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Read on for this weekend's edition of the top stories in federal politics, and for a full review of the week, plus a look ahead, remember to click the button below and launch the full edition.

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Saturday, July 11th:

Biden, Trump win Louisiana presidential primaries more than three months after original date

• Former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump won the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries, respectively, in Louisiana. The primary was rescheduled twice from its original date of April 4 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Louisiana was the first state of any to postpone its primary this spring due to public health concerns.
• Connecticut will be the final state to hold a presidential primary on August 11.
• The Democratic National Convention will begin the following week on August 17 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Republican National Convention will primarily take place in Jacksonville, Florida, beginning August 24.

Monday, July 13th

Supreme Court releases October calendar

• The U.S. Supreme Court released its October argument calendar for the 2020-2021 term. The court will hear 10 hours of oral argument in 12 cases between October 5 and October 14. The cases were originally scheduled for the court’s 2019-2020 term but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
  • October 5, 2020
    • Carney v. Adams
    • Texas v. New Mexico
  • October 6, 2020
    • Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association
    • FNU Tanzin v. Tanvir
  • October 7, 2020
    • Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc.
    • Ford Motor Company v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court (Consolidated with Ford Motor Company v. Bandemer)
  • October 13, 2020
    • United States v. Briggs (Consolidated with United States v. Collins)
    • City of Chicago, Illinois v. Fulton
  • October 14, 2020
    • Torres v. Madrid
    • Pereida v. Barr
• So far, the court has agreed to hear 31 cases during its 2020-2021 term.

Tuesday, July 14th

Tuberville, Hegar win Senate primary runoffs in Alabama, Texas

• Senate and congressional primary elections took place in Maine on July 14 for the following races.
  • U.S. Senate - one seat
  • U.S. House of Representatives - two seats
• Maine uses a ranked-choice voting system (RCV), in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. The candidate who wins a majority of first-preference votes is declared the winner, If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated. First-preference votes cast for the failed candidate are eliminated with the second-preference choices on those ballots tallied. The process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority. As of July 2020, Maine was the only state that had adopted RCV at the state level, although other states have adopted RCV at the municipal level or have adopted RCV but not yet implemented it.
• Alabama and Texas held statewide primary runoffs on July 14.
  • If no candidate won a majority of votes in these states’ primary elections on March 3, the top two candidates advanced to a primary runoff election. This included one race for the U.S. Senate and two for the U.S. House in Alabama and one race for the U.S. Senate in Texas and 14 races in U.S. House districts.
• Ballotpedia identified 13 federal primaries on July 14 as battleground primaries. Here are some of the results from those races:
  • Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate in Alabama: Tommy Tuberville defeated former Sen. Jeff Sessions 61% to 39% to win the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.). Tuberville, a former head coach of Auburn University’s football team, had been endorsed by President Trump (R), the Club for Growth PAC, and the Alabama Farmers Federation’s political action committee. Sessions’ endorsers included the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund and former U.S. Attorneys General Ed Meese and John Ashcroft.
  • Democratic primary runoff for U.S. Senate in Texas: M.J. Hegar defeated state Sen. Royce West to win the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). Hegar received 52% of the vote to West’s 48%. Hegar, who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) in 2018, had endorsements from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, End Citizens United, and the Austin American-Statesman. West’s backers included 20 state legislators and the Texas Working Families Party.
  • Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Maine: State House Speaker Sara Gideon defeated Bre Kidman and Betsy Sweet to win the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). As of 11:45 a.m. Eastern Time on July 16, Gideon had 70% of the vote to Sweet’s 23% and Kidman’s 7% with 95% of precincts reporting.
  • Republican primary in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District: Former state Rep. Dale Crafts defeated Adrienne Bennett and former state Sen. Eric Brakey to win the Republican nomination to challenge Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine). As of 11:45 a.m. on July 16, with 95% of precincts reporting, Crafts led with 45% of the vote to 33% for Bennett and 23% for Brakey.

Filing deadline for congressional candidates passes in Delaware

• The major-party congressional filing deadline to run for elected office in Delaware passed on July 14. Candidates filed for the state’s Class II U.S. Senate seat and at-large U.S. House seat.
• The Class II Senate seat is currently held by Chris Coons (D), who filed to run for re-election. The state’s at-large seat in the U.S. House is currently held by Lisa Blunt Rochester (D), who also filed to run for re-election. Delaware’s primary is scheduled for September 15.
• The next and final statewide filing deadline is on July 24 in Louisiana.

Thursday, July 16th

RNC announces attendance limits for Republican National Convention

• RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced that only 2,500 state delegates would be allowed to attend the first three nights of the Republican National Convention. On the convention's final night, when President Donald Trump (R) accepts the party's nomination on August 27, guests and alternate delegates would also be permitted to attend.
• The first day will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, before moving to Jacksonville, Florida, for the event's final three days. The convention was originally scheduled to take place entirely in Charlotte but statewide restrictions in response to the coronavirus pandemic led to the convention's relocation. The Republican National Committee Executive Committee voted to downsize the convention in Charlotte, reducing the number of in-person delegates from 2,500 to 336.
• The Jacksonville Host Committee announced on July 6 that attendees would receive daily COVID-19 testing and temperature checks.

Both chambers of Congress are in session next week. Click here to see the full calendar for the second session of the 116th Congress.

The Supreme Court has finished hearing arguments and releasing opinions this term. To learn about the upcoming 2020-2021 term, click here.

Friday, July 24th

Candidate filing deadline to run for congressional office to pass in Louisiana

• The major-party filing deadline will pass to run for elected office in Louisiana where prospective candidates may file for the following congressional offices:
  • U.S. Senate: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R) has announced that he is running for re-election. Cassidy was first elected in 2014.
  • U.S. House of Representatives: All six of Louisiana's U.S. House seats are up for election. Republicans hold five of the seats, and a Democrat holds the District 2 seat.
• Louisiana’s statewide filing deadline is the 50th and final major-party deadline to take place this year.
• Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation. The primary is scheduled for November 3, and the general election is scheduled for December 5, 2020.

• Monday: On Monday, Trump had lunch with Vice President Pence and participated in a roundtable on law enforcement.
• Tuesday: On Tuesday, Trump met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
• Wednesday: On Wednesday, Trump delivered remarks at the UPS Hapeville Airport Hub in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Thursday: On Thursday, Trump received his intelligence briefing and delivered remarks from the White House on rolling back regulations.
• Friday: On Friday, Trump participated in a credentialing ceremony for newly-appointed ambassadors to Washington, D.C.

• 80 federal vacancies
• 51 pending nominations
• 4 future federal judicial vacancies