Democrats cheer surprise win in Alabama special election for candidate vowing to protect abortion rights and IVF – live

Joanna Walters

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to France and Belgium next week, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Blinken will meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba while in Brussels for a Nato meeting, Miller said at a regular news briefing.

Meanwhile, the State Department does not think hostage talks with Israel and Hamas are over, Miller said, adding that Washington thinks there is an ability to continue to pursue the release of hostages.

He also said “we do” when asked if the department believed a limited military campaign in Rafah, in the south of Gaza, can take out remaining commanders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Hamas controls the territory and led the attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year in which more than 1,200 people were massacred and more than 240 people were taken hostage into Gaza, with more than 100 remaining captive at this time.

Democrats are cheering Marilyn Lands, who managed to seize a state house seat from Republicans in deep-red Alabama, fueled by her promises to protect IVF access and repeal the state’s abortion ban. To be clear: the party does not have the numbers to make either of those promises happen in a state thoroughly dominated by the GOP, but it’s nonetheless the latest instance of Joe Biden’s allies using concerns about reproductive rights to win elections in hostile territory. Meanwhile, in Texas, a federal appeals court maintained the block on a Republican-backed law that would allow state police to arrest suspected illegal border crossers. The legislation will probably remain on hold until either appeals judges or the US supreme court rules on its merits.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

• Disney ended its feud with allies of Republican governor Ron DeSantis, which erupted after the entertainment giant criticized the state’s so-called “don’t say gay” law.

• Kansas Republicans moved to force abortion providers to ask patients the reason they are seeking the procedure, and probably have the votes to get around an expected veto by the Democratic governor, Laura Kelly.

• Donald Trump is under a new gag order in his hush-money case. But it does not apply to the presiding judge Juan Merchan, so the former president attacked him on his social media network this morning.

Disney and allies of Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, have reached an agreement to end a nearly two-year-long court battle that began after the entertainment giant spoke out against the state’s so-called “don’t say gay” law, the Associated Press reports.

DeSantis put his conservative policies at the center of his quixotic attempt to win the GOP’s presidential nomination, but ended up dropping out after getting pummeled by Donald Trump in Iowa’s January caucuses.

Here’s more from the AP on what the settlement of the case will entail:

Allies of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and Disney reached a settlement agreement on Wednesday in a lawsuit over who controls Walt Disney World’s governing district.

In a meeting, the members of the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District approved the settlement agreement, ending almost two years of litigation that was sparked by DeSantis’s takeover of the district from Disney supporters following the company’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” law.

The 2022 law bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades and was championed by DeSantis, who used Disney as a punching bag in speeches until he suspended his presidential campaign this year.

As punishment for Disney’s opposition, DeSantis took over the governing district through legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Florida legislature and appointed a new board of supervisors. Disney sued DeSantis and his appointees, claiming the company’s free speech rights were violated for speaking out against the legislation. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in January.

Before control of the district changed hands from Disney allies to DeSantis appointees early last year, the Disney supporters on its board signed agreements with Disney shifting control over design and construction at Disney World to the company.

A ruling late on Tuesday from a federal appeals court will for now block a Texas law allowing police to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally, the Associated Press reports.

The law passed by Texas’s Republican government has drawn criticism from the Biden administration, which warned it will undermine border security by involving state police in the enforcement of federal immigration law. Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, argues it’s necessary to deter migrants entering from Mexico, after such arrivals surged following Biden taking office.

This isn’t the final word on the law – its legality will likely be decided by a federal appeals court, or the US supreme court. Here’s more on the ongoing saga, from the AP:

The 2-1 ruling late Tuesday from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will likely prevent enforcement of the law until a final decision on its merits, either by the 5th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling followed a March 20 hearing by a three-judge panel of the court. It’s just the latest move in a seesaw legal case over Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s strict new immigration law that is not yet ended.

The Justice Department has argued that Texas’ law is a clear violation of federal authority and would create chaos at the border. Texas has argued that President Joe Biden’s administration isn’t doing enough to control the border and that the state has a right to take action.

Chief Judge Priscilla Richman, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, cited a 2010 Arizona law that was largely stricken by the U.S. Supreme Court to say immigration enforcement is exclusively a federal responsibility.

“For nearly 150 years, the Supreme Court has held that the power to control immigration — the entry, admission, and removal of noncitizens — is exclusively a federal power,” wrote Richman, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush.

The Texas law, Richman wrote, “creates separate, distinct state criminal offenses and related procedures regarding unauthorized entry of noncitizens into Texas from outside the country and their removal.”

She was joined in the opinion by Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez, a Biden appointee.

Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of former President Donald Trump and a former aide to Abbott, dissented with the majority decision.

Just how did Marilyn Lands end up ousting Republicans from a suburban state house seat in northern Alabama? The Associated Press reports that the licensed counselor’s pitch to voters included the following demands: “Our legislature must repeal Alabama’s no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the right to contraception.”

Voters liked what they heard, and so did the Democratic party at large. Here’s what chair Jaime Harrison had to say about Lands’s victory:

Today’s election – one of the first since the devastating decision by the Alabama supreme court that stopped IVF care – was a referendum on Maga Republicans’ out-of-touch extremism on reproductive rights. Marilyn Lands’ victory demonstrates that voters aren’t going to sit idly by while Maga Republicans lay the groundwork for a national abortion ban.

And Julie Chavez Rodriguez, manager of Joe Biden’s re-election campaign:

Last month, Alabamans lost access to fertility treatments because of Donald Trump. Tonight, the voters in Alabama’s 10th house district elected a pro-choice champion in Marilyn Lands, sending Trump and extreme Maga Republicans a clear message: they know exactly who’s to blame for restricting their ability to decide how and when to build their families and they’re ready to fight back. Trump overturned Roe vWade, paving the way for attacks on women’s freedoms like we saw in Alabama – now he’s running to ban abortion and gut access to IVF nationwide. Tonight’s results should serve as a major warning sign for Trump: voters will not stand for his attacks on reproductive healthcare. This November will be no different.

Last night, Democrats in Alabama did something they do not often do in the deeply conservative state: win a seat in the state house of representatives back from the GOP. And how they did it may be a sign of what we can expect to work with voters nationwide as Joe Biden stumps for a second term while trying to gain complete control of Congress in November. In the case of Alabama, the Democrat Marilyn Lands campaigned on repealing Alabama’s strict abortion ban and fully restoring access to in vitro fertilization, the fertility treatment that the Alabama supreme court briefly outlawed last month. Lands lost the race for the seat in the swing district just two years ago, but in last night’s special election triumphed with a more than 25% margin over the Republican candidate.

Why does this all matter? For Democrats, it’s the latest sign that voters remain uncomfortable with the implications of the supreme court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v Wade, and those objections can be harnessed to make inroads even in the most inhospitable terrain, like Alabama. Whether Biden and his allies can repeat the act just over seven months from now is an open question.

Here’s what else we are watching today:

• Six construction workers working on Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge when it was struck by a container ship and collapsed are presumed dead, after rescuers spent most of yesterday attempting to locate them.

• Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican party chair known for spreading Donald Trump’s election lies, was axed by NBC after an outcry.

• Americans once narrowly supported Israel’s campaign in Gaza, but are now generally opposed to it, new polling from Gallup shows.