U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., provided an update to reporters Thursday morning on a conference call from the U.S. Capitol Building.

According to media reports, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., died Saturday due to complications from an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. He was 71. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, when he succeeded the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond.

“It’s been a very somber week. We lost one of our American treasures,” Capito said. “It’s been tough for all of us. We were all friends with him. He had bipartisan friends, friends around the world. There are so many stories about his positions and his passion and his humor. He will be sadly missed.”

On Tuesday, a motion for the Senate to consider the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) failed in a 50-46 vote, unable to reach the 60-vote cloture in order to be fully considered. Four senators missed Tuesday’s procedural vote, including U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va.

The $1.15 trillion bill is ensnared in negotiations between the slim Republican Senate majority and the Democratic minority over differences in top-line defense spending levels. Capito pointed out that the bill was passed out of committee in an 18-9 vote with Democratic members voting with the majority.

“The Democrats will not even carry on a tradition over 65 years of passing the National Defense Authorization Act,” Capito said. “We pass this every year … It is filled with amendments that were offered on both sides of the aisle, and yet when we came to the vote to ask for the bipartisan cooperation that was in committee, it was not there.”

While bipartisanship was missing from the NDAA, Capito said there was bipartisan support for the Water Resources Development Act of 2026, which passed unanimously out of Capito’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday. The bill includes funding for flood control and prevention efforts, assistance for environmental infrastructure projects, provides more resources to the Army Corps of Engineers for water infrastructure projects, additional funding for water and wastewater infrastructure projects, and workforce development. Capito said the bill was a win for the nation and West Virginia.

“The state uses this to modernize systems … This is something that I’ve worked on passionately through the years for infrastructure,” Capito said. “It also combined this year with the Corps of Engineers (funding) … These are critical dollars that come back to us.”

On Tuesday, Capito announced she was a co-sponsor of the Protect College Sports Act. The bill would create uniform national regulations so the NCAA can enforce rules without constant litigation. It would ensure that the shift toward name, image and likeness rights (NIL) does not result in the loss of scholarships for Olympic sports or women’s sports.

“We know in West Virginia … we’re big supporters of our college sports,” Capito said. “It’s kind of turned into the wild, wild west with students transferring all over the place, out of control salaries, and then the whole issue of whether to pay athletes for their name, image, and likeness.”

“I like the bill,” Capito continued. “We need to do something to rein this in. So, I’m hoping that this Protect College Sports bill makes it to the floor and we can hopefully put some guardrails around what has become an unmanageable system.”

Lastly, Capito was asked about Thursday’s primetime address President Donald Trump was expected to make regarding claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, claims that to date have all been disproven through multiple court cases and investigations. Trump was expected to again call on the Senate to pass the Save America Act.

Among other things, the Save America Act would require voters to show proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, in order to register to vote. Those wishing to register would need to bring their documents in person to a county clerk’s office instead of registering through the mail or online. The bill would also put in place a national requirement for voters to show photo IDs in order to vote.

Capito is a supporter of the Save America Act, but the bill is not fully supported by all members of the Senate Republican caucus and does not have the 60 votes needed to be fully considered.

“I’m a big supporter of the Save America Act,” Capito said. “We have voter ID laws in West Virginia. They work very well and I think we have safe and secure elections in our state. At the same time, there are other states that do unsolicited mail-in ballots, that do ballot harvesting, and I think that can be problematic … The Save America Act would shut down those avenues. But the fact of the matter is, we don’t have the votes for this, and the president knows this.”

Capito said she would like to see Trump focused not on the 2020 election and focused more on supporting Republican congressional candidates in the 2026 general election in November. Political experts predict that the U.S. House will flip back to Democratic control, and majority control of the Senate by the Republicans will be close. Capito is facing former Democratic Morgantown City Council member Rachel Fetty Anderson in November.

“I hope … that when (Trump) talks about the 2020 election or the 2026 election, that he can have a positive spin on what he thinks the future is and how important it is,” Capito said. “I’m focused on what’s going to happen in the future. Focusing back on 2020 is an exercise, but I don’t think it’s an exercise that helps us reach our goals, and that is a safe and secure election in 2026, but also a victory for the conservative principles that we’ve put forward.”

In a memorandum opinion and order released Monday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston denied a motion made by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a February lawsuit against Secretary of State Kris Warner seeking to compel the production of unredacted statewide voter registration lists.

Johnston, appointed by former Republican president George W. Bush, also granted a motion made by the Secretary of State’s Office to dismiss DOJ’s lawsuit against the state brought by Harmeet K. Dhillon, a U.S. assistant attorney general with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

Attorneys for the DOJ claimed authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to inspect the Statewide Voter Registration System. While voter eligibility is determined by local county clerks, the state is responsible for maintaining the database.

The DOJ said it had the right to investigate compliance with federal election laws, such as the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). But the court denied the request and dismissed the lawsuit. Johnston determined that the federal government failed to provide a specific factual basis or a legally valid purpose for demanding sensitive personal data, such as partial social security numbers.

“Clearly, this demand is devoid of any factual basis,” Johnston wrote. “The demand includes no indication that West Virginia is suspected to be noncompliant with the list maintenance requirements of HAVA or the NVRA, nor does it point to any anomalies in West Virginia’s voter registration data.”

The DOJ began sending letters to state election officials last summer requiring states to turn over voter registration databases to federal law enforcement officials. DOJ officials first contacted the Secretary of State’s Office last September seeking this data, with follow-up letters sent in December and January. The DOJ filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State’s Office on Feb. 26 after Warner sent a written response to the DOJ denying its request.

In a statement released Monday evening from the National Association of Secretaries of State summer conference in South Dakota, Warner said that Johnston’s ruling was a victory for the rule of law, voter privacy and for state and county election officials.

“From the outset, my office has maintained that West Virginia law prohibits the disclosure of sensitive personal information contained in the statewide voter registration system absent legal authority requiring its release,” Warner said. “Today’s ruling confirms that our position was well-founded and consistent with both our statutory obligations and our responsibility to protect the personal information of West Virginia’s registered voters.”

According to Johnston, DOJ officials did not begin trying to provide justification for seeking West Virginia’s records well into the litigation. Johnston determined that any demand for voting records under the Civil Rights Act “must relate to a purpose of investigating violations of individuals’ voting rights.”

“While (DOJ) argues that assessing compliance with HAVA and the NVRA does align with this purpose, Plaintiff’s only apparent motivation to assess list maintenance compliance involves generalized nationwide concerns that voter registration records may contain too many names,” Johnston wrote. “Plaintiff must state a ‘purpose’ that relates to an investigation into potential violations of an individual’s right to vote. It has not done so.”

State Code only allows the release of redacted voter registration files. The Secretary of State’s Office has also argued that the DOJ request violates several federal privacy laws. Johnston agreed, stating that courts in the past have agreed that states have a right to redact certain voter registration data.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the DOJ is seeking unredacted voter registration files from 48 states and Washington D.C., filing 31 lawsuits against states that have refused. Eight of those lawsuits were against states with Republican election officials. Thirteen states, including West Virginia, have had their DOJ court cases dismissed.

“As West Virginia’s Chief Election Official, I remain committed to ensuring that our elections are conducted with integrity, transparency and full compliance with both state and federal law,” Warner said.

President Donald Trump is pushing for a federal voter registration database to remove ineligible voters, such as illegal immigrants, from state voter rolls traditionally handled by state and local election officials. Trump signed an executive order last year instructing federal agencies to obtain state voter registration records, directing the Department of Homeland Security to cross-check publicly available voter registration information against NVRA records and federal immigration databases.

“We share the Department of Justice’s commitment to enforcing federal voter registration list-maintenance requirements and ensuring that only eligible voters remain on the rolls,” Warner said. “Our disagreement has never been with that goal, but with the means sought in this instance, which would have required the disclosure of sensitive personal information in a manner prohibited by West Virginia law.”

His office did not provide did not provide any additional details about the South Carolina Republican and said his family “appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period.”

“Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead!” Trump posted on social media early Sunday morning. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad!”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said “my heart is heavy this morning to learn the passing of my friend and colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham.”

“Lindsey’s long and dedicated service in the Air Force and in Congress carried him to far-flung regions of the world,” Thune said. “He was a strong advocate for the United States and a strong ally to freedom-loving countries across the globe. He believed in the might of America to achieve good in the world and dedicated his life to advancing that cause.”

First elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002 after serving in the House, the former Air Force lawyer long promoted a policy of robust U.S. military interventionism and strong national defense that in later years, would put him at odds with the growing isolationist wing of the Republican Party.

But in recent years, Graham also became well known for his close ties with Trump, whom he briefly ran against for the party’s presidential nomination in 2016.

Graham and Trump’s relationship would begin on a rough note, with the senator calling the then-businessman “unfit for office.” Graham also used a profanity to describe Trump after he made disparaging comments about former Sen. John McCain, Graham’s best friend in the Senate and a Vietnam War veteran. McCain and Graham, along with former Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., were known as the “Three Amigos” and frequently traveled to push their hawkish foreign policy views around the globe.

Not long after, Trump read out Graham’s personal cellphone number during a campaign rally in South Carolina and continued to belittle him throughout 2016 as Graham made it clear he would not support Trump, even though he was the party’s presidential nominee.

But Graham shifted significantly once Trump won the White House, emerging as one of Trump’s top allies — speaking with him frequently and becoming a regular presence on the golf course alongside the president — even as McCain remained a critic.

In a 2018 interview with The Associated Press, Graham explained his pivot by saying McCain taught him that the country must move forward after elections and that meant “you have an obligation” to help the president. McCain ran twice for the White House.

“And I’ve tried to be helpful where I could because I think he needs all the help he can get,” Graham said of Trump. “You can be a better critic when people understand that you’re trying to help them be successful.”

Graham appeared to break with Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying, “Count me out. Enough is enough.” But the senator returned to the fold and remained close with the president during his second term.

Graham especially advised Trump on foreign policy matters such as Iran and Russia, and had just announced an agreement on Friday with the Trump administration to move forward on a package of Russia sanctions. The senator had been in Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said that the senator visited his country 10 times during the years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer,” Zelenskyy said.

His travels made him a familiar face to dozens of world leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday mourned Graham’s death, calling him “a great friend of Israel” and “a cherished friend of mine.”

Netanyahu said Graham understood that the security of Israel and the United States is inseparable and devoted his life to defending America, strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance and standing up for the free world.

“Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend,” Netanyahu said, extending condolences to Graham’s family and the American people.

Graham had been serving as the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, giving him a central role during Trump’s second term as Republicans pushed major legislation on party-line votes with a slim majority in the chamber.

His committee oversaw a process called reconciliation, a Senate procedure that allowed Republicans to pass significant policies such as last year’s tax law without the threat of a Democratic filibuster.

He had previously led the Senate Judiciary Committee when Republicans confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in 2020, and was in line to regain that gavel if the party kept control of the Senate after this year’s midterms.

Graham was a key player in the Senate’s efforts to craft a massive immigration overhaul in 2013 as a member of the so-called Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group that wrote a sweeping measure that would have altered virtually every part of U.S. immigration law. It passed the Senate with 68 votes but was never taken up by the House, so it did not become law.

But Graham’s views on immigration, particularly an endorsement of a pathway to citizenship for people in the U.S. without legal status, put him at odds with some Republican factions.

He sometimes faced primary challenges in his home state of South Carolina, but he won the nomination outright in June while running for a fifth term. Graham was slated to face Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician from Charleston, in November’s general election.

The senator addressed the president in his victory speech last month, saying, “I’m going to help you change this world and change this country.”

The sparse statement by Graham’s office, which did not explain his death, comes during a stretch of concern about a lack of transparency about lawmakers’ health.

Rep. Tom Kean Jr., a New Jersey Republican, was absent without explanation for months before returning to Congress and disclosing that he had been diagnosed with depression.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, was hospitalized weeks ago for undisclosed health reasons.

Republicans hold a narrow 53-47 majority in the Senate. Under South Carolina law, Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, will appoint a temporary replacement for Graham, and that person will serve until January.

McMaster said in a statement that Graham was “irreplaceable.”

“The fiercest of fighters for South Carolina and America — and a loyal and steadfast friend,” McMaster said. As he offered condolences to his family, he added: “We shall not see his likes again.”

Graham was not married and did not have children. His closest living relative is sister Darline Graham Nordone, whom he helped raise after both their parents died.

In an opening statement provided to The Associated Press, Gates said he “should never have met with Epstein in the first place,” but that he “never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct.”

The tech billionaire became the latest powerful figure linked to Epstein to testify before the House Oversight Committee. As Gates arrived at the Capitol, he noted that he was there voluntarily and said he hoped his testimony would be useful.

“I hope my testimony is helpful to the work, the important work, of the committee, to find justice for the victims,” he said.

The committee chairman, Republican U.S. Rep. James Comer, formally requested that Gates testify after he appeared multiple times in a trove of documents released by the Justice Department as part of its Epstein probe. Before the interview on Wednesday, Comer told reporters that “no one’s accusing Bill Gates of any wrongdoing.”

“This is about the survivors” of Epstein and his confidant Ghislaine Maxwell. “This is about trying to figure out how the government failed,” Comer said.

Lawmakers are looking into Gates’ relationship with Epstein

Gates said he was introduced to Epstein through people involved in his professional and philanthropic work and was drawn in by Epstein’s claims that he could help raise billions of dollars for global health initiatives. Gates says he ended the relationship in 2014 after concluding Epstein could not deliver on those promises.

Gates added that he never went to Epstein’s island or his other infamous properties.

“I have never victimized anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated,” Gates said.

The remarks come as lawmakers review documents detailing Gates’ interactions with Epstein. Included in the files are calendar entries for meetings between Gates and Epstein, email correspondence between the two about philanthropic projects and photos of Gates at events that Epstein also attended.

Their relationship began in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor, and continued until at least late 2014, according to the documents.

Gates, who chairs the Gates Foundation, has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of girls. He has said the two met only to discuss philanthropy and previously described the relationship as “a huge mistake.”

Both Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, have said his association with Epstein created tension in their marriage.

The foundation acknowledged in February that a small number of employees had met with Epstein based on his “claims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health.” They never created a charitable fund together, and the foundation made no payments to Epstein.

Broader Epstein investigation continues

Epstein was federally indicted in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. The Justice Department alleged that Epstein formed a vast network of girls, some as young as 14, for him to sexually abuse between 2002 and 2005. He died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.

The files released by the Justice Department read like a who’s who of powerful men across tech, finance, politics and other industries. All have denied involvement in Epstein’s crimes, but some maintained or formed friendships with him even after his history of sexual abuse came to light.

At another closed-door deposition in February, former President Bill Clinton faced more than six hours of questioning from lawmakers about his association with Epstein more than two decades ago. Epstein visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency, and Clinton flew occasionally on Epstein’s private jet.

The former Democratic president said he saw no signs of Epstein’s sexual abuse and stopped associating with him long before Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea. Clinton has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

Democrats on the House committee have pushed for testimony from President Donald Trump, a Republican who had his own relationship with Epstein. Republicans have said they have not come across any evidence that Trump did anything wrong during his well-documented friendship with Epstein.

Comer said Wednesday that he’s planning to ask attorney Alan Dershowitz to appear and that he’s been in communication with the Justice Department about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche coming in for questioning as well.

Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.

During a press call with West Virginia reporters Thursday morning, Capito discussed the recent primary election, advocating for party unity following a period of negative campaigning and internal friction up and down the ballot.

“The way I look at it is the primary’s over, and I have been vocal disapproving of the negativity of attacking other Republicans. That’s not the direction that I was taught to go or the direction I would go,” said Capito, R-W.Va., when asked about the primary by West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

According to unofficial election results compiled by the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office from all 55 counties, 120,357 votes were cast by registered Republicans in the U.S. Senate GOP primary, with Capito receiving 80,032 votes and carrying 66.5% of the vote in a six-person race.

State Sen. Tom Willis, R-Berkeley, came in second with 22,736 votes (18.9%). The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman released a statement Tuesday night conceding and expressing his support for Capito.

“I congratulate our Republican nominee, Shelley Moore Capito on her victory tonight. She ran a great race,” Willis said. “Now is the time for all of us Republicans to come together and support our nominee for the future of our state and our country.”

Other Republican U.S. Senate candidates included Bryan McKinney with 5,556 votes (4.6%), David Purkey with 5,014 votes (4.2%), Alexander Gaaserud with 4,438 votes (3.7%), and Janet McNulty with 2,581 votes (2.1%).

“I know I’m moving forward with my campaign after my primary,” Capito said. “I’ve been endorsed by my primary opponents, and so I’m hopeful that we’ll be successful in November.”

Capito will face former Morgantown City Council member and community organizer Rachel Fetty Anderson, who won the Democratic U.S. Senate primary Tuesday night with 30,792 votes, carrying 33.2% of the vote in a five-person contest. Former Democratic senate president Jeff Kessler came in second with 25,085 votes (27%), followed by Zachary Shrewsbury with 14,995 votes (16.2%), Thornton Cooper with 11,765 votes (12.7%), and Rio Phillips with 10,184 votes (11%).

Capito was also involved in Republican legislative races after Gov. Patrick Morrisey began recruiting and endorsing a slate of GOP candidates, and Morrisey-affiliated groups began pumping more than $2.4 million into supporting and opposing several incumbent GOP lawmakers in the House of Delegates and state Senate with negative ads and mailers.

Sugar Maple PAC, School Freedom Fund, and Americans for Prosperity was able to claim victory Tuesday night with the losses of Wood County delegates Vernon Criss and Scot Heckert, as well as Del. Jeffrey Stephens, R-Marshall.

Capito’s U.S. Senate campaign donated $250,000 to Mountaineer Freedom Alliance, a political action committee funded by West Virginia-based groups, such as the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and individuals.

Mountaineer Freedom Alliance and the state Chamber spent more than $1.1 million to support several statehouse candidates and incumbents targeted by Morrisey-affiliated groups, such as state senators Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, and Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier.

Following Tuesday nights primary contests, Morrisey took a victory lap, claiming credit for a number of successful races while also saying the party will unify in time for November.

“The candidates who prevailed campaigned to unleash economic opportunity, cut taxes, and advance educational freedom,” Morrisey said on social media Tuesday night. “Voters rejected the good-ole-boy system in favor of voices that fight for our values. Republicans will unite, prevail in November, and advance our conservative agenda. We will be that shining state in the mountains, but only if we’re willing to fight for it. Time to get to work.”

Capito said she was hopeful that Republicans will get over Tuesday’s primary fights, but she said it remains to be seen whether wounds will heal.

“I think infighting within the party is destructive in and of itself. But now that the primary is over, I hope that we can all join together and support our parties,” Capito said. “I think that’s what you’re seeing now. But I think when you get into personal attack ads and start calling people names, it’s harder to heal. And so, I think time will tell.”

“It’s always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” a subdued Trump told reporters in a hastily organized news conference at the White House late Saturday. Only a short time before, a man with guns and knives tried to rush past the security perimeter inside the Washington hotel where the Republican president was about to address the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Authorities are in the early stages of determining what happened and why. The shooting suspect was taken into custody and identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California.

Trump said he was undoubtedly the target. The presidency is “a dangerous profession,” he said. Trump said violence associated with politics had escalated in the United states and around the world. ”No country is immune,” he said.

He also suggested it was a sign of how successful his presidency has been.

“I’ve studied assassinations, and I must tell you the most impactful people — the people who do the most, take a look at Abraham Lincoln,” Trump said. He added: “The people that make the biggest impact, they’re the ones that they go after. They don’t go after the ones that don’t do much.”

Trump called for Americans to put aside their differences and unite. That was a break from his usual gleefully combative political tack.

“We have to, we have to resolve our differences,” the president said. “I will say, you had Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives. Those words are interchangeable, perhaps, but maybe they’re not. But yet everybody in that room, big crowd, record-setting crowd, there was a record-setting group of people, and there was a tremendous amount of love and coming together. I watched, I watched, and I was very, very impressed by that.”

Echoes of what Trump said after 2024 incidents

Trump has called for national unity before, only to quickly pivot.

By Sunday morning, Trump was using the incident to promote the White House ballroom project, a work in progress on site where the East Wing, which he ordered demolished, had stood. He said on social media that what happened Saturday night “would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!”

Trump also scoffed at a legal challenge against the construction, calling it the “ridiculous ballroom lawsuit.”

After the shooting in 2024 during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when Trump was wounded in the ear and a supporter was killed, the president strode into the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee two days later. Later that week, he gave a speech, in accepting the presidential nomination, that featured a softer and deeply personal message, drawing directly from his brush with death.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly,” Trump said then. “As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart.”

Such calls were short-lived, though.

Trump used that same speech to veer back into the combativeness that has become his trademark. He repeated false claims about the 2020 election was stolen from him and assertions that Democratic President Joe Biden had done “unthinkable” damage to the nation.

The pattern played out anew in September 2024, when Secret Service agents fired at a man who was armed with a rifle as Trump played golf at his resort club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s golf partner when the second incident occurred, described Trump’s initial reaction as “courageous and stoic.” It was not long before Trump was talking constantly about “radical” Democrats and “left-wing lunatics.” He branded Ryan Routh, the man sentenced to life in prison for trying to kill him, a “sick” individual.

Unlike the first two incidents, Saturday’s occurred with first lady Melania Trump by his side.

The president seemed to describe his wife as being rattled but also “very cognizant, I think, of what happened.”

“I think she knew immediately,” Trump said. “She was saying ‘It’s a bad noise.’”

He added, “It was a rather traumatic experience for her.”

Candidates for U.S. Senate and House of Representatives had until April 15 to file their April quarterly campaign finance reports, covering the period between January and March.

In the Republican Party primary for the Senate, incumbent Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., dominated her five GOP opponents in fundraising for the recent quarter, raising $969,998 between January and March and more than $5 million election cycle-to-date.

With only $328,409 spent during the quarter and more than $1.8 million during the election cycle, Capito has more than $5 million in cash on hand, a total that includes donations for both the primary and the November general election cycle.

Capito reported 901 itemized receipts, with around 30% of donations coming from in-state donors. Her filing included $723,308 in individual contributions for the quarter; $246,690 from political action committees; and $38,121 in transfers from other committees, such as joint fundraising committees. These include Capito Victory, One Team Senate Majority and GOP Winning Women 2026.

West Virginia Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Tom Willis, R-Berkeley, raised $41,628 for the quarter and $106,506 election cycle-to-date. After spending nearly $71,900 during the quarter and $159,531 to date, Willis has $89,959 in cash on hand. Willis’ campaign debt now stands at $142,984 after taking out four different loans last year.

His fundraising for the quarter came from $38,128 in individual donations from 16 donors and $3,500 in the form of an in-kind donation from Always Free, a Martinsburg-based political action committee, for the cost of voter data files. The $38,128 total also includes $14,545 in in-kind contributions by Willis to cover the costs of campaign marketing and text messages.

Janet McNulty of Martinsburg, a candidate in the 2024 GOP Senate primary, raised $2,465 for the quarter – all donations from herself – and $2,770 election cycle-to-date, but reported no available cash-on-hand after expenses.

Alexander Gaaserud, formerly of Elkins and now of Parkersburg, has raised no money during the reporting period or election cycle-to-date. Gaaserud took out a $3,000 loan on Jan. 3 and paid the Secretary of State’s Office $1,740 for his candidate filing fee, leaving him with $1,260 in cash-on-hand. Gaaserud lost the 2024 GOP primary for the 2nd Congressional District to U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va.

Bryan McKinney of Inwood has filed no campaign finance reports with the FEC. David Purkey of Fairmont has not filed with the FEC as a candidate at all, but filed paperwork with the Secretary of State’s Office and will appear on the GOP primary ballot in May.

In the Democratic Senate primary, Princeton community organizer and 2024 primary candidate Zachary Shrewsbury of Princeton raised $193,446 for the quarter and $452,701 election cycle-to-date. Shrewsbury raised a total of $197,134 in individual donations but had to refund $3,688. Just under 18% of Shrewsbury’s donations came from individuals in West Virginia.

After spending $196,221 during the previous quarter, Shrewsbury has $8,328 in cash-on-hand. He also has $23,106 in debts and obligations owed to Los Angeles-based Mycorrhiza Digital for the cost of digital advertising and other services.

Morgantown Legal Aid attorney and former Morgantown City Council member Rachel Fetty Anderson raised $18,927 during the quarter and election cycle-to-date. After spending $10,017 during the quarter, Anderson has $15,907 in cash on hand. Of her total, $11,037 was raised from individual donors, with $7,890 coming from the candidate herself.

Charleston resident Rio Phillips, a transplant to the state in 2020, raised $5,237 during the quarter and $12,001 election cycle-to-date, leaving him with $739 in cash-on-hand after expenses. Former Senate President Jeff Kessler and South Charleston attorney Thornton Cooper had no available FEC campaign finance reports.

Congressman Riley Moore, representing the 2nd Congressional District, has no Republican primary challengers. He raised $220,179 during the quarter and $837,082 election cycle-to-date. According to his report, $107,429 came from individual donors, while $112,750 came from other political committees, including Team Riley, his joint fundraising committee. Moore has $713,116 in cash-on-hand with $60,882 in debts and obligations to vendors.

Three candidates are facing off in the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District. Ace Parsi, a community organizer and educator in Morgantown, raised $54,612 for the quarter and $69,092 election cycle-to-date, leaving him with $47,584 in cash on hand.

Retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Steven Wendelin, Moore’s Democratic challenger in 2024, raised $7,988 during the quarter and $13,966 election year-to-date, leaving him with $4,590 in cash-on-hand. Stephanie Tomana, a public school teacher in Marion County, raised $7,622 for the quarter and election cycle-to-date, leaving her with $2,555 in cash on hand. Of her total, $2,756 came from the candidate herself.

In the 1st Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Carol Miller has one Republican primary challenger. She raised $308,903 during the quarter and nearly $1.4 million election cycle-to-date, leaving her with $729,957 in cash on hand. Miller has $417,993 in debts and obligations, most of which are loans left over from her first race in 2018, as well as debt owed to a vendor.

Hanover businessman Larry Jackson, Miller’s GOP challenger, reported raising no money during the quarter and only $8,110 election cycle-to-date, leaving him with $30,935 in cash-on-hand after expenses. Most of Jackson’s campaign cash comes from loans to his campaign, including a $30,000 loan taken out on March 29. To date, Jackson has taken out $100,000 in loans.

In the Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District, Logan County native Britta “Brit” Aguirre raised $47,121 during the quarter and $153,409 election cycle-to-date, leaving her with $6,241 in cash-on-hand. South Charleston resident Vince George has yet to file a FEC campaign finance report.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.

An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint.” The First Amendment, he wrote, “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”

Gorsuch’s opinion drew support from liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

A state could similarly not ban talk therapy designed to affirm a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity, Kagan wrote. “Once again, because the State has suppressed one side of a debate, while aiding the other, the constitutional issue is straightforward,” she wrote.

In a solo dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that states should be free to regulate health care, even if that means incidental restrictions on speech. The decision, Jackson wrote, “opens a dangerous can of worms” that “threatens to impair states’ ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.”

The decision is the latest in a line of recent cases in which the justices have backed claims of religious discrimination while taking a skeptical view of LGBTQ+ rights.

Counselor Kaley Chiles, with support from President Donald Trump’s Republican administration, said the law wrongly bars her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy for kids.

Chiles contends her approach is different from “conversion therapy” practices from decades ago, like shock therapy. Her attorneys argued that the ban makes it hard for parents to find therapists willing to discuss gender identity with kids unless the counseling affirms transition.

“I look forward to being able to help them when they choose the goal of growing comfortable with their bodies,” Chiles said in a statement. “Counselors walking alongside these young people shouldn’t be limited to promoting state-approved goals like gender transition, which often leads to harmful drugs and surgeries.”

Colorado disagreed, saying its law does allow wide-ranging conversations about gender identity and sexual orientation and exempts religious ministries. The state says the measure simply bars using therapy to try to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations, a practice that has been scientifically discredited and linked to serious harm.

The law doesn’t violate the First Amendment, Colorado argued, because therapy is different from other types of speech since it’s a form of health care that the state has a responsibility to regulate.

Advocates for LGBTQ+ people condemned the ruling, as well as “conversion therapy.”

“This is a dangerous practice that has been condemned by every major medical association in the country. Today’s decision does not change the science, and it does not change the fact that conversion therapists who harm patients will still face legal consequences,” Polly Crozier, director of family policy at GLAD Law, said in a statement.

The 2019 law carries the possibility of fines and license suspension, but no one has been sanctioned under it. The ruling is expected to eventually make similar laws in other states unenforceable.

Chiles was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization that has appeared frequently at the court in recent years. The group also represented a Christian website designer who successfully challenged Colorado anti-discrimination law because she didn’t want to work with same-sex couples.

Twenty-three states have laws barring health care providers from offering “conversion therapy” for minors, and another four have some restrictions, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an advocacy group that tracks policies that impact LGBTQ+ people.

The high court agreed to hear the case after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld the law. Another Atlanta-based appeals court, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had struck down similar bans in Florida.

The president said the military could end its offensive in two to three weeks and that the U.S. “will not have anything to do with” what happens next in the strait that has been closed by the Islamic Republic. Instead, he told reporters, the responsibility for keeping the vital waterway open will rest with countries that rely on it.

There’s “no reason for us to do this,” Trump said after signing an executive order that seeks to restrict mail-in voting. “That’s not for us. That’ll be for France. That’ll be for whoever’s using the strait.”

The White House said Trump would deliver a prime-time address Wednesday evening to update the public on the war.

In other developments, the closure of the strait sent average U.S. gas prices past $4 a gallon, and U.S. strikes hit the central city of Isfahan, sending a massive fireball into the sky. Tehran attacked a fully loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.

The attacks showed the intensity of the war more than a month after the U.S. and Israel launched it. The conflict has left more than 3,000 dead and caused major disruptions to the world’s supply of oil and natural gas, roiling global markets and pushing up the cost of many basic goods.

Trump, whose comments have vacillated between talk that diplomatic progress is being made with Iran and threats to widen the war, had earlier shared footage of the attack on Isfahan.

Fuel prices rise, rattling global markets

Iran’s stranglehold on the strait, the waterway leading out of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported during peacetime, has driven up global oil prices, as have Tehran’s attacks on regional energy infrastructure.

Spot prices of Brent crude, the international standard, hovered around $107 a barrel Tuesday, up more than 45% since the war started Feb. 28.

In a social media post, Trump directed blame at U.S. allies such as the United Kingdom and France that have refused to enter a war with no clear endgame that they were not consulted on.

“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!” Trump wrote.

He singled out France for not letting planes fly over French territory while taking military supplies to Israel.

France has allowed the U.S. Air Force to use the Istres base in southern France because it had guarantees that planes landing there would not be involved in carrying out strikes.

Allies have refused to get involved

Spain, which has emerged as Europe’s loudest critic of the war, said Monday that it had closed its airspace for U.S. planes involved in the conflict.

Italy recently refused to allow U.S. military assets to use the Sigonella air base in Sicily for an operation linked to the offensive, an official with knowledge of the matter said, confirming a local press report. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto wrote on X that Italy is still allowing the U.S. to use its bases, adding that there has been no cooling of relations between the two countries.

Journalist kidnapped in Iraq identified

An American journalist was kidnapped Tuesday in Baghdad, and Iraqi security forces are pursuing her captors, Iraqi officials said. The journalist was identified as freelancer Shelly Kittleson by Al-Monitor, one of the news outlets she worked for.

A U.S. official blamed the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah.

Two cars were involved in the kidnapping, one of which crashed, and a person inside was apprehended. The journalist was then transferred to a second car that fled the scene, according to two Iraqi security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Dylan Johnson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said on X that the State Department had “fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.”

In a statement, Al-Monitor said it stands by her “vital reporting.” Kittleson has been a longtime freelancer in the region, reporting extensively from Syria and Iraq.

Another aircraft carrier deploys to Middle East

The aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush deployed Tuesday from Norfolk, Virginia, and is slated to head to the Middle East, two U.S. officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.

It would be the third carrier sent out to support the Iran war, along with the USS Gerald R. Ford, which is now undergoing repairs, and the USS Abraham Lincoln, which arrived in the region in January.

Trump warned this week that if a ceasefire is not reached “shortly,” and if the strait is not reopened, the U.S. would broaden its offensive, including by attacking the Kharg Island oil export hub and possibly desalination plants.

Speaking at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would not say if U.S. ground forces would enter the war. “We don’t want to have to do more militarily than we have to,” he said.

A ground invasion could alienate Iranians who despise the ruling theocracy and who rose up in mass protests that were crushed earlier this year. Some could see it as an attack on Iran itself and rally around the flag.

Since the Iran war began, 13 U.S. service members have been killed and 348 wounded, six seriously, according to a formal count provided Tuesday by Capt. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for U.S. Central Command.

Iran hits oil tanker as Israel strikes Iran and Lebanon

The Israeli military said early Wednesday that it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander and another senior leader in two separate strikes in the Beirut area.

Military officials said they launched strikes targeting what they described as Hezbollah infrastructure in the Lebanese capital. Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel plans to control the area south of the Litani River — some 20 miles (about 30 kilometers) north of the border.

Israel invaded southern Lebanon after Hezbollah began launching missiles into northern Israel days after the outbreak of the wider war. Many Lebanese fear another prolonged military occupation.

In Iran, authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.

Two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank. In Lebanon, officials said more than 1,200 people have been killed, and more than 1 million displaced.

Ten Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, including four announced Tuesday.

Vermont became the first state to enact a climate superfund law, modeled on the federal superfund law that taxed petroleum and chemical companies to pay to clean up sites polluted by toxic waste. It took action after suffering catastrophic summer flooding in 2023 as well as damage from other extreme weather, which scientists say is occurring more frequently due to climate change. The money it collects would be used for climate adaptation projects, such as upgrades to stormwater drainage systems, sewage treatment plants and roads.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a top oil and gas industry trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, sued Vermont over the law in December 2024, calling it unconstitutional and a violation of federal law. The Department of Justice also sued Vermont and New York after President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against states that may be overreaching their authority in how they regulate energy development. In suing, Bondi called Vermont’s law and a similar one signed by New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul “burdensome and ideologically motivated” and said they threaten American energy independence and national security.

In asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuits Monday, Vermont argued that it has the authority to raise revenue, protect the health and welfare of its citizens and mitigate environmental harms. The state also said that the law does not conflict with federal law or policy, regulate fossil fuel emissions or punish fossil fuel producers.

“As a sovereign state, Vermont gets to do certain things that are exercises of a traditional state authority. The Superfund Act operates squarely in those areas of traditional state authority,” Jonathan Rose of the Vermont attorney general’s office said in U.S. District Court in Rutland.

The plaintiffs in both cases, however, argue that Vermont can’t legally impose liability or penalties on out-of-state energy producers for harms arising from out-of-state and global greenhouse gas emissions.

“This case is not about Vermont’s ability to raise revenue and protect the health and welfare of its residents. It’s about Vermont’s attempt to subject global energy production activity to Vermont law, which brazenly disregards the constitutional division of power in the federal government and the states,” said DOJ attorney Riley Walters.

While other courts have allowed the application of a state law to out-of-state conduct, those cases involved direct and traceable connections between the behavior and the harm, he said.

“It’s impossible to trace in-state harm to any particular source of greenhouse gas emissions, let alone to the fossil fuel production that is even further down along the alleged causal chain,” he said. “There is not a direct and traceable connection between oil that’s extracted in Texas or in Saudi Arabia and a flood or some other weather event that takes place in Vermont.”

West Virginia, a top producer of natural gas and coal, is leading two dozen states intervening in the case with the Chamber and API, out of concern that Vermont will demand to recover billions of dollars from major energy producers and oil refiners in their states. Meanwhile, the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy group in New England, and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont are supporting Vermont in the litigation.

Attorney Bridget Asay, representing the conservation foundation and farmers, told the judge Monday that granting the plaintiffs’ motions to strike down the law “would give the federal government this roving license to seek to enjoin any state law that it disagrees with simply by pleading preemption.

“That would be quite an expansion of the federal role in our state-federal system, and the court should instead require the United States to show concrete imminent injury like any other litigant,” she said.

Judge Mary Kay Lanthier took the motions under advisement and said she would issue rulings as soon as possible.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott allowed the bill to become law without his signature, saying he was concerned about Vermont taking on the oil industry alone. Since then, the idea has gained traction elsewhere. In addition to New York, other Democratic-controlled states are also considering climate superfund laws, while others are seeking damages from fossil fuel companies in state courts for harms caused by climate change.

Jennifer Rushlow, interim vice president for CLF Vermont, said the outcome of the Vermont litigation likely will influence other states.

“This is the first time that a state legislature has taken the gigantic step of pursuing polluters and holding them accountable to clean up the mess that they’ve made,” she said.

A Dartmouth College research team estimated the world’s biggest corporations have caused $28 trillion in climate damage. The researchers published a study last year with the estimated pollution caused by 111 companies, with more than half of the total dollar figure coming from 10 fossil fuel providers.