Good morning! Check out our highlight reel below of the top stories in federal politics. As always, click the button below and launch the full edition for a full review of the week, plus a look ahead.

       

Democratic presidential candidates debate fundraising, tax policy, impeachment

• Seven Democratic presidential candidates debated Thursday night in Los Angeles: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang. 

• The candidates discussed impeachment, trade, climate change, fundraising, race, foreign policy, immigration, electability, education, and healthcare. Sanders had the most speaking time at 20 minutes. Yang spoke the least at 10.8 minutes. 

• For highlights from the debate for each candidate, click here.

House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against President Trump

• The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump (R), charging him with abuse of power by a vote of 230-197 and obstruction of Congress by a vote of 229-198.

• On the first count, 229 Democrats and one independent (Rep. Justin Amash) voted yes, and 195 Republicans and two Democrats (Reps. Collin Peterson and Jeff Van Drew) voted no. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D) voted present.

• On the second count, 228 Democrats and one independent (Amash) voted yes, and 195 Republicans and three Democrats (Golden, Peterson, and Van Drew) voted no. Gabbard again voted present.

• Reps. Duncan Hunter (R), José Serrano (D), and John Shimkus (R) did not vote.

North Carolina’s Walker and Meadows announce they’re not running for re-election to the House in 2020

• Two representatives announced this week they will not seek re-election to the U.S. House: Republican Reps. Mark Meadows (NC-11) and Mark Walker (NC-06). A third North Carolina Republican representative, George Holding (NC-02), announced his retirement on December 10. The filing deadline for the 2020 races in North Carolina was December 20.

• Walker's and Holding's announcements came after new congressional district maps were approved by a three-judge panel of North Carolina’s superior court on December 2. The districts Holding and Walker represent switched from Republican-leaning to Democratic-leaning. The Cook Political Report said that the 11th District, represented by Meadows, remains solidly Republican.

• Meadows said of his retirement, "I strongly support term limits and even though I didn’t run on a term limit pledge, my support of term limit legislation would suggest that four terms should be enough." He also said he plans to work more closely with President Donald Trump.

• Meadows' December 19 announcement brought the total number of representatives who will not seek re-election in 2020 to 34. Of those, 25 are Republicans and nine are Democrats.  In the 2018 election cycle, 52 members of the U.S. House—34 Republicans and 18 Democrats—did not seek re-election.

• Currently, Democrats hold a 233-197 majority in the U.S. House with one independent member of the chamber. In November 2020, all 435 seats will be up for election.

Trump announces Rep. Van Drew (D-N.J.) will become a Republican

• On Thursday, President Donald Trump met with U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-N.J.). Trump said that "Jeff will be joining the Republican Party" and that he would endorse Van Drew for re-election in 2020.

• The meeting took place one day after the U.S. House voted to impeach Trump. Van Drew was one of two Democrats to vote against both articles of impeachment. 

• Politico reported on December 15 that Van Drew was preparing to switch his partisan affiliation from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. 

• So far, three Democrats and three Republicans are running in New Jersey's 2nd Congressional District primaries on June 2, not counting Van Drew. The filing deadline is March 30.

The Senate confirms 13 nominees to U.S. District Court judgeships

• The U.S. Senate confirmed 13 nominees to United States District Courts. Overall, the Senate has confirmed 187 of President Trump’s judicial nominees—133 district court judges, 50 appeals court judges, two Court of International Trade judges, and two Supreme Court justices—since January 2017.

•  At the end of the 115th Congress in January 2019, the Senate had confirmed 85 of the president’s judicial nominees.

• The United States District Courts for the Southern District of Florida, the Eastern District of Michigan, the District of New Mexico, the Eastern District of New York, the Southern District of New York, the District of North Dakota, the Southern District of Ohio, the Western District of Oklahoma, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the Western District of Pennsylvania are 10 of 94 U.S. District Courts. They are the general trial courts of the United States federal courts.

• The nominees confirmed by the U.S. Senate were: 

  • Anuraag Singhal, confirmed by a 76-17 vote 

  • Stephanie Dawkins Davis, confirmed by voice vote

  • Kea Riggs, confirmed by a 94-0 vote

  • Gary R. Brown, confirmed by voice vote

  • Mary Kay Vyskocil, confirmed by a 91-3 vote

  • Lewis Liman, confirmed by a 64-29 vote

  • Daniel Mack Traynor, confirmed by a 51-41 vote

  • Matthew McFarland, confirmed by a 56-38 vote

  • Jodi Dishman, confirmed by a 75-17 vote

  • Bernard M. Jones II, confirmed by a 91-3 vote

  • Karen Marston, confirmed by an 87-6 vote

  • John Michael Gallagher, confirmed by an 83-9 vote

  • Robert J. Colville, confirmed by a 66-27 vote 

• After the confirmed nominees receive their judicial commission, the district courts will have the following vacancy counts:

  • The Southern District of Florida will have one vacancy, 7 Democrat-appointed judges, and 10 Republican-appointed judges. 

  • The Eastern District of Michigan will have no vacancies, 11 Democrat-appointed judges, and 4 Republican-appointed judges. 

  • The District of New Mexico will have two vacancies, 2 Democrat-appointed judges, and 3 Republican-appointed judges. 

  • The Eastern District of New York will have two vacancies, 6 Democrat-appointed judges, and 7 Republican-appointed judges. 

  • The Southern District of New York will have four vacancies, 19 Democrat-appointed judges, and 5 Republican-appointed judges.

  • The District of North Dakota will have no vacancies and 2 Republican-appointed judges. 

  • The Southern District of Ohio will have one vacancy, 3 Democrat-appointed judges, and 4 Republican-appointed judges. 

  • The Western District of Oklahoma will have one vacancy and 6 Republican-appointed judges. 

  • The Eastern District of Pennsylvania will have one vacancy, 9 Democrat-appointed judges, and 12 Republican-appointed judges. 

  • The Western District of Pennsylvania will have 2 vacancies, 2 Democrat-appointed judges, and 6 Republican-appointed judges. 

• President Trump has appointed the fourth-most judges to U.S. District Courts of the past 20 presidents on or before December 1 of their third year in office. The median number of U.S. District Court appointees is 67. As of December 1, Trump had appointed 112 nominees to U.S. District Courts. President Theodore Roosevelt (R) appointed the fewest with 14.

Filing period ends for congressional candidates in North Carolina

• The major-party filing deadline passed to run for elected office in North Carolina. Candidates filed for the following offices: 

  • U.S. Senate

    • Incumbent Thom Tillis (R) filed to run for re-election.

  • U.S. House - 13 seats

    • Incumbents did not file to run for re-election in districts 2, 6, and 11.

• The primary is scheduled for March 3, and the general election is scheduled for November 3, 2020.

• North Carolina’s statewide filing deadline was the seventh to take place in the 2020 election cycle. The next statewide filing deadline is on January 10 in Mississippi.

Biden leads Democratic presidential candidates in Ballotpedia pageviews this week

• Last week, Joe Biden led all Democratic campaigns in pageviews in a week where all campaigns received fewer pageviews than last week. His campaign page was viewed 2,015 times, equaling 11.8% of pageviews for all Democratic campaigns this week. He was followed by Andrew Yang with 10.2% of pageviews and Bernie Sanders with 10.1%.

• The candidates with the smallest decreases relative to last week were Biden and Sanders, whose pageviews decreased 32.2% and 34.3%, respectively. Four candidates saw their pageviews decrease by more than 60%: John Delaney (65.3%), Tulsi Gabbard (65.7%), Deval Patrick (66.5%), and Michael Bennet (67.1%).

• The top three Democratic presidential candidates in lifetime pageviews are Yang with 152,535, Pete Buttigieg with 145,971, and Biden with 136,897.

• Each week, we report the number of pageviews received by 2020 presidential campaigns on Ballotpedia. These numbers reflect the time investments of our community of thousands of readers who visit a Ballotpedia because they think the candidate is worth knowing more about, whether they believe the candidate has a strong chance of winning or is an unknown who warrants a closer look.

Filing period ends for congressional candidates in Ohio

• The major-party filing deadline passed to run for elected office in Ohio. Candidates filed for the following offices:

  • U.S. House - 16 seats

    • Prior to the deadline passing, Ballotpedia identified four incumbents whose seats will appear on the ballot who declared their intent to run for re-election.

• The primary is scheduled for March 17, and the general election is scheduled for November 3, 2020.

• Ohio’s statewide filing deadline was the sixth to take place in the 2020 election cycle. The next statewide filing deadline was on December 20 in North Carolina.

Congress is out of session

Neither the Senate nor the House will be in session next week. Click here to see the full calendar for the first session of the 116th Congress.

Where was the president last week?

• On Monday, Trump participated in a roundtable discussion on the Governors’ Initiative on Regulatory Innovation.

• On Tuesday, Trump met with the President of the Republic of Guatemala.

• On Wednesday, Trump spoke at a Keep America Great rally in Battle Creek, MI.

• On Thursday, Trump met with Rep. Jeff Van Drew and spoke at a Christmas reception.

• On Friday, Trump spoke at the signing ceremony for S.1790, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.

Federal judiciary

• 91 federal judicial vacancies

• 51 pending nominations

• 15 future federal judicial vacancies

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