Texas tees up new voting map
Voting on a new Texas congressional map
On the agenda for the Texas legislature: a new congressional map. Texas House Republicans on Wednesday are expected to vote on redistricting plans intended to flip five Democratic-held U.S. House seats up for grabs in the 2026 midterm elections. It's not clear how quickly Republicans could approve it. The move comes after Texas Democrats ended a two-week walkout that temporarily delayed the bill's passage. The rare mid-decade redistricting came at Trump's urging as the president seeks to improve the Republican Party's odds of preserving its narrow U.S. House majority next year. Follow for updates on the vote.
Democrats are still protesting: In an effort to ensure lawmakers remain in Texas, Republican House leaders have assigned state law enforcement officers to monitor Democrats. Several Democrats slept in the Capitol building in protest and publicly tore up permission slips required by Republicans for members to leave the chamber. The move follows State Rep. Nicole Collier, who in protest slept in the House chamber beginning Monday rather than accepting a police escort.
A limited response to redistricting: One reason why Texas Democrats returned to the state: California's promise to hold a special election in November so voters can greenlight a one-time redistricting plan to potentially add seats for Democrats. New York also promised to respond to the gerrymandering efforts. However, Republicans in states like Florida and Ohio are also taking action on redistricting – which would make it harder for Democrats to fight back.
A politics pit stop
And we're off to the races
It's a battle between Californians. In a hypothetical race, Gov. Gavin Newsom holds a slight edge over former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, according to a new poll of Californian voters conducted by Politico and The Citrin Center public opinion firm. Newsom is the top choice of 25% of California's Democratic voters in the 2028 Democratic primary, leading all prospective candidates, including Harris, the 2024 Democratic nominee. How the poll offers a glimpse into national Democratic voters' thinking.
The results of the poll:
Trump's goes after the Smithsonian
Trump thinks museums in the nation's capital focus too much on the negative. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump said he believes the Smithsonian museums in Washington are too fixated on "how bad slavery was" and other negative aspects of U.S. history as he promised to take aim at the "WOKE" elements. The post came after he last week launched a review of the Smithsonian Institution and its 21 museums to remove "divisive or partisan" elements and determine whether its materials conformed to the Trump administration's views on teaching history. See which museums are part of the review.
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