Vann R. Newkirk II
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Kevin Morley / Associated Press The Virginia Democrats’ Warring Factions
Scandals reveal a party beset by infighting and whispers of conspiracies.
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Associated Press Stacey Abrams’s New Strategy for Democrats
In her response to the president’s State of the Union address, the former Georgia legislator pushed voting rights to the heart of her party’s agenda.
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Steve Helber / AP Ralph Northam’s Mistake
The Virginia governor’s main problem is not the particulars of his dalliances with racism, but the fact that they exist—and that they caught black voters unawares.
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Eric Gay / AP Texas Voter-Fraud Claims Don’t Have to Be True to Achieve Their Goal
So far there’s no evidence that anyone on a faulty list of registered voters cast an illegal ballot. That didn’t stop President Trump from decrying “voter fraud.”
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John Bazemore / AP Why Democrats Picked Stacey Abrams to Deliver Their Trump Counterpunch
The decision to tap Abrams for their State of the Union response reflects the importance of this year’s address to the party.
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Rick Bowmer / Associated Press How a Ballot Initiative to Expand Medicaid in Utah May Be Denied
Republican lawmakers don’t want to fully implement a ballot initiative passed in November. One health-care advocate called it “trampling on … representative democracy.”
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Patrick Semansky / AP The Shutdown Showed How Precarious Americans’ Finances Really Are
What began as an impasse over the border wall became a warning sign of creeping instability.
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Evan Vucci / AP The Consequences of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Canonization
The civil-rights leader is now celebrated as a modern founding father, a celebration that gives those who oppose his policy agenda a claim to his legacy.
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Mary Altaffer / AP The Citizenship Question Isn’t Quite Dead Yet
A federal judge held that the Trump administration’s desired change to the census violates the law, but the Supreme Court could review the decision.
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP The Racial Wealth Gap Could Become a 2020 Litmus Test
With black votes in the balance in the Democratic primary, would-be candidates are already developing aggressive policies to target inequality.
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Jonathan Ernst / Reuters That Time Trump Threw Paper Towels at Puerto Ricans
In the history of Puerto Rico, the president’s name will be tied closely to the story of Hurricane Maria.
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Evan Vucci / AP Trump Is Using the Opioid Crisis to Build His Wall
The epidemic is an integral part of the president’s anti-immigration rhetoric, but it otherwise hasn’t become an urgent part of his policy agenda.
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Cliff Owen / Associated Press Trump Proposes Food-Stamp Work Requirements That He Couldn’t Get Through Congress
Opponents fear that the end of state waivers won’t increase employment among low-income people—but will send deep poverty soaring.
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Alan Diaz / Associated Press What Happens to Obamacare Now?
After a federal judge in Texas declared the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, the health law faces yet another trip through the courts, and more possibilities for destabilizing coverage.
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Scott Bauer / Associated Press How the Minority Wins
An election marked by gerrymandering, allegations of voter suppression, and legislative power grabs highlights the electoral reality of the GOP.
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Joshua Roberts / Reuters How Climate Change Is Challenging American Health Care
Experts say mounting environmental pressures will make people sicker, and that the health-care system will play a major role in averting disaster.
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Jonathan Bachman / Reuters An Incomplete Reconstruction
Mike Espy’s defeat in Mississippi marks the end of a disappointing season for black candidates for statewide offices across the country. But for some it’s a turning point.
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Rogelio V. Solis / AP Mississippi Isn't Like Other States
It's the blackest place in the country. But black candidates there, like Mike Espy, face systemic obstacles.
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Lawrence Bryant / Reuters The Abrams Machine Is Not Done Yet
Democrat Stacey Abrams acknowledged that Republican Brian Kemp would become Georgia’s governor, but she promised to continue her fight against voter suppression.
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Mike Roemer / AP Did Minority Voters Dethrone Scott Walker?
Early data suggest that enthusiasm and increased turnout from communities of color were at least part of the reason the GOP lost Wisconsin’s governor’s mansion.
