President Trump extracted two "yes" votes from a pair of GOP holdouts tonight, bringing House Speaker Mike Johnson closer to ushering a spending bill to the floor and ending the government shutdown.

• Why it matters: After meeting with Trump at the White House, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) returned to the House to say they're leaning toward voting "yes" on the "rule" to allow the funding bills to come to the floor.

🤝 In exchange, they said they received a promise that the Senate would vote on the SAVE Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

• "There is something called a standing filibuster that would effectively allow [Senate Majority Leader John Thune] to put voter ID on the floor of the Senate," Luna said. "We are hearing that that is going well, and that he is considering that."
• "We want to vote on voter ID in the Senate, and I think we're going to get it."
• Johnson said tonight he thinks Republicans have the votes to pass a rule tomorrow, Politico reports.

What we're watching: For Trump and Johnson, there's more work to do, but some conservatives are already folding.

• Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) announced during a Rules Committee hearing today that he will "reluctantly" vote yes.

📞 And Trump is working the phones.

• "He's making individual calls, and he's all in," Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters.
• "I'm just told by the White House that they're working really hard to get the Republicans in the right place. And when they work hard, they tend to be successful."

📱 Trump's private pressure campaign mirrors his public calls to pass the Senate bill.

• "There can be NO changes at this time," Trump posted on Truth Social today, urging House Republicans and Democrats to support the package.
• "We all want the SAVE Act, but we have to look at the reality of the numbers here," Johnson told reporters today. "I don't think we need to be playing games with government funding."

Zoom out: Johnson is heading into yet another test of his speakership.

• His margins got even slimmer today when he swore in Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Texas), who won a special election Saturday. Now, the speaker only has a one-vote cushion.

Zoom in: Johnson's headaches won't end after tomorrow's rule vote.

• Freedom Caucus members want a seat at the negotiating table for the full-year DHS appropriations bill.
• Conservatives are rejecting ICE reforms that Democrats are pushing and want their own priorities included.
• That could pose a problem over the next two weeks as Congress scrambles to pass a full-year bill.

The bottom line: Yet again, Trump is whipping for votes, calling members and pressing for their votes.

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— Hans Nichols and Kate Santaliz

National Republicans are seizing on a disastrous Texas state election to prevent a much bigger one they fear in the U.S. Senate.

• "Texas cannot afford to be a gamble," the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) told donors in a memo sent out today.

Why it matters: Trump is giving "a serious look" at endorsing in the primary, he said over the weekend.

• He has sat on the sidelines while Sen. John Cornyn fights for survival against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Zoom in: The memo reiterates the committee's support for Cornyn as "the only Republican candidate" who can "reliably win a general election matchup" against a Democrat.

• It outlines NRSC polling data that shows Cornyn polling better than his primary rivals against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
• If no primary candidate gets a majority of the vote, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.
• NRSC Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) plans to brief senators on polling numbers tomorrow, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The other side: Paxton senior adviser Nick Maddux shrugged off the idea Paxton would be weak in a general election, noting he comfortably won reelection as attorney general by 10 percentage points in 2022 despite facing millions in attack ads.

— Alex Isenstadt

A new $2 million ad campaign targeting Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) over ICE funding is one of the Democratic Party's biggest investments in the 2026 midterms.

Why it matters: By the end of the cycle, it will seem small.

• The top Democratic and Republican campaign committees raised over a combined $1 billion last year.
• That money will be concentrated in roughly half-a-dozen Senate races and a House battleground that is historically small.
• The $2 million campaign targeting Collins that we first reported today was paid for by a 501(c)(4) connected to the Senate Majority PAC, which is affiliated with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The bottom line: Maine, with a population of around 1.5 million, is on track to become this election cycle's most expensive state per capita, seizing the mantle claimed by Montana in the last cycle.

— Stephen Neukam and Hans Nichols