BREAKING & BIG: Federal judge BLOCKS Texas from implementing new, gerrymandered maps for 2026 midterms. Judge Jeffrey Brown (TRUMP APPOINTEE) wrote opinion, joined by Judge David Guaderrama (Obama appointee). Judge Jerry Smith (Reagan appointee) dissents. storage.courtlistene...

What was YouGov cooking? Their final Virginia poll was underrated Shout out to Chaz and State Navigate for getting LG, AG, and House of Delegates right as well as top of ticket YouGov just had Governor

JUST IN: Katie Wilson cuts Bruce Harrell's lead by more than half with today's ballot drop, cutting her deficit from 9908 votes to 4300 votes. She won today's batch of 55,952 ballots by 10%; that's *more* than she needed to win the outstanding ballots by. Over 50K ballots left to count in Seattle.

This has not gotten much attention, but it should. Virginia under Youngkin returned to an insanely harsh system where people convicted of any felony lose their voting rights FOR LIFE. Dems' win this week mean they'll get to advance a constitutional amendment to end lifetime disenfranchisement.

Delegate Debra Gardner also announces she’s running for State Senate seat being vacated by Ghazala Hashmi Looks like Delegate v. Delegate contest between her and Mike Jones Winner would have to resign House seat So probably going to get another special there

Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, facing a primary challenge from state Auditor Matt Dunlap, says he won't seek reelection in #ME02

Looks like wipe out for Virginia House of Delegates Republicans Dems on track to get at least 60 seats, if not more GOP had 66 seats in 2017 before the elections then Now will be below 40 in second Trump era Will have full break down tomorrow

With 18% of the vote reporting in Virginia: -Abigail Spanberger (D) leads by 16 points in #VAgov -Ghazala Hashmi (D) leads by 12 points in #VALG -Jay Jones (D) leads by 8 points in #VAAG

The is where Virginia Tech is located Democrat Lily Franklin is trying to knock off GOP incumbent Del. Chris Obenshain Virginia has same-day registration and those will not be counted tonight We’ll see if Franklin can pull it out after coming up short by 183 votes in 2023

Trump's average disapproval rating has hit 56% in our tracker at fiftyplusone.news. He is now just a point off his (then historically low) net approval rating at this point in 2017, and nearly meeting the high point of Joe Biden's disapproval rating in 2022/late 2024 (57.3%).

A measure to expand voting rights in Virginia hinges on Tuesday's elections. If Republicans flip the state House, that'd likely kill the proposed constitutional amendment to end lifetime felony disenfranchisement, Alex Burness explains:

🚨 BIG 🚨Satmar Ahronim sect is endorsing Mamdani for mayor, two sources familiar confirmed. Mamdani is expected to meet with Satmar leaders in Williamsburg this afternoon. Here is more background ⬇️ forward.com/fast-forward...

New Virginia poll from Emerson Spanberger up 11% and Jones up 2% They found a close race in NJ, but not the case at top of ticket in Virginia Jones up is different than most polls I’ve flagged AG race is inherently unpredictable and both sides have path emersoncollegepolling.com/virginia-202...

I have been charged in a federal indictment sought by the Department of Justice. This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.

As expected, the Virginia Redistricting amendment has limited language Just the Congressional districts Just this decade Doesn’t otherwise change Redistricting Commission

Data centers are a big issue in terms of the rise of energy costs in Virginia Youngkin administration has generally been in favor of them and he vetoed a bill seeking more state regulation But they are generally unpopular for taking up a lot of land and high energy use

Also big numbers in terms of early voting so far today in Prince William County There have been 2001 early votes in just 2 hours To put that in perspective, biggest day so far had 610 total They opened all their satellite locations so lots of pent up demand

Sherrod Brown says he raised $7 million for his #OHSen comeback campaign during his first six weeks, plus another $1 million for a joint fundraising committee. mailchi.mp/sherrodbrown...

Frustration toward SCOTUS building even among Republican judges. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Need to wait for exact numbers of Federal layoffs But at least right now, this is affecting a lot of agencies Some that didn’t even take a big hit during DOGE Hard to imagine this not dominating news in NOVA as this unfolds

Most Virginia Dems have been silent after initial batch of statements But notable backing for Jay Jones from Senator Tim Kaine Kaine served as Virginia Governor and Lt. Governor So understands role of statewide office

What a mild way to say "this is against the law and has been anathema since the founding of this country."

Trump made gains in NOVA in 2024 Also part of Youngkin’s win in 2021 Fairfax is largest county in Virginia Can see shifting Dem margins 2020 70%-28% 2021 65%-35% 2024 66%-31% But Dems over performed in VA-11 special Curious if Spanberger gets 2020 # of 70% www.ffxnow.com/2025/10/03/n...

A setback for more environmentally-friendly high-rise mass timber construction in the US. Especially for housing. Tariffs and inflation are the claimed source of problems, but others have pointed out mismanagement and contractor issues for the Milwaukee project, too.

The shutdown really is big deal in NOVA Was at daughter’s dance practice yesterday in Vienna and there was loud conversation about it First time I’ve heard anything political in that context Hard to know how it plays in election, but top of mind for many voters

OMB - Affected US government agencies "should now execute their plans for an orderly shutdown."

“The Palestinian photojournalist who Israel killed an hour ago, Yahia Barzaq, was a newborn photographer. I’m sharing here some of his photography.” @mosababutoha.bsky.social See the remainder of this beautiful and devastating 🧵 x.com/mosababutoha...

Adding to overanalyzing of Virginia early vote I have noticed that mail ballot return rate is high for a state election Likely reflects voters more certain about their votes Tracks with more in-person vote too than 2021 Mail ballots tend to be heavily Dem In-person more even

Some *BIG* news for two major Arizona races: Republican Rep. David Schweikert will run for governor rather than seek reelection to his swing House seat.

We've all become very numb to it, but it's really shocking how poor the editorial decisions at major newspapers are? Like why am I reading about specific cases of legal immigrants getting deported with zero due process from indie publications instead of the New York Times?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump says he'll send troops to Portland, Oregon, as he expands military deployments in US cities.

Both Washington and Oregon are already in a recession so of course as a response they are sending troops into our cities

Almost 150K Virginia early votes after 5 days That’s over 12% of 2021 total early vote already After today is added, close to 175K going into weekend All that points to high turnout this year in Virginia Things might slow down next couple weeks before big surge at the end

Earle-Sears campaign has spent 2 months attacking Spanberger on the trans issue Doesn’t seem to have moved the needle at all The co/efficient Republican internal found Spanberger winning independents 59%-23% Youngkin won them 54%-45% in 2021 according to exit poll

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

Trump to the UN: "I'm really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell."

Three elections of note on Tuesday, in 3 days: —Arizonans decide the successor of Raul Grijalva. —Dems are hoping to flip the mayor's office in Mobile. —The GOP defends a state House seat in Georgia. Details: boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

Top issues for voters in Virginia poll Inflation 21% Threats to Democracy 18% Education 9% Immigration 9% Crime 9% Taxes 7% Inflation is top issue for 25% of independents Earle-Sears strategy of focusing on trans issues doesn’t seem to be paying off

I don't have Disney+, but I encourage everyone to cancel

JON KARL: What do you make of Pam Bondi saying she's gonna go after hate speech? A lot of your allies say hate speech is free speech TRUMP: We'll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. You have a lot of hate in your hate. Maybe they'll have to go after you.

this fifteen billion dollar lawsuit against the nyt is fucking deranged

Basel Adra, the Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” told The Associated Press that Israeli soldiers conducted a raid at his home in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, looking for him and searching his wife’s phone.

The poll also finds that 67% of voters disapprove of the way Trump is handling the cost of living- up from his already very high disapproval on the issue this summer. The cost of living is the number one issue for voters across the country.

GOOD NEWS: Despite RFK Jr saying he would cancel $500 million in mRNA research, the House Committee on Appropriations has passed a spending package, that includes $1.1 billion for “advanced research and development” at BARDA, which includes research on mRNA vaccines.

I don't know what comes next. But I do know after talking with Republicans that they have a bunch of unvarnished rage, they blame Democrats and they want to see something happen to them. This is... kind of scary. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

It should be much harder (but not impossible) to obtain a semi-automatic rifle that can hit a target a football field away. America isn't unique in having crazy people, but it is unique in giving them guns. Sorry but that's just way it is.

another example...

one chart i'd like to see is the sentiment of responses by notable political figures to the Kirk shooting, broken down by political party

A ton of effort goes into tracking special elections on our Big Board, so we're always grateful when people cite us by name and link us. This data—especially the presidential results, which we calculate by hand—doesn't grow on trees! Ds now running 15.7 pts ahead of 2024. In 2017-18, it was D+10.6.

Donald Trump has slashed $600 million for life-saving contraceptives. My colleague Bel Trew writes how this could lead to could be as many as 16 million more unintended pregnancies each year, leading to the deaths of 32,000 women and girls. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...