Gerrymandering

In 2020 Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Virginia twice since William Howard Taft. Then in 2024 Trump lost once more, this time to Kamala Harris. Now he has in effect lost it a fourth time as Virginia voters approved on Tuesday a fiercely contested referendum redrawing congressional districts to favor Democratic congressional candidates in the 2026 midterm elections. "This is really a country election. The whole country is watching," Trump said. If so, it watched Trump suffer a major blow – one that will prompt renewed questions about his political acuity and judgment.

"Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity" may very well be the epitaph of Gavin Newsom's political career when he leaves office in January 2027. Driven by his presidential ambitions, California's governor is torching a quarter-billion taxpayer dollars on a redistricting scheme that would make Elbridge Gerry himself blush. What Newsom calls "fighting Trump," voters increasingly recognize as #GavinMandering, a transparent attempt to override the independent redistricting commission they approved to end exactly this kind of political manipulation. The political implications are staggering, not just for California but for the future of Democratic Party credibility nationwide.

The theater kids are at it again. The Texas Democratic party is engaged in yet another performative act of resistance – one perhaps less embarrassing than the likes of Representative Greg Casar's iconic nine-hour "thirst strike," but far more damaging to Texans in the moment. The decision by more than 50 Texas representatives to flee the state for the climes of California, New York and Illinois rather than confront the realities of their political margins doesn't just act as a grandstanding method of opposition to a redistricting policy that would stand to Republicans' benefit – it also is holding up the legislative response to the recent flooding disaster, something of significant need to the damaged communities.

For the second consecutive time, the opening of a congressional session has been mired in chaos. In 2021, the certification of the presidential election was the issue. In 2023, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is being denied the speakership after waiting in line for well over a decade. Some of McCarthy's detractors make the case that this is simply his comeuppance, the natural consequence of appeasing the rightmost flank of his party during the Trump years. There's an element of truth to this. Too often, he has gone out of his way to placate the demands of the fringes in an attempt to secure their support, only for recalcitrant right-wingers to continue to see him as part of the establishment.