Supreme Court allows California to move forward with new congressional map favoring Democrats
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a bid by California Republicans to block a newly redrawn congressional map backed by Democrats and endorsed by voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The move allows the state to move forward with a map enacted by Proposition 50, approved in November, that could potentially allow Democrats to flip five seats currently held by Republicans.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Rep. Mike Rogers speaks to reporters as he leaves the House Republican Conference meeting in the U.S. Capitol, December 10, 2025. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Alabama Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is dropping his end of a bipartisan probe into the military’s Sept. 2 strike that killed two survivors in the Caribbean, his spokesperson said Wednesday.
“The video and classified briefings from the Pentagon were sufficient to convince Chairman Rogers that this was a legal action,” the spokesperson told ABC News in an email. “He’s also been clear that this information needs to be shared with the rest of HASC’s members, and we expect that to happen next week.”
Rogers was among a group of lawmakers who viewed the video of the second strike during a classified briefing.
The spokesperson added that Rogers’ decision was not arbitrary.
“He sought and received the information needed and wants our members to have access to that too,” the spokesperson said.
Rogers’ decision to end his part in the congressional inquiry came after he talked privately on Tuesday with Adm. Alvin Holsey, the top commander of U.S. Southern Command who announced he plans to retire after less than a year on the job. A Pentagon official told ABC News that Holsey was “asked to retire on good terms.”
Rogers also was among those who viewed the video of the second strike during a classified briefing.
Rogers’ decision does not put an end to congressional questions into the incident, as Democrats and now several Senate Republicans are calling on the administration to release the full video of the Sept. 2 strike on an alleged drug boat.
Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the committee, last month previously promised “vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”
Wicker has notably been more willing to challenge the Pentagon’s handling of several issues than most Republicans, including military aid to Ukraine.
Wicker’s spokesman did not respond to questions about where the inquiry stands.
Reed told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang earlier this week that he still has major questions about the Sept. 2 strike, and that the Trump administration is refusing to provide answers. Reed is calling for the video of the strike to be declassified and made public.
“I think anybody who saw that video would be quite disturbed about it,” Reed said.
Lawmakers say that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told them behind closed doors on Tuesday that he’s still reviewing whether he can release video of the strike without compromising classified information.
Democrats said that didn’t make sense because Hegseth was willing to release video of the initial strike, which was posted to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account.
Trump on Monday backtracked on releasing the video of the Sept. 2 strike that killed two survivors as he attempted to distance himself from the controversy.
(NEW YORK) — The ballooning field of Democratic candidates to succeed the term-limited Gavin Newsom as governor of California has political operatives stunned.
“This is as wide open as I’ve ever seen anything in 25 years,” said Steven Maviglio, a Sacramento-based Democratic strategist.
The challenge for those running will be proving to voters they can tackle California’s cost-of-living crisis, as well as fill the high-profile void Newsom will leave behind as a national leader in Democrats’ fight against President Donald Trump.
Last week, Rep. Eric Swalwell, who made a name for himself as an anti-Trump firebrand in the House of Representatives and launched a short-lived bid for the White House in 2020, announced his campaign for governor on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” telling Kimmel that California “needs a fighter and a protector.”
Billionaire Tom Steyer, who also ran an unsuccessful campaign for president in 2020, announced his campaign the day before. Steyer, who is well-known in progressive circles for his environmental advocacy, spent millions backing Newsom’s recent Proposition 50 redistricting push.
“Everyone in this race is going to talk about affordability, but what Californians care about is results, and who’s going to be able to deliver when it comes to lowering costs. And Tom has a record of getting things done for California, even when the real politicians couldn’t,” a spokesperson for Steyer said.
Both Swalwell and Steyer join a crowded field of prominent Democrats, such as former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
“I am a proven problem solver,” Villaraigosa told ABC News in a statement.
“As the Speaker of the California Assembly, I extended affordable health care to millions of children and I passed the toughest assault weapons ban in America. As Mayor, I reduced crime by 50% and increased our school graduation rate by 60%. No other candidate for governor has delivered results like those,” Villaraigosa added.
Villaraigosa is jockeying for position among other California politicians, including former Rep. Katie Porter and former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who was also secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration.
“Secretary Becerra is the only candidate in this race to take on the Trump Administration and win, suing 122 times to protect Californians as Attorney General. He delivered affordable care for millions and he negotiated lower drug prices to save California families thousands of dollars,” a Becerra campaign spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.
Strategists are surprised that no candidate has clearly established themselves as a front-runner, signaling some instability in the race to lead a state of nearly 40 million people.
“It’s one of the most consequential races in the entire country that nobody’s ever heard of yet,” Democratic strategist Danielle Cendejas said. “There is a lot on the line who the next governor is.”
“A historically weak field” Democratic strategist Matt Rodriguez believes the reason the primary is so crowded is because no one candidate is very strong.
“I think it’s a very weak field, a historically weak field,” he said.
California employs a “jungle” or “top-two” primary, in which there is one nonpartisan primary for all candidates, with the top two candidates in the primary moving on to a runoff in November, regardless of party.
Rodriguez said having so many Democratic candidates in a jungle primary “definitely gives an advantage to a Republican getting into the top two. At some point, there’s just only so many Democratic voters to split up here.”
Maviglio said two Republicans ending up in the general election is “possible, not probable.”
“We’ve only seen it in legislative races a couple of times, where the party that actually has the majority doesn’t make it into the November election because of strangeness like that happening,” he said.
Slim chance for a Republican candidate GOP strategist and former executive director of the California Republican Party Jon Fleischman said that even if a Republican makes it to the general election, they would have a slim chance at winning the whole thing.
“Maybe the most important thing to remember in California is that if you have a general election between a Republican and a Democrat, unless some massive scandal of epic proportion were to strike the Democrat, we’re a blue state,” Felischman said.
“The only time it gets maybe more interesting is if two Democrats make the runoff,” Felischman added.
There are currently two major Republican candidates in the race, one of whom is former Fox News host Steve Hilton.
“A crowded Democratic field means those candidates will spend months fighting each other and defending the status quo, while Steve Hilton is focused on changing it,” Hilton campaign manager Matt Ciepielowski told ABC News in a statement.
“Californians are tired of the highest poverty in the nation, sky-high housing costs, failing schools, and a government that serves special interests instead of working families. Steve is running to make California affordable, safe, and full of opportunity again,” the statement continued.
The other major Republican running is Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is emphasizing his law enforcement background to define himself as someone who will be tough on crime.
“Each Democrat running is hoping to be a more liberal version of the narcissist that is currently the Governor and Californians simply cannot afford to have that happen. Sheriff Bianco offers a new way forward and the public polling proves that his campaign is resonating with voters,” Rick Gorka, a spokesperson for the Bianco campaign, told ABC News in a statement.
A still-unsettled race Others might still jump in on the right, like tech entrepreneur Jon Slavet, who filed FEC paperwork Friday and told ABC News he plans to launch his campaign early next month.
Maviglio characterized the race as “unsettled” and “a revolving door.”
Vice President Kamala Harris was mulling a bid following her defeat in last year’s presidential election, but she announced in July she was no longer considering running. And U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla — who strategists say might have cleared the field had he launched a bid — decided against a run earlier this month.
“We’ve had people say they’re running and exit out of the race. We’ve had people that were lured into thinking about running, like Padilla and Harris, and then opting not to. So it’s really hard to track,” Maviglio said.
Two politicians — California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former president pro tempore of the California state Senate Toni Atkins — initially announced their candidacies, only to exit the race shortly thereafter.
Another rumored potential Democratic contender is billionaire Rick Caruso, who lost the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral race to Karen Bass. While Caruso has deep pockets and some name recognition, he was a Republican until 2019, which could alienate the progressive wing of his new party.
And while both Steyer and Caruso have the cash, strategists say they would have to use it wisely to mount successful campaigns.
“Self-funders do not do well here. It doesn’t mean they can’t, but they typically don’t,” Rodriguez said, pointing to the failed bids of Michael Huffington in the 1994 Senate race, Al Checchi in the 1998 gubernatorial election and Caruso in 2022.
Trouble for early front-runner Porter, the initial front-runner and only major female candidate in the field, seemed to have momentum after gaining backing from the progressive PAC EMILY’s List and several statewide labor unions. Cendejas acknowledged that Porter likely had an early advantage due to her name recognition and the fact that she is “beloved in a lot of progressive circles.”
“Katie is a fighter, a single mom of three, and a ruthless champion for working families who took on the Trump Administration and self-serving CEOs in Congress — and won,” Peter Opitz, a spokesperson for the Porter campaign, told ABC News in a statement.
But recent controversy surrounding Porter’s conduct has tightened her initial lead, indicating she may not be as strong of a candidate as was originally thought.
In a video that went viral online last month, Porter had a contentious interaction with a journalist, going so far as threatening to end the interview. Another video surfaced shortly thereafter showing Porter yelling at a staffer.
“What goes up must come down,” Cendejas said of Porter.
In her first appearance after the videos emerged, Porter apologized for the outbursts.
“I want people to know that I understand that what I did was not good,” Porter told an audience at the UC Student and Policy Center in Sacramento in October. “I’m not going to mince words about it, but I also want people to understand that I am in this fight because I am not going to back down and give one inch when people are hurting Californians. And both of those things can be true at the same time.”
Rodriguez expects that the ability for a candidate to successfully define themselves as someone who can lead California in going toe-to-toe with Trump will be “the whole thing.”
“I think Trump is going to be gigantic here,” Rodriguez added. “Everything is going to be Trump.”
U.S. President Donald Trump tours the Ford River Rouge Complex on January 13, 2026, in Dearborn, Michigan. Trump is visiting Michigan where he will participate in a tour of the Ford River Rouge complex and later give remarks to the Detroit Economic Club. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon was expected to send additional military assets to the Middle East in coming days, according to several people familiar with the discussions, including possibly the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.
Such a move is considered a typical precaution at times of heightened tensions because of the 30,000 troops stationed throughout the region in countries like Qatar, Jordan, Syria and Iraq.
The added firepower would serve as a deterrent to attacks by adversaries against U.S. bases. But it also would give President Donald Trump additional options to strike Iran later if he chooses.
Examples of assets that could be surged include an aircraft carrier strike group accompanied by cruisers and missile destroyers, as well as Air Force fighter squadrons and land-based air missile defense systems.
Discussions of the additional military assets come as Trump threatened to attack Iran’s government because of violent clashes with protesters. Officials in Tehran responded by threatening to strike back at U.S. bases if he followed through.
According to one person familiar with the discussions this week, Trump was told that a military strike against Iran could be extraordinarily dangerous and potentially risk the lives of U.S. service members in the region, particularly if the government in Tehran felt it was on the brink of collapse. NBC News was first to report this detail.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters he opted against strikes for now because the U.S. had been told “on good authority” that the killing of protestors in Iran had stopped. Trump also said Friday that 800 planned executions in Iran had been halted, a claim that could not be immediately verified.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied Tehran had any plans to execute protesters.
Several sources said there had been long-running concerns among U.S. officials that the military didn’t have the right mix of assets in place to protect against a potential massive retaliatory strike from Iran, given that Trump had surged much of the military’s force to the Caribbean to support the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
There is currently no aircraft carrier in the Middle East, although officials say there are six Navy ships, including three missile destroyers. The Pentagon declined to comment.
If the Lincoln is deployed to the Middle East from the South China Sea, it’s expected to take longer than a week to arrive. The USS Lincoln was spotted earlier this week on satellite sailing away from the Philippines.
