Ence Morse

We spent a year investigating billionaires for @washingtonpost. We found: the wealthiest 100 Americans gave $1.1 billion to influence the 2024 elections — 140x more than they did in 2000. And almost all of that giving boosted Republicans. washingtonpost.com/politics/inter…

if the polymarket situation room can generate one lede as good as this it will all have been worth it

It was a long, harsh winter in D.C. We can finally call it over. After a long and often harsh season — punctuated by persistent cold, stubborn snow and ice, and a late-season chill this week — the pattern ahead has shifted. Milder air is taking hold, and there are no meaningful signs of a return to sustained cold or accumulating snow. That means we can officially declare the winter of 2025-2026 behind us. We’ve made it a tradition to mark the onset of spring once the threat of prolonged cold and lasting snow has passed. The forecast now clearly favors warmer days, budding trees and a steady march toward spring — even if a few bumps remain along the way. The forecast ahead is promising for flowers — and for fans of warmer weather. Highs surge into the 60s on Friday and reach the 70s by Sunday. But a warning: Springlike weather doesn’t mean sustained warmth. Next week, for example, daily highs bounce between the low 50s and mid-60s — a reminder that spring is a season of swings. Still, there is little sign of any return to sustained wintry weather.

Lots of scoopy bits in my latest IG story w/ @FedGirlWaPo, incl a power shift at the IGs council, a deletion of info in an SSA IG report and memorial t-shirts for a censored report. Don't subscribe to @washingtonpost? You can still read this story for $2: washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/…

“Exclusive.” I reported this in December for @washingtonpost: washingtonpost.com/business/2025/…

Ever heard of a Weathergami? It’s a high/low temp combo that has never occurred before in a location's history. Yesterday, Fairbanks saw a high of 6°F and a low of -32°F. Out of 44,000+ days since 1904, this exact temperature pair has never happened until now! #akwx

Virginians for Fair Elections, a pro-redistricting group, has received a $5 million donation from Fund For Policy Reform Inc., a nonprofit affiliated with the Open Society Foundations (OSF) network founded by George Soros. #valeg

AIPAC had not publicly acknowledged its role in this race until after its conclusion.

The Senate is a millionaires club 💰 73% of senators have a median net worth of more than $1 million, compared to just 7% of the U.S. population! That's one of the many findings from Capitol Gains, a @NOTUSreports project all about wealth in Congress notus.org/capitol-gains/…

@grantjohnson_5 @dcexaminer Congrats Grant!!

Personal news! After wrapping up at the Washington Post at the end of last year, I'm now a copy editor at the @dcexaminer! Today was my first day, and I'm so excited to be back in D.C. doing what I love.

Lots of fur flying in Illinois right now (Jesse Jackson's beyond-the-grave non-endorsement!) but the big story has been super PACs transforming the battlefield. Wave of the future.

We mapped out where the money is coming from in D.C.'s mayoral race, including donors by ward, looking for patterns and clocking the budding independent expenditure groups trying to influence the race. w/ @jennygathright @SidhomLydia washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/…

Oh, we're halfway there! The cherry blossoms have reached Florets Extended, the 3rd of 6 stages. 🌸🌸🌸/🌸🌸🌸 Follow along online: nps.gov/cherry #Cherryblossom #BloomWatch #WashingtonDC

This is frightening, and unsurprising. The prediction markets are the logical end point of the sports betting explosion, turning everything—politics and culture, art and war—into a Las Vegas table game. When gamblers get desperate, bad things can happen. theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/…

Read this shocking account of how Polymarket gamblers tried to pressure, bribe and threaten Israeli journalist @manniefabian to change a detail in his story so they could win a bet. And then realise that this must be happening to reporters all the time. timesofisrael.com/gamblers-tryin…

Trump sold young voters on his vision. Many are having buyer’s remorse - on Iran, prices and the state of their lives. “I feel betrayed,” said Joshua Byers, a 26-year old who backed Trump in 2024. More here w/ @Cat_Zakrzewski: washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/…

Tom Steyer dumps another $8.5 million into his campaign for California governor, bringing his running total to $88 million or so and counting, with 81 days still to go before the June primary.

New: Texas Democrats more than doubled their turnout from 2024 during the primary elections on March 3 in the Rio Grande Valley, as the % of registered D voters who cast a ballot far exceeded that of recent elex. w/ this neat graphic via @ApurvaMahajan_ texastribune.org/2026/03/13/tex…

Today's @washingtonpost A1

Across 24 states, Meta, Google, and Microsoft are giving exponentially more to influence state-level elections this cycle than they have in the past. washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/…

Fun quirk of the super PAC era is the extremely low effort websites the PACs set up. This is the entire public face of Elect Chicago Women, the AIPAC cutout that’s all over the Illinois primaries.