On Wednesday, former President Barack Obama referred to as out President Donald Trump’s push to gerrymander congressional districts forward of the 2026 midterm elections and endorsed the California poll initiative searching for to counter Trump’s energy seize.
“Our current president and his administration is explicitly saying that we want to change the rules of the game midstream in order to insulate ourselves from the people’s judgement,” Obama stated.
Obama additional famous that Republicans wish to change the maps “before any election in which they’re worried they might lose—they want to tinker around to see if they can give themselves an advantage.”
Historically redistricting happens on a ten-year cycle, following the census after which changes will be made to congressional districts based mostly on inhabitants modifications. As an alternative, Republicans try to speed up the method and eradicate districts the place voters have backed Democratic candidates.
Latest polling has proven robust assist for Proposition 50 and GOP-aligned teams opposing the poll measure have been scaling again promoting forward of November’s elections.
“Redistricting fight” by Mike Luckovich
Trump continues to be pushing strongly to lock within the present, slender, Republican majority within the Home that has refused to fill its constitutional position of offering oversight of his presidency.
Earlier this month he referred to as a gathering of Indiana’s state Senate Republican caucus to push them to redraw that state’s maps. Indiana is overwhelmingly Republican, having voted for Trump by 16 factors over former Vice President Kamala Harris within the 2024 election—however Republicans nonetheless are pushing to eradicate the state’s two Democratic congressional districts.
Pressuring Indiana would seem like an acknowledgement of the weak place Republicans are in forward of the midterm election. If Trump’s agenda and job efficiency had been standard, it’s unlikely that redistricting in protected Republican territory would even be a subject of dialog. However his approval has been falling since he took workplace.
Democrats at the moment maintain an mixture lead of two.6 share factors over Republicans in polling of the generic congressional vote. In eight of the ten most up-to-date nationwide polls the lead has gone to the Democrats.
As Obama defined, the motivation for Republicans in pushing to rig the method is abundantly clear.
