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Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi arrives at the DCCC headquarters in Washington, DC on Nov. 8, 2016. Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA, file

Holder met last week with donors and labor leaders in Washington, D.C., and was joined by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe for small sessions with top party fundraisers in five major cities over the past two months.

Wherever hes gone, Holder said, hes been surprised that people really understand how important this is.

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which first launched in January, brings together under one roof the official Democratic committees responsible for electing governors and legislatures, along with related super PACs and other relevant groups.

Unlike past efforts in either party, that centralization will allow the group to coordinate Democrats full slate of redistricting efforts from lawsuits, to electoral campaigns, to ballot measures designed to change the redistricting process, to the data-heavy art and science of the actual map drawing.

Having all of those tools in one place that is a major innovation. That has never been done before, said Kelly Ward, the NDRCs executive director, who left a similar role running the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to join the new group.

Both parties gerrymander, but Republicans have been better at it, thanks in part to well-timed wave election in 2010. A

We have to do this as Democrats because were at a major structural disadvantage right now. The Republicans broke the system and we have to go in and fix it, Ward told NBC News.

Ahead of next years midterm elections, the NDRC is focusing on states that happen to have key races and be some of the most gerrymandered in the country, including Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota. It is a perfect storm in all the right places, said Ward.

One potential hurdle for the group is its own incumbent lawmakers, who like having safe districts where they win by comfortable margins, even if it might be better for the party as a whole if some of their voters were drawn into neighboring districts which could help elect more Democrats.

Thats been especially true in legally protected majority-minority districts, where a so-called

Holder, who calls fairer districts a civil rights issue, acknowledged it will take some persuasion with some.

But he said he thinks times are changing as Democrats grow frustrated with being out of power, pointing to examples like Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), who gave up some reliable voters in his district for the good of the party.

People in the House are tired of being ranking members they want to be chairmen. And this is the way in which we change their status, Holder said.

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Eric Holder Plans to 'Make Redistricting Sexy' - NBCNews.com

Im not sure where I fit in.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) is a stalwart of the Democratic Party from what used to be the blue state of Michigan. And unlike anyone else in her party, Dingell saw President Trump coming. She warned, pleaded and cajoled to no avail. Now, she feels like a stranger in her own party.

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The Democratic Partys in disarray, Dingell told me in the latest episode of Cape Up. I dont know where I belong. Ive said that. I sometimes feel like I have no home even in the Democratic Caucus here. She went on to say, We need to put ourselves in other peoples shoes and understand where their fear is coming from. Dingell also added this: We took people for granted. We, for a long time, thought we had that worker, men and women, that union worker. Weve lost them because we stopped talking to them.

[I said Clinton was in trouble with the voters I represent. Democrats didnt listen.]

Dingell said her Dearborn, Mich., constituents dont think we [Democrats] understand them. In the battle between automakers and environmentalists, Dingell is particularly clear-eyed. Id really love to bring permanent peace between California and Michigan, she said, noting that what her car constituents want is certainty. If everybody agrees as they did on the fuel economy standards, then the companies have what they need, which is economic and political certainty.

That part of the conversation on intraparty squabbling, which began with Dingell saying, Weve got to stop demonizing each other, was an echo of what she said at the start of the interview. Coming the day after House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and three others were shot on a Virginia baseball field by an angry, left-wing, anti-Trump partisan, Dingells message had added resonance. Weve got to figure out a way to tone down the rhetoric, that we have to stop this demonization of each other, she said. We have to find a way to respect each other, to listen to each other.

[Picture a ripe, red tomato and how this is the key to citizen engagement.]

Listen to the podcast to hear Dingell talk more about the degradation of national political discourse, how she is battling believers of fake news and how the members of the large Muslim American community in her district are feeling.

Theyre very afraid, she said. Theyre afraid that something, somebody could physically attack them.

Cape Up is Jonathans weekly podcast talking to key figures behind the news and our culture. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts.

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One Democrat knew Trump would win. Now she struggles to find a place in her own party. - Washington Post (blog)

Mr. Ossoff has pursued a two-pronged strategy, aiming to peel off a fraction of Republican-leaning voters with a sober, centrist message while mobilizing a broader group of moderates and liberals who are infrequent voters at best and seldom turn out in special elections.

He could win by carrying just 3 or 4 percent of the voters who backed Republican candidates other than Ms. Handel in April. He could also win by turning out enough supporters who did not vote in April.

The final polls showed an extremely close race, with neither candidate holding a clear advantage.

Nearly 150,000 people have already cast ballots in early voting nearly three times the early vote in April, when only 193,000 ballots were cast over all. Nearly 40,000 people who have voted early in the runoff did not vote at all in April.

Both campaigns have welcomed the additional voters. But the new voters are far younger, somewhat more diverse, and much less likely ever to have voted in a Democratic or Republican primary than the voters who turned out in April. All of which bodes well for Mr. Ossoff.

Georgia often takes a long time to count its votes, and the April ballot was no exception. The first returns the early votes of people who cast their ballots at polling places, rather than on paper will not be conclusive, either.

Those early returns will be more Republican this time, because nearly 50,000 Republican-leaning voters who cast ballots on Election Day in April decided to vote early in the runoff. In addition, many Democratic-leaning in-person voters from April chose to vote by mail in the runoff.

As a result, do not expect meaningful clues to the final result until we learn the votes of people who went to the polls on Tuesday.

Candidates and outside groups have spent roughly $55 million in a battle over a U.S. House seat vacated by Tom Price, the health and human services secretary.

For all the early and absentee ballots already cast, the race is competitive enough that Election Day could prove decisive. And, perhaps showing how badly they need a lift, some supporters of Ms. Handel have seized on a liberal, anti-Trump gunmans attack at a Republican congressional baseball practice last week as a boon, thinking it could jolt at least some complacent voters into turning out for her.

I think the shooting is going to win this election for us, said Brad Carver, a Republican official in Georgia at the county and state level.

A little-known conservative group bought a small amount of television time on Fox News over the weekend for an ad showing emergency crews carrying victims of the attack on stretchers. The same unhinged leftists cheering last weeks shooting are all backing Jon Ossoff, and if he wins, they win, an announcer intones.

Ms. Handels campaign denounced the ad but did not call for it to be taken off the air.

Republicans have held the Sixth District for nearly 40 years. A loss would reverberate in Washington, imperiling the partys already-stalled agenda and prompting some incumbents to retire rather than seek re-election. Most immediately, it would threaten the Republican health care overhaul, which is expected to come up for a Senate vote in the next two weeks. Democrats, already enjoying a strong recruiting season, would see a bumper crop of candidates for 2018.

But Democrats who have already fallen short in special elections for House seats in Kansas and Montana, where their candidates faced stronger opposition sorely need more than a moral victory. They need to show they can compete and prevail in the kind of wealthy, highly educated districts that represent their most promising path to a House majority next year.

Tuesdays result may sharply affect congressional recruitment, retirements and fund-raising. But for Democrats chances of recapturing the House in 2018, the lesson is the same whether Mr. Ossoff wins with 51 percent or loses with 49.

Mr. Ossoffs performance has already confirmed that Republicans in wealthy, conservative-leaning districts will be burdened by Mr. Trumps unpopularity. Previously safe Republican incumbents in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Miami and Orange County, Calif., could all be vulnerable next year.

The bottom line: A close race in Georgias Sixth District is consistent with a strong Democratic performance in next years midterm elections strong enough, perhaps, to retake the House. A few thousand votes either way wont change that.

Though the Georgia battle has consumed the countrys political class, another special election on Tuesday will decide who succeeds Mick Mulvaney, who represented South Carolinas highly conservative Fifth Congressional District before he was named director of the Office of Management and Budget.

National Democrats have done little to compete in the district, which remains strongly supportive of Mr. Trump, and Ralph W. Norman, a Republican former state legislator, is widely expected to defeat Archie Parnell, a Democrat and former Goldman Sachs tax expert. But Mr. Parnell had more money to spend than Mr. Norman in the final weeks, and some South Carolina Democrats expect a surprisingly competitive finish.

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Georgia's Special Election Comes to a Nail-Biting Finish - New York Times

BBC News

Secretive Republican healthcare bill sickens Democrats BBC News US Democrats are up in arms about secretive Senate Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, with no sign of a bill a week before a crunch vote. President Donald Trump's party has been busily crafting a behind-closed-doors healthcare bill without holding ... Republican Senators to Get Their Health Care Bill This WeekNBCNews.com The secretive Senate health care process is wrong. Just ask Republicans.CNN International Murphy, Democrats Go On Hunt For Republican Health Care BillHartford Courant HuffPost -New Republic -CNN all 882 news articles »

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Secretive Republican healthcare bill sickens Democrats - BBC News

The Trump administration has not said whether the government will continue paying subsidies to keep costs down for people with Obamacare. If it doesnt, middle-income people could see their rates jump.

Lonnie Carpenter, above, a self-employed roofer, said it would have been tough to survive without his insurance after a back injury.

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3. Days after Officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of all charges in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a black motorist in Minnesota, a video of the shooting was released by state investigators.

Millions of people had seen the aftermath of the shooting because Mr. Castiles girlfriend had livestreamed it on Facebook.

The new video, shot from the dashcam of the police car, shows how a mundane conversation about a broken taillight devolved within seconds into gunfire. But it also leaves some questions unanswered.

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4. The death of Otto Warmbier, the American student who was returned from North Korea in a coma, above, drove a new wedge between Washington and Pyongyang.

Three other Americans are still imprisoned in North Korea. President Trump condemned the North for its brutality, but he and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stopped short of announcing fresh sanctions.

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5. The bodies of seven American sailors were flown home as the U.S. and Japanese authorities ramped up their investigations in the fatal collision of a cargo vessel and the U.S.S. Fitzgerald off the coast of Japan.

The biographies of the sailors who died in Saturdays collision, above, illustrate how much the American military relies on recruits from immigrant communities.

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6. Federal agents are using surveillance equipment adapted from military use in Iraq and Afghanistan to patrol the Mexican border. Experts say technology can create a virtual wall thats as effective as a physical one, at far lower cost.

And within Mexico, human rights lawyers, journalists and activists have been targeted by spyware that an Israeli company sold to the government for use against criminals and extremists.

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7. Our videographer embedded with Iraqi troops on the front lines of the war against the Islamic State in Mosul.

Iraqs second-largest city had been controlled by the militants for two years. The soldiers we followed were greeted as liberators by residents. One family even named a newborn after the units 33-year-old commander, Major Sajjad al-Hour, above.

Ben Solomon, who shot the video, describes the experience in this essay.

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8. In Portugal, more than 60 people were killed in a raging wildfire this week. Our correspondent drove into the countryside to interview survivors and firefighters, passing burned-out cars and melted road signs on his way.

Deadly blazes have become increasingly severe and routine in Portugal, spurred by poor land management and hotter, drier summers because of climate change.

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9. Theres an opera renaissance underway in Paris.

The Opra Comique, one of the citys oldest performance sites, is hoping to attract new audiences by reimagining what modern opera could be.

Its latest production, the Baroque opera Alcyone, hasnt been performed in Paris in 246 years and the new version includes avant-garde staging, and even acrobats.

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10. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, summer begins at 12:24 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday.

Thats the summer solstice, when the hemisphere will dip toward the sun, basking in its warmth for longer than any other day.

It offers the perfect opportunity to ponder the explosive ball of plasma that makes our very existence possible. Above, last years solstice in Santa Monica, Calif.

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11. Finally, Beyonc and Jay-Z havent confirmed the news, but that didnt stop the late-night hosts from congratulating them on the birth of their twins.

For the first time in history, people actually want to see pictures of kids on Facebook, Trevor Noah joked on The Daily Show. Above, the singer at the Grammy Awards in February.

Have a great night.

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Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

And dont miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a.m. Sundays.

Want to look back? Heres last nights briefing.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.

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Georgia, Republican Party, Otto Warmbier: Your Tuesday Evening Briefing - New York Times