May 8
NYTIMES: Tennessee approved a new congressional map likely to eliminate the state’s lone Democratic House seat by slicing up Memphis.
Disgusting!!!
RED TENNESSEE
We can change this with our vote!!
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NYTIMES: Tennessee approved a new congressional map likely to eliminate the state’s lone Democratic House seat by slicing up Memphis.
Disgusting!!!
RED TENNESSEE
We can change this with our vote!!
Now totally red… disgusting 🤮!!
The History of Gerrymandering in U.S. Politics
🎧 Listen to this episode of Lest We Forget History as Lillian Cauldwell explores the history of gerrymandering and how it continues to impact elections today. 🥏 Listen Here In today’s episode of Lest We Forget History, Lillian Cauldwell examines the long and complicated history of gerrymandering—the practice of redrawing voting districts to give one political party an advantage over another.…
The History of Gerrymandering in U.S. Politics
🎧 Listen to this episode of Lest We Forget History as Lillian Cauldwell explores the history of gerrymandering and how it continues to impact elections today. 🥏 Listen Here In today’s episode of Lest We Forget History, Lillian Cauldwell examines the long and complicated history of gerrymandering—the practice of redrawing voting districts to give one political party an advantage over another.…
Mike Luckovich
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The Epstein Scandal isn’t going away.
August 20, 2025
Robert B. Hubbell
The summer recess is going badly for House Republicans. Recall that Speaker Johnson adjourned the House early to avoid a floor vote demanding that the DOJ release the Epstein files. Mike Johnson apparently believed that fleeing Washington would make the media and the American people forget that Donald Trump was Jeffrey Epstein’s best friend for more than a decade while Epstein was running a child sex trafficking ring.
Mike Johnson’s plan to run away from controversy has failed miserably. Except for the few days when Trump was attempting to force Ukraine to surrender to Russia, the Republican conspiracy to prevent the release of the Epstein files remained at the top of the news cycle for the last three weeks. See NYTimes, Republican Bid to Help Trump Move Past Epstein Falls Flat. (“[H]alfway through a five-week congressional recess, the clamor shows little sign of quieting.”)
Despite Johnson’s efforts to shut down a floor vote, the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to the Department of Justice requiring the production of the Epstein files on Tuesday of this week. On Monday, the DOJ announced that it would miss the Tuesday deadline and would begin a partial production on Friday.
In other words, the cover-up continues. See MSN, Top Oversight Democrat: DOJ plan to release Epstein files in ‘batches’ a ‘cover-up’. (“Handpicked, partial productions are wholly insufficient and potentially misleading.”)
The cover-up is fooling no one, especially the constituents of Republicans foolhardy enough to hold town hall meetings. See The Independent, Republican town hall descends into chaos as angry voters rage over Epstein files and Trump agenda.
On Tuesday, Rep. Elise Stefanik attempted to speak at an event honoring a local politician in Plattsburgh, New York. She was booed off the stage amid shouts of "Shame!" and "Unseal the Epstein files!" See USA Today, Elise Stefanik booed off stage at local event.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are continuing to pressure House Republicans to release the files. Reps. Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin have been leading the charge on cable news outlets.
But just as importantly, grassroots activists have kept the issue alive by hanging posters from freeway overpasses and waving signs on city streets and rural highways. As always, the “Epstein scandal” is first and foremost about justice for the victims. But it is also about accountability for the perpetrators. And halfway through the congressional recess, Republicans appear to be doing everything they can to delay or prevent the day of reckoning for the perpetrators.
If Trump has nothing to hide, he should honor his campaign promise and immediately release the Epstein files. Any other outcome raises the reasonable inference that Trump and his Republican enablers are concealing Trump's involvement in Epstein’s horrific crimes.
We must not relent on this issue. An overwhelming majority of the American people support full disclosure—and believe that the government is concealing evidence relating to Epstein.
While there are other issues that demand our urgent attention, we must keep up pressure regarding the release of the Epstein files, even as we oppose Trump's agenda on dozens of other issues—like Trump's illegal tariffs and the provisions of the Big Ugly Bill. See, e.g., The New Republic, MAGA Rep’s Town Hall Derails Over Her Support for Trump Tariffs,
We have seized the momentum, a fact that becomes clearer with every pro-democracy rally and town hall where voters are permitted to express their views. It is no wonder that Trump is doing everything he can to forestall a blue wave election in 2026. Of course, that blue wave will materialize only with our unrelenting dedication and hard work! Keep it up!
California Republicans sue to block the Election Rigging Response Act
Governor Gavin Newsom rallied California Democrats to push through the Election Rigging Response Act to redraw the state’s congressional districts to counteract the gerrymandering efforts in Texas. Newsom and Democratic legislators did so by amending existing bills to include the necessary reforms. California Republicans are now claiming that the procedural move violated the California Constitution's 30-day notice requirement for any proposed ballot initiative. See Democracy Docket, Republicans Sue to Stop California Response to Texas Gerrymander.
Even if the Republican lawsuit succeeds in slowing the timing of the vote on the proposed initiative, the California legislature can set a special election date in time to redraw congressional districts for the 2026 election. See discussion in Ballotpedia, California Proposition 50, Use of Legislative Congressional Redistricting Map Amendment (2025).
Meanwhile, grassroots activists showed up at more than 300 pro-democracy rallies in 44 states protesting Trump's efforts to influence the outcome of the 2026 election by partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts mid-decade. See USA Today, 300+ protests held Saturday against Donald Trump's redistricting push.
Partisan gerrymandering should be unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court has given up trying to prevent it. And while Trump's attempt to squeeze more “safe” Republican seats out of the Texas congressional map is reprehensible, it is also a difficult task.
Why?
Because state legislatures did their best to gerrymander congressional maps after the 2020 census. Per The Hill,
[T]he maps drawn after the 2020 census were already well gerrymandered. Of the 435 total seats, just 36 were deemed competitive in 2022, defined as winners determined by a margin of victory below 5 percent.
Although the number of “competitive” seats increased to 43 in 2024, efforts to turn those competitive seats into “safe” seats have a mathematical limit. To create more “safe” seats, the Texas legislature must “borrow” Republican voters from other districts—decreasing the partisan margin in an existing safe seat.
In other words, there are only so many Republican voters to distribute among a set number of districts. The more districts into which those GOP voters are sprinkled, the less concentrated their partisan advantage becomes.
Diluting “safe” districts to create more “safe” districts means that the partisan margin must decrease in some districts. And in a wave election year, a district that is viewed as “safe” because it is R+ 5 may suddenly look as though it is vulnerable to a Democratic blue wave.
I am not an expert in statistics or mapping, but I do know that we should not declare defeat merely because the Texas legislature redistributes a finite number of Republicans among a larger number of congressional districts.
Moreover, Texas will use the 2024 results as a guide for redistricting—an election that may have been anomalous in the level of Latino support for Trump. Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric appealed to some Latino voters who obtained US citizenship legally. But many of those Latino voters were not expecting family members, long-time co-workers, fellow parishioners, and community members to be rounded up like hardened criminals.
Multiple polls indicate that 2024 may have been the high-water mark for Trump among Latino voters, which means that using the 2024 election results to redraw maps in Texas is a risky endeavor for Republicans. See, e.g., Newsweek (8/15/2025), Donald Trump's Popularity With Hispanics Plummets: Survey.
Here’s my point: The redistricting battles are unsettling. But we should not assume that redistricting will determine our fate. Although Texas does not require party registration to vote in primaries, surveys show that Democrats outnumber Republicans in Texas by a large number. See Independent Voter News, Are There More Democrats In Texas Than Republicans? (Democrats 46%, Republicans 37%, Independents 15%).
Thus, partisan gerrymandering can be overwhelmed by turnout. We can control the outcome. We are not passive victims of a rigged political process. We have agency and power. Let’s use it!
Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter
The Democratic dissent called out the Republican majority’s “shameful manipulation of fundamental principles of our democracy and the rule of law.”
North Carolina's highest court has overruled one of its own rulings, throwing into question if the U.S. Supreme Court will issue a decision on the major elections case known as Moore v. Harper.
Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed a congressional map that would create four more GOP-leaning districts and completely wipe out Democrats' national redistricting gains.