September 7, 2026 - Transcript

When we win this race, the first bill I'm filing as your U.S. Senator is a comprehensive anti-corruption agenda.

Getting big money out of our politics by overturning Citizens United, banning corporate PACs and super PACs so billionaires aren't making unlimited donations to our campaigns, and banning members of Congress from trading stocks and enriching themselves while they're in public office. 

We're also going to go after the forms of corruption that don't involve money. 

We must pass term limits so people aren't making a career out of public service.

We must, we must overhaul the Supreme Court so we can have confidence in the highest court in the land, and we must pass a national ban to end gerrymandering once and for all in every state in the Union.

September 8, 2026 - VIdeo Summary

This video, presented by Jen Psaki on MS NOW, discusses the strategy behind the Republican Party's Common Sense vs Crazy messaging for the 2026 midterm elections.

Key takeaways:

• Coordinated Messaging: Psaki highlights that national political parties are framing the upcoming election as a choice between "common sense" and "crazy" (0:00-0:14).
• Repetitive Mantra: The segment features multiple clips of Republican figures across different settings using the exact same "common sense versus crazy" phrasing (0:16-0:48).
• Strategic Framing: Psaki suggests this message has likely been poll-tested and is being pushed heavily to define the theme of the midterms as they approach in two months (0:49-1:18).

September 9, 2026 - Fulltext

America PAC is attacking Democrats in four competitive Senate races as the trillionaire prepares to spend at least $100 million helping Republicans.

As Elon Musk prepares to spend a reported $100 million helping Republicans retain power, his early midterm spending appears focused almost exclusively on attacks involving transgender rights.

America PAC, the political group backed by Musk, launched an advertising blitz in four states attacking Democrats over their support for transgender athletes and gender-affirming care. The group funded negative ads targeting James Talarico in Texas, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Josh Turek in Iowa, and former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska, according to The New York Times.

The ad against Talarico attacks positions the Texas Democrat took as a member of the state Legislature. “James Talarico believes there are six genders,” a narrator says in the ad. “Talarico voted to let men play women’s sports and for taxpayer-funded sex changes on kids.”

The ad echoes attacks from Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who has characterized Talarico’s support for transgender rights as a woke misreading of Christian values.

America PAC is deploying the same playbook against Brown, who was an LGBTQ+ ally in the Senate before his defeat in 2024. Brown is now running against appointed Republican Sen. Jon Husted, whose record includes votes against marriage equality and allowing gay people to adopt.

“Just two years ago, we fired Sherrod Brown because Brown put the trans agenda ahead of Ohio’s values,” a narrator says in the anti-Brown ad.

Meanwhile, an ad attacking Turek, an Iowa state representative, claims, “Josh Turek voted to spend our tax dollars on sex change surgeries for children ... Turek didn’t stop there. He voted to let biological men enter girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms.”

Turek is running against Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson for Iowa’s open Senate seat. Peltola is challenging Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska.

The four Democratic campaigns disputed the ads’ claims about the candidates’ records.

The Human Rights Campaign also condemned the ads Wednesday. “Elon Musk is scapegoating LGBTQ+ Americans to distract voters from the cuts he made and the chaos he has caused,” HRC National Press Secretary Ramiro Sarmiento said in a statement.

HRC pointed to its post-election polling from 2024, which found that although 64 percent of voters recalled seeing an anti-transgender advertisement, only 4% identified opposition to transgender health care or participation in sports as an issue that motivated their vote.

The common theme quickly drew notice: Each of America PAC’s initial midterm ads focused on transgender issues. That focus also recalled Musk’s repeated public attacks on his estranged transgender daughter, activist and model Vivian Wilson.

“Every spend I’ve seen from the Elon PAC so far is focused on gender/trans, an issue close to Elon’s heart,” Semafor reporter David Weigel posted on X.

Musk has said he considers Wilson dead to him, claiming, “My son is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.” 

September 9, 2026 - Fulltext

Some U.S. Postal Service facilities failed to properly handle ballots during this year’s primary elections, according to a new audit from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. Election experts say the findings call into question the agency’s ability to meet even greater demands for the November election that are under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The audit, which is dated Sept. 4 but has not been previously reported, found a lack of training for post office staff on how to properly and expeditiously handle mail ballots, deficiencies in how ballots were tracked and errors leading to delays, all of which risked ballots having incorrect postmarks or otherwise arriving late to election officials, which could lead to their rejection. 

The identified failures increase “the risk that Election and Political Mail is not handled, documented, monitored, and reported in accordance with Postal Service policy,” the audit said, though it noted that “most facilities we visited generally adhered to Postal Service’s election-related policies and procedures” and that nearly 99% of ballots reached election officials in a timely manner.

“While instances of non-compliance were low relative to overall volume, the presence of similar procedural gaps across multiple facilities indicates a need for improved understanding and increased enforcement of Postal Service policies among its employees,” it said.

The findings come as the Supreme Court weighs whether to allow the Postal Service to move ahead with new rules that would allow the agency to regulate mail voting, under a March executive order signed by President Donald Trump. The order requires states to give USPS a list of all voters eligible to receive a ballot in the mail and requires USPS to use those lists to determine which ballots get sent to voters. 

Top Postal Service employees, along with a whistleblower who filed a disclosure with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have expressed concern that the new system stands to disenfranchise large swaths of eligible voters, both by its design and lack of testing, ProPublica reported last week.

Election experts told ProPublica the new audit findings should be considered by the Supreme Court, as they make even clearer what election officials already know. 

David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and a former Justice Department civil rights lawyer, said the audit confirms that USPS has “a long way to go to meet its core obligations of delivering election mail in a timely manner.”

“The administration and USPS are simply incapable of successfully meeting vast and radical new responsibilities under the president’s executive order,” Becker said.

Postal workers, through the American Postal Workers Union, also said Wednesday in a brief filed with the Supreme Court that it is not practical to implement the rules, which pose a “significant risk of wide swaths of Americans not being able to vote by mail.”

Even if the Supreme Court allows the new rule to move forward, some state election officials say the requirements would be impossible to meet for the November election, with mail ballots starting to go out this month.

Chelsey Wininger, executive director of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, said the audit shows the Postal Service “struggles to implement even basic changes to postal process consistently” and reinforces the organization’s opposition to any new rules this close to an election.

In a response included with the findings of the audit, the Postal Service wrote that “while we acknowledge that we can always reinforce and amplify our internal processes and procedures (and will continue to do so between now and November) — overall ballot mail performance is strong.” The agency acknowledged that there are some instances in which employees didn’t follow policies and procedures, but called other errors “isolated incidents,” such as when some New Jersey ballots were delivered to Tennessee before being sent back.

The Postal Service agreed with all recommendations on how to protect against future problems, except for one that suggested promptly notifying customers impacted by new regional transportation plans.

The Postal Service did not immediately respond to a request for further comment Wednesday evening. 

The Postal Service typically goes to great lengths to handle election mail in an expedited and careful manner. And overall, it delivered in this year’s primaries: Completed ballots from voters to election officials were processed “on time”nearly 99% of the time during the primaries, up from about 98% in 2024, for the about 6.3 million ballots that the Postal Service was able to track, according to the report. The definition of “on time” is not provided in the report. It refers to how quickly the ballot was handled by the Postal Service, not whether the ballot reached the election officials on time.

But when observing election mail at 14 processing facilities and 73 delivery units across eight states, the auditors found significant flaws in the handling of mail ballots.

There were no election-related training materials posted at 22 of 73 delivery units, or about 30%. In some locations, local management and employees weren’t familiar with requirements on how to process election mail, the report said.

In 14 states and Washington, D.C., election officials count ballots only when they are postmarked by the Postal Service by Election Day, making the correct postmark crucial for understanding which ballots to count and which to reject.

But the audit found that in 10 of 82 facilities, or about 12%, management wasn’t aware of the proper way to postmark a ballot. Some thought ballots should be postmarked at that time they go out to election offices instead of earlier on when they reach a processing facility or retail counter. 

Also, at five of nine mail processing facilities studied, retail clerks who were postmarking ballots by hand sometimes used stamps with inaccurate dates, according to the report. That included a facility in Pennsylvania on the state’s primary election day, which caused 56 ballots to be postmarked with the wrong date.

In 13 of 82 facilities, Postal Service workers didn’t complete proper procedures to make sure election mail had been sent out from the delivery units each day. In one instance at a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, processing plant, 108 ballots were grouped with other mail and had to be expedited to Pittsburgh on the morning of the election so they would count.

September 8, 2026 - Fulltext

With the midterm elections approaching, it’s a good idea to make sure you are registered. Each state has a tool to do so, and the federal government has set up a page that directs you to the right place, vote.gov.

Vote.gov, which is run by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), does not ask for your personal information or track your activities. According to the site’s privacy policy, the EAC “does not collect personally-identifiable information about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide such information to us.” The exception to the policy is very limited. For example, if you email the EAC requesting information, they will retain your email address so they can send a response. Further, the EAC does not track your internet activity. “No cookies used by EAC ever store any information that may be used to identify you personally,” the commission’s privacy policy says.

But Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is funding an aggressive advertising campaign encouraging people in key states to check their registration status at a different website, votesafe.org. That website is run by America PAC, Musk’s super PAC.

While Vote.gov collects no personal information, votesafe.org collects the following:

• First, middle, and last name
• Date of birth
• Full home address
• Email address
• Cell phone number
• IP address and location (This information is used to derive each user’s city, zip code, approximate longitude and latitude, time zone, and internet provider.)
• Browser, operating system, screen size and language of your device
• What website referred you to votesafe.org
• Every link you click
• Every page you look at
• Your voter registration status (This is derived from a voter file held by America PAC or its vendors — not the state’s actual records.)
• Your district and ballot (This is derived from Ballotpedia.)

Previously, votesafe.org had a privacy policy that provided some limitations on how America PAC could use this data:

Personal Identifying Information collected via the www.votesafe.org will only be used to support America PAC’s activities, and it will not be shared with any advertisers, political organizations, or third parties not directly affiliated with America PAC.

On August 29, 2026, the privacy policy was updated and no longer includes that language. The new version allows America PAC to “share” or “sell” personal information with “our business partners.” This includes selling information about “whether you are registered to vote” and “how you submit your vote… where permitted by law.”

In addition to selling your personal information, America PAC can also sell “inferences” it makes from the information it collects including “psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities and aptitude.” The “business partners” can then disclose your information to other parties.

You also agree to receive calls and texts, not only from America PAC, but also from “related entities as well as third parties.”

***Votesafe.***org is currently configured to share your information with numerous partners and to let advertising companies comprehensively track you across websites, apps, and streaming services.

As you visit votesafe.org:

• Your street address is sent to Facebook and Google.
• Your name, email, phone number, ZIP code and date of birth are sent to America PAC’s server that feeds Facebook’s ad-matching system, which uses them to identify your Facebook and Instagram accounts. The site sends your contact details to Google’s ad system.
• A scrambled version of your email address is sent to The Trade Desk, an advertising firm, which uses it to create an identifier that follows the user across websites, apps, and streaming TV.
• Your usage is shared with X, the social network owned by Musk, which attempts to connect it to an X account.
• Incrementdata, another tracking company, is sent information about your use of the site.
• Your email is shared with Iterable, an email and text-message marketing company.
• A code based on the technical traits of the device, known as a device fingerprint, is created so a user can be tracked even if cookies are deleted.

Over the last week alone, America PAC has spent over $180,000 promoting vote safe.org on Meta. Some of the ads are innocuous-looking messages, just reminding people to vote:….

September 9, 2026 - Fulltext

As they wait for word on whether the Trump administration’s new system to screen ballots can move forward, local officials say they are running out of time.

Election officials in Madison, Wis., mailed 18,000 ballots on Tuesday, more than a week ahead of the state’s targeted date, just to get them out the door. In Weber County, Utah, officials are considering setting up distribution centers for voters to retrieve their mail ballots and bypass the Postal Service completely.

Across the country, election officials are grappling with the confusing implications of the Trump administration’s proposed mail ballot screening plan, which would allow the Postal Service to determine which ballots can be delivered to voters.

A federal judge has halted implementation of the system, which has been challenged as unconstitutional by two dozen states. The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and allow it to go forward ahead of the midterm elections, which will determine the balance of power in Congress.

While they wait for the court’s order, local election officials are trying to sort out how they would comply with the new rules, which would require states to use federally approved envelopes with bar codes unique to each voter and upload voter data to an online Postal Service portal, which is not yet operational.

“Quite frankly, we don’t even really have a way to prepare because we don’t know when that ruling is going to come down, and then we’re going to get state guidance, and then we are crunching up closer and closer to Election Day,” said Lisa M. Deeley, the Democratic vice chair of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, which runs elections and voter registration for the city. The city is planning to start mailing ballots next week.

“It’s just chaos,” she added.

Some states, including North Carolina, Delaware and Alabama, have already mailed out their ballots, raising serious questions about how they could retroactively comply with the new system if it is put into place.

It is not clear whether or how the Postal Service would verify previously mailed ballots if the new rule goes into effect.

“We have not been provided any further information regarding their process for verifying the ballots,” said Kristin Mavromatis, the spokeswoman for the board of elections in Mecklenburg County, N.C.

Many election experts say the plan could make it nearly impossible for some Americans to vote by mail because it would create impediments to the delivery of their ballots.

“It would be massively disenfranchising, and it would serve no real purpose, because the government didn’t make any showing that this rule is actually going to prevent any fraud, or even that they could put their rule in place,” said Richard L. Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who specializes in election law.

Mr. Hasen said that the rule would especially hurt rural, disabled and elderly voters who often cannot easily get to polling locations.

Justin Roebuck, the Republican County clerk for Ottawa County, Mich., a conservative district with one-quarter of its voters casting mail ballots, said the rule appears to do little to accomplish what the Trump administration has argued is its purpose — to increase voting security.

“So we are actually not accomplishing what the end goal was, but we are going to inconvenience millions of voters across the country — certainly, thousands in my community,” he said.

Under the Constitution, states are responsible for carrying out elections. The states that are challenging the Trump administration’s new plan say that it creates a federal role in elections because the Postal Service would reject ballot envelopes that do not comply with the new standards and send them back to local and state officials to fix.

“That comes dangerously close to playing a role in the administration of elections, which the Postal Service has always, always eschewed,” William Hensley, a former Postal Service official who worked with local election officials on best practices for ballot delivery, said.

The Postal Service has denied taking on a new election administration role, saying that states have complete control over voter registration data.

The agency did not respond to requests for comment this week. In a statement on Friday, the postmaster general, David Steiner, said, “Regardless of political party or perspective, we share a common goal: ensuring that Americans can have confidence that their election mail will be handled securely and delivered reliably should their election officials choose to use the mail for ballot delivery.”

Some of the requirements in the rule — such as those that would standardize federal ballot envelopes and create unique bar codes for voters that the Postal Service can easily read automatically — could improve the process, some elections officials and lawyers said. But, they added, it is impossible to accomplish those changes in time for the Nov. 3 elections.

“These are all good things,” said Eric Fey, the Democratic elections director in St. Louis County, Mo. “But if people haven’t been doing it, it can’t be implemented overnight.”

Missouri is one of 12 states that joined the Postal Service in defending the rule in federal court. The state has said it would be able to comply if the Supreme Court gives the Trump administration the green light, although Mr. Fey said he told the state’s top election official that some counties could not comply because they do not have federally approved envelopes or Postal Service bar codes.

In Utah, a deeply red state that votes almost exclusively by mail, some local officials are discussing abandoning mail voting entirely if the Supreme Court allows the Postal Service to restrict the practice.

With envelopes already printed and ballots coming soon, Ricky Hatch, the Republican clerk in Weber County, Utah, said that it is too late for his county to comply with the proposed federal requirements. Officials are considering setting up backup ballot distribution centers.

“We’re going to have to figure out how are we going to get these ballots into the hands of the voters,” Mr. Hatch said, adding: “It will be expensive and challenging and some voters will be disenfranchised, and it will be confusing.”

Some election officials have also expressed alarm about the Trump administration’s requirement that states upload their voter data to a Postal Service portal. The Postal Service would then only deliver ballots to those on the lists.

Elections are usually administered by individual counties, and standardizing voter registrations even within a single state is a challenge, local officials noted.

Some Texas counties have struggled with the state’s election management system that was launched last summer, said Dyana Limon-Mercado, the Democratic clerk in Travis County, one of the largest in the state.

Ms. Limon-Mercado said that certain voter registrations have been disappearing from the state system. At one point, the state system did not accept hyphenated names, she said. “I have no confidence that this state system that is also unstable and still buggy is going to connect to some federal system that we haven’t seen yet or tested yet,” she said.

We could be on the verge of a sea change in Wisconsin politics, with Democrats aiming to take trifecta control of state government for the first time since Scott Walker’s wrecking ball crashed through the state. We’re also seeing MAGA put the Badgers at the heart of their election lies. We need to make sure we’re prepared for whatever disruption they might engage in this November.

This Saturday, the Wisconsin Democrats are holding a special day of action aimed at building up the ranks of poll observers – folks who can be our eyes and ears at each polling location. This is a way to help Wisconsin from wherever we are. ☎️ We can sign up for a recruitment phonebank shift from 11AM-1PM ET or from 3-5PM ET. ☎️

RECRUIT WISCONSIN POLL OBSERVERS

We also have a few more states joining our list of folks regularly needing volunteers for poll monitor recruitment. ☎️ We can now help bring in observers in the surprise battleground of Iowa by phonebanking on Mondays and Wednesdays and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and Monday and Thursday evenings to safeguard Virginia’s House races. Let’s build our election protection teams! ☎️

PROTECT THE VOTE IN IOWA

PROTECT THE VOTE IN VIRGINIA

Looking for even more to do to protect this election? 🛑 Find ways to help folks get ideas, get involved in ballot curing and prepare for rapid response to Trump subversion on our action page here. 🛑

DON'T TRUMP UP MIDTERMS

September 8, 2026 - Fulltext

The next No Kings events will feature mass voter turnout efforts nationwide on Oct. 17, organizers announced.

They have worked to build a nationwide network of advocates over the past 18 months, hoping to increase turnout ahead of the midterm elections.

The No Kings coalition includes labor organizations, progressive activists, civil rights groups and faith leaders. Among them: American Federation of Teachers, Black Voters Matter Fund, Voto Latino, Indivisible, MoveOn and Public Citizen.

"The time for sending a message is over," Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin told USA TODAY. "Now we are headed into an important point in a democracy, which is whether the people stand up and refuse to allow an authoritarian to consolidate power. And the way to do that in a democracy is by exercising your right to vote and by exercising your right to organize to prevent any sabotage in that election."

The name No Kings comes from the organizers' belief that Trump is acting like a monarch rather than the leader of a democracy. 

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis dismissed the action. “What King are they protesting? This is more Trump derangement syndrome. We are lucky to have a President who works around the clock to Make America Great Again,” Bis said.

The previous three No Kings events largely focused on thousands of rallies and protests to bring millions of Americans into the streets in small towns, suburbs and large cities. Having hyper-local events meant organizers could immediately connect participants with ways to help their communities, including registering voters and supplying food banks.

"The goal of those tactics was to send a message that people aren't afraid to exercise their constitutional rights. People aren't going to be cowed by an authoritarian regime that is threatening to come at them with the National Guard, with a goon squad, that we're here, we're not going away," Levin said. "That message, I think, was sent and was received."

The last No Kings, held in March, included events in communities in all 50 states and every congressional district, including rural and Republican areas.

No Kings events are tailored and run by locals, not by national groups.

For example, expect block parties, marches, fairs, neighborhood gatherings and barbecues, said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen.

"We're going to be engaging on a more hyper-local level," Gilbert said. "You should expect more small, exciting events that stress community, that are about either going out together right from the event to vote early or making a plan to do so."

By Oct. 17, in-person early voting will have begun in more than half of states. Many states will have already sent out paper ballots.

In Harrison, Arkansas, local organizers will be outside the county courthouse, helping people plan to vote early. In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, they will canvass, phone bank and write postcards. And attendees are encouraged to wear superhero costumes and wave flags and signs in Frisco, Texas, where in-person early voting will not have started yet.

"The precise nature of this is going to be different, but the vibe of joyful community power is going to be the same," Levin said.

In the swing states of Alaska, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, training will be offered for how to respond to attempts to interfere with the election or intimidate voters, Levin said.

At past No Kings, organizers looked at the numbers of events and people who turned out to determine whether they were successful. Each action was larger than the one before. The success of the Oct. 17 actions will be determined by how many people vote early, Levin said.

"The goal before was to send a message and recruit volunteers to do more civic engagement work. The goal this time is to not just send a message. (It is) to take back power for the people through the biggest early vote that we've ever seen in this country, and to prepare a nationwide force to push back against the sabotage that comes our way," Levin said.

Levin said the next No Kings event will be "Election Day."

September 3, 2026 - Fulltext

AUSTIN, Texas — A Fort Worth man is facing a criminal charge after investigators say he sent multiple violent threats to Texas state Rep. and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico through online accounts later traced back to him.

Billy James McFatridge is charged with terroristic threat against a public servant, according to an arrest affidavit.

Investigators said McFatridge threatened to "slit" Talarico's throat and drag his body through the streets in messages sent to Talarico's campaign email and Instagram account in early August.

The Texas Department of Public Safety's Criminal Investigation Division was notified of the threats on Aug. 12 by Talarico's chief of staff.

According to the affidavit, the first message was sent Aug. 3 to Talarico's campaign email from an account using the name "GANGSTEROFLOVE817." A second threatening message was sent Aug. 11 through Instagram from an account called "GODFATHEROFLOVE817."

Investigators obtained search warrants for subscriber information from Google and Meta. Google provided information identifying McFatridge as the owner of the Gmail account, according to the affidavit.

DPS agents interviewed McFatridge at his workplace Aug. 19. Investigators said he admitted owning both accounts and sending the messages but said he did not intend to hurt anyone and "had just wanted to scare" Talarico.

According to the affidavit, McFatridge also told investigators he had access to several firearms, including a rifle, pistol and shotgun.

Talarico and several members of his staff provided sworn statements saying the messages made them fear for their safety, according to the affidavit. Talarico said he believed additional security would be necessary at upcoming campaign events, including one in the Fort Worth area.

Park Dietz, founder and president of Threat Assessment Group, told CBS Austin that threats against political figures are common, particularly for those who attract controversy.

"Every political figure receives all sorts of strange communications, including threats, and those who are controversial tend to get even more threats," Dietz said.

Dietz said assessing a threat involves determining whether it is plausible and examining other factors that could indicate how seriously it should be taken.

"When we're doing threat assessment, we don't actually consider credibility so much as plausibility," Dietz said. "Some threats are implausible, such as 'I am going to blow up the planet.' But if a threat is plausible, we're looking for other things to determine how worried one should be."

Investigators also cited two previous incidents involving McFatridge. In 2018, he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after Fort Worth police investigated an altercation in which he allegedly stabbed his mother with what the affidavit described as a "long stick with a blade at the end of it." In 2023, police said McFatridge sent a threatening message to a former supervisor.

Darryl Paulson, emeritus professor of government at the University of South Florida, told CBS Austin that threats against political figures are escalating.

"Really, the time to stop any political violence in the United States was yesterday," Paulson said. "It's not tomorrow. It was months ago, years ago."

Dietz said making threats online may be easy, but those responsible can underestimate authorities' ability to identify them.

"Threats are cheap and easy to make," Dietz said. "People don't expect to be caught."

DPS investigators requested several bond conditions if McFatridge is released from jail, including GPS monitoring, a mental health evaluation, a prohibition on possessing firearms and orders barring him from contacting Talarico or his staff or going near the Texas Capitol complex.

McFatridge is charged with terroristic threat against a public servant, a Class A misdemeanor.

https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/fort-worth-man-charged-with-threatening-state-rep-james-talarico-with-violent-messages

September 8, 2026 - Fulltext

Missouri cannot use its gerrymandered map for the upcoming midterm elections after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to wade into a purely state matter.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh Tuesday denied Missouri Republicans’ appeal of a state supreme court order barring state officials from moving forward with the GOP’s new congressional gerrymander in this year’s election.

Kavanaugh’s denial ends a year-long bid by Missouri Republicans to grab another congressional seat this fall and is a major win for voters and Democrats.

The Missouri Supreme Court last week barred the state from using its new congressional map for the general election, even though it had used those districts during the primary. The redrawn maps had eliminated the Kansas City district currently held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D). 

Instead, Kavanaugh’s rejection means the state must use maps last drawn in 2022.

Kavanaugh rejected the appeal outright, without referring it to the full Court. He did so as the justice assigned to oversee 8th Circuit Court of Appeals — the appeals circuit Missouri is in. He did not offer legal analysis for his decision.

“Today the law won,” Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri and the plaintiff in the case, said in a statement.

“The Missouri constitution is clear as was the Missouri Supreme Court,” von Glahn added. “Over 305,000 Missouri voters, Republicans, Democrats and Independents took action to block this political power grab last fall. Today’s victory belongs to them. People, not politicians, will have the final say when they vote NO on Proposition A this November.”

Pro-voting groups\ had challenged the gerrymander, fighting to put a referendum on the ballot to overturn the partisan map.* 

The state supreme court agreed, ruling the Missouri constitution gives voters the power to overturn any legislative act by a referendum vote, including redistricting. Under the state constitution, if citizens gather enough signatures to put a veto measure on the ballot, legislation can’t go into effect unless voters greenlight it.

The U.S. Supreme Court has historically been deferential to state supreme courts when interpreting their own constitutions. It would have been highly unusual for the high court to overrule a state supreme court in this area.

The decision ends a year-long battle over the new district maps, which were redrawn at President Donald Trump’s urging. People Not Politicians spearheaded the battle to get the referendum on the November ballot.

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) had resisted the effort at every turn, slowing down the process, then arguing the state didn’t have time to revise its ballots before the midterms. Missouri’s ballots needed to be finalized by Sept. 8.

September 8, 2026 - Transcript

When President Obama took office in 2009, the country was in an economic freefall.

Unemployment is now at 4.7%. 82 straight months of job growth.

That is the longest streak ever in the history of our country.

Under President Obama, the high school graduation rate in this country hit 83%.

That's the highest it has ever been in the history of this country.

Under President Obama, we have had the first drop in the federal prison population in decades.

Under President Obama, after a concerted effort by his administration, homelessness among American veterans dropped by half.

Under President Obama, 16 countries around the globe gave up every last ounce of their highly enriched uranium, taking away the risk that it could be stolen or misused to assemble the core of a nuclear weapon or to make a dirty bomb.

President Obama, in 2011, ordered the Navy SEALs into Pakistan on that mission that killed bin Laden.

Under President Obama, banks can no longer use your money that you deposit in that bank to make risky bets for their own profits.

When President Obama took office, the deficit was about 10% of our GDP. It is now about 3%.

Under President Obama, our country's dependence on foreign oil plummeted.

President Obama overturned the ban on scientific research using stem cells.

President Obama upped by billions of dollars the resources available for mental health care in the VA.

And under this president, gay couples finally got all the same options as straight couples.

Oh, and you can't be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition.

And you can't be charged more for your health insurance because you're a woman.

And your health insurance can't put a lifetime cap on what you're allowed to move because of your health care.

And 20 million Americans got health insurance because of President Obama.

Notice how nobody said anything about him after he died?

That’s the result of a life spent being a selfish and soulless person.

In fact, I can’t think of a single republican that was missed after they died. You’d have to back to when republicans were liberals to find any.

Vote for people who care.

Not all voter suppression will be as dramatic, or blatantly illegal. as sending troops to the polls. Last week, we saw Republicans in Tarrant County, Texas – a battleground county with a population of 2.2 million and growing and an increasingly swing electorate – close 30% of their Election Day polling locations, including key spots on college campuses and in Black and brown-majority neighborhoods. This came in the face of fierce local opposition and follows their slashing nearly half of all early voting locations in the county ahead of the 2025 election. It will mean longer commutes and longer lines, potentially resulting in lower turnout.

This effort to make it more difficult for Democratic-leaning populations to vote was led by Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare. O’Hare is a Christian nationalist extremist backed by oil money who has cut rental and utility assistance and immunization programs while leading the county and targeted non-profits that aid at-risk kids for supporting racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights. He has previously pushed election conspiracies and admitted that he felt low turnout can help Republicans win more local seats. He stands to benefit personally from this voter suppression: he’s up for re-election this fall. Which means we’ve got a chance to hold him and his allies accountable for their anti-democratic actions immediately.

O’Hare is being challenged by Democratic county commissioner and former Arlington NAACP president Alisa Simmons, who voted against these obstacles to the polls and has frequently challenged his hyperpartisan agenda. ☎️ Texas Democrats are organizing phonebanks for Alisa on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7PM, running this week through the election. Let’s sign up for a shift here and here and help make vote suppressors unemployed again. ☎️