Democrats are launching a redistricting counteroffensive across the country as they try to keep pace with the GOP’s aggressive gerrymandering ahead of next year’s midterms.
Recent developments in Virginia, New York and Illinois mark an escalation among Democrats after months of internal deliberations and inaction on how to combat President Donald Trump’s push to redraw congressional lines throughout the nation. He’s eyeing up to 19 new GOP seats as his party looks to retain its slim House majority, according to a POLITICO analysis. The nascent Democratic rebuttal in recent days is the minority party’s most aggressive set of moves yet outside of California, where voters will decide next week whether to create a new congressional map that would grant the state five blue seats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made stops in Chicago and Springfield, Ill., with state and federal legislative leaders Monday on his latest swing to convince local lawmakers to redraw their maps. Democrats could pick up one seat in the Prairie State.
Virginia lawmakers on Monday began to amend the state’s constitution to enable drawing new lines ahead of the 2026 midterms. And in New York, a prominent Democratic election lawyer’s firm filed suit Monday challenging the constitutionality of a Republican-held congressional district and opening the door to another potential redraw.
It all amounts to a new tenor for a party grasping for victory after devastating losses last year.
“This is unprecedented stuff to undermine the ability of the American people to participate in the free and fair election, which is why Democrats, on behalf of the American people, need to respond decisively,” Jeffries told reporters after Monday’s high-stakes meeting in Chicago with Black leaders.
He said that it’s essential to counter Trump’s push that’s underway in Texas, North Carolina and Missouri. The White House is also pressuring the Republican-led states of Indiana and Kansas to redesign their congressional maps, with Indiana Gov. Mike Braun calling a special session Monday to consider redrawing its congressional districts. The GOP’s effort threatens to put Democrats at a steep disadvantage and has been raising pressure on party leaders to respond.
Virginia Democrats could swing as many as three of the state’s 11 congressional seats away from Republicans.
Democrats are working against a tight timeline to present voters with a new map. Under the state’s constitution, a new amendment to create the lines has to be approved by consecutive sessions of the state legislature, with an election occurring in between the votes. That sets up a statewide referendum, which can’t take place until at least 90 days after the amendment is passed, just two months before the state’s primaries next year.
The action in the Virginia General Assembly has scrambled the final days of the state’s off-year election, topped with the high-profile gubernatorial contest. All members in the House of Delegates are on the ballot, and are being yanked off the campaign trail the week before the election as they head to Richmond to approve the amendment.
Virginia Republicans have blasted their rivals’ surprise push as undermining the will of voters.
“Democrats in our General Assembly are calling this special session not to serve the people but to serve themselves,” Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee for governor, said in a press conference ahead of the special session. As lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears serves as presiding officer of the state Senate.
In New York, the lawsuit filed on behalf of a group of residents argues the state’s congressional map illegally dilutes Black and Latino voters. The district in question, which encompasses Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, is represented by GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who has been the focus of Democratic mapmakers since the start of the last redistricting cycle. The suit, brought by Elias Law Group, asks for a judge to chop off the moderate Brooklyn portion of the district, replacing it with deep blue portions of Lower Manhattan.
A Democratic court victory leading to changes before 2026 would require quick movement. The trial level court has two months to issue a decision, said New York Law School’s Jeff Wice. “And then it would go through the appellate division challenge and then the Court of Appeals. So the clock is ticking on this case,” he added.
New York GOP Chair Ed Cox said in a statement that the lawsuit “is seeking a blatant racial gerrymander,” and the current district “is compact, respected communities of interest, and has been approved by both the courts and the State Legislature.”
Jeffries’ visit to Illinois coincided with the state General Assembly’s fall session, which could take up the issue in the coming days. Those efforts face opposition from some of the state’s Black leaders over concerns that a new map would dilute their influence across congressional districts.
State Sen. Willie Preston, head of the Senate Black Caucus, said he would oppose any map that reduces Black political power. “We understand what’s at stake, but if Black representation is going to be diluted, that’s not a map I can support,” he said.
And in Colorado, Democrats may have another state to add to their gameplan.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running for governor, is calling for Democrats to put forward a “break glass in case of emergency” ballot initiative in 2026 that would give the state Legislature the power to redraw its congressional map for 2028 and then return the reins to the Colorado’s independent redistricting commission. While Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, who is term-limited, has shown no appetite for circumventing the commission, Weiser insisted there’s a groundswell of support for doing so as more red states redistrict.
“I remain open and even modestly hopeful that other states will see the handwriting on the wall and we won’t have to go down this road,” he said. “But if that’s not the case, we can’t deny reality. We have to be prepared to do our part.”
Lisa Kashinsky contributed reporting
