The Daily Populous Thursday April 30th, 2026 morning edition
Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by theindependentonline

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) suggested that Democratic-leaning states respond to Republican efforts to gerrymander their congressional maps by doing the same.

Ocasio-Cortez, the democratic socialist congresswoman, made the comments after the Supreme Court significantly weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“The Democratic caucus has tried to pass nonpartisan gerrymandering for ten years,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent. “Republicans have rejected it, and so we have to all abide by the same rules.”

Section 2 specifically prohibits states and localities from using “any voting standard, practice, or procedure that results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.”

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court announced that Louisiana relied to heavily on race when it redrew its congressional map in 2024.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) suggested that Democrats respond to Republican gerrymandering by doing their own. ( Getty )

That essentially opens the door to Republican-leaning states to redraw their congressional maps to expand the number of Republicans without fear of violating the Voting Rights Act.

Already, Texas and North Carolina have redrawn their congressional maps at the request of President Donald Trump. Republicans hope that by redrawing their congressional maps in the middle of the decade, they can avoid losing the majority in the House of Representatives.

“And so if Republicans are going to redraw North Carolina, if they're going to redraw Texas, if they're going to redraw and gerrymander every one of their states, then unfortunately, we have to provide balance to that until we get to the day where we can all finally agree to put this behind us and pass nonpartisan gerrymandering federally,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

In addition to Texas and North Carolina, Republicans have attempted to redraw the congressional maps in states like Missouri, though a Trump-backed effort to do so in Indiana failed.

But the efforts is not stopping. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis called a new session of the Republican-controlled legislature to redraw the congressional map and create four new Republican-leaning districts.

In response, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he would challenge the effort.

“While Democrats have given voters the choice whether or not to respond to Donald Trump’s mid-decade gerrymandering scheme at the ballot box, Republicans are drawing maps behind closed doors in the dead of night,” Jeffries said in a statement earlier this week. “The DeSantis Dummymander will not stand. See you in Court.”

Historically, Democrats have supported nonpartisan redistricting. But Republican efforts have prompted them to support temporary gerrymandering in states that have nonpartisan redistricting boards.

In November, California voted on a ballot measure to add five new Democratic-leaning seats in response to Texas, while last week, Virginia did a similar measure.

HurinGaldorson on April 29th, 2026 at 18:10 UTC »

Some Democrats tried taking the high road and rejecting gerrymandering, even when it cost them elections. That just ensured Republicans won more.

The only thing that will get Republicans to reconsider is gerrymandering so hard back that they realize they will sometimes come out on the losing end.

Mental-Parking3517 on April 29th, 2026 at 18:05 UTC »

Republicans literally rewrote the rules mid-decade Texas gerrymandered at Trump's personal request, then the Supreme Court blessed it. Now that Democrats want to respond in kind, suddenly it's a crisis? AOC isn't calling for anything Republicans haven't already been doing for months. You don't unilaterally disarm when the other side already fired the first shot. The VRA is effectively dead now per Kagan's own dissent. What exactly is the principled alternative here just accepting fewer minority representatives and a permanent Republican House majority?

CEOPhilosopher on April 29th, 2026 at 18:04 UTC »

The GOP needs to be decimated so badly at the midterms that the party itself dies and is lost to history.

Republicans: not even once.