It’s Thursday, August 13. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: The strange fate of Francesca Hong. What Rod Dreher learned from a Democratic operative. The high school student fighting his classmates’ antisemitism. And much more.
But first: AOC’s race against time.
Heading into the 2026 midterms, the Democratic Party is plotting a rebrand, and 36-year-old congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in the center of the action. And while she crisscrosses the country to stump for a new crop of socialist candidates, her personal life has suddenly spilled into view.
Last Saturday, AOC went viral after she posted on Instagram that she had decided to start freezing her eggs. The next day, she went on a Sunday show and took a fertility shot in the green room. And on Monday, TMZ announced that she and her fiancé had split.
Her decision sparked a debate about women preserving their freedom into middle age—but our columnist Caitlin Flanagan has a different take.
“It was like watching the cycle of life in reverse,” she writes. Read Caitlin’s essay on what’s wrong with AOC’s effort to “normalize” egg freezing.
—The Editors
Establishments vs. Insurgents
When DSA-backed Francesca Hong lost her bid for the Wisconsin governorship on Tuesday, much of the press raced toward a premature conclusion. From Bloomberg to National Review, commentators declared that democratic socialism had “hit a wall.” The idea is that the populist movement sweeping the Democratic Party had reached a limit of sorts, rejected by primary voters in a politically moderate state.
Yet look a little closer and you’ll see that it took plenty of effort to make voters spurn her. Today, Audrey Fahlberg reports on how Hong’s opponent, David Crowley, and other moderate Democrats in Wisconsin mobilized to take down Hong with little time left in the race. It’s a comeback that should be studied closely by Democrats around the country who are desperate to halt the socialist surge.
But what gave rise to radicals like Hong in the first place—and how can a party stamp them out before they ever arrive? No one knows that story better than Evan Barker, a former Democratic operative who once worked for Abdul El-Sayed, and who witnessed the takeover of identity politics firsthand. This month, she laid out her takeaways in a new book—and when Rod Dreher read it, the message felt more familiar than he expected. Today, he explains what the Democrats’ turn has taught him about the future of the Republican Party—and how the GOP can avoid falling into the same trap.
America has an antisemitism problem. It’s an issue we’ve covered extensively here at The Free Press, most recently with an investigation by Rupa Subramanya into one high school in Virginia, and how it failed to protect its Jewish students from harassment and intimidation. Today, we’re publishing an essay by Leo Lewis, a high school student with firsthand experience of the Jew-hatred he says is rampant among his peers. His message to anyone older than him is stark: It is worse than you think. We came across Leo’s writing on Substack and were impressed by what we found. We are publishing an adapted and expanded version of his essay, a sobering account of the prejudice taking hold within his generation, why it has flourished, and what must be done to confront it.
And, in case you missed it, read Rupa’s investigation:
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THE NEWS
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a one-week low on Wednesday. The drop came amid increased volatility in the region, as President Donald Trump claimed “total control” over the strait, and the Iranian-backed Houthis killed six people in the Red Sea.
Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth upset Trump-backed Mike Lindell, of MyPillow fame, to win the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday. Demuth will run against Senator Amy Klobuchar in the general election.
President Trump announced Wednesday that his press secretary Karoline Leavitt is stepping down at the end of August. Leavitt will be leaving to spend time with her two young children, and will remain a top outside adviser to the president’s team.
The Trump administration is set to spend at least $900 million on White House construction by routing funds from other agencies and private donors. The renovation plans include a gilded East Wing ballroom, a new helipad, and a visitor screening center.
Federal authorities arrested a former Southern Poverty Law Center employee, Heidi Beirich, on charges that allege she oversaw secret payments to informants inside of white supremacist groups. Prosecutors claim Beirich lived with and was romantically involved with one of the recipients. (For more on the scandals rocking SPLC, read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s essential piece.)
Former Disney chief executive Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner are buying the Los Angeles Lakers for a record $12.5 billion. Their purchase marks a significant increase from the $10 billion Mark Walter paid for the franchise less than a year prior, despite star player LeBron James’ recent departure.
A total solar eclipse swept across Iceland and Spain, the first to cross mainland Europe since 1999. Spain set up 350 viewing sites amid heat and wildfire warnings, where the eclipse produced a rare “sunset” effect.
The solar eclipse also swept through the UK. It was near total in Northumberland. The light became very odd while I enjoy a white port and tonic (an incredibly refreshing summer drink which is apparently often drunk in Portugal). The temperature are closer to Portuguese summer temps than the usual cold and rainy climate of Northumberland. Most of England is under a hosepipe ban and is in drought conditions. Northumberland is just dry and has reservoirs because of its heavy industry heritage..