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Do Utah Democrats send a candidate to Novembers ballot in the U.S. Senate race, which most likely extends the partys five-decade-long losing streak? Or, should they compromise their values to make an uneasy alliance with a conservative candidate in hopes of denying Sen. Mike Lee another term in Washington?

Its certainly not the most exciting Choose your own adventure book on the shelf, but its on the spring syllabus for Utahs Democrats.

Distilled to its essence, it is a choice between principles and practicality, and neither are particularly great choices for Utahs minority party.

Kael Weston is unopposed in the Democratic Party, so giving him the nomination should be nothing more than a formality. Traditionally, lone candidates are nominated by acclamation at the partys convention without the need for a formal vote by delegates.

Not this year, though.

A group of prominent Democrats, fronted by former Rep. Ben McAdams and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, say the party should withhold its nomination to increase the chances for independent Evan McMullin to defeat Lee.

Wilson admits its a gamble, but Democrats havent won a U.S. Senate election in Utah for 50 years, and she would like to try something different, even if it results in electing someone who is much farther to the right on the political spectrum.

Im well aware Evan McMullin would not be as good as a Democrat in terms of my values and what I believe. But I expect he would invite us into the room when hes making tough decisions. Thats not an opportunity Mike Lee is affording me right now, Wilson says.

Its a brutally pragmatic argument and one you dont often see in todays hyperpolarized political culture. Even if Democrats decide to kick party politics aside, there is no guarantee McMullin can beat Lee in November.

McAdams also says he would willingly trade McMullin for Lee, even if their politics rarely align.

Youll never have a candidate who agrees with you 100% of the time, and losing accomplishes nothing, McAdams says.

McAdams says he is on board with the plan because he believes Lee is an obstructionist who is unwilling to compromise.

Washington, D.C., is a dumpster fire. I personally know how broken and dysfunctional it is, and Mike Lee is the ringleader of that dysfunction. He cant even find his way to bipartisanship on things like roads and bridges, McAdams says. We have got to start sending people to Washington who are going to be constructive and work to fix whats broken.

But what of Weston? Doesnt he deserve the opportunity to represent the Democratic party? This clinical assessment of the race shoves him and his political ambitions aside.

Longtime Utah Democrat Quang Dang, who is helping Weston plot his political strategy, says the gambit put forward by McAdams and Wilson will do lasting damage to the party.

This whole plot to not have a Democratic candidate on the ballot is absurd. Never in the history of this party has this been done, Dang says. We have to deal with this gimmick, and gimmicks dont work in politics, especially Utah politics.

Weston is not a rookie candidate. He ran against Rep. Chris Stewart in 2020, losing to the Republican by 22 points in Utahs 2nd Congressional District.

Dang says Democrats who want to push Weston aside for McMullin are making many assumptions. First, Lee likely faces a primary against one or two other Republicans. Both Becky Edwards and Ally Isom are gathering signatures to avoid elimination at the GOP convention. Although Lee is the presumptive favorite, Dang says thats not a fait accompli, and the political winds could shift.

Politics is not sports betting. We ought to vote for the candidate that best represents our values and principles, not on who we think is most likely to win, Dang says.

The problem for Weston or any Democrat running statewide in Utah is simple math. You have to get more votes than your opponent.

Longtime political strategist Reed Galen says the numbers are more favorable for McMullin than Weston, but its still a long shot.

Are there enough Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents in Utah to beat Mike Lee? Are there enough Republican voters who dont like Mike Lee to cross over and vote for a Democrat? I think the answer to all of those questions is an unequivocal no, Galen says.

The former Republican and Park City resident helped form the Lincoln Project in 2020 as part of the effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning another term in the White House. He says Democrats are not known for looking at politics pragmatically.

They lead with their hearts a lot, not with their heads. When it comes to cold calculations, theyre not very good at it. For Democrats who dont like Mike Lee, there are only two choices in this race: Mike Lee or Evan McMullin, Galen says.

While this strategy is very rare, it is not unprecedented. In the 2014 Kansas U.S. Senate race, the Democratic nominee, Chad Taylor, dropped out to clear the way for independent businessman Greg Orman. According to Smart Politics, Orman lost by nearly 11 points to Pat Roberts, but the race was much closer than in the past as Republicans won the previous nine U.S. Senate races by an average of 37 points.

The United Utah Party has already thrown its weight behind McMullin, endorsing his candidacy against Lee.

How this plays out will depend on the whims of Democratic delegates who will be selected at the Democratic caucus meetings next week. All of this culminates at the state convention at the end of April.

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Utah Democrats face dilemma: help an independent to try to beat Sen. Mike Lee or stand with the party - Salt Lake Tribune

Some lawmakers, like Norton and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, still lay the blame solely at Republicans feet. Clearly the dysfunction that exists in Congress means that they need Republicans on board to move spending bills, says Mendelson, adding that he doesnt blame Democrats for trying to move legislation. Norton notes that the House was able to easily eliminate the budget riders in its draft spending bill because the chamber has a more comfortable Democratic majority; it was a tougher sell in the Senate, where the party has less leverage.

They are nevertheless frustrated by what the Harris Rider means in practice for the city, where a robust market of cannabis gifting and delivery services has developed in the wake of residents 2014 vote to legalize weeda market that the Harris Rider makes it illegal to regulate in any way, from banking to quality control and public safety. And that says nothing of the fact that residents can hop over the D.C. border to Maryland, home of Andy Harris and Republican Governor Larry Hogan, where lawmakers are in the middle of passing a framework to create a recreational weed market. In the citys other neighbor, Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, while skeptical of legalizing weed sales, has conceded that he isnt interested in recriminalizing the drug.

Democrats need to just get real clear and real serious. What is the partys policy when it comes to cannabis? Because we have been nibbling around the edges with this hodgepodge patchwork system amongst the states, and all it takes, really, is one presidential administration with an overzealous attorney general who disagrees, Henderson says. This is incoherent. The Democratic Party has an incoherent message when it comes to cannabis policy. (Mendelson is more blunt in his assessment: Congress is dealing with this half-assed. Make it legal, make it illegalnot that I want them to make it illegalbut do something rather than this purgatory.)

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The Democrats Betrayed the People of D.C. - The New Republic

Democratic group Opportunity Wisconsin launched a new ad hitting incumbent Sen. Ron JohnsonRonald (Ron) Harold JohnsonDemocratic group runs ad hitting Ron Johnson over Trump 2017 tax bill Juan Williams: Biden must rebut GOP attacks on war Lawmakers fear Ukraine could spiral into US-Russian war MORE (R-Wis.) over his support for former President TrumpDonald TrumpNevada county to consider counting all ballots by hand Omarosa hit with K penalty over failure to file financial disclosure Trump says he's 'surprised' Putin ordered Ukraine invasion MORE's 2017 tax legislation.

The group, which spent $4.5 million on ads hitting Johnson last year, specifically takes issue with changeshe championed for the legislation that would enact lower tax rates for businesses whose owners report their profits on their individual tax returns.

The ad,first viewed by The Hill, alleges the changes to the legislation that were pushed by Johnson benefited his own family business.

It will air on broadcast, cable and digital platforms in the Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and Wausau media markets.

Everything seems to be more expensive these days. Everything costs more. Ron Johnson should be helping families like us, but he seems to have helped himself instead, the 30-second ad's narrator, a mother from the Madison area, says.

An investigation found that Ron Johnson pushed through a special tax loophole that benefited his own familys business," she continued. "Then he cashed out of the company for 5 million dollars. Hes doubled his wealth since taking office."

The investigation referred to in the ad was conducted by the Congressional Integrity Project, which suggested in 2020 that Johnson's changes to the 2017 tax legislation would have benefited businesses likePacur LLC, which Johnsonpreviously owned and held a financial stake in until 2020.

Last week, Johnson hit back against claims that he tried to carve out a tax deal, calling it "absurd and false."

"My actions were not targeted to benefit a few, but designed to help the many, the roughly 95% of all Wisconsin and U.S. businesses and the tens of millions of hard working people they employ," Johnson wrote on WisFacts.com, a website powered by his reelection campaign.

"Had it not been for me, Main Street businesses would have been left behind and found it very difficult to compete with the big guys," Johnson continued.

The ad is the latest to hit the Wisconsin airwaves ahead of November's midterm elections. Last week, Johnson released two new ads touting his work with a Milwaukee-based faith initiative. And on Monday, Democratic Senate candidate Sarah Godlewski released her first television ad of the campaign.

Johnson is facing whatstands to be a competitive reelection bid in Wisconsin. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race as a "toss-up." AMarquette University surveyreleased last week showed Johnson with a 33 percent favorable rating and a 45 percent unfavorable rating.

However, Johnson has a strong support baseamong the state's conservative grassroots, and the crowdedSenate Democratic primary, which is set to take place in August, could leave the incumbent in a stronger position.

The same Marquette survey showed Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D) leading that primary field with 23 percent support,withMilwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry trailing at 13 percent support, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson garnering 5 percent support and state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski 3 percent.

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Democratic group runs ad hitting Ron Johnson over Trump 2017 tax bill | TheHill - The Hill

Holding a blue seat in a red-tinged place like Iowas Third Congressional District takes discipline. It takes a relentless focus on the folks back home, which is why you wont see Cindy Axne yukking it up on Morning Joe or rubbing elbows with Jake Tapper on CNN. It takes doing who-knows-how-many hits on rural radio stations that might reach just a few hundred people at a time.

Axne is a living case study in political survival. Donald Trump carried her district in both of his presidential runs. In 2020, a bad year for House Democrats, she hung on to her seat by fewer than 7,000 votes.

This year, Axne has one of the hardest re-election tasks of any member of Congress. Shes the lone Democrat in Iowas delegation to Washington, representing a state that has moved sharply rightward. Thanks to redistricting, she just inherited nine additional counties that voted for Trump in 2020. At town hall meetings, she proudly tells constituents that hers is the No. 1 targeted race in the nation. Forecasters rate it a tossup, but privately, Democratic strategists acknowledge she might be doomed.

Whats her strategy for survival? Although Axne doesnt articulate them explicitly, we culled these unspoken rules from an interview in her office on Capitol Hill. Its the kind of advice President Biden could use as he tries to reverse drooping poll numbers that threaten to bring down his entire party:

Struggling to explain your policies? Visualize the voter you want to reach: Take these big things and bring it down to that one individual. If that moms not sitting in the audience, put that mom in your head.

Selling your infrastructure bill? Talk about convenience, not how many program dollars you allocated: That doesnt resonate. It resonates that I gave you 40 minutes of extra time when this bridge is repaired. Thats huge.

You wont hear much soaring rhetoric about saving American democracy from Axne, either. The voters are her customers, reflecting her business background. Ive been a manager my whole life, she said. Ive run customer service departments and retail.

And the way she figures it, the burden is on her to earn the customers approval. Its my job to go to them, to show them that they can trust me and that I deserve their vote, she said.

She urges the president to adopt that same retail mentality: Leave the mess in Washington behind, go into local communities and bring politics to a human scale.

As she put it, Come out and say, Folks, heres where were at.

And where her customers are at right now, Axne said, can be summed up with one word: Tired.

Theyre tired of the pandemic. Tired of the disruptions it has brought to their families. Tired of their packages not being delivered on time. Its the thread running through all the complaints she hears about, whether the issue is education or jobs or masks.

Ive never seen anything impact our psyche so much like this, right? she said. Theres just a lot that families are coping with. Its just hard for them to see some of the benefits that Democrats have delivered because honestly, Democrats have delivered, Ive delivered but its hard to see when things still arent back to normal.

If and when they are, Axne said, Weve got to be really loud about it and make people feel comfortable and understand: Go back to normal, folks.

Axne has had to think a lot about how to explain the major legislative packages she has helped to pass and urges the White House to break them down into relatable pieces.

She comes back to her infrastructure example, referring to bridges in Iowa that are so poorly maintained that they cant bear the weight of a bus full of schoolchildren, leading to lengthy detours. You know, ask any parent what their mornings are like, and would they like 40 minutes more? Heck, yeah.

Axne was first elected to Congress in 2018, as part of that years anti-Trump wave.

She was a longtime Iowa state government official, an M.B.A. holder who started a consulting firm before running for Congress. If you ask her whats on the minds of Iowa farmers, be prepared for an impromptu seminar on the intricacies of soybean processing.

In 2019, when flooding devastated communities in her district along the Missouri River, Axne was everywhere: touring busted levees, lobbying for federal aid. It earned her some credit in the suburban areas around Council Bluffs and Indianola, helping her eke out that win in 2020.

In a stroke of bad luck for Axne, those areas along the river are no longer her responsibility. After Iowas latest round of nonpartisan redistricting, theyve become part of the district of Representative Randy Feenstra, a Republican.

Her first task this year was to visit her new counties, which together voted for Trump by nearly 19,000 votes. She doesnt have to win them just keep the margins small enough while pumping up votes in her stronghold of Des Moines, the Iowa capital. But she does have to create some distance from national Democrats, which she tries to accomplish through humor.

I am not Nancy Pelosi, she joked at a recent town-hall-style meeting in Ottumwa, one of 74 shes held since her first election. Im a foot taller. Im from a different state. I dont wear five-inch heels.

Axne would like to see Democrats break the Build Back Better Act, their stalled social policy bill, into chunks of coordinated policy. And in the meantime, she wants Biden to get out there and hear from his disaffected customers directly.

Its not that he doesnt understand it, she said. Its just that theres so much happening at this high level that sometimes its really hard to just bring it down to that very micro level. But that micro level is whats adding up across the country.

Ryan Mac and Lisa Lerer profiled Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley investor who is seeking to become the rights would-be kingmaker.

Trumps longtime accounting firm has cut ties with his family business amid an investigation into the Trump Organizations financial practices, Ben Protess and William K. Rashbaum report.

Ukraines president hinted at a major concession on Monday and Russias foreign minister said talks would continue, suggesting room for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. For more, go here for the latest updates on the diplomatic efforts to avert a Russian invasion.

In Opinion, J. Michael Luttig, a retired judge, called on his fellow conservatives to embrace reform of the Electoral Count Act, the 1887 law that governs how Congress counts the votes of the Electoral College.

As Republicans gear up for midterm elections that they hope will give them control of both chambers of Congress, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the man who hopes to become their House speaker, is set to speak in Palm Beach, Fla. this week to some of the megadonors expected to finance the partys efforts this fall and in 2024.

The occasion is the semiannual gathering of the American Opportunity Alliance, a coalition of major donors spearheaded by the New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer that has worked mostly behind the scenes to shape the Republican Party.

Also expected to speak is Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state under President Donald Trump and is said to be considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, which could pit him against Trump.

Other prospective 2024 Republican candidates attended a meeting of the alliance last year in Colorado, including Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, former Vice President Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador. Senator Rick Scott of Florida, who heads the Republican Partys Senate campaign arm, also spoke to the alliances donors last year.

The Palm Beach gathering is expected to draw candidates vying for Republican congressional nominations, including Herschel Walker (who is running for Senate in Georgia), Katie Britt (Senate in Alabama), Jane Timken (Senate in Ohio) and Morgan Ortagus (House in Tennessee).

The donors in the alliance are likely to be assiduously courted by Republican candidates for a range of offices and to be solicited for donations to super PACs and party committees.

Their giving and associations will be closely watched as the party and its donor class grapple with whether and how to move on from Trump.

Singer was among the most aggressive Republican donors in seeking to block Trump from winning the Republican nomination in 2016. A conservative website he financed paid for early research into Trumps ties to Russia. But Singer later donated $1 million to Trumps inaugural fund and visited the Trump White House on multiple occasions.

Other donors who have been involved in the American Opportunity Alliance include the brokerage titan Charles Schwab, the hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin and Todd Ricketts, who served as finance chairman for the Republican National Committee under Trump.

Among the donors expected in Palm Beach are the former Trump cabinet officials Wilbur Ross, who served as commerce secretary, and Linda McMahon, who was administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Is there anything you think were missing? Anything you want to see more of? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.

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How One of the Most At-Risk Democrats in Congress Hangs On - The New York Times

Now, even as Bidens approval ratings crater and incumbent Democrats publicly sweat over inflation, Peters is setting a high bar for success this fall. He doesnt want to just hold the Senate majority a task that probably means protecting every single incumbent in states like Arizona and Georgia he wants to make Majority Leader Chuck Schumers job a hell of a lot easier: Its a sense of mission for me to get to 52 or more Senate seats, Peters said.

Picking up two seats might not sound like a herculean task, but it would make him a near-legend in Democratic Party lore. Its vanishingly rare for the party in power to pick up seats in the first midterm election after a new president takes over, and Bidens current approval slump isnt helping. Senate Republicans managed to do it with a favorable battleground map in 2018 even as they lost the House a formula Democrats may have to replicate this year.

Peters own resume of racking up wins in Michigan is giving Democrats hope for a fighting chance. The former Michigan lottery commissioners probably gotten a little luck along the way, but his personal political story is one of survival by any means necessary.

He swept into office in 2008 by knocking off a House GOP incumbent, survived the tea party wave of 2010, beat fellow Democratic incumbent Hansen Clarke in a redistricting-stoked primary in 2012 and was the only new Democratic senator to take office after the 2014 shellacking.

In 2020, Republicans mocked Peters, a bespectacled and laid-back former Navy officer, as Jerry Peters so anonymous voters didnt even know his name. He won in 2020 by less than two points against John James, one of the best GOP recruits in years.

Ive got a lot of respect for the senator. And he worked really hard, Ive got to credit that. So that paid dividends come Election Day, said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) who ran the GOPs 2020 campaign arm. Still, Young said Peters historically Democratic state helped him personally, and he advised that translating personal electoral success across the Senate map is tricky: Theyre very different jobs.

Then-President Barack Obama during a campaign event for U.S. Senate candidate Gary Peters and gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer at Wayne State University on Nov. 1, 2014, in Detroit, Mich.|Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

Peters isnt afraid to take on risks; he opened up during his latest reelection campaign about his and his wifes decision to pursue an abortion in the 1980s, a rare move for a male politician. And he was one of the few candidates to embrace former President Barack Obama and campaign with him down the stretch in 2014, an election that saw Democrats blown out of red states theyd held for years.

Even as Biden struggles to raise his approval ratings and Republicans revel in his unpopularity, Peters sees little value in running away from a president of his own party. The two met recently to discuss Senate races, and Peters came away satisfied with Bidens level of involvement.

Well be working really closely with the president. He cares deeply about the Senate, Peters said. To me, the presidents always an asset.

Republicans scoff at that sentiment. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said matter-of-factly, Bidens helping us quite a bit. He also noted the NRSCs outraised Peters committee over the past 12 months.

With one of the hardest jobs in Washington, Peters has room to try out his own style of politics on a larger scale. He says Schumer, a total political animal, has such a demanding job as majority leader in a 50-50 Senate that the New Yorker has given Peters complete freedom to run campaigns his way.

Hes really got the right temperament for a job that is such a high level, said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Hes in control of the situation.

Peters DSCC is not endorsing in any contested primaries at this point, letting candidates for open seats in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania slug it out for the right to face Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and the GOP nominee in the Keystone State. Its a shift from past election cycles, when Democrats were more eager to throw their weight behind their favored candidates.

At the moment, Peters says he has no problem letting things play out between, say, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Rep. Conor Lamb and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta in Pennsylvania.

Right now were not making any endorsements. That could change, Peters said.

His Midwestern Nice style translates to his bid to take back Wisconsin from Johnson, the only Republican to win a Senate seat in the Badger State since the 1980s. Peters and Johnson clashed in 2020 over allegations of malfeasance in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

I expect Gary to do better than I did.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)

As chair at the time, Johnson used the committee to try to probe Hunter Biden during the presidential election, prompting major pushback from Peters, who chairs the committee now. Peters said in an interview that he was confident we can win in Wisconsin but declined to take a shot at Johnson, whom most Senate Democrats loathe: I dont take any of this personally; to me its just business. I work with my colleagues here.

Its fair to say the feeling isnt mutual. Johnson is still steaming.

He totally lied about me. Hes never publicly apologized for lying and screaming about me, Johnson said of Peters. So no, Im not happy with the man.

If Democrats can pick up Wisconsin and any other GOP-held states, people in both parties will see it as a miracle. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Republicans are certain to net the one seat they need to flip the chamber unless we give it to them, referencing an ever-present worry that GOP voters could nominate lackluster general election candidates in battleground states. Senate Democrats are defending five battleground seats in states Biden won and have pick-up opportunities in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and perhaps Florida and Ohio.

Peters was basically the partys only bright spot in 2014, the last time the party defended a majority, when Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) chaired the DSCC. Peters cruised by a 13-point margin even as GOP Gov. Rick Snyder was reelected with relative ease.

Now its Bennet whos facing the voters in a tough year. He offered a prediction: I expect Gary to do better than I did.

Democrats had better hope so: They lost nine seats in 2014.

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The low-key Democrat with the unenviable task of defending a 50-50 Senate - POLITICO

Late last year, once it was clear that Phil Murphy would win a squeaker of a campaign and be reelected as governor of New Jersey, he set out to learn why his race had been so unexpectedly close. Private focus groups revealed that it wasnt just the Democratic Partys dim reputation a year into the Joe Biden experience but that a far broader malaise afflicted his constituents. Even his supporters were exhausted by the pandemic and just wanted their lives to return to some version of normal. And that was before the Omicron variant ruined everyones holidays.

Recently, Murphy joined a small group of governors at the White House to level with President Biden. COVID-19 is here to stay, they said. Can you help us plan for an endemic, not pandemic, future? When it was clear no federal guidance was coming, Murphy decided to act unilaterally. By announcing in February that he would end New Jerseys mask mandate for students and teachers, he pierced a dam. Within hours, the Democratic governors of Connecticut, Delaware, California, and Oregon loosened their own rules, and New York followed close behind, joined by Rhode Island, Illinois, and Nevada. The flurry was widely interpreted in the press as an overdue wake-up moment for hypercautious liberal leaders, a chance to get in step with a long-fatigued populace.

One Democratic governor has been in that zone for months. Jared Polis formally declared Colorados emergency over all the way back in July. He allowed local jurisdictions to implement mandates as they saw fit his hometown of Boulder, for example, still has an indoor mask requirement but rescinded nearly all COVID-related statewide executive orders. Polis didnt reinstate them when the Delta variant caused a surge in deaths, though he did vent about the unvaccinated to reporters: I have no qualms if they have a death wish, but theyre clogging our hospitals. And he kept up the vaxxed-and-done approach even as Omicron landed. At this point, if you havent been vaccinated, its really your own darn fault, he told an interviewer in December.

Poliss approach appears to be working, both in terms of public health and his own political fortunes. Colorados COVID numbers largely look like the countrys. By early February, newly reported cases were down almost 70 percent from two weeks earlier, and hospitalization numbers were down by a quarter both roughly matching the national averages. Since the pandemics start, Colorado has the tenth-lowest COVID death rate per capita in the U.S. Meanwhile, Polis appears to be on an easy path to reelection in November during whats expected to be a terrible season for Democrats everywhere else. No big-name Republican has emerged to take him on, and the Cook Political Report rates the race as Solid Democrat.

Entering the third year of the viruss spread, Polis has put forth a simple formulation. He believes that every governor will have to adapt to endemic circumstances eventually, that theres only so much he can do for the persistently unvaxxed, and that COVID lifestyle restrictions have been costlier than other Democrats have acknowledged. Its a 23-year-old who cant go out at night. Its a senior who cant go to bridge club. Those things dont have economic costs, but they have very real costs to peoples lives. Thats what we sought to minimize, Polis told me in his brightly decorated, wood-paneled office in the state capitol the day after Murphy made his announcement on masks. How can people live their lives, be empowered with information, make the best decisions for themselves? Thats really what weve focused on. People cant live in an emergency state for years on end. I mean, its just not how we are.

Polis does not play the part of a cowboy governor. When we spoke, he wore a loose dark suit, black sneakers, and a black polo shirt, a uniform befitting his past as a late-90s entrepreneur who sold his e-greeting-card company for nearly $800 million when he was just three years out of Princeton. He won a seat in Congress; then, in 2018, running on a progressive platform, he became the countrys first openly gay man elected governor. This year, hes starting to get national attention for the first time, if not necessarily as a future leader of the free world, then as a youngish (46), pragmatic liberal executive in a party desperate for some excitement, or what passes for it.

Polis is careful not to suggest that his precise approach can be replicated elsewhere given state-by-state differences in population, geography, health, and so on. But Colorado is diverse and politically divided, and the appeal of his COVID posture is clear as Democrats search for ways to meet the shifting tides in public sentiment while keeping virus deaths in check. When Polis and I met, COVID fatalities were up 25 percent nationally from two weeks earlier. But fully 70 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that its time we accept COVID is here to stay, and we just need to get on with our lives in a recent Monmouth poll.

In Poliss calculus, the advent of vaccination changed everything, including citizens moral responsibilities to one another, and he has been unwilling to let his states unvaccinated minority keep the rest of the population on an indefinite emergency footing. Its really just about how different people, just like in our own lives, manage risks and have trade-offs, Polis said. I ski. Its not a great risk, but its more risky than if I stayed on my sofa. He tended not to wear a helmet until a few years ago.

Some critics on the left have accused him of dropping mandates to pander to conservative and libertarian voters ahead of his November reelection and of callousness toward the immunocompromised, the elderly, and children who are too young to get the vaccine. Others have scoffed at the idea that Polis should get special credit for simply deferring to the judgment of individual counties. But theres little doubt in the federal government and other governors offices that some version of a vaccinated-normalcy future is inevitable, no matter how uncomfortable the transition may be for especially risk-averse Americans.

To be clear, Polis hasnt declared a no-rules free-for-all across his swath of the Rockies. He has little in common with the Republican governors who have performatively abdicated their obligations to public safety, and throughout the pandemic, he has moved meaningfully faster than the Biden administration. While Polis urged that schools reopen by January 2021, he made sure to distribute free medical-grade masks there (well before the CDCs acknowledgment that cloth masks are inferior) and to deliver free at-home tests (well before the White Houses decision to do the same nationally). He has mandated that health-care workers and state prison employees get the shot, and when the necessity of third vaccine doses became clear, he issued an executive order opening access for all adults, avoiding a complicated rollout.

His position on unvaccinated Coloradans is more nuanced than his widely reported death wish comment let on. He has repeatedly cautioned that many are victims of misinformation and thus deserving of compassion and love, and his office has been running a bilingual campaign to combat conspiracy theories on YouTube. But he has plainly concluded that theres a limit to his capacity as governor and to his responsibility. Theres Americans who have fallen victim to misinformation who are dying needlessly. And thats a very sad thing, but ultimately, it is peoples choice, he said. Im very saddened just by the unnecessary loss. But again, they have the responsibility. They made their decisions. I sleep well at night because I know I did everything I possibly could to get the right information to people.

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Is This the One Democrat Who's Figured Out COVID? - New York Magazine

This obviously locks in the supermajorities, and means that the crux of New York State politics for interest groups, for labor, for everyone is going to be the ideological fight among Democrats in a primary, said Matt Rey, a partner at the political consulting firm Red Horse Strategies. New York is now moving to the California model.

Elsewhere in the 150-seat Assembly, which Democrats have controlled since 1975, some of the redrawn lines appear to offer additional protection for other incumbent party members. Others seemed to ensure that tossup races in key suburban areas including Long Islands North Shore, the Capitol Region and near Syracuse remained competitive.

The biggest changes, however, involve the State Senate, where Democrats controlled the redistricting process for the first time in decades after regaining a majority in the chamber in 2018.

The new maps appear to improve Democrats chances of flipping at least three Republican-held Senate seats. In a reflection of New York Citys population growth and demographic changes, lawmakers shifted two upstate Senate districts to Brooklyn and Queens. Both are expected to be safe seats for Democrats.

The new lines also give slight edges to Democratic incumbents in highly competitive districts, including on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley, before the November election, when all legislative seats will be on the ballot.

Even so, Democrats recent gains in Albany are bound to be tested in significant ways this year, with Republicans helped by President Bidens flagging approval ratings and concerns about crime and inflation poised to perform well in the congressional midterm elections and, potentially, in down-ballot races.

In justifying the new maps, Mr. Gianaris and other Senate Democrats say the lines merely restore the proper balance of power after decades of Republicans drawing maps that maximize their waning influence in an increasingly Democratic state.

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How New Yorks Redistricting Hurt the G.O.P. and Vax Daddy - The New York Times

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Democrats and double standards have always gone hand-in-hand. But they've never been quite as blatant as weve seen during the pandemic.

Last week, photos surfaced of Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams grinning maskless while a classroom full of masked children sat behind her. Two days later, Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin snapped a mask-free selfie at a campaign event while her masked constituents sat in the background. And just over the weekend, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and a host of other celebrities were spotted without masks at the Super Bowl in LA, where an indoor mask mandate is still in effect. Just two weeks earlier, Garcetti was criticized for posing maskless with California Gov. Gavin Newsom at an NFL playoff game.

Those are just the most recent examples. Democrats have been flouting their own rules since the beginning of the pandemic and theyre often repeat offenders. The message is clear: Mask mandates only apply to regular Americans, not the elite Democrats who put the mandates in place. The hypocrisy is the point.

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As Democrats try to hold on to power, our children pay the price. A child psychiatrist from Johns Hopkins University is warning students are falling behind in school due to forced masking. It "affects learning and development, particularly for our youngest learners" and "provides little discernible benefit," making this crisis even worse.

Speech therapists are reporting a 364% increase in referrals of babies and toddlers with speech delays. Deaf and hard-of-hearing children experience "significantly hampered word recognition" because masks stop them from reading lips. Some masks that kids are forced to wear are "very hard to breathe in."

While the consequences of masking are everywhere, theres little evidence in favor of forced masking, especially for children. The science simply does not support mask mandates on toddlers in schools. Thats why most countries in the Western world don't force kids to wear masks. The United States is one of just seven that does. The U.S. represents freedom. It's embarrassing that we've so comprehensively failed to live up to that reputation when it comes to forcing masks on kids.

But the Biden administration still refuses to change its guidance. Just this past week, Biden CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said "now is not the moment" to drop mandates.

Maskless photo-ops are a symbol of Democrats' lack of respect for their constituents

In fact, Democrats are so committed to mask mandates that theyre denying education to students who refuse to comply with their mask demands. In Virginias Loudoun County, unmasked students are being suspended for "noncompliance." One Loudoun County school official threatened criminal charges of trespassing for children who come to school without a mask. As a result, dozens of students in Fairfax County have been suspended indefinitely. Fortunately, the states new Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is fighting to put an end to this nonsense. The attacks come even as Gov. Youngkin issued an order giving parents the freedom to make their own decisions about their childs mask.

As parents fight back to protect their children and Democrat poll numbers plummet, government bureaucrats are changing their tune on masks. Last Monday, liberal governors in Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey announced they would lift their school mask requirements in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, states like New York and California announced they would end their indoor mask mandates for businesses, although theyve refused to lift the mandate for kids in schools.

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Its not that Democrats have finally recognized the damage of their policies or the uselessness of masks. Its political just as it's always been. Mask mandates are increasingly unpopular. With the midterm elections less than a year away and Virginia electing Republicans to all three statewide offices, Democrats are nervous. In the coming months, you can expect them to reverse their coronavirus policies and claim that "the science has changed." But the truth is, Biden and the Democrats lied.

While Democrats kept your toddler in masks for two years, Republican governors like Floridas Ron DeSantis and Texass Greg Abbott started getting their states back to normal long ago. Republican governors empowered parents to make the best choices for their children.

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For all their cheap talk about "following the science," Democrats' mask hypocrisy is proof of what we always knew: Masks on children are just about power and virtue signaling. Maskless photo-ops are a symbol of Democrats' lack of respect for their constituents. On November 8, voters will hold them accountable.

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Democrats' COVID mask hypocrisy shows contempt for average Americans and they will pay in November - Fox News

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Outgoing Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee sat down for an interview with a local newspaper on Tuesday to give his thoughts on upcoming elections and the future of the Democratic Party in his state.

Cooper's predictions were far from optimistic, as he said that the party is "facing extinction" in Tennessee and claimed that Democrats have no strategy to appeal to rural voters.

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"As usual, Democrats are not alert to future dangers," Cooper lamented to the Nashville Scene. "The biggest danger we face in an off-year election after we won the White House is the 100-year trend toward the other party. Redistricting is small potatoes compared to that historical trend."

Asked if he believed the Democrats would prove competitive in the long term, Cooper said that he hopes so, but "hope is not a strategy." Cooper criticized the management of the party in his state, and told the Scene that the Democrats in Tennessee needed a new direction.

"Their strategy is blind hope," Cooper said. "Many of the folks youre probably listening to have probably never visited these counties. Theyre not kin to these folks. Their best friends dont live out there. I had the advantage of being born in Nashville but raised in Shelbyville."

Cooper insisted that while he is retiring from office at the end of his term, he does not plan to stop working. He expressed interest in assisting the party if possible, but said he is more focused on his own endeavors.

"I always want to be available and helpful, but I plan on getting a job and being a productive citizen. It cant be handed to you. Youve got to study it and work at it and be good at it. And then we can put on some finishing touches. There are many people today who want this stuff handed to them, and life doesnt work like that," Cooper said. "Its important to make money. Its important to be productive. Its important to pay taxes. Work organizes life. I plan on working until the day I die, because work is fun, work is interesting, work is important."

"Its important to be in communication with your constituents, not to be their boss. Youre their representative. Weve got to get this formula right. The Democratic Party in Tennessee is basically facing extinction. Weve been on a long downhill slide for a long time. Tennessee has fewer statewide elected offices than I think any other state, and now the only path upward will be through Memphis, which is not nearly as successful as Nashville. That fits Republican strategy very well. Their intent is to ghettoize the state Democratic Party."

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Cooper has clashed repeatedly with more progressive and left-wing Democrats. In fact, some within the party have attempted to remove him from office with a replacement of their own.

Odessa Kelly, aprogressive candidate backed by Justice Democrats, sought to defeat Cooper in 2020. She boasted endorsements from key Democrats, but had a history of inflammatory social media posts, including calls for violence against Republican lawmakers.

Kelly, while staging the primary challenge against Cooper, went on Facebook the day of President Biden's inauguration and posted a list of suggested agenda items for the new administration's first 100 days.

The agenda included standard Democratic wishes for stimulus checks, packing the Supreme Courtand student loan forgiveness, as well as jokes about attacking GOP leaders.

"Day 9: Allow Pelosi to hire the best pimp that Memphis or Detroit has to offer to Smack tha [emoji]outta Ted Cruz and the rest uvem...(yall know the ones)!" she wrote.

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Outgoing Tennessee Democrat congressman says party 'facing extinction' in his state, relying on 'blind hope' - Fox News

Democrats on Monday accused Republicans of drawing the maps in secret, while state Republicans blamed local officials for not coming to a bipartisan consensus on redistricting.

I regret that it has come to this point, said Rep. John Carson (R-Marietta), who sponsored the Cobb map. But he defended his proposal, saying it reflects the political composition of the county by keeping in place todays 3-2 Democratic majority.

To do so, it makes drastic changes to the two districts that cover the eastern half of the county. It would draw Democrat Jerica Richardson out of her seat in District 2 and shift more conservative voters into District 3 to shore up the re-election chances of Republican JoAnn Birrell.

House Republicans also approved school redistricting maps backed by the Republican-led school board. If the bills are approved by the state Senate and signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, they are sure to be contested in court.

State Rep. Bee Nguyen (D-Atlanta) said the commission map could violate the Voting Rights Act by packing racial minorities into two districts and diluting their voting power. By drawing Richardson out of her district, it could also run afoul of a state law that prohibits lawmakers from ending an elected officials term prematurely without voter consent. Commissioners are required to live in the district they represent.

This will be litigated in court and that cost will be passed on to the voters of Cobb County, Nguyen said.

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Georgia House OKs election maps that seek to preserve GOP seats in Democratic Cobb County - The Atlanta Journal Constitution