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Get ready for a wild primary night in California (and a bunch of other states); Saudi Arabia issues its first driver’s licenses to women.
Will Democrats blow their chances in California?
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- Voters in eight states are headed to the polls to vote in primaries today: Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. [NYT / Maggie Astor]
- There are interesting races in all the states, but the biggest and most important is undoubtedly California, where there’s a Senate primary, a governor’s primary, and a mind-blowing number of House primaries. [Vox / Tara Golshan]
- The California Senate race is a relative snoozefest compared to all the action on the House side. Longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein is facing a credible challenge from state Sen. Kevin de León, but his campaign hasn’t really taken off so far. [Vox / Ella Nilsen]
- The state’s House races are a lot more dramatic and high-stakes. California is hugely important to the Democrats electoral chances in 2018: There are seven districts that Hillary Clinton won in 2016 currently represented by Republicans in Congress. Dems want to flip those, plus a few more. [Vox / Tara Golshan]
- There’s one big thing standing in their way: California’s “top two” primary system (also known as a “jungle primary”). Basically, there’s no separate primaries for Democrats and Republicans; candidates from both parties compete for the top two slots. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]
- That’s causing a major headache for both parties, but especially for Democrats, who fear they could lock themselves out of some key flippable races. [LA Times / Christine Mai-Duc]
- This is a dynamic that’s playing out in multiple races, but none more so obvious than California’s 48th District, currently held by Republican Dana Rohrabacher. [Slate / Jim Newell]
- The top two Democrats in the race hate each other and seem to be polling closely (plus, there’s been some drama with national Democrats backing one candidate). There’s also another Republican in the mix besides Rohrabacher, meaning that two Republicans could come out on top on Tuesday. [Vox / Tara Golshan]
- There is so, so, so much more. Read Vox’s rundown on key races if you need to get caught up before the results start pouring in. [Vox / Ella Nilsen, Tara Golshan, Dylan Scott, Andrew Prokop, and Li Zhou]
A license to drive
- Saudi Arabia issued its first 10 driver’s licenses to women on Monday, a historic move in a country dominated by strict Sharia law. The government will soon get rid of its ban on women driving. [NYT / Ben Hubbard]
- Saudi Arabia was the last country in the world to have laws banning women from driving, which is a huge hassle to women who work, go to school, go shopping ... or really do anything that involves leaving the house. [LA Times / Alexandra Zavis]
- At the same time, the kingdom is being criticized for a harsh crackdown on some of the women who made this movement a reality, jailing activists who had previously been arrested for driving. [Guardian / Emma Graham-Harrison]
- The arrests of the women were very public, which suggests that the Saudi government is trying to keep its citizens in line. The arrests come at a time when the new young leader, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, is trying to bring the country in line with modern times. [NPR / Deborah Amos]
Miscellaneous
- Beloved fashion designer Kate Spade is dead at age 55, and many across the industry are commemorating her legacy. [NYT / Jonah Engel Bromwich, Vanessa Friedman, and Matthew Schneier]
- J. Prince has instructed Drake not to respond to Pusha T while the world waits for the newest diss track — which Prince calls “overwhelming” — in rap’s best beef of late. [Vulture / Halle Kiefer]
- After two years of users mourning the loss of Instagram’s reversed chronological feed, the platform has finally revealed what drives the algorithm so despised by many: “Interest, Recency and Relationship.” [TechCrunch / Josh Constine]
- A day after being in the news for used mattresses, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is back in the headlines for ... Chick-fil-A?? You literally can’t make this stuff up. [Washington Post / Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis, and Josh Dawsey]
Verbatim
“I wouldn’t want to be plus-size, either, if all it means is going to the mall to deal with rude store employees who don’t conceal their annoyance or pity when you ask them for directions to our designated dark corner of the store.” [Ariel Woodson / Racked]
Watch this: Why so many sitcoms look the same
The one about sitcom lighting. [YouTube / Phil Edwards]
Read more
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Trump’s Philadelphia Eagles comments prove he’ll fight the culture war no matter what
