When Congress returns to work in June, both the House and Senate are expected to vote on resolutions that would force Trump to stop military strikes against Iran, what’s known as a “war powers” resolution.
House GOP leaders postponed a vote on that before Memorial Day — worried that Republicans would lose that vote for a first time.
Even with more than two years left to go before the next presidential election, speculation about who could run is everywhere. Several politicians have publicly flirted with the idea of running for the office in recent months. And polls are capturing a developing picture of who the top possible contenders could be.
An Echelon Insights survey released Friday, May 22, shows Republican Steve Hilton — the poll‘s sponsor — leading the field with 25% of likely voters.
“Our lead is growing,” Hilton wrote in a post on X. “Now’s the time to come together and deliver the strongest Republican finish!”
Democrats Tom Steyer and Xavier Becerra follow, capturing 18% and 15%, respectively. Republican candidate Chad Bianco trails with 12% in the poll, conducted between May 18 and May 21.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to testify before Senate and House committees on 2 June as the conflict with Iran remains a major concern for lawmakers.
Although the hearings are officially focused on the State Department budget, members of Congress are expected to question Rubio on a range of issues connected to the war.
(May 21, 2026)
„Let’s be clear: Republicans pulled this vote because they knew they were going to lose it. They know this war is a political and strategic disaster. They know that as Americans head into Memorial Day weekend paying over 4.50 a gallon at the pump, they cannot go home and explain they voted to keep this war going. So instead of casting that vote, they ran from it.
„This is not over. When the House returns, Republicans will have no choice but to take this vote. Democrats will not stop fighting until Congress reasserts its constitutional authority and this war is brought to an end.“
(May 21, 2026)
House Republican leaders yanked a planned vote to restrict President Trump’s ability to conduct military strikes against Iran, after it became clear that the resolution, forced to the floor by Democrats, would likely pass.
“You don’t have the votes!” Democrats shouted in a heated moment on the House floor, when Republicans moved to delay the vote until after lawmakers return from a weeklong Memorial Day recess.
(May 18, 2026)
Democratic lawmakers are on the verge of passing a resolution to end President Trump’s war with Iran — with some help from a steadily growing group of Republicans.
In the House and Senate, resolutions under the 1973 War Powers Act this past week saw more members of Trump’s party crossing the aisle to vote in favor of the so-far failed measures, with others voicing their support for a future resolution.
Yet Lead Left PAC has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Galindo’s behalf ahead of Tuesday’s primary runoff. Democrats are accusing Republicans of orchestrating the effort.
“You have an openly bigoted person who has no business in elected office getting boosted by a Republican PAC,” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said. “So the Republican leadership here, of course, is going to go to great lengths to hide that.”
The district is a Trump +10, and Galindo would certainly be a weaker opponent for the GOP in November than Garcia.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, the GOP super PAC aligned with House Republican leaders, has declined to say if it’s behind Lead Left PAC.
Galindo caught Democrats off guard when she placed first in the March 3 primary, despite spending just a few thousand dollars on her campaign. After a mysterious super PAC spent nearly $1 million boosting her bid, Democrats were forced to grapple with the possibility that she could win the nomination — an outcome the party worried could jeopardize its chances in the district and tie them to rhetoric they’ve denounced.
The Senate on Tuesday agreed to take up a measure that would force President Trump to end the war in Iran or win authorization from Congress to continue it, after a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in pushing forward with a resolution the G.O.P. has managed to block for months.
Trump handpicked and endorsed Ed Gallrein, whose victory demonstrated the president’s influence over GOP voters and growing frustration with Massie’s opposition to Trump. In recent weeks several other Republicans have been defeated by Trump-endorsed challengers, including Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana and several Indiana state senators who defied him on redistricting.
Just 26 percent of voters said they were satisfied with the Democratic Party.
The discontent includes a significant number of Democrats who expressed reservations about their own party. Forty-four percent of Democrats described themselves as unsatisfied, while just 23 percent of Republicans said the same about their party.
“They’re just not fighting back hard enough in my eyes,” said Matthew Berryhill, 35, a recruiter from Marietta, Ga., a pivotal battleground area in the state’s key Senate race this year, who described himself as a progressive Democrat. “They come out with strong statements and strong words, and no action to back it up.”
As the Israel lobby attempts to end his political career, the Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has introduced a bill that would require lobbyists working for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, commonly known as AIPAC, to register as foreign agents.
The bill, known as the Americans Insist on Political Agent Clarity (AIPAC) Act, would amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA), which requires those working to influence government policy on behalf of a foreign power to register with the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
Though Golden, who is not seeking reelection this year, was an original cosponsor of the resolution (H.Con.Res.75) offered by fellow Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) back in March, he became the deciding vote in the 212-212 tie when it finally hit the floor—even as two Republicans broke with their party for the first time to support such a measure.
As The Washington Post notes, the resolution was “proposed early in the war by a faction of pro-Israel Democrats—Golden among them—as a compromise intended to win some Republican backing.” While it did win three Republican votes in the end, it was Golden who helped sink it.
(April 12, 2026)
Mr. Trump had long downplayed a sharp spike in gas prices driven by the war in Iran by casting it as a “short-term increase” that would subside within weeks. But on Sunday, Mr. Trump told Fox News that while he hoped gas and oil costs would drop before the midterms, prices “should be around the same” in November — and might be “a little bit higher.”
The House on Thursday narrowly defeated a War Powers Resolution that would have directed President Trump to end the US war against Iran, as the US continues to enforce a blockade of Iranian ports and is considering restarting the full-scale bombing campaign.
The bill failed in a tie vote of 212-212, with three Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (KY), Tom Barret (MI), and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) — voting in favor of ending the war. Just one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (ME), voted no.
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Joe Gruters praised the ruling in a statement provided to Fox News Digital, describing it as a „win for fairness, the rule of law, and anyone who opposes racial gerrymandering.“
„The American people don’t want to see Americans segregated by race in their congressional maps, which is exactly what was happening in Louisiana,“ he added. „Today, the Supreme Court reaffirmed a basic constitutional principle: the government cannot discriminate on the basis of race when drawing congressional maps.
DNC Chair Ken Martin, meanwhile, lamented the ruling as a „dark day for America,“ adding that the „Supreme Court just rolled back the clock on the Civil Rights Movement.“
The Supreme Court just struck down a Louisiana map that fairly represents Black voters, gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The decision was the latest, and presumably final, chapter in a long-running dispute arising from Louisiana’s efforts to adopt a new congressional map in the wake of the 2020 census. The first map that the state adopted, in 2022, had one majority-Black district out of the six allotted to the state. A group of Black voters – who comprise roughly one-third of the state’s population – went to federal court, where they alleged that the map violated Section 2 of the VRA, which prohibits discrimination in voting.
A federal judge agreed that the 2022 map likely violated Section 2, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld that ruling. It instructed Louisiana to draw a new map by January 2024 or risk having the court adopt one for it.
The map that Louisiana drew in 2024 created a second majority-Black district, leading to the election in November of that year of Cleo Fields, a former member of Congress who had represented another majority-Black district during the 1990s.
The map also prompted the lawsuit leading to Wednesday’s opinion. It was filed by a group of “non-African American” voters who contended that the 2024 map violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause by sorting voters based on race.
Recent polling on the congressional generic ballot shows Democrats with a modest advantage. The party out of power typically gains ground in midterm elections, and these early surveys suggest this may be taking shape ahead of 2026. Democrats lead in the vast majority of recent polls, though by single-digit margins. However, with redistricting efforts underway in several states, the national vote share that Democrats need to retake the House will depend on the extent of these changes.
„This budget was formulated, honestly, before we went into conflict with Iran,“ Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon‘s acting chief financial officer, told reporters at a briefing April 21.
In addition, the Trump administration separately plans to ask Congress for more than $200 billion in supplemental funding for the Iran war, according to reports.
In the 228-197 final vote, a total of four Democrats—Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Thomas R. Suozzi of New York—joined with all but 25 Republicans who voted to pass a 10-day extension. Twenty GOP members voted against it, while five did not vote.
Ahead of the votes—including on separate versions asking for a 5-year and then 18-month extensions of Section 702—opponents of any clean extension, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), said anyone opposed to warrantless spying on Americans must vote no.
(November 5, 2026)
With that in mind, my calculus is straightforward: I know that if I were to continue my campaign, I would prevail. My record of winning the most challenging district held by any Democrat — of outperforming the top and bottom of the ticket four times — speaks for itself. Regardless of what angry partisan commentators may say, I retain the trust of the coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans that has repeatedly defied the trends of political polarization by electing me.
I don’t fear losing. What has become apparent to me is that I now dread the prospect of winning. Simply put, what I could accomplish in this increasingly unproductive Congress pales in comparison to what I could do in that time as a husband, a father and a son.
The bill failed in a vote of 213-214, with just one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (ME), joining Republicans to kill the legislation. Only one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), voted in favor, while Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who supported a previous War Powers Resolution, voted “present.” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who previously suggested she might support the bill, didn’t vote.
The measure failed 47-52, with Sen. Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, joining Democrats in voting for the resolution and Sen. John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, opposing it. Sen. Jim Justice, Republican of West Virginia, did not vote. Aside from Justice’s abstention, the vote was identical to the previous war powers vote in the Senate on March 24, despite some Republican lawmakers growing increasingly vocal with their concerns about the war and the timeline to end it.
It is our responsibility as citizens of this nation to say unambiguously that what Trump is now threatening is truly evil. It’s our responsibility as human beings to demand that Trump repudiate this threat to other human beings. It is our responsibility to call on all other Americans, in whatever capacity, to stand up against this despotic act of pure immorality.
Write. Phone. Shout. March. Trump has moved beyond indecency into the realm of insanity. This must be stopped.
None of it means the 25th Amendment is around the corner. The option is difficult to invoke, requiring those closest to Trump to determine he is unfit for office and opt to remove him against his will. Vance happened to be in Hungary on Tuesday, and he called Trump on the phone so the president could address a political rally.
But it’s significant even as a brushback pitch from some erstwhile Trump allies and from Democrats. They seem to be saying that Trump had better think carefully about his next actions in the war.
It’s also worth reflecting on where things stand now.