ROYAL OAK –  The Allen Park Cabrini Monarchs claimed their second consecutive Catholic High School League St. Anne Division championship with a 4-1 win over the Wixom St. Catherine of Siena Academy Stars on Saturday afternoon.

After what had been a pretty even first half that ended with Cabrini leading 1-0, the Monarchs would go on to dominate the second half. Senior Carly Roth would double Cabrini’s lead just over 11 minutes into the second half when she fired a free kick that beat the wall and rocketed into the left side of the net to make it 2-0. Roth would score again with 21:17 remaining in the game. Paityn Hawes drove a corner kick towards the back side, and Roth headed it back the way it came and just inside the right post to make it 3-0.

The Stars would fight back almost immediately with Joanna Namel notching her program record 33rd goal of the season with a volley from inside the penalty area, to get Wixom St. Catherine back within two goals barely a minute after Roth’s second goal.

But Carbini was able to reassert themselves, get control of the game, and put the finishing touches on the win. Madi Smith’s 30-yard rocket with 9:13 to play provided the final margin and took any lingering drama out of the match, restoring Cabrini’s three-goal advantage, 4-1.

“The first half, we were going against the wind. The second half, we had the wind helping us,” Monarchs head coach Tony Pizzo said. “The girls came to play. They were hungry, so I’m happy about that. That’s for sure,’ he added.

The first half had been just as offensive, but without the goals. The teams actually combined for more shots on goal in the first half than they did in the second half, but the only first half goal came from Hawes who juggled a ball in tight, got her first shot saved, but quickly got her own rebound and scored past the goalkeeper who was still off balance from the first save.

Wixom St. Catherine probably should have had a goal in the first half. Between hitting the crossbar with a freekick just 90 seconds into the game and then coming up short on a breakaway late, thanks to a terrific save by Monarchs goalie Bella Perez, the Stars had plenty of chances to score in the first half. But they could not find a goal in the opening half and went into the break down 1-0 despite having a slight edge in shots on goal and a couple of glorious chances.

“When we get those chances and we don’t capitalize, it definitely helps the other team gain confidence too. They were already playing well, and then for us to miss those chances, it kind of gave the other team a boost and knocked our confidence down just a little bit,” Stars head coach Aaron Roy said.

With the win, Allen Park Cabrini goes back-to-back in the CHSL St. Anne Division for the first time in school history. In fact, these are the first two CHSL titles for the Monarchs.

“It feels good. I’m excited. I’m proud of us. I’m proud of our team. We really pushed ourselves in the second half especially because it was getting close there. But overall, I felt that our team did really good,” Roth said.  “It’s my last year here as a senior, so it’s kind of good to leave a legacy for the next couple of years,” she added.

Photos of Allen Park Cabrini vs. Wixom St. Catherine in a CHSL St. Anne Tournament final

Cabrini (10-2-1) opens the state tournament on Wednesday when they host Marine City Cardinal Mooney to open district play. The Monarchs are the district hosts.

Wixom St. Catherine (8-3-2) earned a first round bye and will face the winner of Dearborn Henry Ford Academy and Dearborn Advanced Tech Academy on May 28 in a district semifinal.

"The players came in here and did everything that we worked on to prepare for this game. I’m proud of my players. I’m not leaving here feeling like we played a bad game. There are a couple of bad bounces here and there that just went the other team’s way, and we prepare for districts now,” Roy said.

Allen Park Cabrini defeated Wixom St. Catherine 4-1 in the CHSL St. Anne Division Tournament final played on Saturday, May 17, 2025.

ROYAL OAK – The host Royal Oak Shrine Knights won their first Catholic High School League championship since 2019, claiming the Cardinal Division title with a 3-2 win over the Ann Arbor Greenhills Gryphons in Saturday afternoon’s final.

All the scoring came in the first half. Shrine got things started just 1:12 into the game when Isobel Malcolm’s corner kick deflected through to the far side where Jo Mitroff pounced on it and banged it in, giving the Knights an early lead. With just under 21 minutes to play in the first half, the Knights converted another Malcolm corner. This time it was Molly Salerno finding the net with a quick shot amid the scramble in front of goal.

“The last couple of weeks, we’ve worked on corners and set plays, and trying to finish our opportunities, so it pays off when you score goals,” Shrine head coach Mark Soma said.

At that point, the long shots would start going in for both teams. Cate Alumkal  scored a pair of rockets from about 30 yards out sandwiched around a 40-yard spinning chip shot for Malcolm that handcuffed the Gryphons’ goalie and bounced its way into the net. By the end of the half, the teams had combined for five goals and nearly 20 total shots.

However, after all the offense in the first half, it would be the defenses that dominated the second 40 minutes. The defenses tightened up considerably, and neither team came close to scoring again as the teams combined for just two shots on goal – both by the Knights – in the second half.

“It was a grind. I think the other team played well, and we played well. It could have gone either way, and I think we just took more opportunities than they did,” Soma said.

The win both clinched the Cardinal Division Championship and avenged a loss to the Gryphons earlier this month.

Photos of Royal Oak Shrine vs. Ann Arbor Greenhills in a CHSL Cardinal Tournament final

“It feels really good. We lost to them a couple of games ago, 3-1. So this definitely showed what we’re capable of,” Malcolm said. “We haven’t won Catholic League in a while, so it feels really good to finally bring home a Catholic League Championship for our school,” she added.

“It’s important for these girls to have their own identity that they’re Catholic League (Champs) and we can go into states with a positive momentum,” Soma said.

Royal Oak Shrine is now 12-3-2 on the year. The Knights will host a district this year. Having earned a first round bye, Royal Oak Shrine will await the winner of Clawson and Southfield Christian. That game is scheduled for May 28

Royal Oak Shrine defeated Ann Arbor Greenhills 3-2 to win the CHSL Cardinal Division Tournament final match played on Saturday, May 17, 2025 at Shrine.

ROYAL OAK – The Bloomfield Hills Marian Mustangs claimed their sixth CHSL Bishop Division Championship in the last decade with a 3-0 win over the Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood Cranes Saturday morning.

The Mustangs nearly opened the scoring barely a minute into the game, only to have the goal called back for offsides. Led by the efforts of Sophia Baldwin, Kendall Pankoff and Carola Gorlier, Cranbrook fought their way into the game. The two best chances for the Cranes came back-to-back near the midway point of the period. But the Cranes could not get either one on frame despite some glorious looks, and Marian finally got on the board moments later when Bella Musachio got a clean look at the other end and buried it into the back of the net for a 1-0 Mustangs lead.

The wind was blowing hard all game, and in the second half, Marian got the wind at their back and took full advantage.

“We’ve faced that wind probably two or three times this season already, and the wind is not a factor if you are a team that likes to play the ball on the floor (the ground) as we do,” Marian head coach Danny Price said. “We like to move the ball on the floor, so really it didn’t bother us. We just had to get through the first half without conceding, and with the wind at our back in the second half I always felt confident that we could flourish, and we did that in the second half.”

Indeed, after a first half that saw the Cranes dangerous offensively at times, Cranbrook struggled to create any sustained offensive threat in the second half. Marian took advantage to dominate possession even more than they had in the first half, and the Mustangs made sure to convert a pair of chances to put the game out of reach. Nia Bordogna scored both second half goals for the Mustangs – a 35-yard strike followed barely three minutes later by a 20-yard blast from just outside the penalty area that went in off the right post. That made it 3-0 and gave the Mustangs all the margin they would need.

The win was also a little bit of payback for the Mustangs who were knocked out of last year’s playoffs by Cranbrook in the semifinals.

“It feels amazing. We worked so hard up to this point just practicing and putting in the work, lots of running, lots of discipline. So it feels really good that it paid off, especially against a team that we have a small rivalry between,” junior co-captain Clair Dauer said.

“I’m really happy. I’m happy for my staff. I wouldn’t be able to do this without them,” Price said. “I’m happy for the players. They were absolutely tremendous today. But we talked about that last year, getting beat in the semifinal to Cranbrook and how that motivation and discipline would play in today. So now, we sort of righted that wrong from last year, and now we want to go all the way to states and go back to the Division 2 final.” He added that, “It was a complete team performance.”

Photo gallery of Cranbrook-Kingswood vs. Marian in a CHSL Bishop Tournament championship

For Cranbrook, it is their second straight loss in the Bishop Division Final in their first two years in the division.

“In these games, you always have a chance. You always will have one just kind of bouncing around and hope to finish it. But hats off to Mairan, they’ve got some great players over there, good coaches, and they make us better,” Cranes head coach David Brown said. “But it just didn’t go our way. We didn’t get the bounces we wanted, didn’t get the finishes we wanted, but just to play in this game and represent the Catholic League was good,” he added.

Both teams will now turn their attention to the playoffs. Marian (14-2-1) earned a first round by and will have to wait to see who they play in the district semifinals.  It could be Cranbrook (3-8-2) who will play Walled Lake Western this Wednesday with the winner advancing to play Marian the following week.

“Nothing is easy this time of year. Everything is hard, so we’ve just got to play our best and hope for the best,” Brown said.

Bloomfield Hills Marian defeated Cranbrook-Kingswood 3-0 to win the CHSL Bishop Division league tournament played on Saturday, May 17, 2025 at Royal Oak Shrine.

By STEPHEN WHYNO
The Associated Press

BALTIMORE — Journalism jostled with horses down the stretch, shrugged off the contact, burst through the lane and came from behind to win the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

The odds-on favorite was bumped by Goal Oriented near the quarter pole, and it looked like another second-place finish was coming two weeks after being the runner-up to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby. Journalism instead ran right by Gosger to give trainer Michael McCarthy his second win in a Triple Crown race.

“A lot of bouncing around there,” McCarthy said. “When I saw that, I kind of resigned myself to the fact it was another fantastic effort and maybe come up a little bit short. But it just goes to show the testament that this horse has. Couldn’t be prouder of him.”

Gosger was second by a half-length. Sandman was third and Bob Baffert-trained Goal Oriented fourth. Journalism went 1 3/16 miles in 1:55.37.

Umberto Rispoli became the first jockey from Italy to win any of the Triple Crown races.

“When I crossed the wire, the first things that comes up to my mind, it’s all of the 20 years of my career that pass in front of me,” Rispoli said. “I had to wait so long to be on a champion like that.”

Journalism handled the adversity and thrived on a warm day that dried out the track after torrential rain fell at Pimlico Race Course for much of the past week. Those conditions suited him better than the slop at Churchill Downs in the Derby

“This victory symbolizes so much about life,” co-owner Aaron Wellman said. “It took guts for Umberto Rispoli to power his way through a seemingly impossible hole getting side-swiped and threading the needle and powering on through. And it took guts from an incredible horse to somehow will his way to victory.”

Journalism paid $4 to win, $2.80 to place and $2.40 to show.

“He’s a remarkable horse,” Baffert said of Journalism. “I wanted to be on the lead and was behind horses. I knew (Goal Oriented) was intimidated. He’s never run that way. He ran well, but he’s still too green for that.”

Sovereignty did not take part after his owners and trainer Bill Mott decided to skip the Preakness, citing the two-week turnaround, and aimed for the Belmont on June 7. That made this a fifth time in seven years that the Preakness, for various reasons, was contested without a Triple Crown bid at stake.

But Journalism staked his claim for 3-year-old horse of the year by winning the $2 million American classic race run at the old Pimlico Race Course for the last time before it’s torn down and rebuilt. While work went on around him before the postrace news conference, Wellman asked, “Are they already tearing this place down?”

Not yet, and not before Journalism could add a memorable chapter by squeezing through the space he had to win.

“I still can’t realize what this horse did,” Rispoli said. “It’s all about him. It’s a pleasure and privilege to ride a horse like him.”

The Preakness is set to be held at nearby Laurel Park, between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., next year before a planned return to the new Pimlico in 2027. McCarthy raved about the history at the place known as “Old Hilltop” and still remembers where he was when Sunday Silence beat Easy Goer at the wire in 1989 in a fashion similar to how Journalism won this time.

“Things kind of come full circle,” McCarthy said. “I’m sad to see this place go, but we’ll try to get back here next year, whichever locale it’s at.”

Journalism is the first horse to win the Preakness after running in the Kentucky Derby since Mark Casse-trained War of Will in 2019. He is the first Derby runner-up to follow that up by winning the Preakness since Exaggerator in 2016.

Only two others from the 19 in the Derby participated in the Preakness: Casse’s Sandman and fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas’ American Promise, who did not have the same positive response as Journalism.

“The best horse won,” Lukas said. “He finished beautifully.”

Lukas, the 89-year-old who has saddled the most horses in Preakness history, referred to McCarthy once this week as “the new guy.” This was just McCarthy’s second, and he’s 2 for 2 after Rombauer sprung the upset as an 11-1 long shot in 2021.

This one was more emotional, with McCarthy and his wife still displaced from their home by the Southern California wildfires.

“We’ll get back there,” McCarthy said. “Everybody will get back there. We’ll rebuild. This is for Altadena.”

The Michigan Panthers stayed hot and secured a spot in the UFL playoffs.

Behind a three-touchdown performance from backup quarterback Danny Etling, the Panthers rolled past the Houston Roughnecks, 30-18, on Saturday at TDECU Stadium in Houston.

The Panthers led 14-12 at halftime before they pulled away in the third quarter. On a third-and-16, Etling found receiver Devin Ross down the right sideline for a 35-yard touchdown to make it a nine-point game.

On Houston’s ensuing possession, cornerback Keni-H Lovely (Western Michigan) jumped the route on a quick screen pass and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown to extend the lead to 27-12 with 4:15 left in the third.

The Panthers thwarted any thought of a comeback by forcing a pair of turnovers in the fourth quarter — one on a fourth-down stop in the red zone and another on a fumble recovery.

Kicker B.T. Potter tacked on a 52-yard field goal to make it 30-12 with 5:21 remaining before the Roughnecks (3-5) scored in the closing seconds.

Etling finished 14-for-22 passing with 167 yards. He threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to receiver Malik Turner in the first quarter and a 1-yarder to receiver Samson Nacua in the second quarter. Nacua’s score was set up by an 88-yard punt return by Xavier Malone.

Roughnecks quarterback Jalan McClendon completed 30 of 50 passes for 316 yards, two touchdowns and the pick-six. Houston outgained Michigan by a considerable margin, 441-254, but went 1-for-3 in the red zone and lost the turnover battle (2-0).

The Panthers will travel to Alabama to face the Birmingham Stallions on May 24 before hosting the Roughnecks in the regular-season finale at Ford Field on May 31. Kickoff for both games is slated for 3 p.m.

After that, it’s on to the playoffs, where the winners of the two conference championship games will advance to the UFL Championship on June 14.

TORONTO – In the dugout before the game Friday, manager AJ Hinch was asked about reliever Beau Brieske. Specifically, he was asked how close he thought Brieske might be to the reliever he relied on so often in leverage at the end of last season.

“I think he’s that guy now,” Hinch said. “I have not treated him any differently. We’re not trying to be something we used to be. Our pitch mix in the back end of the bullpen has been pretty good. It’s a tough back of the bullpen to crack.

Once again, Hinch can envision the ninth before the first pitch of the game is thrown.

Brieske, who hadn’t pitched in a save situation since March 28 in Los Angeles, was indeed summoned in the ninth inning to close out the Tigers’ 5-4 win over the Blue Jays.

Before the game, Hinch had told Will Vest that he was down for the night. He’d thrown three high-leverage innings, 50 pitches, in back-to-back wins against the Red Sox Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We took it out of Will’s hands,” Hinch said. “I’m sure he wanted to pitch. He was doing his normal routine to throw. But we have to see the long road, here. We ask a lot out of the pen. We have to make decisions going into games as much as we have to make decisions in games.”

It also served as a much-needed boost for Brieske, who has battled through an ankle injury since early in spring training and recently, like several Tigers, has been stricken with a flu bug.

“It’s been tough,” Brieske said before the game. “From trying to feel good and trying to pitch good, just a culmination of not feeling good about either. I’ve seen some glimpses, for sure.”

Before Friday, Brieske had pitched 5.1 innings in five outings since coming back off the injured list and allowed four runs, three earned and two home runs.

His outing Tuesday in the 11th inning against the Red Sox was a good illustration of what he’s been dealing with. Inheriting the free runner in a 7-7 game, he struck out Rafael Devers, freezing him with a changeup. He got Alex Bregman to fly out to left.

Then he threw a first-pitch sinker to Kristian Campbell, 97.1 mph dotted down and in.

“It was the exact pitch I wanted to throw,” Brieske said. “Most often, you make a good pitch, you know, you get your result. If he’d just got a base hit, a single, I would’ve been like, ‘That’s a good swing.’

“But that it went out of the park, it was like, ‘Wow, fantastic swing.’ But hey, it gave us the opportunity for our best win of the year (smiles).”

Brieske’s stuff was electric Friday night. His sinker hit 98 mph and sat 97 with an elite average spin rate of 2,587 rpm. His four-seam was zipping, too, 96-97 mph, 2,581 rpm.

His changeup, coming in at 91 mph, had 14 inches of horizonal movement.

But even with that, things got tense. He got the first two outs quickly, then Myles Straw dropped a sinking liner in front of a diving Javier Baez in center and Michael Stefanic lined a two-strike single to left.

He had to bat down a comebacker from pinch-hitter Ernie Clement to end the game.

“I need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture,” Brieske said before the game. “And not dwell on how things are right now. It’s been a little bit of a battle, just kind of fighting myself.

“Sometimes it’s bad execution. Sometimes I feel like I executed well and gotten beat.”

The full Beau Brieske, which was in full force during the Tigers’ run into the playoffs last season when he was escaping one tight mess after another, hasn’t been there yet in 2025.

But it’s coming.

“I don’t feel I’ve been at my best yet,” Brieske said. “It’s hard for me to say that. I just haven’t done the things that I know I can do, the things I have done in the past. I don’t feel I’ve been there yet.”

The ankle injury has been a straight-up nuisance for him. It was his right ankle on his drive leg off the mound. It happened early in spring and then he tweaked it again in Minnesota, which put him on the IL.

Then, when he came back from that, his energy got sapped with the flu.

“It’s part of a long baseball season, part of the ups and downs of a season,” he said. “It’s been frustrating. It’s been kind of an uphill battle for me physically.”

The ankle is healthy now; his mechanics, not so much.

“It’s getting to the point where I’m trying to get the bad habits out of my mechanics that I learned throwing and trying to compensate (for the ankle pain),” he said. “Now it’s about trying to get my feel back. I know what feels right, but it’s how consistent can I do it.

“That’s why I know it will come back. When I feel like myself and I’m executing at the level I can, with the stuff I have, eventually it’s going to even itself out.”

All in all, Brieske said, it’s been a pretty good perspective-builder for him.

“I was coming in from the offseason and man I was feeling so good,” he said. “I was moving exactly how I wanted, building on how I was throwing at the end of last year. And I came in and, there goes the ankle.”

That’s all in the rearview now, though. He’s pushed through the darkest parts.

“I don’t feel bad for myself, it’s just the hand I was dealt,” he said. “Like, what am I going to do? It’s not a pity party. No one feels bad for you. Can you get it done or not? Sometimes it’s not a perfectly clean transition. Sometimes it’s not a perfect process.

“What helps me is to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. What can I do to not worry so much about how things are going right now. It’s a long season.”

Getting the call in the ninth inning of a one-run game and getting the job done was a good kickstart.

DETROIT — Spencer Torkelson looked up in disbelief.

This was Wednesday and the Tigers had just scored double-digit runs against the Red Sox in the first two games of the series. It was mentioned to him that it was the sixth time this month they’d scored 10 or more runs and the month was only half over.

“Dang!” Torkelson said. “Wow.”

Indeed.

The Tigers hadn’t scored six double-digit runs in a month since 2016.

“We are definitely seeing it well up and down the lineup,” Torkelson said.

Entering the game Friday night in Toronto, only the Yankees (250) had scored more runs than the Tigers (244) in the American League. No Tigers team had scored 244 runs in the first 44 games in 31 years, since 1994.

“I think it comes down to the team approach that we talked about,” said Torkelson, who leads the team with 11 homers and 34 RBIs. “Get it to the next guy, grind out the at-bats. I feel like you can look at the Tanner Houck inning (nine runs), all the innings, you can look at the productive outs that were like seven- or eight-pitch at-bats.

“Yeah, it’s an 0-fer, but he just worked eight pitches for an out, now he gets to face Riley Greene.”

Or, case in point, Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock gets to face Javier Báez after an eight-pitch battle with Jace Jung that ended up with him hitting Jung in the foot.

“The first thing Javy said when he crossed the plate (after a three-run home run) was, ‘Good at-bat Jace,’” Torkelson said. “Javy gets that mistake because of Jace’s battle.

“We’re not going up as individuals, like, first pitch I see I’m trying to take it yard. We’re working counts.”

The Tigers aren’t conceding innings, either. The lead baseball scoring 104 runs with two outs. They have hit 17 two-out homers and have a .357 on-base percentage and an .808 OPS with runners in scoring position.

With two outs and runners in scoring position, they are slugging .505 with an .896 OPS.

“First of all, I think it goes back to our game-planning as a group and as individuals,” said Greene, who has 10 homers and an .823 OPS. “Our hitting coaches have us locked in.”

Greene singled out Michael Brdar, Keith Beauregard and Lance Zawadzki, the Tigers’ hitting department.

“There are times when I’ll be like, ‘Michael, tell me what to do, just tell me what to do and I’ll do it,’” Greene said. “There’s times when I will go to him and say, like, I don’t know what to do off this guy. And he will tell me and I will do it and I will get a hit.

“They have us prepared and I feel like they don’t get enough appreciation and I want them to. They are a big part of us.”

Greene also wishes someone would video their reactions in the dugout after the Tigers score some runs.

“They are more happy than we are when we score runs,” Greene said. “They’re hugging, jumping up and down. It’s like they’re at a club every time we score a run.”

Manager AJ Hinch has praised the work of his hitting coaches all season and Greene’s testimonial has to warm his heart.

“They have a tough job,” he said. “They never get to have a good day because no matter how many runs we score, somebody inevitably went hitless. Somebody needs their attention.”

Greene has been known to text one of the hitting coaches in the wee hours to run an adjustment idea past them. At least one of them responds every time.

“It’s not just them doing their jobs as hitting coaches, they’re great people, too,” he said. “They are here for us when we need them and they are here for a lot of the mental stuff, too.

“Props to everyone for trusting them and props to everyone, top to bottom, for buying into what we’re trying to do. Everyone just wants to win.”

Final hurdle?

Center fielder Parker Meadows was scheduled to throw to bases from the outfield before the game Saturday. That could be the last hurdle before he starts a rehab assignment.

“He doesn’t have to be fully back to 100% throwing to go on rehab assignment,” Hinch said before the game Friday. “But for his mind and for his readiness to go compete on a rehab level, tomorrow is very important.”

Meadows has been out since early in spring with a nerve issue in his upper right arm. Utility man Matt Vierling (shoulder) is close to wrapping up his rehab assignment at Triple-A Toledo.

It’s not official, but the way things are trending, Meadows could replace Vierling at Toledo after this weekend and Vierling could join the Tigers in St. Louis.

A jury trial is underway in Wayne County for a Detroit felon accused of murdering a Farmington Hills man four and a half years ago.

It’s the second trial for the case against 54-year-old Robert Lee Bailey, Jr., charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, armed robbery, felon in possession of a firearm, and four counts of second-degree felony firearm in connection with the death of Darius Whiting. A trial late last year ended in mistrial.

Prosecutors allege Whiting was killed on Sept. 22, 2020 during an armed robbery in Dearborn. Police officers dispatched the next day to an alley on Schlaff Street, near Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Road, found Whiting’s body in a car.

It was subsequently determined Whiting died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. He was 49 years old.

Bailey was arrested five months after the slaying. His criminal history includes a prior conviction for second-degree murder; he was released from prison in June of 2020 and on parole at the time Whiting was killed.

Judge Mark Slavens of Wayne County’s third judicial circuit is presiding over the trial.

By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans have unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” at least $880 billion in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks.

Tallying hundreds of pages, the legislation revealed late Sunday is touching off the biggest political fight over health care since Republicans tried but failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, during Trump’s first term in 2017.

While Republicans insist they are simply rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” to generate savings with new work and eligibility requirements, Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage. A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.

“Savings like these allow us to use this bill to renew the Trump tax cuts and keep Republicans’ promise to hardworking middle-class families,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, the GOP chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles health care spending.

But Democrats said the cuts are “shameful” and essentially amount to another attempt to repeal Obamacare.

“In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the panel. He said “hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes.”

As Republicans race toward House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline to pass Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, they are preparing to flood the zone with round-the-clock public hearings this week on various sections before they are stitched together in what will become a massive package.

The politics ahead are uncertain. More than a dozen House Republicans have told Johnson and GOP leaders they will not support cuts to the health care safety net programs that residents back home depend on. Trump himself has shied away from a repeat of his first term, vowing there will be no cuts to Medicaid.

All told, 11 committees in the House have been compiling their sections of the package as Republicans seek at least $1.5 trillion in savings to help cover the cost of preserving the 2017 tax breaks, which were approved during Trump’s first term and are expiring at the end of the year.

But the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee has been among the most watched. The committee was instructed to come up with $880 billion in savings and reached that goal, primarily with the health care cuts, but also by rolling back Biden-era green energy programs. The preliminary CBO analysis said the committee’s proposals would reduce the deficit by $912 billion over the decade — with at least $715 billion coming from the health provisions.

Central to the savings are changes to Medicaid, which provides almost free health care to more than 70 million Americans, and the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded in the 15 years since it was first approved to cover millions more.

To be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new “community engagement requirements” of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. People would also have to verify their eligibility to be in the program twice a year, rather than just once.

This is likely to lead to more churn in the program and present hurdles for people to stay covered, especially if they have to drive far to a local benefits office to verify their income in person. But Republicans say it’ll ensure that the program is administered to those who qualify for it.

Many states have expanded their Medicaid rosters thanks to federal incentives, but the legislation would cut a 5% boost that was put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal funding to the states for immigrants who have not shown proof of citizenship would be prohibited.

There would be a freeze on the so-called provider tax that some states use to help pay for large portions of their Medicaid programs. The extra tax often leads to higher payments from the federal government, which critics say is a loophole that creates abuse in the system.

The energy portions of the legislation run far fewer pages, but include rollbacks of climate-change strategies President Joe Biden signed into law in the Inflation Reduction Act.

It proposes rescinding funds for a range of energy loans and investment programs while providing expedited permitting for natural gas development and oil pipelines.

Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.

By ANNIE MA, MAKIYA SEMINERA and JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press

As he finishes college in China, computer science student Ma Tianyu has set his sights on graduate school in the United States. No country offers better programs for the career he wants as a game developer, he said.

He applied only to U.S. schools and was accepted by some. But after the initial excitement, he began seeing reasons for doubt.

First, there was President Donald Trump’s trade war with China. Then, China’s Ministry of Education issued a warning about studying in America. When Ma saw the wave of legal status terminations for international students in the U.S., he realized he needed to consider how American politics could affect him.

The recent developments soured some of his classmates on studying in the U.S., but he plans to come anyway. He is ready “to adapt to whatever changes may come,” he said.

American universities, home to many programs at the top of their fields, have long appealed to students around the world hoping to pursue research and get a foothold in the U.S. job market. The durability of that demand faces a test under the Trump administration, which has taken actions that have left international students feeling vulnerable and considering alternate places to study.

“All of the Trump administration’s activities have been sending a message that international students are not welcome in the U.S.,” said Clay Harmon, executive director of AIRC, a professional association for international enrollment managers at colleges.

Competitors see an opening to carve into US dominance

Around 1.1 million international students were in the U.S. last year. A large decline in their ranks could cripple school budgets that rely on tuition from foreign students, who are ineligible for federal student aid and often pay full price to attend.

It’s too early to quantify any impact from the administration’s crackdown, which has included new scrutiny of student visas and efforts to deport foreign students for involvement in pro-Palestinian activism. But many fear the worst.

“Students and their families expect and need certainty,” said Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of NAFSA, an association of international educators. “And they do not function well in a volatile environment like the one we have currently.”

The U.S. has been rebounding from a decline in international enrollment that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As top competitors such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom rolled back recruiting efforts and made immigration policies less welcoming, the U.S. appeared ready to bring in far more students.

Now, a few months into the Trump administration, industry experts say it’s unlikely the U.S. will be able to capitalize.

“The U.S. was so perfectly positioned to become the far and away, clear first-choice destination for international students,” said Mike Henniger, CEO of Illume Student Advisory Services. His company works with colleges in the U.S., Canada and Europe to recruit international students. “Then it just went out the door.”

In Canada, where colleges saw enrollment increases during the first Trump administration, they are hoping for another bounce. In a letter following the recent election, a member organization for Canadian universities urged the new Liberal government to address immigration policies that have affected recruitment of foreign students.

“This is a moment of real opportunity for the country to attract international talent,” said Gabriel Miller, president of Universities Canada.

America’s appeal as a place to start a career remains resilient

The U.S. holds strong appeal for students prioritizing career outcomes, in part because of the “optional practical training” program, which allows foreign students to stay on their student visas and work for up to three years, said Lindsey López of ApplyBoard, an application platform for students seeking to study abroad.

Graduates earning this post-college work experience were among the foreigners whose legal status or visas were terminated this spring.

Still, the diversity and size of the U.S. job market could help American schools stay ahead of the competition, López said.

“The U.S. is the largest economy in the world,” she said. “It’s just the vastness and also the economic diversity that we have in the U.S., with a whole variety of different industries, both public and private, for students to choose from.”

William Paterson University, a public institution of 10,000 students in New Jersey, typically has around 250 international students. It expects an increase in foreign students in the fall, according to George Kacenga, vice president for enrollment management. The school has focused on designing programs around STEM majors, which appeal to international students because they open access to OPT programs.

Students have expressed concern about securing visas, but most of the school’s international students are from India and report they are getting appointments, he said.

In Shanghai, many students in Austin Ward’s 12th grade class have either committed to attending U.S. colleges or are considering it. Ward teaches literature in a high school program offering an American Common Core curriculum for Chinese students.

Ward said he avoids discussing politics with his students, but some have asked him about the U.S. government’s termination of students’ legal statuses, signaling their concern about going to the U.S.

To Ward’s knowledge, the students who planned to attend American colleges have not changed their minds. Frustrated with the stress the situation has caused, Ward said he wrote a letter to his U.S. representative on the need to protect international students.

His students are coming to America to “expand their horizons,” he said, not threaten the country.

“If my students have to worry about that, and if students are losing their visas, then America is not going to have that strength of being an academic center,” he said.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Motorists in Michigan preparing to travel during Memorial Day Weekend are hoping gas prices continue to decrease.

This weekend motorists were paying an average of $3.06 per gallon, which was 6 cents less than this time last month.

“Michigan drivers are seeing lower prices at the pump this week,” said Adrienne Woodland, spokesperson, AAA-The Auto Club Group in Monday’s report. “If demand stays low, alongside increasing gasoline stocks, motorists could continue to see gas prices decline.”

This price is 6 cents less than this time last month and 59 cents less than this time last year.

Across the state motorists were paying an average of $45 for a full 15-gallon tank of gasoline; a discount of about $12 from 2024’s highest price last July.

According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gasoline demand decreased from 9.09 million barrels of oil per day to 8.71. Total domestic gasoline supply slightly increased from 225.5 million barrels to 225.7. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.7 million barrels per day.

At the close of Wednesday’s formal trading session, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell $1.02 to settle at $58.07 a barrel. The EIA reports that crude oil inventories decreased by 2 million barrels from the previous week. At 438.4 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 7% below the five-year average for this time of year.

A weekly comparison of prices showed Metro Detroit’s average daily gas price decreased. Metro Detroit’s current average is $3.09 per gallon, about 8 cents less than last week’s average and 51 cents less than this same time last year.

AAA report on state and metro gas averaged showed:

• Most expensive gas price averages:  Ann Arbor ($3.11), Marquette ($3.10), Metro Detroit ($3.09)• Least expensive gas price averages: Traverse City ($2.94), Jackson ($2.95), Flint ($2.98)

Find local gas prices

According to AAA’s report, daily national, state, and metro gas price averages can be found at Gasprices.aaa.com Motorists can find the lowest gas prices on their smartphone or tablet with the free AAA Mobile app. The app can also be used to map a route, find discounts, book a hotel and access AAA roadside assistance.

Tips to save on gas

• Limit driving time by combining errands.• Use the apps and shop around for best gas prices in your community before you venture onto the roads.• Some retailers charge more per gallon when using a credit card, so consider paying cash. .• Remove excess weight in your vehicle.• Keep to the speed limit. Aggressive acceleration and speeding reduces fuel economy.• Find a savings program. AAA Members who enroll in Shell’s Fuel Rewards program can save 5 cents per gallon when they fill up at Shell.

For more information visit acg.aaa.com/.

By AMANDA SEITZ, SEUNG MIN KIM and WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he will set a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to lower the cost of prescription drugs in a sweeping executive order that he will sign on Monday.

The order calls on the health department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to broker new price tags for drugs, according to a White House official who briefed the press on the executive order ahead of its signing.

If a deal is not reached, a new rule will kick in that will tie the price of what the U.S. pays for medications to lower prices paid by other countries.

Trump teased the executive order in a social media post on Sunday evening.

“I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World,” the Republican president posted, pledging to sign the order on Monday morning at the White House.

The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on prescription drugs, injectables, transfusions and other medications every year through Medicare, which covers nearly 70 million older Americans.

The nation’s leading pharmaceutical lobby on Sunday pushed back, calling it a “bad deal” for American patients. Drugmakers have long argued that any threats to their profits could impact the research they do to develop new drugs.

“Importing foreign prices will cut billions of dollars from Medicare with no guarantee that it helps patients or improves their access to medicines,” Stephen J. Ubl, the president and CEO of PhRMA, said in a statement. “It jeopardizes the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America, making us more reliant on China for innovative medicines.”

Trump’s so-called “most favored nation” approach to Medicare drug pricing has been controversial since he first tried to implement it during his first term. He signed a similar executive order in the final weeks of his presidency, which called for the U.S. to only pay a lower price that other countries pay for drugs administered in a doctor’s office.

But even that more narrow executive order faced hurdles, with a court order that blocked the rule from going into effect under President Joe Biden’s administration. The pharmaceutical industry argued that Trump’s 2020 attempt would give foreign governments the “upper hand” in deciding the value of medicines in the U.S.

Trump has played up the announcement, saying it will save taxpayers big money.

“Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before,” Trump added.

He has touted immediate savings, but the health department is limited in its control of drug pricing. It has the most authority around the drug prices it pays for Medicare and Medicaid, which covers roughly 80 million poor and disabled Americans. The price that millions of Americans covered by private insurance pay for drugs is harder for the agency to manipulate.

Trump boasted in his post that the plan will save “TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS.”

The executive order will also encourage the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to examine enforcement action the agencies can take around the pricing of drugs.

The U.S. routinely outspends other nations on drug prices, compared with other large and wealthy countries, a problem that has long drawn the ire of both major political parties, but a lasting fix has never cleared Congress.

Trump came into his first term accusing pharmaceutical companies of “getting away with murder” and complaining that other countries whose governments set drug prices were taking advantage of Americans.

On Sunday, Trump took aim at the industry again, writing that the “Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the ‘suckers’ of America, ALONE.”

Referring to drug companies’ powerful lobbying efforts, he said that campaign contributions “can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party.”

“We are going to do the right thing,” he wrote.

Pontiac’s former building official, Bruce Eck, has sued the city for wrongful discharge. He was fired in March after a dispute with his supervisor. The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and seeks a minimum award of $25,000.

“Due to our policy, we don’t comment on pending litigation,” said Pontiac spokeswoman Paula Bridges.

Eck’s attorneys, Deborah Gordon and Morry Hutton, said Eck was scapegoated by the city in the wake of three abandoned children’s rescue from an unregistered rental home on Lydia Lane in Pontiac’s Stonegate Pointe neighborhood.

“It’s unfortunate that the city of Pontiac has now lost an invaluable public servant and extremely experienced building officials with excellent credentials,” Gordon said. “He was fired because he refused to go along with what he believed to be an illegal directive.”

City records show an April 2020 blight ticket for Lydia Lane and an unregistered rental complaint. Inspectors visited the home four times in 2020 without resolving the rental complaint. Inspectors returned in February 2022 and April 2022. The owner had not registered the rental. No progress check was scheduled or made, which could have saved the children earlier, Eck told The Oakland Press in March.

The children were rescued in February after a maintenance worker went to see if the occupants had moved after not paying rent for several months. The children’s mother is in Oakland County Jail, facing multiple charges.

Eck was hired in November 2023 and had been archiving old and expired records in the city database that tracks taxes, assessments, code enforcement visits and tickets as well as construction permits. He and his deputy, Dennis Szymanski, deleted 7,000 long-expired permits from the city’s database.

Eck wanted to create reports on active issues so they could be tracked and addressed.

But his boss, Community Development Director Rachel Loughrin, told him to reactivate the old permits and require inspections. Eck asked a city attorney for a legal opinion on the order.

On March 3, Loughrin claimed in a disciplinary action form that Eck pursued personal legal advice from the city attorney. Eck said he made the request in his official capacity. He refused to sign the document and was fired.

Eck, a certified building official, building plan reviewer, and building inspector, worked as West Bloomfield Township’s building director for 19 years and Dearborn’s safety official for a decade. He is a board member for the Southeast Michigan Building Officials and Inspectors Association, which sets professional standards for and trains building officials and code inspectors. He told The Oakland Press he has never been fired or disciplined in his career.

Gordon and Hutton said they don’t believe Loughrin knew the proper way to address the invalid permits.

Defendants in the lawsuit include the city and Loughrin, in her personal and official capacities. They have 28 days to respond to the lawsuit, which was assigned to Sixth Circuit Court Judge Nanci Grant.

By WILL WEISSERT and AMANDA SEITZ, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’ll sign an executive order on Monday that, if implemented, could bring down the costs of some medications — reviving a failed effort from his first term on an issue he’s talked up since even before becoming president.

The order Trump is promising will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to tie what Medicare pays for medications administered in a doctor’s office to the lowest price paid by other countries.

“I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World,” the president posted Sunday on his social media site, pledging to sign the order on Monday morning at the White House.

“Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before,” Trump added.

His proposal would likely only impact certain drugs covered by Medicare and given in an office — think infusions that treat cancer, and other injectables. But it could potentially bring significant savings to the government, although the “TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS” Trump boasted about in his post may be an exaggeration.

Medicare provides health insurance for roughly 70 million older Americans. Complaints about U.S. drug prices being notoriously high, even when compared with other large and wealthy countries, have long drawn the ire of both parties, but a lasting fix has never cleared Congress.

Under the planned order, the federal government would tie what it pays pharmaceutical companies for those drugs to the price paid by a group of other, economically advanced countries — the so-called “most favored nation” approach.

The proposal will face fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.

It was a rule that Trump tried to adopt during his first term, but could never get through. He signed a similar executive order in the final weeks of his presidency, but a court order later blocked the rule from going into effect under the Biden administration.

The pharmaceutical industry argued that Trump’s 2020 attempt would give foreign governments the “upper hand” in deciding the value of medicines in the U.S.. The industry has long argued that forcing lower prices will hurt profits, and ultimately affect innovation and its efforts to develop new medicines.

Only drugs on Medicare Part B — the insurance for doctor’s office visits — are likely to be covered under the plan. Medicare beneficiaries are responsible for picking up some of the costs to get those medications during doctor’s visits, and for traditional Medicare enrollees there is no annual out-of-pocket cap on what they pay.

A report by the Trump administration during its first term found that the U.S. spends twice as much as some other countries in covering those drugs. Medicare Part B drug spending topped $33 billion in 2021.

More common prescription drugs filled at a pharmacy would probably not be covered by the new order.

Trump’s post formally previewing the action came after he teased a “very big announcement” last week. He gave no details, except to note that it wasn’t related to trade or the tariffs he has announced imposing on much of the world.

“We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make — like as big as it gets,” Trump said last week.

He came into his first term accusing pharmaceutical companies of “getting away with murder” and complaining that other countries whose governments set drug prices were taking advantage of Americans.

On Sunday, Trump took aim at the industry again, writing that the “Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the ‘suckers’ of America, ALONE.”

Referring to drug companies’ powerful lobbying efforts, he said that campaign contributions “can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party.”

“We are going to do the right thing,” he wrote.

By JAMEY KEATEN, DAVID McHUGH, ELAINE KURTENBACH and KEN MORITSUGU, Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — U.S. and Chinese officials said Monday they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90-day truce in their trade war to allow for more talks on resolving their trade disputes.

Stock markets rose sharply as the globe’s two major economic powers took a step back from a clash that has unsettled the global economy. Economists warned that tariffs still remained higher than before and that the outcome of future talks was uncertain.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. agreed to drop its 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods by 115 percentage points to 30%, while China agreed to lower its rate on U.S. goods by the same amount to 10%.

A deal averts a total blockade

Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the tariff reductions at a news conference in Geneva.

The two officials struck a positive tone as they said the two sides had set up consultations to continue discussing their trade issues. Bessent said at the news briefing following two days of talks that the high tariff levels would have amounted to a complete blockage of each side’s goods — an outcome neither side wants.

“The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling,” Bessent said. “And what had occurred with these very high tariff … was an embargo, the equivalent of an embargo. And neither side wants that. We do want trade.”

“We want more balanced trade,” he said. “And I think that both sides are committed to achieving that.”

The delegations, escorted around town and guarded by scores of Swiss police, met for at least a dozen hours on both days of the weekend at a sunbaked 17th-century villa that serves as the official residence of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

At times, the delegation leaders broke away from their staffs and settled into sofas on the villa’s patios overlooking Lake Geneva, helping deepen personal ties in the effort to reach a much-sought deal.

Finally, a deal

China’s Commerce Ministry said the two sides agreed to cancel 91% in tariffs on each other’s goods and suspend another 24% in tariffs for 90 days, bringing the total reduction to 115 percentage points.

The ministry called the agreement an important step for the resolution of the two countries’ differences and said it lays the foundation for further cooperation.

“This initiative aligns with the expectations of producers and consumers in both countries and serves the interests of both nations as well as the common interests of the world,” a ministry statement said.

China hopes the United States will stop “the erroneous practice of unilateral tariff hikes” and work with China to safeguard the development of their economic and trade relations, injecting more certainty and stability into the global economy, the ministry said.

The joint statement issued by the two countries said China also agreed to suspend or remove other measures it has taken since April 2 in response to the U.S. tariffs.

China has increased export controls on rare earths, including some critical to the defense industry, and added more American companies to its export control and unreliable entity lists, restricting their business with and in China.

Markets rally as two sides de-escalate

The full impact on the complicated tariffs and other trade penalties enacted by Washington and Beijing remains unclear. And much depends on whether they will find ways to bridge longstanding differences during the 90-day suspension.

Bessent said in an interview with CNBC that U.S. and Chinese officials will meet again in a few weeks.

But investors rejoiced as trade envoys from the world’s two biggest economies blinked, finding ways to pull back from potentially massive disruptions to world trade and their own markets.

Futures for the S&P 500 jumped 2.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2%. Oil prices surged more than $1.60 a barrel and the dollar gained against the euro and the Japanese yen.

“This is a substantial de-escalation,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics. But he warned “there is no guarantee that the 90-day truce will give way to a lasting ceasefire.”

Dani Rodrik, an economist at Harvard University, said that the two countries had stepped back “from a needless trade war’’ but that U.S. tariffs on China remain high at 30% “and will mainly hurt U.S. consumers.’’

U.S. President Donald Trump “has obtained absolutely nothing from China for all the chaos he generated. Zilch,’’ Rodrik wrote, posting on Bluesky.

Trump last month raised U.S. tariffs on China to a combined 145%, and China retaliated by hitting American imports with a 125% levy. Tariffs that high essentially amount to the two countries boycotting each other’s products, disrupting trade that last year topped $660 billion.

The announcement by the U.S. and China sent shares surging, with U.S. futures jumping more than 2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged nearly 3% and benchmarks in Germany and France were both up 0.7%

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on countries worldwide, but its fight with China has been the most intense. Trump’s import taxes on goods from China include a 20% charge imposed because Trump says Beijing has not done enough to stop trafficking in the precursor chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

“The drop from sky-high to merely high tariffs, along with the uncertainty about the path of future tariffs, will still serve as a constraint on trade and investment flows between the two economies,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University.

“Nevertheless, it is a positive omen for the world economy that U.S. tariffs might eventually end up as significant trade barriers but not unsurmountable walls that block off international trade altogether,’’ he said.

McHugh contributed from Frankfurt, Germany; Kurtenbach from Mito, Japan; and Moritsugu from Beijing. Associated Press writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.

Illinois will have its first new senator in a decade after voters in the 2026 midterm elections select someone to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who has held the seat since 1997.

The election is expected to be hotly contested, with statewide officeholders and congressional leaders vying for the treasured post. The winner of the Democratic primary will likely have an advantage given how blue Illinois’ electorate is, but several Republicans also are weighing a run. Durbin’s retirement means U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth will become Illinois’ senior senator.

Here’s a look at the upcoming contest and how we got here.

• US Sen. Dick Durbin’s retirement opens the floodgates for a number of potential successors
• Sign up for The Spin to get the latest reporting and in-depth analysis from the Tribune’s political team

Why is a Senate seat available?

Durbin, whose tenure as one of Illinois’ longest-serving U.S. senators has also been a testament to the power of seniority in the chamber, announced April 23 that he would not seek a sixth term next year. That has started a scramble among potential successors vying for a politically coveted six-year term.

“The decision of whether to run for reelection has not been easy. I truly love the job of being a United States senator. But in my heart, I know it’s time to pass the torch. So, I am announcing today that I will not be seeking reelection at the end of my term,” Durbin said in a video.

With Durbin’s announcement setting off a potential domino effect among Illinois Democratic members of Congress and others angling to run for his Senate seat, he did not endorse a potential successor. Instead, Durbin said the state was “fortunate to have a strong Democratic bench ready to serve. We need them now more than ever.”

Who are the major candidates to throw their hats in the ring?

Juliana Stratton, Democrat

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton wasted little time formally launching her bid for the Senate seat as she became the first major Democrat to enter a race that is expected to attract a large field of contenders.

Stratton announced her plans in a video posted on social media at 5 a.m. April 24, less than 24 hours after Durbin declared he would not run in 2026. The move was designed to position her as an early front-runner.

The decision by Stratton, a former state lawmaker, was not a surprise. The state’s lieutenant governor under Gov. JB Pritzker since 2019, Stratton announced in late January her interest in Durbin’s seat if he decided not to run, and she formed a federal political action committee. As she awaited Durbin’s decision, Stratton also increased her public visibility and moved forward on political hiring.

In her two-minute video, Stratton portrayed herself as an atypical politician who would take a different approach in challenging President Donald Trump in Washington.

“My story isn’t the story of a typical senator. Then again, typical isn’t what we need right now,” Stratton says in the video. “Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to distract us, to create such a mess that we don’t even know where to start. But in Washington, they’re still doing the same old things they’ve always done. And that old playbook isn’t working.”

• Gov. JB Pritzker endorses Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton for US Senate
• Sen. Tammy Duckworth endorses Juliana Stratton for Dick Durbin’s seat

Robin Kelly, Democrat

South suburban U.S. Rep. Kelly’s announcement on May 6 that she is vying for the Senate seat came about two weeks after Stratton launched her campaign with Pritzker’s backing.

The race for the party’s nomination to replace Durbin, who was an ally of Kelly’s, isn’t the first time the seven-term Democratic congresswoman from Matteson has faced off against a candidate backed by the billionaire governor and his political apparatus.

After working with Durbin in 2021 to defeat a Pritzker-backed candidate and become the first woman and first Black official to chair the Democratic Party of Illinois, Kelly dropped her bid to retain the seat a year later when allies of the governor rallied behind his handpicked state party leader, state Rep. Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernandez of Cicero.

“You could say I’ve been an underdog my whole life,” Kelly said in a 2½-minute video announcing her candidacy, referencing her upbringing helping out in her “family’s mom-and-pop grocery store” before putting herself through college at Bradley University in Peoria.

Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat

Five-term northwest suburban U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi launched his bid May 7, pitching himself as the Democratic “radical commonsense progressive” to take on Trump.

“A president, ignoring the Constitution, out for revenge, acting like a dictator, claiming he’s a king, surrounded by billionaire backers and MAGA extremists, threatening our rights, rigging the rules to line their pockets,” Krishnamoorthi, 51, of Schaumburg says in his nearly 2½-minute video announcement. “Wrecking the economy, they profit and working people pay. It’s insanity. People want to know, at this moment in this time, where is the power to fight back?”

With his bid, Krishnamoorthi injects into the race a mix of moderate policy positions, such as supporting small business initiatives, along with progressivism as one of 19 vice chairs of the Congressional Equality Caucus, a group that promotes equality for all regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Who else might be considering running?

Lauren Underwood, Democrat

A four-term Democrat from Naperville, Underwood had $1.1 million in cash on hand at the start of April, campaign records show. When Durbin announced he was not running for reelection, Underwood called him a “generous and thoughtful leader.”

Underwood represents a west suburban and exurban district that has supported her since she was first elected in 2018. But if she runs for Senate, that would mean the 14th Congressional District seat would be open, and Illinois Republicans would likely target it to steal from Democrats.

Alexi Giannoulias, Democrat

The first-term Secretary of State, who was also previously the state treasurer, ran for Senate in 2010 but lost in a heated battle to Republican Mark Kirk. While Giannoulias has experience running statewide and could be a legitimate contender if he runs for Senate, he is said to be eyeing a potential run for Chicago mayor.

Rahm Emanuel, Democrat

The former Chicago mayor, congressman, ambassador to Japan and chief of staff to President Barack Obama has been looking for a reentry into Democratic politics. But he prefers an executive rather than legislative post and is unlikely to seek Durbin’s seat, those close to him have said.

Darin LaHood, Republican

While the eventual Democratic nominee is expected to have the advantage in a state where party members have held all statewide elected offices since 2019, Republican U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood of Peoria has acknowledged he is considering a Senate bid.

LaHood, the son of former longtime GOP congressman and Obama transportation secretary Ray LaHood, had nearly $5.9 million in his federal campaign fund as of April 1. One of only three House Republicans in Illinois’ 17-member congressional delegation, LaHood has served since 2015 in Congress and has been a strong supporter of Trump.

Others who have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission stating their interest in running for the Senate seat were Democrats Christopher Alexander Swann, Stanley Leavell and Austin James Mink; Republicans John Goodman, Casimer Chlebek and Douglas Bennett; independent Anthony Smith and Joseph David Schilling.

Who is out?

Michael Frerichs, Democrat

The three-term Democratic state treasurer, Frerichs said May 5 he would not seek the 2026 Democratic nomination to succeed Durbin.

“There is a mess in Washington right now and we need to send someone who will fight for all of us in Illinois, but that person will not be me,” Frerichs wrote in an email to supporters. “I am not willing to travel to Washington, D.C., 30-some weeks a year and spend so many nights away from my children. I don’t want to miss their games, their recitals, or even that many bedtimes.”

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