Best thing Democrats can do to acknowledge the scale but also the tenor of their Tuesday victories is dump @SenSchumer and @RepJeffries. They are not serious people.

When I was an 11 year old boy living in Council Bluffs, Iowa, our very own Senator Tom Harkin changed my life and gave me, and so many other disabled Americans, an on-ramp to society.

Throughout our campaign, I’ve said it will be beautifully poetic when the man who takes back s only here because of his work. Iowa, together, we made history, and we wrote beautiful poetry.

Thank you, Iowa!

RT @mayplanoba: He has that Obama elocution.

BREAKING: HOLY SMOKES! Democrats now control enough states to effectively abolish the Electoral College through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

Republicans did NOT have this on their bingo cards...

Under the Constitution, states control their electoral votes and ow they are allocated during presidential elections. Currently, almost every state gives its votes to whoever wins the state.

In practice, the current system means that a candidate can win the national popular vote, but lose the election because small states like Wyoming exert undue influence on the outcome. That state has 3 electoral votes with a population of just 577,000 people. California has 54 electoral votes and a population of 39.5 million people. So a vote in Wyoming is essentially 3.8 times as valuable as one in California.

Since 1992, Democrats have won the popular vote seven out of nine times.

Under the NPV, states that join agree to give their electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote, not just their own state. So a state could go red on the map, but if the Democrat wins the national vote, they still get that state's votes. And vice versa of course.

The crucial mechanism is that the compact doesn't trigger until the member states have a combined power of at least 270 electoral votes, the number needed to win the White House. So far, 18 states plus D.C. have joined, totaling 222 electoral votes. We only need 48 more.

Now is the chance to pass this measure in every state possible. Democrats won both houses of the legislature in Wisconsin for the first time in 18 years (10 electoral votes). We won the Pennsylvania state Senate for the first time since 1993 (19 votes). We now have a trifecta in Michigan (15 votes). And we won the governor’s race in Nevada (6 votes).

10 + 19 + 15 + 6 = 50.

222 + 50 = 272.

And if we hold our lead in the Arizona Senate, that number could climb as high as 283, more than enough to trigger the compact.

In addition to removing an imbalance in our system that favors Republicans, this novel approach would fundamentally change how candidates run their presidential campaigns. Currently, they are incentivized to ignore most of the country. If you live in a “safe” state, red or blue, your vote for President is basically decided before you cast it. Campaigns spend their time and money in a handful of swing states while the rest of us watch from the sidelines. If the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is adopted, they'll have reason to hit every state because they're aiming to win the largest swath of the country as a whole, not just certain states.

States have until July 20, 2028 to join the compact in time for the next presidential election.

We can fix our democracy. The time is now.

Please ❤️ and share if you support this idea!

For those who have questions about how ranked choice voting works:

"If any system can absorb a ballot with two Dan Sullivans, it is the one Alaskans chose...Name confusion, spoiler candidates, and vote-splitting among similar candidates are the problems the system was designed to solve." ~ @GregOrman

realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/…

The provost at Dartmouth College resigned after he made national news for using AI to write an op-ed about how universities should navigate the ethics of AI. trib.al/zjgwPc6

1/ When a reform gets fought hard by both parties, that's not a red flag. It's proof it will do something real. A thread.

Today, 62 former U.S. ambassadors and national security leaders endorsed my campaign for U.S. Senate.

Their service spans five decades under Democratic and Republican presidents. Many were confirmed by Senator Collins herself.

Their letter calls out her five votes to let Trump ran and her votes to confirm the officials carrying out his tariff agenda—decisions that are driving up costs for Maine families.

I’m honored to have their support. Mainers deserve a senator who will stand up for them.

Two former South Carolina Governors, David Beasley (R) and Jim Hodges (D), have just endorsed Annie Andrews for US Senate:

"We may have served as your governor from different political parties, but we agree South Carolina deserves better than more of the same political fight." x.com/AnnieAndrewsMD…

Three years ago, 18 of our neighbors were murdered in Lewiston.

I had grown up with guns and at the time, I opposed some gun laws. That day, I learned those 18 people deserve more than our grief.

We need to make sure what happened in Lewiston never happens again.

From then on, people we love by fighting for stronger gun laws.

Today, I'm thinking of all of the families who lost someone that day. My heart is with them, and I will not stop fighting for them.

The GRU hacked into Jared Kushner's iPhone. Dutch military intelligence (MIVD) then recruited a GRU spy who gave them access to the hacked phone. What MIVD discovered was that Kushner had access to two bank accounts --one Azerbaijani, the other Israeli --where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Emirati ruler Mohammed bin Zayed deposited money. It sounds like a slightly far-fetched episode of "Slow Horses," but it's real. And it proves just how eye-poppingly corrupt this administration was and continues to be as its "special envoy" decides the fate of tens of millions in Europe in the Middle East. Simply incredible reporting by Matthew Cole, drawn from his new book on Kushner. vanityfair.com/story/jared-ku…

My apologies to the Bangor Daily News for tweeting out the full text of Lana Pelletier's op-ed response to Susan Collins, but I don't think something this powerful and critical to the public should be paywalled.

I encourage everyone to read it.

Bangor Daily News
October 21, 2026

Lana Pelletier is a licensed clinical social worker from Allagash and the longtime partner of U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson. They have two adult sons.

When Troy first talked to me about running for the U.S. Senate, we started with what it would mean for our family. We knew it wouldn’t be easy. We knew the race could get ugly.

But I never imagined U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and her allies would stoop this low.

As a social worker and therapist, I’ve mostly stayed out of the public eye. My work is private, and I want the people I work with to know the focus is on them — not my politics or my partner’s career.

But over the last few months, people who do not know me have increasingly tried to tell the public who I am, what my relationship has been and what kind of family Troy and I have built together.

Collins has brought our family into this campaign herself. She has ridiculed us publicly, invoked my children in debates and treated deeply personal parts of our lives as fair game for political attack.

I know Troy. We’ve been together for nearly 40 years. He is my partner, the father of our children and now a grandfather to our beautiful newborn granddaughter.

I also know myself. I am not the person Collins and her allies seem determined to turn me into.

I am not a helpless woman who needs politicians to tell the world what happened in my own life. And I am not a punchline or a caricature of where I come from.

I’ve spent my career helping people navigate some of the hardest moments of their lives. That work has taught me to take allegations involving violence and abuse seriously — and how much care is required when we talk about it.

That is part of what makes what is happening now so upsetting.

Earlier this year, a police report from nearly four decades ago became part of this campaign.

There was a fight between Troy and another young man when Troy was 19 years old. He took accountability for that and has never hidden it. The report included statements attributed to me that I’ve already said I don’t remember making and that are not accurate.

I’m now forced to say it again because Susan Collins and her allies are using my family to tell a story that simply isn’t true.

I’ve spent nearly four decades with Troy since then. I know the life we have actually lived, the family we have raised and the person Troy has been through the years as a caring partner and father.

Our children have been dragged into this campaign. Our relationship has been mocked. Our family has been talked about as though there is something shameful about who we are or where we come from.

There isn’t.

I’m proud of our children. I’m proud of the life Troy and I have built together. I’m proud of how Troy continues to evolve and grow as a leader and advocate.

And I deeply resent watching Collins and her allies treat our lives as something beneath them — especially when serious issues involving women are manipulated into political weapons by people who show so little care for the women involved.

If Collins truly cared about my voice, she could have listened to it. Instead, they’ve decided they know my life better than I do.

They do not.

This is not the first time Collins has asked women to trust her while ignoring what they were telling her. She voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme, who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, and still says she does not regret it. Women warned her what was at
stake. She did not listen to them either.

I was not pushing Troy to run. But I understood that if people were hurting and he could help, it was bigger than any one of us.

When Troy sees somebody without much power being treated unfairly, he feels it deeply. And he has spent much of his life trying to do something about it.

There are families across Maine struggling to afford healthcare, heating oil and groceries.

Their lives matter more than the ugliness of a political campaign.

Those are the people Troy is running for.

I don’t expect everyone in Maine to agree with Troy. Ask him hard questions. Challenge his record. Disagree with him.

But there should still be a line.

Collins has been quick to demand respect and decency for herself. My family deserved the same.

I stayed quiet because I never wanted this election to be about me. Collins and her allies made a different choice.

So if my name, my relationship and my family are going to be used to tell a story that isn’t true, Mainers deserve to hear from the person who actually lived that story.

I know my own life. I know my family.

And after nearly 40 years with Troy, I know who he is, too.
-----
Op-ed originally published in the Bangor Daily News (paywalled) at this link: bangordailynews.com/2026/10/21/opi…

It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say. But that’s exactly what the Trump Administration is doing to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

To understand why this is so appalling, it’s important to know the facts. Congresswoman Omar came to this country with her father when she was 12 years old. Five years later, her father became a naturalized citizen. If Ilhan had been 18 at the time, she would have had to apply for citizenship separately. But because she was 17, she became a naturalized citizen automatically.

Congresswoman Omar went on to graduate from college, work as a community organizer, become the first Somali-American legislator elected to public office in the U.S., and win a seat in Congress. There, she has been one of the Trump Administration’s fiercest critics, which has led the president to repeatedly single her out as someone who he believes does not belong in this country.

Now the Administration is actively trying to deport Congresswoman Omar, seemingly based solely on the unsubstantiated theory that she was actually 18 when her father was naturalized, and therefore is not a citizen. Federal agents have raided her home, confiscated personal records, and seized her phone — all to try and uncover a nonexistent smoking gun from 20 years ago that will somehow make their case.

Think about that. The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president. And it’s not the first time this has happened. Under President Trump, the Justice Department has repeatedly gone after those he considers his political enemies — from the Attorney General of New York, to the former head of the FBI, to members of the Federal Reserve.

In those cases, the prosecutions either stalled or were dismissed for having no basis in law, and the same is likely to happen in this case. But not before Congresswoman Omar’s life has been turned upside down, her legal bills have piled up, and she’s been forced to spend time fighting unsubstantiated charges instead of serving the people of Minnesota.

The fact that any president, or any administration, is willing to engage in such transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omar’s political views. Because if this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her — or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same.

Want to be inspired? Watch the National Civics Bee- 52 amazing middle school scholars competing for the U.S. championship! @USCCFoundation @cspan

Hey @RobSandIA @turek4iowa just hanging out with your Iowa finalist Michael O’Mara - what an outstanding student! @USCCFoundation National Civics Bee Championship

Season 2 of Sold a Story appears to be about Direct Instruction.

Emily Hanford and her team went deep on an approach with decades of evidence behind it... one the education system has mostly rejected anyway.

Trailer’s out. Season starts Oct 15.
youtube.com/watch?v=4YDq-A…
@NIFDI

Annie Andrews rips into her amateur opponent:

"If your surgeon said appendectomies weren't really his thing, would you hand him a scalpel? No. So why would we hand Darline Graham a full term in the U.S. Senate? She is unserious and she is unqualified."

This is the biggest betrayal to American values, to democracy…. @SecRubio history will remember…..

There is no need to livestream any execution, including this one. I would expect this from terrorists and dictators, but not here in America. It would give this individual, who deserves no further notoriety, the martyrdom he seeks. How we carry out justice matters just as much as the justice itself, so I urge the Pentagon to reverse this gruesome decision.

apnews.com/article/fort-h…