President Donald Trump says he’ll be “watching closely” as lawmakers in the Republican-dominated South Carolina legislature on Tuesday begin redrawing their state’s congressional district map to erase the only Democrat-dominated U.S. House seat.

At the same time, Republican officials in solidly red Alabama are moving forward with a redrawn congressional map that would likely eliminate one of the state’s two Democratic-held U.S. House seats in time for this autumn’s midterm elections, when the GOP will be defending its razor-thin congressional majority.

This week’s moves in Alabama and South Carolina, along with similar efforts in Louisiana and Tennessee, come two weeks after a ruling by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court to slash a key Voting Rights Act protection.

And they’re giving Trump and the GOP a major boost in their ongoing political fight with Democrats to redraw congressional district maps ahead of the midterms. At stake in this nationwide redistricting showdown is which party will control the House during the final two years of Trump’s second term in the White House.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

In South Carolina, the state Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to agree with the state House to take up rare but not unheard of mid-decade redistricting. State lawmakers would also need to push back South Carolina’s U.S. House primaries from early next month to August. Early voting in the state’s primary is scheduled to kick off in two weeks.

South Carolina Republicans are likely to advance a new map that could put longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat in the state’s seven-person House delegation, out of a job.

Clyburn this past week remained optimistic he can still win re-election.

“I don’t know why people think I could not get re-elected if they redistrict South Carolina,” Clyburn said in a CNN interview. “I have a district that’s about 45 percent African-American. I have no idea what the number will be after the legislature finishes, but whatever that number is, I will be running on my record and America’s promise.”

Trump, in a social media post Monday night, urged “South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS.”

“Move the U.S. House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE!” he added.

Trump’s message comes a week after five Indiana Republican state senators who in December helped sink congressional redistricting in the solidly red Midwestern state were ousted by Trump-backed challengers in GOP primaries.

WHAT’S ON THE LINE AS THESE STATES HOLD PRIMARIES TODAY

It’s back to the future in Alabama, after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ideological ruling, cleared the way for the state to put in place a map Republicans drew up in 2023 that had been blocked by lower courts. The map would eliminate one of the state’s two blue-leaning congressional seats.

The Supreme Court’s decision two weeks ago reshaped the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act by ruling that race should not dictate the redrawing of legislative district maps. And the opinion specifically ruled that Louisiana’s congressional district map was unconstitutional.

Last week, the Supreme Court said that its decision declaring Louisiana’s map unconstitutional should go into effect immediately, breaking with its usual procedure of waiting roughly a month before its opinions become official.

That cleared the way for the GOP-controlled state legislature to begin the process of reshaping the map, and hearings got underway on Friday.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a top Trump ally, took swift action in the immediate aftermath of the high court’s ruling, when he delayed the May 16 U.S. House primary elections in Louisiana.

Louisiana Republicans are aiming to erase one or both of the two Black-majority House seats, which are represented by Democrats.

TENN GOV LEE CALLS SPECIAL SESSION TO REDRAW HOUSE MAP IN GOP’S FAVOR 9-0

Republicans in Tennessee moved even faster.

The GOP-dominated Tennessee legislature on Thursday quickly adopted a new map that would eliminate the only Democrat-controlled congressional district in the state, and would likely give Republicans control of all nine districts.

GOP Gov. Bill Lee quickly signed the new maps into law.

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents the majority Black district that’s being carved up, vowed legal action.

“Trump knows he HAS TO rig the game to keep his majority in November. And the TN GOP was willing to go along with it. It’s shameful,” Cohen wrote on social media. “Next stop is the courts.”

Trump praised Tennessee Republicans in his social media post and urged GOP lawmakers in South Carolina to act “just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week.”

BLOCKBUSTER SUPREME COURT VOTING RIGHTS RULING IGNITES REDISTRICTING WAR ACROSS SOUTHERN STATES

In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last week signed a bill by the GOP-dominated state legislature that overhauls the red-leaning state’s congressional districts, adding four more right-leaning seats by eliminating districts currently controlled by Democrats.

Republicans currently control Florida’s U.S. House delegation by a 20-8 margin.

Democrats are fighting back.

On Monday, Democrats filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to halt a Virginia state Supreme Court ruling invalidating a ballot measure that would have given their party an additional four left-leaning U.S. House seats.

Last week’s ruling in Virginia means the map used in the 2024 elections will stay in place for the 2026 ballot box showdowns. Democrats currently control the state’s U.S. House delegation by a 6-5 margin. The now overturned map could have resulted in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in the blue-leaning but competitive state.

How we got here

The battle over the maps ignited last spring when Trump, aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, 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.

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 led to five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

But the fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, drew new maps as part of the president’s push.

But 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.

And as mentioned, Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.

Newly declassified footage released by the Pentagon is fueling Americans’ belief that alien life exists, with attendees at an AI event telling Fox News Digital the videos add weight to long-held suspicions.

The release, part of President Donald Trump’s push to increase transparency around Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), includes never-before-seen clips and documents that have intensified public interest in such objects and renewed scrutiny over how much the government has kept hidden.

“I think the transparency is great — that we’re finally hearing information that they, obviously, have known for a while,” one respondent said.

Another told Fox News Digital: “I think if the government has any information about extraterrestrials and they have been holding it as a secret — I guess it’s about time they released it for the public to know about.”

UFO HEARING: EX-PENTAGON OFFICIAL SAYS GOVERNMENT ‘CABAL’ IS HIDING ‘THE FACT THAT WE ARE NOT ALONE’

The comments underscore a continued public interest in extraterrestrial life, UAPs and the newly revealed footage of such objects.

“I know there’s life on other planets,” one respondent said. “We just don’t disclose it.”

As part of Trump’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE), the administration on Friday released a trove of files and videos related to UAP sightings.

UFO EXPERT SAYS TRUMP’S DECLASSIFICATION COULD EXPOSE POSSIBLE ‘COVER-UP’ SPANNING DECADES

The clips depict various objects moving unnaturally in the air or through water and were taken from countries across the globe, including Iran, Iraq, Syria and Greece.

The documents reporting UFO and UAP sightings comes in compliance with a directive from Trump on increasing government transparency on reported sightings, all of which remain unsolved.

Tens of millions of documents are being combed through and will be released on a rolling basis.

UFO TRACKER MAPS EERIE CLUSTERS OF UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS LURKING BENEATH US SHORELINES: ‘WE’RE BEING LIED TO’

“While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files,” the White House said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Asked whether they thought the transparency would serve public interests, most respondents said they did.

“Yeah, I think it’s a good idea. And I hope that the world doesn’t go bonkers. And that’s why I think the information has to be slowly released for people because not everybody’s ready for it,” another commentator said.

UFO INVESTIGATOR WARNS TRUMP DISCLOSURE COULD HAND SENSITIVE MILITARY SECRETS TO CHINA, RUSSIA

At least one AI conference attendee said they were skeptical of the release, arguing it could cause panic.

“Horrible idea. We are pack thinkers, and once one of the pack goes, ‘oh, they’re coming to get us,’ we break out into a frenzy,” they said.

Still others believe that the weight of the topic merits as much transparency as possible.

“I think they ought to be absolutely transparent. We need to know what they have found, because I do not believe that we are the only ones in the universe,” another person said.

Fox News Digital’s Elaine Mallon contributed to this report.

The Senate will soon decide whether lawmakers should be paid during another government shutdown as the specter of more closures looms large. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., teed up a vote on a measure that would prevent senators from being paid during a government shutdown, a political option of last resort that has now become commonplace in the midst of President Donald Trump’s second term. 

The resolution from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., is straightforward: if there is another shutdown, he and his colleagues won’t get paid. It’s one of several resolutions and bills tossed around by lawmakers to find a way to stop shutdowns, or at least find a leverage point against them. 

KENNEDY PUSHES PLAN TO HALT CONGRESS PAY DURING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Thune quietly set up the resolution for a vote when the Senate returned on Monday as lawmakers gear up to fund immigration operations for the next three and a half years — a route they’re having to take as a result of the most recent shutdown.

When asked how he felt about his measure getting a shot, Kennedy said he pushed Thune to do it. 

“He did it, and I think he’s a fine American,” Kennedy said. 

Shutdowns have become a common tool over the last year and a half that Democrats have turned to as a negotiating counterpoint. In Trump’s second term alone, Congress has been on the precipice of a closure four times.

REPUBLICANS EYE ENDING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS FOREVER OVER FEARS DEMS WILL DO IT AGAIN

And those shutdown run-ins have yielded the longest full shutdown in history, and the longest partial closure ever. 

That reality, where Democrats are using a shutdown like a political cudgel in a way lawmakers have never seen, has some Republicans worried that they’ll do it again before the midterm elections in November. 

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats of being “legislative terrorists” who view political opportunity in forcing another closure.

DEMS’ DHS SHUTDOWN THREAT WOULD HIT FEMA, TSA WHILE IMMIGRATION FUNDING REMAINS INTACT

It could be over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) again, Schmitt said, or something else entirely. 

“It’ll be something else, and then we’ll just shut the whole thing down, and we should not, you know, let them do that,” Schmitt said. “So I think we ought to have some plans in place to account for that, to make it painful for them if they want to do that, because the American people suffer on it.”

Kennedy isn’t the only lawmaker trying to take the option off the table. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has been pushing his Shutdown Fairness Act, which would require that working federal workers are paid during a shutdown.

And Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., has his own legislation, the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, which would automatically fund the government for two-week stretches until Congress landed on a compromise funding deal.

“We need to pass it so we never have a moment like this again,” Lankford told Fox News Digital. “We will have disagreements. It’s America, but we should not have federal workers, programs that stop because we’re having a disagreement. Let’s have the fight. But let’s keep going.”

FIRST ON FOX — Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is unveiling a bill on Tuesday that would allow the death penalty as punishment for those who knowingly distribute fentanyl that results in death, according to a draft of the legislation first obtained by Fox News Digital.

Roy’s bill, the Deal Death, Face Death Act, demonstrates a continued focus among GOP lawmakers to crack down on narcotics distribution, even as fentanyl deaths have begun to trend downward in recent years.

“If a dealer distributes fentanyl or fentanyl-laced drugs and someone dies as a result, that dealer has effectively signed that person’s death warrant,” Roy said in a statement on the proposal.

DRUG DEALERS COULD BE CHARGED WITH MURDER UNDER NEW VIRGINIA FENTANYL PLAN

In 2024, nearly 48,400 Americans died due to fentanyl poisoning, according to findings from the National Center for Health Statistics — a 36% drop from levels in 2023.

Despite that progress, Roy believes capital punishment is key to bringing levels down further.

“Congress must stand with the families devastated by this crisis and send a clear message: if you deal death, you will face the full weight of justice,” the Texas Republican said in his statement to Fox News Digital.

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 currently caps penalties for distribution at life in prison.

Roy’s bill would raise the bar by amending that law, stating that “such person shall be sentenced, if death results from the use of such substance, to death.”

TRUMP ADMIN USES LUIGI MANGIONE CASE TO ‘SEND A MESSAGE’ IN FIRST 100 DAYS: FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR

Additionally, the bill doubles existing fines for fentanyl-related offenses, authorizing penalties of up to $2 million for individuals and $10 million for non-individual entities.

The bill is narrowly tailored to apply to fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances.

NARCO TRAFFICKERS ALLEGEDLY USING ANIMAL TRANQUILIZERS TO CREATE ‘SUPERCHARGED FENTANYL’

Although the bill does not make the death penalty the default punishment, Roy argued it would give prosecutors a new tool to pursue cases more aggressively — especially in instances where other drugs such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine are knowingly laced with fentanyl. In those cases, Roy’s office argued that current law acts as a shield to dealers who endanger unsuspecting buyers.

“[The act] closes a dangerous loophole and gives prosecutors the ability to pursue capital punishment against the worst offenders who are profiting off the deaths of Americans,” Roy said.

“Fentanyl is killing hundreds of Americans every single day and the people trafficking this poison should face the harshest penalties available,” he added.

FBI Director Kash Patel is again set to testify before the Senate, this time in defense of a budget increase for his agency amid scrutiny of his performance atop the nation’s federal law enforcement arm. 

Patel, along with the heads of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Marshals Service and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), is set to pitch lawmakers on President Donald Trump’s budget request for their agencies on Tuesday. 

Their agencies fall under the Department of Justice (DOJ), which, under Trump’s funding request this year, could receive a total of nearly $41 billion. 

ONCE TOUTED AS PRIVATELY FUNDED, REPUBLICANS SNEAK IN TAXPAYER CASH FOR TRUMP’S BALLROOM PROJECT

The FBI would receive the largest chunk of that funding request at $12 billion among the agencies set to testify before the Senate. The latest request is a roughly $2 billion increase from the previous year.

Patel’s testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies will be his first hearing in Congress since last September, when the FBI chief was grilled by Democrats for his leadership following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. 

He has faced a bevy of critical headlines since then, including criticism over the third assassination attempt against Trump last month and a recent report from The Atlantic that accused the FBI director of excessive drinking, erratic behavior and frequent absences, which Patel has vehemently denied.

FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL VOWS TO TAKE THE ATLANTIC TO COURT OVER ‘DEFAMATORY’ REPORT

Patel has since sued the outlet in a $250 million defamation lawsuit, in which he charged that the Atlantic’s reporting was “replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy” his reputation and push him out of his role.

Trump’s funding request for the agency comes after slashing FBI spending last year to the tune of about half a billion dollars. 

Patel at the time pushed back against the cuts, arguing before members of the House that the agency “cannot cover down on the mission at the levels that we would have to go to.” 

REPUBLICANS RUSH TO GREEN LIGHT WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM FOLLOWING THIRD TRUMP ASSASSINATION SCARE

He changed course before the Senate just days later and contended that he was “in full support of the president’s budget, which reprioritizes and enhances our mission of law enforcement and national security.”

The $12 billion requested by the administration would go toward expanding violent crime enforcement and arrests, strengthening counterterrorism operations, enhancing unmanned aerial systems (drones) capabilities, training state and local law enforcement and boosting security for major events, like the 2028 Olympics. 

DEA Administrator Terrance Cole will also pitch lawmakers on his agency’s budget increase, to the tune of $362 million, which would go toward hiring over 300 new agents, expanding drug trafficking intelligence systems and targeting major criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel, MS-13 and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

The Pentagon’s massive $1.5 trillion budget request will face its first test Tuesday as House lawmakers quiz Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth about the proposal in a high-stakes hearing. 

Democrats and some Republicans have raised concerns about the unprecedented size of the request, which would increase defense funding by nearly 50% from 2026 levels while making cuts to domestic spending. 

The Trump administration argues the jump in defense spending is necessary to counter threats from geopolitical adversaries and advance the president’s priorities, including replenishing weapons stockpiles and expanding the defense industrial base.

Hegseth is also expected to face questions on the administration’s military strategy toward Iran as peace talks remain stalled between Washington and Tehran. Trump said Monday that the ceasefire with Iran is “on life support” during a news conference in the Oval Office.

TRUMP CALLS FOR $1.5T DEFENSE BUDGET TO BUILD ‘DREAM MILITARY’

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst will testify alongside Hegseth at the House Appropriations Committee hearing.

The anticipated testimony follows back-to-back congressional hearings the trio participated in April, during which Hegseth repeatedly clashed with Democrats over the U.S. military campaign against Iran.

“The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless, and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” Hegseth told lawmakers.

Hurst testified to Congress in April that the Iran war has cost $25 billion so far, mostly for munitions, though multiple reports say the total could be far higher. The Department of War is expected to seek a defense supplemental request following the conclusion of the conflict, which could be much larger in scope.

“It’s shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “Because this president got our country into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline, and because of that, we’ve expended a lot of munitions, and that means the American people are less safe.”

Hegseth accused the Arizona Democrat of divulging classified information and pledged to have the Pentagon’s legal counsel review his remarks. 

“Did he violate his oath…again?” Hegseth wrote on social media, referring to his attempts to sanction Kelly, a Navy veteran, for advising troops to ignore illegal orders last year.

$1,300 COFFEE CUPS, 8,000% OVERPAY FOR SOAP DISPENSERS SHOW WASTE AS DOGE LOCKS IN ON PENTAGON

The Pentagon’s budget request is expected to face an uphill battle with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Democrats vowing to ensure it “never passes.” Any defense spending bill would require some Democratic votes to pass the Senate due to the upper chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster. 

Kelly has slammed the fiscal year 2027 budget request as “outrageous” and called on the administration to submit a new budget that “makes sense for the moment we’re in.”

“When I got to the Senate five and a half years ago, the defense budget was just over $700 billion,” Kelly told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “Now, they’re asking for twice as much money. It’s nearly the amount that the rest of the world pays for its defense.” 

The Pentagon’s request would allocate more than $65 billion for the Navy’s “Golden Fleet” initiative and nearly $20 billion for Trump’s Golden Dome air defense shield. The administration also proposes spending billions on the next-generation F-47 Air Force fighter jet and unmanned weapons systems.

On the non-defense side, the administration’s budget request would slash funding for the State Department and international programs by a third and the Environmental Protection Agency by 50%, among other agencies.

At least one pressure point that Hegseth faced over Ukraine in April is off the table.

The Pentagon chief announced in late April that the administration released $400 million in Ukraine money that Congress approved in 2025. Hegseth was grilled about the delay in transferring aid to the country during his appearance before the House Armed Services Committee in April. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of War for comment.

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

“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

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’

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. 

“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.

Tuesday is primary day in red-leaning Nebraska, where party showdowns for the House and Senate will tee up general election matchups in the battle for Congress.

Meanwhile, in GOP-dominated West Virginia, establishment Sen. Shelley Moore Capito faces five Republican primary challenges, but enjoys the backing of President Donald Trump.

And in New Jersey, Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, who grabbed national attention last year as he was arrested during an anti-ICE protest outside a federal immigration detention center, is facing seven challengers as he seeks a fourth term steering the Garden State’s largest city.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

Tuesday’s contests come with less than six months to go until the 2026 midterm elections, when Republicans aim to hold their razor-thin House and slim Senate majorities, and Democrats hope to ride a blue wave to escape the political wilderness.

Here’s a closer look at Tuesday’s ballot box showdowns.

Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, who was appointed in 2023 to replace Ben Sasse, and who won a 2024 special election to fill out the final two years of Sasse’s term, is running for a full six-year term. Ricketts faces four primary challengers on Tuesday, but is expected to capture his party’s nomination.

Ricketts is already eyeing the general election, when he’ll face off against independent candidate Dan Osborn, the industrial mechanic and military veteran who gave Republican Sen. Deb Fischer a scare in her 2024 re-election.

SIX MONTHS TILL MIDTERMS: THE TEN RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE’S MAJORITY

Even though the Nebraska Democratic Party supports Osborn in the general election, community college instructor Cindy Burbank and pastor Bill Forbes are running for the Democrats’ nomination in the primary.

Both candidates were last-minute filers, and some Nebraska Democratic leaders alleged that Forbes jumped into the race so that a Democrat would be on the fall ballot and siphon votes away from Osborn to help Ricketts.

Forbes has denied the claims.

Burbank says she jumped into the race to keep Forbes off the ballot in November.

In the gubernatorial primary, GOP Gov. Jim Pillen faces five nomination challengers. Former state Sen. Lynne Walz and perennial candidate Larry Marvin face off for the Democratic nomination.

The primary in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, an Omaha-based competitive seat, is grabbing national attention, in the race to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Don Bacon. The seat is a top target for Democrats as they try to retake the House.

Omaha City Councilmember Brinker Harding is unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Two major Democrats, state Sen. John Cavanaugh and Denise Powell, are vying for their party’s congressional nomination.

Nebraska is the only state in the nation, along with Maine, to split their electoral votes in presidential elections. And the electoral vote up for grabs in Nebraska’s 2nd District, known as the ‘blue dot,’ was carried by then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

Powell argues that if Cavanaugh wins the primary and then the general election, and steps down from his state Senate seat, GOP Gov. Pillen would replace him with a Republican, which could potentially lead to the GOP-dominated legislature scrapping the ‘blue dot’ and making Nebraska’s electoral votes winner-take-all.

Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey is not on the ballot in Tuesday’s primary, but the first-term governor’s clout in state politics is on the line, as the governor is targeting several GOP state lawmakers running for re-election.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate race, five Democrats are seeking their party’s nomination.

In Charleston, West Virginia‘s capital city, Democratic Mayor Amy Goodwin faces a primary challenge as she seeks a third term. Republican Brian Hunt is unopposed for the Republican nomination.

While Baraka is a Democrat, mayoral elections in Newark are technically nonpartisan.

If no candidate tops 50% of the vote, a runoff between Tuesday’s top two finishers will be held in early June.

The charges against Baraka were dropped, and he later ran for governor, coming in second to then-Rep. Mikie Sherrill in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Sherrill ended up winning election as New Jersey governor.

An ambitious proposal backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to raise the federal minimum wage to as high as $30 an hour is drawing red flags from economists who warn the proposal could backfire on the people it’s meant to help.

A new survey published by the Employment Policies Institute found broad skepticism among U.S. economists toward steep minimum wage hikes, with many warning the policy could lead to unintended ripple effects like job losses for low-wage workers and higher prices for all Americans.

Specifically, these economists oppose proposals that push the minimum wage to more than $20 an hour.

The findings come as progressive lawmakers, including Ocasio-Cortez, push for higher federal wage mandates to address rising costs of living. The federal minimum wage has not been adjusted since 2009 despite an annual average inflation rate of 2.57%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

AOC-BACKED $25 MINIMUM WAGE PLAN SOUNDS GREAT — BUT AT WHAT COST?

“We surveyed more than 160 American economists and for proposals over $20 an hour, 96% said they oppose it,” Employment Policies Institute research director Rebekah Paxton told Fox News Digital.

The findings reflect broader resistance to steep minimum wage hikes, with nearly three-quarters of economists opposing a $15 wage and opposition increasing sharply at higher proposed levels.

Paxton said this view cuts across political lines.

“The economists we surveyed spanned the political spectrum — Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and those who didn’t identify with a party — but they broadly agree that raising the minimum wage above $20 an hour would be harmful for employees, businesses and American consumers,” she said.

Economists pointed to a range of potential downsides for raising the minimum wage from the current $7.25 hourly rate, particularly for lower-skilled workers. A majority said higher minimum wages would likely reduce job opportunities for young people, with up to 95% predicting fewer youth jobs at wage levels above $20.

Industries with thinner margins could be especially vulnerable.

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“Small businesses would likely have the hardest time adapting, but certain industries with tighter profit margins , like hospitality and restaurants, could be hit particularly hard,” Paxton said. “Economists told us it would reduce jobs and make it more difficult for those businesses to operate.”

Many respondents also warned businesses would react to rising labor costs by turning to automation. At higher wage levels, as many as 97% of economists said companies would replace tasks traditionally done by workers with robotic and other automatic means.

The survey highlighted concerns about inflation and the cost of living, with a majority of economists claiming higher minimum wages would increase prices of goods and services, with up to 84% predicting increased costs for consumers if minimum wages were raised to more than $20 an hour.

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“A lot of lawmakers and activists say affordability is the reason for proposing these high minimum wage hikes,” Paxton said. “But what we’re finding is that not only could this cost jobs and reduce hours, it could also increase automation and raise the cost of living.”

Small businesses, in particular, may struggle to absorb those costs. Nearly all economists surveyed, up to 98%, said it would become harder for small businesses to stay afloat under higher wage mandates.

Perhaps most notably, many economists questioned whether raising the minimum wage would achieve its intended goal.

“We’re seeing economists are generally concerned about whether this policy actually delivers meaningful wage benefits,” Paxton said, pointing instead to alternatives like earned income tax credits and other support programs that supplement wages without placing the full burden on employers.

Supporters argue higher wages are necessary to keep up with inflation and rising living costs. But the survey raises fresh doubts about whether the policy could end up doing more harm than good.

Read the full study here:

The Trump administration is ramping pressure on China over what U.S. officials describe as Beijing’s economic and material support for Iran and Russia ahead of President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

A senior administration official told reporters Sunday that Trump already has spoken “multiple times” with Xi about “the revenue that China provides to both those regimes and therefore as well as dual use goods, components and parts, not to mention the potential of weapons exports.”

“I expect that conversation to continue,” the official said during a White House preview call ahead of Trump’s trip to Beijing.

The comments underscore how deeply Iran and Russia have become intertwined with the broader U.S.–China relationship, with the administration increasingly framing Beijing not only as an economic competitor but also as a critical enabler of adversarial regimes.

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“You’ve seen some actions, meaning sanctions coming out from the U.S. side just in the last few days that I’m sure will be part of that conversation,” the official added.

China ordered firms in early May to ignore U.S. sanctions targeting Iranian oil, a direct test of the U.S. crackdown.

A new directive, issued through China’s Commerce Ministry Sunday, invokes a 2021 “blocking statute” that prohibits firms from complying with foreign sanctions deemed illegitimate. The order applies to several Chinese refiners accused by the U.S. of purchasing Iranian crude, including major independent processors known as “teapot” refineries.

The move represents a shift from years of opaque workarounds to more explicit state-backed resistance, as Beijing signals it will not cooperate with U.S. efforts to cut off a key source of revenue for Iran.

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U.S. officials increasingly have accused China of helping sustain Iran’s military and economic capabilities through oil purchases, dual-use exports and intermediary networks tied to Tehran’s drone and missile programs.

Chinese officials pushed back on the allegations, saying Beijing follows strict export controls and accusing Washington of mischaracterizing its role.

“China always acts prudently and responsibly on the export of military products, and exercises strict control in accordance with China’s laws and regulations on export control and due international obligations,” Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.

“China opposes groundless smear and ill-intentioned association,” Liu added. “The pressing priority is to make every effort to prevent by all means a relapse in fighting, rather than exploiting the conflict to maliciously smear other nations.”

Liu also emphasized that China is prepared to work with the United States to “expand cooperation and manage differences in the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit.”

“China, let’s see them step up with some diplomacy and get the Iranians to open the strait,” Bessent said in a Fox News interview May 4.

“Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism … China has been buying 90 percent of their energy, so they are funding the largest state sponsor of terrorism,” he added.

Chinese officials have repeatedly defended Beijing’s trade relationship with Iran as “normal economic cooperation” and criticized U.S. sanctions as unilateral measures that interfere with legitimate trade.

China has become Iran’s largest economic lifeline in recent years, purchasing the overwhelming majority of Iranian oil exports despite U.S. sanctions. Analysts and U.S. government reports have said those purchases generate billions of dollars in revenue for Iran and help fund the regime’s military activities and regional proxy networks.

The Treasury Department also has repeatedly sanctioned Chinese and Hong Kong-based companies accused of helping Iran procure materials and components linked to ballistic missiles and drones, including parts tied to the Shahed drone program. U.S. officials have raised concerns about shipments of dual-use goods such as electronics, industrial equipment and missile-fuel precursor chemicals that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

While Beijing largely curtailed overt state-to-state arms sales to Iran years ago under international pressure, U.S. officials and outside analysts say Chinese firms and intermediaries continue to play a significant role in supplying sensitive technologies and materials through commercial channels and sanctions-evasion networks.

Officials said the leaders are also expected to discuss Taiwan, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and rare earth supply chains during the summit.

The White House previewed discussions around a potential “U.S.-China Board of Trade” and “Board of Investment,” which officials described as possible government-to-government mechanisms for managing trade and investment issues between the two countries. 

MP: Pinged WH to signal interest in details on this 

Administration officials also emphasized there would be no change in longstanding U.S. policy toward Taiwan, while highlighting increased American arms sales to Taipei and calling for Taiwan to further boost defense spending.

Artificial intelligence is also emerging as a growing focus in the relationship. 

Officials said Trump and Xi could discuss establishing a formal communication channel on AI-related security concerns as both countries race to develop increasingly advanced systems with military and cyber implications.

Officials additionally pointed to ongoing discussions surrounding rare earth supply chains and access to critical minerals used in defense systems, electronics and advanced manufacturing.

The Chinese embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.