individual member enormous sway over shaping what happens in the chamber. That could lead to particularly tricky circumstances for GOP leaders as they try to win support for must-pass measures that keep the government funded or raise the debt ceiling.

The GOP’s failure to notch more gains was especially surprising because the party went into the election benefiting from congressional maps that were redrawn by Republican legislatures. History was also on Republicans’ side: The party that holds the White House had lost congressional seats during virtually every new president’s first midterm of the modern era.

If elected to succeed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the top post, McCarthy would lead what will likely be a rowdy conference of House Republicans, most of whom are aligned with Trump’s bare-knuckle brand of politics. Many Republicans in the incoming Congress rejected the results of the 2020 presidential election, even though claims of widespread fraud were refuted by courts, elections officials and Trump’s own attorney general.

In the first national election since the Jan. 6 insurrection, one Republican who was outside the Capitol on the day of the mob attack, Derrick Van Orden, won a House seat. He won a seat long held by Democrats in Wisconsin.

Republican candidates pledged on the campaign trail to cut taxes and tighten border security. GOP lawmakers also could withhold aid to Ukraine as it fights a war with Russia or use the threat of defaulting on the nation’s debt as leverage to extract cuts from social spending and entitlements — though all such pursuits will be tougher given how small the GOP majority may end up being.

As a senator and then vice president, Biden spent a career crafting legislative compromises with Republicans. But as president, he was clear about what he viewed as the threats posed by the current Republican Party.

Biden said the midterms show voters want Democrats and Republicans to find ways to cooperate and govern in a bipartisan manner, but also noted that Republicans didn’t achieve the electoral surge they’d been betting on and vowed, “I’m not going to change anything in any fundamental way.”

The president was also blunt in assessing his party’s dwindling chances, saying Monday of the House, “I think it’s going to be very close, but I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Tech entrepreneur Brandon Williams has been elected to Congress in a district in central New York, becoming the 11th Republican to win a House race this fall in a state where Democrats usually dominate.

Williams defeated Democrat Francis Conole in the contest to pick a successor to U.S. Rep. John Katko, a Republican who is retiring from office.

He had declared victory last week, but the gap between the two candidates was small and The Associated Press was unable to call a winner until late Monday.

A Texas native and devout Christian, Williams is almost certain to be a more conservative voice in Washington than Katko, a moderate Republican who prized bipartisanship and was able to win repeatedly in a swing district.

Williams opposes abortion rights, though he promised during the campaign not to vote for a national ban if elected.

His win caps a remarkable midterm election for New York Republicans, who came up short in campaigns for statewide offices, like governor, but outperformed their national colleagues in U.S. House races.

Democrats had hoped to win as many as 22 of the state’s 26 seats in the House by gerrymandering the boundaries of congressional districts to their advantage. But maps passed by the legislature were tossed out be the courts. A new political map drawn by a court-appointed expert had the goal of creating as many competitive races as possible.

Republicans seized the opportunity — winning upstate seats, holding on to one seat in New York City, sweeping all four seats on Long Island and flipping two seats previously held by Democrats northwest of the city.

The 11 seats the GOP is set to hold in the next New York congressional delegation is the most the party has had since 2001-2003, when 12 representatives from the state were Republicans. Back then, the state had 31 seats in Congress, compared to the 26 it will have next year.

Williams was a first-time candidate who lived outside the district, which includes the city of Syracuse. He is a U.S. Navy veteran who moved to the region full time several years ago.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence blames Donald Trump for endangering his family “and all those serving at the Capitol” on Jan. 6 in a new memoir released Tuesday.

In “So Help Me God,” Pence recounts, for the first time in his own words, the Republican former president’s extraordinary effort to push him to overturn the results of the 2020 election and shares his account of the day thousands of rioters stormed the Capitol, with some chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”

“They had come to protest the result of the election and to prevent Congress from fulfilling its responsibility to open and count the Electoral College votes,” Pence writes. “And, as I later learned, many had come looking for me.”

The book, which traces Pence’s life in politics — from serving as youth coordinator for a local Democratic Party to watching then-Vice President Al Gore certify his election loss days after Pence had been sworn in as a member of Congress — largely defends Trump, glossing over and whitewashing many of his most contentious episodes. “I had always been loyal to President Donald Trump,” the book begins.

But Pence, who spent years refusing to publicly criticize his old boss, makes clear that Jan. 6, 2021, was a breaking point in which, he writes, Trump’s “reckless words had endangered my family and all those serving at the Capitol.”

“For four years, we had a close working relationship. It did not end well,” Pence writes, summing up their time in the White House. Still, he adds, “we parted amicably when our service to the nation drew to a close. In the months that followed, we spoke from time to time, but when the president returned to the rhetoric that he was using before that tragic day and began to publicly criticize those of us who defended the Constitution, I decided it would be best to go our separate ways.”

The book, published by Simon & Schuster, comes as Pence appears increasingly likely to run for president in 2024, a move that would put him in direct conflict with Trump, who is expected to formally launch his own reelection campaign in Florida on Tuesday night.

Pence, who in the book never directly states that Democrat Joe Biden won fairly, writes that when Trump first suggested holding a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, the day Pence was set to preside over the election’s certification, he thought it was a good idea. “My first thought was that a rally that day might be useful as a way to call even more attention to the proceedings on the floor of the House and Senate,” he writes.

Instead, Pence describes sitting in the Senate chamber and presiding over the certification when the Senate parliamentarian leaned over to inform him that rioters had breached the building and a member of his Secret Service detail rushing over to insist they leave. Pence refused to vacate the building and was instead ushered to a Senate loading dock, where he spent hours, surrounded by staff and family members, making calls to military and congressional leaders to coordinate the government’s response, as the president — who never bothered to check in on Pence’s safety — sat cloistered, watching TV.

“All around was a blur of motion and chaos: security and police officers directing people to safety, staffers shouting and running for shelter. I could see the intensity in the eyes of the Secret Service detail; it was audible, too, in the voices of the Capitol Police. I could hear the fall of footsteps and angry chanting,” Pence writes. Still, Pence insists he was “not afraid,” only angry at what was unfolding.

At 2:24 p.m., as Pence remained in hiding, Trump fired off that infamous tweet saying Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”

“I just shook my head,” Pence said he responded. “The truth was, as reckless as the president’s tweet was, I really didn’t have time for it. Rioters were ransacking the Capitol. … The president had decided to be part of the problem. I was determined to be part of the solution. I ignored the tweet and got back to work.”

Pence also describes Trump’s campaign to pressure him to reject the results of the election by rejecting Electoral College votes or sending them back to the states, even though the Constitution makes clear that the vice president’s role is purely ceremonial.

During one lunch on Nov. 16, 2020, Pence said he told Trump that “if the legal challenges came up short and if he was unwilling to concede, he could simply accept the results of the elections, move forward with the transition, and start a political comeback, winning the Senate runoffs in Georgia, the governor’s race in Virginia in 2021, and the House and Senate in 2022.”

“That accomplished, I said, he could run for president in 2024 and win,” Pence writes. “He seemed unmoved, even weary, at the prospect.”

“‘I don’t know, 2024 is so far off,’” Pence writes that Trump told him “before returning to the status of election challenges in various states.”

At another lunch, Pence said he encouraged Trump “not to look at the election ‘as a loss — just an intermission’” and said if he “still came up short” after exhausting every legal option, Trump should “take a bow” and later run again.

“He nodded, pointed at me as if to say, ‘That’s worth considering,’ and walked into the back hallway,” Pence writes. “I will always wish he had.”

But as the lawsuits Trump’s legal team was pushing continued to fail, Pence writes that Trump’s mood darkened and he became increasingly irate. Pence says Trump berated him, telling him, “You’re too honest,” and predicting that “hundreds of thousands are gonna hate your guts” and “people are gonna think you’re stupid.”

“As the days wore on, it was becoming clear that there would be a real cost to me politically when I presided over the certification of the 2020 election,” Pence writes. “I always knew that I did not possess the authority to overturn the election. I knew it would be hurtful to my friend for me to participate in the certification. But my duty was clear.”

After the Capitol was cleared of the rioters, Congress reconvened and Pence presided over the certification of his and Trump’s loss. For several days the two men did not speak. But when they finally met, five days later, Pence said they spent more than 90 minutes together, alone.

“I told him that I had prayed for him for the past four and a half years, and I encouraged him to pray,” Pence said he told Trump. “’Jesus can help you through this,’ I said. ‘Call on Him.’ He didn’t say anything.”

“With genuine sadness in his voice, the president then mused, ‘What if we hadn’t had the rally? What if they hadn’t gone to the Capitol?’ Then he said, ‘It’s too terrible to end like this.’”

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NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that Democrats still lack the power to codify abortion rights into law despite his party’s stronger-than-expected performance in the midterm elections.

“I don’t think there’s enough votes,” he said at a press conference during the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia.

Biden’s blunt comments reflected how Democrats’ euphoria over their strength in the midterms will soon collide with the likely reality of divided government in Washington.

During the campaign, Biden said that if Democrats picked up seats, the first piece of legislation that he would send to Congress would be to enact a nationwide right to abortion.

The right was previously guaranteed only by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, and the court’s conservative majority overturned that ruling earlier this year.

Although Democrats defied historical odds by avoiding a midterm wipeout, they did not gain enough ground to ensure abortion access nationwide.

Asked what voters might expect on the issue, Biden replied, “I don’t think they can expect much of anything.”

Although ballots are still being counted, Republicans are on track to take control of the House of Representatives by a narrow margin, putting them in position to block any abortion legislation.

“I think it’s gonna be very close, but I don’t think we’re gonna make it,” Biden said.

Democrats will maintain control of the Senate, and may even expand their majority after next month’s runoff in Georgia. But some members of the party have been unwilling to sidestep filibuster rules to pass an abortion law.

Biden previously said “we need two more senators” to codify abortion rights, a reference to Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who want to preserve the filibuster.

If Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia wins a second term next month, Democrats will have only gained one seat.

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Megerian reported from Washington.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Law-abiding marijuana enthusiasts could find themselves in a bit of a predicament following voter approval of a recreational cannabis initiative in Missouri.

Though it soon will become legal for adults to possess and ingest cannabis, it could take a couple more months before they can legally buy it.

Maryland residents will have to wait even longer — until the middle of next year — before a recreational marijuana measure approved this past week can take effect.

With the addition of Maryland and Missouri, 21 states have legalized recreational marijuana for adults over the past decade — even though it remains illegal under federal law.

Marijuana advocates are pressing forward with similar efforts elsewhere, undeterred by defeats last week in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Efforts to legalize psychedelic drugs for personal use also appear likely to spread, after supporters poured millions of dollars into a Colorado measure that won approval.

Here’s a look at what’s next in the effort to reshape state drug laws.

MISSOURI AND MARYLAND

Recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older will become legal in Missouri on Dec. 8. That’s the same day the state’s existing medical marijuana businesses can apply for licenses to grow, manufacture, transport and sell cannabis for recreational purposes.

But there won’t be any immediate deals — at least not legally.

The newly approved constitutional amendment gives the state health department until Feb. 6 to consider applications. Though officials could act more quickly, the department doesn’t expect to approve recreational cannabis licenses until February, said the department’s communications director, Lisa Cox.

In the meantime, people potentially could get free marijuana from those with medical cards or turn to the black market.

“No one needs to say how or where they acquired their cannabis in order for it to be legal,” said Dan Viets, Missouri coordinator for the drug policy group NORML.

Maryland’s new constitutional amendment legalizes the possession and use of marijuana for adults 21 and older effective July 1, and directs the General Assembly to come up with laws regulating it.

In the meantime, a law set to be in place from Jan. 1 through June 30 makes the possession of a personal supply of marijuana — defined as up to 1.5 ounces — a civil offense with a fine of up to $100.

Both states also have provisions to gradually expunge some past marijuana offenses for people.

OKLAHOMA AND BEYOND

The next vote on legalizing recreational marijuana for adults will occur in Oklahoma. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt set a March election after a delay in counting initiative signatures and legal challenges prevented the measure from appearing on the November ballot.

Oklahoma already has one of the nation’s most robust medical marijuana programs, with about 2,500 licensed dispensaries. About 380,000 people, nearly 10% of all residents, have state-issued medical cards allowing them to buy, grow and consume marijuana.

After Oklahoma, Ohio could vote next on cannabis legalization. A group that originally sought to get a measure on the November ballot reached a legal settlement with legislative leaders that could allow supporters to submit petition signatures for a 2023 vote.

After Democratic victories in last week’s legislative and gubernatorial elections, Minnesota could be poised to legalize recreational marijuana next year without needing to go to voters. Legislative approval of recreational marijuana also could be pursued next year in Democratic-led Hawaii, said Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

New citizen-led ballot initiatives are possible in Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Wyoming and the three states where ballot measures recently failed.

This year was “probably the worst election cycle for cannabis reform since the first ones passed in 2012, but there’s still a belief that we can go win more states in 2024,” said Schweich, who ran this year’s campaign in South Dakota.

Marijuana legalization campaigns raised about $24 million in the five states where they were on the ballot, according to pre-election finance reports. The vast majority of that was in Arkansas and Missouri, where more than 85% of contributions came from donors associated with medical marijuana licensees, according to an Associated Press analysis.

In Arkansas, some marijuana advocates opposed the initiative because it benefitted the existing industry while lacking provisions for people to grow their own cannabis and expunge past marijuana convictions. But advocates hope to return to voters in two years with a revised plan.

“I think the people still truly want to see this,” said Eddie Armstrong, chairman of the group that campaigned for the Arkansas initiative.

PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS

Voters in Colorado made it the second state, behind Oregon, to legalize psychedelic mushrooms for personal use by people 21 and older.

Though the hallucinogenic drug remains illegal under federal law and won’t be sold in Colorado stores, it will be available for use under supervision at state-regulated “healing centers.” Residents also will be able to grow psychedelic mushrooms at home and use them without civil or criminal penalties.

The initiative won’t take effect until 2024. By then, similar legalization efforts already may have spread to other states.

The Colorado measure is “at the forefront of a new trend,” said Mandy Zoch, who tracks ballot measures at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more measures relating to things like psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs in the future.”

Legislatures in several states, including California and New Jersey, are likely to consider psychedelic drug measures in 2023, said Graham Boyd, executive director of the drug policy group New Approach.

After spending more than $4 million on the Colorado initiative, New Approach expects donors concerned about veterans and mental health issues to step forward with more money for future initiatives.

“I think that we are at the beginning of a very hopeful period of expanding options for dealing with mental health. That’s what this is all about,” Boyd said.

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Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark., and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.

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