Democrats Must Fight GOP Fire With Fire on Gerrymandering (5/6/26)
Plus texts to at-risk voters, GOP prefers Trump's ballroom over fruits and vegetables for children, Marcy Kaptur gets her challenger and more
☎️ We’re going to flip Iowa blue - tonight’s featured phonebank is for Third District challenger Sarah Trone Garriott from 6:30PM-9:30PM ☎️
TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ
Make sure at-risk voters have the info, ID they need to make their ballots count - textbanks tomorrow, next Thursday
Oppose House GOP’s proposed cuts to fruit, vegetables for young children, new and expecting parents
Top GOP target Marcy Kaptur has her challenger, phonebank for her Monday and Thursdays
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
REBALANCING POWER BY REDRAWING CONGRESSIONAL MAPS
Republicans have reacted to the gutting of the Voting Rights Act at the Supreme Court like a shark to blood in the water. They’re attempting to cancel an election already underway in Louisiana and they’re rushing into special sessions to draw new maps in time for November in Tennessee and Alabama. Even in Georgia, where they’re sensibly acknowledging that two weeks before the primary is too late to start messing around, they’re still planning on redistricting this year for 2028 – recognizing they may be about to lose their trifecta. As many as 19 current minority-majority House seats are on the chopping block over the next two election cycles.
The elimination of representation for people of color is devastating, and there are no easy ways to respond. There is a somewhat clearer path forward to counter the loss of Democratic seats along with it: responding with deeper gerrymanders in blue states. Discussions about doing so are already under way in New York, and advocates are working to get it on the ballot in Colorado.
Let’s be clear: this is less than ideal. There are procedural barriers in some states, with Oregon Republicans being able to halt redistricting by fleeing the state and New York and New Jersey requiring constitutional amendments. This could also have the repellent consequence of costing us further Black and Latino-majority districts. And of course, partisan gerrymandering is bad for our democracy, ensuring that too many people don’t count in our political system and allowing parties to permanently entrench themselves in power. The cost of inaction, however, is a political field permanently tilted towards the GOP. Moreover, if we are going to secure structural reforms like a partisan redistricting ban and independent commissions, we are going to need some Republicans on board, and that’s not going to happen if they think our current broken system works to their advantage.
🗣️ If we’re in California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, or Washington, let’s reach out to our state’s Democratic leaders – elected and party officials alike – and urge them to do whatever is legally necessary to redraw our congressional maps and rebalance power ASAP. We can find call scripts and email language here. We can also send this message directly to our Democratic governors and legislators via Resistbot by texting SIGN PTUOJX to 50409. 🗣️
TEXTBANKS TO BEAT VOTER SUPPRESSION
We need to be committed to fighting back against GOP attempts to suppress votes and subvert elections however we can. Sometimes that means big, dramatic campaigns, but a lot of this struggle will be the small, steady work of helping folks get to the ballot box in spite of the obstacles Republicans put in their way. VoteRiders has textbanks coming up in the next few days to reach people in North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania, giving them accurate info on what they need to do to make their votes count and helping them get the required IDs. Let’s sign up to help them tomorrow at 7PM ET here or next Thursday at 7PM ET here.
“TRUMP’S BALLROOM YES, FEEDING NEWBORNS NO” - MAGA
As always, the Republicans managed to find all the money they needed for Trump’s ballroom, a full $1 billion. Meanwhile, they’re insisting that our debt is far too high to afford programs that actually help regular Americans.
The House GOP has rolled out an agriculture appropriations bill for next year (yes, we’re starting to close in on the end of the fiscal year they’re not done funding) which would cut $200 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, usually referred to as WIC. This program helps provide nutritious food, counseling on healthy eating, breastfeeding support and health care referrals to more than 6 million new and expectant parents and young children. Around 5.4 million people would lose access to fruit and vegetable benefits if these cuts go through. And this is coming a time when Trump’s war on Iran and tariffs are spiking food prices.
🗣️ The National WIC Association has made it easy for us to email our members of Congress to oppose these cuts. Let’s put their email tool to work here. We can also use this as base language for calls to let them know “we want you to oppose any agriculture spending bill that cuts WIC.” We can see how many people would be harmed by these cuts here. 🗣️
WRAPPING UP SPECIAL ELECTION DAY IN SAGINAW, OHIO AND INDIANA PRIMARIES
The 35th State Senate District voted for Kamala Harris by 0.8% in 2024. Last night, firefighter, Marine vet and union man Chedrick Greene won the seat in a sweeping victory over a MAGA candidate, leading 58.9%-39.4% with 93% of the vote in. It’s another major overperformance for a Democratic candidate in a special election, reminding us of exactly why Republicans are so scared of fair elections. Thanks to everyone who put the work in to help Chedrick win! Now let’s join States Win to continue to help Democrats build power in state legislatures – we can find a full calendar of their phonebanks here and in our midterms page.
In Indiana, Trump-backed candidates managed to unseat five out of the seven state senators he targeted for opposing gerrymandering, with two more still in danger, in case we needed any more reason to push Democratic leaders to step up on our district maps.
There were not many surprises in the primaries in Ohio, but we now formally have our nominees in multiple major races for November.
For senator, former Democratic Senator and Midwest populist Sherrod Brown will challenging Republican incumbent Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill the remainder of J.D. Vance’s term. Husted previously won multiple statewide elections for secretary of state, but he’s come under fire for taking more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from Epstein bankroller Les Wexner. Brown has a history of outrunning the Democratic brand, and in what should be a left-leaning year many of us are hoping this race could provide Democrats with their 51st senator. We’ll post opportunities to help Sherrod as they come in.
For governor, it will be former state health department director Dr. Amy Acton for the Democrats against entrepreneur, DOGE bro and MAGA hanger-on Vivek Ramaswamy for the Republicans. It’s been a very long time since any Democrat but Sherrod Brown won high office in Ohio, but Ramaswamy is a relative unknown heavily tied to an unpopular president. Several polls have indicated this race could be competitive. 🙋♀️ We can sign up to volunteer for Dr. Acton here. 🙋♀️
Finally, we now have the GOP nominee challenging Rep. Marcy Kaptur in the Ohio Ninth Congressional District. Former state rep. Derek Merrin was also the Republican pick against Kaptur 2024, when he lost by fewer than 2,300 voters with a libertarian candidate earning substantial support - and now the district lines have been redrawn to make the seat even redder. She has long been a top GOP target and is one of the few remaining House Dems representing a district that voted for Trump, although she’ll be able to draw a sharp contrast with Merrin’s professed trust in Trump on Iran. 🙋♀️ Rep. Kaptur has phonebanks already running from 5:30-8PM ET on Mondays and Thursdays – let’s sign up here to help. 🙋♀️
SUPPORT THE VICTIMS OF GEORGIA FIRES
Due to climate change, Georgia is experiencing some of the earliest and worst fire seasons in its recorded history. Dozens of families have lost their homes and have been displaced.
Let’s take care of each other in these dangerous times. 💵 We can get help to folks impacted by giving via the nonprofit REBUILD.US here. 💵
👀 KEEPING AN EYE ON… 👀
Jim Crow has succeeded in burning down the Voting Rights Act, now the road to rebuild begins - let’s start here, plus briefing with Red Wine and Blue TONIGHT at 7:30PM ET
The Supreme Court has paused Fifth Circuit ruling attempting to cut off access to mifepristone by mail - let’s keep countering the disinformation and ensuring everyone knows how to exercise their reproductive rights
Looking for ways to get engaged in the midterms? Here’s a full list! And here’s some ways to help flip two supreme court seats in Georgia!
Drive calls to senators against putting Big Oil above the law TOMORROW at 7PM ET, find more ways to help here
Upcoming fights in Congress - oppose $140 billion for ICE and CBP, a Farm Bill preserving food assistance cuts, continued warrantless wiretapping, a Trump puppet on the Fed
We can’t let anyone forget the kids in Dilley - join the #ReadThemHome campaign and organize a stuffed animal drop-off May 20th
Call on the DNC to release the full results of their 2024 election autopsy
Public Citizen identifies 446 hospitals at risk thanks to the MAGA murder budget, let’s make sure folks in our community know we’re in danger and who’s to blame
Solidarity with striking workers in Independence as they enter Week Five on the picket line, push local lawmakers to stand with them
The first rent strike in almost five decades is underway in Montana - donate to support their strike fund
Third, normalizing partisan gerrymandering puts nonpartisan redistricting models at risk — including Iowa's, where a nonpartisan legislative staff draws draft maps (legislature still approves, governor still signs). When Democrats signal that gerrymandering is simply what you do, Iowa Republicans gain both precedent and permission to gut that system entirely — or game the approval process, which nearly happened last cycle.
As someone who ran for office through three redistricting processes, I've watched how fragile these guardrails are.
Democrats may be handing red and purple states a wrecking ball. I don't want unilateral disarmament — but tit-for-tat gerrymandering hasn't addressed any of these concerns. Yet.0
A firebreak analogy is in order — professional, disciplined, selfless firefighters do use controlled burns — but Democrats lack the institutional discipline, the unified command, and the fireproof gear. More likely consequences: First, it deepens cynicism across the spectrum, and hits voters under 50 especially hard — the very people we most need to rebuild trust with. Second, it normalizes the logic that corporate buy-offs and candidate recruitment through grift are just "how it's done" — a concession that eats democracy from within.