Indiana Republicans’ redistricting rejection marks a rare ceasefire in the gerrymandering wars — and could lead to other state leaders backing off their own plans.

The result gives cover for some Democratic-leaning states to stand down, even as the party’s base is frenzied over the issue. Lawmakers in Illinois and Maryland have for months had internal debates about whether to move forward with redrawing their maps. Indiana’s outcome relieved some of the mounting pressure they anticipated facing had Republicans in Indiana further gerrymandered their maps.

Illinois Democrats have long said they would only gerrymander if the Indiana GOP bowed to Trump’s demands and redid their own map. In the wake of Hoosier Republicans’ move Thursday, their Democratic neighbors don’t seem eager to change their minds.

Meanwhile in Maryland, one Democratic leader is rebuffing entreaties from top Democrats to eliminate the state’s lone remaining GOP seat.

Maryland Democratic Senate President Bill Ferguson has exchanged phone calls with Indiana Senate Republican leader Rodric Bray, four people familiar with the two leaders, granted anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly, told POLITICO. Each resisted pressure from top officials in their party to move on redistricting. Bray’s success could now lessen the pressure on Ferguson. Bray's spokesperson, Molly Swigart, said no deal was ever made between Bray and Ferguson on redistricting in their respective states.

Officials in Virginia, where Democrats gained 13 seats in their House of Delegates in November’s statewide elections, are poised to make drastic changes to their congressional maps that could net the party upwards of four seats. But Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger sounded reluctant to the idea of making wholesale changes to congressional lines at a POLITICO event earlier this week.

There are headwinds elsewhere for Trump and his allies. In Kansas and Kentucky Republicans have so far failed to move forward with their redistricting pushes that are complicated by opposition from Democratic governors. Ohio Republicans struck a compromise with Democrats for a less aggressive gerrymander than what some national leaders wanted. And a judge picked a map in Utah that drew a safe Democratic seat; and Republicans are facing a potential setback for Missouri.

That doesn’t mean the redistricting wars are over. Lawmakers in a number of other states are still weighing their own maps, with GOP-led Florida and Democratic-controlled Virginia remaining the biggest question marks on the board. Republicans are still eyeing Kentucky and Nebraska as well.

“We’ve got a lot more states that we can do work on,” one person close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly on a sensitive matter, told POLITICO on Friday, while admitting that “Indiana was definitely frustrating.”

And if the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling further gutting the Voting Rights Act in the coming months, a number of states are expected to rush to redraw their lines before their states’ filing deadlines, in a move that could give the GOP a huge boost and potentially put the House out of reach for Democrats.

“The truth is, I think we're still, we're in the middle of this redistricting war,” said John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. “We're all waiting to hear back from the Supreme Court as to what they're going to do and how they're going to move forward.”

Here’s what to expect in the coming weeks from states including Maryland, Florida, Illinois and a challenge to the already-passed maps passed in Missouri.

Maryland

Perhaps lawmakers breathing the biggest sigh of relief from Indiana bucking Trump’s redistricting push are those in Maryland.

Ferguson has for months been facing pressure from Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and national Democrats to wade into the redistricting fight. That lobbying campaign to net Maryland Democrats an additional seat would have been kicked into hyperdrive if Indiana had drawn new maps.

Reports of Ferguson possibly losing his grip on leading the Senate Democrats evaporated this week after he was unanimously renominated as Senate leader. Then on Thursday, just hours before the Indiana Senate cast the vote dooming the redistricting effort, Ferguson put out a statement with Democratic House Delegates Speaker Pro Tem Dana Stein declaring that lawmakers in the special session Moore called for next week will definitively not take up any new maps.

While that likely closes the door on the redistricting push for this year, Moore still has an opportunity to reignite a pressure campaign aimed at Ferguson to hold a vote on the issue in January, when the legislature returns for regular session. The governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission is meeting Friday for its final public hearing to solicit comments from Maryland residents before its members make a recommendation to the governor and the General Assembly on whether to redraw maps.

Illinois

For months, Illinois Democrats have suggested they were unlikely to try to squeeze another seat out of their already-gerrymandered state unless Indiana Republicans redrew their seats.

And while state Democratic leaders didn’t completely rule out redistricting in the wake of the Indiana GOP’s vote, they don’t sound particularly eager for a new map.

“Our neighbors in Indiana have stood up to Trump’s threats and political pressure, instead choosing to do what’s right for their constituents and our democracy,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement after the result, without saying what Illinois might do.

A person in Pritzker’s office, granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, said the governor was less than equivocal in his statement because no one knows what Trump's next move might be.

State House and Senate Democratic leaders struck similar tones, praising their Hoosier neighbors while pledging to stay vigilant against similar efforts in other states.

Virginia

Democrats’ best remaining chance for a multi-seat gerrymander is Old Dominion. But while statehouse leaders seem eager to push forward with a complicated plan for a voter referendum to approve a new gerrymander — much like California’s move — the state’s incoming Democratic governor doesn’t seem quite as eager to lend a hand.

The Democratic-dominated Virginia legislature is expected to easily pass a procedural measure before putting the issue of redistricting before voters to approve a constitutional Virginia amendment to redraw the state’s maps ahead of the midterms — a move that legislative leaders have teased could lead to a 10-1 map.

“I feel comfortable that we have an opportunity to do a number of maps here in Virginia to allow for us to level the playing field,” Virginia House Speaker Don Scott said at a POLITICO event this week.

But at the same event, Spanberger hedged when asked if she supported redrawing maps to achieve the feat.

“The calendar is tight, and for me, I want to win,” Spanberger said, pointing to Virginia’s first and second congressional districts that are currently held by Republicans. “I want to flip seats in the House of Representatives, and I know that we can because I just won those districts.”

But when asked directly if redistricting is the way to go, Spanberger said that Virginia should “leave open the option” of new maps but that ultimately voters will decide if the legislature should move forward.

Florida

Florida Republicans could deliver their party three to five more seats if they press ahead with mid-decade redistricting. But two factors complicate that effort.

First, GOP leaders aren’t on the same page. GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis has been touting the need to draw new maps since last summer, has suggested waiting until the spring of next year in case the U.S. Supreme Court weakens the Voting Rights Act and bars the consideration of race when drawing lines, a position backed by the state’s GOP Senate president, Ben Albritton.

But state GOP House Speaker Daniel Perez said this week it is “irresponsible” to wait and that the House is prepared to send a map to the Senate during its regular session that starts next month.

Second, GOP leaders may be constrained by Florida’s voter-approved constitutional ban on redistricting for partisan gain. Democrats have already asserted that drawing up any new map is “illegal’ and would violate these standards signaling that litigation is likely if state legislators pass a new map. But Florida's conservative-dominated state Supreme Court already ruled in 2022 that legislators can sidestep minority protections when it allowed a previous GOP-drawn map that was muscled into law by DeSantis, weakening its impact.

Perez insisted that he has not been under pressure from Trump or the White House to move ahead on redistricting. When asked Friday if there was added pressure on the House to act due to the outcome in Indiana he said: “No sir.”

Missouri

Missouri Republicans already passed a map to flip Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s (D-Mo.) district red, but Democrats are hoping to undo the GOP-passed map in Missouri via ballot measure. Earlier this week, they submitted more than double the 107,000 signatures required to force a statewide vote for the secretary of state.

If the signatures are validated, the map may not cannot go into effect in time for the midterms, and if voters approve the ballot measure, the map gets tossed. Republicans still have a bit of time, since GOP Secretary of State Denny Hoskins doesn’t have to approve the signatures until July. Plus, it’s unclear when the Republican-controlled Legislature will actually put those signatures up for a vote.

The timing is causing a bit of chaos. Since candidates need to file by the end of March, prospective members of Congress may have to file in districts that aren’t set for the midterms.

Adam Wren, Andrew Howard, Shia Kapos, Alex Gangitano and Gary Fineout contributed to this report.

© Michael Conroy/AP

In a blow to national Democrats redistricting push, top Democrats in Maryland’s Legislature said Thursday redrawing the state’s congressional maps will not be on the agenda during a special legislative session set to begin next week.

Maryland Sen. President Bill Ferguson and House of Delegates Speaker Pro Tem Dana Stein instead said state lawmakers will focus on other state matters.

The announcement from Maryland state Democrats comes as President Donald Trump and Republicans are pushing for GOP-led states to redraw their maps to make them more favorable to the party ahead of the midterms. Ferguson and Stein issued their statement before Indiana Republicans rejected an effort Thursday afternoon to redraw maps in the Hoosier state.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a likely 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful, on Tuesday signed an executive order calling for a special session on Dec. 16, for the lower chamber to elect a new leader following the surprise resignation of Adrienne Jones from the post.

“The General Assembly may also consider other business to be resolved prior to the beginning of the 2026 legislative session,” he wrote, appearing to leave open the possibility the Maryland House could move forward on redistricting.

Both Moore and Jones support Maryland lawmakers redrawing the state’s federal congressional maps to gain an additional congressional seat in a push to counteract Trump’s effort.

Moore, along with other national Democrats including Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries, have for months pressured Ferguson to allow a vote on a measure that could deliver Democrats all eight of the state’s congressional seats. Ferguson, who has cited the possibility of the party losing congressional seats should new maps be challenged in court, has emerged as one of the biggest impediments to the pro-redistricting faction of his party.

Those close to Moore, however, suggest the push for redistricting is not dead.

On Friday, the Maryland governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission will hold its final public hearing with residents to solicit recommendations to the governor and the General Assembly on whether to move forward with redistricting.

The commission members are expected to meet next week to discuss the potential contours of a new map based on public testimony and written statements, according to a legislative aide granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations of the commission.

“The [commission] will continue its work and make a recommendation to the governor and state legislature on the need for new maps,” a second aide confirmed to POLITICO, also granted anonymity to speak freely about next steps in the state’s redistricting effort.

Moore and his allies could ultimately press the Maryland General Assembly to revisit redistricting when it returns for regular session in January, which would allow more time for negotiations with Ferguson.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) the Judiciary Committee ranking member, inserted himself in the state’s redistricting fight last month after he penned a  letter urging Maryland state lawmakers to continue fighting on the issue and to ostensibly buck Ferguson.

Raskin directly addressed Ferguson’s reluctance to move on redistricting in a podcast with The New Republic released Thursday.

“One of the reasons he invoked for it was that he said he had spoken to the Republican president of the Indiana Senate, who said he was going to stay out,” Raskin said. “Well, if he doesn’t stay out, that is going to redouble everybody’s determination to change Bill Ferguson’s mind.”

© Julio Cortez/AP

When Wes Moore and Bill Ferguson stood together in a Baltimore bar on a sweltering Saturday afternoon in the summer of 2022, the two political figures projected a promising vision of power for Democrats in a blue-leaning state where they stood on the cusp of fully controlling government.

Moore was a former Rhodes Scholar and decorated combat veteran who was running for governor with Oprah Winfrey’s blessing but no experience in public office. Ferguson was a tactful consensus-builder who arrived in Annapolis with the moniker of “baby senator” before rising to become the chamber president a decade later.

“I’m a Baltimorean,” Moore told the campaign volunteers gathered in the Federal Hill neighborhood that Ferguson had represented since first being elected in 2010 at the age of 27. “Who’s making these decisions matters.”

Three years later, Maryland’s two top Democrats find themselves unable to agree on a big one. Moore has become a champion of redrawing his state’s U.S. congressional lines to generate an additional seat for his party in next year’s midterm elections. Ferguson, scarred by an earlier experience in which he helped deliver such an extreme map only to see it struck down by courts, is refusing to commit to even allowing a vote on a new redistricting measure.

The new rupture highlights a fault line emerging within both parties as Democrats and Republicans scour the national map for opportunities to improve their congressional positions via gerrymandering — between the short-term priorities of their respective national parties and the often longer-range yet parochial concerns of state legislative leaders.

For Democrats, the most immediate obstacle to further gains is Ferguson, whose defiance has made him a villain to party officials nationwide. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke with Ferguson in October ensuring he “understands the assignment,” as Jeffries put it. “We need the state of Maryland,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said upon redrawing his state's maps via passage of Proposition 50 to give his party five Democrat-leaning seats in the state. “Grow a pair” and stand up to President Donald Trump, a top Virginia lawmaker bluntly instructed Ferguson the next day.

The stand-off will likely come to a head in the coming weeks, as Moore faces an imminent choice: Call a special session and rely on Ferguson to deliver a majority for a gerrymandered map, or wait for the General Assembly to return in January for a regular session to allow more time for negotiations. Either way, the governor will have to convince 24 of the 34 Democratic senators to buck a respected leader whose control of campaign funds could help determine the fate of their reelection bids.

The view from outside Maryland may have Moore, a likely 2028 presidential contender, towering over Ferguson. But in Annapolis, many think it is the Senate president who has made the better case for how Democrats should move forward.

Ferguson “holds the cards” on redistricting, says former state Sen. Jill Carter, who served under both men. “Moore is very popular and charismatic, but Bill is very politically savvy."

William Claiborne Ferguson IV was born in Silver Spring, just outside of Washington, to a conservative-leaning father who worked in commercial real estate and a labor union-supporting mother who adored former President Bill Clinton. Ferguson attended Georgetown Preparatory School — the elite, all-boys Jesuit academy that also produced conservative Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — and Davidson College in North Carolina, where he studied politics and economics with sights on a business career. 

But a post-collegiate stint with Teach for America at one of Baltimore’s toughest schools veered Ferguson away from his father’s career and towards one in left-leaning politics. While serving as an aide to local-government officials, Ferguson pursued a law degree at the University of Maryland and prepared to seek office. In 2010 he challenged Democratic state Sen. George W. Della Jr., who had been first elected in the year before Ferguson was born. As the primary devolved into mudslinging, Ferguson tried to keep the choice simple for voters: stick with the status quo or march with him into the future.

Ferguson came to a chamber dominated by Maryland Senate President Mike Miller, known for deploying hardball tactics to keep his caucus in line over what became a 33-year tenure in the role. As the chamber’s youngest senator, Ferguson won a reputation as a mild-mannered nerd who mastered education policy and the state budget while being teased by his staff for not knowing classic rock tunes.

When Miller prepared to retire in 2020, senate Democrats turned to the then-36-year-old Ferguson, unanimously voting him the next senate president. Many in the party cheered his ascension as a generational and philosophical pivot to a new progressive era in the state capital.

“Bill Ferguson is more collaborative. He listens. He is open to changing his mind when ... arguments are effectively made,” said state Sen. Cheryl Kagan, a Democrat who served under both Miller and Ferguson. “He's less of a king and more of a leader among equals.”

Ferguson, now 42, spent much of his first few sessions as the Senate’s top Democrat in trying to reel in then-Gov. Larry Hogan’s Republican agenda. In the final two years of Hogan's second term, Maryland Democrats overrode the governor’s vetoes more than two dozen times. Ferguson also scored some bipartisan wins, too, helping Hogan deliver on a campaign promise by passing the largest tax cut in state history.

But it was a standoff with Hogan following the 2020 Census that left an indelible mark on Ferguson.

Maryland had gained a half-million people over the previous decade, even as its largest city, Baltimore, suffered a steep population drop. Hogan saw the churn as an opening to target a Democrat-held congressional district — the 6th, stretching north from the Washington, D.C. suburbs to the Pennsylvania border and west to the West Virginia line — often described as one of the nation’s most gerrymandered. Hogan established a nonpartisan redistricting commission, which returned a map that had two of Maryland’s eight seats leaning Republican.

When Hogan called a special legislative session in December 2021 to approve the map, Democrats rebelled. With supermajorities in both chambers, they instead passed their own over Hogan’s opposition, turning seven districts into safe Democratic seats and the long Republican-dominated 1st district — represented by House Freedom Caucus chair Andy Harris — into toss-up territory.

“I felt a little bit uncomfortable, I’ll be totally candid, with the first map we passed,” Ferguson recalled recently to The Bulwark. “I thought, I’m willing to help facilitate this process.”

After Republicans sued, a state court ruled in March 2022 that the Democrats’ map amounted to an “extreme partisan gerrymander” that violated the state Constitution. Already well into an election year, senior Judge Lynne Battaglia gave lawmakers just days to pass a new map. Democratic lawmakers had little choice but to pass a revised map that would win Hogan’s signature. Republicans kept their hold on the 1st district and Democrats have not since mounted a serious challenge to Harris there.

Ferguson, who declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this article, now says he made a misjudgment in acquiescing to more seasoned leaders who convinced him a maximalist strategy would stand up to legal scrutiny. Seeing it shot down by the courts gives him a "different calculus of the risk,” as he told the Bulwark, about any attempt at a nakedly partisan gerrymander.

“Experience does matter. What you've seen and gone through in the past does matter,” said Malcolm Augustine, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Maryland Senate. “That’s the bottom line. He was there.”

On an unseasonably warm afternoon in January 2023, Ferguson stood at the state house to welcome Moore — a well-reviewed author and former college football player, Army officer, investment banker and nonprofit executive — to Annapolis. The ceremony dripped with nods to Moore’s status as Maryland’s first African American governor. Ferguson, who is white, stood less than three feet away as Moore placed his hand on a Bible belonging to abolitionist Fredrick Douglass during the swearing-in, which was held in a private event in the Senate chamber.

Moments later, at the public outdoor ceremony before a crowd that included actor Chris Tucker and presidential daughter Chelsea Clinton, the new governor name-checked Ferguson in the second line of his inaugural address. “It’s an honor to be your partner,” Moore said.

After years of playing defense against a Republican executive, Ferguson now had an ally who could allow legislative Democrats to define a proactive agenda. Many wanted to use the state’s structural surplus to fund mortgage assistance programs for first-time homebuyers and cancel parole debt for long-serving inmates.

Early optimism about what the state’s Democratic trifecta could deliver evaporated. Economic downturns ballooned the state deficit, as the Trump’s administration’s dismantling of the federal workforce and government contracts hit Maryland especially hard. Earlier this year, legislators resorted to raising taxes and fees by $1.6 billion — and have braced for lingering effects from the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history. The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore last year that left six people dead has become an unending catastrophe: A state agency last month estimated bridge-repair costs have doubled while the expected reopening has been delayed by years.

This year, Maryland’s two top Democrats have found themselves frequently at odds. In April, Moore was unable to pass a bill expanding the state’s reliance on nuclear power, reclassifying it to count towards clean-energy goals. Ferguson’s critics haveaccused the Senate president of killing the bill to benefit the Baltimore solar-panel company where he works as an executive. (Officials in Maryland’s part-time legislature are permitted to maintain outside employment.)

When Ferguson the next month helped deliver a bill forming a commission to study reparations for descendants of slavery, Moore vetoed it. The surprising rebuff was viewed by many Senate Democrats, including those in the General Assembly’s Black Caucus, as motivated by Moore’s desire to demonstrate to a national audience that he was willing to buck his own party. “I strongly believe now is not the time for another study,” Moore wrote to Ferguson in a May 16 veto letter.

But it was a national movement on redistricting that did most to fracture Ferguson and Moore’s relationship. In June, Republicans in Texas — under public pressure from the White House — first entertained the possibility of redrawing their U.S. House maps to produce more Republican-friendly seats. Democrats looked for states where they could offset Texas’s moves with partisan gerrymanders of their own.

Maryland appeared a natural candidate to join the growing Democratic counteroffensive. While California, Colorado and Virginia would have to amend their state constitutions for politicians to redraw lines mid-decade — and in New York a lawsuit to upend the status quo — pulling off such a move in Maryland would require only simple legislation. In August, Democratic state Sen. Clarence Lam introduced a bill that would place more liberal-leaning voters in the Republican-held 1st district.

Moore soon embraced the idea of moving forward with such plans. In September, he accused Trump of “attempting to gerrymander Black leaders out of office” and called the actions of Republican legislatures akin to “political redlining” in a speech at a Congressional Black Caucus dinner.

“It’s time for Maryland to have a conversation about whether we have a fair map or not,” he told reporters then.

Ferguson, too, expressed openness to the redistricting idea, telling POLITICO earlier that month that a mid-decade gerrymander was “the last possible option that we should explore, but we won't sit by idly and watch democracy get undermined.”

But as the pressure nationally ramped up, the more his ambivalence began to surface. He reminded colleagues of a 2002 state-court decision in which judges redrew Baltimore-area state senate districts upon ruling that a map drawn by Democrats violated constitutional requirements for Maryland’s districts to be “compact in form” around county lines and bodies of water. Ferguson also likes to point out that since the more recent smackdown of the 2021 gerrymander, Maryland’s Supreme Court still does not favor Democrats: five of the seven judges now on the court were appointed by Hogan.

That make-up, Ferguson suggests, could mean if the courts throw out any newly passed map, reverting to congressional boundaries with the current 7-1 advantage is not a foregone conclusion — and a replacement could end up a lot worse for Democrats.

Other Democrats who participated in the 2021 redistricting case see the legal issues differently. “There's no binding precedent in Maryland that would impact congressional redistricting in the way that I think Senator Ferguson fears,” former Attorney General Brian Frosh said in an interview last month.

Amid the uproar, congressional Democrats set their sights on Ferguson. Jeffries, who would become speaker if his party retakes the House, called Ferguson multiple times to make the case that the time was right for a partisan gerrymander. Days later, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a poll showing a majority of Maryland voters did not just support redistricting, but "are likely to support primary candidates that support Maryland redistricting by wide margins,” according to an accompanying memo from Change Research. Former Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer and Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin — a former state senator who served alongside Ferguson for six years — issued a public letter Nov. 10 calling it an “ethical moral and political imperative” that state lawmakers break with the Senate president.

Moore, too, began ramping up pressure on Ferguson. He formed a Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission that holds virtual meetings with residents to solicit recommendations to the governor and the General Assembly on whether to move forward with redistricting. At the first meeting, Ferguson — the only member of the panel who has publicly opposed Moore’s plan — was seen nodding in solidarity with members of the public imploring the commission to stand down on redrawing lines.

Moore also launched a “Leave No One Behind” legislative slate, something akin to a political action committee that those around the governor suggest he may use to launch primary challenges to incumbent Democratic lawmakers. (Moore’s office declined a request to interview him for this article.)

If anything, the public pressure seems to be hardening Ferguson’s hesitation about redistricting into full-blown resistance. In late October, a week after speaking with Jeffries, Ferguson issued a memo to his Senate caucus laying out his biggest fear about moving forward: that his party could end up losing up to two seats if more aggressive maps were struck down and ordered redrawn by the courts. The “certainty” of the current map, he wrote, “evaporates the moment we start down the path or redistricting mid-cycle.”

“The legal risks are too high, the timeline for action is dangerous and the downside risk to Democrats is catastrophic,” Ferguson wrote.

Some of the Democrats in Ferguson’s caucus have begun to internalize his arguments. Nick Charles, whose senate district covers Prince George’s County, a wealthy majority Black suburb outside of Washington, said his constituents want lawmakers to join the national fight, but soften when they learn of the potential risks.

“What happens if we take that position?” asked Charles. “On the surface, it looks good, like ‘Man, we look like we’re fighting.’ But it's like bringing a knife to a gunfight.”

Still other Democrats are growing more confident in their depictions of Ferguson as timid and naïve.

“I think President Ferguson … is an awesome public servant, very thoughtful guy, and certainly intends well,” said Baltimore city Councilman Mark Conway, who last month announced he would challenge Rep. Kweisi Mfume for not doing enough to confront Trump. Conway sides with Moore on redistricting and is disappointed by Ferguson for not jumping into the brawl. “I just think we’re looking at a new day and maybe some of the toughest times we’ve ever had as a country in light of the willingness of Republicans to do whatever it takes to secure power.”

Ferguson has already drawn his own primary challenge from social-media influencer Bobby LaPin — a charter-boat captain and political novice known to 90,000 followers on Instagram as the “Sail Local Guy” — who has said the Senate president’s resistance to redrawing maps pushed him to run.

Those close to Ferguson say he knows the intricacies of keeping his caucus together and brushes off the outside pressure campaign as political distractions. Ferguson had closely watched developments in Indiana, where Republican legislative leaders for weeks held off pressure from the White House and the state’s governor to take up redistricting, and had taken solace in their successful defiance. But those leaders reversed course and will begin a special session this week.

Maryland’s commission will end its work in December, which Moore could use as a basis to call a special session to take on the redistricting question. Otherwise, Moore could hold off until mid-January, when lawmakers return for their regular 90-day session. That would leave little wiggle room to move maps through the legislature, and limited time to survive likely legal challenges before the state’s all-important June primaries.

Each option carries political risks for Moore. Ferguson has the power to essentially ignore the governor’s desires by convening a special session and then quickly adjourning before a vote on redistricting. If Moore waits to focus his pressure campaign in January, Ferguson could respond by otherwise working to stymie the governor’s agenda at a moment he is hoping to elevate his national profile, including by overriding Moore’s veto of the reparations bill.

“It’s not going to be a good session for him, at least not starting,” a legislative aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly of Ferguson’s calculations, said of the governor. “He’s not going to get shit through — not a confirmation, not a thing.”

While Moore may feel urgency to join Democrats’ redistricting bonanza in time to shape the midterm elections, that time crunch is of little relevance to Ferguson. The Senate president is half a decade into his role leading the Maryland Senate — a blip compared to a predecessor who held it for more than three decades — and Ferguson expects to be still toiling away in Annapolis well beyond 2028.

Moore’s “only way out of the box that he's built for himself is to either change Bill's mind, which doesn't seem likely … or it's doing something that Wes has never done before in his life, and literally take out another politician — a sitting Maryland Senate president,” said Doug Mayer, a Republican strategist who worked for Hogan. “Bill Ferguson lives here, Wes Moore is just staying here. That's why Bill Ferguson is saying no to this.”

© Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun via Getty Images

Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer and Jamie Raskin are inserting themselves into the state’s redistricting fight, escalating pressure on state lawmakers and the senate president to take up the mid-decade redrawing of congressional lines ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The two prominent Maryland Democrats sent a four-page letter to the entire Maryland General Assembly Monday, where they framed their endorsement of redrawing the state’s maps as a way to rebuff the president’s "authoritarian attack on democratic elections and voting rights” while casting the fight as an “ethical moral and political imperative" to act.

That nationwide effort has been stymied in Maryland, where the state’s Senate president, Bill Ferguson, has rejected the push to change maps in the state.

“We write today to applaud the governor’s redistricting initiative and urge you to move forward to explore what we can do as a state to help prevent the imminent disaster of President Trump determining the results of the 2026 congressional elections through aggressive mid-decade gerrymandering and therefore clinching control of the U.S. House of Representatives before a single vote is even cast,” the lawmakers write.

The letter comes a week after Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) announced the creation of a redistricting advisory commission that is expected to solicit feedback from Marylanders on whether the state should move forward with redrawing maps. Democrats dominate the state’s congressional delegation and if the party is successful in redrawing the maps it could only pick up a single seat — currently occupied by Republican Rep. Andy Harris, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus.

While the state’s top Democrats, including Moore and Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones, are all on board with exploring redistricting, Ferguson has remained a holdout.

Two weeks ago Ferguson sent his own letter to dozens of state lawmakers bucking his party and outlining why the Maryland Senate would not take up the effort. Part of his rationale was that the Maryland Supreme Court is packed with several justices appointed by Moore’s successor, former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. He suggests that not only raises the possibility that any new maps that give Democrats an 8-0 advantage could be struck down, but it could trigger a loss of Democratic seats in the state, something he referred to as “the downside risk to Democrats is catastrophic.”

Ferguson’s office acknowledged it had received the letter but did not comment. The Baltimore Sun was the first to report on the letter.

Moore, a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, said in an appearance on CBS “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Maryland should not stand on the sidelines as other states, especially Republican-led states, jump into redistricting.

“If other states are going to have this process and go through this- go through this journey of identifying whether or not they have fair maps in a mid-decade cycle, then so should Maryland,” Moore said. “I'm just not sure why we should be playing by a different set of rules than Texas, or than Florida, or than Ohio or all these other places.”

There’s been pressure mounting on Maryland to move for weeks, and Ferguson is seen as the party’s biggest impediment to moving forward. Democrats’ resounding victories last week in Virginia and New Jersey’s gubernatorial races, as well as the overwhelming passage of a ballot initiative passed by California voters to redraw state lines to pick up five liberal-leaning seats to counteract a similar move in Texas to net five Republican-leaning seats, is ramping up the urgency to act.

Hoyer and Raskin’s letter calls Ferguson out by name and attempts to undercut some of his reasons for hesitating on moving forward.

“While Senator Ferguson is obviously right that there is an element of uncertainty in all litigation, there are some well-established doctrines that courts follow out of deference to the legislature’s constitutional power over redistricting,” the lawmakers write. “Chief among these is the principle that, when a court strikes down a newly enacted map as unlawful, the legislature must be afforded a reasonable opportunity to remedy the violation.”

The letter also appears to be aimed at pressuring Ferguson by energizing some of the state lawmakers that he leads, possibly ramping up the stakes they could move against him.

“We don’t need to remind you that Marylanders have paid a heavy price during the first year of the second Trump Administration,” they write, listing off items including 15,000 federal employees that have been fired since Trump returned to power and thousands more workers and federal contractors that have been furloughed since the shutdown began more than a month ago.

The memo also asks state lawmakers three questions they should answer as to whether they deem the redistricting fight as imminent. “Are we in the fight of our lives to defend American democracy and freedom and our Constitution, Bill of Rights and rule of law?... is it an ethical, moral and political imperative to use every lawful means at our disposal to fight back…: can we successfully and lawfully redistrict to respond to these GOP assaults?”

To all three questions, Raskin and Hoyer write, “We believe the answer is yes.”

© Mariam Zuhaib/AP

Jay Jones, the Democrats’ scandal-plagued attorney general nominee who sparked a Republican-led backlash over violent text messages, secured victory in what turned into a high-profile race in Virginia’s statewide electoral contests Tuesday.

Spurred largely by anti-Donald Trump sentiments among voters, Jones defeated Republican Jason Miyares, the incumbent in the race who the GOP put much of its political capital in protecting. Republicans hoped the public outrage over Jones’ 2022 texts — where he detailed the hypothetical killing of a GOP lawmaker — would be enough to all but disqualify him from winning the post.

"To everyone who didn’t give up on this campaign: I say thank you," Jones said Tuesday night. “I will protect our jobs, our health care and our economy from Donald Trump’s attacks.”

Jones had been leading Miyares in polling as the final month of campaigning approached. But the contest took a dramatic turn after the National Review reported that Jones sent to a colleague three years ago a series of texts that included “Gilbert gets two bullets to the head” — a reference to then-Virginia GOP House Speaker Todd Gilbert. The comments were quickly condemned by the party, but the scandal broke after Virginia’s 45-day early voting period began, leaving the party little recourse but to keep him on the ticket rather than ask him to step aside.

Republicans used Jones to attack Spanberger and openly questioned whether she could effectively lead the state if she was unwilling to speak out forcefully and call for a down-ballot candidate to end his bid. She condemned Jones’ text messages as “abhorrent” but refused to rescind her endorsement. Jones later expressed regret for sending the texts.

That left Jones, who makes history as Virginia’s first Black attorney general, to fend for himself. While some Democrats embraced him in the final days of the campaign including both Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine at a get-out-the-vote rally in Norfolk — the event’s headliners, Spanberger and former President Barack Obama, made no mention of him at all.

Miyares, who has ties to Trump’s former co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, took advantage of his incumbency and lapped Jones in fundraising. He gave Republicans hope, even before the scandal, that he could be the party’s best chance at blocking Democrats attempts at a clean sweep of the top statewide offices.

“As much as I love Abigail, the most important position this year is the attorney general's race,” said Del. Joshua Cole, a Democrat in Virginia’s General Assembly. “In Trump's America, we need a Democratic attorney general, and the Republicans know that. That’s why they [pulled] out all the stops” for Miyares.

But the text messages weren’t the only issue Republicans hit Jones with. He also faced renewed criticism over a years-old reckless driving charge where he was caught driving 116 mph in a 70 mph zone and struck a deal to forgo jail time by paying a fine and performing community service. Jones reportedly completed some of those community service hours while working at his own political action committee, giving Miyares and his Republican allies more material to paint Jones as being “above the law.”

Jones’ texting scandal had the potential to drag down other Democrats. During an interview on “Next Question with Katie Couric” last month Spanberger lamented having to repeatedly answer questions about Jones.

“The fact that I have to spend even a moment's time talking about somebody else's text messages from years ago, rather than what I want to do as governor, is something that I am deeply unhappy about,” Spanberger said on the podcast. Weeks prior during the lone gubernatorial debate, Spanberger said about Jones texts: “The voters now have the information, and it is up to voters to make an individual choice based on this information.”

Trump also sought to tie Spanberger to Jones.

“Radical Left Lunatic, Jay Jones, who is running against Jason Miyares, the GREAT Attorney General in Virginia, made SICK and DEMENTED jokes…” the president wrote in a Truth Social post, giving his full endorsement to Miyares. “Abigail Spanberger, who is running for Governor, is weak and ineffective, and refuses to acknowledge what this Lunatic has done,” he wrote in early October.

While Republicans zeroed in on the Jones texts in the closing stretch, calling the attorney general race a “referendum on decency," some Democrats pushed back on that line of attack before Tuesday night.

“Show me one of them that stood up and chastised Donald Trump about January 6, about saying that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody,” said Susan Swecker, a Democratic National Committee member and former chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia last week. “Don't be coming over to my party and lecturing me about something that our nominee for attorney general did.”

Jones’ texting scandal, along with Maine Senate Democratic candidate Graham Platner coming under attack for previous social media posts, provides fresh challenges to DNC Chair Ken Martin.

He acknowledged in an interview with POLITICO Sunday evening that improving vetting of candidates in the future is something the party will have to evaluate.

“It's not up to the DNC and to the party a chair to decide what's disqualifying or not,” Martin said. “We all are gonna have to do a much better job of vetting our candidates as we move forward.”

© Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP

Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore is pushing to redraw the state’s congressional maps, announcing on Tuesday the creation of a commission that will propose new lines ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Moore’s announcement that he’s creating the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission comes a week after Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson sent a letter to dozens of state lawmakers declaring “the Senate is choosing not to move forward with mid-cycle redistricting.”

It sets up a clash between the two Democratic leaders in a blue-leaning state where any effort to redraw the map will net a single seat, given that Maryland Democrats already dominate the state’s congressional delegation with seven of its eight U.S House seats. It also comes as Democrats are ramping up their efforts to change maps to match President Donald Trump’s moves to redistrict red-leaning states to net additional seats for Republicans.

“My commitment has been clear from day one — we will explore every avenue possible to make sure Maryland has fair and representative maps,” Moore said in a statement Tuesday. “This commission will ensure the people are heard..”

The commission will be chaired by Maryland Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a close ally of Moore’s who he helped get elected to the Senate last year. Moore’s other appointees include Brian Frosh, the state’s former Democratic attorney general who served under former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, and Ray Morriss, the nonpartisan mayor of the city of Cumberland.

The other appointees of the commission include Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones, who has been public about her intent to launch a redistricting push, and Ferguson “or designee.”

In a statement, Ferguson suggested he is open to Marylanders hearing opposing concerns and that following through on a redistricting push could backfire on Democrats and “unintentionally give Donald Trump one or two additional Congressional seats.”

Maryland’s Supreme Court leans conservative with five of the seven justices being appointed by former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, underscoring Ferguson’s concern that future legal battles changing newly created maps may ultimately be detrimental to Democrats.

Moore, considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, is itching for Maryland to enter the national mid-decade redistricting fight that touched off earlier this year when Trump urged the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature to redraw districts to pick up five seats that favor Republicans ahead of next year's midterms.

Moore himself has characterized what Trump is doing as “nothing more than political redlining,” a reference to the discriminatory housing practice that kept Black Americans out of predominantly white neighborhoods by denying them mortgages.

Ferguson, who is white, in his letter last week also made a racial argument against moving to redraw state lines. He said Maryland, which has a governor, House speaker and attorney general who are all Black, has long fought against racial gerrymandering that was aimed at “diluting” the Black vote. It would be “hypocritical to say that it is abhorrent to tactically shift voters based on race, but not to do so based on party affiliation,” he wrote.

In California on Tuesday, voters take up a ballot measure, Proposition 50, the mid-decade gerrymander that is being led by Gov. Gavin Newsom. If it passes as expected, it would offset the GOP pickups that the Texas redistricting effort created.

© Rod Lamkey Jr./AP

NORFOLK, Virginia and NEWARK, New Jersey — Barack Obama reprised his role as the Democrats’ closer-in-chief on Saturday, filling a void for his still leaderless party in the waning days of closely watched gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey.

The former president’s stops — his first in Norfolk, home to the nation’s largest naval installation and two historically Black colleges, and later in Newark, the Garden State’s most populous city where nearly half of residents are Black — are nods that Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominees in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively, see these voters as key to securing victory in the Nov. 4 election.

But Obama’s reemergence is also a reminder of the rudderlessness of the Democratic Party, which is still reeling from stinging losses in 2024 that left them completely locked out of power in the federal government. Democrats are counting on decisive victories from Spanberger and Sherrill, both of whom are favored to win on Tuesday, to help springboard them into the critical midterm elections next year.

President Donald Trump made gains in both states last year, in part due to improved performance among Black and Hispanic voters.

Democrats have worked to get these voters back on their side, with the bet that their affordability-focused messaging will demonstrate that Trump failed to deliver on his economic promises that drew in so many of them. But Republicans, too, have been courting these voters in an attempt to replicate Trump’s gains last year.

Obama underscored Spanberger and Sherrill’s focus on the economy as he sought to fire up voters.

“Abigail’s opponent does seem to care a lot about what Trump and his cronies are doing. She praised the Republican tax law that would raise the cost of health care and housing and energy in Virginia,” Obama said without mentioning Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, by name.

“It’s like everyday is Halloween, except it’s all tricks and not treats,” the former president said, drawing laughs from the crowd, before adding: “I did warn y’all.”

Just a couple of hours later in New Jersey, Obama told the crowd that there is “absolutely no evidence that Republican policies have made life better for the people of New Jersey.”

Obama criticized Sherrill’s opponent, Republican Jack Ciattarelli, whom he also did not mention by name, for choosing to “suck up to the Republicans in Washington” after running unsuccessful gubernatorial bids twice before. He also pointed to Trump’s endorsement of Ciattarelli, in which Trump called him “100 percent MAGA.”

“Not a great endorsement,” Obama said. 

Obama also spoke to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Saturday, according to a person familiar with the call who was granted anonymity to confirm the private conversation, underscoring the former president’s involvement in trying to direct an adrift Democratic Party. The call was first reported by The New York Times.

Without a singular figure driving the Democratic Party, Democrats are searching for a message that will resonate with voters. Tuesday’s races will be the latest temperature check on the effectiveness of their rhetoric on the economy — and their blaming of Trump for voters’ unhappiness with it.

“President Obama is somebody who is widely respected across the state,” Sherrill told reporters Thursday. “He's a pragmatic leader who I think cares deeply about rights and freedoms, but also about driving down costs. And I think at this moment, having the architect of the Affordable Care Act — as now everybody here in New Jersey, because of President Trump, is set to see their premiums go up by 175 percent — is really telling.”

Spanberger and Sherrill have sought to tie their Republican opponents to Trump. The Democrats have positioned themselves as a bulwark to the president, whom they argue has made the economy worse since he returned to power — in part pointing to the ongoing government shutdown.

Thousands of federal workers are missing paychecks, and others are out of a job due to the Department of Government Efficiency-related firings earlier this year and more recently through Trump-backed job cuts since the shutdown began a month ago — a dynamic that is particularly acute in Virginia, which has a large number of federal workers.

“You deserve a governor who will work with Democrats and Republicans to grow our economy and not stand by while Virginia’s workforce is under attack,” Spanberger said Saturday.

Saturday brought in a new round of hardship: Millions of Americans were placed at risk of losing food assistance as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was forecast to run out of money. Sherrill said her campaign will be “collecting donations for the Community Food Bank of New Jersey as the Trump Administration is letting SNAP funding expire, forcing more families to rely on food banks for food assistance.”

In Virginia, outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared an emergency, blaming the “Democrat Shutdown” for the funding fight while stepping in to help SNAP beneficiaries. New Jersey also declared a state of emergency and is “accelerating” funds to food banks, term-limited Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said. Murphy on Friday said “the Trump Administration’s decision to suspend SNAP funding as the government shutdown drags on is both unethical and illegal.”

The same day, federal judges ordered the Trump administration to use emergency money to fund the program.

“I’m angry that our president is cutting everything from the Gateway tunnel funds to SNAP benefits,” Sherrill told the crowd on Saturday. “But I don’t feel afraid. As I stand here, I feel nothing but courage. New Jerseyans give me courage, and I’m sure the nation feels that way too.”

In New Jersey, which is expected to be a tighter race than Virginia, some Democrats have expressed concerns about Democrats regaining ground with Black voters. Sherrill — who called Black voters a “key part of the Democratic firewall” — is likely to win among this demographic, but as Ciattarelli also attempts to appeal to them, the margin could make a difference in the outcome of the race.

Earle-Sears, who is Black, took Obama to task for his comments chastising Black men for not supporting then-presidential nominee Kamala Harris more aggressively, yet urging Black voters a year later to support Democratic nominees who are both white.

It was unclear prior to Obama’s remarks in Virginia whether he would weigh in on the controversy surrounding Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general.

Jones has been at the center of scandal surrounding violence-themed text messages he sent in 2022, where he fantasized about shooting and killing a Republican lawmaker, that came to light in the closing weeks of the race. It threw the party’s hopes for flipping Virginia’s top statewide offices of governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general into question and offered Republicans a rallying cry to hammer Spanberger, who condemned the messages but refused to pull her endorsement of Jones or ask him to drop out of the race.

But Jones appeared early in the rally and made no mention of the scandal that has engulfed his campaign. While other speakers mentioned Jones, including Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), neither Obama nor Spanberger did.

While Obama’s return to the campaign trail gave many Democrats a jolt of excitement — in New Jersey, attendees shouted “we miss you” when Obama said that the country and politics “are in a pretty dark place right now” — his presence has been pilloried by Republicans who suggest both nominees are incapable of leading Democrats into the future and are the reason they’re reliant on “the face of the Democrat Party from a decade ago.”

“Sherrill and Spanberger both lack a cohesive forward-looking agenda to improve the lives of voters in their states, so it comes as no surprise that they're reliant on Democrat nostalgia despite its failed policies that let Americans down,” Courtney Alexander, communications director for the Republican Governors Association, said in a statement to POLITICO.

Obama has been a consistent presence for gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia in recent cycles, regularly serving as the headliner even after he left office.

He, along with a swarm of Democrats — many of whom have an eye on the 2028 presidential election — have come to rally for Spanberger and Sherrill in the closing stretch of the campaign. But the party’s more recent standard-bearers, former President Joe Biden and Harris, have largely stayed off the campaign trail.

“There's no bigger voice, a more respected voice in our party, than Barack Obama,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said. “And so having him come in to rally the troops in the final few days, to thank the volunteers and the people who've been on the ground working so hard, and to really create, help remind folks of what's at stake in this election, it never hurts.”

Gregory Svirnovskiy, Adam Wren and Daniel Han contributed to this report.

© Steve Helber/AP Photo

NORFOLK, Virginia — Jay Jones, the embattled Democratic nominee for attorney general in Virginia, made a surprise appearance at a major Democratic campaign rally Saturday aimed at revving up the party faithful ahead of the high-stakes statewide elections Tuesday.

Jones — whose years-old violent text messages triggered a nationwide GOP backlash and a steady drumbeat of calls for Democrats to push him off the ticket — opened the event, where headliner former President Barack Obama energized voters in support of Abigail Spanberger, the party’s gubernatorial nominee.

Speaking before Spanberger and Obama took the stage, Jones made no mention of the scandal that prompted Spanberger to distance herself from him. He instead focused his brief remarks on Jason Miyares, seeking to cast the incumbent GOP attorney general as a puppet for President Donald Trump.

“Trump has endorsed Jason. … He said ‘Jason will never let us down,’ and what that means is that he'll never let Donald Trump down,” Jones said, with the crowd at the Chartway Arena erupting in boos in response to the mention of the current president.

He cast his opponent as being a “willing enabler” of the president, who has wreaked havoc on Virginia residents, and claimed Trump “illegally fires workers [and] levies tariffs that destroy our regional economies, including the Port of Virginia.”

The overwhelmingly Democratic crowd received Jones warmly, with cheers and applause. He reminded them he grew up in this region, which he said will help Virginia send a message to Trump on Election Day.

Republicans, including Trump, have seized on the text messages from Jones, who in 2022 sent to a colleague messages fantasizing about shooting then-House Speaker of Virginia Todd Gilbert, a Republican. Jones has apologized but refused calls, including from his opponent Miyares, to end his bid for attorney general.

Spanberger criticized those text messages, but like most other prominent Democrats in the state and nationally, did not call on him to drop out.

Speakers who appeared after Jones, including Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott, state Sen. Lamont Bagby and Sen. Tim Kaine all urged voters to vote for Jones on Tuesday.

“I met Jay Jones when he was 11 years old. I have known him for 25 years,” Kaine said, before laying into Trump, blaming him for the ongoing federal government shutdown and allowing funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to lapse. He pointed out that several states filed lawsuits against the administration — but not Virginia.

“Virginia didn't participate," he said, "because Jay's opponent wouldn't stand up and say ‘hungry people deserve the money in the contingency fund that was set for them.’ Jay would never do that.”

© Steve Helber/AP

RICHMOND, Virginia — Jay Jones, the Democratic Virginia attorney general hopeful whose violence-themed text messages triggered a nationwide GOP backlash, said during a Thursday debate that his messages should not disqualify him from being elected as the state’s top law enforcement official.

“I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed and I'm sorry,” Jones said Thursday in what will be the only televised debate with incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, who he characterized as a “willing cheerleader” of President Donald Trump.

Jones, again apologized for his 2022 texts that were first reported by the National Review. In the messages, he opined that former Virginia Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert should get “two bullets to the head” and separately that he would urinate on the graves of some state GOP delegates after they died.

In his first extensive comments about the texts, Jones sought to explain his actions as something that he’s already been held accountable for, including by leaders of his party. Jones also said the stakes were too high for Virginia to focus on his past mistakes, and suggested Miyares was playing politics by focusing on his past statements — but not on language by Republicans.

Miyares condemned Jones’ texts and accused the Democrat of being unfit to serve as Virginia’s top lawyer, adding, “Jay Jones is a criminal first, victim last politician.”

“Jay Jones has not had the experience or the judgment to serve as the top prosecutor,” he continued. “We have seen a window to who Jay Jones is and what he thinks that people disagree with him.”

Miyares also slammed Jones for believing laws don’t apply to him — a reference to a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch report reporting that Jones was caught driving 116 mph in a 70 mph zone and struck a deal to forgo jail time by paying a fine and performing community service. He completed some of those hours while working at his own political action committee, the Times-Dispatch also reported.

Jones told the audience he “completed the terms of the community service as outlined and approved” by county officials at that time.

Republicans across the country, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, have condemned Jones over the texts and attacked Democrats for supporting him. Republicans have been especially critical of Jones’ violent rhetoric in the aftermath of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed in September while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Vance in particularspent several days this week attempting to pivot criticism over bigoted messages in a Young Republicans group chat to Jones and his texting scandal. Writing on X Thursday, Vance stated: “A friend shared these truly disturbing messages from a Young Republican group chat. The group’s leader ‘genuinely’ calls for murdering the children of his political opponents. Oh wait, actually this is from Jay Jones, the Democrat running for Attorney General in Virginia.”

Miyares attacked Jones over the texts throughout the debate, underscoring Republicans’ view that it will be a galvanizing issue for voters in the closing stretch of the campaign. He also criticized Jones over the Democrats’ limited courtroom experience.

Jones countered by returning to Trump, emphasizing that a change was necessary for Virginia to adequately fight back against the president and his policies. He noted that Virginia is on the verge of enshrining a constitutional right to abortion in the state, and should it pass, Virginia needs an attorney general who will protect that right.

Neither candidate, who previously served together in the Virginia legislature, strayed far from their prepared talking points and they avoided talking over each other during the roughly 70-minute debate.

Heading into the debate, Democrats were hopeful they could exploit their party’s anger toward Trumps, his handling of the economy and the ongoing federal government shutdown to win the statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general — which are currently held by Republicans.

But Jones’ text messaging scandal is putting that in jeopardy.

Miyares, who is seeking a second term, is looking to capitalize on some Democrats’ unease over Jones by releasing an ad released this week encouraging Spanberger voters to split their tickets and “say no to Jay Jones.”

Chris LaCavita, the former co-manager of Trump's 2024 campaign, posted on X ahead of the debate: “This is what a smart campaign does” in response to the Miyares ad.

Republican strategists in the state said they have been far more impressed by Miyares’ campaign compared to Earle-Sears at the top of the ticket, whose campaign was plagued by tepid fundraising and staffing shake ups. Trump seems to agree as Miyares is the only of the three statewide GOP candidates that’s received his endorsement.

Jones, a former Virginia state lawmaker, is the son of prominent judges in the state, and had been seen as a potential future governor of the state prior to the unearthing of the texts. Democrats view him as the best candidate to push back against the Trump administration, who they argue has done irrevocable damage to the state, in particular with firings of the federal workforce by the Department of Government Efficiency, which disproportionately impact voters in the northern Virginia suburbs outside the nation’s capital.

© Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP, Pool

Democrat Abigail Spanberger passed on a chance to use one of the most high-profile moments of her run for Virginia governor to withdraw her endorsement for her party’s attorney general nominee for his use of violent rhetoric in a text message.

The subject of Jay Jones’ violent message from three years ago emerged immediately as the Democrat faced Republican Winsome Earle-Sears on Thursday in the only planned debate of the closely watched race.

Spanberger condemned the text as “abhorrent” but repeatedly declined to say whether she would withdraw her support for Jones, saying it should be left to the voters in the Nov. 4 election.

“The voters now have the information, and it is up to voters to make an individual choice based on this information,” she said.

Jones suggested the former Republican House speaker should get “two bullets to the head.” He has apologized for the text, which became public last week amid rising fears of political violence following a string of incidents, including the killing of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 and the attack on Minnesota lawmakers in June.

Jones' text dominated the early portion of the debate at Norfolk State University that otherwise include feisty exchanges on public policy and culture war issues.

Earle-Sears pivoted from the first question, about Virginia’s car tax, to insist that Spanberger address the issue. “My opponent needs to answer about Jay Jones.”

The lieutenant governor then repeatedly turned to ask Spanberger what it would take for her to call for Jones to leave the race. “You have little girls,” she said, looking directly at her opponent and ignoring moderators’ attempts to allow the Democratic nominee to answer. “What would it take? Him pulling the trigger? Is that what would do it and then you would say he needs to get out of the race, Abigail?”

While Spanberger declined to say whether she would continue to support Jones, she made it clear she disagreed with his text. "I denounced them when I learned of them and I will denounce them at every opportunity," she said.

The debate frequently bogged down with cross-talk and by Earle-Sears' interruptions of her opponent. Their differences centered around whose party deserves blame for the government shutdown, immigration enforcement, abortion rights and gay marriage — which the lieutenant governor opposes.

Virginia is one of two states electing governors in November and is often viewed as a bellwether election for the party occupying the White House. Democrats were hoping for decisive wins in Virginia to use as a springboard into next year’s midterms, but have encountered some turbulence as Republicans have announced a combined $3 million ad push in recent days to keep the text messaging saga top of mind for voters in the campaign’s final stretch.

President Donald Trump looms large in the Virginia gubernatorial contest. He’s not only unpopular with Democrats and Independents, his administration’s gutting of the federal government through DOGE cuts and his push to deny backpay to federal workers still on the payroll but forced off the job during the partial federal government shutdown disproportionately impact Virginia voters.

There was little talk about the history at stake during the hour-long debate. Either would be the first female governor of Virginia and Earle-Sears would be the first Black woman to lead the state.

© AP

Rising GOP star Rep. Wesley Hunt is launching a long-shot Texas Senate bid, scrambling a heated primary between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton.

The race for the Republican nomination in the Lone Star State will likely be one the most expensive and bruising primary contests of the 2026 midterm cycle — and some Democrats see an opportunity in the red-leaning state if Republicans surrender their incumbent advantage. Already, Paxton has an edge in most polling of the primary race against Cornyn, though the incumbent senator has closed the gap in more recent surveys. President Donald Trump has yet to endorse in the contest.

Hunt’s announcement on Monday comes after months of work and millions of dollars spent by groups aligned with the two-term congressman to boost his profile outside of his Houston-area political base.

“The time is NOW,” Hunt said in a post on his X account that included a campaign video of testimonials from his wife, brother and longtime colleagues playing up his military record and his commitment to public service. It also included images of him standing next to Trump and made no mention of either of his primary opponents.

Now a three-way battle for the GOP nomination, some Republican strategists anticipate none of the candidates will garner enough votes to win the March 3 primary outright, likely forcing a runoff in May. Privately, some establishment Republicans worry that Hunt's entry in the race could boost Paxton. Over the summer, the establishment-aligned Senate Leadership Fund urged leaders to boost Cornyn’s embattled reelection campaign, arguing in memo obtained by POLITICO in August that Paxton is a “weak candidate who puts the Senate seat at risk in the general election.”

Responding to news that Hunt had launched his bid, SLC communications director Chris Gustafson said, "It's unfortunate that Wesley Hunt has decided to abandon President Trump's efforts to protect the House majority and instead his person ambition... With every credible poll showing him in a distant third place, the only person celebrating today is a giddy Chuck Schumer."

Hunt published a video on X on Monday in which he said that he takes "offense" to the "establishment" criticizing his bid. "I assure you, this is not a vanity project."

Cornyn is in the political fight of his career as he looks to court a base that's increasingly viewed him as disloyal to Trump, particularly after the senator said that Trump could not win the 2024 presidential election before eventually endorsing him the following year. According to internal polling from Cornyn's campaign conducted last month, Hunt received 17 percent of the vote in a hypothetical three-way matchup. It also found Cornyn garnered 32 percent to Paxton's 31 percent support.

“John Cornyn is a battle-tested conservative who continues to be a leader in delivering President Trump’s agenda in the U.S. Senate and he’s the best candidate to keep Texas in the Republican Senate Majority," National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director Joanna Rodriguez said in a statement. "Now that Wesley has chosen personal ambition over holding President Trump's House Majority, there will be a full vetting of his record. Senator Cornyn's conservative record of accomplishment stands tall against Wesley’s."

But Paxton has some vulernabilities of his own. He survived an impeachment inquiry in 2023 where he was acquitted of 16 articles stemming from misuse of power, corruption and bribery. He is also in the midst of a bitter divorce from state Sen. Anglea Paxton, who said she was seeking an end to their 38-year-marriage on “biblical grounds,” publicly accusing him of adultery.

Hunt has made his closeness to Trump a key part of his pitch. He served as a surrogate for the president on the campaign trail last year, working alongside fellow Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) to boost Trump’s standing among Black voters.

During his initial runs for Congress, Hunt received the Trump endorsement, including in 2020 when he narrowly lost a bid to unseat then-Democratic incumbent Rep. Lizzie Fletcher for a Houston-area seat. Following the 2020 census, Texas added two new congressional districts and the state’s GOP-led Legislature drew the 38th Congressional District, which is the seat Hunt currently holds. Hunt notched a 26 percentage point win last year.

Trump’s endorsement is seen as pivotal in GOP primary. To receive it, Hunt will likely have to prove he can raise money at the same rate as Cornyn and Paxton. In the most recent campaign finance reports, Hunt raised just over $400,000 for the quarter ending in July — impressive for a member that faces little opposition but far short of what he'd need to mount a serious statewide bid. Meanwhile, Paxton hauled in $2.9 million for the same period while Cornyn’s political operation pulled in $3.9 million, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Democrats also have a contested primary. Former Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas Democrat who fell short in his push to unseat GOP Sen. Ted Cruz last year, is facing off against state Rep. James Talarico, a rising star.

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© Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Some of the nation’s most prominent Black mayors are celebrating major drops in crime in their cities — and grumbling that President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to realize the accomplishment.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that cities, particularly those run by Democrats, are overrun with violence, despite the fact that 2025 is on track to have the fewest homicides ever recorded by the FBI. He deployed troops to Los Angeles and Washington and threatened to send them elsewhere.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said that ignores the realities in cities like his, which recorded just five homicides in April, its lowest on record.

“When we accomplish those things, then the goal post gets moved,” Scott said Friday at a forum of mayors at the annual conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. “People are like, ‘well, what about stolen cars?’”

Scott’s views were echoed by other mayors at the event, including Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, Oakland’s Barbara Lee and Washington’s Muriel Bowser — all targets of the president’s rhetoric about safety in American cities.

Johnson, whose city is experiencing a 30 percent drop in crime and the fewest homicides it has seen in a decade, says the focus is no accident.

“I just want to lift up the fact that the very places that are under attack are all spaces that are led by Black leaders,” he said to a mostly Black audience. “We just got to name it. I know we know that, but I want to say it out loud that it’s very intentional, because there is an extremism in this country that has not accepted the results of the Civil War and they’re fully engaged in the rematch.”

Bowser said Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington under a “fake emergency” that was cover for immigration enforcement. The federal action, she said, has “been very menacing and has disrupted … the trust that our communities have with our own police.”

The federal law enforcement presence in Washington was originally set to last for 30 days ending earlier this month, but has since been extended.

Van Johnson, the mayor of Savannah, Georgia, said many Black mayors applaud and have taken notes from Bowser’s handling of the National Guard deployments and how to resist, but not forcefully agitate Trump in the process — all while juggling the expectations of their citizens.

“We live at the intersection of white fear and Black expectation,” said Johnson, head of the African American Mayors Association. “It’s a very, very unique intersection for us … [because the] white fear is that we’re doing too much, and Black expectation that we’re not doing enough. It is a very hard and very lonely place.”

© Jose Luis Magan/AP