LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to tap state senator Brian A. Benjamin as her lieutenant governor, three sources familiar with the matter tell News 4. Benjamin, a Democrat who also ran for state comptroller in this year’s elections, has served as the New York State Senator for District 30, which is made up of Harlem, East Harlem (El Barrio), the…

Democrats took full control of the Virginia legislature for the first time in more than two decades on Tuesday while Democrat Andrew Beshear pulled off an apparent upset in the race for governor in deeply Republican Kentucky despite a last-minute boost from President Donald Trump. Beshear — the state’s attorney general and the son of Kentucky’s last Democratic governor, Steve...

Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves has won the Republican nomination for governor and will face Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood and two other candidates in November. Reeves defeated former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. in Tuesday’s primary runoff. Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky are the only states electing governors this year. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant is limited to two...

Former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who became the state’s first female elected governor only to see her political career derailed by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, has died. After struggling for years with cancer, Blanco died Sunday in hospice care in Lafayette. She was 76. “Our hearts are broken, but we are joyful in knowing that she is rejoicing...

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is opening the lieutenant governor’s mansion’s pool to the general public, including children’s groups that teach swimming safety.

New York’s Senate easily approved a bill Wednesday that would allow three congressional committees to get access to President Donald Trump’s state tax returns, giving Democrats a potential end-run around the administration’s refusal to disclose the president’s federal returns. The bill, which now goes to the state Assembly, doesn’t target Trump by name but would authorize state tax officials to...

Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and went on to serve six terms in the U.S. Senate, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack, who also served at times for Hollings as spokesman during his Senate career, said Hollings died at his home on the Isle of Palms...

Democrat Stacey Abrams says she doesn’t expect to decide on a presidential bid until the fall because “the average voter is not paying attention until Labor Day.” On MSNBC on Thursday, Abrams also offered support for former Vice President Joe Biden, who has acknowledged that his tendency toward physical displays of affection made some women uncomfortable and has promised to...

It’s simply a “human touch.” He’s a “warm, affectionate person.” He “hugs everybody.” In the days since allegations surfaced of uninvited touching on the part of Joe Biden, several women in politics and beyond have been coming to his defense, vouching for his character and saying it was merely his old-fashioned tactile style at issue — nothing intentional, and certainly...

Former Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged Wednesday that his tendency toward physical displays of affection and encouragement has made some women uncomfortable, and he promised to be “much more mindful” of respecting personal space. “Social norms have begun to change. They’ve shifted,” the 76-year-old Biden said in a cellphone video posted to Twitter . “And the boundaries of protecting personal...

Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax’s team says he took a polygraph that supports his denials that he engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with two women are truthful. The two women are set to speak in TV interviews for the first time on Monday and Tuesday.

Joe Biden on Monday forcefully rejected comparisons of his embrace of colleagues, friends and their families during swearing-in ceremonies as vice president and the 2014 allegation he says he can’t recall involving a Democratic candidate in Nevada. The questions about whether Biden’s long history of physical expression, with heightened scrutiny in the #MeToo movement, prompted Biden to defend his actions,...

Joe Biden’s spokesman said Friday that the former vice president does not recall kissing a Nevada political candidate on the back of her head in 2014. The allegation was made in a New York Magazine article written by Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state representative and the 2014 Democratic nominee for Nevada lieutenant governor. Flores’ claim comes as Biden, the...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Clemency Board are considering early prison release for a man known as “White Boy Rick,” once one of the FBI’s youngest informants and the subject of a recent Hollywood movie.

The ongoing fight to ban gun sales permanently from expos held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds is now headed to Sacramento.

The lawyer for a college professor who has accused Virginia’s lieutenant governor of sexual assault sent a letter to Virginia lawmakers urging a full investigation.

A college professor avoided talking directly about her accusation that Virginia’s lieutenant governor sexually assaulted her, but she talked in detail about her research and thoughts on the growing number of women reporting abuse. “One thing that I notice with sexual violence is that there are many people who would like to glance away from this,” Vanessa Tyson told a...

Hours after Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax again denied two claims of sexual assault, both women accusing him said they would be willing to testify at a possible impeachment hearing as the Virginia Democrat faces calls to resign and a threat of impeachment.

Democrats’ calls for an investigation into sex assault claims against Virginia’s Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax dissolved into demands for resignation and threats of impeachment after a second woman publicly accused him.

Virginia’s Democrats struggled to find their way out of three interlocking political crises Thursday that could bring down the party’s top elected officials and put a Republican in the governor’s chair.