by Amy Fried | Sep 28, 2026 | Congress, elections, Opinion
Three months ago, Troy Jackson’s hopes of political success seemed dashed, as the former state senator finished third in the Maine Democratic gubernatorial primary. But then came a reversal of fortune so rapid that, if it were a script, Hollywood would reject it as too fanciful. After Graham Platner’s sudden fall, Jackson became the party’s standard-bearer for the U.S. Senate, facing the difficult task of beating Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Now a new poll has provided a reality check. The latest New York Times/Siena survey shows Collins ahead (though within the margin of error), 49%-46%. With control of the Senate in the balance, the poll set off alarm bells among Democrats hoping the upper chamber will be a check on President Donald Trump. But the president’s opponents shouldn’t panic. Other surveys, including two released the same day, show Jackson leading or tied. And regardless of what the polls say on any given day, any race involving Collins was always going to be a true toss-up right till the end.
Collins’ attacks have come fast and furious, and her side has a considerable cash advantage.
In each of her five previous Senate races, Collins has won with ticket-splitting voters who like and respect her. Six years ago, as Joe Biden was beating Trump 53%-44%, Collins prevailed over Democrat Sara Gideon, 51%-42%.
The Times survey shows a similar dynamic: Trump’s approval rating is just 32%, and 55% of the respondents want Democrats to control the Senate. Yet Collins is leading.
Collins’ campaigns include four elements: relentlessly attacking her opponents; responding to criticism with outrage and protestations about its unfairness; insisting that she’s bipartisan and centrist; and touting
by Jeremy Busby | Sep 27, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
In the summer of 2023, 65-year-old Bernie Tiede, the former mortician serving a life sentence for a murder that inspired Richard Linklater’s dark comedy “Bernie,” suffered a stroke. He was housed in a cell without air conditioning in a Texas prison. With the assistance of several high-profile celebrities, including Linklater and Matthew McConaughey, Tiede filed a civil rights lawsuit demanding air conditioning for everyone incarcerated in the Texas prison system. Over 21 other incarcerated individuals and several criminal justice reform groups joined the litigation.
On Tuesday, their efforts paid off.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ordered Texas prison officials to “immediately create and implement a plan” that would provide air conditioning to the entire incarcerated population by the end of 2029.
I watched numerous men pass out in the common areas, the dining hall, or inside their cells from heat-related illnesses. Some even died.
For those who have endured more severe heat waves and other extreme weather, climate change may have only recently evolved from an abstract concern into a full-fledged crisis that directly impacts them.
But for those incarcerated inside of the nation’s prisons and detention centers, extreme weather has been a crippling health emergency for decades.
Hundreds of thousands of incarcerated individuals are literally being cooked to death inside carceral facilities across the U.S. that largely operate without universal air conditioning.
Incarcerated people in southern states like Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida have been the most vulnerable.
For almost three decades, I have watched each notoriously hot Texas summer become more unbearable and deadly than the last for the nearly 140,000 men and women held inside of the state’s prison system — including myself.
I entered
by Hayes Brown | Sep 27, 2026 | Opinion, Science, White House
President Donald Trump’s second administration has by now waged numerous wars, both literal and metaphorical. But amid the catastrophic absurdity of the past two years, a twisted case of kismet has emerged: Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran may have done the environment a favor in the process.
Yes, it is hard to imagine Trump doing anything that benefits the climate. But according to a Washington Post analysis of International Energy Agency data, that’s exactly what has happened. The IEA initially predicted a big jump in emissions this year compared with last year. But energy shipments from the Middle East remain stymied by Tehran closing the Strait of Hormuz. That in turn has prompted a reduction in oil and gas consumption around the world, which has significantly reduced overall carbon emissions. As the Post reported:
The IEA analysis suggests global demand for oil in 2026 will decline 2.5 percent compared with last year. That would erase the amount of greenhouse gas emissions created by 42 million internal combustion engine cars.
And the IEA had initially projected the world’s appetite for oil and gas would grow significantly over last year, so much so that the difference between its January projections and what is actually happening is the equivalent of avoiding the emissions from 103 million cars.
I cannot stress enough how inadvertent this outcome is. The war that Trump launched in February has been horrific and costly in terms of human life, its economic effects at home and the crushing political impact on his party before a crucial election. There’s no world in which Trump, whose energy policy famously boils down to “drill,
by Anthony Coley | Sep 27, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
On paper, Florida looks like the perfect place for Rep. Byron Donalds to make history as the country’s first elected Black Republican governor.
Republicans have won every Florida governor’s race this century. President Donald Trump carried the state three times. Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election by nearly 20 points. Republicans now hold a voter registration advantage of roughly 1.5 million.
Donalds, meanwhile, has nearly everything he’d seem to need: a national profile, formidable fundraising operation and close ties to the sitting president.
I’m still not convinced he’ll win.
Republicans have proved willing to nominate Black candidates for governor. But they haven’t yet found a candidate who can overcome the racial resistance some voters bring to the ballot box and assemble the general election coalition required to win.
Republicans have proved that they are willing to nominate Black candidates for governor. But they haven’t yet found a Black gubernatorial candidate who can defy political gravity, overcome the racial resistance some voters bring to the ballot box and assemble the general election coalition required to win.
Despite all the advantages listed for Donalds mentioned above, last week, Decision Desk HQ moved the governor’s race to a toss-up, the third forecaster in recent days to shift it toward Democrat David Jolly. A recent St. Pete Polls survey showed a statistical tie.We’ve seen this movie before, or at least the start of it: Ken Blackwell in Ohio and Lynn Swann in Pennsylvania in 2006; Daniel Cameron in Kentucky in 2023; Mark Robinson in North Carolina in 2024; and Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia in 2025. Each of those Black candidates was held up by the GOP as proof that the party
by James Downie | Sep 26, 2026 | Congress, elections, Opinion
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate yet again surrendered one of its core constitutional powers. The chamber voted 49-50 on a war powers resolution directing President Donald Trump to halt the war with Iran. This was the 12th time a war powers resolution failed in the Senate, but the political climate was unlike any previous vote. The midterm outlook for the GOP has gone from tough to downright awful. Gas is nearly $4.50 a gallon; diesel is $6.50. Yet with one exception, vulnerable Republicans sided with the president. To the question, “Can any midterms result shake Trump’s hold on the GOP?,” we now have our answer.
In the spring, I wrote about the similarities between Trump’s second term and former President George W. Bush’s second term. Once again, a president, his party and many in the press have misread a narrow election victory as something more definitive (a windfall of “political capital” in Bush’s case, a “vibe shift” in Trump’s). Once again, the president’s political fortunes have fallen sharply. And once again, the fallout is endangering Republicans in seats that a year ago would have been considered rock solid for the GOP.
Sen. Jon Husted voted against the resolution, two days after he told Politico, “The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible.”
If anything, in fact, Trump’s pre-midterm prognosis is even worse than Bush. Polling averages put the president’s net approval rating more than 20 points underwater. In the past week, he hit new lows for this term in a half-dozen polls, including CNN/SSRS, NBC News, Reuters/Ipsos, Strength in Numbers/Verasight and American Research Group. Various gimmicks — beef imports,
by Stephanie V. McKee-Anderson | Sep 26, 2026 | Opinion
I have been sitting with the news about Nolan Wells, a Black teenager from the Mississippi Gulf Coast who went to party on a barrier island with a group of mostly white friends on July 4, never returned home and was later found dead. On Monday the district attorney in Jackson County, Mississippi, said the 23 members of a grand jury had unanimously voted against charging anyone with a crime in Wells’ death.
The cause of the teen’s death remains categorized as “undetermined,” and the grand jury found that his death was “consistent with drowning.” His family has long rejected the idea that he simply drowned, because he was a good swimmer and athletic.
How can a jury come to the conclusion of drowning, despite knowing that there was trauma to his body, and despite hearing many inconsistencies?”CHRISTINE WONSLEY, NOLAN WELLS’ MOTHER
At a Tuesday news conference, Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, asked, “How can a jury come to the conclusion of drowning, despite knowing that there was trauma to his body, and despite hearing many inconsistencies?”
An independent autopsy conducted by Wells’ family that was released in July also found that the cause and manner of his death were “undetermined,” pending further investigation.
The state’s official autopsy report determined that Wells’ airways and stomach were empty. “What this means is that there is no water in the stomach, there is no water in the lungs, and there is no water in the throat,” Liza Park, an attorney for Wells’ family said Thursday.
The more I process the news of no charges being filed in Wells’ death, the more I think about the difference between a justice
