Vice President JD Vance will visit Iowa. It's his first visit since taking office to the state where Republicans in less than two years will cast the first votes to pick their party’s next presidential nominee. Vance, who is seen as one of the GOP’s strongest potential candidates for president in 2028, is making the trip to campaign on behalf of Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, who faces a competitive race to keep his Des Moines-area seat in the November midterm elections. But Tuesday's visit also offers Vance an opportunity to test his reception before Iowa’s voters, whose leadoff caucuses give them an outsized role in determining the next presidential nominee.
Recent court rulings on abortion pill access have reignited a contentious political issue in a midterm year. A federal appeals court restricted mail access to mifepristone pills, a common abortion method. The Supreme Court then temporarily restored access on Monday. It’s too early to say whether the rulings will affect the outcome of races this year, when issues around affordability are expected to take top billing for voters. But advocates on both sides hope it will sway voters their way. Some abortion rights groups are strategizing ways to reach voters who may be more motivated to turn out for Democrats. Abortion opponents warn their typically loyal Republican voters are frustrated the Trump administration hasn't done more to ban abortion.
Indiana Republican state lawmakers who broke with President Donald Trump over his call to redraw the state’s congressional district lines are facing primary challengers who are backed by Trump and national conservative groups. The election Tuesday is the latest one to test the limits of Trump's influence with voters ahead of the midterm. Trump is targeting seven state senators who defied months of White House pressure by voting in December against mid-decade redistricting. Trump undertook the national campaign to redraw congressional maps to boost his party’s chances in the November midterm elections.
Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy aims to put a long and sometimes unpleasant primary season behind him Tuesday. The Cincinnati-born biotech entrepreneur has largely ignored a long-shot challenge by engineer and car designer Casey Putsch as he positions to face Democrat Amy Acton, the former state health director, this fall. Tuesday's results also will set the stage for a high-stakes Senate contest for what remains of the term Vice President JD Vance won in 2022. Republican Jon Husted was appointed to the seat and is vying to hold on to it. Democratic former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is seeking a comeback after losing a 2024 reelection bid.
Tennessee becomes the latest Southern state to consider redrawing its congressional map after the U.S. Supreme Court severely weakened the Voting Rights Act. Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session starting Tuesday to consider a plan that could break up the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis. Republican lawmakers there and elsewhere are using a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to try to redraw congressional districts before the November midterm elections. The Supreme Court recently struck down Louisiana's U.S. House map, saying it relied too heavily on race.
The House meets during a special session of the Alabama Legislature, Monday, May 4, 2026, in Montgomery, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
The House meets during a special session of the Alabama Legislature, Monday, May 4, 2026, in Montgomery, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A partisan redistricting battle among states has accelerated ahead of the midterm elections. This comes after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act and opened the way for states to eliminate voting districts drawn for racial minorities. Voting districts typically are redrawn based on census data after the start of each decade. But an unusual spate of mid-decade redistricting broke out after President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to reshape U.S. House districts to give the party an edge in the November midterm elections. Democrats in California countered with their own political gerrymandering. More states have followed.
FILE - A general exterior view of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast, File)
FILE - Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith announces the results of a vote to redistrict the state's congressional map, Dec. 11, 2025, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
