Several Republican-controlled states are looking at (potentially) undertaking mid-decade redistricting that could boost the GOP’s prospects of retaining the House in the 2026 midterms. And predictably, leftists are going berserk.
After the Texas Legislature released a new congressional map on Wednesday that could reportedly help Republicans pick up five additional House seats next year, state and national Democrats quickly rushed to characterize the proposal as an “attack” on “democracy” and an attempt to “suppress” voters.
Of course, such hyperbolic tantrums completely neglect the partisan gerrymandered maps enacted in Democrat-run states like Maryland and Illinois and leftist-led efforts to replicate them in places such as Wisconsin. And while entertaining to watch, the left’s meltdown drowns out two other major points on the redistricting issue that they’ve seemingly tried to sweep under the rug.
Townhall.com’s Guy Benson raised one of these issues in a Wednesday column, in which he highlighted a problem that came to fruition several years ago involving the U.S. Census Bureau. After its 2020 census, the agency released a report disclosing significant errors that favored Democrats in future elections.
As The Federalist previously reported, the agency effectively found that five of the six states that experienced population undercounts are considered “red states,” and six of the eight states that saw population overcounts are “blue states.” Put another way, the undercounted states (most of which are considered “Republican”) were apportioned fewer congressional seats than they were supposed to receive, while the overcounted states (most of which are considered “Democrat”) were apportioned more than what they were entitled to.
The other major redistricting issue is one previously admitted by Democrats themselves. That is, illegal immigrants are included in census counts and deporting them could result in their party losing House seats and electoral power.
As Federalist Senior Contributor Ben Weingarten previously noted, “Some immigration researchers project that including noncitizens in the census count disproportionately benefits Democratic states with large illegal alien populations.” Should the Trump administration adopt a policy of not counting noncitizens in the census, he wrote, “It could have significant political implications because the census count is used to apportion House seats, determine the number of votes each state gets in the Electoral College for selecting the president, and drive the flow of trillions of dollars in government funds.”
Democrat hypocrisy is only one part of the wider conversation that needs to be had on the issue of redistricting. Counting errors by federal officials and the inclusion of illegals in the census are major problems that, if left unaddressed, will undercut the U.S. electoral system and the people’s faith in the elections process.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood