A red-state Democrat is inching toward a Senate run as Kansas’ Republican-controlled legislature debates drawing her out of a seat.

Rep. Sharice Davids met with Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) last week to talk through the logistics of a Senate campaign and garner advice from a lawmaker who’s transitioned from the lower chamber to the upper one, according to one person with knowledge of the conversation. Schiff is a vice-chair for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the 2026 cycle.

Republicans in the Kansas state Senate eye redrawing Davids’ district to make it more friendly to Republicans, as part of a nationwide push to deliver a more favorable 2026 House map for the GOP. Across the country, Republicans are looking at drawing up to 19 new House seats — an aggressive push Democrats are starting to challenge ahead of the midterms.

Kansas legislators are scheduled to meet in a special session later this week to take up redistricting. But a sufficient number of members of the Kansas State House of Representatives have yet to offer their support to the effort, some of them criticizing the precedent mid-decade redistricting would set.

Davids, the lone Democrat in Kansas’ congressional delegation, represents much of the Kansas City metro area. She entered the House in 2019.

“If [Kansas Republicans] continue forward on this path, and they’re successful in this, at this point, all I can say is that every option is on the table, including a statewide run,” she said in a press conference last month.

Sen. Roger Marshall (K-Kansas) is the incumbent up for reelection in 2026.

In a press release last week, Davids’ office called the redistricting effort a “power grab” and said she “remains focused on representing [Kansans] in whatever capacity best allows her to do so.”

Spokespeople for Davids and Schiff did not respond to requests for comment.

A version of this article first appeared in Blue Light News Pro’s Morning Score. Want to receive the newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to Blue Light News Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.

Conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro blasted Tucker Carlson on Monday, calling him “the most virulent super-spreader of vile ideas in America.”

In an episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show” released Monday, Shapiro criticized Carlson’s podcast episode with Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes, saying Carlson failed to push back on Fuentes’ bigotry.

“The issue here isn’t that Tucker Carlson had Nick Fuentes on his show last week. He has every right to do that, of course,” Shapiro said. “The issue here is that Tucker Carlson decided to normalize and fluff Nick Fuentes and that the Heritage Foundation then decided to robustly defend that performance.”

Carlson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shapiro’s critique is the latest crack in a conservative movement splintering over Carlson’s inflammatory interview with Fuentes. The interview, which aired last week, was laced with antisemitic references and sparked division within the Republican Party over whether the discussion should be allowed or condemned. On the podcast, Fuentes praised Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and claimed the “big challenge” to unifying the country was “organized Jewry.” Carlson, a former Fox News host who retains a large following, said Republican Israel supporters suffer from a “brain virus.”

The podcast episode was received differently by two bastions of conservative thought: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board condemned it, while Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts defended it, criticizing the “venomous coalition” attempting to “cancel” Carlson after the interview.

“I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer, either,” Roberts said. Roberts later explicitly condemned antisemitism and detailed his disagreements with Fuentes.

Shapiro pushed back on Roberts’ characterization. “It is not cancellation to draw moral lines between viewpoints,” Shapiro said. “In fact, we used to call that one of the key aspects of conservatism.”

Carlson’s interview with Fuentes came on the heels of other high-profile incidents of antisemitism on the political right. Last month, a nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel withdrew his nomination after bragging of his “Nazi streak” in a text message; days earlier, Blue Light News reported on a leaked group chat of Young Republicans who praised Hitler and joked about the Holocaust. The same week, a Nazi symbol was discovered hanging in a GOP congressional office.

Shapiro, a prominent conservative podcaster who hosted fundraisers for Donald Trump and Senate GOP candidates during the 2024 cycle, warned that a “splinter faction” of white supremacists is being “facilitated and normalized” into the Republican Party’s mainstream, aided by Carlson.

“The main agent in that normalization is Tucker Carlson, who is an intellectual coward, a dishonest interlocutor, and a terrible friend,” Shapiro said.

At the annual Republican Jewish Coalition annual leadership summit last weekend, top GOP Jews attempted to distance Carlson from the GOP mainstream. Matt Brooks, CEO of the RJC, told reporters that antisemitism is “a very small, limited problem in our party,” and attendees waved printed placards that read, “TUCKER IS NOT MAGA.”

Shapiro, who is Jewish, warned that the GOP is “being eaten by its radicals.”

“The left followed its radicals to electoral hell,” Shapiro said. “Apparently, many on the right wish to do the same.”

President Donald Trump endorsed more than 50 Republicans on Sunday night — but didn’t specifically name Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears ahead of Tuesday’s critical elections.

In dozens of social media posts, the president threw his support behind both first time hopefuls and those seeking reelection, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Earle-Sears, facing off against Democrat Abigail Spanberger, was not mentioned by name among the 53 endorsements Trump issued Sunday.

The president, however, made clear that he hopes voters cast their ballots for the Republican candidates in Virginia and in New Jersey, where Jack Ciattarelli is in a heated battle against Mikie Sherrill for the governor’s mansion. Trump endorsed Ciattarelli in October.

“Why would anyone vote for New Jersey and Virginia Gubernatorial Candidates, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, when they want transgender for everybody, men playing in women’s sports, High Crime, and the most expensive Energy prices almost anywhere in the World?” Trump said in one post. “VOTE REPUBLICAN for massive Energy Cost reductions, large scale Tax Cuts, and basic Common Sense!”

Trump has hedged around an official endorsement for Earle-Sears, telling reporters last monththat the “Republican candidate” in Virginia should win “because the Democrat candidate is a disaster.” Last week, the president joined the term-limited Gov. Glenn Youngkin for a virtual rally for the entire Virginia Republican ticket.

Some polling shows Earle-Sears trails Spanberger by double digits.

Neither the White House nor Earle-Sears campaign immediately responded to requests for comment.