President Donald Trump went all-in on an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting campaign to protect the Republican Party’s majority in the House. The blue wave washed right on.
In a normal year, Republicans multistate pressure to redesign seats should have given them up to a dozen additional seats. But in a historic wave year — Democrats are on pace to win the national popular vote by a margin of about 13 points — Republicans ultimately picked up just two seats.
In Texas, the Republicans who launched the national fight thought they could win five additional seats in the House thanks to their new map. Instead, they only won one. In Tennessee, their gerrymander gained a seat – but they’re also about to lose another deep red seat that surprisingly flipped. The party’s only clear victory is in Louisiana, where it will likely win a seat in a race headed to a runoff.
“To call it dummymandering is generous. It sounded more like dummymandering,” said a frustrated Texas Republican strategist who, like others in this report, was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “We ran for five seats, won none, killed an incumbent president and gave Democrats a reason to participate. We lived with (Democratic Rep.) Henri Cuéllar really that hard?
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