by Chris Jansing | Aug 14, 2026 | Congress, elections, News
James Talarico is betting that Texans’ growing backlash against data centers can help him do something Democrats have struggled to achieve for decades: compete for rural and suburban voters.
The Democratic Senate candidate is making opposition to the state’s booming data center industry a central part of his pitch to voters, pointing out that facilities are descending on Texas with little input from neighboring communities, all while hiking up utility bills for residents. Zillow, an online real estate marketplace, projected rent has increased by $825 in data center hub Abilene, Texas, compared to last August.
It’s a potent issue for Talarico, given opposition cuts across party lines and is strongest among the rural and suburban voters who have largely remained out of reach for Democrats.
A University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll from June found that 56% of Texans oppose the construction of data centers in their communities. That opposition rises to 60% among suburban voters and 62% among rural voters. Independents are particularly hostile to the development, with 62% opposing local data center construction, compared to just 17% who support it. Republicans are more divided with 44% percent opposing.
For Talarico, the numbers offer an opportunity to compete on an issue where the state’s familiar partisan loyalties are less entrenched. And he has moved quickly to claim it, especially as Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton has remained mostly silent.
At a roundtable on data centers in ruby-red Abilene on Thursday, Talarico heard from 11 residents from across the political spectrum who say data centers in the area — including the most expensive facility in the country, the Stargate Project — have spurred a housing
by Steve Benen | Aug 14, 2026 | 2026 election, elections, Maddowblog, News, Politics
In the current Congress, the number of House Republicans willing to break party ranks on key issues has been vanishingly small, but Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania tends to be one of them, and there’s no great mystery as to why.
The GOP congressman represents a district that supported Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Gov. Josh Shapiro, among other Democrats. He’s also one of only three House Republicans running for re-election in a district Kamala Harris won. With this in mind, Fitzpatrick understands that it’s in his electoral interest to maintain at least some distance from his party’s far-right agenda.
But away from Capitol Hill, Fitzpatrick’s tactics are anything but “moderate.”
Hoping to undermine Democrat Bob Harvie, a member of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, Fitzpatrick’s political operation has run attack ads telling local voters that his rival is “under FBI investigation.”
The trouble is that there’s nothing to suggest Harvie is, or ever was, facing any FBI scrutiny. He testified before a grand jury as a witness five years ago — in a case that never led to charges against anyone — and according to the Democrat’s lawyers, he is not now and has never been the subject of any criminal investigation.
Given the enormous difference between testifying in a case and being the defendant in a case, Harvie’s lawyers sent Fitzpatrick’s campaign a cease-and-desist letter last month, insisting that the ads are categorically false and defamatory. The Republican congressman and his team not only ignored the letter, but Fitzpatrick practically dared Harvie to file a lawsuit.
“They said they were going to file a lawsuit. And guess what? Guess what? They didn’t file
by Jen Psaki | Aug 14, 2026 | elections, The Briefing with Jen Psaki
This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 12 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”
Across the country, Republican candidates are finding themselves in quite the bind ahead of November’s midterms. In race after race, they’re being forced to defend Donald Trump’s slush fund for insurrectionists and his delusions about an election he lost.
Like the new Republican nominee for governor in Wisconsin, Tom Tiffany: He voted to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in two states as a member of Congress, and he still refuses to say the Democrat won that presidential election.
And honestly, have at it, fellas. Because as Republicans are forced to defend a failed lame-duck president and his failed policies and the stories he tells himself about an election he lost, Democrats are gathering strength and energy and delivering actual messages to voters.
Which brings me to the guy who finds himself in the unexpected position of facing Tiffany in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race, Democrat David Crowley. After his stunning upset victory in Tuesday’s primary, Crowley attended a unity breakfast Wednesday along with his primary opponent Francesca Hong.
While there are a lot of hot takes out there about what his victory means, the newly minted Democratic candidate for governor had a lot to say about what he thinks it means.
Democrats have, for the most part, not let these primary competitions dampen their enthusiasm.
“Over the past few months, you’ve heard a lot of people try to define this election as a battle between the left and the center, between progressives and the establishment, between insiders and outsiders,” Crowley said Wednesday morning. “That narrative misses the entire point of what we’re doing. Because
by Daniel Hunter | Aug 14, 2026 | elections, National Guard, News Analysis, Washington D.C.
As we mark the one-year anniversary of the National Guard’s occupation of Washington, D.C., it’s worth pausing to learn what D.C. resistance has to teach us — especially heading into the midterms. Many of us are carrying real fear about how far Trump might go to interfere with this election. Our fear isn’t unwarranted. But it doesn’t have to be ungrounded, either. Yes, he will say outrageous…
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by Paul Waldman | Aug 14, 2026 | elections, Opinion
As your high school English teacher may have told you, all drama is rooted in conflict. This may help explain why the supposed “battle for the soul of the Democratic Party” between the left and the center has occupied so much attention during this primary season. But while there certainly is an internal power struggle there, that may obscure an equally important phenomenon defining this election: Democrats of all kinds — leftists, moderates and anyone in between — are turning out to vote at rates that should terrify their Republican opponents.
Primary turnout isn’t the only way to measure the enthusiasm that will translate into votes in the fall. But it’s a particularly good one, because it’s precise and offers a way to compare this election to prior years when we know what happened in the general election.
Wisconsin is the most closely divided state in the country; the last three presidential races were all decided there by less than one percentage point.
One useful case study is the recent primary in Wisconsin. The dramatic twists in the gubernatorial race that ended when David Crowley nosed out the progressive upstart Francesca Hong was the main story, but there was also a flood of Democrats heading to the polls.
Wisconsin is the most closely divided state in the country; the last three presidential races were all decided there by less than one percentage point. This year, about 491,000 Republican voters cast ballots in the governor’s race, the most important on the ticket. But on the Democratic side, a whopping 792,000 people turned out to vote.
One explanation for that disparity is that while the Democratic
by Adam Johnson | Aug 13, 2026 | elections, Media, Op-Ed, pundits, Third Way
As progressive, DSA, and DSA-adjacent candidates win primaries throughout the US, corporate media is rushing to prop up their favorite “centrist” and “moderate” critics — who, ostensibly, are just looking out for the wellbeing of the Democratic Party — to explain why these candidates people are voting for are actually dangerous and “unelectable.” What the media is refusing to do…
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