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Amid the fight in Texas over Republicans’ efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps, leaders of the Democratic Party have expressed the need to meet what they have described as partisan tactics, with more partisan tactics.
But GOP elections experts argue Democrats have always been partisan in their congressional map drawing, despite an effort to frame the newly aggressive tactics as a reversal.
One example is former Obama wingman and U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, who did an interview with the New York Times about how he has “reversed course on gerrymandering.”
In 2017, Holder founded the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), to lead the Democratic Party’s “comprehensive redistricting strategy” focused on drawing congressional maps “in a fair manner.” This week, Axios reported Holder would be meeting with House Democrats to discuss their redistricting battle going forward, which comes after Holder told the Times that GOP efforts in Texas must be “met in the moment.”
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“Everything should be on the table. We’ve got to put pressure on Republicans and make sure they understand that there’s a price that they might have to pay in 2026,” Holder told the Times earlier this month. “Whatever it is that might forestall this truly anti-democracy, authoritarian move that they’re trying to pull in Texas has to be brought.”
Fprmer U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (L) takes questions as Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart Delery (R) looks on during a news conference to make a major financial fraud announcement February 3, 2015 at the Justice Department in Washington, DC. In 2017, alongside other officials fro the Obama administration, Holder debuted the National Democratic Redistricting Committtee to help lead the party’s redistricting efforts across the country. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“Nothing has changed except the donors funding his losing redistricting efforts now want Democrats to ignore their state constitutions, violate state and federal law, and gerrymander harder,” said Adam Kincaid, the founder of the competing GOP group set up in 2017 to challenge the NDRC.
The Republican redistricting efforts in Texas have resulted in Democrats fleeing the state – in many cases to Democrat-led havens that critics argue are highly gerrymandered themselves – to halt the GOP effort from going forward. These state-level challenges subsequently spurred nationwide resistance, including from Democratic Party governors around the country who have announced plans to retaliate by redrawing maps of their own, citing Trump and Republicans as their motivation.
“If Republicans are willing to rewrite these rules to give themselves an advantage, then they’re leaving us no choice,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has announced plans to try and redraw New York’s congressional maps in response to Trump and Republicans. Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the redistricting push by Trump and Republicans has inevitably “forced” him to consider leading an effort to redraw California’s congressional maps “to offset the rigging of maps in red states.”
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Democrats have signaled retaliation in response to Republican redistricting efforts across the country, particularly in Texas. (Getty Images)
Kincaid’s group, the National Republican Redistricting Trust (NRRT), pointed Fox News Digital to an early 2018 NDRC’s tax form, indicating the Democratic Party redistricting group’s “organizational mission” and “most significant activities” are to “favorably position Democrats for the redistricting process.”
“Democrats like Eric Holder, Gavin Newsom, and Kathy Hochul have never cared about ‘fairness’ when it comes to redistricting; they have shown that they are willing to abandon their principles as long as it means more seats in Congress for Democrats,” said Mason Di Palma, Communications Director at the Republican State Leadership Committee. “The American people can see right through their hypocritical power grab and will not let them off the hook.”
Meanwhile, conservative election law expert Hans von Spakovsky, said the idea that Holder has been against political gerrymandering as the head of the NDRC is “laughable.”
“They keep telling Trump that he needs to stop what’s going on in Texas … Texas has to fix those districts, because the Fifth Circuit said,” Spakovsky said in response to questions about partisanship in the ongoing redistricting fight.
He argued that Trump can’t just “ignore the law.”
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Meanwhile, Spakovsky pointed out that Newsom’s suggestion to lead an effort to redraw the state’s congressional maps would mean getting rid of legislation aimed at making congressional map drawing less partisan, through independent redistricting committees.
Democrats have signaled retaliation in response to Republican redistricting efforts across the country, particularly in Texas. (Getty Images)
In Newsom’s letter to Trump announcing his proposed retaliation, the governor concedes that he believes congressional maps should be drawn by “independent, citizen-led efforts,” but insists that if the president does not “stand-down” he will have to go to lead his own effort.
“We tried to play by a higher set of standards and rules with our independent redistricting, and we believe in that. And we are not talking about eliminating that commission,” Newsom said during a press conference discussing his potential retaliatory efforts. “We are talking about emergency measures to respond to what’s happening in Texas, and we will nullify what happens in Texas.”
However, even with California’s independent redistricting commission, Spakovsky says the California redistricting process has still been laden with partisanship, pointing to how after the 2024 election, Republicans statewide in California got about 40% of the vote, but they only have 17% of the congressional seats, or 9 out of 52 seats.
“California’s gerrymandered,” Trump said last week during an interview on CNBC. “We should have many more seats in Congress in California.” The week prior, Vice President J.D. Vance called gerrymandering in California “outrageous.”
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Many of the Democrats who fled Texas have been criticized for fleeing to states that critics say have their own highly partisan congressional maps favoring Democrats, such as Illinois.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has been at the forefront of efforts to force Democrats to return to their state, slammed Democrats involved in this redistricting fight from these Democrat-gerrymandered states as “completely out of control.”
“They’ve been engaged in gerrymandering for decades in California, Illinois, New York, and elsewhere, and what they have lost touch with is the people,” Abbott said.
Newsom’s office challenged the assertions that California, and the governor, have a track record of engaging in partisan redistricting, insisting that Newsom actually “has a long history of supporting independent redistricting, both at the state and national level, a principle many Republicans have voiced opposition to over the years.”
Neither Holder, Hochul, nor representatives for the pair returned Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
