‘Maximum warfare’: The rush to Gerrymander 2026

The Texas GOP redistricting plan to flip five seats has Democrats up in arms. Should political leaders abandon “good government” reforms and go all-in on gerrymandering?

Air Date: August 6, 2025 12:00 pm

Empty chairs belonging to House Democrats remain empty during session convocation in the State Capitol, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez)

A brazen plan by the GOP in Texas is igniting a redistricting arms race. Texas Republicans are trying to push through their redrawn congressional district map that would potentially flip five Democratic seats. Democrats fled the Lone Star State to stall the redistricting plan. And now Texas Governor Greg Abbott is trying to remove the absent state House Democrats from office.

This fight over redistricting has spilled out across the country with some Democratic governors threatening to “fight fire with fire” and redraw their maps. California, for example, is mulling a new proposal that could potentially swing five seats. New York and Illinois are warning they may follow suit.

But what will this tit-for-tat partisan redistricting battle mean for the upcoming election? Is it legal to redraw maps mid-decade, before the new census? And how will this gerrymandering free-for-all affect the health of our democracy?

Guests:

David Daley, a senior fellow at FairVote and author of Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count

John Fortier, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

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