New York Magazine asked Democratic strategists to identify the party’s rising stars, beyond the most famous names.
They came up with a next-generation list of 25 Democrats to watch, from prominent members of Congress to attention-grabbing state representatives.
MSNBC runs an excerpt from Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department:
“Knowingly taking classified documents outside of a secure government facility was a crime, plain and simple, she explained. Trying to conceal them after receiving a May subpoena to return all classified records, as Trump had, made the crime far worse, she argued. But Olsen’s team knew that with Trump, all bets were off. The Justice Department would invariably treat the former president more gingerly.”
Just published: Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley by Jacob Silverman.
What happens if the world’s richest and most powerful men decide to dismantle democracy?
“In a record-setting early-voting period, more than 735,000 New Yorkers cast ballots in the race for the city’s next mayor, braving long, meandering lines outside polling stations,” the New York Times reports.
“More than a week of early voting ended with a surge, with about 151,000 people showing up on Sunday, the final day to vote before Election Day on Tuesday.”
“Regardless of how the shutdown ends, Democrats have accomplished one major political goal: placing health care top of mind for this election and potentially the next,” MSNBC reports.
“Democrats have staked the shutdown fight on combating rising health care costs, demanding that Republicans work with them to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year. And as interested as Democrats are in solving the problem of rising Obamacare premiums, they know there’s a political benefit to this issue hanging over everyone’s head.”
“As Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) was laying into Tucker Carlson during a speech to fellow Jewish Republicans on Saturday, a group of students stood in front of the stage holding signs that read ‘TUCKER IS NOT MAGA.'” Punchbowl News reports.
“With the crowd cheering him on at the annual Republican Jewish Coalition summit, Fine called Carlson ‘the most dangerous antisemite in America’ and accused him of leading a ‘modern-day Hitler Youth.'”
“Fine is seen as a provocateur on Capitol Hill, often using incendiary rhetoric on a range of topics, including Gaza. But Fine was channeling the sentiments of an overwhelming majority of Hill Republicans after the Heritage Foundation stood by Carlson following his friendly interview with white nationalist and antisemite Nick Fuentes.”
Brian Kalt: “If a two-termer tried to run for vice president and the eligibility question ended up in court, this new succession statute would not settle the question, but it would send a powerful message about Congress’s understanding of these constitutional requirements. Moreover, to the extent that the courts left the eligibility question to Congress to resolve when its joint session counts electoral votes every four years on January 6, the statute would send a powerful message to those proceedings, too.”
“The people are the ultimate enforcers here. The more decisively political leaders from both parties reject the loophole interpretation, the less public support any two-termer would get for any constitutional shenanigans, and the higher the political cost would be to those who would aid and abet them. Such action is a worthy pursuit for a republic that hopes to endure.”
Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS) “is inching toward a Senate run as Kansas’ Republican-controlled legislature debates drawing her out of a seat,” Politico reports.
“Kansas legislators are scheduled to meet in a special session later this week to take up redistricting. But a sufficient number of members of the Kansas State House of Representatives have yet to offer their support to the effort, some of them criticizing the precedent mid-decade redistricting would set.”
The Trump administration told a federal judge that it would tap billions of dollars in contingency funds to pay at least some SNAP benefits during the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, CNBC reports.
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “Ohio surprisingly approved a new congressional map late last week in a bipartisan vote.”
“While the map does get better for Republicans, it’s not nearly as bad for Democrats as it could have been, and Democrats still have a path to come out of this election with as many seats as they currently hold in the state.”
“Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and Greg Landsman (D-OH) see their districts get less Democratic, while Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-OH) sees her district get bluer.”
New York Times: “Mr. Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted Mr. Trump, appears unintimidated by the president’s demand that Republican lawmakers investigate him and that the Justice Department put him in prison for as-yet unproved and unspecified crimes.”
“Quite the opposite, in fact. Mr. Smith, who spent more than two years aggressively collecting evidence to prove Mr. Trump mishandled classified documents and tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, appears eager to publicly challenge a foundational pillar of MAGA canon: that the president was a sinned-upon innocent who did nothing to deserve scrutiny, much less two prosecutions.”
“Mr. Smith has told people in his orbit that he welcomes the opportunity to present the public case against Mr. Trump denied to him by the Supreme Court decision asserting broad presidential immunity from prosecution and adverse rulings from a Trump-appointed judge on the federal bench in Florida.”
“President Donald Trump littered his new ’60 Minutes’ interview with a wide-ranging assortment of false claims, the vast majority of them previously debunked,” CNN reports.
“We counted at least 18 inaccurate assertions.”
President Trump said that he “won’t be extorted” by Democrats who are demanding negotiations to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year for millions of Americans, the AP reports.
Echoing congressional Republicans, the president said he’ll negotiate only when the government is reopened.
“The trial of a man charged with assaulting a Customs and Border Protection agent by throwing a sandwich at his chest in protest began on Monday, several months after federal prosecutors failed to persuade a grand jury to approve a felony indictment against him over the incident,” the New York Times reports.
“The case stands out for its unusual facts and the Trump administration’s determination to prosecute the man, even on a lesser charge. But it is one of a number of unusually minor cases the government is bringing to federal court at Mr. Trump’s direction.”
“They have gone out into the hall to the nearest camera they can find and looked into the lens and said Republicans are shutting down the government. It makes no sense. It is the most extreme example of gas lighting in the history of American politics. And many in the media have allowed them to get away with that. It is shameful.”
— Speaker Mike Johnson, talking to reporters about House Democrats.
“Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that GOP leaders are discussing ways to deal with the rapidly approaching Nov. 21 expiration date of the continuing resolution that passed the House last month and is now stalled in in the Senate,” Politico reports.
“Republican leaders are privately eyeing another stopgap into early 2026 which would be part of any deal to reopen the government.”
CNN Poll: “The Democratic Party’s ongoing internal image troubles may not necessarily translate into defections at the ballot box. Democratic-aligned voters remain far less fond of their own party (65% have a favorable view of the Democratic Party) than Republican-aligned voters (80% have a favorable view of the GOP), but even those Democratic-aligned voters with a negative view of the party are almost universally behind the Democratic candidate in their district (93%) and broadly motivated to vote (71% say they are extremely motivated).”
“All told, Democrats hold a 12-point advantage among those voters who say they are extremely or very motivated to turn out next year.”
NBC News: “The shutdown is compounding problems that have intensified broader anxiety over an economy that in recent months has been marked by lingering high prices for many consumer goods, rough jobs numbers, mass layoffs at major companies — including Amazon and Target — and an uptick in inflation.”
“That stagnation has in recent months eroded the high approval marks President Donald Trump once enjoyed on the economy.”
“The bleak picture has some Republicans sounding the alarm to the White House — even though delivering the news isn’t easy.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.