{"id":11608,"date":"2025-07-23T15:01:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democratic-memo-the-partys-redistricting-problem-goes-much-deeper\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T15:01:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:01:50","slug":"democratic-memo-the-partys-redistricting-problem-goes-much-deeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democratic-memo-the-partys-redistricting-problem-goes-much-deeper\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic memo: The party’s redistricting problem goes much deeper"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Democrats are facing a redistricting problem as Republicans in Texas \u2014 and potentially other states \u2014 are redrawing their maps to create more Republican-leaning seats. But state Democrats say that the real problem is the party doesn’t do enough to try to flip state legislatures and put Democrats in charge of redrawing the lines in the future.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee calls on its party to rethink their \u201cfailed federal-first strategy,\u201d in a memo sent to donors and strategists obtained by POLITICO<\/a>, and instead invest in winning seats in state legislatures ahead of 2030 redistricting.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a shot at winning and maintaining a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives moving forward, Democrats must reassess our failed federal-first strategy and get serious about winning state legislatures ahead of redistricting,\u201d the memo said. \u201cNot just in the final months of 2030, but starting now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The memo indicates that 39 of 50 states give state legislatures control over congressional lines,\u00a0<\/b>and Republicans have been significantly more successful in controlling statehouses since investing millions into their \u201cREDMAP\u201d strategy in 2010. Following the 2024 election, seven states had veto-proof Democratic majorities, while 18 had veto-proof Republican majorities. The DLCC said failing to change that lopsided math will keep them out of power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out that the road to power is not necessarily through Pennsylvania,\u201d said Paul Begala, a strategist who worked for both the Clinton and Obama campaigns. \u201cIt runs through Lansing and Austin and Albany and Frankfurt [and] Columbus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Begala said in an interview that Democrats\u2019 current deficit in state legislatures is a result of the party\u2019s constant search for a messiah like Clinton or Obama to lead them to victory. He said that search has pushed the party to misallocate the broad resources it has at play \u2014 investing in hard-to-win high-profile races rather than thinking long-term about building power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve watched this party pour $110 million into Jaime Harrison\u2019s campaign against Lindsey Graham. That was a fool\u2019s errand,\u201d Begala said. \u201cHow many Michigan Senate seats could we have picked up for that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The DLCC\u2019s memo proposed a year-by-year plan to increase Democratic seats, beginning with Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2026. Four-year state senate terms beginning in 2027 are key, the memo points out, as are state house and assembly races in 2028, 2029 and 2030.<\/p>\n

Democrats have room to make gains in Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma over the next five years, Begala says. North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania are also key targets for Democrats, though they each come with hurdles, like a hostile state supreme court in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

The memo emphasized \u201canchoring\u201d \u2014 or starting with downballot races and then moving to statewide and federal races \u2014 was part of Democrats\u2019 successful strategy to flip Colorado<\/a> from red to blue over the last 25 years (though the state also benefitted from a major demographic shift that benefited Democrats too). The DLCC and Begala say it\u2019s key to keep Democrats afloat in upcoming redistricting battles.<\/p>\n

Like this reporting? Subscribe to <\/i>Morning Score<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats are facing a redistricting problem as Republicans in Texas \u2014 and potentially other states \u2014 are redrawing their maps to create more Republican-leaning seats. But state Democrats say that the real problem is the party doesn’t do enough to try to flip state legislatures and put Democrats in charge of redrawing the lines in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}