Jeffries goes all in on gerrymandering -- with House control on the line

Source: CNN Politics

Updated Feb 15, 2026, 9:34 AM ET
PUBLISHED Feb 15, 2026, 7:00 AM ET


As Hakeem Jeffries sits in the minority of a GOP-controlled Washington, he is still haunted by a Republican gerrymandering gambit that he believes cost him the speaker’s gavel — and cost his party control of the House. This time, he’s making sure Democrats fight back. Jeffries is leading the Democratic party’s counterpunch to President Donald Trump’s aggressive mid-decade redistricting push. He’s going all in with money, legal firepower and his own political capital to make sure no seat is left on the table for Democrats — forcing the party to abandon the left’s longtime moral opposition to party-line map meddling.

“Republicans started this redistricting war, and Democrats have made clear, we’re going to finish it,” Jeffries said in an interview with CNN. “When they go low, we strike back.” Top Democrats, including Jeffries, are buoyed by signs of surging anti-Trump sentiment across the country — with special election wins even in ruby red parts of Texas — and believe they will capture the House, and possibly the Senate, in November. But Jeffries believes he can’t afford to ignore the GOP’s gerrymandering, when just three seats in North Carolina in 2024 were enough to cost Democrats the majority.

After a huge win on redistricting in California, Jeffries is vowing to spend “tens of millions” of dollars to push through an April ballot initiative in Virginia to potentially give Democrats four more seats. And he is now turning his attention to Maryland, where Democrats’ big gerrymandering gamble is facing its most difficult test yet. Jeffries and other top Democrats are now intensifying pressure on a key party leader, the 42-year-old Baltimorean who runs the state Senate, who refuses to help draw his party another more favorable seat that would target the state’s lone GOP-held congressional district.

Jeffries issued a stark warning to that Democrat, state Senate President Bill Ferguson — suggesting the move could help Trump’s GOP win the midterms. “One man shouldn’t stand in the way of the people of Maryland … being able to decide, ‘Should we go in this direction? Or should we not answer Donald Trump’s continued efforts to rig the midterm election?’” Jeffries said. If Ferguson doesn’t back down, Jeffries vowed to personally apply the pressure: “At some point I’m going to have a conversation with him if he continues to stand in the way of an up-or-down vote.” CNN has reached out to Ferguson for comment.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/15/politics/jeffries-midterms-gerrymandering-redistricting