MoInd 📰

The campaign seeking a public vote on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map is asking a Cole County judge to do more than put the referendum on the November ballot — it wants the court to prohibit the state from using the map at all this fall. What that would mean for the candidates nominated Tuesday in […]

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is one step closer to confirmation after the Republican Judiciary Committee voted to advance his appointment on a party-line vote on Tuesday, and based on promises he made to faith leaders around the country last week, that means national anti-abortion actions may be one step closer as well. In […]

WASHINGTON — The stopgap spending bill supported by an overwhelming majority of U.S. senators does not address tens of billions in expiring transportation funding, leaving states facing a massive effective budget cut starting Oct. 1. The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, which authorized highway and transit programs for five years, expires Sept. 30. Roughly $38.6 billion […]

Missourians went to the polls Tuesday, and the results resist a single storyline. Here’s what’s worth noticing. Amendment 5 is the clearest verdict of the night. It lost 83-16. Not close, not regional — a rout. The governor’s top priority, backed by $17.2 million from donors who never had to identify themselves and it couldn’t […]

Missouri Republicans ousted a sitting state senator and split their verdict among insurgents and establishment-backed candidates in a Tuesday primary that reshaped the likely balance inside a GOP caucus already facing significant turnover. Springfield elder law attorney Lori Rook defeated state Sen. Curtis Trent 53% to 47% in southwest Missouri’s 20th Senate District, ending Trent’s […]

Conservative talk radio host Chris Stigall triumphed in a five-way Republican primary for Missouri’s 6th Congressional district on Tuesday. Stigall received 44% of the vote, besting his nearest rival, Kansas City Council member Nathan Willett, by 10 percentage points. “I’m incredibly grateful to the people of North Missouri for placing their trust in me. Tonight’s […]

Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick easily won renomination Tuesday as the Republican candidate for a second term, taking more than 80% of the vote against Jerry Wistrand of Oak Grove. The primary was a mostly unseen campaign, with Fitzpatrick spending little and Wistrand having little to spend. Fitzpatrick’s campaign spent just $115,000 from the start […]

A late endorsement from President Donald Trump boosted state Sen. Rick Brattin to the Republican nomination for Congress in Missouri’s 5th District Tuesday against former Boone County Clerk Taylor Burks. Trump was the instigator of Missouri’s gerrymandered redistricting map and issued his endorsement just before 5:30 p.m. Monday, after early voting had ended and too […]

Missouri voters rejected major Republican priorities on Tuesday as proposals to eliminate the income tax and change the way initiative petition majorities are counted lost by large margins across the state.  Amendment 4 lost 80% to 20%, while Amendment 5 fared worse, losing 83% to 16%.  “Amendments 4 and 5 have been buried so deep […]

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell staved off former Congresswoman Cori Bush in the Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District on Tuesday, ending the most expensive candidate primary in Missouri this year. Bell received 59% of the vote, compared to only 37% for Bush.  He will take on Republican Paul Berry III and Libertarian Tom […]

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins blocked a public vote on the state’s new congressional map Tuesday, declaring a referendum petition unconstitutional a few hours before polls closed in the primary election. He refused to tell reporters at a Jefferson City press conference whether the petition had enough valid signatures to qualify for the November […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was one step closer to permanently leading the Justice Department Tuesday, after two skeptical Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans voted to advance his nomination given Blanche’s signed promise that President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is dead. Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis […]

As millions of acres burn across the western United States, some wildland fire veterans are fearful that aggressive fire suppression tactics ordered by the Trump administration — coupled with extreme, fast-moving blazes — could put firefighters in danger as conditions escalate this month.  Those extreme weather conditions fueled disaster in Eastern Washington Saturday when a […]

WASHINGTON — More than 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant children Monday lost their legal representation because the Trump administration has not entered into a new agreement to take over their legal services after it let a longstanding contract with a nonprofit expire. Without legal representation, fewer than 10% of immigrant children win the right to remain in […]

WASHINGTON — States do not have time before November’s midterm elections to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order mandating overhauls of their mail-in-voting systems, two dozen Democratic state officials told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. Justices should keep a stay pausing the order in place through Election Day, the Democrats, led by California […]

OKLAHOMA CITY — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin this weekend implored states and cities to cooperate with federal immigration officials, which he said would lead to safer and lower-profile arrests and deportations. Speaking to a group of Democratic and Republican governors gathered for the National Governors Association summer meeting, Mullin called on local governments […]

Voters will head to the polls Tuesday to choose nominees for state auditor, Congress and a host of state legislative seats, as well as decide the fate of four proposed constitutional amendments. The Independent tried to answer some of the questions you may have about voting in Missouri’s primary.  Polls across the state open at […]

What is your reaction when viewing TV, listening to the radio or surfing digital platforms and there is a political ad filled with false and misleading information that you can neither verify nor confirm? Billions of dollars are spent in a national election cycle. Millions of those dollars are spent by candidates and ballot-measure campaigns […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, on Sunday said Rep. Max Miller, also of Ohio and his former son-in-law, is not fit to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives as he faces allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife, who is Moreno’s daughter.  Moreno did not publicly address the domestic abuse allegations against Miller, […]

WASHINGTON — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to be attorney general appeared on track Monday after he submitted a written assurance to Senate Judiciary Committee lawmakers that the administration’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that could potentially pay pardoned violent Jan. 6 defendants is dead. Blanche’s signed statement that an order establishing the fund […]