Dems face scrutiny over congressional representation gaps in blue states: ‘Don’t have clean hands’

Several Democratic states are facing scrutiny over their own congressional maps amid the push back to Texas redistricting efforts.

Specifically, numerous states had a significant percentage vote for President Donald Trump in 2024 but have little or no congressional representation for Republicans.

For example, Trump won nearly 46% of the vote in New Mexico, but none of the state’s three seats are held by Republicans. Currently, the Cook Partisan Voting Index is even for the Second Congressional District, which is considered highly competitive. The current maps were kept after a ruling from the New Mexico Supreme Court despite gerrymandering concerns.

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Connecticut voted nearly 42% for the president but has no seats that Republicans won in 2024. Illinois is considered one of the most gerrymandered states, with Republicans currently only holding three of 17 seats, which is considered a 26% advantage to Democrats. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has stood in support of the efforts of Texas Democrats to leave the state to thwart redistricting votes, faced questioning from late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert about the current map.

“If you are considering doing a little more redrawing in Illinois, you already have some crazy districts in Illinois. Take a look at this. Look at [district] 17 here. It does that, then it comes up here, and it sneaks around there and goes all the way up here and then goes right over there like that,” Colbert said on the Illinois map last week. “Is this common for all states to do?” Pritzker said it was up to the independent redistricting commission, but said the way Texas seeks to redraw its maps mid-decade is problematic.

“That is extraordinarily rare,” Pritzker said. “And the way they are doing it is taking voting rights away from Black and Brown people. They are literally obliterating districts that were written according to the Voting Rights Act. So this is going to end up in court if they are actually able to do it.”

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California saw Trump win 38% of the vote but just nine out of 52 congressional seats, or 17%. This is considered a 21% Democratic advantage in seats as the state considers adding five Democratic seats to counteract Texas, with a special election for voter approval being scheduled for November.

“We are talking about emergency measures to respond to what’s happening in Texas, and we will nullify what happens in Texas,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a press conference last week.  

New York has a 13% Democratic lead in seats, with seven out of 26 currently having Republican representation, and Trump won 43% of the vote in the state. Oregon has a 24% Democratic lead while the Trump wing has 41% of the vote there.

New Jersey saw Trump at 46% of the vote, but the state only has three Republicans out of the 12 congressional seats, and Maryland has only one Republican representative despite 34% of the vote going toward the president, placing the state at a 22% Democratic advantage with eight districts in total.

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Republican states have also faced their fair share of gerrymandering lawsuits in the past, but Democratic strategist Julian Epstein pointed out on “Fox News Live” over the weekend that Democrats are not immune from criticism on the issue.

“No, I think they don’t have the moral authority, and there’s a lot of pearl-clutching going on,” he said.

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“The Democrats don’t have clean hands here. You look at states like Massachusetts, New Jersey[…] Illinois, California, and Democrats have effectively gerrymandered Republicans out of existence,” Epstein added.

Many Texas House Democrats remain out of the state to prevent a quorum that would permit the redistricting plan to move forward in the Lone Star State, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says those members will likely be subject to arrest upon their return.

“We have a situation where lawmakers are violating the law in Article 3 of the Texas Constitution, where they are required to act on bills. Because they’re violating that constitutional mandate, that means they are not fulfilling their oath of office, and they can be removed from office in this legal action that I’m taking,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” 

Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.