What’s in a Name? In Alaska, Maybe a Crime.

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(Photo by Eloise BRETHES / AFP via Getty Images)

Politics has always had its tricks. The misleading mailer, the dawn robocall, the rumor started at the diner counter. But it takes a particular kind of nerve to go looking for a man whose main qualification for the U.S. Senate is his name. According to the New York Times, that’s what people around Mary Peltola’s campaign did. On Wednesday night, Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, ordered an investigation into whether criminal charges or civil penalties should be brought over alleged Democratic efforts to confuse voters by recruiting a Senate candidate with the same name as GOP incumbent Dan Sullivan. The

The Running Mate Moves On, Tossing Kamala Under the Bus.

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(Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

In politics, the tell is often what someone leaves out. A week before the midterms, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sat down for an interview that aired on C-SPAN. He was asked to give the national Democratic Party some advice. He answered right away: “Pick Pete Buttigieg.” He didn’t mention Kamala Harris, the woman who pulled him out of St. Paul and put him on a national ticket two years ago. He didn’t add a polite line about her service or nod to the campaign they ran together. He gave one name, and it wasn’t hers. There’s an irony here. Harris

Eight Days Out, Ilhan Omar Picks Her Company.

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(Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images)

Eight days before an election, everything a politician does sends a message: where she shows up, who she sits next to, and what she lets slide. On Monday night in Minneapolis, Rep. Ilhan Omar made her choices, and they told you a lot. The setting was a sold-out event called “I’m The Host Now!”, the first show from state Sen. Omar Fateh, the socialist who ran for mayor of Minneapolis and lost. Sharing the stage was Hasan Piker, the Twitch streamer best known for saying America “deserved” 9/11. Piker gave his crowd what it came for. “I’m not even gonna

America is Safer Under Trump, and the People Say So.

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(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Ask the Victims Don’t take the president’s word for it. Don’t take the cops’ word, either. Take the word of the people who’d know best: the ones who would have been the victims. Every year the Census Bureau asks Americans a blunt question. Did someone hurt you, rob you, break into your home, or steal your car? The Justice Department crunches the answers. It’s called the National Crime Victimization Survey, and it doesn’t depend on whether anyone called 911 or whether a police department filed its paperwork on time. The 2025 numbers came out Monday. They’re startling. Violent victimization —

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