Congress

Chris Murphy released from hospital after stroke

Published

33 minutes ago

November 6, 2026

Sen. Chris Murphy announced Friday that he has been released from the hospital after suffering a stroke last week, but will miss “several weeks” of Senate votes while he continues to recover.

“The doctors are very encouraged by the progress I’ve made so far,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “In order to take my recovery seriously and get back to work on the quickest timeline possible, I will be spending several weeks at a rehabilitation center after being discharged from the hospital today.”

He added that he remains in touch remotely with his staff and colleagues.

Murphy, who was hospitalized last weekend, said Friday that he was “diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.” Jose Suarez, the Chief of Neurosciences Critical Care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in a separate statement released by Murphy’s office that the senator “experienced a small hemorrhagic stroke.”

“He has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation,” Suarez added.

Murphy is the latest senator to suffer a stroke in recent years. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) were both hospitalized for strokes in 2022. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), at that time a Senate candidate, also had a stroke in 2022 that he later described as near fatal.

Congress

Congressional Progressive Caucus chair lays out strategy to ‘wield our power’

Published

43 minutes ago

November 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said his group will still be power brokers in a massive Democratic majority in a strategy memo previewing plans for next term.

“While some in the press have speculated that a majority of this size undermines our influence within the caucus, they have it exactly backwards,” Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said in the Friday memo obtained by Blue Light News. “Big majorities are good for getting big things done. Our goal is not to win a battle against other Democratic caucuses. It is to pass longstanding progressive priorities that bring down costs, root out corruption, and boost wages.”

The CPC will have at least 105 members next term, according to the memo. If Democrats had a narrow majority, progressives — and any other faction in the caucus — could have used their votes as leverage. Now that presumptive speaker Hakeem Jeffries will have as many 30 votes to spare, Democrats broadly are recalibrating their approach next term.

Casar laid out a “three-pronged” strategy for the CPC to “wield our power” in the three-page memo — tackling legislation, oversight and “holding Donald Trump to his word on populist economic policies.”

“Small majorities give corporate special interest groups the ability to block popular populist policies by recruiting a small number of opponents; a big majority gives us the advantage,” he said.

Casar previewed how the CPC can engage with Trump, noting that “one of the few bright spots for bipartisan lawmaking” was a housing bill that banned private equity firms from buying homes. He noted the caucus should push Trump to cap credit card interest rates, lower credit card fees for small businesses and lower prescription drug costs.

“While we oppose [Trump] strongly on the vast majority of fronts, we should send bills to his desk that would lower prices and raise paychecks. If he signs them, good. If he vetoes those bills, that will propel us to a continued Democratic majority and a trifecta where a Democratic president can sign these proposals into law,” he said.

Casar also outlined oversight targets beyond the administration, urging Democrats to specifically investigate corporations that use customer data for “surveillance pricing,” health care companies that are “taking advantage of seniors” through the Medicare Advantage program and artificial intelligence labs who are “putting jobs and lives at risk.”

“By focusing not just on the Trump administration but also on big corporations and billionaires, we will show the American people we are not just anti-Trump but also pro-worker and pro-consumer,” he said.

Congress

CPC memo

Published

1 hour ago

November 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Congressional Progressive Caucus sets out agenda for the 120th Congress

Congress

Pro-Talarico PAC pulls back curtain on historic investment

Published

1 hour ago

November 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

In January, the leading super PAC backing James Talarico spotted a problem in the data: Talarico was running behind where he needed to be in Hispanic-heavy South Texas in order to win the March primary.

It didn’t take them long to find a winning message.

A late January poll commissioned by the PAC signaled immense outrage among Texas Democratic voters over ICE’s Minneapolis crackdown. The PAC quickly went up on air with an ad cutting a speech Talarico gave at an anti-ICE rally, before Talarico’s campaign went up with their own immigration spot. According to their data, it helped shore up the South Texas vote and secure Talarico’s primary victory over Rep. Jasmine Crockett. As high-profile ICE incidents spread to other parts of the state throughout the summer and fall, the PAC kept the ad on air. In the end, the ad ran across Texas for 244 straight days, making it their single longest-running spot.

“It really moved voters,” Garry Jones, director of Lone Star Rising PAC, told Blue Light News.

Talarico’s historic victory Tuesday night was the result of an extremely favorable national environment, a uniquely capable candidate and campaign, robust statewide coordinated effort, and significant boosts from outside allies. The previously unreported efforts of the top Talarico-aligned outside super PAC amounted to the largest Democratic independent expenditure in Texas history, the group says.

The PAC, funded in part by Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, spent $44 million this cycle, boosting Talarico in the primary and helping push him across the finish line in the general election. It outspent the top pro-Ken Paxton PAC, Lone Star Liberty, and put more money into Texas than top Senate Democrats’ top PAC, Senate Majority PAC.

Jones said he was in regular touch with SMP, sharing polling that showed Talarico could win.

“By making the investments early … we were able to create a buffer and show that there was other investment in the state, which I think was really crucial in other groups investing in Texas,” Jones said.

After the primary, Lone Star Rising PAC saw an opening with Paxton-skeptical Republicans, many of whom backed Sen. John Cornyn and were moved by the tens of millions of dollars in anti-Paxton spending in the GOP primary.

“There were times in our polling where self-identified non-MAGA Republicans were splitting 50-50 between James and Paxton,” Jones said.

The PAC isolated the few precincts where Cornyn won or came close to winning during the May runoff — mostly in urban Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin — and launched a targeted mail and broadcast ad campaign aimed at Republican voters. In one, a Republican former state representative talked about Paxton’s impeachment proceedings; another ad clipped Cornyn saying Paxton is “corrupt” and “unfit for office.”

“Our polling made clear James’ message and unique ability to communicate with these voters made these types of numbers possible,” Jones said. “This was our theory. The aggressive program we ran to move traditional Republicans voters to James clearly worked and the theory we set out with months ago was correct.”

Days before the election, Jones said he saw an email come through the PAC’s generic inbox: “I’m so sick and tired of your ads. I want to go vote for Ken Paxton 100 times,” the sender, a Republican, wrote. Jones took it as a sign the ads were breaking through.

Talarico won by 12 points, becoming the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate race in Texas.