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Why Vote? Bernie Sanders Offers Simple Last-Minute Reminder: The GOP Agenda Is Horrific

On the eve of national midterm elections in the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was not alone as he participated in the frenzied effort of final campaign pitches and tried his best to make sure people get to the polls on Tuesday to defeat the GOP and issue a resounding to the agenda of President Donald Trump.

In a tweet on Monday, Sanders’ final get-out-the-vote message was simple: the Republican Party’s policy goals represent an unmitigated disaster for families, working people, and the planet while the alternative being offered by Democrats and progressive candidates in races nationwide would supplant those attacks with sensible and far-reaching set of solutions to the nation’s most pressing problems.

‘Instilling Fear in the 11th Hour’: Experts Warn Trump DOJ Poll Monitors Being Sent to Intimidate Voters, Not Protect Them

In a move civil rights groups denounced as a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate minorities, spread hysteria about non-existent voter fraud, and suppress turnout, the Justice Department announced on Monday that it is dispatching personnel to “monitor” 35 voting locations in 19 states during Tuesday’s midterms just as President Donald Trump warned in a tweet that any “illegal voting” will be punished with “maximum criminal penalties.”

We condemn the Justice Department’s announcement regarding the deployment of federal observers,” Kristen Clarke, president and CEO of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement. “In stark contrast to how these observers have been deployed in the past, Attorney General Jeff Sessions does not have his eyes set on voter suppression and last-minute intimidation but is instead exploiting this moment to push a false narrative about voter fraud.”

“At every turn, this Justice Department has failed to take action to enforce the Voting Rights Act and protect the interests of minority voters. And the latest announcement from DOJ makes clear that this is still the case,” Clarke continued. “This is a Justice Department that has abandoned its mission and lost its way.”

Fetterman, Bartos hope to use LG post to make a difference

The candidates for Pennsylvania lieutenant governor may be more unlike than their running mates at the top of the ticket.

Democrat John Fetterman is an unabashed progressive who has the ZIP code of his adopted hometown Braddock — 15104 — tattooed on his arm.

Republican Jeff Bartos is a wealthy real estate developer from southeastern Pennsylvania who describes himself as a “Jack Kemp/Milton Friedman-style free market capitalist.”

If elected, both say they hope the governor provides them the opportunity to use the lieutenant governor post to champion causes important to them.

Fetterman said that would include fighting food insecurity and providing a safety net to help people who can’t pay their heating bills in the winter.

Bartos wants to focus on economic development and education.

Their visions reflect their different backgrounds but also some things they have in common.

“We have a cordial relationship,” Fetterman said of Bartos, adding he hopes they still have a good relationship after the election.

In running for Idaho governor, Paulette Jordan seeks a number of firsts

If Paulette Jordan is able to defeat Republican Lt. Gov. Brad Little, she could become Idaho’s first Democratic governor since Cecil Andrus retired in 1999.

She could also become the state’s first female governor.

And, in the United States, she could become the first Native American governor.

A win is no small task for a Democrat in a red state like Idaho, but Jordan views her platform as pressing in this current political climate, especially amid the “pink wave” of female candidates seeking office and the “MeToo” movement of women speaking out about sexual harassment and assault.

“We were able to draw out an election that hasn’t happened in government before, people are now invested in improving the system overall,” she said following her primary win.

Thank you @MotherJones for featuring the Paulette Jordan movement! It is indeed changing Idaho’s politics for good.
Idahoans know it’s time to fight for the Idaho we deserve, for us, for our families, for the future generations.
Let's make history! https://t.co/RclxGdJxW6 pic.twitter.com/Vs18Vx25ic

— Paulette Jordan (@PauletteEJordan) November 6, 2018

Can Paulette Jordan Rise Above Idaho’s Partisan Rules?

If she wins tomorrow, the 38-year-old Democrat would become the country’s first Native American governor. Can a moderate still win in Trump’s America? Idaho is about to find out.

Katie Arrington and Joe Cunningham make final scramble in heated SC congressional duel

Katie Arrington and Joe Cunningham spent their last full day of campaigning in South Carolina’s most-watched congressional race by playing to their bases, with Cunningham sticking around blue Charleston County and Arrington reaching out to conservative Hilton Head Island and Summerville.

While they both tried to convince voters during a joint morning event they were the candidate to work across the aisle, their messages diverged as well.

Cunningham painted a picture of a tight race where voters should support an advocate for the district, regardless of party.

“This political tribalism that’s going on in our nation is just ripping us apart at our moral fabric, and we see it every day,” he said. “It pits neighbor against neighbor, husband against wife, brothers against sisters — and it’s got to be put to an end.”

Big Oil Spending Tens of Millions to Defeat Washington State’s Groundbreaking Carbon Fee Initiative

One way the global climate crisis is appearing on U.S. ballots on Tuesday is through Washington state’s Initiate 1631, a measure that would enact the nation’s first carbon fee. And the fossil fuel industry is dumping tens of millions of dollars into the state to defeat the measure proponents say could be a “game-changer” for curbing global warming.

“I-1631 is only one piece of the fierce and broad effort we need to address the climate crisis,” says 350.org Seattle, “but it’s an important one.”

As of this writing, state records show that the ‘yes’ side has spent nearly $16 million to help the measure pass. In contrast, nearly $32 million—nearly entirely from the fossil fuel industry—has been spent to defeat it. That amount breaks a state record—and gives an indication “of how desperate the industry is to not let this initiative happen,” as one observer noted.

While both sides engage in last minute campaigning, a Crosscut/Elway Poll conducted month showed 50 percent in favor, 36 percent opposed, and 14 percent undecided.

The yes campaign calls 1631, which differs from a failed 2016 revenue-neutral carbon tax initiative, “a practical first step to ensure clean air and clean water for everyone in Washington and gives us the chance to pass on a healthier state to the next generation.”

Bernie Sanders Unloads On Donald Trump

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants to remind voters that Tuesday’s election “is the most important midterm election in the modern history of this country.”

Responding to President Donald Trump’s baseless vilification of immigrants in the closing days of this election cycle, Sanders told me in an interview on SiriusXM Progress on Monday that “we have a president of the United States who is a pathological liar, who really does not understand the difference between truth-telling and lying.”

“He lies every day,” Sanders said of Trump, who in recent days has offered up a number of whoppers at his rallies, from claiming without evidence that Democrats will destroy Medicare to falsely declaring that immigrant caravans are filled with violent criminals.

“In addition,” Sanders said, “he is a sexist, a racist, a homophobe, a xenophobe and a religious bigot. He is trying to do what we have never seen in the modern history of this country to do what he is doing right now, to gain votes by trying to divide the American people up based on where we came from.”

“We’re supposed to be hating these desperately poor people from Honduras, who are hundreds of miles away from the southern border,” Sanders said. “We’re supposed to be hating Latinos. We’re supposed to be hating transgender people. We’re supposed to be hating anyone who is different than white folks. And this is really outrageous.”

Sanders implored Americans to vote, noting that “four years ago, as you will recall, we had the lowest voter turnout for a midterm election in the modern history of this country, and the result was tremendous right-wing victories all across this country.”

Corporate interests trash Ben Jealous and progressive hopefuls in Md., D.C.

Question: What do Democratic candidates Ben Jealous and Marc Ehrlich in Maryland and Elissa Silverman in Washington, D.C., have in common? Answer: They’re progressive hopefuls – challenger Jealous, open-seat seeker Ehrlich and incumbent Silverman – seeking high-profile posts and targeted by corporate interests and their political puppets for oblivion at the polls on Nov. 6.

And they’re targeted all because the three, including former Washington-Baltimore News Guild member Silverman, an independent, stand up for workers.

The three are involved in the only really contested races in the Maryland-D.C. area this fall, for the Maryland governorship, for Montgomery County (Md.) County Executive and for one of two at-large seats on the Washington City Council. (In the entire D.C. area, the real action is in Virginia.)

All the other races in both D.C. and Maryland are generally snorers: Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and down-ballot Democrats lead opinion polls by decent-to-enormous margins over underfunded and little-known GOP challengers in normally blue Maryland.

Ditto for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other city council members in heavily Democratic D.C., where the mayor is equivalent to a governor and the council is the legislature.

Jealous, who comes from a union family and who openly declares his support for workers, unions and their allies, is the heavy underdog in the Maryland gubernatorial race against incumbent Republican Larry Hogan.

“What we’re trying to prove is that we can talk about poverty, criminal justice reform, paying teachers enough – and giving voters a reason to vote for something,” he told a panel discussion at the Congressional Black Caucus legislative conference.

Jealous Maintains Economic, Education, Crime Data Show Hogan Vulnerabilities

On the last weekend before Election Day, Ben Jealous brought in the big guns, then the big guns helped bring in a woman’s groceries.

Jealous canvassed with comedian Dave Chappelle, who before he was on Comedy Central was a close friend. Chappelle has made multiple campaign appearances for Jealous, the Democrat challenging Gov. Larry Hogan in Tuesday’s general election.

“Our fathers were best friends. My dad was teaching in Baltimore. Has father was working for Social Security. They started playing late night card games,” Jealous told C4. “This is just Dave coming home.”

Jealous faces what polls have said is a long-shot bid at unseating the popular Republican incumbent. However, Jealous said that if one takes a closer look at the numbers–the slipping ranking of the state’s schools, the increased murder rate–Hogan is vulnerable.

“Polls don’t vote, people do, but once you’re in office, everybody knows your name,” Jealous said. “Our biggest challenge has simply been that my name rec is about 70 percent, the governor’s is about 100 percent. So we’ve been pushing hard.”

Colin Allred leads Pete Sessions by 4 points in latest New York Times poll in 32nd Congressional District

Colin Allred has taken a four-point lead over Republican incumbent Pete Sessions in the 32nd Congressional District race, according to a poll completed Sunday night.

The New York Times Upshot/Siena College poll, conducted from Oct. 29 through Sunday, had Allred with a 46-42 lead, with 9 percent of respondents undecided. The poll surveyed 477 people and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percent, which means the contest could be a dead heat.

“About 9 percent of voters said that they were undecided or refused to tell us whom they would vote for,” the poll document reads. “If they were to break 5 to 2 in favor of Republicans, that alone would be enough to change the lead in our poll, assuming we did everything else perfectly. (We could also be wrong on turnout or our sample could be unrepresentative. Or other voters could change their minds.)”

A previous Times/Siena poll in October had Sessions up by one percentage point.

“Colin got into this race to make Washington work for everyday people, not powerful special interests,” said Allred’s campaign manager, Paige Hutchinson. “The momentum this campaign has built shows we’re not the only ones ready for a change, and in the closing days of this election, there’s two things that matter: showing up and making your voice heard, then calling your friends and neighbors to ensure they do the same.”

Tribe challenges Corps findings on Dakota Access pipeline

The Standing Rock Sioux is challenging new government conclusions that the $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline poses no significant environmental threats to American Indian tribes in the Dakotas.

The Army Corps of Engineers in August finished more than a year of additional study ordered by a federal judge. The agency said the work substantiated its earlier determination that the chance of an oil spill is low and that minority and low-income populations aren’t at greater risk.

Standing Rock is leading a lawsuit against the pipeline built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners and wants a federal judge to reject the findings. The tribe says the Corps didn’t adequately consider information that undermines the agency’s conclusions.

Rashida Tlaib could become one of the 1st Muslim-American women in Congress

With no Republicans or Independents running for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, Rashida Tlaib is favored to win and poised to become the first Muslim-American woman in Congress.

In Minnesota, Ilhan Oman is also hoping to earn the title of first Muslim-American and first Somali-American woman to be elected to Congress.

The seat in Michigan was left open last year when longtime Rep. John Conyers Jr. resigned, citing health concerns, though he was also facing sexual harassment allegations.

Tlaib served in the Michigan House of Representatives beginning in 2008 and was the first Muslim American to serve there. The Detroit native went on to serve three terms in the Michigan House and was the Democratic leader of the Appropriations Committee. Because of term limits, she could not run for her seat again.

After serving in Michigan’s House, she went on to work as an attorney for the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, combating anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric, repairing state benefit fraud and environmental measures to stop the pollution of the Detroit River, according to her website.

Ocasio-Cortez is a New York Democrat rock star on the cusp of power

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic superstar on the cusp of making history as the youngest woman elected to Congress, is a poster child for the left and a surge in minority women running for office.

The 29-year-old, blessed with telegenic looks, charisma and bursting with youthful idealism, is both a media darling and a lightning rod for criticism.

She has championed her working-class and Puerto Rican roots as the daughter of a cleaner and a father who died in his 40s, embodying a different generation of politician. She also shuns corporate donors.

“Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office,” she said in a campaign video that helped her defeat a 10-term, Democratic Party grandee in her first political race in a New York primary in June.

Overnight, Ocasio-Cortez went from total unknown to the toast of coastal America, profiled in Vogue, a guest on late-night chat shows and jetting around the country lending her rock-star status to other insurgent candidates.

On Tuesday, she is virtually certain to be elected to Congress — an astonishing achievement for a woman who was working this year as a bartender — in a safe Democratic seat in diverse Queens and the Bronx.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Hopes Her Grassroots Strategy Will Build A Movement Beyond Midterms

At times it can seem like the 2018 midterm election has been looming forever. It was only four months ago that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated long-time Queens machine politician Joe Crowley in the Congressional primary, shocking the political establishment and giving hope to underdog candidates everywhere.

Her upset brought even greater attention to the critical swing races that will decide control of the House—some of which happen to be in our area—and continues to serve as an inspiration to many underdog candidates hoping to defeat incumbents on Tuesday. As the election fast approaches, it’s worth looking again at the amount of public outreach and sweat equity it took for Ocasio-Cortez’s upstart campaign to win a contest in which Crowley enjoyed all of the advantages of incumbency, including a reported 10-1 fundraising advantage.

In the year leading up to her primary win, Ocasio-Cortez held more than 280 campaign events in addition to debates and town hall meetings. Powered by over 1,000 volunteers, these events were organized in every neighborhood of New York’s 14th Congressional district, which includes the eastern Bronx and part of north-central Queens. “This massive volunteer effort lays the groundwork for a new kind of relationship between an elected representative and [their] constituency—one founded not on favor trading and machine politics, but instead on movement building and radical power sharing,” said Gabe Tobias, a field team leader for the Ocasio-Cortez campaign.

Donald Green, a professor of political science at Columbia University, and author of Get Out the Vote!: How to Increase Voter Turnout, has studied the relationship between campaign strategies and voter turnout since 1989. Green has conducted decades of experiments designed to determine which strategies—canvassing, phone calls, receiving print materials, commercial advertisements, and others—are the most effective. “The broad conclusion is that the more personal the more effective,” he said.

In Virginia’s coal country, a Democratic challenger makes his case to Trump voters

Retired coal miner Dean Vance voted for Donald Trump, thinks the president is doing a good job and believes coal will make a comeback.

But to represent him in Congress, Vance, 62, is supporting a Democrat: Anthony Flaccavento, who is running a long-shot campaign to unseat a Republican incumbent in one of the reddest districts anywhere.

Virginia’s 9th District is in the far southwest, the Appalachian toe of the state. Trump won the district by 41 points in 2016, and Rep. H. Morgan Griffith won his fourth term that year by more than 39 percentage points.

This year, Flaccavento is among a subset of Democrats trying to reconnect with voters in largely rural areas. Unlike the anti-Trump “resisters” in other parts of Virginia and the country, these Democrats are attempting to blur the partisan divide and make a populist appeal to voters who feel disaffected.

“Folks are hungry for somebody who’s going to listen to them,” Flaccavento said. “I’m not looking for some sort of lukewarm middle that cuts between Democrat and Republican. I’m looking for some sort of bold stance that will appeal to people of both parties.”

By some measures, it’s working. Between July and October, Flaccavento raised more than twice as much money as Griffith — $619,108 to $276,156.

Indigenous rights in the spotlight as Indian states head to polls

The rights of farmers and indigenous people have grabbed an unlikely spotlight as three Indian states head to the polls, underlining growing discontent with land policies ahead of crucial national elections, analysts and activists said.

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states have elections starting this week, pitting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against the main opposition Congress Party.

While election rallies typically see grand promises to generate jobs and alleviate poverty, several speeches by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi have focused on the rights of indigenous people and farmers.

“The tribal people must have their rights over land, water and forests,” he said in a recent election rally in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

Gandhi vowed to implement a long-delayed law on tribal rights if the party is voted into power, and accused the BJP of diluting the Forest Rights Act (2006) and an earlier law that gave indigenous communities veto power over protected land.

Both laws, as well as the Land Acquisition Act (2013) which required consensus and a social impact assessment for purchases, were enacted by a Congress-led government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also commented on indigenous communities.

“Rights to jal, jungle, jameen (water, forest, land) has always been a demand of indigenous people,” said Madhu Sarin, a researcher who had advised on drafting the FRA.

“That the two biggest leaders are talking about them shows they can no longer ignore the discontent over denial of rights. It is an indication of what’s to come in the national election,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Indigenous Climate Activist Xiuhtezcatl Seeks Signs of Hope in New ‘Magic’ Video

You may know Xiuhtezcatl Martinez as one of the teens suing the U.S. government for failing to take action on the climate crisis. By the age of 14, Xiuhtezcatl — pronounced “shoe-tez-caht” —addressed the United Nations on environmental policy in English, Spanish, and the Aztec language Nahuatl, his native tongue. As youth leader of activist group Earth Guardians, he joined thousands in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, and released a guide to movement building titled We Rise. Now, the 18-year-old has just issued yet another statement of resistance: His very first full-length hip-hop album, Break Free.

Released in October, the album examines the plight of a generation faced with systemic injustice, police brutality and environmental degradation. “‘Magic’ is one of the first songs I wrote for Break Free,” says Xiuhtezcatl. “It’s a song about the reality of our world but also about the resilience of peoples. The journey of the despair and hopelessness of a collapsing world to the reclamation of that magic. The building of our legacy.”

Underpinned by a Nineties-tinged palette of 808s and piano asides — plus R&B vocals by the artist’s sister, Isa Martinez — Xiuhtezcatl exchanges reflective verses with Los Angeles rapper-producer Tru. Directed by Josué Rivas, the video for “Magic” cuts between dramatic clips of desert and cityscapes, to scenes from Hollywood and the faces of its real-life denizens. There, the two young MCs wander the star-studded City of Dreams in search of signs of hope — and of course, some fresh looks.

“My father taught me to see the magic in everything,” says Xiuhtezcatl. “Growing up, magic was in the sunrise and the rainfall. In every expression of life, no matter how small. I think that that was one of the most valuable wisdom that shaped who I was as a young boy. It gave me the perspective to see what was behind the dysfunction of our society, of our broken world, our dying ecosystems and corrupt leaders.

“I often feel far away and lose sight of that magic,” he continues. “I felt it driving through Skid Row the first day we were scouting sites for the video. That surface-level perception in the minds of everyone driving by in a car. Our worlds separated by a glass window and a metal door. We came back the next day and broke bread with the community, with guidance from a brother [who] lived there. Those interactions dissolved those barriers. Seeing the passion, and love, the struggle and hope in the eyes of the people reminded me of the presence of that magic my father spoke of.”

Photographer Jimmy Nelson’s ‘Homage’ To Our World’s Indigenous Cultures

As Brian Kemp Goes All “Banana Republic” in Georgia, Stacey Abrams and Democrats Have This Plan: Massive Voter Turnout

While her Republican opponent was accused of more “Banana Republic”-style antics on the eve of the mid-term elections, Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Monday responded by keeping a laser focus on what her strategy has largely been from the outset: a massive “Get Out the Vote” effort to overcome GOP suppression efforts.

Local volunteers as well as people from all over the country were out in full force over the weekend, knocking on doors across the state and urging Georgia residents to vote on Tuesday. Dozens of canvassing events are planned for Monday and Tuesday as well

‘Crisis for American Democracy’: It’s 2018, in the Richest Nation on Earth, and Voting Machines Still Distorting Elections

It’s 2018, and the United States is the richest nation in the history of the world… but much of the country still doesn’t have functional, glitch-free voting machines.

As if the barriers to voting erected by right-wing politicians looking to suppress minority turnout weren’t enough, error-riddled, hack-prone, and outdated voting machines throughout the nation—from Texas to Georgia to Wisconsin—are wreaking havoc in the midst of an unprecedented surge in early voting and raising alarming questions about the integrity of vote counts less than 24 hours before millions cast their ballots in the critical midterm elections.

In Texas, where Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke is vying for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s seat in an extremely close race that has drawn national attention, civil rights groups have alleged that voting machines are deleting Democratic votes entirely or switching them to the Republican candidate.

“This machine problem is essentially threatening to call into question the entire election in Texas,” Beth Stevens, voting rights legal director for the Texas Civil Rights Project, told Politico.

Four years ago, we had the lowest voter turnout in modern American history. Tomorrow, let's have the highest voter turnout in modern American history. pic.twitter.com/l7kI4pYddC

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 6, 2018

Rappers Guanaco and Emicida Celebrate Indigenous Pride & Resistance in “Cholonización” Video

As the world descends further into political and social chaos with every passing second, it is increasingly important that our communities find empathy and meaning in our shared struggles. This is the premise at the heart of “Cholonización,” a colorful and poignant collaboration between Latin American hip-hop juggernauts Guanaco and Emicida where petty cultural rivalries are put aside in favor of dismantling colonial ideologies.

Premiering on Remezcla today, the video for “Cholonización” consists of vibrant montages bridging the plethora of cultures, faces, and history housed between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. “It was always clear to me the theme of the song should address Latin American unity and decolonization,” shares Ecuadorian rapper Guanaco via email. “The song speaks of Latino pride, of cholo pride, and reclaims many Latino symbols from a perspective of cultural decoding and relearning.”

“Cholonización” is the title track from Guanaco’s forthcoming 2019 album, which emerged after he was invited to perform a freestyle at Emicida’s show at Ecuador’s Teatro Sucre, the country’s foremost opera house. It was a landmark performance and the first time the theater opened its doors to the hip-hop community. Emicida has had a similarly transformative impact in his native Brazil, frequently cited as one of the driving forces leading the mainstream surge of rap in South America’s most populous nation.

The song’s title aims to reclaim the derogatory term “cholo,” which is often used to describe indigenous people and their descendants in Ecuador and other countries in Latin America. “With this video we want to be seen as Latin American, reclaiming the word ‘cholo,’ which in this region is synonymous with discrimination,” comments video director Javier Salazar. “We seek to recognize cholos and to take back our identity by showcasing it in images that convey diversity, strength, and pride.”

he video for “Cholonización” was shot in Quito and directed by Salazar of Nación Films, with assistance from visual artist Fidel Eljúri. “For a while now, Fidel has been working with the reinterpretation of ancestral rituals,” writes Guanaco. “Another invaluable collaboration came with Salasca’s indigenous community, of the Tungurahua region, who appear in the video wearing traditional dress and showcasing local folk crafts.”

Beto O’Rourke keeps pressure on Ted Cruz in Senate race’s final hours

Beto O’Rourke’s insurgent Democratic campaign to steal a US Senate seat in Texas from the Republicans for the first time in a quarter of a century entered its final hours with the party’s new superstar showing no let-up in his legendary energy levels or momentum.

The Texas Senate race is not only the most closely watched of any senatorial contest, given O’Rourke’s audacious bid to eject Ted Cruz from a seat that until this year was assumed to be rock-solid Republican. It has also become the most expensive US Senate race in history – passing the $100m mark.

It is a sign of O’Rourke’s exceptional appeal among young liberals not just in his home state but across the country that $70m of that massive sum was raised by him, most of it through more than a million modest online donations. Cruz’s relatively lackluster fundraising of $30m has forced him to seek logistical support in the infrastructure of Greg Abbott, the powerful governor of Texas, and the local Republican party.

But given conservatives’ vastly superior political machine in Texas, together with the fact that every statewide elected post has been filled by Republicans since 1998, this battle remains Cruz’s to lose. Polls have given him a lead of up to six points, but the gap has been tightening in recent days to within the margin of error.

America’s marijuana map
How it might change after the midterms

America’s slow burn towards cannabis legalisation continues at the midterms as four states will vote on ballots featuring medicinal and recreational initiatives. Michigan and North Dakota will decide whether to make the drug legal while Utah and Missouri will vote on its medicinal uses. Polls are suggesting that all four ballots are likely to pass.

With two-thirds of Americans now pro-legalisation, it’s fair to say that attitudes have relaxed since the fears of ‘Reefer Madness’ in the late 1930s, making marijuana a rare issue where party politics don’t divide. This should result in an easy win politically to please constituents and generate a lot in tax revenue.

Despite Canada recently legalising marijuana at a national level, America is still yet to progress past the state-level. However, at the midterms, voters will be able to push America further towards its tipping point on federally legalised cannabis. Until then, here’s the current lay of the land.

Democrats can’t continue to neglect Latinos and expect their votes

Snce the 1990s, as an election day approaches, pundits, party leaders and candidates for office seem to discover “Latino voters” anew. The discussions that emerge are so predictable that one could easily confuse the date of the commentary or press releases by two or four years.

These discussions revolve around two contradictory narratives: the first is that Latinos votes will not make a difference in an election. The second is that Latinos will be determinative in the result. Both are overly simplistic, and discussions of the expected role of the Latino vote in the November midterms are no different.

Since the 2016 presidential election, many Democratic political operatives have expected Latinos to become more politically active in reaction to Donald Trump’s negative campaign rhetoric and subsequent policy changes, such as the termination of the temporary protected status of some immigrants, the increased raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and the separation of children from their parents at the border. The expectation in 2018 is that sufficiently fired-up Latino voters will help Democrats in competitive elections in their effort to win a majority in the US House, US Senate, or both.

At the same time, liberal pundits are fretting over whether the lack of political enthusiasm among Latinos will prevent a “blue wave” in November. Should Republicans maintain control of both chambers, many will look to blame Latinos’ lack of turnout or lack of enthusiasm for the Democrats. We will be expected to believe that Latino voters failed to fulfill their civic duty in the face of Trump’s verbal assaults on Latinos and anti-immigrant policies. Something similar happened in 2016, when the Democratic party and its defenders blamed black voters for low turnout and lack of support for Hillary Clinton.

What these narratives fail to acknowledge are the limits of electoral participation based on reaction to threat, especially in a context of increasing barriers to voting. It is time that the Democratic party move beyond expectations that outrage at Trump will mobilize Latino voters and take responsibility for its failure to expand the electorate.

How Progressives Can Make Change on Election Day—No Matter What Happens With Congress

Thirteen ballot initiatives that could raise wages, ban fracking, protect immigrants, and house the homeless.

Americans of Color Are Way More Likely to Be Environmentalists

Picture an environmentalist.

For many Americans, that prompts an image of someone who’s white, well-educated, and in the middle class. That’s what researchers found when they surveyed more than 1,200 US adults of different ethnic, educational, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Yet in that same survey, nonwhite participants on average reported higher levels of concern for the environment than whites.

The survey is part of a new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlighting the tendency among all Americans to underestimate how much minority groups (blacks, Latinos, and Asians, in particular) and low-income groups care about the environment and the more politically charged issue of climate change. This is despite the fact that these issues disproportionally affect communities of color and the poor. As CityLab has reported, they are more vulnerable to flooding when hurricanes strike, and more likely to live in areas with dangerous air pollution or with little relief from the effects of global warming. The public misperception about who cares and who doesn’t partly explains why policies and nonprofit efforts often stop short of reaching the most vulnerable communities.

When researchers asked participants in the study to rate their own environmental concern on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being “extremely concerned,” minority and poorer groups rated themselves on average above a 3 (moderately concerned). Latinos reported the highest level of concern, about 3.5. The averages for white and wealthy groups, meanwhile, hovered just around 3.

And when researchers asked whether they considered themselves environmentalists, roughly two-thirds of Latino and Asian respondents responded positively, compared to only half of white respondents. (Only a third of black respondents associated themselves with that term.) Yet when asked to rate other groups, participants strongly underestimated the level of concern of all demographics except whites, women, and young Americans. The publicly perceived rate for Latinos, for example, fell around 2.5, while respondents rated whites’ concern above 3.

BUSINESS LOBBYISTS, GOP OPERATIVES PLOT TO TAKE DOWN WAVE OF OCASIO-CORTEZ-STYLE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS IN MIDTERMS

REPUBLICAN OPERATIVES AND representatives from America’s largest business groups — alarmed at a wave of upset electoral victories by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other avowed democratic socialist candidates — have been plotting to stem the tide of left-wing Democrats sweeping the country.

Andrew Wynne, an official at the Republican State Leadership Committee, spoke to business lobby leaders in July, encouraging them not to ignore the latest trends within the Democratic Party. He called for Republicans’ allies to enact a unified plan to defeat progressives in this week’s midterm elections.

“Recent elections have proven the leftward shift,” said Wynne. “An anti-free market, anti-business ideology has taken over the Democratic Party, particularly this year during the primaries.”

Wynne referred to a series of surprise election upsets over the last year, including the victory by democratic socialist Lee Carter in a competitive Virginia legislative race in November 2017 and primary victories by democratic socialists in several Pennsylvania state Democratic primaries in March of this year.

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez captured the energy of these voters to win a congressional nomination in New York, defeating the incumbent who many thought could be the next Democratic speaker of the House,” Wynne continued.

He noted that the defeated incumbent in the Ocasio-Cortez race, Rep. Joe Crowley, a moderate Democrat and former chair of the business-friendly New Democrat Coalition, “was someone who the business community could have a conversation with on the Democratic side.” On the other hand, Wynne warned, Ocasio-Cortez would not be so receptive to business lobbyists.

The July conference call included business lobbyists from state chambers of commerce in Texas, Kentucky, New York, Georgia, and Maryland.

BOTH OF MISSISSIPPI’S SENATE SEATS ARE UP FOR ELECTION. NATIONAL DEMOCRATS BARELY PAID ATTENTION.

THERE ARE TWO Senate seats up for grabs in Mississippi on November 6. But that’s probably news to you.

Mike Espy’s candidacy has gotten some national attention — largely because he’s competing in an exciting three-way “jungle” primary against establishment Republican candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith, who replaced Thad Cochran on an interim basis when he stepped down in April, and Chris McDaniel, a tea party candidate who has benefited from millions of dollars of independent expenditures from right-wing PACs.

If none of the candidates gets 50 percent of the vote, the top two go into a runoff election, in which Hyde-Smith is heavily favored. Polls from early October showed Espy and Hyde-Smith in a dead heat, but she’s been polling about 10 points ahead of Espy since a visit from President Donald Trump, who rallied for her in Mississippi on October 3.

But unlike Espy, who has benefited from high-profile media coverage and visits from national figures like Sen. Corey Booker and former Gov. Deval Patrick, David Baria’s race against 11-year incumbent Roger Wicker is so under-covered, the title of a recent local news article described the race as the state’s “other” Senate campaign.

A double Senate race has only happened 55 times in American history, but the twin Mississippi races still can’t break the news cycle.