Good morning, it’s Wednesday, January 8, 2025. In today’s edition, lawmakers make renewed push to regulate social media; Idaho to debate education vouchers; Virginia Dems keep control of legislature:
Top Stories
SOCIAL MEDIA: Lawmakers will try for a third year to implement new regulations on social media companies and their interaction with minor users. Legislators have filed or pre-filed bills to require parental permission for youth access to social media, barring “addictive feeds” and to hold companies liable for harms to youth.
Industry groups have pushed back hard, winning legal injunctions against a prominent California law and a new legal challenge against a Florida law banning kids under 14 from having a social media account. Those groups have relied on First Amendment arguments so far.
But the battlefield will expand this year. Bipartisan sets of lawmakers in Virginia, Nevada, Indiana, Wyoming, South Carolina, New York and Texas have all introduced various social media regulations. The tech industry’s lobbying bills are only going to grow. Read more at Pluribus News.
ABORTION: Missouri lawmakers are considering new restrictions on abortion rights after voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing access until fetal viability. House Speaker-designate Jon Patterson (R) said lawmakers will attempt to define fetal viability in state law. (St. Louis Public Radio)
EDUCATION: Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signaled support for a limited school voucher program in his State of the State address. Little asked lawmakers to approve $50 million for students who are home-schooled or attend private school. (Idaho Statesman) Senate Majority Leader Lori Den Hart (R) said she expects the voucher debate to be the most contentious issue to come up this year. (Idaho Statesman)
ENVIRONMENT: ExxonMobil has sued California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) for defamation and disparagement. The lawsuit accuses Bonta of being motivated by “foreign influence [and] personal ambition” in a debate over whether plastics can be recycled effectively. (Sacramento Bee)
ELECTIONS: Wisconsin Republicans are moving to place a proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to show ID at the polls on April’s ballot. Lawmakers have already approved a voter ID law, but the amendment would make it more difficult for Democrats to challenge the law in the legislature or in court. (Associated Press)
In Politics & Business
VIRGINIA: Democrats held on to two legislative seats in Loudoun County and Republicans kept a red seat near Richmond in the first special election contests since President-elect Trump won office. The results mean Democrats will keep their narrow majorities in the House of Delegates and state Senate for Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) final year in office. (Associated Press)
NORTH CAROLINA: State Supreme Court justices have blocked certification of a November election for one of their own seats. The five Republicans on the high court voted to review legal arguments over 60,000 ballots that Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin wants thrown out. Griffin lost to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat, by just 734 votes. (Associated Press)
OHIO: Former Ohio Health Department Director Amy Acton (D) will run for governor in 2026, she said Tuesday. Acton came to prominence for running Ohio’s pandemic response. Attorney General Dave Yost (R), Treasurer Rob Sprague (R) and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (R) are all mentioned as possible candidates. (Columbus Dispatch)
Democrats haven’t won the governorship in Ohio since Ted Strickland won in 2006.
FLORIDA: Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) is considering a run for governor in 2026. Gaetz told a reporter he’s thinking about running, just a few weeks after a congressional report detailed sexual misconduct allegations against him. (Tampa Bay Times)
MISSISSIPPI: Billionaire Tommy Duff is forming a political action committee to back Republican candidates for city and legislative offices this year, in a possible prelude to a 2027 bid for governor. Duff and his brother, the richest men in the state, made their money from Southern Tire Mart, the nation’s largest truck tire dealer. (Mississippi Today)
By The Numbers
3: The number of governors Delaware will have this month. Former Gov. John Carney (D) resigned Tuesday to become mayor of Wilmington. Gov.-elect Matt Meyer (D) will be sworn into office on Jan. 21. In the meantime, former Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long (D) has been sworn in to run the state in the interim. (Delaware Public Media)
$1.004 billion: The amount of legal marijuana sales that took place in New Jersey in 2024, up 25% over 2023. That money generated at least $43 million in tax revenue through September. (NJ Advance Media)
102: The number of hours the average commuter in New York and Chicago spent sitting in traffic in 2024, the longest commutes in America, according to a study by INRIX. The average American lost 43 hours to traffic, the report found. (Boston Globe)
Off The Wall
Virginia lawmakers will delay the first working day of its new legislative sessions after this weekend’s winter storm knocked out Richmond’s water system. Both the state Capitol and General Assembly buildings are closed for lack of water pressure. House Speaker Don Scott (D) said the House of Delegates would convene for a brief session before postponing work until Monday. (Associated Press)
The U.S. National Cross-Country Skiing Championships in Anchorage had some unwelcome spectators last week when volunteers and coaches tried to shoo away a moose and her cub who had encroached on the course. Neither moose nor athlete was harmed, but two competitors in the women’s race had some close calls. (Northern Journal)
Quote of the Day
“The State House is a beautiful building, but I can assure you that there’s no printing press in the basement.”
— Rhode Island House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi (D), on the state’s roughly $300 million budget shortfall. Shekarchi said lawmakers wouldn’t be able to print their own money to close the gap. (WPRI)