We’ve talked a lot about what the Trump White House can and will do to subvert the 2026 midterms. The big picture is that with elections being run by states, based on the clear, black-letter law of the U.S. Constitution, what they can do is quite limited. And, as we’ve also noted, you build autocracies when you’re popular (often by goosing the economy in a smart and concerted way), not when you’re swirling the bowl with approval ratings in the mid-30s and falling. The point of returning to these facts is twofold. First is that a key aim of would-be autocrats is to demoralize the opposition, get people to lose hope and think there’s no point in fighting back. It’s important for democracy-defenders not to, with the best intentions, feed into that kind of psyop campaign. It is also to get people looking for the right things and not thinking in overly binary terms — elections vs. no elections, etc. This week we have news that focuses on the abuses of power we’re actually likely to see.
MS NOW broke the story that yesterday FBI agents fanned out across Ohio in pursuing some kind of investigation against a voting rights and voter registration group called Ohio Organizing Collaborative.
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A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Kate and Josh discuss recent polling, the competitive Senate races and various oddities happening in the Cornhusker State.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Kate and Josh discuss the chatty Alitos, an Ohio special election and a new election forecast.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
