Abby Livingston • November 3, 2025

Midnight in the Garden State of Good & Evil

A candid chat with Mike DuHaime, the veteran New Jersey Republican consultant, on the brink of the Sherrill–Ciattarelli throwdown in the Garden State.

Leigh Ann Caldwell • November 2, 2025

’26-7

Under the stormy skies of Trump 2.0, both parties are limbering up and probing for advantage in a midterm brawl to decide control of the House—a fight neither side can afford to lose. Naturally, strategists on both sides claim the wind is at their backs.

Abby Livingston • October 30, 2025

Maine Clown Posse

What was once a sleepy Democratic primary for a winnable Senate seat has transformed into a raging morality play between a way-too-online oysterman and a 77-year-old safe bet. “This is a layup Senate seat,” said one Democratic strategist. “Instead, our choices are a loose cannon and a grandmother.”

Leigh Ann Caldwell • October 29, 2025

29 Days Later

News and notes from D.C. as the government shutdown enters a fifth week: a potential way out, the Trump power void, Thune’s false “rifle shot” proposal to force incremental votes, bubbling questions about Schumer, and why some Democrats are eyeing November 21 as their date of maximum leverage.

Peter Hamby • October 28, 2025

The Dems’ Flight 93 Essay

A new 2024 postmortem, released on the eve of the D.N.C.’s own self-autopsy, makes the case for Democrats cutting the cord with left-wing party activists and winning back normie voters with a return to big-tent, multiracial, middle-class messaging—while learning a little from A.O.C. and Zohran Mamdani, too.

John Heilemann • October 27, 2025

Yes We Khanna

A conversation with the Democratic congressman from Silicon Valley about allying with Marjorie Taylor Greene, endorsing Zohran Mamdani, defending Graham Platner, and wanting to tax the hell out of his billionaire constituents.

Leigh Ann Caldwell • October 26, 2025

Johnson & Thune’s Long Surrender

Nine months into Trump’s second term, the House speaker and Senate majority leader are relinquishing many of their powers to the president. “I think it’s fair to say that most of our leadership class in this country has bent the knee,” one G.O.P. senator told me. But almost no Republicans dare push back in public.

Leigh Ann Caldwell • October 23, 2025

Rounds in the Ring

The South Dakota senator dishes on A.I. policy, as well as the latest on the government shutdown, and whether Pete Hegseth should go.

Abby Livingston • October 22, 2025

McCarthy’s California Drought

The Republican campaign to prevent Democrats from redrawing California’s congressional lines seems, increasingly, like a losing effort—and insiders are angrily pondering the whereabouts of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who stirred hopes of raising $100 million to save the map.

Peter Hamby • October 21, 2025

Independent Voters Are Turning on ICE

New data from Echelon Insights suggests that Trump’s ICE raids have actually broken through with voters, unlike any other storyline in the current political moment. But as the president doubles down on unpopular arrest and deportation tactics, he may come to regret it.

Julia Ioffe • October 20, 2025

Putin in Love

Inside the courtship of Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, his first imperial subject—from a chance encounter in Leningrad and their K.G.B. days in Dresden to raising their family in St. Petersburg on the cusp of his sudden ascendance to unimaginable power. This piece has been adapted from Julia Ioffe’s new book, Motherland, a feminist history of modern Russia and a finalist for the National Book Award.

Leigh Ann Caldwell • October 19, 2025

The Zohran Red Line

Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive future mayor of New York, still hasn’t received the endorsements of his fellow New Yorkers Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. The snub speaks volumes about Democratic insecurities: Is Mamdani the future of the party, or a midterm liability? How about both?

Julia Ioffe • October 16, 2025

Melania Diplomacy

A purported breakthrough in Russian diplomacy comes from a surprising place. Plus, Moscow scores an apparent intelligence coup via a U.S. congresswoman, and Trump warms up to regime change.

Leigh Ann Caldwell • October 15, 2025

Schumer’s Shutdown Prophecy

Back in March, the Senate Democratic leader feared a shutdown would unshackle Trump to run roughshod over what remains of Congress’s funding power. His predictions are now coming true—but Dems feel fine.

Peter Hamby • October 14, 2025

Newsom Player Haters & The ’28 Proxy War

Democrats have poured more than $140 million into the off-cycle ballot initiative to gerrymander California, counter Trump’s efforts to manipulate the midterms, and—perhaps most importantly—hand Gavin Newsom the political trophy he needs to cement his status as the presumptive Democratic frontrunner in 2028. But there are plenty of voters who don’t trust Gavin, too.