How Trump's Republican Power Grab Could Blow Up In His Face

Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s monstrously undemocratic plot to redraw congressional maps and carve out enough new Republican seats to avoid a potential House loss in the 2026 midterms has rapidly expanded. There are now potentially a dozen or more seats on the table: five in Texas, three in Florida, one in Missouri, one in Indiana, and two to three more in Ohio. Could this supremely arrogant display of Republican overreach come back to bite them? Time to log on!

Our number one priority needs to be stopping this redistricting from happening at all; Texas Democrats have left the state to deny Republicans the quorum they need to pass new, gerrymandered maps and they have no intention of coming back any time soon.

But should Republicans succeed in their plan, a domino effect is likely. In direct response, Governors Gavin Newsom (California) and Kathy Hochul (New York) have already vowed to launch their OWN mid-decade redistricting campaigns — moves they say would add Democratic seats and offset Republican gains in Texas and elsewhere.

On top of all that, the only way Republicans can redraw the map is to dismantle their own past gerrymanders, which previously packed Republican voters into "ultra-safe" districts. To win more seats, they’ll have to make some red seats less safe, potentially shifting several from “solid Republican” to just “lean Republican.” This creates an opening for Democrats that could, under the right circumstances, backfire on the Republicans in spectacular fashion and fuel a historic blue wave in 2026.

Now, that being said, Democrats would need to aggressively contest races in areas they usually wouldn’t consider winnable, with the right candidates and the right messaging. But the way things are going these days, there’s a major opportunity for Democrats to exploit and punish Trump and Republicans for their reckless abuse of our democracy.

Firstly, people are PISSED, and rightfully so.

They’re mad about the Big Awful Tax Bill That Kills People. They’re mad about ICE’s masked Gestapo goon raids throwing the abuela down the street into a concentration camp. They’re mad about DOGE. They’re mad about RFK Jr. gutting America’s medical research institutes. They’re confused about Trump's incoherent and inexplicable tariff policies. Need proof? Look no further than Rep. Mike Flood’s recent town hall in a Nebraska County that Trump won by 12 points:

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Conversely, look to West Virginia, where 30% of the town of Lenore showed up to hear Sen. Bernie Sanders speak:

And while this is entirely anecdotal and should be taken with a grain of salt, I recently went to get a haircut from the Joe Rogan-loving, anti-vaxx, Trump-voting barber in my small, central Pennsylvania town — and this time, all he wanted to talk about was tariffs and how expensive everything is.

Ultimately, people are figuring out — far too late — that Trump’s nationalist populism is nothing but a hood to drape over his kleptocratic agenda of outrageous corruption catering solely to the wealthiest people in the country.

And if you think they’re mad now, just wait a couple of months when the economy gets REALLY bad, because hoo boy are things about to get real gnarly out here.

Trump’s insane TACO Tariff policies are causing havoc in the economy, and the effects are starting to hit home. Unemployment claims are up. Layoffs are increasing. Job numbers are way down. Inflation has remained steady as prices keep rising. The crises in housing, healthcare, and childcare prices have been entirely ignored by the Trump team and his Republican Congress, which has passed tax cuts for the wealthy and almost nothing else.

And this time there’s no Brandon to blame.

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During the election, Trump repeatedly promised to champion the working class, but most households now feel ten times worse off.

The economy is something he cannot hide from. He can tell us that gas is $1.99 a gallon, but it isn’t at the pump. He can tell us inflation is down, but we know that we’re still paying $2 for one fucking onion at the grocery store. He can yell from the rooftops that job numbers are the bigliest, most impressive jobs that the world has ever seen, but try telling that to someone who got laid off and can’t find a new job.

Throw in Epstein, Russia, ICE, the White House Ballroom, NPR, DOGE, and other insanely harmful and destructive thing that Trump and his coven of psychotic racists have done and you’ve got a potent brew of public fury that could translate into huge Democratic gains if Republicans go through with diluting their own districts.

There’s a lot that Democrats have to do to take advantage of this — but there’s too much at stake not to try. Let’s get to work and take our country back!

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