Author

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include domestic policy and appropriations.

U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., arrives to a House Republican Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 12, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House Republicans continue to debate their pick for speaker after their initial candidate, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., appeared to lack the majority of the needed votes on the floor. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

There’s still no speaker of the U.S. House. Could Patrick McHenry be the solution?

By: , and - October 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise stepped into a closed-door meeting at the U.S. Capitol Thursday to negotiate with more than a dozen holdout Republicans in his quest to become the next speaker of the House, though dissent only seemed to grow following the three-hour session. On Thursday night, Scalise announced he was dropping […]

Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, who is running to become speaker of the U.S. House, talks with reporters on Tuesday, Oct. 10 following a closed-door candidate forum at the U.S. Capitol. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

Scalise nominated by U.S. House GOP as speaker in closed-door meeting

By: , and - October 11, 2023

WASHINGTON — Uncertainty and party infighting over the next U.S. House speaker prevailed at the Capitol Wednesday evening, despite a majority of Republicans picking Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise as their nominee behind closed doors earlier in the day. The chamber adjourned and was scheduled to return at noon Thursday to again try to elect a […]

Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks about the Hamas attack on Israel during a news conference in the Rayburn Room at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 9, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

McCarthy may jump into U.S. House speaker race, as crises overseas mount

By: , , and - October 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans will gather behind closed doors beginning Monday night in an attempt to decide who should become the chamber’s next speaker, a race with a renewed sense of urgency with ally Israel now at war and the House in paralysis. Louisiana’s Steve Scalise and Ohio’s Jim Jordan are the only candidates […]

U.S. Sen. Jim Jordan, D-Ohio, at the Faith and Freedom "Road to Majority" conference at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Convention Center on June 17. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Louisiana’s Steve Scalise and Ohio’s Jim Jordan jump into race for U.S. House speaker

By: and - October 5, 2023

WASHINGTON — Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio announced Wednesday they will seek the U.S. House speaker’s gavel after Kevin McCarthy’s unprecedented ouster brought the lower chamber into uncharted territory. Eight dissident Republicans joined Democrats to unseat McCarthy Tuesday, leaving a vacuum of GOP leadership and bringing an abrupt […]

U.S. House votes to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker

By: , and - October 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — Dissident Republicans in the U.S. House voted with Democrats on Tuesday to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker, a historic move that came just nine months after he secured the gavel following days of negotiating with the GOP’s right flank and 15 rounds of voting. It wasn’t immediately clear after the vote how the […]

amily members hold up images of late loved ones at a ceremony where U.S. President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act in the East Room of the White House on Aug. 10, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

PACT Act in one year aided 340,000 ailing veterans and survivors, Biden says

By: - August 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — One of the “most significant laws ever signed to help veterans” has already assisted over 340,000 former service members and their survivors seeking care for illnesses and cancers now presumed to be connected to open burn pits and other toxins, President Joe Biden said in Utah on Thursday as he marked one year […]

Former President Donald Trump boards his plane at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, following an arraignment in Washington, D.C. federal court on August 3, 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony criminal charges during his arraignment this afternoon after being indicted for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump pleads not guilty to charges he sought to subvert 2020 election

By: and - August 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to four felony charges in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after a federal grand jury handed up an indictment against the former chief executive related to the 2020 election. Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, was released under the conditions that […]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he makes a visit to the Cuban restaurant Versailles after he appeared for his arraignment on June 13, 2023 in Miami, Florida. Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 federal charges including possession of national security documents after leaving office, obstruction, and making false statements. (Photo by Alon Skuy/Getty Images)

‘Fueled by lies,’ Trump charged with seeking to overturn 2020 election

By: , and - August 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted Donald Trump on Tuesday, alleging that Trump and co-conspirators attempted to subvert the 2020 election to keep the former president in power through a series of illegal actions that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The former president faces four […]

The Biden administration has officially designated illicit fentanyl adulterated with xylazine as an “emerging drug threat.” Shown are bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, on display before a press conference on a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, Sept. 23, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

White House rolls out strategy to battle deadly drug mixture of fentanyl and xylazine

By: - July 12, 2023

WASHINGTON — The White House is unveiling a plan to combat the growing threat of drug overdose deaths involving the combination of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and the powerful sedative xylazine, approved only for veterinary use. The plan comes ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’s meeting with state attorneys general next week to discuss the staggering […]

Protestors near the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., after a ruling by the court striking down the use of affirmative action in college acceptance decisions, on Thursday, June 29, 2023. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

‘This is not a normal court,’ says Biden as GOP opponents praise affirmative action ruling

By: - June 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively scrambles the role affirmative action plays in the college admissions process cannot let the country slide “backwards,” President Joe Biden said just hours after the majority justices released their opinion. Meanwhile, Republicans seeking to challenge him in 2024 praised the decision. Issues of race and higher […]

An aerial shot of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Getty Images).

US Supreme Court strikes down use of affirmative action in college admissions

By: and - June 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that two prominent universities’ consideration of race in acceptances violated the U.S. Constitution, effectively reshaping the role of affirmative action in the college admissions process throughout higher education. In a 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, wrote that the admissions processes at […]

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, speaks during a hearing before Senate Armed Services Committee on Sept. 28, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Swelling crowd of top military nominees blocked from U.S. Senate vote by Tuberville 

By: - June 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — Despite top U.S. military retirements beginning in less than a month, Sen. Tommy Tuberville refuses to budge on his blockade of hundreds of armed services promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s reproductive care policy instituted after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The first-term Alabama Republican is provoking concern among his own party […]