With the midterm elections just over the horizon, Ralph makes his impassioned pitch for how the Democrats can beat MAGA Republicans to Democratic pollster, Celinda Lake and executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, Alan Minsky. Plus, the team takes a brief moment to analyze Donald Trump’s apparent obsession with hot male backsides.
Celinda Lake is a political strategist and president of Lake Research Partners. She and her firm are known for cutting-edge research on issues including the economy, health care, the environment and education, and have worked for a number of institutions including the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governor’s Association, AFL-CIO, SEIU, CWA, Sierra Club, NARAL, Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood, VoteVets Action Fund, and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Her international work has included work in Liberia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus Ukraine, South Africa, and Central America.
One factor is the most important thing that you can play a major, major role in: We have to get young people out to vote. They are our best voting group in some races...they are so strongly for the candidate. It could be just pulling out every young person to vote. And they vote for our candidates by 70-80%.
Celinda Lake
Democrats have been very good about voting early and getting their ballots in early. And we’ve dominated the early vote 60-70%. So that’s helped to mute [the impact of election interference]. But you can bet on a lot of people trying to interfere with people voting on Election Day, and it’s going to be very, very important for us to insist that everyone can vote and every vote be counted.
Celinda Lake
We have 60% of the voters who don’t like socialism, but only 50% of the voters who say they know what it is.
Celinda Lake
Alan Minsky is a lifelong activist and Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America. Alan has worked as a progressive journalist for the past two decades, and he has coordinated Pacifica Radio’s national coverage of elections. He is the creator and producer of the political podcasts for The Nation and Jacobin, as well as a contributor to Common Dreams and Truthdig.
[Democrats] are told that if they’re going to get Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) money, they can’t be endorsing anybody who’s running against the incumbent Democrat. And that’s relevant in California, because there are some races that are Dem-on-Dem still on November 3rd. And the other thing they’re told is they have to (in advance) endorse Jeffries for speaker. So that’s the kind of pressure they put on even these incoming progressives. And it’s sad. It’s pathetic. It’s absolutely something that we hope that, if and when progressives take over the Democratic Party (and that’s a heavy lift, but that’s what our intention is), something like that will never happen again.
Alan Minsky
News 10/23/26
Our top story this week is an exposé published in the New Republic showing how Bari Weiss, as editor in chief of CBS News, has weaponized the network against specific Democratic candidates. This piece shows how Weiss, described herein as an “anti-woke crusader…urged her newsroom to cover right-wing conspiracy theories regarding Democratic Senate candidates James Talarico and Abdul El-Sayed.” Specifically, Weiss encouraged reporters to investigate “El-Sayed’s (nonexistent) ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and 9/11, and Talarico’s (also nonexistent) trip to a mental health facility.” El-Sayed, who is Egyptian American, has in fact denounced the Muslim Brotherhood on numerous occasions. Talarico, who became the subject of a conspiracy theory claiming he had checked into a mental hospital in Ohio after a week-long absence from the campaign trail, simply had the flu. In a viral post, Talarico added “I’ve never even been to Ohio.” TNR notes that, “both Talarico and El-Sayed are progressive candidates who have been critical of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, something that Weiss, her pro-Israel The Free Press blog, and CBS have covered with extreme bias.”
Turning to the Executive Branch, the Washington Sun reports that the Trump administration is gearing up to “impose financial penalties on millions of Americans in default on their federal student loans next year.” The administration has tried to “seize federal benefits and wages from defaulted borrowers,” in the past, but divisions between the Education Department, the Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury have stymied these efforts. Now, the administration is signaling that they are committed to this policy, either by seizing “expected payments…such as…tax refunds, Social Security…or the earned income tax credit and child tax credit,” or by garnishing wages. The Treasury continues to fight against these moves, arguing that such measures would harm low-income borrowers and further depress an unsturdy economy. Beyond the economic impacts, administration insiders also argue such a move will generate immense political blowback even among Trump’s base. Anonymous Treasury officials quoted in the Sun emphasized that their message within administration discussions has been “This is not who you think it is. The demographics are not good for us.”
Meanwhile, in the House, the first skirmish of the next Congress – anticipating a Democratic majority – is already underway. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the presumptive chair of the House Financial Services Committee, found herself the target of at least one challenge from Illinois Congressman Sean Casten. Another Illinois Rep., Bill Foster, is also reportedly weighing a challenge. However, the two Illinoisans seem to have already been outmaneuvered. On Monday, POLITICO reported that 19 of the 23 Democrats on the committee signed a letter backing Waters. This letter was reportedly led by Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, among the most centrist Democrats in the caucus, and emphasized that Waters has “managed the Committee with skill and inclusivity,” ensuring that “all Members, from the most senior to the newest, from New Democrats to Progressive Caucus Members, have a seat at the table and a voice in the Committee’s agenda.” Still, the challenge itself, like AOC’s bid for the top spot on the Oversight Committee after the 2024 elections, represents younger members chafing against the baronial power of longtime incumbents. Casten is 54 years old; Waters is 88 and is running for her 19th term in the House.
The Judicial Branch has also been in the news this week, with reports that Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil will bring his case before the Supreme Court. Khalil spent months in jail last year and has long maintained that his imprisonment amounted to retaliation by the administration for his protected political speech, namely on Palestine. Khalil’s case has wound its way through the legal bureaucracy, involving fights in both federal court and immigration court systems. The specific petition to the high court has to do with “a ruling that a federal judge had no power to order his release from jail until [Khalil] exhausts his options in the immigration system.” Khalil’s lawyers argue that “If the decision stands, the government would be handed a powerful and unprecedented weapon to silence its critics, and to chill the speech of countless others, including citizens, who wish to avoid the government’s wrath against themselves and their loved ones.” Khalil will remain free until the justices decide how to proceed. This from the Hill.
In Canada, the left continued its winning streak in local elections with the victory of the Vancouver Green Party mayoral candidate Pete Fry over the incumbent Mayor Ken Sim, who was affiliated with the center-right ABC Vancouver coalition. The Tyee reports the left also experienced a romp in the city council elections, sending four Green candidates to the council along with four candidates affiliated with the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE). The ABC, which currently holds six out of 11 seats on the council in addition to the mayoralty, has now been reduced to a single seat. Fry will be the city’s first Green mayor, which he called “a heavy role to play.” While Fry and the Greens have triumphed, few seem clear on what exactly he plans to do in power. In a statement, he remarked that he will be “representing a lot of Green ideals. But at the same time, the Green Party has always been a values-based party; it’s not as much of a partisan policy party.” He identified these values as “respect for the earth, participatory democracy, working together, non-violence, being supportive, [and] being nice.”
Elsewhere in Canada, this week the province of Alberta overwhelmingly rejected a referendum on separation, PBS reports. This referendum would have put the oil-richll province on the road to independence had it passed; instead, 75% of voters rejected the proposal. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who called the referendum under pressure from separatists within her United Conservative Party, is quoted saying “Albertans have voted for a stronger Alberta in a united Canada.” Despite this apparent rejection of separation, Jeff Rath of the pro-independence Alberta Prosperity Project is quoted saying “We’re not going anywhere…We’ve dominated the conversation in the last year. We’ve been educating Albertans on the benefits of independence, and we’re going to continue moving forward.”
In more international news, former New York City Comptroller and Democratic nominee for Congress Brad Lander has been detained by Israeli police in the West Bank. According to Reuters, the police said they “detained Palestinian olive harvesters and dozens of Israeli and foreign activists gathering olives near the fence of an Israeli settlement,” claiming it was prohibited activity. Lander, who is the presumptive new Congressman from New York’s 10th district – the most Jewish congressional district in America – responded “We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nahalin in the West Bank. The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.” Activists have been accompanying Palestinian farmers during the recent olive harvests and have faced violence and repression as a result. Reuters reports an “American photojournalist for the Washington Post covering a Palestinian olive harvest on Friday was beaten by Israeli settlers, while European diplomats and a French mayor were attacked at another Palestinian olive harvest by settlers on Saturday.” Among the dozens of Israeli and foreign activists who were detained in this action, Lander is the only one who has been released so far. Anton Goodman, Acting Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, commenting on that fact said “I would suggest to all activists go out there and get yourself elected.”
Israel is involving itself in American politics in other ways as well. Zeteo reports “the state of Israel – not AIPAC, to be clear – is running television ads in Iowa, a key Senate battleground state that may only be in play for Democrats thanks to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.” In these ads, the State of Israel boasts that it “confronts Iran and its network of proxies directly, addressing those dangers at their source,” and “claiming that this helps ‘deter aggression’ and ‘stop a wider conflict’ – as if America isn’t currently at war with Iran.” Most outrageously, the ads argue that “For Americans, the benefit is straightforward.” This is a brazen claim when, just this week, Fox News reported that consumer prices rose 3.7% over the past year, largely driven by gasoline prices, which surged 9.1% in September alone, a direct result of the Iran War. Of course, this is a two-way street. At the same time Israel is running ads to bolster Republicans in the U.S., President Trump has endorsed Prime Minister Netanyahu in the upcoming Israeli elections, per NPR, despite Netanyahu rejecting Trump’s latest ceasefire proposal in Gaza.
Turning back to the midterms, the outlook for Republicans looks increasingly bleak. Last week, CNN reported that the GOP has launched a “triage operation” in an attempt to “avert losses in a string of once-safe seats that they increasingly fear could cost them total control of Congress.” This piece cites the Senate Leadership Fund’s decision to suspend its ad reservations in North Carolina and plow as much as $14 million into Kansas, which “has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932,” as well as investing “$5 million in South Carolina to boost incumbent Sen. Darline Graham amid concerns…she’s losing ground to Democrat Annie Andrews.” Republicans have also pulled advertising money out of House districts like Nebraska’s 2nd, New Jersey’s 7th, and Iowa’s 1st. Now, Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News reports the Congressional Leadership Fund Super PAC, the premiere House Republican fundraising vehicle, has thrown in the towel on beating Democrat Jared Moskowitz in Florida’s newly redrawn 25th Congressional District. Sherman adds that this “South Florida district has become a money suck,” and “Moskowitz remains ahead of” his Republican opponent Scott Singer, despite this district being redrawn to favor Republicans. Moreover, the No Going Back PAC, Trump’s midterm fundraising organ, is “pulling out of North Carolina’s open 11th District where Democrat Jamie Ager is running against Republican Jennifer Balkcom.” Taken together these decisions paint a picture of a Republican Party on the defensive and scrambling to prevent an electoral blowout.
Our final story for the week concerns the political polling industry. Those who have followed politics closely this cycle may have seen a new pollster appear, seemingly out of nowhere – Wedgewood Polls. Wedgewood published numerous polls for races throughout the country and was even included among major polling aggregators, including Nate Silver’s Silver Bullet, Decision Desk HQ and the New York Times. According to an investigation by FiftyPlusOne however, the firm was “fabricating data.” Anticipating this exposé, Wedgewood released a statement calling itself an “experimental project” designed to “demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight and overall low barrier to entry in the modern polling industry.” And while Wedgewood claims they “never intended to sway an election or permanently mislead the public,” POLITICO has published a piece detailing how the fake Wedgewood polls may have influenced some of the races during this cycle – most notably the Democratic primary in Michigan, where third-place finisher Mallory McMorrow claims “It killed us,” citing a loss of morale among campaign staff and volunteers and a collapse in financial support from donors. A Wedgewood poll is also said to have been instrumental in leading observers to believe the Mississippi Senate race is competitive, which in turn led national Democrats to invest money in the state, though Lauren French of the Senate Majority PAC denied this, saying “We don’t make spending or strategic decisions based on external polling.” According to the Washington Post, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is using these revelations as a weapon to go after broadcasters, insinuating that by “amplifying or airing” these fake polls, they were “engaging in News Distortion or promoting Broadcast Hoaxes,” and that he may pull their licenses on that basis. In short, this proves that even a small-scale “experiment” of this kind could have serious ramifications both for major campaigns and the media.
This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.
