Politico reports President Donald Trump is "signing the political death warrants" of a handful of blue state Republicans with his gerrymandering push.
Trump’s crusade for an unusual mid-decade redistricting of the country’s largest red state "predictably triggered a vow from the country’s largest blue state to do the same,” writes Jonathan Martin said. “… How could Trump not grasp that California Gov. Gavin Newsom would respond by swinging with [Shohei] Ohtani-like fervor at an opportunity to insert himself in the national debate, build a trans-continental fundraising list and demonstrate his mettle to Democratic primary voters?”
Blue state Republicans could have told him, according to sources.
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“He was not given the full picture of the ultimate consequences,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California Republican whose seat will likely be eliminated should Democrats have their way with a new map.
A better question, says Martin, is whether Trump cares that he may sacrifice the careers of a handful of blue state House GOP incumbents to temporarily grab more red seats to save his mid-term agenda.
“If Texas wants to rig the maps, California will make sure they pay a price,” the governor told me. “They want to steal five seats? We’ll match and secure more — and turn the tables on their entire strategy.”
Martin is quick to point out that both parties have abused the process of gerrymandering states to allow politicians to cherry-pick voters to preserve their incumbency.
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But Republicans are “lunging for additional safe GOP seats in the middle of the decade because [Trump] finds the stigma of an impeachment hat trick humiliating.”
Trump would likely win in the immediate as additional red states like Ohio, Missouri and Indiana “salute him and overhaul their congressional boundaries to squeeze out the few Democrats left in their delegations,” Martin said, and this would be possible if the Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act before next year’s elections.
States like New York are currently constrained by its voter-approved independent redistricting commissions, but those could dissolve as blue state Democrats declare a gerrymandering arms race and erase Republican House veterans such as California Reps. Darrell Issa and Ken Calvert, and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.).
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“This creates a situation where you’re going to lose blue state members, which over the long haul are critical to keeping the majority,” Lawler tells Martin, describing it as “mutually assured destruction once people go full throttle.”
Read the full Politico report at this link.