Top 5 Ways Democrats Delivered This Week
We're back for our second week with even BIGGER wins.
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We are back for our second Democrats Deliver Weekly Roundup. We hope you enjoy it! For breaking news in real time, follow us at @DemzDeliver on X.
5. Senate Democrats Turn a Republican ICE Budget Into a Cost-of-Living Referendum
Republicans thought they were passing a budget to fund ICE and Border Patrol, but Democrats had an ambush prepared. During an all-night vote-a-rama on April 22–23, Senate Democrats forced Republicans onto the record against amendment after amendment aimed at lowering healthcare, housing, food, and energy costs. Can I say, not a good look?
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hammered the contrast, calling out Republicans who “should be working with Democrats to lower out-of-pocket costs.” Democrats also successfully blocked Republican attempts to attach voter-ID requirements to the reconciliation bill, a significant procedural win tucked inside an otherwise lopsided night.
The strategy is paying off. A Fox News poll released this week showed Democrats leading Republicans on the economy for the first time in 16 years, and every one of those no votes on food assistance and healthcare is already headed for a campaign mailer near you. I pray for your mailbox, swing state voters.
4. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore Signs Voting Rights and Immigrant Protection Into Law
Maryland Democrats used every last second of their legislative session. Hopefully without too much lost sleep.
Governor Wes Moore signed two landmark bills into law this week that plant flags on two of the defining fights of the Trump era. The Voting Rights Act of 2026 empowers the state attorney general and residents to sue counties and municipalities over vote dilution and polarized voting, building a legal firewall around the ballot box at precisely the moment federal protections are being dismantled.
The Community Trust Act bars state and local jails from assisting ICE detainers without a judicial warrant, drawing a firm line between local law enforcement and Trump’s deportation machinery. Moore did not mince words:“In this moment, we did not just push back, we pushed forward.”
Maryland now joins Virginia, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Washington state in passing state-level voting rights acts this cycle, a coordinated blue-state offensive that is quietly reshaping the legal landscape heading into November. For the record, I’d like to order a new federal voting rights bill in 2027 please! Yes, of course with fries.
3. Colorado Moves to Put Solar Power in Every Renter’s Hands
For years, the promise of clean energy has come with a catch; you have to own your roof. HB 26-1007, soon to be signed by Governor Jared Polis, allows residents to install plug-in solar devices of up to 1,920 watts, the highest cap in the country, and makes it illegal for landlords to block them. Paired with new energy meter connection rules that make the technology genuinely practical rather than just legal, this opens the clean energy economy to the millions of Americans who rent their homes.
A federal judge had to step in on April 21 just to keep the Trump administration from burying wind and solar permitting under a mountain of political appointee sign-offs, while Colorado was busy taking the grid directly to the people. Maryland passed a similar bill the same week, and the momentum at the state level is promising.
So it might be a good time to microwave that pizza and binge watch a new show, on solar power of course.
2. Albuquerque Rewrites Its Zoning Code to Actually Build the City People Want to Live In
Housing affordability can’t be improved without fixing restrictive zoning rules that block building (and a little YIMBY-pilled advocacy). Luckily, Albuquerque has discovered this signature cocktail recipe.
On April 20, the city's updated Integrated Development Ordinance took effect, implementing the most significant overhaul of Albuquerque's zoning rules in a generation. The reforms encourage walkable neighborhoods, expand housing options across more of the city, and directly target the kind of exclusionary single-use zoning that has driven up costs and hollowed out communities across the country for decades.
Critically, the update also includes an Anti-Displacement Toolbox, a recognition that rezoning without protecting existing residents is not a housing policy so much as a gentrification policy. While federal housing assistance faces cuts and the construction of affordable units stalls in cities nationwide, Albuquerque chose to use the tools it controls to start building the city its residents need. Fortunately for City office staff, contractors will handle the hammer and nail aspects of the implementation.
1. New York City Rings in Earth Day With a Sweeping Environmental Justice Package
New York City celebrated Earth Day in style, if passing legislation is your version of a party. It happens to be mine, thank you very much.
The NYC Council’s Earth Day package expands green space in underserved communities that have been shorted on parks and trees for generations (take that Robert Moses), launches a cool-pavement pilot to combat the urban heat island effect that kills hundreds of New Yorkers every summer, mandates organic waste separation by city agencies, and requires water quality testing at more than 15 sites across the five boroughs.
The legislation also increases transparency around the B-HEARD mental health response program, treating environmental health and public health as two dimensions of the same crisis rather than separate policy lanes. Speaker Julie Menin said the Council is making good on its commitment to a city that is “greener, healthier, and more equitable.”
In the same week the Trump administration was in federal court trying to choke off wind and solar permitting across the country, New York City was busy getting green. My second favorite color: thank you Mr. Mamdani!