U.S. President Donald Trump and first Lady Melania Trump walk to board Air Force One, after attending the 80th United Nations General Assembly, at John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York, U.S., September 23, 2025. REUTERS/Al Drago
President Donald Trump, hoping to prevent Democrats from flipping the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026, is pushing an aggressive gerrymandering/redistricting plan in Texas, Missouri and other red states. The idea is to eliminate as many Democrat-friendly districts as possible.
Countless Democratic strategists are attacking the scheme as underhanded, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom is responding with a redistricting plan that would give his state even more Democrat-leaning U.S. House districts. But in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on September 24, journalist/author Steve Posner warns that MAGA Republicans have another undemocratic "game plan" that makes gerrymandering "seem quaint."
"Democratic governors and state legislators have threatened their own redistricted routes to the majority," explains Posner, who teaches writing at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. "But even if they succeed or manage to win the thing fair and square, Trump may uncover another way to claim what the electorate denies him. Namely, Trump's allies in the House could contest the narrowest Democratic victories, demanding 2020-style recount after recount to engineer enough ballots to win. If state election boards resist, Trump could pivot, goading Speaker Mike Johnson into tasking the Committee on House Administration, or some other panel packed with MAGA acolytes, into investigating bogus allegations of fraud."
Posner continues, "Following typical election-denying logic, they'd eventually hit Trump’s numbers — and then, Johnson could push for a full House vote to seat the aggrieved Republican candidates. Too brazen, even for MAGA? It so happens that Speaker Johnson has the authority to do it."
The USC professor notes that in 1969, Congress "passed the Federal Contested Elections Act to further delineate the statutory machinery for executing its constitutional authority to judge contested House elections" — and Republicans, Posner fears, may use that law unscrupulously in the 2026 midterms.
"This power is not hypothetical, it's historical," Posner warns. "In 1985, Indiana certified results showing Republican Richard McIntyre defeating Democrat Frank McCloskey by 34 votes. A Democratic-controlled task force ordered a recount, citing allegations of inconsistent standards for absentee ballots. Their conclusion? It was the Democrat who received four more votes than the Republican. The full House rejected Indiana's certification and seated McCloskey. Republicans walked out…. In 2026, overturning Democratic victories to keep Republicans in charge would not be unprecedented."
Posner continues, "It's a dark, highly pessimistic scenario. Indeed, the possibility of invoking the Federal Contested Elections Act makes gerrymandering seem quaint. But one lesson of this year is that whatever isn't nailed down in advance is apt to be seized at the earliest opportunity. So what might have been dismissed as tin-foil imaginings a year ago may now be considered a prophetic warning in Trump's second-term America."
Steve Posner's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.