US Politics

Sitting presidents are almost always punished in the midterm elections – and 2026 is looking like it will be no exception. More

Voters have a chance to break America’s two-tiered system of justice and hold powerful people accountableWelcome back to How We Win, a Guardian opinion series with leading thinkers, offering bold ideas for America’s political future. Last week, Guardian US columnist Rebecca Solnit wrote about the GOP’s alignment with the tech overlords. Today’s edition was written by Katie Phang, an independent journalist, trial lawyer and political analyst. Sign up for future editions here.When Americans go to the polls a week from now, accountability will be front and center.Instead of enforcing the law, the attorney general of the United States has been busy subverting it Continue reading… More

Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s distraction tactics and crass comments on Nicki Minaj’s derriere as he campaignsLate-night hosts mocked Donald Trump’s bizarre rally with Nicki Minaj as the clock ticks down to the US midterm elections. Continue reading… More

Twenty-two states and Washington DC let voters register on election day. Why aren’t politicians doing more to reach young people?With election day just a week away, candidates are ignoring millions of young Americans who could still cast a decisive ballot but have not yet registered to vote.By contrast, my mailbox has been full of political flyers: the various campaigns gleaned my name from the voter file, recognized that I am a regular voter who hadn’t cast a ballot yet, and assessed through their targeted analysis that it’s worth spending on printing and postage to get their message to me. Continue reading… More

While organizations celebrate the reinstatement of the ‘press 3’ option by Samsha, details about rollout and training counselors remain secretFor nearly three years, counselors through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for LGBTQ+ individuals answered more than 1.5m calls, texts and online chats – until the Trump administration terminated it in July 2025. But now, more than a year later, the service is back online.The federal agency that oversees the lifeline, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Samhsa), shuttered the specialized national lifeline service known as the “press 3” option for financial reasons last year, though critics cited political motivations. After pressure from activists, LGBTQ+ organizations and politicians, Congress approved legislation to allocate more than $33m to services for queer youth, including to the specialized lifeline. While suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ rights groups celebrate the reinstatement, details about the rollout and how the counselors will be trained remain shrouded in secrecy. Continue reading… More

Benjamin Netanyahu is in the fight of his political life. Voters in Israel are heading to the polls on Tuesday to decide an election that could determine whether Netanyahu will remain the country’s prime minister (and affect the outcome of the corruption charges against him). But the Israeli election also arrives at a time when voters around the world seem to be rejecting authoritarianism. A student-run movement stunned the world on Sunday when its candidates routed Serbia’s long-serving leader, Aleksandar Vučić. That same day, Brazilians beat back a campaign by Flávio Bolsonaro – the son of Jair Bolsonaro, the disgraced former president – in a historic upset. Carter Sherman speaks to Julian Borger, the Guardian’s senior international correspondent, about how these four elections could reshape the political world order in just 10 days, and why the upcoming US midterm elections are the biggest test for global democracy.Julian Borger on 10 days that could shake the world Continue reading… More

Republican attacks on the candidate for governor are contradictory and hinge on a warped understanding of sexual abuseI’ve heard people say that the Ramaswamy team must have been scared.Last week, the campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy, the tech billionaire and onetime Republican presidential candidate who is currently the Republican nominee to be the governor of Ohio, ran an ad featuring the long-estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, the physician and former public health official Amy Acton.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading… More

No private individual should have the power to determine US foreign policy, as Musk has attempted to do in UkraineHe’s Exhibit A on why billionaire wealth should be taxed, why we must get big money out of politics, why billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to buy up major media, and why our government shouldn’t give them huge military contracts.I’m talking about Elon Musk, of course. Continue reading… More