Nine months after President Donald Trump and Republicans launched an unprecedented effort to redraw the lines of congressional districts mid-decade and tilt them in their favor, Democrats appear more likely to benefit from the effort.
Following a Tuesday vote in Virginia in which voters approved a new map that would likely eliminate four of five Republican districts in November, Democrats are now set to gain up to 10 seats nationally. Republicans will consider themselves lucky to flip eight.
While an attempt to draw new maps in Florida next week could alter the equation, it’s clear Democratic leaders — egged on by furious grassroots efforts — responded to Trump with a form of ruthlessness many inside and outside the party thought they were incapable of.
“What we’re not going to do is unilaterally disarm,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), who played a major role in funding the Virginia referendum, told reporters Wednesday morning at Democratic National Committee headquarters. “Apparently, that’s what Donald Trump believed that we would do.”
It’s enough for some Republicans to experience quiet regret, even if they remain reluctant to point fingers at the president who started it all.
