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Have you ever heard of “dummymandering”? That’s when extreme gerrymandering comes back to bite you in the you-know-where, turning over to the other party the congressional districts that you painstakingly designed to be won by your party. Boise State political scientist Charlie Hunt says that’s just what could happen to the Texas GOP as it tries to wring five more Republican districts out of that state’s congressional map through an extraordinary off-cycle process of redistricting.
“There are a few factors that make this process more complicated than just grabbing a few House seats,” Hunt writes. “They may even make Republicans regret their hardball gerrymandering tactics.”
Why are the Republicans in the Texas Legislature trying to do this? President Donald Trump wants to ensure that he has a Republican Congress after the 2026 midterm elections. Those midterms are the time when a president’s party can lose control of Congress if they held it during the administration’s first two years. So Trump wants Texas – and perhaps other states run by the GOP – to provide a Republican cushion to withstand potential losses in 2026.
But Hunt says that after decades of “pretty egregious” gerrymandering of congressional districts by both parties, as well as the growing geographic segregation of Democrats and Republicans, designing districts anywhere in the country to eke out further advantage is going to be hard.
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Texas state lawmakers board a bus following a press conference at the DuPage County Democratic Party headquarters in Carol Stream, Ill., on Aug. 3, 2025.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Charlie Hunt, Boise State University
The attempt by Texas Republicans to gerrymander more GOP legislative districts could backfire and deliver the party dummymandered districts. A political scientist explains the stakes.
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