In redistricting fight, Democrats did what Republicans didn’t expect: Fight back (and win)

For generations, states redrew congressional district lines after the decennial census. There were exceptions, but in nearly all of those instances, mid-decade redistricting only happened when courts told states that their maps were unlawful and needed to be redone.

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The idea that politicians would simply choose to start redrawing maps, in the middle of a decade, in pursuit of partisan advantage, was practically unheard of — for the most part.

Texas Republicans broke radical ground with a mid-decade redistricting scheme in 2003, and last summer, at Donald Trump’s best, GOP officials did it again: Fearing an electoral backlash in the 2026 midterms, the party decided to give itself a buffer, creating a new map designed to give Republicans five additional U.S. House seats, more than a year before voters cast a ballot.

At that point, the president and his allies seemed quite pleased with themselves. There was one angle, however, that Trump and his party neglected to appreciate: Democrats weren’t just going to sit back, capitulate, and grumble about how frustratingly impressive the GOP’s hardball tactics are.

On the contrary, Democrats had the capacity to fight back — and they did.

After the president and Texas Republicans effectively launched a partisan arms race, California Democrats approved a comparable plan to give their party five more seats of their own. GOP officials, again at Trump’s behest, added a handful of additional seats to their gerrymandering tally in Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, while Democrats in Utah gained an advantage in Utah after a failed Republican gambit.

All of which set the stage for a dramatic showdown in Virginia. MS NOW reported: