States including Texas, California, Ohio, and Florida are embroiled in battles over redistricting, with Trump pushing for more.
Democratic governors denounced Texas’s move as unprompted and viewed their own redistricting as a retaliatory measure. Republican governors argued that Democrats have long set a precedent of aggressive redistricting.
Other governors aren’t so sure.Texas became the epicenter of the redistricting fight on July 30 when it unveiled its proposal for a new congressional map, which stripped the Democrats of five seats. Fifty Democratic lawmakers fled the state to deprive Gov. Greg Abbott of his quorum to enact the bill. The Texas House voted 85-6 toearlier on Monday. “By fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty.” After a weekslong standoff, the Democrats trickled back, giving Republicans their quorum to vote on the measure in time for the second special session. The Texas House passed the new map on Aug. 20 in an 88-52 vote, while the Texas Senate passed the map on Aug. 23 in an 18-8 vote. Abbott pledged to sign the map into law soon.Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first Democratic governor to retaliate against Texas’s redistricting push, quickly unveiling a new map that would shift five of the state’s Republican seats. The proposition was originally dismissed as absurd by many state Democrats, who assumed the move was a major bluff, . Newsom seized on the idea and pushed it forward, calling for a Nov. 4 special election to put the new map before voters. “We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country,” Newsom said at an event in California Republicans, who argue that state law maintains that only the independent redistricting committee can redraw districts, are resisting the effort. The California Supreme Court rejected an initial lawsuit, but it was followed by an “The Constitution’s guardrails on redistricting are essential to ensuring that Californians are spared from the political influence and inherent turbulence” of the state legislature, the lawsuit read.to reshape the state’s electoral map to ensure Republican dominance. The state has two Democratic seats, with Republicans eyeing a new map that would flip one of those. Missouri Republican Lt. Gov. David Wasinger argued that the measure would be in the interest of most Missouri voters, who voted for Trump by an 18.4-point margin in 2024. “Missouri is a solidly conservative state, consistently electing Republicans to every statewide office and sending strong supermajorities to Jefferson City. Despite this, our current congressional map still sends two progressive Democrats to push a liberal agenda in D.C., misrepresenting the will of Missouri voters,” Wasinger said earlier this month. “We missed the chance to secure a 7-1 map in 2022, a mistake President Trump rightly calls on us to fix. Missouri’s next congressional map must protect Missouri values and ensure our representatives in Congress are as conservative as the voters who send them,” he added.“I’m not surprised. … We’re going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!” he declared.“As I have said before, the timing is off for this, because we are literally in the census period,” she said when asked about any redistricting plans. “And when I talk to people in New Hampshire … it’s not on the top of their priority list. They want us to continue to work in the legislature on housing issues, child care, keeping the state the safest in the nation, and just making sure that we have the best quality education for our children,” Ayotte added.“There’s a plan to respond as appropriately in New York and in other parts of the country as the circumstances dictate,” he said.pressed him several times about the specifics of the redistricting plans, but he refused to give details. The House minority leader met with Gov. Kathy Hochul and other Democrats in the state legislature to discuss a redistricting plan. New York’s House map was just approved in early 2024 due to legal challenges, and the process for another court order to redo it would make it difficult to turn around a new map before the 2026 midterm elections.Indiana has nine congressional districts, two of which Democrats occupy. Unlike other safe GOP states, Indiana Republicans have voiced hesitation about redistricting. Ato the White House to discuss the prospect. Several lawmakers changed their tune after the meeting, seemingly won over by Trump. “I spent the day at the White House because Hoosiers deserve to be fairly represented in DC,” state Sen. Liz Brown. “President Trump knows what’s at stake if liberal strongholds like CA bend, break, and bust the rules to gerrymander their maps.” Other Indiana Republicans softened their stance weeks after decrying the Trump-backed plan to gain more House seats for Republicans.after the meeting. There are “things that we can do to help President Trump after this midterm election so that he can enact a lot of his policies.” Ohio currently has 15 congressional districts, 10 of which are occupied by Republicans and five by Democrats. Ohio law is different from most because it requires the Sen. Bernie Moreno suggested a new map that would strip Democrats of two seats, while other Republicans suggested stripping them of three seats. The Ohio General Assembly must get bipartisan approval for a new map by Sept. 30. If it cannot, the process will be in the hands of the Republican-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission. “Ohio voters can have full confidence in the bipartisan, constitutionally established Redistricting Commission as it carried out the responsibility of redrawing our congressional districts,” Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou said in a statement,for a recount of the 2020 census to give Florida more seats, which will undoubtedly be redrawn to favor the state’s ruling Republicans. At a press conference, he cited data from the Census Bureau’s 2022 Post-Enumeration Survey, which revealed Florida was undercounted by nearly 3.5%. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said the bureau undercounted Florida’s population by about 700,000 in the 2020 census. DeSantis and Uthmeier sent a letter to the Census Bureau urging it to “fix the problems with the census.” DeSantis said the state was lobbying Trump to adjust the census, a matter he’s been enthusiastically supporting. DeSantis hasn’t spoken directly on what a redistricted Florida would look like — the state currently has 20 Republican and eight Democratic representatives. While adding another district, Florida could also alter the share to strip Democrats of several seats, particularly as Republicans look to respond to Newsom’s redistricting efforts in California.that “all options are on the table” for redistricting. The state has just one Republican seat, occupied by Rep. Andy Harris . Moore was straightforward about his logic, saying it was gerrymandering, but only “because we have to” fight against Trump. “I want to make sure that we have fair lines and fair seats, where we don’t have situations politicians are choosing voters but that voters actually have a chance to choose their elected officials. We need to be able to have fair maps,” he said. “We also need to make sure that if is putting his finger on the scale to try to manipulate elections because he knows that his policies cannot win at the ballot box, then it behooves each and every one of us to be able to keep all options on the table to ensure that the voters’ voices can actually be heard,” Moore added. He also dismissed concerns that the redistricting plan would be unfair to Republican constituents, saying less than 10% of congressional seats are competitive by nature.Utah’s four congressional districts each have a share of Salt Lake City, a Democratic stronghold, ensuring that their votes are diluted enough so the state doesn’t have any Democratic representatives. On Monday, District Judge Dianna Gibson ruled that theWHO WINS AND LOSES IF EVERY STATE GETS ITS WAY ON REDISTRICTING? In her ruling, Gibson said the problem lay in “the Legislature’s refusal to respect the people’s exercise of their constitutional lawmaking power and to honor the people’s right to reform their government.” The ruling sent the Utah legislature scrambling to redraw its districts just 14 months before the election. State Republicans could run out the clock through appeals, however, with a deadline for January when candidates begin filing.
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