After years of coming up short, Democrats think they can make Iowa a political battleground again. Republican Donald Trump may have won the state by double digits in the last presidential election, but growing dissatisfaction with his leadership and rising costs from the Iran war could help set the stage for Democrats to make previously unattainable gains. Plus, this week's midwestern primaries, new AAPI polling and the partisan warfare over redistricting. |
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Iowa state auditor Rob Sand, who is running for Iowa governor, talks to reporters in Des Moines, Iowa, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Fingerhut) |
Democrats look for a foothold in Iowa as Vance visits to boost Republicans — By Hannah Fingerhut
With an unusual number of competitive races for open seats — Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican Sen. Joni Ernst both opted out of reelection bids — Iowa Democrats plan to have 60 field organizers on the ground by June, nearly double from the midterm elections of Trump's first term. Another two dozen people will staff a coordinated campaign that's intended to support candidates for governor, U.S. House and U.S. Senate, among others.
State Democratic Party chair Rita Hart says she sees Iowa as “a purple state." And while Republicans insist that Iowa will remain red, White House travel plans suggest there may be some concern: Vice President JD Vance is visiting on Tuesday to support Rep. Zach Nunn, who represents Des Moines, its suburbs and the state's rural center. Trump also chose Iowa as his first stop when he began his midterm campaigning earlier this year.
Democrats believe a populist economic message could resonate in Iowa when farmers are squeezed by tariffs and face higher prices for fertilizer and diesel fuel. In addition, hundreds of people have lost jobs as factories and meat processors shut down, and rural residents are driving further to see doctors as healthcare clinics close. The political environment for Democrats has been bleak since Barack Obama won the state in 2008 and 2012. Republicans have had total control in the Iowa state government for nearly a decade. All six members of the federal delegation are Republicans. Read more of Fingerhut's reporting on Democrats' moves in Iowa. |
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Partisan warfare over US redistricting |
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks about Virginia's redistricting vote, at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) |
Redistricting war accelerates winner-take-all political combat in US — By Nicholas Riccardi
By gutting the Voting Rights Act's requirement that states draw congressional districts in a way that gives minorities an opportunity to control their own fate, the U.S. Supreme Court has escalated the nationwide redistricting war that has seen Democrats and Republicans casting aside decades of tradition in hopes of gaining an edge over the competition. New sessions are scheduled to begin this week in two Republican-controlled states to eliminate U.S. House districts represented by Democrats, and there's more on the horizon.
It's the latest example of how the American democratic experiment has been pushed to the breaking point in the decade since Trump rose to power, with rules and norms that once helped smooth over an unruly country's vast differences have given way to a race for power at all costs. Trump ignited the conflict over redistricting last year by urging Republicans to redraw congressional maps to reduce the likelihood that his party loses the U.S. House in the November midterm elections. Once Republican-led states like Texas started shifting district lines, Democratic-led states like California countered. The fight was heading for a draw until the Supreme Court's conservative majority issued its long-awaited decision in Louisiana v. Callais.
Louisiana moved to postpone its congressional primaries, set for May 16, to have a chance to redraw two majority-Black Democratic seats it was required to maintain before the recent ruling. Alabama is trying to get the Supreme Court to let it redraw its two majority-Black seats.
Republicans in Tennessee plan to erase the only Democratic congressional district, which is majority Black and centered in Memphis, by splitting it up among more conservative suburban and rural white communities. More than a dozen other majority-minority districts, mainly in the South, could face the same fate.
Read more of Riccardi's reporting on this year's redistricting combat. |
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AP Elections Spotlight: Not so quiet on the midwestern front |
An American flag is outside the state capitol building in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 25, 2004. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch) |
The big picture: It’s election season in the Midwest on Tuesday, with presidential-level grudge matches on the ballot in Indiana, a pivotal special election in Michigan and well-known statewide candidates in Ohio looking past the primary and ahead to competitive general election matchups.
Indiana: Republicans enjoy comfortable supermajorities in both state legislative chambers, yet all eyes are on a handful of Republican primaries for state Senate. Trump is waging a retribution campaign against seven GOP incumbents who defied his wishes and voted against the mid-decade redistricting plan he backed. All seven now face Trump-endorsed primary challengers, not to mention some strongly worded social media insults usually reserved for Democrats.
Ohio: Former 2024 GOP presidential candidate and Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy has poured millions from his personal coffers into his gubernatorial bid, and he’s already focusing more on a potential race against Democrat Amy Acton than he is on his primary opponent, engineer and conservative internet personality Casey Putsch. Meanwhile, Democrat Sherrod Brown faces a primary in his comeback bid for the U.S. Senate, but you wouldn’t know it from his campaign ads, which target appointed GOP incumbent Jon Husted, rather than his primary opponent, Ron Kincaid.
Michigan: Central Michigan voters will finally get a new state senator after Tuesday’s special election that will also decide control of the narrowly divided chamber. Democrat Chedrick Greene, Republican Jason Tunney and Libertarian Ali Sledz are vying to fill the seat last held by Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet, who resigned in 2025 following her election to Congress. State Senate District 35 includes parts of Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties, all three of which Trump carried in 2024. But the district itself is much more competitive: Kamala Harris barely edged Trump in 2024, 49.7% to 48.9%, on the strength of her 17-point lead in the Saginaw portion of the district. Trump posted smaller leads in the parts of the district in Bay and Midland counties.
Read Robert Yoon's latest on the Indiana, Ohio and Michigan primaries.
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The latest AP-NORC Polls: |
Members of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles hold signs reading: "#Stop Asian Hate," in a caravan around Koreatown to denounce hate against the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the Koreatown neighborhood in Los Angeles March 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) |
Fewer AAPI adults report hate incidents but racism concerns linger, new poll shows — By Terry Tang & Amelia Thomson-Deveaux
A new poll out Monday, as AAPI Heritage Month begins, from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about one-quarter of AAPI adults have personally experienced a hate crime or incident in the past year, such as verbal harassment or physical assault. That's consistent with a survey conducted last summer, but down from an October 2023 poll where 36% said they were victims of an act of abuse tied to their race or ethnicity over the prior year.
Preliminary FBI data also reflects a decline as the pandemic receded into the background. Based on information submitted by law enforcement agencies, anti-Asian hate crimes and bias crimes overall fell between 2024 and 2025.
However, about 3 in 10 AAPI adults in the new survey think it’s “extremely" or "very” likely that they’ll be a victim of discrimination based on their race or ethnicity in the next five years.
Read more from Tang and Thomson-Deveaux on the new AAPI polling.
View the AP-NORC Polling tracker. |
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