Hartford Courant Politics

Construction workers in hard hats and safety vests, hustling to transform a vacant office park in Avon to 176 units of housing, took little notice of the small ceremony celebrating their labors last summer on a project made possible by Connecticut’s controversial affordable housing law, 8-30g. “This is an incredible town. It’s been so supportive, and we’ve had such a great experience,” said Dara Kovel, the chief executive officer of Beacon Communities, the developer. “We also landed in the distr

One of this year’s candidates for governor gravitates toward country breakout Ella Langley and enjoys Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” during a workout. The other has long favored Bob Marley and the Wailers to soundtrack his campaign events, and recently added Bad Bunny to his playlist. Their tastes overlap when it comes to stars like Dolly Parton, though they may disagree on her greatest song. Those selections, and what they might telegraph to voters, landed on reading lists and earworm-heavy pl

By JULIE CARR SMYTH COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s controversial attack ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, is off the air after the Republican spent about a quarter of what his campaign initially said it would invest to run it. Ramaswamy said during a campaign appearance in Vandalia, Ohio, on Thursday that the ad’s planned run was over. His campaign originally said it would spend $4 million to air the ad, but data from th

By ERIC TUCKER WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense lawyers urged a federal judge Thursday to dismiss a criminal complaint charging two former FBI counterintelligence officials with making false statements to Congress about Hunter Biden, calling the case an overtly political prosecution aimed at placating President Donald Trump. The arguments capped a days-long hearing in which lawyers for the former officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, sought to cast the case — one in a series of high-profile Ju

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to identify all states where it has pressured officials to comply with its efforts to prevent non-U.S. citizens from voting in the midterm election, inquiries that Democrats have challenged as an illegal power grab. Chief Judge James Boasberg said he intends to rule by Monday — the eve of Election Day — on a request by Democratic Party leaders to block President Donald Trump’s administration from

An emissary of the University of Connecticut’s board of trustees has approached House Speaker Matt Ritter about becoming the flagship state university’s interim president should Radenka Maric depart before her five-year contract expires on June 30, 2027, according to sources familiar with the situation. The trustees failed to come to terms on an extension with Maric last June, despite a contract requirement that they resolve her status a year ahead of her contract’s expiration. Instead, they neg

By DAVE COLLINS Relatives whose loved ones were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are making an impassioned plea to the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold state and local bans on certain semiautomatic rifles, citing the high body counts and devastating injuries the weapons can inflict. The parents of five of the 20 first-graders killed in the 2012 Connecticut shooting and relatives of one of six educators who died filed a “friend of the court” brief on Wednesday, weighing in on two c

By FATIMA HUSSEIN WASHINGTON (AP) — Chronically ill people on Medicaid won’t be bound by new work requirement rules that the latest Trump administration guidance requires in order to qualify for “medically frail” exemptions, a federal judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston gave a partial victory to a coalition of 25 states and the District of Columbia, which sued the Trump administration in June over the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance l

By SAFIYAH RIDDLE and ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has issued subpoenas to California officials in an escalation of its scrutiny of local election administration. The Associated Press obtained copies of three subpoenas sent Oct. 21 to employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, ordering them to appear in court on Nov. 4, the day after the election. The documents request any records, documents and communications related to letters sent i

By MELISSA GOLDIN, Associated Press False and misleading claims about the voting process are being spread online as voters cast their ballots in the 2026 midterms, with Election Day less than a week away. The posts often focus on alleged election rigging or voter fraud. However, closer scrutiny of the claim typically reveals a logical explanation. Here’s a closer look at the facts. Holes in California ballots are not nefarious CLAIM: A punched hole in a Ventura County, California, ballot r

By BECKY BOHRHER and NICHOLAS RICCARDI JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Democratic campaign for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat was involved in efforts to place on the ballot a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in a bid to confuse voters in a race that could determine which party controls the chamber, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The newspaper obtained text messages between members of Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign discussing recruiting other people wit

By Savannah Behrmann, CQ-Roll Call WASHINGTON — Democrats believe they can flip the Senate and control 51 votes or more, and their confidence has only grown in the final week before the midterms. But senators in both parties are privately bracing for another possible scenario: a 50-50 split that would give the upper hand to Republicans while causing headaches for everyone. Thanks to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President JD Vance, the GOP would still have the final word on the floor. That leave

By BEN FINLEY and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN WASHINGTON (AP) — The cost of the Iran war to American taxpayers has grown to $47.1 billion, according to a new estimate the Pentagon has provided to Congress. The fallout from the conflict has become a key issue in the midterm elections and could increase as President Donald Trump leaves open the possibility of renewed hostilities. The figure from U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, is as of Oct. 16 and offers the most up-to-d

By LINLEY SANDERS and ROBERT YOON WASHINGTON (AP) — Elections are often boiled down to who won and lost, but it’s just as important to understand who voted and how, what motivated voters, and how they feel about important issues facing the country. At The Associated Press, The AP Voter Poll by SSRS is a key part of answering those questions, explaining the voting coalitions that shaped the race for congressional control and decided key races for the Senate and governor. Launched in 2025, The AP

By RYAN J. FOLEY Groups that provide legal services to immigrants filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop the Trump administration’s new policy of hiding the locations of tens of thousands of detainees with final deportation orders. The policy, adopted suddenly last month to expedite deportations, interferes with immigration lawyers’ rights by making it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to locate their clients, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston. It asks a judge to is

By MIKE CATALINI President Donald Trump’s campaign to keep Republicans in control of Congress in the Nov. 3 midterms is returning to Ohio for the third time in a month on Wednesday, while former President Barack Obama is set to rally Democrats in Georgia. With less than a week until Election Day, Trump is keeping his focus on states that he won handily two years ago as Americans confront record fuel prices, rising costs and an unpopular war in Iran. Vice President JD Vance was focusing on

By MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A plan to give people in the United States easier access to unproven peptide drugs favored by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was opposed by most Food and Drug Administration scientific staff members, who had limited input in drafting the policy, according to six people familiar with its development. The document posted online Wednesday by Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services covers a handful of injectable peptides promot

By STEVE PEOPLES and AARON KESSLER NEW YORK (AP) — Republicans have spent an estimated $183 million on television ads focused on transgender-related attacks against Democrats in the final phase of this year’s midterm elections, betting that struggling GOP candidates can leverage the divisive cultural issue to overcome voters’ concerns about President Donald Trump’s leadership and the state of the economy. The massive investment through Oct. 25 produced about 217,000 TV spots nationwide and excee

By WILL WEISSERT WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump likes to play make-believe with his supporters. “Just close your eyes,” he tells them, “and pretend I’m on the ballot.” It’s a typically self-involved appeal from someone who has been the center of the nation’s political gravity for more than a decade. Now, he’s finishing the midterms with a cross-country blitz of campaign rallies that allow him to bask in applause when he’s otherwise profoundly unpopular. In a year marked by the war with

By ALI SWENSON NEW YORK (AP) — Social media videos believed to be produced with artificial intelligence and linked to Russia are misusing real people’s names and photographs to spread disinformation about two Democratic Senate candidates in the final stretch of midterm voting. One of the targets is Sherrod Brown, who is running against Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio. The video, which appears to include some AI manipulation, depicts a newscast and includes pictures of Haya Akbik, who interned