President Trump said today that he directed the DOJ to probe California elections when early results showed Steve Hilton trailing in the recent governor primary. It's the clearest evidence yet of him weaponizing the DOJ to interfere in elections.

Every day I'm alarmed at how xenophobia and racism are being mainstreamed in American politics and society. In the latest, GOP lawmakers and Elon Musk attacked an immigrant judge for being an immigrant after she ruled against Trump's voter purge scheme.

As the wave of Trump-backed gerrymanders dies down ahead of the midterms, a few things are clear: Partisan redistricting is here to stay. Protections against racial gerrymanders are gone. And the law appears to explicitly work for Republicans and against Democrats. @jenrice.bsky.social explains.

New investigation suggests a cultish guru gave political orders to Tulsi Gabbard throughout her career. Had Gabbard remained a congresswoman, this would be alarming. The fact she became Director of National Intelligence and probed the 2020 election makes it doubly so.

"Some Republicans privately expressed worries that a rushed redistricting plan that diminished Black and other minority voters’ political power could spark backlash and trigger greater Democratic turnout."

In a surprising plot twist, today Georgia's House Republican leadership shot down a special session called by Gov. Brian Kemp to redraw electoral maps ahead of election 2028.

This is a truly bizarre situation — even for a party prioritizing opposition to "Sharia law." Muslims came to the Texas GOP convention basically saying they want to be and vote for Republicans. The response: Don't. And also leave the country.

Deliberately shooting yourself in the foot does indeed add "a slight bit of intrigue" to any situation.

Has any previous president ever praised his own decision as adding “a slight bit of intrigue” for the “the Good of the Nation”? In this case, it's a galaxy-brain strategy to push the stalled anti-voting SAVE America Act and make a loyalist acting spy chief.

“Donald Trump isn’t coming after me just because of my mean tweets. He’s coming after me because I’m considering running for president. Because he hates that I’ve called him out over and over again for his lies and deceit,” Newsom said.

The FBI raids today against the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a voter registration nonprofit, are a blatant attack on civil society and an attempt to intimidate voters ahead of important midterm races in Ohio, elected leaders and democracy advocates say.

Trump is crying fraud in California's primaries. On the surface, it doesn't make much sense: The GOP had zero chance at LA mayor. But it does set the stage for a perfect storm in November: Control of the House hanging on California, an (expectedly) slow vote count, and Trump again alleging fraud.

The taboo on seizing election equipment and ballots is being demolished in the blink of an eye. In this case, Maricopa County, Arizona's election-denying county recorder — a local official — conducted the seizure *as ballots were being counted!*

In a small victory (or consolation prize) for democracy, Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff who seized 650,000 ballots in #California's redistricting election earlier this year, almost certainly won't make it into the general election for governor.

🚨 BREAKING: The Supreme Court will allow Alabama to use a congressional map that a federal court found intentionally discriminates against Black voters, effectively blessing racial gerrymandering.

NEW: The U.S. Supreme Court will allow Alabama to use a congressional map found to have intentionally discriminated against Black voters, it said Tuesday.  The new ruling suggests almost no federal protections remain for non-white voters, even in extreme cases.

In a twist like something out of a Mel Brooks comedy about the White House, the same guy in charge of your mortgage is also leading the intelligence community. What a world.

Gov. Jeff Landry (R) signed a new congressional map into law Friday that eliminates one of Louisiana's two majority-Black congressional seats. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

‼️Major step towards implementing Trump's attack on mail voting: In line with the president's executive order, the U.S. Postal Service plans to radically crack down on mail voting by sending ballots only to voters who are registered with the federal government.

NEW from @jaknutson.bsky.social: "The proposed rule... is an alarming step toward implementing President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting ahead of the 2026 midterm election. And it would represent a massive expansion of federal control over voting, without congressional authorization."

President Trump's attorneys general haven't exactly had great success prosecuting his personal opponents or pursuing his political aims, but they are succeeding at one thing: racking up ethics complaints.

I would call it a "mask-off moment," but I'm not sure there are any masks left. The white plaintiffs from the case in which the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act now want to eliminate *both* #Louisiana Black-majority congressional districts.

Extremely funny. Yesterday, Bruce Springsteen brought "his rousing anti-Trump roadshow to a capital city consumed by questions of loyalty under an administration that demands it. And for some Republicans, there can only be one Boss."

Rep. Chip Roy sponsored the severely anti-voting SAVE America Act, which Trump described as his “No. 1 priority.” Even so, he wasn’t MAGA enough for Trump or for MAGA. Why? He ultimately hadn’t supported efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“The result is the latest evidence of how election denialism and support for voter suppression have become central to Republican politics.”

A judge appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has cleared the way for Florida to use its new congressional map — drawn by DeSantis’ office — in the 2026 midterm elections, despite what plaintiffs called “staggering” evidence that it violates the state’s voter-approved ban on partisan gerrymandering.

After many confusing twists and turns, South Carolina lawmakers have given up on redistricting ahead of the midterms. Today, early voting started in the primary. As of 1 p.m., more than 32,000 people cast their ballots, a single-day record.

"But such behavior could have easily resulted in a U.S. attorney stepping down or being fired. Instead, the Senate confirmed Mr. Smith’s nomination on May 18, just three days after the judges issued their ruling dismissing the cases and exposing his transgressions."

A federal district court Tuesday blocked Alabama from using its 2023 congressional map in this year’s midterm elections, after plaintiffs in a long-running legal challenge asked the court for an emergency order halting the last-minute gerrymander.

This is a pretty big deal because the judge basically blames Todd Blanche for the selective and vindictive prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. That's bad regardless, but Blanche has since been promoted from deputy to acting attorney general.

Gabbard's exit ends one of the stranger stories of the 2nd Trump administration: As Director of National Intelligence, she was sidelined from the Iran War, but involved in probing the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia. I emphasize: Top US intel official investigating county elections!

Better at celebrating Vyshyvanka Day at work in DC than I am at posing for photos. #Ukraine

The fact that Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap, a Republican, is feuding with the Board of Supervisors controlled by stalwart Republicans shows you that this election denial stuff is political meth — brain destroying. Election Denial: Not even once.™️

“Reducing her sentence now, under pressure from Donald Trump, is not justice,” the Colorado Democratic Party said in a statement of the censure. “It sends a message to future bad actors that election tampering has consequences, unless you’re friends with the president.”

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Tennessee has made its gerrymander as blatantly racist as possible, now removing every Democrat — and, thus, every Black legislator — from every House committee because Dems vocally opposed redistricting.

Day of good and bad news in the redistricting war: In South Carolina, the state senate rejected an effort to redraw the state’s congressional maps to dismantle the state’s sole Democratic (and Black-majority) district, represented by longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn. But...

BREAKING: Trump-backed gerrymander effort fails in South Carolina.

BREAKING: SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE'S SINE DIE RESOLUTION FAILS, STATE WILL NOT MOVE FORWARD WITH REDISTRICTING

Virginia Democrats are asking SCOTUS to restore a voter-approved redistricting plan overturned by the state supreme court. And they're leaning on a version of a legal theory more commonly associated with Republican election litigation. It has some alarming implications.

One remarkable thing about the Virginia Supreme Court ruling overturning the will of the voters on redistricting: They seem to be objecting to partisan gerrymandering, something happening across the country that the U.S. Supreme Court has greenlighted. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

NEW: The Virginia Supreme Court has approved a GOP bid to throw out the results of a special election in which voters approved a new congressional map proposed by Democrats. In effect, the court overruled the will of Virginia’s voters after the election had already taken place.

🎥 VIDEO: In a devastating move, SCOTUS just gutted the Voting Rights Act. This week, we hosted a paid event with Damon Hewitt, Leah Litman and Rep. Jamie Raskin to explain the implications of the ruling — and their insights were so critical, we're sharing it for free. Watch now👇

These viruses have been known problems in Korea for so long that there’s literally a M*A*S*H episode about them. People work their whole careers on viruses most people have never heard of…so that you never have to hear about them.

BREAKING: The Alabama House voted 75-29 to pass legislation that could change the state’s congressional map during ongoing primaries — a last-minute attempt to diminish Black voting power before the midterms in light of SCOTUS’ ruling last week. The measure now heads to the state senate for a vote.

"Black lawmakers invoked ancestors who had fought in wars, lived through segregation and struggled for the right to vote, placing the proposed map squarely in the lineage of those battles."

Big scoop from @mattdcohen.bsky.social & @yuniorarivas.bsky.social: Bert Callais, lead plaintiff in the case that destroyed the Voting Rights Act, has a history of promoting false election conspiracies & anti-voting policies, and was at the Stop the Steal protest at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

🚨 BREAKING: The Supreme Court just fast-tracked its ruling in Louisiana v. Callais — clearing the way for Louisiana to gerrymander its congressional map mid-election after previously warning courts not to change rules close to elections.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Louisiana to redraw its congressional map in time for the 2026 midterm elections, handing another win to Republicans just days after it gutted the Voting Rights Act.

We are currently witnessing a colossal attack on voting rights & minority representation in the wake of SCOTUS gutting the Voting Rights Act. If you want the latest, subscribe to @democracydocket.com. These are the updates from today's newsletter. newsletters.democracydocket.com/anchor-navbar