The fight over congressional maps put nearly 35 million people into new
House districts, report says
[September 18, 2026]
By MATT BROWN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting
for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth
of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth
of districts, according to a new study.
A report by Protect Democracy found that 34.8 million people — about one
in 10 Americans — now live in a different district than they did during
the 2024 election cycle. And about one-fifth of all Americans now live
in a district where more than a quarter of voters are new to the
district compared with the last election cycle.
The findings display the stark overhaul that partisan redistricting
fights kicked off by President Donald Trump last year have caused for
Americans across the country. The new congressional maps are
increasingly drawn in ways that favor partisan politics over factors
like geography and shared communities. That raises concerns among
scholars about how the country's hyperpolarized politics are affecting
American democracy.
“If this trend continues, it really brings into question whether or not
elected officials are really representing their constituents anymore, or
if the voters are being randomly picked by mapmakers to squeeze out
partisan advantage," said Ben Raderstorf, a policy advocate at Protect
Democracy and one of the paper’s co-authors.
The bare-knuckled partisan redistricting battle for the House began when
Trump urged the Republican-controlled legislature in Texas, the second
most populous state, to redraw its congressional map to help the party.
The highly unusual plan prompted an immediate response from California,
the most populous state, which held a successful referendum to tilt its
map toward Democrats.
Other states followed, and Republicans are positioned to potentially
gain nine seats because of redistricting.
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The Protect Democracy report warns that such partisan tactics reduce
faith in American elections generally and insulate incumbent lawmakers
from public opinion. That can make political organizing more difficult,
the report cautioned, potentially worsening the country's already highly
polarized politics. Both parties may also enter a “doom loop” where they
embrace more aggressive and frequent redistricting efforts to avoid
ceding any ground to their rivals.
In some states such as Missouri, the mid-decade redistricting has
created confusion for voters about which district they live in and which
candidates will appear on their November ballot. After conflicting lower
court rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court last week blocked new Missouri
districts backed by Trump that had been used in the primary, leaving the
state to revert to its previous districts for the general election.
The report concludes with a call for new electoral structures the
authors believe would eliminate the potential downsides of partisan
redistricting, like proportional representation or a formal truce
between the parties to implement nonpartisan districting plans.
Nine states already use nonpartisan commissions to draw congressional
district lines but those provisions have limits. California, for
instance, suspended its nonpartisan maps with a referendum last year in
response to Texas' redistricting measures.
Such remedies would face long odds in Congress and statehouses, but
scholars believe there are few other avenues to turn down the
temperature in the partisan redistricting fights.
“This is only going to get worse until somebody stops it,” Raderstorf
said. “The logic of gerrymandering points inevitably towards maximalist
partisan advantage on both sides. There is no off-ramp other than
reform. It is the only way to break the cycle.”
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