A California Republican lawmaker targeted by new gerrymandered maps slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson for backing President Donald Trump’s effort to intensify mid-term gerrymanders.
“I warned the Speaker for months that a redistricting war was (1) bad for the country, (2) unpopular with Members on both sides, and (3) likely to end as a wash. Yet he cheered it on rather than try to stop it,” said U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, whose Republican voters could be sprayed into neighboring Democratic districts after California opted to allow the Democratic legislature to re-shuffle districts to neutralize Trump’s mid-year gerrymander in Texas.
Kiley was responding to a post on X by Senior Editor and Elections Analyst Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, claiming Democrats could eventually erase the gains Republicans got from Trump’s extreme gerrymander effort a few months ago.
“Between Ohio, Kansas, California, Virginia and now this huge win in Utah, Democrats have quietly strung together an impressive streak of victories over the past few weeks that have, surprisingly, pushed the mid-decade redistricting war closer to a draw,” said Wasserman, citing a recent judicial decision in Utah that creates one more Democratic district in the notoriously red state.
“If you score remap shifts between safe/competitive seats as +/-0.5, here's how the count looks today, to my eye: California: Dem +4.5 Missouri: GOP +1 North Carolina: GOP +0.5 Ohio: GOP +0.5 Texas: GOP +4 Utah: Dem +1,” Wasserman posted on X. “That leaves Republicans ahead by half a seat, [with] Florida, Indiana [and] Virginia the biggest remaining variables.”
One self-proclaimed “Reagan caucus” X user expressed similar anxiety over the national maps unfolding from Trump and Republicans’ effort to skew mid-term House elections.
“I recall being told by Republicans here in California that a redistricting war would result in the party picking up 15-20 seats in the House, especially if we defeated Prop 50. What happened?” the commenter complained.
“Yep. I don’t think Texas realizes every action has a reaction,” posted another MAGA X commenter. “Put another way I don’t think the politicos in Texas thought about the bigger picture and now GOP will get screwed.”
Kiley said he would be introducing “legislation to give every state an independent redistricting commission like the one Newsom just got rid of in California,” proclaiming on X that it was “time to end gerrymandering for good in the United States.”