Gerrymandering wars continue throughout the country: Which state could be next?

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Republicans and Democrats have been trying to redraw Congressional lines in multiple states, hoping to shift the balance of power on Capitol Hill.

Democrats celebrated and Republicans lamented the latest turn in the gerrymander wars. Voters passed a Virginia congressional redistricting measure that could net Dems 4 seats over the GOP in the state as the November midterms loom.

“We will not let Donald Trump rig the midterm elections by gerrymandering maps all across the country without a forceful Democratic response. That is what you saw in Virginia,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y, said Wednesday.

Republicans have already filed legal challenges against it, with a court blocking it on Wednesday, but Virginia’s Attorney General has vowed an appeal.

“It’s a blatant abuse of power to disenfranchise millions of Virginia voters and hopefully the Supreme Court of the state will not allow that to happen,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., on Wednesday.

The gerrymandering war has Democrats pointing fingers at President Donald Trump and Republicans, after the GOP had previously accused Democrats of rigging maps for themselves.

Democrats say this started last summer with a mid-decade redistricting push in Texas to potentially give Republicans five more seats there. California countered with five seats for Democrats through their own initiative. Gerrymanders in Utah, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina, and now Virginia essentially cancel each other out. Gerrymandering has given Democrats a net one-seat gain, 10 to 9, throughout the states that have pushed for it so far.

“Just nationwide right now, to put it bluntly, you’re seeing a race to the bottom,” said Josh Rultenberg, a gerrymandering expert and co-author of the book “Draw the Line in Ohio: How One State’s Fight for Fair Maps Explains Gerrymandering in America.”

Rultenberg says voters can’t trust lawmakers to stop partisan power grabs if they keep seeing it’s working around the country.

“It’s going to be incumbent upon the people to take this process back from the lawmakers. Because if we leave it in their hands, they’re saying, we’re fighting fire with fire right now. And if you fight fire with fire, you burn the whole house down,” he said.

Next up is Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has vowed to call a special session to draw a new map that could give Republicans another four or five seats. Both parties know that any tilt one way or another could shift the balance of power in Congress this November.