House Democrats say they tried playing nice. Now the gloves are off.

After spending more than a decade pushing for anti-gerrymandering measures and other good-government initiatives, Democratic lawmakers said this week they are gearing up to play political hardball in the wake of stunning court losses on redistricting — potentially for years to come.

“We will beat the far-right extremists,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday. “We’re going to win in November, and then we’re going to crush their souls as it relates to the extremism that they are trying to unleash on the American people.”

It’s a marked reversal from years of high-minded Democratic rhetoric that included advocating for independent redistricting commissions, campaign finance curbs and more — even as Republicans used the courts and their control of state governments to consolidate and enhance their own party’s power.

The U-turn was already underway, but it was cemented in recent weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court reinterpreted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to allow states to eliminate majority-minority districts. Then the Virginia Supreme Court moved last week to invalidate a recent voter referendum paving the way for a Democrat-friendly map.

Several Democratic states, including New York, have been hindered by their adoption of independent redistricting commissions and other processes meant to take partisan considerations out of the drawing of congressional lines. Now Democratic leaders are openly discussing overriding those safeguards.

“All options should be on the table,” Rep. Ted Lieu (R-Calif.) told reporters Wednesday. “And other states that have redistricting commissions should be prepared to have conversations with their legislature and their voters in response to what we’re seeing in the South. And I think all of that is completely fair.”

The party’s anger also translates to a growing appetite to remake the Supreme Court, which many House Democrats say is ushering in an era of “Jim Crow 2.0.”

Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.), who has introduced legislation to term-limit the justices, said in an interview that the ruling was “a straw that broke the camel’s back.” And Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said there are tools to “kneecap” the Supreme Court that Congress has never used, such as stripping their power to review lower court rulings.

“I think everybody from the top of our caucus to the bottom are saying we have got to push back on them,” Casten said.

What was especially gutting to Democrats about the two court decisions was that they believed they had battled Republicans to a draw after President Donald Trump kicked off the unusual mid-decade line drawing spree by pressuring Texas legislators to eliminate as many as five Democratic House seats there.

The Virginia referendum last month was seen as a capstone, with voters essentially endorsing a map that would add four Democratic seats. Jeffries won plaudits for spending heavily to get that result and took a public victory lap only to see it all reversed.

Despite the setback, Jeffries has mostly gotten a pass from fellow House Democrats, who say that the GOP efforts in other states had to be countered despite the risks.

“My feeling is, given what was happening around the country, there was no choice but to launch the effort in Virginia,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who is retiring after seeing his district radically redrawn.

Jeffries and fellow Democratic leaders laid out an ambitious plan this week to redistrict before the 2028 elections in states like New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon and Washington where their party currently holds power but cannot immediately redraw House lines.

“This is not a war we started,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said. “But as Democrats it’s important that we also get aggressive in that fight.”

The focus on 2028 comes as opportunities to redistrict in 2026 run dry — except for a potential last-ditch pick-up in Maryland, where Democrats want the legislature to eliminate Republican Rep. Andy Harris’ district, even with the state’s primary two weeks away and mail-in ballots already issued.

In light of the court rulings, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) said, there’s “enormous pressure to do something, and I think we should.”

Other House Democrats are calling for new investments in state-level races to support legislators who will commit to redistricting efforts ahead of 2028 and the post-2030 Census redraw.

“Democrats are going to be moving to do what Republicans did 15 years ago and that is to focus on state legislatures,” Rep. Kwesi Mfume (D-Md.) said in an interview. The “smartest thing to do,” he added, “would be to control the process.”

The appetite for even more aggressive redistricting could even mean a new push to redraw maps again in California, where voters last year approved a Democratic-drawn map that handed the party five new favorable districts. The hope is that Democrats can squeeze more blue seats out of the state ahead of 2028.

“We were meeting fire with fire. Texas did five seats, California did five seats,” Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), the Congressional Black Caucus chair, said in an interview. “Now … we’ve got to look at all options. We’re not taking anything off the table.”

Senior House lawmakers late Wednesday reached a bipartisan deal on housing affordability legislation and scheduled a floor vote for next week.

The final House text would maintain restrictions on Wall Street’s purchase of single-family homes — a priority for President Donald Trump — but would significantly scale back the Senate bill’s limitations on so-called institutional investors in the housing market.

If the House passes its legislation, the bill would have to go back to the Senate for final approval before it reaches Trump’s desk — even as the White House has pushed the lower chamber to pass the Senate’s 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act as-is.

House leadership is aiming to pass the bill under suspension of rules, a fast-track procedure that limits debate, prohibits further amendments on the floor and requires a two-thirds majority. House Financial Services Chair French Hill said earlier on Wednesday that bill text would be posted once an agreement was reached and fully expected the support of ranking member Maxine Waters.

The bill text contains changes to language aimed at limiting the ability of large institutional investors to purchase housing by narrowing the definition of “single-family home,” which could make it possible for private equity firms and other large companies to purchase more homes than the previous version allowed, which is in line with draft text previously reported by POLITICO on Saturday.

The definition of a single-family home would now exclude manufactured housing and homes that have been renovated for sale, among others, according to the text.

The House bill would also strip a controversial Senate provision that would require single-family homes built by large institutional investors as long-term rentals to be sold after seven years to individual homebuyers. The housing industry and affordable housing advocates have opposed the language, arguing that it could disincentivize investment in a large segment of housing stock. There is no requirement for private equity firms to sell single-family homes they currently own or obtain in the future, whether newly built long-term single-family rental homes or otherwise, according to the bill text.

Notably, the House’s amended version of the bill will preserve a five-year ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a digital dollar, which GOP hardliners strongly opposed, arguing that a temporary ban is worse than no ban at all. Members of the House Freedom Caucus previously said they would not vote for the Senate’s housing bill due to the sunsetting ban on a central bank digital currency.

The legislation also contains 12 community banking provisions, which has been a priority of Hill this Congress. The deregulation provisions were excluded from the Senate’s bill and aim to be less burdensome for community banks.

Portions of the Senate’s 21st ROAD to Housing Act that were fully removed include language that would eliminate the cap on the number of properties eligible for HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program; a permanent authorization of the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program; and the requirement that Federal Housing Administration mortgage disclosures include cost comparison information for veteran homebuyers so they are aware of their Veteran Affairs benefits.

Additionally the House preserved the Build Now Act, which would increase funding through HUD’s CDBG program for communities that build more housing than previously and decrease funding if the housing growth rate is below its previous median rate for that locality. This has been a legislative priority for Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and was included in Senate crypto bill text released Monday.

Activist Denise Powell won the Democratic primary for one of Democrats’ best pickup opportunities this fall after a prolonged vote count in an Omaha-based congressional district.

The Associated Press called the race Wednesday evening. With an estimated just shy of 90 percent of votes counted, Powell led state Sen. John Cavanaugh 38.9 percent to 36.8 percent, with court clerk Crystal Rhoades a distant third.

She will face Republican Brinker Harding in November for the chance to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon in just one of three districts former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024 that is currently represented by a Republican.

Powell, who ran a PAC in Nebraska supporting women for elected office, was supported by EMILY’s List and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, whose affiliated groups combined to spend more than $1 million for her in the race. That pitted them against the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which backed Cavanaugh.

Powell also benefited from millions in outside spending — both supporting her and attacking Cavanaugh — that came from groups backed by dark money nonprofits or that showed signs characteristic of Republican meddling.

Outside groups, along with Powell and Rhoades, made the case that Cavanaugh’s candidacy could endanger Nebraska’s “blue dot” that has yielded one electoral vote for Democrats because Nebraska’s governor would get to appoint the replacement for his blue Omaha-area state legislative seat.

Money is likely to continue to flow in for the general election as the district is one of Democrats’ top targets as they look to take back the House.