The Selective Gerrymandering Panic

Democrats are mostly winning the redistricting wars, as they have historically done more often than not. Predictably, too, the chorus of horror, alarm, and panic over gerrymandering has begun to quiet, now that Democrats have reverted to their ancestral pattern of playing more hardball than Republicans do.

This will be the first of three installments on gerrymandering. In today’s column, I take a look at why the gerrymandering of House districts is neither an enormous problem demanding an urgent federal remedy, nor one that inherently or historically favors Republicans. In the second installment, I will look at the Democrats’ legislative proposals and why they are not actually aimed at doing away with gerrymanders. In the third, I will look at how many breaks Democrats are catching as the 2022 maps take shape.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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Democrats are mostly winning the redistricting wars, as they have historically done more often than not. Predictably, too, the chorus of horror, alarm, and panic over gerrymandering has begun to quiet, now that Democrats have reverted to their ancestral pattern of playing more hardball than Republicans do.

This will be the first of three installments on gerrymandering. In today’s column, I take a look at why the gerrymandering of House districts is neither an enormous problem demanding an urgent federal remedy, nor one that inherently or historically favors Republicans. In the second installment, I will look at the Democrats’ legislative proposals and why they are not actually aimed at doing away with gerrymanders. In the third, I will look at how many breaks Democrats are catching as the 2022 maps take shape.