Bloomberg.com • 16th July 2026

Two States Are Making the Case That Money Isn't Political Speech

Who should have more power — the people of the states or the corporations that are authorized by them? For legislators in Hawaii and Montana, the answer is most definitely the former, not the latter. Both states are advancing laws to put power back in the hands of people and get corporations out of the business of influencing elections by overcoming Citizens United, the landmark 2010 Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance. The idea is elegant in its simplicity. Corporations and other organizat...

Bloomberg.com • 13th July 2026

Lindsey Graham’s Death Deprives the GOP of Its Whisperer-in-Chief

No matter what you thought of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s politics, his sudden death on Saturday deepens a void in an institution badly in need of more people willing to build relationships across the aisle.Graham died of complications from heart disease after returning from a trip to Ukraine, where he and a bipartisan group of senators announced last week they had reached a deal on new sanctions on Russia. He had been seeking a fifth Senate term. Now, South Carolina’s governor will...

Bloomberg.com • 3rd July 2026

US Democracy Wasn’t Inevitable. Neither Is 250 More Years

The 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is a good time to remember that the American Revolution wasn’t inevitable. It took a series of tremendous acts of courage.Spend any time with the historical accounts of the Continental Congress, and you realize they were a ragtag group of lawyers, farmers and merchants who had the courage to challenge the unchecked power of a lawbreaking tyrant. The 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is a go...

Bloomberg.com • 1st July 2026

Courts Aren’t Buying Trump’s Voting Lies. He’s Not Giving Up

President Donald Trump’s assault on elections took another hit Monday when the US Supreme Court rejected a Republican bid to restrict mail voting. In a 5-4 decision, the justices upheld Mississippi’s grace period for ballots postmarked by Election Day — and the principle that the Constitution gives states authority over elections. But Trump isn’t listening. He’s trying every angle to sidestep the courts and weaponize the federal government to interfere with the midterms. President Donald Trum...

Bloomberg.com • 28th June 2026

Florida Needs Haitian Workers. Congress Should Let Them Stay

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration has the unfettered ability to end temporary protected status for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians, allowing federal officials to begin deporting them.The 6-3 ruling from the conservative court means these TPS holders will lose their ability to live and work in the US by the end of July, forcing them to return to countries the US State Department has determined are too unsafe to travel to. The US Supreme Court on Thursd...

Bloomberg.com • 25th June 2026

How a Conservative Georgia Town Defeated an ICE Mega-Prison

A tiny town in rural Georgia, which four months ago was destined to become the home of a massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, has fought the White House and won. By all accounts, Social Circle — located about halfway between Atlanta and Augusta — doesn’t seem a likely place to mount a revolt against the overreach of the Trump/Vance administration. It has only about 5,000 inhabitants. Its voters are overwhelmingly Republican. And about 72% of the county voted for Presiden...

Bloomberg.com • 3rd June 2026

DeSantis’ Plan to Gut Property Taxes Is a Soviet Power Grab

Florida legislators have approved an amendment for the November ballot that gives new meaning to the phrase “the red state of Florida.” Think Soviet, not Republican. The proposal, offered up by Governor Ron DeSantis and rammed through yesterday in a special session, would give property tax exemptions of at least $250,000 to residents who have owned homes in Florida at least five years. In return, city and county spending would be at the mercy of the state. Florida legislators have approved an a...

Bloomberg.com • 1st June 2026

A $5.5 Million Airport Rebrand the Trumps May Profit From

Travelers to Florida take note: Palm Beach International Airport will soon be renamed the President Donald J. Trump International Airport, complete with new call letters: DJT. When the name-change takes effect in July, it will not only be the first time an airport will be named after a sitting president, but the first time such an arrangement can create new revenue streams for him and his family.We will all be paying for it, and not only in taxes.Trump has a tradition of using government infrast...

Bloomberg.com • 27th May 2026

Ken Paxton Ran as a 'Change' Candidate. How Ironic

“Today, change was on the ballot, and change won,” Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, declared in his victory speech an hour after polls closed in Tuesday’s runoff election. Paxton, buoyed by a late endorsement from President Donald Trump, had just defeated veteran senator John Cornyn in a blowout.Unfortunately, in the Trump era, the change the scandal-plagued Paxton promotes means one thing: even greater fealty to Trump and even fewer checks on corruption. “Today, change was on the ballot...

Bloomberg.com • 25th May 2026

Democrats Are Putting Their Faith in Military Veterans

Voters have lost faith in just about every institution right now — with the exception of the military, according to Gallup’s annual survey. So Democrats, in their quest to win back a majority in the US House, are recruiting military veterans. Their appeal boils down to one thing: courage. Voters want to see it. Few Republicans in Congress have been demonstrating it. And no one can deny veterans have it. Alex Vindman, 50, is one of their recruits. The retired Army lieutenant colonel and Iraq war...

Bloomberg.com • 20th May 2026

Trump’s Massie Smackdown May Cost Him in November

President Donald Trump’s GOP revenge tour reached a new level on Tuesday with the expensive defeat of Congressman Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who dared to challenge the president over his abandoned campaign promises. It was a commanding win for a president who is epically unpopular with most Americans, yet retains a vise-like grip on his party. But it was a devastating blow for democracy. The total cost of the takedown: $33 million.

Bloomberg.com • 19th May 2026

Georgia’s Primary Offers an Early Midterms Preview

It’s primary day in Georgia. The results, perhaps more than in any other state, will give us a glimpse of what’s likely to come in November. With an open race for governor, a high-profile US Senate contest, and a slew of down-ballot races, this swing state could be an early referendum on the president and his second term. No state is closer to the epicenter of America’s political pendulum than Georgia.

Bloomberg.com • 16th May 2026

A Fix for Gerrymandering Both Parties Could Love

America’s political landscape has become a stinking mess. More and more states are joining the race to the bottom to gerrymander away the power of their voters. But we don’t have to hold our noses any longer — there’s a fix in sight. And it doesn’t even require a constitutional amendment. It’s time to shift to the system most of the world’s advanced democracies use: proportional representation. It’s a power-sharing arrangement in which parties get seats according to their vote share. America’s...

Bloomberg.com • 14th May 2026

Of Course the South’s Redistricting Rush Isn’t ‘Race-Neutral’

Until South Carolina tapped the brakes on the redistricting rush on Tuesday, it seemed that throughout much of the old Confederacy, the Republican Party had decided it was finished with representative democracy. Within hours of the US Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act, southern states lined up to erase decades-old congressional districts that had given voice to minority communities.

Bloomberg.com • 11th May 2026

Ossoff’s Corruption Message Goes Beyond Trump

More Democrats should sound like Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff. Considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in Congress, he’s cast aside caution and is delivering a message that cuts to the core of American grievance. He’s now leading in the polls.

Bloomberg.com • 7th May 2026

Voters, Gerrymandering Steals Your Power. Don’t Let It

Republicans in Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana rushed to gerrymander congressional districts this week. Mississippi scheduled a special session for May 20 to revise its maps, and lawmakers in South Carolina are talking about extending their legislative session to do the same.

Bloomberg.com • 2nd May 2026

Florida Betrays Its Own Constitution to Draw New 2026 Maps

Florida this week joined the growing list of state legislatures to pass a gerrymandered map that favors the party in power. Lawmakers had to violate the state constitution to do it. Under the Fair Districts amendments, approved by 63% of the state’s voters in 2010, the Florida Constitution prohibits redistricting plans “with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.”

Bloomberg.com • 30th April 2026

Epstein’s Victims Don’t Want a Maxwell Pardon

Flying home from San Francisco to Miami earlier this month, Frankie Lopez diverted his trip to stop in the rural heart of Kentucky. Dressed in a sleek suit jacket and crisp black dress shirt, he arrived in a converted barn in Williamstown as guests were gathering for the annual Grant County Republican Party dinner. Lopez pulled the featured speaker aside. “Thank you,” he told Congressman Thomas Massie quietly, “for giving voice to the victims.”

Bloomberg.com • 27th April 2026

Republicans Are Tempting Fate With Florida’s Redistricting

Florida becomes the next battle in the White House redistricting wars this week as legislators begin a four-day special redistricting session on Tuesday. But the question before Republicans isn’t easy: Do they draw a new map that pleases the president but risks electing more Democrats, or do they just tinker a bit and hope to hold tight to safe seats? Florida lawmakers don’t seem to have an answer.

Bloomberg.com • 22nd April 2026

Congress Suddenly Remembers It Has Ethics Rules

The resignations of three members of Congress over misconduct allegations demonstrate that the US House — which most Americans think can’t get its act together — not only has the capacity to hold members accountable, but can also do so rapidly. At least, when it wants to.