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Illustration by Zé Otavio with photos by AP, Getty, iStock | In 2021, when Raphael Warnock won an intense runoff election that placed Georgia at the center of national politics and became the first Black senator from the state, he had a mantra in mind: Remain the reverend. Social justice was at the heart of his campaign, which carefully defused race-laced attempts to paint him as a radical. He even cultivated a comfortingly benign look, wearing puffer vests and running campaign ads showing him walking a dog (that wasn't his) down suburban streets. This time, though, according to more than 50 interviews with officials, insiders and operatives from both parties and campaigns, Warnock is doing all that and then some — running in a way that's every bit as disciplined but in a year that's considerably more difficult. He's facing former football player Herschel Walker in a race that pits two Black men against one another for a seat in the Senate — a rare and high-pressure matchup. Warnock and Walker present radically different visions of American politics. One is the pastoral heir to Martin Luther King Jr. at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church; the other all but denies the existence of racism. One is a peerless orator; the other sometimes struggles to make any sense . And while Warnock has some scuffs to his sheen — a contentious divorce, an arrest from some 20 years back, controversial snippets from pulpits and pages from his decades of scholarship — Walker's catalogue of flaws includes lies, allegations of domestic violence and a history of a personality disorder that made him consider killing a man and also risk killing himself. In this deep-dive profile , POLITICO's Michael Kruse takes us from Warnock's youth in a public housing apartment to his history-making Senate election. In running for a full six-year term, Warnock is throwing himself into the tensions that have always animated his life and his work, Kruse writes: the "double-consciousness" of the Black church, as Warnock describes it in the 2014 book drawn from his doctoral dissertation, the "complementary yet competing sensibilities" of "revivalistic piety and radical protest," the saving of souls and the salvation of society. Warnock won as an activist preacher. Now he has to prove that he's also the rare type of senator who actually gets stuff done. Read Kruse's story .
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| "He is a man of splendid abilities but utterly corrupt. Like a rotten mackerel by moonlight, he shines and stinks." Can you guess who said this about Secretary of State Edward Livingston? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
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Illustration by Klawe Rzeczy / Getty Images | Vladimir Putin and the Head-Shaped Cake … Written and filmed at the height of glasnost- era artistic freedom, 1989's "Gorod Zero" is a feat of Soviet surrealism. The main character encounters a nude secretary, a cake made in the shape of his own head and a strange history museum in the middle of a forest. But his bizarre journey isn't just a lens into Soviet-era artistic practice — it also has a lot to say about Vladimir Putin's Russia, writes Mark Schrad .
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| Tuesday's primaries turned out pretty well for candidates endorsed by Donald Trump. It was election deniers all the way down in Arizona, and in Michigan the former president bagged another one of the 10 Republican House members who voted to impeach him. But Trump didn't talk as much about Washington, where two (count 'em, TWO) of those 10 have so far survived their primary elections. How did Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse pull off this miracle? Pull up a chair and let's talk about the amazing world of Open Primaries! — Primaries come in two basic varieties: open and closed. Closed ones are run by the respective parties. If you're in the 42 percent of the electorate that isn't affiliated with a party, you won't get to participate in a closed primary. — The alternative is the open primary, of which there are many variations . In most open primaries, the parties still run the elections but they might let unaffiliated voters participate, or voters might be allowed to choose which primary they want to participate in. In the end though, one Republican and one Democrat emerge. — This is where Washington comes in. Washington does things differently than most open primary states. In Washington, there's only one ballot. The top two vote-getters — no matter the party — go on to the general election. Herrera Beutler is in second in her district, running behind a Democrat. Newhouse is in first in his, trailed closely by a Democrat. In both races, the Trump-endorsed candidate is currently in third place, out of the running. — California has a similar "top-two" system. (Call it a "jungle primary" and you'll sound like you're really in the know.) Alaska has a "top-four" system, which is why Senator Lisa Murkowski, who's also in Trump's crosshairs for her impeachment vote, is certain to get through the primary. — Lots of people think these kinds of single-ballot primaries weed out extremists who appeal to the base of each party rather than the moderate middle. ( Sixty percent of Washington voters approved the top-two system. ) Not surprisingly, they're not so popular with the parties themselves, which lose a lot of power and are fighting in court to keep it.
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| 57 percent … of voters living in urban communities say they will probably or definitely own an electric vehicle in the next decade.
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A 1982 letter from Justice Potter Stewart to a fan. | Stuart Lutz Historic Documents, Inc. South Orange, NJ | Historian Ted Widmer found a piece of history up for sale this week that testifies to an era not so long ago when civility generally prevailed — unlike our current political climate, in which Supreme Court nominations are so vitriolic that Washington shudders every time a sitting justice so much as catches a cold. In 1982, former Justice Potter Stewart received a letter from an admirer, and wrote back in kind. Remembering his decision to step down from the bench, Stewart wrote, "Thank you for your kind letter of March 1. The decision to retire was not easy, but I firmly believe it is far better to leave too soon than to stay too long. Sincerely yours, Potter Stewart." It is for sale for $100 from Stuart Lutz Historic Documents, Inc.
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Politico Illustration by Daniel Zender | Courting the Court … In July 2021, gun rights lawyer David T. Hardy submitted a brief to the Supreme Court arguing in support of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., a state affiliate of the NRA. He didn't mention that the NRA had given him hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. And he wasn't the only one. An investigation by the Trace and POLITICO Magazine found that, of the 49 pro-NRA amicus briefs filed in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen — in which the NRA scored a major victory — the NRA gave financial support to at least 12 of the groups and individuals who lobbied the court on its behalf over the last two decades. Only one brief disclosed the financial connection.
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George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum | On April 3, 1989, President George H.W. Bush attended an opening day ballgame between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Bush — who captained the 1948 Yale baseball team — was responsible for throwing out the first pitch (which was reportedly a little high and outside, but earned a standing ovation nevertheless). Bush and Mubarak then "sat in the sky box, watching the baseball game with their Orioles caps, their hot dogs, their pickles, their horseradish, their Cokes in Orioles plastic souvenir cups, their player lineup sheet on White House stationery, their little white binoculars and a black secure phone," reported The New York Times . It was Mubarak's first time watching a game, so Bush helped him out by explaining the rules in between more serious discussion on foreign policy.
| | | **Who Dissed? answer: It was Sen. John Randolph (1773-1833) of Virginia.
| | | Correction: Last week, this newsletter misstated the number of Gen Zers aged 18 to 25 who believe there will "definitely" or "probably" be another civil war in the United States. The correct figure is 51 percent. | | | | Follow us | | | | |
