HardLeftThe wire services, the streamers, the shows, the satire and the movement — the progressive press, gathered in one place.
The White House, the midterms and the money — today's top stories.
Voters are drawing a straight line from Trump's foreign policy to the cost of living — and with the president's approval at historic lows, Republicans are distancing themselves from him ahead of Nov. 3.
Reuters reports the pocketbook squeeze is now the defining fact of the midterm map, ten days out from Election Day.
Read at Reuters →With heating oil above $6 a gallon in northern states, the cost of staying warm is now a Senate issue in New Hampshire, Maine and Alaska. An October Reuters/Ipsos poll found nearly 80% of Americans blame Trump's policies for higher costs.
Read at Reuters →FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez is urging the broadcast industry to push back more aggressively against the Trump administration's pressure on networks — including Chair Brendan Carr's warning about airing "entirely fake polls" before Nov. 3.
Read at Reuters →A Honan Strategy Group poll (Oct. 2–7, 967 likely Democratic primary voters) finds 73% of Democrats approve of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's job performance — and in a hypothetical reelection matchup, he leads NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch 54% to 25%.
Read at the New York Post →A McLaughlin & Associates poll of 800 California voters (Oct. 17–20) puts Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez first in the Democratic presidential primary at 18% — ahead of Pete Buttigieg at 17% and Gov. Gavin Newsom at 14%, in Newsom's own state. A California result, not a national one.
Read the poll coverage →Khanna is criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom over Prop 42, a billionaire-backed initiative he says would ban billionaires from ever facing a tax. He says he stands with the unions backing a billionaire tax — so poor kids in California do not lose healthcare.
Read the story →Gov. Tim Walz announced Minnesota has effectively ended veteran homelessness statewide: all 10 Continuums of Care — covering all 87 counties — are now certified, with the final one certified on Oct. 2.
Read the announcement →The shows and streamers driving the conversation on the left.
Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan joins Democracy Now! to break down AIPAC's role in Michigan's El-Sayed vs. Rogers Senate race — and the Trump administration's targeting of Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Mehdi goes head-to-head with centrist commentator Matthew Yglesias — on Gaza, the El-Sayed race, ICE, and whether Democrats should follow the polls or lead them.
The West Bank and the wider world — reported plainly.
The wider world, on its own desk: Israel has launched a days-long military operation across the occupied West Bank — days before Israelis vote on Oct. 27 — while Ottawa waves off Washington's claims of Canadian meddling in the U.S. midterms.
Israel launched a days-long military operation in the occupied West Bank after gunmen killed two soldiers near Hebron on Oct. 23, imposing closures and demolitions across the territory days before Israel's Oct. 27 election.
The UN human rights office and the Israeli rights group B'Tselem criticized the lockdown as collective punishment.
Read the story →Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is dismissing U.S. accusations that Canada is interfering in the Nov. 3 U.S. midterms.
Read at Reuters →Why a separate desk? The wider world deserves more than a chyron. The wire services and the independent press do the on-the-ground world reporting this page pulls from every morning.
The movement off-camera — organizing, ICE resistance and the Florida fight.
Bernie Sanders sent $1 million to Abdul El-Sayed's campaign on Oct. 22, after reporting that AIPAC planned to spend up to $9 million through a pro-Mike Rogers super PAC. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had already given $1 million to El-Sayed.
And on Oct. 20, Zohran Mamdani backed El-Sayed, calling his victory critical to setting a new course in Washington.
Read the Sanders story → Mamdani backs El-Sayed →Gov. Kathy Hochul campaigned with Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday, Oct. 23, just before early voting opened — and Republican Bruce Blakeman promptly called the joint appearance a boost to his own campaign against her.
Read at the New York Post →The podcasts and culture picks — every card labeled for what it is.
Friday's program: the Ohio governor's race, where Trump backs a Ramaswamy ad siding with his opponent's indicted childhood rapist; Brazil's elections and how AI, Meta and evangelicals could sway the race for Bolsonaro; and "Dying in Detention," Al Jazeera's investigation into immigrant deaths at California's Adelanto ICE jail.
The Onion — America's finest news source. It's satire; that's the point.
Satire: The Onion lands an "exclusive" interview with Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, pegged to a new documentary that followed her in the month before her prison sentence.
The democratic socialists carrying the movement into November.
Four names to know. Each one is running — or governing — on the same basic idea: the economy should work for the people who do the work. Here is who they are, what they stand for, and where the latest polls put them.
A physician and epidemiologist who rebuilt Detroit’s public health department as the city’s health director, El-Sayed has spent his career treating healthcare as a public good — in clinic rooms, in city government, and now in a run for the U.S. Senate. Backed by Bernie Sanders, AOC and the movement, he won the Democratic nomination to fight for Gary Peters’ open seat.
Running on — Medicare for All, getting corporate money out of politics, and rebuilding an economy that works for working families instead of donors.
Momentum — The money fight is on: Bernie Sanders sent $1M to El-Sayed's campaign on Oct. 22 after reports that AIPAC planned up to $9M for a pro-Rogers super PAC — AOC had already given $1M — and Zohran Mamdani backed El-Sayed on Oct. 20, calling his victory critical to a new course in Washington. The pro-Rogers Great Lakes Conservatives Fund has also announced a $4.6M Michigan ad buy.
A Queens assemblymember and Democratic Socialists of America member who won the mayor’s office on one word — affordability — Mamdani is now the highest-profile democratic socialist governing in America. His first year at City Hall has been about turning a campaign platform into policy for the most expensive city in the country.
Running City Hall on — freezing the rent for stabilized apartments, fast and free buses, universal childcare, and city-owned grocery stores, paid for by asking the wealthiest New Yorkers and big corporations to pay their fair share.
On the trail — Mamdani campaigned with Gov. Kathy Hochul in Brooklyn on Friday, Oct. 23, the first time he outright campaigned for her re-election ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
A Jacksonville state representative, author and small-business owner, Nixon is the DSA’s nationally endorsed Senate candidate in Florida — and she got there by beating the Democratic establishment’s pick in the August primary. She’s running to finish Marco Rubio’s term against appointed Sen. Ashley Moody, with Bernie Sanders barnstorming the state beside her.
Running on — reining in the insurance companies and corporate landlords driving Florida’s cost-of-living crisis, expanding Medicaid, and fighting for housing Floridians can actually afford.
Momentum — Ro Khanna campaigned with her in Florida this week, and she took her Senate case to The Find Out Podcast.
The daughter of Hmong refugees and a Sacramento city council member since 2020, Vang co-founded Hmong Innovating Politics to organize Southeast Asian American and Pacific Islander communities into political power. Her challenge to a 21-year incumbent became one of the breakout progressive campaigns of the cycle — and voters rewarded it.
Running on — Medicare for All, housing working families can afford, defending immigrant communities, and a generational changing of the guard in Congress.
This week — Vang pledged to oppose automatic license plate readers, citing privacy, civil liberties and the risk of immigration-enforcement access to location data; Matsui's campaign answered by attacking her record.
Polling note: figures are each pollster’s own topline, linked at the source — horse-race numbers for the candidates still running, a job-approval rating for the one already governing, and certified primary results where the voters have already weighed in.
Upcoming events for progressives — rallies, canvasses and the dates that decide November.
Ten days out. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3 — early voting is open now across Tampa Bay and New York City, Israel votes on Tuesday, Oct. 27, Hasan Piker tapes live in Minneapolis on Monday, and canvasses are running from Ozone Park to Polk County. Here's what's coming up.
Three ways in on Saturday: the Anti-War Working Group's Coffee with Comrades, marathon poster making with a bagel breakfast, and a canvass for David in Ozone Park.
RSVP →The Tampa Bay Thinkers meetup takes on the question of the season: what actually happens on Nov. 3?
Meetup details →Early voting is under way across Hillsborough County: 27 sites, open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day through Sunday, Nov. 1. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, also 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In New York City, early voting runs Oct. 24 – Nov. 1.
Where, when & how to vote →Every Saturday through Election Day, Transit Now Tampa Bay is knocking doors for pro-transit candidates across the region.
Join a canvass →A labor canvass for Victor Sims, the Polk Public School Millage Referendum, and David Jolly for Governor.
Take action →The Metro DC DSA chapter's general body meeting — nine days out from Election Day.
Chapter update →Hasan Piker tapes live with Rep. Ilhan Omar and state Sen. Omar Fateh, just over a week before the midterms.
The story →Mamdani and NY Road Runners are giving away 350 finish-line tickets for the Nov. 1 marathon — enter the drawing before Monday night's deadline.
Enter the drawing →Israelis vote in a general election held under the shadow of a days-long military operation in the occupied West Bank — closures and demolitions the UN human rights office and B'Tselem have criticized as collective punishment.
The story →The whole fight comes down to this: control of the House and Senate, governorships, legislatures and ballot measures. After the polls close, The Find Out Podcast takes its Election Night show live in NYC — tickets at wearefindout.com/tour, streaming free on YouTube.
Check your polling place →Florida voters decide the governorship — Byron Donalds vs. David Jolly — and a U.S. Senate special election: appointed Sen. Ashley Moody vs. state Rep. Angie Nixon, a Socialist Slate candidate. Amendments 1–3 are also on the ballot.
Tampa Bay voter guide →Election review and "now what" action planning — win or lose, the organizing continues.
RSVP →Event note: details are as announced by the organizers linked above as of Saturday, Oct. 24. Events can move — check the details page the morning you go.
What HardLeft stands for — and how much of America is already there.
Ten planks, stated plainly. Under each one is the most recent national polling we can put a name and a date to — because the positions on this page keep getting called “radical” while quietly polling like the majority. This isn’t the fringe. It’s the program.
Shut down the agency built for raids, cages and deportation quotas — and replace it with a humane immigration system that treats people as neighbors, not targets.
End mass incarceration: shrink the prison population, kill mandatory minimums, and put the savings into drug treatment, mental health care and second chances.
Healthcare is a human right, not a job perk. One public plan that covers everyone — no premiums, no deductibles, no medical bankruptcies.
A home is a human need, not an asset class. Build housing at scale, cap the rent hikes, house the unhoused — and treat shelter as infrastructure, not speculation.
No one working full-time should live in poverty. Raise the wage floor until it covers rent, food and a life — then index it, so it never quietly rots back to $7.25 again.
Every worker deserves a union, a safe workplace and a real say on the job. Organizing should be a right protected in law — not a firing offense dressed up as policy.
Bodily autonomy is non-negotiable. Abortion care is healthcare — legal in every state, decided by patients and doctors, never by politicians and prosecutors.
End prohibition nationwide: legal cannabis, expunged records, and an end to the drug war’s easiest excuse for a stop, a search and a ruined life.
Overturn Citizens United, ban dark money and publicly finance elections — so a representative answers to the voters back home, not to the donor class.
Self-determination is not a bargaining chip. The United States should recognize an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza — and stop bankrolling the alternative.
Methodology note: each figure is the pollster’s own topline for the question shown, linked at the source. Polls ask different questions in different words — that’s the point of printing them. When a fresher number exists, this page gets updated, not the plank.
Every outlet on the HardLeft wire — go straight to the source.
The wire. Straight global and U.S. news against which everything else gets checked.
reuters.com →Mehdi Hasan’s media company — fearless interviews, the First Draft newsletter and the “Four Horsemen” investigations.
The AIPAC documentary →Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti’s anti-establishment daily show — populist left and right against the powerful.
Latest episode →Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland, live weekdays at noon ET — long-form interviews and the Fun Half.
Latest episode →Kyle Kulinski’s Kyle Kulinski Show — fiery progressive commentary from a Justice Democrats co-founder.
Latest episode →Hasan Piker’s daily Twitch streams — the biggest leftist broadcast on the internet, now a midterm-season lightning rod.
Latest stream archive →Zac and Gavin — the next generation of left commentary, forever refereeing the movement’s internal fights.
Latest video →Ryan Grim and Jeremy Scahill’s investigative outlet — foreign policy and power, reported hard, with a daily world brief that leads on Gaza and the West Bank.
Latest investigation →Mike Figueredo’s long-running progressive show — fact-based commentary through a humanist lens, on YouTube @thehumanistreport and wherever podcasts stream.
humanistreport.com →The Democratic Socialists of America — the largest socialist organization in the U.S., and the engine behind a growing slate of candidates.
The DSA in the news →Jon Stewart on Mondays, the News Team all week — satire that has made Gaza, the Iran war and the AI oligarchs recurring subjects, with long interviews you won't get on cable news.
Latest segment →America's finest satirical news source — on Gaza, on the Pentagon, on everything power would rather you laugh past. Its headlines keep turning out to be previews.
Latest satire →Amy Goodman and Juan González's independent daily — war and peace reporting that centers Palestinian, Israeli peace and frontline voices alike.
Oct. 21 broadcast →News and analysis on Palestine and Israel from a progressive Jewish perspective — ground reporting, media criticism and the opinion shift on Gaza, documented.
Latest from Mondoweiss →