Secret campaign to use Russian-inspired tactics in 2017 Alabama election stirs anxiety for Democrats

A secret effort to influence the 2017 Senate election in Alabama used tactics inspired by Russian disinformation teams, including the creation of fake accounts to deliver misleading messages on Facebook to hundreds of thousands of voters to help elect Democrat Doug Jones in the deeply red state, according to a […] Read more »

Doug Jones ‘Outraged’ by Russian-Style Tactics Used in His Senate Race

Senator Doug Jones of Alabama on Thursday said he was “outraged” to learn of deceptive online operations used by fellow Democrats to assist his election last year, and called for a federal investigation into the matter. He was responding to a report in The New York Times on Wednesday about […] Read more »

Secret Experiment in Alabama Senate Race Imitated Russian Tactics

As Russia’s online election machinations came to light last year, a group of Democratic tech experts decided to try out similarly deceptive tactics in the fiercely contested Alabama Senate race, according to people familiar with the effort and a report on its results. The secret project, carried out on Facebook […] Read more »

The polling miss that defines 2018 might not be the one from 2016. It may be the one from 2017.

… In 2016, one of the problems in state polls was that Trump voters turned out more heavily than many pollsters expected. In 2017, one of the problems with the polls in Virginia was that Democrats turned out more heavily than many pollsters expected. Those Democrats elected not only Northam […] Read more »

When it isn’t just ‘LOL. Nothing Matters’ for Trump

President Donald Trump’s performance at Helsinki left many shaking their heads. He was criticized by the left and perhaps surprisingly from normally friendly voices like former Speaker Newt Gingrich. To some, it may feel like we’ve been here before. Trump often does stuff that those in the political elite don’t […] Read more »