Armistice Day Observance

Posted on November 10, 2026 by Trish Nelson

Veterans for Peace

Forwarded from our friend Ed Flaherty, veteran and peace activist

 

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Governor-Elect Rob Sand Holds First News Conference

Posted on November 9, 2026 by Trish Nelson

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The Origin Of The Post Office And Newspapers

Posted on November 9, 2026 by Trish Nelson

It is a new day in America. Time to get back to an issue that once had a robust movement and needs revived: media reform.

Today I’m posting a video talk by Robert McChesney, co-founder of Free Press and co-author with John Nichols of Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America, and most recently authored Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy.  McChesney passed away last March, 2025.  Click here for more information about Robert McChesney.

I’ve posted on his work here previously but I stumbled upon this talk he gave in 2020, on the history of newspapers in America and why the post office is in the constitution, shared by Media and Democracy Project.  Still relevant today, more than ever. Here is a brief excerpt for followers that like to read. This seems really important and not widely known.

“You cannot be a free society without an independent press.

All the freedoms in the constitution were predicated on having a free press. But a free press meant a citizen has a right to have access to all sorts of information to make their own opinion and to consume that information and take advantage of it… it wasn’t just for rich people to make money.

If you study the founding of the country from Jefferson and Madison to Thomas Payne to Franklin, across the spectrum – that is arguably the single most important issue they dwell on. They said, if we’re going to have a free society where we actually let people vote and be in control of society we have to have an independent press…and so realizing it wasn’t going to happen on its own, they instituted a subsidy to make it easy to start newspapers. That was the postal subsidy.

Ironically, with all the attacks on the post office today, the post office was created primarily to speed up the development of a free press. Over 90% of the traffic of the post office was newspapers. Virtually every newspaper in America was delivered by the post office for the first hundred years in American history.

Mostly delivering newspapers, that’s what the post office did. The post office is in the constitution for this reason. One of the great issues is what to charge newspapers to be mailed. And they elected to basically subsidize it at an enormous amount to make it virtually free to distribute newspapers in the country because they, as Madison put it, any charge for postage would be a censorship because it would make it harder for some to publish. And to his credit, as he noted, the first papers to go under would be the dissident papers, the marginal papers. Those were exactly the papers you need to have in a free society in a democracy.

So this is something as Americans we should be proud of. This is part of our tradition. Because of the postal subsidies we had a newspaper system in the 19th century that was the envy of the world. Every great social movement was built around the ability to have newspapers that were sent virtually free through the mail. The abolitionist movement, the suffragette movement, the labor movement, every immigrant group. They depended upon those subsidies for their news media and all political organizing in the 19th century was done by newspapers and periodicals. That’s how you built a base and how you kept it. It was central to it.

The great heroes, Frederick Douglas, editor. Susan B. Anthony, editor. The political organizer was basically doing newspapers, reaching out to people. That’s what you were.

The subsidy of newspapers made it possible for ten times more newspapers to exist than would have been the case otherwise. The genius of the subsidy was, everyone got it, didn’t matter what the content was. The government didn’t pick winners and losers, everyone got it.

What happened by the end of the 19th century…”   – Robert McChesney

McChesney gave a lecture in Iowa City in 2014. He talked about why we need public funding for journalism.  I attended and wrote a post about it. Ironically, there was no local newspaper coverage.  McChesney was also an organizer of the National Conferences on Media Reform that were sponsored primarily by Freepress.net and used to happen every other year up until 2013. We need a renewed media reform movement in America.

Sign up for this virtual event by Media and Democracy Project. A Celebration and a Path Forward

 

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Dems Must Show That Corruption Will Be Dealt With

Posted on November 8, 2026 by Dave Bradley

Robert Garcia says “Lawyer Up!”  1.5  minutes:

Just a short message on this. Democrats were elected to put our systems of laws back in order among other things. It will be extremely important that they make astrong showing that we are once again a nation of laws and if you do the crime you WILL be held accountable, no matter who you are! Period.

So, Congress member Garcia, Please Proceed!

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Sunday Funday: O Man Are We Diverse Edition

Posted on November 8, 2026 by Dave Bradley

A Trump voter sees the light: (4 minutes):

The Democratic Party has elected Governors named Keisha, Gina, Deb and Rob. We have senators named Josh, Abdul and Juliana. Said another way we have women at the highest powers in their states, including black women, white women and Latina women. We have people of almost every background, religion and sexual orientation elected to office. In short the Democratic Party looks like the America it represents. Just could not be prouder.

Among those elected are many with backgrounds that would not indicate they would ever reach such heights. Iowa’s own Christina Bohannon and Josh Turek are two such notable success stories. So let’s see if this fish-mash of mutts can mold itself into a group that will work for the average American and Iowan. Methinks that if they are not focused on grifting like Republicans are, then YES yjry can get some work done for us. Ahhhh! The Audacity of Hope rears its ugly head again.

My only complaint is that I won’t get that $5,000 check from Trump! {this is sarcasm folks}

A) To bring us back to earth, what somber holiday do we celebrate Wednesday?

B) One race that few expected Democrats would have any chance of winning is still not called in what former confederate stronghold?

C) Surprises galore across the country including here in Iowa where Brenna Bird was ousted as AG by what attorney who promised to work for Iowa’s common person?

D) Vote Early was the message and many did. This strategy was illustrated vividly in Texas where what senatorial candidate had more votes in the tank than his opponent got in total?

E) How many of us greeted our spouses on waking Wednesday morning with a cheery “Merry Christmas”?

F) Among problems Democrats must deal with will be measles which topped what case number this week?

G) Former candidate Haley Stevens in Michigan stole the spotlight the Sunday before the election by endorsing who for the Michigan senate seat?

H) Remember the big push by Trump to gerrymander many state congressional districts to make them safe Republican districts in this election? How did that work out?

I) In a somewhat humbling story, Voyager 1 will achieve what milestone in 10 days?

J) Five black governors were elected in this election. Can you remember who was the first elected black governor and when?

K) Similarly who was the first elected female black governor and when?

L) The DOJ is trying to stop what star witness from being deposed during discovery in Trump’s $10B lawsuit against what news organization?

M) What common place appliances in stores are being targeted by computer hackers around the world?

N) Going – Going – Gone? Tesla announced it would stop production of what much maligned vehicle in the middle of next year?

O) Two senate races are yet to be called as of this writing. Do you know where?

P) Eric Armstrong of Iowa did something very unusual in the midterm elections. Do you know what he did?

Q) Measles deaths were recorded in what 3 states last week?

R) A native American woman was elected as governor of what state in the midterms?

S) A native American woman was elected to the US senate from what state?

T) ‘I voted’ stickers were placed at shrines that honored what two Ameican citizens who were assassinated by ICE units last winter?

Trump got regime change in Texas before Iran – Jose Aguiar

 

A Mexican taking Greg Abbott’s job is absolutely PEAK – Chicano Post

 

tip of the hat to all-hat-no-cattle.com

Answers:
 
A) Nov. 11 is known in the US as Veterans Day; elsewhere it is known as Armistice Day – the day that WWI ended in 1918
 
B) The senate race in Mississippi
 
C) Nate Willems
 
D) James Talarico
 
E) a sleigh full
 
F) in the US measles topped 5,000 cases this week
 
G) Republican Mike Rogers
 
H) Republicans gained no seats due to the gerrymands
 
I) It will be one light day (the distance light would travel in 24 hours) away from earth on Nov. 18. That is 16,000,000,000 miles
 
J) Douglas Wilder in Virginia in 1989
 
K) Just happened. Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia
 
L) Jack Smith
 
M) Refrigerator units
 
N) the Cybertruck
 
O) Mississippi and Alaska
 
P) He dropped out of his race due to health concerns yet won the election anyway. He will take Josh Turek’s seat in the Iowa Legislature
 
Q) New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin
 
R) New Mexico (Deb Haaland)
 
S) Minnesota ( Peggy Flanagan)
 
T)  Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota
 
Two unsung heroes of the midterms who really deserve recognition: Stacey Abrams and Marc Elias. If you do not know who they are, look them up!
 

tip of the hat to all-hat-no-cattle.com

Posted in #nevertrump, 2026 election, Humor | Leave a comment

Universal Health Care In Mexico?? Coming in January!

Posted on November 7, 2026 by Dave Bradley

1 minute:

An old friend gave me a call the other day. It was right after the election. He had a question and didn’t know who to ask, so he thought he’d give me a try. After the election he was wondering how the US ever got to the point where we are one of few countries in the world – and the only wealthy one – to not have Universal health Care? Why doesn’t the US have universal health care?

“Geez” I said, “that’s and easy one. First it is because of racism. The old lie that we’d be given something to someone who doesn’t deserve it {wink, wink}. That is the big reason plus some longstanding lies about health habits and morality among minorities. Reason number two is the huge amount of wealth that is extracted through the insurance system. You think those folks are going to give up a cash cow where they get extremely wealthy just by denying use of the health care system to average folks. What a great system they got. And all they have to do is buy – I mean ‘donate’ to political candidates.”

“I knew you’d have a different answer.” he said. “Why did you say race?”

I am a little bit older than he is. So I said “I grew up in a different era than you. The racism was very blatant in those days. ’They don’t deserve it’ and such stuff was heard many times daily. BTW do you know when universal health care was first proposed in the US?” I asked feeling pretty sure he had no idea. And he did have no idea.

So I told him it was back when Teddy Roosevelt was president. “Teddy Roosevelt?!” he said. “Holy smokes!” And I said “think of the racial climate back then. Many folks haven’t moved on from there.”

He simply said that what I said made sense and he would need to think hard about it.

Then I hit him with one more. “Did you know that Mexico will begin universal health care for its citizens in January 2027? You know Trump thinks of Mexico as one of his ’shithole’ countries. I think the universal healthcare is one sign that a country is pretty high up on the civilization chart. So that should be a real embarrassment for the US vis-a-vis Mexico.”

“I’ve never heard that” he said. ‘Yeah” I replied, “I can bet there is a lot of things you have never heard. I can bet when Mexico transistions that if we hear anything about their new system it will be portrayed as bad by our news media.” I said. “After all they are like the insurance companies where thay are making a bundle on the current system where they lie to you.”

He then started listing his outrageous insurance bills, and co-pays and deductibles. He has a diabetic daughter so his insurance and co-pays etc are a huge burden. “Well” I said, ”join me in fighting for universal health care. You got nothing to lose.”

Posted in #trumpresistance, 2026 election, Health Care & Medicare, Racism in America, Republican Policy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Lousy Leadership + Lousy Candidates + Lousy Policies  = Lousy Results

Posted on November 7, 2026 by Dave Bradley

Iowa – you are probably very lucky you passed on this guy. Maybe I am overly sensitive to the Republican dog whistles that they seem to sneak into every speech, but when Lahn mentions “defend our culture” my hackles went up immediately. Remember he is a product of the Koch brothers and as such probably in reality has little care or regard for Iowa except for what he can extract from us. 3 minutes:

Lahn is just an example of the poor quality of candidate that Republicans drew across the state and the nation at all levels. You only have to move one square from Zach Lahn to get to Derek Wulf as a major illustration of the candidate quality that the Republicans put up and apparently are satisfied with. A carpetbagger and a guy one step ahead of the law

Starting at the top is the worst president ever. This is a man convicted of 34 felonies. This is also a man who is using the presidency to enrich himself much as tyrants of old. One thing Trump demands is unquestioning loyalty and he got it in spades from candidates such as Ashley Hinson, Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn and Brenna Bird.

As Trump’s behavior and utterances became more and more extreme candidates such as mentioned above had to compromise any semblance of integrity because loyalty to their leader was much more important than their morality. Candidates who are thus compromised will eventually be outed.

Iowa also had an incumbent for Attorney General (Brenna Bird) whose mission seemed to be based on MAGA demands with little thought of the effects on Iowans. Iowans paid close attention when the Democrat ( Nate Willems) said that he would use the office to help the common Iowan. Bird must’ve thought that to be a very novel concept.

At the US congress level, Republican candidates couldn’t cozy close enough to Trump until suddenly this summer they couldn’t remember Trump’s name. When one and all tried to trumpet their legislative accomplishments it was like Mother Hubbard – the cabinet was empty. The only thing Republicans did in two years was to give huge tax cuts to the rich paid for with punishing policies for the average Iowan. That’s a pile of poo that was really hard to sell.

Of course Iowa’s story was a story that was repeated over and over throughout the country. Republicans had more than one candidate that was just a step ahead of the law. Most of their candidates were so out of touch with their constituents that they seemed to think taking food and health care from children – FROM CHILDREN! – was what the people wanted.

So you combine really lousy, out of touch leadership with really lousy candidates, some of whom are a step ahead of the law and add in terrible policies that include tariffs based on whims, foreign policies that favor right wing oligarchs and domestic policies that punish citizens while greatly favoring the wealthy and add in a large dose of racially biased legal and immigration system and you have a stench of a brew to sell the public. Thank goodness the public ain’t buying.

What they were buying were candidates who stand for the rule of law, that stood for decency and respect for all Americans and stood for returning our economy to a level playing field.

Now we have lots of problems to fix as the opposition will continue to use their money and power and their ownership of the media to do all they can to obstruct a country that they have wrecked and molded into a country that greatly favors the 1%. Expect a tough fight and expect the media to be very biased toward the wealthy.

A great start will be to root out the most corrupt government ever.

But we can and must win. Be prepared to get involved as we prepare for 2028. The race is on already. Dems must win in 2028 to finish what they start in 2027.

We’ve Only Just Begun (3 minutes):

Posted in #nevertrump, 2026 election, Republican Policy | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Heather Cox Richardson On America’s Historic Political Revolution

Posted on November 6, 2026 by Trish Nelson

Heather Cox Richardson

“The historic nature of this election cannot be overstated. It is a rejection of Trump, who insisted voters should imagine he was on the ballot. But more than that, it is a rejection of the Republican ideology that has driven American politics since the 1980s: the idea that some people are better than others and have the right to rule.”

November 4, 2026
Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American

And so, one era passes and another begins.

Yesterday, voters flipped control of both chambers of Congress from the Republicans to the Democrats. Votes in some races are still being counted, but NBC News projects that the Democrats will win at least 259 seats in the House of Representatives, far more than the 218 they needed to win a majority.

A Democratic victory in the House had been widely expected, but what would happen in the Senate, which had a bad map for Democrats this cycle, was unclear. There, too, voters were emphatic. Democrats flipped seven seats in the Senate: Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas.

The Senate race in Alaska hasn’t yet been called, but Democratic challenger Mary Peltola is currently slightly ahead of Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan there. Even more eye-popping, as of this writing, Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom is ahead of the Republican incumbent in Mississippi. If he wins, he will be the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction.

In governors’ races, Democrats flipped Iowa, Georgia, Ohio, Nevada, and Texas. None of the new Democratic governors will be hamstrung by a Republican supermajority in the state legislature. Republicans in Kansas, Iowa, North Carolina, and Ohio either lost or failed to regain supermajorities that could override a governor’s veto.

The topline races don’t tell the whole story. Voters elected Democrats up and down the ballot. In Texas, the most prominent example of this phenomenon, Democratic senatorial candidate James Talarico won by about 12 points. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa won by 7 points. Voters flipped two congressional seats in districts Trump won by at least 14 points in 2024. Voters elected a Democratic attorney general and four Democratic supreme court justices, and they flipped control of the lower chamber of the legislature.

Many of the races across the country were not close. Some races flipped by double digits from the margins of 2024. Some flips were as high as 20, 30, or even 40 percent. Observers called the results “seismic” and “jaw-dropping,” not just a blue wave but a “tsunami.”

The 2026 midterm elections marked a revolution in American politics. Election scholar Michael McDonald estimates that about 124.3 million people, or just under 50% of those eligible, turned out to vote. That rate is just under the voting rate in the 2018 midterms, which itself was the highest midterm turnout rate since 1914.

The election came off without anything more than the usual hitches, a tribute to the quiet work of dedicated lawyers and voting rights groups who have been fiercely contesting the administration’s efforts to rig the vote or to stir up opposition to accept the outcome. It was, as organizers had hoped, “too big to rig.” After months of suggesting he would contest the outcome of the election if Democrats won, Trump told New York Times reporters Erica L. Green and Tyler Pager that he would accept the results.

The historic nature of this election cannot be overstated. It is a rejection of Trump, who insisted voters should imagine he was on the ballot. But more than that, it is a rejection of the Republican ideology that has driven American politics since the 1980s: the idea that some people are better than others and have the right to rule.

That ideology took root in American politics in the late 1970s, in response to the nation’s push toward equality for racial minorities and women. The 1965 Voting Rights Act protected the right of Black and Brown Americans to vote, while the introduction of reliable birth control that same year began to permit women to enter the workforce on terms equal to men. It seemed that the equality promised in American democracy was within reach.

But to win election, Richard M. Nixon brought into the Republican Party voters who opposed the expansion of American democracy while Democrats looked to expand their tent. In 1972, even as Nixon won in a landslide, Democrats sent to Congress giants like Barbara Jordan of Texas, the first Black woman elected to Congress from the South and the first woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention.

In 1974, voters infuriated by Watergate flipped 49 House seats and 5 Senate seats from Republican to Democratic and elected 93 new members of Congress, 76 of whom were Democrats. In 1976 they sent Democrat Jimmy Carter to the White House, where he signed legislation that made it illegal to fire women or cut their pay because they were pregnant, expanded contracting rules to boost Black-owned businesses, worked to end racial discrimination in hiring, and created the Department of Education.

Carter’s Republican successor, Ronald Reagan, won election by attacking the modern American state and warning that people like the “Welfare Queen,” a Black woman who abused the welfare system to live large, were taking money from hardworking white people. The government should get out of people’s lives, he said, and he promised to slash taxes and regulations to permit people to accumulate wealth. In turn, he claimed, they would invest in the economy, creating jobs for everyone. Reagan and his allies tied racial and gender inequality to economic prosperity.

That combination worked—more or less—to attract voters until Trump’s second term tore it apart. Trump and appointees like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have purged the government of minorities and women and undermined the health and well-being of nonwhite Americans, immigrants, and women. But rather than benefiting regular Americans, those policies have hurt them. And administration leaders have been quite open about their intention of using the government to loot the country for themselves and their cronies.

In their determination to stop Trump and MAGA, Americans came together across the artificial lines that Republicans have exploited for more than a generation to stand against what the nation’s founders would have called tyranny. The rural areas that have made up the backbone of MAGA support joined more Democratic urban areas to elect Democrats. The racial, gender, and cultural divisions Republicans have exploited to stay in power have collapsed in the face of a rising oligarchy.

Even billionaire Elon Musk’s investment of close to half a billion dollars in Republicans in the midterms could not overcome voters’ frustration with a government that works only for the very wealthy. People across the country, organized in No Kings rallies, along overpasses, in webcasts, and in everything from political clubs to knitting communities, have come together to stand against the extraordinary corruption of the Trump regime, to oppose Trump’s rejection of constitutional limits in favor of autocratic power to declare tariffs and start wars, to demand the government address the needs of Americans, and to insist on the rule of law. Yesterday, they voted.

In Georgia, voters elected Keisha Lance Bottoms to be the first Black female governor in the nation. In New Hampshire, voters elected Chris Pappas to be the Senate’s first openly gay member. In Texas, voters elected Gina Hinojosa to be the state’s first Latina governor and the state’s first Democratic governor in more than 30 years. In New Mexico, voters elected former Interior secretary Deb Haaland to be the nation’s first female Indigenous governor. Voters in Minnesota sent Ojibwe Peggy Flanagan to the Senate. In Michigan, voters elected Abdul El-Sayed, the nation’s first Muslim senator. Voters in Ohio sent Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker, to the House of Representatives and returned Sherrod Brown, known for his defense of unions, to the Senate.

It is a historic rebuke of the Republican ideology that derailed the movement for equal rights in the 1970s in order to sway the system back toward wealthy white people.

This sea change has some immediate repercussions. By putting Congress under the control of Democrats, last night’s results will mean that it will focus on Americans’ needs and will check Trump and his administration.

Asked if the Democrats would focus on costs or corruption, Senator Rafael Warnock of Georgia told CNN that the Democrats could “walk and chew gum at the same time.” Today Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, reelected for a third term yesterday with almost 60% of the vote, released a 75-page road map for the congressional majority, asking it to end the war in Iran, raise the minimum wage, pass comprehensive immigration reform, provide universal healthcare and childcare, put guardrails around AI, and codify abortion rights into law.

Just after 10:00 last night, Eastern time, as Democratic victories piled up, the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia of California, had one comment for administration loyalists. On social media, he wrote: “LAWYER UP.”

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who will retake a position as the head of the Senate Finance Committee, posted: “Subpoenas.” Among other things, Wyden has been trying to get financial information about sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein’s circle for years but has been stonewalled by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The Senate Finance Committee reposted Wyden’s comment with the caption: “Let’s f*cking go.”

Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), who will likely retake the top spot at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, posted on October 28 that he is interested in hearing from Musk about his conversations with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin about satellites. “One more thing to add to the list of questions for Musk when I subpoena him,” Coons posted.

First thing this morning, Republicans set out to try to figure out a way to spin the results. President Trump posted on social media: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” He then posted an image of a red MAGA hat with the word “VETO” on it in huge white letters, a reminder that he is still the president and a threat to veto any legislation the Democratic-dominated Congress passes.

But the election has made him the lamest of lame ducks and has already turned his attention back to his Washington, D.C., development projects. He showed up today at the White House ballroom construction site, where he described his fantasy world in which former President Joe Biden had turned Washington, D.C., into a “killing field” before he, Trump, took office the second time and fixed everything. Mostly, though, he praised his ballroom plans.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis called the election “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans in many parts of the country.” In an evident bid to set himself up to run for president in 2028, he pointed out that Florida remains controlled by Republicans while Texas underwent a Democratic sweep. This is true as far as it goes, but the surge of Angie Nixon and David Jolly in Florida, running for Senate and governor, respectively, was such a surprise that Democrats didn’t invest much in their races, which might have turned out differently if they had.

Vice President J.D. Vance doubled down on the culture wars—including backing the vile ad Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy ran against Democrat Amy Acton in Ohio, weaponizing that she was raped as a child—and now is faced with the fact Acton won her election by 8 points. In a long post on social media today, Vance blamed the loss on the Iran war, a clear attempt to throw responsibility for the dramatic losses onto Trump and Hegseth.

Vance insisted that voters did not turn on the Republicans over their immigration policies, despite the poignant images of people putting their “I VOTED” stickers on shrines to Renee Good and Alex Pretti and others murdered by federal agents during immigration enforcement raids. Vance has sold himself to the white Christian nationalism at the heart of MAGA that claims immigrants are destroying “Western culture,” and it appears he will not be giving that up.

But for now, anyway, Americans have moved on.

—

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/live-blog/election-results-house-senate-trump-live-updates-rcna607376

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/democrats-win-full-control-of-more-state-governments-and-the-texas-house

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/11/04/us/elections/midterms-senate-states.html

https://www.npr.org/2026/11/04/nx-s1-6022216/midterms-democrats-trump-republicans-analysis

https://thehill.com/policy/international/6198389-democrats-foreign-policy-power-congress/

https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/03/politics/house-districts-midterms-trump-vis

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/03/us/politics/trump-midterm-election-results.html

https://gov-pritzker-newsroom.prezly.com/gov-pritzker-releases-fighting-for-illinois-day-one-agenda

https://thehill.com/policy/international/6198389-democrats-foreign-policy-power-congress/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/11/04/after-election-day-rout-trump-returns-white-house-ballroom-his-safest-place/

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/11/04/texas-democrats-blue-wave/

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/11/03/texas-house-legislature-outcomes-control-republicans-democrats-2026/

https://thetexan.news/elections/2026/democrats-sweep-supreme-court-of-texas-winning-four-of-nine-seats/article_05511c31-5c49-4803-bb0a-87357e1ba12d.html

Trump’s Truth:

statuses/43480

statuses/43483

Bluesky:

taniel.bsky.social/post/3mzityzmcrs2h

stholeary.bsky.social/post/3mzik3j64tk2s

robertgarcia.house.gov/post/3mzhfgmf5hc2h

wyden.senate.gov/post/3mzhhwwu6lk2i

senatefinance.bsky.social/post/3mzhino2jxc2i

atrupar.com/post/3mzixftmkoc2u

wertwhile.bsky.social/post/3mzipwoflh22j

nashishereforit.bsky.social/post/3mzjn46o7kc25

atrupar.com/post/3mzj24qva6p2u

washingtonpost.com/post/3mzjztk2elx2a

iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social/post/3mzgtjkglzk2n

amanbatheja.bsky.social/post/3mzfykalzgs25

 

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Democrats Win Majority of Governorships

Posted on November 5, 2026 by Trish Nelson

Rob Sand victory speech Photo: Iowa Capital Dispatch

Democrats win majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years

by Kevin Hardy, Iowa Capital Dispatch
November 4, 2026

Democrats have won the majority of governor’s offices for the first time in 16 years after the GOP racked up major losses across the country.

Democrats flipped governorships in Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Texas and defended competitive races in Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin, according to unofficial results from The Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ.

As of 10 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, Democrats were set to hold 28 governor’s offices compared with Republicans’ 20. Races in Alaska and Kansas have not yet been called.

In a historic night, voters elected a record number of four Black governors, including the first Black woman and first Black Republican ever elected governor.

Midterms are always tough for the party that holds the White House, but high prices and growing disapproval of President Donald Trump delivered even stronger than expected results for Democrats Tuesday.

“It’s a blue wave that was bigger than anyone had expected, and it’s having consequences across the country, including here in Texas,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. “Overall, Donald Trump has single-handedly turned many red states blue — or at least purple.”

By late Tuesday, Democrats had won races for attorney general and lieutenant governor for the first time in decades and flipped the Texas House.

“One of the real questions will be what do Democrats do with this power, and will they be able to retain it,” he said. “This has effectively opened a door for Democrats across the country.”

Gubernatorial races proved historic for both Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday with the election of the nation’s first Black woman governor and the first Black Republican governor.

But the Democratic party made major gains coast to coast, particularly in reliably conservative states, that could reshape state policy for years to come.

In Iowa, the election of Democrat Rob Sand ends more than a decade of Republican control of the legislature and the governor’s office.

In Ohio, Democrat Dr. Amy Acton’s win marks the first time in 20 years that Ohio voters have selected a Democrat to lead the Buckeye State.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will become Georgia’s first Democratic governor since 2002 and the nation’s first Black woman governor.

While governors were on ballots in 36 states, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter had only identified a dozen races for governor as competitive. Those included: Alaska, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin.

Republicans have controlled a majority of state governments since 2010. Before Tuesday’s election, Republicans boasted a 26-24 gubernatorial advantage over Democrats. But the GOP’s state legislative advantage was even stronger, with Republicans controlling 28 state legislatures and Democrats controlling 18 with divided control of chambers in three states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

By Wednesday morning, Democrats had notched major legislative wins. Democrats broke the GOP supermajority in Florida, flipped control of the Wisconsin state Assembly and Senate, and flipped the North Carolina state House.

In Pennsylvania, Democrats won the GOP-held state Senate, seizing  a trifecta – control of the governor’s office and both chambers of the legislature – in Harrisburg.

“Tonight’s earth-shattering victory is undeniable proof that voters are fed up with the MAGA agenda,” Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said in a news release.

In Arizona, Democrats declared victory in a yearslong effort to win control of the legislature, proclaiming that Republicans would be in the minority at the state Capitol for the first time in 60 years.

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org. 

This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Iowa Capital Dispatch, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com.

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Blue Wave Washes Over Iowa (Updated)

Posted on November 4, 2026 by Trish Nelson

Iowa’s real hero. Thank you, Chris Jones. Iowa is so much better off because of your campaign. We have already won because of you.

 

Senator Turek (D)

Governor Rob Sand (D)

Sarah Trone Garriott (D) IA-03

Christina Bohannan (D) IA-01

and Lindsay James (D) won in IA-02.

Iowa also will have a Democratic Attorney General, Nate Willems

Taylor Wettach (D) won State Auditor

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