The Answer to the Redistricting Math? More Democratic State Legislatures

By Heather Williams, President of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee

Photo by Elijah Mears on Unsplash

We are in a critical moment where GOP gerrymandering schemes have put the fragility of our democracy on full display.

Texas Republicans have already caved to President Trump’s insidious and unprecedented call to redraw maps mid-cycle, and they are now angling to steal five congressional districts in an attempt to maintain their tenuous majority in the U.S. House.

Texas Democrats have been courageous in standing up to protest GOP efforts while facing partisan arrest threats. But we know Texas is just the tip of the iceberg. State Republicans in Indiana, Missouri, Florida, and across the country are watching the Texas playbook to devise their own strategy for rigging maps, further cementing their power leading into 2030, when redistricting across the country will be underway.

Democrats cannot sit back and cede this fight to Republicans as they prioritize their own power over the sacred principle of one-person, one-vote that has long guided our democracy. We can and must take action.

That’s why the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) recently called for state legislative Democrats to keep all options open to fight back against GOP gerrymandering – including pursuing mid-cycle redistricting in our blue states.

The DLCC also launched a Dems on Redistricting Offensive to fund the fight to win more state legislatures and put the party on offense on redistricting.

This moment calls for a fresh Democratic playbook and an unprecedented commitment to winning where this all started: the states. State legislatures are the base of power in the redistricting process, shaping over 300 congressional districts and nearly 6,000 legislative seats.

Republicans have long understood the importance of state legislatures for their trajectory of power. Back in 2010, in response to President Obama winning the White House, Republicans invested a historic $30 million in state legislatures to build their party’s future success. They called their strategy Project REDMAP. It was wildly successful, as they flipped a whopping 20 state legislative chambers and gained 680 seats in a single cycle – just in time for redistricting, which they used to cement their victories by drawing over 340 congressional districts.

It was no coincidence that as Donald Trump was elected President in 2016, Republicans held both houses of Congress, were packing the Supreme Court, and held unprecedented control of 70 state legislative chambers – almost enough to call for a Constitutional Convention. The states paved the way for Republican victories up and down the ticket.

DLCC and state Democrats have been rebuilding power since Project REDMAP. Democrats have won back 10 legislative majorities over the last decade thanks to millions of Americans standing up for their communities, and we’ve begun to tip the balance of power back in the right direction.

Looking at the math, today the GOP controls 57 state legislative chambers, while Democrats hold 39. In terms of congressional districts, Republican state legislatures currently oversee 55 Democratic-held congressional seats, while Democrats oversee only 35 GOP-held districts, giving the GOP a 20-seat advantage.

To even these odds, Democrats must win more legislative majorities.

As the representative of more than 3,000 Democratic state legislators across the country, the DLCC is taking this fight head-on. We are leading the national strategy to win battleground chambers and strengthen Democrats in statehouses across the country.

As we work with state leaders to consider all immediate options to fight back, the DLCC has the plan and decades of data to guide Democrats’ strategy toward the chambers we must win. Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin are all within reach of flipping by the end of the decade. These chambers would give Democrats authority over 98 additional congressional districts — 57 of which are currently held by Republicans.

Republicans are taking a chainsaw to our democracy, and we must meet their might and fight fire with fire. We cannot allow Republicans to turn every state into a Texas gerrymander. Democrats must use and grow the power we have in state legislatures to level the playing field, shape redistricting, and protect our democracy.

We don’t have a minute to lose amid this existential threat to our democracy. The only solution is winning back the states.