Help keep Salon independent

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.

Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-Clint, Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, and Rep King King, R-Canadian, stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in the House Chamber at the Capitol in Austin, Friday, Aug. 8, 2025. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images))

Texas Democrats face a “complicated” long game

Russell Payne
A person, who declined to be named, views a U.S. Congressional District map as the Senate Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting meets to hear invited testimony on Congressional plan C2308 at the Texas State Capitol on August 6, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

GOP power grab puts voting rights advocates in a bind

Russell Payne
Texas Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (C) and Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu (R) listen as Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks to reporters during a press conference at the DuPage County Democratic Party headquarters on August 03, 2025 in Carol Stream, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Texas Dems to DC: “Do something — or get out of the way”

Russell Payne
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speak to the media outside the Capitol on April 1, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Are Democrats blowing it? A “blue wave” is no sure thing

Russell Payne
Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, speaks at an endorsement event from the union DC 37 on July 15, 2025, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

“Vote blue no matter who,” unless it’s Mamdani?

Russell Payne
Federal agents with US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) ride on an armored vehicle driving slowly down Wilshire Boulevard near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, California, on July 7, 2025. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

American democracy is crashing out and it will be hard to reverse, international rights group warns

Russell Payne
Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on July 21, 2025 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

ICE is about to go on a hiring spree

Russell Payne
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
« Previous
Page: 1
Next »