WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is out of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, the White House said Monday, after multiple allegations of abusing her position’s power, including having an affair with a subordinate and drinking alcohol on the job.

Chavez-DeRemer is the third Trump Cabinet member to leave her post after Trump fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March and ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month.

Unlike other recent Cabinet departures, Chavez-DeRemer’s exit was announced by a White House aide, not by the president on his social media account.

“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said on the social media site X. “She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives.”

He said Keith Sonderling, the current deputy labor secretary, would become acting labor secretary in her place. The news outlet NOTUS was the first to report Chavez-DeRemer’s resignation.

Chavez-DeRamer’s departure follows reports that began surfacing in January that she was under a series of investigations.

A New York Times report last Wednesday revealed that the Labor Department’s inspector general was reviewing material showing Chavez-DeRemer and her top aides and family members routinely sent personal messages and requests to young staff members.

Chavez-DeRemer’s husband and father exchanged text messages with young female staff members, according to the newspaper. Some of the staffers were instructed by the secretary and her former deputy chief of staff to “pay attention” to her family, people familiar with the investigation told the Times.

Those messages were uncovered as part of a broader investigation of Chavez-DeRamer’s leadership that began after the New York Post reported in January that a complaint filed with the Labor Department’s inspector general accused Chavez-DeRemer of a relationship with the subordinate.

She also faced allegations that she drank alcohol on the job, and that she tasked aides to plan official trips for primarily personal reasons.

Both the White House and the Labor Department initially said the reports of wrongdoing were baseless. But the official denials got less full-throated as more allegations emerged — and when Chavez-DeRemer might be out of a job became something of an open question in Washington.

At least four Labor Department officials have already been forced from their jobs as the investigation progressed, including Chavez-DeRemer’s former chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, as well as a member of her security detail, with whom she was accused of having the affair, the New York Times reported.

“I think the secretary demonstrated a lot of wisdom in resigning,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Monday after her departure was made public.

Confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet on a 67-32 vote in March 2025, Chavez-DeRemer is a former House GOP lawmaker who had represented a swing district in Oregon. She enjoyed unusual support from unions as a Republican but lost reelection in November 2024.

In her single term in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer backed legislation that would make it easier to unionize on a federal level, as well as a separate bill aimed at protecting Social Security benefits for public-sector employees.

Some prominent labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, backed Chavez-DeRemer, who is a daughter of a Teamster, for Labor Secretary. Trump’s decision to pick her was viewed by some political observers as a way to appeal to voters who are members of or affiliated with labor organizations.

But other powerful labor leaders were skeptical when she was tapped for the job, unconvinced that Chavez-DeRemer would pursue a union-friendly agenda as a part of the incoming GOP administration. In her Senate confirmation hearing, some senators questioned whether she would be able to uphold that reputation in an administration that fired thousands of federal employees.

Aside from reports of wrongdoing in recent months, Chavez-DeRemer had been one of Trump’s more lower-profile Cabinet picks, but took key steps to advance the administration’s deregulatory agenda during her tenure.

For instance, the Labor Department last year moved to rewrite or repeal more than 60 workplace regulations it saw as obsolete. The rollbacks included minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities, and rules governing exposure to harmful substances and safety procedures at mines. The effort drew condemnation from union leaders and workplace safety experts.

The proposed changes also included eliminating a requirement that employers provide adequate lighting for construction sites and seat belts for agriculture workers in most employer-provided transportation.

During Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure, the Trump administration canceled millions of dollars in international grants that a Labor Department division administered to combat child labor and slave labor around the world, ending their work that had helped reduce the number of child laborers worldwide by 78 million over the last two decades.

The Labor Department has a broad mandate as it relates to the U.S. workforce, including reporting the U.S. unemployment rate, regulating workplace health and safety standards, investigating minimum wage, child labor and overtime pay disputes, and applying laws on union organizing and unlawful terminations.

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Associated Press writers Steven Sloan and Will Weissert in Washington, and Cathy Bussewitz in New York, contributed to this report.

The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded that Michigan’s Wayne County turn over all its ballots from the 2024 election just weeks after it made similar requests in Georgia and Arizona.

The earlier requests were for ballots and other records from 2020, the presidential election President Donald Trump lost, while the fresh request is for the last round of voting in a swing state Trump won.

The letter, from the head of the department’s Civil Rights Division, appears to be a widening of Trump’s grievances over his false claims that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election while at the same time looking ahead to this fall’s critical midterm election, when control of the U.S. House and Senate is in the balance.

In a statement issued Sunday joined by Michigan’s Democratic governor and secretary of state, Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel derided the move as “weaponizing the Justice Department” in an attempt to “interfere in state elections.”

“If this administration wants to bring this circus to our state, my office is prepared to protect the people’s right to vote,” Nessel said.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon’s letter, dated April 14, demanded 2024 ballots and other records from Wayne County, which includes the strongly Democratic city of Detroit. Nessel said nearly 865,000 votes were cast there in 2024.

Dhillon said the reason for the demand is to ensure no fraud occurred in the 2024 balloting, citing three instances of fraudulent votes in 2020 and a civil lawsuit filed over absentee ballot processing. According to a response by Nessel, Michigan officials identified and prosecuted the three cases and a judge dismissed the lawsuit after finding that “sinister and fraudulent motives” were alleged which were “incorrect and not credible.”

“Michigan’s elections are safe and secure,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in the joint statement. “This demand is a poorly disguised attempt to justify more doubt and misinformation about our elections as well as direct federal interference.”

Michigan officials’ failure to produce the records within 14 days of receiving the request could mean the U.S. Justice Department would seek a court order, but Nessel appears in no hurry to comply. She objected to a number of issues she believes preclude a response, including the age of the fraud incidents cited, how rare such cases are and that the request was made of Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett, while ballots are in the possession of 43 local clerks across the county.

An emailed request for comment from Garrett did not receive an immediate reply.

Federal pressure yielded election records in the earlier swing states. The FBI, acting on a search warrant signed by a judge, in January searched the election office of heavily Democratic Fulton County, Georgia, which has been a target of election conspiracy theories related to Trump’s 2020 loss. Fulton County officials have since been in court attempting to regain possession of the seized records.

A grand jury subpoena last month forced the Arizona state Senate to turn over to the FBI records related to a contentious audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. Democrats in the state criticized the GOP Senate president for complying, noting he is aware of multiple reviews, independent investigations and legal challenges over the election that have shown no evidence of widespread fraud.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Another Democrat is exiting the crowded contest for California governor.

Betty Yee — a former state controller— announced Monday she was suspending her campaign, just over a week after fellow Democrat and former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell left the race following sexual assault allegations that he denies.

Yee was vying to be the first woman to hold the state’s highest office. But she lagged in fundraising and failed to break into the leading tier of candidates in polling since entering the contest in 2024. In a fluid race that many voters have ignored, she tried to pitch herself as a candidate “who focuses on solutions rather than soundbites” or a levelheaded “boring Betty.”

None of it worked. And lacking funds for advertising — California has some of the most expensive media markets in the nation — there would be no way for her campaign to connect with voters across the vast state.

“It was becoming clear that the donors were not going to be there. Even some of my former supporters just felt like they needed to move on,” Yee said in an online news conference disclosing her decision.

Even with Yee out, the contest to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom remains crowded and unpredictable, with no clear leader. Yee’s withdrawal leaves six established Democrats and two leading Republicans on a ballot with more than 50 names.

Mail ballots are scheduled to go to voters in early May, in advance of the June 2 primary election. At this stage of the campaign, Yee’s name cannot be removed.

Swalwell’s exit reordered the race, since he was among the leading Democrats. Yee, however, had been frozen around the bottom of the field with scant voter support, so the impact of her departure will not be as significant.

Democrats have feared the party’s large number of candidates could lead to them getting shut out of the general election in November. That’s because California has a primary system in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.

Polling in late March and early April by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found a cluster of candidates in close competition: Democrats Tom Steyer and former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Swalwell. Other candidates were trailing. The polling was conducted before Swalwell withdrew.

FBI Director Kash Patel hit The Atlantic magazine with a $250 million defamation lawsuit on Monday, claiming an article that talked about mismanagement at the agency and his alleged excessive drinking was false and a “malicious hit piece.” The Atlantic said it stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend against the “meritless lawsuit.”

In the article, posted on the magazine’s website Friday, author Sarah Fitzpatrick said Patel is deeply concerned about losing his job and that “he has good reasons to think so — including some having to do with what witnesses described to me as bouts of excessive drinking.” Fitzpatrick was also named as a defendant.

His behavior, including “both conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences,” has alarmed officials at the FBI and Department of Justice, leading one official speaking anonymously to say that worry about what would happen in the case of a terrorist attack in the U.S. “keeps me up at night,” the magazine said.

The White House told The Atlantic that Patel remains a critical player on President Donald Trump’s law and order team and credited him for decreases in the crime rate. Trump’s team is also said to be pleased by Patel’s willingness to go after the president’s rivals.

Patel, in the lawsuit filed in district court in Washington, denied the allegations of his behavior and criticized the magazine for relying on anonymous sources. Fitzpatrick wrote that she interviewed more than two dozen people and granted them anonymity to “discuss sensitive information and private conversations.”

“Defendants cannot evade responsibility for their malicious lies by hiding behind sham sources,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said Patel’s lawyers asked The Atlantic for more time to respond to accusations but the magazine did not reply. “It is among the strongest possible evidence of actual malice,” it said.

The Atlantic said Patel had been spotted drinking heavily at the private club Ned’s in Washington and at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas, where he often spends time on the weekends. Six people told the magazine that briefings and meetings involving Patel had to be rescheduled for later in the day because of drinking the night before.

It said that on “multiple occasions” Patel’s security team had difficulty waking him and at one point requested equipment designed to forcibly open a building when Patel was unreachable behind closed doors.

With his lawsuit, Patel is following a playbook used by his boss to fight back against damaging stories. Last week, a judge in Florida dismissed Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its report about a risqué birthday greeting he had sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The judge said Trump had not plausibly alleged the story was published with actual malice, the standard for a libel finding.

Last September, another judge dismissed Trump’s $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times and some reporters for a story critical of the president’s business acumen. Trump was allowed to file an amended lawsuit, which he did.

Trump also sued CBS News and ABC News for stories he didn’t like before taking office again for his second term. Both of those news organizations paid a settlement out of court to Trump before the cases could go to trial.

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

By Michael S. Derby

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) – Democratic members of a Senate panel set to hold a confirmation hearing for Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh on Tuesday are worried about the potential central bank leader’s pledge to unload assets not allowed by current ethics rules.

In a report on Monday, the group pointed to Warsh’s recent plan to unload millions of dollars in assets if made Fed leader and asked who might buy this large volume of holdings, some of which may be hard to sell.

Warsh “has not provided key details regarding his plans to divest his assets,” which means it is unclear to Congress and the general public who or what will be buying these assets, minority members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs wrote in their report.

“Without transparent information on his holdings and divestitures, there is no way for the public to have confidence that Mr. Warsh is making decisions based on what is in the best interest of our economy, instead of his own bottom line or the interests of his Wall Street billionaire associates,” the report said. 

The Democratic report also pointed to Warsh’s very close ties to financier Stanley Druckenmiller and wondered if he would be an avenue to help Warsh unload his holdings.  

“The vast majority of Mr. Warsh’s assets are tied to Mr. Druckenmiller, raising concerns that if Mr. Warsh divests his assets as he has committed to, Mr. Druckenmiller could be one of the people cutting a check to Mr. Warsh,” the report said. “It is not unreasonable for the public to question an arrangement in which a billionaire investor cashes out the future Fed Chair to the tune of millions, as he takes office,” the legislators wrote.

Warsh did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his divestiture plans. On Monday he updated his plan to divest holdings after interactions with the central bank’s ethics office.

Last week, ahead of his confirmation hearing, Warsh released financial disclosures detailing wealth of over $100 million. Among his extensive holdings of assets, Warsh did not provide details for a number of investments and pledged to divest any holdings that are forbidden by Fed ethics rules.

Central bank rules put in place in 2022 sharply limit what top Fed officials and their families can invest in. That which can’t be held has a window in which it can be sold, with rules governing how those assets are unloaded.

If he is confirmed, Warsh, chosen for the job by President Donald Trump after extolling the need for interest-rate cuts after a long period of being hawkish, would be the wealthiest Fed leader in the central bank’s history.

Over recent years, Fed officials have faced a range of challenges managing their assets and some have been formally rapped for creating conflicts of interest with their investing activities.

Warsh faces a challenging path to becoming Fed leader. A key Republican said he would oppose any vote to confirm Warsh until legal investigations into the Fed by the Trump administration are ended. Current Fed chair Jerome Powell will see his leadership term end next month.

Most Fed watchers put low odds on Warsh being confirmed in time to take over for Powell and given the issues at play, it could be some time before the one-time Fed governor gets his vote.

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

By Ann Saphir

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) – Kevin Warsh, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, will tell lawmakers at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday that he is “committed to ensuring that the conduct of monetary policy remains strictly independent,” according to prepared remarks released on Monday.

“I am equally committed to working with the Administration and Congress on non-monetary matters that are part of the Fed’s remit,” the 56-year-old financier and former Fed governor will tell members of the Senate Banking Committee.

Fed independence is “at its peak in the operational conduct of monetary policy,” Warsh said in his prepared remarks. “That degree of independence does not extend to the full range of its congressionally mandated functions,” he said, adding that U.S. central bank policymakers are not entitled to the same “special deference” in their stewardship of public monies, bank regulation and supervision, “or in areas affecting international finance, among other matters.”

Warsh, who has been nominated to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell as head of the central bank, also pledged to push through change at the monetary policy agency, saying the tendency of large and complex institutions to stick with the status quo is “harmful” when the world is changing fast.

“In a time that will rank among the most consequential in our nation’s history, I believe a reform-oriented Federal Reserve can make a real difference to the American people,” he said in the prepared remarks.

Warsh, who was a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011, used much of his speech to reprise critiques he has made of the central bank in the decade and a half since resigning. The Fed, he said, must “stay in its lane” rather than stray into fiscal and social policies, phrasing that in the past he has used to take the central bank to task for doing research into the economic implications of climate change and targeting “inclusive” full employment. The Fed in the last few years has largely abandoned any focus on climate change.

Warsh also said he views Fed independence as being under siege because the central bank has failed to ensure its congressionally assigned mandate of price stability.

“Low inflation is the Fed’s plot armor, its vital protection against slings and arrows,” Warsh said. “So, when inflation surges – as it has done in recent years – grievous harm is done to our citizens … (who) may also lose faith in our system of economic governance, raising doubts whether monetary policy independence is all it’s cracked up to be.”

“Inflation is a choice, and the Fed must take responsibility for it,” said Warsh, who has repeatedly lambasted U.S. central bank policymakers for blaming the post-pandemic burst of inflation on supply shocks.

Warsh’s confirmation hearing before the Senate panel is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir, Doina Chiacu and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Michelle Nichols, Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)

By Michael S. Derby

April 20 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Warsh has pledged to divest from a foreign-oriented investment fund if confirmed to lead the U.S. central bank, according to an updated financial disclosure filing.

In a filing dated April 17 that amended an original filing on April 10, Warsh told the Fed’s ethics officer, “I will divest my interests in iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index (XIU)” if confirmed to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell in the central bank’s top job. Warsh, a financier and former Fed governor, said he would make this move because “agency ethics officials have since advised me that the duties of my position will involve particular matters affecting the financial interests of the underlying holding” in the fund.

The fund that Warsh says he will divest from targets Canadian equities. Current Fed rules governing what investments policymakers and their immediate family members can hold limit exposure to foreign investments, among a broad range of other rules banning certain types of investments and how affected central bankers can manage their holdings.

Warsh’s overall disclosures released last week showed that the Fed nominee, who faces a confirmation hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee, is extremely wealthy and holds a wide range of investments, many of which are not fully disclosed, that he said he will have to sell if he’s confirmed for the top Fed job.

His confirmation, however, has been clouded by a legal investigation into the Fed and its current leadership. A number of legislators have vowed that Warsh will not be confirmed until it is resolved, which makes it highly unlikely he will be in place to take over when Powell’s tenure as Fed chief ends on May 15.

“I continue to believe that Mr. Warsh is in compliance with applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest,” the Fed’s internal ethics officer wrote in the latest filing.

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Paul Simao)

By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a bid by the Archdiocese of Denver and other Catholic entities to be exempted from a Colorado preschool funding program’s nondiscrimination requirement in the latest clash between religious rights and LGBT protections at the nation’s top judicial body.

The justices took up an appeal of a lower court’s decision that found that Colorado’s program did not violate the religious rights of the Catholic plaintiffs under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

The program provides state funds for preschools. The Catholic plaintiffs objected to the state’s requirement that schools receiving funding under the program give all children “equal opportunity” to enroll in preschool regardless of certain characteristics, including the sexual orientation or gender identity of students or their family members.

The Archdiocese of Denver oversees 34 Catholic preschools.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case in its next term, which begins in October. President Donald Trump’s administration backed the request by the Catholic plaintiffs for the justices to hear the case.

The Catholic plaintiffs claimed that Colorado’s program pushes families toward preschools that “share the government’s views on these issues,” thereby penalizing religious schools and families who disagree.

Referring to the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide, the lawyers for the plaintiffs told the justices in a filing that the court had promised “that religious groups would be protected when they dissent from secular orthodoxies about marriage and sexuality.”

The lawyers for the plaintiffs cited the First Amendment provision protecting freedom of religious exercise.

“The Free Exercise Clause simply cannot do that important

work – which this court has described as ‘at the heart of our pluralistic society’ – if it can be so easily evaded,” they wrote.

Colorado has argued that its equal-opportunity requirements do not intrude on the Free Exercise Clause because they are neutral and apply generally to participating groups.

The parties disagree over whether the state’s preschool program creates a carveout for certain secular purposes, such as to prioritize children from low-income families or those with disabilities, while refusing exemptions for religious reasons. 

A Colorado-based federal judge in 2024 sided with Colorado officials’ defense of the program. The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling last year, prompting the current appeal to the Supreme Court.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)

WASHINGTON (AP) — There aren’t any candidates on the ballot in Virginia’s statewide special election on Tuesday, but the contest could still decide control of the closely divided U.S. House this fall.

Voters in the Commonwealth will consider a ballot measure that would amend Virginia’s constitution to give the Democratic-majority General Assembly temporary power to redraw the state’s congressional districts. It’s the latest move in an escalating redistricting arms race that began in July 2025, when Texas Republican lawmakers redrew their state’s congressional map to favor Republicans at President Donald Trump’s urging.

Democrats hold six of Virginia’s 11 congressional seats, but if a plan passed by the legislature in February and signed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger is enacted, the party could gain the upper hand in 10 districts, a net pickup of four seats.

The new boundaries would be in place in time for November’s midterm congressional elections, where just a handful of seats could determine which party controls the House for the last two years of Trump’s final term.

Under the proposal, state lawmakers would retain the power to redraw district boundaries until October 2030, when the authority would revert to the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission.

Spanberger and former President Barack Obama are among the high-profile Democrats who have endorsed the referendum, saying it’s a necessary response to Republican-initiated mid-decade redistricting in other states. But groups opposed to the measure have also prominently featured the two in campaign materials alongside their past quotes critical of gerrymandering. Former GOP Govs. Glenn Youngkin and George Allen oppose the measure.

Groups supporting the proposed amendment have far outraised those opposing it, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

Democrats won Virginia in the past five presidential elections, but voters tend to be less party-loyal in state elections, as the governorship has changed party hands six times over the last 33 years.

If support for the measure falls mostly along party lines, the “Yes” side can expect overwhelming support in the state’s traditional Democratic strongholds of Northern Virginia and the cities of Richmond and Norfolk, while the “No” side should see wide margins in the smaller, more rural counties that make up the bulk of the state geographically.

Fairfax County, the state’s most populous, votes heavily Democratic, but Republican candidates who can chip away at the Democratic advantage there can win statewide. In 2021, Republicans Youngkin and then-attorney general candidate Jason Miyares received about 35% of the vote in Fairfax and won their races. By comparison, Trump lost Virginia in all three of his presidential campaigns, and his best showing in Fairfax was about 31% in 2024. Republican Winsome Earle-Sears received about 26% of the vote in her unsuccessful 2025 gubernatorial bid.

Other key jurisdictions to watch are Chesterfield and Stafford counties and the cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Spanberger and Democratic presidential nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris carried all four areas in their statewide victories, but Youngkin swept the four in 2021. Majority “No” votes in any of these areas on election night could be an indicator of a very close race.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing side to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Virginia does not conduct automatic recounts. On ballot questions, a group of 50 or more voters may request and pay for a recount if the vote margin is 1 percentage point or less. The government will pay for the recount if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points or the recount changes the outcome. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

The proposed constitutional amendment is the only statewide contest on the ballot.

It reads: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”

A “yes” vote would support allowing the General Assembly to redraw congressional districts ahead of the midterms. A “no” vote would leave current boundaries unchanged until the next round of regularly scheduled redistricting after the 2030 census.

Any voter registered in Virginia can cast a ballot. Eligible voters may register on Election Day.

There were 6,386,877 registered voters as of March 1. Virginia voters do not register by party.

About 3.4 million votes were cast in the 2025 general election for Virginia governor, which was the last statewide election. This was about 54% of registered voters at the time.

About 43% of total votes cast in the 2025 general election for governor were cast early or by absentee ballot.

As of Monday, about 1.4 million ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election. That’s about 93% of the total advance votes cast in the 2025 gubernatorial election. In-person early voting concluded on Saturday.

Virginia counties and independent cities vary in terms of when they release results from early and absentee voting.

Less than a third of jurisdictions release all or almost all of their early and absentee voting results in their first vote update of the night.

Nearly half the jurisdictions release no early or absentee voting results in the first vote update.

In the 2025 general election for Virginia governor, the AP first reported results at 7:10 p.m. ET, or 10 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 1:52 a.m. ET with more than 99% of total votes counted.

As of Tuesday, there will be 196 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The cherry blossoms draw more than a million visitors to Washington’s Tidal Basin annually. This year was no different, except some strolling the area between the Lincoln Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial were dressed in camouflage — and armed.

Eight months after President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital and called up the National Guard, more than 2,500 troops remain, in a deployment that has grown increasingly routine, with no clear end in sight.

Deployments to other cities have ended or been paused by courts in California and Illinois, while more limited operations are ongoing in cities including New Orleans. But in Washington, guard members still walk city streets and patrol metro stations, tourist attractions, neighborhoods and parks.

Even with pivotal elections looming this year, that lingering presence is barely mentioned in city council meetings or by candidates running for mayor and Congress — perhaps reflecting both competing priorities and a sense that local officials have little power to stop it. Unless the courts step in, the guard will remain at least through the end of the year, if not longer.

“Taxpayers are paying more than a million dollars a day to have them walk around,” said Phil Mendelson, chairman of the District of Columbia Council, in an emailed response to questions.

And, he said, “the presence of armed soldiers on American streets is not a good look.”

Trump, a Republican, issued an executive order in August to deal with what he called a crime emergency. The order brought the guard in, along with hundreds of additional federal law enforcement officers.

Over the months, guard members have responded to medical emergencies, assisted with arrests, helped local police enforce the city’s juvenile curfew and carried out beautification projects. The D.C. Guard helped with snow removal during a major storm in January.

While the guard members do not make arrests, the Trump administration argues their support to the broader mission has helped reduce crime. The White House said 12,000 arrests have been made by the task force since operations began, including 62 known gang members, and thousands of illegal firearms were seized.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the president’s crime task force in the city has “yielded tremendous results for local communities.”

“Every local leader should want to mimic this success in their own locales,” Jackson said.

But officials disagree over how much credit the deployment can be given in Washington, a heavily Democratic city. Figures show crime was already on the decline before, although those figures are being investigated after claims arose against local police that they may have been manipulated.

A court battle over the guard deployment is ongoing, and without a judge stepping in it could go on as long as the White House wants.

Asked how long the guard deployment would continue, Jackson said in an email that there were “no announcements to make.”

The office of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, which is challenging the deployment in court, declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit. The National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon did not answer requests for comment.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is not running for reelection, has walked a fine line on the guard’s deployment and the broader federal intervention, at once appearing to work with the president but also pushing back on some of his demands, like local cooperation for immigration enforcement.

Leading candidates to replace Bowser and the city’s 18-term non-voting delegate in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, have focused on affordability, statehood and trying to hold federal agencies accountable for their role in the surge.

The District Council, which includes at least four candidates for mayor or delegate, unanimously approved a measure to increase transparency in federal law enforcement operations. While the military deployment is mentioned at times on campaign websites and in ads, it isn’t currently a central campaign issue.

Other pressures on the city, including unemployment and lost revenue tied to federal workforce cuts, have taken priority. The city’s primaries are June 16, along with a special election for an at-large city council seat.

Some residents say frustrations over the guard eased after two members of the West Virginia contingent were ambushed just blocks from the White House, killing Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and severely injuring her colleague.

Kevin Cataldo, a neighborhood commissioner who joined the local Metropolitan Police on a walkalong in his neighborhood recently, said he already treated the guard members courteously, making a point to acknowledge them because they did not choose to be in the city. The shooting ambush deepened his sympathies for them. “That was just horrible,” he said.

District Council member Brianne Nadeau said constituents continue to ask why the guard is still around but the complaints are far fewer than at the start of the deployment.

“It would be great if the federal government would use its money and resources to help the District on the things we need help with and not act like an invading army,” Nadeau said in an email.

Fellow council members and mayoral candidates Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie have raised similar issues, including the high costs.

There has been little recent public polling specifically on attitudes toward the presence of uniformed personnel in U.S. cities.

Several groups are planning protests and other events on May 1 to oppose the federal surge, including the continuing presence of the National Guard, said Keya Chatterjee co-founder and executive director of Free DC, an advocacy group that fights for the city’s autonomy. Among the goals: “an end to the military occupation of D.C. before the June election.”

Chatterjee said normalizing the guard’s presence makes it easier to suppress dissent and “tilt the playing field” in elections.

The presence of guns and military personnel could create an intimidating atmosphere during elections, Chatterjee said. Citizens have to step in and “number one, we have to help our neighbors feel safe voting.”

Scott Michelman, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, said the situation underscores the city’s limits on self-governance.

Washington is a federal district with limited autonomy where Congress retains authority to review the city’s laws and control its budget and where the president has direct control of the D.C. Guard and can authorize an indefinite military deployment with little effective resistance from local authorities.

“We should have local control and local democratic accountability for the people who enforce our laws,” Michelman said. “D.C. is uniquely disempowered in our system in many ways.”

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This story has been corrected to show the spelling of the Free DC co-founder’s surname is Chatterjee, not Chatterjay.