Gerrymandering efforts flop and more news from the states

Happy Friday, readers. Is it just us, or did this week feel a little … longer than usual?

As results from Tuesday’s midterm elections continue to roll in, one outcome is not in dispute: 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, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports.

In a visit to North Dakota yesterday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stopped at a ranch to talk about the importance of soil health for human health, and he met with Native American tribal leaders, who told him they need federal resources to address healthcare disparities.

Keep reading for more news on elections, measles deaths, Trump’s capital projects and more.

We hope you have a good weekend.

Colorado: Voters approved a ballot measure that will ban transgender children from playing school sports. The measure will add language in state statute to define boys and girls based on physical anatomy, excluding transgender people.

Arkansas: Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin asked a federal judge to end a 35-year-old order establishing multiple majority-Black judicial districts in the state, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened a key part of the Voting Rights Act. 

Maine: Lewiston will become the state’s largest municipality to restrict syringe service programs, after a majority of voters on Tuesday opted to pass a referendum to bring back needle exchange limits.

Washington: Democrats in the state House of Representatives are eyeing a supermajority as Thursday vote tallies put them on course to unseat half a dozen incumbent Republicans and flip a GOP-held seat in Puget Sound.

Montana: Less than two days after voters passed a ballot initiative to ban corporations, organizations and “artificial entities” from contributing to candidates, a lawsuit was filed in federal court alleging it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

See the rest of the news of the day from all 50 states, plus our D.C. Bureau and Stateline, on News From The States.

Last month, a state House committee recommended reconsidering the contents of a sidelined bill from last session that sought to expand rabies vaccine exemptions for New Hampshire pets. 

The bill was sent for interim study by the full New Hampshire House in March and, with the 2026 session closed and the biennium winding down, was no longer eligible for passage. Instead, the committee voted, 10-1, to recommend the topic be addressed in future legislation, New Hampshire Bulletin reports.

That move came as a surprise to some, because there is broad consensus among veterinarians that the rabies vaccine — which protects against a disease both transmissible to humans and universally fatal — is safe and lifesaving. 

Yet the bill was driven forward by pet owners concerned about the rare but non-zero occurrence of adverse reactions to the vaccine, reflecting the increasing prevalence of hesitancy around both human and pet shots that is driving the resurgence of some infectious diseases in the U.S.

Democrats won big on Tuesday. What’s next for American democracy?

An enormous blue wave crashed over all levels of government this midterm cycle. Congressional seats, governor’s mansions and state legislatures flipped from Republican to Democrat, some in surprising fashion. Democrats claimed “trifecta” power in some state capitals, broke supermajorities in others and won other influential statewide offices.

For months, the Trump administration tried to assert federal control over the election process to bolster Republicans’ chances of maintaining power. President Donald Trump pushed GOP-led states to gerrymander their congressional districts, demanded state voter rolls through legal challenges and threatened to send armed federal agents to the polls.

Despite fears about possible interference or intimidation heading into Election Day, voters turned out en masse and have shifted the course of policymaking over the next several years in their states and on Capitol Hill.

In Episode 53, we’re reflecting on the state of American democracy, election integrity and what Tuesday’s results could mean for policymaking in reshaped statehouses.

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President Donald 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, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports.

Trump, who tore down the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom, said “no major modifications” should be made to those rooms without the approval of Congress. 

After this week’s midterm elections, in which Republicans lost majorities in both chambers of Congress, the president has focused on renovation projects across Washington, D.C. 

In his last appearance before Election Day, Trump held a news conference at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The day after Republicans’ devastating losses across the country, his post-election press conference focused on updates about the construction of the ballroom.