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As Redistricting Fiasco Unfolds, Raging Republicans Blame Everyone But Trump

Republicans were in full-on meltdown mode this week after they lost a redistricting ballot measure in Virginia that will axe as many as four GOP lawmakers from their congressional delegation.

And the finger-pointing was out in full force, with conservatives blaming the Virginia Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, former GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and especially Democrats, who they called power-hungry cheaters while keeping a straight face.

But there was one person Republicans didn’t blame, even though he is squarely at fault for any House losses they suffer as a result of this race to the bottom that he started in the first place: their Dear Leader, Donald Trump.

If Trump had never pushed red states to redraw their congressional maps mid-decade in Texas and elsewhere, then Democrats never would have redrawn the maps in Virginia or California.Indeed, Trump likely thought that Democrats wouldn’t have the ability, nor the stomach, to engage in the kind of partisan gerrymandering that rule-followers usually hate.

But he underestimated Democratic leaders, who showed they had a spine and the guts to stand up and refuse to fight with one hand tied behind their back.

Still, Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to name Trump personally for the miscalculation.

Let’s take a look at some unhinged GOP reactions, shall we?

Republican Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia proposed legislation that would redraw Virginia state lines, giving the Democratic-heavy Northern Virginia suburbs back to the District of Columbia.

“DC Bureaucrats hijacked Virginia… but we will restore it,” McCormick wrote in a post on X. “Arlington and Alexandria were always meant to be a part of DC. That’s why I introduced the Make DC Square Again Act, because it’s a simple concept: DC = [square].”

Of course, changing state lines would require the Virginia Legislature to agree—which it won’t, given that it’s controlled by Democrats.

Also, the Virginia redistricting ballot measure would have passed even without the Democratic strongholds in NoVA, so good try bro. Even more ironic is that McCormick is only in Congress because Georgia Republicans gerrymandered their House maps to make his seat easier for him to win. Funny that he wasn’t anti-gerrymandering then.

GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina reacted by calling on his state to gerrymander in response to Virginia’s gerrymander.

“After the Virginia Democrats’ efforts to redistrict in order to increase Democrat seats in the House of Representatives, South Carolina should consider fighting fire with fire,” Graham wrote in a post on X, even though this whole ordeal was started by Trump and not Democrats. “I would encourage South Carolina’s next Republican governor and the Republican legislature to seriously look at what our state’s response should be to Democrats in Virginia. Republicans in South Carolina should consider being bold and fighting back.”

Note: The filing deadline for candidates in South Carolina already passed and the primaries are in a little over seven weeks, so even if they do redraw their maps, that wouldn’t take effect this year.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson slammed Democrats for the Virginia redraw, and said that the narrow margin the ballot measure passed by is proof that the redraw is bad.

“Virginia Democrats can’t redraw reality. This close margin reinforces that Virginia is a purple state that shouldn’t be represented by a severe partisan gerrymander,” Hudson said in a statement.

You’ll be shocked to know he didn’t raise any objections when Republicans in his state redrew their maps to give the GOP as many as 11 of the state’s 14 House seats—despite the fact that Trump only won the Tar Heel State by four points.

Other GOP lawmakers used ridiculous hyperbole and lies to slam the maps, yet refused to say Trump needed to take any accountability for the mess he created.

“The Marxists want to destroy this country,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told Fox Business. “That’s what [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries literally admitted yesterday. … We need the Virginia Supreme Court to hopefully save us by striking down this ridiculous redistricting map.”

Ultimately, Democrats finally fought back against Trump-fueled GOP power grabs—and Republicans can’t handle it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Rejecting Trump's Hypocritical Plea, Voters Approve Virginia Redistricting

In one of the nation’s final redistricting battles before the November midterm elections, Virginia voters decided on Tuesday to allow Democrats to redraw the state’s House map to give their party a plus.

With the passage of the referendum, voters opted to empower Virginia’s Democratic-led legislature to create a congressional map that leaves the state with just one safe Republican district. Prior to the Tuesday vote, Virginia’s 11-member House delegation consists of six Democrats and five Republicans, but this will likely change if court decisions fail to stop it.

Virginians voted "yes" to approve the new temporary map by 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent, according to a Washington Post analysis with nearly all the ballots counted. After millions of dollars in spending by both sides, roughly 44 percent of the electorate voted -- an impressive turnout for a special election. Last November's gubernatorial election had a turnout of 55 percent.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been pushed into the position where two wrongs will make a right, and as Democrats, we simply can’t come to a boxing match when the person brings a knife,” one voter told MS NOW.

The decision followed in the aftermath of President Donald Trump demanding Texas Republicans push a mid-decade gerrymandering effort to erase Democrat districts and give Trump an advantage in the House. Trump began pushing the effort last year as polling began to reveal voters would punish Republicans in the 2026 mid-terms for Republicans’ congressional behavior.

But that effort appeared to backfire as Democrats retaliated by enacting extreme anti-Republican gerrymanders of their own in blue states.“MAGA is having a rough day. They have just entered the “find out” stage after they f—— around,” said one X user on social media.

The New York Times reports Democrats spent heavily on the Virginia election. But opinion polls said voters appeared split in the days leading up to the final vote.

Republicans like former senator John McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain demanded “If you live in Virginia, remember to vote NO on the communist takeover of elections today,” on X, although she made no reference to Republican gerrymandering efforts in red states in her post.Other MAGA X social users appeared to hit a shrill tone as Virginia marched to the polls.

“Democrats are trying to steal 4 seats in the House by redrawing Virginia's map. GET OUT AND VOTE NO!’ posted one X account, also without referencing similar GOP efforts in red states.

Reprinted with permission from Atternet

Virginia Redistricting: The Case For Democratic Gerrymandering

Virginia is for lovers—of democracy.

On Tuesday, Virginians will vote on whether to temporarily suspend the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission and allow Democrats to redraw its congressional map. Polls suggest the ballot measure will pass. And if that happens, Republicans would likely lose four House seats, leaving them with just one of the state’s 11. That makes for just nine percent of seats in a state where the GOP regularly wins about 44 percent of the statewide popular vote.

Put simply, Virginia will go from having a very fair map to a very biased one. So how is that good for democracy? Because Republicans have rigged maps across the country for decades, skewing the House’s overall partisan makeup, and Virginia’s proposed map would be merely a minor corrective.

In general, congressional delegations tend to be biased in Republicans’ favor. Among states with at least five House seats, there are five where Republicans regularly receive less than 50 percent of the statewide vote but hold a majority of that state’s House delegation: Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

There is not one state where the same is true for Democrats.

Most House maps are skewed to benefit Republicans

The difference between the Republican Party's share of a state's current House seats and the party's average share of that state's vote in recent statewide elections, among states with at least five seats

Statewide elections used in the average include the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections, as well as the state's most recent Senate election and gubernatorial election. Special elections are excluded. For states with ranked choice voting, the most recent election with a Republican and a Democrat in the final round of voting is used.Table: Andrew ManganSource: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; House of Representatives/Created with Datawrapper

The worst offender may be Wisconsin. Republicans hold 75 percent of the Badger State’s House districts but have won an average of just 48 percent of the vote in the state’s past three presidential elections and its most recent Senate race and gubernatorial race. At least in Virginia, Democrats routinely win a majority of the statewide vote.

Wisconsin’s skewed map is the result of more than a decade of Republican graft, and its effects have been especially egregious in years when Democrats have scored sizable statewide victories. In 2012, then-President Barack Obama won the state by seven percentage points, and Democrat Tammy Baldwin won her Senate race by nearly six points, but the Democratic Party picked up only three of the state’s eight House seats. In the other five districts, every Republican won their race by more than 11 points, showing that Democrats never stood a chance there.

The GOP is proud of their electoral manipulation—and they want to do more of it. In 2022, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels said at a campaign event, “Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I’m elected governor.” (Luckily, he lost to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.)

North Carolina is a stranger case. Republicans hold 10 of 14 House seats, or 71 percent, despite pulling in only 48 percent of the vote in recent statewide elections. The thing is, until very recently, the Tar Heel State had a fair map.

Ahead of the 2022 midterms, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the state’s map violated the law, and forced the adoption of a court-drawn map that resulted in an even split: seven Republicans, seven Democrats. A fair and honest map, no doubt. However, that fall, conservatives won a majority on that court, allowing the Republican-led state legislature to ram through a gerrymander that advantaged them in 10 House seats. And last year, the legislature made the map worse, likely stealing another seat from Democrats this November.

Which brings us back to Old Dominion.

Throughout the past year, GOP-led states took on the highly unusual project of mid-decade redistricting. North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri, and Texas all passed maps that are expected to tear a total of nine seats away from Democrats. But redrawn maps in California and Utah (on a judge’s order) should give Democrats six other seats. Virginia’s proposed map, if it goes into effect, would likely bring that up to 10.

This would render President Donald Trump’s midterm-stealing project a wash.

Mid-decade redistricting has produced incredibly skewed maps

The difference between the Republican Party's project share of a state's House districts and the party's average share of that state's vote in recent statewide elections, among states that completed mid-decade redistricting, plus Virginia

State	House seats	Projected GOP seats	Projected GOP share of seats	GOP's avg. statewide vote	New map's skew
North Carolina	14	11	78.6%	48.2%	R+30.3
Missouri	8	7	87.5%	57.2%	R+30.3
Ohio	15	12	80.0%	54.3%	R+25.7
Texas	38	30	78.9%	53.6%	R+25.4
Utah	4	3	75.0%	55.1%	R+19.9
California	52	4	7.7%	37.2%	D+29.5
Virginia*	11	1	9.1%	44.4%	D+35.3

* Virginia's map is not in effect. The projections on this table are based on a proposed map, which may go into effect only if voters approve a ballot measure on April 21, 2026.

That is, unless Florida also redistricts. Gov. Ron DeSantis has set a special session to begin on April 28, in which the legislature will consider further tilting the state’s gerrymander against Democrats. The GOP could draw a map to flip up to five Democratic-held seats. The trouble is, such a move would risk watering down red districts too much, which could backfire in a wave election, leading Democrats to win seats they otherwise would not. As such, state Republicans have been hesitant to act.

Whatever transpires, the Sunshine State’s map is already heavily biased. Republicans control 71 percent of its House districts but win only 54 percent of the statewide vote on average.

Of course, Democrats gerrymander too. Massachusetts and Connecticut have a combined 14 House seats, and Republicans hold not one seat in either, though their party regularly wins at least a third of the statewide vote. (The reverse is true in Oklahoma, where the GOP holds all five House seats, despite the fact that it wins just 63 percent of the statewide vote on average.)

The big difference is that only one party—the Democratic Party—is pushing to eliminate partisan gerrymandering altogether.

In March 2019, the House’s freshly minted Democratic majority passed the For the People Act. The bill sought to ban partisan gerrymandering nationwide, in addition to expanding voting rights and curtailing the influence of money in politics. Democrats saw these as their top priorities, bestowing the bill the honor of “H.R. 1,” which means it was the first introduced in the new session of Congress. No Republicans voted for it, and the Republican-controlled Senate refused to even bring it up for a vote.

The bill passed a Democratic-controlled House again, in 2021. Again, it was the party’s H.R. 1, and again, no House Republicans voted for it. Democrats ran the Senate that year but lacked the 60 votes necessary to pass it there.

Joe Manchin, at the time a Democratic senator from West Virginia, persuaded the party to dilute the bill in an effort to get bipartisan backing. The new bill, named the Freedom to Vote Act, would have implemented some voter-ID requirements but would have nevertheless expanded drastically ballot access and ended partisan gerrymandering. When it came up for a vote in the Senate, not one Republican supported it.

Democrats in the House and Senate have continued to introduce the Freedom to Vote Act in subsequent sessions of Congress, but with at least one chamber in the GOP’s hands following the 2022 midterms, it’s gone nowhere.

And it’s not as if the public is divided on the issue. Only nine percent of Americans think partisan gerrymandering should be legal, according to a YouGov poll from August. For context, that’s on par with the amount who believe that Bigfoot “definitely” exists.

Partisan gerrymandering is overwhelmingly unpopular

The share of U.S. adult citizens who think partisan gerrymandering should be legal or illegal

Survey conducted Aug. 1-3, 2025, among 1,116 U.S. adult citizens, with a margin of error of ±4 percentage points. Figures may not total 100% due to rounding.Chart: Andrew ManganSource: YouGov/Created with Datawrapper

Americans hate map-rigging, no matter the reason. The poll also finds that only 1 in 3 Americans says it is fair for states to gerrymander in response to other states doing it—i.e., what Virginia is doing this year.

It makes sense, too. Gerrymandering is deeply unfair at the state level. If Virginia allows Democrats to redraw the state map, Republican voters there will have a weaker voice in Congress than they would in a fair world.

But this is not a fair world. National Democrats are trying to give Americans the fair House elections they want, and Republicans are stopping it. Until gerrymandering is banned across the country, Democrats should make full use of the tools they have at their disposal.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Any updates?

Trump certainly sees China as our enemy, but Americans are warming to the nation. The Pew Research Center finds that 27% of Americans have a favorable view of China, up from a low of 14% in 2023. Funny thing is, that share has risen while the share that thinks Trump can capably deal with China has fallen. Sixty percent of Americans are not confident he can make good decisions regarding China, up from 49% in June 2024.
As the Trump administration lends a helping hand to our worst polluters, Americans are more negative than ever on the quality of the environment. Just 35% of Americans rate the quality of the environment in the U.S. as good or excellent, per Gallup. Who knew that aiding polluters would make our air and water worse?

Vibe check

As America becomes a hellscape, it makes sense people might turn toward God. What is surprising, though, is how abruptly that has happened with one group that’s typically the least religious: young men.

A new survey from Gallup finds that 42% of men ages 18 to 29 rate religion as “very important” to their lives, up from 28% in the previous round of polling. Those figures reflect two-year-averages, with the new share dating to 2024-2025 and the older share to 2022-2023.

It also marks the highest level of religiosity among young men since 2000-2001 (43%).

Historically, young women have been much more religious than young men. In the 13 rounds of data released by Gallup, young women have led young men 11 times. And their lead has often been quite large. In 2002-2003, young women were 16 points more religious than young men. And on average across all years, they’ve led men by 9 points.

Notably, young women continue their slide in religiosity. The latest round of data shows just 29% consider religion very important to them, a figure that’s tied with 2020-2021 for their all-time low.

The 14-point jump among young men also marks the largest increase between data periods among any age group of men and women. The closest change came among men ages 65 and older, whose religiosity fell 13 points between 2008-2009 and 2010-2011.

Turns out, all those Christ-fluencers on TikTok really are winning converts.

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The share of U.S. adult citizens who think partisan gerrymandering should be legal or illegal

Should be legalNot sureShould be illegalAll U.S. adult citizens9%22%69%Democrats7%13%80%Independents6%24%69%Republicans14%29%57%Survey conducted Aug. 1-3, 2025, among 1,116 U.S. adult citizens, with a margin of error of ±4 percentage points. Figures may not total 100% due to rounding.Chart: Andrew ManganSource: YouGovCreated with Datawrapper

Virginia Democrats Say Redistricting Vote Could Determine Midterm Success

Virginia’s April 21 statewide referendum on a proposed change to the way the state draws its congressional map could change the makeup of the U.S. House of Representatives. Supporters say that in addition to creating a level national playing field, approval of the referendum could mean the next Congress would be more responsive to the issues they care about.

Early voting on the redistricting amendment is already underway across the commonwealth.

Republicans currently hold a 218-214 majority in the House of Representatives, with three seats vacant. Virginia’s congressional delegation is six Democrats and five Republicans.

After President Donald Trump successfully pressured Republican-led state legislatures in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina to adopt mid-decade gerrymanders, redrawing their existing congressional maps to make more districts favorable to Republican candidates, Virginia’s Democratic-led General Assembly proposed to change the Virginia Constitution to temporarily allow the lawmakers to redraw maps to restore balance nationally to the congressional district map.

Their proposed new map, designed to elect 10 Democrats and one Republican, would automatically go into effect if voters approve the ballot initiative and could determine who controls Congress in 2027. The commonwealth's Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed the bill approving the temporary Congressional maps on February 21.

All five Virginia House Republicans oppose the amendment. Rep. Rob Wittman said in a February 5 statement that “political competition elsewhere does not require abandoning the established process at home.”

The Virginia Independent spoke with several voters who plan to vote yes in the referendum or have already done so.

Karen Baker, chair of the Floyd County Democratic Committee and a former ICU nurse and federal administrative law judge, said the 2026 midterm elections will determine the future of the nation’s social programs and health care system. She said her yes vote on redistricting will help push back against Trump’s administration.

A vote for the amendment “might be a vote for [undoing] defunding of community health centers. Might be a vote for a lot of the infrastructure of health care in this country, which isn’t great to begin with, but this Project 2025 and Trump have gutted health care,” Baker said. “People haven’t really felt it yet, as badly as it’s going to be felt after 2026, and if we take back the Congress, we can fix that, we can change that, we can claw back the health care system that is being destroyed.”

Michael Passante of Tysons, the former chief counsel for the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Financial Research, left his job under the deferred resignation program after it was announced that nearly two-thirds of the office’s staff were likely to be cut as part of the Trump administration’s slashing of the federal workforce.

“Voting yes on the referendum helps ensure fairness for federal workers and contractors because Virginia’s members of Congress will better protect federal workers from the attempts to shut down or cut federal agencies,” Passante told the Virginia Independent in an email.

Gillian Sullivan of Fairfax City said she took deferred retirement after having been terminated as a probationary employee and then reinstated. She said she hopes the redistricting amendment leads to a Congress focused on rebuilding the federal workforce.

“I know that some in Congress have been trying to introduce legislation that will have a much higher chance of passing,” Sullivan said, with “a less MAGA Congress.”

“The goal, the hope, would be to start to rebuild the federal government and some of what’s been gutted by DOGE, and to get that started earlier, instead of like 2028 or later, get that started 2027, would help the American people get services and information that they’re no longer getting because of the cuts,” she said.

Celeste Garrett, a marketing manager for a green-building firm and a King William County resident, framed her yes vote as important for protecting reproductive rights.

“Already, federal funding for Planned Parenthood has been stopped,” she noted, referring to a provision in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, passed by Congress in 2025. “So that means that those people who cannot afford private health insurance don’t have access anyways. So it’s really important to me that we also have voices in Congress, because that’s where the power of the purse is. I would love to see Planned Parenthood health centers getting federal funding again, because people who are on Medicaid can no longer get reproductive health care now.”

“I feel like it’s impossible to be in favor of reproductive freedom and to be against this amendment, simply because what Trump is doing already is unfairly tipping the scales in his favor and not representative of what people want,” Garrett added.

Journeyman electrician Sean Garanzini, a Fairfax County resident, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26, and co-chair of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee Labor Caucus, said in a text that the referendum would empower workers and boost affordability: “The current administration is trying [to] consolidate power away from the working class into the executive and is willing to use governors and state legislatures that are loyal to Trump to do so. We, the working class of Virginia, must take this temporary measure of redistricting to counter the blatant authoritarianism we are witnessing. As Trump takes illegal actions across the world that directly harm workers with unnecessary rising costs, Virginia must stand together with one voice and announce that enough is enough! Sic Semper Tyrannis!”

Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson for the pro-redistricting amendment campaign committee Virginians for Fair Elections, told the Virginia Independent, “A YES vote is about making sure Virginians — not Trump or MAGA politicians manipulating the rules — decide who represents them in Congress and the direction our country takes on the issues Commonwealth families care about, from protecting reproductive freedom and access to health care to making life here more affordable.”

Reprinted with permission from The Virginia Independent

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Most House maps are skewed to benefit Republicans

Mid-decade redistricting has produced incredibly skewed maps

Partisan gerrymandering is overwhelmingly unpopular

Any updates?

Vibe check

Daily Kos relies on small donations to make ends meet

Was this story worth reading?

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Power matters.

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