Kevin Robillard 🇺🇸

HuffPost is hiring two politics reporters, reporting to yours truly. One to cover the midterms and the 2028 presidential race: job-boards.greenhouse.io/buzzfeed/jobs/… One to cover conservatives: job-boards.greenhouse.io/buzzfeed/jobs/… Details in the job listings.

See @jmart column for more on this politico.com/news/magazine/…

Democrats have had a Black voter turnout (and persuasion) problem for several cycles now and Republicans seem determined to solve it for them

Reed Hastings says he is supporting Gavin Newsom for POTUS in 2028.

New mailer from this pop-up PAC, which is trying to get a conspiracy theorist over the line in the Dem primary (to help the GOP win the seat). "When Maureen is in Congress, Donald Trump will be arrested."

There is, of course, no hard evidence yet the group is AIPAC-backed. But I don’t think either the McMorrow or El-Sayed campaigns are going to wait for an FEC report to start attacking.

Freshly-formed super PAC laying down more than $3M in ad buys in support of Haley Stevens in Michigan, per ad-buying source. Widely assumed to be AIPAC-backed. If true, will be the biggest test of the group’s influence on Democratic politics this cycle. @ryangrim had it first.

Pop-up super PAC with GOP tie now spending for the opponent of the DCCC-backed candidate in the #TX35 runoff:

New: The apparent GOP meddling campaign in Nebraska's 2nd District is prompting some head-scratching among Democrats. Rs seems to want to run against the moderate candidate who would NOT give them an outside shot at eliminating Omaha's electoral vote. huffpost.com/entry/republic…

Obama's "You didn't build that" was treated by Republicans in 2012 like a major gaffe. I have a memory of giant signs at the RNC in Tampa that year that said, "WE BUILT IT" (which were sort of ominous if you didn't know the context tbh—what did they build?) But when I talked to Romney years later, he said it was a mistake to frame his campaign message around "job creators." As he noted, most voters are not bosses themselves—most voters don't particularly like their bosses. Whatever you think of its merits, a rousing defense of America's business-builders is not how you win national elections. Trump got this in 2016, and pitches his message to workers. (His actual governing record is a separate question...)

I think the key point here is that this is only the "finish" for 2026 -- Dems have a LOT of upside for 2028, and whats Rs are doing now makes it a lot more likely that some states (MN, CO) that would have been squishy about acting are going to move.

Brutal last 10 days for Dems in redistricting: - Callais decision significantly weakens VRA, opening the door for more redraws - TN Republicans pass 9-0 congressional map - LA on track to eliminate at least 1 Dem seat - VA Supreme Court overturns Dems' 10-1 map

🚨🚨🚨 Supreme Court of VIRGINIA strikes down Dems' new congressional map They ruled "the legislative process employed" to advance referendum was unconstitutional and "incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy" punchbowl.news/1260127/

SCOOP: Campaign staff are gaming prediction markets using internal data to make timely bets on their candidates — winning “thousands.” One staffer told me it would have been “foolish” not to bet. Another staffer called it the “Wild West” npr.org/2026/05/07/nx-…

This map cracks Maury County, home of Columbia, Tenn. Mayor Chaz Molder (D), who is putting up a strong challenge to Rep Andy Ogles (R) in #TN05 It looks like Columbia is now in the new #TN09 ?

Today is my first day at @HuffPost as a Senior Reporter for breaking news, covering U.S. news, politics, SCOTUS + more.💥 Tips, story ideas, press lists, saying hi? 📧 : brianna.tucker@huffpost.com. Text (same number), DM, or reach out via Signal at briannatucker.10

🎉🎉 Pulitzer winner @ByronTau !!!!!!!!

The basics are in the job descriptions, but I can answer questions via e-mail or DM.

Reminder: We are hiring for two politics reporting jobs at HuffPost, great gigs to cover the 2026 + 2028 elections with a lot of freedom. Senior Politics Reporter, Elections: buzzfeed.greenhouse.io/internal_job_b… Senior Politics Reporter, Conservatives: buzzfeed.greenhouse.io/internal_job_b…

Scoop: Josh Shapiro secretly helped a Republican state treasurer's 2024 reelection bid after the official's Democratic opponent had criticized Shapiro as a potential VP pick, a close Shapiro ally said last week. w/ @AlexThomp axios.com/2026/05/03/jos…

Trump implies that Nate Morris is going to leave the Kentucky Senate race. Elon Musk spent $10 million to help Morris, but it didn’t seem to get him much vote share.