One of the big issues the GOP is facing: Many of the communities with the biggest increases in health insurance coverage since 2008 were Republican-leaning places that voted for President-elect Donald Trump.

In December, a Wall Street Journal story outlined how many counties that voted heavily for Trump also saw increases in health insurance coverage greater than the overall national increase. Those counties, categorized by the American Communities Project, were largely rural and white, with many holding large evangelical populations, and scattered throughout the key states that won Trump the presidency.

To be clear, an increase in coverage does not necessarily equal support for the ACA. Just because people follow a government mandate doesn't mean they support the mandate. But the data suggest that if the ACA is "repealed" and not "replaced," communities that voted for Trump would see some of the biggest drops in coverage.

That's the complicated terrain the GOP now finds itself facing as it tackles Obamacare. And as the idea of "repeal and replace" gets closer to reality, you can expect those political concerns to exert an increasingly strong pull on the coming Trump administration and the new Washington.

NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday a new proposal meant to make it easier for all New Yorkers to vote, which will in turn shorten lines at the polls and increase accuracy when ballots are counted. That proposal is called the “Democracy Project.”

It will allow early voting and institute automatic and same-day voter registration, thus streamlining voter services and making it simpler for all eligible citizens to vote and eliminate possible voting inaccuracies.

“These proposals will modernize and open up our election system, making it easier for more voters to participate in the process and helping to make a more fair, more just and more representative New York for all,” Cuomo said in a news release.

“In addition to the proposals announced by Governor Cuomo today, we must enact changes that support greater voter participation, such as finally consolidating New York’s unnecessary three primary schedule to a single day, and making it easier for New Yorkers to vote in the party primary of their choice,” he said in a news release.

“This pronouncement that they would like to deny us the ability to provide care to patients who we’ve been serving forever is very concerning,” says Guadalupe Rodriguez, the public affairs director for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the Planned Parenthood affiliate that oversees health centers in California’s Silicon Valley. “We’re sounding the call because we’re definitely going to fight to stop it.”

In his weekly press briefing, Ryan announced plans to include legislation in a budget reconciliation bill. It’s the same strategy that Republican lawmakers are using to gut the Affordable Care Act, and it has a good chance of succeeding.

That’s because budget reconciliation bills are unusual: they can only affect spending, revenue, or the debt limit — and they require only a simple majority to pass. What’s more, senators who oppose the measure can’t delay a vote by filibustering. That’s why it’s an especially good strategy when lawmakers want to push controversial legislation through, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“People are stepping up, we’re really thankful for that,” Rodriguez says. But individual donations are unlikely to make up the difference. “If these proposals that the Speaker and congress are hoping to move forward with are voted through, it could be incredibly devastating for the women and families who depend on our services.”

Now is the time to fight back and Save Health Care!

On Sunday, January 15, join Democratic members of Congress, trade unions, senior groups, health care activists and all those who believe in economic and social justice to tell Republicans loudly and clearly: we won't let you throw nearly 30 million people off of health insurance, make massive cuts to Medicaid and defund Planned Parenthood.

During an interview on CBS’s Face The Nation, Priebus said, “I don’t think President-elect Trump wants to meddle with Medicare or Social Security. He made a promise in the campaign that that was something that he didn’t want to do. But what he wants to do is grow the economy, help shore up Medicare and Social Security for future generations. And if we can get three to five, 6% growth, we’ll do that. And we’ll explode the economy, and bring jobs back, and make trade more fair across the world, lower rates for everyone, and I think hopefully get businesses going again so people can put more money in their pocket.”

Sen Sanders said that Priebus’s remarks were not good enough, ““At a time when the Republican leadership is working overtime to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, the statement by Mr. Priebus is just not good enough. Mr. Trump must make it clear to the American people that he will keep the promises he made during the campaign and veto any legislation that cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”

Sanders is about to put Republicans to the test. The Senator from Vermont has a vote scheduled for Tuesday on a budget amendment that would prevent the Senate from breaking Trump’s campaign promise not to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Donald Trump may soon be the president, but if he tries to cut Social Security and Medicare he will make an immediate enemy in populist force of nature Bernie Sanders.

According to year-end figures published Sunday by the Guardian database The Counted, "black males aged 15-34 were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by law enforcement officers last year," and were "killed at four times the rate of young white men."

Of those, "officers were charged with crimes in relation to 18 deaths from 2016, along with several others from the previous year," the report noted. "These charges included the arrests of officers involved in the high-profile killings of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Philando Castile near St Paul, Minnesota."

With a dearth of public accountability for such incidents, media efforts like The Counted and one by the Washington Post, have attempted to fill that void. But, as the Guardian observed, efforts by the Justice Department under President Barack Obama to improve its system are likely to be dashed with the incoming Trump administration.

Particularly concerning for many is the president-elect's nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) for attorney general, which both the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have vowed to fight.

As the party searches for a new chair and vice chair, the DNC has decided to hold four regional forums, moderated by journalists instead of party insiders. It’s the first time Democrats have held regional forums for party elections in more than ten years.

The dates and moderators for the DNC events, which will be live streamed, are:

- On January 14 in Phoenix: Jon Ralston of the Nevada Independent
- On Jan. 28 in Houston: Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune
- On Feb. 4 in Detroit: Ron Fournier, editor of Crains Detroit Business.
- On Feb. 11 in Baltimore: April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks

Ellison is a leading figure among congressional progressives and grassroots groups including MoveOn.org who has the support of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as Sen. Chuck Schumer, the new Senate minority leader. Although Ellison was endorsed by the AFL-CIO before Perez entered the race, Perez has deep ties with unions and the labor community as well as with the Obama administration. He bills himself as an experienced manager who can rebuild the party’s infrastructure.

While there are distinctions between the two on some issues – for instance, Perez did not openly oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership under Obama – they are both essentially grassroots progressives.

In a new video interview with The Huffington Post, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) pledged to ban contributions from lobbyists to the Democratic Party if he’s elected as its next chairman.

“Yeah, I would,” Ellison told HuffPost when asked about banning lobbyist donations. “I think it’s important that people feel that the party is their party … There is a pragmatic, perhaps too pragmatic step that you can say, ‘We’ll just take whatever money from whatever source in whatever amount.’ But once you do that, I think you cross a line where people do not feel that the party is really theirs.”

President Barack Obama banned lobbyist contributions to the Democratic National Committee after winning the 2008 election, but the then DNC Chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) quietly lifted the ban during Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run. In a December interview with HuffPost, Ellison’s chief rival for Wasserman Schultz’s successor, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, refused to rule out lobbyist donations.

Sanders and Sharpton talked plans for fighting against cuts to social programs, specifically Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, since as Sanders pointed out, Trump ran on the idea that he wasn't the kind of Republican who wanted to cut those programs. And if there's one thing we know about Donald Trump, it's that he keeps his promises. One way to fight, according to Sanders are his efforts "to revitalize the Democratic Party, and get this party to be a party that doesn't simply go out to wealthy people's homes and raises money, but becomes a grassroots party."

Sanders also took the opportunity to hype up the series of rallies happening next weekend in which Democratic members of Congress, unions and other left-leaning organizations will gather in cities across the country in support of Medicaid, Planned Parenthood and Social Security. "We're going to stand up and fight back in a way that we have never fought back before against this Trump administration and Republican agenda."

"We need not less diversity, but more diversity," Sanders said. "We gotta bring our people together, all of our people, to say we're going to create a damn government that represents all of us and not just the 1 percent."

Sanders, the progressive icon who challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, will sit down with CNN's Chris Cuomo. The one-hour event will be held at George Washington University on January 9 at 9 p.m. ET and will air on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español. It also will be live-steamed online and across mobile via CNNgo and CNN SiriusXM channel 116.

Sanders will take questions on major issues facing the nation and will discuss the Democratic strategy for dealing with Trump's administration.

PRIMETIME EVENT WILL BE MODERATED BY CNN ANCHOR JAKE TAPPER ON THURSDAY, JAN. 12 AT 9PM ET

CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper will sit down with House Speaker Paul Ryan for a primetime Town Hall on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 9 p.m. ET live from George Washington University.