Democrats celebrated Indiana Republicans refusing to redistrict. They’re still moving ahead with their own redistricting push
One day after Indiana Republicans decided to forego political gains by rejecting a new US House map, key Democrats made clear Friday they would still aim to redistrict in states their party controls.
“Donald Trump launched this unprecedented effort to gerrymander congressional maps all across the country as part of his scheme to rig the midterm elections,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN on Friday when asked about the party’s strategy going forward. “The reality of the situation is that Republicans may have started this redistricting battle. We as Democrats plan to finish it.”
Democrats in Maryland and Virginia are still looking for ways to eliminate Republican-held seats before next year’s midterms, particularly as conservatives could still notch gains in Florida or other GOP-led states.
US Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Maryland Democrat, added that he doesn’t expect the national GOP’s loss in Indiana to halt efforts in his home state, where Democrats are eyeing a new congressional map that would target its only GOP lawmaker, Rep. Andy Harris.
“If Trump came out and said, ‘OK, I hear Indiana, ‘Let’s back off,’ I would think we’d rethink it. But yeah, good luck with that,” Ivey told CNN on Friday.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and state lawmakers have already begun the process of creating a new map, holding public hearings and private meetings with hopes of a legislature vote in the coming months. While Maryland’s top Senate leader, Bill Ferguson, is adamantly opposed to the effort, national Democrats and Moore himself are still moving ahead, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.
Ferguson and his House counterpart announced Thursday that the state would not take up redistricting during its special session, which is set to begin next week. But others insist that next week’s session was always about electing a new speaker after a surprise departure of the current leader — and that they would look to push a new map in January.
“Governor remains just as committed,” one person familiar with the discussions wrote in a text to CNN on Friday.
The Indiana vote didn’t seem to deter Virginia Senate president pro tempore Louise Lucas, who posted on social media Thursday evening about her plan to enact a new map and try to eliminate four of the state’s five Republican districts.
One place where Indiana’s action might be having more of an effect is in neighboring Illinois.
Many Democrats have privately viewed Illinois’s fate as directly tied to Indiana’s and Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker himself had publicly threatened to redraw Illinois maps if Indiana moved forward.
“Our neighbors in Indiana have stood up to Trump’s threats and political pressure, instead choosing to do what’s right for their constituents and our democracy,” Pritzker wrote in a statement. “Illinois will remain vigilant against his map rigging — our efforts to respond and stop his campaign are being heard.”
The precise number of seats that could change hands is unclear. While CNN calculates that Republicans currently have created three more friendly seats than Democrats, people in both parties privately think the whole effort could be a wash.
One partial dissent from the Democratic push to move ahead came from a lawmaker whose seat was spared Thursday.
Rep. Frank Mrvan, who represents northwest Indiana, told CNN that there is “a huge appetite for bringing our country together.”
“And I think the vote in Indiana, and the senators who made a decision against threats, politically and personally, made a choice to unify our country. And I hope that’s an example for everybody,” Mrvan said.
Pressed on whether Democrats should rethink their strategy, Mrvan said it was up to each state leader to decide but added: “I believe that all red states and all blue states accelerate extremism. By no means am I a party leader that’s telling our country what to do, but I think there’s an appetite for unification.”
Tellingly, a lawmaker whose district was reworked in redistricting had a different view.
“I personally think mid-decade redistricting is not a good thing,” Rep. Julie Johnson, a Democrat from Texas who is switching districts after hers became heavily Republican under the state’s new map. “But if those are the rules that everybody’s playing by, you’ve got to be in the same mud pit.”
