Category: AP News Feed

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Progressive city council member Nithya Raman has advanced to a November runoff against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, setting up an unexpected matchup between two Democrats and former political allies to run the struggling city of nearly 4 million.

The outcome means Spencer Pratt, a Republican and former reality television personality from “The Hills,” is out of the running. His candidacy had drawn national attention because of his celebrity and willingness to challenge liberal governance in a city dominated by Democrats, but the buzz did not translate into enough votes to make the runoff.

Raman made a last-minute entry into the race, after she had endorsed Bass for reelection. She was elected to the council with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, and the election will test whether voters in the heavily Democratic city want to move further to the political left to address long-running problems of homelessness, buckled streets and sidewalks and climbing rent and home prices.

The race also has historical markers. Bass is the first Black woman to hold the post, and Raman could be the first South Asian woman in the job.

“If you’re as frustrated by the broken status quo as I am, I hope you’ll join our movement to build a city that works for everyone,” Raman said in a statement. “For too long, City Hall has prioritized giving political advantage to powerful interests that fund elections. Meanwhile, working people pay the price in higher rents, depleted services and a city that has stopped working for them.”

“A campaign against Nithya Raman, who allows encampments near schools and cuts the police force, is one Mayor Bass looks forward to winning,” said Bass campaign strategist Douglas Herman.

Raman gained votes on Pratt in every vote update since Election Day as Los Angeles continued to process additional mail ballots and release results. Raman moved past Pratt and into second place on Sunday and extended her lead over Pratt on Monday to nearly 22,000 votes.

The mayoral matchup sets the field in one of the state’s two marquee races. In the other, the California governor’s race, Democrat Xavier Becerra has advanced to the general election but it’s not yet clear if he will face Republican Steve Hilton or fellow Democrat Tom Steyer. Hilton has more votes than Steyer, but Steyer cut into his lead by nearly a third in Monday’s vote updates.

The mayoral race was technically nonpartisan, so the candidates appeared on the ballot without party identification next to their names.

The election was not a vote of confidence in Bass, who according to incomplete returns received under 35% of the vote, a vulnerable position for an incumbent.

Bass represents the Democratic establishment as the incumbent mayor, and she’s backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with influential labor unions. She served in the state Legislature and Congress before becoming mayor in 2022 and was under consideration to be former President Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020.

Raman — in her first run for citywide office — has promised to speed up housing construction, bring back entertainment industry jobs and improve services in a city known for dirty streets, gridlock and homeless encampments that are commonplace in many neighborhoods.

“What we are doing right now is just not working,” Raman says. “LA’s primary strategy for homelessness has been to move encampments from one block to another, from your block to your neighbor’s block and back again. … It’s political theater.”

California’s vote count takes a long time

It took nearly a week to determine who would face Bass in November due to California’s notoriously slow vote-counting process. Ballots are mailed to every eligible voter and they are counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at an election office within seven days.

Los Angeles, like other counties in California, processes and counts mail ballots in roughly the order they are received, so the last ones returned are the last ones counted.

On Tuesday night after polls closed, Los Angeles released results from mail ballots that had been returned early and already processed as well as votes cast that day. Those votes put Bass in the lead with Pratt running in second and Raman behind in third. Since then, the county has been processing and releasing results from mail ballots that arrived later.

Election data shows that large numbers of Democrats held onto their mail ballots and returned them in the race’s final days, which helps explain why Bass and Raman have been doing better than Pratt in the votes counted since primary day.

Raman’s political positions have shifted

Born in India, Raman moved to the United States as a child and earned degrees from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied urban planning.

She has opposed efforts to prohibit homeless people from setting up tents within 500 feet (152 meters) of schools and daycare centers. However, she appears to have softened her opposition to no-camping zones, which were intended to curb the spread of encampments and clear streets. She voted against dozens of them on the council but later said she would not block them if elected mayor.

Raman’s positions on policing in the city have also changed.

She once talked of a department that would be much smaller and posted “defund the police” on social media in 2020. She did not support the mayor’s 2023 police contract, which she said was too expensive for the financially strapped city.

More recently, she said the Los Angeles Police Department should remain at its current size, about 8,600, down from about 10,000 in 2020. The police union has taunted her in ads, calling her “Flip Floppin’ Raman.”

In diverse Los Angeles, mayors are elected by building coalitions, ethnically and geographically. And to surpass 50% of the vote and win, Raman will need to find more supporters.

“I don’t think it’s impossible, but she is going to have to expand beyond her ideological base,” said Democratic consultant Bill Carrick, who sees Bass as vulnerable.

“The people who didn’t vote for Nithya weren’t voting against her, they were voting for somebody else. Karen (Bass) had a good number of people who were voting against her,” Carrick added.

Though Raman and Pratt are political opposites, both have attracted voters who aren’t happy with the city’s status quo.

Tanika Vickers, who works for a housing nonprofit in Los Angeles, said that she felt like she was part of a group of people who work and pay taxes but have been “forgotten.” She said she was frustrated with the way tax dollars were being spent, especially “throwing” more money toward homelessness without results.

She said she voted Raman for mayor because she was most qualified to execute her plans and fulfill what the city needs.

“I think that we are all looking for change,” she said.

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Associated Press journalists Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington contributed.

WARNER, N.H. (AP) — For Rahm Emanuel, the road to the White House runs through the uphill climbs of rural New Hampshire.

The onetime Democratic congressman, White House chief of staff, Chicago mayor and U.S. ambassador to Japan hasn’t formally announced his ambition to return to power in Washington. But his weekend trip through the state that typically holds the first presidential primary was hardly subtle.

There were the union hall visits and intimate house parties, staples of New Hampshire political rituals. At one event in the backyard of a handsome home in Concord, Emanuel greeted voters and practiced a stump speech that highlighted strains on the middle class and the excesses of the tax system.

And then there was the bike tour.

Over the course of three days, Emanuel pedaled 117 miles across New Hampshire from Portsmouth on the coast to Hanover on the Vermont border in what he dubbed the “Spin-Free Tour,” a nod to his blunt demeanor that he sees as an asset for a Democratic Party trying to move beyond its devastating losses in 2024.

“Tough times require a tough leader,” Emanuel told The Associated Press during a break at a coffee shop in Warner. “I don’t think this is just about learning the words to ‘Kumbaya.’”

For someone who has spent the better part of three decades in the highest orbits of political power, the 66-year-old Emanuel is in the unusual position of lacking a natural platform. His likely rivals in a Democratic presidential contest are mostly younger and, as governors, senators or a recently departed vice president, can more easily attract attention.

And despite his thick resume, Emanuel isn’t especially well known outside political circles, as demonstrated by a woman who asked who he was after he left the coffee shop. When informed that it was Emanuel and that he was considering a campaign, she responded, “A campaign for what?”

How Emanuel taps into tenacity to overcome hurdles

Emanuel is tapping into his hard-wired tenacity in hopes of overcoming such challenges.

As many prominent Democrats focus on castigating President Donald Trump, Emanuel has released a flurry of policy proposals addressing everything from social media bans for children to prediction markets and a mandatory retirement age of 75 for those in public office. That would prevent him from seeking a second term if he were elected.

Emanuel is often on the road, talking education in Mississippi and Michigan. He’ll travel to Israel next month to address the U.S.-Israeli relationship as the war in Gaza has spurred new divisions in both political parties, especially among younger voters.

He is a regular guest on podcasts ranging from those hosted by Katie Couric and Kara Swisher to shows focused on fly fishing. He often uses the appearances to knock his own party for overreaching in cultural debates, particularly those involving the rights of transgender people. It’s a message of centrism that has echoes of that of the first president he served, Bill Clinton.

“We did things that were really ridiculous,” he said of Democrats on an episode of Couric’s podcast that posted last week. “Rather than worry about classroom excellence, we were worried about bathroom and locker room access.”

And he hops on the bike.

The tour gives him a chance to both demonstrate his physical fitness at a time of heightened awareness of the nation’s aging political leaders and to introduce himself to the state’s notoriously picky voters before the rest of the field swoops in after the November midterms.

“It is early,” said Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., who appeared alongside Emanuel at the Concord house party. “But what I’d say is the people in New Hampshire know how to vet candidates and they’re the most engaged electorate in the country.”

Martha Kruse, a 76-year-old retired special education teacher from Laconia, New Hampshire, is just that type of voter. Active in her local Democratic Party, she traveled to the Concord event to see Emanuel after hearing him in interviews.

“I’m going away really enthused about him,” she said, adding that he was “right on” to prepare a campaign so early.

Riding through the hills of rural New Hampshire

The future of the presidency seemed a world away during a hilly 20-mile stretch of the ride on Saturday, which included an elevation gain of more than 1,300 feet. Along with a cadre of friends and aides, Emanuel cycled past homes where residents were tending to their yards or celebrating a recent graduation on their front patio. He was chatty at times as he rode with the pack and cycled alone at other points, showing little strain in navigating the steep hills.

With summer finally creeping into New England, the humidity was high and the rain was occasionally intense. The group stopped for water and snacks every 10 to 15 miles, huddling under a barn during one rainy stretch. A small group of local activists met up with Emanuel at the coffee shop in Warner, where he held court from a rocking chair.

But the realities of modern politics occasionally asserted themselves. The group at one point cycled past signs praising Trump and denigrating his predecessor, Joe Biden. As the miles dragged on, a chase vehicle crept by periodically with cameras poking out the window to capture scenes that could later be shared on social media, where Emanuel now has an almost daily presence.

And the whir of the midterms wasn’t far away. In neighboring Maine, Graham Platner was contending with a drumbeat of reports about his history with women that has left some Democrats worried that the party’s path to a Senate majority is suddenly imperiled. Emanuel, who helped power Democrats to their sweeping 2006 victories in the U.S. House, said the “jury is still out” on whether Platner can win the Senate race.

“Everybody is holding their breath whether this is the start of something or the end of something,” he said.

Emanuel hopes voices of moderation are prevailing

But as the broader debate over the Democratic Party’s ideological future unfolds, Emanuel said he thought voices of moderation were prevailing. He noted recent wins by Rebecca Bennett, who emerged from a crowded Democratic primary in New Jersey with the nomination for a competitive House seat, along with Josh Turek, the new Democratic Senate nominee in Iowa.

“There’s a bigger character piece to this than ideological,” Emanuel said. “There’s radical moderates and their profile and character speak to kind of fighting a system, which is what’s needed right now.”

The bike tour was certainly not John McCain’s “Straight Talk Express,” the 2000 campaign bus from which the Arizona Republican senator opined on any question that came his way to seize attention and mount a surprise New Hampshire win over front-runner George W. Bush. But some voters said they were open to Emanuel.

Don Daley, a 60-year-old state employee from Concord, watched Emanuel talk from a bench in the backyard of the house party. He said that Emanuel probably “steps on a few toes.”

“But I think that’s what we need right now,” he said. “Some of our Democratic leaders haven’t been strong enough.”

A Democratic group that previously focused on presidential races is wading into the midterms by targeting more than a dozen House and Senate contests, many of them on Republican turf, in a new advertising campaign that begins Tuesday.

American Bridge 21st Century’s $50 million effort adds financial firepower to Democrats’ attempt to flip control of Congress in the midterm elections. The party has struggled to match Republicans’ fundraising, and it has lost ground in a nationwide redistricting battle that President Donald Trump initiated last year.

“We really have to maximize our wins and gains this year, particularly in Republican territory,” American Bridge co-founder Bradley Beychok said. “We are going all in.”

American Bridge, known for its opposition research, has been escalating its own advertising efforts. During the last presidential election, it announced plans to spend $140 million in an attempt to siphon away Trump’s support among rural voters.

Beychok said the idea for the midterms campaign was seeded last year, when he attended an inauguration rally and saw the slogan “Trump will fix it.”

“Trump made a big promise to these working-class voters that he was gonna bring down costs,” Beychok said. Now it’s clear, he said, “that Trump and Republicans really broke that covenant.”

The House seats American Bridge is targeting are in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. On the Senate side, they’re getting involved in races in Alaska, Iowa, Michigan and Mississippi.

The group passed on Senate races in states like Maine, North Carolina and Texas because it doesn’t expect those to lack resources.

The campaign will involve digital ads, streaming audio and television, social media, direct mail and radio.

Beychok said the organization is learning to focus on issues at a “visceral level,” and featuring specific voters so they can offer firsthand accounts of their experiences with the economy.

Making the pitch in American Bridge ads will be voters like Brad Singleton, a 50-year-old personal trainer from Walford, Iowa. Singleton said he was a Republican for 32 years until recently when dissatisfaction with the president led him to change registrations to Democratic.

For Singleton, the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was the start of his changing view of the president, who he said “threw a fit like a toddler” over the 2020 election results. But by 2024, he voted for Trump again, persuaded by the Make American Healthy Again movement.

“I immediately regretted it,” Singleton said. “Because of the economy, because of this war with Iran, because so many things that have happened.”

“I feel like Donald Trump cares about himself and his millionaire buddies,” he added. “He does not care about me.”

Jill Kordick, 64, a retired health care administrator from Norwalk, Iowa, is another voter featured in the group’s ads.

A registered independent, she described her political views as moderate to progressive. She said Trump’s second term has spurred her to get more involved in politics, such as attending No Kings rallies and speaking up at meetings with lawmakers.

Kordick said she’s aware how challenging it could be to flip Republican-leaning districts, and she’s asking herself how best to bring people who feel like the president let them down to the Democrats’ side.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be easy,” she said. “I think there has to be some way to invite people to the table so that they can feel better about how they vote and not feel so stuck or embarrassed by what they voted for in the past.”

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Catalini reported from Morrisville, Pennsylvania.

NEW YORK (AP) — Another sudden reversal for high-flying artificial-intelligence stocks sent Wall Street reeling on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% after careening between an initial gain of 1% and a midday loss of 2.3%, pulling further from its all-time high set a week ago. After similar yo-yo moves, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 86 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 1%.

Indexes swung lower after companies selling computer chips, memory and other building blocks of the AI boom broke from early gains to losses. Micron Technology went from a jump of 4% to a plummet of 10%, for example, before finishing with a drop of 1.4%. That’s a day after it soared 9.9% and two days after it plunged 13.3%.

The computer memory company’s stock has already tripled so far this year, raising criticism that it’s gone too far, too fast. Following last week’s industrywide sell-off, the question is whether AI stocks broadly are heading for a long downturn or just needed a shake-out to get rid of excessive optimism.

Marvell Technology dropped 7.6%, and Advanced Micro Devices sank 3% after both AI winners also erased early-morning gains.

All the while, several big-name AI companies are racing to list their stocks on a U.S. exchange and sell them at high prices. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said Monday it was the latest to file confidential paperwork with U.S. regulators top open the door for an initial public offering. SpaceX’s IPO could happen later this week.

The weakness for AI stocks drowned out the benefit Wall Street got from easing oil prices. Nearly three out of every four stocks within the S&P 500 rose, despite the sharp swings for the overall index, as the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil sank 3% to $91.45.

Oil prices have been unsteady as hopes rise and fade that the United States and Iran can reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. A reopening would allow oil tankers to resume delivering crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

Oil prices pared their losses, though, after President Donald Trump said Iran was responsible for downing an American military helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz and that the United States “must” respond to the attack.

High oil prices caused by the war with Iran have already created a painful acceleration of inflation for U.S. shoppers. They have also pushed bond yields higher worldwide, raising the pressure on stock prices.

Treasury yields eased Tuesday with the fade in oil prices, relaxing some of that pressure. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.52% from 4.56% late Monday, though it’s still well above its 3.97% level from before the war with Iran.

The latest monthly updates on U.S. inflation will arrive later in the week, with one on consumer prices coming Wednesday and one on wholesale prices coming Thursday.

Inflation is high enough, and the U.S. job market looks strong enough, that traders on Wall Street largely expect the Federal Reserve will have to raise its main interest rate at least once by the end of this year. Higher interest rates would keep a lid on inflation, but they would also threaten to slow the economy and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate recently hit its highest level in nine months, and high costs to borrow money could discourage the building of AI data centers that are fueling the U.S. economy’s growth.

On Wall Street, airline stocks flew higher after the drop in oil prices hinted at less pressure on their fuel bills. American Airlines rose 3.6%, and Delta Air Lines gained 3.8%.

J.M. Smucker jumped 10.4% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company behind the Folgers, Hostess and other brands benefited from higher prices charged for coffee and sweet baked goods. It joined a long list of U.S. companies delivering stronger profit growth than analysts expected, which has helped drive the S&P 500 to record after record this year.

Nuvalent soared 39.3% after GSK agreed to buy the biotech company for $10.6 billion. The shares of U.K.-based GSK that trade in New York added 1.2%.

All told, the S&P 500 slipped 19.08 points to 7,386.65. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 86.10 to 50,872.11, and the Nasdaq composite fell 250.84 to 25,678.82.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped in Europe following bigger moves in Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 8.2% and nearly recovered Monday’s plunge of 8.3%. It’s been beholden to the performance of big tech stocks like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nevada, South Carolina and North Dakota hosted primary elections Tuesday, but much of the political world was focused on Maine’s high-stakes U.S. Senate contest.

The results were never in question. Neither Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins nor Democratic challenger Graham Platner faced serious opposition for their party’s nomination. And yet Tuesday marked an especially significant moment for Platner, the embattled veteran and oyster farmer, who is fighting to rebuild his credibility in a campaign rocked by controversy.

Elsewhere, President Donald Trump’s clout within his party was tested anew in states like South Carolina and Nevada, where he endorsed his favored candidates. Democrats hoped to build momentum in Nevada as part of a broader push to reclaim key governor’s seats.

Here’s some of the biggest takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries.

Platner tries to shift the conversation

There is no question that Platner has repair work to do.

The Maine Democrat openly acknowledged as much Tuesday night, telling a room packed with cheering supporters that “people can change.”

“Any of those who feel let down or disappointed or disillusioned, it is my job to earn your trust, faith and support,” Platner said. He later added, “I’ve made mistakes in my life, mistakes that I regret, that I live with, that I continue to learn from.”

It was hardly a defiant message for a man who sits at the very center of the Democratic Party’s fight to reclaim the Senate majority. Although he spent the closing minutes of his election-night speech attacking Collins, much of the night was choreographed to address other controversies.

It was barely a week ago when revelations surfaced that Platner had engaged in sexually explicit messages with multiple women while married. Allies wondered if more baggage would emerge, and then The New York Times reported new allegations about his behavior during previous relationships.

Platner’s mother took the stage before he spoke. She declared: “I am very, very proud of my son. I’m proud of who he is.” And then Platner’s wife appeared at his side before and after his speech. They held hands, touched foreheads and kissed.

Platner’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her campaign in April after it became clear Platner was in a commanding position.

A much more difficult challenge lies ahead: earning his own party’s trust as he tries to defeat Collins, who is running for her sixth term.

Maine race tests Democrats’ standards

As the controversies surrounding Platner have mounted, his support among Democrats has remained intact.

His victory — and his party’s response — underscores how much the party has changed in the Trump era. Democrats who once embraced a near-zero-tolerance approach to serious allegations of personal misconduct are increasingly prioritizing electability in their quest to return to power in Washington.

Jim Messina, who led former President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, said “a star is born” after Platner’s speech Tuesday night.

Few lawmakers illustrated the Democratic Party’s evolution more clearly than Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith. On Monday night, Smith offered an unequivocal endorsement of Platner, saying that if she lived in Maine, “he’d have my support, no question.”

Smith arrived in the Senate in 2018 after replacing Sen. Al Franken, who resigned amid allegations of inappropriate touching and kissing during the height of the #MeToo movement.

She is joined by other Democrats who once derided Republicans’ acceptance of Trump and other controversial nominees, but now back Platner. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been — and continue to be — key supporters of Platner.

But not all Democrats appear comfortable. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania had pushed Maine voters to support Mills, even though she dropped out. Mills issued a statement Tuesday night that did not mention Platner’s name. Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey pushed Platner to “get off” the ballot in a CNN interview.

Expect Democratic leaders to face a new round of difficult questions about their own standards in the days and weeks ahead.

Trump’s endorsement doesn’t deliver clean win in South Carolina

The president was looking to rebound Tuesday from an embarrassing loss in Iowa last week, where his preferred candidate for governor was defeated in a rare rebuke from Republican primary voters.

But South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial primary offered only an incomplete victory.

Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette was unable to secure a majority of the vote in the five-candidate field needed to avoid a runoff. She will face state Attorney General Alan Wilson on June 23.

As the results came in, Trump called Evette and pledged to help her over the next two weeks, according to a person familiar with the private conversation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The night produced a more decisive result for one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress. Sen. Lindsey Graham avoided a runoff and secured the Republican Senate nomination over businessman Mark Lynch. Trump had warned that it would be a “DISASTER for the Republican Party” if Lynch won.

Meanwhile in Nevada’s 2nd congressional district, Trump-backed retired Lt. Col. David Flippo faced former state Sen. James Settelmeyer in a GOP primary that was too early to call Tuesday night. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, who announced his retirement from the seat, has endorsed Settelmeyer, as has the state’s governor, Republican Joe Lombardo.

Clyburn cruises to primary win after South Carolina redistricting scare

Longtime South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, who holds significant national political clout as the state’s lone Democratic House member, easily fended off a little-known primary challenger Tuesday.

Just weeks ago, it was unclear if Clyburn would make it to a 18th term in office. Republican lawmakers, backed by Trump, considered a congressional map that would have significantly altered Clyburn’s majority-Black district and made it harder for him to hold onto the seat. But the Republican-led state Senate rejected the effort, leaving his district largely intact.

Two Republicans are still competing for the chance to face Clyburn in November, but he is expected to be the overwhelming favorite in the general election. A win would likely ensure he plays a significant role in the lead-up to the 2028 presidential race.

The US election system can be slow

It took a full week for California’s general election matchup for governor to become clear. The final results for Maine could take even longer. And key primary contests in South Carolina are headed to a June 23 runoff.

Despite what you may be reading on the internet, this is how U.S. democracy works. These differences in how votes are counted — and how long it takes — exist because the Constitution sets out broad principles for electing a national government, but leaves the details to the states.

Tallying votes collected by local officials in individual precincts can take a long time — especially in states like Maine that offer ranked-choice voting, or South Carolina, which requires a runoff if none of the candidates earn more than 50% of the vote.

In California, which held its primary elections last week, Republican Steve Hilton joined Democrat Xavier Becerra in qualifying for the November ballot for governor on Tuesday. Elections often take a long time to sort in the state, the nation’s most populous, largely because officials designed their system to prioritize accessibility over speed.

In Maine’s crowded primary for governor, five Democrats were in the running and the state will move to its ranked-choice system to determine the winner. Historically, the process has taken more than a week to resolve. And in South Carolina, the Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson emerged from the crowded primary on Tuesday and will compete in a runoff election in two weeks.

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Peoples reported from New York.