Republicans seek to shift blame for unpopular redistricting war

Source: The Hill

05/19/26 6:00 AM ET


Republicans on Capitol Hill are seeking to shift the blame for the redistricting war onto Democrats, downplaying President Trump’s leading role in a gerrymandering frenzy that’s unpopular with voters of all stripes. Trump instigated the rare, mid-decade redistricting fight last summer when he pressed Texas state Republicans to redraw their map with designs to eliminate five Democratic seats. Republicans were “entitled” to those seats, he argued, because Democratic gerrymandering in other states had disenfranchised GOP voters.

Almost a year later, that same argument is picking up steam in the Capitol, where a growing chorus of GOP lawmakers are racing to defend the president from Democratic charges that he’s trying to “rig” the midterms to keep Republicans in control of Congress for the final two years of his presidency. Their message is simple: Democrats started it.

“This started because we had some of our blue states that got overly aggressive trying to displace Republican representation,” said Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas). “When you look at New England, 40 percent of their voters are Republican voters, and yet they have zero representation in Congress.”

Republicans are pointing to a handful of blue states where Democrats control all the seats in Congress. They include much of New England: Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine. But one state in particular seems to be getting special scrutiny: Massachusetts, the most populous New England state, where 36 percent of voters supported Trump in the 2024 presidential contest but all nine House seats are held by Democrats.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5883852-republicans-blame-redistricting-democrats/

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What the clueless idiots won't say regarding states with single party (D) Reps -

DE = 1 "at large" seat total
VT = 1 "at large" seat total
NH = 2 seats total
ME = 2 seats total
RI = 2 seats total
HI = 2 seats total
CT = 5 seats total
MA = 9 seats total

(24 Reps total)

is how they ignore (before any new redistricting) THEIR states with single/party all-R seats -

WY = 1 "at large" R seat total
ND = 1 "at large" R seat total
SD = 1 "at large" R seat total
AK = 1 "at large" R seat total
MT = 2 seats total (all R)
WV = 2 seats total (all R)
ID = 2 seats total (all R)
NE = 3 seats total (all R) (despite the "blue dot" )
IA = 4 seats total (all R)
AR = 4 seats total (all R)
UT = 4 seats total (all R)
OK = 5 seats total (all R)

(30 Reps total)

So no, Democrats didn't "start" anything and don't believe their bullshit hype.