Midterm Elections 2018

The Wisconsin Governor’s Race Might Be Decided by Education

Voters are “sick and tired of people playing political games with kids in schools.”

• Adam Harris
• August 8, 2018

Ohio's Special Election Is a Blue-Wave Red Alert

An impossibly close race in a district that Trump won is the cleanest test yet of whether Democrats can reclaim the House majority this fall.

• Russell Berman
• August 7, 2018

The Progressives’ Plan to Win in 2018

At the annual Netroots Nation conference in New Orleans, progressives called for building a multiracial coalition and focusing on turnout, not winning back Democrats who voted for Trump.

• Elaine Godfrey
• August 5, 2018

Trump’s Offshore-Drilling Plan Is Roiling Coastal Elections

The Trump administration’s proposal to allow offshore oil and gas drilling has met significant opposition from Republican candidates up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

• Madeleine Carlisle
• August 5, 2018

The GOP Is in Triage Mode in Ohio

President Trump is trying to keep a very red House seat in Republican hands in a special election on Tuesday.  

• Dick Polman
• August 4, 2018

Trump Is Squeezing the Koch Network Out of the GOP

Caught between surging populism on the right and the rise of democratic socialism on the left, the libertarian donor group has plenty of cash, but little popular support.

• Reihan Salam
• July 31, 2018

How to Win Elections in a System 'Not Set Up for Us'

The Collective PAC's Black Campaign School is backed by—and a challenge to—the Democratic establishment. It’s trying to increase representation in a country where 90 percent of all elected officials are white.

• Russell Berman
• July 30, 2018

American Farmers Are Still Worried About Trump’s Trade War

The administration hoped a $12 billion aid package and a new deal with the European Union would allay their concerns. But farm country wants free trade.

• Olivia Paschal
• July 28, 2018

Is a Blue Wave on Its Way?

None of this summer’s electoral trends is etched in stone. But there is turbulence even among the president’s voters.

• Dick Polman
• July 27, 2018

This Isn’t Dianne Feinstein’s Democratic Party

The longtime senator from California is likely to win reelection. But the state’s liberal, antiestablishment wing is already winning the future.

• Todd S. Purdum
• July 21, 2018

The Democratic Party Apologizes to Black Voters

The DNC’s bid to energize African American turnout this fall began with these words from Chairman Tom Perez in Atlanta: “I am sorry.”

• Russell Berman
• July 20, 2018

Barack Obama Still Doesn’t Understand Donald Trump

In his most important speech since leaving office, the former president outlined a grand global theory of liberalism—one that can’t get past the ethnonationalist roadblock in its way.

• Vann R. Newkirk II
• July 20, 2018

Can Trump’s Republican Critics Find Strength in Numbers?

They don’t have to prove that they represent a majority of their party. They just have to demonstrate that the party can’t win without them.

• Ronald Brownstein
• July 19, 2018

Voter Suppression Is Warping Democracy

A new survey from The Atlantic and the Public Religion Research Institute shows that black and Hispanic citizens are more likely than whites to face barriers at the polls—and to fear the future erosion of their basic political rights.

• Vann R. Newkirk II
• July 17, 2018

One Country, Two Radically Different Narratives

A new poll by The Atlantic and the Public Religion Research Institute finds that Democrats and Republicans have wildly divergent views on core democratic issues, including Russian election interference.

• Emma Green
• July 17, 2018

Even Never Trump Evangelicals Might Be Swayed by the Supreme Court

Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination is one sign of unity among divided denominations.

• Emma Green
• July 15, 2018

The Red-State Democrats’ Many Paths to ‘No’

Conventional wisdom holds that the four vulnerable senators are screwed if they vote against Brett Kavanaugh. But there’s a counter-case to be made.

• Dick Polman
• July 14, 2018

A Winning Message for Democrats on Immigration

The president’s pretense of caring most about public safety leaves an opening for Democrats who are adept enough to exploit it.

• Conor Friedersdorf
• July 12, 2018

How Shelby County v. Holder Broke America

In the five years since the landmark decision, the Supreme Court has set the stage for a new era of white hegemony.

• Vann R. Newkirk II
• July 10, 2018

The New York Democrat Who Progressive Activists Are Targeting Next

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning upset over Joe Crowley has energized the left, but two-term Governor Andrew Cuomo may be tougher to beat.

• Russell Berman
• July 9, 2018