95bFM The U.S Redistricting War Exposes the Country’s Unfair Electoral System
25 May, 2026
Interview by Toby West, adapted by Gabriel Timpson-Neill
The University of Auckland’s Dr. Jennifer Frost says that the United States’ mid-decade redistricting war is a natural result of the nation’s unfair electoral system, and will likely continue despite being opposed by a vast section of the populace.
The redistricting war in the United States has raged on now for over a year, involving the congressional districts of over ten states.
Republicans first drew new districts in Texas, removing four Democratic seats and making the maps more favourable to their own party, at the behest of United States President Donald Trump. Following the change in maps, Democrats in California proposed and passed a referendum which would redraw their own districts in similar ways to benefit Democrats.
Many other states followed suit, with Missouri, Ohio, and North Carolina redistricting in favour of Republicans, and Virginia in favour of Democrats. Utah’s congressional districts were ruled illegal by the state court, leading to a gain of one seat for the Democrats. Similarly, Virginia’s redistricting referendum was ruled unconstitutional, keeping in place the 6 Democrat and 5 Republican districts, rather than the proposed 10 Democrat and 1 Republican.
After a Supreme Court ruling struck down a rule implied by the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Calais, namely that minority voters are required to be fairly represented by state population in congressional districts, the redistricting war has expanded to areas where it would previously be illegal. Many majority-minority districts are at risk or have already been drawn out of Republican-dominated states, with states like Tennessee and Florida gerrymandering almost immediately after the ruling.
Other states like Louisiana and Alabama are making moves towards it, even suspending primaries where ballots have already been cast. Democrat-dominated states, however, mostly have constitutionally protected independent redistricting commissions, and have little chance of gerrymandering before the 2026 midterms, leaving Republicans with a larger-than-expected advantage in House seats.
The University of Auckland’s Dr. Jennifer Frost told 95bFM’s The Wire that gerrymandering has a long and sordid history in the United States, and as states control the drawing of congressional districts almost entirely, those dominated by one party or the other can swing control of the whole country.
She says that it began in the 19th century, when Massachusetts Governor Eldridge Gerry drew congressional districts in his own state to favour his own party so deliberately that many districts came out looking badly-formed, with his own district like a salamander. Dr. Frost says the process of drawing highly-intricate, incredibly partisan and unrepresentative districts was made easier with the introduction of computer-assisted redistricting, with some states now voting almost evenly for both parties but have lopsided House members.
In Wisconsin and North Carolina, for example, the House vote for Democrats and Republicans is half-and-half, but Wisconsin has six Republicans and two Democrats, and North Carolina has ten Republicans and four Democrats. Part of this is caused by Republican waves in the state legislatures, especially in North Carolina, where the legislature can draw new districts at will without input from the Governor, who is a Democrat.
Dr. Frost says that as most of this redistricting was enabled by Trump, Democrats see taking the fight against it and pushing for their own gerrymandering as a good message leading into the midterms. However, as many Democrat states have independent redistricting commissions, there are extra steps that need to be taken to suspend them and redraw districts, which could delay any possible gains to 2028. Existing gerrymanders in California are only expected to last through to 2030, when a new census is taken and districts redrawn appropriately, while Republican states have no such limitations.
She also says that Democrats fighting back in such an aggressive manner was unexpected, as they are usually expected to stick to the “high ground” and have avoided partisan gerrymandering in the past.
Dr. Frost says that younger Democrat politicians have been calling for the party to fight back against overreaches like mid-decade redistricting and to demonstrate to voters that Democrats can act in their best interests. She believes that the issues posed by redistricting could be easily eliminated by a nationwide gerrymandering ban and independent redistricting commission, something favoured by over 75% of all voters and was proposed in 2022 during the Biden Presidency.
However, she says that as Republicans continue to entrench themselves with unfair redistricting and benefit overall from an unrepresentative electoral system, such as the one in the Senate, where each state no matter the size has equal representation, their views do not need to change and they do not see any need for moderation.
Dr. Frost says that redistricting is just another example of the will of the American people failing to be expressed in their representation.
