Hello, readers. Welcome back to On Politics. Zach Schermele here, USA TODAY's congressional correspondent. It's Tuesday, and new warning signs have emerged about mail-in balloting in the midterms. More on that later.
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Two Democrats buck their party |
A pretty unusual thing happened this afternoon, the second day of the House of Representatives' return from August recess. Republican leadership was, once again, fretting over whether frustrations among some hardline conservatives would effectively freeze the legislative agenda. Due to the razor-thin majority in the chamber, that scenario has become increasingly common, leading to lots of public logistical embarrassment for the House GOP.
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But today, two Democrats threw their colleagues across the aisle a legislative lifeline. Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington voted with Republicans on a procedural measure that allowed the chamber to proceed with the day's business, including a resolution to condemn "socialism in all its forms" – a measure that could divide Democrats. It was a pretty striking turn of events, given that the party has mostly been perfectly content, until now, to watch Republicans flounder in these situations.
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Congressman, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Moral Courage Award recipient Jared Golden speaks on stage during Headstrong Washington DC Gala at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Nov. 3, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Paul Morigi, Getty Images for Headstrong
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As for why the pair may have split with their party... Fish and lobster seemed to be the reason. The duo's move paved the way for an immediate vote on a bill to protect lobstermen from new federal whale-protection regulations. Golden, standing with Republicans instead of Democrats, didn't waste any time expressing support for the legislation on the House floor. The soon-to-depart congressman also serves alongside Gluesenkamp Perez, a political maverick in her own right whose district is on an ocean coast too, in the Blue Dog Coalition: a group of fiscally conservative, moderate Democrats. "What the DC bubble doesn't get is that working waterfronts require working people," she said in a statement.
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Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) walks on the day of a vote on March 5, 2026.
Nathan Howard, REUTERS
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Shutdown averted before midterms |
Despite some opposition from a handful of progressives and hardline conservatives, the House passed a three-month government funding extension today , sending it to President Trump's desk and successfully quashing the likelihood of a politically risky shutdown ahead of Election Day. By greenlighting the legislation, Congress checked off what most members agreed was its most important to-do list item before voters head to the polls in November , keeping widely relied-upon government services steady through Dec. 11. The Senate already passed the bill, which also includes a bipartisan measure to temporarily prevent the Trump administration from giving political appointees more power over grants, in August.
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Whistleblower on Trump mail ballot plan: 'catastrophic' |
A whistleblower is warning that the technology the U.S. Postal Service developed to carry out President Trump’s order to exert federal control of mailed ballots could "derail the midterm elections," as my colleague Zac Anderson reports. According to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, the whistleblower, a federal official with direct knowledge of the plan, described a "secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process."
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Reach me by email at zschermele@usatoday.com.
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With their most important piece of business done ahead of the midterms, some lawmakers are already eager to get back on the campaign trail again.
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Rep. Seth Moulton is among a crop of younger Democrats who've sought to topple the old guard, but Sen. Ed Markey has leaned into his progressive record
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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin cast the immigration sweep as a rebuke to New York leaders and vowed federal arrests would continue.
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