In today's issue:

▪ How will redistricting affect 2026?

▪ Trump defends firing of labor official

▪ RFK Jr. targets childhood vaccine program

▪ Netanyahu, Putin provide foreign policy headaches

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Democrats are escalating their battle against Republicans’ push to redraw political maps and give themselves a lift ahead of the 2026 midterms.

In Texas, Democratic legislators on Sunday took the dramatic step of leaving the state in a bid to stop their GOP colleagues from advancing new congressional maps.

The redrawn House districts would give the GOP five more pickup opportunities ahead of 2026, aiding their efforts to hold on to their slim House majority next year.

Democrats blasted what they called a “corrupt” special session in Texas as they accused Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and President Trump of seeking to “rig” the midterms.

The map was set to be considered by the entire state House as soon as this week after a panel advanced a draft over the weekend, despite protests from Democrats that it would suppress minority voters' voices.

In a hearing, GOP legislators made explicit their efforts to redraw the map to advantage Republican candidates, The Texas Tribune reported.

“Different from everyone else, I’m telling you, I’m not beating around the bush,” state Rep. Todd Hunter (R) said about the goal of the map. “We have five new districts, and these five new districts are based on political performance.”

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin on Sunday praised the Texas legislators who left the state for “standing up and showing real leadership.”

“And, after this fight is done, we’re coming full force for the Republicans’ House majority,” he said.

The Texas Democrats traveled to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts to deny Republicans the minimum number of present lawmakers necessary to conduct business. They employed a similar tactic the last time the GOP pursued midcycle redistricting in 2003, and held another walkout in 2021.

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D), who days earlier called such a move a “last resort,” joined the walkout Sunday, saying it was “time to fight back.”

“Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections right before our eyes. But first he’ll have to come through us,” Talarico said in a post online.

Abbott informed the lawmakers late Sunday that he would have them fined and attempt to have them removed from office if they do not return to Austin to pass the new maps.

“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for Senate, posted on X.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said at a press conference Sunday night that the Texas state lawmakers who fled to his state will be protected.

“They’re here in Illinois. We’re going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them and make sure that — ’cause we know they’re doing the right thing, we know that they’re following the law,” Pritzker said.

The fight threatens to set off a redistricting war across the country as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the House in 2026.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is considering redrawing his state’s maps, and Pritzker, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) have also left the door open to such a move.

Meanwhile, Florida Republicans are increasingly pushing to redraw the Sunshine State’s congressional map. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said last week he is “very seriously” looking at making the ask of the state Legislature, arguing the 2020 census is flawed. Redistricting typically takes place every decade, with data from the decennial census.

Republicans, well aware historical precedent is against the party in power during midterms, are eager to use the August recess to work to sell Trump’s now-signed “Big Beautiful Bill” to voters. The Senate over the weekend joined the House on break, and both chambers won’t reconvene until early September.

The walkout is drawing more attention to the red-state Democrats’ redistricting fight, but the party faces limited options, and newly imposed fines and the threat of arrest also hang over those fleeing the state, The Hill’s Julia Mueller reports.

“Democrats don't have many arrows left in their quiver. There simply aren't a lot of things they can do to be able to challenge these maps in the near term,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.

If the maps do get approved, “they’re going to have to just fight it out on the ground and in the air” during the midterms, he said. “It's going to shift from being a legal battle to being an electoral battle.”

As they look to keep up with the GOP’s push to redraw House lines, some Democrats are suggesting the party go around redistricting commissions the party has long championed.

▪ The Texas Tribune: Texas’s proposed congressional map dismantles districts flagged by the Justice Department, which said four districts unconstitutionally combined Black and Hispanic voters. If the proposed map passes, two will still be multiracial.

Blue states like California would likely need to change their laws for Democrats to undertake redistricting efforts similar to the GOP.

Eric Holder, chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, called Texas's plan "an authoritarian move" by the White House. Holder, attorney general under former President Obama, for years led the charge among Democrats to eliminate gerrymandering. But Holder said Sunday on ABC News’s "This Week" that Democrats need to "do things that perhaps in the past........

© The Hill