President Obama and I founded the National Democratic Redistricting Committee as the first-ever strategic hub for the fair maps movement because we needed to address a crisis that was getting out of hand.

Across the country, Republicans had gone out of their way to abuse the redistricting process and manipulate maps to steal power they didn’t earn.

These guys didn’t invent gerrymandering. But it sure seemed like they were trying to perfect it. They engineered themselves an obscene 47-seat structural advantage in the U.S. House, which let them keep control even after losing the popular House vote in 2012.

President Obama and I believe that when the maps are fair, democracy works the way it’s supposed to. So we fought back. The fair maps movement achieved incredible results in just a few short years. By the last midterm election in 2022, we were competing on what The New York Times called “the fairest House map of the last 40 years.”

When Donald Trump instigated a national crisis of mid-decade redistricting, he did so as a direct and extreme response to the progress you and I have fought for. He’s gotten his party to manipulate more maps in their favor because they are too frightened to face the voters in a free and fair election.

We have a rigorous, state-by-state plan to fight back, help elect pro-democracy champions, and deliver fair maps — but that plan depends on strong grassroots support, so I need to ask: Will you make a donation to the National Democratic Redistricting Committee today in defense of democracy?

These Republican extremists believe it's their right to cheat — that power belongs to them, not the American people.

And, enabled by the Supreme Court’s radical ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act this year, they’ve instituted a modern-day, politicalJim Crow, with new maps that deprive Black and brown Americans of fair and equal representation. It’s nothing short of racial discrimination.

I spoke to President Obama the other day about how we respond in this moment, how we stop this power grab, and how we ultimately repair our democracy for good.

We must run the table in the most important state-level elections this fall — where we have endorsed over 200 Democracy Defenders. They stand ready to hold the line for fair maps, fair elections, and the right to vote.

We must build power in the places where the next redistricting fights are bound to crop up, so we can keep Republicans from continuing to tilt the playing field in their favor.

And we must use the power we have to lock in real reforms so our democracy emerges from this dark chapter stronger than it was before. Those reforms have got to include a ban on partisan gerrymandering, along with other critical democracy reforms and voting rights protections.

Our goals are robust because that’s what this moment demands. That means this team must continue to meet the moment. Please donate now so we can rise out of the crisis together and build a truly representative democracy.

Thank you,

Eric H. Holder, Jr.
82nd Attorney General of the United States
Chairman, National Democratic Redistricting Committee