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

Republicans have a warning for their base: If you let Democrats retake the House, they’ll impeach Donald Trump again.

“Democrats would vote to impeach (Trump) on their first day,” Speaker Mike Johnson claimed in an interview with the Shreveport Times this month. Conservative columnist Bryon York warned Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to redistrict California was a veiled threat to "end the Trump presidency by using the constitutional procedure to end presidencies — impeachment.” And the National Republican Congressional Committee recently unleashed a digital ad framing the stakes of the midterms this way: Democrats' “Project 2026” agenda is to "impeach President Trump."

As the GOP is girding for potentially tough midterms battles, it sees the spectre of impeachment as a reason for conservative-leaning voters to come to the polls in a year when Trump is not on the ballot.

But so far, at least, Democrats seem wary of even talking about it. In conversations with roughly a dozen Democratic strategists and elected officials, there is little consensus about the party's strategy on impeachment. Many warned against focusing on it.

“We should never, at least in the near future, use the ‘I’ word,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). “One of the things we learned is that articles of impeachment are also articles of recruitment for Trump.”

Trump survived removal efforts and found his way back into power, even though Democrats said he was a threat to democracy. If anything, impeachment and his legal troubles before returning to office resulted in a fundraising boon for Trump.

House Democratic leaders appear vexed at the prospect of making a third run at removing Trump from office after previous attempts ended in acquittals in the Senate. With the party needing only a handful of seats to take back the majority in the House, it is not clear the broader electorate is clamoring for another impeachment fight.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' office declined to comment for this story. But a person close to House leadership, granted anonymity to discuss campaign strategy, blasted Republicans for going into “full fear mode” about the midterm elections.

“There will be some emotional members who want to grab headlines with impeachment, however [House Democratic] leadership has thus far shown that it’s not a tool in our box” to hold Trump accountable, the person added, with House Democrats blocking attempts by some members to impeach him.

“Of course impeachment is a tool of the Congress that should always be available and appropriate,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who also chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “But right now, I think we're in a stage where we're trying to try this case out in the court of public opinion before we do anything else.”

Even outside groups that were leading agitators for Democrats to launch impeachment efforts during Trump’s first term seem reluctant to deploy that same strategy again.

“Impeachment is good, but it’s a symbolic act. It’s not enough,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible.

So far this year, House Democrats have doomed efforts by their own caucus members to impeach Trump, including a majority of the caucus joining House Republicans to kill an impeachment push from Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) over Iran airstrikes in June. House leadership successfully dissuaded Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) from moving forward with another article of impeachment stemming from Trump’s push to annex Greenland and on tariffs.

Green plans to keep trying.

“I will not stop and I promise you this president is going to be brought down. He’s got to be brought down,” Green said during a press conference this month in suburban Chicago. Speaking alongside several Democrats from the Texas legislature that left the state to prevent a quorum in Austin to pass the new Texas maps, Green vowed: “He will be impeached again.”

For now, Green is considered an outlier among the caucus, but he was in 2018, too.

Back then, House Democrats, led by then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, were initially uneasy about leaning fully into impeachment talks heading into the midterms. But the burgeoning blue wave that helped Democrats take back the House was propelled by a broader message from the party's base, who harnessed anti-Trump sentiment promising to hold Trump to account.

Just two weeks after Trump was inaugurated in 2017, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said her “greatest desire is to lead him right into impeachment,” and she continued to call for his impeachment. Four articles of impeachment were introduced in that Congress, by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Green of Texas on a range of offenses ranging from obstructing investigation by firing then-FBI Director James Comey, violations of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution and a pair of articles citing Trump's use of “racially inflammatory statements.”

By 2019, about a week after being sworn in, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) revved up an anti-Trump audience proclaiming, “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker!”

While many of these key figures from past impeachments are still in Washington, the politics of impeachment have changed. Democrats have struggled to craft a coherent message and maintain a sustained fight against Trump and his Republican allies.

Many Democrats see it as a fool's errand to go down that path again.

“Absolutely not. It is bananas to even think about it,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way.

His organization has been trying to warn Democrats against engaging in maneuvers that make them look weak compared to Trump’s aggressive dismantling of federal government and political norms. Impeachment would be a “Trump dream,” he said, that plays into the president’s political strengths.

Some frontline Democrats aren’t running away from impeachment, but they caution that more energy needs to be spent convincing voters Democrats have an agenda worth supporting.

“Impeachment is simply one tool in the tool belt of opportunities to hold the other branch to account,” said Rep. Janelle Bynum, one of incumbent House members Democrats are preparing to defend in next year’s midterms.

There are other tactics Democrats should deploy, according to Levin of Indivisible: “We want hearings, investigations, subpoenas, testimonies, oversight. Trump isn’t the only or even the most important target here — collaborators, capitulators, and enablers should know what’s coming.”

For some, that includes going after those in the president’s orbit who are ramping up pressure campaigns on elected officials in red-leaning states like Texas, Indiana, and Missouri to take up off-year redistricting to create more winnable districts for Republicans to maintain control of the House.

As both parties become entrenched in redistricting battles, some GOP operatives fear it may muddle the party’s ability to elevate a third Trump impeachment as top issue in the midterms.

Republicans worry that without control of the House, Trump’s agenda will grind to a halt. Even with their slim control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans have had difficulty passing much legislation. Trump’s signature tax law was passed through a special reconciliation process requiring a simple majority of both chambers to pass.

If Democrats get power back, Republicans warn, they’ll be looking to wield it.

"If Hakeem Jeffries and Democrats get the majority, day one they're going to pass articles of impeachment," said Indiana Republican strategist Pete Seat, pointing to calls from the Democratic base to push back against Trump."How could they not?"

Shia Kapos contributed to this report.

© Francis Chung/POLITICO

Donald Trump’s unprecedented takeover of Washington’s police force is testing the limits of his presidential authority and ratcheting up fears that other cities also led by Black elected officials will soon be caught in his crosshairs.

Trump, citing flimsy and misleading statistics, declared a “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital, seizing control over local law enforcement from three-term Mayor Muriel Bowser and deploying some 800 National Guard troops to city streets.

“This is Liberation Day in D.C. and we’re going to take our capitol back,” Trump proclaimed, echoing World War II-era language associated with emancipation of Italy from facism and the German Nazi occupation. Trump added that his action would “rescue our nation from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.”

The National Guard troops, who will work alongside the Metropolitan Police officers, will be tasked with clearing homeless encampments, protecting landmarks and keeping order in the city. It’s an unprecedented presidential power grab that Bowser herself said is unnecessary, but has very little recourse to stop given the "special conditions” outlined in the Home Rule Act.

While Trump’s supporters have cheered him on, his detractors say the move is nothing more than the president, once again, leaning into racist tropes to cast Black elected officials as incompetent and minority citizens as threats to society.

"We don’t yet know the full impact this decision will have on D.C. and the Black and minority communities Trump has suggested he may target next," said the Congressional Black Caucus in a statement posted on X, "we do know this: militarized over-policing will inevitably lead to increased fear and mistrust among communities that have too often been treated as occupied populations, rather than as citizens who deserve to be served and protected."

During his wide-ranging press conference, Trump also singled out Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Oakland — all of which have Black mayors and large minority populations that overwhelmingly voted against him in his three presidential runs — as crime ridden.

“He has never thought well of Black elected leaders, and he's been explicit about that,” said Maya Wiley, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She added that she views Trump’s actions as a tactic to undermine liberal dissent.

“It's also clear from his previous statements that he has always searched for excuses to assert might over places he does not have political support and that will not just do his bidding,” she added. “Washington, D.C., has been one of those cities.”

Bowser worked to quell tensions between her and Trump stemming from his first term, which included painting over the yellow letters of the city’s Black Lives Matter Plaza, which was formed in a response to police brutality during the national protests of 2020. Prior to Trump’s inauguration she traveled to Mar-a-Lago to discuss possible areas of collaboration.

In late April, with Trump’s backing, Bowser helped lure the Washington Commanders NFL franchise from suburban Maryland back to D.C. Days later, she appeared with him at the White House to announce the city would host the NFL Draft in 2027. (Last month, Trump injected himself again by threatening to scuttle the deal to bring the football team back to D.C. if the team didn’t return to its original name, which is considered a racial slur against Native Americans.)

None of that appears to have deterred Trump from launching his federal takeover.

“I think this is a moment for the mayor to question whether her strategy, which has been appeasement, has been a success,” said Paul Butler, a Georgetown law professor and former federal prosecutor.

He described Trump’s actions as a “bogus declaration” but suggested there is likely little reprieve D.C. officials will gain trying to challenge the president’s declaration in court.

“While the court reviews whether he appropriately has this power, the Supreme Court and other lower courts [have] generally allowed him to … proceed with what he wants to do, until they get around to deciding the case,” Butler added. “It opens the doors to further militarization of the police, not just in the District, but in the other cities that he named.”

New York City mayor Eric Adams on addressed the possibility of Trump deploying federal assets to his own city following a string of shootings over the weekend that left at least two dead and eight injured.

“When you have those high profile shootings it sends a signal sometimes across the country that we're dealing with a crime issue in New York, and we're not,” Adams said Tuesday. "I'm not part of the group that says we don't want to work with the federal government, but we don't need anyone to come in and take over our law enforcement apparatus. We've got this under control."

Trump has ignored the wishes of local officials and deployed federal troops in recent weeks. During the height of federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, which sparked protests that turned violent, Trump federalized some 2,000 California Guard troops against the objections of Mayor Karen Bass, who is Black, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told The Recast that Trump’s actions in D.C. and his singling out of other Black-led jurisdictions, including his own, is nothing more than a "diversion and distraction tactic” to shift the focus from a volatile economic climate and the release of materials associated with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.

“It's also the continuation of the president, unfortunately, spouting these racist-based, right-wing propaganda talking points about cities and Black-led cities,” said Scott, who last month said his city is in the midst of a historic reduction in violent crime. “For the president to say that we're too far gone — it's just obscene, obnoxious and just not based in reality.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a combat veteran, chastised Trump for using military personnel for political gain.

“These actions by the president lack both data and a battle plan,” Moore said in a statement.

“[The president] is simply using honorable men and women as pawns to distract us from his policies, which continue to drive up unemployment and strip away health care and food assistance from those who need it most.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson echoed Moore’s sentiments.

“If President Trump wants to help make Chicago safer, he can start by releasing the funds for anti-violence programs that have been critical to our work to drive down crime and violence,” Johnson said. “Sending in the National Guard would only serve to destabilize our city and undermine our public safety efforts.”

The pretext of Trump’s actions appears to be a response to an attack on Edward Coristine, who is white and a former staffer at DOGE who goes by the nickname “Big Balls.” He was allegedly assaulted by approximately 10 juveniles near Dupont Circle this month, according to a police report obtained by POLITICO.

It caught the attention of Trump, who posted on his Truth Social platform a photo of a bloodied Coristine and called for D.C. laws to be changed so that teenagers who commit violence can be tried as adults “and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.”

Trump is deputizing key administration officials to help oversee the D.C. police, which he can maintain control of for up to 48 hours, but if he sends a special message to certain congressional leaders, he can extend that control for up to 30 days. Attorney General Pam Bondi will be in charge of D.C. police, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will direct the order to call up troops, while the District’s U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said on Monday that she is preparing to bolster prosecutions.

Bowser, the D.C. mayor, delivered a measured response to the federal takeover in her remarks following Trump’s announcements.

“While this action [Monday] is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that, given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we're totally surprised,” she said.

Maya Kaufman and Shia Kapos contributed to this report. 

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© Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP