Florida Democratic State Rep. Angie Nixon Announces Challenge to GOP U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody By Freida Frisaro
January 22, 2026
Introduction:
(ABC) FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon announced her candidacy Thursday for the Florida U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Ashley Moody.
Moody was serving as Florida's attorney general when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her to fill out the term of Marco Rubio when he became secretary of state in President Donald Trump's second administration.
Nixon, who represents a district in Jacksonville, said her decision to enter the 2026 election is based on “an affordability crisis that Florida's leadership has ignored for far too long.”
During a tour of the state over the past few months, Nixon said she heard the same message from Republicans, independents and Democrats: “We can't afford to go on like this.”
Nixon said politicians, including Moody aren't listening to the people.
In Texas, Jasmine Crockett Addresses Question of ‘Electability’ By Braxton Wade
January 25, 2026
Introduction:
(Baptist News Global) U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett is sharpening her case for the U.S. Senate as the Democratic primary tightens, framing her candidacy as a challenge to long-held assumptions about who can win statewide in Texas.
In a recent interview at the U.S. Capitol, Crockett pushed back on questions about her “electability,” arguing conventional political wisdom has failed to deliver results for Texas Democrats.
“I really do think the host said the quiet part out loud, which basically was: If a white man couldn’t do it, then why would a Black woman even have the audacity to think she could?” Crockett said. “We’ve tried, I don’t know however many white men, and they’ve all lost. The only thing we know for sure is that a white man can lose.”
Crockett’s comments came as she faces a competitive Democratic primary against James Talarico, a state legislator from the Austin area who has drawn national attention for his faith-forward rhetoric and advocacy on public education. Recent polling has shown a close race between the two candidates, with some surveys giving Talarico a narrow lead while others place the contest within the margin of error.
Rather than avoiding the tension, Crockett has made it central to her campaign, arguing that repeating familiar strategies has produced predictable outcomes in a state Democrats have not carried in a U.S. Senate race for decades. She has said she is focused on turning out what she has described as “diverse but infrequent voters” rather than relying on traditional crossover appeal, framing participation as essential to changing Texas’ political trajectory.
caltreks comment: Even if Crockett's efforts to mobilize “diverse but infrequent voters” fails to gain her the nomination, recruitment of such voters into the electorate could help Talarico in the general election.
What the GOP Got Wrong About Voters in the Texas Senate Election By Sarah Stogner
February 5, 2026
Introduction:
(Austin American-Statesman) The victory of Democratic candidate Taylor Rehmet in deeply "red" Tarrant County is being described as the "political equivalent" of "a 9.5 Richter scale earthquake." But take a look at what's been going on here in Texas and across the country, and you realize the results should not come as a shock.
To people who think "Republican" these days automatically translates to "staunch Trump supporter," Rehmet's big win in a state Senate race would seem inexplicable. Donald Trump won the district by 17 points in the 2024 presidential election. In advance of Saturday's special election in the Fort Worth-area suburb, Trump gave Republican Leigh Wambsganss his "Complete and Total Endorsement" (capitalization his, of course). Yet Rehmet beat Wambsganss by about 14 points.
But having voted for Trump does not automatically mean supporting the direction in which he has taken the Republican Party. Also, his re-election had a big boost from the implosion of President Joe Biden's campaign. And voters were rejecting incumbents all over the world. Across the United States, people were dissatisfied with Democrats on the economy, security and more.
Here in Texas, voters can't blame Democrats for our problems. We've been under one-party GOP rule for decades. The way so many Texans see it: You break it, you fix it. And a lot feels broken right now - including our economy and education system.
Voters have told me they're also fed up with hateful rhetoric from GOP figures who demonize Democrats. And they're deeply concerned about growing antisemitism, racism and other forms of bigotry in both parties. They want candidates who will unite people.
Honestly though, I feel the article conflates "unity" with "centrism." What matters is how well the given candidate performs on important issues like the economy and democracy, and stuff like this is home turf for left-wing ideas. Just ask Mamdani.
Do Special Election Results Spell Doom for Republicans in 2026? By Charlie Hunt
February 13, 2026
Extract::
(The Conversation) Because fewer people turn out for special elections, they’re considered an early predictor of partisan enthusiasm heading into regularly scheduled elections. And with the 2026 midterm elections less than nine months away, analysts are already scrambling for indications of the likely outcome.
…
Since Election Day 2024, 88 special elections featuring candidates from both major parties have taken place for institutions including state legislatures and the U.S. House.
…if previous midterm outcomes are any guide, the numbers being posted by Democrats in special elections so far in the 2026 cycle are impossible to ignore.
On average, they’re running ahead of Harris’s 2024 margins by a whopping 13 percentage points. That’s better than they did in 2018, when they ultimately picked up 40 seats in the House and seven governorships across the country.
….
It’s…worth bearing in mind that there’s no telling how the events of the next nine months might reshape public opinion.
Also worth noting is the increasingly intense voter suppression efforts of the Republican party as well as possible efforts to make sure that votes are not even properly counted. Another factor is the millions, perhaps billions, of dollars that will be poured into races to prop up Republican candidates.
CBS Didn’t Want Colbert to Talk to This Democratic Candidate. He Did It Anyway. By Katie Herchenroede
February 17, 2026
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) Executives at CBS News made it clear to Late Show host Stephen Colbert: he wasn’t to interview Texas state Rep. James Talarico last night, nor was he to discuss how he wasn’t supposed to talk to the Democratic US Senate hopeful. But Colbert, who only has months left of his tenure on the show after being ousted by Paramount Global, didn’t listen.
“You know who’s not one of my guests tonight?” Colbert began on Monday night. Talarico, he continued, “was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.” Colbert said that, “in some uncertain terms,” the network added that “I could not mention me not having him on.”
“Because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this,” he said, to cheers from the audience.
Colbert went on to explain how the directive to not interview Talarico follows January 21 regulatory guidance from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, upending longtime standards for how talk show and late-night hosts can interview politicians. For years, late-night hosts were granted an exception to the FCC’s equal opportunities requirement, which held that broadcast TV and radio must provide equal time for each candidate in a race, regardless of political affiliation.
“Let’s just call this what it is,” Colbrt said on air Monday, “Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV, because all Trump does is watch TV.”
