You don’t need me to tell you that Republicans are poised to seize control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. Democrats lost support among Latino and rural voters this November, and Republicans are grabbing even more seats in the redistricting process through gerrymandering.
Democrats could be looking at a decade or more in the wilderness. And with former President Donald Trump playing kingmaker in GOP primaries, we’ll see a flood of wingnut nominees who make Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene look downright levelheaded.
Voters deserve to know the truth about candidates for public office. But with local newsrooms gutted by layoffs and consolidation, who is left to report on what candidates really believe? My answer: The Intercept is one of a dwindling number of news outlets with the resources and drive to fill this critical gap.
In 2022, our political reporting team is gearing up for a busy year of peeling back the carefully crafted façades projected by candidates in slick TV ads. We’ll dig up the real ideologies, extremist connections, and hidden money trail behind lesser-known candidates that would otherwise go unreported.
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On the heels of Republicans’ victory in Virginia last month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told right-wing donors that his modeling predicts the GOP could pick up 50 seats in Congress in 2022.
Looking at November’s election returns, we can see that anti-Trump sentiment alone isn’t sufficient to activate Democratic voters.
There is very dramatic erosion in Democratic support among Latino voters. Similarly, support for Democrats among rural voters — once around 35 to 40 percent — is down to 20 percent or lower. Mathematically, it’s impossible to make up those numbers in urban areas, especially if Democrats struggle in the suburbs.
I’m less interested in the horserace and more interested in the social forces shaping politics. One of the biggest is the importance of a free press in sustaining democracy.
Local reporting has atrophied, right-wing media is off the rails, and the mainstream press is overly credulous and hyped up. All of this means that voters tune out.
Every day, The Intercept is stepping into this vast gap to do serious, laborious reporting — working sources, digging through archives, even suing for documents. It’s not easy, but it’s the only way to go beyond partisan rancor and get in touch with the real world.
Thank you,
