327. Dissecting the 'Gerrymandering' Showdown

Introduction to Gerrymandering

0:00Hi, everybody. Cheryl Ackeson here. Welcome to another edition of the Cheryl Ackeson podcast.

0:12Today, the gerrymandering showdown and the illegal immigration factor. Some of my favorite stories have to do with researching arcane matters and then trying to explain them in a clear and concise way. Today, I try to do that with gerrymandering. As you probably know, the latest gerrymandering battlefront is the state of Virginia. Even though voters just approved a wildly misrepresentative map, giving Democrats a fantastical advantage compared to the actual

0:44makeup of the voting public in the state, the battle isn't over. Last August, Texas Republicans drew new maps that could net the party as many as five additional Republican seats. Democrats countered aggressively in states they control, and that set off a chain reaction that's already reshaped maps in California, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Utah. But what exactly is

Gerrymandering Definition

1:08gerrymandering? Who invented it? Who perfected it? How did Democrats use it to minimize the black vote? How are Republicans using it to minimize illegal immigrant influence? And who has the net advantage going into the upcoming midterm elections?

1:45In Virginia on April 21st, voters approved a plan to allow the Democrat-led General Assembly to redraw the state's 11 congressional districts ahead of the November 2026 midterms. The new map, already passed by lawmakers, aims to transform Virginia's current six-Democrat, five-Republican delegation into one that favors Democrats in 10 of the 11 districts, delivering a potential net gain of up to four seats in Congress for Democrats. Since Republicans only have the majority in Congress

2:19by a razor-thin margin as it is, this tipping of the scale matters. Because whichever party has the majority in the House and Senate gets to direct the agenda, largely determining matters like the national budget, oversight matters, what laws do and don't get considered, and what hearings are and are not held. But the move by Virginia Democrats, as controversial as it is, is no isolated power grab. It caps off a mid-decade redistricting frenzy that included President Trump publicly urging Republican-led

2:52states to redraw congressional maps to bolster GOP chances in the 2026 midterms. Republicans argue that counting illegal immigrants and non-citizens in the census for House apportionment, electoral college votes, and redistricting, they argue that's unfairly tipped political power toward Democrats. Non-citizens, especially illegal immigrants, supposedly can't vote, yet they inflate population counts in sanctuary cities and states which are, of course, heavily Democrat, like California and New York.

3:27This gives those states extra congressional seats, extra federal funding, at the direct expense of legal citizen-heavy states. This non-citizen tilt is especially impactful in the wake of President Biden's open border policies. They allowed entry of a record number of illegal immigrants estimated at something like 13 million, but nobody really knows, on top of an estimated 10 million or more who'd already enter the U.S. uninvited in the previous two decades. Elon Musk, Donald Trump, the Conservative

4:02Heritage Foundation, and Republican senators have repeatedly called out blue states, saying the blue states are backfilling their state population losses with illegal immigrants in order to preserve or gain House seats in electoral votes. This rewards sanctuary policies and dilutes the voting power of actual American citizens elsewhere. Well, Trump directed his Commerce Department last year to prepare a new census that would exclude illegal immigrants from these crucial counts. Republicans have long pushed for

4:36using citizen voting age population, C-V-A-P, citizen voting age population instead of total population when it comes to drawing districts and for apportionment that determines how much funding they get and how many House representatives a state may get. They say this would be fairer and more representative of the actual electorate. However, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, stating that apportionment is based on the whole number of persons in each state, is historically interpreted to include all residents, even non-citizens,

5:12since the first census in 1790, and courts blocked similar Trump efforts in 2020.

Historic Context of Gerrymandering

5:19But did the Founding Fathers possibly anticipate 20 million or more illegal immigrants would be counted? Let's talk a little bit more about the historic context. Gerrymandering is hardly new to Virginia or the U.S. The practice of drawing districts to favor one party or group dates back centuries from colonial-era efforts to protect landowners and slave owners' interests through the early republic. The Founding Fathers knew about partisan map drawing and that it would be a factor. Patrick Henry tried to draw

5:51James Madison out of a congressional seat way back in 1788. It did not work out for Patrick Henry. In any event, redistricting was left to state legislatures. Our original political leaders seem to view it as inevitable politics, but not something the courts should try to fix. The actual term gerrymandering originated a bit later in Massachusetts in 1812 with Governor Elbridge Gerry, G-E-R-R-Y. He was an original signer of the Declaration of Independence and a member of the Democratic-Republican Party,

6:25the predecessor to today's Democrats. He signed a state Senate redistricting bill pushed by his party. It was a map that created a salamander-shaped district to benefit his party. It was designed to concentrate federalist opposition voters into as few districts as possible while spreading Democratic-Republican voters across more districts for maximum advantage. One bizarrely shaped district in Essex County, Massachusetts looked like a salamander, hence a Boston Gazette cartoon that called it

7:00Gerrymander, G-E-R-R-Y-mander. Remember, the governor's last name was Gerry. And this redraw worked. The precursor to the Democrat Party kept control of the state senate thanks in large part of the map's odd shape. In the 19th and 20th centuries, both parties engaged in gerrymandering, but historians say Democrats dominated early abuse. Southern Democrat-controlled states used it heavily after black men gained voting rights in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. Democrats were deliberately

7:34trying to minimize black voting influence. Black men had just gained the right to vote and overwhelmingly supported Republicans, so Democrats sought to pack black voters into a few districts and create safe white Democrat majorities. By isolating as many Republican-leaning black voters as possible into one bizarrely elongated district in South Carolina, this led to the infamous Boa Constrictor-shaped district. The other six districts then safely held white Democrat majorities. This was part of a broader

8:09strategy along with poll taxes, literacy tests, violence, and later Jim Crow laws to restore and lock in Democrats' control of the South. No single side started this current escalation. It's more of a cycle. Republicans ran a highly coordinated national strategy called REDMAP, which stood for Redistricting Majority Project, REDMAP. After the 2010 census wave, they poured money into state legislative races to flip chambers and then draw beneficial maps. It was very effective and is often described as the biggest

8:44recent escalation in terms of precision. But Democrats, of course, have done the same in states they control, such as Maryland's 6-1 congressional map, Illinois' earmuffs, and attempts in New York. As for the current tit-for-tat redistricting war started last year, Republicans kicked it off by pushing Texas for an unusual mid-decade redraw to gain seats, prompting Democrat moves in Virginia, California, and beyond. In Virginia, recent decades have seen Republican and Democrat legislatures alike accused of partisan and

9:20racial gerrymandering, leading to repeated court cases and federal rulings striking down maps as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders in the 2010s. Virginia voters tried to end this cycle in 2020. They approved a bipartisan redistricting commission, and that system produced the current maps that were used in 2022 and 2024. But Democrats moved quickly late last year when gaining the Virginia governor's seat

9:50to neuter the new bipartisan commission. Instead, they put a gerrymandering amendment on the ballot, framing it as a necessary response to Republican gerrymandering elsewhere. Under the move approved by Virginia voters, unless a court intervenes, map-drawing authority has been taken away from the bipartisan commission and given for the time being to the Democrat-controlled legislature, until at least after the next census in 2030. The new Virginia map would stretch Democrat strongholds

10:22in Northern Virginia into traditionally Republican areas. Analysts describe it as a classic bacon-mander, carving up urban Democrat votes in order to dilute Republican strongholds. Republicans and good government groups have called it the most gerrymandered map in the country, this one in Virginia, and they filed lawsuits challenging the process. Other states have seen efforts fizzle or get blocked. A potential Democrat gain in New York was halted by the Supreme Court.

10:52Indiana Republicans ultimately rejected their own redraw, and Maryland Democrats failed to advance

Current Redistricting Efforts

10:58a plan. After a short break, we will look at the net scorecard going into the midterm elections. Fox News is now streaming live on Fox One. When it matters most, turn to the voices you trust. We go beyond the headlines, bringing you the stories you won't hear anywhere else. Live coverage, sharp analysis, real perspective. At home or on the go, stay connected when it counts. Stream Fox News on Fox One. Download today.

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Midterm Election Analysis

12:07All right, here's where the mid-decade redraws stand based on enacted or proposed maps and non-partisan analyses and, according to, I might add, research from Grok. In Republican-led Texas, a new map put into effect last August could net Republicans five seats. In Democrat-led California, a new map redrawn last November could net Democrats five seats. So there we are tied again in terms of net loss or gain. Republican-led Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio could each give Republicans

12:42an additional seat, maybe two in Ohio. In Republican-led Utah, a court has imposed a map that could give Democrats a seat. Then, of course, there's Virginia with up to four added Democrat seats in the House. So, Republicans currently hold a razor-thin margin in the 119th Congress. It's 217 Republicans, 214 Democrats, one independent, and three vacancies. As I speak, Florida is preparing for a special session

13:15that begins Tuesday, April 28, to consider redrawing the Sunshine State's maps. As a result, Republicans could gain two to four House seats in Congress, though some analysts warn of smaller gains or maybe even a net loss if the map draw backfires. Bottom line, Democrats need a net gain of roughly four seats to seize control of Congress, the House of Representatives, in November. In a midterm environment that historically punishes whoever the president is, his party, this redistricting is

13:49critical. It could minimize Democrat gains in a close race or even lock in a slim Republican edge, depending on how it all turns out. Of course, nothing is certain. The final balance after November 2026 will depend a lot on turnout, the nation's mood, other things going on in the country, the quality of the candidates, and of course whether Virginia's redraw holds up under court challenge. But the gerrymandering arms race that erupted last year has already redrawn the battlefield,

14:19turning what was once an every 10-year or so consideration coincident with the census into a year-round contest for congressional power.

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