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Senate

New poll: Fetterman and Oz lead Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate primary races

John Fea   |  April 14, 2022

Source. The primary elections are May 17, 2022.

Trump endorses Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race

John Fea   |  April 10, 2022

Donald Trump just endorsed Mehmet Oz’s candidacy for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat currently held by Pat Toomey. Here is Trip Gabriel at The New York Times: Wading into a tight Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, former President Donald J. […]

What Ted Cruz doesn’t know about Georgetown Day School (and critical race theory)

John Fea   |  March 23, 2022

Watch Ted Cruz grill Supreme Court justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on critical race theory: Just for the record, critical race theory does not teach, as Cruz claims, that all of life is explained best by the clash of the […]

Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate primary race is getting ugly

John Fea   |  March 19, 2022

The two leading GOP candidates for retiring Pat Toomey’s U.S. Senate seat are David McCormick and Mehmet Oz. McCormick is a hedge fund CEO who was Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs during the George W. Bush administration. […]

A database of the 1,715 members of Congress who owned slaves

John Fea   |  January 18, 2022

The Washington Post has published a database of American enslavers. It includes some familiar names: Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Breckinridge, Preston Brooks, Aaron Burr, Pierce Butler, John C. Calhoun, Charles Carroll, Henry Clay, De Witt Clinton, Davy Crockett, Jefferson […]

U.S. Senators on the Senate Health Committee who seem to care less about public health

John Fea   |  January 12, 2022

In case you didn’t see it, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease official, testified yesterday before a Senate health committee hearing. Here is his exchange with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul: Here is Fauci last night on CNN: Here […]

The Democratic race for Pat Toomey’s Senate seat reveals the divisions in the party

John Fea   |  December 8, 2021

The frontrunner is Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. His top challenger is western Pennsylvania congressman Conor Lamb. Here is Holly Otterbein at Politico: One candidate promises he won’t be a centrist Democratic senator like Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema. Another […]

Dr. Oz is running for a U.S. Senate seat. He’s been there before.

John Fea   |  December 3, 2021

Oz is running for Pat Toomey’s Pennsylvania Senate seat. Get up to speed here. But as Ian Ward reminds us at Politico, he has been there before. Here’s a taste: On a hot summer morning in June of 2014, Mehmet […]

Dr. Oz joins the Pennsylvania Senate race

John Fea   |  December 1, 2021

Sean Parnell is out. Dr. Mehmet Oz is in. Here is The Washington Post: Mehmet Oz, who rose to fame as “Dr. Oz” on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” said Tuesday he is launching a Republican campaign for Senate in Pennsylvania, […]

Is Sean Parnell’s Senate campaign over?

John Fea   |  November 22, 2021

Pennsylvania Republicans are having a hard time finding someone to run against Conor Lamb or John Fetterman for Pat Toomey’s U.S. Senate seat. Now a judge has decided that GOP frontrunner Sean Parnell‘s kids can only visit him three weekends […]

Is Dr. Oz the answer for Pennsylvania Republicans?

John Fea   |  November 19, 2021

The Senate seat currently held by Pat Toomey is up for grabs in 2022 (Toomey is not running for reelection). Pennsylvania Republicans are looking for a candidate that can win next year. The GOP frontrunner right now is Sean Parnell, […]

Episode 24: “Let the People Speak”

John Fea   |  October 20, 2021

The Senate debates and then votes on a Federal Marriage Amendment Episode 24: “Let the People Speak” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: Listen to Episodes 0, 1, […]

The anti-Critical Race Theory bills keep coming

John Fea   |  August 14, 2021

Last week we took a close look at Josh Hawley’s “Love America Act.” Now we have the Protect Equality and Civics Education (PEACE) Act. The Senate sponsors are Republicans Marco Rubio, (FL), Kevin Cramer (ND), and Mike Braun (IN). Here […]

Senate passes $3.5 trillion dollar budget framework. Hyde Amendment is saved. Anti-Critical Race Theory amendment passes.

John Fea   |  August 11, 2021

It’s a done deal. Elections have consequences. The American people rejected Trumpism in 2020. Now the Democrats, who rode the anti-Trump wave into office last November, have the power to get some things done. National Public Radio explains what is […]

Who is J.D. Vance? Apparently a lot of Ohio GOP voters haven’t read Hillbilly Elegy

John Fea   |  July 29, 2021

In his book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance interpreted Appalachia for a largely educated, non-populist reading public. He was able to do this because he left Appalachia for Yale Law School. He […]

The Democrats announce a $3.5 trillion “go-it-alone” infrastructure plan to supplement the bipartisan deal

John Fea   |  July 14, 2021

While Joe Biden waits for his bipartisan infrastructure plan to get through Congress, Senate Democrats have announced another infrastructure plan that will provide funds for everything that did not make it into the bipartisan plan. This would include funding for […]

Only six Republican senators voted for a commission to study the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol since the War of 1812

John Fea   |  May 29, 2021

It looks like American historians will need to do the work. John Hope Franklin once called historians “the conscience of the nation.” A Senate vote on a bill to create an independent commission to study the January 6, 2021 insurrection […]

Val Demings (D-Fla.) is planning a run against Marco Rubio

John Fea   |  May 25, 2021

Demings was a House manager in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial and was on Joe Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist. Political scientists Ashley Daniels and Pearl Dowe think Demings has a chance of taking Rubio’s Senate seat if she can mobilize Black […]

What did anti-1619 Project U.S. senators learn about race from their school textbooks?

John Fea   |  May 13, 2021

The Root just published excerpts of U.S. history textbooks used in schools attended by the thirty-eight Republican senators, including majority leader Mitch McConnell, who recently signed a letter criticizing the New York Times 1619 Project and critical race theory. Here […]

Josh Hawley’s path to the insurrection

John Fea   |  May 12, 2021

Josh Hawley, the Missouri senator who once had the support of liberal Republican John Danforth, is now the poster-boy for the far-right Republican Party. In this longform piece at The Washington Post, Michael Kranish chronicles how Hawley ascended to such […]

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