INTERNACIONAL
Democrats win Virginia redistricting fight, threatening Republican House majority
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Democrats scored a major victory Tuesday when Virginia voters narrowly passed a congressional redistricting referendum that could give the party a significant boost in the battle for the U.S. House of Representatives majority in this year’s midterm elections, The Associated Press reported at 8:49 p.m. ET.
The ballot measure gives the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state’s current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.
The referendum, which follows President Donald Trump’s push for rare but not unheard-of mid-decade redistricting in Republican-led states, would give the Democrats four additional left-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms as the party tries to win back control of the chamber from the GOP, which currently holds a razor-thin majority.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who in many ways became the face of her party’s push to pass the ballot initiative, said in a statement that «Virginia voters have spoken, and tonight they approved a temporary measure to push back against a President who claims he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress.»
«Virginians watched other states go along with those demands without voter input — and we refused to let that stand. We responded the right way: at the ballot box,» the governor said.
DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger speaks during a Virginians For Fair Elections canvassing event in Woodbridge, Va., on April 18, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
And Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin emphasized that «Virginians refused to let Trump play games with Americans’ right to fair representation.»
But Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that «Virginia Democrats can’t redraw reality. This close margin reinforces that Virginia is a purple state that shouldn’t be represented by a severe partisan gerrymander. That’s exactly why the courts, who have already ruled twice to block this egregious power grab, should uphold Virginia law.»
And Hudson predicted, «Even under this map, Republicans will hold our majority based on our record cleaning up Democrats’ mess and a historic war chest to litigate the Democrats’ failures.»
Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Jeff Ryer said in a statement, «I know we are disappointed by tonight’s result. Evidently, a sufficient number of Virginians trusted the blatantly dishonest language the Democrats placed on the ballot to make our Commonwealth the most severely gerrymandered state in the nation.»
The standalone spring referendum capped months of political crossfire and court battles, sky-high early voting turnout and tons of national attention and money poured into the ballot box showdown.
Even though a majority of voters gave the ballot initiative a thumbs-up, it still faces legal challenges.
The Supreme Court of Virginia allowed the referendum to move forward after a lower court struck it down. But legal challenges to the referendum, filed in part by the Republican National Committee, the NRCC and the state GOP, remain unresolved and are still before Virginia’s highest court.
Republicans had railed against the Democrat-backed referendum.
«It’s the most partisan map in America,» former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin told supporters at his final campaign stop in northern Virginia on the eve of the election.
Pointing to the Democrats pushing new maps, Youngkin charged, «What they are doing is immoral.»
Teaming up with Youngkin to crisscross the state in leading the GOP opposition to the ballot initiative was former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who told the crowd the Democrats’ map is one that «you draw when you’re drunk with power.»
BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE RUNS THROUGH VIRGINIA AS COURT OKS HIGH-STAKES REDISTRICTING VOTE
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, right, and former state Attorney General Jason Miyares lead a chant of «no» as they lead Republican efforts to defeat a Democrat-backed congressional redistricting referendum April 20, 2026, in Leesburg, Va. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
Speaking with Fox News Digital ahead of their final election eve rally, Miyares charged that «Democrats want to take away the voices of millions of Virginians and gerrymander the state.»
Youngkin, pointing to the duo’s relentless campaigning in recent weeks, said, «What we’re hearing over and over and over again is Virginians want fair maps. And what the yes vote represents are unfair maps.»
And the two Republicans reiterated their charge that the referendum was an «unconstitutional power grab» by Spanberger and the Democrats who control the state legislature.
As Youngkin and Miyares spoke in Leesburg, Trump took to the airwaves on a popular Virginia-based conservative talk show and later teamed up with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to urge voters to defeat the referendum.
Pointing to congressional Democrats, Trump warned that «if they get these additional seats, they’re going to be making changes at the federal level.»
SPANBERGER FACES ‘BAIT AND SWITCH’ BACKLASH AHEAD OF CRUCIAL ELECTION
President Donald Trump headlined a tele town hall on the eve of Virginia’s congressional redistricting referendum urging voters to cast a ballot against the initiative. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Democrats countered that the redrawing of the maps was a necessary step to balance partisan gerrymandering already implemented by Republicans in other states at Trump’s urging.
«By voting yes, you have the chance to do something important — not just for the commonwealth, but for our entire country,» former President Barack Obama said in a video released Friday on the eve of the final day of early voting. «By voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms.
«By voting yes, you can take a temporary step to level the playing field. And we’re counting on you.»
The video by Obama was the former president’s latest effort for the referendum. He had previously appeared in ads released by Virginians for Fair Elections, the Democrat-aligned group working to pass the ballot initiative.
OBAMA GOES ALL IN ON HIGH-STAKES REFERENDUM THAT MAY IMPACT MIDTERM ELECTIONS
But Virginians for Fair Maps, the leading Republican-aligned group opposing redistricting, used past comments by Obama against political gerrymandering in its ads opposing the referendum.
«Because of things like political gerrymandering, our parties have moved further and further apart, and it’s harder and harder to find common ground,» the former president said in an old clip showcased in the spot.
Republicans pointed to comments from Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, a former Virginia governor and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, who acknowledged over the weekend in a «Fox News Sunday» interview that the new maps don’t represent Virginia’s partisan breakdown.
«Ninety percent of Virginians are not Democrats, that’s true,» Kaine said.
But Kaine added that «about 100% of Virginians want election results to be respected.»
SOROS-BACKED GROUP AMONG LIBERAL ORGS PUMPING EYE-POPPING CASH INTO VIRGINIA GERRYMANDERING EFFORT
And Republicans took aim at Spanberger, who won November’s gubernatorial election by over 15 points as Democrats also captured the lieutenant governor and attorney general offices.
«Abigail Spanberger told everybody last summer that she had no interest in redistricting, and then the first bill she signs is a bill to enable the gerrymandering of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginians don’t like this and that’s why independents and a lot of Democrats are voting no too,» Youngkin told Fox News Digital.
Minutes later, Youngkin told the crowd that Spanberger is «trying to disenfranchise millions, millions of Virginians.»
Republicans trained their redistricting firepower on Spanberger since a poll two weeks ago by The Washington Post indicated that the new governor’s approval rating was barely above water, with the highest unfavorable rating for a new Virginia governor in two decades.
«She’s an unpopular governor with an unpopular agenda, and she lied to the voters,» Miyares charged.
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, left, and former state Attorney General Jason Miyares, speak with Fox News Digital on the eve of Virginia’s congressional redistricting referendum in Leesburg, Va., April 20, 2026 (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
And Miyares and other top Republicans accused Spanberger of pulling a «bait and switch.»
Spanberger, in an ad in support of the referendum, said she was backing the measure because «it’s directly in response to what other states decide to do and a president who says he’s quote entitled to more Republican seats before this year’s midterms. Our approach is different. It’s temporary. It preserves Virginia’s fair redistricting process into the future.»
Supporters of redistricting dramatically outraised and outspent groups opposed to the referendum, with Virginians for Fair Elections outraising Virginians for Fair Maps by a roughly three-to-one margin. Much of the funding raised by both sides came from so-called «dark money» from nonprofit public policy groups known as 501(c)(4) organizations that are not required to disclose their donors.
Despite the Democrats’ funding advantage, recent polling suggested support for the ballot initiative was only slightly ahead of opposition amid a surge in early voting, which ended on Saturday.
«They have outspent us three to one. They’ve raised over $70 million. And yet this is a close vote,» Youngkin said.
Pointing to the ads in support of the referendum, Youngkin said Virginians «aren’t believing the mistruths. They aren’t believing the lies on TV. They’re actually doing the work themselves and understanding that a no vote is for fair maps and a yes vote is for the most gerrymandered maps in America.»
And Miyares emphasized that Democrats «outspent us, but we have the truth.»
Virginia is the latest battleground in the high-stakes fight between Trump and the GOP and Democrats over congressional redistricting.
Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump last spring 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.
DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night news conference at a California Democratic Party office in Sacramento Nov. 4, 2025. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)
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 is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.
The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.
Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.
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.
Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House. The showdown in the Indiana statehouse grabbed plenty of national attention.
Florida is next up.
Two-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in the GOP-dominated legislature are hoping to pick up an additional three to five right-leaning seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session that kicks off April 28.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., July 22, 2025. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service)
Hovering over the redistricting wars is the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in Louisiana v. Callais, a crucial case that may lead to the overturning of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
If the ruling goes the way of the conservatives on the high court, it could lead to the redrawing of a slew of majority-minority districts across the county, which would greatly favor Republicans.
But it is very much up in the air when the court will rule and what it will actually decide.
midterm elections, virginia, republicans elections, democrats, house of representatives, democrats elections, donald trump
INTERNACIONAL
EXCLUSIVE: SPLC’s ‘far-left’ ‘anti-racism’ curriculum found in classrooms as early as kindergarten: watchdog
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
EXCLUSIVE: As the liberal activist organization Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) faces federal fraud charges, an education watchdog warns that the group continues to integrate its «far-left content and materials» into classrooms as early as kindergarten in more than 40 states across the U.S.
Nicole Neily, president of Defending Education, which was once labeled an «extremist» group by SPLC, told Fox News Digital that «unbeknownst to parents, the Southern Poverty Law Center has been poisoning pupils’ minds around the country for years with its toxic curriculum.»
Defending Education published a new exposé detailing how an SPLC education program called «Learning for Justice» (formerly «Teaching Tolerance») has been integrated into K-12 lesson plans and materials in 169 school districts in 42 states, plus Washington, D.C. According to the watchdog, the program reinforces «far-left cultural and political ideologies,» including «anti-racism, Black Lives Matter, gender ideology and queer theory, white privilege, white supremacy, whiteness, and transgenderism.»
Neily said that due to SPLC’s integration in schools, «issues such as queer theory, white privilege, and anti-racism have supplanted traditional coursework in history, social studies, and other core classes,» which she said is «teaching children to view themselves and others through the lens of identity politics, and that America is forever stained by its original sin.»
CRITICS SAY K-12 ETHNIC STUDIES PUSH TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT CISHETERONORMATIVITY, BLACK PANTHER PARTY
Angry parents and community members protest after a Loudoun County School Board over critical race theory. (Evelyn Hockstein via Reuters)
According to Neily, the materials «intentionally sow division and mistrust between students at a formative stage of their development,» adding that «it is deeply disappointing that administrators and educators believe this is an appropriate use of finite classroom time and resources.»
The SPLC did not respond to requests for comment on Defending Education’s report.
The report reveals that SPLC’s website and documents can be found on school district webpages, in teacher professional development and trainings, classroom lessons, district-wide curricula, Social Emotional Learning, social justice standards, and district antiracism and equity policies and resources.
SPLC’s Learning for Justice program, which the report says is focused on «education for liberation,» encourages the implementation of a set of anchor standards and «age-appropriate learning outcomes» divided into the domains of identity, diversity, justice and action.
Under the action category, students are encouraged to commit to join with «diverse people to plan and carry out collective action against exclusion, prejudice and discrimination» and to be «thoughtful and creative in our actions in order to achieve our goals.»
Defending Education said the New York State Education Department added «equity revisions» to its NY Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks that aligned the benchmarks with SPLC’s social justice standards.
The report also notes that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian lists Learning for Justice as a recommended resource in certain lesson materials. It further points to guidance and curriculum resources from the California Department of Education and Illinois State Board of Education, as well as Chicago Public Schools, that include or reference the standards.
CHICAGO SCHOOLS BLASTED BY PARENTS’ RIGHTS WATCHDOG OVER ‘APPALLING’ LGBT AGENDA REVEALED IN UNEARTHED DOCS
Opponents of Critical Race Theory attend a packed Loudoun County School board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia, on June 22, 2021, which erupted into chaos and led to two detentions. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
According to the report, Learning for Justice materials are also incorporated into curriculum and lesson plans for younger students in several districts. The report cites examples, including Cambridge Public Schools in Massachusetts, integrating the Social Justice Standards into junior kindergarten through fifth-grade physical education, and Yonkers Public Schools in New York, using the standards in pre-kindergarten project-based learning units. It also points to Princeton Public Schools in New Jersey updating its early childhood curriculum using the framework.
Rhyen Staley, director of research at Defending Education, posited that the «amount of influence the SPLC’s programming and content has had on district policies, learning standards, curriculums, and lessons is a real concern for families who value a bias-free learning environment.»
«No organization that labels concerned parents as ‘extremists’ and members of ‘hate groups’ should have its biased content used in K-12 schools,» said Staley, adding that «district leaders should end the use of this organization’s materials and ideas.»
SPLC, an Alabama-based organization that describes itself as a «beacon of hope» for «fighting White supremacy,» was indicted late last month on federal fraud charges from a years-long alleged covert paid informant program that Justice Department officials said allocated millions of dollars in donations to a network of informants affiliated with or closely tied to White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.
The 11-count indictment accuses the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealed money laundering. According to the Justice Department, the SPLC sent some $3 million to its paid informants between 2014 and 2023, including people affiliated with the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America and the Aryan Nations-linked Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, among others.
NEO-NAZIS, ‘SADISTIC’ BIKERS AND CHARLOTTESVILLE ORGANIZER: 5 OF THE MOST SHOCKING SPLC INFORMANTS
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, left, and SPLC interim President and CEO Bryan Fair are shown in a split image as the Justice Department pursues charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images; USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
SPLC has denied all allegations of wrongdoing, with a spokesperson defending its work monitoring White supremacist groups and other violent extremist organizations — including via the paid informant program — telling Fox News Digital that their use has «saved lives.»
Fox News Digital reached out to the New York State Education Department, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, California Department of Education, Illinois State Board of Education, Chicago Public Schools, Cambridge Public Schools, Yonkers Public Schools and Princeton Public Schools for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Preston Mizell contributed to this report.
woke, curriculum, education, controversies education, dei
INTERNACIONAL
La crisis terminal de Cuba, la isla que se apaga: cortes de luz, falta de comida y basura en cada esquina
Llegamos a Cuba con el pretexto de hacer un viaje turístico. El tiempo para esta cobertura será de una semana exacta, buscando contar y documentar la crisis energética, social y económica que vive el país que vuelve a estar en los titulares de los medios del mundo. Nos recibe la desolación: una población para la cual vivir hoy es subsistir. Caminar kilómetros para buscar lo que queda en las bodegas, donde acceden a lo que les corresponde según la libreta, y luego comprar lo que puedan en algún negocio de la capital para completar, en muchos casos, apenas una comida al día.
La Habana nos recibe casi sin turismo, opacada por la suciedad y el abandono. La vieja gloria de la ciudad hoy se desmorona lentamente. Las fachadas de los solares se descascaran. De a ratos, parece la postal de un país en guerra: edificios derruidos y otros directamente reducidos a escombros. Familias que viven con el temor de ser víctimas de otro derrumbe. Otras que padecen la escasez de medicamentos, y otras que simplemente buscan planear la salida.
“¿Cómo está la situación en Cuba?”, le preguntamos a un hombre que nos invita a pasar a su casa. “De difícil a imposible en ese tramo”, indica con las manos. Nos cuenta que vive de alquilar un pequeño cuarto y que en su misma casa también vive con sus padres: su papá, de 88 años y su mamá de 76. “Ahora mismo es imposible vivir en Cuba. Imposible. Mira las calles cómo están. Todo se está cayendo, todo se está derrumbando. Todas esas epidemias, producto de todas esas cochinadas que hay en las calles. No hay medicamentos en los hospitales. Mi padre peleó por esto”.
“¿Y sigue siendo revolucionario?“, le repreguntamos. Nos dice que no con su gesto.
Documental completo: Cuba, la isla que se apaga
La incertidumbre es total. Cuando llegamos a la isla, a fines de marzo, no ingresaba petróleo desde hacía tres meses. Mientras Donald Trump repite la frase “Cuba is next” y empieza a especularse sobre cuál puede ser el destino del castrismo, los cubanos sobreviven con hambre de todo tipo. En especial, con hambre de cambio y libertad. Así lo resume una mujer de 66 años que convive hace cinco con un dolor en la rodilla producto de una caída. “Que cambie todo esto y que podamos estar como las personas”, dice ante nuestra cámara, antes de quebrarse.
Hoy, en Cuba, se habla de alumbrones, más que de apagones, dada la extensión en el tiempo que suelen tener los cortes de energía. Eso hizo que volviera ese término acuñado en el llamado Período Especial, una de las mayores crisis en la historia de la isla. “¿Hace cuánto no tienen luz?”, le preguntamos a una mujer que estaba sentada en una vereda, en medio de un apagón. “Desde las seis de la tarde”, dice. “¿Y cuántos días estuvieron así con cortes?”, repreguntamos. “¿Cuántos días? Es todos los días, mami”, contesta la señora.
La crisis energética afecta el funcionamiento de lo más básico, desde el sistema de salud, hasta la conservación de alimentos. “Vea cuántas horas nos metemos sin luz. Estamos a expensas de que nos la quiten a las seis de la tarde y no la ponen más hasta las seis de la mañana… La comida ya hay que comprarla hoy en día en Cuba a diario, para que no se eche a perder. Un paquete de picadillo (carne picada). Porque si tú compras un paquete de pollo, que está carísimo -casi es un salario hoy en día-, se echa a perder”, cuenta un hombre que se define como “un comunista más, pero diciendo la verdad”.
Los cortes de luz diarios alteraron por completo la rutina en Cuba: familias enteras pasan horas a oscuras en medio del calor y la escasez. (Foto: Juan Pablo Cháves).
Además de los recurrentes cortes de luz, muchas casas tampoco tienen agua. Circulan, a diario, camiones cisterna a los que la gente se acerca para cargar baldes y bidones. El transporte público es casi inexistente y las motos eléctricas, que funcionan con baterías recargables, y las bicicletas que empujan carros metálicos que trasladan hasta dos personas se convirtieron en los protagonistas de la calle.
Si bien todo el país está en estado crítico, lo que pasa en el sistema de salud y con el acceso a los medicamentos, es especialmente grave. Entramos a una farmacia en La Habana y lo comprobamos a simple vista. Los estantes vacíos ya indican que el panorama es desolador. Nos atiende una mujer afónica que nos confirma lo que la imagen del lugar revela por sí sola. Prácticamente, no hay nada. “Mira cómo estoy yo”, dice con una sonrisa.
A todas las adversidades, se suma el desplome del motor central de la economía cubana: el turismo. Hoteles cerrados y restaurantes vacíos son ahora el paisaje habitual de La Habana y los principales polos turísticos.
Recorrer los barrios de la capital por las noches es circular de a ratos por una ciudad fantasma, abandonada. Solo ofrece alivio la postal de alguna casa o comercio con generador o las voces de vecinos conversando y las risas de los chicos en la vereda. Todos esperando que el tiempo pase y se lleve con él la oscuridad que hoy lo inunda todo.
La Revolución impone sus símbolos, pero la realidad impone sus verdades. Cuba se está apagando. Y ya no hay relato que la engañe.
Esta es la historia de un país que se derrumba.
Pero también es la historia de un pueblo en busca de la esperanza y la dignidad perdidas.
Aura, cuba
INTERNACIONAL
Fragile relationship with House GOP has Senate Republicans warning ‘something needs to change’
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Senate Republicans are taking stock of their relationship with the House GOP as they gear up for another key test of their unity across chambers.
Dysfunction, miscommunications and wasted time have dotted the last few months of Republicans’ control of Congress, particularly during the longest government shutdown on record.
Republicans in the upper chamber aren’t singling out others in the House who should bear responsibility, but they do agree that something needs to change as they plow forward to fund immigration operations for the next few years.
TRUMP SAYS HE ‘CAN’T STAND’ SOME REPUBLICANS FOR REFUSING ONE KEY MOVE FOR HIS AGENDA
Senate Republicans have grown frustrated with their counterparts in the House over the sluggish pace of legislation. Some argue it’s a communication breakdown among leadership, others put the blame on just how different the two chambers are. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
«I think we all need to get in a room and figure out what’s our plan,» Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital. «And how are we going to get things done for the American people? That has to be the goal, and right now something needs to change.»
Republicans are readying to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the next three and a half years through budget reconciliation, which will require near-perfect unanimity in both chambers to work, given that Democrats are getting cut out of the process.
But divisions between the chambers were laid bare during the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, when House Republicans, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., refused to consider the Senate’s compromise plan to reopen the agency.
That decision prolonged the shutdown for nearly a month, and spurred the necessity to turn to reconciliation. It also fostered frustration between the Senate and House at a time when leadership and President Donald Trump are calling for unity.
JOHNSON SCRAMBLES AS TRUMP, SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESSURE HOUSE TO FUND DHS
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., attends a Senate hearing in the U.S. Capitol. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Both Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., have thin majorities to work with — Johnson more so than Thune. That reality isn’t something that’s lost on Senate Republicans, particularly on legislation that Democrats won’t support, and is so far preventing the knives from coming out in the upper chamber.
«I mean, I think we understand the challenges that Mike has over there. He’s not king. He’s the speaker of the House,» Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital. »And their margin of error is less than ours, proportionately. So I can’t imagine. I think he’s doing the very best he can.»
Some Republicans argue that it’s more of a communication issue between the chambers than unfettered dysfunction in the House.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital he didn’t buy the «whole House’s dysfunction» argument, and instead said it was incumbent on senators to make more of an effort.
«I think we have to take a little bit of ownership ourselves here in the Senate, and that’s certainly not [just] the leadership, but all of us,» Moreno said. «Because when we’re working on bills, we should have total, complete synchronicity with the House.»
‘SHIRTS AND SKINS’: HOW ONE REPUBLICAN BRIDGED THE GAP TO PASS TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters after voting at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2026. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
House Republicans, for example, contended that they were blindsided by the Senate deal to reopen the bulk of DHS earlier this year that carved out funding for ICE and Border Patrol.
«We’ve got to be able to make sure we’re communicating better and working through the issues,» Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital. «The House isn’t our enemy. We gotta be able to resolve all the issues on a piece of legislation. We have differences of opinion. OK, let’s work them out.»
The issue of communication is one that, since Republicans took control of both chambers last year, was largely handled by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the former GOP senator who acted as a de facto liaison between both chambers for major legislative pushes.
When asked if Republicans needed a Mullin 2.0, Lankford said that the main points of communication fell on Thune and Johnson.
And Thune has not been quick to criticize Johnson or House Republicans publicly and noted that the nature of both chambers and how they operate would lead to issues along the way.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
«We obviously have a 60-vote threshold,» Thune said. »We need Democrats. You know, he doesn’t need Democrats, but he needs every Republican, and that’s a real challenge on a good day. And, you know, sometimes there aren’t a lot of good days around here.»
Conversely, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., argued that despite the issues, if Democrats were in control of the chambers, Americans would have been hit with the largest tax hike in decades had Republicans not mustered a unified front to pass Trump’s «big, beautiful bill.»
«All of that would have been in the opposite if the Democrats had been in the majority and been able to do what they wanted to do to raise taxes,» Barrasso told Fox News Digital.
politics, mike johnson, congress, john thune, republicans, senate elections
Walter Sabatini, impulsor de Luis Enrique: ‘Sabía que con Totti se cavaba su propia tumba, cometió un pecado capital, pero no traicionó sus ideales’
El Gobierno relativiza la ofensiva de la oposición contra Adorni en Diputados y cree que no habrá quórum
Nati Jota rompió el silencio tras el tenso cruce con Estanislao Bachrach en Olga: “No me sentí respetada”
EXCLUSIVE: SPLC’s ‘far-left’ ‘anti-racism’ curriculum found in classrooms as early as kindergarten: watchdog
Cuánto cobran los docentes universitarios en mayo 2026 y cuál fue la pérdida desde noviembre 2023
La Cámara Federal porteña le asignó a la jueza Capuchetti todas las causas por los créditos del Banco Nación
«Una luz en el cielo»: el Pentágono publica nuevos archivos sobre ovnis y afirma que el público puede sacar sus propias conclusiones
Jack Smith escalates Trump DOJ clash with blistering private-event rebuke
El dólar subió en la primera semana de mayo y se acercó a los 1.400 pesos
Los audios y los chats por el SIRA entre los involucrados en la causa: “A mí me cobran más o menos un 11 o un 12%”
POLITICA2 días ago¡BOMBAZO POLÍTICO! Martín Tetaz revela las pruebas del oscuro financiamiento de las SIRA: ¿Massa financió el inicio de Milei?
- SOCIEDAD2 días ago
ALERTA ROJA POR HANTAVIRUS: ¿La nueva amenaza global? Por qué su incubación de 40 días podría superar el alcance del COVID-19
- ECONOMIA2 días ago
Las ventas minoristas del sector pyme cayeron 3,2% interanual en abril
