Dems' shrinking path to House majority; McCormick left out of Senate orientation despite upset win; Pa.'s Republican shift, explained

President-elect Donald Trump has named former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R., N.Y.) as his pick to serve as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Lee, with a very strong legal background, has been a true fighter for America First policies," Trump said in a statement. Trump added that Zeldin, who served in Congress from 2015 to 2023, would "ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions" as leader of the EPA.

"He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance, that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way," Trump said of Zeldin.

As of Thursday, just over 750 Philadelphians were at risk of their mail ballot not counting because the local election office could not verify their ID.

Voters in Pennsylvania have until Tuesday to provide their local election office with proof of their identity in order for their ballot to count.

In Philadelphia, they can do this by either emailing a photocopy of their ID and an ID verification form to [email protected] or faxing it to 215-686-3398.

From Tuesday to Thursday this week, incoming senators will be shown the ins and outs of their new jobs.

But despite Republican businessman Dave McCormick celebrating a shake-up victory for Senate in Pennsylvania, he hasn’t been invited to the event.

The Associated Press called the race for McCormick last week, but Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) has not conceded the race and a recount remains possible given the close margin. As of Friday, more than 100,000 ballots had not yet been counted, but many of those could be rejected.

Pennsylvania House Democrats have clung to their one-vote majority despite a statewide wave of GOP wins that flipped two congressional seats and may have ousted a veteran U.S. senator.

A huge part of the reason is that state Rep. Frank Burns, a conservative Democrat with a district in the middle of an overwhelmingly Donald Trump-supporting region, held on to his seat.

In this era of Pennsylvania politics, Burns, of Cambria County, is one of the most important members of the state House — both during elections and when it comes to whipping votes in a narrowly divided chamber.

Donald Trump is naming longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration.

Vice President-elect JD Vance posted a message of congratulations on Monday to Miller on X and said, “This is another fantastic pick by the president.” The announcement was first reported by CNN.

Miller was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018. Miller helped craft many of Trump’s hard-line speeches and plans on immigration.

Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump’s “border czar” pick, says he plans to follow through with a massive deportation plan that could impact millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Homan, who served as the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, didn’t offer details how a mass deportation plan would work during an interview on Fox News Monday morning. He did specify the administration would focus on “public safety threats and national security threats" and that ICE agents would handle raids and arrests.

In an interview with The Sunday Times of London, Homan said he would move to completely shut down the U.S.-Mexico border and restart a program that would require asylum seekers to wait outside the U.S. until their application is approved.

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Rep. Elise Stefanik to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations.

“Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement Monday announcing his pick.

Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the GOP nomination, was among those who previously held the role in his first term.

Republicans are inching closer to remaining in the majority in the U.S. House, which would give President-elect Donald Trump and his party control of Washington, D.C.

But Democrats still have a slim chance to flip the House and force a split government.

As of Monday morning, 18 House seasons remain uncalled by the Associated Press. Democrats would need to win 15 of those to take control of the House, while Republicans need to win just four.

Days before Senate Republicans pick their new leader, President-elect Donald Trump is pressuring the candidates to change the rules and empower him to appoint some nominees without a Senate vote.

Republican Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida are running in a secret ballot election Wednesday to lead the GOP conference and replace longtime GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who is stepping aside from the job after almost two decades. All three have courted Trump’s support in the race, vying to show who is the closest to the president-elect as they campaign to become majority leader.

Trump has not endorsed in the race, but on Sunday he made clear that he expects the new leader to go around regular Senate order, if necessary, to allow him to fill his Cabinet quickly. In a statement on X and Truth Social, Trump said that the next leader “must agree” to allow him to make appointments when the chamber is on recess, bypassing a confirmation vote.

President-elect Donald Trump says that Tom Homan, his former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, will serve as “border czar” in his incoming administration.

“I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders,” he wrote late Sunday on his Truth Social site.

Homan was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border and Trump’s pledge to launch the largest deportation operation in the country’s history.

The day after the election, it all came rushing back to the Rev. Renee McKenzie — the fear she felt for immigrants, the potentially life-and-death choices they faced, and the way they turned to her for help during the first presidency of Donald Trump.

Less than a year into his first term, she made the decision to let a desperate, undocumented family of five take sanctuary inside the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia, placing them beyond the reach of federal authorities and blocking their deportation to a Mexican homeland where they feared they would be killed.

Now President-elect Trump promises a second term driven by an intense escalation in enforcement, including the mass deportations of millions of people — and McKenzie expects Philadelphia churches and faith leaders will be called on again to place themselves between immigrants and the government.

Working-class voters were at the core of Kamala Harris’ loss and Donald Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania, and the failed fascism argument also reflects how Democrats struggled to answer for people’s economic woes, several strategists said.

“When voters said, ‘We can’t afford eggs,’ the response was ‘But the economy’s good and democracy,’” said Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University in Cumberland County.

“It’s that tone-deafness that makes people feel very unheard and unvalued.”