Politics

The findings were contained in a memo by Biden’s doctor, summarizing the exams conducted during a three-hour stay at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

O’Connor concluded in a five-page memo that Biden “remains a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.” But the doctor did not speculate about where Biden’s health might be at age 86, when a second term might end.

The president had a lesion removed from his chest that is undergoing a traditional biopsy. But Thursday’s results largely matched the findings after the president’s last exam in November 2021, which said his coughing was due to acid reflux and his stiffened gait was the result of spinal arthritis, a previously broken foot and neuropathy in his feet.

The memo generally labeled Biden’s health as “stable” compared to his last exam, though it noted that his calves and hamstrings had possibly tightened.

Biden tested positive in July for COVID-19 and experienced “very mild symptoms,” according to the White House. He also had a rebound infection and ultimately tested negative on Aug. 6 of last year. The president continued to work even as he isolated himself in the White House.

“Well, everything really went well,” Biden told NBC News on Thursday about the exam ahead of the memo’s release.

Follow-up interviews with people in the survey indicated that Biden’s age was a major concern. They took note of his coughing, a greater sense of fragility in his walking and moments when he misspoke.

Biden had a colonoscopy in 2021, in which a 3-millimeter “benign-appearing polyp” was identified and removed. He did not undergo a colonoscopy during Thursday’s checkup.

Asked in a recent PBS interview about his age and ability to be president, Biden responded with what has become his stock line: “Watch me. It’s all I can say.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — As former CIA Director David Petraeus recently told the House Intelligence Committee about the needs of the agency’s workforce, one of the committee’s youngest members flashed a knowing smile and began to nod.

Abigail Spanberger spent almost a decade as a CIA operations officer. Now, she’s a third-term Democratic congresswoman from Virginia who was just named to one of two committees that oversees the work of America’s spy agencies.

The relationship between Congress and the U.S. intelligence services can be uneasy and is often adversarial. That’s especially true now as lawmakers demand answers about classified documents found in the private possession of two presidents and the Biden administration’s response to a suspected Chinese spy balloon.

Years of high-profile fights over intelligence matters have taken a toll, with some Republicans accusing the agencies of being part of a “deep state” controlling U.S. politics.

Spanberger, 43, is part of a small group of former intelligence officers to have been elected to Congress. Like others with access to America’s top secrets, she will be called on to review intelligence matters in private and explain what she can to fellow lawmakers and the public.

“I know the lingo. I know the language. I know the culture,” Spanberger told The Associated Press in a recent interview in her office. “I hope that helps me do my job better. But I’m sure there will be points of frustration probably for me and for them, frankly speaking.”

She rejects talk of a “deep state” and called on other lawmakers not to promote conspiracy theories about intelligence or the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

“The reality is other countries perceive that and they perceive that in a way that can’t be good,” she said. “As a former intelligence officer, I know that countries are watching us. I know because I wrote up those reports — you know, ‘there’s fighting with these two factions and this is what it means.’”

At least two other former CIA officers became members of the committee — Republicans Will Hurd of Texas and Porter Goss of Florida, who was chairman before being named CIA director in 2004 under President George W. Bush.

In an interview, Goss described his experience with overseeing intelligence while in Congress as “frustrating.”

“The tensions are greater than when I was there,” he said, blaming polarization both in Congress and within the spy agencies. “Most of the intelligence community doesn’t understand Congress and most of Congress doesn’t understand the intelligence community.”

Spanberger’s background in intelligence and her moderate politics representing a swing district south and west of Washington will be assets on the committee, Goss and Hurd said.

“She’s trustworthy,” said Hurd, who left Congress after the 2020 election. “Even when you don’t agree on something, you’re able to build trust with her, which is something I always appreciated. She’s someone that works hard and is focused on the mission. She doesn’t get overwhelmed by stuff.”

The daughter of a nurse and a federal law enforcement officer who also served in the Army, she says she was drawn to national service and the idea of learning new languages and cultures. Spanberger was a postal inspector before joining the CIA in 2006.

As an operations officer, Spanberger worked on cases ranging from counterterrorism to nuclear proliferation. The specifics of her cases remain classified.

Charlotte McWilliams met Spanberger when they were trainee officers before going to the CIA’s academy in rural Virginia known as “The Farm.” They were both sent on to overseas postings — Spanberger in Europe, McWilliams in Africa — and bonded over their shared experiences doing clandestine work while becoming new mothers at the same time.

“It was wonderful to have this dear friend who was working hard to kick butt as much as she could, professionally and personally at the same time,” McWilliams said in an interview.

After eight years, Spanberger had several choices for her next posting, from Kenya to Costa Rica. She says it was her daughter, then in kindergarten, who asked them if they could move back to Virginia. She decided ultimately to leave the CIA.

A few years later, during the 2016 presidential election, she started to discuss with her friends the possibility of running for office.

She ultimately targeted the congressional seat held by then-Rep. Dave Brat, who had stunned House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the GOP primary four years earlier. Part of what informed her decision, she said, was her experience of “always being the one who believed that somebody somewhere was using the information I was collecting in really a productive way.”

“I said I want to be the one who’s making good, informed decisions for the district,” she said.

But not everyone felt she should run for Congress. When Spanberger went to a Democratic Party event to recruit and train future women candidates, McWilliams says, she was told by officials in Washington and Richmond, Virginia, that she should consider running a smaller race, perhaps for school board.

“She did have to listen to her gut,” McWilliams said. “Even in that place where the whole point is they’re experts and they’re going to guide you, she had to advocate for herself.”

Spanberger defeated Brat in 2018, winning a hotly contested race in which Republicans questioned her national security credentials and a stint as a substitute teacher at a school funded by the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington. A previous application she submitted for a security clearance was obtained by a conservative political group and shared with the press.

She’s since won two more close races and been raised as a possible candidate for Virginia governor. She has cut a centrist profile and criticized more liberal Democrats who have identified themselves as “socialist.”

In the weeks since she was named to the intelligence committee, Spanberger says she’s already recognizing some of the names and programs in the classified materials she’s receiving. As a case officer, one of her responsibilities was to help inform the briefers who went before Congress.

She intends to push for more support for current and former officers who have reported illnesses consistent with a possible directed energy attack, in what’s broadly become known as “Havana syndrome.” The CIA last year deemed it unlikely that Russia or another adversary mounted a campaign to attack American officials with microwaves or other energy. Investigations are ongoing, as are stepped-up efforts to identify and compensate people who have reported cases.

Marc Polymeropoulos is a fellow former operations officer who retired after suffering symptoms consistent with Havana syndrome. He says Spanberger brings an insider’s knowledge of the challenges faced by the CIA and other agencies, from recruitment and retention to whether U.S. intelligence agencies are developing enough Chinese speakers and evolving how they does business in a world of advanced technologies and the ubiquitous surveillance of cellphones.

He says Spanberger shouldn’t be assumed to reflexively defend the agencies because she worked for one.

“If you want to be a plumber, you’ve got to know about plumbing,” he said. “She’ll know how to fix things.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — He twice voted in favor of convicting former President Donald Trump in impeachment trials. He excoriated his fellow senators who objected to certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. He even scolded New York Rep. George Santos for his audacity in grabbing a prominent seat at the State of the Union address after admitting to fabricating much of his biography.

After four years in Washington, Republican Mitt Romney has established himself as a rare senator willing to publicly rebuke members of his own party.

But the Utah senator’s outspoken stances, along with his willingness to work with Democrats, have angered some Republicans in the deep-red state he represents and led them to cast about for someone to try to dethrone him a primary race next year.

The 75-year-old said that he hasn’t made a decision on whether to run for reelection in 2024 and doesn’t expect to until the start of summer.

“I’m sort of keeping my mind open,” Romney said in an interview. “There’s no particular hurry. I’m doing what I would do if I’m running with staffing and resources, so it’s not like I have to make a formal announcement.”

His decision about whether to run again comes as Trump is making his third campaign for the White House, presenting Romney an opportunity to continue to serve as a chief foil to the former president.

But that could also sustain the backlash Romney has faced for serving as a check on Trump, including being heckled at the airport, narrowly avoiding censure by the state GOP and becoming an insult that other Republicans use to slam their rivals as suspect: “A Mitt Romney Republican.”

Romney said he didn’t know if the prospect of Trump becoming the Republican presidential nominee was something that would spur him to run for reelection run or stay out. But he said it was among the the things he would be weighing, along with personal considerations regarding his wife, Ann Romney, and family, and his goals for what he wants to accomplish in the Senate.

“We’ll look and see what happens in the rest of the Republican landscape and the national landscape, the presidential race and the other Senate races,” he said. “There is just a lot of elements that I will ultimately take into account. But I haven’t begun that process yet.”

Romney has earned a reputation for bipartisanship, from his role helping broker a sweeping 2021 infrastructure law with Democrats to his being one of only three Republicans to vote to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson as a Supreme Court justice. He helped negotiate legislation to protect same-sex marriages in December by demanding language ensuring that the rights of religious institutions would not be affected. And he joined 14 other Republican senators in supporting a sweeping gun control measure last summer in the wake of mass shootings.

“I didn’t come to the Senate to just fight and lose,” Romney said. “I came to actually fight and win. And I fell in with a group of Republicans and some Democrats who felt the same way and wanted to work together on issues of significance for the country and for our respective states.”

But what garnered Romney heavy booing two years ago and a near censure from the Utah GOP was his vote in 2020 that made him the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president of his own party in an impeachment trial. Romney voted to convict Trump on House charges that he had abused his power by urging the president of Ukraine to investigate then-candidate Biden. He voted to acquit on a separate charge that Trump had obstructed the impeachment investigation.

Romney did it again in the weeks after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, becoming one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection.

Stan Lockhart, a former chair of the Utah Republican Party, said that while Romney’s votes in the impeachment trials drew a “huge negative outpouring,” he thinks that, nearly two years later, some of the support for Trump has softened and the hostility has “mellowed.”

“I think there are people today that were not big fans of Mitt Romney after that impeachment vote who like him better today,” Lockhart said.

Romney said he doesn’t have a measure of whether the backlash has eased, but said he was following an oath he took “to apply impartial justice.”

“People elect you and then you follow your conscience,” he said. “It would be sad if people who got elected to office tried to calculate their decisions based upon how popular it was at home. They have to do what they feel is absolutely right and then live with the consequences of that.”

No GOP challenger has stepped forward to run against Romney, but several prominent Utah Republicans are seen as potential candidates and at least one major conservative group is looking at spending in the race.

The anti-tax group Club For Growth, which used the phrase “Mitt Romney Republican” in attack ads in 2022, said the Utah Senate race is one where its political super PAC could likely get involved, throwing heft behind a conservative challenger.

“Even if he stays, I think there’s a desire among conservatives to have a real choice in Utah,” said Club For Growth President David McIntosh. “If somebody steps forward and is a credible candidate, we would definitely take a look at that.”

Former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who gained the national spotlight leading the House Oversight committee through aggressive investigations of Hillary Clinton, said he is considering a campaign.

“I do think about it. It’s not something I’m working on,” Chaffetz said in an interview. “It’s something I don’t think I need to decide right now and consequently I haven’t.”

He declined to say whether he thinks Romney is vulnerable but said, “I don’t think anybody should ever assume that they will continue to be there in perpetuity.”

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, is among those seen as a potential challenger. Reyes’ longtime political consultant Alan Crooks told the AP last year that Reyes was getting pressure to run and was well-positioned but wouldn’t say if he would launch a campaign.

The Western state allows candidates to secure a spot on the primary election ballot by collecting voter signatures — something a well-funded or popular candidate can generally do with ease — or by winning the support of 4,000 conservative-leaning delegates at the state GOP party convention.

Romney is unlikely to win the support of delegates — he didn’t in 2018 — and the impeachment votes made it worse.

“Trump is still very popular among the base,” Utah GOP Chair Carson Jorgensen said. “Many Republicans felt it was a waste of time and taxpayer dollars to vote for impeachment.”

In a primary election, where a larger pool of more moderate and independent Republicans cast ballots, the race is seen as Romney’s to lose.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, had long been among the most popular figures in Utah by the time he moved to the state after his unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign.

A Brigham Young University graduate, Romney was brought on to help the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, turning the games that had been overshadowed by a bribery scandal into a successful showcase for the small Western state. As the Republican presidential nominee a decade later, he became the most visible member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith to which more than half of Utah residents belong.

The church’s culture of decorum made the state a place where Trump, with his brazen personality and comments about women and people of color, initially received a chilly reception, losing the state’s 2016 caucuses.

Romney that year delivered a scathing speech against Trump, deeming him a “fraud” who was unfit to be president, but later warmed to him and accepted his endorsement during his Senate campaign.

Kirk Jowers, the former chairman and general counsel of Romney’s leadership PACs who remains in touch with Romney, said he has positioned himself at the center of much of what goes on in Washington and probably feels “that he has an incredibly important role to play in our state’s and our country’s and his party’s affairs.”

“I think it would be incredibly difficult for him to walk away from that role as things stand right now,” Jowers said.

Romney said he found it “fun” to get things passed in Washington but said he doesn’t “understand someone who just wants to stay in the Senate.”

“I had a life before I came here, and I’ll have a life after I go,” Romney said. “And I came to actually do things and I’ve been part of a group that allowed me to do that.”

___

Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

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Today in History

Today is Friday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2023. There are 317 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 17, 1801, the U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr became vice president.

On this date:

In 1815, the United States and Britain exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.

In 1863, the International Red Cross was founded in Geneva.

In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union ship USS Housatonic was rammed and sunk in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by the Confederate hand-cranked submarine HL Hunley in the first naval attack of its kind; the Hunley also sank.

In 1897, the forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, convened its first meeting in Washington.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. forces invaded Eniwetok Atoll, encountering little initial resistance from Imperial Japanese troops. (The Americans secured the atoll less than a week later.)

In 1959, the United States launched Vanguard 2, a satellite that carried meteorological equipment.

In 1964, the Supreme Court, in Wesberry v. Sanders, ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon departed the White House with his wife, Pat, on a historic trip to China.

In 1988, Lt. Col. William Higgins, a Marine Corps officer serving with a United Nations truce monitoring group, was kidnapped in southern Lebanon by Iranian-backed terrorists (he was later slain by his captors).

In 1995, Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings (he was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison).

In 2014, Jimmy Fallon made his debut as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.”

In 2015, Vice President Joe Biden opened a White House summit on countering extremism and radicalization, saying the United States needed to ensure that immigrants were fully included in the fabric of American society to prevent violent ideologies from taking root at home.

Ten years ago: Danica Patrick won the Daytona 500 pole, becoming the first woman to secure the top spot for any Sprint Cup race. (Patrick covered the 2½-mile Superspeedway in 45.817 seconds, averaging 196.434 mph. A week later, Jimmie Johnson won the race, while Patrick finished eighth.) The Western Conference beat the East 143-138 in the NBA All-Star game played in Houston. Mindy McCready, 37, who’d hit the top of U.S. country music charts before personal problems sidetracked her career, died by her own hand in Heber Springs, Arkansas.

Five years ago: President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, told a conference in Germany that there was now “incontrovertible” evidence of a Russian plot to disrupt the 2016 U.S. election; the statement stood in stark contrast to Trump’s claim that Russian interference in his election victory was a hoax. Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu made Olympic figure skating history in the men’s free skate event in South Korea, becoming the first man to repeat as Olympic champion since Dick Button in 1952.

One year ago: U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Russia could still invade Ukraine within days and Russia expelled the No. 2 diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, as tensions flared anew in the worst East-West standoff in decades. (Russia would invade Ukraine three days later.) Anna Shcherbakova won a stunning gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Beijing Games, while Russian teammate Kamila Valieva tumbled all the way out of the medals after a mistake-filled end to her controversial Olympics.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor-comedian Barry Humphries (aka “Dame Edna”) is 89. Actor Christina Pickles is 88. Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown is 87. Actor Brenda Fricker is 78. Actor Becky Ann Baker is 70. Actor Rene Russo is 69. Actor Richard Karn is 67. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips is 61. Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan is 60. Actor-comedian Larry, the Cable Guy is 60. TV personality Rene Syler is 60. Movie director Michael Bay is 59. Singer Chante Moore is 56. Rock musician Timothy J. Mahoney (311) is 53. Actor Dominic Purcell is 53. Olympic gold and silver medal skier Tommy Moe is 53. Actor Denise Richards is 52. Rock singer-musician Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) is 51. Actor Jerry O’Connell is 49. Country singer Bryan White is 49. Actor Kelly Carlson is 47. Actor Ashton Holmes is 45. Actor Conrad Ricamora is 44. Actor Jason Ritter is 43. TV personality Paris Hilton is 42. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is 42. TV host Daphne Oz is 37. Actor Chord Overstreet is 34.

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The panel recommended that the district attorney “seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.” In addition to the section on perjury, the report’s introduction and conclusion were released Thursday. But any recommendations on potential criminal charges for specific people will remain under wraps for now.

Despite Trump’s persistent contentions, the grand jurors found “by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning the election.”

McBurney wrote in his order that it’s not appropriate to release the full report now because it’s important to protect the due process rights of people for whom the grand jury recommended charges.

The special grand jury, which was requested by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to aid her investigation, did not have the power to issue indictments. Instead, its report contains recommendations for Willis, who will ultimately decide whether to seek one or more indictments from a regular grand jury.

The grand jurors were seated in May, began receiving evidence in June and submitted their report to McBurney on Dec. 15. The report’s introduction says an “overwhelming majority” of the information that the grand jury received “was delivered in person under oath.”

Trump and his allies have made unproven claims of widespread voter fraud and have repeatedly berated Raffensperger and Kemp for not acting to overturn his loss. State and federal officials, including Trump’s attorney general, have consistently said the election was secure and there was no evidence of significant fraud.

“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said during that call. “Because we won the state.”

Trump has said repeatedly that his call with Raffensperger was “perfect,” and he told the AP last month that he felt “very confident” that he would not be indicted.

Based on witnesses called to testify before the special grand jury, it is clear that Willis is focusing on several areas. Those include:

— False allegations of election fraud made during meetings of state legislators at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020.

Willis last summer sent letters informing some people, including Giuliani and the state’s 16 fake electors, that they could face criminal charges.

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ATLANTA (AP) — A special grand jury that investigated efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia says it believes some witnesses committed perjury, and it recommends “appropriate indictments.”

The panel recommended that the district attorney “seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.” But the report does not name the people who are alleged to have lied.

In addition to the section on perjury, the report’s introduction and conclusion were released Thursday. But any recommendations on potential criminal charges for specific people will remain under wraps for now.

The partial release was ordered Monday by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury. During a hearing last month, prosecutors urged him not to release the report until they decide on charges, while a coalition of media organizations, including The Associated Press, pushed for the entire report to be made public immediately.

McBurney wrote in his order that it’s not appropriate to release the full report now because it’s important to protect the due process rights of people for whom the grand jury recommended charges.

The investigation is one of several that could have serious legal consequences for the former president as he tries to persuade voters to return him to the White House in 2024.

The special grand jury, which was requested by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to aid her investigation, did not have the power to issue indictments. Instead, its report contains recommendations for Willis, who will ultimately decide whether to seek one or more indictments from a regular grand jury.

Over the course of about seven months, the grand jurors heard from 75 witnesses, among them Trump allies including former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Top Georgia officials, such as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, also appeared before the panel.

Trump, who has publicly refused to accept that Joe Biden won the November 2020 election, has seemed particularly bothered by his loss in Georgia and what he saw as a failure of Republican state elected officials to fight for him. Georgia tipped to Biden by about 12,000 votes, making him the first Democratic presidential candidate to win there since 1992.

Trump and his allies have made unproven claims of widespread voter fraud and have repeatedly berated Raffensperger and Kemp for not acting to overturn his loss. State and federal officials, including Trump’s attorney general, have consistently said the election was secure and there was no evidence of significant fraud.

Willis has said since the beginning of the investigation two years ago that she was interested in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump suggested to Raffensperger that he could “find” the votes needed to overturn his loss in the state.

“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said during that call. “Because we won the state.”

Trump has said repeatedly that his call with Raffensperger was “perfect,” and he told the AP last month that he felt “very confident” that he would not be indicted.

Based on witnesses called to testify before the special grand jury, it is clear that Willis is focusing on several areas. Those include:

— Phone calls by Trump and others to Georgia officials in the wake of the 2020 election.

— A group of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate in December 2020 falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.

— False allegations of election fraud made during meetings of state legislators at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020.

— The copying of data and software from election equipment in rural Coffee County by a computer forensics team hired by Trump allies.

— Alleged attempts to pressure Fulton County elections worker Ruby Freeman into falsely confessing to election fraud.

— The abrupt resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta in January 2021.

Willis last summer sent letters informing some people, including Giuliani and the state’s 16 fake electors, that they could face criminal charges.

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In announcing her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination this week, Nikki Haley made a subtle reference to the historic nature of her candidacy.

“I don’t put up with bullies,” Haley said in a video that launched her bid to become the first female president of the U.S. “And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels.”

Haley has plenty of accomplishments, including becoming the first woman elected governor of South Carolina and representing the U.S. at the United Nations. But her introduction captured the balancing act women — particularly conservative women — often navigate as they aspire to win the top job in American politics.

They must show toughness to prove they can compete against rivals who are almost always men for a job that has only been held by men. But there’s also something of an invisible line that can’t be crossed for fear of being viewed as too tough and repelling voters.

“We’ve seen higher levels of Republican women running and winning in recent elections,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research and a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “But what you also see these women often doing is working hard to meet that double bind. … It’s like, ‘I’m tough, but I’m also feminine. I’m also meeting my kind of feminine expectations.’”

Sexism in politics is hardly limited to one political party, with women in public life often under pressure to appear “likable” in ways that aren’t expected of men. During a Democratic primary debate in 2008, a male moderator pressed Hillary Clinton on the “likability issue” in relation to her rival, Barack Obama.

“I don’t think I’m that bad,” Clinton responded. Obama broke in to say, “You’re likable enough, Hillary.”

More recently, prominent Democratic women have also sought to project toughness in their campaigns. Sharice Davids, a former mixed martial arts fighter, sparred in a 2018 ad for a Kansas congressional seat. Amy McGrath, who challenged Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in 2020, highlighted her experience as a Marine fighter pilot.

But the dynamics are different, Dittmar said, in Republican politics, where voters tend to have more traditional views about stereotypical gender roles. That can incentivize Republican women seeking top offices to demonstrate both their toughness and femininity. She noted how former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin introduced herself as a vice presidential nominee in 2008 with a joke comparing hockey moms to a pitbull with lipstick.

“It’s another way to cue” to voters that candidates are both tough and feminine, Dittmar said.

Haley’s formal announcement in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday was peppered with examples. A congressman described Haley as leading with “an iron fist in a velvet glove.” The mother of Otto Warmbier, the young American who died after he was held and tortured in North Korea, said Haley taught her how to fight but also checked on her with the compassion of a fellow mom. And Haley herself called on voters to send “a tough-as-nails woman to the White House.”

Haley is one of only five Republican women to launch prominent campaigns for the office this century. By comparison, 12 Democratic women have been prominent candidates, including six in 2020, according to CAWP. The 12 include Clinton as the party’s 2016 nominee and a 2020 candidate, Kamala Harris, who became the country’s first female vice president.

Women face other hurdles their male peers do not, including online abuse that overwhelmingly targets women, especially women of color.

Haley’s main competition so far for the nomination, former President Donald Trump, has a long record of insulting his rivals, targeting women with sexist attacks including criticizing their appearance.

Clinton’s campaign accused Trump during the 2016 election of repeatedly interrupting her during a debate, saying it resembled a frustrating experience many women have with men. Trump also made critical remarks about the appearance of the last major Republican female candidate to challenge him for the presidency, businesswoman Carly Fiorina.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the last of six women to drop out of the party’s 2020 presidential primary, referenced sexism as a factor, noting the two remaining hopefuls were white men. Trump said her problem was actually a “lack of talent” and called her mean and unlikable.

Before Haley made her bid official, Trump called her “a very ambitious person,” telling conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that Haley “just couldn’t stay in her seat.” He also said he essentially gave Haley his blessing before she reversed course on an earlier decision not to challenge him. “I said, ‘You know what, Nikki, if you want to run, you go ahead and run.’”

Haley, a former accountant and state legislator who became South Carolina’s first female and first Indian American governor, is no stranger to sexist and racist attacks.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, she has written and talked about growing up in a small town as the only brown-skinned family. During her 2010 campaign for governor, a state lawmaker used a racial slur to reference her. He later apologized.

Former Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana, who led GOP efforts to recruit and elect more women to the U.S. House, called Haley’s candidacy “good for the party” and the country.

Olivia Perez-Cubas is spokeswoman for Winning For Women, which formed to help elect more GOP women after Democratic women led a takeover of the U.S. House in 2018. She said the group wants to ensure the Republican Party is representative of the U.S., which means it needs more diversity, including more women.

She is also hopeful that having more women in office or running as candidates will help Republicans attract more female voters, who have been more likely to support Democrats than Republicans in recent presidential elections. AP VoteCast, a broad survey of the electorate, shows 55% of women voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and 43% voted for Trump.

“Voters like to see and hear themselves reflected,” she said. “And when we can put forward a strong candidate that’s a woman, that’s great for everyone.”

Still, Perez-Cubas acknowledged that just as in many careers, the bar for women is “always just a little bit higher.”

Republican businesswoman Tudor Dixon was the first woman to be the GOP nominee for governor in Michigan, defeating four male rivals in the 2022 primary. Her nomination was surprising to some voters, Dixon said, including one woman who liked the Republican’s policies but said, “I just can’t vote for you because you have four girls and I don’t think you should be leaving them.”

Michigan was one of five states where 2022 gubernatorial contests were between two women, a U.S. record. But it also led to “disgusting” comparisons between herself and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Dixon said, such as who was younger or more physically fit — discussions that rarely happen in contests between two men.

She applauded Haley for getting into the race, saying it’s not an easy thing to do.

“You are personally attacked. You put yourself out there, and it’s hard,” she said. “But young women should see that they can do this, and that the future is that women are doing the same things that men are doing.”

Evelyn Sanguinetti, who was Illinois’ first Latina lieutenant governor when she served with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, had similar experiences on the campaign trail. She was excited about Haley’s bid, noting the historic nature of electing a woman who is of Indian descent and could, she said, lead with empathy and compassion at a time when the country is greatly divided.

“I’d like for our daughters to see that, because we’ve been seeing a lot of males, particularly white males, for a really long time,” Sanguinetti said.

In her Wednesday speech, Haley made a point to eschew so-called identity politics. But she stood on stage wearing the white of the suffragette movement and had a message to her rivals.

“As I set out on this new journey I will simply say this,” Haley said. “May the best woman win.”

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Associated Press writer Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee filed federal paperwork Wednesday to enter the race for the California seat held by long-serving Sen. Dianne Feinstein, potentially adding another Democrat and a nationally recognized Black woman to a growing field that already includes two other House members.

Though Lee has not made a formal announcement, her entry into the contest is widely expected. She filed paperwork creating a Senate fundraising committee one day after Feinstein — at 89 the oldest member of Congress — announced she would step down after her term ends next year.

Lee “is filing preparatory paperwork and her announcement will come before the end of the month,” spokeswoman Katie Merrill said.

Lee would join Democratic U.S. Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff in the contest, who earlier announced their candidacies for the seat that Feinstein has held for three decades.

Lee, 76, is perhaps best known for being the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for the use of military force after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

She is the highest-ranking Black woman appointed to the House Democratic leadership, serving as co-chair of the Policy and Steering Committee.

She has long been on outspoken defender of abortion rights. In 2021, she was one of several members of Congress who shared personal testimony about their own abortions during a congressional hearing.

Lee became pregnant at age 16 in the mid-1960s. Abortion in California was illegal at the time, so a family friend helped send her to a “back-alley clinic in Mexico,” she said at the time.

She had no ill effects from the procedure, but she said many other women weren’t so lucky in that era.

“In the 1960s, unsafe septic abortions were the primary killer — primary killer — of African American women,” Lee said.

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Republican Nikki Haley joined the 2024 race for president this week, becoming the first major rival to former President Donald Trump in a field that is expected to grow in coming months. Here are some things to know about the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations:

‘I WAS DIFFERENT’

Haley, 51, grew up in the small rural community of Bamberg, South Carolina, the daughter of Indian immigrants. Raised in the Sikh faith by a father who wore a turban and a mother who wore a sari, she has described enduring racist taunts and feeling like she didn’t fit in, an experience she says had an impact on on her personal and political life. In a video announcing her presidential bid, Haley referenced that past, saying she grew up “not Black, not white — I was different.” She also insisted — as she has in past speeches — that America is not a racist country. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” she said in her formal announcement Wednesday.

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NOTABLE FIRSTS

Before becoming South Carolina governor, Haley was an accountant and served in the state House of Representatives. In her first campaign in 2004, she defeated the state’s longest-serving House member. Three terms later, she made a longshot bid for governor and defeated a field of more veteran politicians to become the first woman and first Indian American to lead South Carolina. At 38, she also was the nation’s youngest governor. Haley is the first woman to be a major candidate for president in 2024, and just the fifth Republican woman this century.

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‘DIVISIVE SYMBOL’

Haley’s biggest moment on the national stage as governor came during her second term, when a self-avowed white supremacist who had been pictured holding Confederate flags murdered nine Black parishioners as they gathered for Bible study in a Charleston church. For years before the 2015 killings, Haley had resisted calls to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds, even casting a rival’s push for its removal as a desperate stunt. But after the massacre and with the support of other leading Republicans, Haley advocated for legislation to remove the flag. It came down less than a month after the murders.

Haley later faced criticism for telling conservative host Glen Beck in a 2019 interview that the Charleston shooter “hijacked” the ideals many connected to the flag, including the “service, and sacrifice and heritage” it meant to some. After many responded saying that the flag represented treason and racial hatred, Haley said in a statement on Twitter that she stood by her call to remove it. In a 2020 speech to the Republican National Convention that followed weeks of protests alleging racial injustice by police, Haley called the flag a “divisive symbol” that was removed peacefully.

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HISTORY WITH TRUMP

Haley has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Trump, going from harsh critic to ardent supporter and now a 2024 rival.

During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Haley supported Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. She later backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. She described Trump as “everything a governor doesn’t want in a president.” But Haley ultimately said she would back the GOP nominee, and shortly after Trump won the presidency, she agreed to serve as the new administration’s ambassador to the United Nations. She was a whole-hearted supporter of his 2020 reelection bid. Her most recent reversal: Her decision to seek the presidency after initially saying she wouldn’t challenge Trump if he ran again.

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, announced her candidacy for president on Tuesday, becoming the first major challenger to former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination.

The announcement, delivered in a tweeted video, marks an about-face for the ex-Trump Cabinet official, who said two years ago that she wouldn’t challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. But she changed her mind in recent months, citing, among other things, the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change,” a nod to the 76-year-old Trump’s age.

“You should know this about me. I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels,” Haley said. “I’m Nikki Haley, and I’m running for president.”

Haley, 51, is the first in a long line of Republicans who are expected to launch 2024 campaigns in the coming months. Among them are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

President Joe Biden has said he intends to seek reelection in 2024, stalling any jostling for the Democratic nomination.

Haley has regularly boasted about her track record of defying political expectations, saying, “I’ve never lost an election, and I’m not going to start now.”

If elected, Haley would be the nation’s first female president and the first U.S. president of Indian descent.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley grew up enduring racist taunts in a small South Carolina town and has long referenced that impact on her personal and political arc.

In the three-and-a-half minute video, Haley referenced that past, saying she grew up “not Black, not white — I was different.”

Despite that, Haley insisted that America is not a racist country: “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Playing in the background of her video were images of media reports related to The New York Times Magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project” — which centered the country’s history around slavery.

Haley never mentions Trump by name in the video, instead saying “the Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again.” Haley leans into a call for “a new generation of leadership,” which has become the refrain of her messaging leading up to the launch.

There appears to be openness among Republicans to new leadership, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. In an open-ended question asking Republicans to choose who they want to lead their party, a majority of Republicans didn’t choose either Trump or DeSantis, considered the former president’s top rival. But they also didn’t have a clear alternative in mind.

Eleven other politicians, including Haley, are named by just 1% of Republicans as their preferred leader.

In a statement, Taylor Budowich, spokesman for Trump’s super PAC, said Haley was “just another career politician.”

“She started out as a Never Trumper before resigning to serve in the Trump admin,” he said. “She then resigned early to go rake in money on corporate boards. Now, she’s telling us she represents a ‘new generation.’ Sure just looks like more of the same, a career politician whose only fulfilled commitment is to herself.”

Before entering politics, Haley was an accountant. She defeated the longest-serving member of the South Carolina House in 2004 in her first bid for public office. Three terms later and with little statewide recognition, Haley mounted a long-shot campaign for governor against a large field of experienced politicians.

She racked up a number of high-profile endorsements, including from the sitting South Carolina governor, Mark Sanford, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a tea party darling.

With her 2010 victory, Haley became South Carolina’s first female and minority governor — and the nation’s youngest at 38. She earned a speaking slot at the 2012 Republican National Convention and gave the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union in 2016.

The defining moment of Haley’s time as governor came after the 2015 murders of nine Black parishioners in a Charleston church by a self-avowed white supremacist who had been pictured holding Confederate flags.

For years, Haley had resisted calls to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds, even casting a rival’s push for its removal as a desperate stunt. But after the massacre and with the support of other leading Republicans, Haley advocated for legislation to remove the flag. It came down less than a month after the murders.

In the 2016 presidential primary, Haley was an early supporter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, later shifting to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. She ultimately said she would back the party’s nominee.

Shortly after Trump’s victory, he tapped Haley to be his U.N. ambassador, a move that rewarded Henry McMaster, the lieutenant governor who was the nation’s first statewide elected official to back Trump’s 2016 campaign. Haley’s departure cleared the way for McMaster to ascend to the governorship he had sought, since losing a bruising primary to none other than Haley seven years earlier.

With her Senate confirmation, Haley became the first Indian American in a presidential Cabinet.

During her nearly two-year tenure, Haley feuded at times with other administration officials while bolstering her own public persona.

One of her most memorable moments as U.N. ambassador came in 2018 after National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow suggested Haley had suffered “momentary confusion” when she said Russian sanctions were imminent.

“With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” she responded. The first half of the quote became the title of her 2019 memoir.

Her departure from the job later that year fueled speculation that she would challenge Trump in 2020 or replace Pence on the ticket. She did neither.

Instead, Haley returned to South Carolina, where she bought a home on the wealthy enclave Kiawah Island, joined the board of aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co., launched herself on the speaking circuit and wrote two books, including the memoir.

After the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, Haley initially cast doubts on Trump’s political future but said she wouldn’t challenge him in 2024. She later shifted course, citing inflation, crime, drugs and a “foreign policy in disarray” among her reasons for considering a White House campaign.

During his South Carolina stop last month, Trump told WIS-TV that Haley had called to seek his opinion on running for president. Trump pointed out her earlier pledge not to run against him but said he made no attempt to stop her.

“She said she would never run against me because I was the greatest president, but people change their opinions, and they change what’s in their hearts,” Trump said. “So I said, ‘If your heart wants to do it, you have to go do it.’”

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

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