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Leaders of the two most populous states, Democrats in California and Republicans in Texas, are trying to redraw the voting lines for the midterm congressional elections next year. It's a break from the usual process and was touched off by President Trump calling on Texas to give Republican candidates an edge.
For months, the slim Republican majority in Congress has given the green light to mass deportations, health care cuts, tax breaks and many other Trump priorities.
But Republicans have only a 219-to-212 advantage in the U.S. House. To maintain that majority, the White House is calling on GOP-led states to redraw their voting maps in ways that help Republican candidates win more seats.
States usually redistrict early in each decade after the census count. This technical process is important. Whichever way people vote, the way they're grouped in congressional districts can determine who wins and whether a citizen's vote makes a difference.
The Texas and California legislatures plan to meet on their opposing plans this week.
Redistricting is meant to assign congressional districts as populations shift
The U.S. House has 435 seats, but the number for each state can shift as populations change. Every 10 years, the national census determines how seats are reallocated. But it's mostly up to the states to draw the specific districts within state boundaries as long as the districts have roughly the same number of people (about 700,000 now).
Newly drawn maps often face challenges in courts. It's illegal to draw lines in order to weaken the voting power of a racial group.
But redistricting laws also vary by state. Some states have laws or criteria aimed at creating districts that are competitive and compact geographically, or against redistricting done to benefit a political party. Some prioritize districts that include voters with common political interests, which pushes candidates to address those interests.
What are "gerrymandering," "packing" and "cracking"?
Gerrymandering is when politicians manipulate district lines, dividing or grouping populations, to get an advantage. Opponents of the practice say it's like politicians choosing their voters, instead of letting voters choose their politicians.
The word "gerrymandering" comes from maps approved in the early 1800s by Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry. Critics noted that one district was shaped like a salamander, so they combined the two words into "Gerry-mander."
The Brennan Center for Justice, an organization that seeks to end gerrymandering, states on its website: "Gerrymandering, the practice of drawing districts to favor one political party or racial group, skews election results, makes races less competitive, hurts communities of color, and thwarts the will of the voters."
Often, the party in control has gerrymandered by "packing" voters of the opposing party into a limited number of districts, containing their voting power to certain areas. That cuts those voters out of other districts where the majority party is likely to win.
Lawmakers have also "cracked" voters of the opposing party or Black voters into different districts to dilute their votes so that they have little say over who wins a race in any one district.
Texas has picked up Trump's plan, and Democrats walked out
Texas Republicans are working to obey Trump's call to create five more districts with an advantage for the GOP. Democrats, who are in the minority in the Texas House, left the state, meaning not enough members were present — a quorum — to hold the vote and approve the maps.
The Texas House speaker issued arrest warrants for the missing Democrats, and Gov. Greg Abbott, a Trump ally, went to court to try to start removing some from office and replace them.
But the Texas Legislature might approve those districts this week. The Democrats said last week they could return soon because California is taking action now.
To counter the five new proposed Republican seats in Texas, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants lawmakers in his state to rush a new map that could give Democrats advantages in five newly drawn districts there. The proposed maps were released Friday.
Newsom is asking the Legislature to put the plan before voters in November. That's because unlike Texas, California has a Citizens Redistricting Commission, which voters established more than a decade ago to take the politics out of the process. Newsom's trying to bypass the commission.
Republican leaders in Florida, Ohio and Missouri have raised the prospect of creating more Republican-leaning districts in their states. Vice President Vance went to Indiana to discuss the idea with Republicans there.
When is gerrymandering racial?
Racial gerrymandering diminishes the power of a racial group to elect a representative of its choosing. An example would be when lines are drawn through communities of color in an urban area, dividing them into districts with larger numbers of voters in mostly white suburban or rural areas.
That's racial "cracking" and is illegal, as is racial "packing." That's when voters of color are lumped into one district to remove them from several other districts, in order to create or maintain white majorities in those districts.
In Texas, Republicans say the proposed maps create Latino majorities in some districts, which they present as an opportunity for Latino voters to have a say. But U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat, told lawmakers that they are doing it to an illegal extreme.
"There is some district that went up to 70-something percent Latino. That is packing," she said. "You don't need some district to be almost 80% Latino for that district to perform as a Latino-opportunity seat."
Texas Republicans say they're not racially gerrymandering but partisan gerrymandering
Texas has 38 congressional districts and Republicans already hold 25. Republicans openly say they intend to create lines that will result in more wins for their party. Trump has asked for five more seats.
Texas Republicans cite a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that courts can't intervene in cases where districts are drawn to give one party an edge, clearing the way for what's called "partisan gerrymandering." They say that's what they're doing now and argue that Democratic states have done that too. Unlike some states, Texas law does not ban partisan gerrymandering.
"The courts have consistently held that redistricting for purposes of political performance by either party is acceptable," Republican Texas state Rep. Tom Oliverson told NPR's All Things Considered. "Other states have done that." He pointed to Illinois, where Democrats hold 14 of 17 House districts.
Some states have tried to take the partisanship out of redistricting
Unsurprisingly, when one party has control over drawing district lines in a state, elected officials usually create districts to benefit their party. There are more Republican-led states like that than Democratic-led ones, according to the Brennan Center.
Groups that seek to end gerrymandering usually recommend that states reduce the role that politicians play in drawing new districts. Eleven states do that by using commissions that are bipartisan or that include nonpoliticians. Most of those states are led by Democrats. Again, California has one and Texas does not.
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