In Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, democratic socialists find their voice
On a brisk September Saturday in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Julie Swoope is working through her canvassing list with practiced ease, supervising a group of young volunteers as they knock on doors and urge neighbors to come out and vote this November. They are also urging them to cast that vote for Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as New York’s next mayor.
It wasn’t too long ago that Ms. Swoope, a volunteer organizer with New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), was one of those walking the blocks.
“There’s a lot of new people coming out – which is great,” she says, checking off the addresses volunteers were able to complete. “We had like 130 RSVPs, and there are always new people still coming in.”
Why We Wrote This
The populist campaign of Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor has energized the growing number of democratic socialists across the U.S. They could change the direction of the Democratic Party.
Since last year, New York’s DSA chapter, the largest in the country, has more than doubled in size, growing from roughly 5,000 members to nearly 11,000. About 2,000 of those new members joined after Mr. Mamdani, a little-known state assembly member from Queens, toppled former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary last June.
Just 10 years ago, the term “socialist” was more or less a dirty word in American politics. But as both of the country’s two major political parties underwent dramatic upheavals in 2016, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, helped galvanize a movement of young and mostly white progressives who weren’t afraid of embracing the term.
In the Democratic Party, that young, boisterous movement was mostly on the outside of the established left-of-center coalition of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In recent years, however, progressives, including democratic socialists, have come into their own as more now hold elected office.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Along with Senator Sanders, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become a national figure. Their leadership has been central to the inroads that progressive candidates have made as the current Democratic leadership struggles to respond to President Donald Trump’s dominant place in current U.S. politics. Other democratic socialists in Congress include Rep. Rashida Tlaib in Michigan and Rep. Greg Casar in Texas. There are also some 250 democratic socialists holding state and local elected offices, according to most counts, most elected after 2019.
A victory in November would propel Mr. Mamdani into a national role, taking the executive reins of the country’s largest city.
The Democratic Socialists of America have called for collective ownership of energy production and transportation. But instead of trumpeting these and other progressive positions, such as the Green New Deal, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial inequality, Mr. Mamdani is offering what his campaign frames as a “survival agenda.”
“Mamdani has been really effective at helping people move past just a label to think about the actual issues and policies,” says Christina Greer, professor of political science at Fordham University. She says affordability has become an “organizing principle” – a way to reengage people in shaping their futures.
Mr. Mamdani is gaining traction, Dr. Greer says, because he offers “a vision of hope” reminiscent of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign.
His proposals emphasize free public transit for low- and middle-income New Yorkers, city-run grocery stores in each borough, and rent freezes to protect tenants from sudden spikes.
Riley Robinson/Staff
He’s not the only one. Mayor Michelle Wu in Boston, a progressive Democrat who does not call herself a democratic socialist, is pursuing a similar agenda as she is set to serve a second term, running unopposed in the general election. In Seattle, the democratic socialist Katie Wilson, who defeated the incumbent Democratic Mayor Bruce Harrell by nearly 10 percentage points in the primary in August, is also focusing on transportation and housing costs as she faces off against Mayor Harrell again in November. (In both Boston and Seattle, the general election features the top two vote-getters in the primaries, regardless of party affiliation.)
“The [Mamdani] campaign has really sharpened our rhetorical ability to talk about those demands and put them into an affordability package, explaining them very clearly,” says Grace Mausser, co-chair of NYC-DSA.
Mr. Mamdani’s campaign, as well as Mayor Wu’s and Ms. Wilson’s, hasn’t abandoned previous priorities; they are just emphasizing new ones. In New York, Mr. Mamdani’s volunteers are trying to build a grassroots culture, not only knocking on doors, but also hosting social events, running clubs, and even soccer leagues, hoping to create a community that extends beyond the electoral calendar.
“We are trying to build a culture for how we govern,” Ms. Mausser says. “It’s inclusive, based on the masses, and empowers people to be part of the change.”
A Venn diagram of MAGA and democratic socialist ideas
For a growing number of Democrats and Republicans, unfettered global capitalism is now viewed with deep suspicion.
There is a Venn diagram of ideas embraced by progressive Democrats and MAGA conservatives alike. This includes tariffs to protect the American worker – a position long held by Senator Sanders.
Both movements also share an unease with international corporations. Many in both camps express concerns with America’s corporate food suppliers and drug companies.
Since 2016, when Mr. Trump first won over many of the working-class voters who once formed the backbone of the Democratic coalition, party leaders have struggled to find a durable response to his brand of antiestablishment populism.
“Whether left or right, populism begins with the sense that the system is fundamentally broken,” says James DeFilippis, professor of urban planning at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “There is an unquestioned decline in support for status quo candidates, and a growing appetite for leaders who speak with a populist vibe.”
Riley Robinson/Staff
The Republican candidate for mayor, Curtis Sliwa, the hard-edged civic leader and radio personality from Brooklyn who founded the Guardian Angels during New York’s crime waves in the late 1970s, has also echoed some of Mr. Mamdani’s ideas.
True, Mr. Sliwa is far from a typical Republican, whether on the establishment or MAGA side of the party. He calls himself a “blue-collar working-class populist,” and he rejects much of traditional Republican orthodoxy, embracing ideas that would once have been considered liberal or even socialist.
He supports expanding the Mitchell-Lama social housing program, created in 1955, which provides affordable housing for middle-income residents. He has also floated the idea of a universal basic income for working families.
On a September morning in Queens, Mr. Sliwa leans against a subway pillar in his trademark red beret, railing against crime and talking about the need to make New York more affordable for the working class.
“Rents, utilities, food prices – everything keeps going up,” says Mr. Sliwa. “People need relief, and the city can help deliver it. Public schools, the 40-hour workweek – those were called socialist once, too. I cherry-pick ideas that work, and I don’t care what label you put on them.”
Beata Zawrzel/Nurphoto/AP/File
The Republican candidate for mayor is polling at only about 10% of likely voters, however. Mr. Mamdani, who is polling at about 45%, according to the most recent surveys, continues to hold a commanding lead over Mr. Cuomo, who’s polling at about 25%. (In September, the incumbent Democrat, Mayor Eric Adams, withdrew from the race.)
Most New Yorkers would not consider themselves either progressives or democratic socialists. But they appear willing to try a different approach to governing New York as living costs soar.
George Konetsky, a native New Yorker who has lived in Astoria since 1986, says Mr. Mamdani’s ideas sound promising but remain abstract.
“Mamdani is getting a free ride,” Mr. Konetsky says, taking a break from his morning run. “Nobody’s asked him exactly how he’s going to pay for anything, and nobody’s really challenging him on his many controversial comments.” Nevertheless, he adds, “Cuomo is yesterday’s news, and Sliwa would be a wild card.”
Riley Robinson/Staff
Others feeling a more populist vibe see Mr. Mamdani’s lack of executive experience as a part of his appeal.
“He’s the only candidate who isn’t crazy corrupt,” says Shannon Marshall, another Astoria resident. She sees Mr. Mamdani’s candidacy as a rejection of the status quo. “Even though he’s not as experienced politically, he has a much better track record of supporting workers and unions.”
Mohammed Makanera works in security and has lived in New York his whole life. He’s backing Mr. Mamdani out of frustration with the political status quo. He feels like past mayors have been more interested in building their own platforms than in addressing everyday struggles.
National politics feed into cynicism, he says. But Mr. Mamdani’s proposals for free transit and city-run grocery stores resonate with him. “Even if he hasn’t worked out all the details, I like his policies because he’s trying to put more money into the city,” Mr. Makanera says.
Yuki Iwamura/AP/File
The impact of Mamdani's success
The success of Mr. Mamdani in New York has already become a model for other Democratic Socialists of America chapters across the country.
Organizers say the lessons from Mr. Mamdani’s campaign – rooting policy in the daily struggles over rent, food, and transportation – are informing new messaging experiments in places like Somerville, Massachusetts; and Minneapolis.
In Somerville, DSA organizers are aligning with tenants unions to push rent stabilization and expand public ownership of housing, blending local advocacy with the “survival agenda” proposed in New York.
In Minneapolis, the focus is on free transit and cooperative housing – both framed as affordability measures rather than as abstract socialist ideals.
The pivot toward affordability marks both a rebranding and a strategic expansion, observers say. It is seeking to reach Democratic voters once thought beyond its reach.
Still, the appeal of Mr. Mamdani’s campaign underscores a generational and ideological shift happening within the party, says Dr. Greer, the political scientist from Fordham. Despite Mr. Mamdani’s grassroots appeal, establishment Democrats have been reluctant to back him.
“You’ve got Democrats who own the building, and Democrats who are renting in the building,” she says. “It’s a difficult needle to thread. The fact that people like Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and especially Hakeem Jeffries are still sitting on the sidelines [of the Mamdani campaign] – as though something will change – says a lot about the divide right now, she adds, referring to three of the state’s U.S. lawmakers.”
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For Ms. Swoope, the DSA organizer canvassing in Bed-Stuy, Mr. Mamdani’s momentum has broken through the cynicism many young progressive voters have been experiencing during Mr. Trump’s second term.
“Zohran was effectively a change candidate offering a positive message that was able to break through that cynicism,” she says.
In Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, democratic socialists find their voice
On a brisk September Saturday in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Julie Swoope is working through her canvassing list with practiced ease, supervising a group of young volunteers as they knock on doors and urge neighbors to come out and vote this November. They are also urging them to cast that vote for Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as New York’s next mayor.
It wasn’t too long ago that Ms. Swoope, a volunteer organizer with New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), was one of those walking the blocks.
“There’s a lot of new people coming out – which is great,” she says, checking off the addresses volunteers were able to complete. “We had like 130 RSVPs, and there are always new people still coming in.”
Why We Wrote This
The populist campaign of Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor has energized the growing number of democratic socialists across the U.S. They could change the direction of the Democratic Party.
Since last year, New York’s DSA chapter, the largest in the country, has more than doubled in size, growing from roughly 5,000 members to nearly 11,000. About 2,000 of those new members joined after Mr. Mamdani, a little-known state assembly member from Queens, toppled former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary last June.
Just 10 years ago, the term “socialist” was more or less a dirty word in American politics. But as both of the country’s two major political parties underwent dramatic upheavals in 2016, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, helped galvanize a movement of young and mostly white progressives who weren’t afraid of embracing the term.
In the Democratic Party, that young, boisterous movement was mostly on the outside of the established left-of-center coalition of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In recent years, however, progressives, including democratic socialists, have come into their own as more now hold elected office.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Along with Senator Sanders, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become a national figure. Their leadership has been central to the inroads that progressive candidates have made as the current Democratic leadership struggles to respond to President Donald Trump’s dominant place in current U.S. politics. Other democratic socialists in Congress include Rep. Rashida Tlaib in Michigan and Rep. Greg Casar in Texas. There are also some 250 democratic socialists holding state and local elected offices, according to most counts, most elected after 2019.
A victory in November would propel Mr. Mamdani into a national role, taking the executive reins of the country’s largest city.
The Democratic Socialists of America have called for collective ownership of energy production and transportation. But instead of trumpeting these and other progressive positions, such as the Green New Deal, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial inequality, Mr. Mamdani is offering what his campaign frames as a “survival agenda.”
“Mamdani has been really effective at helping people move past just a label to think about the actual issues and policies,” says Christina Greer, professor of political science at Fordham University. She says affordability has become an “organizing principle” – a way to reengage people in shaping their futures.
Mr. Mamdani is gaining traction, Dr. Greer says, because he offers “a vision of hope” reminiscent of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign.
His proposals emphasize free public transit for low- and middle-income New Yorkers, city-run grocery stores in each borough, and rent freezes to protect tenants from sudden spikes.
Riley Robinson/Staff
He’s not the only one. Mayor Michelle Wu in Boston, a progressive Democrat who does not call herself a democratic socialist, is pursuing a similar agenda as she is set to serve a second term, running unopposed in the general election. In Seattle, the democratic socialist Katie Wilson, who defeated the incumbent Democratic Mayor Bruce Harrell by nearly 10 percentage points in the primary in August, is also focusing on transportation and housing costs as she faces off against Mayor Harrell again in November. (In both Boston and Seattle, the general election features the top two vote-getters in the primaries, regardless of party affiliation.)
“The [Mamdani] campaign has really sharpened our rhetorical ability to talk about those demands and put them into an affordability package, explaining them very clearly,” says Grace Mausser, co-chair of NYC-DSA.
Mr. Mamdani’s campaign, as well as Mayor Wu’s and Ms. Wilson’s, hasn’t abandoned previous priorities; they are just emphasizing new ones. In New York, Mr. Mamdani’s volunteers are trying to build a grassroots culture, not only knocking on doors, but also hosting social events, running clubs, and even soccer leagues, hoping to create a community that extends beyond the electoral calendar.
“We are trying to build a culture for how we govern,” Ms. Mausser says. “It’s inclusive, based on the masses, and empowers people to be part of the change.”
A Venn diagram of MAGA and democratic socialist ideas
For a growing number of Democrats and Republicans, unfettered global capitalism is now viewed with deep suspicion.
There is a Venn diagram of ideas embraced by progressive Democrats and MAGA conservatives alike. This includes tariffs to protect the American worker – a position long held by Senator Sanders.
Both movements also share an unease with international corporations. Many in both camps express concerns with America’s corporate food suppliers and drug companies.
Since 2016, when Mr. Trump first won over many of the working-class voters who once formed the backbone of the Democratic coalition, party leaders have struggled to find a durable response to his brand of antiestablishment populism.
“Whether left or right, populism begins with the sense that the system is fundamentally broken,” says James DeFilippis, professor of urban planning at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “There is an unquestioned decline in support for status quo candidates, and a growing appetite for leaders who speak with a populist vibe.”
Riley Robinson/Staff
The Republican candidate for mayor, Curtis Sliwa, the hard-edged civic leader and radio personality from Brooklyn who founded the Guardian Angels during New York’s crime waves in the late 1970s, has also echoed some of Mr. Mamdani’s ideas.
True, Mr. Sliwa is far from a typical Republican, whether on the establishment or MAGA side of the party. He calls himself a “blue-collar working-class populist,” and he rejects much of traditional Republican orthodoxy, embracing ideas that would once have been considered liberal or even socialist.
He supports expanding the Mitchell-Lama social housing program, created in 1955, which provides affordable housing for middle-income residents. He has also floated the idea of a universal basic income for working families.
On a September morning in Queens, Mr. Sliwa leans against a subway pillar in his trademark red beret, railing against crime and talking about the need to make New York more affordable for the working class.
“Rents, utilities, food prices – everything keeps going up,” says Mr. Sliwa. “People need relief, and the city can help deliver it. Public schools, the 40-hour workweek – those were called socialist once, too. I cherry-pick ideas that work, and I don’t care what label you put on them.”
Beata Zawrzel/Nurphoto/AP/File
The Republican candidate for mayor is polling at only about 10% of likely voters, however. Mr. Mamdani, who is polling at about 45%, according to the most recent surveys, continues to hold a commanding lead over Mr. Cuomo, who’s polling at about 25%. (In September, the incumbent Democrat, Mayor Eric Adams, withdrew from the race.)
Most New Yorkers would not consider themselves either progressives or democratic socialists. But they appear willing to try a different approach to governing New York as living costs soar.
George Konetsky, a native New Yorker who has lived in Astoria since 1986, says Mr. Mamdani’s ideas sound promising but remain abstract.
“Mamdani is getting a free ride,” Mr. Konetsky says, taking a break from his morning run. “Nobody’s asked him exactly how he’s going to pay for anything, and nobody’s really challenging him on his many controversial comments.” Nevertheless, he adds, “Cuomo is yesterday’s news, and Sliwa would be a wild card.”
Riley Robinson/Staff
Others feeling a more populist vibe see Mr. Mamdani’s lack of executive experience as a part of his appeal.
“He’s the only candidate who isn’t crazy corrupt,” says Shannon Marshall, another Astoria resident. She sees Mr. Mamdani’s candidacy as a rejection of the status quo. “Even though he’s not as experienced politically, he has a much better track record of supporting workers and unions.”
Mohammed Makanera works in security and has lived in New York his whole life. He’s backing Mr. Mamdani out of frustration with the political status quo. He feels like past mayors have been more interested in building their own platforms than in addressing everyday struggles.
National politics feed into cynicism, he says. But Mr. Mamdani’s proposals for free transit and city-run grocery stores resonate with him. “Even if he hasn’t worked out all the details, I like his policies because he’s trying to put more money into the city,” Mr. Makanera says.
Yuki Iwamura/AP/File
The impact of Mamdani's success
The success of Mr. Mamdani in New York has already become a model for other Democratic Socialists of America chapters across the country.
Organizers say the lessons from Mr. Mamdani’s campaign – rooting policy in the daily struggles over rent, food, and transportation – are informing new messaging experiments in places like Somerville, Massachusetts; and Minneapolis.
In Somerville, DSA organizers are aligning with tenants unions to push rent stabilization and expand public ownership of housing, blending local advocacy with the “survival agenda” proposed in New York.
In Minneapolis, the focus is on free transit and cooperative housing – both framed as affordability measures rather than as abstract socialist ideals.
The pivot toward affordability marks both a rebranding and a strategic expansion, observers say. It is seeking to reach Democratic voters once thought beyond its reach.
Still, the appeal of Mr. Mamdani’s campaign underscores a generational and ideological shift happening within the party, says Dr. Greer, the political scientist from Fordham. Despite Mr. Mamdani’s grassroots appeal, establishment Democrats have been reluctant to back him.
“You’ve got Democrats who own the building, and Democrats who are renting in the building,” she says. “It’s a difficult needle to thread. The fact that people like Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and especially Hakeem Jeffries are still sitting on the sidelines [of the Mamdani campaign] – as though something will change – says a lot about the divide right now, she adds, referring to three of the state’s U.S. lawmakers.”
Deepen your worldview
with Monitor Highlights.
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For Ms. Swoope, the DSA organizer canvassing in Bed-Stuy, Mr. Mamdani’s momentum has broken through the cynicism many young progressive voters have been experiencing during Mr. Trump’s second term.
“Zohran was effectively a change candidate offering a positive message that was able to break through that cynicism,” she says.
Adelita Grijalva has waited since September. What to know about the House-seat delay.
As of this week, the 813,000 voters in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, which hugs the Mexico border, will have been without representation in Congress for a full month. Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who handily won the district’s September special election to fill her late father’s seat, has yet to assume her duties because Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has delayed her swearing-in, citing the ongoing shutdown.
Tensions over the empty seat continue to mount. This week, Ms. Grijalva and the state of Arizona filed lawsuits against the Republican-led House of Representatives and Speaker Johnson, alleging that his refusal to seat her exceeds his lawful authority.
“We’re going to court because this is an abuse of power that strikes at the foundation of our democracy and would set a dangerous precedent for the future,” Ms. Grijalva's staff told The Monitor in an emailed response.
Why We Wrote This
Historically, representatives who win special elections are often sworn in within days of victory. Now a prominent delay is stirring controversy – and lawsuits.
In her 17-page filing, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes argues that Speaker Johnson is withholding representation from the people of Arizona’s 7th District. She and other Democrats have accused the speaker of blocking Ms. Grijalva for political reasons, including preventing a vote on the release of records related to Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
How unusual is this delay?
Typically, after winning special elections, representatives-elect are sworn in within hours or days of their victory.
“It’s normal for a then-winner of a special election to head to Washington straight away,” says Steven Smith, a professor of political science at Arizona State University and a leading scholar of congressional politics. “The winner is always eager to get sworn in as a member of the House as quickly as possible.”
But as the latest government shutdown stretches into the second-longest in U.S. history (the longest was during Mr. Trump’s first administration, in 2018–2019), Mr. Johnson has chosen to keep the House in recess. Without a regular House session, he says, Ms. Grijalva will not be sworn in.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Rejecting accusations that he is playing politics, Speaker Johnson has repeatedly blamed Democrats for the shutdown and, therefore, the delay. He has cited “the Pelosi precedent,” referring to the former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s seating of some newly elected Republican members after the House returned to a full session. Mr. Johnson has also said that he will swear in Representative-elect Grijalva when the House returns to a regular “legislative session,’’ not an emergency “pro forma’’ session.
While not holding regular sessions, the House has held pro forma sessions every few days since the shutdown began Oct. 1. This past April, Mr. Johnson swore in two Republican representatives, Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, from Florida during a pro forma session, sparking pushback from Democrats over that move.
What is the political significance of this House seat, and how does it relate to the Epstein case?
Every seat matters with the House now under razor-thin Republican control, with 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats currently. Republicans need near-unanimity within their caucus to pass partisan legislation.
Ms. Grijalva’s seat – and vote – is already key to passing a petition that the vast majority of House Republicans oppose about the Epstein case.
A total of 218 signatures is needed for a discharge petition to force a vote on the release of files involving Mr. Epstein, whose 2019 jail-cell death was attributed by investigators to suicide, as he awaited trial for alleged sex trafficking of minors. He is reported to have had long-standing ties with numerous influential people, including now-President Donald Trump.
Before Ms. Grijalva’s victory, a bipartisan group led by Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California had secured 217 signatures. Ms. Grijalva has vowed to be the 218th signature to force the vote.
While Democratic leaders have pointed to the Epstein files as the reason Mr. Johnson has denied Ms. Grijalva’s swearing-in, the speaker has repeatedly rejected that assertion. “It has nothing to do with that at all,’’ he said in a press conference on Oct. 7.
What does this delay mean for Arizona’s 7th District constituents?
After the death of Ms. Grijalva’s father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, in March, his seat was left vacant. But his office was not. Under House rules that apply to any member who has died, resigned, or been expelled, the office for Arizona’s 7th District remained open under supervision from the House Clerk, Kevin McCumber. Despite having no formal voting representation, the office’s staff remained in place to handle duties like casework and phone calls until a new representative took the seat.
After Ms. Grijalva was elected, however, the office was closed. With the door shut, uncertainty looms for the 7th District representative’s staff and her constituents. Dr. Smith suggests that constituents have been left with no direct contact to voice concerns, whether about votes in Congress or government programs amid the shutdown.
“You’re gonna pick up the phone and dial a number, and there’s not going to be anyone on the other end to answer,” says Professor Smith, referring to 7th District constituents.
Deepen your worldview
with Monitor Highlights.
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The lack of representation also affects the towns, cities, and counties that shape the district.
“You don’t have someone sitting in hearings, asking questions of administration officials about issues that involve your district,” Professor Smith says. “You’re simply unrepresented in so many aspects of congressional activity.”
Adelita Grijalva has waited since September. What to know about the House-seat delay.
As of this week, the 813,000 voters in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, which hugs the Mexico border, will have been without representation in Congress for a full month. Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who handily won the district’s September special election to fill her late father’s seat, has yet to assume her duties because Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has delayed her swearing-in, citing the ongoing shutdown.
Tensions over the empty seat continue to mount. This week, Ms. Grijalva and the state of Arizona filed lawsuits against the Republican-led House of Representatives and Speaker Johnson, alleging that his refusal to seat her exceeds his lawful authority.
“We’re going to court because this is an abuse of power that strikes at the foundation of our democracy and would set a dangerous precedent for the future,” Ms. Grijalva's staff told The Monitor in an emailed response.
Why We Wrote This
Historically, representatives who win special elections are often sworn in within days of victory. Now a prominent delay is stirring controversy – and lawsuits.
In her 17-page filing, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes argues that Speaker Johnson is withholding representation from the people of Arizona’s 7th District. She and other Democrats have accused the speaker of blocking Ms. Grijalva for political reasons, including preventing a vote on the release of records related to Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
How unusual is this delay?
Typically, after winning special elections, representatives-elect are sworn in within hours or days of their victory.
“It’s normal for a then-winner of a special election to head to Washington straight away,” says Steven Smith, a professor of political science at Arizona State University and a leading scholar of congressional politics. “The winner is always eager to get sworn in as a member of the House as quickly as possible.”
But as the latest government shutdown stretches into the second-longest in U.S. history (the longest was during Mr. Trump’s first administration, in 2018–2019), Mr. Johnson has chosen to keep the House in recess. Without a regular House session, he says, Ms. Grijalva will not be sworn in.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Rejecting accusations that he is playing politics, Speaker Johnson has repeatedly blamed Democrats for the shutdown and, therefore, the delay. He has cited “the Pelosi precedent,” referring to the former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s seating of some newly elected Republican members after the House returned to a full session. Mr. Johnson has also said that he will swear in Representative-elect Grijalva when the House returns to a regular “legislative session,’’ not an emergency “pro forma’’ session.
While not holding regular sessions, the House has held pro forma sessions every few days since the shutdown began Oct. 1. This past April, Mr. Johnson swore in two Republican representatives, Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, from Florida during a pro forma session, sparking pushback from Democrats over that move.
What is the political significance of this House seat, and how does it relate to the Epstein case?
Every seat matters with the House now under razor-thin Republican control, with 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats currently. Republicans need near-unanimity within their caucus to pass partisan legislation.
Ms. Grijalva’s seat – and vote – is already key to passing a petition that the vast majority of House Republicans oppose about the Epstein case.
A total of 218 signatures is needed for a discharge petition to force a vote on the release of files involving Mr. Epstein, whose 2019 jail-cell death was attributed by investigators to suicide, as he awaited trial for alleged sex trafficking of minors. He is reported to have had long-standing ties with numerous influential people, including now-President Donald Trump.
Before Ms. Grijalva’s victory, a bipartisan group led by Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California had secured 217 signatures. Ms. Grijalva has vowed to be the 218th signature to force the vote.
While Democratic leaders have pointed to the Epstein files as the reason Mr. Johnson has denied Ms. Grijalva’s swearing-in, the speaker has repeatedly rejected that assertion. “It has nothing to do with that at all,’’ he said in a press conference on Oct. 7.
What does this delay mean for Arizona’s 7th District constituents?
After the death of Ms. Grijalva’s father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, in March, his seat was left vacant. But his office was not. Under House rules that apply to any member who has died, resigned, or been expelled, the office for Arizona’s 7th District remained open under supervision from the House Clerk, Kevin McCumber. Despite having no formal voting representation, the office’s staff remained in place to handle duties like casework and phone calls until a new representative took the seat.
After Ms. Grijalva was elected, however, the office was closed. With the door shut, uncertainty looms for the 7th District representative’s staff and her constituents. Dr. Smith suggests that constituents have been left with no direct contact to voice concerns, whether about votes in Congress or government programs amid the shutdown.
“You’re gonna pick up the phone and dial a number, and there’s not going to be anyone on the other end to answer,” says Professor Smith, referring to 7th District constituents.
Deepen your worldview
with Monitor Highlights.
Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
The lack of representation also affects the towns, cities, and counties that shape the district.
“You don’t have someone sitting in hearings, asking questions of administration officials about issues that involve your district,” Professor Smith says. “You’re simply unrepresented in so many aspects of congressional activity.”
Democrats are hungry for a comeback. Will Spanberger lead the way in Virginia?
At a Tuesday rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, speaker after speaker hammered home one point: This election is about more than Virginia.
Virginia will “lead the way” into the 2026 midterms, trumpeted Bill Nye the Science Guy. It’s “pretty much the center of the political universe,” added former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“We know the stakes of this election,” Ms. Spanberger, a former CIA case officer who served three terms in the U.S. House, told the Charlottesville crowd of 1,300. “We can prove to the rest of the country … when we have the opportunity to make a change at home in our state, we will take it.”
Why We Wrote This
Virginia is one of two states holding a competitive race for governor this fall – a closely watched test of whether Democrats can find their footing after last year’s election losses.
Gubernatorial races in both Virginia and New Jersey – which take place the year after presidential elections – often get outsize attention, as pundits and party leaders sift through the tea leaves for takeaways about the mood of the country heading into the following year’s midterm elections. Those takes don’t always prove terribly predictive: Four years ago, current Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin was widely heralded as a post-Trump archetype for the GOP. Today, Governor Youngkin and his sweater vests are on their way out, while President Donald Trump’s dominance of the party appears complete.
So, at a time when Democrats in Washington are searching for a path out of the political wilderness, Ms. Spanberger’s campaign could represent a way forward. But with caveats.
Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor
The Republican in the race, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, has eschewed traditional campaigning and fundraising, and has consistently trailed in the polls, often by double digits. Notably, President Trump has not campaigned on her behalf; the state GOP chair at one point had to assure a conservative radio host that her campaign was “not a clown car.” Ms. Spanberger has raised more than twice as much money as Ms. Earle-Sears and appears in a strong position to win on Nov. 4. But that victory could get chalked up to a weak GOP opponent rather than signaling a broader anti-Trump turn in the electorate that could put congressional Republicans on notice.
At the same time, Democrats might find themselves on Nov. 5 with very different models of winning candidates that do little to resolve the party’s own internal divide. The gubernatorial nominees in Virginia and New Jersey, where Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill is locked in a closer race against a repeat GOP candidate, are both moderate women with national security backgrounds and cautious campaign styles. Meanwhile, in New York, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani could become the city’s first Muslim mayor, after a campaign built on viral social media clips and billion-dollar promises.
“People are looking [at Virginia] and are like ‘Is this going to predict a trend for next year? Is this going to be a model for next year’s races?’” says Kristy Muddiman, a civics teacher in Roanoke who drove to Charlottesville for the Spanberger event. “There’s this great division in the party right now: Do we go more moderate or do we go more progressive?”
Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor
Running on affordability
To be sure, running for mayor in a Democratic enclave such as New York City is very different from running statewide in Virginia, a swing state that has leaned more Democratic in recent years but which voted Republican for four decades of presidential contests before President Barack Obama flipped it blue in 2008.
And some in the party have been struck by the ways in which Ms. Spanberger and Mr. Mamdani’s campaigns are actually similar.
Mike KRopf/Richmond Times-Dispatch/AP
“The party’s most-centrist candidate and the most-left candidate actually agree on what the biggest issue is,” says Ben Tribbett, a Virginia-based Democratic strategist. “They are both running on an affordability message.”
How they talk about it, however, is different. In an eight-page PDF document, Ms. Spanberger pledges to address the cost of living by cutting red tape that hinders housing construction and bringing down energy bills. Mr. Mamdani proposes universal child care (which could cost $6 billion) and city-run grocery stores in TikTok videos.
Still, some voters say they appreciate that both candidates are focused on the problem – and are looking for solutions.
“Previous elections have been Democrats just rebuking Republicans,” says Zack Landsman, a Ph.D. student at the University of Virginia, waiting in line for Ms. Spanberger’s event. “But between [Spanberger] and Mamdani, and the clear actions they are talking about, it makes me very excited about them.”
Though Ms. Spanberger has run television ads tying Ms. Earle-Sears to the president’s “bad budget,” and calling her a “MAGA Republican,” Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, has been struck by how little Ms. Spanberger mentions Mr. Trump in her press releases. “During the 2021 campaign, every other word out of [Democratic nominee Terry] McAuliffe’s mouth was ‘Youngkin is Trump’ and I think he overplayed it,” says Mr. Coleman. “In this race, DOGE has been a good proxy to not mentioning Trump by name.”
Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
Mr. Trump’s mass downsizing of the federal workforce through his Department of Government Efficiency has been a defining issue in this race – Virginia is home to more than 155,000 federal employees, behind only California and Washington, D.C. And it’s been compounded by the government shutdown, now into its fourth week with hundreds of thousands government employees furloughed. The impact has been particularly severe in the northern Virginia suburbs where Democrats need big margins to win the state.
There were “red flags” when Mr. McAuliffe campaigned in northern Virginia in 2021, says Dominic Thompson, executive director of Fairfax Democrats. “We could tell that turnout was going to be rockier.” Now, “we see the firings of all our neighbors in NoVa. The national guard in D.C. This election is so nationalized because we were seeing the impacts. Normally it takes time to see those national impacts trickle down to people.”
Asked by the Monitor at a campaign stop in Williamsburg last week whether she was concerned that the federal layoffs and furloughs could affect the race, Ms. Earle-Sears responded that Ms. Spanberger should tell Virginia’s two Democratic senators to end the shutdown. “Abigail Spanberger has been playing political football with federal workers all summer long, playing that she loves federal workers more than anyone else on this Earth,” says Ms. Earle-Sears. “Love looks like keeping federal workers in their jobs.”
Campaign trail hurdles
That Williamsburg event – a brief appearance in a restaurant parking lot in front of a dozen or so supporters – was largely indicative of the campaign Ms. Earle-Sears has run, which has been characterized by high staff turnover and low party support. The event was focused on Virginia schools’ bathroom and locker-room policies for transgender students, an issue that the lieutenant governor has made a cornerstone of her campaign.
Ms. Earle-Sears has campaigned on the promise to “keep a good thing going” and continue many of Mr. Youngkin’s policies. She frequently speaks about her moral opposition to abortion – an important issue in the last southern state with no abortion ban. Although she has supported 15- and 6-week bans in the past, Ms. Earle-Sears said in the one gubernatorial debate earlier this month that the policy is “not going to be my view, it’s going to be the view of the majority.”
Even if Ms. Earle-Sears had run a more conventional campaign, she would likely have faced an uphill battle, given the national political currents and specific dynamics of this race. In every gubernatorial race here save one since the late 1970s, Virginians have favored the party outside the White House.
“We were happy with 2024,” says Matthew Hurtt, chairman of Arlington GOP, who acknowledges that the presidential victory makes it “hard” for Republicans this year. “Unless you are agitated in politics, you’re not prompted to get out and do something.”
Ms. Spanberger’s campaign hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing. For all the criticism on the right of how Ms. Earle-Sears has run her campaign, facing off against “a Black female Marine who has [already] been elected statewide” isn’t nothing, says Mr. Tribbett. Following the one gubernatorial debate, Ms. Spanberger was criticized for long, sometimes evasive answers.
In recent weeks, violent text messages from Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones, in which he fantasized about killing a Republican House speaker, have dominated the race. Ms. Spanberger denounced the messages but did not call for Mr. Jones to drop out. Still, she has run a campaign without “any mistakes of substance,” says Mr. Tribbett. He adds that her congressional voting record has made it difficult for Republicans to paint her as a Mamdani-style progressive running in a state that elected a Republican governor four years ago.
A mom of three from the Richmond suburbs, Ms. Spanberger is used to appealing to Republican voters: She flipped a GOP congressional district in 2018, the same year Ms. Sherrill was elected. (It was also the same year that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist like Mr. Mamdani, burst onto the scene by ousting a veteran Democratic congressman in New York.)
Ms. Spanberger, who was ranked as one of the most bipartisan members during her time in the House, criticized some of her colleagues’ calls to “defund the police.” In her run for governor, she has earned the endorsement of the Virginia Police Benevolent Association, which split its endorsement this year by backing Ms. Spanberger and the Republican candidates down ticket.
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Tanya and David Samples, who live outside Charlottesville, say Ms. Spanberger is the right person to capture the centrist votes needed to win a Virginia governor’s race. But like so many other Democrats in the state, they also hope she can jump-start a Democratic comeback nationwide.
“This is going to be a bellwether state with New Jersey,” says Ms. Samples, who came to hear Ms. Spanberger and Mr. Buttigieg at the Charlottesville rally. “I am praying that these two Democrats win the governors’ races, so that maybe the Republicans in the House will wake up.”
Democrats are hungry for a comeback. Will Spanberger lead the way in Virginia?
At a Tuesday rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, speaker after speaker hammered home one point: This election is about more than Virginia.
Virginia will “lead the way” into the 2026 midterms, trumpeted Bill Nye the Science Guy. It’s “pretty much the center of the political universe,” added former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“We know the stakes of this election,” Ms. Spanberger, a former CIA case officer who served three terms in the U.S. House, told the Charlottesville crowd of 1,300. “We can prove to the rest of the country … when we have the opportunity to make a change at home in our state, we will take it.”
Why We Wrote This
Virginia is one of two states holding a competitive race for governor this fall – a closely watched test of whether Democrats can find their footing after last year’s election losses.
Gubernatorial races in both Virginia and New Jersey – which take place the year after presidential elections – often get outsize attention, as pundits and party leaders sift through the tea leaves for takeaways about the mood of the country heading into the following year’s midterm elections. Those takes don’t always prove terribly predictive: Four years ago, current Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin was widely heralded as a post-Trump archetype for the GOP. Today, Governor Youngkin and his sweater vests are on their way out, while President Donald Trump’s dominance of the party appears complete.
So, at a time when Democrats in Washington are searching for a path out of the political wilderness, Ms. Spanberger’s campaign could represent a way forward. But with caveats.
Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor
The Republican in the race, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, has eschewed traditional campaigning and fundraising, and has consistently trailed in the polls, often by double digits. Notably, President Trump has not campaigned on her behalf; the state GOP chair at one point had to assure a conservative radio host that her campaign was “not a clown car.” Ms. Spanberger has raised more than twice as much money as Ms. Earle-Sears and appears in a strong position to win on Nov. 4. But that victory could get chalked up to a weak GOP opponent rather than signaling a broader anti-Trump turn in the electorate that could put congressional Republicans on notice.
At the same time, Democrats might find themselves on Nov. 5 with very different models of winning candidates that do little to resolve the party’s own internal divide. The gubernatorial nominees in Virginia and New Jersey, where Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill is locked in a closer race against a repeat GOP candidate, are both moderate women with national security backgrounds and cautious campaign styles. Meanwhile, in New York, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani could become the city’s first Muslim mayor, after a campaign built on viral social media clips and billion-dollar promises.
“People are looking [at Virginia] and are like ‘Is this going to predict a trend for next year? Is this going to be a model for next year’s races?’” says Kristy Muddiman, a civics teacher in Roanoke who drove to Charlottesville for the Spanberger event. “There’s this great division in the party right now: Do we go more moderate or do we go more progressive?”
Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor
Running on affordability
To be sure, running for mayor in a Democratic enclave such as New York City is very different from running statewide in Virginia, a swing state that has leaned more Democratic in recent years but which voted Republican for four decades of presidential contests before President Barack Obama flipped it blue in 2008.
And some in the party have been struck by the ways in which Ms. Spanberger and Mr. Mamdani’s campaigns are actually similar.
Mike KRopf/Richmond Times-Dispatch/AP
“The party’s most-centrist candidate and the most-left candidate actually agree on what the biggest issue is,” says Ben Tribbett, a Virginia-based Democratic strategist. “They are both running on an affordability message.”
How they talk about it, however, is different. In an eight-page PDF document, Ms. Spanberger pledges to address the cost of living by cutting red tape that hinders housing construction and bringing down energy bills. Mr. Mamdani proposes universal child care (which could cost $6 billion) and city-run grocery stores in TikTok videos.
Still, some voters say they appreciate that both candidates are focused on the problem – and are looking for solutions.
“Previous elections have been Democrats just rebuking Republicans,” says Zack Landsman, a Ph.D. student at the University of Virginia, waiting in line for Ms. Spanberger’s event. “But between [Spanberger] and Mamdani, and the clear actions they are talking about, it makes me very excited about them.”
Though Ms. Spanberger has run television ads tying Ms. Earle-Sears to the president’s “bad budget,” and calling her a “MAGA Republican,” Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, has been struck by how little Ms. Spanberger mentions Mr. Trump in her press releases. “During the 2021 campaign, every other word out of [Democratic nominee Terry] McAuliffe’s mouth was ‘Youngkin is Trump’ and I think he overplayed it,” says Mr. Coleman. “In this race, DOGE has been a good proxy to not mentioning Trump by name.”
Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
Mr. Trump’s mass downsizing of the federal workforce through his Department of Government Efficiency has been a defining issue in this race – Virginia is home to more than 155,000 federal employees, behind only California and Washington, D.C. And it’s been compounded by the government shutdown, now into its fourth week with hundreds of thousands government employees furloughed. The impact has been particularly severe in the northern Virginia suburbs where Democrats need big margins to win the state.
There were “red flags” when Mr. McAuliffe campaigned in northern Virginia in 2021, says Dominic Thompson, executive director of Fairfax Democrats. “We could tell that turnout was going to be rockier.” Now, “we see the firings of all our neighbors in NoVa. The national guard in D.C. This election is so nationalized because we were seeing the impacts. Normally it takes time to see those national impacts trickle down to people.”
Asked by the Monitor at a campaign stop in Williamsburg last week whether she was concerned that the federal layoffs and furloughs could affect the race, Ms. Earle-Sears responded that Ms. Spanberger should tell Virginia’s two Democratic senators to end the shutdown. “Abigail Spanberger has been playing political football with federal workers all summer long, playing that she loves federal workers more than anyone else on this Earth,” says Ms. Earle-Sears. “Love looks like keeping federal workers in their jobs.”
Campaign trail hurdles
That Williamsburg event – a brief appearance in a restaurant parking lot in front of a dozen or so supporters – was largely indicative of the campaign Ms. Earle-Sears has run, which has been characterized by high staff turnover and low party support. The event was focused on Virginia schools’ bathroom and locker-room policies for transgender students, an issue that the lieutenant governor has made a cornerstone of her campaign.
Ms. Earle-Sears has campaigned on the promise to “keep a good thing going” and continue many of Mr. Youngkin’s policies. She frequently speaks about her moral opposition to abortion – an important issue in the last southern state with no abortion ban. Although she has supported 15- and 6-week bans in the past, Ms. Earle-Sears said in the one gubernatorial debate earlier this month that the policy is “not going to be my view, it’s going to be the view of the majority.”
Even if Ms. Earle-Sears had run a more conventional campaign, she would likely have faced an uphill battle, given the national political currents and specific dynamics of this race. In every gubernatorial race here save one since the late 1970s, Virginians have favored the party outside the White House.
“We were happy with 2024,” says Matthew Hurtt, chairman of Arlington GOP, who acknowledges that the presidential victory makes it “hard” for Republicans this year. “Unless you are agitated in politics, you’re not prompted to get out and do something.”
Ms. Spanberger’s campaign hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing. For all the criticism on the right of how Ms. Earle-Sears has run her campaign, facing off against “a Black female Marine who has [already] been elected statewide” isn’t nothing, says Mr. Tribbett. Following the one gubernatorial debate, Ms. Spanberger was criticized for long, sometimes evasive answers.
In recent weeks, violent text messages from Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones, in which he fantasized about killing a Republican House speaker, have dominated the race. Ms. Spanberger denounced the messages but did not call for Mr. Jones to drop out. Still, she has run a campaign without “any mistakes of substance,” says Mr. Tribbett. He adds that her congressional voting record has made it difficult for Republicans to paint her as a Mamdani-style progressive running in a state that elected a Republican governor four years ago.
A mom of three from the Richmond suburbs, Ms. Spanberger is used to appealing to Republican voters: She flipped a GOP congressional district in 2018, the same year Ms. Sherrill was elected. (It was also the same year that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist like Mr. Mamdani, burst onto the scene by ousting a veteran Democratic congressman in New York.)
Ms. Spanberger, who was ranked as one of the most bipartisan members during her time in the House, criticized some of her colleagues’ calls to “defund the police.” In her run for governor, she has earned the endorsement of the Virginia Police Benevolent Association, which split its endorsement this year by backing Ms. Spanberger and the Republican candidates down ticket.
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Tanya and David Samples, who live outside Charlottesville, say Ms. Spanberger is the right person to capture the centrist votes needed to win a Virginia governor’s race. But like so many other Democrats in the state, they also hope she can jump-start a Democratic comeback nationwide.
“This is going to be a bellwether state with New Jersey,” says Ms. Samples, who came to hear Ms. Spanberger and Mr. Buttigieg at the Charlottesville rally. “I am praying that these two Democrats win the governors’ races, so that maybe the Republicans in the House will wake up.”
She overhauled the NYPD. But can Jessica Tisch work with Zohran Mamdani?
On a walk through Queens with a City Council member in 2022, Jessica Tisch noticed an abundance of trash scattered on traffic islands, step streets, and greenways.
Ms. Tisch, who had just started her tenure as the city’s sanitation commissioner, asked why these particular areas were so littered. The reason was infuriating. City Hall had issued a rule back in 1983 that gave each agency responsibility for maintaining its own properties – leaving refuse to accumulate in no-man’s-lands.
So Ms. Tisch convinced Mayor Eric Adams to allocate $14 million for a new unit that would regularly remove trash from these 1,700 locations.
Why We Wrote This
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has won plaudits for modernizing the agency and rooting out corruption. But she and mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani hold different views about the causes of violent crime and how to address it.
“If you live in one of these neighborhoods, you see this dumping every day and you think no one cares about it,” says sanitation department spokesman Joshua Goodman. “The one thing Jessie will not accept is: ‘That’s just the way it is.’”
The public administrator and scion to one of New York’s most powerful families rapidly ascended the city’s bureaucracy to lead the nation’s largest police department last year, a position she has described as her dream job, despite never having served as a uniformed officer. Ms. Tisch’s relentless drive to modernize the NYPD and other agencies has drawn praise from former New York mayors and police commissioners across multiple administrations.
Her next boss may not be as easy to win over.
With New York’s mayoral election just two weeks away, and Mayor Adams out of the race, Ms. Tisch could soon find herself reporting to Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has criticized the police department’s entrenched power. The Queens Assembly member, who holds a double-digit lead in the polls, has apologized for past comments calling the NYPD “racist” and a “major threat to public safety,” and has worked to reassure voters that he no longer supports “defunding” the police. But he also campaigned on creating a new agency that would deploy mental health teams instead of police to respond to 911 calls.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters
He and Ms. Tisch have eyed each other with a wary respect. Mr. Mamdani has praised Ms. Tisch’s efforts to reduce shootings and cull corrupt officers whom Mr. Adams, a former cop, had placed in high-ranking roles.
Still, he has not committed to keeping her on as commissioner, despite pressure from allies. And Ms. Tisch and Mr. Mamdani have expressed sharply different views on the causes of violent crime and the best strategies for tackling it.
If she leaves and crime rises, Mr. Mamdani could find himself in four years facing a political rival already being touted by some as a mayoral hopeful. If he reappoints her but slashes police funding and reorganizes the agency, Ms. Tisch could face a difficult decision.
“Jessie has many great career options, but she is on a mission at the NYPD that I believe requires a few more years on the job,” says Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City. “She can work with anyone.”
“A tough boss”
Ms. Tisch was born into a family of corporate titans and philanthropists. Her grandfather, Laurence, co-owned Loews Corp., a hospitality and insurance conglomerate. Her father, James, led Loews for 48 years before stepping down in January. But it was her mother, Merryl, chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees and former Board of Regents chancellor, who instilled in her the virtues of civic leadership.
“People ask me why I’m so driven,” Ms. Tisch told New York Magazine. “My mother is definitely my role model.” (The NYPD declined to make Ms. Tisch available for an interview.)
She grew up with two younger brothers on Manhattan’s tony Upper East Side and attended Harvard University, where she won a national championship in crew as a coxswain and completed degrees in law and business.
Although she interned at a law firm and the White House while in school, it was not until a friend prodded her to apply for a counterterrorism analyst position with the NYPD in 2008 that she contemplated a career in public service.
Ms. Tisch found she excelled at the intense minutia of securing sensitive sites and foiling attacks. She was promoted in 2014 to deputy commissioner of innovation and technology.
“She can be a tough boss and doesn’t suffer fools lightly,” says former New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. But she also “leads in a way [where] people … under her have the opportunity to be heard.”
In December 2019, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Ms. Tisch to lead the city’s technology office. During the pandemic, she built a contact-tracing system from scratch, then managed the distribution system that provided COVID-19 vaccines to 90% of city residents.
When Mr. Adams asked her what agency she wanted to run, Ms. Tisch picked sanitation. There, she sought to tame the city’s surging rat population, launched a citywide curbside composting program, and unveiled durable plastic garbage bins required for all residential buildings by 2026.
She also made less-publicized changes that had significant effects. She had senior sanitation leaders review data weekly, which reduced missed collections to near zero. And instead of focusing on the amount of trash collected by garbage trucks, she prioritized a different metric: how long it festered on curbs.
“The efficiency metric was important, but the point of data is to improve the quality of life,” says Mr. Goodman, the sanitation spokesman.
Sanitation was a bright spot in an Adams administration riddled by charges of corruption and lawlessness – and no agency exemplified the dysfunction more than the police department. Misconduct complaints jumped to their highest level since 2014, including among Mr. Adams’ hand-picked deputies, as officers retired in droves.
After the third police commissioner in three years resigned last October, Mr. Adams turned to Ms. Tisch to lead the department. She quickly ousted dozens of leaders, including two top internal affairs chiefs, halved the department’s 87-person press office, and began to overhaul its disciplinary process.
Since then, Ms. Tisch has deftly managed several high-profile cases, including the manhunt after the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. She has also been credited with helping to convince the Trump administration not to send the National Guard to New York.
Her targeted deployment of officers to high-crime areas has already had an effect. The city has experienced seven straight quarters of declines in major crime, with the fewest reported shootings on record for any year’s first nine months.
“She knows when to be in front of the cameras and when to cede attention. That’s a rare skill in politics,” says political consultant Neal Kwatra. “She has far exceeded any perception that she’s in her job because of her name. She’s done a hell of a job.”
Affordability concerns outrank crime
Partly because of Ms. Tisch’s efforts, public safety concerns have not dominated this year’s mayoral campaign, unlike four years ago.
That allowed Mr. Mamdani to gain traction with his message of tackling the city’s affordability crisis, winning the Democratic primary last June.
Ms. Tisch has avoided commenting directly on the race, but has privately indicated she wants to continue in her role next year. In meetings with Mr. Mamdani this summer, business leaders and public officials have urged him to retain her.
“Keeping her on would inoculate the next mayor against any charge that they would be soft on crime,” says Ms. Wylde.
On Sunday, Mr. Mamdani’s rival Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, said he would keep Ms. Tisch on if he were elected.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards says Mr. Mamdani’s first question to him in an Astoria meeting two weeks after the June primary was whether he should keep her.
“He’s much more pragmatic than I thought he was,” says Mr. Richards, who hopes Ms. Tisch stays in the job. “Public safety has to be the highest priority, especially with a progressive administration. People are looking for stability.”
But Mr. Mamdani’s progressive allies may want him to go in a different direction. When Ms. Tisch told the Citizens Budget Commission last month that crime rose in the years following the pandemic because of the legislature’s criminal justice reforms, one Assembly member tweeted, “So odd that the heiress of one of the city’s wealthiest families doesn’t seem to understand the sociology of social insecurity and its connection to crime.” (Mr. Mamdani responded by noting that similar crime spikes were seen across the country.)
Mr. Bratton says Mr. Mamdani will not be able to find anyone who can rival Ms. Tisch’s experience and expertise. But the former police commissioner recently said in a podcast interview that he would advise her not to stay on in a Mamdani administration.
“My suggestion is to think long and hard,” Mr. Bratton tells the Monitor. “Right now, she’s well-thought-of by the public. You don’t want to squander that in the first months of a new administration.”
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Regardless of what she decides, he predicts that she won’t be intimidated by the Democratic Party’s new wunderkind.
“Jessie likes a challenge,” he says. “You don’t take on the position of police commissioner if you aren’t somebody … interested in taking on that challenge.”
She overhauled the NYPD. But can Jessica Tisch work with Zohran Mamdani?
On a walk through Queens with a City Council member in 2022, Jessica Tisch noticed an abundance of trash scattered on traffic islands, step streets, and greenways.
Ms. Tisch, who had just started her tenure as the city’s sanitation commissioner, asked why these particular areas were so littered. The reason was infuriating. City Hall had issued a rule back in 1983 that gave each agency responsibility for maintaining its own properties – leaving refuse to accumulate in no-man’s-lands.
So Ms. Tisch convinced Mayor Eric Adams to allocate $14 million for a new unit that would regularly remove trash from these 1,700 locations.
Why We Wrote This
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has won plaudits for modernizing the agency and rooting out corruption. But she and mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani hold different views about the causes of violent crime and how to address it.
“If you live in one of these neighborhoods, you see this dumping every day and you think no one cares about it,” says sanitation department spokesman Joshua Goodman. “The one thing Jessie will not accept is: ‘That’s just the way it is.’”
The public administrator and scion to one of New York’s most powerful families rapidly ascended the city’s bureaucracy to lead the nation’s largest police department last year, a position she has described as her dream job, despite never having served as a uniformed officer. Ms. Tisch’s relentless drive to modernize the NYPD and other agencies has drawn praise from former New York mayors and police commissioners across multiple administrations.
Her next boss may not be as easy to win over.
With New York’s mayoral election just two weeks away, and Mayor Adams out of the race, Ms. Tisch could soon find herself reporting to Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has criticized the police department’s entrenched power. The Queens Assembly member, who holds a double-digit lead in the polls, has apologized for past comments calling the NYPD “racist” and a “major threat to public safety,” and has worked to reassure voters that he no longer supports “defunding” the police. But he also campaigned on creating a new agency that would deploy mental health teams instead of police to respond to 911 calls.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters
He and Ms. Tisch have eyed each other with a wary respect. Mr. Mamdani has praised Ms. Tisch’s efforts to reduce shootings and cull corrupt officers whom Mr. Adams, a former cop, had placed in high-ranking roles.
Still, he has not committed to keeping her on as commissioner, despite pressure from allies. And Ms. Tisch and Mr. Mamdani have expressed sharply different views on the causes of violent crime and the best strategies for tackling it.
If she leaves and crime rises, Mr. Mamdani could find himself in four years facing a political rival already being touted by some as a mayoral hopeful. If he reappoints her but slashes police funding and reorganizes the agency, Ms. Tisch could face a difficult decision.
“Jessie has many great career options, but she is on a mission at the NYPD that I believe requires a few more years on the job,” says Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City. “She can work with anyone.”
“A tough boss”
Ms. Tisch was born into a family of corporate titans and philanthropists. Her grandfather, Laurence, co-owned Loews Corp., a hospitality and insurance conglomerate. Her father, James, led Loews for 48 years before stepping down in January. But it was her mother, Merryl, chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees and former Board of Regents chancellor, who instilled in her the virtues of civic leadership.
“People ask me why I’m so driven,” Ms. Tisch told New York Magazine. “My mother is definitely my role model.” (The NYPD declined to make Ms. Tisch available for an interview.)
She grew up with two younger brothers on Manhattan’s tony Upper East Side and attended Harvard University, where she won a national championship in crew as a coxswain and completed degrees in law and business.
Although she interned at a law firm and the White House while in school, it was not until a friend prodded her to apply for a counterterrorism analyst position with the NYPD in 2008 that she contemplated a career in public service.
Ms. Tisch found she excelled at the intense minutia of securing sensitive sites and foiling attacks. She was promoted in 2014 to deputy commissioner of innovation and technology.
“She can be a tough boss and doesn’t suffer fools lightly,” says former New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. But she also “leads in a way [where] people … under her have the opportunity to be heard.”
In December 2019, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Ms. Tisch to lead the city’s technology office. During the pandemic, she built a contact-tracing system from scratch, then managed the distribution system that provided COVID-19 vaccines to 90% of city residents.
When Mr. Adams asked her what agency she wanted to run, Ms. Tisch picked sanitation. There, she sought to tame the city’s surging rat population, launched a citywide curbside composting program, and unveiled durable plastic garbage bins required for all residential buildings by 2026.
She also made less-publicized changes that had significant effects. She had senior sanitation leaders review data weekly, which reduced missed collections to near zero. And instead of focusing on the amount of trash collected by garbage trucks, she prioritized a different metric: how long it festered on curbs.
“The efficiency metric was important, but the point of data is to improve the quality of life,” says Mr. Goodman, the sanitation spokesman.
Sanitation was a bright spot in an Adams administration riddled by charges of corruption and lawlessness – and no agency exemplified the dysfunction more than the police department. Misconduct complaints jumped to their highest level since 2014, including among Mr. Adams’ hand-picked deputies, as officers retired in droves.
After the third police commissioner in three years resigned last October, Mr. Adams turned to Ms. Tisch to lead the department. She quickly ousted dozens of leaders, including two top internal affairs chiefs, halved the department’s 87-person press office, and began to overhaul its disciplinary process.
Since then, Ms. Tisch has deftly managed several high-profile cases, including the manhunt after the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. She has also been credited with helping to convince the Trump administration not to send the National Guard to New York.
Her targeted deployment of officers to high-crime areas has already had an effect. The city has experienced seven straight quarters of declines in major crime, with the fewest reported shootings on record for any year’s first nine months.
“She knows when to be in front of the cameras and when to cede attention. That’s a rare skill in politics,” says political consultant Neal Kwatra. “She has far exceeded any perception that she’s in her job because of her name. She’s done a hell of a job.”
Affordability concerns outrank crime
Partly because of Ms. Tisch’s efforts, public safety concerns have not dominated this year’s mayoral campaign, unlike four years ago.
That allowed Mr. Mamdani to gain traction with his message of tackling the city’s affordability crisis, winning the Democratic primary last June.
Ms. Tisch has avoided commenting directly on the race, but has privately indicated she wants to continue in her role next year. In meetings with Mr. Mamdani this summer, business leaders and public officials have urged him to retain her.
“Keeping her on would inoculate the next mayor against any charge that they would be soft on crime,” says Ms. Wylde.
On Sunday, Mr. Mamdani’s rival Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, said he would keep Ms. Tisch on if he were elected.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards says Mr. Mamdani’s first question to him in an Astoria meeting two weeks after the June primary was whether he should keep her.
“He’s much more pragmatic than I thought he was,” says Mr. Richards, who hopes Ms. Tisch stays in the job. “Public safety has to be the highest priority, especially with a progressive administration. People are looking for stability.”
But Mr. Mamdani’s progressive allies may want him to go in a different direction. When Ms. Tisch told the Citizens Budget Commission last month that crime rose in the years following the pandemic because of the legislature’s criminal justice reforms, one Assembly member tweeted, “So odd that the heiress of one of the city’s wealthiest families doesn’t seem to understand the sociology of social insecurity and its connection to crime.” (Mr. Mamdani responded by noting that similar crime spikes were seen across the country.)
Mr. Bratton says Mr. Mamdani will not be able to find anyone who can rival Ms. Tisch’s experience and expertise. But the former police commissioner recently said in a podcast interview that he would advise her not to stay on in a Mamdani administration.
“My suggestion is to think long and hard,” Mr. Bratton tells the Monitor. “Right now, she’s well-thought-of by the public. You don’t want to squander that in the first months of a new administration.”
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Regardless of what she decides, he predicts that she won’t be intimidated by the Democratic Party’s new wunderkind.
“Jessie likes a challenge,” he says. “You don’t take on the position of police commissioner if you aren’t somebody … interested in taking on that challenge.”
Ballroom build begins: It’s not just norms Trump’s bulldozing in Washington
The images are arresting. Where a portion of the stately East Wing of the White House once stood, there’s now a demolition site – complete with construction equipment and debris, the side of the building completely torn off.
In its place, if all goes according to plan, will arise the 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom that President Donald Trump announced in July, a grand event space that will dwarf the existing 55,000-square-foot executive mansion.
To Washington denizens and tourists alike, it’s a shocking sight. President Trump, after all, had stated that the construction wouldn’t “interfere with the current building.” The new ballroom will be the biggest structural change to the White House since the renovation and expansion of the East Wing in 1942.
Why We Wrote This
President Trump’s new ballroom, and proposed arch, will reportedly be funded by private donors. But beyond expense, his modus operandi seems to be to go for it and deal with any consequences later.
Tuesday morning, a day after demolition began, a scrum of White House press photographers with a ladder and telephoto lenses gathered outside the fenced perimeter to capture what they could through the trees and around other obstacles. The best photos have come from inside the neighboring Treasury Department, though employees have since been ordered to stop sharing.
Late Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that “much of the East Wing” had been destroyed, judging by a photo the paper had obtained. The East Wing includes offices for the first lady, her team, and the White House social secretary.
For Mr. Trump, a real estate developer by profession, the ballroom project is by far the biggest example yet of how his public and private personas have merged. Since his second inauguration in January, he has moved swiftly to put his own touches on his residence and workspace – adorning the Oval Office with gold filigree, paving the Rose Garden and turning it into a private cafe, and adding 88-foot-tall flagpoles to the North and South Lawns.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – which Mr. Trump took over in February as chair – is also getting a makeover, as is the bathroom in the White House’s famed Lincoln bedroom. No detail is too small, including the type of grass planted in the capital’s public spaces, even the traffic circles.
“I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world,” Mr. Trump, owner of many world-class golf courses, boasted in a meeting with U.S. Park Police officers in August.
For that matter, no project is too big. The president has announced plans for a grand arch – similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris – to be constructed on a traffic circle at the end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. At a dinner last week for donors contributing funds for the new ballroom, Mr. Trump held up a model of the planned arch, inevitably dubbed the “Arc de Trump,” which he hopes to install by July 4 – the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
The new arch will also reportedly be funded by private donors. Last week, some 130 people attended the East Wing dinner for ballroom sponsors, which featured representatives from companies such as Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Amazon, and Palantir Technologies, according to the Wall Street Journal.
With all these projects, Mr. Trump is demonstrating a signature feature of his second term: Just go for it, and see if anyone tries to stop him. In the first term, when he installed a new security fence and 1,200-square-foot tennis pavilion on the White House grounds, the National Capital Planning Commission spent more than a year on the approval process for each. The NCPC is a federal agency that vets construction and renovation of federal buildings.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
This time, the NCPC has not been involved – and didn’t need to be, according to White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf, a key figure in Mr. Trump’s inner circle whom the president installed as head of the NCPC. When President Harry Truman oversaw an extensive White House renovation, he got Congress to pass a law that created a commission to deal with the project.
In his previous career as a real estate developer, Mr. Trump was proud of his “can do” approach. A chapter in his book “The Art of the Deal” describes how he took over New York City’s failed six-year effort to renovate the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park, completing it in 3½ months and under budget, and winning plaudits from Mayor Ed Koch.
Today, the stakes are much higher, as Mr. Trump embarks on the biggest construction project of his two terms. The White House isn’t just a building, it’s a symbol of the United States – and known as “the people’s house.”
Public pushback has been fierce, as was the White House response Tuesday afternoon.
“In the latest instance of manufactured outrage, unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump’s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House,” the president’s communications team said in a lengthy statement that includes photos of White House renovations over the decades.
On Tuesday morning, as pictures of the gaping hole across the side of the East Wing proliferated on the internet, a small crowd of locals and tourists from around the world gathered to check it out.
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One man, an employee of a local university, called the ballroom project an expression of “Trump’s ego.” Another, visiting from Lebanon after running in the Chicago marathon, asked to have his picture taken in front of the Treasury building, with the nearby construction partly visible. A family visiting from the United Kingdom seemed intrigued by the spectacle, as jackhammers rang out.
Someday, the new White House ballroom that can fit 650 people – or even 999 people, as Mr. Trump now says – might feel completely normal. But for now, it’s another defining moment for the Trump era.
Ballroom build begins: It’s not just norms Trump’s bulldozing in Washington
The images are arresting. Where a portion of the stately East Wing of the White House once stood, there’s now a demolition site – complete with construction equipment and debris, the side of the building completely torn off.
In its place, if all goes according to plan, will arise the 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom that President Donald Trump announced in July, a grand event space that will dwarf the existing 55,000-square-foot executive mansion.
To Washington denizens and tourists alike, it’s a shocking sight. President Trump, after all, had stated that the construction wouldn’t “interfere with the current building.” The new ballroom will be the biggest structural change to the White House since the renovation and expansion of the East Wing in 1942.
Why We Wrote This
President Trump’s new ballroom, and proposed arch, will reportedly be funded by private donors. But beyond expense, his modus operandi seems to be to go for it and deal with any consequences later.
Tuesday morning, a day after demolition began, a scrum of White House press photographers with a ladder and telephoto lenses gathered outside the fenced perimeter to capture what they could through the trees and around other obstacles. The best photos have come from inside the neighboring Treasury Department, though employees have since been ordered to stop sharing.
Late Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that “much of the East Wing” had been destroyed, judging by a photo the paper had obtained. The East Wing includes offices for the first lady, her team, and the White House social secretary.
For Mr. Trump, a real estate developer by profession, the ballroom project is by far the biggest example yet of how his public and private personas have merged. Since his second inauguration in January, he has moved swiftly to put his own touches on his residence and workspace – adorning the Oval Office with gold filigree, paving the Rose Garden and turning it into a private cafe, and adding 88-foot-tall flagpoles to the North and South Lawns.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – which Mr. Trump took over in February as chair – is also getting a makeover, as is the bathroom in the White House’s famed Lincoln bedroom. No detail is too small, including the type of grass planted in the capital’s public spaces, even the traffic circles.
“I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world,” Mr. Trump, owner of many world-class golf courses, boasted in a meeting with U.S. Park Police officers in August.
For that matter, no project is too big. The president has announced plans for a grand arch – similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris – to be constructed on a traffic circle at the end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. At a dinner last week for donors contributing funds for the new ballroom, Mr. Trump held up a model of the planned arch, inevitably dubbed the “Arc de Trump,” which he hopes to install by July 4 – the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
The new arch will also reportedly be funded by private donors. Last week, some 130 people attended the East Wing dinner for ballroom sponsors, which featured representatives from companies such as Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Amazon, and Palantir Technologies, according to the Wall Street Journal.
With all these projects, Mr. Trump is demonstrating a signature feature of his second term: Just go for it, and see if anyone tries to stop him. In the first term, when he installed a new security fence and 1,200-square-foot tennis pavilion on the White House grounds, the National Capital Planning Commission spent more than a year on the approval process for each. The NCPC is a federal agency that vets construction and renovation of federal buildings.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
This time, the NCPC has not been involved – and didn’t need to be, according to White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf, a key figure in Mr. Trump’s inner circle whom the president installed as head of the NCPC. When President Harry Truman oversaw an extensive White House renovation, he got Congress to pass a law that created a commission to deal with the project.
In his previous career as a real estate developer, Mr. Trump was proud of his “can do” approach. A chapter in his book “The Art of the Deal” describes how he took over New York City’s failed six-year effort to renovate the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park, completing it in 3½ months and under budget, and winning plaudits from Mayor Ed Koch.
Today, the stakes are much higher, as Mr. Trump embarks on the biggest construction project of his two terms. The White House isn’t just a building, it’s a symbol of the United States – and known as “the people’s house.”
Public pushback has been fierce, as was the White House response Tuesday afternoon.
“In the latest instance of manufactured outrage, unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump’s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House,” the president’s communications team said in a lengthy statement that includes photos of White House renovations over the decades.
On Tuesday morning, as pictures of the gaping hole across the side of the East Wing proliferated on the internet, a small crowd of locals and tourists from around the world gathered to check it out.
Deepen your worldview
with Monitor Highlights.
Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
One man, an employee of a local university, called the ballroom project an expression of “Trump’s ego.” Another, visiting from Lebanon after running in the Chicago marathon, asked to have his picture taken in front of the Treasury building, with the nearby construction partly visible. A family visiting from the United Kingdom seemed intrigued by the spectacle, as jackhammers rang out.
Someday, the new White House ballroom that can fit 650 people – or even 999 people, as Mr. Trump now says – might feel completely normal. But for now, it’s another defining moment for the Trump era.
‘No Kings’ protests against Trump bring a street party vibe to cities nationwide
Protesting the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people gathered Saturday in the nation’s capital and communities big and small across the U.S. for “No Kings” demonstrations that the president’s Republican Party disparaged as “Hate America” rallies.
With signs such as “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting” or “Resist Fascism,” in many places, the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, a huge banner with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The People” preamble that people could sign, and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon.
It was the third mass mobilization since Mr. Trump’s return to the White House and came against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services but is also testing the core balance of power, as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that protest organizers warn are a slide toward authoritarianism.
President Trump himself was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
“They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” the president said in a Fox News interview that aired early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. fundraiser at his club.
Later Friday, a Trump campaign social media account mocked the protests by posting a computer-generated video of the president clothed like a monarch, wearing a crown and waving from a balcony.
Nationwide demonstrations
People packed into New York City’s Times Square, Boston Common, and Chicago’s Grant Park; outside state capitols in Tennessee and Indiana, and a courthouse in Billings, Montana; and at hundreds of smaller public spaces. More than 2,600 rallies were planned on the day, organizers said.
Many protesters said that they were angered by attacks on their motives. In Washington, Brian Reymann said being called a terrorist all week by Republicans was “pathetic.”
“This is America. I disagree with their politics, but I don’t believe that they don’t love this country,” Mr. Reymann said, carrying a large U.S. flag. “I believe they are misguided. I think they are power-hungry.”
More than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, evoking and openly citing the city’s history of protests and the critical role it played in the Civil Rights Movement two generations ago.
“It just feels like we’re living in an America that I don’t recognize,” said Jessica Yother, a mother of four. She and other protesters said they felt camaraderie by gathering in a state where Trump won nearly 65% of the vote last November.
“It was so encouraging,” Ms. Yother said. “I walked in and thought, ‘Here are my people.’”
In San Francisco, hundreds of people spelled out “No Kings” and other phrases with their bodies on Ocean Beach. Salt Lake City demonstrators gathered outside the Utah State Capitol to share messages of hope and healing after a protester was fatally shot during the city’s first “No Kings” march in June.
Organizers hope to build an opposition movement
“Big rallies like this give confidence to people who have been sitting on the sidelines but are ready to speak up,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview with The Associated Press.
While protests earlier this year — against Elon Musk’s cuts and Mr. Trump’s military parade — drew crowds, organizers say this one is uniting the opposition. Top Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders are joining what organizers view as an antidote to Mr. Trump’s actions, from the administration’s clampdown on free speech to its military-style immigration raids.
“We’re here because we love America,” Senator Sanders said, addressing the crowd from a stage in Washington. He said the American experiment is “in danger” under President Trump. But he insisted, “We the people will rule.”
The national march against Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk this past spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first “No Kings” day in June registered 2,100.
Republican critics denounce the demonstrations
Republicans sought to portray protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day.
From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders called the protesters “communists” and “Marxists.” They said Democratic leaders, including Senator Schumer, are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces.
“I encourage you to watch — we call it the Hate America rally — that will happen Saturday,” said Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
“Let’s see who shows up for that,” Mr. Johnson said, listing groups including “antifa types,” people who “hate capitalism,” and “Marxists in full display.”
Many demonstrators, in response, said they were meeting such hyperbole with humor, noting that Mr. Trump often leans heavily on theatrics such as claiming that cities he sends troops to are war zones.
“So much of what we’ve seen from this administration has been so unserious and silly that we have to respond with the same energy,” said Glen Kalbaugh, a Washington protester who wore a wizard hat and held a sign with a frog on it.
New York police reported no arrests during the city’s protests.
Democrats try to regain their footing amid shutdown
Democrats have refused to vote on legislation that would reopen the government as they demand funding for health care. Republicans say they are willing to discuss the issue later, only after the government reopens.
The situation is a potential turnaround from just six months ago, when Democrats and their allies were divided and despondent. Senator Schumer, in particular, was berated by his party for allowing an earlier government funding bill to sail through the Senate without using it to challenge President Trump.
“What we are seeing from the Democrats is some spine,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a key organizing group. “The worst thing the Democrats could do right now is surrender.”
Deepen your worldview
with Monitor Highlights.
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This story was reported by The Associated Press.
Associated Press journalists Matt Brown, Lisa Mascaro, and Kevin Freking in Washington, Jill Colvin and Joseph Frederick in New York, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, Chris Megerian in West Palm Beach, Florida, Bill Barrow in Birmingham, Alabama, and Safiya Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed.
‘No Kings’ protests against Trump bring a street party vibe to cities nationwide
Protesting the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people gathered Saturday in the nation’s capital and communities big and small across the U.S. for “No Kings” demonstrations that the president’s Republican Party disparaged as “Hate America” rallies.
With signs such as “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting” or “Resist Fascism,” in many places, the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, a huge banner with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The People” preamble that people could sign, and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon.
It was the third mass mobilization since Mr. Trump’s return to the White House and came against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services but is also testing the core balance of power, as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that protest organizers warn are a slide toward authoritarianism.
President Trump himself was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
“They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” the president said in a Fox News interview that aired early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. fundraiser at his club.
Later Friday, a Trump campaign social media account mocked the protests by posting a computer-generated video of the president clothed like a monarch, wearing a crown and waving from a balcony.
Nationwide demonstrations
People packed into New York City’s Times Square, Boston Common, and Chicago’s Grant Park; outside state capitols in Tennessee and Indiana, and a courthouse in Billings, Montana; and at hundreds of smaller public spaces. More than 2,600 rallies were planned on the day, organizers said.
Many protesters said that they were angered by attacks on their motives. In Washington, Brian Reymann said being called a terrorist all week by Republicans was “pathetic.”
“This is America. I disagree with their politics, but I don’t believe that they don’t love this country,” Mr. Reymann said, carrying a large U.S. flag. “I believe they are misguided. I think they are power-hungry.”
More than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, evoking and openly citing the city’s history of protests and the critical role it played in the Civil Rights Movement two generations ago.
“It just feels like we’re living in an America that I don’t recognize,” said Jessica Yother, a mother of four. She and other protesters said they felt camaraderie by gathering in a state where Trump won nearly 65% of the vote last November.
“It was so encouraging,” Ms. Yother said. “I walked in and thought, ‘Here are my people.’”
In San Francisco, hundreds of people spelled out “No Kings” and other phrases with their bodies on Ocean Beach. Salt Lake City demonstrators gathered outside the Utah State Capitol to share messages of hope and healing after a protester was fatally shot during the city’s first “No Kings” march in June.
Organizers hope to build an opposition movement
“Big rallies like this give confidence to people who have been sitting on the sidelines but are ready to speak up,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview with The Associated Press.
While protests earlier this year — against Elon Musk’s cuts and Mr. Trump’s military parade — drew crowds, organizers say this one is uniting the opposition. Top Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders are joining what organizers view as an antidote to Mr. Trump’s actions, from the administration’s clampdown on free speech to its military-style immigration raids.
“We’re here because we love America,” Senator Sanders said, addressing the crowd from a stage in Washington. He said the American experiment is “in danger” under President Trump. But he insisted, “We the people will rule.”
The national march against Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk this past spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first “No Kings” day in June registered 2,100.
Republican critics denounce the demonstrations
Republicans sought to portray protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day.
From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders called the protesters “communists” and “Marxists.” They said Democratic leaders, including Senator Schumer, are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces.
“I encourage you to watch — we call it the Hate America rally — that will happen Saturday,” said Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
“Let’s see who shows up for that,” Mr. Johnson said, listing groups including “antifa types,” people who “hate capitalism,” and “Marxists in full display.”
Many demonstrators, in response, said they were meeting such hyperbole with humor, noting that Mr. Trump often leans heavily on theatrics such as claiming that cities he sends troops to are war zones.
“So much of what we’ve seen from this administration has been so unserious and silly that we have to respond with the same energy,” said Glen Kalbaugh, a Washington protester who wore a wizard hat and held a sign with a frog on it.
New York police reported no arrests during the city’s protests.
Democrats try to regain their footing amid shutdown
Democrats have refused to vote on legislation that would reopen the government as they demand funding for health care. Republicans say they are willing to discuss the issue later, only after the government reopens.
The situation is a potential turnaround from just six months ago, when Democrats and their allies were divided and despondent. Senator Schumer, in particular, was berated by his party for allowing an earlier government funding bill to sail through the Senate without using it to challenge President Trump.
“What we are seeing from the Democrats is some spine,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a key organizing group. “The worst thing the Democrats could do right now is surrender.”
Deepen your worldview
with Monitor Highlights.
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This story was reported by The Associated Press.
Associated Press journalists Matt Brown, Lisa Mascaro, and Kevin Freking in Washington, Jill Colvin and Joseph Frederick in New York, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, Chris Megerian in West Palm Beach, Florida, Bill Barrow in Birmingham, Alabama, and Safiya Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed.
‘Lawfare’ hits new levels, as Trump pursues those who pursued him
On Day 1 of his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order called “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government.”
Among its provisions, the order instructed both the U.S. attorney general and director of national intelligence to review the activities of their agencies and recommend “appropriate remedial actions.”
Ever since, President Trump has used the vast power at his disposal to go after people and institutions he says have done him wrong. Not since Richard Nixon’s infamous “enemies list” more than a half-century ago has a U.S. chief executive so aggressively pursued a campaign of retribution.
Why We Wrote This
Thursday’s indictment of former national security adviser John Bolton is the latest example of the Trump Justice Department going after people President Donald Trump says have done him wrong.
Thursday’s indictment of John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, along with the recent indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and current New York Attorney General Letitia James are just the start, the president himself has made clear.
Mr. Trump has taken unprecedented steps to weaponize the federal government in the name of addressing what was, in his and many Republicans’ view, the weaponization of the justice system against him during the last two Democratic administrations. That includes the end of the Obama presidency, when Mr. Trump burst onto the political scene and the FBI investigated potential ties between his campaign and the Russian government.
Whether the Democrats in fact engaged in “weaponization” is very much open to interpretation. The president’s supporters say federal and state investigations into Mr. Trump’s actions were overdone and persecutory. Mr. Trump was criminally indicted four times – twice federally and twice at the state level – and convicted once. He also faced civil suits.
Democrats and many legal experts maintain that the Justice Department under both the Obama and Biden administrations operated independently from the White House, unlike now. (Indeed, the Biden DOJ investigated and prosecuted the president’s own son.) They say investigations like the Trump-Russia probe represented necessary due diligence in the name of protecting national security or even democracy itself – and had the government not pursued them, it would have been a miscarriage of justice.
Michael M Santiago/AP/File
A crucial difference between the Biden-era prosecutions of Mr. Trump and the current prosecutions of perceived Trump “enemies” is that legal cases against Mr. Trump all involved evidence, to different degrees, of potential crimes. Mr. Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state aimed at overturning the outcome of the 2020 election is a case in point. The current administration’s cases against Mr. Trump’s avowed enemies have mostly been framed by the president himself as consequences for what he labels politically motivated prosecutions.
Still, wittingly or not, by aggressively investigating Mr. Trump – be it the 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago in search of classified documents or alleged Trump-Russia ties during the 2016 campaign or the Trump-inspired riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 – Democrats did incentivize Mr. Trump and his team to pursue retribution, some analysts say.
“The Democrats absolutely opened a door very wide that you cannot close when you leave office,” says Ron Chapman, a federal criminal defense attorney.
The federal indictment of Attorney General James, a Democrat, over alleged mortgage fraud, is a prime example. In 2022, Ms. James filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Trump and business associates, alleging fraud in exaggerating the value of Trump properties. They were found guilty, and ordered to pay a penalty of more than $360 million. An appeals court later vacated the penalty; Mr. Trump and company are appealing the guilty verdict.
Ms. James’ long-stated goal had been to prosecute Mr. Trump. During her 2018 campaign for New York attorney general, she pledged to investigate his real estate dealings and “hold those in power accountable.” Now under indictment herself, Ms. James is not backing down. Campaigning with New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Monday, she went after Mr. Trump, though not by name.
“Powerful voices,” Ms. James said, are trying to “weaponize justice for political gain.”
Trump making public calls for prosecutions
The lawfare in recent weeks has been intense. Last month, Mr. Trump expressed frustration with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a social media post – addressed to “Pam” and reportedly posted publicly by mistake – over delayed action against Mr. Comey, Ms. James, and California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff.
Other former and current top officials under investigation, if not potential indictment, include former CIA Director John Brennan; former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; former special counsel Jack Smith; and Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary/Reuters/File
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump named additional legal targets during an Oval Office media availability – saying that Andrew Weissmann (former general counsel at the FBI) and Lisa Monaco (former deputy attorney general) should be investigated along with Mr. Smith, whom he called “deranged” and a “criminal.” The president was flanked by Ms. Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.
“I’m the one that had to suffer through [investigations] and ultimately win,” Mr. Trump said. “But what they did was criminal.”
Mr. Bolton was indicted on Thursday on charges of sharing classified information over a private email server. That information was then reportedly hacked by an unidentified foreign entity, according to an unsealed warrant.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Bolton had a tense relationship during the latter’s 17 months as national security adviser during Mr. Trump’s first term. Mr. Bolton’s memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” and his public criticism of the president haven’t helped. FBI agents raided Mr. Bolton’s home and office in August in search of classified documents.
The raid on Mr. Bolton’s properties echoed the one on Mr. Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. It also contrasted with the fact that former President Joe Biden was never charged for keeping classified documents in his residence near Wilmington, Delaware, dating from his time as vice president and, before that, a senator. A key difference is that Mr. Biden allowed federal agents to search his property, while Mr. Trump resisted such efforts before the predawn raid.
Mr. Comey was indicted on Sept. 25 on two charges – making a false statement and obstructing a congressional proceeding. Those charges stem from a 2020 Senate hearing on FBI investigations into two matters: Russian interference in the 2016 election and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
At Mr. Comey’s arraignment on Oct. 8, his lawyer called the prosecution “vindictive” and “selective,” and said he would move to dismiss the case.
When the previous U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert – a Trump appointee – refused to seek a Comey indictment, Mr. Trump pressured him to resign. The interim U.S. attorney, Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer of Mr. Trump’s who had no previous experience as a prosecutor, obliged in bringing the case over the objections of other prosecutors.
Experts on the federal judiciary see a major breach in the norms of how government is supposed to work.
“We’ve just crossed a Rubicon here,” says Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University.
Ever since the Nixon Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, “it has been a priority of both the Department of Justice and the White House to preserve independence” between the two, says Ms. McCord, former chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
The purpose of that separation, she says, was to prevent a perception by the American people of the Justice Department as “just simply being a tool for the president’s personal political use.”
Now, that separation appears to be gone.
David Sklansky, a law professor at Stanford University, argues that to describe what the Justice Department is doing as “fighting weaponization” is “Orwellian in its misuse of language.”
“You can’t say, ‘I’m all about fighting weaponization’ and in the same breath say, ‘I insist on retribution, I insist that the Department of Justice go after my enemies,’ which is what Trump has done.”
Department of Justice/AP/File
“Norms are not good enough anymore”
Republicans have been gearing up for this fight since long before Mr. Trump retook the White House. In the previous Congress, a House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government spent two years investigating “the Biden-Harris administration’s weaponized federal government” and in December, issued a 17,019-page report on its findings. A focus was alleged government efforts to censor speech by “Big Tech.”
On Inauguration Day, in addition to signing the “anti-weaponization” order, Mr. Trump also issued a blanket pardon for the nearly 1,600 people convicted or awaiting trial or sentencing for their participation in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in support of Mr. Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
Revelations about the Jan. 6 investigations continue to drive GOP ire. Last week, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, shared a document showing the cellphone data (but not the content) of nine congressional Republicans around the time of the riot. Senator Grassley says that the analysis violated the lawmakers’ privacy rights.
The phone data was gathered in 2023 as part of the FBI’s “Arctic Frost” investigation, which informed the criminal case against Mr. Trump over his role on Jan. 6 handled by Mr. Smith – the former special counsel who now faces potential indictment himself. (Mr. Smith also handled the case involving Mr. Trump’s possession of classified documents after leaving office.) The Justice Department is investigating Mr. Smith for possible violations of a law forbidding federal employees from engaging in political activities.
In a recent interview at a forum in London, Mr. Smith dismissed allegations of politicization in the two cases.
“The idea that politics would play a role in big cases like this, it’s absolutely ludicrous and it’s totally contrary to my experience as a prosecutor,” Mr. Smith said in a discussion with Mr. Weissmann, the former FBI counsel whom Mr. Trump also called to prosecute. Mr. Weissmann was a lead investigator in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and allegations of Trump-Russia collusion. The Mueller report, which Mr. Weissmann helped author, found no evidence of collusion.
Historian Barbara Perry notes that after the Watergate-era “Saturday Night Massacre” – the resignation of senior government officials after Nixon fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox – Congress passed legislation aimed at insulating the Justice Department from politics: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Ethics in Government Act, and the Inspector General Act.
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Professor Perry, co-director of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, also cites the words of Mr. Cox himself: The attorney general “will likely be a political ally of the president, but he is not a servant,” Mr. Cox said in 1973. “What distinguishes between the two is the ethical obligation to apply the law in a fair, even-handed, and disinterested way.”
Today, Ms. Perry says, “all of that is blown away. Norms are not good enough anymore.”
Military families often live by the paycheck. They are about to miss one.
From her vantage point working at a U.S. base near Kaiserslautern, Germany, Melanie Pena-Delgado is seeing the range of repercussions that the United States’ government shutdown is having on American military families stationed overseas.
At the Army Community Center, where she provides financial counseling, Ms. Pena-Delgado says there’s been “a flood of soldiers” coming in for emergency pay loans. “The traffic is very heavy,” she adds. “Unfortunately, these young soldiers – especially if they’ve got a young family – are living paycheck to paycheck.”
At a nearby middle school, when extracurriculars for military schoolchildren, from sports to science clubs to the homecoming dance, were canceled due to the shutdown, there was an “outcry from families,” says Ms. Pena-Delgado, who also substitute teaches there. The same sorts of standoffs have been happening at other military base schools as well, she says.
Why We Wrote This
Active-duty members of the armed forces are supposed to be paid on Oct. 15. Unlike in other recent shutdowns, Congress hasn’t safeguarded their pay – prompting outcries from families that sacrifice to serve the country.
In her case, after military parents convinced Department of Defense school administrators to reconsider, the after-school activities resumed.
But payday is approaching on Oct. 15. And while two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, for American soldiers and their families, who already sacrifice to serve, their sense of having a safety net is fraying. A quarter of service members have less than $500 in savings, according to advocacy organizations. Uncertain pay becomes one more burden to bear.
Now, American troops are looking to U.S. lawmakers for help. Congress is considering separate legislation, including a bipartisan “Pay Our Troops Act,” to get service members their salaries despite the shutdown. And while President Donald Trump has publicly stated that they will be paid regardless, House Speaker Mike Johnson has told lawmakers that the bill won’t come up for a vote, Politico reported Thursday. Mr. Johnson and other Republicans say it would take pressure off Democrats to end the stoppage. Democrats, meanwhile, say it’s up to Republicans to negotiate a deal.
Courtesy of Melanie Pena-Delgado
Not the first shutdown rodeo for troops
The last time service members were affected by a government shutdown was in 2018. Then, the Department of Defense had already been funded for the year, so most troops still got paid. Those who weren’t went without salaries for weeks, including, as part of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard.
This time around, there have been no preemptive moves to make sure troops get their paychecks, says Raleigh Duttweiler, chief impact officer at the National Military Family Association. “The tenor in our homes went from normal political concern about what’s going to happen to, ‘Oh my goodness, how are we going to put food on the tables?’”
One military spouse in Texas, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, recalls that during the last government shutdown, she didn’t have a job. She and her husband had a brand-new baby and had just bought a house.
“You think of the stress on you emotionally as a military spouse when your husband is deployed and may not get a paycheck,” she says. Far from home, she recalls thinking, “I’m isolated, I have no family that lives here.”
U.S. troops often find themselves in financially precarious positions. Nearly three-quarters of service members and their spouses are worried about delayed paychecks, according to an online “pulse poll” of 168 service members and spouses by Blue Star Families conducted earlier this month.
Some 60% say their biggest concern is that their spouses will feel more worry or stress, and more than half say they may need to use their personal savings to cover costs while they’re not receiving a paycheck. One in three service members says they may need to take out a loan.
Now, the military spouse in Texas is working. But even with two incomes, “this is still very hard – and this is not unique,” she says. “This is what many of our military families are facing right now in my community.”
According to the Blue Star Families poll, some military families are quietly seeking assistance. One quarter of the poll's respondents said they may need to rely on a food bank to put supper on the table.
Others are postponing trips, the Texas spouse says. “We’re on fall vacation and had plans to take the kids to a pumpkin patch, to take them on a little mini overnight camping trip, and we canceled all of that,” she says. “So instead of them getting this experience during their fall break, we’re going to sit at home and do what we can with what we have, knowing that we have to dip into savings to make it through.”
With incomes already strained by inflation, many Americans are struggling to make ends meet. But within military communities, that pressure is compounded by the fact that families these days generally “need two incomes to get by, and we can only count on one,” Ms. Duttweiler says.
In part due to frequent relocations that disrupt careers and the challenge of solo parenting during deployments, more than 1 in 5 military spouses stay home with children or otherwise don't draw a paycheck. Notable, then, is that 63% of military respondents said in a 2019 poll that having two incomes was vital to their financial well-being. Last year, the percentage of those saying they needed two incomes jumped to 77%.
Recruiting and the costs of military moves
For now, the timing of this government shutdown is particularly difficult for military families, about a third of whom relocated over the summer and spent some $5,000 out of pocket to do it. Most military families take a full year to recover financially from a move, according to military advocacy groups.
Besa Pinchotti
Back-to-school season also means families need to cover the costs of new clothes and school supplies and extracurricular fees, Ms. Duttweiler says. “And now we’re looking at a missed paycheck.”
This all has implications for recruiting, says Lindsay Knight, Chief Impact Officer at Blue Star Families.
“The lack of financial stability is not a great place for any family to be in, but specifically a military family that has dedicated their life to the service of this country,” she says. “The less good that quality of life is, the bigger the problem that we are going to have with retention and sustainability of the all-volunteer force.”
Back in Texas, the military spouse says that she and her husband will continue to serve. However, 38% of those surveyed in the Blue Star poll said the government shutdown decreases their families’ likelihood of continuing in the military. “In the back of your mind, there’s that nagging feeling that I am something that can be put on pause,” the spouse says. “And that doesn’t go away.”
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Some members of Ms. Pena-Delgado’s book club are talking about building food boxes and putting them in the front yards of their homes on base. They plan to stock the boxes with items like bread and laundry detergent and leave them for anyone who needs them. That way, families can pick the boxes up anonymously.
“You know, whatever people need,” she says. “We’re all just leaning on each other.”
Military families often live by the paycheck. They are about to miss one.
From her vantage point working at a U.S. base near Kaiserslautern, Germany, Melanie Pena-Delgado is seeing the range of repercussions that the United States’ government shutdown is having on American military families stationed overseas.
At the Army Community Center, where she provides financial counseling, Ms. Pena-Delgado says there’s been “a flood of soldiers” coming in for emergency pay loans. “The traffic is very heavy,” she adds. “Unfortunately, these young soldiers – especially if they’ve got a young family – are living paycheck to paycheck.”
At a nearby middle school, when extracurriculars for military schoolchildren, from sports to science clubs to the homecoming dance, were canceled due to the shutdown, there was an “outcry from families,” says Ms. Pena-Delgado, who also substitute teaches there. The same sorts of standoffs have been happening at other military base schools as well, she says.
Why We Wrote This
Active-duty members of the armed forces are supposed to be paid on Oct. 15. Unlike in other recent shutdowns, Congress hasn’t safeguarded their pay – prompting outcries from families that sacrifice to serve the country.
In her case, after military parents convinced Department of Defense school administrators to reconsider, the after-school activities resumed.
But payday is approaching on Oct. 15. And while two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, for American soldiers and their families, who already sacrifice to serve, their sense of having a safety net is fraying. A quarter of service members have less than $500 in savings, according to advocacy organizations. Uncertain pay becomes one more burden to bear.
Now, American troops are looking to U.S. lawmakers for help. Congress is considering separate legislation, including a bipartisan “Pay Our Troops Act,” to get service members their salaries despite the shutdown. And while President Donald Trump has publicly stated that they will be paid regardless, House Speaker Mike Johnson has told lawmakers that the bill won’t come up for a vote, Politico reported Thursday. Mr. Johnson and other Republicans say it would take pressure off Democrats to end the stoppage. Democrats, meanwhile, say it’s up to Republicans to negotiate a deal.
Courtesy of Melanie Pena-Delgado
Not the first shutdown rodeo for troops
The last time service members were affected by a government shutdown was in 2018. Then, the Department of Defense had already been funded for the year, so most troops still got paid. Those who weren’t went without salaries for weeks, including, as part of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard.
This time around, there have been no preemptive moves to make sure troops get their paychecks, says Raleigh Duttweiler, chief impact officer at the National Military Family Association. “The tenor in our homes went from normal political concern about what’s going to happen to, ‘Oh my goodness, how are we going to put food on the tables?’”
One military spouse in Texas, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, recalls that during the last government shutdown, she didn’t have a job. She and her husband had a brand-new baby and had just bought a house.
“You think of the stress on you emotionally as a military spouse when your husband is deployed and may not get a paycheck,” she says. Far from home, she recalls thinking, “I’m isolated, I have no family that lives here.”
U.S. troops often find themselves in financially precarious positions. Nearly three-quarters of service members and their spouses are worried about delayed paychecks, according to an online “pulse poll” of 168 service members and spouses by Blue Star Families conducted earlier this month.
Some 60% say their biggest concern is that their spouses will feel more worry or stress, and more than half say they may need to use their personal savings to cover costs while they’re not receiving a paycheck. One in three service members says they may need to take out a loan.
Now, the military spouse in Texas is working. But even with two incomes, “this is still very hard – and this is not unique,” she says. “This is what many of our military families are facing right now in my community.”
According to the Blue Star Families poll, some military families are quietly seeking assistance. One quarter of the poll's respondents said they may need to rely on a food bank to put supper on the table.
Others are postponing trips, the Texas spouse says. “We’re on fall vacation and had plans to take the kids to a pumpkin patch, to take them on a little mini overnight camping trip, and we canceled all of that,” she says. “So instead of them getting this experience during their fall break, we’re going to sit at home and do what we can with what we have, knowing that we have to dip into savings to make it through.”
With incomes already strained by inflation, many Americans are struggling to make ends meet. But within military communities, that pressure is compounded by the fact that families these days generally “need two incomes to get by, and we can only count on one,” Ms. Duttweiler says.
In part due to frequent relocations that disrupt careers and the challenge of solo parenting during deployments, more than 1 in 5 military spouses stay home with children or otherwise don't draw a paycheck. Notable, then, is that 63% of military respondents said in a 2019 poll that having two incomes was vital to their financial well-being. Last year, the percentage of those saying they needed two incomes jumped to 77%.
Recruiting and the costs of military moves
For now, the timing of this government shutdown is particularly difficult for military families, about a third of whom relocated over the summer and spent some $5,000 out of pocket to do it. Most military families take a full year to recover financially from a move, according to military advocacy groups.
Besa Pinchotti
Back-to-school season also means families need to cover the costs of new clothes and school supplies and extracurricular fees, Ms. Duttweiler says. “And now we’re looking at a missed paycheck.”
This all has implications for recruiting, says Lindsay Knight, Chief Impact Officer at Blue Star Families.
“The lack of financial stability is not a great place for any family to be in, but specifically a military family that has dedicated their life to the service of this country,” she says. “The less good that quality of life is, the bigger the problem that we are going to have with retention and sustainability of the all-volunteer force.”
Back in Texas, the military spouse says that she and her husband will continue to serve. However, 38% of those surveyed in the Blue Star poll said the government shutdown decreases their families’ likelihood of continuing in the military. “In the back of your mind, there’s that nagging feeling that I am something that can be put on pause,” the spouse says. “And that doesn’t go away.”
Deepen your worldview
with Monitor Highlights.
Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
Some members of Ms. Pena-Delgado’s book club are talking about building food boxes and putting them in the front yards of their homes on base. They plan to stock the boxes with items like bread and laundry detergent and leave them for anyone who needs them. That way, families can pick the boxes up anonymously.
“You know, whatever people need,” she says. “We’re all just leaning on each other.”