The Briefing, Vol. XIV, Issue 28
July 20, 2026
This week:
- Wisconsin Democrats in true chaos
- The fix is already in for Platner’s replacement in Maine
- Platner’s downfall may have knock-on effects in Michigan
Outlook
Socialists continue their attempted takeover of the Democratic Party’s nominating contests. They appear to have taken a step closer to victory in Wisconsin and a step backward in Michigan.
Governor 2026
Arizona: Rep. Andy Biggs (R), having received Trump’s endorsement, is the easy favorite for the Republican nomination against Rep. David Schweikert (R). The winner will take on incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs (D), who begins the general election race as the odds-on favorite for re-election.
Georgia: There are contradictory polls in the race between former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) and businessman Rick Jackson (R). But what isn’t ambiguous is that she has raised only $3 million, whereas he has more than $100 million on hand. In what has become the nation’s new favorite swing state, that will surely make for a competitive race, at least.
Wisconsin: If Arizona is the most predictable governor’s race, Wisconsin has just been thrown into true chaos last night and over the weekend. Wisconsin Democrats are suddenly having their world upended as Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez (D) has been forced to quit the race due to a strange campaign finance scandal at a very late stage. Just weeks from the Aug. 11 primary, her campaign has been found to have hidden debts and committed severe errors in her campaign finances.
But her exit may put socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong (D), a police-abolitionist activist until recently, rising in the polls, on a glide-path to the party’s nomination. That has many Democrats panicking. They scrambled over the weekend to push Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (D) back into the race at the last minute — had been pressed into backing out of the race July 8 and endorsing Rodriguez. But Crowley’s re-entry this might only make matters more complicated. Yes, mainline Democrats view the other two leading candidates in the race — both Hong and fellow leftist former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D) — as likely to lose in a statewide contest, as Barnes already did once in 2022. But Crowley might also just split the black and Milwaukee-area vote with Barnes, helping Hong, the most extreme candidate, win the nomination.
The real problem is that this is all being done so last-minute. Even just getting the word out to voters in time for them to make an informed decision will be a complex task. Also, once again, Democrats are caught red-handed manipulating the voters’ choices in ways that .
On the Republican side, the field is settled: Rep. Tom Tiffany (R) will be the nominee. Although crossover voting is usually not a major factor, Republicans in most parts of the state will have a free hand to vote to make trouble in the Democratic primary if they want to get strategic about it.
Senate 2026
Maine: Democrats put out a call for candidates for the party’s abandoned Senate nomination in Maine, giving last Wednesday as their filing deadline. They got answers from 12 Democrats, including Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) and Nirav Shah (D). But state Sen. Troy Jackson (D), a former Republican who has disavowed all of his previous conservative beliefs to embrace the ideology of rigged-system socialist “Platnerism,” appears to have sewn up the nomination already by securing support from about two-thirds of the delegates who will take part in the coming nomination convention at county-level meetings.
It is such a done deal that Bellows and Shah formally dropped out on Sunday. This has some Democrats nervous about their prospects in this race.
Michigan: As we suggested last week after Graham Platner’s implosion in Maine, it may already be having some knock-on effects on Democratic voters’ decisions in other states.
In just the last two weeks, former Wayne County health official and socialist Abdul Al-Sayed (D) has suddenly fallen behind the Democratic establishment’s favorite, Rep. Haley Stevens (D), who holds a 7-point lead in a new Detroit News poll, 48 to 41 percent. The poll is still close for a primary, in which the electorate is much more fluid than a general election, but Stevens’ proximity to 50 percent suggests the nomination is hers to lose.
It remains an open question how socialists will react if they feel robbed in a race like this one. A Stevens victory would have been made possible by the exit from the race, under severe pressure, by State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D).
Senate 2028
Pennsylvania: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has said in the last few weeks that he will not leave the Democratic Party unless it becomes the anti-Israel party. But his problem is much more acute than he may realize: His approval rating among Pennsylvania Democrats is now just 19 percent. This despite Fetterman being a liberal on the economic and social issues that traditionally matter to Democrats. Consider it the price of supporting Israel in today’s Democratic Party.
In a Democratic primary, Fetterman will be a dead man walking in 2028, with no path at all to renomination. Unless he decides one Senate term is enough, or he may decide in the next two years that he has to make a change.
Senate 2030
Arizona: It’s not exactly pressing news for this year’s election, but this summer has been ruinous for the former Democratic rising star Sen. Ruben Gallego (D). He is now starting down both financial and sexual misconduct scandals. This is likely not coincidental with his clear, obvious intention to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2028.
In the wake of his friend Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif.) downfall and abrupt resignation from Congress amid rape accusations, Gallego had straight-up denied that there were any sexual problems in his background. This makes his credibility an issue now.
The story of his alleged sexual affairs with multiple House staffers has now been reported out a bit. Previously, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) had claimed that many more women had stories, including of unwanted advances and “touching,” but the Senate ethics committee dismissed her formal complaint against Gallego in the spring.
The financial allegations came later — of Gallego using tens of thousands in campaign money to fund personal expenses such as family vacations. To be fair, this kind of venality is actually a lot more common than you might think — with a bit of creative accounting, it can usually be covered up in Federal Election Commission filings
But the real story is this: Clearly someone siding with another Democratic hopeful has approached some of these journalistic outlets with knowledge of where the bodies are buried. It’s only a matter of time. Unless this is an unconscionable smear campaign with no basis at all, Gallego’s presidential aspirations will probably be curtailed. His hold on his Senate seat may even be short-lived — or he may just decide retirement makes sense before he faces re-election in four years.
