Morning Brief: Liberals Hold Wisconsin Supreme Court, HHS Layoffs & Trump Secures The Border

The most expensive judicial election in United States history is over — and conservatives came up short. But Republicans successfully defended two House seats in special elections. RFK slashes HHS spending and staff while Democrats sound the alarm. And new data show a massive decrease in border crossings and fentanyl trafficking.

It’s Wednesday, April 2, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:

Dems Win Wisconsin Court Race; Republicans Sweep Florida Special Elections

Topline: The Wisconsin Supreme Court remains ideologically liberal after Tuesday’s election, while Florida voters retained two seats for Republicans in the House.

Liberal judge Susan Crawford bested her conservative opponent, Brad Schimel, for a seat on the Badger State’s highest court. Described as “the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history,” Democrats and Republicans poured millions of dollars into the crucial swing state contest — some early estimates say more than $100 million was donated. Billionaires George Soros, for Crawford, and Elon Musk, for Schimel, were key contributors.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court leaned conservative for years, but a 2023 election flipped it to a four-three liberal majority. That election was largely impacted by the Left’s push to make abortion the central issue after Roe v. Wade was overturned. With Crawford’s win, the court remains split between four liberal justices and three conservative justices.

Congressional redistricting and abortion were both major issues in the campaign.

The liberal-leaning court tossed GOP-drawn maps in December 2023 and adopted new ones drawn by Democratic Governor Tony Evers — that helped Democrats flip a congressional seat in 2024. Conservatives were hoping to regain control of the maps with a Schimel win. But now that Crawford has won the seat, the court is likely to strike down the Republican maps again, giving Democrats a greater likelihood of winning more seats in the state.

Regarding abortion, Wisconsin had a trigger law on the books after Roe v. Wade was overturned that outlawed most abortions. That’s been a legal battle in the state, and its Supreme Court will likely weigh in on it.

Republican Randy Fine won a seat in Florida’s 6th District — that spot was vacated by Mike Waltz after he was tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Republican Jimmy Patronis won Matt Gaetz’s old seat in the 1st District. Gaetz was briefly nominated by Trump for attorney general before he resigned from Congress. These wins were scored in red districts, but this is still good news for the GOP, who retain a slim majority in the House. Democrats significantly outspent Republicans in both races, and both Republicans still won by double digits.

RFK Jr. Starts Mass Layoffs

Topline: The Trump administration’s quest to downsize the federal government continues, and Democrats are voicing their complaints.

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would eliminate 10,000 positions across its divisions and agencies. That includes everything from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to communications staffers. These layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to shrink the federal government.

“We’re gonna streamline HHS and make our agency more efficient and more effective,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said earlier this week. “We’re gonna eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.”

In addition to cutting staff, Kennedy slashed around $12 billion in public health funding that had been allocated to state and local entities during the COVID pandemic. In a statement, HHS communications director Andrew Nixon said, “The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

In response, the Democratic attorneys general in 23 states and the District of Columbia are suing Kennedy and the agency, alleging these cuts were unlawful.

“The administration is working for billionaires. They’re working for people like Elon Musk,” Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said in a speech protesting the cuts on the Senate floor. “Healthcare is a human right. Healthcare is basic … the people who staff our VA hospitals are not villains. The people who keep our food safe and our water clean are not villains. The people who keep our military bases operating are not villains.”

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency project is working more quickly than expected. The HHS layoffs brought the total number of confirmed terminations of federal workers to 56,000, according to the New York Times. Buyouts were accepted by 75,000 federal workers, and more than 171,000 have been targeted for layoffs. If things continue at this rate, we could see ~13% of the federal government slashed.

Border Crossings At An All-Time-Low

Topline: Illegal crossings continued to plummet at the southern border last month, hitting their lowest point in decades.

President Trump campaigned on a promise to shut down illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border, and no one is disputing that he’s done just that. In February, his first full month back in office, illegal crossings plummeted to 8,300 — the lowest number in modern American history. According to a new report from Homeland Security, there were barely 7,000 illegal crossings in March.

Context: Last year, there were 137,000 illegal crossings in March, and during President Joe Biden’s four years in office, there were frequently a quarter million illegal border encounters every month. That means every 120 days, a population equivalent to the entire state of Delaware was unlawfully crossing the border.

If these current numbers hold, President Trump’s first year in office will see a 95% decrease in illegal immigration — and the total number of illegal entries will be at its lowest point since at least 1968. President Trump celebrated the news on Truth Social, writing, “the invasion of our country is over.”

It’s not just illegal immigration falling — drug trafficking numbers have also markedly declined since Trump took office. Last year, agents at the U.S. southern border seized an average of 2,000 pounds of fentanyl every month, and that’s not including the untold amount that went through undetected. But in February, that number fell 70% to just 590 pounds. The White House says that progress is coming not just because of the influx of agents and military personnel they’ve deployed to the border, but because agents who were already in place are no longer spending their days processing thousands of illegal aliens each day. According to Derek Maltz, Acting Administrator of the DEA, cartels “got very concerned” when Trump took office and opted to send fentanyl elsewhere.

According to a report in the New York Post, the Trump administration has already carried out more than 100,000 deportations since Inauguration Day. Removals are happening so fast that ICE is now asking Congress for additional funding so they can make enough room for all those awaiting deportation. For their part, the White House says the majority of those removed had criminal records or were known gang members. But many on the Left have criticized the effort, claiming some folks have been deported to foreign prisons despite having no criminal record, beyond breaking our immigration laws, of course.

The latest findings from Pew show that 59% of Americans approve of Trump’s efforts to “deport people who are living in the U.S. illegally.”

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The most expensive judicial election in United States history is over — and conservatives came up short. But Republicans successfully defended two House seats in special elections. RFK slashes HHS spending and staff while Democrats sound the alarm. And new data show a massive decrease in border crossings and fentanyl trafficking.

It’s Wednesday, April 2, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:

Dems Win Wisconsin Court Race; Republicans Sweep Florida Special Elections

Topline: The Wisconsin Supreme Court remains ideologically liberal after Tuesday’s election, while Florida voters retained two seats for Republicans in the House.

Liberal judge Susan Crawford bested her conservative opponent, Brad Schimel, for a seat on the Badger State’s highest court. Described as “the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history,” Democrats and Republicans poured millions of dollars into the crucial swing state contest — some early estimates say more than $100 million was donated. Billionaires George Soros, for Crawford, and Elon Musk, for Schimel, were key contributors.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court leaned conservative for years, but a 2023 election flipped it to a four-three liberal majority. That election was largely impacted by the Left’s push to make abortion the central issue after Roe v. Wade was overturned. With Crawford’s win, the court remains split between four liberal justices and three conservative justices.

Congressional redistricting and abortion were both major issues in the campaign.

The liberal-leaning court tossed GOP-drawn maps in December 2023 and adopted new ones drawn by Democratic Governor Tony Evers — that helped Democrats flip a congressional seat in 2024. Conservatives were hoping to regain control of the maps with a Schimel win. But now that Crawford has won the seat, the court is likely to strike down the Republican maps again, giving Democrats a greater likelihood of winning more seats in the state.

Regarding abortion, Wisconsin had a trigger law on the books after Roe v. Wade was overturned that outlawed most abortions. That’s been a legal battle in the state, and its Supreme Court will likely weigh in on it.

Republican Randy Fine won a seat in Florida’s 6th District — that spot was vacated by Mike Waltz after he was tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Republican Jimmy Patronis won Matt Gaetz’s old seat in the 1st District. Gaetz was briefly nominated by Trump for attorney general before he resigned from Congress. These wins were scored in red districts, but this is still good news for the GOP, who retain a slim majority in the House. Democrats significantly outspent Republicans in both races, and both Republicans still won by double digits.

RFK Jr. Starts Mass Layoffs

Topline: The Trump administration’s quest to downsize the federal government continues, and Democrats are voicing their complaints.

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would eliminate 10,000 positions across its divisions and agencies. That includes everything from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to communications staffers. These layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to shrink the federal government.

“We’re gonna streamline HHS and make our agency more efficient and more effective,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said earlier this week. “We’re gonna eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.”

In addition to cutting staff, Kennedy slashed around $12 billion in public health funding that had been allocated to state and local entities during the COVID pandemic. In a statement, HHS communications director Andrew Nixon said, “The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

In response, the Democratic attorneys general in 23 states and the District of Columbia are suing Kennedy and the agency, alleging these cuts were unlawful.

“The administration is working for billionaires. They’re working for people like Elon Musk,” Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said in a speech protesting the cuts on the Senate floor. “Healthcare is a human right. Healthcare is basic … the people who staff our VA hospitals are not villains. The people who keep our food safe and our water clean are not villains. The people who keep our military bases operating are not villains.”

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency project is working more quickly than expected. The HHS layoffs brought the total number of confirmed terminations of federal workers to 56,000, according to the New York Times. Buyouts were accepted by 75,000 federal workers, and more than 171,000 have been targeted for layoffs. If things continue at this rate, we could see ~13% of the federal government slashed.

Border Crossings At An All-Time-Low

Topline: Illegal crossings continued to plummet at the southern border last month, hitting their lowest point in decades.

President Trump campaigned on a promise to shut down illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border, and no one is disputing that he’s done just that. In February, his first full month back in office, illegal crossings plummeted to 8,300 — the lowest number in modern American history. According to a new report from Homeland Security, there were barely 7,000 illegal crossings in March.

Context: Last year, there were 137,000 illegal crossings in March, and during President Joe Biden’s four years in office, there were frequently a quarter million illegal border encounters every month. That means every 120 days, a population equivalent to the entire state of Delaware was unlawfully crossing the border.

If these current numbers hold, President Trump’s first year in office will see a 95% decrease in illegal immigration — and the total number of illegal entries will be at its lowest point since at least 1968. President Trump celebrated the news on Truth Social, writing, “the invasion of our country is over.”

It’s not just illegal immigration falling — drug trafficking numbers have also markedly declined since Trump took office. Last year, agents at the U.S. southern border seized an average of 2,000 pounds of fentanyl every month, and that’s not including the untold amount that went through undetected. But in February, that number fell 70% to just 590 pounds. The White House says that progress is coming not just because of the influx of agents and military personnel they’ve deployed to the border, but because agents who were already in place are no longer spending their days processing thousands of illegal aliens each day. According to Derek Maltz, Acting Administrator of the DEA, cartels “got very concerned” when Trump took office and opted to send fentanyl elsewhere.

According to a report in the New York Post, the Trump administration has already carried out more than 100,000 deportations since Inauguration Day. Removals are happening so fast that ICE is now asking Congress for additional funding so they can make enough room for all those awaiting deportation. For their part, the White House says the majority of those removed had criminal records or were known gang members. But many on the Left have criticized the effort, claiming some folks have been deported to foreign prisons despite having no criminal record, beyond breaking our immigration laws, of course.

The latest findings from Pew show that 59% of Americans approve of Trump’s efforts to “deport people who are living in the U.S. illegally.”

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