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NEW ORLEANS (AP) Federal appeals court judges in New Orleans closely questioned voting rights advocates and attorneys for Louisiana Republican officials Friday on whether Louisiana must follow Alabamas court-ordered path in drawing a new mostly Black congressional district and how quickly that could and should be done ahead of next years elections.

Louisiana is among multiple states still wrangling over congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in June that Alabama had violated the Voting Rights Act when its Republican legislature failed to create a second Black-majority congressional district when it redrew the states congressional map after the 2020 census.

At issue Friday was an injunction by a federal judge that Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin and Landry, both Republicans, are fighting. The injunction in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick found that a congressional map drawn up by the Republican-dominated Legislature that year likely violated the Voting Rights Act. The state is about one-third Black but only one of the six congressional districts has a majority Black population. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards is among supporters of a second mostly Black district.

On Friday, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, one of three judge's hearing the case at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, raised the possibility that the injunction, which orders a new congressional map for 2024, could be upheld while also allowing a trial on the merits of the case that could alter the map again before the 2026 election. But Elrod also suggested the court might toss the 2022 injunction with orders for an expedited trial process aimed at assuring the issues are settled before next year's elections.

Elrod and Judge Leslie Southwick both took pains to stress during Friday's hearing that their questions shouldn't be construed as an indication of how they will rule in the Louisiana case.

Members of the Republican-dominated Legislature have resisted drawing a new minority district, despite the Alabama case.

Southwick at times seemed skeptical of the state's argument that the injunction should be reversed because the state had too little time to prepare its case.

What would another hearing do that you didnt have an opportunity to deal with, whatever it was, in 2022? he asked attorney Jason Torchinsky, who represented Attorney General Jeff Landry.

Abha Khanna, representing voting rights advocates, argued that the injunction must be upheld and that a move toward drawing up new districts must get underway quickly.

The plaintiffs should not be forced to play chicken with the election calendar, she said.

Members of the Republican-dominated Legislature have resisted drawing a new minority district, essentially ignoring the Alabama case.

Phillip Strach, an attorney for Ardoin, argued that race cannot be used to stitch together distant areas into a single district. He argued that a proposed Black district linking parts of the Baton Rouge to rural north Louisiana's Mississippi Delta country violates court precedents for compact districts.

Voting rights advocates suing the state argue that the plans they have suggested so far are on average more compact than the plan the state is trying to preserve. And they cited evidence that the district linking Baton Rouge and the Delta joins communities of similar social and economic interests.

The outcome of the cases could have major implications on the makeup of the next Congress if they result in more predominantly Black likely Democratic Party-leaning districts.

Elrod and Southwick were both nominated to the 5th Circuit by former President George W. Bush. Also hearing the case by way of a remote connection was Judge Carolyn Dineen King, nominated to the court by former President Jimmy Carter.

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Louisiana Republicans are in court to fight efforts to establish new Black congressional district - Yahoo News

The House of Representatives has no speaker, another budget showdown looms and the Republican majority is in disarray. To break down what happened in Congress this week, the domestic politics correspondent Michelle Cottle spoke with Opinion Audios executive producer, Annie-Rose Strasser. They discuss this unprecedented event and what it means for the future of the House Democrats, American politics and democracy at large. Hint: According to Cottle, its not good news.

(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available midday on the Times website.)

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

This Opinion short was produced by Vishakha Darbha. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin and Annie-Rose Strasser. Mixing by Sonia Herrero. Original music by Issac Jones and Sonia Herrero. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski.

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Opinion | 'This Is the Republicans' Dumpster Fire They Have to ... - The New York Times

Finally. News you can trust. From politicians with a grudge. Ohio Senate Republicans made a foray into counter-media programming with a new website called On the Record featuring partisan content and podcasts that they assert will deliver the real story directly to the people. Its the gospel according to Ohio Sen. President Matt Huffman preaching what the mainstream media (and pesky sticklers for accuracy) will not.

This could change everything. State GOP senators, and their always forthright leader, (credible messengers all) vow to save us from the clutches of fake news and woke fact checks. They promise to deliver the unvarnished truth as only Republican extremists can about the deep state media that has gone to war against conservatives with a rabidly partisan agenda.

From safe seats in uncompetitive state senate districts, Team Huffman will expose the big lie of gerrymandering and dispatch with the easily debunked accusation that the GOP supermajority in Ohio is a result of gerrymandering (due to hopelessly lopsided redistricting maps drawn by the GOP supermajority). There is clear evidence (nowhere) that the redistricting committee did not gerrymander the maps used in 2022, declared a website post.

Certainly blockbuster news to the 2022 Ohio Supreme Court which struck down Republican gerrymandered maps five times. But leave it to the GOP supermajority, ensconced in the Ohio Senate via a rigged election they couldnt lose, to put the record straight.

Gerrymandering played no role in the 2022 elections that expanded the GOP supermajority in the General Assembly, read the post the on the Republican state senate site. Presumably that means the latest installment of Republican-crafted maps, that give Republicans an advantage over the (unconstitutional) plans used last year, will also play no role in the partisan-skewed districts in the 2024 elections.

What state Republican senators and staff are posting on their own online newsroom (aka Huffmans spin room) are alternative facts that bear little relation to life on Earth-1. Its political posturing that purports to tell it like it is unimpeded by woke Ohio journalists who might interject to question rhetoric detached from reality. Thats deliberate.

Ohio GOP senators dont want to get caught conning constituents with verifiable deception. So they bypass the media, described as the enemy by the senate GOP press secretary. They spew propaganda without objective check or challenge and call it a public service. Truth is what they say it is. Framed through a partisan filter.

On the billion-dollar giveaway of tax money (universal vouchers) to fund private and parochial education, they say diverting public dollars from public schools to pay tuition at religious schools actually saves taxpayers money. Who knew? They also insist public schools have plenty of money and are only looking to protect the deep state bureaucracy that protected them from accountability for decades. Their truth.

On fossil fuel fracking, they say it makes for a greener Ohio with an exceptionally clean extraction process that increases environmental quality (despite leaking methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide, poisoning groundwater, and posing serious health risks). The claim wont fly in the real world of documented research but will among Ohio Senate Republicans currying favor with the oil and gas industry.

On their insane response to school shootings to arm more teachers and staff with less firearm training they say guns make schools safer. They also say opponents who decry the absurdity of arming educators (instead of passing meaningful gun control legislation to curb rampant gun violence) dont think kids are worth protecting with guns.

On higher education, state senate Republicans say their sweeping attempt to tamp down on the supposed threat of campus wokeness (by slamming the door on diversity, free thought, and collective bargaining) is a course correction to end discrimination against conservatives in academia who are treated unequally and can face punishing censorship (based on culture war conjecture about a uniformly leftist agenda in higher ed).

On The Presidents Podcast, Huffman and his communications chief complain about private [media] publications in the state who have the audacity to exercise editorial judgement and not accept all submissions from Huffmans extreme caucus members (whose specious rants were apparently declined as misleading political messaging without merit).

The Senate boss and his subordinate bemoaned editorials around the state attacking and smearing Republicans for (take your pick) thumbing their nose at the Ohio Constitution, state supreme court, and Ohio voters who demanded fair, representational, competitive legislative and congressional districts and got neither. For trying to rob Ohio voters of their century-old right to direct democracy in an illegal August election.

For conspiring to sabotage a citizens initiative on the constitutional right to abortion to keep a majority of Ohioans from having their say on the issue. For seizing control of an elected Ohio Board of Education and giving it to an unelected political appointee in a flagrant power grab to remove education policy from the people. I could go on.

But you know the real story. Huffmans self-serving podcast showcases a disingenuous political schemer. His online spin room is replete with diatribes of whiny wingnuts whose submitted invectives were rejected by woke editorial gatekeepers as irrational nonsense. This is not news you can trust. Its political PR from crybaby demagogues you can take with a big grain of salt.

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Ohio Senate Republicans throw online temper tantrum over being ... - Ohio Capital Journal

For a conservative movement that has embraced tough talk on immigration and made opposition to diversity initiatives a core part of its identity, the effort can be tricky, said Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant and co-founder of the Lincoln Project.

The Republican Party has become so overwhelmingly,monolithically white in the past couple of decades, and that share of the electorate is rapidly shrinking, Madrid said, so it needs more diverse candidates while suggesting diversity has nothing to do with what theyre doing.

Republicans view the push to recruit Hispanic candidates as essential to the partys effort to maintain the majority in the House, where a net gain of five seats by Democrats next year would give them the speakers gavel.

Republican candidates dont just look like America, their life experiences reflect the daily challenges Americans face, said Will Reinert, spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee. By embodying the American dream, Republicans can win anywhere in the Land of Opportunity.

In 2020, Republicans had a net gain of 14 seats in the House, and every seat they flipped from Democrats was captured by a woman, a veteran or a candidate of color. In 2022, the party put forth a historic slate of nearly 70 Black, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American candidates.

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Hispanic Republicans vie to oust Democrats in diverse districts - Roll Call

This week, Republican primary candidates for president will have a chance to make their case before a national audience with or without Donald Trump on the debate stage. To win, they must break free of Mr. Trumps drama, step out of his shadow, go on offense, attack, and present their case. Then they need to see if they can catch fire this fall and if they cant, they need to step aside, because winnowing down the field of candidates is the single best chance to stop Mr. Trump. Too much is at stake for us to have wishful candidacies. While the other Republican candidates are running to save America, Mr. Trump is running to save himself.

Candidates on the debate stage should not be afraid to attack Donald Trump. While its true that Mr. Trump has an iron grip on more than 30 percent of the electorate, the other 60 percent or so is open to moving forward with a new nominee. Mr. Trumps shortcomings hardly need reciting. Tim Scott, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy candidates with compelling stories, records and polling must show voters they are willing to take on Mr. Trump, show a spark, and not just defend him in absentia. Chris Christie, who has done great work exposing Mr. Trumps weaknesses, must broaden his message and show voters that he is more than the anti-Trump candidate.

If Mr. Trump is the Republican nominee for president in 2024, Republicans will lose up and down the ballot. According to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they would likely not support Mr. Trump in 2024 not even Jimmy Carter had re-election numbers that bleak. Every candidate with an (R) next to their name, from school board to the statehouse, will be left to answer for the electoral albatross at the top of the ticket. Instead of going on offense and offering an alternative to Joe Bidens failing leadership, Republicans will continue to be consumed with responding to Mr. Trumps constant grievances and lies, turning off every independent suburban voter in America. And Mr. Trump, ever the narcissist, will spend the entire campaign whining about his legal troubles and bilking his supporters of their retirement savings to pay for his lawyers.

Donald Trump is beatable, and it starts in Iowa and New Hampshire. Ignore the national polls that show he is leading they are meaningless. Its a reflection of the national conversation, name ID, and who is top of mind not where the momentum is headed.

The best indicator of Mr. Trumps strength is looking to where the voters are paying attention: in states where candidates are campaigning, television ads are running, and there is a wide range of media attention on every candidate.

In Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states that will vote in the 2024 Republican primaries, Mr. Trump is struggling. In both Iowa and New Hampshire, he is consistently polling in the low 40 percent range. The floor of his support may be high, but his ceiling is low.

In New Hampshire, more than half of Republican primary voters our partys most ardent voters want someone not named Trump. While he regularly polls above 50 percent nationally, and even closer to 60 percent many times, he has not hit over 50 percent in New Hampshire in the last five months, according to Real Clear Politics.

Having won four statewide elections in New Hampshire and earning more votes in 2020 than any candidate in history (outpacing Mr. Trumps loss by 20 percentage points that year), I know that in New Hampshire, you dont only win on policy: You win face-to-face, person-to-person. Voters have to look you in the eye and sign off on you as a person before they can sign off on you as a candidate. Prepared remarks behind a podium do not work.

Candidates who have gone on to win the New Hampshire primary, best illustrated by former Senator John McCain, become omnipresent in my state. You must listen first, talk second. Talking at voters in New Hampshire does not work.

This is why Mr. Trump must face a smaller field. It is only then that his path to victory shrinks. Leaders within the Republican Party governors, senators, donors and media influencers have an obligation to help narrow the field.

At a minimum, any candidate who does not make the stage for the first two debates must drop out.

Anyone who is polling in the low single digits by Christmas must acknowledge that their efforts have fallen short.

After the results from Iowa come in, it is paramount that the field must shrink, before the New Hampshire primary, to the top three or four.

Candidates who have essentially been running for years, and who have seen little movement in the polls especially in the early states, are particularly in focus. This fall, if their numbers have not improved, tough conversations between donors and their candidates need to happen. Media influencers and leading voices should amplify the Republican message that the longer these candidates stay in the race, the more they are helping Joe Biden and Kamala Harris get four more years.

Provided the field shrinks by Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Trump loses. He will always have his die-hard base, but the majority is up for grabs. Candidates who seize on the opportunity and present a clear contrast to the former president will earn the votes.

Candidates cannot continue to let the former president dominate the media like he has for the last six months. They need to be more aggressive about seizing the opportunity to boost their national profiles. There has been positive movement from some candidates, but more needs to be done.

It must be said that candidates who stay in this race when they have no viable path should be called out. They are auditioning for a Trump presidency cabinet that will simply never happen. And even if a Trump administration magically materialized, no public humiliation that great is worth the sacrifice.

As governor of the first-in-the-nation primary state, I will do everything I can to help narrow the field. I plan to endorse and campaign for the best alternative to Mr. Trump. As of now, its anyones for the taking.

For 20 years straight, the winner of the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary has gone on to secure the partys nomination. Once the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire are presented a clear alternative to Mr. Trump, his path forward darkens, and the Republican Partys future begins to take shape. The rest of the country needs to see not just that the emperor has no clothes, but that the Republican Party is able to refocus the conversation where it needs to be, on a nominee dedicated to saving America.

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Opinion | Gov. Chris Sununu: This Is How to Beat Trump - The New York Times