Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: U.S. Senate

Maine Democrat Graham Platner Ends Senate Bid After Mounting Controversies
The Daily Signal, Approved, National

Maine Democrat Graham Platner Ends Senate Bid After Mounting Controversies

By Nolan D. McCaskill, Richard Cowan and Daniel Trotta | The Daily Signal Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine on Wednesday promised to formally withdraw from the race, after a string of controversies including an accusation of sexual assault plunged one of the most competitive races in the 2026 midterm elections into turmoil. The suspension by the former U.S. Marine, announced in a video posted on social media, is likely to complicate Democrats’ efforts to win control of the Senate in the Nov. 3 elections. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority. In the recorded video, Platner repeated his denial of the sexual assault accusation and said the effort to remove him from the ballot was fueled by his effectivene...
Trump Says Supreme Court Decision Makes SAVE America Act More Urgent
The Daily Signal, Approved, National

Trump Says Supreme Court Decision Makes SAVE America Act More Urgent

By: Pedro Rodriguez | The Daily Signal President Donald Trump has called for the SAVE America Act to be passed after the Supreme Court upheld Mississippi’s policy to count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. Conservative Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three Democrat appointees on the court in drafting the majority opinion. The case of Watson v. Republican National Committee involved Mississippi’s policy of counting ballots that arrive up to five days after Election Day. At least 17 states and territories, along with the District of Columbia, count ballots that arrive late, with at least two allowing them to arrive up to two weeks after Election Day. The case is named for Mississippi Secreta...
House Republicans Push SAVE America Act for Fourth Time Despite Senate Resistance
TownHall.com, Approved, National

House Republicans Push SAVE America Act for Fourth Time Despite Senate Resistance

By: Scott McClallen | Townhall The U.S. House will pass the Save America Act for a fourth time, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-4) told Fox News on Sunday.  https://twitter.com/Edgar_A_Barrios/status/2071241675582652489 The bill package aims to ensure that only citizens vote in federal elections by showing proof of citizenship when registering to vote and by showing a valid ID before voting.  Johnson told Fox News that Republicans will try to place the package in a reconciliation bill to avoid the required 60 votes in the Senate.  "I told the President, I don't have any tattoos, but if I did, it'd say 'SAVE AMERICA' on my shoulder. Okay, we passed it three times in the House alre...
Trump Delays Housing Bill Signing Demanding Action On SAVE America Act
TownHall.com, Approved, National

Trump Delays Housing Bill Signing Demanding Action On SAVE America Act

By: Cameron Arcand | Townhall President Donald Trump headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to stress his request for the SAVE America Act to pass. Trump was scheduled to arrive on the Hill earlier in the day to sign a bipartisan housing policy bill, but he canceled the signing until after the federal elections proposal makes it to his desk.  “Every election is important… They want a lot of communists to come in,” Trump said before the meeting. https://twitter.com/cspan/status/2069832157527208318 The elections bill has passed the House but continues to have a few Republican holdouts and Democratic backlash in the Senate, which is making it difficult to get the bill through.  READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TOWNHALL
Senate Approves $70 Billion Immigration Enforcement Funding Package
NPR, Approved, National

Senate Approves $70 Billion Immigration Enforcement Funding Package

By Caitlyn Kim | NPR News This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org. The U.S. Senate passed an approximately $70 billion funding bill for federal immigration enforcement, without any reforms, early Friday morning, 52-47. Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper voted against the measure, while Sen. Michael Bennet missed the final passage vote and the preceding 18-hour marathon of back-to-back amendment votes known as a “vote-a-rama.” Instead, Bennet was back in Denver, where he hit the gubernatorial debate stage Thursday night for what he hopes will be his next job. A Bennet spokesperson noted that Bennet had returned to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and filed amendments to the reconciliation bill. “When it ...
Senate Approves $70 Billion For ICE And Border Patrol After Months Of Delays
DENVER7, Approved, National

Senate Approves $70 Billion For ICE And Border Patrol After Months Of Delays

By: Nathaniel Reed | Denver7 In a 5 a.m. vote, Senate approves three-year ICE and Border Patrol budget, rejecting multiple bids to kill Trump’s settlement fund. The Senate passed legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies early Friday morning, after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that threatened to derail the bill. Senators voted 52-47 for the $70 billion legislation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for the next three years, through the end of Trump’s term. The final vote came just before 5 a.m., after Republicans narrowly defeated multiple attempts by Democrats and Republicans to add language to the bill that would permanently ban Trump’s settlement fu...
Senate Democrats Reject Voter ID Amendment Despite Prior Support
The Federalist, Approved, National

Senate Democrats Reject Voter ID Amendment Despite Prior Support

By Brianna Lyman | The Federalist Forty-seven Democrats voted against a photo ID amendment on Thursday despite Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer previously claiming that he was supportive of photo ID. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) introduced an amendment to the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act that would simply require photo ID to vote. Acceptable forms of ID include an unexpired driver’s license with a photo, a valid passport, a military ID, an unexpired state-ID card, among others. The measure needed 60 votes to pass but only received 53 “AYE’s.” Schumer claimed the amendment would “impose the single strictest voter ID law in America.” “This radical amendment would toss out every single voter ID requirement in all 50 states for fed...
George Markert is running for U.S. Senate. He’s already been in the room.
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

George Markert is running for U.S. Senate. He’s already been in the room.

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Dinner one night back in 2018 was seafood and gator sausage, with family around the table. Before long the conversation landed where it usually does in the Markert family—service. George Markert was on official Marine Corps business at the time in Pensacola, Fla. Markert was leading a high-level investigation as a colonel. His uncle got word he was in Pensacola and insisted they get together before he left. The worn Constitution changed hands at the end of a family dinner in Pensacola. When Markert flipped it open, he saw a handwritten note. “The note read, ‘This was your grandfather’s, and he held it sacred,’” Markert said. “He did a tour in Washington, D.C. in the Navy back in the 1950s and used to take my dad and his three sibling...
Conservatives Blast Thune Over Planned Show Vote On SAVE America Act
The Daily Signal, Approved, National

Conservatives Blast Thune Over Planned Show Vote On SAVE America Act

By: Virginia Grace McKinnon, Pedro Rodriguez, Bradley Devlin | The Daily Signal A source familiar with the matter has confirmed to The Daily Signal that Senate Majority Leader John Thune will bring the SAVE America Act to a vote next week without moving forward with a talking filibuster. The suspected vote was previously reported by Politico and the Washington Examiner.  “I can confirm, it looks like Thune is planning to bring it to a vote next week as a show vote,” the source told The Daily Signal. “Despite outrage from GOP voters and the specific request of the president, he is not planning on pursuing a standing filibuster or any other method to actually pass the bill.”  Conservatives who have been pushing Thune and Senate Republicans...
The ROAD to Housing scarcity: Hidden provision in Senate housing bill may kill build-to-rent
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The ROAD to Housing scarcity: Hidden provision in Senate housing bill may kill build-to-rent

By Booker Lightman | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice How a Senate bill to increase construction will do the opposite You may have heard about a bipartisan omnibus bill currently being debated in the U.S. Senate, called the ROAD to Housing Act. From the name, you might think it’s about promoting housing construction, and that’s indeed how it’s being sold in the media.  Yet a provision recently added to the bill, which forces build-to-rent companies to sell their homes within seven years, would cripple housing production and drive up housing costs for everyone. Why is the forced sale provision bad?  The seven-year deadline would incentivize builders to prioritize speed over quality and hide defects rather than take the time to fix them. It would...