Less than 24 hours after Texas Republicans shoved the redistricting plan across the finish line over Democratic objections, some GOP lawmakers are having a bit of buyer's remorse that they may have gained some seats in U.S. House of Representatives but put others in play.
According to conservative journalist David Drucker, the plan was to give Republicans a shot at picking up an expected five House seats in the 2026 midterms, but the map, as now written, may put some other districts in play.
During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” the Dispatch journalist was prompted by host Joe Scarborough with, “One of the main consequences I see from gerrymandering is you get the people in the safe seats, and I won't even mention their names, but you get people in the safest seats, they say the most, especially in the Republican side, they say the most outrageous things, and they raise a ton of money. The more insulting, the more outrageous, the more vulgar, the crazier, the more insane they sound, because they're safe in their district, the more money they raise nationwide, the more their profile goes up.”
According to Drucker, “Well, we've seen that over the past decade and a half, at least, because all the action, Joe is in the primaries, right? I mean, how often are we discussing a topic here? And you guys ask me, what do Republicans think and my answer is usually they don't want to rock the boat ahead of primary season, because the only place they're going to have a competitive race is in a Republican primary.”
After discussing the dilemma Democrats are facing, he added, ”Look what's happening now with the gerrymandering of seats ... on the one hand, we could, in the short term have some more competitive districts, right? If you look at that Texas map, some is dark red, a lot of it is shaded light red. And that means if this atmosphere goes against the president and his party next year, I’ve had Republicans in Texas tell me they're worried [that] instead of gaining five seats, you can have ten competitive seats and you could end up losing seats.”
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