Alex Lenkei

The Downballot's 2026 election calendar Find the dates for every filing deadline, primary, and runoff for the November midterms in all 50 states—and much more

The first primaries of 2026 are on March 3. The *last* are not until Sept. 15. That's 28 weeks, or 6 months 12 days, or 54% of a year, or a really long-ass time.

Catch your breath. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And bookmark our election calendar.

It’s the little things

The president of OpenAI has donated almost as much to Trump as the DNC has cash on hand www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

The Downballot's 2026 election calendar Find the dates for every filing deadline, primary, and runoff this year—and much more

We've just published the most thorough, comprehensive, and easy-to-use 2026 election calendar! We've got every filing deadline, primary, and runoff, all in one handy bookmarkable package. Check it out here -->

“You own it, no subscriptions”

Me: Say no more

Liam Conejo Ramos, the five year old ICE detained last week in Minnesota

Liam Conejo Ramos, the five year old ICE detained last week in Minnesota, is being held in Texas in a center owned by CoreCivic, a private prison company that donated heavily to Trump’s campaign. Liam is now reportedly sick because of conditions in the facility. 🧵

Although its utopian narratives about humanity's future might feel outdated and its commentary about certain topics backwards, I think it finds new and surprising ways to stay remarkably relevant.

I don't talk about this often but I have long believed Star Trek TNG represents the antithesis of our contemporary political and cultural moment—from the show's moral values and narrative structure to its writing and characters.

If you’re interested in data-driven political journalism, I highly recommend @gelliottmorris.com

DHS Says Critical ICE Surveillance Footage From Abuse Case Was Actually Never Recorded, Doesn't Matter Court records reveal the incredibly sad state of ICE's evidence retention systems.

NEW: Remember when we reported that a Chicago ICE facility accused of human rights abuses said they "lost" two weeks of surveillance footage? Turns out, they never actually recorded anything.

This is in response to a class action lawsuit where detainees say they were held in subhuman conditions.

Small tip to take cleaner screenshots in Xcode Simulator

‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...

SCOOP: Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activities on the ground.

Inside the app called ELITE—what ICE uses to find neighborhoods to raid.

Polling Simulator - How do polls work? Explore how random error and methodological choices shape the results of political polls.

I built this for fun. Not really sure what to do with it. Maybe it will be useful to people trying to understand polling. Might even be a decent teaching example. (Feedback welcome. I am not a web designer, please be kind.)

poll-simulator.netlify.app

In reading view, but not edit view, the vertical lines of a checklist with indented sub-items are off center. 🙏

Support for abolishing ICE hits a a new high Americans have turned sharply against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and say it too often resorts to violence

more americans than ever say that ICE should be abolished www.gelliottmorris.com/p/support-fo...

2026 Endorsement Tracker VoteHub is tracking 2026 U.S. House and Senate endorsements nationwide, showing which candidates are gaining support from the most prominent political figures.

🚨🚨🚨 I am so excited to launch our 2026 Endorsement Tracker in collaboration with @votehub.com

This interactive helps you see which candidates are being backed by prominent political figures!

Notice any endorsements missing? My DMs are open!

votehub.com/2026-endorse...

Subscribed! ☺️

The contest for the 98th District in the Charleston area became necessary after Republican Rep. Chris Murphy announced his resignation in August, saying he wanted “to focus on my work outside of public office.” Murphy had missed most of last year’s legislative session and was hospitalized for an unspecified medical episode in February. Democrats are fielding Sonja Ogletree Satani, a business management professor and Air Force veteran, while Republicans have nominated Greg Ford, who also served in the Air Force and describes himself as retired after having held “leadership positions in all levels of the military and contracting sector.” Satani lost to Murphy in 2024 by a 57-43 margin, but Donald Trump carried the district by a much smaller 53-46 spread, according to calculations by The Downballot.

Heyo! Special elections are back on the menu, starting tonight! One GOP state House seat in South Carolina stands out as potentially flippable for Ds. Background in today's newsletter, though one extra detail: The Dem is best known as "Dr. SOS."

www.the-downballot.com/p/morning-di...

The final fundraising quarter of 2025 ended on Dec. 31, but it'll be a lot longer than usual before we see complete FEC reports for federal candidates.

Normally, disclosures are due on the 15th after the end of each quarter, but the year-end quarterly report isn't required until Jan. 31!

It’s great to have such an accessible solution like this!

Hundreds of Big Post-Election Donors Have Benefited From Trump’s Return to Office Well into his second term, the president and his allies have continued aggressively raising money. Many donors have interests before his administration, The Times found.

A couple donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee and $500,000 to MAGA Inc., as well as an undisclosed amount to the ballroom fund.

Then Trump nominated their son to be U.S. ambassador to Finland.

You should never trust me on timelines because sometimes I'll randomly take a week off from working on the app. Anyway, let's put the TestFlight out there. If you're interested in playing around with this app and are on iOS 26, check it out: testflight.apple.com/join/zKBtrsC5

Congressional seats, even the safe ones, don’t come cheap - OpenSecrets News To run for Congress, candidates must satisfy three constitutional qualifications: meet the minimum age requirement, be a U.S. citizen and…

As the midterms near, the cost of running for Congress continues to climb, even in safe seats. Our reporting details how billions in campaign and outside spending are narrowing the field of who can run and whose voices carry weight.

Read more⬇️
www.opensecrets.org/news/2025/12...

OpenSecrets is journalists' go-to source for data on money in politics. Here are just a few examples of how newsrooms have used our data in recent days.🧵

And here's a prettier version. If I can reliably fetch this JSON during a live election like the 2026 midterms, it's kind of a game changer (I already have a live election results API, but always good to have options).

But I've gotten more creative and managed to find a public JSON file from a large news organization. Below, I've just decoded the Senate 2024 election results. Maybe this is something that can be used for 2026? 👀

Outside of the obvious free/government APIs, accessible, standardized civic data can be difficult to come by. This is especially true for past election results, where you may have to cobble together JSON and CSVs from various sources.

There's more to do, and still some bugs, but I think a public TF link should be available by the end of the weekend. On the heels of the November elections and the TN-07 special, @beinformed.app plays a small part in keeping people informed about upcoming elections, campaign finance, polls, & more.

If You’re Pregnant, Here’s What You Should Know About the Medical Procedures That Could Save Your Life Women experiencing pregnancy loss in states with abortion bans told us they wished they had known what to expect and how to advocate for themselves. We created this guide for anyone who finds themselv...

People experiencing miscarriages in states with abortion bans told us they wished they had known what to expect and how to advocate for themselves.

We created this guide for anyone who finds themselves in the same position.

(Published Dec. 2024)

What the special election in Tennessee says about the 2026 midterms Republicans held a Trump +22 seat — but by only 9 points. A swing half as large would give Democrats the U.S. House in 2026, and put the Senate clearly in play

Longer version: www.gelliottmorris.com/p/what-the-s...