Republicans run a risky strategy for holding the House that rests on redrawn maps

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A Donald Trump-backed effort to gerrymander Texas would boost the GOP’s attempts to cling to its razor-thin House majority in next year’s midterms — but it also runs a serious risk of backfiring.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state legislature to redraw the map during its special session this summer, following a push from the White House and the Justice Department. Ohio is also required by state law to redraw its lines before next year's midterms. Taken together, Republicans see an opportunity to potentially create more GOP seats, guarding against the possibility of a blue wave in 2026.

But in Texas, Republicans are in danger of creating a so-called dummymander, whereby an attempt to draw more seats for one party accidentally benefits the other. Texas’ congressional map already heavily favors the GOP, so any changes to further benefit the party would have to walk a careful line. Adding Republican voters to blue districts to reduce Democrats' margins means taking those same voters out of the red districts where they reside. The result is more competitive districts across the board — ones Democrats hope to take advantage of as they harness anti-Trump energy in the midterms.

“They are playing a little bit of roulette with these maps,” said Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas). “In a wave election like what we have a potential opportunity for in ‘26 I think it makes these Republicans very vulnerable.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-texas-gerrymandering-plan-could-140000485.html

[Metaphorical]

1. It is the fundamental problem with gerrymandering

Creating congressional districts is an optimization problem. If you have a population that is distributed more or less evenly between two parties, as Texas is, you can only make so many majority red or majority blue districts before you reach a point where you actually don't have enough votes to overcome the margin of error within other districts, making them more competitive. It is very likely, especially given the major growth in the last decade in the Southeast part of the state, that Texas may have reached that tipping point.

[bronxiteforever]

2. The GOP is always afraid of competition

They say they hate the government but Lordy do they cheat like hell to keep their federal jobs, pensions and healthcare. It is only the people of the United States who are not worthy of their breadcrumbs.

[OrlandoDem2]

3. We need to wipe out the GOP nationally! We've gotta win in red states to do so.