Dems

Nov. 4 (UPI) — As voters across the country headed to the polls Tuesday, Democrats running in high-profile races are on track to be sent to governor’s mansions in New Jersey and Virginia and the mayor’s office in New York City.

New York City

Zohran Mamdani was poised Tuesday night to be the next mayor of New York City, besting former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a race that was closely watched nationwide, including by President Donald Trump.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old state lawmaker who ran as a democratic socialist, was projected to win the mayoral contest against Cuomo, who ran as an independent and with the last-minute backing of Trump, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the volunteer Guardian Angels crime prevention organization.

According to preliminary results from the city’s board of elections, Mamdani held 50.3% of the vote, representing more than 972,000 ballots cast. Cuomo was in second with 41.6% and Sliwa at third with 7.1%.

Mamdani claimed victory in a short video posted to X of a subway car coming to a stop at City Hall.

The race was largely a rematch of June’s Democratic primary where Mamdani beat Cuomo for the party’s nomination in a contest that was seen as a fight between the party’s progressive and establishment wings.

Mamdani’s platform included implementing a rent freeze, making bus transit free, offering free childcare for children aged 6 weeks to 5 years and raising the corporate tax rate while taxing the wealthiest New Yorkers at a flat 2%.

Cuomo ran on his extensive experience as a former governor of the state and prioritized improving public safety, including surging subway transit police. In contrast to Mamdani, Cuomo presented himself as a business-friendly centrist who could work with Trump, who injected himself late into the race.

Trump, who endorsed Cuomo Monday, has repeatedly called Mamdani a “communist” and said if he wins, “it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing federal funds, other than the very minimum required, to my beloved first home.”

Virginia

Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, claimed victory Tuesday night over Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to become the commonwealth’s 75th governor and first woman to hold its highest office.

Speaking to supporters during an election night watch party in Richmond, Spanberger vowed to serve all Virginians, including those who did not vote for her.

“And that means I will listen to you, work for you and with you,” she said.

“That is the approach I have taken throughout my entire career. I have worked with anyone and everyone regardless of political party to deliver results to the people that I serve. And that is because I believe in this idea that there is so much more that unites us as Virginians and as Americans than divides us,” she said.

“And I know — I know in my heart — we can unite for Virginia’s future and we can set an example for the rest of the nation.”

According to preliminary state results, Spanberger received 56.3% of the vote share for 1.2 million ballots compared to Earle-Sears’ 43.2%, or roughly 968,100 votes, with 107 out of 133 localities reporting.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was among the first to comment on Spanberger’s victory, telling Virginians that she “won’t let you down.”

“Tonight, Virginians came together to send a resounding message that folks are ready to stand up for our freedoms and fight for our future,” he said in a statement on X.

“In the face of all the chaos from Washington and the attacks on our democracy, Abigail Spanberger brought people together around a vision for a better, more affordable future for Virginia.”

Polls closed at 7 p.m. EST.

She will replace Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who was barred by Virginia’s unusual constitutional limit on governors being elected to consecutive terms.

Democrats are hoping a win by Spanberger will further cement Virginia’s blue state status ahead of next year’s midterm elections, ABC News reported.

“It is only in Virginia and New Jersey that we have statewide elections where we can prove to the rest of the country — when given, when we have an opportunity to make a change at home in our state, we will take it,” Spanberger said at a recent campaign rally.

“We know the stakes of this election, and we know what we are for. We are for a governor focused relentlessly on lower costs on housing, healthcare and energy.”

Trump, meanwhile, did not officially endorse Earle-Sears, but on Monday he urged Virginia Republicans to show up to the polls, according to The Washington Post.

“Get out and vote for these unbelievably great Republican candidates up and down the line,” he said in a telephone call with supporters.

If elected, Earle-Sears would have been the first Black woman to serve as governor in any state.

New Jersey

In New Jersey, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, claimed victory in a race against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who ran in his third bid for governor.

Sherrill, speaking to supporters in East Brunswick, said her opponent conceded defeat.

“This was a tough fight and this is a tough state, but I know you, New Jersey, and I love you,” she said during her victory speech.

“I fought for you, I’ve spoken with thousands of you over the last year. I know your struggles, your hopes, I know your dreams. So serving you is worth any tough fight I have to take on and I’m incredibly honored to be your next governor.”

The traditionally blue state had a larger share of red voters than typical in the 2024 election, and Trump lost the state by 6 points, down significantly from the nearly 16 points he lost by in 2020.

Trump endorsed Ciattarelli, but didn’t campaign for him in person. Trump did take part in a telephone rally on Monday night, MSNBC reported. He also put his weight behind the Republican in multiple Truth Social posts, including one geared toward Lakewood, N.J.’s Orthodox Jewish population on Sunday.

“Your votes in this Election will save New Jersey, a State that is near and dear to my heart,” Trump wrote, saying they “will rue the day” they voted for Sherrill.

Hours into voting Tuesday, officials shut down polling stations throughout New Jersey and moved voting to new election sites after receiving bomb threats via email. Law enforcement said the threats involving polling places in Bergen, Essex, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Passaic Counties were not credible.

Former President Barack Obama, meanwhile, campaigned in support of Sherrill, speaking at a rally in Newark on Saturday.

“If you meet this moment, if you believe change can happen, you will not just elect Mikie Sherrill as your next governor, you will not just put New Jersey on a brighter path, you will set a glorious example for this nation,” he said, according to the New Jersey Monitor.

Ballot measures

On the West Coast, Californians voted for what could be the most consequential ballot measure this year as they decide whether to adopt a new congressional map that is designed to give Democrats an edge in the midterm election. Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed the redistricting in retaliation to a new electoral map in Texas that favors Republicans.

Proposition 50 would redraw the congressional map to make five districts more Democratic-leaning, potentially neutralizing the effects of the new Texas map. Democrats across the country, including Obama, have supported Newsom’s plan as a way to counter Republican gerrymandering in predominantly red states.

“We have a chance at least to create a level playing field in the upcoming midterm elections,” Obama told Prop 50 supporters on a campaign call.

California Republicans, however, accused Democrats, themselves, of gerrymandering, with U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley calling it a “plague on democracy,” according to ABC News.

“I think it takes power away from voters, undermines the fairness of elections and degrades representative government,” he said.

Other key races

Pennsylvania voters will vote on whether to retain three Democratic justices on the state supreme court for new 10-year terms. The court’s 5-2 Democratic majority could be at stake.

Voters in the Houston area will vote in a special election to fill the U.S. House seat for Texas’ 18th Congressional District. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee died in 2024 and the winner of the seat in the 2024 general election, former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, died three months into office.

Tuesday’s race is a primary, which will eventually go into a runoff.

Oct. 22 (UPI) — House Democrats are launching a probe of allegations that President Donald Trump is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from the Justice Department in compensation for investigations conducted against him before he won a second term .

House Judiciary Committee Democrats announced in a statement Tuesday that ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., was launching an investigation into the president’s “shakedown of taxpayers.”

The announcement of the investigation was announced in response to a New York Times report that said Trump is demanding the Justice Department pay him some $230 million in compensation.

Trump submitted at least two administrative complaints, the first in 2023 and the second in 2024, seeking compensation, ABC News also reported.

The first administrative claim seeks damages for purported violations of his rights in connection with the investigation into alleged ties between his 2016 election campaign and Russia.

The second seeks claims over allegations is in connection with the August 2022 FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence and subsequent investigation and prosecution on charges that he mishandled classified documents after he left office following the completion of his first term.

Asked about the reports during a press conference at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said he wasn’t aware of the amount being sought but stated he should be compensated.

“I was damaged very greatly and any money I would get, I would give to charity,” he said.

Trump also acknowledged the unprecedented nature and potential ethical issues, stating “I’m the one who makes the decision.”

“And that decision would have to go cross my desk and it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself,” he said.

House Judiciary Committee Democrats chastised Trump, accusing him of “robbing America blind.”

“This is exactly why the Constitution forbids the president from taking any more from the government outside of his official salary,” they said in a statement. “This is Donald Trump First, America Last — the Gangster State at work, billionaires shaking down the people.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., described it as Trump “extorting his own Justice Department” and as “unprecedented, unfathomable corruption.”

“Eye watering conflicts of interests,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement. “More corrupt self enrichment.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed a suite of privacy protection bills for transgender patients amid continuing threats by the Trump administration.

But there was one glaring omission that LGBTQ+ advocates and political strategists say is part of an increasingly complex dance the Democrat faces as he curates a more centrist profile for a potential presidential bid.

Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required insurers to cover, and pharmacists to dispense, 12 months of hormone therapy at one time to transgender patients and others. The proposal was a top priority for trans rights leaders, who said it was crucial to preserve care as clinics close or limit gender-affirming services under White House pressure.

Political experts say Newsom’s veto highlights how charged trans care has become for Democrats nationally and, in particular, for Newsom, who as San Francisco mayor engaged in civil disobedience by allowing gay couples to marry at City Hall. The veto, along with his lukewarm response to anti-trans rhetoric, they argue, is part of an alarming pattern that could damage his credibility with key voters in his base.

“Even if there were no political motivations whatsoever under Newsom’s decision, there are certainly political ramifications of which he is very aware,” said Dan Schnur, a former GOP political strategist who is now a politics lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley. “He is smart enough to know that this is an issue that’s going to anger his base, but in return, may make him more acceptable to large numbers of swing voters.”

Earlier this year on Newsom’s podcast, the governor told the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk that trans athletes competing in women’s sports was “deeply unfair,” triggering a backlash among his party’s base and LGBTQ+ leaders. And he has described trans issues as a “major problem for the Democratic Party,” saying Donald Trump’s trans-focused campaign ads were “devastating” for his party in 2024.

Still, in a conversation with YouTube streamer ConnorEatsPants this month, Newsom defended himself “as a guy who’s literally put my political life on the line for the community for decades, has been a champion and a leader.”

“He doesn’t want to face the criticism as someone who, I’m sure, is trying to line himself up for the presidency, when the current anti-trans rhetoric is so loud,” said Ariela Cuellar, a spokesperson for the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network.

Caroline Menjivar, the state senator who introduced the measure, described her bill as “the most tangible and effective” measure this year to help trans people at a time when they are being singled out for what she described as “targeted discrimination.”

In a legislature in which Democrats hold supermajorities in both houses, lawmakers sent the bill to Newsom on a party-line vote. Earlier this year, Washington became the first to enact a state law extending hormone therapy coverage to a 12-month supply.

In a veto message on the California bill, Newsom cited its potential to drive up health care costs, impacts that an independent analysis found would be negligible.

“At a time when individuals are facing double-digit rate increases in their health care premiums across the nation, we must take great care to not enact policies that further drive up the cost of health care, no matter how well-intended,” Newsom wrote.

Under the Trump administration, federal agencies have been directed to limit access to gender-affirming care for children, which Trump has referred to as “chemical and surgical mutilation,” and demanded documents from or threatened investigations of institutions that provide it.

In recent months, Stanford Medicine, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Kaiser Permanente have reduced or eliminated gender-affirming care for patients under 19, a sign of the chilling effect Trump’s executive orders have had on health care, even in one of the nation’s most progressive states.

California already mandates wide coverage of gender-affirming health care, including hormone therapy, but pharmacists can currently dispense only a 90-day supply. Menjivar’s bill would have allowed 12-month supplies, modeled after a 2016 law that allowed women to receive an annual supply of birth control.

Luke Healy, who told legislators at an April hearing that he was “a 24-year-old detransitioner” and no longer believed he was a woman, criticized the attempt to increase coverage of services he thought were “irreversibly harmful” to him.

“I believe that bills like this are forcing doctors to turn healthy bodies into perpetual medical problems in the name of an ideology,” Healy testified.

The California Association of Health Plans opposed the bill over provisions that would limit the use of certain practices such as prior authorization and step therapy, which require insurer approval before care is provided and force patients and doctors to try other therapies first.

“These safeguards are essential for applying evidence-based prescribing standards and responsibly managing costs — ensuring patients receive appropriate care while keeping premiums in check,” said spokesperson Mary Ellen Grant.

An analysis by the California Health Benefits Review Program, which independently reviews bills relating to health insurance, concluded that annual premium increases resulting from the bill’s implementation would be negligible and that “no long-term impacts on utilization or cost” were expected.

Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, said Newsom’s economic argument was “not plausible.” Although he said he considers Newsom a strong ally of the transgender community, Minter noted he was “deeply disappointed” to see the governor’s veto.

“I understand he’s trying to respond to this political moment, and I wish he would respond to it by modeling language and policies that can genuinely bring people along.”

Newsom’s press office declined to comment further.

Following the podcast interview with Kirk, Cuellar said, advocacy groups backing SB 418 grew concerned about a potential veto and made a point to highlight voices of other patients who would benefit, including menopausal women and cancer patients. It was a starkly different strategy than what they might have done before Trump took office.

“Had we run this bill in 2022-2023, the messaging would have been totally different,” said another proponent who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

“We could have been very loud and proud. In 2023, we might have gotten a signing ceremony.”

Advocates for trans rights were so wary of the current political climate that some also felt the need to steer clear of promoting a separate bill that would have expanded coverage of hormone therapy and other treatments for menopause and perimenopause. That bill, authored by Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who has spoken movingly about her struggles with health care for perimenopause, was also vetoed.

In the meantime, said Jovan Wolf, a trans man and military veteran, patients like him will be left to suffer. Wolf, who had taken testosterone for more than 15 years, tried to restart hormone therapy in March, following a two-year hiatus in which he contemplated having children.

Doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs told him it was too late. Days earlier, the Trump administration had announced it would phase out hormone therapy and other treatments for gender dysphoria.

“Having estrogen pumping through my body, it’s just not a good feeling for me, physically, mentally. And when I’m on testosterone, I feel balanced,” said Wolf, who eventually received care elsewhere. “It should be my decision and my decision only.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Oct. 9 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate will hold another vote on a measure to fund the government Thursday as the government shutdown enters its ninth day.

A vote in the U.S. Senate is expected around 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday. On Wednesday, the Senate held its sixth failed vote on two stopgap funding measures — one each from the Democrats and Republicans. The Republican bill passed in the House.

Democrats are holding fast to their demands for healthcare reforms, while Republicans want to pass funding through Nov. 21.

President Donald Trump continued to threaten not to give back pay to workers after the shutdown, saying that some workers don’t deserve it.

The Internal Revenue Service announced furloughs on Wednesday for 34,000 workers, which is about half of its staff. There are now about 750,000 furloughed government workers.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he may allow votes on bills to fund parts of the government, CBS News reported. One is the defense appropriations bill, which has already passed the House of Representatives.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told callers on C-SPAN Thursday morning that Democrats are the ones keeping the government closed.

“The Democrats are the ones that are preventing you from getting a check,” he said. “Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are preventing your family from getting the care they need, not Republicans, and my heart goes out to you.”

Oct. 1 (UPI) — The U.S. government shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday after the Trump administration and Democrats failed to agree on a funding resolution, trigging a blame game and creating uncertainty over the future of federal programs and employees.

Over Tuesday, both sides failed to pass legislation to keep the government open — a stalemate the product of Republicans trying to pass a funding resolution that holds spending flat for the rest of the year, while Democrats are adamant that the resolution protect and expand medical coverage for millions of Americans who could lose their insurance by the end 2025.

After the deadline passed, each side was quick to blame the other.

“It’s midnight. The Republican shutdown has just begun because Republicans wouldn’t protect America’s healthcare,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate minority leader, said in a recorded statement posted to X.

“We are going to keep fighting for the American people.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in turn, blamed the Democrats.

“Democrats have officially voted to CLOSE the government,” he said on X.

“The only question now: How long will Chuck Schumer let this pain go on — for his own selfish reasons?”

It’s the fourth government shutdown under a President Donald Trump administration, and the first since late 2018, when the government closed for 35 days. The fight was over billions in border-wall funding Trump wanted that the Democrats resisted.

According to a Congressional Budget Office report, some 75,000 federal workers are at risk of furloughed, though the Trump administration has threatened to fire them and slash government programs.

Last week, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum threatening mass firings of federal employees if “congressional Democrats” do not agree to the Trump administration’s proposal.

During a press conference in the White House earlier Tuesday as the shutdown loomed, Trump said if the government closes, they could cut programs, the federal budget and benefits.

“The last person who wants it shut down is us. Now, with that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump said.

“So, they’re taking a big risk by having a shutdown.”

The threat of mass firings was swiftly met Tuesday by a lawsuit from federal worker unions, challenging it as an unlawful abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Democrats.

“Announcing plans to fire potentially tens of thousands of federal employees simply because Congress and the administration are at odds on funding the government past the end of the fiscal year is not only illegal — it’s immoral and unconscionable, American Federation of Government Employees President Lee Saunders told UPI in an emailed statement.

“If these mass firings take place, the people who keep our skies safe for travel, our food supply secure and our communities protected will lose their jobs.”

Republicans have attempted to frame the Democrats’ healthcare demands as support for undocumented migrants, while Democrats lambasted their GOP counterparts for lying.

“This is a lie,” Schumer said on X in response to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller accusing the Democrats of not supporting the GOP’s spending resolution “because it doesn’t give free healthcare to illegals.”

“Not a single federal dollar goes to providing health insurance for undocumented immigrants. NOT. ONE. PENNY,” Schumer responded to the pair on X.

“Republicans would rather lie and shut down the government down than protect your healthcare.”

Sept. 26 (UPI) — Amazon has reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that is raising concerns from Democrats who say the tech giant was given a slap on the wrist.

The FTC announced the settlement Thursday in a case that was brought against Amazon in June 2023 during the Biden administration.

The settlement resolves allegations that Amazon misled millions of Americans to enroll in its Prime subscription via deceptive user interfaces and then made it difficult for them to cancel.

The announcement was made days after the trial began. The agreement requires approval by a district judge before it can go into effect.

“The evidence showed that Amazon used sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers into enrolling in Prime, and then made it exceedingly hard for consumers to end their subscription,” FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.

“Today, we are putting billions of dollars back into Americans’ pockets, and making sure Amazon never does this again.”

Amazon, however, claims it did nothing wrong, and the settlement makes this issue no longer a distraction.

“Amazon and our executives have always followed the law and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,” it said in a statement.

“We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for consumers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world.”

Under the agreement, Amazon will pay a $1 billion civil penalty, which the FTC said was the largest ever in an FTC rule-violation case, as well as refund $1.5 billion to consumers, the second-highest restitution award obtained by the FTC.

Despite the agreement’s benchmark, Democrats are saying the monetary compensation is not enough as Prime aided Amazon in generating $11.7 billion in subscription services in the first quarter of this year alone. It also does not hold executives accountable, they said.

“The Trump administration’s settlement fails to hold Amazon executives accountable for their actions,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement.

“This fine is less than 1% of Amazon’s revenue last year — it’s effectively a slap on the wrist.”

Lina Khan, the former FTC chairwoman, who brought the case against Amazon, described the settlement as “rescuing” Amazon from being found liabel in the trial and allowing it “to pay its way out.”

“A $2.5 billion fine is a drop in the bucket for Amazon and, no doubt, a big relief for the executives who knowingly harmed their customers,” she said in a statement.

Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron draped himself in an England flag and declared his love for his country at the opening night rally of the party’s conference in Bournemouth.

“We will not have our history, our heritage, and our home stolen by the poison of nationalism,” the MP roared as he called on members to “reclaim patriotism” from the far right.

Farron’s flag also featured a union jack in one corner. And confetti cannons rained glitter over him as the brass bombast of Land of Hope and Glory rang out and a giant union jack appeared on the screen behind him.

The theatrics seemed to work, as a membership sometimes mocked for its mild-mannered approach got to its collective feet and filled the air with whoops of approval and the flutter of hundreds of mini flags.

Farron told a hall full of activists to “stop being so flaming squeamish and English” and reclaim the UK’s flags from groups who seek to “divide and destroy”.

“Be proud of your country, the British flag and the flags of our four nations,” he said. “They are ours. They belong to all of us. Let’s take them back. Let’s wave them with pride.”

“Let us reclaim our flags for those who would reunite and rebuild, not divide and destroy, because we will not yield our identity, our flag, or our country, to the nationalists.

“A Britain that may be broken by the wickedness of hatred, fake news and isolation, but a Britain that I passionately believe is not beyond healing.”

At the end of his speech, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale held aloft the giant England flag bearing the slogans “Pride of Lancashire” and “Rovers til I Die”, in support of his football team Blackburn Rovers.

The Liberal Democrats are going all out this week to claim that they are the true patriots, in contrast to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who they have dubbed a “plastic patriot”.

They have even created a “plastic patriot” Farage Lego figure, which is included in a welcome pack being handed out to journalists.

For a party that has largely shunned flag-waving displays of national pride, this is a new departure.

But the party’s MPs are eager to take the fight to Reform and insert themselves into the national debate, as St George’s Cross and Union flag are displayed in towns and cities across the UK.

Leader Sir Ed Davey was greeted by a flag-waving crowd of party activists as he led a marching band through Bournemouth Central Gardens, twirling a baton – a deliberately patriotic twist on his trademark stunts.

The band, which had arrived on the ferry from the Isle of Wight, played Sweet Caroline, a favourite among England football fans, as they came to a halt in front of the Bournemouth conference centre.

Elsewhere, a group calling themselves “Bournemouth Patriots” protested outside a hotel in the town being used to house migrants.

The group stood with national flags outside of the Roundhouse Hotel in the centre of the town, and were met by a counter-protest.

The Lib Dem leader told reporters: “The vast majority of people who’ve got decent values, respect for the rule of law, tolerance, who love our country like the Liberal Democrats do.

“They want to see a party that is true to British values but will change our country.”

Aug. 20 (UPI) — Texas state House Republicans are about to pass their redistricting bill Wednesday as the session reconvenes at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday.

Texas Republicans will pass the bill, encouraged by President Donald Trump, which will likely give the state an extra five Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, after weeks of protests from Democrats in the state House.

Because of their minority in the House, Democrats have no way to block passage of the redistricting bills. They have vowed to fight in the courts to prevent the new maps from being used.

In the first special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott, Democrats fled the state for two weeks so that the House wouldn’t have a quorum. Once the session timed out and Abbott called a new special session, Democrats returned to the state and a new battle ensued.

Once Democrats came back to the capitol in Austin, they were not allowed to leave the chamber without a “permission slip,” a police escort and 24-hour surveillance to ensure they don’t leave the state again.

One lawmaker, Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, spent Monday night in the capitol building, refusing to sign the paper. She said she plans to stay until Wednesday’s session. Since then, several other Democrats tore up their waivers and joined her.

“This is a civil discussion and disagreement, and in order to win, the other side is willing to use force — to use the arms of a state to get what they want. Good guys don’t do that,” Texas House Democratic Caucus leader Rep. Gene Wu, told CNN.

Wu and Rep. Vince Perez, D-El Paso, who signed the waivers, stayed with Collier through Monday night.

Wednesday’s session is expected to last all day and possibly into the evening, as there must be time to consider the map, consider amendments and have several votes.

“It’s going to be a long day,” Rep Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, told the New York Times.

The new state map introduced last month has been revised. It would still add the five seats but also strengthen already-Republican districts by adding Republican voters to those districts. The state’s current districts, passed four years ago, are already being challenged in court, and a ruling is expected this fall.

“Please pass this map ASAP,” Trump posted on social media Monday. “Thank you, Texas!”

Republicans have 25 of the state’s 38 seats.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already begun the process of redistricting the state to counteract Texas’ efforts. Other Republican- and Democrat-led states have vowed to get in on the process.