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Let’s go back in time for a moment — because the 2010 elections hold a critical lesson for 2026. That year, Republicans took back the U.S. House and gained seats in the Senate. But, even more crucially for the long run, Republicans also flipped nearly 700 state legislative seats, concentrating their resources on races that would make it easier for them to gerrymander new maps after the 2010 Census. As a result, they locked in years of GOP power at the state and federal level. Back then, Democrats weren’t nearly as focused on redistricting. But since 2017, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee has fought back for fair maps. Now we have an aggressive campaign plan for this November, centered on 14 priority states whose elections are key to stopping Republican gerrymanders and putting more states in a position to pass countermeasures or block future map manipulation.
In 2010, Republicans had their eyes on the prize, and it paid off. With their gerrymandering spree, Republicans gave themselves a 47-seat advantage in the U.S. House — and held onto control in 2012 even though Democratic candidates won 1.4 million more votes. But when the NDRC got started, we took the lesson from 2010 to heart. One of our top priorities has been to help elect state legislators, state supreme court justices, governors, and other state-level officials who could play major roles in redistricting. By 2022, after we’d helped win key races to draw new fair maps, Republicans’ structural House advantage had shrunk from 47 seats to just three. Of course, Republicans have countered us with an unprecedented wave of mid-decade gerrymandering. And this November, they’re targeting races that would let them manipulate even more maps across the country. Thank you, John Bisognano
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