Can Texas GOP steal the midterms in advance? Yes, they can [View all]

Can Texas GOP steal the midterms in advance? Yes, they can
Sorry, political wise men: "Dummymander" is not a thing — the plan to create more GOP seats will probably work

By David Daley
Contributing Writer
Published July 20, 2025 10:46AM (EDT)


(Salon) Texas Republicans have an unusual mid-decade redistricting on the agenda for a special legislative session that begins this week. It’s entirely possible that the GOP will claim anywhere between an additional two to five congressional districts for themselves, potentially ending any realistic Democratic dreams of reclaiming the House of Representatives some 15 months before a vote is cast.

There’s not much that can stop them.

John Roberts and the U.S. Supreme Court have ruled that federal courts aren’t interested in partisan gerrymandering claims. State courts certainly exist in Texas, but serve to cement egregious GOP power grabs, not prevent them. Despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s midnight-drunkard ramblings that his state might magically undo its gold-standard citizen redistricting commission, there aren’t many gains left for Democrats that they didn’t maximize in 2021.

In other words, it looks like the Democrats are screwed here. Being Democrats, they’ve got one last, desperate ploy remaining: Maybe they can somehow or other scare Republicans into not doing this. Here’s the theory: A new GOP-drawn map might spread Republican voters too thin, backfire and end up electing Democrats.

Um, no. Believing this might happen requires closing one’s eyes and pretending it’s still the 1990s, which, to be fair, has a certain appeal. It also requires closing one’s eyes to all the congressional elections in all of the GOP-gerrymandered states since 2012, where not a single one of the extreme gerrymander maneuvers has backfired, or even come close to backfiring, even in election cycles when Democrats win tens of thousands more votes. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/20/can-texas-gop-steal-the-midterms-in-advance-yes-they-can/