How Virginia Democrats Outmaneuvered GOP Gerrymandering—And Why Florida’s GOP Pushes Back

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is this week pushing his state’s GOP-dominated legislature to adopt a gerrymandering scheme that could create four new Republican U.S. House districts in the Sunshine State. If this proposal passes, it would essentially cancel out the four seats that Democrats are favored to gain after the passage of a redistricting ballot referendum in Virginia last week.

So was the Virginia effort a waste? Did it encourage Republicans to do more gerrymandering? No and no. The reality is, no matter what Democrats do, President Trump and Republicans in this era are always breaking with traditional democratic norms and values to win and hold power. They were destined to gerrymander Florida, no matter what happened in Virginia.

By acting in Virginia, Democrats at least minimized the damage from the redistricting process and clearly showed that the party won’t just concede on this issue to Republicans.

Gerrymandering in the U.S.: A Recent History

In considering Florida’s and Virginia’s actions, it’s worth remembering the recent history of gerrymandering in the United States. During the 2010s, Republicans aggressively gerrymandered, ensuring that states such as North Carolina and Wisconsin, which have about equal numbers of Democratic and Republican voters, had huge GOP majorities in their state legislatures and U.S. House delegations.

Meanwhile, many blue and purple states were turning redistricting over to independent commissions to ensure fair maps.

During President Biden’s first two years in office, congressional Democrats tried to pass a national pro-democracy bill that would have required all 50 states to adopt independent redistricting commissions. Congressional Republicans, along with then–Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, blocked that provision.

Then last summer, Trump implored Texas and other GOP-controlled states to rejigger their districts outside of the traditional once-every-10-years process.

Democrats Want Reform; Republicans Embrace Gerrymandering

In short, Democrats want to end gerrymandering. Republicans love it. Mainstream media coverage of these redistricting battles largely ignores those realities, because many news outlets prioritize not seeming biased against Republicans over accurate coverage of American politics.

And of course, gerrymandering isn’t the only hyperpartisan, democracy-eroding tactic that Republicans have employed in recent years.

Other GOP Tactics Undermining Democracy

• Supreme Court Nominations: They blocked a Democratic Supreme Court nomination (Merrick Garland), claiming it was too close to the next presidential election, but then approved a Republican nomination (Amy Coney Barrett) even closer to Election Day four years later.
• 2020 Election Lies: They filed numerous baseless lawsuits to question the results of the 2020 presidential election, then held an insurrection to try to stop Joe Biden from being declared the winner.
• Election Interference: They are seizing ballots and other election materials across the country to justify unfounded accusations of voter fraud.
• Judicial Overreach: The conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court are freeing the Trump administration from following existing law, after constantly striking down executive actions taken by Presidents Obama and Biden.

Considering this history, it is hard to imagine Republicans would have forgone gerrymandering in Florida if Democrats had held back in California and Virginia. They are not engaged in tit for tat—it’s all tit.

Today’s Republicans do not believe in neutral political processes, in which they can lose power or control.