The 2024 U.S. congressional and gubernatorial elections are setting up to be unusually consequential. The fate of party control of both the House and Senate, along with governor’s offices in key battleground states, is essentially a coin flip, according to pollsters and elections experts. However, many news organizations — faced with shrunken staffing and limited resources — could fail to catch the next Rep. George Santos without urgent investments and support for strong and sustainable elections coverage, with an emphasis on the “backgrounding” and fact-checking of candidates for elected office.

Once standard practices — from pulling basic property and business records to deep dives powered by local records requests — have been replaced by horse-race coverage and disproportionate focus on the candidates with the most existing name recognition, allowing many other candidates to run without a real vetting process.

With its new election project, MuckRock is providing training and support for journalists and the public to explore political races and candidates.