Gerrymandering

In Gerrymandering Fight, Democracy Is Losing

In this recent round, Republicans are entirely to blame. In the new MAGA-fied GOP, winning is everything, and there's no quarter given for concepts such as fairness.

Steven Greenhut | 5.22.2026 10:00 AM

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(Illustration: MisterTigga/Dreamstime/Midjourney)

As Republicans and Democrats continue their mid-decade redistricting grudge match that could determine which party controls Congress after November, Americans may learn a truism about legislative elections. That is, voters don't really select the politicians who represent them. Politicians choose their voters, resulting in "skewed, unrepresentative maps where electoral outcomes are virtually guaranteed," as the Brennan Center explains.

The process has long been known as gerrymandering, named in 1812 after Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry. Per Smithsonian magazine, Gerry signed a state Senate redistricting map drawn up by his fellow Democratic-Republicans that shifted from a county-based model to one filled with "carvings and manglings" designed to strip power from the competing Federalists. Critics noted the district looked a lot like a salamander.

It worked, and states with one-party dominance have long had a field day designing districts that guaranteed their dominance. I once lived in a Los Angeles County supervisorial district that meandered from the eastern edges of the San Gabriel Valley to Marina........

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