Back in Jan. @CBSNews I scooped: “Democrats are talking about a midterm blue wave. A Montana smokejumper could help make it a reality.” Quickly got pushback from both D and R folks over that framing. Now looks like that smokejumper is heading to DC. cbsnews.com/news/democrats…

The longview on what we learned tonight: For the last decade, Donald Trump tormented Democrats and defied expectations of what it meant to lead and endure in American politics.

On Tuesday, the old rules finally caught up with him. ms.now/news/news-anal…

Democrats have a chance to win the Senate tonight. It’s partly because of them- and the self inflicted struggles of some Republicans, from Kansas to Texas. Latest w/ @alivitali @KevinJFrey @jake__traylor & @NnamEgwuon. ms.now/news/why-senat…

EXCLUSIVE: Many of his members — and would-be members — already call him speaker. Jeffries won’t engage, insisting “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” My interview with Jeffries. Where he’ll be looking on Election Night, who Democrats plan to push out of the admin, and what his speakership might mean. For @MSNOWNews w/ @ergold —>
ms.now/news/midterm-e…

Democrats’ ‘blue wave’ hopes vs. MAGA’s ‘red wall’ map. Plenty of U.S. House seats seem to be in play this fall. But almost all of them were ones President Donald Trump carried in 2024. ms.now/news/2026-elec…

Fifty days out, a look at 50 races defining the 2026 midterms. Partisan power plays and bitter divides over the nation’s future are animating the drive to decide what the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency will be like.
ms.now/news/midterms-…

The last decade has let Trump redefine what it means to be GOP and escape responsibility for the U.S. Capitol attack by a mob of his own supporters, mounted after he tried to overturn an election he lost. What his party offers voters this fall is him. ms.now/news/news-anal…

Reporting from Texas: What Trump has wrought on a Dallas convention floor. ms.now/news/news-anal…

Goodnight from Dallas: it was Trump’s show at the GOP convention. And it will be Trump’s midterms in November. ms.now/news/news-anal…

President Trump got what he wanted in Texas, from redistricting to primary voters picking Paxton instead of Cornyn. Now Republicans are living with it. ms.now/news/trump-tex…

A rare thing in American politics may happen in Rhode Island on Wednesday- and of course there's a Kansas connection. ms.now/news/rhode-isl…

Scoop: A Montana Democrat running for Congress in the red state has picked up what at one time would have seemed like an unlikely backer: a former GOP governor who was once chairman of the Republican National Committee. 

ms.now/news/montana-h…

The most fun, and best learning experience, an early career political reporter can have is being a campaign embed. Can say without a doubt that living in New Hampshire for a year covering the 2020 cycle was like that for me. Come join the MS NOW team: jobs.smartrecruiters.com/Versant3/74400…

Some democratic socialists faithful shared harsh views of Jeffries in another sign of left friction. “I view him as an incredibly weak leader, and partially the reason that we see the rise of facism that we have today," a NY door knocker told me. ms.now/news/democrati…

Blame towards Democrats for Trump's return. Talk of trying to keep Jeffries from becoming Speaker and choices to not vote for Harris in '24: Inside democratic socialists thinking and one figure's ambition "to democratize this shitty little country.” ms.now/news/democrati…

The complexity of Michigan: Abdul El-Sayed was vastly outspent. He didn’t have the backing of the Senate’s top Democrat and has lost in a statewide primary before. He ran a starkly progressive campaign in a state Donald Trump won narrowly two years ago. ms.now/news/news-anal…

A telling moment: in SD: outgoing SoS Monae L. Johnson joked to a crowd about her election denier reputation. Then offered advice to whoever fills roles like hers next.

“Remember that you are the election expert,” Johnson said. “Not Mike Lindell.” ms.now/news/trump-ele…

As President Trump spoke Thursday night, the nation’s leading election officials were gathered together in South Dakota. My dispatch on how they navigated the president in Rapid City. ms.now/news/trump-ele…

I wrote a thing. ms.now/news/news-anal…

New w/@ChrisJansing: Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed tells MS NOW that Graham Platner should end his bid for Maine’s U.S. Senate seat. Comes after he failed to explicitly say Platner should leave the race in a Monday social media post that drew criticism. ms.now/news/michigan-…