By STEVEN SLOAN and JOEY CAPPELLETTI

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Governors Association said governors from both parties would be able to meet with President Donald Trump later this month after the White House initially extended invitations to a business meeting only to Republicans.

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“We’re pleased the president will welcome governors from all 55 states and territories to the White House,” Brandon Tatum, the group’s chief executive, said Wednesday.

It’s still unclear whether every governor will participate in the full White House event. Trump initially planned to invite only Republicans to a business meeting while the governors are in Washington for their annual gathering later this month. That prompted an outcry from dozens of Democrats who said they would boycott a dinner at the White House if they weren’t fully included at the business meeting.

“If the reports are true that not all governors are invited to these events, which have historically been productive and bipartisan opportunities for collaboration, we will not be attending the White House dinner this year,” the Democrats said.

The dispute threatened to upend what has long served as one of Washington’s rare bipartisan gatherings.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who chairs the NGA, told fellow governors on Wednesday that everyone would be invited to the meeting, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The person said that announcement followed conversations between Stitt and the White House.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The White House did not immediately comment on the meeting. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump has “discretion to invite anyone he wants to the White House.”

“It’s the people’s house,” she said. “It’s also the president’s home, so he can invite whomever he wants to dinners and events here at the White House.”

By LISA MASCARO

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are rushing ahead on Wednesday on legislation that would impose strict new proof-of-citizenship requirements ahead of the midterm elections, a longshot Trump administration priority that faces sharp blowback in the Senate.

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The bill, called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand.

Republicans said the legislation is needed to prevent voter fraud, but Democrats warn it will disenfranchise millions of Americans by making it harder to vote. Federal law already requires that voters in national elections be U.S. citizens, but there’s no requirement to provide documentary proof. Experts said voter fraud is extremely rare, and very few noncitizens ever slip through the cracks. Fewer than one in 10 Americans have valid passports.

“Some of my colleagues will call this voter suppression or Jim Crow 2.0,” said Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., presenting the package at a committee hearing.

But he said “those allegations are false,” and he argued the bill is needed to enforce existing laws, particularly those that bar immigrants who are not citizens from voting. “The current law is not strong enough,” he said.

Election turmoil shadows the vote

The GOP’s sudden push to change voting rules at the start of the midterm election season is raising red flags, particularly because President Donald Trump has suggested he wants to nationalize U.S. elections, which, under the Constitution, are designed to be run by individual states.

The Trump administration recently seized ballots in Georgia from the 2020 election, which the president insists he won despite his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The Department of Justice is demanding voter rolls from states, including Michigan, where a federal judge this week dismissed the department’s lawsuit seeking the voter files. Secretaries of state have raised concerns that voters’ personal data may be shared with Homeland Security to verify citizenship and could result in people being unlawfully purged from the rolls.

Information paper sits on a printer next to a touchscreen voting machine at New Chicago Voter Supersite in Chicago, Tuesday, Feb.10, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

“Let me be clear what this is about: It’s about Republicans trying to rig the next election,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, during a hearing ahead of the floor vote. “Republicans are pushing the Save America Act because they want fewer Americans to vote. It’s that simple.”

The legislation is actually a do-over of a similar bill the House approved last year, which also sought to clamp down on fraudulent voting, particularly among noncitizens. It won the support of four House Democrats, but stalled in the Republican-led Senate.

This version toughens some of the requirements further, while creating a process for those whose names may have changed, particularly during marriage, to provide the paperwork necessary and further attest to their identity.

It also imposes requirement on states to share their voter information with the Department of Homeland Security, as a way to verify the citizenship of the names on the voter rolls. That has drawn pushback from elections officials as potentially intrusive on people’s privacy.

Warnings from state election officials

The new rules in the bill would take effect immediately, if the bill is passed by both chambers of Congress and signed into law.

But with primary elections getting underway next month, critics said the sudden shift would be difficult for state election officials to implement and potentially confuse voters.

Voting experts have warned that more than 20 million U.S. citizens of voting age do not have proof of their citizenship readily available. Almost half of Americans do not have a U.S. passport.

FILE – A Vote Here sign is posted amongst political signs as people arrive to vote at the Rutherford County Annex Building, an early voting site, Oct. 17, 2024, in Rutherfordton, N.C. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, File)

“Election Day is fast approaching,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. “Imposing new federal requirements now, when states are deep into their preparations, would negatively impact election integrity by forcing election officials to scramble to adhere to new policies likely without the necessary resources.”

The fight ahead in the Senate

In the Senate, where Republicans also have majority control, there does not appear to be enough support to push the bill past the chamber’s filibuster rules, which largely require 60 votes to advance legislation.

That frustration has led some Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, to push for a process that would skip the 60-vote threshold in this case, and allow the bill to be debated through a so-called standing filibuster — a process that would open the door to potentially endless debate.

Lee made the case to GOP senators at a closed-door lunch this week, and some said afterward they are mulling the concept.

“I think most people’s minds are open,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., “My mind’s certainly open.”

But Murkowski of Alaska said she is flat out against the legislation.

“Not only does the U.S. Constitution clearly provide states the authority to regulate the ‘times, places, and manner’ of holding federal elections, but one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington, D.C., seldom work in places like Alaska,” she said.

Karen Brinson Bell of Advance Elections, a nonpartisan consulting firm, said the bill adds numerous requirements for state and local election officials with no additional funding.

“Election officials have a simple request of Congress — that you help share their burdens not add to them,” she said.

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

It was 60 years ago that George Skelly moved to Roseville and joined the St. Paul Curling Club. He relocated from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to attend radiology school and was determined to continue the sports he grew up playing.

“He was a great athlete,” said his daughter, Gaye Skelly-Peterson. That’s Gaye as in “Jay,” the way former Toronto Maple Leafs winger player James Gaye Stewart pronounced it.

United States’ skip Tabitha Peterson calls the sweep during a match against Japan at the World Women’s Curling Championship in Uijeongbu, South Korea, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Yes, Gaye is named after Stewart.

Skelly was a good curler and won the St. Paul Winter Carnival Curling Championship three times. His daughter became a good curler, as well, later matching her father’s feat by winning the Winter Carnival bonspiel in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

The accomplishments of Skelly, 96, and daughter Gaye, 67, remain etched in St. Paul curling annals, but their feats have been eclipsed somewhat by the family’s next generation.

Tara Peterson and Tabitha Peterson, daughters of Gaye and Sheldon Peterson, are in Cortina D’Ampezza, Italy, for another shot at an Olympic medal. Team Peterson, skipped by Tabatha, begins competition Thursday against South Korea and Sweden.

All told, it’s a pretty good athletic legacy for a cardiovascular surgeon.

“Yeah,” Tabitha said, “we wouldn’t be here today if (our grandfather) didn’t curl, for sure.”

Tabitha, 36 has skipped her own team since 2019, with Tara, 34, at second. This year’s team also includes lead Taylor Anderson-Heide, third Cory Thiesse and alternate Aileen Geving. Thiesse on Tuesday won a silver medal with partner Korey Dropkin in mixed doubles, becoming the first American woman to win an Olympic curling medal.

This is the third Olympics appearance for Tabitha and second for Tara. Between them, they have four junior national titles — sharing two — and Team Peterson won a bronze medal at the 2021 World Championships. Tabitha won a mixed doubles bronze in 2016 with partner Joe Polo.

United States’ Tara Peterson releases the stone during a match against Canada at the World Women’s Curling Championship in Uijeongbu, South Korea, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

But the U.S. women have yet to medal at the Olympics. Tabitha was part of the 2018 team that finished eighth in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Team Peterson finished sixth at the 2022 Beijing Games.

Tara and Tabitha Peterson grew up in Burnsville and began curling at the SPCC before moving on to the national junior program and ultimately, USA Curling. After aging out of juniors, Tabitha said, she assumed she’d go to school, get a job and curl for fun.

And she did most of that, attending the University of Minnesota and becoming a hospital pharmacist. But Tabitha was asked to join the U.S. national team following the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

“Lucky,” she said. Accepting was a “no-brainer.”

“They were all 10, 15 years older than I was, but they really made me feel part of the team, and I learned a ton from them,” Tabitha said.

It was then Peterson realized she could “make it far in this sport if I keep practicing and striving. Then I joined the USA Curling high-performance program, and I think things have elevated since then. They had all the resources that were not available to me as a junior, and I’ve learned even more in the last four years than I learned in the first four.”

Tabitha and Tara, a dentist with a White Bear Lake practice, both live in Eagan. They have been training and competing around their jobs — and, they note, the help of work colleagues — for a long time. New this time is the fact that the sisters each became mothers over the past two years, which raises the inevitable questions about how long they might continue to compete internationally.

Tabitha, in fact, said she had been thinking about it after Pyeongchang.

“We wanted to both grow families, too,” she said. “Even after 2018, I was thinking, ‘Was this enough? Am I satisfied with my career? Am I done? Do I want to go back and try to medal?

George “Doc” Skelly, right, curls at the St. Paul Curling Club in 1978. (Courtesy the Skelly-Peterson Family).

“Then at the end of Beijing (in 2022), I was sitting at the curling ceremonies and they showed a promo for the next Olympics, and it was Italy. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God, we’ve got to keep going.’ ”

For the Petersons, it’s only natural, and not just for the Olympians. Gaye and Sheldon are in Italy, just as they were in Beijing in 2022, and Sioux Falls for the U.S. trials in November and in British Columbia for the Olympic qualification event in December that earned Team Peterson another shot.

For this family, curling has been a way of life since Geoge Skelly moved his family from Winnipeg and joined the St. Paul Curling Club in the mid-’60s.

“I love the competition and the people and the travel,” Tara said. “There are so many great things about it. Maybe when the Olympics are done, I’ll take a break and have some free time. But when I’m off from work, and I have time off, I go curling.”

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