Texas Republicans have proposed a new congressional map that creates five additional GOP-leaning districts as they brace for a challenging midterm election in 2026.
Meanwhile, Dems had the fully power of the Federal Government in 2009 and again in 2021 and… did nothing. So white nationalists continue to pack and crack districts, while liberals wring their hands over DC or Puerto Rico Statehood because they can’t get broad bipartisan consensus.
Printed in March 1812, this political cartoon was made in reaction to the newly drawn state senate election district of South Essex created by the Massachusetts legislature to favor the Democratic-Republican Party. The caricature satirizes the bizarre shape of the district as a dragon-like “monster”, and Federalist newspaper editors and others at the time likened it to a salamander.
The word gerrymander (originally written Gerry-mander; a portmanteau of the name Gerry and the animal salamander) was used for the first time in the Boston Gazette[b] on 26 March 1812 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. This word was created in reaction to a redrawing of Massachusetts Senate election districts under Governor Elbridge Gerry, later Vice President of the United States. Gerry, who personally disapproved of the practice, signed a bill that redistricted Massachusetts for the benefit of the Democratic-Republican Party. When mapped, one of the contorted districts in the Boston area was said to resemble a mythological salamander.[8]
Texas became a state December 29, 1845, over 30 years later.
I also doubt that the above incident was the first case where people tried redrawing congressional district boundaries to benefit. Just the one where the commentary on it stuck well enough to leave the name.
Texas has pulled this shit just about every decade since its founding The DeLay gerrymander from back in 2003 was arguably more egregious.
Meanwhile, Dems had the fully power of the Federal Government in 2009 and again in 2021 and… did nothing. So white nationalists continue to pack and crack districts, while liberals wring their hands over DC or Puerto Rico Statehood because they can’t get broad bipartisan consensus.
Gerrymandering was happening before Texas was a state; they’re following the example set by other states.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering
Texas became a state December 29, 1845, over 30 years later.
I also doubt that the above incident was the first case where people tried redrawing congressional district boundaries to benefit. Just the one where the commentary on it stuck well enough to leave the name.
INB4 libs insisting democrats never actually had any power