Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sees a possible path to a Democratic majority in an unlikely place: Deep-red Texas.
The White Home is reportedly pressing Texas Republicans to redraw the traces for U.S. Home districts to assist Republicans hold maintain of their razor-thin majority in subsequent yr’s midterm elections.
Jeffries, who’s already forecasting that Democrats will flip management of the chamber, mentioned the Texas districts are already so gerrymandered within the Republicans’ favor that tweaking the traces may truly play to the Democrats’ benefit by making a handful of protected GOP seats extra aggressive. He put the quantity between 4 and 6.
“Loads of Democrats that we have talked to from Texas [have] truly come to the conclusion, primarily based on the truth that the map is already gerrymandered at its top, that they may open up four-to-six swing seat alternatives that do not exist proper now for Democrats,” Jeffries advised reporters within the Capitol.
Jeffries pointed to a different uncommon, mid-decade redistricting course of in North Carolina in 2023, which empowered Republicans to grab three Democratic seats — and switch an evenly break up delegation (seven Republicans and 7 Democrats) right into a lopsided 10-4 benefit for the GOP. The ratio is hardly reflective of the demographics within the Tar Heel State — a real battleground, the place the variety of registered Republicans and Democrats is roughly similar.
Democrats have decried the shift as an underhanded energy seize — “They stole three seats,” Jeffries mentioned Thursday — however they’re hoping an analogous effort in Texas will backfire on the Republicans in subsequent yr’s midterms.
“As a substitute of doing what they did in North Carolina, the place they principally snatched victory from the jaws of electoral defeat that they have been heading towards, they really might present sufficient seats in Texas alone for Democrats to take the bulk again,” Jeffries mentioned.
“Watch out what you would like for, since you simply may get it,” he added. “And you will not just like the outcome.”