Pressure is mounting on Republicans in Indiana to take up redistricting ahead of the midterms, with both White House officials privately pressuring lawmakers and a mysterious group urging voters to call their elected officials in support of it.
White House Intergovernmental Affairs Director Alex Meyer in his personal capacity has called several lawmakers in the state pressing them to redistrict, according to a person familiar with the calls granted anonymity to discuss them.
One lawmaker said to have received a call declined to comment.
The White House is also inviting Indiana Republicans to a meeting in Washington, according to invitations reviewed by POLITICO. More than four dozen — including the state House speaker and Senate president — have agreed to attend and two have declined, according to a Republican close to the White House.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The calls are part of its broader strategy to use redistricting in order to gain an advantage in the midterms and help Republicans cling to their small House majority.
It's not just the White House that's amping up the pressure. MAGA faithfuls, like influencer Charlie Kirk, have also been telling Indiana lawmakers to get on board. In a recent post on X, Kirk asked if Indiana state officials are “going to ignore President Trump, the majority of their voters, and the GOP Grassroots across the country by REFUSING to redistrict Indiana’s Congressional Seats? Let’s hope they are better than that!”
At the same time, a recent robocall received by a POLITICO reporter living in Indiana accuses Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Kathy Hochul of New York of using redistricting with a goal of “ending the Trump presidency” and urges listeners to call GOP state Rep. David Hall and tell him to back the effort.
“We can stop these radicals by doing our own redistricting here in Indiana,” the call said.
The call went to residents of the district of Republican State Rep. Danny Lopez, who came out against redistricting. The narrator identifies the call as paid for by Forward America. There is little public information about the group.
Lopez declined to comment.
The intensive public and private pressure comes as Newsom pushes forward with his plan to offset the potential five-seat gain for Republicans in Texas. The Texas state legislature has been at a standstill since Democratic lawmakers left to prevent the state House from reaching quorum to pass the map. Abbott called a second special session on Friday, and Democratic lawmakers have indicated they are willing to return soon.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott immediately called another special session to pass a new congressional map, after the first attempt failed due to Texas Democrats leaving the state to deny Republicans the ability to carve out additional GOP seats.
The second special will begin just two hours after the first special wrapped, at noon central time on Friday. Texas Democrats left the state nearly two weeks ago in protest of the redraw, which GOP leaders are pursuing at the request of President Donald Trump.
Abbott’s proclamation was largely the same as the first one, which lays out 19 agenda items, including redistricting and disaster relief for Central Texas flood victims.
“Delinquent House Democrats ran away from their responsibility to pass crucial legislation to benefit the lives of Texans," the Republican governor said in a statement. “We will not back down from this fight. That's why I am calling them back today to finish the job.”
Most Texas Democrats on the lam are stationed in Illinois but the stalemate appears to be winding down, with the House Democratic Caucus setting conditions for their return.
Democrats are starting to finally see their path back to power in the Senate — if they squint really, really hard.
Party leaders have landed top recruits in Ohio and North Carolina, both pickup opportunities. They hope a snowball effect will push their favorite candidate in Maine, another offensive target, into that race in a state former Vice President Kamala Harris won.
There are other, rockier potential targets: Perhaps they could finally win Texas, where Republicans are locked in a messy, expensive primary. Or Alaska, where senior Democrats are courting a dynamic former congresswoman. Or maybe, they hope, Iowa could become a purple state again.
There's no doubt that Republicans are still favored to hold onto the Senate after next year’s midterms. Democrats need to flip four GOP-held seats while also holding onto states that President Donald Trump won like Michigan and Georgia. Everything would have to go perfectly for them to pull it off — and this is not an era when things have typically gone perfectly for Democrats.
Still, Democrats are increasingly optimistic after former Sen. Sherrod Brown decided to run for his old seat and former Gov. Roy Cooper launched a bid in North Carolina.
“I’m not going to say we’re taking back the Senate right now, but it looks more possible than it ever was,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.). “We’re recruiting great candidates and it looks like they’re not really doing the same. The map is expanding week by week.”
Earlier this year, many Democrats were pessimistic that Brown would run again — and without him, Ohio was considered hopelessly out of reach. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer doggedly pursued Brown anyway, repeatedly calling and meeting with him. Brown is expected to officially launch his campaign against Republican Sen. Jon Husted any day now.
Brown, a frumpy populist who won three terms in the Senate even as Ohio grew increasingly redder, lost reelection by fewer than 4 percentage points last year. What makes Democrats nonetheless hopeful is that Brown kept the contest close even as Trump carried the state by 11 percentage points. With Trump in the White House but not on the ballot, they hope, next year’s midterm elections will almost certainly be a better political moment for Democrats.
“Unless you believe we’re headed into another negative environment for Democrats again, this is almost by definition a toss-up race,” said an Ohio Democratic strategist who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about a still-developing race.
Schumer also worked to persuade Cooper, a popular former two-term governor, to run. Cooper broke fundraising records when he announced his Senate bid and is now leading Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley in early polls.
Schumer’s recruitment efforts are reflective of a larger strategy to stake his party’s chances in several key states on well-established, older candidates, even as much of the Democratic base hungers for generational change. Along with Cooper, 68, and Brown, 72, Democrats are hoping to lure Maine Gov. Janet Mills, 77, into the race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins, 72.
The Democrats’ game plan doubles, in theory, as a way to avoid costly and divisive primaries. Cooper effectively boxed out most of the North Carolina field by keeping the door open to a run, and the sole other Democratic candidate, former Rep. Wiley Nickel, exited the race after Cooper launched his bid. Brown is also expected to clear the field in Ohio.
Nickel told POLITICO his initial decision to run was about “fighting for the best chance to flip North Carolina’s Senate seat,” but with Cooper getting in, he said the former governor “gives Democrats our best shot to flip this seat.”
The success that Senate Democrats have had in luring battle-tested candidates into the arena stands in contrast to Republicans’ efforts this cycle.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, widely seen as a strong potential contender to oust Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, decided against a run. Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu similarly opted against a bid for the seat left open by the retirement of Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, even after winning Trump’s support.
Republicans have also lost an incumbent to retirement — and there could be more.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis announced he was not running for reelection after Trump attacked him for voting against advancing his megabill. In Iowa, Sen. Joni Ernst has not formally announced she is seeking reelection, and the White House saw it necessary to encourage her to try for another term. Collins got her dream job as Senate Appropriations chair only to see her power undermined by Trump, and Democrats are praying she could be next, though she’s said she intends to run again.
Democrats are also hopeful that contentious GOP primaries could bolster their chances to hold Ossoff’s seat in Georgia and turn Texas blue if MAGA darling Attorney General Ken Paxton ousts incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn as polling indicates he might.
“From nasty, expensive primaries to a string of embarrassing recruitment failures and a toxic agenda, Senate Republicans are falling apart at the seams,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Maeve Coyle.
But Democrats have their own crowded primaries to contend with. An ambitious field of three well-funded Democrats in Michigan is threatening to divert resources from defeating Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman who narrowly lost a Senate race to Elissa Slotkin last year. The GOP quickly consolidated behind Rogers rather than risk a contested primary.
And Democrats are still hoping for other top recruits to enter races. In Maine, Schumer has yet to persuade Mills to get into the Senate race. Ditto for former Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska, where she is also eyeing the gubernatorial contest after narrowly losing reelection to the House last year.
There are other hurdles for Democrats. They lack a clear leader, are struggling to raise money, and remain unpopular with voters after their resounding defeat in last year's election.
“The idea that Democrats, saddled with historically low approval ratings, will win in red states with candidates like Brown and Peltola — who voters just rejected — is absurd,” said Joanna Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
But optimistic Democrats know that a single strong candidate — perhaps a Cooper, Brown, Mills, Peltola — can singlehandedly reshape a race. And maybe if they can get a few more of them, their path to control starts to get a little clearer.
Even without squinting so hard.
Yngwio Barnable mag das.
Deutsche Bahn: Bahnchef Richard Lutz muss gehen
Patrick Schnieder kündigte die Entscheidung an, nachdem sich Lutz mehrfach in der Krise der Bahn nicht bewähren konnte.Vivien Timmler (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Former President Barack Obama met Thursday with Texas House Democrats to praise them for leaving the state to stop a GOP-backed redistricting effort.
Obama also pointed to the response by California — which launched its own redistricting retaliation on Thursday — as a result of the Texas Democrats’ own protest, which he views as a temporary offset. He told them he prefers congressional maps to be drawn by independent commissions rather than politicians, but recognized the need for a Democratic response.
“He acknowledged what Texas is doing is wrong, and you have to be able to stand up in this moment,” state Rep. Ann Johnson, who attended the meeting, told POLITICO.
“He was very clear: If we are all playing to our higher angels as politicians, we should want the people determining our lines,” she said. “We should be brave enough to let the voters pick our lines and compete on fair ideas. And that's what he wants. That's what all of us want.”
Obama was joined on call by former Attorney General Eric Holder, chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
The meeting comes as Obama will headline a fundraiser for the NDRC next week in Martha’s Vineyard in response to Republicans’ redistricting efforts.
The meeting was first reported by ABC.
The group of Texas Democrats have been in Illinois for nearly two weeks to deny Republicans the ability to pass a new map carving out five more seats at the request of President Donald Trump. The final day of the special session, ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott, is Friday. Democrats indicated on Thursday they are willing to return home if the session ends on Friday, and if California Democrats introduce their own map adding more seats in retaliation. That process is already in motion in California: Gov. Gavin Newsom formally launched his campaign for a new House map on Thursday.
During the 30-minute call, Obama heard directly from Texas Democratic Reps. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins and Rep. Christian Manuel, and he praised the lawmakers for standing up to the attacks they’ve faced since decamping earlier this month, including bomb threats and lawsuits.
Texas Democrats gave their clearest signal yet on Thursday that they will soon return to the Lone Star state, after decamping to stop the passage of a redrawn congressional map that adds five new GOP-leaning seats.
A statement from the state House Democratic Caucus said that the lawmakers will return on two conditions, both of which are expected this week. First, that the Texas Legislature ends its first special session on Friday, and second that California lawmakers introduce their expected proposal that could offset the GOP gains in Texas.
“Now, as Democrats across the nation join our fight to cause these maps to fail their political purpose, we're prepared to bring this battle back to Texas under the right conditions and to take this fight to the courts,” Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said in a statement.
The battle over redistricting in Texas has kicked off a nationwide scramble to redraw congressional districts ahead of the midterms.
