Politics

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said he will be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Aug. 15 in Alaska.

“The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska. Further details to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he posted on his social media platform.

Earlier, he had hinted at the timing and location, saying, “I think you’ll be very happy.”

“We are going to have a meeting with Russia. We’ll start off with Russia and we’ll announce a location. I think the location will be a very popular one for a lot of reasons. But we’ll be announcing that a little bit later. I just don’t want to do it now because of the importance of what we just did,” Trump said as he hosted the leaders Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House for a peace summit.

Asked if this is Russia’s last chance to achieve piece, Trump responded, “I don’t like using the term ‘last chance.”

“I think my gut instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it. You’ll find that out later on, maybe even today, but we have a shot at it,” he said.

Friday marked the deadline Trump set for Putin to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine or face “secondary sanctions” against countries that buy oil from Russia.

But uncertainty remains as to whether the U.S. will hit Moscow with new economic penalties as focus turns to the one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin. Trump did not comment on the deadline as he took questions from reporters at the White House.

Trump on Thursday was asked directly if his Aug. 8 deadline for Putin to make peace or face consequences still applied.

“It’s gonna be up to him,” the president responded. “We’re going to see what he has to say. It’s gonna be up to him. Very disappointed.”

The White House was pushing for a trilateral summit between Trump, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though Trump said Putin meeting with Zelenskyy wasn’t a condition for he and Putin to meet.

Still, Trump said on Friday the Ukrainian president will get “everything he needs.”

“The European leaders want to see peace. President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace. And Zelenskyy wants to see peace,” Trump said.

The president was asked if Zelenskyy will have to give up territory in any deal to end the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“We’re looking at that but we’re actually looking to get some back and some swapping. It’s complicated. It’s actually nothing easy, it’s very complicated. But we’re going to get some back, and we’re going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both,” Trump responded.

Zelenskyy said in a statement Saturday, “We are ready, together with President Trump, together with all our partners, to work for a real and, most importantly, lasting peace — a peace that will not collapse because of Moscow’s wishes.”

“The Ukrainian people deserve peace,” Zelenskyy continued. “But all partners must understand what a worthy peace is. This war must be ended, and Russia must end it.”

U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Saturday met with Ukrainian and European officials in the United Kingdom.

In a Saturday evening address, Zelenskyy described the meeting as “constructive” and reiterated his faith in the U.S. and Trump’s ability to end the war.

“The President of the United States has the leverage and the determination,” Zelenskyy said. “Ukraine has supported all of President Trump’s proposals, starting back in February. A ceasefire – all formats have been supported.”

Trump, who once said he could end the Russia-Ukraine war within his first 24 hours in office and touted his personal relationship with Putin, has expressed increasing frustration with the Russian leader.

In mid-July, Trump said he was giving Putin a 50-day ultimatum to stop the fighting. He then moved up the timeline to 10 days, citing his disappointment with Putin.

“I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made,” Trump said at the time. “I’m not so interested in talking anymore. He talks, we have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversations, and then people die the following night in a — with a missile going into a town and hitting.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalated last week when Trump announced he was moving nuclear submarines in response to what he called “highly provocative statements” from the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev, also the former president of Russia, had sounded off on Trump’s ceasefire deadline, writing on social media that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war.”

While Trump said the nuclear submarines would be moved in response, he and the White House would not specify what capabilities the submarines have or other questions surrounding the announcement.

Earlier this week, Trump indirectly upped the pressure on Russia by doubling his tariff rate against India over India’s imports of Russian oil.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Democrats on Friday again defied Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the state GOP and did not show for a vote on a Republican-proposed redistricting plan

Shortly after, the state’s Republican attorney general went to court to try to remove some of them from office.

The GOP-proposed new congressional maps would give Republicans more seats in Congress — potentially allowing the GOP to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington.

Despite threats of arrest, restriction on pay and calls from the governor that they be removed from office, the majority of the Democrats did not appear for the special session when the Texas House convened Friday afternoon and no quorum was reached.

Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House minority leader, earlier told ABC News Thursday that he believes his caucus would hold out on Friday and once again deny the legislature a quorum, though he said they would be willing to come back to Austin if state Republicans promise to focus solely on other issues before the special session, including flood mitigation and disaster preparedness.

Members who were present Friday do not have to return in person until Monday at 2 p.m. ET, when the Texas House Republicans will attempt to reach a quorum for the fourth time.

Democrats who have fled the state appear likely to stay away until Aug. 19, the end of the special session.

The defiance took place as Abbott has also requested the Texas Supreme Court to remove Wu from office.

Wu’s attorneys repsonded Friday afternoon asking the court to deny the governor’s request.

The attorneys argue, in part, that the court does not have jurisdiction over state legislators, that Rep. Wu would have a right to a jury trial, which the state supreme court cannot provide. That the governor does not have the standing to bring the case, according to Wu’s attorneys who added Abbott’s suit would “fail in any court.”

His lawyers also argued that the state constitution covers lawmakers for quorum breaking in certain circumstances.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Fox News on Friday that he is willing to take other Democrats to court if they don’t return.

“If they show up today, we’re all happy, we can get our business done, and everybody is good. If they do not show up, we will be in an Illinois courtroom … [trying] to get them back to the state of Texas, hold them in contempt, and if they refuse to come, hopefully put them in jail,” he said.

He shrugged off concerns that the optics of arresting Democrats would give them a public opinion win.

“I think in Texas — I don’t know what it’s like in other states, but I do know in Texas, people expect their representatives to go to work,” Paxton said.

Paxton said on Friday afternoon that he had filed a lawsuit with the Texas Supreme Court petitioning for 13 of the over 50 Texas House Democratic members who left the state to break quorum to be removed from their positions.

The filing argued that these members “have absented themselves from the State with the express purpose of denying the House a quorum so that the Legislature as a whole cannot carry out its constitutional lawmaking function.”

“These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on,” the AG said in a statement.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows targeted the wallets of the absent Democrats in an effort to draw them back.

On Thursday, he sent a memo to all members and their staffs requiring that any member who is absent from the special session to break quorum must collect their monthly paycheck in person. Direct deposits were suspended for those skipping out until the House reaches quorum, according to memo.

Burrows says that he expects more suits filed in other states to come after the one filed by Abbott Thursday to try to enforce the civil arrest warrants out of state, and that another legislator contacted the Sergeant at Arms of the Illinois House of Representatives asking for their assistance in bringing back members.

He added later that if the Department of Public Safety civilly arrests “our absent colleagues” during the weekend, legislators are on call and need to come back to Austin with a minimum of six hours’ notice.

Abbott has called for the Democrats’ arrest, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn has called on the FBI to track down those elected officials.

Congressional Democrats who sit on the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committee sent a letter Friday to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel asking them to clarify and explain if and how their agencies are involved in locating Democratic Texas lawmakers who left the state to prevent a quorum in order to stop the new congressional maps.

“We write with great concern about the abuse of federal public safety resources for completely political purposes and without a law enforcement rationale that is reportedly taking place right now,” the members wrote.

The governor said in a podcast released Friday that he was willing to go further than creating more than five new seats the GOP could flip if the Democrats continued to block the GOP effort.

“We may make it six or seven or eight new seats we’re going to be adding on the Republican side,” he said during an interview on the podcast “Ruthless.”

In the meantime, Texas Democrats have fled to various blue states, including Illinois and California.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is slated to hold a news conference with those Democrats Friday afternoon, along with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and California state Democrats to show their support.

“The governor and state leaders have floated a potential statewide ballot measure that would reaffirm California’s commitment to national independent redistricting and allow voters to temporarily adjust the state’s congressional map only if Texas or other GOP-led states manipulate theirs,” Newsom’s office said in a statement.

California Democrats are preparing to respond to Texas Republicans’ proposed new congressional districts by possibly targeting five GOP-held districts in the Golden State, sources recently confirmed to ABC station KGO-TV. But the office of the California Secretary of State told ABC News that if legislators don’t move fast, it becomes nearly impossible for the state to run a statewide election that meets federal standards.

ABC station KGO-TV’s Monica Madden contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to prepare options for the possible use of U.S. military force against drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations, two U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News on Friday.

One official said that any possible use of U.S. military assets is not imminent.

It remains unclear exactly what the authorization will allow and what military operations would be considered as potential options that the U.S. military has been authorized to prepare. There are sure to be questions about the legality of such operations.

The New York Times was first to report that Trump had signed a directive ordering the Pentagon to prepare military options against the cartels.

The Pentagon referred all questions to the White House.

Asked for comment, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told ABC News that “President Trump’s top priority is protecting the homeland, which is why he took the bold step to designate several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.”

In February, the Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, MS-13 and other drug cartels as global terrorist organizations following an executive order signed by Trump in January.

Appearing on EWTN on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that designation allows the administration to use various means against the cartels which he described as being armed like terrorist or armies that control territory.

“I don’t know if it’s changed their behavior yet, but their behavior is going to have to change one way or another,” Rubio said in an interview when asked if the terrorist designation had changed the cartels’ behavior. “But it allows us to now target what they’re operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever … to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it.”

“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations,” Rubio continued. “Drug dealing is the kind of terrorism they’re doing.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Democrats on Friday are gearing up for another day defying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the state GOP as they try to move forward with controversial redistricting.

The Texas House is set to meet as Republican legislators say that Friday is the deadline for Democratic legislators who’ve fled the state to return or face consequences.

House Republicans will try to vote on GOP-proposed new congressional maps that would give Republicans more seats in Congress — potentially allowing the GOP to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington.

Abbott has also requested the Texas Supreme Court to remove Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House minority leader, from office over the Democrats’ defiance. The court gave Wu until 6 p.m. ET Friday to respond to the governor’s case.

Wu told ABC News Thursday that he believes his caucus will hold out on Friday and once again deny the legislature a quorum, though he said they would be willing to come back to Austin if state Republicans promise to focus solely on other issues before the special session, including flood mitigation and disaster preparedness.

Democrats who have fled the state appear likely to stay away until Aug. 19, the end of the special session, meaning there will be not be enough lawmakers present for the Texas House to conduct business.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Fox News on Friday that he is willing to take other Democrats to court if they don’t return.

“If they show up today, we’re all happy, we can get our business done, and everybody is good. If they do not show up, we will be in an Illinois courtroom … [trying] to get them back to the state of Texas, hold them in contempt, and if they refuse to come, hopefully put them in jail,” he said.

He shrugged off concerns that the optics of arresting Democrats would give them a public opinion win.

“I think in Texas — I don’t know what it’s like in other states, but I do know in Texas, people expect their representatives to go to work,” Paxton said.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows targeted the wallets of the absent members in an effort to draw them back.

On Thursday, he sent a memo to all members and their staff requiring that any member who is absent from the special session to break quorum must collect their monthly check in person. Direct deposits were suspended for those skipping out until the House reaches quorum, according to memo.

Abbott has called for the Democrats’ arrest, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn has called on the FBI to track down those elected officials.

The governor said in a podcast released Friday that he was willing to go further than creating more than five new seats the GOP could flip if the Democrats continued to block.

“We may make it six or seven or eight new seats we’re going to be adding on the Republican side,” he said during an interview on the podcast “Ruthless.”

In the meantime, the Texas Democrats have fled to various blue states, including Illinois and California.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is slated to hold a news conference with those Democrats Friday afternoon, along with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and California state Democrats to show their support.

“The governor and state leaders have floated a potential statewide ballot measure that would reaffirm California’s commitment to national independent redistricting and allow voters to temporarily adjust the state’s congressional map only if Texas or other GOP-led states manipulate theirs,” Newsom’s office said in a statement.

California Democrats are preparing to respond to Texas Republicans’ proposed new congressional districts by possibly targeting five GOP-held districts in the Golden State, sources recently confirmed to ABC station KGO-TV. But the office of the California Secretary of State told ABC News that if legislators don’t move fast, it becomes nearly impossible for the state to run a statewide election that meets federal standards.

ABC station KGO-TV’s Monica Madden contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors in Albany have issued subpoenas to New York Attorney General Letitia James inquiring about her office’s civil fraud case against President Donald Trump and corruption case against the National Rifle Association, multiple sources told ABC News.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

A spokesperson for James called the subpoenas a “weaponization of the justice system,” invoking a criticism Trump used to describe her case against him that resulted in a half-billion-dollar penalty.

“Any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American. We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The civil fraud case is on appeal with the New York State Appellate Division’s First Department. Trump, his eldest sons and his business were found liable for 10 years of fraud that inflated the president’s net worth.

James sued the NRA in 2020, accusing the gun rights group’s former CEO, Wayne LaPierre, and others of misappropriating donor funds to finance luxury items for themselves. The jury determined LaPierre owed more than $4 million.

The subpoenas, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, are part of an investigation into whether James and her office violated the civil rights of Trump or the NRA executives, the sources said.

An attorney for James, Abbe Lowell, called the probe “a dangerous escalation” and “the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign.”

“If prosecutors carry out this improper tactic and are genuinely interested in the truth, we are ready and waiting with the facts and the law,” Lowell said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s Friday deadline has arrived for Russia’s Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine or face “secondary sanctions” against countries that buy oil from Russia.

But uncertainty remains as to whether the U.S. will hit Moscow with new economic penalties amid talk of a possible bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin happening soon.

Trump on Thursday was asked directly if his Aug. 8 deadline for Putin to make peace or face consequences still applied.

“It’s gonna be up to him,” the president responded. “We’re going to see what he has to say. It’s gonna be up to him. Very disappointed.”The White House is pushing for a trilateral summit between Trump, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though Trump said Putin meeting with Zelenskyy wasn’t a condition for he and Putin to meet.

“They would like to meet with me and I’ll do whatever I can to stop the killing,” Trump said on Thursday.

Trump, who once said he could end the Russia-Ukraine war within his first 24 hours in office and touted his personal relationship with Putin, has expressed increasing frustration with the Russian leader.

In mid-July, Trump said he was giving Putin a 50-day ultimatum to stop the fighting. He then moved up the timeline to 10 days, citing his disappointment with Putin.

“I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made,” Trump said at the time. “I’m not so interested in talking anymore. He talks, we have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversations, and then people die the following night in a — with a missile going into a town and hitting.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalated last week when Trump announced he was moving nuclear submarines in response to what he called “highly provocative statements” from the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev, also the former president of Russia, had sounded off on Trump’s ceasefire deadline, writing on social media that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war.”

While Trump said the nuclear submarines would be moved in response, he and the White House would not specify what capabilities the submarines have or other questions surrounding the announcement.

And earlier this week, Trump indirectly upped the pressure on Russia by doubling his tariff rate against India over India’s imports of Russian oil.

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(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) — During a town hall event, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace compared herself to President Donald Trump and requested he endorse her for South Carolina’s governor — a race where there is already a crowded slate of five candidates.

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Mace encountered a friendly crowd at her first town hall since launching her bid for governor and called on them to have Trump — and his supporters — back her.

“I’m just saying I’ve done a lot for the president, and if you talk to him, I would really like his support for governor,” she said Wednesday during her first stop on her so-called “Mother of All Town Halls” tour.

Mace is one of several Republicans who have already thrown their hats into the ring for the state’s top job. Attorney General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Rep. Ralph Norman have also announced their campaigns.

Mace outlined her campaign promises, urging the audience to support her run to lead the state. She also likened herself to Trump, who is popular in the state after winning it in his 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential runs.

“I want to take what’s broken in South Carolina, and I want to burn it down to the ground and build it right back up, right where it needs to be, because you’ve earned it. You deserve it, and you deserve someone who’s going to work 24/7. I don’t sleep. I went to bed at 1 a.m., and I was up at 4 a.m. OK, I am Trump in high heels. I love what I am doing. I mean, he doesn’t sleep,” she said.

Trump enthusiastically backed Mace for Congress in 2024 after she endorsed him in the state’s presidential primary. Their support for each other was a change after an earlier clash. One day after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Mace said Trump’s “entire legacy” was “wiped out” by the siege. Later, during the 2022 midterms, Trump called Mace “terrible” and a letdown.

Trump has not yet publicly commented on Mace’s recent request for his endorsement.

As governor, Mace said child rapists would get the death penalty, eliciting a loud applause from the crowd. She said businesses who employ “illegal aliens” will be fined $1,000 a day, and hopes to bring down the state income tax.

The congresswoman repeatedly brought up her work to ban transgender women from using facilities on federal properties, such as bathrooms and locker rooms.

“We’re going to stop that in South Carolina, because on day one, if you give me a bathroom bill — state legislature, I will sign it into law. We’re going to keep men out of women’s spaces,” she said.

Mace also recounted how she helped get Mike Johnson elected as speaker of the House by getting Trump on the phone with remaining Republican holdouts.

“When there’s one guy in the room that can bring all of us together, I witnessed it, and that man was Donald J. Trump, so I was there for him when we got the speaker elected.”

Mace engaged with an agreeable crowd during the short question-and-answer portion, during which topics including the Department of Government Efficiency, fluoride in water and Trump’s promise to provide a tax credit on generators were raised.

Pressed by an audience member about Trump’s promise to provide a tax credit on generators for individuals who live in dangerous or coastal communities following the floods, Mace said, “I can absolutely remind him.”

Mace said she hopes “like hell” DOGE is “on its way” to South Carolina, claiming she has helped DOGE find “some of these crazy contracts” that DOGE claims are wasteful.

“We’ve got to audit some of our agencies, particularly the Department of Education. I want to know where all the money is going, and can we take some of it out of the bureaucracy and give it to our teachers?” she said.

The congresswoman said she would support “any action to remove fluoride from our water and also ban chemtrails,” the widely debunked conspiracy theory that claims the white lines from aircraft are releasing chemicals — including for nefarious reasons.

Her friendly town hall came at a time when many other members of Congress are facing hostile crowd at rowdy events. Earlier this week, a town hall crowd shouted at and heckled Republican Rep. Mike Flood as he touted Trump’s massive policy and tax bill that was signed into law in July.

ABC News’ Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The redistricting battle gripping Texas has put a spotlight on the ongoing debate over gerrymandering and its long-term effects on the electorate.

Sam Wang, the founding director of the Electoral Innovation Lab and the creator of the Gerrymandering Project , a research lab focused on creating the most fair district maps, told ABC News that state leaders from both sides of the aisle have changed election boundaries to make it stacked with constituents who vote in their favor.

In the last 20 years, with access to advanced computer algorithms, those gerrymandering attempts have become more egregious as whole counties have been divided up with pinpoint precision, resulting in districts with areas with outlandish shapes, he said.

“Gerrymander is partisanship maximized above all of the other things,” Wang said.

The practice was first identified and coined in 1812 when Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a bill that redrew the state’s congressional maps to benefit the Democratic-Republican party. Maps are typically redrawn at the beginning of each decade to reflect changes in the population from the latest census.

Kareem Crayton, the vice president of the Washington D.C. office of the Brennan Center for Justice, who has spent years researching redistricting, told ABC News the redistricting campaigns since the 2000s have led to a systemic cycle of gerrymandering, especially in the South.

“States like Florida and Texas have the worst examples of gerrymandering,” he said.

But Crayton also pointed out that states with Democratic majorities, like Illinois, have responded with their own maps that also skew districts in their favor, leading to an endless cycle.

“All of these states are looking around at each other like ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ thinking who’s going to fire first,” he said, referring to the Western film. “There is no sheriff in town saying this is not helping everyone.”

While Republican and Democratic leaders in those states have contended they are redrawing their maps to adequately reflect their communities, Wang said the math and geography aren’t backing their arguments.

Wang’s lab created a mathematical algorithm that creates district maps using key demographic factors. Racial demographics from the Census, environmental and geographic information from local data and other public sources are used to create district maps that remove political bias. Those maps are then compared to the district maps currently in place.

“That tells us what someone who didn’t care about political parties would do,” he explained. “We have harnessed the power of computer simulation to see what would be neutral.”

Texas is one of the 15 states in the map that earned an F grade based on the Gerrymander Project’s formula.

Although the state legislature and congressional delegation are led by a Republican majority, Texas’s current districting map is divided in a way that gives the GOP an advantage, according to the project. The analysis shows that the redistricting negates a challenging vote.

Travis County, for example, includes the city of Austin, which has leaned Democratic, but the county includes five congressional districts around it. By not including Austin in the suburban areas, the congressional district will lean Republican, according to the analysis.

The Gerrymander Project’s analysis found that the county splits in Texas, which is the number of districts within a single county, are higher than the average split per state, based on its analysis.

For example, more dense Dallas County is home to five congressional districts, and two of the districts’ boundaries extend into the next county.

Such division leads to confusion among voters as to what their district is, according to Crayton.

Crayton said that such county splits have led to more examples of elected officials running unopposed.

“If you’re a candidate from an opposing party, you’re going to have an uphill battle trying to run in a district where the majority of the voters are registered to the majority,” he said.

“We’ve seen it happen all of the time where a Democrat or Republican simply won’t put the time and effort to run because the gerrymandered district puts the odds against them,” Crayton said.

Although the majority of the states that got the project’s F grade are in the South and show more of a Republican advantage, the experts warned that blue states in other parts of the country have used gerrymandering as well.

Illinois, which is one of the Midwest states with an F grade, is the prime example, they said.

Its current map, which was adopted in 2021, contains non-compact districts, which leads to unequal voter density per area, and more county splits than the average, according to the Gerrymander Project.

One egregious example is the state’s 13th congressional district, which covers a nearly 2,300 square mile boundary that extends from its southern point near the border with Missouri to Springfield, right in the center of the state, and then east to the city of Champaign.

The boundaries keep a huge concentration of Democratic leaning voters, according to the Gerrymander Project.

Wang noted that the Supreme Court’s 2019 decision that ruled gerrymandering for party advantage cannot be challenged in federal court has removed key guardrails for preventing states from taking part in severe party redistricting.

The case involved gerrymandering allegations in North Carolina, and while the court’s majority ruled that the practice may be “incompatible with democratic principles,” federal courts had no jurisdiction in reviewing those cases.

Wang said that most states have taken gerrymandering to their limit and made it extremely hard for state legislatures to revert their boundaries to more fair areas.

“The lemon has been squeezed dry,” he said.

However, Wang noted that gerrymandering cases have prompted the public to speak out and take action to turn the tide and rein in gerrymandering in some key states.

Virginia, for example, used a special master in 2022 to draw up its current maps following a court case brought by the state’s constituents and some local elected officials.

The court ordered the special master to create district maps to adhere to federal requirements of population equality, the Voting Rights Act mandates, state constitution and statutes in its districting process.

As a result of its changes, the state, which has a slight Democratic majority in its state legislature, has no partisan competitiveness in its congressional districts, according to the Gerrymander Project, which awarded Virigina an A rating.

The district’s geography is “Fairly compact” and has the national average number of county splits, according to the project’s analysis.

Wang said ballot initiatives that removed the legislature from the districting process have risen in popularity in many states and have made a huge difference.

Arizona, which also has an A rating by the project, has been using an independent redistricting commission after voters passed a ballot initiative in 2000 that changed state regulations.

The state, which has a Republican majority in its state legislature, does not have a partisan advantage in its state districts, according to the Gerrymandering Project. Its districts are seen as “fairly compact” and are the average number of county splits, according to the analysis.

Crayton and Wang said the state-run solutions to redistricting are a good step forward, but ultimately, it is going to take Congressional legislation to end partisan influence in these maps.

Wang said that public opinion has consistently shown that constituents seek fair maps regardless of their political affiliations.

“If Congress were to really pursue it, it could be bipartisan and get a lot of support,” he said of legislation that prohibited gerrymandering tactics. “And we’ve seen it work.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said on Thursday that FBI Director Kash Patel has granted his request for the federal government to assist with locating Texas House Democrats who fled the state in protest of GOP-led redistricting efforts.

Cornyn’s letter requesting federal help with locating and investigating the state legislators was sent on Tuesday.

“I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas. We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities,” Cornyn said in a news release.

The FBI declined to comment on the matter.

Cornyn also joined “The Mark Davis” radio show on Thursday morning and expressed his gratitude for Patel’s prompt response.

“Just to get to the bottom of it, I asked Kash to look into it and he responded promptly, I’m grateful to him,” the senator said.

Cornyn also called the Democrats “irresponsible” for breaking quorum — and rendering the legislature unable to take up any legislation, including some in responds to the floods that devastated the region recently.

“There are a number of things on the call that Gov. Abbott has listed, including redistricting, but they’re missing all of those. And I think that’s irresponsible, and I think we just need to get to the bottom of it,” said Cornyn. “They got to come back home sometime … it’s not going to be successful. They’re not going to be able to ultimately escape their responsibility. It’s a stunt.”

The Texas House of Representatives failed again on Tuesday to move forward on enacting the GOP’s new congressional map, which could net Republicans between three and five seats in next year’s midterm elections. Those added seats could be the difference maker over who has control of the U.S. House — a chamber where Republicans have a small majority.

House Speaker Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Republican, said the legislature would try again on Friday to establish a quorum.

In the meantime, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to find and arrest those Democrats, an order Abbott said will remain in effect until they are “accounted for and brought back” to Austin.

President Donald Trump earlier this week told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce the FBI “may have to get involved.”

“You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back. You have to fight it out. That’s what elections are all about,” the president said at the time.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday demanded work begin on a new census as redistricting battles are spreading across the country.

In a social media post, Trump announced he directed the Commerce Department to “immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024.”

“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS,” Trump added.

The U.S. Census Bureau says it “collects data from all foreign born who participate in its censuses and surveys, regardless of legal status” and has done so for its 235-year history. The data determines how the 435 House seats are divided among the 50 states every 10 years.

Trump’s announcement on Thursday comes amid a showdown in Texas over a proposed congressional map that, if enacted, could net Republicans between three and five U.S. House seats in next year’s midterm elections.

Texas Democrats fled the state in protest, denying Republicans the necessary quorum to vote on the changes. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is now exploring legal consequences for those lawmakers, ordering Texas Department of Public Safety to find and arrest lawmakers who left the state and asking the Texas Supreme Court to remove a top Texas House Democrat from office.

With control of the U.S. House potentially at stake, blue-state Democrats are vowing to respond in kind should Texas Republicans succeed in changing their map.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and California Gov. Gavin Newsom said they will explore ways to gerrymander their maps. Both states currently use independent commissions to draw their maps following constitutional amendments.

More Republican governors, too, are exploring possibly redrawing congressional maps ahead of the 2026 elections given the GOP’s razor-thin margins in the House. Democrats would need to only net three seats next November to win back the House.

Vice President JD Vance is visiting Indiana on Thursday to discuss redistricting and other topics with Republican leaders.

Trump in his first term attempted to change the U.S. census to exclude noncitizens. In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that Commerce Department’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census violated federal law.

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