{"id":11925,"date":"2025-08-02T00:17:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democratic-governors-advise-strong-counteroffensive-on-redistricting\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T00:17:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:17:18","slug":"democratic-governors-advise-strong-counteroffensive-on-redistricting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democratic-governors-advise-strong-counteroffensive-on-redistricting\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic governors advise strong counteroffensive on redistricting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

MADISON, Wisconsin \u2014 A group of Democratic governors is urging its colleagues to get tough in countering Republican-backed efforts to gerrymander Texas\u2019 congressional districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s incumbent upon Democrat governors, if they have the opportunity, to respond in kind,\u201d outgoing Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly told reporters at a Democratic Governors Association meeting Friday. \u201cI’m not a big believer in unilateral disarmament.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advice from Kelly, who chairs the DGA, came two days after Texas Republicans proposed congressional lines that would create five GOP-friendly House districts ahead of next year\u2019s midterms. Democrats need only to net three seats to regain control of the lower chamber.<\/p>\n

Kelly didn\u2019t cite California Gov. Gavin Newsom by name, but he is the most high profile, and likeliest, example of a Democrat considering a counteroffensive remapping effort to squeeze more seats from a blue state. On Thursday, Newsom said he\u2019d seek a November special election<\/u><\/a> to have voters approve a new House map that would boost Democrats\u2019 numbers. It\u2019s an expensive and potentially perilous gamble that his Democratic colleagues throughout the country appear to be backing \u2014 a notably more aggressive posture for the party.<\/p>\n

Various mid-decade redistricting efforts could launch a partisan arms race, as the parties look to redraw competing congressional maps to their own advantages. Democrats face a tougher path, as several blue states are bound by independent redistricting commissions and state constitutions, which would prevent them from quickly remaking maps. By contrast, discussions are already underway in several other Republican-controlled states that could follow Texas\u2019 lead, including Missouri, Indiana and Florida.<\/p>\n

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged there\u2019s \u201cvalidity\u201d to concerns that Republicans might gain even more seats, should redistricting wars escalate.<\/p>\n

But, Walz and Kelly said, \u201cthere’s a bigger risk in doing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can’t just let this happen and act like it’s fine, and hope that the courts fix it,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cWe have no idea, quite honestly, at this point, what the courts might do, but by virtue of us responding in kind, we do send a message. We’re not going to take this line down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who campaigned on ending partisan gerrymandering<\/u><\/a>, called Trump\u2019s requests for new maps \u201cso un-American.\u201d He nonetheless echoed Kelly\u2019s call for Democrats to respond, adding when \u201cyou’re up against the wall, you have to do whatever you can to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evers recently announced he will not seek another term<\/u><\/a>, rendering the race to replace him a top-tier gubernatorial contest in one of the most politically divided states.<\/p>\n

Kelly, Walz, Evers and several other governors, including Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Daniel McKee of Rhode Island, appeared together at the DGA press conference here, where they attacked President Donald Trump\u2019s megabill.<\/p>\n

Andrew Howard contributed reporting.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MADISON, Wisconsin \u2014 A group of Democratic governors is urging its colleagues to get tough in countering Republican-backed efforts to gerrymander Texas\u2019 congressional districts. \u201cIt’s incumbent upon Democrat governors, if they have the opportunity, to respond in kind,\u201d outgoing Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly told reporters at a Democratic Governors Association meeting Friday. \u201cI’m not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11925","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=11925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}