Fusion voting

In three states—Wisconsin, Kansas, and New Jersey—small but serious groups of citizens, including some former elected officials, have formed new parties—United Wisconsin, United Kansas, and the New Jersey Moderate Party—whose aim is to break the hyper-partisan doom loop.

These new parties do not plan to run their own candidates, at least not initially. Instead, they want to cross-nominate major party candidates so they can support whoever is committed to compromise-oriented governing and the rule of law. In our current system of single-winner elections, cross-nominating candidates is the most effective way for citizens to organize electorally. Third parties running standalone candidates is a recipe only for wasted votes.

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Fusion voting is an elegantly simple solution to breaking the binary that has made politics in America so disagreeable. It allows candidates to be nominated by more than one party, which allows voters to cast a more meaningful and impactful vote.

  Contrarian

You know what would be a better idea? Ranked choice voting.  It would also take care of this problem:v

Whether she intended it or not, the 39-year-old [Mallory] McMorrow started a trend of Democratic outsiders end-running party leaders to launch their campaigns, sometimes in explicit opposition to them. The movement is fueled by a crisis of confidence among Democratic voters in their own party, which is giving encouragement to the types of nontraditional candidates who have been walloped by leadership-aligned rivals in the past.

Altogether, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the moves have created a number of crowded and competitive-looking Democratic Senate primaries — contests that have often seen party leaders leap in to anoint favorites in recent years. Democratic angst following the loss to President Donald Trump last year has contributed to the trend in at least five races that could determine the majority, from core battlegrounds like Michigan and Maine to long-shot targets like Iowa and Texas.

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Even as the DSCC remains officially neutral, it is not uncommon for leaders to work behind the scenes to steer donors and party support to preferred candidates in an effort to head off contested primaries in key races.

  NBC

Looking at you, Chuck Schumer.

McMorrow [...] has said she won’t vote to re-elect Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as the Democratic leader. Her main Democratic rivals in Michigan, four-term Rep. Haley Stevens and progressive physician Abdul El-Sayed, have both demurred on whether they would back Schumer as leader.

“I understand that I’m sometimes not the ‘capital D’ Democratic Party’s favorite,” El-Sayed said in a recent interview when asked if he has faced any pressure to drop out of the race. “But I’m listening to the people and they’re telling me, ‘Abdul, it shouldn’t be this hard and you’re the only one showing up and telling us how you want to fix it.’”

In Maine, where Democratic leaders are holding out hope of recruiting Gov. Janet Mills, oyster farmer and military veteran Graham Platner is running as a populist disruptor who will take on a system that is “rigged” for the wealthy.

Platner, who has made waves on social media, garnering millions of views for his posts and videos, is also vowing not to support Schumer if elected. (Platner and El-Sayed have both been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.)

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Another Democratic strategist advising Senate candidates said the “old” playbook of party leaders effectively controlling primaries doesn’t work in the context of the modern “attention economy,” while predicting that the 2026 primaries will boil down to three questions: “Are you cool? Can you fight? Can you inspire people?”