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Wednesday June 03, 2026
(WASHINGTON) -- Donald Trump might not have been in attendance at the Atlanta Press Club Republican primary debate for U.S. Senate last month, but his presence filled the room.
“I am running for the United States Senate so that I can go to the Senate and be a warrior for Donald Trump and his ‘America First’ policies,” said U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter in his opening statement.
When Carter’s House colleague and opponent in the Senate primary, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, was asked about the direction in which the Republican Party should go once President Trump is no longer in office, Collins told the moderator “we need to continue Donald Trump's ‘America First’ agenda,” adding, “it's one of the reasons that I ran.”
In a midterm cycle where Trump’s endorsement power has taken down incumbents, plucked winners out of crowded special elections, and fueled intra-party spending wars, the president has not yet backed a candidate in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Georgia.
The absence of a Trump endorsement in the race has led both Carter and Collins to focus their campaigns around winning over Trump’s base – and maybe even Trump himself – as they both vie for the president’s backing in what is expected to be one of the most competitive states on the map this year, one that could decide the balance of power in Congress.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2026, and Tuesday's primary could decide who goes head-to-head with the rising star in the Democratic Party in November.
Brian Kemp, the two-term Republican governor of Georgia who turned down calls to run for the Senate seat himself this year, is supporting neither congressman. Kemp has instead thrown his political weight behind former college football coach Derek Dooley, the son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.
Kemp has made calls to donors to rally support for Dooley, a Kemp advisor told ABC News. Kemp’s PAC, Hardworking Americans Inc., has also poured millions in the race to help support Dooley, who calls himself a “political outsider.”
Kemp has had a rocky relationship with the president himself, after contesting Trump’s claims of election fraud in the 2020 election. However, Kemp remains popular among Georgians, winning reelection against a Trump-endorsed primary challenger in 2022.
Tuesday's primary races in Georgia will be a test of Kemp’s own political power in the state; the outgoing Georgia governor has not ruled out a potential 2028 presidential run.
The real test of Trump’s influence in Georgia will come in the Republican primary to replace term-limited Kemp as governor, where the president’s early endorsement of current Lt. Governor Burt Jones failed to clear the field and instead set the stage for a competitive primary battle against billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, who is neck and neck with Jones in the polls.
But unlike Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr – who are also running in the Republican primary for governor but are making appeals to more traditional GOP voters – Jackson is not shying away from running in the “Make America Great Again” lane, even without Trump’s backing.
“I'm a conservative outsider and a businessman that wants to bring business solutions to Georgia, just like President Trump did,” Jackson said at the primary debate for governor.
Trump hosted a tele-rally for Jones earlier this month, where he reiterated his endorsement for the longtime Trump loyalist.
“There's a lot of confusion. Everyone's saying I endorsed them. I didn't. I endorsed a man named Burt Jones,” Trump told supporters on the call.
On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic candidates for governor are also talking about Trump – in how best to fight his policies.
“Unlike some people, I'm not running for governor to be Donald Trump; I'm running to stand up to him,” said former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the latest ad from her campaign, which calls out Jackson and Jones over their courting of Trump’s favor.
Bottoms is endorsed by former President Joe Biden and is widely considered the frontrunner in the Democratic primary race, but it is unclear whether she will meet the vote threshold to avoid a runoff. Democratic opponents that Bottoms could face in a potential runoff include former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond, former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, and former Georgia state Sen. Jason Esteves.
In Georgia, if one candidate does not receive 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff election on June 16. And with so many well-known contenders for office this year, runoffs may be more likely on both sides of the aisle, up and down the ballot.
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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Sen. Bill Cassidy was decisively defeated in Saturday’s Republican primary in Louisiana, unable to convince voters that he deserved another term five years after voting to convict President Donald Trump during an impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He finished behind U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who capitalized on the power of Trump’s endorsement as the president continues purging his party of people he views as disloyal, and John Fleming, the state treasurer. Letlow and Fleming will compete in a runoff on June 27.
The result was the latest example of Trump’s unrivaled power over the Republican Party as he approaches the twilight of his second term with persistent inflation, sagging approval ratings and dissatisfaction over the war with Iran. Unlike some other senators who declined to run again after crossing Trump, Cassidy pushed hard for reelection and spent nearly double the combined amount of his opponents.
But none of that was enough for Cassidy to qualify for a runoff, let alone win a third term.
“Our country is not about one individual,” he told supporters after his loss. “It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about the Constitution.”
Letlow, on the other hand, swiftly embraced Trump’s central role when she spoke at her victory party.
“I want to say thank you to a very special man who you all know, the best president this country has ever had, President Donald Trump,” she said while flanked by her two young children.
Asked about Cassidy’s vote at the impeachment trial, Letlow called it “a sign that he had turned his back on the Louisiana voters.”
Trump cheered the victory on social media, saying “that’s what you get by voting to Impeach an innocent man.”
Trump has been purging his party
Trump unloaded on Cassidy the morning of the election, calling him “a disloyal disaster” and “a terrible guy.” Later that night, the senator made a thinly veiled reference to the attacks.
“Insults only bother me if they come from somebody of character and integrity, and I find that people of character and integrity don’t spend their time attacking people on the internet,” Cassidy said.
The Louisiana primary comes in the middle of a month of campaigns by Trump to exact retribution on politicians who have crossed him. On May 5 he helped dislodge five of seven Indiana state senators who rejected his redistricting plan.
After Cassidy’s defeat, Trump wrote on social media that “Tom Massie, a major Sleazebag, is even worse.” He encouraged voters to “get this LOSER out of politics in Tuesday’s Election.”
It’s a striking amount of intraparty turmoil as Republicans face the possibility of losing control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
The runoff between Letlow and Fleming, a former U.S. House member and Trump administration official, will likely determine Louisiana’s next senator because of the state’s Republican leanings.
On the Democratic side, Jamie Davis advanced to a runoff, but the second spot remained too close to call between Nicholas Albares and Gary Crockett.
Election changes stir concern
Cassidy also complained that a new primary system enacted last year confused voters by requiring them to ask for a partisan ballot instead of the all-party primary previously in place. He said some called his office to say they had been unable to vote for him.
“The process that was set up was destined to be confusing,” Cassidy told reporters Friday.
Dadrius Lanus, executive director of the state Democratic Party, said his team fielded hundreds of calls from voters who said the changes undermined their ability to vote as they planned.
“A lot of the information should have gotten to voters well in advance,” Lanus said. “It’s literally been a whirlwind of confusion.”
Incumbent senator tried to hang on
Cassidy waged an aggressive campaign to convince voters he should not be counted out.
By comparison Letlow’s campaign, which launched Jan. 20, spent roughly $3.9 million, while a super PAC backing her, the Accountability Project, spent about $6 million.
Fleming’s campaign spent about $1.5 million.
Cassidy and Louisiana Freedom Fund ran ads attacking Letlow for supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which Trump has tried to eliminate.
Letlow, a college administrator before her election to the House, said she supported DEI while interviewing for the position of president of University of Louisiana-Monroe in 2020.
Targeted by Trump
Cassidy’s vote in favor of convicting the president after his 2021 impeachment has shadowed him since.
John Martin, a 68-year-old retired engineer in south Louisiana, said he would vote for Letlow because he was still upset by Cassidy’s decision. He waved a campaign flyer showing her standing alongside the president.
“I know a lot more about Cassidy than I do about her,” Martin said. “But if she’s endorsed by Trump, I’m going to believe that.”
Cassidy steered clear of Trump’s ire last year, supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services despite his public reservations about the nominee’s anti-vaccine views.
Trump also blamed Cassidy for the failed nomination of his second choice for surgeon general, Casey Means, who raised doubts about vaccinating newborns for hepatitis B, a practice Cassidy supports. Trump withdrew the Means nomination and criticized the senator.
Letlow waited for Trump’s backing
Letlow considered running for Senate last year but only entered the race after Trump announced his endorsement in January.
By that time Fleming, who was elected treasurer in 2023, had already jumped in and pitched himself as a Trump devotee. But Landry was looking for a better-known challenger, and he suggested Letlow to the president.
Letlow had an unconventional and tragic entry into politics.
In 2020, while she was a college administrator, her husband Luke was elected to the U.S. House but died of COVID-19 before he could be sworn in. Letlow ran for and won the seat in a March 2021 special election and was reelected in 2022 and 2024.
(NEW YORK) -- Two Republican challengers, Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming, will advance to a runoff election in Louisiana's closely watched GOP primary, The Associated Press projected Saturday -- a defeat for Sen. Bill Cassidy who had drawn the ire of President Donald Trump.
Letlow had been endorsed by Trump in a three-way race that was seen as a test of the president's influence among Republicans.
Letlow and Fleming will face off again in the runoff on June 27.
With nearly 100% of the estimated vote counted, Letlow led with about 45% of the vote, followed by Fleming with about 28%, according to the AP. Cassidy trailed with about 25% of the vote.
The primary defeat marks a stunning loss for Cassidy and a potential warning to other Republicans who risk defying the president, as Trump has sought to oust those he views as disloyal. Trump-backed candidates recently defeated several Indiana state senators who opposed his redistricting plans.
Cassidy's defeat makes him the first sitting senator to lose a primary since 2017 and the first elected incumbent senator to lose a primary since 2012 -- when Indiana GOP Sen. Richard Lugar lost his race to a Tea Party challenger.
Cassidy expressed gratitude for his time in office and acknowledged the race didn't go like he would have liked.
"But you don't pout, you don't whine, you don't claim the election was stolen," he said. "You don't manufacture some excuse --you thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you've had that privilege, and that's what I'm doing right now."
He also took a thinly veiled jab at Trump without naming him.
"Our country is not about one individual, it is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution," he said. "And it is the welfare of my people and my state and my country and our Constitution, to which I am loyal."
Trump celebrates
In a post on his social media platform, Trump celebrated Cassidy's projected defeat and congratulated Letlow.
"Julia Letlow is a fantastic person and, after taking care of some additional business, will make a brilliant Senator for the Great People of Louisiana," Trump said in the post.
In speech to supporters in Baton Rouge on Saturday night, Letlow opened her remarks thanking Trump.
"I want to say thank you to a very special man, who you all know – the best president this country has ever had: President Donald Trump," Letlow said.
"When he endorsed me in January, I knew this was going to be a tough race, but tonight Louisiana sent a clear message -- that they want a candidate to represent them in the Senate who will always put America first and never turn her back on Louisiana voters," Letlow continued.
Fleming expressed full confidence he will win the runoff.
"I embrace this challenge enthusiastically. The runoff starts today, and I could not be more energized," he said in a statement on Sunday.
"The people of Louisiana deserve a senator who cannot be bought, will not be bossed, and will never back down," Fleming said.
On the campaign trail
On the campaign trail, Letlow, a three-term congresswoman, was anything but shy about Trump's endorsement, casting Cassidy as disloyal and Fleming as out of touch with the president. Her campaign messaging focused in part on defending parental rights and securing the border.
Fleming, a former congressman who later served in various roles in the first Trump administration, pitched himself to voters as the most staunch conservative, though he did not receive a public endorsement from Trump.
For his part, Cassidy, a physician who was first elected to the Senate seat in 2014, argued his record proved he delivered for Louisianans and sought to tie himself to Trump -- campaigning on a conservative agenda, arguing against abortion, supporting "strong borders" and co-sponsoring the SAVE America Act, a legislative priority for Trump.
Trump's endorsement
Trump upended Cassidy's reelection bid in January when he encouraged Letlow to enter in hopes of defeating Cassidy.
Trump sought to punish Cassidy, who broke with the party as one of seven senators to vote to convict Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The 57-43 vote fell shy of the 67 vote threshold needed to convict Trump.
In a Saturday morning social media post -- roughly two hours after polls opened --Trump again ripped on the two-term incumbent while endorsing Letlow. He called Cassidy "disloyal" and castigated him for using his name throughout the campaign.
Despite their fraught relationship, Cassidy has, at times, supported Trump's agenda. Cassidy, a physician and longtime proponent of vaccines, grilled Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- a vaccine skeptic -- during his confirmation hearing but cast the deciding vote to advance his nomination.
Yet for some, Cassidy's vote to convict Trump may have been enough to do him in.
Robert Hogan, a political science professor at Louisiana State University, told ABC News ahead of the primary that some voters still had a "visceral" reaction to Cassidy's vote to convict the president.
"The Republican activists have been unforgiving," Hogan said. "This says less about Cassidy, I would say, than it says about the nature of the attraction that voters have towards Trump."
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(WASHINGTON) -- Rep. Steve Cohen, a longtime Tennessee Democrat, announced Friday he will not seek reelection and instead retire at the end of his term, after his Memphis district was carved up in the state assembly's redistricting effort.
"This is by far the most difficult moment I've had as an elected official," Cohen said. his voice choked with emotion as he announced he sent a letter Friday to the state capital asking not to appear on the ballot.
"I don't want to quit. I'm not a quitter, but these districts were drawn to beat me. They were drawn to defeat me," Cohen said.
Cohen is the first Democratic representative to opt for retirement after the Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which held that race-conscious redistricting under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is unconstitutional.
After the ruling, Tennessee state lawmakers passed a new congressional map that could allow Republicans to flip the state's lone Democratic-held seat.
Cohen's majority-minority district, Tennessee's 9th congressional district, is being split in three. Cohen has sued over the new map in court, as have several civil rights groups.
"Butchered," Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat whose district shares a border with Cohen, told ABC News about the Tennessee district.
"He's represented a majority-minority district as a white person. He's been well. He's had a consistent vote on behalf of his constituents, and all of a sudden, the court says take that opportunity away," Thompson said of Cohen. "But worse than that, Tennessee legislature split Memphis in three different ways. So now, as far as the Congress is concerned, there's no real community of interest in Memphis, because they're so divided."
Cohen is the 22nd House Democrat to opt against reelection to the House this midterm election cycle.
"Memphis is my home, and that's what I fight for, and I want to do it again. If I get the chance, I'll do it, but otherwise I'll be retiring from Congress, and from, I guess, from public life," Cohen said.
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(WASHINGTON) -- After a second day of high-stakes meetings with China's Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump is not committing to approving the latest round of arms sales to Taiwan and brushed off previous U.S. assurances not to consult with Beijing about those sales.
"I'll make a determination over the next fairly short period," Trump said when asked about the arms sales by reporters aboard Air Force One.
The president's remarks came after Xi's stark warning that if the issue of Taiwan is handled "improperly," then the two nations could "come into conflict," according to China's official state news source Xinhua. However, Xi did say that if the issue is handled "properly" then "bilateral relations can remain generally stable."
Trump has been delaying the latest round of arms sales, for months refusing to sign off on the record $14 billion package that was approved in January 2025, despite urging from some lawmakers.
Trump also told reporters that Xi asked him if he would come to Taiwan's defense if China were to attack, but Trump claims to have not revealed his thinking.
"That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said, 'I don't talk about, I don't talk about that,'" Trump said.
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh said they are "paying close attention" to the Trump-Xi meeting.
Earlier Friday, Trump participated in a tea and working lunch with Xi.
On Iran, Trump said he and Xi feel "very similar" in wanting the war to end and prohibiting Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
"We feel very similar in Iran. We want that to end. We don't want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the [Strait of Hormuz] opened. We're closing it now. They closed it, and we closed it on top of them, but we want the straits open, and we want them to get it ended, because it's a crazy thing," Trump said at a photo opportunity earlier Friday.
Later, aboard Air Force One, Trump was pressed on whether Xi actually committed to pressuring Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
"I'm not asking for any favors, because when you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return. We don't need favors," Trump said.
Trump was seeking to bolster international support amid a push to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. war with Iran stretches on. China is Iran's principal oil consumer.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, responding to inquiries to confirm whether Trump and Xi discussed Iran, sidestepped the question but reiterated China's position that the ceasefire and negotiations should continue and that the Strait of Hormuz should be reopened.
"There is no need to continue this war that should not have happened," a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said. "Finding a solution earlier is beneficial to the United States and Iran, as well as to the countries in the region and even the whole world."
"Since the door of dialogue is open, it should not be closed again," the spokesperson said.
Before Friday's meeting, Trump met Xi to tour the gardens at Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Communist Party leadership compound.
Xi said he picked the location "especially to reciprocate the hospitality extended to me in 2017 at Mar-a-Lago." Xi said Trump was interested to learn about the plants in the garden including the Chinese roses. Xi said he "agreed" to gift Trump seeds for those roses.
Tech and trade have also been key themes during the talks. Trump said the two leaders "made some fantastic trade deals."
CEOs Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Tim Cook of Apple and Jensen Huang of NVIDIA, among others, traveled with the president to Beijing. Trump said the business leaders joined him to "pay respects" to Xi.
The White House said one of Trump's goals going into the summit with Xi is to secure purchasing agreements with China in the aerospace, agriculture and energy sectors and the CEOs traveled with the president to help push for that.
Trump said Xi agreed to initially purchase 200 Boeing planes, which could go up to 750 planes if all goes well. Boeing has not confirmed this deal, referring inquiries to the White House.
Trump also said China has agreed to buy "billions of dollars" of soybeans, though he didn't get into specifics.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had said on Friday that the U.S. expects China to buy tens of billions of dollars worth of American agricultural products in the next few years.
"We expect to also see an agreement for double-digit billion purchases ... over the next three years, per year, coming out of this visit, and that's more general, that's aggregate, that's not just soybeans, that's everything else," Greer told Bloomberg.
ABC News' Karson Yiu, Mariam Khan, Michelle Stoddart and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.
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(WASHINGTON) -- Almost a third of the membership of the Congressional Black Caucus -- 19 of its 62 members -- are at risk of losing their seats through the 2028 election cycle as Republicans in southern states where they control the legislature move swiftly to redraw congressional maps less than two weeks after the Supreme Court dealt a blow to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The mid-decade redistricting push is a continuation of an effort that began in 2025 and that President Donald Trump has encouraged in hopes of increasing the likelihood that the GOP will retain control of the House of Representatives in November's midterm elections.
Republicans have argued that they are redrawing congressional maps to comply with the Supreme Court and that the districts that could be changed may still elect Black representatives to Congress.
A spokesperson for the Congressional Black Caucus told ABC News that the group is coordinating with groups such as Elias Law Group and the Legal Defense Fund to challenge the GOP's redistricting efforts.
The Supreme Court on Monday evening opened the door for Alabama to eliminate at least one of its majority-Black congressional districts before this year's midterm elections, potentially handing Republicans an additional House seat in the fight for control of the closely divided chamber.
Following Republicans' redistricting efforts in the South in states like Louisiana, South Carolina and Tennessee, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed a strong response, listing specific states without sharing specific actions.
"Over the next year or so, what you're going to see in state after state are Democrats making clear that we are not going to unilaterally disarm," Jeffries said.
"And as a result of that, in places like New York, New Jersey, Oregon, as well as Washington, in Colorado and, of course, in Illinois and Maryland, we're going to take the steps necessary to ensure that in advance of the 2028 election, we have a decisive and overwhelming response."
Alabama Rep. Shomari Figures, whose seat is now in jeopardy as a result of the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling, said in a statement to ABC News that the decision "sets the stage for Alabama to go back to the 1950s and 60s in terms of Black political representation in the state."
Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri, whose seat was one of the first targeted by redistricting, said that the ongoing redistricting efforts are "trying to send us back to Reconstruction."
Cleaver told ABC News that he is supportive of Jeffries' stance of "maximum warfare" against GOP-led redistricting efforts, but he worries that "if we fight fire with fire, nothing would be left in the station but ash."
Cleaver has held his seat for more than two decades and is running for reelection, but now says he has "no idea" what district he's running in and that Democrats may need to redistrict in states like Illinois, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Colorado to fight back.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, who is also at risk of losing his seat if redistricting succeeds in South Carolina, took aim at a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that he said had enabled this sort of targeting of Black legislators, as well as actions by Trump that he said threaten American democracy.
"You know, this is whether or not you're going to have a democracy. And that's not a one-party thing, that's not a one-person thing; that is, this country has come to grips with the fact that we are on the verge of a kleptocracy," Clyburn said.
While CBC members have continued to push for the passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, Cleaver said that in the current Congress, the legislation "could not get a hearing in the United States of America right now."
Last Thursday, Tennessee became the first state after the Supreme Court's Louisiana ruling to officially redraw and pass a new map at the urging of the president, who called the state's governor about the topic just one day after the ruling. And in one week, a new congressional map was created, presented and passed. The new map will give Republicans a chance to flip the state's lone current Democratic-held, majority-Black district, which is primarily made up of Memphis.
Following the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday evening that opened the door for Alabama to eliminate at least one of its majority-Black districts before this year's midterms, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has set new special primary elections for the affected districts in the state: the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th.
Louisiana and South Carolina are also working through their own redistricting process in hopes of delivering more House seats to the GOP ahead of November's elections. In South Carolina, Republicans on Friday formally unveiled a new proposed congressional map that would redraw the district held by Clyburn.
But as Republicans look to add House seats, Black representation in Congress is at risk of dropping substantially over the next couple of years.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement to ABC News, "We are witnessing a return to Jim Crow. And anybody who is alarmed by these developments -- as everybody should be -- better be making a plan to vote in November to put an end to this madness while we still can."
"This Supreme Court did not dismiss the case, so the litigation will certainly continue. My hope is that this is a temporary setback and that three-Republican appointed judges will again find what they found the first time: that the State of Alabama intentionally discriminated against Black voters in drawing its congressional district lines," Figures added.
ABC News' Oren Oppenheim and Jeff Ballou contributed to this report
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(WASHINGTON) -- One of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s top public affairs spokespeople resigned from his post over the FDA's fruit-flavored e-cigarettes authorization and its potential impact on minors, according to a resignation letter to President Donald Trump reviewed by ABC News.
In the letter, Richard Danker, the former assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, accuses senior agency officials in Kennedy's immediate office of approving e-cigarette flavors that would allegedly expose children to "nicotine addiction, lung damage, and a higher risk of cancer."
Danker also said the vape authorization "undermines" the department's recent guidance document related to youth risks of flavored nicotine, according to the letter.
He thanked Trump for the "honor of a lifetime" to serve in both presidential administrations. Danker's work portfolio includes economic regulatory roles, including a senior advisor position at the Department of Treasury during the first Trump administration. Danker hadn't worked in healthcare prior to his time at HHS.
The Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again movement has touted its focus on combatting chronic disease and improving children’s health. In a statement to ABC News, an HHS spokesperson said Kennedy is advancing the MAHA agenda to confront the chronic disease epidemic head-on.
"Political appointees are here to execute that mission with urgency, discipline, and focus," according to the spokesperson.
"Individuals who lose sight of the mission and the responsibility they were entrusted with are free to move on from the agency. HHS remains fully committed to delivering results for the American people," the spokesperson said.
Danker provided ABC News with a copy of the resignation letter, but did not provide further comment.
The White House did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The news comes as former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary left office after clashing with the White House over pressure from Trump to authorize the flavored vapes, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The issue has raised concerns with Makary, pediatrician groups and advocacy organizations about the potential impact on minors, ABC News reported.
The FDA approved four new devices made by Glas, including classic menthol, fresh menthol, gold, and sapphire pods. "Gold" is mango-flavored and "sapphire" is blueberry-flavored.
While the FDA said on its website last week that it continues to prioritize the removal of illicit vapes — including those that target minors — the approval of a flavored vape represents a significant shift for the agency.
Makary told ABC News' Linsey Davis in July, "There is not an approved vaping product in the United States that has one of these cutie-fruity flavors."
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(WASHINGTON) -- ABC News has obtained a one-page breakdown of how the White House says it intends to spend the $1 billion that some Republicans want to approve for President Donald Trump's East Wing renovation to the White House, which includes the construction of Trump's massive ballroom.
The document -- which was provided without elaboration -- was presented by U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran to Senate Republicans during a luncheon on Tuesday.
The price breakdown for each target area of the project area is:
$220 million for White House hardening
$180 million for White House visitor security screening facility
$175 million for Secret Service training
$175 million for enhancements for Secret Service protectees
$150 million for evolving threats and technology
$100 million for events of national significance
Axios was first to report the news.
While the White House has insisted the funding is necessary in the wake of the assassination attempt against Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, Senate Republicans still appeared skeptical of the $1 billion request following Curran's briefing.
"He gave us a list that breaks down the spending in a little more detail, but ... there are still a lot of questions," said Republican Sen. John Kennedy. "It's not the only concern, but one of the biggest concerns on our side is adding to the deficit."
While Senate Majority Leader John Thune remains adamant that the request could be tucked into the ongoing reconciliation process, it faces an uphill battle earning 50 Republican votes.
It's also not clear whether the provision will make it through the Senate's rigorous review process. Democrats are expected to argue before the Senate's parliamentarian that the spending is extraneous and therefore should not be allowed to be included in a reconciliation bill.
Since news of Republicans' intention to include funding for the ballroom became public last week, Democrats have repeatedly hammered the proposal. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the administration for focusing on the ballroom instead of lowering consumer costs during a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday morning.
"At a time when 77% -- that's 77% -- of Americans say that Donald Trump's policies have increased their cost of living, Trump and the Senate GOP try to force through a bill that would spend a billion taxpayer dollars on a gilded ballroom and not one penny on bringing down costs," Schumer said, referencing a CNN poll out earlier this week that found 77% say that Trump’s policies have increased the cost of living in their own community.
"Trump may be trying to build a ballroom but clearly he is living in the theater of the absurd," Schumer added.
The $1 billion request is in addition to the annual USSS budget, $3.2 billion in FY 2025.
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(WASHINGTON) -- The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday overturned the state's redistricting ballot measure, delivering a major setback to Democrats who hoped the new map would allow them to flip up to four congressional seats.
In a 4-3 ruling, the Virginia Supreme Court said the Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when referring the measure to the ballot. Virginia voters approved the ballot measure in an election last month.
The state's Supreme Court said Virginia will need to use its congressional map from 2021 instead.
The decision is a win for Republicans, who are now currently set to net more seats than Democrats in the ongoing, nationwide mid-decade redistricting scramble.
President Donald Trump celebrated the ruling in a post on his social media platform.
"Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia," Trump wrote. "The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats' horrible gerrymander. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Virginia currently has six Democratic members of the U.S. House and five Republicans, a balance that will likely stay in place instead of the 10 Democratic and 1 Republican delegation Democrats were hoping to elect under the new map.
The newly passed Republican-favoring congressional maps in Tennessee and Florida are undergoing their own separate legal challenges. The ruling on Friday is specific to Virginia and does not impact those maps.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat, wrote that his team is working to pursue "every legal pathway forward to defend the will of the people and protect the integrity of Virginia's elections."
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers missed the deadline to place the redistricting referendum on the ballot because early voting for the 2025 election had already started.
Under Virginia’s constitution, lawmakers must approve a constitutional amendment twice and have an election in between.
Democrats argued that requirement referred only to Election Day itself and not the early voting period. The court said early voting is legally part of the election, meaning the process had already begun before lawmakers acted.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger expended significant political capital on supporting the measure, which became a flashpoint just a few months into her governorship, although it was first championed by the state legislature and during her time on the campaign trail she indicated not being interested in redistricting.
“More than three million Virginians cast their ballots in Virginia’s redistricting referendum, and the majority of Virginia voters voted to push back against a President who said he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress with a temporary and responsive referendum. They made their voices heard,” Spanberger wrote in a statement on Friday.
“I am disappointed by the Supreme Court of Virginia’s ruling, but my focus as Governor will be on ensuring that all voters have the information necessary to make their voices heard this November in the midterm elections because in those elections we — the voters — will have the final say.”
In a dissent, three justices wrote, "Today the majority has broadened the meaning of the word 'election,' as used in the Virginia Constitution, to include the early voting period. This is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and federal law define an election."
The redistricting measure had prompted multiple notable Democrats -- including former Mike Pence aide Olivia Troye and former first lady of Virginia Dorothy McAuliffe -- to launch runs for Congress. The fact that they'd have to now run under the old map may change their plan.
ABC News' Emily Chang contributed to this report.
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(NEW YORK) -- The monthslong war in Iran is inflicting economic pain across the country as many Americans report struggling with higher costs, particularly the record rise in gas prices.
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released last week found that half of Americans expect gas prices to increase more in the next year, and that 4 in 10 Americans say they are not as well off as they were when President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.
Nearly a quarter said they are falling behind financially.
In callback interviews with several of the poll's participants, people emphasized they are struggling to pay for basic necessities and that they are unsatisfied with the country's leadership.
In an interview with ABC News, Jacob Olson, 28, from Beebe, Arkansas, said rising gas and food prices have made life challenging. After he was laid off from his position as a warehouse manager for a solar company that went bankrupt, Olson became a self-employed maker of custom wood projects like storage racks. He said he spends a lot on gas while driving around to his customers.
"One day at a time," Olson said. "One foot in front of the other. ... That's about the way to sum it up."
The ABC/Post/Ipsos poll found that in addition to the 50% of Americans who said they expect gas prices to get worse over the next year, another 15% expect gas prices to stay about the same.
Olson agreed that prices for gas and other goods will continue to go up.
"I don't really do anything, you know, for leisure or luxury anymore," Olson said. "It's all kind of just getting the bills paid ... I have a 1-year-old, and I just had another baby about a month ago, so I've got two little ones, and every day it's getting harder."
Brenda Howard, 66, from Lubbock, Texas, said she can't afford luxuries like trips or meals out either, and since she does not own a car she has to rely on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft for errands and transport to her job as a cleaner.
She said using Uber or Lyft to take a trip to the grocery store costs her around $30.
"This is not the way I thought my retirement was gonna turn out," Howard said. "I never dreamed that it would be a day-to-day struggle, sometimes hour to hour."
The poll found some Americans said they were changing their behaviors because of higher gas prices. Over 4 in 10 have cut back on driving (44%) or cut household expenses (42%). Another 34% said they have changed travel or vacation plans.
Those in lower-income households have been hit even harder by the gas price spike. More than half of people with household incomes of under $50,000 a year said they have cut down on driving and household expenses.
Martha Davis, a 66-year-old Texan who works as a caretaker for her disabled son, said she's struggling to pay for essentials, including gasoline and rent. She has to travel, sometimes as much as 60 miles from where she lives in Tool, Texas, to get to medical appointments.
"I used to get back and forth on like $20, $25, but now it's almost 70 bucks," Davis said.
Four in 10 Americans reported that they are less well off than they were at the beginning of Trump's second presidential term according to the ABC News/Post/Ipsos poll. Some of those who said they are doing worse still support the president.
Andy Breedlove, 51, from West Virginia said he believes both that Trump is doing well in his second term and that gasoline prices are too high.
"But with the price of everything else, it kind of evens out a little," said Breedlove, who is not working due to a disability. Breedlove suspects gas prices will continue to climb because of the war with Iran.
The Iranian government's retaliatory blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for the oil market, has led to severe trade disruptions. Around 20% of oil traded on global markets normally passes through the strait.
A 61% majority of Americans said in the ABC/Post/Ipsos poll that the Trump administration's decision to go to war against Iran was a mistake.
"He hasn't made a clear statement on why ... we're actually participating at all," said Olson, the woodworker with a young family. "From what I know, there's been a lot of just lying and, you know, not being transparent, and ... a big lack of professionalism, which I don't appreciate coming from the president."
Christopher Mosley, 43, a former Walmart employee from Fort Smith, Arkansas, described Trump as "reckless" on foreign policy.
Trump's messaging on gas prices has been mixed. When asked in early April whether he thought prices would decrease before the upcoming midterm elections, Trump said they might stay steady or get higher. On May 1, Trump said gas prices would come "tumbling down" once the conflict was resolved. Iran is reviewing the latest proposal from the U.S. government aimed at winding down the war, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry said.
The financial strain felt by voters has the potential to significantly impact the midterm elections, a cycle in which Democrats are already positioned to make gains. Trump has framed the prospect of a change in the power dynamics of Congress as an existential threat to his presidency.
Jim Piper, a 36-year-old from Portage, Indiana, said he wishes Trump had more latitude to pursue his policy goals. Since the start of the second Trump administration, Piper said he has been doing worse financially, but he thinks political deadlock between Democrats and Republicans is to blame for rising prices. Since Piper has a disability and relies on a fixed income, inflation is hard on his wallet.
"I got to pay more, even though I'm not making more," Piper said.
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(WASHINGTON) -- When President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing next Thursday, he'll be the first U.S. president to set foot in China in nearly a decade. The last visit was Trump's own, in 2017.
He arrives in a very different position than he expected: the trip was originally scheduled for earlier this spring, then postponed because of the Iran war.
Trump had said the war would only last four to six weeks. Instead, there’s no end in sight with the the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed and U.S. gas prices surging -- as the president faces record-low approval ratings.
That backdrop has flipped the leverage dynamic, according to experts who study the region.
The leverage flip
Beijing would have preferred this war never started -- the energy disruption and the hit to global demand are real headaches for an export-dependent economy, experts say. But they say the conflict has handed Xi a relative advantage: Trump now has too many fires to put out at home and abroad to risk another escalation cycle with China.
"China is a relative bright spot in Trump's foreign policy right now," said Jon Czin, a former director for China at the National Security Council.
The longer the Iran war drags on, Czin argued, the more it minimizes the chance of another economic confrontation -- Beijing has also already demonstrated it can retaliate -- as it did with tariffs and rare earth export controls -- and the administration backed down before.
Both sides are still trying to eke out an edge in the run-up. The Treasury Department recently sanctioned Chinese oil refiners and shipping firms tied to Iranian crude to cut off funding. In an unprecedented move, Beijing invoked a "blocking rule" for the first time, directing Chinese companies not to comply with sanctions on Chinese oil refiners.
Daniel Shapiro, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, points out the war has reduced the U.S. military posture in the Indo-Pacific with long-term consequences for deterring China and defending Taiwan.
"Trump's position and leverage at the summit is considerably weaker if he goes to Beijing with the war still unsettled, or even with renewed escalation. And the Iranians know that. So they are whittling down the terms to end the war to something much more modest than what Trump originally envisioned," Shapiro wrote in a post on X.
What Trump wants
The administration clearly wants Beijing to use its influence over Tehran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week urged Beijing to use the Iran's foreign minister's visit to China earlier this week to press Tehran on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
"I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told," Rubio said when asked about China’s top diplomat meeting with Iran’s foreign minister. "And that is that what you are doing in the strait is causing you to be globally isolated. You're the bad guy in this."
Beyond the war in Iran, Trump will be looking for wins on trade and investment: For instance, Chinese commitments to buy Boeing planes and U.S. agricultural goods as well as an extension of the trade truce reached during the last Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea last year, according to experts.
The administration also wants China to continue its pause on rare earth export controls, analysts say. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has also proposed a “Board of Trade” to manage economic ties between the countries and goods the two sides are trading.
What Beijing wants -- and what it doesn't
Here's the gap between the administration's public framing and what analysts who study China most closely are saying: Beijing doesn't actually plan to deliver much on Iran or get deeply involved.
Beijing’s statement after the meeting with the Iranian Foreign Ministry was carefully worded to not blame Iran for the crisis while also calling for greater efforts to open the Strait of Hormuz.
"The Chinese are not interested in assuming any kind of direct role in the conflict," according to Patricia Kim, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "They see this as a problem that the United States needs to solve, and they have no interest in intervening on Tehran’s behalf."
Czin’s read is similar. While Beijing's meeting with the Iranian foreign minister this week let it "posture as peacemakers," he says the Chinese don’t want Iran to take up too much summit time. His analog: even on North Korea, right on China's doorstep, Beijing rarely puts real pressure on Pyongyang.
China's energy buffer is part of why the urgency is lower than the Trump administration assumes. Beijing has built strategic oil reserves, invested heavily in green energy, and can shift to domestically produced coal. The bigger risk for China isn't the energy crunch itself.
"The bigger issue for China is the secondary and tertiary effects from this conflict," Czin said -- such as a war-driven global slowdown that hits the Southeast Asian and European consumers that Chinese exports depend on.
What Beijing actually wants from the summit is more stability: lock in the trade truce, push back on U.S. export controls on advanced technology and ease restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S.
What’s unclear is how hard Xi will push Trump on Taiwan. Any small shift in U.S. declaratory language on Taiwan would be significant, though Czin is skeptical Trump would stick with new wording even if he agreed to it.
Bottom line
Expect fanfare, expect deliverables on the margins -- purchase commitments or a possible Board of Trade announcement -- and don't expect breakthroughs on the hard issues, experts say.
The summit's significance is less in what it produces than in what it preserves: a tenuous stability that both leaders, for different reasons, want to keep intact through the rest of the year.
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(TENNESSEE) -- As protesters accused them of racial gerrymandering, Tennessee state lawmakers passed into law on Thursday a new congressional map that could allow Republicans to flip the state’s lone Democratic-held seat, notching the GOP another win in the mid-decade redistricting scramble.
Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law Thursday afternoon.
The session was interrupted by chaotic scenes with lawmakers shouting over protesters' voices and at one point forcing police clear the balcony above the House floor before it voted on the new map.
The new map breaks up the state’s current 9th Congressional District, which is primarily made up of Memphis, and the state’s only majority-Black district. The district is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen.
The legislature also passed bills on Thursday that will allow the state to legally redistrict outside of the normal once-a-decade cycle, as well as providing funding to help implement the new map in time for the 2026 elections.
Impact on the midterms and representation in Congress
With the map passed, it paves the way for President Donald Trump and Republicans to gain an additional House seat in the next Congress, increasing their chances of maintaining control of the House as they continue their redistricting battle across the country.
Tennessee Democrats will likely not have any representation in Congress next year if Republicans flip the seat and the map will dilute the Black vote by breaking up Memphis.
But legal challenges against the map are expected.
Cohen said Thursday he will file a lawsuit against the new map.
Cohen posted on X after the vote "[President Donald] Trump knows he HAS TO rig the game to keep his majority in November. And the TN GOP was willing to go along with it. It’s shameful. Next stop is the courts."
Cohen had said earlier this week on CNN that the Republicans' redistricting effort was a foregone conclusion, adding that he hopes the new congressional map can take effect in 2028 rather than 2026.
The speed at which the process occurred was remarkable -- it was only last week that the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, dealing a blow to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
And just one day after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, Trump posted on Truth Social that he spoke with Lee and that the governor said he would work to redraw the state’s congressional maps in order to net another GOP seat for Tennessee in the House. Lee called a special session the next day, April 30, to review the state's congressional map.
Potential redistricting efforts are also currently underway in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina, although each state has different procedural or legal barriers to overcome.
With Tennessee's new map, Republicans potentially could flip 14 Democratic-held seats in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida. Democrats could pick up 10 from new maps passed in California, Utah and Virginia.
Acrimonious debate and protests in the state capitol
The proposed congressional map underwent much acrimonious debate and protest inside the legislature on Thursday before it was passed.
On the House floor, Democratic representatives condemned the map, saying it would dilute the Black vote in the state. At one point, chants of "our house!" started in the House gallery.
As the vote came up for the new map on the House side, chaos erupted in the room. A trooper was asked to clear out the balcony above the House floor as people protested.
Earlier, Democratic State Rep. Justin Pearson, who is running for Congress in the 9th District that will be broken up on the new map, said that “what is happening here is immoral and wrong.”
“This is about attacking, targeting and cracking District 9 into pieces for more political and racial dominance and white supremacy in the state of Tennessee. And we need to realize that the Callais decision that you all are basing your decisions off of that gutted the Voting Rights Act, that that Voting Rights Act was paid in blood,” Pearson said.
Pearson later confronted law enforcement officers, ABC affiliate WKRN reported, as they worked on clearing the House gallery of protestors. Pearson later said his brother KeShaun Pearson was arrested.
After the House passed the bill and it was taken up in the Senate, Republican state Sen. John Stevens spoke in support of the new map over audible protests and yelling.
“Tennessee is a conservative state, and I submit its congressional delegation should reflect that. The proposed map ensures that,” Stevens said.
He later said, “This bill represents Tennessee's attempt to maximize our partisan advantage and allow Tennesseans to support a national Congress to be a Republican majority.”
But Democratic state Sen. London Lamar, who is Black, slammed the new map during debate as an attack on Black voters and said it “diminishes Memphis.”
“This map does not reflect Memphis. It diminishes Memphis. It slices our city into pieces and stretches our communities hundreds of miles away to places of different needs, different economies, different histories and different lived realities,” she said. “You cannot take a majority-Black city, fracture its voting power and then tell us race has nothing to do with it. Racism does not become less racist because it's called partisan.”
Later, chants of “Hands off Memphis!” rang out and another lawmaker soon unfurled a banner that read “NO JIM CROW 2.0 - STOP THE TN STEAL.”
The Senate passed the map soon after.
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With six months until the high-stakes midterm elections, the Democratic Party is struggling to raise money and keep up with its GOP counterparts, leading to frustrations among some donors with Democratic National Committee leadership and its chair Ken Martin.
At the end of March, the Republican National Committee outraised the DNC $21.2 million to $11.4 million, according to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The RNC reported having nearly eight times more cash on hand -- $116 million to the DNC’s $13.8 million. In addition, the DNC is a little over $18 million in debt, according to FEC filings.
Democrats, though, are performing better than they did in 2018 at this point in the cycle when the party had raised $7 million and had little more than $9 million cash on hand. The party had just under $6 million in debt at that time, too.
Multiple Democratic bundlers, strategists and donors told ABC News that they are still angry over how funds were allocated during the 2024 presidential election -- and frustrated at Martin's unwillingness to publicly release a DNC audit that examined what went wrong for Democrats in 2024.
After Martin won his campaign to be DNC chair in 2025 following the presidential election, he committed to conducting a review of the 2024 election and making it public. However, Martin has yet to release the full audit, saying instead he's focused on looking forward and has released "lessons" from the audit.
Democratic officials and leaders -- including Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, who is poised to become the No. 2 Senate Democrat after the midterms -- have urged for the report to be released as they look toward the midterms.
"What’s in the report that you wouldn’t want publicized?" "Pod Save America" host and former Obama administration speechwriter Jon Favreau asked Martin during an episode released April 28.
Martin replied that there was no "smoking gun" and that he wants to "keep the focus on the lessons."
A longtime DNC finance member, who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity, noted many donors are still questioning how funds were allocated during the 2024 race and the unreleased results of the DNC’s promised audit.
The member said donors were upset that, despite the DNC’s massive fundraising during the 2024 election, Kamala Harris didn’t win a single battleground state. It raised concerns about allocations toward paid media, voter outreach and, most troubling for many donors, the amount of money that went to consultants.
But following the 2024 election and Martin taking over the reins at the DNC, there has been a shift toward investing in state parties long before elections, as well as podcasts, influencers and more modern forms of public relations and communications
Cooper Teboe, a Democratic strategist in California, told ABC News that donors are "feeling incredibly jaded, incredibly unhappy" with the DNC over the 2024 election -- with some questioning whether their financial contributions make a difference.
"We're coming off of record fundraising for Democrats that seem to really not move the needle," Teboe said. "So, folks have been in a position of, well, does my money actually do anything? Does my money do anything to change the needle?"
DNC spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said the party is investing in ways that will help Democrats win.
"Democrats are putting our resources into the field, building infrastructure to power wins today and for years to come, and delivering overperformances all across the country, meanwhile Republicans are losing elections at a humiliating rate in spite of their billionaire donors,” Ehrenberg said in a statement to ABC News.
As frustrations with Martin over how he’s handling his job grow, a few members have started exploring options and rules for removing a chair, a source familiar with the situation told ABC News -- although the source framed the efforts as very informal and focused on asking about the process.
"I don't see Ken as a leader. The DNC reached out to me probably six months ago, and I told them to take me off their list, that it's a waste of their time to send me anything, and the more they send, the less chances they ever have of getting me back," said one longtime Democratic donor, who is now focused on individual candidates as opposed to the national committee.
Asked about his job to raise money for the party on "Pod Save America," Martin said "the job of the DNC chair is singular: It's to win," adding that he has been helping the party succeed in that effort.
Michael Knapp, a DNC member, said he supports Martin's work as chair, telling ABC News that Martin "came in with a clear mandate to shift the DNC towards long-term party building."
"[Ken’s] investing in state parties, organizing, partisan voter registration, infrastructure ... the things that actually win elections over time," Knapp said to ABC News in a text message.
"On the fundamentals of the job, I think he's very strong. The DNC's raising significant grassroots money even while paying down inherited debt," Knapp also said.
Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s elections and government program, told ABC News that historically, the party out of power has had an "uphill battle with fundraising that’s not unique to this moment."
“Frankly, over the years, the president has become much more habituated to raising the sort of big money that you would expect an incumbent to raise, and that Democratic incumbents have also raised, to some degree,” Weiner said. “And so we see the more traditional pattern emerging of the party in power just raises a lot more money than the party out of power."
A longtime DNC finance member said frustrations with the DNC have led donors to focus on "individual elections as opposed to the DNC as an organization."
While the national party is struggling to raise money, individual Democratic candidates are seeing a massive cash infusion ahead of November’s midterm elections, as donors show greater interest in investing in individual candidates.
Many of the Democratic Party’s top Senate candidates posted gainful fundraising hauls for the first quarter of 2026, massively outraising their Republican opponents, according to FEC filings.
"I think folks are very desperate for new leaders and new voices in the party, and I think that's why you're seeing the party infrastructure raising less, because the donors, both the donor class and the grassroots, want to see what is out there to define the future of the Democratic message and that's just not going to come from the DNC," Teboe said.
One senior Democratic official in touch with donors and party leaders told ABC News that while many big donors are frustrated by the results of the last election, an increasing number are expected to get off the sidelines and contribute more to various Democratic candidates and organizations through the summer and fall.
"Donors can be complicated," she told ABC News.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Tennessee approved a new U.S. House map Thursday that carves up a majority-Black district in Memphis, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections.
The final vote came amid protests and chaos. As demonstrators chanted loudly in the galleries and hallways, Democratic state Sen. Charlane Oliver stood on her desk in the Senate chamber, holding a banner denouncing the redistricting as a “Jim Crow” effort, then clapping and dancing. Other Democratic senators linked arms in the front of the chamber. Republican leadership quickly adjourned the special session, sending the new map on to Republican Gov. Bill Lee to be signed into law.
Protesters in the galleries also had disrupted the Republican-led House as it voted for the new map — yelling, chanting and blowing air horns. In the hallways, other shouting protesters were held back Tennessee state troopers.
Tennessee is the first state to pass new congressional districts since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week significantly weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. But more Southern states could follow. Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting. More legal challenges are expected.
The Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with federal law. The high court’s decision altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.
Louisiana has postponed its congressional primary to give time for state lawmakers to craft a new House map. Legislation awaiting a final vote in Alabama also would upend the state’s congressional primaries if courts allow the state to change its U.S. House districts. In South Carolina, meanwhile, Republican lawmakers urged on by Trump are considering adding congressional redistricting to their agenda.
The states are the latest to join an already fierce national redistricting battle. Since Trump prodded Texas to redraw its U.S. House districts last year, eight states have adopted new congressional districts. From that, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats while Democrats think they could gain up to 10. But some competitive races mean the parties may not get everything they sought in the November elections.
Tennessee Republicans act despite protests
As a first step to adopting new House districts, Tennessee lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to legislation — quickly signed into law by Lee — that repealed a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting. They then passed a bill that would reopen candidate qualifying until May 15 to allow time for new people to enter the U.S. House primaries and existing candidates to switch districts or drop out.
The new House map would break up Tennessee’s lone Democratic-held district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis, creating a ripple effect of alterations to districts throughout the western and central parts of the state. The geographically compact 9th District that includes Memphis — currently represented by Steve Cohen, who is white — would stretch a couple hundred miles eastward before reaching north toward the Nashville suburbs.
Unlike in Louisiana — where lawmakers had crafted a second majority-Black district to try to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act — Memphis has long been the base of its own congressional district.
Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said the new districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.
But Democrats dismissed such assertions.
“These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump,” said state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat from Memphis who is running for the U.S. House.
Republican state Sen. John Stevens defended the new districts he sponsored by noting that Democrats in Illinois, Massachusetts and other states also had drawn congressional districts to their advantage.
“This bill represents Tennessee’s attempt to maximize our partisan advantage,” he said.
It does so at the expense of both Memphis residents and democracy, said Sen. London Lamar, a Democrat from Memphis.
“You cannot take a majority Black city, fracture its voting power and then tell us race has nothing to do with it,” she said.
Democrats noted that the state Supreme Court in April 2022 rejected a challenge to the current congressional map, finding it was too close to the election to make changes. This year, there’s even less time before the Aug. 6 primary, raising the potential of confusion for both candidates and voters, Democrats said.
A plan for a new primary advances in Alabama
Protesters watching an Alabama legislative committee Thursday erupted in shouts of “shame” as Republican lawmakers advanced legislation to authorize special congressional primaries if the state can put a new congressional map in place for the November midterms.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision arising from Louisiana, Alabama is seeking to overturn a court injunction that created a second U.S. House district with a substantial percentage of Black voters. That map led to the 2024 election of Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat. Republicans want instead to use a 2023 map drawn by state lawmakers that would give the GOP an opportunity to reclaim Figures’ district.
If a court grants Alabama’s request, the legislation under consideration would ignore the May 19 primary results for congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.
The House passed the legislation on a party-line vote Thursday after four hours of fiery debate. A final vote in the Senate is expected Friday.
South Carolina may add redistricting to its agenda
The South Carolina Senate could take up a resolution Thursday giving lawmakers permission to return later, after their regular work ends, to redraw congressional districts that could eliminate the state’s only Democratic-held district. The proposal, which passed the House on Wednesday, needs a two-thirds vote in both chambers.
Republican House leaders said after the vote that they plan to introduce a new map Thursday and hold committee meetings on Friday. But during debate Wednesday, Republicans fended off specific questions from Democrats, including why they were willing to stop the June 9 U.S. House primary elections well after candidates filed and how much a rescheduled primary could cost.
Democratic Rep. Justin Bamberg said he felt sorry for Republicans who, he said, were giving up their principles to follow the whims of Trump.
“The president of the United States is a very powerful man, wields a heavy, heavy thumb — Truth Social, X, Meta, Instagram. To be honest, I don’t envy our Republican colleagues,” Bamberg said.
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s campaign to politically punish Republicans who stand in his way moves through Indiana on Tuesday, when seven state senators face Trump-backed primary challengers.
In neighboring Ohio, primaries for U.S. Senate and governor will lock in the candidates for two major races with national implications.
And in Michigan, voters in a bellwether district will fill a vacancy in the state Senate, a race with implications for the balance of power in a battleground state.
An effort pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump last November to redraw Indiana’s congressional map failed. With the recent Supreme Court decision limiting the Voting Rights Act, some fear it could happen again. (AP video: Obed Lamy)
Here’s what to watch for.
How strong is Trump’s grip on the Republican Party?
Trump is taking aim at seven Republican state senators in Indiana who opposed his plan to redraw congressional district boundaries to help the party gain seats in the U.S. House.
Groups allied with the president have spent millions on advertising, an extraordinary flood of cash and attention into races that are typically low profile.
The races are a test of Trump’s enduring grip over his party as Republicans grow increasingly anxious about the midterm elections in November.
The results will signal to Republicans everywhere about how big a price they’ll pay with their voters if they distance themselves from Trump even as his popularity fades. And it will show the president whether he can still credibly threaten consequences for Republicans who cross him.
The Trump-targeted state senators all represent districts he carried in 2024, mostly by 20 percentage points or more.
The key races to watch are districts 1, 11, 19, 21, 23, 38 and 41.
Ohio races get started in earnest
The state’s primary is the wind up to the big show. Although Ohio has become increasingly conservative, Democrats believe their path back to a U.S. Senate majority runs through the state.
They’re putting their hopes behind former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost Ohio’s other Senate seat to Bernie Moreno in 2024.
He’s expected to face off with Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed last year to fill the vacancy created when JD Vance became vice president.
The race is a special election to fill the last two years of Vance’s term.
In the campaign for governor, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with Trump into a record fundraising haul. He’s largely ignoring Republican rival Casey Putsch, focusing his rallies and television ads on the general election.
An engineer and vehicle designer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” Putsch has attracted fans with provocative YouTube videos that troll Ramaswamy and criticize national Republicans over their handling of the Epstein files, positions on energy-guzzling data centers and support for Israel.
Amy Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination. She played a key role in the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Will Democrats sweep another special election?
The special election for a state Senate seat in central Michigan carries outsized importance.
It’s another test of enthusiasm in a series of special elections that have swung almost universally toward Democrats since Trump returned to the White House. It also could affect the balance of power in the Michigan State Capitol. A Democratic victory would give the party a firm majority in the state Senate, while a Republican win would deadlock the chamber in a 19-19 tie.
The district is closely matched. Democrat Kamala Harris beat Trump there by less than 1 point in the 2024 presidential election.
The seat has been vacant for more than a year, since Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet resigned to take a seat in Congress.
Democrats are showing surprising strength in special elections and off-year contests across the country, winning races in unexpected places and significantly narrowing the gap, even when they fall short.
There’s no guarantee the trend will continue through the midterms, when turnout will be much higher, but it has nonetheless energized Democrats and spooked Republicans worried about keeping their congressional majorities.