Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 192
November Surprises
“Insurgent House Democrats are opening a new front in the generational war roiling the party, pushing to put term limits on committee leadership roles,” the Washington Sun reports.
“When the lawmakers return to Washington after the midterms, some Democrats plan to bring up a proposal in their caucus organizational meetings that would limit how many years leaders remain in top committee stops, according to multiple House Democrats familiar with the plans.”
“Across the South, from the Mississippi Delta to Georgia’s suburbs, Black Democratic candidates are imploring Black voters to rise up and secure the representation this November that they were expected to be denied with the gutting of the Voting Rights Act,” the New York Times reports.
“The hill is high, and Republicans remain supremely confident, but Democrats are trying to contest races typically seen as too far out of reach.”
“ActBlue, the top Democratic fundraising platform that has been embroiled in years of GOP investigations over whether it improperly vetted foreign donations, is escalating efforts to clear its name,” the Washington Post reports.
“A law firm representing the group to review its donation history met congressional investigators Friday to present its evidence that ActBlue properly verified the source of contributions and did not mislead lawmakers about that process. But the new report is unlikely to end the problems for the group that Democrats have relied upon to process billions of dollars in campaign donations.”
“In thundering, back-to-back speeches, Senator Bernie Sanders and Stephen K. Bannon on Tuesday denounced the billionaires who run the country’s largest tech companies and urged Americans to demand tighter restrictions on artificial intelligence before its capabilities exceed human control,” the New York Times reports.
“The unusual public appearances by the country’s elder democratic socialist and a leading architect of the MAGA movement, at a conference in Washington, underscored the deep and rising anxiety over the potential destructive power of artificial intelligence.”
Bloomberg: AI fears give Bernie Sanders a rare moment of unity with Bannon.
“Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) insisted Tuesday he won’t become a Republican, showing frustration with the ongoing questions about his intentions,” NBC News reports.
Said Fetterman: “I’m not going to be a Republican! If I turn a Republican, then I’ll be a liar.”
He added: “My name is not on the ballot. Like, chill and wait for the midterm here. I’ve always been a Democrat. It’s like, no matter how many times I say that, I’m still getting asked just getting into the elevator.”
“We’re not going to let a billionaire class tell us what’s inevitable and fuck over the American people again.”
— Democratic strategist Morris Katz, quoted by Politico, on the need for Democrats to take the lead on AI regulation.
“The 2028 race for the White House will give new political clout to a long-overlooked constituency: Native American voters,” Axios reports.
“Driving the news: New Mexico now holds an influential early spot as one of the first states to vote in the Democratic primary — on Feb. 15, 2028. That’s put Native Americans, who make up about 12% of the state, in position to wield more influence in the presidential race than ever before.”
“Democrats are grappling with several liabilities that risk impeding the momentum they have gained to retake control of Congress,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“New opportunities have come on the map for Democrats as President Trump has become increasingly unpopular because of the war with Iran, tariffs and the high cost of living. Nonpartisan analysts say the party is favored to win the U.S. House and has a shot at a narrow majority in the Senate. Yet Republicans still have a significant financial edge, and Democrats have work to do to persuade voters to support them in states they need to win.”
New York Times: “The mainstreaming of anger on the left at systemic economic and political conditions has in some ways been a slow train coming, although not apparently one with the kind of force that destroyed the old Republican Party. While Senator Bernie Sanders, the nation’s most famous democratic socialist, made a strong showing during his run for the presidency in 2020, many of the party’s voters considered him too big a risk.”
“Today’s populists have burst onto the electoral scene seemingly overnight in large part because of the voting power of Gen Z, the generation born between roughly 1996 and 2012, who are entering adulthood in a difficult new world.”
“Former President Barack Obama warned during a recent private fund-raising event that artificial intelligence technology could be ‘dangerous’ if not properly managed, as he implored Democrats to aggressively develop political and governing agendas to prioritize the issue in the coming years,” the New York Times reports.
The Economist: “As the midterms approach, America’s two main parties are conducting opposite experiments. Republicans march in lockstep behind Donald Trump, who summoned his troops to Dallas this week to celebrate his awesomeness…”
“Democrats, by contrast, are bickering over their leaders, strategy and ideology. The party has no standard-bearer, while socialists who once flitted around its edge are trying to become its heart. On the campaign trail, Republican discipline will beat Democratic chaos. Or so Republicans hope.”
“But political parties are not armies; their members’ duty is not merely to obey. They should debate, adapt and attract talent. They should be open to new leaders and new ideas. That is especially true after the political transformation wrought by Mr Trump. By those measures the unified Republican Party looks increasingly unhealthy, whereas the disunited Democrats may be engaged in the messy work of renewal.”
Wall Street Journal: “That a Democratic socialist mayor and a Republican vice president have found common cause disparaging free-market icons heralds the ascendance of what could be called the Horseshoe party.”
“‘Horseshoe theory’ describes the tendency of the political extremes to bend toward each other. Coined decades ago to describe the similarities between communism and fascism, today it captures how Republicans’ populist wing, typified by Vance, and the progressive left, represented by Mamdani, have drawn closer to each and more distant from the center of their own parties.”
“Both extremes disdain free markets and globalization while embracing big, coercive government. They are obsessed with identity; the populist right rails against immigration while the progressive left inveighs against ‘colonialism’ and systemic racism. They are populists who see ordinary people pitted against global elites, including their own party establishments.”
“Congressional Democrats are promising to target Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if they win control of Congress in November,” Politico reports.
“Emboldened by the possibility of a sweep at the polls, they’re plotting a blitz of public hearings and inquiries, using their agenda-setting authority and potentially the power to subpoena Trump administration officials over the Iran war, allegations of war crimes, Pentagon business dealings, purges of top military officers and a host of other controversies.”
“Some Democrats want to go even further, raising the possibility the House could push to impeach Hegseth — an increasingly polarizing figure whose leadership has drawn howls of protest, even from some Republicans.”
“Democrats are at war in Brooklyn over a maneuver some inside the party have called ‘corrupt,’ a ‘power-grab’ and even ‘fascist.’ And they’re not talking about Republicans,” Politico reports.
”With weeks to go before the midterm elections, an intraparty feud is on full display among Democrats jockeying for control of the party apparatus in one of the bluest, most populous counties in the country. And some in the party worry the quarrel is exposing the limits of the party’s two most powerful politicians: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Brooklynites.”
Sarah Longwell: “In 2016, Republican voters looked at their party’s leadership—the Romneys, McCains, and Bushes—and decided they were done. Those leaders were too weak, too unwilling to fight, too committed to norms and processes that Democrats didn’t respect anyway. Republican voters hired a wrecking ball named Trump to knock it all down. Ten years later, I’m hearing similar sentiments from Democratic voters. They don’t trust Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, or any of the old-guard party leaders who allowed Trump to take over America. They want their own wrecking ball.”
“There’s a distinction here. Democrats don’t want Trump’s politics or even necessarily his all-out norm breaking. But they want his energy. They’re sick of a Democratic Party that does the functional equivalent of sending a strongly worded letter while democracy burns down around us.”
“That tension—absolutely not, but also yes—is the defining mood among Democratic voters right now. They don’t want to become what they hate. But they are tired of losing to it.”
“The left wing of the Democratic Party flourished this summer as fed-up liberals in key races across the country have eschewed traditional, more moderate candidates in favor of hard-charging progressives,” CNN reports.
“But behind the scenes, ultra-progressive House members and candidates are pushing their own party leaders to reflect more of that mood — arguing that Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and his allies are, so far, failing to grasp the demands of far-left voters who showed up in droves this summer.”
The Guardian: Leftist insurgents are storming the midterms – just don’t call them all democratic socialists.
Wall Street Journal: “The socialists, it turns out, are highly social.”
“In chapters across the country, they enjoy DSA barbecues, beach days, running clubs, happy hours, karaoke, prom nights, transgender rights and bodily autonomy game nights, reading groups, Marxist study circles and more. The DSA is even moving into affairs of the heart with a recent ‘Socialist Speed Dating’ event in New York’s Lower East Side.”
“Two of the top Democratic fund-raisers this cycle are teaming up for a finance event with some big Hollywood names,” the New York Times reports.
“James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee from Texas, and Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia are headlining a fund-raiser on Thursday evening in Los Angeles.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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