First Run News

A historic number of candidates and an all-out fight for control of the House means 2018 will feature a number of closely contested primaries.  Here are seven primaries to watch in the new year.   Illinois's 3rd District — Rep. MORE (D) On paper, Lipinski looks to be a sure thing for reelection in his Chicago-land district.

MORE’s first year in office had its stumbles, but it also had a number of successes that had the White House and congressional Republicans crowing at the end of the year. While Trump has seen his approval ratings fall, he’s also gone a long way toward meeting a number of his campaign promises, including a pledge to reduce taxes. The tax-cut bill approved by Congress days before Christmas was sweeping in scope and a major victory for a White House that hopes to build on it in Trump’s second year in office. Here’s a look at Trump’s biggest accomplishments of the year.

ObamaCare is showing its resilience after a year where in which it took a beating but survived. A surprisingly high number of people signed up under the law in the enrollment period that ended last week: 8.8 million, just short of the 9.2 million from last year. And that was despite the Trump administration’s attacks on the health-care law, cutbacks on outreach and an enrollment period that was half as long as previous ones. “The ACA seems to have more lives than your neighborhood cat,” said Larry Levitt, a health policy expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “It’s a smaller and less functio

The White House believes a strong close to 2017, capped by the passage of a $1.5 trillion tax bill, has put MORE in a positive position as he enters his second year in office. The sweeping tax package helped erase the sting of the GOP’s failure to repeal ObamaCare and let Trump and his congressional allies put their very public differences aside in a year-end celebration at the White House. Trump's team argues that the tax bill, which also ended the mandate for individuals to buy insurance under the Affordable Care Act and opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to

Good Friday. Here’s what we’re watching: • One of bitcoin’s biggest champion has had a change of heart. • Prosecutors are said to be seeking Kushner records from Deutsche Bank. • Add BofA to the list of companies passing along some of their tax windfall to employees. • A bad day for Bitcoin, just as more people are trying to pile in. • AT&T and Time Warner change the deadline for their $85.4 billion deal. Want this in your own email inbox?