A hint of political heat leads to sunny news

And Joe Manchin puts out the most grating press release of all-time

Welcome to a premium Thursday evening edition of Progress Report!

I’m back in New York after a semi-southern swing through Richmond and Washington, DC, plugged in again to the kinetic energy and urgency of the city. In DC, I spent time with my colleagues at More Perfect Union, planning and plotting out new ways to cover the growing worker uprising that is defying the great paratrophic black hole of cynicism and entrenched power that has swallowed up every other popular progressive movement since the 1980s.

In Richmond, I spent the day with some of the young workers leading this uprising. Unity Fest, an event thrown by the city’s unionizing Starbucks workers and attended by baristas from around the country, was unlike any other union event I’ve ever covered. The place was packed with radicalized 20-somethings that had found power in solidarity and a way forward in an era of isolation and dead-ends.

The night was capped by a speech and private conversation with Sen. Bernie Sanders, which I attended with a videographer. There were some very powerful exchanges, and if the Democrats really want to win back young voters, they’d be smart to join the Vermont senator at these rallies and picket lines.

More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS

EXCLUSIVE: We got an inside look at the conversation between @BernieSanders and unionizing Starbucks workers. Workers opened up about Starbucks’ abusive workplace and sinister union-busting campaign. “This is the bullshit that corporations often do,” Sanders told them.

Bernie has this special alchemy that mixes populism, pugnaciousness, earnestness, and empathy, which are all magnified by his unwavering devotion to the cause of working-class Americans and filtered through a nostalgic Brooklyn accent.

It’s impossible to replicate his effect, but after 16 months of tacking to the right in depressingly fruitless attempts to win over their worst members and economic trouble in sight, Democrats might want to start trying to do their best impression of the senator from Vermont.

Lots of other news to discuss today, including some important updates on stories that we’ve been closely following and reporting on here at Progress Report.

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Housing

Florida: There is no state experiencing quite as dramatic a spike in housing costs as Florida, where rents have soared by more than 50% in some metro areas. As I’ve written time and again, this could be the issue that capsizes Ron DeSantis’s re-election campaign, which he’s currently treating like a coronation, so it’s extremely encouraging to see that Florida’s progressive Democrats are honing in on the matter.