Politics

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada’s departing Secretary of State was served a subpoena last month as part of the U.S. Department of Justice special counsel’s investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results.

The subpoena required Barbara Cegavske to either appear in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., on Dec. 9 or provide a litany of documents detailing communications with officials. Those documents mirrored the special counsel’s subpoenas in other key swing states.

Cegavske’s office opted to provide documents, of which there was only one, with officials who were not on the DOJ’s request list. In a statement Thursday evening, Cegavske’s office said that document was provided “out of an abundance of caution.”

Special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing the Justice Department investigation into the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the violent storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump’s efforts to remain in power.

It’s part of the first known round of subpoenas by Smith, who was named special counsel last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Officials in Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and Arizona received subpoenas as well. Clark County, Nevada’s most populous county which includes Las Vegas, also received a subpoena.

Cegavske’s subpoena, obtained Thursday evening by The Associated Press through an open records request submitted this week, was dated Nov. 22, nearly two weeks after Nevada’s high-profile midterm races were some of the last in the nation to be called.

The DOJ requested identical documents from other key swing states and counties it subpoenaed.

Those included “any and all communications in any form” between June 1, 2020, and Jan. 20, 2021, “to, from or involving” Trump, his campaign, lawyers and aides, including former campaign officials and lawyers such as Sidney Powell and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Cegavske’s office had no records detailing communication with any of the Trump campaign officials listed on the subpoena, but did provide one document anyway.

They submitted an October 2020 Zoom meeting invite between the office and Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald, who was one of several who signed certificates falsely stating that Trump won Nevada in 2020, as well as others who signed fake certificates or have sought to overturn or discredit elections in Nevada.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we included communications with the NVGOP and RNC in our search, and that was the only record found during the time frame in question,” spokesperson Jennifer Russell said in an email to the AP on Thursday.

All of the states the DOJ subpoenaed are key battlegrounds that Trump and his allies targeted as they tried to overturn the election.

Cegavske, who was not eligible for reelection after serving two terms, has been the only current statewide-elected Republican critic of voter-fraud conspiracy theories, and one of the most vocal. She has overseen elections in the state since 2014, and has repeatedly defended the results as reliable and accurate despite attacks from Trump and other Republicans — which led Nevada’s Republican party to censure her.

Her investigation found no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud throughout the state.

Trump took to his social media app last month to try and discredit this year’s midterm election results in Clark County, to which the county responded by saying Trump was “misinformed about the law and our election processes that ensure the integrity of elections in Clark County.”

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Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Follow Stern on Twitter: @gabestern326.

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THE BACKGROUND: The U.S. midterm elections broke from the historical pattern of the president’s party taking a drubbing.

It was a particularly unpredictable campaign season with major issues pulling voters in different directions. Inflation was high. The Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion. And the democratic process itself was challenged by a number of Republican candidates who ran on spreading Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

In the end, the election deniers lost nearly all the major swing-state races.

AP journalists covered the candidates, the voters and the issues through it all.

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STEVEN SLOAN, AP political editor

The thing that was so interesting and weird about this election, and especially for a midterm, is that for a lot of the year it was really unclear what the issue was, and that felt very different than previous cycles. If you look back to 2010, that cycle was really driven by response to Obama and Obamacare. 2006 was really a backlash to the war in Iraq. 2018 was a reaction to Trump. And for much of 2022, it was kind of just like, what is this election about? And that really changed, I would say, in the summertime, when the (abortion) decision came down. That was a clarifying moment that really kind of helped crystallize, I think, for voters, and people maybe who weren’t tuned into the political process.

JONATHAN J. COOPER, AP political reporter based in Phoenix

You saw a lot of, I think anger is probably the right word, among younger voters, among Democrats for sure, about the (Supreme Court) decision, and I think that motivated a lot of people to vote and to vote for Democrats. A lot of concern about inflation and the price of everyday goods. Gas especially, but everything. Border security was certainly animating a lot of voters. I talked to a fair number of voters who were sort of cross pressured and they were frustrated with prices, they were frustrated with the situation on the border, but they also didn’t like the Republicans who are election deniers and they were concerned about abortion rights.

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On political extremism:

COOPER:

Arizona is sort of the centerpiece of the election denier moveme nt. This was the state that in 2020, Joe Biden had his smallest margin of victory. Donald Trump and his allies — Rudy Giuliani and others — tried very aggressively in the weeks after that election, and leading up to January 6, 2021, to overturn that result. When they were unsuccessful, then you had the Republican state senate issue a subpoena and obtain access to this vast trove of information, all of the ballots from Maricopa County, all of the voting machines. And then they hired a group of Trump supporters to comb through all of that and conduct sort of this unprecedented partisan audit of the conduct of the election. So this is the state more than any other where the 2020 election has been never ending. And so, for me telling that story, and sort of chronicling the very real tension in the Republican Party between the Trump-aligned MAGA movement and the old guard that’s loyal to John McCain, the more business oriented factions of the Republican Party is fascinating. I think it’s important. I think it’s instructive about the conflicts that are going on around the country, in the Republican Party, and which direction it’s going to go in the future.

SLOAN:

All year long, we’ve kind of been talking about democracy and threats to democracy, and the challenges to vote. And I do think that people were really aware this debate that we’re this conversation happening, and in a lot of cases, especially in those most competitive races, the candidates who were seen as extreme, they were rejected. I mean, there were still victories in some places by people who have denied the results of the 2022 election, but overall, particularly in those decisive states that we kind of come back to every two years, I just think that there was a real move by voters to send a message that there are some limits to kind of what’s acceptable political discourse.

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On whether political polarization is going to ease:

SLOAN

The voters are very engaged — I think far more engaged than some might kind of give credit for. I don’t know that we’re suddenly going to kind of return to an era of good feelings. But I do think it does seem to a certain degree that people are looking to take the temperature down a little bit. Candidates who kind of embraced that and represented that did well, people who kind of were the most inflammatory … certainly in statewide races, those candidates often struggled.

COOPER

Polarization is absolutely getting worse over time. Arizona is the state that elected John McCain, who very famously branded himself as a maverick, willing to buck his party. And I’m not sure that John McCain could win a Republican nomination in today’s Republican Party. You also have Kyrsten Sinema, who just recently announced she’s leaving the Democratic Party. It’s basically a self preservation move, because she would have faced an extremely difficult, maybe even impossible path to win a Democratic primary in 2024. I think we’re at an inflection point where voters in the general election are rejecting the extremes, and it remains to be seen whether primary voters respond accordingly.

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On where political coverage is going:

SLOAN

I think democracy is going to continue to be a central focus for us. Just, you know, how do elections work? How is access to the ballot working and changing and who is that impacting? And so I think that will continue, just the process of elections in this country right now. I think abortion will also continue to be a thing. That was such a seismic moment in American culture, in American history, to have the repeal of a constitutional right, that had been on the books for decades. I think we want to continue to see where the energy around that movement goes. Both abortion rights supporters and opponents are continuing to pour money into the issue, It’s really going to kind of be a state-by-state debate. And I think that will continue to influence kind of where we’re at the politics goes.

I want to think more in this cycle about how we cover the presidency, and Congress and governorships and secretaries of state. What we’re seeing is that, all of those together really shape the lives of everyone in this country. And so it’s important to not get so focused on maybe the flashiest part of the races at the expense of these other races that I think, as we see, have a really massive impact on people. And there actually are some interesting races in 2023. There’s the Chicago mayor’s race, there’s the Kentucky governor’s race. These are races that again, will have a real impact on people and will also tell us more about where voters are right now. And we’ll pay attention to them.

COOPER

This is a story that’s going to be with us for a while. You’re going to have a Republican primary, where they’re really going to have to be deciding, are they going to stick with Donald Trump? Or are they going to go in a different direction, Ron DeSantis, or somebody else? And so we’re really going to see, especially on the on the right, I think that that tug of war. And on the left, if Joe Biden runs again, it’ll sort of put off some of those tensions that are very much present on the left — the old Bernie vs. Hillary battles — for a little while longer, but that tension will very much be cropping up in the future, whether that’s the near future or a little bit down the road.

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2022 Notebooks: https://apnews.com/hub/reporters-notebook

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday he will visit sub-Saharan Africa next year, the first U.S. president to travel there in a decade. He announced the trip — still unscheduled — as he wrapped up a U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit by stressing he’s serious about increasing U.S. attention to the growing continent.

His promise of a personal visit came as Biden declared to the 49 leaders gathered for the summit that “Africa belongs at the table” in every conversation of global consequence.

“I’m looking forward to seeing you in your home countries,” Biden said near the end of the three-day summit that the administration billed as primarily a listening session with the continent’s leaders.

The Biden administration used the summit — a follow-up to one held in 2014 by Barack Obama — as the latest part of a charm offensive with leaders of African nations. The administration is looking to strengthen relations with those nations as China has surpassed the U.S. in trade with Africa and is aiming to grow its military presence.

The continent is crucial to global powers because of its rapidly growing population, significant natural resources and sizable voting bloc in the United Nations. Some leaders who took part in summit made clear they want the Biden administration to steer away from forcing them to choose between the U.S. and its global competitors when it comes to trade matters.

“These are economic opportunities,” Niger President Mohamed Bazoum told The Associated Press. “Companies from Turkey and China come and invest in Niger in a win-win type of relationship. It is something that American investors can do as well.”

Biden on Thursday formally announced that he supports the African Union becoming a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations. He also announced plans to spend $2 billion to help bolster food security on the continent and $165 million to help African nations carry out peaceful and transparent elections next year.

Those announcements came after Biden this week detailed his administration’s commitment to spend $55 billion on government programming in Africa over the next three years, over and above the billions that American private companies would invest.

“Our eyes are fixed squarely on the future,” Biden said.

The elections-funding announcement came after Biden met on Wednesday with a small group of leaders whose countries have big votes in the new year.

Those leaders: Democratic Republic of the Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Liberia President George Manneh Weah, Madagascar President Andry Nirina Rajoelina, Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari and Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio.

The White House said in a statement that Biden, in his meeting with the leaders, reflected on the state of democracy in his own country after last year’s Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. That’s when supporters of then-President Donald Trump violently sought to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Biden.

Biden also spoke about the recent U.S. midterm elections, when voters rejected a number of 2020-results-denying candidates, with the president making his case that “the strength and resilience of American democracy was reaffirmed in the process.”

Thousands of Trump supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a violent insurrection, breaking through police barricades and smashing windows in the building, crying out to hang the vice president.

Trump and his allies also launched roughly 50 lawsuits aimed at overturning vote counts in battleground states. They lost almost every legal battle they waged and Biden was declared the winner.

The upcoming elections in African nations are seen as important indicators of the strength of democracy across the continent.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with more than 210 million people, is already confronted with violent attacks relating to its election, to be held in February.

Congo is battling an upsurge of rebel violence in its east, which will complicate efforts to hold elections. Tshisekedi won power in tumultuous elections in that country in 2019, and the upcoming elections, scheduled for next December, will be crucial to solidify his rule.

West Africa has had several coups in recent year, and Burkina Faso and Mali are currently ruled by military juntas. With this in mind, the elections in Gabon and Sierra Leone will be key markers. Sierra Leone had anti-government demonstrations this year over high inflation and displeasure with President Bio, who was elected in 2018.

In Madagascar, with a history marked by coups and disputed elections. President Rajoelina was elected in 2019, replacing rule by a military-backed junta. Rajoelina will be striving to consolidate his rule and the country’s democracy in the elections.

The United States has already provided nearly $50 million in support of civil society and the electoral commissions in Nigeria and Congo.

Senegalese President Macky Sall, the African Union chairman, in remarks at Thursday’s session thanked Biden for his commitment to Africa. But he also said Africa’s countries face steep challenges – -from rising food insecurity to badly needed infrastructure improvements to fend off the scourge of climate change.

Sall criticized pending U.S. legislation that he said unfairly “targeted” Africa, an apparent reference to a measure titled “Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa.” Lawmakers sponsoring the bill say the legislation is intended to prevent Moscow from using Africa to bypass U.S. sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine.

Sall also raised concerns about years-long U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe for corruption and human rights violations, saying that it was time to lift the penalties so the nation could “fight against poverty and underdevelopment.”

Earlier this week, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it was hitting four Zimbabwean people, including the adult son of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and two companies with new s anctions, accusing them of roles in undermining democracy and facilitating high-level graft.

Africa has been disproportionately harmed by the rise of global food prices sparked by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Sall said it was critical to take heed of the “lessons” of the crises of the pandemic and war.

“The time is right to take vigorous action in the field of agriculture and food security,” Sall said.

Biden concurred at a closing summit session focused on food security. He said, “If a parent can’t feed their child, nothing else really matters.”

Sall also said the African Union expects a “strong commitment and support” from the United States on countering terrorism.

“We wish for the fight against terrorism to be an integral part of the world struggle against thus blight,” he said.

Biden’s visit to Africa will include stops in multiple countries, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The White House has not released any details about where or when Biden will be travelling.

He made a brief stop in November in Egypt, which spans across the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia, for an international climate summit.

In the first two years of his presidency, Biden’s international travel has focused on Asia and Europe, as he has sought to recalibrate his foreign policy to put greater focus on the Indo-Pacific. He has also had to deal with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Biden’s Republican predecessor, Trump, did not make it to Africa during his COVID-19 shadowed presidency in which he made no foreign visits during his final 11 months. Trump was the first president since Ronald Reagan not to visit the continent during his presidency

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Associated Press reporters Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg and Tracy Brown in Washington contributed reporting.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Struggling to unify after another disappointing election, the Republican National Committee is consumed by an increasingly nasty leadership fight as the GOP navigates its delicate relationship with former President Donald Trump.

With a vote for RNC chair not scheduled until late January, the public feud may get worse before it gets better.

“It’ll be ugly as hell for a while,” says longtime RNC member Ron Kaufman.

The family fight to lead the party has been largely overshadowed for national attention by the equally contentious struggle to become the new Republican House Speaker, with that election set for the first week in January. But both represent critical selections as the GOP works to overcome six years of electoral underperformance heading into another presidential election.

As the Republicans’ national political arm, the RNC will raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars in building or rebuilding the party’s framework, in campaign messaging and in the year-long presidential nomination process that will begin in earnest before long.

Ronna McDaniel, Trump’s hand-picked choice to lead the committee and the niece of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, is running for a fourth consecutive term. But the 49-year-old is facing a rising wave of discontent from Trump’s “MAGA” movement, even as the former president stays silent — at least, for now.

In an interview, McDaniel said she notified Trump of her intention to seek another term but did not explicitly ask for his support. She said she “didn’t think it would be appropriate to be asking for any endorsements” given that party rules require the RNC to remain neutral in the next presidential primary.

McDaniel demurred when asked whether she wanted Trump’s support.

“I think the most important support right now is the members,” she said. “These are leaders in the party, the grassroots leaders.”

California attorney Harmeet Dhillon has emerged as the MAGA favorite to challenge McDaniel, who secured commitments from more than 100 of the RNC’s 168 voting members earlier this month. Dhillon is working aggressively to peel away some of that support ahead of the formal vote at next month’s annual winter meeting in southern California.

Dhillon said she also notified Trump of her candidacy in a brief phone call shortly before she made her intentions public this month. She did not explicitly ask for his endorsement either, although she said the president did not discourage her from challenging McDaniel.

Dhillon, whose law firm earned more than $400,000 representing Trump and his political organizations in the 2022 midterms, said she would leave her law practice if elected chair. The 53-year-old California attorney, who was born in India, also vowed to remain independent in what is expected to be a crowded 2024 presidential primary contest.

Still, Dhillon defends Trump against those Republicans who blame him for the party’s disappointing performance in the November midterm elections. The GOP won a narrow House majority, but a host of Trump’s hand-picked candidates lost key elections for the Senate and governor.

“It’s not any one person’s fault. And I frankly think it’s a little too convenient to say it’s Donald Trump’s fault. Donald Trump hasn’t been the president for the last two years,” Dhillon said.

Instead of criticizing Trump, Dhillon railed against Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, a frequent Trump target, for not investing enough money in important Senate contests. Actually, McConnell and his allies spent tens of millions of dollars more than Trump’s political action committee in the midterms.

“You have Mitch McConnell, because he hates Trump, refusing to support candidates that President Trump endorsed, which I think is really appalling. And I blame him for the Senate losses,” Dhillon said.

Meanwhile, McDaniel is facing criticism from a growing chorus of Republicans largely outside the RNC’s 168 voting members who are eager to change course after three consecutive disappointing election seasons. Her critics include several high-profile Trump loyalists, including Fox News hosts and prominent MAGA figures on social media.

She has some unlikely supporters within the committee as well.

One frequent Trump critic, RNC member Bill Palatucci, said he would support Dhillon because McDaniel has essentially become Trump’s “tool” in recent years. He cited her decisions to stay silent on some of Trump’s more egregious behavior and to spend millions of dollars on his legal fees.

“There’s just gotta be a change,” Palatucci said, describing the committee commitments to McDaniel as “soft.” “RNC members are experienced pols who know how to look you right in the eye and say, ‘I love you,’ and then walk into the voting booth and slit your throat.”

At the same time, those RNC members are being flooded with emails from rank-and-file Republican voters and activists who support Dhillon’s candidacy. The deluge comes after Dhillon and her allies shared the entire committee’s personal emails on social media.

Steve Scheffler, an Iowa-based RNC member who supports McDaniel, said he’s receiving 50 to 70 emails each day from Republicans, many of them angry, weighing in on the leadership fight.

“Most of them are like, ‘Ronna’s gotta go,’” Scheffler said.

Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward said she’s received “a few thousand emails” in recent days.

“NOT ONE regular person not affiliated with the current RNC apparatus has urged me to retain Ronna Romney McDaniel as Chair,” Ward tweeted.

Trump remains a wildcard.

The former president has stayed out of the public fight, but key members of his team — including senior adviser Susie Wiles — have notified members in private conversations that Trump remains supportive of McDaniel’s reelection.

Trump’s allies note that his strategy could change at any time — especially as conservative media line up against McDaniel.

On Thursday, McDaniel’s team scrambled to explain reports in conservative media, promoted by Dhillon supporters, that the RNC had spent millions of dollars on private jets, limousines, donor mementos and floral arrangements under McDaniel’s watch.

RNC budget committee chair Glenn McCall described such reports as “a gross misrepresentation” in a letter to members, noting that many of the expenses, including the donor mementos, were purchased at the discretion of the Trump White House. Similarly, McCall wrote, costs associated with luxury car rentals and private jets were largely connected to Trump or other candidates.

McDaniel’s supporters are eager to highlight her success in fundraising, arguably the GOP chair’s most important responsibility. She has raised more than $1.5 billion during her tenure, according to McCall.

Meanwhile, Dhillon is ratcheting up her attacks against McDaniel.

She raised questions about McDaniel’s management of RNC funds, accused her of offering members key positions in exchange for their support and suggested the chair was behind an anonymous email smear campaign.

But more than anything, Dhillon says she’s running because she wants the party to win again: “I’m tired of losing.”

For her part, McDaniel warns that such intense divisions within her party could do serious damage.

“The race I’m running is about unity,” she said. “If we continue to fight and be so hateful to each other to the point where Republicans won’t vote for other Republicans, we’re giving the Democrats what they want.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden told dozens of African leaders gathered in Washington that the United States is “all in on Africa’s future,” laying out billions in promised government funding and private investment Wednesday to help the growing continent in health, infrastructure, business and technology.

“The U.S. is committed to supporting every aspect of Africa’s growth,” Biden told the leaders and others in a big conference hall, presenting his vision at the three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit of how the U.S. can be a critical catalyst.

Biden, who is pitching the U.S. as a reliable partner to promote democratic elections and push critical health and energy growth, told the crowd the $55 billion in committed investments over the next three years — announced on Monday — was “just the beginning.”

He announced more than $15 billion in private trade and investment commitments and partnerships.

“There’s so much more we can do together and that we will do together,” Biden said.

The president after his speech spent some time with leaders, including Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, watching Morocco’s World Cup match with France. Morocco lost but made history as the first African team to advance to the tournament’s semifinal round.

The United States has fallen well behind China in investment in sub-Saharan Africa, which has become a key battleground in an increasingly fraught competition between the major powers. The White House insists this week’s gathering is more a listening session with African leaders than an effort to counter Beijing’s influence, but the president’s central foreign policy tenet looms over all: America is in an era-defining battle to prove democracies can out-deliver autocracies.

That message was clear in Wednesday’s events. In his speech, Biden spoke of how the U.S. would help in modernizing technology across the continent, providing clean energy, moving women’s equality forward through business opportunities, bringing clean drinking water to communities and better funding health care. First lady Jill Biden’ s office also laid out $300 million for cancer prevention, screening, treatment and research in Africa.

On Wednesday Biden also held a smaller meeting at the White House with the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Thursday is to be dedicated to high-level discussions among leaders; Biden will open the day with a session on partnering with the African Union’s strategic vision for the continent.

The president and first lady hosted a White House dinner for all the leaders and their spouses Wednesday night, with the food prepared by Mashama Bailey, the executive chef of The Grey, a Southern cooking spot in Savannah, Georgia. Gladys Knight provided the post-dinner entertainment.

Biden in a toast at the start of the dinner noted the “original sin” of enslaved Africans brought to U.S. shores and paid tribute to the next generation of leaders in both the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa.

“Because particularly of our young people, in all our countries together, we can deliver a world that is healthier and safer, more equal, more just, more prosperous and more filled with opportunity for everyone,” Biden said.

Senegalese President Macky Sall, who also heads the African Union bloc, expressed hope in his own toast that the U.S. and African leaders could advance their partnership “to the next level.”

The summit is the largest international gathering in Washington since before the start of the pandemic. Roads all around the city center were blocked off, and motorcades zoomed by gridlocked traffic elsewhere, ferrying some of the 49 invited heads of state and other leaders.

Many leaders of the continent’s 54 nations often feel they’ve been given short shrift by leading economies. But the continent remains crucial to global powers because of its rapidly growing population, significant natural resources and sizable voting bloc in the United Nations. Africa also remains of great strategic importance as the U.S. recalibrates its foreign policy with greater focus on China — the nation the Biden administration sees as the United States’ most significant economic and military adversary.

But Biden invited several leaders who have questionable records on human rights, and democracy loomed large.

Equatorial Guinea was invited despite the State Department stating “serious doubts” about last month’s election in the tiny Central African nation. Election officials reported that President Teodoro Obiang’s ruling party won nearly 95% of the vote.

Zimbabwe, which has faced years of U.S. and Western sanctions, also was invited.

Tunisian President Kais Saied, who has been criticized by the United States for democratic backsliding, used an appearance before reporters with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday to offer a stout defense of actions he has taken, including suspending the parliament and firing judges.

“The country was on the brink of civil war all over the country, so I had no other alternative but to save the Tunisian nation from undertaking any nasty action,” Saied said.

Biden made no mention of China in his remarks, and White House officials rejected the notion that the summit was in part about countering China’s influence.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the administration is “refusing to put a gun” to Africa’s head and make it choose between U.S. and China. At the same time, he said “there’s nothing inconsistent about calling a fact a fact and shedding light on what is increasingly obvious to our African partners about China’s malign influence on the continent.”

Still, the summit-related activity got a rise out of China. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the U.S. should “respect the will of the African people and take concrete actions to help Africa’s development, instead of unremittingly smearing and attacking other countries.”

Wang said at a briefing Wednesday that it is the “common responsibility of the international community to support Africa’s development.” But he added: “Africa is not an arena for great power confrontation or a target for arbitrary pressure by certain countries or individuals.”

Rwandan President Paul Kagame also bristled at the idea of his country and others on the continent getting caught between the U.S. and China. “I don’t think we need to be bullied into making choices between U.S. and China,” Kagame said during an event on the summit’s sideline hosted by the news organization Semafor.

Biden has promised U.S. support for a permanent Group of 20 seat for the African Union, and the appointment of a special representative to implement summit commitments.

In addition to China, talks also spotlighted what the U.S. has sees as malevolent Russian action on the continent.

The administration argued in its sub-Saharan strategy published earlier this year that Russia, the preeminent arms dealer in Africa, views the continent as a permissive environment for Kremlin-connected oligarchs and private military companies to focus on fomenting instability for their own strategic and financial benefit.

During an appearance with Blinken on Wednesday, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo expressed alarm about the presence of mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group in Burkina Faso directly north of Ghana. This follows a similar deployment of Wagner forces in Burkina Faso’s immediate neighbor Mali.

“Today, Russian mercenaries are on our northern border,” said Akufo-Addo, adding that he believed Burkinabe authorities had given the Wagner Group control of a mine for payment and that the country’s prime minister had recently visited Moscow.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington and Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s portrait was unveiled Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, a traditional honor bestowed on a tradition-breaking leader who was not just the first woman to hold the gavel but among the most consequential House speakers in American history — one who “got it done.”

The ceremony at the ornate Statuary Hall drew current and former members of Congress, friends and family. The guests included the Democratic leader’s husband, Paul Pelosi, who is recovering from a brutal attack by an intruder who broke into their San Francisco home seeking the speaker in the weeks before the midterm election.

Former President Barack Obama said in a videotaped message that Pelosi has “inspired a generation of women to run, win and lead because they’ve seen her, what someone like her — and someone like them — can do.”

Obama recounted how his signature Affordable Care Act was all but abandoned after a Senate election defeat, except for Pelosi’s persistence. “The only thing she wasn’t willing to do was give up. And like always, she got it done.”

But it was the former Republican speaker, John Boehner, known for teary eyes at times like these, who did not disappoint.

Choking up as he talked about his own two adult daughters, Boehner said: “My girls told me, tell the speaker how much we admire her.”

Pelosi’s portrait was painted years ago after her first tenure as speaker from 2007 to 2011 but was held back. She regained the gavel in 2019, the first House leader in some 50 years to twice become speaker.

Pelosi announced after the November midterm election, when the Democrats lost power to Republicans, that she would not seek another term as leader, ending 20 years helming the party in the House. She is staying on as as the representative from San Francisco.

Among those in the audience was Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who is struggling to round up the votes to replace her as speaker when the new Congress convenes in January. He sat alongside Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who Democrats elected as their new party leader, the historic first Black American to lead a major political party.

“The younger generation today has the saying: Game recognizes game,” Boehner said. “And the fact of the matter is no other speaker of the House in the modern era Republican or Democrat — has wielded the gavel with such authority or with such consistent results. Let me just say, You’re one tough cookie.”

Painted by the late Ronald Sherr in 2014, the portrait of Pelosi will hang in the Speaker’s Lobby, a room adjacent to the House chamber, filled with the portraits of past speakers, all of them white men.

In her own remarks, Pelosi said she was honored her colleagues “had the courage to elect a woman speaker.”

“This painting will stand out as a woman in that Speaker’s Lobby,” Pelosi said. “I’m honored to be the first, but it will only be a big of accomplishment if I’m not the last.”

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Del. Lamont Bagby, a Virginia lawmaker who earlier this week announced a bid to represent the 4th Congressional District after the death of U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, dropped out of the race Thursday.

His decision leaves at least two other Democratic state lawmakers in the running for the solidly blue seat: state Sens. Jennifer McClellan and Joe Morrisey, both of Richmond.

In a statement, Bagby endorsed McClellan, saying suspending his campaign was in the “best interests of the voters” to “ensure we have the right representation in Congress.”

“Just as I am clear eyed in my decision to step aside, I also firmly believe that there is only one candidate in this race fit to replace my late mentor, Donald McEachin. That person is Senator Jennifer McClellan,” he said.

McClellan, who if elected would be the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress, is a veteran member of the General Assembly who mounted a serious but unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor last year.

She stands to benefit from the name recognition associated with that run, and this week has rolled out dozens of endorsements. Among them were four members of the Virginia congressional delegation, including U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, the highest profile official to weigh in on the race so far.

She also announced this week that her campaign raised more than $100,000 in the first 24 hours following her announcement.

Morrissey is a flamboyant attorney with a hard-charging style who overcame a litany of past scandals to win election to the state Senate in 2020 after previously serving in the House of Delegates. In the Senate, he’s a leading voice on criminal justice reform issues and an impassioned debater, and his office has a strong reputation for its grassroots connections and constituent service.

Republicans and Democrats will be selecting their nominees in party-run processes ahead of a Feb. 21 special election. Democrats are holding a firehouse primary with voting locations across the district on Tuesday, and candidates have until noon Friday to file to run. Two other Democrats, Joseph Preston and Tavorise Marks, have expressed interest in running.

Republicans are hosting a canvass in Colonial Heights on Saturday, and their filing deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday. Two candidates, Leon Benjamin and Dale Sturdifen, have discussed plans to seek their party’s nomination.

The eventual GOP nominee is expected to face an uphill climb. The solidly Democratic district has its population center in metro Richmond and stretches south to the North Carolina border.

McEachin was elected to his first term to the U.S. House in 2016 after serving in the General Assembly. He died last month at age 61 of what his staff said were complications of his long-running fight against colorectal cancer.

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ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s top elections official urged lawmakers on Wednesday to end general election runoffs — this month’s bitter Senate contest was the latest example — but offered no specific proposals, saying there is a “wide range of options.”

The push by Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to discard the unusual format for general elections comes after high-profile Senate races went into overtime this year and in 2020, with Democrats winning each time. Democrat Raphael Warnock has twice won runoffs, including his Dec. 6 victory over GOP challenger Herschel Walker.

Raffensperger said in a statement that Georgia is “one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff” and that the legislature should “consider reforms.” Georgia is one of four states that have runoffs in general elections, though only Georgia and Louisiana use them for all races. Nine states hold runoffs in primaries, though the rules vary.

Georgia lawmakers said possible options include lowering the threshold for winning an election to a 45% plurality or using ranked choice ballots for voters, as some other states do, to designate additional choices beyond a first candidate, allowing for an instant runoff.

Under current Georgia law, if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in a primary or general election, the top two finishers advance to a runoff election.

In most states, the candidate who earns the greatest number of votes, even if that is far short of a majority, wins a party primary or general election. But most Southern states require runoffs in primaries, an outgrowth of a time when white supremacist Democrats were the overwhelming majority and sought to consolidate support behind one candidate to prevent splits in general elections that could threaten their rule.

Georgia went one step further in the 1960s and also required runoffs for general elections, a move the sponsor said was meant to bolster white rule.

Raffensperger’s spokesman said the secretary of state was unavailable for interviews this week and that it is up to lawmakers to decide on any changes. Raffensperger is not proposing altering the requirement for runoffs after party primaries.

GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, incoming Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who will preside over the state Senate, and representatives of the state Republican and Democratic parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. A big turnover among the General Assembly’s leadership is expected to mean a slow start to legislating and possibly a limited appetite for big changes in the session that begins Jan. 9.

State Rep. Alan Powell, a Republican who has been the vice chairman of the House Special Committee on Election Integrity, said he would not support changes that would let people win elections with less than a majority.

“As a philosophical point, if you’re going to have an elected person represent you, they need to have at least 50 plus 1% of the voters to ratify their elections,” Powell said Wednesday.

But Democratic state Sen. Elena Parent said she had heard discussion about lowering the threshold to avoid a runoff from the current majority to a requirement of 45%. Parent said she would be in favor of at least a trial of instant runoffs because runoffs in many local elections have very low turnout, which she said is a “very undemocratic” way of determining elections.

State Sen. Michelle Au, a Democrat, said she would be “shocked if we didn’t see several versions of plurality or instant runoff proposed.”

Powell said ranked choice voting was discussed in 2021 when Georgia overhauled its election law, but that it only won support for overseas voters as a way to cut the time for runoffs from nine weeks to four weeks.

When no one reached the 50% threshold in either of two U.S. Senate races two years ago, the runoff election was held nine weeks later, on Jan. 5, 2021. Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively.

Changes in a 2021 election law meant that the final day of voting in this year’s runoff election was just four weeks after the general election. That shortened runoff period presented a challenge for county election officials, particularly with the Thanksgiving holiday falling in the middle.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden told dozens of African leaders gathered in Washington that the United States is “all in on Africa’s future,” laying out billions in promised government funding and private investment Wednesday to help the growing continent in health, infrastructure, business and technology.

“The U.S. is committed to supporting every aspect of Africa’s growth,” Biden told the leaders and others in a big conference hall, presenting his vision at the three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit of how the U.S. can be a critical catalyst.

Biden, who is pitching the U.S. as a reliable partner to promote democratic elections and push critical health and energy growth, told the crowd the $55 billion in committed investments over the next three years — announced on Monday — was “just the beginning.”

He announced more than $15 billion in private trade and investment commitments and partnerships.

“There’s so much more we can do together and that we will do together,” he said.

The United States has fallen well behind China in investment in sub-Saharan Africa, which has become a key battleground in an increasingly fraught competition between the major powers. The White House insists this week’s gathering is more a listening session with African leaders than an effort to counter Beijing’s influence, but the president’s central foreign policy tenet looms over all: America is in an era-defining battle to prove democracies can out-deliver autocracies.

That message was clear in Wednesday’s events. In his speech, Biden spoke of how the U.S. would help in modernizing technology across the continent, providing clean energy, moving women’s equality forward through business opportunities, bringing clean drinking water to communities and better funding health care. First lady Jill Biden’s office also laid out $300 million for cancer prevention, screening, treatment and research in Africa.

On Wednesday there also was a smaller presidential sitdown with some of the continent’s leaders whose countries will hold elections in 2023. Thursday is to be dedicated to high-level discussions among leaders; Biden will open the day with a session on partnering with the African Union’s strategic vision for the continent.

The president and first lady were hosting a White House dinner for all the leaders and their spouses Wednesday night. Gladys Knight and the St. Augustine Gospel Choir of Washington, D.C., were to perform, and the food done by Mashama Bailey, the executive chef of The Grey, a Southern cooking spot in Savannah, Georgia.

Jill Biden hosted a program for spouses Wednesday morning at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, where she told the crowd “my hope is that the way we make each other feel will last beyond this summit.”

The summit is the largest international gathering in Washington since before the start of the pandemic. Roads all around the city center were blocked off, and motorcades zoomed by gridlocked traffic elsewhere, ferrying some of the 49 invited heads of state and other leaders.

Many leaders of the continent’s 54 nations often feel they’ve been given short shrift by leading economies. But the continent remains crucial to global powers because of its rapidly growing population, significant natural resources and sizable voting bloc in the United Nations. Africa also remains of great strategic importance as the U.S. recalibrates its foreign policy with greater focus on China — the nation the Biden administration sees as the United States’ most significant economic and military adversary.

But Biden invited several leaders who have questionable records on human rights, and democracy loomed large.

Equatorial Guinea was invited despite the State Department stating “serious doubts” about last month’s election in the tiny Central African nation. Opposition parties “made credible allegations of significant election-related irregularities, including documented instances of fraud, intimidation, and coercion,” according to the department. Election officials reported that President Teodoro Obiang’s ruling party won nearly 95% of the vote.

Zimbabwe, which has faced years of U.S. and Western sanctions, also was invited.

Tunisian President Kais Saied, who has been criticized by the United States for democratic backsliding, used an appearance before reporters with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday to offer a stout defense of actions he has taken, including suspending the parliament and firing judges.

“The country was on the brink of civil war all over the country, so I had no other alternative but to save the Tunisian nation from undertaking any nasty action,” Saied said.

Biden made no mention of China in his remarks, and White House officials rejected the notion that the summit was in part about countering China’s influence.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the administration is “refusing to put a gun” to Africa’s head and make it choose between U.S. and China. At the same time, he said “there’s nothing inconsistent about calling a fact a fact and shedding light on what is increasingly obvious to our African partners about China’s malign influence on the continent.”

Still, the summit-related activity got a rise out of China. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the U.S. should “respect the will of the African people and take concrete actions to help Africa’s development, instead of unremittingly smearing and attacking other countries.”

Wang said at a briefing Wednesday that it is the “common responsibility of the international community to support Africa’s development.” But he added: “Africa is not an arena for great power confrontation or a target for arbitrary pressure by certain countries or individuals.”

Biden has promised U.S. support for a permanent Group of 20 seat for the African Union, and the appointment of a special representative to implement summit commitments.

In addition to China, talks also spotlighted what the U.S. has sees as malevolent Russian action on the continent.

The administration argued in its sub-Saharan strategy published earlier this year that Russia, the preeminent arms dealer in Africa, views the continent as a permissive environment for Kremlin-connected oligarchs and private military companies to focus on fomenting instability for their own strategic and financial benefit.

During an appearance with Blinken on Wednesday, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo expressed alarm about the presence of mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group in Burkina Faso directly north of Ghana. This follows a similar deployment of Wagner forces in Burkina Faso’s immediate neighbor Mali.

“Today, Russian mercenaries are on our northern border,” said Akufo-Addo, adding that he believed Burkinabe authorities had given the Wagner Group control of a mine for payment and that the country’s prime minister had recently visited Moscow.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington and Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two more Virginia state lawmakers on Tuesday jumped into the crowded field of candidates seeking to replace Democratic U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, who died last month.

State Sens. Jennifer McClellan and Joe Morrissey formally announced their candidacies at events in Richmond and Petersburg. At least five Democrats have now indicated plans to seek the party’s nomination during next Tuesday’s unassembled caucus, a party-run process that will involve five voting locations across the 4th District.

The winner of that contest will have an enormous structural advantage in the overwhelmingly Democratic district heading into the Feb. 21 special election, which GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin set on Monday. The tight nomination timeline was necessary because of state voting laws but has set off a mad dash for candidates to organize their campaigns and start reaching out to voters.

“The people of the Fourth are used to and expect a very strong social justice champion with extraordinary legislative skills and an extraordinary commitment to servant leadership. And while Congressman McEachin’s passing is a huge loss, I’m the candidate best able to bring all that to this district,” McClellan said in an interview ahead of her formal announcement Tuesday.

A long-serving lawmaker from the capital city, McClellan will benefit from heightened name recognition in this race due to a serious but unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor last year. She was joined by dozens of supporters as she announced her bid on Capitol Square in Richmond and in a news release rolled out over 50 endorsements, including from three members of the Congressional delegation — U.S. Reps. Gerry Connolly, Don Beyer and Jennifer Wexton.

A corporate attorney who has earned bipartisan respect in the General Assembly, McClellan has played a leading role in many of Virginia Democrats’ key legislative accomplishments in the past several years, including as the sponsor of a landmark clean energy bill and a measure that greatly reduced barriers to abortion access in the state.

If elected, McClellan would be the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress.

Morrissey, who has acquired the nickname “Fighting Joe,” is a flamboyant attorney with a hard-charging style who overcame a litany of past scandals to win election to the state Senate in 2020. In the chamber, he’s a leading voice on criminal justice reform issues and an impassioned debater, and his office has a strong reputation for its grassroots connections and constituent service.

He was joined by Petersburg’s mayor, Sam Parham, and three members of the City Council as he announced his candidacy outside the city hall.

Morrissey, whose district includes parts of Richmond as well as Petersburg, called himself a “worker bee,” listing legislative accomplishments including helping to pass a measure ending the death penalty and reforming Virginia’s bail and sentencing processes.

“I’ve spent the better part of the last decade fighting for issues important to Virginians, like the environment, reforming our criminal justice system, investing in affordable housing, fighting for Virginians’ health care, and preventing gun violence,” he said.

The twice-disbarred former prosecutor-turned-defense attorney’s successful political career has come despite an extraordinary series of personal and professional controversies. Among them was his resignation from the House of Delegates in 2014 after being convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, his receptionist at his law firm. The two later married and have several children together.

Morrissey, who is Catholic and has something of an independent voting streak, has recently provoked the ire of some members of his own party for suggesting he is open to joining with Republicans to enact greater restrictions on abortions in Virginia.

An aide declined to comment Tuesday on the current status of his law license, which Morrissey told The Associated Press he would seek to have reinstated after he was pardoned in January for the 2014 misdemeanor conviction.

Another General Assembly member, Del. Lamont Bagby, announced his candidacy Monday. Bagby is a former educator and chair of the powerful legislative Black caucus who has said he was close with McEachin.

McEachin was elected to his first term to the U.S. House in 2016 after serving in the General Assembly. He died last month at age 61 of what his staff said were complications of his long-running fight against colorectal cancer.

Two other Democratic candidates have publicly declared their intention to run: Joseph Preston, an attorney who served for a year in the General Assembly after winning a special election, and Tavorise Marks, a civil rights activist and former state House candidate.

Among Republicans, pastor Leon Benjamin — who twice previously ran unsuccessfully against McEachin — and Dale Sturdifen, a retired Virginia State Police officer and congressional staffer, have announced bids.

The Democratic candidates face a noon Friday deadline to submit a $3,480 filing fee and paperwork including signatures from 150 registered 4th District voters.

The 4th District Democratic committee voted Monday night to chose the party’s nominee in an unassembled caucus, also known as a firehouse primary — essentially a primary election run by the party. The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. at five locations across the district: one in Lawrenceville, two in Richmond, one in Highland Springs and one in Petersburg.

The 4th District has its population center in the Richmond area and stretches south to the North Carolina border.

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