🚨 NEW: Bernie Sanders’ 2016 chief strategist says the Democratic Party rigged the presidential primary against him — igniting a fight between the party establishment and its populist wing that is still shaping elections a decade later. Listen: www.levernews.com/were-still-l...

A Republican megadonor’s family is trying to build a $111 billion media empire — and is accused of promising Trump favorable coverage for government approval. Now 12 states are suing to block the deal, as FCC officials face scrutiny for accepting gifts from Paramount.

🚨 NEWS: In the state that writes the rules for corporate America, Elon Musk’s lawyers helped gut investor protections. Now they’re spending nearly $1 million to rescue the Democratic lawmakers who delivered the changes from progressive challengers. www.levernews.com/the-musk-mac...

🚨 A leading pro-Palestinian student activist is suing the Trump administration, the Heritage Foundation and pro-Israel groups, alleging they built a private blacklist-to-deportation pipeline to dox Israel’s critics, smear them as Hamas supporters and feed their names to ICE.

The House just voted to make daylight saving time permanent after retailers and the U.S. Chamber lobbied for more evening shopping hours. Sleep scientists and parents warn it would send children to school in the dark. America tried this in 1974. The public hated it, and Congress reversed course.

California is projected to see the most political ad spending in 2026. ⬇️

The new corporate Democratic machine has found a useful front: a PAC called VoteVets. The group spent $10 million helping a non-veteran defeat a progressive in Iowa. Now filings show it received $400,000 from the billionaire-funded network backing the same candidates.

🚨 NEW: Outside groups have spent more than $20 million helping Haley Stevens or attacking Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. Nearly $15 million has come from AIPAC’s super PAC alone.

Delaware is tiny, but its corporate laws govern most of America’s biggest companies. Now the law firms that helped Elon Musk weaken shareholder protections are spending nearly $1 million to save the Democrats who passed the bill — and crush their progressive challengers.

Since Trump took over Venezuela, the country has exported an estimated $7.9 billion in oil in just four months — nearly half of it in April alone.

If you want to understand why America is struggling to trace a parasite outbreak sickening thousands, read this ⬇️ After food-industry lobbyists spent millions, a government funding deal delayed food-tracking rules, blocked produce-safety measures, and limited ultraprocessed-food research.

StubHub’s CEO reportedly co-owns a scalping operation that has sold millions of dollars’ worth of tickets through the platform. Now the company and its CEO are facing a $5 million consumer lawsuit over allegedly deceptive practices.

An “explosive-diarrhea parasite” is sickening thousands of Americans. Last year, the Trump administration scaled back the system designed to track infections like this. Now officials still don’t know exactly what food is spreading it.

Trump has put veterans of Guantanamo, warrantless surveillance, and “pre-crime” terrorism prosecutions in charge of his new “anti-Americanism” task force. Their new targets aren’t al-Qaeda suspects. They’re protesters monitoring ICE.

The Democratic Party’s biggest divide may no longer be left versus center. It may be between people who think the system needs modest repairs — and voters who think the entire machine is rigged against them.

A former Republican insider watched GOP leaders dismiss their own voters as angry but captive — until the base used primaries to destroy the establishment and remake the party around Trump. His warning to Democrats: Keep ignoring your base, and you may lose your party too.

Replacing one Democrat with another may not change a single roll-call vote. But it can change the incentives of an entire party. David Sirota argues that blue-district primary victories are putting complacent incumbents on notice: Signing onto popular ideas isn’t enough. Deliver — or get fired.

🚨WE'RE HIRING The Lever has new job listings for: - Executive Editor to run the whole outlet - Audience Editor - Video Producer - Video Field Reporter - Social Media Producer - Investigative Political Reporter Jobs at LeverNews [dot] com [slash] jobs

🚨NEW: How elite Dems in D.C. and their big donors are trying to weaponize Graham Platner’s withdrawal to pull off a corporate coup and thwart the anti-oligarch policy demands of the largest primary vote in Maine’s history. Find the story at LeverNews [dot] com — and pass it on

Democratic powerbrokers are now positioned to use the Maine Senate candidate’s withdrawal to overturn voters’ policy demands. www.levernews.com/corporate-de...

In a just-released interview on Unreported from @newsnation.bsky.social, The Lever’s David Sirota discusses how power has shifted from Congress to the presidency over the past century, and how Americans can check a seemingly unrestrained presidency. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvS_...

As Abdul El-Sayed surges, Mallory McMorrow drops out, and Haley Stevens digs in, Michigan is revealing a national realignment inside Democratic politics. www.levernews.com/democrats-mi...

NEW OP-ED: A former Republican insider and self-described GOP nepo baby has advice for the Democratic establishment: Ignore your base, and you’ll lose your party. www.levernews.com/ignore-your-...

🚨THE LEVER IS HIRING Our newsroom is growing! We have new job listings for: - Executive Editor to run the whole news outlet - Audience Editor - Video Producer - Video Field Reporter - Social Media Producer - Investigative Political Reporter Jobs at LeverNews [dot] com [slash] jobs

Democratic Socialism Goes Mile-High www.levernews.com/democratic-s...

🚨SCOOP: Republican Rep. Tom Kean repeatedly voted against legislation to give Americans paid family/medical leave, before Kean took 4 months of paid medical leave from Congress for depression - all while somehow finding the time to raise himself $160,000 worth of campaign cash.

Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. took four months off from Congress, fully paid, to treat depression. Time and again, he’s voted against paid sick leave legislation. www.levernews.com/sick-leave-f...

🚨BREAKING: The Supreme Court just helped J.D. Vance create Citizens United 2.0 In the text of today’s ruling, the court insists that the alleged strength of already weakened anti-corruption laws justifies a ruling that now creates a new conduit for billionaires to buy elections.

🚨BREAKING: Amid a flood of billionaire cash, SCOTUS just struck down party coordinated spending limits, insisting that the strength of existing anti-corruption laws justifies giving megadonors another conduit of influence. www.levernews.com/the-supreme-...

Today's Supreme Court rulings on presidential power are the culmination of a secret 50-year plot that is not well understood - but that we reveal in the new season of MASTER PLAN. Search "Master Plan" in your podcast app or go to The Lever's YouTube page - and pass it on.

A campaign finance case brought by the NRSC, NRCC, then-Sen. JD Vance, and former Rep. Steve Chabot is now before the Supreme Court. At stake: whether parties can spend unlimited sums in coordination with candidates. www.levernews.com/jd-vances-su...

🚨WE'RE HIRING The Lever just posted new job listings for: - Executive Editor to help run the organization - Audience Editor - Video Producer - Video Field Reporter - Social Media Producer - Investigative Reporter Jobs at LeverNews [dot] com [slash] jobs Pass it on

🔥@RoKhanna campaigning for @AbdulElSayed: “The last people who have any right to lecture us about electability are the establishment who lost to Donald Trump twice. I don’t want to hear it. If you had anything to do with those campaigns, please sit down or exit stage left.”

🚨WE'RE HIRING The Lever is expanding. We have new job listings for: - Executive Editor to run the whole outlet - Audience Editor - Video Producer - Video Field Reporter - Social Media Producer - Investigative Political Reporter Jobs at LeverNews [dot] com [slash] jobs

New York’s socialists just did what Democrats keep being told is impossible: they beat big money, party insiders, and corporate-backed candidates. This week on Lever Time, we dig into how Mamdani-backed candidates swept their primaries — and whether the DSA playbook could spread nationwide.

The AIPAC story out of New York is hard to ignore: 3 Mamdani-backed congressional candidates ran openly against its influence in Democratic politics. All three won. For a long time, taking that position was treated as a career-ending move in the party. Last night suggested something has shifted.

In an historic vote, the U.S. Senate has voted to create conditions for a constitutional showdown over war powers that can now be challenged in federal court for the first time.

In an historic vote, the U.S. Senate has voted to create conditions for a constitutional showdown over war powers that can now be challenged in federal court for the first time.

Twenty years ago, David Sirota spent a day with Barack Obama and saw the tension that would define his rise: soaring progressive rhetoric, deep deference to the establishment. As voters again search for the next Democratic savior, the warning is worth revisiting.

🚨NEW: Congress is using a cargo theft panic to give ICE more power. Retail and trucking lobbyists warned lawmakers about an “explosion” in theft. But the data doesn’t back that up. Still, the House passed a bipartisan bill creating a new ICE-run crime center with broad access to private retail data

NY’s comptroller controls a nearly $300B pension fund. Most voters couldn’t name the office. On primary day, @davidsirota.com talks to challenger Raj Goyle about @tomdinapoli.bsky.social, Palantir, Israel bonds, and the political power hidden in plain sight.

🚨 NEW: California’s billionaire tax fight has pulled Planned Parenthood into an unexpected role: Planned Parenthood California is opposing the proposal,. On Lever Time, SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan argues workers and patients aren’t the problem — state leaders are.

Uber is already facing 3,600+ sexual assault lawsuits. Now Congress is weighing a hidden provision in a must-pass highway bill that could shield rideshare companies from lawsuits over assaults, crashes, injuries, and deaths. Nearly 2,000 survivors have come forward to demand lawmakers strip it out

NEWS: A direct challenge to Citizens United is headed to voters in Montana. After nearly 50,000 signatures, a ballot measure would ban corporations and trade associations — including out-of-state groups — from spending to influence elections. The super PAC era may have just met its mutiny. 👊

S&P 500 profit margins just hit a record high. In Q1, companies kept nearly $0.15 in profit for every $1 of revenue — more than double the long-run average. The boom is concentrated in megacap tech, AI infrastructure, layoffs, and “efficiency” drives.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is reportedly scrambling to kill a ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on roughly 200 billionaires — raising an estimated $100 billion for Medicaid and social programs.

These jobs are available at The Lever: - Executive Editor to run the entire news outlet - Audience Editor - Video Producer - Video Field Reporter - Social Media Producer - Investigative Reporter Find the listings at: Jobs at LeverNews [dot] com [slash] jobs Pass it on

📢 David Sirota: "If the contrast between your own lived experience and your social media feed’s wealth porn and status-quo-worshiping political commentary is making you feel despondent and insane, let me reassure you that you aren’t crazy."

NEW: Rep. Dan Goldman pledged to return AIPAC-linked money. But filings reviewed by The Lever show the New York congressman accepted $55,000 from Better Blue Fund — an apparent AIPAC front group that lets major pro-Israel donors keep funding AIPAC-backed candidates without the AIPAC name attached.

BREAKING: ICE agents attempted to raid legal offices representing unaccompanied migrant children, lawyers tell The Lever. The visits came after the Trump admin froze payments to legal providers and demanded sensitive client data on children facing deportation.