Dems Have a Voter Problem - and Gerrymandering Won't Fix It

DHS Delivers a Devastating Schooling to Jeffries and Dems Who Show Up at Newark ICE Facility

Dem Operative: A LOT of Folks in My Party Want Jill Biden to STFU and Go Away

How California's Fight for Gov Became a Hot Mess for Dems

It has been a long, strange trip-and a bit of headache for Democrats-leading up to Tuesday's gubernatorial primary to choose a successor to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Dems To Put GOP on Hot Seat With Trump's $1.8B Fund

Bills, amendments and investigations are all in the works, as Democrats vow to block Trump's settlement deal.

Swing state Trump voters enraged by skyrocketing prices

When Donald Trump narrowly won the 2024 presidential election, not everyone who chose him over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris was a hardcore MAGA loyalist. Trump also attracted a lot of independents and swing voters, many of whom, according to polls, were frustrated over the economy — especially inflation — and were swayed by his promise to lower prices "on Day 1." But three months into Trump's war with Iran, gas prices are soaring — a problem that the New York Times discussed with 2024 Trump voters."Nineteen months ago," reporters Tim Balk, Rachel Richardson and Sam Easter explain in the Times, "Donald J. Trump thundered back to the presidency after pledging to voters that he would 'make America affordable again' and start 'no new wars.' He told supporters that they could get 'very angry' at him if energy prices did not fall under his administration. But since the president took America to war with Iran, gasoline prices have climbed to their highest levels in four years."Adele Wilson, a 30-year-old dental assistant and Trump voter in Ada Township, Michigan, told the Times that going to war with Iran was a "horrible idea." Wilson said she has ruled out the possibility of voting for either Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio if either of them runs in the 2028 presidential race, telling the Times she might "vote Democrat until the Republicans get it together."But Megan Hernandez, a 42-year-old voter in Winthrop, Maine, told the Times that gas prices will not affect how she votes in the midterms. And she said the war in Iran might be necessary to prevent the Iranian regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon.Ryan Hummel, a 25-year-old resident of Cincinnati, Ohio and a self-described independent, told the Times that he now regrets voting for Trump and cited gas prices as one of his highest expenses.However, Matt Yerkes, who is 75 and lives in New Richmond, Ohio, supports the war in Iran and described high gas prices as "short-term pain" needed to deal with a "long-term problem."Raven Hoskins, a 27-year-old Black woman in Grand Rapids, Michigan who identifies as an independent, blames Trump for gas prices and told the Times, "A lot of people, especially of my color, think that he's a really racist man. But I look at him like a businessman. Him running us like a business — I've seen where it's gotten us, and it's not good."

If Democrats are to win Texas, James Talarico must win blue-collar voters | Dustin Guastella

James Talarico got the opponent he – and the Democratic party – wanted, but flipping Texas blue means winning blue-collar voters, not blue-blooded donorsTexas could become the hottest battleground state in the country, if the results of both Republican and Democratic primaries are anything to go by.Democrat James Talarico, a progressive Presbyterian seminarian, will face off against Trump’s favored candidate, the scandal-plagued attorney general, Ken Paxton. The matchup has liberals salivating. Paxton, dogged by corruption charges, impeachment hearings and an affair that left his marriage in tatters, is considered by some in his own party as “the worst possible top-of-the-ticket” candidate. Meanwhile, Talarico, a fresh-faced, clean-cut millennial, who quotes scripture to justify his progressive beliefs, seems like the perfect foil, at least according to Democratic party leaders. Continue reading...

John Roberts is about to face his biggest Trump problem yet: legal expert

As the Supreme Court heads into what Slate, legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern calls “Opinionpalooza,” the final stretch of the term may prove pivotal for both the court and Donald Trump’s presidency. On his podcast Amicus, Stern and Dahlia Lithwick argued that the familiar story of John Roberts as a restrained check on Trump is badly overstated, and that the conservative majority has repeatedly used both public rulings and secretive shadow docket actions to expand executive power, emboldening Trump while narrowing the court’s own credibility.Thus far, "where the ambitions of the MAGA wing of the court dovetail with Trump’s goals," Stern said, "Trumpism will run the table."He fears that if the Supreme Court doesn't act to curb Trump's power trip, they might regret it. "The Supreme Court keeps aligning with Donald Trump on this maximalist view of the imperial presidency, both in front of the curtain and behind it," Lithwick explained. For every case on the merits docket that gives Trump a big win in public, there are shadow docket cases that do the same in secret. It feels like any appearance of conflict between the president and the court is stage-managed, with lots of invisible wires we don’t always pay attention to."Stern said it was one of the reasons that if the judges strike down the birthright citizenship case, no one should claim it as a victory. "Because there are so many other cases where the court is absolutely making him a king," he said. Lithwick explained that Roberts tends to make small moves at first until people are used to things, and then "it’s less of a surprise and almost looks like it flows logically from when the court did it in a lesser way."So, the idea that Roberts is maintaining his independence is bunk, they agreed. Rather than acting as a neutral check on Trump, Roberts is portrayed as someone who has long pursued a project of reshaping American politics from the bench, and the piece suggests his recent urgency may reflect an awareness that time is running out to lock in those changes.Meanwhile, the Court can ignore public transparency by using the shadow docket to decide its orders, Stern complained. "The conservative supermajority issued all these shadow docket orders clearing the way for that to happen," he added. "Now it has happened; Trump’s takeover of the federal government is largely complete. So I just don’t think the court needs to issue nearly as many shadow docket orders as it did during that shock-and-awe campaign; it has already achieved its objectives."He confessed he's particularly cynical about it. "It’s less that the court has learned its lesson or become more solicitous toward lower court judges, and more that the court already accomplished a huge amount of what it wanted in terms of giving Trump what he sought. Trump came in and had expansive ideas about the scope of his executive power — impounding federal funds, firing executive officials, rewriting immigration laws," Stern said. "And by and large, the Supreme Court let him do it."Lithwick said that when Trump doesn't get his way he throws a "tantrum." When their interests align, however, "the court goes full steam ahead.""So, what the court keeps doing is not just reaffirming maximalist views of executive power for Trump, but reaffirming its own maximalist power to be the decider at the end of the day," she explained. "Does that put the lie to the whole story everyone wants to tell about John Roberts versus Donald Trump? And by giving Trump so much of what he wants so often—sometimes racing to do it on the shadow docket—does the court in fact embolden him in a way that imperils its own ability to someday say no to an important question in the future, because it’s squandering whatever authority it actually has to say no?"The real problem will come when or if the Supreme Court puts its foot down, and Trump decides to ignore it. Stern said that Trump is always abides by their rulings, but is happy to defy lower courts. He wondered what would happen when Trump decides those days are over.

California governor candidate Steve Hilton reveals his first major move if he wins election — and Dems will hate it

With the California’s primary election just days away, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is making his final pitch to voters for why he’s the man for the job — outlining how he intends to bring down the state’s cost of living, while putting more money in people’s pockets.