Gov. Abbott Leads Bold Redistricting Fight That Is Either Saving Democracy or Strangling It, Depending on the Map's Author
New districts described as 'fair representation' by their painter and 'a crime against geometry' by everyone downstream of it
Ink = the flip (fiction). Red = real Republican · Blue = real Democrat.
The governor has thrown himself into a high-stakes redistricting battle, championing new district lines that supporters call a necessary defense of representative government and that opponents call the cartographic equivalent of a heist. Gov. Abbott insists the maps merely respond to what the other side did first, an argument with an unbroken chain of custody stretching to 1812.
The Press notes that "gerrymander" is the only word in American English that applies exclusively to districts drawn by the opposing party. Districts drawn by one's own party are known technically as "communities of interest."
Reached for comment, one strategist explained the governing principle: "When they redraw maps, it's an attack on democracy. When we redraw maps, it's democracy attacking back."
The new District 7, which resembles a salamander consuming a second, more electorally useful salamander, was defended by its authors as "compact, contiguous, and beautiful in its own way."
📜 The Receipts
What actually happened: The California governor has led a redistricting fight in his state — the same maneuver his party condemns when Republican-led states redraw their own maps, and vice versa.