
A leading Democratic-aligned think tank is urging states to suspend their redistricting commissions, in an escalation of the growing war over state maps.
The Center for American Progress, one of the most prominent liberal think tanks in Washington, urged states that have adopted independent redistricting commissions — which are predominantly blue-leaning states — to set them aside.
“The precise problem of commissions operating in so few states — and, within that, disproportionately in states governed by one party — is that that the system is susceptible precisely to this moment: political gerrymandering initiated by one party in the middle of the decade aimed at shifting the balance of power and circumventing the will of the people,” the CAP memo read.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already undertaken a high-profile push to sideline his state’s independently drawn map to draw more Democratic seats, in response to Texas Republicans passing a map that creates as many as five Republican pickup opportunities.
The think tank called on Congress to establish “federal standards” for redistricting that all states must abide by. Until then, they said, the 11 states which have commissions to prevent politically motivated redistricting must set them aside to “have the means to meet this moment.”
Eight of the states with commissions are run by Democrats, and CAP said that the commissions are “well intentioned” but force them to “sit on the sidelines” while elections are unfairly manipulated.
The war over redistricting began in Texas, after President Donald Trump urged Gov. Greg Abbott to redraw the maps mid-decade. Democrat-run states like California vowed to retaliate, and other GOP states like Missouri and Indiana are now joining the fight.
The Center for American Progress memo indicates the battle may extend beyond 2026, with many of the states that have a commission unable to scrap them before the midterms even if legislators and governors wanted to. The CAP memo said that though it would be a “relief” for American people if gerrymandering were not an issue in five years, that will likely “not be the case.”
“It’s also clear that this fight for free elections does not end in 2026,” they said. “Champions of democracy and fair representation cannot set their sights so narrowly and embrace policies that leave Americans at the mercy of a redistricting arms race once again in a few years. Elections cannot be free and fair until all states play by the same rules.”
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