On Politics A.M.: The G.O.P.’s Growing Problem in the Suburbs

2019年11月7日星期四

November 7, 2019

Good Thursday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.

For the second Election Day in two years, suburban voters demonstrated enormous political power in electing or aiding Democratic candidates in historically Republican areas, underscoring the drift of many moderate voters from the G.O.P. in the era of President Trump.

After coming about 5,000 votes short in his re-election campaign for Kentucky governor, Matt Bevin on Wednesday called for votes across the state to be recanvassed as he expressed concerns about unspecified voting irregularities. Experts say a successful challenge is not likely.

Virginia's state legislature, soon to be under Democratic control, will likely be the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment after it was first proposed nearly a century ago and passed by Congress in 1972 as a constitutional amendment. After that, it's up to the Supreme Court.

The top American diplomat in Ukraine, who is to be the first witness in public House impeachment hearings, told investigators it was Rudolph W. Giuliani who instigated the Ukraine pressure campaign.
President Trump and his supporters, including his family, have used Twitter to frame his impeachment defense, torch his Democratic inquisitors and attack key witnesses, including Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday considered the reach of the Clean Water Act, debating how it applies to pollutants that reach the sea and other protected waters indirectly, through groundwater.

Representative Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts, the only member of the group of progressive first-term congresswomen known as "the squad" who had not yet backed a Democratic candidate, has endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren, a longtime ally.
Jeff Sessions, the former senator from Alabama whose tumultuous tenure as President Trump's attorney general lasted less than two years, will enter the race to reclaim his old seat in 2020.

A federal judge has ruled that the government must provide mental-health services to thousands of migrant parents and children who suffered psychological harm as a result of the Trump administration's practice of separating families.

The schools in Flint, Mich., were stretched even before the city's lead crisis. Now they are overwhelmed with demands for individualized education programs and behavioral interventions for children with high lead exposure.

Today's On Politics briefing was compiled by Isabella Grullón Paz in New York.

Is there anything you think we're missing? Anything you want to see more of? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.