Joe Raddle | getty images
Jeffries, in a letter to the House Democratic Caucus, called for the meeting after several blows the party has taken over the past two weeks on the redistricting front. On Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a referendum that would have allowed new congressional maps in the state, which could have given Democrats four additional seats. Virginia Democrats on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block that decision.
A week earlier, the Supreme Court weakened a section of the Voting Rights Act, paving the way for GOP-led states across the South to redraw their congressional maps and eliminate Democrat-controlled, majority-minority districts.
Democrats had widespread support to retake the US House this November, but the decisions taken together have strengthened Republicans’ hopes of maintaining their majority. Jefferies’ letter is the latest proclamation from Democrats that they intend to fight back either in the courts, through legislation, or by pursuing their own aggressive redistricting agenda.
“Even aided and abetted by clearly undemocratic court decisions, the failed GOP majority will not be able to return itself to power,” Jeffries wrote. “Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives in November.”
Representative Joe Morrell, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal elections, will help lead a caucus-wide briefing on Thursday. Jeffries also deployed Morrell, a fellow New York lawmaker, to his home state last week to talk to Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators about the possibility of redistricting for the 2028 elections.
In his letter, Jefferies named New York, Colorado, Washington and Maryland as states that are “taking steps to respond decisively to the ruling the U.S. Supreme Court has issued.”
But this election year, Republicans now have a decisive edge in partisan gerrymandering wars, with an additional 12 House seat pickups due to mid-decade redistricting, according to an analysis from Issue One, a bipartisan group that strives to reduce the influence of money in politics.
Last week, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, signed a new map for the state that eliminated its only Democrat-held district. Other Southern states, including Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina, have also taken steps to de-draw their maps in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act decision.
Despite these setbacks, Jeffries and Democrats continue to point to President Donald Trump’s tanking favorability ratings and growing pessimism over the war in Iran and rising prices as reasons for optimism.
He said, “Donald Trump is extremely unpopular and Republicans have failed to improve the lives of the American people. Instead of changing direction, GOP extremists are planning to change the electoral makeup of districts across the country.”
States typically redraw their congressional lines every 10 years following the US census.
Trump began pushing for mid-decade redistricting last year, urging Texas and other GOP-led states to draw more favorable maps as Republicans faced significant headwinds in the midterms.
The Democratic-led states California and Virginia launched their own redistricting efforts as a countermeasure. In both states, voters passed referendums to allow new maps.
In a 4-3 decision, the Virginia Supreme Court found that state Democrats did not follow proper procedure when placing the constitutional amendment on the ballot. The referendum passed by three percentage points in April.
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