LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas election officials on Monday said online news personality Cenk Uygur, who was born in Turkey, can’t appear on the state’s Democratic presidential primary ballot next year.

The determination comes weeks after Uygur proclaimed that he had become the first naturalized citizen on a presidential ballot after filing paperwork with the state and the Arkansas Democratic Party. Uygur’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey when he was 8.

“My office has received your candidate filing paperwork,” Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston said in a letter to Uygur. “However, based on your own proclamation, your are not qualified to hold the elected office for which you filed. Therefore, I cannot, in good faith, certify your name to the ballot.”

The Constitution sets simple requirements for president: A candidate must be at least 35 years old and “a natural born citizen.”

Several other states, including the early primary states of New Hampshire and Nevada, also have rejected his application to appear on their ballots.

Uygur said officials were treating naturalized citizens as “second-class.” He has argued that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution makes him eligible to run for president.

“This is the last form of acceptable bigotry in American society and I’m going to fight it with every fiber of my being,” Uygur said in a statement. “I’m not going to accept that I don’t belong in my own country.”

Uygur, the co-creator of the online news and commentary show “The Young Turks,” announced in October he was challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. He previously made a failed bid for a California congressional seat.

Reed Brewer, a spokesman for the Arkansas Democratic Party, said based on past court rulings, the party didn’t have authority to determine whether Uygur was eligible for the ballot.

“Because of the vagaries of state law, rejecting a filing is simply not an option for us,” Brewer said.

Brewer said he didn’t know whether the party would refund Ugyur his $2,500 filing fee.

Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota who struggled to find his footing in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, ended his campaign on Monday.

Burgum, 67, was a successful software executive and investor before his political career and largely self financed his candidacy. On the stump, he portrayed himself as a traditional, business-minded conservative but was often lost amid the clatter surrounding former President Donald Trump.

In a statement, Burgum announced he was suspending his campaign but remained “committed to improving the lives of every American by moving America 180 degrees in the opposite direction” of President Joe Biden on the economy, energy and national security.

While not a frequent critic of Trump’s, Burgum did reject Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent, saying Biden was the rightful victor. Even so, Burgum has been reluctant to publicly condemn Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results.

Burgum largely stayed in the background in the first two Republican debates and never enjoyed the kind of moment that would help him break out of the bottom tier of candidates. In Reuters/Ipsos polling, he lagged far behind more viable contenders such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, not to mention Trump, the frontrunner for the nomination.

In order to qualify for the first two debates, Burgum’s campaign handed out gift cards worth $20 to the first 50,000 donors who pledged at least $1.

(Reporting by James Oliphant, editing by Ross Colvin, Grant McCool)

By Dawn Chmielewski

(Reuters) -The board appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to oversee Walt Disney’s theme parks accused the company of giving a previous local board and its employees millions of dollars’ worth of tickets, discounted hotel stays, merchandise and other benefits that were “akin to bribes of public officials.”

“For years, the company treated district employees like Disney employees by, for instance, providing complimentary annual passes and steep discounts — benefits and perks that were akin to bribes,” said the 80-page report, which the new board was required to prepare for DeSantis and the Florida legislature within one year of its creation.

“Not surprisingly then, the district’s employees believed that it was in their job to prioritize the interests of Disney.”

The state legislature established the Reedy Creek District in 1967 as a special purpose district to support the development of Walt Disney World, which would be built on 25,000 acres of pasture and swamp land in central Florida that was so secluded, the nearest power and water lines were 10 to 15 miles way (16 to 24 km). A special taxation district is a unit of local government created for a specific purpose, in this case to provide municipal services, with jurisdiction to operate in a limited geography.

The report said the board enjoyed “exceptionally broad authority to regulate itself, at Disney’s total discretion.” It found the board was “inverted to serve Disney,” which held voting control of the prior board of supervisors.

The current board is not accusing the previous board of criminal activity in the report. However, the report concludes the old board “was in dire need of reform, and thus the legislature was amply warranted” in instituting a new board to oversee fire protection, water treatment and other services.

The Central Florida Oversight Board will meet Wednesday to vote whether to accept the report, which was prepared for the board by a group of experts.

A Disney spokesperson said in a statement was an “exercise in revisionist history.” “This report is neither objective nor credible, and only seeks to advance (the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s) interests in its wasteful litigation that could derail investment within the district. Further, it does not change the fact that the CFTOD board was appointed by the governor to punish Disney for exercising its Constitutional right to free speech.”

It is likely the report’s findings will factor into future legislation, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to elaborate.

Disney did not directly address the allegations in the report. The five former members could not immediately be reached for comment.

Disney and Florida’s longtime cooperation collapsed last year after Disney opposed a new state law limiting the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools. In what Disney described as retaliation, the Florida legislature in February replaced the old board with a new Central Florida Oversight District, whose five supervisors are handpicked by DeSantis. The Florida governor, in signing the bill into law, pronounced, “the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end.”

Disney would temporarily deed prospective board members plots of land so they would be eligible to oversee the Reedy Creek District — and also paid the property taxes due on behalf of these officials, according to the report. The report did not name the officials.

Among other key claims, the report found Disney effectively “captured” the supervisors and the district’s employees by “showering” them with gifts and lavish spending. Disney provided complimentary annual passes and discounts on cruises, hotel stays, merchandise and food to employees, supervisors, retirees and vendors.

The company initially provided these benefits free, though in 2006, the district began reimbursing Disney for these expenses using taxpayer dollars, according to the report. Reuters couldn’t establish why this alleged practice changed.

To provide the benefits, the district spent $1.78 million to $2.54 million annually, from fiscal 2018 to the current fiscal year, the report found.

The report claimed the Reedy Creek District labeled the spending as “financial and administrative services,” a practice the report called “misleading.”

The report also found that the Reedy Creek district “flagrantly spent tax money under its control on employee perks,” on parties and special events. Over a 15-month period, ending in December 2022, former District Administrator John Classe charged about $166,000 to his district American Express card — $100,000 of those charges were related to parties and celebrations, the report said. Classe declined to comment.

In April, Disney sued Florida in federal court, claiming DeSantis and his allies of “weaponizing” state government to punish Disney for exercising its free speech rights. The DeSantis-appointed oversight board counter-sued in state court, seeking to void the “backroom deals” favorable to the entertainment giant.

(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in New York; Editing by Ken Li and Lisa Shumaker)

By Steve Holland, Simon Lewis and Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden is relying on a small group of veteran advisers to help navigate the Israel-Hamas conflict that has killed thousands, split Western allies and risks spiraling into a wider war.

ANTONY BLINKEN – SHUTTLE DIPLOMAT

A long-serving foreign policy adviser to Biden, Blinken, 61, has traveled to the Middle East three times since the conflict erupted, including six visits to Israel, juggling the need to show solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attacks with an effort to tamp down regional tensions.

Shuttling between Israel and neighboring majority-Muslim states, he has pushed back on calls for a ceasefire, while also pressing Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza – notably during nine hours of negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet in October.

Often seen as a policy wonk, the soft-spoken Blinken invoked his Jewish heritage and held emotional encounters in Tel Aviv with survivors of the Oct. 7 attacks. A father of two young children, he has spoken repeatedly about being personally affected by images of children suffering on both sides of the conflict.

JAKE SULLIVAN – THE LAST GUY IN THE ROOM

Biden often turns to Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, when he is considering final options and looking for advice and counsel.

“He develops and puts forward the policy options before the president for him to decide,” said one U.S. official. “Jake is often that last guy in the room giving the president his advice and counsel and his recommendations on the way forward.”

Sullivan, 47, was national security adviser for Biden when he was vice president and deputy chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He gathers policy options from across government agencies and prepares them for Biden to consider, the traditional role of the national security adviser.

“He’s really kind of the conductor of a very vast and fast-moving orchestra,” the official said.

BRETT MCGURK – THE NEGOTIATOR

When Biden needed an envoy to help negotiate the release of hostages seized by Hamas militants during their deadly rampage through towns in southern Israel on Oct. 7, he sent Brett McGurk, the 50-year-old National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.

McGurk, who held national security roles for presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, is known for diving into the details with top officials across the Middle East.

Before the Israel-Hamas conflict, McGurk led negotiations to strike a deal for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for stronger defense commitments for the Saudis from the United States. The Hamas war froze that effort.

When Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostage swap in a deal mediated by Qatar on Nov. 21, McGurk was in Doha meeting with the Qatari prime minister to work out the deal’s structure, U.S. officials said.

McGurk relies on a wide array of contacts inside and outside governments in the region.

“The president and Jake (Sullivan) rely heavily on Brett’s expertise and his ability to pick up the phone to talk to whoever he needs to, to move things along,” said the U.S. official.

BILL BURNS – THE INVISIBLE MAN

Long before he became the United States’ chief spymaster, CIA Director Bill Burns handled some of the most sensitive U.S. national security issues, including the secret talks that led to the Iran nuclear deal, as a career diplomat.

It’s a role that Burns, 67, still performs for Biden, most recently traveling to Qatar to meet the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency and the Qatari prime minister to discuss how to free the hostages seized by Hamas.

Since his 2021 swearing-in as CIA director, Burns has made at least four dozen foreign trips, the vast majority in secret, said a source familiar with the matter. Those have included Moscow in 2021 before Russia invaded Ukraine and Ankara in 2022 to warn Russia’s intelligence chief against using nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

The CIA declined comment on Burns’ travel.

Burns is brought in “when things need to get done quietly,” said a U.S. official, describing his approach as “more subtle, more driven toward issues of intelligence and what we know and what we don’t know and how do we make up the difference.”

LLOYD AUSTIN – STARK WARNINGS

By the time U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault, he had already spoken with his Israeli counterpart on at least four occasions in just six days. That heavy pace has kept up ever since.

The calls with Yoav Gallant, 24 of which have been publicly disclosed by the Pentagon, can often last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, a senior U.S. defense official said.

In Israel, Austin, 70, compared Hamas to the Islamic State militants he helped combat as a U.S. Army general before retiring. Hamas, like ISIS, offered nothing but “but zealotry and bigotry and death,” he said.

He has also warned Israel about the failure to protect civilians in Gaza and the risks of radicalization. “If you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat,” he said.

KAMALA HARRIS – POST-CONFLICT PLANS

Vice President Kamala Harris, who recently met with several Arab leaders on the sidelines of the COP28 climate conference, has focused her attention extensively on the thorny issue of post-conflict planning.

In Dubai, Harris stressed three elements for a post-conflict Gaza: reconstruction, security and governance.

“No forcible displacement, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, no reduction in territory and no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism,” she said.

Palestinian Authority security forces must be strengthened to assume security responsibilities in Gaza and the West Bank, she said. “We want to see a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Palestinian voices and aspirations must be at the center of this work,” she said.

JON FINER – ASKING QUESTIONS

Sullivan relies heavily on his deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer. Finer, 47, previously served as special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa and foreign policy speechwriter for Biden when he was Obama’s vice president.

“He … is frequently the guy in the room who says ‘Hey this doesn’t make sense, have we thought about doing it this way?'” the official said.

As Sullivan’s deputy, Finer also helps coordinate among U.S. government agencies and helps develop and shape policy options.

He was John Kerry’s chief of staff when Kerry was Obama’s secretary of state, and was a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, including from the Middle East.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Nandita Bose; Editing by Don Durfee, Heather Timmons and Deepa Babington)

The 2024 Republican presidential primary field has narrowed, with Doug Burgum dropping out of the race.

The North Dakota governor qualified for the first two presidential debates but missed the third debate and appeared on the verge of not making the stage for the fourth debate, set for Wednesday in Alabama.

Here’s a look at the candidates still competing for the Republican and Democratic nominations, as well as the third-party contenders:

DONALD TRUMP

The former president announced his third campaign for the White House on Nov. 15, 2022, at his Mar-a-Lago resort, forcing the party to again decide whether to embrace a candidate whose refusal to accept defeat in 2020 sparked the U.S. Capitol attack and still dominates his speeches.

The GOP front-runner remains hugely popular in the Republican Party, despite making history as the first president to be impeached twice and inciting the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Referring to himself as America’s “most pro-life president,” Trump’s three nominations of conservative judges to the Supreme Court paved the way for the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which had legalized abortion nationwide for nearly 50 years. Sweeping criminal justice reforms he signed into law in 2019 eased mandatory minimum sentences and gave judges more discretion in sentencing.

In March, Trump became the first former U.S. president to be criminally charged, facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush money scheme. Since then, he has been charged with 57 more felonies in three other criminal cases, accused of mishandling and unlawfully retaining classified documents and trying to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.

RON DESANTIS

The Florida governor officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign on May 24 in a glitch-marred Twitter announcement.

Heralding his state as a place “where woke goes to die,” DeSantis has framed his campaign around a desire to bring the conservative policies he championed in Florida to the national stage. He has made a name for himself battling with Disney over the entertainment giant’s opposition to a bill dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans instruction or classroom discussion of LGBTQ issues in Florida public schools for all grades.

Under his governorship, the state has also banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and blocked public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity programs.

NIKKI HALEY

The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor became the first major GOP challenger to Trump when she kicked off her campaign on Feb. 15 in Charleston. She is the only woman in the GOP field.

The former Trump Cabinet official once said she wouldn’t challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. But she changed her mind, citing the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change,” a nod to the 77-year-old Trump’s age.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY

The wealthy biotech entrepreneur and author of “Woke, Inc.” kicked off his presidential campaign on Feb. 21 with a video and op-ed.

The son of Indian immigrants, he has gained stature in conservative circles for his criticism of the environmental, social and corporate governance movement that aims to promote socially responsible investing. He has largely self-funded his campaign so far.

CHRIS CHRISTIE

The former two-term New Jersey governor went after Trump when announcing his presidential campaign on June 6 in New Hampshire, calling the former president a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog” and arguing that he’s the only one who can stop him.

Christie, a 2016 presidential candidate and former Trump adviser, has said that others may be afraid to challenge the former president, but he has no such qualms. “The reason I’m going after Trump is twofold,” Christie said. “One, he deserves it. And two, it’s the way to win.”

ASA HUTCHINSON

The former two-term Arkansas governor launched his presidential campaign on April 26 in Bentonville, pledging to “bring out the best of America” and to reform federal law enforcement agencies.

He announced his campaign shortly after Trump was indicted by a grand jury in New York and has called for the former president to drop out of the race, saying, “The office is more important than any individual person.”

JOE BIDEN

President Joe Biden formally announced his reelection campaign on April 25 in a video, asking voters for time to “finish this job.”

Biden, the oldest president in America history, would be 86 at the end of a second term, and his age has prompted some of his critics to question whether he can serve effectively. A notable swath of Democratic voters has indicated they would prefer he not run, though he is expected to easily win the Democratic nomination.

Biden, who has vowed to “restore the soul of America,” plans to run on his record. He spent his first two years as president combating the coronavirus pandemic and pushing through major bills such as the bipartisan infrastructure package and legislation to promote high-tech manufacturing and climate measures.

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

Self-help author Marianne Williamson entered the Democratic primary on March 4 in Washington, calling for “a vision of justice and love that is so powerful that it will override the forces of hatred and injustice and fear.”

During her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, she proposed the creation of a Department of Peace and argued the federal government should pay large financial reparations to Black Americans as atonement for centuries of slavery and discrimination.

DEAN PHILLIPS

The Minnesota congressman is the first elected Democrat to challenge Biden for the nomination. After months of calling for a primary challenger, Phillips entered the race himself on Oct. 27 with a speech outside New Hampshire’s statehouse.

While Phillips has been effusive in his praise for Biden, the 54-year-old also says Democrats need younger voices to avoid a nightmare scenario where Trump wins another election next fall.

Phillips is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and heir to his stepfather’s Phillips Distilling Company empire, which holds major vodka and schnapps brands. He once served as that company’s president but also ran the gelato maker Talenti. His grandmother was the late Pauline Phillips, better known as the advice columnist “Dear Abby.”

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

The bestselling author and environmental lawyer announced on Oct. 9 that he was ending his Democratic presidential bid and instead launching an independent run.

A nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he initially launched a long-shot bid to challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination on April 19 in Boston. He said in announcing his party switch that he intended to be a spoiler candidate for both Biden and Trump.

Kennedy has emerged as one of the leading voices of the anti-vaccine movement, with public health experts and even members of his own family describing his work as misleading and dangerous. He has also been linked to far-right figures in recent years.

JILL STEIN

The environmental activist, whose 2016 third-party presidential bid was blamed by Democrats for helping Trump win the White House, says she is making another run for the nation’s highest office.

Stein announced Nov. 9 that she will again run under the Green Party banner. “I’m running for president to offer that choice for the people outside of the failed two-party system,” she said.

She ran against Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 as a Green Party candidate and received about 1% of the vote. Some Democrats said her candidacy siphoned votes away from Clinton, particularly in swing states like Wisconsin.

CORNEL WEST

The progressive activist and scholar announced Oct. 5 that he was ending his bid for the presidency under the Green Party banner and was instead running as an independent.

West wrote on X that he was running as an independent to “end the iron grip of the ruling class and ensure true democracy!” He added, “We need to break the grip of the duopoly and give power to the people.”

He initially announced in June that he would be running as a member of The People’s Party before soon switching to the Green Party.

Republicans: Former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, radio show host Larry Elder, businessman Perry Johnson, former Texas congressman Will Hurd and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

The 2024 Republican presidential primary field has narrowed, with Doug Burgum dropping out of the race.

The North Dakota governor qualified for the first two presidential debates but missed the third debate and appeared on the verge of not making the stage for the fourth debate, set for Wednesday in Alabama.

Here’s a look at the candidates still competing for the Republican and Democratic nominations, as well as the third-party contenders:

DONALD TRUMP

The former president announced his third campaign for the White House on Nov. 15, 2022, at his Mar-a-Lago resort, forcing the party to again decide whether to embrace a candidate whose refusal to accept defeat in 2020 sparked the U.S. Capitol attack and still dominates his speeches.

The GOP front-runner remains hugely popular in the Republican Party, despite making history as the first president to be impeached twice and inciting the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Referring to himself as America’s “most pro-life president,” Trump’s three nominations of conservative judges to the Supreme Court paved the way for the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which had legalized abortion nationwide for nearly 50 years. Sweeping criminal justice reforms he signed into law in 2019 eased mandatory minimum sentences and gave judges more discretion in sentencing.

In March, Trump became the first former U.S. president to be criminally charged, facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush money scheme. Since then, he has been charged with 57 more felonies in three other criminal cases, accused of mishandling and unlawfully retaining classified documents and trying to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.

RON DESANTIS

The Florida governor officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign on May 24 in a glitch-marred Twitter announcement.

Heralding his state as a place “where woke goes to die,” DeSantis has framed his campaign around a desire to bring the conservative policies he championed in Florida to the national stage. He has made a name for himself battling with Disney over the entertainment giant’s opposition to a bill dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans instruction or classroom discussion of LGBTQ issues in Florida public schools for all grades.

Under his governorship, the state has also banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and blocked public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity programs.

NIKKI HALEY

The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor became the first major GOP challenger to Trump when she kicked off her campaign on Feb. 15 in Charleston. She is the only woman in the GOP field.

The former Trump Cabinet official once said she wouldn’t challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. But she changed her mind, citing the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change,” a nod to the 77-year-old Trump’s age.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY

The wealthy biotech entrepreneur and author of “Woke, Inc.” kicked off his presidential campaign on Feb. 21 with a video and op-ed.

The son of Indian immigrants, he has gained stature in conservative circles for his criticism of the environmental, social and corporate governance movement that aims to promote socially responsible investing. He has largely self-funded his campaign so far.

CHRIS CHRISTIE

The former two-term New Jersey governor went after Trump when announcing his presidential campaign on June 6 in New Hampshire, calling the former president a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog” and arguing that he’s the only one who can stop him.

Christie, a 2016 presidential candidate and former Trump adviser, has said that others may be afraid to challenge the former president, but he has no such qualms. “The reason I’m going after Trump is twofold,” Christie said. “One, he deserves it. And two, it’s the way to win.”

ASA HUTCHINSON

The former two-term Arkansas governor launched his presidential campaign on April 26 in Bentonville, pledging to “bring out the best of America” and to reform federal law enforcement agencies.

He announced his campaign shortly after Trump was indicted by a grand jury in New York and has called for the former president to drop out of the race, saying, “The office is more important than any individual person.”

JOE BIDEN

President Joe Biden formally announced his reelection campaign on April 25 in a video, asking voters for time to “finish this job.”

Biden, the oldest president in America history, would be 86 at the end of a second term, and his age has prompted some of his critics to question whether he can serve effectively. A notable swath of Democratic voters has indicated they would prefer he not run, though he is expected to easily win the Democratic nomination.

Biden, who has vowed to “restore the soul of America,” plans to run on his record. He spent his first two years as president combating the coronavirus pandemic and pushing through major bills such as the bipartisan infrastructure package and legislation to promote high-tech manufacturing and climate measures.

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

Self-help author Marianne Williamson entered the Democratic primary on March 4 in Washington, calling for “a vision of justice and love that is so powerful that it will override the forces of hatred and injustice and fear.”

During her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, she proposed the creation of a Department of Peace and argued the federal government should pay large financial reparations to Black Americans as atonement for centuries of slavery and discrimination.

DEAN PHILLIPS

The Minnesota congressman is the first elected Democrat to challenge Biden for the nomination. After months of calling for a primary challenger, Phillips entered the race himself on Oct. 27 with a speech outside New Hampshire’s statehouse.

While Phillips has been effusive in his praise for Biden, the 54-year-old also says Democrats need younger voices to avoid a nightmare scenario where Trump wins another election next fall.

Phillips is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and heir to his stepfather’s Phillips Distilling Company empire, which holds major vodka and schnapps brands. He once served as that company’s president but also ran the gelato maker Talenti. His grandmother was the late Pauline Phillips, better known as the advice columnist “Dear Abby.”

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

The bestselling author and environmental lawyer announced on Oct. 9 that he was ending his Democratic presidential bid and instead launching an independent run.

A nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he initially launched a long-shot bid to challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination on April 19 in Boston. He said in announcing his party switch that he intended to be a spoiler candidate for both Biden and Trump.

Kennedy has emerged as one of the leading voices of the anti-vaccine movement, with public health experts and even members of his own family describing his work as misleading and dangerous. He has also been linked to far-right figures in recent years.

JILL STEIN

The environmental activist, whose 2016 third-party presidential bid was blamed by Democrats for helping Trump win the White House, says she is making another run for the nation’s highest office.

Stein announced Nov. 9 that she will again run under the Green Party banner. “I’m running for president to offer that choice for the people outside of the failed two-party system,” she said.

She ran against Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 as a Green Party candidate and received about 1% of the vote. Some Democrats said her candidacy siphoned votes away from Clinton, particularly in swing states like Wisconsin.

CORNEL WEST

The progressive activist and scholar announced Oct. 5 that he was ending his bid for the presidency under the Green Party banner and was instead running as an independent.

West wrote on X that he was running as an independent to “end the iron grip of the ruling class and ensure true democracy!” He added, “We need to break the grip of the duopoly and give power to the people.”

He initially announced in June that he would be running as a member of The People’s Party before soon switching to the Green Party.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking permission to appeal a decision reinstating gag orders in his New York civil fraud case to the state’s highest court, a court filing showed on Monday.

Justice Arthur Engoron imposed a gag order on Trump on Oct. 3 barring him from speaking publicly about court staff.

Engoron acted after Trump shared on social media a photo of the judge’s top law clerk posing with U.S. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and falsely called her Schumer’s “girlfriend.” The post left the court “inundated” with hundreds of threats made by Trump supporters, Engoron said in a court filing.

Engoron later restricted Trump’s lawyers statements about his staff in a separate order.

An appeals court judge temporarily paused the gag orders on Nov. 16, but they were reinstated by a mid-level state appeals court last Thursday.

Engoron already has fined Trump $15,000 for twice violating the gag order on him, promising steeper penalties for future violations possibly including imprisonment.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. election, is accused in the case of unlawfully overstating his net worth by billions of dollars to dupe lenders and insurers. The trial has focused on damages because Engoron already found that Trump’s financial statements were fraudulent.

In Monday’s filing, Trump lawyer Clifford Robert asked the mid-level appeals court, known as the Appellate Division, to allow Trump to appeal its reinstatement of the orders to the Albany-based Court of Appeals.

Robert said the orders violated the U.S. and New York state Constitutions by restricting Trump’s “First Amendment right to highlight serious concerns raised by the public and partisan activities of Justice Engoron’s Principal Law Clerk during an ongoing bench trial.”

A First Department judge on Monday denied Trump’s request for permission to appeal the orders on an expedited basis. Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels gave the office of state Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case against Trump and his family real estate company, until Dec. 11 to respond to Trump’s request to appeal.

A spokesperson for the office declined to comment.

James is seeking $250 million in penalties, and wants Trump banned from New York state real estate business.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and has accused James, a Democrat, of political bias against him.

Trump is under a similar gag order in a federal criminal case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith in which the former president is accused of unlawful actions in seeking to overturn his loss in the 2020 U.S. election. In all, Trump faces four federal and state criminal indictments. He has pleaded not guilty in all of those cases.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Noeleen Walder)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democratic Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney officially joined the 2025 race for Virginia governor on Monday, touting his executive experience over two terms in office and pledging to be a pragmatic voice for equality and progress.

Stoney, 42, made his formal announcement in a video that highlighted his modest upbringing and the struggles he overcame to become the first in his family to graduate from high school and college.

“That’s why I’m running for governor. For families like mine that just need an opportunity. For kids like me, who will thrive in school if they just get the right chance,” he said. “And for parents like my dad, who work multiple jobs and still struggle to live a secure, middle-class life.”

Stoney’s entrance into the race sets up a Democratic nomination contest with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer who has cultivated an identity as a bipartisan consensus builder over three terms in Congress. Spanberger, who if elected would be the state’s first female governor, announced her bid last month, and others could still enter the field.

No Republicans have announced campaigns yet, though Attorney General Jason Miyares and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears are seen as likely contenders. Under state law, GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin cannot seek a second consecutive term.

In his video announcement and an interview Monday morning, Stoney criticized Youngkin’s leadership as out of step with voters’ values.

“I think many Virginians are sick of a governor who was out there focused on banning abortion and banning books and making it harder for people to vote instead of actually focused on how do they climb the economic ladder into the middle class,” he said.

Youngkin’s press office defended his record in a statement that noted his solid approval ratings. And the Republican Party of Virginia criticized Stoney as a “far-left radical,” saying he failed Richmond as mayor and would be a “a disaster for Virginia.”

Stoney, who has two decades of experience in Virginia politics, served as the first Black Secretary of the Commonwealth — a cabinet position — under former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, with whom Stoney is close.

In that role, Stoney oversaw the process of restoring the voting and other civil rights of felons who had completed their sentences, an effort that McAuliffe accelerated and called the most important legacy of his term.

Stoney went on to win a competitive race in 2016 to become the youngest person to serve as mayor of the state’s capital city. He was re-elected in 2020.

In his gubernatorial campaign launch, he also touted his efforts to improve Richmond residents’ lives by tackling what he called “generational problems” — improving the city’s finances, fixing its roads, building new schools and reducing the poverty rate.

He also emphasized his role in directing the removal of Richmond’s enormous collection of Confederate monuments amid the racial justice protests that followed George Floyd’s killing in 2020.

Stoney, who is Black and if elected would be the second African American person to serve as governor, said at the time that the statues’ removal would send a message that the onetime capital of the Confederacy was no longer a place with symbols of oppression and white supremacy.

“Those statues stood high for over 100 years for a reason, and it was to intimidate and to show Black and brown people in this city who was in charge,” he said in the summer of 2020.

Stoney has been involved in Virginia politics since his college days at James Madison University. He worked as a fellow in the office of then-Gov. Mark Warner, then joined John Kerry’s campaign for president. He’s since worked on several other statewide campaigns and at the Democratic Party of Virginia, serving as political director and then executive director.

While Stoney said he sees his current base of support in the central Virginia African American community, he thinks his work, executive experience and life story will help him connect with voters around Virginia, arguing he’s the “only candidate that can campaign everywhere.”

“I truly believe that the voters, the Democratic voters, want someone who has run something, and I’m going to lay out that record at that vision over the course of the next 18 months” ahead of the primary, he said.

Connor Joseph, a spokesperson for Spanberger, said in a written statement that “Virginians know and trust Abigail’s record of public service, her commitment to bringing people together, and her track record of getting things done against tremendous odds — while winning tough races.”

Stoney lives in Richmond with his wife, Brandy. The two are expecting their first child in March.

By Pete Schroeder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top bosses of JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and other major banks are expected to warn lawmakers this week that capital hikes and other new regulations will hurt the economy and should be indefinitely shelved.

Worker pay and rights, climate change, mortgages, and financial stability are also likely to feature when the CEOs of the country’s eight largest banks appear before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, said executives and analysts.

The line-up: JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, Citi’s Jane Fraser, Wells Fargo’s Charles Scharf, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman, State Street’s Ronald O’Hanley, and BNY Mellon’s Robin Vince.

The hearing comes amid a fierce industry campaign to kill the “Basel Endgame” proposal, which overhauls how banks must calculate their loss-absorbing capital, and as regulators roll out fair lending and fee cap rules, among others.

It offers the CEOs an opportunity to try to convince key moderate Democratic senators that the rules could stifle lending, hurting small business and consumers.

But they will also have to persuade skeptical lawmakers, including the Committee’s Democratic chair Sherrod Brown, that the banking sector is safe and sound following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and two other lenders earlier this year.

“My commitment as chair of this committee is to always put the Main Street economy – and the workers who power it – at the center of everything we do,” Brown said in a statement.

“It’s our job to hold them accountable to their workers, to their customers, and to the American people.”

Spokespeople for the banks declined to provide comment ahead of the hearing or did not respond to requests for comment.

Kevin Fromer, president of the Financial Services Forum, which represents the CEOs, said he expected Basel to be a focus.

“The hearing this week gives the CEOs an opportunity to discuss the important work of their firms in supporting their customers, the economy, and financial stability,” he said.

Big bank CEOs have been appearing before Congress for several years after the 2007-09 financial crisis and subsequent scandals thrust the industry into Washington’s crosshairs.

While they rarely result in legislation, hearings have led banks to make changes. In 2021, Dimon was drawn into a fiery exchange with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren about overdraft fees, while last year she grilled him over fraud on bank payment network Zelle. Big banks subsequently reduced overdraft fees and expanded Zelle fraud protections.

Former Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan, meanwhile, resigned in March 2019 after stumbling during a hearing about the bank’s regulatory woes.

In recent years, banks have also been attacked by Republicans, who have accused them of cutting off fossil fuel companies and gun manufacturers.

But after years of playing defense, the CEOs are expected to be more assertive, this time backed by Republicans critical of red tape. Some moderate Democrats have also raised concerns that the Basel proposal could force banks to pull back from lending.

Tim Scott, the Committee’s top Republican, said he planned to focus on Basel and other “burdensome” regulatory proposals.

“I look forward to hearing directly from the businesses that will be impacted, and in turn, how these proposals will increase costs and limit access to credit for the Americans who need it most.”

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; additional reporting by Nupur Anand, Tatiana Bautzer, Saeed Azhar and Lananh Nguyen in New York; editing by Michelle Price and Nick Zieminski)

ATLANTA (AP) — Republican presidential candidates will debate Wednesday within walking distance of where George Wallace staged his “stand in the schoolhouse door” to oppose the enrollment of Black students at the University of Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement.

The state that propelled Wallace, a Democrat and four-term governor, into national politics is now dominated by Republicans loyal to Donald Trump, another figure who leans heavily on grievance and white identity politics. The former president will not be on stage in Tuscaloosa but remains the prohibitive favorite to win Republicans’ nomination again.

Alabama’s path since Wallace ‘s rise helps explain the 2024 dynamics and how Republicans evolved nationally from the Party of Lincoln into the Party of Trump. Certainly, Trump argues he helps all races as a defender of everyday Americans forgotten by Washington elites. He even uses that as a defense against four criminal indictments, accusing establishment powers of attacking him as a way to quash citizens. That sort of approach resonated in conservative strongholds like Alabama long before Trump.

“Alabamians, and I think most people, just don’t like to be told how to live,” said former state Republican chairwoman Terry Lathan, referencing Alabama’s motto: “We dare defend our rights.”

For Wallace, that meant fighting federal authorities on integration and then running nationally with the slogan “Stand Up for America.” Trump set up his 2016 rise by spending years questioning the citizenship of President Barack Obama, the first Black president. Like Wallace, Trump is backed strongly by culturally and religiously conservative whites moved by his slogan: “Make America Great Again.”

“Different from Wallace, but Donald Trump is offering a form of nostalgia,” said national GOP pollster Brent Buchanan, who founded his Washington-based firm, Cygnal, in Alabama.

Historian Wayne Flynt said the common thread across the eras is a swath of voters “who feel they are not paid attention to … that there’s not much future for them.” Trump, like Wallace, he said, has “brilliantly analyzed the angst and anxiety.”

That doesn’t mean Alabama Republicans are in lockstep. Lathan, who said “we know how wrong Wallace was” for his racism, backed Trump during her chairmanship. Now she supports Ron DeSantis; she called the Florida governor a “Reagan conservative who gets things done without being a bully.”

But, she acknowledged Trump’s “steamroller effect” makes him “very popular in Alabama.”

Wallace, a four-time presidential candidate, was governor for 16 years spread from 1963 to 1987. That period marked a Southern political realignment, spurred in part by President Lyndon Johnson signing civil rights legislation in the 1960s: Democratic-controlled states shifted to Republicans in presidential politics and, later, other offices.

Alabama Democrats, especially, cite deep historical roots involving racism, class and urban-rural divides when explaining Wallace, Trump and the decades between them.

“To understand it, you really have to go back to the Civil War and Reconstruction,” said Bill Baxley, a former state attorney general and lieutenant governor.

Now 82, Baxley said he knows how stereotypically Southern that sounds. But it’s fact, he said, that Republicans being the “Party of Lincoln” made white Southerners vote Democratic for generations after the 16th U.S. president won the war.

The more layered reality of the so-called “Solid South” was that two unofficial parties operated under one banner. Moderate to progressive “national Democrats” were concentrated in north Alabama, Baxley explained, while reactionary “states-rights Dixiecrats” cohered in south Alabama. Not coincidentally, south Alabama is where plantations anchored the antebellum slavery economy. Politics became “economic populism in the north,” Baxley said, and “race-issue populism” in the south.

Those fault lines shaped Democratic primaries until the late 20th century. National Democrats claimed more federal than state offices: Baxley listed Alabamians instrumental in President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs that paved roads, built hospitals, ran electrical and telephone lines, and spurred development in rural areas mired in poverty even before the Great Depression.

Then “Wallace came along as a talented politician who figured out how to bridge all that better than anybody else,” Baxley said, adding his disappointment that Wallace still made segregation his main argument.

Dixiecrats’ shift to Republicans accelerated in 1964, the first presidential election after Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, signed the Civil Rights Act. Republican challenger Barry Goldwater opposed the act and won five Deep South states. It was Alabama’s first flip from Democrats since Reconstruction.

Wallace won four Deep South states as an independent in 1968. Yet in 1970, he secured his second term as governor only through a close Democratic primary runoff. That same electorate made Baxley attorney general. An unapologetic national Democrat, Baxley prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members who bombed Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, and he memorably told a Klan leader in an open letter to “kiss my ass.”

Meanwhile, Wallace retooled his pitch for a national audience. He sneered about “inner-city thugs” and a “liberal Supreme Court” and Washington “overreach” — a coded version of his Alabama campaigns. It wowed working-class Democratic primary audiences beyond the South. Flynt, the historian, said Trump “does best almost exactly where George Wallace did best, and for many of the same reasons.”

In 1968 and 1972, Wallace held raucous rallies, railing against protesters. At New York City’s Madison Square Garden he said such behavior in Alabama “gets a bullet in the brain.” Wallace’s 1972 campaign ended with a bullet in his spine; it paralyzed him from the waist down.

Richard Nixon wrote in his memoirs that he adopted the “Southern strategy” — law-and-order and cultural rhetoric similar to Wallace’s — to stave off Wallace. Ronald Reagan employed his versions in 1980 and 1984 landslides.

Since Wallace’s first presidential bid in 1964, Alabama’s electoral votes have gone to a Democrat once: Jimmy Carter, a neighboring Georgian, in 1976. Even then, Carter sought Wallace’s endorsement after defeating the governor in Florida’s presidential primary.

After Reagan’s inauguration, Alabama’s down-ticket races still turned on what candidate could bridge economic populism and cultural conservatism, said Democratic pollster Zac McCrary, whose firm worked for Hillary Clinton’s and Joe Biden’s presidential campaigns.

“Democrats won when they were able to play up economic sentiments and turn down the volume on the culture wars,” McCrary said. In office, they implemented more liberal economic policies at the state level, especially K-12 education spending.

Wallace won his fourth term as governor in 1982 after disavowing segregation and winning over enough Black voters. Democrats won U.S. Senate seats, including recently retired Sen. Richard Shelby’s 1986 victory. Shelby switched parties to the GOP only after Republicans’ 1994 midterm romp driven by Newt Gingrich, the eventual House speaker whom Wallace biographer Dan Carter called an heir to the Alabama governor’s legacy.

In 1996, Alabama’s other Senate seat flipped. Jeff Sessions, a staunch conservative and lifelong Republican, went on to become the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, giving him high-profile validation on his way to the nomination. Trump made Sessions attorney general but ultimately fired him.

Alabama voters had previewed the turn to Trump: While Republicans nominated moderates John McCain and Mitt Romney for president in 2008 and 2012, Alabama’s primaries went to conservative populists Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. Between those elections, Republicans finally took control of the Alabama Legislature in the first midterms after Obama’s election.

Today, Alabama’s two U.S. senators represent two styles of Republican politics, offering a rough analogue to Southern Democrats’ split in Wallace’s heyday.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville is a Trump acolyte. He talked to Trump from the Senate floor as Trump supporters began storming Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021; now he’s blocking military promotions to protest Pentagon policies for servicemembers seeking abortions.

Sen. Katie Britt, meanwhile, is a former head of the state chamber of commerce and chief of staff to Shelby, the old-guard dealmaker first elected as a Democrat. Like her old boss, Britt operates more behind the scenes and campaigns generically on “conservative Alabama values.”

Still, as Shelby did, she avoids criticizing Trump.

Buchanan, the Republican pollster, said: “It’s Donald Trump’s world and we’re all just living in it.”

—- Associated Press reporter Kim Chandler contributed from Montgomery, Alabama.