Gridlock slows Congress, but in their own work, everyday citizens have to keep solving problems or face the consequences. We asked for their practical advice for the new Congress.

As the national capital, Washington is the place aspiring and veteran navel-gazers converge, endlessly analyzing wrinkles in American politics that average Americans don’t even see.

It’s an art and an industry. Ideally, they would value the perspectives of farmers and firefighters, teachers and truck drivers – welcoming their ideas and refining them through all this thinking and talking. 

As a boy, Albert Einstein wondered what it would be like to ride a beam of light. The answers he found as a scientist changed our view of the universe. At the speed of light, there is only light, since nothing else can travel so fast. Concepts of “here” and “there,” “now” and “then” collapse. Distance and time lose their meaning.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday that Democrats have a better chance of connecting with rural voters in his home state and elsewhere when they talk about the things people need and the ways they can help them.

“When we think about how do we communicate with our rural families, the first thing is to care about them,” the Democratic governor said in an interview with The Associated Press at the state Capitol. “And to show that you care about them, and to earn their trust that you do truly care about them.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said Thursday that she and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., had found common ground in the potential rail worker strike that has concerned many across the nation.

"A rarity," she said in reference to a tweet from the Florida Republican earlier this week in which he said he would object to a deal that does not reflect the wishes of the workers.

Cross-aisle bonds between Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), Rep.-elect John James (R-Mich.) and Rep.-elect Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) were forged in the same class at the storied military academy.

When John James and Pat Ryan reconnected on the sidelines of an Army football game in 2019, they were two old West Point classmates with night-and-day political identities in a similar predicament: Both had just lost congressional bids.

Like other meaningful differences in America, the depth of disagreement over American elections seems to keep increasing. On one hand are those concerned about voting integrity and the possibility of fraud through mail-in ballots. On the other hand are those concerned about voter access and the silencing of certain voters through the creation of extra barriers.  

Several conservative lawmakers said they welcomed Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., indicating the possibility of bipartisan entitlements reform in the next Congress.

Manchin, a moderate Democrat, suggested that lawmakers from both major parties might be able to find common ground on shoring up solvency for programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

"If we don't look at the trust funds that are going bankrupt, whether they be Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, highway, all the ones — there are tremendous problems right now," Manchin said late last week.

Most House Republicans most likely to buck party leadership and side with Democrats are leaving Congress, raising questions about what bipartisanship will look like in the next Congress.

A MarketWatch analysis of roll call vote data collected by GovTrack found that four of the five House Republicans who have broken off from a Republican majority to side with the majority of Democrats are leaving at the end of their term. 

Gov. Jared Polis (D) is up for reelection on Tuesday.

But unless you’re reading the local news, you might not have heard anything about it. That’s at least partly because the race is not very competitive. Polis is projected to defeat Republican challenger Heidi Ganahl by a wide margin.

Polis, the first openly gay man to be elected governor of a state, has quietly become one of the more unique figures in Democratic politics.

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