Democrats, under the guise of Texas redistricting being a “threat to democracy,” are reportedly prepared to retaliate with partisan gerrymandering in their party’s strangleholds, abandoning their own past efforts to have independent commissions take the reins.
The coast-to-coast counteroffensive urges blue states to ditch independent map-drawing commissions as they hunt for House gains next year, according to a Politico report.
“This is an all-out call to arms,” Texas state House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu, who helped lead Texas Democrats’ quorum break, told the outlet. “That chorus of ‘everyone needs to get off their a** and do something’ is growing louder and louder.
“And more and more elected Democrats who are seen as doing nothing — their commitment to our country is going to be questioned.”
House Democrats are weighing a new entity to raise and spend specifically on remapping fights, sources told Politico, while Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has privately discussed redistricting with several blue-state governors.
The Center for American Progress is encouraging states with Democrat control to abandon independent commissions, a reversal from past party advocacy.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin lauded Wu for “igniting a national movement,” Politico reported.
The liberal activist group Indivisible has reportedly pounded out nearly 5,000 calls to Democrat governors and lawmakers across 15 blue states.
“This isn’t something we had to go pitch people on the importance of,” Indivisible National Advocacy Director Andrew O’Neill told Politico.
“This is something people were banging down our doors about,” he continued, adding it “does seem that this is something that has broken through with these governors and has the potential to create what I’ve been calling a productive ambition.
“These people might be thinking about future job prospects for themselves, and they view being a leader in this fight as a route to do that.”
After Texas redistricting might render five more Republican seats out of the largest red state of Texas, the GOP is advancing efforts in Missouri and Indiana among Midwest red states.
Even with new muscle, Democrats face structural hurdles: constitutional limits or independent commissions in places like Colorado, Washington, and Oregon, where governors have effectively ruled out reopening maps. New Jersey constraints are similar.
Washington’s Senate majority leader noted the state’s delegation already tilts Democrat relative to its electorate, and Colorado party leaders circulated a memo outlining the difficulty of copying California’s ballot-driven approach.
Republicans have long argued that many gerrymandered states have a higher proportion of Democrat representation than reflected in the registered Republican voter bases in the deepest-blue states of California, New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois.
Where Democrats see openings: Party strategists talk of netting as many as three seats across Maryland and Illinois after conversations Jeffries held with Democrat Govs. Wes Moore and JB Pritzker. A court-ordered redraw in Utah presents another target. Jeffries has also spoken with New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul, though any changes there are unlikely before 2028.
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, fresh off launching a ballot effort, is urging peers to “move in a similar direction,” positioning himself as a face of the campaign. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee is providing technical and legal help, and unions pledging manpower for the activists at Indivisible are placing the phone calls.
The escalation is also rippling through candidate politics: former President Barack Obama phoned Texas Rep. James Talarico, a potential 2026 U.S. Senate hopeful, to boost his role in the fight, Politico reported. One national Democrat operative framed participation in the map war as “the price for entry to the 2028 presidential primary.”
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