Today, I am delighted to launch a new Politizoom series entitled: “What I Want to See in 2026.” It will be an occasional series, open to all Poli-Z writers, and appearing whenever any of us have something to say on the subject. We invite our readers to contribute to conversations in the comments by sharing their ideas and opinions.
I’m kicking off this series with the annoyingly supercilious Karoline Leavitt. I recently learned that she had run for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District in 2022, winning the Republican primary but ultimately losing the general election to incumbent Democrat Chris Pappas. Her campaign began almost four years ago, and in the few short months that led to her inevitable failure, she racked up $326,000 in debt.
From The Intellectualist‘s official substack:
The debts include more than $210,000 in refunds owed to donors whose contributions exceeded legal limits, as well as tens of thousands owed to political consultants and polling firms. Federal law requires campaigns to refund or reallocate donations that surpass the individual contribution cap — $2,900 per election during the 2022 cycle — within 60 days. The committee is well past that legal deadline, and its filings show neither receipts nor cash on hand for the quarter ending Sept. 30.
To be fair, she has refunded some money to donors:
Earlier filings show the campaign processed a handful of refunds in January, including $2,900 each to her parents. The balance of unreturned contributions, however, has not changed.
If I rolled my eyes any higher, I’d be seeing the inside of my hairline.
WHAT I WANT TO SEE IN 2026 is
💦members of the White House Press Corps persistently asking Press Secretary Leavitt when she intends to repay the debts she accrued during her failed congressional run and why it is taking her so damn long!
💦💦💦
To wrap up this premiere article, I am recalling local and state elections in 2025 in which Democrats overperformed in double digits, from 10 to 43 points. The latest was a special election for a state senate seat in Iowa. The Washington Post reported:
Renee Hardman, a member of the West Des Moines City Council, received 71.4 percent of the vote in the special-election race for state Senate District 16, according to unofficial results from the Iowa secretary of state. Republican candidate Lucas Loftin received 28.5 percent of the vote in the race, which encompasses a suburban Des Moines jurisdiction.
WHAT I WANT TO SEE IN 2026 is
💦the 2025 blue wave trend continuing with more and bigger blue waves throughout this year. I’ll be ministering to the Flip-It-Blue site to keep everyone up-to-date with congressional special elections, plus US House, US Senate and gubernatorial races. There will be a special election runoff on January 31 (Texas), a special election primary on February 5 (New Jersey), and congressional primaries beginning on March 3.
What are you looking forward to seeing in 2026?
You can follow Michelle at Blue Sky: @michelleelle.bsky.social
