Ence Morse

@ence

data & politics @washingtonpost.com texan in dc 🕯️

318 Folgt3.998 Follower108 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir ence.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Ence Morse@ence· 15d

The DNC’s cash gap with the RNC is ~equal to the cash advantage Democratic House and Senate candidates have over their Republican opponents. Lots of evidence that small donors are engaged and just bypassing the national party. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Ence Morse@ence· 15d

he's comparing to the 2017-2018 cycle, when, uh, the dnc was also not doing so hot and also 100k was a lot more money

Ence Morse@ence· 19d

Just a devastating story from @federicacocco.bsky.social and Shannon Najmabadi today. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

They sold Jimmy’s house and belongings. Then, along with Tim’s sister and brother-in-law, they agreed to contribute $1,000 per couple each month. Amy Dillon is a public school teacher. Tim Dillon, who retired from firefighting in 2017, went back to work as a medical courier.

“We have liquidated everything my dad worked for his entire life, and we’re going to give it to the corporation,” he said.

Ence Morse@ence· 20d

Methodology, for the nerds:

about this story: The Washington Post analyzed contributions to federal political committees since Jan. 1, 2025, covering donations reported to the Federal Election Commission as of July 20, 2026. Direct independent expenditures, loans, refunds, bank payments such as interest and dividends, and contributions from a candidate to their own campaign are not included. Donations made by federal political action committees are not part of the list of top donors. Giving from some individuals includes donations from organizations controlled by them. Groups that gave to support candidates from both parties, or gave largely to nonpartisan PACs, are marked as “special interest.” If individuals endorsed President Donald Trump, they are marked as Republican. This tally will be updated periodically.

Ence Morse@ence· 20d

2 of the top 20 megadonors support Democrats. 15 support Republicans.

Ranked table of the top 20 individual political megadonors by total donations, where George Soros leads at $102M as the only Democrat in the top eight, and Republican-aligned donors dominate the rest of the list, trailing off to about $32M by 20th place.

Ence Morse@ence· 20d

We've just updated our megadonors tracker to include over $300 million in newly disclosed election spending from America's richest people and groups. Since our last update, billionaire Ken Griffin has jumped into the race, giving over $30M to Republicans. www.washingtonpost.com/elections/in...

Ence Morse@ence· 20d

NEW: Republican megadonors have now spent over $1 billion to influence the 2026 election. washingtonpost.com/elections/in...

Treemap of the largest individual political megadonors, each rectangle sized by total giving and grouped by party, where Republican donors together account for about $1.05B versus $362M for Democrats.

Ence Morse@ence· 20d

Methodology, for all you nerds out there:

The Post included all candidates whose principal campaign committees reported at least $100,000 in cash on hand and who are running for Congress this November. This includes candidates awaiting primaries and runoffs, but excludes those who lost their primaries or withdrew, incumbents who did not run for reelection, and dead candidates, according to the Ballotpedia database. The Post also included all PACs that raised or spent at least $1 million since the start of 2025. To categorize their partisan lean, The Post analyzed their independent expenditures since 2023, transfers, their websites and their description in OpenSecrets. If at least 90 percent of their independent expenditures or contributions went to support candidates of one party, they were classified as that party. Bipartisan special interest groups were not classified as either party.

Ence Morse@ence· 20d

Here's the top 15 candidate war chests. Pretty stark division.

Ranked table of the top 15 individual midterm campaign war chests by cash on hand as of June, where all top 10 belong to Democrats — led by Jon Ossoff's $43M — and Republicans don't appear until 11th place with about $11M.

Ence Morse@ence· 20d

MAGA Inc. has $400 million in the bank. The RNC has $128 million, to the DNC's $16 million (and $18m debt). So why are Democrats still up financially in some key races? Because candidates are out-raising their GOP opponents by huge margins with small-dollar donors.

Bar chart of 2026 campaign cash on hand by committee type, split by party, showing Democrats lead in House, Senate, and PAC funds but Republicans hold a large super PAC advantage ($1.1B vs. $724M) that drives their overall edge.

Ence Morse@ence· Jun 30

For context, the national Republican committees have an edge of about $150M on the Democrats, when you take into acccount the DNC's debt.

Bar chart showing Republican national committees - RNC, NRCC, NRSC - with an edge of over $100 million over Democrats.

Ence Morse@ence· Jun 25

Our analysis found Darializa Avila Chevalier won both White-plurality and Black-plurality precincts. She narrowly lagged her opponent in predominantly Hispanic precincts. The youth and college education of a precinct mattered more than racial background. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Bar chart of election results, where the DSA candidate Avila Chevalier wins by 20 points in plurality White precincts, 10 points in plurality Black precincts, and loses by 4 points in plurality Hispanic precincts. White and Black totals represent non-Hispanic residents.

Ence Morse@ence· Jun 25

The voters who just elected democratic socialists in New York tended to be young and college-educated. They were also racially diverse -- one DSA candidate won predominantly Hispanic precincts by *35* points. Deep dive w/ @teoarmus.bsky.social here: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Bar chart of DSA candidate Claire Valdez's performance by the percentage of young adults in a district. Valdez lost by 30 points in districts with under 20% young adults, and won by 40 points in those with over 40% young adults.

Ence Morse@ence· Jun 25

The midterm's biggest political donors have already spent over $1 billion to influence the elections. Most of that money came from Republican-leaning donors. Smaller amounts flowed to Democrats and AI, crypto, and sports gambling interests. Meet the 50 top donors here:

Tree chart of the 50 biggest midterm donors: Republicans represent $880 million in giving, Democrats represent $290 million, and special interests $200 million. Big donors include George Soros, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Elon Musk, and Jeff Yass.

Ence Morse@ence· Jun 18

We took a deep dive into the precinct results here... with @amahaja.bsky.social @jennygathright.bsky.social washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Ence Morse@ence· Jun 18

Left: JLG primary results by precinct Right: Precincts by age

Ence Morse@ence· Jun 8

A MAHA candidate for governor, who said RFK inspired him to run, just beat out Trump's pick in the GOP primary. He won by dominating among the lowest-income farming communities in Iowa. Read our analysis w/ @laurenweberhp.bsky.social @rachelroubein.bsky.social washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

Bar chart showing Lahn (MAHA candidate) and feenstra's vote ratio in agricultural counties in the Iowa GOP governor's primary, where Lahn beat Feenstra by about 9 points in counties with median income under 65k, but lost by 5 points in counties with median income over 71k.

Ence Morse@ence· Jun 5

i have always appreciated how these doors are, in fact, closed

Six doors in a churchyard in front of a Luther statue. The doors, in rainbow colors, read: “God’s doors are open to all.” They are closed.

Ence Morse@ence· May 12

absurdly neat

AI experiment
The next three paragraphs were rewritten by AI so that the text is in chaucerian english

Crossed out: Chatbots like ChatGPT are powerful because of their simplicity: Ask just about anything and you’ll get an answer. But the answer you get depends on a lot more than what you type
Added: Lo, how chatbots—such as ChatGPT—do show their might in this: they be wondrous plain of guise. Ask thou nearly aught, and straightway shalt thou have an answer. Yet take heed: the answer that thou findest cometh not only of thy words, but of much else besides.

Ence Morse@ence· May 11

The new Florida maps will split a growing Puerto Rican community in Kissimmee. Even some Republicans are unhappy. “You’re not giving the voters the respect they deserve,” a former Florida GOP field organizer told @teoarmus.bsky.social. Read our deep dive: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Arrow chart showing demographic populations of Florida's CD9 before and after redistricting, where the white population goes from 28% to 44% and the Hispanic population shrinks from 54% to 41%, including 26% to 17% drop in Puerto Rican population.

Ence Morse@ence· Apr 20

Yes, we’ve done some other reporting on this! none of the top level agencies have really grown significantly — the fed average is being pulled up by subagencies cutting less than most. Exceptions: ICE, CBP, a couple others www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Ence Morse@ence· Apr 16

Over 95% of the money that's gone into Virginia's wildly expensive redistricting battle has been from dark-money nonprofits concealing their donors — including the group that sent Black voters anti-redistricting mailers invoking the Klan. w/ Greg Schneider www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Ence Morse@ence· Apr 10

In the first two months of this year, after big wins for Democrats throughout 2025, just two people cut six-figure checks to the DNC. The RNC had 50. Our latest on the DNC's top-dollar donor woes, w/ @danmerica.bsky.social & Hannah Knowles www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Line chart showing the number of donors giving $100k+ over time to the DNC and RNC, by year, where the RNC maintains a slight advantage until 2025 and 2026, when they record far more than the DNC.

Ence Morse@ence· Mar 21

NEW: Outside spending on the 2026 midterms has passed $225 million — a March record. And some of the biggest spenders, including AIPAC, are masking their identities behind shell PACs that hide their donors until after the election. w/ @danmerica.bsky.social washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Ence Morse@ence· Mar 12

Across 24 states, Meta, Google, and Microsoft are giving exponentially more to influence state-level elections this cycle than they have in the past. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Ence Morse@ence· Mar 12

AI-backed PACs have already spent over $10 million to influence this year's elections — and it's working. Of the 20 candidates backed by AI money in last week's primaries, only one lost. a deep dive w/ @danmerica.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Bar chart of spending by AI-backed PACs on US House primaries, where Alex Bores saw $1.9 million in spending against him, and almost $500k in spending for him. Four other candidates are also pictured

Ence Morse@ence· Mar 10

and last week, our investigation w/ @azipaybarah.bsky.social @erxclau.me & Talia Trackim showed up. we found that anonymous accounts and right-wing influencers on X were feeding Musk policy ideas that the White House took action on. (plus, those visuals!!!) www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

Ence Morse@ence· Mar 10

my stories were on john oliver! twice!! this week, our story on USAID w/ the amazing @sarahellison.bsky.social was featured. we found that Musk only began criticizing the agency after conservative activist Mike Benz railed against it on Rogan's show. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Ence Morse@ence· Mar 4

About last night: Talarico performed best in 75%+ Hispanic counties — even better than his numbers in the whitest counties — and lagged Crockett in counties that were at least 10% Black. More on Texas w/ the great @lizcgoodwin.bsky.social @ktumulty.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Bar chart showing Talarico's performance in the Democratic Texas Senate primary by the racial composition of counties, where he wins just 38% of the vote in counties with over 20% Black residents, but 65% of the vote in counties with over 75% Hispanic residents

Ence Morse@ence· Feb 9

today I learned Austin has... curling teams?! (and 18 Texans in the olympics!!!) killer piece from the best sports data journalist in the biz @emilygiam.bsky.social