Majority leader

South Carolina Democrats flipped 10 state House seats on Nov. 3, three more than needed to end Republicans' supermajority, after fielding candidates in all 124 districts for the first time in decades. Wins spanned the Lowcountry, Pee Dee, Midlands and Upstate, including the apparent defeat of newly named House Majority Leader Micah Caskey in a race close enough to trigger an automatic recount. Republicans still hold a 79-45 House majority and retain their Senate supermajority, whose seats weren't up this cycle. Party leaders pointed to strong Democratic turnout, which also helped flip a U.S. House seat and a U.S. Senate seat in the state.

Democrats won control of the U.S. House in Tuesday's elections, a result expected to make Hakeem Jeffries speaker and Massachusetts Representative Katherine Clark majority leader, with Pete Aguilar as whip. The incoming majority spans battleground-district moderates and a newly elected wave of progressives, some of whom defeated incumbent Democrats in primaries on issues like abolishing ICE and criticizing Israel's war conduct. Leadership says the caucus will unite around "affordability," pledging to roll back Medicaid cuts and restore Obamacare subsidies, with further proposals to come from new working groups on health care, housing, and costs. The party now faces the challenge of balancing its ideological divides while governing opposite President Trump ahead of 2028.

Tennessee and other states shifted back to standard time this week, reviving the perennial debate over ending the twice-yearly clock change. Tennessee passed a 2019 law to make daylight saving time permanent, but it cannot take effect until Congress acts. The U.S. House passed the Sunshine Protection Act in July by a wide margin, but it remains stalled in the Senate, lacking support from Majority Leader John Thune despite White House interest. A separate Tennessee bill to adopt standard time year-round without needing federal action failed in committee. Sleep medicine experts favor permanent standard time, citing circadian health benefits over daylight saving time.

Three weeks before Election Day, President Trump traveled to Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna Valley on an extensive, multi-leg trip to rally support for Republicans and boost the reelection campaign of Sen. Dan Sullivan. Despite the show of support and heavy outside spending, Sullivan faces a tighter-than-expected race against Democrat Mary Peltola, a former U.S. House member popular with Alaska's large bloc of independent voters. The Cook Political Report has shifted its rating of the race from Lean Republican to Toss Up.

Alaska strategists and voters note that Trump's approval rating in the state has slipped, and independents outnumber registered Republicans and Democrats combined, complicating turnout math for the GOP. Veteran strategist Scott Kendall, who has worked on Sen. Lisa Murkowski's campaigns, described Trump's influence as "both a blessing and a curse" for Sullivan. Alaska's ranked-choice voting system adds further complications, including confusion tied to a minor candidate dubbed "Decoy Dan," as Sullivan and Peltola prepare to debate ahead of an election Sullivan argues could decide control of the Senate.

More than 90 new Connecticut laws take effect October 1, including a ban on so-called "convertible pistols," new limits on license plate-reading camera data, and expanded distracted driving rules. The pistol measure, passed after contentious debate, targets design features in Glock handguns that Democrats say make them easy to convert into automatic weapons using illegal "Glock switches," a conversion already outlawed. Glock is suing the state over the ban, and Republicans argue it unfairly restricts law-abiding gun owners and retailers.

Separately, a new law caps retention of license plate-reader data at 21 days, a rare point of agreement between Democratic and Republican legislators, some of whom want an even stricter seven-day limit next session amid distrust of government data collection. Drivers will also face tighter distracted driving enforcement, as state law now explicitly bans watching video on a phone while driving, alongside existing texting and calling prohibitions.

More than 90 new Connecticut laws take effect October 1, including a ban on "convertible pistols" targeting design features found in Glock handguns, which lawmakers say are especially prone to illegal conversion into automatic weapons via so-called "Glock switches." Such conversions and the switches themselves were already illegal, but Democrats who passed the measure argued the added restriction addresses a proliferation of illegal conversion devices. Republicans countered that it unfairly punishes law-abiding gun owners and retailers. Glock is now suing the state over the ban.

The same day also brings new privacy protections, with a 21-day limit on how long police can retain data from license plate-reading cameras, a rule that lawmakers from both parties want to tighten further next session, potentially to seven days as recommended by the state's police training board. Separately, distracted driving rules will be expanded to explicitly ban watching video on a phone while driving.

Connecticut's new October 1 laws include a Glock design ban, license plate camera limits, and expanded distracted driving rules.

St. Johns County, Florida commissioners approved a tentative flat property tax rate during a budget hearing that turned into a public debate over automated license plate readers. Sheriff Rob Hardwick's proposed budget increase includes $3.9 million for deputy raises, which he said would give more than 420 deputies below sergeant a roughly $9,000 pay bump and fund five additional positions. Commissioners heard extensive public comment on Flock cameras, with residents citing civil liberties and Fourth Amendment concerns and questioning costs and accountability.

The debate comes after the Florida Department of Transportation revoked permits for license plate readers on state roads, prompting questions about the fate of county-installed cameras and roughly $500,000 earmarked for related software, which Hardwick said could be redirected to jail monitoring technology if the program is shut down. Cameras remain on county roads for now, and Hardwick pointed to ongoing conversations with state lawmakers and the governor's office about the technology's future beyond his tenure. The debate mirrors a broader national backlash against license plate readers, with hundreds of cities and agencies ending contracts with vendors like Flock Safety amid privacy and misuse concerns. The next budget hearing is set for September 15.

Sheryl Williams Stapleton, a former New Mexico House majority leader and Albuquerque Public Schools administrator, pleaded guilty to state fraud and money laundering charges, three weeks after a federal jury convicted her of dozens of similar charges in a related case. State prosecutors had charged her with money laundering, racketeering and other counts in 2021, ahead of an October trial. Under the plea deal, all but four charges were dropped, with an agreed 10.5-year prison sentence and more than $1.8 million in restitution. A New Mexico Department of Justice spokesperson said the plea holds Stapleton accountable for defrauding taxpayers, and noted the federal sentence will exceed what the state system alone could impose.

Prosecutors say Stapleton, as the district's career and technical education director, steered more than $3 million in federal vocational education funds to Robotics Management Learning Systems LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based company owned by her friend and federal co-defendant Joseph Johnson, by pushing its invoices through procurement while he supplied blank checks to her. She resigned from the legislature and was fired by the district after a 2021 search of her home. Both she and Johnson, also convicted federally, have yet to be sentenced and have signaled plans to appeal.