Axios

The FBI searched the Portsmouth office of Virginia Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas on Wednesday.

Why it matters: The raid puts one of the state's most powerful lawmakers — who emerged nationally as a Democratic power broker during Virginia's redistricting fight — at the center of a federal investigation.

Tennessee Republicans released a gerrymandered U.S. House map on Wednesday that would carve up the Black-majority Democratic district in Memphis.

Why it matters: The GOP wants to eliminate the state's only blue congressional district to secure a 9-0 sweep of all of the state's U.S. House seats.

President Trump's own voters overwhelmingly rejected his social media post depicting himself as Jesus — a rare break in today's tribal politics, a new poll finds.

Why it matters: The backlash underscores limits to how far culture-war politics can stretch inside his own coalition.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his MAHA movement are out for payback, setting their sights on unseating a fierce adversary — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy — in next week's Louisiana primary.

Why it matters: Kennedy and his supporters view the physician-turned-senator as an avatar for the medical establishment they're determined to upend.

Physical assaults against Jewish people in the U.S. last year reached the highest levels since 1979, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) announced Wednesday.

Why it matters: An overall decline in anti-Jewish harassment and vandalism didn't extend to a reduction in violence.

President Trump exacted retribution Tuesday on a group of Indiana Republican state legislators who blocked his push to redraw the state's congressional map.

• Trump's political operation targeted eight GOP state senators for defeat in their primaries.
• By late Tuesday, six of those legislators were defeated, one survived and one was locked in a race that was too close to call.

Why it matters: The outcome represented a major win for Trump's political team, which is aggressively going after Republicans who defy the president.

Senate Democrats are salivating at the chance to force every Republican to vote on $1 billion for security upgrades tied to President Trump's new White House ballroom.

Why it matters: A billion-dollar, Trump-branded gilded ballroom — which the president insisted would be privately funded — is the kind of affordability contrast Democrats have dreamed about for the 2026 midterms.

A Republican proposal to spend $1 billion on security measures for the White House ballroom President Trump is building sent House Democrats into a frenzy on Tuesday.

Why it matters: To many lawmakers, it's a grim display of how far Republicans have gone in subordinating Congress' prerogatives to the executive branch.

President Trump said Tuesday he's suspending the new U.S. military operation in the Strait of Hormuz due to progress in the negotiations with Iran on an agreement to end the war.

Why it matters: The operation to "guide" ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which was launched Monday, led to an exchange of fire between the U.S. and Iran and to Iranian missile attacks on the United Arab Emirates for the first time since the ceasefire was announced a month ago.

Louisiana lawmakers are set to begin work on a new congressional map Friday, per the Louisiana Illuminator.

Why it matters: The redrawn map will likely cut the number of majority-Black U.S. House districts in the state, putting either Troy Carter or Cleo Fields at risk of losing their seats.