By Michael Starr Hopkins.
Every verifiable byline — The Hill, the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, HuffPost — plus the day's BTP. No paraphrase. Read each piece at the outlet that published it.
Where Is Tom Kean?
Fifty-four days absent. Eight trades. $1.1 million raised. The congressman was very busy — just not in Congress.
66 bylines. Most recent first.
Every link opens at the outlet that published it. Paywalled pieces are linked honestly; we don't republish what isn't ours.
-
Republicans are sinking, but Democrats aren't rising
Trump's midterm gambit is backfiring, but a Republican collapse alone won't put Democrats in the majority unless the party finally builds the message and economic argument it has been ducking.
Read at The Hill → -
In 2028, the candidate who admits the system has failed everyone will win
The 2028 race will be won by the candidate willing to say what every working-class voter already knows — the system has failed them, and the failure is bipartisan.
Read at Washington Post → -
Democrats have too many troubles to cheer Trump's failures
Trump losing is not a Democratic strategy. The party still has to rebuild a coalition it has been losing in real time.
Read at The Hill → -
To voters, Democrats aren't calm — they're comatose
Democrats have confused being calm with being wise. They have sold steadiness as strength while politics is actually about conviction.
Read at The Hill → -
2025 election results reveal choice for Democrats in 2026, 2028
Run on what Democrats are against, or use the 2025 backlash to sell a bold economic vision the party has been afraid to name.
Read at The Hill → -
There's never been a better year to black out Black Friday
Corporate profits have doubled in 14 years while wages stalled. Spend nothing on the day they expect us to spend the most.
Read at The Hill → -
Democrats' investments in Black and Latino voters will pay off
Year-round engagement in Black and Latino communities is finally being treated as infrastructure — not a get-out-the-vote line item.
Read at The Hill → -
The Supreme Court could erase decades of progress for Black voters
A single ruling on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act could undo six decades of Black political progress in a single afternoon.
Read at The Hill → -
Trump's 2025 strategy: Use power while you have it and don't worry about the polls
Trump is betting he can ignore the polls and do what he wants. Democrats are betting Americans will eventually look up.
Read at The Hill → -
Project 2025: You can't say Trump didn't warn us
The blueprint was published. The names were attached. The voters who said it was a hoax now own the consequences.
Read at The Hill → -
Trump's spectacle is no match for Harris's substance
Harris is running a campaign of substance against an opponent running a campaign of spectacle. The country still gets to choose which one it wants.
Read at The Hill → -
Will the real Kamala Harris please stand up?
Voters want a candidate who tells them what she believes. Not the version that tested best in last week’s focus group.
Read at The Hill → -
Black voters: Make clear choices, not false equivalencies
The 2024 election does not present two equally bad choices. Saying it does is a privilege Black voters cannot afford.
Read at The Hill → -
Biden's age versus Trump's chaos is an easy vote
One candidate is old. The other is dangerous. The choice should not require a focus group.
Read at The Hill → -
Trump, Biden catapult Jan. 6 into race for White House
January 6 is no longer a memory in this race. It is a closing argument both candidates are making to different juries.
Read at The Hill → -
This election isn't personal for Black voters: It's business
Black voters are entering 2024 as a contract year. It is time to negotiate from a position of strength, not gratitude.
Read at The Hill → -
Democrats can't afford to ignore the party's Black male exodus
A meaningful slice of Black men are walking away from the Democratic Party. The party is not allowed to be surprised.
Read at The Hill → -
A question for 2024 candidates: Why do you really want to be president?
A win-at-all-costs mentality has produced candidates who cannot answer the only question that matters anymore.
Read at The Hill → -
GOP attacks on woke America are 'hypocrisy of the highest order'
When asked to define "woke," Republicans cannot. The fight is the point — and the policy vacuum is the tell.
Read at The Hill → -
Democrats Proved They Have a Bench. Now Biden Should Step Aside in 2024.
The midterm bench is real. The cleanest path to keeping Trump out of the White House is letting it run.
Read at The Daily Beast → -
AOC is the Democrats' best shot against Trump in 2024
Whether the Democratic establishment likes it or not, the only candidate who matches Trump’s movement is the one they keep trying to ignore.
Read at The Hill → -
End the Stigma on Black Men Suffering From Depression
The taboo on talking about mental health in the Black community is only hurting us all.
Read at The Daily Beast → -
The State of the Union Speech Biden Should Give
The president's first State of the Union ought to be a demonstration of tough love, optimism, and compassion.
Read at The Daily Beast → -
Biden Deserves a Primary Challenger
Biden has accomplished a lot in his first year, but there's no clear rationale for giving him a second term.
Read at The Daily Beast → -
It's time for 'Uncle Joe' to take off the gloves against Manchin and Sinema
Bipartisan fantasy is no longer a strategy. Two senators are running out the clock on the Biden agenda.
Read at The Hill → -
Democrats and Republicans Have Different Weaknesses Leading Into 2022 Midterms
Both parties enter 2022 with structural problems. Only one of them is actually trying to fix them.
Read at The Daily Beast → -
History shows only a new Voting Rights Act can preserve our fragile democracy
Without federal voting protections, the post-Reconstruction backslide is not a historical analogy. It is a forecast.
Read at The Hill → -
Democrats are getting pummeled while they're down — it's time to punch back
Republicans have spent 30 years kicking Democrats in the teeth. It's time to stop ceding ground out of deference to polite society.
Read at The Hill → -
The GOP's strategy is galvanizing Democrats ahead of 2022
Republican overreach on voting rights and culture-war fights is doing what no Democratic ad campaign managed — waking up the base.
Read at The Hill → -
Democrats must use this moment of history to move the country forward
Biden won by mail and by margin. Now Democrats have to govern like they earned the mandate they were just handed.
Read at The Hill → -
Americans do not need more debates to decide their votes
The institutions have been turned into spectacles. Voters have already decided who is up to the task.
Read at The Hill → -
Why Democrats cannot bank on moderate Republicans this year
Far more progressives stayed home in 2016 than Republicans were ever going to switch. Turning out the base is the path.
Read at The Hill → -
Republicans have to let Donald Trump lose if they want victory
Trump is a sinking ship that will take the whole crew down with him. Republicans have to decide whether to swim.
Read at The Hill → -
Can Republicans handle the aftermath of Donald Trump?
They created him. They enabled him. Now they have to hope he does not torch the whole party on the way out.
Read at The Hill → -
Joe Biden should choose an African American woman for winning ticket
Without Black women, Biden is not the nominee. The smart, prudent and right choice is to put one on the ticket.
Read at The Hill → -
Why Donald Trump needs to worry about his odds with Florida voters
Florida is the firewall. The pandemic is putting cracks in it that Trump cannot caulk over with a press conference.
Read at The Hill → -
Can this Joe Biden comeback last?
A South Carolina blowout rewrote the primary in a single night. The hard part is keeping that coalition standing through November.
Read at The Hill → -
Why Democrats may end up with a nominee who is like Donald Trump
Until Biden, Buttigieg, Bloomberg and Klobuchar stop dividing the vote, the nomination is Bernie Sanders to lose.
Read at The Hill → -
Is Joe Biden simply running his campaign like Hillary Clinton?
Charisma is not the same as discipline. Biden is repeating a 2016 playbook that already failed once.
Read at The Hill → -
Pete Buttigieg won the last debate, but can he actually beat Joe Biden?
Buttigieg is the only candidate who separated himself on stage. Separating himself from Biden in the polling is a different problem.
Read at The Hill → -
Why Democrats cannot dismiss Michael Bloomberg in this race
Defeating Trump is the only job in 2020. This is not the year to let perfection be the enemy of the good.
Read at The Hill → -
Why the debates no longer matter
The fifth debate was a chapter most voters will skip. The real work is happening on the ground.
Read at The Hill → -
What are Republicans going to do after Donald Trump leaves office?
Trump will not be around forever. Rebuilding the GOP starts the day his grip on it ends — and not a day later.
Read at The Hill → -
What are Democrats going to do once Donald Trump leaves office?
Opposition is not a platform. The progressive-moderate fight Democrats keep delaying will eventually arrive.
Read at The Hill → -
Republicans and Democrats alike face rocky roads to 2020 election
Both parties enter the cycle without a unifying message. Only one of them is pretending it does not matter.
Read at The Hill → -
The ship has sailed for Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton
A late entry is no longer possible. Donors are committed, ballots are filing and the calendar will not wait.
Read at The Hill → -
Democrats have reason to worry after the last presidential debate
A nominee who cannot connect with voters of different life experiences is a nominee who loses. Democrats have been here before.
Read at The Hill → -
Get Ready For A White House Run By Fox News
Fox's grip on the president is undeniable. This week it got even tighter.
Read at HuffPost → -
There is Something Happening Across This Country
A movement is forming in places the press has stopped covering and the parties have stopped visiting.
Read at HuffPost → -
Why I want to challenge Bob Menendez in a bid for senator
New Jersey deserves a fresh start — the chance to vote for someone who has not been tainted by the culture of corruption in Trenton and Washington.
Read at The Hill → -
The election of Donald Trump will haunt Democrats until we prevail
A year on, the loss still haunts. Infighting, messaging gaps and a missing leader threaten the rebuild.
Read at The Hill → -
Donald Trump: The Cost of Doing Business
Republicans have priced principle in tax cuts. The bill for that trade is going to come due.
Read at HuffPost → -
A Burden That is Not My Own
America's racial conversation cannot be carried only by the people who live the consequences.
Read at HuffPost → -
America needs a new champion
Factory workers and bus drivers putting in backbreaking work every day need a champion. So far, neither party has produced one.
Read at The Hill → -
We Are Not Our Grandparent's Generation
A new generation has different fights to win, and silence is not one of the options on the table.
Read at HuffPost → -
They Wanted To Silence The Messenger
Critics are more bothered by Colin Kaepernick kneeling than by the police violence he is kneeling about.
Read at HuffPost → -
A Disgrace Of Historic Proportions
The Axis Of Incompetence — a White House where chaos is no longer a bug, it is the operating model.
Read at HuffPost → -
History Will Remember Who Said Nothing
Stand up. The historical record will not be kind to the politicians who treated this presidency as politics as usual.
Read at HuffPost → -
I Live Here Too: A Message To The Republican Party
Aren't I enough? A direct message to a party that has decided some Americans count more than others.
Read at HuffPost → -
The Status Quo Can No Longer Stand
Being presidential requires more than holding the office. Republicans have to demand it — or own the consequences.
Read at HuffPost → -
He Had No Business Becoming President
There is no tax break in the world that can justify supporting a man who continues to lie to the American people without hesitation.
Read at HuffPost → -
You Will Never Get Your Country Back
Read carefully — because this is not a country that is ever going to look the way it used to, and that is the point.
Read at HuffPost → -
My Pre-Existing Condition Wasn't A Choice
Because of the protections of Obamacare, insurers were no longer allowed to put my health at risk. Repeal puts that risk back on the patient.
Read at HuffPost → -
Thank You, Mr. President, For Proving My Grandparents Wrong
A grandson who was told the office was out of reach watched President Obama prove the limit was made up.
Read at HuffPost → -
Truth Matters: We Can't Keep Playing Loose With Facts
In this new Trump world, facts can be based in fiction and lies can be disguised as truths.
Read at HuffPost → -
This Morning I Woke Up And I Wept
We're scared, Mr. President-Elect, and it's your job to ease our fears.
Read at HuffPost →
New byline drops here within 24 hours of publish. The day's BTP runs at burntheplaybook.beehiiv.com.
Subscribe to the column →