by Akayla Gardner | Nov 11, 2026 | Congress, News, Politics
A new era of Black political power is coming to Washington.Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is on track to become the first Black speaker of the House. A record number of Black senators will take office in January. And the Congressional Black Caucus, which spent the past year bracing for losses, will instead begin the next Congress with more members than ever.
Black voters helped make it all happen, fueling Democratic gains deep into Republican territory in last week’s midterm elections. The results have set the stage for one of the most influential classes of the caucus since its founding in 1971.
Caucus members had expected to lose ground. A nationwide redistricting push, combined with a Supreme Court ruling that made racial gerrymandering nearly impossible to challenge, put several of their seats at risk. Instead, the total number of Black lawmakers will only be one shy of the current record of 68 if Scott Colom wins his Senate race in Mississippi, and fall just two people short of it if he loses. And because Democrats, who made significant gains last week, have dominated the caucus’s ranks in recent years, its incoming chairman says the group will be the largest in its history.
For Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., who is running unopposed to lead the caucus, the milestone evokes “a powerful emotion of fairness.”
“So many people had given up hope” under “the ugliness and the hate-filled actions of the Trump administration,” Carter said, pointing to cuts to federal healthcare programs, food assistance and student loans. “Tuesday’s election brought back hope that there is an opportunity to restore the rule of law.”
President Donald Trump’s record-low approval
by Ali Vitali | Nov 11, 2026 | Congress, News
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is definitely talking like someone who wants to run for Senate majority leader.
Speaking with MS NOW’s Ali Vitali at a “Popular Mandate” event hosted by Groundwork Action, Van Hollen said he is “in the process right now of calling my colleagues” about who should lead them going forward, and that he is “actively listening.”
“Let’s face it, there was also a clearly an anti-Washington establishment tone to this election,” he said, “and so that is why I am now actively listening to people who are looking for that kind of change, and I am in the process right now of calling my colleagues because ultimately the question is whether the caucus is hearing the same calls for change or not. So, I’m actively calling my colleagues, because at the end of the day, this is a vote in the Democratic caucus.”
Van Hollen said that he has not yet spoken with all of his Democratic colleagues. Senate Democratic leadership elections are expected for December 1.
Even as he works the phone, a process that looks a lot like whipping votes, Van Hollen said he has been playing “phone tag” with Sen. Chuck Schumer. The New York Democrat has led the party in the Senate since 2017 and is “confident” he will be elected to continue leading the party in the majority.
The maneuvering points to a growing divide between the party’s establishment and its progressive wing.
As Van Hollen teased his political future to a roaring crowd, Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., were at a podium on Capitol Hill echoing his call for change within the party.
by Ebony Davis | Nov 11, 2026 | elections, News
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that Democrats’ sweeping midterm victories had lifted a “poisonous cloud” that had hung over the country for a decade, expressing optimism about the party’s return to power.
“I feel it’s been a long time coming, but it’s as though the blue wave has washed away the poisonous cloud that we’ve been living under for 10 years,” Clinton said. “And we can finally get back to trying our best to form that more perfect union by fighting back.”
Clinton made the remarks while moderating a discussion with MS NOW host Rachel Maddow at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center in New York City during an event promoting Maddow’s new book, “Department of Fate.”
The former Democratic presidential nominee said the election results exceeded her expectations and praised the incoming class of Democratic lawmakers and state officials.
“They came in with the intention of fighting back and to try to right the ship of state,” Clinton said.
She pointed to government corruption and the cost of living as major voter concerns, arguing that Democratic candidates successfully linked rising household expenses to decisions made by political leaders.
The conversation also turned to concerns about potential interference with certifying election results and seating newly elected lawmakers, including in Mississippi, where Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s closely contested re-election race against Democrat Scott Colom remains unresolved.
Asked by Maddow whether she worried about challenges to certification, Clinton said she was “much less” concerned because of the scale of Democrats’ victories and the work of election officials, organizers and attorneys.
Clinton credited election workers and officials from both parties with resisting pressure to alter election outcomes, drawing parallels
by The Associated Press | Nov 11, 2026 | News
Tennessee is seeking to block Christa Pike’s attorneys from accessing the lethal injection drug used in her failed execution on the grounds that it would reveal the supplier in violation of state law, court filings show.
The request follows a judge’s order to preserve evidence in a lawsuit filed by Pike’s attorneys and reflects the secrecy surrounding execution drugs, which states often argue is necessary to protect access to the drugs and the safety of suppliers.
Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital in September, which her attorneys say probably did not enter her bloodstream correctly and instead pooled in her arms, leaving them burned and blistered. The state has said it is complying with a broader order by Judge I’Ashea L. Myles requiring the preservation of evidence.
But in a Friday court filing, the state asked the judge to rescind the part of her order allowing Pike’s legal team to inspect, collect and test any leftover pentobarbital from the execution attempt.
Tennessee Department of Correction fears it will lose its lethal drug supplier
In an affidavit cited in the state’s filing, a Tennessee Department of Correction employee said the drug supplier would become identifiable if Pike’s legal team is allowed to handle vials of pentobarbital left over from the execution attempt, or review the vials’ labeling. The employee, whose name was not disclosed, wrote that residue of the pentobarbital used in Pike’s botched execution is “most likely to be found” in vials of the substance used in the attempted execution.
The employee stated the state’s supplier was concerned that even with redactions on the labels, the source of the pentobarbital would be identifiable. The employee
by Ebony Davis | Nov 11, 2026 | culture, News, White House
Members of the Kennedy family filed a motion to join a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s proposed Independence Arch near Arlington National Cemetery.
In a 27-page filing Tuesday, nine children and grandchildren of Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy asked to intervene in litigation challenging the administration’s plans to construct the massive arch at Memorial Circle near the cemetery in Washington.
“President Donald J. Trump is attempting to unlawfully erect a massive arch that will permanently cast shadows over and damage historically significant sightlines to the existing gravesites and memorials established in the Kennedy family’s honor at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as to the memorials of hundreds of thousands of fallen American heroes,” the filing said.
The proposed monument would stand at least 250 feet tall, more than twice the height of the Lincoln Memorial. The Kennedy relatives argue that the arch would disrupt a historic sightline designed to symbolize national reunification after the Civil War.
The family has a “particular interest in protecting the Kennedy Gravesites” as a memorial to its legacy, their attorneys wrote.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has already blocked construction of the arch through at least next week while the legal challenges proceed.
The filing comes days after the National Capital Planning Commission approved the administration’s plans for the arch on Nov. 5.
The project already faces multiple lawsuits, including one filed in February by private plaintiffs. The District of Columbia and Virginia also filed separate lawsuits Oct. 31, which a federal judge consolidated that same day.
The Kennedy relatives argue that the monument threatens the burial sites of their parents and grandparents, including former President John F. Kennedy, Robert
