Congress

‘We are facing an existential crisis’: Redistricting rocks the race for the nation’s bluest House seat

Published

3 months ago

May 19, 2026

PHILADELPHIA — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s voice boomed over the crowd of progressive activists that had packed the pews and lined the walls of a North Philadelphia church. “The very foundations of our democracy are being shaken with the attacks on the Voting Rights Act,” the New York Democrat warned.

But Ocasio-Cortez pointed to hope for resistance in a “city of abolitionists and organizers,” where “somebody in each generation refused to accept the world as it was.” For her, that meant supporting congressional candidate Chris Rabb, who she was rallying alongside Friday.

A day earlier, in a too-hot conference room near City Hall, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison made a similar appeal to a couple dozen community leaders — about Sharif Street.

“You saw what they just did with the VRA. They’re not done,” said Ellison, a former House member, as sweat beaded on his forehead. “The time requires not just inspirational leadership. And it sure requires principled leadership. And in Sharif we have both.”

Republicans’ rush to erase majority-Black seats across the South after the Supreme Court weakened the VRA has turbocharged the primary for an open congressional seat in this northern city long at the forefront of the civil rights movement. The crowded race to replace retiring Rep. Dwight Evans in the 3rd District, which spans from South Philadelphia to Chestnut Hill and is the bluest in the country, has divided Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Democrats. And it has fueled a family fight within the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), with some members choosing sides between the three Black candidates in Pennsylvania’s sole majority-Black district.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at a rally in support of Pennsylvania state Rep. and congressional candidate Chris Rabb (not pictured) in Philadelphia, on May 15, 2026.

Red-state gerrymanders threaten to force up to one third of the 63-member caucus from office, including some of its longest-tenured and most influential leaders like Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). It’s a major challenge to one of the most powerful voting blocs in Congress and a pillar of the Democratic Party, just as one of its own, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), could ascend to the speakership if Democrats retake the chamber. And it comes at a time when the CBC was already facing generational and ideological divides, with younger members and candidates pushing to inject fresh vigor into an aging caucus that has long been deferential to seniority.

The upheaval has placed outsized importance on primaries that could impact Black representation in Congress. The Congressional Black Caucus PAC is playing a role in several of these races by backing Black candidates, throwing its support behind former Rep. Colin Allred against Rep. Julie Johnson in a high-profile Texas runoff, and endorsing first-time candidate Lauren Babb Tomlinson in a crowded field that includes independent Rep. Kevin Kiley in California’s redrawn 6th District. It has stayed out of another redistricting-created fight, a generational member-on-member battle in Texas between Black Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green.

“The CBC is and will always be the conscience of Congress. Our members share the core values of protecting and preserving voting rights, creating an affordable America with opportunity for all, and defeating the extremist politics of Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans,” said Chris Taylor, a spokesperson for the Congressional Black Caucus PAC. “We will win in November and further the people’s agenda.”

And it has ratcheted up the stakes late in the game in Philadelphia, where Democrats were already warring over who best meets the moment.

“We are facing an existential crisis,” said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), a 38-year-old progressive member of the caucus from the Pittsburgh area who has endorsed Rabb. “We need people who understand the urgency of right now. There are old ways of doing things and there are bold ways of doing things. And they’re not the same.”

Evans has a different approach in mind. And the 72-year-old five-term representative and longtime state lawmaker who is retiring after missing months of House votes in 2024 following a stroke, has a different candidate — Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon and political novice who emerged as an early front-runner with his backing — to execute it.

Ala Stanford speaks with a voter in Philadelphia, on May 15, 2026.

“[John Lewis] always talked about doing good things together,” Evans said, referencing the civil-rights icon and longtime Georgia lawmaker who died in 2020. “And what we desperately need — especially in this day and age, when you look at people talking about [gerrymandering] affecting Benny Thompson, Jim Clyburn — she more than anybody has the ability to bring [people] together.”

SCOTUS Raises the Stakes

The race to represent the 3rd District was already playing out as a messy microcosm of the stylistic and ideological fights roiling Democrats nationally.

“We know that the next member of Congress is going to be Black, we know they’re going to be a Democrat. The question is, what kind of Democrat are we sending to Congress amidst great dysfunction and chaos?” Rabb, a five-term state representative, told Blue Light News. “I am the troublemaker of the three, and I believe we need a real troublemaker in troubled times. We need to shake things up.”

In interviews on the campaign trail across Philadelphia last week, the leading contenders offered similarly stark assessments of the potential ramifications of the recent Supreme Court ruling on Black representation and voting rights.

Supporters cheer during a rally for Pennsylvania state Rep. and congressional candidate Chris Rabb in Philadelphia, on May 15, 2026.

But they offered different approaches.

Rabb said “centrism and establishment politics is [not] going to get us anywhere beyond where we are now.”

Street, a state senator, former state Democratic Party chair and scion of a prominent North Philadelphia political family, said he would draw on his background as a lawyer and legislator to counterattack in the courts, in Congress and on the campaign trail by boosting Democratic turnout in the midterms.

Stanford, a former regional Health and Human Services director in the Biden administration, called for “fearless leaders” in the style of Clyburn who are also willing to work across the aisle to “find common ground” to advance voter protections and expand access.

“I am a disrupter,” Stanford said. “But [you also can’t be] a bull in a china shop and no matter which way you turn, you’re crushing and breaking everything but you’re not building anything.”

The candidates have also cleaved over whether to back Jeffries as speaker. Street has committed to the minority leader, and Stanford also said she’ll back him. But Rabb said he wants to see who runs before weighing in.

Redistricting has become a late-stage flashpoint on the campaign trail. The political arm of the pro-Rabb Working Families Party launched an ad Friday across digital and streaming platforms attempting to link Street to red-state gerrymanders by referencing a draft 2021 redistricting map the senator worked on with a key Republican that would have drawn Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle and GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick into the same district and created an incumbent-free seat in Philadelphia where Street could have run. The spot accused Street of trying to “sacrifice our power for himself.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison greets Sharif Street at a campaign event in Philadelphia, on May 14, 2026.

The map was never formally introduced and Street has distanced himself from it. He says he favored another that still would have drawn Boyle and Fitzpatrick into the same district but would have given Democrats an advantage in 10 of the state’s 17 congressional seats and grown the number of majority-Black districts.

Anthony Campisi, a spokesperson for Street, said the senator was trying to “bolster Pennsylvania maps against the type of attacks we’re seeing from Republicans in Washington now.”

A House Caucus Divided

As Rabb runs to the left, he’s picked up support from younger progressives like Lee and Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and a constellation of left-leaning groups including the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Meanwhile, Rep. Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), a fellow Black physician, is backing Stanford, who besides Evans also has support from Pennsylvania Democratic Reps. Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan, leading health officials and an outside super PAC that works to elect STEM candidates.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) offered 11th-hour support for Street in a rally Monday, positioning him as the best choice in a “time of crisis.” Street also has the backing of Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and the city’s Democratic establishment, along with a raft of high-profile state politicians like former Gov. Ed Rendell and state House Speaker Joanna McClinton.

Most CBC members have stayed out of the race, but some have made connections with candidates behind the scenes. Stanford said she met Clyburn, the Democratic kingmaker who is likely to lose his seat in a GOP gerrymander, at a book tour stop last December. She said she considers him a mentor and sends regular updates to his chief of staff. Clyburn’s office and an outside adviser did not respond to a request for comment.

Some presidential hopefuls have also waded in beyond Booker and Ocasio-Cortez in a race that will offer a directional test for Democrats. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) are backing Rabb, while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has not endorsed in the race, is working behind the scenes to block Rabb — even though he and Street have some historic beef of their own.

“This moment matters,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And if you want to change the Democratic Party, we have to change the kind of Democrats that get elected to serve in Congress.”

Cheyanne M. Daniels contributed to this report.

Congress

White House, hemp lobbyists bet on shutdown politics to delay ‘diet weed’ ban

Published

9 hours ago

August 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump and hemp industry lobbyists are hoping to win a final vote on Capitol Hill next week to skirt a ban on intoxicating products — with shutdown politics as leverage.

Nine months ago, Congress cleared a bill to close a loophole created in 2018 that allowed the sale of some hemp-derived products containing types of THC colloquially known as “diet weed.” That ban is supposed to take effect in mid-November, or roughly 11 weeks, to limit overall THC levels in hemp products that can get people high — including gummies, canned drinks, pills and vapes.

But Trump and industry leaders successfully lobbied Senate leaders to add language to a government funding patch earlier this month to delay the ban until mid-December, with the administration promising instead to finalize regulations cracking down on how the products are made and sold.

Now House Republican leaders are aiming to clear that bill for Trump’s signature early next week, according to three people granted anonymity to disclose private discussions. And many GOP lawmakers are not pleased at the prospect of being rolled.

Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) told reporters last week that he expected House lawmakers would “iron out” some “sticking points” with the Senate-passed funding bill, “particularly the hemp issue,” rather than pass the legislation without changes — which appears to be GOP leadership’s current plan.

Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) was more blunt: “it is morally reprehensible to threaten a shutdown over a loophole Congress agreed to close to less than a year ago,” he said in a statement Thursday.

Yet despite fierce pushback from lawmakers warning that the intoxicating products are harming Americans, hemp industry leaders are preparing for a victory, betting members of Congress ultimately care more about swiftly passing legislation to avert a Sept. 30 government shutdown before the midterms.

“Any effort to try to shut down the government — over a one-month delay on a hemp issue — I don’t think is going to fly well with most members of Congress,” Jonathan Miller, a top lawyer for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable advocacy group, said in an interview this week.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about its plans for imposing new rules on hemp products in the coming months. But the Trump administration is expected to need more time than mid-December to finalize regulations, so hemp industry representatives are discussing a “regulatory bridge” that would impose temporary rules while continuing to avoid a full ban, according to Miller.

That could include restricting purchase to adults age 21 and older, blocking imports from China, mandating certain manufacturing practices, cracking down on copycat products that look like popular candy or potato chips and requiring transparency in product labeling.

While lawmakers have been back home over their summer break, hemp industry leaders have fanned out across the country to make their case for this plan. “The hemp industry does not have an August recess,” Christopher Lackner, head of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, said in an interview this month of the group’s work to facilitate passage of the Senate-passed funding bill.

Trump administration officials have also been telling reluctant lawmakers they will use the one-month delay to work on regulations. “The White House has committed to me that they’re committed to regulate the industry,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in an interview this month.

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), who fought in the Senate to retain the ban as originally intended, said White House officials have said “they don’t want another extension, and I agree with that.”

In a statement, Ricketts said that “manufactured high-THC products like gummies and drinks are putting our kids in the hospital” and need to be taken “off our shelves.”

Some supporters of the ban say the White House and industry are just employing delay tactics to get to December, when lawmakers will face another pressure campaign to delay the ban while they are motivated to avert a shutdown before leaving town for the holidays.

“What they’re really after is to try to jam this on some must-pass, end-of-the-year funding,” Budd told reporters earlier this month. “That’s really what this is about.”

Budd fought to block the delay in the Senate as part of the government funding measure, but his amendment to that end was shot down 61-32 before the chamberpassed the legislation, sending it on for House action.

Trump personally called Budd after the senator filed the amendment and talked about creating federal regulations for hemp products, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to describe the private discussion.

Days later, Budd demanded a vote on the amendment anyway and continues to slam the hemp industry.

“It is clear that businesses that sell unregulated, intoxicating products will stop at nothing to protect their bottom line, even at the expense of children’s health and safety,” he said in a statement this week.

Besides lawmakers fighting to ban intoxicating hemp products, others are pushing alongside the White House and industry for federal regulations.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-W.Va.) has crafted legislation that would direct the Food and Drug Administration to create federal rules for intoxicating hemp products and wants to see mandates for third-party testing, as well as new THC limits per serving.

Griffith told reporters Thursday the “deadline push” in the Senate-passed government funding measure “is not long enough” to finalize necessary regulations.

Since state limits for THC vary widely throughout the country and the federal government has taken years to step in since the hemp loophole was created in 2018, Griffith argued it makes more sense to regulate the intoxicating products than to enact a federal ban.

“That horse is out of the barn,” he said. “What we need to do is corral it.”

Kelsey Brugger, Amanda Friedman and Rachel Shin contributed to this report.

Congress

Trump’s MAGA Inc. to host first public event in battleground Michigan

Published

19 hours ago

August 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s $400-million super PAC is taking its first steps into the general election: hosting a public event in battleground Michigan, headlined by Vice President JD Vance.

Battleground Republicans have been clamoring for Trump’s MAGA Inc. to spend in competitive races. The Michigan event is an early indicator of how the massive group might seek to use its funds to help the party keep control of Washington.

Vance will be joined in Sterling, Michigan, on Monday by GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers, 10th District nominee Mike Bouchard Jr. and gubernatorial nominee John James, along with several other Michigan Republicans, according to an event advisory from MAGA Inc.

The GOP sees Michigan’s open seat as its best Senate pickup target this fall as Rogers faces former public health leader and progressive Abdul El-Sayed, who emerged from a grueling primary earlier this month.

“MAGA Inc. will be hosting events throughout the nation to ensure that Republicans retain control of Congress in order to finish cleaning up the mess the Biden-Harris-Pelosi-Schumer Democrats left,” said Alex Pfeiffer, spokesperson for MAGA Inc. “We’re not going back to their record inflation, open borders, and surging crime.”

MAGA Inc. is sitting on more funds than any other super PAC, and Republican donors and battleground candidates have been hoping it will unleash that money to help the party keep control of the House and Senate.

So far, the group has only spent only a few million dollars out of its massive fundraising haul, and its funds have largely gone to competitive Republican primaries. Most recently, it spent $827,000 on phone calls and text messages to boost Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) in the state’s special primary.

Congress

House Democrat moves to reverse Trump’s ‘Lake America’ order

Published

20 hours ago

August 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A House Democrat is already pushing back on President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.”

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said in an interview hours after Trump’s announcement that she plans to introduce a bill Monday that would nullify the name change. The one-page bill is titled the “Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act.”

“People do not understand how intertwined our two countries are,” Dingell said “And this is insane, this naming Lake Ontario ‘Lake America.’”

The name change is Trump’s latest escalation in a rapidly spiraling trade war between the U.S. and Canada. The White House imposed 50 percent tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian imports earlier this week, inviting retaliatory levies from Ottawa.

Trump said in a Truth Social post Canada has been “Ripping Off” the U.S. for decades and that Canada is “easily the most difficult and unreasonable” country he deals with.

Trump’s renaming Lake Ontario throws another controversy into one of the country’s most consequential states ahead of the midterms. Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has already attacked his Republican opponent Mike Rogers over the move.

Dingell said she has been working with Democratic leaders on a response to the tariffs, and separately collecting signatures on a letter to Trump that urges “your Administration to change its diplomatic approach with our closest ally, Canada, and recognize the importance of the United States-Canada relationship.” She said she has about 100 signatures from fellow House Democrats.

“I grew up in a small town called St. Clair, and when I got up and looked out my bedroom window every day, I didn’t see America. I saw Canada,” Dingell said. “We lived that close. Canada was as close to us as [the Cannon House Office Building] is to the Capitol.”