Will Vandenberg 🇺🇦
Finding hope in red and purple states (challenges, too). Always for underdogs & multiracial democracy. Regional mutt; now Jersey City. opinions=mine 🏳️🌈
- I am a frequent Newark flyer and “New Jersey: Scary Planes, No Trains” is a real loser of a tag line for a state of nearly 10 million people. Gov. Murphy’s legacy depends on the NJ Transit strike ending soon and how his pressure on the Trump Admin. fixes Newark Airport.
- We need more housing and Democrats in blue cities and states need to do more to make that happen. From @stateline.org: The number of new apartments is at a 50-year high, but states expect a slowdown. dailymontanan.com/2025/05/11/t...
- Victory at last for @allisonjriggs.bsky.social in North Carolina! Now she returns to the same court where a majority of its members sought to rig the election for her losing opponent…
- A multi-year class action lawsuit from Montana’s Native American community - to improve teaching of Native American history and culture in the state - has reached an important settlement. The state’s board of education now vows to do better.
- Florida Man (crazy former Gov. Paul LePage) reappears… in #Maine. thehill.com/homenews/cam...
- A great new, young, talented, & strategic ED for the Alaska Democratic Party! Perfect timing: ahead of 2026 opportunities to win an open governor seat, win back the US House seat, & retake a US Senate seat that was held by Dems until 2014. #alaskasky alaskabeacon.com/briefs/alask...
- Maine defeats Trump. When Governor Janet Mills told Trump “I’ll see you in court,” she meant it. Now, she & Mainers are beating back Trump Admin. intimidation, attacks, & defunding. When their unlawfulness is challenged, they relent. Keep it up, #Maine!
- Hundreds of #Maine lawyers - 633, to be precise - take a stand to reject Trump Administration intimidation of the legal system. I love my proud and principled home state! (Thanks @mainemorningstar.com for great daily coverage.)
- “I Taught My Students Slavery Was Wrong. Then MAGA Came After Me.” An Iowa teacher’s story of extreme MAGA rhetoric creating fear, inspiring hate, and gutting rural public schools. From @barnraiser.bsky.social barnraisingmedia.com/iowa-rural-s...
- To pay for Trump/Repub tax breaks for billionaires, proposed #Medicaid cuts would hurt 366,000 lower-income Kansas kids, seniors, people w/disabilities, & pregnant women. It’ll also close rural hospitals & increase local taxes. All to give Elon Musk more money. This would replicate in every state.
- Important new national survey from @prripoll.bsky.social. Finds a majority of Americans believe Trump to be a dangerous dictator. Also, the unpopularity of Trump actions (and of Musk & Vance), and overwhelming majorities who oppose Trump’s extra-judicial behavior and support checks and balances.
- NEW: A national survey released today by PRRI finds that while only 16% of Americans openly express regret about their 2024 presidential voting decision, Americans largely oppose President Donald Trump’s actions during his first 100 days in office. Keep reading for a quick summary of key findings ⬇️
- Musk/Trump and Republicans in Congress say “F you” to North Carolina, Arkansas, West Virginia by denying emergency disaster aid. They gotta pay for those tax breaks for Musk, Trump’s family, and other billionaires somehow, guess this is one way to do so… ncnewsline.com/2025/04/25/t...
- 38% of Americans polled think neither major party fights for them. The looming Musk/Trump tax breaks for the wealthy fight could solidify the fractured Dem base if done right. A clear “whose side are you on?” fight that reveals Trump & Repub lackeys’ sham populism. www.nbcnews.com/politics/ele...
- Rare good news from Tennessee’s terrible, MAGA dominated state legislature.
- Musk/Trump/Republican #Medicaid cuts would be devastating for 72 million Americans, incl. people w/ disabilities, pregnant women, low-income youth, & seniors. @kansasreflector.com reports powerful stories from a recent event but will #Kansas politicians listen?
- Kansas’s Democratic governor, Laura Kelly, has real backbone, consistently standing up for Kansans of all backgrounds and fighting back against her state’s MAGA legislature.
- Scary: 70% of democracy donors surveyed agree that philanthropy “does not currently possess the strategies needed to significantly improve U.S. democracy.” 44% agree that the last decade of democracy funding was largely unsuccessful. Sobering @democracyfund.bsky.social survey; so what comes next?
- Looks like the 2026 US Senate battle in Nebraska will be a working class hero independent (Dan Osborn) v. a nepo baby billionaire Republican who has bought his way to elected office (Pete Ricketts). C’mon, Nebraska, make some magic happen!
- Alaska Native & Indigenous advocates say Trump’s new executive order to make voting harder to do will further disenfranchise rural voters. www.knba.org/news/2025-04...
- On Wisconsin! Today is the day to give the Musk/Trump Administration its first big electoral defeat. Show them that your state & your supreme court can’t be bought. Send a strong message for democracy, justice, & fairness by voting for @crawfordforwi.bsky.social!
- Backstage at final Election Eve rally for @crawfordforwi.bsky.social. "I never imagined, growing up as a little girl in Chippewa Falls, that I would be up against the richest man in the world, fighting for justice in Wisconsin." – Susan Crawford
- Louisiana’s MAGA governor proposes terrible amendments which his fellow Louisianan voters reject overwhelmingly. Instead of looking in the mirror, he blames his own state as being “conditioned for failure” and… George Soros. Take some responsibility for your bad ideas, Guv.
- Trump Slump: Musk/Trump extreme policies & tariffs lead international tourists to refuse to visit and spend their money in the USA. A disaster for small businesses in red, purple, & blue states alike. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/t...
- Only in Alaska?
- New Hampshire’s new Republican pushed - and overly restrictive - law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote is an anti-democracy mess, blocking actual citizens from voting. Also, according to a town clerk: “It’s disenfranchising women.” apnews.com/article/save...
- Does Alaska US Senator Dan Sullivan think state legislators are too dumb to craft their own questions? Or, is he so burrowed inside the MAGA Caucus to not hear Alaskans worried he will slash Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid? Or is it both of these?
- Elon Musk could buy Kansas’s Supreme Court if KS Republican politicians get their way. They so hate funding public schools & abortion that they are pushing to destroy the Kansas Supreme Court through expensive & politicized elections. Now it’s up to the voters to say “hell no!”in August 2026.
- Alaska Republican US Senator Lisa Murkowski re: Musk/Trump DOGE mass layoffs: “The approach that we’re seeing lacks the type of planning that you need to avoid unintended consequences. It lacks the fundamental decency that you need when you’re dealing with real people.”
- An important correction for this headline: DOGE is not cutting Social Security jobs, the Musk/Trump Administration is. Hold them accountable, not a stupid made up agency acronym. mainemorningstar.com/briefs/socia...
- Anti-abortion extremists in Kansas got crushed in the 2022 statewide amendment fight but still push to overturn the will of the voters & ban abortion in Kansas. Excellent @melissastiehler.bsky.social op-ed (from a favorite org, @loudlightks.bsky.social)! kansasreflector.com/2025/03/18/e...
- This👇 is the Wisconsin Supreme Court race that Elon Musk wants to buy with his millions in campaign contributions. Go to peoplevmusk.com to stop him and support Susan Crawford on April 1 election day.
- Wisconsin Supreme Court Candidate Said He Would Have Defended 1950s Interracial Marriage Ban Brad Schimel also indicated he was personally against same-sex marriage meidasnews.com/news/... #wiunion #wipolitics
- Immigrants help push Omaha metro past 1M population mark as more Nebraska counties grow nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/03/13/i...
- New Hampshire has a history of razor thin statewide elections. This US Senate seat is one that Dems absolutely must hold in ‘26. NH Dems seem capable of keeping their federal winning streak going, but this purple state needs national investment to build strong get out the vote operations.
- UPDATED: With Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's decision not to run in 2026, here's what some potential candidates for the seat are saying. From @willskipworth.bsky.social #NHPolitics
- Looks like the “blue dot,” Omaha’s famed Democratic-leaning electoral college vote may be nearing the end. Trump/MAGA target Nebraska’s conservative governor. He follows lock-step, undermining democracy & squashing the voice of 650,000 of his neighbors.
- Raleigh volunteers wanted to understand how racially restrictive covenants shaped North Carolina’s capital area. They found that neighborhoods struggling today were plotted long ago by white supremacists to house Black people. Then they were starved of funding. The past is never really the past…
- Kansas Republican politicians refuse to listen to state voters, who shocked the nation in ‘22 by overwhelmingly rejecting an anti-abortion amendment. Republican pols are now pushing to create a partisan state Supreme Court, in order to deny abortion rights. #Kansas voters: get ready to stop them!
- Republican politicians in #Nebraska - including one with a clear conflict of interest - undermine voter approved minimum wage increase & paid sick leave. If they did their job in the first place, these ballot measures wouldn’t be needed. Instead, they do the bidding for wealthy special interests.
- Elon Musk is trying to buy Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. This is the MAGA candidate - a supporter of overturning the 2020 presidential election - who Musk is dropping millions of dollars on for the April 1 election. Great reporting from @wisconsinexaminer.com.
- MAGA Senator Roger Marshall flees his own rural #Kansas town hall after getting questions re: how Musk/Trump Admin is mistreating farmers & veterans. Then he accuses attendees of not being real Kansans, w/no proof. Now backtracking. What do Kansans see in this guy? www.cjonline.com/story/news/p...
- Good luck drawing new jobs & workers if you are a state that limits access to reproductive health. Republican states will fall further behind in the race for economic security. New poll indicates how abortion policy affects employment decisions. kansasreflector.com/2025/03/04/r...
- “A disaster for Arizonans.” Trump’s first 6 weeks in office: mass firings and economic insecurity are bad for this critical swing state. azmirror.com/briefs/a-dis...
