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​U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Ted Cruz’s “Darkest Before Dawn” Melodrama Misses the Message of the Midterms

Voters in Alaska

What To Know About Alaska’s Election System

Donald Trump

Trump Challenges Election Outcome Despite Earlier Pledge

Marjorie Taylor Greene (

Why Democrats Should (Ironically) Listen to Marjorie Taylor Greene Right Now

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson,

The Unfortunate Decline of Congress as a Deliberative Body

Five stories to read about voting rights

Sen. Joe Manchin

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is trying to negotiate a compromise on the For the People Act.

Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty Images
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumMay 07, 2021
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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This week, governors and legislatures across the country took action to change voting rules in a handful of states while Senate Democrats made modifications to the sweeping election overhaul bill known as the For the People Act.

While many state legislatures are debating bills to alternately ease or restrict voting, the most progress has been made in states that are tightening election rules. This week, Texas and Florida took big steps in that direction, while New York became the latest to restore voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.

Here are five key stories to keep you in the loop on the latest activity.

Senator Joe Manchin Seeks Compromise on Voting Rights Legislation (The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register)

Texas GOP's voting restrictions bill could be rewritten behind closed doors after key House vote (Texas Tribune)

DeSantis signs controversial new election law making it harder for some Floridians to vote (Orlando Sentinel)

Cuomo signs law to restore voting rights to parolees immediately after prison release (CBS News)

Bill to Give Parties Control over Congressional Primaries in Louisiana Dropped (IVN)


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​President Donald Trump
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Trump’s Betrayal of Ukraine Leaves Blood on His Hands and a Stain on the Country He Leads

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Economy

The Lion's Share of National Debt, Traceable to Supply-Side Economics

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​U.S. Vice President JD Vance
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JD Vance has no idea what 2028 voters actually want

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President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a ceremony in honor of Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery on Nov. 11, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia.

(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/TCA)

Voters said ‘enough,’ MAGA didn’t hear

After suffering an absolute drubbing in the midterm elections, Republicans seem to have learned few lessons.

America was not subtle or ambiguous in its rebuke of President Trump, MAGA, and Republicans — no fewer than 30 incumbent House Republicans lost their seats, Senate Republicans lost eight seats, and five states changed party control at the gubernatorial level, all to Dems. It was a bloodbath.

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Written on a whiteboard: AI?
The letters AI and a question mark written in black marker on a whiteboard
Photo by Nahrizul Kadri on Unsplash

A Democracy That Uses AI Agents Needs Permission Receipts

An organization can correct a faulty AI-generated paragraph in minutes. Repairing the damage after an automated system impersonates a trusted source, emails thousands of people, or changes public records can take much longer. As AI tools gain permission to act, civic institutions need to govern the authority they delegate with the same seriousness they give to the accuracy of an answer.

On October 8, OpenAI reported disrupting covert influence operations linked to Iran and Russia. One operation used seven fabricated journalist identities to place material in outside publications. OpenAI investigators identified almost 100 articles published or syndicated under those bylines across roughly a dozen outlets. The operators were humans using AI to refine articles and pitches. That distinction matters: this was deceptive human direction amplified by technology, rather than evidence of independent machine intentions.

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United States one hundred dollar bill
A close-up of Benjamin Franklin on a United States one hundred dollar bill
Photo by Adam Nir on Unsplash

Get Ahead of The Next Southern Century

When JPMorgan Chase opened a 6,500-person campus outside Dallas, it wasn't chasing cheap rent. It saw the beginning of opportunity. The bank now employs more people in Texas, about 32,000, than in New York State, where its headquarters still sits. The Park Avenue tower isn't moving but the company's center of gravity already has.

That's the part of the Southern boom narrative most business leaders still misread. The question was never whether it's happening. The question is how long the window will remain open. The South's advantages are concrete, finite, and being consumed in real time. The AI build-out pouring hundreds of billions into Texas and Georgia is straining grids never designed for it. Water, not taxes, is becoming the binding constraint of the decade. The reapportionment that will hand the region outsized political clout doesn't arrive until 2030—but the land, power contracts, and talent pipelines that decide the winners are being locked in this year. Companies treating the South as a bet they can make at leisure are already arriving late.

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Vivek Ramaswamy

Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy stands silently during a stop of the Ohio Republican Bus Tour at Well Grounded Coffee on October 30, 2026 in Ottawa, Ohio.

(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Why Voters Rejected Sophomoric Bullying in the 2026 Midterms

The final weeks of the 2026 midterm election cycle felt less like a contest of democratic governance and more like a race to the absolute bottom of human decency. Rather than engaging on the pressing kitchen-table issues keeping working-class Americans up at night—skyrocketing grocery bills, inflation, and healthcare access—a prominent faction of campaigns instead chose the path of least resistance: sophomoric bullying, xenophobia, and identity-driven vitriol.

Saturday Night Live captured the absurdity of this political landscape just days after the election. In a cut-for-time digital exclusive simply titled "Post-Election Ad," the show parodied a group of defeated Republican candidates (played by host Druski alongside Andrew Dismukes, Ashley Padilla, and Jeremy Culhane) who instantly pivot from vicious campaign smears to a casual, shameless plea for voters to "forgive and forget." In one brilliantly biting line, Dismukes’ character attempts to brush off his unhinged behavior by saying, "Keep in mind, a lot of stuff was said on both sides. He said I was out of touch with everyday Americans; I said his children weren't biologically his."

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