Ron Elving

Hillary Clinton goes to Puerto Rico on Friday to thank voters there for past support in the primaries, and offering her support for more lenient treatment of the island's mounting public debt.

Now that 34 senators have committed to support President Obama on the Iran nuclear agreement, that deal looks certain to survive the opposition of Republicans in Congress.

But Congress still faces an ugly September and fall, as other crises await members returning from five weeks of vacation, namely:

• A ...

With the approval of Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski, announced Wednesday, President Obama has secured enough support in Congress to sustain his nuclear deal with Iran.

One measure of how impressive Bernie Sanders' crowds have been lately is the respect they get from Donald Trump, a man who clearly believes size matters.

"He's getting the biggest crowds, and I'm getting the biggest crowds," Trump said last week of Sanders in one of his innumerable TV interviews.

...

Bad news for Hillary Clinton this week regarding her private email server seems to be good news for Bernie Sanders. And despite scandals, Donald Trump continues to overshadow the other GOP candidates.

It is possible that Donald Trump will look back on the first Republican presidential debate Thursday night in Cleveland and wish he had not taken part.

That notion seems absurd at first glance. Taking the stage for the season's first clash was widely seen as the zenith of Trump's campaign ...

The first debate of the 2016 presidential campaign season is Thursday, Aug. 6. With so many Republican candidates trying to get on stage, what should voters be looking for?

Four U.S. presidents have completed a second term since that became the limit, and three of them might well have had a shot at winning again: Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Some said it was the End of The Donald, others the Beginning of the End.

Republican officials and professionals called it the moment when the Trump house of cards had begun its inevitable tumble. Many in the media agreed.

But was it so, or are we in Washington, the political-professional ...

These are palmy days for Sen. Bernie Sanders and his improbable campaign for president. Thousands throng his events in Maine, Iowa and Wisconsin. He has raised $15 million in just a few months, and he polls better among Democrats than any one Republican is polling among Republicans.

At a minimum, ...

With his eulogy Friday for the slain pastor and parishioners of "Mother Emanuel" AME Church in Charleston, S.C., President Obama concluded the most shining week of his second term.

The president praised the leadership of South Carolina for its response to the Charleston killings, especially their decision to take down ...

The Supreme Court dealt same-sex marriage advocates a historic victory Friday, ruling 5-4 that states must license and recognize same-sex marriage. For more, David Greene speaks with NPR's Ron Elving.

The tragic events in Charleston this month have released years of racial and political tension in the South, and the pressure is being felt by Republican officeholders across the region.

Why the Republicans? Because it is increasingly difficult to find officeholders in the region who are not Republicans.

The South ...

Jeb Bush declared his candidacy for president Monday with no jacket or tie, but he didn't really let his hair down until he repeated much of his speech Tuesday night on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show.

On Tonight, the candidate with the familiar name was "slow jammin' the news." That's a ...

This post was updated at 12 p.m. ET

The 2016 presidential race has attracted the widest and most diverse field of major candidates in anyone's memory. Yet, even in this crowd, Donald John Trump Sr. stands apart. On Tuesday, he joined that field, two days after his 69th birthday.

Donald ...

Major decisions are expected this month, as the U.S. Supreme Court works its way through several cases still pending before it closes out its calendar for the 2014-2015 term.

Among the biggest issues hanging fire: the status of same-sex marriages, subsidies for health insurance under Obamacare and the drugs that ...

This post was updated at 5:45 p.m. E.T.

Although not nearly so crowded as its Republican counterpart, the Democratic field of presidential contenders is growing. On Wednesday, Lincoln Chafee, a former senator and governor of Rhode Island, became the fourth major politician to enter the White House chase as a ...

This post has been updated to reflect that Pataki is officially running.

George Pataki announced his presidential candidacy in Exeter, N.H., on Thursday. He's the eighth official Republican entrant in the 2016 race for the White House. The field is expected to double over the next couple of months. Pataki ...

When the Supreme Court returns for its next term in October, among the cases it has agreed to hear is a challenge to a fundamental practice that has governed American elections for generations.

When public-policy makers talk about a state's population, they generally mean the number of human beings living ...

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican, held the floor of the Senate for 10 1/2 hours Wednesday afternoon and evening, airing his objections to the NSA bulk collection of telephone records in the U.S.

Many of the accounts of this lengthy performance referred to it as a filibuster, or ...