Democrats Retaliate Against Texas by Further Gerrymandering States

WASHINGTON — Last summer, Texas Republicans redrew the state’s congressional map to deliver five additional seats to the House GOP. The move was made, they said, so the state better represented its actual political demographic.

The effort, however, appears to have yielded a stalemate, at best, for national Republicans.

Democrats have retaliated by redrawing districts in California and Virginia to yield up to a combined nine more seats for their party.

In deep-blue California, the successful “Yes” campaign romped to victory in November, replacing the state’s map, which currently has 43 Democratic-held districts and nine Republican seats, with a new configuration in which Democrats are favored to win 48. 

And in light-blue Virginia, where Democrats hold a 6-5 advantage in the state’s congressional map, voters on Tuesday narrowly approved a new map where Democrats are favored in 10 of the state’s 11 districts.

After the Texas redraw, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement that Democrats were committed to “maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.”

When asked if they had any second thoughts about their redistricting, most Texas Republicans stood by their state’s decision and trained their ire on Virginia. 

“The fact that Virginia now is going to have one red seat in all of Virginia just goes to show you that’s kind of ridiculous,” said Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston. “We didn’t do that. We just made it more equitable in terms of what the actual demographic representation is, from a political standpoint, in Texas.”

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, said Texas’ mid-decade redistricting effort was different from Virginia’s, because Virginia’s map was so extreme. 

He disagreed with the idea that the two redraws could be equated.

“Texas, we don’t have that — I mean come on,” Nehls said. “We have more of a majority there, but … there’s nobody like Virginia. They’re out of control.”

Reps. Chip Roy, R-Austin, and August Pfluger, R-San Angelo, both pointed the finger at Democratic states that have little to no Republican representation, especially in New England, saying that Texas’ mid-decade redistricting was done to reach equilibrium with them.

“There’s not a single Republican in all of New England,” Pfluger said. “President Trump won 45% in many of the states in New England, and you’re telling me that this is retaliation. They started this whole thing, and have been doing this for years. It’s really sad.”

Democrats in California and Virginia have been unequivocal in stating that their new maps were drawn specifically to counteract Texas.

“This has been a part of the conversation from the beginning,” Roy said when asked if anybody had raised the prospect of blue-state retaliation. “It’s like, if you’re going to start this, then each state is going to be doing whatever they’re going to do. But that’s the way it’s been.”

James Blair, a former White House deputy chief of staff who now runs Trump’s political operation, argued the redistricting war was started by Democrats suing over Republican-drawn maps in other states. But he conceded that, if he had known judges in California and Virginia “would just let them break the law, maybe we would have a different consideration.”

In addition to the nine new seats Democrats expect to win in California and Virginia, a court-ordered redraw in Utah facilitated the creation of a new blue-leaning seat in Salt Lake City. 

Outside Texas, meanwhile, Republican legislatures redrew maps to pick up one seat each in Missouri and North Carolina. A court-ordered redraw in Ohio led to a bargain between the parties there that gave Republicans an advantage in 12 seats rather than the current 10, though the two seats that were made redder are still considered winnable for their Democratic incumbents.

But Republicans in Indiana resisted a push from the White House to redraw the state’s 7-2 map, voting down a proposal in the state Senate. And Republican legislatures in Kansas, Nebraska and New Hampshire did not take up mid-decade redistricting despite overtures from Trump’s political team.

The remaining wild card is Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has called a special legislative session for redistricting. A successful redraw in Florida could rebalance the scales.