Gerrymandering Wars

Blurb:

There’s a little bit of good news to report out of Virginia this Wednesday morning that might be a harbinger for how the April 21 gerrymandering referendum being pushed by Democrats will fare. Republican Andrew Rice has won a special election in Virginia’s 98th House District and will now succeed the late GOP Del. Barry Knight, who died last month after representing the Virginia Beach area for over a decade.

 

Blurb:

 

Watch Virginia closely. The far-left Gov. Abigail Spanberger is setting out on a path that other Democrats will follow, and that the party will roll out nationally if it wins in 2028. It is a path to authoritarian leftist control and the destruction of our freedoms. Besides the gerrymandered congressional map, she has also allowed for mail-in ballots that will allow enough fraud to keep the Democrats in power forever. Meanwhile she is lightening penalties for violent crime and forbidding local police to cooperate with ICE. This will ensure a terrorized native population and the flooding of Virginia with migrants who will further ensure the left’s total control of the state. And for the left, Virginia is just the beginning.

“5 VIRGINIA CONGRESSMEN: Democrats are rejecting voters to gerrymander our state,” by Rep. Rob Wittman, Fox News, March 2, 2026:

Virginia voters settled the redistricting question in 2020. Nearly two-thirds of Virginians amended our Constitution to create an independent redistricting commission and take map-drawing power away from politicians. The message was unmistakable: stop the gerrymander. Stop letting politicians choose their voters.

Democrats applauded that reform. House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott praised fairness and transparency. Senate President pro tempore L. Louise Lucas declared it would ensure “an equitable, transparent and bipartisan process to ensure our electoral maps are drawn fairly.” Rep. Don Beyer said plainly, “Gerrymandering is cheating. It allows politicians to select their voters, when it should be the other way around.” They were right.

In 2019, Abigail Spanberger said, “Gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy. Opposing gerrymandering should be a bipartisan priority.” While running for governor, she added, “Short answer is no. I have no plans to redistrict Virginia.”

That was before she took office.

Blurb:

A Virginia judge granted the Republican National Committee a temporary restraining order that halts Virginia Democrats’ gerrymandering efforts to redraw the state’s congressional districts ahead of the upcoming midterms.

The Republican National Committee brought a lawsuit Wednesday to stop what the organization describes as an unconstitutional last-minute power grab by Virginia Democrats. Filing a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, the RNC asked the court to block the implementation of the proposed constitutional amendment. According to local media, Tazewell County Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. granted the RNC motion on Thursday.

Blurb:

“Anything you can do, I can do better,” the famous duet from the musical “Annie Get Your Gun,” comes to mind as Republicans in blue states watch their red congressional districts disappear because Democrats turned the tables on President Donald Trump’s plan to push mid-decade redistricting to make it easier for the GOP to hold the House majority. Once Republican states decided to employ this strategy, Democrats would have been derelict not to do the same.

House Republicans leaders are beginning to realize that their chances of midterm victory may shrink because this Pandora’s Box was opened. It’s not just that blue states might create more safe seats than red states might. The debate has energized the Democrat base and allowed their big money donors to argue to the public that this is just another “authoritarian” attempt by Trump to rig the system.

Blurb:

Virginia Democrats are advancing two bills to extend deadlines for receiving and counting mail-in absentee ballots several days after Election Day.

Delegate Adele McClure and State Senator Barbara Favola, who represent Arlington, have introduced companion bills, HB 82 and SB 58, which will extend the deadline for counting absentee ballots in Virginia from noon to 5 p.m. on the third day after Election Day, reported ARL Now.

Blurb:

A Virginia judge on Tuesday ruled that a Democrat-led effort to radically redraw the state’s congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections is invalid.

The ruling has dealt a major setback to plans that would have dramatically reshaped the state’s House delegation.

Judge Jack Hurley Jr., of the Tazewell County Circuit Court, issued a ruling declaring a proposed constitutional amendment advanced by the Virginia General Assembly to be procedurally invalid under state law.

Blurb:

The Supreme Court last week ordered California Democrats to respond within a week to a Republican-backed request seeking to block the state’s newly drawn congressional maps from being used in the 2026 elections.

The move, issued by Justice Elena Kagan, who is handling the emergency injunction request, caught many court watchers off guard. Given the court’s recent decision to allow Texas Republicans to keep their mid-decade redistricting plan, most expected the justices to let California’s Democrat-drawn map stand without intervention.

California Republicans argue the new maps violate the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution by relying on race, rather than politics, to redraw at least one congressional district.

Blurb:

 

Democrats, ever desperate for one-party control, filed a lawsuit in October claiming that New York City’s only Republican-held congressional district was unconstitutionally drawn because it allegedly “dilutes black and Latino voting strength.”

The Staten Island plaintiffs, represented by the Washington, D.C.-based Elias Law Group, demanded that the map — which was approved by the Democrat-controlled state legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in 2024 — be redrawn such that it’d be virtually impossible for Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis to defend her district.

Blurb:

Democrat-controlled Maryland is set to move forward with a plan to draw out its lone Republican-controlled district, a move that will further increase the likelihood of Democrats retaking control of the U.S. House later this year.

The effort began when Democrat Governor Wes Moore established the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission in November 2025. Chaired by U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), the five-member panel of Democrat appointees claimed it heard community feedback and reviewed proposals before voting to recommend new boundaries on December 18, 2025.

Blurb:

Democratic Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas ripped into fellow party Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner over redistricting in the commonwealth, declaring Saturday she didn’t need advice from “a cuck chair in the corner.”

With the 2026 midterm elections approaching, redistricting plans have surfaced in both Republican-led and Democrat-led state legislatures as a strategy to achieve a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Virginia Senate Democrats on Friday approved a state constitutional amendment allowing the General Assembly to redraw the state’s congressional districts mid-decade. Touting the win online, Lucas first posted a picture of a McDonald’s worker asking, “Would you like fries with that?” on the news of the approved amendment.

Blurb:

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is raising alarms over President Donald Trump’s aggressive push for mid-decade redistricting in Republican-led states, claiming the effort could intensify national divisions and even lead to “political violence.”

Paul’s comments came during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The senator was pressed on the Indiana State Senate’s recent decision to reject a Trump-backed redistricting proposal.

The president endorsed the mid-cycle map overhaul.

It’s one that analysts say would have added two GOP seats ahead of next year’s midterms.

Blurb:

 

The Indiana House of Representatives passed a controversial bill that would redistrict the state and possibly flip two seats to the Republican column in the midterm elections.

Fifty-seven members voted for the bill, while 41 voted against it. The bill will go to the Indiana Senate, where some Republicans have said they oppose the redistricting effort.

‘Fair maps are essential to protecting Hoosiers’ voices in Washington, and today the House voted to do just that.’

Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun urged the Senate to pass the bill.

“Fair maps are essential to protecting Hoosiers’ voices in Washington, and today the House voted to do just that, delivering a strong congressional map,” Braun said. “I commend Speaker Huston and his caucus for having the courage to protect Hoosier voters. I urge the Senate to move quickly next week and adopt this map so Indiana can move forward with confidence.”

Blurb:

CNN political commentator Scott Jennings had a stern warning for Republican lawmakers after the Republican-dominated Indiana State Senate overwhelmingly voted against a congressional map redraw that would have netted the party two seats in next year’s midterm elections, a move that significantly increases the odds of a Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in 2026.

The proposed maps would have split the Democratic Party stronghold of Indianapolis four ways, effectively eliminating the districts currently controlled by Democrats to give the GOP a 9-0 sweep when it comes to U.S. House seats. After the Indiana House advanced the motion last week, the proposed map went to the Senate, where it was soundly defeated on Thursday.

The vote was not particularly close, as 21 Republicans voted against the measure while just 19 voted in favor.  President Donald Trump and a number of key allies were furious over the move, leading organizations like Turning Point USA and the president himself to vow primary challenges.

Blurb:

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito blocked a federal court ruling Friday that struck down Texas’ new congressional map, allowing Republicans to continue using the disputed boundaries while the high court weighs the case.

Alito ordered the League of United Latin American Citizens and other challengers to respond by Monday at 5 p.m. EST, according to the court document. The administrative stay blocks the Nov. 18 order from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas while the Supreme Court considers the case.

The Supreme Court order states the district court’s ruling “is hereby administratively stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.” Alito signed the order personally on Nov. 21.

Blurb:

“By design or by default, Judge [Dianna] Gibson has authorized the most partisan and thus the most gerrymandered map,” Senate leader Stuart Adams said.

The Utah state legislature is set to appeal the state’s new congressional map that carves out a congressional seat that will all but certainly give a seat to the Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections. The map was brought about after Judge Dianna Gibson ruled in favor of the map that was in place.

The announcement was made on Tuesday. “By design or by default, Judge [Dianna] Gibson has authorized the most partisan and thus the most gerrymandered map in the history of the state of Utah,” Senate President Stuart Adams announced at a press conference.

Blurb:

Listening to Gavin Newsom talk about “free and fair elections” is like listening to Yoko Ono sing. It just doesn’t sound right. In both cases, it’s very wrong.

But Newsom, born without the encumbrance of integrity, insists on lecturing Republicans about election integrity.

“Donald Trump and Greg Abbott played with fire, got burned — and democracy won,” the leftist California governor stricken with political delusions of grandeur gloated on X this week after a federal court panel in a 2-1 ruling blocked Texas from implementing a mid-decade revision to its U.S. House map. Republicans have appealed the decision, which the dissenting judge excoriated as “the most blatant exercise of judicial activism” he has witnessed in his 37 years on the federal bench.

Blurb:

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process.”

The US Department of Justice has filed suit against California Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber, alleging that the state’s newly enacted congressional map violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The legal challenge targets the redistricting framework created under Proposition 50, which shifted responsibility for drawing congressional districts from an independent commission to the state legislature. The new map favors Democrats in the upcoming 2026 midterms.

Blurb:

Amid the several race-based redistricting fights across the country ahead of the midterms, including states like Texas and California, one Southern state joined the ranks Monday in a move that has left nobody satisfied.

A federal judge ordered a small redistricting effort after finding back in August that the current Alabama state Senate district map violated the Voting Rights Act.

The new plan does enough to remedy the disparities while not upsetting other districts.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco, a first-term Trump appointee, ordered that a new map that rearranged District 25 and District 26, two Montgomery-area districts, be implemented in time for the 2026 midterms.

Democrat state Senator Kirk Hatcher currently represents Senate District 26, and Republican state Senator Will Barfoot represents Senate District 25.

Blurb:

 

The proposition granting the Democrat-controlled legislature authority to redraw California’s congressional districts won by a decisive margin, but the Trump administration is suing to stop the gerrymandering scheme.

On Thursday the Department of Justice filed to join a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law that would allow Democrats to possibly flip five Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

‘Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Prop. 50.’

Blurb:

President Donald Trump weighed in on a pair of Indiana Republicans involved in thwarting redistricting efforts in the Hoosier State ahead of next year’s midterm elections. As you might have guessed, he wasn’t pleased with their actions.

As reported by RedState’s Teri Christoph, Indiana’s Republican Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray announced earlier this week that the chamber, controlled by the GOP, would not reconvene in December to vote on redistricting.

Bray, along with state Sen. Greg Goode (R), was the target of the President’s ire as he railed against their “politically correct” cowardice for developing an acute case of weak knees at the thought of redistricting.

“Very disappointed in Indiana State Senate Republicans, led by RINO Senators Rod Bray and Greg Goode, for not wanting to redistrict their State, allowing the United States Congress to perhaps gain two more Republican seats,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform.

Blurb:

A panel of three unelected judges issued an injunction Tuesday blocking Texas from using its newly drawn congressional map. If Texas loses the appeals process, the injunction could stand, which means the five seats Texas thought it was gaining will not materialize. But five seats that could materialize will be in California. Which means that Republicans in red states must step up or risk losing the House to Democrats permanently.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown ruled alongside Judge Davi Guaderrama in a 2-1 decision that the new map appears to be a race-based gerrymander, which is illegal.

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” the majority opinion reads. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

Blurb:

Now that the “Schumer Shutdown” has become the “Schumer Surrender,” the Democrats are distracted, disorganized, and organizationally discombobulated. For the next few weeks, they’ll be preoccupied with finger-pointing and nasty recriminations — with the radical left blaming the middle-left, the middle-left blaming the radical left, and every other donkey ducking for cover.

So the timing is perfect: Trump should strike while the metal is smoldering.

And for his next PR move, he should demand a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering once and for all.

Gerrymandering isn’t a new thing. It’s named after Elbridge Gerry, the fifth vice president of the United States. Before joining James Madison’s 1812 ticket, he was the governor of Massachusetts, where he approved oddly-shaped legislative districts, one of which resembled a salamander.

Blurb:

An unelected district court judge ruled late Monday night that a Republican-proposed congressional map in Utah — a state that voted for President Donald Trump by nearly 22 points last November — was unconstitutional and instead, the state would have to adopt a map that creates a solid Democrat seat. The decision marks the latest setback in a string of redistricting battles that Republicans appear increasingly unwilling to fight, even as Democrats move full steam ahead with their own partisan redistricting efforts.

Utah District Judge Dianna Gibson ruled that the GOP proposal “unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats.” The state legislature was ordered to draw a new map after the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government sued over the current maps. Gibson previously ordered the state to draw a new map. The legislature approved a new map that retained the four congressional districts, though it made two of the districts slightly more competitive. But Gibson struck the new map down, instead accepting the plaintiff-drawn map that creates a new, safely Democratic district. Cook Political Report Senior Editor and Elections Analyst Dave Wasserman said the new district is a +24 for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Blurb:

The Utah Third District Court has struck down the congressional map crafted by the Republican-led state legislature, labeling it an unconstitutional “gerrymander” and replacing it with a map drawn by left-wing plaintiffs.

The new map, which the court claims better complies with the state’s anti-gerrymandering initiative, is projected to give Democrats an additional seat in one of the nation’s deeply red states.

At the heart of the controversy is the court’s decision to affirm a lower court injunction blocking the legislature’s maps (S.B. 1011 and S.B. 1012, known as Map C), claiming they violated Proposition 4 — a 2018 initiative designed to curb partisan gerrymandering.

The Court, led by Judge Dianna M. Gibson, has thrown out the legislature’s S.B. 1012 (Map C) and S.B. 1011, both approved earlier this year by the state’s duly elected representatives.

And instead adopts “Map 1,” drawn by the plaintiffs themselves, after declaring that the legislature’s map “unduly favored Republicans.”

Blurb:

California overwhelmingly approved Prop 50 on Tuesday, which will potentially add five Democrat seats to the U.S. House in opposition to Republicans in Texas.

The Associated Press called the election in favor of Prop 50 shortly after the polls closed on Tuesday night.

“California voters approved new congressional district boundaries Tuesday, delivering a victory for Democrats in the state-by-state redistricting battle that will help determine which party wins control of the U.S. House in 2026,” the AP noted.

Republicans hold 219 seats in the U.S. House, while Democrats hold 213; those five seats in the 2026 midterm could make a huge difference in the balance of power. California Gov. Gavin Newsom strongly backed Prop 50, pledging it would be a bulwark against President Trump.