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      David Trone Enters Maryland Senate Race

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      Representative David Trone, who is in his third term, is expected to pour tens of millions of dollars of his personal fortune into what is likely to be a hotly contested primary.Representative David Trone, Democrat of Maryland, said he was set to launch a campaign for the Senate on Thursday, joining a race into which he is expected to pour tens of millions of dollars from his personal fortune in an effort to capitalize on a rare opportunity to seek an open seat in the deep-blue state.Just days after Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, who has held his seat since 2007, announced he would not seek re-election, Mr. Trone, 67, a third-term congressman from Potomac, said he had assembled a campaign team and cut an advertisement that emphasizes his roots growing up on a Pennsylvania farm and building a fortune after founding a lucrative alcohol retail business, Total Wine & More.In an interview, Mr. Trone, who is in his third term in Congress, said he expected to be an underdog in what is likely to be a hotly contested Democratic primary. The race could also draw Angela Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County executive who is seen as a rising star in the state, and Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee who has established a national following, having served as the lead impeachment manager prosecuting former President Donald J. Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Will Jawando, a member of the Montgomery County Council, has already announced he is running for the seat.“I’ll be the underdog in the race. I’m always an underdog. I’m a disrupter,” Mr. Trone said. “We take no money from PACs. I take no money from lobbyists, no money from corporations. And when you don’t take anybody else’s money, and you’re willing to put some of your own resources into the campaign, people realize you’re in it because you care.”Those close to Mr. Trone said he was willing to spend tens of millions of dollars on the race, as he has in previous campaigns for the House.In the House, Mr. Trone co-founded the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force, and he said he would focus on similar issues if elected to the Senate. He emphasized the need to address the opioid crisis, mental health issues and criminal justice reform.Mr. Trone said he believed Maryland Democrats would choose a progressive candidate over any centrists who might enter the race, and that he believed his platform would appeal to liberal voters.“We’re all on the same team,” Mr. Trone said of the other Democrats who are likely to run. “We despise the most narcissistic president, probably the worst president ever, Donald Trump.”Mr. Cardin said in an interview that he did not intend to endorse a successor.“We have a great group of Democrats in Maryland,” he said. “I know some are interested. I’m very confident that we will be able to to elect a Democrat to fill the seat.”Whoever wins the Democratic primary is likely to carry the seat. The state’s most popular Republican, former Governor Larry Hogan, has said he is not interested in running.Maryland’s filing deadline is Feb. 9, 2024. The primary election is May 14, 2024. More

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      Senator Ben Cardin Won’t Seek Re-election in Maryland

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      His retirement is likely to draw a number of Democrats and Republicans to compete for the seat.Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a long-serving Democrat, announced his retirement on Monday, clearing the way for highly competitive primaries to replace him in 2024, especially among Democrats in a deep-blue state.Maryland’s liberal-leaning voters have not sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1980, and the eight-member congressional delegation includes just one member of the G.O.P.“I have run my last election and will not be on the ballot in 2024, but there is still much work to be done,” Mr. Cardin, 79, said in a statement. “During the next two years, I will continue to travel around the state, listening to Marylanders and responding to their needs.”High-profile Maryland Democrats who could be in the mix to replace Mr. Cardin include Representatives Jamie Raskin and David Trone, and Angela Alsobrooks, the executive of Prince George’s County.On the Republican side, there is already speculation about whether Larry Hogan, a popular former governor who in March said he would not run for president, will make a bid.In an interview, Mr. Cardin declined to endorse a successor, but he said he was confident Democrats would hold the seat. His election to the Senate in 2006 made him the third straight representative from Maryland’s Third Congressional District to join the chamber. The House seat is now held by John Sarbanes, a son of Paul Sarbanes, the senator who preceded Mr. Cardin.Mr. Cardin was named last month by Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, to serve on the Judiciary Committee as a temporary replacement for Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who is on leave recovering from shingles, but Republicans have blocked the move. Without her vote, Democrats have been unable to advance stalled judicial nominations.In a video announcing his retirement that he recorded with his wife, Myrna Cardin, Mr. Cardin touched on highlights of a career that includes enacting the Magnitsky sanctions, international penalties aimed at violators of human rights, and environmental protections for Chesapeake Bay.Much of his motivation through his 58 years in elected office, Mr. Cardin said in the video, “comes back to tzedakah, part of our tradition as Jews to help those that are less fortunate.”Mr. Cardin, who was speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates before being elected to Congress, said in the interview on Monday that he hopes to focus his final two years in the Senate on helping small businesses. More

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      Democratic states stockpile abortion pills as legal fight for access looms

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      Despite a reprieve by the US supreme court, a growing number of Democratic states are stockpiling abortion pills as the legal fight for access to the abortion drug mifepristone is set to continue.On Friday, the supreme court decided to temporarily block a lower court ruling that would have significantly restricted the availability of mifepristone, an FDA-approved abortion medication.Nevertheless, as the case continues to wind through America’s court system and remains challenged by anti-abortion groups, more Democratic states are now stockpiling abortion pills amid an unpredictable legal battle.Earlier this month, Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction that suspended the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, calling it a drug that is used to “kill the unborn human”.Swiftly after Kacsmaryk’s ruling, Democratic states have been stockpiling abortion pills including mifepristone as well as misoprostol, the second drug in the abortion regimen which can also be used on its own, although less effectively.At the Massachusetts governor Maura Healey’s request, the University of Massachusetts Amherst has purchased approximately 15,000 doses of mifepristone. The stockpile is expected to offer “sufficient coverage” in the state for over a year.“Mifepristone has been used safely for more than 20 years and is the gold standard. Here in Massachusetts, we are not going to let one extremist judge in Texas turn back the clock on this proven medication and restrict access to care in our state,” Healey said last week.Meanwhile, the Democratic governors of New York and California both announced plans to stockpile misoprostol in attempts to safeguard their states’ abortion access.New York’s governor Kathy Hochul announced last week that New York will be purchasing misoprostol in order to stockpile 150,000 doses, a five-year supply.Hochul also pledged that if mifepristone is removed from the market, New York will commit up to an additional $20m to providers to support other abortion methods.In a similar move, governor Gavin Newsom of California announced last week that the state has secured an emergency stockpile of up to 2m misoprostol pills“We will not cave to extremists who are trying to outlaw these critical abortion services. Medication abortion remains legal in California,” Newsom said, adding that California has shared the negotiated terms of its misoprostol purchase agreement to assist other states in securing the pill at low cost.Since then, additional Democratic states have followed suit.The governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, recently announced a partnership with the University of Maryland’s medical system to purchase a “substantial amount of mifepristone”.“This purchase is another example of our administration’s commitment to ensure Maryland remains a safe haven for abortion access and quality reproductive health care,” said Moore, who also released $3.5m in previously withheld funding for the state’s abortion care clinical training program.On Thursday, Oregon made a similar announcement, with its governor Tina Kotek revealing the state has secured a three-year supply of mifepristone, regardless of the supreme court’s ruling on the pill.“Here in Oregon, I will make sure that patients are able to access the medication they need and providers are able to provide that medication without unnecessary, politically motivated interference and intimidation,” Kotek said.With Democratic states rushing to stock up on abortion pills, the tumultuous legal fight for abortion access is far from over. In the last nine months, 13 states have banned abortion. With anti-abortion groups fighting for increased pill restrictions nationwide, even states that have legalized the procedure may become affected.Following the supreme court’s decision to temporarily block mifepristone restrictions, the next stage of the litigious battle over the drug will take place in the fifth circuit, with oral arguments scheduled for 17 May. The case will then likely return back to the supreme court.In a statement to the New York Times, Erik Baptist, a senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization representing a coalition of anti-abortion groups and doctors, pledged to continue fighting against abortion care.“The FDA must answer for the damage it has caused to the health of countless women and girls and the rule of law by failing to study how dangerous the chemical abortion drug regimen is and unlawfully removing every meaningful safeguard, even allowing for mail-order abortions,” he said about the 23-year-old FDA-approved drug.Meanwhile, the Joe Biden administration and civil rights organizations promised to continue fighting for reproductive rights.“I’ll continue to fight attacks on women’s health. The American people must also continue to use their vote as their voice and elect a Congress that will restore the protections of Roe v Wade,” Biden tweeted shortly after the supreme court issued its decision.The American Civil Liberties Union echoed similar sentiments, with Jennifer Dalven, ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project director saying: “Make no mistake, we aren’t out of the woods by any means … And as this baseless lawsuit shows, extremists will use every trick in the book to try to ban abortion nationwide.”Dalven added: “But if our opponents think we will allow them to continue to pursue their extreme goals without fierce backlash, they are sorely mistaken.” More

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      Fugitive former aide to ex-Maryland governor dies in confrontation with FBI

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      An ex-Maryland governor’s former political aide – who was wanted on corruption charges – died on Monday after he was wounded while being confronted by law enforcement agents, his lawyer said, following a manhunt that was launched when the man failed to appear for trial.Roy McGrath’s death was confirmed by the FBI to attorney Joseph Murtha. Murtha added that it was not immediately clear if McGrath’s wound was self-inflicted or came during an exchange of gunfire with agents.The FBI had said earlier that McGrath, once a top aide to ex-Maryland governor Larry Hogan, had been hospitalized after an agent-involved shooting. The FBI typically uses the term “agent-involved shooting” to describe cases where agents shoot someone in the line of duty, but the bureau declined to elaborate.An attorney for McGrath’s wife, William Brennan, also confirmed the death. Brennan said his client, Laura Bruner, was “absolutely distraught” about her husband’s death.According to an email earlier from Shayne Buchwald of the FBI in Maryland, McGrath was wounded during “an agent-involved shooting” at about 6.30pm in a commercial area on the south-western outskirts of Knoxville, Tennessee. Buchwald said McGrath was taken to a hospital.Additional details, including how McGrath was wounded and what led up to it, were not immediately released. The shooting was under investigation late on Monday.“The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or taskforce members seriously,” said Buchwald, who declined to confirm that McGrath had died.McGrath, 53, served as chief of staff to Hogan. He was declared a wanted fugitive after failing to show up at a scheduled fraud trial last month, and the FBI has said he was considered an international flight risk.In a statement, Hogan said he and his wife, Yumi, “are deeply saddened by this tragic situation. We are praying for Mr McGrath’s family and loved ones.”Murtha called the death “a tragic ending to the past three weeks of uncertainty” and said his client always maintained his innocence.After McGrath failed to appear at Baltimore’s federal courthouse on 13 March, Murtha said he believed McGrath, who had moved to Naples, Florida, was planning to fly to Maryland the night before. Instead of beginning jury selection, a judge issued an arrest warrant and dismissed prospective jurors.McGrath was indicted in 2021 on accusations he fraudulently secured a $233,648 severance payment, equal to one year of salary as the head of Maryland’s environmental service, by falsely telling the agency’s board the governor had approved it. He was also accused of fraud and embezzlement connected to roughly $170,000 in expenses. McGrath pleaded not guilty.McGrath resigned just 11 weeks into the job as Hogan’s chief of staff in 2020 after the payments became public.If convicted of the federal charges, he would have faced a maximum sentence of 20 years for each of four counts of wire fraud, plus a maximum of 10 years for each of two counts of embezzling funds from an organization receiving more than $10,000 in federal benefits. More

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      Larry Hogan won’t run against Trump but warns party of ‘cult of personality’

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      Larry Hogan won’t run against Trump but warns party of ‘cult of personality’Former Maryland governor says in op-ed he won’t be entering 2024 race and warns Republicans of putting Trump back in White HouseA top Republican figure has warned that the party under Donald Trump has become a “cult of personality” and it could not afford to try and put the former US president back in the White House in 2024.Larry Hogan, a former Maryland governor, had been widely tipped to enter the party’s nomination race but instead used an op-ed in the New York Times on Sunday to announce he would not be running and to warn against Trump’s own 2024 campaign.A diminished but loyal Trump Maga at CPAC: ‘There’s one choice’Read more“I would never run for president to sell books or position myself for a cabinet role. I have long said that I care more about ensuring a future for the Republican party than securing my own future in the Republican party,” Hogan wrote.He went on to warn that the Republican party cannot be successful if it puts “personality before principle, if our elected officials are afraid to say publicly what they freely admit behind closed doors, and if we can’t learn from our mistakes because of the political cost of admitting facts to be true”.“For too long, Republican voters have been denied a real debate about what our party stands for beyond loyalty to Mr Trump. A cult of personality is no substitute for a party of principle,” Hogan continued.He added: “I am deeply concerned about this next election. We cannot afford to have Mr Trump as our nominee and suffer defeat for the fourth consecutive election cycle. To once again be a successful governing party, we must move on from Mr Trump.”Hogan explained that his decision not to run for president is due to stakes that are “too high for [him] to be part of another multicar pileup” which could potentially help Trump secure the Republican nomination once more.Hogan echoed similar sentiments last month, telling NBC in an interview that if he believed his candidacy was going to contribute to inadvertently helping Trump, then “that would be a pretty good reason to consider not running”.Seven years ago, when asked by reporters whether he was going to vote for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, Hogan replied: “No, I don’t plan to.”In 2020, then president Trump lashed out at Hogan after Maryland purchased a batch of flawed Covid-19 tests from a South Korean company.“This RINO will never make the grade,” Trump wrote on Twitter, using a disparaging acronym for “Republican in Name Only” coined by far-right Republicans. “Hogan is just as bad as the flawed tests he paid big money for!”In response, Hogan wrote: “If you had done your job, America’s governors wouldn’t have been forced to fend for themselves to find tests in the middle of a pandemic, as we successfully did in Maryland.”“Stop golfing and concede,” Hogan added, calling on Trump to accept the 2020 presidential election results.Meanwhile, another top Republican who chimed in on the presidential race discussion on Sunday was Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire.During an interview with NBC host Chuck Todd, Todd asked Sununu if he would be comfortable signing a “loyalty pledge” as a presidential candidate that would ensure his support for whoever ends up securing the Republican nomination, even if it were Trump.“I’m a lifelong Republican. I’m going to support the Republican nominee. When you look at what’s coming out of the White House, it isn’t Democrat policies. It’s real leftwing extreme agenda type stuff that is not in the best interest of this country and I have no doubt that any solid Republican … would be better than … what comes out,” Sununu said.Nevertheless, Sununu said that he does not think that Trump will secure the nomination.“As far as former president Trump, I think he’s going to run – obviously he’s in the race. He’s not going to be the nominee. That’s just not going to happen,” he said.Sununu has not officially announced his run for presidency but hinted last month that a run would be “an opportunity to change things”.TopicsUS elections 2024MarylandDonald TrumpUS politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Donald Trump vows to 'complete the mission' in bid to return to White House – video

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      The former US president has promised to ‘finish what we started’ in an address to supporters at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. Trump delivered the keynote speech, saying he was engaged in his ‘final battle’ as he tries to return to the White House. He left the Oval Office after a failed attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election, culminating in a deadly riot in the US Capitol

      ‘I am your retribution’: Trump rules supreme at CPAC as he relaunches bid for White House
      A diminished but loyal Trump Maga crowd at CPAC: ‘There’s one choice’ More

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      As Trump’s star wanes, rivals signal presidential nomination campaigns

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      As Trump’s star wanes, rivals signal presidential nomination campaignsRepublicans vying for the party’s nomination have taken the ex-president’s midterm losses as a sign for them to step up Potential rivals to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination will this week be reading the runes of political fortune with their families ahead of the New Year – typically the time that nomination contenders begin to make themselves formally apparent.January 6 report review: 845 pages, countless crimes, one simple truth – Trump did itRead moreAmid a lackluster start to Trump’s own campaign and a string of scandals and setbacks to hit the former US president due to his links to far-right extremists and his own legal problems, a field of potential rivals is starting to emerge for a contest that only a few months ago many thought was Trump’s alone for the taking.They include multiple ex-members of Trump’s own cabinet, including his own former vice-president, his former UN ambassador and his former spy chief. Adding to that are a raft of rivals with their own political power bases, such as Florida’s increasingly formidable right-wing governor, Ron DeSantis.Now the hints of ambitions to taking on Trump are coming thick and fast, especially in the wake of the defeat of a host of Trump-backed candidates in November’s midterm elections which have triggered a reckoning with Trump’s grip on the Republican party.“I can tell you that my wife and I will take some time when our kids are home this Christmas – we’re going to give prayerful consideration about what role we might play,” former vice-president Mike Pence, 63, told CBS’ Face the Nation last month.Maryland’s term-limited Republican governor Larry Hogan, and Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s former governor and US ambassador to the UN, have said the holidays would also be a time for deliberation.“We are taking the holidays to kind of look at what the situation is,” Haley said in November. Hogan, a fierce critic of Trump, told CBS last week “it won’t be shocking if I were to bring the subject up” with his family during the break. Come January, he said, he would begin taking advice to “try to figure out what the future is”.“I don’t feel any pressure or any rush to make a decision … things are gonna look completely different three months from now or six months from now than they did today,” Hogan, 66, added.Others in the running are also readily apparent. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s team has reached out to potential campaign staff in early primary states, the Washington Post reported over the weekend. “We figured by the first quarter next year, we need to be hard at it if we’re going to do it,” Pompeo, 58, said in an interview with Fox News.Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson is reportedly talking to donors to determine his ability to fund the 18-month “endurance race” of a nomination process. Hutchinson has said that Trump’s early declaration, on 15 November, had “accelerated everyone’s time frame”.“So the first quarter of next year, you either need to be in or out,” the outgoing, 72-year-old governor told NBC News earlier this month.New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu, 48, said this week he doesn’t believe Trump could win in 2024. He’s voiced concerns that the Republican party could repeat the nomination experience of 2016, when he was a contender, when a large, divided field allowed Trump’s “ drain the swamp” insurgent candidacy to triumph.“We just have to find another candidate at this point,” Sununu told CBS News. While Trump could be the Republican nominee, he added, he’s “not going to be able to close the deal”.Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, 56, has said he’s “humbled” to be part of the 2024 discussions but in the convention of most candidates, he’s focused on his day job.Youngkin telegraphed his fiscal conservative credentials to wider Republican big-money interests by pushing $4bn in tax cuts through the Virginia legislature and meeting with party megadonors in Manhattan in June.“2024 is a long way away,” he recently told Fox News. “We’ll see what happens”.Helping to break the gender-lock on potential candidates is also South Dakota governor Kristi Noem. Her name has emerged as a potential Trump running mate, but she recently said he did not present “the best chance” for Republicans in 2024.“Our job is not just to talk to people who love Trump or hate Trump,” Noem, 51, told the New York Times in November. “Our job is to talk to every single American.”The biggest dog in the potential race – aside from Trump himself – is by far Florida’s DeSantis, who recently won re-election in his state by a landslide. Some of the Republican party’s biggest donors have already transferred their favors from Trump, 78, toward the 44-year-old governor.Republican mega donor and billionaire Ken Griffin, who moved his hedge fund Citadel from Chicago to Miami last year, described Trump as a “three-time loser” to Bloomberg a day after the former president’s declaration.“I don’t know what he’s going to do. It’s a huge personal decision,” Griffin said of DeSantis. “He has a tremendous record as governor of Florida, and our country would be well-served by him as president.”Similarly, Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of private-equity giant Blackstone, told Axios he was withdrawing his support from Trump for 2024 but stopped short of backing DeSantis. “America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” he said. “It is time for the Republican party to turn to a new generation of leaders.”DeSantis has yet to rule a run in or out, but has signaled his interest by beginning to plant ads on Google and Facebook that target an audience beyond Florida.But in the post-midterm political environment, with Trump-backed candidates performing poorly in most contests, and the former president besieged by investigations and questions about his associations, the running is open.Maryland’s Hogan has described Trump as vulnerable, and “he seems to be dropping every day”. Hutchinson has said “you never know when that early front-runner is going to stumble”. Polls suggest Trump trails DeSantis in a nomination head-to-head, but leads over Pence and Haley.Other potential names in the pot include Texas governor Greg Abbott, 65; Florida senator Rick Scott, also 65; former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, 60; and Texas senator Ted Cruz, 52, who ran for the Republican nomination in 2016.In a provocatively titled “OK Boomers, Let Go of the Presidency” column last week, former George W Bush advisor Karl Rove warned that 2024 may resemble 1960 when voters were ready for a generational shift. In that year, they went for the youngest in the field, John F Kennedy, aged 43.“Americans want leaders who focus on the future,” Rove wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “The country would be better off if each party’s standard bearer came from a new generation … It’s time for the baby boomers and their elders to depart the presidential stage. The party that grasps this has the advantage come 2024”.TopicsRepublicansDonald TrumpRon DeSantisUS politicsNikki HaleyMike PompeoMike PencefeaturesReuse this content More

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      'This is our time': Democrat Wes Moore becomes first Black governor of Maryland – video

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      Democrat Wes Moore has made history after becoming the first Black governor of Maryland. He replaces Republican Larry Hogan, a moderate who managed to twice win election in what is otherwise a solidly blue state. 
      The newly elected official assured the electorate ‘I hear you’ and ‘this is our time’ in his victory speech. Referencing his time in the army, Moore said ‘leave no man behind’. Joe Biden joined Moore in a pre-election rally in Maryland the evening before election day

      Midterm elections 2022: Democrats beating expectations as John Fetterman wins crucial US Senate race – live
      Future of Congress hangs in balance as many races still too close to call More