Daniel Donner

Several blocks in downtown Chicago are not part of *any* congressional district map (new or old). How on earth is this possible? The answer involves billions of dollars, brothels, Abraham Lincoln, and a bit of geomorphology. 1/ New IL map: t.co/QzQX9spFUO

Mayor Mamdani's got a hankering for great data design! Got a knack for data visualization and live in NYC? This job could be for you. Looks awesome (though it's temporary, though April next year.) cityjobs.nyc.gov/job/data-vis...

How you know Election Day is almost upon us: It's time for The Downballot's annual prediction contest, with prizes sponsored by the gloriously delicious GreensBabka.com! And this year's contest is bigger and badder than ever. Click below for full details & a link to submit your guesses. Good luck!

Median rent as a share of median income of renter households in major U.S. metros, 2010 vs. 2024. Minneapolis is lowest on the list, at 29%, down from 30.4% in 2010. www.artio.so/dataviz/page...

Manhattan peaked in 1910 at 2.3 million people. One Lower East Side census tract held 44,000 people on 50 acres; those blocks now hold about one person for every four. Data: IPUMS NHGIS · Bromley atlases, NYPL #dataviz #maps #NYC #history

Excellent infographic article about the numerous open-source software and libraries that are only maintained by one unpaid developer, leading to burnout and security exploits. sheets.works/data-viz/hol...

Oil hits $115 a barrel for the first time since May, adding to the economic strain just 11 days before critical midterm elections that may turn in part on affordability. @iankmsmith.ft.com @urbandirt.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/8948...

There will be a major tendency among pundits to downplay GOP gerrymandering when Democrats flip the House and the GOP fails to flip some of its mid-decade remap targets, but the pre-2026 baseline was still very gerrymandered. Even in a wave, the national map could cost Dems two dozen seats or more

New: Low-info voters, who put Trump in the White House, now look even more anti-Trump than high-info voters, and give Dems bigger margins on the generic ballot. 1 out of 3 Trump voters who can't name the party in charge of Congress now back Dems for 2026. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/poll-low-i...

The election is coming... time to get maps ready! We have both normal maps and our hexmap cartogram available for you as image files, shapefiles, and svg files. The cartogram can also be found on Datawrapper under USA>>Congressional Districts Elections 2026 (hexmap) docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

A nice twist on the House non-contiguous cartogram; each state appears to be its own voronoi diagram, which makes for straight borders between districts.

‘New data shows that this year, the average cost of a family health plan crossed $28,000, rising by 5%. The share coming out of employees’ paychecks shot up even faster—to $7,471, an increase of 9% from 2025.’ www.wsj.com/health/healt...

When first reported, 2025’s jobs reports added up to 1.2 million new jobs. After revisions, the economy added just 116,000 — 90% less.

Yet another reason why you should instead tune into The Downballot/Strength In Numbers election night livestream! If you're a real Sicko, you can even bookmark it now: open.substack.com/live-stream/...

A timely reminder. But note that while the slope of every graph is positive, the x-intercept is sometimes positive (2014; Rs outperformed on average in light blue states)... and sometimes negative (2012; Ds outperformed on average even in moderately red states).

Chart: Presidential job approval ratings leading into midterm elections, 1946-present, sorted from lowest to highest (via @nytimes.com) www.nytimes.com/2026/10/21/u...

There’s Something Missing From Republican Ads as the Midterms Near A Times analysis of ad data shows ... www.nytimes.com/2026/10/19/u...

"67% of Trump’s 2024 voters now approve of his performance, down from 75% in July, 83% at the beginning of this year and 95% early in his second term." www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...

BLAS: “.. Once again, I had to update the y-axis as the cost of oil freight (Persian Gulf to the Far East) climbs further. Now at >$1.4 million per day.” @bloomberg.com @javierblas.bsky.social ⛽️

unreal piece by @federicacocco.bsky.social @teoarmus.bsky.social. look at those job numbers falling off a cliff! www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The NY Fed examines how tariffs affected inflation and finds that, without them, goods prices would have declined as of last February. libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2026/10/how-...

ChatGPT is adding the signatures of real New Yorker cartoonists to its AI-generated images. So far, I've found the signatures of more than 15 contributors. "It’s slop, and unlike the other slop that I’ve encountered, this is slop that’s pretending to be me." www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/chat...

A comparison of the NYT/Siena generic ballot numbers for each polled state with recent House popular vote margins within that state. The most recent poll for all states is within 7 points of the 2018 margin. www.nytimes.com/spotlight/ti...

NEW: The 2026 elections in most states will decide which party runs elections heading into 2028 (see map). We detail how Democrats could hold or gain this power in 14 potentially competitive states—and form a bulwark against MAGA subverting the 2028 elections www.the-downballot.com/p/voters-can...

With both Lake Powell and Lake Mead at record-lows, here’s a look at how their water levels have varied since Powell was filled in 1980. Neither has recovered from a severe drought in the early 2020s, while Colorado River flows continue to drop. #dataviz #climate #globalwarming

An all around weak -- but not tragic -- payrolls report for September. +29k jobs created, about 60k below expectations. Revisions made both July and August look weaker, too. Over the past 3 months, we've an average of a mere +17k per month.

I’ve written this up here. In addition to there not being a Covid-scale drop in tourism recently, you might also be wondering why visits from Mexico seem to double around 2004-05. The answer is not a sudden shift in Mexican preferences but rather our old friend, There Was A Change In The Measure.

The election is coming... time to get maps ready! We have both normal maps and our hexmap cartogram available for you as image files, shapefiles, and svg files. The cartogram can also be found on Datawrapper under USA>>Congressional Districts Elections 2026 (hexmap) docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The masculinity politics beat continues to be very necessary. goodauthority.substack.com/p/republican...

Lake Erie turned toward autumn in a single week. Every hour of its surface currents, 16 to 23 September 2026, colored by water temperature: the surface lost about 6°F in seven days. Data: NOAA Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (model) #LakeErie #GreatLakes #dataviz

Deaths now outnumber births in reliably Republican counties for the first time since at least 1982. We explain how this may already be affecting voting patterns in America bit.ly/471apDL

This is why diesel prices - which selectively affect Trump voters and rural areas in particular - matter for the election. www.kff.org/public-opini...

From the NYT/Press Herald/Siena Maine poll crosstabs: Maine likely voters prefer Democratic control of the Senate by 55-43. Including... 13% of those who are voting for Susan Collins. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

WSJ: The AI build-out is on track to become the biggest economic bet in US history, dwarfing the investments made to fund other huge US infrastructure projects — such as the railroads, the highway system and the plumbing for the internet.” (via Jefferies)