Tag: gerrymandering

Obama Does Ad for Gavin Newsom on Redistricting – Accuses Republicans of Trying to ‘Rig’ the Next Election 

Former President Obama just will not go away. It seems like every other day, he is on a podcast, doing an interview, or making news by commenting on the issues of the day.

At the same time, he seems like the incredible shrinking man, because his legacy is being gutted by Trump’s second term.

Now he is doing ads for Prop 50 in California, in which he accuses Republicans of trying to rig the next election.

Breitbart News reports:

Barack Obama Claims Republicans Want to ‘Steal’ Seats, ‘Rig’ Election in Ad for Newsom’s Gerrymandering Proposal

Former President Barack Obama and California Governor Gavin Newsom are urging Californians to vote in favor of Proposition 50, a ballot measure that would replace the state’s independent redistricting system with a legislature-approved map projected to eliminate several Republican-held congressional districts.

On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X, “Listen to @barackobama,” sharing a new video featuring former President Barack Obama encouraging voters to support Proposition 50 in the state’s November 4 special election.

In the video, Obama says:

“California, the whole nation is counting on you. Democracy is on the ballot November 4. Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years. With Prop 50, you can stop Republicans in their tracks. Prop 50 puts our elections back on a level playing field, which preserves Independent Redistricting over the long term, and lets the people decide. Return your ballot today. Vote yes on 50.”

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In Race-Based Redistricting Battle, Louisiana Urges SCOTUS To Uphold America’s ‘Color Blind’ Constitution

Is the use of race in the redistricting process unconstitutional?

That’s a key question the U.S. Supreme Court will be considering in a pair of high-profile cases set to be argued before the justices on Wednesday. Known as Louisiana v. Callais and Robinson v. Callais, the matters provide the court with the opportunity to end longstanding conflicts between the Constitution and race-centric voting provisions that have plagued states and the redistricting process for decades.

We believe these cases are “good vehicle[s] for the Supreme Court to address some of these issues that have been percolating for a very long time,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told The Federalist.

As The Federalist previously reported, the origins of the dispute date back to spring 2022, when the Louisiana Legislature drafted a congressional map with a single black-majority district. This prompted a group of plaintiffs — represented by left-wing groups like the ACLU — to sue, alleging that the map “dilut[ed] black voting strength” and therefore violated Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Following an injunction barring the map’s implementation by a district court judge, continued litigation in the case ultimately resulted in the state redrawing the map to include a second black-majority district. This led to another lawsuit from a different group of plaintiffs, who claimed the state unlawfully prioritized race in the map’s creation and therefore violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. A three-judge panel on a separate district court agreed with these plaintiffs and blocked the new map’s implementation.

While the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case and was expected to issue a verdict during its 2024-2025 term, the justices announced on the final day of the session that it would be rehearing arguments in the case this fall. The court notably issued an order in early August instructing parties in the case to address the question of “[w]hether the State’s intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution.”

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HERE WE GO AGAIN – In California Election For Congressional Redistricting – “See Through” Ballot Envelopes Allow You to See How Voter Voted

Another California election and another corrupt result in the works.

California doesn’t have elections.  They have madness and those with oversite gaslight the entire sham. The state is codifying unconstitutional election activities and like communist takeovers throughout history, no one is stopping them. 

BALLOT HARVESTING and MAIL-IN BALLOTS

Since California went to ballot harvesting the results have been devastating for the GOP in Orange County, California and across the state. Heritage reported in 2019:

Vote harvesting is the collection of absentee ballots from voters by a third party who then delivers them to election officials. The term “vote harvesting” was essentially unknown to the general public until the North Carolina State Board of Elections overturned the results of the 2018 election for the Ninth Congressional District due to illegal vote harvesting, what the board called a “coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme.”

It was also raised as a concern in California after the unexpected losses of Republican-held congressional seats, including in Orange County, a traditional Republican stronghold, where the registrar of voters said that individuals were “dropping off maybe 100 or 200 ballots” at a time.

Ballot harvesting is still in place and all registered voters receive a ballot for the election in the mail.  The chain of custody surrounding ballots harvested in the state is not adequate or is non-existent.  Who knows where the completed ballots come from?

VOTER IDENTIFICATION

Not only is it almost impossible to determine where a ballot came from, it is also impossible to determine who the ballot came from.  Local governments in the state can’t ask for ID’s from voters.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation that prevents local governments from requiring voters to present identification at the polls, a law aimed at curbing conservative efforts in cities like Huntington Beach.

Californians literally have no idea who sent in the millions of ballots counted in the 2024 Election.

ELECTION OBSERVER VOTER SIGNATURE CHALLENGES DENIED

We can add to the above list this additional lack of transparency.  Election observers were prevented from the reasonable ability to observe the 2024 Election.  If they identified anything, they lacked the ability to do anything about it.

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Democrats Claim Racism as New Maps Force Them Out of Texas Strongholds

The Democrat stronghold in Texas is collapsing, and their own lawmakers are now turning on each other. 

After Republicans passed new congressional maps—pushed at the request of President Donald Trump—Democrats now face the reality of fewer safe seats and the possibility of political extinction in key parts of the state.

Representative Lloyd Doggett, one of Austin’s longest-serving Democrats, has already announced he will step aside if the new maps hold. 

His exit would clear a path for Greg Casar, but it also highlights the brutal truth: Democrats don’t have enough blue districts to go around anymore.

The biggest shakeup is in Houston. 

Representative Al Green, who has represented the 9th District since 2005, saw his district effectively redrawn. 

Only 5% of his old base remains. Most of it was folded into the new District 18, once held by Sheila Jackson Lee and Sylvester Turner. 

With a special election scheduled, Green is expected to jump into that race—but he’ll be battling other Democrats in what is now a three-seat squeeze. 

Houston went from having four Democrat seats to three, guaranteeing that at least one Democrat seat is now vacant.

Dallas-Fort Worth Democrats face the same disaster. 

Marc Veasey of Fort Worth has been pushed into Dallas, where Julie Johnson already sits. 

Her district, however, is now heavily Republican, meaning she must either take on Veasey or run a suicide campaign. 

Meanwhile, Jasmine Crockett survives unscathed in her district, and Republicans like Beth Van Duyne stand ready to pick up the pieces.

Democrats have responded with lawsuits. 

The NAACP, LULAC, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law claim the maps discriminate against minorities. 

But this playbook is nothing new. Back in the 1990s, Democrats used redistricting to carve out majority-Black and majority-Hispanic districts for political gain.

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Guess Which Billionaire Just Dropped $10 Million to Help Gavin Newsom’s Redistricting Crusade

Democrats’ favorite billionaire is funneling oodles of cash into helping California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting plan.

Newsom has raised a shocking amount of money in a short period of time to push Proposition 50, a ballot measure that would redraw California’s congressional districts in a way that would give Democrats more seats in the House of Representatives. The New York Times reported that Newsom “has raised rougly $70 million in less than two months.”

And guess who’s shelling out the big bucks? You guessed it: George Soros.

The Times noted that Soros has poured about $10 million into the redistricting effort, which makes the Soros family the largest single backer of the initiative. This development comes as President Donald Trump is calling for an investigation into the family.

In a recent post on Truth Social, Trump insisted that George, and his son and heir Alex, “should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America.”

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Missouri House OVERWHELMINGLY Passes New Congressional Map — Slashes Democrats Down to Just ONE Seat

The Missouri House of Representatives, controlled by Republicans, passed a sweeping new congressional map that will likely reduce Democratic representation to just one seat in the U.S. House delegation.

The revolutionary “Missouri First” map promises a fierce partisan restructuring ahead of the 2026 midterms.

In a 90-65 vote, GOP legislators approved a redistricting plan that dismantles the Democrat stronghold of the 5th District, anchored in Kansas City, and partitions it across adjacent rural Republican-dominated districts, according to AP News.

Republicans are poised to secure seven of the state’s eight congressional seats.

Missouri Independent reported:

Gov. Mike Kehoe called the legislature back into session after weeks of pressure from the President Donald Trump for GOP-run states to redraw congressional districts to ensure more Republican seats before next year’s midterm elections.

In Missouri, the effort targeted the 5th District, currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, by carving it up and dispersing its voters into three districts that give Republicans an electoral advantage in seven of the state’s eight congressional districts.

“This is a superior map,” said state Rep. Dirk Deaton, a Noel Republican sponsoring the proposed new congressional map. “It better represents the state of Missouri.”

In addition to the gerrymandered map, Republicans also took aim at the citizen initiative petition process. The House approved a plan Tuesday that would require constitutional amendments put on the ballot by Missouri voters to attain both a simple majority statewide and a majority in all eight congressional districts in order to pass.

Based on last year’s election results, that change would mean as few as 5% of voters could defeat any ballot measure. The proposal would also ban foreign contributions to initiative petition campaigns…

If it passes the Senate, the issue would go on the statewide ballot in 2026 and require a simple majority to approve.

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Democrats Face Disaster as Another State Joins the Redistricting War

Democrats have long relied on gerrymandering to tilt the map in their favor. For years, they got away with it. But that winning streak is over. Republican-led states are finally striking back—methodically, aggressively, and with precision—reshaping congressional districts right under the left’s nose. While blue states scramble to hang on, Republicans are systematically gaining ground ahead of 2026.

The newest state to enter the redistricting wars is Florida, and Democrats have every reason to panic. With its latest moves, the Sunshine State is poised to shake up the congressional battlefield and give the GOP a decisive edge in the midterms.

Florida’s push comes on the heels of Texas’s, where Republicans wasted no time correcting the damage from the 2020 Census undercount. Despite Democrats’ stunts and loud public protests, Texas redrew its maps and neutralized the left’s advantage. That victory laid the blueprint, and now Florida is ready to double down—reworking districts mid-cycle and ensuring Republicans don’t leave a single seat on the table.

Meanwhile, blue state governors like Gavin Newsom in California and J.B. Pritzker in Illinois are in full scramble mode, feverishly drawing new maps in a desperate bid to blunt GOP momentum and cling to power. Accuracy and fairness in representation aren’t even part of the equation for them—it’s all about preserving their stranglehold on Congress. The obsession runs so deep that even Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is vowing to gerrymander her state—despite the fact that Republicans don’t hold a single congressional seat there to begin with.

That, of course, is the real problem for Democrats. When it comes to the redistricting wars, Democrats have already gerrymandered their states so much they are running out of levers to pull. Their grip is loosening, and they know it. Demographic changes and voting patterns are swinging hard against them, and with each passing year, the data tells a grimmer story for the left: Americans are leaving their high-tax, high-crime, heavily regulated states for Republican-led havens where opportunity actually means something. 

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Teachers Union Helps Fund Newsom’s Radical Redistricting Push Ahead of 2025 Vote

According to Campus Reform, “The California Teachers Association (CTA) has given $3 million to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign for Proposition 50, a redistricting measure that will appear on the state’s Nov. 4, ballot, according to state campaign finance filings.”

The CTA or California Teachers Association’s contribution went directly to Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50.

The radical vengeful measure originated from a three bill package in July where the Dems used a ‘gut and amend’ tactic on A.B. 604, S.B. 260 and A.C.A. 8 in order to help give the legislature control of redistricting for 2026, 2028, 2030 election cycles.

The state’s independent Group would eventually assume control, finally in the year 2031.

According to Assemblyman Carl DeMaio “If this redistricting scheme goes through, voters will have no reason to trust politicians.”

DeMaio told Campus Reform. “Politicians will choose their voters; voters will not choose their politicians.”

Sonja Shaw, who’s running for Superintendent of Education in California, condemned the Union’s support for this proposition.

Shaw wrote on X “The California Teachers Association is behind every attack on our kids, pushing confusion in classrooms, protecting only those who fit their narrative, and selling out teachers to back Newsom’s gerrymander…”

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Missouri Governor Calls Special Session For Redrawing Congressional Map

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe announced on Aug. 29 that he was calling state lawmakers back to the capital for a special session tasked with redrawing the congressional district lines ahead of the 2026 election.

His announcement came just hours after fellow Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Texas’s new congressional voting map, setting the stage for the GOP to gain five more seats in the House of Representatives.

Scheduled to begin Sept. 3, T.J.Muscaro reports for The Epoch Times that Missouri’s redistricting also appears to give Republicans help in the coming midterms, as Kehoe’s proposed map looks to stretch a Kansas City-area district – currently held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver—into Republican-leaning rural areas.

“Missouri’s conservative, common-sense values should be truly represented at all levels of government,” Kehoe said in a statement.

Cleaver is one of two current Democratic-controlled districts in the state. The other is in St. Louis, held by Rep. Wesley Bells. There are six total congressional districts in Missouri.

Cleaver decried the decision to alter his district in a statement.

“This attempt to gerrymander Missouri will not simply change district lines; it will silence voices. It will deny representation,” he said.

The state’s Democratic House Minority Leader Ashley Aune also spoke out against the change, accusing Kehoe of looking to “steal a congressional seat for Republicans.”

However, Missouri Democrats are unlikely to stop their Republican colleagues from passing the new map.

While they could filibuster in the Senate, Republicans have procedural means to shut it down, and the number of Democrats is too small for their absence to prevent a quorum.

Meanwhile, California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking voters to approve a new congressional map that seeks to help his party win five seats as a response to Texas’s new map favoring Republicans.

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Big money and names power the campaign to influence California voters over a new congressional map

It’s either a plan to save democracy from President Donald Trump’s attempts to rig elections or a power grab by Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats.

The race to define Newsom’s push to redraw California’s congressional map before the 2026 midterms is underway with about five weeks until voters can begin casting early ballots on Proposition 50. The prevailing narrative could determine which party controls the U.S. House for the last two years of Trump’s second term.

Days into the campaign, supporters and opponents each brought in more than $10 million. That’s a fraction of the $100 million-plus expected to be spent to win over voters by Nov. 4. The contest also is drawing some high-profile state politicians, including actor and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Here’s a look at the campaigns and how they’re ramping up.

A national redistricting fight

The California ballot question is part of the unusual mid-decade redistricting that Texas Republicans kicked off last month at Trump’s direction. By pressing GOP-led states to redraw congressional district boundaries in the party’s favor, the president hopes to prevent Democrats from taking control of the U.S. House in the 2026 elections.

Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to regain the House majority, which would give them the power to subpoena Trump, investigate his administration and block his legislative agenda.

Republican state lawmakers in Texas passed a bill aiming to make five Democratic-held congressional seats more winnable for the GOP. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law Friday.

California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature responded in kind. Lawmakers last week approved a plan, which Newsom quickly signed, to ask voters to approve new House district boundaries that shore up shaky Democratic districts and pick up as many as five GOP-held seats.

Newsom and Democratic allies are mobilizing

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