Axios: “U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, who sat at the mountaintop of Nashville Democratic politics for decades and mentored a generation of civic leaders, announced his retirement Tuesday after a bruising redistricting battle. Why it matters: The General Assembly’s plan to split Nashville among three congressional districts would have made him a re-election underdog. His retirement at the end of his current…

WaPo: “The big unknown about Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) as he ran for office last year — apart from the exact size of his vast fortune — was just how red the political newcomer really was behind that easygoing demeanor. One week into his term: mystery solved. Youngkin stormed into Richmond with an assertion of…

North State Journal: “Musician Clay Aiken, who last week announced his intent to run for Congress in the new Triangle-area 6th District, has come under fire from other candidates and influential progressives for his late entry into the race.  Nida Allam, a Durham County commissioner also in the race, seized on a tweet congratulating Aiken…

NY Times: “The top staff investigator on the House committee scrutinizing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has been fired by the state’s new Republican attorney general from his position as the top lawyer for the University of Virginia, from which he was on leave while working on the congressional inquiry. The office of…

North State Journal: “Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and the state’s Attorney General, Democrat Josh Stein, have jointly filed an amicus brief related to two redistricting cases making their way through the courts. The two cases are North Carolina League of Conservation Voters v. Hall and Harper v. Hall. The amicus brief filed with the N.C. Supreme Court raises…

TX Tribune: “Todd Smith, a top political consultant to Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, was indicted Tuesday on felony charges of theft and commercial bribery related to taking money in exchange for state hemp licenses that are doled out through Miller’s office, according to Travis County district attorney José Garza. Smith was arrested in May, accused of taking…

WaPo: “The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday placed a top official on administrative leave after he allegedly encouraged employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Raul Pino, director of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, sent an email to employees earlier this month that was critical of the agency’s vaccination rate. Pino, a…

TX Observer: “Two of Texas’ leading Democratic candidates for attorney general sparred in a debate Thursday hosted by the Texas AFL-CIO, but they were in total agreement on one point: Current Attorney General Ken Paxton must be defeated in the November general election. Civil-rights attorney S. Lee Merritt and former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski debated…

KXAN: “The Justice Department says a Texas man has been arrested on charges of posting threatening messages on Craigslist about killing government officials in Georgia following the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors said Friday the arrest is the first by the Justice Department’s new Election Threats Task Force. Prosecutors say 54-year-old Chad Stark, from Leander, is…

The Daily Beast: “This week, Senate Republicans voted against the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that would have restored voting rights protections created by the 1965 legislation but removed by John Roberts’ Supreme Court in 2013, on the bizarre premise that racial disparities were no longer a problem. With those protections gone, conservative politicians…