We’ve all witnessed the chaos, corruption, and incompetence coming out of this administration. The MAGA Republican Congress has been led by a president solely focused on putting his own petty interests ahead of the people – enabled by a weak and feckless Republican Congress. We have felt anger, fear, and sometimes helplessness as millions of Americans lost access to their health care, as children and families lost access to food assistance, as they drove our country into a war that no one asked for and which has made costs skyrocket, and so much more.

Subscribe now

I understand that pain and frustration. Many of you have spent the last two years looking at the TV, saying words we don’t say where we pray, and maybe even sometimes throwing things. I’ve been right there with you.

But hear me when I say: that phase is over.

Over the past several months, I have traveled the country — from Michigan to Mississippi and New Hampshire to Nevada — and met countless Americans who are tired of having to choose between gas and groceries, and who are stretching their paychecks to cover rent, daycare, health care, and so much more. I’ve spoken to our fellow Americans watching costs skyrocket while Donald Trump and his Republican cronies are more concerned with ballrooms, reflecting pools, foreign jets, and seeking favor and flattery from dictators than with the everyday needs of the families they are supposed to serve.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We deserve better.

As Donald Trump has crushed regular Americans under the weight of soaring costs, laid waste to our alliances, led our nation into another forever war, and undermined our democracy, it’s become easy to give in to apathy and doubt.

But America, your resilience in the face of it all is awe-inspiring. You have organized, protested, and voted in historic numbers. You have stood against attempts to drag us back while standing for the America we know we can and should be.

Leaders who embody these values are running in races across the country. There are candidates who are fighting for affordable health care, stronger communities, and an economy that gives working people a fair shot. I’ve met many of these local leaders, volunteers, advocates, and activists who understand that the outcome of this election will not only affect them, but will affect their neighbors, their children, and their communities for years to come. While the current cast of characters in Washington have spent the last two years looking in the mirror, these leaders have been looking at the people. They are ready to deliver on Day One.

It’s people like them and like you across America who give me hope. Not because this fight we’re in is easy, but because we’re willing to stand up for what’s possible when people come together and refuse to give up on one another.

That brings me to our final sprint to Election Day.

We must leave everything on the field. We must elect Democrats up and down the ballot in every state, at every level, in every county in America. We must do all we can to flip the House and Senate. But as a public servant who started my career way down ballot, I know we must also flip as many governorships, state legislative seats, mayoralties, district attorneys, school board districts, and local offices as possible.

We know that Donald Trump will try to overturn the results in races Republicans don’t win. Armed with a Department of Justice at his beck and call, he’ll try; but he won’t succeed, because in 2026, we’re going to make our victory too big to rig.

We cannot afford to look back on November 4th and wish we’d done more. That means knocking on doors. Making phone calls. Talking to your friends, families, and neighbors. It means making a plan to vote by going to IWillVote.com and finding a couple people to take with you to the polls.

The founders of this country understood that our democracy would face moments when those entrusted with leadership would fail to live up to their responsibilities. They designed our system to give the ultimate power to the people – not the politicians – for exactly that reason; because when leaders fail us, it’s up to the people to hold them accountable.

For the last two years, we’ve seen the most callous, corrupt, and incompetent administration in American history.

But now is the time to change all that.

Let us turn our pain into purpose and our anger into action. Let’s show up and fight for every seat, in every state, at every level of our government. Let’s do so knowing that we did everything we could and that we refused to give up on the great promise of the United States of America.

On to victory. Together.

With just 4 days until the midterm elections, many in the pro-democracy coalition are feeling pretty good. Polls show Democrats with huge leads; Trump’s approval rating continues to crater with no bottom in sight; Republicans, out of time and short on luck, have been forced to divert their billionaire-funded warchest to defend states and seats once thought to be entirely, indisputably safe.

As the polls have turned on Republicans and the likelihood of an historic, generational landslide for the Democrats appears increasingly probable, Trump and MAGA have become increasingly desperate to rig the 2026 elections by any means necessary — and to dredge up 2020. Again.

Over the last week, Trump has massively ramped up his claims of yet-to-be-committed voter fraud across the country and laid the groundwork to mobilize a whole-of-government effort to challenge and overturn as many elections as possible. He’s used his executive power to restrict access to mail-in voting, sought to send MAGA-friendly federal poll watchers across the country on Election Day, and even had his political appointees direct DHS to obtain and hack a voting machine just like the ones that tens of millions of Americans will be voting on — ostensibly to try and prove massive fraud in 2020, or to set the stage for 2026.

But just 7 days before the midterm elections, we learned that some of the biggest tech companies in the country have begun to capitulate to Trump’s election denialism.

Screenshots began flying across the internet of Google’s Gemini chatbot refusing to answer who won the 2020 election — or more importantly, who didn’t. This is also hardly the only example of Google capitulating to Trump. In 2025, Google was one of the first corporations to bow to Trump’s bloviating when they changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Google Maps. They changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in 2026, too. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, has been so subservient to the Dear Leader that Trump said Sundar would do “what I say” at a rally recently.

Google, quick to try and save face, called the chatbot’s refusal to say who won in 2020 a “technical gap” relating to new guidelines surrounding election-related inquiries as part of a broader effort to combat misinformation. Yet somehow, that technical gap only happened with respect to the 2020 election that Trump lost. The “guidelines” designed somehow managed to say that Trump won in 2016 and 2024. So rather than minimizing disinformation, Google amplified it.

This is not a “technical gap”. It’s evidence instead of why we should all be terrified.

In 2020, Donald Trump was a pariah in many elite circles. CEOs didn’t like him, tech bosses despised him, and institutions barely tolerated him. But in 2026, he’s either replaced, glad-handed, or intimidated anyone who once stood in his path. He’s forged an unholy alliance with tech billionaires and filled the DOJ with bloodthirsty, cutthroat MAGA loyalists willing to wield the law as a sword to keep Trump and his allies in power.

Despite the fact that the 2026 elections aren’t even over, Trump and MAGA have already moved to overturn election results that haven’t happened. Trump’s DOJ has demanded states hand over confidential, identifying details on registered voters under the guise of “election integrity.” In North Carolina, Republicans have tossed out tens of thousands of absentee ballots because of unsealed inner envelopes and closed on-campus polling locations at 3 of the state’s largest universities.. There are now multiple emerging reports that U.S. National Guard units in all 50 states are preparing to mobilize ahead of next week’s elections.

But that’s only the beginning.

Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are getting ready to wage a massive war of disinformation in the hours, days, and weeks following the election — only, unlike 2020, they will have an unquestioningly loyal DOJ and GOP behind their efforts.

The truth is November 4th is just as important as November 3rd. We have to be ready to relentlessly defend our democracy and demand our elected officials — no matter who they are or to what party they belong — certify the results of the elections, regardless of who wins or loses.

The polls may look good, turnout may seem strong, and Trump may appear more unpopular than ever, but this election ain’t over ‘til it’s over. And even then, Trump is liable to try and steal it anyways.

To stop him, our message can’t just be a blue puddle. It needs to be a blue tsunami that reaches into the deepest, reddest parts of America and removes from office anyone who pledges loyalty to Trump and Trump alone.

Take your friends, family, neighbors, and perfect strangers to the polls. Go to a phone or text bank, canvass in your area, volunteer as a poll worker, and most importantly, stay involved and stay informed.

41 million Americans have already cast their ballots. The next 4 days are the most consequential of this entire election, and we have to give it everything we have. And then some.

We’ll see you out there.

In a fundraising appeal this summer, Rogers warned that if Democrats win a Senate majority, they would subpoena Musk and investigate his role in the destructive DOGE rampage through federal agencies.

“When you stand with my Senate campaign, you are directly shielding Elon Musk,” Rogers wrote. He asked for an “immediate, urgent contribution right now to protect Elon and save America.”

It’s pretty stunning, but it’s not out of character for Rogers to be looking out for the interests of billionaire backers at the expense of the people of Michigan.

“Throughout his political career, the Republican US Senate hopeful has received millions of dollars in contributions to his campaigns and political action committees from wealthy elitists like former US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Texas oil tycoon and Christian Nationalist Tim Dunn, as well as private-sector organizations in the pharmaceutical and oil and gas industries,” The ‘Gander reported.

The Detroit Metro Times exposed Rogers’ support for efforts by the billionaire owners of a toll bridge to Canada to prevent the opening of a publicly funded alternative. Rogers reportedly made almost $2 million in 2022 and 2023 by “cashing in on the revolving door between Congress and the private sector.”

With his pledge to shield Musk from investigations, Rogers seems oblivious to the fact that congressional oversight is key to our system of constitutional checks and balances. That puts him in line with Republican congressional leaders who have shown that they are unwilling to stand up to President Donald Trump’s corruption and abuse of power.

And now that Elon Musk has dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns to keep Republicans like Rogers in control of Congress, you can be sure that if he’s successful there will be no oversight of his shady deals—not to mention his increasingly overt racism and support of neo-fascist forces around the world.

Speaking of bigotry, Rogers and his allies—including Trump—have deployed vile religious and racial bigotry in their dishonest attacks on his Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed.

Rogers has also drawn criticism for urging Republicans to recruit off-duty or retired police officers as poll watchers in Detroit, seemingly to intimidate voters. “I mean, they wouldn’t be able to wear their uniforms, but they would, you know, all you got to do is open your jacket and you see the badge on the belt, right?” Rogers said.

Rogers has a track record of opposing legal equality for LGBTQ Americans and legal access to abortion, though he’s now trying to muddle his anti-abortion extremism. He’s closely aligned with Trump and welcomed the president’s endorsement. But on “Meet the Press” this week, he refused to answer a simple direct question about whether he considers himself to be a MAGA Republican.

He doesn’t have to tell us, because he’s shown us. He’s more MAGA than Michigander.

Very few could have imagined where we’d be a year ago – or even when we started this Field Office journey together two months ago.

A norm-shattering campaign to change congressional maps in the middle of the decade has changed the political landscape and put minority representation at risk across the country. Unprecedented federal meddling in voter registration and mail-in balloting threatens to limit access to the ballot box. Assaults on immigrant communities and military occupations of urban centers has upended turnout expectations and risked dissuading eligible voters from making their voices heard.

And still, we organized.

Despite MAGA Republicans’ desperate efforts to paint over the failures of the second Trump administration, the president’s catastrophically low approval ratings risks dragging the entire party down with him, serving as an anchor around the neck of every Republican running in 2026. Democrats are surging in congressional districts and state races once thought to be reliably ruby-red “Trump Country.” Despite coming into the 2026 election cycle with an unprecedentedly large financial advantage, Republicans have begun abandoning seats they’ve held for a generation due to lack of resources as more and more of their seats come into play. A coalition of working-class Americans of all backgrounds – voters and candidates alike – are rising to the top of a bold opposition promising to deliver lower costs, an end to government corruption, and fundamental reform of the institutions Americans are saying increasingly fail to serve them.

Right now, volunteers in field offices in every part of the country are making calls, preparing walk sheets, sending texts, folding t-shirts, handing out signs, and organizing on-the-ground in the ways necessary to win in their communities. Others are sitting at kitchen tables filling out their ballot or sitting with friends making a plan to get to the polls. No matter how you’re taking action, making your voice heard is the single-most important thing any of us can be doing for the pro-democracy movement today.

But there’s still work left to do.

While polls have shifted towards Democrats in recent weeks, they remain well within the margin-of-error. In other words: this is still anyone’s race. The final week will be crucial for key races up and down the ballot.

Here’ s a quick rundown of the fights that deserve your attention in the final week.

The House (Today: 218 Republican, 214 Democratic, 2 Vacant)

A Democratic House will be a first line of defense against Trump’s recklessness and provides an opportunity for Democrats to platform an agenda they’d enact on behalf of the American people in 2029 and beyond.

States like Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania have several seats that will be key for Democrats. Candidates like Randy Villegas (CA-22), Justin Pearson (TN-09), Callie Barr (MI-01), Donavan McKinney (MI-13), and Cait Conley (NY-17) stand to be next-generation leaders and bold voices for action in Congress if elected.

The Senate (Today: 53 Republican, 45 Democratic, 2 Independent)

Conventional wisdom was telling us that the Senate was out of reach for Democrats this cycle. However, several states have come into play in recent weeks, causing Democrats to raise their hopes and expand their reach down the stretch. A Democratic Senate would put a stop to Trump’s damaging picks for the federal bench and prevent him from making yet another disastrous Supreme Court appointment.

Victories in Michigan (El-Sayed), Ohio (Brown), Maine (Jackson), Iowa (Turek), Texas (Talarico), and the Carolinas (Cooper; Andrews) are key. Florida’s Angie Nixon, Mississippi’s Scott Colom, Arkansas’ Hallie Shoffner, Kentucky’s Charles Booker, and Louisiana’s Jamie Davis are laying the foundation for a durable Democratic Southern strategy for years to come. Georgia’s incumbent, Jon Ossoff, is building such comfortable leads against his Republican opponent that many GOP operatives have privately conceded that the race is lost entirely.

The States

Several statewide contests could change the political landscape this election cycle. Georgia’s Democratic slate, led by gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, could solidify the progress the party has made at the federal level since 2020 and finally give them an opportunity to apply their political vision to statewide governance. Alongside Bottoms, Nevada’s Aaron Ford and Wisconsin’s David Crowley have the opportunity to become the first Black governors of their respective states – joining only three other Black Americans elected to their state’s executive office in history.

In Michigan, Democrats are working to hold the governor’s mansion and to regain the narrow State House majority that made the state a model for change. In Ohio, Amy Acton has surged in the wake of vicious attacks by her Republican opponent Vivek Ramaswamy, but remains in a neck-and-neck race that will be decided on a knife’s edge. Iowa’s Rob Sand, whose campaign has focused on anti-corruption and good governance, may defy the odds once again – having been the only Democrat to win statewide in Iowa in 2022 – and flip the state’s governor’s mansion. And don’t forget your Secretaries of State.

Down-Ballot

Every race matters, especially at the local level. The far right’s attempts to deny election results, restrict rights, ban books, and disinvest from working people starts in town halls and civic centers all around you. If you have a race for mayor, city council, school board, sheriff, or county clerk on the ballot, do your research and vote for those who will defend your values and deliver on the priorities you care about most.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. If you haven’t already, make a plan at peoplefor.org/vote.

If you can, spend time this week taking action on behalf of a candidate or community that needs your support. Donate to a candidate, volunteer for a campaign, or help a friend make a plan to vote. If we all do our part, there’s no way we can’t win.

See you in the field.

– Markus

Marx’s MAGA profile got a boost when Charlie Kirk called him a friend and spiritual mentor in a foreword to Marx’s 2024 book about being a “manly man.” He has said that Charlie and Erika Kirk encouraged him to run for office.

Marx has made a dubious name for himself with wild and often unsubstantiated claims about his life.

He has used those claims to promote two narratives that appeal to MAGA religious-right activists: a redemption arc and a fierce spiritual warrior persona.

Marx portrays himself as both a spiritual and physical warrior against sex traffickers and other evil foes. His website once claimed that he and his ministry, “All Things Possible,” have rescued more than 45,000 women and children; the claim was pulled down after it was challenged.

But the oddities don’t stop there. Reporters have not been able to verify another part of his life story, which is that he was forced by an abusive stepfather to shoot and kill someone when he was only seven. Neither has he offered evidence for his claim that, as a civilian, he once called in a military airstrike that killed 70 ISIS fighters. He has also waffled when asked by reporters whether and how many people he has killed as an adult.

Marx speaks dominionists’ spiritual warfare language. He has written and spoken frequently about using prayer to free people from demons, saying at one point that he had “met Satan in person.” Marx is fervently opposed to access to abortion, which he calls “a manifestation of darkness.” He promoted a $99 spiritual warfare course to free people from homosexual attraction and other demonic forces.

Marx vowed that on “day one” as governor, “We’re gonna consecrate the state back to God.” He has been endorsed by Colorado-based dominionists Andrew Wommack and Lou Engle. Wommack has made his own extraordinary and unproven assertions, such as his claim that his ministry has raised “well over 50 people from the dead.” Engle appeared with Marx’s wife Eileen to urge conservative Christians to “join the spiritual battle” and fast for 21 days to convince God to work a “miracle” in Colorado.

If polls and pundits are right, a miracle is about what it would take for Marx to become governor. Thank God.

On Monday, Ohio’s GOP nominee for governor (and resident vulture capitalist), Vivek Ramaswamy, released an attack ad hitting Amy Acton, his Democratic opponent … featuring her own estranged mother.

In it, Acton’s mother poses as a well-meaning, patriotic American putting the good of Ohio above even her own daughter.

And yet, like everything else that comes out of the MAGA machine, it’s all a crock of shit.

When Amy Acton was just 9 years old, her stepfather began sexually molesting her. This heinous, disgusting abuse continued until Acton was 12, when her stepfather was charged with rape and indicted by a grand jury. Acton and her brother, Philip Stearns, were both permanently removed from their mother’s custody for failure to provide even basic necessities like housing or food, while knowingly refusing to stop the molestation Acton suffered at the hands of her stepfather.

Donna Arthur, Acton’s mother, stood by her husband and against her own children until the day he died. She never tried to protect her children and forfeited any rights as a mother that she might have had as a result.

Let’s be clear: Vivek Ramaswamy knew of Acton’s painful past and her mother’s complicity in it. Not only did he know, but even before barreling ahead with one of the most amoral ads in political history, he attacked Acton as someone who only “complain[s] about what someone else did to her.” He knew, and chose to produce and run the ad anyway, not only disregarding the vile trauma Acton suffered but hoping to mislead and dupe the very voters he claims to care about.

When the ad first aired, unlike nearly every other political ad, it wasn’t attributed to anyone. On Tuesday, Ramaswamy confirmed that it was his campaign that paid for and ran the ad. Not an outside money group, or loosely-aligned super PAC. His own campaign. Him.

Only the sickest, most craven, power-hungry pole-climbers willing to do anything to anyone would seek to exploit such a dark time in their opponent’s life – and those people should never get near elected office of any kind.

In the hours and days since the ad’s release, people on both sides of the aisle have roundly condemned its perversion of the truth. Meghan McCain called it “dastardly.” Ryan Smith, the former Speaker of the Ohio House, said Republicans needed to “stop normalizing bad behavior and embarrassing the party. Ohio deserves better than this.” Sherrod Brown, the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Ohio, called it “disgusting.” Katie Perris, the founder of Red, Wine, & Blue, lambasted Ramaswamy, saying “it takes a very weak man to use a woman’s pain to try and make himself feel strong.”

But the same vile cretins who produced the ad and who have pushed baseless, disgusting allegations across the country, came out in full support. Ramaswamy himself, in proper Trumpian fashion, not only refused to back down — he doubled down, putting $4 million behind it. JD Vance, whose self-proclaimed “Christian” morals are as low as his approval rating, went further than merely trying to explain the ad away but launched a full-frontal assault against Republicans expressing their disgust and outrage in its wake. Vance said the ad “calls it out like it is” and not only wasn’t wrong, but entirely justified.

For some, the GOP’s doubling-down on an ad so clearly outside any rational person’s ethical or moral standards comes as a surprise.

But this is the same Republican Party that has supported, perpetuated, and protected Trump for the last 11 years. This is the same party that installed an ultra-conservative Supreme Court majority that overturned Roe and has sat silently and idly by as women have literally died in hospitals because their doctors, whose only concern should be saving their life, were too scared to operate for fear of violating draconian, anti-American, absolute abortion bans.

Donald Trump was found liable for sexual abuse. He’s on tape saying he feels entitled to grab women by their … well, you know the line. He’s mentioned over thirty-eight THOUSAND times in the Epstein Files.

So it makes perfect – if unfathomably cruel – sense that the same party propping up one sexual abuser would exploit the trauma of another’s victim.

The moral rot within the Republican Party has hollowed out its core and zombified it beyond recognition. Gone are the days of Betty Ford’s crusade for the Equal Rights Amendment. Instead, today’s Republican elites are willing to do anything, say anything, exploit anything, and hurt anyone so long as they come out ahead.

Not you. Them.

But they only win if you let them.

They only win if you give up the single-greatest power you hold – your vote.

We have an election in just 12 days.

If we want to end MAGA’s depravity once and for all, our response can’t just be a blue puddle. It needs to be a blue tsunami that reaches into the deepest, reddest parts of America and washes away anyone who pledges loyalty to Trump and Trump alone.

Early voting has already started in 25 states – including Ohio. Voter registration deadlines are fast approaching. The next 12 days are the most consequential of this entire election, and we have to leave it all out on the field.

We’ll see you out there.

When Trump returned to the presidency, he was still spouting lies about his 2020 election loss (the same ones that led to the deadly January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol). After his hand-picked conservative majority on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, he pressured Republican state leaders to change congressional maps in the middle of the decade – suppressing Democratic voters and Black representation, especially in the South. Piling on, he’s also signed executive orders attempting federal takeovers of voter registration and mail-in voting rules.

In states like Georgia, California, and even deep-red Utah, federal agents have raided election offices, confiscated sensitive voter information, and threatened election officials with investigation and arrest.

But Trump’s historically unpopular record on affordability, his war of choice in Iran, his attacks on healthcare, and other top-of-mind issues for voters are outpacing his false claims about “election integrity.” Polls have put otherwise safe Republican seats across the country within reach of Democratic control, with voters of both parties desperate for change.

At the Republican Midterm Convention last month, Trump unveiled a new, even more desperate strategy: outright and overt cheating.

Asking the crowd of party loyalists to raise their right hands across the Dallas arena, he attempted to get everyone on board:

“I pledge, to the greatest president in the history of the United States … that I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll [vote] any way [I can], I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m gonna try and cheat like hell.”

He’s not playing around – and neither should you.

As Election Day gets closer, Trump is only intensifying a dangerous and unpredictable campaign to cast doubt on the integrity of elections and lay the groundwork for a rejection of the results if Republicans lose – openly considering plans to “nationalize” state elections, send troops to polling places, and seize ballots under a (very illegal) federal “emergency.”

Here are five things you can do right now to help stop these attacks and make sure your vote is counted.

1. Check your voter registration (or register if you haven’t): Thousands of voters across the country are having their registration challenged, and federal officials are making up last-minute rules to turn you away at the polls. Register to vote before your state’s deadline and check to ensure your voter registration information is accurate at peoplefor.org/vote.

2. Serve as a Poll Worker or Election Observer: Research opportunities in your state or local community to serve as a poll worker or observer during early voting or on Election Day. Having trusted voices helping neighbors easily, safely, and securely cast their vote is needed now more than ever.

3. Write Your Secretary of State: This often-ignored office has a huge impact on the integrity of elections in your state. Take the time to write, email, call, or tag your Secretary of State ahead of the election, encouraging them to resist Trump’s pressure and maintain free and fair elections for everyone. Find your Secretary of State.

4. Vote Early: The best way to avoid last-minute interference is to get your vote in early! If your state has mail-in voting or in-person early voting ahead of November 3, take advantage of the extra time and shorter lines. Find out early voting dates in your state and make a plan at peoplefor.org/vote.

5. Take Five Friends With You: Don’t go alone – we have to make this too big to rig. Make your plan to vote today, share it with 5 friends, and ask them to come with you. Send it to 10 more friends and ask them if they’ve made a plan already. There is power in numbers!

🗳️Submit a Field Note

Is there a particular race we should be watching or an election-related topic you’d like covered? Comment below, and we may add them to a future issue!

🗺️FIELD MAP

Five Places / Races I’m Watching Closely this Week

We’re tracking over 100 key races and candidates that are essential to defending freedom, justice, and democracy at every level. Each week, I’ll share five that you should follow, too.

📍 WISCONSIN

Early voting begins in the fight to keep the Governor’s Mansion in Democrats’ control.

With Gov. Tony Evers (D) not seeking re-election, Wisconsin voters start going to the polls to choose their next chief executive today, with cost of living, healthcare, data centers, and Trump’s unpopularity squarely at the center of the conversation. After a tumultuous primary battle, Democrats chose Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley as Evers’ hopeful successor, now in a tight battle with Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany – a key figure in Trump’s 2020 election scheme. Who becomes governor will have a dramatic impact on the futures of Wisconsin voters – and potentially on the future of democracy. Wisconsin has been decided by less than 1% in the last three presidential elections, and Trump sought to overturn his narrow loss in the state in 2020 – an effort stopped only by a Democratic statewide administration.

Early Voting in Wisconsin begins today, Tuesday, October 20th, and ends Sunday, November 1st. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3rd. Make a plan at www.peoplefor.org/vote.

📍 VIRGINIA

Swing districts across the Commonwealth could determine control of the House.

Virginia voters delivered a huge boon to Democratic hopes in last year’s closely watched statewide elections, making Abigail Spanberger the commonwealth’s first woman governor and passing a slew of legislative reforms that set a blueprint for national Democrats, from a $15 minimum wage to a first-in-the-South paid family leave program. They hope to give a Democratic Congress the same opportunity by swinging key U.S. House districts in the midterms. In the Richmond suburbs, Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor is running a close race to unseat 20-year incumbent Rob Wittman, with Cook Political Report’s rating for the 1st district race moved from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-Up” in recent weeks. In the Charlottesville-based 5th district, Tom Perriello is looking to regain the seat he held from 2009-2011, challenging first-term incumbent Republican John McGuire. The congressmen are in a dead heat in a district Trump won by 12 points in 2024.

Early Voting in Virginia is underway and ends Saturday, October 31st. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3rd. Make a plan at www.peoplefor.org/vote.

📍 TEXAS

Early voting begins in nationally-watched Senate showdown.

State Representative James Talarico’s fight to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1988 comes down to the wire as Texas voters begin going to the polls statewide this week. With Talarico focused squarely on affordability and fighting Trump’s corruption, State Attorney General Ken Paxton’s campaign is floundering. Ethical lapses in and out of office continue to diminish voter confidence, with rumors swirling that party officials are panicked. Recent polls have Talarico and Paxton in a dead heat. Texas Democrats know that turnout, including historic numbers during early voting, will be key to pulling off this generational shift in statewide politics.

Early Voting in Texas is underway and ends Friday, October 30th. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3rd. Make a plan at www.peoplefor.org/vote.

📍 WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mayoral transition and midterm outcome will set the stage in new battle for DC autonomy.

The nation’s capital continues to be ground zero for many of Trump’s most destructive impulses, from the deployment of National Guard troops to the tearing down and unauthorized building of federal monuments. Through both his presidential terms, Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser has been Trump’s local foil– at first an outspoken adversary, then a more cautious counterpart under the Republican trifecta. After 12 years on the job, Bowser decided against running for a 4th term and will very likely pass the torch in January to 38-year-old Democratic Socialist Janeese Lewis George – the winner of June’s Democratic Primary, giving her a major structural advantage in deep-blue D.C. Trump has already threatened a fresh showdown with the young new mayor, calling her “radical” and proposing new actions to curtail DC’s already limited Home Rule. In Congress, 18-term Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC’s retiring non-voting delegate, will likely be replaced by DC Councilman Robert White (D). A Democratic Congress will be a necessary line of defense for the city and an essential coalition in the fight for eventual statehood.

📍 FLORIDA

With a tough Senate flip less out of reach, a coalition is forming around Nixon.

Florida Democrats’ nominee for U.S. Senate Angie Nixon, a state representative and mother of five, shocked pundits with her successful populist campaign in the primary and continues to turn heads in a tough general election increasingly defined by affordability. With many polls putting the race within single digits, national Democrats are increasing their investment as Nixon’s grassroots campaign catches fire. On Sunday, Black Men for Angie Nixon hosted an organizing call that featured local and national voices, including Nixon’s husband Jarrett Morene, rapper and activist Killer Mike, Rep. Justin J. Pearson, and Congressman Everton Blair.

Ossoff was referring to Collins’ son-in-law David Alan Scheer II, who promotes racism, white supremacy, antisemitism, Nazi imagery, and ethnic cleansing on social media and on podcasts, and has declared, “We’re going to retake America for Christian White men!”

Another much-quoted Ossoff line from the debate was that Collins had “hired half the third Reich,” a reference to Collins staffers, including his former chief of staff Kip Talley, who Slate revealed was in a chat group with white supremacists like Nick Fuentes talking about trying to help a Holocaust denier in prison on contempt of court charges.

Ossoff may also have had in mind a self-described “twink fascist” who interned for Collins and then worked at his leadership PAC, and who posted a photo of himself in a KKK robe. Yet another former staffer hurled antisemitic insults at Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in May. USA Today had enough material to compile a timeline of Collins’ ties to white supremacy.

But the problem with Collins is not just about his family or lousy hiring record—it’s his own extremism, expressed through offensive and aggressive social media posts.

Collins shared video showing students at the University of Mississippi making ape-like sounds and gestures at a Black woman protestor. Collins added, “Ole Miss taking care of business.”

In one post about a Venezuelan immigrant accused of being involved in assaulting a police officer, Collins wrote, “Or we could buy him a ticket on Pinochet Air for a free helicopter ride back.” The reference to Augusto Pinochet echoes far-right adoption of slogans like “Pinochet did nothing wrong”—an endorsement of the notorious Chilean dictator’s murderous tactics, which included throwing political opponents out of helicopters into the ocean.

In another post highlighted by CNN, Collins responded to a video of migrants near the southern border by writing, “This is when you switch from 40mm to the 105”—a reference to an artillery weapon.

Collins’ record reveals how far-right racism, antisemitism, and glorification of fascist violence have spread throughout the GOP during the Trump era, especially among young men—and how little the Republican Party is doing to resist it.

Here’s more evidence: Marshall Rawson is likely to win election to the Florida state legislature despite documented attendance at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and his ties to the neo-Confederate League of the South, leading Talking Points Memo’s Christopher Mathias to decry “the prospect that an unrepentant white supremacist will attain elected office in one of the country’s most populous states with no pushback from the Republican Party.”

Right Wing Watch has reported on Nick Fuentes’ strategy to infiltrate the GOP by getting “groypers” —fans of his bigotry—elected to local office and hired as congressional and administration staff. When Fuentes bragged after racist young Republican chats were leaked last year that “everyone’s a groyper now.” he was exaggerating. But every racist and would-be fascist in authority is one too many. Vote blue.

Over the weekend, he managed to sell out American soldiers, our allies, and the country with reckless abandon by announcing that the United States would be bailing out Vladimir Putin. Again.

How, you might ask?

Well, Trump now wants the United States to supply energy markets with diesel fuel from Russia in an effort to bring down the sky-high gas prices that Trump himself caused by launching his dunderheaded war of choice in Iran. In other words, he wants the United States to help underwrite the Russian war machine that has killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and threatened NATO security. This being the same Russian war machine that gave Iran the locations of American troops in the Middle East, which they have since used to kill American soldiers.

Read that back. The president of the United States of America wants to open the financial floodgates to a country helping to kill Americans. There aren’t words to describe how abhorrently anti-American that is.

Since 2025, Ukraine has launched a series of counter-assaults against Russia that have forced them to retreat, denied them key victories, and turned the tide of the war itself. They’ve launched drone attacks into the heart of Russia, taking their oil refineries, factories, and data centers offline for months at a time. In a win for democracies across the globe, online Russian bot activity has fallen nearly 80% since Ukraine’s attacks on Russian data centers. Those same bots have been promoting right-wing, fascistic movements in Germany, Italy, Brazil, and most of all, the United States.

In other words, Trump just lost his strongest (and fakest) supporters. Rest In Peace to those like Tracy2XQueen, a loyal MAGA supporter whose photos were as fake as her identity. Saddest of all, somewhere out there, a MAGA clown just lost his AI girlfriend. Our condolences.

In a war that appeared to be more lopsided than any in modern history, Ukraine has not just resisted Putin’s assault but wrecked the Russian economy and shattered his veil of invincibility in the process.

Enter Donald Trump.

Following Ukraine’s successes, Trump took to social media, launching a blistering attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanding that he stop his attacks in Russia and threatening to end U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine immediately if they didn’t. This information isn’t just critical to Ukrainian offensive capabilities, but absolutely vital to their efforts to evacuate buildings before Russian attacks, intercept incoming missiles, and minimize civilian deaths. This all while Russia continues to bomb hospitals, schools, and refugee camps.

For Trump, there’s the pipe dream that aiding Russia might bring some relief to Americans collapsing under the weight of soaring energy costs caused by the war in Iran and that it might bring an end to the slaughtering of tens of thousands of his loyal, online, fake bots.

If you think we’re joking or exaggerating, we promise you, we aren’t.

Prior to Ukraine’s attacks, online accounts of MAGA influencers from Musk to Trump were swarmed with hundreds of thousands of supportive, cultish comments.

Since the attack?

Hundreds of thousands has fallen to tens. Not tens of thousands, just tens.

While we all sounded the alarm on Russia’s election interference in 2016 and subsequently forgot about it, their efforts have only grown in scale, sophistication, and effectiveness.

That is, until Ukraine took them offline.

Put quite simply, the only people that have been trying to rig elections over the last decade have been Trump’s MAGA Republicans. They’ve openly colluded with Russia, supported pro-Russian governments (as recently as last week when Trump’s own aides literally flew to the Balkans to support a Putin-backed government), and sold Americans out at every turn just to cling to power.

Despite Ukraine’s successful silencing of the vast majority of Russia’s online bots, that doesn’t mean efforts to subvert the 2026 midterms aren’t still underway, nor does it mean we can afford to take our foot off the gas. MAGA still has a wide array of paid influencer mouthpieces eager to parrot whatever talking point Trump wants. Musk and his billions continue to bankroll campaigns to try and buy elections. While bot activity has fallen, misinformation campaigns rage on.

In 2026, it isn’t hyperbole to say that our victory genuinely does have to be too big to rig.

The National Guard that Trump called up has been seen at ballot drop boxes in DC. He’s laid the groundwork to deploy ICE to polling locations. He’s set the stage to try to challenge and overturn close elections. November can’t just be a win – it has to be a landslide that even Trump can’t deny.

We have an election in just nineteen days. Early voting has already begun in 21 states.

There’s too much on the line and too much at stake to be complacent.

Talk to your friends, knock on doors, make phone calls, send texts, or do whatever you can to get as many pro-democracy voters to the polls as possible, because while Trump may have (or had) his bots, we have the only thing that really matters: votes.

In 19 days, let’s wash MAGA away with them.

It’s game time.

Since the Reagan era and televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr.’s “Moral Majority” movement, the Republican Party has used their troubling positions on women’s rights, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive justice, immigration policy, and drug laws as wedge issues – building a movement of religious fundamentalism that gave birth to the present-day MAGA movement. The rise of right-wing extremism has changed the face of American politics itself, culminating in the selection of a far-right Supreme Court majority that has since overturned Roe v. Wade, ended Affirmative Action, and eviscerated the Voting Rights Act. What we’ve seen since is a new generation of far-right politicians using religion as a weapon to restrict freedoms, ban immigrants, censor teachers, and otherwise bludgeon the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the strong bonds that the Democratic Party sustained for decades – especially with the Black Christian church and Jewish communities of faith – have tattered in the years since the Civil Rights movement. Once upon a time, Democrats saw leaders like Rev. Jesse Jackson and Jimmy Carter, a lifelong Sunday School teacher, build durable multi-ethnic, multi-religious political coalitions in the 1970s – rooted in compassionate, justice-oriented definitions of faith that inspired their political agendas. Less than a decade later, Democrats had all but ceded the argument. Houses of worship that sparked movements like “Souls to the Polls” struggled to find resources to organize voters. Baseless attacks on Democratic candidates being “Godless” and “immoral,” especially in the wake of the Clinton impeachment, went politely unanswered. Centers of faith that had once been a launchpad for progressive political leadership suddenly became a liability in the era of culture wars.

Then, Donald Trump – a twice-divorced, 34-time-convicted embodiment of no things Holy – held up a Bible in front of St. John’s Church after violently expelling peaceful protesters in 2020, and proclaimed to be “God’s chosen leader” for the nation.

Then, progressive pastors traded their pulpits for politics.

The most notable was the 2020 election of Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the same congregation once led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Upon his election, Warnock became the first Black Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from the former confederacy. He has continued to grow his profile as a political and moral counter to the far-right and – both on Capitol Hill and in the religious community – has become a voice of clarity on abortion rights, voting rights, and an end to the death penalty.

But that’s not all. In recent years, more Democrats of all faiths have become prominent voices and are now seen as quintessential to shaping the Democratic Party’s platform and agenda. Senator Bernie Sanders and Mayor Zohran Mamdani are two such examples. While not religious leaders, both have been compelled to dispel the zero-sum and divisive politics of white Christian nationalism by leaning into the progressive values and proud American heritage of their own faiths.

In 2026, even more voices are rising to the occasion; and Democrats are leaning in.

Texas’ James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, has notably put his fight against Christian nationalism at the center of his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Rather than shy away from his religion, Talarico has made it a central feature. He’s vehemently refused to accept that there’s a “set Christian orthodoxy,” asserting instead that God judges not on what you say, but on what you do. Talarico has championed abortion rights, affordability, and immigration reform as examples of “loving thy neighbor as thyself.” In Texas, Talarico’s compassionate Christianity just might be enough to convince the ruby-red state to send him to the U.S. Senate.

And in Kansas, Adam Hamilton – pastor of the nation’s largest United Methodist congregation based near Kansas City – is catching national headlines for his unexpectedly tight race for the U.S. Senate. A self-described “moderate,” Hamilton has been a prominent voice this cycle against a vocal minority of right-wing Christian nationalists. After winning the Democratic primary in August, Hamilton has criss-crossed the state on a platform focused on ending the chaos in Washington and bringing people together to solve the tough problems facing Kansas and the country. And it’s getting attention. Hamilton, the same candidate who carries a small Bible in his back pocket, was attacked this past week by Vice President J.D. Vance, who called Hamilton’s views “left-wing radicalism dressed in the skin suit of our religion.” What Vance is really saying isn’t hard to miss: unless you’re MAGA, our Christianity isn’t for you. In spite of the attacks, most recent polls have Hamilton narrowly leading Republican incumbent Roger Marshall in a state where Democrats haven’t elected a U.S. Senator in nearly a century.

Faith of all kinds is and always will be important to our collective American experience, whether we share the same faith or none at all. Religious communities will always be places where we gather, learn our place in the world, grapple with hard questions, and learn the ways we treat our neighbors.

However, if the far-right has proven anything, it’s that they can also be places used to divide, misinform, and disengage. Progressive candidates rooted in these communities are proving that they can and must be a part of the coalition-building Democrats envision in the years to come.

🗳️Submit a Field Note

Is there a particular race we should be watching or an election-related topic you’d like covered? Comment below and we may add them to a future issue!

🗺️FIELD MAP

Five Places / Races I’m Watching Closely this Week

We’re tracking over 100 key races and candidates that are essential to defending freedom, justice, and democracy at every level. Each week, I’ll share five that you should follow, too.

📍 NEWNAN, GEORGIA

Democrats are expanding their coalition in the fight for the State Capitol.

With early voting starting today in Georgia, we’re bringing the state in focus once again. Keisha Lance Bottoms is working overtime to build the enthusiasm needed to finally give Democrats control of the governing agenda at the state level. Georgia Democrats know that also means expanding the map in the race for the Georgia General Assembly. Many promising young progressive candidates are working hard to put once-safe red districts in play. They include 24-year-old wunderkind JerMarkus Jacobs, running to unseat a five-term Republican state senator outside of Atlanta. A former intern at both the Georgia State Capitol and the White House, this Georgia State University student is running an aggressive campaign demanding more accountable leadership that delivers for his native Newnan.

Early Voting in Georgia begins today, Tuesday, October 13th and ends Friday, October 30th. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3rd. Make a plan at www.peoplefor.org/vote.

📍 TENNESSEE

Young candidates focused on change could help win U.S. House majority.

Despite Republican attempts to gerrymander Democratic voters out of representation in Congress, Tennessee Democrats have fielded an energetic group of federal candidates that may defy maps. Justin J. Pearson’s bold campaign for the 9th congressional district is one to watch – but not the only one. A new generation of progressive leaders is changing the traditional campaign formula all over the state. In the 2nd district surrounding Knoxville, 33-year-old Michaela Barnett is countering four-term Rep. Tim Burchett with a hopeful, results-focused campaign on healthcare, jobs, infrastructure, and fighting corruption. Chaz Molder has already gained a reputation as a unifier and problem-solver since being elected Columbia’s youngest-ever mayor in 2018, making his Democratic candidacy for the 5th district a compelling answer to the most unproductive and divisive Congress in modern history.

Early Voting in Tennessee begins Wednesday, October 14th. Make a plan at www.peoplefor.org/vote.

📍 MICHIGAN STATE HOUSE

Progress post-Whitmer is about more than one ballot line.

Michigan’s narrow Democratic majorities in both houses of the legislature helped Gov. Gretchen Whitmer advance a bold and aggressive agenda – including universal background checks for gun sales, protecting reproductive rights, repealing right-to-work laws, and providing free school meals for every K-12 student. But progress has been harder since losing the House majority in 2024. Michigan Dems are putting their faith in a few familiar faces who narrowly lost their seats in the last election to wage a 2026 comeback. Jaime Churches, a 5th-grade teacher from Grosse Ile is in a rematch with Turning Point USA field organizer Rylee Linting to take back her 27th district seat. Jim Haadsma is also staging a return in the 44th district. Compelling new faces include Sarah Pounds, a housing advocate running in Oakland County’s 54th district; Alex Hawkins, an Army veteran, national guardsman, and former congressional staffer running in the 55th; Tom Turner, a former DOD official who resigned in protest against Trump’s policies, running in the 57th; and 29-year-old Joseph McClusky, running a ambitious, people-focused campaign for a normally tough 86th district in western Michigan.

📍 NEVADA

What happens here could change Washington.

After sticking with Democrats at the presidential level since 2008, Nevada proved to still be one of the swingiest of swing states, going to Trump in 2024. This year, Nevada Dems hope they can help put the brakes on his second-term agenda by growing their numbers in Congress. The only House district currently held by Republicans is the Reno and Carson City-based 2nd district, represented by retiring Rep. Mark Amodei. Teresa Benitez-Thompson – chief of staff to Nevada Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford, who also served as majority leader of the Nevada Assembly – is polling within the margin of error against Republican Dave Flippo. The Vegas-based 4th district has recently been moved up on the Democrats’ priority list, with incumbent Steven Horsford vying for reelection. The first Black person to represent Nevada in Congress and former Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Horsford won reelection in 2024 with 52.7% of the vote.

Early Voting in Nevada begins Saturday, October 17th. Make a plan at www.peoplefor.org/vote.

📍 IOWA

Rob Sand is hoping to once again be the candidate Democrats can count on.

Iowa hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Governor’s mansion since 2006, but Rob Sand – the 44-year-old State Auditor and only Democrat currently elected statewide – could once again defy the odds. The former Assistant State Attorney General (who turned down a Harvard admission to attend the University of Iowa Law School) could be the nation’s second-youngest governor, born just one day before Arkansas’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Running on a reputation as a no-nonsense defender of the taxpayer and reliable straight-talker, Sand’s commonsense agenda promising to lower costs and reform government to work for working people may just break through. An Emerson College poll published last week put Sand 4 points ahead of Republican Zach Lahn, 49% / 45%.

For the next few weeks, Right Wing Watch on HQ will highlight some of the miserable MAGA candidates on the ballot in November.

Let’s start with southwestern Texas and the 23^rd Congressional district, where Republican nominee Brandon Herrera is in a tight race with Democratic opponent Katy Padilla Stout. In this majority Hispanic district, Herrera isn’t getting any help from Trump’s plummeting popularity among Latino voters. But Herrera’s biggest trouble is his own mouth.

Herrera made his name as “The AK Guy” on YouTube with videos that mixed gun obsession with dehumanizing rhetoric. His trash-talking internet personality and “second amendment absolutism” endeared him to right-wing supporters. But it’s not as popular with voters in the district that was home to the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, where 19 children and two teachers were killed by an 18-year-old with an AR-15 style rifle.

Herrera dismisses many of his comments as dark humor and complains that reporters are using his videos to “try to make me seem like a piece of shit.” Honestly, they don’t have to try that hard:

• Herrera marched to a Nazi war song while describing a Nazi-era machine gun as the “original ghetto blaster” and “Hitler’s street sweeper.”

• Shortly after a shooter targeting Latinos killed 23 people in an El Paso Walmart in 2019, Herrera said people should be “really glad” that mass shooters were using guns and not truck bombs.

• He mocked the founder of a gun-safety group Moms Demand Action by saying, “The fact that you kept your cum trophy doesn’t make you any less wrong about the dumb shit that you say” – part of a pattern of demeaning sexist insults directed at women.

• When he was involved with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, he called the Civil War the “war of Northern aggression” and “the war for Southern independence.”

• He spread memes associated with the Boogaloo movement, which has carried out violence in hopes of sparking race war.

After Rep. Tony Gonzales backed bipartisan gun safety legislation that strengthened background checks for gun buyers under 21 and tightened restrictions on guns for domestic abusers, an outraged Herrera launched an unsuccessful challenge in the 2024 Republican primary. This year he forced the incumbent into a runoff before Gonzales withdrew in the face of a sex scandal.

Suddenly Republicans who had denounced Herrera as an extremist were saddled with him as their candidate. Trump has endorsed him. And House Speaker Mike Johnson, who will apparently do anything to protect Trump and preserve the Republican majority, is lying about Padilla Stout’s positions while portraying Herrera as “very serious” and “very thoughtful.”

Johnson has described the race as “a contrast election between common sense and crazy,” which may be true – just not in the way Johnson meant it.

What’s increasingly being lost in that conversation are the thousands of local battles over the individual approval of data centers in communities across America.

One of the most interesting fights is taking place in Lansing, New York, a small town on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake that has become ground zero for the fight over data centers. After the community expressed near-unanimous opposition in public hearings to the massive, 400 mega-watt data center to be built in their backyards, the town has been ravaged by zoning battles, lawsuits, public hearings, and now a concerted effort to remove the elected official who many see as leading the charge against the proposed data center.

It all starts with TeraWulf, a major bitcoin-mining and data center company that has largely operated outside of the national spotlight. In early 2026, they sought approval from local officials to transform the site of the former Cayuga Power Plant into a massive computing facility.

To be clear, this isn’t just any data center. It would require 400 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power more than 32,000 homes at once. To put that in context, the population of Lansing is just 11,786 — meaning this data center would require energy equalling nearly eight times the city’s current energy usage. At least.

This is a story of David versus Goliath, and electricity is only one part of the equation.

Data centers also require enormous amounts of water to keep their systems cool, which is the main reason why TeraWulf’s proposed facility is located directly on Cayuga Lake. Terawulf says its planned Lansing facility will use a closed-loop cooling system, but what they do is more revealing. Their affiliate has already received a permit allowing it to withdraw up to one million gallons of water per day from Cayuga Lake. For residents - and the more than 120,000 people who live on the lake - the prospect of a massive new industrial facility drawing on their lake is, unsurprisingly, a great point of concern.

Then there’s the noise. If you’ve never been to a data center or heard audio from one yourself, you can’t quite comprehend just how disruptive they are. The noise is caused by the massive cooling and computing infrastructure required to operate these facilities, which disrupts local wildlife and drives nearby residents to the point of insanity.

The controversy in Lansing all started when the town’s Code Enforcement Officer concluded that the data center couldn’t be approved under the town’s existing zoning laws governing manufacturing and light infrastructure.

In response, TeraWulf went to the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, which voted 3-2 in favor of qualifying the TeraWulf project under the existing code. For many, it was Exhibit A of a local government stretching an arcane zoning code to accommodate a brand-new industry without public input and to entirely avoid the town administration.

So the town went to court.

Supported by FLX Strong and Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now (or CLEAN), the town went to court to stop the action. TeraWulf claimed the city was actively fighting a development that would significantly boost its tax revenue in a way the city hadn’t seen before, and that their existing code as passed by the Zoning Board was sufficient permission for them to begin construction.

But Lansing residents aren’t buying TeraWulf’s promises of revenue. Why? Because TeraWulf made the same claim in Somerset, New York, with nothing to show for it.

At that location, TeraWulf is embroiled in yet another legal battle where local officials are alleging the company has improperly used sales-tax exemptions to avoid paying taxes to the city. TeraWulf says its cryptocurrency mining and related operations fall under existing statutes. While TeraWulf promises jobs and tax revenue, what they don’t say is that those communities may very well spend whatever revenue benefit they’d receive in legal battles to actually see those benefits.

So why should you care what’s happening in Lansing? Because this exact story is playing out in thousands of communities all across America, and your town could be next.

Trump, MAGA, and the tech billionaires still pushing for quicker and faster development of AI technology like to focus on the national and geopolitical “big picture.” But the truth is: data centers don’t exist in the cloud. They exist on land, they consume incomprehensibly large amounts of electricity, and they drain surrounding communities of every resource they once took for granted.

After Lansing fought back, TeraWulf came back even harder.

Before the TeraWulf controversy took hold of Lansing, its deputy town supervisor, Joe Wetmore, supported a data center moratorium to allow the town enough time to update its laws, zoning, and code administration properly.

The measure failed.

Nevertheless, after the town went to court to block the TeraWulf project, a counter-suit was filed against Wetmore seeking to remove him from office, alleging that he’d abused his position to interfere in the project.

In doing so, TeraWulf and its pro-data center allies were sending a message loud and clear to small-town America: Submit. Or else.

We don’t yet know whether TeraWulf will succeed, but we do know that Lansing isn’t giving up the fight.

Just last week, the Lansing city government began moving toward adopting a blanket data center ban after all but two residents at a jam-packed local meeting spoke in opposition to the further development of any data center projects in their community.

Lansing’s story serves as a model for the integral role local communities play in stopping the haphazard, profit-focused build-out of data centers without any thought as to how it might impact the communities they’re built in.

But it’s also a cautionary tale.

Local communities are faced with the herculean task of standing up to multi-billion-dollar AI companies who are willing to outspend and bankrupt them so long as it means their data center gets online.

What Lansing exemplifies more than anything is the central battle of our time: the People versus the Power.

In Lansing, the people have won. For now. But in far too many communities across the country, state and local governments have elected to roll over, give in, or accept large sums of direct investment and allow data centers to crop up that have proceeded to tank home values, destroy local environments, and force their residents to suffer the consequences or leave their only homes behind entirely.

Lansing also tells us that your vote is your voice. Voting in every election, at every level, has never been more important. If we want to protect our friends, neighbors, and communities, we must elect public servants who will serve the public, not the power.

The choice is yours to make.

In the 2004 election, it was the tipping-point state, swinging the election to President Bush. In 2008, and again in 2012, President Obama carried the state in his bid for the White House. It wasn’t uncommon during that time for the state to send both a Democrat and Republican to represent them in the U.S. Senate and elect governors of both parties.

Then came 2016.

The working-class coalition that Democrats had built – one that had kept the largely rural state competitive for a generation – fell apart across the rust belt. A dip in Democratic turnout meant Hillary Clinton would lose the state by double the amount of her Democratic predecessors. It hasn’t returned since. While once thought of as a bellwether, Trump won the state in all three of his presidential campaigns. The state’s Democratic senator was ousted in 2024 and its gubernatorial races were double-digit Republican victories.

This year could be different.

Over the last decade, the Ohio Democratic Party has been quietly rebuilding. They have built a bench of bold leaders at the local level, revived their grassroots organizing, and focused on issues like lowering costs and making it easier for working families to thrive.

With Trump’s approval ratings at historic lows and the midterms serving as a referendum on the party in power, Buckeye state Democrats believe it’s their time for a comeback.

They’ve built a 2026 bench that is encouraging enthusiasm and closing polling gaps. Physician and former director of the state’s Department of Health Amy Acton is the party’s nominee for Governor. Born in Youngstown, she became “Ohio’s trusted face” during the response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. In the special election for the U.S. Senate seat, Democrats have asked Senator Sherrod Brown to get back in the fight — elected three times before losing the most expensive Senate election of 2024. As the only Democratic name for a non-judicial statewide seat that’s won in 20 years, they feel good about this progressive champion’s chances. They’ve fielded bold, experienced candidates like Rep. Allison Russo for Secretary of State, Mayor Annette Blackwell for Auditor, and Judge Marilyn Zayas for the Ohio Supreme Court. Champions like Rep. Emilia Sykes and candidate Brian Poindexter are becoming prominent voices for a new generation of leadership at the federal level.

The Republicans are another story entirely.

Trump’s second-term policies are kicking Ohioans in the gut. Tariff policies and foreign wars are causing pain for local businesses and sending prices soaring at the grocery store and at the gas pump. Insane claims during the 2024 campaign about migrants “eating the dogs” in Springfield and the erosion of asylum protections are putting hardworking immigrant communities across the state at risk. His approval rating in the state hovers between 35 and 40 percent.

Despite that, Trump went to Vandalia this past weekend to campaign for his cast of endorsed candidates. Speaking for nearly a full hour, he ordered supporters to vote for his picks – “even if you hate them.”

They include Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech millionaire and one of Trump’s 2024 primary opponents – who many skeptics believe will use the seat as a stepping stone for a 2028 bid for the White House. Incumbent Jon Husted is running to finish the full term in the seat vacated by Trump’s Vice President, J.D. Vance, after being appointed in 2025 by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. In the Senate, he’s been a staunch Trump defender, including on the ongoing War in Iran and rolling back voting rights protections by authoring a bill to impose national voter ID.

Trump’s coming back to Ohio next week because polling is tight. A September Marist College poll put Acton up 6 points ahead of Ramaswamy for Governor. The same poll placed Brown 8 points ahead of Husted for the Senate.

In 2026, Democrats may begin to prove that while Republicans learned how to win Ohio, they have not governed to keep it. A 2026 resurgence could put Ohio back on the national electoral map for 2028 and beyond.

– Markus

🗓️In-Person Early Voting in Ohio begins TODAY, Tuesday, October 6th and ends Sunday, November 1st. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3rd. Make a plan to vote.

📢Support Ohio Democrats up and down the ballot (in-person and virtual)

🗳️Submit a Field Note

Is there a particular race we should be watching or an election-related topic you’d like covered? Comment below and we may add them to a future issue!

🗺️FIELD MAP

Five Places / Races I’m Watching Closely this Week

We’re tracking over 100 key races and candidates that are essential to defending freedom, justice, and democracy at every level. Each week, I’ll share five that you should follow, too.

📍 CALIFORNIA

Voting underway in battle to lead state post-Newsom.

The nation’s most populous state will see the end to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s nearly three-decade climb to the top of California politics with a choice: Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra (D) or Trump-endorsed news commentator / election denier Steve Hilton (R). Republicans haven’t won the Governor’s mansion in 20 years, but polling has tightened in recent weeks. Becerra, who also served as CA Attorney General and a long-time member of Congress, would make history as the state’s first Latino governor since 1875.

Mail-in ballots will begin arriving in mailboxes this week. In-person early voting sites open statewide on Saturday, October 31st.

📍 NEBRASKA 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

After a decade in the dark, a Latina organizer could reclaim state’s “Blue Dot,”

Despite voting for a Democrat for President in 2020 and 2024, Nebraska’s 2nd District shocked pundits by sending Republican Don Bacon to represent them in Congress the last five elections. The Omaha-area district is the bluest constituency represented by a Republican in Congress. With Bacon’s announced retirement, Democrats have put their faith in Denise Powell – a mom, small business owner, and co-founder of Women Who Run Nebraska – to reclaim the seat. After narrowly winning a competitive primary campaign, she’s focused on a working-class, anti-corruption agenda worthy of winning in November.

📍 PENNSYLVANIA

The midterms present an opportunity for Democrats to lay ground work for statewide success in 2028 and beyond.

Insanely positive polling for Gov. Josh Shapiro has kept his bid for a second term largely out of national headlines, but the discussion about Pennsylvania Democrats’ future is beginning. The most prominent figure is Shapiro’s running mate and second-in-command, 36-year-old Austin Davis. The first Black Pennsylvanian and youngest person in the nation currently serving as Lt. Governor has built an influential presence in the administration, especially on education and public safety. Swing-district Congressional candidates like Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-8) and Union Firefighter Bob Brooks (PA-7) would immediately change the pace in Washington and join a growing list of Democrats mentioned to challenge Sen. John Fetterman in the state’s 2028 Democratic primary.

📍 LOUISIANA

Close race for U.S. Senate seat affirms the need for greater investment in the South.

Statewide races in the South are continuing to challenge assumptions about the places and people worthy of Democratic investment. Jamie Davis, a third-generation Black farmer from Waterproof, is putting Louisiana Democrats within striking distance of capturing a U.S. Senate seat for the first time in over a decade. After carrying all 64 parishes in a competitive primary runoff, his “Louisiana First” platform, focused on lowering costs and making government work for working people, has attracted a broad coalition. A September Hart research poll put Davis within 4 points (44%/48%) of Julia Letlow, a Trump-endorsed Republican who ousted incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy in the May primary.

📍 BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

The next-generation of local leaders are focused on the future.

The Republican monopoly of Florida’s statewide politics can sometimes distract from the intentional work Florida Democrats are doing to rebuild – starting by elevating leaders that embody the state’s future. In the state’s second-most populous county, organizers are seizing opportunities to act more boldly at the local level and set a model of resurgence statewide. In Coral Springs, a generational shift could be underway with 38-year-old City Commissioner Joshua Simmons vying to become the city’s first Black mayor. There is also a battle to shield county schools from Republican attack and disinvestment. Roberto Fernandez III – an Army vet and former Broward social studies teacher – is running to unseat incumbent Adam Cervera, a DeSantis appointee. With about 180,000 students, Broward is the second-biggest school district in Florida. According to NPR, the district has lost nearly 40,000 students in the last five years.

With this newsletter, we’ll bring you news and analysis about the Christian nationalists, white nationalists, and other far-right actors who are undermining freedom and threatening the ideals of an inclusive democratic society—along with the funders and politicians who give them power.

This newsletter is our way to share our hard-won knowledge about the forces pushing our country to the right. In other words, you’ll get to read our research without having to subject yourself to hours and hours in the company of the worst people in the world. You’re welcome!

Right Wing Watch documents the ways that religion and patriotism have been manipulated and exploited to elevate racism, nativism, antisemitism, religious bigotry, and misogyny. We identify emerging influencers on the far right and document their extremism before most people are paying attention. While everyone else is reactive, we’re being proactive and identifying threats before they can emerge.

You don’t have to take our word for it. Some of the best journalists who cover politics have relied on Right Wing Watch monitoring and analysis.

A few years ago, when news broke that lesser-known white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes had just had dinner with Donald Trump and Kanye West, many reporters were asking themselves, “Nick Who?” National media outlets turned to Right Wing Watch and our video archives for credible information about Fuentes, who we had been covering for five years as he was building an audience among disaffected young men.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow recognized the importance of our reporting, calling Right Wing Watch “a fire alarm system for the whole country” and “great public service.” Mother Jones Bureau Chief David Corn has called Right Wing Watch “essential.”

We want Headquarters to be the go-to spot for the latest news you see on your feeds. This newsletter will dig into some of the deeper undercurrents that motivate MAGA:

Why are people in 2026 talking about denying women the right to vote? And why are those people still welcome in the MAGA movement?

How did most white evangelical Christians become so intensely loyal to an amoral and brazenly corrupt liar like Donald Trump?

What does it mean to have a vice president whose career has been funded by a tech oligarch who doesn’t believe in democracy?

We’ll equip you with answers to those “how can this be happening?” conversations we’re all having these days.

We’ll expose politicians who empower the bigots and fascists.

No matter what happens on Election Day, the far right isn’t going anywhere. They’ve spent the past 50 years and countless billions of dollars building a powerful political and media infrastructure that won’t be vanquished by winning a single election, no matter how large that victory may prove to be.

The better we understand it, the better we can resist and defeat it.

- Peter

On Monday, the Department of Education announced it was rolling back Title IX protections surrounding sex discrimination, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Among other things, this rollback now means that those who allege sexual assault on college campuses may now be required to have near-absolute proof that their assault took place. That means witness accounts alone aren’t sufficient. Nor are texts, testimony, or essentially anything other than a rape kit conducted immediately after someone has endured the most traumatic experience of their life.

What this really means is that even more burden falls on the victim to prevent rapists from getting off and being free to harm more people. As if that’s not bad enough, the rollback has now also eliminated protections for LGBTQ Americans at the same time as hate crimes against them have reached record highs.

To understand why this is happening, we have to zoom out.

It was all there in Project 2025.

The fascist manifesto called for Trump to “abandon” Title IX protections and insist that sex be understood as a fixed biological fact. Not only that, but it went further and called for ongoing Title IX investigations to be dropped outright.

Not on a case-by-case basis, but to abandon victims without so much as a second thought.

In 2023, Donald Trump was on trial for sexual assault and rape against E. Jean Carroll, who said Trump pushed Carroll into a dressing room, pulled down her tights, and sexually assaulted her. Carroll’s was one of countless accusations of sexual assault made against Trump dating back decades.

Trump was subsequently found liable for sexual abuse.

Since his trial, Trump has railed against the legal rules and standards that he’s said have created a “TOTALLY CORRUPT” justice system (that is, one that holds perpetrators of sexual abuse accountable). Trump has said that cancel culture, DEI, and “woke ideology” have “infected” American society, and has made it one of his personal missions to not so much as correct that but to obliterate it entirely.

At best, Trump’s latest move is an effort to redefine the bounds of how survivors of sexual abuse can seek and win justice against their attackers. At worst, it’s a concerted effort by Trump, MAGA, and the same acolytes that authored Project 2025 to enable the darkest and most twisted in our society and to let rapists from coast to coast know that they have an ally in the White House.

Given the fact that Trump has already been found liable for sexual abuse, it makes sense why he just might have an interest in making it harder for survivors of sexual assault to pursue justice. It also suggests his true aims are to fundamentally change our culture, turning it into one that gives the benefit of the doubt to alleged aggressors and causes victims to think twice before coming forward.

Put simply, Trump wants more protections for those accused of sexual assault at the expense of the victims of it. When you elect a sexual abuser to the highest office in the country, it should come as no surprise that he’ll go to war to defend his kind.

Take the controversy swirling at Cornell University as another example.

In 2024, a Cornell student reported that she was sexually assaulted by members of the Chi Phi fraternity. After Cornell conducted its own investigation and issued slaps on the wrist, the criminal investigation into the matter has been reopened this month. Going forward under Trump’s new Title IX rules, sexual assault victims like the one at Cornell will have even less protections.

The dangers for LGBTQ students in light of the rollback are even greater.

The Biden administration updated Title IX regulations to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the wake of rising levels of hate crimes against those communities.

Just as Project 2025 foretold, Trump has now rolled those very same protections back — even as hate crimes have continued to climb.

At the same time, the administration has gutted the Depart of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the team responsible for investigating discrimination complaints and protecting more than 70 million students.

To date, more than half of its staff has been fired and 7 of its 12 offices have closed entirely. When Trump took office, Ed’s OCR had just had its most discrimination claims ever recorded in 2024. Today, the office now has a backlog of over 20,000 cases, with 9,000 of those between March and September 2025 alone.

Trump understands something that many of us have been far too slow to realize: your rights, even if they exist on paper, mean nothing if there’s nobody to enforce and protect them. In his war on DEI, gutting Offices for Civil Rights across the federal government, defanging the Consumer Protection Bureau, and obliterating the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, Trump has fired, intimidated, or gagged those once in a position to protect you.

It is the explicit goal of Trump and his Project 2025 acolytes to go after the most vulnerable among us, and they will continue to do exactly that until we take that power away from them.

Despite all that, we still believe in an America where we respect the right of others to love whomever they choose, to live openly and with pride, and in an America where we not only trust victims but do everything in our power to protect them.

In 35 states, voters go to the polls and directly elect someone to the position (others are appointed by Governors or State Legislatures), but most rarely take up space in the minds of voters outside of an election year.

A Secretary of State’s job is typically pretty mundane. They’re your state’s top official in charge of things like keeping official state records, business registration, and – most importantly – election administration. They enforce election rules, maintain statewide voter rolls, and make sure local communities have the resources they need to ensure every vote counts.

A Secretary of State’s job, while political, is not supposed to be partisan. The best holders of the office take the sanctity of their role seriously and often distance themselves from the partisanship and public displays we usually get from elected officials.

Then 2020 happened.

After Donald Trump (definitely) lost the 2020 presidential election, he spent months waging a legal, political – and eventually, violent – battle to stay in office.

Phones started ringing in Secretaries of State offices around the country and, all of a sudden, these obscure elected administrators became household names:

Brad Raffensperger. Katie Hobbs. Jocelyn Benson.

It was Trump calling. Legal threats. Lies. Pleading to “find 11,780 votes.”

And what they did made all the difference. They defended election workers who were being harassed. They protected the results of free and fair elections despite political attacks and death threats. They took unexpectedly large platforms in extraordinarily difficult times and defended American democracy before the world.

Votes were certified and these little-known officials with very important jobs quite literally saved democracy from destruction.

They may have to do it again.

Just as in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election and January 6, 2021 Insurrection, Trump is pulling out every stop to prevent what he believes is an inevitable loss in the midterms.

The courts have struck down repeated attempts from his Justice Department to take control of state voter rolls. He has threatened to prosecute and arrest state and local election officials over unsubstantiated claims regarding noncitizen voting. He has weaponized the US Postal Service to manipulate mail-in voting. His allies in Republican-controlled states and Congress have welcomed the presence of federal officers, including ICE agents, at polling places – and even encouraged a declaration of Martial Law.

Whether in this election or the next, this frequently disregarded official in your state might hear their phone ring. Do you know what they’d do to defend democracy?

26 states will elect their Secretary of State in 2026: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Find out who’s on the ballot in your state.

If your Secretary of State could be one of the few people standing between democracy and dictatorship, you might as well know their name.

– Markus

🗳️Submit a Field Note

Is there a particular race we should be watching or an election-related topic you’d like covered? Comment below and we may add them to a future issue!

🗺️FIELD MAP

Five Places / Races I’m Watching Closely this Week

We’re tracking over 100 key races and candidates that are essential to defending freedom, justice, and democracy at every level. Each week, I’ll share five opportunities in the field you should follow, too.

📍 MICHIGAN

A battle from the top of the ballot to the bottom.

Michigan is one of the few states in the country where one election – with major races at both the federal and state level – will determine its direction for years to come. Abdul El-Sayed’s run for the U.S. Senate seat is rightfully well-publicized. But Michigan Democrats know they must also help Jocelyn Benson keep the Governor’s Mansion; elect Garlin Gilchrist as Secretary of State; send Eli Savit to the Attorney General’s office; and regain their once-narrow-but-effective majorities in the legislature to deliver on a bold agenda.

📍 NEW YORK 17th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Progressive straight-talker boosts chances to retake seat essential to winning House majority.

This Rockland/Westchester-based district outside of New York City slipped out of Democratic control by less than 4 points after aggressive post-2020 redistricting. It’s one of only eight districts won by Kamala Harris in 2024 currently held by Republicans. 41-year-old combat veteran, national security expert (and Russia-banned badass) Cait Conley is raising Democrats’ hopes of beating incumbent Mike Lawler.

📍 ARKANSAS

People-First Farmer is giving Tom Cotton a run for his millions.

Arkansas’ Senate race is another one of those races worth paying attention to in the South. While most predictions point to Republican Tom Cotton winning a third term in the deep-red state, 39-year-old Hallie Shoffner is turning heads. The sixth-generation farmer and small business owner has emerged as a champion for lowering costs and supporting working families. An August Hendrix College poll had her leading (47%/44%) in a state Trump won by 20 points in 2024.

📍 OHIO

Statewide contests could set stage for comeback for Buckeye Democrats.

While Ohio has trended red and fallen out of swing-state conversations in recent years, there’s plenty of opportunity this year for Democrats to set the stage for a lasting resurgence. Sherrod Brown is a proven winner and working-class champion primed to take back a seat in the Senate. Ohio Democrats have also built a strong bench for statewide offices, including Amy Acton (Governor), Allison Russo (Secretary of State), and Annette Blackwell (Auditor). Putting Marilyn Zayas on the state’s Supreme Court bench alongside Jennifer Brunner would put a dent in a Republican super-majority.

📍 TEXAS STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 138

Young candidate embracing unity to flip Houston-area seat in Texas House.

For years, the 138th House district in Houston/Harris County has been under Republican control – but only narrowly. In an election where Texas Democrats are more fired up than they’ve been in years and voters of all parties are looking for problem-solvers, 29-year-old Tyler Smith believes he can unite a broad working-class coalition to achieve a quality-of-life agenda untied to party.

In response, the entire White House press pool announced Monday that they wouldn’t be covering Trump until the ban was lifted, saying that “no administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”

Rather than uphold the First Amendment’s protections of free speech and a free press, Trump launched “Trump TV” – a state-run, taxpayer-funded media channel playing 24/7 Trump propaganda.

This isn’t about whether you like how news organizations cover Trump, or whether you like the questions they ask and issues they raise.

This is about whether the president gets to decide which journalists are allowed to question him in the first place, and whether the American people’s unfettered access to unobstructed media can be curtailed on the whims of America’s Hitler (JD Vance’s words, not ours).

In banning the media, Trump thought it was a show of force, but in reality all it’s done is expose the fact that Trump is an emperor with no clothes. It’s exposed how weak, unpopular, and out-of-touch he is with the rest of the country in a way nothing else could.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins is a seasoned veteran of the White House press corps. She has covered the White House since 2017 and consistently been the one asking the tough questions, raising the hot-button issues, and refusing to take no for an answer.

It makes sense why Trump hates her.

For two years now, Collins has been one of the few willing to consistently look Donald Trump in the eye, ask the question he doesn’t want to answer, and then ask it again when he inevitably refuses to answer or tries to change the subject.

Collins has embodied what the press is meant to do – and what our First Amendment was literally designed to protect. Given that Trump has already violated the Constitution in more ways than we can count, it’s no surprise that he could care less about your freedom of speech, either.

What he didn’t expect was that the rest of the media would voluntarily cut their own coverage of him in protest, and by extension deny him the very thing he craves most: the spotlight.

This was made abundantly clear during a press event Monday on the South Lawn of the White House. Usually, Trump uses these occasions to ramble and rave about whatever his latest grievance is (like how there still isn’t enough gold around the White House, or his ballroom isn’t being built fast enough, or basically anything other than your soaring costs, his failed war, or the Epstein Files).

Without the press pool, though, not a single person could hear him. Cameras rolled and showed Trump doing his usual bluster, but in a gift many of us have been wishing for since 2015, we couldn’t hear him.

As much as Trump professes to hate the press for uncovering his grifts, corruption, and erosion of basic American rights, the hard truth he must confront is that he’s nothing without the media.

Without the press, all of Trump’s bluster falls away. Without the press, there’s nobody to cover his ramblings, ravings, lying, and psychopathic egotism. Put simply, without the press, Trump is nothing more than a guy 20 years too old and countless pounds too heavy desperately trying to cling on to relevance.

In uniting against him, the press has made clear that Trump can’t restrict one of them without going after all of them.

We applaud their resistance, but we also can’t help but see how, for some, it may just be too little, too late.

For years, Fox News has aided and abetted Trump’s corruption, anti-American power grabs, xenophobic agenda, and really anything else he’s wanted.

At the same time, other media organizations have cow-towed to Trump and forfeited their independence in the name of “honest reporting.”

None has done so more than CBS, who installed a pro-Trump puppet in Bari Weiss at the top of the organization. Since taking over, she’s fired nearly all of their veteran journalists, spiked stories that would damage Trump, and turned one of America’s pre-eminent news organizations into a place for pro-Trump propaganda.

What each of these organizations have now learned is the age-old lesson that you can’t help create a tyrant without losing your own freedom in the process.

Make no mistake, if Trump has his way, this is only the beginning. If he has his way, every single right that makes us Americans is up for debate and dependent on the whims of one man’s fragile ego hidden under a head of fake hair.

It was John Lewis who famously said: “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.” At the end of the day, our rights are words written on a piece of paper, and they are only as strong as is our willingness to fight for them, defend them, and expand them – no matter who the president is or what his MAGA goons may want.

Trump’s move is but the latest warning that his America is where freedom goes to die, and if we sit idly by, we’ll watch the death of America at the hands of a man who’s never known a life other than one of wealth, privilege, and entitlement.

When Trump publicly named Headquarters as a “media offender” and enemy of the people, we said that we wouldn’t give up and wouldn’t stop pursuing the truth, wherever it may lead.

We also said that while we were among the first new media outlets he went after, we wouldn’t be the last. We said that Trump’s assault on influencers and online creators was but the newest front in his war on free speech in any form. We hoped we were wrong, but his latest moves have confirmed our worst fears. While legacy media is seemingly just now grappling with the threat Trump poses to all of our rights, we’ve been sounding the alarm for months.

Make no mistake, Trump will keep pushing, attacking, and silencing all those who stand against his MAGA agenda until we stand up and stop him once and for all.

Across the country, ten states have adopted new congressional boundaries for the 2026 election cycle, an extraordinary mid-decade scheme set into motion by Donald Trump that has put millions of voters into different districts. Six of those states are in the South.

The lines matter. They determine which communities are grouped together, which voters are separated, and which candidates suddenly have to introduce themselves to an entirely different electorate.

But maps aren’t elections. People are.

And across the South, a generation of candidates is demonstrating why the region deserves a much closer look this November.

Consider Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District.

After Republicans redrew Tennessee’s congressional map, the Memphis-centered district changed dramatically. Into that new political landscape stepped Justin J. Pearson, the young Memphis state representative and environmental justice advocate who won the Democratic nomination in August.

The general election will be difficult for Democrats. A September Hart Research poll nevertheless found Republican Brent Taylor at 48% and Pearson at 44%—a margin within five points.

That doesn’t tell us what will happen in November. But it does tell us Pearson has built a campaign capable of competing for attention and support in a challenging district.

And that is becoming a pattern.

In Alabama, Shomari Figures is defending a seat whose boundaries have also been reshaped because of redistricting.

The new contest has drawn national attention, and the numbers are notable. A late-August Tulchin Research poll put Figures and Republican Rhett Marques at 47% each among likely voters. An earlier DCCC-sponsored survey also had the race tied at 46% apiece.

The field is telling us something the map alone cannot.

The story isn’t even confined to congressional districts. Conventional wisdom around which states matter is also being challenged.

In Texas, James Talarico is running statewide for the U.S. Senate in a state where Democrats have not won a Senate race since 1988. Yet public polling throughout the summer and into September has repeatedly shown a close contest with Republican Ken Paxton.

In South Carolina, Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and Democratic Senate candidate, has built a campaign around an unusually broad grassroots base, raising more than $12 million from nearly 500,000 individual contributions, averaging $28. And that effort is showing up in the numbers: an InsiderAdvantage poll conducted September 8–9 put Andrews at 43.2% and Republican nominee Darline Graham at 45.1%.

In Mississippi, Scott Colom is running for Senate in another state where Democrats face a difficult statewide environment, but the polls are closer than expected. A Data for Progress survey conducted in August found Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith at 47% and Colom at 41% among likely voters.

And in Florida, Angie Nixon has emerged as another candidate demanding a closer look. Two September surveys put Nixon within the margin of error of Republican incumbent Ashley Moody: Change Research had the race at 47%-47%, while a St. Pete Polls survey had Moody at 45.2% and Nixon at 44.8%.

Together, these races illustrate something important:

Southern Democrats are not simply waiting for the political terrain to become easier. They’re building campaigns in the terrain that exists now.

Pearson. Figures. Talarico. Andrews. Colom. Nixon.

They are candidates deeply rooted in their communities with rich and diverse lived experiences that inform their values on faith, affordability, defending freedom, and fighting corruption – messages that voters of all racial and political backgrounds are responding to.

Redistricting can redraw boundaries overnight. It cannot redraw relationships. It cannot erase the local organizing that connects candidates to voters. It cannot eliminate the ability of a candidate to build a coalition across communities. And it cannot tell us what happens when voters decide that a race is worth fighting.

That is why the South deserves a place near the center of the 2026 political conversation.

The maps are set.

But the field is still moving.

– Markus

Join us in helping these Southern state candidates beat the odds this November: Find volunteer opportunities (in-person and virtual).

🗳️Submit a Field Note

Is there a particular race we should be watching or election question you’d like answered? Comment below and we may add them to a future issue!

🗺️MAP ROOM

5 Places / Races I’m Watching Closely this Week

We’re tracking over 100 key races and candidates that are essential to defending freedom, justice, and democracy at every level. Each week, I’ll share five opportunities in the field you should follow, too.

📍 ARIZONA STATE LEG DISTRICT 13

A new generation of state-level leadership.

Arizona’s 13th Legislative District is one of the places where the future of the state’s Democratic bench is being built in real time. Racquel “Rockee” Armstrong and Jacob Weinberg, two young, progressive voices, advanced through the August primary and are now in a four-way race to sweep a district where voters select two state representatives.

📍 NEVADA

A governor’s race separated by single digits in recent polling.

Nevada’s governor’s race is shaping up as one of the country’s closely watched statewide contests. Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford is challenging Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, with recent polling showing the contest within the margin of error. An Emerson College/7 News/Las Vegas Review-Journal survey conducted September 5–8 found Ford at 44% and Lombardo at 42%, with 11% undecided.

📍 CALIFORNIA 22nd CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

A grassroots Central Valley campaign taking on a longtime incumbent.

California’s Central Valley is home to one of the year’s most closely watched House contests. Randy Villegas, a Central Valley educator and local elected official, is challenging Republican Rep. David Valadao in a district Democrats have targeted for years. A June Tulchin Research poll had Villegas at 48% and Valadao at 44%. The campaign is also demonstrating the potential reach of a grassroots model in a historically competitive region.

📍 GEORGIA

A statewide turnout test.

Georgia’s Democratic slate — including gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff — is heading into the final stretch with national attention focused squarely on the state. Now the challenge is turning that broad primary coalition into November turnout. Bottoms and Ossoff have already appeared together on the campaign trail, including joint events designed to build Democratic enthusiasm across the state.

📍 WISCONSIN

A new governor’s matchup with the state’s political future at stake.

Wisconsin enters the final stretch with a new matchup for governor: Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany. Crowley, 40, won the Democratic primary in August after defeating a crowded field. He now works to build a statewide coalition that connects Milwaukee County’s electorate with voters across Wisconsin and define the stakes of the governor’s race during the final weeks.

Literally.

On Wednesday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that the House would be adjourning early (yet again) and would not be back in session until after the November midterm elections.

Coincidence?

We think not.

Despite their weak attempts to project strength and confidence, Trump and Johnson are reading the same polls we are.

Republicans aren’t just behind in blue districts, or battleground districts, or even light red districts. They’re behind in ruby-red, solidly Republican (or so we thought) districts.

To make matters even worse, Republicans are staring down the very real possibility that all of that gerrymandering they did back in 2025 to try and rig the 2026 midterms will blow up in their face and end up handing the Democrats additional seats because of how toxic Republicans have become nationwide. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Republicans are collapsing across literally every demographic: with voters in every race, in every state, at every level across the country.

When you realize that, Johnson’s scramble to get Republicans back home to try and salvage whatever’s left of their careers starts to make a lot more sense.

And yet, that still isn’t the full picture.

Not only has Republican leadership sent the House home early this week, it’s the fifth time.

House members will only work 84 days between January and November of 2026. From July through November of this year, members of the House were in session for just 6 days.

Yet they’ll still collect their full six-figure salaries.

To give some context, Americans will have worked 223 days between January and November.

While you’re putting in 40, 50, even 60 or more hours every single week, 5 days a week, House Republicans have been punching the clock and refusing to show up for work. If you did that, you wouldn’t get paid, and you’d get fired pretty damn fast.

For Republicans?

Perks of power.

Mind you, this is the same Republican Party that has unilaterally blocked universal paid leave at every turn. The contradiction is deafening.

All this begs the question: why do the same Republicans that are now going home to beg you to send them back to Washington seem to hate their jobs so much?

The answer is quite simple: when the going gets tough, they’d rather skip town.

Just this week, Representative Thomas Massie (a Republican) began collecting signatures for a new discharge petition compelling Trump and his MAGA-infested DOJ to release the rest of the Epstein Files (where Trump is mentioned more than 38,000 times). Massie also introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – and he very well may have had 218 votes for it. In a Republican-majority Congress.

At the same time, Republicans are being drowned in calls from constituents demanding they pass new regulations on AI development and data centers in the wake of the damning revelations about AI’s very real potential to kill us all within a decade, and the much closer possibility that AI could have the power to take down the entire internet in just 6 months to a year.

Rather than, you know, stay in Washington and address the needs of Americans, they’ve once again bowed before the Dear Leader, who forbade them from passing any new regulations, providing any more transparency for survivors of Epstein (we all know why), or doing anything else that might make our lives even slightly better.

So keep this in mind as you balance your job (or two), child care, health care, groceries, rent, and soaring gas prices. While you’re doing that, just know Republicans are at home relaxing and collecting a salary you pay.

If they hate showing up to work so much, why don’t we do them all a favor and send them packing for good?

No matter what games they try to play or rules they try to rig, we can wash these insider-trading, Trump-glazing swamp monsters away in just 45 days.

The choice is yours to make. Let your voice be your vote, and let us unite as one to tell Trump and MAGA that not only are their days numbered, but their time is up.

There is perhaps no industry in America that has received a warmer welcome from Donald Trump than artificial intelligence.

Trump has embraced AI with an evangelical fervor he usually reserves for skyscrapers, ballrooms, and anything to do with himself. He has promised to make America the world’s AI superpower (at any cost), stood alongside tech oligarchs to announce hundreds of billions of new dollars to tech and AI companies, and repeatedly insisted that the country needs to build massive data centers – opposition be damned.

That alone would be concerning enough. But this week, the people actually building that technology gave us a rather horrifying reason to ask whether Trump’s embrace of AI is becoming something much more dangerous than his latest billionaire-backed economic crusade against the working class.

Last week, a researcher who spent the last 3 years working at OpenAI and Anthropic, resigned.

In announcing his resignation, he said that AI companies are “gambling with our lives,” despite the fact that the people building AI “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

You heard that right. Experts building the AI models hundreds of millions (if not billions) of people use on a daily basis – ChatGPT, Gemini, Azure, Claude, and more – are convinced they’re quite literally designing humanity’s own demise.

In response, a current Anthropic employee tasked with “alignment science,” agreed saying “we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!” He said Anthropic was the only company that could be trusted with such a technology, and so they were racing to build it to prevent it being used for ill.

Which is pretty much the same logic that led us to develop the atomic bomb, setting off 50 years of nuclear arms races?

As if it couldn’t get any worse, the Anthropic employee also conceded that none of the major tech companies have a plan to solve the problem of aligning artificial intelligence with human interests.

Nor are they even working on a solution.

And now, the people running those companies are asking Washington to do something about it.

Over the weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for the industry to “pace the frontier,” sounding the alarm in saying that AI development is moving faster than our ability to make it safe. Within hours, CEOS at OpenAI, Google, and DeepSeek all publicly endorsed the call for a slower pace of development. They’ve asked for legislation mandating testing and for the government to step in and determine whether sufficiently dangerous AI systems should be blocked.

To put a finer point on that: the CEOs of some of the most powerful companies in the world are telling us that their own technology is advancing too quickly and that they don’t have the capability to regulate themselves without government intervention.

What has Donald Trump’s response been to all of this?

Pedal to the metal. Creative destruction. Gamble with our wealth, our health, and our very lives.

On Monday, Trump rejected the calls for new guardrails, declaring that the only control AI needs is a “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT” and calling efforts to regulate AI and data centers a “SICK conspiracy.” (Trump also came out in favor of flock cameras at the same time, by the way.)

And if AI does rise up?

“We’ll be fine,” Trump says.

Somehow, we’ve landed in the timeline where the people with the strongest reasons to avoid regulation are now the ones begging for it, and the man tasked with passing regulation is not only refusing to lift a finger, but promising to unilaterally block it.

Lately, data centers have emerged as a focal point of the AI development race. Without them, the biggest AI models currently hurtling forward wouldn’t be able to. Or at least not quite as fast. Among Americans from every walk of life or political affiliation, they’ve also drawn near-universal opposition.

In typical Trumpian fashion however, he’s decided to ignore your fears and push on because it’ll make him and his billionaire buddies richer – even if it kills us all in the process.

And if you oppose them?

Trump calls you “backwards” and “poor.”

You definitely wouldn’t oppose them because of valid concerns over the environmental, economic, or social impacts of haphazardly throwing up data centers that consume enormous amounts of electricity and water. Or because of the fact that AI is advancing faster than any technology ever while running entirely unchecked by a Congress full of old octogenarians who have no idea how social media platforms make money (it’s ads), much less any of the intricacies of artificial intelligence.

And of course, you definitely wouldn’t oppose them because these tech companies’ own employees are saying it could kill all of us.

Anyways, according to Trump, what any “rational” person should do is “Let Data Reign.”

Trump isn’t describing AI as one industry among many competing for investment, or for land, or for energy resources. He’s describing it as our economic destiny – or our collective fate.

What Trump really means, though, is we must let data reign over us. If Trump had his way, he’d keep his billions, his houses, his jets, and his golf courses, while we sacrifice, suffer, and lose in the name of further enriching the special interests that have bought the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

In July 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to facilitate the “rapid and efficient buildout” of AI data centers and related infrastructure.

Trump’s goal was clear: build more data centers, build them now, and remove any obstacles standing in their way.

More than a year later, data from Erin Brockovich suggests there are over 300 data centers currently under construction, receiving permitting, or pending approval.

In a year.

Though perhaps the most important factor that often gets missed is:

The American people won’t benefit in any meaningful way.

The companies building America’s AI infrastructure are some of the wealthiest on the planet, led by the richest people in the world. The trillions of dollars expected to be generated by AI development won’t be going to regular people trying to get by; it’ll be going to the wealthiest among us, serving only to exacerbate income inequality and erode your buying power in a time where things already cost too damn much.

American communities can’t benefit from wealth they don’t own. But they can absolutely be harmed by it.

This week, we’ve also learned that these same models have been used by the Houthis to autonomously direct missiles to strike U.S. positions in the Middle East. We’ve been warned by those at the very top that, if left unregulated, another AI testing zone breach could bring down the entire internet. We’ve seen universal agreement (if you ignore McDonald’s biggest customer) that AI humanoid robots could turn on humans and wipe us out entirely.

To call that merely scary would be the understatement of the century.

Today, Trump stands on an island of one. It isn’t hyperbole to say that our historically unpopular age-addled, weight-rattled 80-year-old president is the only person standing against AI regulation – ‘till death do us part, apparently.

Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, in favor of or opposed to AI, or frankly couldn’t care less about any of it, we can all agree that the federal government shouldn’t be flagrantly ignoring the will of everyday Americans in favor of the same under-regulated, under-taxed oligarchs when even they are now pleading for regulation.

Even when the experts and CEOs tell us AI may kill us all, what’s Trump’s response?

Let Data Reign.

With this president, the only game he’s interested in playing is Monopoly – except we’re already 10 turns and hundreds of billions of dollars behind.