TX Observer: “On Saturday morning, two days before the start of early primary voting, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the stage at a music venue in Central San Antonio to deliver a message familiar to Texas liberals. “This state is going to change the country. … That’s why I’m here, for the long…

Politico: “Every 10 years, each state redraws its political lines. These processes take months to unfold in state capitals all around the country — and their results mold the balance of power in Congress for a decade. Our analysis uses local voting tallies and Census data to decode what these new lines mean. We’ll update this report…

The Daily Beast: “A rapid rise in rejected mail-in voting applications and ballots. Limited resources among election workers. Confusion galore, and a March 1 primary election quickly approaching. This is the reality in Texas as SB 1—a controversial voting bill signed into law last year—goes into effect. With primary voting already underway, election officials, advocates,…

WaPo: “James Jackson knew the code. Keep your head down. Move to the grass if White people approached on the sidewalk. Don’t say anything to the graybeards playing checkers. It was a warm and windswept Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1963, following a day of torrential rains — more than 9 inches — in St. Augustine, Fla….

WaPo: “Gov. Glenn Youngkin sat in a conference room near the State Capitol last week and lamented the “divisive” nature of politics, then praised Democrats for joining him on a measure to lift school mask mandates. But as he spoke of unity, his office put out a statement saying school boards that disagree with him…

WaPo: “Opening arguments are expected Monday in the hate-crimes prosecution of three White men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery, a landmark federal case focused on whether the defendants were motivated to chase and threaten him because he was Black. The trial of Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan bookends, in a way, a…

AL Political Reporter: “A recent poll shows that more than seven in 10 Alabama voters support expanding Medicaid to increase access to healthcare.  That poll, conducted by Cygnal for Alabama Arise, informed likely Alabama voters about what expanding Medicaid could do, including the creation of an average of 20,000 new jobs per year over the…

AL Political Reporter: “A former Montgomery Police officer who was convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed Black man remains out of prison despite the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals twice denying the former officer’s appeal.  Aaron Cody Smith, who was convicted in January 2020 of the 2016 shooting of Greg Gunn,…

North State Journal: “Georgia’s Republican-controlled Senate voted Monday to erect a monument to conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Georgia native Clarence Thomas after heated debate and objections from several black senators, one of whom called Thomas a “hypocrite and a traitor.”   The monument would be financed by private donations and would be erected somewhere…

WaPo: “A top deputy overseeing election issues for Virginia’s new Republican attorney general resigned Thursday after The Washington Post questioned the office about Facebook posts she had made praising rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and falsely claiming President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Former deputy attorney general Monique Miles also…