162k votes have been cast in Texas already by non-2024 voters. Over 2/3rds are voters of color, just under half are Hispanic.

A Minnesota man is opening up after he saved nearly 20 children when their school bus driver suffered a medical emergency. Read more: abcnews.link/t1I488m

🚨Democrats lead Republicans 63%–26% among likely voters ages 18–29 in our Harvard Youth Poll. 63% of #GenZ say their midterm vote is opposition to Trump and his policies. Young voters are poised to deliver a sharp rebuke. Here’s what’s driving it. 🧵

Gov. Mike DeWine talks about Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad featuring Amy Acton’s mother saying she is lying about her past - “the ad is deeply, deeply troubling” and that when you know the full story “it makes it more wrong”

Today, Oct. 22, 4:30pm ET - A live report from @dellavolpe on the findings of the fall Harvard IOP youth poll. Join us! open.substack.com/live-strea…

JD Vance greets Bengals players on the way out

I have read dozens of outraged posts because the US special envoy Witkoff called Putin a "humanist." But no one is writing about the fact that the American negotiators are simply not doing their job. Let me explain. Peace negotiations are important in their own right. Even if they do not lead to a lasting peace, the process itself is an opportunity to resolve urgent humanitarian issues. If, of course, the human dimension is a priority for the negotiators. But it is entirely obvious that neither Witkoff nor Kushner cares about people's fates in this war. The Pope calls on Putin to save thousands of people from starvation in occupied Oleshky and the surrounding villages. The UN speaks about a humanitarian catastrophe and asks Russia to allow the evacuation of the civilian population. European Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno goes on a hunger strike to draw attention to this tragedy unfolding before the eyes of the whole world. And what are Witkoff and Kushner doing? That's right, almost nothing. Except for passing along greetings from Putin’s aide to the First Lady. Thousands of people are already eating grass to survive and begging to save their lives. The Ukrainian side raises the issue of Oleshky at every meeting. And I can name dozens of such urgent humanitarian issues off the top of my head where American negotiators must be proactive. Trump’s peace negotiations have already gone down in history as the deadliest years for Ukraine’s civilian population since the start of the full-scale invasion. I don’t know if anyone will remember the names of Witkoff and Kushner. But history will certainly record how American negotiators, who had the opportunity to save a huge number of people, refused to raise uncomfortable questions before "humanist Putin."

"Trump Is Full Putin" - A new discussion with @RepAdamSmith "That's what I tried to tell my Republican colleagues on the call here. Don't think of this as some tactical error. This is a strategic plan to back Putin over Zelenskyy."

JD Vance defends Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad featuring Amy Acton’s abusive mother, who stayed with her husband who was indicted for raping Acton starting at 9 years old: “Politics is a tough business... Stop whining about an advertisement.”

First tanker with 40,000 t of Russian diesel sails for the US tomorrow. That's under 2 hours of US diesel demand.
In the ~3 weeks it takes to arrive, the US will export 100x more diesel of its own. A rounding error for the market. A sanctions loophole for the Kremlin.

A great visit with @SimonWDC on prairie populism, voter protection, year-round organizing with state parties and Nebraska!! open.substack.com/pub/simonw…