Category: Politics

Democrats are at each other’s throats about Graham Platner after his latest scandal. They don’t know what to do about it.

The New York Times released a report Thursday with disturbing accounts from several of Platner’s ex-girlfriends, just days before he is set to win the Democratic nomination to face GOP Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, a critical Senate battleground. One woman described Platner grabbing her in ways that left marks and once locking her in a room. She also claimed he knew that his tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol when he got it — something he has repeatedly denied.

The report — on the heels of last week’s news that Platner had sexted other women while married — left Democrats torn. Some view Platner, whose campaign has persisted despite a series of scandals, as their only chance to take down Collins. He continuously led Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in primary polling before she suspended her campaign in April, and has led the Republican senator in public head-to-head polls.

“Several donors I know are still all-in for Platner because he’s not Susan Collins and he’s a Democrat,” said Alex Hoffman, a Democratic strategist and donor adviser. “The line that keeps being thrown around is the double standard that exists between Republicans and Democrats, where if this was a Republican, they’d all be getting behind him.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is scheduled to campaign with Platner on Friday, reiterated his support. And some Democrats online were quick to castthe ex-girlfriend of Platner who spoke on record to The Times, Lyndsey Fifield, as a partisan activist because she has worked in Republican politics.

Still, others warned that he’s a loose cannon and there’s no predicting what other information about his past will spill into public view. What has already come to light, they argued, might already be enough to sink his candidacy, not to mention undermine the party’s core values.

“Democrats in Maine and throughout the country have got to decide what is their priority: Justifying Graham Platner’s behavior or winning the Democratic seat in Maine,” said Robert Zimmerman, a New York-based Democratic National Committee member. “It’s very clear that Platner has not been able to credibly justify his conduct and Democrats who defend him sound like Republicans defending Donald Trump after the Access Hollywood tape.”

Winning Maine is all but a necessity for Democrats’ chances of taking back the Senate this fall. Collins is the only Republican senator up for reelection this year in a state former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024. If Democrats can’t knock her off, they’d have to win a far redder state, such as Iowa or Texas, to get control of the upper chamber.

Platner, on MSNOW on Thursday just hours after The Times published its story, denied the allegations of violence and said they were coming from someone who’s “politically motivated.” He said he has “not once” considered dropping out of the race.

“My journey is one of transformation. And I’m very happy to talk about that earlier part in my life. And I have no doubt that people will attempt to continue to revisit Reddit posts, continue to try to revisit parts of my past,” Platner said, referring to his previously unearthed offensive posts. “But I think what’s really important to note here is that these are things that I talk about in my past — things that I am not proud of — but it is a past that I had to go through to get where I am today.”

Platner said he did not have any communication Thursday with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee about exiting the race and making way for another candidate. And he said “I expect that we will not” because of the “outpouring of support” he has received.

However, some donors — even those who had previously opened their checkbooks for Platner — are starting to grow skittish.

“He’s now below the bar for my client group,” said one national donor adviser, who is telling their clients to send their money to other battleground Senate races instead.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had recruited Mills to run, was silent when asked several questions about the Platner revelations in the Capitol halls by reporters Thursday.

“There is dramatically higher concern about losing Maine now across the caucus than there was before the stories broke,” said one senior Democratic Senate aide who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “Everyone realizes that without Maine the path to taking back the Senate is impossible.”

The aide added: “Everyone is apoplectic.”

But there was also frustration among some Democratic donors and operatives Thursday that the party was again cannibalizing one of its own, further jeopardizing its chances in what was already an uphill battle against a longtime GOP incumbent.

A Democratic consultant close to many of the party’s biggest donors said the sentiment among them has been that they don’t care about Platner’s scandals. Citing a conversation with a major donor who sits on the finance committee of one of the Democratic Party’s main national campaign arms, the consultant said he does not think that sentiment will change after the Times story.

“We don’t care. I think that’s the case for many donors. Anybody who beats Susan Collins will do,” said the consultant. The consultant attributed the indifference to the fact that it’s the “Trump era,” when allegations of wrongdoing simply don’t weigh as heavily as they once used to.

Platner is set to rally in Bar Harbor, Maine, on Friday with Khanna, who has endorsed him, and alongside Maine 2nd District candidate Matt Dunlap and gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson. Representatives for all three said the event was still set to go.

“The behavior described in the New York Times story was wrong and toxic. Graham has acknowledged that and sought redemption,” Khanna said in a statement Thursday. “The people of Maine deserve a senator who is going to stand up to the billionaire class, against genocide, and for the working class.”

Platner is all but certain to win Maine’s Democratic primary on Tuesday over Mills and 2024 Democratic Senate candidate David Costello. After that, Maine law allows the state party to replace Platner with another Democrat if he stepped down before mid-July. Such a move would be unprecedented in the state’s politics.

The Times report follows revelations last weekend that Platner had exchanged sexual messages with women other than his wife after they were married — which had already reignited Democratic fears that he could tank hard in November.

Platner, a political newcomer, has been dogged by scandals since the fall, when his Reddit history revealed a series of offensive posts suggesting, among other things, that victims of sexual assault should take more responsibility and that white rural Americans are stupid. Platner apologized for the posts, saying he was in a dark place at the time, and owned up to having a tattoo that resembles a Nazi symbol, though he said he didn’t realize the meaning at the time he got it and later had it covered.

The Times report reignited the controversy over Platner’s tattoo: Fifield told the paper he had referred to it as “my Totenkopf” while they were dating and knew about its Nazi connection.

“This is the most important seat for the next Democratic president to have a trifecta to act and accomplish all the things that all the people in the Democratic Party believe in — health care, child care, climate,” said Brian Romick, president of Democratic Majority for Israel. “And now we’re in a position where someone with a Nazi tattoo, inappropriate relationships with women, and racist Reddit posts is our person. And people need to answer for that.”

Cheyenne Hunt, founder of Reckoning Action and former Executive Director of Gen Z For Change, who had organized against former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) over allegations of sexual assault, rescinded her endorsement of Platner on Thursday.

“We have the responsibility to do what is right even when it’s politically inconvenient,” she said in a video posted on social media. “Women cannot be an acceptable sacrifice for the next election.”

William Steakin, Andrew Howard, Shia Kapos, Chris Sommerfeldt and Calen Razor contributed to this report.

CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to clarify Cheyenne Hunt’s title and affiliation with Gen Z For Change.​Politics

Georgia Republicans want the president to endorse a candidate in their critical Senate primary. They’re hoping it doesn’t come too late.

Some GOP strategists and officials are worried President Donald Trump will wait until the 11th hour to back his preferred Republican contender. His last-minute endorsement worked out fine for Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was likely already ahead in Texas. Not so much for Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), who lost his bid for governor on Tuesday, four days after Trump backed him.

With early voting in Georgia’s Republican Senate runoff less than two weeks away, some Republicans are warning that the timeline for Trump to tilt the scale in the race is closing. Both Rep. Mike Collins, a loyal Trump ally, and former college football coach Derek Dooley amped up their jockeying for Trump’s support after last month’s initial primary.

“The window is starting to close,” said Casey Cagle, a former Georgia lieutenant governor who is supporting Collins in the Senate race. “Candidates have to spend time and resources to make sure people know about the endorsement.”

That ticking clock is only adding to the speculation of when the president might leave his mark on the race.

“I wouldn’t want Trump to get in at the last minute down here. What happened in Iowa could happen in Georgia next and continue to ruin the president’s win streak,” said one person connected to the Georgia Senate race who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak openly about the state of play of the runoff.

Republicans are eager for Trump to step in and help unify their party around either Collins or Dooley as they face an uphill battle to defeat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who they widely acknowledge is a formidable opponent. Ossoff, who has led by a relatively comfortable margin in public polls, has built a massive campaign war chest and avoided a messy primary of his own to coast into the general election. That makes the urgency for Republicans to consolidate behind a single candidate all the more pressing — and there is no better mechanism with which to clear a conservative field than a Trump endorsement.

But Trump still appears to be mulling his options, even as the candidates made overtures to the White House in the early days of the runoff. Collins himself spoke to several Trump allies, according to a person familiar with the conversation, and the Dooley campaign has continued its contact with the White House, according to two people familiar with his outreach efforts.

Trump is likely weighing his options, said one senior national Republican official, who suggested the endorsement is under “active consideration” by the president. Shortly after the May 19 primary, the president called one of his most faithful lieutenants in the state — Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who’s running for Georgia governor — to take the race’s temperature, according to one person familiar with the conversation.

The White House deferred to the RNC when asked for comment. The Republican National Committee said they are on offense in Georgia, bashing Ossoff and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms, when pressed on if Trump will make an endorsement ahead of the GOP runoff.

“Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms are running as a united ticket, fully embracing each other’s records of defunding the police, coddling criminals, rolling out the red carpet for illegals, and advancing the failed Biden-Harris agenda. Republicans are on offense to save Georgia from these radical lunatics and continue delivering on President Trump’s historic agenda,” said RNC spokeswoman Emma Hall.

Republicans in Georgia are eager for the president to get involved, but they don’t want a repeat of what happened to Feenstra, even as they acknowledge that the dynamics of the Georgia race are different from Iowa. The three-term representative was narrowly defeated by businessperson Zach Lahn in the GOP primary for Iowa governor after failing to capitalize on Trump’s late endorsement and consolidate MAGA support in what many local Republicans deemed a lackluster campaign.

A second Georgia-based Republican strategist said if Trump does endorse in the state, “I would think it would need to come before June 8,” to have a decisive impact. Statewide early voting for the June 16 runoff begins June 8.

Another Georgia-based GOP strategist, who is uninvolved in the race, cautioned that the president’s backing “is only good in a Republican primary if Republican primary voters are aware of the endorsement.”

Trump’s grip on Georgia’s GOP has tightened in recent years, and has already been put on full display this election cycle: He’s vanquished longstanding foes like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky and Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana. There is no doubt that the president’s endorsement will carry weight in Georgia, a perennial battleground.

Before Iowa, Trump was on a streak with endorsing winners, from Paxton, who beat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas Senate runoff last week, to Rep. Julia Letlow, who beat Cassidy in the Louisiana primary — a reality the president bragged about in a Truth Social post on Monday night, writing that his endorsement “score for two weeks” is “38-0.”

Collins, a loyal Trump ally on Capitol Hill, finished first in the state’s May primary by a ten-point margin. Public polling shows him in the lead, but Dooley has experienced a late burst of momentum. A recent pollfrom JMC Analytics and Polling had Collins at 50 percent and Dooley at 36 percent, with 15 percent of voters undecided.

“In Georgia, who President Trump endorses matters, even if it’s late,” said Clayton Henson, a senior adviser to Derek Dooley. “We are making our case and we are working to earn the trust of the President’s coalition.”

When asked for comment, Collins’ campaign pointed POLITICO toward a remark the representative made earlier this year: “The president has always had the impeccable ability to put his name on someone at the right time to get the most bang for his buck,” he told reporters in March.

Collins has tried to signal from the onset of his campaign that he is the natural inheritor of the MAGA mantle, and several MAGA-aligned groups — like the powerful Club for Growth super PAC and Turning Point Action, which usually aligns with Trump but split with him in Iowa — have already lined up behind him.

But shortly after the primary, Collins’ campaign faced backlash after his top aide Brandon Phillips, who is also at the center of a House Ethics complaint, posted a vulgar insult directed at a Dooley-aligned operative’s wife on social media.

Collins has since disavowed Phillips and hired a slate of top Trump campaign operatives, including pollster Tony Fabrizio and data strategist Tim Saler, in addition to Chip Englander as a general consultant.

Dooley, for his part, has leaned hard into his support from GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, a longtime family friend who has had a sometimes-frosty relationship with Trump afterdefeating him in the 2022 primaries. But Dooley has also attempted to woo Trump’s base, emphasizing the importance of expanding the Republican coalition to win statewide in a battleground like Georgia.

“It’s an honor to have Gov. Kemp’s endorsement. His leadership has been inspirational to me,” Dooley said during a one-on-one runoff debate with Collins at the end of May. “And of course I would be honored to have the president’s support. Everybody would love President Trump’s support. We’ve all been very supportive of his agenda.”

​Politics

FIRST UP: Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s commitment to back Rep. Adriano Espaillat was initially so ironclad they shook hands on it last summer. But Mamdani broke that promise last week when he endorsed Espaillat’s primary opponent, democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier — and the fallout is mounting. Rep. Nydia Velázquez, an early supporter of Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral run, said she’s not sure she can trust the mayor anymore after the Espaillat snub and won’t take just his word on anything going forward. “I will say I want it in writing,” Velázquez said.

Read more from POLITICO’s Chris Sommerfeldt and Madison Fernandez here.

MANNY ADDRESSES: Francesca Castellanos has run for state and city office in Upper Manhattan eight times, and lost every single time.

In her ninth bid for public office, she’s going to even greater lengths to oust her local assemblyman, Manny De Los Santos.

Castellanos has spent $8,000 of her own money on private investigators to surveil him at his wife’s Rockland County home and to stake out the Washington Heights apartment where De Los Santos says he lives, and she’s circulated thousands of flyers that question his residency and include a photo of his young child.

De Los Santos says Castellanos, a Spanish-language interpreter, is harassing him and his family. Castellanos says she’s applying well-intentioned scrutiny to a public official who, she claims, lives way outside the district he represents. And election law says the residency requirement for state legislative candidates actually isn’t that strict.

“I understand that public service comes with scrutiny. But this opponent has crossed a line,” De Los Santos said in a statement. “My opponent has spent thousands of dollars on private investigators to follow me and even my children.”

On Monday, Castellanos filed a complaint with Attorney General Letitia James alleging her opponent “moved out of Northern Manhattan, moved to the suburbs, cashed his taxpayer paycheck, and continues to hold a political seat he abandoned.”

“Mr. De Los Santos receives an annual salary of $142,000 as an Assemblymember. He has chosen suburban life for his own children, who attend well-funded Rockland County schools, while families in Northern Manhattan struggle with overcrowded classrooms and insufficient resources,” the complaint reads.

James’ office would not comment on the allegations but said they’ve received Castellanos’ letter.

Castellanos’ call for the state’s top prosecutor to investigate her opponent’s residency is the latest act from a perennial candidate and local politics junkie who has spent the last two decades trying to oust the army of elected officials allied with Rep. Adriano Espaillat. This time, her opponent says, she’s gone too far.

“That is not politics. It is wrong,” De Los Santos said. “I am an Assemblymember, but I am a father first. My children should not be dragged into a political campaign. This needs to stop.”

Castellanos’ complaint includes images from a grainy video recorded on April 12 by R.Q. Investigations outside a home owned by De Los Santos’ wife, Josenia Dominguez, who serves as the chief administrative officer for Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. The images show a man who appears to be De Los Santos entering a two-car garage home in the Hudson Valley. Other photographs from the following day show a man again identified as De Los Santos raking leaves at the property. A different private investigator hired by Castellanos stood watch inside the Washington Heights apartment building where De Los Santos says he lives on two April mornings. That private eye, Michael Cotto, said in a signed affidavit that he never spotted De Los Santos or anyone else enter or exit the unit.

“He’s a public figure, and he’s lying,” Castellanos claimed to Playbook, adding that her scrutiny of him is completely within bounds. “If he doesn’t want it, then he shouldn’t run for public office.”

She denied De Los Santos’ claim that she assigned an investigator to watch his children and said she only told the shamus to surveil the Assemblymember.

Dominguez told Playbook she and De Los Santos are separated and co-parent their children, and that De Los Santos has lived in his Manhattan apartment “literally his entire life — since he arrived from the Dominican Republic at the age of 12 years old.”

“I hope this clarifies whatever narrative that crazy woman wants to spread,” she said.

Castellanos’ complaint includes records showing that De Los Santos’ Washington Heights apartment was placed under receivership in 2024. She says building staff told her they weren’t aware of De Los Santos living there and pointed to a 2014 Daily News article describing allegations that his apartment was “warehousing” voters, with six different people registered to vote out of the unit, including two with the same name born a month apart.

“His relatives live there, but he does not live there,” she asserted.

In 2024, when Castellanos was mounting her second Assembly bid, she and an ally, Michael Hano, began gathering evidence to try to prove De Los Santos lived outside the city. Two years prior, Hano himself had launched a quixotic primary challenge against Espaillat.

According to Hano and Castellanos, the pair noticed that scholastic athletic records indicated at least one of De Los Santos’ children was enrolled in Rockland County public schools and that property records showed his wife owning a home in Clarkstown.

So Hano said he and Castellanos drove there in May 2024 and saw Dominguez and the couple’s kids from afar. A week or two later, Hano claims he “swung by” the house again around 11 p.m. because it was on the way home from a karaoke night he attended in Haverstraw.

“I just drove past to see for instance if a car was in the driveway, you know, and as I’m driving past, there he is in the window,” Hano said. “It’s not like I was sitting there, scoping the place out. In fact I had a friend with me, I was coming home from karaoke that night. These people, when they take public office, they’re giving up a little bit of privacy.”

That year, Castellanos says she mailed about 4,000 Spanish-language flyers telling residents De Los Santos “resides in the suburbs.” The flyer included a photo of one of De Los Santos’ children, which she pulled from his Instagram account, and the address of his wife’s Rockland County home. (Hano says he told Castellanos at the time he thought this was wrong, and stopped talking to her after this happened, though the two have resumed communication.)

By the time 2026 rolled around, Castellanos was again running for the De Los Santos seat after losing a City Council race to Carmen De La Rosa last year. In April, she sued to knock De Los Santos off the ballot on the grounds that he doesn’t live in the district, but she says the case was tossed out on a technicality when the judge asserted Castellanos didn’t serve her opponent before the deadline. De Los Santos, for his part, also sued unsuccessfully to knock Castellanos off the ballot, but Castellanos represented herself and won.

She’s also printing more flyers about his residency — this time up to 10,000. Last month, she says a city health inspector came to her door because someone filed a complaint that a foul odor was coming from her apartment, where she lives with six cats. Without evidence, Castellanos suspects De Los Santos was behind it, so she says she’s sending flyers to neighbors of the Rockland County home. De Los Santos says he has no idea what she’s talking about.

The state constitution says any state legislative candidate must reside in their district in the 12 months before their election. But a 2016 Court of Appeals decision reaffirmed previous rulings that a candidate can legally claim residence anywhere they have “legitimate, significant and continuing attachments,” as long as there’s no fraud, deception or “reason to assume that a residence has been asserted merely for the purposes of voting.”

De Los Santos said his Assembly district “has been my home for decades” and “remains my home today.”

“I am a proud resident of District 72,” he said. “I continue to live in and represent the community that raised me and that I have spent my life serving.”

From the Capitol

GO NEW YORK: The Uber-funded group that spent heavily on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push to overhaul car insurance regulations is unveiling a final TV ad today with a Knicks theme.

The ad features delirious Knicks fans celebrating the team’s success while the “Hallelujah” chorus plays.

“Every once in a while New Yorkers stand united, celebrating as one, overcome with joy and reveling in an unexpected and remarkable achievement: Yeah, Governor Hochul’s lowered New York’s sky-high car insurance,” the ad’s narrator says.

That claim is an exaggeration: The governor herself has said New Yorkers won’t see a difference in car insurance premiums immediately.

Just in time for the NBA Finals, the basketball-themed spot will bring the advertising blitz full circle after it launched with a Buffalo Bills-centric ad at the start of the year. — Nick Reisman

HELPING NONTRADITIONAL STUDENTS: The State University of New York is launching two new initiatives aimed at boosting supports for adult learners and students with kids.

The university system intends to work with community colleges to increase the number of in-person courses offered on evenings and weekends. And the final state budget included $12 million in additional operating dollars for community colleges.

SUNY is also establishing a grant program to help campuses better support student parents, including the addition of child-friendly lounges and study areas.

“Because one in five college students across the country are parents, we’re boosting support for student-parents,” SUNY Chancellor John King said during his annual “State of the University” address in Albany today.

The state has also been taking steps to help college students with kids.

Earlier this year, Hochul moved to extend child care hours on community college campuses to align with the schedules of students enrolled in high-demand programs. SUNY has also used $10.4 million in state funding to open additional child care centers and increase the number of spots.

The state kicked off a program this school year that offers free tuition to older students seeking associate degrees in high-demand fields at SUNY and the City University of New York. — Madina Touré

FROM CITY HALL

HIGH HOPES: Mamdani offered a bold prediction this morning for the NBA Finals.

“Knicks in four — inshallah,” Mamdani said with a chuckle on Hot 97 radio.

For their first finals since 1999, the Knicks are playing the San Antonio Spurs tonight in Texas. The Knicks have been on a red-hot run in this year’s playoffs, winning 11 straight games, but it’d no doubt be a steep feat for the hometown team to sweep the Spurs as the mayor prophesies.

Mamdani’s office wouldn’t immediately say if the mayor will attend any of the games the Knicks are playing at Madison Square Garden (the first home game is Monday night).

“I’m going to be at a lot of different watch parties tonight — I can’t wait,” Mamdani told Playbook at City Hall this morning when asked if he planned on attending the watch party hosted inside MSG tonight for Game 1.

Mamdani spokesperson Sam Raskin declined to immediately provide more details on where the mayor will be. Raskin did tout that the mayor’s office played a role in securing a permit for a separate watch party to be held outside the Garden tonight. (The NYPD previously suggested no more such bashes would be permitted after one turned especially chaotic during the Eastern Conference Finals last month.)

“As a Knicks fan and a New Yorker, the mayor feels the energy and excitement this team has brought to the city,” Raskin said. “This is a special moment for all five boroughs, and we’re thrilled these celebrations are moving forward. Let’s go Knicks.”

Politics have already loomed heavy over the finals. On Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted an AI-generated image on X of himself dunking over a Knicks jersey-clad Hochul, as President Donald Trump can be seen sitting courtside laughing.

Speaking of Trump: The president, who’s widely reviled in his native New York, said last week he will likely attend one of the Knicks’ home games at the Garden after being invited by team owner James Dolan. — Chris Sommerfeldt 

IN OTHER NEWS

— LONE STAR BACKING: A pro-Palestinian Texas businessman has poured major funding into American Prioirties, an anti-Israel super PAC that’s backing Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez’s congressional campaigns. (New York Post)

— SOUND THE ALARMS: Major fires have more than doubled in the Bronx and are being linked to deteriorating electrical infrastructure in older buildings. (Gothamist)

— ALL ABOARD: Mamdani has tapped former Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and former budget chief Melanie Hartzog to represent New York City on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. (New York Daily News)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

​Politics

For Iowa Democrats, a decade-long drought may finally be coming to an end.

The economic turmoil of the past year-and-a-half has been felt acutely in Iowa, where the agriculture-heavy economy has been jolted by tariffs. Medicaid cuts in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act are ransacking rural health facilities, Democrats say, and several clinics in the state have closed. And the Iran war has spiked prices for fertilizer and diesel — critical supplies for the farm state.

That’s all creating a dynamic that Democrats feel will propel voters their way in the midterms, giving them a shot at their first major statewide wins since the Obama era. And they’re confident that their candidates atop the ticket — a slate that was officially nominated in Tuesday’s primaries — will help carry Democrats in down ballot races.

“You go into these rural communities, the word that I hear the most is ‘betrayal,’” Josh Turek, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, told POLITICO in an interview late Tuesday night after winning his primary. “We’re leading the nation in farm foreclosures. Farm suicide rates skyrocketing. And so the Trump signs and Trump flags are coming down, because they say we’ve been betrayed.”

Even some Republicans are sounding the alarm.

“The reality is, if voters do not trust Republican elected officials and candidates with the future of the economy, they’re not going to vote for them this November,” said Drew Klein, an Iowa-based regional vice president of Americans for Prosperity. “That is what is going to decide the election in November.”

Democrats see economic issues providing an opening across rural America. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently commissioned polling they say shows economic dissatisfaction among rural voters, according to a memo shared first with POLITICO.

Both the Senate and governor’s seats are open in Iowa at the same time for the first time since 1968, and Democrats think they have a slate of nominees who could meet the moment.

“We’re excited about it, and this is probably the first time in a long, long time when I can say that,” said Patty Judge, a Democrat who served as Iowa agriculture secretary and was Democrats’ last lieutenant governor before her ticket lost in 2010.

Iowa Democrats and DCCC are seriously targeting three of the state’s four House seats as well — seats they swept in the last wave election, in 2018.

Turek, a Paralympic gold medalist, cruised to victory Tuesday in the primary for U.S. Senate, a victory for national Democrats who backed his campaign and will be eager to support him in November. He’ll run statewide with Rob Sand, the current state auditor and rising star within the party, who ran unopposed in the gubernatorial primary.

But winning in Iowa will still be difficult and require Democrats to overcome a party brand that has become toxic in most rural corners of the country. No Democrat in the state has been elected governor since 2006, to the U.S. Senate since 2008 and to the U.S House since 2020. The last time the state went blue at the presidential level was 2012.

Republicans admit the environment isn’t great — but argue that Democrats will still fall short given how far right the state has shifted in the Trump era.

“I think it’s a huge hill to climb for Dems,” said David Kochel, a longtime Republican strategist who has done extensive work in the state. “Yes, a lot of things are breaking towards them, but we’re talking about a state where Trump won by 13.”

“Democrats turned their backs on Iowa years ago, and their candidates prove they still haven’t learned a thing,” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Emily Tuttle. “Iowans want representatives who will fight for them, not lecture them or look down on them. That’s why Republicans are positioned to win across Iowa this November.”

Democrats’ optimism starts atop the ticket: Sand will take on Republican Zach Lahn, who won his primary with less than 40 percent of the vote over Trump-endorsed Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa).

Sand — an avid hunter who is the only statewide-elected Democratic official — has gained popularity in conservative Iowa for his independent, fiscally moderate streak. “They know him and trust him,” said Emma O’Brien, deputy campaign director for Sand. “He has bucked the Democratic Party and told them he disagrees where he has disagreed, and has given props to the other party when they do the right thing.”

Democrats are banking on Iowans being ready for a change after a decade of leadership from Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. According to data from Morning Consult, she’s been the country’s most unpopular governor for two years running; 49 percent of Iowans disapproved of Reynolds’ performance as of February 2026.

“She’s had control of the legislature that whole time, and it is just inarguable that people’s lives are not better,” said Sue Dvorsky, a former Iowa Democratic Party chair. “Our health care is worse, our water is worse, the schools are in trouble. Every dimension that I think a family or a community uses to measure its health is down.”

A spokesperson for Reynolds did not respond to a request for comment.

In the Senate race, Turek will face off against GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson, a race that early polls show in a statistical deadlock. Democrats have their sights on Republican Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the 1st District and Zach Nunn in the 3rd District — and even think Hinson’s open seat in the 2nd District could be in play.

“Instead of standing up for Iowans, [Republicans] have put themselves, special interests, and their party bosses first,” said DCCC spokesperson Katie Smith. “Iowa families are desperate for change and after years of broken promises and failures, are ready to reject these creatures of the swamp.”

The string of strong candidates atop the ballot will help carry candidates in state legislature and local races, Democrats say.

“It feels different,” Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic challenger to Nunn who was elected to the state Senate in 2022 and 2024, told POLITICO on Tuesday, before winning her primary. “I have been one of the only [Democrats] to win in those years, and that felt pretty lonely. But this feels really good.”

Iowa Democrats have seen recent flashes of hope. In 2025, Democrats won four of six special elections for the state legislature, breaking Republicans’ supermajority in the state Senate.

Democrats draw a straight line between the changes to Medicaid in last year’s reconciliation bill and rural health clinic closures. In Iowa’s 1st District, a medical center ended its labor and delivery services, citing issues with government funding; in the 3rd District, clinics closed explicitly because of “expected Medicaid cuts.”

Farmers — a traditionally Republican leaning coalition — voted heavily for Trump. “[Trump] is not very good for farmers, but farmers have been pretty good to him,” said Tom Miller, a Democrat who served for 40 years as Iowa’s attorney general.

But Iowa farmers have been heavily impacted by Trump’s tariffs and trade wars — not to mention the spike in fuel and fertilizer costs.

Last fall, some farmers told former state Rep. Christina Bohannan — the Democratic nominee in the 1st District, where she will face Miller-Meeks for the third consecutive cycle — that they waited to buy fertilizer until spring because of high costs caused by tariffs. “Then we went to war with Iran, and the fertilizer prices spiked even more,” Bohannan said. “So our farmers are really struggling.”

Aaron Heley Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union and a fifth-generation farmer, warned that rural voters should not be automatically counted on by any party. “People are feeling a lot of pain right now and not seeing a lot of action to match rhetoric,” Lehman said. “The degree of hurt that Iowa farmers are feeling is pretty wide.”

​Politics

Rep. Randy Feenstra lost the GOP primary for Iowa governor on Tuesday, a shocking upset after he earned President Donald Trump’s last-minute endorsement.

Feenstra, who was narrowly defeated by rival Zach Lahn, conceded and called to congratulate him before results were official.

The three-term representative outspent Lahn, a businessperson and former GOP operative, by nearly $1 million and leaned heavily into his MAGA credentials during the primary.

The loss is a blow for Trump, who has seen most of his chosen candidates this cycle sail to victory or advance to runoff elections — until now. He backed Feenstra just four days before the primary, a last-ditch attempt to bolster his loyal GOP ally in a race that became increasingly competitive in the final stretch. Feenstra had asked for Trump’s endorsement earlier this year and began calling himself a “Trump conservative” in ads even before receiving the president’s backing.

The race kicked off when Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds decided against running for reelection, with Feenstra, Lahn and three other candidates competing for the GOP nomination. Feenstra, who boasts a long record in the state and in Congress, was widely viewed as the front-runner, though the latest primary polling revealed he was on shaky standing.

Lahn has never held public office, but spent years working in Republican politics and running campaigns in Montana and Colorado. In this race, he positioned himself as a political outsider. “I’m my own biggest donor and I cannot be bought,” he said in one face-to-camera ad. “I’m running because career politicians, special interests and corporate giants have betrayed Iowans.”

Lahn is a native Iowan but spent many years out of the state, most recently opening a private school in Wichita, and reportedly voted in Kansas from 2018 through 2022.

Lahn will face off with Democrat Rob Sand in November in the marquee race, with Iowa Democrats eager to win the governor’s mansion for the first time since 2006. Sand, the Iowa state auditor, is the lone Iowa Democrat to hold statewide office.

Andrew Howard contributed to this report.

​Politics

Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek won his Senate primary Tuesday, a victory for national Democrats who helped boost him as they seek to flip the critical seat.

He will face Rep. Ashley Hinson, the GOP nominee, to compete in what has become one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races, as both parties battle for control of the upper chamber.

Turek, a wheelchair basketball player who was on teams that won two Paralympic gold medals, defeated state Sen. Zach Wahls in a chaotic primary election that turned into a proxy war between the Democratic Party’s leaders and its anti-establishment wing. Wahls frequently accused Turek of being beholden to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — who didn’t formally endorse in the race but whose leadership PAC maxed out to Turek’s campaign — and outside groups like VoteVets, which spent more than $10 million on advertising for Turek. That figure is more than three times the combined spending from Turek’s and Wahls’ campaigns.

In the end, that money — in cohort with Turek’s “prairie populism” pitch focused on building up the working class — helped him prevail.

Turek also boasted significant backing from Democrats in the state, including former Sen. Tom Harkin, the last Democrat to represent Iowa in the U.S. Senate. He enters the general election in a deadlock with Hinson, with preprimary polling showing the two in a statistical tie.

Democrats have not elected a senator to Washington since 2008, when Harkin was elected to his final term. But they view this cycle as a golden opportunity, thanks to a sagging economy and growing frustration with the Trump administration’s tariffs, which spiraled Iowa’s agriculture sector into chaos.

And Turek, who was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2022, has been through tough races before: In that first election, he defeated a Republican opponent by just six votes.

​Politics

THE EMPIRE STATE STRIKES BACK: New York Democrats are moving full bore ahead with their plans to join the nationwide redistricting war.

And their efforts are more expansive than their constitutional amendment to allow mid-decade changes to congressional maps: Democrats are also moving a measure that would permanently give the Legislature the authority to decide the wording of ballot questions like the expected 2027 redistricting referendum.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said today the decision to take such an aggressive approach — the amendment would eliminate a ban on lines drawn to favor political parties — was based on the Supreme Court decision, which made redistricting “more of a wide-open process.”

“For us here in New York, we want to be able to have as much flexibility in drawing districts as other states,” Heastie said. “Asking New York to play fair while everybody else is playing ruthless, it’s not right to ask us to do that.”

Does that mean the speaker will be “ruthless” when picking up the mapmaking pen in 2028?

“I’m going to play fair based on how other people play,” he said.

Before the Empire State gets to the point where new maps are drawn, voters would need to approve the amendment next November. And the parallel ballot language effort from Democrats stands to increase the chances of that happening.

That bill would strip the bipartisan Board of Elections of its power to decide how constitutional amendments appear on the ballot and let the Legislature determine the wording seen by voters.

The move raised the specter that next year’s referendum won’t highlight its potential to legalize gerrymandering, and instead include platitudes like asking voters if they want to “protect democracy.”

“Clearly, they’re doing this with a purpose,” said state Sen. Jack Martins, a Nassau County Republican. “The last thing we should do is play politics with our state constitution.”

As it now stands, the attorney general’s office makes recommendations on ballot wording to the two Democratic and two Republican commissioners on the Board of Elections. Those commissioners have the final say over what ballot questions look like.

“Having both sides is a strength,” said Peter Kosinski, the board’s Republican co-chair. “Making sure voters see fair language — not just partisan language on the ballot — should be our goal. And I think the Board of Elections achieves that.”

Democrats counter that they’re best suited for determining this language.

“The will of the Legislature is extrapolated from what the people want, as opposed to the evenly-divided Board of Elections,” Senate Deputy Leader Mike Gianaris said. “The voters of this state have elected Democrats to overwhelming majorities in both houses. Why should the Republican party have 50 percent of the say in what legislative proposals look like on the ballot?”

“We just think it’s better to be in our hands,” Heastie said. — Bill Mahoney

From the Capitol

NON-DISCLOSURE PUSH: The advocacy group Lift Our Voices is making a last-minute push for a bill that would place new restrictions on the use of non-disclosure agreements.

The group, co-founded by Gretchen Carlson and Julie Roginsky, is pushing to change “toxic workplace cultures.”

“New York should not be in the business of silencing workers,” Carlson and Roginsky said in a joint statement. “California, Washington, and New Jersey have already banned NDAs that keep survivors of workplace abuse from speaking out, and it’s time for New York to do the same.”

The bill, which would prohibit the use of nondisclosure agreements in workplace discrimination cases, is among the hundreds of proposals being considered in the final week of the legislative session. — Nick Reisman

REDISTRICTING RODEO: New York Democrats’ pending redistricting amendment — first reported Monday night by POLITICO — is getting a thumbs up from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

“This is just the beginning of our decisive response to the Jim Crow-like tactics unleashed by the Supreme Court when it gutted voting rights in America,” Jeffries said in a statement. “We will ensure that there are free and fair elections moving forward. The Empire State will strike back.”

The proposed changes would enable Democrats to take an aggressive approach redrawing New York’s House lines by 2028.

Jeffries has taken a keen interest in his home state’s efforts to change the redistricting process. He previously appointed Rochester Rep. Joe Morelle, a Democrat who previously served in the state Assembly, to coordinate the effort with Albany lawmakers. — Nick Reisman

PACKAGING FLOPS, DATA CENTER MORATORIUM MOVES: Democratic lawmakers plan to send Gov. Kathy Hochul an omnibus measure on data centers for artificial intelligence, including a one-year moratorium on new projects.

The governor has been hesitant about the prospect of a statewide moratorium, which would be the first in the nation if she signs it.

The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez and Assemblymember Didi Barrett, rolls in several proposals from lawmakers aimed at ensuring data centers don’t lead to higher energy bills for residents. It also includes requirements for a new rate class for data centers and labor standards.

Environmental advocates and Democratic lawmakers had initially proposed a three-year moratorium.

“Regulating hyperscale centers and also figuring out how to properly regulate artificial intelligence is an existential question,” Gonzalez said. “We’re taking a first step here as a state, but it also doesn’t mean that we are getting in the way of innovation.”

Meanwhile, in a blow to environmental advocates, Heastie told reporters today that he does not plan to bring the plastics bill up for a vote — saying it doesn’t have the support to pass.

It’s the same line he offered last session, though advocates contend the votes are there and that it’s special interest lobbyists standing in the way.

The extended producer responsibility bill aims to shift the cost of waste management and recycling away from local governments to companies that sell packaged goods. It was one of the most lobbied on pieces of legislation outside of the budget last session.

Supporters of the bill were hoping it gave the state a chance to make up for a budget that rolled back New York’s landmark climate legislation. Opponents, meanwhile, have pointed to cost concerns ahead of an election focused on affordability.

Heastie cited cost as the main reason Democrats in the Assembly are hesitant about the bill. However, the bill has 77 co-sponsors, more than the 76 votes needed to pass. Heastie himself said he was a “yes” on the bill. — Marie J. French and Mona Zhang

FROM CITY HALL

HER VIEWS THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’: Democratic socialist congressional hopeful Darializa Avila Chevalier is under fire for a spray of inflammatory social media posts about former President Joe Biden, police officers and various other individuals and issues.

But Mamdani — who endorsed Avila Chevalier’s insurgent campaign against Rep. Adriano Espaillat last week — waved off concerns about her online outbursts today.

“She said herself that a lot of these [posts] don’t reflect her views today, and I’m incredibly excited to be supporting her today and her vision for not only a New York City but frankly a United States of America that working people can afford,” Mamdani told reporters this morning at a press conference in Queens.

Most of Avila Chevalier’s eyebrow-raising social media missives that have emerged in recent days were posted in 2020, when she was 26. As first reported by Playbook, her expletive-riddled messaging included posts calling Biden “a rapist” and “a war criminal” and one in which she wrote former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Mamdani ally, “hates Black people.”

More recent tweets have also emerged. CNN reported yesterday that Avila Chevalier posted in 2021 that the “only moral way forward” is to “literally” abolish all police, prisons and borders. She also reposted messages calling for the seizure of “all properties from landlords” and the nationalization of all utilities, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.

Avila Chevalier said in a statement that she has “grown considerably” since she thumbed out the tweets. — Chris Sommerfeldt 

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

CHERRY PICKING: It’s been nearly a day since the debate between Rep. Dan Goldman and former city Comptroller Brad Lander — and they’re taking the fight online.

Last night, Lander’s campaign posted a debate clip on social media of Goldman saying, “I do take corporate PAC money” and “I have no problem taking money from anyone who wants to give it to me” — a collage taken from a longer Goldman remark in which he explained that he only accepts corporate PAC money in his leadership PAC in response to a question from Lander about it.

“You are right, I do not take any corporate PAC money in my own campaign account to use on my own campaign, and you also are correct that I do take corporate PAC money in my leadership PAC,” Goldman said at the debate. “That leadership PAC cannot be used for me. It cannot be used for my campaign. It is only used to help my colleagues win back the majority, and I have no problem taking money from anyone who wants to give it to me to help the Democrats take back the majority.”

Goldman responded to Lander on X, writing: “Are you seriously arguing that we shouldn’t do literally everything in our power to win back the majority?” In another post, he charged: “You cannot believe anything he says. If he will edit out the most important part to mislead voters, what else is he lying about?”

Since the beginning of last year, Goldman’s leadership PAC has taken tens of thousands of dollars from corporate PACs and disbursed more than $100,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Lander doubled down Tuesday. “Wow, what Dan Goldman said is he’s perfectly fine taking money from anyone,” he said in a video using the clipped portion of the debate. “This is how we got here, is by a Democratic Party that is backed by billionaires and wealthy special interests … That’s why we need better Democrats, folks who don’t take all that corporate PAC money, who fight for working people.” — Madison Fernandez

IN OTHER NEWS

— PAC MENTALITY: American Priorities, a super PAC formed to counter pro-Israel groups like AIPAC, has pledged to spend $2 million for Democratic primary candidates Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez. (The New York Times)

— TAKE IT FROM ME: Former Mayor Eric Adams met with Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman to offer advice on campaigning in New York City and signaled he may be open to endorsing him. (New York Post)

— CAPITOL LOSS: New data reveals population shifts across upstate New York, with Albany losing residents while Saratoga and Warren gained them based on quality of life, housing and employment considerations. (Times Union)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

​Politics

Rep. Ashley Hinson, the likely GOP nominee in Iowa’s critical Senate race, said last week that the Iran war will become a “political liability” if it extends much longer, according to audio obtained by POLITICO.

Asked in a one-on-one exchange about a timeline for the war, Hinson said, “I’m deferring to the president on the negotiations because he has the team doing it.”

However, she added: “I do hope we can get this done by the next couple of weeks. If it drags on beyond that, it’s a political liability for us too, because we’ve lost Iowa soldiers. I’ve been to four funerals since December, it’s awful.”

It’s a stark acknowledgement for a representative who has positioned herself as a loyal ally of President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill, including on the ongoing war, and repeatedly voted against limiting the president’s military powers.

The candid remarks came during a private conversation during a public meet-and-greet with voters in Webster County last Thursday.

Hinson didn’t go so far last Thursday as to condemn the Iran war, reiterating that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon” and that the families of the fallen Iowa soldiers “all said that we need to finish the job.” But her remarks offer a glimpse into Republicans’ growing concerns that a prolonged conflict, especially with the resulting rise in gas prices and risk of increased American casualties, could become a vulnerability in battleground contests.

“Of course endless wars are unpopular — no one wants them and thankfully President Trump is doing everything he can to prevent one while keeping Americans safe,” a Hinson spokesperson said in a statement. “Ashley fully supports his mission to keep nuclear weapons out of Iran’s hands.”

While some anti-interventionist Republicans have openly criticized the conflict, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), few Trump-endorsed candidates running in competitive races have publicly acknowledged the political complications of being at war.

Hinson is widely expected to win Tuesday’s GOP primary for Iowa’s open Senate seat and take on the Democratic nominee, either state Sen. Zach Wahls or state Rep. Josh Turek, in November — what will be one of the nation’s most closely watched races as both parties battle to take control of the upper chamber.

Trump endorsed Hinson’s Senate bid last year and reinforced his support for her in a Truth Social post on Monday night.

Early polling of hypothetical head-to-head matchups between Hinson and Wahls or Hinson and Turek show a tight general election, although the race could widen between now and November.

The White House has offered conflicting timelines for when the Iran war may end, frustrating some Republicans strategists and officials. Polling shows that voters are souring on both the president and the war as the weeks go by, especially as cost of living concerns remain a top issue ahead of the midterms.

A May POLITICO Poll found that a majority of Americans — including many Trump voters — said the war has made things more expensive for them and Trump is not doing enough to protect them from high costs.

“The sooner the war winds down … the better off [Trump] is, at least for the midterms,” said one Florida-based Republican strategist who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the midterm landscape.

But the president has continued to insist that deterring Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is a top priority. “I don’t care about the midterms,” he said last week during a Cabinet meeting when discussing why he hasn’t moved faster to end the conflict.

The war in Iran has become a particular concern for Iowans as prices for fertilizer and diesel fuel — both essential for food production — have soared amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. That, combined with Trump’s trade policies from earlier this year, has sent the state’s agriculture sector spiraling. Iowa has also experienced personal toll from the conflict when six Army Reserve soldiers with the 103rd Sustainment Command based in Des Moines, Iowa, were killed on March 1 in an Iranian strike on a Kuwait facility.

“Ashley has stood side-by-side with grieving Iowa families whose loved ones paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country,” the Hinson spokesperson said. “She will always honor their service and stand with our men and women in uniform carrying out this critical mission.”

​Politics

SUMMER OF HELL: The NYPD has quite a summer ahead, to hear Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch tell it.

During a four-hour budget hearing this morning (and afternoon), the mayor’s top cop provided new insight into possible threats during the World Cup, hinted at the beef between the police department and the mayor’s office over the scale of celebrations in New York City and ballparked how much police overtime will cost when America’s 250th birthday festivities, the NBA Finals, a large sailing event and annual parades are taken into account.

“Any one of those events on its own would be a major operation in New York City,” Tisch told members of the City Council’s finance and public safety committees. “Taken together, they place extraordinary demands on the NYPD.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has already announced five fan zones where New Yorkers can catch World Cup games for free. Tisch said Monday there would be more.

“My understanding is that the mayor is going to announce a very robust set of watch parties for FIFA around the whole five boroughs, which will run the length of the tournament,” she said.

Yet behind the scenes, as POLITICO has reported, police brass have chafed at the scale of watch parties desired by the mayor, an avid fan, who wants to host novel get-togethers like soccer on the beach. Some of those tensions appeared to seep through Tisch’s comments Monday as she ticked off all the ways the NYPD will be taxed in the coming months.

“I would appreciate it if you could think about the demands on this department in that context,” she said, stressing to lawmakers the NYPD has limited resources. “We would like to facilitate a lot, perhaps we will be able to facilitate everything — but there will be a lot of celebrating in New York City.”

Tisch and her team tried to paint a picture of the scale of the tasks at hand: The department will screen 200 buses arriving from New Jersey on eight days when games are being played at MetLife Stadium. Officers will also secure the staging areas in Midtown where passengers will board those buses before being ferried back across the Hudson River. The NYPD plans to screen an estimated 15,000 rail passengers before they take a train to the Garden State as well.

Tisch has previously expressed her fears about weaponized drones that could be used to launch attacks during the tournament. On Monday, she turned to a more grounded example of why the NYPD needs to be involved in planning.

“We don’t want cars driving into these watch parties, either on purpose or by accident,” she said. “We don’t want to see vehicle ramming attacks across the city.”

All told, Tisch and her team said overtime costs associated with the summer will run approximately $92 million. Officers will be put on mandatory 12-hour shifts from July 1 through July 7, as POLITICO has reported, a run Tisch said Monday may need to be expanded. Around $70 million of that cost is either already accounted for in the city’s budget or is being picked up by the feds, leaving a roughly $20 million shortfall at a time when the city has little money to spare. — Joe Anuta

From the Capitol

SLOP THERE IT IS: Just in time for NBA Finals, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Republican foes are gleefully casting themselves as ballers in AI-produced videos and images dunking on the hapless Democrat.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott today posted a photo on X of the Lone Star Republican in a San Antonio Spurs jersey scoring off Hochul kitted out as a Knick. President Donald Trump sitting courtside smiles along in approval.

This follows a video by Hochul’s general election opponent Bruce Blakeman dribbling circles around Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. (In this iteration, Blakeman is on the Knicks and the New York Democrats are on the Cleveland Cavaliers.)

Hochul — a Buffalo native who appears to be much more of a Bills and Sabres fan — scoffed at the Abbott photo this morning, making a reference to controversies over trans people participating in sports.

“I was actually surprised to see the president and Governor Abbott — with their memes of me, they’re dunking me on the court — that they’re supportive of men and women competing in the same sport,” she said. — Nick Reisman 

THE KIDS ARE ALERT: Students are learning more and scrolling less thanks to a statewide cellphone ban, according to research released today by the governor.

Roughly 80 percent of teachers across the state said in a survey that the ban, which went into effect this school year, has resulted in positive outcomes, including better student engagement. Another 60 percent reported a decline in bullying and cyberbullying incidents. And 75 percent said their ability to teach effectively improved.

Hochul, who attended a roundtable discussion with students and teachers at a Brooklyn school today, said she first sought to determine what was causing youth mental health issues more than a year ago.

“I quickly came to the conclusion that there were severely negative impacts on young people’s mental health in classrooms when they could not put down their cellphones,” she said. “Literally, it became an addiction.”

The governor’s office received 585 responses to the survey. Forty-seven percent of the educators polled were from New York City, according to Hochul.

It remains to be seen though whether the policy will have an impact on students’ academic performance.

“Logic would tell us that that is a result we expect to see at some point,” Hochul told reporters after the roundtable. “I don’t know that it follows at the end of any first year, but it is data I’ve asked for. We don’t have the final exams in, for example.” — Madina Touré

FROM CITY HALL

CLASS SIZE DELAY CEMENTED: Mamdani is set to receive two more years to comply with a state law mandating lower class sizes in public schools.

The legislation to allow for that would revise the benchmark for the upcoming school year from 80 percent to 70 percent, according to state Sen. John Liu, who chairs the Senate’s New York City Education Committee.

After that, the city will have to reach 80 percent by the 2027-28 school year, 90 percent by the 2028-29 school year and 100 percent by the 2029-30 school year.

Under the original timeline, the city had to reduce class sizes to between 20 and 25 students, depending on the grade, by September 2028.

“The legal timetable will be extended by two years, empowering the Mamdani administration to at long last bring all NYC class sizes down to state and national norms of teacher-student ratios,” Liu said in a statement. “This amendment to state law is respondent to clear and accountable teacher recruitment and classroom construction plans developed by the Mamdani administration to be fulfilled within the mayor’s current term of office.”

The class size law is a key priority for Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. He said the union preferred compliance over an extension.

“But the reality is that New York City, up until now, had not done all that was needed to make this law a reality in every classroom,” Mulgrew said in a statement. “If giving this new administration two more years gets us a partner committed to building the necessary seats, then it is the fastest way to turn the law into reality.”

The agreement includes an “accountability incentive” that requires the city to treat space and hard-to-staff exemptions — schools that receive money to hire staff but are unable to fill those positions for the fall — as temporary tools.

The city will have to pay teachers a differential when working at schools that received space or hard-to-staff exemptions to meet the 70 percent benchmark for the upcoming school year. — Madina Touré

IN OTHER NEWS

— NO DICE: Resorts World, New York City’s first casino, is in a tax dispute with the state’s Gaming Commission, which claims the casino must pay an additional $150 million annually to the state’s horseracing industry. (New York Focus)

— AT RISK: The Trump administration is proposing to “optimize self-sufficiency” with cuts to the nation’s largest homeless assistance program that could leave thousands of formerly homeless New Yorkers without shelter. (Gothamist)

— BREAKING BREAD: Competing visions for the left are fueling tensions in the open NY-7 Democratic primary, with tribal politics framing the contest between progressive Antonio Reynoso and democratic socialist Claire Valdez. (The New York Times)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

​Politics

Former first lady Jill Biden waved away Democrats’ concerns that her new memoir is setting off a wave of backward-looking infighting, insisting that the party is moving on from the 2024 election.

“Democrats have a great future,” she said in an interview on Monday on NBC’s “Today,” when asked if she was “reopening old wounds” with her tour. “We’re looking forward to winning the midterms. Things are going to move forward. … And yes, we’re going to look back and learn from the mistakes we made.”

Jill Biden is on tour promoting her new memoir, which has become the latest headache for Democrats. Some Democrats privately say Jill Biden’s return to the public eye is a “distraction” that risks relitigating a painful election for the party when it should instead be focused on winning in the future.

In her book, she opens up about then-President Joe Biden’s disastrous, career-ending debate in 2024. She was “frightened” watching her husband on stage, and feared he was having a medical episode of sorts.

Her confession hasn’t landed well with fellow Democrats and former White House aides, given her relentless defense of Joe Biden at the time.

“I had to lift him up [after the debate]. I’m his wife,” she told NBC. “I’m not going to get out on the stage there and say, ‘Joe, you really screwed that up.’”

The press tour comes as Democrats are still reeling from their long-awaited autopsy of the 2024 presidential election. Its botched, typo-ridden release failed to explain Democrats’ defeat — and skipped over the former president’s age — but did spark a fresh round of party infighting.

​Politics