Stacey Abrams launched a campaign for Georgia governor on Wednesday with a pledge to fight for economic equality and expand healthcare access, setting up a potential rematch against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in one of the nation’s most competitive political battlegrounds.

The Democrat announced her campaign with a video that highlighted her work in the state since her narrow 2018 defeat to Kemp, along with a message that “opportunity and success in Georgia shouldn’t be determined by your ZIP code, background or access to power.”

Her decision, long expected by local Democrats, clears the way for what could be a titanic showdown between two longtime political rivals. That is, if Kemp survives a fight for the GOP nomination first.

Abrams lost to Kemp by less than 1.4 percentage points in 2018, the closest Georgia gubernatorial election in decades, and her refusal to concede defeat because of what she called an “erosion” of voting rights made her an icon to many Democrats and a villain to conservatives.

Several Senate Republicans are panning their colleagues’ strategy of forcing a shutdown fight over President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates, hoping they back off before the midnight Friday deadline.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and a clutch of other Republicans are floating the idea of blocking a quick government spending vote until Democrats and Biden agree to bar funds for the mandates in the funding bill. Lee, the conference’s Steering Committee chair, is set to explain his strategy to his colleagues at a GOP lunch Wednesday.

He’ll face a skeptical audience. Several senators, from leadership allies to conservative stalwarts, said they do not support flirting with a shutdown over the vaccine debate. They say there are better ways to deal with it: the courts, amendment votes or trying to wind down regulations through the Congressional Review Act.

“I just don’t quite understand the strategy or the play of leverage for a mandate that’s been stayed by 10 courts,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “I want the vaccine mandates lifted, but I don’t think the [spending bill] is the tool to do it. For all practical purposes the mandates weaken every single day.”

Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.), the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Wednesday he is retiring at the end of his congressional term.

“It’s time for me to pass the baton to the next generation so I can focus on my health and well-being,” DeFazio, 74, said in a statement. “This was a tough decision at a challenging time for our republic with the very pillars of our democracy under threat, but I am bolstered by the passion and principles of my colleagues in Congress and the ingenuity and determination of young Americans who are civically engaged and working for change.”
DeFazio has been an active member of the transportation panel since he was first elected to represent Oregon’s 4th Congressional District in 1986.

DeFazio becomes the 19th House Democrat to announce plans to leave office at the end of his term for either another office or retirement.

DeFazio also is the third committee chair who will not seek reelection next year, following Reps. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), chairman of the House budget committee, and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), chairwoman of the science, space and technology committee.

Facebook on Wednesday said it took down disinformation networks tied to a broad swath of political actors and events around the world, including militant group Hamas, Chinese state groups, and the immigration crisis along the Belarus-Poland border. The company also removed accounts run by anti-vaccine groups that were using evolving tactics to attack doctors in Europe.

Together, the cat-and-mouse game described in the company’s monthly threat report continues to demonstrate how social media is an active battlefield where governments and motivated parties to manipulate public opinion. It also shows the might of the global platform, which has recently come under renewed fire for its role in spreading societal harms.

Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta, does not disclose the reach of the disinformation campaigns, making it difficult for outsiders to gauge their actual influence. It discloses accounts removed and the followers of those accounts, but not the views that the posts received.

The China operation was discovered, the company said, after a mysterious account claiming to be a Swiss biologist posted that the United States was pressuring and intimidating World Health Organization scientists studying the origins of covid-19 in an attempt to blame China for the virus. The false persona was named Wilson Edwards and made the posts on Twitter and Facebook in July.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, the Republican who maintained the enduring support of his blue-state constituents through boom times, the Trump presidency, and the COVID-19 pandemic, will not seek a third term in 2022, he said Wednesday.

A moderate who has kept his distance from the controversies of the national Republican Party and cast himself as a thrifty and thoughtful manager, Baker, 65, would have entered the race as its front-runner. His decision means he will forgo a shot at history: No Massachusetts governor has served three consecutive four-year terms.

In a joint statement with Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, Baker said a campaign would have been “a distraction” from managing the COVID-19 pandemic — work that “cannot and should not be about politics and the next election.”