Each camp tries to use the electoral rules to its advantage. The Supreme Court of Virginia this Friday canceled the redistricting of this American state intended to favor the Democrats, a setback for the opposition to Donald Trump, less than six months before the mid-term legislative elections.
The Republican president immediately welcomed a “huge victory” for his party and “for America”, in a message on his Truth Social network.
By putting pressure on Texas in 2025 to redraw its electoral map in favor of the Republicans, Donald Trump triggered a wave of electoral redistributions across the country, including in states led by Democrats determined to respond blow for blow, such as Virginia and California.
Donald Trump is thus trying to preserve the slim Republican majority in Congress after the mid-term elections in November, which promise to be perilous for his camp. This election aims to fill all 435 seats in the House of Representatives as well as 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate. The Republicans currently only have a slim majority in these two assemblies, and the Democrats hope to regain control of the House, or even the Senate.
The April 29 decision of the United States Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, to restrict electoral boundaries aimed at favoring the representation of minorities further inflamed this battle, particularly in the South.
“Our fight has only just begun”
In Virginia, redistricting, at the initiative of the Democrats, would have almost assured them of increasing their number of deputies in this state from six to ten, out of eleven in total. It was approved by a narrow majority by referendum on April 21. But the Virginia Supreme Court overturned it on procedural grounds, finding that the process had failed to meet the requirements of the state Constitution and that as a result the referendum was “null and void.” A possible appeal remains possible before the Supreme Court of the United States.
The leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, denounced in a press release an “unprecedented and undemocratic” decision, specifying that his party was studying “all options” to obtain its invalidation. “Whatever it takes, Democrats will win the House in November,” he said, adding, “Our fight has only just begun.” »
This decision comes at the height of electoral gerrymandering fever in the South, where several Republican governors, such as in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina, have already announced their desire to redraw their districts to eliminate Democratic seats. Tennessee adopted a new map on Thursday eliminating a district with a majority black population in order to deprive Democrats of their only deputy seat out of the nine in the state.
Unfavorable in the polls, Donald Trump began this battle for redistricting last year, but the Democrats are determined to fight back.
Redrawing districts in a partisan manner, often resulting in ludicrous geographic contours, is an old recipe for electoral cooking in the United States, known as “gerrymandering.” States traditionally revise their electoral boundaries every ten years. The idea is to adapt to changes in population, following a census. In practice, the parties in power generally try to outline the most favorable zoning possible.