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As recently as five days ago, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry was a member of Congress in good standing. Now, as NBC News reported, the Nebraska Republican is resigning.

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., on Saturday announced that he would resign from Congress, saying in a statement to constituents, Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer serve you effectively. ... In a letter to his colleagues in the House of Representatives, Fortenberry said he will resign from Congress effective March 31.

It was last Thursday when a Los Angeles jury convicted Fortenberry of lying to the FBI about receiving an illegal campaign contribution from a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire. The nine-term lawmaker was convicted of three counts and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count.

As last week came to an end, it was an open question as to what Fortenberry would do next. The Nebraskan vowed to appeal his conviction, and it seemed at least possible that he would move forward with his re-election plans.

GOP leaders had other ideas. The morning after Fortenberrys convictions, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called on the congressman to quit. When someone is convicted, its time to resign, McCarthy said. He had his day in court. I think if he wants to appeal, he can do that as a private citizen.

Short on allies, Fortenberry announced his resignation plans a day later. A special election will be held in Nebraskas 1st district, which is a Republican stronghold.

For those keeping score, this will be the sixth resignation from the current Congress, which is a relatively large number. Three House Democrats gave up their seats to serve in the Biden administration Louisianas Cedric Richmond, Ohios Marcia Fudge, and New Mexicos Deb Haaland and two Republicans quit for very different reasons.

Ohios Steve Stivers stepped down in April 2021 to oversee his home states chamber of commerce, and in December 2021, Californias Devin Nunes left Congress to run Donald Trumps controversial media company.

Speaking of the former president, its a safe bet that Fortenberry wishes Trump were still around. After all, Trump had a limitless tolerance for corruption, especially crimes committed by members of Congress: It was just a couple of election cycles ago when two incumbent House Republicans New Yorks Chris Collins and Californias Duncan Hunter faced multi-count felony indictments, ran for re-election anyway, and won.

They were later convicted, sentenced to prison, and pardoned by Trump, who was eager to reward his partisan loyalists.

Were he still in office, the Republican would also likely lend Fortenberry a hand. Indeed, after the Nebraskans indictment, Trump issued a statement of support, saying, Isnt it terrible that a Republican Congressman from Nebraska just got indicted for possibly telling some lies to investigators about campaign contributions, when half of the United States Congress lied about made up scams.

Oddly enough, this was not a defense Fortenberrys lawyers pushed during last weeks trial.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

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Following felony convictions, Republican congressman to resign - MSNBC

America's culture warriorshave massed on their latest battlefield: the classrooms of grade-school children.

Discussions aboutsexual identity and race are being forced out of schools in states where conservatives argue cultural change has gone overboard.

It's pitting them against liberals who decry these measures as bigotry cloaked in concern about children.

A focal point in this fight is a just-passed bill in Florida, HB 1557, which has so polarized the state and the country, people can't even agree on what to call it.

Parental Rights in Education: that's the official name. Don't Say Gay: that's critics' famous nickname for it. The Anti-Grooming bill that's the counter-nickname given by supporters.

It symbolizes struggles taking place in Texas,Tennesseeand a number of other states where similar measures are unfolding.

Legislative hearings on billHB 1557earlier this year offered a window into the politics at play, which follow deep cultural fault lines.

Bill opponents wept at times as they shared personal stories and said it would stigmatize gay, lesbian and transgender youth, who already suffer frighteningly high rates of depression and suicide.

"I never cry on a bill," said one lawmaker, Fentrice Driskell, stifling tears as she recounted the story of a childhood friend whose death was believed to be self-inflicted.

Parents in non-traditional families testified the bill would intimidate kids from doing basic things like drawing their family in art class.

One parent, Kerry Gaudio, urged lawmakers to put themselves in the shoes of a kid being made to feel their family is illegitimate: "It's going to cost lives," said Gaudio.

Other speakers, meanwhile, asked what all thefuss was about.

Here's what's in the bill, which would take effect July 1 if, as expected, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signsit into law.

Its main provisions:

"We don't want the school district to take on the role of being the parent. Because they're not," said Joe Harding, the Republican who introduced the bill.

The bill's critics contend LGBTQ kids arethe target; Harding originally proposed an amendment, since withdrawn, that could have forced school officials to out students to their parents.

Republican Mike Beltran lamented all the attention paid to a few controversial lines in the bill, which he called altogether reasonable.

"All [the bill] says is, 'We don't talk about [sexuality and gender] until the kids are out of third grade.' That's all it says. You can speak about it in fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grade. You can speak about it at home," Beltran said."Third grade is a very modest proposal."

One mother who supportsthe bill testified that school officials cut her out of conversations about her non-binary 13-year-old child.

January Littlejohn sued a school district when she learned officials allegedly agreed to start calling the child a new name, offered a switch of washroomsand asked whether the child would prefer to room with boys or girls on field trips.

The mother suggested her child might have been swayed by a trend; she said three of her child's friends had declared they were transgender.

During her testimony in the legislative hearing, Littlejohnfumed that she and her husband weren't told. "This created a huge wedge between our daughter and us,because it sent the message that she needed to be protected from us. Not by us."

Of note: Parts of this bill wouldn't apply to Littlejohn's child, at least not the provisions about what can't be discussed before Grade 4.

And that speaks to a major criticism of the bill.

Florida Democrats say there is no sex ed at that age anyway. And that even for older kids, parents have the right to opt out of it.

That's why they say the don't-say-gay label is fair: as far as they're concerned, that's what this bill is really about.

"It is a direct attack on LGBTQ+ identity," state lawmaker Anna Eskamani told CBC News, speaking about her Republican opponents' bill."They're not even being subtle about it. It's just so gross."

At one hearing, Eskamani asked whether kids could still ask teachers about a tragedy in her Orlando-area district: the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub.

The bill's sponsor, Harding, said that was fine. He said the bill targets procedures, not on-the-spot discussions: "Children ask a lot of questions. Conversations are going to come up."

Public opinion polling is split on aspects of the bill.

A Morning Consult survey for Politico found that Americans favoured bans on teaching sexual orientation and gender identity through third grade: 50 per cent supported it, 34 opposed it.

A smaller number supported letting parents sue over the policy: 41 per cent favoured that, while 43 per cent opposed it.

So what's happening nationally?

There are bills in several states,like one in Tennessee that would restrict books or teaching materials said to "normalize" LGBTQ "lifestyles."

The governor of Texas wants to punish parents of transitioning children. He's instructed child-protection services to open abuse investigations into parents who let children get treatments like puberty-blocking hormones, though the policy is currently blocked by a court.

The Texas move stems from a well-known divorce case there. A mother and father feuded over how to raise an eight-year-old transgender child. The court awarded custody to the transition-supporting mother, but forbade any treatments.

Eskamani's theory about what's driving the trend? Ambitious politicianswanting to build up their celebrity with right-wing voters.

The Texas governor, Greg Abbott,announced his child-protectivemeasure a week before a Republican primary, which he won.Even the Texas father involved in the famous court case later ran, unsuccessfully, for the state legislature.

It's no accident, Eskamani says, that both the Florida and Texas governors are rumoured to have presidential ambitions.

There's more at play than personal ambition, as these politicians are tapping into powerful existing currents within their party.

One factor is the pandemic. Conservative parents fumed at school systems, opposing mask mandates and demanding that schools reopen sooner, and protested at raucous board meetings.

They simultaneously rebelled against schools for teaching about racism, and all these themescombinedturned bashing the education establishment into a central Republican message in state elections last year.

And Republicans won. In fact, they won big. Including in places they didn't expect to win, like Virginia. The parents' rebellion came to be seen as the reason for the Republican win there, although some analysis disputes that education made the difference in Virginia.

Florida and numerous other states have also forbidden teaching about racism in a way that causes discomfort, guilt or anguish on account of a student's race.

At a January hearing in Florida where lawmakers advanced the Don't Say Gay bill, they discussed another education reform: stripping school-board workers of their salariesand using thosesavings to hire government monitors whoscrutinize the books in libraries.

Then there's QAnon.

Defenders of Florida's 1557 bill keep referring to it as an anti-grooming bill, which links it to a termassociated with pedophilesand a longstanding slur against gay people. Donald Trump Jr. used the reference, as did DeSantis's press secretary (though she apologized).

In Eskamani's view, that language is no accident. It's a tacit wink and a nod, she says, encouragingpeople who believe unhinged social-media-driven conspiracy theories about pedophiles secretly running governments.

"One hundred per cent," she said. "It all feeds into that same monster."

She anticipates that after DeSantis signs the bill into law, there will be lawsuits. There will also be pressure on companies to speak out, as Disney did, after facing pressure.

DeSantis told Disney to buzz off.

The governor's combative steak drew valuable praise.The conservative National Review called him the new voice of the Republican Party, a Trump-style fighter who never backs down, and dubbed him a 2024 presidential contender.

Some conservatives offer a gloomier take on why they're doing this: Because they're losing.

At one hearing on the Florida bill, Republican lawmakerScott Plakondescribed his side as being on the defensive, trying to slow cultural change that's moved too far, too quickly.Plakon said bill supporters want to draw a line somewhere.

The Republican said he was elected the same year as Barack Obama, 2008, with the same position on same-sex marriage:they both opposed it.

Four years later, he noted, Obama had switched his position. Immediately after, Plakon said, bakers and florists risked punishment for not serving a same-sex wedding or a celebration of a gender transition.

"Here's a rhetorical question," Plakon asked at a January hearing."Who started the culture wars?"

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Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' bill part of Republican drive to limit talk of sex and race in U.S. classrooms - CBC News

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Texas threw out mail votes at an abnormally high rate during the nations first primary of 2022, rejecting nearly 23,000 ballots outright under tougher voting rules that are part of a broad campaign by Republicans to reshape American elections, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.

Also see (March 2021): An all-hands moment: Republicans are rallying behind new voting limits

Roughly 13% of mail ballots returned in the March 1 primary were discarded and uncounted across 187 counties in Texas. While historical primary comparisons are lacking, the double-digit rejection rate would be far beyond what is typical in a general election, when experts say anything above 2% is usually cause for attention.

My first reaction is yikes, said Charles Stewart III, director of the Election Data and Science Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It says to me that theres something seriously wrong with the way that the mail ballot policy is being administered.

Republicans promised new layers of voting rules would make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. But the final numbers recorded by AP lay bare the glaring gulf between that objective and the obstacles, frustration and tens of thousands of uncounted votes resulting from tighter restrictions and rushed implementation.

From the archives (September 2021): Republican lawmakers give voice to fear that new voting restrictions could work against their own party

Also see (January 2022): What the federal voting-rights bill successfully filibustered this week by Senate Republicans aimed to achieve

And (January 2022): Arizona Democrats censure Sinema for blocking voting-rights bill with filibuster inflexibility

In Texas, a state former President Donald Trump easily won although by a smaller margin than 2016, the trouble of navigating new rules was felt in counties big and small, red and blue. But the rejection rate was higher in counties that lean Democratic (15.1%) than Republican (9.1%).

The unusually high rejection rate to start Americas midterm election season is expected to put more attention on changes to the ballot box elsewhere in the country. Texass election was the debut of more restrictive voting rules the GOP raced to put on the books across the U.S. in time for the midterm elections, a push that took particular aim at mail voting that soared in popularity during the pandemic.

At least 17 other states in the coming months will cast ballots under tougher election laws, in part driven by Trumps baseless and persistent claims of rampant fraud in the 2020 election. The rejected ballots in Texas alone far exceeds the hundreds of even possible voter fraud cases the AP has previously identified in six battleground states that Trump disputed.

From the archives (December 2021): Swing-state Republicans full steam ahead on reviews of 2020

Also (April 2021): Pressure mounts on corporations to denounce Republican voting bills

Plus (February 2022): Comcast, Goldman Sachs resume donations to some Republicans who objected to election results

The AP counted 22,898 rejected ballots across Texas by contacting all 254 counties and obtaining final vote reconciliation reports. Some smaller counties did not provide data or respond to requests, but the 187 counties that provided full numbers to AP accounted for 85% of the 3 million people who voted in the primary.

Last week, AP reported that 27,000 ballots had been flagged in Texas for initial rejection, meaning those voters still had time to fix their ballot for several days after the primary and have it count. But the final figures suggest most voters did not.

The most rejections were around Houston, a Democratic stronghold, where Harris County elections officials reported that nearly 7,000 mail ballots about 19% were discarded. During the last midterm elections in 2018, Texass largest county only rejected 135 mail ballots. Harris County elections officials said they received more than 8,000 calls since January from voters seeking help, which they attributed to confusion and frustration over the new requirements.

Dont miss (March 2021):Voting rights an intensifying partisan battleground, as Democrats push H.R. 1 and Republicans alter election procedures at state level

In the five counties won by Trump that had the most mail-in primary voters, a combined 2,006 mailed ballots were rejected, a rate of 10% of the total. In the counties won by Biden with the most mail-in voters, which include most of Texas biggest cities, a combined 14,020 votes were similarly rejected, which amounted to 15.7%.

In rural East Texas, Annette Young voted by mail like usual but received a surprising letter a week after the primary, informing her that the ballot never counted because it didnt comply with a new state law requiring mail voters to include personal identification numbers.

I just threw it right in the trash, she said.

Most of the rejected ballots, according to county election officials and the Texas secretary of state, failed to adhere to the new identification requirements. The changes were part of the sweeping overhaul to Texas elections that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in October, saying at the time that no one who is eligible to vote will be denied the opportunity to vote.

Abbott and top Texas Republicans who championed the changes have largely been silent about the high rejection rates. Abbotts office did not respond to requests seeking comment, and messages for Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan also went unanswered.

Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a proponent of the changes, said in an email that one issue might have been that ballot instructions printed in different ink colors red for signature, black for identification numbers might have left voters with the wrong impression they did not need to provide both.

Federal data on discarded mail ballots in general elections show few instances of double-digit rejection rates. The outliers include Indiana (14.5%) in 2006, Oregon (12.7%) in 2010 and New York (13.7%) in 2018, according to records from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Stewart, of MIT, said generally less is known about trends in primary elections because of lacking data. One assumption, he said, is that because primaries tend to draw the most habitual voters, they are less likely to mistakes that cause rejections.

But Stewart said others believe that officials may have more time to scrutinize, and reject, ballot paperwork in low-turnout elections.

The new mail ballot requirements in Texas include listing an identification number either a drivers license or a Social Security number on the ballots carrier envelope. That number must match the countys records, and if a ballot is rejected, voters are given the opportunity to supply the missing information or simply cast a ballot in person instead.

It is unknown how many Texas voters whose mail ballots were rejected may have still had their vote count by deciding to just show up in person instead.

Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the Texas secretary of state, said the office did not yet have its own final comprehensive numbers on ballot rejections. He said a significant portion of their efforts this year will be awareness about the new mail-in rules.

We are confident we will have all the information we need to apply any lessons learned during the primary to an even more robust voter education campaign heading into the November general election, he said.

Delores Tarver Smith, 87, took no chances with a mail ballot this year. She applied in Harris County for a mail ballot Feb. 1, but when none arrived before the election, she voted in person.

Last Wednesday more than a week after the primary her absentee ballot finally showed up at her home. I had to make sure my vote counted, she said.

From the archives (January 2022): Democrats more drawn to fine-tuning Electoral Count Act of 1887 after failure this week of ambitious voting-rights legislation

Read on (April 2021): More than half of Americans support open access to early and absentee voting, but nearly a third disagree

The rest is here:
Republican overhaul of Texas voting procedures has caused a spike in rejected ballots - MarketWatch

A Republican legislator who is running for Idaho Secretary of State in this springs primary elections is making her third attempt to make widespread changes to voter registration and identification laws in the name of election security.

Rep. Dorothy Moon, R-Stanley, sponsored House Bill 761. On Thursday, the House State Affairs Committee voted to put it on a fast-track and send it straight to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives, skipping the committee public hearing process.

Moons new 21-page bill would make several changes if it is passed into law. Some of the changes include:

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The bill would also create a $200,000 fund to pay for state identification cards that would be accepted for voting and available free of charge for people who do not have a drivers license or one of the other accepted forms of identification.

I think Ive addressed every issue and concern (in previous bills), Moon told the House State Affairs Committee on Thursday.

The Idaho Secretary of States Office said elections in Idaho are secure and that claims of widespread voter fraud made following the 2020 election are without merit.

Earlier version of the bills raised questions and drew opposition

The first two versions of the bill were similar but attracted opposition and raised many questions.

In legislative lingo, that makes House Bill 761 the grandson of House Bill 549, because it is the third generation.

The bill now has a clause that makes sure it wont take effect before this years May 17 primary elections. Instead, it would take effect on July 21. That means the changes would apply to Novembers general election if it is signed into law.

During Thursdays introductory hearing, Moon said she cleared up all the issues with the previous versions of the bill.

I think weve got it covered, I do, Moon said.

But Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, worried the bill would still make it very difficult for many students, young people and new Idaho residents to vote.

Im really concerned about the young person who is 19, 20, 21, 22 and proving their residency for same-day voting purposes, Gannon said.

Rep. Rod Furniss, R-Rigby, also told Moon he still has questions about how voters could prove their residency if their home was owned through a trust and they didnt have a lease or mortgage in their name.

I dont think that has really been hashed through as well as you would think, Furniss said during the bills introductory hearing.

Gannon and Rep. Chris Mathias, D-Boise, voted against introducing and fast-tracking Moons new bill Thursday, while all of the Republicans on the committee voted in favor of it.

At this point, the bill is already behind schedule. The Idaho Legislatures self-imposed transmittal deadline to move bills between the two legislative chambers was Monday. Legislative leaders have also said they are working to wrap up the session in about two weeks, by March 25.

Moon had the new bill sent straight to the House floor in an effort to speed it up with the potential end of the session closing in. If the Idaho House passes the bill in the coming days, it would still need to pass the Idaho Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Brad Little or allowed to become law without Littles signature.

Moon is running in the Republican primary for secretary of state this year. On Thursday, Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane announced he will also run for secretary of state in the GOP primary. The candidate filing period closes at 5 p.m. Friday.

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Republican Idaho legislator introduces third bill attempting to change voter registration, ID laws - Idaho Capital Sun

Former President Donald Trump smiles at the crowd after speaking at a rally Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in Florence, Ariz. Ross D. Franklin/AP hide caption

Former President Donald Trump smiles at the crowd after speaking at a rally Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in Florence, Ariz.

South Carolina Republican congressional candidate Russell Fry released a TV ad this week called "Villains Anonymous." It features the Joker, a pirate, Maleficent and Satan, all sitting in a circle in a sort of support group.

Joining them is an actor playing Rep. Tom Rice, a congressman from the state's 7th Congressional District.

Fry is challenging the incumbent Rice for the Republican nomination, and Trump is a major focus of his campaign. In the ad, Rice's admission that he voted for Trump's impeachment draws groans of disgust from the group of villains.

Donald Trump is also very focused on people like Fry these days, which is to say those running to unseat other Republicans Trump dislikes.

Rice is 1 of 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and Fry was chosen as a featured speaker at a Trump rally in Florence, S.C., on Saturday night.

Katie Arrington was chosen as another featured speaker. Trump is backing her against Republican Rep. Nancy Mace in the neighboring 1st District. Mace did not vote for impeachment, but did heavily criticize Trump after Jan. 6, saying that he "put all of our lives at risk."

The way Trump is intervening in primaries is unprecedented, according to Republican strategist Doug Heye.

"Other Republican presidents certainly have have gotten involved in political races," he said. "But they certainly haven't gone on a grievance tour and done so throughout the campaign cycle."

Trump's prominence in the GOP and the fact that those who praise him the most also often get opportunities in the spotlight was visible at the Conservative Political Action Conference held in Florida last month.

The conference, for example, did not feature Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a staunch conservative who is also a vocal Trump critic, as it had in the past. However, it did feature Harriet Hageman, who is challenging Cheney with Trump's support.

In his CPAC keynote speech, Trump exhorted the crowd to "fight and work hard to elect candidates who believe in the principles and policies that we hold so dear."

Hageman, who once was strongly anti-Trump, now does hold Trump dearly enough to get his endorsement. And she is heavily stressing her allegiance to him in this run.

One of her ads is called "Ride For The Brand" in it, cowboys explain to the camera that those who ride for the brand are loyal "to the person who hired them, to the one who paid them." Cheney, they add, is not loyal because she is "fighting against President Trump."

It's not just about endorsements, either: Trump has the power to direct large sums of campaign cash. His Save America PAC in 2021 gave $5,000 each the legal limit to a variety of candidates, including Hageman.

In the grand scheme of campaign money, that may not be a lot, but Trump's power to boost a candidate goes well beyond one PAC.

"What Trump's endorsement does, first and foremost, is it brings attention," Heye said. "He's not writing a lot of checks. He's keeping all that money that he has to himself thus far. But he is sending signals to like-minded organizations this is a candidate that they should back."

Drew McKissick is the chair of the South Carolina GOP. Trump endorsed McKissick in 2021 over another Trump-hugging candidate, and McKissick is also set to speak on Saturday. He credits Trump with reenergizing the party in his state.

"I mean, there were several counties there where when I got elected four and a half years ago, we didn't even have a county party organization," he said. "After Trump's victory, we had 50 to 60 people show up to organize a county Republican Party."

Trump is still, by far, the most powerful Republican in the party so much so that some candidates he loudly opposes still seek to tie themselves to him.

Mace, for example, posted a video of herself in front of Trump Tower last month, talking about how long she had supported Trump and her time working for his campaign. She didn't mention any of her past Trump criticism.

And while Rice has been willing to criticize Trump, he also doesn't totally divorce himself from the former president, telling voters about how he helped draft the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and that he overwhelmingly voted with Trump in Congress.

Even while Trump remains the center of the Republican universe, Heye sees his power possibly ebbing.

"What we're starting to see is he doesn't dominate the political stage like he used to," Heye said. "And as he's had some rallies, we've seen more empty seats, and that's what's going to be interesting to see where it is does he remain the draw that he's been for five years now?"

It's also becoming clear that a Trump endorsement doesn't make or break a campaign. He endorsed Rep. Ted Budd in the North Carolina Republican Senate primary, for example, and Budd has reportedly disappointed Trump in his polling and fundraising.

Meanwhile, a Trump-backed bill failed this week in Wyoming, which was aimed at preventing people from changing parties ahead of primaries. That's something that could allow Democrats to help Cheney in her primary fight.

For Rice, though, the concerns are much deeper than winning.

"If we are going to have a scenario where the president can try to intimidate Congress into doing what he wants, well shoot, we might as well have a monarchy," he told South Carolina Public Radio's Veronica Hansen last month.

Trump was already taking swings ahead of taking the stage on Saturday. On Friday, he put out a statement promoting the candidates running against "absolutely horrendous Nancy Mace" and "'doesn't have a clue' Tom Rice."

NPR's Barbara Sprunt contributed to this report.

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Trump campaigns against Republicans critical of him over Jan. 6 - NPR