Texas gerrymander battle spreads to other states

What happened

A fight over redistricting in Texas went nationwide this week, with Texas Democrats fleeing their state to block a vote on new electoral maps and blue states vowing to forge ahead with their own partisan gerrymanders. While congressional districts are typically redrawn once a decade after the census, President Trump asked Texas Republicans to do so now, hoping to deliver additional GOP seats for the House in next year's midterms. "I got the highest vote in the history of Texas," Trump said, speaking of the 2024 election, "and we are entitled to five more seats." To prevent Republicans from mustering a quorum for the vote, more than 50 Democratic state legislators hightailed it out of the state—heading for blue strongholds like Illinois and New York, beyond the reach of Texas arrest warrants. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to charge the absent Democrats with accepting bribes if they use donor money to cover the $500 fines they're incurring each day, and he filed a lawsuit to remove state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, from his seat for shirking his duties. "Denying the governor a quorum was not an abandonment of my office," Wu said. "It was a fulfillment of my oath."

Several Democratic governors—including New York's Kathy Hochul, California's Gavin Newsom, and Illinois' JB Pritzker—have said that if Texas adopts the new map, they may retaliate by creating new districts favoring Democrats in their states. "This is a war, and that's why the gloves are off," said Hochul. Nor will Republican plans to remake the congressional map stop with Texas; the Trump administration has begun pressuring other GOP-controlled states, such as Missouri, Ohio, and Indiana, to follow suit.

What the editorials said

This is a naked "Republican power grab," said the Houston Chronicle. Texas is a red state, but 40% of its voters chose Democrats for Congress last year. Under the new map, Democrats would "safely hold only 21%" of seats. Redrawing districts out of season like this isn't about fairness; it's just a way for Abbott to show fealty to Trump. And if the governor goes through with his threat to jail or expel the lawmakers who went AWOL, it "would be an attack on democracy itself."

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Texas Republicans may be "pushing political norms to their absolute limit," said National Review, but "Democrats are the last people on earth who ought to be crying foul." Blue states are already far more gerrymandered than red ones: Look at Illinois, where Republicans won 47% of the 2024 congressional vote but took just 18% of seats. Or Maryland, where Republicans got 35% of the vote and a single seat. Spare us the "crocodile tears."

What the columnists said

Democratic leaders across the nation have little choice but to "fight back," said Daniel Strauss in Slate. It's unpalatable, because they have traditionally led the charge to make redistricting fair and nonpartisan—and because polls show that both Democratic and Republican voters despise gerrymandering. But it's either "abandon their principles" to stop Trump's bludgeoning of American democracy or "keep their principles intact and congratulate themselves on a morally pristine loss in 2026." Two more years of a Trump unchecked by Congress must be avoided at any cost.

Yet even if they try, Democrats probably won't be able to offset the Republican pickups, said Karen Tumulty in The Washington Post. Republicans have full legislative control of 23 states to Democrats' 15, and "past gerrymandering has left Democrats with fewer opportunities" to squeeze out more seats in states they do control. Plus, for most Democratic states considering changes, there are too many "practical obstacles and time constraints." California, for instance, requires a special election to allow for mid-­decade redistricting, while New York would have to amend its constitution and make new maps before primary season starts.

"Congress can stop the madness at any point," said Richard L. Hasen in MSNBC.com. The Constitution allows the legislative branch to alter state rules for congressional elections. Congress could outlaw mid-­decade redistricting, require states to use nonpartisan commissions, or at the very least, "set a standard barring the most egregious partisan gerrymanders." Of course, since the Republicans currently in charge of Congress are the ones making a mad dash for seats, "don't hold your breath." But at some point, lawmakers should realize that "détente is better than mutually assured destruction."