Our Ground Game newsletter editors asked AP’s political reporters across the country who have been covering the midterm elections to pick the top story they’ve worked on this year and take stock of what made it memorable.
Here’s what New York-based reporter Ali Swenson had to say about covering the 2026 campaign:
“One of my favorite political stories that I reported this year looked at something that’s been gathering momentum for a while but came roaring to the fore in this year’s primary elections: the new left-wing media ecosystem.
The story zoomed in on an expanding web of independent podcasts, social media accounts and digital news sites that take an anti-establishment approach and boosted a wave of progressive Democratic candidates. Abdul El-Sayed, the U.S. Senate nominee in Michigan, is one of them.
Before reporting this, I’d noticed a growing allegiance to these alternative news sources among my own neighbors in New York. People unhappy with mainstream coverage of the war in Gaza had been rummaging online for news they viewed as more accurate for years.
The story let me showcase those Americans and explore how their loss of trust in institutions changed what they expected from news.
Now that independent media is so prevalent both on the right and left, it’ll be interesting to watch how it affects both ‘26 and ‘28.”
