Republicans Redistricted Themselves Out of Congress

The Atlantic · Madeleine Carlisle, Russell Berman · 2026-11-05 11:00 UTC

Trump’s plan backfired.

At the urging of President Trump, Republican legislators spent the better part of a year trying to fortify their House majority against an expected midterm onslaught from Democrats. They surgically redrew congressional districts in their favor, with the goal of making it almost impossible for Democrats to win in Republican-controlled states. On Tuesday night, however, the wall that Republicans had gerrymandered for themselves collapsed into dust.

Republicans are poised to lose nearly all of the seats that they remapped and are likely to lose many more that blue-state Democrats redrew in response. Targeted Democratic incumbents who were thought to be doomed under the new maps prevailed in Florida, Ohio, and Alabama. In Texas, where Trump launched his gerrymandering blitz, a pair of candidates—Bobby Pulido and Johnny Garcia—benefitted from a sharp swing left among Latino voters to win seats that were redrawn.

Read the full story at The Atlantic · All coverage of this story