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Kansas Rejects Measure to Elect State Supreme Court

August 4, 2026 at 9:34 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Kansas voters on Tuesday rejected a ballot measure that would have required state Supreme Court justices to be popularly elected rather than appointed by the governor, dealing another setback to Republican lawmakers trying to overturn a decision that established a constitutional right to abortion,” the New York Times reports.

“That ruling in 2019 has preserved Kansas as a significant abortion provider for women in a wide swath of middle-American states that banned abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”

NBC News: Kansas voters reject GOP-backed measure to directly elect state Supreme Court justices.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Senate

The Democrats’ Civil War Over Israel Is Getting Worse

August 4, 2026 at 9:43 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Edward Luce: “Even amid war, America rarely selects its president on the basis of foreign policy. For the U.S. electorate, it is almost always the economy, stupid. This year’s Democratic primaries, however, have turned into ‘It’s Israel, stupid.'”

“The rubble of Gaza for liberals today is a candidate litmus test in much the same way the Vietnam war was for their grandparents. Fail that and you have forfeited your moral standing.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democrats, Foreign Affairs

Autopsy Author Says Democrats Left Out Key Chapter

August 3, 2026 at 7:13 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“After months of resistance, the Democratic National Committee finally relented this May and published a draft of its autopsy of what had gone wrong in the 2024 election, saying it was releasing the unfinished document ‘in its entirety’ in the interest of transparency,” the New York Times reports.

“But, according to the man who wrote the autopsy, there was a missing chapter.”

“The chapter raised pointed questions that were notably absent from the draft that the party put out, both about President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s ill-fated decision to run for re-election and the sway of an operative class that had become ‘generationally wealthy off politics’ while steering Democratic strategy.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democrats

Hunter Biden Blames Cancer for Father’s Terrible Debate

July 31, 2026 at 5:42 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Hunter Biden said on a podcast episode published this week that he believed his father, former President Joe Biden was unknowingly suffering from cancer during the disastrous debate performance that led to the end of his 2024 presidential campaign,” the New York Times reports.

Said Biden: “He looked blank. And what do I attribute that to? Well, I now know what to attribute it to. My dad had cancer. My dad, he was, and he didn’t know.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Biden Legacy

13 House Rating Changes Move Towards Democrats

July 30, 2026 at 7:15 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “We’re revamping our House ratings this week, which has the effect of bringing the number of seats at least leaning to each party to rough parity after redistricting helped Republicans build an edge in our ratings a few months ago.”

“Our overall topline assessment is basically unchanged, though: Democrats remain favored to flip the House majority in November, but Republicans have a path, too.”

“The number of House Toss-ups expands from 15 to 20 as part of this week’s update.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, House of Representatives

Democrats Want to Avoid an Election Season Shutdown

July 30, 2026 at 5:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Democrats only have one major leverage point left against the Trump administration — and they’re not about to use it,” NOTUS reports.

“With Congress approaching a government funding cliff at the end of September, key Senate Democrats signaled they want to take the threat of a government shutdown off the table. Several told NOTUS this week that they are open to a short-term stopgap spending measure to get through the election.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democrats

DNC Risks Diluting Southern Black Voter Power

July 25, 2026 at 12:14 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: ”Nearly 40 years ago, the DNC unwittingly elevated Jesse Jackson by frontloading its schedule with Southern states. At the time, committee members hoped the shift would help a moderate white candidate, who they thought could more easily win a general election. Instead, Southern Black voters rallied to Jackson’s history-making candidacy. On Friday, the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee again sought to push its nomination fight to the South.”

”This time, though, the panel’s decision to lift South Carolina to first-in-the-nation status was done expressly with the state’s Black voters in mind. The party wanted to reward their most loyal constituency and those voters who, in the modern era, have invariably determined its nominees.”

”Yet in making South Carolina first overall, rather than keeping the state in its previous role as first in the South, the party risks diluting the influence of Southern Black voters.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democrats, Race

Democrat Amish Shah Upsets Party Pick in Arizona

July 22, 2026 at 11:31 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Democrat Amish Shah will take on GOP nominee Jay Feely in the general election for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, The Associated Press projects, following primaries for both parties on Tuesday,” CBS News reports.

“Shah’s win against Republican-turned-Democrat Marlene Galán-Woods marks the latest high-profile defeat for the national Democratic Party.”

New York Times: Amish Shah wins Democratic primary in swing Arizona House district.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democrats, House of Representatives

House Dems Won’t Mourn Shri Thanedar Primary Loss

July 22, 2026 at 10:15 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Don’t expect a lot of public lamentations from House Democrats next month if Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) loses to his Democratic Socialists of America-backed primary opponent,” Axios reports.

“That would be a drastic deviation from recent DSA primary wins, which set off alarm bells among the Democratic establishment.”

“In the telling of both progressive and moderate House Democrats, Thanedar’s anomalous political profile and the makeup of his district will make it difficult to extrapolate from the results of his race.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, House of Representatives

Johnson Moves to Fund Government Past Election

July 17, 2026 at 4:15 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“House GOP leaders released text Friday for a bill to fund the vast majority of the federal government from the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1 until after the midterm elections — bypassing the bipartisan appropriations process and daring Democrats to pick a shutdown fight months before voters head to the polls,” Politico reports.

”Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he plans to put the legislation on the floor next week.”

Axios: Mike Johnson’s government funding gambit.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, House of Representatives

A Trump Obsession That Carries a Cost for Democracy

July 17, 2026 at 1:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump used a lot of alarming words on Thursday night as he addressed the American people about threats to the integrity of elections in the United States: ‘Deep state.’ ‘Rigged and stolen.’ ‘Conspiring.’ ‘Manipulation.’ ‘Corrupt.’ ‘Fraud.’ ‘Cover up.'” the New York Times reports.

“But the bottom-line message he clearly wanted to leave with the public was this: He is not a loser, regardless of the result of the 2020 election. There were dark forces at work to thwart him. And if his party loses this fall’s midterm election, he intimated, that may not be an honest outcome either.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democracy, White House

George Conway’s Congressional Bid Cost Him $2 Million

July 16, 2026 at 7:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“George Conway, the former conservative lawyer turned Democrat, loaned his campaign $2 million to finish fifth in the crowded Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District,” NOTUS reports.

“He reported the personal loan in a Federal Election Commission report published on Wednesday. Micah Lasher, a state assembly member, won the primary in June and is expected to win the general election in the deep-blue Manhattan district.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Campaign Finance

Trump Warns About ‘Loud and Unattractive’ Socialists

July 11, 2026 at 8:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Donald Trump on Saturday mocked the Democratic Party for letting ‘loud and unattractive’ socialists take control — before saying he hopes the Dems can ‘fight back’ before it’s too late,” Mediaite reports.

Said Trump: “The Radical Left Lunatics, often referred to as Dumocrats, have lost control of their Party. They are being led by loud and unattractive people who have totally lost their way. Hopefully, they will fight back, and not let this sick, Communist ideology, take over America!”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democrats

What Trump Voters Say About the Economy Now

July 11, 2026 at 5:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “Around 40% of voters in the 2024 election said the economy was their top issue, far outstripping any other matter. And those voters favored Donald Trump by 60% to 38%. Many say they were moved by his pledges to tame inflation, rebuild U.S. infrastructure, cut red tape and trim government waste.”

“About a year and a half later, more voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy than approve, 61% to 35%, an average of polls by the Cook Political Report found this month.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Economy

Hillary Clinton Savages Biden for Trying to Run Again

June 17, 2026 at 11:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Hillary Clinton savaged ex-President Joe Biden’s decision to try to run again in 2024 during an event in New York City on Monday night,” Mediaite reports.

Said Clinton: “He made a terrible mistake. He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy, and for the country. He had said that he would not run again. And counterfactual narratives are always a bit tricky. But I believe if he had kept to that plan and said, in, say, the late summer of ’23, that he wasn’t going to run, that he was going to pass, you know, the torch to the next generation, we would have had a real contest.”

She added: “So I think it was a terrible miscalculation on the part of President Biden. But once he didn’t move, and and did not, you know, admit that he had said he was going to step aside and then decided not to, and held on for as long as he did, we were in a terrible dilemma.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Biden Legacy

Biden’s Mexico Ambassador Almost Ran for President

June 11, 2026 at 3:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“For nearly four years, Ken Salazar — the U.S. ambassador to Mexico under former President Joe Biden — grew increasingly frustrated with the White House’s border plan,” Politico reports. 

“Salazar says he begged for a ‘border czar’ to run point on interagency coordination; he never got one, and instead, the moniker was inaccurately and problematically affixed to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. He asked for the White House to openly call it a border ‘crisis’; the designation came too late.”

“Salazar became so distraught that by July 2024, three weeks after Biden’s disastrous presidential debate performance, he decided to take matters into his own hands: ‘I should run for president,’ Salazar told himself, according to his forthcoming book.”

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Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Immigration

Jill Biden Admits She Had to Lie After Debate

June 1, 2026 at 11:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former first lady Jill Biden told NBC News she felt she “had to support” President Joe Biden publicly in the wake of his disastrous 2024 debate with Donald Trump, despite acknowledging now that she feared her husband might have been having a stroke.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Why Democrats Can’t Learn Much from the 2024 Election

May 29, 2026 at 7:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

G. Elliot Morris: “Donald Trump won the ‘tipping-point’ state (the one whose electoral votes push the winner past 270, if you order the states by Democratic/Republican vote margin) by just 1.7 percentage points in 2024. Trump defeated Kamala Harris by just 120,000 votes in Pennsylvania. The excess electoral votes he won in Michigan and Wisconsin were decided by 110,000 votes — a fifth of the size of the smallest state.”

“The problem this presents for election analysts is that every campaign decision becomes potentially decisive for the outcome. There were 152 million votes cast in 2024, but the contest was decided by just 230,000 in those three states above — or 0.15 percent of all voters. When a race is that close, almost anything plausibly mattered.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

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About Political Wire

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.

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