Politics

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Voters in five states are deciding on Election Day whether to approve recreational marijuana, a move that could signal a major shift toward legalization in even the most conservative parts of the country.

The proposals are on the ballot in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota and follow moves by President Joe Biden toward decriminalizing marijuana. Biden last month announced he was pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law.

Advocates of the marijuana initiatives have said Biden’s announcement may give a boost to their efforts.

Recreational marijuana is legal in 19 states, and polls have shown opposition to legalization softening. All of the states with recreational marijuana on the ballot, except for Maryland, voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

The five states also currently have legal medical marijuana programs. That includes Arkansas, which in 2016 became the first Bible Belt state to approve medical marijuana. The state’s dispensaries opened in 2019, and more than 91,000 patients have cards to legally buy marijuana for medical conditions.

The legalization campaigns have raised about $23 million in the five states, with the vast majority in Arkansas and Missouri. More than 85% of contributions in those two states have come from donors associated with companies holding medical marijuana licenses, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports.

In Arkansas, supporters have been running upbeat ads touting the thousands of jobs they say will be created by the measure. Opponents have run more ominous spots, warning voters to “protect Arkansas from big marijuana.”

The initiative has drawn the criticism of traditional legalization opponents as well as some medical marijuana advocates, who say the Arkansas proposal places too many limits and would only benefit a handful of dispensaries. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a former head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, has also opposed the measure.

Missouri’s proposal would legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older and expunge records of past arrests and convictions for nonviolent marijuana offenses, except for selling to minors or driving under the influence. Maryland’s proposal would also make changes in criminal law and create automatic expungements of past marijuana possession convictions.

North Dakota’s measure would allow people 21 and older to legally use marijuana at home as well as possess and cultivate restricted amounts of cannabis. It also would establish policies to regulate retail stores, cultivators, and other types of marijuana businesses.

South Dakotans, including a sizable number of Republicans, voted to legalize marijuana possession in 2020, but that law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in part because the proposal was coupled with medical marijuana and hemp. This year, recreational pot is standing by itself as it goes before voters.

In Colorado, where recreational marijuana has been legal for nearly a decade, voters on Tuesday are taking up a proposal that would allow the use of certain psychedelic substances. If approved, it would make Colorado the second state to take such a step.

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

source

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada voters who have not already cast early or mail-in ballots were deciding Tuesday whether to keep Gov. Steve Sisolak, a first-term Democrat who closed businesses, schools and casinos during the COVID-19 pandemic, or replace him with Republican Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

The campaign has been costly and contentious, with airwaves and the internet awash in recent weeks with ads sponsored by the candidates, their parties and political action committees aiming to amplify differences between the two. Polls project a very close finish.

Crime and safety; criminal justice and immigration policies; abortion; the economy, inflation, gasoline prices and housing costs; education; and health care and a state-managed public health insurance option have been among the key issues in the race — along with former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Lombardo.

“A merry mess of issues,” observed Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno.

Nevada is a key national battleground state that Trump failed to carry in 2016 or 2020. Democratic President Joe Biden defeated Trump two years ago by a slim 2.4 percentage points.

Voters register reliably Republican in conservative small towns dotting vast rangeland in 15 of the state’s 17 counties. The state’s main population center, Clark County, in and around Las Vegas, registers solidly Democratic. Washoe County and the Reno area tilt slightly to the GOP.

Nonpartisan, libertarian and other parties, combined, attract 700,000 of the state’s 1.8 million registered voters — more than either major party. Voter turnout is expected to be a factor in the governor’s race.

Sisolak, 68, was chairman of the Clark County Commission before becoming Nevada’s first Democratic governor in two decades. He easily won his party nomination for a second term.

Five years ago, Sisolak praised Lombardo amid the glare of the national spotlight after a gunman killed 58 people at an open-air concert on the Las Vegas Strip. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Sisolak backers today point to crime in Las Vegas during Lombardo’s term as sheriff and cite Lombardo’s staffing decisions in a department with about 6,000 employees.

As governor, Sisolak signed the public insurance option created last year by the Democrat-led Legislature. He bluntly declares that as governor he will oppose any attempt to limit the right to an abortion in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Lombardo, who topped a crowded GOP primary field, derided the public health option with an epithet during one candidates’ forum. He said he looks at abortion through a “pro-life lens,” but acknowledges that Nevada voters in 1990 approved a referendum allowing the procedure up to 24 weeks.

Lombardo, 59, started as a police officer in Las Vegas in 1988 and served two terms as nonpartisan elected Clark County sheriff, the head of the largest police agency in Nevada. He acknowledges that crime has risen in the past two years but blames funding limits and legislative mandates.

Both candidates say they want to improve education in a state consistently ranked at or near the bottom in funding and performance with high student-to-teacher ratios. Bids to break up the sprawling Clark County School District, with more than 300,000 students, have stalled.

Both say teachers should be paid more. But the powerful teachers union in Clark County, which backed Sisolak in 2018, declined to make any endorsement this election.

Lombardo has said he favors school choice, which would help parents send their children to private schools using public funds. Sisolak has said he does not want to divert funding from public to private schools.

In final campaign contribution and expense reports, Sisolak reported spending $13.6 million this year, and Lombardo reported spending $4.8 million. Both reported more than $1 million to spend in the final weeks, and political committees have poured millions more into the race.

Sisolak drew maximum $10,000 contributions from several MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming-related companies.

Lombardo’s campaign and political committees that support him have received millions of dollars in support from wealthy Las Vegas-based hotel magnate Robert Bigelow.

___

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

source

Voters were deciding who would fill Vermont’s only seat in the U.S. House, a rare opening in the state’s three-member Congressional delegation.

The Democratic candidate, Becca Balint, would be the first woman and first openly gay person to represent the deep-blue state in Congress if elected.

Balint, president of the Vermont state Senate and a former middle school teacher, faces the other major party candidate Liam Madden, an independent who won the Republican primary. Three independents and one libertarian candidate were also in the race.

Madden, 38, is a Marine Corps veteran and anti-war activist who says the two-party political system is dysfunctional, and more and better civic engagement is needed to address the country’s challenges.

The House seat came open after U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, announced last November that he would not seek reelection this year, and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch ran for Leahy’s seat.

While Vermont is often considered one of the more liberal states in the country, with a higher-than-average percentage of women serving in the state Legislature, it recently became the only state to have never sent a woman to Congress.

In the Democratic primary, Balint beat Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, a more centrist candidate who was supported by the state’s Democratic establishment, including Leahy and former governors Howard Dean and Madeleine Kunin. Balint gained support from the progressive wing of the party, including from independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders .

The 54-year-old from Brattleboro has served four two-year terms in the Vermont Senate, including as majority leader from 2017 to 2020. She was elected Senate president in 2021, becoming the first woman and first openly gay person in that role.

Balint says she learned the skill of deep listening as a teacher, and will take it to Washington to try to find common ground at a time when she says democracy is at stake and election deniers are on the ballot in other states. She wants to protect voter rights, and says she’s concerned about the U.S. Supreme Court and what she calls its lack of transparency. She would like to see term limits for that court and for federal judges, as well as for members of Congress.

She also hopes her campaign will inspire more young people and people from diverse backgrounds to run for office, “whether they’re LGBTQ young people, people of color, people who come from working class backgrounds who never imagined that they could run for office.”

—-

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

source

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Sarah Sanders is poised to make the leap from Donald Trump’s spokeswoman to Arkansas governor in Tuesday’s election, hoping to claim the office her father once held and become the first woman to lead the state.

The former White House press secretary and Republican nominee is heavily favored in the race for governor in her home state, where Trump remains popular among conservatives.

Democratic nominee Chris Jones, an ordained Baptist minister and nuclear engineer, has trailed Sanders by double digits in public polls leading up to Tuesday’s election. Sanders has shattered fundraising records in the state since she launched her campaign last year. Libertarian Ricky Dale Harrington is also running.

Jones or Harrington also would make history if either wins by being the first African American Arkansas has elected to statewide or congressional office.

If she wins, Sanders will become the highest profile Trump official in elected office at a time when the president’s influence on the GOP is seen in several high-profile races around the country.

They are running to succeed Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is barred by term limits from seeking reelection. Hutchinson, who has endorsed Sanders, is considering running for president and has often split with Trump.

Sanders has proudly nationalized her bid, with ads promising to use the state’s top office to fight President Joe Biden and the “radical left.” She’s largely avoided interviews with local reporters during her campaign, but has made frequent appearances on Fox News.

She’s promised to continue cutting the state’s income tax, after a series of reductions enacted by Hutchinson and Republican lawmakers in recent years. But she hasn’t detailed a timeline for doing so or how she’d make up for the loss in revenue.

Sanders entered the race as the most nationally recognized candidate for governor the state has ever had, after years of defending Trump’s policies on television and being lampooned by “Saturday Night Live.”

Trump publicly encouraged Sanders to run for governor when she left the White House in 2019 to return to her home state.

During Sanders’ nearly two-year tenure at the White House, she scaled back daily televised briefings after repeatedly sparring with reporters who aggressively questioned her. She faced questions about her credibility, particularly after special counsel Robert Mueller’s report revealed that Sanders admitted making an unfounded claim to reporters about FBI agents’ reaction to director James Comey’s firing. But she also earned reporters’ respect working behind the scenes to develop relationships with the media.

Sanders was a known figure in Arkansas long before Trump. She appeared in ads for her father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee — a two-time presidential contender and frequent political commentator — and worked on his campaigns. She managed Sen. John Boozman’s 2010 election and worked as an adviser to Sen. Tom Cotton’s in 2014.

Sanders briefly left the campaign trail in September after undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer. Her doctor said Sanders was cancer free after the surgery.

Jones has tried to contrast himself with Sanders, portraying himself as a more unifying figure than the former Trump official. He’s run on promises to expand preschool access and broadband in the state.

Jones entered the race with an online video that quickly went viral and has won the backing of national figures including California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Other former Trump officials who have been elected to office include Ronny Jackson, Trump’s former doctor in the White House, who was elected to a Texas congressional seat in 2020. Karoline Leavitt, a former White House staffer under Trump, is running for a congressional seat in New Hampshire.

___

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

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

source

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A race pitting the longest-serving woman in U.S. House history and a Republican newcomer whose campaign was knocked off track by reports that he misrepresented his military service will test the limits of former President Donald Trump’s influence over Ohio voters.

That’s not the only race in Ohio’s congressional elections in which Trump’s sway is front and center.

A pair of Republicans endorsed by the ex-president — including one of his former aides — are seeking to win open seats in redrawn districts created during a lengthy and contentious redistricting of the congressional maps that still hasn’t been fully settled.

Republicans also are hoping to end the four-decade career of Democrat Marcy Kaptur after redistricting put her in a reconfigured congressional district that’s considered a political toss-up.

She is being challenged by Republican J.R. Majewski, a first-time candidate who turned his yard into a giant Trump sign in 2020 and has since capitalized on his support from the ex-president.

But Majewski has been forced to defend himself since The Associated Press reported in September that he had misrepresented key elements of his Air Force service, including his story of being a combat veteran who served a tour of duty under “tough” circumstances in Afghanistan.

He denied lying about his record and said he proudly served his country. But the National Republican Campaign Committee canceled TV ads it had booked to support his campaign.

While Republicans are almost guaranteed of retaining the majority of Ohio’s congressional seats, Democrats are hoping to pick off at least one GOP incumbent.

They’re targeting longtime Republican Rep. Steve Chabot, who is seeking a 14th term in Congress despite facing a steady stream of legitimate challengers in past elections.

Chabot is up against Cincinnati City Council member Greg Landsman in a district that was one of 14 U.S. House seats nationwide held by Republicans, but that President Joe Biden would have won under new congressional maps. Democrats were looking to take at least a handful of those Republican-held seats that voted for Biden to negate losses elsewhere around the country.

Former Trump administration official Max Miller, who served as both a campaign and White House aide, is running for a House seat in northeast Ohio.

Miller initially was recruited to challenge Rep. Anthony Gonzalez after he voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Gonzalez decided before the primary to leave Congress after this term.

Redrawn congressional maps eventually put Miller in a district with Republican Rep. Bob Gibbs, who suddenly decided to retire this year.

Conservative commentator Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, who worked on Trump’s 2016 inauguration committee and helped lead Women for Trump during his reelection bid, is up against state Rep. Emilia Sykes, a former Ohio House Democratic leader and the daughter of a powerful political family in northeast Ohio.

They’re vying for a seat left vacant when Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan decided to run for U.S. Senate this year.

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, a fiery conservative who’s one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, is heavily favored to win a ninth term.

___

The story has been updated to correct that Gibbs decided to retire this year.

___

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

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — A tumultuous election season that tugged again at America’s searing political divides and raised questions about its commitment to a democratic future comes to a close on Tuesday as voters cast ballots in the first national election of Joe Biden’s presidency.

Democrats were braced for disappointing results, anxious that their grip on the U.S. House may be slipping and that their hold on the U.S. Senate — once seen as more secure — has loosened. The party’s incumbent governors in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada are also staring down serious Republican challengers.

Returning to the White House Monday night after his final campaign event, Biden said he thought Democrats would keep the Senate but acknowledged “the House is tougher.”

The GOP was optimistic about its prospects, betting that messaging focused on the economy, gas prices and crime will resonate with voters at a time of soaring inflation and rising violence. Ultimately, they’re confident that outrage stemming from the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion has faded and that the midterms have become a more traditional assessment of the president’s performance.

“It will be a referendum on the incompetence of this administration,” Minnesota Republican Rep. Tom Emmer, who’s running the GOP effort to retake the House, said of the election.

The results could have a profound impact on the final two years of Biden’s presidency. Republican control of even one chamber of Congress would leave Biden vulnerable to a slew of investigations into his family and administration while defending his policy accomplishments, including a sweeping infrastructure measure along with a major health care and social spending package. An emboldened GOP could also make it harder to raise the debt ceiling and add restrictions to additional support for Ukraine in the war with Russia.

If Republicans have an especially strong election, winning Democratic congressional seats in places like New Hampshire or Washington state, pressure could build for Biden to opt against reelection in 2024. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, may try to capitalize on GOP gains by formally launching another bid for the White House during a “very big announcement” in Florida next week.

The midterms arrive at a volatile moment for the U.S., which emerged this year from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic only to confront sharp economic challenges. The Supreme Court stripped away the constitutional right to an abortion, eliminating protections that had been in place for five decades.

And in the first national election since the Jan. 6 insurrection, the nation’s democratic future is in question. Some who participated in or were in the vicinity of the deadly attack are poised to win elected office on Tuesday, including House seats. A number of GOP candidates for secretary of state, including those running in Arizona, Nevada and Michigan, have refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election. If they win on Tuesday, they would manage future elections in states that are often pivotal in presidential contests.

Democrats acknowledge the headwinds working against them. With only rare exceptions, the president’s party loses seats in his first midterm. The dynamic is particularly complicated by Biden’s lagging approval, which left many Democrats in competitive races reluctant to appear with him.

Only 43% of U.S. adults said they approved of how Biden is handling his job as president, according to an October poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. In the same poll, just 25% said the country is headed in the right direction.

Still, Biden’s allies have expressed hope that voters will reject Republicans who have contributed to an extreme political environment.

“I think what we’re seeing now is one party has a moral compass,” said Cedric Richmond, who was a senior adviser to Biden in the White House and now works at the Democratic National Committee. “And one party wants a power grab.”

That’s a message that appeals to Kevin Tolbert, a 49-year-old who works in labor law and lives in Southfield, Michigan. He plans to support Democratic candidates amid worries about the future of democracy.

“It is something that has to be protected and we protect that by voting and being out and supporting our country,” Tolbert said. “It’s a fragile space that we’re in. I think it’s really important that we protect it, because we could end up like some of the things we saw in the past — dictators and such. We don’t need that.”

But in Maryland, where Democrats have one of their best chances to flip a Republican-held governor’s seat, Shawn Paulson said there were “too many questions, not enough investigations” into the results of the 2020 election.

“It shouldn’t be a negative thing or illegal in any way to talk about what you’re going to do to improve security,” said Paulson, a 45-year-old who chairs the Kent County Republicans Central Committee.

Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the 2020 election was tainted. The former president’s allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.

Thirty-four Senate seats are up for grabs with cliffhangers in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona possibly deciding which party controls a chamber currently split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote. Democrats are hoping for upsets in Ohio and North Carolina’s Senate contests, while the GOP believes it can oust a Democratic incumbent in Nevada and possibly in New Hampshire.

Thirty-six states are electing governors, with Democrats particularly focused on holding control of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. All three critical presidential battlegrounds have Republican-controlled legislatures and GOP gubernatorial candidates who have championed Trump’s 2020 election lies.

Republican wins in governor’s races could see states adopt tighter voting laws and ultimately refuse to block efforts to delegitimize the 2024 presidential election should Trump, or any other Republican candidate, lose it.

Amid predictions of a Republican surge, Democrats are hoping that abortion can energize their base while wooing independents and swing voters angered by the Roe v. Wade ruling’s reversal.

“People recognize that this fundamental freedom has been taken away,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which teamed up with other Democratic advocacy groups to spend $150 million to mobilize “infrequent” voters for the midterms.

“They see this is an economic issue, a health care issue, a freedom issue,” McGill Johnson added. “And they’re enraged.”

Still, Biden confronted the possibility of presiding over a divided Washington on Monday. As he returned from an event with Wes Moore, the Democratic candidate for governor in Maryland, Biden was asked what his new reality would be if Congress is controlled by Republicans.

His response: “More difficult.”

___

Associated Press writers Corey Williams in Southfield, Michigan, and Gary Fields in Chestertown, Maryland, contributed to this report.

___

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

source

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Republicans in Oklahoma are heavily favored to retain all five of the state’s U.S. House seats on Election Day, but the GOP expects to welcome a new face to the delegation after U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe’s plan to retire shook up the political scene.

Only one of the five districts — the sprawling 2nd Congressional District in eastern Oklahoma — is an open seat, with five-term GOP incumbent Rep. Markwayne Mullin vacating the post in a bid to replace Inhofe in the Senate.

Former state Sen. Josh Brecheen, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation and the owner of a Coal County excavation company, is favored to win after emerging from a bruising, 14-candidate GOP primary. A protege of and former field worker for the late U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, an influential figure in state GOP politics, Brecheen promised to serve no more than eight years in the U.S. House if elected. Mullin made a similar pledge when he first ran in 2012, saying he would only serve six years, but then broke it when he ran for a fourth term in 2018.

GOP candidates in each of Oklahoma’s five districts enjoying massive fundraising advantages over their Democratic opponents.

Brecheen, who received a last-minute endorsement from former President Donald Trump, raised nearly $540,000, according to the most recent campaign finance reports, compared to less than $8,000 for his Democratic opponent, Naomi Andrews, a political newcomer who lives outside the district in Tulsa.

Ben Robinson, a former Democratic state senator from Muskogee, is running in the race as an independent but reported raising no money.

In the 5th Congressional District that includes most of Oklahoma City, first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Stephanie Bice is favored over Democrat Joshua Harris-Till and independent David Frosch. The district was the last one in Oklahoma held by a Democrat, former U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn, but was redrawn by the GOP after Bice narrowly defeated Horn in 2020 to make it safer for Republicans.

Bice reported raising more than $2.3 million, the most of any U.S. House candidate in Oklahoma, compared to about $53,000 for Harris-Till, according to the most recent campaign finance reports.

In the state’s other three congressional districts, incumbent Republican Reps. Tom Cole, Kevin Hern and Frank Lucas all are heavy favorites to win reelection.

___

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

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — Follow along for real-time, on-the-ground updates on the 2022 U.S. midterm elections from The Associated Press. Live updates — all times Eastern — are produced by Ashraf Khalil, Annie Ma, Aamer Madhani, Chris Megerian, Mallika Sen and AP journalists around the country.

___

5:15 a.m.

What are Americans voting on? What’s at stake? If you need a general primer on the 2022 midterm elections, AP’s Mike Catalini has you covered with a basic overview of what’s on the ballot, how counting works, how long this thing might take and what the possible outcomes might mean.

___

12:01 a.m.

Election Day has dawned. With polls set to begin opening in a few hours across the country, you can find a guide of what to expect for each state at our Election Expectations 2022 hub.

It’s not a presidential year, but these are high-stakes elections nonetheless. AP’s chief political writer, Steve Peoples, highlights six key things to watch today. Among them: Will the expected red wave be a ripple or a tsunami? What effect will the Supreme Court decision striking down Roe v. Wade have? And what will we know before we go to bed tonight?

The answer to that last question is yet unclear. While there are some races the AP can call as soon as polls close, as Mike Catalini explains, other winners might take a lot longer to identify. Christina A. Cassidy takes a look at the factors that can delay results.

___

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.

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mayor Muriel Bowser was poised to coast to a third term Tuesday after a campaign focused on her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and on her history as one of the faces of Washington’s ongoing quest for statehood.

In June, Bowser, 50, defeated a pair of challengers from the District of Columbia Council in the Democratic primary, a race that is largely held to be the de facto mayoral race in the overwhelmingly Democratic district.

In the general election, Bowser faced a trio of challengers — all considered marginal: Republican Stacia Hall, Statehood Green Party nominee Corren Brown and independent candidate Rodney “Red” Grant.

Bowser has largely presided over a period of prosperity but has faced steady accusations of being too close to developers and business interests as an uncontrolled gentrification wave prices out longtime Black residents.

Grant, a longtime actor and comedian, took aim at that perception, saying in a campaign video that Bowser has “focused on developing buildings in our city but has forgotten to develop our youth and a real comprehensive plan to reduce crime.”

Public safety and crime dominated the primary campaign. Homicides have risen for four years straight, and the 2021 murder count of 227 was the highest since 2003. Both primary challengers, D.C. Council members Robert White and Trayon White, harshly criticized her response to the spiraling violent crime rates.

But despite her vulnerability on public safety and rising public anxiety over crime, Bowser emerged from the Democratic primary with a double-digit victory.

Bowser gained national attention in the summer of 2020. Following mass protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, she publicly feuded with then-President Donald Trump after racial justice protesters were forcibly cleared from an area near the White House.

Bowser responded by renaming the protest epicenter Black Lives Matter Plaza and commissioning a mural with “Black Lives Matter” painted on a stretch of 16th Street, one block from the White House, in giant yellow letters. The move was publicly dismissed as “performative” by the local Black Lives Matter affiliate, a regular Bowser critic.

Under pressure from activists calling to defund the police, Bowser largely stood by her police department, fighting public battles with the D.C. Council over the police budget. She quietly replaced an older white police chief with a younger Black successor and has pushed for funding to build Metropolitan Police Department staffing, currently at 3,500, up to 4,000 officers over the next decade.

A victory would make Bowser the second D.C. mayor to win three consecutive terms, tying with Marion Barry, who presided over the city continuously from 1979 to 1991.

___

Learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections. And follow the AP’s election coverage of the 2022 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.

source

Kremlin-connected entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted Monday that he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue to do so — confirming for the first time the accusations that he has rejected for years.

“Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do,” Prigozhin boasted in remarks posted on social media.

The statement, from the press service of his catering company that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef,” came on the eve of U.S. midterm elections in response to a request for comment.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

It was the second major admission in recent months by the 61-year-old businessman, who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin has previously sought to keep his activities under the radar and now appears increasingly interested in gaining political clout — although his goal in doing so was not immediately clear.

A senior U.S. administration official who was not authorized to discuss Prigozhin’s remarks publicly and thus spoke on condition of anonymity said: “While we would not speculate to his specific motivations, we know Russia’s efforts includes promoting narratives aimed at undermining democracy and sowing division and discord. It is not surprising that Russia would be highlighting their attempted efforts and fabricating a story about their successes on the eve of Election Day.”

In September, Prigozhin also publicly stated that he was behind the Wagner Group mercenary force — something he also had previously denied — and talked openly about its involvement in Russia’s 8-month-old war in Ukraine. The military contractor also has sent its forces to places like Syria and sub-Saharan Africa.

Video also has emerged recently of a man resembling Prigozhin visiting Russian penal colonies to recruit prisoners to fight in Ukraine.

In 2018, Prigozhin and a dozen other Russian nationals and three Russian companies were charged in the U.S. with operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord and dividing American public opinion ahead of the 2016 presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump. They were indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.

The Justice Department in 2020 moved to dismiss charges against two of the indicted firms, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering, saying they had concluded that a trial against a corporate defendant with no presence in the U.S. and no prospect of meaningful punishment even if convicted would likely expose sensitive law enforcement tools and techniques.

In July, the State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information about Russian interference in U.S. elections, including on Prigozhin and the Internet Research Agency, the troll farm in St. Petersburg that his companies were accused of funding. Prigozhin also has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for election interference.

Until now, Prigozhin had denied Russian involvement in election interference.

Russian media, prisoner’s rights groups and relatives of prisoners this year reported an extensive effort by Wagner — and sometimes Prigozhin personally — to recruit convicts to fight in Ukraine. Prigozhin hasn’t directly confirmed it, but said in one statement that “either (the Wagner private military company) and convicts, or your children” will be fighting on the front lines.

Last week, Wagner opened a business center in St. Petersburg, which Prigozhin has described as a platform for “increasing the defense capabilities” of Russia.

On Sunday, he also announced through Concord the creation of training centers for militias in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions that border Ukraine.

“A local resident, like no one else, knows his territories, is able to fight against sabotage and reconnaissance groups and take the first blow if necessary,” he said.

A one-time hot dog stand owner, Prigozhin opened a swanky restaurant in St. Petersburg that drew interest from Putin. During his first term in office, Putin took then-French President Jacques Chirac to dine at one of Prigozhin’s restaurants.

“Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, he saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011.

His businesses expanded significantly. In 2010, Putin attended the opening of Prigozhin’s factory making school lunches that was built on generous loans by a state bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord won millions of dollars in contracts to provide meals at public schools. Prigozhin has also organized catering for Kremlin events for several years and has provided catering and utility services to the Russian military.

When fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Kyiv’s forces in 2014, Prigozhin said through his spokespeople that he was seeking to “put together a group (of fighters) that would go (there) and defend the Russians.”

Russian laws prohibit the operation of private military contractors, but state media in recent months have openly reported on Wagner’s involvement in Ukraine.

—-

Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed.

source