The Redistricting Arms Race

Why Democrats Must Fight Fire With Fire

UPDATE: In response to a large gift from a generous Founding Member, we’re making this post public.

A brief break from Epstein coverage to address a massive, tearing crisis that Democrats don’t seem to be taking seriously enough.

The Trump Republican Party, high on MAGA meth and lusting for permanent political power, is once again proving there’s no norm they won’t burn, no rule they won’t bend, and no precedent they won’t gleefully violate. Their latest scheme? Mid-cycle redistricting. Yes, redrawing congressional maps right now, in 2025, long before the next census is even in sight.

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, Donald Trump’s pliant errand boy, has called a special session to launch this redistricting power grab, using a convenient little memo from Trump’s Department of Justice to claim that four “coalition” districts, currently held by Democrats, violate the Voting Rights Act. Never mind that those districts were drawn with bipartisan input, or that the state’s lawyers previously swore race wasn’t a factor in their construction.

That was then. This is now. And now, the goal is to squeeze out up to five new GOP seats and cement a congressional majority ahead of the 2026 midterms. Their first iteration of a new map is due sometime today.

Not to be outdone in the authoritarian enabler department, Florida’s Ron DeSantis took a break from building third-world gulags in the Everglades and signaled that Florida might do the same.

Because why not? If the rules are just optional, then power is the only thing that matters. It’s a MAGA fever dream of one-party rule, one Trump, one orange God-Emperor of America, crowned not by votes, but by crooked maps cooked up in red state capitols and rubber-stamped by judicial partisans.

And Democrats? They have two options. One is the familiar choice: whine, file lawsuits, clutch pearls, and complain to the New York Times while the GOP steals their lunch money and steamrolls them, again. The other is to wake the hell up and realize that the only way to stop a redistricting arms race is to fire back.

Because this isn’t just gerrymandering. This is war.

Let’s talk about what Democrats must do…today, immediately, to counteract this naked Republican power grab.

First: the legal front. Democrats should have been in court yesterday. They must challenge these mid-decade redistricting efforts on every front: racial gerrymandering, packing and cracking, one-person-one-vote violations, you name it. Sue in state courts, sue in federal courts, fight in the court of public opinion.

In Florida, the state constitution’s Fair Districts Amendments offer a real avenue for blocking gerrymanders. Democrats should dust them off and weaponize them.

The Fair Districts Amendments consist of two constitutional provisions: Amendment 5 (State Legislative Districts) and Amendment 6 (Congressional Districts), which imposed binding standards on how Florida’s legislative and congressional maps are drawn. We care about Amendment 6 in this case, which says any redistricting plan has to follow these rules:

• No favoring or disfavoring a political party or incumbent.

• Districts must not be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the ability to elect candidates of their choice.

• Districts must be compact and contiguous, using existing political and geographic boundaries where feasible.

(I know all these things because I fought against 5 and 6 in my GOP days. You live and learn.)

These are not guidelines or aspirational goals. They are constitutional constraints, upheld by courts and enshrined by 63% of Florida voters. Even Florida’s right-leaning Supreme Court will likely have to swallow very hard at maps that hand the GOP even one or two more seats, much less the 5-7 DeSantis aides and pet lobbyists are boasting about at the Governor’s Club in Tallahassee.

In Texas, even the claim that the current districts violate the Voting Rights Act is built on sand, given that GOP mapmakers previously testified under oath that they didn’t use race in drawing them. That’s perjury or it’s manipulation. Either way, while I’m (famously) not a lawyer, it sure looks actionable.

But legal action isn’t enough. Democrats must go political.

I’m no expert in the parliamentary rules of the Texas legislature, but I’d imagine Texas House Democrats still have the option of breaking quorum, denying Republicans the numbers to pass the new maps. Yes, the GOP will fine them, threaten them, maybe even jail them. But the alternative is to hand Trump five new seats on a silver platter.

Fight like your democracy depends on it—because it does.

National Democratic leaders, including Hakeem Jeffries, Jamie Raskin, Gavin Newsom, Eric Swalwell, AOC, and Barack Obama, should descend on Texas and Florida like a swarm of locusts. Do media. Hold rallies. Make noise. Bring the TV cameras. Frame this for what it is: not a political disagreement, but a constitutional emergency.

This is the GOP building a House majority through manipulation, not elections. It’s another step on the road to MAGA authoritarianism.

And then, Democrats need to stop playing by Marquess of Queensberry rules while Republicans are breaking chairs over their heads.

They need to redraw maps in blue states.

In New York, state Democrats can redeem themselves for their 2020 redistricting fuckup. Good. Do it. Redraw the map. Add safe Democratic seats by bleeding Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, and Elise “Gretchen Wieners” Stefanik. Do what needs doing.

In California, where a supposedly “independent” commission runs redistricting, lawmakers need to explore statutory options for triggering a redraw, or better yet, reform the damn commission and take back control. Gavin Newsom, lately a more feisty fellow than in the past, has already signaled a willingness to get in the game.

This isn’t escalation. This is deterrence.

The only way to stop the GOP from using mid-decade redistricting as a tool of permanent minority rule is to make them pay a political price. If Texas gets five new seats, New York and California should get five of their own, each. If Florida and Ohio play eff-around, let’s have Illinois, Washington, and Oregon help them find out.

Or, everyone can step back from the edge and we’ll fight 2026 like grown-ass adults, instead of like the cheating titty-babies in the MAGA GOP. It’s the political equivalent of nuclear deterrence: mutually assured destruction.

Because what happens if Democrats don’t respond? What if the GOP succeeds in Texas and Florida, and the Democrats just sit on their hands?

Let me paint you a picture.

The 2026 midterms roll around. Republicans, thanks to a crooked map, hold their slim House majority. The Senate remains in GOP hands. Trump, despite Epstein, his lavish corruption, his growing senility, his physical decay, and every other evil, despite the lies, the scandals, and a wrecked economy, launches his 2028 campaign.

Now imagine that Congress is controlled by MAGA loyalists, elected from gerrymandered districts built to be bulletproof. Do you think they’ll lift a finger when Trump starts breaking laws again? Think they’ll defend the 22nd Amendment? Do you imagine for a moment they’ll certify a Democratic candidate, even if he or she whips Trump’s ass like a rented mule? Do you think they’ll allow oversight? Subpoenas? Investigations?

Oh, you sweet summer child.

If Trump runs in 2028 (and don’t kid yourself, that’s a live possibility), he’ll have a Congress that is not a check on his power, but even more of a cat’s paw, his shield and his sword. That House majority becomes the final lock on the door of American democracy.

So yes. Democrats must escalate. Not because they want to. Because they have to.

Of course, the media will whine. The same crowd that insists on both-sides-ing fascism and liberal democracy will clutch their pearls if Democrats redraw maps. But the moment they do, Democrats must lean into it.

“This is what happens when you break the rules,” they should say. “We’re not going to disarm unilaterally while MAGA burns the Constitution.”

And let’s be clear: the GOP doesn’t want fair elections. They want engineered outcomes. They’ve said it out loud. They’ve telegraphed it with every move. Whether it’s voter suppression, absurd new Voter ID laws, fake elector schemes, or Trump’s DOJ sending a bogus letter to justify this latest power grab, the message is the same: they will break anything to stay in power.

This is the game now. It’s not the game you want, but it is the game you’re in. Either you play to win, or you get rolled.

So to the Democratic Party, I say this: grow a spine. Fight this like it’s a five-alarm fire… because it is. Sue, organize, redraw, escalate. If they steal five seats, you steal ten. The Untouchables Rules now apply: “He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone!”

If they call it unfair, laugh in their face. Because the only thing more unfair than fighting back is letting them win uncontested.

Redistricting is no longer about maps or demographics or even our old partisan divides. It’s about whether the future belongs to Trump and the forces of autocracy, or to the American people.

Choose wisely.

Fight now before its too late.