Gerrymandering spins out of control. Congress can stop it.


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Voters should choose their politicians, not the other way around. The Texas gerrymander and the partisan war it has triggered signal an extraordinarily dangerous period for American democracy.

Gerrymandering

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leads to less choice, less representation for voters, and less accountability for politicians. It also produces more polarization, as party primary voters rather than general election voters have the loudest say. And voters of color all too often suffer the most as their communities are cynically sliced and diced to engineer partisan advantage.

The phenomenon is not new. In the very first congressional election, Patrick Henry drew a House district to try to keep James Madison from being elected to Congress. Both parties eventually participated in the practice. Over the years, technology and an increasingly partisan governing style have made things worse. In last year’s election, only 37 House seats

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were competitive, and those were decided by 5 percentage points or less. Just 11 of those districts flipped between parties.

But what’s going on in Texas now is particularly wrong. Gov. Greg Abbott is pursuing a gerrymander to produce five new seats for Republicans, mid-decade (long after the census), at the expense of Black and Latino voters, all on orders from a sitting president. It’s a raw power grab.

It is part of an unprecedented White House push to tilt the electoral terrain in 2026 and beyond. Vice President JD Vance just met with state leaders in Indiana

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to urge redrawing of maps there. Florida, Missouri, and other states may follow suit. President Trump even called for a new census that would exclude undocumented immigrants. (That’s logistically impossible

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as well as unconstitutional

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.) Last week, the Brennan Center outlined

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how the administration aims to undermine election rules across the country.

It’s no surprise that Democrats are responding as they have across the nation: They’re outraged and have pledged to redraw maps in states they control. Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to put a new map before California voters in November to match Texas’s harvest of Republican seats. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to “fight fire with fire.”

But ultimately, a partisan redistricting arms race cannot be the only answer. We urgently need national redistricting standards that apply across the country — to red states and blue states alike.

On this topic, in recent years, the Supreme Court has walked away from its duty. In Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019, it declared that federal judges could not protect against unfair maps. Racial discrimination is still illegal, but judges now wink and allow politicians to gerrymander so long as they claim it’s about politics, not race.

Even so, the Court noted that Congress has the constitutional power to set national standards. And just recently, it almost did.

The Freedom to Vote Act

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sought to bar partisan gerrymandering nationwide. It also would have banned mid-decade redistricting and set other national standards — and made it easier and faster for voters to win relief. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

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would have strengthened protections against racially discriminatory maps. These landmark bills came achingly close to enactment in 2022. Together they would stop what is happening today, cold.

National standards, like other reforms, do not flow from hazy idealism. They reflect hard reality: Congress has the power to prohibit political abuse. President Biden did not press for these reforms until it was too late in his term. President Obama, too, did not demand action when he held power. This inaction reflected a repeated failure of imagination as well as will.

For too long, when it comes to protecting voters, to quote the poet William Butler Yeats, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

Those who want to undermine American democracy have shown that they will act with impunity. Those who profess to care about the law must respond with equal boldness. If they have the chance, they must act to unrig the system. While the Supreme Court helped get us into this mess, all eyes will be on Congress to get us out.





Road to the Voting Rights Act

Last week marked 60 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the transformative law that expanded political participation and representation for Americans of color. Its origin story is an unlikely one — the result of sustained activist pressure, presidential support, and bipartisan congressional leadership. We highlight the important figures and moments that helped push the Voting Rights Act across the finish line. Read more

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How Corruption Harms Democracy

“Rising political corruption highlights the need for structural reforms to strengthen federal institutions and rein in conduct that harms American citizens,” Lisa Danetz and Eric Petry write. Their new piece examines corruption under the current administration, the conditions that have enabled it, and solutions for restoring trust and integrity in government. Read more

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The Deportation Budget Boom

The budget bill that Congress passed in July sets aside more than $170 billion over four years for immigration and border enforcement. That total includes tens of billions of dollars for finding, arresting, and deporting immigrants, but it doesn’t provide any money to make the system fairer or more functional. Ultimately, the funding “will create a deportation-industrial complex — an enforcement machine with financial and political constituencies that will outlast this administration,” Margy O’Herron writes in Just Security. Read more

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Under-the-Radar Federal Enforcers

The Marines and the National Guard weren’t the only federal forces sent to Los Angeles this summer to quell protests against immigration raids. The Federal Protective Service, a little-known agency within the Department of Homeland Security, also deployed agents to the streets to assist with the crackdown. “Charged with protecting federal buildings, FPS has sweeping police powers that go far beyond that mandate and make the agency vulnerable to political weaponization,” Spencer Reynolds writes in Time magazine. Read more

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PODCAST: The Rise of the Imperial Presidency

Our latest episode examines how the president has amassed power at the expense of other branches of government. This year alone, the administration has frozen the spending of funds allocated by Congress and defied court orders. Supporters of vast presidential power have a name for this: the unitary executive. While legal scholars debate its scope, the theory in its most expansive form envisions a king-like president largely unconstrained by Congress or the courts. An embrace of this theory by the executive branch and Supreme Court could carry far-reaching consequences for American democracy. Listen on Spotify

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, Apple Podcasts

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, or your favorite podcast platform

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, or watch it on Youtube

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.





Coming Up

VIRTUAL EVENT: The Past, Present, and Future of the Voting Rights Act

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Tuesday, August 19, 3–4 p.m. ET



The Supreme Court has weakened the Voting Rights Act’s protections, most notably in its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision. And just this summer, a federal appeals court ruled against the ability of voters in seven states to use the law to challenge racially discriminatory voting practices — although the Supreme Court has put that decision on hold.



Join us for a virtual discussion with experts, advocates, and legislators, moderated by Natalie Tennant, Kanawha County commissioner and former West Virginia secretary of state. They will explore the history of the Voting Rights Act, how it affects voters today, and what it will take to ensure fair representation for all. RSVP today

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Want to keep up with Brennan Center Live events? Subscribe to the events newsletter.

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News

Kareem Crayton on Trump’s calls for a new census // THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Sean Morales-Doyle on the Trump administration’s attacks on democracy // TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO

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Hernandez Stroud on receivership for Los Angeles County juvenile halls // LOS ANGELES TIMES

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Eliza Sweren-Becker on the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act // LIVENOW

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Wendy Weiser on the administration’s push to undermine elections // USA TODAY

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