House Speaker Mike Johnsons says Republicans are poised to do better at the polls this year because of the Supreme Court's ruling banning Louisiana from racial gerrymandering.
"They declared it to be an unconstitutional gerrymander, and it was," he said. "This brings back fairness and certainty to the system, and I think a lot of states are looking to make sure that their maps are not unconstitutional like Louisiana's was."
Following tense debates in Alabama and Tennessee, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster (R) recently called his legislature into a special session to talk about redistricting to end Jim Clyburn's (D) 33 years in Congress.
Clyburn, the only Democrat among the state's seven representatives in the House, has said he does not intend to retire and would run to lead another district if his gets changed.
Washington Times columnist Robert Knight says Democrats have been racially redistricting for years, so Republican efforts for a correction are long overdue.
"The racially constructed districts have really given Democrats free seats all over the country for years, and it's high time that we got rid of this unconstitutional districting-by-race scheme," Knight tells AFN.
He says fairer districts are only the first step.
"I think the Republicans are well situated as far as districting for the 2026 elections, but now they have to get the message out that they're the sane party," the columnist submits.
Democrats typically support boys in girls' sports, support gender manipulation procedures for youth, openly embrace socialism and support open borders.
"Due to the U.S. Census counting everybody, including noncitizens, nonvoters, this has given the Democrat states a huge number of additional seats they shouldn't have," Knight explains.
Republicans are ahead in the national redistricting battle thus far. Since Trump urged Texas Republicans to redistrict last year, Republicans think they could gain as many as 15 seats from new House maps in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama.
Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain six seats from new maps in California and Utah.
