By Kate PlummerShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberEfforts supported by U.S. President Donald Trump to redistrict states to favor Republican candidates in elections are backfiring as they have been met with legal and bureaucratic challenges.
In recent weeks, legal roadblocks have sprung up in Texas, Utah and India amid efforts to change maps to favor GOP candidates and help them pick up extra seats. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has scored a success in redistricting California.
Newsweek reached out to the White House by email to comment on this story.
Why It Matters
...There has been a national redistricting fight in which Republicans and Democrats alike have attempted to draw new state maps to impact the results of future votes.
Redistricting could have a major impact on upcoming elections, including the November 2026 midterms, which will affect the balance of power in Congress and, in turn, Trump's ability to carry out his agenda. Republicans have a narrow majority of 219 to 214 in the House of Representatives, so every seat matters.
What To Know
The GOP has been handed a number of losses in several states. On Tuesday, federal judges ruled that Texas cannot use a new Republican-drawn congressional map, ruling that there was “substantial evidence" showing "that Texas racially gerrymandered." Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said he will file an appeal with the Supreme Court and ask for a stay of the order.
The GOP-led Indiana State Senate also refused on Tuesday to return to the Capitol for a special session to draw new congressional maps in the state. Republican state senators have said the map will not help the GOP and have called on the party to redirect its focus elsewhere.
Meanwhile, earlier this month a judge in Utah adopted a congressional map that boosts the Democratic Party's chances of winning a congressional seat in the deep red state. A Republican map was blocked because it failed to comply with state laws. Republican Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz said it was difficult to appeal the ruling because of the judge's timing on the ruling.
The Democrats have appeared to fare better in their redistricting efforts. On November 4, California voters passed Proposition 50, an amendment put forth by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom that would temporarily revise the state’s congressional map, a move expected to boost Democrats in future elections.
However, the GOP has scored some wins as new districts have been approved in Missouri and North Carolina, though lawsuits against them are proceeding, and Missouri's map is subject to a referendum petition.
Speaking to Newsweek, Calvin Jillson, a politics professor at Southern Methodist University in Texas said that while "President Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push has hit a number of speed bumps in recent days" including in Texas, the U.S Supreme Court "has in a series of cases over the past decade held that courts should respect redistricting decisions made by state legislatures even for explicitly partisan, though not for racially discriminatory, purposes."
"So if the high court concludes that partisan purposes drove Texas’ redistricting, and not racial animus, they might still pull Trump’s chestnuts out of the fire in the coming days,” he said.
What People Are Saying
Paxton said in a statement about Texas's redistricting: "I will be appealing this decision to the Supreme Court of the United States, and I fully expect the Court to uphold Texas’s sovereign right to engage in partisan redistricting."
Utah Judge Dianna Gibson’s ruling: “The Court finds that Map C was drawn with the purpose to favor Republicans—a conclusion that follows from even S.B. 1011’s metric for partisan intent—and it unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats. In short, Map C does not comply with Utah law.”
What Happens Next
Republican lawmakers in Louisiana and Democrats in Virginia recently moved forward with plans that could allow mid-decade redistricting ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Other states are considering mid-decade redistricting, including Colorado, Florida, Illinois and Maryland.
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