Joe Biden Has to Be More Than the Man Who Defeated Trump A Democratic president who politely listens to progressive rhetoric while failing to act on it is one who just watches the planet burn a little more slowly. Jay Willis
No, Defund The Police And Medicare For All Didn’t Lead To Democratic Losses In The House Party leaders have blamed progressive left policies for disappointing electoral results. A close examination of winners and losers suggests otherwise. Aidan Smith
Florida Activists Flood Polling Sites With Volunteers to Combat Voter Suppression A grassroots coalition is showing up at locations across the swing state to ensure Black and Latinx voters can cast their ballots safely. Harrison Jacobs
Candace Valenzuela Is Running to Give All People a Chance at the American Dream If she’s successful in her bid to represent Texas’s 24th Congressional District, Valenzuela will flip the district to blue and become the first Black and Latinx member of Congress. Joshua Vaughn
A Media Guide For Free And Fair Election Reporting The media, more than ever, has an important role in preserving our democracy during this election season. The more that members of the media expose false, misleading, or manipulative claims for what they are, the less likely it is for Americans to fall for President Donald Trump’s insidious tactics on and after Election Day. Anna Kurien, Emily Galvin-Almanza, Alana Sivin
For Illinois Democrat Marie Newman, Progressive Is ‘Practical’ Newman, who is running for a U.S. House seat, wants Medicare for all, green jobs, and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Cinnamon Janzer
As Arizona Politics Shift, Martín Quezada Hopes This Term Is His Most Significant Quezada has supported progressive policies since starting out in the state legislature in 2012. He’s now running for his final term, which could be his most important, given the state’s changing power dynamics. Meg O'Connor
A Trumpist Texas Sheriff is Running for Congress. If He Wins, His Brother Might Take Over the Sheriff’s Office. Fort Bend Sheriff Troy Nehls wants voters to send him to Congress despite his department’s history of jail deaths and allegations of racial-profiling. Jerry Iannelli
Michigan Lifers Are Organizing Their Families to Vote The Adolescent Redemption Project, a new group organized by Michigan prisoners sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, is advocating for progressive prosecutors. Marcia Brown
In Effort to Slow Climate Change, Texas Democrat Seeks Seat On Oil Regulation Board Chrysta Castañeda wants to use the state Railroad Commission’s powers to stop energy companies from engaging in environmentally harmful practices like burning excess gas. Jerry Iannelli
‘Democracy Pressure-Tested’: Voter Suppression Efforts Underway As Election Nears Efforts by elected leaders in several states are making it harder to get to the polls and fomenting misinformation about the election amid a pandemic. Joshua Vaughn
Black Voters Matter Co-Founder Says Voting Enthusiasm Is Strong Despite Rampant Suppression The group is seeing real challenges posed by the pandemic, voter suppression tactics, and threats of intimidation. Kira Lerner
Democrats Could Flip the Ohio and Michigan Supreme Courts Shifting control of the states’ highest courts next month will prove critical on a number of major issues, including redistricting in 2021. Joshua Vaughn
Election Night Coverage Is Broken. In 2020, It Could Be Dangerous In a presidential election likely to take weeks or months to decide, the race to name a winner on Nov. 3 could do tremendous damage to the integrity of the vote-counting process. Jay Willis
Joe Biden Should Use Federal Dollars to Fund Alternatives to Police If he becomes president and Democrats win the Senate, Biden should push a federal spending bill that includes money for civilian first-responder programs. Aaron Stagoff-Belfort
Police at Polling Places Could Intimidate Voters This November, Advocates Warn This year’s presidential contest will be the first since a federal judge lifted a decades-old consent decree barring the Republican National Committee from engaging in “ballot security,” or voter intimidation at the polls. Kira Lerner
Judges Are Exploiting the COVID-19 Pandemic to Advance the Conservative Agenda A trio of cases in Wisconsin and Texas illustrates how Republican judges are feigning helplessness in the face of a public health crisis while furthering their own ends. Jay Willis
Voting Rights Advocates Sound the Alarm About Disenfranchisement of Black Voters in Wisconsin’s Primary 'We literally held an election during a pandemic.' Kira Lerner
As Florida Primary Approaches, Many With Felony Convictions Remain Unclear if They Can Vote Advocates worry the widespread confusion may have a chilling effect on eligible voters. Kira Lerner
Elizabeth Warren Announces Plan to Legalize Marijuana If Elected President The Democratic candidate also pledged to expunge prior criminal convictions for marijuana and invest in the communities most affected by the war on drugs. Joshua Vaughn
Michael Bloomberg’s Stop-and-Frisk Legacy Came Back to Haunt Him This Week As old audio clips of Bloomberg defending the controversial policing policy went viral, new data showed the practice isn’t fading away in New York city. Aaron Morrison
Los Angeles County D.A. Jackie Lacey Skipped The First Democratic Debate of the Race After two terms at the helm of the nation’s largest prosecutor office, Lacey has drawn pointed criticism from community advocates who say she is standing in the way of criminal justice reform. Aaron Morrison
Los Angeles County Democratic Party Endorses George Gascón for District Attorney The former San Francisco DA got the nod over incumbent Jackie Lacey, whose tenure advocates and activists have long criticized as lackluster. Jessica Pishko
Kamala Harris’s Criminal Justice Record Killed Her Presidential Run Harris’s record as a prosecutor was representative of a politics of the past. The nation has moved on. Lara Bazelon
Michael Bloomberg Should Apologize For More Than Stop-and-Frisk, Critics Say The billionaire and former New York City mayor defended the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslim Americans and mandatory minimum prison sentences for gun possession, among other policies. Aaron Morrison
Someone Tell Joe Biden: Marijuana Is Not a Gateway Drug Biden believes that the jury is still out on the question of whether marijuana is a gateway to other illicit substances. But the truth is that it is not—and this has long been a matter of settled science. Paul Armentano
Tiffany Cabán Joins Working Families Party To Recruit Progressive Prosecutors, Sheriffs Cabán, the career public defender who lost a primary bid for district attorney in Queens County, New York, will help the political party build nationwide support in criminal justice elections. Aaron Morrison
Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg Releases Criminal Justice Reform Plan The South Bend, Indiana, mayor says his plan—which includes cutting the incarcerated population by half—will "rebalance" a system that is "unfair and racist in many ways." Aaron Morrison
What Kamala Harris’s Take on Policing Gets Wrong Rather than encouraging more faith in the police, true reform requires dismantling the system that empowers them. Alex S. Vitale
Sanders And Warren Just Released the Most Decarceral Criminal Justice Platforms Ever The 2020 presidential candidates recently unveiled national criminal justice agendas that reimagine public safety and punishment. Aaron Morrison
