Good morning, it’s Wednesday, August 6, 2025. In today’s edition, AI use soars in state legislatures; Abbott sues to remove Texas House Dem leader; 300 nuclear-related bills introduced this year:
Top Stories
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: State lawmakers debated government’s role in incentivizing and regulating AI at NCSL’s annual Legislative Summit. Massachusetts, New York and California are working on AI safety legislation to protect against frontier models causing mass casualty events. Virginia Del. Michelle Maldonado (D) plans to reintroduce legislation to ban discrimination by AI in housing, employment and health care. (Pluribus News)
MORE: Last year, 20% of legislative staffers said they used AI tools in legislative work. This year, that number surged to 44%. Most states do not have official policies for how and when legislative staff can use generative AI in their work. (State Affairs)
ENERGY: State lawmakers have introduced more than 300 nuclear-related bills so far this year, including measures to study nuclear power development, declare nuclear power a clean energy source and provide incentives to spur development of next-generation power stations. Lawmakers in Kentucky, Nebraska and Virginia enacted legislation to spur workforce development in the nuclear sector. (Pluribus News)
REDISTRICTING: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has sued to remove House Democratic Caucus chair Gene Wu (D) from his seat in the midst of the battle over Republican-led mid-decade redistricting. Abbott alleges Wu and other Democrats who fled the state to block quorum have abandoned their official duties. (Texas Tribune) A political action committee run by former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D) has covered fines, transportation, lodging and meals for absent Democrats. (Texas Tribune)
MORE: California Democrats plan to vote the week of Aug. 18 on a proposal to redraw their own maps, offsetting the five seats Texas Republicans hope to pick up. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) plans to put a new map before voters in a special election on Nov. 4. Democrats in Illinois, New York and Maryland are all considering their own redistricting plans, as are Republicans in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio. (New York Times)
TRANS RIGHTS: The Texas Senate State Affairs Committee has approved a measure restricting transgender people to bathrooms that match their sex assigned at birth. The bill applies to government buildings and schools, as well as prisons and violence shelters. (Texas Tribune)
In Politics & Business
TENNESSEE: U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R) will run for governor, she said Wednesday, ending months of speculation. Blackburn is seeking to become Tennessee’s first woman governor. She faces U.S. Rep. John Rose (R) in the GOP primary. Gov. Bill Lee (R) is term-limited. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
GEORGIA: Former Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond (D) will run for governor in 2026. Thurmond, one of only three Black people to win statewide election in Georgia, served three terms in office beginning in 2010. He joins former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) and Sen. Jason Esteves (D) in the Democratic primary. (Associated Press)
MAINE: Businessman Ben Midgley (R) will run for governor, he said Tuesday. Midgley, the former CEO of Planet Fitness, joins eight other Republicans vying to succeed term-limited Gov. Janet Mills (D). (Maine Public Radio)
WISCONSIN: Former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) won’t rule out a run for governor in 2026. Thompson won election to four terms in office from 1987 to 2001, when he left to become President George W. Bush’s secretary of Health and Human Services. Asked if he would run again, Thompson said: “Why not?” (Wisconsin Examiner)
OKLAHOMA: House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R) says a forensic investigation into graphic images that appeared on a television in Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’s (R) office showed that the incident stemmed from a default setting on the television. The scene, described by two members of the Board of Education, appeared in the 1985 movie The Protector. (McCarville Report)
By The Numbers
4.5%: The decline in violent crime rates in the United States from 2023 to 2024, according to FBI statistics. Murder rates dropped 14.9% year over year. (FBI)
57%: Pope Leo’s favorable ratings among American voters, according to a new Gallup survey. The first American pope is seen much more favorably by liberals (65%) than by conservatives (46%). (Gallup)
10%: The decline in short-term rental home bookings in Colorado in the first quarter of 2025. Ski-season visits declined for the first time in three years. (Colorado Sun)
Off The Wall
Seattle Kraken forward John Hayden and team mascot Buoy ran into a brown bear while filming a promotional video in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. The bear charged the mascot but turned away before making contact. (Anchorage Daily News)
Valley Corn Maize near East Grand Forks, Minn., is marking its 10th anniversary by building the world’s largest corn maze. The 121-acre maze is larger than 91 football fields. Matthew Krueger, the maze’s owner, said he thinks he beat the current record held by a maze in Stoney Brook, Minn. (Fargo Forum)
Quote of the Day
“I will tell you, having been two terms as a state attorney general and now as a state governor — states are where it’s at. The rubber hits the road with all of you.”
— Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D), addressing state lawmakers at NCSL’s annual Legislative Summit. (State Affairs)