Last August, a GOP-led gerrymandering effort in Texas resulted in the creation of new Republican congressional seats, sparking a nationwide battle to redistrict several states in an attempt to swing electoral maps in one party of the other’s favor. Now with polls open on a redistricting referendum in Virginia, President Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon is claiming that it is a “demonic” effort by the Democrats to take power and launch impeachment proceedings.
If Virginia voters accept the proposed map, it will lend Democrats a 10-1 advantage in the state, gaining the party four new congressional seats.
“This is their plan,” said Bannon, speaking on his podcast with Virginia GOP chair Jeff Ryer. “Not just, are they going to take power and use these four seats to impeach Trump? But they’re going to use this as a template for the rest of the country. It’s coming.”
Bannon suggested that dark motivations underlie the endeavor.
“These Democrats are demonic,” he declared. “If they weren’t demonic, wouldn’t they show you the map? Wouldn’t they walk you through the logic?”
As Democracy Docket points out, Democrats in fact did release a proposed map. Early voting is already open, and the final count is expected to be close. In opposing the effort, state Republicans distributed misleading mailers that suggest top Democrats like President Barack Obama and Governor Abigail Spanberger oppose the redistricting. Both, in reality, support it.
With Trump’s approval rating plummeting to historic lows and the November midterms approaching fast, Republicans have begun panicking over the “inconvenient truth” that they’re almost certain to take major losses. Most experts expect the GOP to lose its majority in the House, and some are even saying the party's majority is vulnerable in the Senate.
According to veteran Republican strategist Mike Madrid, who has spent nearly four decades analyzing elections, "I've never seen the fundamentals of an election cycle as bad for an incumbent party as I am right now,"