The House and Senate are out this week. President Donald Trump is in Washington today. Early this morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and NRSC Chair Tim Scott endorsed Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) in the Kentucky Senate race. Trump endorsed Barr Friday.
There’s a redistricting frenzy breaking out across the South as GOP governors and legislators — under pressure from Trump — scramble to redraw minority-majority districts in order to replace Black Democrats with loyal Republicans. This comes after the Supreme Court’s Callais decision. The goal is to try to save Speaker Mike Johnson’s endangered House GOP majority, and maybe the final two years of Trump’s presidency.
Louisiana, Tennessee and Alabama are the battlegrounds for the spiral of legal and political moves and counter-moves. There’s also action in South Carolina, Virginia and Florida.
More than a dozen House seats are in play here. Some of the technical legal questions will likely be resolved by the end of today. But the political scramble is just revving up.
Louisiana. GOP Gov. Jeff Landry has suspended the already begun primary elections for House seats, drawing outrage and lawsuits from Democrats. Landry’s move would allow the Republican-dominated state legislature to redraw congressional maps following last week’s Supreme Court decision gutting Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Bayou State Republicans could draw out one or both of the Democrats in the congressional delegation, Reps. Cleo Fields and Troy Carter. It’s unclear how far Louisiana Republicans will go. They’re waiting on SCOTUS for a formal Callais notification that will allow them to proceed.
Alabama. GOP Gov. Kay Ivey and Republican state officials are waiting to see if the Supreme Court will lift the injunction barring the state from redistricting until after 2030. Ivey announced on Friday a special Alabama legislative session to establish special primaries for districts “whose boundary lines are altered by court action.”
Republicans would likely get one House seat out of this. But Alabama officials first need the Supreme Court to rule on their appeal to end the long-running case.
Other actions. Tennessee Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen could see his two-decade congressional career come to an end as Volunteer State Republicans look to get rid of their lone House Democrat and make it a 9-0 GOP delegation.
Virginia Democrats won a close referendum in Virginia last month that could net them as many as four seats, but the Virginia Supreme Court still hasn’t ruled on a GOP challenge to the election yet. Democrats are starting to get nervous about this delay.
In Florida, GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis has yet to formally sign a bill creating four new red seats, which would make the Sunshine State delegation 24 Republicans to only four Democrats. Democrats and voting rights groups can’t sue until DeSantis signs.
And in South Carolina, longtime Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, 85, may avoid any attempt to redraw his district this cycle, but Republicans will probably try next year.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster sounded open to redistricting, but GOP leaders in the state legislature said they had ruled out drawing new lines this cycle.
ICE bites Dems in primaries. The last line of a House GOP resolution from June 2025 is wreaking havoc on center-left Democrats running in contested primaries this cycle.
Following last summer’s anti-Semitic Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colo., the House passed a resolution by Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) condemning the incident. Evans’ resolution frustrated Democrats because it focused on the immigration status of the alleged assailant. But 75 Democrats voted for the resolution.
The resolution’s final line — where it “expresses gratitude to law enforcement officers, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, for protecting the homeland” — is coming back to haunt some House Democrats in tight races.
The latest example is in the Michigan Senate race. On Saturday, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow slammed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) because “she signed onto a resolution to thank ICE.” Shortly after McMorrow’s comments at an American Federation of Teachers forum, Stevens’ campaign updated its “red box” guidance to encourage outside groups to provide backup on her position with ICE.
“Democratic primary voters need to know immediately that Haley Stevens is leading the fight against Trump’s abuses of power and fighting for Michigan,” the message reads, with the word “immediately” underlined.
Stevens spokesperson Arik Wolk argued Stevens has been “fighting back against ICE and Trump’s abuses of power since the start of this administration.”
A similar dynamic is playing out in the Minnesota Senate Democratic primary between Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.). Craig’s vote for the Laken Riley Act has become a major sticking point, in addition to Craig’s support for the Boulder resolution.
At a weekend rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Flanagan slammed Craig for when “she broke with Democrats again to join Republicans as the only Democrat from Minnesota to vote to praise ICE while they were in the streets of Los Angeles separating families.”
Craig has said the resolution was intended to be a “gotcha” vote by the GOP but she nevertheless supported it to show her concern over the rising wave of anti-semitism.
Juliana Stratton, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Illinois, also criticized her primary opponent — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) — for supporting the Boulder resolution, saying he “voted to thank ICE.” Stratton’s allies used this messaging on the airwaves.
The vote is even playing a role in House races. Former Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) is citing Rep. April McClain Delaney’s (D-Md.) vote for the Boulder resolution as he tries to primary the incumbent from the left.
“What I voted on was the resolution about Boulder, Colo., and throwing a Molotov cocktail and maiming and killing people in front of a synagogue,” McClain Delaney said. “But no, we don’t thank ICE for all the things they’ve done, and this was before ICE became ICE. So, it’s just disingenuous.”
