{"id":90051,"date":"2025-07-25T01:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T01:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/90051\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T01:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T01:01:11","slug":"white-house-eyeing-multistate-redistricting-to-help-gop-hold-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/90051\/","title":{"rendered":"White House eyeing multistate redistricting to help GOP hold House"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The White House is eyeing redistricting efforts beyond Texas<\/a> to help Republicans hold the U.S. House in 2026 \u2014 and Democrats are preparing to escalate in response, with one senator vowing to go \u201cnuclear\u201d if needed.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s shaping up to be a multistate redistricting battle could mark the opening round for House control ahead of next year\u2019s midterms, when Democrats see retaking the House as the party\u2019s best chance to break Republicans\u2019 hold on Congress and President Donald Trump<\/a> is determined to keep the GOP\u2019s majority. Democrats, under pressure from their base to match GOP tactics, have grown more forceful in their messaging and are taking concrete steps to push back, even as the party enters at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re going to go nuclear, then so am I,\u201d said Sen. Elissa Slotkin. \u201cThey\u2019re forcing us into this position because they\u2019re trying to pick their voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Trump\u2019s urging, Texas Republicans are looking to redraw congressional maps to favor GOP candidates during a 30-day special legislative session that started this week<\/a>. Trump has said he wants to carve out five new winnable GOP seats. <\/p>\n

But Trump officials are now going beyond just Texas, looking to redraw lines in other states such as Missouri, according to a person familiar with conversations but unauthorized to speak publicly about them.<\/p>\n

Democrats have fewer options. More of the states the party controls do not allow elected partisans<\/a> to draw maps, instead entrusting groups such as independent commissions to draw fair lines.<\/p>\n

Still, party leaders are exploring their legal options and shifting their posture. A party long known for believing it\u2019s on the moral high ground is signaling it\u2019s ready to fight dirty. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t fight with one hand behind our backs,\u201d Rep. Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Democrats explore their own redistricting map plans<\/p>\n

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries may have fewer options to match Republicans, but it hasn\u2019t stopped him from exploring them. <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Jeffries\u2019 team spoke with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s office about redistricting after the news in Texas, according to a person familiar with the conversations. Drawing new congressional lines now could run afoul of the state constitution and undoubtedly draw legal challenges \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t appear to be off the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m going to say is, all is fair in love and war,\u201d Hochul said Thursday, adding that she\u2019s \u201cgoing to see what our options are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s other states that are violating the rules that are going to try and give themselves an advantage, all I\u2019ll say is I\u2019m going to look at it closely with Hakeem Jeffries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffries and his advisers have also examined legal strategies in other states with Democratic trifectas, including California, where he recently met with the state\u2019s congressional delegation.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the California delegation\u2019s Democrats discussed the redistricting issue during a private meeting on Capitol Hill. And on Thursday, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi joined an emergency call with others in the state about the effort.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Associated Press, Pelosi said that she is not a fan of using redistricting outside of the 10-year window, but if that\u2019s what the party needs \u201cto win, we will do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is on the table,\u201d Pelosi told AP. <\/p>\n

California\u2019s governor, Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic contender for president in 2028, has taken a similar approach. He said on social media in response to Trump\u2019s redistricting push that \u201ctwo can play this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

An independent commission<\/a> handles redistricting in his state. Newsom has floated the notion of California\u2019s Democratic-controlled legislature doing a mid-decade redistricting, arguing it wouldn\u2019t be expressly forbidden by the 2008 ballot initiative that created the commission. He\u2019s also mentioned the possibility of squeezing in a special election to repeal the popular commission system before the 2026 elections get underway, either of which would be a long shot.<\/p>\n

Democrats see redistricting fight as an avenue to push back <\/p>\n

Beyond the behind-the-scenes maneuvering, Democrats see the redistricting fight as an opportunity to meet the moment politically \u2014 delivering the kind of aggressive pushback their voters have demanded.<\/p>\n

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, in a series of social media posts, pushed Democrats to fight back, saying the party should \u201cgerrymander to help Democrats\u201d and arguing they should dilute heavily Democratic districts to secure more seats \u201ceverywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for Democrats to understand the existential threat. Republicans aren\u2019t playing around and they will do this as long as it takes to keep power,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Gallego later told The Associated Press it\u2019s simply about ensuring \u201cthat we\u2019re also fighting back.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment has gained traction beyond Congress. Former Texas congressman Beto O\u2019Rourke said Sunday on CNN that Democrats need to be \u201cto be absolutely ruthless about getting back in power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next month, former President Barack Obama is heading to Martha\u2019s Vineyard for a fundraiser benefiting the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a group whose nonprofit affiliate has filed and supported litigation<\/a> in several states over GOP-drawn districts. Eric Holder, Obama\u2019s former attorney general who chairs the outfit, is expected to attend, along with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to a copy of the invitation first reported by Politico.<\/p>\n

In a statement to AP, Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, called Republicans\u2019 moves \u201ccheating,\u201d adding that the group would be \u201cusing every single tool at our disposal to fight back and stop Donald Trump\u2019s scheme to steal the 2026 midterm elections from voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to fundraisers like the one featuring Obama next month, that tool kit includes the group and its affiliates focusing on organizing volunteers and donors around the special Texas session. They also make media appearances and craft digital campaigns to highlight their arguments.<\/p>\n

Redrawing maps could be risky for GOP<\/p>\n

Redrawing of congressional maps holds risks. During the 2010s, Texas\u2019 GOP-controlled Legislature redrew the congressional map to bolster the party\u2019s majority. But the advantage proved short-lived: in 2018, a backlash to Trump\u2019s presidency helped Democrats flip two seats that Republicans had assumed were safely red.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere had to be folks that drew these lines and everything that had a very strong opinion of exactly where they ought to be,\u201d said West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican. \u201cNow just to say, \u2018OK, we\u2019re going to redraw this, we\u2019re going to redraw that. And by god, if you\u2019re going to redraw, we\u2019re going to redraw.\u2019 I don\u2019t like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday that he has not yet spoken to any Republicans in his state about redistricting but that it\u2019s up to the Missouri legislature and governor to make the call. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to have more Republicans,\u201d Hawley said. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Kinnard reported from Chapin, S.C., and can be reached at http:\/\/x.com\/MegKinnardAP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The White House is eyeing redistricting efforts beyond Texas to help Republicans hold the U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[11744,23231,276,69,59975,59973,1854,57,8123,59972,16539,5371,59974,9540,59971,50,13024,80,22204,7252,358,5028,89,61,322,67,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-90051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-beto-orourke","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-elissa-slotkin","14":"tag-eric-holder","15":"tag-gavin-newsom","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-hakeem-jeffries","18":"tag-jim-justice","19":"tag-josh-hawley","20":"tag-kathy-hochul","21":"tag-marina-jenkins","22":"tag-missouri","23":"tag-nancy-pelosi","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-pete-aguilar","26":"tag-politics","27":"tag-redistricting","28":"tag-ruben-gallego","29":"tag-texas","30":"tag-tx-state-wire","31":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","32":"tag-u-s-news","33":"tag-u-s-republican-party","34":"tag-united-states","35":"tag-unitedstates","36":"tag-us","37":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}