Congress

Eleanor Holmes Norton is facing her most serious political threat in decades

Published

9 months ago

September 18, 2025

Longtime Washington congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton garnered her most serious political challenge in 35 years Thursday when Robert White, a third-term D.C. Council member and former aide to Norton, announced he would challenge her in next year’s Democratic primary.

Norton, 88, has faced mounting questions about her ability to serve in Congress that have been heightened in recent weeks by her absence from the public eye as President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans targeted the District of Columbia for a federal law enforcement takeover.

She has made some public appearances in recent weeks, including at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Thursday where D.C.’s top elected officials testified about the city’s crime record. But she has largely stuck to reading written statements in an often halting voice. Amid doubts about whether she’s up for another term — including a public plea for retirement this week from her closest political adviser — Norton has repeatedly said she will seek re-election in 2026.

White, who was attending the House hearing, praised Norton’s political legacy in a brief interview. But, he added, “like most people in D.C., we recognize that she can’t do the things that she once did.”

“Right now, the District is vulnerable, and we’re losing ground,” White continued, “and with only one elected member in this entire Congress, we need somebody with the fight, the energy, and the know-how.”

Norton is already facing a primary challenge from former DNC official Kinney Zalesne, and additional candidates are expected to enter the race if Norton steps aside. But White is the first credible opponent with a citywide political profile to challenge Norton since she was first elected in 1990.

White has occupied the progressive lane in city politics, staking out political ground to the left of Mayor Muriel Bowser, whom he challenged in the 2022 Democratic primary. White fell just over 10,000 votes short in a four-person field and had been widely seen as likely to launch another mayoral campaign in 2026.

White sat in the back row of the Capitol Hill hearing room during the four-plus-hour House Oversight hearing with D.C.’s top elected officials: Bowser — who called Norton as “mighty warrior” in her prepared testimony — as well as D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb.

Norton, during her questioning time, defended the District’s right to self-government and asked the three officials to weigh in on why the city deserved statehood.

Most Republicans, however, pressed the city officials on their handling of crime in the District. GOP lawmakers have joined Trump in painting an image of the nation’s capital as rife with crime to justify an August presidential order commandeering the city police and flooding federal agents and National Guard troops into the city.

As local officials came under siege from Republicans on the Oversight panel, Norton sat silent at her dais. She entered and left the hearing room several times flanked by an aide, sometimes appearing to lean on the person for support.

Speaking outside the hearing room, White said that he had informed Norton of his intention to run for her seat, although he declined to detail Norton’s response in what he called a private conversation.

“We in the District who love the congresswoman and respect the work that she’s done — we know that she can’t fight the fight that we need right now,” White said, adding that he had met with 30 congressional offices since the presidential enforcement surge to discuss the need for a nationwide fight on behalf of the city.

That message largely echoes what Norton’s longtime adviser Donna Brazile wrote in a Washington Post op-ed this week urging her not to run. Norton, Brazile wrote, “is no longer the dynamo she once was, at a time when D.C. needs the kind of energetic representation in Congress she provided for decades.”

Congress

Johnson says he will send housing bill to Trump on Monday

Published

16 hours ago

June 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Speaker Mike Johsnon said he plans to send President Donald Trump a bipartisan housing bill Monday, just days after the president abruptly canceled a signing ceremony for the legislation after Congress failed to pass his elections security act.

Speaking with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Johnson said the 21st Century ROAD To Housing Act is a Republican priority for lowering costs for Americans.

“I’m going to send the bill over to him on Monday, and it will become law,” the Louisiana Republican told host Maria Bartiromo. “I certainly want him to take the biggest, boldest marker that he has and do that big Trump signature proudly on that legislation because we’re delivering for the people, and that’s what he wants to do.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Johnson’s remarks.

The bill is the product of almost a year of back-and-forth between all four congressional corners and aims to increase affordability by boosting housing supply and home ownership. It passed both chambers of Congress with wide bipartisan support.

Trump was scheduled to sign the bill into law last week but canceled the ceremony “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”

Trump’s SAVE America Act would require voters to present a photo ID at the ballot box and effectively end mail-in voting. Trump has also said he would like the bill to include prohibitions on transgender athletes competing. But Republican leaders have repeatedly indicated the legislation does not have enough votes to pass.

Congressional leaders appeared taken aback by Trump’s signing cancellation, but Johnson on Sunday said he and the president have since met in the Oval Office to discuss the housing bill “in great detail.”

“We made a lot of promises to the voters, and we’re fulfilling those every single day of this Congress,” Johnson said. “This is a big part of that because this will increase the availability, the access to more housing, bring down cost, cut regulations, do the things we know are very important for that market. The president and I talked about that at length. Of course he wants to do those things.”

But if Trump does not sign the housing bill into law within the next few days, it would still become law unless he were to veto it. Congress also has the power to override a presidential veto.

Congress

Sen. Thom Tillis rails against Trump’s fixation on voting legislation

Published

17 hours ago

June 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Thom Tillis on Sunday expressed frustration with President Donald Trump’s continued fixation on passing the SAVE America Act.

In an interview with BLN’s “Face the Nation,” the retiring North Carolina Republican lamented “the impossible task” of implementing the requirements of the legislation ahead of November’s crucial midterms.

“Why are we doing more things to undermine our confidence in elections, rather than getting the strong message out that will win for Republicans this year?” Tillis said.

Rather than promoting the bill — which would require voters to present a photo ID at the ballot box and effectively end widespread mail-in voting — Tillis said Republicans should tell voters about “the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America” while accepting the current voting laws.

“Win by the good results that Republicans have produced and stop undermining the confidence in the elections,” said Tillis. “This is a bedrock of our 250-year history of success as the democracy that changed the world. Let’s not mess with that between now and November.”

Trump has said the SAVE America Act is his “No. 1 priority” ahead of midterms, going so far as to abruptly cancel a bill signing for major bipartisan legislation on housing affordability until Congress passes his elections bill. But many Democrats are staunchly against the bill, arguing it could disenfranchise millions of voters, and Republican leaders in Congress have repeatedly indicated it does not have the votes to pass.

Tillis co-sponsored the original SAVE America Act but has objected to Trump’s version of the legislation, which would also bar transgender athletes from women’s sports.

It’s not the first time Tillis has clashed with Trump.

Earlier this year, Tillis blocked Trump’s Fed chair nominee, Kevin Warsh, until the Justice Department dropped an investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. He has also spoken out against the Justice Department’s $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” calling it a “payout for punks.” And he has emerged as a fierce critic of Bill Pulte, Trump’s interim director of national intelligence.

“Let’s try and figure out a way to completely and finally end these distractions so that we can focus on the damage Democrats could do if they take the House, if they beat incumbent Republicans in the Senate. That’s what Republicans need to be talking about between now and November,” Tillis said Sunday.

Congress

Sen. Bill Cassidy on Trump: ‘Sometimes he acts as if Congress is merely an appendage’

Published

18 hours ago

June 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bill Cassidy appeared to question President Donald Trump’s view of Congress, saying in an interview that he is not sure Trump grasps that Congress “is a separate body, separate from the presidency.”

“Sometimes he acts as if Congress is merely an appendage, and, frankly, sometimes Congress acts like it’s an appendage,” the Louisiana Republican said in a pre-taped interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” that aired Sunday.

The latest criticism in a public clash between the two leaders, Cassidy also told host Margaret Brennan that he would be focused on affordability, including the cost of health care and groceries, if he were president.

“If I were president, I would be focused on those people that they have, my people, our people, us at the kitchen table. How do you make their life better? And that’s what I think the president should be focused on,” Cassidy said.

The relationship between Cassidy and Trump has been rocky for some time. Cassidy was one of only a handful of Republican leaders who voted to convict Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Trump and Cassidy recently clashed in a closed-door meeting between GOP leaders, with Cassidy admitting he raised his voice to “match” the president’s.

“The president said something negative about me. I received it as attempting to bully me from asking a question that I think the American people need to know, and I’m not going to be bullied,” Cassidy said at the time.

However, after receiving a special briefing from Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff, Cassidy changed his vote on a resolution designed to rein in Trump’s power to wage war against Iran.

“They said right now the negotiations are delicate, and they could collapse if they’re not nursed along in the appropriate way. I can accept that,” Cassidy said.

“That’s the reason they said for their kind of lack of being forthcoming. I can accept that, but my goal was to be briefed, to have the truth in order to make a decision for the benefit of my country, and that was satisfied.”

Still, Cassidy’s stance against Trump has cost him: After serving more than a decade in the Senate, Cassidy lost his campaign for renomination after Trump endorsed against him. Rep. Julia Letlow will be the Louisiana Republican Senate candidate this fall.