There’s a new feeling in America as kindness drives out cruelty; The Guardian, November 5, 2026

Margaret Sullivan, The Guardian; There’s a new feeling in America as kindness drives out cruelty

"But on Tuesday, that discouraging conversation – changed. Not just a little, but radically.

American citizens rose up and showed the world their nation’s truer colors.

They showed it to be a place that values decency. A place capable of choosing diversity, not mocking it. A place strong enough to say “enough, already”.

The global caricature of the ugly American as an ignoramus in thrall to an immoral cult leader got pushed aside in this election that turned both houses of Congress, and many a governor’s office, away from Maga and toward potential reform.

“I think it was about kindness,” reflected my neighbor, a registered nurse and French immigrant, as I encountered her on her dog walk on Wednesday morning.

In a pre-election piece titled “America’s Clarifying Moment”, the writer and academic Stephen Beschloss summarized the stakes. This is “when we find out whether our fellow Americans really are committed to putting an end to the reckless destruction, the ceaseless corruption, the lawless abuse of our democracy and the utter indifference to the people’s struggle to survive”.

Turns out enough Americans were not merely committed. They were passionate, turning out in droves to elevate the kind of people that Maga had so blithely trashed.

Among the victors: a Black female governor in Georgia, a gay senator in New Hampshire, a Muslim senator in Michigan, and a Native American female governor of New Mexico.

“The sheer diversity of the winners tonight is staggering,” observed Jennifer Senior of the Atlantic."

MAGA Finally Gets What It Deserves; The New York Times, November 5, 2026

 David French, The New York Times; MAGA Finally Gets What It Deserves

"For now, we can sum up everything that happened in the midterms in three words, words that the MAGA movement has scorned for 10 years: Character is destiny."

Saline County votes to keep their library fully funded; Arkansas Times, November 4, 2026

Byron Tate , Arkansas Times; Saline County votes to keep their library fully funded

"A proposal to cut funding to the Saline County library by a third was narrowly defeated on Tuesday.

The complete but unofficial vote was 20,889 in favor of cutting the library’s funding and 21,729 against.

The Saline County Quorum Court voted in May to place a measure on the November ballot, giving voters the opportunity to cut the library’s tax base of 1.7 mills to 1.1 mills, which would have amounted to a loss of $1.7 million."

The American People Have Repudiated Trump; The New York Times, November 3, 2026

The Editorial Board , The New York Times; The American People Have Repudiated Trump

"President Trump has spent the past two years trying to subvert American democracy. On Tuesday, voters stood up to him."

America Punishes Trump’s Party: 8 Takeaways From a Democratic Landslide; The New York Times, November 4, 2026

Shane Goldmacher and Patricia Mazzei, The New York Times; America Punishes Trump’s Party: 8 Takeaways From a Democratic Landslide

"Governor’s races made history.

Democrats reclaimed a majority of the nation’s governor’s offices for the first time in two decades. They won at least five competitive races, in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.

Voters also elected three new Black governors: a Republican, Byron Donalds, in Florida, and two Democrats, Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia and David Crowley in Wisconsin. Before Tuesday, only three Black governors had ever been elected in the country’s history.

Ms. Bottoms is the first female Black governor ever to be elected.

Ms. Hinojosa was the first Latina elected to lead Texas. Another Democrat, Xavier Becerra, was the first Latino elected governor of California. Deb Haaland, a Democrat, will be the nation’s first female Native American governor after winning in New Mexico.

There were other historic firsts, too.

Michigan elected the nation’s first Muslim senator, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat. New Hampshire elected a Democrat, Representative Chris Pappas, who will become the first openly gay man to serve in the Senate.

Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat from Minnesota, became the first Native American woman to win election to the Senate. A second Indigenous woman, the Democrat Mary Peltola, could join her if she is elected in Alaska.

Musk’s millions didn’t make a difference.

Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, spent nearly half a billion dollars on the midterms. His party lost anyway."

Ken Burns: We Face Our Nation’s Fourth Great Crisis; The New York Times, November 3, 2026

Ken Burns, The New York Times; Ken Burns: We Face Our Nation’s Fourth Great Crisis

"There have been three great crises in American history: the Civil War, perhaps the defining event in our history after the Revolution itself, the Great Depression and World War II. These events tested our republic and our resolve in fundamental ways, but the center always held — elections took place, there was a peaceful transfer of power and the judiciary was still independent. Our core democratic institutions remained fundamentally strong, respected by the public and our leaders alike. The guardrails of our democracy held and were even strengthened as we emerged from each.

As we go to the polls today in this most consequential of midterm elections, we face our country’s fourth great crisis. Because of misinformation, which the current administration encourages, age-old fears and conspiracies have created a sense of us versus them that is fundamentally at odds with a healthy democratic society. Elections are in doubt, the highest court seems compromised, history has been distorted, books have been banned, and dictators have been coddled while our closest allies have been ridiculed and dismissed. People are rightly concerned whether our institutions are at a breaking point...

I’m optimistic that the American people recognize that our democratic institutions and sense of decency can bring us together.

We have come back from crises before. We were more divided than we are today during the Revolution, the Civil War, Reconstruction and Vietnam. For 250 years, our country has prevailed in fits and starts, forging achievements, however imperfect, related to race and equality in American life.

But given our divisions, as we vote we must each ask ourselves: What kind of leadership will see us through the current crisis? Why do we continue to support leaders who are invested in deepening our divides, who tap into conspiracy theories to frighten the public, deny facts and, to quote Alexander Hamilton, “throw things into confusion,” so that they “may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind’”?"

‘Man, I loved that’: Trump cheers South Carolina rally attender who hit protester; The Guardian, October 21, 2026

Uwa Ede-Osifo , The Guardian; ‘Man, I loved that’: Trump cheers South Carolina rally attender who hit protester

"Multiple protesters were removed from Donald Trump’s rally at South Carolina’s Clemson University on Wednesday, including one who was apparently punched by a rally attender – to the US president’s delight.

“That was great, man. Wow. Man, I loved that. I watched that,” Trump said. “That was incredible. Wow. That was unbelievable."

Pa. election results, Shapiro’s speeches, and state laws are all prediction market bets. Could this lead to corruption?; Spotlight PA, September 3, 2026

Jaxon White , Spotlight PA; Pa. election results, Shapiro’s speeches, and state laws are all prediction market bets. Could this lead to corruption?

"Who will win Pennsylvania’s race for governor? How many data centers will be proposed here? Which state laws will be enacted this year?

That’s just a sample of the political questions that prediction market platforms, like Kalshi and Polymarket, allow people to bet on.

These platforms, which allow people to wager on the outcomes of a wide range of real-world events, are exploding in popularity. As the midterms approach and these markets receive more scrutiny, some ethics experts are raising concerns that they are ripe for abuse from government insiders or bad faith actors looking to sway elections."

Getting campaign text messages ahead of midterms? There could be an AI bot behind it; NPR, July 12, 2026

Maham Javaid, NPR; Getting campaign text messages ahead of midterms? There could be an AI bot behind it

"AI-powered platforms are training bots to sound like political candidates in text messages, holding personalized conversations with thousands of potential voters simultaneously. The bots are also gathering data, learning what each voter wants from their representatives and using that information to shape future campaign messaging."

Backed by Anthropic, a Super PAC Group Begins an Ad Blitz in Support of A.I. Regulation; The New York Times, February 23, 2026

 Cecilia Kang, The New York Times ; Backed by Anthropic, a Super PAC Group Begins an Ad Blitz in Support of A.I. Regulation

The ads by Public First Action, which started airing on Monday, are part of an escalating political war over artificial intelligence before the midterm elections.

"A new ad campaign on Monday warned northern New Jersey residents that Congress could leave them vulnerable to harm by artificial intelligence.

The ad, which opens with photos of A.I.-generated women smiling on social media alongside A.I.-generated headlines, urged voters to tell their House representative to vote against a bill that would block states from creating protections against A.I. scams.

“He can make sure A.I. serves us, not the other way around,” the ad said of Josh Gottheimer, the Democratic co-chair of the House’s new A.I. commission, which is expected to heavily influence legislation on the topic. “New Jersey families come before Big Tech’s bottom line.”

The $300,000 ad campaign was paid for by Public First Action, a super PAC operation backed by the A.I. start-up Anthropic. Focused on New Jersey, the campaign is likely to run several weeks — part of several similar initiatives by the group nationally."

Trump, in an Escalation, Calls for Republicans to ‘Nationalize’ Elections; The New York Times, February 2, 2026

 Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti, The New York Times; Trump, in an Escalation, Calls for Republicans to ‘Nationalize’ Elections

"President Trump called in a new interview for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in the United States, an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters as he and his allies continue to make false claims about his 2020 defeat.

During an extended monologue about immigration on a podcast released on Monday by Dan Bongino, his former deputy F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump called for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states, though he did not name them.

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Under the Constitution, American elections are governed primarily by state law, leading to a decentralized process in which voting is administered by county and municipal officials in thousands of precincts across the country. Mr. Trump, however, has long been fixated on the false claims that U.S. elections are rife with fraud and that Democrats are perpetrating a vast conspiracy to have undocumented immigrants vote and lift the party’s turnout."

How Trump’s 2020 Election Claims Have Been Debunked Again and Again; The New York Times, January 30, 2026

 Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti, The New York Times; How Trump’s 2020 Election Claims Have Been Debunked Again and Again

"More than five years after President Trump lost the 2020 election, he and his administration are still pursuing baseless conspiracy theories in an attempt to prove otherwise.

Though scores of lawsuits aiming to overturn the results were dismissed by judges in 2020 and 2021, Mr. Trump’s relentless false arguments that he won the election have led many of his supporters to believe him. And now that he is back in the White House, some of those falsehoods have become official stances of the U.S. government.

On Wednesday, F.B.I. agents in Georgia searched an election center in Fulton County, Ga., which includes Atlanta, for ballots and other voting records from the 2020 contest. The move appeared to be a significant escalation of Mr. Trump’s effort to rewrite the history of the 2020 election and his defeat to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Here’s the reality of what happened."

Five Years On, Trump Keeps Pushing Jan. 6 Conspiracies; The New York Times, January 6, 2026

Luke Broadwater and Dylan Freedman , The New York Times; Five Years On, Trump Keeps Pushing Jan. 6 Conspiracies

"Over the past year, President Trump has engaged in a steady campaign to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, when his supporters, believing lies of a rigged election, smashed windows and doors and assaulted law enforcement officers.

His revisionist history is taking on new significance ahead of this year’s midterm elections — and could carry more weight if Republicans lose control of Congress, which the president has said he believes may happen.

On Tuesday, the five-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, Mr. Trump was again seeding doubt about the integrity of American elections. “Our elections are crooked as hell,” Mr. Trump told congressional Republicans.

Offering a glimpse into his concerns about an election loss in the midterms, Mr. Trump said Republicans needed to retain control of the House because he expected to face a third impeachment trial if Democrats won. He said he would not call for this year’s election to be canceled because critics would accuse him of being a dictator."

“This is a bad dream:” Kamala Harris voters baffled by Trump’s win come to terms; The Mercury News, November 6, 2024

JULIA PRODIS SULEK , The Mercury News; “This is a bad dream:” Kamala Harris voters baffled by Trump’s win come to terms

"Harris’s supporters tried to make sense of the news that more than half the country voted for a convicted felon who inspired a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol after he refused to admit he lost the 2020 election, someone who was found liable for sexual abuse, and promised to seek revenge on his enemies — not to mention using vile language to describe the vice president and other antics...

The campaigns exposed deep divides between the candidates and polarized the nation.

“No matter who won this election, it’s clear that we’ve become two separate Americas, and neither America understands the other one or has much of an interest in understanding the other one,” said political analyst and USC professor Dan Schnur.

“That leaves California in the exact same place that conservatives in Texas and Florida were in four years ago. You either dig in and get even angrier and fight back even harder, or you try to understand why there’s people on the other side who don’t agree with you.”"

Hoax bomb threats linked to Russia target polling places in battleground states, FBI says; Reuters, November 5, 2024

Tim Reid and Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters; Hoax bomb threats linked to Russia target polling places in battleground states, FBI says

"Hoax bomb threats, many of which appeared to originate from Russian email domains, were directed on Tuesday at polling locations in four battleground states - Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin - as Election Day voting was underway, the FBI said.

"None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far," the FBI said in a statement, adding that election integrity was among the bureau's highest priorities...

The two locations, in Fulton County, both re-opened after about 30 minutes, officials said, and the county was seeking a court order to extend the locations' voting hours past the statewide 7 p.m. deadline.

Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, blamed Russian interference for the Election Day bomb hoaxes."

Top election official says colleagues gave Elon Musk ‘hand-delivered’ notes to stop him from spreading misinformation; Fortune, November 1, 2024

SASHA ROGELBERG , Fortune; Top election official says colleagues gave Elon Musk ‘hand-delivered’ notes to stop him from spreading misinformation

"Elon Musk is accused of rampantly spreading election misinformation, and it has been a thorn in the side of election officials working double time to try and mitigate the spew of unfounded claims about meddling and alleged voter fraud. Some officials have even gone to measures like dispatching personal notes to the CEO of Tesla and X, who endorsed Donald Trump in July following as assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa.

“I’ve had my friends hand-deliver stuff to him,” Stephen Richer, the Maricopa County, Ariz.  recorder, told CNN. Richer, a Republican, has come under fire from conservatives for defending the 2020 election outcome that Trump lost.

But so far, the efforts of Richer’s colleagues have fallen short. “We’ve pulled out more stops than most people have available to try to put accurate information in front of [Musk],” Richer said. “It has been unsuccessful.”

Musk cast false information about election security, including insisting Americans vote in-person and on paper, citing a debunked conspiracy that ballot machines switched votes, at a Philadelphia town hall event on Oct. 18. Musk historically has voted by mail, and his super PAC, America PAC, has encouraged mail-in voting.

His social media platform X has also failed to quash election lies. A report from Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) on Wednesday found X’s Community Notes feature “failed to counter false” claims about the election, with 209 of 283 (74%) analyzed posts not showing notes correcting false information."

As Election Looms, Disinformation ‘Has Never Been Worse’; The New York Times, October 23, 2024

Steven Lee Myers , The New York Times; As Election Looms, Disinformation ‘Has Never Been Worse’

"Numerous factors have contributed to the surge in disinformation, which Ms. Easterly and other officials have warned will continue far beyond Election Day. 

Social media platforms have helped to harden media ecosystems into distinct, disparate partisan enclaves where facts contradicting preconceived narratives are often unwelcome. Artificial intelligence has become an accelerant, making fake or fanciful content ubiquitous online with merely a few keystrokes."

Rattled Elon Musk goes on late-night attack against Tim Walz after ‘dips***’ comments; Independent, October 23, 2024

Gustaf Kilander , Independent; Rattled Elon Musk goes on late-night attack against Tim Walz after ‘dips***’ comments

"Elon Musk went on a late-night attack against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz after he called the billionaire a “dips***” during a rally in Madison, Wisconsin. 

“Elon’s on that stage, jumping around, skipping like a dips***,” Walz said on Tuesday, referring to Musk as former President Donald Trump’s“running mate.”...

“That guy is literally the richest man in the world, spending millions of dollars to help Donald Trump buy an election,” the Minnesota governor said.

Musk responded to Walz on X on Tuesday afternoon, writing: “You’re gonna lose, @Tim_Walz. Saving the American people from the torture of hearing you speak for four years was worth it.”...

Walz also criticized Musk’s $75 million donation to a new political action committee to which he’s so far the only donor. The billionaire has also been giving out checks for $1 million to people who sign his PAC’s petition. It’s a lottery that some experts have called illegal and an attempt to buy votes."

Moldova votes on whether to join EU as Russia intensifies vast disinformation campaign; The Conversation, October 15, 2024

Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham , The Conversation;nMoldova votes on whether to join EU as Russia intensifies vast disinformation campaign

"Moldova is emerging as a major strategic battleground in a fierce competition between Russia and the west. A Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign has intensified over the last few months, in the run-up to Moldova’s presidential elections. 

One of the key reasons for this is that a referendum on EU membership has been scheduled for the same day, October 20.

The challenges for this small country, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, are complex. Russia continues to foment instability through its persistent disinformation initiatives, instigation of anti-government protests, and acts of sabotage and vandalism. 

Add to this credible allegations of vote buying, and efforts to call into question the legitimacy of a pro-European election and referendum result, and the situation in Moldova appears highly combustible."

Kamala Harris’s last mile; The Ink, October 15, 2024

ANAND GIRIDHARADAS, The Ink; Kamala Harris’s last mile

"For all of the vice president’s success thus far, it is important to name the greatest risk to her candidacy, in the hope of avoiding it: In the homestretch, Democrats cannot let themselves be defined as the Whole Foods party — a party that speaks convincingly to upscale and educated and socially conscious and politically engaged and often-voting Americans, but doesn’t similarly rouse working-class voters of various stripes and more disaffected, jaded, demoralized voters.

In the last mile of this election, so many of the remaining pool of undecided voters — or, more importantly, people undecided about voting — have simply lost faith that anyone will change anything for the better in their lifetime.

It is beyond ironic, beyond ridiculous even, that some people who feel this way, millions of them, are attracted to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, two pillars of the establishment who are running for president on a platform that would only make the richest and most powerful Americans more rich and more powerful.

But it is happening, and it must be stopped...

This outreach must be backed by policy. At her best, Harris has embraced big ideas that would change the landscape of the country, from housing construction to the care economy. Go further. Be sweeping. Propose the kind of simple-to-understand, sweeping, universal policies that make people thirst for the future.

And, finally, be everywhere, all at once. It has been a relief to see Harris saturate the airwaves in recent days, after an earlier reticence.

There is so much reason not to believe in America in 2024. If you want people to believe again, especially the people who are right now still on the fence, you need to tell them a story that not only persuades them but all but rewires their brain. You need to help them make new meaning of what they have seen and heard and felt.

This will require being everywhere all at once, in their heads and hearts, morning, noon, and night. It doesn’t matter if every interview isn’t perfect. Show them your power, your life force, the life force that proposes to smash obstacles and change their lives. Do whatever media most helps you reach them. It doesn’t need to be the old guard. But people are looking for whether you are unafraid, because if you are, it might give you what it takes to help them."