Trump Targets Mail Voting Ahead of 2026 Midterm Elections
By Lisa Kashinsky, Jessica Piper, and Holly Otterbein Donald Trump’s renewed crusade against mail voting is once again threatening to undermine his party’s efforts. Republicans poured tens of millions of dollars last year into convincing their voters that casting ballots by mail was safe after Trump spent years bashing the practice and baselessly insisting it was rife with fraud. And it worked, with GOP voters closing or even reversing the mail voting gap with Democrats in several states. But now Trump is attacking mail voting again as he ratchets up his push to protect Republicans’ House majority in the midterms,
Texas Democrat Nicole Collier Protests Redistricting Rules
By Arlette Saenz Democratic Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier is spending the night on the Texas House floor in protest after refusing a Republican demand to be placed under the watch of the state Department of Public Safety. When Texas House Democrats returned to the Capitol in Austin on Monday, after having fled the state earlier this month in order to prevent a vote on a controversial Republican redistricting plan, House Speaker Dustin Burrows put constraints on their movements. Burrows announced that the Democrats could only leave the House floor if they received written permission and agreed to be under law enforcement escort until
Mayor Bowser Navigates Trump’s Federal Law Enforcement Push
By Jonathan Allen and Megan Lebowitz In the end, President Donald Trump’s offer was one that Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser could not refuse. In mobilizing the D.C. National Guard, pressing federal agents into urban law enforcement and taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department — all in the name of fighting violent crime in the nation’s capital — Trump invited Bowser to cooperate with his administration. The law, federal money and a long-standing threat to repeal self-government in the city lined up behind him, giving Bowser, who one former aide described as having a rare ability to “remove emotion” from political and policy calculations,
Kennedy Reinstates HHS Task Force on Childhood Vaccines
Written By Lexx Thornton Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday that HHS is reinstating the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, which disbanded in 1998. The decision comes months after a group he once led sued to bring back the panel. The Children’s Health Defense, which Kennedy founded, filed a lawsuit in May against Kennedy over his failure to reconstitute the task force. Kennedy founded CHD years before he launched his presidential campaign in 2023, before dropping out and endorsing President Donald Trump’s campaign. The move is the latest in a string of decisions by Kennedy and his department, seemingly
Newsom Pushes California Mid-Decade Redistricting Plan
By Natasha Korecki and Ben Kamisar Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday called on California lawmakers to approve a November ballot measure that would allow them to redraw the state’s congressional map to fight back against Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting plans in Texas and elsewhere. Newsom’s proposal, called the “Election Rigging Response Act,” would pave the way for California Democrats to circumvent the independent commission that controls the map-drawing process in the state and pass new congressional lines that would be more favorable to their party. Republicans in Texas, with President Donald Trump’s backing, are pursuing a new congressional map that would allow them to
Trump’s DC Homeless Sweep Sparks Controversy and Outcry
By Jacquelyn Martin Ms. Jay didn’t wait for the authorities to come before packing her tent and carrying what belongings she could across Pennsylvania Avenue on her way to whatever comes next. She’d been living her “Girl Scout life,” she said, saving money and looking for work while homeless. When she got word that the law was on its way, she found herself living the scouting motto: Be prepared. “Last night was so scary,” she said, recalling when federal law officers, in concert with local police, began fanning out across Washington to uproot homeless encampments. “I don’t want to be the
Texas Democrats Debate Return Amid Redistricting Quorum Fight
By Ben Kamisar and Natasha Korecki With Texas expected to end its first special legislative session Friday and immediately begin a new one, the dozens of Democratic legislators who fled the state to block Republicans’ redistricting proposal are hammering out a plan for their return home. Texas Democrats met late into the night Tuesday then again Wednesday, including breaking into smaller groups, to discuss their next steps and what their ultimate exit strategy looked like after spending the last 10 days out of the state, according to four sources close to the talks. But those sources said the lawmakers do not yet have
Civil Rights Leaders Slam Trump’s DC National Guard Move
By Curtis Bunn Black civil rights leaders and the mayors of several cities on Tuesday denounced the deployment of the National Guard to the nation’s capital to combat crime, calling it “fundamentally grandstanding” and “a federal coup.” And by suggesting that other cities, also run by Black mayors, may be next, President Donald Trump was “playing the worst game of racially divisive politics,” one rights leader said. Trump announced Monday that he would deploy 800 guard members to Washington, D.C., suggesting that the same could happen in New York City, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, California. “When you walk down the street, you’re going
Liberal Groups Rally Nationwide Against Texas Redistricting
By Megan Lebowitz Dozens of liberal groups unveiled plans Tuesday to hold around 50 events across 20 states to protest Republican redistricting efforts in Texas backed by President Donald Trump. The demonstrations scheduled for Saturday — branded as “Fight the Trump Takeover” — are being organized by more than three dozen groups, including the Democratic National Committee, according to plans shared first with NBC News. “Trump knows the only way he can hold the majority after his budget betrayal is by changing the rules in the middle of the game to avoid accountability for ripping health care and food away from millions of
Pritzker Calls Trump a Cheater, Abbott a Joke on Redistricting
By Alexandra Marquez Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker slammed President Donald Trump as a “cheater” and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as a “joke” days after welcoming Texas Democrats who fled their state in protest of GOP-led redistricting efforts. “Governor Abbott is the joke,” Pritzker, a Democrat, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday in response to Abbott calling Illinois’ congressional map a “joke.” “He’s the one who is attempting mid-decade here — at a time when, frankly, all of us are concerned about the future of democracy. He’s literally helping whittle it away and licking the boots of his
