The Republicans voters just threw out still have 58 days remaining with the keys—and we already know what they plan to do with the time they have left. They’re going to try to rush judges through, lock in rules, hand out favors, and bury everything they can before the new Congress takes power on January 3.
That’s why we’re launching our Lame Duck Watch—to fight this Republican Congress every step of the way until it’s out the door. We’ve been helping run the resistance for a decade now, and we need all hands on deck for what’s next.
So if you haven’t yet, join us as a paid subscriber today. You’ll get the inside scoop: exclusive reporting and interviews, along with a look behind the scenes at what we’re chasing before it breaks. Join us here:
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Let’s jump in.
Texas Just Handed Democrats The Keys
Texas hadn’t elected a Democrat statewide since 1994. On Election Day, Democrats won every statewide office that runs Texas day to day, from governor all the way down to railroad commissioner.
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa beat Gov. Greg Abbott by more than 700,000 votes, and she’ll be the first Latina governor in Texas history. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton for the Senate by more than 1.19 million votes. That’s after Elon Musk spent nearly half a billion dollars trying to save Republicans this cycle, more than $200 million of it in the Texas Senate race alone to prop up Paxton. State Rep. Vikki Goodwin beat Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who’s been running the Texas Senate like his own private club for more than a decade.
Trump allies went down with them. State Sen. Mayes Middleton called himself “MAGA Mayes,” and put more than $16 million of his own money into winning the attorney general primary. He went on to lose the general election to state Sen. Nathan Johnson by more than 630,000 votes. The GOP was completely blindsided—they never even considered they could lose this one.
Former Tarrant County GOP chair Bo French ran for railroad commissioner, the job that regulates Texas oil and gas. He sold himself as a MAGA Republican who would give Trump the backing he needs. He lost by more than 670,000 votes to state Rep. Jon Rosenthal—a Houston Democrat who spent decades as an oil field engineer.
Sarah Eckhardt is the first Democrat elected Texas comptroller since 1994. Democrats also won land commissioner, agriculture commissioner, and all four Texas Supreme Court seats on the ballot. It was a total blowout.
Republicans held 25 of Texas’s 38 seats in the US House. Trump pushed them to redraw the state’s districts so they could grab five more. It completely backfired. Come January, they’ll have one fewer—a total of 24.
The GOP thought Texas belonged to them—it never did. In January, the office Paxton turned into Trump’s personal law firm goes to a Democrat who says that if Trump breaks the law, “I will be suing him.” What happened in Texas wasn’t just a blue wave. It was a revolution that will reshape politics for years to come.
The Judge Who Caught ICE Lying
On July 26, a construction worker from Medford, Oregon, and his friend bought fishing supplies at Walmart. They were headed to Emigrant Lake for the day. An ICE officer, identified in court only as J.G., was running license plates in the parking lot. He was after the friend, who owned the car. His team followed them for nearly half an hour, cut them off at the lake, and had the construction worker in handcuffs in about a minute.
In his arrest report, J.G. claimed his team already knew who the construction worker was and had a warrant for him before they pulled the car over. But in court, under oath, J.G. admitted he didn’t even know the man existed when they stopped the car.
Attorneys for immigrants across Oregon sued to challenge warrantless arrests. I read federal Judge Mustafa Kasubhai’s 50-page ruling, which lays out how from February 5 to July 31, ICE arrested 574 people in Oregon. Over about the same stretch, it reported just 13 arrests made without a warrant. One report said a parent had no ties to the community, and the same report said that parent’s child serves in the Marines.
Kasubhai didn’t mince words about J.G.: “He lied in an official record to facilitate the impression he was conducting a lawful warrant-based arrest.”
ICE lied on paper and counted on nobody checking. Kasubhai did. “Defendants, through their own conduct, have lost trust,” he wrote. ICE now has to hand over the paperwork on every civil immigration arrest in Oregon, plus body camera footage from September on, to the attorneys who brought this case for immigrants across Oregon.
The Dentist Who Beat The Regime In Court
On October 23, Dr. William Lizardo went to his green card interview in Minnesota. His lawyer, David Whalen, was in the room. He says the interviewer stood up when it ended, left, and came back with two ICE agents. They arrested Lizardo and took him to the Sherburne County Jail.
Lizardo is a 32-year-old Canadian-born dentist, married to a US citizen he met while in dental school. Their daughter was born in April 2025.
In January of this year, Lizardo’s green card application was denied, and he appealed. In February, DHS mailed his court notice to a Virginia address the family hadn’t lived at in more than two years. He missed a hearing his family says they never knew about and was ordered to be deported.
Judge Michael J. Davis said the facts in the case were “appalling.” He found the agency had no probable cause to believe Lizardo was in the country illegally. The regime admitted that USCIS, the immigration agency, had botched it. It still wouldn’t let him go.
Davis wasn’t having it: “The hubris of admitting that USCIS made a big mistake, but not even offering any sort of relief is galling, although not surprising.” The judge gave ICE until 6 pm on November 1 to let him go. Around 9 that night Lizardo walked out a free man.
The regime wants you to believe it’s too big to fight. It just lost to a fearless dad and his lawyers. Remember that the next time they tell you it can’t be stopped.
Trump Pardoned Him. A Judge Locked Him Up.
This week, a man Trump pardoned appeared before a federal judge in Georgia. That judge ordered him held, so Cleveland Meredith Jr. went back behind bars.
Maybe you remember him? On Jan 6 he drove into DC with a pistol, a rifle, and about 2,500 rounds of ammunition. The next day, he texted a death threat against then-Speaker Pelosi to a relative. He pleaded guilty and got 28 months. On January 20, 2025, Trump pardoned him.
But like so many of these Jan 6ers, a pardon didn’t change him. In April, the FBI says, he threatened Jan 6 judges who tried insurrection cases. Agents already questioned him about threatening posts twice, once before and once after the pardon.
They finally charged him, and Trump’s own prosecutors asked the court to keep him locked up. The court agreed. A judge ordered him held. The man Trump pardoned was locked up again—where he belongs.
That’s what it looks like when people refuse to let Trump erase what he did. For the next 58 days, that’s our job. Republicans still run Congress, and they’ll try every trick in the book to abuse their power in the time they have left.
This is what our Lame Duck Watch is for. We’ll find every move, make it loud, and force them to back down. We’ve done this for years while they held the gavels—we can definitely do it for another 58 days with the wind at our backs.
For the last two years, they told us Trump’s Republicans couldn’t lose. On Tuesday, voters across the country proved them very wrong.
A win this big can make them scramble, so we will be on watch every single day. Paid subscribers keep the watch funded until the swearing-in, while supporting our investigations, reporting, and organizing. Join us as a paid subscriber here:
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Onward!
Scott
What do you want us watching most closely before January?
What should Texas’s new attorney general go after first?
The House could vote on impeaching Pete Hegseth as soon as next week, and Republicans are already saying it could pass. Let’s make sure every member hears from us before they vote. Each letter takes about 30 seconds and goes straight to your members of Congress.
Impeach Pete Hegseth: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-pete-hegseth/
Investigate the Trump family’s Pentagon deals: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-investigate-the-trump-familys-pentagon-deals/
Tell me below which ones you sent.
We didn’t come this far to let them use the next 58 days like nothing happened. Let’s go.