STEVE KING

Iowa Democrat Abby Finkenauer’s hopes of running against Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley this fall may hinge on a state Supreme Court ruling on three petition signatures.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appears to have settled on a strategy as a handful of Republican lawmakers stir outrage with violent, racist and sometimes Islamophobic comments: If you can’t police them, promote them.

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz and Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene are presenting top House Republicans with a test of how to handle a new breed of Trump-era, social media-savvy firebrands.

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz and Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene are presenting top House Republicans with a test of how to handle a new breed of Trump-era, social media-savvy firebrands.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)WASHINGTON – A fiercely divided House tossed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene off both her committees Thursday, an unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she’d earned by spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories. Though Trump left the White House two week ago, his devoted followers are numerous among the party’s voters, and he and Greene are allies. Even social media stars like Greene could find it harder to define themselves without the spotlights that committees provide. Thune said House Republicans needed to issue a “really strong” rebuke of Greene’s conspiratorial formulations. The House resolution punishing Greene was barely over a page.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., walks with fellow House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021, following a meeting called by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – House Republicans decided Wednesday to stand by two GOP lawmakers who have polarized the party, voting to retain Rep. Liz Cheney as their No. In a 145-61 secret-ballot vote, House Republicans overwhelmingly rebuffed a rebellion by hard-right conservatives to toss Cheney, R-Wyo., from leadership after she voted last month to impeach then-President Donald Trump. Hours earlier, after Democrats slated a House vote for Thursday that would remove Greene from her committees, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ridiculed them for it. The decisions over Greene and Cheney have subjected the GOP to a politically agonizing test of its direction as it moves beyond the Trump presidency.

It comes as House Democrats moved Monday to strip Greene of her committee assignments if Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., refuses to do so himself. One suggested shooting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head. Last week, Pelosi pressed House Republicans to take action. A spokesperson for the Republican leader declined to comment Monday. AdAlthough it’s not certain he will take action against Greene, McCarthy has punished members of the House Republican caucus before.

Before she joined Congress this month, Greene supported Facebook posts that advocated violence against leading Democrats and the FBI. Facebook posts surfaced last year showing shed expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views. Greene supported Facebook posts that advocated violence against Democrats and the FBI. Top Republicans denounced her at the time, hoping to block her from capturing the GOP nomination for her reliably red congressional district in northwest Georgia. "They're radicals.”CNN reported on Greene’s Facebook posts, which have since been deleted.

Republican leaders looking to broaden the party's appeal were buoyed Tuesday when Iowans refused to renominate Rep. Steve King, known for racially incendiary comments. Republican leaders are taking steps to withhold support from candidates with extreme views. King was stripped of committee assignments last year by House Republican leaders after he defended white nationalism. In Kansas, Pompeo failed to file this week to become a Senate GOP candidate. Emmer, the House GOP campaign chairman, said people are nervous about safety and Trumps stance will prove a winning November message.

Joe Biden is on the cusp of formally securing the Democratic presidential nomination after winning hundreds more delegates in primary contests that tested the nation's ability to run elections while balancing a pandemic and sweeping social unrest. Biden could lock down the nomination within the next week as West Virginia and Georgia hold primaries. Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination in March. Two other states holding primary elections on Tuesday, Idaho and Iowa, chose their presidential nominee early in the year. And in Washington, Janeese Lewis George, a self-identified democratic socialist, upset incumbent Brandon Todd in the Democratic primary for a seat on the city council.

Republicans and Democrats alike were glad to see him go Tuesday, defeated in a GOP primary after nine terms in Congress representing Iowa and after being stripped of his committee assignments. King didn't explicitly say Obama was friendly to Islamic extremists, but the insinuation was unavoidable. Still, Feenstra didn't defeat King by calling him a racist, a tack advisers said would have backfired by sending King supporters into a defensive crouch. This is a progression, not an instance, said Iowa Republican strategist Jon Stineman. And while GOP establishment groups nationally and supporters in Iowa shrugged off King's comments, only to be shaken by his loss of clout in key policy areas, some longtime King supporters such as state Sen. Annette Sweeney had had enough of King's comments.

A voter fills out his ballot as a woman waits her turn during primary voting at the public safety building in McKeesport, Pa., Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)The Latest on Tuesday's primary elections (all times EDT):1:05 a.m.Former CIA operative Valerie Plame has lost her race in the Democratic primary for an open seat representing New Mexico in Congress. Dozens of Maryland primary voters are waiting in line to vote two hours after polls were scheduled to close. The states primary was delayed by four weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak. The states voting are Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota.

FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2019, file photo, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, speaks during a news conference in Des Moines, Iowa. The nine-term congressman, shunned by his party leadership in Washington and many of his longtime supporters at home, lost to well-funded state Sen. Randy Feenstra in a five-way GOP primary. But the focus was on the 4th District primary featuring King, the lone Republican in Iowas U.S. House delegation. Establishment Republicans suggested Kings ouster would easily keep the seat in the partys hands, warning a King primary victory would jeopardize it. State Rep. Ashley Hinson won her two-way Republican primary to face freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer.

Biden has met the 89% threshold in only two contests since Super Tuesday: Mississippi (94%) and Nebraska (100%). Nearly all of Tuesday's primary balloting will be by mail, just like in most of the states voting in recent weeks amid the vrius outbreak, including Ohio. The violence raging across the nation is likely to increase pressure on Biden to choose an African American woman as his running mate. ___2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election. ___Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.

DES MOINES, Iowa Rep. Steve King is fighting for his political life but not because he's compared immigrants crossing the border illegally to cattle. But Republican activists in King's district, a sprawling swath of corn, soybeans and towering wind turbines, haven't been quick to accept the influence from outsiders. The punishment sidelined King from defending President Donald Trump during the impeachment hearings, a spotlight King would have relished. Steve King couldn't protect our farmers and couldn't protect President Trump from impeachment.It's a tack Iowa Republicans say is working, in part because it doesn't shame Iowans who have long defended King. Congressman Kings comments cannot be exonerated, and I never said that, McCarthy told reporters last week.

Biden's campaign and the DNC planned to file papers for the deal on Saturday with the Federal Elections Commission. The arrangement comes as Biden expands his influence with the national party and works with the DNC and state parties. In addition to trying to unseat Trump, Democrats are looking to retain their House majority and wrest control of the Senate from Republicans. We believe that there will be battleground states that have never been battleground states before, Bidens campaign manager, Jen OMalley Dillon, said Friday. Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia stand out as heavily GOP states that wont be close in the presidential election.