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Russell Payne

Russell Payne is a staff reporter for Salon. His reporting has previously appeared in The New York Sun and the Finger Lakes Times.

US President Donald Trump delivers the commencement address at the 2025 US Military Academy Graduation Ceremony at West Point, New York, on May 24, 2025. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Meet the young Republicans who want to deport Zohran Mamdani

Russell Payne
Two ICE agents film the press using smartphones in the hallway outside the immigration court in New York USA on July 11, 2025. (MADISON SWART/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

Pressure grows to unmask ICE

Russell Payne
Protesters wrapped in pride and trans pride flags sit on a wall during a trans rights demonstration. (Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Suicide hotline changes are a “direct attack” on trans youth

Russell Payne
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents look over lists of names and their hearing times and locations inside the Federal Plaza courthouse before making arrests on June 27, 2025 in New York. (BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images)

“Cried every night”: ICE detains child with leukemia

Russell Payne
An aerial view shows the south side of the city of Douglas next to the double wall on the US-Mexico next to the Mexican city of Agua Prieta (L) in Douglas, Arizona, on October 15, 2024. (OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images)

In Arizona, Democrats battle over who’s the real “outsider”

Russell Payne
Olga Urbina and her 9=month-old son Ares Webster participate in a protest outside the Supreme Court over President Donald Trump's move to end birthright citizenship as the court hears arguments over the order in Washington, DC, on May 15, 2025. (DREW ANGERER/AFP via Getty Images)

Judge pauses Trump’s effort to abolish birthright citizenship

Russell Payne
New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani, D-N.Y., greets voters with Democratic mayoral candidate Michael Blake on 161st Street on June 24, 2025 in the South Bronx in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Mamdani’s Democratic critics want to ruin his shot at winning

Russell Payne
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - JUNE 12: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents guard outside Delaney Hall, a migrant detention facility, while anti-ICE activists demonstrate on June 12, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. Anti-ICE protests have been spreading to cities across America since Ice deportation quotas have increased. (Photo by (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

ICE’s $175 billion windfall: Trump’s mass deportation force set to receive military-level funding

Russell Payne
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, takes an elevator just off the Senate floor after the Senate stayed in session throughout the night at the U.S. Capitol Building on July 1, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“Special treatment”: How Republicans bought Lisa Murkowski’s vote

Russell Payne
Democratic U.S. House candidate Tom Suozzi speaks following his victory in the special election to replace Republican Rep. George Santos on February 13, 2024 in Woodbury, New York. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Taking on “the language police” and taxing the rich: Tom Suozzi has a vision for moderate Democrats

Russell Payne
J.D. Scholten poses for a portrait in Sioux City, Iowa April 18, 2019. (Joshua Lott for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“A blueberry in a bowl of tomato soup”: One Democrat’s plan for beating Joni Ernst in deep-red Iowa

Russell Payne
A robot using artificial intelligence is displayed at a stand during the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, on May 30, 2024. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

“Summoning the demon”: Steve Bannon stokes fear of an AI “apocalypse”

Russell Payne
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., speaks at a press conference endorsing New York City Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang on January 14, 2021 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Do WelcomeFest Democrats even know what’s popular?

Russell Payne
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., speaks during a Planned Parenthood rally at the Rochester Community House on October 27, 2024 in Rochester, Michigan. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

“What it means to be a partisan centrist”: At WelcomeFest, a billionaire-backed vision for Democrats

Russell Payne
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to members of the press after testifying before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Rayburn House Office Building at the U.S. Capitol on September 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Petty, abusive — and popular: Why New York Democrats are afraid to speak out against Andrew Cuomo

Russell Payne
Governor Andrew Cuomo (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Beholden to Trump”: Under DOJ investigation, Cuomo could be pressured to serve the MAGA agenda

Russell Payne
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott listens to President Donald Trump's address during a tour to an unfinished section of the border wall on June 30, 2021 in Pharr, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The “money for Texas” amendment: GOP budget could reward Greg Abbott for MAGA border stunts

Russell Payne
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) signs the Laken Riley Act during an enrollment ceremony with members of the Georgia delegation in the Speaker's ceremonial office at the U.S. Capitol on January 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A tax cut for the “merely wealthy” finds bipartisan support in Congress

Russell Payne
Damon Thueson shows a holster at a gun concealed carry permit class put on by "USA Firearms Training" on December 19, 2015 in Provo, Utah. Uptick In Interest In Concealed Carry Classes (George Frey/Getty Images)

Republicans want to make it easier to carry a gun almost anywhere

Russell Payne
Pope Leo XIV meets media representatives in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on May 12, 2025. (Maria Grazia Picciarella/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“A pope of the people”: The first American pontiff is no Marxist, but friends say he’s a reformer

Russell Payne
A view of the CoreCivic Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, California, United States on February 07, 2025. (Carlos Moreno/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Private prison firm CoreCivic sees Trump’s mass deportation agenda as “catalyst” for growth

Russell Payne
Care advocates attend 24-hour vigil at U.S. Capitol to share stories and urge lawmakers to protect Medicaid on May 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Caring Across Generations)

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there”: Right-wing ads claim that Republicans love Medicaid

Russell Payne
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., speaks during a "Back the Blue," campaign rally in Congers, N.Y., on Friday, October 18, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“No doubt in my mind”: Woman booted from GOP town hall believes she was targeted “to chill dissent”

Russell Payne
A woman holds a sign expressing fear of cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, at a "Hands Off!" protest against the Trump administration on April 5, 2025 in Riverside, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)

“Medicaid has saved my life multiple times”: Patients explain how GOP cuts could impact their health

Russell Payne
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