Nick Vachon

GOP Rep. Zach Nunn suggests laws against hate crime aren’t needed

Hate crimes in the United States rose from 2022 to 2023.

By Jesse Valentine - April 15, 2024

GOP Senate candidate Hung Cao blames racial equity for Baltimore bridge tragedy

Cao is a former U.S Navy captain.

By Jesse Valentine - March 29, 2024

GOP Rep. Jennifer Kiggans donates thousands to far-right extremists

Kiggans has flirted with baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

By Jesse Valentine - March 08, 2024

Ohio senate candidate Bernie Moreno: “Absolute pro-life no exceptions.”

Ohio voted to protect abortion rights. GOP senate candidate Bernie Moreno doesn't care.

By Jesse Valentine - March 07, 2024

Anti-China Republicans pocket thousands from Chinese owned conglomerate

Syngenta AG owns approximately 1500 acres of U.S farmland.

By Jesse Valentine - March 04, 2024

Republican Eric Hovde makes inconsistent statements about family history

Hovde is running for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin despite primarily residing in California.

By Jesse Valentine - February 26, 2024

Republican David McCormick invests millions in website that platforms Holocaust denial

McCormick says we need leaders with the moral clarity to condemn antisemitism.

By Jesse Valentine - February 09, 2024

Lawmakers will again take up bills expanding, tightening gun laws

Of the nearly dozen gun bills lawmakers will soon take up, one is particularly noteworthy because it’s backed by unlikely allies: mental health advocates and a pair of House members who’ve long been at opposite ends of firearm legislation.

By Annmarie Timmins, New Hampshire Bulletin - January 31, 2024

UAW delivers rousing presidential endorsement for Biden over ‘scab’ Trump

The United Auto Workers of America endorsed the re-election of President Joe Biden Wednesday, just months after he became the first sitting U.S. president to walk a picket line with striking autoworkers in Michigan.

By Ashley Murray, States Newsroom - January 24, 2024

Republicans Sam Brown and Jeff Gunter sling mud in Nevada senate primary

Gunter has repeatedly referred to Brown as “Scam Brown”

By Jesse Valentine - January 17, 2024

A Young Texas Woman Almost Died Due To The Texas Abortion Bans – Now She’s Battling To Save Other Women

The state of Texas robbed Amanda Zurawski of her fertility and almost her life when it wouldn’t permit her an abortion so she’s gone to the state’s Supreme Court to change the law - “this is why I’m on earth”

By Bonnie Fuller - January 10, 2024

Health care legislation preview: Maryland advocates want to focus on access, patients in 2024 session

Health care-focused organizations across the state are hopeful that the 2024 legislative session will be a year that reins in health costs and allows patients to have greater access to the care they need.

By Danielle J. Brown, Maryland Matters - January 08, 2024

How GOP senate hopefuls try to excuse the January 6 insurrection

Five people died on January 6, 2021 – including a police officer who was bludgeoned to death.

By Jesse Valentine - January 05, 2024

NH lawmakers will be taking up major voting bills this year. Here are some to watch for.

On Wednesday, the New Hampshire House passed a bill that would make registering to vote an online experience.

By Ethan DeWitt, New Hampshire Bulletin - January 04, 2024

Republican US Senate candidates want to make Trump’s tax cuts permanent

Most Americans believe wealthy individuals and big corporations don’t pay their fair share in taxes.

By Jesse Valentine - December 22, 2023

Rand Paul went all in on the Kentucky governor’s race. It didn’t work.

Even the Republican senator's home county gave Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear a larger share of the vote than four years earlier.

By - December 15, 2023

Texas governor and attorney general do little to curb state’s chemical plant crisis

Republicans Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton have taken thousands of dollars in donations from chemical companies and their affiliated PACs.

By Jesse Valentine - December 08, 2023

Likely GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde proposed tax hike for poorer workers and retirees

Eric Hovde's proposal is similar to Sen. Rick Scott's unpopular 2022 plan to make every American pay income taxes.

By Jesse Valentine - December 07, 2023

Whitmer signs specific criminal penalties for assaulting health care workers into law

A bipartisan package of bills in Michigan signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, creates specified criminal penalties for assaulting health care workers.

By Anna Liz Nichols, Michigan Advance - December 06, 2023

105 Republicans voted to expel Santos for things Trump has also done

Both former President Donald Trump and former U.S. Rep. George Santos have lied about their records and been accused of defrauding veterans.

By Jesse Valentine - December 05, 2023

For Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, another Trump term is another chance to kill Obamacare

Millions of Texas families’ health and well-being would be jeopardized if the legislation were repealed.

By Jesse Valentine - December 04, 2023

Florida Sen. Rick Scott backs Donald Trump in revived push to repeal Obamacare

More than 3 million Floridians will lose their health insurance if Scott and Trump succeed.

By Jesse Valentine - November 30, 2023

Tate Reeves took donations from power company that hiked customer rates

Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves took $98,000 from Mississippi Power and executives of its parent company.

By Jesse Valentine - November 06, 2023

Daniel Cameron ran on depoliticizing the Kentucky AG’s office. He made it more political.

The Republican gubernatorial nominee also broke his promises to make the office more frugal.

By Jesse Valentine - November 03, 2023

Republican operatives sound every alarm on current trajectory of 2023 governor’s race

It might not surprise Mississippians that The Cook Political Report, regarded as one of the nation’s preeminent elections experts, shifted their 2023 Mississippi governor’s race forecast on Monday in Democrat Brandon Presley’s direction.

By Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today - October 24, 2023

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover made the platform an even more noxious misinformation machine

Musk’s policy and personnel changes, as well as his open endorsement of right-wing conspiracy theories, has left Twitter, now X, overrun with trolls and bigots.

By Nick Vachon and Will Fritz - August 15, 2023

Meet Rebecca Cooke, the Democrat challenging Wisconsin GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden

Cooke is hoping that her local roots will help her unseat the incumbent election-denying Republican.

By Nick Vachon - August 15, 2023

The changing politics of Supreme Court reform

Three ideas have taken hold among progressive Democrats pushing for Supreme Court reform: ethics reform, term limits, and court expansion.

By Nick Vachon - August 08, 2023

Wisconsin Supreme Court gains liberal majority as Justice Janet Protasiewicz is sworn in

The state's 19th-century abortion ban and gerrymandered legislative maps are facing legal challenges and could end up in front of Wisconsin's high court.

By Nick Vachon and Rebekah Sager - August 02, 2023

The GOP’s campaign against trans rights is rooted in eliminationism

The Republican Party and conservative activists aren't shy about saying they don't support any legal protections for trans people.

By Nick Vachon - July 07, 2023

Activists give away banned books as a right-wing parents conference comes to Philadelphia

Organizers with a national public school advocacy campaign, joined by local activists, gave away books on Thursday to kick off a weekend of counterprogramming against Moms for Liberty's second annual gathering.

By Nick Vachon - June 30, 2023

The GOP’s anti-LGBTQ and education policies are linked — and echo authoritarian leaders

Across the globe, policies similar to those championed by many in the GOP have gone hand in hand with illiberal and anti-democratic politics.

By Nick Vachon - June 26, 2023

Pennsylvania House votes to raise the state’s minimum wage

Taking advantage of their newly minted majority, Democrats have achieved a longtime progressive policy goal.

By Nick Vachon - June 22, 2023

Exclusive: A majority of voters say Justice Clarence Thomas should be impeached

Amid public controversy over the scale of Thomas' financial ties to a conservative real estate magnate, a new poll of voters finds public support for congressional action.

By Nick Vachon - June 15, 2023

Progressive coalition launches $1 million campaign backing Supreme Court reform

United for Democracy is putting cash behind growing calls from the left for Congress to rein in the Supreme Court and its conservative majority.

By Nick Vachon - June 14, 2023

‘Gender ideology’: The history of the right’s new favorite phrase

The right has rallied behind the anti-trans slogan in their campaign against transgender rights.

By Nick Vachon - June 08, 2023

A new report shows that younger voters backed Democrats by historic margins in 2022

Experts say that Gen Z and millennial voters are highly invested in the political process because of their support for abortion rights and anxiety about the consequences of electing Republicans.

By Nick Vachon - June 07, 2023

The dark money funding conservative anti-trans groups

Secretive right-wing donors and foundations have given millions of dollars to prominent anti-trans groups.

By Nick Vachon and Matt Cohen - May 31, 2023

Meet the groups behind the right’s campaign against trans rights

Legislation restricting transgender people's access to health care, school sports, and bathrooms has surged in Republican-controlled states, backed by major anti-LGBTQ groups.

By Nick Vachon - May 25, 2023

A Michigan county will refuse to enforce the state’s new red flag law

Extreme risk protection laws, which allow judges to confiscate weapons when they think owners could pose a danger to themselves or others, can be effective at preventing gun deaths.

By Nick Vachon - May 05, 2023

Federal climate legislation is poised to transform Wisconsin’s path to net zero emissions

‘When it comes to in-state renewable energy generation, I’ve never been more optimistic,’ said Nick Hylla, executive director of the Midwest Renewable Energy Association.

By Nick Vachon - April 06, 2023

Judge Janet Protasiewicz wins seat on Wisconsin Supreme Court

The court will have the final say in cases that could determine the 2024 election rules and the fate of the state’s 1849 abortion ban.

By Nick Vachon - April 05, 2023

Dan Kelly opposed Social Security, federal anti-poverty programs in 2010s blog posts

The conservative candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court called government aid to single women a ‘husband-substitute program’ in a post on the website Hang Together

By Nick Vachon - April 04, 2023

Candidates clash in first and only Wisconsin Supreme Court debate

Janet Protasiewicz and Daniel Kelly fought over their records on decisive issues that the court could rule on in the coming years, such as abortion and redistricting.

By Nick Vachon - March 23, 2023

Common Cause’s Jay Heck: ‘The ramifications are huge’ in Wisconsin Supreme Court election

The director of Common Cause Wisconsin, a government reform advocacy organization, says that the April Supreme Court election carries massive implications for democracy in the state and nationally.

By Nick Vachon - March 08, 2023

NARAL Pro-Choice America endorses Protasiewicz in Wisconsin Supreme Court election

The national group is the latest reproductive rights organization to throw its support behind the liberal candidate in this year’s high-profile election.

By Nick Vachon - March 07, 2023

What is Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Daniel Kelly’s record on abortion?

The conservative jurist has ties to anti-abortion groups and a long record of anti-abortion views.

By Nick Vachon - March 03, 2023

Report finds right-wing radicals responsible for all extremist-related murders in 2022

The departments of Justice and of Homeland Security have both identified white supremacist extremism as the leading domestic terrorism threat to the United States.

By Nick Vachon - February 27, 2023

U.S. State Department announces additional $100 million aid package for Turkey and Syria

The Biden administration has already provisioned $85 million for the region, which has been devastated by a series of earthquakes this month.

By Nick Vachon - February 24, 2023

Kentucky gubernatorial candidate touted endorsements from officers accused of misconduct

At least six of the 100 law enforcement officers who endorsed Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in December have been accused of wrongdoing, including sexual harassment, retaliation, and jail deaths.

By Nick Vachon - February 13, 2023

Who is Judge Jennifer Dorow, conservative candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court?

The circuit court judge rose to national fame during the trial of the Waukesha Parade attack perpetrator, becoming a subject of viral TikTok content and a recipient of fan mail from around the world.

By Nick Vachon - February 07, 2023

Judge Everett Mitchell: A community-focused candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court

The race will determine whether Wisconsin’s highest court has a liberal or a conservative majority, and could decide the fate of abortion and election law in the state.

By Nick Vachon - January 23, 2023

Jan. 6 marchers and conservative provocateurs attend DeSantis’ invite-only inaugural ball

Potential 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has attracted interest from anti-LGBTQ and anti-vaccine activists, among other conservative Republicans.

By Nick Vachon - January 18, 2023

Corporate PACs have given more than $50 million to election objectors since Jan. 6

Of the 231 corporations who pledged to halt or reexamine their political contributions in the wake of the insurrection, more than two-thirds have resumed their financial support for congressional election deniers.

By Nick Vachon - January 11, 2023

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has an open seat. Here’s who’s running.

The race could determine whether liberals or conservatives have the majority on the court, which has implications for a slew of contentious issues and the 2024 presidential election.

By Nick Vachon - January 06, 2023