The national Democratic campaign arm funding state legislative candidates unveiled a multi-cycle strategy Monday laying out its plan to gain control of more than half of the country’s legislative chambers by 2030.

A memo first shared with CBS News outlines the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committees long term targets including chambers in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia — three presidential battleground states — as well as North Carolina and Kansas.

“We can’t just get caught up in the places where we can flip majorities today, because we also have to build for the future,” DLCC President Heather Williams told CBS.

Read full article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/democrats-statehouse-strategy-flip/

More than 40 million Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to pay for groceries are facing uncertainty as benefits are expected to come to a halt Saturday.

“People are scared,” said Central Pennsylvania Food Bank CEO Shila Ulrich, who expects demand to pick up. “It’s a moment where people don’t know and understand what’s about to happen, whether or not they’ll get those benefits should the government open back up, or when.”

Erin Annis — who uses SNAP benefits after three bouts of cancer and a double knee replacement left her unable to work — told CBS News that she’ll need to rely on help from her children if assistance is cut off.

“That’s an awful feeling,” she said. “For them to have to help me … it’s a little tough to think about sometimes.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says “the well will run dry” for SNAP benefits, often known as food stamps, due to the government shutdown. The department says it will not tap into a roughly $5 billion contingency fund to keep SNAP payments flowing, arguing that money is reserved for natural disasters. 

The Trump administration has blamed Senate Democrats for the looming cutoff, faulting lawmakers for not voting on a bill passed by the GOP-controlled House to fund the government. Meanwhile, Democrats have pressed GOP leadership to agree to extend health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans in exchange for Democratic votes to end the shutdown. 

Annis said she just wants lawmakers to find a solution.

“This should not be a political issue,” she said. “This should be a human privilege to be fed.”

The odds are stacked against Senate Democrats this fall, as they try to hang onto their razor-thin majority in November. Not only will they have to defend 22 incumbent seats, many in Republican-leaning states, but they will also have to offset the loss of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who announced his retirement from the Senate last year. 

West Virginia is one of the reddest states in the nation and Democrats don’t see a path to retain the seat without Manchin. Their best but unlikely hope is to pick up a seat in either Texas or Florida, where Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Rick Scott are running for reelection. 

There are currently 48 Democrats, plus three independents who caucus with them, giving them a 51-49 majority. Here’s where the Senate map stands nine months from Election Day and a look at the earliest fundraising numbers for the year.

Read full article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-democrats-face-steep-odds-in-trying-to-hold-majority-in-november/

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s latest attempt to get on the Maine Republican presidential primary ballot failed Thursday after his campaign tried to recover from a surprising setback in the Super Tuesday state. 

Earlier this month, the Maine Secretary of State’s Office said that Christie’s campaign fell short of the necessary number of certified signatures needed from Maine voters to qualify for the state’s Republican presidential primary. 

His campaign appealed the decision, but a Maine Superior Court judge sided on Thursday with the secretary of state’s handling of the situation. 

“We appreciate that the court upheld the integrity of Maine’s well-established ballot access requirements,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in a statement. “Every candidate, including presidential candidates, must follow the law to qualify for the ballot. We are glad that the court recognized that Maine law is workable and fair to all.” 

Read full article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-rules-chris-christie-must-remain-off-maine-republican-presidential-primary-ballot/

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows says she was following Maine’s election law and upholding the U.S. Constitution when she disqualified Donald Trump from her state’s presidential primary ballot. 

Maine is the second state to bar Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution — a decision the Trump campaign said it would appeal. It is the only state where a challenge to a candidate’s qualification is initially the responsibility of the secretary of state rather than a court.

CBS News spoke with Bellows shortly after the release of her decision Thursday night.

Read full article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maine-secretary-of-state-shenna-bellows-explains-barring-trump-primary-ballot/

WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoF68Knwo9g

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will allow Louisiana to use a congressional map in November that includes a second district where the majority of voters are Black, giving them the opportunity to elect their favored candidate. 

Nick Luna, a former White House aide to President Donald Trump, told the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol that he witnessed Trump “tearing” documents, according to audio files of Luna’s deposition that were obtained by CBS News.

“Did I ever see him tear up notes? I don’t know what the documents were but there [was] tearing,” Luna said in his Mar. 21 testimony before the committee. 

According to the Presidential Records Act, federal law requires that presidential records are carefully preserved and then handed over to the National Archives.

When asked again by Dan George, the committee’s senior investigative counsel, whether Trump tore up some documents, Luna replied, “That’s correct.”

But Luna said that he did not recall any details about documents that might have been destroyed. 

Luna, who served as Trump’s personal aide inside the White House, had extraordinary access to the president during the final weeks of Trump’s term and managed Oval Office operations. And he was one of the staffers who was regularly with Trump on the day of the attack on the Capitol.

Read full article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tearing-documents-aide-nick-luna-testified-jan-6-committee/

Trump-endorsed businessman Bernie Moreno will win Ohio’s Republican Senate primary, CBS News projects, setting up a November showdown with incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. 

Moreno on Tuesday was projected to defeat Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan. 

The contentious primary had become a divisive proxy race between Trump loyalists and the state’s more traditional conservatives. 

Moreno had garnered GOP endorsements from Ohio’s junior senator, J.D. Vance, Rep. Jim Jordan, and most notably, former President Donald Trump. 

At a rally in Dayton on Saturday headlined by Trump, Moreno said, “This is the last gasp of breath of the swamp RINO establishment in Ohio.” RINO is an acronym for “Republican in Name Only,” a term Trump and his supporters use to describe critics of the former president within the Republican party. “I need you on Tuesday to stab it right in the heart and make it clear that in Ohio, we put America first,” Moreno added.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a more establishment Republican, gave his endorsement to a different candidate last week. He and his wife, Fran, chose Dolan for the job, whom Trump also calls a “RINO.”

Read full article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-senate-primary-republicans-donald-trump-bernie-moreno-frank-larose-matt-dolan/

GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana, a member of the hard right House Freedom Caucus, announced Friday, Feb. 9, that he’s running for Senate.

“Today, I’m asking for your support to run for the United States Senate,” he said in a video posted on X.

Rosendale is the second Republican to jump into the race to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. He’ll face off against Tim Sheehy, a veteran and wealthy businessman who announced his candidacy last June. Sheehy is backed by National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Daines tried to clear the Republican field for Sheehy to challenge Tester, who first won the Senate seat in 2007 and is seeking reelection to a fourth term.

Read full article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/montana-rep-matt-rosendale-senate-bid/

Washington — President Trump said Republican Sen. Rand Paul and his family are welcome to attend the annual congressional picnic at the White House, reversing course after Paul said the “incredibly petty” White House rescinded his invitation over his opposition to the GOP-backed budget bill.

The president is scheduled to host members of Congress from both parties and their families Thursday, an annual tradition that takes place on the South Lawn. Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that the White House had disinvited him.

“I think I’m the first senator in the history of the United States to be uninvited to the White House picnic,” the Kentucky senator told reporters. “Every Democrat will be invited, every Republican will be invited, but I will be the only one disallowed to come on the grounds of the White House.” 

Read full article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rand-paul-white-house-rescinded-picnic-invite-big-beautiful-bill/