Texas Democrats have the last laugh over MAGA gerrymandering

In circumstance anyone wonders if there s any point in taking a stand only to be forced to capitulate down the road I would invite you to consider an episode from last summer When Republican members of the Texas legislature passed a bill to redraw the state s congressional map and give the GOP five additional seats in the House of Representatives at the behest of President Donald Trump Democratic lawmakers fled the state to deny the GOP a quorum and delay the vote They were threatened with arrest and handed massive fines But in the end they returned The GOP not only passed the statute but they also exacted retribution against the Democrats Was it worth it They would say yes without hesitation Although the Texas Democrats didn t succeed in stopping the Republicans their doomed strategy achieved something just as significant It brought national attention to the Machiavellian tactics the GOP was employing to maintain its congressional majority in Although the Texas Democrats didn t succeed in stopping the Republicans their doomed strategy achieved something just as fundamental It brought national attention to the Machiavellian tactics the GOP was employing to maintain its congressional majority in And that has resulted in a state-by-state battle across the country that just may end up backfiring on the Republicans As Trump and Republicans were celebrating their great win last summer California Gov Gavin Newsom a Democrat was testing the ground to see how his state might do the same to offset what Texas had done According to POLITICO Newsom s proposal was first conceived as a bluff to try to dissuade Texas legislators from going through with their plan But once it was a fait accompli Newsom s administration promptly started looking at how California voters would receive the plan and it wasn t good The first internal polling four months ago proved that only supported it Like the Texas Democrats Newsom decided to go ahead and call a special balloting and then set out to sell the idea On Nov after four months of elevating the issue Prop passed with nearly of California voters in favor The peril paid off California s new map will effectively cancel out the five seats Texas added and instead of being engineered in a backroom it was done with the explicit approval of Californians Related New Texas maps Doom for Democrats or do they hold a hidden prize Last weekend Newsom traveled to Texas to give credit where it s due In thanking the state s Democrats for what they did he disclosed You woke us up You didn t just have your back here you had our back in the state of California Other states are now following their lead Just before the referendum Virginia Democrats signaled they are ready to redraw their congressional map and after they decimated the GOP in the Nov vote they will soon be in a position to do it Illinois and Maryland could soon do the same Republican-led states had been expected to forthwith follow Texas lead But it s been a rockier road than they had hoped Ohio drew a new map that Democrats believe could favor them instead of the GOP After seeing the modern vote results Kansas decided not to follow through on their redistricting plan Missouri faces a statewide referendum on a map giving one new seat to Republicans Despite massive pressure from the White House including personal visits from Vice President JD Vance Indiana Republicans are resisting their entreaties to draw new districts In Utah on Monday a judge rejected the state s all-GOP map stating that it unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats and ruling that the state constitution requires an alternate proposal that creates a Democratic-leaning district North Carolina s gerrymander has been one of the scarce uncomplicated successes giving the Republicans one more seat Want more sharp takes on politics Sign up for our free newsletter Standing Room Only written by Amanda Marcotte now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts According to NBC News chosen Republicans are getting nervous about the administration s redistricting strategy But Trump who believes it to be a magic bullet remains fully onboard A strategist explained T he president understands intuitively in a way that other Republicans don t that Democrats are perpetually assaulting us invariably and mostly much of the Republican Party never fights back The redistricting fight is proof that they are not that way So this is in his DNA in a way that is not in other Republicans DNA Daddy then knows best But he may be in for a surprise Dave Wasserman an electoral expert at the nonpartisan Cook Political Record with Amy Walter noted on X that b etween OH KS CA VA and now this huge win in UT Democrats have quietly strung together an impressive streak of victories over the past inadequate weeks that have surprisingly pushed the mid-decade redistricting war closer to a draw And Wasserman s analysis isn t accounting for a difficulty Republicans have heading into the midterms The Texas redistricting that took place in Texas was largely based on the idea that Trump s win marked a massive permanent shift of Latino voters to the GOP column We need your help to stay independent Subscribe currently to assistance Heather Digby Parton s commentary Latino voters are not a monolith there are regional and cultural differences But the contemporary elections indicated large numbers in New York New Jersey and Virginia had returned to the Democratic camp a swing that could very well be equally reflected in Texas and any other state with a large Latino population Trump after all has pretty much declared war on the area and his administration is racially profiling brutalizing and harassing undocumented immigrants green card holders and citizens alike And as with every other part of the electorate his empty promises to fix the financial sector have also helped to sour a multitude of on his presidency Even more problematic Texas Republicans were so sure of themselves that they indulged in what the political types call dummymandering diluting a few of their safe seats where Trump won by large margins to ones where he would have won by less leaving themselves vulnerable in a wave ballot to losing seats instead of gaining five We have a long way to go but after Nov you can be sure Republicans are starting to see that a Democratic wave next fall isn t out of the realm of possibility John Eakin a Republican consultant and content scientist explained NBC News that various Republicans are regretting their overconfidence after Trump s win pointing to a newest upshot in a special voting process for a state Senate seat representing Dallas where the Democrat was the top vote-getter and significantly over-performed the results Nobody wants to go against Trump in this district map because they fear him Eakin announced They ve pushed the envelope and it s going to come back to bite them in the a s Those Texas Democrats could have the last laugh after all Read more about this topic Trump Abbott and the GOP bring Orb n-style autocracy to Texas Texas Democrats face a complicated long contest Trump isn t entitled to Texas congressional seats The post Texas Democrats have the last laugh over MAGA gerrymandering appeared first on Salon com