Donald Trump has been worried about the 2026 midterm elections since his return to power. Trump, as a term-limited president, was already operating on borrowed time. For Trump to remain relevant, Republicans needed to maintain control of Congress.
Trump knows what happens to incumbent presidents in midterm elections, which is why he has developed a plan to restructure enough congressional districts to keep Republicans in the majority by pressuring red states to engage in unprecedented redistricting in the middle of the decade to eliminate seats where voters are more likely to support Democrats.
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The president personally asked Texas Republicans to redraw their districts to give them five additional seats. The Republicans did what they were told, but the problem was that the GOP had already transformed the state so much that it was highly unlikely they would win all five seats.
What Republicans never anticipated was that Democrats would respond by redrawing blue state districts themselves. In California, voters overwhelmingly passed a referendum that not only allowed the legislature to redraw the state’s congressional district map, but also strengthened blue-leaning swing districts in the state.
Once the Democrats denied the Texas Gerrymander, they went on the offensive in blue states, while red states like Ohio, Kansas, and Indiana either refused to gerrymander or drew a map that wasn’t gerrymandered to the fullest.
The bottom line is that Trump’s plan to retain the House appears to have a good chance of helped the Democrats.
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