Amna Nawaz:

For more on those federal workers turned candidates, on the Supreme Court restoring abortion pill access for now, and the rush by some states to redraw their congressional maps, we turn now to our Politics Monday duo. That is Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

It's great to see you both.

Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report:

Hello.

Tamara Keith, National Public Radio:

Good to be here.

Amna Nawaz:

Let's pick up, Amy, with what we just heard from those former federal workers. What does it tell you that these now candidates wanted to come back into government, this time as decision-makers?

Amy Walter:

This time, and they made the distinction very clearly that we were public servants. We weren't elected to these jobs. Now we're asking to go in front of voters and actually earn the place from voters to do this job.

Look, I think what's interesting about this whole debate over the federal work force was that, if you ask voters just broadly, do you think it's a good idea to be more efficient in delivering government services, they would say yes.

Amna Nawaz:

Yes.

Amy Walter:

But DOGE's -- the DOGE was unpopular with voters was that it felt like it was so haphazard and it was done in a way that wasn't really well thought through, wasn't really well crafted.

Now, whether these candidates can appeal to voters who are so sort of disgruntled with government writ large is going to be interesting, because, even though they were public servants, I think a lot of people hear the term I was a government worker and associate that with politics, even though that's obviously not what they did.

Amna Nawaz:

Yes.

Tam, what about you?

Tamara Keith:

Yes, I do think that this is in many ways a logical step for people who suddenly had more time on their hands to think about ways they wanted to give back or ways to do public service in sort of a different realm.

This isn't the first time that you have seen people go and run for Congress after a run-in, for instance, with President Trump. You have Congressman Vindman in Virginia, who was the whistle-blower in the first Trump impeachment, who then was booted from his job and then ran for office successfully.

Amna Nawaz:

Let's turn now to a topic I know you both have been following, which is the redrawing of those congressional districts.

Immediately after that Supreme Court decision last week, which made it much harder to challenge legislatively gerrymandered congressional maps, we have seen a number of states make moves in their own territories. Let's take a quick look at the map here.

Louisiana quickly suspended its House primaries where early voting was already under way so lawmakers could approve new maps there. In Alabama, there's a special legislative session today to redraw maps. Tennessee will have the same tomorrow, Mississippi considering the same move.

For context before the Supreme Court decision, the states shown here in red had already redrawn maps to benefit Republicans. States in blue had done the same for Democrats. States were already considering changes in yellow there. Florida was weighing a new map before the Supreme Court ruling.

Amy, when you look at this whole picture, what kind of maps are we going to end up with? Who are they going to benefit?

Amy Walter:

Well, they're going to benefit incumbents. We're going to have fewer and fewer really truly competitive seats because the goal here is to make as many safe districts for one party or the other.

Today, if you look at those seats that you mentioned in Louisiana, Alabama, and maybe Mississippi, but definitely Tennessee, the potential there is for at least three African American Democrats to be drawn out of their districts across those three states.

If we think about this more broadly though, and get past the 2026 election into '28 and '30 and beyond, I think one of the biggest questions now is in front of Democrats, because what we're seeing is a war right now on partisanship, who is going to come out ahead in terms of the number of seats they have in the House, how many Democratic seats, how many Republican seats.

Democrats can get into this, continue to do this tit for tat, but in order to get more seats, they have to take districts that right now are held by Black or Latino lawmakers who are Democrats, and basically open them up, dilute those districts, move those Black and Latino voters into other areas of the state to make those more Democratic.

And that's going to be a really big question mark for Democrats going forward, because if they're defending -- what they're saying is, the dilution of the influence of Black and Latino voices is a problem, and we need to ensure that those voices remain here, can you go into some of these states in order to get a partisan advantage by also diluting those voters, those votes?

Amna Nawaz:

Meanwhile, Tam, you have been reporting on a Republican effort in Indiana, where the Republican state senator there defied President Trump, did not redistrict there. Trump-aligned groups we know are now pouring in a lot of money to try to oust them. Tomorrow is the primary election.

Here is what one of those state lawmakers, Senator James Buck, told you.

State Sen. James Buck (R-IN):

I represent Senate District 21. I don't represent Washington's wishes. If that's a case, everybody after me would be looking over their shoulder, if I vote with my district, is Washington going to try to crucify me?

And you can't let that happen. You got to have a spine. You got to stand up for your constituents. You have to do what's right and let the chips fall where they may.

Amna Nawaz:

Fascinating dynamic. Tam, how is this going to play out?

Tamara Keith:

Yes, those chips are falling. We don't know how ultimately these races will turn out.

We will know late tomorrow night. What we do know is that people like Jim Buck and state Senator Spencer Deery and the other Republican state senators who are generally very Republican, but just crossed the president on this one thing, they are facing the full weight of President Trump's political machine coming down on them.

And it is painful. They are facing millions of dollars in negative campaign ads. They are then raising money and trying to fight back. They're definitely being outspent in a significant way. And, I mean, this is a true test of President Trump's power of political retribution.

And one Trump adviser I spoke to said that these incumbents are headed for their -- quote -- "political slaughter." When I pressed on why are you spending money on Republican primaries in a red state, he said there is more than enough money to send a message in Indiana and then defend the Republican majorities in the fall.

Amna Nawaz:

We're going to continue to follow your reporting on that.

Before we go, I'd love for you both to weigh in briefly on that Supreme Court decision that we mentioned earlier, basically restoring temporarily brought access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

Amy Walter:

That's right.

Amna Nawaz:

Is this going to have an impact for voters?

Amy Walter:

Well, I think it does have an impact in that it takes potentially takes that issue off the table for the midterm elections.

This is an issue on which Republicans certainly have a disadvantage, and it's not just that it is the pill itself, but we will get into the conversation about health care overall, which is one in which Democrats have a very significant advantage.

Tamara Keith:

Yes, and I'm sure there are 2026 implications, but I'm watching for 2028.

Amy Walter:

Yes.

Tamara Keith:

Because we're going to have an open Republican primary, maybe not super open. It depends on how many people run and whether the vice president runs. But you're going to have an open Republican primary without Trump on the ballot.

And he has been able to sort of smooth over a lot of disagreement within the Republican coalition on the issue of abortion and how far to go. And I see that being a very big issue in that Republican primary in 2028.

Amna Nawaz:

Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, always great to start the week with you both. Thank you so much.

Amy Walter:

You're welcome.

Tamara Keith:

Thank you.