Madison City Clerk Lydia McComas took over her job in September 2025 with the city under heavy scrutiny from state election officials after nearly 200 absentee ballots were lost during the 2024 election. During the April 2026 state Supreme Court election, 23 late arriving absentee ballots nearly weren’t counted after a staff error. 

Ann Jacobs, a Democrat on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said at a meeting in April that the second error was “absurd.” The two problems made the city of Madison the subject of the first two investigations ever opened by WEC. 

In June, Votebeat reported that McComas told Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway that she would “firmly address the lack of communication” that caused the mistake and the clerk’s office would have more staff in place for the August and November elections. 

But McComas will be on maternity leave during the Nov. 3 election. 

Despite McComas’ absence, city officials say the processes put in place to avoid repeated errors, additional staff and help from other city departments will be enough to smoothly manage the midterm elections and the potential scrutiny that could come from WEC or the Republican Party of Wisconsin —  whose gubernatorial candidate this year, Tom Tiffany, has previously cast doubt on election results from Wisconsin’s largest cities. 

City spokesperson Dylan Brogan said of the recent errors in Madison that the city is “confident these things won’t happen again.” 

“This is a team process that involves 2,000 people,” he said. 

In McComas’ absence, deputy clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde is running the election. Brogan said that other city staff, such as City Attorney Mike Haas, who previously served as the WEC administrator, can help fill in. 

Bernarde spent more than four years as the clerk in Wausau, a credential that convinced WEC the transition wouldn’t be a problem. 

“[McComas] hired a new deputy who was the clerk out of Wausau. Based on that we didn’t have any concerns,” Jacobs told the Wisconsin Examiner. 

In an interview with the Examiner, Bernarde said prior to the August primary elections, the clerk’s office added a staff member who is responsible for managing the thousands of absentee ballots returned to the city, which she believes will prevent any further absentee-related errors. 

“That is one of our major new changes in our office, we implemented an absentee lead position before the August election, and so we have a full time staff member who’s in charge of that, as well as additional hourly staff and other city staff who are helping to ensure that we have checks in place in the system, that we can check in at different points to make sure that we’re on track to get ballots out on time to our AM delivery, our PM delivery, as well as any late deliveries throughout the day so that way some of those similar mistakes don’t happen again.” 

Bernarde also said that the city and election staff are prepared to run the midterms under scrutiny from WEC and outside observers.

“I think Madison always kind of is under scrutiny by the state, our residents and other people who are involved in the process, and so we’ve had experience working under that kind of pressure the last couple elections,” she said. “And we all want a zero [error] election, and so we talk through that with our staff, with our poll workers to ensure that we are trained and that we document any instances that happen. Because elections involve humans and so sometimes mistakes happen but we have processes in place to confront them, minimize them and then also respond to address them appropriately after.”

The flyers that arrived in mailboxes in Oneida County, Wisconsin, just days before the April 1, 2014, county board elections, were nothing if not alarming. “Some County Supervisors have a Dam Plan which is much more than Water Over the Dam,” they warned. “Their plan would ELIMINATE DAMS!*” 

Underneath this incendiary accusation, in tiny type, was this asterisked elaboration: “*During the amendment process to the county master plan, Supervisor Martini proposed the removal of dams in Oneida County. The proposal did not advance.” The flyers, otherwise identical, each bore the names and photos of one of the four county board candidates who would heroically “Stop Their Dam Plan!”

Dams are critical infrastructure in northern Wisconsin, essential for lakefront homes and resorts, boating, fishing and other outdoor recreation. To seek their wholesale eradication, as Oneida County Board Supervisor Bob Martini allegedly did, is akin to proposing the expulsion of the Green Bay Packers. A 2013 report counted 42 dams in Oneida County, about half described as large, and half as small, some privately owned and some owned by utility companies, towns, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and the county itself. 

In the April 1 election, two targeted incumbents were defeated. Martini lost badly to challenger Robb Jensen, 213 to 128 votes, and Supervisor Candy Sorensen lost to challenger Lance Krolczyk by fewer than a dozen votes. A third incumbent, Bob Mott, beat a challenger by a narrow margin, while a fourth targeted candidate, Alan VanRaalte, won election to an open seat.

In February 2015, I wrote a two–part report on this matter for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, now Wisconsin Watch, where I worked as a writer and editor. I noted that both Martini and Sorensen blamed the flyers for their defeats, and all four targeted contenders said the representations in the flyers were false. 

Martini, a former rivers protection coordinator for the state DNR, told me he had “never made an amendment or proposal to remove dams in Oneida County” and does not support a policy of doing so. He noted that counties don’t even have this authority, adding “It’s just wrong to lie to try to get elected.” Sorensen said that, during her time as a county board member, “there has never been any discussion or plan on removing Oneida County dams.” Mott and VanRaalte likewise denied any knowledge of a dam-removal plan, with VanRaalte exclaiming, “I live on a lake that’s created by a dam!”

What makes this story significant 12 years after the fact is that the flyers were produced with input from a Republican state senator who went on to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and is now his party’s nominee in the race for Wisconsin governor. His name is Tom Tiffany.

Tiffany’s explanation

When I interviewed Tiffany in 2015, he admitted to me that he helped craft the wording of this flyer, as well as another flyer aimed at boosting the candidacies of the same four candidates by accusing the county board of wanting to sell a county building at a substantial loss. He told me he was acting not in his capacity as a state senator but as a resident of Oneida County: “I care about my county. It’s important to be engaged.”

Tiffany provided a convoluted explanation for why the mailing, disclaimed by all four targeted candidates, was somehow still true. He argued that besides playing an “instrumental” role in past DNR dam removal projects, Martini served on the board on the River Alliance of Wisconsin, which Tiffany said is “associated with” a national group called American Rivers, which has “a bias toward removing dams.” The folks at the River Alliance said the two groups had no formal ties.

Tiffany also claimed that, during discussions on a county land-use plan, Martini had offered “some wording that was favorable to dam removal when possible.” Jensen, the challenger who beat Martini, also latched onto this thin reed for alleging that some board members had a plan to eliminate the county’s dams, saying a draft land-use plan favored by Martini included this language: “Support dam/drainage way repair and removal where appropriate.” Martini said he had no role in crafting this language, which was removed when some towns objected.

In a recent email exchange, Martini elaborated on the allegation that precipitated his electoral defeat: “The flyer said there was a plan to remove all the dams in Oneida County. There was no such plan. Even if there was a plan I would have opposed it on several grounds.” He went on to list some examples of dam-removal efforts he opposed during his time at the DNR.

DOJ investigation

In August 2014, a group formed in response to the flyers, Citizens for Democracy in Oneida County, filed a complaint against Tiffany and others with the state Government Accountability Board, an entity which at that time oversaw state election laws. The complaint alleged more than 70 violations of state elections laws, most dealing with whether the mailings met requisite disclosure rules and reporting requirements. It also accused Sen. Tiffany of causing “the dissemination of improper campaign information.”

The GAB declined to investigate, saying it defers to county district attorneys to investigate and prosecute such matters. And so the group sent its complaint to then-Oneida County DA Michael Schiek, who forwarded it to the state Justice Department, then headed by Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel. “We have received the information and it is under review,” DOJ spokeswoman Anne Schwartz told me in January 2015.

Recently, in response to an open records request and some prodding, the DOJ released to me its 91-page file on the case and associated documents. These records show that Special Agent Loreen Glaman was assigned in April 2015 to investigate the allegations, She interviewed at least a half-dozen people, including all four of the candidates the flyers were meant to assist. Tiffany himself does not appear to have been interviewed, but his role was described by Jensen, who “explained that Tom Tiffany approached him and suggested a mailing” and “assisted in designing the flyer.”

On July 15, 2015, Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey M. Gabrysiak wrote a “closeout of investigation” memorandum to Assistant Attorney General Roy Korte. The memo says the investigation found that while “some of the conduct in question appeared to constitute technical violations of the state’s election laws,” none appeared to be deliberate. Specifically, Gabrysiak concluded the flyers’ almost microscopic and bizarrely misspelled disclosure — “Authoized and pad for by candidate” — fell short of what the law requires, which is to include the name of the candidate or committee in this wording.

But Gabrysiak said the more significant allegations reported by Citizens for Democracy in Oneida County “lacked merit,” calling the one exception regarding requisite disclosure “minor” and “likely attributable to a lack of knowledge regarding campaign law or simple inadvertence.” He shrugged off the complaint’s allegations of untruthfulness, saying “Whether false statements have been made in campaign fliers is a subject of debate.”

Nonetheless, Gabrysiak recommended and ultimately sent warning letters to the four candidates, saying they “failed to properly name the sponsoring candidate or committee as required by law.” The letters said that while this failure was likely not intentional, the candidates would not be given “the benefit of the doubt as you were in this situation” should they again run for office. “This letter is meant to put you on notice that you will be expected [to] make yourself familiar with, and comply with, all applicable campaign laws and that failure to do so will subject you to criminal prosecution.” 

Far from the truth

What is most remarkable about this episode is the vastness of the gulf between the truth and what was stated in the flyers that Tiffany instigated and helped craft. While it may not rival other concerns about Tiffany, including his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, Tiffany’s actions in connection with these flyers raise serious concerns about his honesty and integrity. 

The record shows that Tiffany set out, with some success, to kneecap candidates for local office with the blatantly untrue accusation that they had a “plan … to ELIMINATE DAMS” in Oneida County. And he stuck to this fabrication even after it was pointed out that none of the targeted candidates favored any such thing.

At the time I wrote about this episode, I remember being shocked by Tiffany’s apparent disregard for the truth, which I considered extraordinary. It was my impression, based on decades of reporting, that people in public office rarely say things that are flat-out and demonstrably untrue, as Tiffany did in this case. There is — or at least there was, back in the days before Donald Trump — too much danger that outright lies will be exposed and consequences will ensue. And indeed, the wounds opened by Tiffany’s conduct prompted some members of Oneida County to file a complaint that led to official investigation, however unsuccessful it proved to be.

In his current campaign for governor, Tiffany has also displayed a predilection for dishonesty. For instance, Tiffany has sought to distance himself from Trump’s wildly unpopular war in Iraq, saying it’s time to wrap things up, when in fact Tiffany has voted five times against resolutions to end the war. 

Tiffany, to his discredit, has recently been airing an ads blaming Crowley for allowing a county jail inmate to download child pornography. It features Crowley’s face alongside text that proclaims “Used the tablet to access child pornography,” as though it were Crowley who was doing the accessing.

But even this ad is arguably more defensible than the flyers that Tiffany devised in 2014; the county jail does have a program to provide tablets to inmates, some of whom got busted for misusing the privilege. The fairness of blaming Crowley for this is debatable, but at least the criticism is based on something that actually happened, unlike the plan to eliminate dams.

I suspect the current ads were created with input from campaign professionals who are mindful of just how far they can push the boundaries of campaign speech, while the 2014 flyers reflected Tiffany’s own unchecked inclination to deceit. Maybe that’s why he is no longer interested in trying to defend them. Tiffany’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

The Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission is condemning what it calls a lack of communication between state agencies and tribal communities after nine wolves were trapped and euthanized in Price County. In a press release, the commission described the wolves as a pack consisting of four pups, three yearlings, and two adults. 

“This action damages existing relationships and fractures trust,” said GLIFWC Executive Administrator Jason Schlender in a statement. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said late last week that the wolves posed a threat to humans following incidents reported in July 2025 and August 2026. Non-lethal measures were unsuccessful in deterring the wolves, a DNR spokesperson said, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

“We remind the WDNR and USDA Wildlife Services to involve GLIFWC and its member tribes in the decision-making process,” Schlender said in his statement. Wolves represent powerful symbols, spirits and teachers for many tribal communities. “Simply handing us the remains of our relatives after killing them does not constitute meaningful consultation.”

In 2021, when the DNR held a controversial wolf hunt, tribal communities opted not to hunt wolves on their lands. A quota of 200 wolves had been set by the DNR, a certain portion of which was allocated to tribal communities. Hunters in the rest of the state exceeded the quota in less than three days. 

The killing of the nine wolves represents the first time wolves were killed by officials in Wisconsin since a 2022 court ruling returning the animals to the Endangered Species List.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to remove the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list. 

Wolves have come into conflict with rural and farming communities in Wisconsin, killing livestock and pets and triggering a campaign to restart Wisconsin’s wolf hunt. Wolf attacks on humans are rare, and only two fatal wolf attacks on humans have been documented in the last 20 years. 

Randy Johnson, the DNR’s large carnivore specialist, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that efforts to chase off the wolves using sound, lights and hazing were unsuccessful, and that “reports demonstrated a pattern of behavioral escalation, with the wolves showing less response to hazing and more acclimation to human presence.”

Investigative reports obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner describe three separate complaints made in August. The complaints describe wolves, sometimes collared, coming within close proximity of properties, such as in yards, driveways, or grassy areas. One of the reports mentioned chicken depredations. Another report stated that a wolf had come within 20 yards of a man mowing brush on his tractor in an effort to deter the wolves. The third report mentioned a person who saw a wolf near  five-gallon bait bucket for bears. The reports described the wolves as unafraid of people, and said efforts to deter them had been ineffective.

The Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission states that it was left out of the decision to euthanize the wolves, and that the Wisconsin DNR and federal government had met multiple times since 2025. “At no time during that period did WDNR or federal representatives contact GLIFWC staff to inform them of reported threats, share data, or provide decision-making criteria, bypassing consultation with GLIFWC and its member tribes,” the commission stated. 

It added that courts have ruled that the state of Wisconsin is required to co-manage resources within ceded Indigenous territories, such as those where the nine wolves were killed. This cooperation was reaffirmed in an executive order from Gov. Tony Evers in 2019, directing state agencies to consult with tribal governments on “matters that may directly or indirectly impact tribal nations.”

The commission says in its statement that the gray wolf is  known to the the Lake Superior Ojibwe as Ma’iingan, is considered a clan relative, and is a key cultural figure that has been mistreated and misunderstood. 

“People are often afraid of wolves, and wolves are too often mischaracterized,” said Conrad St. John, St. Croix tribal chairman and Voigt Intertribal Task Force chair. “Our elders relay that our communities have co-existed with Ma’iingan since the very beginning and we still don’t have any documented cases of attacks on humans in Wisconsin.”

Alex Bohman, GLIFWC biological services director, said that wolves strengthen deer populations by removing sick, weak, or old animals. “Tribes have coexisted with wolves for hundreds of years and can bring traditional ecological knowledge, as well as western science and data to these discussions.” Bohman said that state and federal agencies should engage with the commission and its member tribes on wolf management. “Ideally, this will lead to agreement on the most appropriate course of action,” she said.

A federal judge has dismissed a civil rights lawsuit stemming from the non-fatal shooting of Damiso Lee by Wauwatosa police officers in April 2022. In a court document filed in late September, U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig said that among the reasons he issued the summary judgement were the fact that  Lee was armed with a handgun, disobeyed officer commands and attempted to run. 

A month before the shooting Lee, who was 17 years-old at the time, had reported his car stolen to the Milwaukee Police Department. Lee never called the department to say that he found the car, so it was still listed as stolen when Wauwatosa officer Evan Olson noticed it driving around one evening.

 “The [automatic license plate reader] alert was categorized as ‘high,’ indicating that the vehicle had been involved in a felony offense,” a court document detailing Ludwig’s reasons for dismissing the case stated. The document mentions that Lee was returning home after picking up a Doordash order when he drove past Olson. He acknowledged in a deposition that he was in possession of a Glock Model 22 handgun. 

After his squad car’s automatic license plate reader system flagged the car, Olson radioed dispatch and followed Lee before deciding to conduct a felony traffic stop. He requested another nearby officer, Dexter Schleis, assist him. Lee drove into an alley behind an apartment complex and parked. “Officer Olson observed Lee open and close the driver’s door without exiting, turn the engine off, and then open the driver’s door a second time and leave it open,” Ludwig wrote. 

Body camera footage released by the Wauwatosa Police Department in 2022 shows that Olson got out of his squad and told Lee to “show me your hands” as Lee exited his own vehicle, holding the food container he’d picked up. Olson told Lee to stop and to not reach for his gun, the outline of which he said he could see in Lee’s pocket. In a report from district attorney’s office, explaining the decision not to charge Olson, Olson describes Lee as wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with a Glock logo in large lettering on the front. 

The footage shows that Lee dropped the food and turned to run away. Schleis was waiting on the other end of the alley. Olson yelled that Lee was armed and as he ran, Lee fell causing his gun to fall out of his pocket. He got back up, picked up the gun, and both Olson and Schleis fired. 

In his decision to dismiss, Ludwig states that while the officers believed that “their use of deadly force was objectively reasonable under the circumstances,” Lee argued that it was not reasonable because he was running away. “Lee’s position is contradicted by the evidence presented, including video recordings of the incident,” Ludwig wrote. The judge questioned whether Olson and Schleis “reasonably believed Lee posed a threat of death or serious bodily harm based on the information they knew at the time.” 

Ludwig ruled that the license plate reader flagging Lee’s car, Olson confirming the car’s stolen car status through dispatch, and Lee’s decision to flee while armed rather than explain that it was his car led to the shooting. “Indeed, the officers gave Lee multiple opportunities to surrender before resorting to deadly force, including after he retrieved the handgun,” Ludwig wrote. 

The judge discounted arguments by Lee’s attorney, William Sulton, that video shows that Lee was facing away from officers and running when he was shot. Ludwig wrote that Lee “changed directions multiple times during his brief attempt to escape.”

Attorneys offer opposing perspectives

Sulton wrote in an email statement to the Wisconsin Examiner that Lee is considering his options for appeal but that no decision has been made. “Suing law enforcement officers is not like suing other members of society because they have qualified immunity,” Sulton wrote. “I disagree with the judge’s conclusions about what the videos show. The videos show Damiso running away from the officers. The judge saw things differently and ruled that Damiso was running towards one of the officers, justifying lethal force.” Sulton continued, “there are too many cases of officers shooting civilians who are running away from them. This will continue until different decisions are made.”

Attorney Jasmyne Baynard, who represented Olson and Schleis, wrote that she disagrees with Sulton. “Plaintiff’s counsel took no depositions and did not serve any discovery,” Baynard wrote in an emailed statement to the Examiner, noting that Ludwig’s dismissal relied on “substantive law” rather than qualified immunity. “The idea that a police officer is required to wait until a suspect points or shoots a gun before they can act in justified self-defense is contrary to the law and common sense. Police officers are also not mind-readers and can only respond to a suspect’s action.”

The Examiner asked Baynard whether there was anything the officers and Lee could have done differently.

Baynard said that Olson was not mistaken in stopping Lee because his car had been reported stolen and was still flagged that way in a police database. She added that “there is something Lee could have done differently —  he could have not gotten high, illegally possessed a firearm, and ignored multiple clear commands to STOP, not reach for a gun and most importantly AFTER dropping the gun, he could have just continued to run off and not picked it back up. No rational and objective review of the video (or Lee’s sworn testimony and recorded statements) supports the view that he was not a threat.”  

Lee being under the influence is not mentioned in Ludwig’s dismissal, Wauwatosa Police Chief James MacGillis’ summary of the incident, or the district attorney’s decision not to charge. A check of online circuit and federal court records also turned up no charges or citations listed under Lee’s name. 

Baynard stressed that “of course we should question an officer’s actions in these situations — in Wisconsin that is done in EVERY officer-involved critical incident.” In 2025, Baynard helped defend former officer Joseph Mensah during a federal civil trial over the shooting of Alvin Cole, Mensah’s third fatal shooting in five years. Olson and Schleis were called as witnesses during those trials, which ended in two hung juries before a confidential settlement was reached. The 17-year-old ran from police while carrying a handgun, but officers also provided contradictory statements about what happened. Mensah recently received $95,000 from the city of Wauwatosa for a PTSD claim.

Baynard wrote in a statement that “cops are subject to the court of public opinion and unable to respond. But we should also start questioning the behavior of the public. Until we stop forgiving criminal behavior, we will unfortunately continue to see cases like this where officers are forced to make difficult decisions so that they get to go home to their families.”

In 2022, after the district attorney decided not to issue charges in Lee’s shooting, Chief MacGillis spoke to the gravity and responsibility that comes with an officer’s decision to use force. “We all experience trauma when an officer-involved shooting occurs,” said MacGillis. “The injured subject, the subject’s family, the officers involved, the police department, and the community as a whole.”

An aquifer breach has occurred in northern Wisconsin, along the reroute path of the Enbridge Line 5 oil and gas pipeline. In a statement, Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner said that “a flow of water was observed following the direct installation of pipe beneath the Marengo River.”

Kellner said that Enbridge is working with the Department of Natural Resources “and other engineering and environmental specialists to determine next steps.” The breach was first reported by Northern News Now.

It’s unclear how much water was released due to the breach. The DNR didn’t respond to requests for comment. 

In August, a section of Line 5 released more than 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquid after an unoccupied truck rolled and damaged the pipeline. WPR reported that the leak was the largest of its kind for both Enbridge and the state of Wisconsin. 

Enbridge previously  breached an aquifer while building the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota. The breach led to an uncontrolled release of hundreds of millions of gallons of groundwater. Minnesota’s attorney general filed charges against the company in that case. 

Line 5 is a decades-old pipeline that carries up to 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily from Ontario to the southern Unites States. In 2019, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa sued Enbridge to shut the pipeline down and to expel the Canadian-owned company from tribal lands. 

Enbridge has since begun work on rerouting Line 5 around the reservation, a move that has been contested by tribal communities and environmental groups as endangering ecosystems and natural resources. Legal battles over the pipeline’s future continue in federal court. Advocates have called on the Wisconsin DNR to revoke the permits granted to Enbridge to carry out the reroute.

President Donald Trump wants to sharply curtail mail ballots. He’s called them “inherently corrupt” and baselessly condemned them as a major source of fraud.

But with Republicans falling behind in the polls, the president is now urging his supporters to vote in the midterm elections any way they can, including by mail.

The White House has also sent emails through a government account promoting voter registration in recent days and Trump is continuing a string of campaign rallies in typically conservative states, including Nebraska on Monday night. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed that members of the military, who tend to support Republicans, have a day off to vote.

“If your state has early voting, do not wait. Go out and vote. Vote early, vote by mail, or vote in person on Election Day, November 3rd, so we can defeat the radical left ‘Dumocrats’ in a midterm victory that is too big to rig,” Trump said in a social media video over the weekend, using a derogatory term for Democrats.

The about-face by the president is familiar. Trump encouraged his voters to cast their ballots by mail in 2024 and has repeatedly voted by mail himself, despite a long record of attacking the practice.

Republicans battle against loss of majorities

The latest comments — along with the red-state rallies — underscore the political peril that analysts see facing Republicans and Trump. 

If Republicans lose control of either the House or Senate, Democrats are likely to launch investigations into the White House that could complicate the president’s final two years in office. A Democratic House would face pressure from the base to pursue impeachment against Trump or other administration officials.

Democrats enjoy an 11-point advantage over Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, according to a nonpartisan September national poll by Emerson College. The poll also found Democrats more enthusiastic, with 78% “very excited” to vote compared to 66% of Republicans. 

A poll by The New York Times and Siena College, released Saturday, found Democrats ahead or tied in Senate races in several GOP-leaning states, including Alaska, Kansas, Ohio and Texas. 

Several of those same states — including Alaska, Kansas and Ohio — allow voters to cast a ballot by mail without providing an excuse. Iowa also features a highly competitive Senate race and has no-excuse absentee voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Vice President JD Vance was visiting Alaska on Monday to campaign for the Republican Senate candidate, while Trump was scheduled to hold a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, where the incumbent Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts faces a competitive challenge from independent Dan Osborn. 

‘We seem to have no choice’

Republicans are scrambling to find ways to turn out their base voters, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. The immediate objective for the party is maximizing voter turnout among their supporters, he said, adding that discouraging them from using legal methods to vote would be an obvious electoral disadvantage.

“The overriding concern for the White House is turnout, not consistency,” Rottinghaus said. “The political messaging has been inconsistent on this. But all of that aside, the need to get Republicans to come vote is paramount for Republicans.”

Trump at the White House on Monday said that he prefers voters to cast their ballots in person but that they can “vote by mail if they want because we seem to have no choice.” Without offering evidence, he alleged significant cheating in voting by mail.

Pressed by reporters for evidence, the president pointed to California. The blue state, where all voters receive a ballot in the mail, has drawn his ire in the past for a vote-counting process that can last weeks, in part because of ballots that arrive in the mail after Election Day. But a slow count isn’t evidence of fraud.

When asked about Trump’s shifting stance, the White House referred States Newsroom to the president’s Monday remarks.

Supreme Court blocked Trump

Trump’s decision to again tout voting by mail — while also attacking it — came after he spent months pursuing a high-stakes effort to impose restrictions on mail ballots. 

In August 2025, Trump promised to lead a movement to eliminate mail-in voting. 

Less than a year later, he signed an executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to require states, at least 90 days before a federal election, to notify the Postal Service whether they intended to allow ballots to be sent through the mail. States would have then had to submit to USPS a list of voters planning to vote by mail at least 60 days before the election.

Postmaster General David Steiner had said that the Postal Service wouldn’t deliver ballots for states that refused to comply with the rule. Democrats and other opponents said it would have given the Postal Service unprecedented and unconstitutional authority over elections, which are administered by the states under the Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the rule from taking effect in a one-paragraph order that upheld a lower court decision halting it. Election officials and voting rights advocates had warned that implementing the requirements so close to the election would have caused chaos.

Trump railed against the decision at the time, calling it a “big loss” for Republicans and alleging it would make cheating by Democrats on mail-in ballots much easier. “And now they have open field to do so,” he wrote on social media when the order was issued in mid-September.

On Monday, League of Women Voters President and CEO Celina Stewart emphasized that the Trump administration had spent months attacking voting by mail. She said in a statement that while Trump sought to impose restrictions through an executive order — which the League sued over — “the President does not have the authority to unilaterally dictate how states administer elections.”

“A shift in rhetoric does not undo those actions, nor does it erase the need for the League to take this fight to court. We will judge this administration by its actions, not by its latest statement,” Stewart said.

Trump’s attacks on voting by mail

Trump’s attacks on voting by mail stretch back to the 2020 election, when mail voting surged amid the pandemic. 

At that time, he characterized mail ballots arriving after Election Day as fraudulent, even though late-arriving ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day — indicating that voters made their choices before the close of polls. The Supreme Court this year upheld the authority of states to count mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day.

Six years later, mail-in voting remains a major way for Americans to cast their ballots. Nearly a third of U.S. voters cast a ballot by mail in 2024, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. 

This year, nearly 1 million people have already voted by mail in the general election, with more than 52 million mail ballots requested, according to data compiled by the University of Florida Election Lab.

For campaigns, every ballot a supporter casts by mail represents a “bird in the hand,” said Rottinghaus. By contrast, voters who wait until Election Day remain potential voters, with the risk that something will come up that keeps them from voting.

Campaigns build whole persuasion operations around mail voting, he said, adding that demonizing the practice takes away a weapon some campaigns rely on.

“This is a top-down effort from the most vocal and visible Republican that can create a lot of complications for Republicans down ballot who may rely on mail voting for a big part of their strategy,” Rottinghaus said.

The Trump administration has cut funding for a federal rural housing program in half nationwide and by 85% in Wisconsin, ignoring the $1 billion congressional appropriation for the program, Sen. Tammy Baldwin said Monday.

“The Trump administration has the money, but they are making an active choice not to use it and not to invest in rural America,” Baldwin said in a statement issued by her office.

At issue is funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Single Family Housing Direct Home Loans program. The program has typically provided financing for about 5,500 mortgages per year for low- and very-low-income residents in rural areas.

Congress rejected a Trump administration proposal to eliminate the program in 2026, according to Senate Appropriations Committee Democrats, and instead approved $1 billion for the program.

By the end of the 2026 fiscal year Sept. 30, however, the administration had spent $518 million. Of the remaining funds, $230 million expired with the end of the fiscal year, unable to be lent.  Another $250 million of the appropriation can still be used in the new fiscal year.

Senate Democrats also stated that the Trump administration has added “harmful red tape” making loan applications harder.

A chart distributed by Baldwin’s office showed that while in past years Wisconsin accounted for an average of more than $13 million in loans annually, that plummeted to $1.98 million in 2026. Both Wisconsin and Connecticut had the steepest drop in loans compared with their past year averages — 85%.

“The price of housing is crushing families and is putting the dream of homeownership further and further out of reach,” Baldwin said. “Instead of helping these folks afford the roof over their heads, the Trump Administration is making matters worse by slashing resources that help working families in our rural communities afford a home.”

A USDA representative did not respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon about the funding cuts for the program.

 

WASHINGTON — Democrats expect they’ll gain a majority of seats in the U.S. House following November’s midterm elections, giving the party a platform to serve as a check on the president’s power. 

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene said during an interview Monday that curbing the war in Iran and working on legislation to address the costs of healthcare would be at the top of the party’s agenda if it is able to flip that chamber.  

“And of course, act as an independent branch and do our job to hold the administration accountable,” she said. 

The Washington state Democrat said she views Republican super PACs spending millions of dollars in safe GOP districts as a sign that voters are moving toward Democratic candidates.

“We’ve seen MAGA Inc. pour millions into House races and spending deep in red territory. Of the 38 districts that MAGA Inc. is spending in so far, 26 are on defense,” DelBene said, referring to the president’s super PAC. “And the speaker and the majority leader were campaigning recently in districts Trump won by double digits in 2024.”

Additions to list of targeted races

The DCCC announced earlier in the day that it had added six candidates to its “Red to Blue” program — Chris Jones in Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District, Dwayne Romero in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, Eliott Rodriguez in Florida’s 27th Congressional District, Teresa Benitez-Thompson in Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, Blake Gendebien in New York’s 21st Congressional District and Justin J. Pearson in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. 

The additions bring the DCCC’s targeted House races to a total of 46.

DelBene said during the interview with States Newsroom and other journalists in the Regional Reporters Association that “while Republicans seem to have infinite amounts of money to throw at us, our momentum is simply too strong to stop.” 

“Republicans may have more money, but they have zero substance,” she said. “We know we don’t need to spend more, but we do need to spend enough.”

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson, of North Carolina, wrote in a statement released Sunday that with less than a month to go until voting ends on Nov. 3, GOP candidates “are on offense.”

“We’re competing in districts Democrats swore were safe. We’ve recruited candidates who served in uniform, built businesses, and put criminals behind bars,” he said. “And we’re running on results: lower taxes, a secure border, and an economy that works for working families.”

Where analysts see the House races 

The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter categorizes 197 House districts as solid or likely Democratic and another 195 as solid or likely Republican. 

That leaves voters in 43 districts throughout the entire country to determine whether the House remains in Republican hands for another two years or shifts to Democratic control. Of those, 11 are rated as leaning Democratic, 10 are leaning toward a Republican candidate winning and 22 are true toss-up seats.

The magic number for House control is 218, though every additional seat beyond that threshold makes governing much easier for party leadership. 

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has had to consistently balance the demands of moderate and far-right members to move legislation across the floor. The House majority currently sits at 218 Republicans, 214 Democrats, one independent who used to be a Republican and two vacancies. 

Erin Covey, editor for the House of Representatives at Cook, said on the “Stories from the States” podcast that during the last month or so “the overall political environment has really solidified to favor Democrats.”

“At this point, our estimation is that Democrats will likely end up with around 220 to 230 seats at the end of the day,” she said. “Of course, that would be a majority in all of those cases. But on the lower end that would be a pretty slim majority. Some of that is because the battleground of competitive districts is relatively small compared to previous cycles. And so the number of truly vulnerable seats that Democrats can pick up is capped in a way it wasn’t in 2018, for example. But the national political example is just as good as it was for Democrats in 2018.” 

Frank Davis and Aaron Hicks, creators of ECHO: Every Choice Holds an Opportunity, contend that very little programming for people in prison is led by people of color or by those who have been incarcerated themselves.

Both Davis and Hicks have been to prison, served their time, and are now reaching out to  work with others who are still incarcerated and or have been recently released. 

Davis and Hicks say they see a recognition that they have something to offer from men who have spent years behind bars and are struggling to make the best of a situation they don’t want to be in.

Voices of Power is the organization Davis and Hicks created to offer their services. They are also founding members of EXPO (Ex-incarcerated People Organizing).

The two were asked to consult with Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and to meet with staff at the Racine Correctional Institution: the warden, deputy warden, security director, a correctional officer with the rank of captain, and community members.

“Aaron and I were talking about different things we were doing out in the community, and how we feel that change, or we have seen how change happens,” said Davis, “and it happens when people who are impacted by the system come back to create programming for people in the system.”

At that initial meeting, the men were asked by Warden Robert Miller and Education Director Dan Durler to create programming to decrease the population in solitary confinement, also known as restrictive housing.

“There’s just certain kinds of messages you need the right messenger,” said Darren Wheelock, a professor at Marquette University and director of the prison education program, “and it doesn’t matter how many times someone like me may talk about, you know, the importance of having a reentry plan – ‘start thinking about how what you do affects your future chances’. I can say that until I’m blue in the face, but It’s not going to resonate in the same way that someone who spent years incarcerated, who spent a number of years of that time in the restricted housing unit. They bring all that lived experience with them.”

Wheelock was talking about the ECHO pilot program Davis and Hicks offered last spring at Racine Correctional, which he said amounted to much more than the content on accountability and being proactive.

“The goal of ECHO is to create a space where participants can discover their own strength, connect through shared experiences, and start building a path forward,” the ECHO curriculum states. “It’s about recognizing how many will define and limit them – and choosing instead to define themselves on their own terms.”

Davis said he and Hicks created a curriculum based on their years of experience of working in reentry and recovery.

After seeing the program, Warden Miller asked that in addition to those in restrictive housing, another session be offered for those in the general population who had just recently left restrictive housing

Marquette University funded the pilot project that ran from February to April. 

“The guys loved it,” said Davis. “The warden loved how it impacted the guys and how they interacted with staff. The staff inside was able to see changes in guys in just the short nine weeks that we were working with.”

Those who participated in ECHO had to volunteer. 

“Normally, what happens is when individuals are offered groups inside, there’s a little apprehension when it comes because it’s like okay, this is another group that’s created by DOC or somebody that doesn’t really understand us, and now suddenly we got to go in here, we got to act like we like it or act like we’re learning something, and there’s really no connection,” said Davis. “When we went up there in the listening session, it was an opportunity for them to see us and they wanted to hear that we’ve been impacted by the system. And once they heard that, their whole demeanor changed. They start listening. They start leaning in.”

After the first listening session, where participants asked questions, the second session addressed the history of incarceration in the United States, an open discussion followed about challenges, especially solitary confinement, along with a conversation about how those challenges do not define the people who endure them.

The third session focused on identity and how people in prison perceive themselves.

“All of the men have been labeled through the system, you know, as a convict, offender, all of those different things,” said Hicks, “and so we pose a question that’s a little bit different, and that question is, ‘who do you say that you are?’ Giving them the space and place to be able to define themselves, and how do you walk in that? And even if you don’t know who you are, we can also just talk about who you don’t want to be.”

There’s a session on mental health and what incarcerated people can do to take care of  their mental and emotional lives, what healthy relationships look like, including the one they have with themselves and how they talk about themselves.

Hicks said many reoffend and go back to prison because of unhealthy relationships that should be avoided.

“Once we get out of prison, the first thing we want to do is jump right into a relationship,” said Hicks. “So we talk about toxic relationships, and from that we build. We start talking about healthy relationships. We pose questions to them about what a healthy relationship looks like. We start to dissect it, talk about it.”

The ECHO curriculum asks the men to consider whether they are fostering healthy or unhealthy relationships in prison, even before they step outside into freedom. 

Then there is dialogue on post-release employability and housing. The program focuses on real-life skills, work and creating a resume, preparing for job interviews and understanding workplace culture.

Davis said a lot of people getting out want to live with someone they know but some of those people may be unhealthy, and Davis and Hicks challenge participants to not connect housing with toxic people. 

One of the last sessions is on vision, legacy and personal accountability. Questions explored, said Davis, include what is your vision, what is your legacy, what is your plan and how are you going to implement the plan?

The participants go through a graduation ceremony and receive a certificate of completion and are encouraged to practice what they learned in prison and start creating a healthy community in prison and make decisions that reflect their goals.

Davis said participants will be challenged and there may be justification for their outrage, for how the justice system may have meted out punishment disproportionate to  their offenses. But that has to be tempered by the longer-term goal of getting out and creating the life they desire, keeping the long game in mind.

“This is really about two men on a journey to really pay it forward and to open up eyes the way our eyes were opened,” said Hicks. 

Some of the men who participated in the program at RCI offered their feedback.

“They came at a time where I was going through a rough patch,” said Davonta Ballard. “They opened my eyes to living and making decisions; every decision you make should be beneficial to you, your goals, and your growth. It came from two individuals who’ve been in my shoes so it meant much more and they were a good example to how you can do your time and come back and be better for the world, your family and community.”

James Allen has been in and out of incarceration since 2006 and is just months away from release. He said the program made a big difference in his life.

“It was somewhat the way the guys can relate because they have been incarcerated,” said Allen. “They just didn’t talk, but also asked questions. They were different and straightforward.“

He said the session helped him think about the direction he wanted for his life and what he could do to make a difference. 

“The thing that stuck with me the most is the question of what did I care about the most,” he said. “I care most about my family.”

He added, “It was the only class I wanted to take to be a better person in life.”

David Greeno said what he learned the most is to pay attention to what he was thinking.

“I’m mostly controlling my bad ways of thinking and I am working on starting my own business when I get released from here in 11 months,” he said. “I am mostly grateful that I took the program. I am very appreciative of what Frank and Aaron are doing by coming into prison and teaching the younger generation.”

Kemondray Johnson said because both Davis and Hicks had been incarcerated Black men it gave him comfort with “opening up and being real.”

“They gave me pointers on how to be a survivor, survivor of the criminal system,” said Johnson.  “Coming where I come from, there aren’t many positive Black role models and sadly most men have to get incarcerated to learn to be a better man. Those two men are role models to me. They are people I look up to and look forward to meeting outside of these walls.”

He added, “Those guys are free Black men and make time to come here and help us and stepping into an environment they swore to never come to again! I commend them and have the utmost respect for them.”

Davis said during the sessions there was a new guard in one of the wings who reportedly was disrespectful to one of the participants, and another participant reminded the man being yelled at that, “Man, you better know your identity,” and both of the men laughed and walked away from the guard.

Warden Miller chose not to be interviewed for this article, but he did describe the pilot ECHO offering as an “awesome program we have worked hard on collaboratively.”

Wheelock said he heard glowing reports from the participants himself.

“That trial run is what has everyone really excited,” he said. “That worked way better than we had imagined. We had students that they worked with that gave glowing feedback. A number of them then transitioned from the restricted housing unit. Right, they wanted to then kind of expand their educational opportunities and start taking classes. So it was all these downstream really positive benefits from having guys that have lived experience go back inside and help guys.”

Future, fundraising

The goal now for Davis and Hicks is to provide a year of ECHO programming at RCI over five, nine-week sessions. They are looking at raising $75,000 to fund the programing. The DOC may find the funds in its budget, but the men are also holding an online fundraiser, which started Sept. 1 and will end Nov. 12. 

“This campaign is about more than sustaining a program,” the fundraising page states. “It is about closing the gap between what people inside need and what is often available to them. Many people are expected to heal, change, and prepare for reentry without consistent support. ECHO is working to change that.”

To learn more or donate, visit ECHO: Bridging the Gap

When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin declared in September that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could serve warrants on individuals at polling places this fall, officials in Denver, a liberal city where roughly 14% of residents are foreign-born, quickly sued.

“Every day we find new things to be astonished about but I think that we just want residents to not be afraid to vote because that’s ultimately what the president was after,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a Democrat, said in an interview.

Johnston and other local and state officials across the country are bracing for possible federal election interference from now through Nov. 3 — even as they remain unsure of what will actually happen.

One month from Election Day, President Donald Trump’s long-running pressure campaign over elections is approaching a decisive moment. For the past year, the Trump administration has sought to bend the U.S. election system to the president’s will across multiple fronts, despite the Constitution’s guarantee that states administer elections.

Interviews and public comments by more than a dozen current and former election officials, legal experts, lawmakers and others ahead of the midterms reveal anxiety over what Trump may do. Election administrators often plan for natural disasters, bomb threats and other possible problems, but this year many are also thinking about possible disruptions driven by the federal government.

Potential scenarios range from armed federal personnel deploying at or near the polls to Trump declaring a national emergency — ideas widely condemned as illegal by election law experts. Homeland Security denies it plans to specifically target polling locations.

Others include efforts to discredit voting machines or federal law enforcement obtaining search warrants to seize ballots, a fear that’s grown since the FBI took 2020 election ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, earlier this year.

Barb Byrum, the county clerk in Ingham County, Michigan, which includes much of Lansing, said that when she became a clerk 13 years ago, she and other officials conducted table-top exercises to plan for power outages and tornadoes. Now it’s moved on to “federal misbehavior,” she said.

“It’s really unfortunate that’s where we are. But that is, in fact, where we are,” Byrum, a Democrat, said in an interview.

Memories of 2020

Fears of election interference are at least partly rooted in previous efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss in key swing states, culminating in a mob of his supporters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The riot led to Trump’s second impeachment in the House on a charge of inciting an insurrection, but the Senate acquitted him.

Nearly six years later, Trump’s approval ratings are sagging and Republicans are fighting to retain control of Congress amid encouraging polling for Democrats. Loss of the House or Senate would effectively end Trump’s legislative agenda and lead to investigations that consume his final two years in office.

“A desperate Trump is a dangerous Trump,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said during an appearance at the progressive Center for American Progress in September. 

At the same time, Americans’ trust in elections is eroding. Just 49% of respondents said they expect the midterm elections to be free and fair, according to a national survey of more than 5,000 adults in early September conducted by the University of California San Diego Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections.

Still, election officials and legal experts remain largely confident any interference effort ultimately won’t succeed. The United States has a decentralized election system run by state and local officials that guards against large-scale efforts to steal elections or prevent voting, they say, predicting courts would swiftly rule against the deployment of federal agents. 

Many votes are also cast by mail, sidestepping any Election Day show of force. More than 1 million votes have already been cast, according to data compiled by the University of Florida’s Election Lab.

“It’s not going to happen,” David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, told reporters on Tuesday. “You’re not going to have to run a gauntlet. You’re not going to see troops or armed individuals at the polls.”

‘I don’t rule anything out or in’

Trump and his aides refuse to flatly rule out interfering in the midterms. In an interview with TIME magazine published Thursday, Trump declined to take extreme measures off the table. Asked about sending ICE to the polls, he said only that he hadn’t thought of it.

“I don’t rule anything out or in. We’ll see,” Trump said of a national emergency.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed questions about sending troops to the polls as “another gotcha hypothetical,” though the Department of Defense has said it has no plans to deploy active-duty troops or federalized National Guard members. 

Some Republicans have suggested they would welcome the presence of soldiers if state and local authorities want them. “If that’s something that they decide that they need to look at, then that’s fine with me,” Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican, told reporters in September.

Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary, last month sought a Department of Justice investigation into whether ballot tabulation machines that read barcodes or QR codes comply with federal law, raising concerns that the Trump administration could create a pretext to dismiss the validity of some ballots. 

The Georgia State Election Board’s executive director recently called on the DOJ to potentially intervene in the state over the use of QR code-based tabulation.

Earlier this year, Mullin also warned that election officials who don’t “participate in securing the elections” could face prosecution. He promised to “hold election officials accountable.”

Roadblocks to interference

But with Election Day nearing, Trump has been stymied on every major initiative to influence the election process this year:

• Congress didn’t pass the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to prove their citizenship. 
• The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the U.S. Postal Service from imposing new rules on mail ballots. 
• The Justice Department has lost more than two dozen lawsuits seeking to force states to turn over sensitive voter data. 
• A DOJ push to prosecute noncitizen voters has led to only a few dozen prosecutions, reflecting studies that consistently found that noncitizen voting happens extremely rarely. In the most recent action, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche in late September announced indictments against 10 noncitizens over allegations of unlawfully voting.

The White House did secure a recent victory when the Supreme Court allowed states to use a supercharged version of a Homeland Security computer program that can identify possible noncitizen voters. But the decision will have minimal impact on the midterms because, under federal law, it’s too close to Election Day for most states to purge large numbers of voters off their rolls.

In response to questions from States Newsroom, White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis in a statement accused “extreme liberal Democrats” of preventing Americans from having full confidence in their elections by not supporting the SAVE America Act, though the legislation faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate. 

“President Trump is absolutely right: we fix this now, or we lose our country,” Bis said.

ICE at the polls?

Trump’s failure to advance his signature election-related policies has left him with few options to exert control outside of increasingly audacious and potentially illegal options. So when Mullin said that ICE can execute warrants at polling sites, the remarks provoked a swift backlash from voting rights activists and Democrats.

“The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” Mullin said during a news conference on Sept. 1.

On Friday, Homeland Security sent an unsigned statement to States Newsroom denying any plans to target polling locations, adding that Mullin has answered the question “dozens of times.” 

DHS said ICE agents are part of trained special response teams that can rapidly respond to major incidents if necessary to aid local law enforcement, regardless of location.

“Any ‘anxiety’ among election officials is the unfortunate result of fake news reports of ‘federal interference’ despite the Secretary’s numerous clear statements to the contrary,” the DHS statement said.

Notably, the statement does not address Mullin’s remark about serving warrants.

At least three lawsuits seek to block any possible deployment of federal agents to election sites. The oldest case, filed on Sept. 10 by Denver and several voting rights groups, points to Mullin’s comments and alleges ICE has already conducted law enforcement operations at polling places this year.

ICE agents “swarmed” a parking lot of an active polling site in San Antonio in May to detain someone, the suit says. In June, agents visited a Ventura County, California, polling place and accosted an election worker at a Syracuse, New York, polling place, it says.

Preparing for the worst

Tina Barton co-chairs the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, a nonprofit group that helps elections and officials and law enforcement think through how to protect election workers and voters from violence, threats and intimidation. She said the organization has about 138 events on its calendar this year, compared to 67 in 2024.

In communities with concerns about a possible federal presence, the organization has officials work through a scenario involving ICE activity near a polling place that affects voters coming to the area, allowing local leaders to think through questions about what their legal options would be, how they would respond and what they would tell the public.

“Their conversation and how they choose to move forward, that’s owned by them and their community and how they choose to handle that. What we encourage is relationship-building ahead of time with them, conversations ahead of time,” Barton said.

Local election officials receive an “incredible” amount of training in how to handle crises, said Kamryn Hoadley, who advises Michigan election officials for Keep Our Republic, a pro-democracy nonprofit. “They are truly as prepared as somebody could be for anything that will happen on Election Day,” Hoadley said.

In Los Angeles County — the most populous county in the country, with more than 10 million residents — election officials have studied the potential for disruptions to the election. 

But Dean Logan, the Los Angeles registrar-recorder/county clerk, emphasized in a statement that scenarios concerning federal agents at polling sites and the seizure of ballots haven’t occurred in his area and haven’t been upheld in court.

“We’ve engaged in scenario and tabletop planning with our partners so that if an unexpected situation arises, roles are clear and our response is calm, coordinated, and focused on voter access and participation, rather than politically reactive,” Logan said. 

“Voters should know the behind-the-scenes work is thorough, and the fundamentals of a secure election are sound,” he said.

A court battle that began when conservative-led states sued to block protections for transgender people has ended in a rollback of protections for people with disabilities — a result disability advocates have feared for months.

At the end of August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services joined the handful of conservative-led states suing it, and asked a court to strike language from a federal disability-rights regulation that directed states to prioritize serving disabled people in their communities rather than in nursing homes or institutions.

Last week the judge did so, ending the case, Texas v. Kennedy, by removing all mentions of community integration from the regulation that implements a piece of landmark federal disability law known as Section 504.

The Trump administration’s move — along with a June memo from the Justice Department that argued federal law doesn’t require states to provide community-based services for disabled people — marks a sharp about-face for the federal government, which has long been the chief enforcer of such protections.

The change to the Section 504 rule, disability rights advocates fear, will make it harder for disabled people to receive services they need to live in their communities — and to stay out of institutions.

“This affects children, this affects adults, it affects your elderly parents. It affects everyone,” said Charlotte Cravins, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, attorney whose toddler son Landry was born with Down syndrome and has impaired vision.

Landry receives publicly funded therapies that have helped him learn to crawl, pull himself up to stand, and to use American Sign Language, all while being able to live at home with his family.

But Cravins worries the ruling threatens those gains. Her husband, who was Landry’s main caregiver, recently had to return to work, and so Cravins is now caring for their son while also working. They’re hoping to get Landry assessed for nursing services and other aids that can help with daily living.

“But those services are at risk now of being unavailable,” she said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Stateline in an email that the department “remains firmly committed to protecting the civil rights of individuals with disabilities” and enforcing applicable disability rights law.

“Our commitment to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are treated with dignity, afforded equal opportunity, and are able to meaningfully access community services remains unchanged,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Justice, in an email to Stateline, said the court’s order “answered an ordinary-course request” about updated federal guidance and clarified the “proper scope” of Olmstead v. L.C., the landmark 1999 Supreme Court ruling that people with disabilities have a civil right to live and receive services in their communities rather than institutions.

Previous administrations have relied on Olmstead’s precedent to compel states to provide community-based services.

States that were plaintiffs in the lawsuit have told the court they don’t want federal interference: They said that Biden-era updates to Section 504 unfairly restricted how they’re able to spend money, and prevented them from deciding how best to care for their own residents. They said their budgets, strained by rising costs and workforce shortages, can’t always accommodate expensive services required by the law, and that with smaller Medicaid budgets they’re having to make hard choices. Removing the federal “integration mandate” would give them more flexibility.

“Florida joined this lawsuit to serve as a check on federal power, not to deny care,” Jae Williams, press secretary in the office of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, told Stateline in a statement.

“Reclaiming state authority gives Florida the flexibility needed to address critical public safety and homelessness issues while ensuring proper care for individuals.”

The resolution of the case “achieves the right balance,” said Sam Curtis, information officer for the Alaska Department of Law, “by keeping historical Section 504 protections in place and vacating only the unlawful new provisions that threatened Alaska’s Medicaid program, home and community based services, and systems of care for Alaskans with complex needs.”

But the change to how the feds enforce Section 504 means states may no longer have a federal monitor ensuring they provide community services, disability advocates and experts told Stateline.

“It’s part of this bigger effort from the federal government to walk away from their longstanding commitment to the right to community living,” said Alison Barkoff, director of the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.

Disabled people still have a legal right to receive community-based services, she said, “but the right is only as good as the enforcement.”

Gender dysphoria to disability rights

The case began back in 2024, when 17 Republican-led states sued the Biden administration over its inclusion of gender dysphoria as a protected disability under Section 504.

But then the suit morphed into something different.

After Trump was reelected and his administration made clear it would not enforce the Biden rule, several states pulled out of the lawsuit. Their attorneys general scrambled to distance themselves from it, amid a swift backlash from the disability community that warned the suit imperiled federal protections for all people with disabilities.

But in a surprising move, a handful of states chose to stick with the lawsuit. In January, they amended their complaint to ask the court to strike down the Section 504 rule that directs states to provide disabled people services in their communities whenever possible, rather than in institutions such as nursing homes and state hospitals.

By September, more states had dropped out, leaving five — Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Montana and Texas — when the Trump administration joined them in asking the court to strike the integration provisions.

In  an email to Stateline, a spokesperson for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, connected the lawsuit and its resolution to the original complaint about the inclusion of gender dysphoria, saying it defeated a “woke” rule that “would have endangered disability funding for the sake of promoting the radical trans agenda.” He did not address the removal of the integration mandate.

“This resolution ensures that Texans who rely on Section 504 and disability assistance are fully protected,” he said. “It supports family choice, ensures healthcare providers are able to provide the best possible care to Texans, and guarantees that all protections that existed prior to the 2024 Biden rule are upheld and permanently preserved.”

Barkoff emphasized that the ruling doesn’t change disability rights protections that are baked into other federal laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, and precedent-setting cases such as Olmstead.

“These rights still exist, and people need to understand that,” Barkoff said.

M. Geron Gadd, a senior attorney at the National Health Law Program who focuses on disability rights cases, agreed that the ruling doesn’t eliminate states’ legal requirement to provide community-based services to disabled people.

However, she said, “it can make it much harder for people with disabilities and their families, who often are already struggling, to obtain needed services.”

States get a boost

One practical result of the judgment in this case — and the Department of Justice’s June memo that reinterpreted federal disability law and the Olmstead decision — is that disabled people may have to go to greater lengths, including suing states, to get services if they’re denied them.

The department has already retreated from disability rights cases against states including Florida and Texas, which have long pushed back against Olmstead’s scope in the hopes of persuading the feds to narrow their interpretation of disability law.

In 2023, a U.S. district court found that Florida had kept children with complex medical needs unnecessarily institutionalized in nursing facilities, violating federal disability rights law and the Olmstead integration mandate. The Justice Department filed the lawsuit during the Biden administration. The department shifted its stance this year and asked the court to vacate its decision.

The Justice Department also dropped out of a long-running case centered on claims Texas has been illegally placing thousands of disabled people in nursing homes for decades.

Disability rights groups and advocates have called for protection of federal integration requirements. Late last month, a bipartisan group of congressional representatives cosponsored a resolution to reaffirm Olmstead and the right of disabled people to receive services in their communities. A group of 100 Democratic members of Congress also signed a letter in July calling on the Justice Department to rescind its memo.

Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at avollers@stateline.org.

Kalshi, Polymarket and the Coalition for Prediction Markets have spent at least $3 million this year on lobbying and campaign contributions across the federal and state levels, according to a new report from the government watchdog group OpenSecrets.

Prediction market platforms say they are like commodity markets that offer contracts to speculate on the future price of corn or oil — not sportsbooks that allow gamblers to place bets. But many states reject those justifications, arguing the platforms offer a backdoor to skirt state gambling regulations, particularly on sports.

The issue has sparked action from state regulators, new legislation, and a flurry of lawsuits from states, prediction markets, and the Trump administration, which has sought to sideline state oversight.

Kalshi, by far the largest prediction market platform, has targeted much of its political spending on governors and state attorneys general.

OpenSecrets found that Kalshi poured more than $300,000 combined into the two major political organizations dedicated to electing and supporting AGs: The Republican Attorneys General Association and the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

Likewise, Kalshi donated $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association and $150,000 to the Democratic Governors Association in the first half of the year.

“Like many U.S. regulated companies, we support candidates on both sides of the aisle,” Dani Lever, a spokesperson for Kalshi, told OpenSecrets in a statement.

The analysis found Kalshi has hired at least one lobbyist in 41 states, focusing much of that effort on California and New York. That means the company has a  lobbying presence in every state that has introduced prediction-market-specific legislation.

State lawmakers of both parties are growing increasingly frustrated with prediction markets, arguing they are avoiding state gambling regulations or gambling bans, gambling taxes and consumer protections.

This summer, Sara Slane, Head of Corporate Development at Kalshi, told lawmakers that the company was committed to building relationships with the states. But she said the prediction markets are not subject to state oversight, as they are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates derivatives such as futures contracts on stocks.

That five-member commission currently has four vacancies. But it has aggressively defended prediction markets and its right to oversee them  — going so far as to sue nine states that attempted to regulate the industry. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, has financial stakes in both Kalshi and Polymarket.

With litigation flying on the issue, many observers expect the U.S. Supreme Court to ultimately decide what role states can play in regulating prediction markets.

In addition to its political spending in states, OpenSecrets found the industry remains committed to federal lobbying, with Kalshi alone spending nearly $1 million in the first half of the year. Those efforts focused on the CFTC, the White House, the Securities & Exchange Commission and both chambers of Congress.

Brad Lipton, director of the Roosevelt Institute’s corporate power and financial regulation program, told OpenSecrets the lobbying push was evidence of the “existential question” facing prediction markets.

“It’s not at all clear to me that their business model can compete if they are going to comply with state law,” Lipton said. “They’re really trying to create a situation, I think, where they have enough political power to overcome the legal deficiencies in their arguments.”

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org. 

Jobs across the United States rose by 29,000 in September, a disappointing result as recent growth was also revised down in Friday’s monthly jobs report, the last one before midterm elections. 

September growth was a large dip from a strong August number that was revised down from 162,000 to 133,000 in the new report. July jobs were also revised from an increase of 21,000 to a decrease of 10,000, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly report. 

“This is a textbook weak jobs report,” economist Kathryn Anne Edwards said on a live chat on Substack after the release.

The fact that earnings, up 3%, are not keeping up with 3.4% inflation, means “We can say pretty categorically that things got worse for workers this month,” Edwards said.

Average hourly earnings increased slightly to $37.81, up 3% from a year ago. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1% in August, but still a decrease from 4.4% in September 2025. 

Speaking on Fox News, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, tried to frame the joblessness increase as a result of a labor market that more potential workers have returned to since August. 

“People are seeing the strong labor market and they’re saying, ‘Oh I need to get back in the labor force because I’m going to make so much money.’ That’s one reason why the unemployment rate just ticked in a different direction,” Hassett said. 

The labor force increased by 485,000 people in September, according to the report, but that’s still a decrease of a million from September 2025. . 

Black unemployment jumped 1 point to 7% for the month, though it also is down from 7.6% in September 2025. 

Health care jobs led September job growth at 16,700. That’s still a slowdown from an average of 33,000 per month over the past year as hospitals continue to seek financial stability. Some health systems had layoffs last month in Vermont and New Hampshire. Government jobs dropped by 17,000, mostly in local governments. 

The freight economy has been reeling from the impact of high diesel prices, and job losses have been announced in that industry. Nonetheless the federal statistics show a monthly job increase of 2,600 in September for truck transportation jobs, but a drop of 4,100 in warehousing and storage jobs. 

An alternative jobs report from payroll processor ADP found a 90,000-job gain in September, with more than half of those coming gains in the Mid-Atlantic region of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.  

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

The Milwaukee County Board voted to remove Flock cameras from its parks Thursday night. Passed unanimously, the resolution also permits the county to replace the controversial cameras with more conventional security cameras. It’s not clear  how the new cameras would be paid for.

Supv. Justin Bielinski, who authored the resolution, said he’s excited to remove Flock cameras from Milwaukee County parks. The cameras must be removed by the end of the year. 

Flock cameras are equipped with AI-powered automatic license plate reader technology. When a car passes in view, the camera takes a picture of the car and its license plate. The images are then stored in a database which can be searched at will by law enforcement agencies with their own Flock contracts. The searches can be done without a warrant, and allow officers to enter a license plate or vehicle description to determine where a vehicle has been.

Law enforcement agencies say the cameras are invaluable tools for detecting and stopping crime. Numerous law enforcement agencies in Milwaukee County use Flock including the Milwaukee Police Department and the sheriff’s office. In a presentation to a county board committee earlier this week, the sheriff’s office credited the cameras with contributing to a 43% decline in certain crimes around county parks between 2023 and 2026. 

Privacy advocates, concerned citizens and elected officials have increasingly soured on the cameras. Cases of officers using the cameras to surveil protesters, pursue women suspected of seeking out-of-state  abortions and keeping tabs on current or estranged romantic partners have made national news. In Wisconsin, three police officers and one sheriff’s deputy in Milwaukee, Menasha and Kenosha counties have faced charges of misconduct in public office due to their use of Flock to unlawfully monitor people.

Milwaukee County Executive and Democratic candidate for governor David Crowley proposed removing funding for Flock in the 2027 budget.

The sheriff’s office said that without a replacement technology, crime would increase in the 11 parks where the cameras have been installed. It’s estimated that replacing the cameras could cost as much as $140,000. In 2025, the Examiner found that at least 221 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies used Flock during that year. Several communities around the state have removed their Flock cameras since then. 

WASHINGTON — This summer, arrests of immigrants in the United States soared to the highest levels since President Donald Trump returned to office.

An unprecedented increase in cooperation between local and state law enforcement and federal immigration officers through collaborations known as 287(g) agreements helped drive numbers up. 

The agreements allow state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce parts of federal immigration law and have become an arm of Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Republicans in Congress have provided billions in federal funding for local departments that accept the agreements, creating a deluge of new partners.

Theresa Cardinal Brown, a senior Department of Homeland Security official during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, said the billions in new funding has helped the program grow. 

“Mostly, 287(g) agreements were voluntary, and the costs were borne by the state and local government to train their own people,” she said. “Now, the federal government has money to pay them, and so that’s encouraging more states and localities to do it because it’s a budget plus-up.”

In June, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recorded roughly 43,000 immigration arrests, followed by 49,000 in July and nearly 51,000 in August. ICE does not distinguish between arrests initially made by local law enforcement or federal officials.

Those three months also saw the most new 287(g) agreements signed since Trump took office, according to a States Newsroom analysis of government data.

“ICE has increased efforts with state and local law enforcement to assist federal immigration officers in our efforts to make America safe again,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to States Newsroom.

But those efforts have generated protests in some of the communities where they’ve appeared.

Democrats in Maryland and Maine passed laws restricting cooperation between local police and ICE. The Maryland measure’s supporters said it would reduce distrust of police.

Skyrocketing growth

The president’s signature 2025 domestic policy bill, the “One, Big Beautiful” Act, set aside about $4 billion for state and local governments to conduct immigration enforcement, including 287(g) programs. The Secure America Act passed in June allocated more than $31 billion to implement those agreements as well. 

Both packages were passed by Republicans through a legislative maneuver known as reconciliation that did not need Democratic votes. 

The funds incentivized massive growth. 

Before Trump took office in January 2025, the federal government had agreements with 135 state and local police departments. As of Oct. 1, those agreements skyrocketed to 2,608, according to DHS data. 

Local departments or state agencies in 38 states have 287(g) agreements, with the highest numbers in Texas and Florida, where there are state laws requiring local law enforcement to partake in the program. 

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday the Florida Highway Patrol was eligible for $26 million in reimbursements from the federal government for arrests from April through June.

“My educated guess would be that a large number of the arrests and detentions that we’ve seen increasing in recent months in the summer were because there was an increase in 287(g) agreements in Texas and Florida, but other parts of the country as well,” said Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank that studies global migration.

ICE does not always specify when an immigration arrest is made through the partnership program, but the Deportation Data Project, a project of the University of California schools in Berkeley and Los Angeles that analyzes government immigration enforcement data, has attributed at least 6,150 arrests in July, about 12.5% of all arrests for that month.

Only 12 states have no such agreements. They are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state.

Three models

The partnership program was created in a 1996 law, but not actively used until the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It first received federal appropriations in 2006.

Three types of partnerships operate within the program.

The loosest type of agreement is the jail enforcement model, where deputized officers can inquire about the immigration status of people arrested on state or local charges, as well as hold a noncitizen for ICE to pick up for up to 48 hours. 

In another model, the warrants service officer model, ICE trains, certifies and allows state and local law enforcement to issue administrative warrants, which are not signed by a judge, but by an ICE official requesting the arrest of a noncitizen. Local law enforcement officers under this model do not inquire about immigration status. 

The task force model, which involves the greatest immigration enforcement by local officers, allows for immigration officials to deputize local officers to partake in immigration duties such as asking about immigration status or even detaining people and transferring them to ICE.

As part of its immigration crackdown, the second Trump administration revived the task force model after the Obama administration discontinued it in 2012 over concerns of racial profiling. 

It has seen the largest increase under Trump, Ruiz Soto said.

More than 71% of 287(g) agreements now use the task force model, according to Titus Consulting, a firm that tracks the agreements. About 7% use the jail enforcement model and more than 21% use the warrant model. 

The task force model is “hands down,” the most effective method in arresting noncitizens, said Todd Bensmen, a senior research fellow for the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. 

“If they’re not deputized under that, they just come into contact with people that are fully … deportable, and then just leave them be,” he said of local law enforcement. “They can just arrest them on the spot and call ICE, and that way you have a really dramatic force multiplier and ICE doesn’t have to do anything but come and pick them up.” 

Program changes

In 2006, the Bush administration took an interest in exploring 287(g) programs, specifically the jail enforcement model because it was easy for ICE to identify people who are subject to an immigration arrest, said Brown.

“If your job is to find people, wow, that’s the easiest thing to do,” she said of the jail model. 

Brown said that spurred the idea for the Secure Communities program. Under the program, the FBI automatically sent fingerprints of a person booked in custody to DHS to check against its immigration database. If the person was a noncitizen who was unauthorized in the U.S., then ICE was notified.

The program was voluntary, but there was pushback from immigration advocates during the Obama administration, Brown said. 

“There was a concern that this was mixing criminal enforcement and immigration enforcement in ways they weren’t meant to, (and) it was creating fear among immigration communities of reporting crimes for fear that they would be arrested,” she said. 

The Obama administration pulled back and redirected the Secure Communities program to a federal government model.  

“They turned it from like a community-by-community rollout to just a federal-to-federal information sharing agreement that remains in place today,” she said. 

Brown said the difference now is that some communities have decided when ICE is notified, if at all, and whether or not to honor detainers, which are requests from ICE to hold an immigrant until federal immigration officers arrive. 

Local governments that have not wanted to participate in federal immigration enforcement have been dubbed sanctuary cities. 

The Trump administration has threatened to pull federal funding from those cities that don’t want to aid in immigration enforcement and has offered an influx of cash to states and local governments that have agreed to participate. 

The Republican Congress has funded the program for the next three years, Ruiz Soto noted.

“It would then come to … what a future administration or a future Congress would do to continue expanding this or not fulfill them anymore,” he said. “But clearly right now ICE has significant funding to last for 287(g) and much more other enforcement in the near future.”

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil’s investments helped make him millionaire, nearly doubling his net worth from $812,000 to nearly $1.9 million since he went to Congress, Wisconsin Watch reports. According to the financial data tracking platform Unusual Whales, Steil’s stock portfolio was the fourth most profitable among members of Congress in 2025, outperforming the S&P 500 by 62.5%. Yet Steil is running as a watchdog on congressional stock trading. 

“You deserve a Congress you can trust, that’s working for you. … I’m leading the charge to ban members of Congress from trading stocks,” Steil says in a campaign ad now running in Wisconsin’s suddenly competitive 1st Congressional District.

The ad refers to Steil’s Stop Insider Trading Act, which failed in the Senate this week. Steil blamed Democrats for blocking his attempt at “ethics reform” and vowed to keep fighting.  But Wisconsin’s Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin called the bill a “sham,” pointing out that there are much stronger bills that, unlike Steil’s, require members to divest their stock holdings.

Steil’s bill allows members of Congress to keep and sell stocks. It places no restrictions on their purchases of cryptocurrency holdings, betting in prediction markets or trades in industry-specific mutual funds or private stock offerings from corporations. 

These giant loopholes drew the attention of Steil’s colleague U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, who grilled Steil on the shortcomings in his bill during a House Rules Committee hearing on July 20. 

“There are many bills that have been introduced … that would ensure that the sale and the purchase of stocks is banned, and this bill does not do that,” Neguse pointed out. He and Steil debated whether a disclosure rule in Steil’s bill is a sufficient safeguard (Neguse didn’t think so), and why the bill didn’t cover prediction markets. 

The Senate unanimously passed a ban on members and staff participating in prediction markets, just one week after a U.S. special forces soldier was charged with using classified information to bet on the capture of the Venezuelan president. Members of Congress have access to all kinds of sensitive information they could use for personal gain by placing bets on wars, economic crises or elections, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned. Why can’t the House pass the same ban, Neguse asked. Steil replied that he has been working on a separate bill concerning prediction markets, which are a “new and novel technology.” 

“It took the Senate a day!” Neguse shot back. “It’s a one-page resolution. It literally is a paragraph. It just says members of the Senate are banned from participating in prediction markets.” Neguse suggested that the House adopt the Senate’s language and pass the same resolution immediately. 

Instead, Steil has crafted a narrow bill that imposes fines on members and their families if they bet on specific government policy matters that come to their attention through their congressional work. Like his narrow stock-trading bill, which avoids making members give up lucrative investments, the Stop Lawmakers from Predicting Act takes a permissive view of members interested in playing in prediction markets unless there is a specific, demonstrable conflict of interest that a member’s colleagues on the House ethics panel deem worthy of a fine.

At best, that’s a different goal than the “Congress you can trust” Steil talks about in his campaign ad. Instead of protecting the public from corrupt public officials who seek to profit from their privileged perch, Steil is intent on not making things too uncomfortable for his fellow members sitting on cushy portfolios.

It says a lot that Steil’s prediction market bill and his Stop Insider Trading Act both have the full support of President Donald Trump. As Baldwin points out, Trump is exempt from Steil’s proposed restrictions on stock trading, even though Trump made 21,000 stock trades and added $2.2 billion to his personal wealth in just the first year of his second term.

This is the real hole in Steil’s claim to be an ethics watchdog in Congress. His compromised reform proposals don’t come close to making up for the heavy lifting he has been doing in office carrying water for Trump. He has been a chief enabler for a president who is setting new records for unethical behavior as he uses his office to enrich himself. Along with his weak efforts at “ethics reform,” Steil has been pushing new voting restrictions dear to Trump’s heart. His proposed national Voter ID Act is even more restrictive than Wisconsin’s toughest-in-the-nation voter ID law, barring the use of student IDs to vote and potentially disenfranchising millions of eligible voters who don’t meet the requirements. 

Steil does not present as a rage-filled MAGA warrior. Like his mentor, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, he has repeatedly won reelection by comfortable margins while projecting a friendly, thoughtful image in his home district, even as his work in Washington diverges from his constituents’ interests. But as crises pile up, it’s getting harder to put a pleasant gloss on loyalty to an administration that is rapaciously devouring the nation’s wealth while trying to disenfranchise its citizens. 

Wisconsin’s 1st CD has attracted national attention recently as the political landscape gets tougher for Republicans even in solidly red House districts. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Steil’s reelection race to its Red to Blue list and an internal DCCC poll conducted Sept. 21-23 — with a margin of error of 4.4% — found the race is a dead heat between Steil and his challenger, former VA hospital nurse Mitchell Berman, with the two candidates tied 48-48 among likely voters, a plurality of whom identified as Republicans.

A new Berman campaign ad, paid for in part by the DCCC, which now sees Steil as a target, emphasizes Steil’s stock portfolio. In it, Berman declares, “Public service shouldn’t be about getting rich.” Steil couldn’t have said it better himself.

Nearly 100 community-based organizations have lost their federal HIV-prevention grants this week as the Trump administration redirects dollars to state and local health departments.

The funding change represents a departure from the decades-old national HIV prevention strategy favored by most public health organizations.

President Donald Trump launched the Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Initiative during his first term in office. Since 2021, the program has disbursed a total of nearly $240 million to 96 community-based organizations in 31 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Those groups have used the money to pay for testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a medication that people at high risk for HIV can take for protection during sex or injection drug use. Preventing new HIV infections and preserving access to treatment for those who have HIV helps prevent further transmission of the virus.

By prioritizing areas with the highest number of HIV diagnoses, the initiative sought to reduce HIV incidence by 75% in five years and by 90% by 2030. It continued under the Biden administration.

But now the Trump administration has shifted course.

Instead of granting money directly to community-based organizations, the administration is offering one-time grants to state and local health departments. It is encouraging the jurisdictions with the most HIV diagnoses to funnel at least 25% of the money to community groups, but there is no requirement that they do so. Health departments in areas with fewer diagnoses are being encouraged to send 10% of their money to community groups.

The state and local health agencies are required to spend whatever dollars they don’t pass on to community groups on HIV surveillance and PrEP access.

When the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the availability of the original grants in 2020, it noted that since the late 1980s, it had partnered with community-based organizations to fight the spread of HIV because of “their accessibility, history and credibility in the community,” especially among Black and Hispanic people, gay and bisexual men and people who inject drugs.

“CDC has done this for a very long time, specifically because they know that community-based organizations are important players in the community,” said Lindsey Dawson, associate director for HIV policy at KFF, a nonprofit health research group.

“They’re a voice in the community that people trust, and these programs really are able to reach people who are at greatest vulnerability to HIV in a way that the state or federal or local government (would) not be able to do.”

When asked for an explanation of the change, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services referred Stateline to the Office of Management and Budget. Neither OMB nor the White House press office responded to multiple requests for comment.

The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors told Stateline that under the new grant program, the federal government will disburse approximately $90 million to state health departments through May 2027. Though that amount is nearly twice as much as the roughly $48 million per year that was handed out under the old grant program, community-based organizations are going to see less money, public health experts say.

In August, KFF estimated that overall, community-based organizations would need about 35% of the new money to match what they were getting before. The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors estimates that percentage to be closer to 50%.

In Texas, health officials said the state plans to send about 23%, or about $1.2 million, of its $5.24 million grant to community-based organizations.

Jeffrey Campbell, chief executive officer of Allies in Hope — formerly called AIDS Foundation Houston — told Stateline that he expects his federal funding to be cut by $441,000, which could force him to lay off at least three staff members.

Under the old grant structure, half of all funding had been channeled to organizations in the South, which accounts for more than half of the nation’s HIV diagnoses.

But already, one organization in that region has announced it will have to shut down as a result of the funding change: PowerHouse Charlotte in North Carolina announced in August that it will close. For 16 years, that  organization has provided  free HIV and STD screenings, prevention services and community resources geared toward gay Black men.

In at least two states, Minnesota and Oregon, state health agencies wouldn’t be able to match the amount of money their community-based organizations were getting under the old system even if they gave 100% of their state grants to those groups, according to KFF.

“These community-based organizations are on the ground doing the work with the populations that need it,” said Carl Schmid, executive director at the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, a public health nonprofit that tracks policies related to HIV prevention.

“Some states may have relationships with some of the existing grantees and may be fine, but others, they may not. And so there’s definitely going to be a lapse of funding.”

Emily Schreiber, senior director of policy at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, said that under the new rules, states don’t have much time to establish new contracts with community-based organizations.

“(States) are trying to turn around things as fast as possible. But simply there (was) not enough time to get that funding through the contracting process and all of that by September 30th, which was really unfortunate,” she said.

“It’s not easy for a health department to create a whole new contracting process overnight. Even in the best-case scenario, this is not a perfect solution.”

Many health departments take between 45 and 90 days to scale new contracts and grants, said Toni Young, executive director and founder of Community Education Group, a nonprofit offering HIV community engagement, testing and outreach across rural West Virginia and the broader Appalachian region.

“We don’t have an infrastructure in many rural communities to address HIV,” she said.

Another challenge for community-based organizations is that because they won’t be getting money directly from the federal government, they will no longer be eligible for discounted drugs under the federal 340B program.

“When you took away this grant, you also took away their 340B status, which is the reason some have had to potentially close or at least stop this entire side of operations,” said Maximillian Boykin, manager of the Save HIV Funding Campaign.

“It leaves a lot of these places very fragile.”

Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@stateline.org.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission met Thursday to assess its preparations for the midterm elections in November, review reports on allegations of voter fraud and determine the outcome of two complaints against election officials. 

The commission met as concerns continue to swirl around Wisconsin and the country over the possibility that President Donald Trump and his Republican allies will work to undermine confidence in the results of the election. 

In the meeting, WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe gave the agency’s pre-election readiness report in which she outlined the ways the commission works to keep the state’s voter rolls accurate, train election officials, ensure the election’s security and answer any questions that come from local officials or voters. 

One of the most frequent complaints about the election system made by conspiracy theorists is that Wisconsin’s voter registration database includes the information of “inactive” voters who have moved, died or been convicted of a felony. The critics argue that leaving these files in the database makes it easier for fraud to occur.

The report states that WEC and local election officials have reviewed or updated nearly 500,000 voter files ahead of the election to make sure that only eligible voters cast votes in November. 

“And in total, since the last general election, our municipal clerks have updated or deactivated over a half a million records, and so I think that’s really, really important to highlight how much work goes into maintaining Wisconsin’s voter registration list all day, every day to ensure that anybody that’s lawfully registered will show up on the registration list,” Wolfe said. “They’ll show up on the polls when they go to vote on Election Day, and anybody who is not eligible, so anybody who maybe has been convicted of a felony or is otherwise not eligible, is removed from the list or their record is updated.”

Commission Chair Don Millis, a Republican, said that leaving the inactive voter files in the database actually protects against fraud. 

“Basically, you have one database with 7 million records, and there’s a very good reason why we keep records of inactive voter records, deceased voters, because if you got rid of those, you would lose one of your best tools to combat election fraud,” Millis said.

Wolfe also said that in an effort to provide as much information as possible to voters and clerks, the WEC office is set to open at 5 a.m. in the weeks ahead of the election. 

Commissioner Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, said she appreciates the sacrifice from WEC staff to help people, but that the agency’s 30-person staff is not large enough to handle the demands of the public. 

“We have put in a request for our budget for many more positions because the work we’re doing has expanded dramatically,” Jacobs said. “It shouldn’t be something where people are sacrificing as much as they are. And I want to express my admiration for our staff’s devotion to this work and commitment to it. And also say that our need for additional staff is real. It’s profound. And I hope if any legislators are out there listening, that you treat our budget request for more personnel with great attention, and hopefully give us those staff positions.”

Voter fraud, felon reports 

Commission staff also presented the results of the agency’s regular reports on felons who have voted and reported election fraud. 

As is generally the case, neither report shows widespread levels of election fraud at the level Republicans have regularly alleged in recent years. 

The report shows that since the 2020 general election, nearly 22 million votes have been cast in Wisconsin. Only 445 of those votes, 0.002%, were matched to voters with felony convictions and an even smaller number of those instances were actually referred to prosecutors and charged. 

The commission’s annual report on voter fraud found that in the elections since November 2025, municipal clerks have referred 53 cases of election fraud to local prosecutors. The WEC report, agency staff said, could be an undercount because it’s dependent on clerks reporting the referrals to WEC when they happen. 

Most of the referrals, 44 of them, were made because the “election day registration” postcard delivered to a person’s address after they register at the polls was returned undeliverable. 

Milwaukee Complaint

The commission also voted on Thursday that there is no probable cause to further investigate a voter’s complaint that the city of Milwaukee violated state law by sorting absentee ballots at its central count location behind a curtain. 

The complaint alleged that city staff were conducting “observable” election activities behind the curtain at the city’s central count location during the November 2024 and April 2025 elections. The commission’s discussion of the complaint reopened long-running arguments between commission members — most notably from Republican Robert Spindell, who has long been the WEC member most friendly to election conspiracy theories. 

Spindell argued that people continuing to have doubts about Wisconsin’s elections is evidence that Wisconsin’s elections aren’t run competently or transparently enough. 

“Let’s stop having these problems that we have, where 45% of the citizens of Wisconsin feel that there’s something wrong with this thing,” Spindell said. “I’m sure Mayor [Cavalier] Johnson does not like the bad publicity that comes out regarding the lack of transparency. There’s no reason why that black curtain is up. There’s no reason why all these actions are being blocked if there’s nothing nefarious going on.” 

Jacobs pointed out that the complaint included several blatantly false statements.

“Bob, I’m concerned by your comments because I know you’ve been to Central Count. I know you have seen ballots being opened in the machines. I know you have seen the tables. I know you have seen the poll workers calling out names. I know you have seen all this,” Jacobs said. “And this complaint was by someone who swore under penalty of perjury that those things were happening behind this curtain. This man brought a lie to us, a lie, because he’s so invested in putting forward this conspiracy theory of secret things going on behind black curtains that he’s willing to lie on these documents to us. You and I both know, we’re both there, you and I both know that’s not true and he lies to this commission with the hopes of diminishing the work being done in the city of Milwaukee and I think you should be as offended as I am by that, because I’m pretty darn offended.” 

Mark Thomsen, another Democratic member of the commission, said that it’s Spindell’s repeated indulgence of conspiracy theories that has allowed distrust of the system to continue. 

“For you to turn this discussion about a complaint and a recommendation into the politics of the election, I think that hurts us more than anything,” Thomsen said. “I think that promotes mistrust, and … years and years of this is like it’s like Chinese torture, Bob. I mean, it’s enough.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Keith Sonderling as secretary of Labor on Wednesday, marking one of the few Trump administration picks to get through the upper chamber recently after a North Dakota senator put a hold on “any and all” nominees. 

But the Senate left town late Wednesday for its weeks-long campaign break and is not scheduled to return until after the midterms in November. 

Dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees remain held up amid Sen. Kevin Cramer’s outrage over a Biden-era rule dealing with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wetland easements that Cramer says harm his state’s property owners.

Those nominees on hold include Kari Lake, the 2024 Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, as ambassador to Jamaica and Sean Kaufman to serve as assistant secretary for preparedness and response for the Department of Health and Human Services, among others. 

Senators also have a slew of unfinished business to address once they return from their recess for the lame-duck session, and the consideration of nominees would compete with other matters for floor time, potentially dragging out the timeline even longer.

Sonderling — confirmed as Labor secretary, 47-41, along party lines — took on the acting agency head role in April after former Oregon U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid misconduct allegations.

Aside from Sonderling, Cramer — generally a stalwart Trump ally — has only allowed Chris Klomp’s nomination to serve as deputy secretary of HHS to move forward. 

Klomp’s bid, which advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee in late September, has yet to reach a vote on the Senate floor. 

“No other holds have been lifted, because my landowners need results, not commitments,” Cramer said in a statement shared with States Newsroom. 

The GOP senator’s hold only covers Trump’s nominations and does not include military promotions. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., conducted one of the most highly publicized blanket holds in recent years on hundreds of military promotions for most of 2023 in protest of a Pentagon abortion policy.

A “hold” on a nomination in the Senate is an informal practice, used by members of both parties, where a senator signals their intent to object to confirming a nominee via unanimous consent. 

Those unanimous consent agreements allow the Senate to fast-track consideration and take up nominees without the need to hold a roll-call vote. 

Wetlands rule

Cramer’s hold began in August over a 2024 federal wetlands rule enacted under then-President Joe Biden’s administration, which Cramer blasted as “illegal” and “an affront to private property rights,” per the statement to States Newsroom.  

Cramer said the rule stands in violation of those rights by creating enormous setbacks for drain tile from wetland easements, North Dakota Monitor reported. 

The regulation affects the Prairie Pothole Region, a wetlands area in the northern Great Plains that encompasses a large portion of North Dakota and is a key habitat for wildlife, including ducks and geese. 

Parts of Iowa, Montana, Minnesota and South Dakota are also included in the region.

Cramer said the rule “needs to be thrown out and farmers need clear guidelines to end the threat of harassment from the federal government.” 

He added that “the White House knows all of this, but the ball is in their court to act, not mine.”

Some movement

However, Cramer has been willing to incrementally lift the holds as he sees progress from the Trump administration, with Sonderling and Klomp as examples.

Part of that progress includes a September announcement from the Department of the Interior that the Fish and Wildlife Service, or FWS, would “incorporate feedback from North Dakota farmers, ranchers and conservation partners as it updates and expands an innovative Prairie Pothole Wetland pilot project addressing landowner concerns — particularly with wetland easements purchased prior to 1976.” 

Cramer said that “from the beginning, I told the White House I would be as flexible as they would be.” 

He added that “since then, we’ve had two meaningful meetings where North Dakota’s farmers educated the administration on the land grab the FWS has perpetuated in the Prairie Pothole region.” 

In response to a request for comment on Cramer’s holds, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers doubled down on Trump’s nominees, saying the president is “nominating talented patriots to successfully carry out his America First agenda.” 

Rogers added that “under President Trump’s leadership, these nominees will continue to deliver major wins for the American people.”