The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 20, 2025
Gerrymandering, the manipulation of voting district boundaries to engineer an election outcome which benefits a particular party, had a significant impact on control of the new Congress, according to a new report.
The Brennan Center for Justice found over four of five Congressional districts were won by a margin over 10%, including 90 percent of the GOP House majority. Within that number, 132 GOP winners were in districts with winning margins of 25% or more, and 112 by a Democrat.
In comparison, only 37 districts nationwide were decided by five percent or less, and only 19 districts were competitive enough to flip.
The Brennan Center points to North Carolina as a state which, after a more liberal Supreme Court was flipped conservative in 2022, replaced the previous court’s 7 to 7 competitive maps, with the legislature’s gerrymandered version, resulting in a 10 to 4 GOP Congressional seat advantage.
The most effective solution to gerrymandering at the moment is citizen-led independent redistricting, which has been successful in producing fairer and more competitive maps in California, Michigan, Utah and a handful of other states. In November, Ohio voters rejected such a commission, due in part to an attempt by elected officials to derail it. Brennan found that independent commissions, citizen-led or otherwise, drew only 82 Congressional districts this cycle, but those districts were three times more competitive.
We have the Brennan Center’s report at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.