Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
In 2022, Ohio lawmakers repeatedly drew congressional districts that the state Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. This defiance violated a voter-approved reform intended to prohibit partisan gerrymandering.
Under Article I, Section 4 of the US Constitution, state legislatures possess the authority to determine how congressional districts are drawn. However, Congress retains the power to alter these rules if it chooses to.
Used in several states, citizen or bipartisan panels draw congressional and legislative districts based on neutral criteria like population and geography. Learn more about how these commissions increase competitiveness in elections.
Cracking and packing are gerrymandering techniques. Cracking splits opposing voters across districts, diluting their power. Packing concentrates their votes into a few districts, wasting them in overwhelming, unnecessary majorities for one party.
Republican consultant Thomas Hofeller quietly shaped US politics for decades by engineering partisan maps nationwide. His files, released after his death in 2018, revealed strategies to maximize GOP advantage and diminish Democratic and minority influence.
This podcast explored whether courts can rein in partisan map-drawing, focusing on North Carolina’s 2023 redistricting battle, the Moore v. Harper case, and the controversial “independent state legislature” theory.
In a 2016 interview, journalist David Daley explained how Republicans used data-driven targeting after the 2010 census to lock in durable advantages, comparing modern gerrymandering strategies to the analytics revolution in baseball.
Elbridge Gerry, a Massachusetts statesman and vice president under James Madison, signed the Declaration of Independence. He is also the only signer buried in Washington, DC, interred at Congressional Cemetery.
Analysts expect GOP-led states to net seats through mid-decade redistricting, while Democratic states face greater hurdles due to commissions and legal limits—tilting the likely outcome toward Republican gains in 2026.
Analysts reported that the 2022 midterms featured the lowest share of competitive congressional districts since 1970, reflecting how modern redistricting has increasingly produced safe seats and reduced voter choice.