Republicans feared losing midterms - but fight over voting maps changed all that

Three weeks ago, many Republicans were feeling gloomy about their chances of keeping a majority in the US House of Representatives after the upcoming midterm congressional elections. Donald Trump's approval ratings, particularly public perception of his handling of the economy and inflation, had declined in the two months since the start of the Iran War. And Republican attempts to gain partisan advantage by redrawing congressional district lines in Texas and a handful of other conservative-dominated states had been offset by Democratic responses in California and Virginia. "If the election were in May, Republicans would lose," former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told the New York Times in April. "The war, the sense of affordability and gasoline – some of that has to be cleared up in order to win." That all changed after two recent court decisions. In Virginia last week, the state's supreme court nullified a recent voter referendum that approved that state's new maps, which likely would have flipped four Republican seats into the Democratic column. "Republicans have momentum heading into November," Congressman Richard Hudson, who runs the House Republican campaign c