The 2026 mid-term elections offer the Democratic party an opportunity to regain control of the House and Senate.  However, Democrats face an uphill battle challenged by Trump policies, anti-Democratic rhetoric, internal divisions, and political maneuvers such as re-districting. To address these challenges the Democratics need to articulate a political platform with issues that resonate with voters.  While the need in every race is to prioritize concerns of local communities, a set of party-wide policy priorities that can be adapted to fit local needs would be helpful.  

At the end of July 2025 President Trump suggested that Texas should re – district (or, redraw) their state congressional map prior to the 2026 general election. Trump’s purpose in suggesting a redraw of the map was to add five more reliably Republican districts in Texas. This would likely give the Texas congressional delegation five additional members of the House of Representatives in Washington. Texas Governor Greg Abbott then called a special session of the Texas State Legislature to consider the issue and issue a new map ahead of the 2026 elections.

Trump’s egregious pre-election claim that he could “end the war in a day” between Russia and Ukraine has instead resulted in Russia’s huge surge of attacks on Ukraine and an increasing number of civilian deaths. While Trump often tries to deflect his responsibility for handling this war onto past U.S. presidents, he is now in fact the commander in chief and must take action to support an ally in Ukraine, help prevent further carnage, and demonstrate American democratic mettle vis-a-vis a ruthless dictator in Putin.   

In the summer of 2025, President Donald Trump became the centerpiece of a surreal global spectacle: a campaign to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded Trump for supposedly brokering stability in conflict zones, and Cambodia’s deputy prime minister praised him for his role in a temporary ceasefire with Thailand. The White House eagerly embraced this narrative, touting Trump as a global peacemaker and repeatedly pointing to “six major conflicts” that he allegedly helped resolve.

South Sudan is the youngest country in the world in terms of its autonomous foundation. Once part of Sudan, it achieved semi-autonomy in 2005 after years of brutal civil war as part of its now northern neighbor. Eventually, under referendum, the people of South Sudan voted for absolute autonomy in 2011, legally breaking away from Sudan.

Few people are likely to miss the click-to-cancel rule.  Consumers won’t, since they never had a chance to enjoy it, and businesses won’t because they hated it.  The rule, which would have required all sorts of online businesses to make it easy for consumers to cancel unwanted subscriptions and memberships, was blocked by a federal appeals court just days before it was set to go into effect, a ruling that is unlikely to be appealed.  Trump opposes consumer protections and is reshaping the FTC to carry forward his pro-business agenda.

As Texas reels from the July 2025 flood catastrophe, the conversation has shifted beyond the state’s borders. While Texas lawmakers have been quick to blame local officials, the reality is that federal emergency preparedness programs have also been gutted, leaving communities across the United States dangerously exposed. During Donald Trump’s second term, federal disaster mitigation funds, FEMA pre-disaster grants, and infrastructure resiliency initiatives have been slashed in the name of budget cuts and “government efficiency.”

The catastrophic July 2025 Central Texas floods left more than 135 people dead, including 27 children and staff members at Camp Mystic, a tragedy that has rocked the state and sparked a political firestorm. In the days following the disaster, Texas lawmakers publicly turned their ire toward Kerr County officials, accusing them of slow evacuations and communication failures. But behind the headlines and finger-pointing lies a harsher reality: Texas has systematically underfunded emergency preparedness, and local governments have been left scrambling with inadequate resources to face a crisis of this magnitude.