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Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, Sahil Kapur examines how votes today on two hot-button issues provide a sense of how the Democratic Party is handling the second Trump presidency. Speaking of, the new administration was busy once again — we break down the top lines from Day 3. And Ben Kamisar takes stock of what comes next for JD Vance’s and Marco Rubio’s replacements in the Senate.
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— Adam Wollner
Congressional Republican leaders brought up two bills this week on hot-button issues. Democrats embraced one and rejected the other, providing a glimpse into how they will approach the second Donald Trump presidency.
One of them, the Laken Riley Act, which aims to crack down on undocumented immigrants who commit nonviolent crimes, is about to become law. The House passed it on Wednesday with the support of 46 Democrats after the Senate approved it earlier this week with the votes of 12 Democrats. It’s now on track to be the first major bill Trump signs in his new term.
The other Republican-led bill, which would impose penalties on health care providers who fail to provide care for children in the event of a failed abortion, was voted down in the face of unanimous Democratic opposition in the Senate on Wednesday. The party-line vote of 52-47 fell short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.
The Democrats who supported the Laken Riley Act — most of them in swing states or districts — defied progressives and immigration advocates who warned that the bill would strip away due process for migrants and empower right-wing state prosecutors to shape federal enforcement.
Asked what caused the Democratic shift on immigration, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said: “A blinding flash of common sense.”
But on the abortion measure, Democrats gave the GOP no quarter, a sign that the party remains confident in their political stance and ready to fight for it.
“Today’s vote on Senate Republicans’ so-called ‘born alive’ bill makes one thing clear: under President Trump, it will be a golden age, but for the extreme, anti-choice movement,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday.
The reason for the split-screen can be found in the 2024 presidential election results. According to NBC News exit polls, voters trusted Trump to handle immigration, but trusted Kamala Harris on abortion. The two issues ranked similarly highly for voters, but those who listed immigration as their top issue voted 89%-9% for Trump, while those who prioritized abortion voted 76-24% for Harris.
Lawmakers sending the Laken Riley Act to Donald Trump’s desk coincided with the implementation of a few key elements of his immigration agenda. Here are the top lines from the third day of the new president’s tenure:
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The Senate swore in its newly appointed members Tuesday evening — Republicans John Husted of Ohio and Ashley Moody of Florida to replace JD Vance and Marco Rubio, respectively — bringing the GOP’s majority back to full strength and drawing some important battle lines ahead of 2026.
The vast majority of appointed senators who have decided to run for a full term this century have succeeded — 11 still serve in the Senate, like Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn.
But four appointed senators failed in their next election since 2000 — former Sens. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Martha McSally, R-Ariz., Luther Strange, R-Ala., and Jean Carnahan, D-Mo. For Strange, the appointment ultimately backfired politically, souring him in the eyes of Republican voters who preferred a more hardline conservative. Despite Trump’s endorsement of Strange, he went on to lose the GOP primary.
Loeffler and McSally also found that their incumbent status was not powerful enough to dampen intraparty tensions — the former had to fend off a Republican challenger and the latter continued to face pressure about her conservative bonafides and about her appointment. Both lost difficult general elections.
And the circumstances of Carnahan’s appointment were unique. Her husband won the 2000 Senate election even though he had died less than a month before Election Day, leading to her appointment, which was her first foray into elected office. She narrowly lost in 2002 in a difficult year for her party. (Montana Democratic Sen. John Walsh initially sought a full term in 2014 after his appointment, but dropped out amid a plagiarism scandal.)
Overall, the record of appointed senators who decided to face voters is far more mixed. Of the 132 who decided to run, 71 won and 61 lost.
In Florida, Rep. Cory Mills is already telegraphing a potential primary bid against Moody, questioning whether she’s more loyal to Gov. Ron DeSantis (who appointed her) or Donald Trump. And while the energy in Ohio is more focused on the open governor’s race, it’s possible that someone from the state’s deep GOP bench (including those who have run in the Senate primaries before) decides to jump in.
The big question for these newly minted senators remains: Will their appointments solidify the party around them, or will there be room for potential opponents to exploit?
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Ben Kamisar.
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