First Run News

NEW LONDON, Wis.—After it was clear that neither of her preferred candidates, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, was going to be elected president in 2016, Linda Behm prayed. Behm is an evangelical Christian and keeps a calendar filled with volunteer shifts at a thrift store and a food pantry in this small community an hour away from Green Bay. She wasn’t sure about supporting Donald J. Trump, the New York business magnate with a penchant for insults and crude behavior.

Mirroring her recent tumble in the polls, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign disclosed on Friday that she’s facing a sharp drop in fund-raising in the last quarter of the year and made a last-minute appeal to supporters to close some of the gap. $24.6 million in the third quarter, a roughly 31 percent drop. “If the numbers don’t pick up, we run the risk of having to pull back plans to organize for Elizabeth Warren in all 50 states during the primary,” her campaign said in the e-mail.

IOWA CITY — Joe Biden, expanding on his remarks a day earlier that he would not comply with a subpoena to testify in President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that there would not be “any legal basis” for such a subpoena. Speaking with reporters Saturday, Biden stopped short of vowing to fight a subpoena if one were ultimately issued.

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa — Cornfields flank the highway that forms the main road here and grain elevators tower overhead, constant reminders of how farming permeates this rural community in the state’s northwest corner. What also permeates Sioux Center is evangelical Christianity. It is, for most, an unquestioned way of life here in the most Republican county in a state that plays an outsized role in presidential elections. There is an evangelical college, a Christian secondary school, and churches up and down the main road.

Democrats are bracing for a long, drawn-out primary season. With just six weeks until the Iowa caucuses, some Democrats say they don’t expect a likely nominee to emerge anytime soon after early-voting states hold their contests.

A group of Navy SEALS who accused their platoon leader of war crimes have spoken out in never-before-seen footage obtained by The New York Times. According to a trove of leaked Navy materials, members of SEAL Team 7 described Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher in grim terms, calling him “freaking evil,” “toxic” and a “psychopath.” “You could tell he was perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving,” Special Operator 1st Class Corey Sco

A judge has temporarily halted a North Carolina law requiring people to show a photo ID at the ballot box. This means that voters will not be subject to the photo ID requirement when they go to cast ballots in the March 2020 presidential primaries, Rev. T.

House Republicans are feeling good about their defense of MORE in this month’s impeachment vote, and now want to use the divisive fight to cut into the Democratic majority in next fall’s elections. Republicans would need to gain about 20 seats to win back the House majority, something seen as a tall order by most political observers. Much will depend on the presidential election, as a Trump victory would likely offer some coattails for Republicans.

U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs has delayed a decision on North Carolina voter ID legislation until next week. Judge Biggs, an Obama appointee, has temporarily blocked measures that would require legal identification at the ballot box in 2020. Notification of the delay was appended to NAACP et al v. Cooper, one of two lawsuits challenging the new restrictions.