By OLIVIA DIAZ and DAVID A. LIEB

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Democrats are taking steps to redraw their state’s U.S. House districts, hoping to boost their party’s chances in next year’s midterm elections and counter President Donald Trump’s push for more partisan districts in Republican-run states.

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Virginia House Speaker Don Scott sent a letter Thursday to members telling them to convene Monday for a special session but did not state a reason. The purpose includes congressional redistricting aimed at gaining more Democratic-held seats, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because they are not authorized to publicly discuss them.

Virginia would be the second state with a Democratic-led legislature after California to enter a national redistricting battle with enormous stakes. If Democrats gain just three more seats, they would take control of the House and effectively impede Trump’s agenda.

Republican lawmakers in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina already have approved new congressional maps aimed at helping their party win more seats and retain the slim GOP House majority. And even more states are considering redistricting as the battle front widens.

A spokeswoman for Democrats’ House campaign arm characterized Virginia’s effort as the party pursuing “every available tool to counter Republicans’ desperate attempts to steal the midterms.”

“Virginia’s decision to convene and preserve the right to consider a new map in 2026 is critical in the fight to ensure voters have fair representation,” said Courtney Rice, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Republicans vowed to fight. Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore said Democrats missed their opportunity to carry out this procedure by 2026 and that it’s “too late constitutionally” to do so.

“We are going to do everything legally we can do to stop this power grab,” Kilgore said.

Voting districts typically are redrawn at the start of each decade to account for population changes noted by the census. But Trump took the unusual step over the summer of urging Republican-led states to reshape key districts to try to buck a historical trend of a president’s party losing seats in midterm elections.

Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who ran in districts whose boundaries were imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census.

The effort to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts comes in the final weeks before the Nov. 4 state legislative and statewide elections. But Monday’s session is just the start of what could be a long legislative process, running past the election.

Because Virginia’s redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, the electorate must sign off on any changes. And any proposed change to the constitution must first pass the legislature in two separate sessions. Democrats are scrambling to hold that first vote this year, so that they can approve the change a second time after a new legislative session begins Jan. 14.

Voters still would have to approve a change in the constitution to allow using the new House map. And that vote would need to occur before congressional primaries, which are currently set for June 16 — though dates for such elections have been pushed back in the past.

In many states, congressional districts are drawn by state lawmakers, subject to the approval of the governor. But North Carolina’s new map, which received final approval Wednesday from the Republican-led Legislature, did not have to go to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. Those changes target a swing district held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis by adding areas that contain more Republican-leaning voters.

Like Virginia, California has a constitutionally established redistricting commission, which approved maps after the 2020 census. California voters are to decide in a Nov. 4 election whether to temporarily suspend those districts and instead use a map approved by the Democratic-led Legislature that could help Democrats pick up as many as five additional seats.

No voter approval is necessary for the revised districts in Missouri, North Carolina or Texas, though opponents in Missouri are gathering petition signatures to try to force a statewide vote on their new map.

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam in Washington and Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report.

Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By SOPHIE AUSTIN

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A major union announced a proposal Thursday to impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires in California to address federal funding cuts to health care for low-income people.

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Proponents, including the Service Employees International Union, hope to place the statewide measure before voters next year. The tax would be on the net worth of California’s richest residents. A small portion of the money would also help fund K-12 education since the federal government has threatened to withhold grant money from public schools.

Backers of the measure sent a request to Attorney General Rob Bonta this week to get approval to start collecting signatures. The proposal would have to receive more than 870,000 signatures by next spring to qualify for the ballot in November 2026. If it qualifies, it’s not guaranteed to pass. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, for example, has opposed tax hikes in the past, including those specifically targeting the rich.

Proponents of the initiative said it was critical to backfill cuts to Medicaid because lives are at stake.

“If we do not do this, millions of people are going to lose health care, an untold number of people will go without treatment and there will be tragedy after tragedy,” said Dave Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.

Billionaires would have to pay for tax year 2026, and the money could start being appropriated in 2027. The tax would generate $100 billion in revenue for the state, backers say. The initiative says it’s “designed to make the State tax system more equitable.”

The big tax and spending cuts law President Donald Trump signed earlier this year will cut more than $1 trillion over a decade from Medicaid and federal food assistance.

The California Budget and Policy Center, a think tank in Sacramento, estimated the state could lose $30 billion in federal funding a year for Medicaid, which would result in up to 3.4 million people losing their coverage.

Newsom said earlier this month that people enrolled in Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace, could see their monthly health care bills nearly double next year as a result of the spending cuts law.

“California has led the nation in expanding access to affordable health care, but Donald Trump is ripping it away,” he said.

Proponents of the proposed ballot initiative say billionaires have an obligation to do their part.

“We hope that some and perhaps hopefully a large number of billionaires will recognize that it’s important in the state where they’ve grown their fortune that they have a responsibility to society to preserve the future of California,” said Emmanuel Saez, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) — They’re divided along party lines on policy. They’re divided on the government shutdown. And now federal lawmakers are divided on the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make room for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom that President Donald Trump wants to build.

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The stunning images of the teardown this week have left Democratic lawmakers incensed. Republicans, meanwhile, are likening it to a long line of White House renovations over the years. There was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s swimming pool addition, now covered over, they said. There was Barack Obama’s basketball court, a tennis court adapted so that it could be used for tennis and basketball. And William Taft added the Oval Office, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., noted.

“The ballroom is going to be glorious,” Johnson said.

Across the Capitol, Democratic senators incorporated the teardown photos into Sen. Jeff Merkley’s 22 hour-plus speech on the Senate floor.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., showed Merkley a picture of the smashed East Wing and asked the Oregon senator to describe what he saw and the significance of it.

“Here we have evidence of the president tearing down a symbol of our Republic and building a symbol that is really a symbol about authoritarian power, about a government that serves the rich,” Merkley said.

Trump says the White House needs a large entertaining space and has complained that the East Room, the current largest space in the White House, is too small — holding about 200 people. He has frowned on the past practice of presidents hosting state dinners and other large events in tents on the South Lawn.

The White House has said the ballroom will be ready for use well before Trump’s term ends in January 2029, an ambitious timeline. Trump said “me and some friends of mine” will pay for the ballroom, at no cost to taxpayers.

The White House saw the addition of the East Wing in 1942 to house additional staff and offices. The White House Historical Association says the construction was controversial due to its timing during wartime. Congressional Republicans labeled the expenditure as wasteful, with some accusing Roosevelt of using the project to bolster his presidency’s image.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s opening remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday sought to tie the president’s work on the East Wing to the current government shutdown, saying that Trump was not focused on dealing with the issue of threatened health care coverage for millions of Americans but on “vanity projects like this one that don’t do anything to benefit the American people. They only benefit Trump and his ego.”

Republican senators were dismissive at times of questions about the East Wing teardown. Asked whether he welcomed the renovations, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., replied: “I’m not much into architecture. I’m not a very good architect.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said the difference between Trump’s ballroom and a litany of prior construction projects that he recounted for reporters was that taxpayers wouldn’t be funding this one.

“I mean, you’ve got a builder who has any eye for construction and for excellence. What better person would you want to renovate the White House?” Mullin said.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut took issue with Republicans comparing the ballroom to other renovation projects over the years.

“They filled in the pool. They may have taken out a bowling alley. They haven’t destroyed an entire wing of the White House in a way that is irreversible,” Blumenthal said. “… I think it is just heartbreaking.”

An earlier version of this story identified Chuck Schumer as Senate Majority Leader. He is Senate Democratic Leader.

POWELL, Ohio (AP) — The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium has welcomed its second baby elephant in a single calendar year for the first time in its nearly 100-year history, a milestone that the Ohio attraction is touting as a win for conservation.

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Thirty-eight-year-old Phoebe gave birth to the male Asian elephant calf at 10:41 p.m. Tuesday. The 222-pound offspring is not yet on view to the public. That’s so the pair gets uninterrupted bonding time and the zoo’s animal care and conservation medicine team can provide round-the-clock monitoring as the baby begins to stand, nurse and explore his surroundings.

The calf’s father, Sabu, lives at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. They were paired through a national zoo initiative that aims to support healthy, genetically-diverse populations of threatened and endangered species in professional care.

Although there have been recent signs of hope for Asian elephants in the wild, habitat degradation and the challenges of maintaining genetic diversity are among reasons they remain endangered.

The baby joins Phoebe’s already large family, which includes another male and two female offspring. Her daughter Sunny, who is 16, gave birth to a female calf named Rita Jean four months ago.

The zoo said it will continue to share updates on public viewing opportunities, naming plans and other baby milestones.