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Each week, The Weekly Brew brings you a collection of the most viewed stories from The Daily Brew, condensed. If you like this newsletter, sign up to The Daily Brew with one click to wake up and learn something new each day.
Here are the top stories from the week of January 27 - January 31. |
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A crash course on the budget reconciliation process
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Congress is expected to seek to pass key elements of President Donald Trump's (R) policy agenda through the budget reconciliation process. Budget reconciliation is a term for the legislative process that bypasses the filibuster to approve a package of legislation in Congress that changes spending, revenues, or the debt limit.
In the Jan. 30 edition of the Daily Brew, we explained how the process works, the history behind it, and what may lie ahead. |
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58 minor party candidates received more votes than the margin of victory in the 2024 federal, state, and local elections
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Of the more than 75,000 elections Ballotpedia covered last year, at least 58 minor party or independent candidates received more votes than the margins of victory between the winning candidates in their elections, potentially altering the outcome. This was more than in 2022, when there were 56 such candidates, and fewer than in 2020, when there were 77.
Those 58 candidates include:
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12 in congressional races, including seven who ran for U.S. Senate and five who ran for U.S. House
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17 in elections for statewide offices
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28 state-level, district elections
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One in a local election within Ballotpedia's coverage scope
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A recap on President Donald Trump’s first week of his second term in office
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Here's a brief recap comparing President Donald Trump's (R) first-week activity to that of his predecessors:
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During his first week in office, Trump signed 35 executive orders. Among other actions, these executive orders revoked 72 (44%) of former President Joe Biden's 162 executive orders. By comparison, Biden revoked a total of 64 (29%) Trump-era orders during his four years in office.
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The U.S. Senate confirmed four of Trump's main 15 Cabinet nominees in his first week in office. Looking back at Trump's first term in office, the U.S. Senate confirmed two nominees in his first week in office.
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Trump did not announce any appointments to fill Article III judicial vacancies during his first week in office. During his first term in office, Trump made 234 judicial appointments, the second most of any president in their first term since 1981. Biden made the most judicial appointments during his first term, with 235.
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2024 election analysis - the average state legislative margin of victory was more than 27 points
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The average margin of victory across all 5,807 state legislative seats up for election in 2024 was 27.3 percentage points. An electoral margin of victory (MOV) is the difference between the share of votes cast for the winning candidate and the second-place candidate in an election.
The 2024 average MOV was down from 2022, when the average was 27.7 percentage points. The MOV from 2018-2024 ranged from a low of 25.8 in 2018 to a high of 27.7 in 2022. Click the link below to read the full report, including differences in average margins of victory between parties, legislative chambers, and states. |
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Access to Ballotpedia is free 365 days per year... but Ballotpedia is not free to operate. Every dollar given to Ballotpedia helps ensure we continue to expand our coverage of all elections in the United States. Provide your support today and give the gift of unbiased political and policy information to all Ballotpedia readers. |
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