Indiana Senate Republicans say they do not have votes to pass mid-cycle redistricting despite a pressure campaign from the White House, according to a spokesperson for Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray – but President Donald Trump’s allies are still demanding the matter comes up for a vote in a special session.
Tag Archives: redistricting
“The latest redistricting salvo: North Carolina gerrymanders out House Democrat”
POLITICO:
North Carolina Republicans passed a new congressional map Wednesday that will likely give the GOP one more red-leaning seat in next year’s midterms, the latest in a string of White House-backed redistricting efforts….
The new map primarily affects Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.). President Donald Trump narrowly carried his district in 2024, and the new district would have voted for Trump by roughly 11 percentage points….
Even before this redraw, North Carolina had one of the most GOP-friendly gerrymanders in the nation, with the current delegation split between 10 Republicans and four Democrats despite the battleground nature of statewide elections. Davis represents the only true swing district on the map.
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein has no power to veto the maps — due in part to a deal brokered by state Democrats in the 1990s that exempted redistricting from the governor’s powers.
“’Democracy is worth fighting for’: Obama rallies California redistricting supporters”
SACRAMENTO, California — Barack Obama joined Gavin Newsom to rally supporters of California Democrats’ congressional redistricting ballot measure as the Nov. 4 special election nears.
The former president during a Wednesday call with volunteers painted Proposition 50 — a bid to change California’s congressional lines mid-cycle and pick up five Democratic House seats next year — in stark terms.
“There’s a broader principle at stake that has to do with whether or not our democracy can be manipulated by those who are already in power to entrench themselves further,” he said. “Or whether we’re going to have a system that allows the people to decide who’s going to represent them.”
“A little-noticed consequence of mid-decade redistricting”
Almanac of American Politics with Louis Jacobson Substack:
With 10 states — and maybe more — looking to redraw their House districts this year or early next year, the balance of Congress might look very different by the time the 2026 elections are settled.
Something else that could look different? The membership of Congress’ most influential committees.
Why? A notably large number of the incumbents at risk from mid-decade redistricting serve on the most important committees, including Appropriations, Energy & Commerce, Financial Services, Transportation & Infrastructure, and Agriculture.
Of the 26 incumbents most at risk from redistricting, 21 — about 81% — hold a seat on at least one of these five key committees.
“U.S. Supreme Court case from Louisiana likely to reshape Voting Rights Act, legal experts say”
Thinking about how the U.S. Supreme Court will handle the Louisiana case that could reshape the Voting Rights Act, the crowning legislative achievement of the civil rights era, Southern University political science professor Albert Samuels says he can’t help but think back.
Out of Louisiana, he noted, came the litigation that helped end Reconstruction laws protecting the formerly enslaved, the “grandfather clause” that kept Blacks from registering to vote and the landmark Plessy case, which enshrined Jim Crow laws limiting African American opportunities.
“Court appears ready to curtail major provision of the Voting Rights Act”
The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared ready to strike down a 2024 congressional map that a group of voters has challenged as the product of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering – that is, according to them, it sorts voters based on race in violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. During nearly two-and-a-half hours of oral arguments, the court’s conservative justices signaled that they are likely to undermine a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, even if they may not ultimately strike it down altogether….
“North Carolina GOP announce plans to vote on new House map amid nationwide redistricting battle”
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican legislative leaders announced plans Monday to vote next week on redrawing the state’s U.S. House district map, taking up President Donald Trump’s call to secure more GOP seats nationwide and resist rival moves by Democrats.
The push to retool already right-leaning boundaries for the ninth-largest state comes amid a major party battle spanning several states to revamp district lines to partisan advantage ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
North Carolina Republicans created a map in 2023 that resulted in GOP candidates winning 10 of the state’s 14 U.S. House seats in 2024. That compared to a 7-7 seat split between Democrats and the GOP under the map used in 2022.
Now only one of the House districts –- the 1st District currently represented by Democratic Rep. Don Davis –- is considered a true swing district and could be targeted by the GOP for an 11th seat….
“Final arguments heard in Texas redistricting trial”
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The fate of five congressional districts redrawn by Texas to ensure Republicans retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026 is now in the hands of three judges.
Representatives of civil rights organizations alleging the maps discriminate minorities presented closing arguments Friday in U.S. federal district court in El Paso. They were immediately followed by state attorneys refuting that claim.
The plaintiffs allege Texas disenfranchised thousands of Hispanics and African Americans by moving them from traditionally Democratic voting districts to ones a Republican will likely win. This is race-based gerrymandering prohibited by the Voting Rights Act, said lawyers representing the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and other groups….
Texas Mid-Decade Redistricting and DOJ Letter
Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, and Michael Gates, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General, have sent this letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General, warning that four of the State’s congressional districts are unconstitutional.
Three of the four districts are represented by a person of color—two African Americans and one Latina: Al Green, Sylvia Garcia, and Marc Veasey. The fourth district is currently vacant after its representative, Sylvester Turner, died in office.
The DOJ’s letter declares that the districts “constitute unconstitutional ‘coalition districts’ and we urge the State of Texas to rectify these race-based considerations from these specific districts.” The letter cites cases, though its legal analysis is superficial. Its evident purpose is to provide a justification for Texas if it redraws those four districts. Governor Abbott’s decision to include congressional redistricting on the legislative agenda is ostensibly a response to the constitutional concerns raised by the DOJ.
“Election do-over: Judge rules Cobb County electoral map unconstitutional”
Cobb County’s electoral map is unconstitutional, the primary elections conducted in May for County Commission Districts 2 and 4 will have to be redone, and the November general election for those seats must be postponed, a judge ruled Thursday.
The sweeping and historic ruling is a direct consequence of the majority Democratic Cobb County Commission deciding in 2022 to redraw electoral lines to their own liking, after state legislators drew sitting Commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her district mid-term. The state constitution vests redistricting power with the state Legislature, but Cobb officials argued they could wrest that jurisdiction power away under the Home Rule provision.
“Signatures certified: Ohio anti-gerrymandering amendment on its way to November ballot”
A proposed anti-gerrymandering amendment in Ohio that would remove politicians from the redistricting process in favor of a citizens commission has gathered enough signatures to proceed to voters on the November ballot.
“Plaintiffs seek ruling Thursday in state Senate redistricting challenge”
Plaintiffs challenging North Carolina’s new state Senate election map are asking a federal judge to make a decision Thursday about issuing a preliminary injunction.
Critics of the Senate plan filed their latest court document Tuesday evening. It argues for blocking two Senate districts in northeastern North Carolina. Plaintiffs contend that the districts run afoul of the federal Voting Rights Act because of racial gerrymandering.
“Here are the redistricting disputes shaping the battle for House control”
Election Day 2024 may still be 11 months away, but the first stage of the battle over control of the House is underway, with redistricting fights being waged in courtrooms from Louisiana to New York.
In a dozen states, congressional maps drawn after the 2020 Census have been challenged under federal voting rights law and the U.S. Constitution, leading to drawn-out legal battles in some states over the redistricting plans they began crafting in 2021. Disputes in Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, in particular, have been closely watched, as Democrats could pick up a seat in each of the states.
“All are places where districts are at play, and it still remains unclear in a lot of these places whether there are changes that will result in Republican-drawn gerrymanders being undone,” said Kareem Crayton, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice.
“Republicans likely to take Wisconsin gerrymandering case back to the U.S. Supreme Court”
Republican lawmakers are likely heading back to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend Wisconsin’s electoral maps that have delivered huge GOP majorities for years. But they’ll first have to convince the nation’s high court it has a reason to intervene in the dispute.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Republican-controlled state Legislature to draw new legislative boundaries ahead of the 2024 election, arguing the maps are unconstitutional because many disticts’ boundaries are not contiguous — meaning they include pieces of land that are not connected.
The court in a 4-3 decision said it is also prepared to replace the state’s heavily gerrymandered maps if the Legislature and Democratic governor cannot agree on a new plan.