Latest Stories By Louis Jacobson

Quick take Nevada, a longtime presidential battleground state, is hosting another key race in 2022 — the fight to control one of the state’s two seats in the U.S. Senate. The seat is currently held by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat first elected to the chamber in 2016. The Republican primary field features two […]

Quick take North Carolina, a state with a divided but slightly Republican-leaning electorate, is playing host to one of the key U.S. Senate contests — the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr. Election Day is May 17. While polls have been scarce, former President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate, U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, seems […]

The Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania has featured months of aggressive  attacks between frontrunners Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick — with an unexpected third candidate, Kathy Barnette, joining the mix of possible winners. The Republican and Democratic primaries, which close on May 17, will determine the nominees to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. Both […]

With the news leaked of a possible Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, politicians and commentators of all stripes claimed public opinion was on their side when it came to abortion. The reality is that the data is murkier and more contradictory than either supporters and opponents of abortion rights care to admit. Partly, […]

The leak of an early draft ruling on a hotly contested Supreme Court abortion case has focused attention on what might happen if Roe v. Wade — the five-decade-old precedent requiring national access to abortion — is overturned. Prior to the Roe decision in 1973, abortion was illegal in many states, but states were gradually […]

Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, Americans can be forgiven if they’ve lost track of the latest variants circulating nationally and around the world. We’ve heard of the alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron variants, but a new greek-letter variant hasn’t come onto the scene in almost half a year. Instead, a seemingly endless stream […]

Scroll through social media feeds today and you can expect to be bombarded with dubious claims about Russia’s war in Ukraine. Many were created by or on behalf of Russia, either to cast doubt on atrocities or to condemn Ukraine and its leaders for things they didn’t do. Fact-checkers like PolitiFact work to determine the […]

As the Russian military continues to pound Ukraine, evidence of war crimes keeps mounting. Could perpetrators be held to account under international law? If so, how soon could that happen? And what do past war crimes prosecutions suggest about how such efforts could play out now? Nine experts helped us find out. Who conducts war-crimes […]

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is going poorly enough that President Vladimir Putin might decide to use what are known as tactical nuclear weapons, according to both Ukrainian and U.S. leaders. In an interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN’s Jake Tapper that all countries should be prepared for the possibility that Putin could use nuclear […]

Quick Take In Missouri, a possible Republican nominee has spooked the party’s establishment, with some in the GOP fearing that a Democratic upset could take a seat that has been in Republican hands since 1987. The possible nominee is former Gov. Eric Greitens. Greitens, a decorated Navy SEAL with stints in Afghanistan and Iraq, won […]

Amid the bloodshed from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there’s a question that’s increasingly being raised: Is this genocide? Through April 1, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said it had confirmed that 1,325 civilians had been killed in Ukraine and 2,017 had been injured. However, even the U.N. office that released […]

Quick take In 2020, Georgia switched from Republican to Democratic and became one of the key building blocks of Joe Biden’s presidential victory. In 2022, Republicans are seeking to oust Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who narrowly won a runoff in January 2021 that enabled Democrats to seize Senate control.  Georgia’s primaries will be held on […]