by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis | Jul 7, 2026 | Democratic Party, Democrats, elections, Inequality Watch, midterms, Politics and Movements: US, Socialism, video
Establishment Democrats have racked up disastrous electoral losses over the past decade—so why are they furious when their own party actually wins? Taya Graham and Stephen Janis break down the meltdown of Democratic “centrist” operatives and pundits after recent socialist victories in New York and Colorado, from James Carville calling for a party “schism” to Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s panicking about the future of the party on CNN. Plus: we revisit our interviews with actual Mamdani voters—the people the mainstream media refuses to talk to.
Credits:
Production / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino, Stephen Janis
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Establishment Democrats have racked up a lot of losses over the past decade. So why are they so angry when members of their own party win and how do they need to change if they ever want to win again? Well, Steven Janice and I will break down the profound need for change for Democrats in this episode of the Capitol Hill Inequality Report. Hello, my name is Taya Graham and welcome to the Are You Serious Edition of our Inequality Watch Capitol Hill Report? As in, are you serious Democrats that you don’t want to listen to your own voters? And are you seriously going to brush off the results when Democratic socialists win as some sort of existential threat to your party? Well, we’re going to unpack what’s at the root of this state of denial and provide some analysis of why Democrats might not be able to overcome the fact that they are more afraid of socialism than losing.
Of course,
by Maximillian Alvarez | Jun 29, 2026 | elections, midterms, Politics and Movements: US, Racial Justice, video, Voting Rights
After an April decision by the US Supreme Court gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Tennessee became the first state to redraw its Congressional district maps, resulting in the 9th District—a solidly Democratic seat representing the only majority-Black district in the state—being erased. We speak with Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson, who has been running to represent Tennessee’s 9th District in the US House of Representatives, about why he is still running despite Republicans’ attempts to rig the electoral process, and what is at stake for Tennessee and the country this midterm election season.
Additional links/info:
Philip Wang, Time, “They gerrymandered away the district he’s campaigning to represent. He’s still running”
Leigh Cuen, The Tennessean, “Photojournalist shares story behind viral TN redistricting photos”
Credits:
Videography: Stephen Janis, Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
We’re here in Philadelphia at the 2026 Net Roots Conference and I’m sitting with Representative Justin Pearson from the Tennessee House of Representatives who is now running for the US House of Representatives. Representative Pearson, thank you so much for joining us. I know you only have a few minutes and we got so much to talk about, so I kind of want to just throw a couple things at you and let you go, right? I got you. Tennessee was the first state to redistrict its congressional maps after this Supreme Court hearing. So you were at the center of that. What the heck can people do about this attempt to rig the midterm elections and everything moving forward? Second, you are in Memphis, one of
by Brad Reed | Jun 25, 2026 | Article, elections, midterms, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Voting Rights
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on June 25, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Postmaster General David Steiner drew the ire of Democratic senators and voting rights advocates on Wednesday when he said that the US Postal Service would not deliver mail-in ballots in states that do not hand their voter files to the Trump administration.
During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the panels ranking member, asked Steiner if USPS would deliver ballots in a state whose government had refused the Trump administration’s request for access to its absentee voter list.
“Under our proposed regulation, no,” Steiner replied. “We would tell the state that we need the manifest.”
Peters responded by accusing USPS of creating a rule that “coerces” states into handing their voter files to the federal government even though they are under no legal obligation to do so.
“You’re making a decision that people cannot vote by mail,” Peters said. “That’s unacceptable.”
PETERS: Yes or no, if a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposed rule?POSTMASTER GENERAL STEINER: No.PETERS: So the proposed rule basically coerces states to hand over their… pic.twitter.com/5bnJb5Atnr— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 24, 2026
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also sparred with Steiner during the hearing, informing the postmaster general that USPS had absolutely no role to play in determining how states conduct their elections.
“You run the Postal Service, you deliver the mail,” Blumenthal said. “You don’t review ballots or registration. Nobody said you should… This proposed rule is bogus.”
Blumenthal demanded Steiner commit to deliver all mail-in ballots to voters
by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis | Jun 15, 2026 | Economy, health care, Inequality Watch, midterms, Politics and Movements: US, video, Voting Rights
Rep. Summer Lee argues in this interview with TRNN that the best path to good policies like Medicare for All is to take billionaires’ money out of politics and to fight for electoral reforms, and explains her concerns about the Trump administration’s push to interfere in the upcoming 2026 midterms.
Credits:
Production: Taya Graham/Stephen Janis
Post-Production: David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Can our democracy survive the influence of billions of dollars being poured into our politics? Well, that’s why I’m here at the Netroots Nation in Philadelphia in order to speak with Representative Summer Lee about the push to abolish Super PACS, the push to overturn Citizens United and whether or not we can look forward to some serious interference in our midterm elections. Congressman Lee, last time I saw you, you were talking about the Abolish Super PACS Act, which you co-sponsored with Senator Sanders. First, can you just give me just a quick rundown on how that works?
Rep. Summer Lee:
Yeah, so think about it this way. If you are a regular person, me, you, the people we know, you have a contribution limit on what you can give to somebody who’s running for federal office. If you are a millionaire or a corporation, yeah, you have that if you give directly to the candidate, but you can just get around it by giving to what we call these super PACs. So these super PACs are PACs that are not necessarily directly connected to a candidate. They legally can’t confer, but there are workarounds and with those PACs,
by Brad Reed | Jun 13, 2026 | Donald Trump, elections, FBI, intimidation, Kash Patel, midterms, News, Ohio, Raid, Shontel Brown, Trump Administration, Voting Rights
A voting rights organization in Ohio is accusing the federal government of waging a large-scale intimidation campaign after the group was raided by the FBI on Thursday. MS NOW reported on late Thursday that FBI agents searched the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, an organization that helps register voters. In addition to raiding the group’s offices…
Source
by Brad Reed | Jun 10, 2026 | 2026 midterms, Disenfranchisement, Donald Trump, elections, midterms, National Voter Registration Act, News, Postal Service, USPS, Vote by Mail, Voter Purge, Voter Suppression, Voting Rights
President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting the distribution of ballots by the US Postal Service could effectively end the ability to vote by mail if it isn’t struck down, experts told CNN on Wednesday. The order, which was signed in March, instructs the USPS to not deliver ballots in any states that have not given the federal government access to its voter lists.
Source
