Fighting Fire With Fire: Demand Democratic Gerrymanders
Scripts, language to push Democratic leaders in eight states to step up
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 a bad situation. There are procedural barriers in some states, with Oregon Republicans being able to halt redistricting by fleeing the state capitol 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 and its white nationalist, authoritarian agenda. 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 below. We can also send this message directly to our Democratic governors and legislators via Resistbot by texting SIGN PTUOJX to 50409. 🗣️
Last updated 5/5/26.
PHONE SCRIPTS:
You can find contact info for your legislators here, for your governor here, for members of Congress here and for state parties here. Please adjust, add, and reword as you would see fit - you will be most effective speaking in your own words!
Hi, my name is _________, and I’m from (city, zip). (If voicemail, leave street address).
Republicans are trying to gerrymander their way to one-party rule. They’re not letting anything stop them. Democrats need to fight fire with fire and redistrict our state to rebalance power. We need new maps in _______ as soon as possible. Don’t let any political or process barrier stand in your way.
[FOR OREGON:]
If the legislative quorum rule needs to be changed to get it done, let’s change it.
[FOR NEW JERSEY AND NEW YORK:]
This will require constitutional amendments, so let’s get to work.
[LONGER VERSION:]
This is not what anyone wanted. But the old rules are dead, and we’re handing Republicans power if we insist on still playing by them. We won’t get real, national redistricting reform without at least some Republicans on board. They’re not going to help if they think our broken system works to their advantage.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
EMAIL LANGUAGE
We can send this message directly to Democratic state legislators and governors by texting SIGN PTUOJX to 50409. We can find contact info for our legislators here, for our governor here, for members of Congress here and for state parties here.
Freed of the restraints of the Civil Rights Movement at last, Republicans are canceling elections and defying state constitutions to redraw congressional maps in time for November. And this is just the latest in a long line of aggressive, norm-destroying efforts to gerrymander their way to one-party rule. Democrats must acknowledge this new political reality and be just as forceful in rebalancing power, doing whatever it takes to redistrict areas under their control as soon as possible.
We are risking having the political field permanently tilted against us by the GOP’s attempted steal if we don’t respond in kind. The old rules are dead. We are handing easy victories to anti-democratic forces if we insist on continuing to play by them. It would be a mistake it could take decades to recover from, because we will have relinquished the means to fight back.
This is obviously not a course of action we relish taking. There is a reason the Democratic Party and good government advocates has been pushing for redistricting reform – this sort of winner-takes-all politics is unrepresentative and serves to silence our voices when we’re already struggling to be heard in a dysfunctional system. Ultimately, we will need structural changes to our elections, starting with a requirement for independent, non-partisan redistricting. But that will require broad buy-in, and it is clear we will not be able to build consensus across the aisle to fix what’s broken as long as Republicans believe it’s working to their advantage. This is our way of ensuring they have an incentive to help us change direction.
The Republican Party is committing to political arson. We need to fight fire with fire. We are calling on our elected officials to do whatever is necessary to secure new congressional maps that take back some of the power that is being seized. Where political or process obstacles arise, put in the work to find ways around them.