Democrats are losing on redistricting. Here are their last hopes.

WASHINGTON – As Republicans pull ahead in the nationwide redistricting wars, Democrats are adamant: They may be down, but they're far from out.

Clear-eyed about President Donald Trump's low poll numbers and rising gas prices, a stubborn optimism has set in over Congress' minority party – despite bruising court losses in the last two weeks.

First, the conservative-majority Supreme Court defanged the Voting Rights Act. The landmark decision immediately set the stage for state legislatures across the South to begin, even before the approaching midterm elections, to wipe out majority-Black districts that have long been key to Democrats' national success.

Then, the Virginia Supreme Court separately threw out a voting map that would've netted congressional Democrats as many as four more seats in the House of Representatives in the approaching midterm elections.

The defeats have been stinging. Democrats in Washington reacted so strongly that some even discussed a long-shot plan to prompt the Virginia legislature to throw out the state's Supreme Court by lowering the mandatory retirement age for justices, according to The New York Times.