Voters across much of the South are casting ballots ahead of next month’s midterm elections in congressional districts that were redrawn following calls from President Trump. He said it would help the Republican Party hold the House, where it currently outnumbers Democrats 218 to 214.
Over the last year, in state legislatures, Republicans have lost about eight more seats than Democrats in response. (This is an estimate, shown in the bar graph below.)
But it’s the voters who will decide if it works.
Here’s the catch: Republicans redrew districts based in part on how people voted in the 2024 presidential election. Today, the political mood has changed, and many of those who voted for President Trump two years ago might vote for Democrats, or not vote, in the midterms. Republicans could lose many of the districts they are targeting.
Usually, states conduct redistricting at the beginning of each decade after the census. But Trump called on legislatures to do it now. That set off a chain reaction of political crises across the country that thrust legislatures into the national spotlight.
Texas Republicans issued arrest warrants for Democratic lawmakers who left the state. Louisiana’s governor suspended a primary after thousands of votes had already been cast so lines could be redrawn. In Missouri, the state Supreme Court found the Republican secretary of state in contempt for holding to a Republican map that was not legally in effect.
In California and Virginia, Democrats won approval in statewide votes for redistricting in response to Republicans in other states — only to see courts reject Virginia’s plan. And when the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act this spring, it fueled rushed legislative sessions to draw maps that often ended up weakening the voting power of minority communities.
In a few places, Republicans have rejected Trump’s call for redistricting, including in dramatic votes in the Indiana and South Carolina legislatures. But overall, Trump triggered a mid-decade cycle of redistricting not seen since the 1960s, when the courts set the current rules.
Here’s where states were redistricted – or not.
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