Pritzker’s Texas payback. Credit Illinois’ governor with the defeat of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott—who dispatched thousands of immigrants to Chicago.
■ Every candidate Pritzker backed in Texas won Tuesday—as Democrats stunningly took the reins of power up and down that state’s ballot.
■ Wired (free link): “Voters set $400 million of Elon Musk’s money on fire.”
■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob: “Musk lost the election because Americans know he’s the enemy.”
■ Climate reporter Emily Atkin: Tuesday was “a very expensive night for Big Oil.”
■ Blake Montgomery at The Guardian: “Tech barons cozied up to Trump. What will they do in newly blue America?”
■ MS NOW’s Jacqueline Alemany: “Corporate America spent two years courting Trump. Now it’s lawyering up.”
‘The historic nature of this election cannot be overstated.’ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “It is a rejection of … the idea that some people are better than others and have the right to rule.”
■ Columnist Matt Yglesias sees the demise of bipartisan consensus on Israel: “It’s so over for AIPAC.”
■ Columnist and former Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger: Republicans’ rout has triggered an intraparty civil war.
Blue statehouses. Axios: For the first time in 16 years, Democrats are in line to control a majority of state legislative chambers …
■ … and a majority of the governorships.
■ Indiana Democrats have broken a Republican supermajority in that state’s House.
■ Wired (free link): Among Republicans, “the race is on to find someone besides Donald Trump to blame for … catastrophic losses.”
■ Financial Times D.C. bureau chief James Politi: Almost every county in the country has swung toward Democrats since 2024.
■ Helen Lewis at The Atlantic (gift link): “In the end, not even Jon Husted’s phenomenal ass was enough to save the Republicans.”
‘The blue tsunami left Trump afloat.’ But NBC and CNN alumnus Charles Jaco has a shopping list for what Democrats can do nevertheless.
■ American Prospect co-founder Robert Kuttner: “The repudiation of Trump could lead some Republicans to vote with Democrats to block administration priorities.”
■ Popular Information offers Democrats guidance in how to investigate Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner: “How is it legal for someone representing the United States in foreign policy negotiations to be on the payroll of foreign governments? It’s not.”
■ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce: “Lawyer up, MAGA. Your hell has only just begun.”
‘Now’s the time to seize power.’ Handbasket columnist Marisa Kabas was disappointed by House Minority Leader—and likely next Speaker—Hakeem Jeffries’ anodyne speech Tuesday night.
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “All we want are Democrats who’ll fight the fascists. … Enough with this weak-tea bullshit already.”
■ Political science professor Kristoffer Ealy: “Democrats won the Senate. Somebody tell Chuck Schumer he wasn’t the reason.”
■ The Onion: “Schumer Delivers Victory Speech To Previously Enthusiastic Crowd.”
■ The Atlantic’s David Graham: “Democrats will likely disappoint voters soon. We don’t need to guess what happens to politicians who campaign on affordability and don’t deliver” (gift link).
‘Just quit. Nobody wants you.’ Jimmy Kimmel was unrestrained—and unusually not all that funny—as he offered Trump unsolicited career advice in the election’s wake.
■ The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols (gift link): “Whether Trump has sincerely accepted the victory of the Democrats and intends to cooperate with them in governing the country is, in a sense, irrelevant: The more important reality is that he faces an electoral result too decisive to challenge.”
■ Jimmy Fallon: “There’s going to be so many Republicans leaving the Capitol it will look like a reverse Jan. 6.”
■ The Onion: “Nation Watches Helplessly As 2028 Election Cycle Begins.”
Back in Illinois … The election casts a shadow over the future for scandal-scarred Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch.
■ All the Cook County judges up for retention looked on track to stick around.
■ Juliana Stratton’s election will make Illinois the first state in the union with two women of color serving in the U.S. Senate.
■ The Onion: “Abdul El-Sayed Makes History As First Physically Healthy Senator.”
Google’s ‘AI Trojan horse in America’s schools.’ Tech columnist Will Oremus says the company’s telling school districts now reliant on its ubiquitous low-cost laptops to choose: Let its Gemini AI into the classroom or give up students’ access to Google Search.
■ One parent tells Wired (free link): “Kids are already using these search-bar summaries to skip real effort, pulling instant math answers and letting AI write their essays.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “It … seems odd to me that schools are trying to stem the tide of AI rather than teach children how to use it well and skeptically.”
Anchor’s away. ABC 7 Chicago is cutting ties with journalist Ravi Baichwal …
■ … after what the Tribune (free link) calls “a social media post describing an alleged altercation involving Baichwal at a River North restaurant in October.”
For the want of a word … Yesterday’s Chicago Public Square omitted male from the description of Christian Mitchell as “the state’s first male Black lieutenant governor.”
■ Thanks to the many (many!) readers who flagged that error, which was corrected on the Square website at 10:01 a.m. Wednesday.
■ Also fixed: Gift link added for the item “The Atlantic declares South Carolina’s Senate race ‘the unlikeliest Democratic win of all.’”
■ As every emailed edition notes up top, you can always “Read this in your browser, with updates and corrections.”
Square loses a reader. This note accompanied a cancellation yesterday: “I thought you were going to stop using AI cartoons, but there today, another one. There are so many talented cartoonists out there. Use actual art, not fake machine-generated cr*p.”
■ While this medium—and society’s attitudes about it—remain in flux, Square’s committed to identifying AI-generated work, but hasn’t ruled it out …
■ … especially when creative folk such as Jan Kodner deliver on an original concept that, under deadline, complements the news.
■ Here’s how we left this matter in June … ending with the pointed question, “What’s the last computer-animated movie you enjoyed?”
Thanks. Beth Kujawski made this edition better.
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Election decompression: Laugh it off. Kick back Sunday afternoon with three of Chicago’s funniest women—for a League of Women Voters post-election fundraiser at Oak Park’s Comedy Plex.
‘Donations keep us purring.’ Barb’s Precious Rescue is a no-kill, registered 501(c)3) nonprofit organization. Donations help save cats’ and kittens’ lives and find them forever homes. You can make a difference.