This is how Trump wants to scam his way to a majority in the midterm elections

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• In Texas, politicians have unveiled a new electoral district map with which they hope to wrest up to five seats in the House of Representatives from the Democrats.
• Conservative Trump critic Rick Wilson is therefore talking about a "war" being waged by the Republicans.
• Democrats in Texas are sounding the alarm and also see elections in the rest of the country at risk.
• Florida's Republican governor may want to follow suit. In Missouri, the party is coming under pressure from Washington.
• California's Democratic governor wants to counter this. Other states such as New York, Illinois and Ohio could also follow suit in the "arms race".

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"I want you to understand what this means," says Rick Wilson from the Lincoln Project, the home of conservative Trump critics: "It's called war." Democrats would have to act: "Don't think for a moment that maintaining normalcy is an important mission. Don't think for a moment: oh, we don't want to go off the rails like them. Sh**** on it: wake up!"

What has the political advisor, who was still a member of the Republican Party until 2016, so enraged? The Trump party wants to redraw the boundaries of electoral districts in Texas - and is aiming to win five districts currently held by Democrats.

Of the 38 representatives the state sends to the House of Representatives, 13 are currently in the Democratic Party and 25 in the Republican Party. Trump won in those 25 districts in 2024 and won two additional districts held by Democrats.

This is how the electoral districts in Texas are to be divided in future.

Gemeinfrei

According to the planned reform, there would be 30 districts in which Trump won by a margin of at least ten percent, reports the Texas Tribune. The number of districts dominated by whites will increase from 22 to 24 if the proposals are adopted.

Elections "at risk across America"

Sometimes Democratic constituencies are simply merged. And on the other side? "The districts of Republican incumbents have not been made significantly more competitive," notes the Texas Tribune.

Changes in Central Texas: The 35th district held by Democrats is simply eliminated.

via Fox4Dallas

The boss of the Texas Democrats announces opposition to the map of the new constituencies. "It's illegal and silences the voices of minorities across Texas," Kendall Scudder is quoted as saying. "If Donald Trump knows he can't win, he's cheating, and Republicans in Texas just proved they're incapable of standing up to their would-be dictator."

"For years, Republicans have failed in their attempts to get rid of me via redistricting," adds Llyod Dogget, who could lose his constituency. "If we continue to stick together, they will fail again. If Trump and his cowardly accomplices get away with gerrymandering Texas, voters across America are at risk."

Pressure on Republicans in Missouri

This is not so far-fetched, because the example of Texas is setting a precedent. According to "The Hill", Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis is also considering drawing new constituencies in his state because the population has changed so much since the last census in 2020.

The situation is similar in Missouri, where the Republicans are under pressure from the White House to change the rules of the game, according to the Missouri Independent. Although the adjustment of electoral districts is not unusual in itself, it has only just happened in this state - and is therefore not actually on the agenda.

In Ohio, on the other hand, it is time to review the constituencies after a new 2022 constituency map failed to get the parties' approval. There, two out of five Democratic MPs would face the problem of losing their district, meaning that the Republicans would have twelve MPs instead of ten, according to The Hill.

The Democrats now have these two options

The new maps are generally to the detriment of minorities, complains Rick Wilson, who once drew such divisions for the Republicans himself. "I can tell you after just one look at this map: this is apartheid," the 61-year-old comments on the events in Texas with a view to the African-American electorate.

The Democrats now have two options, Wilson writes: "One is the familiar choice: whine, complain, get artificially upset and complain to the New York Times while the [Republicans] steal their lunch money and roll them over again."

The second option: "Wake up and realize that the only way to stop the redistricting arms race is to fight back." You have to fight fire with fire, says Wilson: if a state like Texas cheats by shifting constituencies, a state like California has to follow suit.

Will California, New York and Co. strike back?

California's Democratic governor is in the picture: Gavin Newsom is considering following in the footsteps of his Texan counterpart Greg Abbot and redrawing constituencies so that the Democrats can send even more people to Washington.

In contrast to Texas, however, it is not politicians but a commission that approves the electoral district map, the San Francisco Chronicle points out.

If necessary, however, other Democrat-dominated states could also step in: In New York, the Democrats failed to redraw the electoral districts in 2020 and could now "redeem themselves", as Wilson puts it. Illinois and Ohio are apparently also toying with such ideas.

The manipulation of electoral districts is likely to remain an issue until the mid-term elections in November 2026: For "The Hill", the two major American parties are now in an "arms race".