President Donald Trump and Republicans are hailing the blockbuster ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court to strike down the state’s congressional redistricting ballot measure, which was a major setback for Democrats in the battle for the U.S. House majority.

«Huge win for the Republican Party,» the president proclaimed in a social media post on Friday minutes after Virginia’s highest court struck down the referendum passed by voters last month.

The new map drawn by the Virginia legislature would have given Democrats four more left-leaning House districts in the Commonwealth ahead of this year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin majority in the chamber.

The Virginia ruling, along with the recent opinion by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court to slash a key Voting Rights Act protection, is giving Trump and the GOP a major boost in their ongoing political fight with Democrats to redraw congressional district maps ahead of the midterms. At stake in this nationwide redistricting showdown is which party will control the House during the final two years of Trump’s second term in the White House.

BLOCKBUSTER RULING: VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN DEMOCRAT-BACKED CONGRESSIONAL MAP

In Virginia, the decision means the map used in the 2024 elections will stay in place for the 2026 ballot box showdowns. Democrats currently control the state’s U.S. House delegation by a 6-5 margin. The now overturned map could have resulted in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in the blue-leaning but competitive state.

In the wake of their latest legal setback, House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York said, «We are exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision.»

And the House minority leader vowed, «No matter what it takes, House Democrats will win in November so we can help rescue this nation from the extremism being unleashed by Donald Trump and Republicans.»

But the 2026 redistricting wars are far from over, and the political landscape may get even rougher for Democrats going forward.

Here’s where things stand.

Louisiana

The Supreme Court’s decision reshaped the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act by ruling that race should not dictate the redrawing of legislative district maps. And the opinion specifically ruled that Louisiana’s congressional district map was unconstitutional.

Last week, the Supreme Court said that its decision declaring Louisiana’s map unconstitutional should go into effect immediately, breaking with its usual procedure of waiting roughly a month before its opinions become official.

That cleared the way for the GOP-controlled state legislature to begin the process of redrawing the map, and hearings got underway on Friday.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana, right, a major ally of President Donald Trump, delayed his state’s U.S. House primaries as the GOP-dominated legislature redraws Louisiana’s congressional district map (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a top Trump ally, took swift action in the immediate aftermath of the high court’s ruling, when he delayed the May 16 U.S. House primary elections in Louisiana.

Louisiana Republicans are aiming to erase one or both of the two Black-majority House seats, which are represented by Democrats.

Tennessee

Republicans in Tennessee moved even faster.

The GOP-dominated Tennessee legislature on Thursday quickly adopted a new map that would eliminate the only Democrat-controlled congressional district in the state, and would likely give Republicans control of all nine districts.

TENN GOV LEE CALLS SPECIAL SESSION TO REDRAW HOUSE MAP IN GOP’S FAVOR 9-0

Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, center, marches with protesters before a special session of the state legislature to redraw U.S. Congressional voting maps, in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (George Walker IV/AP Photo)

GOP Gov. Bill Lee quickly signed the new maps into law.

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents the majority Black district that’s being carved up, vowed legal action.

«Trump knows he HAS TO rig the game to keep his majority in November. And the TN GOP was willing to go along with it. It’s shameful,» Cohen wrote on social media. «Next stop is the courts.»

Alabama

Lawmakers in the Alabama legislature, where the GOP holds a supermajority in both chambers, are advancing legislation as they met this past week in a special session focused on redistricting. The new maps may result in eliminating one or both of the state’s two blue-leaning U.S. House districts.

The special session was called by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.

But any new map passed by Alabama lawmakers will need to be greenlit by the Supreme Court. That’s because Alabama is currently prohibited by the high court from redistricting until 2030. It’s unclear if the court will lift its injunction.

Protests rocked both the Alabama and Tennessee legislatures as Republican lawmakers pushed forward the new maps.

South Carolina

In South Carolina, the GOP-controlled legislature returns in special session on Monday, as Republican lawmakers consider a new map that could put longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat in the state’s seven-person House delegation, out of a job.

Georgia

Republicans in Georgia are divided over GOP Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia’s decision not to call state lawmakers back into a special session on redistricting.

The state’s primary is on May 19 and early voting is already underway in Georgia.

Florida

Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill passed last week by the GOP-dominated state legislature that redraws the red-leaning state’s congressional districts, adding four more right-leaning seats by eliminating districts currently controlled by Democrats.

Republicans currently control Florida’s U.S. House delegation by a 20-8 margin.

How we got here

The battle over the maps ignited last spring when Trump, aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.

The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s fragile House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, «Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.»

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.

But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country. Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That led to five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office in Sacramento on Nov. 4, 2025. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)

But the fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, drew new maps as part of the president’s push.

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But in blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.

And Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.

Facing the president’s wrath, five of those Republican state senators in Indiana were ousted by Trump-backed challengers in last week’s GOP primary.

Estados Unidos e Irán mantienen en vilo a Medio Oriente mientras Washington aguarda por una respuesta a su propuesta entregada al régimen de Teherán con el objetivo principal de acordar un alto el fuego.

La finalización formal del conflicto, la resolución de la crisis en el estrecho de Ormuz y la apertura de un período de 30 días para negociaciones más amplias son los tres puntos centrales del acuerdo entregado por la administración del presidente Donald Trump a Irán.

Desde Teherán, el portavoz del Ministerio de Exteriores iraní, Ismail Bagaei, afirmó que la iniciativa estadounidense sigue en evaluación. “La propuesta está siendo estudiada y, una vez que lleguemos a una conclusión definitiva, sin duda la anunciaremos”, manifestó, según recogió la agencia Tasnim.

El secretario de Estado estadounidense, Marco Rubio, y el enviado especial para Medio Oriente, Steve Witkoff, mantuvieron una reunión el sábado en Miami con el primer ministro qatarí, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, para tratar la guerra en Irán, pero no se conocieron más detalles del encuentro.

En paralelo, las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel (FDI) lanzaron un nuevo ataque contra más de 40 infraestructuras, en el cual eliminaron a más de 10 miembros del grupo terrorista Hezbollah en el sur del Líbano.

A continuación, la cobertura minuto a minuto:

As fraud concerns ramp up across the country, particularly involving Medicaid, North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek told Fox News Digital the problem is very real in his state, especially when it comes to autism therapy, an area that has been highly scrutinized in Minnesota.

Boliek is sounding the alarm on potential waste, fraud and abuse within the state’s Medicaid program, specifically noting in an interview with Fox News Digital a 47,000% explosion in autism therapy billings he has flagged since taking office last year. 

«Those are vital services to folks and individuals that need that therapy,» Boliek said. «But when you have, like in North Carolina, a system that went from $1.4 million or so in total billings for autism therapy to more than $660 million a year in billings on autism therapy within a five-year range, that begs an audit from the state auditor, who in North Carolina, we are the top watchdog agency for taxpayer waste, fraud and abuse prevention. So, we’ve dug down into that and are in the middle of that.«

Boliek, who was speaking to Fox News Digital at the annual State Financial Officers Foundation conference in Orlando, says his office is «hand in hand» with Vice President JD Vance’s focus on eliminating waste, fraud and abuse to «make sure that the people who need the services and deserve those services get the services» without «wasting money.»

NORTH CAROLINA AUDITOR EXCITED FOR ‘REAL EFFECT’ OF STATE-LEVEL DOGE: ‘KEEPING GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE’

One of the core problems, Boliek explained, is the system is oftentimes designed in a way that fails to properly safeguard against waste and abuse.

«What we’ve got is we’ve seen examples where there might be three different clinical providers billing during the same tranche of time on an autism therapy client, and that is because of poor rulemaking,» Boliek explained. «Some of it is possibly illegal and probably illegal, and we’re going to point that out, and we’re going to try to put people in cuffs because of it.

«But some of it might be technically legal because of the lax oversight from a Democrat-led Department of Health and Human Services,» Boliek said, referencing the top state health agency in North Carolina.

In a March 10, 2026, hearing of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services presented data that matches Boliek’s narrative of exponential growth in autism therapy.

TRUMP ELECTION INTEGRITY PUSH EXPOSES MASSIVE AMOUNT OF DEAD PEOPLE ON NORTH CAROLINA VOTER ROLLS

Vice President Vance and CMS Administrator Dr. Oz tackle fraud in areas such as Medicaid, hospices and durable medical equipment suppliers. (Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images)

The report confirmed that Medicaid spending on ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapy grew by 347% between 2022 and 2025 alone and that total spending is projected to hit $842 million in state fiscal year 2026 and $1.14 billion by state fiscal year 2027.

Medicaid fraud has been a hot-button issue across the United States after a scandal in Minnesota gained widespread attention last fall and spreading to places like California and Ohio, the latter being the subject of a recent Daily Wire exposé examining seven medical buildings in Columbus, Ohio, that house 288 Medicaid companies and bill the government $250 million.

The key issues with Medicaid and the ease with which it can be abused both illegally and legally, according to Boliek, are the «minutiae of rulemaking» that is «built in by government.»

«For example, how individual entities, whether they are a provider of clinical medical services or whether they’re a provider of daycare services or other services that can be paid for through departments of Health and Human Services, how those rules are set up and what the billing rules are,» Boliek explained.

GOP SENATOR LAUNCHES EFFORT TO CLOSE MEDICAID LOOPHOLE ALLOWING FRAUDSTERS TO RAKE IN MILLIONS

«It really is minutiae, but in North Carolina, for example, we still have some services that are delivered on a fee-for-service basis, and they lack transparency and lack accountability with respect to who can bill and how much can be billed for particular services. That’s why we’ve taken a deep dive into some particular fee-for-service areas in North Carolina and are looking at provider data on exactly how those services are billed. That’s where the flaws are.«

During the developing fraud scandal in Minnesota, federal agents discovered that one suspected scammer defrauded the state’s autism treatment program of roughly $14 million and allegedly billed Medicaid for fake therapy sessions, used untrained staff and paid parents $300 to $1,500 a month to keep their kids in the program. 

The state’s autism program’s budget jumped from $3 million in 2018 to nearly $400 million in 2023, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he will not seek re-election during a news conference at the State Capitol in St. Paul on Jan. 5, 2026. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)

«The fraud is so obvious, just simply looking at the exponential growth in some of these social services programs, that anybody kind of looking at how fast this was growing should have known that a fraud was a major reason why,» Minnesota state Sen. Michael Kreun, a Republican, told Fox News Digital in December about social services fraud in his state.

In terms of next steps in North Carolina, Boliek says his office is working with lawmakers to strengthen fraud enforcement by increasing financial accountability, expanding investigative and Medicaid audit resources and investing in staff and technology to recover misused funds. 

Boliek explained that one important tool to crack down on fraud is artificial intelligence. 

«Look, we’ve got to pour jet fuel on artificial intelligence in the area of state auditing because the fraudsters are using AI and if we’re not using AI to combat the fraud, then we’re going to be on our heels and the taxpayer isn’t going to be protected.»

He emphasized that these steps, especially enhancing oversight of programs like Medicaid, are aimed at holding individuals accountable and returning taxpayer dollars for more effective use. 

The State Financial Officers Foundation, a group of financial officers that collectively oversees more than $3 trillion in state funds, released a report earlier this year outlining how the organization safeguarded more than $28 billion of waste, fraud, and abuse in 2025 alone.

«Every wasted dollar is a dollar that can’t be spent on a person who actually needs service,» Boliek said.