Gerrymandering Hypocrites

As usual, it's OK when a Republican does it

This cartoon was drawn for the Fredericksburg Advance.

When Republicans realized that they were going to lose the 2026 midterms, they devised plans to steal the election. One of the plans to steal the election was to steal congressional seats. Don't worry. They have other plans too, like Donald Trump calling a national emergency before election day.

When conservatives want to engage in some chicanery, corruption, hypocrisy, and general underhanded sleazy shit, where did they begin? They begin in Texas. After all, this is a state where voters don't have a problem with Ken Paxton's corruption or Ted Cruz’s toadyism, or Ted Cruz’s face.

States redraw congressional districts every 10 years when the new census comes out. Republicans had already drawn up their new congressional districts six years ago, when the 2020 census came out, and trust me. They were gerrymandered then.

But now, Republicans were redrawing districts in the middle of the decade because Donald Trump needed more congressional seats, and they could foresee that they would lose in the midterms. So Texas Republicans decided to redraw the districts, giving their party five more seats. Yeehaw.

When Democrats and constitutionalists complained, the Republican response tended to be, “cry harder, libs.” Republicans really felt like they were “owning” the libs with this move. Republicans have not cared at all about disenfranchising voters in the Trump era, proven by the fact that they rewrote election laws in every red state after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Texas was especially grievous as they changed a lot of laws that were only specific to Houston, which has a black majority.

But when Democrats decided to turn the tables and fight the Republicans at their own game, Republicans were the ones crying. Not only couldn't Republicans keep up with the number of districts being withdrawn, but they still have to face voters this November who are going to overwhelmingly choose Democrats, no matter how many ayatollahs Donald Trump kills.

Last November, California voters overwhelmingly approved a measure there will redraw their congressional districts, giving five new ones that favor the Democratic Party. And on that same Night, Virginia voters overwhelmingly chose Abigail Spanberger as their new governor, and with that, Virginia is redrawing its lines. Naturally, Republicans are crying about how unconstitutional and unfair it is.

Virginia MAGAt cartoonist Dick Wright was in favor of Texas’ redistricting, but exposed himself as a crybaby hypocrite when Democrats in his state want to do the exact same thing. In Dick’s mind, it's OK when a Republican does it.

The General Assembly passed a measure twice to put redistricting on the ballot (because they have to pass it twice by law. Dick probably does not know that). One of the complaints that Republicans took to court was that they did this in a special session that wasn't called for this particular case. That's another example of GOP hypocrisy because that's exactly what the Republicans did in Texas, which was also challenged in court, slapped down, and won on appeal in the Supreme Court.

The case is still facing litigation and will probably end up in the Supreme Court, which hasn't just OK’ed Texas’ redistricting, but California's as well.

After all is said and done, Virginia voters may reject the Democrats’ redistricting strategy. Virginia voters added more Democratic seats to the General Assembly and elected Spanberger as well as a Democratic Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, but they're not as liberal as California voters. Current polls show that a slight majority of Virginia voters oppose this move.

Normally, I'm with them. I hate political games and tricks when it comes to elections. But right now, Republicans are cheating, and if they win, they will steal our democracy. You saw what happened on January 6, 2021. We have to fight fire with fire. I don't want to destroy democracy to save democracy, and I don't think we're doing that here, but Republicans have to be stopped.

Creative note: I drew this cartoon last Friday, but put it on the shelf for a week to draw and publish my Spanberger cartoon. Since this issue was held up in court, I knew it would hold for a week, but Spanberger would not. I mean, does anyone remember the State of the Union last week?

Drawn in 30 seconds.

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