Benjy Sarlin
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Editorial director at @voxdotcom. Formerly: Washington Post, NBC News, Semafor. Email me at benjy.sarlin at voxmedia dot com.
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Articles by Benjy Sarlin
A massive blue wave just hit America. Here’s what it could bring next.
Politics 1 hour ago Who are the potential candidates for the 2028 primaries?
Francesca Hong lost. Here’s what it means for progressives. Original
It turns out there is a limit to how far left Democrats are willing to go with a crucial swing state on the line. Francesca Hong ran up against that wall on Tuesday, falling short in her race against Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Wisconsin.
Lindsey Graham sacrificed his reputation to Donald Trump. He got plenty in return. Original
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) died suddenly over the weekend, his office announced on Sunday, and the political world is processing his legacy earlier than it ever expected to. More than perhaps any senator — even the currently ailing Mitch McConnell — Graham embodied the transition from an older era of the Republican Party and Washington politics to the Trump era we live in now.
Lindsey Graham sacrificed his reputation to Donald Trump. He got plenty in return.
6 hours ago It's helped "sustain his political career," one expert said. For years, mental health professionals have argued that President Donald Trump’s behaviors, which some have called “malignant narcissism,” are a detriment to the nation. Much has been written about the president’s tendency to gaslight ― a …
The very casual fan’s guide to the NBA Finals
The NBA Finals are upon us and, if you haven’t noticed, this one’s a little more hotly anticipated than usual. The president and the pope are getting involved. The New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs will meet in the NBA Finals on Wednesday. The Spurs feature a generational giant in 22-year-old Victor Wembanyama, and they just beat the defending champions. The Knicks are on an 11-game winning streak led by their much smaller star Jalen Brunson.
The very casual fan’s guide to the NBA Finals
Jalen Brunson drives to the basket while against Victor Wembanyama in the second quarter of the championship game of the NBA Cup at T-Mobile Arena on December 16, 2025 in Las Vegas. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images The NBA Finals are upon us and, if you haven’t noticed, this one’s a little more hotly anticipated than usual. The president and the pope are getting involved. The New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs will meet in the NBA Finals on Wednesday.
What we know about the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Original
The most shocking thing about the attempted attack on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night at the Washington Hilton was how not shocking it was. Even before an armed man attempted to breach the secured area outside the hotel’s ballroom, the event’s guest list was a grim self-portrait of political violence in America. President Donald Trump, who survived two attempts on his life during the 2024 campaign, was evacuated by Secret Service agents.
Nobody is laughing at Donald Trump anymore
Now A federal appeals court has wiped out a jury’s $8.2 million award to former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore over a Democratic group’s TV ad about allegations that Moore solicited teen girls for sex. The claims, which appeared in numerous news articles by local and national journalists, …
Nobody is laughing at Donald Trump anymore Original
When I think of the difference between Donald Trump’s first term and Donald Trump’s second term, the image that stands out most is the president bombing. Not a country, in this case — a comedy routine. It was this January’s keynote speech at the Alfalfa Club dinner, a hokey Washington institution that exists solely for the president to pop in once a year and fire off a bunch of jokes prepared by his speechwriters.
Eric Swalwell’s downfall, explained Original
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) suspended his campaign for California governor on Sunday after a series of disturbing accusations of sexual misconduct. The scandal had drawn a fierce response from Democrats nationwide as they tried to force him out and keep the fallout contained. Just days ago, Swalwell was one of the frontrunners in a crowded primary field to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom — a job with immense political and policy clout, and a potentially star-making role in American politics.
Democrats picked the wrong hill to die on this government shutdown - Washington Post
October 1, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. EDTJust now You’re reading the Prompt 2025 newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. The government shutdown has begun. The basics of the standoff that started Wednesday: Democrats say they won’t pass a funding bill to reopen the government unless Republicans agree to extend health care subsidies; Republicans won’t entertain that idea unless their counterparts return to the table and pass a temporary funding measure.
Opinion | ‘A full-on base revolt’: Why this shutdown threat is different
Three writers discuss tensions in Congress over the government spending bill. Adam Carlson and September 9, 2025 at 8:00 a.m. EDTToday at 8:00 a.m. EDT You’re reading the Prompt 2025 newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. Congress is back in town and faces a shutdown on Oct. 1 if it can’t agree on a bill to fund the government. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) backed away from a standoff in March, arguing it would be counterproductive and politically damaging.
Off-year elections: Which party has the edge?
Off-year elections: Which party has the edge? (washingtonpost.com) Off-year elections: Which party has the edge? By James Hohmann; Benjy Sarlin; Henry Olsen 2025090319353900 You're reading the Prompt 2025 newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. Labor Day was the unofficial kickoff of the fall campaign, and there are several fascinating off-year elections. In New Jersey and Virginia, both the incumbent governors are term-limited, making for narrow races for control of those states.
Opinion | Decision time on the One Big Beautiful Bill
You’re reading the Prompt 2025 newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. On Monday, the Senate is voting on amendments to its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill. Leaders seem confident it will pass despite some expected “no” votes and arguments over last-minute changes.
The L.A. immigration standoff
The L.A. immigration standoff (washingtonpost.com) The L.A. immigration standoff By Benjy Sarlin; León Krauze; Stephen Stromberg 2025060922095800 You're reading the Prompt 2025 newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. Protests continued on Monday in California over a crackdown by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since they broke out on Friday, President Donald Trump has taken control of the National Guard and even threatened to arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Will Democrats salvage the national debt next election? - Washington Post
May 28, 2025 at 11:30 a.m. EDTJust now You’re reading the Prompt 2025 newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox. House Republicans advanced a tax bill last week that an independent assessment says would increase deficits by upward of $3 trillion over the next decade. A shaky bond market seems to be signaling that investors would like lawmakers to take long-term debt concerns more seriously.
A very simple prescription for Democrats: Just wait | Semafor Original
We’re deep in the “bargaining” phase now, as Democrats look for coalition members to blame, positions to dump, and language to police that will win them back the millions of voters they lost across the country on Tuesday. That’s a healthy part of any electoral loss, and it’s why we have free and fair elections — politicians only know when they touched the hot stove when voters tell them.
The 2024 election should end the ‘demographics are destiny’ era of politics | Semafor Original
If there’s one takeaway from the latest election results for both parties, it’s that it should explode the “demographics” conversation that’s been dominating American politics this century. By “demographics” I mean an ongoing — often intensely racialized and divisive — debate about which party is positioning itself toward a durable long-term majority. Instead, the political imagination is a little bigger today than it was on Monday.
Donald Trump projected to decisively win a second term in the White House | Semafor Original
Donald Trump is projected to win the US presidential election, completing an improbable comeback after he previously sought to overturn his prior loss, culminating in a riot at the Capitol, and faced criminal charges. The first president to be elected to non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1892, Trump rode a wave of discontent over post-pandemic inflation and border crossings to victory.
Iowa’s top pollster shocks race with finding that Harris leads Trump
This is out of the blue. J. Ann Selzer is the best pollster in the country. She is reknowned for predicting within one point the last three …
Iowa’s top pollster shocks race with finding that Harris leads Trump Original
The final Des Moines Register poll by J. Ann Selzer finds Vice President Kamala Harris leading former president Donald Trump among likely voters by a 47-44 margin. It’s a truly shocking finding from one of the nation’s few consensus “gold standard” pollsters, who has a long track record of closely predicting the results in her state. If it were to pan out, it would be an astounding upset. Trump easily won the state by about 9 points in 2016 and 8 in 2020.
Donald Trump’s friends are making big plans. Democrats are taking notice. Original
Donald Trump supporters are feeling confident about their chances — maybe too confident. His top allies are increasingly boasting about sweeping new initiatives in politically perilous territory in the election’s final days, even as they have a knife’s-edge race to complete before they have a chance to enact any of them.
Why there are fewer polls this election Original
As the old joke goes, for anxious election watchers, the polls are terrible — and such small portions! In addition to the usual concerns about accurately predicting a race that’s effectively deadlocked in every swing state, the sheer number of high-quality, brand-name polls has been in decline for several cycles.
Forget the median voter. This election is about the marginal voter now.
Forget the median voter. This election is about the marginal voter now. Political strategists sometimes stop to remind their fellow partisans that the median voter is a middle-class suburbanite in her 50s. But in a highly …
Forget the median voter. This election is about the marginal voter now. Original
Here’s the most important thing to know about the closing message from the two campaigns: It’s not for you. By that I mean you, the news junkie currently reading this who likely made their mind up on this election before it ever started and is near-certain to cast a vote. No, at this point the campaigns are targeting a much narrower group of voters — even by recent standards — who they see as more persuadable. And this explains a lot of their behavior in the final stretch.
In new ad, Harris says Trump attacks ‘designed to tear us apart’ Original
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is out with a new advertisement pushing back against attack ads by the Trump campaign. “You’ve probably seen all these negative ads against me. Well, here’s the deal. They are designed to tear us apart,” Harris says in the direct-to-camera spot, which was shared first with Semafor and will air across battleground states beginning Thursday. “Look, everyone is tired of the petty, destructive politics,” she says.
Joe Biden wanted an FDR-sized presidency. Kamala Harris is after something else.
Casting her economic agenda as “pragmatic” and her ideas as “practical solutions” in a speech on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris is putting an emphasis on policies that have a decent chance of being enacted — even, potentially, with Republicans sharing power.
Joe Biden wanted an FDR-sized presidency. Kamala Harris is after something else.
Casting her economic agenda as “pragmatic” and her ideas as “practical solutions” in a speech on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris is putting an emphasis on policies that have a decent chance of being enacted — even, potentially, with Republicans sharing power.
JD Vance reopens the pre-existing condition debates
Benjy Sarlin September 18, 2024 at 9:04 AM·5 min read The News JD Vance filled in some of the gaps on Donald Trump’s “concepts of a plan” for health care over the weekend, but in doing so raised new questions about how a second Trump administration would handle pre-existing conditions.
Donald Trump has ‘concepts of a plan’ for Obamacare. Do they include big spending cuts? Original
Donald Trump reiterated his desire to “replace” the Affordable Care Act in Tuesday’s debate, but said he had only “concepts of a plan” that he’d flesh out later. The cryptic exchange highlighted one of the most consequential missing pieces of his agenda this cycle: How he would handle trillions of dollars in health care spending.
New election model sees Trump leading Harris, Dems winning House Original
FocalData’s snapshot of the race is not based on traditional state-level polling, but on a multi-level regression that estimates individual state and district outcomes based on their latest national survey data. The estimates are the first public release using the methodology in this election. Harris leads nationally by a 1.6% margin, while almost every state is in toss-up range, with Trump holding a slight edge in key battlegrounds.
A new crime-tracking tool tries to improve on slower FBI data | Semafor Original
Crime is one of the biggest national debates that we have the least timely data on. Official crime statistics from the FBI are notoriously slow, while outside efforts to track trends are often incomplete. A new project, the Real Time Crime Index, that launched today is looking to change the policy conversation by gathering representative data from over 300 state and local agencies and updating them on a six-week lag. It finds murder down 15.7% through, continuing a post-pandemic trend.
🟡 Crime and information | Semafor | Semafor
Look for Congress to punt spending to lame duck There’s lots of chatter on Capitol Hill about how to fund the government past the end of this month, but the smart money is betting on a stopgap bill that lasts beyond the election and into December. Conservatives are making their usual push to move the Sept. 30 spending deadline into the new year, hoping to dodge any attempt to jam through a deal when members are eager to leave for the holidays.
Kamala Harris caps Democratic convention’s return to Obamaism Original
The Democratic Convention marked the triumphal return of former US President Barack Obama’s brand of politics — with some notable updates for the Donald Trump era. Put aside the questions of Obama’s role as party leader and the running debates about his record. The most striking feature of this gathering, fittingly in his hometown Chicago, was all Obama style.
Are the attacks on Tim Walz working? A Democratic pollster digs in. Original
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has had his stumbles since joining the Democratic ticket, but he remains popular, according to new research from centrist Democratic pollster Blueprint that was shared exclusively with Semafor. And the group thinks they have a plan to keep him that way. A survey by Blueprint, which is backed by Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman, found 44% of voters have a favorable opinion of Walz, versus 34% who have a negative one. The poll of 1,025 registered voters, taken Aug.
Democrats, finally, move past the Iraq War Original
The Democratic National Convention in Chicago will finally move the party past the most fundamental dividing line in Democratic politics this century: The Iraq War. For the first time since the 2003 war, the Democratic ticket will not have a candidate publicly associated with supporting the invasion. In fact, it features two candidates whose national political careers only began after the decision had been made.
Harris leads Trump in five of seven battlegrounds: poll Original
Vice President Kamala Harris leads former President Donald Trump in five of seven battleground states, according to new polling shared first with Semafor that shows a tight presidential election. Harris leads Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Nevada when third parties are factored in, according to the new polling from British firm Focaldata which was conducted online between Aug. 6-16.
Democrats prepare for a convention like no other | Semafor Original
Vice President Kamala Harris is getting ready for a Democratic National Convention like no other as she prepares to deliver an acceptance speech almost one month to the day after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Managing that introduction to voters ahead of the post-Labor Day sprint to the final poll closing is a complicated affair. Democrats have to decide how to define her brand, tell her life story, and position her politically, not just in her speech but in the entire programming.
Larry Hogan praised Donald Trump’s ‘incredible justices to the Supreme Court’ in 2022
Larry Hogan praised Donald Trump’s ‘incredible justices to the Supreme Court’ in 2022 Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan heaped praise on Donald Trump for his Supreme Court nominees at a speech in November 2022, months after all …
Larry Hogan praised Donald Trump’s ‘incredible justices to the Supreme Court’ in 2022
Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan heaped praise on Donald Trump for his Supreme Court nominees at a speech in November 2022, months after all three joined a majority ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. The remarks came in an address to the Republican Jewish Coalition that was otherwise devoted to urging the GOP to move on from Trump, who he criticized as a political drag on the party after Republicans underperformed in the midterms.
Twenty questions for Kamala Harris
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Twenty questions for Kamala Harris Original
After a whirlwind first three weeks, Vice President Kamala Harris is beginning to define her candidacy more clearly. She’s taking some questions from the traveling press, promising a future sitdown interview by September, and planning a policy rollout on lowering costs on Friday. But there’s still a long list of questions that could help fill in the gaps about what a Harris presidency might look like.
‘Central Park Five’ member Yusef Salaam invited to speak at Democratic National Convention Original
Yusef Salaam, the New York City Councilman who was wrongly imprisoned as a member of the “Central Park Five,” has been invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention. According to multiple sources, Democratic officials have been in communication with Salaam, but it’s not yet clear if plans have been locked in. One source familiar with convention planning said Salaam had been invited and that other members of the “Central Park Five” could also potentially join him onstage.
Donald Trump challenges Kamala Harris to three debates at Mar-a-Lago press conference Original
In a freewheeling press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home, Donald Trump said he would participate in three debates with Kamala Harris, including one with ABC News that he’d previously been pushing back on attending. The ABC News debate, scheduled for September 10, is the only one both campaigns appear to have officially agreed on. Trump said Thursday that he’d also do a Fox News debate and an NBC News debate — those are tentatively slated for September 4 and September 25.
‘Pragmatic Midwestern governor’ or ‘cornucopia of liberal psychosis?’ The race to define Tim Walz begins. Original
Governor Tim Walz was largely unknown to voters outside Minnesota when Kamala Harris began her search for a running mate. Within just days, he made a name for himself with one “weird” trick — a viral attack depicting Republicans as oddballs — and became a favorite of progressives looking for a credible champion to hold off moderate Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro.
‘Pragmatic Midwestern governor’ or ‘cornucopia of liberal psychosis?’ The race to define Tim Walz begins.
Blood Pressure 1 day ago DRUG ALERT The 7 common medicines you must NEVER mix with caffeine – or risk deadly bleeds to psychosis The US Sun - Eliza Loukou, Health Reporter • 1d WHEN it comes to remembering to take your meds, it can be useful to follow certain cues.
Trump says he would ‘absolutely’ step down if his health deteriorated in office | Semafor Original
Donald Trump said he would “absolutely” step down as president if he felt his mental and physical health were slipping in office, but stressed that he was still in excellent shape. “Oh absolutely,” Trump said when asked about the idea. “If I thought that I was failing in some way — I want people to be sure, I’ll go a step further, I want anybody running for president to take an aptitude test, to take a cognitive test, I think it’s a great idea.
‘White Dudes for Harris’ knows their name makes people cringe. They think it’s worth it. Original
The “White Dudes for Harris” fundraiser couldn’t have gone much better. Springing out of nowhere in a matter of days, the livestream event attracted over 100,000 participants, celebrity cameos, and a host of potential vice presidential nominees in Pete Buttigieg, JB Pritzker, Tim Walz, and Gary Peters. “I’m white, I’m a dude, and I’m for Harris,” Jeff Bridges, one of the world’s most famous dudes, said during the program. “A woman president, man, how exciting,” he added.
‘This kind of crap can’t be tolerated.’ Or can it? Harris navigates talk of race and sex as campaign begins. Original
Rep. Tim Burchett, a conservative Republican from Tennessee, labeled Vice President Kamala Harris a “DEI hire.” Wisconsin Rep. Glenn Grothman told reporters Democrats “have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.” And Donald Trump gestured to the often crude conservative discussions of her relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown three decades earlier.
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