(RNS) — 'I think it was pretty much an economic election, inflation election, a dissatisfaction with Trump election,' said political scientist Ryan Burge.
Harrison last appeared here in September 2026 when he forced the University of Texas to delete a web link to its LGBTQ history archive as a violation of new state anti-diversity laws.
In 2025, he got a professor fired after Christian student complained that she had mentioned LGBTQ rights during class.
In June 2026, Harrison unleashed a furious tweetstorm after the Texas city of Arlington posted about Pride Month.
Harrison appeared here in March 2025 when he went “undercover” at a University of Texas LGBTQ arts exhibit and posted dozens of outraged photos on his X account.
He first appeared here in 2022 when he introduced a bill making it legal to use the HOV lane while pregnant because “unborn babies” constitute the required additional person.
Harrison coordinated the HHS response to COVID during the first Trump administration. After being elected to the Texas legislature, he advocated against mask and vaccine mandates.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) confirmed that he’s running for minority leader.Thune, 65, has served as majority leader for nearly two years since winning a competitive race to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky).
Far from Washington, Democrats forge huge state-level gains“We do have a big list, and we are going to be ambitious,” said one lawmaker in Wisconsin, where the party now controls the government.
BREAKING: Democrats seized control of the Texas House in Tuesday’s midterms for the first time in more than two decades, capping a night in which voters ousted Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and left Republicans reeling in a state that has long anchored national GOP politics.
Moss appeared here in March 2023 when the Michigan Senate approved his bill providing statewide LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed his bill into law several days later.
#BREAKING: Democrat Jeremy Moss wins to become Michigan's first gay congressman
Breaking News: Sam Forstag, a former union leader and smoke jumper, won western Montana’s House race, flipping the seat and becoming the first Democrat elected to the House in the state in more than 30 years. nyti.ms/4AeMJbo
‘It Is Never Enough’: Susan Collins Couldn’t Outrun Trump http://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/04/u…Sorry, Susan. You only voted against Trump when your vote wasn’t decisive. Brett Kavanaugh belies your claim.
"The American people don't want us to get even; they want us to get things done on their behalf."House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is now poised to become the next House Speaker, says that Democrats will focus on affordability concerns and not retribution after their midterm wins.
Mayor Mamdani challenges MSG owner over facial recognition, pushing for a ban on biometric surveillance. #Privacy #FacialRecognition #Surveillance #BiometricData #NYC #SecurityNews thedailytechfeed.com/nyc-mayor-sl…
According to researchers, the hacking only worked if phone owners were using outdated versions of iOS or Android.
The attackers exploited previously patched iOS and Android flaws in an attempt to hack visitors of multiple websites, including one celebrating the 250th anniversary of American independence: arstechnica.visitlink.me/70HOOP
NYT: "Senator Marsha Blackburn, the governor-elect of Tennessee, declined to say on Wednesday whom she will name to fill her vacant seat in the Senate, calling it a conversation for another day. … One possibility is Pete Hegseth, the current Pentagon chief who is a Tennessee resident."
“The New York Civil Liberties Union brought the lawsuit in 2024 on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels, a women’s roller derby league that welcomes transgender women.”
NY appeals court strikes down Nassau County's ban on transgender athletes gothamist.com/news/ny-appe…
Courts have repeatedly ruled that aiming a middle finger at authorities is constitutionally protected free speech, but the right to bear finger guns is legally murkier.
These religious people feel that stopping them or their kids from bullying and harassing including hurting LGBTQIA+ kids is denying them their Christian rights. How very Christian of them. Not really what Jesus taught is it? What is with the right demanding to be able to attack even violently kids and adults that don’t agree with them, that don’t live as they do? What happened to live and let live? What drives these people to demand everyone live by their views of what should be, to live by their church doctrines, to live a straight cis life no matter how the person effective feels or is not a member of their church? Why is hate and forcing people to live according to the religious persons rules their go to moves instead of compasion and trying to be understanding? Remember how Jesus dealt with the woman accused of being a prostitute who did not live according to the sexual demands of the doctrines of those in charge? He did not shame or condemn her and stopped those accusing her from harassing or hurting her. A Christian in my opinion should live by the ideals of Jesus the Christ rather than the bigotry of the rest of the bible. Hugs
An anti-LGBTQ+ Christian Nationalist hate group representing a Christian father filed a lawsuit on September 8 against a Washington state school district for allegedly denying the father’s request to opt his elementary school-aged son out of lessons on LGBTQ+ issues. The school said the lesson the father’s upset about was actually a lesson against bullying.
Konstantin Averkiev, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), alleges that the Lake Washington School District didn’t notify him when his son was taught lessons on sexuality and gender in his fourth- and fifth-grade classes, even though Averkiev reportedly asked his son’s teacher to notify him about any such lessons. The father said that the lessons go against his sincerely held religious beliefs.
“The year went on and dad got no notice of anything until his son came home in June and was talking about a lesson on gender change surgeries,” ADF attorney Kate Anderson said, according to Nisqually Valley News.
Anderson said that Averkiev spoke with his son’s teacher, who said that the father should’ve been notified about the classes. However, school officials allegedly told Averkiev that he couldn’t opt his son out of any LGBTQ+-related lessons, except for state-mandated sex education classes.
The ADF’s lawsuit alleges that the district violated Averkiev’s First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process.
In a statement, Shannon Parthemer, executive director of communications for the school district, said that the lessons the father objected to “focused on empathy, inclusion, bullying prevention, and school belonging.”
“Students examined school-climate data, considered the effects of biased remarks and bullying, and reflected on actions that can help all students, including LGBTQ+ students, feel safer and more connected at school,” Parthemer’s statement said.
“Lake Washington School District affirms the rights of parents and students. We support parents’ authority under Washington state law to opt their children out of sexual health curriculum and surveys, and we remain committed to ensuring that every student can learn in a safe and welcoming environment,” her statement concluded.
The statement didn’t mention the lawsuit’s details or its connection to the Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which said schools must allow religious parents to opt their students out of classes containing LGBTQ+ content.
ADF, which has been certified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has successfully represented numerous anti-LGBTQ+ cases at the Supreme Court, with the court’s conservative majority consistently voting in its favor.
ADF’s recent religious rights victories at the Court include the following:
Mahmoud v. Taylor, a 2025 decision that ruled that schools must allow religious parents to opt their students out of classes containing LGBTQ+ content.
303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, a 2023 decision that ruled that Colorado can’t enforce its anti-discrimination law against a Christian web designer.
Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a 2022 decision that ruled that the school district violated a football coach’s First Amendment rights by preventing him from praying on the field after games.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a 2022 decision that ruled that pregnant individuals have no constitutional right to receive an abortion. The ruling has endangered the lives of pregnant people seeking reproductive healthcare.
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a 2018 decision that Colorado’s commission didn’t act with the required religious neutrality when evaluating a baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a 2014 decision that religious corporations don’t have to follow a federal law requiring them to provide contraception coverage to employees.
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We need to add our voices to stop this assault on trans people. Notice it starts with trans kids being denied care and then moves to banning funding for poor or disabled adults. This is about hate, disgust, and bigotry driven by religion or misinformation. Notice that the article adds the information that no sexual reasignment surgery is done on minors something this group pushes as they know the “we must protect the children” is an easy sell. Everyone wants to protect children including the parents of transitioning kids who will have extreme stress and emotional disrest that could lead to suicide or self-harm. Trans minors get to socailly transition until puberty and then they are put on puberty blockers so they do not suffer from going through the wrong puberty for how they feel inside. Puberty blockers once stopped if not replaced with HRT the young person simply goes back through puberty of the sex assigned at birth. Socail transitioning means a name they choose to be called hair cuts that they prefer, and clothing they wish to wear all the genders they feel they are. These people don’t care about the individual kids, they care about the cause. They want trans people not to exist and they really don’t want those that pass because of puberty blockers to exist. That is the point they are driving to. It all comes down to forcing people to live their lives by our church doctrines or by our rules rather than live and let others live their lives. It is about enforcing a hedgomony of everyone being the same as cis straight people, which leads to everyone being one race is superior. We have to do everything possible to defend our trans folk because the corporate democrats got scared by the right into thinking that if they stop fighting for the rights of the vulnerable they will be accepted by the right. Sadly what happens when the rights of one group are abandoned the haters come for the next vulnerable of the group. The hater Christian right is already pushing for the over turning same-sex marriage as they feel they are winning on the wipe the trans out of existence. Hugs
A sign directs Election Day voters to the ballot drop box and polling center at the La Familia Recreation Center in Denver Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)
Two ballot measures that would restrict rights for transgender children in the state will appear on the Colorado ballot in 2026.
Protect Kids Colorado, a coalition led by prominent anti-LGBTQ+ activist Erin Lee, submitted signatures in February for ballot measures that would prevent transgender children from participating in school sports and receiving gender-affirming surgeries. Lee led several anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives that the Colorado Title Board rejected ahead of the 2024 election.
There isn’t clear data on the number of transgender student athletes in Colorado, and the two major hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors in the state do not offer surgeries to minors.
“Across Colorado, citizens are stepping forward because they believe the legislature has failed to protect children and families,” Lee said in a statement. “When elected officials refuse to act, the people of Colorado are using their constitutional right to bring these issues directly to the ballot.”
LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations in Colorado oppose both measures.
“Coloradans have always valued individual freedom and the rights of families to make private decisions without political interference, but these measures would go against those core values,” Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, said in a statement. “One could expose students to invasive inspections just to play sports, while the other would place politicians between families and their doctors in deeply personal health care decisions. That kind of government overreach puts privacy and dignity at risk and doesn’t align with our Colorado values.”
Ballot Initiative 110 would prohibit health care professionals from knowingly performing any surgery on a minor “for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics.” The measure would also prohibit state and federal funding including Medicaid from being used to pay for gender-affirming procedures.
Children’s Hospital Colorado and Denver Health have paused gender-affirming care for youth amid the Trump administration’s threats to pull Medicaid and Medicare funding entirely.
Ballot Initiative 109 would add language in state statute to define boys and girls based on physical anatomy, excluding transgender people.
Sports teams sponsored by schools or athletic associations would be required to expressly designate those teams for men, women or co-ed. Schools and their athletic departments would be required to adopt policies implementing the requirements of the initiative.
The measure would not affect any student’s ability to participate in co-ed sports.
The state’s commissioner of education would be tasked with enforcing the measure, and would have discretion to determine how to “take appropriate remedial action” against any school not in compliance with its requirements.
The Colorado secretary of state’s office verified that Initiative 109 had enough petition signatures Monday and that Initiative 110 had enough petition signatures Tuesday.
Bruce Parker, executive director of Rocky Mountain Equality, said Coloradans “don’t need outside interests to tell them how to raise their families.”
“In the coming months we are going to hear intentional lies from anti-trans extremists about this ballot measure,” Parker said in a statement. “They aren’t being honest about their agenda to erode privacy and access to credible medical care they don’t agree with. Their next targets are care for trans adults and abortion services if we let them get away with this.”
Protect Kids Colorado is also backing a ballot measure to increase penalties for child human trafficking in Colorado. The election will occur on Nov. 3.
Lindsey Toomer
Lindsey Toomer covers politics, social justice and other stories for Newsline. She formerly reported on city government at the Denver Gazette and on Colorado mountain town government, education and environment at the Summit Daily News.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
John Oliver discusses why trans athletes seem to be at the center of U.S. politics right now, the nuances around competition and safety, where the conversation could be headed, and what The Rock would do in a barre class.
