Senate Democrats are preparing to torpedo Republicans’ police reform proposal. And vice-presidential frontrunner Kamala Harris is leading the way.

It’s a critical moment for Harris, who has faced scrutiny over her record as a former state attorney general. But as she finds herself in the middle of a messy congressional debate over how to stop police killings of Black people, she has a national platform that others in contention for vice president simply can't match.

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If Joe Biden wins in November, much of his agenda will hinge on a potentially surprising power player: Chris Coons.

Facing a pandemic, struggling economy and perhaps myriad other crises, the gridlock that has long gripped the Senate will instantly threaten Biden’s presidency — and Coons is uniquely positioned to step in.

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Days before Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign, a prominent law professor tore apart her record in a New York Times op-ed arguing that the California senator was not, as she defined herself, a “progressive prosecutor.”

The scathing critique by Lara Bazelon was followed by months of criticism of Harris’ career as a district attorney and state attorney general, thwarting her efforts to win over reform-minded liberals.

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DETROIT — Protests at a raucous Joe Biden rally Monday night grew unruly at times, including one prolonged scuffle that knocked a senior Biden aide to the floor of a high school gymnasium.

More than 2,000 people filled the gym on the eve of a pivotal primary in the state that will award the largest delegate prize Tuesday.

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New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a former Democratic presidential candidate, endorsed Joe Biden's White House bid Monday — becoming the latest of the former vice president's old primary rivals to back his campaign over that of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

"The answer to hatred & division is to reignite our spirit of common purpose," Booker wrote on Twitter. "@JoeBiden won’t only win - he’ll show there's more that unites us than divides us. He’ll restore honor to the Oval Office and tackle our most pressing challenges. That’s why I’m proud to endorse Joe."

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Facing imminent defeat in their attempt to remove President Donald Trump through impeachment, Senate Democrats woke up Tuesday to a new problem: A debacle in Iowa that will slow the party’s momentum and may hinder eventual unity around the Democrats’ presidential nominee.

Senior Senate Democrats said in interviews on Tuesday morning that the delayed Iowa caucus results will prompt a re-examination of the state’s exalted status. And they worried that it would delay the party from coalescing around Trump’s general election opponent in the days following Trump's acquittal on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

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The New York Times’ editorial board endorsed two female senators for the Democratic nomination for president Sunday: Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.

The Times’ editorial board sat with nine leading candidates last month for on-the-record interviews, transcripts of which were later annotated and published in full.

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Sen. Cory Booker on Sunday didn’t commit to endorsing a 2020 Democrat before the Iowa caucuses, but he promised to think hard about who would best “heal the nation.”

“I'm not sure. Look, I'm literally still days — just days from stepping out of this race,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

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DES MOINES — It took more than a year, but the Democratic presidential primary is finally coming to terms with the fact that Joe Biden isn’t going to collapse before the first votes are cast.

If anything, the landscape is tilting more in his favor.

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It’s a quandary Andrew Yang didn’t see coming but is starting to embrace: Being the last candidate of color in the Democratic primary with sizable support.

For most of the primary season, on the off-chance Yang talked about race, it was mostly to crack Asian jokes. He’s stuck to his bread-and-butter issue and policy prescription: the threat of computer automation and a universal basic income.

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The first question Cory Booker was asked as a candidate outside his home on a frigid Friday last February was about his campaign message: Was a message of love tough enough to take on Donald Trump?

Love isn’t easy, Booker said, but the people he admired most, like Alice Paul, a leader of the women’s suffrage movement, led with love.

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Billionaire Tom Steyer has qualified for next week's Democratic presidential debate on the strength of an apparent polling surge in two early-nominating states.

Two Fox News polls released on Thursday evening, just one day ahead of the qualification deadline, show Steyer in double-digits, moving past some top-tier candidates on his way to making the debate stage.

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The Democratic presidential debate stage is set to shrink again next week.

Only five candidates so far have earned spots in the Jan. 14 CNN/Des Moines Register debate in Iowa: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Tom Steyer, Andrew Yang and Cory Booker will all watch from the sidelines unless they see polling surges before Friday’s deadline to qualify.

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ROCHESTER, N.H. — Andrew Yang has more money than his campaign knows what to do with.

He still can’t quite get accustomed to his surprising fundraising haul — Yang collected $16.5 million in the fourth quarter — or how to allocate it in the run-up to the Iowa and New Hampshire contests.

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Sen. Cory Booker raised $6.6 million for his presidential bid last quarter, his campaign announced Friday.

While that amount is only about $600,000 greater than what he brought in during the third quarter of last year, the total still represents his largest haul yet.

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Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker said Sunday that he’d rather see President Donald Trump defeated at the ballot box than removed from office.

“As a guy who is a big competitor, I want to beat Donald Trump mano a mano, I want to face him down on a debate floor. So this is not something that I want to do,” the New Jersey senator told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

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When Kamala Harris dropped out two weeks ago, it hit Cory Booker hard.

She may have been his rival in the race for the Democratic nomination, but her exit represented something bigger. If Harris — a friend of Booker’s and the only black woman in the race, who began her campaign with such promise — couldn’t make it to Iowa, what did it mean for him, a black man still in the fight but unable to qualify for the Democratic debate?

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CONCORD, N.H. — Cory Booker’s campaign held five events in New Hampshire this week. But one thing was notably missing from all of them: Cory Booker himself.

With his campaign struggling to gain traction in early state polls, Booker has gone all-in on Iowa and South Carolina -- and all but vanished from New Hampshire.

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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker on Friday announced a new K-12 education plan that says he opposes funding for private school vouchers and tax credits, though he is still listed as a co-sponsor of legislation supporting the nation’s only federally funded private school voucher program and he's been a longtime supporter of vouchers.

The plan also offers support for “high quality” charter schools, even as progressive candidates say they would restrict their growth.

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Mike Bloomberg on Friday expressed regret for calling fellow Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker “well-spoken” earlier in the day, after the New Jersey senator said he was “taken aback” by the racially loaded remark from the former New York mayor.

“I probably shouldn't have used the word,” Bloomberg told reporters at a campaign event in Georgia. “But I can just tell you he is a friend of mine, and he is a Rhodes Scholar, which is much more impressive than my academic background. I envy him, and he can certainly speak for himself.”

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