President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is giving red states a headache: it’s increasing funding shortfalls the Republican-led legislatures are already struggling to solve.
My latest: www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
Dems flip 28 state legislature seats in Trump 2.0: Voter turnout in state elections over the last 14 months has Republicans concerned as the midterms approach.
(@natsfert.bsky.social)
www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
The directive to aid peaceful protesters is outlined in an executive order signed by Johnston on Thursday.
Read more: www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
The latest escalation in the ongoing conflict between blue cities and the Trump admin over immigration enforcement: Denver Mayor Mike Johnston instructed local law enforcement to “step in to detain that [federal] officer and remove them from the situation” in cases of excessive force.
Denver Authorizes Police to Protect Anti-ICE Protesters
By Natalie Fertig
The Denver mayor signed an executive order instructing local police to take deescalating action if ICE uses excessive force.
@natsfert.bsky.social
As an Austen/Tolkein girlie who knew almost nothing about wuthering heights before seeing this movie, I have so many new questions for all those Brontë girlies in high school
For starters: who hurt you?
My latest: city officials, under pressure from constituents, are finding small ways to fight back against ICE, despite deep legal limitations.
www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
“The federal government must be held to the same standard we demand of our local police departments … We call on Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune to accept these necessary guardrails before the February 13th funding deadline.”
Some of the proposals they’re backing:
NEW: 8 large city mayors from Portland to Boston sent a letter today backing the demands of Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer on DHS funding and ICE reform. www.portland.gov/mayor/keith-...
It's a shift from where Washington lawmakers were this past summer: Saying there was no path to redistricting pre-midterms, so they wouldn't bother.
Fitzgibbon told me California's measure changed the impetus, as well as Trump's continued push in states like Indiana + Fla.
The bill doesn't abolish the state's beloved independent redistricting commission but inserts this trigger clause into the constitution that would let the state redistrict mid-decade **if another state does it first**
The bill is not expected to pass in this session, but Democrats tell me they've introduced it to show what they'll do if they get a 2/3 majority in the state leg this November.
They're a few seats short of a supermajority in both chambers.
NEW: Washington state Democrats change their tune on redistricting.
House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon intro'd a bill today that would put a ballot measure to voters allowing mid-decade redistricting in certain situations.
The bill: lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/202...
NEW with @natsfert.bsky.social: Some states are spending hundreds of millions to make up for federal cuts to Obamacare aid. They warn it won't be enough to stop millions of people from becoming uninsured. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
Dems are seizing on Congress' expected failure to extend Obamacare subsidies for tens of millions of people. As they hammer Rs for the coming premium hikes, they're handing the microphone to impacted voters to tell their stories.
www.politico.com/newsletters/... w the great @natsfert.bsky.social
“There’s a disconnect between what younger people are going through in day to day life today ... I think there’s a split in the Democratic Party about that, that we’re feeling our way through.” -WA political consultant Crystal Fincher about the Seattle mayors race.
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Incredible. Progressive challenger Katie Wilson now has a 91-vote lead in Seattle’s race for mayor. She had been steadily gaining on incumbent Bruce Harrell.
There are about 8,000 ballots left to count.
It's almost time.
Send me your recs for Copenhagen and Stockholm please, friends!
Especially places you discovered off the beaten path (because I've already done a lot of research), good places to read, your fav vintage shop, and the best restaurants you went to!
Denver’s airport is offering to pay federal employees to avoid cutbacks, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston tells me.
The airport asked the FAA for a waiver to do this, but has not heard back.
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Centrist Democrat group Welcome PAC is urging support for former Rep @benmcadams.bsky.social in a redrawn Utah House district race, calling him "an outlier."
w/ @sambbenson.bsky.social for @politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
“This is also a propaganda war,” Portland City Councilor Angelita Morillo told me. “We have to show that our city is not what they’re painting it to be.”
Inside Portland’s effort to keep protests peaceful and - at times - absurd. My latest:
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
Legal hurdles make it practically impossible for most blue states to redraw district maps before the 2026 midterms.
www.politico.com/news/2025/09...
ICYMI, Portland changed a lot of things after the 2020 protests with the goal of NOT having federal agents or national guard return to police the city. I wrote about it in June: www.politico.com/news/2025/06...
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer (former Oregon congresswoman) to POTUS about ICE: "I hope you will come to Portland, Oregon and crack down."
www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...
Utah "can no longer use maps that carved up Salt Lake City, a Democratic stronghold in an otherwise red state, and must draw new lines using an independent commission in compliance with a 2018 ballot measure approved by Utah voters."
www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Colorado is the first state to call lawmakers back to the Capitol to grapple with the ramifications of the massive federal tax and spending bill.
My latest:
www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
"Officials ... decided to let the fire burn for seven days — even as fuel and weather conditions repeatedly reached the brink of critical thresholds for fire risk."
Important reporting on the Grand Canyon fire from @azcentral.com:
www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
States have been passing bills to shield lawmakers’ personal info following the assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman.
But those laws also have been criticized for making it harder to hold politicians accountable.
My latest:
www.politico.com/news/2025/07...
Spotted at the Del Ray flea
Cherry farmers in Oregon are facing problems this season:
"Chandler’s season began around the time that [ICE] began targeting California farms, where many of his employees work before Oregon’s cherry season. He thinks this drove his June labor shortage."
www.oregonlive.com/business/202...