Latest Stories By Louis Jacobson

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Senate bill passage

The Senate stimulus bill: What’s in it for you

March 26, 2020

The coronavirus relief bill that unanimously passed the Senate on March 26 checks in at 880 pages and more than $2 trillion in expenditures. The bill — which will require the House’s approval and President Donald Trump’s signature before it becomes law — addresses everything from support for the airline industry to support for stressed […]

Voting in Wisconsin

How the coronavirus pandemic is shaping the Democratic primary calendar

March 26, 2020

UPDATES: On March 28, New York announced that it would be moving its primary back from April 28 to June 23. (Our chart has been updated.) On March 31, Kansas announced that its primary on May 2 would be held entirely by mail. On April 1, West Virginia said it was delaying its primary. The coronavirus […]

voters with face masks Michigan March 2020

Will COVID-19 force a massive absentee vote in November election?

March 24, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has already forced more than a half dozen states to delay their Democratic primaries, with more states likely to follow. This has raised an urgent question: Could the pandemic still be dangerous enough in November that the general election will have to be held mostly or entirely by mail? On the federal […]

Has President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act or not? It’s complicated

March 23, 2020

As the coronavirus spreads across the United States, there’s increasing discussion of how to leverage an existing law to quickly scale up the manufacture of ventilators and other urgently needed medical items.  The Defense Production Act, signed by President Harry Truman, allows the federal government to take a stronger role in directing domestic manufacturing capabilities […]

Store shuttered

How the 2008 and 2020 recessions will be different, and why that matters

March 20, 2020

With the rising likelihood of a recession caused by the coronavirus outbreak, lawmakers have begun talking about remedies that will sound familiar to anyone who lived through the Great Recession of 2008: stimulus checks, assistance to hard-hit businesses, and moves by the Federal Reserve. But economists say the upcoming recession is actually quite different from […]

Biden Sanders attacks

Fact-checking the Joe Biden-Bernie Sanders face-off: Long records, ample attacks

March 12, 2020

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are the last two candidates standing in a months-long Democratic presidential primary race. And they have found plenty to argue about. Part of that is because they have about 77 years of legislative history and votes to mine between the two of them. Biden was first elected to the Senate […]

Could Bernie Sanders legalize marijuana by executive order?

March 9, 2020

At times, Bernie Sanders has made a bold claim — that if he’s elected president, he can legalize marijuana nationwide by executive order, a process that sidesteps Congress and the full regulatory process. How realistic is this approach?

A closer look at turnout, young voters and a key Bernie Sanders strategy

March 4, 2020

Bernie Sanders has staked his presidential candidacy on expanding voter turnout. "The key to this election is, can we get millions of young people who have never voted before into the political process — many working people who understand that Trump is a fraud — can we get them voting?" Sanders told the Los Angeles Times. "That is the key to this election." How hard a task would it be to expand voter turnout — for Sanders or any Democratic nominee? And how hard will it be to increase youth turnout specifically? We questioned experts and looked at the data, including results from the Super Tuesday primaries.

What Bernie Sanders has said about the Democrats over the years

March 3, 2020

We rounded up 11 quotes from various points in Bernie Sanders’ career about his own party identification — starting with the left-wing Liberty Union Party — and what he thinks of the Democratic Party.

15% is the Super Tuesday number you’ll be hearing about a lot

March 2, 2020

As election results roll in from Super Tuesday — the mammoth primary day when votes are cast in 14 states, one U.S. territory, and Democrats overseas — expect to hear one particular number come up again and again: 15%. Why is that such an important figure? Because it’s the threshold that determines whether a candidate takes home delegates. And delegates, rather than votes, are the building blocks for winning the Democratic nomination.

How Bernie Sanders runs in the Democratic primary when he’s an independent in the Senate

March 2, 2020

How does Bernie Sanders qualify to run in the Democratic primary when he's an independent in the Senate? The bottom line is that he's done everything the Democratic National Committee has asked him to do in order to prove his support for the party.

Dem convention balloons

A contested convention? The Democrats’ delegate system, explained

February 27, 2020

How does the Democrats’ delegate system work? We asked experts to explain the process and produced the following Q&A.

Showing 493-504 of 1260 items