Jon Ward
Senior Political Correspondent- Yahoo News
Why ex-Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels doesn't speak out
Former Republican governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels talks about institutions a lot, but he’s also taken a vow that backs up his belief in their importance: He refuses to directly talk about politics.
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Democrats' superdelegate fix could have unintended consequences
The Democratic National Committee will vote in August about curtailing the role superdelegates play in the nominating process.
Yahoo NewsWho are the ‘People of Praise’ that Supreme Court contender Amy Coney Barrett belongs to?
The appearance of Judge Amy Coney Barrett on President Trump’s shortlist of candidates for the Supreme Court has turned a spotlight on People of Praise, the small, previously obscure religious group she belongs to.
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Supreme Court battles show the danger of gaming the rules
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and I stood alone in a Senate office hallway a year ago, moments after Senate Republicans nuked the filibuster rule for Supreme Court nominees in order to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. “The Senate has been damaged to a degree that it hasn’t been in its history
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The civility trap: There's a right and a wrong way to express dissent
The calls for civility are a distraction. But when you have a group of angry people confronting an individual, the person targeted will fear for their physical safety, and rightly so.
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Indiana’s Joe Donnelly shows up and does his job. But is that enough to win in the age of Trump?
Joe Donnelly got lucky in his first Senate campaign, when his opponent self-destructed. Now he’s up for reelection as a Democrat in a conservative state, running on his record as a nonbombastic, competent bipartisan legislator. Can that work in the age of Trump?
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Rubio campaign manager: The GOP no longer has an 'ideological compass'
Terry Sullivan, in an interview for “The Long Game,” a Yahoo News podcast, leveled his critique at both Republicans and Democrats, but said as a Republican he was more authorized to speak about that party’s drift.
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Virginia GOPers worry Senate nominee Corey Stewart could drag down House members
The morning after Corey Stewart’s victory in the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Virginia, party officials assessed how their candidate might affect House races in November. They didn’t like what they saw.
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Can ranked-choice voting heal American democracy? Maine may lead the way.
Electoral reform experts believe ranked-choice voting has the potential to shake up the two-party system without destabilizing American politics. It is seen as a way to give voters more choices, reduce polarization, and make room for candidates to run as independents.
Yahoo NewsIn California primaries, Democrats could crowd themselves out in key House races
In Tuesday’s California congressional primaries, Democrats are energized, enthusiastic and eager to send Trump a message. Walter spoke to Yahoo News’ podcast, “The Long Game,” about the impact of California’s primary rules, and about the forces that created the desire for such a system.
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Superdelegate issue still looms large as Democrats look to thwart Trump
Just five months before Democrats hope to send a resounding message to President Trump in midterm elections, their party is still divided on the hot-button issue of superdelegates.
Yahoo NewsVirginia congressional primary will be a test for an establishment Democrat, as party seeks to flip the House
Before Virginia Democrats can pop the victory champagne, they first need to decide what kind of candidate, and race, they want to run.
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Reform group targets the 'money state' of anonymous donors
“I think you can say there's only, sadly, one thing important in our politics, and that is lots of money,” said Tim Roemer, who co-chairs a political reform group called Issue One.
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In the U.S. Senate, talk of a splinter caucus to force compromise
A former adviser to Evan McMullin’s independent presidential campaign in 2016 is now in talks with a small group of U.S. senators to form a new caucus that would influence who is chosen as majority leader in 2019. “This group could say to the Republicans, ‘We’ll caucus with you … [but] we will not do
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West Virginia Senate primary features 'a convict, a carpetbagger and a turncoat'
The Republican Senate primary in West Virginia is all about who is the Trumpiest. (Hint: It might be the candidate who was convicted of being responsible for a fatal mine explosion.)
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West Virginia Senate candidate distorts reality in campaign ad
An ad from a Republican Senate candidate shows a primary opponent genially greeting Hillary Clinton. The point is clear, but the meeting never happened. Ads like this risk undermining a consensus about the truth.
Yahoo NewsMissouri Gov. Greitens shows how the party system is broken
Eric Greitens ran for Missouri governor with no backing from the state Republican Party and won. Now his legal troubles threaten to bring down the whole Republican slate, but the party has no leverage to make him quit.
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Power to the party: Why political reforms can be bad for democracy
Over the last half-century, political power has devolved from party functionaries to ordinary citizens voting in primaries. That has made the system more democratic — but also more susceptible to manipulation by populist demagogues. Some political scientists think it’s time to take another look.
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A race to watch: In D.C. suburbs, a House Republican tries to tiptoe away from Trump
Barbara Comstock, a moderate House Republican from Virginia, is running for reelection in a suburban district that has been trending Democratic — a model for what is happening in other similar districts around the country. Can she achieve enough distance from Donald Trump to pull it off?
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Honoring Martin Luther King Jr., evangelicals weigh their response to racism
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., evangelicals gathered in Memphis Tuesday to assess where their movement stands in relation to King’s mission and ministry. The consensus of the speakers was they were falling short.
Yahoo NewsWhat's behind Trump's charges about Andrew McCabe's wife?
President Trump hints there was something nefarious about the wife of Andrew McCabe, the fired FBI official, accepting a campaign contribution from the former Democratic governor of Virginia. What’s the real story?
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Independent group, now called Unite America, names its Senate candidates — all two of them
Unite America, formerly The Centrist Project, a group hoping to create a third political force in America, on Tuesday named the two candidates it plans to run for the U.S. Senate in November.
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Author Eric Metaxas, evangelical intellectual, chose Trump, and he's sticking with him
Eric Metaxas, who wrote a bestselling biography of the anti-Nazi pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, surprised his friends when he came out in support of Donald Trump. And nothing that has happened since the election has changed his mind. Jon Ward explores what led him to this position and how he deals with
- Yahoo News
There will never be another Billy Graham, because the world that made him possible is gone
The world that made Bill Graham, the cohesive culture of postwar America, is gone, and no one preacher will ever again unite all strains of evangelical Christianity as he did.
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'Bathroom bill' author gets a Republican primary challenger in North Carolina
North Carolina state Sen. Dan Bishop is “not focused on individual dignity, on freedom, economic development [and] limited government,” GOP primary challenger Beth Monaghan said.
