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This year's redistricting process reduced electoral competition, giving incumbents bolstered protection. But not every officeholder gets a break, even if members of their own party help draw the maps.

Take Rep. Tom Malinowski, the Democrat incumbent of New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, which he flipped from red to blue in 2018, maintaining his seat by fewer than two points in 2020. Now, thanks to a new map, the district inherits a large chunk of Republican voters, putting Malinowski on the ropes again, with his seat vulnerable to Republican takeover.

And with only five seats needed to give the GOP control of the House, the political stakes of the crop of newly competitive races for seats currently held by Democrats couldn't be higher.

"This is the race that is going to determine whether Democrats control the House of Representatives for the next two years, or the people who supported the insurrection on January 6th," said Malinowski during a campaign event with Union City Democrats in the commuter town of Rahway, a new part of his district. That's an easy choice for the good people of New Jersey."

Unfortunately for Malinowski, that choice will likely be anything but easy with the new lines.

When a panel of New Jersey lawmakers were tasked with redrawing the states congressional boundaries, Democrats faced a challenge: How do they help draw a map that ensures they maintain their majority in Congress? The decision was to draw eleven of the twelve districts as safely partisan, leaving one remaining race competitive. That seat? Malinowskis.

If things go poorly for Malinowski come November, Rutgers Professor John Farmer says the New Jersey congressman "will be seen as having been sacrificed."

Sen. Thomas H Kean Jr. answers a questions in Trenton, N.J., Oct. 5, 2016.

Mel Evans/AP, FILE

Unsurprisingly, national Republicans have been on the offensive.

Malinowski and Rep. Cindy Axne, an Iowa Democrat, both advanced to a general election challenge after winning their state's primaries and are some of the top targets of the National Republican Congressional Committee. The group, alongside other House-aligned Super PAC called The Congressional Leadership Fund, has poured millions of dollars in the efforts to push New Jersey's 7th district from lightly to solidly red.

Rep. Tom Malinowski speaks during a news conference in Westfield, N.J., Aug. 9, 2021.

Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE

Malinowski must now fend off Tom Kean Jr., the son of former Gov. Thomas Kean, whose legacy helps him elbow out the competition from both more moderate and MAGA wings of the Jersey GOP. Kean lost to Malinowski by a hair in 2020, and new maps give him the upper hand for the rematch.

"I am both humbled and fully committed to flipping this seat in November," Kean wrote in a statement on Twitter after his primary victory.

During hits on cable news -- mostly Fox -- he's been slamming Malinowski on rising costs and inflation in D.C., kitchen table issues that tend to swing New Jersey voters.

In addition to creating some newly competitive districts, redistricting has also forced some Democrats to run against fellow Democrats in incumbent-on-incumbent primaries. Such was the case for Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath, who advanced to the general after being forced into Georgia's 7th Congressional District, ousting Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bordeaux. And history will repeat itself in New York come August in perhaps the hottest incumbent-on-incumbent primary when Democrats Rep. Jerry Nadler squares off with Rep. Carolyn Maloney in New York's new 12th district.

In the walk-up to the November election, the path for Democrats is anything but clear.

At a campaign event with supporters in Springfield area coffee shop, Malinowski gave a candid appraisal of the road ahead for Democrats like him.

"We're the only ones who actually, by our votes and by our work, get to decide, get to make a difference in terms of which way the wind is blowing in America one way or another. And that is a burden. It means we have to work much harder. It's going to cost us a lot of money. But I think it's also a privilege," said Malinowski. "We actually could go either way, and that makes the investment that all of us are going to make in this campaign all the more important."

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Democrats on the ropes from redistricting could determine balance of power in Congress - ABC News

Rep. Donald Beyer of Virginia, a member of the tax-focused House Ways and Means Committee, has put forward a plan to levy a 1,000% excise tax on manufacturers, importers, and producers of AR-15 style weapons that's designed to pass Congress with only Democratic votes.

It's not the first time that type of plan has been proposed to reduce gun violence, though this one is meant to severely restrict access to semi-automatic weapons and prevent mass shootings. Other Democrats have previously pushed new gun taxes to reduce gun deaths overall.

In 2019 and 2020, two Democrats introduced similar measures to raise gun taxes, though not at the enormous scale Beyer wants.

Both Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts put forward plans to triple the existing tax on handguns to 30% and nearly quintuple the current tax rate on shells and cartridges to 50%. It came on the heels of deadly mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

"Increasing taxes on gun manufacturers will reduce gun and ammunition sales and bring in new federal revenue that we can use for both gun violence prevention and enforcement of existing gun laws," Warren wrote on Twitter at the time. "Together, we can hold gun manufacturers accountable."

It reflected a strong desire within the party to address gun violence after earlier efforts to tackle it went nowhere in Congress. The measures failed to break the stalemate around gun violence with Republicans staunchly opposed to them. Warren has signaled interest in the Beyer plan.

There is one big difference between the Warren and Beyer plan. Warren's proposal was part of a multi-pronged effort to decrease overall shooting deaths by 80% and not curb mass shootings in particular. The Beyer measure is focused on specifically restricting access to AR-15-style weapons, the kind used by gunmen in a string of high-profile shootings in New York, Texas, and Oklahoma recently.

Other Democrats previously pushed hefty tax increases on guns and ammunition to make them unaffordable. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York said in 1993 that he wanted to tax handgun ammunition "out of existence" to curb crime, The New York Times reported.

He called for a 10,000% tax on ammunition, though he would have exempted bullets used for target shooting and hunting.

Congress may be on the verge of a breakthrough after many years of GOP resistance to tackling gun violence. A bipartisan group of senators announced a tentative deal on a slim package of gun safety measures on Sunday that would channel new federal money into mental health initiatives and strengthening school security. It includes ten Senate Republicans the amount of support needed to cross the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate.

It would also establish federal grants for states to implement so-called "red flag laws" allowing authorities to briefly seize weapons from individuals who are a threat to themselves or others under court orders. But it falls far short of what many Democrats wanted, like an outright ban on semi-automatic AR-15-style weapons.

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Democrats have pitched gun taxes to tackle shootings in the past - Business Insider

Americas youngest voters accounted for the biggest turnout increase of any age group between the past two presidential elections, helping deliver full control of Washington to President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.

But with just under five months until the midterm elections, its this group of voters who present a major challenge for the Democratic Partys fraught efforts to hold onto Congress this year: Morning Consult Political Intelligence tracking shows Bidens decline is especially grim among 18- to 34-year-olds. The Democrats among them are less likely than their older peers to see him as prioritizing the countrys biggest problems or holding true to his campaign promises, threatening to stunt base enthusiasm ahead of the consequential campaign season.

According to the latest survey data, 41% of voters ages 18-34 approve of Bidens job performance, down 20 percentage points since he took office, while 52% disapprove, a 28-point increase during that time frame both accounting for a larger shift than any other age group.

Growing antipathy toward Biden is especially pronounced among the youngest independents, among whom negative sentiment has increased from 24% to 64% throughout his presidency now roughly matching the level of aversion by the average independent voter. But ahead of the midterms, perhaps most alarming to Democrats is Bidens standing among the youngest in their coalition.

Seven in 10 Democrats under the age of 35 approve of Bidens job performance, down 15 points since he took office, compared to 79% of all Democratic voters, down 9 points. Only 28% of the youngest Democrats strongly approve of his job performance, compared with 38% of all Democrats.

These young Democrats, driven largely by dissent among women, have been the biggest drag on Bidens intraparty standing: 61% of young women approve of his job performance, compared with 78% of young men. According to responses gathered June 4-6, young Democratic men (40%) are more than twice as likely as young Democratic women (16%) to strongly approve of his job performance.

Young people men and women alike proved pivotal to Bidens defeat of former President Donald Trump in 2020, and the Democratic House victory in the 2018 midterm elections. According to the Census Bureau, participation by young voters, defined as ages 18-29, almost doubled from 20% in 2014 to 36% in 2018.

A reversion to the mean could prove devastating: If a presidents approval rating is a metric for gauging voter enthusiasm in contests that become mostly a referendum on White House occupant, weakness among young Democrats could prove costly especially given Bidens pain with young independents.

Other Morning Consult surveys conducted in April and May suggest disappointment in the Democratic Partys younger ranks both with what Biden has prioritized and what hes delivered for the American people.

Eighteen- to 34-year-old Democrats are less likely than the partys average voter (43% to 60%) to agree that Biden has been keeping his promises made in the 2020 election with young women less likely to agree than young men (39% to 48%).

Following the failure of Bidens signature Build Back Better domestic legislation and his convoluted approach to such issues as immigration and student loans, a quarter of young Democrats (23%) say the party is not liberal enough. When comparing against the Republican Party, the youngest in the Democratic coalition are also less likely than their older peers to say their party cares more about people like me, while they are more likely to agree that Democrats are a bigger supporter of big business or care more about wealthy Americans.

Those divides may be driven by voters priorities, on which the surveys found gaps in what the partys voters as a whole and the youngest among them say is very important to their votes in November.

While young Democratic voters dont skew too far from their older peers in saying issues such as health care, climate change and jobs are very important to their midterm votes, they are slightly more likely to prioritize issues like LGBTQ+ rights, education and immigration.

When it comes to abortion, 58% of all Democrats and 61% of young Democrats say it is very important to their votes this year. The issue marks the biggest gender divide between the partys newest generation of voters: Half of young Democratic men prioritize the issue, compared with 69% of young Democratic women.

Despite that level of interest in reproductive health care among young Democrats, just a third men and women say Biden is making the issue a top priority, compared with 41% of all Democratic voters.

Those figures could change depending on how the Biden administration responds to the Supreme Courts expected decision later this month to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, but on other key issues where hes already devoted a great deal of attention, his actions do not appear to be breaking through to the partys youngest voters.

By double digits, Democrats under the age of 35 are less likely than the average Democrat to say Biden is prioritizing things such as voting rights, the economy and, specifically, bringing down the costs of goods, with a handful of sizable gaps between young men and young women.

Even the most optimistic Democrat would likely admit that the outlook on progress on these issues between now and November is dim at best, leaving the party to suffer with the question not of whether the midterms will be bad but just how bad they may be.

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Young Voters, Who Helped Biden to Victory, Are a Big Weak Spot in the Democratic Coalition - Morning Consult

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Democrats host convention in Rock Springs: 'Wyoming is counting on us whether they know it or not' - Wyoming Tribune

WASHINGTON, DC This morning, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) joined The Sunday Show With Jonathan Capehart on MSNBC to discuss House Democrats efforts to address gun violence and ongoing conversations around legislation to protect the families of Supreme Court Justices and Supreme Court employees. Below are excerpts from his interview and a link to the video:Clickhereto watch the full interview.On House Democrats Work to End Gun Violence

As the American people know, the past history does not give one much confidence that the United States Senate is going to address legislation. We sent them, as you know, last year, and in the years before that, legislation for comprehensive background checks. 85%to 90% of the American people think that it makes sense to make sure that terrorists are not getting guns, domestic abusers are not getting guns, butthe Senate has done nothing.And the Senate has done nothing because Republicans continue to block consideration of that legislation and I say facetiously, but I think realistically, [that] the NRA stands for No Republican Action on almost anything that we put forward So it is evident that there is a very, very large number of Republicans who do not believe that they should be taking any action.

I have some hope that because [Senator] John Cornyn, who I think is a straightforward member, and wants to do something, thats what he said on the Senate Floor last Thursday. Senator Murphy, from Connecticut, which saw such a tragedy and loss of life of children and teachers, as Uvalde did. They are working at it. I think they are both sincere in wanting to do something. I talked to John Cornyn on Thursday, and I think he and Chris Murphy are trying to get to some place but the question is can you get to ten Republicans? Can you get ten Republicans to respond to the overwhelming plea of the American people? 75, 80, 90% of the American people say, do something to stop this carnage, this killing of our children, of our teachers, of people because of the color of their skin?... So I would like to think that there is some hope, and we need to keep hope, because lack of action is not an option. As you know, and as I think the public knows, we are alone in the world. There is nobody close to us in terms of the gun carnage that happens on our streets, and in our places of worship, and in our schools, and our grocery stores, entertainment venues, every day.

On Legislation to Protect the Families of Supreme Court Justices and Supreme Court Employees

We want to give the Justices more support and make sure they are safe. Let me say this, as the Congress is an institution of the government, the Supreme Court is an institution, as the Executive is. If our democracy is to survive as a nation of laws, we have to ensure the safety of the Justices, the clerks, the officers, the employees,and their familiesIm going to put a bill on the Floor. The only disagreement seems to be whether or not employees, at the discretion of the Supreme Court security officials, that is very important, if the employees who are perceived by the authorities at the Supreme Court in charge of security are deemed to be at risk, they can extend protection to them as well. Thats the only distinction Im very hopefulthat will be out early next week.

Hopefully all Republicans will say yes, we want to protect the Supreme Court justicesbut we do want to add employees, and we do want to add the family of all of those folks so that the Supreme Court as an institution is protected, and as individuals are protected. Why? Because that is part of our democracy. We are a nation of laws, not of violence against those who would give their opinions we agree with some opinions from the Supreme Court and we don't agree with others, but violence is not the option.

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Hoyer Discusses Democrats' Commitment to Preventing Gun Violence and Legislation to Protect the Families of Supreme Court Justices and Employees on...