The GOP’s Mid-Decade Gerrymandering Strategy Was an Epic Fail

Republicans’ effort to use mid-decade redistricting to secure more House seats largely failed in Tuesday’s elections, while Democratic counter-maps produced gains. The results suggest the strategy did not protect the party from voter backlash and may have encouraged stronger Democratic turnout.

Republicans had created 15 more favourable seats, but won at most two or three of them; in Texas they led in only one of five targeted districts and lost two seats, while all four targeted Florida districts went Democratic. Democrats gained six seats through counter-redistricting in California and Utah. In Alabama, Shomari Figures won by eight points despite a map designed to unseat him, amid higher turnout in predominantly Black counties and broader voter concerns about prices and the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act decision.