# Is This the Year Democrats Flip Texas? Plus. . . Canonical: https://brew.new/templates/substack/is-this-the-year-democrats-flip-texas-plus Brand: substack.com Category: newsletter ![Preview of Is This the Year Democrats Flip Texas? Plus. . .](https://cdn.brew.new/email-preview-c39f6cb4f4cf8bc9-tracking_r57kjf1e7s6c5mqh7cfb2kr2ms8gp7s4-1792581697781.png) ## Email content Forwarded this email? Subscribe for more The Front PageWednesday, 10.21.2026View in App Subscribe to download as a PDF Get the whole story. Join now.Is This the Year Democrats Flip Texas? Plus. . . Tyler Cowen says Elizabeth Holmes should not be behind bars. Liel Leibovitz on whether Mayor Mamdani is a moderate in disguise. The alarming Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. And more. Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton waits as he greets supporters after a rally at Southern Roots Brewing Company, in Killeen, Texas, on October 17, 2026. (Joel Angel Juarez via Getty Images) By The Free Press It’s Wednesday, October 21. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Is Mamdani less radical than we thought? Did Elizabeth Holmes get a raw deal? Will violent West Bank settlers upend Israeli politics? And much more. But first: Texas choosin’. With the midterm elections less than two weeks away, Republicans from Alaska to Kansas to South Carolina are worried about a thorough shellacking from voters enraged by high prices, the war with Iran, and the stink of corruption that surrounds the Trump administration. But if a blue wave becomes a blue tsunami—one that costs Republicans not just the House but the Senate and numerous governorships—it might very well be summed up in one word: Texas. Yes, Texas, the state that gave us the Bushes and hasn’t voted Democratic in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter rode the lingering anger over Watergate to the White House. Texas, where a Democrat hasn’t won statewide since 1994. The Texas that became effectively synonymous with conservatism for a generation, the spiritual home of the American right, the rock-ribbed heart of the GOP. Now a fresh-faced state legislator named James Talarico appears to be within spitting distance of breaking Republicans’ winning streak in the Lone Star State. If he succeeds, he will be the first Democratic U.S. senator elected there since 1988. Part of that has to do with his raw political talent and deft maneuvering on the campaign trail. But a Talarico victory will also be the story of how Texas Republicans did seemingly everything in their power to lose, starting with choosing Ken Paxton, the state’s scandal-plagued attorney general, to be their Senate candidate. Of course, Democrats have convinced themselves they could win Texas plenty of times only to come up short—remember Beto O’Rourke? So Audrey Fahlberg went there to see whether this really is the year the GOP’s Alamo finally falls. It’s a dispatch worth reading in full, because if the Republicans can’t hold on to Texas on November 3, we could be looking at one of the most consequential and transformative midterms in American history. —Will Rahn How the GOP Could Lose TexasAudrey Fahlberg • U.S. Politics How the GOP Could Lose Texas Read story › Tyler Cowen • Culture and Ideas Tyler Cowen: Elizabeth Holmes Should Not Be in Prison Tyler Cowen: Elizabeth Holmes Should Not Be in Prison Did Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced Silicon Valley entrepreneur and star of the blockbuster documentary “You Can See Everything,” commit egregious fraud? Of course, writes Tyler Cowen. But while watching the film, Tyler had a recurring thought: “Holmes should not be in prison.” So what’s his case, and what should we do with people like Holmes in the future? Read Tyler’s latest thought-provoking argument on when and how incarceration can go too far. Read story › Yardena Schwartz • Israel The Violent Settlers Bringing Shame on Israel The Violent Settlers Bringing Shame on Israel On Friday, a Jewish American photojournalist covering an olive harvest in the West Bank was brutally beaten by masked Jewish settlers. There have been at least 660 of these attacks so far this year, according to the IDF, and they “strengthen Israel’s critics and make it harder for its allies and supporters to defend its policies,” writes Yardena Schwartz. The violence isn’t only in one direction, she writes. But as Israeli elections approach, these encounters have come to define the battle for international public opinion. To prevail in that battle, Yardena argues, Israeli politicians need to be honest about the consequences of “allowing this crisis to fester.” Read story › Liel Leibovitz • New York The Myth of Mamdani the Moderate The Myth of Mamdani the Moderate New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani is the “Centrist We’ve Been Waiting For,” according to The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait—he kept Jessica Tisch as police commissioner from the previous administration. He retreated from some of his progressive ambitions, like free buses. Today, Liel Leibovitz asks, are we really that easily duped? “The mayor’s record, sadly, paints a different and far grimmer picture,” writes Liel. Read Liel’s assessment of the mayor as he actually is—not as partisan Democratic journalists would like him to be. Read story › Get 20 Percent Off an Annual Subscription to The Free Press Since day one, our goal at The Free Press has been simple: make sense of the world as it is. Five years later, that has never felt more urgent. How do you know what’s true in a world this confounding? You start with voices you trust. Ross Douthat. Abigail Shrier. Douglas Murray. Niall Ferguson. Coleman Hughes. Caitlin Flanagan. Nellie Bowles. Arthur Brooks. Kat Rosenfield. Tyler Cowen. They see the world clearly and embody the values that drive The Free Press: curiosity, courage, independence, doggedness, honesty. To celebrate our growing roster of columnists, we’re going on sale. Get access to all their writing and more, with 20 percent off an annual subscriptions for a limited time. Subscribe MORE FROM THE FREE PRESSSally Rooney Hates Novels Sarah Ditum Read story This Week in Canada: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do Rupa Subramanya Read story Inside France’s Night of Terror Nora Bussigny Read story THE NEWS Michael Bloomberg attends the 2019 American Songbook Gala at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on June 19, 2019, in New York City. (Roy Rochlin via Getty Images) Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is donating a whopping $80 million to help Democrats in the November midterm elections. The last-minute cash infusion from the billionaire and erstwhile Republican makes him one of the biggest Democratic funders this cycle, and comes as the party hopes to flip seats in deep-red states and retake Congress. J.D. Vance hasn’t “made up his mind” about running for president in 2028, he said on Monday, but he still expects Trump will endorse him if he does. In a conversation with 2Way journalist Mark Halperin in Air Force Two, Vance said, “I also haven’t talked to him about it.” Federal authorities questioned Ilhan Omar’s older sister in the ongoing criminal investigation into the Minnesota congresswoman, NewsNation reported Tuesday. Investigators also seized Omar’s phone and searched her Washington, D.C., residence this week. Omar, who has not been charged with a crime, maintains she has done nothing wrong, and that the probe is politically motivated. A Russian satellite made an aggressive move toward an American satellite before backing off over the weekend. To some, it looked like an accident. But the American satellite is responsible for relaying battlefield imagery to Ukraine. “To me, this is just one other data point of Russia taking some very hostile action, pushing boundaries, seeing how far they can go,” one analyst told The New York Times. Jay-Z, who has the final say on the talent performing at this season’s Super Bowl halftime, has chosen a 2027 headliner: Jay-Z. The rapper’s record label, Roc Nation, signed a deal with the NFL in 2019 to curate and produce the halftime show. COMMENT LIKE SHARE Become a paid subscriber To support our journalism, and unlock all of our investigative stories and provocative commentary about the world as it actually is, subscribe below. 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