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. That price tag made it the most expensive congressio...

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. It narrowly elected Biden in 2020, then gave Trump a three-point edge in 2024. As the once-red...

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.To be clear, the Voting Rights Act doesn’t require states to draw districts to give voters a cha...

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.“You aren’t the problem; neither are your fellow Americans,” Ossoff says in a new web ad. “The problem is a corrupt and failing political system.” More Democrats should sound like Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff. Considered one of the most vulnerable Demo...

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. The scramble follows last week’s US Supreme Court ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act, which came in time to allow states to redraw their maps — even though in some states, voting has already started.

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.” Governor Ron DeSantis and his attorneys have said they think some of the provisions violate the Equal Pro...

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.

Bloomberg.com • 17th April 2026

Can a Republican Defy Trump and Survive? We’re About to Find Out

Can a Republican congressman criticize President Donald Trump and still win his primary? We will get an answer in about a month. On May 19, Kentucky voters will decide between incumbent Representative Thomas Massie and his Trump-recruited opponent Ed Gallrein.

Bloomberg.com • 10th April 2026

Florida’s Embrace of ICE Has Come at a Cost

Florida is dramatically — but quietly — changing the way immigration enforcement is practiced. The state’s Republican leaders have made it a testing ground for the aggressive immigration enforcement tactics championed by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. And although arrests have soared, the heavy-handed approach has had little measurable effect on crime — and is destabilizing communities across the state.

Bloomberg.com • 3rd April 2026

Florida Woman Could Blow Up Democrats’ Anti-Corruption Message

The House Ethics Committee last week found US Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick guilty of 25 ethics violations, concluding that the Florida Democrat had misused millions of Covid relief dollars to fund her 2022 special election. The unanimous, bipartisan vote followed a seven-hour hearing which the normally secretive panel held in public. Cherfilus-McCormick has denied the allegations and said she will be exonerated.

Bloomberg.com • 31st March 2026

A Crackdown on Dreamers Is a Crackdown on the American Dream

As a high-achieving college kid, Alex Vallejo wasn’t surprised by the kind of young people he met at the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers’ national conference in Salt Lake City three years ago. Like him, there were other computer-science students who were in their school robotics clubs. Like him, there were other web developers and students who worked two jobs while getting top grades. All predictably impressive.

Bloomberg.com • 26th March 2026

Rubio’s Courtroom Moment Has 2028 Implications

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified against his longtime ally David Rivera in federal court in Miami this week, it was reportedly the first time a sitting cabinet member had taken the stand in a criminal trial since 1983. Rubio’s testimony wasn’t just remarkable for breaking a four-decade streak. It also carried a potential political upside. By breaking from a friend whose legal troubles have dogged Rubio for years, he may be able to minimize a political vulnerability ahead of a likely...

Bloomberg.com • 20th March 2026

Trump’s Voting Crackdown Could Cost the GOP Votes

Senate Republicans started debate this week on the SAVE America Act, an unprecedented voting overhaul that President Donald Trump says will “guarantee the midterms” for his party. But despite the president’s pressure campaign, the bill is unlikely to pass — at least in its current form.That’s partly because Senate Republicans don’t seem to have the 60 votes to end a filibuster and overcome Democratic opposition.

Bloomberg.com • 19th March 2026

Florida’s Red Wall on Immigration Is Starting to Crack

Cracks are widening in the Republican Party’s support for the Trump administration’s hardline approach to immigration enforcement. The latest fissure developed this week in deep-red Florida. A panel of Republican sheriffs and chiefs of police, the backbone of Florida’s law enforcement establishment, agreed on Monday to draft a letter to President Donald Trump and congressional leaders urging them to stop rounding up immigrants who they said arrived in the U.S. “inappropriately” but have otherwis...

Bloomberg.com • 15th March 2026

Trump’s Immigration Raids Are Reshaping the Catholic Vote

It’s not normal for a priest to bring a cell phone into the sanctuary when he is celebrating Mass. But when Father Paul Haverstock heard there were masked immigration agents in the parking lot of his church in January, he said he wanted “a clear recording of me letting the agents know that we’re in the middle of a religious service.”Haverstock is pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Hopkins, Minnesota, which has a largely Spanish-speaking congregation. He never needed to do any...

Bloomberg.com • 11th March 2026

Florida’s Young Republicans Have a Hate Problem

An ugly feature of the Republican Party in the MAGA era resurfaced this month in Florida, even though the GOP has long been trying to hide it.A WhatsApp group chat for Republican students started by the secretary of the Miami-Dade County GOP was recently leaked to the Miami Herald and the conservative website The Floridian. Messages from last fall show participants spewing hatred against Jews, graphically describing violence against Black people, demeaning women and LGBTQ individuals, and even g...

Bloomberg.com • 4th March 2026

Four Takeaways From the Texas Primaries

Texas voters delivered surprises to both parties in Tuesday’s statewide primaries, signaling they may be prepared for tectonic change in November. But election night in the Lone Star State also provided a preview of how Republicans willing to elevate President Donald Trump’s unfounded rumors about widespread voter fraud might disrupt elections come November.Here are four takeaways: Texas voters delivered surprises to both parties in Tuesday’s statewide primaries, signaling they may be prepared...