“A day after California voters shrunk the number of safe Republican House seats through a Democratic gerrymander, two endangered incumbents said they would square off against each other in a high-stakes bid for political survival next year,” the New York Times reports.

“Representative Ken Calvert, a Riverside County Republican whose 41st Congressional District was carved up and appended to several neighboring districts, said on Wednesday that he would run for the new incarnation of the 40th District, one of the few friendly territories left for Republicans in California.”

“He made no mention of the fact that the district was already occupied.”

Jessica Yellin asked Rahm Emanuel about his presidential ambitions and he claimed he’s still deciding — but leaned far in, telling her he’s “going to make my claim” on “education” and “access to the American dream.”

And though he wouldn’t handicap California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, he took a subtle shot at both without naming them: 2028 needs to be “about having a positive vision for the future, not fighting Trump.”

It’s a good interview.

Lauren Egan: “For the past year, Democratic party leaders have been privately resigned to the idea that the 2026 Senate map was too difficult to overcome. It was a take rooted more in math than cynicism. The party had lost touch with voters in many of the states it needed to win and had no clear or compelling argument for how to rebuild a winning coalition.”

“But Tuesday’s election results have changed that thinking. The party’s strong showing in races across the country—from the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, to state legislative elections in Mississippi and even utility board seats in Georgia—has Democratic leaders believing that winning back the Senate is a distinct possibility in 2026.”

“And it’s not just spin from party loyalists. In my conversations with Democratic leaders and operatives over the past twenty-four hours, it’s clear that the party’s sense of defeatism about the Senate is beginning to fade away, that they’ve begun actively planning potential investments in states, and that they are convinced that a relentless focus on affordability can open up various pathways to fifty-one seats.”

David Graham: “Off-year elections are never quite the crystal ball for midterms that political junkies want, but one thing that last night’s results seem to convey clearly is that many voters are unhappy with President Donald Trump.”

“Elections for New York City mayor, governors of New Jersey and Virginia, and gerrymandering in California had their own local dynamics, but voters in these heavily nationalized contests were united in their rejection of Trump and his priorities. The results give some reason to doubt Trump’s claim that his 2024 victory was ‘a historic realignment’ of American politics.”

Charlie Cook: “Tuesday’s results back up my oft-stated argument that the November 2024 election was a highly focused repudiation of President Biden, the Biden-Harris Administration, and, by extension, Vice President Kamala Harris, not the top-to-bottom repudiation of the Democratic Party that many have made it out to be.”