Dems ponder what to do with newfound power and more news from the states

Good evening. What will Democrats do with all that power they amassed on Tuesday night? It’s a conversation happening around state legislatures across the country today, and we’ve got insight into some of the top priorities the party is looking to pursue in the new year. 

We’re also looking at whether outgoing Republicans will try to muscle through any final policies in lame-duck sessions across the country. Georgia’s governor said the party would no longer pursue a redistricting special session, following Tuesday’s election results. 

And our D.C. Bureau has a review of how the GOP’s pursuit of new electoral maps fared this year, and what that could mean for future elections.

For the first time in six decades, Democrats control the Arizona legislature and will be able to turn their policy priorities into state law. But doing so without ostracizing the Republican and independent voters who helped elect them may prove difficult as the party grapples with governing a state where Republican voters still outnumber registered Democrats, Arizona Mirror reports. 

After years of facing legislative gridlock under Republicans, who refused to so much as discuss Democratic proposals they ideologically opposed, party leaders are excited at the prospect of finally advancing their policy wishlist. Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, the assistant minority leader in the House, said that Democrats are looking forward to making their vision for Arizona a reality. 

Among the party’s key priorities, Gutierrez said, are affordability solutions, reproductive healthcare protections, and gun safety legislation. 

It's a discussion across the country as Democratic lawmakers from multiple states pledged to use their new statehouse power, Stateline reports. 

The Pennsylvania state Senate flipped to Democratic control for the first time since 1978, handing the party a resounding trifecta after Gov. Josh Shapiro sailed to reelection. Lawmakers said increasing the minimum wage — currently at the federal minimum of $7.25/hour — to $15 is a top priority, alongside codifying access to reproductive healthcare, Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports.

Related coverage: 

In Georgia, outgoing Republican Gov. Brian Kemp announced that he would not call a special session to push new political maps and curb the executive powers of future state leaders after the Democratic sweep in the 2026 midterms, Georgia Recorder reports.

“The voters of our state have spoken. As long as I’m governor, we will always respect the results of secure, accessible, and fair elections, and also abide by the laws and constitution of our state,” Kemp said. 

Kemp had called a special session earlier this year partly to redraw Georgia’s maps for the 2028 election after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakened key protections under the Voting Rights Act. Republican leaders ultimately decided against pursuing redistricting during the summer session, but they were widely expected to revisit it after the election. Kemp’s announcement puts an end to that speculation. 

Related coverage: 

As legislative election results continue to flow in, more Republican supermajorities are breaking, including in Utah. 

Unofficial election results show Democrats are in the lead to pick up 15 seats in the Utah House, and unaffiliated candidates are slated to take two, Utah News Dispatch reports. Republicans are on track to lose 17 seats. In the Senate, Republicans are poised to lose two seats to Democrats.

That puts Republicans on pace to lose their two-thirds, veto-proof supermajority in the House. They’re projected to still have a simple majority, 44 of the House’s 75 seats. And the Senate will still be controlled by a GOP supermajority, with 20 seats to Democrats’ eight. 

Pennsylvania: The state recorded its sixth measles death of the year as the outbreak that has sickened nearly 1,500 mostly unvaccinated people grows.

Alabama: The state is scheduled to execute a death row inmate Thursday for his role in the murders of a couple in Gadsden in 1991. He would be the third person executed in the state this year. 

Indiana: The state executed Jeffrey Weisheit shortly after midnight, after his final appeals — including challenging the state’s process for buying and storing lethal drugs — were rejected. 

Florida: The Council on American Islamic Relations suspended operations in Florida while it challenges a new state law designating the group as a domestic terrorist organization. 

New Mexico: Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that the state will join a new federal scholarship tax program created by the Trump administration, a move state teachers unions are describing as a “betrayal.”

Kansas: Early indications show Latino and Black voters across the state boosted Democratic candidates’ vote totals, leading to historic victories following sweeping federal immigration raids in the state. 

Montana: Sam Forstag was elected as the state’s first Democratic U.S. representative in three decades.

Minnesota: 3M, which is responsible for widespread groundwater contamination from forever chemicals in the eastern Twin Cities metro, will pay $7.35 billion to settle most outstanding claims.

Tennessee: A Nashville judge continued to block the state Department of Health from demanding proof of citizenship or immigration status from HIV-positive individuals enrolled in a safety-net healthcare program. 

Arkansas: The Trump administration granted a six-month grace period for the wind-down of the state Medicaid expansion program that provides health coverage to more than 200,000 people. 

Missouri: Childcare providers have classrooms sitting empty and parents eager to fill them. But with funding stretched thin, the state isn’t approving most new applications for subsidies.

Virginia: Voters in about 30% of local governments authorized their governments to collect a 1% sales tax to address rising school construction costs, while about 70% did not.

Students eat lunch at Roosevelt Elementary School in Bismarck, North Dakota, on Nov. 2. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

An attempt to guarantee free school meals to K-12 students narrowly failed at the ballot box Tuesday, but the issue isn’t going away in North Dakota. 

An advocate for free school meals said she plans to introduce legislation in 2027 to accomplish what Measure 2 failed to do. 

Rep. LaurieBeth Hager, D-Fargo, the sponsor of a free school meals bill that failed to advance in 2025, said she plans to introduce similar legislation again. 

“It’s equalizing the kids. We don’t charge them differently for books. We don’t charge them differently for using the buses,” Hager said. “It’s part of the school day and part of the learning experience.”

Read more at North Dakota Monitor.

The Republican project to gerrymander congressional districts across the country, initiated by President Donald Trump more than a year ago, failed to deliver significant wins for the party — and, in North Carolina at least, even worked against it, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

Amid a nationwide blue tsunami and voter backlash in Southern states that split apart districts where a majority of residents are Black, Democrats won seats that Republicans redrew to give themselves an advantage.

As of Thursday afternoon, Democrats had won 247 House seats, far above the 218 needed for a majority, while Republicans had won 153, according to The Associated Press. Thirty-five races had yet to be called.

In states where Republicans targeted Democratic seats for gerrymandering, the party made no net gains, according to a Wednesday memo from the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

The redistricting failure was starkest in North Carolina, where Republicans are on track to lose six seats.  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a new map aimed at securing four new GOP seats into law in May. Democrats now appear likely to retain all four.

“This is close to an extinction-level event for Republicans in many parts of the country,” DeSantis said at a news conference Wednesday as he broadly described his party’s losses.

Related: Maryland governor wants new congressional maps after Question 3 victory

President Trump signed an executive order Thursday to establish the Oval Office and White House Cabinet Room as a national monument in order to prevent any major renovations to those spaces that are not approved by Congress, the D.C. Bureau reports.

Trump, who tore down the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom and has decked out the Oval Office in gold fixtures, said “no major modifications” should be made to those rooms without the approval of Congress. 

“We’ve had a lot of victories in this office,” Trump said. “So we’re making it a national monument, and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people.”

Arkansas filed lawsuits Wednesday against online prediction market Kalshi and an Australian company operating an online “sweepstakes casino,” accusing them of running illegal gambling operations, Arkansas Advocate reports.

Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin filed the lawsuits against Kalshi and VGW, an online gaming platform that features such games as Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Casino, LuckyLand Slots, and Global Poker.

The lawsuit against Kalshi is the latest in a wave of actions states have taken accusing the online prediction market operator of skirting anti-gambling laws.

“It doesn’t take a genius to understand that wagering money on whether the Razorbacks win or lose is gambling,” Griffin said in a news release. “And gambling on an unregulated platform is squarely prohibited by Arkansas law.”

VGW has faced complaints from other states and earlier this year paid $8 million to New York regulators following a cease-and-desist letter from that state’s attorney general.