Welcome to the online edition of From The Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that provides the latest reports and analysis from the NBC News Politics team’s White House, Capitol Hill and Campaign Trail.
Today’s edition will jump into Capitol Hill’s next step after the House of Representatives passes a short-term funding bill as government funding deadlines rapidly approaches. Additionally, Steve Kornacchi examines voter trends shaping the upcoming Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin, the first major battlefield state race of 2025.
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Senate Democrats are under pressure after the House passes fundraising bill to avoid shutdowns
Speaker Mike Johnson has now passed another major test in a narrowly divided home today, muscularizing the StopGup fundraising bill to avoid government shutdowns.
It puts Senate Democrats in a politically unstable position and sends government money to run on Friday night.
The six-month funding bill passed Capitol Hill’s 217-213, Scott Wong, Kyle Stewart, Sahil Kapur and Rebecca Kaplan report. One House Republican, Rep. Thomas Massey, a Kentucky Conservative MP, voted against it. And one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, who represents District President Donald Trump, who was transported to Maine, voted for it.
The result is a victory for the GOP leaders and the White House, and we don’t want to see the closure in the first two months of the new administration. He is also keen to advance Trump’s agenda on borders, taxes and other policy areas.
Over the past few days, Trump and his top aides have been called undecided Republicans and urged them to support the fundraising bill, multiple sources familiar with the phone told NBC News. And ahead of the voting Tuesday morning, Vice President J.D. Vice President J.D. Vance met with Republicans from the Capitol to gain support.
Rep. Kat Cammack of R-Fla, one of the Republicans on the fence, voted for the bill after saying she visited the White House earlier in the day.
But the drama isn’t over. Republicans manage 53 Senate seats, and Sen. Rand Paul has made it clear he is firmly opposed to the funding bill. This means at least eight Democrat senators have to stand behind it to send it to Trump’s desk, crossing the Senate’s 60 vote threshold.
House Democrat leaders opposed the bill. They allegedly blowing up Republicans by drafting a partisan-based bill, giving the Trump administration too much discretion on how to spend certain amounts of money.
But Senate Democrat leaders remain mothers. After an unusually long Senate Democrat luncheon on Tuesday, minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. declined to state his position on the bill, a sign that his members lacked a consensus on the progress.
Publicly, many Senate Democrats said they wanted to see how the House voted first before weighing it.
“I refuse to insist on burning the village and saving it,” Fetterman said. “I probably wouldn’t agree with many aspects of that CR, but if the choice is about shutting down government, I don’t want to be involved in it.”
Read more →
Massy Fallout: Trump’s patience appears to be running thinly at Massy, ​​who voted against the House GOP budget resolution last month. Trump said in truth, socially, he “leads the charges” to find a major opponent to challenge him next year.
But, as Melanie Zanona reports, it didn’t sit well with R-Texas Rep. Chip Roy. According to two sources in the room, Roy said he was not grateful for Trump’s threat in the GOP Caucus, which closed Tuesday morning. Roy also called on Republican leaders to stand up to Massey. Johnson later held at a press conference. Read more →
Things you need to know from today’s President Trump
The education sector is preparing to solve about half the workforce. The US will soon lift a suspension of security assistance to provide intelligence sharing and security assistance to Ukraine after Kyiv representatives agree to accept the proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia. After Trump’s threat, the threat of hiking 50% of the country’s steel and aluminum tariffs said he planned to deliver five vehicles to the White House, park in a driveway for Trump to personally inspect, and to buy a Tesla to demonstrate his support for Elon Musk a few hours after he said the truth and socially. The U.S. International Development Agency has directed Washington staff to shred and burn the documents, according to an email obtained by NBC News. National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard said he stripped the security clearance of numerous Biden officials and lawyers involved in Trump-related cases.
Voters’ Trends Shaping the First Big Battlegrounds State Race of 2025
By Steve Kornacki
In 3 weeks, get the first battlefield state reads of political landscapes since 2024.
The election of the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat on April 1 was independent by name only. Prominent Republican donors and activists are straight behind the conservative Brad Simel, while Democrats are with liberal Susan Crawford.
Turnout is much lower than in November, and voters are thought to be more politically involved and distorted into partisan voters, making this an incomplete test. But the results at least provide clues as to how political winds change in what is perhaps America’s best swing state.
There are several important patterns and trends that President Donald Trump can turn through the nation under the microscope next month.
Where Republicans benefited
Of the 10 counties that Trump improved his performance in the 2020 election, eight counties are located in the southwestern part of the state called the “driftless area” (nodded to unique terrain caused by the lack of glacial cover over 10,000 years ago).
Politically, it represented a great growth opportunity for the GOP, and remained loyal to the Democrats until recently, rather than in other small towns and rural parts of the state. The emergence of Trump in 2016 sparked a local movement towards the GOP.
Does this represent a partisan restructuring that is ongoing and allows Republicans to build even greater benefits in the future? Or is it more tentative and Trump-specific and offers Democrats the opportunity to stabilize and improve their performance without Trump on the vote? In particular, the region has returned to its democratic roots in recent state Supreme Court competition.
Where Democrats are in growth mode
The “Wow” counties of Washington, Ozakey and Waukesha outside Milwaukee have historically been the state’s largest voting bank for Republican candidates, and last year supported Trump in double digits. However, the benefits of GOP are backwards.
The decline in GOP here is consistent with national trends such as the last generation of highly educated, professional, white suburban suburbans.
Despite losing ground across the state, Democrats made modest improvements in their performance in WOW County last November. In Ozokey and Waukesha, Harris has gained a higher vote share than the Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.
It’s not surprising that democratic interests are particularly harsh in Ozokey. Outside of Dane County (home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison), the state’s most concentrated white college-educated voters are found.
Last November, Democrats were banking the bank to even greater profits in WOW County. Still, Democrats see an opportunity to make further progress here and solidify them, and Republicans hope to arrest their slides without a Trump at the top of the ticket.
Read more from Steve→
today’s other top stories
stock stock: Trump previously pointed to the stock market as a key indicator of the administration’s economic success. Now, as the market immerses him, he’s changing his songs. Read more → “Take stock, continue: Speaking, the S&P 500 couldn’t escape another day of Tuesday’s losses in the roller coaster trading session. Read more → 🗳️ He’s Running: Lt. Col. Garlin Gilchrist launched his governor’s campaign and joined the growing Democratic primary in a closely divided battlefield state. Read more → đź—ł → She’s Running: Former Democrat Rep. Katie Porter announced that she is running for California governor, but potential bids from former Vice President Kamala Harris are looming large. Read more Read more →
For now, it’s all from the political desk. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Bridget Bowman.
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