Kyle Kondik, Managing Editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, discusses House Ratings for 2024, why control of the House of the House Representatives begins as a Toss-up, the most competitive seats and the role that redistricting and gerrymandering will play in determining outcomes.
Two voting booths
With Election Day rapidly approaching, I ask a question that feels heavier than any in recent memory: Will the people save the Republic? Not the politicians comfortable in their silence. Not the billionaires who treat democracy as an investment. Not the parties that have drifted from principle. The people.
Yesterday, my mail‑in ballot arrived. I felt relief that my right to vote had not been taken away, restricted, or quietly undermined. In a year when rights have been challenged, receiving a ballot reminded me that self‑government belongs to us. But a ballot is not protection. It is only potential. Its power lies with those who use it.
The danger is not that Americans disagree. Disagreement is part of democracy. The danger comes when loyalty to a party or leader matters more than the Constitution, accountability, and the common good. Election deniers have no place in government — local, state, or federal — because rejecting certified results violates the oath to uphold the Constitution. When that happens, the Republic is weakened from within.
Benjamin Franklin understood. Asked what kind of government the framers had created, he answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.” He understood human nature: people drift and become loyal to personalities instead of principles. His warning was not about 1787 — it was about every generation that would follow. It was about us.
Representative John Lewis carried that warning forward. He called the vote “the most powerful nonviolent tool we have,” reminding us that its strength comes from those who wield it. He also said, “When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something.” Today, there is so much wrong — rights revoked, people of color treated poorly, DEI dismantled, health care threatened, election interference normalized, corruption tolerated. The question is whether Americans will act.
I see this divide in conversations with family and friends. Some feel suppressed, frustrated, or angry. Others seem to have forgotten that the Republic depends on their participation and vigilance. Democracy is not maintained by spectators. It is maintained by citizens who understand their power.
Over the next few days, I will research unfamiliar candidates. I will not vote for the House member who has ignored my questions for more than a year. He voted to eliminate the Affordable Care Act without a plan for millions whose premiums skyrocketed, then remained silent through distractions, chaos, and corruption — when leadership demanded accountability, constituents needed clarity, and the country needed courage.
Instead of fighting for affordable health care, lower costs, or stronger checks and balances, my representative proposed a Charlie Kirk Commemorative Coin Bill. A coin — while families struggle, corruption spreads, and Congress avoids its constitutional duty. A coin, when people needed protection, honesty, and leadership. That is not representation. That is abandonment dressed up as legislation. The issue is not whether Congress can pass commemorative legislation. It is whether representatives are meeting their constitutional responsibilities while people face problems demanding attention.
I will vote with clarity and remembrance — of promises never kept, silence louder than any speech, and drift that has pulled this country from its principles.
My concern is whether millions of Americans will vote with the same clarity and remembrance. Will they recall the chaos, cruelty, corruption, injustice, and erosion of rights — and how many promises were broken or never meant to be kept?
The framers understood that concentrated power threatened liberty. They built a constitutional republic — not a monarchy, not a personality cult, not a system where silence replaces oversight. They created checks and balances to prevent leaders from placing themselves above the law. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, not a suggestion to ignore when inconvenient.
Yet constitutional principles have been bent, stretched, and dismissed. Congress has failed to exercise its powers, elected leaders have treated accountability as optional and party loyalty as more important than their oath, and concentrated power has grown because those entrusted to check it have failed to act. Meanwhile, the administration’s conduct has deepened divisions across communities, families, and institutions.
How did we get here?
We drifted. We tolerated silence. We excused cruelty. We normalized corruption. We allowed partisanship to replace principle. We forgot that self‑government requires vigilance.
Some people remain loyal to leaders despite lies and broken promises. Others fall for political theatrics, emotional manipulation, or financial gimmicks. But the Republic cannot be kept by loyalty alone. It can only be kept by clarity — by voters who remember what has happened, recognize deceit, and refuse to be misled by money or power.
This country is diverse — racially, economically, politically, spiritually. Yet the question before us is not about diversity. It is about democracy. Will we vote for democracy? Will we vote for accountability, transparency, and constitutional responsibility? Or will we vote for drift — a slow slide into concentrated power, partisan loyalty, and congressional silence?
Many Americans swore they would vote differently in 2024. They said they had had enough. They were tired of lies, retaliation, and cruelty. But when the moment came, party loyalty prevailed for many over their expressed concerns. The result was not transformation. It was continuation.
Now, in 2026, the stakes are higher. Americans say they are tired of lies, retaliation, and cruelty. But will the votes show it? Will Americans make a plan to vote? Will they vote early, informed, and with intention? Or will they hesitate and allow the drift to continue?
Solutions exist — but they require action, not slogans.
Make a plan to vote. Know when, where, and how you will cast your ballot.
Research your candidates. Know what they stand for and whether they have honored their oath. If they are new to leadership, listen closely to their debates, speeches, and interviews. Pay attention to how they speak about the Constitution, accountability, and the people they hope to serve.
Vote with clarity — not noise, chaos, or conspiracy.
Be politically literate. Understand the Constitution and the dangers of concentrated power.
Remember the history of lies, deceit, and cruelty. Memory is a safeguard. Forgetting is a risk.
A constitutional republic requires leaders who respect the Constitution, not bend it.
Know your power. The framers placed the ultimate safeguard in the hands of the people — a power that does not end at the ballot box. It continues when citizens demand answers, monitor representatives, and hold them accountable. Voting opens the door to accountability; civic participation keeps it open.
The Republic does not disappear overnight. It slips away through silence, distraction, unchecked power, and leaders who place themselves above the people. It slips away when voters surrender their judgment to party labels. It slips away when Congress forgets its oath and citizens forget their role in self‑government.
The question is immediate and personal: Will enough Americans vote to save the Republic? Will they vote with clarity, remembrance, and courage? Will they vote for accountability rather than loyalty? Will they vote for democracy rather than drift?
Because the Republic is not saved by voting alone, but by citizens who understand what is at stake, hold elected officials accountable, and refuse to place party loyalty above the Constitution.
I know how I will vote. I know why I will vote. And I know what is at stake.
The ballot is in our hands. The Constitution is in our hands. The future is in our hands.
Will the people save the Republic?
We will know soon — not by what Americans say, but by how Americans vote.
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Carolyn Goode is a retired educational leader and former principal who spent her career advancing civic responsibility, equity, and public engagement. She writes about democracy, ethical leadership, and the values that strengthen American communities.
Faith in America, a coalition of faith and civic groups, invites you to Praying for America on Nov. 1 to honor voting as a sacred right ahead of Nov. 3.
Beneath all the chaos, clamor, confusion, and endless attempts to tell the American electorate how to vote is the commitment, enshrined in the Constitution, that we have the right to vote. The freedom to vote is the foundation of American democracy, and exercising that right sustains it. Shortly after he was first elected President, Ronald Reagan called voting the “most sacred right of free men and women.” In that same speech on November 7, 1981, he remarked: “For this nation to remain true to its principles, we cannot allow any American’s vote to be denied, diluted, or defiled. The right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties, and we will not see its luster diminished.”
We sanctify our values and bolster our democracy when we vote. The right to vote gives the electorate power. It is the power to choose – freely and fairly. America introduced this power to the world two and a half centuries ago, and it has both transformed the operational dynamics of many other countries and has helped shape a more hopeful future, not just for America but for the entire world. We cannot take this power for granted. And it needs to be protected.
A growing number of faith-based and civic bridge-building organizations are deeply engaged in promoting and preserving that sacred right by championing free, fair, and safe elections through a program called Faith in America. This coalition brings together nationally recognized leaders including Braver Angels, Interfaith America, faith250, Paths to Understanding, Listen First, and the National Institute for Civil Discourse. Its signature event is coming up on November 1st, and it will be an inspiring and joyful celebration of American values, American elections, and America’s freedoms, including the freedom of religion. Register for the November 1st event right here: Praying for America - we’d love to have you join us.
Here are two beautiful comments among so many from a previous Praying for America event: “This gathering is helping me feel much more hopeful. And I can now go out with more faith in humanity. I have been close to giving up. And now I won't!” and “This program has made me want to invite my neighbors of many different faiths to actually go together to vote this week. What a beautiful way to stand in solidarity and love as we perform this important civic duty together.”
While each religious tradition involved in the Faith in America expresses its beliefs differently, we all share a deep love for and faith in America. We also feel an urgent need to express that love and faith collaboratively. In addition, we open our arms and hearts to those who are not active members of a faith community - if you care deeply about American democracy as embodied in free, fair, and safe elections, you are very much welcome!
The Latin root of the religion is religio, which refers to the practices, symbols, and narratives that bind people together. To re–lig, which involves bringing the various ligaments together to produce a web of strength and a witness of hope. We have been blessed with a virtual library of America’s sacred documents and songs, which are some of the ligaments of our democracy. Among them are the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address, and America the Beautiful. These civic treasures help hold us together as a country. We read and sing them. We honor them, and by doing so, we renew our commitment to America's extraordinary legacy.
Voting is a power, a power which not only stands up against more aggressive displays of power but can ultimately transform them. Promoting free, fair, and safe elections burnishes the crown jewel of American liberty and, at the same time, protects and preserves this sacred trust. Voting is a right, a responsibility, and also a call to action. As we prepare for November 3, let us pray for the officials and volunteers who administer our election process, for every voter, for every candidate who has offered themselves for election, and for our neighbors whose ballots differ from our own. While many of us care deeply about who gets elected this November, more important than who wins is that the election is free, fair, and safe, and thereby honors the will of the American people.
Cheryl Graeve is Program Director & National Organizer, National Institute for Civil Discourse.
Rt. Rev. Mark Beckwith is the retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark (NJ) and co-chair of Braver Faith, a division of Braver Angels.
Brian Clancy is a board member of the Listen First Project.
After October 7, Israeli volunteers became the state’s largest operating division. Here’s what that civic model can teach angry, distrustful Americans.
Jordan Karp wrote recently in these pages about anger at Washington, and the piece has stayed with me, less for the anger itself than for the level underneath it: the quiet, unglamorous work that happens when citizens stop waiting for national institutions to function. I have spent three years watching that level operate at national scale. Israel's war years produced a case study in what citizens can build when they conclude, reasonably, that no one else is coming, and some of it travels directly to the American moment Karp describes.
Within days of October 7, the Israeli state, like every state struck that hard, was overwhelmed: evacuated towns to house, farmers without Thai workers, reservists' families without income, a flood of needs no ministry was built to absorb. What filled the gap was not spontaneous kindness alone but something more interesting: organized citizens. Reporting on the period describes volunteer organizations stepping into the space between need and state capacity, neighbors delivering care to neighbors at a scale the formal system could not reach. WhatsApp groups became logistics networks. Synagogue bulletins became supply chains. The country's world-famous tech sector bent its tools to the task, and its ordinary citizens bent their schedules, and for a period the volunteer layer was, functionally, the state's largest operating division.
The part that matters for readers thinking about trust is not the heroics but the structure. In town after town, the arrangements that worked shared a shape: a hyper-local unit, a defined task, a named person responsible, and a feedback loop short enough to correct mistakes within days. The arrangements that failed were the ones that waited for permission or funding from above. It turns out that trust, which everyone agrees has collapsed, is not rebuilt by trust-building exercises. It is rebuilt by task-sharing: two people who disagree about politics discovering, over crates of donated diapers, that they can rely on each other completely. The committee layer did more for Israeli social cohesion in two years than a decade of formal dialogue programs, and it did it as a byproduct of getting things done.
Karp's anger at Washington is aimed at institutions that seem unfixable, and I hold no brief for anyone's capital. But the Israeli experience suggests the productive question is not how to fix the institutions first. It is what concrete, local, cooperative task an angry citizen can join this month. American civic life already has the scaffolding: mutual aid networks, volunteer fire departments, library boards, the whole unglamorous apparatus of self-government. What the war years taught us, at terrible tuition, is that the appetite for shared work is enormous and mostly dormant, and that it wakes fastest when someone names a task small enough to start and real enough to matter.
The anger Karp describes is energy. Energy, unorganized, curdles into cynicism; organized, it becomes the committee layer. The volunteers I worked beside these years would not recognize themselves in the word politics at all. They would recognize a town that needed them and a table with a task on it. That table is set in every town in America too.
Person holding "Vote" sign.
Two years after providing historic levels of support that helped propel Donald Trump back to the White House, Latino voters are shifting rapidly away from the Republican Party. The realignment is driven by a potent combination of persistent economic anxieties and a sharp backlash against the administration’s aggressive domestic immigration crackdowns. A landmark national poll conducted by NBC News and Telemundo reveals that the President’s approval rating among registered Latino voters has plummeted to just 27%, signaling deep political turbulence for the GOP on the eve of critical midterm elections.
When asked by reporters outside the White House about the plunging numbers, President Trump angrily dismissed the data, labeling the findings as “fake news.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security formally defended the sweeping enforcement measures, stating that the agency’s actions are simply “fulfilling Trump’s promises and enforcing laws passed by Congress.”
The dramatic shift presents a major opportunity for Democrats to capitalize on key races in states and districts boasting significant Hispanic populations. In 2024, exit polls indicated that Trump secured roughly 46% of the Latino vote nationwide. Today, that base of support appears to be fracturing. Data collected by Equis Research underscores the trend, noting that support for Republican candidates among Hispanics who voted for Trump in 2024 has dropped 10 percentage points over the last year. Roughly 22% of Latino Trump voters indicate they do not plan to back Republicans in the upcoming midterms.
While pocketbook issues like inflation and the cost of living remain primary drivers for voters, the administration’s sweeping approach to immigration has created a profound and visceral fracture. An overwhelming two-thirds of Latino voters state that the administration’s enforcement policies have gone “too far”. Although 83% of respondents still support the targeted deportation of undocumented immigrants convicted of serious criminal records, general approval of broad interior operations remains low. Only 30% of Latinos approve of the administration’s overall handling of immigration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) faces a staggering 65% negative favorability rating within the community.
The polling data emphasizes that immigration enforcement has moved from a theoretical policy debate into the daily lives of families. Nearly one-third of Latino voters—31%—report that they or a loved one have started carrying legal identification at all times out of fear of being swept up in ICE operations. Furthermore, 27% know someone who has been detained or deported over the last two years. The climate of fear has reached a point where 17% of respondents admit that they or close acquaintances have actively considered avoiding in-person voting tables out of apprehension regarding federal enforcement visibility.
This sense of overreach is creating severe legislative headwinds for local Republican incumbents representing heavily Hispanic areas. In Florida, Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, who represents a majority-Latino district in Miami, broke publicly with the White House on immigration strategy. In a widely circulated campaign video, Salazar warned that Hispanic voters who supported the administration in 2024 are feeling deeply betrayed by the broad nature of the interior crackdowns, transforming previously safe seats into intense battlegrounds.
- YouTube youtu.be
As political strategists analyze the shifting maps, the data indicates that Democrats have reclaimed significant margins on traditional battleground metrics. The NBC News/Telemundo survey reveals that Latino voters now favor Democratic congressional candidates over Republicans by a wide margin.
“This has been a key question coming into this midterm campaign… one of the reasons Trump was returned to the White House was surprisingly strong support from Latino voters in 2024,” Kornacki explained. Analyzing the new polling, he noted, “He basically battled [the Democrats] to a draw with Latino voters then—which for a Republican, that’s a very strong performance. But… he barely has a quarter approval rating.”
Crucially, the trust gap has widened on the economy as well, with 54% of Latino voters trusting the Democratic Party compared to just 33% who favor the GOP—wiping away the significant economic advantage Republicans held with this demographic during the 2024 cycle. With billions of dollars in advertising saturating the airwaves, the rapid movement of the Latino electorate suggests that the administration’s border strategy has sparked an electoral counterweight that could fundamentally reshape control of Congress.
Latino Voters Shift Ahead of Midterm Elections was first published in Latino News Network and is republished with permission.
The Latino News Network (LNN) is an independent, English-language multimedia news platform dedicated entirely to covering and serving the Hispanic-Latino community in the United States.
