Most weeks, the news arrives as a pile of unrelated headlines. This week, they were the same story told three times.The thread: when the people in power arrange the system around themselves, everyone else gets handed the bill.Consider the cost o…
Here is something to consider. Every single statewide executive office in Ohio is on the ballot this year, and not one incumbent is defending a seat. Governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, all of it wide open, because te…
A note on purpose, from the host of Purple Political BreakdownI host a political podcast, and the honest temptation in this work right now is to show up every week and simply narrate how bad things are. There is an audience for that. There is even…
For the second cycle in a row, Ohio's 7th Congressional District has shown up on Democratic flip lists, and for the second cycle in a row, most national observers are about to talk themselves out of taking it seriously. They should not. The combinat…
Subtitle: Louisiana v. Callais, the gerrymandering cascade, and the pattern connecting four of this week's biggest stories.I want to walk you through something I think gets buried in the daily news cycle, because the version of this story most o…
On Tuesday, May 5, Ohio held its 2026 primary election. 791,355 Democrats requested ballots. 817,159 Republicans did the same. That gap is the tightest the state has seen in a midterm primary since 2006, the year that became a high-water mark for Oh…
When President Trump posted an AI generated image of himself in the likeness of Jesus Christ on Truth Social last month, the backlash came not just from the political left but from his own evangelical and Catholic base. Pope Leo XIV publicly called …
On May 5, 2026, I voted in the Ohio primary election. I also recorded the entire process, from voter lookup to polling booth, as a bonus episode of Purple Political Breakdown. What I want to share here is not who I voted for. It is what the experien…
Every once in a while a single week of American politics carries enough weight to reshape the next decade. The last week of April 2026 was one of those weeks, and most of the country is already moving on. As host of Purple Political Breakdown, I spe…
When the Ohio Redistricting Commission unanimously approved a new congressional map on October 31, 2025, most national coverage focused on Marcy Kaptur's 9th District becoming significantly tougher for Democrats. Far less attention went to what happ…
There is a quiet problem at the center of American democracy, and it has nothing to do with partisanship. It is a data problem.Government information in the United States is, by law, public. Voting records, campaign finance filings, committee memb…
We are watching three structural shifts unfold simultaneously, and the framing in most political coverage is missing the actual mechanics. As the host of Purple Political Breakdown, my job is to give people the chain of events without the partisan g…
By Radell Lewis, Host of Purple Political BreakdownOhio's May 5, 2026 primary is roughly a week away, and a quiet but useful realignment is forming on the right side of the spectrum. On a recent double feature episode of Purple Political Breakdown…
Subtitle: A conversation with Dr. Bryan Hambley on gerrymandering, ballot language, voter rolls, and what it actually takes to fix a democracy.Body:When most people think about the offices that matter in a midterm election, they think governor, …
On the latest episode of Purple Political Breakdown, I sat down with Pisco, a lawyer and political streamer from Live and Learn, to have a conversation that I think every Democrat, strategist, and politically engaged citizen needs to hear. The quest…
By Radell Lewis, Host of Purple Political BreakdownThere is a date on the calendar most Americans have not circled, and it is going to define the next six months of American political life.Around May 1, the 60-day clock under the War Powers Act …
The person who keeps Ohio state government financially honest is chosen by voters. Most Ohioans cannot name who currently holds that job. That mismatch between the power of the office and the public's awareness of it is the quiet story of the 2026 O…
Three stories broke this week that most outlets are still covering as separate news items. Together, they explain something important about how political influence is actually manufactured in 2026, and what it means for the Democratic Party heading …
There is a moment in political organizing when the opposition tells you exactly how to beat them. Most of the time, you miss it because you are too busy fighting about something else. Zee, Executive Director of National Ground Game and founder of th…
There are weeks in American politics where everything converges at once. This past week was one of them.As the host of Purple Political Breakdown, a nonpartisan political analysis podcast, I spent this episode walking through five major stories th…
Ohio's 7th Congressional District is quietly becoming one of the most closely watched races of the 2026 midterm cycle. Eight Democrats have filed to challenge Republican incumbent Max Miller in a May 5 primary that will determine who takes on a well…
The American Dream has always been anchored to homeownership. A place to raise your family. Stability. Something to pass down. But for millions of Americans, and Black families in particular, that dream has been systematically pushed further out of …
The United States is currently governed more by executive orders than by legislation. That is not hyperbole. It is a measurable fact. In his first 100 days back in office, President Trump signed 147 executive orders but only 5 bills into law. That i…
Every single statewide executive office in Ohio is open in 2026. The governor, attorney general, auditor, treasurer, and secretary of state are all term-limited out. Ohio voters are essentially restaffing the entire executive branch in a single elec…