Politics and views in the United States.

Aging Democrats may imperil a possible House majority next year, South Carolina requests the Supreme Court uphold its transgender bathroom ban in schools and the redistricting arms race is likely to reduce the power of people of color. 

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times. (chattering)

This is gonna continue to be an issue where both parties might be putting their majorities into jeopardy if they are relying so much on these much older members of Congress who may have significant health issues.

Boise State political scientist, Charlie Hunt, says a reliance on older politicians is likely to make it harder to build stable, productive majorities in the closely divided Congress.

It's an issue for both parties, but the last eight members who have died in office were Democrats.

In New York City, several progressive newcomers have unseated older rivals.

Longtime Representative Jerry Nadler will be 79 years old on Election Day, but faces 26-year-old political organizer Liam Elkind in the primary.

Oysterman and 40-year-old Marine Corps veteran Graham Platner has launched a Democratic Senate bid in Maine, even as Minority Leader Chuck Schumer works to convince 77-year-old Governor Janet Mills to run.

President Donald Trump's administration is pushing further to erode Congress' power of the purse.

The White House Budget Office says Trump used a "pocket rescission" to cancel nearly $5 billion in foreign aid, challenging court rulings saying once Congress appropriates funds, the executive branch must spend them as allocated.

The question is likely to become an important court fight.

Legal experts say the current redistricting arms race that started in Texas could well dilute the votes of blacks and Latinos, typically by fragmenting urban districts and attaching fragments of them to conservative rural areas.

Republican lawmakers in Missouri and Indiana say they're considering cracking Kansas City and Indianapolis-based districts in two.

Sarah Rohani with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund says that resembles how voters of color have been excluded in the past.

In 2025, it's clear that our fight for fair maps continues and to ensure that every single vote counts and to ensure that voters of color have equal opportunity and representation in this country.

The new district maps in Texas are being challenged in court on the grounds that they violate the Voting Rights Act protections for minority voters.

That law is turning 60 this month.

But the Supreme Court's Shelby County decision stripped federal oversight of voting in states that historically disenfranchised black voters.

Georgia Democratic Congresswoman Nikema Williams says without the proposed John Lewis Voting Rights Act, too many people will have trouble exercising their access to the ballot.

It depends on your zip code.

It depends on your bank account.

It depends on who you are, what your access to the ballot should be, and that should not be the case.

Creating an open Senate seat in a state that previously leaned Republican, Iowa GOP Senator Joni Ernst says she won't seek re-election.

Ernst had replied to a town hall comment that people will die due to Medicaid cuts by saying "everyone dies."

Democrats on House Homeland Security are demanding an investigation into Homeland Security's decision not to retain some potentially controversial text messages.

The agency denied access to public immigration enforcement records to a non-profit organization.

South Carolina is asking the Supreme Court to lift a lower court injunction on its policy of forcing transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender at birth in public schools.

I'm Simone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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