Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday said Democrats have a plan to mobilize gerrymandering in more blue states if Republicans continue mid-decade redistricting efforts under the direction of President Donald Trump.
The redistricting wars have teed off in Texas and California. In Austin on Saturday morning, Texas Republicans approved an aggressively gerrymandered redraw that could net five additional seats for the GOP in next year’s midterms. Democrats, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, are working to unlock five new seats of their own in California, setting up a fall special election to get the green light from voters.
But with Trump cajoling Republicans to push for more seats in red states like Indiana and Missouri, Jeffries told CNN’s Dana Bash that Democrats will be ready to respond if GOP plans become more concrete.
“Right now, this has happened in Texas. California has responded,” Jeffries said on “State of the Union.” “Let’s see what comes next.”
It won’t be a simple process. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has taken a hard line on redistricting, but the independent commission responsible for map-drawing in the Empire State can’t be taken down until 2027. So too has Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who like Newsom is considered a possible 2028 Democratic presidential contender. But his state’s map already heavily favors Democrats. Republicans hold just three of Illinois’ 17 House seats.
Still, Jeffries isn’t worried that Republican redistricting success would effectively hand the GOP control of the House in the 2026 midterms. Last time Trump was in office, Democrats flipped 41 seats, which would be more than enough to win the majority and make Jeffries speaker even if Republicans force through several more gerrymanders.
“As Democrats, we’re going to focus as well on fixing our broken health care system and cleaning up corruption,” he told Bash. “So we have an affirmative agenda that is compelling that we will continue to present to the American people. The Republicans have failed. That is why they are running scared.”
