Ronald Brownstein
He is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of presidential campaigns and the author or editor of seven books. His most recent book, Rock Me on the Water: 1974—The Year Los Angeles Transformed Music, Movies, Television and Politics, was a New York Times best seller. Previously, he served as Atlantic Media’s director of editorial partnerships and as the national political correspondent and a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He is a winner of the American Political Science Association’s Carey McWilliams Award, its highest honor for lifetime achievement in journalism.
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Matt Rourke / AP What Does the Philadelphia D.A. Do Now?
Depending on whom you ask, Larry Krasner is either embattled or thriving.
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Drew Angerer / Getty Why This Election Is So Weird
Instead of offering voters contrasting solutions to the same problems, the two parties are highlighting entirely different issues.
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Erik Carter / The Atlantic; Getty What the Student-Loan Debate Overlooks
President Biden’s loan-forgiveness plan offers younger Americans the same benefits that Boomers have been afforded all along.
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Ringo Chiu / AFP / Getty Abortion Could Define California’s Elections
The Supreme Court’s controversial Roe decision continues to reverberate across the country.
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Jae C. Hong / AP Liz Cheney Already Has a 2024 Strategy
To save the Republican Party, the defeated Wyoming representative may first have to destroy it.
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Don Campbell / AP Democrats Might Avoid a Midterm Wipeout
White-collar suburban voters will play an outsize role in upcoming elections.
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David McNew / Getty Are Latinos Really Realigning Toward Republicans?
Tidy narratives about changing electoral outcomes often miss key data points.
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Getty; The Atlantic Mother Nature Dissents
From Texas to California, voters are enduring rude wake-up calls about the future of our country.
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Getty; The Atlantic The Glaring Contradiction of Republicans’ Rhetoric of Freedom
Democratic governors are showing the national party how to challenge the red states’ rollback of rights.
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Chip Somodevilla / Getty Is Biden a Man Out of Time?
Democrats have a growing sense of panic about conservative advances but are not seeing a president who shares their urgency.
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The Atlantic America Is Growing Apart, Possibly for Good
The great “convergence” of the mid-20th century may have been an anomaly.
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Getty; The Atlantic The Democrats’ New Spokesman in the Culture Wars
The left desperately needs someone to stand up to Republicans’ rights rollback. Is Gavin Newsom up to the task?
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Apu Gomes / Getty Is This the End of the George Floyd Moment?
The Los Angeles and San Francisco election results add pressure on Democrats to balance criminal-justice reform with public safety.
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The Atlantic No, Ann Coulter, I Am Not Responsible for the ‘Great Replacement’ Theory
Documenting how a diversifying electorate might help Democrats is not the same as inciting fears about “replacement.”
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The Atlantic The Real Reason America Doesn’t Have Gun Control
The basic rules of American democracy provide a veto over national policy to a minority of the states.
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Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Tayfun Coskun / … What the Primaries Reveal About the Future of Trumpism
The movement no longer depends on Trump himself.
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Getty; The Atlantic The Democrats’ Midterm Identity Crisis
Biden’s agenda is stuck. His party hasn’t figured out how to replace it.
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Chip Somodevilla / Getty America’s Blue-Red Divide Is About to Get Starker
As abortion rights are rolled back in certain states, the gap between the country’s two dominant political coalitions will widen.
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Gabrielle Lurie / San Francisco Chronicle / Getty; … Why California Wants to Recall Its Most Progressive Prosecutors
Criminal-justice reform takes time, but voters might be running out of patience.
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The Atlantic The Green-Energy Culture Wars in Red States
Another thing holding back our transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy
