Kay Hagan

WASHINGTON — A single conversation on the Senate floor Monday illustrated the challenges senators face in pushing a bipartisan measure to extend background checks to most gun sales. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), the chief author of the proposal,...

WASHINGTON — In a lopsided vote, the Senate launched a debate Thursday over the most significant gun legislation in more than a decade, setting up a contest that could last weeks between reinvigorated advocates for stricter laws and conservatives...

President Barack Obama pleaded with Congress last week to remember the victims of December’s schoolhouse shootings in Connecticut and tighten the nation’s gun laws. "Shame on us if we’ve forgotten," he said. "Don’t get squishy."...

President Obama pleaded with Congress last week to remember the victims of December's schoolhouse shootings in Connecticut and tighten the nation's gun laws. "Shame on us if we've forgotten," he said. "Don't get squishy." But four months after the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Thursday not to forget the heartbreak of the Newtown elementary school massacre and "get squishy" on tightened gun laws, though some lawmakers in his own Democratic Party remain a tough...

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, American opinion on gay marriage has been shifting. Now lawmakers are in a mad dash to catch up. In less than two weeks, seven senators — all from moderate or Republican-leaning states — announced their...

Over the last 40 years, I've been involved in a lot of political battles for a lot of different causes: workers' rights, women's rights, gay rights, environmental protection, anti-war, anti-nuclear power, anti-urban sprawl, animal rights, gun control,...

NEW YORK (AP) — However the Supreme Court rules after its landmark hearings on same-sex marriage, the issue seems certain to divide Americans and states for many years to come. In oral arguments Tuesday and Wednesday on two cases involving gay...

WASHINGTON -- Six Democratic senators have announced their support for same-sex marriage in nearly as many days, policy reversals that reflect the changing politics of the issue as the Supreme Court hears arguments in potential landmark cases. Since...

WASHINGTON — All but ensuring there will be no federal shutdown, the Senate on Wednesday approved a measure to keep the government running — but not before tweaking the automatic budget cuts that threaten some of the lawmakers’...

WASHINGTON — It was bound to happen: As the sequester budget cuts are felt around the country, lawmakers are having second thoughts — and trying to tinker with them in a way that could lead to a full-scale government shutdown. Senators...

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Max Baucus has been here before. Back during the Clinton era, the Democrat faced a choice: support an assault weapons ban urged by a president from his own party and risk angering constituents who cherish their gun...