South Carolina tripping up GOP efforts

 

Texas Representative Ann Johnson

Full speed ahead for Tennessee GOP

 

This is where we are, folks

 

They know 2026 is going to be a blowout if they don't interfere.

If by some miracle Democrats get back in control of Congress, they need to do some serious Supreme Court reform.  They need to do a lot of things, but none of them are more important than that.

UPDATE 05/12/2026:

They mean to rig the elections

 SCOTUS is helping.

UPDATE 05/01/2026:

UPDATE 05/03/2026:

UPDATE 05/06/2026:

Turning tide traumatizes tyrant

 

UPDATE 01:01 pm:

Political map changes

The Republican redistricting world suffered double blows this week, as their Utah measure to legalize partisan gerrymandering failed to qualify for the ballot and a pro-voter challenge to their gerrymander in Missouri cleared a major milestone.

Meanwhile, we continue to monitor the two states with active redistricting plans in the works. In Virginia, voters are currently casting ballots in a special election that could secure four more Democratic seats in Congress. And in Florida, Republicans are preparing to redraw maps next month.

  Democracy Docket

And Democrats flipped two red seats in Florida just a few days ago.

One more win for elections

 

We need all we can get.  I fully expect the Supreme Court to destroy the Voting Rights Act.

Virginia followingCalifornia

Virginia’s state Supreme Court will decide whether state Democrats’ gerrymander push can proceed after an appeals court on Wednesday pushed the case to the high court.

The state Circuit Court of Appeals, in a motion, stated that the case is of “such imperative public importance as to justify the deviation from normal appellate practice and to require prompt decision in the Supreme Court.”

The move comes after a court in Tazewell County last week blocked Virginia Democrats from going forward with gerrymandering, ruling that the Democrat-led Legislature had wrongly approved a constitutional amendment that would allow for mid-decade redrawing of congressional districts ahead of the midterms this fall.

  Politico

 

SCOTUS allows California gerrymander

The Supreme Court cleared the way on Wednesday for California to keep using Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Democratic-friendly maps during the 2026 midterm elections.

“Donald Trump said he was ‘entitled’ to five more congressional seats in Texas,” Newsom of California told The New York Times in a statement. “He started this redistricting war. He lost, and he’ll lose again in November.”

The Supreme Court recently upheld Texas maps on the grounds that they were designed for partisan gain rather than racial gerrymandering, overruling a lower court in the Lone Star State that found the opposite.

  All Rise News

And that's one of the dumbest laws on the US books. Racial gerrymandering is bad, but political gerrymandering is okay. Stupid.

The tide is turning

 

Great news. But beware.  In the words of Robert F Kennedy, Sr., expect "desperate acts of defeated men."

Also, looks like he's stopped ignoring the polls.

UPDATE 12/15/2025:  Utterly devoid of any humanity.  Totally indefensible.

Possibly the most heinous gerrymander in the states

 How to eliminate a certain Democratic district.

"Temporary" allowance of Texas gerrymander

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday temporarily permitted Texas to use Republicans' redrawn congressional map that a federal court blocked earlier this week.

Alito's order comes after Texas asked the high court to intervene following a ruling from a panel of federal judges on Tuesday that barred the state from using new district lines designed to help Republicans pick up an additional five House seats in next year's midterm elections.

The lower court's ruling, signed by Judge Jeffrey Brown — a nominee of President Donald Trump — had ordered Texas to use a previous map that was drawn in 2021 instead, after finding that "substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map."

The administrative stay is a temporary ruling that allows Texas to continue to use its new map for now, as the Supreme Court reviews the case.

  NBC

Trump blocked

In the gerrymander courts:

A federal court blocked Texas’ new congressional gerrymander, which could net five more GOP seats in Congress, from being used in the 2026 midterms. Texas Republicans asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the case.

Read the full story >>>

[...]

The Indiana Senate voted 29-18 to reject a proposed, President Donald Trump-backed December session aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional map. The vote keeps the state’s current map intact, marking yet another rebuke of the president’s national gerrymander push.

Read the full story >>>

  Democracy Docket Newsletter

And, in National Guard troops in American cities:

In a blow to Trump’s effort to use soldiers in policing, a Tennessee state judge blocked Gov. Bill Lee’s (R) deployment of state National Guard troops to Memphis to assist with the Trump administration’s law enforcement surge in the city.

Read the full story >>>

Denied

A panel of three federal judges has blocked Texas from using a new gerrymandered congressional map in the 2026 election, dealing a significant blow to President Donald Trump’s national effort to rig the midterm vote by creating more Republican congressional seats at the expense of minority voters.

In a scathing opinion, Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote that the Republican attempt to redistrict was not just about politics. Rather, “[s]ubstantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”

  

A Trump appointee. Somebody's going to take some heat.

Brown opened his opinion with a quote from Chief Justice John Roberts: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

Yeah, I don't think Roberts meant that the way Judge Brown is taking it, but I like that he's putting Roberts on notice.

Judge David C. Guaderrama, an appointee of President Barack Obama, joined Brown’s opinion. Judge Jerry E. Smith, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, will file a dissenting opinion.

And get a medal from Trump.

Abbot's people will appeal to SCOTUS.

UPDATE 11/21/2025:  And it's done...

Losing his hold?

 The Epstein shit is exploding.

Also, this is going around...

The People have spoken

 So much for DHS voter intimidation.

Source: Aidan

The largest turnout for a mayor's race for over half a century in New York.

From Fox, the two Governor's races:

Flipped from GOP.

Virginia also elected Ghazala Hashmi lieutenant governor.  She's the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in the US.

And a big one: Prop 50 in California. Voters overwhelming chose to fight Texas gerrymandering with California gerrymandering.

Pennsylvanians voted overwhelmingly to keep three Democratic Supreme Court judges who sought reelection, retaining a Democratic majority (5-2) on the bench.

UPDATE 05:00 pm:

In my 35 years as an election lawyer, I’ve seen good election nights and bad ones. Last night was a very good one — for both Democrats and democracy. Democrats won everything, everywhere, all at once.

They captured two governorships — in New Jersey and Virginia — in commanding fashion. They won every statewide race in Virginia and gained 13 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates.

In Pennsylvania, three Democrats facing retention elections on the state Supreme Court easily prevailed, solidifying a pro-voting majority on the court for the foreseeable future. In New York City, not only did the Democratic nominee win, but the Republican candidate came in a distant third with less than 10% of the vote.

In Georgia, two Democrats flipped seats on the statewide Public Service Commission — marking the first statewide Democratic victory in a non-federal race in nearly two decades. In Mississippi, Democrats broke the Republican supermajority in the state legislature.

On the democracy front, the wins were even bigger. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting ballot measure passed by nearly 30 points. Meanwhile, Republicans’ effort to use the referendum process to impose voter ID in Maine failed by a similar margin.

  Democracy Docket

Also from Democracy Docket

Republicans sued to block California’s Prop 50, which voters passed Tuesday. The lawsuit argues the state violated the 14th and 15th Amendments by drawing congressional districts that “favor Hispanic voters.”

Texas' redistricting to favor whites is not a problem for them.  In case you were wondering.

UPDATE 11/06/2025:

It's a great start.  Now follow through.

Thanks, Obama

 Hey, don't put this all on California.

Texas gerrymandered "5 more seats" map under scrutiny

Texas Republicans passed the new map in a rushed redistricting process, refusing to answer basic questions from Democratic lawmakers and the public, such as who drew the map and when it would be released.

Minority voters* and voting advocates are asking a federal court to block the state from using the new map in the 2026 election, saying it’s a racial gerrymander that discriminates against minority Texans. State attorneys are defending the map, arguing it was drawn only for partisan gain.

  Democracy Docket

Which is absolutely insane to me. Why should it be okay to gerrymander for partisan gain? For any reason? But, we have Trump's judges at SCOTUS to thank for another bullshit ruling turning this country into a tinpot banana republic.

State Sen. Phil King (R), who led the Senate’s redistricting committee, began his testimony Tuesday, but due to scheduling conflicts he returned Thursday for more questioning.

[...]

King’s evasive answers Thursday appeared to frustrate attorneys and the court. U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith – one of three judges hearing the case – jumped in during questioning to demand King respond with yes or no answers.

Chad Dunn, an attorney for the plaintiffs, asked King, “Are you familiar with the concept of willful blindness?”

King said, “No.”

There goes Missouri

 

The GOP’s newly approved congressional map fractures Kansas City’s 5th District by splitting apart Black communities and absorbing them into far-flung Republican-leaning districts. If allowed to take effect, it would eliminate one of Missouri’s two districts reliably held by Democrats, making it far harder for Black and Democratic voters to achieve representation.

“I was proud to officially sign the Missouri First Map into law today ahead of the 2026 midterm election,” Kehoe said after signing the bill. “I appreciate the support and efforts of state legislators, our congressional delegation, and President Trump in getting this map to my desk.”

[...]

“The map was pushed through in such a slapdash and rushed manner that the bill text double assigns one Kansas City precinct to two different congressional districts, creating a map that is malapportioned and/or noncontiguous.”

Kehoe has denied the map has any errors, saying he’ll “let the courts decide that.”

Republicans also used the session to dismantle the state’s century-old initiative petition process, gutting voters’ ability to check legislative power.

By requiring amendments to win not just a statewide majority but also a majority in every congressional district, the measure would give a handful of deep-red districts veto power over the entire state.

  Democracy Docket

They can't win if they don't cheat.

Lawsuits have been filed.