The list of states with the biggest say in Democratic presidential contests could get a big shake-up this week.

A flurry of public and private lobbying to reformat the longtime early-state lineup of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina kicked off again after the midterms, with the Democratic National Committee’s group reviewing the order set to meet later this week. Key Democratic leaders have been bombarded with phone calls and memos in recent days, while some elected officials, like Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), took their state’s case to the cable news airwaves.

The behind-the-scenes jockeying has intensified, but the most important player in the drama — the White House — has remained tight-lipped about how the schedule should shake out, according to several Democratic operatives involved in the process.

States like Michigan and Minnesota are trying to push in, while Nevada is making a play for first-in-the-nation status over New Hampshire. The committee has still left open the possibility of adding a fifth calendar to the slate, while it’s also been suggested that two states could hold their contests on the same day. It’s unclear just how much will change. But there is at least one clear preference from many Democratic leaders, both outside and inside these party deliberations: that Iowa be scrapped from its coveted first slot.

The Republican National Committee is launching a review of the party’s performance in the midterm election and bringing on a team of outside advisers to help guide strategy, as the GOP reckons with its disappointing performance in the election.

The RNC is tapping nearly a dozen people to serve in what it’s calling a “Republican Party Advisory Council” – a group that includes former Donald Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, evangelical leader Tony Perkins and a pair of Senate candidates who ran this year.

Separately, the committee is starting what senior Republicans are describing as a “review” of the party’s mechanics during the midterms, which is being led by RNC members. The RNC is expected to publish the findings sometime during the first half of 2023.

Republican officials say they are moving to address broader concerns confronting the GOP in the wake of the midterms, when the party underperformed expectations in a political environment many felt was to their advantage.

Despite concerns, doubts and a general distaste for the process, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors certified countywide results from the Nov. 8 general election.

The 4-0 vote to certify came during a special meeting Monday but only after that morning meeting was recessed for 3 1/2 hours to allow supervisors to gather more information.

When the supervisors did not canvass county votes at its Nov. 21 meeting, they said the decision was a "political statement" aimed specifically at Maricopa County and generally at Arizona's election process. At that meeting, supervisors said they would canvass the results at a special session Monday morning. But that session moved the board further from certification after Chairman Ron Gould motioned to have an outside examination of the votes-cast records and voting system logs.

The hour meeting in the morning was recessed so board members could gather more information. When the meeting resumed, the board voted without dissent to certify the results, though Board Chairman Ron Gould and Supervisor Hildy Angius both said they were voting "under duress."

Former vice president Mike Pence and numerous Republican lawmakers on Monday criticized Donald Trump for dining with the white nationalist Nick Fuentes and the rapper Ye, both of whom have a history of antisemitic remarks, marking a rare break with Trump in the upper echelons of the GOP.

Pence was most clear in his condemnation, saying in an interview with NewsNation, “President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table. I think he should apologize for it, and he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric without qualification.”

He joined several Republican senators who also directly criticized the former president in statements disavowing the dinner with Fuentes and Ye. Pence’s comments were also one of the clearest instances of the former vice president trying to set himself apart from Trump, whom he served for four years, amid the expectation that Pence will challenge Trump for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.

Other Senate Republicans kept their comments focused on Fuentes specifically, or antisemitism broadly, avoiding speaking directly about Trump, in a sign of the continuing influence the former president holds over the party.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (WBRE/WYOU) — On Monday the Luzerne County Election Board failed to certify the election.

The board voted two yes and two no, and one board member abstained on the vote, saying he wants answers about problems on election day before he will vote to certify the results.

It’s unclear what will happen next. Residents urged the board not to certify the results until there are answers as to what led to the paper shortage and other issues at polling places.

All of this comes as the Luzerne County District Attorney investigates a paper shortage on election day.

MARIETTA, Ga. — Cobb County was established in the 1830s by White Americans on land that had been occupied by Cherokees, who were forced to move west in what is now known as the Trail of Tears. It is named after Thomas W. Cobb, who was a U.S. congressman and senator representing Georgia in the early 19th century and owned enslaved Black people. Perhaps the most important figure associated with Cobb is former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who represented the county in Congress in the early 1990s and is in many ways the intellectual godfather of today’s Republican Party.

But Cobb has changed dramatically. It’s now run by a majority-Black county commission. And Cobb is part of a group of suburban counties in the Atlanta area that has become increasingly Democratic and turned Georgia into a swing state.

In the 2004 election, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry lost Georgia by 17 percentage points, including a 25-point defeat in Cobb. Two years ago, Joe Biden very narrowly won Georgia, in part because of his 14-point victory in Cobb. Sen. Raphael G. Warnock carried Cobb by 16 points in this month’s election and will need a similar margin to defeat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in their Dec. 6 runoff.

The electoral transformation of Cobb County is part of a broader shift happening in U.S. politics. Over the past decade, Americans who live in rural areas, a group that already leaned toward the Republicans, has become even more conservative. Urban areas are increasingly Democratic, but cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia were already so left-leaning that there wasn’t much room for Democratic growth. What’s been the saving grace for the Democrats in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections has been voters in suburban areas backing the party, particularly around Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Phoenix.