Democrats fighting over their strategy and leadership for 2028 are locked in on savaging — or saving — the one man with a title and power: DNC chair Ken Martin.
Why it matters: Martin is facing a growing crisis of confidence over the Democratic National Committee's bungled autopsy of the 2024 election and its financial struggles. This is the biggest, earliest test of the party's top brass heading into '28.
President Trump's medical checkups have turned into mini dramas pitting the public's right to know against a public figure's medical privacy — with a heavy overlay of political intrigue.
The big picture: The White House added another twist late Friday night by releasing a three-page memo summarizing Trump's visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center the prior Tuesday that concluded he was "in excellent health" and "fully fit" to carry out all of his duties.
Many former Biden aides think Jill Biden's new book is rewriting history, unhelpful to the Democratic Party and tone-deaf, they told Axios in interviews this week.
The backlash comes as excerpts from the book — "View from the West Wing: A Memoir" — appeared online and the former first lady sat for her first interview since her husband left office in January 2025.
Why it matters: Most Democratic Party leaders don't want to talk about Joe Biden's presidency, but the Bidens are making that difficult. Both are writing books and the former president plans to make campaign stops ahead of the November midterms.
Texas has gained more than 2.5 million new residents since 2020 — roughly the entire population of New Mexico — reshaping the electorate and injecting new uncertainty into this year's marquee Senate race.
Why it matters: Republican Ken Paxton is favored to defeat Democrat James Talarico in November, but the influx of new arrivals — along with fading Latino support for President Trump and booming exurban counties — has scrambled the political math in typically red Texas.
Nick Bilton,named this week as the fifth executive producer in the 58-year history of "60 Minutes," on Friday spent his first day in the new role at CBS News in New York, meeting some of the 80+ show staff, walking the halls and introducing himself.
The Texas Senate race has become a national laboratory for anti-"woke" politics, testing whether voters still recoil from the language of 2020 amid the economic pain of 2026.
Why it matters: Republicans came away from 2024 convinced they had won more than an election — they had broken through on culture, turning Democrats' progressive language and identity politics into symbols of elite detachment.
As exurban cities near booming metro areas explode in growth, hundreds of U.S. communities are losing residents at a pace that signals deep structural decline.
Why it matters: The shrinking cities are a crisis in plain sight.
