Months ago, when President Donald Trump urged Texas to redraw its congressional maps in a manner that — he said — would hand Republicans an additional five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, he launched what has become a sweeping mid-decade redistricting push spanning more than a dozen red and blue states.

Trump has pressed additional GOP-led states to join Texas in mid-decennial redistricting — a rare exercise given that congressional districts, per the U.S. Constitution, are reapportioned based on each decade’s census. But now, some Republicans are expressing anxiety over this all-out effort.

“Worried Republicans say basing redistricting on the 2024 election is a sizable leap,” The Washington Post reported, “both because Trump’s coalition has not shown a willingness to show up when he isn’t on the ballot and polls show Trump is hemorrhaging support from key groups in his unique coalition.”

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Republican operative Annalyse Keller told Meet the Press Now, “I am not confident that that Trump coalition in a midterm election is going to stay with Republicans.”

“There might be a chance that some of this backfires,” Keller added.

Trump’s poll numbers are at their lowest of his second term, and Democrats in some races have shown they are outperforming 2024 election numbers. The electorate is changing, and some groups that moved over to Trump in 2024 have already begun backing away in 2025.

“At the heart of these concerns are Latino voters, who are central to the Texas redistricting plan and were expected to be key to whatever Republicans decide to do in Florida,” the Post reported. “Trump made inroads with Latino voters in 2024, especially with Latino men, which helped propel him to victory in key battleground states. But Trump’s standing with Latino voters has fallen off a cliff in recent months.”

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The Post cited a November Pew Research Center survey that “found 70 percent of Latinos ‘disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president,’ and 61 percent said ‘Trump’s economic policies have made economic conditions worse,’ a notable finding because the economy was a primary reason 43 percent of Latino voters backed Trump in 2024.”

Pollster and former advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, Matt A. Barreto, told the Post: “So if someone is redistricting and they are trying to draw Republican performances based on Trump-Harris characteristics, they are going to be wrong in 2026, because 2025 has already shown us this.”

Redrawing congressional maps in an effort to pick up GOP seats can make solid Republican districts more competitive.

Indeed, the Post reported that “Republicans are moving Republican support from GOP-friendly districts to make these new districts lean more toward the GOP, effectively making former stronghold districts more competitive — the opposite, say these Republicans, of what a party should do ahead of an election that is expected to go against them.”

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Image via Reuters 

U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) is accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of pepper-spraying her in her face while she was at a local Tucson, Arizona restaurant.

Rep. Grijalva in a video on social media said she saw about 40 mostly-masked ICE agents at a restaurant she frequents weekly.

The agents were “in several vehicles that the community had stopped right here, right in the middle of the street, because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice.”

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She said that the community was “protecting their people” when she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent,” and “pushed around by others when I literally was not being aggressive.”

“I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,” she continued. “So, once I introduced myself, once I did, I assumed that it would be a little calmer, but there was literally only one person that was trying to speak to me in any kind of civil tone, and everyone else was being rude and disrespectful, and I just can only imagine if they’re going to treat me like that, how they’re treating everybody else.”

Congresswoman Grijalva said she saw “people directly sprayed,” including “members of our press” and staff members.

She blasted President Donald Trump, saying that he “has no regard for any due process, the rule of law, the Constitution — they’re literally disappearing people from the streets.”

Critics slammed the agents’ action.

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U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) wrote that Rep. Grijalva “was doing her job, standing up for her community.”

“Pepper-spraying a sitting member of Congress is disgraceful, unacceptable, and absolutely not what we voted for. Period,” he added.

“This is unacceptable and outrageous,” observed Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. “Enforcing the rule [of] law does not mean pepper spraying a member of Congress for simply asking questions. Effective law enforcement requires restraint and accountability, not unchecked aggression.”

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein noted, “quite the beginning for Grijalva, who wasn’t seated for weeks, [cast] the decisive vote to get the Epstein files, and now has apparently been pepper sprayed in the face by immigration agents.”

Also calling the action “outrageous,” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote: “We are Members of Congress with oversight authority of ICE. Rep Grijalva was completely within her rights to stand up for her constituents. ICE is completely lawless.”

“First they tackle a sitting Senator,” noted U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). “Now they’re pepper spraying a Representative. It’s clear ICE is spinning out of control. We will hold the agency accountable.”

ICE just conducted a raid by Taco Giro in Tucson – a small mom-and-pop restaurant that has served our community for years.

When I presented myself as a Member of Congress asking for more information, I was pushed-aside and pepper sprayed. pic.twitter.com/gPx0p3IXP2

— Rep. Adelita Grijalva (@Rep_Grijalva) December 5, 2025

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Image via Reuters 

A well-known conservative commentator has a warning for the Republican Party: take action now or face a repeat of the 2018 midterms when the GOP lost 41 House seats in a landslide. And this time, he says, the Senate could go to the Democrats as well.

Award-winning writer and journalist Bernard Goldberg reminded readers at The Hill that in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, “Republicans got walloped … and a good chunk of that had President Trump’s name written all over it.”

Trump’s “approval ratings were in the low 40s, and independents — the folks who usually decide elections — had seen enough. They broke hard for the Democrats,” Goldberg noted. “Now here we are, staring down 2026, and you can almost hear history clearing its throat, getting ready to repeat itself.”

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Goldberg noted that Trump’s approval rating is currently the lowest it’s been this term.

“Among Republicans, his support dropped from 91 percent right after the 2024 election to 84 percent last month. Among independents, it cratered — from 42 percent to just 25 percent.”

“If the trend continues,” he warned, “Republicans could be headed for another blue wave — and this time, it could wash away not just the House majority, but control of the Senate too.”

Why?

“It’s the economy — still,” he wrote.

“Trump is out there saying the economy is humming. Biden said the same thing before him. But voters didn’t buy it then, and they’re not buying it now. Why? Because it’s not GDP numbers that matter. It’s affordability,” Goldberg noted.

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That’s a word that President Trump continues to call a “con job,” while his own administration tries to claim he is focused on.

He pointed to a Karl Rove Wall Street Journal column and wrote: “The Republicans may have ‘avoided disaster’ in Tennessee, but the result should be a wake-up call for Republicans. He’s right.”

Goldberg asked: “will anyone in the Republican Party actually pick up the phone?”

“Because if Republicans don’t wake up — and fast — they’re going to find out the hard way what happens when you keep rerunning the same movie and expecting a different ending. To lose in 2026, all they have to do is nothing. And right now, that’s pretty much what they’re doing.”

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