Historically, the first midterm election for an incoming president is an electoral bloodbath.
Trump was hoping to get an edge any way he could, which included asking GOP states to redraw their congressional district maps.
Texas was all-in right out of the gate, but Trump has had problems getting other states to follow suit as well as lost lawsuits.
One of the states that was going to redistrict was just dealt a blow in the courts.
Utah’s new maps were rejected in court, which will likely give Democrats a seat that the GOP had been hoping to steal in this election.
Elizabeth Rasmussen, executive director of Better Boundaries, took a victory lap, stating, “Next year, instead of gerrymandered maps that diluted voters’ voices and kept communities divided, Utahns will finally have districts that give them a fair chance to elect representatives who truly reflect their values and priorities.”
This is only one seat, but they are starting to add up, not to mention the Texas map will be challenged in court as well.
So far, this effort to take back seats has not been going according to plan.
As we noted above, Texas did redraw its maps, but the seats gained by the new California maps are going to offset all of those seats.
Having said that, I don’t expect either state’s maps to make it through court challenges. However, because California made its maps a ballot measure, believe it or not, they could hold up.
Trump just found out that another state he had hoped would redraw its maps has decided to back away from the plan.
Indiana in the Tank
There have been a few headlines as of late that Indiana was backing out of its plan to redraw the maps.
That appeared to be confirmed this week, when Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray announced that he did not have the votes in the state Senate to redraw the maps.
He stated, "Over the last several months, Senate Republicans have given very serious and thoughtful consideration to the concept of redrawing our state’s congressional maps.”
I know it may not be a popular opinion, but I would prefer to see every case of gerrymandering, on both sides of the aisle, defeated and just have everyone go back to their regular maps. If we keep playing this game, Democrats can take more seats than we can, so this was just a losing fight from the outset.
