by Cedric Richmond | Jun 7, 2026 | Opinion
Going into November’s midterm elections, Democrats have put together a strong message that the prices of food, gas, healthcare, housing and utilities are too high and that Americans need to elect members of the party who take their financial struggles seriously. And that message has been working. Since President Donald Trump was elected in 2024 and embarked upon a term that has unsettled even those of us who were expecting the worst, Democrats have consistently overperformed in special and off-year elections.
Just ask Mikie Sherill and Abigail Spanberger, the recently elected Democratic governors of New Jersey and Virginia, respectively. An April Fox News poll showed Democrats edging Republicans 52% to 48% on which party would better handle the economy. That was the first time Democrats have had an advantage on that question in 16 years.
Democrats may be walking blindly into a buzzsaw and risking giving away the advantage they have established over Republicans.
Given the party’s edge on this important metric, unless Democrats suffer a significant reversal in public opinion over the next five months, they should be considered likely to take control of the House after nearly four years in the minority. But preserving the party’s momentum rests on persuading voters that Democrats will take seriously the issue of affordability for everyday Americans. Our future success, including our hopes to reclaim the White House in 2028, will depend on us showing that we won’t just promise, but we will deliver.
But on one important issue, I fear Democrats may be walking blindly into a buzzsaw and risking giving away the advantage they have established over Republicans on who cares more about working
by Noor Noman | Jun 7, 2026 | Opinion
A group of three families, on behalf of their transgender children, and two transgender young adults, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in New York seeking to block a subpoena from the Justice Department for NYU Langone to release their medical records and other personal information to the government. The filing is only the most recent in a slate of lawsuits led by trans kids and their families across the country, from Maryland to California.
The timing of these lawsuits is notable as they come in and around Pride Month, a period intended for the celebration of queerness and to honor hard-won battles for social and legal acceptance. Instead, trans children, and their families, are living in fear and using time, energy and resources to protect themselves from the state for the perceived transgression of merely existing.
The timing of these lawsuits is notable as they come in and around Pride Month, a period intended for the celebration of queerness and to honor hard-won battles for social and legal acceptance.
The government’s objective in its subpoena, which bids hospital representatives to appear in court before a grand jury in June and present documents “sufficient to identify each patient” who as a minor received gender-confirming care of any kind dating back to 2020, appears to be twofold: to deny healthcare to trans kids, by, among other things, citing billing to insurance companies as “fraudulent”; and to intimidate healthcare providers from providing gender-confirming care to transgender patients at all.
This tactic appears to be working as trans healthcare centers and clinics around the country shutter, making care increasingly hard to access. “In addition to concerns about how
by Michael A. Cohen | Jun 6, 2026 | Opinion
Graham Platner needs to drop out of the Maine Senate race — and Democrats should be the ones to coax him toward the door.
When Platner first threw his hat in the ring last year, there was a reasonable argument for his candidacy — here was a political outsider with a fresh perspective who represented a new generation of political talent for Democrats.
But everything we have learned about Platner over the past several months suggests that he is a moral and political trainwreck, with enough skeletons in his closet to fill a graveyard.
Platner has been caught in so many lies that it’s difficult to take anything he says seriously.
Indeed, since Platner announced his candidacy last year, there has been an unceasing drumbeat of scandals about him. He filled a Reddit message board with sexist, racist and off-color comments. He has exaggerated his working-class background and appears to have spent most of his life living off handouts from his parents. But above all, there was the revelation last fall that he had gotten a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo on his chest two decades ago — and by his account only realized it was a Nazi tattoo in the fall of 2025, as he began his campaign for the U.S. Senate.
In recent days, the stories about Platner have taken on a darker, more troubling hue. Last week, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times revealed that soon after his marriage in 2023, Platner was caught by his wife sexting as many as a dozen women. His profile page on Kik, an anonymous social media site often used for dating, was still
by Fla. Sen. Shevrin Jones | Jun 6, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
The Florida Legislature convened for a special session this week and passed Gov. Ron DeSantis proposal to put a gradual elimination of homestead property taxes on November’s ballot. As a legislator who represents a vibrant, diverse community in South Florida, I could not in good conscience support this measure. I voted “no” because the math does not add up and Floridians deserve honesty, not political theater.
The resolution would raise the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028, with a stated path toward full elimination of homestead property taxes. Florida is already one of nine states in the United States without an income tax.
Florida is already one of nine states in the United States without an income tax.
On the surface, getting rid of such property taxes might appeal to Floridians across the political spectrum. We all deserve affordability and the ability to make ends meet without taking on crushing debt or working multiple jobs just to stay afloat. Like Americans across the country, the people in Florida face an affordability crisis as the cost of groceries, housing, healthcare, gas and other everyday expenses continues to skyrocket.Every single person in the communities I serve is feeling the pressure of rising costs, and I take that seriously. But this resolution does not solve that problem — it shifts it. It takes the financial burden off property owners and quietly drops it on the backs of renters and the most vulnerable communities we serve.
Republicans across the country, including many here in Florida, have talked for so long about lowering taxes or eliminating taxes that they seem to have forgotten that
by Katherine Brodsky | Jun 6, 2026 | Opinion
Late last month, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called for what would amount to a significant reversal of the education establishment’s embrace of technology when she suggested restrictions on artificial intelligence and electronic screens in schools. Though her call to action stopped short of a total ban, Weingarten said restrictions are needed “to harness the benefits of technology while mitigating harms.”
Schools have spent billions of dollars rushing devices into children’s hands. Such spending was especially high during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the results have been profound. As of last school year, 88% of public schools reported providing every child with a laptop, tablet or similar device. Just last year, the AFT partnered with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and others to launch a $23 million National Academy for AI Instruction aimed at helping educators use AI responsibly and effectively in schools.
All this tech has been a huge experiment on kids, and experiments can go wrong.American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten
But in a May 27 speech at the National Press Club, Weingarten said, “All this tech has been a huge experiment on kids, and experiments can go wrong.”
Much of the debate over AI in schools has focused on the loss of students’ analytical skills, cognitive offloading and shrinking attention spans. Those are legitimate concerns. But we should pay more attention to another essential cognitive function being systematically engineered out of existence: boredom.
Often misunderstood as a passive state, boredom is a transitional state that frequently precedes curiosity, imagination and original thought. Boredom is deeply tied to children developing the ability to think for themselves.
Doomscrolling social media and watching endless short
by Cisco Aguilar | Jun 6, 2026 | Opinion
As the midterms approach, election officials across the country are preparing for a dangerous possibility: the deployment of immigration agents and other federal law enforcement officials to America’s polls.
Any stationing of federal law enforcement at polling sites is a heavy-handed attempt to intimidate voters. It runs counter to our founding principles, including that all of us are created equal, and that promise is fulfilled at the ballot box. When we cast our ballots, it doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe in or the amount of money in your bank account. They all count the same — one person, one vote.
As Nevada’s secretary of state, it is my duty to defend the constitutional rights of every eligible voter. That responsibility does not belong to one ideology or group of people — it belongs to all of us. Unfortunately, a growing number of elected officials disagree.
If voters are afraid to vote, many will stay home, and that is exactly what anti-democratic officials want.
The challenge we now face is anti-democratic forces running amok. President Trump and his anti-democracy allies seek to weaken our democracy to improve their chances of winning elections. They have repeatedly suggested deploying ICE agents to voting locations for that purpose — to sow discord and confusion. Whether or not these deployments occur, the mere suggestion is enough to create fear, chaos and doubt. This is particularly true in states like Nevada that were built by, and continue to grow because of, the contributions of immigrants.
Democracy only works when voters feel safe enough to participate. If voters are afraid to vote, many will stay home, and that is
