Politics and views in the United States

Book bans surge across the country as librarians push back, VA elections signal a potential wave of new women lawmakers and Michigan abortion providers warn of bill in Congress restricting protests at entrances to clinics.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

After Donald Trump was elected, we saw a big mobilization of women running for office in Virginia.

We saw women who even ran as challengers to incumbents who unseated incumbents at a very high rate.

Debbie Walsh with the Center for American Women in Politics says in the midterms, President Donald Trump has again energized the wave of women to run for office.

Virginia saw a surge of women in the state legislature since Trump entered politics.

A Democrat has easily retained a state house seat in a Louisiana district that Trump took by more than 10 points.

The win in the Plaquemine area is the latest in a series of special election victories for the party.

In a highly contested New York City congressional district, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is endorsing Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President John Kennedy.

Schlossberg has made a name for himself as a savvy social media personality, but faces a crowded primary.

Maryland's Democratic Governor Wes Morris calling on the state Senate to pass his proposed mid-cycle redistricting bill.

State House Democrats have favored the move, but under the leadership of the Senate President, that chamber has been resistant.

The state could be one of the last to act in a nationwide gerrymandering arms race before November's election.

Republicans in Congress may legislate to overrule state laws protecting patients' safe access to abortion clinics, arguing they're being weaponized against the pro-life movement.

Renee Chilian with Northland Family Planning says Michigan acted to protect them the 1990s in response to dangerous and aggressive protesters.

She says the clinics won't stop, but anti-abortion activists won't either.

Michigan is one of the safest states for abortion rights in the country.

But if the clinics can't keep our doors open, can't protect ourselves, how will we keep staff?

How will we keep doctors?

That's their goal, is to intimidate and harass everyone.

Fifteen states are now considering legislation to restrict access to selected books in school and public libraries. and Penn America confirms an unprecedented recent number of bans of volumes on gender or race issues.

Iowa, Florida, and Texas consistently have the most bans, while Illinois and New Mexico are moving toward making the bans themselves illegal.

Filmmaker Kim Schneider calls the subjects of her film The Librarians the first responders in the fight against book bans.

These people have a lot to lose and they are not standing down.

I just hope that people take their cue and are inspired to do what you can and as I say like sweeping your own little corner to help protect our fragile democracy right now.

Washington Post publisher Will Lewis resigned over the weekend, closing a tumultuous tenure that included laying off hundreds of staff and scrapping an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Recently, the Post has lost thousands of subscribers, angry about the paper's new direction.

After resignations over the handling of the ICE shootings in Minneapolis and other issues, the Department of Justice is taking the unusual step of publicly trying to recruit U.S. attorneys.

The department is reportedly struggling to keep enough federal prosecutors.

I'm Zamone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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