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Wisconsin, Virginia, California: The Tide Has Turned

Newsom delays election for GOP House seat, Buttigieg takes red district by storm, and Spanberger is sworn in

Scott Dworkin Jan 18

With all of the chaos coming out of the Trump regime, I’m glad to have today’s news brief for you. I hope it gives you some relief from their madness, even if only for a moment.

The path forward is clear as day—but only if we act on it now. That’s why we launched our Midterm Accountability Project to win back Congress.

This kind of aggressive, accountability-focused journalism only exists because we are independent. No advertiser would ever let us put pressure on the House and Senate, or run massive social media campaigns against Trump. That means we rely on this amazing community to keep us going.

So if you want to support a newsroom where our priorities are spreading the truth and winning back our democracy—please upgrade to a paid subscription today:

Thanks for being here. Let’s jump in.

BUTTIGIEG TOWN HALL

Pete Buttigieg hosted a town hall on Friday in La Crosse, Wisconsin—the heart of GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s district. The energy in the room was palpable as Buttigieg wasted no time calling out Van Orden: “If he’s not willing to come here and do a town hall, we can have a perfectly good one without him.”

Buttigieg brought up the fact there is nothing in the Constitution about having only nine Supreme Court justices. He also hit on campaign finance reform, stating: “In a country that amended its constitution so you could not purchase a beer—and then realized it was a bad idea and amended it back—surely we can have an amendment clarifying that a corporation is not a person and money is not speech.”

Buttigieg noted that Trump’s “grip on his own party is starting to slip,” and said: “The people—not this Congress, not these courts—are our true backstop against” the regime’s abuses.

TRUMP POLLING A YEAR IN

As we close in on a year of Trump being in office, polls look absolutely abysmal for him—even those coming from corporate media.

A new CNN poll revealed that 58% of Americans call Trump’s first year a “failure.” Among those surveyed, only 19% “approve strongly” of his job performance, the lowest ever for Trump out of the 21 polls taken since early 2017.

And of those who disapprove, 60% say that his unhinged behavior and abuses of power are the main reasons why. I think the real numbers are actually way worse for Trump, but the trends are clearly moving in the right direction.

WALZ AND FREY PUSH BACK

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are pushing back against a retaliatory DOJ investigation that alleges they are obstructing federal agents.

Walz responded to the bogus investigation, stating: “Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic. The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.”

Frey also remained defiant, saying: “This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, our local law enforcement, and our residents against the chaos and danger this administration has brought to our streets. I will not be intimidated. My focus will remain where it’s always been: keeping our city safe.”

And former Assistant US Attorney Elie Honig chimed in, saying that if the DOJ tries to indict them for obstruction, “they will lose.” He added that the DOJ “has lost its damn mind … They’re just off the rails at this point.”

MOVEMENT IN VIRGINIA

Abigail Spanberger was sworn in yesterday, making history as Virginia’s first female governor. “The history and the gravity of this moment are not lost on me,” Spanberger said in her inaugural address. “It is with a profound sense of duty that I assume the governorship and pledge myself to work tirelessly on behalf of our Commonwealth.”

Now that Democrats have secured control of the General Assembly and governor’s mansion, the fight over redistricting in Virginia is heating up. Last week, both the state House and Senate approved a measure to allow Virginians to vote on whether their congressional map will be redrawn. If successful, it could add up to four Democratic seats to the US House.

NEWSOM ON OFFENSE

California Gov. Gavin Newsom isn’t bending to Republican demands. After the passing of GOP Rep. Doug LaMalfa, Newsom set the special election for the latest date legally permissible, stretching the vacancy as long as possible.

The decision infuriated Speaker Mike Johnson, who is now down a critical vote—one he will only get back if Republicans actually manage to hold the seat.

While Republicans feign outrage, the strategy is sound—we can’t save democracy by staying on the defensive—we must go on offense.

That’s why we launched our Midterm Accountability Project, to win back Congress and put an end to Trump’s rubber stamp in the House and Senate. Last year we demolished maga propaganda, generated billions of impressions monthly on social media, and drove half a million contacts to lawmakers. And now it’s time to ramp up the pressure even more.

We have no advertisers or billionaires who control us, which means we rely on our amazing community here for all of our funding. So join our fight against the Trump regime by upgrading to a paid subscription today:

Onward!

Scott

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Hit the like/heart and re-stack buttons to make sure these stories are spread far and wide.

I have two questions for you today:

Do you think Newsom was right to schedule the special election for the last day possible?

What do you think of the bogus DOJ investigations into Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey?

Thanks for your support! Another way to help us out is by gifting subscriptions to friends and family! You can get yours by clicking the link 

For all contact Congress links, or to volunteer, you can go here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-the-watchdog-coalition

Here is my interview from yesterday with Rep. Robin Kelly: https://www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/exclusive-why-rep-kelly-moved-to

Today we are focused on these 4 actions:

Impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem: https://tinyurl.com/253mfne4

Demand AG Bondi release ALL of the Epstein files now: https://tinyurl.com/yzm32ams

Pass bill on unmasking ICE and displaying clear ID: https://tinyurl.com/bp8cau82

Demand answers about Trump’s visibly deteriorating health: https://tinyurl.com/sk9xm38v

Also, sign up to volunteer for our Watchdog Coalition: https://tinyurl.com/4afyy2bs

JUST A FEW OF MANY COMMENTS:

Newsom has gotten so good at this. Fighting fire with fire. I love it.

Mike Johnson doesn't have a leg to stand on after delaying the swearing in ceremony for Adelita Grijalva!

Can NEWSOM delay CERTIFICATION is a REPUBLICAN is elected?

Hey, if MAGA Mikey could hold Adelita Grijalva's swearing in off for more than 50 days, depriving her constituents of a DULY ELECTED representative, then Newsom can put off holding an election. These hypocrites never ever look in a mirror, do they?

Exactly. Great point that Mike should be reminded of every day he waits for that special election. And let's remember, she was ALREADY ELECTED when he dragged his feet swearing her in. The election hasn't even taken place yet in CA.

I believe Tim Walz did the right thing by mobilizing the Minnesota National Guard to support public safety, enforce emergency management agencies and will hopefully protect protesters in Minneapolis from ICE. Next stop the goon squad comes to Maine due to its large Somali population in Portland and Lewiston. Governor Janet Mills has been preparing for this well in advance. Freeze ICE funding.

Mike, protecting the People from trump's goons and ensuring public safety is rightly placed as the #1 priorities of Govs. Walz and Mills; and to Scott's query, the bogus investigations of Walz and Frey by the trump-aligned DOJ is typical of what fascists always do to entrench their power. Newsom is right to hold off the CA election and give the vile trump regime a dose of their own bitter medicine.

Newsome-hell yes…give them what they did to us!

Frey and Walz…bogus? UM…YES! Stay strong guys!

And Pete….love that guy! Keep it up!

Newsom, Pritzger, Walz, now Spanberger - they don’t just have a spine, they have a brain and a heart. What’s missing in the Republican Party is the ability to feel, with rump leading his pack of salivating dogs. We need more courage, brains and heart - maybe we need a yellow brick road, as well! 😳

Every other day/ week, our Convicted felon and pedophile, gets the media all stirred up by his calls for an inditement of an opposition individual. Or one his feeble brain and enlarged ego consider his enemy. This is one sicko! Has S.Miller bug in his ear everyday. Miller is the scumbag wanting deportations of non-whites to reach 4,000 a month. Goal is 1 million a year.

Investigations? It’s what a Democratic House will do after 2026 mid terms. Cleaning up the miscreants in this administration, will be in their top 10 issues.

STEPHEN MILLER is a NAZI! FAMILY immigrated & he wants to pretend what? That he's an AMERICAN? Spews LIES as if he's an ATTORNEY  - did not take the LSAT.

Beyond the ICE GESTAPO ABUSE, TRAGEDIES, LIES & KILLING, think about the OUTRAGEOUS COST of kidnapping or grabbiong people, throwing them into CONCENTRATION CAMPS with no OVERSIGHT, inhumane conditions, maggots on their food, overflowing toilets..people DYING IN ICE GESTAPO CUSTODY...this is costing $170 BILLION A YEAR - at least...for what? To hold people in PRISONS? 

ICE GESTAPO are THUGS, no background checks, little training & given WEAPONS? Just listen to them. 

ICE GESTAPO arrested NATIVE AMERICANS & now they're MISSING! 

TRUMP USES MAFIA TACTICS TO EXTORT ALLIES

Trump has accelerated the abuse of his Presidential powers by threatening 8 of our closest allies to increase their tariffs unless they allow him to personally fulfill his admittedly personal and "psychological" need to actually "own" Greenland.

Trump has learned from organized crime how to commit federal and state crimes as President that he would otherwise be imprisoned for as a private citizen, while an impotent Congress and fawning Supreme Court look the other way.

As the Associated Press reported, President Trump stated that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European countries because of opposition to U.S. control of Greenland. He said in a social media post that Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland would face the tariff, which would be raised to 25% on June 1 if a deal is not in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the United States.

Let's remember that Trump, when interviewed by the New York Times several days ago, said it wasn't enough to merely have a written agreement over Greenland or even to control it, " ...it’s ownership. Ownership is very important...It's psychologically important to me...that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document, that you can have a base."

ISSUE #1: The Supreme Court will shortly be deciding whether the President may use a broad emergency-powers statute to impose tariffs — a function that historically and constitutionally is tied to Congress — or whether such actions exceed the statutory text and violate the Constitution’s separation of powers. The lower courts have ruled against Trump's claimed authority.

TAKEAWAY TO ISSUE #1: There is a consensus presumption that both the Constitution and laws vest in Congress the right decide on the revenue to be collected via tariffs unless there there is an extraordinarily compelling and unforeseeable urgency for the President act. That urgency is not only absent, but for months now Trump has been unilaterally, and often arbitrarily, regulating tariffs as one of his tools, or weapons, if you will, to conduct foreign policy. In my opinion, Trump's latest extortionate threat against 8 of our allies ,which he admittedly conceded is driven by his own psychological need to "own Greenland" pulls the rug out from under his argument that the Supreme Court should defer to him, rather than Congress, in setting tariffs. Clearly with regard to Greenland, the same results could clearly be accomplished by political negotiations without vesting Trump with the extraordinary authority to usurp Congress' right to set tariffs.

ISSUE #2: Trump's Basic Compliance Tool: Extortion of Law Firms

Trump's extraordinarily extortionate demands of our 8 allies to satisfy his own psychological craving places in the spotlight Trump's own continuing course of conduct, since he took office, of using extortion, the bread and butter crime committed by the mafia, to get what he wants.

Had Trump conducted his real estate business relying on systematic extortions to accumulate his wealth, he would now be serving a long prison term having violated the RICO Act of either the U.S. or New York State.

Trump made it clear during his campaign for re-election in 2024 that he if he won he would pervert his office by personally exploit his powers to seek vengeance, retribution and whatever else his visceral urges and obsessions compelled him to do.

Trump's threats didn’t focus solely on policy disagreements; rather, they centered on the idea of using government power in a punitive way against perceived adversaries. Trump frequently said he would use the federal government’s authority to punish those he claimed had wronged him or his supporters. A prominent refrain from his rallies were variants of:“For those who have been wronged and betrayed … I am your retribution.”

We already know that Trump was not bluffing when he appointed and ordered totally unqualified lawyers, who had personally represented him, as prosecutors to go after NYS Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, both of whose indictments were ultimately annulled as specious.

Trump's has a long history of using extortion, threats, shakedowns and blackmail to get what he wants:

Examples:

Extortion: The extortion of multiple law firms to comply with Trump's demands, including providing hundreds of hours of pro bono legal services in support of Trump's specified ideologies, at the risk of being denied benefits and access to vital information.

Extortion: The extortion of multiple universities and colleges to comply with Trump's demands to refrain from specified hiring practices, academic pursuits, research in specified areas, teaching "woke" related subjects, promoting civil rights etc.

"On her first day as Governor, Abigail Spanberger made a decisive move: she vetoed Executive Order 47, ending Virginia’s participation in the federal 287(g) program that allowed local law enforcement to act as ICE agents." (https://www.12onyourside.com/2026/01/17/day-one-governor-spanberger-ends-virginias-ice-collaboration/). Fabulous!!!

DeSantis has also held back special elections and Johnson didn’t swear in Grijalva til pushed. Republicans have no business complaining about situation they initiated.

The Department of Justice is increasingly becoming a contradiction in terms. It is progressing in its determination to increase verbal and physical assaults on people who have committed no crime. The DOJ is a poisonous web of mendacity, disingenuous fury, built on a myopic foundation of subservience to a leader who is without compassion or intelligence. And much kudos and gratitude for Messrs. Walz and Frey in their confronting of it.

(1). Contact the Congressional offices of South Dakota members - Senator John Thune (leader in the Senate), Senator Mike Rounds (up for re-election), and Representative Dusty Johnson (up for re-election) and ask them WHEN is Kristi Noem (from South Dakota) going to send ICE agents to South Dakota??? And WHEN is Kristi Noem going to send ICE to South Dakota to stop and ask South Dakota residents to "show their papers" to prove they are American citizens??? (2) And we in America must hear from legitimate law enforcement agencies. ICE is making a mockery of them by saying - when WE show up - WE are the law - you just sit there, stay out of our way, and do nothing to stop us - because now WE are in charge and NOT you! You can do nothing to protect your own citizens and constituents....... (3). And the Republican COWARDS in Congress have talked about Impeachment of Trump if he starts to move on Greenland. Well - you COWARDS - then DO IT! No one in the world is in favor of this (in fact he may start WWIII over this with most of the rest of the world vs. Trump) - but Trump, the bully of America and the world, continues to act like he can do ANYTHING he wants and NO ONE will stop him. Once and for all he needs to be SHOWN what NO MEANS!