Rep. Max Rose, D-N.Y., is considering a quick return to politics after losing his House seat this month. Rose has begun laying the groundwork for a potential mayoral campaign in New York City, according to three different sources.

A Democratic fundraiser said Rose has started making calls soliciting donors to back a potential mayoral bid. Two other sources familiar with the situation confirmed Rose has been having initial conversations to drum up support.

“He’s talked to people about it,” one high-profile New York City political operative said of Rose.

All three sources requested anonymity to discuss Rose’s private maneuvering. Rose did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The congressman, who was first elected as part of the “blue wave” that swept Congress in 2018, has earned a reputation as one of the more moderate Democrats in the House. Rose’s district, which includes Staten Island and parts of South Brooklyn, is a uniquely red stretch of solidly blue New York City.

The crucial counties that swung toward President Trump four years ago mostly stuck with the same candidate in the 2020 elections, in an indication of the rural-urban divide that is increasingly coming to define American politics.

In 2016, 206 counties that had voted twice for President Barack Obama backed Trump over Hillary Clinton. This year, Trump won 176 of those same counties, while President-elect Joe Biden won 20 of them; eight counties in Maine and two in Illinois are still counting votes, though Trump is almost certain to prevail in each.

The results show a microcosm of national trends that increasingly describe an electorate divided along urban and rural lines, and between voters of differing education levels.

The counties that stayed with Trump are largely rural, in many cases ancestrally Democratic areas that had not voted for a Republican presidential contender in decades. Those that swung back to Biden were more diverse and located closer to large metropolitan areas.

In Iowa, all 33 pivot counties that voted twice for Obama have now voted twice for Trump. Those counties are concentrated in the eastern half of the state, once the bastion of union Democrats.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi reaffirmed a pledge she made to her caucus two years ago that she would give up the gavel after the 117th Congress.

Ahead of the 116th Congress, Pelosi cut a deal with a handful of members threatening to vote against her for speaker on the floor. To win their support, the California Democrat agreed to allow the caucus to vote on proposed term limits for the top three Democratic leaders and to abide by the proposal herself regardless of whether it was adopted.

The term limit plan, which would have limited the top three leaders from serving beyond the 117th Congress, was not brought before the caucus as scheduled, amid a partial government shutdown. The members pushing for the term limits proposal agreed to drop it indefinitely, but noted they could always bring it up again if needed.

In the nearly two years since Pelosi cut that deal, she’s declined to answer questions about whether she’d uphold her commitment to give up the speaker’s gavel after the 117th Congress. But at a press conference Wednesday, shortly after the Democratic Caucus nominated Pelosi to serve as speaker again, she answered the question.

House Democrats elected Massachusetts Rep. Katherine M. Clark as assistant speaker on Wednesday, making her the second-highest ranking woman ever in Democratic leadership, behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Clark, 57, who got her start in leadership this Congress serving as caucus vice chair, beat Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, 59, the outgoing chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, for the No. 4 position in the caucus. The vote was 135-92.

Clark entered the House in 2013 after winning a special election to replace Edward J. Markey, who became a senator. She has quickly climbed the ranks in a caucus that has a reputation for stagnant leadership.

The assistant speaker spot was open because the current occupant, New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Luján, is moving to the Senate.

Rudy Giuliani, the attorney for President Donald Trump, said the campaign is prepared to lose election cases in an effort to throw the final decision on the presidential race to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Giuliani’s comments came during a Tuesday interview on Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria."

The Daily Mail reported that Giuliani was due to appear in court remotely on Tuesday in a case involving an attempt to have hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots removed from the count in Pennsylvania.

“Frankly this is a case that we would like to get to the Supreme Court,” he said. “So we're prepared in some of these cases to lose and to appeal and to get it to the Supreme Court.

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/rudy-giuliani-lawsuits/2020/11/17/id/997453/

Though Boeing’s 737 MAX will return to service at a bleak moment in the airline industry when the pandemic has dried up demand, some carriers want the plane flying again as soon as possible.

The first to fly will be American Airlines, which has scheduled a MAX round-trip flight from Miami to New York’s La Guardia airport for Dec. 29.

According to an internal memo sent Sunday to Alaska Airlines pilots, the Seattle-based carrier plans to take its first 737-9 MAX delivery early next year and start flying it in service by the end of March.

United Airlines expects to schedule flights on the MAX in late January or February.

Many have commented on Democratic losses in South Florida and with Latinos across the country.

As the Congresswoman from #FL26 who lost her seat, and the first South American immigrant ever elected to Congress...

Let me set the record straight. (1/8)

My district voted for Clinton +16% and Trump +6% — that's a DRAMATIC 22 pt swing at the top of the ticket not easily explained by this false narrative of progressives versus moderates.

I won by 2% in 2018 and lost by 3% in 2020. (2/8)

Despite this swing, I was one of just a few Democrats nationally to outperform Biden. Here's why:
1. Focused on the economy
2. Knocked on 23k doors & had convos w 133k ppl via phone & text
3. Invested big in radio, mail, digital & TV
4. And did it all in English AND Spanish (3/8)

I was a leader in advocating for Venezuelan freedom — and as an immigrant, my story is the Miami story.

But it wasn't enough. Because South FL is extremely diverse. We are unique. And when others try to treat Latinos as a monolithic group, they miss the nuances. (4/8)

Yes, the fear of socialism is real and engrained for those of us who fled dangerous places in search of the American dream. My own father was murdered by a criminal with a gun in Ecuador.

But it's not why I lost and it's not the only reason South Florida went red. (5/8)

There were many factors: a targeted disinformation campaign to Latinos; an electorate desperate to re-open, wracked with fear over the economic consequences; a national party that thinks racial identity is how we vote.

It's not just about socialism. (6/8)

Florida & National Dems: Our brightest days are ahead. To get there, we must step back and deeply analyze how we're talking to Latinos and every voter. As the first South American immigrant elected to Congress, I stand with you as we do it. (7/8)

And to South Florida and the Keys: it has been the honor of my life to serve you. I love this community, from Key West, to the Upper Keys, to South Miami. I'll keep fighting to make sure no one messes with my people.

Please stay safe, wear a mask & enjoy the holidays. (8/8)

Two weeks after Election Day, New York State was still counting hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots on Tuesday at a sluggish pace that some officials attributed to bureaucratic dysfunction and arcane state laws.

Whatever the cause, New York was sure to be among the last states, if not the last, to finish counting votes, and even some officials in charge of the process acknowledged that the delay was an embarrassment.

And while attention remained focused on battleground states where mail-in ballots helped clinch the election for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., New York, a Democratic stronghold that was called for Mr. Biden almost immediately after polls closed, had mostly dodged national scrutiny for its lagging performance.

“If we were a swing state in this presidential election, we would be getting ridiculed across the world right now,” said State Senator Michael Gianaris, the deputy leader of the Democratic majority. “Florida, with all its terrible history of vote counting, manages to count votes before and on Election Day, even if they were mailed in.”