Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Redistricting as a weapon
Redistricting—the process of redrawing congressional maps after each census—is supposed to be about fairness and accurate representation. However, in today’s polarized political climate, it has become one of the hottest contested battles in U.S. politics. At its core, the issue is simple: whoever controls how districts are drawn often controls the outcome of elections. And right now, Republicans in Texas and Democrats in California are using redistricting as a weapon to secure more seats in Congress. Critics warn this undermines democratic principles and erodes public trust in the electoral system.
The gravity of the situation was highlighted during an Aug. 22 American Community Media (ACoM) briefing, where experts discussed the potential ramifications of these proposed map changes. Texas has aggressively moved to redraw its congressional districts. The goal is to add five Republican-dominated districts. Why? To flip the house in the 2026 mid-term elections.
State Representative Gene Wu, Democratic Leader in the Texas House, characterizes this move as “cheating,” arguing that Republicans are solely to blame for policies causing massive price increases, job losses, and a looming recession. “Here’s the problem. If this is allowed to happen across the board, if every state, whether they’re red or blue, if they do this every single time, after every election, to make sure that they never lose. Then politicians and leaders will no longer listen to the people. Because why? Why do you need to listen when you’re guaranteed to win every time?” explains Rep. Wu.
Diluting minority voting power
At the heart of the redistricting debate is the potential dilution of minority voting power, which directly affects communities of color. This dilution occurs through two primary methods: packing, where too many minority voters are squeezed into a single district. That means they win big in that one district but lose influence everywhere else. In Houston, for example, two historically strong Black districts are being pushed together into one that’s 80% Black. Instead of electing two Black representatives, the community would only get one—cutting their overall voice in half.
The other tactic is cracking, which breaks up minority communities and scatters them across multiple districts dominated by white voters. In places like South Texas and Dallas, Latino voters have spent years building political power. But the new maps split them apart—taking “one chunk over here” and another somewhere else—so their voices no longer carry weight. As Rep. Wu put it: “They can vote all they want. They’ll never be able to change the outcome of any election.”
More GOP seats in Texas
Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel at MALDEF, reminds us that Texas already stretched the rules in 2021 when it drew congressional maps designed to lock in Republican control. That map ignored the state’s rapid demographic changes and gave Republicans an outsized advantage.
Now, with a push for five more GOP seats, Saenz says Texas is blatantly violating the Voting Rights Act. He notes that the “growth of Latino and other communities of color in Texas since 2020 has outstripped that of the white community.” In a fair system, that growth should translate into more political power for those communities. Instead, the new maps are designed to suppress it—essentially erasing the gains that should come with population growth.
California fights back
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom has fired back with his own hardball move. He pushed through legislation to suspend the state’s independent redistricting commission and put a new Democratic-leaning map on the November ballot—aimed at netting up to five more House seats. Newsom calls it “fighting fire with fire,” casting his plan as the only way to counter Trump-driven gerrymanders in Texas.
Sam Wang, Director of the Electoral Innovation Lab at Princeton University, noted that “there would be standards for racial fairness in redistricting, and then they would be applied evenly across the states. That is not the case. The Supreme Court has said that partisan redistricting is unconstitutional, but they have also declined to do anything about it.”
This means that state-level action and laws are paramount in addressing voting rights issues. Wang explained that Texas, with no state laws governing redistricting, operates as the “Wild West,” leaving legislative Democrats with few options other than denying a quorum. In contrast, states like California, Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, Virginia, and New Jersey have independent commissions or other state-level mechanisms to ensure fairer maps.
Discriminatory maps
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), represented by Assistant Counsel Sara Rohani, is fighting unfair redistricting across the U.S. After the 2020 census showed big growth among voters of color, states redrew maps without a key Voting Rights Act safeguard that the Supreme Court struck down in 2013. Without that protection, many states passed maps that weakened Black and Latino voting power.
Courts have struck down discriminatory maps in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana—but the battles rage on. Alabama openly defied a Supreme Court order and is now trying to dismantle the Voting Rights Act itself.
In Louisiana, a new Black-majority district that should have expanded representation is being attacked as a “racial gerrymander” and sent back to the Court. As Rohani explained, LDF is now forced not only to sue over unfair maps but to defend fair ones from being torn down.
Still, these attacks don’t have to succeed. For all the lawsuits and power plays, experts agree on one blunt reality: voter turnout is the strongest weapon against gerrymandering. When minority communities turn out in force, they can beat back suppression.
This article was written with support from the American Community Media Fellowship Program.