Celeste Katz

Bio

Celeste Katz was senior political correspondent at Mic, covering national politics. She is based in New York and can be reached at celeste@mic.com.

Mike Pence’s solidarity with Donald Trump on Charlottesville doesn’t extend to blaming “both sides”

By Celeste Katz

Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump has been “clear” on the recent deadly demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, but stopped short of agreeing with his boss that “both sides” were to blame for the weekend’s…

Government, demonstrators consider the future of “the resistance” after Charlottesville

By Celeste Katz

Last Saturday, legions of torch-waving white supremacists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, for a “Unite the Right” march. This coming weekend, conservatives plan to converge on Boston for a “free speech” rally that has police on high…

NYPD — and protesters — are gearing up for President Donald Trump’s return to New York City

By Celeste Katz

Despite Thomas Wolfe’s assertion to the contrary, sometimes you can in fact go home again — but for President Donald Trump, that’s way more complicated than it used to be. The billionaire commander in chief has largely stayed away from his hometown…

President Donald Trump says he’s doing the US military “a great favor” by banning trans people

By Celeste Katz

President Donald Trump gave himself a hearty pat on the back Thursday for trying to drum transgender people out of the U.S. armed forces, saying he’s “doing the military a great favor” by clearing up a “complicated” issue. Trump, who’s in the midst…

A member of Trump’s “voter fraud panel” is all for Ohio’s push to purge its voter rolls

By Celeste Katz

Legal arguments are flying over what election experts say could be a landmark moment in deciding who stays on the voting rolls and who gets the boot — and a member of President Donald Trump’s “voter fraud panel” has taken his side. J. Christian…

Trump election integrity panel won’t seek data on some of the nation’s most vulnerable voters

By Celeste Katz

When President Donald Trump’s “election integrity commission” started asking for reams of information on voters nationwide, the fears cropped up immediately. Where would millions of records including voters’ names, addresses and other vital data be…

CA Secretary of State Alex Padilla: 52 years after its passage, Voting Rights Act is “under assault”

By Celeste Katz

On the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which paved the way for African-Americans to participate in the electoral process, then-President Barack Obama invited California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to Washington. Padilla and…

Despite Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s defiance, White House election panel will get some New York voter data

By Celeste Katz

When the election integrity commission created by President Donald Trump asked all 50 states to provide reams of data on registered voters, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wasn’t interested. Cuomo pushed back, saying in a June statement that “New York…

Elections watchdog group seeks answers after Georgia drops 590,000 from voter rolls

By Celeste Katz

A watchdog group is pushing the state of Georgia to explain why more than 591,000 people were struck from the voter rolls. “Each of the 591,548 voters affected by the move had already been on the state’s ‘inactive’ registration list,” the Atlanta…

Obama, Clinton campaign veteran team pledges $1.5 million to progressive political tech companies

By Celeste Katz

Now that President Donald Trump has rewritten the rules on running for president, a coalition of operatives who worked with former President Barack Obama and on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign is paying technologists to rewrite the code for 2018 and…