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Virginia Democrats are advancing two bills to extend deadlines for receiving and counting mail-in absentee ballots several days after Election Day.
Delegate Adele McClure and State Senator Barbara Favola, who represent Arlington, have introduced companion bills, HB 82 and SB 58, which will extend the deadline for counting absentee ballots in Virginia from noon to 5 p.m. on the third day after Election Day, reported ARL Now.
Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales is facing steep odds in his upcoming GOP primary as fallout continues from a sex scandal involving a former aide who died by suicide last year.
Gonzales, 45, a married father of six and Navy veteran, had an affair with his former district director, Regina Ann “Regi” Santos-Aviles, 35. Santos-Aviles self-immolated in the garden of her Texas Hill Country home in September.
A former Gonzales staffer told the San Antonio Express-News that the congressman failed to act after being warned about Santos-Aviles’ declining mental health. The report said Santos-Aviles’ husband had learned of the affair and that she became depressed.
Judges remove districts, drop other claims in NC redistricting suits Carolina Journal
from news.google.com
If you wanted a textbook example of the Streisand Effect, look no further than the Trump administration’s meddling in the Texas Senate race.
CBS News refused to air late night host Stephen Colbert’s interview with Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who is currently locked in a competitive Senate primary with Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Colbert said that CBS’ lawyers feared retribution from the Federal Communications Commission, claiming that the interview could be seen as a violation of the equal-time rule.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Thursday’s September 18, 2025 show. Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty
Executives at CBS News made it clear to Late Show host Stephen Colbert: he wasn’t to interview Texas state Rep. James Talarico last night, nor was he to discuss how he wasn’t supposed to talk to the Democratic US Senate hopeful. But Colbert, who only has months left of his tenure on the show after being ousted by Paramount Global, didn’t listen.
Stephen Colbert’s time as host of The Late Show is almost ending, but that’s not stopping him from lying. Colbert claims CBS refused to air an interview with Senate candidate James Talarico. Today’s show shines a light on the truth.
“The good news is that for people like Colbert…the stunt does not have to be rooted in truth to be successful, you just have to be lucky enough that people have moved on before the truth reveals itself. That’s what they were banking on,” Crowder said.
According to CNBC:
“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night called CBS’ denial of his claim that it blocked the broadcast of his interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico “crap” — and urged the network and its parent, Paramount Skydance , to stand up to the “bullies” in the Trump administration.
A narrative of a looming “blue wave” just hit a wall — and it came from inside CNN.
During a segment breaking down the 2026 gubernatorial map, CNN data analyst Harry Enten delivered a “wake-up call for Democrats,” pointing to race ratings that currently tilt in Republicans’ favor across the country.
“I think electoral races nationwide should stand as a wake-up call for Democrats,” Enten said. “A wake-up call for Democrats.”
Independent journalists from Muckraker released footage Tuesday showing a New York City Board of Elections employee giving a registration form to someone claiming non-citizen status, noting the office accepts any submission without reporting issues. The worker acknowledged occasional non-citizen attempts but said his role is just to collect and forward forms, which later face database checks. Critics highlighted it as a vulnerability, while studies show non-citizen voting remains rare, fueling partisan divides over stricter proof-of-citizenship laws like the SAVE Act ahead of 2026 midterms.
On Monday, CBS’s Stephen Colbert alleged that the network forbade him from airing an interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico over concerns about a potential FCC equal time rule violation. On Tuesday, CBS denied the allegation and said The Late Show was not prohibited from airing the interview but gave Colbert advice on how equal time could be fulfilled, but The Late Show balked at the suggestions and opted to put the interview on YouTube instead. Later on Tuesday, Colbert declared that CBS’s lawyers know “damn well” that they approved every word he said.
In a notable shift in Nevada’s electoral landscape, the Republican Party has achieved a slim lead in active voter registrations over Democrats, marking the first lead for the party since 2007.
As of February 2026, Republicans hold 596,356 active registrations, compared to Democrats’ 593,740, giving the GOP a lead of 2,616 voters. Nonpartisan voters, however, remain the largest group, with 799,056 registrations, accounting for approximately 37.5 percent of the total 2,128,758 active voters in the state.
Nevada voter registrations just droped! 🚨🚨🚨
The GOP has a +2,616 advantage over Democrats for active voters on the rolls!
🔴GOP: 596,356
🔵Dem: 593,740
This is the first year since 2007 in which there are more active Republicans than Democrats in the state. pic.twitter.com/H6xlhEXSTw
— Ben Larrabee (@Ben_Larrabee) February 9, 2026
Increasingly violent threats toward and harassment of public officials — from county clerks up to the president — are driving more and more of those figures out of their jobs, a particular concern among local election officials, who have struggled with attrition for years.
In the years since the 2020 election, roughly 50 percent of top local election officials across 11 western states have left their jobs since November 2020, according to a new report from Issue One, a bipartisan organization that tracks election issues and supports campaign finance reforms.
The election adminis
President Donald Trump recently called on Republicans to “nationalize” elections to avoid widespread voter fraud.
As it stands currently, each state manages elections — including for federal candidates. Trump seeks to have the federal government take over voting procedures to prevent cheating. “The state acts as an agent of the federal government in elections,” Trump said while addressing reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “I don’t understand why the federal government doesn’t handle them anyway.”
This wasn’t the first time Trump called for nationalizing elections. During a Monday appearance on the Dan Bongino Show, he said, “the Republicans should declare, ‘We want to take charge. We should oversee voting in at least 15 areas.’ The Republicans should nationalize the election process.”
Republicans massively out-fundraised Democrats in 2025, a massive boon to the GOP heading into the midterm election cycle.
According to recent Federal Election Commission reports, the Republican Party has almost $700 million in cash on hand across six different funding groups. The Democrats have $167 million cash on hand, but the Democratic National Committee is in debt.
“The [Republican National Committee] closed out 2025 in a position of real strength, building a serious war chest as we head into the 2026 midterms focused on defending and expanding our Republican majorities,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters.
Every so often there’s a piece of content in The New York Times or a similar publication that’s meant to create suspicion but without saying exactly why, usually for the purpose of politicizing something mundane. The story this week about National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard being on site during an FBI operation in Atlanta is one of those pieces of content, but in this case, the reason for the manufactured suspicion is obvious.
The Times on Monday wrote that it was “unusual” for Gabbard to appear at an FBI field office following the agency’s seizure of 2020 ballots from an election center in the ever-so-seedy Fulton County. You know, the place where election officials just admitted to improperly certifying hundreds of thousands of ballots in violation of the election rules. “[H]er continued presence has raised eyebrows given that her role overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies does not include on-site involvement in criminal investigative work,” the article, reported by a grand total of three people, said.
The dramatic family story Maryland Gov. Wes Moore often tells on the campaign trail has helped power his rise as a national Democratic figure. But according to reporting by Andrew Kerr of the Washington Free Beacon, the tale does not hold up against historical records.
Moore, widely viewed as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, frequently recounts how his grandfather fled South Carolina as a child in the 1920s after the Ku Klux Klan targeted the family. Moore says his great-grandfather, a Black minister, enraged the Klan with sermons condemning racism, forcing the family to escape Charleston in the dead of night to avoid a lynching before resettling in Jamaica.
It is a gripping narrative Moore has repeated for years, including during his successful 2022 run for governor. He first told the story in a 2014 memoir and has since framed it as a defining example of American injustice and perseverance.
I’ve got bad news for conservative readers: The Democrats have every meaningful advantage for the 2026 midterms. According to the betting markets, there’s nearly an 80% probability the Dems will win control of the House of Representatives.
And honestly? That number is too low. (I’m guessing there’s a percentage of conservative gamblers who’re betting with their hearts, not their heads.)
It’ll probably hit the mid-90s by Sept.
Which means, the GOP would be wise to expedite its legislation ASAP and then pull up the ladder well before the end of the term, because once the Dems control the House, the gig is up. That’s the end of President Donald Trump’s legislative legacy.
And his final two years as president will be spent dodging subpoenas, battling with congressional committees, and being impeached (probably more than once). Get ready for two long years of government shutdowns and grandstanding gridlock.
The Dems aren’t even being coy about what they’re planning. This NBC News story ran yesterday evening:
Facing the threat of being held in contempt of Congress, Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed Tuesday to testify before the House Oversight Committee about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Democrats now say Republicans have established a precedent when it co
There’s some not very good electoral news out of Texas, and we should be paying attention to it.
Democratic Texas Senate candidate Taylor Rehmet defeated Trump-endorsed Republican Leigh Wambsganss in a Saturday special election for a seat the president won by double digits three times, multiple outlets project.
Elon Musk is once again opening his checkbook to influence American politics, pouring millions into Republican efforts to hold Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, according to new campaign finance disclosures reported by both Newsmax and Politico, despite flirting with the idea of creating a third party last year.
Politico reported that Musk “poured $10 million into two major Republican super PACs at the end of last year,” splitting the donations evenly between the Congressional Leadership Fund and the Senate Leadership Fund, “two groups that aim to help the GOP keep control of Congress this year.” The Tesla and SpaceX CEO gave $5 million to each group in December, marking his second round of contributions to both super PACs during the current election cycle.
“It was Musk’s second round of donations to both groups this cycle, having previously given in June,” Politico noted, adding that those earlier donations came “amid his feud with Trump.”
As the crucial mid-term elections loom, the Republican Party might break precedent and hold a party convention.
The Republican National Committee’s Rules Committee on Thursday approved the concept of calling a convention, according to Fox News.
The new rule would empower Chairman Joe Gruters “to convene a special ceremonial convention outside a presidential election cycle,” according to an RNC memo.
The memo discussed “the possibility of an America First midterm convention-style gathering aligned with President Trump’s vision for energizing the party this fall.”
A Virginia judge on Tuesday ruled that a Democrat-led effort to radically redraw the state’s congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections is invalid.
The ruling has dealt a major setback to plans that would have dramatically reshaped the state’s House delegation.
Judge Jack Hurley Jr., of the Tazewell County Circuit Court, issued a ruling declaring a proposed constitutional amendment advanced by the Virginia General Assembly to be procedurally invalid under state law.
The Supreme Court last week ordered California Democrats to respond within a week to a Republican-backed request seeking to block the state’s newly drawn congressional maps from being used in the 2026 elections.
The move, issued by Justice Elena Kagan, who is handling the emergency injunction request, caught many court watchers off guard. Given the court’s recent decision to allow Texas Republicans to keep their mid-decade redistricting plan, most expected the justices to let California’s Democrat-drawn map stand without intervention.
California Republicans argue the new maps violate the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution by relying on race, rather than politics, to redraw at least one congressional district.
President Donald Trump appears to be backing down in Minneapolis — not because the situation has improved, but because Democrat officials who are still openly declaring their opposition to immigration enforcement have apparently pressured him into retreat.
After months of open defiance of federal immigration law, weeks of unrest, and a second fatal shooting involving federal agents, the Trump administration demanded on Sunday that Walz, Frey, and other Democrat leaders “cooperate … to enforce our Nation’s Laws.” In part, he specifically called on state and local prisons to turn over illegal aliens in custody and called on local police to “assist Federal Law Enforcement in apprehending and detaining Illegal Aliens who are wanted for Crimes.” But two days later, the president is reportedly planning to withdraw some forces in Minneapolis.
For all Democrats bragged about Gov. Tim Walz’s years as an educator, it’s a good thing he didn’t teach English.
The Minnesota chief executive, whose watch included a welfare fraud scandal that robbed potentially billions from Minnesota and American taxpayers, launched a rhetorical salvo Sunday against President Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement by using one of the best-known symbols of Holocaust history.
And — true to “knucklehead” form — he got the comparison completely wrong.
As Fox News reported, Walz was engaged in a lengthy discourse about Saturday’s shooting of an anti-ICE protester in Minneapolis — a discourse that was equally partisan and predictable — when he strayed into the dark days of World War II.
“We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank,” Walz said.
“Somebody is going to write that children’s story about Minnesota, and there’s one person who can end this now.”
Yes, this is a real comment from the Governor of Minnesota.
Tim Walz: “Children are hiding in their houses afraid. We grew up reading the story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s going to write that story about Minnesota.”
pic.twitter.com/tG6q1VICYr— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 25, 2026
Federal prosecutors: DOJ investigation of Walz, Frey is shameful Star Tribune
from news.google.com
President Donald Trump announced Monday morning that he had a productive call with Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., who signaled “cooperation” regarding the ongoing chaos and lawlessness in Minneapolis caused by left-wing agitators obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump wrote on social media. “I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future.”
Alexander Vindman launched a Democratic Senate campaign in Florida on Tuesday, catapulting himself back into the limelight after emerging as a key whistleblower in President Donald Trump’s first-term impeachment.
“The last time you saw me was here, swearing an oath to tell the truth about a president who broke his,” Vindman said in a launch video, referencing clips depicting his congressional testimony during Trump’s impeachment trial. “See, my family came here as refugees to escape tyranny, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to bow down to some wannabe tyrant.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was surprised by Republican Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt’s decision to miss a critical vote Thursday while Republicans work to pass their agenda with a razor-thin majority.
Hunt, who is vying in a brutal three-way Texas Senate primary, was absent while House Republicans advanced a rule teeing up votes on four appropriations bills, including a measure funding the Department of Homeland Security. Though House Republicans did not end up needing Hunt’s vote to advance the funding bills, Republican leadership has voiced irritation about the Senate hopeful’s frequent absences while he campaigns ahead of the March 3 primary.
Democrats have every intention of restarting lawfare against President Donald Trump and his allies the very moment he leaves office, and Republicans need to start taking that threat seriously.
At a Thursday hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, where the sole witness was get-Trump lawfare specialist Jack Smith, the former special counsel who brought bogus charges against Trump twice, Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., said the quiet part out loud in an exchange with Smith.
“Those indictments have been dismissed. Can they be re-brought or resurrected after this, after Trump leaves office?” Johnson asked.
A new poll suggests that the coalition that returned President Donald Trump to the White House after a four-year hiatus may be eroding.
These numbers come as Republicans seek to defend their narrow congressional majorities in November’s midterm elections, when replicating Trump’s 2024 support levels from low-propensity voters was always going to be a challenge.
Trump has lost ground with nonwhite and younger voters, according to a New York Times-Siena College poll released on Thursday. His gains with these voters compared to 2020 helped him win the popular vote and defeat former Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris is considering another run for president in 2028, though Trump is subject to term limits.
The Daily Signal’s Virginia Correspondent Joe Thomas is out with a new podcast breaking down Virginia Democrats’ effort to redistrict the commonwealth.
Now that Democrats are fully in control of the commonwealth, they are moving forward with a plan that could add four Democrat seats and ultimately determine the balance of power in Washington after the 2026 midterms.
Thomas called the move, which could change the Virginia congressional delegation from six Democrats and five Republicans to 10 Democrats and just one Republican, “reactionary.”