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Wyoming poised to welcome new major political party based on Bextel’s vote totals
The Constitution Party is set to become the state’s third major party.
‘Money Out of Politics’ ballot measure passes, constitutional convention fails
Proposal 2 on Michigan ballots, the “Michiganders for Money Out of Politics” initiative, has passed.
It’s time to reunite
Election season is over. Most of us exercised our constitutional right to choose representatives for office who best reflected our values and those we believed were best prepared to lead and solve the very real challenges facing our state, nation and county. The 2026 election season was full of both extreme highs and extreme lows. […]
Nebraska voters appear to say 'no' to legalizing online sports betting
Though margins were still slim late Tuesday night, Nebraska voters were on track to reject a pair of ballot measures looking to legalize and regulate online sports betting, according to unofficial results. Initiative Measures 440 and 441 would together amend the Nebraska Constitution and state law, respectively, to legalize and regulate online sports wagers. Initiative […]
Nebraska on track to add gender-based school sports requirements to state Constitution
Voters appeared to agree to cement sex-separate school sports requirements into the Nebraska Constitution with the approval of the Fairness for Girls ballot measure.
Here are the results from the sports wagering ballot measures
Two ballot measures are seeking a constitutional amendment to legalize online sports betting in the state and to create the regulatory framework to tax the wagers.
Issue 3 trails; voters approve other constitutional amendments
A proposed constitutional amendment that would allow cities and counties to form economic development districts to attract retail businesses and other operations was at slightly below 50% as of 11...
Issue 3 trails; voters approve other constitutional amendments
A proposed constitutional amendment that would allow cities and counties to form economic development districts to attract retail businesses and other operations was at slightly below 50% as of 11...
Constitutional convention fails, Money Out of Politics approved
LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) - Michigan voters have said a loud "no" to Proposal 1 to hold a constitutional conven...
Maryland voters pass Democratic-backed redistricting amendment
A constitutional amendment passed Tuesday could pave the way for Democratic lawmakers to redraw Maryland’s congressional districts ahead of the 2028 election.
‘Money Out of Politics’ ballot measure passes, constitutional convention fails
Proposal 2 on Michigan ballots, the “Michiganders for Money Out of Politics” initiative, has passed. The initiative will alter state campaign finance law to ban campaign spending from “regulated electric and gas utilities, contractors with over $250,000 annually in government contracts, and people and organizations with substantial connections to those utilities or contractors.”
Abortion rights amendment passes in Virginia
2026 ELECTION COVERAGE: Watch Live | Poll Closing Times | All Live Results | Live Updates | Live Fact Check Voters have approved a ballot measure that creates a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” in the Virginia Constitution. The amendment passed Tuesday ensures abortions can occur during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. It allows government regulations during the third trimester while still ensuring that abortions can be carried out to protect the life and
Missouri live election results: Amendment 3, St. Louis, St. Charles and Jefferson counties
In the Nov. 3 midterm election, Missourians voted on an abortion ban and a measure that would make it harder for lawmakers to override voter-approved statutes and constitutional amendments. U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner faced Democrat Fred Wellman to represent Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District.
Voters decide key ballot measures on abortion rights, congressional redistricting and voter ID laws
2026 ELECTION COVERAGE: Watch Live | Poll Closing Times | All Live Results | Live Updates | Live Fact Check WASHINGTON (AP) — A battle over abortion rights is playing out in several states Tuesday as voters decide 145 proposed laws and constitutional amendments, including some that could affect voting for future elections. The ballot measures provide a political undercard for a high-profile midterm election that will determine which party controls Congress, state legislatures and
Before the Gender Gap Had a Name, Ms. Saw Women’s Political Power Coming: Six Stories From the Archives on the Power of Women Voters
A record 590 women filed to run for the U.S. House during the 2026 election cycle. Women candidates are also poised to make history in gubernatorial races across the country: Deb Haaland could become the nation's first Native American woman governor in New Mexico, while Keisha Lance Bottoms could become the first Black woman governor in U.S. history if elected in Georgia. Yet women still hold only about 28 percent of seats in Congress. And the stakes of this election—from reproductive freedom and immigration enforcement, to voting rights and the future of constitutional equality—extend far beyond the number of women elected. For more than five decades, Ms. has documented the growing power of women voters, candidates and elected officials. We've tracked the gender gap, challenged the barriers facing women in politics and explored what it would mean to build a democracy that represents all of us. These six selections from the Ms. Archive trace that history—from the earliest predictions of women's political power, to today's calls to fundamentally remake American democracy. (Full access to these selections and the entirety of 50+ years of issues of Ms. is available via the Ms. Magazine Archive on ProQuest, from Clarivate.)
‘Big business’: little-known court system in Louisiana churns out thousands of evictions – and millions in fees for judges
Guardian investigation: Louisiana’s justice of the peace court system may violate tenants’ constitutional rights as eviction fees boost judges’ incomes.
The Guardian view on Poland’s political turmoil: an ominous portent of bigger battles to come
Editorial: Donald Tusk is attempting to restore legitimacy to the country’s constitutional court. In a polarised country and continent, that carries political risks
Russia Senses Opportunity in Polish Political Turmoil
After its sometime allies were ousted in elections in Hungary and Serbia, Moscow has seized on Poland’s constitutional standoff in its effort to weaken Europe’s support for Ukraine.
A prison sentence is not a death sentence — fix the correctional health care crisis now
No state, including Arizona, likes having a judge tell it how to run its prisons. But they all have a choice: live up to their constitutional responsibilities and provide adequate medical care on t…
What Alexandria voters need to know before Tuesday's election
Polls are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., four polling places have moved, and the ballot includes the U.S. Senate and House races and three constitutional amendments
NH Attorney General orders firms to stop anonymous political mailers
All three of the mailers either attack Republican Senate candidate John Sununu or promote Edmond LaPlante, the Constitution Party candidate in the race.
Polish president discusses Constitutional Court row with politicians
Polish President Karol Nawrocki held consultations with political representatives on Saturday amid a dispute over the country's Constitutional Court that erupted following moves by the government to c...
Polish president discusses Constitutional Court row with politicians
Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Saturday began consultations with political representatives amid a dispute over the country's Constitutional Court that erupted following moves by the government to ...
Polish president calls emergency talks as political fight for top court gets physical
A battle over judicial appointments has become a showdown over who controls Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Maryland on Election Day
WASHINGTON (AP) — Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore seeks a second term on Tuesday as he stakes his political capital on a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow his party to enter the mi...
Why Should I Vote for Reproductive Freedom in November?
Virginia will vote on a ballot amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution this midterm election.
The Politics Hour: What's at stake locally in the 2026 midterms
UVA's Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato on Virginia possibly being the key to a blue wave, WAMU's Jenny Abamu breaks down the redistricting constitutional amendment, and Washington Sun's Martin Austermuhle explains the controversy around at-large D.C. Councilmember Robert White's bid for D.C. Delegate.
Virginia voters to decide on constitutional protections for abortion and reproductive health care
Deep dive into Ballot Q1, I want each question to have same format and intro.
(Most) Democrats at Question 3 rally, Harbeson heads out, more in political notes
While most top Democrats rallied again Monday for Question 3, the proposed constitutional amendment on congressional redistricting, one was notably absent, LCV's Kristen Harbeson moves on; and voting deadlines loom, in political notes.
A guide to the key ballot measures voters will decide on Election Day
When Americans cast their ballots in this year’s midterm elections, they’ll not only be picking who represents them in Congress, but also weighing in on a range of topics that could change their state laws and constitutions.
Judge: Maurene Comey was illegally fired from Justice Department
A federal judge on Monday found the Justice Department’s firing of Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor who presided over several high-profile cases including those of Jeffrey Epstein and Sean “Diddy” Combs, was unconstitutional.
Utah House District 68: Sonya Ray and Scott Chew
Constitution Party candidate Sonya Ray answered Utah Public Radio's questionnaire on why she's running for State House District 68 and what issues matter the most for her.
Indiana's New Small Business Program: From Policy to Opportunity
Indiana’s approach to state contracting underwent a significant transformation this summer. Following an opinion from Attorney General Todd Rokita questioning the constitutionality of race- and sex-based contracting preferences, Gov. Mike Braun suspended the state’s Supplier Diversity Program and directed the creation of a new
9th Circuit questions DOJ demand to set aside 20,000 California mail ballots
A panel of federal appellate judges on Sunday questioned the timing, constitutionality and authority of the Justice Department's demand
Guest opinion: Partisan politics don’t belong in Montana’s courtrooms
As retired district court judges who worked in courtrooms across Montana, we know there is no Democratic or Republican way to handle the everyday court cases Montanans face. That’s why we support Constitutional Initiative 132 to keep our judicial elections nonpartisan.
Pope hope, that’s entertainment, and getting ahead in the CIA
Happy Friday friends, I want to start by just breathing for all of us a big long collective sigh of relief at the news this week that the pope’s doctors have basically blown the all clear for Leo’s health. Going from knowing nothing to him declaring to the world he needed surgery, to a cancer diagnosis, to bouncing out of the hospital in barely even days, to ringing the bell in less than two weeks is whiplash inducing. But in the best possible way. We are living in a world in which the Roman pontiff, by dint of history, biography and circumstance, is once more at the epicenter of global affairs. Not just conversations about religion, or Christian and post-Christian values, but the bleeding edge of the most pressing issues of human affairs. Think I am exaggerating a touch? Consider the images of the crowds who greeted Leo in Paris just weeks ago, and juxtapose them with the absolute photo negative scenes unfolding there recently. Ask yourself how many world leaders are talking about AI right now and directly citing the pope as they do so. Try to name a country who has had as many top-ranked diplomats in and out of both Russia and Ukraine in the last three years as the Vatican has in the last three months. It has been fascinating to watch Leo XIV emerge as not just a kind of pop culture reference point or totem to be cited (Francis was often name-checked this way) but as a kinetic force in global conversation. Given the state of things, we need global figures of gravitas and values, even better if they have real wisdom behind what they are saying. So news of Leo’s illness was, it seemed to me, a tremor with potentially Richter Scale implications. That not only has the worst not come to pass but instead we’ve had the best of outcomes announced is something to really be grateful for. Humanity, it seems to me, is entering one of its irregular but cyclical phases where the pace of change — technological, social, and geopolitical — outstrips the ability of previously settled norms and received wisdom to cope. Such periods – and I think the first decades of the last century were a similar such time – throw into question the viability of all kinds of institutions. And many of ours have been straining to breaking point for a few years now. The papacy has the power and the potential to be a steadying pole in all of this. That’s my hope, anyway. It’s a lot to freight the office with, though it is arguably its ultimate purpose from its founding, to be a steadying rock on which all that matters can be anchored. It’s also, of course, an intolerable weight of responsibility to place on a single man. But I am encouraged to have hope in – and for – Leo. The apostle whom he succeeds, after all, was famously unequal to some moments, failed some tests of faith, and resiled from taking the road which led ultimately to the circus on Vatican hill. Human frailty and limitations, of health, of character, of temper, can open us to Christ, whose strength is greatest in our weakness, so St. Paul learned. That gives me hope, and I am sure it consoles Leo, too. And so I will continue to pray for him. Because we need apostles of rock right now. Here’s the news. Subscribe The News The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued yesterday a new document “Venite ad me: Considerations on the Transmission of the Faith in an Epochal Change.” It’s not a short document, and it is at pains to stress this isn’t a doctrinal note from the dicastery, either. Rather, it brings together reflections on an important issue from the Church around the world. Some of it I actually found really rather powerful. It is, however, 25,000, which is a lot for a busy reader to get through on a weekday. So, you can read our busy reader’s summary right here. — News broke yesterday of an Oct. 22 meeting of U.S. bishops with President Donald Trump. The meeting was organized by an official at the Heritage Foundation, according to several sources close to the meeting. Video of several U.S. bishops praying in the Oval Office over President Trump was posted on social media Thursday afternoon, first by White House Communications Advisor Margo Martin, and then by the official twitter.com account of the Archdiocese of Denver. The meeting has drawn sharp criticism because of its proximity to the upcoming midterm Congressional elections, in which Democrats are widely expected to win control of the House of Representatives, while control of the Senate remains closely contested. Sources close to the bishops’ conference told The Pillar that some USCCB senior officials were surprised by the existence of the meeting when video of it first emerged online. And a source close to conference president Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City told The Pillar that the archbishop was “deeply frustrated” by the occasion of the meeting. An official conference spokesperson told The Pillar that the meeting was “not organized with or by the USCCB” and was “not affiliated with the conference.” You can read the whole story here. — The next National Eucharistic Congress will be held in Indianapolis in 2029, a return to the city that hosted the last gathering in 2024. You read it here first. By here, I don’t mean this newsletter, I mean at The Pillar. We broke the story this week. It’s a big deal, in as much as the last congress was a roaring success and the next installment has the potential to be a real focal point for evangelizing efforts in the coming years. Read all about it here. — As Pope Leo prepares for the longest trip of his pontificate, Church leaders in Uruguay say the pontiff will encounter a highly secularized culture, in a country with a very different Catholic history than many of its South American neighbors. The nation has not had a papal visit since 1988, and leaders who spoke with The Pillar say it has a dire need for evangelization, even amid the prospect of a small revival in faith. This is real reporting on the Church in the country, and frankly a story you simply are not going to be able to read anywhere else. Read the whole thing. — The Archdiocese of Detroit announced this week a plan that would see the vast majority of its parish priests reassigned next summer, amid a restructuring process expected to dramatically shrink the number of parishes in the archdiocese. Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said this week that the plan “asks much of our priests,” but is a “sacrifice they are making as brothers of one, unified presbyterate.” The thing is, as JD pointed out in an analysis yesterday, pastors of parishes have a legal right to stability in office, so the only way this kind of wholesale reassignment goes ahead is if all of the archdiocesan clergy agree to resign. That creates its own kind of legal issues, though, and re-raises longstanding questions about the effectiveness of canonical due process protections for priests when dealing with coercive exercises in authority. Read the whole thing here. — More than three months after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its decree declaring the excommunication of the leadership of the Society of St. Pius X, questions remain about the full effects of the society’s schism. Specifically, the DDF’s July claim that marriages witnessed and confessions heard by SSPX priests are now invalid remains contested — and it emerged this week it appears that the Vatican’s own legal experts don’t agree. You can read my whole analysis of the situation and what it means here. All I would add is that the DDF’s undeveloped, some would say unsubstantiated, claim about the invalidity of some SSPX sacraments came in their July Explanatory Note on the schismatic consecrations by the society that month. It touches directly on both papal acts of governance — indeed it purports to nullify them — and the most intimate pastoral encounters possible in a parish setting. If there is one aspect of the Francis-era style of governance I would like the curia to finally cut out, root and branch, it would be these attempts to try to effect extraordinarily sensitive legislative acts via a note. — At least a dozen French bishops have spoken out following an eruption of violence on the country’s streets Oct. 17. Not surprisingly, they unanimously condemned the violence, but the length and content of their interventions varied significantly. Several sought to distinguish between the actions of rioters and what they suggested were the legitimate concerns of peaceful young protesters. Many also evoked Pope Leo XIV’s Sept. 25-28 visit to France, suggesting it offered a powerful counter-image to the scenes of looting and destruction. A number of bishops also stressed their solidarity with law enforcement officials who struggled to contain the disorder, as well as the owners of the roughly 3,000 damaged or looted businesses. What’s the background to the nationwide unrest that the French media calls “les violences du 17 octobre”? And what exactly are the bishops saying? Read all about it here. — A Polish bishop called for the firm defense of unborn children as well as compassion for their mothers this week, as the lower house of Poland’s parliament passed two bills seeking to liberalize the country’s abortion laws. The bill on decriminalizing assistance in an abortion passed by 217 votes to 213, while the abortion in cases of fetal abnormality bill passed by 233 to 203, thanks to the government’s majority in the lower house. Both bills will now move to the Polish Senate, the upper house of parliament, where the ruling coalition has a larger majority. The fetal abnormality bill is symbolically significant because if it became law, it would effectively overturn a 2020 ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal that a 1993 law permitting abortion for a severe and irreversible disability or a life-threatening incurable disease was unconstitutional. Read the whole story here. Subscribe **[The St. Paul Center App | Bible Study On-The-Go Read and understand the Bible with St. Paul Center’s new app! With today’s leading Catholic Scripture scholars as your guides, the St. Paul Center app empowers you to read the Bible](https://stpaulcenter.com/app?utm_source=pillar&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=applaunch)** from the heart of the Church. Download the app for free at either the Apple or the Google app stores. https://stpaulcenter.com/app That’s entertainment I have written before about my deep and sincere reservations about the celebrity exorcist subculture which has taken root in American Catholicism. And, because I am very ill at ease with the entire thing, I try to keep a weather eye on the phenomenon without being drawn into the kind of online back-and-forth which these figures sometimes generate. Earlier this week, JD noted that one such celebrity exorcist type, Fr. Chad Ripperger, has undertaken, on the request of his bishop, a year’s fast from interviews and public speaking. I’m sure that will be salutary for him, if for no other reason than that receiving with docility requests from one’s rightful ecclesiastical superiors always comes with graces. Then a second thing happened this week which caught my eye. Apparently, another fixture in the celebrity exorcist world, Fr. Carlos Martins, has initiated a lawsuit against two lay men — apparently associates of Rippenger, though I am unclear in what way, exactly — for allegedly defaming him and his ministry on a podcast. It seems the suit was initiated nearly a year ago and is now pending. At issue, I read, is that the two men described Martins on a podcast as “not who he says he is” with regard to his exorcism ministry and that he “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” These statements Martins considers to be false and defamatory and, his suit claims, “directly affected the sale and reception of [his] The Exorcist Files book that was newly released at the time these episodes aired.” I don’t want to get too into the weeds of the details here, but a couple of things struck me about all this.
Preserve science-based wildlife management; ‘yes’ on Prop 137; CoCo for Colorado (Letters)
Voting “no” on Amendment 83 means preserving the flexibility to make wildlife management decisions based on the best available science, rather than permanently elevating one approach above all others in our state constitution.…
Nonprofits warn online sports betting initiatives put vulnerable Nebraskans at risk
The Open Door Mission hosted Gambling with the Good Life this morning to speak out against Initiatives 440 and 441, two measures that would amend the Nebraska Constitution to legalize online sports gambling.
Lawsuit accuses Trump of illegally profiting from UAE crypto investments
The lawsuit claims the investments violate the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause
Lawsuit accuses Trump of illegally profiting from UAE crypto investments
The lawsuit claims the investments violate the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause
‘Constitution’ at the Rep mingles the personal and political
Heidi Schreck’s 2017 play “What the Constitution Means to Me” mixes constitutional debate with personal revelation. It plays at the Rep through Nov. 15.
Constitutional Amendments Bring Polarizing Politics to The State
Partisan clashes have spawned votes on three proposed amendments to the Wisconsin constitution, prompting much debate over GOP and Democratic policies.
‘Big business’: little-known court system in Louisiana churns out thousands of evictions – and millions in fees for judges
Guardian investigation: Louisiana’s justice of the peace courts may violate tenants’ constitutional rights as eviction fees boost judges’ incomes
Supreme Court passes on Chicago parking-ticket case, but two justices sound alarm
The high court declined to hear a challenge to Chicago's policy of confiscating cars over unpaid parking tickets, but two justices raised serious constitutional concerns.
Letitia James is the most 'political' AG in the country: Jonathan Turley
Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley and criminal defense attorney Donna Rotunno analyze the Cornell sexual assault investigation and the federal probe into Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on 'Fox News Sunday.'
El-Sayed gets into testy exchange with man who presses him on Muslim Brotherhood
“I think it’s you who needs to understand the Constitution, not me,” El-Sayed told the man, who identified himself as “Tommy.”
Appeals Court Questions Justice Dept. Claim that Trump Owns White House Records
A three-judge panel appeared unconvinced by claims that a federal law requiring the president to preserve and hand over his presidential papers was unconstitutional.
New Mexico Election 2026: constitutional amendments 1-3
Several amendments to the New Mexico Constitution will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot that, if approved, would require governors to explain their vetoes, eliminate the requirement to
Ohio Appeals court rules EdChoice private school voucher system unconstitutional
An Ohio appellate court has ruled that the EdChoice voucher program, which uses taxpayer dollars to fund private school tuition, is unconstitutional.
Commentary: Missouri’s education board was designed to resist politics. Transparency is essential
Most Missourians probably could not name a member of the State Board of Education. Most could not explain why board members serve eight-year terms or why Missouri’s Constitution limits the number of members from the same political party. That is understandable. The State Board was never intended to be a political institution that attracted significant […]
The Politics of Retrieval: Accessing the Backstage of Judicial AI
--Estefânia Maria de Queiroz Barboza, Constitutional Law Professor, Federal University of Paraná (UFPR); Gustavo Buss, PhD Candidate, Federal University of Pa
Judge extends order barring Trump from banning CNN, MS NOW, Politico reporters
Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are likely to succeed in their constitutional free speech and due process claims
Judge extends order barring Trump from banning CNN, MS NOW, Politico reporters
Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are likely to succeed in their constitutional free speech and due process claims
The Political Constitution at War
It's not too late for Congress to reclaim its authority over the use of force.
Nonpartisan state Supreme Court elections are being put to the test in Montana
Montana’s voters are set to decide a ballot proposal that would enshrine nonpartisan judicial elections in the state constitution
Nonpartisan state Supreme Court elections are being put to the test in Montana
Montana’s voters are set to decide a ballot proposal that would enshrine nonpartisan judicial elections in the state constitution.
Nonpartisan state Supreme Court elections are being put to the test in Montana
Montana’s voters are set to decide a ballot proposal that would enshrine nonpartisan judicial elections in the state constitution.
Nonpartisan state Supreme Court elections are being put to the test in Montana
Montana’s voters are set to decide a ballot proposal that would enshrine nonpartisan judicial elections in the state constitution.
Column: Proposals up for vote and world health concerns
Two proposals involving a Constitutional Convention and reforming political spending in Michigan. are among the decisions voters will make in the November election.
These lawmakers want to head off a potential post-election crisis
A bipartisan effort is underway in Congress to avert a constitutional crisis, where Republicans don't seat Democrats, if they win the chamber.
The editors: Make it safe to lose elections
Today’s political rhetoric depicts electoral defeat as apocalyptic. If this leads to a rejection of the rule of law, it places the constitutional order itself at great risk.
Wisconsin voters will consider 'equality amendment' on Election Day
The constitutional amendment is one of three that will be on ballots across the state in November.
Voters to decide if Montana judiciary needs to be more political
Initiative would preserve Montana’s nonpartisan judiciary in the state constitution following 2025 legislative attempts to change them.
Poll: Voters oppose redistricting ballot question when presented 'meat of the political outcome'
A proposed amendment to the Maryland Constitution that would change the way Maryland draws congressional districts faces stiff voter opposition, a new poll shows. It's the latest sign of trouble for the ballot question backed by Democratic leaders
FBI whistleblower alleges Trump ordered investigations of L.A.-area immigration protesters
A former FBI intelligence analyst has alleged that President Trump ordered the FBI to launch unconstitutional investigations into immigration enforcement protesters from the Los Angeles area.
Concerns over water amid push to build Constitution Pipeline
The project is a 125-mile, 30-inch natural gas pipeline designed to run from Pennsylvania’s fracking fields through New York counties to connect with regional networks.
Concerns over water amid push to build Constitution Pipeline
The project is a 125-mile, 30-inch natural gas pipeline designed to run from Pennsylvania’s fracking fields through New York counties to connect with regional networks.
Concerns over water amid push to build Constitution Pipeline
The project is a 125-mile, 30-inch natural gas pipeline designed to run from Pennsylvania’s fracking fields through New York counties to connect with regional networks.
Concerns over water amid push to build Constitution Pipeline
The project is a 125-mile, 30-inch natural gas pipeline designed to run from Pennsylvania’s fracking fields through New York counties to connect with regional networks.
Wisconsin voters to decide religious worship amendment
Wisconsin voters will see three proposed constitutional amendments on their Nov. 3 ballot, including one dealing with religious worship during an emergency.
Brazil: Lessons from a Disaster
By Antonio Martins (Outras Palavras) Defeats become deeper and more prolonged when we misunderstand what caused them, avoid correcting course, and embrace “solutions” that only compound our mistakes. Lula’s government and the Brazilian left suffered a disaster in Sunday’s election. Contrary to every poll, the president finished the first round 2.2 million votes behind Flávio Bolsonaro—and, more significantly, 3.4 million votes below his total four years ago, when the machinery of the state was working against him and in favor of his opponent. His vote share declined in 98 percent of Brazil’s municipalities. The PL, the main party of the far right, elected 121 deputies and 28 senators, becoming the largest caucus in both houses of Congress. The parties aligned with the Centrão—Brazil’s bloc of transactional center-right parties—were somewhat diminished, but will still hold roughly 250 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 35 in the Senate. That will make it easier to assemble the majorities needed to amend the Constitution or impeach Supreme Federal Court justices. If elected, Flávio Bolsonaro could appoint four members of the Court, substantially altering its internal balance of power. What produced these results? How can the far right be prevented from consolidating them into a prolonged political hegemony? And what is the essential change of direction the left now needs? Explaining the Disaster Across the commercial media and the exuberant chaos of digital platforms, interpretations are multiplying. Some focus on specific episodes: Lula’s absence from the Globo debate, his very close relationship with Alexandre de Moraes, or his emphasis on issues supposedly remote from most people’s everyday concerns, such as rare earth minerals. Among the more systemic interpretations, three seem especially questionable. One argues that the principal defeat was not the left’s, since its congressional representation declined only slightly. The decisive movement captured at the ballot box, according to this view, was a shift within the right itself—from the more moderate and transactional forces of the Centrão toward the more ideological and radicalized forces of the PL and Novo. A second interpretation holds that the nature of electoral and political processes has changed. The material interests and aspirations of society, it argues, no longer play the central role they once did; they have given way to forms of subjective self-identification that the left has yet to understand. And a third concludes that, because of these two developments, we should expect a political winter: a prolonged period in which the far right and the broader right dominate Brazilian political life. There are important elements in all three interpretations. The problem lies in what they deny or leave out: Lula’s third government was a small-bore government. It offered the majorities that elected it neither a clearly better life nor reasons to believe again in politics and its power to transform society. These failures flowed from two fatal accommodations, which I will examine below. As a result, the government suffered a slow but steady erosion of support. And, as has happened in so many Western countries, it gave the far right the opportunity to present itself as anti-system and to benefit from popular frustration and distress. The interpretation that emphasizes the migration of votes from the center-right and traditional right toward the far right has been advanced, among others, by the courageous journalist Leonardo Sakamoto. In his UOL column on Monday, October 5, he highlights the miserable behavior of the traditional conservative parties. Over the past four years, they repeatedly joined forces with the “neo”-fascists, helping to “normalize” them—a criticism that could equally be directed at almost the entire corporate media. Believing they could use the far right as a stepping stone, they instead ended up partly devoured by it. This was especially true in the Senate, where the PL’s gain of 13 senators and Novo’s gain of two came at the expense of the PSD, which lost nine; the MDB, which lost two; the PSDB, which lost two; and the PP, which lost one. Sakamoto’s observation is accurate and necessary, but it leaves uncomfortable questions unanswered. Why did the erosion of the Centrão benefit the far right rather than, for example, producing growth for the left—as has happened so many times before, both in Brazil and elsewhere? The answer is not difficult. Throughout its four years in office, Lula’s third government was almost invariably associated with the Centrão. Here lies its first accommodation: accepting the limits imposed by conservative institutions; avoiding, as much as possible, any attempt to strain those limits through popular pressure; and believing only in the modest changes that could be squeezed through openings in Congress. The failure of the campaign to end the six-day workweek is emblematic. Lula could have electrified the presidential race by pairing it with a popular campaign for passage of the measure. Instead, he chose to place his hopes in the hands of Senate president Rodrigo Alcolumbre. He generated no mass mobilization, did not force his opponents onto an uncomfortable defensive, and won no victory. In September 2025, the government squandered the greatest of its many opportunities to shake up conservative power in Congress. Popular opposition to the so-called Shielding Amendment—which, if approved, would have restricted criminal proceedings against members of Congress—brought crowds into the streets, mobilized primarily by artists and social movements. This opened the possibility for a broader political education: a campaign that could begin exposing the limits and dysfunctions of Brazil’s political system while putting Bolsonaro’s movement on the defensive for its predictable support of political privilege. The amendment was defeated. But the executive branch then backed away from the fight. It remained associated with an institutional world widely seen as corrupt, elitist, and indifferent to ordinary people’s struggles. In doing so, it forfeited its credibility as a vehicle for the protest vote. On Sunday, it reaped the bitter fruits. Are We Doomed? Taking a different approach from Sakamoto, the philosopher Moysés Pinto Neto and other writers have drawn attention, in their first analyses of October 4, to the fragmentation of the public sphere produced by Big Tech platforms. Through their algorithms, these platforms present each person with a different view of social reality. As a consequence, it becomes much harder to identify common material problems and demands—for example, the fight for labor rights or for a properly funded public health system. Voters no longer embrace such demands, these authors argue, because they no longer see themselves as part of a collective. Instead, they tend to value the identities assigned to them by neoliberal subjectivity—the role of the entrepreneur, for example. On this interpretation, the left’s possible error lies in clinging to outdated illusions. Moysés’s warning is highly relevant and resonates with arguments such as Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s “Apocalyptic Fascism and the Billionaires’ Bet.” Unlike a century ago, the far right no longer promises a radiant future. It concentrates instead on resentment—especially that of young men. “They belong to a generation that fears it may never own a home, but compensates with the pleasure it gets from constantly provoking progressives online. Convinced their future has been stolen, they share memes romanticizing historical authoritarian regimes,” the authors write. But Moysés seems to confuse this danger with inevitability. He fails to see that the left’s answer cannot be adaptation. On the contrary, it must strengthen the possibility of politics as collective action. Nor does he recognize that precisely such a reversal is already becoming possible in some of the most promising mobilizations of the twenty-first century: the election, at the end of 2025, of the young Muslim Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York, on a platform centered on the intensely material fight for an affordable city; the Left Party’s victory in Berlin two weeks ago, built around the demand to expropriate private real-estate corporations; and the very recent wave of demonstrations in Spain—including an occupation of Madrid’s Puerta del Sol—in which tens of thousands of young people mobilized by the Tenants’ Union have demanded limits on rents. By putting itself in the straitjacket of the “fiscal framework” in the first months of 2022, Lula’s third government adopted the second fatal accommodation of its term. Faced with conservative institutions and a country devastated by four years of Bolsonaro, increased public investment was the government’s remaining weapon for offering a more dignified life to the majority and forging an anti-conservative pact with them. The same state that disburses 1 trillion reais a year to enrich a small class of rentiers could instead spend money to extend the Family Health Strategy to every Brazilian, at a cost of 30 billion reais; provide full-day public schooling and childcare to all adolescents and children—and, especially, relief to their mothers; achieve universal sanitation while cleaning up polluted urban rivers; multiply metro systems; begin transforming the urban peripheries; and undertake many other urgently needed projects. In April 2023, an article in Outras Palavras warned that the fiscal framework could “shrink the Lula government and preserve the forces that condemn the country to inequality and regression.” A year later, another article showed that restraints on public spending were strangling policies vital to ordinary people and undermining the president’s popularity. In November 2024 came a reality check, in the form of the government’s humiliating defeat in the municipal elections. Even then, the fiscal lock was neither removed nor loosened. On the contrary: throughout the government’s four years, fiscal restraint remained central to its political narrative. The administration proudly proclaimed that it had “put the state’s accounts in order,” without grasping either how misleading that phrase was—given the payment of 1 trillion reais in interest—or how badly the message was hurting it politically. Lula finally woke up in September 2026. The increase in Bolsa Família benefits, after four years of being frozen; the announcement that anti-obesity drugs would be offered through Brazil’s public health system; and the ban on online betting showed that the state has the power to act decisively on behalf of the majority when those in government are willing to confront obstacles. The huge marches that closed the campaign in Fortaleza, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo on the eve of October 4 showed how such initiatives can mobilize activists and the broader public. But it was too late—and too little to change the outcome of the first round. History has not ended The possibility of a turnaround in the three weeks leading up to November 25 cannot be ruled out. It will not be simple or easy. Lula must not only make up a deficit of 2.2 million votes; he must also offset the movement of voters who backed other right-wing candidates in the first round, most of whom are likely to move toward Flávio Bolsonaro. Pulling that off will require a broad, grassroots effort to win over voters, potentially reinforced by new initiatives from Lula. The coming hours and days will be decisive. If Bolsonaro’s movement also wins the presidency, the result will create a high-risk situation for Brazilian sovereignty and democracy. The enormous challenges posed by such an outcome would require the left to reexamine, in depth and with a genuine willingness to engage in self-criticism, its political projects—or its lack of them—and its practices. But would that mean we are condemned to the long winter of far-right hegemony that some analyses are beginning to forecast? It is far too early to say, suggests a recent text by Álvaro García Linera, the thinker who served as vice president of Bolivia under Evo Morales. His central hypothesis is that this political current will prove short-lived. At a moment when the entire world is once again talking about sovereignty and protecting national economies, the far right offers a stale, recolonizing neoliberalism. Its submission to the United States is as blatant and pathetic as Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro’s overtures to Donald Trump. Its project amounts to something like every man for himself: greater inequality, capitalism without limits, devastation, and supremacism. Will it work? In the United States, just two years into his second term, Trump himself is reaching record levels of unpopularity and may be on the verge of losing Republican control of both the House and Senate in November. Every new beginning is difficult. Whatever the outcome of the second round, the defeats of October 4 show how profoundly the Brazilian left will have to rethink and rebuild. But just as it would be foolish to underestimate the seriousness of its mistakes, it would be equally foolish to conclude that rebuilding a political project is no longer possible. History has not ended. The times are moving faster than ever. Originally published in Portuguese by Outras Palavras. English translation by Eric Blanc; I’ve added the subtitles. More We can’t stop the far right at home or abroad without a revitalized labor movement, which is yet another reason why you should become a sustaining supporter of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) — one of US labor’s pivotal bright spots. Relatedly, Jacobin published a short piece of mine reflecting on a decade of Bernie Sanders inspiring a whole new generation of young worker organizers.
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