'I was wrong': GOP tactics force Dem to abandon effort to play nice

A Democratic lawmaker confessed that he's done playing nice.

Speaking to Christian Science Monitor reporter Cameron Joseph, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) admitted that in the past, he had supported bipartisan redistricting in his home state. He no longer does.

“I was wrong,” he told Joseph about his backing of California's independent redistricting commission in 2008, a move aimed at stopping gerrymandering.

"We have to respond."

Republicans are desperately searching for ways to hold onto, if not grow, their slim majority in the House at a time when their popularity has fallen, according to Gallup polls.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) plans to redraw his state's electoral map to create more Republican-leaning districts, prompting Democratic governors to consider the same move.

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) was serving in California, he supported a redistricting measure that attempted to stop partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts. Now that Texas is attempting to redraw its lines for 2026, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is threatening to do it in California to carve Republicans out.

Ohio had already started an effort to redraw its districts before President Donald Trump began suggesting the idea, the report said.

"A quirk in state law related to the state’s fairly toothless anti-gerrymandering law has forced them to draw a new map, and they have unchecked control of the levers of power to do so," wrote Jordan. GOP lawmakers want to try and draw out Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Emilia Sykes.

“Every blue state should be looking at doing this mid-decade redistricting if Republicans are going to do it,” said Lieu.

As Jeff Wice, former redistricting counsel for the Democratic Party, said, “Democrats in several states are being faced with the challenge of going to a gunfight with a rubber knife."

Read the full report here.