Sign up here to obtain “The US in brief” as a publication, every weekday, in your inbox.

Wisconsin, considered one of six swing states anticipated to resolve the presidential election, holds primaries on Tuesday. The state is utilizing new legislative maps after its most senior court docket deemed outdated district strains, which closely favoured Republicans, unconstitutional. Joe Biden’s marketing campaign will probably be hoping that the newly aggressive native races increase Democratic turnout. Some Wisconsin Democrats, like these in nearby Michigan, might vote “uncommitted” to protest towards Mr Biden’s help for Israel within the conflict in Gaza.

Donald Trump posted a bond value $175m as a part of his civil-fraud case in New York. The cost, which was diminished on attraction from $454m final month, staves off the seizure of the previous president’s belongings, which might have hobbled his election marketing campaign. Mr Trump was discovered responsible of fraudulently inflating his property values.

Florida’s Supreme Court dominated that the state’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks, with some exceptions, was constitutional. That ruling permits a harsher six-week ban, which was handed final 12 months, to come back into impact on May 1st. Separately, the court docket accredited an abortion referendum to enshrine the appropriate to abortion till viability (typically round 23 weeks) in its structure. Floridians will vote on the measure in November.

Florida’s prime court docket additionally stated the state might vote on legalising leisure marijuana. The poll measure would enable current medical marijuana operators to begin promoting to anybody aged 21 or older. New York, which gave the inexperienced gentle to leisure hashish in late 2022, did not take that approach. But New York has struggled to difficulty licences and, like California, is battling a strong unlawful market.

Shares in Mr Trump’s social-media firm fell by 21% on Monday, after the agency disclosed losses of over $58m in 2023 and stated it “expects to incur operating losses for the foreseeable future”. The agency, which owns Truth Social, went public final month after merging with a special-purpose acquisition firm. It was arguably never a sound economic bet.

The mayor of Uvalde—the Texan metropolis the place 19 kids and two adults had been shot dead at an elementary school in 2022—stop, citing well being points. Cody Smith, who was elected in 2023, resigned lower than a month after the town printed an unbiased report clearing native police of wrongdoing within the widely-criticised response to the taking pictures. In January a scathing federal report stated police errors proved deadly.

It has lengthy been trendy for right-wing politicians to declare that California is a failed state. This rhetoric is commonly overblown. But for all its persevering with prowess in innovation (not least in synthetic intelligence), the state once more seems to be coming into considered one of its periodic tough patches. Read our story about California’s three overlapping financial challenges.

 A view from elsewhere

Donald Trump’s populist objectives of mass deportations and conflict towards the financial institution could also be unrealistic, however the various is maybe much more “subject to doubt”, wrote Sherelle Jacobs, a columnist, within the Daily Telegraph, a conservative British broadsheet, on March 18th. Democrats seem to not grasp the perils of America’s financial mannequin nor the necessity for order within the face of “appalling levels” of crime, she wrote.What do you consider our new function, A view from elsewhere, which takes in views on American politics from all over the world? Send us suggestions on usib@economist.com.

Today’s polls

The race between Mr Biden and Mr Trump stays stubbornly secure. According to our poll tracker, which is up to date each day and exhibits a mean of the most recent polls, the candidates are nonetheless in a useless warmth.

Figure of the day

90%, the share of special-purpose acquisition corporations, or SPACs, which have misplaced worth after combining with their goal firm since 2019, per one estimate. Read our story from final month about Donald Trump’s meme-stock gamble.

Daily quiz

Tuesday: Which state was the primary to completely abolish the dying penalty?Monday: How many states don’t have any dying penalty?

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on American politics. Email all of your solutions together with your identify and the place you’re from to usib@economist.com earlier than 5pm New York time (10pm London time) on a Thursday. The weekly winner, chosen at random from those that give all the appropriate solutions, will probably be introduced right here on Fridays.

If you loved this week’s quiz, play Dateline, The Economist’s new historical past sport.

—Justice Juan Merchan, the presiding decide in Donald Trump’s upcoming hush-money funds case, in his ruling that expanded a gag order on the previous president on April 1st. Mr Trump has repeatedly focused the decide’s daughter on-line.

© 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, printed beneath licence. The authentic content material might be discovered on www.economist.com