Today’s notice: Redistricting fever. Democrats’ new plan involves actually talking to people who don’t like them. A look at some potentially revealing Senate hearings today. Plus: The lawmakers asking Kash Patel to take an alcohol-abuse test.

THE LATEST

As expected: a nail-biter in Virginia. It was a margin tight enough that even some experienced Democrats were sweating early in the night, but in the end voters approved a bid to redraw the commonwealth’s congressional map to eliminate all but one safe Republican seat.

The law of unintended consequences is in effect. A process started by Donald Trump and his allies in Republican states has sown chaos across the country, but not always in the ways MAGA had planned.

Democrats in California and Virginia largely unified on redistricting, even as those in states like Maryland remain divided. Big party names like Barack Obama and the nascent contenders for the 2028 presidential nomination have supported the measures.

Meanwhile, the process has proven a tough sell for plenty of Republicans. The Indiana GOP ignored a pressure campaign from MAGA allies to reject new lines and plenty of prominent Republican voices outside the president’s inner circle have never fully gotten on board.

What happened? Both sides really did try to win in Virginia, with big spending and big campaign infrastructure. In the end, Democrats had the numbers they needed.

What comes next? Democratic gloating that could soon be followed by Democratic angst. Republicans control enough states to make redistricting a bigger boon for them and may flex that power as soon as next week in Florida, a huge state with a lot of seats to move around.

The quote that summarizes things quite nicely: “Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted in celebration of the Virginia win. But it might as well be everyone’s motto for the next few months.

Open tabs: U.S. operations against Iran expand to Indian Ocean with tanker capture (WaPo); Trump Is Said to Be in Talks to Send Afghans Who Aided U.S. Forces to Congo (NYT); Southern Poverty Law Center Indicted Over Its Past Use of Paid Informants (NOTUS); Contract reveals fundraising deal for financing Trump’s East Wing overhaul (CBS)

From the campaign trail

Democratic talk therapy? Since last year, volunteers with the Democratic-aligned group Swing Left have knocked on Republicans’ doors in battleground districts across the country and … talked with them. The volunteers are trained to act very differently than traditional door knockers, eschewing scripted answers for 10- to 15-minute human conversations where the aim is to make real connections. NOTUS’ Alex Roarty and Christa Dutton detail the effort, called Ground Truth, which is growing across the country and has earned recognition from more traditional party arms like the DCCC.

The innovation here is not just the talk, supporters say. After one of these chats, volunteers are asked to record their observations into an app that helps create more data campaigns can use in persuasion efforts.

From the Hill

A political epic in the upper chamber today: When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears before two Senate panels, he will serve as the main character in a drama co-starring two of those committees’ most senior Republicans, NOTUS’ Paige Winfield Cunningham and Margaret Manto report. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Barrasso are both doctors, and both have been critical of the health secretary’s anti-vaccine policies. But Cassidy is running for reelection in a state where MAHA is growing in power.

Watch closely how they question RFK Jr., Paige and Margaret write. It will be the first time Kennedy has appeared before the committees in months. What these two senators choose to bring up and not bring up could say a lot about the pressures facing Republican politicians these days.

Bonus preview: When Cassidy was asked by NOTUS’ Torrie Herrington yesterday about the Pentagon lifting a flu-vaccine requirement for active-duty personnel, he didn’t jump at the chance to debate vaccine efficacy. “I’m not familiar with that, so let me look into it,” he said. (Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker, not up for reelection in his red state until 2030, called the policy change a mistake.)

Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost has started a collection of trading cards to commemorate all of the legislation he has sponsored. Obtained by NOTUS

First on NOTUS: Gotta catch ’em all. You’re looking at the latest legislative trading card release from Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, shared first with NOTUS ahead of the congressman’s office filing the legislation today. Frost has quietly built up a big collection of these, one for each of the major bills he’s sponsored. They’re made in-house by his office’s creative director, Erin Swauger.

The point of them is to make the often complicated business of legislating easier for constituents to understand and literally get their hands around. Frost carries some cards around to events, and his D.C. office and his district office both keep a collection. At bill release events, staff hand out “first editions.” (It helps that Frost, a committed Yu-Gi-Oh! player, is native to this world.)

This is a DIY project that could easily be really dorky. But Frost aides say that among Democratic digital communications staff regularly sharing ideas with each other, the trading cards have made a big impression. Why? Because they solve a real problem: saying a lot in a tiny amount of space, and saying it memorably.

From your favorite podcast app

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey who is a vice chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, talked to Reese Gorman for the latest episode of On NOTUS about why he’ll still work with Republicans even if Democrats win back the House and Senate. “I’m a big believer the whole point you come here is to get shit done and to make progress with the people you represent,” he said. “I’m not here to be in the entertainment business. I’m here to work and to legislate, and that’s the job and I feel very strongly about that.”

NEW ON NOTUS

Prove it: Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding that Kash Patel take an alcohol-abuse test or testify under oath following a bombshell report filled with allegations that the FBI director has engaged in excessive drinking and exhibited erratic behavior since being appointed to the role.

The lawmakers sent a letter to Patel this morning with a request to see documents related to his security clearance, along with associated internal notes, by Tuesday at 5 p.m., NOTUS’ Kadia Goba reports.

Mississippi money: The median annual household income in Mississippi is $56,447, but the median net worth of Republican Rep. Michael Guest is $9.7 million. For Rep. Bennie Thompson, that number is $3.3 million, NOTUS’ Violet Jira and Torrence Banks report as part of the latest installment in NOTUS’ Capitol Gains project.

Neither of Mississippi’s two Republican senators have a median net worth as large as either Guest’s or Thompson’s, Violet and Torrence write. Wicker and Republican Rep. Mike Ezell both report in public disclosures that their liabilities exceed their assets.

More: Lawmakers Eye Changes to Ethics Process for Sexual Misconduct, by Daniella Diaz and Oriana González

General Motors Posts Record Lobbying Spending in Early 2026, by Taylor Giorno

MAGA-Aligned Lawmakers Target a Republican Colleague for Her Immigration Bill, by Oriana González

NOT US

• Dan Eggen, who shaped politics coverage at The Washington Post, dies at 60, by Matt Schudel for The Washington Post
  
• Inside the Collapse of Trump’s Scandal-Plagued Labor Secretary, by Ian Kullgren and Parker Purifoy for Bloomberg Law
  
• ‘We were terrified they were going to kill us’: fishers who survived US boat strike speak out, by Harriet Barber for The Guardian
  
• Montana Democrats thought they found a novel way to win control of the U.S. Senate—until the party faithful started fighting back, by Michael Scherer for The Atlantic

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Correction: This story has been updated to accurately reflect the end of Sen. John Barrasso’s term. He is up for reelection in 2030.