Politics and views in the United States

A Texas special election is a 'wake up call' for the GOP. North Carolina students want a campus early voting site back and Maryland Democrats debate redistricting ahead of finalizing midterm maps.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

You can either put your head in the sand as a Republican or as a MAGA loyalist and say, "That's a one-off."

And a lot of times I'm one of those people.

This time, if you don't get the message, enjoy Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.

Sean Spicer, press secretary during Donald Trump's first term, is sounding the alarm for the GOP over a Texas special election.

Democrates won a Fort Worth State Senate seat for the first time in decades after the district swung more than 30 points to the left.

It's the latest in a series of off-year elections where the GOP underperformed, seemingly dragged down by affordability issues, increasingly unpopular immigration enforcement, and other issues.

Trump endorsed the Republican, but distanced himself from the loss by saying it was because he wasn't "on the ballot."

North Carolina's largest historically black college was stripped of its early voting location for next month's primary. officials cited low voter turnout, but students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University are backing a statewide lawsuit to get the poll location back.

Shia Razier with the student group Protect Ours says there's a clear pattern to what the state's 100 county election boards have done since being mostly taken over by Republicans.

When we look at the demographics in which they're targeting and that are consistently losing more absentee polls, it's young students, it's minorities.

So there's a commonality where it's really disenfranchisement of young and minority voters.

According to the New York Times, the director of national intelligence put FBI agents on the phone with Trump during a search of a Georgia election center last week.

The presence of Tulsi Gabbard while agents confiscated hundreds of boxes of ballots itself raised eyebrows.

Now the paper reports the president was speaking directly with officials at a site key to his false claims of election fraud.

Maryland state lawmakers are debating a redistricting effort just ahead of the deadline to put the maps in place for the midterms.

The legislature is divided, but supporters say another Democrat in Congress could fight for the tens of thousands of Maryland federal workers at risk since Trump returned to office.

Isola Shaw is a former federal employee and a member of the Rockville City Council.

We want to make sure that we can use redistricting as a tool to protect our workforce and protect our communities and protect our families from the job losses from the Trump administration.

But Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson argues Democrats are poised to win big in November and redistricting could put the results there under a legal cloud.

The House Rules Committee is set to consider a budget to end the government shutdown.

The bill, which Trump has lobbied for, is expected to go to the floor for a vote this week.

Democratic lawmakers have negotiated more regulations concerning the conduct of ICE agents.

Technology giant Meta says it's pouring $65 million into SuperPACs to support candidates friendly to AI and the California tech industry.

Federal AI legislation has stalled, putting the focus on state legislatures.

California is also considering a tax on the ultra-wealthy, which is opposed by several tech billionaires.

I'm Zamone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.