Poll after poll shows public support for same-sex marriage steadily increasing, to the point where it's now a majority viewpoint. Yet in all 32 states where gay marriage has been on the ballot, voters have rejected it. It's possible the streak could end in November, when Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington state are likely to have closely contested gay marriage measures on their ballots.

President Barack Obama faces new warning signs in a once-promising Southern state and typically Democratic-voting Midwestern states roughly five months before the election even as he benefits nationally from encouraging economic news. Obama's new worries about North Carolina and Wisconsin offer opportunities for Republican Mitt Romney, who must peel off states Obama won in 2008 if he's to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to oust the incumbent in November.

An analysis of the state-by-state race to 270 electoral votes, the total needed to win the presidency, and where Democratic President Barack Obama and probable Republican nominee Mitt Romney stand now. The numbers reflect electoral votes: SOLIDLY DEMOCRATIC (186): California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

In the risky business of running for president, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are largely playing it safe. For all the small daily dramas of the 2012 campaign, there's a risk-averse dynamic playing out: Neither candidate has been making bold new policy proposals or displaying a free-wheeling personal style.

The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.

What, exactly, makes someone American Indian? Even Indians themselves don't agree as they debate the case of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, whose disputed claim of Native American identity is shining a rare spotlight on the malleable nature of Indian heritage and the long history of murky claims to such ancestry.

U.S. House members who are trying to make the step up to the Senate this year are finding themselves on the defensive about Washington experience that traditionally has been a big asset. Even those not under direct attack for being part of Congress are finessing the way they talk about their work in the nation's capital — evidence that the strong anti-incumbent sentiment among voters in 2010 is still there two years later.

The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.

After months of announcements and rumors of on-again and off-again campaigns and challenges, the candidate lists are set for the upcoming July election. Friday's qualifying deadline set up for voters the ballots for the Democratic and Republican primaries.

Forty-six current and potential lawmakers signed a pledge to support a cap on lobbyist gifts to legislators, including a late surprise endorsement from a top member of the state Senate. The signatures came as qualifying for 2012 elections closed at noon Friday.

President Barack Obama will meet with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on June 8 at the White House. The White House says Obama looks forward to discussing the strategic, economic and "people to people" ties between the U.S. and the Philippines and their cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

What, exactly, makes someone American Indian? Even Indians themselves don't agree. The question arises because Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's disputed claim of Native American identity is spotlighting the subjective nature of Indian heritage. Warren, a Democrat running in Massachusetts against Republican incumbent Sen.

The battle between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney will be the most expensive presidential contest ever — by a long shot. There are two main reasons. It's the first time both major-party candidates are declining post-Watergate federal campaign financing — and the spending limits attached.

The story line on the Republican Senate race in Texas is a now familiar one: A veteran politician supported by the GOP establishment is challenged by a young insurgent backed by national conservative groups. In this distinctly Texas episode in the saga for control of the Senate, David Dewhurst is the reserved, self-made millionaire and lieutenant governor facing off against Ted Cruz, the feisty son of a Cuban exile who calls himself "a proven fighter for liberty because his family knows what it means to lose it.

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney decried President Barack Obama as beholden to the nation's teachers' unions and unable to stand up for reform, he glossed over four years of a relationship that has been anything but cozy. Obama has promoted initiatives that encourage districts to tie teacher evaluations to student performance and to expand the number of charter schools — actions the teacher unions have long been against, and which Romney himself promoted Wednesday in a speech in Washington outlining his education platform.

President Barack Obama delivered his harshest rebuttal yet to rival Mitt Romney on Thursday, dismissing his challenger's claims as "a cowpie of distortions" while seeking to rekindle the all-but-faded Iowa magic that launched him in 2008.

Mitt Romney's vice presidential search has entered a new phase: auditions. As his campaign evaluates potential running mates, Republicans with a possible shot at the No. 2 spot on the presidential ticket are starting to engage in unofficial public tryouts for the traditional vice presidential role of attack dog.

TITLE: "Day One: Part Two." LENGTH: 30 seconds. AIRING: Mitt Romney's campaign would not identify states where the ad will air. KEY IMAGES: Still photos and video of children in a classroom, children playing, Republican presidential candidate Romney in a factory, containerized ship cargo and a welder are followed by footage of Romney appearing before a large crowd.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is planning a swing-state summer bus tour that will also roll through South Carolina, the early presidential primary battleground. It's officially aimed at selling books, not winning votes, but the freshman senator and possible vice presidential pick is set to make multiple stops not just in his home state of Florida but also in North Carolina and Virginia, critical presidential battlegrounds this fall.

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney decried President Barack Obama as beholden to the nation's teachers' unions and unable to stand up for reform, he glossed over four years of a relationship that has been anything but cozy. Obama has promoted initiatives that encourage districts to tie teacher evaluations to student performance and to expand the number of charter schools — actions the teacher unions have long been against, and which Romney himself promoted Wednesday in a speech in Washington outlining his education platform.

Mitt Romney struggled to find support for his education proposals while campaigning at an inner-city school Thursday, one day after declaring education the "civil rights issue of our era." The visit, the first by the likely Republican presidential nominee to such a school, came as he begins to court a broader cross-section of the electorate he needs to defeat President Barack Obama in November.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney likes to portray himself as a better job creator than President Barack Obama, but he may have a hard time backing up those boasts. "We were able to create over 100,000 jobs," Romney said recently, recycling an old unsubstantiated claim.

Four years ago, Heather Wilson gave up her House seat from New Mexico to make a run for a rare opening in the Senate. She lost in a bare-knuckled Republican primary. This year she has the luxury of sitting back as the Democratic successor to her House seat takes a similar gamble.

Mitt Romney is trying to counter President Barack Obama's argument that he would bring back Republican Party economic policies that have proved unworkable. Romney tells Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" that Obama is attacking capitalism while trying to drive America toward a European-style, government-dominated society.

As President Barack Obama readies for a return to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, his campaign is reminding voters that it was in that same spot where Republican rival Mitt Romney declared last year that "corporations are people." Democrats slammed Romney's assertion as a gaffe that showed the former Massachusetts governor was aligned with big business.