Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.
This afternoon’s newsletter is, yet again, all-positive. I chose to make this political cartoon by Micah Player the lead image, because it really resonated with me after last night’s victories.
As for our stories, Mike Johnson is stepping down from House Republican leadership after Democrats took the chamber in a landslide. Several of the most notorious Republicans in Congress are losing their seats. Voters in ten states rejected Silicon Valley’s data centers on the ballot. And Representative Thomas Massie says he will force an impeachment vote on Pete Hegseth when Congress returns.
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It took less than 12 hours for Republicans to start fighting over who gets to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
On a staff call Wednesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he will not run for House minority leader after Democrats won control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Reps. Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise have already begun campaigning to replace him.
Jordan, who lost three times in his 2023 bid to become House Speaker, announced his candidacy in a letter to GOP colleagues Wednesday morning. He said he is “battle-tested,” and wrote that House Republicans “need a Leadership team that is active and engaged, forward-thinking and straight-shooting.”
House Republican number two, Representative Steve Scalise, is also expected to announce his own campaign for the job. An unnamed source told The Washington Sun that Scalise’s primary goal would be leading the party back into the majority.
Democrat Hakeem Jeffries will become the next Speaker of the House when the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, making him the first Black speaker in the history of the chamber. Jeffries confirmed Tuesday that the Democrats plan to use their new majority to investigate the Trump administration.
If you’re going to be the worst person in Congress, at least hold a safe seat.
Several of the most notorious Republicans in Congress lost their seats Tuesday or are holding onto razor-thin leads as officials continue counting ballots. Trump had personally endorsed each of the losing candidates.
Democrat Brian Poindexter defeated two-term Republican Max Miller in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District after a campaign consumed by allegations that Miller held a gun to his ex-wife’s head and threw scalding water on her. Miller’s own former father-in-law, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, publicly urged people to vote against him, writing on social media that Miller “needs serious psychological help.”
In South Carolina, Democrat Nancy Lacore, a former Navy Admiral who was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, flipped the 1st Congressional District seat long held by Republican Nancy Mace. Mace, who once had her staffers boost her ranking on Reddit forums about the hottest women in Congress, resigned to run for governor and lost.
Republican Virginia Foxx, 81, is trailing Democrat Chuck Hubbard by 99 votes out of more than 277,000 cast in North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District. The margin is narrow enough to trigger a recount under state law, but Hubbard has said he is confident he will win.
Lauren Boebert, the QAnon conspiracy theorist who was kicked out of a Denver theater for vaping and groping her date during a performance of Beetlejuice, is currently trailing Democrat Eileen Laubacher in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. Boebert relocated to the heavily Republican district after narrowly winning her previous seat in 2022.
Forty out of 41 is a rejection rate that most people only see on dating apps.
Communities in ten states voted Tuesday on 41 data center ballot initiatives, and at least 33 of them rejected the facilities. Only one measure in the entire country, in the small town of Harwood, North Dakota, went the industry’s way.
Ohio had the most ballot measures, after companies like Anthropic poured millions into state and local elections. Kansas approved some of the strongest restrictions, including a ten-year moratorium on facilities that use more than 100,000 gallons of water per day. That ban can only be reversed by public vote.
Arkansas and North Dakota voters will also weigh in on data center restrictions, on December 1 and December 15. Ohio could follow with an even broader measure, as advocates are gathering signatures for a statewide constitutional amendment that would ban facilities with a power demand of more than 25 megawatts.
In August, Heatmap published a survey showing 75 percent of Americans oppose data center development in their communities, including a majority of Republicans. Tuesday’s numbers were even more lopsided, with 40 of 41 ballot measures going against the industry.
Hegseth still won’t wash his hands, but Congress is happy to wash theirs.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said he will reintroduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when Congress reconvenes. Massie introduced a resolution with eight articles of impeachment in September, but House Speaker Mike Johnson sent representatives home before a vote could happen.
Three of the articles allege that Hegseth violated the 1973 War Powers Resolution by waging war in Iran without congressional authorization. The other five accuse him of overseeing extrajudicial killings, retaliating against Senator Mark Kelly and ordering the unauthorized seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has confirmed that Democrats plan to oust Hegseth from office once they hold the majority. Senate Democrats have also indicated that removing Hegseth could be a condition for their future cooperation with Republicans.
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Montana Voters Approve Ban on Corporate Political Spending. Montana voters approved a ballot measure that prohibits corporations, nonprofits, and other organizations from spending money to influence elections at the local, state, and federal levels. The measure is the first successful challenge to the flood of political spending unleashed by the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, which allowed corporations and outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections. The nonprofit Transparent Election Initiative is pushing similar measures across the country, but the Montana Plan is likely to face legal challenges from conservative and libertarian free speech advocates who have fought similar bans in Hawaii and Massachusetts.
Democrats Capture Majority of Governorships for First Time in 16 Years. Democrats took control of a majority of governors’ offices for the first time since 2010, flipping seats in multiple states that voted for Trump in the last three presidential elections. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa defeated three-term Governor Greg Abbott to become the first Latina governor in U.S. history. Amy Acton won Ohio’s gubernatorial race, beating Vivek Ramaswamy to become the state’s first Democratic governor in 20 years and first woman governor. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman to serve as governor in Georgia. And in Wisconsin, David Crowley made history by defeating Republican Tom Tiffany to become the state’s first Black governor. Overall, 17 women are expected to be governors across the country, a new record.
Democrats Flip State Legislatures Across the Country, Ending Decades of GOP Control. Democrats reclaimed control of state legislatures in Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas Tuesday, shattering Republican majorities that in some cases had lasted for decades. Wisconsin will have its first Democratic trifecta since the Great Recession, and Arizona is on track to have its first since 1966. North Carolina Democrats regained control of the state House after 16 years of Republican dominance and Texas Democrats were poised to take the state House for the first time in 24 years after winning 68 of 150 districts and leading in 13 more. In Texas, colleagues are rallying behind Rep. Senfronia Thompson, a 54-year veteran of the state House, to become the first Black speaker and first woman to lead either legislative chamber.
Washington, D.C. Overwhelmingly Votes to Ban Foie Gras. On Tuesday, D.C. voters passed Initiative 86, which outlaws the production and sale of foie gras. The French delicacy is created by forcing a tube down the throat of a duck or goose to fatten it up until its liver swells to many times its normal size, a practice animal rights activists have fought for years to ban. The measure collected more signatures than any other ballot initiative in D.C. history. Violators could be fined $1,000 to $5,000, and repeated offenses could result in the suspension of a business license. Enforcement does not start until July 1, 2027, and provisions with a fiscal impact may be postponed further while waiting for approval in the D.C. budget.
