Good morning! Writing The Elective has been a labor of love, and we’ve cherished every second of it. But all good things must come to an end. This will be our final issue. We’re deeply grateful to every one of you for reading this little newsletter for as long as you did and for trusting us to explain the news in a straightforward and funny (well, allegedly) manner. Thank you.

PS: If you haven’t heard, Jill Biden’s ex-husband was just charged with murdering his second wife. Anywayyyyy….

VOTING

🗳️ What’s the SAVE Act?

If there’s one thing Congress does that might convince all Americans to join hands, sing Kumbaya, and hate together, it’s probably stupid, made-up acronyms. The star of the show this week? The SAVE Act.

The SAVE Act, known to close friends and relatives as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, was passed by House Republicans last year before quickly dying in the Senate. It’s back in the news this week, though, after President Trump said “Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

• What does that mean? Who knows. But it’s turned into a renewed push from Republicans to pass the SAVE Act, so we’re going to take a look at that.

What would the bill do? The SAVE Act would require ID to vote (only 36 states currently do), require that mail-in ballots be received by Election Day (some states allow them to be mailed then), and require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.

Is that allowed? If it passed, it would certainly get challenged in court … but it’s probably constitutional. Article I of the Constitution gives state legislatures the power to decide how they hold their congressional elections. But it also says Congress can “make or alter” those rules “at any time.”

• Another provision extends that power, in a limited manner, to presidential races.

• This is why Election Day is when it is. Congress set that back in 1845.

Technically, the SAVE Act’s rules would only apply to federal elections. States could ignore them in races for governor, state legislature, etc. But who wants to deal with the headache of separate voter registrations and separate elections?

The opposition: The other side of this argument says it’s a solution in search of a problem. Noncitizens can’t vote as it is, and plenty of citizens don’t have the proof the law would require. As a result, some anti-SAVE Act Democrats have begun calling it “nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0.”

• The shoe was on the other foot a few years ago when Republicans opposed the Democrats’ push to require same-day registration, expand early voting, expand vote by mail, and more.

Is this thing going to pass? Almost certainly not. Republicans like it and are considering attaching it to an upcoming budget bill. But Democrats are adamantly opposed, so it’s got no chance of getting the 60 votes necessary to pass a filibuster.

GOVERNMENT

🕊️ The supreme leader of Iran “should be very worried,” according to President Trump. Bilateral talks between the U.S. and Iran were briefly canceled after the U.S. refused Iran’s demand to move them from Turkey to Oman (next door to Dubai). The U.S. eventually relented after urging from its Arab allies. They appear now to be back on the schedule. What’s the topic? Secretary of State Marco Rubio wants to cover three things: Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s “sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region,” and the Iranian government’s “treatment of their own people” (read: murdering thousands of protestors). Iran’s down to chat about that first one — not that they’ll actually get rid of it — but is so far refusing to allow talk about anything else (like, for instance, their drone the U.S. shot down near an aircraft carrier).

⛏️ President Trump this week unveiled plans for a $12 billion critical minerals stockpile called Project Vault. The reserve is meant to shield the U.S. against potential supply chain disruptions. China dominates the global supply of loads of critical rare earth minerals and temporarily restricted U.S. access during a 2025 trade spat. Project Vault is a joint public-private initiative combining $2 billion in private cash with a $10 billion government loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. The Ex-Im Bank is a federal agency that helps finance and facilitate the trade of U.S. goods when the private sector can’t (or won’t). On a related note, 55 countries met in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to chat about how to insulate themselves against Chinese domination of the critical minerals market.

🌎️ Thanks to a ruling from a federal district judge in Washington, D.C., 350,000 Haitians will be allowed to remain in the United States. At least for now. The migrants have been allowed to live and work here under the TPS — Temporary Protected Status — program. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) didn’t want to renew TPS and argued that it was safe for the migrants to return to Haiti (many of them came here after Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake). But Judge Ana C. Reyes blocked that termination and ruled DHS's move was illegal. They’ll be allowed to keep TPS while their full legal challenge to its termination plays out in court.

POLITICS

🏛️ Budgets, borders, and (electoral) blowouts

Welp, that didn’t last long. After just three days, (Partial) Government Shutdown 2026™ ended when President Trump signed a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government — the part that hadn’t already been funded, at least — until September. But fear not, sickos who just want to watch the world burn. We could have another partial shutdown next week.

• The bill only funded the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through February 13.

• Congress just bought itself a little time to debate some proposed changes to how DHS enforces immigration law.

Speaking of immigration, only 30 miles of new U.S.-Mexico border wall barrier have been built since Trump 2.0 began last year. Some sources are blaming DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for not giving final approval, but that’s a story DHS denies. Contracts to build ~200 miles of barrier (on water and land) have reportedly already been awarded.

• The border is about 2,000 miles. As of early 2025, there were about 720 miles of barriers in place.

• President Trump hopes to complete missing sections, replace aging sections, and add tech improvements to the entire thing by 2029.

• If you're interested, Customs and Border Patrol has an interactive map of where things stand.

In related news, border czar Tom Homan is pulling 700 immigration officers out of Minnesota after “unprecedented cooperation” from the state. That seems like a lot (and it is), but about 2,000 will remain.

• According to the U.S. Border Patrol, by the way, they recorded ~237,000 encounters with migrants at the southern border in 2025.

• That's the lowest annual total since 1970.

Back on the political front:

1. Sen. Tim Scott (R), who leads the campaign arm of Senate Republicans, warned his colleagues that they could be headed for a blowout loss in November.

2. Polls show that voters still narrowly prefer Republicans on border security. But the economy is what really matters, and Democrats have a strong lead there.

3. The Supreme Court declined a Republican request to block California’s new congressional map. If the map fulfills its purpose, Democrats will pick up five U.S. House seats in the state that are currently held by Republicans.

TRIVIA

If you’ve ever read skimmed a political news article headline, you might have noticed that journalists all have this weird habit of referring to the Republican Party by a three-letter nickname that has nothing to do with the letter R or the party’s very American mascot, the elephant. We’re talking, of course, about “GOP.” Not to be confused with Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand and its suspiciously scented candles, GOP is an old term dating to the 1870s. Today’s million-dollar question: What does GOP stand for?

Hint: The P is “party.”

BRIEFS

● After finding a fuel leak during testing, NASA said it will delay its return to the moon until March. For the first time in 50+ years, Artemis II astronauts will circle the moon before landing on the lunar surface in a separate 2027 mission.

● Following a landmark $2 million medical malpractice verdict in New York, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons changed course this week and said it no longer recommends gender transition surgeries for minors.

● The Department of Justice said it will seek the death penalty for the guy accused of killing a National Guard soldier in D.C. in November. Elsewhere, the guy who tried to assassinate President Trump on his golf course in 2024 was just handed a life sentence.

● President Trump signed a one-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Originally signed in 2000, the law gives qualifying sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the U.S. market.

● The Washington Post announced Wednesday that it's laying off one-third of its staff and axing entire sections of its paper. Owned by Jeff Bezos since 2013, WaPo lost $100 million in 2024. D.C. journalists responded by, of course, comparing this to murder.

QUOTE

ANSWER

Fun fact unrelated to this question: The Democratic Party’s mascot is the donkey because opponents of President Andrew Jackson (the first Democratic president) kept calling him a jackass, and he leaned into it.

Anyway, about ten years after the Civil War ended, people began referring to the Republican Party as the Grand Old Party to emphasize its role in preserving the Union. The GOP was founded in 1854 to abolish slavery, so it was only about 20 years old at the time. But why let a silly calendar get in the way of a good nickname?