With the Voting Rights Act gutted by the Supreme Court this week and Republican officials in red states in the South jumping to redraw their maps before the 2028 election cycle — and with some going to extremes to redraw district lines ahead of the upcoming midterms — Democratic leadership is planning new counter moves in a handful of states.
“All options are on the table as we get through the 2026 election and look to the future,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told Politico Thursday. “As many governors have already indicated, we will be prepared to respond in states like New York, Illinois and Maryland, as well as in Colorado, in advance of the 2028 election.”
Lawmakers in Florida approved new maps, that they already planned to pass, on the day of the Supreme Court decision, giving Republicans a slight edge in President Trump’s nationwide redistricting battle, a war he started last summer when he pressured Republican-controlled legislatures around the nation to redraw congressional district lines to try to help Republicans hold the U.S. House this fall. When Virginia voters approved new maps that will net four additional seats for Democrats in the House, Republicans in Congress placed the pressure on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to get on with it and carve up his state some more.
Now, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Republicans to gerrymander in a few more states ahead of the midterms. Georgia and Missouri, as well as potentially Tennessee and South Carolina still have some time to make changes before election administration deadlines, and Republicans there have already indicated that’s what they want to do. In Louisiana, the governor is considering postponing the May 16 primary election in order to redrawn maps. My colleague Khaya Himmelman and I break down the latest here and here.
There’s not a ton Democrats can do ahead of the upcoming midterms. Most Democratic-led states have good government guardrails in place to prevent against the kind of frantic partisan gerrymandering that Republicans are engaging in right now. Most have some sort of independent redistricting commission that draws fair maps after each Census — hence why changes to map-drawing rules in states like California and Virginia had to be put before voters. Republican states don’t have those rules, for the most part, making it easier to gerrymander. Those Democratic-led states whose state leaders were willing to make changes ahead of the upcoming midterms to help fight Trump’s overreach have already done so.
So it appears Jeffries is looking ahead to 2028 to try to fend off what is to come. Democratic Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York, Wes Moore of Maryland and JB Pritzker of Illinois have put out statements indicating they intend to redraw in time for the 2028 election.
“Republicans have concluded that they need to cheat to win, and the Supreme Court conservatives have decided to aid and abet their scheme. Democrats are going to fight back with every tool available,” Jeffries said.
“We’re looking at every opportunity to ensure that communities of color will continue to have the chance to elect the candidate of their choice in districts that have traditionally been covered by the Voting Rights Act,” he continued, “while at the same time doing what is necessary, as occurred in California, to decisively respond to efforts by Republicans to gerrymander congressional maps.”
— Nicole LaFond
Comey Seashells Charges Part of Todd Blanche AG Audition
MS NOW has new reporting out today that suggests that fired Attorney General Pam Bondi thought that the likelihood of bringing charges against former FBI Director James Comey for, the administration alleges, lying to Congress was higher than pursuing the so-called seashell case in North Carolina. Bondi was, of course, fired, reportedly for not securing charges against Trump’s political foes fast enough.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is known to be interested in serving as attorney general permanently and is learning from Bondi’s mistakes. More per MS NOW:
In late March, before Bondi’s firing, Justice Department aides were urging that they delay charging Comey on the presidential threat case and wait until the Senate confirmed interim U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle to be the permanent head of the federal prosecutors’ office in the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
But after Bondi was out, and new acting Attorney General Blanche sought to win Trump’s appointment to the job permanently, the “seashells” case gained new steam, the people said. Blanche’s aides instructed Boyle to seek a grand jury indictment of Comey and he and a relatively junior prosecutor obtained one in the Eastern District on April 28.
— Nicole LaFond
Record Breaking DHS Shutdown Comes to an End
After 76-days, the record breaking Department of Homeland Security-specific government shutdown came to an end on Thursday. The House approved the DHS bill that funds all parts of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) except Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through the end of the current fiscal year by a voice vote.
That House passage comes weeks after House Republicans refused to get behind the Senate-passed bipartisan package that cleared the Senate floor at the end of March. Just days later, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) caved to Senate GOP leadership and agreed to support the same bill but delayed voting on it for weeks — up until now.
“Speaker Johnson extended the DHS shutdown for over a month for no reason at all. This is the same bill the Senate unanimously passed five weeks ago,” Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) said in a statement following the House’s passage of the bill.
Republicans are in the process of working to fund ICE and CBP for the next several years — which already have huge slush funds from 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill — through the party-line reconciliation process. Both chambers have already completed the first step in that process and passed the budget resolution, which directs relevant committees to start drafting the bill according to the toplines outlined in the budget resolution.
— Emine Yücel
In Case You Missed It
New edition of The Franchise from Khaya Himmelman out today: What’s Happening on the Ground After SCOTUS’ ‘Radical Rebalancing’ of Power
Emine Yücel and Josh Kovensky: Trump Admin, GOP Leadership Scramble To Explain Why Iran War is Not War
BREAKING: Trump Withdraws His Nomination of MAHA Influencer for Surgeon General
Morning Memo: SCOTUS Gifts GOP a Fighting Chance to Hold the House
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Alito Pens Decision That ‘Eviscerates’ The Voting Rights Act
What We Are Reading
Hegseth Says Iran Cease-Fire Stops Clock for Congressional Approval
GOP urges Kemp to call a special session to redraw maps after court ruling
She sells seashells by the seashore. Now she’s a domestic terrorist for aiding enemies of The State.
The GA primaries are on May 19th…do they really want to redistrict? Split the black majority Atlanta area district into several other districts and you get a bunch of competitive districts for a midterm election that is already looking bad.
That goes right along with a war they started for no reason at all, budget and staff cuts made for no reason, the demolishing of the White House for no reason… except we know the reason – don’t talk about sex trafficking.
But were they really seashells? They may well have been incendiary devices or camouflaged munitions or never-before-seen weapons of mass
distractiondestruction.And without a complete, in-depth background check conducted by FBI/DHS agents do we really know who “she” is?
This may even need the Office of Special Council. Serious shit, man!!