The most dishonest campaign ad of 2026 makes a simple promise: vote yes, and you’ll get exactly the thing the measure is designed to eliminate.
Alaska’s Yes on 2 campaign is running an audio ad promising to “reject dark money” and “bring back the days of open primaries.” The only problem? Ballot Measure 2 actually repeals Alaska's open primaries AND eliminates its dark money transparency initiative!
Yes, the same campaign is trying to sell open primaries, while trying to end them.
Elsewhere, in Texas, AG Paxton's closed-primary push just hit a wall in court, moving the fight over Texans’ right to vote to Austin.
Why does every fight include the party in power v. the voters? Katherine Gehl has the answer: MAGA and the DSA are both products of the politics of no competition: a political market the two parties have rigged, and voters are stuck buying from.
Check out more stories that go outside the two-sided narrative below.
FEATURED ▶▶▶
The Most Dishonest Campaign Ad in 2026?
The Yes on 2 audio ad promises to “reject dark money” and “bring back the days of open primaries.” One problem: Alaska already has open primaries, and Measure 2 is the thing that would end them. Shawn Griffiths fact-checks the script, line by line.
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Independent Voter Podcast
Former California State Senator Steve Peace joins EP60: California’s top-two primary puts DSA-backed Democrats face-to-face with the party’s moderate wing, in front of the entire electorate, not just the party faithful.
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Is This Mic On? Dan Osborn Meets the Opposition Research Machine
Three leaked recordings in two weeks have turned Nebraska’s Senate race into a case study in the opposition research machine the parties aim at outsiders. Matt Shinners on Dan Osborn versus the hot mics.
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Aaron Rodgers: Neither Party Gives “a F**k About Regular People”
Aaron Rodgers says he doesn’t trust “anybody in politics.” On teammate Cam Heyward’s podcast, the Steelers QB called Democrats and Republicans one “uniparty” running “the same policies.” He has company: a record 45% of Americans now identify as independent.
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Independent Voters Can Be Heard in California. The Top-Two Primary Is Worth Defending
Lenny Mendonca and Dan Schnur: California voters broke the parties’ grip on primaries in 2010, and the repeal effort raises one fundamental question: who should get to vote in taxpayer-funded elections?
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Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
Washington Post Pentagon reporter Dan Lamothe joins Army veteran Paul Rieckhoff to pull back the curtain on a Pentagon defined by press restrictions, purges, and unexplained leadership shakeups, plus what the building is (and isn’t) doing about AI.
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