Gerrymandering is accelerating political polarization in the United States, with states redrawing congressional maps while attempting to secure partisan advantage and President Donald Trump pushing to secure the GOP majority in the upcoming midterm elections, according to a new report.
"You're seeing this divide [between] trifecta blue states and trifecta red, and it's creating this remarkable contrast in which you've got radically different policies from state to state," Jay Richards, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told The Wall Street Journal.
The fight is reflecting how dominant parties in many states are using their control to cement long-term advantages, the publication reported Saturday.
In 40 states, one party holds a "trifecta," or control of the governor's office and both legislative chambers, or has a supermajority capable of overriding a governor's veto. Fewer than 20% of Americans live in states where the minority party has significant influence.
The latest battle is in Texas, where Republicans are pursuing an out-of-cycle redistricting effort aimed at giving their party more House seats. Democrat legislators have left the state to prevent a quorum from voting on the measure, and state officials have issued civil-arrest warrants to compel them to return.
Meanwhile, blue states including California and Illinois are considering their own map changes to boost the Democratic Party's advantages.
"This is a war. We are at war," said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul during an appearance in Albany alongside some of the Texas lawmakers who fled. "That's why the gloves are off. And I say: Bring it on."
Gerrymandering, used to strengthen single-party control, allows states to pass sharply different laws with little opposition. Republican trifecta states have banned or restricted abortion in about one-third of states and have enacted limits on gender-transitioning care for minors, while states with a Democrat trifecta have moved in the opposite direction, protecting abortion access and expanding legal protections for transgender individuals.
Republican-led states have also loosened gun laws, supported religious displays in public schools, and advanced right-to-work legislation, while states led by Democrats have passed gun restrictions, opposed book removals from libraries, and expanded healthcare protections.
As a result, Michael Podhorzer, former political director of the AFL-CIO, said it is an "essential error" to think of America as a single nation.
The United States, he said, is a "binational republic."
"There aren't cannons, and this isn't Bull Run," said Podhorzer. "This is not a shooting civil war. But it's very much a battle of how people are going to live in this country. ... In almost every way, life in blue America is different than in red America."
Analysts warn that partisan redistricting could eliminate many of the remaining competitive districts, reducing representation for minority-party voters in both red and blue states.
"The two parties will become more geographically sorted, and the different interests of blue voters in red states and red voters in blue states will get lost in the wash," said Ben Williams of FairVote, a nonpartisan voting-regulations group.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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