Recapping the top moments from a historic year in politics
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Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photos: Anna Moneymaker, Kena Betancur, Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
It's fitting that 2023 — a year of jaw-dropping political milestones from start to finish — will end with the country embroiled in furious debate over yet another historic first.
Why it matters: The Colorado Supreme Court's unprecedented ruling barring former President Trump from the state's ballot is not just the capstone to a wild year in politics — it's the prelude to an election that will be punctuated by recurring collisions between the courtroom and the campaign.
2023 in review
The big picture: Reflecting on the biggest moments of the past 12 months is a useful reminder of just how much our politics can change — and how much we tend to forget — over the course of a calendar year.
January: Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) becomes House speaker after a grueling 15-ballot election that exposes early fissions in the thin GOP majority, while empowering right-wing rebels with new leverage to oust him at any time.
- Special counsel Robert Hur is appointed to investigate President Biden's handling of classified documents.
February: The U.S. military shoots down a Chinese surveillance balloon that violated American airspace, exacerbating tensions with Beijing.
- Biden makes a surprise visit to Ukraine on the anniversary of Russia's invasion.
March: A Manhattan grand jury indicts Trump on charges related to a 2016 illegal hush money payment, making him the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.
- Silicon Valley Bank becomes the largest bank since 2008 to collapse.
April: Liberals gain control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court after campaigning aggressively on abortion rights and democracy in the most expensive state judicial election in U.S. history.
- Tucker Carlson is abruptly fired from Fox News.
May: McCarthy strikes a deal with Biden on raising the debt ceiling, ending months of brinkmanship over whether the U.S. could avert a catastrophic default.
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launches his presidential campaign with Elon Musk during a glitchy Twitter Spaces event.
June: Special counsel Jack Smith charges Trump in Florida with 37 felonies related to his handling of classified information.
- The Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action at colleges.
July: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) freezes on camera during a press conference, prompting a frenzy of speculation about the 81-year-old GOP leader's health.
- DeSantis purges campaign staffers in the first of several "resets," while much of the GOP rallies around Trump in the wake of his federal indictment.
August: Trump is indicted for the third and fourth times over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election in both Georgia and at the federal level.
- Eight Republican candidates participate in the first presidential debate in Milwaukee, which Trump boycotts.
September: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), then-chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, is indicted on federal bribery charges. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) dies at age 90.
- Biden becomes the first sitting president to join a picket line as he meets with striking UAW workers in Detroit.
October: Hamas carries out the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history, triggering a retaliatory military campaign in Gaza that has upended U.S. and global politics.
- McCarthy is ousted as speaker in a historic vote that tears apart the House GOP. A chaotic three-week vacancy ends with the election of Mike Johnson (R-La.) as speaker.
November: Democrats and abortion rights activists win big in off-year elections in Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio.
- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) says he won't seek re-election and teases a potential third-party presidential run.
December: Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) becomes just the sixth lawmaker ever to be expelled from Congress, after an Ethics Committee investigation uncovers a "complex web of unlawful activity."
- Hunter Biden is indicted on tax charges and later defies a congressional subpoena to testify behind closed doors, the same day Republicans vote to authorize an impeachment inquiry into his father.
What to watch: Expect the chaos to resume in January, when GOP voters head to the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire and Congress returns to face crises over Ukraine, border security and the threat of a government shutdown.
