Chicago Public Square was built for moments like this. Print newspapers, with their early deadlines, won’t round up Tuesday’s election results until … Thursday.
■ But Square’s here for you, thanks to those whose financial support—even just $1, once—keeps this service coming.
■ So let’s get to it:
Dems rising. In the first major Election Day since Donald Trump reclaimed the White House, Democrats dominated, coast to coast.
■ Axios: “In race after race, the margins of victory … were wider than expected” …
■ … across what Andrew Prokop at Vox says were “high-profile and low-profile elections.”
■ The New York Times: “Turnout was extraordinary.”
■ The AP rounds up the numbers from every state.
■ Columnist Steven Beschloss: It was “a good night for democracy and sanity.”
■ Law Dork Chris Geidner: “If you are a fan of democracy and wanted to breathe, Tuesday night was a night for you.”
■ Former megachurch pastor and writer John Pavlovitz sees “irrefutable evidence that the beautiful collective heart of our nation is still functioning.”
■ Transgender journalist Erin Reed perceives “a stunning rebuke of anti-trans politics.”
■ New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie (gift link) says the results make clear that Trump is “an albatross around the neck of his party.”
■ Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer: “This was the first real test of Donald Trump’s political strength since winning the White House, and he fell flat on his face.”
■ Columnist Charlie Sykes: It was “a coast-to-coast repudiation of Donald Trump and all his works.”
■ Trump was not a happy guy.
■ The view from Portugal: Chicago expat—and Chicago Tribune alumnus—Kevin Williams: “Republicans erred in being too horrible for people to countenance because that horrible behavior is now affecting the lives of everyone.”
■ Economist Paul Krugman doesn’t expect an end to Republicans’ “attempt to consolidate authoritarian rule. … If anything, they’ll redouble efforts to rig the 2026 midterms, although California, by approving a major redistricting, has largely neutralized their gerrymandering plot.”
‘Zohran Mamdani is gonna be the mayor of New York, and also of America.’ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “Don’t let anybody tell you normal New Yorkers are not giddy right now. It is palpable.”
■ The Lever’s David Sirota: “Mamdani’s victory could be a turning point for Democrats—if the party finally learns from its past leaders’ betrayals.”
■ The Wall Street Journal (gift link): Democrats won back at least some minority voters and held on to Virginia’s federal workers despite the shutdown.
■ The American Prospect hails California’s referendum on congressional redistricting as proof that resistance works.
■ The Times: In a sign of the party’s newfound strength, Democrats even ousted two Republican members of Georgia’s utility board.
■ Author and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich: “The sleeping giant of America is up and roaring.”
■ And then, there’s the plainspoken Jeff Tiedrich: “Democrats, fuck yeah!”
3,000 missing. That’s the National Immigrant Justice Center’s estimate of how many Chicago-area immigrants have vanished from federal records.
■ 404 Media: Customs and Border Protection’s given state and local cops an app they can use to scan someone’s face as part of immigration enforcement.
■ Also from 404: How to opt out of airlines selling your travel data to the government.
‘The conditions would be found unconstitutional even in the context of prisons holding convicted felons.’ A federal judge said he’d issue an order today regarding what lawyers call inhumane conditions at the Broadview immigrant detention center …
■ … including overflowing toilets, crowded cells, no beds and water that “tasted like sewer.”
■ Axios: “Attorneys quibbled about whether detainee meals come from Subway or Jimmy John’s.”
■ In another Chicago courtroom today, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis was to consider more evidence in news outlets’ and protesters’ suit complaining of excessive force by the feds …
■ … including footage from at least a dozen cameras worn by immigration agents …
■ CNN profiles Ellis, born in Ontario to Jamaican-born parents.
■ Plaintiffs in that suit say Bovino made up a claim he was hit by a rock before he OK’d the use of tear gas.
■ Re: Yesterday’s item about prosecutors dropping a complaint against a man for injuring Bovino’s groin, reader Mary Cronin jokes: “Because it was a petty offense.”
‘We don’t have the air traffic controllers.’ More flights out of Chicago are getting delayed as the federal shutdown—now the longest in history—drags on.
■ Another D.C. record: House Speaker Mike Johnson’s delay swearing in an Arizona Democrat elected in September—a woman whose vote could free the files about Trump’s dead sex-offender friend Jeffrey Epstein—is eight days beyond the previous longest stall.
■ The Supreme Court today was considering the legality of Trump’s tariffs. (Hear here.)
■ The Onion: “Trump Imposes 25% Tariff On Chinese-Made Trump Products.”
‘A sleazy end.’ A Trib editorial condemns departing U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” García’s gambit to clear the way for his chief of staff to run for his seat with no opposition.
■ Axios: “This was once the norm for Chicago politicians of García’s ilk.”
■ The Sun-Times: As he runs to reclaim the House seat he surrendered in a corruption scandal, Jesse Jackson Jr. has been taking campaign cash from a guy under federal investigation.
■ Freedom of Information inquiries reveal that Chicago’s cultural affairs chief quit amid charges of sexual harassment and more.
■ Remember how Mayor Johnson agreed to be more transparent about all the gifts he’s received? The city’s inspector general says, um, not so much. (Read the report here.)
In Dick Cheney’s defense … Chris Geidner says the dead ex-vice president was an early Republican voice for treating same-sex couples fairly.
■ Closer to the Edge: “Whatever clarity came at the end doesn’t wash the blood from his hands.”
‘A tech billionaire bet big on Trump. It’s paying off for Silicon Valley.’ Especially, ProPublica reports, venture capitalist—and University of Illinois graduate—Marc Andreessen.
■ The Washington Post (gift link): A secretive donor circle that lifted JD Vance is rewriting MAGA’s future.
■ Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports, the median age of first-time homebuyers in the U.S. has now reached a record high of 40.
■ About to split from NBC, MSNBC—soon to be MS NOW—is spending big to let the world know.
Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.
