With No Change in Votes, GOP Would Win Through Gerrymandering [View all]

[AZProgressive]

A recent analysis of legislative redistricting maps from across the United States showcases the vast influence of political gerrymandering, which will likely benefit the Republican Party in next year’s 2022 midterm races — even if voters’ preferences haven’t changed since Democrats won in 2020.

Polling from this week shows that Democrats are currently losing to Republicans in a “generic Congressional ballot” question, with the GOP ahead of Democrats by 10 points in terms of which party voters want to see running Congress in 2023 and beyond. But even if Americans cast their votes the same way they did last year, the redrawing of maps by itself will give Republicans enough seats to win control of the House of Representatives.

According to reporting from The New York Times, Republicans are set to “flip” five seats in the House from Democrats, based on the proposed maps that are being redrawn in most states. Those five seats will likely change hands not because of voters’ desires for new leaders, but because the maps are “more distorted, more disjointed and more gerrymandered than any since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965,” The Times reported.

Currently, Democrats control 221 seats in the House, while Republicans have 213 seats. If five Democrats lose their elections next year, control of the House would switch parties, giving Republicans power over that legislative chamber.

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