A top Senate Republican is eyeing a way to put a “down payment” on Trump-backed voter ID legislation through a party-line bill later in the year.

The Senate has been debating the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act for almost a month. But without Democratic votes to break the filibuster, the legislation has no chance of passing.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wants to put portions of the voter ID and citizenship verification legislation into a budget reconciliation package, which requires only Republican votes to pass.

GOP SENATOR’S GAMBIT EXPOSES FALSE DEM CLAIMS ABOUT SUPPORTING VOTER ID

“Reconciliation has limits, but we’re going to make a down payment on the SAVE Act in reconciliation in the fall,” Graham said Monday on a South Carolina radio show, “Straight Talk with Bill Frady.” 

Graham, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is in charge of designing the framework for the reconciliation process in the upper chamber. He plans to meet with the White House Friday to “get this thing moving.”

Reconciliation does not allow for straight policy, meaning any provisions included in the package must have a budgetary or spending impact to survive Senate rules. If they don’t, they are stripped out.

Graham says he has a solution.

THUNE ACCUSES CRITICS OF ‘CREATING FALSE EXPECTATIONS’ AMID BACKLASH OVER STALLED SAVE AMERICA ACT

“Voter integrity laws — I’m going to create grant programs, but they’ll have conditions on them,” Graham said. “To get a grant, you’ve got to make sure you purge your rolls of illegal immigrants. There are a lot of blue states out there that don’t do that, and we’ll try to get as much of a voter ID system as I can.”

President Donald Trump and conservatives have demanded that the Senate launch a talking filibuster — or eliminate the filibuster entirely — to pass the SAVE America Act. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and other Republicans have made clear the option does not have enough support.

The current floor debate, which is paused while lawmakers are away from Washington, D.C., for the Easter break, is designed to force Senate Democrats to argue against voter ID — a policy that polls show is popular with voters across party lines.

SENATE PASSES BILL TO FUND MOST OF DHS AFTER HOUSE GOP CAVES

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argued late last month that Democrats’ objection to the SAVE America Act is “not to a photo ID when you show up to vote,” despite blocking a standalone voter ID provision pushed by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio.

“Our objection is it’s a voter suppression bill, 20 million, maybe more people, when they show up to vote will be told you’re off the rolls,” Schumer said. “That’s the problem with the bill.“

While Graham’s provision could pass muster under Senate rules, it would likely come in a second reconciliation package in the fall, as midterm elections take center stage. Whether it would take effect by November is unclear. He’s eying provisions that would tackle fraud in the package, too.

Before that, Graham and Republicans are eyeing front-loading funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a reconciliation bill that Trump wants on his desk no later than June 1.

Senate Republicans are largely aligned behind the idea, arguing that Democrats have refused to fund immigration enforcement without stringent reforms — reforms Republicans say they have offered and Democrats have rejected.

Still, House Republicans are not entirely on board, and their resistance could further prolong the longest government shutdown in history.

They are frustrated with the current Senate Department of Homeland SecuritySenate Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, which carves out ICE and portions of CBP funding. They are demanding the upper chamber make real progress on a reconciliation bill before voting for the compromise plan.

“What I’m going to do is draft a reconciliation bill and load up ICE and Border Patrol funding without a single Democratic vote — give them all they need for three to 10 years, whatever I can fit in,” Graham said. “We’re going to fund the Border Patrol, and we’re going to fund ICE with Republican votes only.”

A new national poll is the latest to indicate that Democrats are facing major problems with their party’s image as they try to win back congressional majorities from the Republicans in this year’s midterm elections.

Just 28% of Americans questioned in a CNN poll view the Democratic Party positively, with 56% seeing Democrats in an unfavorable light.

The poll, the most recent over the past year to indicate the Democratic Party brand hitting historic lows, comes with just over six months to go until the midterms, when they hope to escape the political wilderness.

The GOP, which is working to defend its fragile House and slim Senate majorities in the 2026 ballot box showdowns amid President Donald Trump’s underwater approval ratings and a rough political climate that doesn’t favor the party in power, doesn’t fare much better in the poll, which was conducted March 26-30.

WHAT OUR LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL SAYS 

Thirty-two percent of Americans said they viewed the Republican Party positively, with 55% seeing the GOP in a negative light.

An average of the most recent national polls that asked how respondents viewed the two major political parties show the Republicans’ favorability 15 points in negative territory but the Democrats 20 points underwater.

Helping to sink the Democratic Party’s underwater ratings are Democrats themselves.

A healthy percentage of Democrats feel that their leaders in Congress aren’t fighting back more vocally against Trump and his unprecedented second-term agenda. That’s fueling a less favorable view of the Democratic Party among Democrats compared to a noticeably more favorable view of the GOP among Republicans.

That’s a departure from 2006 and 2018, the most recent midterms, when the Democrats rode blue waves to win back the House when Republicans controlled the White House. In those years, Democrats led by double digits in net favorability.

Democrats were ecstatic two weeks ago after flipping a Republican-controlled legislative seat in a right-leaning, Palm Beach, Florida-anchored district that includes Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home turf. The same day, Democrats also flipped a state Senate seat in Florida in a separate special election. The Democrats’ Sunshine State victories were their latest wins or overperformances in a slew of special elections from coast to coast since Trump returned to power in the White House 14 months ago.

DNC CHAIR KEN MARTIN BOASTS ‘WIN AFTER WIN,’ SHRUGS OFF MASSIVE TRUMP, REPUBLICAN MONEY LEAD

Democrats also scored larger than expected victories in last November’s gubernatorial elections in blue-leaning Virginia and New Jersey.

Partially fueling the Democrats’ ballot box performances is their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation. And the victories are further energizing Democrats as they work to win back control of Congress in the midterms.

“From now until November, Democrats are all gas and no brakes as we compete across every corner of Florida and the nation,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said after the Florida special elections.

But along with their brand issues, also troubling for Democrats ahead of the midterms is their standing in the generic ballot, the closely watched polling indicator that asks respondents whether they’d back the Democrat or Republican in their congressional district without offering specific candidate names.

Democrats are up over the Republicans by five points in the CNN poll, and an average of all the most recent national surveys to ask the generic ballot question gives the Democrats an edge over the GOP of just under six points. That margin for the Democrats is smaller than at the same point in the 2018 and 2006 cycles, when they won back the House.

National polls also indicate that when it comes to how both parties are handling the key issues that matter to voters, Democrats don’t enjoy any overwhelming advantage.

The most recent Fox News national poll, which was conducted March 20–23, indicated Democrats with a slight three-point margin over Republicans on which party has a clear plan to bring down prices and make things more affordable. The vast majority of voters questioned in the Fox News poll gave a big thumbs down to both parties.

Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance, the president of New England College, told Fox News Digital that Democrats “have no room to coast.”

“Voters remain unimpressed with their brand and for far too many voters the party continues to be defined by Biden and Harris. Democrats are expected to win big in November. But, there is a great deal of work to rehabilitate their brand with voters for 2026 and 2028,” Lesperance said.

President Donald Trump warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight” as a deadline looms for Iran to agree to U.S. demands, escalating his rhetoric even as last-minute negotiations continue through intermediaries to avert sweeping military strikes.

Trump has set a Tuesday night deadline for Iran to accept terms that include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil artery, as U.S. officials — including Vice President JD Vance — continue back-channel talks through intermediaries such as Pakistan. 

But significant gaps remain, and the president’s latest comments raise the risk the U.S. may move forward with strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure, including power and transportation systems and beyond. 

TRUMP REVEALS IRAN MADE ‘SIGNIFICANT PROPOSAL’ AFTER ULTIMATUM, BUT ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’

Trump’s latest remarks mark a sharp escalation from earlier warnings focused on infrastructure. He also suggested Iran had undergone “complete and total regime change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail.”

Mojtaba Khamenei was named Iran’s supreme leader after U.S. strikes killed his father, Ali Khamenei, though his current status and control remain unclear amid conflicting reports. 

And Iran has threatened to take action if Trump follows through on his threats. 

“Iran will not stand idle in the face of such egregious war crimes,” said Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations. “It will exercise without hesitation its inherent right of self-defense, and will take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures.”

Diplomatic efforts to avert a wider conflict are ongoing but increasingly strained, with mediators including Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey working to broker a ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz before broader talks can begin.

“We are absolutely in touch with” Iran, a senior U.S. official told Fox News. “Absolutely. (The talks) have been positive. If we get lucky, we will have something by the end of the day.”

Iran repeatedly has rejected a temporary truce in favor of a permanent end to the war, while U.S. officials have dismissed Tehran’s proposals as insufficient, leaving key differences unresolved as the deadline approaches.

Trump underscored the threat in a profanity-laced Truth Social post Sunday, declaring that “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day” in Iran and warning that the country’s infrastructure would be destroyed if it did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He told Iran to “open the F—in’ Strait… or you’ll be living in Hell.”

As the deadline nears, the conflict already is intensifying on the ground. Airstrikes hit parts of Iran’s capital city of Tehran Tuesday, while Iranian officials urged civilians to form human chains around power plants in an effort to deter potential U.S. attacks on critical infrastructure, Iranian state media reported. 

Overnight, the U.S. struck dozens of military sites on Kharg Island — including bunkers, radar stations and ammunition storage facilities — a senior U.S. official told Fox News. The island is Iran’s primary oil export hub, making it one of the regime’s most critical economic assets. 

By targeting military sites while avoiding energy infrastructure, the strikes suggest the U.S. is applying pressure while holding Iran’s oil lifeline at risk as a potential next step if the deadline passes without a deal.

Israel also has signaled a potential expansion of the target set to include Iran’s rail network, warning civilians to avoid trains ahead of possible strikes. Rail lines play a critical role in moving military forces and equipment, particularly in and out of Tehran, and disrupting them could significantly limit Iran’s ability to reposition assets and sustain operations.

While Trump has centered his deadline on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the negotiations have expanded into a broader dispute over ending the war, including Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, sanctions relief and security guarantees — issues that remain unresolved as both sides clash over what concessions must come first.

Trump’s “civilization” remarks have raised new questions about whether the potential U.S. target set could extend beyond bridges and power plants to include additional infrastructure or systems tied to the Iranian regime’s ability to maintain power.

IRAN’S TALLEST BRIDGE COLLAPSES AFTER REPORTED US AIRSTRIKES, IRAN THREATENS AMERICAN ALLIES IN RETALIATION

Trump has warned that “every bridge in Iran will be decimated” and that power plants could be left “burning, exploding and never to be used again” if Tehran fails to meet his demands, underscoring the scale of potential infrastructure strikes.

Trump also has repeatedly extended similar deadlines in recent weeks, delaying threatened strikes as negotiations continued before issuing new ultimatums. The pattern has raised questions about whether the latest deadline will hold — or serve as another pressure tactic in the final hours of talks.

Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime — already has sent shock waves through global markets, raising pressure on the administration to reach a resolution while increasing the stakes of any potential military escalation.

Military options now on the table

Trump’s rhetoric has fueled questions about how far a potential U.S. strike campaign could extend beyond the infrastructure targets he has publicly identified. 

Military analysts say options range from continued infrastructure strikes aimed at crippling Iran’s ability to function to a broader campaign targeting the regime’s core power centers.

The White House rapid response team shot down a post on X which quoted Vance and suggested it implied “Trump might use nuclear weapons.” 

“Literally nothing @VP said here ‘implies’ this, you absolute buffoons.”

“The Iranian regime has until 8PM Eastern Time to meet the moment and make a deal with the United States. Only the President knows where things stand and what he will do,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 

A U.S. operation could focus on disabling Iran’s electrical grid, transportation networks and energy facilities — a strategy designed to create nationwide disruption and pressure leadership. Such strikes could trigger cascading effects across communications, water systems and industrial production and would impact the civilian population.

Other options could involve further targeting of leadership, facilities tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including command-and-control nodes, weapons production sites, and economic assets that fund the regime’s operations. 

Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, said the president’s language suggests a focus on dismantling the regime’s underlying power structures rather than targeting Iran as a nation.

“I really think that what he’s talking about are the fundamental roots and the anchors of the Islamic Republic, not of the country of Iran,” Roman said.

“Everything that the United States would target in a hypothetical attack on power plants, bridges, other key points of infrastructure would really have to focus on those that are connected to the ability of the generals who are currently in charge of this regime and their ability to maintain power,” he added.

Roman said Trump’s reference to “civilization” likely reflects the 47-year rule of the Islamic Republic rather than Iranian society as a whole.

“I don’t think he’s speaking about Persian civilization. I think he’s speaking about the 47 years that the Islamic Republic has ruled as a polity.”

Iranian officials have called on civilians to help protect key infrastructure. Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that Iranians are willing to give their lives in defense of Iran. 

“More than 14 million brave Iranians have so far declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives to defend Iran. I have also sacrificed my life for Iran, I am, and I will continue to do so,” he wrote on X.

Fox News’ Bill Hemmer, Jennifer Griffin and Louis Casiano contributed to this report. 

Shelly Kittleson, the American journalist who was kidnapped last week in Iraq, has been released, according to Al-Monitor, the Middle East publication where she works as a freelance contributor. 

Viral surveillance footage appeared to show Kittleson being forced into a car by two men at a busy intersection in Baghdad last Tuesday. The State Department previously said an individual with ties to the Iranian-aligned militia group Kataib Hizballah was believed to be involved in Kittleson’s capture. 

Kataib Hizballah issued a statement that Kittleson was set free in “appreciation of the patriotic positions” of Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who pushed for her release. The group said she would be set free “on the condition that she leaves the country immediately,” according to Al-Monitor.

AMERICAN JOURNALIST KIDNAPPED IN IRAQ, EMPLOYER SAYS

“This initiative will not be repeated in the future… we are in a state of war waged by the Zionist-American enemy against Islam and in such situations many considerations are disregarded,” Kataib Hizballah security commander Abu Mujahid Al-Asaf added, according to The New York Times. 

A U.S. official confirmed her release to Fox News. 

“There were U.S. efforts behind the scenes, I am told, to secure her release from Kataib Hezbollah,” Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reported. 

Former Pentagon official Alex Plitsas, a friend of the journalist who has called himself her designated U.S. point of contact, posted on X that he isn’t ready to celebrate.

“We are still awaiting Shelley to be transferred to US officials. We welcome the news of her pending release but will save celebratory statements until she is transferred…. we will have more to say when she is in US hands,” Plitsas wrote. 

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.

The 49-year-old freelance journalist, an American citizen and Wisconsin native based in Rome, reported from war zones for years, spending time in Afghanistan and Syria before Iraq. She “often worked without formal assignments from editors and on a shoestring budget, taking shared taxis to lawless corners of Iraq where militia rule outweighs government control,” the Associated Press reported after speaking to her friends, family and colleagues. 

REPORTER KIDNAPPED IN BAGHDAD KNOWN FOR PURSUING GUTSY, LOW-BUDGET ASSIGNMENTS WHILE LIVING ‘FRUGAL EXISTENCE’

Recent headlines published by Kittleson include, “On eve of Iran’s Pezeshkian visit, Iraq jostles for Shiite space amid rivalries,” “Iraqis protest proposed ‘anti-women’ amendment to personal status law” and “Honor killings in Iraq rekindle efforts to criminalize domestic violence.”

“Hope she can return to do her job and tell the story of many who are not heard in region,” Al-Monitor top editor Joyce Karam posted when reporting her release. 

The Associated Press, citing “an Iraqi official with direct knowledge of the situation,” reported that she was freed in exchange for “several members” of Kataib Hezbollah that had previously been detained by Iraqi authorities.

US STRIKES AGAINST IRAN-BACKED MILITIAS IN IRAQ REPORTEDLY CONTINUE AS BAGHDAD WARNS OF ‘RIGHT TO RESPOND’

Reporters Without Borders released the following statement: “We are overjoyed by reports that Shelly Kittleson has been released by her captors in Iraq. Shelly’s abduction underscored the very serious risks facing even the best-trained and experienced journalists. RSF is deeply grateful to all the parties involved from the American and Iraqi governments who were able to secure this positive outcome. RSF, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Foley Foundation wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on April 3, urging him to do everything in his power to bring Shelly home. We are now waiting for reassurance that she is all right and that she will be able to reunite with her loved ones soon.”

Before she was abducted, Kittleson told friends that U.S. officials had told her a militia group intended to target her, but she didn’t believe the threat was credible. 

This is a developing story, more to come… 

The Associated Press and Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst  contributed to this report. 

A Democratic congresswoman whose parents fled the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini decades ago announced Monday she would file articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for alleged war crimes amid the current conflict.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona previously told the New York Times she initially “felt a rush of hope, but also unease” when she learned Americans and Israelis had taken out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in February.

But she has since been harshly critical of how the Trump administration has overseen the conflict, including President Donald Trump’s Easter message to what’s left of Iranian leadership to “open the f—ing Strait” of Hormuz by Tuesday or risk strikes on critical infrastructure.

“Donald Trump’s deranged statements — including one on Easter Sunday — are further entrenching our country and our world in another devastating, never-ending war,” Ansari said in a statement announcing her plans to impeach Hegseth.

77-YEAR-OLD HOUSE DEM FACING YOUNGER PRIMARY CHALLENGERS SEEKS TO IMPEACH DONALD TRUMP

Ansari claimed Trump is threatening war crimes in violation of the Geneva Convention and has already committed “illegal actions and atrocities already committed at his direction — including violence that has destroyed schools, hospitals, and critical civilian infrastructure.”

“As the daughter of Iranian immigrants who fled this regime, and as an American Congresswoman who swore an oath to the United States Constitution, I know that this cannot go on,” she said.

Ansari’s father was a medical student studying in the United States when the Iranian Revolution broke out and couldn’t return to Iran, while her mother fled and was sent to live with another family in Delaware at age 17 after the Khomeini regime continually restricted women’s rights, according to the UK Guardian.

Ansari urged invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office and said she would file articles of impeachment and seek to formally impeach Hegseth “next week.”

DEMOCRATS THREATEN TO GRIND SENATE TO A HALT TO FORCE PUBLIC IRAN HEARINGS

She alleged the Pentagon chief “repeatedly violat[ed] his oath of office and his duty to the Constitution. Only Congress has the power to declare war, not a rogue president or his lackeys.”

“Hegseth’s reckless endangerment of U.S. servicemembers and repeated war crimes, including bombing a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, and willfully targeting civilian infrastructure, are grounds for impeachment and removal from office.”

Hegseth and Trump recently engineered the rescue of an airman shot down by Iranian forces over the weekend, with the president telling the press at the White House that a large military operation was required.

Gen. Dan “Raizin” Caine declined to state how many troops were involved, likely for security reasons.

When reached for comment, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson slammed the plan to impeach her boss, telling Fox News Digital that Ansari is “just another Democrat trying to make headlines” as an ongoing Mideast military operation and two “daring and successful” rescue operations were conducted.

“Secretary Hegseth will continue to protect the homeland and unleash epic fury on Iran’s radical regime,” Wilson said.

“This is just another charade in an attempt to distract the American people from the major successes we have had here at the Department of War.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

The ballot box battle for the House majority resumes this week.

Special U.S. House contests in Georgia and New Jersey and a Virginia referendum that is the latest face-off between President Donald Trump and Republicans and Democrats in the high-stakes congressional redistricting wars — with the House majority on the line — will all draw national attention this month.

Also on tap in April: a state Supreme Court election in battleground Wisconsin.

The consequential elections come as the 2026 primary calendar, which kicked off in March, takes a break this month before returning with a vengeance in May.

TRUMP-BACKED FULLER ADVANCES IN RACE TO FILL MTG’S CONGRESSIONAL SEAT

Here’s a closer look at the four ballot box showdowns.

April 7 — GA-14 special election

Trump-backed Republican House candidate Clay Fuller faces off with Democratic candidate Shawn Harris to fill a vacant congressional district in solidly red northwest Georgia that was once held by MAGA firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Harris, a retired brigadier general and cattle farmer, and Fuller, a local prosecutor and Air National Guard member, were the top two finishers in a field of 17 candidates, including 12 Republicans, in the early March special election. With no candidate topping 50%, Harris and Fuller advanced to a runoff.

SPECIAL ELECTION TO FILL MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE’S OLD SEAT IN CONGRESS HEADS INTO OVERTIME

The special election comes as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218–214 majority in the House. That means the GOP cannot afford any surprises or allow Democrats to pull an upset in a district that extends from Atlanta’s northwest exurbs to Georgia’s northwestern border with Alabama and northern border with Tennessee, which Trump carried by 37 points in his 2024 presidential victory.

Fuller, who is expected to consolidate the Republican vote that was divided in the first round, is considered the clear frontrunner in the race. But if Harris holds Fuller’s margin to the mid-teens or less, national Democrats will argue the election is the latest in the 14 months since Trump returned to the White House in which they’ve overperformed.

The congressional seat was left vacant when Greene stepped down at the beginning of January. Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a very public falling out with Trump mostly over her push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.

April 7 — Wisconsin Supreme Court election

While officially a non-partisan contest, state Supreme Court elections in the Midwestern battleground have become extremely partisan in recent years.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

With the court’s majority on the line in last year’s contests, outside money poured in and out-of-state door knockers blanketed Wisconsin. One of the biggest spenders was Trump ally Elon Musk, who headlined a rally days before the election and donned a cheesehead hat worn by fans of the Green Bay Packers.

Democrats won that election by a larger-than-expected margin and currently hold a 4-3 majority on Wisconsin’s highest court.

With a conservative justice retiring, the majority isn’t at stake in this year’s election, although liberals with a win could expand their majority to 5-2.

But if the conservative candidate wins, or keeps it close, the GOP may claim a moral victory.

April 16 — NJ-11 special election

Republican Joe Hathaway, a local mayor, is hoping to pull off an upset in the special election to fill the congressional seat left vacant after now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill stepped down after winning last November’s gubernatorial election.

Hathaway, who was unopposed in February’s primary, faces off in the election against Democrat Analilia Mejia, a progressive organizer backed by left-wing champions Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Mejia pulled off an upset, narrowly edging out front-runner former Rep. Tom Malinowski in a field of 11 candidates. The face-off was one of the latest between progressives and more mainstream Democrats.

The 11th Congressional District in northern New Jersey‘s New York City suburbs was once the kind of seat where Republicans excelled at the ballot box. Hathaway, who has pointed out his differences with Trump, is the type of Republican who could attract crossover voters.

Add in that Mejia may be too far to the left for some voters in the district, and there’s a chance for some intrigue on Election Day.

April 21 — Virginia redistricting referendum

Voters in Virginia are casting ballots on a Democrat-pushed referendum that would give the competitive state up to four more left-leaning U.S. House districts in time for this year’s midterm elections.

That could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in the state’s U.S. House delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge. 

With two weeks until Election Day, early voting is surging, according to officials, with turnout outpacing early voting from last autumn’s general election. Despite being vastly outraised by Democrats, Republicans see positive signs in early turnout.

Republicans call the Democrats’ redistricting effort an “unconstitutional power grab.” Democrats counter that it’s a necessary step to balance out partisan gerrymandering already implemented in other states by the GOP.

Virginia is the latest redistricting battleground, with Florida on deck, to alter congressional maps ahead of November’s elections.

Republicans are defending their razor-thin House majority in the midterms, and Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win back control of the chamber. That means the redistricting efforts in Virginia and other states may very well decide which party controls the House next year.

In a scene that unfolded like a Hollywood script, hundreds of American troops descended into the rugged mountains of southwestern Iran on Saturday to rescue a wounded airman who spent nearly two days hiding from Iranian forces. 

What followed was a high-stakes combat search-and-rescue mission deep inside Iran, with U.S. forces racing to locate and extract the wounded officer before Iranian troops could reach him, deploying a large contingent of special operations forces and aircraft into hostile territory.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe compared the mission to find the downed airmen to finding “a grain of sand in the desert” in a news briefing Monday.

In total, the U.S. sent in more than 150 aircraft, President Donald Trump Monday, which took on “very, very heavy enemy fire” during the rescue operation. Several different teams: Navy SEALs, Air Force Special Operations, Army Special Operations Aviation, search and rescue and combat medics, also took part.

US PILOT RESCUED FROM DOWNED F-15E FIGHTER JET IN IRAN, SEARCH FOR SECOND CREW MEMBER ONGOING

“This was an incredibly dangerous mission, an incredibly dangerous undertaking,” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said Monday at the White House press briefing. 

One of the two crew members was flown to Landstuhl regional medical center in Germany, typically the first stop for U.S. soldiers wounded in combat zones, and the other is being flown there Monday, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News.

As the rescue unfolded Easter Sunday, the pilot radioed a brief message to help U.S. forces identify him: “God is good,” officials said.

Here’s a look at how the scene unfolded. 

Friday — The shoot down and the first rescue 

A U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet was shot down over Iran Friday, according to U.S. officials. Both the pilot and the weapons systems officer ejected from the aircraft. 

The aircraft was operating as part of ongoing U.S. combat operations over Iran when it was shot down.

While details of the incident were not immediately clear, Iranian state media released images of an ejection seat and debris that appeared consistent with an F-15E. Iran initially claimed it had downed a more advanced F-35 stealth fighter, but U.S. officials later confirmed the aircraft was an F-15 Strike Eagle. 

The F-15E Strike Eagle is a two-seat fighter jet flown by a pilot and a weapons systems officer, who manages targeting, sensors and weapons. The aircraft is designed for both air-to-air combat and deep strike missions against ground targets, allowing it to operate far inside enemy territory.

After the crew ejected and aircraft went down, rescue beacons went off, which send out a radio or GPS signal, officials said Monday at the press briefing, and U.S. forces quickly launched a combat search-and-rescue mission, deploying rescue helicopters into Iranian territory to recover the downed pilot. 

“We flew for seven hours in daylight over Iran to get the first pilot, and we flew seven hours in the middle of the night to get the second,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday. 

The pilot was rescued later that day, within hours of the shoot down, in what Trump described as a daylight operation.

Rescue helicopters, including HH-60W Jolly Green II aircraft, came under Iranian small-arms fire as they moved in to extract the pilot, according to U.S. officials. Crew members aboard the helicopter carrying the pilot were injured, but the aircraft was able to fly safely out of Iranian territory.

An A-10 Thunderbolt II providing close air support for the rescue effort was also hit by enemy fire, according to U.S. officials. The aircraft was damaged, and the pilot later ejected over Kuwaiti airspace and was recovered.

Caine said the A-10s were flying in the “Sandy” role — a mission focused on protecting downed airmen and guiding rescue forces into hostile territory. 

“A Sandy has one mission, get to the survivor, bring the rescue force forward and put themselves between that survivor on the ground and the enemy,” Caine said Monday. 

“While this was ongoing and out in front of them, the Sandy flight of A-10s and other remotely piloted aircraft, drones and other tactical aircraft were violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close-in gunfight to keep the objective area,” he said. 

Saturday — The hunt for the weapons system officer (WSO) 

While the Pentagon remained tight-lipped about the mission, Iranian state media blasted images from the crash and called on civilians to join in the search for the second crew member, an Air Force colonel, according to Trump.  

The Pentagon has not publicly released the names of the crew members, a standard practice while operations are ongoing. Both airmen have been recovered and are receiving medical care at a U.S. military facility, according to officials. 

Iranian state media urged civilians to help locate the missing crew member and offered a reward for his capture, while Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces launched a search in the region.

The weapons systems officer, a colonel with SERE training, was using his survival and evasion training to stay one step ahead of Iranian forces. He reportedly climbed 7,000 feet up a ridge and remained hidden there for nearly 48 hours, a senior defense official told Fox News. 

“He was injured quite badly,” Trump said during a news briefing Monday. “He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds.”

The colonel hid in a mountain crevice while the CIA launched a deception campaign to convince the Iranian regime they had already located him and were moving him to the ground for exfiltration. While the Iranians were confused and uncertain of what was happening, the agency used its specialized capabilities to locate the American airman, a senior administration official told Fox News.

AIRMAN RESCUE SHOWS U.S. CAN PENETRATE ENEMY TERRITORY ‘ANYWHERE’ IN IRAN, FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIAL WARNS

Trump said the American aviator was being “hunted down” by enemies who were “getting closer and closer by the hour.” 

The U.S. used MQ9 Reaper drones to protect the area around where the U.S. believed the airman was hiding and fired on anything that came close to that area and any area where U.S. forces were operating, an administration official told Fox News. 

“At the president’s direction, we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies,” Ratcliffe said, calling it “a daunting challenge, comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”

At the same time, the U.S. launched strikes on nearby areas to keep Iranian forces away.

“We executed multiple large scale strikes in the surrounding area using every tactical jet in the U.S. inventory + B-1 Bombers to keep him safe,” a senior U.S. official said. 

In between the rescue of the pilot and the rescue of the weapons officer, U.S. forces flying B2 bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri dropped “bunker buster” massive ordnance penetrator bombs on an IRGC headquarters, a senior defense official told Fox News.

Sunday — The final rescue

At the right moment, Trump said, he directed the military to send dozens of heavily armed aircraft to rescue the crew member, who the president said is “seriously wounded” but will recover. 

When the colonel finally made radio contact to coordinate the pickup, he sent the message: “God is good.” 

U.S. officials were not sure it was him at first. Trump told Axios they feared it was a trap. But those who knew the colonel said he was a man of deep faith. 

Rescue helicopters, including HH-60 Pave Hawk aircraft, came under Iranian small-arms fire during the extraction, sources told Air and Space Forces magazine. 

U.S. forces established a remote airstrip inside Iran to support the rescue. 

“This was not much of a runway,” Trump said. “This was a farm, not a runway.” 

Problems with two other transport planes prompted U.S. forces to blow them up rather than leave them behind in Iran, according to The Associated Press.

“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” Trump said on social media.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump touted the “historic” rescue of the downed F-15E airmen behind enemy lines and issued a warning to Iran to make a deal before Tuesday night’s 8 p.m. ET deadline or face being “taken out.”

“This is a rescue that’s very historic,” Trump told the White House press corps in a Monday news conference. “It’ll go down to the books.”

“Late Thursday night, an American F-15 fighter jet went down deep inside enemy territory in Iran while participating in Operation Epic Fury, where we’re doing unbelievably well. Well, at a level that nobody’s ever seen before.”

Trump quickly paused his hailing of the rescue to add a warning for Iran to come to peace.

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“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said.

Trump continued to press Iran to come to a peace deal, hours after saying the offers thus far are “not enough,” and War Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed the heaviest bombing of Iran to date.

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“By the way, per the president’s direction, [Monday] will be the largest volume of strikes since day one of this operation,” Hegseth vowed, taking the mic just before Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan “Raizin’” Caine. 

“Tomorrow, even more than today. And then Iran has a choice,” Hegseth added. “Choose wisely, because this president does not play around. You can ask Soleimani, you can ask Maduro. You can ask Khamenei.”

Trump, responding to a question from Fox News, noted there were military leaders warning against the dangerous exfiltration of the two airmen, citing the risks to a multitude of troops.

“There were military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it: These two were totally on board, which was very important,” Trump said, noting Hegseth and Gen. Caine. 

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“But, no, there were military people that said, ‘You just don’t do this; you don’t go into the heart of a very powerful military.”

Trump noted that “half the people are wearing uniforms” in Iran, exacerbating the challenges of extracting the American airmen.

“I was surprised somebody said it’s the only time it’s ever been done,” Trump continued. “I said, that’s not possible, but it is possible because you’re going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path. I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit.”

Trump, in a moment that went from serious to lighter, asked Caine “how many” people conducted the rescue.

INSIDE THE DARING RESCUE OF AIRMAN BEHIND ENEMY LINES: HOW CIA ASSISTED WITH ‘DECEPTION CAMPAIGN’

“I’d love to keep that a secret,” Caine shot back.

“I’ll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds and hundreds of these people,” Trump said. 

“Hundreds of people went into this journey. Hundreds of people could have been killed. Forget about the equipment. A lot of equipment. Nobody cares of it. Hundreds of people could have been killed,” Trump added.

“So we had people that were within the military that said, ‘This is not a wise move,’” Trump said.

“And I understood that, but I decided to do it.”

High-level sources have informed Fox News that during rescue efforts in Iran after a U.S. fighter jet was shot down, the commander of U.S. Central Command directed an attack against an underground Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters.

While the airman rescue was going on, CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper directed a strike on an IRGC headquarters in an underground facility near Tehran — it was done with B2 bombers, using Massive Ordnance Penetrators, the same weapon used last year in Operation Midnight Hammer, according to the sources. Fox News is told the headquarters was obliterated.

U.S. military B1 bombers (BONES) dropped a hundred 2,000-pound bombs during the rescue operations to keep Iranians away from the rescue area during the operation, according to a senior U.S. defense official.

A senior military source told Fox News, “we delivered the heat” on the IRGC.

RESCUE EXPERT SAYS MOST DANGEROUS MOMENT COMES AFTER ‘JACKPOT’ CALL IN RECOVERY BEHIND ENEMY LINES

CENTCOM noted in a press release that U.S. forces had rescued two service members after their F-15E was downed.

Fox News was told that the operation took place between the two rescues: Cooper ordered the B2s to fly round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in the U.S. because they received time-sensitive intelligence about the location of a large number of IRGC commanders inside this underground bunker in Tehran, and the Massive Ordnance Penetrators, bunker buster bombs, were dropped by the B2 warplanes.

AIRMAN RESCUE SHOWS US CAN PENETRATE ENEMY TERRITORY ‘ANYWHERE’ IN IRAN, FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIAL WARNS

Following the rescues, President Donald Trump declared in a Truth Social post, “We have rescued the seriously wounded, and really brave, F-15 Crew Member/Officer, from deep inside the mountains of Iran. The Iranian Military was looking hard, in big numbers, and getting close. He is a highly respected Colonel. This type of raid is seldom attempted because of the danger to ‘man and equipment.’ It just doesn’t happen!” 

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“The second raid came after the first one, where we rescued the pilot in broad daylight, also unusual, spending seven hours over Iran. An AMAZING show of bravery and talent by all!” he said.