Radio Free America: Project REDMAP is dead

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The Republican strategy of maximum gerrymandering to evade consequences has finally gone bust, as Democrats have more power over redistricting than they’ve had in decades. It’s the end of a long project to cement right-wing control at the state level, and proof that it’s time Republicans should come to the table to hammer out a national gerrymandering ban

The strategy is best exemplified by defeated U.S. Rep. Tim Moore. As speaker of the North Carolina House in 2023 Moore got the legislature to throw out a fair, court-imposed map, drawing himself a district he thought he could win without trying. But in 2026, facing an electorate mad at the impunity of Republican rule, Moore lost to a candidate that most people (but not WCPT!) wrote off. 

And few people exemplified that impunity better than Moore, whose Wikipedia controversies section contains 20 citations. He first rose to prominence after North Carolina Republicans flipped the state legislature in the 2010 midterms. This effort was funded by sources like Project REDMAP, which was the Republican bid to win control of redistricting after that year’s Census. And REDMAP was successful, as Republicans retained control of the House after the 2012 elections, even though Democrats won a majority of House votes nationwide.

Since 2010, America has always voted for the House on maps that were biased toward Republicans, even after cycles where Democrats did relatively well. This means that Republicans have had to be less responsive to shifts in public opinion and swing voters. That can work for a while. But eventually, if you sever your connection to the people, you get lazy, unable to adapt and vulnerable when the anger at your impunity reaches a boiling point, like it did last week.

And it wasn’t just Moore who got wiped out; it was a lot of his old colleagues. Democrats flipped the North Carolina House. They also won trifectas in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. In those latter three states, Democrats can take another look at their congressional maps for some mid-decade redistricting. 

The Republican State Legislative Committee, the group that was in charge of implementing Project REDMAP, admitted that Democrats were able to raise unprecedented sums when redistricting was at stake. And now, after the Nov. 3 midterms, Democrats hold about as much power over state government as Republicans did in 2010. After 16 years, REDMAP has fallen.

Moreover, voters turned out in greater numbers in counties that used to be covered by the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The highest profile actions taken after the Supreme Court gutted the VRA were eliminating districts designed to give nonwhite voters a voice in Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida. So it’s reasonable to say the push ended up costing Republicans a Senate seat in Mississippi. 

The backlash was so great that Republicans lost the ability to gerrymander further in 2027 in Georgia, Texas, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas, while South Carolina and Utah shifted so strongly against them that the political will to do so probably evaporated. And with Democrats retaining control of New York and poised to do so in Virginia next year, they can redraw those states’ maps before 2028 as well.

So to recap:

1. Gerrymandering to win made Republican officeholders lazy, poor campaigners and indifferent to public opinion.
2. Over the next two years, Democrats have the ability to eliminate even more Republican seats, while Republicans seem to have maxed out their gerrymandering gains.
3. Republicans’ mid-decade gerrymandering push mobilized voters against them.
4. Democrats were able to raise unprecedented sums for state legislatures because redistricting was at stake.

In other words, it’s time to cut a deal with Democrats and pass a nationwide gerrymandering ban!

And as luck would have it, I have already shown what a fair national map would look like. I went back and looked at the results, and of the remaining House Republican caucus, there would only be eight members placed in districts that Kamala Harris carried — one in Georgia, one in Tennessee and six in Texas. And the map would still give Republicans a straightforward path to the majority, with 224 seats that voted for Trump in 2024. That’s more than Mike Johnson ever had to work with!

Moreover, Democrats might be willing to play ball a little here. I floated the Manchin solution a few months ago, wherein Democrats would agree to a voter ID law nationwide in exchange for fair districts. Since then, Republicans have been routed, and grassroots conservatives are blaming it on not passing voter ID. And even the conscience of the green room himself, Pete Buttigieg, has signaled an openness to requiring some form of identification.

And let’s face it: Republicans have bigger fish to fry than keeping up the gerrymandering arms race. They need to win a lot of voters back. They need to figure out what MAGA without Trump looks like. They need to figure out what they even stand for any more. Do they have time to figure out if they can stop another Virginia redraw? It’s time for them to cut a deal already and end partisan gerrymandering in this country.

AROUND AMERICA

• I’ll let former North Carolina state Rep. Terence Everitt have the last word on Moore. In 2023, Everitt called for a criminal investigation arising out of a lawsuit alleging Moore had an affair with the wife of a Republican fundraiser. In retaliation, Moore moved his office to a basement supply closet. Everitt, now leading a voter protection group in North Carolina, is having the last laugh.

• After Arizona Senate Republicans were reduced to a superminority, do you think they learned a lesson and are trying to moderate? Of course not; they decided to put a member who was at the Jan. 6 attempted coup in charge of communicating with the public.

• It’s worth keeping an eye on Republican attempts between now and the swearing in of new lawmakers to strip incoming Democrats of power. Thankfully, they mostly don’t seem to be going anywhere. Ohio’s legislative leaders seem unenthused about an attempt there. In Iowa and Georgia, lame duck sessions seem unlikely. The most egregious attempt that I’ve seen has been in Texas, where state senators look like they’ll strip incoming Lt. Gov. Vikki Goodwin of many of her powers, but it’s something they can do with a majority vote when they reconvene in January.
• If you thought the election was over, you’re wrong! Last week, Georgia Democrats won 92 of the 180 seats in the state House. But a Dec. 1 runoff in the 151st District will determine whether they can win a 93rd, giving them a little more room to breathe.

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INTERNET STUFF I LIKED THIS WEEK

I try to keep tabs on The Free Press because it’s the in-flight magazine of the Epstein Class. The country is run by its readers, the ultrawealthy elites who were radicalized when a teacher at their kids’ private school put pronouns in their bio. And don’t let its Corporate Memphis aesthetic and prestige outlet pedigrees fool you; it runs stories that would feel at home in Ron Paul’s newsletter.

To wit, this week Free Press writer Maya Sulkin reported that U.S. Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) gave a victory speech in Arabic. No, really, this isn’t a story that your uncle forwarded you from a college football message board. This is a bunch of Ivy Leaguers high on their own supply of Islamophobia but ignorant of politics insisting that an American Senate candidate, supported by a majority of voters in his state, gave his election night victory speech in Arabic!

What actually happened was that El-Sayed peppered a few Arabic expressions into a speech that was in English, the language spoken by more than nine million Michiganders. Much as I might liven up a newsletter by calling Sulkin a “putz” or a “nudnik” or a “shanda fur die goyim.” To put that in English: Maya Sulkin, you are the Radio Free America Chump of the Week.

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BOOK CLUB

This week, the Booker Prize Foundation handed out their eponymous 2026 award to M. John Harrison, whose book “The End of Everything” I did not read. Oops, sorry about that. But Booker’s got a pretty good hit rate. And if you’re looking for something to help you come down off that post-election frenzied high, then check out “The Sense of an Ending,” Julian Barnes’ 2011 Booker winner. Barnes is an expert stylist, and his subtle genius will sneak up on you then clobber you over the head at the end. Besides, I’m guessing there’s a waitlist at the library for Harrison’s book.

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HELP US OUT

Thanks to everyone who nominated the most important flips that everyone’s ignoring. A number of you flagged Nathan Johnson winning the Texas Attorney General election, as taking control of “MAGA’s own private law firm” is worth singling out in particular. 

As for this week, let’s be forward looking instead of backward looking. What’s a scandal that you want incoming Democrats to investigate that hasn’t been getting enough attention? Email me and let me know!

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