Melissa Hortman’s power as a Democratic leader to shape the course of a deeply divided Minnesota Legislature was a far cry from her job as a teenager making chili-cheese burritos and overshadowed her volunteer work training service dogs for veterans.

Lawmakers are still reeling from the shooting that killed one Minnesota state legislator and her husband and severely wounded another and his wife.

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig is the latest Minnesota Democrat to enter an increasingly competitive race for the U.S. Senate seat held by the retiring Sen. Tina Smith.

A supercharged U.S. Senate GOP primary in Texas between Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton is off to a fast start of personal attacks and expectations of a high-spending race.

Minnesota U.S. Sen. Tina Smith's decision not to seek reelection is setting off a scramble by potential candidates in both major political parties to fill her open seat.

The office of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman says he has checked himself into the hospital for clinical depression.

Suspects are being sought after police say 11 people were shot and wounded during a drive-by shooting in a central Florida neighborhood.

Vice President Kamala Harris is rallying supporters against efforts in Washington and in Republican-led states to restrict abortion on what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe vs.

Lawmakers who eagerly accepted piles of cash from Samuel Bankman-Fried now can’t move fast enough to offload contributions from the disgraced crypto mogul to anywhere but their own campaign coffers.

An unexpected deal reached by Senate Democrats would be the most ambitious action ever taken by the United States to address global warming and could help President Joe Biden come close to meeting his pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

When it comes to the thorniest issues confronting his administration, the instinct from Biden and his White House is to often speak about what he can’t do, citing constraints imposed by the courts or insufficient support in a Congress that is controlled by his own party.

President Joe Biden has saluted his “friend of five decades” Walter Mondale, traveling to the University of Minnesota to remember the former vice president and Democratic Party elder whose memorial service was delayed for a year due to the pandemic.

President Joe Biden plans to speak at a memorial service in Minnesota on Sunday for former Vice President Walter Mondale, who died last April at age 93.

President Joe Biden faces a steep path to achieve his ambitious goal of slashing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

Democrats are hoping that Congress is nearing the finish line in its seven-month trek on President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion social and environment package.

Minneapolis voters have rejected a proposal to replace the city’s police department with a new Department of Public Safety — an idea that arose from the May 2020 death of George Floyd.

Minnesota’s Congressional delegation on Monday is introducing a resolution to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to pop superstar Prince, citing his “indelible mark on Minnesota and American culture,” The Associated Press has learned.

Environmental groups hailed a sweeping $3.5 trillion domestic spending plan announced by Democrats, saying it would make “transformational investments” in clean energy and put the nation on a path to cut greenhouse emissions by at least 50% by 2030.

In a story June 18, 2021, story about companies facing pressure to offer a paid day off for Juneteenth, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of the CEO of Ichor Strategies.

Black Americans are rejoicing after President Joe Biden signed legislation establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale, a liberal icon who lost one of the most lopsided presidential elections after bluntly telling voters to expect a tax increase if he won, has died.

As temperatures plunged and snow and ice whipped the state, much of Texas' power grid collapsed, followed by its water systems. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)WASHINGTON – The House Oversight Committee is investigating the agency that operates the Texas power grid, seeking information and documents about the lack of preparation for the recent winter storm that caused millions of power outages and dozens of deaths across the state. AdSevere winter storms in Texas “have occurred repeatedly over decades, and ERCOT has been unprepared for them,” Khanna wrote in a letter to ERCOT CEO Bill Magness. Last month's storm followed similar winter storms in 1989 and 2011 that also caused massive outages, Khanna said. “It appears that lessons learned (again) in 2011 were not implemented either, leaving Texas vulnerable to extreme winter weather again in 2021,'' he wrote.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has called a special meeting Tuesday to investigate what caused the dramatic spikes in natural gas prices in that state. Natural gas hit a record $600 per million British thermal units in Oklahoma, while Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he’s asked the state attorney general to investigate complaints of price gouging of natural gas in that state. Smith, in her letter to regulators, urged them to investigate conditions in the natural gas market over the last week, including any price gouging by natural gas producers and suppliers. Smith also urged officials to invoke emergency authorities, including under the Natural Gas Policy Act and the Defense Production Act, to ensure natural gas is sold at fair prices during the current crisis.

Thousands had gathered that day as Congress voted to formally certify President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in November. Hawley and Cruz led objections in the Senate to Biden’s victory, despite the widespread recognition that the effort would fail. And both senators used their objections for political fundraising,” the Democratic senators said in their letter. Cruz helped force a vote on Biden's victory in Arizona, while Hawley helped force one on Biden's victory in Pennsylvania. “This latest effort is a flagrant abuse of the Senate ethics process and a flagrant attempt to exact partisan revenge."

The former astronaut defeated Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat after McCain’s death in 2018. Daines’ first election in 2014 broke a Democratic lock on the Senate seat that had lasted more than 100 years. The six-term congressman from northern New Mexico defeated Republican Mark Ronchetti, a former television meteorologist, and Libertarian Bob Walsh. Reed cruised to victory over Waters, an investment consultant who mounted earlier unsuccessful campaigns for state Senate and U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. Warner defeated Republican challenger Daniel Gade in a low-key race in which the incumbent had a massive cash advantage.

Minneapolis voters line up to vote a day ahead of Minnesota's Tuesday primary election on Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, at the Minneapolis Election and Voters Services offices. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)MINNEAPOLIS Rep. Ilhan Omar is about to learn whether voters in her Minneapolis-area congressional district support the mix of confrontational, anti-Trump progressivism and celebrity that she brings to the job. Antone Melton-Meaux, a Black lawyer and mediator, raised millions of anti-Omar dollars to fill mailboxes and flood airwaves. Omar rejected Melton-Meauxs attacks, saying they were funded by interests that wanted to get her out of Congress because shes effective. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.