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Democrats have used President Donald Trump’s unpopularity to expand the midterm map, and analysts project the party carries momentum heading into the final two weeks of the election cycle, even as Democrats are expected to flip fewer U.S. House seats than wave elections this century. The Cook Political Report with Amy…
WASHINGTON — Immigrants living in the United States with humanitarian status from Ukraine and Sudan will retain their deportation protections and work authorizations for now, the Department of Homeland Security said over the weekend. More than 100,000 Ukrainians and roughly 2,000 Sudanese with Temporary Protected…
A Tennessee Republican senator says the Senate GOP caucus has “no basis” to expel her for endorsing an independent gubernatorial candidate as a Senate speakership vote approaches. Sen. Janice Bowling, a 14-year lawmaker from Tullahoma, told the Lookout that she is not concerned about a potential vote by the Senate…
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche joined federal and state leaders in Tennessee on Friday to tout the record of the Memphis Safe Task Force a little more than one year after President Donald Trump first established the multi-agency crime-fighting force. Overall crime in Memphis is now at a 25-year low, Blanche said…
Party control is up for grabs in 15 state legislative chambers across the country as Republicans are increasingly on the defensive this midterm election cycle, a new analysis found. The nonpartisan newsletter Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics released its final analysis of state…
With the general election just 16 days away and early voting underway in dozens of states, people across the nation took to the streets Saturday to urge their friends and neighbors to get out and vote. The No Kings: Vote Early Day of Action held more than 2,500 events in all 50 states and the
WASHINGTON — A couple hundred people carrying decorated umbrellas walked from the former Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House to the U.S. Capitol lawn Saturday for a No Kings get-out-the-vote event in the nation’s capital. No Kings, a coalition that has drawn millions of Americans to protests three times…
The fourth ‘No ‘Kings’ event since President Donald Trump took office for his second term in 2025, held just 17 days before the November 3 midterm election, focused on turning out voters across Tennessee. But even as demonstrators at rallies in the state talked about the importance of proactive voting, many continue…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has a flurry of travel on deck in the final frantic weeks leading up to the end of the midterm elections, in which the GOP is vying to maintain its control of both the U.S. House and Senate. But that outlook looks increasingly less favorable for Republicans, as analysts say
A road-building group that lost out on Tennessee’s toll lane project is challenging the state’s award to a consortium led by a Spain-based company that promised the state a massive amount of money. A group of companies called 24 Choice Lanes Partners says in the filing the Tennessee Department of Transportation gave…
Campaign finance reports released Wednesday show Tennessee’s Democratic party and legislators pouring tens of thousands of dollars into select campaigns in an effort to flip Republican house seats. Here’s a run-down of the most competitive races. Republican incumbent John Gillespie is once again facing Democratic…
Gov. Bill Lee and Nashville airport folks moved “faster than grease through a goose” this week to stop media questions that dared stray from their Air France announcement. Blame Davy Crockett for that time-tested idiom. When a Lookout reporter tried to go “off topic” during a press gaggle after Wednesday’s main press…
The Trump administration sought a federal court order Thursday to force California to purge 20,000 people from its voter rolls over claims they are not U.S. citizens, a major development less than three weeks before the midterm elections. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state, asking a judge to validate its…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Thursday announced that the execution of a man convicted of the Fort Hood shooting will not be livestreamed, a reversal after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that Nidal Hasan’s death by firing squad would be public. “I think streaming the execution for all to see might…
After being banned from Memphis City Council meetings, state Rep. Justin J. Pearson filed suit Tuesday against the city alleging the action violates the First Amendment. In the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of West Tennessee, Pearson and six other plaintiffs, including his brother, Keshaun Pearson…
Independent candidate David Hatley loaned his gubernatorial bid another $5 million in September, bringing his total self-funding to $12 million less than three weeks before the November election. Hatley’s campaign holds a significant cash advantage over his rivals, as the latest state campaign finance reports due…
Editor’s note: This commentary includes descriptions of botched executions. Tennessee’s botched execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike has left behind some lingering and disturbing questions. As for Pike, she was hospitalized with serious injuries, now is in a prison rehabilitation center and as she heals, the…
WASHINGTON — The No Kings movement that has brought millions to the streets across the United States three times since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term is staging its next event at the polls. Organizers across hundreds of advocacy groups will pull together thousands of events nationwide Saturday to…
The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding California not count ballots from voters it says are suspected noncitizens, a move by the Trump administration to apply last-minute pressure as voting begins in the midterm elections. The Justice Department on Tuesday gave California election officials 48 hours to remove…
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday a state takeover of the Nashville airport authority didn’t hinder negotiations with Air France for a nonstop flight to Paris. Lee, who signed a measure into law giving Tennessee leaders a majority of appointments to five airport boards statewide, said the Nashville board “made…
WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration announced on Wednesday that recipients will receive a 3.6% increase in benefits in 2027. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will begin for 72 million Social Security beneficiaries in January. It will apply for Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, recipients…
A Tennessee Republican lawmaker is asking the governor to cut motorists some slack at the pump by calling for a one-month break on the state’s gas tax. Sen. Tom Hatcher of Maryville sent a letter to Gov. Bill Lee requesting he suspend Tennessee’s 27.4-cent gas tax during November, with the average price of regular gas
Tennessee officials placed the three constitutional amendment questions on the first page of the November 2026 ballot as required by law, pushing U.S. Congressional and state legislative races further down the ticket. The legally required ballot design keeps Tennessee’s gubernatorial race at the top, with the…
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. Department of Energy plans to send $250 million to the Tennessee Valley Authority for grid upgrades that federal and TVA officials said Tuesday will lower power costs and ease congestion, though they did not say by how much. The money will help fund 84 transmission and distribution projects…
Three weeks before Election Day, the Trump administration’s sprawling project to send sensitive personal information on millions of voters to the Department of Homeland Security has been declared illegal by a federal judge. The blistering court decision comes after the Department of Justice pressured or sued states…
In the course of a single election cycle, the backlash against data centers has grown from an issue at local planning commission and city council meetings to become a flashpoint in state and federal races across the country. Candidates who once touted data centers as an economic boon have backtracked, and voters in at…
I have spent much of this election cycle talking about political maturity. I have argued that this moment requires elected officials, faith leaders, organizers, advocates, and ordinary citizens to put aside personal grievances, bruised egos, and political ambitions long enough to recognize the magnitude of what is…
As the nation’s physician shortage worsens, some fear the Trump administration’s immigration policies will dissuade or prevent doctors who earned their medical degrees in foreign countries from practicing in the United States. Among all U.S. doctors, an estimated one quarter were educated abroad. But they make up an…
Tennessee’s Senate Republican Caucus won’t try to remove a member for a rogue endorsement before the election of a new Senate speaker, two key lawmakers said Monday, a move that could affect the outcome of a tight race. Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin, who is running against Sen. Paul Bailey for the…
Republican speakers at a rally headlined by President Donald Trump in Clarksville Saturday asked voters to “hold strong” to a Republican ticket in the midterm election amid frustration over inflation and high gas prices. They painted Tennessee’s role as a “red wall” against Democratic competition. The rally marked…
The Trump administration’s order to allow import of Russian diesel violates a 2022 law banning Russian energy imports while the country’s war with Ukraine is ongoing, according to a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. Following an Oct. 9 call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S…
The Tennessee Press Association announced Friday it will hold a gubernatorial debate on Oct. 27 with the Democratic nominee and two independents agreeing to participate. The Republican nominee U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn did not respond to the press association’s invite, according to a news release. Blackburn is…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump this week will journey out West in an effort to galvanize support for Republican candidates three weeks before the midterm elections and convince voters to support his party amid low presidential approval ratings. As the deeply unpopular war in Iran enters month eight, resulting in…
A board designed to oversee the distribution of excess tax revenue in downtown Nashville met for the first time earlier this month, with the state’s former governor voicing concerns about giving money directly to businesses. The board was partially tasked with finding a way to provide a government bailout after…
One of my hills to die on is that candidates for office should be willing to stand up before a public audience and state their cases. If a person believes they are the best person to serve in elected office, it should be a simple matter to state their qualifications, what they intend to do
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — The rainy remnants of Hurricane Isaias didn’t deter Tennessee Republicans from turning out Saturday to hear President Donald Trump decry state Democrats as “communists” and “socialists,” and praise Tennessee’s federal delegation and the success of the Memphis Safe Task Force. “I got a call from…
President Donald Trump on Friday appeared to leave open the possibility that the federal government won’t livestream a military execution planned for December that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had said would be public. But Trump also told reporters at the White House that he had “absolutely” approved livestreaming…
WASHINGTON — A federal judge will rule in the coming days on whether the Trump administration can legally rescind White House press passes for journalists at three news organizations, or if those reporters will be able to continue accessing the grounds while the case continues. U.S. District Judge for the District of…
It took Christa Pike nearly a week to regain consciousness after the Tennessee Department of Corrections failed to kill her with two doses of the barbiturate pentobarbital, a drug used to put animals to death and to execute humans by lethal injection in Tennessee and other states. She was confused and angry. She…
Two Democratic governors with presidential aspirations are spending money and time in Tennessee to boost the party’s U.S. House candidates ahead of the November midterm election. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s political action committee, PAC, Ready for the Fight, has purchased around $1.6 million in television…
The Tennessee Trucking Association and some Tennessee fuel providers are cautioning diesel-powered vehicle drivers to wait for clarity before using dyed diesel meant for off-road vehicles on public roads after recently announced respites from tax enforcement. President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday…
Hurricane Isaias is expected to bring periods of heavy rain and wind gusts to Tennessee this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. The hurricane is expected to intensify as it nears the Gulf Coast and make landfall Friday night, then move through the Tennessee River Valley over the weekend. While the…
With Election Day less than a month away, lawmakers in several states are suspending gas taxes or rolling back regulations on diesel fuel as voters grow increasingly frustrated with rising fuel costs amid President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. On Tuesday, Trump issued an executive order to expand access to tax-free…
WASHINGTON — Rebecca Myers lives in one of the nation’s most hotly contested congressional districts, and tariffs were on her mind as she voted early and in-person in Suffolk, Virginia in late September. The 44-year-old trained social worker said she and her husband, who recently retired after 25 years in the U.S…
Democratic candidates in much of the Volunteer State, especially in its rural areas, face a steep hill to climb. Perhaps that is most true in East Tennessee, a region that has voted reliably red for decades. Hamilton County, the urban anchor of Southeast Tennessee with Chattanooga as its seat, hasn’t voted for a…
WASHINGTON — Nearly all of the U.S. senators elected this year will be in office when Congress debates how to restructure Social Security to prevent an automatic drop-off in retirement benefits in 2032. Very few candidates in competitive races, however, have policy proposals on their campaign websites and many, when…
The losing bidder in a multi-billion-dollar project to add toll lanes to Interstate 24 between Nashville and Murfreesboro has filed suit seeking to force Tennessee transportation officials to hand over the winning bidder’s contract and payment records. 24 Choice Lane Partners, a private consortium that made the short…
October means rounding the clubhouse turn on eagerly anticipated midterm elections. Sadly, even in a big-change-brewing year, the “eagerly” part of that sentence gets little traction in Tennessee, where the dense red fog of GOP political domination seemingly never lifts, keeping the election night suspense meter…
The Department of Homeland Security obtained tens of millions of unspecified records as part of a sweeping nationwide effort to find voter fraud, according to internal DHS reports, and weighed using undercover agents to investigate voter registration efforts by nonprofit groups. The reports from May and June by…
A Davidson County Chancery judge ordered Tennessee officials on Wednesday to preserve all evidence related to the botched execution of Christa Pike. Chancellor I’Ashea Myles ruled that the Tennessee Department of Correction must “preserve all evidence” related to the failed execution of Pike by two rounds of lethal…
A leading Democratic campaign committee is projecting confidence in U.S. Senate toss-up races four weeks before Election Day, though it has yet to commit resources to the reddest states that have recently entered the Senate map. Senate Majority PAC, which is run by allies of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters A federal judge appears poised to allow the state takeover of Memphis schools to move forward as soon as the oversight board says it’s ready to seize control of Tennessee’s largest school district. U.S. District…
Republican leaders in Tennessee’s legislature say they will investigate the reliability of lethal injection as an execution method after the state failed to execute two death row inmates in the span of five months. Gov. Bill Lee stopped the May execution of Tony Carruthers after a physician unsuccessfully attempted to…
As President Donald Trump refuses to rule out taking extreme action in the midterm elections, voting rights advocates and civil rights leaders are bolstering their voter protection efforts in anticipation of possible federal interference. The focus by activists comes amid uncertainty among advocates and election…
WASHINGTON — The number of women in the U.S. Senate is unlikely to increase and may decline following the November midterm elections, though there are still opportunities for candidates to make history in the upper chamber. Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics, said on a…
WASHINGTON — Democrats are more motivated to vote in November’s midterm elections than Republicans, potentially giving the party an advantage to flip at least one chamber of Congress, according to a poll released Tuesday by the nonpartisan health organization KFF. Democratic candidates also held an edge with voter…
Tennessee will allow farmers and loggers to use cheaper, tax-exempt diesel on public roads through the month of October to provide relief from high prices during harvest season, Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday. Record-high diesel prices that economists attribute mostly to the United States’ war in Iran have become a…
President Donald Trump wants to sharply curtail mail ballots. He’s called them “inherently corrupt” and baselessly condemned them as a major source of fraud. But with Republicans falling behind in the polls, the president is now urging his supporters to vote in the midterm elections any way they can, including by…
Tennessee lawmakers held hearings to discuss implementing a limited medical marijuana program, but the state’s top law enforcement group remains the most vocal opposition. Representatives from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, TBI, emerged as the strongest opponents, stating there were no circumstances in which…
A Tennessee Republican state senator is backing a conservative independent candidate for governor, spurning her party and leading to speculation about her future. State Sen. Janice Bowling, a Tullahoma Republican, endorsed independent gubernatorial candidate David Hatley in a social media post Saturday. “A lot of…
A Tennessee law that makes it a felony to “harbor” immigrants without legal status remains enforceable after a federal judge last week dismissed a legal challenge brought by Lutheran churches. The law defines human smuggling as intentionally concealing, harboring or shielding from detection, for financial gain, any…
WASHINGTON — Democrats expect they’ll gain a majority of seats in the U.S. House following November’s midterm elections, giving the party a platform to serve as a check on the president’s power. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene said during an interview Monday that curbing the war in Iran…
Since Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second time, immigration arrests have surged nationwide as his administration carries out an unprecedented mass detention and deportation agenda. In Tennessee, the number of people arrested and detained began to climb almost immediately after the president’s January 2025…
WASHINGTON — This summer, arrests of immigrants in the United States soared to the highest levels since President Donald Trump returned to office. An unprecedented increase in cooperation between local and state law enforcement and federal immigration officers through collaborations known as 287(g) agreements helped…
Christa Pike, the Tennessee death row prisoner who survived an attempted execution by lethal injection Wednesday night, was still in critical condition as of Thursday afternoon. Hers was the second botched execution in the Volunteer State this year. And there’s a direct line between those executions and problems…
Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will step down, Gov. Bill Lee announced Saturday — three days after a botched execution attempt left Christa Pike on a ventilator in critical condition. Strada offered his resignation, and the governor accepted, the news release said. Strada will step down…
When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin declared in September that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could serve warrants on individuals at polling places this fall, officials in Denver, a liberal city where roughly 14% of residents are foreign-born, quickly sued. “Every day we find new things to be…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Keith Sonderling as secretary of Labor on Wednesday, marking one of the few Trump administration picks to get through the upper chamber recently after a North Dakota senator put a hold on “any and all” nominees. But the Senate left town late Wednesday for its weeks-long…
Republican and Democratic lawmakers are calling for death penalty reform and legislative oversight after the state of Tennessee tried and failed Wednesday to execute a death row inmate for the second time in five months. State Sen. Tom Hatcher, a Maryville Republican, said Thursday he supports Gov. Bill Lee’s order…
WASHINGTON — A D.C. Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors cannot, for a second time, charge former Olympic canoeist David Hearn with damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Judge Todd E. Edelman wrote in his ruling that “the observed damage to the Reflecting Pool was due to a contractor’s ‘rushed…
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee continues to give his top correction official a get-out-of-jail free card for botched executions. Correction Commissioner Frank Strada got the job in January 2023 despite overseeing three problematic executions as a deputy commissioner in Arizona, then helped put together the protocol used in…
Tennessee may have to carve out an additional $220 million from its budget next year to continue funding the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program after President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill passed more of the program’s costs to states. The total new costs to Tennessee depend, in part, on the…
WASHINGTON — U.S. senators departed Capitol Hill on Wednesday night for their campaign break, leaving numerous policy disputes unresolved. The chamber won’t return until Nov. 9 for the five-week lame-duck session, when party leaders will have to decide which bills they want to negotiate during what could be the final…
Lawyers for Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike confirmed Thursday she is in critical condition and receiving life-saving medical care after her botched execution. Pike was transported to a hospital Wednesday night after Tennessee halted her execution when two rounds of its lethal injection protocol failed. Media…
President Donald Trump is scheduled to kick off a month-long blitz of campaign stops with a Thursday rally in deep-red Oklahoma before heading to other states with strong Republican leanings. The first events in the closing stretch of the midterm election campaign suggest his strength with swing voters is limited, as…
Gov. Bill Lee has ordered a third-party review of the botched execution of Christa Pike and put a hold on state executions for the rest of the year. “Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that
With diesel fuel prices in Tennessee hovering near all-time highs above $6.10 per gallon, two state lawmakers are asking Gov. Bill Lee to temporarily allow farmers and loggers to use cheaper tax-exempt diesel to transport their harvest on public roads. Tennessee Rep. Rusty Grills, a Newburn Republican, and Bolivar…
By the time she was released from a Louisiana immigrant detention center, a Nashville mother of two could no longer breastfeed her young daughters. Her milk had dried up. An asylum seeker from Guatemala, she had not seen or spoken with her children since being detained by immigration agents at her home on May 19
A federal grand jury indicted 10 noncitizens for unlawfully voting in Minnesota, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday, highlighting the administration’s effort to keep election security a top issue, in line with President Donald Trump’s longstanding unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. The indictments…
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated Wednesday that should Democrats regain control of the chamber following the elections, they plan to block judicial nominees sent up by President Donald Trump, including for any possible vacancies on the Supreme Court. “Look, the bottom line is, one of…
The Wednesday execution of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike was halted after the state of Tennessee administered two failed rounds of its lethal injection protocol and federal public defenders filed an emergency appeal to end the execution and get Pike medical care. The botched execution spanned more than two…
WASHINGTON — Former special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday defended before a U.S. Senate panel his past investigations of President Donald Trump’s possession of classified documents and alleged role in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Judiciary Committee Republicans repeatedly dissected Smith’s work…
A year after a coalition of law enforcement agencies converged on Memphis, conducting widespread traffic stops and roundups, Beale Street businesses are struggling to stay afloat as customers avoid the historic downtown area. Although several factors are believed to be involved in the slowdown, some local leaders say…
A federal court ruled in favor of Metro Nashville and five other cities and counties, striking down the Trump administration’s effort to withhold anti-terrorism funds unless they adopted election-system policies targeting to check citizenship. The Monday ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali in the District of…
The federal government has begun supplying COVID-19 vaccines to states, including Tennessee, to be used as part of a free immunization program for low-income children, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday. The question of when — and whether — the federal government…
President Donald Trump is tapping $20 million in Homeland Security funding to pay for TV ads that heavily feature him ahead of the midterm elections, Democrats said Tuesday as the promos critics call propaganda come under bipartisan attack. The Trump administration recently moved the funds into a U.S. Customs and…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted, for now, the Trump administration’s request to continue rapid third-country deportation of immigrants to countries not their own. The decision will allow the Trump administration to carry out its aggressive deportation method of quickly removing immigrants to one…
WASHINGTON — The three news organizations that President Donald Trump barred from entering the White House grounds earlier this month have asked a federal judge to ensure their reporters continue to have access after a temporary restraining order expires in early October. Attorneys for CNN, MS Now and Politico filed…
A Tennessee Democratic state senator has sued the chamber leader over her committee reassignment and travel reimbursement restrictions implemented after she protested from the Senate Floor during a recent special session to redraw the state’s U.S. House map. At the end of a May special legislative session to redraw…
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office argued Monday that politics shouldn’t be considered in deciding whether the Chattanooga airport authority should be run by a locally-appointed board or a board appointed by state officials under a new law. The state’s attorney and legal counsel for the new state-appointed board…
WASHINGTON — Small businesses will once again challenge President Donald Trump’s tariffs in federal court this week as they continue to feel the squeeze of the administration’s roller coaster policy on import taxes. Spice importer Burlap & Barrel and rare watch importer Collective Horology will argue Wednesday in the…
More than $26,700 in proceeds from Martin’s Grassroots Soybean Festival will be donated to the Martin Fire Department, according to John Sellers, the festival’s lead organizer. Sellers and other community members poured thousands of hours of volunteer work into the grassroots version of the traditional festival after…
Five weeks before Election Day, President Donald Trump’s sprawling effort to identify and remove noncitizen voters hasn’t produced the kind of large purges that could meaningfully affect the midterm elections. Even a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision giving states access to a supercharged Department of Homeland…
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has, once again, infuriated lawmakers from both political parties by using a controversial maneuver to cancel funding previously approved by Congress. The $810 million in the “pocket rescission” would have gone to refugee assistance programs at the Department of Health and Human…
A federal appeals court ruled that prediction market Kalshi’s sports-event contracts are subject to Tennessee’s sports-wagering laws, reversing a lower-court ruling. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that sports event contracts on prediction market websites like Kalshi and…
Democrat and Memphis City Councilmember Jerri Green stood in Paris, Tennessee’s Eiffel Tower Park Sept. 20 in sweltering heat to tell a crowd of about 300 people why she should be Tennessee’s next governor. Paris is the seat of Henry County, a rural West Tennessee county of about 32,000 people that went 77% for…
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Afternoon light slipped through the curtains of a dimly lit room on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Chattanooga. Black residents, clergy members and activists gathered in early May to organize opposition to Tennessee state lawmakers’ congressional redistricting effort, aimed at eliminating the…