Dems Game Out Plan for More Redistricting Ahead of 2028

With the Voting Rights Act gutted by the Supreme Court this week and Republican officials in red Southern states racing to redraw their maps ahead of the 2028 election cycle — and with some going to the extreme of redrawing district boundaries before the upcoming midterms — Democratic leaders are planning new countermeasures in a handful of states.

“All options are on the table as we move through the 2026 elections and look to the future,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told Politico on Thursday. “As many governors have already indicated, we will be ready to respond in states like New York, Illinois and Maryland, as well as Colorado, ahead of the 2028 elections.”

Florida lawmakers approved new maps, which they already planned to adopt, on the day of the Supreme Court’s decision, giving Republicans a slight edge in President Trump’s nationwide redistricting battle, a war he started last summer when he pressured Republican-controlled legislatures across the country to redraw congressional district boundaries in an attempt to help Republicans hold the House representatives this fall. When Virginia voters approved new maps that will give Democrats four more seats in the House, congressional Republicans pressured Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to go ahead and further divide his state.

Today, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Republicans to gerrymander in a few more states before the midterm elections. Georgia and Missouri, as well as potentially Tennessee and South Carolina, still have time to make changes before election administration deadlines, and Republicans there have already indicated that’s what they want to do. In Louisiana, the governor is considering postponing the May 16 primary election in order to redraw the maps. My colleague Khaya Himmelman and I describe the latest developments here and here.

There’s not much Democrats can do before the upcoming midterm elections. Most Democratic-led states have good government safeguards in place to prevent the kind of frenzied partisan gerrymandering that Republicans are currently engaged in. Most have some sort of independent redistricting commission that draws fair maps after each census — which is why changes to map-drawing rules in states like California and Virginia had to go to voters. Republican states don’t have these rules, for the most part, making gerrymandering easier. Democratic-led states whose leaders were willing to make changes before the upcoming midterm elections to help combat Trump’s excesses have already done so.

So it seems Jeffries is looking to 2028 to try to ward off what’s to come. Democratic governors. Kathy Hochul of New York, Wes Moore of Maryland and JB Pritzker of Illinois released statements indicating their intention to redraw in time for the 2028 election.

“Republicans have concluded that they have to cheat to win, and conservatives on the Supreme Court have decided to aid and abet their scheme. Democrats will fight back with every tool available,” Jeffries said.

“We are exploring every opportunity to ensure that communities of color continue to have the chance to elect the candidate of their choice in districts that are traditionally covered by the Voting Rights Act,” he continued, “while doing what is necessary, as has happened in California, to decisively respond to Republican efforts to gerrymander congressional maps.”

—Nicole LaFond

Comey Seashells Load Part of Todd Blanche AG Hearing

MS NOW today released a new report suggesting that fired Attorney General Pam Bondi believed the likelihood of bringing charges against former FBI Director James Comey for, according to the administration, lying to Congress was higher than pursuing the so-called North Carolina shell case. Bondi was of course fired, apparently for not securing charges against Trump’s political enemies quickly enough.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is known to be interested in serving as attorney general permanently and is learning from Bondi’s mistakes. More by MS NOW:

In late March, before Bondi’s firing, Justice Department aides asked them to delay indicting Comey in the presidential threat case and wait until the Senate confirmed that acting U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle would be the permanent head of the federal prosecutors’ office in the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

But after Bondi left and new acting Attorney General Blanche sought to secure Trump’s permanent nomination to the post, the “shellfish” affair gained momentum, the sources said. Blanche aides asked Boyle to seek a grand jury indictment against Comey, and he and a relatively junior prosecutor obtained one in the Eastern District on April 28.

—Nicole LaFond

Record DHS Shutdown Comes to an End

After 76 days, the Department of Homeland Security’s record-breaking government shutdown ended Thursday. The House approved the DHS bill that funds all parts of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), except Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), through the end of the current fiscal year, by voice vote.

The House passage comes weeks after House Republicans declined to support the Senate-passed bipartisan package that cleared the Senate in late March. Days later, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) caved to GOP leadership in the Senate and agreed to support the same bill, but delayed a vote for weeks — until now.

“Speaker Johnson extended the DHS shutdown for over a month for no reason. This is the same bill the Senate unanimously passed five weeks ago,” Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) said in a statement following the House’s passage of the bill.

Republicans are working to fund ICE and CBP for the next few years – which already have huge slush funds from the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill – through the process of reconciling party lines. Both chambers have already taken the first step in this process and passed the budget resolution, which directs the relevant committees to begin drafting the bill in accordance with the broad outlines set forth in the budget resolution.

-Emine Yucel

In case you missed it

New edition of The Franchise from Khaya Himmelman released today: What’s happening on the ground after SCOTUS’s “radical rebalancing” of power

Emine Yücel and Josh Kovensky: Trump admin and GOP leaders scramble to explain why the Iran war isn’t a war

BREAK: Trump withdraws MAHA influencer nomination for surgeon general

Morning memo: SCOTUS offers GOP a fighting chance to hold the House

Yesterday’s most read story

Alito Pens’ decision that ‘eviscerates’ the Voting Rights Act

What we read

Hegseth says Iran ceasefire stops deadline for congressional approval

GOP urges Kemp to call special session to redraw maps after court ruling

Republican Party unity cracks with latest vote on Iran war