5 days ago
Redistricting fight escalates as both parties commit to gerrymandering voter maps
Maria Garcia, founder of the Hispanic Republican Club of North Texas, admits her party's attempt to redraw congressional district maps is a straightforward political tactic to gain up to five Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 election.
It's a tactic she fully supports.
Democrats have gerrymandered other states to their advantage, argued Garcia, a former school crossing guard and healthcare worker. Now, it's Republicans' turn in Texas.
'It's just trying to pick better seats so we can continue to have control,' she said. 'I mean, why wouldn't you want that as a Republican?'
The push to redraw congressional districts continued to escalate over the weekend as legislators in at least 12 states indicated they could initiate redistricting before the midterm election, which will determine whether Republicans maintain their slim House majority.
A win by Democrats would present the first real challenge to President Donald Trump's second-term America-first agenda, which has so far moved forward with little pushback from Republican lawmakers.
The moves come after Texas Republicans, at the request of Trump, agreed to consider redrawing the state's map during a special session called by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to wrap up unfinished business on flood relief and public education.
In response, Democrats left the state Aug. 3 to deny Republicans the quorum required to vote on the redistricting plan, calling the effort a blatant attempt to stack the deck ahead of the 2026 election.
Democrats said they plan to stay away until the end of the special session Aug. 19, but Abbott threatened Sunday to continue to call special sessions indefinitely until they return to the statehouse.
'This could literally last years,' Abbott said on 'Fox News Sunday.'
'As soon as this one is over, I'm going to call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one.'
Now, legislators in blue states like California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Maryland have all indicated they might redraw their congressional districts in favor of Democrats if Texas moves forward with its plan.
Republican leaders in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Florida said they are also discussing new maps after Trump made clear his desire to win House seats through redistricting efforts.
States are required to redraw congressional districts every 10 years following the U.S. Census, but numerous states have also had to redistrict following judicial rulings that find the maps unconstitutional. Some states also allow redistricting between censuses, such as Texas, but midterm redistricting rarely happens.
Still, redrawing gerrymandered districts before a midterm isn't illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court in a 2019 case ruled that federal judges have no authority to decide whether partisan gerrymandering goes too far. State supreme courts could make a ruling, but some have also determined they don't have the authority to regulate gerrymandering.
The one exception is maps that divide up districts based on race, which in some cases have been determined to violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Partisan practice
Political tampering with voting maps isn't unique to either major party. Both blue and red states where one party controls the legislature and governor's seat have historically gerrymandered maps in favor of their party.
Today, deep red states like Texas and Florida and deep blue states like Illinois and Oregon still have hyper-partisan congressional districts, according to The Gerrymandering Project at Princeton University. In total, 15 states received a failing grade on drawing congressional district maps without partisan motives.
What makes the escalating redistricting showdown different from past efforts is the deep current political polarization in which both parties see each other as disloyal enemies, argued Kirby Goidel, a political scientist at Texas A&M University.
'Part of it is rooted in this idea that the people that I don't agree with, the people of the other party, aren't Americans who want the best for America,' he said. 'They're evil. They're bad. They're cheaters.'
Hayden Padgett, chairman of the Young Republican National Federation, lives in Plano, Texas. He argued that the new congressional map is 'more in line' with what the average Texas voter wants. He called Democrats who have fled the state 'untrustworthy partners' who refuse to work with Republicans.
'They're just pissing everybody off and making it completely unlikely they're going to get anything they want, not only on this, but on things in the future,' Padgett said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, on Sunday called Trump a 'cheater' during an interview with NBC News, and said the new Texas map violates the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.
Republicans 'know that they're going to lose (Congress) in 2026, so they're trying to steal seats. ... That is what these Texas Democrats are trying to stand up against,' Pritzker said.
In California, legislators have said they plan to unveil this week a proposed new congressional map favoring Democrats. The map would be decided on by voters during a special election in November.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday told Trump in a letter that his state would call off its potential plan if the president ended efforts in Texas and other GOP-led states to redraw their maps. Newsom called Republicans' efforts an 'unprecedented' attempt to rig the 2026 election.
'You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make,' Newsom wrote.
Garcia with the Hispanic Republican Club of North Texas argued the ability to gerrymander means the Trump-led tactic is fair game in order to keep a majority in the House.
She said Democrats have 'done even worse things' to gain power, and it only makes sense Republicans do the same.
'Why can't we do what we need to do with Texas?' she said. 'We're just trying to help our party wherever we can.'
But Goidel, the Texas A&M political scientist, worries that such an attitude could spell disaster for American democracy. Voters lose trust in the government when they believe the system is rigged, he noted.
If states across the nation start redrawing voter maps as part of a partisan power grab, that distrust could reach a fever pitch, Goidel cautioned.
'I don't see how we end up at 2026 without a loss of faith in fair-and-free elections,' he said. 'People will see it's not fair. Everything's a game of just trying to manipulate the outcome.'
