#2026 presidential election

[looses-gooses]

Hey chat how are we feeling about the election.

[short-wooloo]

I cannot overstate this enough, but with the threat of trump and project 2025, there is GENUINELY a chance that this year's pride month could be the last...

I want y'all to really think about that, think about it when you hear or think "I'm not voting" or "both sides are the same

[tomorrowusa]

Even if Trump is convicted in the hush money trial, it's doubtful that he will go directly to prison immediately after the verdict; there are always appeals. But he would be a convicted felon – a first in a presidential debate.

The hilarious thing about the upcoming debates is that TRUMP TOTALLY CAVED to the Biden campaign's demands on the debate format. It will be a lot closer to the no nonsense Kennedy-Nixon debates than anything since 1960. Among other things, there will be no audience for Trump to play off of. Presumably it will just be journalists, technicians, security, and (maybe) some close family members.

Trump's followers claim he's a shrewd businessman. But he got totally rolled in the debate negotiations.

And because Trump constantly belittles Biden, so as long as Biden avoids any truly major screw-ups it will be regarded as an outrperformance and therefore a Biden win.

Biden and Trump will debate in June and September. But the terms have changed

Biden's campaign also objects to the audiences — which it described as "raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering." "As was the case with the original televised debates in 1960, a television studio with just the candidates and moderators is a better, more cost-efficient way to proceed," O'Malley Dillon said. Other terms include having microphones open only when it is the candidates turn to speak. Biden's campaign ruled out other candidates in the debates.

Yep, Trump's microphone will be off whenever it is not his turn to speak. 😁

It's clear that Biden has already won the debate on debates.

[cupidstarz]

So I live in America and I’d just like to say the election results were terrifying, however I am lucky enough to live in a blue state, due to this I most likely won’t have to deal with the worst of it but please give your best wishes to everyone stuck in a primarily red state. I’m lucky enough to have the option to be my authentic self even if it may become slightly more dangerous as well as having a queer support group but to anyone else who finds this I hope you don’t give up the fight, don’t kill yourself please, it may seem hopeless now but in the next 4 years many of us will have the opportunity for the first time to vote, and many people will try to make sure this never happens again. Please have hope we can get through this, spread the truth, educate others, and please for your own good try to stay safe, education is key to fighting fascism so please keep yourself and others informed.

Have as good as a night as you can and please don’t give up.

[flying-cat]

Hey..we just wanted to check up on you! I know it might seem very bleak and hard right now..but you are not going to go through this alone! We will all be beside you, and we will survive this together because he has taken so much from us, he doesn’t get to steal our life. <333 u got this!

Thank you!! I'm feeling a little better now. I was really upset last night, I can't remember the last time I cried so much. I'm more angry than sad now, but I'll use that anger as motivation to outlive all of these old people (lol) and I'll do all that I can in the next two years to convince people to vote in the midterms so that we can, at the very least, get the house and senate back. I just hope that the people who are in red states will be okay. I hope they can make it to two years from now.

[oyet]

FDC CEC to convene for 2026 presidential flag bearer

FDC party chairperson Jack Sabiiti has assured Ugandans that the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) will soon convene to determine whether Nathan Nandala Mafabi or Patrick Amuriat will be the party’s flag bearer for the 2026 presidential elections. Courtesy of Nathan Nandala Mafabi wearing POA2021 Campaign T-Shirt. Sabiiti, the FDC national chairperson made the revelation on June 29,…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Robert Reich:

Friends, Some say if he loses, that’s the end of Trump. Wrong. We’ve been through this before. When Trump lost in 2020, most Republican insiders thought he’d be toast after January 6.

[...]

The Republican Party is more MAGA now than it was in 2020. More congressional Republicans are election deniers than they were in 2020.

If Trump loses by a small margin, he’ll almost certainly contest the outcome once again. At least this time Trump is not the incumbent president. He won’t be sitting in the Oval Office receiving recommendations from his staff to send in the military to seize voting machines and “rerun” the election, as happened in December 2020. He won’t have power to pardon anyone and won’t be able to claim presidential immunity. And instead of Trump’s vice president presiding over the counting of Electoral College votes on January 6, 2025, this time it will be Vice President Kamala Harris. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump and his lapdogs created post-election chaos at the precinct, county, and state levels, where votes are counted and the results certified. Trump loyalists in key districts will almost certainly try to manipulate the process and withhold certification.

I expect the federal courts will become involved. Some of this litigation may make its way to the Supreme Court. Raise your hand if you trust the current Supreme Court to rule impartially. Even if Trump loses these battles, there’s nothing to keep him from meddling in 2026, or even running again in 2028, when he’d be 82. I’ve heard from a few Never-Trump Republicans that they hope he wins in November so he can serve his final term now, and then disappear for good. But he won’t disappear. Trumpism will live on, regardless. But if he loses in November, he’s very likely to do some time in prison — in a special wing of a prison in New York state or a federal prison secured by the Secret Service. This will slow him down but also make him a martyr in the eyes of his loyalists.

If Trump loses in 2024 and is unable to run again due to physical or psychological decline — or a prison sentence — JD Vance will be his heir apparent for 2028. In the short time Vance has been a vice presidential candidate, he’s shown himself just as bigoted and unconstrained by facts as Trump. Trump sons Donald Jr. and Eric will also continue to fire up the Trump base. Fox News, Newsmax, and other right-wing outlets will continue to distort the truth. Trump’s billionaire backers such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk will continue to finance Trumpism’s shambolic politics.

I doubt a majority of Americans will support Trumpism after Trump, but Trump’s base will continue to be a significant force in America. They have remained remarkably loyal and resilient for eight years — consistently 42 to 44 percent of American voters. If Trump loses, some proportion of them may turn to violence. Even a relatively small portion could threaten social stability. Apart from the immediate aftereffects of a Trump loss, many of his followers will remain wedded to the isolationism, xenophobia, racism, and misogyny he has stirred up.

Robert Reich gives valuable insights on the future of Donald Trump and Trumpism should he lose the election to Kamala Harris. Trumpism will be here to stay even after he leaves the scene.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

I would be very interested to learn more about how the elections change the balance of power in the civil service. I am in UK so a run down end to end of US election would be handy if you care to share and not send me to google.

Lame I know, but I watched the Good Wife and was interested to glean from that a little about US politics and donors etc.

So a handful of anons have asked for more info about elections. Since it's a pretty timely event...since, you know...I decided it gets to jump the queue.

This is going to be a verrrrrry long ask so consider yourselves warned. I'll put a cut in.

First some really elementary background about the US government and elections.

The US has 3 branches of government: the judicial branch (interprets the law), the legislative branch (makes the law), and the executive branch (enforces the law). This is both at the federal level and at the state level. 

The legislative branch serves in terms of 2 years (in the House) or 6 years (in the Senate). There are no term limits. The executive branch serves in terms of 3 years. The President is term-limited and can serve no more than 2 4-year terms, except when a President takes office under the 25th Amendment. If a president assumes office under the 25th amendment, then they can serve up to 10 years: two years of their predecessor’s remaining term plus their own full two four-year terms (2+4+4). The judicial branch is a lifetime appointment.

Every 2 years is a major federal election. The easiest way to keep it straight is to use the Olympics. If it’s a Summer Olympics year (2020, 2024, 2028, etc.), then it’s a presidential election - we’re voting on the President, all members in the House of Representatives, and a third of the Senate. If it’s a Winter Olympics year (2022, 2026, 2030, etc.), it’s a midterm election - we’re voting for all members of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate, and it’s usually seen as a referendum on the President. If the country likes what the President is doing, they’ll usually vote for the President’s party to take power in Congress. If the country doesn’t like what the President is doing, they’ll vote for the opposite party to take power in Congress.

Serious challengers or candidates expecting a competitive primary season will start around 2 years before the election though they may not declare their intent to run at that time. An incumbent seeking reelection typically starts their campaign 1 year before the election because it’s not a competitive primary since the incumbent is the leader of the party so the party machine backs him (as we saw this year with Biden; he announced he was seeking reelection so all the serious challengers backed off and the Democrats got into the mess they did with the debate and nomination).

So that said, here’s how elections work. This is a really broad and high overview. It outlines the process to run for president and it's pretty similar to what members of Congress and state governors have to do (minus national conventions and the Electoral College).

1 - Form an Exploratory Committee (1-2 years before the actual election)

The candidate forms an exploratory committee. It’s usually made up of their closest advisors who do research about the issues, contact potential donors, and conduct internal polling about what kind of support or approval the candidate might have and what concerns the populace might have about the candidate. This is usually 1-2 years before the election.There is usually no financing or actual exchanges of money happening in this phase. 

2 - Set up the money (1-2 years before the election; usually after the Exploratory Committee convenes)

The exploratory committee sets up a PAC and starts accepting donations/financing the candidate. This is critical: you can’t run for president without having the financials set up and someone who’s setting up a financial system, whether it be a PAC or some other kind of tool, is usually going to run. Political reporters pay a lot of attention to this phase and have sometimes scooped an actual campaign announcement by watching the money.

3 - Declare your candidacy

Candidate makes a formal announcement/declaration of running for election and kicks off their campaign. This almost always is a big media press conference. It usually comes with a paperwork filing of some kind.

4 - Primary Campaigning (2 years - 6ish months before Election Day)

The candidate begins campaigning. It’s important to note that they’re not actually running for president just yet; they’re running for their party’s nomination to run for president in the election.The nominations are chosen based on primary elections and caucuses. All states have different filing deadlines to be eligible for primaries and caucuses.

One year before the election, official primary season starts. It kicks off with televised debates in the autumn/early winter. In primary season, candidates are running against other candidates from their own parties. The Republican/conservative party will have their own primary system and debates, which are separate from the Democrat/liberal party primary system and debates. The goal for primary season is to get the most delegates from all the states to win the party's nomination. (To win the Republican party’s nomination for president in 2024, a candidate needed ~1,200 delegates. To win the Democratic party’s nomination, a candidate needed just under 2,000 delegates.) Delegates are awarded based on the results of the state’s primary or caucus.

Actual primary season (aka when everyone votes on who the party's candidate should be) is January - June of the election year. There is an order to when the states have their primaries. By law, Iowa and New Hampshire go first but that seems to be changing (but that’s also why everyone who runs for president will spend a crazy amount of time and money in Iowa because traditionally in a competitive primary, whoever wins Iowa will often be the party’s nomination). Super Tuesday is another big day to pay attention to - it’s usually the first Tuesday of March when a big number of states will hold their primaries. Super Tuesday is usually do-or-die time for campaigns; if the candidate isn’t doing well and doesn’t have a high delegate count, they’ll drop out after Super Tuesday and endorse one of the front runners (which usually means that candidate’s supporters will likely shift to vote for the endorsed candidate, which is also when we see the campaigns start negotiating for platform issues or convention appearances or even VP slots).

The “drop out and endorse” scheme happens all throughout primary season and it’s how the party to gets to a frontrunner - that’s also why the states at the beginning of the primary season have more power and influence over who the nominee will be, hence the push to diversify the order of the state primaries.

Primaries are usually partisan. Some states require you to be a registered member of the party in order to vote in the primary. Other states require you to choose a party ballot in order to vote - my state, Virginia, holds the presidential primaries on the same day and when you check in to get your ballot, you have to declare whether you want a republican ballot or a democratic ballot.

There's a separate process for third-party candidates (like for the Green Party), but I'm not as familiar with that process. I do know that some states only allow third-party candidates to be on the Election Day ballot only and there's a petition/paperwork requirement they have to meet to be eligible for the ballot, but that's the extent of my knowledge there.

5 - Pick your running mate

Announcement of the Vice President running mate. At the same time the candidates are running for primary delegates, they’re also deciding on who their running mate will be. The VP pick announcement will happen anytime between when the candidate becomes the frontrunner/meets the minimum delegate requirement and the convention. The VP pick must be announced before the convention because the convention has to formally nominate the official slate for a vote in order for the ticket to become the party’s nominee. (The VP running mate is chosen at the president’s discretion based on advice by party leadership and advisors. The public or convention delegates do not vote or have a say in who the VP running mate is; it used to be that the second-place finisher in the electoral college became the VP but that was changed after the Election of 1800 and if that sounds familiar…congratulations, you might have a slight Hamilton obsession.)

6 - National Party Nominating Conventions

Each party has their own convention. These take place in July and August (the parties alternate which convention is held first). They are week-long events where the party comes together to learn the candidate’s platform, hear their take on the issues, listen to their plans and policy proposals, and often is the first time that most people will hear from the VP running mate. The conventions are also where the state delegates will submit their formal nominations for president. This is done as part of the convention’s formal daily business. An informal version of this process – called roll call – happens during the convention’s evening schedule for the television broadcast. It’s a chance for all the states to show their support for the candidate. The candidate with the most delegates (or who has surpassed the minimum delegate requirement) gets the nomination and on the last day of the convention during the primetime/evening TV broadcast, they will officially and formally accept the nomination to be the party’s presidential candidate and the campaign for the presidential election officially kicks off.

7 - Official President Campaign (3 months before Election Day to Election Day)

Presidential Campaign Season. Officially, it runs from the formal acceptance speech by the candidate at the second convention through Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and that’s set in law). Unofficially, it runs from the emergence of the first solid front-runner (or the challenger apparent if the incumbent is running for reelection) through Election Day - hence why it’s important to be the first party to have a solid frontrunner that everyone else coalesces around; the sooner you have your act together, the sooner you can start campaigning against the other party and the longer it takes your party to get their act together, the easier the opposition can portray you as divided and unprepared to govern. Voting will start during this time, usually in September by absentee voting (mail-in voting) or early voting but the rules for early voting vary from state to state. Also during this time, the federal government will start preparations for a presidential transition and planning for the inauguration.

8 - Election Day: the first Tuesday following the first Monday of November

Election Day is the last day to vote and when most people will vote. Polls close 7-8pm in each time zone (and it also varies by state) but that’s a little bit of a misnomer. What’s actually happening is the queue to vote closes. As long as you are in line before the queue closes at 7-8pm, you will be allowed to vote (hence why on Election Day, everyone on social media will be yelling into the void “if you are in line, stay in line” and apparently that’s now a meme). If you are voting by mail-in ballot, then as long as your ballot is postmarked no later than Election Day, it will also be counted, even if it’s not delivered for a couple of days. All the American media on Election Day will be about the election, results, and exit polling. They’ll start calling official results when the polls begin closing and election offices start reporting/posting votes. Election results are called when a majority of the precincts are reporting a majority of their tabulated votes and the science behind how they calculate that is actually pretty proprietary to the different television networks/decision desks. 

So when we vote in a presidential election, we’re not actually voting for the president. We’re voting for delegates (aka electors) who will vote for the president. The delegates form the Electoral College and each state is apportioned electors based on their Congressional representation (number of Senate members + number of House members = number of electors; also the total size of Congress). A candidate needs the majority of electors to win the election; there are 535 total electoral votes, so the majority is 270 and how a campaign gets to 270 electoral votes is called Electoral College Math, which is very much a real science and discipline of study in US politics. A candidate can win the popular vote (where everyone’s vote is counted 1:1) but lose the electoral vote - we saw this in 2000 and 2016 - which makes the Electoral College very controversial nowadays.

So let’s talk about Election Day results and votes for a quick minute. Up until the polls close, all results are unofficial and all the results are based on exit polls (pollsters and reporters who stand outside the polling stations and ask people “who’d you vote for” as they leave). And since 2020 (when the pandemic led to many states making early voting more accessible), exit poll data is actually skewed to Republicans/conservatives because more republicans vote in-person on Election Day. More Democrats/liberals vote early or by mail-in ballot and by many states’ laws, early voting and mail-in ballots cannot be tabulated or calculated until after polls close. So the results that are reported during exit polls and immediately after polls close will skew to the right. Then when early votes are calculated and absentee ballots are added, the results can sometimes change dramatically (and that was a huge reason why the 2020 election was so contested; because what pre-election polls and exit polls were saying were completely different than what the actual results were showing).

Excluding the 2020 election, Americans usually wake up on Wednesday morning knowing who the next president is and what kind of Congress they will have even though the official results and official tallies may still be ongoing. (In many states, if the difference between candidates is within a certain percentage, it triggers an automatic recount and if the difference doesn’t yield an automatic recount, then the parties will send all their lawyers in to file lawsuits and make arguments for a recount - this is all perfectly normal.)

There’s more to Election Day than this, but this is Election Day in a very broad overview.

9 - Ascertainment (the first 5 days after Election Day)

This really only affects the federal government and doesn’t have much bearing on the overall election. It’s different this year due to changes in the law for presidential transition as a result of the 2020 election but in a nutshell, ascertainment is when the General Services Administration is evaluating election results against a set of Congressional benchmarks to determine who is eligible to receive transition support and services. The main change is that no longer can only one person receive transition support; all candidates who meet those Congressional benchmarks are eligible to receive transition support and in that case, ascertainment will last until there is one victor - either when the electoral college vote is certified or someone concedes. From Ascertainment until Inauguration Day, the federal government is in a phase called “presidential transition” and a lot of different things are happening here (political appointees are resigning and being replaced by career employees in an acting capacity; there’s a senior executive (SES) hiring freeze in place since the assumption is that new political appointees will want to have input on the hiring process; and there’s a rulemaking freeze, in which all agencies suspend their processes to make, implement, propose new regulations and rules) and when these resignations/freezes begin varies from election to election.

10 - Electoral College Part 1 (mid-December after Election Day)

State’s electors meet in their capitals to formally vote for the president.

11 - New Congress term starts (January 3 following the election)

It's always on January 3, required by law. The first day of the new session of Congress in which all members of the House and the ⅓ of the Senate that was elected on Election Day. Everyone is sworn in by the Vice President.

12 - Electoral College Part 2 (January 6 following the election)

Always on January 6, required by law. A joint session of Congress (where the House and the Senate meet) is held to certify the results of the Electoral College. This is the final step to “winning” the presidential election. The Vice President presides over the joint session. They count the electoral ballots state by state in alphabetical order and the Congresspeople may contest the electoral vote. If there’s a contest, the joint session will end, both bodies will adjourn to their own chambers and discuss the issues raised. They vote whether to accept the state’s electoral ballots. If the vote is in favor of the electoral ballot, they go back to joint session and the state’s electoral ballot is presented again for certification.

13 - Inauguration Day (January 20 following the election)

The new president and vice president is sworn in and take office. If January 20 falls on Sunday, the official observation (the big formal ceremony at the Capitol and the parade and the balls) is postponed to Monday, January 21 but the president and the vice president will usually have a small swearing-in on January 20 for the official changeover. If there’s a screw up in the oath (like what happened with Obama in - I believe it was - 2013), then the oath will be taken again privately immediately after the official ceremonies conclude just to be sure. The president is able to start governing immediately from 12.01pm on January 20th and he (or she, as the case may soon be) usually does that by issuing executive orders that begin laying out their policy plan and vision. Most of the first executive orders will roll back certain policies from the previous administrations that don’t align with their policy plan and these usually only affect the federal government. Another impact to the federal government is that most new presidents will also institute a hiring freeze on the general civil service beginning mid-January (which is separate from the partial-SES hiring freeze. This isn’t nefarious; it’s usually meant to give the new administration a chance to put their political appointees in place so they can advise and have input on future hiring decisions at the agency. Beginning 12.01pm on January 20, the outgoing president and vice president transition into post-presidency support.

14 - March following the election: Presidential transition ends. This is also an internal milestone for the new administration - they like to have their Cabinet members in office by this date.

15 - July following the election: Immediate post-presidency support to the outgoing president and vice president ends. The former president will enter what is unofficially called “The Presidents Club,” which is all former presidents. By virtue of being a former president, they are eligible to receive some federal budget to stand up their own office and a library in the National Archives for their official records; they get this support for life. Former vice presidents do not get federal support after this July date. (A quirk this year: if Trump wins reelection, he will move from post-president support to presidential transition after the ascertainment.)

Whew. So, next.How does the federal government/civil service change with a new presidential administration?

In the Executive Branch:

Well, there will be hiring freezes. Meaning agencies won’t be allowed to backfill vacant positions or hire new employees. This stops government-wide. If you’re in the middle of being hired or transferring agencies when a hiring freeze is announced, you’re stuck. We can’t do anything or resume any hiring processes until the freeze lifted and we never know how long the freeze is going to last.

Civil servants do leave the government or transfer agencies based on the incoming administration. If a republican wins the White House, liberal or left-leaning people will leave because the policies aren’t aligned with their values and they don’t want to enforce conservative policies, and vice versa if a democrat wins the White House.

Now the departments and agencies will also change. Usually when a Republican is in the White House, the national security budget will increase so the national security sector will be seen as a stable and safe (in terms of budget cuts and finances) place to work so there will be a shift in civil servants transferring to the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, the Intelligence agencies, and law enforcement agencies like FBI and DEA. When a Democrat is in the White House, portions of the welfare sector will be seen as stable and safe, so civil servants will shift to places like State, Education, HHS, Interior. These shifts and transfers are small when compared to the overall numbers of the federal government, but there’s enough happening that it’s noticeable.

And a new issue specific to MAGA Republicans - there’s a big interest to move federal agencies and agency headquarters out of the DC region to other parts of the country, and that’s obviously an enormous issue for a lot of people. Should something like that come up in a future administration, there will be an exodus of civil servants in that agency - either they’re transferring to other agencies to stay in their local area or they’re leaving government altogether.

In the Judicial Branch:

The type of judge the President nominates will change - the President will typically nominate judges whose values align closer to theirs. Sometimes the effect is immediate, in other instances it can take a really long time to see change.

The biggest influence the President has on the judicial branch is with the Supreme Court. There are only 9 justices and they serve lifetime appointments. The chance to put a justice on the SCOTUS is one of the most powerful things a president can do because that individual can potentially be sitting on the bench for 20, 30 years. I don't want to go any further here because it'll get political, but to see the longlasting impact of justices to SCOTUS, just look up Roe v. Wade.

In the Legislative Branch:

If the President’s party has the majority in both the House and the Senate, then they have a much better chance to do a lot of signature policies and make new laws because there’s less risk of opposition. 

If Congress is split - if the majority of one or both houses in Congress are opposite the President’s party (eg if it’s a Democratic White House and the Democrats also hold majority in the Senate but the Republicans hold majority in the House - which is the current status now), then it’s a divided government and usually Congress isn’t as productive otherwise. Three things usually happen when there’s a divided government:

The risk of a government shutdown due to lapse in appropriation is higher because the parties have different budget and spending priorities.

The president will govern more by Executive Order, since he doesn’t need Congress’s consent. Executive Orders largely impact mostly just the executive branch and usually involve agencies creating new rules and regulations rather than by law.

Congress will have more oversight and investigative priorities than legislative priorities.

And lastly: What other TV shows can I watch instead of reading about all this?

Glad you asked!

The West Wing - on HBO Max, good for overall foundation of how government and the Executive Office of the President works.

Veep - on HBO Max. Also good for the Executive Office of the President.

The Diplomat - Netflix. Good foundation for how the Department of State function. (I've heard Madam Secretary, on CBS, is also good for this but I've never watched it so I can't vouch.)

Homeland (Showtime) and Zero Dark Thirty - good foundation for the intelligence agencies

The Newsroom - HBO Max. Specifically Season 2 and specifically episodes 8 and 9. Good for a foundation for how the media covers a presidential election and reports on results.

Actual people working in the White House have said that The West Wing and Veep are pretty accurate for what it's like.

[goopgirlie813]

Anyway obviously theres not much info at the moment because its still two years out, but make sure to check regularly who will be running in you area in the 2026 midterm election. Start supporting and advocating for democrat campaigns as early as possible so we have a stronger chance of taking back congress and reducing damage in the second half of this presidential term. Or possibly even see if you can dig up and talk about dirt on the current republican candidates whose seats will be up in 2026. I'm sure they've got some very criticizable voting histories given the way most republicans have been behaving recently.

Also remember that Trump cannot run again but others like him can run so we really need to be addressing the issues with prejudice and fascism directly so get to reading, strategizing, and talking. The sooner we get to work the more successful we will be.

(And if one of you hops on with "there wont be anymore elections" I swear to fuck. We aint givin' up and acting like they're gone until the moment they are actually gone. At which point we do the thing Americans do best; use that second amendment right—whether its still on the books or not— and fight for our rights. Its not over till we're dead and we wont die quiet. Dont you dare give up or shut up until the fascists are pushed back into the shadows.)

[looses-gooses]

🔥BIDEN IS JOEOVER🔥

[preet-01]

*in Oliver Twist voice* may I please have more of the maxiel political au?

You have me obsessed bestie

Of course you can bestie!!! Here is some married Maxiel discussing why Daniel agreed to the arranged marriage set in early 2026. This specific scene won't be in the fic because there's a different version of it with Daniel and Joe that explores their relationship and the weight of the family name.

First Meeting and Iowa Campaign Trail

Max doesn’t dare to say he fully understands Daniel. He understands bits and pieces of him, but not the entirety of him.

It is, of course, very annoying. He likes to know everything.

But he deals with it. Slowly learning about the new parts of Daniel and burrowing it deep in his mind where all of his Daniel facts live.

Like Daniel loves his career, lives for it, but yet he’s willing to give it up and marry Max just when talks of Daniel being a future Attorney General start.

“Why marry me?” Max asks one night. It’s much too late to change anything, they’ve been married for over a year now and everything is gearing up for his presidential run announcement. But Max remains curious about Daniel tying himself to Max and not continuing down the career path that his mother had expected of him.

Grace Ricciardo had been utterly shocked, but still supportive when Daniel introduced Max to them as his fiancé. Joe Ricciardo hadn’t been shocked, no the former governor had almost seemed apologetic to Daniel. So Max really did not understand the Ricciardos as a whole. At least Daniel's sister had just been very straightforward in her threats. Michelle Ricciardo, Max thinks, is the scariest of the four Ricciardos he'd met.

“A little late for that now, Maxy,” Daniel says. His brown eyes are focused on some case file that he’ll probably argue in front of the Supreme Court. Max doesn't understand why Daniel would be willing to leave something he loves so much to be the First Man. He doesn't understand how Daniel would be willing to leave behind arguing constitutional rights and wording at the highest court to just pick china patterns or Christmas decorations. He doesn't understand why Daniel would want to leave a challenging career where he can make a mark on history to just be a footnote in Max's career, a pretty bauble that the American public will look at.

Max’s own work is long forgotten as he takes in Daniel. So focused on what he needs to do despite it being the first day of a long weekend.

"You could be Attorney General," Max continues on. He'd read Sebastian's file on Daniel and done his own research. Daniel was more than qualified, certainly more qualified than the previous five Attorney Generals.

"You're a Senator, Max. Don't be so naive," Daniel retorts.

"How does my job-"

"Have you ever wondered why Seb manages campaigns instead of running his own?" Daniel cuts him off. The file is on the table and forgotten as Daniel turns to look at Max. "Or why Fernando Alonso-Webber has never become President despite his many, many attempts and strong qualifications?"

Max hadn't ever thought of that. He didn't need to...

"The Senate will never approve me for the Attorney General position. Doesn't matter how many cases I argue in front of the Supreme Court or how widely renowned I become as a lawyer," Daniel sighs. "We're not as progressive in this country as you may want. The Senate is not going to elect a male carrier as the Attorney General. And the majority of the country is not going to elect a carrier as President. Hell, only three carriers, male and female, have gotten the party nom. Just because I can birth a baby, they'll say that I'm not competent enough. That I won't be able to focus on the job, that I won't be tough when needed."

"Things aren't like they used to be," Max tries to argue, but he knows the numbers of carriers are low in both chambers of Congress, even fewer in the Cabinet despite President Hamilton's many attempts at changing it.

"I came to terms with it a long time ago, Maxy, just like Seb did. And there's more to being the First Man than just china patterns and looking pretty. Though I will excel at those," Daniel tells him.

"It shouldn't be like that," he states. It's wrong how in the past the country remains. His chances of winning were low due to being unmarried, and Daniel's chances of going further in his career were even lower due to being a carrier. His ability to birth children shouldn't impact his career.

"It won't be like this forever, eventually things will change. And I hope that it happens during your presidency," Daniel says. There's a sparkle in his brown eyes that hadn't been there before.

"I'm not elected yet, and might not ever be." Max knows that so far they've gone about things with the assumption that come November 2028, Max would be President-Elect. But things don't always pan out and there is a good chance that Max won't win.

"I wouldn't have married you, Maxy, if I had any doubts about your chances at the Presidency."

He doesn't understand all of Daniel, but he does understand bits and pieces and he's willing to learn every little idiosyncrasy that makes up Daniel.

___

I am loving all the discussion about this au and writing this has been so much fun!!!!

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Curious would midterm election help us. Cause I know the good part is the president doesn't have 100% control.

Hi Hon❤️✨

Yes! Midterm elections would help! For those who don’t know, midterm elections (also referred to as “congressional elections”) happen in between presidential elections. Here, one-third of both the Senate and House of Representatives are up for grabs where the people to vote/decide who they want to represent them. The next time we have the congressional election is in 2026.

Here’s a short video by Britannica about congressional elections if you’re interested.

I feel that this would be a good start. Right now, the senate and the house of representatives are red. This means that the ability to create laws, approve the laws, pass the laws, and bring it to the White House to the “okay” is run by conservatives. It would beneficial to invest some time into this option as well.

Let’s make it hellish for Trump.

Note: This is a very simplified version of what these two are. I’m trying to accommodate to everyone right now since we’ve had a rather emotional and stressful week.

[mariacallous]

https://x.com/Mariana_Sanches/status/1853867596975595605

US election being essential for Brazil's presidential elections in 2026

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil votes in local elections with eyes on 2026 presidential showdown

Brazilians vote on Sunday for mayors and city councilors in more than 5,500 municipal elections, with polls showing conservative candidates running strong in several major cities, setting the country's political landscape ahead of a 2026 presidential race.

All eyes are on the election for mayor of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, where three candidates are running neck-and-neck after an aggressive campaign.

Center-right incumbent Mayor Ricardo Nunes, who led the race until last week, is tied for second place at 26% of the votes with far-right digital influencer Pablo Marçal, an unprecedented split in the conservative vote, according to a poll on Saturday.

Leftist Guilherme Boulos, who is supported by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Workers Party, has edged forward on the eve of the election and is leading the field with 29%, pollster Datafolha found.

Continue reading.

[liskantope]

I have a lot of mixed thoughts nowadays about the "threat to democracy" angle to Trump's potential re-presidency.

On the one hand, Trump has made it abundantly clear, from long before the period of the 2020 campaign season when he began priming his base to expect the election to be rigged against him, that he has a fundamentally antidemocratic mentality, that for him, the concept of "democracy" is what it means to a (not particularly bright) second-grader: a fancy word for something that in the US we say we value all the time but which doesn't mean anything of significance. He has instilled a similar mentality among his cult following, and it's eroding our collective sense of what it means to be the United States and our once robust underlying trust (across political ideologies) in our system of elections. It already culminated in the events of January 2021, which made our country an embarrassment to the world and suggests that more violence and strife is in our future as long as he's on the political scene (even if Harris wins in November, I'm dreading how the Trumpists are going to react).

For me on a gut level, the deepest pang of insult and disgust (among very many!) associated with Trump getting into the White House again comes from the idea that he's unqualified not only in his inability to competently handle object-level issues but on the meta level of having no respect whatsoever for democracy, which to me represents the error-correcting mechanism of supreme importance in any system and the primary feature that, uh, makes America great (and revolutionary, back in the 18th century).

But then, at the same time... let's say he wins again. Where does his disrespect for democracy lead, exactly?

Trump has very deliberately undermined trust among his base in elections, and this time around he'll do better with appointing people in crucial positions who will fix elections for him, but what will this mean, concretely? It seems to me that the worst I can conceive of, without inventing scenarios that go completely off the rails, is that Trump manages to find the energy and knowhow to fix the results of a number of 2026 midterm elections and then get through more legislation in the second half of his term than he would have and maybe this includes an abolishment of term limits so that he could run again and fix the results to win again. This does seem quite bad, but it's also pretty far-fetched that he'd actually be able to do all this (starting with doctoring the visible results of a great enough number of midterm races to make a real difference), and anyway, the damage done would be severely hampered by (1) the fact that he'll be getting into his 80's and seems quite likely to drop dead quite suddenly, and (2) his lack of actual focused ideological beliefs (like what's he actually going to try to accomplish with one or two more terms?) -- he's seeking to get back into the White House basically because campaigning is fun and power and attention feel good and it's a way of screwing around and keeping the law from catching up with him.

Maybe I'm lacking in imagination on this, and I do remember Sam Harris having someone on his podcast who described a very concrete scenario of Trump eroding democracy if back in power that sounded pretty scary the way it was spoken at the time, but I can't remember the details now. Meanwhile, the recent Supreme Court decision about presidential immunity seems murky and up to interpretation and like it would maybe require a pretty contrived situation to allow Trump to get away with something truly dictatorial.

I think it's good that Democrats are reminding voters over and over again how incredibly offensive Trump is with regard to his attitude towards our democratic ideals; it seems that a lot of Americans care about this (rightly) and it will help Trump get defeated. That said, I don't know that it does any favors to throw around such vague and dramatic phrases as "will destroy democracy" though. First of all, what does that mean? Secondly, to the extent that it exaggerates the situation, it sounds hysterical, which is something the other side can always capitalize on. I suspect it has, at least in that Trump himself has noticed on some level that he can use desperate and freaked-out-sounding rhetoric from the other side as fodder for trolling.

It really bothers me the way the anti-Trump side has completely taken the bait in moments like Trump's comments about how he'll be a dictator on day one only. It would be one thing to be upset and offended because Trump's cult has flaunted the democratic process and the perception of it in serious ways and so it's in extremely bad taste for him of all people to be flippant and joking about it. It's another thing to hear the "I'll be a dictator but only on day one" comment and conclude in a serious tone, "See? He just admitted right out that he wants to be a dictator!", as if we shouldn't all have the collective psychological intelligence to understand that speaking that way is a form of mischievous, irreverent, trolling-while-projecting-a-strongman humor that Trump has always specialized in (and is indeed what makes him so refreshing to so many people).

I'm similarly really annoyed at the reactions -- including from such smart and sensible commentators as David Pakman -- to Trump's recent remark to a Christian audience about going out and voting just this one time and then he'll "fix" it so they won't have to vote again. I heard that the first time, and it was fairly obvious to me that there were several more likely explanations as to what he meant in context apart from "I'm going to make myself dictator for life" -- the first one that came to my head was "the main reason why a lot of Christians vote is the abortion issue, and Trump is implying that he'll 'fix it', meaning get an amendment passed banning abortion everywhere". Then I saw in an clip from a Trump interview afterwards (I only saw this because it was played by David Pakman I think, though he professed not to understand any sense of what Trump was saying) that Trump's explanation for the remark had to do with Christians not voting in very large numbers. ("I know you don't always care enough to vote, but do it just this once and then you won't have to again" actually sounds very close to the usual line, popular on the liberal side, about "this is the most important election of our lives", with my own personal addition of "vote to resoundingly defeat MAGA so that maybe the each subsequent election won't continue to be the most important of our lives.") I found out today from Matt Lewis' weekly podcast episode with Bill Scher that the context of Trump being concerned about low Christian voter turnout was in fact plainly acknowledged in earlier parts of Trump's same speech, although Scher says that the oft-cited notion of Christians not voting is a myth. Trump's confident claims that he'll "fix everything" are characteristic of him (and one of his main recognized demagogic rhetorical faults he's ridiculed for!) and a much less athletic explanation for his comment than "I'll change the country so that there won't be any elections", a thing that he's never said or implied.

Of course, if Trump cared a shred about truly assuring people that he has no dictatorial inclinations, he would be careful not to make comments that could even remotely be interpreted as such, and one could argue that in that context his "vote for me now and I'll fix it so that you won't need to again" comment was offensive. I'm not sure whether he maybe even intended that comment to be misinterpreted by his opponents this way so as to rile them up, although I seriously doubt that he was being that clever. I just wish people would stop feeding the troll and walking right into the trap of interpreting as much as possible in terms of "destroying our democracy" and treating every remark Trump says as a way of taking the man much more seriously than he deserves, even while at the same time we could simultaneously call attention to the seriously threatening aspects of Trump and Trumpism.

[sopaschronicles]

Now, I'm afraid of 2026 Brazilian elections. Most likely is, someone aligned with the USA's interests will be elected. With bolsonaro out of the game, I fear who it might be...

The left needs a successor for Lula urgently. A better one, if I can ask this much, someone more willing to defy american imperialism (especially w/ trump elected) and the influence of foreigner capital. The problem is, we know what usually happens to Latam's leaders that dare to defy the USA, don't we? 💀 well, let's see where it goes

I'm enraged by the fact that this fuckers only start to work near the elections. We need to start base work, and we need it NOW. I know it would be too much to expect someone like Leo Pericles to be elected, but like, where are the social democrats ??? I'm seriously afraid of what we'll get next presidential election, the mayor ones this year being only a taste of what we have coming... this country will be sold to private initiatives, even worse, foreigner ones.