Politics reporter @nytimes. Born and raised in the center of the universe: Peoria, Illinois.
If you wanna chat email me at reid.epstein@nytimes.com
Apr 5, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: The 11-point victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race showed the enduring power of abortion rights and issues of democracy as motivators for Democratic voters while post-Dobbs Republicans remain underfunded and in disarray.
From Milwaukee ->
nytimes.com/2023/04/05/us/…@janetforjustice, who will be part of a four-woman liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court, majority came out last night to the tune of Lizzo's "About Damn Time" as the lyrics "it's bad bitch o'clock" blared from the speakers.
NEW: Meet Tim Ramthun, the Wisconsin state legislator running for governor on a platform of decertifying the 2020 election and recalling WI's 10 electoral votes.
His movement is picking up steam and splitting the WISGOP.
The State Assembly has the nation's only special counsel-led investigation into the 2020 election. It was launched in June; the counsel on Friday asked a judge to arrest a host of WI mayors and election officials.
NEW: Wisconsin Republicans are staging an all-out assault on the state’s election systems, trying to oust, eliminate and bypass the bipartisan WI elections commission and threatening jail for its commissioners so they can take total control for themselves. nytimes.com/2021/11/19/us/…
The push is being led by GOP Senator Ron Johnson, a prolific disinformation spreader with a dubious legal theory about constitutional power.
“Do I expect Democrats to follow the rules?” he said. “Unfortunately, I probably don’t.”
NEW: With Trump booted from social media, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has become the GOP’s foremost amplifier of conspiracy theories and disinformation.
nytimes.com/2021/03/21/us/…
Johnson’s predilection for misinformation was clear in 2010, when he said excess CO2 “helps the trees grow” and said Greenland was named for green vistas explorers saw. (It’s not.)
When I asked about this he said: “I have no idea.”
NEW: Adam Kinzinger, aiming to turn the GOP from Trumpism, has been censured by Illinois Republicans and shunned by members of his family.
"You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name!” they wrote him.
A look at his bet on a future that may not come. nytimes.com/2021/02/15/us/…
Read the two-page, hand-written letter Kinzinger's cousins sent him Jan. 8.
It begins: "Oh my, what a disappointment you are to us and to God!"
NEW: @llerer and I talked to 93 Democratic superdelegates. We found little appetite to handing @BernieSanders the nomination if he's short of a delegate majority.
Almost all of them think it's headed toward a brokered convention.
Let us count the ways the Iowa caucuses become an epic fiasco
Call center volunteers needed two-factor authentication to log into the system, but they were told not to bring phones. So they shared one iPad nytimes.com/2020/02/09/us/…
w/@melbournecoal@tripgabriel@ByMikeBaker 1/x@melbournecoal@tripgabriel@ByMikeBaker Melissa Watson, the Iowa Democratic Party's chief financial officer, who was in charge of the caucus night boiler room, did not know how to operate a Google spreadsheet application used to input data about caucus results.
NEW this AM: As Joe Biden weakens, Pete Buttigieg moves right to try to fill the centrist void. On health care, immigration & climate he's shifted since getting into the 2020 race.
nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/…
Pete's moves right comes after his campaign spent 3x more on polling in Q3 than anybody except Tom Steyer. Top bundlers suggested he cool it on Supreme Court expansion, and he's quietly dropped that portion from his stump speech.
WSJ Page One today: Before Beto O'Rourke was a progressive rock star, his 2012 House campaign was funded by El Paso Republicans. Then, he opposed the ACA, wanted to raise Social Security age & means-test entitlements. -->
wsj.com/articles/beto-…
Of the 40 TX donors who gave <$2,500 to O'Rourke's 2012 campaign and other federal candidates, 26 contributed to other Republicans but just one Democrat—him. Seven gave to other Ds but not Rs. Another seven gave to other candidates from both parties.
