Protect your right to vote this election season 🗳️
Two days ago, on Election Hero Day, we recognized the tremendous contributions that your local election officials, their staff, and poll workers make to ensure a safe and secure voting experience for all Americans.
In the face of the Trump administration’s numerous acts of interference in the 2026 midterm elections, it’s critical to understand how to protect your vote and how election heroes help to ensure a transparent and accountable election process.
In an op-ed for MS NOW, CAP Senior Fellow Ben Hovland discusses how the demands the Department of Justice made of California election officials threaten election security.
“The administration’s pressure on California is the latest and most extreme in a series of efforts by the Trump administration attempting to undermine Americans’ confidence in the voting process. It has repeatedly made exaggerated claims about noncitizens on the voter rolls that are not backed up by the evidence. In so doing, the Trump administration is dusting off and federalizing an old voter suppression technique.”
6 ways federal student loans are more expensive and less flexible under the Trump administration
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), passed by congressional Republicans and signed into law by President Donald Trump, has increased costs and administrative burdens for student loan borrowers in a variety of ways.
Roughly 42.6 million U.S. adults—or about 1 in 6—are federal student loan borrowers, collectively holding $1.72 trillion in loans. Even before the changes in OBBBA took effect, more than 4 in 10 borrowers reported “making tradeoffs between loan payments and covering their basic needs.”
Here are some of the most harmful and expensive changes to student loan repayment that borrowers began experiencing in July 2026:
The new repayment plans will give borrowers fewer repayment options and increase student loan bills by $2,163 on average annually for borrowers moving from the affordable Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan to the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP).
The new repayment policies will worsen racial and gender wealth gaps, as borrowers of color will pay disproportionately more over the life of their loans.
New loan limits will reduce access and increase interest costs for graduate school for many borrowers, disproportionately affecting women and students of color.
Parent borrowers will have fewer repayment options and low-income parent borrowers may pay as much as $1,100 more than they would have before the OBBBA.
OBBBA eliminates essential elements of the student loan safety net, including unemployment or economic hardship deferments.
Under OBBBA, students who attended institutions that misled them or abruptly closed will have to fight harder to receive relief.
Join CAP CEO Neera Tanden and Jessica Tarlov of ‘The Five’ for a conversation on her new book
The Center for American Progress is excited to welcome Jessica Tarlov, best known as the outspoken—and outnumbered—liberal co-host on the Fox News roundtable show “The Five.” In her new book, I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends, Tarlov draws on that experience to explore how she navigates contentious debates and engages confidently across the political divide while keeping her composure.
Tarlov reflects on her journey to landing as the lone liberal on “The Five” and shares what prepared her to sit alone and stand out among her ideologically opposed co-hosts. Whether you’re preparing for the inevitable family debate at the Thanksgiving dinner table or tackling the news of the day with co-workers, Tarlov models how to maintain grace under pressure, make your arguments heard, and seek to both understand and be understood.
Copies of I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends will be available for purchase for those attending in person, and Tarlov will sign copies following the event.
