Special session comes after Virginia voted to redraw maps and as Trump pressures Republicans to protect House majorityFlorida begins a special session on Tuesday in what may be the last front of the redistricting war before the 2026 election, with Republicans trying to redraw maps to pick up more seats in Congress.Lawmakers enter the session in Tallahassee cloaked in mystery, with no preview of a proposed map to consider and no clear path for Republicans to increase their representation in what appears to be a hostile year for their party. Continue reading...
• House Republicans openly questioned President Donald Trump's mid-decade redistricting strategy on Wednesday, following a Democratic victory in Virginia on Tuesday that threatens the GOP's slim House majority.
• The Virginia vote paves the way for as many as four Republican seats to be lost, intensifying GOP concerns about the redistricting war Trump sparked.
• Republican lawmakers are now expressing misgivings about the strategy, signaling potential fractures within the party over Trump's aggressive electoral positioning ahead of the November midterms.
Democrats within reach of House majority after voters rebel against Republican gerrymanderingSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxMonths into his second term, Donald Trump wagered that he could beat the historic trend of the party in power losing seats in midterm elections if Republican-led states redrew congressional maps to sweep Democrats out of office.The gamble is looking to be a bust, or at best a draw, for the president, after Democrats fought back with their own redistricting efforts, the latest of which came to fruition in Virginia on Tuesday, when voters approved a plan that could remove all but one of the five Republicans in its current House of Representatives delegation. Continue reading...
• The latest POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab survey reveals strong majorities in both parties favor an independent panel for drawing House district lines.
• Over 70% of Democrats and Republicans support the nonpartisan approach to prevent gerrymandering ahead of midterms.
• This consensus could pressure Congress to reform redistricting processes and reduce partisan map battles.
Purple state which recently elected a Democratic governor will now choose whether to replace existing voting maps with ones that favor DemocratsNearly three months to the day after his term as Virginia’s governor ended, Republican Glenn Youngkin stood in an unshaded corner of an office parking lot to warn dozens of conservative activists that they were in the midst of “the most important election” in the commonwealth’s 237-year history.The question before the voters casting ballots at an early voting precinct a few yards away in the city of Leesburg ahead of Tuesday’s special election was whether to temporarily set aside Virginia’s congressional maps intended to advantage neither party and replace them with a new version that could allow Democrats to win all but one seat in the 11-member delegation in the November midterm elections. Continue reading...