Some limits on Democratic pushback
In the comment section of my post from yesterday about North Carolina’s ongoing attempt to squeeze an additional Republican seat out of its House delegation came the question as to why Democrats aren’t fighting back hard enough in the redistricting wars.
Let me note two constraints. The first is how many states have Democratic trifectas (i.e., control of both chambers of the state legislature and the governorship). Here’s a map via Ballotpedia.
That’s 15 states out of 50, which is a limiting factor to begin with. Then there are two other prominent factors. Seven of 15 states have zero Republican members of Congress, meaning only eight even have a theoretical move.
Of those eight remaining, five have redistricting commissions, meaning the issue is not simply one of the state legislature drawing new maps.
