1. In a Maine special election, Democrat Scott Harriman won State House District 94, increasing the democratic majority by the addition of this one seat.
2. Democrats Jen Mazzocco for State Representative and Ana Tiburcio just won their special elections, successfully defending the Democratic majority in the Pennsylvania House.
3. Democratic turnout in Texas' primaries is surging, with over 100,000 more people taking a Democratic ballot than a Republican. Democratic turnout is more than 87% of final primary turnout from 2022, while Republican turnout is at just 43% of the final turnout
4. A new Ipsos poll finds Democrats with a 14 point enthusiasm advantage nationwide.
5. Trump won non-college (working class) voters by 56-43 in 2024. He's now utterly upside down with them at 41% approve to 58% disapprove.
6. A frustrated John Thune quashed the talking filibuster because 4+ Republican Senators won't vote to kill the Democrats amendments all but guaranteeing the Save Act has no path to succeed.
7. CNN analysis of Trump's SOTU: This was actually his least well-received speech. We're talking about 38% of speech viewers who viewed the speech very positively, and that is lower than in 2025, when it was 44%. Lower than in 2019, when it was 59%. 2018, when it was 48%. And 2017, when it was 57%.
1. In a sound rejection of the White House position, the Supreme Court ruled against trump’s tariffs on Friday in a 6-3 decision. Said attorney, Neal Katyal, who represented those suing the government over the plan, “Today the U.S. Supreme Court stood up for the rule of law and Americans everywhere. Its message was simple: Presidents are powerful, but our Constitution is more powerful still. In America, only Congress can impose taxes on the American people.”
2. The F.D.A. reversed its decision on Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine and agreed to review it for possible approval.
3. After attempting to freeze funding for the New York and New Jersey Gateway Tunnel Project, the administration released $98 million. New York Attorney General Letitia James made the announcement on Wednesday of last week, and construction will resume this week.
4. Founded in 2013, the Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization developing technologies to rid the oceans of plastic. They have had increasing effectiveness, with total removals exceeding 45 million kg of trash by late 2025.
5. Thanks to the tireless efforts of human rights campaigners in Bangladesh, children born in the brothels and streets are now able to hold a birth certificate. Previously, these children had been denied a birth certificate and the rights that come with it, which include the right to attend school.
6. President Zelensky awards Olympic athlete, Vladyslav Heraskevych, disqualified over 'memorial helmet' the Order of Freedom.
7. The Cato Institute analysis showed that without immigrants — naturalized citizens and non-citizens — U.S. public debt would be at least 205% of GDP. They have save U.S. taxpayers $14 trillion in 30 years, preventing fiscal crisis.
1.Border czar Tom Homan announced a "significant drawdown" of federal agents in Minnesota, reducing the enforcement surge in that area.
2.Democrat Chastity Verret Martinez won a Louisiana State House seat on February 9 by swinging a district that Trump won in 2024 by 36 points.
3. Democrat Taylor Rehnet flipped a Texas State Senate seat by a margin of 14 points in a district Trump won by 17% in 2024, a 31 point swing.
4. A grand jury refused to indict 6 members of Congress for a video reminding active duty military that they swore an oath to the Constitution, not to an individual.
5. The U.S. House voted to cancel Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports, with six Republicans joining Democrats.
6. A federal judge ordered Pete Hegseth to stop retaliating against Senator Mark Kelly over an "illegal orders" video.
1. The Supreme Court has allowed California to use a new voter-approved congressional map that is favorable to Democrats in this year’s elections, rejecting a plea from state Republican and the Trump administration.
2. Bad Bunny’s call to action to the Grammy audience: “Ice Out!” “The hate gets more powerful with more hate,” he said. “The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So, please, we need to be different.”
3. Trump did not attend SuperBowl LX.
4. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed a broad executive order last week strengthening sanctuary protections for immigrants in the city. The executive order prohibits ICE from entering NYC property, including schools, hospitals, and shelters—without a judicial warrant. It also enhances privacy protections to block the Trump regime from accessing New Yorkers’ private data, creates a crisis-response committee, and mandates compliance audits.
5. French authorities raided Elon Musk’s X/Twitter offices in Paris this week as part of a criminal investigation into the platform’s role in the spread of child abuse material, Holocaust denial, and deepfake videos.
6. Hundreds of protesters joined dozens of House Democrats to rally outside ICE headquarters in Washington, DC last week. They were demanding accountability for the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and calling for the resignation, firing, or impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
7. People flooded the streets of Milan, Italy, to protest Trump’s decision to send ICE to the Winter Olympics, which kicked off last week. Demonstrators held signs that read “ICE Out” and banners that slammed JD Vance and Marco Rubio.
1. Dems flips a state senate seat in a ruby red Texas district. This represents a 32-point swing: Trump won the district by 17 points, and on Saturday the Democrat, Taylor Rehmet, flipped the seat with a 14-point victory Democrats have not won this district in over 30 years.
2. Portland Community Soccer Club, a youth soccer club, gives trans kids a place to play — forming teams based on skill level, not sex or gender.
3. Hawaii's new parentage law strengthens protections for LGBTQ+ families. The landmark law replaces assumptions about "mothers" and "fathers" with inclusive gender neutral definitions of parentage to ensure children of same-gender couples and diverse family structures are treated equally under the law.
4. The Savanna Law has been established in Tennessee. It requires the state to maintain a database of people convicted or who have pleaded guilty to at least two domestic violence offenses.
5. Minneapolis pizza joint delivers free food to vulnerable families amid the ICE crackdown. They've raised over $83,000.
6. Trump administration restores $2billion in funding for mental health and addiction programs after backlash.
7. Mackenzie Scott donated $45million to the Trevor Project a non-profit suicide prevention organization that provides 24/7 crisis support services, research, and advocacy for LGBTQ+ young people. The donation was the largest gift in the organization's history — and came just month's after the Trump administration shut down counseling services for this population through the federally funded 988 National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
8. ACLU drops lawsuit after Trump administration quietly restores tens of millions of funding to Planned Parenthood.
9. Mattel introduces first autistic Barbie complete with stimming hands (hand flapping) and noise cancelling headphones.
1. Federal Judge David J. Novak, a Trump appointee, warned Lindsey Halligan to stop the charade of calling herself a U.S. Attorney. This came after a November ruling that she had been unlawfully appointed to the job. Halligan left the position within hours of Novak’s warning.
2. Despite unconscionable funding cuts to cancer research by the current administration, previous research has resulted in a dramatic boost in national survival rates, with 7 in 10 cancer patients living past 5 years post-diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society.
3. For the first time in history, more people in Mexico are categorized as middle class than as living in poverty, according to World Bank data. The shift reflects what President Claudia Sheinbaum calls “a moral economy, welfare programs, rights, not assistance programs but rights.”
4. The California Alliance for Public Banking has received wide support from Democrats and Progressives throughout the state. For more information, you can join TODAY’s 5 p.m. Zoom call at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81809235811?pwd=1KC18BQbDmYbZpMChQ6HaSKvDg9BTI.1
Meeting ID: 818 0923 5811
Passcode: 654537
1. The Supreme Court ruled against Trump and said he did not have the legal authority to deploy the National Guard in Chicago to protect federal immigration agents. Trump now backs off National Guard deployments in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland.
2. Trump's pollster released a new poll that showed Republicans are heading towards a blowout in the 2026 midterms. (but not without all our work)
3. Maryland is advancing its mid-decade redistricting push, with its new redistricting commission now soliciting new congressional map proposals from the public.
4. A young North Carolina woman, Fatima Velazquez-Antonio, who was kidnapped at a workplace raid was finally released and returned home before Christmas. A big congratulations to NC activists who very instrumental in making this happen.
5. A federal judge in San Francisco barred ICE from sweeping civil arrests at immigration courthouses across Northern California.
6. Protestors gathered on the bridge to Mar-a-Lago to show their support for President Zelensky and Ukraine.
7. The 9th Circuit Court has temporarily blocked a lower court ruling from a conservative judge that would have allowed teachers to forcibly out trans students to their parents.
8. A federal judge canceled the trial of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and scheduled a hearing on whether the prosecution is being vindictive in pursuing a case against him.