Good morning, it’s Monday, March 9, 2026. In today’s edition, GOP lawmakers plan abortion pill restrictions; Utah legislature adopts digital ad tax; Page extends lead over North Carolina Senate president:
Top Stories
This week, State Affairs takes you inside the new energy crunch, showing how it’s reshaping policy, politics and your wallet. Check out all our coverage right here.
HEALTH CARE: Lawmakers in at least 10 Republican-led states are considering bills to restrict access to mifepristone and misoprostol, the two-drug regimen that accounts for more than half of abortions in the United States. The bills draw on model legislation approved in Texas and Louisiana over the last two years. Some would allow citizens to sue manufacturers or providers for monetary damages. (Pluribus News)
TAXES: Utah’s legislature has approved a 4.7% tax on digital advertising revenue earned by social media giants. Utah would become the second state after Maryland to levy a tax specifically on digital advertising. That law has been mired in litigation for five years, though Maryland continues to collect the tax. (Pluribus News)
MORE: Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) has pledged to sign a new version of the state’s proposed income tax on those who earn more than $1 million a year. Ferguson and legislative Democrats have been negotiating over how much of the proceeds from the tax should be returned to people and businesses in tax breaks. (Seattle Times)
ENVIRONMENT: Wisconsin’s Senate Natural Resources, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee unanimously approved legislation to address PFAS contamination, including grant programs for municipalities. The bill does not exempt airports responding to an emergency from paying to clean up the so-called forever chemicals. (State Affairs)
PUBLIC SAFETY: The Kansas Senate has adopted legislation creating a 25-foot buffer zone around first responders. The bill would make a crime of unlawfully approaching a first responder. The bill is modeled after Florida legislation, which went into effect last year, though other versions have been blocked by courts. (State Affairs)
MORE: Kentucky House Majority Whip Jason Nemes (R) has introduced legislation to require health care providers to give staff violence prevention training and allow employees to report incidents of violence. The bill also requires providers to display signs informing people that violence toward health care workers is a felony. (Kentucky Lantern)
PUBLIC HEALTH: Bipartisan legislation in Minnesota would create a pilot program allowing the use of psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic use. The state Psychedelic Medicine Task Force recommended the creation of a regulated clinical program for mushrooms to treat mental health disorders last year. (Minnesota Star Tribune)
CRYPTO: The Bank of North Dakota is on pace to launch a stable coin in September, pending review by state officials later this month. The Roughrider Coin will kick off with a pilot program with local financial institutions, primarily for use in bank-to-bank transactions and to facilitate money transfers that usually take days. (North Dakota Monitor)
In Politics & Business
NORTH CAROLINA: Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page (R) leads Senate President Phil Berger (R) by 23 votes after outstanding provisional ballots were counted on Friday. Page’s margin is still well under the 1% threshold necessary for a recount once counties certify results later this week. (State Affairs)
TENNESSEE: Retired astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore will not seek the Republican nomination for governor, after floating a potential bid last week. Wilmore, who previously lived in Texas, would have faced residency questions over a requirement that gubernatorial candidates live in Tennessee for seven years. (State Affairs)
UTAH: Gov. Spencer Cox (R) has signed legislation prohibiting county clerks from accepting certain petitions from voters seeking to remove their signatures from a ballot measure to repeal a fair redistricting measure. The bill bans removal forms mailed in with pre-paid postage, as Democrats seek to get thousands of voters to remove their names from the petition. (Salt Lake Tribune)
PEOPLE: Former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) has died at 74. Hanabusa, the first woman to serve as president of the Hawaii state Senate, succumbed after a five-month battle with cancer. (Associated Press)
By The Numbers
2,311,968: The number of votes cast in Texas’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, compared with 2,165,813 votes cast in the Republican primary. It’s the first competitive primary in decades in which more Democrats voted than Republicans. (Dallas Morning News)
19%: The share of federal campaign contributions that came from 300 billionaires and their immediate family members in the 2024 elections. That equals about $3 billion given to candidates and political action committees. (New York Times)
64%: The share of Americans who want to end the semi-annual clock changes between standard time and daylight saving time. Americans prefer permanent daylight saving time over permanent standard time by a 43% to 28% margin. (YouGov)
Anyone else moving a little slowly this morning?
Off The Wall
Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety is soliciting public input on its new caller hold music. The Driver and Vehicle Services division is collecting votes on its website through March. The typical caller waits an average of six to nine minutes before reaching an operator. (MPR News)
The Utah legislature has approved making Good Friday a state holiday. But the bill won’t take effect until May, meaning Good Friday is still a workday this year. (Deseret News)
Quote of the Day
“In my world, the rear-view mirror is small, but it is a reminder of where you’ve been, and what you don’t want to go back to. But my windshield is big, and we’re moving forward.”
— Former Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer (R), running for a new term after he lost his bid for renomination in 2018. (State Affairs)