The vote Tuesday showed cult-like Trump support from the hard right and evangelicals. But there is a ceiling to his support, and no particular wish to add on new floors.
Author Archives: Joel Connelly
Joel Connelly is a Northwest Progressive Institute contributor who has reported on multiple presidential campaigns and from many national political conventions. During his career at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he interviewed Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush. He has covered Canada from Trudeau to Trudeau, written about the fiscal meltdown of the nuclear energy obsessed WPPSS consortium (pronounced "Whoops") and public lands battles dating back to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley blast each other in CNN-hosted debate while Fox fetes Trump
Trump’s remaining rivals trashed each other, traded talking points, and took issue with frontrunner Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election, during a ferocious debate staged in Des Moines five days before Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses.
New reporting shines light on Joe Kent’s bad bookkeeping, shady campaign operations
The Daily Beast has taken a deep dive look at what lies beneath the surface of the 2024 WA-03 Republican frontrunner’s campaign, and found a lot of muck.
“The Boys in the Boat” adds to the visual arts depicting the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany
George Clooney’s latest film, based on the non-fiction novel by Daniel James Brown, joins films like “Olympia” in taking audiences back to the 1930s, a time when American athletes competed for Olympic gold against a backdrop of rising fascism.
Supreme Court weighs lawsuit challenging Washington’s signature verification system
“Without direct review, tens of thousands of fully qualified voters will be disenfranchised for nothing more than their penmanship,” argued attorney Kevin Hamilton, representing three groups who have sued the Washington Secretary of State and King County Elections.
Wild Olympics legislation clears Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee
A bill designed to protect 126,500 acres of wilderness and put streams under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has been before Congress for more than a decade. In December of 2023, it cleared a key Senate committee.
House Republicans vote to formalize their baseless impeachment inquiry against Biden
The launch came on a 221–212 party-line vote after self-styled reasonable Republicans, representing districts carried by Biden and Harris in 2020, were press ganged to go along.
DeSantis, Haley, Christie, Ramaswany trade insults in fourth 2024 Republican debate
The candidates tore into each other but the big orange cheese — Donald Trump— once again was missing. Three of the four debaters treated him gingerly.
Henry Kissinger: 1923–2023
Transfixed with power, Kissinger had little regard for small countries or people perceived as getting in the way.
After picking up WA-03 and Alaska in 2022, PNW House Democrats are now on defense
It takes days to count mail-in ballots in Washington, and weeks under Alaska’s ranked voting system. Conceivably, the nation could be kept waiting next November for a final vote on which party controls one house of Congress.
The Roberts/Alito Supreme Court’s toothless new code of ethics isn’t good enough
The code asks justices not to play a part in cases where they have a professional connection or personal interest. Compliance is entirely voluntary and based the judgment of the justice.
Representative Derek Kilmer says this term will be his last as a member of Congress
“I’m a pretty young guy with more chapters in my life,” Kilmer, forty-nine, wrote. “My plan is to ensure those chapters enable me to continue to make a positive difference. And I’d sure like to make a bit more time for those I love.”
Donald Trump stages another hate-filled rally in Florida while five wannabe heirs to the Republican nomination trade jabs nearby
For the third time, Donald Trump skipped a primary debate organized by the Republican National Committee, choosing instead to hold his own rally featuring Senator Rick Scott.
Democrats and progressives roll to victory with key wins in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia
Demonstrating that they can win in odd years, Democrats and progressives scored a series of big wins in key East Coast states in the 2023 general election.